Ideapad

Blogging since 1998. By David Wertheimer

Month: January 2003 (Page 1 of 3)

Downtime

January 30, 2003 /

I generally tire of the entries on my site 10 days or so after they’re posted. More recent entries entertain me, both the linked content and whatever it is I’ve written in conjunction to them (or the expository mini-essays I write).

I read this page today and didn’t like what I saw. It wasn’t fun; it wasn’t entertaining; it wasn’t what I normally expect of myself. The entries that were here have been shuttled prematurely to the archives, preserved for posterity but no longer prominent and awaiting digestion.

The past few months I have had a lot to share but not a lot to say, which I discovered recently and have felt even more since. This site may benefit from a links area, like all the kids are doing these days, but that would leave me with very little to write at all.

A wet or messy dog shakes its entire body down, from head to tail, to rid its exterior of whatever is polluting it. Right now I need something like that for my sentence composition.

Pardon me while I clear my head. I’ll be back before the winter’s out.

Why my desk is cluttered

January 27, 2003 /

Boxes and Arrows: Printing the Web. “Computers are good for storing information, but generally bad for using it. Research shows that difficulty in reading from a computer screen stems from poor resolution: compared to paper, monitors—even of the highest quality—offer only low-resolution reading.”

Creator’s block

January 23, 2003 /

The Ideapad has been filled with links and news rather than essays lately. There’s a reason for that.

For an assortment of reasons, I’m prsently tapped out. Creatively, that is. Creativity ebbs and flows, and I am in an ebb.

Many factors are obvious: I am in business school, which soaks up much of my time and thought; my days have been overtaken by personal issues (fiancee, dog, apartment construction, furniture, finances, to name a few); I have recently quieted down my involvement in several online communities.

Yet something greater is at work. I am losing interest in many of the weblogs and sites that I visit on the Web. I’m two weeks late in submitting my next Digital Web column, which may not get written at all, if this pace continues. I have composed just three original expository pieces for the journal since October.

The workaday events of my daily life are vibrant and exciting this winter. Business school in particular has invigorated dormant recesses of my brain. What I need next is a spark to reignite my creative half, something to arouse the dynamism that propelled my design and written work the past few years.

You’ll know when I find it. Stick around.

Indeed

January 22, 2003 /

Amy is in Los Angeles working on a television commercial. During the shoot last week, she was approached on the set by a teamster, who took note of her engagement ring.

“It’s beautiful,” he said admiringly.

“Thank you,” she replied. “My fiance picked it out.”

“He must really mean it!”

Sanity reigns

January 22, 2003 /

The fat kids’ lawsuit against McDonald’s, which tried to blame the fast-food chain for its consumers’ lack of responsibility and intelligence, was wisely dismissed by a U.S. district judge today. “If consumers know … the potential ill health effect of eating at McDonald’s,” the judge said, “they cannot blame McDonald’s if they, nonetheless, choose to satiate their appetite with a surfeit of supersized McDonald’s products.” Thank goodness.

Flip

January 22, 2003 /

Minor Ideapad alteration today: the date/posted-to line of an item, previously beneath the headline, has relocated to the end of the body text.

Astute readers of this page (hi, Mom) will notice a slight stylistic change today: The date/posted-to line of each entry on the index page, previously beneath the headline, has relocated to the end of the item.

Why? Two reasons:

1. Editorially, the date was getting in the way of the reading of an item. I disliked the interruption between headline and body text when leading into a link or a brief item. The date is less relevant than the previous layout said it was.

2. Visually, the datestamp provides a footer to an item, making a clean break before the next one and allowing me to lessen the whitespace between entries.

If my hunch is correct, reading items will be easier and the text will pack a little more punch. (No promises on lessening the use of cliches.)

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