An experiment in the development of tonal values and texture using only dots created with India Ink and quills
Grow your own Christmas trees: the 15 year project
Back in September I went to the world premier of ALL.I.CAN, a documentary style environmental ski film by Whistler’s very own Sherpas Cinema. At the premier they were giving away free conifer saplings to a good home. So I took three, naturally, and planted them in jars for the first few months of their lives.
Now it’s come to Christmas time and I didn’t want them to feel left out or inferior to the big Christmas tree, so I gave them their own ‘scaled down’ decorations. They’re growing up so fast. Who knows, in 15 years maybe one of them will be big enough to hold a fairy on the top.
Watch the ALL.I.CAN trailer.
Yarn bombing for the impatient
I heart knitting. And most recently I heart knit bombing and yarn bombing – it’s beautiful, colorful and childish. But sadly, knitting takes up a fair chunk of time and I’m a rather impatient person. My impatience has a sometimes *really* inconvenient partner in crime, spontaneity. Meaning that I think up ideas for things in the blink of an eye, get really intense about the idea and how awesome it is, then get distracted and fed-up before the idea reaches fruition.
So in an attempt to prettify my new house, and curb my impatience, I have embarked on a knit bomb project of my own, but with a few modifications.
1. Instead of actually knitting a pattern the same shape as what I’d like to knit bomb (because that would take an age) I have decided simply to wrap the item in wool
2. I have chose to knit bomb an item of furniture that I use every day, so that I cannot possibly just shove in a cupboard and forget about it
This is how far it’s got in 3 weeks – I still need to tuck in the ends.
This may need some more doses of extreme concentration time.
Drunk Octopus Wants to Fight You
I am a huge fan of guerilla art, and although ‘Drunk Octopus Wants to Fight You’ may not be as visually appealing as something like Blu’s COMBO video below, it is still a window in to the alternate mind of whoever created it. 99% of people just saw a coat hook, this person saw an aggressive drunken octopus. 100% of people who saw ‘Drunken Octopus Wants to Fight You’ will have laughed, making it a great achievement.
The Glitch Mob
It’s that time of year when I start looking for new songs to fill up my iPod ready for the winter. Songs that instantly make you envision yourself in huge powder fields, dropping epic pillow lines and tearing off kickers in the spring.
Songs that make you feel invincible.Â
The Swarm by The Glitch Mob is one of those songs. Hit play to send your imagination wild…
‘We Can Make The World Stop’ was also featured in the new GoPro Hero HD video. Watch it here, it’s like so sick dude.
Is the Yahoo, Google, Facebook filter bubble damaging our creativity?
A couple of weeks ago I watched a really inspiring TED talk from Eli Pariser titled ‘Beware the Online Filter Bubble’ – I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thought ‘finally someone else that sees through the smoke of the personalized world’.
I’m not in anyway against personalized content, I have used it in projects myself and in a lot of cases (if used correctly) it invaluably enriches experiences online and offline. However, I am a little wary that in some cases we are slowly being cut off from our informational 5-a-day and in the long run this could be detrimental to our creativity.
Here’s a couple of quotes from the people in power to get your brain lubed up, is this really what we want?:
“A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa” – Mark Zuckerberg, Facbook
“It will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not, in some sense, been tailored for them” – Eric Schmidt, Google
A Balanced Informational Diet
Like nutrition, to grow as rounded healthy individuals we need nourishment from many different sources. Like we need to balance our diet between vegetables and desserts, we need to expose our minds to things in the world that are shocking, challenging, exciting, disturbing and inspiring.
For example, only eating one type of food is bad for you. Even if it’s pineapples. As yummy and healthy as they are, eventually you’re going to develop some deficiencies if all you eat is pineapple. So what do you think will happen if Google, Yahoo and Facebook are all feeding you only pineapples and nothing else?Â
A Tunnel Full Of Mirrors
Content based on content that you’re already looking at – you end up in a loop of only one kind of informational nourishment. It’s like when you hold a mirror in front of another mirror to create a never ending tunnel. Google, Yahoo and Facebook are projecting reflections of ourselves, back on to ourselves. Instead of giving us content that challenges our morals and opinions to create new trains of thought and ideas, we are in danger of constantly reaffirming our own opinions with similar opinions, just from other sources.
