Yesterday, I uninstalled my family’s old microwave from the wall on which it hung for over a decade. The darn thing weighed 90+ pounds. The thing is, though, I had help (and I needed help; I had no idea how to get the contraption off the wall). My grandpa Bup was there: he’s 81. The thing is, Bup is still downright sprightly - he brought over a bucket of tools appropriate for the job, and immediately set to work.
Now, the majority of a wall-mounted microwave’s weight sits on the lower lip of a wall plate; the reason for this is twofold: (1) this distributes the force of the microwave over 4+ screws and (2) hanging and unhanging the microwave can be done by setting it on the lip and rotating it into place. Thus, getting the microwave off the wall was pretty easy — the biggest difficulty confronted was removing the back plate on which the microwave sat. In order to support the weight of this thing in dry wall, toggle bolts with socket cap screws were used. Removal should’ve been, in theory, easy. However, it seemed that the metal of the toggle’s corroded, causing them to grip the screws much too tightly. To remove the hardware, Bup and myself had to push and pull in opposite directions. I was pushing a drill set on reverse into the wall while he was pulling back to set the wings of the toggle against the opposite side of the dry wall. This meant the screw could actually unscrew instead of simply spinning in the wall. So there we were, me and my 81 year old grandpa, pouring sweat into our tug of war and trying to get these screws out of the wall.
I can’t believe how strong my grandpa is for someone very nearly 4 times my age. In addition to the mounting plate difficulty, he carried the microwave out of the house with me! I know exactly how much work it is to carry the thing (after all, I was on the other end), and I was amazed at his stamina. It’s just awesome that Bup is still doing so well; I can only hope I have that much energy down the road. After all the work was done, we all went out to Perkin’s; there’s something very grounding about spending time with three generations of your family.
I’ve been thinking about the prefix “auto.” Scientifically, there’s the autoionization of water, autotroph, autoclave, etc. So, of course, the word “automobile” makes sense in that the machine appears “self-mobile.” These all are very simple on their own, but it is interesting to see the intersection between science and an Americanism. (Forgive me, my use of that term is a bit of a misnomer, given that the shortening of the word resulted in the word “auto,” which is the actual Americanism).
I’ve been thinking about selling t-shirts for tumbledry, so I’ve been kicking some designs around in my head. In case anyone is curious: the shirts would be American Apparel style 2001, color: “up in the air.” I recently put this together:
The issue right now is one of critical mass. I don’t believe we have a large enough group of people willing to buy a tumbledry shirt (as of yet). At some point, I could be convinced. In the meantime, the community grows, and we will keep t-shirts in mind as an option.
Linkin Park’s newest album Minutes to Midnight has what I consider to be almost perfect cover art. The band is presented in a graphically strong yet photographically interesting way and there is an absolutely stunning logotype set above their heads. Said logotype is constructed from a relentlessly powerful typeface, with a treatment reminiscent of the famous Metallica logo. It actually looks like the Metallica logo grew up, matured, got a job, and combed its hair but still has a solid core of attitude and rock.
So, because I was unable to find the answer through a simple Google search, tonight I attempted to answer the question “what is the name of the font on the cover of Linkin Park’s newest album, Minutes to Midnight?” So, what is the name of the font on the cover of Linkin Park’s newest album, Minutes to Midnight? The bottom line is, I still don’t know. Oh, and if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a much larger version of this logotype on the cover I keep talking about.
The “What the Font?” tool at MyFonts.com, when fed this logo, concluded that the font is in the Futura family. I should have noticed this before, as Futura is a very famous font. Volkswagen has been using it since the sixties for its corporate font, and Stanley Kubrick loved to use it in super ultra heavy weights on his movie posters. For example, take a look at the poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey. The thing is, the weight of the font on this album art makes the Kubrick weight look skinny. This is ultra super hero thick.
Regardless of the font, the spiky modifications that were made to the letter forms are what really give the design its flare. I like it, it’s some font similar to Futura, and I’m going to leave it at that. Hopefully someone from the online world can build on what I have found.
Last night I was putting in a little time at Lifetime Fitness lifting weights. The pace was laid back, generally slower than I usually go. Despite the relaxed environment, there was still one man at the gym out to ruin it for the rest of us. I will call two separate transgressions committed by this man to your attention:
One
Why it struck him as a good idea to use a phone as a boombox is beyond me. However, there he was, listening to music through his phone’s built in speakers, which were rather loud. So, as I’m lifting there’s the sound of Sarah McLachlan from the club’s speakers clashing with the tinny sound of gangster rap emanating from the cell phone of this faux-pas machine of a man.
Two
I’m back at the site of Transgression One when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a giant red exercise ball fly 15 feet through the air across the gym and hit a mirror, distorting the reflections looking back in astounded silence. Turns out this guy, while talking on his cell phone, happened across one of the exercise balls… and decided to give it a boot of such force that even the likes of David Beckham (had they been there) would’ve taken note. Now, this ball he kicked is not a basketball size contraption… no no. This is an exercise ball about 2 and a half feet across - brand named Resist-A-Ball - so it’s hard to miss one when airborne. Incidentally, I’d never seen one airborne before last night. The scene got even more bizarre as Mr. Inconsiderate walked away from the scene of the crime. It turns out this poor woman had simply set the ball down to put a piece of equipment away, while her back was turned… kick. She grabbed it as it continued to bounce across the floor, and cast a fierce look of confusion and anger at the back of the man who had sent her equipment on an aerial adventure.
Certainly, we all have our moments when we are unaware of the people around us and we do silly things, but I have never seen such a display of contempt for the public.
The bottom line: this man was completely unmoored from the dock of reason and floating about aimlessly in the seas of irrationality.
An update from Metacritic, on the eve of the release of The Simpsons Movie: it is slotting in between Hot Fuzz and Knocked up, sporting a strong rating of “82.” This is high enough to merit the movie “universal acclaim.”
Since the release of the film, the unusual title suffix “Electric Boogaloo,” a reference to a funk-oriented dance style from the 1970s, has become a running joke concerning movie sequels.
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It has also been used to lampoon the actual name of a sequel when it is found to be ridiculous or disappointing.
You see, simply put “electric boogaloo” after anything that is ridiculous, misfounded, or silly overall, and you’ve suddenly done the work of many adjective-heavy sentences.
