for once i find a difference of opinion with s. godin.
newspapers in cages in new york.
he's probably is right, it isnt a marketers idea. its more likely a city ordinance thing.
seth, i must ask, what of the homeless individuals in new york city that discard used papers without being overly concerned about where.
might not be the optimal solution, but it is the easiest.
just a thought.
7.2.07
recommended
odd.Never saw the Hills Have Eyes, but apparently it warranted the making of Hills Have Eyes 2. Weird thing is, since i find it on imdb and it has that nifty recommendations link on the side, i go ahead and click.
look at the list and tell me what seems out of place.
if your too lazy to click heres the list all written out...
Recommendations for Hills Have Eyes 2, genre: Horror
1. Grudge 2
2. SheFreak
3. Father of the Bride II
4. A Very Brady Sequel
5. Chupacabra Terror
6. The Deep Dark Woods: No Witnesses
7. Zombie Nation
8. Dominion
9. New Nightmare
10. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Why is Father of the Bride and Brady Sequel on this list? Agreed they arent exactly good movie, but i dont recall anyone shrieking in horror at the sight of Mr. Brady and his poofy hair. Nor was Steve Martin horribly unfunny in FotB2, wasn't funny either, but not cringe inducing.
Or is IMDB recommending based on the underlying cynical tone? Maybe we never realized that BrideII and BradySequel where psychological horror movies, dealing with the underlying horror of what would become of the men and women of america as they continued their vain existence in suburbia and devolved further and further into a complacent entity that worried of nothing more than trials and minor tribulations of their offspring? Or that they are a presentation of the facade which covers the ritual spousal abuse, the acute drinking problems, the decay of the marriage, the bloodlust kept in check with perfectly trimmed bushes on the front lawn that we all know these families were capable of?
22.1.07
broken.
i took someone for granted. someone i should never have treated in that manner.
i expected them to be always be there... yesterday, today and tomorrow... i felt i could do no wrong. they were mine as i was theirs.
i took them for granted. ive stumbled, and im falling a long ways. they have a part of me i never gave away.
defenses i had. walls and distractions and any number of safety mechanisms to keep anyone from touching. they sneaked in. quietly slowly and softly... and now they have me. took me years to hide it away, i dont miss it so much as i miss the care they gave it... i am... despite myself... stricken... fallen in love.
one person can break me.
i expected them to be always be there... yesterday, today and tomorrow... i felt i could do no wrong. they were mine as i was theirs.
i took them for granted. ive stumbled, and im falling a long ways. they have a part of me i never gave away.
defenses i had. walls and distractions and any number of safety mechanisms to keep anyone from touching. they sneaked in. quietly slowly and softly... and now they have me. took me years to hide it away, i dont miss it so much as i miss the care they gave it... i am... despite myself... stricken... fallen in love.
one person can break me.
19.1.07
de teguz.
so heres the basic idea for this one...
create a blog, link it to pictures, let the community upload content, link to events, hype.
Imagine something like tegus2night, or tecache, but instead of going out and just taking the pictures of the people in different places, which with the flash working and the background being all black makes every place look exactly the same, you simply write up a brief little review of places and any events you personally went to along with some pictures of the place, some people the event, the drinks make it look as fun or boring as it really was...
Have a part where people can submit their pictures based on date and not location, but open it up so that everyone can upload without your meddling.
Eventually, get a group to become additional writers, so that you don't have to be going around everywhere.
Grow from there to incorporate other cities... start with deteguz, then desanpeter, deceiba, delasislas, etc etc...
Once you have a large enough regular audience, are known and visited, open up a threadless. From their work with clothing dept. to get tshirts in all major cities by offering exclusivity and guaranteed interest and sales.
so, this is my idea. sort of. there are bit parts i left out and the details are sitting in a black book on my desk all neatly describing how to go from a to b without making a mess so we can get to c.
anyone interested?
create a blog, link it to pictures, let the community upload content, link to events, hype.
Imagine something like tegus2night, or tecache, but instead of going out and just taking the pictures of the people in different places, which with the flash working and the background being all black makes every place look exactly the same, you simply write up a brief little review of places and any events you personally went to along with some pictures of the place, some people the event, the drinks make it look as fun or boring as it really was...
