Monthly Archives: March 2007

Cannibalism in the Cars, Take Two

Well, I just recently was ecstatic to discover XeTeX, an extended implementation of my favorite typesetting engine, TeX, written by Dr Donald E. Knuth. This version adds features that I have long wished for in TeX, and the lack of which were in fact the chief reason I stopped using TeX on a regular basis: support for OpenType fonts, and Unicode text.

This finally afforded me the opportunity to re-work Mark Twain’s Cannibalism in the Cars (PDF of my latest version), using the “expert” font, Adobe Caslon Pro, instead of the original, basic Times font, support for which is built into all PDF readers.

I guess my next project would be to rewrite my résumé (PDF) using TeX (as I originally had it), which lately has been done in OpenOffice on Windows, to take advantage of my favorite OpenType fonts (OpenOffice on Unix systems does not currently support OpenType).

Excerpt from my setting of Cannibalism in the Cars

ThinkGeek’s “Office Space” Kit

Picture of the contents of the Office Space KitSo, ThinkGeek‘s selling this Office Space Kit. Contents:

  • Red Stapler (a mini version, not an actual Swingline [may jam])
  • Initech Mug
  • “Is this Good for the Company?” Sign
  • Starter “Flair” (“Sounds like somebady has a case of THE MONDAYS”)
  • “PC Load Letter” Copy Machine Sticker
  • Your Very Own “Jump To Conclusions” Mat
  • A Humorous 32-Page Book
  • TPS Report Coversheets (5 included)

And, at the time of this writing, it’s just $12.99! (I’m so getting one…)

Snowglobes As Art

Best freakin’ snowglobes ever. These guys do works of art that happen to be detailed and very interesting snowglobes. (Found via Penny Arcade.) At the precise moment I’m posting this, their servers are having issues; my guess is that a Penny Arcade reader submitted it to Digg.

The ones pictured here aren’t even the best ones (by far). They just made the handiest example to include in this post. Be sure to check out their non-snowglobe art as well.

Three very artistic snowglobes