November 1999

Nude Teen Stick Figures. I have to wonder if the author was inspired by Scott McCloud’s discussion of realism in illustration, as described in Understanding Comics

Nell Lancaster identified the “I don’t know karate, but I do know crazy” mention a few days ago. It’s from James Brown (from ‘The Big Payback’: “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razor..”). Thanks Nell!

hmmmmm, michael, whose dog wants to be on the radio, doesn’t read this site in the morning but waits ’til later in the day. I wonder if it’s because of my new goth design with the metallicky background images and all? Maybe it’s like eating Chinese food for breakfast? The design is really rather darker…

It seems every organization on earth has decided to produce some sort of millenium exhibition. The only one I’ve bothered to visit so far is the Letters to Future Generations developed by UNESCO. Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Keep Poetry Alive! is particularly moving.

Megnut’s chants for everyday life (see November 16) embody an inspired perspective on life.

My notes-so-far on the general structure of the patterns in A Pattern Language: They are hierarchical, starting from the most general and working down toward the most specific. More specific patterns are dependent on the corresponding general “parent” patterns (my term). More general patterns rely on the implementation of the more specific “children” patterns. The…

Currently reading A Pattern Language : Towns, Buildings, Construction. It’s amazing the authors thought only within the confines of architecture, since the language is so organic and naturally re-usable. And at times the ideas reach the realm of the beautiful, like this Tao Te Ching-meets-gospel of Thomas passage: “this is a fundamental view of the…

Rafe at rc3.org linked to an article about how Oregonians aren’t allowed to pump their own gas. The article also mentions that my home state of New Jersey is the only other state with this archaic law. I believe it was put into practice a long time ago so that senior citizens would never have…

Sirs, I have tested your machine. It adds new terror to life and makes death a long felt want. – Sir Herbert Robert Beerbolm Tree on examining a gramophone From the book Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design. It can be used for instruction, but it leans more towards a really great coffee table…

Watched this amazing episode of New York: A Documentary Film on PBS last night. The most gripping part of it was the account of a famous fire at a textile sweatshop: 1911 – 146 people — mostly young, immigrant girls — are killed in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. A crowd of helpless…

Do we have a social responsibility to not write about certain things? I keep seeing stories about a particular phenonena all over, from Wired to The New York Times, that I just dislike. It’s not evil enough to deserve criticism, it’s just widespread stupidity. But I don’t want to mention it here for the fear…

We’ve just been named the 2nd of 50 smart companies. Yeehaa.

ahhhh, jonesin’ for peterme was justified, as he posted a link to a user experience-centered blog from creative good, goodexperience.com

I can see on linkwatcher that peterme updated his blog, but his site isn’t coming up for some reason, and I’m bummed. How pathetic is that? I need my fix! Woh, there it goes. Whew.

Our IS dept as work just started wearing these bright red one-piece jumpsuits. On the back it says, TEAMTECH I don’t know karate, but I do know crazy.