How This Will Effect True Innovation
The internet is our greatest tool. It’s a research trip to ancient Egypt when you have no funding, it’s a trip back in time to the mesozoic era until we can invent time machines, it’s a university course in design when you don’t have enough money to go back to school. Most of all, it’s a piece of social technology that allows ideas to spread faster and further than ever before. It allows you to implant a thought from your mind, into the mind of someone else and alter the way they think forever.
Creativity is the greatest tool I have. But I don’t come up with new ideas by reading or watching things that I already know about. New ideas appear when researching areas I know nothing about. The greatest feeling is when two completely unrelated areas of knowledge and experience suddenly collide in your mind. It’s the true ‘lightbulb moment’. The birth of something truly innovative.
So if the internet is most peoples first choice research tool, how are we supposed to encourage more of these ‘lightbulb moments’ if we’re always surrounded by familiar content? I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this, so if you have an opinion please leave a comment. Maybe you’ll change the way I think forever.
**Free Stuff Alert**
Read this free e-book on ‘The Medici Effect’ to understand more about cross-sections of global culture colliding to create the Renaissance.
Facebook Faux pas and failures
Another quality infographic from Mashable. This one is all about the secret and not-so-secret failures of Facebook. See the full image here on Mashable’s website.
On a tediously related point, did you know that we share more data in a week than Hubble computed in it’s first 20 years? If you like that little factoid, you’ll pee your pants at this content sharing infographic from Smashing Magazine, here.
Go on, add to the statistic and share this page around!
Is Good business bad business for obesity?
I was watching Dragons Den a few weeks ago when one of the participants exclaimed proudly “The retail market for plus-size and supersize clothing is getting bigger and bigger every day…it’s a growing market we think you should invest in” – and it got me thinking is it right that business people are making money out of other people’s poor health?
On one hand we’ve got the Government talking about an ‘obesity epidemic’ and on the other hand we’ve got lucrative entrepreneurs like My Size USA investing time and money into making “oversized products including seat belt extenders for cars and planes, extra large hangers, jumbo key keyboards, high-capacity bikes and trikes and heavy-duty furniture“. Business men and women all over the world are taking advantage of this section of society by creating a whole industry around enabling the ‘obesity epidemic’. Here are a few products created to “serve the special needs of supersize men and women”:
Extra large toilet seat adapter – capacity 600lbs
In another post I decided to spend the day in my underwear to see if exposing my wobbly bits would change the food I chose to eat, and it got me thinking this: If ‘supersize’ people couldn’t get clothes big enough to fit them would they walk around naked? Probably not. They’d probably lose weight.
Websites referred to in this post are http://mysizeusa.com/, http://www.amplestuff.com/, http://www.livingxl.com/store/en_US/index.jsp
If you had to walk around in your underwear would it stop you eating junk food?
This is a question I’m experimenting with right now.
If everyone could see the bits of me that I don’t like, would that be enough motivation to make me eat healthier or do more exercise?
This morning I was stood in front of the mirror in my underwear and thought ‘I wish I hadn’t eaten that cinnamon bun for breakfast’ – and in an instant there it was. Cause and effect. If I eat crap, I get wobbly bits I don’t like. But most of the time the effect is disguised by clothing so no-one can see it. And because no-one can see it I don’t do anything about it. So I decided to spend the rest of the day in my underwear, seeing if it effected the way I chose my food.
And it did. This post is my analysis of why I think it worked and could it work for the rest of the world?
*Science Warning* Just so you know, I’m not a scientist. Just someone with who gets enjoyment from sciencey-type-human-behaviour-type things.
Human slingshot
This is just fun. The editing is great, the footage is yummy and the music is très bien. But there really is no other reason to watch this, other than it’s fun. Enjoy.
Siri says the darnedest things…
Yesterday I got my brand new, shiny white, super iPhone 4S – and I love it.
I got on the iPhone train back in 2008 with my iPhone 3G. I made the leap from Samsung when I got my first job at UK digital marketing agency Swamp (now Brass) and my eyes were opened up to a whole new world of tech (as well as a serious feeling that my Samsung didn’t fit in with all the iMacs). And for almost 4 years now (it got a bit slow eventually) it kept me Tweeting, emailing, listening to my music, blogging and traveling in the right direction.
Before the iPhone there was no other handset that could withstand the constant fast pace of technology updates. Within 6 months, most other handsets we’re outdated, useless and undesirable, and the most exciting thing was when Nokia brought out a new version of Snake.
Snake, meet your charming, funny and delightfully captivating English cousin, Siri.
