Have you taken a good look at your refrigerator door lately? Now, if yours' is like most peoples', it does an excellent job of keeping the cold in, and the warm out. That's not the problem I want to address [By the bye, if that is your problem, get that fixed as soon as possible. Besides making the storage of food at best problematic, it keeps your coolant motor running, which can lead to overheating, burnout, and, worse, fire. You may not be the only person who can prevent house or garage fires, but a lot of it is on YOUR shoulders].
No, the issue here is the quality of your children's drawings posted on the fridge (Of course if your child is a budding Matisse, or better yet, the next Warhol, please ignore the rest of this posting). I'm not saying your child is untalented. First of all I don't know. Secondly, the problem is probably not his or her fault. You see, funding has been cut for education in many American school districts. When budgets are cut, what money is available just doesn't go as far. I'm not here to judge what is important, and what can be eliminated when times are tight [oh, wait a minute, I am...sorry], but my votes would involve sensible reductions in military spending, as well as a tax system that brutally punishes the rich [after all, years of tax breaks for the wealthy have done nothing to demonstrate what The Great Communicator called "trickle-down economics", and his running mate correctly identified as "voodoo economics"], and increases in all varieties of, among other things, education. That would include education for the arts [Do you see where this is going yet? Hang on, we're nearly there...]. Arts education would not only improve those refrigerator artworks, but encourage creative thinking in many areas of life [As this is a Presidential election year here in the US, maybe it's a good time to press any candidate you may encounter on his or her policy towards education. Thank you].
But, since the better part of the currently maturing generation missed out on the whole "arts education" experience, maybe Your Host can throw together a few places for tips that can improve the appearance of your blog [and don't think I'm playing superior; I plan to go over this very location with a fine-tooth comb over the next week or two. It's Spring, (or Virtual Spring, anyway); let's all do some Cleaning and Maintenance!
Color Theory And Reality:
http://www.webreference.com/new/color.html - Actually a series of articles about color coordination and color theory. Understandably written, well worth your time.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/620/li1.htm - Another perspective on color coordination, from an Arabic newspaper. [In English].
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/color-for-coders - More technically oriented than the first two pieces, it's very useful for its illustrations of color in use [The illustration that tops this article is from this site].
Blog layout/design:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/ - State-of-the-art insights, from a source for cutting edge style.
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DmF_mWi6r-9I - A YouTube driven course of design principles.
http://www.lukew.com/ff/ - Functioning Form is the blog of web theorist and designer Luke Wroblewski. I'll be honest; he goes over my head. But if you want to consider the Future of The Web and Blogging, this is a good starting place.
Have a marvelous Passover, a Happy Easter, or a Nice Weekend. And please offer a SUBMISSION or two, for goodness' sake! We are offering 250 EC credits for your submitted articles that make it to the blog. So take some of my credits! Please!
-Mike Riley
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