“10 People with Unbelievable Medical Conditions” includes a woman who has 200 orgasms a day, a man who can’t get fat, and a woman who is allergic to modern technology.

Commentary from Jack Cafferty:

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. “It means I’m saved and forgiven.” Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we’ve all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.

Cafferty also pointed out that McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Matt allows you to tweet with multiple Twitter accounts without having to switch log in. Matt’s web site looks pretty sweet too.

I was given an opportunity to redesign tledc.com, Theresa Le’s jewelry designs. Theresa is a good friend who I have met over several bun mam occasions and she gave me complete freedom to rework her site. The only instruction she gave me was to keep it simple and sleek.

After browsing through her extensive gallery, I decided to incorporate her jewelry works into the layout. On the homepage, I wanted to let her artwork speak for itself, and it does so clear and bold against black background. On the secondary pages, I wanted to switch the layout to white for readability and accessibility. I revamped the entire gallery and made it much simpler to navigate. Customers don’t have to click through pages and pages to browse the collection. Everything in on one page and if you want to see the larger photo, you can do so without leaving the page. As of now, Theresa has not added e-commerce feature to her site and she still prefers the good old mailing payment. I have pushed her to go with PayPal, so hopefully we will see that in the near future.

The entire site is structured in XHML and styled in CSS. I kept the markup clean and simple so that Theresa could update the site herself. I also gave her logo a new, refreshing look. The type is set in lowercase with various colors.

So go ahead and take a tour at tledc.com and buy some jewelry before they are gone. As you see, she has sold quite a bit of them. Make sure you read the about page too. I love the way she describes her design process:

I don’t always know the name of the stones. I identify them by their beauty and character. Each stone is unique in its own way, and each is a piece of art. I take my time feeling them with my fingers, my mind filled with images of where they’ve been and how their paths and adventures had brought them into my hands. Sometimes I stare at a rock for hours seeing designs and possibilities. It takes a long time for me to work through each piece, savoring that wonderful feeling of creating something unique. I’m really just bringing out their natural beauty and I make a point to keep my pieces simple and elegant.

Isn’t that beautiful? Thanks Theresa for allowing me to redesign tledc.com. It was quite a pleasure project to work on.

Denise Gravine’s talk on “The (Social) Medium is the Message” was concise and informative. Instead of focusing on the social-network tools, she delved into the audiences and where are they heading. A summery of the talk could be found on her web site. It’s worthwhile to take a look.

Both WordPress and Movable Type are bringing social networking features to their tools, is blogging on its way out?

I don’t know. I still like the blog for longer, more detailed posts. Twitter is cool and all but who actually scroll back to read Twitter posts?

The basketball team did it. Now the tennis team is doing it too. That is some ignorant shit.

The Puppini Sisters’ “Jilted.” NPR:

A bassist plucks the big fiddle’s strings and makes them moan. Drumsticks tap out a languid beat. Then a sad woman begins her story of woe: “I bought another dinner for one / I sit and watch some pointless rerun…” Two other singers join her to lament their fate: “Jilted… again.” They’d even sat through football games to keep him! Now, the jiltees are engaging in classic self-destructive behavior, from “drinking gin” to “talking to the cat.”

The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo is a fun album to listen to.

NPR profiles instrumental vocalist Betty Carter:

For nearly 50 years, Betty Carter was an irrepressible and incomparable practitioner of the jazz vocal tradition, with an intense, adventurous style and a booming voice. The fiercely dedicated and demanding vocalist was a pioneer in the music business, paving the route for scores of younger musicians.

Don’t you love it when a restaurant’s business card printed its web address on it, but it doesn’t exist? ThaiPlaceDC.com takes you to nowhere. Anyhow, my wife and I just had lunch at Thai Place, which is about .3 miles from my office. We shared a crunchy duck roll, pad Thai and fried tilapia with salad. The duck roll had a heavy sweet taste; the pad Thai’s noodle was hard; and the fried tilapia was just passable. The place, however, was packed. I assume that the cheap prices attracted customers.