thetransient » Personal http://www.thetransient.com One designer's web design blog Wed, 12 May 2010 17:21:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Jack in the box stole my bowl cut http://www.thetransient.com/jack-in-the-box-stole-my-bowlcut/178/ http://www.thetransient.com/jack-in-the-box-stole-my-bowlcut/178/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:02:47 +0000 Erik Phipps http://www.thetransient.com/?p=178 Recently it was brought to my attention that a Jack in the Box advertising campaign included something suspiciously reminicent from my past. The campaign in question shows Jack with a giant, awesome, bowl hair cut. Well, I used to have a giant bowl haircut just like Jack’s! Also, my brother just recently posted a picture of myself with said giant bowl haircut on Facebook. I’m willing to chaulk this up to coincidence, but I really do hope they were inspired by my “do”. That would make my day!

Jack in the Box with bowl cut

Jack in the Box with bowl cut

Erik with bowl cut.

Here is my bowl cut! I can still feel the bowl on my head and the cold steel of the scissors as they inch their way across my forehead.

]]> http://www.thetransient.com/jack-in-the-box-stole-my-bowlcut/178/feed/ 1 The patterns of blog postings and my own stressful moment http://www.thetransient.com/the-patterns-of-blog-postings-and-my-own-stressful-moment/165/ http://www.thetransient.com/the-patterns-of-blog-postings-and-my-own-stressful-moment/165/#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:43:46 +0000 Erik Phipps http://www.thetransient.com/?p=165 I just had a fleeting moment of stress! It began when I decided to Google the title of my most recent blog posting, Test driving Internet Explorer beta 2 developer tools. When the results came back, there were many postings with similar titles (to be expected) but one that stood out sent a shock wave through my body. It was for a posting on Robert Nyman’s blog and, for a moment, I thought the title was the exact same as my own! I admire Robert’s blog and read most of his postings, especially the ones focusing on CSS and JavaScript. Luckily I soon realized his entry was about IE7 beta 2 and not IE8 beta 2 developer tools. The remainder of his title wasn’t the same either, but because I instantly recognized his domain in the Google search results and saw that they were associated with a title that at first glance triggered familiarity with my own, thoughts of public condemnation due to plagiarism rippled through my brain!

Once I realized my mistake, I took survey of all the blog postings that were similar to my own, and there were many. Some were from small-time bloggers such as myself, and others from larger web design communities. I think from now on I’ll Google potential title’s just to see what’s out there. Maybe I’ll use them and maybe I won’t, but it will be a good exercise in understanding search results. After all, the writer in me could not go on living if I was blacklisted due to plagiarism!

I’m sure every first-time blogger goes through a similar experience that goes a little something like this:

  1. Start your blog
  2. Google the title of one of your postings
  3. See many blogs with the similar titles and:
    A. Get stressed about the sheer volume of competition
    B. Get stressed about the prospect of being called out for plagiarism
    C. Give up blogging.
  4. Blog about it (or not if you fall under 3 – C)!
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