Thinking in vain...

We're facing lay-offs and pay reductions. And we have 3 weeks to fret about it. It was an awesome Monday, so these images made my Tuesday and I thought I'd share. Enjoy it. :)

This is awesome. And even more awesome because I've tried my hand at stop-motion here recently and I can appreciate the effort.

Via BrandFlakesForBreakfast

Or Happy Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday or Carnival or Fasnacht.

History of Pancake Day courtesy of the BBC.

Weirdest part about this story is that the author saw the opportunity to reference the 70's show "Man from Atlantis" with Patrick Duffy and there's even a photo.

The Sun article here.

I think a framed piece of that tree would be awesome to have.

Original link here.

12PM Just Need to Know If It's Really Gonna Hit My Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie
Caller: I need to speak to your meteorologist now.
Producer: Sorry, she's gone to dinner.
Caller: But I really need to know about the moon. Will she be saying anything about the moon tonight during the news?
Producer: What are you, a werewolf?

News Station
Jackson, Mississippi
via Overheard in the Office, Feb 12, 2009

If you don't feel like you look at Illustrator or Photoshop too much as it is, then these magnets are pretty damn cool. I think the entire kit is a little pricey, but you can purchase just the magnets and that's a little more doable, IMHO.

Check it out at meninos, via Engadget.

That would also be the longest title ever. And probably most unimaginative so far for me. And I don't pay a lot of attention to my titles. I know, no wonder no one reads the posts. :p


1PM Internet: I'm So Lonely-- Nobody Ever Calls
Supervisor on speakerphone: Hold on a sec, I've got another call. Hello, this is Mark*.
Caller: Yes, am I in the right place?
Supervisor: I don't know, who were you trying to reach?
Caller: Is this the number for the internet?
Supervisor: No, I'm sorry, this is a state agency.
Caller: This isn't the internet?
Supervisor: Nope, sorry.
Caller: Oh, darn, okay bye.
Supervisor (back to the other line): Well, that was a first.

Newington, Connecticut

Overheard by: but please give it my regards. I'm a huge fan.


via Overheard in the Office, Feb 11, 2009

Nothing to report. The TV broke, we need a new one. Suggestions?

Also, creepy death masks.

Yes, that is made entirely out of nails, so see the process.

Christain Bale Vs. Bill O'Reilly - Watch more Funny Videos

Grant keeps me occupied. Words are bleeped but you might want to put your earbuds in.

207 BC: Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunk donkey attempt to eat figs.


Via the Wiki List of Unusual Deaths. Have fun.

Now that's a phone booth that I'd try to find a $1 in change and cover in hand sanitizer to use.



Via Inspire me, now!

It's almost Thursday.


Via Inspire me, now!

Ha ha.

These are dog tags are engraved with several methods of locating Earth in our galaxy... you know just in case you need that.

I think $12.99 + $2.75 (S&H) is quite reasonable for your safe return should you in fact be abducted by aliens.


Via coworker Grant – who gets a link when he starts blogging. :)

Some language NSFW, but hysterical.

Well, they ended up showing the top two Doritos spots and "Power of the Crunch" was one of the ones shown. YAY! Congrats to my friend's friend.

Now that's a solid piece of fan trailer.




Via coworker Dean.

This is very cool, my friend Grant just sent it to me. Watch.




Don't know if it's these guys: Pilobolus or these Pilobolus.

He'd be 97 years old today. So in honor - you can go make your own at jacksonpolluck.org

Found via the MoMA's Twitter stream.

I'm irritable today. Maybe it's because everyone is dissing a new show I found funny (which was the point of the show - sort of reminds me of Psych in an ad agency).

So far, I think I'm the only one who watched this show who even mildly liked it. But, of course, most people I know who watched it watched it through the eyes of someone working in an ad agency (and we're too cool to like things). ;)

Nobody here in the blog world liked Mad Men when it first started either (I didn't). It took several episodes for people to get into it and now everyone's drooling over the show. What? I'm just saying. But that's not my point.

