Things I Think and Want to Remember: March 2009

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mercer Island Half Marathon

Last week I had a fabulous run on Mercer Island. Here are the results:

Mercer Island Rotary Half Marathon
Half Marathon Run
March 22, 2009 in Mercer Island, WA
Summary
Number of Finishers: 1,619
Number of Females: 799
Number of Males: 820
Average Time: 1:59:12
Chad Blanchard
bib number: 55
age: 35
gender: M
location: Seattle, WA
overall place: 160 out of 1620
division place: 31 out of 180
gender place: 132
time: 1:35:59
pace: 7:15
chip time: 1:35:01

I'm proud; that's my best run ever. I ran strong throughout and surpassed my own goals.

Official photography is by brightroom, and is, as usual for these things, vastly overpriced. There are a couple good ones of me in my endorphin haze, but I don't plan to splurge on the official versions.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Fonts

I've developed an eye for fonts, and it's a blessing and a curse. I'm not a giant fan of Arial, but it's reasonable enough. Mostly it's a Helvetica rip-off, and there's nothing wrong with Helvetica.

I want to like Georgia, but the spacing isn't quite right, and the C and h of my name kinda run together.

My favorite font is Gotham, which is probably best known for its use on the Obama campaign materials; it's also the new official font for the Seattle Children's logo.

Now, whenever I walk (or ride) down the street, I see how many different fonts we're surrounded by. Many are bolded, italicized, some logos are a mixture of different fonts; many are pure ugly, many clash with each other. Some are exceptionally cold and inhuman. That's the cure. The blessing is that I've learned to see another layer in the world. Most of us never even think about fonts, let alone notice and admire them. Yet, they stare us in the face, almost constantly.

I'm going to go and stare at the Gotham font some more. It calms me, like a beer and a sunset.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Battlestar Galactica Props 13

Battlestar Galactica Props 13
Originally uploaded by modernkutuzov

Look what I got! Many of the props from the series are for sale on ebay, and I snagged a couple! It was just in time, too. Now that the cat's been racking up some vet bills, I probably couldn't afford them now!