So who is Siri?: Siri is a speech-recognition personal assistant. Nothing like the woman on your Sat Nav if that’s what you’re thinking. However the British Siri does sound like the love-child of Howard Moon from Mighty Boosh and what I imagine the old search engine Ask Jeeves to sound like.
Here are a few of my favorite things Siri has said to me so far. Siri’s not all work.
You Should Follow Me on Twitter
Yeah you should. Here, all you have to do is push this link with your cursor/finger/stylus-type interface device.
Now to reward your self for your good deed of the day, you should watch this rather fantastic video on called ‘The internet is my religion’.
Ta ta for now.
Hand dryers – why do they even still exist?
This is a conundrum that has puzzled me all of my public-washroom-using life. As I leave the washroom with soggy hands and a feeling of disappointment in hand dryer designers everywhere, I wonder ‘why do hand dryers even exist…they’re shit.’
After years of inadequacy I have finally adopted the mentality of ‘just wipe your hands on your pants and be done with it’.
For years, millions of people across the world have been using their own clothing to finish off the job of crappy hand dryers. Where else in product development would we happily accept such tardiness? Would you buy a kettle that only boiled your water to 56°C? No, you’d take it back and complain it doesn’t do it’s job. So why do people keep buying hand dryers for washrooms and then offering hand towels as well?
I think the whole debate is being looked at backwards, this is what we need to do: Stop trying to prove that hand dryers are better for the environment and just concentrate on making paper towels more sustainable.
* To see how we can make paper towels more sustainable just skip right to the end of my rationally laid out, scientific rant.
Astronomical Content Sharing
This is going to be a super quick post for two reasons:
1. I’ve had too much coffee and have a really short attention span right now
and
2. The infographic is as self-explanatory as is it astounding
Can you believe that in just 1 week, we share more data than the Hubble Telescope captured in the first 20 years of it’s life? This requires an ‘OMG’ as you visually absorb the information in this vertically scrolling picture.
**If the image that I cmd+c’d isn’t displaying, you can see it in all it’s non-copywright infringement glory here on Mashable.com**
Curiosity killed the bear
Whistler has officially hit shoulder season. Yawn.
The Turkey Sale is over, the rain is pouring and the village is quiet once again for another 6 weeks before the madness of winter kicks in. Sadly no tourists = no work in a resort town, but this does give a whole heap of time to get stuff done that normally would get shoved to one side.
Number 1 of stuff that gets shoved to one side: drawing
Having a good old sketch is good for the soul. I wanted to practice some different shading techniques and I think it worked out well. There’s always room for improvement and the next 6 weeks will give me time to do just that – and eventually have a new piece of art work for my house new house. Yay.
If the weather is crappy and you can’t get outside, exercise your creativity inside. The right half of your brain will thank you!
ALL.I.CAN do is plant trees in jars
Friday was the night of shit-the-bed-how-awesome-was-that-film ALL.I.CAN, by Whistler’s very own movie-making threesome Sherpas Cinema. As well as the international movie premier in the evening, the Sherpas put on a series of free sustainability and environmental symposiums throughout the day, making everyone feel good and positive about the change they could make in the world then, to celebrate, got everyone really drunk at a private VJ set by Matt the Alien at the Monster after party. Ahhh I love Whistler – swings and roundabouts.
For me though, the best thing about the day, by far, was the free conifer saplings being given away too a good home by ALL.I.CAN and Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. I promptly picked up two and planted them in very humble jars that pre-lunch had contained banana peppers and tomato sauce.
The baby conifers will take pride of place on the deck at my new house and maybe, in 5 years, they may have the strength to hold up a bauble, a bit of tinsel and a wooden star.
Thank you Sherpas.
If I said ‘click here’ would you jump off a cliff?
Like water and electricity, the internet has become a utility. We use it everyday and so, naturally, we are becoming more conscientious about using our time and resources wisely. We’re more considered now about what videos we watch on YouTube, who we follow on Twitter, what emails we open and what links we click. Because of this, more and more emphasis is being placed on User Centric Design.
I love User Centric Design, it’s a big part of my job, but I do think it’s too easy to get caught up in the word ‘user’. Makes it sound like users are a special breed of human only found online, somehow different to people in the offline world. I prefer to call it ‘people centric design‘ – because, as humans, we base our decisions on past experience. Offline experiences definitely influence online behavior.
