Monthly Archives: September 2012

Hell yes. My current blog theme from WordPress is totally skeuomorphic, almost embarrassingly so. This is a design term I recently learned about from this article about Apple’s devotion to (and internal debate about) the practice of using real world textures and design cues in digital products, where they serve little to no function.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670760/will-apples-tacky-software-design-philosophy-cause-a-revolt

So my current theme, with it’s fabric and leather overtones, and especially the faux stitching (complete with loose threads in the upper right hand corners) certainly qualifies as skeuomorphic.

But I don’t care! I still like it. What I wanted to convey with the theme was a sort of Gambler’s Notebook, with my thoughts jotted down in a journal-like format for all to share. So I think it still works! For now…

My parents were in town from Vancouver, and on the way back from dinner at my in-laws, we stopped for an hour at Flamboro Downs. It’s a nice little racetrack and slots facility out in the middle of the country. I had been there once before, and as my Dad is a horse racing enthusiast, it was also nice to visit the harness racing track he had seen on TV. We had a nice time.

Too bad OLG is planning on removing the slots license to the location, as part of a province-wide restructuring plan. Ontario has a rich tradition of horse racing (there are more horses in Ontario than in Kentucky), and the slots revenue has been a key part of that recent history. Here’s an interesting article in the Hamilton Spectator that outlines some of these issues:

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/696942–olg-to-end-slot-deal-with-flamboro-downs