Tag: photos

The frivolous college

Whitman College, my alma mater, sent these out to all graduates the other week. It’s a mini, laminated diploma “to put in your wallet or a very small frame.” This seems about the worst possible way to spend funds.

When tuition is increasing along with cutbacks in staff why in the world is money being spent on frivolous things like this?

If I choose to go to a small private college with tuition over $40,000 it’s for the small class sizes, relationships with professors, and opportunities to get involved in a variety of things. 1 It’s not for a laminated mini diploma one year after graduation.

Instead of wasting money on creating, laminating, cutting, and mailing hundreds of these to graduates around the world Whitman could have covered the cost of books for a student who otherwise would have to borrow for them.

Notes:

  1. Which Whitman does provide and I am thankful for and benefited from.

Global Imperialism

Saw this while in Eugene yesterday and thought it was clever.

New reading for the week

Picked up The Information by James Gleick this weekend at Powell’s. I’m already 3 chapters in and it’s solid; a really great read.

Elowah, Horsetail, and Oneonta Falls

Took some time-off with a friend in town to hike a few short loops in the Columbia Gorge. 3 waterfalls in just 6 miles is a pretty sweet deal. Pretty overcast day but hiking on a Friday meant that trails weren’t too crowded.

The right way to ask users for help

I haven’t ever used MLKSHK but their appeal for people to help fund product development makes me want to contribute.

For $24 a year you get a site and service run by people who care about their community. We’re people who care about delivering a good product and who are committed to building out the site for as long as there’s a community that cares about MLKSHK. We have an amazing list of places we want to take the site but we won’t be able to do it if we can’t devote all our time to it. And to be clear, we’re not against getting money or funding from the right people; we just want to be able to do MLKSHK the right way.

Just a bit of time spent poking around the product shows that they really get it. The founders have put a lot of time, creativity, and personality into things and it shows.

There’s nothing wrong with asking your community to help support you and they’ve done it in a wonderfully thoughtful way. Great stuff.

(via Gruber)

Pre-moving Sushi

Had a much needed sushi dinner before moving across town tomorrow. Moving is the best excuse to be lazy and not cook.

Brownies

My friend Cam (who’s headed to Spain for six months) made delicious brownies with a caramel sauce. Yum!

iPhone home screen

Because Daniel made it seem like a good idea. 🙂

Catan

Weather went from sunny to overcast so it was a great day for board games. I totally lost but was still fun.

Weekend Reading

Picked up The Elements of Content Strategy to read for this weekend. Looking forward to it.