xarkGirl

Design: Print, eewww.

As some of you know, I was recently kicked down to do layout and design on 1A (a night-time shift I had, oh, 20 years ago) at my newspaper job. For legal reasons, I won't detail my feelings about that ... as yet. But I will say this. Designing for newsprint sucks. 

What is crisp and clean, eye-popping and saturated on a computer screen is mushy and sedate on paper that soaks up ink like a ShamWow.

Oh, to reach the days of designing for the Web. Three classes down, three to go.

Confessions of an infovore

The laptop might be the single greatest invention of all time outside of dishwashers and ceramic hair straighteners.

I have moved out to my porch these days, armed with a beverage of choice, glasses (yes, I'm on that side of 40) and a stout Dell to read, post, enjoy the breeze and read some more. I have to tell you that few things are as disappointing as reaching the end of my GoogleReader.

More importantly, I am successfully avoiding the pile of clothes that gets moved from floor to bed to floor again in a daily routine. The dishwasher that may or may not be full of clean dishes. The sink that is full of definitely not clean items awaiting that bit of reconnaissance. I won't detail the bathroom, as it could risk an impromptu visit from the health department.

I hate housework and its meaningless, repetitive, never-get-aheadness. I will never match my mother's ability to maintain a house that would be ready at a moment's notice for a Southern Living photo shoot. I care enough about that only for sporadic guilt, not real action.

I, instead, console myself that I have Other Interests that some day will pay off with fame, fortune and the ability to hire someone with better skills than I.

Back me up, brothers and sisters.

Racism, irrelevance and the lizard brain

So the campaign has gotten ugly, with a shift to attacks and answering cries of racism. We're really not surprised, are we?  McCain announced as much last week.It's not as if the Rev. Wright furor didn't turn the conversation to black-on-white racism.

The talk in the blogosphere has gotten more belligerent and the behavior of a few has turn hateful in meatspace. (It is a few, too, that feel free to be so blatant. For perspective, the Clearwater, Fla., Palin rally that erupted in violence was about 3,000 people. By contrast, Obama has been drawing crowds many times that.)

I say, bring it on.

Racism in this country -- in all its permutations -- is a stain on the underside of the sofa cushion. We know it's there and we make sure it's hidden when company comes. However painful in the short term, we must acknowledge that we have not yet overcome. We have not reached the day when we judge solely on the content of character.