Entries from April 2007 ↓

I happened upon this quote at JollyBlogger, who referenced Justin Taylor’s blog, who in turn thanks Desiring God’s Bill Walsh, who was quoting from James Galvin’s book “Faith Alone.” Ah, the hyperactive hyperlink.

But it’s from Martin Luther, and it’s good medicine for me:

People don’t earn God’s approval or receive life and salvation because of anything they’ve done. Rather, the only reason they receive life and salvation is because of God’s kindness through Christ. There is no other way.

Many Christians are tired of hearing this teaching over and over. They think that they learned it all long ago. However, they barely understand how important it really is. If it continues to be taught as truth, the Christian church will remain united and pure

Scott asks a good question in the comments:

I don

Check out all of today’s photos over at my Flickr account!

This is a part of an 1876 map of our neighborhood. The original map covers the entire city of Fort Wayne — which at that time was a small fraction of its size today.

Notice the Wabash & Erie Canal cut right through our neighborhood, and almost went through our backyard.

The whole canal operated for only about a decade, a victim of being built too close to the coming of the locomotive age. Plus, the walls of the canal were constantly falling in.

And then there was the Reservoir War. About 200 residents of Paulding County, Ohio, attacked and drained a reservoir feeding the canal, saying the only thing they ever got from it was mosquito bites and “ague” — what we now call malaria.

The people of the Midwest were only too eager to bury this antiquated mode of transportation. At that time, they would never have guessed that anyone would be interested in preserving any part of it.

UPDATE: In fact, this map is dated 1876, but the last official canal boat made its docking in 1874. In 1876, the canal land was auctioned off, and the railroad gobbled up the land through Fort Wayne.

So, there is little to no physical evidence that a canal went through my neighborhood 150 years ago.

To help myself figure out where the canal existed compared to current landmarks, I created this Google map. I took the information from the old Fort Wayne city map referenced above and drew vectors across a Google map of Fort Wayne.

This is still a work in progress. I hope to add more details and even photos to the map as time permits.

Mary Swerens speaks:

I don’t know how long I can take hearing people talk about “picking Booger McFarland.” Ewww.

Over at Signal vs. Noise, there’s a great debate about subway maps.

What’s the best way to draw a subway map? The one on the left is the official and geographically accurate version. The one on the right is less geographically accurate, but easier to read and understand.

At least, that’s what some people say. Scott, what do you think? (Feel free to comment over there.)

Midwest grocer Meijer has been redesigning its store brands, and they look pretty snappy. They stand up well beside their name-brand counterparts.

For example, here is Meijer’s brown mustard. The label, bottle and cap look professional — until you try to use it.

Look at the close-ups of the cap below. How do you open it?

Here’s one side.

And here’s the other.

To use my metaphor, the cap mumbles. The side that’s the opening and the side that’s the hinge look almost exactly the same.

The only real clue is the tiny “LIFT” in raised letters on the opening side. It’s easier to just guess which side to open, and guess wrong, and open the cap on the other side, than to search for such a small word.

In comparison, here is a bottle of Heinz brown mustard. I didn’t buy it because of its design; I bought it because it’s my favorite brown mustard.

But the first thing we notice is the “upside-down” bottle — and that Heinz has already solved one design problem. No more shaking the bottle to get the mustard from the bottom of the bottle to the cap, because now they’re the same.

More great points about the Heinz cap:

See the ridges around the cap? That’s your clue that you need to open the whole lid. but why would you have to do that? Well, you need to open the entire lid to remove the safety seal inside.

Next, notice the half-circle. It’s obvious that you should put your thumb here to open the cap. Unlike the Meijer cap, you don’t need the word “LIFT.” The design of the cap says “lift.”

Plus, the “Heinz 57 Varieties” on the top of the cap helpfully orients you. You can guess that if you hold the bottle with the letters right-side-up, then that’ll be the way you need to hold the cap to open the bottle. And your guess would be right.

And one more pleasant thing is the stay clean cap with this control valve.

Trust me: Whoever designed this cap thought about all of these small details to make it intuitive how to “operate” the bottle. The Heinz bottle speaks to us clearly — without saying a word.

Sorry for the paucity of posts lately, but I’ve been busy with a few other interesting projects:

• One big project is my new blog, Design Tells a Story. You may have noticed that I talk a lot about the design of things on this blog. I talk about it so much that I thought I’d create a whole new website for those discussions. Now, this personal website can be reserved for my music and family postings.
• I’m also trying to write an essay for the think tank I’ve been allowed to join, AB 417. You’ll see it online this fall, but the working title is “A Defense of Fake Authenticity.”
• Plus, I’m still teaching science to the boys thrice a week.
• Oh, and I’m working at the newspaper, too.

So, plenty of busyness here in Fort Wayne!