Don’t forget your [insert modern essential here] December 15, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Blogging, Design, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Laughing, Pretty!, Technobabble, The Ether, Typography.Tags: Apple, Decal, eyePhone, FFFFOUND!, iPhone, Mantra, Memory, Snellen Chart, Steve Jobs, Typography
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.
This…
… is a brilliant idea. Before Leaving Check List vinyl wall decals by Hu2 Design.
{ Public Poster Project by Egor Bashakov on Behance Network, via FFFFOUND! }
I abhor, loathe, and dread the niggling feeling that you’ve left something behind somewhere. Even when it’s just a completely unjustified twinge at the back of your mind all day. But especially when it’s true!
*Things gets more complicated with music players and reading glasses of course. Though I have yet to encounter said technicality, because music lives in the eyePhone, thus killing two birds with one apple seed [it's worth your time clicking that last link, for technological comparison with this, for example]. And these young eyes are working perfectly well, thank heavens**.
**Although if they weren’t, I could always test them out on this awesome type-lovers’ Snellen Eye Chart).
Dear Pantone® Santa… December 4, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Design, Etcetera, Pantone, Pretty!, The Ether.Tags: cashmere, Christmas, Concept design, Eyeshadow, Nail polish, NotCot, Pantone, shopping
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I want this.
And maybe some matching eyeshadow:
Pantone® nail polish and eyeshadow (concepts) by Renata Veiga { via NOTCOT }.
And while you’re at it, how about a nice Pantone® cashmere sweater, in 2695C?
In fact, if I continue to be relatively well-behaved, would you see to it that your elves put into production every Pantone® concept product developed over the past decade or so?
[PS. I'm still waiting on that mug, lego, and Pannetone®* I asked for last year].
* What is it about Christmas that brings the Pantone® concepts out of the woodwork?
Screen vs. Paper ~ Bookworm vs. Social butterfly November 30, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The Ether, Words.Tags: books, Hitchhiker's Guide, Holidays, Nerdgasm, New Scientist, Reading, Scientifica American, Study
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{ Evelin Kasikov, via FFFFOUND! }
Now that I have broken free from the manacles of full-time study (and settled into full-time desk work, for the nonce) I am readily able to indulge my desire to read Readables Of My Own Ready Choosing. No more Textbooks Which I Cannot Afford To Purchase and Do Not Wish To Read Anyway. And, hopefully — depending on my willpower — more printed matter, fewer blogs. I want to touch what I read (and not just on the eyePhone* screen).
Exhibit A:
Hyde Park.
Eoin Colfer (who is NOT Douglas Adams, but is trying VERY hard).
2 minutes later, a ladybird landed on me.
Then I had a nap.
Exhibit B:
Dotingly aware of my studious predicament, (LECTURES! THESIS! ASSESSMENTS! EXAMS!) Father saved a 3-month cache of my favourite nerd magazines.
I took delivery last week.
Nerdgasm.
Now, if only I could find the time to sit and read! [Not looking likely]
Maybe the outside world could stop being so remarkably interesting? [No thanks].
Oh, my library for a quantum life! Or alternatively, it may be time to start reading as a social activity. A bookworm with wings? Sounds nice.
* Secret tweeter’s tip: Never tweet about “iPhone” lest you suffer an instant inundation of DMing, @-replying macspambots. Choose an appropriate pseudonym, and tweet away.
Large Hadron Collider now actually colliding protons! November 24, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: Acronym, CERN, Higgs Boson, Language, Large Hadron Collider, LHC, Neologism
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LARGE HADRON COLLIDER PRODUCES FIRST PROTON COLLISIONS IN BIG BANG MISSION
I can’t explain why, but this news makes me extraordinarily excited, proud, humble, thrilled, wonderstruck, optimistic… [insert further relevant emotions here].
Our Universe is a miraculous event.
Won’t it be fun to try and find out just what makes it so?
