This video can only really be seen to be appreciated. It is so wrong that it’s almost genius. I also think I might have learnt something from it, so it deserves credit just for that.
Apologies for anyone that has to have a cry, or receives a headache after this.
(thanks Alex, now my day is complete).
This is funny, and Darth Vader is brilliant, but how i received the link was even better…
From an email from Claire:
I laughed so hard I nearly gave birth!!!!
What a great story that would have been.
(thanks Claire)
BoingBoing recently pointed out that Symentc/Norton had produced a set of papercraft robots, which allows you to print, cut and glue together identity theft bots allowing them to live in the real world and be the target of your hatred.
The irony in all of this is that Symantec/Norton is already the target for all of my hatred (…well everything except my hatred for Vista). I propose that they provide a Norton Antivurus bot for us to download and print out. After all, it too infects and slows down every computer it is installed on, reducing the propogation of viruses and worms by making computers so horribly useless that they just give up.
Norton, you used to be useful and even effective. These days, installing you is more like cutting off my arm to stop my fingers from getting cold. I should have just bought a pair of gloves instead.
Some designers seem to fit into a category of personality that for the most part borders on mild levels of mental disorder. Often these designers have no experience in web production, but believe that design translates across all mediums, based on something they read in a book with a fancy cover a long long time ago. Occasionally, in relatively obscure times this thought process might hold true. However thinking this way is akin to assuming that a Lion’s cage is safe to wander into because you’ve previously spent time with some Meerkats and they didn’t maul you to death.
grrr… meez like a roaringz lion… wraaarrrrrr..
You could be forgiven for thinking that I am being disproportionally angry at graphic designers. After all, good design is going to save the world and we all just need to be patient (or so they will let you believe)… And if I was less annoyed about angst of customers disgruntled by their newly designed website hurting their Search Page Ranking, I’d probably agree.
But I believe that these graphic designers really just don’t care. In their perfect world, the ability of a company to make money is incidental compared to the company looking good. Yet without companies to pay for the design, designers would be out of jobs and smoking crack on the side of the street.
With this in mind, I thought I would share a small blog post that I read from Web Designer Wall, which explains how to design while thinking about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) at roughly a four year old reading level, hoping that every designer will start to appreciate that print media and web have subtle differences.
It only takes a minute to read, and will hopefully stop me from wanting to rip some faces off designers who think they are doing the right thing, but who are clearly stuck in the print universe.
Click here to get a small understanding as to how to design effectively for the web.
With the talk of children all the rage in our house, it’s no surprise that the topic of children’s costumes has come up. BoingBoing recently pointed me to a blog about making a Sesame Street YipYipYip costume. These guys were my absolute favourite, and I used to love it when they came on the screen.
But the thoughts took me back to the costumes that my mum made with her brilliant sewing talent. First there was Big Bird, which I wore. Imagine a fluffy belly and head, and striped stockings on some rather skinny legs… Yes, a long time ago I actually had skinny legs. I’ll have to try and dig up a picture from some place, if one exists.
But the masterpiece was Cookie Monster, which as you can see in the above shot, is absolutely gorgeous. Very very fluffy, and quite hilarious at the same time. In the shot above Lisa is dressed up in it, but I have seen so many children in this costume that I am surprised it lasted as long as it did.
Recently though, I saw the begining work on a suit rather similar in design but in red. Once it is complete and a young child is convinced into entering it, I’ll steal some photos and give them a post. After all, all children must have embarrasing photos of them taken when young, otherwise there are no good ones to show at their 21st birthday.
Looks like Claire has been busy fluffing around Craftzine.com, I got sent a couple of really cool links a couple of days ago that were are plesant surprise. Firstly, some crazy person is making a scarfe based on a Mario brothers level. While I love the idea, I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy gets beaten up the minute he walks out of the house while wearing it.
…Although, it does look warm and toasty. I’m bloody freezing in the office, so something like this would be great during the hours in front of the PC.
Next is a Guitar Hero guitar shaped cake. And while I’m not really into the whole Guitar Hero thing, I can appreciate the awsome nerdiness of someone going to the effort of making a cake shaped on a fake plastic guitar. Reminds me of the brilliant South Park epsiode that takes the piss out of the whole franchise.
