Oh hey, this looks familiar.

The buggy nightmare of Dynamic Views on The Flying Trilobite has ended.

For now.

For those who want to know my reasons for changing back, here's what I said in the discussion on G+:

My reasons for wanting to switch back to my old template: 

1. I think the alternate Dynamic Views button is too prominent. They're neat, but unnecessary and confusing. 

2. Commenting only really works if you're logged into your (Google, Yahoo etc) account before you start typing the comment. Otherwise it sends you to an old-style Blogger comment page, and doesn't bring the comment with it (hitting back allows you to find the comment again). 

3. "Below the fold" articles don't open up at all in the magazine layout. see:http://glendonmellow.blogspot.com/2011/10/illustration-blogging-why-its-essential.html

4. I liked having some of my widgets/gadgets in the sidebar and footer, though I think this exercise in Dynamic Views has made me realize I could lose tons of them and not care. Gadgets are apparently a work-in-progress for Blogger and will be coming back. 

5. It's working in every view I have tested: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. My iPhone picks up the mobile template and doesn't read Dynamic Views. But it sounds like some people are having problems with it. 

6. The HTML5 animations of transitions are sometimes choppy, and my internet connection is pretty damn good.

Thanks to everyone who commented and weighted in on Twitter, G+ and here on the blog. I learned how many gadgets I miss and how many I don't.  Changes haven't ended, but I thinking taking a step back after plunging forward is good for the design.

Changes haven't ended.  After all, when The Flying Trilobite turns 5 in a few months, it'll need a facelift.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite?

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite? 

A couple of weeks ago, I made the jump to using Blogger's Dynamic Views here on The Flying Trilobite. 

After receiving a heartfelt complaint from a friend and colleague about the site re-design, I thought I'd ask:

• Does it work aesthetically?  
• For those familiar with it, was it better before with the simpler template? 
• Is it crashing every time you try to load it? 
• Are the individual posts functioning? 
• Are they too hard to read (if you follow a link to a single post, the banner stays affixed in place and takes up half the screen - which doesn't happen if you click on one from the main page)?

Gadgets in the sidebar apparently will be coming back, so I'm not too concerned with those.

Would love any and all feedback. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

 --> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Movember has started.

Movember has started. 

Thanks to C&S and S&C for their donations so far. On Twitter and Facebook, and I noted I wouldn't post any pictures of my moustache so far until someone made a donation. And I promised a cowboy hat. 

Here's an Instagram for ya'll.

You can donate here on the Crusty & Dusty page to help kick prostate cancer in cojones.  The more donations, the more pictures of this magnificent moustache will appear here on The Flying Trilobite blog, on Twitter, Facebook and G+.

So, yeah: mixed blessing.


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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Dog's Full Moon

Dog's Full Moon © Glendon Mellow

Aroooooooo!

Here's a quick ArtRage 3.5 painting I did for Jason Goldman's excellent blog, The Thoughtful Animal.

Jason takes a look at the urban legend that dogs are more prone to biting humans during the full moon in his post, Real-Life Werewolves? Dog Bites and Full Moons.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

(Bit of an older image. Hope no one minds...)

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

My Grandmother's Favourite Drawing - re-post

(With over 600 posts and almost 5 years of blogging, some days I'll dig through the archives and re-post an older Flying Trilobite post. This one originally appeared in November 2008.)
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This drawing was always my grandmother's favourite piece of my artwork. I drew this back in the early days of university after I had largely stopped drawing vampires and faeries, and as my interest in science had started coming back to the fore. I called it "Beetleman", though I'm not really sure why.

My grandmother loved this one, and I gave her a reproduction of it. I miss my grandparents, and I'll always appreciate how they encouraged me in my artwork. My grandmother would challenge me about what I was trying to do, and pester me with questions, until she'd laugh at my answer once it was clear. My grandfather would not have much commentary about the subjects, instead asking about the media used, and supplying us with astonishing amounts of paper when my sisters and I were small.

Good times.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!