...because fonts are important.
a good font has a few requirements:
first off, it should be elegant, but not noticeable, the characters should help your eyes flow one into the next... a few fonts i really like are the standards: Times, Arial, Arial Narrow Bold, Cochin and Euphemia UCAS (but only when used with smaller fonts, otherwise it's overbearing)
one of the ones i hate the most though (no, i'm not a ComicSans hater) is calibri, why in the love of all that is intellectual and easy to read would the new MS Word DEFAULT to calibri?!?!
also, sometimes, i'll pick up a book at the library, completely written in point 8 size with this terrible out-dated font that is next to impossible to read... after a page or three you're ready to burn the book and accept the fine from the library!!! the closest thing i can find to it online is called JSL Ancient. not a terrible font, but in 8 point and for 3 hours of research... it gets bad. so, if you have a favorite font or a most hated font (other than ComicSans, u're not allowed to complain about that one on here) just post a comment!!!
oh, and i found a really great blog here!
so there you have it, with the aid of that blog, and whatever ideas i might have implanted in that wonderful brain of yours, you might be able to become a bit more picky on your fonts :D
16 December 2009
06 December 2009
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and The Cost of Discipleship
ok, i picked this book up becuase i've already read about half of it from hand-outs in my ethics class... the there's an issue, the forward, memoirs and intro combine into a huge unit... the memoirs are written by a friend of Bonhoeffer's because this man never reached a ripe old age, he was put to death in Germany by the Nazis at 39 years old. he was killed, without trial, for 2 things: potting to assassinate Adolf Hitler and for teaching things that were contrary to the Nazi Regime's 'Church'...
i'm thoroughly loving this book, but there's one thing wrong: the forwards and intro and such are too long, they begin to get into Bonhoeffer's ideas before the compilation in the book is offered, but you can't get into Bonhoeffer's ideas without understanding why he's writing and the desperate state of Germany, German Christians, and the underground Lutherans that Bonhoeffer was a part of.
One of the ideas central to Bonhoeffer is the church as a community... some people would interpret this as "the church as a social institution" but that's not quite what he means... he means Christians, living together, doing things in Christ-like ways, in order to better the world, and these people work with each other, they seek forgiveness from one another and they offer grace, not excuses, to those around them, in order that the Body of Christ might look more like the historical Jesus and his teachings.
neat concept, huh? i'll rather enjoy this book this break.
i'm thoroughly loving this book, but there's one thing wrong: the forwards and intro and such are too long, they begin to get into Bonhoeffer's ideas before the compilation in the book is offered, but you can't get into Bonhoeffer's ideas without understanding why he's writing and the desperate state of Germany, German Christians, and the underground Lutherans that Bonhoeffer was a part of.
One of the ideas central to Bonhoeffer is the church as a community... some people would interpret this as "the church as a social institution" but that's not quite what he means... he means Christians, living together, doing things in Christ-like ways, in order to better the world, and these people work with each other, they seek forgiveness from one another and they offer grace, not excuses, to those around them, in order that the Body of Christ might look more like the historical Jesus and his teachings.
neat concept, huh? i'll rather enjoy this book this break.
03 December 2009
and now for something exciting
every once in a while, something amazing happens, but u might be the only one to realize how amazing it is.
