In addition to checking the usual news sites and the latest fact checker obsession sites after the debates, I’ve also found myself heading over to wordle. It’s just really satisfying to see these common words arranged so well, and with so much meaning (intended or not!).
In this one, I find myself drawn to the little “oil” inside the “C” of “McCain”
title="Wordle: Barack Obama at Third Presidential Debate">
And there are tons more on flickr.
You know you’re in trouble when you can vividly imagine your roof coming off, or all your windows blowing in – that’s what was keeping me awake at 3am this morning. So as I retreated to a closet, I was hoping for the best as Hurricane Ike did its worst. Somehow my husband telling me later that the garage would probably go before the house did not necessarily comfort me. I began to wonder how well paid the construction workers were that built our house…
So there I was, with my two cats, in the closet. One was totally freaked out all night (even before the closet she was constantly pacing in circles), and the other was like “meh, I’m sleeping”. It was one sleepless night for me though.
All things considered, I got off very lucky. Just a few casualties in the yard, and a gate that’s now stuck open in the wrong direction are the only real problems. I’ve spoken to some friends and family, and the story seems the same so far – it could have been much worse. As I write this, I’m still not able to watch TV to see the full effects of the storm. The radio describes more adverse effects in Galveston, Kemah and Clear Lake, but until you get to see it, it’s not the same. Probably for the best as I’d be glued to the TV right now, which isn’t healthy.
“We don’t beat the reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully — for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we’re born and the time he shows up.”
-Randy Pausch
Apparently I’ve been working too much this week because it took me until yesterday to realize that Pausch lost his battle with cancer this past weekend (and I thought I had been following his story pretty closely). Like many, at least 5.5 million according to YouTube, I watched the “Last Lecture” video and read all the news reports. The speech is inspirational for sure, but I honestly still can’t watch or read anything about him without thinking about this family and their loss. While he seems to have helped so many, especially in his last months, I can only imagine the impact he has had on those closest to him.
I *hope* that I possess some small sliver of what we all admired in this man.
You hear this a lot – that no one walks in Houston, we drive. I’ve lived in Houston my entire life, and would say that having a dependable car is definitely a requirement. I’d even go so far to say that driving something a little larger in Houston makes you feel a wee bit safer – that you’re not going to get crushed by the other oversized SUVs of Trucks so prevalent here.
According to this Walk Score site, there actually are neighborhoods in Houston that are “walk-friendly”. I work in one of them, the Montrose. Unfortunately, since I need my car to get to-from work, I tend to still use it, even in this neighborhood (there are a few restaurants we do walk to, which are the exception rather than the rule). Also, since it’s 100 degrees outside during the summer, I don’t want to feel sticky all day. So I guess that even though this is a “walkable” neighborhood, I suppose that might only apply if you both live and work in this area.
** update 07/22/08 – Google maps apparently now includes a beta of walking directions, so you can look at your directions by car or walking. Is Google trying to tell me something?
I have and always will love the muppets. 
I was just reading that ICANN is considering opening up the domain name scheme to include common words such as .hotel or .sex. Can you imagine what kind of frenzy this might cause?
I’ve experienced the frustration of not being able to get a decent .com name. For example, when we are working on a naming project for a client, part of the process is to do a domain search to see if something reasonable can be obtained. If not, then that name will likely get cut. So many good names get lost this way. With this new system, say you wanted “TotallyGreen.car” and someone else had “TotallyGreen.plants” that would be ok. Different industries, so probably no real confusion, EXCEPT that you have to consider that many people would just type in the word “TotallyGreen” and get the .com version instead (and I have no idea what that is or going to be!)
Another offshoot of this would be what I might call “vanity” domains, just like the license plates. Instead of someone saying “imsohot.com” they would now say “im.so.hot”. Think of the possibilities. we’ll become a “domain.this.phrase” culture. You’ll see these in ads everywhere.
And finally, what major corporation wouldn’t want to own their own domain? Do you think either Coke or Pepsi wouldn’t blink at .coke or .pepsi? Wal-mart might be very happy to have “shop.walmart” or “careers.at.walmart”. I bet that both consultants and IT departments will be very busy creating the hundreds of domain name possibilities.
In our card-swapping culture, business cards are not only a way to exchange information, but make a good impression. This site, as it is titled, shows “70 Amazing Business Cards”, mostly it seems from designers and other creative types. Not that it’s unique to our industry, but you do often find designers have the best cards since it’s a way for us to show our creativity, and the small canvas is a welcome challenge.
My business card is ok – attractive a little personalized (another designer at our office updated them when we rebranded). I hope people keep it when I give it to them, but I doubt it would become part of someone’s “collection”. Collecting cool business cards seems to be a passion for some. Also check out this flickr group.
This week, Dress Code came and speak to our AIGA Houston Chapter about their new book, their work, and in general, their rather unique career paths. You can view the photos as our flickr group and a short excerpt on our youtube channel.
Now, they are opinionated guys, and gave lots of advice on what has worked for them – be persistent, be passionate and be opportunistic (not their word, mine, but that’s what they were saying).
I’ve thought about this, and I have some advice of my own. So here goes:
These are rather broad categories, but if you want more, just call or email me. I’d be happy to share.
We’ve all been bombarded with talk of “green” the last couple of weeks (before and after Earth Day). Green. Greenwashing. Green living. The Greening of… Now I’m reading that the term “green” has become oversaturated to the point that it’s lost meaning. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. Instead of the generic “green” term, we’ll start seeing more specific terms again such as “socially responsible,” environmentally friendly,” etc.
On a related note, a friend sent me this video via facebook (a little oversimplified on the issue of climate change but you get the point).Video: Climate change action vs inaction
Synchronized Presidential Debating
I have to post this because it’s just a brilliant piece of work. I really applaud this effort. I can only imagine how much work it took to go through all the debates and find these phrases, then montage them into this video.
For me, it really reinforces how much these messages HAVE been repeating (yes, these are their talking points!) I suppose on one side that’s a good thing – most Americans must know by now what each candidate stands for. But on the other hand, have we really learned anything new in the past couple of weeks?