What the brain does when confronted with your content
Something I think we, as digital marketing people, wrongly assume a lot of the time is that the choices we make are always conscious. Everyday the brain gets bombarded with thousands of different stimulus (from adverting alone) and tries to make sense of it all, regardless of the medium. But, as clever as we humans are, the brain can only process one stimulus at a time (yes people can multitask, but it’s essentially how quickly your brain can move between stimulus making it seem like multi-tasking) and within a millisecond the stimulus has been put into one of two boxes a. needs more attention b. irrelevant at this current time. How the brain makes that choice is based on all the information it can gather in that millisecond before.
A stimulus can be anything from a new email in your inbox, a call to action to ‘click here’ or someone asking you to jump off a cliff. The brain doesn’t treat offline and online differently when making this decision. Online stimulus are ignored just as instantaneously as stimulus in the real world.
So. To get people to do stuff online, we need to tell the brain, in a millisecond, why it needs to pay attention before it has chance to put the stimulus in box b.
Why ‘click here’ will get you in box b.
Here is an example of why using only ‘click here’ and adding a hyperlink will get your carefully crafted content in box b.
E.g. 1. Hyperlinking is essentially the same as bolding. It tells the brain ‘hey, look at me’. So it does. And by having only ‘click here’ as your call to action you’re limiting the information the brain can get quickly from the text.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Click here to Find out why jumping off a cliff is bad for your health Proin ut blandit ipsum. Morbi augue nulla, viverra non mollis id, pretium eget tellus. Maecenas adipiscing leo convallis nunc iaculis in pharetra lacus laoreet. To see the common injuries as a result of jumping from cliffs, click here. Donec erat neque, vulputate in mattis eget, interdum non ligula. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc porta posuere arcu, non posuere nisl viverra sed. Jump from cliffs safely – to find your nearest parachute club, click here. Sed aliquet risus non nulla rhoncus suscipit. Sed sem ante, molestie nec feugiat id, blandit at neque.
E.g. 2. This example gets the brains attention right away. Telling it instantly what the text is about without having to actually read it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Find out why jumping off a cliff is bad for your health Proin ut blandit ipsum. Morbi augue nulla, viverra non mollis id, pretium eget tellus. Maecenas adipiscing leo convallis nunc iaculis in pharetra lacus laoreet. Common injuries as a result of jumping from cliffs Donec erat neque, vulputate in mattis eget, interdum non ligula. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nunc porta posuere arcu, non posuere nisl viverra sed. Jump from cliffs safely – find your nearest parachute club. Sed aliquet risus non nulla rhoncus suscipit. Sed sem ante, molestie nec feugiat id, blandit at neque.
So you’ve made it to box a. What now?
Should the stimulus make it to box a. the brain then takes a number of steps to decide the appropriate reaction.
- It breaks the stimulus down in to a number of questions depending on the complexity i.e. Email = who is it from? What do they want? Will it benefit me if I open it? Jump off a cliff = Why? How far is it down? What are the chances I’d die?
- One-by-one your brain searches through all the years of experience you’ve had and tries to find a similar, first-hand, past experience that will help you solve your current problem. If it finds one, bingo. Problem solved.
- However, if there is no similar past experience to draw upon, your brain will then move to second-hand experience given to you by friends, family, magazines or even the telly.
- Failing that, this is when the search for an appropriate reaction moves outside your own body and experiences. This is when most people move to the internet for answers.
Ok. Lets say I ask you to jump off a cliff. What would you say? Well hopefully you’d say no. Why? Because some kind of past experience tells you it’s a bad idea. So why should it be any different if someone asks you to ‘click here’. As a person in the digital world, when you see example 1. and are asked to ‘click here’, questions arise: ‘Why?’ and ‘Where will it take me?’. Then you have to devote time to reading to the text before the link to find out why you should ‘click here’. Then it’s too late, attention lost.
People will spend an average of 4 seconds scanning a webpage to find information of relevance to them. You know how many milliseconds there are in 4 seconds? 4 million.
That’s 4 million chances for the brain to disregard your content. Fact.
Rid your life of food rage, forever
Food Rage. It’s like a socially awkward club that you only know you’re in, if you’re in. You know you have food rage, your partner (and sometimes your best friend) knows you have food rage, but to everyone else you’re just the impatient child who whines and bitches that people aren’t leaving the office fast enough to get to lunch.
Gojee.com will help reduce your cognitive strain enough so that you can still maintain function of your bodily organs long enough to get some seriously tasty food in your face.
