7 June

Blogging pro tip #2,749

Aside

I’ve inadvertently taught myself an important lesson about blogging this week: Never publish “part one” of a multi-part blog post until you have “part two” almost finished.

Three days ago I posted Practical responsive web design, part one fully expecting to write and post “part two” later that day or sometime the next. At this point I still haven’t even begun to write it, and it’s looming over my head.

I’ve blocked out my whole calendar next week though, so maybe I’ll get it done. (You know, like there’s no other work to do.)

Unchained: a new blog

This is a first: SLP and I are collaborating on a blog. The title is Unchained, and the concept is that we’re taking the summer to try to break ourselves of bad habits where food and exercise are concerned: we’re going to stop shopping at chain stores and restaurants, stop buying national brands, and start getting as much of our food as we can at local markets, co-ops, and on foot or bike. It’s going to be an interesting experiment, and we’re hopeful that, as with one of my other blogs, 52 Coffees, writing a blog can be a catalyst for personal change and growth. Check it out!

Whitney Music Box

I’m always interested in discovering new ways of manipulating sound, not to mention examples of the ways music and math converge, and this is one of the coolest I’ve seen in a long time: Whitney Music Box.

The spinning dots move at speeds governed by various predefined ratios, resulting in cool swirling patterns that converge in different ways over time. Each dot is also assigned to a tone, and when the dot crosses the horizontal line, its tone is produced.

There’s even a variation where you can control the motion with a hand crank. Very cool!

(This is what we call “good Flash.”)