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
I had a different post scheduled, but this matter is heavily time sensitive. Jill’s The Minäverse is on sale now on Amazon for 99¢, until the end of July. A few facts: 1. The HTML entity for the cents symbol is ¢. 2. I had to Google whether the cent symbol came before or after … The Minäverse On Sale for 99 Cents
A monstrous cumulonimbus storm cloud I took near my bus stop. I had to stop into the store for a bio break before heading home. If I had downed so much water on the ride home, I may have not seen this. The Lord provides.
Some book reviews I’ve left on Goodreads. Kim I’m sure this is an excellent book, if I could understand it. Kipling stuffs it to the gills with so much colloquialisms and British-Indian cultural in-jokes that I may as well be reading Greek upside down and from the back. Much of the humor and significance is … Hella Book Reviews, Part 1
In addition to the Pale Blue Scratch review, Ivana also did an interview with me, about the book, writing in general, and a new book I’m working on (!!!): Where did you get your idea for Pale Blue Scratch? I was toying with the premise of an odd couple-type pair of sleuths trying to track … Interview Up at Diary of Difference
The story below is a work of fiction. A trained actor with an endless parade of stupid ideas. He would voice the most ridiculous, unrewarding ones and immediately criticize them before his friends could. “Here’s one: I’ll transplant to a different part of the country, out of the Valley. No one knows me. I’ll pull … Story: Something Persuasive
Ivana over at the Diary of Difference blog reviewed Pale Blue Scratch: I was lucky enough to be approached by Jay DiNitto himself, and he sent me a copy of his first novel – Pale Blue Scratch (you can read the e-book for free here) in exchange for an honest review. This is a book … Pale Blue Scratch Book Review
Why: 1. haven’t I heard about this until now? 2. does this interest me so much? 3. does Wikipedia have a rinky-dink few sentences about it, when the article itself describes it as “a major turning point in the history of clothing?”
The story below is a work of fiction. Visiting her relatives is her secondmost hated event. They stumble over to her with their ethnic hair and diabetic knees. Their collective scent isn’t unpleasant but borderline inhuman; it triggers her disgust reflex. She leaves when she wants to. Trips to the grocery store are degrees worse, … Story: Despair in Two Parts
I collect and read books because I want to have a few damn things in my life that I don’t have to recharge, restart, reboot, silence, shut down, troubleshoot, buy a cover for, update, upgrade, adjust brightness, adjust volume, adjust notifications, insert an SD card into, clear cache, ignore spam calls on, replace, repair, pay … Photo: Books to Read