February 2009 Archives

February 28, 2009

Met up with some folks tonight at Cleo's for a few drinks. For me it's been ages since I've been out at a bar (and even longer since I've been to Cleo's). It was especially nice to be able to hang out with coworkers and friends, particularly outside the... (read more)

Babysitting Paige and Audrey

February 27, 2009

Liz and I got to babysit for the evening tonight. Darryl and Tricia came in to the city, and were going out to celebrate their anniversary. They were looking for something a little "different," and we ended up suggesting they go try out Korean BBQ over at San Soo Gab... (read more)

Optical Illusion Girlfriend

This is a modern take on a very old perceptual illusion: the young girl - old woman image. And the image itself actually dates back to 1888, amazingly. [via Information Aesthetics]... (read more)

New Tropicana Packaging, Malcolm Gladwell and Sensation Transference

February 26, 2009

Two days ago, I noticed a fairly drastic change in the tunnel between the Blue and Red lines, over near State and Jackson. On the way home, I spotted tons of billboard ads up and down both sides of the tunnel. The weird thing was... that morning? Nothing. All... (read more)

Cursor*10, 2nd Session: Great Multi-Single Player Flash Game

February 25, 2009

Yoshio Ishii created a fantastic game about a year ago, entitled Cursor*10. Today, I found out he's created a second version of the game. I'll leave it to you to figure out the gameplay. Overall, it's a fairly easy objective - click on the stairs to advance to the... (read more)

Placing Ads on the Blog for the First Time (in Six Years)

February 24, 2009

I've been running this blog for a while now. I started in July of 2002, and so far it's been going for a good while. Six years, seven months and 23 days to be exact. In all that time, I've held back from posting up ads or anything along those... (read more)

Extreme Desk Makeover

February 23, 2009

Throughout the day last Friday, when Chris was out on vacation, Justin and Allison used my labelmaker to sticker up nearly everything on his desk. I snapped these photos last week, but had to hold off posting them until today. If you're seeing this, then it's likely Monday AM and... (read more)

Don't Shit Your Pants: A Survival Horror Game

February 22, 2009

Quite possibly one of the best Flash games I've seen, Don't Shit Your Pants had me rolling on the floor. It's a text adventure, so you're typing in commands to try to navigate through the game. While there's not a lot of dexterity needed to advance levels, the time... (read more)

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Old Jews Telling Jokes is cracking me up right now. Created by Sam Hoffman, it's a homage of sorts that has a few simple rules: the joke-tellers are Jewish, at least 60 years old, and they have to tell their favorite joke - the one that always kills. Hoffman's also... (read more)

Brunch with Alex, Linda and Justin - Lincoln Park

February 21, 2009

Found out from Justin earlier in the week that Alex and Linda were in town for an annual coffee convention. As some of you may know, Alex and Linda run Kavarna, a vegetarian coffeehouse in Green Bay, WI. And on top of that, they're looking to expand their business in... (read more)

We're All Gonna Die - 100 Meters of Existence: Portrait of 178 People by Simon Hoegsberg

February 20, 2009

I posted about Simon Hoegsberg way back in 2005, when I first saw his Thought Project. Looks like he's been busy since then, and recently came out with his latest, entitled We're All Gonna Die - 100 Meters of Existence. It's a 100 meter long image containing 178 people,... (read more)

Justin Attempts to Catch Mini-Cupcakes with his Mouth

February 19, 2009

Earlier in the afternoon, Justin S received a happy-birthday package from a friend: a huge box filled with tiny cupcakes. While he shared many with the office, by the end of the day there were a few left. Seeing an opportunity, the other Justin S decided to add cupcakes to... (read more)

Arcade

by Felix Jung The room is dark and hot with sweat. A girl is standing near a boy who's cursing fire, his fingers groping as they slap and whirl about the buttons. Although his eyes are tired, he's scared to blink. His hips sway heavily, hypnotically, in time with flashing... (read more)

The Crisis of Credit Visualized: Beautiful and Informative Video by Jonathan Jarvis

February 18, 2009

Jonathon Jarvis has created a simply fantastic (and beautiful) video that visualizes the current credit crisis - breaking down all the different parties involved, and describing the sequence of events that led us to today. If you're like me, a lot of the credit stuff more or less goes over... (read more)

Visiting Nickel City Arcade, Family Entertainment Center

February 17, 2009

Over the weekend, Chris sends out an email detailing a recent find: Nickel City, Family Entertainment Center, located a bit north of the city in Northbrook. On Monday, Chris and I were helping Ben move some things at his place. After all the work was done, we decided to spend... (read more)

Paper Constructs: Video on Jen Stark's Amazing Paper Artwork

February 16, 2009

I first heard of Jen Stark back in 2007... and was lucky enough to view some of her art in person. Happened across a video reviewing her work, and even a bit of an interview. I had no idea she was so young... [via Coudal]... (read more)

The Blog as Online, Encyclopedic Reference

February 15, 2009

In the mail, I got a notice from Northwestern - a reminder, actually, that I had an appointment scheduled with Dr. Paul Greenberger in early March. Greenberger, I thought... Greenberger. Did I set up a doctor's appointment recently? Was this something related to one of my prior visits? Something about... (read more)

Valentine's Day Dinner with Liz's Parents

February 14, 2009

For Valentine's Day, Liz and I had her parents over for a nice candlelight dinner. The flowers (and really everything on the table) were set up by Liz. She's been working on some centerpiece ideas for the wedding reception, and has been trying out several can/paper approaches. In terms... (read more)

What's That Knocking Sound?

