Speared Peanut Anyone?

What the heck is a Speared Peanut? Check out the Speared Peanut website to find out. Of course their answer is.... ok I am not going to tell you : ) You have to go to the site and check it out.

I found this site while trowling Karl's list of resources. I checked out quite a few of them and really liked the Speared Peanut site. I didn't find an about us section - so I don't really know how many people work there (only two are listed to email in the what's your phone number section). They are based in Texas.

Their work is quite diverse. It was interesting to see their own website is set up in frames and this is how most of their client sites are set up in as well. So not all Flash. But the Flash that was there was very fun and expressive. I like how their page is very condensed visually. Unusual in a world where most people want more, more, more stuffed in each page.

Their work is divided into 5 sections - visual arts, music related, educational, business and fun. I really enjoyed the music section. A couple of my favorite music sites were for Garland Jeffreys (the photo page is fun), Blink 182 (just weird), Prince of Egypt and Eels (what kind of navigation is that???).

Looks like a fun place to work - too bad they are so far away.


And just for comic relief - we need to check out the Homestarrunner website. This site was built by the two Chapman brothers. Mike (the older brother) and a friend had originally created the characters as a comic book spoof of the poor quality children's books they saw at their local mall. In 1999 Mike learned Flash and turned the static characters into "live" Flash cartoons. His brother Matt provided the voices. They decided to set up a website (in January of 2001) to amuse their friends and through word of mouth - knowledge of their website grew.

My youngest son started checking out Homestarrunner in spring of 2001. So over the years I have watched the site grow and mature. As the site became more popular, they started selling t-shirts and stickers. After 3 years their father told them those magic words - "they could quit their day jobs" and work on the site full time. And so they have. The site is updated every week - in the StrongBad email section. They both share in creating the Flash development but Matt still does most of the voices. It is great to see someone succeed at something they love to do - and if you notice - their site is totally self-supporting and does not have annoying advertising all over it. Way to go!!!