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I have successfully transferred from Doteasy to Dreamhost. I loved Doteasy’s free hosting services—you get quite a bit for $0—but I really wanted to switch over to WordPress. I’ve been playing with it at work, and the interface is fantastic.
Want an easy way to freak me out via Gtalk? Send me an unsolicited link without explanation. Thanks to the days of ICQ and AIM, I will assume it is a Trojan and message you back, “Do you have a virus?”
But if you don’t respond, curiosity will overcome me and I will Google the link to see what other people are writing. If it doesn’t seem like a virus, I might even visit it.
That’s what happened this morning when the boy sent me a link to Michael J. Fox News. I am inclined to believe that his computer is not infected, but I am equally inclined to believe he’s sent me something tasteless and borderline derogatory. Which is exactly what he did.
Michael J. Fox News went viral this morning, and it’s awful—and possibly brilliant.
Once you’ve picked your jaw off the floor, you can make a donation to Team Fox here. They are not behind the linked site.
The real creators behind Michael J. Fox News is Webdemic. They are raising funds independent of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. They hope to raise $15,000 for the organization. I am reserving judgment until Team Fox releases a statement.
It raises a few questions. If the site continues to spread, will we start to see more sites like this? Ugly and offensive, but people will talk about them. Would it have made a difference if Team Fox was behind or supported the site?
So far, Webdemic has raised just under $300, despite the number of hits. Perhaps the low amount of donations is testament to the flaws in their strategy? People are talking, but they aren't taking action.
I think there are lots of ways to create something that people will want to share--look at Volkswagon's Darth Vader commercial. But I have no doubt that there will be imitators in the coming months, hoping for easy infamy and traffic stats, and that worries me.
I am such a geek when it comes to tools like this. I remember when my sister found a program that allowed you to turn your handwriting into a font about six or so years ago, and as a 15- and 17-year-old, we tried to use it. The program was bulky and complicated, and the results were disastrous.
Today, Lifehacker linked this nifty little tool. FontCapture is a web-based utility that allows you to turn any handwriting into a font. The steps are simple--you print and fill out a pdf form with all the letters you might conceivably use. Next, you scan the document in, and FontCapture turns it into a usable font.
I'm really impressed by the simplicity. I tried it out this morning, and within minutes I had my own font--and it really looks like my penmanship, too. The results are very clean, even when changing the color and size:
The utility is still in its beta stage, but I can already imagine how useful it will be in Web design, comics, digital scrapbooking and more. I know I am going to hold off telling my sister about the tool until after midterms, otherwise she'll be playing with it for days.
Today feels like my day off in ages. Over the weekend I worked two double shifts at the Fox theatre. I got in at about 11 PM last night and went to bed. I didn't wake up until noon today. I am enjoying working merchandise--it's a nice change--but I am exhausted when I come home.
I'd like to see Wicked one of the days I have off. I have only seen the middle forty minutes of each act from the televisions in the lobby. The tour cast is fantastic, and the show is fun. If you're in town, definitely swing by.
I updated my recommended reading to the left, and also my summer book list. I am getting a lot of reading done during breaks.
Do you like the new look? I love it. I've spent my past two evenings fighting with Gimp, my Graphire4 Tablet and my mouse to get the header image right. My Pen tablet won't work with Vista--what can you do? I love Gimp's ease-of-use, though.
So, yeah, that's supposed to be me. :)
I've also merged the blog with the main website. I'm still working out some bugs from the template. It's been ages since I used style sheets. Thank goodness for Blogger Buster! I like the results so far. What do you think?
