Where's Bobby Henderson?

[Mike Blakesley]

He hasn't posted here since May and hasn't put anything on Facebook since mid-July. I know he got one hand injured in a yard-work accident and was in hospital briefly, but that was a couple of weeks ago. Hope he is OK. How ya doin' Bobby?

[Marcel Birgelen]

I obviously can't speak for Bobby and I sure hope everything is well with him. But his last post I remember was here, about 6 days ago.

[Mike Blakesley]

OK I missed that one.... I guess I just searched for topics he started. Still, 6 days is a long time for him to go without posting.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, I haven't seen any other posts of him for a while before that particular post. Let's hope he's just busy with something more important than posting on this forum in these interesting times...

[Steve Guttag]

Just start talking about Arial or Trajan and he'll show up eventually...

[Marcel Birgelen]

WHO NEEDS A FONT THAT CAN ONLY SCREAM AT YOU?
Arial is a superior version of Helvetica, but nothing obviously beats Comic Sans, I mean, just look at the curves in that font!

You think this works?

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Now you really can't beat Copper Plate Gothic for a screaming read.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I think Copperplate Gothic actually isn't half bad for stuff like signs or some logos, but it became so overused and also wrongly used, (like paragraphs of info in that font), for me, right now, it's right up there with all those default fonts that somehow landed on all those millions of PCs.

But yeah, I didn't really want to steal a topic about Finding Bobby and turn it into a topic about fonts.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

I'm sure Bobby would find a good use for that font. It was designed by IBM for the sole purpose of filing data into forms. Our print shop used it for lots of forms and filings.

I miss Bobby's complete thoughts on many subjects. Hope he doesn't have the virus or anything like that.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm sorry I've been away for a bit. July has been kind of a rough, complicated month. I appreciate the concern. At least I didn't catch the creeping covid (knock on wood).

Here's the story on the finger injury:

On July 5th I had a pretty stupid and expensive accident with an electric hedge trimmer while cutting on box wood bushes at home. I partially shredded the top joint of my left index finger. I was trying to control the trimmer with my right hand while pulling another plant out of the way with my left. The trimmer hit something and kicked toward my left hand. If I had jerked my hand away any slower I probably would have lost the whole finger (or more). At the instant it happened I thought I had just jammed my finger on the edge of the trimmer. But then I looked at my finger and muttered, "aw hell no." I was just getting started on Sunday yard work too. There wasn't any point wasting time getting upset or pondering what to do. I just grabbed a large rag from a kitchen drawer to tie off the finger and wrap my hand. I shoved my mower and other crap in the garage, shut the door and then drove to the hospital.

I was hoping they would just be able to stitch up the finger there in the emergency room and send me home. Nope. X-Rays showed the top bone broken in 3 places. A couple bone chips and other debris were in the wounds. That had to be cleaned up. A doctor gave me 4 nerve block injections at the base of the finger. Those shots hurt like hell, especially the 4th one on the palm side of my hand. That one went deep and had an electrical shock quality in addition to the intense sting. I felt embarrassed being in the ER for a finger injury. The doctor said the injury was actually a pretty serious matter. After the initial clean-up they did orthopedic surgery on it. I'd never been put under general anesthesia before. So that was a trip. The surgeon installed two pins to skish-ka-bob the bone pieces back together. And then they kept me in the hospital for 24 hours after the surgery, giving me IV antibiotics. I had to take 2 kinds of antibiotics for 2 weeks afterward.

It seemed like overkill for them to go to all that trouble on a sliced and diced finger. But then several days later one of my girlfriend's former co-workers died of a horrible infection that spread from his arm to his vital organs. They amputated his arm below the elbow trying to save the guy. I mentioned that to the doctor on my first follow up visit 10 days after my surgery. He said, "that's why we kept you in the hospital." People don't often sterilize yard tools.

This coming Monday morning I have an appointment to change the bandaging and hopefully get the 2 pins removed. It's a real pain in the ass not having full use of one of your hands. Even though I broke the finger bone in multiple places I managed to not slice up the main tendons. So there's a chance I'll be able to avoid a bunch of physical therapy on it. I'm just thankful I pretty much still have the whole finger intact.

Different topic: old broken notebook computer and replacement choices.

The hard drive in my circa 2011 Dell XPS notebook finally died. On top of the finger injury that's another thing that has been limiting my forum activity lately. I have written a few things using my iPad. I had been planning to buy a new higher end notebook, but the choices have been very difficult.

I was all set to order a new Dell XPS 17 9700 and buy an after market SSD and 64GB of DDR4 RAM to install in it myself (and save a few hundred bucks in the process). But the first runs of that notebook had two problems. One was a loose track pad that made annoying clicking noises. A more serious problem involved the 130 watt AC adapter. It only pulled 105 watts. Some customers were seeing the notebook's battery drain considerably while it was plugged into the wall outlet. Supposedly Dell has fixed both of those issues. But, still, quality control issues like that will give anyone pause when they're looking to drop $3000 or more on a new notebook.

