Steve and I had a great night, everything came together so nicely. The sky went from stormy and rainy to bright blue with a pleasant wind for our dinner on East Ave. We went with some of our good friends that we don’t get to see enough. There was great conversation and everyone had lots of good news about jobs and life in general. Then we attended the show Wicked at the RBTL. We had great seats, and the show was very entertaining. It was offbeat and colorful, hilarious and heartwarming. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the theater. All in all, a great night.
June 1st, 2008
I completed my first 5k run yesterday. For not doing any real training for it, i’ve got to say i did much better than i expected. My official time was 42:43, but if my time started when i actually crossed the start line then i ran 3.1 miles in 35:09.
The one thing i did bring away from running in a 5k is that people lie like dogs about how fast they can pace a mile. At the start of the race you’re supposed to line up at markers indicating what your single miles times would be. I knew my mile time would be somewhere between 11-12 minutes, so i lined up at the 12 mile start marker. Not that i’m in the best of shape right now, but i was looking around and there were definitely some people starting with me that had no business at that marker.
Also, people who were planning on walking the whole event were suppose to line up behind all of the timed markers but they seemed to all want to start at the head of the line as well making it congested for the runners who actually wanted to run. It was annoying and slightly funny, because i would think that some of the walkers lined up with the competition runners who pace 4-5 minute miles.
But all in all, it was very fun and I will probably do it again next year…maybe even train a bit to see what i could really do.
May 30th, 2008
Oil and the Fed - WSJ.com
Republicans may be punished this November for forgetting that the Reagan policy mix had two levers – tax cuts and stable money. The Bush Administration got tax policy right. Its tragic error was falling for the siren song of dollar depreciation, and abetting a Federal Reserve that even now seems not to comprehend the damage it has done.
May 27th, 2008
Man, it never fails. The weather gets nice (blue skies, hot sun, dry air…) and the work just dries up leaving me sitting at my desk pondering why i’m still sitting staring at my screen. It also never fails that everyone else at work suddenly can’t be found. How many doctor’s appointments can possibly take place on a friday afternoon anyway?
April 18th, 2008
Grids are good
I hope that i will some day be able to convey relevant design information like this. With minimal words, the authors were able to explain complex aspects of design in simple and concise terms. I do admire the blog site www.subtraction.com (from which this came). I hope to be able to work on my new portfolio/site and have it look so simple, yet be as involved as his is.
April 10th, 2008
Giuliani to exit presidential race - Yahoo News
By necessity, Giuliani’s strategy meant playing down states that led off the voting in early January to make his stand in delegate-rich Florida. …The risk was irrelevancy — and he found himself on the brink of it as his rivals racked up wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere, and dominated media coverage for weeks.
Why does our primary system work they way it does? By having primaries staggered they way they are, states can persuade and affect other states candidate choices. The first state that has a primary can set the agenda, they vote for who will best represent them….The next states down the list have to change strategy; They have to start deciding to vote their conscience, or vote for the candidate that won’t split support to let the last choice candidate win.
don’t you see the lunacy of this system?
Giuliani lost because he became irrelevant…not because of his views or plans. Because he didn’t make a showing in the first states, people either forgot about him (no press coverage) or they couldn’t vote for him because they didn’t want to split the vote for their second choice.
And What’s with Iowa anyway?
Why do they get to go first every year? Doesn’t it make more sense and wouldn’t it be more fair if A) there was a rotating schedule for the state primaries? or even better yet B) a super saturday where all primaries are held at the same time (staggered for time zone differences)…then everyone would be forced to vote on the issues, and not play a stupid game of catch-up because of what other states had already voted on.
January 30th, 2008
The new Xerox logo is said to be:
a bit less formal, a lot more lively, with links to our heritage and a nod to our future.
But to be honest, this new logo seems to pay blind homage to the latest fads of the design industry which still has not come down from the booming dot-com era. Every start-up company before the bubble burst used all lowercase letters and fancy reflection techniques in their branding to describe their company as unique, casual and fun. To see a long-standing company like Xerox use the same tactics doesn’t even make sense to me. they are not a start-up company, and they should not appear casual or playful.
the new branding is reminiscent of AT&T’s departure from the traditional. They too went all lowercase to appear more friendly and “hip”, the difference being AT&T swallowed Cingular, a very progressive, young and energetic company. Association between the two gave AT&T permission to be able to change its brand message. Xerox on the other hand has no such event; its message now seems convoluted.
Xerox unfortunately has done away with everything that was strong about their logo brand. It was a bold Capital X with broad serifs. Call it the homogenization of the design industry, but i believe that designers have forgotten how to use serif typefaces effectively. Perhaps due to the large amount of web design there is, brand images seem to lean toward the more casual and cleaner sans serif typefaces, not always rightly so. Capital lettering is a symbol of strength, and serif typefaces are regal, elegant and professional. In the right context capital and serif typefaces can look progressive, inviting and even lively. By eliminating both these aspects of the logo, Xerox is effectively starting from scratch (perhaps on purpose), but they look like any other half-baked start-up company that fizzled when the web went flat.
January 8th, 2008
let me quote:
“whole grain rolled oats (with oat bran), sugar, dehydrated apples (treated with sodium sulfite to promote color retention)…”
yes, when i eat my quaker oatmeal, i want my apples looking their freshest, because i ignore the fact that they are DEHYDRATED. why is it that people would rather have apples that look slightly less dehydrated, but ingest a chemical that is entirely unnecessary? People, your strawberry yogurt isn’t naturally red…in fact if you buy the yogurt that has no artificial colors in it, you will realize that preserved fruits are often a dull brownish color, not even an entirely unappetizing color at that.
So why do the companies put these chemicals into our food? Because study after study says that people will buy more of the food that looks a little brighter (even unnaturally so), smells a little sweeter (even if it isn’t natural) and tastes like “more” of whatever it is. Seriously, people are so dumb, ruled not by our brains which (should) know better, but by our senses, who are so easily tricked.
November 29th, 2007
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