Seven Minute Sopranos

Here's a recap, before the final half-season begins:

fun with animals

This past weekend, we participated in two of our favorite pastimes: shopping and the Discovery Channel. We got some great deals through my work discount and spent much of our weekend at the store. In our downtime, we watched some Discovery Channel. Isaac has a sampler of Discovery Channel DVDS, and at first, I wasn't really interested in watching, but after about 2 minutes, I was hooked. In "The Deadliest Catch", which was actually made into a series on Discovery Channel, we witnessed the difficulties of snow crab fishing, an occupation which has been termed "The Deadliest Job In the World" because of the many dangers of fishing in the Arctic Ocean. I actually experienced a little phantom seasickness while watching the fishermen run around on the boat as it was tossed around 30 foot waves. It's crazy to see what fishermen have to endure so that I can enjoy a nice meaty crab claw.

Later, we watched "Living With Wolves" (watch the video clip!), a documentary about two filmmakers who spent 6 years living in Idaho with a pack of wolves. It's actually pretty captivating, except for the storyline about their romance. I could have done without that. But the wolves are interesting and cute, even, and you get to see their personalities and a little bit about wolf society. It was fascinating.

Watching the intimate lives of wolves awakened my usually dormant interest in animals and I ended up perusing Wikipedia to learn more about various animals. I learned some random things. For instance, did you know that a group of tigers is called a streak? Or that hyenas eat their prey alive? Or that a single well-placed kick from a giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or spine? Or that zebra's stripes act as camouflage from lions who are colorblind? Well, maybe you knew, but I had no idea. It was a feast of information for me. So just now, I checked the TV schedule for tonight, and while there are no animal specials on, National Geographic is airing "In the Womb: Multiples" at 9pm tonight. I saw a commercial for this a while back, but forgot about it. Fortunately, National Geographic is airing repeats, so if you're at all interested, you can catch the showing tonight or next Sunday.

wherein "The Hills" causes me to think about life

I've been watching "The Hills" lately, and it's brought a question to mind..

How important is it to be honest in your friendships?

In the show, Heidi is seriously involved with a guy (Spencer) who is, in the words of her best friend LC, "a sucky, sucky person". He's tried to hook up with another one of their friends and various other girls at clubs while dating Heidi, but she insists that he loves her. Since LC has shared her distaste for Spencer, her friendship with Heidi has suffered greatly.

So..what if you think your best friend's significant other is a total ***[insert your derogatory descriptor of choice]***? If they were having a problem with the SO and asked your opinion, would you tell him or her in the interest of total honesty and to try to open their eyes? Or would you just keep your opinion to yourself?

If you tell your friend your honest opinion, then..

// if they end up together in the long run despite the fact that the S.O. is a *****, your already stated opinion could cause a rift in the friendship

// if they break up, you helped your friend out of a bad relationship, but you're a little bit at fault for the demise of the relationship, right?

// not necessarily exclusive from the other two scenarios above..your friend is hurt and offended and cuts off communication with you..basically, you damage the friendship - and it's possibly irreparable.


If you don't tell your friend...

// if they end up together in the long run, then you may regret never sharing your opinion at a point when it could have made a difference

// your friendship is not as open and honest as the other person thinks it is..so there is some imbalance there

// you will have to bite your tongue forever everytime the ****** S.O. hurts your friend


what's the best course of action here? what would you do?

**note: i'm not actually in this situation..but i thought it was an interesting dilemma

other questions: how honest are you with friends who have been known to receive critical opinions badly?

happy PI day!

hey guys,

check it out! bloomingdales updated their website!~!

it's SOOOOOO cools, y'all!!!!

*edited to add..

original design:


updated design:

A thousand words

I've begun to have a growing appreciation for Helvetica these past few months...

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Perfect. (If that sentence rendered as Arial for you, shame shame)

My slight obsession with typography, and Helvetica in particular stems from 3 things:
1. Learning to draw text
2. Going to Switzerland last year for a day
3. Reading The Scourge of Arial. A most interesting read.

Basically, the idea is that Arial is a cheap bastardized knock-off of the perfection that is Helvetica. Stop using it. Hey, wake up! Stop using it.
If you're interested, take the quiz and play the game. There is a slight problem, however, and that is that Helvetica is not free. The price you pay for beauty...


One more thing. I'm lucky to post this entry on the same day that the Helvetica movie premieres at SXSW.

Yes, I'm serious..

..and I want to see it.

..Is it me, or is the entire Internet in (central?) Texas right now?

+1 Austin

Casimir Pulaski Day

Today is Casimir Pulaski Day.
Illinois schoolchildren rejoice.

+1 Chicago