A very busy week. I had a significant work event on Wednesday, and needed to help my daughter with some of her homework in the evenings during the week. Completely wrecked my sleep schedule. Need to be better about going to bed at a reasonable hour. I feel it when I don’t get enough sleep.
The week ahead looks a little more typical… which is still relatively busy with classes, lacrosse and homework.
A draining week and weekend. Not bad, but exhausting. I almost forgot to post my weekly update. We celebrated Jill’s 17th birthday this weekend. (Her actual birthday is next week.) It was wonderful, but involved getting the house ready for guests. Balancing that with classwork, work, lacrosse starting back up for Ryan. It’s Sunday afternoon and I feel like I am running out of time.
I had an up and down week. Some good days, but I also had one of those days that was terrible from start to finish. Really thankful for the long Labor Day weekend. I’m going to start updating the Now page on Sunday.
Feels
We had cooler weather last week, but then it’s hot again. Really, really reading for the cooler weather to return.
Busy. We are starting to balance all of the family commitments with Liz and I both taking classes, Jill and Ryan handling homework, new pick up routines… It’s tough to get back into a rhythm.
Thankful for the long weekend. I need the time to recharge.
Health
This week was challenging, but I did a decent job sticking to healthier food choices.
Projects
My contract type design consulting job is going well, but taking more time than I expected. Very happy with the results so far.
Grad school reading and projects are going well. Getting back in the rhythm of class and school.
Red Lobster has been struggling through financial troubles for a while and the chain is the process of being sold. Today, they announced that the location closest to me in Cayce, South Carolina has closed. I’ve eaten at that Red Lobster once in the last five years and it was an unmitigated disaster. We waited forever for a table and the food wasn’t great.
But my grandparents and parents loved Red Lobster. There is a Red Lobster in Aiken that my grandparents always took us to. While I was in college, we had many family dinners at the Cayce Red Lobster. I think we went there after I graduated from college. When Liz and I got married, we lived in Cayce, and sometimes, you want some fried shrimp and Cheddar Bay Biscuits after church.
My daughter has gotten us all into F1. Jill’s become a hard core McLaren fan. My wife seems to have settled into cheering for George Russell and Mercedes. Ryan is a Max Verstappen fan.
As for me, I tend to be pulling for McLaren. Which causes a problem. Their color is papaya… which is orange.
I don’t do orange. As a South Carolina Gamecocks fan, orange is the color of all of our rivals… from in-state Clemson to SEC foes Florida and Tennessee. (And I’m not just a SC fan, I’m also manage the schools visual branding.)
The start to the school year continues. I had my first grad school class of the semester this week. Looking forward to learning more about qualitative methods. Liz starts her Ph.D. class this week and the kids’ school is in full swing.
Feels
Tired. After the summer, getting back into a routine has been tough. Waking up earlier. Going to bed earlier. Longer drive and more traffic. It’s exhausting, but I know it will get better.
Grateful for some cooler weather. Most summers in Columbia, South Carolina are hot, but this summer has been brutal. I’m looking forward to being able to comfortably hang out on our back deck and enjoy some cooler weather.
I’m pumped up about the Harris/Walz ticket. Let’s go.
Health
Did a great job eating healthier this week. Really proud of myself for planning ahead and bringing my lunch to work.
Liz and the kids are back in school. We moved our oldest into an off-campus apartment. Starting to figure out everyone’s schedules. It’s been a busy week.
Feels
Our oldest, Norah, moved into her own apartment this week. And while she lived in the residence hall last year, she’s now really out on her own. Proud of her, but it’s always a little bittersweet to watch the kids grow up.
Back to heading to the coffee shop to work every weekend with my daughter. She has so much AP work to do, that she likes to go to Starbucks to study. I usually have work to do, too. So we go together. I don’t love the stress that comes with the work, but I adore having the time with Jill.
Continue to be both nervous and excited about the future of this country. I think the wild swings in the news cycle affect me more than I’d like to admit.
First day of class for me on Wednesday this week. Looking forward to taking something a little different.
Health
Did a decent job trying to eat better this week. Need to plan ahead a little bit better when we have a busy schedule.
Didn’t really work out this week, but did move my daughter into a second floor apartment with no elevator. (And most of it was moved up from the lower parking level.) Lots of stair flights.