Have a part where people can submit their pictures based on date and not location, but open it up so that everyone can upload without your meddling.
Eventually, get a group to become additional writers, so that you don't have to be going around everywhere.
Grow from there to incorporate other cities... start with deteguz, then desanpeter, deceiba, delasislas, etc etc...
Once you have a large enough regular audience, are known and visited, open up a threadless. From their work with clothing dept. to get tshirts in all major cities by offering exclusivity and guaranteed interest and sales.
so, this is my idea. sort of. there are bit parts i left out and the details are sitting in a black book on my desk all neatly describing how to go from a to b without making a mess so we can get to c.
anyone interested?
12.1.07
image change.
If you know me, you know where i work and why i work there.
Its been 15 years since the company was founded, and as with all things that turn 15 we felt it was time for a change. We changed our logo, upgraded and added to it. It took about a month.
First things first we had to develop a new logo, so we went the democratic route. We could have hired fancy design majors to create an abstract new logo that incorporated both technology and movement, or included aspects of our vision/mission, but no... we decided to do an inhouse development, include the employees and let them push our logo where they wanted. So we had a contest.
Sent out the email announcing it, ran into a snag there because our original prize was too low to foster any interest. So we upped the ante, and then gathered about 25 designs from a crew of 40. Pretty fair turnout.
Next we had to wittle those down to a select few, very American Idol. Since I submitted a design I was barred from the decision making panel. Outside sources where consulted in very informal ways, "do you like this one or this one?" and eventually it was settled on 3. Those three had to be combined to come up with a final Frankenstein logo. So now we had a typeface, 15 year imagery, and a new icon to boot. But how do we put them together?
Another week of fiddling with the layout. Icon on the right or the left? above or below? angled or boxy? vertical or horizontal?
several ideas and a couple of sheets later we had it down to 3 possible winners.
So about a month and a half since the idea was first presented we now have a final version for our logo 2.0.
Now to spend a month changing the logo on every piece of stationary and printed materials followed by a year changing the logo on everything else (cars & signs).
thats about as exciting as my work gets lately. I did manage to make some money off of it though.
And ill be taking painting/drawing classes soon... unless occupancy is full already, i should call very soon to see.
Anyway, I have no plans for the weekend. So if anyone reading this, not that there are many of you, has anything for saturday night ring my cell.
Its been 15 years since the company was founded, and as with all things that turn 15 we felt it was time for a change. We changed our logo, upgraded and added to it. It took about a month.
First things first we had to develop a new logo, so we went the democratic route. We could have hired fancy design majors to create an abstract new logo that incorporated both technology and movement, or included aspects of our vision/mission, but no... we decided to do an inhouse development, include the employees and let them push our logo where they wanted. So we had a contest.
Sent out the email announcing it, ran into a snag there because our original prize was too low to foster any interest. So we upped the ante, and then gathered about 25 designs from a crew of 40. Pretty fair turnout.
Next we had to wittle those down to a select few, very American Idol. Since I submitted a design I was barred from the decision making panel. Outside sources where consulted in very informal ways, "do you like this one or this one?" and eventually it was settled on 3. Those three had to be combined to come up with a final Frankenstein logo. So now we had a typeface, 15 year imagery, and a new icon to boot. But how do we put them together?
Another week of fiddling with the layout. Icon on the right or the left? above or below? angled or boxy? vertical or horizontal?
several ideas and a couple of sheets later we had it down to 3 possible winners.
So about a month and a half since the idea was first presented we now have a final version for our logo 2.0.
Now to spend a month changing the logo on every piece of stationary and printed materials followed by a year changing the logo on everything else (cars & signs).
thats about as exciting as my work gets lately. I did manage to make some money off of it though.
And ill be taking painting/drawing classes soon... unless occupancy is full already, i should call very soon to see.
Anyway, I have no plans for the weekend. So if anyone reading this, not that there are many of you, has anything for saturday night ring my cell.
3.1.07
said once or never at all.
"not the size of the boat, its the motion in the ocean... true, but your not about to cross the pacific in a canoe either."
"i hope you get killed by a manatee."
"i hope you get killed by a manatee."
