1. What significant anniversary will you be celebrating sometime this year?
The usual birthdays, anniversaries of my father's death, anniversary of my sister's death years ago... Nothing much to celebrate to tell you the truth.
2. In your life, what is today the one-month anniversary of?
A month ago I posted these old family photos to my Flickr account. See them here.
3. What is today the one-week anniversary of?
I had shoyu chicken with rice, broccoli and carrots that I bought from the Thai plate lunch place on Bishop Street, Downtown Honolulu. See photo below:
4. Sometimes the traditional wedding anniversary gifts seem a bit staid. If you had your way, what would be the right gift themes for the five years’ worth of wedding anniversaries?
A five year old car!
5. Among your friends, who’s been married the longest?
My friends in Hilo who have been married since at least 1982.... my cousins in Kona who have been married since at least 1978. Not mentioning any names or posting photos.
2. What lately seems to have been a thief of time?
Paperwork, computer graphics & layout, photo and video editing.
3. What were yesterday’s quietest five minutes like?
Sleepy
4. In what way have you lately been saving time?
Going to work early.
5. We are often charged hourly rates for labor, but we never get to reciprocate in kind when promised completion times don’t match actual completion. If you could bill people for the time you spend waiting, what would be a reasonable amount?
$1 a minute for the first 10 minutes... $3 a minute any time beyond that.
I've used Snell Roundhand on stuff like wedding invitations.
I don't really have a favorite but that is the script font I use for that rare thing which looks good in script.
2. MS Word uses Times New Roman as the default plain font; Apple Pages uses Helvetica. Is there a plain font you like better?
I like Helvetica. For some reason my copy of Word 2008 on the Mac defaults to Calibri. I think it is the same on the office PC with Word 7 or whatever it is that is on Windows 7.
As an alternate I also like Franklin Gothic and to fill space up, Bookman.
3. In words per minute, how fast do you type? (if you Google “check your typing speed” or something like that, you’ll find many online options for testing yourself)
If I did not go back and correct mistakes as I typed perhaps a dismal 55 words per minute... of course that is looking at text someone else first wrote. I think I type a little faster if I am just writing from the top of my head without a text to look at.
4. Who in your life is just your type, but for some reason not romantically compatible with you?
There is no one in my life except the various Macintosh computers and cameras I own. They don't qualify as people, so there you go.
5. What’s your blood type?
B+
By the way I come from the old school of computerized typesetting when it was a highly specialized skill utilizing expensive, proprietary systems such as the Compugraphic or the Itek Quadritek. I spent several years typesetting for our school, a small printing firm and an ad agency before I and everyone else moved on to the Macintosh platform.
Today any schmuck can set type on their Windows PC or Macintosh computer. If they don't know much about type they usually end up with shoddy, crappy looking type.
The video shown above is a glass font wafer that was used on the old Itek Quadritek machine of which I have a page for on the my website.
1. If they could invent a remote control for something in your house that doesn’t have one, what would you wish it to be?
A remote control that would find the missing remote controls for my devices. What I envision is a remote control that sits stationary. You clap your hands in its direction and the device locates the regular, missing remotes by activating their infrared signals and showing the location on my TV or computer screen.
2. What could your car really use that they just hasn’t invented yet?
The ability to jump over obstacles and traffic like Speed Racer's Mach 5. Also the ability for the car to have power saws to cut new roads while on the go... just like the Mach 5.... Also a car with a remote homing device camera to enable the driver to see objects way ahead of or behind him... just like the Mach 5. In fact just about everything the Mach 5 can do, I wish my car could do too. See video at top.
Of course one thing that would make cars and even some flying machines obsolete is the invention of the TRANSPORTER like they have on Star Trek. Beam me up Scotty!
3. Who among your friends could probably be a great inventor if he or she had enough funding to do it?
No one.
4. What invention seems to do its job in a less-satisfying manner than the old-fashioned way?
Mac OSX Lion - I like Snow Leopard better. Too much dumbing down of the Mac OS to make it more like iOS.
5. Lately, vending machines have gone beyond drinks and snacks: you can rent DVDs from them or even purchase iPods from them. What’s something your life could be improved by if it were available in vending machines?
Maybe one that could sell you gift cards for iTunes Store, Amazon.com, WalMart, Outback Steakhouse, and other merchants. I'm not that big on vending machines, but that could probably be popular. Never seen anything like that... though I would think someone already invented it.
Another good one would be a vending machine that sold airline ticket coupons.