{ image from Boston Big Picture [I strongly recommend you click-thru for yet another must-see LHC collection]. This particular portrait features a “Compact Muon Solenoid”, a particle detector much like ALICE and ATLAS. I love lyrical jargon and acronyms the meanings of which fly stratospherically — nay, sub-orbitally — far above my head. }
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LHC too cool/broken for its own good; helium-based hilarity ensues
Sweet (Caramel) Typeface; Sweet (Almost) Freedom October 26, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Blogging, Design, Pretty!, School, Typography.Tags: caramel, dezeen, Font, sugar, thesis, Typeface, Typography, University
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…
I have finished my honours thesis.
And after an amuse bouche of post-thesis antithetical freedom, now all that stands between me and the end of 18 years of study (at this end, 5 years of University: 2 undergraduate degrees) is… 19 days, 3 assessments, 2 exams, and a whole lot of study.
Until then, I’ll satisfy my sweet tooth with this delectable caramel typeface.
{ Karamel Sans CE by Marta Maštálková, via dezeen }
OH how I adore caramel.
But I would still give all the toffee* in the world for the impending freedom flitting sweetly on the near horizon.
*Even coffee as well. Seriously.
Elvis + Helvetica? Hellsvetica yes! October 4, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Helvetica, Pretty!, The Ether, Typography, Videorama.Tags: Elvis, FFFFOUND!, Helvetica, Helvistica, Music, Rockabilly, Typography, youtube
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Firstly: Elvis + Helvetica = brilliant.
{by Hulk4598 on flickr, via FFFFOUND!}
This girl approves.
Now, for a bit of waffle. (Err… waffle).
Note Exhibit A, above. Young Elvis* all dolled up for the film Roustabout, in too-neat leathers with too-tidy hair . Movie tagline: “Elvis Presley as a Roving, Restless, Reckless, ROUSTABOUT”. [Insert sceptical looks here].
But also note Exhibit B:
{also by Hulk4598 on flickr, via FFFFOUND!}
Young Elvis in a rather naff suit, with an acoustic guitar that he never really played much, and a messed-up coiff that looks like he’s just come off stage after this:
(Skip to 1:00 and press play. Watch to the end. DO IT. Honestly. Just trust me on this, okay? You won’t regret it.)
Now isn’t it ironic that despite the extra “L” in Exhibit A ["Hell for leather[s]“, anyone?] Elvis was actually at the peak of his corrupting deviance not as a “Roving, Restless, Reckless, ROUSTABOUT”, but as a cheeky, messy-haired rockabilly boy?
Clearly, the 1950s were hella good for the Rebellious Youth, in music and typography.
*[as opposed to Old Elvis: let's just not go there, okay?]
PS. Much as I appreciate the sentiment, I’m not such a fan of Helvekitty.
PPS. Whatever happened to Elvis movies on Sunday afternoon TV? Oh well, at least we’ve still got:
Spot the Dustpocalypse: Life on Mars/Earth September 26, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, Pretty!, The News, Videorama.Tags: David Bowie, Dust, Dust Storm, Dustpocalypse, Earth, Life on Mars, Mars, Meteorology, Sydney, Total Recall, Weather
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Spot the difference:
{ Sunrise on Mars, via NASA }
{ View from my ferry (7.20am, Saturday 24.09.09), Circular Quay, Sydney, Earth }
Sydney saw the Dustpocalypse twice this week: two epic dust storms sweeping eastward from the inland deserts. The first on Wednesday morning, came with full-force opaque orange skies, visibility nil, and undertones of other-worldly terror.
Tom Coates’ Red Dust photo gallery says it best:
{ I adore the deathly reflection }
The second — this fine Saturday morning — resulted in a greyer shade of haze, and that uncannily Martian ice-blue sunrise.
Both eventually cleared to reveal clearer-than-clear bright Springtime afternoons.
Now how on Earth (or Mars) can anyone who lives on this planet honestly say that the weather is just a topic for idle small talk?
