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Hello Neatoramanauts! I’m proud to officially introduce two new sub-blogs (I lovingly call ‘em Neatoblogs) on Neatorama.
First is NeatoBambino (RSS), a parenting/kids blog led by my beautiful and talented wife Tiffany (raising three kids, working, and now blogging – is there anything she can’t do?). You’ll find neat posts about toupee for babies, recalled baby products, and an awesome baby stroller/bike video clip there.
Next is NeatoGeek (RSS), an ultra-concetrated blog full of Star Wars, Star Trek, science fiction, and other geeky stuff led by John Farrier. This blog is only days old and John has already unearthed gems like a feature-length Mega Man fan-made film, how to make your own Iron Man arc reactor, a weird Iron Man lobster sculpture, and a BioShock mobile fit for future gamers.
NeatoBambino and NeatoGeek join our growing list of sub-blogs, including the indie artist-focused Art Blog and our wide-format Spotlight blog. Why are we spawning these lil’ Neatoblogs? Because the Web is full of neat and wonderful stuff and this way, we can focus on niche subject matters without drastically changing the eclectic nature of the main Neatorama you’ve all come to know (and hopefully love).
You can find the link to the NeatoBlogs on the top navigation bar of Neatorama:
‘Nuff talking. Check ‘em out: NeatoBambino | NeatoGeek
Woohoo! It seems like it was only last week when we hit post# 20,000 back in May of last year. We’ve now hit another milestone: this is the 25,000th post on the blog.
Thank you to all of Neatorama’s authors, Upcoming Queue submitters, NeatoShop customers and, of course, you, dear reader! Time sure flies when you’re having fun.
This calls for a celebration – let’s have a giveaway. Head on to the NeatoShop and take a quick look around. Then let us know: How we’re doing? What you like about the blog and/or store, and what you hate about them. How can we improve?
Give us your feedback in the comment section. IMPORTANT: Write what you like to get from the store (yup, one thing – anything at all) alongside your comment. If it’s T-shirt, please let us know the size and color as well. One comment per person, please. One lucky winner will be announced in a few days.
Thank you!
Hooray!
I'm sure you've noticed by now that Neatorama has a new look (all you
RSS readers, come take a look)
and a couple of new features.
First of all, I'd like to thank Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees who did the new art for the blog. Nathan, as you may know, also designed some of the neatest T-shirts we carry on the Neatorama Shop. I think that his quirky and fun style certainly compliments what the blog is all about (be sure to scroll all the way down!)
The blog has two new major features:
- Lite/Mobile version by Mobify. This is a full version of the blog that is optimized for viewing on your phone (though you can certainly use your regular browser). This "lite" version has no ads and fewer bells and whistles.
- Best of Neatorama, a compilation of featured Bathroom Reader and mental_floss articles, as well as Neatorama Exclusives. I think the tiled images present a good way to scan quickly through the many full-length articles we've published before. We've only covered 2009 and 2010 articles so far ... we'll roll out more later.
Besides the blog, the Upcoming Queue and the Neatorama Shop also have new skins, so be sure to check 'em out (technically, this has been a triple re-design, which may explain why it took so long!).
Undoubtedly there are bugs (I apologize ahead of time). If you noticed that something is awry, please let us know in the comment section. We'll continue to roll out the redesign over the next couple of days. We'll also announce the winner of the T-shirts as promised in our previous post on redesign suggestions soon.
As a final note, I'd like to mention that one big aspect of this redesign is to use the blog to introduce indie artists to millions of new fans. I hope that we can institute a regular rotation of artists (the first being Nathan) through website designs, and regular as well as featured blog posts, in order to give them a significant exposure on the web.
So. Do you like it/hate it? What do you think?
[poll=16]
Update 2/3/10 – added poll. I should also add that in our almost-5-year history as a blog we’ve had 7 layout/design changes (some announced, most not – they’ve been incremental and so subtle that most people didn’t even notice) before this radical one 
Hello everybody – it’s my pleasure to introduce to you the newest Neatoramanaut in the family. Say hello to baby Georgia, who was born just a few days ago. No, no styling gel was involved in the ‘do above – Georgie was born with a Mohawk (Fauxhawk? Kids today!).
It certainly has been a very busy past couple of weeks – my postings on the blog have virtually stopped (and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future) – and this is the very adorable reason.
Though Georgia is our third child, and I now know some hard-learned lessons about diapers, spit ups, and 3 AM feedings, my wife and I welcome any parenting advice. In the meantime, I’d like to thank my parents who traveled a great distance to come and help us out, fellow Neatorama authors who picked up the slack in postings and everybody else who called or dropped in to say hello.
Today’s collaboration with What is it? blog is very special for us. Since our very first What is it? game in November 2006, I’ve always wondered when we would reach this milestone: our 100th game. Well, here it is!
To celebrate this milestone, we have a nifty prize:
The first person who guessed right will win this awesome Black Camaro Road Mice Wireless Mouse from the Neatorama Online Shop. If no one gets it right, then the funniest guess will win it instead.
This sporty mouse is the perfect for car lovers. If you don’t win, you can still "cruise the web in style" with the Road Mice Wireless Computer Mouse by buying one from our online shop. As always, your purchase helps support the blog.
Contest rules are simple: place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL or web links – doing so will forfeit your entry (be kind and let others play!) One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you’d like.
More clues at the What is it? Blog. Good luck!
Update 6/13/09 – The answer is: A Copenhagen snuff can opener, used for cutting the paper seal on the can. Congratulations to attorneyadrian who got it right first!
I’ve been waiting for this post since our last one numbered 12,345 back in January 2008. It took us a a little bit over a year to post the remaining 7,655 posts reach 20,000 (that’s an average of 17 posts a day!).
I’d like to thank all of Neatorama’s authors, Upcoming Queue submitters, shop customers, and of course, all of you readers who make it all worthwhile!
A quick update about the Mystery Sale: Thank you to everyone who has participated! Your purchase helped a great deal to support the blog.
As many of you know, right after we announced the Mystery Sale yesterday, our servers crashed because of the traffic. While it was a painful experience, this elucidated a weakness in the way we set up the servers which I didn’t realize before. We’ve taken steps to solve the problem (which, of course, involves more and more hardware).
Looking back, we’ve had many of these growing pains – Neato started on a shared hosting platform in 2005 (which cost a few bucks a month). Since then, we’ve had to move to ever larger, more complicated and thus more expensive hosting platforms. Instead of fretting over outages and meltdowns, I choose to view them as milestones in the growth of the blog (and the shop too, now).
All this is because and for you, dear Neatoramanauts! So from all of us here on Neatorama, thank you! We couldn’t have made it this far without the blog’s loyal readers (and hopefully, loyal customers – or soon-to-be one – of the Neatorama Online Shop). I hope you will help spread words about the blog by telling your friends and family about it.
Because of the interruption, I’m extending the Mystery Sale a little while longer – if you haven’t gotten yours, there’s still time. Don’t miss out: Link [Update 5/6/09 - Time's Up! Thank you for all of you who participated in this Mystery Sale! For those who missed it, maybe next time!]
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A very, very cool collections of optical illusions – wait, it may just be you going crazy…
Be sure to check out the rotating face mask, the Thatcher Illusion, and the Face in the Bean. Link |