You can search recipes by food you crave, food you hate or food you have. There is always a danger that the really big photos of food will make you worse. But sometimes, it’s a chance you’ve just got to take.
The phenomenon known as Food Rage isn’t only confined to the inconvenience of the foodless office space, it can also occur:
- Â at weddings when you’ve starved yourself for the buffet but went to the toilet at the wrong time and now find yourself at the back of the que as all the mini-onion bajis quickly disappear into the fat bridesmaids mouth.
- Â at the supermarket when you thought it would be a good idea to think about dinner at dinner time and now all you want, as you stare with piercing caveman eyes at a packet of mini sausages, is for someone to bring you some food, any food. You just want to eat something so you can think straight and leave.
- Â at a restaurant when you believed so much that this was going to be the greatest meal of all time so you starved yourself since elevenses and now you’re so hungry that you can’t choose what you want to eat, beating yourself up inside knowing that your vicious cycle of hunger = indecisiveness is holding off the food from ever arriving at your table at all. Then you dare to ask the waitress ‘what would you have?’.
Unfortunately food rage is not recgonised as an illness, so please take sympathy on someone you suspect may suffer from these symptoms and always carry an emergency doughnut.
Check out these 8 terrifying case of Food Rage that hit the news on Yahoo
The mind rape helmet
If ever Dragons Den needed an invention this is it, right here.
The Mind Rape Helmet. (to prevent mind rape, not encourage it)
To help you understand a little of what I’m referring to, here’s a quote from my favourite moral teacher – Stan, from American Dad.
Stan talking to Francine: “So, what do you think of your new car? Do you love it? This is the Phallus. No, it’s the Phallus ES. Felix said it was the last one on the lot. I had to act fast or this other guy was totally going to buy it. Son of a bitch! He mind–raped me!” *
I find that this unapproved penetration of the mind happens to me quite a bit. Most of the time I don’t even realise that I’ve bought something until I leave the shop with more bags than I entered with. Recently, even my own mind has been trying to double bluff me. Putting the newly bought items into bags that I already have with me so that i don’t realise until I get home. Then it’s too late.
It’s not me. It’s them. They made me do it.
I’ve been doing some thinking. And in an effort diffuse the responsibility for my actions on to someone else, I have manufactured a bunch stratagies that retail assistants (the good ones) execute with military precision on unsuspecting minds.
This is how I get talked into buying things that I don’t need, or really even want.
        – They tell me it’s fashionable. This one I’m slightly ashamed of. I’ll profess to the bitter end about how I’m not influenced by fashion and that I do my own thing, but as soon as anyone shows any interest in anything I’m doing, wearing, eating or reading, I love it. Inside there is a small, but very loud, part of me that likes being the popular one with the cool new shiny things. And I know I’m not the only one.
       – Apparently it’s better than what I have now. This feeds off the 1st one and our need to satisfy some kind of internal or external worth. Whether it’s seeking the gratification of others or appeasing your own moral compass, this one will always get you – even if you live in a hemp box in a forest and eat leaves. If someone came along and told you they had a new species of leaf that contained all the nutrients you needed and when you pooed a tree grew – you’d buy them.
      – They convince me I’m richer than I think (this last one I blame Scotia Bank for). They say things like ‘if you didn’t buy a coffee everyday for the next week you’d save $25. That’s more than this book costs.’ It’s not that I’m actually richer than I think, it’s that I have the ability to compartmentalize my finances and temporarily, in my mind, re-prioritize coffee money to book money – then I’ll go buy a coffee and sit and read my book.
I believe that retail assistants across the nation are the secret key of successful marketing – and they don’t even know it. So I’m warning you all. So that when you’re mind raped you can have some comfort in thinking ‘well at least I know how they did it’.
*I totally tried, for like 20 minuets, to find a video clip on YouTube so you didn’t have to strain you eyes and read words, but I couldn’t find one, sorry. I’m sure through the power of imagination, you’ll get the humour.
*Stolen image* I found this awesome visual representation on gbfans.com
CSS3, HTML5, paralax scrolling & depth perception
As a lover of rollercoasters (see my recent post on the Euthanasia Coaster) I am a fan of anything that goes up, down and sideways all at the same time. Which is why, right now, I’m all over getting stoked on the endless creative possibilities of CSS3 and HTML 5.
I found this great post from Web Design Ledger a while back. But after going to The Art of Flight premier last night in Whistler, and paying another visit to their awesomely tasty, scrolling website, I got all excited again and thought I’d share the post for a second time.
