The $850,000 question: Is this a good idea?

Last week FresnoBee.com News Blog writer, Mark Grossi, asked readers to weigh-in on their opinion of the San Joaquin Valley Air District‘s $850k advertising budget. The wording of his question was somewhat skewed and leading. This antic may have worked on one reader but the rest of us didn’t fall for it. What resulted was one comment against the budget and seven comments in favor.

I am republishing my own comment here because I actually wrote something and blogs are very hard to populate for people that don’t like writing. [...]

This week’s design blog favorites

Typography Keyboard Layout: Download Now!
Smashing Editorial, Smashing Magazine | April 2, 2009

The main idea was to provide the web design community with a handy tool that would let designers enter characters that are usually unavailable on a keyboard easier and quicker. If you already tried to enter such words like naïve or résumé or used special symbols (trademark symbol ™) or pay attention to diacritics (en-dash, em-dash, hyphen etc.), you probably know what we mean… [...]

Serif vs Sans Serif

A client of mine insists on using a sans serif font for all his business communications. Why does this rub me the wrong way? Because I was taught that serif fonts are easier to read and more legible particularly for large bodies of copy. As I recall, this is due to the fact that each individual letter form has more visual information and therefore the mind is able to recognize and interpret each letter faster. (Sounds logical right?)

I searched the internet for evidence to this theory that I could then present to my client to reinforce my argument. What I came across surprised me. Specifically, nothing. No evidential proof whatsoever. [...]

Twitter speaks volumes

Now more than ever, be careful what you say. As reported by TechCrunch, Twitter recently updated it’s profile title tags to play nice with Google. The title of their profile page now reads “Katrina Neufeld (katrinaneufeld) on Twitter” where it used to say “Twitter / katrinaneufeld”. This minor adjustment has had a huge impact on how Twitter profile pages are indexed by Google. If you type in “Katrina Neufeld” in Google, my Twitter profile page is the first result. Not my personal website, not my LinkedIn account—but my Twitter profile. This could potentially be the first thing people click on when they search for my name and that’s a little scary. [...]

Poo and all its stinky derivatives

I’m sorry but poo is just about the cutest word ever created for one of the most vile of bodily functions. So here’s to poo! Not the actual poo itself, but the word poo (and all its stinky derivatives, i.e., poopie, poop, poo poo, etc.). [...]

Insert jocular title involving Twitter Apps here

This morning I spent the better part of an hour combing over the Twitter Apps on the Twitter Fan Wiki site. (You’ve heard of Twitter but aren’t really sure what it is? Here’s a nice introduction to Twitter by @kenleyneufeld or if you’re sick of reading, watch this video: Twitter in Plain English.) Anyways. I thought I’d share a few apps that I found particularly interesting or useful. [...]

Vanna White killed the waterpik

A thought occurred to me as I was showering this morning. Remember in the 80s when Vanna White said to open your mouth in the shower and let the spray work like a water pick? I’ve never done that but it got me thinking, What ever happened to the water pick? And more importantly, Did Vanna White’s offhanded, seemingly benign comment  kill the waterpik?

I tried to research the exact source of the quote. Apparently, she wrote it in her book. A quick author search on Amazon.com revealed that Vanna White has authored eighteen books—eighteen! [...]

Christmas-cardless-Christmases

It’s December 18 and, thus far, I have only received two Christmas cards. One card is from my grandmother.  She never misses a year. Deeply religious, her cards always contain a hand written reminder of the true reason for the season, “May the joy of the season be yours as you celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ our Saviour.” (She’s Canadian so she adds extra u’s in some words).  And the other is a truly awesome family portrait photo card from my friends—complete with two cats and a dog. Oh yeah, they’re also newlyweds. [...]

Merry-go-round my roundabout

Today I’d like to talk about the singlemost terrifying piece of infrastructure facing Fresno’s drivers to date: traffic cirlces. Do I go? Do I stop? Wait? Merge? OMG! My research uncovered the term traffic circle is actually incorrect. Wikipedia reports, “In the United States it is technically called a modern roundabout, to emphasize the distinction from the older, larger type of traffic circle.”

I’ve got two things to say about this
First, how funny is it that the US actually rebranded the traffic circle by renaming it a modern roundabout? Isn’t that a nice, fun word to say? Modern roundabout. Like child’s play on a merry-go-round. (Extra fun to say if you’re Canadian, don’t you know?) [...]

Thongs—or what’s between your toes

They were cheap, they were easy, they were thongs.
Those lovely thin, rubber-soled, open-toed sandals. Their pungent scent could get your high, or at least leave you with a terrific headache. Thongs were a summer must for this Fresno girl. Twenty-five years later and not much has changed. The California trend of wearing thongs almost year-round isn’t going anywhere. But say the word “thong” and anyone under the age of thirty within earshot will do a double take.

“Gross! They’re called flip-flops!”
Oh really? When exactly did thongs become flip-flops and panties become thongs? Apparently, it was long after the word thong had been imprinted in my brain as referring to open-toed sandals—or the 90s. [...]