Playing in my Head
Movies: Total Recall
{ via giflix }
Music: Life on Mars, David Bowie.
Plastique Fantastique: Typographically accessorised September 22, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Design, FFFFOUND!, Helvetica, Pretty!, Typography.Tags: CMYK, etsy, Helvetica, jewellery, Kerning, necklaces, Plastique, retail, rings, shopping
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THIS. This is what awesome looks like through the eyes of a typophile.
Laser-cut acrylic necklaces…
…and rings
for the ultimate in beautiful, witty, typographical (okay, nerd) accessories.
Okay, uber nerd:
All from Plastique’s etsy store.
Now hurry along with credit cards a-flashing, dear fontgeeks. Stocks are limited, and I need someone to buy them out before I surrender to temptation.
Venn Redux September 14, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Blogging, Design, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Laughing, Pantone, Pretty!, Technobabble, The Ether.Tags: Art, Behance, Cake, CMYK, Cool, Design, FFFFOUND!, Narwhal, Nerd, Pantone, Unicorn, Venn diagram, Whale shark
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Okay, remember when the internet started leaking a steady supply of hilariously reworked periodic tables and I developed a tiny obsession (then revisited it) despite a distinct lack of real scientific knowledge?
Well, it’s happened again, this time with Venn diagrams. Usually, I try to avoid anything remotely mathematical (unless of course it’s Craig Damrauer’s New Math).
But there are Venn diagrams, and then there are Venn diagrams. These are the latter:
{ Douglas Adams loved giant, spotty, placid whale sharks, and so do I. via Behance }
{ I love both unicorns and narwhals, and this is genius. My original favourite, by ArgyleWhale via horkulated }
{ I’m also a fan of colour standards, so CMYcake is my new favourite, via FFFFOUND! }
There’s also something rather nice about memes that are gradually exuded throughout the ether like this. As opposed to those high GI memes that burn twice as bright but half as long, before hitting maximum saturation and maximum irritation at almost precisely the same moment (see also: Rickrolling, Squirrel Crashes, and — as much as I hate to say it — Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat).
PS. For a permanent source of often puerile, seldom unfunny, and not at all mathematical diagrams and graphs, you might like to bookmark GraphJam:
…but only if you can afford to fritter away vast swathes of time on a regular basis)
PPS. This one is conclusively prescient:
{ Enough said! via BuzzFeed }
The multifarious meanings of ‘Momental’ September 12, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Pretty!, The Ether, Words.Tags: Etymology, OED, Obscure words, Words, OED Word Of The Day, random, randominity, Momental
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Today’s email inbox Oxford English Dictionary Word Of The Day is…
Momental
As far as ‘knowing thyself’ goes, momental is a fickle creature, caught seven ways between obscurity, rarity, statistics, maths, and philosophy. Behold:
1. Lasting only a moment; momentary.
2. Of or relating to momentum.
3. Of or relating to moments of time.
4. Of or relating to a moment or element, especially of a conceptual entity.
5. Of or relating to a moment of inertia. [see #2, smirk at the complete contradiction]
6. Of or relating to the moments of a random variable.
7. Momentous; of value or importance.
Now I know it’s been a while between OED Word Of The Day musings, but momental is so unexpectedly interesting that I couldn’t help but share. For though it is an unassuming word, its multifarious (and muddled) definitions give it that je ne sais quois that some like to call randominity.
Randominity is a specialised neologism, not entirely unlike The Dirk Gently Navigation Method:
“My own strategy is to find a car, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it is going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere that I needed to be. So what do you say to that?”
“Piffle.”
“A robust response. I salute you.”
{ Yes cheers, [Saint] Douglas Adams ( The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul) }
Now, momental clearly doesn’t know what it wants to mean. But all its various definitions are so nice in their own way that it hardly matters which one you intended to express in the first place (Ephemeral? Moving? Inert? Random?). Odds are you’ll be saying something of value or importance. Momental even.
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