The Best New Post You'll Read Right Now

Don't know about you, but when I'm in the library (and this happens but to a lesser extent in a real-world book store) I do a lot of judging going by covers.  You've just judged the change to this blog look right now, without even noticing, I bet.  A new style trial, is all; like it?

I wander along the stacks in the local library, head canted at that special bookshelf angle that probably makes librarians and booksellers really good customers for chiropractors, and let my mind do its random-seeming thing.  But inspecting my process, a whole bunch of biases at work, not the least of which these days is a simple practical one - will I be able to hold the book easily? Right up there level with that is my own design and beauty aesthetic.  To big, too small, or too floppy, or too ugly means it really has to either grab my attention with the author's name (known to me somehow), a great title (unlike this post), or a particularly attention-grabbing subject matter.  My secondary scanners are doing calculations to re-scan unconsciously those I weeded out on format or ugliness and connecting with deeper layers of my mind.  after all, I've seen pretty much all these books before anyway.  Why am I looking at this one today when I saw and rejected it previously?

Luckily, I do not know, and I choose not to interrogate myself too deeply on this one.

I just wanted to say Happy New Year to those with nostalgic or practical allegiances to the Western calendar and introduce you to this style trial.

Oh, and a big special shout-out to the roughly 1 in 365 Samoans who are missing out on a birthday this year.  At least now you all get to be the first, rather than the last, to flip the calendar.

Whatever it is you do to mark the occasion, enjoy.