Mr. Rogers and other job perks
July 31, 2008
by Nate
It’s been my intention for a while to split this blog in two. One blog, Halloween Tree, would be a professional one: devoted in a way this blog hasn’t to writing about actual web design and development. The second would still be Monadology, but would have mention of my name excised and would become more explicitly personal in scope. This potential shift has been one reason for my diminished posts: I’ve been unsure, in the mean time, of what I want to write here.
I have, however, in the intervening period, changed jobs. I enjoyed two and a half very happy years at Matrix Group, but the right opportunity came up and I accepted a position with PBS Interactive working for the Kids department. I’m primarily responsible for Raising Readers, a grant-funded section of PBS Kids that teaches reading skills to younger audiences and provides resources for parents and teachers. There have been many, many great things about starting at PBS (getting much better at Illustrator, learning Flash, gaining the most comfortable office chair ever), but one of the perks I can share with you has been the introduction to some videos that you should definitely check out:
- Waldorf and Statler sing “It was a Very Good Year”.
- A corollary: Homer Simpson’s version
- Fred Rogers defends funding for children’s programming. “In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War. This is an video clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking, Senator Pastore’s inner child has heard Mr. Rogers and agreed with him.”
This last video came up because a bunch of us were watching a Jimmy Kimmel video that bleeped words from PBS clips to make them seem inappropriate. We laughed, up ‘til they did Mr. Rogers, at which point my coworkers said seriously, “Some things are sacred.” I was impressed: I tend to trust people who take Mr. Rogers seriously. I still remember HB remarking on at least two occasions about how worthwhile it is to talk seriously to children in that way.
Comments
On July 31 at 1'31 PM
, Libby wrote:
First off, yay for PBS! And secondly, which is only tangentially related, I’ve been posting things to the Green Room 2, but I can’t figure out where they’re actually posting to. Should I go back to using the old version? I’m going on vacation next week, but after I get back I’m going to need to post something important, so I want to make sure it goes somewhere that people will see it.
On July 31 at 5'14 PM
, Adrian Turner wrote:
Ok, I’m pissed Mr. Rogers is sacred, that’s not funny. I really didn’t like any of Jimmy Kimmel videos. The problem is because I don’t know if its because I’m a father now or because I just don’t like Mr. Kimmel much.
By the way I love Halloween Tree
On August 1 at 1'41 AM
, Rebekah wrote:
Mr. Rogers asserts the existence of Free Will and protests the Vietnam War all in one pithy song! It doesn’t get much better than that.
On August 3 at 8'23 PM
, Rachel Sullivan wrote:
Good for you. I gotta go to bed instead of follow your links, but that sounds like a cool job. We’ll have to have the girls check it out. They haven’t seen much PBS stuff.
Tell me more about this comfortable chair that you speak of. I need a new desk chair for a new, currently imaginary desk that I will be getting eventually…
On August 5 at 12'01 AM
, Leon wrote:
CONGRATS on the new job!!
Fred Rodgers was babysitting his grandson one night, and when the parents returned home, Mr. Rodgers car was no longer sitting at the curb in front of the grandson’s house. He reported the car stolen, and got a ride back to his house.
He awoke the next morning to find his car at the curb in front of his house. All the original contents were in the car, including his director chair with his name on it, and scripts from the show.
Even car theives know not to steal from Mr. Rodgers.
On August 5 at 6'03 PM
, Rachel Sullivan wrote:
Halloween Tree is gorgeous. Wish I needed a website designed…
On August 6 at 1'19 PM
, Martin G wrote:
Please, please, PLEASE remake the Georgetown Med School web site. It is truly awful. For your viewing displeasure: som.georgetown.edu.
On August 6 at 3'09 PM
, Nate wrote:
Adrian, Rachel, and Leon: Thank you!
Rachel: My chair is apparently the Aeron chair from Herman Miller. I cannot overstress how blissfully comfortable it is.
Martin: I am very grateful for your implied compliment. I regret, though, that my main reaction to the Georgetown School of Medicine site is that it’s not that bad! I’m used to seeing sites like this one which are—well—not even of this age. Your SOM site certainly wouldn’t win any design awards, but at least it’s got decent spacing, lots of white space, and readable text. It strikes me as significantly less bad than, say, the incarnation of the St. John’s web site we had immediately before the most recent redesign.
On August 6 at 4'28 PM
, Martin G wrote:
Perhaps the design isn’t as bad as you’ve seen, but I would settle for links that worked and a more intuitive way to find things.
On August 6 at 4'58 PM
, Amanda wrote:
My department’s website is so much worse than that school of medicine one: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/english/
If you try to ctrl + to increase the font, it only does so with the text at the very top. I realize that my eyes are worse than most people’s and there are other aspects of web design that are also important, but I can’t read the menus without looking like I’m about to start making out with the computer screen. This is embarrassing while tutoring and trying to show someone how to get to the Writing Center’s website.
Congrats Nate on the awesome job! And thanks for sharing such great clips. Someday I will actually take you up on your offer to design a writer’s website for me.
On August 6 at 5'08 PM
, Nate wrote:
Proof, again, that information architecture is probably the most important design element of a web page. I’m glad information architects exist, and I’m glad I’m not one!
On August 6 at 7'29 PM
, Amanda wrote:
Nate, that sounds like an excellent job! Someday, I will take you up on the offer to design a writer’s website for me.
This website is pretty hideous, particularly the way that hitting ctrl+ only increases the font size at the very top, when the miniscule menus are what might inspire an increase in font size: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/english/