There comes a point during a blog’s life when he becomes mature and gets his own domain name.  Well, that point has come for this blog.

The new location of this blog is http://blog.mosesting.com

Hope to see you there. 

If you’re a renter, you’ll often ask yourself whether or not you’re getting cheated by your landlord. Is your rent too high, too low, or just right? I came across this online tool today called rentometer.com. By typing in your address (and providing them your rental information as well), you get to see how much your neighbors are paying. Pretty fantastic idea, especially for rental-heavy cities like Boston.

Here’s my analysis. I’m the orange needle and it looks like my landlord is good to me.

Yes, I am awesome. Well, that’s what my new set of Batman checks says. You see, I had to order new checks and I didn’t want to include my actual address on the checks. But the website where I ordered my checks wouldn’t allow me to have empty fields (talk about bad UI design), so I HAD to write something in those empty address fields.

Check out these awesome Batman checks. I didn’t want to reveal my real name on the net, so the checks says John Doe.

See if you can come up with something funny next time you order checks online.

I’m in the process of designing a set of business cards for a client, I came across the difficult decision of what is the appropriate font size. I know I know. Different fonts at size 12 vary widely in overall real estate, but I’m speaking in general. Imagine the standard Arial font.

My designer friend (who’s opinions I trust cause he’s actually a designer, and I’m just a hobbyist) and I got into an interesting discussion when I showed him the draft. He says the text should always be legible, use size 10. But to me, legibility is a relative measurement. So then I thought about how Business Cards are intimidate objects. When you handle a business card, there’s a tendency to hold it closer than normal documents. While normal documents with 10 Arial font is fairly legible from the desk, business cards might benefit with a smaller font size. The person’s name should be in a bigger font, but the essential business info should be presented in size 8 or 9 font. Smaller means the audience has to hold it closer to the eye, thus examining it more closely.

So if you were giving out your business cards, wouldn’t you want the other person to hold it closer than some regular boring document?

So they can read it in a more intimate fashion?

I dressed up as the Biblical Moses this past weekend at a Halloween Fundraiser party at Highrock and won best costume! Fantastic. And I didn’t even have to use the phrase “Let My People Go!”

Back to Jerusalem
by Paul Hattaway
5/5

In smaller font on the front cover, it says “Three Chinese House Church Leaders Share Their Vision to Complete The Great Commission”.  As a Christian believer myself, I have to recommend this book to anyone out there.  All that’s happenings with the Christian movement in China is simply amazing.

The convictions of these three house church leaders in working towards the common goal (The Great Commission) is simply inspiring.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard or read about someone believing in something so strongly that they’re willing to give up everything for.

A couple of books read in the past weeks:

90 Minutes in Heaven
by Don Piper
4/5

Don survives and shares his life-changing experience after having survived a horrendous car crash and was pronounced clinically dead for 90 minutes.  It’s an inspiring story that makes you think a little about why you’re on Earth.

Logo Design that Works
by Lisa Silver
5/5

I’ve been on a logo-inspiring mood lately so picked up this book from the Boston library network. This book gives roughly 40 great examples of logos ranging from classics to modern.

Before and After

A good friend of mine from Chicago send me an article entitled The Best and Worst Logo Remake over at aclevercookie.com that provides a number of wonderful before-and-after comparisons of famous logos from recent makeovers. The KFC logo is below.

Need some Inspiration?

I’ve on a bit of a logo-craze lately and picked up the book Logo Design The Works from the library. It’s quite a nice read. The author hand selects a wide variety of logos and goes into details about the motivation behind each logo. Good for a glance through for some inspiraation.

The Ten Faces of Innovation
by Tom Kelley
5/5

On my weekend trip to NYC, I had a chance to finish this book (read only the first chapter about 1.5 years ago). I picked up the Ten Faces after having finished The Art of Innovation, since I wanted to learn more about the innovative culture at IDEO. Tom Kelley does a great job in defining and exploring roles in which he believes in.Roles such as the Anthropologist, the Collaborator, and The Storyteller were all integral members of the IDEO culture and teams. Quite a number of examples and case studies were included to simplify understanding.

Official website http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/

During the last week or so at Lincoln, I had an opportunity to chat with a number of significant individuals who have helped me grow and have had positive influences on me. I had a chance to be candid with them, as well as ask them to give me feedback, advice, or personal virtues that can help me grow and become better at what I do. So here they are:

• Advice from my manager - sometimes I get to caught up with a task that’s most interesting to me and I lose sight of the other things that’s on my table. So I should learn to prioritize better.
• Feedback from coworker #1 - I handled stress very professionally and my laughter, as I tend to find humor in everything, often diffuses stressful situations.
• Feedback from coworker #2 - Coworker #2 wishes that I had a chance to take on more leadership/management roles during my time at Lincoln. Sometimes you have to go and reach for the opportunities to move up. Don’t expect them to be dropped into your lap.
• Virtues from “higher-up” #1 - There are two things to keep in mind in life:
  1. Never burn any bridges, since you’ll never know when paths might cross in the future.
  2. Build up a network of friends/individuals that you can absolutely trust. Learn to read and analyze people to determine if they’re trustworthy.
• Virtues from “higher-ups” #2 - Why rush? Take your time with whatever it is that you do. Enjoy the view and experience along the way. Also, do things with a passion and you will be great at it. This is fantastic since the first moism that I’ve ever thought of was “Find your passion and don’t let it escape.”
• Virtues from a senior research staff - Always have integrity and honor. Those things will mean different to each person since people come up with their own definitions. Think about what it means to you and hold yourself to the highest standards.

Simply priceless. So my advice to you is that whenever you’re switching jobs or simply leaving a place, speak to the people that mattered the most to you and ask for feedback and constructive criticisms. Open your mind, don’t get defensive, and hear what others have to say. You’ll be amazed at what you find and in the end you’ll become a better you.