More ideas and inspiration to be creative: “Design Something Every Day!”

Interesting: “Eight cool social media infographics.”

These sites are fascinating: FFFFOUND! (image bookmarking), grain edit (modern graphic design inspiration blog) and Black and WTF (seriously, WTF).

Flight 1549 and marine animals

This animation (with audio) is based on all currently available data concerning the US Airways Flight 1549 crash: Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan 15, 2009. Hard to believe it’s been almost a year now since that Hudson River landing. Even though you know the plane lands safely, it’s still a tense experience to hear the audio again, especially in the context of the flight animation. Worth watching.

Check this out: A pod of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida have developed a remarkable hunting strategy in order to catch fish: Life: Bottlenose dolphins mud-ring feeding.

This is amazing: “Solar-powered sea slug harnesses stolen plant genes.”

These photographs are stunning: “David Liittschwager – Marine Micro Fauna (8 pics).”

Holidays

More photography: “A Very Tesla Christmas.” Take a Tesla coil and a super-long camera exposure and you can have an “electrifying display of holiday cheer.”

From Stereogum: “New Indie Rock Christmas MP3s For 2009.”

I bought a pineapple to eat over Christmas break. I’m also thinking about trying to grow a new pineapple using the crown of the old one: “How to Grow a Pineapple at Home.”

Krampus

Speaking of holiday cheer, I really like this Shirt.Woot t-shirt designed by Missmonster: “Greetings from Krampus.” It celebrates the annual return of Santa’s old pal Krampus.

Happy New Year!

(In case you need it: press in dire situations.)

Chiquita bananas

Every weekend I buy a bunch of bananas. I usually choose organic, and normally select them based on ripeness level and the presence of bruises. But sometimes these criteria can (apparently) be expanded to include marketing stickers. Yes, stickers. (Yes, I am 30 years old.) My distaste for crass commercialism and sleazy marketing can in fact be overridden by charming, clever graphic design ideas. (Plus, I don’t mind manipulating children into wanting to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Let’s put cute stickers on all fruit!)

Here’s the question: How can anyone resist Mexican wrestler stickers on their Chiquita bananas? You can’t. It’s not possible. You just have to buy the bananas.

Behold the new selection of Chiquita banana stickers:

These 24 new stickers can be found on the Chiquita Banana page on Facebook. You can also design (Mr. Potato Head-style) your own custom stickers at EatAChiquita.com. And there is a Twitter account called ChiquitaChatter.

So, if you were sick of Carmen Miranda (the inspiration for the Chiquita Banana lady), now you have a Mexican wrestler and many other goofy options. Makes me a little nostalgic for Strong Bad.

Star Wars and Star Trek

What if Star Wars characters were on Facebook?  I enjoyed this from College Humor: 5 Star Wars Status Updates.

And I liked this absurd Star Trek parody: Happy in Paraguay. Apple juice!

Graphic design and architecture

I haven’t gone through this design list in detail yet, but it looks useful: 50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory.

Lastly, this is awesome: Underground Home Designs – Swiss Mountain House Rocks. The underground house is a collaboration between the Netherlands architects at SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects.

Follow me on Twitter for more interesting items between blog updates.

This weekend I returned to Oregon from my cross-country, family-visiting Thanksgiving journey. I had a great time catching up with family and old friends. It was also the first Thanksgiving since my senior year of high school (1996) that I was present for dinner with my mom and siblings. That was nice. I guess I’ll have to wait to break out the “Lazy man’s Thanksgiving dinner for two” until Christmastime this year.

In addition to the many links I have posted via Twitter lately, below are a few more items I’ve liked (or found interesting) since late October.

