Taking Wyatt to the Vet

Wyatt went to the vet today. I've told a few of you about this, but our fuzzy cat, Wyatt, has experienced some eye crust, gook, cheese -- you pick your word, but it's unpleasant. Rather than drive to CT, Rosanne and I figured there might be a qualified professional in our state, maybe even in our town. One thing lead to another, and we took little Wyatt to our local vet in Dedham.

The diagnosis was good.

I got Wyatt packed up in his pet mobile rather quickly-- it doesn't take much to get him in his carrier -- and we were on our way. During our drive, I got treated to his meow, which was more crow-like than usual. Once at the vet, we checked in, filled out some forms, and began waiting. The nice woman who processed our form remarked he was singing to us, and joked that he was a member of the Backstreet Boys (AJ McCatt?). I then wondered to myself if that was even a pop culturally relevant remark anymore.

Down to the serious business.

The tech came in, weighed him (8 pounds, which is good) asked me what was wrong, and then we waited for the vet. As usual, Wyatt was very calm and a very good patient. The vet came in and did a few things to him. First, she checked and cleaned his ears (lot of wax). She then checked his eyes. Wyatt, I guess, has conjuctivitis that was brought on by the stress of the move (see my other post on the secret costs 0f moving). She performed a procedure on him that involved her squirting this lime-green fluid into eyes that allowed her to check for any ulcers or damage to his cornea. She turned off the light, used some laser/light device to examine his eyes, and fortunately, determined he was clear of any eye damage. Good news, indeed. After she did this, she told me he would need an eye ointment to further clear things up, and showed me how to apply it. He'll be on it for 10 -14 days.

Wyatt after his great ordeal

All in all.

All in all, it was a very good trip, and we both had a good experience at the vet. Not to plug Dedham Veterinary Associates, but I'd definitely bring our cats there again -- they were all very nice and professional.

Tech stuff - Usability

Today I got to sit in on a phone call from a usuability expert. The guy sounded stoned. This individual took a long time to make his points, frequented with many "cool's."

Some takeaways for you:

• Avoid the use of red for links and non-error content, as individuals associate it with negative feedback (error, bad, wrong). Not really new in the literature, but still something to think about in your daily life - design is all around you.
  
• If you're going to have a lot of content on a page, don't make it hierachical, and do a raw dump of evenly-weighted information (think nasty html tables). Editorially control your content, and shape your voice by emphasizing certain elements (and not all) by using white space, planned typography, and a well-thought pallette.
• Color means a lot. Plan your pallette thinking about your brand and/or the message you're sending to your audience.

Food
I'm tired of Chinese food. However, despite having eaten too much bad Chinese food, I will again be partaking in it. Tonight, I will be taking up the challenge of finding our new local Chinese restaurant.

I'll let you know how things go.