:: Momentary Flash of Genius ::

What's in this section?
These are little grains of genius that strike at unexpected moments. Keep in mind that what I consider "genius" may not be quite up to snuff with what *you* consider genius!

ROCK THE VOTE!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Be part of history and go vote!

Did you do it yet? Did you vote? Man, I dragged my butt out of bed at 6:30 am to make it to the polls before work. THAT was painful. No one can say that I never sacrificed for my country. I got there at 7:00 am and there was already a line out the door. Lucky (for me) some people were in the wrong location, so the line shrank a bit. Sucked to be them.

Really though it only took me 45 minutes to get through line and vote. I felt so...so...CIVIC! Like a good citizen! It’s a totally new feeling for me. 

I hope you’ve gone or are in line or are going some time today. DO IT! The time is now! GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!

Go Barack! You can DO IT!

(...and now to take lots of beta-blockers to stem the nervousness in my stomach!)

Gettin' Political

Monday, October 20, 2008

I think this is the first time in my life it’s been worth it to get political!

I’m registered to vote, and I’m actually gonna head over to the polling places instead of doing a lazy absentee ballot cuz who KNOWS what kind of shenanigans they’ll try to pull this year!

It’s the last day to register. Have you registered yet? Gonna vote? Huh? huh? huH? I feel slightly like a rabid squirrel with all this frenetic energy around the election. Someone is even going around the office today asking people if they’re registered. He’s got a ton of registration slips with him too. Go dood! Way to get people involved!

Did you all see this weekend’s Saturday Night Live? I have to admit that I haven’t seen SNL in YEARS. But they’re really milking this campaign for everything it’s worth. Amy Polar did a great job taking over for Palin in this rap she did for weekend update. You HAVE to check it out!

In the meantime, Go Rock the Vote!

The Weekend that Redeemed Everything

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Suffice it to say, things have gone really well this weekend.

For those of you who know me, you know that the last couple of months have been pretty trying in one respect. This weekend, God moved and made all things well. My heart is bursting with thanks and joy. I can’t write much more about it in this public forum, but to all of you who have been praying for me and mine, THANK YOU! Our prayers have begun to be answered!

Edward Tufte makes me heart analytical design

Friday, August 22, 2008

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a conference held by Edward Tufte, expert in informational graphics and information design.

I have seen books by Tufte, but never quite got what they were about. They are full of beautiful graphics, but I never stopped to read them. Not until my friend at work told me more about him and the stuff he does.

So I went to the seminar all revved up. The room was packed with almost 400 people! And while most people, I’m sure, were sent by their companies and seemed mildly bored, but I begged and pleaded to be allowed to attend. It was totally worth the groveling.

On one end, you could see how big a difference good design could make. Tons of complex data could be displayed in an easy to read and even enjoyable format! Bad design makes your eyes want to cross because its just information overload. It’s hard to describe without an example. I’ll take one example from his latest book, Beautiful Evidence. I’ll try to do it justice:

Below is a lithograph by Charles Joseph Minard depicting the losses in men, their movements, and the temperature of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign.

Here is my slightly annotated version so you can see what these things mean. The yellow box indicates the zoomed image below.

You can visually see how the army gets thinner and thinner as they march toward Moscow. They started with 422,000 men. By the time they reach Moscow, they are down to 100,000. The black line shows their retreat. The cold of winter takes its toll and the troops keep dying. At one point, half the army is lost when they break through the ice on one of the rivers.

Here you see the comparison of how many started and how many survived the Russia Campaign.

422,000 men down to 10,000. That is incredible. And incredibly clear with this informational graphic.

Call me a nerd, but this kind of stuff really excites me! Lots of information isn’t to blame for overload. It’s bad design that’s to blame! For every situation, there must be a solution, not just any solution, but an AMAZINGLY clear and simple to read solution.

I know what to aim for now. I guess I’ll add that to the already mile high pile of “life callings”!

GO LAKERS!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

It’s been awhile since I’ve been into basketball, but with the Lakers in the finals, how could I ignore my team any longer?

Last night LA came back from 2 sucky games in Boston with bad calls all over the place and some difficulty adjusting to Boston’s defense. But last night, they took it all the way! W00t! I haven’t felt the basketball bug in forever, and it’s kind of nice to be back in it.

I was even more amazed when i realized that there are enough white guys on the team to have an all white team on the floor. Shocking! hahaha

I’ve also noted Paul Pierce’s vague resemblance to an Angler Fish.

There there’s Kobe, who has rat-like features, Fisher who looks like a bulldog,...I’m trying to put animals to other players. Rondo reminds me of some kind of weird elf. I suppose this isn’t very kind of me, but it’s hard not to make some connections…

All comparisons aside, all i can say is “GO LAKERS!”

Care to Search Through?

Thursday, April 03, 2008

I’ve finally done it! I’ve added a Search feature to kathykhoo.com!

I don’t know why it took me so long to add a search on this site. I mean, doesn’t *everyone* want to be able to search my personal history?

...Actually I do know why I didn’t add it. I had no idea how to do it, even through really, in retrospect, it was right in front of my face.

But THERE! to your right, BEHOLD the new search function! Go ahead, try it! The Google one works well enough but the search results are somewhat inconsistent. The Advanced Search is a sure fire way of finding what you want. It’s strange really having enough content on a personal blog to warrant a search.

It’s funny because I really do use this blog as a sort of diary. Sometimes I don’t remember things until I read them again on my blog! So I suppose the search function is really only for me. Oh well. I’m sure you’ll find a use for it some way or another.

NOW when will get to updating MORE of kathykhoo.com?