I’m using this blog as a bit of a typography sandbox today because we’re doing a long awaited redesign to our work websites.
I’m currently trialling TypeKit – a webapp that lets you dynamically use non-standard fonts.
Here are three handy articles I’ve read today.
Anyone want to rent our Townhouse in January? It looks like the rent will be going up slightly.
Seems our real estate agent has decided that while they’ll make us stay until the end of our lease with the threat of financial penalties if we leave early, they won’t extend us the right to live in our dwelling unhassled until then.
I spoke to someone at the agency yesterday who inquired as to our intentions to renew (at the end of January). I said that at this stage we wouldn’t be renewing. She said “give us two weeks notice when you want out”, I said “fine”… and on the very same day they put a “For Rent” sign outside our place. Two months in advance.
They’ve listed our place online and just told me on the phone that they would appreciate the opportunity for our place to be open for inspection by would be renters.
They probably compulsively google themselves – so I won’t mention them by name until we leave – but for shame real estate agent… for shame.
I will never ever buy a property listed by this company.
This was my day at work today. And the second day of Izaac and Sarah’s excellent Townsville adventure.
I needed models for our photoshoot. Zack and Sarah were available. Here are some of the photos I took while I was along for the ride. Robyn got off school early and joined us for the afternoon.
I’ll no doubt upload more photos to this photoshoot album one day…
Threadless didn’t like my shirt. Apparently I didn’t use their template. And Apparently they don’t like to play around with other people’s characters and stuff… Well, stuff them.
I now have a store on CafePress. And you can buy your Future of Evolution shirt starting at a price of $21.50 (plus postage).
There are other cuts, colours and styles available through the store.
I have a pet hate. I hate a particular sub-species of grammar nazi. Well, a couple of sub-species actually.*
I hate it when I write perfectly parsed, syntaxed and phrased quotes to be included in a third party’s media release and they come back changed.
I especially hate it when that change includes the addition of an exclamation mark, or a change of spelling (program v programme) because your style guide is stuck in the mother country.
You may think you’re a better writer than me, you may be a better writer than me – but don’t ask for my help and then bastardise my quotes with awful punctuation.
If you do this I will laugh at you when nobody comes to your press conference – even though you waste almost an hour of my CEO’s time.
That is all.
*I also have a mild disdain for the Grammar SS, those Grammar Nazis who run around pulling people up with a public rebuke for a grammatical error. If it’s an issue for you at least have the courtesy to raise a mistake in private rather than trumpeting your grammatical superiority via a snarky comment. It may be that the mistake is an innocent typo.
Tonight is the second installment of my birthday present to Robyn. We’re going to round two of cooking school at Townsville’s De Studi kitchen shop.
Round one – Moroccan – was a smash hit. Robyn has already produced delicious Lamb Sigaras since. I will post the recipe one day… but first… the cook off…
There wasn’t a whole lot of interactivity in the classes – we were able to fill, and roll, our “sigara”, which is some sort of language for cigar shaped filo pastry thing stuffed with sensational lamb mince…
There’s nothing new under the sun…
They don’t have Optimus Prime though…
Oh well. Voting for getting my shirt designed will open if/when Threadless approves it…
I just designed a shirt. The idea came from a tangent on my last post.
It’s called “Future of Evolution”…
Here it is – you’ll be able to vote for it to be produced on Threadless any day now…
If they reject it you’ll be able to order copies from wherever I can get it printed…
David Thorne strikes again. With moderate success.
I like that he’s a bit of a Robin Hood. Fighting for the everyman. Taking on the corruption inherent in the system.
This time he had some overdue DVDs from Blockbuster.
