Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Television consumers want bigger, brighter, and higher resolution displays. We look down upon a measly 1080i - yet at the same time I see more tolerance of completely fuct aspect ratios. Sure, is fun to laugh at screwed up proportions when looking at a fun house mirror, but now we just cannot escape it. In sports bars, building lobbies, and in our own homes we are increasingly tolerant of 4×3 aspect ratio pictures being stretched to 16×9. It drives me batty and gives me a headache. Why is it okay for a square to be a rectangle? Why is that fat lady on the tv the same width and height?
Today I came across the perfect illustration of this sad sad stretched world in which we live. The main video page for CNN has EVERY VIDEO STRETCHED. It is a tiny box in my browser, not constrained by the physical dimensions of a real television or a wife that says “what are those black bars on the side… fix it”. Yet this huge media company thinks that this is okay. Until Joe public starts demanding non fun house video we have more whack stuff like this to look forward to. Shame on everyone. Stop stretching and squeezing.
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Friday, December 14th, 2007
For years I have loathed comic sans, but until recently I felt relatively alone. A tear rolls down my cheek as I realize there are others like me - that also become instantly enraged at this font that seems to spread through documents faster than SARS through Korea.
I give you the ban comic sans web page. Enjoy.
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Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
As I rounded out my quarter-century on this earth (the year you can rent a car without an underage fee) I thought I had reached the last landmark year until I became a senior citizen. For better or worse, I was mistaken.
This product over here –> is household goop. I’ve been a user and promoter of this product for a long time. As far as I can tell, all varieties of “goop”, whether it be household or plumbing flavor are exactly the same. My familiarity however goes back to when it was called “Shoe Goo” and sold at your local Foot Locker or Athletes Foot right next to the shoe shine kit. As a skateboarder this product continues to provide an affordable alternative to bi-weekly shoe purchases.
This weekend Stacey and I were at our local Target and I picked up some goop. As the cashier scanned my sole (no pun intended) item she told me that she would need to see my ID. I opened my wallet and started to… hey, wait a minute. Why would she need to see my ID for a cash purchase of friggin Shoe Goo! She explained to me that she could not sell it to me unless she saw my ID and then pointed to the screen. Apparently I need to be 40 years old to purchase this item. She asked a fellow cashier who told her to push the function button to get past that screen - but she was having none of that - and I was having none of this ID showing. Problem solved of course when the manager came over and pressed the function key.
There are a couple interesting points to be made here. I suppose that this was flagged for its potential use as an inhalant - I get that. Here’s the thing though, I think this tube cost almost $4. I could buy two gallons of gas - three cans of whipped cream - probably a box-load of model glue for my $4. Why would an honest hard-working inhalant junkie such as myself choose to purchase Shoe Goo to support my habit. It makes no sense. I saw that movie Love Liza with Philip Seymour Hoffman. Some folks just dig on the sniffin’ - but I’m not quite sure targeting 18-40 year old Goop purchasers really is going to solve this serious epidemic.
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