The fun workstation… just slightly better than the intern’s desk.
Since our intern now has her first AMD blog post under her belt (see yesterday’s entry), I figured I should attempt to provide our readers with at least a semi-formal introduction.
A 2010 graduate of Mount Spokane High School, Haley Anderson is currently a student in the University of Washington’s Visual Communications Program (yes, that’s a west-of-the-Cascades way of saying “graphic design”). Take a look at the class of 2012’s graduate show—it’s fantastic work.
Haley will begin her junior year this fall. Until then, she’ll be involved with several of our design projects. We’re excited to have her on board and delighted to have someone else answer the phones for a change.
This internship will no doubt be one of her first, and most formidable, career tests. No, I’m not talking about working alongside her parents, I’m referring to our copywriter and associate senior designer.
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to appreciate Japanese letterpress movable type.
Your body contains as much as five pounds of “good” bacteria.
The most dangerous vegetables revealed! (Note: near as I can tell, a “swede”—note the lowercase ‘s’—is a rutabaga).
Mmm…seven-cow kebab.
And finally, a Swiss newspaper goes digital. It’s not what you think.
Heck of an idea, really.
Now, if only there were companies willing to pay the rest of us for having to endure their website’s crappy design, hack writing, and amateur photography.
You hear a lot of folks say things like, “For the best back wax ever, just give Betty or myself a call.”
What’s with the myself?
It probably comes from uncertainty around the whole I/me thing. Most people can’t remember which to use, so they mistakenly think that saying myself fixes the problem.
It doesn’t.
Remember the test from, oh, seventh-grade English? Using the above example, remove the part about Betty: “If you need a good back wax, just give I/me a call.” It’s me, right? I mean, you wouldn’t say, “Just give I a call,” would you?
Nor would you say, “Just give myself a call.” (If you would, stop reading this post, grab a hammer, and strike yourself firmly between the eyes. I’ll wait.)
Now then. Use myself only after I in sentences like, “I’m more of a laser hair removal kind of guy myself.” In other situations, train yourself to hear the difference between I and me, and speak accordingly.
It was 50 years ago today that Frank Morris, along with John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz. Did they make it? We’ll likely never know—but either way, it’s one of my all-time favorite movies.
Over at spiked, Brendan O’Neill offers up a spirited defense of the Queen’s English:
“…in order to engage with society, with its public life and politics, you need to fully understand its language. You need to know that the sentence you just read contained a split infinitive, and that some people frown upon those while others think they are okay. You need to know how words are spelt and how they should be arranged in order to achieve both clarity and clout; you need to know what punctuation is for; you need to know what is the best way to write things down in order for them to be understood by the maximum number (not amount) of people. When it comes to language, the rule is that the more you know the rules, the more you can play around with them and twist them for effect, if you like. But you need to know the rules. And it is this knowing of the rules that is called into question these days, by people who think we should stop telling 19-year-old muppets at university that they have spelt things wrong…”
Interesting article on graphic design crowdsourcing over at Daily Download—though it doesn’t speak well for the critical thinking skills of small business owners.
Out of 1,500 surveyed, 80 percent said that design was “moderately” or “very important” to their success, while 67 percent said that graphic design will become increasingly important over the next five years.
So far, so good. Until you ask them to, you know, pay for design: 57 percent of respondents would spend “up to $500” on a new logo.
Courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command, here are several galleries of images of the Allied invasion of Normandy that began 68 years ago today.
The social network with the highest percentage of older users? Linkedin, naturally. What’s a little surprising is who’s in second: Facebook. Back in March, nearly a quarter of Facebook’s audience was between the ages of 50 and 64. And growth in new U.S. users is actually slowing.
I have tasted heaven, and it tastes like a Clayton Burger.
Science proves what we’ve known all along—that old people really do smell. Related: mathematicians have solved the Guinness sinking bubbles conundrum.
It’s raining sheep! Hallelujah! / It’s raining sheep! Ameeeeennnnn!
Good news: aliens probably don’t want to eat us after all.
And…
There’s gotta be a joke in here somewhere: a man goes to the hospital for a kidney stone and finds out he’s a woman.
Since I’ve long bellyached about the dearth of decent music shops in Spokane (even Bellingham has an Everyday Music; why are we stuck with Hastings?), I figured it’s high time I pointed out something positive about our fair city.
Like Recorded Memories over on Hamilton and Indiana. There’s a lot of dreck to wade through, and you really ought to block out an hour or two just to navigate the Byzantine system of shelves and racks, but it’s definitely worth your time. I recently walked out of there with a new 1995 remaster of Elvis Costello’s King of America—the two-disc limited-edition Rykodisc version with live tracks!—for $15.
Be sure to check ’em out.