29.11.06
pandora.
this is what ive come to realize after much internal thought and some outside consulting...
knowing a woman's history is akin to eating of the tree of good and evil.
forgive the biblical reference there but its the only reference that made any sense that im aware of. truly though having knowledge of what a person has done inevitably makes it so that you are aware of their capabilities. And knowing that is capable, the tricky thought, the one that keeps you up on certain nights, is, "whats to keep them from doing again?"
Oh sure, people change, and smokers quit. Its the exception rather than the norm.
heres an example:
you know the girl is easy. sleeps around. fun times had by all... what makes you think she wont still be like that even if you are an item (dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, whatever)?
or
girl has cheated on past boyfriends. why are you to be the exception to the rule?
while its true that predicting future actions is downright impossible, past tendencies do point us in the direction of the most probable of events.
so i have some questions that i cant answer on my own.
what is a girl with "history" to do?
are boyfriends of easy/cheating girls prone to paranoia?
or are we all living in ignorance of our partners past?
knowing a woman's history is akin to eating of the tree of good and evil.
forgive the biblical reference there but its the only reference that made any sense that im aware of. truly though having knowledge of what a person has done inevitably makes it so that you are aware of their capabilities. And knowing that is capable, the tricky thought, the one that keeps you up on certain nights, is, "whats to keep them from doing again?"
Oh sure, people change, and smokers quit. Its the exception rather than the norm.
heres an example:
you know the girl is easy. sleeps around. fun times had by all... what makes you think she wont still be like that even if you are an item (dating, boyfriend/girlfriend, whatever)?
or
girl has cheated on past boyfriends. why are you to be the exception to the rule?
while its true that predicting future actions is downright impossible, past tendencies do point us in the direction of the most probable of events.
so i have some questions that i cant answer on my own.
what is a girl with "history" to do?
are boyfriends of easy/cheating girls prone to paranoia?
or are we all living in ignorance of our partners past?
2.10.06
idea.
an unfinished idea im having while sitting here at work looking through other blogs.
print out 4x6 pictures, from flickr or some other picture repository, or just your hard drive, put them in context to the location where you will abandon them.
Abandon, yes. A 4x6 picture of coffee beans left on starbucks/cafe tables with some something printed or sketched out on the back. Could be subversive, could be pointless, could be taken out of context. Combine the flickr picture with something from that Heard in New York or Heard on the Subway blog. A joke about the pope with a picture of a flower. An old stove and some rant about womens rights. A pornographic pose with a confession of letchery or of being a whore/slut/easy. A 4x6 of a cow at McDonalds with the text "crees que eso es carne?"
4x6 prints that look like party invites with writing on the back "cuando te emborrachas me aprovecho" or "cuando te ausentas es mia" or "sabes lo que dicen de ella?" or just a simple "perdon." left throughout a nightclub.
Or notes that seem intended for someone else when you read them... "no puedo dejar de verte.", "lo siento, es mejor asi.", "pasa por mi casa cuando leas esto, B.", "soy mejor que tu.", "me gustan los hombres.", "ya no te amo.", "no te rindas.", etc. etc.
and nonsense for good measure, "la mosca vuela sin destino.", "el jarabe sabe morado.", "elixer de vida cuesta la muerta.", "ese color no te va.", "quiero ser original como tu.", "algun dia volare junto con los pinguinos", "ya no quiero gasolina.", "esto fue un arbol unavez.", etc. etc.
No idea why, because there isnt any follow up to leaving the notes around town. do it for free and when people talk of it, get it sponsored by a liquor. Add the iconic logo and text for the website. i guess. i just think it would be cool to find interesting little notes spread throughout the city, just something a little quirky to amuse and give you something to talk about.
ill see if i can come up with samples later on, for now, a sketch of an idea.
print out 4x6 pictures, from flickr or some other picture repository, or just your hard drive, put them in context to the location where you will abandon them.
Abandon, yes. A 4x6 picture of coffee beans left on starbucks/cafe tables with some something printed or sketched out on the back. Could be subversive, could be pointless, could be taken out of context. Combine the flickr picture with something from that Heard in New York or Heard on the Subway blog. A joke about the pope with a picture of a flower. An old stove and some rant about womens rights. A pornographic pose with a confession of letchery or of being a whore/slut/easy. A 4x6 of a cow at McDonalds with the text "crees que eso es carne?"