What is my point? Not sure I have one. But I don't think the setting is what is going to make this show. Sure, ad people tuned in to watch it because it deals with advertising. Makes me wonder if cops tune into check out every new crime drama that gets the go-ahead. Never-mind, they wouldn't get anything done. Although, I wonder if they're as "that's not how it really is" as we seem to be. Oh wait, my mother does like to point out how very non-realistic most hospital dramas are.

Of course it's not. This is TV, nobody would really wants to watch what I do all day. Pretty much like House solves random, rare diseases by the skin of his genius teeth every episode, so these guys are gonna come up with dumb commercials (well, that's VERY real life, talk to anyone outside of advertising about the crap we make them watch). But I doubt you tune into House to see what the disease du jour is, at least I don't.

I already like Tom Cavanaugh and his character is hysterical in this show (my sister made the comment that if I did and said everything I thought I'd come off rather similar - so maybe I have to like him), so I'm interested enough by him to see what the other characters do.

Anyways, I'll definitely be watching again, mostly because I already watch The Closer and this comes on after, so I can remember to watch it.

Now, a historian claims, Mengele's notorious experiments may have borne fruit.

For years scientists have failed to discover why as many as one in five pregnancies in a small Brazilian town have resulted in twins – most of them blond haired and blue eyed.

But residents of Candido Godoi now claim that Mengele made repeated visits there in the early 1960s, posing at first as a vet but then offering medical treatment to the women of the town.

That's hysterical. I had a coughing fit I laughed so hard.

Mmmm... ice cream. It's almost 60˚ outside. I wish it were Spring.

Via Inspire me, now!

You know what it was this morning when I went to get in my car??? -5˚F! That's cold!

So cold in fact, my car wouldn't start. Which led to a very irritating ride to work with a family member. I spilled coffee on my pants and it is freezing in my office.

I'm waiting for the fact that it's Friday and that I have a 3-day weekend to sink in and make me happy.


Image via Flickr CC license.

These are great. There 2 more over on AdFreak, which is where I saw them in the first place. I've done a lot with the Special Olympics and one of my best friend's daughters participates in the bowling here every year. Most ads don't make my heart swell, but these do - maybe it's because how true they are.

Maybe if it looked like this outside I could handle the 15˚F weather we're getting tomorrow (and that's not factoring in the wind chill). I live in the South, we should never be this cold. This is ridiculous.

But that picture is pretty.

Pixdaus

That graphic makes me happy. It's for a line of preserves, very smart and simple. Looks great on the container too.

Full packaging at Lovely Package.

What an ODD picture of James Dean.

Via FFFFound.

Crook hid in carpet

A crook tried to dodge a police search by disguising himself as a carpet.

The thief rolled himself up in a giant rug and propped himself up against a balcony wall while cops searched his aunt's flat in Warsaw, Poland, after he held up a cosmetics shop.

He was only found after a two hour search when a fed up detective went out onto the balcony for a smoke and noticed the carpet was trembling.

Miroslaw Dabrowski, 32, is now facing 12 years in jail for armed robbery.

Reading about the weirdest sleep disorders.

Take Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare genetic sleep disorder that affects fewer than 50 families around the world, according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information.

A healthy person in his mid-50s has trouble sleeping one otherwise normal night. The next night is worse, and the next is worse still. Days turn to weeks and sleep regimens shrink to less than an hour daily. The person's pupils shrink to a tiny size. Men become impotent. As weeks turn to months, the ability to sleep disappears entirely. A rare gene they inherited from their ancestors tricks their brain into thinking the body is always awake. They can close their eyes or lie down to rest, but they will literally never "sleep" again, according to a multiple case studies, including a one by Ann Akroush in Case Studies in Virtual Genetics.

Hallucinations and paranoia begin to take hold and eventually deteriorate into a state of dementia, according to the Merck Manual. Soon, they slip into a coma-like fog and, mercifully, die. The whole process can take as little as seven months or as long as three years. There is no known cure.