Projects
I’ve got one font submitted to Monotype for approval to sell on their marketplace.
My academic article is officially under peer review.
I need to set up a new web site for my merchandise. Might work on that today.
Reasonably good week. We’re getting our oldest ready to go back to college. I’ve started my plan to be healthier at 50 than I was a 40 — working out a little bit and eating better. Lifestyle change is hard.
Feels
Had someone be incredibly rude to me at work this week. And it really bothered me for a day or two.
Tim Walz. My goodness. I didn’t know politicians like this get elected. What a breath of fresh air. I’m all in on bringing joy back. I’m tired of the doom and gloom.
Work on the Ph.D. will continue soon. A couple of weeks left until classes start. I’m taking one class this semester — a qualitative research class in the College of Education. Will be a bit of a change from my normal comms classwork.
Health
Started this week trying to make better food choices. Was mostly successful. I do feel better when I eat better.
Rediscovered some old fitness apps that I’ve tried in the past. Dusted them off and trying to build a workout rhythm.
Projects
I’ve decided to rename one of my new fonts because of a very minor possibility that the name infringes on an existing trademark. Naming fonts is harder than naming children.
I’ve got a few other fonts in the works, but I don’t know how much progress I’ll make when classes start back.
Entertainment
More Olympics. Volleyball. Water Polo. Basketball. Some track and field.
I celebrated my 49th birthday this week. My kids have an annual tradition where they bake a cake for me, usually with a high degree of difficulty. This year, they attempted to make a Borg Cube from Star Trek.
As I turn 49, I’m looking ahead to 50 next year. I’ve decided that I want to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. I need to loose weight, eat better and be more active. Basically a lifestyle change. I’m going to add a health category to my weekly Now page updates.
Just had a relaxing week of vacation with just my wife and me. The kids were at summer camp for the week so we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary early up near Asheville. We had a great time, but it’s going to be hard going back to reality on Monday.
Feels
I feel refreshed. I really needed to take some time off from work and reset. With the leadership change at work, I think I needed the break more than I realized.
I’m worried about the state of our nation, but I’m energized by the change in the presidential race. Biden stepping down, and Harris consolidating support has me encouraged.
Being open to changes. The camp our kids went to is also the camp that I attended and worked at. They changed pick up this year, ending on Friday instead of Saturday morning. I wasn’t sure about the change, but we attended a new final ceremony and it was great. I probably need to make this a full post, but we all need to accept that sometimes, change is needed.
I sketched out a couple of new font ideas while we were at the cabin in North Carolina. Was nice to have some time to sketch.
Entertainment
We were in a cabin without our normal streaming setup. They had a Samsung TV service that had a bunch of ad-supported channels with random reality shows, so we watched some American Ninja Warrior and Ice Road Truckers.
I started reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Enjoying it, but having trouble remembering all the things that happened in the second book of the series.
I wrote a blog post in early 2019, trying to make a distinction between “open” social platforms that thrived on interoperability compared to “captive” networks that trap you in their system. As an aside, I also noted the difference between “indie” social and “open” social and added this footnote:
I recognize that the concept of an open social network from a large corporation might seem absurd in today’s environment, but you never know.
Weird week. I got randomly sick for an evening. I woke up at 2 AM with a fever that only lasted a couple of hours and no other symptoms. So strange. Whenever I get sick now, I worry about COVID and getting others sick, but I’m pretty sure this was just a random virus.
Feels
I’m excited about upcoming vacation. It’s been too long since I took a significant amount of time off.
More progress on fonts. I inched closer to releasing my new typefaces. Just some refinements to make sure everything passes the quality assurance checks.
Submitted an article to a journal to review. Woke up in the middle of the night and decided to be productive. Finished the query letter and hit the submit button. We’ll see what happens.
Entertainment
Finished Star Wars: The Acolyte. I enjoyed the show and am interested to see if they give it a season two to finish the story.
I’ve been playing Pokemon Go with my son who just got a new phone.
The Sticker Mule email arrived in my inbox, but I didn’t see it at first. Instead, I saw the backlash on Threads.
