Category: Uncategorized

Here’s a news item that I know my wife will enjoy that I found via boing boing: “Bad Thai cops to endure Kitty shame.” A quote from the story:

“Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor,” said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

“(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps,” Pongpat said.

Like I said, I know my wife cares deeply about this….

I have to say that I’m not that big of a A List Apart fan, but I thought these two articles might be interesting for a new version of Writing for the World Wide Web:

• “Better Writing Through Design,” by Bronwyn Jones. Some good tips, though I think what I like best about this piece is the title.
• “Reviving Anorexic Web Writing,” by Amber Simmons. I like the part here where she talks about the trickiness of writing the “alt” text for images.

I found this via jill/txt: “How to use ‘Furoshiki'” from the Ministry of the Environment in Japan. Basically, a furoshiki is traditional way of folding a square cloth to carry stuff. I also found this YouTube video where a dude in the store makes a couple of different furoshiki bags. I was both amused and oddly comforted by the fact that at the end of that YouTube video, we see Japanese folks carrying their wares out of the furoshiki store in– I kid you not– paper bags.

Anyway, I don’t know if the furoshiki is a practical solution for my grocery shopping, but I have been thinking lately that it might be worthwhile to invest in some basic canvas shopping bags. Eco-friendly, convenient, etc.

I found the current theme (as in today current– who knows what it will look like next week let alone next year) cutline and am going to be tinkering with it for EMUtalk.org. But I thought I’d try to if not master it at least kinda control it here first. I like this theme a lot, though I had been planning to update my official blog theme so that it kind of mirrors but not quite matches the one I’ve settled into on my unofficial blog. Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t do things the other way around.

Now, one of the things that I have discovered in 10 or 15 minutes of play with this is that the theme’s original developer, Chris Pearson, sold it to a company called Splashpress Media. Seriously? A company bought someone else’s theme and now is using it as, um, what, a way to advertise? Seems kind of weird to me.

Anyway, don’t be surprised if things look a little odd and different for a while.

See this, “Strange statues around the world.” Some cool pictures!

dwellstickers

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause

For the last couple years, mostly as an experiment on what mailing lists I end up (but also just because it’s fun), I’ve been subscribing to various magazines with slightly fake names. For example, when we subscribed to TV Guide (briefly, and only as a result of Will’s school’s magazine drive), the name of record was “Sophie Wannamaker,” aka “Stupid Dog” or just “the dog.” Surprisingly, Sophie didn’t receive much mail.

My latest name adventure has been with WIRED magazine, under the slightly fake Steve Skippy Krause. So far, the only junk mail that has come to Skippy has been from something called dwell, which is a sort yuppie/urbanite/sophisticate/quasi- house porn-like magazine– you know, where to get your stainless steel kitchen appliances, where to pick out the perfect $1000 light fixtures, art projects made from cardboard boxes, and so forth. Something I’d thumb through at the dentist office or even accept as a gift, but not something I’d order on purpose.

I had received two pieces of mail from the dwell people so far: something I threw away a long time ago, and then that which is pictured here: some mailing labels (which I had ignored and which Annette rescued for me). Sweet, huh?

So call me Skippy, but don’t call me late to dinner.