Month: June 2005

OK, I’ll admit it, I’ve tried the online dating thing. And I don’t want to brag, but I’ll tell you that I’ve experienced a pretty consistent degree of success. And by consistent, I mean a regular finite amount. And by finite amount, I mean, none.

Now, if you happen to be reading this and I happend to meet you through an online dating service and it didn’t happen to work out: I’m sure that it was me and not you, the chemistry just wasn’t there, I wanted to take a break from dating, the distance between us was too great, difference in our values is too much to overcome, etc., blah, blah, yadda-yadda. Please don’t be offended, I’m just trying to help others. (In other words, I’m asking you to please don’t slash my tires. Again.)

I am by no means an expert, I haven’t tried all of these services, but I’ve been around the block and thought I might share some observations I’ve made as a service to those who are considering taking the plunge:

• e|Harmony.com – From the ads, you would expect this service to be the best. From the price you pay, you would expect personal concierge service with every date. With their advertisements strategically aimed at the sitting-at-home-alone eating-ice-cream-demographic (I saw these ads on Baby Story once. That’s just evil.) and their patented “29 dimensions of compatibility” claim, you would expect their offices would be filled with dozens of server rooms crunching submitted user profiles and a team of Ivy league educated psychologists analyzing the results. As best I can tell from the matches I get, the only factor used in selecting matches is based on a complicated algorithm called, “round-robin.” The other thing I hate about e|Harmony (other than the smugness of Dr. Neil Clark Warren and the pointless use of the “e” and the “|”) is the fact that you can’t be proactive in searching yourself. You’re at the mercy of the computer, um, league office, and you just have to sit and wait for your turn at bat.
• True – This is a relatively new service, they also claim to have a matching service based on 99 “relationship factors” (that’s 70 more than e|Harmony, and that must be better!!) but they also have an added gimmick: CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS. From the site: “All members who contact you are screened through the largest database of criminal records on the Internet.” Awesome. But that’s not all…they will PROSECUTE MARRIED PEOPLE if they find out that you’ve signed up for the service and you’ve lied about your marital status. Now, I may be wrong, but if you’ve signed up for this service and the threat of potential legal action played a major factor in you signing up, chances are you might have some trust issues. May not be the best place to go looking for a soulmate. (Especially if you’ve done time and didn’t get that prison marriage annulled.)
• Yahoo! Personals – Hmmm. “We’ve got a search engine, let’s do a dating service.” I think it’s based on the same platform as Yahoo! Autos and Yahoo! Horoscopes. I for one will wait on Google to get in on the action, I can imagine that service would have one button “I’m getting lucky,” press it and a satellite image of your soulmate will appear with directions to her house, important telephone numbers, sexual history, and credit report. Since they already know this about you anyway, it wouldn’t be that much harder to implement.
• Match.com – The dean of online dating services, and my favorite. They make no pretext about it– as says in the title, it’s just a matching service. There are no claims of scientific analysis, you’re responsible for seeking people out, you can get out of it what you put into it. They also keep adding new tools to find people, just a few weeks ago they added a “Who’s been looking at me” feature where you can see who has seen your profile. I like to call ths “stalker mode” but it lets you know who has been poking around in your profile. Great stuff, really.

Now if none of these mainstream sites appeal to you, or you’re looking for someone very specific, there are hundreds of other specialty dating sites out there. For example, MillionareMatch.com (for the wealthy), AbundantLove.com (for the portly), LDSmingle.com (for the Mormons). You get the picture.

I guess all I have left to say is good luck. (And be sure to check out my profile at MatriSearch.Com, the best Indian Matrimonial site I’ve found so far.)

They released what is about the fiftieth final design for the new World Trade Center replacement this morning. Looking over the renderings and the descriptions of the new building, it’s pretty much lost all of the elements, symbolism, and meaning of the orginal Libeskind design.

Personally, I never liked that design anyway. I thought it was a bit contrived, I thought the symbolism of echoing the Statue of Liberty was wrong. (Besides, it just it looked funky.) The twin towers of the orginal World Trade Center had their own symbology, when they were built they were the tallest in the world, a “look at what we choose to do” mentality. “In fact, we’ll build it twice.” It’s that spirit that was attacked when the 9/11 terrorists chose to hit our financial and military centers. (And potentially governmental depending on where the United flight was going). Some say that is an attack on our freedom, but I believe it was more an attack on our will. The September 11 attacks haven’t curtailed our freedom as Americans. Only we can do that to ourselves. What they were attempting to do was frighten us into giving up those freedoms through fear, because they believe us to be weak willed. Will is applied freedom.

