Good Design is knowing how to break the rules and make it work.

Good Food is anything you like to eat. Note: I didn’t say “Good for you food.”

Good Ideas only come when your eyes are open…even when you’re sleeping.

A Good Day is one we create ourselves.

Good News is here for the finding.

Good People see the good in others.

A Good Try is [only] the first step toward success.

A Good Deal is worth it no matter the effort, time or money.

A Good Home is made, not bought or built.

A Good Time is in the attitude of the participant.

Good Thoughts are in a smile when you’re all alone.

In away, I guess I’m asking if you’re a morning person or a night person.  You can respond in a comment here. ;-)

Comment on your fave and why.

I was compelled to post my ten principles of good design on facebook.  Here’s what I wrote:

Good Design:

• fits the user
• breaks the rules
• gets out of the way [of itself]
• is aesthetic
• is functional
• is safe
• serves a purpose
• is convenient
• is timeless/classic
• is its own reason for being

Over the years, television situation comedies have been slipping.  They are generally populated by formulaic, mostly unlikable or completely vacuous characters with very little to say.  The stories are derivative at best, lacking in originality and banking on the bottom line of America’s lowest common denominator of intelligence.  They talk down to us.

One notable exception among the few is Raising Hope (Fox, 9:30 PM/8:30 PM Central).  It’s the story of a lower middle class family in Ohio, trying to make it through life as best they can.  Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) is a well-meaning aspiring artist who one night has a quick fling in his van while on an ice cream run to the market.  It turns out the girl is a serial killer…and gets pregnant and gives birth to Jimmy’s daughter in jail just before being executed.  So, Jimmy gets custody and brings the baby home where he lives with his parents, Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and his great grandmother, Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman).  Reluctant to take in a new baby, Virginia and Burt recall their naivete in having Jimmy at only 15 years old and decide this is their chance to “get it right”.

Seldom in television programming do we get the opportunity to see such characters play out their game of life’s survival so sincerely as these four actors and their supporting cast including the ever-curious, nouveau poor Sabrina (Shannon Woodward).  Each is lovable.  Each is fallible.

Burt will do anything for a loving hug—even scare Jimmy every Halloween so that he’ll run into the arms of his dad.  Virginia needs honesty and can’t lie even when she REALLY wants to keep a secret.  Jimmy searches for ways to do the right thing, but first struggles to find out what the right thing is.

These people are us with all our flaws and quirks and misdirection.  But those are the very missteps that bring us all back on track and remind us what really matters—love of family, respect for each other and the search for dignity for everyone.

TV shows don’t have to entertain by being mean like Gordon Ramsay, or stupid like Jersey Shore.  They don’t have to be insulting like Piers Morgan or shallow like the not so real housewives of wherever.  Like the Chance family, I can only hope that the rest of television can learn from their mistakes.  Then, maybe, all our hopes can be raised.