Read the whole lot here…
He poses a question you’ve no doubt wondered about for years – why are late fees so high…
I have checked pricing at the DVD Warehouse and the cost of replacing your lost movies with new ones is as follows:
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay $7.95
Waterworld $4.95
Journey to the Centre of the Earth $9.95
Logan’s Run $12.95This totals $35.80 so I would rather pay that than the $82 late fee. I have no idea why Logan’s Run is the most expensive of the four movies as it was definitely the worst. Have you seen it? I wouldn’t pay $12.95 for that. I would use the money to buy a good movie instead. Probably something with Steven Seagal in it. The entire premise comprised of living a utopian and carefree lifestyle with only three drawbacks – wearing seventies jumpsuits, living in what looks like a giant shopping centre and not being allowed to live past thirty. This would seem logical though as I would not want a bunch of old people hanging around complaining about their arthritis while I am trying to relax at the shopping centre in my jumpsuit trying not to think about the computer crashing.
Mathematicians like to ponder infinity. I think this is particularly stupid when it comes to fractions.
I heard some maths person on the ABC talking about how there’s an infinite number of numbers between two integers. That was a bit dumb.
The reason I’m talking about maths at all is because I just read my second favourite maths joke of all time, from Bill Bailey, via Wikipedia…
“An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first goes up to the bartender and says, “I’ll have a pint of lager, please.” The next one says, “and I’ll have half of what he’s having.” The bartender says, “You’re all idiots,” and pulls two pints.”
And this my friends, is a mathematical limerick.
The solution –
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
For the record, this is my favourite mathematical joke in condensed format…
An insane mathematician gets on a bus and starts threatening everybody: “I’ll integrate you! I’ll differentiate you!!!” Everybody gets scared and runs away. Only one lady stays. The guy comes up to her and says: “Aren’t you scared, I’ll integrate you, I’ll differentiate you!!!” The lady calmly answers: “No, I am not scared, I am e^x.”
That, and other mathematical jokes, can be found here…
Having a sneeze stuck somewhere in your head has to be one of the worst feelings.
Me, I’m lucky. I can just look at the sun, or any bright light. And wallah – a sneeze appears. Like magic.
I am blessed with a condition shared by 18-35% of the population – photic sneeze reflex.
I told someone about this once and they didn’t believe me. But there’s a wikipedia article. So it must be true. Here are the facts ensconced in medical lingo to enhance credibility…
“Photic sneeze reflex is a genetic autosomal dominant, which causes sneezing (due to naso-ocular reflex) when exposed suddenly to bright light, possibly many times consecutively. It is also referred to as photic sneeze response, sun sneezing, photogenic sneezing, the photosternutatory reflex, being photo sensitive, allergic to the sun, ACHOO syndrome, and Achooism, named after the sound made when sneezing, along with its related backronym Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome.”
I also can’t burp. People struggle to believe that one too.
I’ve put together a few tips for helping husbands/wives to survive the report writing process.
For the report writer.
1. Balance your time. We all know that report writing isn’t fun for you, but don’t forget that it’s no fun for your spouse either. Make sure you spend some quality time with them as well.
2. Encourage your spouse to use some of his/her free time to do the things he/she enjoys but you don’t. For Nathan it’s playing playstation.
3. Don’t slack off on your commitments. Again, this has to do with the balance thing. Fair enough, don’t take on any extra commitments, but don’t slack off on the ones you’ve already committed to.
4. 80% is good enough. I haven’t mastered this one yet but I’m trying. Apparently the theory is that near enough is good enough. We don’t have to be perfect all of the time.
5. Sleep and eat properly. This goes without saying.
For the spouse…
1. Be patient and understand that the work needs to be done at home and outside of regular work hours.
2. By flowers and chocolate. Frequently.
3. Try to provide a healthy dose of perspective.
4. Be prepared to get your hands dirty and do some marking.
5. Find something to occupy yourself for 72 hours. Nathan recommends a PS3.
So far I’ve raised $5 with my really useful gift shop. And I have to confess that I spent that $5 myself. On a fish called Eutychus – or a fish farm full of fish called Eutychus.
I’m not expecting to reach the heights of stuffchristianslike.net – or in fact any heights at all – but I am going to keep the little logo for the shop on the top right of the page. Probably forever. In the hope that one day somebody will buy one of these $300 cows.
