from mcsweeney's: an open letter to the guy at my gym who screams when he lifts weights.

mcsweeney's consistently produces both quality and hilarious content. one of their best ongoing series is their Open Letters to People or Entities Who are Unlikely to Respond. it's reminiscent of the Budweiser Real Men of Genius commercials from several years ago, but even smarter and more biting.

i came across one today that was so great that i had to repost here. you can find it at the mcsweeney's website or you can read it here. we've all seen (or know) this dude, so i thought it's something the beingryanbyrd crowd would enjoy. so, enjoy.

when churches attack!: scaring the hell out of the masses, pt. 2

last week, on halloween, i blogged about the phenomenon over the last 20-30 years of churches putting on what's commonly known as hell houses. to put it lightly, i didn't really give them a glowing endorsement. :) you can read it in its entirety here.

when churches attack!: scaring the hell out of the masses

wanna talk eternity? hell yes?

hell no, actually.

tonight, across the country, there's a wave of church productions that will be saying no to hell as well. eternity house. hell house. i'm sure there are other names than those out there, but maybe you've heard of one of these in some similar iteration.

a solution to the little rock homeless problem: let them die

on any given day, there are thousands of people living in the streets of little rock. we have to walk by them. we have to hear them ask for money. we have to cross to the other side of the street when we see them ahead. we have to feel guilty when we drive by in our hard-earned suv.

it's a real problem.

so, i'm offering a solution: let them die.

designing obama: scott thomas talks about obama design campaign

i don't write a lot about design, but i have certainly written my fair share about politics. this is a post where those two things meet.

if you've kept up with my blog since at least this time last year, you know that i'm, um, to say the least, a supporter of president obama. one of the many layers of his campaign and subsequent victory that i focused on was the design campaign that was particularly pivotal. never in the history of presidential (or any other kind) elections has design played such a prominent role than it did with obama's campaign. everyone knows obama's logo. everyone knows the "obama blue" and everyone knows gotham font (even if they don't know it's called gotham...which i still regularly find myself obsessed with...).

BeingRyanByrd.com has low self esteem, receives a facelift

it was just time. really.

i redesigned this website last december/january and i had just gotten really tired of staring at all the heavy colors and overworked design. so, here you have it: the newly redesigned BeingRyanByrd.com!

a graphic debate: liberals vs conservatives

every day and night, there's a political war that takes place on network and cable television, pitting republicans and democrats, conservatives and liberals and certainly other oppositional euphemisms against each other. generally, it can be as mild as a unhelpful caricatures or as aggressive as an uninformed shouting match.