Enjoy.
http://webdesignledger.com/tips/web-design-trends-in-2011
P.s. If you were at the premier and sat in the 1st 10 rows, OMG how good was the sound? I actually felt my heart shake at one point!
The quality:cost ratio
Having done the ‘big agency’ thing, I find some serious hilarity in sharing with others the, sometimes ridiculous, things clients say, ask and think.
This particular exchange, of which I shall keep the participants anonymous, holds a dear place in my heart:
Client: I’m not sure on the font, make it sans serif.
Action: font replaced, it’s now sans serif.
Client: what happened to those little flicky things on the font? put those back on.
True Story. Let it be a lesson to all. Everyone lies about how much they know.
This image was posted by my delightfully smiley friend over at www.wordgirl.co.uk. Artwork by the very talented Colin Harman :)
*Disclaimer: No clients we’re harmed or killed during the making of this post*
Most people don’t have talent
Seth Godin, Ted Schillowitz, Andrew Keen and a bunch of other, equally outspoken, industry bods have got together with House of Radon to make PressPausePlay – A film about hope, fear and digital culture. If you have an opinion, on anything at all, which you probably do, watch this trailer!
Let’s face it, we’re all sick and tired of the reality TV bullshit. Vacuous, (mostly) talentless people getting 1,000,000+ views on YouTube, making a one-hit wonder record, only to then appear on Celebrity Big Brother a year later when they’ve spent all their money on booze, drugs and hair-extensions.
Where do these people come from?
And should they be entitled to this life? Not if you ask Amy Phillips, Pitchfork: “Should everyone be able to be a successful musician? Should everyone be able to have a fan base, people buying their music and making a living from it. No. Absolutly not. There are people with talent and people without talent.”
In the same vein, Andrew Keen says “everyone thinks they have a novel in them, everyone thinks they can make a film, everyone thinks they can write a song…that’s why everyone now is buying a cheap video-recorder and throwing their stuff up on YouTube.”
It’s an exiting time to be exeptional
But there is more than one side to the ‘democratized society’ coin. The recession has made it a very interesting time for new young talent. As companies and brands scramble to find ‘the next big thing’, all you have to do is convince them you’re it. And there has never been more free tools to do that, than now.
Go make something. Get paid. Make something else. Repeat cycle.
Hitler ♥’s Helvetica
To some people Hipster Hitler may cut a little too close to the line to be funny, but there does seems to be a bit of a trend in poking fun at terrorists, evil dictators and tragic events in history. Some of the most recent, and a couple of my personal faves, are:
- Kim Jong Il singing ‘I’m so ronery’ on Team America: World Police
- Waj, the intellectually-challenged terrorist from the hit British comedy Four Lions
- and of course, Hipster Hitler
They key to their success is not in belittling the atrocities, but in belittling the leaders who created them. Showing them as the socially-awkward misfits they really are offers a new way for people to show their dislike, and to laugh at them by highlighting how detestable they were. To give you a taste, I’ve taken a small quote from the 1st episode of Hipster Hitler.
Hipster Hitler talking about the front cover of his racially exclusive magazine ‘Jewsweek’: “I just desaturated the front cover a bit more. It was looking lame with that ‘try-hard’ Venitian red arm band.”
I hope you ‘reich it’. (ooo was that too far?)
Gothic Cistercian monastery and a hedgehog
I have been back in England now for three weeks. And despite it having been my home for 24 years, I now feel like a tourist. People mock my hybrid accent (apparently British + Canadian = Australian, which I’m not best pleased about), I have taken to wearing shorts in any weather, I’m constantly taking photos of things I’ll never actually show anyone whilst enjoying a lot of tea and scones at any opportunity.
In celebration of my new found place in British society, me and my equally out of place boyfriend went on a day-trip to Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, England. In the rain. Enjoy the photos of this sinister looking 800 year old Cistercian monastery.
Oh and I saw a hedgehog, in real life, for the first time ever. Epic win for the human – nature relationship.
Lovingly press the link below to see all 17 Hipstamatic iPhone photos.
Trap the distractions and hold pretty things hostage
Distractions. Personally, I love distractions. I see them as the universe giving me a choice of paths for my inspiration. If I have 5 distractions, that’s a possibility of 5 new ideas.
I take these distractions very seriously. Giving each a little bit of time to see if it ignites the curiosity in my subconscious. I do this because I believe that every thing you’ve seen, everything you’ve read, everyone you’ve talked to and everything you’ve ever experienced is what makes you, you. It’s what makes your ideas different to everyone else. It’s how you combine seemingly random and unrelated observations, that most people would miss, to create something innovative.
