James's blog

Funny you should ask. Six years ago today, we were starting to ask the very same thing of you: it was your very first day, outside, breathing air, seeing the world. It’s overwhelming to think of it now, almost as much as it was at the time. Your very first day, with your whole life in front of you.

And there you were, just a few hours old, already a great sleeper. One of your best attributes, really.

Way back in the day, as a young undergrad in the English dept, there was a common misconception that essays were really just opinions, and you couldn’t be graded on your opinion, now could you? Until one professor came out and reminded us that not all opinions are created equal: those backed up by some actual evidence, of course, are going to carry more weight than those that riff off “I like this poem because it reminds me of my dog…”¹, and in fact your writing would be stronger the smaller and tigher its focus: think globally, write locally. Your opinion may even be “right”, in some grand scheme of things, but finding ways to essentially repeat “Shakespeare was a genius” for ten pages isn’t nearly as interesting or useful as, say, discussing the ramifications of the Duke’s presence on stage during Act II, scene iii, if indeed the stage directions suggest he is, even if he has no dialog, given what he says later.

Anyways. I don’t pretend to be an expert on much, which is why, chances are, if you’re reading this, I’ve been reading you this past year, to learn a few things. (And dammit, you’re all keeping me from the stack of books I’m supposed to be reading. You’re just too interesting.) So going into 2012, here are just a few of the writings I’ve found particularly useful this past year, because they had the evidence beyond the usual “Open! Closed! Awesome! Crappy!”…

Sasha Lucy, often referred to as “the 3YO” on Twitter and in polite conversation, will henceforth be referred to as “the 4YO”.

Noah’s five years old. She’s played with Apple touch devices almost as long as she could hold a spoon. Her favourite movie at the moment is the utterly enchanting Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, from Moonbot Studios. Moonbot’s founder, William Joyce, worked at Pixar, among other places. Morris Lessmore is also a storybook app, which, may I just say, I have showed her exactly nothing about: its user-friendliness is spot on, and she discovered everything in it herself, and delights in showing her little sister.

So for you, William Joyce and everyone at Moonbot, my thanks.

Here I sit, sending myself mail;
I pray you, Outlook, please don't fail;
You have no margin, your padding, weak;
I just want a border, am *I* the freak?

The size is wrong, that's much too large;
The CD'll say it looks like a barge;
The leading's off, but that's okay;
You've spited me enough today.

That's supposed to be centered, you piece of crap;
No, that should have been inside the wrap!
There's extra space, I mean, what the fuck?
Never mind the links, I'm out of luck.

I curse you, forever, Office 2007!
Even Yahoo mail is looking like heaven,

But the realgreater¹ test for RIM will come early next year, when the company launches the first of its brand new mobile devices powered by the QNX operating system. RIM will eventually move all its high-end devices to the new operating system, and much of the company’s future rests on whether its QNX phones can close the gap with the market leaders, Apple’s iPhone and a slew of phones powered by Google’s Android operating system.
— Omar Akkad, The Globe and Mail

I don't pretend to be a genius at marketing; I don't even pretend to be an "amateur". I remember a few things from Marketing 101 in the last year of design school, one of which was reiterated from first year Creative Process, second year Design Process, and frankly a whole undergrad degree in English Literature, and that is this: you may make it, but you don't control it. You make art, it goes out into the world, and people are free to interpret it as they wish. Your brand is not your logo, but a collection of beliefs, impressions, values, thoughts, and expectations around your logo, your product, your organization. You can't control what people think, now or in the future.

This is your first day of kindergarten, and I can't quite figure out how we got here. I can barely lift you now, but you used to weigh nothing, and I could rock you all night. You were lighter than some of the books I read, back when I still read.

This is the day we brought you home.

Based on a Twitterlogue with mantia, I hereby present the ultimate Star Wars conundrum solution.

For each of the four versions of the Original Trilogy (original releases, late 90s Special Edition, original DVD, and now BluRay), there should be a checklist with each alteration, and a price, and you could compile your own, customized version of each film to suit your exact tastes and political/aesthetic/cultural/parenting ideology.