lifesigns:

Self-Injury Awareness Day (SIAD) is on the 1st of March, every year, everywhere.

LifeSIGNS is a volunteer led organisation, with no funding. We’ve been running for ten years. Please use our fact sheets and information to raise awareness, and check out our wristbands and key rings if you’re willing to support us.

Check your knowledge and understanding; the explanations are particularly enlightening, so even if you know all these, you can still learn more.

The best ones:

moot
continual and continuous
nor (yay, let’s bring ‘nor’ back into common usage)
whether and if
farther and further (excellent explanation)
nauseous

The rest:

who and whom
which and that
lay and lie
envy and jealousy
may and might
fewer and less
since and because
disinterested and uninterested
different than and different from
bring and take
impactful
affect and effect
irony and coincidence

http://litreactor.com/columns/20-common-grammar-mistakes-that-almost-everyone-gets-wrong

By Naturayarte; a gift from Jules.

English pound note, discontinued 1984

I’ll be talking at the London one I think.

http://www.interact-intranet.com/events/uk/

dariusmonsef:

I had my last drink of alcohol 3 years ago and it’s been a dance-battling, boat-cruising, skinny-dipping, word-traveling, HUGE party ever since.

It wasn’t a choice of restriction or having less fun, but rather of fully experiencing everything and truly having the most fun possible. The way…

Worried about a dodgy web page that you’ve visited? Need to check your website for malware? Use an online scanner (use ‘em all…)

• AVG Threat Labs
• Comodo Site Inspector
• Virus Total (click the ‘scan a URL’ link)

Remember, these services only check one page, so don’t just check the home page of a website and expect these services to crawl all over the site.

Do you know any service that will crawl an entire website?

vivid-entertainment:

favorite movie

weandthecolor:

Unique Art Inspiration

Anatomical Cross Sections in Paper

From the Tissue Series by Lisa Nilsson.

“Made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books.”

More art inspiration.

posted by W.A.T.C.
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The usual triumvirate - and you can only pick two to focus on, yet all three are important.

jo9ty:

Eyes on the user experience (user-testing websites with real people)

Notes from a presentation by Optimal Usability at Write Limited in Wellington, New Zealand on 25 November 2011.

“the measure (or metric) by which you judge how easy it is for the user (not creator) to do the intended task…” ~ @DesignNathanael

“…within pre-defined knowledge of similiar systems; to include learning curves.” ~ @MarkRHancock

Wikipedia says: “Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object.”

The Encyclopædia Britannica appears to say nothing on the subject.

The Encyclopædia Galactica says “A matter discussed at great length by experts though seldom seen in reality owing to perceptions of cost, even though it just means watching people use a prototype of the product.”

“refers to the concept of how a system helps and guides the person along the task-journey to create an efficient flow and effective solution.” ~ @Wedge

joyciedear:

“X-Wing Jockeys” by Joshua Budich.
Limited edition silkscreen print.

“It’s avatars that capture your attention, but personality which captures your heart and mind.

“Social media tests the filter that divides inner monologue from disclosure. As our thoughts become words online, they colour our avatars and profiles with a glimpse of our personality – who we are online and in the real world.

“Over time, it is how we put our words into action that establishes our character. And, it is our character, through the marriage of our words and actions, that paves the way for relationships and opportunities.”

Brian Solis - http://www.briansolis.com/2011/02/behaviorgraphics-discovering-the-me-in-social-media/

Why I use the Oxford comma.

theemotionmachine:

Overcoming negative experiences.

LifeSIGNS is currently in hibernation while we redevelop our website. Redevelopment was something we had planned for later this year, as a way of celebrating our 10th birthday, but we’ve been forced to bring it forward because of the hacking attacks we’ve suffered over the previous few weeks.

The hackers couldn’t have picked a worse time to attack our beautiful website. 1st March is SIAD (Self-Injury Awareness Day) and this is our busiest time of year.

Sadly we have been unable to gain full access to our site in order to scan and clean it, and therefore we’ve made the difficult but essential decision to put our website into hibernation until such time as we can ensure its safety.

This could take several weeks, possibly even months, but please rest assured that we will relaunch our website in time and all our resources will again be available.

In the meantime we’ll be running LifeSIGNS as best we can, through Tumblr and Twitter.

We hope to have wristbands available via Tumblr in the next few weeks, but anyone who’d like to buy wristbands now is welcome to email Jules directly.

