Babble

After 10 years of designing and 3 of Latin I’ve finally been enlightened as to where the “Lorem ipsum…” quote came from that we designers use to greek text. Turns out it was taken from a passage from Cicero – a treatise on the theory of ethics written in 45 BC. The original reads “Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit . . . ” which roughly translated means “There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain”. He obviously wasn’t around when my high school friends and I spent several hours touching an electric fence in various formations to see who could get the worst shock.

It’s rant time. We just published a news release here at work stating that the “Camp Randall renovation is back on track” due to a $10 million donation. Between that, and a new reduced $83.7 million price tag, (it’s not clear whether or not that includes the $11.2 million already spent) they should be able to get things rolling again by spring. Which leaves me a bit irked as I think about my filing cabinet, my carpet, my parking fee or any of the other things I’ve taken for granted at every other job but which I’ve paid for myself here due to our extreme budget crunch. Not to mention the fact that most of our department is severely understaffed, education and conferences have all but been eliminated and (unless it’s just me) salaries are a fraction of what they are in the corporate world. My point here is not to slam the UW but just raise the point that it’s pretty pathetic that society values sports, specifically football, more than education in an academic setting.

Ok, I’m done now.