Here’s what I just emailed to Delta Airlines over the recent insanity:
I’ve had my share of less than pleasant experiences with Delta flight attendants, but I’m not prone to blame them for their occasional surliness: they’re working in a difficult industry, for difficult management, and often with difficult customers. The story in the news this week, however, about a Freedom flight attendant and a Delta ticket agent removing a breastfeeding mother from a flight is just too much. The agents and attendants need to be trained to deal NOT with the moms trying to feed their babies in the healthiest and most natural way possible, but rather to deal with the people who have perpetuated the completely ridiculous perception of female breasts as something lurid or sexual.
Just teach your attendants this handy stock phrase and be done with it: “I’m very sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, sir or madam, but it is perfectly normal and healthy behavior. But you’re in luck, through a new partnership program, our frequent flyer miles are now redeemable with many quality psychologists who can help you with your hang-up.”
This post is dedicated to AustinMama.com: thanks, y’all, for letting a dad (this one!) win the Series of Unfortunate Events haiku contest.
Life is busy; life is good. Here are a few recent/current things I just have to document:
- Cheris is about 17 weeks now with the next kiddo, and is feeling much better. She looks fantastic too; must post pics soon.
- We had a really great recent visit from my mom. Cheris blogged about that, plus the beginnings of Violet’s language explosion a few days ago. This is an amazing time. I have one thing to add to Cheris’ post. Usually, when Violet wakes up, she babbles or sings bits and pieces of “Old MacDonald’s Farm” until we come get her. On Monday morning, she woke up and started hollering “Moooorning! Moooorning!” Neither of us had ever heard her use that word before. That’s freaky.
- Toddler Halloween parties are really, really fun. Head-exploding cuteness everywhere.
- Colleague and friend Jon has scored a job with the mighty Google — woohoo! All of us in his department at the Hoov are glad for him, but we’ll certainly be sad to see him go. The silver lining on this cloud, for me at least, is the opportunity to help further the great work Jon has done at Hoover’s: In the weeks ahead, my role will change from web producer to interface designer, and I am extremely excited about the change of pace and the new challenges that will come with this.
- Last month, I participated for the third time in the annual Accessibility Internet Rally – Austin, a contest that matches web development teams with local nonprofit organizations. The challenge: build a website for the nonprofit that is not only attractive and useful but also highly accessible to web users with disabilities — and build the whole site in just one business day. This year I served as captain of the team from Hoover’s Design Center, and we had the pleasure of working with the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation on their new site. I am overwhelmingly proud to report that this year we won the competition in its “Stock Car” category. To my outstanding teammates Anthony, Jenny, Mimi, and Sarah: you guys kick so much ass, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Thanks.
If you haven’t heard the news yet: Cheris is pregnant again! We’re very excited to give Violet a little brother or sister (and yes, we’re planning to find out which it is this time). Cheris saw the doctor yesterday; she’s been deemed as 8 weeks along, putting the due date at Earth Day — April 22, 2007.
Can’t wait!
Not even out of the first trimester and already the kid’s got a picture on the internet. What a weird world.
Just in time for Christmas shopping season. I smell a scam.
A couple of my colleagues at the Hoov have side projects they’ve worked up on evenings and weekends, and I thought both of these were well worth sharing with the folks I know.
Not long ago, Sharon and her husband launched BargainJack: “21 Deals Daily… Everyone Wins.” The concept is pretty simple: “Jack” finds the best discounts on the net (mainly electronics and computer stuff, but other stuff turns up sometimes too) every day and shares his top 21. So what makes it stand out from any other bargain-hunting site? The details. Check out how well the blackjack theme is woven into every area of the site. The writing is snappy and clever. The design is clean, attractive, and easy to use—but an RSS feed is provided so you needn’t come to the site daily to keep an eye out for a great deal. You can search the site, too, so if you’re hunting for a specific make and model of something you can find out if a great deal has been featured recently. Bottom line: possibly the best site in the world for the price-fixated impluse buyer, and downright useful to everyone else too.
Jon, meanwhile, has been working on Omazan, “a clean, crisp alternative interface for Amazon.com.” Omazan searches the actual Amazon.com products database, keeps track of what you want with a nice-and-simple shopping cart, and when you’re ready to buy, the contents of your cart are transmitted to Amazon itself for secure checkout. The homepage says that “Omazan is what you use when you are pretty sure you know what you want and are ready to buy,” but I’ve found—given the amount of stuff crammed onto every page of the real Amazon site—that Omazan ain’t bad for browsing either, especially if you’re poking around within a single author’s catalogue, or a series. For now, Omazan is focused on books, but may eventually start to search through the tons and tons of other stuff that Amazon offers. Give this a shot next time you’re about to buy something off Amazon so you won’t (to paraphrase Omazan’s tagline) get lost in the jungle.