“Innovation happens when you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” The Medici Effect (a free pdf book for you right here)
Think I might have to write a blog post on this. So for now, I’ll stop harping on – but do come back soon.
*Another disclamer/plug for friends*
I’d love to claim this video as my own discovery, but I can’t. That would be cheating. It was tweeted by @pembygrl from Nowness.com. When you see them, say hi from me.
Tim Walker’s haunting dress lamp tree
Fantastical, theatrical and intriguing.
It’s 12.14am and I’m dying to go to bed, but these little enchanting beings have been playing with my mind for the last hour or so. Again another brain argument raged. ‘Shall I post, shall I not post?’. ‘It can wait until the morning. BUT THEY’RE SO PRETTY‘. So the prettiness won. A victory for all.
As a result this is the shortest post I’ve ever made. Plus they’re so beautiful I’m not entirely sure what more justice I can do to them. I will say one thing though, I am brimming with pride to say that this tree was made in Northumberland, England, very close to my home town.
Here’s a little except I blatantly cmd+c’d because I’m too tired to write my own words. Please enjoy, and visit Tim’s website in a more reasonable hour (it’s hosted in England so I’m not sure there will be anyone awake to greet you).
“Tim Walker’s photographs have entranced the readers of Vogue, month by month, for over a decade. Extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterise his unmistakable style. ” – www.timwalkerphotography.com
netspeak 2, real life 0
After my last post about the Om nom nom restaurant sign I was pretty sure it would be a longtime before I saw another high quality netspeak vs. real life example. However my little face lit up with a gasp of ‘OMG’ as I stumbled upon these gems from TWELVEZEROSEVEN and another point had to be given in favor of netspeak. The score now stands at 2 – 0.
Look how many 3 letter imaga-words (imaginary words) you can make. I didn’t even know so many existed. I did really. Hurrah.
Buy some from Fab.com now and make your desk look cool.
*** Look down here ***
I cmd+shift+4 ‘d these pictures from Fab.com and TWELVEZEROSEVEN. I’m sure they won’t mind seen as how I’m giving them a plug, but you never know, so thought I’d say.
Words that aren’t, but really should be, in the English language
Despite hailing from the land of journalism and copywriting, amongst other things, where the correct use of English language is beaten into you at a young age, I’m all for forgetting a few things every now and then to make way for new/better things like this.
Ive already 4gotton how 2 spel…yay.
Image found on the delightful website untitledmagazine.net
Euthanasia Coaster: would you try it?
PhD candidate Julijonas Urbonas is studying Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art. Sounds harmless enough until you hear about his most sinister ‘hypothetical’ creation. The clue is in the name. The Euthanasia Coaster is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Inspired by a quote from John Allen, former president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company who said; “The ultimate rollercoaster is built when you send out 24 people and they all come back dead. This could be done, you know”. With this Julijonas set to work like Megamind constructing his eeeeevil (but equally quite genius) rollercoaster – meticulously planning each twist and turn to send riders through euphoria, thrill, tunnel vision, loss of consciousness and, eventually, death.
My brain has been having a constant argument while writing this post with one half saying “But it would be so much fun” and the other half going “Don’t be stupid, you’d be dead”
I couldn’t help thinking ‘would I? But really…would I?’ Read the rest of my post and see if you would.
Put the power of the peasant wagon in your hands
Mapnificent is a wonderful piece of kit. In short it basically finds out how far away stuff is by public transport – which doesn’t really get your juices flowing with excitement, but when you consider it can do all of this, it’s a whole other ball game of practicality:
- You’re friend texts you and asks if you’d like to go for a drink in 15mins. Find a bar that both of you can reach in 15mins or less
- If you move house, work out how quickly you can get to work via public transport from your new pad
- If you get invited to an interview on the other side of town, work out how quickly you can get there on public transport
It’s currently in public beta so there may be some bugs, but it’s available for most major cities and is the perfect companion for people with an imbalanced social-life:time ratio – so you can effectively use up every last minute of your day.
And you’ll get top Karma points for helping reduce CO2 emissions. Kerching!
What would Don Draper do?
Should you ever find yourself in a bit of a crisis of judgement, take a deep breath, grab a rock and rye and ask ‘What would Don do?’