ok, shortly after i started this crazy blog, i added Google Analytics. pretty much what it does is it tracks who looks at ero cogniteram sub arbore... it's kind of like a, 'i like to watch who's watching me' javascript, but less creepy (honest, a bunch less creepies). well, as i was compulsively checking my analytics account, i realized something, not only have i been getting hits in the US from states where i have advertised (to friends, mostly... [VA, TN, GA, etc]) but i'm also getting hits from places i haven't advertised (CA, NY...) but i got one from TX (i know who u are, and thanks bro)... but then i started to realized, there's about 8 hits not recorded within the US... so i began to ponder
and ponder
and ponder... then EURIKA!!! there's going to be a few from the islands (Far Eastern ones... thank you, btw, u're great)... so i looked those up and realized there's still a discrepancy... there's this one hit still floating around, wanting to be found by the oh so excited me!!! and there she is (the blog hit, not the viewer, i have no idea of the gender of said viewer), from across the pond, London, England, the place, u know, double decker buses, awesome accents, Big Ben, a real, live, Queen... someone had viewed my blog. quite amazing, so, mostly this post was to brag and to gloat, but it's something really small that most people might think isn't as significant as i have made it out to be, but, i would like for them to know one thing
so what. i am happy :D
ok, shortly after i started this crazy blog, i added Google Analytics. pretty much what it does is it tracks who looks at ero cogniteram sub arbore... it's kind of like a, 'i like to watch who's watching me' javascript, but less creepy (honest, a bunch less creepies). well, as i was compulsively checking my analytics account, i realized something, not only have i been getting hits in the US from states where i have advertised (to friends, mostly... [VA, TN, GA, etc]) but i'm also getting hits from places i haven't advertised (CA, NY...) but i got one from TX (i know who u are, and thanks bro)... but then i started to realized, there's about 8 hits not recorded within the US... so i began to ponder
and ponder
and ponder... then EURIKA!!! there's going to be a few from the islands (Far Eastern ones... thank you, btw, u're great)... so i looked those up and realized there's still a discrepancy... there's this one hit still floating around, wanting to be found by the oh so excited me!!! and there she is (the blog hit, not the viewer, i have no idea of the gender of said viewer), from across the pond, London, England, the place, u know, double decker buses, awesome accents, Big Ben, a real, live, Queen... someone had viewed my blog. quite amazing, so, mostly this post was to brag and to gloat, but it's something really small that most people might think isn't as significant as i have made it out to be, but, i would like for them to know one thing
so what. i am happy :D
01 December 2009
and now for a manly post
(advertiser's voice): Do you get cold on a winter's day?! Do you wonder how Daniel keeps up that stylish summer appearance all year round?! GREAT! He's prepared to tell you the secret to his success for only 15 easy payments of 19,99.99!
(normal voice): ok, seriously, i promised manliness, here's manliness... how to not get cold...
when u go outside, dress however you want, but remember a few key things: the first is the most important, it's a simple question of preparation that leads to a reformed state of mind: "Am I going to die if I leave like this?" if you ask this question when leaving your house and u realize that, "Yes, I might die..." put on more clothes or get a glock... but if your answer to this very simple question is "No, that would be absurd..." then you will be fine, maybe cold for a little while, but fine, now, this is the hard one, if the answer is "Well, probably not..." you need to think about how long you will be outside and whether or not you could find a way to generate body heat in an emergency... if you realize that, yes, i can survive, then u're fine, but if u question your abilities, grab a sweater.
so, that's rule one, 'Are you going to die?' rule two is much more difficult. when walking, do things to conserve heat and generate more usable heat... how this tends to look is: you don't shiver (mostly, shivering is useless... your jaw shaking does very little to actually warm u up), second, tuck them elbows in... leaving this huge gap between your arms and body just lets the blood in them get cold... hands in pockets help too :) and thirdly... keep your back or side to the wind, it really helps, i'm not sure why...
and finally, suck it up, u're a man, aren't u?!?!? your body will start to get more used to the cold and u'll actually get much better at not being cold :)
now, go, enjoy, and take off that coat!
(normal voice): ok, seriously, i promised manliness, here's manliness... how to not get cold...
when u go outside, dress however you want, but remember a few key things: the first is the most important, it's a simple question of preparation that leads to a reformed state of mind: "Am I going to die if I leave like this?" if you ask this question when leaving your house and u realize that, "Yes, I might die..." put on more clothes or get a glock... but if your answer to this very simple question is "No, that would be absurd..." then you will be fine, maybe cold for a little while, but fine, now, this is the hard one, if the answer is "Well, probably not..." you need to think about how long you will be outside and whether or not you could find a way to generate body heat in an emergency... if you realize that, yes, i can survive, then u're fine, but if u question your abilities, grab a sweater.
so, that's rule one, 'Are you going to die?' rule two is much more difficult. when walking, do things to conserve heat and generate more usable heat... how this tends to look is: you don't shiver (mostly, shivering is useless... your jaw shaking does very little to actually warm u up), second, tuck them elbows in... leaving this huge gap between your arms and body just lets the blood in them get cold... hands in pockets help too :) and thirdly... keep your back or side to the wind, it really helps, i'm not sure why...
and finally, suck it up, u're a man, aren't u?!?!? your body will start to get more used to the cold and u'll actually get much better at not being cold :)
now, go, enjoy, and take off that coat!