Joker tagged me. I haven't to figure out 7 things you don't know about me. Hmmmm.... and then tag 7 other people

Alright here goes:

1) Since Ricardo Montalban died yesterday I will tell you how much of a little shit I was to my twin sister when I was much younger. She HATED that ear wig scene in "The Wrath of Khan." So – and I thought this was hysterical – I would fast forward the movie to that scene and yell at her that I wanted her to come look at something. As soon as she would come in the room, I'd hit play. She'd run and scream and I would laugh. She still hates me a little.

2) I recently got roped into reading those "Twilight" books. I think the most interesting thing to me was the biological effects of vampire semen on a human – that's just a plot hole I can't get over. I'm still not thoroughly convinced. (This is apparently a genetic quirk, the first question out of my mother's mouth was about the main character's time of the month.)

3) Unless you follow me on Facebook you will not know that I own a Flying Slingshot Monkey that I love to throw across the wall at the copywriter. She screams really loud. He also wears tiny squirrel underpants.

4) I kick puppies – metaphorically speaking.

5) I played the flute for over 8 years in marching bad. And I hated to practice.

6) I have an unhealthy interest in Tom Selleck's mustache.

7) I don't like dolls. Creepy, marionette-type dolls. I just sit and wait for their heads to start turning.



OK, let's see, who am I going to tag?

Jetpacks, because he hasn't done it yet.
Fred
Ness
Kara
Grant (do it on Facebook) ;)
Will (if you're still there)

Well, that's 6 or I guess technically 5. I'm close. :p

I'm a bit excited. Mostly because I read the blog every day.

What is it you ask? The guys from American Copywriter are going to be in my town next week speaking at two different events.

And no, I probably won't go talk to them. I'm painfully shy in real life.

That's it, I just wanted to share. :)

Uh-huh. Tell me that's not funny.

If you don't read Why Advertising Sucks - but I think most of you do. (I'm giving some link love today because I've been seriously lacking in my posting lately.)

Joker has a music post up. I'm very proud of myself for owning some of those albums already, but I've got some shopping to do. :)

I'm also going to give a shout-out to my other two favorite bloggers Jetpacks and Fred.

Jetpacks is jealous of those of you with smart phones. And so am I. My phone finally had it after I dropped it one too many times - and it sucked to begin with (it's a Razr). And I wasn't eligible for an upgrade so I had to get the cheapest phone I could afford. There is nothing intuitive about this phone - I can't figure out how to turn the text message alert volume down. And the manual DOES NOT help. And even with all that - it's still better than those damn Razrs. Stupid phones.

Fred makes me laugh.

The Joker knows my love of weird. And this is heartwarming on top of that!

Professional Skater gives birth 2 days after being declared dead.

Mrs. Soliman was only 25 weeks pregnant when she complained of a headache and collapsed in her bedroom on Wednesday. After arriving by air to a hospital in Oxford, England, she was declared brain dead and given large doses of steroids to help her unborn baby's lungs develop. Doctors then performed the emergency C-section in hopes of giving her child life.

I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while - talk about advertising.

A good friend's friend is in a Doritos commercial - he's playing the main guy in the "Power of the Crunch". And by chance the video happens to be one of the 5 finalists in their "Crash the Superbowl" competition.

I like the commercial. But I also like it because there's a monkey. You don't get much better than that. Seriously, Doritos and monkeys - name something better. You can't, can you? Exactly - now go vote for it. :)

And my friend is awesome™ - therefore his friend, Nic, must be awesome™ thus making the commercial awesome™. (Well, that and the monkey.)

Facebook page is here - if you so feel inclined to talk about Doritos and monkeys and awesome™ commercials.



UPDATE: OK, so apparently I can't let you watch the video here, because Doritos is dumb and their embedded video player won't work right. Boo. Sorry you have to go to the site to watch it - but since you do, you might as well vote for it. Click on image. :)

Via Monster Munch.

