Marriage equality in Minnesota

I’m so excited for my home state today. The Minnesota Senate passed a bill that will legalize same-sex marriage. I wish I could be there to celebrate with my family and friends.

I have to say, it was this picture below that made me the most proud and nostalgic. It isn’t often my neighborhood, tangible symbols of LGBTQ pride and city workers are all in the same photo.

St. Paul dresses in gay pride colors | The Cities | Minnesota Public Radio News.

So thank you, Minnesota, for doing this. And for defeating the amendment back in November, when I was chewing my nails to the quick worrying I should have kept voting in Minnesota. We’re number 12!

For a great piece about how progress like this happens, I recommend the piece Marriage Equality and the Myth of Inevitability at Opine Season.

❤

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What’s that little fancy ‘s’ that shows up when you talk about laws?

I’ve been seeing little § marks crop up in the things I read for years now. It wasn’t until today that I learned it is called a “section sign,” and can be created with a simple Windows Alt code: [Alt] + [2] [1]. I don’t have to copy and paste from whatever I’m reading any more!

Here’s a neat little blog about the origins of various typographic marks, including the section sign:

Typographic Marks Unknown | Retinart.

Better Gmail signature lines

I recently added a signature line to my emails. Usually I dislike signature lines — the misattributed  inspirational quotes, the sudden 16 point Comic Sans. But I realized how much I appreciate having all of a person’s contact information attached to their emails, particularly when I can search archived conversations in Gmail. Plus, I figured the more people who know I’m a public policy major, the more chances for awesome jobs I have.

I noticed, however, that when I was exchanging emails with people, the bottom of our conversation was cluttered with my phone number, major and graduation year. Over and over. I looked like a pompous jerk. A pompous jerk who couldn’t use email.

Luckily, Keith C. and Dave C. have created  a Gmail add-on that solves exactly this called “Signature Tweaks.” Check it out in the Labs.

For this and more small ways to make a Gmail signature line that doesn’t suck, check out this Mashable article.

Toning down your digital rhetoric in one simple step!

Have you ever started writing a concerned email, but realized YOU JUST SEEMED ANGRY?

Have you ever started writing a YouTube comment, but realized it didn’t convey exactly HOW FREAKIN’ CUTE THIS KITTEN IS?

Today I learned that highlighting text and hitting shift+F3 will switch text from ALL CAPS YELLING to reasonable, friendly lower case.

HOW COOL IS THAT!

Er, I mean, how cool is that?