Ratz
Airscape
And in the element of light
The sun reflected from the waves
Inshore it spangles
The child of air is borne upon the wind that blows across the sea
And in the element of summer
The cliffs suspended in the heat
The air in columns
The tiny figures of the world are walking
Underneath your feet
And underneath your hair
Where angels wander
I’ll wander too
Where angels wander — over you
And in the element of darkness
The starlight shimmers on the spray
And falls towards you
Your perfect lover’s never there
And if she was, she wouldn’t be — and neither, though, would you
Save your illusions
For someone else
Save your illusions
For yourself
And in the element of laughter
The quick explosion and the slow
Release of heat
The tide recedes upon the bones of something beautiful and drowned
In coral and in jade
Where angels hover
I’ll hover too
Where angels hover — over you
Over you
Over you
-Robyn Hitchcock
When a Friend Gets Laid Off
You know, how when a friend looses their job (or funding for their job) you usually feel bad for them? Especially when they work at a pretty important, meaningful, vital, if perhaps internally flawed organization? Well…then you know how sometimes – after feeling bad for them for about a second – you are all like, “hey, my company should hire her.” You know how that sometimes is? Well that’s how I feel now.
Who Gives a Ratzinger’s Ass?
I know his views have huge implications on things that are important to me, but I just can’t find it within myslelf to care in the slightest which old white dude gets to be pope. And I thought the presedential election was an irritating excercise in the futility of being faced with two shitty choices.
I don’t. I really don’t
For years now I’ve been telling people how lucky I am that I get along so well with J’s folks. No parent-in-law stereotypes here. Nosiree-bob!
Oh well. I guess the illusion was nice while it lasted.
Hunter S. Thompson to Be Shot from Cannon
Damn right he is. Well, his ashes, anyway. The cannon is to be mounted in a sculpture of his “Gonzo” fist atop a 100 foot pillar. Live loud.
Starbucks Delocator
Most people who really enjoy coffee agree that Starbuck’s has nasty, over-roasted and over-priced coffee. They sell a lifestyle and nearly everyone you know is buying. Hell, even you dear reader, are buying. I too admit to falling prey to the comforting green glow.
The problem is that the neighborhood coffee shop is being pushed out and with it, some part of community. The neighborhood coffe shop – like the neighborhood bar and, in my opinion, the neighborhood laundromat – help define a neighborhood. Starbucks doesn’t care about your neighborhood.
This site, the Starbucks Delocator, serves to help you find local coffe shops by zipcode. Odd, you say, that the words “Starbucks Delocator” don’t appear on the site? Fear of lawsuits prevented the San Francisco Art Institute from using that name. So here’s my part in Carrie McLaren’s Google campaign to get the name mentioned in as many places on the ‘net as possible, so that the Starbucks Delocator will come up in Google’s search results when you type the word “Starbucks.”
Go on over to the Starbucks Delocator and search for cafés in the zip code “45245” to see what I’m talking about. One café, 10 Starbucks. Ugh.
I’m an Expert?
I don’t know whether to be proud of myself, or seriously dissappointed in everyone else. I’m apparently some sort of expert in the area of Online Accessibility.
I just got back from Chicago where I presented in a couple of sessions at the 2005 NTC Conference. On Thursday, I co-presented with my awsomely talented co-worker Cara in a session called “Extreme Website Makeover” which outlined the way that Beaconfire Consulting (the company we both work for) goes about bringing non-profits through the process or redesigning their Website. Everything from assessing the current site, defining audiences and desired outcomes for those audiences, to…well, just check out the slides (4MB PDF).
I would sort of describe the concept of each step in the process and some of the reasoning behind it, and then Cara would show examples from a project she is managing right now. It was a great way to bring in concrete examples at every step of the way.
What I didn’t expect was that the part of the session talking about accessibility would generate so many questions.
The next day I did a session with some folks from Easter Seals called “Why Online Accessibility is Good Design and Business.” It also went well.