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I began this post a few weeks ago, but it took a while for me to finish it. I guess I wasn’t ready. I’m still not. _______________________________ There are good days, there are bad days, and then there was today. This morning around 4:00 am, Wally the Poodle lay down on the floor next to my husband and died. I received the message from 1500 miles away. _______________________________ We didn’t know much about this strange looking animal when he came to live with Bill and me almost five years ago. I’d been toying with the idea of getting a dog but was terrified of taking care of another living creature ever since the great turtle debacle of 2003. A friend encouraged me to check out a rescue group, so I went online, and that’s where I met the love of my life—a stinky little poodle named Wally. Wally had been removed from a trailer where he lived confined to a 10′ x 10′ room with 27 other dogs for years. They had never been groomed or cared for. Some dogs’ toenails had never been trimmed and were so long that they curled under their paws and grew into the bottoms…
Read MoreTwo nights before BlogathonATX, I had a dream that I was tied to a tower while hundreds of vultures circled around me. They seemed to think I was dead, so one landed nearby and started making its way toward me. I struggled to move so he’d know I wasn’t dead, but apparently I wasn’t just tied up—I was paralyzed too… How’s that for an anxiety dream?
Read MoreI’m fairly certain this needs no explanation. This travesty was brought to my attention by Phil West of Luminaria Media & Public Relations, via Roy Bragg.
Read MoreThis evil squirrel finally gets his due. Mwah-ha-ha… 🙂 , If you can’t view the video above, check out this kamikaze squirrel on YouTube.
Read MoreHello and welcome to this week’s special edition of “WTF Wednesday.” What a treat we have for you today! As the saying goes, “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.” One of the many charms of this great state is how polite folks can be—even when they’re insulting you to your face. It is in this spirit that I present to you a new feature we like to call, “Well, Bless Your Heart.” And what better way to kick off this inaugural edition than with our favorite state symbol: the Redneck. Enjoy! The sign below is a nice example of descriptive, clear messaging without a lot of extraneous details. (They really mean it when they say “General” Store.) The following photo was taken by my friend, Jen Cunningham. She’s an artist who really appreciates good design. The next image is a brilliant example of reverse psychology. For years, political strategists will attempt to emulate this man’s tactics: Here’s a submission from one of my favorite contributors, David Ingram, proving yet again that “Necessity is the mentally-unstable father of invention.” So that’s all for this week’s special edition of “WTF Wednesday.” Bless your heart!
Read MoreThey say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is a good thing, because I forgot to write today’s post. So, without further ado, I give you “Wordless WTF Wednesday.” Sometimes there really are no words…
Read MoreOkay folks, this one’s going to annoy some of you… You must stop double spacing after periods. Period. The practice of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence is a throwback to the days of the typewriter. For those of you born after 1975, this is a typewriter: Most of us over a certain age were taught to type before the days of computers. Back then there wasn’t an easy way to adjust spacing between letters, and every letter had the same amount of space on either side. For example, the letter w would have the same spacing as the letter i, which is wack. This is referred to as monospaced type. The extra space at the end of a sentence was used to visually signal a pause. Most of today’s typefaces are designed with each letter’s spacing proportional to its shape. Therefore, that extra space after a sentence is not only unnecessary—it’s kinda fugly as well. Case in point: Courier is a monospaced typeface. These extra spaces are particularly evident when you’re reading a paragraph or more. Once you become aware of it, you’ll start seeing them everywhere. Sentence after sentence of double spacing will stand out…
Read MoreHowdy folks. I’m writing this post while on a drive back from Houston, Texas—the Dutch oven of our fair state. Don’t worry, I’m not actually doing the driving. I leave that up to Mr. Weenie and Wally the Poodle (whose foot keeps hitting the space bar). As I stare off across picturesque fields of grazing cattle and mattress factories, I’m reminded of a common design practice which dictates that “less is more”—a practice completely disregarded by most advertisers from Katy to La Grange. Let’s face it, everything’s bigger in Texas—trucks, hair, presidential libraries—and typography is no exception. Now, far be it for me to argue with one of the all-time greatest design tips I ever received: “When in doubt, make it big. If still in doubt, make it big and red.” I try to honor this tradition as much as possible, but I think an argument could be made that Texans tend to take this a bit far. Take, for instance, a sign advertising ZDT’s Amusement Park: Correct me if I’m wrong, but if an advertiser has but a few seconds to get his or her message across as I go speeding down the highway at 70mph, wouldn’t it make…
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