Yeah, that's awesome.™

Via YesButNoButYes.

For some reason this image sums up my mood today. Enjoy.


Via FFFFound.

Well, according to the article. Two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate the same amount of harmful carbon dioxide as boiling an electric kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

But so is a cup of tea, apparently.

Read the rest of the article at The Economic Times.

Yes. Need, not want, need. I need a mustache necklace. You all just don't understand. I must have this.

Supermarket

Saves time I suppose. See the world's strangest liquors.

Via CoastToCoastAM.

That would be a solargraph. It "shows the path taken by the sun as it travelled across the sky above the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, UK, between 19 December 2007 and 21 June 2008 - the winter and summer solstices. It was taken in a single six-month exposure by photographer Justin Quinnell, using a pinhole camera strapped to a telephone mast."

See the other images here.

OH LORD.



Via coworker, Grant.

I have no idea what's going on. I haven't even turned on the news in 2 weeks. I had stuff to share and can't remember. But I have new stuff to share and will get right on that.

In the meantime I've found out that now there really will be a Mr. and Mrs. Joker - so congratulations!

And yeah. Back to work. *sigh*


Photo via Inspire Me, Now!

This is the recently opened Academy of the Sciences in San Francisco - how awesomely cool.

Although, I totally got fooled, I thought the whole thing was underground, but that photo just makes it look like that - to see the whole building go to their website: calacademy.org, still VERY cool though.

Found via Inspire me, now!, via Archidose.

Who is making me this cake for my birthday? Huh? Anyone? More photos at the original link.

Via Geekologie.

I'm just the messenger people, and I don't make this stuff up. ;)

The Curse of Tecumseh via Cryptomundo, fuller post over at his other blog, The Copycat Effect.

A film maker who wears a prosthetic eye already is considering placing a camera inside his fake eye and using it as a chance to "lifecast."

This is very cool, but something about it freaks me out. Maybe because I avoid cameras like the plague and I like knowing where they are and knowing if I am in fact being filmed. Cool for a documentary, but still creepy.

Via Wired

I am recovering from an ear infection that started Sunday afternoon. Today is my first day back at work and it's not fun so far.

I have my arsenal of medicines on my desk but I keep running into things with these drops in my ears.

However, Joker sent me this wonderful article about a dog being frozen to a sidewalk. He certainly knows how to cheer me up. :p

Also, if this doesn't make sense, I'm blaming the antibiotic. ;)

If you like environmentally friendly construction AND The Hobbit, you'll love this! I want to live there. Part of me thinks I'd be too tall, but we could fix that I'm sure.

Facebook might be slowly strangling my blog. Don't worry, the blog is putting up a valiant fight.

If you haven't talked to me recently or at all on Facebook, you may not know my hilarious recent obsession with Tom Selleck's mustache.

We were talking about things we trusted here at our fun agency and I suggested Magnum p.i. Which led to trusting Tom Selleck's mustache. Which in turn led to my February calendar graphic of Tom Selleck's mustache for the agency calendar.

And now? We have a Plushtache.

I'm heartbroken that it's sold out, because I think pictures of me with it would be about the best thing ever. One of these days, I will have a Plushtache.

;)

Via poppytalk.

I love the whimsical quality of this. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

Via Inspire me, now! There's more at LiveJournal.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What? That's all I got. :p

Recovering from company retreat. Oh. My. God.

That is all.

You may happen upon one of the most horrific images you've ever seen.


I may not be able to sleep tonight.

WeHeartIt.

It's cold and snowy. Even though it's melting I may go and get some hot chocolate. :)

Via FFFFound.

OMG, the guy hit him so hard (and didn't stop) that the dog became embedded in the grill and hung on for dear life until the guy stopped.

Article from Ananova.

I'm not posting a picture it's kinda - well - you can look if you want to.

Eight-toed Baby

I kinda went crazy this afternoon. And bought a camera.

Via Geekologie.