Two of my favorite Don resources are the Oatmeal’s WWDD? Flow-chart and Don’s personal message board at whatwoulddondraperdo.tumblr.com where he dispenses tidy advice on women, Facebook, how to choose a steak and what to do if you’re sick of your husband.
evolution of a thumbless 6 year old
Ever found yourself wondering what to do with your children (or age-deficient relatives) during the school holidays? How can you have fun while satisfying the humor and intellect of both age groups? How, as a parent, do you juggle such demands?
In the interest of science, today I endeavored to find out. Conveniently I have access to a small selection of cousins, nieces and nephews to practice my future parenting skills on. Thankfully, after practicing, I can give them back. Today’s child is Lucy.
Today’s fun game
What you tell the child: Sticky taping your thumbs to your hands to see what it feels like to be a dinosaur
What you tell the adults: Severely reducing the dexterity of a small child while you laugh at them fail a series of simple tasks
got wood?
WeWOOD make planet saving, wooden watches for super cool people like you and me.
Not only that (as if that isn’t enough) they also partner with American Forests to plant one tree for every watch sold. And they’re not even that expensive.
I was first introduced to WeWood buy a very large, very ginger, Canadian NHL hockey player (i’d totally name drop, if only I could remember his name) who whittled on about them for a good 10 minuets while I stood there, smiled, nodded and thought ‘sounds like you’ve been had by a bit of greenwashing gimmick to me’.
I have never been so happy to admit that I was totally wrong. These guys really are good at heart, and I now have one on my Christmas list.
netspeak 1, real life 0
For a while now I’ve found myself, without realising, using netspeak in real life. I’ll happily say ‘LOL’ when something tickles my funny bone, or the classic ‘Om nom nom’ when stuffing my face with some tasty pastry and, on occasion, call some one a ‘n00b’.
I found this picture on Nerdalicious and actually said, in a kind of loving sigh, ‘oh LOL’.
An epic win for the use of net speak in the real world.
Get cool people to colour in your Twitter
Get your twitter made pretty colours by someone who knows what they’re doing, at Kuvva.com.
This week my Twitter is being curated by super duper, nature loving Raymond Lemstra – ooooooo, ahhhhhh.
Kuvva is curated by a different artist each week, who lovingly creates a bespoke Twitter theme just for you (and a few thousand others). You can chose whether you want your theme to automatically change each week as the curator changes, or just keep one that you really like.
EMERGENCY: Cold cocks need jumpers!
Well not so much cocks, more there female counterparts, hens. In a cute little tale of humanitarian knitting Craftzine.com are asking there readers to knit jumpers for chickens that are a little low on feathers. Awww.
Little Hen Rescue is a U.K. not-for-profit organisation, who rescue chickens from the hellish home of battery farms. The mistreated hens are traumatized and in bad health, making them skinny and sometimes bald :(
We have a lot to thank these hens for:
- Bacon and Egg sandwiches
- Scrambled eggs on toast
- Eggs Benedict
- Nandos
- Easter
So put your fingers to work for our feathered friends with this easy pattern from Little Hen Rescue.
Give two fingers to the fun Police
Work. Lets be honest, at some point it gets tarnished with the brush of ‘do I have to? I could totally be doing something else way more fun right now‘. This is when the green grass of Facebook swans in and saves the mental state of many people across the globe. But the grass is banned from most offices. So what do you do? *
Hardlywork.in will deliver your sanity in a spreadsheet shaped box right to your desk.
How to not kill everything in your garden
I love dirt. And from what people tell me I also believe that veggies love dirt. So really we should get along nicely, but whenever I try and even think about growing my own veggies I start to get a little over ambitious – and what started as a longing for some chillies, and maybe a sunflower, has suddenly snowballed into digging up the drive way and curing the neighborhoods ailments and tummy upsets by growing an army of antioxidant rich vegetables and super-fruits.
I also blame my lack of fruitfulness on living on the side of a mountain and receiving 55ft of snow every winter. However now, even I don’t have an excuse.
Smartgardiner.com is the brains of the operation and personally works out the best things to grow based on the size and growing conditions of your garden and what you want to grow; and then kindly spoon-feeds you step buy step instructions on how not to kill everything.
Pop back in 8 months when spring swings round again and I get chance to try it out in real life.
the .gif that keeps on .gif-fing.
Now when one photo just wont do, you can elevate all life’s little unimportant moments to animated gif status in the swish of an iPhone app from the gifshop.tv
badly stuffed animal 
