Better Living Through Introspection

Well, it’s official. I’m surprised it lasted this long — usually the comedies that appeal to me tend to be short-lived; or, at least, sentimental looks back tend to make it seem that way (except for “Cheers,” man, did that show drag ass). But finally, one of my current favorites, “How I Met Your Mother” appears to have taken a turn for the worse.

I won’t discuss it directly so as not to introduce any spoilers for you TiVo users, but if the show continues with the plot line from the end of last night’s episode, I’m going to have difficulty watching it.

Oh, and in case you’re not familiar with the phrase, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia’s surprisingly accurate explanation:

The term jumping the shark alludes to a specific scene in a 1977 episode of the TV series Happy Days when the popular character Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli literally jumps over a shark while water skiing. The scene was so preposterous that many believed it to be an ill-conceived attempt at reviving the declining ratings of the flagging show. The phrase has become a colloquialism used by U.S. TV critics and fans to denote the point at which the characters or plot of a TV series veer into a ridiculous, out-of-the-ordinary storyline.

It’s not my favorite phrase, but it works.

What I like about NPR is they have so much damn good content on their site (and on-air. duh.). What I don’t like about NPR is they have so much damn good content on their site — it’s easy to miss choice items, such as this recent episode of “In Character” with an interview of Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster. Just plain-old good, clean fun with a nod to Inside The Actor’s Studio to boot.

Lord knows it’s a nice break from all the political coverage…

Just came across this pre-release announcement for YUI 2.5.0. While everything in it is of course subject to change, I’m looking forward to two of the new items: the YUI Carousel (sounds funny, but when you see it, you’ll understand) and the YUI Layout Manager, which is for “…creating interfaces with flexible, resizable content panes. Layout Manager supports full-viewport applications and implementations where you manage a layout with a block-level DOM element.”

When you’re short a developer, code libraries such as the Yahoo! User Interface library are life-savers. (Not that you could tell from looking at this blog. Honest, I’m working on a new design!)

In a stunning follow-up to yesterday’s post describing the pitfalls of trying to make time for creative writing, none other than The New York Times has deigned to comment on the topic. Okay, okay, this “Career Couch” article was actually written two days ago, but thanks to an alert Certain Someone, it came across my desk today and it seems to echo (albeit in a more professional tone) my sentiments.

Hobbies Are Rich in Psychic Rewards

By EILENE ZIMMERMAN
Published: December 2, 2007

Q. Between work and family, you have little time or energy left for hobbies, like crafts, painting or music. Without them, though, life feels mundane. What can you do about it?

A. Squeeze them in, even it’s for just a few minutes at a time, because those moments can change your mood and your mind-set.

Read the full article