Bob Wertz

Back in 2016, I had a blog about retail developments in the Columbia, South Carolina area. And one of the most popular topics was why there wasn’t an Apple Store in Columbia.

Yesterday I was at Columbiana Mall and realized that the large Forever 21 is closing.¹ I’m always interested in Apple Store-sized vacancies in Columbia and I thought back to an analysis that I did almost 10 years ago² and wanted to see if anything has changed. Is it odd that Columbia doesn’t have an Apple Store?

Comparing MSAs

I needed to look at some population data and decided to start by looking at Metropolitan Statistic Area (MSA). An MSA is a way of classifying an urban core and its surrounding population. It’s better than using city population because it includes suburbs and outlying areas that are closely connected to the urban core.

For...

We’ve been visiting a new Lutheran Church since Christmas. Today during the children’s sermon, Pastor Emily was discussing the changing of the paraments to purple for the Lenten season. She then mentioned that the cross on the altar had changed, too. I noticed the paraments, but hadn’t noticed the different cross. It was black and very slightly warped on the right side. Turns out that the church had burned down in the 1940s, and this altar cross survived. During Lent, the blackened, slightly melted cross replaces the shiny cross that’s on the altar the rest of the year.

I love this. I love that they didn’t throw it out, or try to “fix” it. The cross was changed, and they found a new, appropriate use for it. I love how our worship space changes with the liturgical season, but this felt especially poignant.

We’ve been through a lot over the last decade...

📺 Watching Drive to Survive Season 7. Ready for the F1 season to start next weekend.

I think every social media platform should allow multiple links in a post.

Rich People Are Firing a Cash Cannon at the US Economy—But at What Cost?

Apple News+ / Bloomberg

Another reason why severe wealth inequity is bad for the long term economic health of the nation.

I mentioned earlier this week that the Edward Tufte workshop in Atlanta eight years ago was a driving factor in returning to graduate school, but that’s actually a partial truth. There were actually five lectures that sparked an interest in design research and grad school. All of them held in vast hotel meeting rooms with hundreds of attendees, but each of them connecting with me on a deeper level.

Jonah Lehrer, AIGA Gain Conference, October 2008, New York City

Gain was AIGA’s “Business of Design” conference¹ and there was a roster of big wig, influential speakers. Jonah Lehrer was there to talk about his best-selling book, Proust was a Neuroscientist. Lehrer connected creativity with neuroscience advancements, arguing that artists often figured out how the brain worked before scientists did. This concept that neuroscience and creativity could be linked was fascinating to me. A few years after...

Yesterday, my middle schooler lost his backpack with his school-issued Chromebook, his homework and two library books. It’s a long story, but after a period of panic, we found it in the high school front office.

Last night, we put an AirTag on his bag… just in case it happens again.

My sleep schedule has been a little bit off lately… went to bed early, woke up a little after midnight, came downstairs and my daughter was still up finishing homework/procrastinating.

Eight years ago today, I attended an Edward Tufte workshop in Atlanta. I left questioning so many assumptions about how designers present information and how people process data. It was one of the driving forces behind my return to grad school.

My son’s middle school has been sending an email, a text message and a pre-recorded phone call every Sunday night at 6:30. Thankfully, the principal just mentioned in the email that she’s not going to do the phone call anymore after talking to parents. There is such a thing as over communicating.