Here’s the thing, I knew the owner was conservative, but it didn’t really matter to me. I’d randomly order stickers (or keychains) whenever they had a great special. And they ran specials a lot.
Many companies take stands on issues as a way to signal their values. But most of the time, those topics are carefully chosen to align with their customer beliefs. There is an entire discipline in public relations scholarship called Corporate Social Responsibility that studies this strategy.
I’m home sick today and was thinking about shows I watch when I’m just killing time. Episodes I love to just put on in the background when I’m working (or sick). Most of the time, I open Paramount+ and play Star Trek. I figured I’d share my favorite “comfort” episodes. Warning: A couple of mild spoilers below for really old episodes.1
Star Trek: The Original Series
S1 E15 Balance of Terror. A “submarine” battle between Kirk and the Romulan commander.
S2 E6 The Doomsday Machine. The race to stop a machine before it destroys more planets.
S2 E15 The Trouble with Tribbles. My parents loved this episode when I was growing up and it’s one of my favorites. Sometimes, I pair it with DS9’s Trials and Tribble-Ations.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
S2 E10 The Defector. More Romulan manipulation.
S4 E26 and E27 Redemption, Part 1 and 2. The Romulans try to destabilize the Klingon Empire.
S6 E4 Relics. A Dyson Sphere, and a somewhat believable way to resurrect an old character.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
S5 E6 Trials and Tribble-Ations. The DS9 crew goes back in time to the middle of The Trouble with Tribbles.
S6 E6 Sacrifice of Angels. I love the action and pacing of this episode. The end of one of the arcs that dominate DS9.
Star Trek: Voyager
S4 E14 Message in a Bottle. The Doctor is transmitted back into the Alpha Quadrant, and works with another Emergency Medical Hologram to liberate a Federation ship.
S7 E25 Endgame Parts 1 and 2. The series finale. The Voyager makes it home… twice.
Star Trek: Discovery
S1 E7 Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. A great time loop episode, with some great performances.
S2 E2 New Eden. Captain Pike. Mysterious Earth colony. Prime directive debates. Love it all.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
S2 E7 Where Pleasant Fountains Lie. All about evil AI, but in the funniest possible way.
Posts titled “Then” were originally shared on my “Now” page.
Good week, although still way too hot in Columbia, South Carolina. To be fair, it’s too hot pretty much everywhere, it seems. I’ve stolen a brilliant idea from Sven Dahlstrand (@sod on Micro.Blog) and I’m going to archive my previous “Now” pages on blog in a category called “Then.” I like to have an archive of everything and it always bothered me that my Now page implementation didn’t have a history.
I’m giving the “Now” page concept another go. I love the idea, but I just haven’t figured out how to make it work for me. For now, I’ve settled on an opening paragraph and three category prompts: feels, projects and entertainment. Should capture a nice snapshot of what I’m focused on and how I’m feeling. When I update these, I’m going to copy them over to Notion so I have a weekly journal.
I know that enclosed shopping malls have fallen out of fashion, but I’m of an age where malls played a major role in my childhood. An abandoned mall in Columbia is being torn down and I was thinking today about all the malls that have played a role in my life. I figured I’d share a couple of memories of malls that are no more…
Richland Fashion Mall. The mall that’s being torn down is in Forest Acres, South Carolina. I drove past it today so I’ll start with this one. Being close to the University of South Carolina campus and my first apartment, I took a bunch of trips to Richland Fashion Mall.1 We occasionally visited the movie theater on the rooftop before nicer theaters came to Columbia. Liz and I frequented the Barnes and Noble when we were dating and registered for our china at the Dillards when we got engaged. Liz even got her hair done at the Belk’s salon for a few years. Lots of good memories, but the mall had been pretty much abandoned for years and it’s good to see the redevelopment finally starting with the demolition of the old structure.
I was thinking this week about how Micro.Blog has become the home base for all of my online activity. I’ve had an account since I backed the Kickstarter in 2017, but recently, I’ve started slowly moving everything from my old Squarespace1 site:
Blog Hosting. This blog is hosted on Micro.Blog. I’m in the process of migrating my favorite old posts from Sketchbook B here so everything is in one place. At the $10/month premium subscription level, I can even add a few more blogs if I want to.
