The-Asterisk

You are sitting in 23B, a middle seat near the rear on a packed Southwest 737-700. On the second leg of your flight to Las Vegas, you try to get as comfortable as you can, considering the circumstances. You usually book Early Bird so that you can board in the "A" group, but you screwed up and forgot to check the box when making your reservation, and to make matters worse, you didn't log on 24 hours ahead to grab the earliest boarding number you could. So, there you were. Getting on the winged bus holding a C27 boarding pass which meant 146 people had boarded before you. The overhead bins were already full, but you were able to push and squeeze your carry-on bag in the bin six rows back. Well, at least you found a free space. You made eye contact with the big guy sitting in 23C on the aisle. He gave you that "Damn, you had to pick this row" look, unbuckled his seat belt and tripped into the aisle. You guiltily slipped into 23B and shoved your shoulder bag und...

I don't consider myself a crotchety old man (well... maybe a tad bit, but whatevs). Am I the only one that gets really tripped up when companies go and significantly change their avatar or icons after years and years with one we have all become familiar with? I never thought of myself as a "visual keyer" but I really noticed it when Microsoft changed their Outlook 2013 icon from a yellow/orange-themed O-clock-design to a blue envelope-thing with a flying 5 1/4" floppy that looks more like a Word icon than Outlook. Here's the deal. I'm sitting at my PC. I want to use Outlook. I have Outlook open, I glance down to my task bar, I see the yellow/orange blur, I click on it and voila! TweetDeck opens up. I swear it has taken 6 months for my memory muscle to forget orange and look for a blue envelope-thingy. That is one reason I haven't changed my Twitter or FB avatar in a very long time. When we are on our iPad, iPhone or in a hurry on our PC, I think most of...