I've looked at other 17" models. The Alienware M17 R3 is powerful, but it runs really hot, its speakers are crappy and it gets very shitty battery life. The new Razer Blade Pro 17 looks worthwhile. Its battery life is a little better than the Alienware M17, it has a great selection of ports, a more powerful GPU and the 4K version has a 120Hz screen (but tops out at 400 nits). But it's about $1000 more than the XPS 17.

Finally, fonts!

Still messing with fonts at the day job. I missed only a couple days of work with the finger injury. But using graphics programs with a bum index index finger is a challenge. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

I think Copperplate Gothic actually isn't half bad for stuff like signs or some logos, but it became so overused and also wrongly used, (like paragraphs of info in that font), for me, right now, it's right up there with all those default fonts that somehow landed on all those millions of PCs.

Copperplate Gothic does get a lot of inappropriate use. It's not too bad for some sign projects though. What I really can't stand is bad font combinations. Not many typefaces work with Copperplate Gothic in the same layout.

Regarding Arial: it's just inappropriate to use that typeface at all. It's ugly by itself and it's ugly when paired with any other typeface. Arial combined with Comic Sans brings up the following question: Do you know what you get when you have some shit and you add a pile of shit to it? You get even more shit.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Hello Bobby,

Welcome back to the forum.

Sorry to hear of your accident. I hope that you will regain use of the mangled finger. Antibiotics are wonderful when used properly. My wife had an accident in the doctor's office. Cut an L shaped gash in her leg. Right down to the bone. 7 stitches in the tissue and 18 stitches in the skin. She had a PICC line for 2 weeks and did her own antibiotic infusions every night. Now she is allergic to the antibiotic they used. You just can't win sometimes.

Stay safe and heal fast

KEN

[Marcel Birgelen]

Regarding Arial: it's just inappropriate to use that typeface at all. It's ugly by itself and it's ugly when paired with any other typeface. Arial combined with Comic Sans brings up the following question: Do you know what you get when you have some shit and you add a pile of shit to it? You get even more shit.

Welcome back, Bobby.

Copperplate Gothic does get a lot of inappropriate use. It's not too bad for some sign projects though. What I really can't stand is bad font combinations. Not many typefaces work with Copperplate Gothic in the same layout.

I'm sure it matches with Comic Sans just fine. From birthday parties to funeral homes. Even a Dutch war memorial. There must be something magical about that font. :P


The story about your finger sends some shivers down my spine while reading it, event though that I did have my own fair share of accidents caused primarily by stupidity... I hope they'll fix you up soon, it's not the best time right now having to frequent hospitals.

I've looked at other 17" models. The Alienware M17 R3 is powerful, but it runs really hot, its speakers are crappy and it gets very shitty battery life. The new Razer Blade Pro 17 looks worthwhile. Its battery life is a little better than the Alienware M17, it has a great selection of ports, a more powerful GPU and the 4K version has a 120Hz screen (but tops out at 400 nits). But it's about $1000 more than the XPS 17.

Right now, I don't know what notebook I'd buy... same with phones, my phone really could use a replacement, but I wouldn't know what phone to get as a replacement...

Up until a year or three ago, I used to do most of my stuff on a notebook, so I ended up lugging around a pretty heavy machine all the time. But I switched back to an actual workstation to do the heavy lifting and I haven't really regretted that decision. I also like the fact that the workstation is always "right there", no need to plug in stuff, you just get the thing out of sleep mode and you can start working. As a notebook, I use a rather compact Lenovo X1 Carbon. Powerful notebooks tend to be expensive, heavy, large hunks and most of them have issues getting rid of the heat and I had a hard time finding the right model.

[Mike Blakesley]

Welcome back and thanks for the update, Bobby. Glad you're going to be OK.

It seemed like overkill for them to go to all that trouble on a sliced and diced finger. But then several days later one of my girlfriend's former co-workers died of a horrible infection that spread from his arm to his vital organs. They amputated his arm below the elbow trying to save the guy. I mentioned that to the doctor on my first follow up visit 10 days after my surgery. He said, "that's why we kept you in the hospital." People don't often sterilize yard tools.

It's true that infections are nothing to mess with, even minor-seeming ones. I have a friend who stepped on a cactus a couple of years ago. It started to swell up and he (being a tough mechanic type guy) ignored it too long. They wound up having to amputate his right leg just below the knee. So yeah.... don't mess with mother nature when it comes to infections.

[Leo Enticknap]

Wound infections that grow into something really serious are a 1/5 on the risk assessment scale: very unlikely to happen, but with very gnarly consequences if you roll the dice and lose. I'm not surprised that the doc was not willing to let Bobby roll the dice. Same thing with replacing xenon arc bulbs without wearing the full PPE. Very relieved to hear that Bobby is OK.

[John Eickhof]

glad to hear all is well!