Coupla interesting local stories

[laniA]

Frankie,I didn't mean to critisize.It looks like you want to draw attention to something you find important.For me it does the opposite.Once you wrote a big post in red - was totally unreadable.

[james weatherford]

Frankie,
Very much agreed that the "community associations", such as there are several of in Puna, are not proving to be sound governance. Lots of responsibility and very little authority. As the lots in each subdivision get built on and the population increases, this can only get worse.
Rural towns within rural counties are prone to problems of redundancy, overlap, and/or uneven distribution of jurisdiction and services. Would this be an improvement?


James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[Frankie Stapleton]

Thanks, Lani and Kathy, for your comments on my writing style. I honestly appreciate constructive criticism...having worked in print news for most of my adult life, I know the true value of a good editor!

To explain myself, I find the black print boring (it's black when I'm typing it ) and have often colored my postings thematically, as in red or green for a posting about a Christmas event. (Musta taught elementary school for too long!)

And I find Comic sans a highly readable print but then I'm myopic and rarely wear my glasses as home so many prints have a comic sans look to me. I make the print bigger because so many of my friends can't read the regular sized print any more.

But your points are well taken and I'll keep them in mind with all my future posts.[:I] And you're absolutely right-on, Kathy, about my combining 2 totally different subjects. An editor would have told me the same thing. Unfortunately, I'm often writing stream-of-conscious here and my mind flits from subject to subject and back again. So, you're right, I asked for it!

Mahalo for your kind comments...I didn't take them any other way.[:X]

[Frankie Stapleton]

James, thanks for responding to my point about community associations. And you're right. Townships probably wouldn't function much better than CAs and have the same basic problems. It's also hard enough to get good, qualified people to run for the public offices we have.

It's just bothered me ever since Judge DeSilva made the ruling, oh, 25 years ago or so that CAs have legal standing for the things their boards of directors do, based on the fact they are elected by their communities. There has been such poor oversight throughout the years, at least in Nanawale, of the CA election process. I thought (idealistically, as usual) that taking it public would provide legal oversight of the election process.

I know a couple of subdivisions use the League of Women Voters to conduct their elections in the interest of fairness but not Nanawale.

Thanks for the feedback.

[David M]

Totally agree on the color/font comment - DISTRACTING.
IMHO, when done repetitively by same poster, seems to act as attention getter, but not for the subject.

David

Ninole Resident

[missydog1]

hey Frankie,
how nice you take it in the friendly spirit I intended. []

I have studied English and design, mastered neither but am interested in both.

I like a larger font because my chair is far from my screen, but I typically have my browser adjusted so that the normal font size on the page is to my liking.

My husband writes in blue Comic, so I have an opinion on it, which is that it's nice for a sentence or two, but not as readable as Verdana to get something said in multiple paragraphs.

I have some uncorrected astigmatism after Lasix surgery, and no doubt that affects how I see fonts. I prefer them to be crisp and sharp as possible. I know my eyes aren't the average.

My philosophy of font and color is that when you're writing a birthday card or something artistic, dress it up. When the only mission is to communicate a stream of words, the reader should not even be aware of the font or the color, only of the meaning.

I'm sure this is boring to a lot of people, but I'm actually interested in the look of writing. While I've never been an editor, I used to grade essays for a living when in grad school, and I have tried to explain many times to college writers how visual presentation affects the reader's reception of the material.

Now as to Christie, I have not followed him, and I do not read Damon's blog, but hearing this makes me glad that I'm not a medical marijuana client. I don't see why baiting the DEA would ever be a productive strategy.

[Frankie Stapleton]

Thanx for your comments, Kathy. I too am interested in how use of different fonts, colors, spacing, etc. communicate the intended messages. I've done lots of page layout in my years on newspapers.

A large number of my postings have to do with nonprofit type events or campaigns that people have asked me to help organize and invariably, they ask me to publicize the events "because I know how to do it." I just finished doing the beekeepers' honey challenge and now I'm on the Toys For Tots organizing team. So that's why I've printed those entries in larger, often colored type. Guess I've learned my lesson.

Have a great evening. I hear the lava is approaching homes again in the old Kalapana Gardens area. Gonna go take some pix. A hui hou. fs