Twitter and TinyChat

Can't believe how much time I've allowed to pass since my last post.

I've been on a Twitter adventure for a few days now -- yes, I'm, ahem, "new." One of the twitterers I'm following posted a blurb about TinyChat, which I'm about to try out. Come Chat With Me!

Laugh of the Day: "Bullet For Your Convenience"

This is what my I get when I read my insurance company's e-mail correspondence in plain-text instead of html! "Bullet For your convenience..." I wonder if that's covered under my policy!

3-D Typography

I found this beautiful work by Yulia Brodskaya featured on Drawn! in one of their December posts. The work here depicts letters and words carefully crafted out of strips of paper, turned on their edges and shapes into calligraphy-like works. I thought of Mary and the work she has done in the past to discuss typography with her college Freshmen (...looking for a citation... looking... no luck). The slide show I've posted doesn't really do the artist justice. Either way, check out the "Detail" slide: it shows some of the work from an angle that illustrates the rich, tedious work done to achieve the final product.

William Zantzinger

Until I read this article today, I was unaware of the events in early 1963 that were memorialized by Bob Dylan with the song entitled "the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll." At the time, 24-year-old William Zantzinger was sentenced to six months in jail for manslaughter. He struck a barmaid in his drunken impatience, a blow which led to her death only a few hours later. According to teacherken, Zantzinger died January 3, 2009, just shy of the 45th anniversary of Hattie Carroll's death.

Reading the diary entry from teacherken at Daily Kos -- I was struck by three things:

1. Dylan's timeless defiance of the institution that would promote disparity and discrimination
2. teacherken's catch of Zantzinger's ironic quote, stating that he would not want to attend school with "negroes" -- Zantzinger attended Sidwell Friends, the D.C.-area school newly attended by President-Elect Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha
3. The article's closing words: "William Zanzinger will never die. Bob Dylan has guaranteed a legacy in words and music, one which should remind us that this one death is about more than one person: it is about America as a society."

Inagural Post

There's a lot of material I'm processing these days. I attempt to stay conversant on hot topics from the political and social realm while I juggle new(ish) endeavors in my personal life: relationship, graduate school aspirations, and the general topic of what can I do to make today/ tomorrow/ next week better than yesterday/ last week/ last year?

I recently watched a segment of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in which Jon interviewed Arianna Huffington. She discusses a newly published book entitled The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. It was this interview that inspired me to begin blogging again:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Arianna Huffington

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video