30 November 2009
Cleveland Sunshine
ok, i figured this would be a really easy post until i realized it only makes sense to me... so, in cleveland, TN, where i often stay... it rains a lot... i mean, very often, sometimes quite a bit of rain, but most of the time it drizzles until u just get sick of it...
well... u know how when it's sunny u can feel it but not feel it? like, the sun is warming me, and when i step into shade, my skin is still a lot warmer than if it was in darkness... it's the type of sunshine that sticks to your skin and clothes and what not? well, i was thinking about that type of sunshine one day while walking across campus in drizzle-y nasty weather... and i realized... this drizzle is cleveland sunshine... it's what normally happens, it's only cold on your skin and it's more annoying than anything else.
so, i often refer to drizzle as cleveland sunshine, but, because i think of it like that so often... i started thinking about rainy days as 'sunny' days... i feel like it might be why i'm so happy in cleveland, even when it's 'sunny' for weeks on end... *ponders psychology*
oh, and yeah, i failed on the whole, 'more manly' post... i'll try again soon. *punches wall, eats bacon and shouts loudly* HA!
well... u know how when it's sunny u can feel it but not feel it? like, the sun is warming me, and when i step into shade, my skin is still a lot warmer than if it was in darkness... it's the type of sunshine that sticks to your skin and clothes and what not? well, i was thinking about that type of sunshine one day while walking across campus in drizzle-y nasty weather... and i realized... this drizzle is cleveland sunshine... it's what normally happens, it's only cold on your skin and it's more annoying than anything else.
so, i often refer to drizzle as cleveland sunshine, but, because i think of it like that so often... i started thinking about rainy days as 'sunny' days... i feel like it might be why i'm so happy in cleveland, even when it's 'sunny' for weeks on end... *ponders psychology*
oh, and yeah, i failed on the whole, 'more manly' post... i'll try again soon. *punches wall, eats bacon and shouts loudly* HA!
29 November 2009
honor
last night, as i lie awake in bed, early, cause i ended up driving 13 hrs today, i starting thinking through books i've read...
well, in one of them, called The Edge on the Sword, a story is related that really inspires me... first off, there's a girl in this story, she's pretty cool, but there's a person who's far cooler, he's a man sent to protect her by her king father... this man, i've forgotten his name, but his story is roughly still implanted in my head:
well, he wears these pieces of rough, plain metal around his neck and wrists, and once the main character figures out that they're slave irons, she freaks out... she's pissed, she goes to her dad and demands an answer, and this is how he explains it (according to my memory, go read the book)... this man was once a soldier, lead a company of men... well, his land was attacked by the Danes (Saxons? someone in england...) and they were surrounded... they had captured the town, but not the last fortified area... this is where the man was fighting, slowly, they picked off his men, or his men deserted, etc... because they were pansies... so they bring this man's wife to him and explain that she's been captured and is a slave, and if he just gives up, they both can have their freedom, but he refuses, he swore an oath to protect his king, so he fights... weeks and months go by and, finally, to get this man to just give up, they bring his king, in shackles, to him to explain that, truly, the land has been lost... and in punishment for him not just giving up earlier, they kill his wife and kids in front of him, make him a slave, and send him so far into the country that he can never escape, and that's where the main character's dad, the king, rescues him from, by buying him from slavery and making him a tutor and protector of his daughter... so, later, this girl asks her protector why he wears the irons still... and he explains that his wife and children will always be free in death, but he will always be bound to his honor, the one thing he can never give up and still call himself a man... he says he's going to do something, he does it...
awesome guy, i really like him... go read the book, it's kind of a girly tween book, but the writer of it did some serious historical research and it's really good, honest...
