Thanks to Paige I'm spending far too much time this morning browsing through the single-serving amusement of I'm Dating Myself - a photoblog based on Photoshop'ing your face on to your significant others face. Simple, enjoyable.

It's a slow build this week on the videos.. stick with it.. you'll earn your humor rewards.

• Move It! - simplicity at its finest. A plastic cactus plays with a hula hoop. Mesmerizing.
• How much Hipster can you pack in a Jazz? - the part about Murakami, Godard and the user manual... perfect.
• Bed Intruder Song - remember last week when I posted this video and was all hesitant about sharing a rape joke? Yea, turns out the entire Internet thought it was hysterical and has blown it up into a fairly substantial meme (for whatever that is worth). Even NPR is in on the phenomena.. crazy.
• Bang Bang, Boom Boom - maybe this is old news.. maybe over the top local commercials aren't funny anymore.. I dunno.. but I love it. These ladies are having a grand time.
• Washing Machine Murder - washing machine + brick= murder. So awesome. Via Ryan.
• The Dancer - the second short film from Dumb Dumb, the advertising collab you may remember that Will Arnett and Jason Bateman are behind. It's ridiculous but entertaining.
• Jackass 3D Trailer - if you try and say you don't find this appealing, you're lying. via Paul.
• Arcade Fire - Ready to Start - while I didn't watch the webcast last night (too much RealPlayer style buffering for me) I have to say that seeing this footage from Madison Square Garden gets me very excited to see the band on Monday and solidifies my opinion that the new record is superb. I've read some backlash on it being too juvenile in its concept but I don't buy it.. the record is great from top to bottom; possibly their best yet.
• Kitten Can't Jump - I've easily watched this ten times on repeat.

BONUS:

• Darth Schwarzenegger - surprisingly well done Arnold overdub.
• Owl Coo - aside from this creature looking totally badass it's crazy to see it reacting like a household animal.
• Do Something Difficult! - I've seen this motivational speaker video before but the guys at Invisible Creature reminded me of it this week and I have to say.. it's still incredibly embarrassing to watch. Poor kid should have tried it before he filmed himself.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you Forge for the iPad Pocket Tee site.. it's incredibly humorous in so many ways. I love the testimonials but my favorite part has to be the fact that the entire site is actually inside a shirt pocket itself - brilliant touch.

My friend Jed has started on a new undertaking called Open San Diego in which he, and whomever is on board to help out, will do their best to make all sorts of data about San Diego open and freely available. On the surface, that mission statement doesn't help to comprehend exactly what is being done so I suggest taking a minute to read this presentation so you can easily wrap your head around the concept of why it's beneficial to have Municipal, Environmental, Political and Emergent data made openly available. After reading the presentation I was completely pumped to sign up and help join the mission to get the project rolling forwards full steam.. and I don't even live anywhere near San Diego.

Aside from the cleverness of naming backup software Arq I am intrigued by the Amazon cloud hosting solution Haystack Software is offering here. Basically, Daniel and I have been on the hunt for a proper backup solution that is both extremely easy and offers large amounts of storage - we've yet to find anything that properly fulfills both roles. Dropbox comes close but suffers from a lack of storage space (even 100gig isn't enough) and the fact that you can't specify a folder to be restricted to backup only - not shared on every computer with the software installed.

All that being said, Arq looks easy to use, efficient and with the Amazon tie-in, the storage is pretty much limitless. This could be particularly handy when backing up work files - no more danger of hard drive crashes losing important development files. I may just have to dive in and try it out...

Take a few minutes to browse through the portfolio of Aleks Sennwald - a nice illustrated variety of works ranging from tender ghost moments to mythical beasts and well beyond. I love the general color palette and the consistent use of nature imagery through most of the pieces. Great stuff.

Via Brandonnn.

Jolby & Friends is a running portfolio of works between Josh Kenyon, Colby Nichols and the people they collaborate with. Once such collab that caught my eye thanks to Courtney is this massive undertaking entitled Sea Legs; which consists of Jolby art infused with Ashley Forrette photography. There are a load of pieces all involving some sort of nautical imagery but I was particularly taken with the various display boxes found throughout - various photographs coupled with unique wooden die cuts creating windows into the photography. It's a simple idea but not one that I see too often.. particularly executed that well. Enjoy it.

I don't want to be a killjoy or anything but having read through this illustrated take on Orwell vs Huxley - Amusing Ourselves to Death - I can't help but be a little bit bummed out. It is terrifyingly accurate as far as I'm concerned. Take the concepts of Huxley and mix that with the forecast of Mike Judge's Idiocracy and I think you've got a decent look at where we're headed. I'm entirely guilty of this myself just by having a blog and adding to the onslaught of piecemeal information constantly being put out there.

The final frame of the writeup is right on the money:

In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.
Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

I wish I had some further insight into how to grapple with the concepts properly. I don't think the Internet is going to slow down any time soon and I certainly don't think society at large is going to take a step back and remember to appreciate education and thinking about things; not just quickly visually consuming an item before moving on to the next.

