The picture above has nothing to do with what I was going to write about. But it has been sitting in my "To Post" folder and I stuck it here for now particular reason.
BAGMAN: "I think it fits -- exploring new and strange places. Trying to figure out where you go from here."
BUTLER: "Wrong. No real logical connection at all."
Anyhow, it struck me the other day that I'm retired now. Actually, I it didn't just strike me that I'm retired. The retirement has been planned for a long time. But it struck me that I've changed.
BUTLER: "You haven't changed. You just grew a beard."
BAGMAN: "You're finally turning into Ernest Hemingway! Yea!!"
But what struck me was that I'm clean shaven in my header so my header no longer looks like me.
BAGMAN: "How would anyone know that?! The Internet is full of imagination. For all most of your followers really know, you could actually be a 37-year old Russian transvestite."
BUTLER: "Nobody would believe that. Mark's sincerity comes through. He is who he is."
But I now have a beard. Should I change my header? I've had the same header since I first started over two years ago. Since then most of the people I follow have completely redesigned their blogs several times.
BAGMAN: "But you have so much fun adding little things on the Friday Shootout..."
BUTLER: "He could do that with any new header as well."
But, I'm kind of fond of the header. I realize it is really old but that also means it has recognition value. In advertising they call that "branding."
BAGMAN: "And on cattle ranches the cows aren't that fond of branding."
And I like the background -- the weird self-portrait I made of myself sometime in the 70's when I was really drunk. But there are a couple of other weird pictures I could put in the background. Hmmm...what do I do? I suppose it wouldn't hurt to fool around with it a bit and see what happens. Fiddle around with Photoshop and see what comes out, what people think...
BUTLER: "Except you don't have time to fiddle around. Now that you are retired, you are too busy most of the time. In fact, you have to stop now and go finish painting the windows before it rains!"
Okay. But here's another photo that has nothing to do with anything...
BAGMAN: "At least you're finally taking the camera out of the case!"
Hmmm... good question. To change or not to change? As one of your regular readers, to me it feels almost like saying hello to an old friend every time I stop by your blog and your header picture greets me. And I always look at it closely to see if you have changed anything about it.
ReplyDeleteThe first picture in your posting is odd in a way that the building to the left looks rather too grand for the neighbouring building being so close to it. I seem to remember you once wrote about that, but maybe I dreamt it.
Whatever you'll decide regarding your header photo, I'll keep following your blog :-)
hahaha, come on give us your best shot... we wanna see you with a beard.. congrats on your retirement. i wish i were on your shoe. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh what fun. I love to see folks have to work out a quandary they find themselves in. No matter what you put up there you are The Mark. Now that is that.
ReplyDeleteQMM
I like your photos that have nothing to do with what you wrote. I would like to see you as you are now, beard and all. maybe switch the header shots back and forth according to your mood.
ReplyDeleteOh--yeah, branding probably hurts! Fun, fun as usual. We want to see the beard!!
ReplyDelete