4x6 prints that look like party invites with writing on the back "cuando te emborrachas me aprovecho" or "cuando te ausentas es mia" or "sabes lo que dicen de ella?" or just a simple "perdon." left throughout a nightclub.
Or notes that seem intended for someone else when you read them... "no puedo dejar de verte.", "lo siento, es mejor asi.", "pasa por mi casa cuando leas esto, B.", "soy mejor que tu.", "me gustan los hombres.", "ya no te amo.", "no te rindas.", etc. etc.
and nonsense for good measure, "la mosca vuela sin destino.", "el jarabe sabe morado.", "elixer de vida cuesta la muerta.", "ese color no te va.", "quiero ser original como tu.", "algun dia volare junto con los pinguinos", "ya no quiero gasolina.", "esto fue un arbol unavez.", etc. etc.
No idea why, because there isnt any follow up to leaving the notes around town. do it for free and when people talk of it, get it sponsored by a liquor. Add the iconic logo and text for the website. i guess. i just think it would be cool to find interesting little notes spread throughout the city, just something a little quirky to amuse and give you something to talk about.
ill see if i can come up with samples later on, for now, a sketch of an idea.
30.8.06
short lines.
Short jokes. not necessarily good, but short, followed by a few lines regarding a computer.
"i thought my girlfriend had an eating disorder so i took her to a center. turns out it was just a stomach flu. i should go get her soon."
-
"you know you have it good when both you and your girlfriend stop talking to each other to stare at the new victorias secret commercial."
-
"my spam used to be for banks in nigeria, possible million dollar winner, and chain emails. Now my computer is telling me to be bigger, increase quantity (but not quality) of sperm, and have sex with strangers in my neighborhood...
Punchlines to this...
"My computer is going through adolescence"
"Lesson, never get naked in front of your computer."
"My computer is perverted."
"It speaks to me."
"My computer is trying to pimp me out."
-
Pick up lines by computer.
"Hey baby, I got 2 gigs of RAM for you."
-
"Oh dear... im afraid im all out of RAM."
-
"My girlfriend is a printer. When shes not in the mood she says she has a paper jam."
-
"I put my cord in her socket."
-
"I can make your ink run."
-
"I have large fonts."
-
"error.error.error. you caused me to get stuck in a loop with your configuration."
-
"I like your case."
-
"Im so hot even Apples dig me."
-
"Wow. You know shes not factory direct, just look at those upgrades."
-
"You and me baby, were like 0 and 1."
-
"0111011011 baby, you and me, all night long, just 0110111101."
-
"my ink cartridge runeth over."
-
"I had her printing all night."
-
"I dont usually go for color printers..."
-
"I have some spam you might be interested in."
-
"Care to finger through my inbox?"
-
"I have porn."
-
"Touch my keys. Softly."
-
"All my inputs are around back."
-
"Our software is compatible."
-
"Lets make an ipod tonight."
-
"They just call me imac mini... but im all harddrive."
-
"Male and female ends... lets connect."
-
"Dont worry, i have an antivirus."
-
theres more. but i think ive stated all the ones that i should. the rest just make me seem far too much of a geek.
"i thought my girlfriend had an eating disorder so i took her to a center. turns out it was just a stomach flu. i should go get her soon."
-
"you know you have it good when both you and your girlfriend stop talking to each other to stare at the new victorias secret commercial."
-
"my spam used to be for banks in nigeria, possible million dollar winner, and chain emails. Now my computer is telling me to be bigger, increase quantity (but not quality) of sperm, and have sex with strangers in my neighborhood...
Punchlines to this...
"My computer is going through adolescence"
"Lesson, never get naked in front of your computer."
"My computer is perverted."
"It speaks to me."
"My computer is trying to pimp me out."
-
Pick up lines by computer.
"Hey baby, I got 2 gigs of RAM for you."
-
"Oh dear... im afraid im all out of RAM."
-
"My girlfriend is a printer. When shes not in the mood she says she has a paper jam."
-
"I put my cord in her socket."
-
"I can make your ink run."
-
"I have large fonts."
-
"error.error.error. you caused me to get stuck in a loop with your configuration."
-
"I like your case."
-
"Im so hot even Apples dig me."
-
"Wow. You know shes not factory direct, just look at those upgrades."
-
"You and me baby, were like 0 and 1."