Alan Moore, art and design

• Alan Moore to write libretto for Gorillaz duo
• The first issue of Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic zine is out
• Nice: All About Comic Sans – History, Examples and Best Practices
• Norism: Commercialism by Nori Sato
• Cool pencil art: Jennifer Maestre Sculpture
• The World’s Greatest TreeHouse

Creepy animals and science

• Beautiful and Terrifying Creatures From The Edge Of Light (also see: Bloodybelly Comb Jelly)
• BPA is in everything: Tests Find Wide Range of Bisphenol A in Canned Soups, Juice, and More

Bohemian Rhapsody

• The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody
• Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Played by Old Computer Equipment

More music

• Crazy animated music video: “Mani Malaikat” by Arrington de Dionyso
• Ah, the memories: Epic moment in Music Festival history @ Sasquatch 2009. A couple started having sex on the hill during The Decemberists’ awesome set. This song is “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid.” This was on Saturday, May 23 at The Gorge Amphitheatre, WA (also see my Sasquatch! 2009 review)
• A nice history: Know Your Meme: Auto-Tune. Worth mentioning: KRS-One’s anti-Auto-Tune anthem “Robot” is quite tasty
  

The Prisoner replica jacket

My friend Warren made a Prisoner jacket for himself for Halloween this year. He took a navy blue blazer and sewed some white piping (white bias) around the edges. Looked pretty good, but it’s still tempting to buy an Official Prisoner Replica Jacket, to be used for all future interviews, weddings and funerals.

Keanu Reeves is immortal

I found this amusing: Keanu Reeves is immortal.

DIY automated sentry gun

I would like to reiterate something I posted to Twitter a few weeks ago: I require a sentry gun to monitor the kitchen counters with a water pistol, accompanied by audio of Cartman yelling, “No Kitty! Bad Kitty!” This article was the inspiration for the idea: “This DIY Automated Sentry Gun Looks Terrifyingly Easy To Build.” That, plus living with housecats.

Web development

I will finish up here with some useful links to JavaScript/AJAX accordion scripts: 10 Javascript Accordion Scripts (various JavaScript libraries) and Rico Accordion Example (Prototype-based).

Of the few dozen technology objects found in the letterforms of Villanueva’s GEEK shirt, I have drawn my own versions in Adobe Illustrator of at least two: an iPod-styled raygun and a laptop with keyboard.

Since I’m thinking about it, I guess I’ll share the raygun-themed Escape Pod t-shirt I designed for Escape Artists, Inc. a couple of months ago.

SciPod t-shirt for Escape Pod

The three-color (black, white, fluorescent yellow) print on royal blue fabric is on sale now. Support the science fiction podcast magazine!

Since I never update my design portfolio at Oxygenesis Design anymore, below are a handful of Oregon-related illustrations and CD/DVD designs I’ve created over the past couple of years.

OSUware 2009 CD

This design was completed for OSU Technology Support Services in August 2008. It looked particularly nice when printed because the hand appears to be holding a clear plastic CD. Turns out that 2009 was the final edition of a physical OSUware CD. Current software distribution is now web-based only.

88.7 FM KBVR sticker

This was one of several design concepts created for OSU’s KBVR radio station in November 2007. This round sticker was drawn to look like a CD.

Clearcut DVD sleeve and disc

These designs were completed for the distribution of Peter Richardson’s film about Philomath, Oregon in February 2008.

That’s enough for now.

I have been an Oregon resident for almost exactly eight years now and have worked at Oregon State University for five years tomorrow.

• Cullman Liquidation is the 5th local commercial of the I Love Local Commercials series. And it is epic.

Music torture

In music torture news: “Musicians blast using tunes to torment.” Here’s a quote from the article: “a spokeswoman with the National Security Archives says acts whose music is known to have been used covers the musical gamut — from AC/DC to the Barney theme song, Marilyn Manson to Neil Diamond, Tupac Shakur to Sesame Street, Limp Bizkit to Christina Aguilera.” You know, putting the ethics of torture aside for a moment, some of these music selections really make sense.

Literature-related

This project sounds cool: “The Year’s Most Important SF Anthology Is Out Now.” The When It Changed anthology pairs scientists and science fiction authors.