I wrote a post in 2016 asking how I would deal with the inevitable demise of Twitter. And followed up with posts in 2018, 2022 and 2023.1
In each of the post, one common refrain kept resurfacing. There is no equal for following a live event on Twitter. The last month or so, there have been several events in tech and sports that I would have followed closely on Twitter.
I decided a while back that I wanted to separate my typeface designs onto their own site. They’ve always lived alongside my blog and other creative projects, but they needed a home of their own, especially since I plan to expand the offerings in the near future. I’ve been noodling around with options, but today, I’m finally ready to release SbBFonts.com out into the world with a design inspired by two-color printing.
I realized this morning that I’ve been using Fontstruct for 15 years. Fontstruct is an online tool for building modular typefaces. My first typeface design — Big Thursday — debuted on May 26, 2009. Since then, I’ve publicly released 49 fonts on Fontstruct and 19 have been selected as “Staff Picks.”
The original version didn’t have a lot of flexibility,1 but over time developer Rob Meek has added new brick types, construction methods, kerning, support for color fonts and other features to Fontstruct to make it more powerful. My work tends to be a little brutalist, but if you want to understand the flexibility of the tool, check out the gallery to see what amazing creations people can craft with this online tool.
I started a blog in early 2008. Over the years, I wrote hundreds of posts and articles. Some of it good. Much of it forgettable. I authored a bunch of InDesign tips that generated search traffic, but over time, I became less interested in writing about Adobe Creative Cloud and design issues. A few years ago, I moved all my writing over to this site. As part of some work I’m doing this summer to clean up my various sites, I wanted to figure out how to save the posts from this old Squarespace site.
Several years ago, I moved all of my blog posting from my Squarespace-hosted sketchbookb.com to my Micro.Blog-hosted bobwertz.com. I’ve been happy with the move. My plan was to switch my Squarespace blog over to more professional posts, but that never really happened — and I don’t really feel like posting more InDesign and Creative Cloud tips. Last week, I decided that I need to do something with the old site and I’m working through my options.
An incredibly strange accident, but my wife and son are fine.
Two weeks ago, Liz and Ryan were driving to school early in the morning in a midst of a rain storm when a pine tree blew into their path and impaled their 2020 Buick Envision. The tree was about 24 feet tall, passed through the headlight, through the engine, through the firewall, through the dashboard and extended several feet into the passenger cabin, between the front headrests.
I watched a couple of my favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight. The show was once one of my favorites and creator Joss Whedon could do no wrong. I loved Buffy, Firefly, The Avengers and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I even watched Agents of SHIELD. But eventually, it came to light that Joss wasn’t the feminist he claimed to be, repeatedly cheated on his wife, and verbally abused many of the people he worked with, especially Charisma Carpenter.
Almost 100 years ago, in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, typographer Eric Gill 1 wrote “An Essay on Typography” and addressed the tension between art and industrialization:
“But tho’ industrialism has now won an almost complete victory, the handicrafts are not killed, & they cannot be quite killed because they meet an inherent, indestructible, permanent need in human nature.”
I’ve been thinking about this as the internet fills with AI-generated garbage and popular social media sites are monetized by hate.
Almost 20 years ago, I was in San Francisco for my first AIGA Leadership Retreat. AIGA is a national organization for design1 and I was a first-time president for the South Carolina chapter. I’d just finished attending a session on leadership and one of my new friends who’d been a president before pulled me aside and gave me some advice: “This is supposed to be fun. If it stops being fun, ask for help. You are giving up a bunch of your free time and if you aren’t having fun, it’s not worth it.”
Electric truck and SUV manufacturer Rivian announced their new R2 SUV today, but surprised everyone with a smaller R3 version as well. I love smaller cars and I’ve been waiting for new smaller EVs to hit the market, hopefully at a lower price point. The R3 looks adorable and it reminds me of a VW Rabbit, which I used to drive.1 But Rivian didn’t publish any specs so it’s hard to gauge how big R3 is.
I used to dread calling my grandmother on her birthday. My mom died on that day and so every time I’d call, she’d start with “Well, you know, I wish Nancy was still here.” And that always bothered me and usually made me tear up, so I would wait as long as I could to call. I was pretty sure that I was the last grandkid to call each year.
