http://www.taddmencer.com Artist. Author. Musician. Husband. Father. Christian. All around good guy. Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:17:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I usually try and keep my beliefs on homosexuality out of my blogging simply because it's such a loaded subject. I will make it known right now - I do not support the lifestyle. Period. I'm all for helping the people. But what they do is not something I agree ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/09/04/the-homosexual-agenda/ So, I found out Google released their web browser yesterday - joining in the already over-saturated Browser War ... why would they do this? Well, because they're insane and monopoly minded. I don't understand why they just didn't try and buy out some other already established company like Opera ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/09/03/google-chrome/ You may have noticed, if you've been to my site often, that I have a fondness for both video games and for open source software. So when something comes out like Blender that is completely awesome I talk about it. Well, there is a video game being developed using ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/09/02/yo-frankie-video-game-made-with-blender/ My good friend Henrik Ryosa has started a production company called VoxHouse Studio with another gent out in Sweden. They have some amazing things planned for the near future, one of them is an anime called 'BRUTE'. I can't tell you much about the show, but I'm ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/28/voice-over-goodness/ Artist's Comments I decided instead of cluttering up my gallery with loads of separate wallpaper packs I decided to create two separate large packs. Celestial Wonders and Celestial Disasters (this one). Contains: Unjust Fate Requiem Paradise ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/27/celestial-disasters-free-desktop-wallpaper-pack/ Ok, I guess in the 1970's a whale washed up on the shore of Florence Oregon. What they did - was retarded. Crewman - "Hey! Let's put a ton of explosives all over this stinky whale carcas! That will take care of it!" Everyone - "Yeah! That ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/26/exploding-whale/ Ok, so I went out and bought Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Saturday. It's the newest installment in the COD franchise which has, up until this game, spanned various campaigns through the bloody World War 2. This one, however, takes place in modern times fighting a ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/25/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare/ Artist's Comments I decided instead of cluttering up my gallery with loads of separate wallpaper packs I decided to create two separate large packs. Celestial Wonders (this one) and Celestial Disasters. Contains: Pillars of Hope Mantle Core ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/20/celestial-wonders-free-desktop-wallpaper-pack/ You may or may not have noticed - but I'm a big fan of music. I record my own stuff on Reaper (the perfect free DAW) and I'm always looking for something to help me on my budget of $0. DSK Music actually comes to save me. These ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/18/free-vsti-for-recording-music/ I used to work for a small Christian non-profit as their in-house design guy. I would take their projects, make graphics and lay them out for print. It was a lot of work and not always as rewarding - but I learned a lot about publishing design. So ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/16/scribus-open-source-desktop-publishing/ I don't even want to think about where my blog would be without Akismet. It comes pre-installed with WordPress but I know there are a good handful of people who delete it right away. "Oh it's made by WordPress and I don't like to do things that ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/15/akismet-saves-the-day/ Believe it or not, I've been around the web for a while and if it's one thing that I've learned, comments make the world go 'round. Not just random generic comment spam, but honest comments with conversations between readers and the author. It's something, however, that many people ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/14/wordpress-plug-ins-comments/ Done with Photoshop and Terragen. Resolutions: 1024x768 1280x960 1440x900 http://gate-to-nowhere.deviantart.com/art/Looking-Towards-Home-75210894 http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/13/looking-towards-home-free-desktop-wallpaper/ From the author: Flames are particularly hard to render in Photoshop, but in this tutorial I'll show you how to use a photograph of fire to set text to the match. We'll render the look on a nice dark background with a gorgeous text effect to complete the image. I've ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/12/dramatic-text-on-fire-effect-in-photoshop-tutorial/ by Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor (Tadd says: No, this doesn't apply to me at my job, but I know many many people who would appreciate this article. So, have at it.) For the original article: Click Here Has one of your co-workers made your ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/11/working-with-you-is-killing-me/ Ok, so today I turn 30. That's right, the big 3-0. I'm now older than a "young guy" but not old enough to be called "the old guy". Just, that guy. Then I realized, this will be my 200th post. That's right, 200 righteous posts and 30 years! Hallelujah! Miricles ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/10/30-years-and-200-posts/ I'm going to stray away from my recent fad of wallpapers and tutorials and such and actually write a real article. This one is more close to home since I have an issue with this. It's about language. Words we say, phrases we use, attitudes we hold. Now, ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/08/is-bad-language-a-stumbling-block/ I wasn't really sure how to title this, but this will work. This is a fantastic tutorial, and actually I followed this to make my August 2008 calendar wallpaper. It uses both Photoshop and