s20e07: Still Mad As Hell; The World’s Best Worst Client; How Many Chances Do You Get?; Sunset Syndrome

0.0 Context Setting

It’s Wednesday, 27 August 2025 in Portland, Oregon and my favorite tv show right now is Alien: Earth, and my favorite little guy in it is Eye Alien. So cute!

1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention

1.1 Still Mad As Hell

I am still mad about America By Design1 and the National Design Studio2. But first I will point you at americabydesign.fail, which is very funny (and also appropriately full of painful outrage) and contains this gem:

How should we pronounce the acronym for National Design Studio (NDS)? Is it nads?3

How should we pronounce the acronym for National Design Studio (NDS)? Is it nads?3

I had a chat with a journalist about it today, which means I had the chance to talk and think out loud. It would be better to say that I am not “still mad” but that instead I am at the very least “differently mad” or even “more mad”.

2.1.1 The World’s Best Worst Client

You know what makes filing taxes complicated? The tax code. You can be in charge of whatever design and whatever interface, but ultimately you’re interfacing to the tax code. That