Naepalm

This blog post is a week and a half late.  This probably tells you something either about my sense of punctuality, the level of importance regarding writing in my blog, or perhaps the amount of free time that I have.  As to the first: I firmly believe in promptness, to the second: I find writing in my blog important despite often being not sure what to say, and for the third: my free time is desperately lacking.  Especially in regards to the last week and a half.

My parents, with grandmother in tow, came up to visit last week.  As my aunt owns a tiny little quarter-sized mobile home in Birch Bay, WA, she graciously allowed them to stay there and make use of her facilities.  Said facilities include not only the tiny little house but also a community with a heated pool (that I took full use of), a fair amount of wildlife (including bunnies, ducks, racoons, and other northwestern Washington species), and a sense of quiet relaxing community.  And a barbeque that cooks delicious food.

We usually try to get together around this time of year to celebrate Father's Day and my mom's birthday, which is on June 16th.  Off and on throughout the years they've been on the same day, which we always greatly enjoyed and never felt that one negatively impacted the importance of the other.  The same should be said for this year.

And that note, finally, brings me to the point of this post: my dad.

My dad and I have had an interesting relationship.  We got along great as I was a child (yeah, my sister and I have always been Daddy's girls), but as I grew in to teenage-hood, we started to really butt heads and that didn't stop until I moved out of the house.  I've often wondered, as I'm sure my dad has too, if some of the things that happened between us, some of the words that we said or the fights that we've had are irreparable.  It occured to me this weekend: that's not the case.

So, here I am in front of the world, or at least my miniscule piece of it, saying "Dad, I'm proud of you!"  And here's why: 

1. You always say you don't like cats.  But you secretly adore them.
2. You get excited over being Santa Claus.
3. I can always find you by your laugh.  Even though we're 200 miles apart, I bet I could hear you from Bellingham to Longview.
4. You have a sense of integrity that can only be rivaled by the joy you take in life.
5. Whenever I've been in a bind I didn't think I could get out of (roomate ditching me in 11 hours of notice with no money to pay her half of the rent and you guys spotting me $300, which I still intend to pay you back.)
6. After my roommate ditched and I didn't know what to do, you suggested I marry Nick.
7. Getting married on your birthday was the "best present you've ever had".
8. You treat my husband as if he were your son.
9. You're never afraid to be a neighbor to someone, no matter how far from home you are.  You always have a greeting and a good day.
10. When people are surprised and tell you that you're in a good mood, you respond "Yeah, I get that a lot."
11. Your smile is infectious.
12. You hate your job, but you do it anyway because that means supporting your family.
13. You made me the best cat post ever!

Everyone is aware of the current hardship many people are having with the economy.  Holding a job is hard, let along getting one if you don't have it.  And for all those people who have lost their jobs in Cowlitz County, WA (that'd be where my parents live), my dad and his co-workers are there to help.  And for that, I am so very, very, very proud.

You expect help from the people at DSHS in this situation.  After all, they're the ones that take your paperwork and dole out your wellfare if you qualify.  But what do you do for those few days inbetween finding out if you're eligible for foodstamps or not while you have two children.  I've been laid off before through no fault of my own, but because the company just couldn't support their employees.  Many people scoff at wellfare and the state helping those who need it, but I could be there right now, and so could many of the people I care about.

And if I was in that line, waiting to find out if I would get to eat tomorrow, I would get a blessing.  The employees at the Kelso Department of Social and Health Services throw fundraisers.  Of their own will, with their own money, by their own decision - the employees, not the management.  So that people who are waiting to get help in these hard times will have food and toiletries for a week in the meantime.  They keep a pantry there to give out to families in need and to be a blessing to those that are hurting in this economy.  And all I have to say is: Thank God there are men like my father who are willing to go the extra mile for a love of other people.

And to end this ridiculously sappy moment (I'll try not to tear up at work on my lunch break), some adorable cat pictures of my kittens enjoying the tree my dad built them last week!

Since my last post (about typography... which conveniently is also my last post), I've learned a few things:

1. I need an upgrade of Photoshop.  Photoshop 7 just isn't cutting it for design. (Could I be any less subtle to the powers that be?  Hint.  Hint.  Hint.)
2. Typography is a nightmare.  Finding the font that you want that fits the site, then picking one of the three afore-mentioned (obnoxious) techniques, and then going through the actual implementation of it... and then having to debug it across the browser... Right.  'Nough said.
3. There has got to be a better way.

Luckily for me, you, and everyone else out there, there does seem to be a better way.  It's not full proof.  It's not even perhaps known of.  But it does seem to fix a good 99% of my issues with type and the web, functions in all the browsers, and also is at least relatively secure.  Don't quote me on the license issues for it, though, those aren't my specialty.

What is this mysterious bout of problem-solving amazement?  One simple word.  Cufon.  Now, try to pronounce it.  I think I've heard it about five different ways.

The next question, I'm sure, is what exactly is Cufon anyway?  Well, that I can answer.  Cufon is an implementation of javascript, SVG, and Canvas that slaps your font into place after the browser has loaded your website with an amazing amount of speed and efficiency.  So... why do I like it better than image replacement, @font-face, or perhaps sIFR?  Simple:

1. Compatibility: Cufon works in all browsers except IE6.  Since it's run by javascript, it doesn't require you to have the most recent version of flash on your site.  In fact, it doesn't require flash at all (and thank god).  Not every browser has implemented the use of canvas or SVG, but with javascript mixed in, every browser (except stupid old IE6) is at least able to run Cufon.
2. Useability: Cufon is amazingly easy to install.  Ridiculously easy in fact.  Plug your font into their encoder, allow it to spit it out, and plug it in.  For those of us who are CSS gurus and not developers, this means something very important: Cufon works like a breeze with CSS!  For any of you who have been using sIFR to do your subbing in, and I have tried it myself so I am talking from experience, how difficult is it to actually A. Target a piece of HTML with sIFR and B. Actually then apply the correct CSS to it without tying yourself in a knot over word-spacing, line-height, and all the other joys of actually forcing your new flash text to over-write your old text in that pretty manner that you want?  You know what I mean.  With Cufon: Apply it, target it with javascript (Cufon.replace('h1')) and... voila!  Apply your CSS as normal.  No extra instructions, no obnoxious work-arounds, just put it all in and make it pretty.  No stress and no grey hairs.
3. Speed: Taking compatibility into consideration with this one, @font-face is fast.  It plugs your text in like normal.  In the browsers it works in.  Image-replacement is fast enough.  You have to wait for the images to load and in the meantime, no text appears at all.  sIFR is the slowest piece of $@%! on the planet.  Luckily for us, Cufon pops up (leaving your regular text there until it does, styled with the CSS as normal so it looks nice) as soon as your javascript kicks in.  Which is pretty darn fast in all the modern browsers.
4. Safety: As I said, I can't swear by the legality of it, but Cufon does imbed the font you upload into a new javascript file for you and requests that you specifically apply it to your domain.  People can probably steal all the code and put it in their website, but they won't be able to download it for use at least.

From a designer's standpoint, 2 is probably the most important to me.  I cut down on applying beautiful fonts to a website in under half the time it would have taken me using any of the other programs.  And because I can't swear to be the smartest cookie in the jar, Cufon has a great set of instructions that pretty much spell out how to use it on your site.  Add to that, it's compatible with most of the major javascript libraries, including jquery (my favorite) and prototype.  Kyle gives a few more awesome reasons as to why he, as a devigner (developer + designer) loves it.

If nothing else, give it a shot.  You might find that it blows you right out of the water.

Cross-Posted from Mindfly's Blog