Have you heard about Mike Long and his new website Dance Futura? He's a fellow Hamiltonian and a sweeeeet dancer. He posts a new video every day featuring a different song, different location, and some of those sweeeeet moves. He's going to be doing this every day for the next two years.
You can check out ALL of his videos on YouTube if you've got a hankering for some more.
After the inevitable backlash, Facebook has seen a resurgence of sorts... hell, every week I get 'invited' to my critical context lectures. And with a relative dose of respectability comes: tee shirts!
Yes, you can now further mind-fuck your idea of virtual/reality by purchasing an 'add to friends" QR code. Simply download their app on facebook and create your unique QR code to be printed on a tee shirt. Wear said shirt around town and every time your photograph appears on Facebook, that person adds you as their friend!
Im just waiting for Facebook to grow a consciousness and slaughter us all (or throw a wicked party).
So, I guess I wasn't clear enough with my engagement announcement post. I did in fact get engaged, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Firstly, because I get to marry the man of my dreams, and secondly, I get to PLAN something. O, the thrill of organization!
Right now I'm working on my colour palette for the wedding, and I simply love COLOURlovers as a tool to help me figure it all out. I think I'm going relatively simple, but as a interior design enthusiast as well, I know that I'll be keeping this page in my bookmarks for years to come.
Alright, for 99% of readers, this will be useless. But Stanford U's artificial intelligence lab has released a 'live trace' tool that is way better than... uhhh Adobe Illustrator's LiveTrace? Basically if you have a rastor image you need to be vectorized, it will do a trick. And its free. POW! Vector Magic
This morning in my usual flurry of online shopping, I went somewhere I haven't been in a few weeks: Urban Outfitters. And do you know what I was greeted with at Urban Outfitters? Do you???
Free Shipping on all upholstered furniture until the end of the week. Hurry! The sale ends January 20th at midnight.
Next time you are bored in class (or sorry, I mean work, as every sane person would find worthwhile employment after graduation, and not turn around immediately thinking 'That was alright, let's go again!') you can build a pinhole camera! From paper! Da Vinci has nothing on you, so go on and feel a bit superior.
Although, Da Vinci didn't have Acrobat to print out the direction either. And I should reallllly check my facts to make sure the man wasn't snapping shots in the Renaissance (he did invent the flying bicycle) but it is two-thirty in the morning here. I'm pretty sure about Acrobat though.
For Hollie, our resident photographess (hey if I don't get a job this time, guess what you are getting for you birthday next year...?!)
OHHHHHHH my god. I feel a little guilty typing this entry on my cherished Powerbook (which still has to see me through six months of design school without loosing my entire thesis — love ya babe!) but sweet sexy lord, the MacBook Air is ridiculous. I mean, besides the fact you can mail it flat in an envelope with room to spare (don't.. the post will kick the shit out of it, its still a computer) the interface features are beautiful. The trackpad is basically a mini Microsoft Surface. My brain cannot comprehend it. The photo does not do it justice. Watch these two clips.
Anyone who bought a Mac in the past year is going to be tearing their hair out.
Last night Jane and I watched "In The Name of the Father", and it made me want to go to Ireland so bad. Without the whole being wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years part.
I got home, and excited with my new obsession, started to read up on Ireland. Then an email from my friend Heather appeared saying she had just opened up her own Etsy shop! Where she has prints of Ireland for sale! The universe couldn't have been more aligned last night.
It's so hard when we get a wonderful new sponsor like 151 Boutique because there are so many beautiful things in the shop, I never know how to narrow it down to just one to feature.
I mean, how can I when they have the cutest dresses, some great home decor pieces and divine jewelry. It's just not fair to make me choose like that.
Tying a string around one's finger is definitely one of those childhood lessons that never really amounted to anything. Its a lovely and romantic idea but I mean, who even has string?
No, instead we write things down back of our hands or stick post-its on our computer monitor. Ho hum.
Which is why I'm glad that someone is making use of that archaic principle to create a beautiful and unique piece of jewelery to boot. Internet, we've been going steady for a while now. I haven't really asked for anything (except not to suck while I am streaming this week's episode of House) so I think someone at CERN better get their ass in gear and get me a Christmas present.
