Where’s my big red pen?

Before you read this post, please understand that I was in the mood to rant when I wrote it.  I rarely write with such a negative tone, so please forgive me for giving in to the temptation this time.  Seeing that it’s Monday, it seemed fitting, and as they say, nobody’s perfect.

Last winter, when I was looking for a new job in the hopes of leaving the retail world, I sent out email inquiries and resumes by the dozen.  Praise the Lord, He provided that new job opportunity in late December, but occasionally I still receive a reply to one of my applications.

One such reply arrived just the other day, and I read it simply out of curiosity.  I don’t normally respond to things like this, other than to say “no thanks” or “please take me off your email list,” but I couldn’t let this particular missive pass without writing back.  Let me share an excerpt from the email and perhaps you’ll understand why, as a writer, former copy editor, and communications major, I was aghast at this ostensibly “professional” solicitation.  

Reblog: If Google Maps Were Real

What one website has spawned more imitations, more jokes, or more additions to the English language than Google.com?  You know you’ve told a friend to “google it” at one time or another, and that every holiday, you visit this search engine giant to see what the day’s logo looks like.

Artwork by Alejo Malia

Well, Spanish artist Alejo Malia has published his own vision of Google’s influence in a set of images entitled Google’s World, one of which is pictured at left.

“[The illustrations] depict a world in which all the elements of Google Maps — place markers, public transit symbols and even the yellow street view guy — are completely real and physical objects looming over our buildings, streets and heads. [But] it’s not his first literal imagination of the technological world of the web; he also produced an image that incorporated Facebook’s ‘Like’ button into a real photograph.”

Read more at “If Google Maps Were Real: An Artist’s Vision, or visit the artist’s Flickr gallery.

Learning something new

The old adage is true – you learn something new every day.  For me, they’re weird things, more often than not, but they’re definitely new!

In my job, I have the opportunity to learn about all kinds of exotic and unusual places.   You might remember my description of the peculiar Monastery of Jumping Cats earlier this year.

"Jambay Lhakhang, Bumthang, Bhutan" (2007) by Kenro Izu

More recently, I’ve come across many exotic-sounding place names; it’s such fun to Google them, to discover their meanings and/or pronunciations.  One of my favorite place-names is the district of Bumthang in Bhutan.