BLAH. Now that is 99% bad.

My latest favorite Google expirament, Google Answers has provided me with something funnier than the comics: the sucidal chipmunk.

Chris MacGregor's inspired response to Don Norman's intellegent explaination of the flash turn around issue should be required reading for anyone in web development. Especially consultants.

(reread Flash 99% bad, if you don't know what I'm talking about. esp. the ammendment)

My little site often goes after usability blunders like a dog on a hambone, and I know as I've begun job hunting I've been restraining myself-- slightly.

But is this a good idea? On one hand, I'm not a professional critic and I don't get paid to be objective. On the other hand, how can I expect you to ever trust me if I don't keep my nose clean (or get it dirty-- not sure -- damn metaphors). At least you should be able to trust me to be opinionated.

The ammendment on the 99% bad alertbox reads more than a little like a backpedal. What does that do to the alertbox's trustworthyness? It makes you wonder what are the stories that don't get told at NNG. And other consultant companies.

It also reveals the price of being bombastic and absolute. If that orginal column had claimed merely that Flash was being misused, the current alliance would go down easier with the community(s). But the attention grabbing "99% bad" that got people to the site, and probably caught Macromedia's attention, is also the reason this job is going down so badly.

What can NNG do? Here is a chance to make real change. I don't blame them for making what is the right decision: to try to help what they view as a troubled product. But they are also going to have to live with the skeptiscm and catcalls.

That's the price of guruhood.

warning: personal and ranty
The Sunday Comics aren't funny is a good article, but the cartoons that illustrate it begin to tear off the bland facade to reveal the unpleasantness underneath. Reading all the comics on the Houston Chronicle's personalized comics page, I'm amazed at what passes for humor.. fat jokes, sissy jokes, sexism... the comics page is the last holdout for 50's mores.

Maybe it's that I'm home these days, writing, and finding myself for the first time in my life washing dishes, clothes and cooking exclusively while warning my delighted husband over dinner not to get to used to it, that I'm haunted and disturbed by these morality tales we present to our children as harmless entertainment -- in fact, they are even dangerous as tales we tell ourselves.

It reminds me of my annual trip back to my grandparent's summer cottage community, where I'll have to pick my battles when the gay/women/racist jokes begin at the BBQ. What do you let lie, and what do you stand up against?

I love comics; I loved Calvin and Hobbs, and I still dig Foxtrot, Zits and Kudzu. Rhymes with Orange and Bizarro bring a pleasant surrealism to my day, often accompanied by a laugh. I dig Prince Valiant, though I can't really explain why. I guess it appeals to the same little girl who liked dinosaur books.

I don't think this is a PC issue, it's a simple issue of questioning our assumptions. BC, Wizard of ID, Crock and Beetle Baily are so routinely vicious in their (lack of) humor, I typically skip them.

I guess I'm saying I don't mind so much that comics aren't always funny; I just wish they didn't make me want to cry.