Wink.
Joey Comeau is one of those guys you wish you were friends with. He worked with my roommate in Halifax, and I was pretty much 100% fascinated by him. He writes books about math porn and mails ridiculous cover letters to jobs he never intends to get, and he got fired once because his supervisor thought he peed in a bucket. The comic he makes with Emily Horne, called A Softer World, is just great.
In short, I have a crush on Joey Comeau.
Everyone loves Kelly from the Office... in fact she should be the patron saint of LIAL (fashion show! fashion show! fashion show at lunch!). Well, Mindy Ephron has a blog called "Things I've Bought That I Love."
Blog soul mates! Well, except Mindy has enough money to buy the things she loves, while we just sadly collect pictures. And "Love It A Lot" is a much snappier title.
Do you really hope that 3 years from now, you'll have it all figured out? Maybe you just finished dating a complete a-hole who you found out was married with kids, and you hope to god that you'll never do something like that again.
Remind yourself.
FutureMe is a great site designed by two guys so that you could write yourself a letter to be delivered at a later date. Sort of like those time capsules you used to make in elementary school, only this one you'll actually read, and there probably won't be anything in it about Power Rangers.
This blog needs some more geek... so here is a font! Affair is lovely and classic but with some flare. I mean, check out those swashes! This little design kid was about to buy herself a new font, until she realized that it was expensive. Typography can be so depressing sometimes.
I guess it was never meant to be.
It can only be fair to predict that LIAL's visitors like to peruse the internets. But what happens when you're regular sites dry up? It's the weekend, and your favourite bloggers are enjoying their non-cyber lives (and to hell with non-cyber lives!).
I have a solution. StumbleUpon is a tool-bar add-on (Firefox or IE), which allows a user to hand-pick categories of interest (from politics to humour, design to history, even fashion) from a list. Once you've selected your "topics of interest," you click the new Stumble button, and it sends you to random sites within the parameters you've dictated. It's systematic anti-searching, and I love it a lot.
Oh, and it's wicked free.
The WSIB of Ontario has put out a new set of PSA's that are totally disturbing, and kind of totally awesome. In a weird and gruesome way, they make me proud to be a Canadian.
Check out The Chef, Family Man, Retail, and Factory, but be warned that they can get a little graphic.
One of my favourite indie shopping/design blogs, Indie Fixx, has recently opened up an online store. The store has a ton of great original products, all from independent designers and craft-sters. Like, come on...where else are you going to find a Cherry Pincushion Ring? Adorable! So check it out. Dooooo it!
Free Rice combines the best of both worlds: charity and online games. Learn words, test your vocab and help donate grain to impoverished countries.
So even if you are avoiding work at the office, you are still being productive in the grand scheme of things (take that, facebook).
In fact, we should give you a medal.
(via DO)
I figure its been awhile for some cheap entertainment here at LIAL. And to prove we are not just a bunch of pretty, gorgeous, flawless faces I will share with you some TED talks lectures.
TED is a huge, annual ideas conference. Conceived by an information designer (like me!) they aim to get brilliant people into rooms and then let them puke out their idea guts. For the betterment of the world, defeat of evil etc. Also: creative people tend to be funny.
Don't believe in the awesomeness? Well remember that Microsoft Computer Table? PAH! I saw the first demonstration years ago by Jeff Han, grad student. I also recommend the John Maeda lecture on 'Simplicity.' On the advice of a mentor, Maeda jumped from the big brain world of MIT to go to art school. He is now one of the biggest brains in both worlds (and still a nice dude). And finally below, Sir Ken Robinson. The latest lecture to be passed around creative blogs, "How Schools Kill Creativity" has been labeled a 'must see'.
So that you, the LIAL viewer is not left out:
I cannot tell you how, well, awesome it is that TED has opened their doors to the masses and let us view their past blockbuster talks for free. So I just want to say: thank you!
They also sort their talks by 'funny', 'inspiring', 'longwinded', and 'unconvincing.'
