First of all, thanks to everyone for the comments in response to my post about skipping church. I appreciate everyone’s concern and it is interesting to see how wide of a range my friends have regarding the importance of regular church attendance. If you were wondering, yes, I did attend church today and last Sunday. Whoopidy doo.

In other news, I have put my dreams of owning a Corvette on hold for a while. What? I didn’t tell you about that? Well, I have been saving for a new car for a while and it turns out that Craigslist is a great place to fantasize about owning your childhood dream car. Finally reality set in, however, and I decided to put the money I have in savings towards paying off credit card debt. Whoopidy doo.

I have been taking some photos recently. I will save the technical details for a future post on Found Photography, but the shots are panoramic and/or HDR. The panoramas take multiple photos and stitch them together into one continuous shot. The HDR shots take multiple exposures and blend them together to create images with high dynamic range. I am enjoying the processes enough that I finally purchased a high quality tripod. It should arrive tomorrow. Whoopidy doo.

It is relatively rare for me to go ego surfing, but last night I spent some time checking on my various web projects to see where the traffic is coming from. Font Burner is quickly gaining on my Lego camera as one of my biggest hits. Here’s some of the places around the internet sending praise my way:

Font Burner
Smashing Magazine lists Font Burner among their list of 50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography.

Six Revisions lists Font Burner as one of their top 20 Useful Typography tools.

TripWire Magazine lists Font Burner among their picks for 60+ Typography & Font Mega Toolbox.

Speckyboy Design magazine praises Font Burner as one of 21 Typography and Font Web Apps You Can’t Live Without.

Font Burner WordPress Plugin
The Font Burner WordPress plugin has about 1500 downloads from the WordPress Plugin directory.

iPhone Control Panel Plugin
Over 250 downloads so far.

Found Photography
Listed as one of 87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds by Epic Edits

Phone Feedr
Phone Feedr has been added to the web app section ofApple’s website. I can’t say that has lead to a flood of traffic, but 18 sites have signed up so far, so that’s something.

Recently I have been trying to rustle up interest in a book club for Northern Colorado designers. The club will be called Co.de. Read and I have been handing out “decoder” business cards to every designer I know. (If you haven’t got one yet contact me and I will send you one.) So in anticipation of getting into a routine of regular reading, I have spent some time trying to finish the books that inevitably stack up in an unread pile on the corner of my desk.

One of the books I am enjoying is called “Modern Art and the Death of a Culture.” It was recommended my my dad and although you can’t tell from the title it deals with the relationship between art and the Christian church. Here is a paragraph that hit really close to home for me:

“Today it is well known that within evangelical Christian circles there is little interest in the arts. As a change becomes apparent, as the younger generation born and raised within these circles comes to understand the importance of the arts, all kinds of problems and tensions arise. Any sort of critical way of thinking is almost completely lacking. There is no artistic insight, nothing to point to, no answer to the relevant questions of the rising generation. Many want to be artists in a Christian sense – but have to find the answer for themselves. How should they go about it? What does it mean? Many have turned away from Christianity or, more tragically, from Christ, as they have come to feel that, if this vital aspect of human life is outside religion or faith, then something basic must be defective in the faith.”

That pretty much sums up my thoughts about “Christianity” lately. Any spiritual growth I experience any more seems to have nothing to do with my Church. That bothers me. Honestly it makes me wonder if I really am a Christian and if I want to even claim to be a part of it. Something is wrong when I can get more spiritual stimulation from playing with my iPhone than sitting in a Church for an hour and a half. I tell myself that there are Christians out there that are thriving and alive, but it’s hard to remember.

I guess this post got a little negative, so I feel like I should apologize. I was criticized the last time I ripped on my church so let me try to wrap this up on a positive note. We live in a time where it has never been easier to grow, whether that is spiritually, physically, artistically, emotionally, or intellectually. It is really exciting to be more connected than any civilization in the history of mankind. I hope you are taking advantage of it and growing.

