SquidRoad

It's a miracle we even shop at IKEA anymore

First, it was our kitchen cabinets. Three years ago, we go in to buy the other half our kitchen, only to find that collection has been discontinued. "Going in," by the way, was. All. The way. To DALLAS. By the time we finished the project, about 4 trips to Dallas. From Colorado.

Okay, so we made it an excuse to see family too. But I digress.

So now we're trying to get some patio furniture, and this is what I get from IKEA's lady-on-the-phone after learning a) I can't buy it online, and b) it's almost out of stock at the stores nearest to where we live.

LOTP: "Well, do you want to check another store--perhaps, one closer to you?"

Me: "Well, I live in IKEA-no-man's-land-Colorado. Utah or Texas are the closest IKEA locations to us."

LOTP: Nothing
(like she can't believe there's a HUGE HOLE in the middle of the country, the exact shape of an IKEA!)

Me: "We pretty much always have to make a trip for anything IKEA."

LOTP: Quiet...then: "Well, how about we check one of the four franchisee locations that can ship this to you? Would you like me to check inventory there?"

Me: (in my head, Is it me? Am I stupid? Or is she assuming I know what she's talking about?) "Oh. OK. I didn't know there was that option. Sure, let's check the other stores."

(on hold...)

LOTP: "Seattle seems to have plenty of inventory, as does Houston. Perhaps you'd like to call them directly, if I give you their numbers, so that they can ship to you?"

She gives me the numbers.

LOTP: "And IKEA-Centennial" (Denver) "should be opening in the next 2-3 years." (Like this will help me.)

Me: (chuckling) "Yeah, they keep telling us that."

LOTP: Silence, then: "Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?"

Uh, newwww. But thank you.

Less RSS = Less Learning

Been wondering what's been making me cranky the last few months.

Now, before you start shootin' holes in my feeling, let me submit that when I'm not learning something new, I get really, really bored. (For the record, busy does not equal bored.)

It's been about nine months since this fiasco happened and all my RSS feeds went Google Way. Aaargh. That's a challenge when a lot of your learning happens by following, oh, a few hundred blogs.

 
Also a few months ago, I mentioned how I'd gone kicking and screaming to Twitter. What pushed me over the edge was the idea of microblogging, following others' blogs and then pushing my own (or others') information in 140-character bites in an effort to share.

But it's really not the same.

While it takes a lot of content browsing to find what you want via RSS feeds, finding valuable content via Twitter is truly like looking for a needle in a haystack. It takes much, much longer and yields much, much less.

So imagine my information drought of the last several months. Heck, I'm surprised I can still read at all.

Exit my old RSS reader app. (Fine-- go to Big Brother Google!). Enter....enter...well, I'm trying a whole bunch of stuff. For starters, NewsFire and Times (screen shot shown, above).

NewsFire behaves more like my old sellout tool (I'm not at all upset about it)--makes it easy to drill down into it if you want to, although scanning info requires a few more brain cells (still looking for those). With Times, what you see is what you get--in a very slick interface. If you want to feel like you're reading the paper but online, this is your gig. Beautiful GUI...I nearly fell for it, but it's just a bit too pretty for me.

As much as I love good design, when I'm looking for information, that's all I need. Of the two RSS readers I'm trying, so far it's NewsFire.

And I'm reading three-syllable words again. That can't be all bad.

A picture can tell 1,000 words; sound tells more

I'm sitting in my second day of the Nieman Narrative Conference on Journalism @ Harvard. It's also my second time here in Boston for this event, which is definitely an in-the-trenches look at increasing forms of narrative storytelling.

The difference this year from the one in 2004 is that a new track on digital storytelling has exploded w/lots of topics, interest and participants. It's evident to me how traditional print media still is, with a very late adoption of technology.

My biggest takeaway so far is that you can use any kind of media you bring back from field reporting, and make something even better from it. Just depends on the strength of story from the different types of media gathered.

