• http://failblog.org/2009/02/19/graffiti-win/ – hahaha
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/technology/personaltech/19basics.html?em

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My freshman year in college (2000-2001, yes, I know, getting old) I had a lot of free time to pursue various interests. I started getting interested in typography and font making.

At one point I was making windows TrueType  fonts, *.ttf extension and all, out of people’s handwriting . I even printed out a form and asked people to write out the letters of the alphabet and all the symbols. I eventually learned that Microsoft Office  bypasses the standard symbol and substitutes the quotation mark and apostrophe with smart quotes and smart apostrophes which are curved around the quotation. So I had to map symbols to the smart quotes too because originally it was coming out blank. The first time I ever tried it, it took me seven hours to finish my own handwriting font. I realized, no wonder the professional looking fonts cost a lot of money. Imagine crafting every letter from scratch! I still have samooer.ttf somewhere in my archives. It came out really small too. 24pt was looking more like 10pt. Eventually I made six or seven more, the best being the one I made for Raechel.

Anyhow, looks like all of this can completely automated and free right here: http://www.yourfonts.com. And I’m sure it’ll take less time than I took to make them. I haven’t tried it yet, but you can give it a try. I already have mine from years ago :).

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• Visualizing the Bible – interesting visualizations concerning the Bible, like a cross-reference rainbow.
• After Deadline – a blog on the grammar mistakes found in the New York Times from one of their editors.

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LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Ps 39:4-5)

Last week I was reading a website that had wilderness survival tips. If you tuck in your thumb, extend your arm, and measure how many palm widths fit between the sun and horizon–that’s how many hours of daylight are left. I was fascinated. I tried it. It works. Daylight hours measured by handbreadths.

Today I read Psalm 39. “You have made my days as handbreadths.” What a quaint metaphor. Aren’t our lives just like the setting sun? Appointed risings and appointed settings? Aren’t our times in God’s hands (cf. Ps 31:15)?

There’s a measure of awe in those thoughts. Our time is fading. We are limited. Vapor indeed. Frail indeed. Are we ready?

But then a measure of hope in those thoughts. I am in His hands. I trust in His timing. He sustains me. Let me fulfill my duties and then … meet Him.

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Sorry, I neglected to post last week. I did start a draft but never finished it.

I want to share two tips for Firefox users:

• Middle clicking a link opens the link in a new tab. Cool!
• Chinesepera-kun add-on for those who are learning Chinese like I am, and want to read Chinese websites :).

I also wanted to share a useful writing-related tool:

• WordWeb, a one-click dictionary. Just CTRL+right click any text and the definition pops right up. This has been a great help for looking up tough words, and also writing on the computer.

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