February 13, 2009

While working at my computer, I heard what sounded like a knocking, outside of my office window. A bit weird, since I was up on the 7th floor. Turning around, I jumped a bit when I saw two guys outside. Throughout the week I saw a rope dangling over my... (read more)

Cursebird: Real-Time Feed of People Cussing on Twitter

If you ever wanted to know just how potty-mouthed people are on Twitter... Cursebird is the perfect site for you. And what's even nicer is that you can look up yourself, and see where you rank. Displaying real-time explicative-laden tweets, this is a bit mesmerizing to watch. It's a... (read more)

Danny Choo, Tokyo Trooper

February 12, 2009

While going over my RSS feed during a brief lull at work, I happened to notice that BoingBoing has a new guest editor - Danny Choo. In looking over his bio, I now know a few things about him. He used to be a web manager for Amazon. He also... (read more)

Using Quicksilver Triggers to Create Instant Web Searches: Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, IMDB

February 11, 2009

It's been about 2 years since I started using Quicksilver, and I'm ashamed to say that it's still mostly a glorified app-launching program for me. That said, Quicksilver has become a core part of my daily workflow. My ability to switch from app to app is near instantaneous (and more... (read more)

Printable Checklist

Printable Checklist - a site whose domain name pretty much sums it all up. Great, great resource if you happen to need an on-the-fly checklist to print out. Found via swissmiss, a great design blog I happened across earlier in the day.... (read more)

New Desks for the Product Team

February 10, 2009

In early January, we had to (sadly) say goodbye to our ping pong table so that we could build out the area with some additional desks. Late last week, the newly formed Product Team (made of Justin, Allison and Chris and led by Ben) moved their desks to take over... (read more)

Cassette From My Ex: Story Accepted

Found out late last night from Jason that my story submission got accepted for the book version of Cassette From My Ex. Woohoo! Currently, there are sixty stories slated for the anthology... and mine is among that list (Jason sent out an email to all the folks who were in... (read more)

Browsing the Web Using an RSS Reader

February 9, 2009

Several months ago, I tried (for the second or third time) to switch over to browsing the web using an RSS reader. Speciically, I'm using NetNewsWire by NewsGator. Sadly, though I spend most of my time online through the nature of my work... I've found myself with less and... (read more)

Peanut Butter Jelly Time 3.0

February 8, 2009

A long while ago, back in 2004, we held our first ever Peanut Butter Jelly Day. At the time, we were a much smaller company (single digits), and we were working out of the Q101 office in the Merchandise Mart. A Potbelly's sandwich shop had recently opened up... and a... (read more)

Two Movie Reviews: Pineapple Express and Mamma Mia!

February 7, 2009

On Friday... watching Pineapple Express while sitting on the couch with Liz, eating a Garbage Pizza from Pizza Metro (typo - thanks Rachelle) was, in my mind, a perfect weekend evening. There were some seriously funny moments throughout, and quite possibly one of the best pot-based action movies I've... (read more)

Alex and Kavarna Coffeehouse Mentioned on Local News

February 6, 2009

My friends Alex and Linda run a Vegetarian Coffeehouse in Green Bay called Kavarna. Visiting them in Green Bay and attending Ukelele Night at Kavarna was one of my Ten Best Days from 2006. This morning I found out via Twitter that Kavarna got mentioned on TV. Awesome! Visit the... (read more)

A Racial Comment, Mortal Kombat, and the Lens of Expectation

February 5, 2009

A few days ago I was out getting lunch, which I normally pick up and bring back to my office. Usually, I'm too lazy to put on my coat as the places I tend to frequent are a quick few steps from my building's door. So I typically brave the... (read more)

Playboy Hires Duff McKagan to Write Weekly Finance Column

February 4, 2009

Believe it or not... Duff McKagan (of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) is going to be writing a weekly column on finance for Playboy (warning: link may be NSFW). It's actually a pretty interesting read. Here's a snippet: I got sober in 1994. I suddenly found that I... (read more)

On Renting "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and Really, Really Regretting It

February 3, 2009

I wanted to watch a pulpy action movie, and I got a pulpy action movie. I figured it would be bad and a little mind-numbing, but I had no idea it would be so absolutely shitty. I should have known better. There were so many things wrong with this film,... (read more)

Christian Bale Cussing, a Kid High After a Dentist Appointment, and the Remarkable Speed of Internet Remixes

This is a two-part blog entry, really. Let's start with Part 1. By now, you must have heard about how actor Christian Bale (of Batman fame) got mad at a Cinematography Director who walked into the set of his latest movie. Wait... what's that? You haven't heard this yet? Well,... (read more)

A Blogger Exposes Cash4Gold's Process, Offered "A Few Thousand" to Remove/Edit Post

February 2, 2009

Lately, Liz and I have been seeing a lot of Cash4Gold commercials on TV lately. We both noticed the frequency of the ads, and thought the whole thing was a bit odd. Overall, here's how it works: you take jewelery that you don't want, mail it to them (in a... (read more)

Thank You Begins With a T: Creative Flash Site by Grow Interactive

February 1, 2009

In corresponding with my friend Juliet, we were chatting about the current wave of Flash-based sites. I mentioned The FWA (Favourite Website Awards) as a good resource for Flash-based sites... as they tend to have their fingers on the pulse of the coolest flash sites out there. The FWA used... (read more)