-
"0111011011 baby, you and me, all night long, just 0110111101."
-
"my ink cartridge runeth over."
-
"I had her printing all night."
-
"I dont usually go for color printers..."
-
"I have some spam you might be interested in."
-
"Care to finger through my inbox?"
-
"I have porn."
-
"Touch my keys. Softly."
-
"All my inputs are around back."
-
"Our software is compatible."
-
"Lets make an ipod tonight."
-
"They just call me imac mini... but im all harddrive."
-
"Male and female ends... lets connect."
-
"Dont worry, i have an antivirus."
-
theres more. but i think ive stated all the ones that i should. the rest just make me seem far too much of a geek.
1.8.06
office.beta.2.
recently, as a minor perk to working ive been given an office beta 2 cd...
not that its too much of an exclusive thing, since you can download them off the net (albeit the installation is a little over 1gig, so downloading is kind of for the diehard hardcore miscrosoft devotees)
eventually it loads up, doesnt take too much longer than my current office, which wasnt 03 mind you... i was ancient office.
first change...
the little office circle which is the same as your windows vista circle is where file used to be (all those timesaving ctrl-s, alt-f shortcuts are nonexistant and cause windows to span little gremlins that crawl in your ear and whisper mac is for baby girls, now... quite a thing to see)... just thought id point that out, since everything changed with this new jetblack shiny office... oh and colibri is the new default font. it kicks times new roman's ass like those armies at Marathon (google this reference for shits and giggles)
other changes, the menu system... no more little icons and long long menus... now its a big icons, that update your document in realtime (which is pretty nifty, easy to picture if youve ever used corel) and everything grouped together in relation to what your doing...
and it all lights up in orange... and black is the better looking of the 2 schemes, the other being an airy baby blue number that i just could get behind... but onyx is techno savvy isnt it?
and what everyone is going to love, the only thing that makes people go whee and wow is this, smart art. instead of autoshapes you get smart art. im not complaining, it does look nice and you get hundreds of options, more if you count color changes and style alterations (emboss, extrude? for pansies, we got that and 3d rotations!)
i really do question the usability of 3d rotations, cause it shifts everything into perspectives and angles and everything looks so very cool and 22nd century, but it is a little difficult to read half the time (highschool kids will pepper reports with this thing though.)
and the sad thing is that while i think it looks great now, once everyone can do it, it wont be so cool anymore... itll be common, and common is a step away from boring.
not that its too much of an exclusive thing, since you can download them off the net (albeit the installation is a little over 1gig, so downloading is kind of for the diehard hardcore miscrosoft devotees)
voila.
no big changes here if you use 2003... if you use mac it probably looks alittle sillier and friendlier than this... (ive just realized how infantile windows xp looks... very toddler friendly, big colorful plasticine buttons.)
eventually it loads up, doesnt take too much longer than my current office, which wasnt 03 mind you... i was ancient office.
first change...
the little office circle which is the same as your windows vista circle is where file used to be (all those timesaving ctrl-s, alt-f shortcuts are nonexistant and cause windows to span little gremlins that crawl in your ear and whisper mac is for baby girls, now... quite a thing to see)... just thought id point that out, since everything changed with this new jetblack shiny office... oh and colibri is the new default font. it kicks times new roman's ass like those armies at Marathon (google this reference for shits and giggles)
other changes, the menu system... no more little icons and long long menus... now its a big icons, that update your document in realtime (which is pretty nifty, easy to picture if youve ever used corel) and everything grouped together in relation to what your doing...and it all lights up in orange... and black is the better looking of the 2 schemes, the other being an airy baby blue number that i just could get behind... but onyx is techno savvy isnt it?
and what everyone is going to love, the only thing that makes people go whee and wow is this, smart art. instead of autoshapes you get smart art. im not complaining, it does look nice and you get hundreds of options, more if you count color changes and style alterations (emboss, extrude? for pansies, we got that and 3d rotations!)i really do question the usability of 3d rotations, cause it shifts everything into perspectives and angles and everything looks so very cool and 22nd century, but it is a little difficult to read half the time (highschool kids will pepper reports with this thing though.)
and the sad thing is that while i think it looks great now, once everyone can do it, it wont be so cool anymore... itll be common, and common is a step away from boring.