Illustrator and showed me a few techniques I've never used. It has a  ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/07/hell-text-photoshop-tutorial/ Photoshop only made wallpaper for your desktop. Project that gathers eleven Polish designers that create in a variety of styles, using different techniques. http://polaus.deviantart.com/art/Wunderwaffe-7031710 http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/06/wunderwaffe-free-desktop-wallpaper/ It has been so long since I've written any new music - and I'm excited to be back on the path. Last night I sat down, grabbed the trust ol' guitar, booted up Reaper and told myself no gaming - write a freakin' song. So I did. Not ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/08/05/let-the-rock-return/ Ok ladies and gents, I'm releasing this August 1st! That's right, on time! No more mid-month calendar releases for me. I figured, my birthday month needs to have it's calendar out there, for free to download, right on time. In fact, I've released it a day early so all you people ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/31/august-2008-free-calendar-desktop-wallpaper/ More Fun Than Tekken Collaboration between Sevenflow (www.sevenflow.com) and Kultdesign (www.shinters.homepage.nu). The return of Free Desktop Wallpaper Wednesdays. I'll be featuring on every Wednesday - ones that I don't create. Maybe more. If I'm up to it. I'll still be bringing the monthly ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/30/more-fun-than-tekken-free-wallpaper-download/ I stumbled around and came to this REALLY good tutorial in three parts for creating a WordPress theme. Very well written, deep and easy to follow. I'll be trying to follow this for my own designs since I'm working on a few websites now and really want to ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/29/how-to-create-wordpress-themes-from-scratch/ One night standers and cowards rejoice! Now you don't have to 'man up' when you want to break off a relationship! You can get around that responsible and respectful call by using Slydial. This handy little service will allow you to call someone's voice mail directly, by passing completely ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/24/a-new-chapter-on-cowardly-calls/ I'm pretty interested in this movie - I've read a few of the comics (I have a few I think) and if I remember correctly I really enjoyed them. SO ... hopefully this will be good stuff. Looks interesting. Apple has premiered the impressive new teaser ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/23/the-watchmen-trailer/ I have a confession to make. These last few years I've been addicted to a pre-teen show called 'Avatar - The Last Airbender'. And while those of you who know me well enough probably are not that surprised (kid at heart) some others my cringe and ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/23/avatar-the-last-airbender/ I read this email from my mother and thought it was be fun to pass along. You may as well know, I'm becoming 'anti-government' lately after reading and looking and seeing how the big dogs are rolling. There is becoming less and less distinction between Republicans and ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/22/ageless-observations/ .. when they give you crowns. All hail the kings of metal. Except the goofy guy. King Arthur, Jeremiah Doomslayer, Rocky Metal Master, Clay the Court Jester, Sir Lancelot I pulled this off the great Living Sacrifice's MySpace page. It features Rocky Gray (Living ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/20/you-know-what-true-metal-is/ Here are some great finds for this week! Thanks to Weblog Tools Collection for the descriptions and keeping us in the loop! Theme Tester The Theme Tester plugin allows you to change themes and view the results without the visitors to your blog seeing any changes. ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/19/wordpress-top-plugins-july-19-2008/ Thanks to Smashing Magazine for this awesome post. Some beautiful wallpaper here! If you're not on the Smashing Magazine RSS feed - you really need to get it. They have some amazing things over there. Even when I don't agree with what they say, it's well worth the read! ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/18/50-free-desktop-wallpapers/ I've said it before - I work for a very cool place. It's extremely laid back and people here have lots of fun while they work. Honestly, I don't know how I could ever work for another company. However, I may have put this all somewhat ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/17/hard-lessons-learned-through-rubber-balls/ A collection of the latest graphic design resources, adobe tutorials, inspirational posts and more from all around the graphic design community. Enjoy! Ornate, Floral, Swirly and Curly Vector Roundup Flourishes are one of the most popular current trends in graphic design, ranging from simple flourishes ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/17/10-awesome-graphic-design-tutorials-and-resources/ The Ghostbusters, (from left) Egon, Ray, Peter, and Winston. My goodness, can I get any more nostalgic than this?! A Ghostbuster video game. Yes, they had one or two of these before - but this just looks dag good. Not like the Commodore 64 ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/15/ghostbusters-the-video-game/ The folks at WordPress have released the Official 2.6, which is called 'Tyner' after some jazz pianist. Which, I hate jazz - but I'll let them go on their personal opinions. http://wordpress.org/development/2008/07/wordpress-26-tyner/ Anyway, it was with fear and trembling that I hit "upgrade" on my web site. ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/15/wordpress-26-now-released/ I came across a great website called Probloggers.net with some great blogging articles. I'll post a few here and there with a link back to their page. This was obviously a popular one and I wanted to share it, so here it is. http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/06/how-bloggers-make-money-from-blogs/ I’ve been reflecting ... http://www.taddmencer.com/2008/07/15/how-do-bloggers-make-money-from-blogs/