I happened to stumble upon this site that shows of all of January 20th’s newspapers. I thought it was rather interesting to see all the different headlines, photographs, and layouts. Arizona Daily Star is one that jumped out to me. I like how it’s so simple with the type treatment, and how they let the photograph and his name tell the story. So many of the other newspapers just look so hectic and uninviting. Take a look for yourself: benwikler.com/news21all.html

I tried watching watching the Inauguration on my computer at work but every site seemed to be crashing a full. I ended up going shopping during my lunch break and got to see it on TV. I stumbled across an amazing collection of photographs from the event, participants, and witnesses from all over the globe. Here are just a few, to see the entire collection click here.

President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts to become the 44th President of the United States on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) #

Barack H. Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States as his wife Michelle Obama holds the Bible and their daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama look on, on the West Front of the Capitol January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Chuck Kennedy-Pool/Getty Images) #

Spectators in Times Square watch President Barack Obama take the oath of office during his inauguration Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) #

Residents of Kibera, one of the poorest quarters in Nairobi gather to watch the inauguration ceremony of US President Barack Obama in Nairobi on January 20, 2009. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images) #

Cecilia Perez, center, watches the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama with Oscar Rodriguez at her taco stand in Mexico City, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) #

People gather for the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the National Mall January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

40 years after their silent protest at the 1968 Olympics, Gold Medalist Tommie Smith hugs Bronze Medalist John Carlos, and their wives Delois Smith and Charlene Carlos after Barack Obama is officially sworn in as the President of the United States. Photo taken in the Smith room at the Sheraton Boston in Boston, MA. (Boston Globe/Stan Grossfeld) #

Pakistani Christian children hold portraits of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama during a prayers ceremony for global peace in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo) #

cgtextures.com- CGTextures strives to be the worlds best texture site. Making textures should be about creativity, not about spending hours looking for the right image on the internet. I hope that by supplying good quality textures in an organized manner, your everyday work will be easier and more enjoyable.

stripegenerator.com - Tired of pixel-by-pixel painting, trying to create seamless stripes textures? Here we are! Enjoy using stripe generator! Unleash your personal style, experiment and download the tile. You can use it directly in your css file or as pattern in Photoshop®!

pandora.com - When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song? At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play music you’ll love - and nothing else. It’s my lazy way of listening to free music when all I have is a computer.

thinkgeek.com - ThinkGeek started as an idea. A simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. From programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology.

topsecretrecipes.com - Ever wonder what the recipes from some of your favorite dishes at chain restaurants? They have recipes from Burger King to Olive garden. Although, you have to pay a small fee to view most of them, there is also a good amount viewable for FREE!

thesurfacestore.com - Interior wall removable vinyl graphics. My favorite, that I’m thinking about purchasing is under garden > Magic Tree.

photojojo.com/timecapsule- With a Flickr account you can setup to get emails of pictures from a year ago. A great, easy way to view those pictures you forgot about.

GMarks - Do you use more than one computer and wish you had all your bookmarks in one place? Firefox has a great add-on to sync and manage all your bookmarks.

mygazines.com - For those of you cheapskates, like myself, there is now a free place to browse, share, archive and customize unlimited magazine articles uploaded by you.

forwebdesigners.com - helpful links for web designers

jumpola.com - lists many of the sources a graphic/web designer wants easy access to

benjaminkrain.com- Inspirational photojournalist - Benjamin Krain

logolounge.com - you can quickly search through thousands of logos created by designers and firms known and unknown, as well as upload your own logos.

As blogs are now becoming more mainstream and not only being used by technical people, they are becoming a great, cheap advertising tool. A blog added to your website verifies your site as a trusted one, keeps visitors interested and coming back to read new content, and is more likely to come up in search engines. Visitors can now interact with the writer by asking questions and getting answers. You become more than just a website or a business, and visitors really get to know you as a person.

Blogging is different than a TV commercial or billboard AD because it is an activity that gets people involved and affects people in many positive ways. Two optimists joined together to use the power of blogging to cause major attention to the environment by creating “Blog Action Day” on October 15th, 2007; 20,603 Blogs participated and 23,327 Blog Posts (Google Blog Search) created 14,631,038 RSS Readers. The “Blog Action Day” also landed on TV stations in Greece to radio stations in Spain to newspapers in New Zealand.

With much success, it will be repeated again this year on October 15th, 2008, on the topic of poverty. As of today there are 2,630 sites registered to participate with an audience in excess of 4,566,280 readers. “Blog Action Day requires mass participation to work. With every registered blogger, the event reaches more people, grows in scale and creates more of a buzz. We rely solely on word of mouth (or keyboard) to spread so that means we need your help!”

Help promote this great cause with me and register your blog. Look out for my post on October 15th.

I did things a little backwards, I started journaling before I realized I wanted to add a blog to my website. That is why I have past articles and I am just now making my blog live.

My mind usually never rests, I am always thinking up some new creative project that I want to work on. I enjoy learning new things, sharing with others, and continuing to grow as an individual and a professional graphic designer. This blog will not only be about graphic design, but also art, photography and anything else that falls under creative. I am a creative thinker at heart, and I did not want to limit this to just graphic design, because there is more to me than that.

Keep up with my journey of exploring my creative ideas. Please feel free to comment on the posts. Add this blog to your RSS feed! Thanks for reading.

– Amy Lynn