What we choose to build back shows what our will has become. What we choose to build back is the legacy of our answer for what happened on September 11.

Now I’m not advocating what Donald Trump has proposed (in a publicity stunt prior to the finale of the Apprentice), building back exactly what was there before–one foot taller. But I do think that this latest design is getting closer to what we need to build. Now, all they have to do is do a copy/move in their cad program, build a second tower and we’ll be on the right track. Remember…We built the Pentagon back exactly like it was. And that was without any debate at all.

But that’s not going to happen. This last redesign was the result of the fear that the building was too close to a major street and thus too accessible to being taken out with a truck bomb. The fact is, whatever we build will be a target. Short of not building anything at all, there’s no way to eliminate all risk, which is what the committee responsible for design (always a mistake) has chosen to be the driving factor. What the project has always needed was a person with the vision and the will to see it through. Currently the only thing providing this leadership is the fear of another 9/11. Perhaps that’s not a fair assessment, because there are hundreds of factors to consider, most notably for this project to work economically people will have to feel safe inside the new buildings.

But I think the economics of this project aren’t as important as getting the symbolism right. If these buildings that we build back sit empty for decades, we still will have said to the world (and the terrorists), “You may try, but our resolve is firm.” The world won’t care about occupancy rates. Just the images they see in the paper.

Both Thursday Night Fever and the Rexblog are reporting what I saw on a sign last night at Starbucks, today is free ice cream day. Unfortunately, when I clicked the link to find out more I was presented with this page:

Now I’m wondering if that means that I have to bring my own cookies to get the free ice cream. Doesn’t seem like such a deal anymore. Or maybe I’m just missing something.

Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 12:22:53 -0400
From: “William M. Morgan” <...@...>
To: Timothy Morgan <...@...
Subject: Bsted Keboard

Ti,
I ave a proble, te ,,,. ‘, kes o laptop are o loger workig.

I have a problem, the 6,7,y,u,h,j,n,m keys on my laptop are no longer working. The on screen keyboard in the accessibility folder for the mobility impaired works fine. (Could I possibly be able to apply for a disability?) The keyboard on the dock also works as it should. The control panel keyboard hardware window tells me that “This device is working properly.” I don’t think so. Do you have any ideas? Would this be a hardware or software problem? Virus? The only thing I have done different lately is download the new next generation NetZero HiSpeed accelerated connection software. They said it is so fast I would think it was broadband. I do, but then again sometimes when driving home from work, I imagine my Thunderbird is an Eldorado.

Love,
Dad

My father and I have the same sense of humor, you know.

Today is take your dog to work day. While my employer doesn’t have an official policy on this, Abby and I celebrate this more often than I’d care to admit. Not during the day, of course, but if I have to work late Abby has been known to make the trip back to the office with me. I’d feel guilty leaving her alone as many hours as I’ve been working lately.

Since my dog doesn’t move around a whole lot anyway so she’s pretty suited to the office environment. Normally she’ll just lay at my feet and take a nap, sometimes she’ll go exploring or hang out with other co-workers who are also burning the midnight oil. She doesn’t like the cleaning crew’s vacuum, but to be totally honest, neither do I.

Late the other night (the fifth consecutive night in a row) she started making noises in that low “hey Tim I’m talking to you” bark that she does, so I took her outside to relieve herself amongst the firm’s landscaping. She didn’t stop in the bushes like she normally does, she made a beeline to the car. It was great. She was ready to go home (and I was, too.)

Alas, I won’t be taking Abby into the office today, but I will be checking the Abbycam to see if she’s done with those building sections I left for her to draw.

According to the City Paper and Governor Bredesen’s website there’s going to be a new Tennessee license plate next year. The City Paper commented on the criticism of the current one, created during the Sundquist administration:

The current plate authorized under the Sundquist Administration drew criticism for what some termed its lack of imagination.

Honestly, the only problem I have with the current plate is that the former governor currently isn’t making them himself.

(via Nashville is Talking)

Note: Yes, I know I’m not usually outwardly political on this blog, but when current events meet graphic design I’m there.

As you might could tell from my last post, last night I went to the Aimee Mann concert at Cannery Row. The show was good, though I thought the stage set up was kind of strangely placed. That said, a good time was had by all.

There was this one guy wearing a “SPAM” t-shirt as pictured to the right. At one point in the evening he passed in front of me, but I couldn’t help but to stick my arm out to keep him from passing.

Tim: “I’m sorry sir, you can’t go through here.”
Shirt guy: “Huh?”
Tim: “No, its OK. I just always wanted to be a spam-blocker.”

He didn’t think it was funny, either.

Dean, if you are reading, turn to 100.1. Aimee says she is on the radio.