Make your own font

Here's something I've been wanting to do with my web/graphic design students for a while now, and finally got around to doing: make your own font. It's free, easy, and fun. I think the students had a good time with this on Thursday.

Things Elon Needs

Here's my list of things Elon, or the surrounding town, needs:

1. Trails through woods for running (closer then Cedarock and longer/more challenging/more interesting than the .9 mile mulch "trail" at Beth Schmidt park)
2. A rock wall (closer than Tumblebees)
3. Ice Skating (closer than Ice House)
4. A co-op grocery store (we're working on this at Company Shops Market but it's nowhere near ready to right now)
5. A vintage clothing store, or at least a thrift store on the west side of town
6. A children's museum
7. A sidewalk that goes all the way up Haggard from Elon to Cook Rd., around the corner and over to the Beth Schmidt park. (Fantasy: then pave a sidewalk down Williamson from Sunset to Ball Park Rd and down the firehouse fields.)

...to be continued...

...there is even discussion...

So the other day I rode my bike over to the new C&R Outdoors store on Haggard in Elon. It's in the new Timberline strip mall. I wanted to check on the ski packages, and I'd heard good things about the Hillsborough store. I didn't end up going on a ski trip, but I talked to the guy there about what he planned for the summer months.

I looked up at the rather tall walls (20-foot?) in the store, and I said, "You guys should build a rock wall in here. Students drive 20 miles every Friday to Greensboro to climb. It's a built-in revenue stream and you can sell the equipment and the trips to go with climbing."

The kid looked at me and said, "That's a really good idea."

I said, "I know!" I talked a bit more about what it would entail, the equipment, etc.

And then I left.

Today in the Pendulum here's an article on Timberline Station. It talks about the C&R store, and at the end it says, "Forrest [the owner] is open to any students suggestions for how the store can improve, and there is even discussion of building a rock wall in the future."

Excellent. I hope it gets past the discussion stage.

Should you go to grad school in a recession?

Many students are contemplating going to grad school rather than getting a job in tough economic times. See what the economists have to say about this topic.