I miss Fall in Indiana.

My Dad sent me that this morning.

Planning a trip to New Zealand anytime soon? I think the Snook and I are definitely going to have to check out these Lord of the Rings filming locations.

Lately I’ve been thinking about icons and usability, and specifically whether the little link, e-mail, and speech bubble icons before each post are intuitive. Most other bloggers seem to have settled on using text links. I worry that new visitors to the site won’t realize that they can leave comments. So I’m running an experiment. As you can see, I’ve removed the icons in favor of text links. (I scrapped the e-mail link altogether; was anybody using it? The address was wrong anyway!) I should be able to track which method resulted in the most first-time comments. Right now, I’m not sure I like it. I find it difficult to visually distinguish between posts, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to the old system. What do you guys think? Did you find w-g confusing the first time you visited?

Update: Okay, okay, they’re back! I did get rid of the e-mail icon though. I guess in certain situations usability comes secondary to the interests of long-time users. 🙂

Exasperated Co-worker: “I’m writing up some documentation for the new website administrator trying to explain how to update our site. And do you know what? Only one f***ing thing automatically updates! Seventy-five percent of this information already exists on our other sites but there’s no integration!”
Me: “I know… What’s the one thing that works?”
Her: “The distributors list.”
Me: “I WROTE THAT! *pause* It nearly killed me.“

That totally made my day.

Another positive article on the Atkins Diet from today’s Sydney Morning Herald. Those of us who’ve actually taken the time to read his books will notice a glaring error though – “Atkins dieters are instructed to begin by eliminating all carbohydrates from their diet.” Wrong! I actually sent a letter to the editor to clarify. Fingers crossed it gets published!

Kristy vs. the Birds

Round 1: On our way home from work yesterday, Kevin and I were barreling down the highway when I noticed a pigeon dawdling in the road up ahead. “Better move little birdie!” I joked, fully expecting the bird to fly off any second. Suddenly WHUMP! Pigeon carcass flew past Kevin’s window. “AHHHH!” we both screamed. Thank heavens it didn’t fall into the open sun roof. What kind of idiot bird plays in traffic?

Round 2: Today at lunch I was sitting on a bench in the little park adjacent to our office and knitting happily away on a Hogwarts scarf. Suddenly a large bird fluttered down beside me. With horror I realized it was my avian nemesis… the kookaburra! He was big and creepy with a wicked-looking beak. (Yeah, yeah, so they’re not known for attacking people. I’m a big scaredy-cat though.) “Shoo, shoo!” I muttered while waving my arms. He regarded me impassively. I picked up a small twig and threw it, figuring that would drive him off. Instead he sat there and let it hit him, and I swear he narrowed his evil reptilian eyes. In desperation, I picked up my paper lunch bag from McDonald’s (I had the salad, of course) and threw it in a nearby bin, guessing that it was his ultimate aim. He didn’t budge. “All right,” I said. “You win. Have the damn bench.” I picked up my stuff and slunk back to the office while Mr. Kookaburra watched me triumphantly. Jerk bird.

Expats Against Bush. Excellent. Count me in.

Major Glitter thread purge! The site sure loads faster, but unfortunately all the lovely Halloween discussions are gone. 🙁

“I’m a goth and I vote.” I honestly fell for this one until I got to the line about Prozac. (Link courtesy of Graham.)