I think I have a new favorite font. As many people know, I refuse to work with Times New Roman. I find it… unattractive. The shapes are common. It doesn’t speak to me. It doesn’t reveal my inner self. Instead, I work in Palatino. Sometimes its close cousin Book Antiqua, but I’ve gotten so thatContinue reading “On a New Favorite Font”
Monthly Archives: December 2008
On the End of America
Here’s a cheery Christmas present for us all.A Russian professor predicts that the United States has eighteen months of life left to it. “There’s a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,” [Igor Panarin]. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario —Continue reading “On the End of America”
On Light Rail Travails
Some days, I think the universe is conspiring against me. It doesn’t want me to get to work. Or to get home. This was one of those days. The light rail is powered by a distributed electrical grid. Sometimes, when it’s rainy, you can hear the sparking of the contact against the high-voltage wires. AndContinue reading “On Light Rail Travails”
On Watchmen Merchandise
So. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel Watchmen is about to hit theaters in an adaptation directed by 300‘s Zach Snyder. The trailer for it was fantastic. It had the right look. It had the right feel. Every new poster I see, and I get a little more excited. Moore has said at lengthContinue reading “On Watchmen Merchandise”
On Things I’ve Been Reading
Phonogram: The Singles Club #1 Image Comics Written by Kieran Gillen Art by Jamie McKelvie & Others A year and a half ago Image Comics published an interesting six-issue series entitled Phonogram. The story of David Kohl, a phonomancer (that is, a magician that works through music), Phonogram could perhaps be best described as HellblazerContinue reading “On Things I’ve Been Reading”
On Ghost Towns
The office was a ghost town. Tumbleweeds could be seen rolling through the cubicle maze. Somewhere in the distance, a harmonica twittered. How much of the building was closed today? I couldn’t begin to guess. A good two-thirds of the company seemed to be gone today. The parking lot was deserted. People were getting doneContinue reading “On Ghost Towns”
On Watching British Television
So, while viewers on the other side of the pond are watching The Next Doctor (that being the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special for those of you who don’t keep up with all things Whovian), I have Blackadder to watch. I need to watch Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, obviously, but then I think I’ll watch someContinue reading “On Watching British Television”
On Apollo 8
Forty years ago today, Apollo 8 orbited the moon. It was the first time that a manned spacecraft entered orbit around another celestial body. Her crew — Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders — were the first humans to witness an earthrise across the lunar horizon, and they took a famous photograph of theContinue reading “On Apollo 8”
On Christmas Traditions
My friend Todd has recently been on a Christmas Carol watch-a-thon. He wanted suggestions, and last night I said, “Surely you’re watching Blackadder’s Christmas Carol; I watch it every year on Christmas Day.” It hadn’t occurred to him, to watch, not the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge, but the corruption of Ebenezer Blackadder. Hopefully, it’s inContinue reading “On Christmas Traditions”
On Typos and Fonts
I don’t have a font problem. I’m not an addict. I can quit them any time. So why is it that when I’m writing about Ariel, the Little Mermaid, for work, I keep typing “Arial”? By the way, has anyone tried Minute Maid’s Orangeade? This stuff is really quite good. My throat feels all scratchy-like,Continue reading “On Typos and Fonts”