Mark Bult Design: San Francisco, CA, Established 1988

I ate too much

I think I spent $80 on iTunes last night. But it all rocks. So it's okay.

Posted by espd at 9:10 PM | 
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Apparently it's summer in CA

Sez Ynnej: "I'm sweating and I'm naked and I'm all spread out and I'm still hot."

8 o

Posted by espd at 11:29 PM | 
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I'm really gonna like Dashboard

Learn more at http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/

Posted by espd at 7:29 PM | 
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For the Firefox fan(s)

Branding Firefox :: How UK designer Jon Hicks re-branded the emerging browser.

Posted by espd at 7:02 PM | 
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The best band ever

www.satanicide.com

Posted by espd at 4:14 PM | 
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Words to live by, whether you're buff or buffed

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
- Buddha The "Enlightened One"

Posted by espd at 12:44 PM | 
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Treesits go East Coast

� linky-dink...

Posted by espd at 4:55 PM | 
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To "buff" or not too "buffed"

Just because "everybody says it this way" doesn't mean it's actually correct.

Bubble-burster: When you go to Dictionary.com and look stuff up, you must surely realize that Dictionary.com's definitions are not a single authoritative source. Dictionary.com is in fact a compendium of numerous definitions from various online sources, 11 at last count.

Which is why you can go to 11 (or two) different sites (or maybe pick up a real dictionary fercryinoutloud!) and get seemingly endless different (and even conflicting) definitions, pronunciation keys, usages, and origins.

Example: When you look up "buffed" at Merriam-Webster, it gives you both "buff" (verb/adj.) -- thinking you misspelled it -- and also the actual word you looked up, "buffed" (adj.):

Main Entry: buff
Function: adjective
1 : of the color buff
2 or buffed : having a physique enhanced by bodybuilding exercises

Again, just because everyone thinks "buff" and "buffed" are the same doesn't make it correct. Being one of the few in the know, I prefer to smugly (very smugly, I admit) but firmly believe that original usage, definition, and pronunciation outweighs what has become fashionable, popular, or simply pervasive.

Buying SUVs, chopping down 2,000-year-old trees to make fences, and invading 3rd world countries just because one has the military force to do so are all considered "acceptable usage" -- in fact these are the overwhelmingly popular "acceptable" uses, according to the vast majority of the population. But just because 98% of the population accepts them doesn't make it correct (or right) to me.

I realize my smug assertion that I'm right and you're all wrong makes me an elitist prick. I'm okay with that. I strive each day to be better and smarter than I was yesterday; this is my moral responsibility. Indeed it's the moral responsibility of all individuals.

And, in a way, you're all correct in your assertion that I'm wrong. Because if it's acceptable to you that "everyone else says it this way, so I will too, in spite of evidence that says I might've been saying it wrong all these years and just following the example of everyone else who was also saying it wrong," then you're correct too. You've got 98% of the population on your side. Go for it.

Posted by espd at 1:47 PM | 
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Ynnej = freak w/ capital f

Sez Ynnej: "I hate it when things are hot in my bed."

Sez moi: ,: .

Posted by espd at 9:03 PM | 
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Charlize Theron gets naked?

Ynnej hates it when web comics guys can't spell.

Well, I hate it when people use the wrong word. Like when people confuse "buff" with "buffed." They are not, I reapeat, not the same fucking thing.

Buff means naked. Buffed means strong. Period. Buff does not mean strong. Jesus christ, people, get a fucking clue.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I learned that Charlize Theron was not getting buff in her latest movie, as this headline (mis)stated.

Posted by espd at 12:38 AM | 
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The time has (finally) come

Yes, it's hard to beleive. But yours truly is once again a fully-licensed operator of motor vehicles in the state of California.

It only took 7 years, $79, several years for the statute of limitations to expire on my past indescretions, and 1.65 hours at the DMV today (not including the time it took to go to San Mateo and back). But I'm not complaining. I was convinced I was going to show up for my appointment and be told I have to jump through 27 more hoops before I can actually just apply for my license again. But they gave it to me anyway. I only had to go to 3 different windows too.

Now I just have to go prove it to the judge in Sonoma and convince him/her that I'm far too handsome to be fined $6,978,054.36 for going way too fast down 101 late at night coming home from a camping trip in HumCo.

Posted by espd at 9:21 PM | 
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The thesis Ynnej should have written

http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/liz-paper-2003/

Posted by espd at 9:18 PM | 
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Aparently the Reaganophiles are using Google now

Here's a little truth with your sugar.

