Why? Because chances are, you didn’t expect to see Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy played on a theremin today, that’s why.
Note to Self: In order to maintain a consistent integrity in the realm of arriving at work on time, only one member of the household is allowed to consume NyQuil® prior to going to bed.
Boston has a thing for their sports teams. To wit: the under construction facade for the new Apple Store on Boylston Street that looks so Green-Monster-esque. I miss you, Boston.
Quote, “Though it feels like a modern appendix to our ancient alphabet, the ampersand is considerably older than many of the letters that we use today.” Jonathan Hoefler (of type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones) discusses the ampersand.
I gave .com/notestoself a bit of spring cleaning lovin’ this past weekend, which mainly consisted of porting the entire thing over to WordPress. It was a bit of a fool’s errand in the grand scheme of things, but an interesting experience nonetheless.
Notes to Self never had a content management system or database backend; it was just an html file I would handcode. This was great, because it had a small footprint and was quick and easy. The problem was I would forget about it. Even though it was easy, it was a multi-step process that would get lost in the shuffle with so many other work-related and personal projects and life responsibilities.
So, yes, WordPress is crazy-robust for such a simple application. In fact, it will most likely prove to be too slow to continue using in the future, especially if Notes ever got a ton of traffic. But for now, at least everything is sitting tidy in a database (that I could ostensibly export/import into another CMS down the road), there are permalinks, and there is (finally) an RSS feed for your usage. Enjoy.
I’m loving the album artwork for the upcoming Coldplay record Viva La Vida. Starting tomorrow, you can download the first single off the album for free.
Todd Dominey waves farewell to blogging, favoring Twitter for “what I’m enjoying” kinds of posted content and stating, “writhing pithy thoughts on a personal blog is a luxury I can no longer afford.” Fair enough.
Jeffrey Zeldman talks about content outsourcing and the disappearing personal site, saying “Not every person who designs websites needs to run a personal magazine on top of all their other responsibilities.” He then points out the way more and more folks are using Flickr, Twitter, etc. to post content instead of previous homebrewed solutions on singular domains. Most so-called “web professionals” have online personas spread out over a number of outlets.
I’d wager this will be a more frequent occurrence over time, whether it’s Twitter or some other content outlet. So again, there will be a sort of pruning of the blog world and the only people who keep blogging will be the ones who really want to keep blogging.
I love that the web keeps changing. I think I still love blogging.
Guillermo del Toro will direct The Hobbit and a sequel (that will explore the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.) del Toro seems like a better fit that the previously hinted at Sam Rami.
Gentlemen (and Eastern European women), Moustache May starts in one week. I love the Moustache Man illustration from Ferris Plock. Start your follicles.
A [venture capitalist] is just a creditor, and should never be what you dream of obtaining one day.
— Sarah Hatter, excerpted from this 37signals blog post
Pablo Skinny is a free quirky tall typeface from Fargoboy, an American Type Foundry.
Universe man, Universe man
Size of the entire universe man
Usually kind to smaller man
Universe ManHe’s got a watch with a minute hand,
Millenium hand and an eon hand
When they meet it’s a happy land
Powerful man, Universe Man
— They Might Be Giants, Particle Man
Universe Man is on Prom Night Fist Fight now.
Of all people, Christians should be addicted to quality and integrity in every area, not looking for excuses for second-best. We must resist this onslaught. We must demand higher standards.
— Franky Schaefer, Addicted to Mediocrity
Viewzi bills itself as “a new and highly visual way
to search that brings all your favorite stuff together in one place.” It essentially gives users multiple visual and contextual ways to search the web and hopefully cuts down on the clutter and boringness so often associated with search engines. They have a 101 video to learn more.
When I was still in Dallas, I signed my first (and thus far only) NDA in the early days of Viewzi (only to choose another v-named opportunity at the time), so it’s awesome to see it come to fruition because it’s a great idea and it’s well-implemented. Huge props to Aaron Martin for a lot of the design details throughout, and to the rest of the team that’s pulled it all together.
Super-moody night photography from Kristopher Grunert.
You need to actively push ideas out and embrace failure. Fail spectacularly whenever possible.
— Jim Coudal, excerpted from this blog post
I made a small fisheye-esque adaptor using part of the lens of my old Canon G5 Powershot, some wrapping paper cardboard, and athletic tape. More in this Flickr set.
The Blankenships are off to Dallas for the weekend to watch the fam in The Ascenders play at the Dallas International Guitar Show. Anyone in Texas?
1. Shower curtains
2. Text messages written in the all-caps, shorthand style of a 12 year old girl
3. Uncomfortable chairs
4. Ben Stiller movies
5. The rampant usage of ridiculous puns in article titles (I’m looking at you, Dwell)