Thinkcage

With Mother’s day upon us, I made the trek to the nearest shopping mall in search of gifts. Buying for my wife is usually pretty easy, but in today’s episode I was shopping for my mom who is impossible to shop for. The older I get, the harder it becomes to buy meaningful gifts for my parents. Heck, I gave up on meaningful years ago and now simply strive to buy something that will be remotely useful or functional. I just hate the idea of giving someone a gift that they will be apathetic towards.

The thing is, when you run out of ideas the mall is full of stores that make things easier — Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, etc. in particular. The problem is these places fail to understand what must be at least half of their customer base: men.

So there I was slinking out of Yankee Candle with a gift pack full of candles and lotions of holistically complimentary scents. Something that I am sure mom will at least use. So slinking, you ask? Yes, because all of this scentedness was carefully packaged for me in a fluffy bag stuffed with pink tissue paper, pretty much the last thing I would like to be seen packing through the mall with. Prior to my purchase I had considered stopping by EB Games for a peek at their used games bin but any thoughts of that were soon dashed by my pink portage.

Similarly, my trip to Victoria’s Secret to buy fine smelling things for St. Valentine’s Day was similarly marked by the frilly gift bag it all was packed in. But to top it off, the sales clerk and Victoria’s Secret took further action and sprayed the fountain of pink tissue paper that erupted from my new pink-striped paper bag with perfume. It spent the rest of the week as the gift sat in my trunk, hidden from prying eyes, making the air in my car barely breathable.

I can’t help but think I am not the only man who is uncomfortable when my purchases are so adorned. In fact, it certainly must cost them sales from the more easily embarrassed. If these stores really knew how to treat their male customers, they’d pack this stuff in a plain brown paper bag. With “Motor Oil” or “Carbuerators” printed on the side.

Seriously.

Ok, now maybe the book/movie was filled with sketchy psuedo-science…but this is proof and maybe it could be possible.

*crosses fingers*

Like nearly every other web designer on the planet, I’ve probably typed “verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif” more times than I care to think about. That decending font list is the backbone of web typography today but its become a bit stale. While it is possible to take advantage of some slightly less ubiquitous faces such as Lucida, Geneva, or Arial Black, for the most part we are stuck with Verdana. Don’t get me wrong, Verdana was a godsend when first released back in the Internet Explorer 4 days (heck I even remember when Verdana was a stand-alone download in the Microsoft TrueType core fonts for the Web) and it is still a fine choice for small, readable paragraph text on screen. It falls apart for use in headings, but is still the best choice in non font-smooting environments. Georgia, another face released at the same time is a very readable alternative to Times but simply has too much of an old style to really be used widely.

However, Microsoft has finally announced a new set of web fonts that will at long last add a little variety to the web. According to this article, there will be six new faces shipping with OS and other software products in 2006. The article features scans of the new faces so head on over for a preview.

Being a CSS-oriented seperation of style and form sort of guy, this is a welcome breath of fresh air for web design. But, like any other advancement on the web, the lowest (or at least middle) common denominator rules and it will be years before these fonts are widespread enough to be truly useful. Not to mention whether or not they are avialable on Linux or OS X, etc…

I’ve been guilty of listening to far too much Virgin Radio UK over the past few weeks. Streaming radio from all over the world is a great thing. In the fall, I stream the local NFL broadcast of the Green Bay Packers games – there is nothing better for a transplanted Wisonsinite than listening to the local guys call the game.

I have to admit, part of my fascination with Virgin Radio is the cultural quirks. Hearing London traffic reports, or the UK versions of commercials for products I am and am not familiar with is a hoot. And the mix isn’t half-bad either.

I’m sure from a coporate influence standpoint it is no less pure than the local pop stations here in Oklahoma City (which I refuse to listen to), but something in me says the Brit pop like Keane, Travis, and Snow Patrol beats the crap out of the US pop pantheon of Britney Spears, J-Lo, and Ashley Simpson.

Give it a listen

Dave over at solargarlic.com has finally launched his blog. For those interested, he promises to share some of his upcoming work on a standards redesign of his company’s website and some new work in the podcasting arena. Yay solar!

I know, I know… there is a huge need for this kind of instruction for the majority of web users and computer users in general. However, something about this image and the almost absurd basicity of the topic makes me giggle. Below is a list of other topics that might be next in this series:

• Ok or Cancel?
• Click or Drag?
• Copy or Paste?
• Restart or Shutdown?

Look for them soon at www.microsoft.com.