Many of you know that last week was my first week at Red Rocket Media Group. As you can imagine, it was really hard to leave HuebnerPetersen after five years. I love the people there and the job has given me so much personally and professionally. I am very grateful for the friendships and knowledge I received there. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for a branding agency. They do good work and go the extra mile for their clients. I expect nothing but good things for HP in the coming years as their future looks bright. My last day at HuebnerPetersen really made me feel lucky to be surrounded by such supportive friends.

When you leave a job as comfortable as mine was you can’t be completely sure you are doing the right thing. It’s a leap of faith really. How do you know? Luckily after a week at Red Rocket I know I made the right decision. I have had a great time getting to know my new team and the work looks to be challenging and creatively rewarding. The change of scenery has me feeling more creative and fresh than I have in years. I love the challenge of new opportunities. Those are the times when you grow the most. Wish me luck as I embark on this next phase of my career and thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of me throughout this transition.

I just wanted to make a quick post to make sure that you update your bookmarks and rss feeds because I have been doing some site maintenance today. I ditched the holygears subdomain in favor of going back to my Adrian3.com domain name. I used a handy little WordPress plugin to handle my redirects and as far as I can tell the transition should be pretty seamless. If you have see anything that isn’t working please drop me a note.

As I continue to develop Holy Gears, I am going to be using Adrian3 as the guinea pig. As I deveop new themes for Holy Gears I will be reskinning Adrian3 as a test. As a result, you may not recognize this site next time you visit!

One of the things that I think can set Holy Gears apart from other free blogging sites is the design of the templates. Blogger, Typepad, WordPress, etc. all offer a limited number of vanilla flavored templates. My goal is to give Holy Gears bloggers a wide assortment of unique design options and the ability to customize the themes if they can’t find something they like. I want a person that uses Holy Gears to be able to “skin” their site with something that reflects their unique interests and personality. If that sounds like you, sign up and start blogging!

Well, here I am on Holy Gears. I figured that if I am going to create a blog network for Christians, I better use it myself! I think everything should be working, but if you see any flukes, please drop me a comment!

So what is with the “.holygears” extention? Well, Holy Gears is a free blogging platform for Christians that I have been developing in my “free time.” It unofficially launched today, and I will be making improvements as I go. If you have been thinking about starting a blog sign up and let me know what you think!

Well, we didn’t get an official Christmas letter sent out this year, so I am going to save some stamps and give you the update online instead. Here is the news from the Hanfts from last year…

Rian turned three in August and continues to be the joy of our lives. He loves Cars, Buzz and Woody, and Superman. For Haloween he was a monkey and just like Curious George, he is always wondering “Why?” For Christmas all he wanted was a choo choo train that made noise. He shares his father’s love for Legos and is constantly coming up with new vehicles for his dad to build. His resolution for 2007 is to be potty trained and sleaping in his own bed.

Betsy is back to teaching and has her hands full teaching 7th and 8th graders part time at Trinity Lutheran School in Greeley. She is enjoying the break it gives her from Rian and she is glad to be back in the classroom. In addition to teaching, her At Home America business has taken off and she is proud of reaching “Three Star Status.” If you haven’t visited her online store, you can check it out at www.athome.com/betsyhanft.

In July a car ran a red light and totaled our Corolla. Betsy and Rian survived with very minor injuries, but it was a scary event for all of us. The accident could have been much worse, and the good news is that we got our minivan ahead of schedule. Betsy now drives a Honda Odyssey.

Adrian continues to work as Art Director at HuebnerPetersen and enjoys the challenges the job presents. He keeps busy with his various online adventures (BADG, Adrian3, Found Photography) and is currently putting the finishing touches on artwork for his show in January at Hasting College in Nebraska. If you are in Nebraska in January consider dropping in to see the show.

Thanks to everyone who sent us Christmas cards! It is always fun to see what has changed in the lives of family and friends. We wish you a Merry Christmas and blessings in 2007.

Adrian, Betsy and Rian Hanft