Day: September 14, 2011

A Pattern Language

"When I was a child, I thought
God was disappointed
whenever some distraction interrupted...
Now I know that God expects such interruptions,
for He knows our frailty.
It is completion that surprises Him."

--From the God Whispers of Han Qing-jao

Noah loves playing with patterns. Colors, shapes, letters, lego pieces, alternation, similarity… the whole gamut.

But he also gets upset when for one reason or another he can’t complete a pattern the way he’d like. Lack of resources, lack of concentration. What have you. He likes a nice tidy world from that perspective (although not from many others…)

There’s much yet to teach.

On Pacifism (Part of what I wrote on 9/14/2001)

A moment form my personal Wayback Machine: On Pacifism: “I hate war. I hate destruction. I cry my way through the reports of those who cannot yet release the hope that their loved ones will return despite what they have seen. You can feel the disturbance in the City. Not just in the quiet, or the change in rhythm, but in the disruption of lives. Those “lost” are present, infused with the anguish of those they left behind.”

There’s some more with emergency information and quotes and pictures lost in the transition from one bit of software to another. The release of anxiety I felt when all the first responder folks I know had checked in with their families. But I can still feel the changes from back then if I care to.

We avoided the coverage this weekend as the 10th anniversary passed. I didn’t want to relive those moments. But I did the love the story of Camp America, which now closed it doors, its goal accomplished, and of the flag that has been mended and patched by folks all over… and then part of me wondered what I wrote…

Anyway…

I pray for peace.

The New BostonGlobe.com

The New BostonGlobe.com:

I’m beyond impressed with the new Boston Globe web site. It’s the best I’ve ever seen. Congrats to @beep and the rest of the designer/developer team. As +Craig Hockenberry said on Twitter, other newspapers are going to look at it and either realize they need to imitate it, or they’ll keep dying.

If you have a big monitor, resize your browser window from very narrow through to full screen. Go very slowly, and watch as the layout adapts to the new size, every step of the way. The images resize, the number of columns will change from 1 to 2 to 3, each column’s width changes… it’s brilliant.

(What I’ve mentioned here is just the first-glance stuff. Look around, the attention to usability and detail is intense.)

[Impressive work.]
Source: Truer Words – A Journal