Ta-da! New Design, Same Whitty Remarks -- and a Story to Boot!

I would like to take a moment and introduce my blog's super new layout that is both visually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing.  The entire concept was created from scratch by my wonderful wife.  More examples of her visually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing work are located at Purple Tulip Designs. 

In many cases re-designing your blog is like getting a haircut.  Nobody notices the haircut, but they all have great things to say after you tell them you got one.  This re-design is different.  This sensational new blog layout is like the haircut I got my freshman year at BYU.  

Yes, I will tell you the story: 

I think my parents parted my hair on the left side of my head from the day I had hair long enough to be parted.  That part took up permanent residence for nearly 18 years.  Just the part alone would not have been so bad.  It was the spike that made the ensemble work.  So that part was holding down the left side of my head while the rest of my hair was carefully combed eastward, completing the look.   As I hit middle school, I completely reinvented myself by replacing the left-hand spike, with a 'feathering' technique on the hair to the right.  I grew so accustomed to combining my hair in this delicate, yet deliberate fashion that I could not try anything different. 

It would take a near disaster to shift my hair paradigm.  That disaster occurred one day during my freshman year at BYU at the Bon Losee Academy of Hair.  Bon Losee was a beauty school located in Provo.  Freshmen got cheap hair cuts and beauty school students got real practice with human hair.  It was a win-win...if you did not care how your hair looked. Being a bargain-savvy shopper, I thought I would give Bon Losee a chance.  Had I known that the fate of the left-hand part hung in the balance I never would have gone.  As I sat in the chair I kept telling myself: "This will work out."  

Trish, the young girl cutting my hair that day appeared very nervous as she grabbed my hair with one hand and positioned the scissors with the other.  I instinctively knew this was new to Trish too.  I could tell that she still did not know how to grab the hair. 

Regardless, Trish gave it her best effort.  I saw clump after clump of hair fall silently to the ground.  When she was finished she had to have her manager come and 'sign off' on my hair cut making sure that it lived up to Bon Losee's standards and that Trish had not severed an artery or one of my ears. 

As part of the $7.00 hair cut you get a free wash and scalp massage.  As I laid there and watched Trish learn to wash hair, I told myself again:  "It will work out." 

I got home and took a shower.  You never know how a haircut really went until you take a shower.  Something happens on the drive home that I have never been able to figure out.  Either the hair gets shorter or my head gets bigger.  Either way there is less hair up there than when I leave the barbershop.  On this occasion I got out of the shower and looked at my hair.  Something was awry.  There was not enough hair left to support the part.  I tried in vain to comb some follicles west and other follicles east, but they sprung back in place.  Dire circumstances had necessitated a drastic change.

The 'Caesar' cut was born.  You know what I am talking about: push the hair forward rather than to the side.  Spike it up in front and you are done.  It was new, European, and hip.  Nearly ten years have passed and there have been variations, but for the most part, I am still rocking the Caesar cut.  You go with what works.  

This blog, like that first Caesar cut, will not go unnoticed. With the help of my loving wife, I am starting a new chapter in my blogging history.