eek

I am so hard on technology! My MacBook Air is less than a year old and already has a wear mark from my thumb on the spacebar. Sheesh!

It's another beautiful day in Chicago. I'm sitting on the balcony catching up on some RSS feeds before heading to the Custer Art Fest. Ahhhh, summer!

... via iPhone ...

things on tuesday :: ack!

With the long weekend I keep thinking today is Monday, but it's not. It's Tuesday and that means it's time for 'things on Tuesday!"

loves

long weekends that are actually relaxing, but still have a mix of good fun
my new bike!
that our company website has been updated - it only took us three years to finalize the design and actually implement, but as of yesterday we are sporting a fabulous new look! Still have some copy to fill in, but this is a huge step for us!!
that I will be getting my favorite flatbread from the Indiana farmers market this weekend - and seeing the pittmans
spring cleaning - now what to do with all of the stuff I want to part with ... sell? donate? toss?
when Jay Leno wears a Burberry tie - I don't know why, but I do.

loathes

that my high school reunion is just around the corner and I have not even thought about what to wear till today
rain. rain. rain.
days when I feel like I get nothing done - that was today
that I have to purchase a new air handler unit for my condo and have no idea how to qualify what is a quality purchase
summer TV
that I am having to wear my glasses more and they always seem dirty

That's it for me. What are you lovin' and loathin' this week?

the sun'l come out

...I just know it will.

49 degrees

What a completely miserable day here in Chicago today. It's a whopping 49 degrees (40 degrees colder than just two days ago) and raining and foggy and blech!

But I had very good reason to venture out today ... we had to pick up our tickets...

Yep, it's 100% official we're going to the Oprah Show. I am so excited and so were all of these people standing in line ~ f r e e z i n g ~ for over an hour to pick up their tickets. They were chatting and cheering and you could actually feel the love. So, as you can see, we are in the nosebleed section. But you know what? I am just damn happy to finally cross off one of those 'bucket list' items!! I will take my opera glasses so I can see. : )

Then it was off to pick up some goodies and have lunch at the French Market. I like going, but find it frustrating that there are so many vendors who come and go. You can never really count on something being there - a few vendors seem to stand the test of time, but others are there one time and then you never see them again. It's a shame really. We had crepes and Belgian frites and real Coke (the kind made with Sugar not high fructose .. ) and picked up French macarons and chocolates.

And as we were waiting in line to pay for the chocolate, I took a photo of the display. Shortly after I was approached by the security guard who said I needed to ask permission to take photos.

Let's pause here for commentary - I do not understand the scrutiny on taking photos in public places. It is nothing more than free promotion for these businesses. The number of photographers who actually take photos in places like this with the intention to 'sell' the photos has got to be slim. And, if that were the case then I would most certainly expect them to ask permission prior.

So I believe I was stopped only because I was shooting with a 'professional looking' camera. I fully believe that if I had a little point and shoot or iPhone, this man would not have even bothered with me.

So back to the story ... I asked with whom I should ask permission and he showed me to the management office. I met the guy in the office and explained that I wanted to take some photos with my friends and why would that be a problem. He stated that the French Market is a copyrighted entity and that snapshots are OK as long as you ask the vendor, but if you're just shooting the Market, you'd have to ask. OK, so he said I was cool to take photos and we moved on.

We moved on to the hall that is between the Market and the CTA Metra station - this area is apparently owned by someone different and I was once again approached by the same security guard. "I'm going to have to tell you again about taking photos, because the CTA police might come by..." and so what if they do? Are they going to haul me off to jail? WTF? So we had a bit more of a debate and he ended up walking off - I finished taking the photos that I wanted.

Then he came back by a THIRD time and tossed out something to the effect of "Oh and by the way I understand why you would want to take photos of your friend, she's beautiful." Oh brother... So that's it. He just wanted to get close to be able to get a real peek at us. As we were picking up our last goods, I spotted him discussing the situation with the sanitation guy ... what a creep!

Oh and I did a little guest post over on Sel's blog about fashion. Check it out.

things on tuesday

Ahh it's Tuesday again...

loves

Seeing a client get really excited about what you've done for them.
Feedly for iPad - out today - this one app may change my mind about the iPad...
More like lust - but the new iMac is out today and oh how I want one!
Live music!
Dinning with the girls
ebay - you can find literally anything on there

loathes

Health insurance - these companies are about making money and not about the consumer/patient and it's a damn shame! If we ran our business like these guys do, we would not have one... how do they keep this BS going?
Neck and shoulder pain has returned - boo
42 degrees on May 2nd ... really? This is Spring?
Country music - I literally just had to mute the TV just now, cannot even handle one minute!!
That Phoebe meows at the front door - why does she do this? What does she see? What does she want? Cats are weird!
Now that all of my photos are digital I don't print anything .. I need to print them or make books or something!!!

Wayfinding symbols with OpenType magic | Ralf Herrmann: Wayfinding & Typography

The beta testers of our Wayfinding Sans typeface kept asking us about support for signage pictograms. So we finally gave in. Here is a quick video preview of where we are today.

Wayfinding Sans Symbols (Preview) from Ralf Herrmann on Vimeo.

I would be happy receive feedback about it. A general symbol set can never work for each and every signage project, but I would be interested to hear more about your experience. Are there certain symbols you often need, which are not available in the usual sets? What kind of additional functionality would you need? Do you usually use fixed-width symbols or freestanding versions for inline placement? What about signs for different cultural backgrounds? What about subjective reading directions for signs like stairs?

We plan to make this symbol font a free release on fonts.info. You can also follow the development of Wayfinding Sans on our new facebook page.

via opentype.info

Fabulous news! While I might not be keen on the exact symbols they use, the concept behind this idea is superb! As he points out in the video, currently we have to use individual symbols with independent lines of type - it's difficult to ensure alignment and such. It's impossible to make global changes, so a font like this would be useful beyond imagination for a wayfinding consultant like myself.

yffoto.com :: orchid

via blog.yffoto.com

I was given this beautiful orchid for my birthday ... it's got loads of flowers right now. Fingers crossed I can keep it alive!!

my blog

I moved from blogger some time ago to Posterous. Please visit me at ylf.posterous.com.