work Random things, as I (with permission) try to kill time at work

I’m at a temp job where there’s nothing for me to do, they know there’s nothing for me to do, and the owner of the company has just told me not to go home.

So be it. Random things.

The other day in my commuter lot, I saw a license plate that said “ICE 9.” Unless I am completely missing something else and overestimating the car’s owner, this is a reference to the book Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, and I was delighted to be in on the joke.

A few days before that, I saw an honest-to-goodness Virginia plate that said CUNTRYS. I have no idea how their system let that one get through and toyed with the idea of reporting it to someone.

I’m reading my new issue of STEP inside design magazine. I love this magazine because it’s full of reviews and articles on stuff that interests me, like websites (this restaurant one is beautiful; I love the ivory feel*), design conferences, software, photography, design annuals, textiles, toys, furniture, and even, once, cheese graters. There are interviews with the designers of well-known print ad campaigns, the creative directors of TV commercials, and the art directors of innovative movies. There are reviews and screenshots of interesting websites (go to vitaminwater.com and click “vitaminwater” in the upper left, then click “vital-T” to see the “spot of tea dear?” picture that will haunt your dreams) and articles and blurbs about really cool and innovative new products (this month’s best example).

* Though I am not crazy about the ridiculous line “Creole cuisine is renown for its decadency.”

I always end up marking a ton of pages for my collage or for things to look up online or in stores or on TV. The layout of the magazine itself is great, with creative typography (they lead stuff really tight, which I always like, though I’m not crazy about their paragraph spacing or their lack of column balancing and widow/orphan control) and lots of white space, meaning it’s easy to find cool phrases to cut out. The ads are also great, heavy on the paper manufacturers (often the paper ads are printed ON the paper being advertised, and often these samples are die-cut and made to be torn out and folded into things like gift tags and fortune-tellers, which is awesome) and stock-photo sites (often with codes for free images or sample books). My only quibble with this really high-quality magazine is shoddy prepress. Last month a whole page of type samples was dropped out, and the page ran with only blank blocks of color. A diecut paper-sample fortune-teller had the die crooked and wasn’t really foldable as intended (though a coworker here has one too, and hers is fine). And this month pages 121-128 appear twice, and pages 129-136 don’t appear at all. SO weird.

The girl (now 52) who played Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird” still refers to the late Gregory Peck as “my Atticus.”A brief interview with her.

I think I’m going to move my prescriptions to Costco now that I can’t use my former insurer’s horrible mail service pharmacy anymore, but I’m tempted to pay retail just so I can get some of Target’s amazingly cool new prescription bottles. (Go to designforall.target.com, click the green pushpin or thereabouts (for “Everyday”) at the bottom, click “Protect” under “Activities,” and click the red prescription bottle in the upper left.)

Did you know the Powerpuff Girls are teenagers now? Creeeeepy.