Again, sorry to be a buzzkill but it's worth a few minutes of contemplation.

This list goes from positive to negative fairly quick, so be prepared.

• gMail Enables Multiple Account Sign-In - a handy feature.
• Goodbye Google Wave - "We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. " A poorly executed idea finally laid to rest. I won't miss it.
• Google and Verizon on Net Neutrality - apparently they're in talks to offer content at a faster rate to those willing to pay for it. This is not good and it's incredibly alarming to read that Google is playing ball on this topic.
• Eric Schmidt on Google - Google CEO speaks on many of this topics - Google Wave, the Verizon deal and the forthcoming social network. The rationale on the Verizon deal is either entirely over my head or complete BS; possibly both.

There is a fine line between tribute and ripoff - a line that the Doppelganger Design blog keeps an eye on. Some of the entries - usually the magazines - are a tough call because you never know what Art Director or Designer is actually involved in either publication - so it might just be a case of laziness rather than being ripped off but in the case of certain designs, you know it's just an intentional fabrication. An interesting read either way.

Via Paul.

The image above does no justice to the idea behind Street Slide; a new take on the idea of traversing street level imagery on sites like Google or Bing Maps. Basically the idea is to move away from moving "bubble to bubble" in street view and let the user traverse the area with a much more revealing perspective. Go watch the video and I am sure you will agree that it appears to be a superior tactic.. now I just hope it gets implemented everywhere.

Remember way back in October when I said that Theory 8 Records and yk records were teaming up to put out the full-length album from And The Relatives? And that you should look for it sometime in February of 2010? Yea, hopefully you forgot about that because I learned a good lesson - time tables are not a good idea. Around December or January the band decided to flesh out the songs they had planned for the album into something else.. something new. The record is done, being mastered and the specific details of it will be forthcoming.

If you're curious as to what is in store for the new record, head over to Future Sounds and check out the unmastered version of "Hammer Down" - the first track from the album. It's just a part of a whole but it's good stuff... get excited, I am.

Been enjoying the photography of Brett Fryzuk for a few days now thanks to Andrew. I enjoy a good balance between humor and artistically appealing; and he's able to execute both.

I've been poring over the details of No Country for Small Men - a set of self-made Dioramas from f/28. He has a several other sets showcasing his diorama skills.. all worth clicking through.

Via Kitsune Noir.

Chad gave me the heads up on this box art gallery showcasing works from Psygnosis. It's entertaining to imagine what the games themselves actually looked like because you know they came nowhere close to what the box art puts forth. I mean, what kind of game is Captain Fizz Meets the Blaster-Trons? Regardless, it's a great style and reminded me to go see what Dan McPharlin has been up to lately.

The Love Is Patient project takes photos from Kelly Castro and places them in a moving collage based on a Voronoi Diagram. Specifically:

Each photograph is associated to a dot. The more the dot is isolated from the others, the more its polygon (the mask) becomes larger, revealing more of the photograph.

The autonomous movement of the dots is defined by a constant speed and an iterative random variation on the direction.

Nerdy and arty - a winning combination. Via Daniel.

I have mentioned the band Rafter before - it is safe to say I am a fan. Animal Feelings is easily in my top ten of this year and will be in consistent rotation for a long time to come - it's just a perfectly fun record (and it doesn't hurt that it churns up vaguely nostalgic feelings of Self).

So, when yvynyl gave me the heads up on this video for the track "No F***ing Around" I was sold from the get go. The song is, as previously established, great. The kids in the video - particularly the overly zealous blonde kid - are a hilarious agent for the lyrics. Watch it, get the album, enjoy.

I'll be honest, I don't really know much of anything about current videogames - people will talk to me about Killzone, Bioshock, Bayonetta or Mirror's Edge and I just respond with a nod and a vacant stare. However, this gallery of 8-Bit Game Demakes could easily change all that if only it were a reality. Pixel pusher Junkboy was commissioned by Level magazine to re-imagine a chunk of contemporary games as if they were made for 8-bit and 16-bit systems... The results are pretty much exactly what I would want from a game. Seeing an 8-Bit Smash Brothers was all I needed to get the videogame dork blood pumping.. if only such a thing existed!

A haphazard double exposure in photography is almost always a treat but an intentional one is rare and, usually, undeniable in its appeal. Tierney Gearon seems to have perfected the art with her Explosure series. The images paired together in overlay are often a humorous dichotomy - like a showering woman near a businessman or children playing in the park with bears - but there's always something other worldly about it due to the exposure technique. Well worth a click through or two.

Via Courtney.

Make your day a little brighter.. spend some time with all of these:

• What Is My Social Media Strategy? - some NSFW language but the buzz phrases are out of control accurate.
• Bed Intruder Auto-Tuned - still funny.
• Recently Single Al Gore finally able to listen to W.A.S.P. Albums - the photo that goes along with this is absolutely priceless.
• Inception vs Bloopers - perhaps a bit too cutesy for some.. I find this to be a quality mashup of sound and vision.