We can only apologise for any inconvenience this unscheduled hibernation causes you, and hope that you can be patient while we go through this difficult time.

Thank you.

That’s very good of you to say. Stay safe; seek health and happiness.

theemotionmachine:

“Habits aren’t destiny — they can be ignored, changed or replaced. But it’s also true that once the loop is established and a habit emerges, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making. So unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new cues and rewards — the old pattern will unfold automatically.”

Source: How Companies Learn You Secrets

Really great piece, with many useful insights into psychology, marketing, and neuroscience.

Spring is just around the corner :)

A super submission.

Sign down! Call for back-up!

I hope this is legit: Dark room - see what happens when you leave the door open?

Perfectly clear signage. Nothing to smirk about.

Crikey, that IS temporary!

I’m not a fan of leather myself, but it needs respect if you’re gonna make use of such a precious material. (If you don’t think it’s precious, try making a bag out of your own skin…)

So this handmade sign could just be a little better I feel. Sure, as always, there’s nothing wrong with a hand-written sign; they’re great for specials in restaurants and time-sensitive offers in shops. But this one is looking a little tired; more time could be spent on a more ‘premium’ look for these affordable ‘premium’ products.

Shopping for handbags should be a moment of luxury; sure we like to bag a bargain when our eye catches something, but handbags aren’t normally considered necessities, so we want to treat ourselves. (I don’t buy many bags, you understand, I’m empathising with the female shopper I hope.)

So how about this one?

• Download my sign [PDF; 1.3MB]

See what I’ve done there? I hope I’ve made a more attractive and eye catching sign for Golunski Leather.

And as you know, I’m not just here to poke fun and criticise (although I do hate a Frankensign) no no, I also print and send my poster offering to the establishment in the hope of helping them make the world a more beautiful and easy-to-read place :)

(Photo credit: idhren)

Read about me, about how I started and follow MysterySign on Twitter.

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There is nothing to say about this sign.

www.MysterySignWriter.com

Here’s my first submission (thank you), from a pet shop(?) that shall remain nameless.

This sign is fine, except of course it’s in ALL CAPS and is exceedingly dull. It’s informative, but does nothing for the brand, the look, of the store.

I know, they sound like feline slavers don’t they?

What is this sign missing? What does it need? Well, ‘mohr kittehs’ I think!

Here’s what I’ve done for them, maybe they’ll like it when I post it to them; what do you think?

• Download my sign (large file) [PDF; 14MB]

I think it’s better than the original Frankensign; ‘white paper’ posters are so dull, we need colour, pictures - life.

Photo credit: mathies-erhart

Read about me, about how I started and follow MysterySign on Twitter.

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There are so many Frankensigns in this high street café that it’s difficult to know where to start - for me, and for any customer…

These signs are tatty, old and SHOUT at customers in ALL CAPS, making good news look like bad news.

Your shop front is your brand; first impressions (kerb appeal) matter a great deal. Why cramp up the window with random signs when prospective customers want to see what sort of establishment you run, and your current clientèle want to have plenty of natural light!

Following the establishment’s brand colour (golden brown), I’ve crafted a photo poster that has a little more impact and imparts a more professional feel.

• Download PDF

I hope I’ve designed a poster that will perform better than the current ‘white paper’ Frankensign, and so I’ve posted it directly to the proprietor and I hope he or she will see fit to pop it up in the window.

Photo credit: sludgegulper

Read about me, about how I started and follow MysterySign on Twitter.

• Home

Mr. @SimonBishop found this edifying sign in a pub.

This hastily written and printed sign was plastered up all over our local town centre. The sentiment is admirable, as the near-by car park has been closed for a long while. But the sign presents some cardinal errors:

• written in ALL CAPITALS, which are harder to read than sentence case words (studies prove) and makes good news look awfully unfriendly;
• complex language - do passers-by really need to fathom what ‘adjacent’ means, when in reality this car park is directly on the road mentioned?
• assumption - missing subject - a multi-story what, exactly? Skyscraper? Office block?
• presumption - oh it’s re-opened has it? So it was closed at some point was it? I didn’t know that, and funnily enough, I don’t care.

I’ve re-written the poster to give it more context and help it communicate its message more directly. I’m a fan of conciseness, but in this case I felt it necessary to add some words and increase the information density.