Posted by espd at 8:00 PM | 
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Mother nature strikes back
Mayhem taints benefit concert at local park

By I.P. Knightly
Neon Yellow News Service

Palo Alto, CA -- Disaster struck during a blues concert in Foothills Park Friday night as mountain lions, deer, and squirrels emerged from the woodlands to retake their land, attacking horrified human concert-goers who ran for their SUVs in futile atempts to escape the fury of mother nature.

The aged and children were easy targets for the fast-moving creatures. At the end of the evening 10,014 were dead, and 23 were missing.

"Wait, there were only 350 people there," stated some guy who claimed to be one of the people in charge of the concert. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about, so we ignored him and interviewed imbeciles instead.

At the lowlands Command Center set up by Palo Alto Police, rumors circulated that a ransom note fashioned of sticks and leaves was delivered by a scrub jay, but police officials would neither confirm nor deny the report, so we wrote about it anyway.

"Nonsense," said Bob Katz, a spokesman and self-described sympethizer with the Foothills Liberation Front, or FLF. "The forest creatures of the foothills would never take hostages. We...I mean they...only kill and eat their prey on the spot. Those 23 'missing' people are definitely goners. The squirrels may be storing knuckles for next winter, but what can you do. The squirrels are freaking nuts, you know."

"Listen, the humans have been encroaching on our land for too long," stated Katz. "The Foothills Liberation Front, in solidarity with our comrades in the Plant Liberation Front, will no longer stand by as humanity abuses our peaceful way of life with their horrible blues music."

The Plant Liberation Front was unusually silent.

Victims
One of the victims was D. Fisher Price, described as a journalist-in-training with local tabloid The Daily Drivel. He was gored by a deer and then trampled by seven angry squirrels who appeared to be dancing on his face and pummeling him with acorns. Horrified witnesses could only run for their lives.

"It was awful, no one deserves to go like that," stated Palo Alto councilmember Stu Dentloan. "But I suppose he had it coming. After all, he kept referring to the park as a 'preserve' in his newspaper, when everyone knows they're two totally different things."

A memorial for Price has been hastily arranged by his employer, The Daily Drivel, which announced an advertising special for anyone who would like to remember him in print with a tasteful full-color front page ad, two for the price of one this week only.

"Plant activist" killed
Also killed was local resident Douglas Lichen, who reportedly had leapt to the stage when the mayhem began, shouting "Plants first! Plants first!"

"I thought he was crazy," said a witness. "I was just running for my life, but I heard him yelling something about the inalienable rights of fungus and how we humans were the scourge that would bring on the end of days. Or some crap like that. Goddamn eco-freaks."

Lichen, an activist with Plants First!, was torn apart by crazed mountain lions in the ensuing tragedy. A drum circle for Lichen will be held tonight around the large oak in the middle of Woodrat Field, according to Plants First! spokesbeing Darryl Cherney. Donations of biodiesel will be accepted in lieu of flowers. "Don't kill more plants!" said Cherney.

Posted by espd at 11:37 PM | 
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Official statement on the death of R. Reagan

Posted by espd at 5:06 AM | 
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Concert Friday

Yay! I could be here, but instead I'll be here.

Sometimes I just hate my life.

Posted by espd at 4:01 AM | 
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Posting rampage continues (sleep is for suckers)

Stop frame animation. Just like my 4th grade summer school movie making class. Except, um, better.

Pretty cool song. Pretty neat video.

Posted by espd at 5:31 AM | 
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Bwahahahahahaaa!

erg

Posted by espd at 5:13 AM | 
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Um, yay for MASH

"Your wife's name is GW Bush and you have 2.5 children. You're a sumo wrestler who drives to work every day in a black Iroc. It's truly a wonderful life when you consider the countless romantic nights you have spent with GW Bush in your shack in Canada."

Posted by espd at 4:16 AM | 
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Can you name

all the Radiohead songs in this yee-haw medley?

Be sure to send this MP3 to all your Radiohead friends (or enemies?) who really loathe CW.

Posted by espd at 3:59 AM | 
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"The next 'Bowling for Columbine' "

Ooh, Ynnej, let's go see this.

Smash the syndicate!

Posted by espd at 3:21 AM | 
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What the world needs now

is a lot more Roberts.

You don't have a right to bitch unless you use your responsibility to vote.

