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The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

I love this beautiful animated poetry. It was done by JWTNY and uses the poem "The Dead" by US poet Laureate Billy Collins. Simple, and beautiful.

more about "The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poetry", posted with vodpod

(mis)directions

Everybody has experienced the joy of deliberately ignoring direction at one point in their lives. Whether it was the instruction your mother gave you between the ages of 2 and 18, or the refusal to reference the manual when assembling your newest gadget (leaving you with 4 screws that probably weren't important anyway). For my final letterpress project, I wanted to create a handbook, but instruct people to do things that are typically things you're told NOT to do. (Mis)directions, as I call them. I tried to think of what I'd been told not to do in my life, and how that might be able to make me a better Art Director and Creative Strategist. What is the best (mis)direction you've listened to? Here's what I've got:

-Kill your ego
-Become a packrat
-Loathe something
-Don't follow directions
-Disrupt monotony
-Eavesdrop
-Care. Don't Care.
-Talk to strangers

The Girl Effect

Baldy Britney

For my interactive digital media class, we were asked to create an interactive Flash piece that required some type of external device (mouse, wii remote, light sensor, etc) and made some kind of social commentary. Trying to think of what the heck to do, it came to me: Britney Spears. The public has found a great deal of entertainment in tracking Britney's slow demise...wouldn't it be interesting if we could be entertained by her situation but give Brit a lil' boost at the same time? Kinda, help the girl out? So- inspired by a favorite childhood toy of mine, "Wooly Willy", I present you with "Baldy Britney"! Now you can help Brit with a much needed makeover, starting with the coif of your choice. Click Here to begin!

TED Talks

Here's a website everyone should be going to. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and (as they put it) an "annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." - No small deal, the top three speakers get $100,000 to see out those ideas. The themes of these conferences range from "What's next in Tech" and "Bold Predictions, Stern Warnings", to "Is there a God?" and (my personal favorite) "What Makes Us Happy?". However, one of my most favorite talks is Hans Rosling's presentation of "Debunking Third World Myths" from the conference about rethinking poverty. Here it is- 18 minutes that are well worth watching. Enjoy.

more about "Hans Rosling shows the best stats you...", posted with vodpod

New Visual Information

With all the web has to offer, some of my favorite finds are little gadgets that allow you to search the web and view results visually instead of by lists and site summaries. PicLens and Viewzi are my two favorites. PicLens is just a Firefox add-on that creates a BEAUTIFUL 3-d wall effect that you can scroll through with your mouse to search images, and Viewzi lets you seen screenshots of resulting webpages instead of just text summaries when you perform searches online. Ah! Finally, a few solutions for the visual thinker.