(the next post definitely needs to be more manly than referencing The Edge on the Sword...)
well, in one of them, called The Edge on the Sword, a story is related that really inspires me... first off, there's a girl in this story, she's pretty cool, but there's a person who's far cooler, he's a man sent to protect her by her king father... this man, i've forgotten his name, but his story is roughly still implanted in my head:
well, he wears these pieces of rough, plain metal around his neck and wrists, and once the main character figures out that they're slave irons, she freaks out... she's pissed, she goes to her dad and demands an answer, and this is how he explains it (according to my memory, go read the book)... this man was once a soldier, lead a company of men... well, his land was attacked by the Danes (Saxons? someone in england...) and they were surrounded... they had captured the town, but not the last fortified area... this is where the man was fighting, slowly, they picked off his men, or his men deserted, etc... because they were pansies... so they bring this man's wife to him and explain that she's been captured and is a slave, and if he just gives up, they both can have their freedom, but he refuses, he swore an oath to protect his king, so he fights... weeks and months go by and, finally, to get this man to just give up, they bring his king, in shackles, to him to explain that, truly, the land has been lost... and in punishment for him not just giving up earlier, they kill his wife and kids in front of him, make him a slave, and send him so far into the country that he can never escape, and that's where the main character's dad, the king, rescues him from, by buying him from slavery and making him a tutor and protector of his daughter... so, later, this girl asks her protector why he wears the irons still... and he explains that his wife and children will always be free in death, but he will always be bound to his honor, the one thing he can never give up and still call himself a man... he says he's going to do something, he does it...
awesome guy, i really like him... go read the book, it's kind of a girly tween book, but the writer of it did some serious historical research and it's really good, honest...
(the next post definitely needs to be more manly than referencing The Edge on the Sword...)
27 November 2009
so i opened this box and hoped to be able to quickly write a blog post... but as i sit here, so many ideas are being muffled out by a lack of ideas... i start something, write a line, then get distracted...
so, as i think about my conversations over the past few days, and i look around my house, i think about one of the peculiarities of the english language - we/our/us
simple huh? first person plural... the problem is this, english, and most western languages actually, don't have a way to specify we inclusive from we exclusive, sometimes, i will be talking and i will say something like 'we're going to go eat' and i mean, the group of people i'm with, myself and the person to whom i'm talking to... other times, i will say something and mean to exclude someone 'we're just stupid i guess' and, sometimes, i don't mean to include my audience...
so, because of this ambiguity, i'm often tempted to write some sort of poem or prose that could easily be interpreted several ways, based on first person inclusives and exclusives, but what keeps frustrating me is that there's no way to clue an english speaker in to thinking like this. they simply assume that if they want to be included, we is inclusive, and if they want to be excluded, we is exclusive... so... next time you hear the first person plural being utilized, think about whether or not it is inclusive or exclusive and chuckle, for you are no longer thinking in the same manner that a native english speaker is.
so, as i think about my conversations over the past few days, and i look around my house, i think about one of the peculiarities of the english language - we/our/us
simple huh? first person plural... the problem is this, english, and most western languages actually, don't have a way to specify we inclusive from we exclusive, sometimes, i will be talking and i will say something like 'we're going to go eat' and i mean, the group of people i'm with, myself and the person to whom i'm talking to... other times, i will say something and mean to exclude someone 'we're just stupid i guess' and, sometimes, i don't mean to include my audience...
so, because of this ambiguity, i'm often tempted to write some sort of poem or prose that could easily be interpreted several ways, based on first person inclusives and exclusives, but what keeps frustrating me is that there's no way to clue an english speaker in to thinking like this. they simply assume that if they want to be included, we is inclusive, and if they want to be excluded, we is exclusive... so... next time you hear the first person plural being utilized, think about whether or not it is inclusive or exclusive and chuckle, for you are no longer thinking in the same manner that a native english speaker is.
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