March 28, 1999

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Kyl's Medieval and Fantasy Fonts

Sunday, March 28, 1999: Content
I was reading an article in Writer's Digest about creativity, and there was a list of journal exercises to prompt creativity. One of them was, "If you were to design a T-shirt motto today, what would it be?" I immediately correlated to that to my "Best viewed with a strong light and reading glasses" admonition yesterday, and came up with a list of "best viewed with" phrases that would apply to the person wearing the t-shirt, i.e., me:

Best viewed with compassion
Best viewed with an open mind
Best viewed with a sense of playfulness
Best viewed with personal history
Best viewed with tolerance
Best viewed with a sense of perspective
This was my favorite:
Best viewed with fond indulgence

* * *
Someone sent me a great font site this morning, and I was exploring all the various alphabets, and ran across a Persian/Farsi one, and immediately had the thought that I could download it and use it for some decorative sign somewhere, just because it was a cool looking script. And then I thought, well, yes I could do that, but if someone knew that language, they could read what I wrote, or more likely, could read that what I wrote was gibberish.

One of the things that fascinates me is the mangled English that appears on foreign signs and products, English translations of software and hardware instructions, for instance, or mottos seen on t-shirts. The largest number of these seem to come from Japan, and in the past I've spent a lot of time looking for sites that featured English as translated from the Japanese. It amuses and pleases me. But in the process of looking for some Japanese or Chinese characters to use in a project, it suddenly occurred to me that we do the same thing.

I love the look of pictorial writing, but since I don't read it, I have no idea what it says. I have a t-shirt somewhere with Japanese writing on it, and for all I know it could (and probably does) say something like, "You're a big idiot for buying this and not being able to read it." I don't know the exact reason that Japanese advertisers love to use English expressions. I don't know whether they think it makes them seem cosmopolitan, or whether they just like the look of the words, or whether it's because the Japanese love things American.

But I sort of liked backing off and looking at it from a different perspective, and from that viewpoint, some of the mangled English that makes its appearance on Japanese products doesn't seem all that out of line.
* * *
I love weekends. I try very hard to have no specific plans, just to let the weekend flow around me. I'm sure it sounds, I don't know, pitiful to some people when I'm asked if I have any plans for the weekend and I say no. And I say no with much happiness. Yesterday I paid bills, bought my mother-in-law's Mother's Day gift over a month early (a miniature wooden pavilion painted with roses and French words--and no, I don't know what they say), bought Get Well cards for a nephew and a brother-in-law, both of whom spent last week in the hospital, went grocery shopping, checked the post office box, bought Bob new cologne and bought Pyewacket a new water bowl (cream colored stoneware).

Today I painted my toenails ("Black Magic"), baked a frozen organic spinach pizza for lunch, bought a pink Easter bunny to sit in one of my little chairs--the green Adirondack lounge chair--laid on the floor in the sun with Pyewacket, went to the grocery store again, cooked fresh brocolli and baked potatoes for dinner, read half of a book ("Rescue," by Elizabeth Richards), and did an enormous amount of laundry. I'm relaxing now, a trio of vanilla candles burning on the table beside me and Pyewacket curled up asleep on her perch in front of the window. Content.
* * *
I honestly can't believe how much I love this album. I've been listening to Paul Young's "Love Songs" for about two weeks now, pretty much non-stop. If you ever liked him, you would love this album. It has all the hits on it, plus some stuff that I'd never heard, and it's all wonderful. There isn't a bad song, or one that breaks the mood, on the entire album. Yes, that's my silly review on the page at Amazon. It's all true, though. I've been carting the CD back and forth with me to work. I finally ordered another copy so I can leave one there and still have one to listen to in the car. Until I get sick of it, which I assume I will, at some point. But not for awhile yet.

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	Links: Kyl's Medieval and Fantasy Fonts
Sunday, March 28, 1999: Content I was reading an article in Writer's Digest about creativity, and there was a list of journal exercises to prompt creativity. One of them was, "If you were to design a T-shirt motto today, what would it be?" I immediately correlated to that to my "Best viewed with a strong light and reading glasses" admonition yesterday, and came up with a list of "best viewed with" phrases that would apply to the person wearing the t-shirt, i.e., me: Best viewed with compassion Best viewed with an open mind Best viewed with a sense of playfulness Best viewed with personal history Best viewed with tolerance Best viewed with a sense of perspective This was my favorite: Someone sent me a great font site this morning, and I was exploring all the various alphabets, and ran across a Persian/Farsi one, and immediately had the thought that I could download it and use it for some decorative sign somewhere, just because it was a cool looking script. And then I thought, well, yes I could do that, but if someone knew that language, they could read what I wrote, or more likely, could read that what I wrote was gibberish. One of the things that fascinates me is the mangled English that appears on foreign signs and products, English translations of software and hardware instructions, for instance, or mottos seen on t-shirts. The largest number of these seem to come from Japan, and in the past I've spent a lot of time looking for sites that featured English as translated from the Japanese. It amuses and pleases me. But in the process of looking for some Japanese or Chinese characters to use in a project, it suddenly occurred to me that we do the same thing. I love the look of pictorial writing, but since I don't read it, I have no idea what it says. I have a t-shirt somewhere with Japanese writing on it, and for all I know it could (and probably does) say something like, "You're a big idiot for buying this and not being able to read it." I don't know the exact reason that Japanese advertisers love to use English expressions. I don't know whether they think it makes them seem cosmopolitan, or whether they just like the look of the words, or whether it's because the Japanese love things American. But I sort of liked backing off and looking at it from a different perspective, and from that viewpoint, some of the mangled English that makes its appearance on Japanese products doesn't seem all that out of line. I love weekends. I try very hard to have no specific plans, just to let the weekend flow around me. I'm sure it sounds, I don't know, pitiful to some people when I'm asked if I have any plans for the weekend and I say no. And I say no with much happiness. Yesterday I paid bills, bought my mother-in-law's Mother's Day gift over a month early (a miniature wooden pavilion painted with roses and French words--and no, I don't know what they say), bought Get Well cards for a nephew and a brother-in-law, both of whom spent last week in the hospital, went grocery shopping, checked the post office box, bought Bob new cologne and bought Pyewacket a new water bowl (cream colored stoneware). Today I painted my toenails ("Black Magic"), baked a frozen organic spinach pizza for lunch, bought a pink Easter bunny to sit in one of my little chairs--the green Adirondack lounge chair--laid on the floor in the sun with Pyewacket, went to the grocery store again, cooked fresh brocolli and baked potatoes for dinner, read half of a book ("Rescue," by Elizabeth Richards), and did an enormous amount of laundry. I'm relaxing now, a trio of vanilla candles burning on the table beside me and Pyewacket curled up asleep on her perch in front of the window. Content. I honestly can't believe how much I love this album. I've been listening to Paul Young's "Love Songs" for about two weeks now, pretty much non-stop. If you ever liked him, you would love this album. It has all the hits on it, plus some stuff that I'd never heard, and it's all wonderful. There isn't a bad song, or one that breaks the mood, on the entire album. Yes, that's my silly review on the page at Amazon. It's all true, though. I've been carting the CD back and forth with me to work. I finally ordered another copy so I can leave one there and still have one to listen to in the car. Until I get sick of it, which I assume I will, at some point. But not for awhile yet.
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