We're overdue. We haven't had some serious dosage of stomach-churning cuteness in a while. I apologize.


Free video chat by Ustream

I had to share this - I love the simple, off-beat humor of it. More at Brand New.

This was too good only to post on Twitter. Steve Chambers photographed some type of Jelly substance in Scotland, a sample has been tested and it's not a plant or animal.

My favorite explanation? Star Snot of course. :D

Read original article and other guesses at Scotland Outdoors. Via Coast to Coast AM.

Holy crap! Joker just pointed this out to me because he knows how much I love weird stuff. That's the picture of the kiteboarder a few seconds before the tail came up and whapped him in the head - he's not hurt.

Article and the Telegraph here.

The headline of the article actually says Nessie mystery turns 75, but I had to read St. Columba's biography in Early Irish and British history. If I remember correctly he banished the monster and blessed the lake - guess that didn't work. :p


While not a famous as the (fake) Surgeon's photo, this would be the first photograph of "Nessie." It was taken November 12, 1933.

And in 75 years? We've come this far.



I still seem to have my childhood wonder attached to cryptos and ghosts and the like. One of these days! Coz, hey, you never know. :)

BBC article here.

And Holgas. Via WeHeartIt.

My agency is kinda into health care marketing, therefore - I LOVE this site. It's simple, easy to use and the music doesn't bother me like music on websites usually do. I love the animation style, such a cool idea. See the website here.

Via AdRants.

What you say? Trongs.




Perfect, now I can quit looking retarded when I eat wings with a fork. :p

Via Baking Bites, Trongs website here.

Just might be one of the best pictures ever.


Via WeHeartIt.

Via WeHeartIt, via unicornology.

That is one, ugly, HUGE fish. Salmon to be more specific. It was over 4ft long and weighed 85lbs.

That's like a second grader or something.

Original article here.

I am so cold. Typing is keeping my fingers from going numb.

Fort Knox - June 1942, FSA

I'm hoping I can get home in time so that there is some light and I can take a photo of my neighborhood. The boy scouts come put flags in almost everyone's yard today and on other holidays like it. It's such a picturesque sight.

Y'all should be so proud of me. I made a little Flash intro, all by myself. Yeah, so what if it wasn't very complicated? I did it. :p

Oh, and if I NEVER hear the words "too much white space" again, I think I'll be OK.

Secondly, we hate the Glade Scented Candle commercials in my house. Only the first one is up on YouTube that I can find. Why? Because the woman is a pathological liar and her friends and family should have had an intervention years ago - I mean who lies about candles? To add to the complete horribleness which is these commercials - the latest one has a talking/moving ginger bread cookie. We throw things at the TV.

Lastly, I HEART the new Slowskys commercial where they're in a movie getting ready for it to start. It's not on YouTube yet because apparently not every one shares my love of those silly turtles.

There's another juried art show coming up and I have to figure out what to enter. Something I've done in the last 2 years and the deadline is fast approaching. Cross your fingers I figure something out.

Oh, and happy Veteran's Day. :)

Name something you find trustworthy. Or something you trust.

Please. :)


UPDATE: Also, if you could pick one thing that says advertising to you... what would that be?

on vacation.

and i need one.

see you in a week.

I have been busy. But I'm going on vacation next week! No, I'm not going anywhere, my finances, like the economy, are not as they should be. And I've been busy following the election.

I'm not going to give my opinions necessarily, despite having some strong ones. I don't articulate them very well. But I would urge anyone who happens by here to actually go read up on both candidates. You can't get to the meat of their experience, policies, and records through a 2-minute TV sound byte. Go read an article that is so long it would hurt your eyes to read on your computer. A read ones both for and against both candidates and make up your own mind.

Don't be swayed by oversimplified talking points and pretty graphics.

I found a quote the other day and I really like it and think it's quite relevant for these days. I haven't researched the man that much yet, but the quote, I like.

Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation… Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information – misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information – information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.

~Neil Postman