Happy Fastnacht Day!

Happy WHAT day? Isn't it Fat Tuesday? No, it's Fastnacht Day. It's almost like Fat Tuesday only without the drunken, shirt lifting debauchery. Rather than Happy Let's-party-today-because-tomorrow-is-Lent Day, it's more Happy use-up-all-the-leftover-lard-before-we-have-to-fast-for-Lent Day! Even though lard isn't so prevalent these days the Pennsylvania Dutch still keep the fastnacht tradition strong, because why wouldn't you choose one day a year to gorge yourself on donuts?

Generally we are not the first to align ourselves with the Pennsylvania Dutch, but I think in this case we can make an exception. Who doesn't love fresh donuts? To celebrate the momentous holiday, I popped out to Chow's Donuts to pick up our breakfast. As I drove down the hill I imagined there not being any donuts left to buy. What if I'm too late? The donuts might have been sold by 8 and here it is, 8:15 am and I AM NOT GOING TO GET ONE! (That is what really happens in Pennsylvania, you can't get a fastnacht anywhere if you didn't preorder last week!)

However, I've come to realize that we maybe the only people in our Southern California town to celebrate Fastnacht Day. Luckily, there was plenty to choose from at Chow's.

I made my selections and happily headed back up the hill to our home. It was well worth the drive.

Demonstrate the richness and complexity

Heading out to vote in the primary election should be the top priority for Americans, but taking photos of your polling place should be the second priority for designers. In a campaign called Design for Democracy the AIGA - the professional association for design - is working to “demonstrate the value of design by doing valuable things.” Working with different government agencies to redesign the voting experience, the AIGA hopes to improve the interactions between US citizens and their government. Designers across the country can contribute to the cause by documenting their voting experience and submitting photos to The New York Times Polling Place Photo Project.

"The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America."

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and I plan to vote and document it and submit the results!

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Polling Place Photo Project: how to participate.

On my feet again

I can post today with something I've wanted to post since I wrote this. I walked nine miles this week! Wow! Granted seven of them included lunch at this Mexican restaurant with a large Prickly Pear Margarita half way through. But still, I managed to leave my desk and get my two fur-generators out for a stroll (and no I am not talking about my feet!)

I consider the week to start on Sunday and I can honestly say I will be able to post a mileage next week too. The dogs and I took a long stroll around town today.

I have had a lot going on recently, everything from work to sudden life altering family hospitalization and was finding myself unusually edgy toward my husband. Getting exercise is a proven cure for stress, but when I'm stressed I don't feel like exercising! I feel like napping. So because I work from home I often find it easier to lounge on the couch rather than going out IN PUBLIC. My newest brilliant idea is to get up from my computer at 5 pm every work day. Hopefully most days I will walk right past the couch to the cupboard that holds the dog leashes.

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Week 2 (that's sad)
Walking, 9 miles
Running, 0 miles

A little yelling never hurt anyone

When you're the youngest of a family I think you either let thing happen and quietly observe, or you're like me where you observe situations then just start yelling. Not screaming, but yelling. Yelling because nobody would listen otherwise. I always hated it when people used to ignore my input because they thought I was too young. I have really good ideas, damnit, and I don't bother talking unless it is a really. good. IDEA! So when people don't listen that just makes me YELL.

This passion toward being listened to is something I've had to set aside in my professional career. I understand that people running their own business may not necessarily agree or even want my input on every aspect of their marketing plan. I can respect that however hard it may be. But for the select few that are close to me, the yelling will never stop. I am not so young anymore but habits are hard to break, and this one is especially difficult because I'm not even trying. It's not very often that I get to combine the yelling with my passion for graphic design because I mostly freelance for other companies and yelling at them that their logo sucks is just not good business.

The only time I can really yell until my heart's content is when it comes to NobleKnits, my sister's yarn conglomerate. Nancy is a designer in her own right. She is a published knit and crochet author. She refashioned her clothes before 'refashioned' was even a word (think Molly Ringwald circa Pretty in Pink.) But when it comes to print and logo design she takes a step back and lets me take over, but not at first. Nancy always has a million ideas circulating through her head and so when she sets her mind to a new business concept, all best watch out. I try to get her to be patient while I design a logo or a business card, but she can't sit still. Within an hour of a phone call I'll have an email with 20 ideas attached to it. I clench my teeth and open the email always fearing what might be inside.

It's only been bad one time. The other nine years of stuff have actually been pretty decent. I just want them to be perfect. In our symbiotic relationship we achieve logo, website layout and merchandising perfection by yelling. For some reason I can't help it. Maybe I quickly revert back to all those years of standing in the kitchen with two adults and three teenagers all discussing a topic and me, age 4, expecting to have my opinion count just the same. I'm not sure. I just can't help but yell about Nancy's new ideas. "What is this? Why did you put this here? Why that color? What kind of look are you going for? There's no balance to any of this!"

Apparently I've done this so much that Nancy is scared when she makes a change to her website. Not being able to resist the ideas circulating through her head, she now makes the changes then deals with the wrath of Heather. Except this time? THERE WAS NO WRATH! She changed her whole website around, redesigned her logo and (WOW!) did a great job.

All because she says she can hear me yelling if she doesn't.

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In honor of the new look, NobleKnits.com is offering 15% OFF any order over $50. Use the code NEWLOOK at checkout. Promotion ends Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 11:59 pm EST. Enjoy!

When will Apple get it?

New reports are surfacing that 35% more iPhones have been sold than have been registered with AT&T or the specially selected European carriers.

John Oates on theregister.co.uk reports, "Apple says it has sold 3.7m iPhones in total. AT&T says it has sold 2m iPhones, and European operators are believed to have sold between 300,000 and 400,000 handsets.

Which means there are either 1.3m iPhones being used as bookends, or an awful lot of people have gone to the trouble of unlocking the devices to run them on different networks."

Who's doing that?

Click here to see the full article.