Well I for one look forward to living in a world that is tipping more and more towards nerdiness being an accepted form of human state.
(thanks Claire)
This is wrong on sooo many levels. Unfortuantely I was a child who spent time playing D&D, but atleast the problem never got this far. I missed this video when it was passer around the circles of nerds with their computers attached together to form primitive social environments that no one has to talk at, aka LANs.
But it’s here now, and sorry if it leaves you crying into your hands.
(thanks Alex)
I guess they probably did…
(Thanks Alex)
…and no I’m not going to even mention my lovely cousin Sam who loves rainbows. And no, she doesn’t like girls.
(via Explosm)
What makes a world event great? Making sure that the Windows Blue Screen of Death makes an appearance in all it’s glory. After all, why not show everyone you are using an evil Microsoft product to power your all important function.
Funnily, I haven’t seen a Blue Screen of Death in Windows XP or Vista for a long long time. In fact, I would hardly be able to recall the last time. The irony is that Windows does this typically because of a malfunction with the hardware driver, which typically occurs when using cheap and untested hardware from countries that don’t have adequate testing.
Think cheap untested hardware, with cheap untested hardware drivers…
Think China.
(via SMH.com.au)
Yes Tuesday was incredibly foggy on the way to work. Doesn’t happen too often around here, but when it does it is very impressive.
(thanks Claire)
Yesterday was a rather epic day in terms of our new bubs. It was both a nerdfest and a total gross out all in the one day.
In the morning Claire had a 4d scan on her belly, with the aim of producing some extremely spooky photos and videos that will one day surface for a laugh at a 21st birthday party (oh yeah, I’ve been thinking about it already). The pictures and video turned out quite well, although part of the placenta obscures the baby’s face.
Because the scan didn’t take place at 3 in the morning, bubs was still asleep. It seems that this child only decides to wake up and play at the most inappropriate times of the day. No prize for guessing what genes this child carries (although we haven’t seen the ears yet, so we haven’t seen any wingnuts).
Eventually the doctor gave up with the waiting for movement, and suggested that Claire eat some jelly beans for an instant sugar rush. We sat there for about four minutes, and then suddenly bub came to life. Who would have thought that near pure sugar would have gotten a child going crazy. Hmmm…
While peanut was wobbling around the doctor took some footage from the machine and recorded it on a DVD. Being the nerd I am, the results have been extracted and webified for you all to see. It’s amazing just how sophistiated the technology is. Occasionally she stopped the live feed and do a rotation of the current frame. It’s like using 3d Studio Max to do 3d rendering, with an obscure blurry post processing effect.
That night we ended up going to Burnside Hospital for the second in a series of increasingly scary and disgusting discussions on pregnancy. Once again, I am not too sure how much information I will retain, considering that in the beginning I was half asleep, and by the end I was struggling to not vomit in front of everyone.
I did however learn much information about perenal tissue (hope I got that right) and how it has to stretch to get a babies head and body through. This doesn’t freak me out - especially considering I am not the one having to go through the process - but it did make me awfully queesy when the teacher started talking about the levels of tearing that happens, and explained in rather great detail the doctor is able to conduct something called an apesiotomy.
What’s an apesiotomy? They cut your vagina with a sharp kniiiiffff *thump*
…sorry… passed out.
As you can imagine, it’s at this point that the details of the class get quite blurry. I tried to think of things that didn’t make me sick so that I could settle my stomach, but that got in the way of the actual learning experience that I was meant to be having.
Oh yeah, I do remember one more little exciting detail. They introduced this thing called an Epi No, which is essentially a balloon with a pump. You stick it into your perenium (hehe… I almost sound like a doctor) and start pumping. It looks something like this:
But apparently when you fill a room of girls that are about to give birth, and you tell them that there is a device that looks like a dildo that would be good for them to insert into their vaginas and pump a lot, hilarity ensues. Way too much laughing occured, which is not necessarily a good thing when you’ve had a baby sleeping on your pelvic muscles for the last six months. Also, I’m not entirely sure that anyone got the irony that a process rather similar to using the Epi No is what got these girls into trouble into the first place.