Poe pwns Balloon Boy: “The first great balloon hoax.” The Heene family aren’t the first to come up with a balloon-based con: Edgar Allan Poe did it in 1844, writes Aida Edemariam. Awesome.

Video games

A friend who knows that I like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky a lot has recommended three videos games to me, which he calls “Lynch in game form.” He says that director/writer Goichi Suda (AKA Suda51) has been called the Lynch/Jodorowsky of video games. My friend has played the first two titles below and loves them (to bits):

• Flower, Sun, and Rain (PS2, DS)
• Killer7 (GameCube, PS2)
• No More Heroes (Wii)

He hasn’t played the third one yet, but has heard good things. I probably need to check these out. If they’re good, there are even more titles that Suda51 has written and directed. I’ve seen Killer7 before and it looked awesome, though I remember thinking the gameplay seemed strange and difficult. More like I wanted to watch someone play it than play it myself. I didn’t know the other two. Hmm.

Also, what a strange little game: Wavives (Age Zero). It’s a freeware 2D arena shooter.

Here is an amusing/interesting Wii gaming-related article: “Nintendo Helping Furries To Communicate.”

Design and art

Very cool art, from Fast Company: “‘Reverse Graffiti’ Artist Paul Curtis Shows Us How Dirty We Really Are.”

Awesome hexagon grid: “How the Victorians Imagined An Ideal London.”

Neat design objects: Dieter Rams pool on Flickr.

Technology, home and business

Rethinking GUI: “10/GUI: Fascinating Multitouch User Interface Design.”

You may find this eSATA hot-plugging tool for Windows useful: HotSwap!

This book looks perfect for learning how to make some nifty upgrades to the house: Smart Homes For Dummies by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley. Team up your PC and your home security system.

Nice article on startups: “So You Want to Start a Startup? 5 Places to Start.”

Need to make an org chart? There’s a nice, free site for that. LucidChart is an online collaborative flow chart application.

Web development

I am using this CSS technique in one of my web projects: CSS Round Corners with line layering. It’s JavaScript-free, image-free and backwards compatible! The round corners tutorial also has some nice links to other similar approaches.

I’ll end with this 404 error page: A ninja stole this page.

Now I can tell my nemesis from my archenemy. Excellent. Also: “The Joker was Batman’s nemesis, but—ironically—­his archenemy was Superman, since Superman made Batman seem entirely mortal and generally nonessential.”

Animated music videos

• “Horse Mountain” by The Buddy System
• “Wraith Pined to the Mist” by Of Montreal
• “Brush Brush Brush – Yo Gabba Gabba” by Of Montreal & Kangaroo Alliance

Also, here is a 30-minute behind-the-scenes video of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” narrated by Romanek: The Making of the “Closer” Video.

Funny videos

• School Answering Machine: Great answering machine message from a school in Australia
• When the wife don’t listen: A mean gun trick
• Sesame Street: On a Boat: Bert and Ernie plus The Lonely Island featuring T-Pain! This is the YouTube video description: “Oh sh*t! Get your rubber duckies ready, it’s about to go down.”

iPhone, design and art

This looks neat: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile. It’s a painting and drawing application that “extends your digital sketchpad to your Apple iPhone or Apple iPod touch.”

Oh my: On a Boat Comes to I am T-Pain iPhone App.

This seven-minute Wired cover design presentation is kind of charming: Wired’s Creative Director Scott Dadich on Design.

Also, some charming art by Benjamin Hubert: Final Frame: Edit Undo Eraser (pencil eraser utilizing keyboard shortcuts for undo).

Corvallis, Oregon

Nice article from National Geographic: “Want to join the new economy? Get wired in, in Corvallis.”

This is a somewhat terrifying video from The Valley Library on Oregon State University campus on October 1: OSU library Flash mob. Makes me think: “Counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums.” Also, swine flu . . . we has it.