Happy Friday! Can you believe it’s Friday again? Amazing. I’m excited because 1. I think my cold is finally going away and 2. I get to visit the Archive of Recorded Sound at Stanford. I love going to other archives, seeing what the archivists and librarians are doing, and bringing back new insights to use in our archives. Plus, it is getting close to the end of the year and you know what that means, right? Yup, the start of all the wonderful end-of-the-year lists. Yay! So let’s as the good Doctor would say, Allons-y!
Oh, Lifehacker, how I love that I can always count on you for wonderful tips. But, more importantly, I can also count on you to have lists. I like lists a lot and Lifehacker doesn’t disappoint with Most Popular Top 10s of 2010. Seriously, give this article a read and see if there are any great tech tips you missed the first time around.
Speaking of tech tips, if you are an Android user and find your phone’s performance is, well, lacking, check out Lifehacker’s How to Speed up Your Old, Sluggish Android Device.
Moving on from tech tips to design, check out this informative post Design v. Aesthetics. Now it’s no secret that I adore beautiful designs, but I’m definitely in the camp that if it isn’t usable or readable than it isn’t well designed (no matter how pretty it may be). Happy designing!
Talking about design brings me to Bridging the Nerd Gap’s “Why You’re a Huge Nerd.” It’s fantastic. As I tell all my first year students during our first class together: we’re sitting in class on a college campus and have the luxury of higher education. Not only are we all extremely fortunate, we are all geeks and nerds. You’re in college, make peace with that and the next few years will be a lot easier. In college, as in life, it is so much easier to just accept one’s nerdiness/geekiness than trying to hide it. I love this bit of the post:
There’s something innately attractive about somebody who really gives a crap about something….Seeing somebody’s inner nerd come bursting forth is an inspiring thing…”
I couldn’t agree more. Just say no to apathy and yes to being true to your inner nerd and/or geek. And, by the way, just in case you somehow missed it, today is “May the Force Be With Katie Day” or as her mom renamed it, “Wear Star Wars–Share Star Wars.”
Speaking of nerdiness, I absolutely love this (found via Hanna’s tumblr feed and originally from nevver).
formal apology
And, because it is Friday and yes, I’m getting into the holiday spirit, here is a lovely, holiday clip created by Seduff and featuring the tenth Doctor. Enjoy!
Have a wonderful, restful weekend and your weekend assignment, should you choose to accept it (inspired by Bridging the Nerd Gap), is to dig “around in somebody’s head to figure out what kind of nerd they are.” Be nice and share with them what kind of a nerd you are too and then go get a cup of hot cocoa together (’cause it is definitely hot cocoa weather here). I’ll be back next week with more information and random fun.