Finally, we ended up at home to spend a few minutes with our little puppy. Charlie however is a little less excited about the whole process. She gets the idea that something is happening, but hates the fact that we’re out and about picking up baby furniture from friends, going to hospitals for classes, and spending time organising a room that she isn’t able to go steal things from.
However she does like one thing about pregnancy… Claire’s now using a soft U pillow (pictured above), that she loves to sneak her head onto when no one is looking.
So there you have it. Another exciting day in the world of Claire’s pregnancy.
Here’s another brilliant wedding cake featuring Mario, Yoshi and friends. This time I have no idea who the couple were that got married, but I can assume that they are the ultimate game nerds the world has to offer.
Reminds me of the great wedding cake that Scotty and Sarah had earlier this year. Go Mario! Now we’ll have to wait for the post marriage game where the Princess plays with Mario’s Wii and Mario gets to pop the Princess’s mushroom.
(via Flickr)
Recently Claire sent me a link to photographer Steve Schofield’s website, who has put together a fascinating look at the nerds that hide within the every day houses of middle America. There is limited information to go on, so I can only assume that hiding behind the doors of peoples homes are either an incredible number of nerds who are interested in cosplay, or that Star Wars and Star Trek are true stories, with the characters ending up living amogst us after their stories had been told.
Either way, there are a few classic photos in the gallery that had me chuckling… Especially the Imperial Guard (I hope I got that right) standing next to the cat. Almost reminds me of the Stig from Top Gear.
Anyway check it out… Steve Schofield: Land of the free.
(via Funny Or Die)
Ha! Another fabulous bento box from Japan. This time with my favourite monsters, Mike and Sully… How cute.
(via TokyoMango)
(via SwissMiss)
Claire and I spent a lovely evening tuesday night at Burnside Hospital for what is to be the first of many hours of entertainment. This particular time was for a pre-natal class, focused on making the girls squirm with the grim details of giving birth. The first minutes of the class seemed to give the punchline away pretty quick:
“Now that there is no way for you to get out of having the birth, it’s time we’ll go through all the painful details of childbirth…” – Burnside Midwife.
We were also provided with a crappy folder full of information that I will most likely not read. However, one thing did strike us about the content provided…
Sentence 1, Paragraph 1: Childbirth is painful.
No shit. I thought that squeezing a watermelon through a hole the size of a rubber hose would be quick and easy to acheieve, and that we would possibly be home within a few hours. Well it seems that isn’t going to be the case.
Overall, the classes are about as interesting as watching paint dry, and over the last twelve months I have watched a LOT of paint dry. I considered going to sleep underneath one of the chairs, but honestly, with sixteen very pregnant women in the room, doing anything abnormal could set one off into a crazed rage that could be akin to a ninja battle royale.
So after the first class, have I understood much at all? Probably not. I did get one small bit of insight. Aparently girls have a thing called a cervix, which is in the shape of a minature donut. The hole in the middle is about 1cm wide, and when giving birth, it has to stretch to about 10cm to let absolutely massive head squish through it… Yay! And guess what, the only way to work out how big it has gotten is for the doctor or midwife to shove their fingers in and feel how big it is.
They say that giving birth isn’t dignified. I wonder why…
Destroying your childhood is easy. Take one of your favourite shows, and unnecessarily censor the content in it. This video had me laughing so much I almost wet my pants (you probably didn’t need to know that), but I could tell it wasn’t doing much for my childhood memories of Sesame Street.
It’s going to take a lot of alcohol and Grand Theft Auto to make me forget I ever saw this…
Time for some more design porn. Architects in Denmark’s Copenhagen have had their whirlpool design approved for their new aquarium building. They are expecting to move the project to completion by 2013.
The roofline alone is a wonderfully structured, yet discontinuous windmill pattern. I am sure the curves and dips that are being included will be driving some engineering team absolutely nuts. But then again, what engineer doesn’t love a good challenge. Well I hope it goes well for them, I’ll put it on my list of places to visit once I get back from the moon.
(via Core77)
