Nobody's Fool

The Chamber of Secrets

I am not a Harry Potter fan. I read the first book and it was OK, and I read half of the second book and lost interest. So sue me. I'm just not that into you, Harry.

However, I do love my spoilers. I don't know why, but I always peek ahead to find out what happens in books. Suspense annoys me. Isn't that weird? I'm supposed to be a storyteller, but I get antsy about the very thing that makes storytelling fun. (It's that whole life as destination rather than journey thing I was talking about in my last post, I guess.)

So I just googled around online to see if I could find out who dies in the book that just came out. Because I know enough about the characters to be invested, or at least mildly interested, in the shocking secret, but not to put all the work into finding out myself.

And, God, can Harry Potter fans keep a good secret! There are thousands of people online who read the entire book this weekend, and everybody refuses to post spoilers. I couldn't find one spoiler, and I looked as hard as I could without getting in trouble with the corporate Internet abuse police. Good thing to know if I ever have a secret I need to entrust to somebody. Share it with a muggle.

Nineteen seventy-four

Some bad interior design from the year I was born.

I swear I had a really bad dream that was set in that green kitchen once.

The '70s were creepy.

Ring around the rosie

The T.O.M. ring is one of those things that, at the jewelry magazine, I would have gotten a press release for, wrinkled my brow at, made fun of with Liz, then shoved guiltily into a drawer until we needed to fill some last-minute space.

Seriously, it's an original, fun, and ultra-ambitious idea. But I just keep thinking that if I had a "Traveling Lover," (such as in the case of Colleen and Federico, the couple under "Scenario" who have so obviously been plucked from the Photodisc archives), he would probably constantly leave the ring in his hotel room next to his iPod charging on the bedside table, so that my finger would be eternally cold, leaving me more lonely and depressed than ever.

I'd be calling his hotel room every 15 minutes, trying to imagine which beautiful PR industry woman he had sneaked off with to linger over a long, expensive dinner for which he wouldn't be paying a dime. (Oh wait. I do that anyway.)

Then at the end of the month, as the final insult, I'd get the massive wireless bill for the ring that was driving a larger and larger rift between my "Traveling Lover" and me.

Come to think of it, any person who has an ounce of insecurity or paranoia in her should not own this ring! It should carry a warning label!

tinker tinker little star

(In case the world needed any more proof that I'm one humongo geek) I've been having way too much fun with CSS style sheets the past week.

Not as much fun as these people of course. But fun.

I'm redesigning my freelance Web site for the first time in something like 3 years. The last time I redesigned, CSS was still a little sketchy on some browsers. But times have changed and Microsoft rules more of the world than ever before, so now I can play with style sheets to my heart's content.

I also selected an animated GIF over Flash this week, which probably renders me a Web designer outcast, but not sure I care.

It's been so long since I've designed a Web site that I didn't really realize how much more sophisticated my skills had become in HTML, Javascript, Photoshop, information architecture, and, oh yeah, pure design. I'm more willing to take chances and experiment than I used to be, and more patient too, so that I can endlessly tinker with a design that isn't quite right until it finally is. It's an incredibly satisfying feeling. Except it takes me three weeks to design a site rather than the three days it would take an experienced designer.

The Art of Being an Art Student

I am taking this class on Monday nights. It was an attempt to get back to basics and learn design from the beginning (because I have always described myself as a wannabe designer).

However, I am weekly reminded why I never became a professional artist in the first place, why words are really so much more my forte. I am clumsy and awkward around all things visual. It's as humiliating as being bad at dating.

More than anything, I feel like I did when taking art classes in college (when the grade really did matter — I can at least now console myself that the Cs I'm pulling in aren't dragging down an otherwise spotless GPA). I feel like I'm never quite hitting the mark, because I'm not quite clear what the mark is. It feels like every time I think I understand the rules, the instructor changes them on me.

Anyway, what I'm finding is that, out of insecurity, I latch on to what I do really well, which is minimalism. I'm quite good at minimalism. White space, I get. I haven't had the criticism yet that there's too much going on in my designs.

Update

My idealism won out. That's as it should be.

Join Me in the $100 Revolution

I just made a commitment to defeating George W. Bush by contributing to Howard Dean's presidential campaign.

If two million Americans each contribute $100 to the Dean campaign, we will not only defeat Bush-- we will change America.

George Bush is raising $200 million from the special interests for a primary in which he has no opponent. He and Karl Rove want to spend that money distorting the things that we-- and Howard Dean-- believe in.

I believe in restoring the American community. I believe in restoring our nation's high moral purpose in world affairs. I believe in a better America, and I believe we will only get there together.

That's why I'm asking you to join me in the $100 revolution. You don't have to contribute the full amount today. But by joining me in making a contribution to the Dean campaign today-- whatever amount you can afford-- we will show that there are two million Americans willing to go toe to toe against George W. Bush and his special interests. We will show that the American people have what it takes to revive our democracy. And we will show that a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.

Join me today by visiting http://www.deanforamerica.com/revolution. Together we will take our country back.