Lucida Grande Geekiness
I spent this weekend building a video blog for a friend and colleague. I love building websites. I just love it. It’s the height of geekiness. I want to learn more. I want to learn about graphic design, typography, all of it.
In the process of playing with fonts, which is one of my most favorite geeky things to do, I discovered that my computer did not have Lucida Grande installed. How damned odd. I have seven or eight other Lucidas, but no Lucida Grande. I installed it and now Facebook looks like a whole new world. I never noticed that Facebook used that font. It looks so -right- now. So perfect. Less cluttered and more elegant. Until you read the crap people write!
Facebook Friday Favorites
My facebook friends have AWESUM posts. I limit myself to under ten, that way I choose only the best to maximize your entertainment, political ire, and/or your general amazement.
This week Howard Zinn and JD Salinger passed away and my Facebook is filled with Who Datting Saints fans. I’ve spared you from the Saints links. Here are some of the more interesting picks:
1. Instant Chewbacca — a new take on instant rimshot.
2. Jeff and Erin’s EPIC Wedding Trailer — a wedding I want to go to!
3. Salvador Dali on “What’s my Line?” — A surreal bit of old black and white television.
4. I Just Remembered Chris Matthews was White — Great response to Chris Matthews. The author talks about “luxurious ignorance,” i.e., white people’s obliviousness. Good read.
5. JD Salinger dies (NPR) — I loved Franny and Zoey better than Catcher in the Rye. What a curious man he was.
6. Letter to the Editor, Daily Reveille (LSU student paper) — A depressing manifestation of how the corporate model infects and degrades higher education. Philosophy, comparative literature, sociology, history, and anthropology are antiquated, obsolete and unnecessary. Jeez.
7. (Louisiana) Regents pare programs — and another one bites the dust.
8. How idiotic arguments enter the political mainstream (This Modern World) — I’d laugh if it weren’t depressingly true.
9. NYT Howard Zinn obituary — What an amazing man.
10. Cornel West on Obama — Criticism of Obama’s economic policies.
Slaving away
I have three saved drafts of posts that I haven’t had the motivation to finish. I didn’t get my syllabi and stuff to the printer on time so now I have to print them at Office Depot. I said I’d get my gratitudes blog up over the break and the break’s almost over and it’s nowhere near done. I have a todo list a mile long that’s sitting undone. The last precious minutes of the semester break are rapidly ticking away. My semester is going to be rough because I’ve added an extra class and it’s one I’ve never taught. We have also introduced a new textbook into one class, which means a lot of additional prep work. I’ve tried to do some revamping to public speaking to make it more fun and relevant and less dry. So this semester is going to be a bit of a scramble.
I have no right to complain, though. I have a job, unlike many folks in this country. My job is not under threat, at least not yet, unlike many academics in this state and around the country. My job hasn’t been completely yet unclearly redefined by institutional decisions, unlike some of my current colleagues. I have a home and a good spouse and a wonderful kid who’s grown into a wonderful young woman. I need to remember these things when I’m slaving away. Mostly, I need to remember there’s not even much slaving involved, either.
What is swag?
Today I learned the origin of the word “swag.” Appropriate, since we are now in Mardi Gras season.
Apparently swag, in the sense of a bag to haul stuff around in, has been around for half a century or so in one form or another. The version we use today, the free crap you get from car dealers, trade shows, and Mardi Gras floats, has been around since the 1920s. During that time it was used in reference to the sort of crap you get from fairground showmen. So, from a bag to haul your crap in, to the crap you haul in your bag, either way swag has got it.
All I know is that I hope my husband doesn’t bring home more Mardi Gras swag in the form of Zulu coconuts. I know they are highly coveted and that I don’t give them the respect that they’re due. But when you see forty three of them (they’ve been rigorously counted) in your living room on a daily basis, the charm wears thin.
