Allin Kahrl's blog about Things Worth Having, inspired by The Last Viridian Note's assertion that life is enriched by 'radically improved everyday things'.
i love papyrus! i use it on projects for school :-P
Maggie:
especially history projects LOL
Maggie:
gotta posterboard timeline for ancient greece due? papyrus is your font
Maggie:
:-D
Me:
You deserve a smack in your dirty mouth.
Maggie:
geek
Me:
In truth, the tragic irony of Modernism, like so many other movements, including Communism, is that it marketed itself on liberation and equality, and really just wanted to supplant the established order with its own.
Me:
People gotta get over being offended by tacky fonts.
Maggie:
lol
Maggie:
how did this become about modernism?
Maggie:
you have a neat brain.
Me:
Helvetica is the frigging mascot of Modernism.
Me:
If you haven't seen the documentary yet, YOU MUST.
Maggie:
heh
Maggie:
okay i'll watch it later :)
Me:
I guess, my personal beef with Comic Sans, Papyrus, et al is this:
Maggie:
oh baby, you're on a roll
Me:
They are gestural lettering styles. They're meant to look handmade, but they're not.
Me:
They're not ugly on their own, but when you repeat those shapes over and over and over, it gets to be like the rustic tchotchkes the sell at Hobby Lobby. The very attempt at authenticity destroys all possibility of authenticity.
Me:
Unemotional fonts and artistic handwriting both look better. The defendants manage to distill the worst qualities of both.
Me:
Monotony and quaintness. It's like a damn Thomas Kinkade painting!
A portable game device which could run both beloved GBA games and some DS
games that I’ve missed out on while being a PSP adherent
Access to what is now a wide selection of cheap used games for both
platforms
Reasonably sound build-quality (i.e. nice to hold)
More Nintendo-like durability engineering than I got with my
fragile-like-a-camcorder PSP
In spite of my interest in the device, I entered the realm of stylus
gaming with extreme scepticism having hated every minute with my Palm V
ages ago.
What I got:
Yes
GameStop is a curse and a blessing, here. They keep
the prices of recent/popular used games mercilessly high, but they sometimes
have gems that don’t sting when you pay for them. I got N+ DS for $10 and
Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance for $6. Mission accomplished.
Yeah, for the most part. There are some surprisingly sharp (or should I
say “crisp”?) edges on some parts, in contrast to the glossy rounded-ness of
the PSP, but tolerances are tight and nothing seems unintentional. I like
the textured plastic on most surfaces (I’ve got the red&black model). It
feels more like a toy, meaning something fun, and less like an expensive
device with which I should somehow be more productive. More Jeep, less BMW.
Also, the matte-black plastic on the inside has the added benefit of acting
like the masking curtains around a movie screen. In low light, the screens
really pop due to the lack of visual noise around them. The one fail of
which I have become aware is that Nintendo has changed the specs of the
stylus at least once, probably more, so not all replacements fit all DSes. I
got some which don’t fit in the slot of my DS Lite, or my partner’s 1st-gen
DS. It’s an utterly absurd thing to do with the most easy-to-lose portable
game instrument ever.
Yup. See above.
The stylus is not epiphanical, but it is way better than I expected. The
key is the liberal use of sound effects and animations as haptic feedback.
Meteos is lots of fun played with the stylus, and lots of not with the
buttons. Picross is also a convincing argument. Metroid Prime even surprised
me (I’ve been playing Marathon and Quake with a Trackman Wheel for a long
damn time). I end up in a weird diagonal posture while I play unless I can
prop one corner up on something, but I guess I like it.
It’s too bad that Nintendo is making us choose between GBA titles and
DSiWare, but whatever. Their loss, as far as I’m concerned, since I’m pretty
sure they don’t get royalties for the used games I’d rather buy. I am free
of regrets.
Bonus:
I picked up a Pelican 1020 Micro Case at REI. Pelican’s specs don’t make this clear, but the DS Lite fits snugly in the top half of the clamshell with a
good amount of padded space underneath for game cards, spare stylus, power
adapter.
