I hate that Mac/PC email interaction still manages to transform curly apostrophes and quotation marks into superscript numbers. Shouldn’t this be a solved problem by now?
Tag: TODO: Blog Idea
Many people online don’t understand the concept of DOSAGE
It’s become clear to me that many people online don’t understand the concept of DOSAGE: Something can be harmless or even beneficial in small amounts, but dangerous in large amounts. Think of it like turning the steering wheel on your car (or the handlebars on your bike): Too far, and you go off the road, lose control, and crash. Just right, and you change lanes or go down a different road.
Can Email Be Responsive?
Way too much HTML email is still done with the old slice-and-dice table-and-spacer method. In a world where people are reading mail on their phones first (and remember that means connectivity is sporadic & slow too), we should be doing this better.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the popularity of HTML emails. And, like the web before it, the inbox has officially gone mobile, with over 50 percent of email opens occurring on mobile devices….
Advice on dealing with email without letting it take over.
Advice on dealing with email without letting it take over. I do some of these already: I use filters to pre-classify a lot, and I’ve pared down notifications to only the most critical. But it’s still a struggle to keep on top of it sometimes. Some of the other suggestions look like they’ll be helpful.
Does your inbox constantly beg for attention? Do you suffer from always-on inbox anxiety? Email can easily take over your life—especially if you’re running a business. If that’s happening, it’s…
these “my weather is better than yours” sharepics going around bug me
As a lifelong Californian, these “my weather is better than yours” sharepics going around bug me. Not because it’s thumbing your nose, that’s just normal regional rivalry — but because we’re getting that “better weather” at the expense of the rain we normally get in winter, rain that we desperately need if we’re going to do things like grow food, fight seasonal wildfires, and, oh, I don’t know, drink. It’s like bragging about how warm you are while surrounded by fire.
My current lunchtime reading. I just happened to set the book and the fork down while waiting to pay for lunch today.
My current lunchtime reading. I just happened to set the book and the fork down while waiting to pay for lunch today.
Answer: Is it crazy to commute between Orange County and Los Angeles every day?
It depends on how flexible your hours are, how early you can get up (or how late you’re willing to stay out), how long you can stand “driving” through stop-and-go traffic, and whether the train is an option.
I commuted the slightly shorter distance from Tustin to the LAX area for about 4 months before I moved closer to my job, and it was incredibly draining.
Typically, I spent 10-20 minutes getting to the 91, and then anywhere from one to two hours trudging along at ridiculously slow speeds for the rest of the drive. The drive home was typically about 20 minutes longer than the drive to work.
On good days, if I made it to Norwalk early enough to find parking, I could take the Metro Green Line the rest of the way, bypassing the worst of the traffic and letting me read on the train. There was a stop a short bus ride away from my office. It still took an hour and a half each way, but at least I could relax during most of it.
Once I actually made it to work in only 45 minutes. It was a holiday. And the drive home was just as bad as usual.
I did try taking the train the whole way a couple of times, by taking Metrolink up to Norwalk. But because the Metro and Metrolink systems only connect in downtown LA, I had to take a local bus from Norwalk’s Metrolink station to Norwalk’s Metro station, and every transfer adds more time and more things that can go wrong in the process…especially because I had to put in extra effort to make it back to Norwalk that evening in time for the last Metrolink train, with two buses and a train on the way. It ended up being almost as stressful and taking even longer.
Going to Santa Monica, the Metrolink/Metro route might work out better, because you can probably transfer straight from one train to another at Union Station. Also, this was about three years ago, so the schedules might allow for more flexibility these days.
Another thing to consider: Metrolink is considerably more expensive than Metro, though if you’re using it daily, a pass will be a much better deal.
The Things You Must Not Tell Anyone At Work (Or should you?)
For some medical conditions, telling the people around you is actually a safety concern. I’ve got severe food allergies. I can’t join coworkers for Thai food. If an event is catered, I need it to include something I can eat, and I need to be able to trust that my coworkers aren’t mixing up the food I can’t eat with the food I can. If I go into anaphylactic shock, it would be helpful if someone knew what to do while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. I certainly don’t make it the subject of every conversation, but when food is involved, it comes up…and frankly, it *has* to.
Warning! The Things You Must Not Tell Anyone At Work
There are some things we shouldn’t tell anyone at work. Sharing the ‘wrong’ things with co-workers can quickly backfire and leave us exposed, vulnerable or side-lined.
A study has estimated the economic cost of food allergies at $24.8 billion/year in the US
A study has estimated the economic cost of food allergies at $24.8 billion/year in the US, about 17% of it being borne by the health care industry and the rest by families. The cost to families includes both out-of-pocket costs (medication, doctor’s visits, specialized food, etc.) and opportunity costs in lost work productivity and, in some cases, lost job opportunities where a parent has to alter or give up a job to provide extra care.
Short article: Food Allergy’s Economic Burden on Families: $3,500 a Year (Allergic Living)
Longer article for those less familiar with what it takes to manage a severe allergy: What Food Allergies Are Costing Families and the Economy (Time)
The caption was necessary.
The caption was necessary.
Eh, close enough
Google Street View’s face-blurring algorithm is a little more zealous than it needs to be…
Google Street View’s face-blurring algorithm is a little more zealous than it needs to be.
(Incidentally, this restaurant closed last year, and a new restaurant has taken over the location. Apparently the chain is still around, but until I saw this one, I was under the impression it was long gone.)
I half-suspect they only stopped at three ways to phrase it because they ran out of room.
I half-suspect they only stopped at three ways to phrase it because they ran out of room. #keepout #thismeansyou
At first I wasn’t sure to make of this poster. “Believe” that we went to the moon? Well, yeah. Then the Powerball motif…
At first I wasn’t sure to make of this poster. “Believe” that we went to the moon? Well, yeah. Then the Powerball motif was pointed out, making it an ad for the state lottery. Shoot for the moon, I guess. But the lottery is all about blind luck, while the moon landings were planned out meticulously, calculated and tested stage by stage over years, *leaving as little to chance as possible*.
Gotta love when someone freaks out over something that’s been CHANGED OMG! when it’s actually normal & they just hadn’t noticed.
Gotta love when someone freaks out over something that’s been CHANGED OMG! when it’s actually normal & they just hadn’t noticed.
For example: “President A skipped out on event B for the first time EVER!” even though presidents C,D, and E skipped it regularly…
Or “What is that light in the sky! OMG!” Um, it’s Venus, it’s been there all month…
The airplane contrail off of the Calif. coast that people mistook for a missile launch a couple of years back…
Every time there’s a major earthquake and suddenly people are watching+reporting every tiny quake so it looks like the frequency is going up
Or those Youtube videos where the narrator was sure something had been done to water because you NEVER saw rainbows in sprinklers before?
“Doctor, will I be able to play the violin after the operation?” “Absolutely.” “Wonderful, I never could before!”
I think I found the problem…
This coffee place knows how to capitalize on Presidents Day.
Having a toddler around is like camping: you always need to check inside your shoes before you put them on.
Having a toddler around is like camping: you always need to check inside your shoes before you put them on.
“Flaming goat cheese on a truck” would make a good curse. But it’s awful for your commute
I’m going to have to start using “flaming goat cheese on a truck!” as a pseudo-curse.
This is even weirder than the truck full of meat that caught fire on the 5 near Camp Pendleton a few years back, blocking the entire freeway in an area with no alternate routes for a whole day.
