My short story made it to the finals in the Spec Faith writing challenge, and you can vote on the round here. My favorite story entry besides mine (c’mon…we all like our own stories the best, by default), this one by TJ Marquis, didn’t make the finals despite being rated highly in the first round. … Be a Guy and Don’t Vote for My Story in the Final Round
Breaking my blog hiatus to point you all to the Speculative Faith’s winter writing challenge. I hate doing these contests, but the writing prompt immediately sparked a complete story in my head. There you have it. Read the other stories before voting, though. There’s some good ones there. Anyone can enter, too, so if you … Definitely Don’t Vote for My Short Story
I go into shoulder surgery tomorrow, so now’s a good time to announce a blog hiatus so I can grab at sanity with my non-dominant arm (the left one). Give me three months. In the meantime, I’ll still be participating in the forums, and pounding out the first draft of my new book, definitely titled … Blog Hiatus, New Book, Telling My Shoulder to Get Bent
Warning: many photos ahead.
Car Error Feedback With most newer cars now coming with digital dashboards, there’s an opportunity to ditch the red engine light and help drivers know what’s going on. I know next to nothing about computerized autos but I’m sure there can be a way to make potential auto issues more well-known and user friendly. Naturally, … Someone Steal These App Ideas
Spoilers, etc. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann A completely bonkers coming-of-age mecha anime, with all those extreme perspective shots and everything gets bigger and bigger. Similar to FLCL, but there’s an actual story and there’s no annoying music constantly playing. Pandorum Interesting premise and monster origin, though I didn’t think the monster’s “design” was inspiring, merely … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 2
Spoilers ahoy…though this post will be totally uninteresting if you haven’t seen the series already. The Netflix series Lost Song has literal cycles of civilization as its overarching practical plot element. The cycles of destruction and rebirth of the series’ Earth-like planet feature repeating timelines—with repeating people, events, places—that only have a mild range of … Lost Song’s Timelines Explained (Maybe)
Spoilers, etc. The Beyond Surprisingly competent hard sci-fi, with some unusual stylized visions of space—stylized probably because of the low budget. It got low ratings because there’s no gross alien reveal at the end and there’s little action, and some of the performances are wooden. Like every movie, there’s a great twist at the end, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 1
MREs (“meals ready to eat”) are made for soldiers on the field, in situations where it’s not practical for cooking supplies to be hauled around. One bag has everything needed for an individual meal, even a self-heating bag—though a little water needs to be added for those to work. The main bag itself is waterproof, … I Ate a Military MRE and Wanted to Die
From Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: We were reluctant to admit it at first. We tried to ignore he feeling or fight it off by building more things—bigger rooms, fancier furniture, carpeted hallways, things we did not really need. I was reminded of a story I had read at the Boniface Estate when … Modernity Is Insanity
AKA: Why the sky is blue. Probably one of the easiest to understand videos on the phenomenon, without knowing any more than the basics of physics. One thing that I wish he went into a little more detail is the actual process of scattering as the light travels through the atmosphere, starting at the 9:18 … Rayleigh Scattering Explained
On a weird whim, I started the keto diet about a month ago. It wasn’t terribly hard since I was sorta doing paleo for a few years. Keto is basically a stricter form of paleo dieting, where all sugar is removed and very little carbohydrates are consumed. Most calories come from most forms of natural … Results of Keto Dieting for a Month
September 9, 2018 Dear Superintendent Pallone, I realize the great weight you carry, both physically and bureaucratically, but that doesn’t justify talking to my wife in the manner you did, late Thursday morning, 9/6/2018 in front of Valley High School. My daughter and wife are new to the school and it safety protocols, and literally … Open Letter to Superintendent John Pallone, New Kensington-Arnold School District
Yes, this is silly but it’s a jaydinitto.com original. A joke for my daughter. Thank you for humoring me.
Decided to take some more skyline-ish photos. I tried getting into USX Tower, where my office was formerly located, since it’s in a different part of the city and could offer new views. No deal. However, these first four were taken in a different building (1 PNC). It’s in the same plaza as 2 PNC … Photos: Pittsburgh Skyline & Bonus Strawberry Way
Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services A great resource for reading about the full breadth of what it means to be involved on a UX team, from start to finish. It can be read straight through but may work best as a reference guide when you need some process … Hella Book Reviews, Part 2
I redid my UX and UI portfolio, which you can see here: https://ux.jaydinitto.com. It looks very rough and “defaulty” in terms of style, and doesn’t read or flow like a traditional UX portfolio. That was intended, partially as a response to the over-designed portfolios most designers offer (the UX design community is outlandish in its … UX Portfolio Now Up
The story below is a work of fiction. A light rain. He offered the guy space under his umbrella, but he said he was okay without it. He wondered if it would seem kind of gay to the guy, since it seemed like that to him. What kind of unfortunate linguistic determinism is it that … This Story Won’t Turn You Gay
Screenshot taken yesterday (8/7/2018). The only winning strategy is to not play.
This was taken from the floor I work on, facing mostly north and a tad west. You can see the Allegheny River bottom right, and PNC Park on the far side. The Highmark building is the beige one way on the left; not sure what the grayish one next to it is. And of course, … Photo: Skyline Clouds