July 2007 – dy/dan

Not To Dredge This Back Up

By Dan Meyer • July 30, 2007 • 1 Comment

… but I laughed so hard at the first three paragraphs of Todd Levin’s TV: How Novel, I think I dislocated my shoulder again. Here’s the first:

I don’t own a television, and I never have. That’s not some fact I wave around, like a flag of self-righteousness. And if you own a television–and most people do–I don’t think that necessarily makes you stupid or lazy, or both. In fact, I praise your exercise of free will. I mean, if that’s how you imagined your life playing out, staring unblinkingly, the TV screen illuminating the grim lines of your expression, as you are lulled into a kind of corporate-mediated complacency while your dreams slowly calcify and die somewhere between the cushions of your couch, then good for you! I totally respect your choice; it’s just not the choice I’ve made. Because I don’t own a television. And I never have.

I think I made a friend today.

Chicago Hope

By Dan Meyer • July 29, 2007 • 25 Comments

Michael McVey took shots at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business today with Scott McLeod laying down cover fire. I think I understand why. I also think they’re pointing their weapons in the wrong direction.

UC is doing right:

To enable prospective full-time MBA students to present a more complete picture of their candidacy, applicants to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, one of the top business schools in the world, will now submit up to four slides about themselves with their application, the school announced. [emph. added]

McVey is bummed:

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Typing Like A T-Rex

By Dan Meyer • July 26, 2007 • 12 Comments

Last night, not five minutes into a night game called Fugitive, I flew head first into a dry creek bed. My fellow fugitives lit up the scene with their mobile phones.

I was covered in ants, lying face down in a blackberry thicket, not sure if I should’ve been thankful or annoyed it was there. I was pretty sure my arm was broken but, no, after I stripped off my sweat shirt at Urgent Care, the diagnosis was obvious.

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No Closure

By Dan Meyer • July 23, 2007 • 3 Comments

I can’t find a way to gracefully exit last week’s discussion of presentation. Eventually, I’ll upload a file to Slideshare which will (hopefully) embody the difference between a) slides that accompany your voice and b) slides that stand alone. Eventually, I’ll recreate the presentation in a vodcast. Eventually, I’ll recreate this entire design series in a vodcast.

Yikes.

I can’t remember the last time I was bored. Eighth grade, maybe. My to-do list brims at all times with 10% menial tasks (currently: vacuum, clean porch, wash car) and 90% creative stimuli (currently: a mograph slideshow, a 100+ item, intra-continental scavenger hunt [like this], any sentence beginning with “eventually” in the paragraph above).

It’d be easy to get depressed about all the fun to-do list entries I’m not getting around to except I remember real quickly that I’ve only forsaken them for other fun entries. Life seems to be a buffet line of excitement these past few years and my plate’s finite surface area doesn’t bug me so much. If this is adulthood, I’m in.

Anyway, ’til I get around to any of that, I need to fill in four gaps:

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OTF WHAT!

By Dan Meyer • July 19, 2007 • 1 Comment

Dear TMAO and his Oakland Fellows,

Thanks for a great time today. Here’s that slide I promised.

TickleBooth for videos which don’t pertain to anything mathematical whatsoever, which are only barely justifiable as a post-break carrot to get ’em back in their seats.
Slate, their Explainer column, and the column we discussed today about the stolen nickels.
Safe bet that the blogger over at Indexed uses Venn diagrams as an affordable substitute for professional therapy.
Coudal is a Chicago graphic design house and their Fresh Signals feed drops an eclectic mix of links daily.
Snopes keeps my Fake or Legit feature stocked.
I raided Paul Grobman’s Vital Statistics awhile back for my miscellaneous opener problems.

If you guys have questions, comments, or good ideas I can steal be sure to use the contact form or post ’em here.

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Month: July 2007

Not To Dredge This Back Up

Chicago Hope

Typing Like A T-Rex

No Closure

OTF WHAT!