Wednesday, August 03, 2016

The good, the bad, the unredeemably ugly 8.3.16

The Good: It's Wednesday. Hump Day. For many of us, halfway through the workweek.

More Good: Back to school sales have started. I may be obsessed with school supplies, and I haven't been a full time student in 35 years. One of my favorite lines from a favorite movie: "I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils..."*

I fully intend to rush the autumn season by putting out all the autumn décor the last weekend in August. There may even be seasonal food (I've all the ingredients for either/and pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread in the house right now). The only thing I may wait until Labor Day to change over is the stuff on the front door; my neighbors may think I'm crazier than they already think I am if I put the fall wreath out in August.

The Bad:
Hot. Humid. Sweltering. On the bright side, the worst days are today and tomorrow, rather than over the weekend. So over this recurring swamp-like atmosphere.

As much as I'm anticipating the season changing, the ever later sunrise time is a bit disheartening. Based on the current sunrise, I think I'll be driving to work in the dark within ten days or so. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it, but that won't stop me from disliking it.

The Ugly: This week both my local paper and Outlook have made major changes to their websites. Not only are the changes overwhelmingly ugly, they render the sites almost unusable. The local paper was bought out by Gannett a while ago (home of USA Today); they have now changed their site to adhere to the parent company's "standards". Apparently that means a cluttered home page, fewer stories accessible without major digging, and a depersonalized comment section.

Outlook - just no. Ugly, harder-on-the-eyes font. More white space, but more jammed into the spaces where there is actual content. Invisible checkboxes and toolbars. No way to delete an email on the phone app unless you open the email. Oh - and now, all junk email shows in your inbox (they have some new thing called "clutter" that has to "learn" your preferences - save.me.now).

*You've Got Mail, in an email from Tom Hanks to Meg Ryan.

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