Posted by espd at 2:23 AM | 
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I like books

Is that such a crime? If you answer yes to that, then your answer is really the crime.

Books are the receptacles of knowledge that keep us a civilized species. Yeah, yeah, we've got the whole Internet thing and all, but c'mon, it's not a book fercryinoutloud. Books are tangible. They are often beautiful in their tangibleness. For example: well designed books, well printed books, or especially old books, and most especially ones that were produced with the care and craftsmanship that is simply a lost art today. Tipped in sheets. Letterpress. Colophons. Ooh, it makes me shudder just to think about it. To run your fingertips across a wonderful, soft sheet of paper and not only feel the pitted texture of the fibers, but to feel the type itself on a letterpress edition. That's a book.

But I like all kinds of books. Not just old ones.

Anyone who's seen my place will attest to this. I have hundreds of books. If I could afford it, I'd have thousands (I'm working on it!).

Fiction books, nonfiction books, design books, old books, new books, softcover, hardcover, first editions, classics, obscure novels, picture books, children's books, they're all great!

I've been cleaning out my dad's attic (since it's mostly my stuff stored up there) since he's planning to sell his house, and I've come across a few boxes of old books from my childhood and young adulthood, and about half of them or more are fantastic things that I want to keep. Golden Books, really old editions of classics like "Little Women" and "Little Men," yellowed Peanuts pocketbooks that I used to read endlessly on summer vacations in Canada, and even some rarities that I might part with, passing them on to collectors on eBay (anyone interested in an early "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back" comic book?).

What can I say? This is probably one of the most important things I have my mom to thank for. The fact that I'm as smart today is directly attributable to how voracious a reader I've always been, and that's a direct result of the fact that my mom always read to me when I was little and I had dozens of books in my little bedroom nook by the time I was old enough to start reading myself. I remember endless trips to the library when I was a wee tyke.

Plenty of studies have shown a direct correlation between early literacy and later learning competency and whether kids were read to by their parents. I owe a big thanks to mom for this one.

Anyway, in future I intend to start listing some of my favorite books here, not just the tiny "currently reading" list. You've been warned...

Posted by espd at 4:40 AM | 
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Parting, sweet sorrow, and all that crap

Today I resigned.

This won't come as a total shock to any of my close compadres who have been well aware of my longstanding and ever-growing discontent with my job. Well, it may surprise Velma a little, since I think she believed I'd never actually do it.

The reasons are so many and varied that to list them here would be an exercise in futility (and continued frustration, since I've already been dwelling on them for the past 9 months, and now I simply want to forget and move on). If anyone's really that interested, leave a comment and maybe I'll send you the email I sent MC outlining why I have been an unhappy camper for so long.

Suffice it to say, this was definitely an example of One of The Most Difficult Decisions of My Life.

BAA became for me an extended family, but in that great way where you actually like your family because they're people you chose instead of people you got stuck with. And in the past 11 years, in which I contributed to the organization in nearly every capacity -- from staff to volunteer, from project leader to designer, from board member to the guy who signed paychecks when there was no one else to do it -- I have never worked with a group of people from whom I have learned more, with whom I have had more fun, and with whom I have been indescribably proud to be associated with.

I wish I still felt that way today, but those feelings -- that "second paycheck" -- has been missing for far too long.

I know, I know. A bunch of you have been telling me for months (some of you for years), that I'd been underappreciated. I've known you were right. It's just that leaving something that you helped build for the past 11 years is like chopping off an arm. It's not an action you're really anxious to rush into.

Well, now it's done. The amputation is complete.

In trying to replace me they will fail utterly. I say this with sadness, not in the ha-ha-look-what-you-did way. It's simply that the odds are ridiculous that they will find someone with my broad and diverse experience of skills (writing, editing, communications, marketing, advertising, graphic design, branding, information architecture, web geeking, IT, blah blah blah); unfortunately, the phrase "not bloody likely" echoes in my head. It's simply not very often that you find a really good visual designer (if I do say so myself, and I do) who can also do the geek stuff, and who also has strong writing and editing skills. Then you factor in the salary they're able to pay, and there's just no way they'll find someone competent. I'm terribly afraid they'll hire someone half-assed, who really needs a part-time job and therefore "overcharacterizes" their actual experience in the interview.

I am starting to apply for jobs. We'll see if I get weird looks when I show up to interviews with only one arm.

Posted by espd at 3:54 AM | 
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