Is your sound better than images? Use it in a podcast. Is the sound OK, but images better? Mash 'em up and produce an audio slideshow. If they're both strong and add value you can run a web story, inserting audio as a standalone component in one spot, photos in another.

The example at left is a great way to use all the media you have for a project--well, ok, the best portions of it--and putting the strongest components where they will make the greatest impact.

Fun stuff that confirms for me that where we're headed at my work is right on track for where content is going in terms of being maximized.

Ahhhh....I can go home now.

The wandering stool

I don't know why this bugs me so much, but it does. And no, that's not a mushroom. More on that later.

I love Overstock.com, and because their service is typically excellent and inexpensive, it's not hard for me to pursue good deals from them. If it's something worthwhile, of course.

Since we're looking for versatile and fun seating, we thought buying two of these stools would give us flexibility for various dining space needs--one in our dining room, the other in our not-yet kitchen.

One stool arrived quickly--in less than a week. The other, however, is on a tour of the eastern seaboard. Every time I go online for a live chat with the Overstock folks, they don't acknowledge that this thing took a left turn when it should've gone right. They just say, "Wait it out, please, ma'am. It's coming to ya." Spent two days, in fact, in Keasbey, NJ, where their online chat staff must be from (is it the accent or the attitude that's the dead giveaway?).

Now the FedEx tracker says the delivery should take place tomorrow...all the way from Jersey. Right.

But wait, there's more

Our "new" house is in demo mode this week--demolition, I mean.

Check out these Before/After photos:

Now you see cabinets (left)...Now you don't. See the doorway at the end of the kitchen (left photo)? It's gone now, too.

Here's a look at that doorway from the other end...Before (left). At right, the After version. Much, much brighter.

You'll see in the right photo that the coat closet is now bigger. Meets the back of what was the pantry, which provided the only entry to the attic. So we redirected that. The old pantry door will be closed up (maybe tonight) and will now support a pullout pantry.

 

We've had to make lots of materials decisions this week--flooring for entryway and kitchen, countertops, appliances, backsplash tile (pending)...as well as a decision for more cabinets. We'll have no excuses for leaving anything out. And no reason not to cook at home.

I'm so excited about our new neighborhood. We're about 1 mile from the mountains, 1 mile from the highway, 1 mile from our favorite restaurant and just 50 steps from a library branch and neighborhood coffee joint.

Ahhhhhh.

Me & paper got a love thang

As if life with paper could get any better. Introducing the new Moleskine reporter's notebook! I'm going to need treatment for this one.

I have MJS

Maybe it's an identity crisis at heart, but I can't stop buying journals. Can't pick which one to write in, either. I've decided to call this problem Multiple-Journal Syndrome.

It's probably not so uncommon. This guy has it bad. But I kind of like his little habit. So much that it might be time to get the new Cahier. Nice schtupf.

All I need is a nice pen, something good to write and to figure out how to write as fast as I type.

TypeNavigator: Visual font search system

File under SuperCool: TypeNavigator is the first interactive visual font search system.

Now, you don't need to know the exact name of your font. But, like everyone's favorite kind of client, you'll know it when you see it. (Or you can search by font name or designer if you know more about the name or foundry than the look.)

Nighttime confetti

Can't believe it--it's snowing again. And it's cold, too. This stuff is sticking. Chances are good I'll have some ice scraping to do in the AM. When will this cold, wet winter end??

Look on the bright side: There are 20 days until spring. (Self: Yes, but did you know we'll still get a springtime dumping of about a foot of snow in April or May...or even July? Huh? Did you know that? Huh?)

And this weekend...a whopping 60 degrees. Yippee.

On a different note: I used to love to get this magazine. Now, you can have Before & After for free via PDF download. If you're a design freak, it'll do you good.

UPDATE: I learned today the PDF version of B&A is for print subscribers. Sorry if you got your hopes up like I did.