OrangeCoat

Where no appeal to a carpenter's level is possible, sensitivity becomes necessary.

-Page 157, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

"Where is everyone getting these notebooks from?" Brock asks as I walk into our meeting with my red, Swag Club notebook under my arm.

Before I could answer, in a tone that is half Seinfeld talking to Newman and half self-realization Brock says simply, "Kamran."

This, to me, is the purpose of swag and as the leader of Swag Club, Kamran practices what he sells better than most business men I know.

Kurt Vonnegut reads from his yet, at the time, to be released Breakfast of Champions. It's great stuff throughout the 30 minute clip, but my favorite part is hearing Vonnegut laugh at his own stuff from time to time. Good for him.

I almost walked out of Avatar after a few moments when I realized the subtitles were set in Papyrus. I have to imagine that Avatar's digital imaging team was not thrilled about the selection either. Maybe they are the ghostwriters behind Papyrus's open letter to James Cameron thanking him for legitimizing a typeface that, until now, was relegated to "New Age spa owners, suburban party planners, and young couples looking to save money by making their own wedding invitations".

Dogfish Head Brewery on why taking the middle road is for fools (or at least not for them). Found via @untamedbeer.

Jonathan Moore points us in the direction of a cool time lapse video of the process and work that went into creating Mindcastle's Christmas card.

I agree with pretty much the entire list of 10 obsolete technologies to kill in 2010. Of the 10 on the list my top three have to be:

1. The fax machine (for the 13th year in a row)
2. Land line phones
3. 'Cigar lighter receptacle' plugs in cars

and three not on the list but should be are

1. Internet Explorer 6
2. CRT Monitors (though OrangeCoat still uses 3 of them.)
3. Cable/ Dish TV packages. Every channel should be a la carte.

OrangeCoat Christmas Give-a-way

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We had a small party to reveal Dynamic Realty's new logo to their agents, friends and well-wishers. By all accounts it went well. My favorite decoration was a fun whiteboard illustration created by Roxy.

This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades: They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. they also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane.

-Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons