WEATHER!

I woke up to a 58º morning!!! Less than 60 degrees!! You cannot even fathom how excited I am! The high to day is only 80/81 and it's breezy and not humid.. I'm in love with this. This is what extra recesses were made for. I walked to work and you can bet your ass I'll be making a trip out to Radnor Lake after work.

Ten shades of ecstatic. That would be me.

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

It's a nice, dark, gloomy, rainy day. The design room is quiet and dark. I have free coffee. A rather large free coffee. And so far, for a Tuesday, work's not that hectic.

Good deal.

GOOD Magazine, GOOD design, GOOD products!

I LOVE this magazine. I've only seen it at Barnes & Noble twice, but it's awesome. EVERYTHING in the magazine is either an article about someone or something doing good or about how to make your life, other's lives, the earth, everything.. better. This month's issue has a great section on Design and designing things better and how to improve on design in our lives.

The design itself is fantastic. The layout is great, the stock it's printed on is wonderful! It's a matte finish, and it's got a good weight to it. Not too flimsy or too thick. Not too much advertising, and all the ads are for good things (like KEEN shoes). Not to mention the smell of the ink is just lovely.

Overall though, the BEST part about it is that 100% of your subscription money goes to the organization of your choosing.. which means... if you're my friend, you'll be getting a subscription for Christmas!

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In other really-awesome-design-worthy news, Chef'n Good, one of emma's clients whose e-mail stationery I worked up, asked if I'd like a care package (which the obvious answer is YES!). It came in Friday and was on my chair.. I was SO surprised to find what was inside. A ton of awesome kitchen goodies! I kept the vegetable steamer (that big round thingy with the looped handles) and Jenn kept the avacado thingy but the rest I donated to our new emma building.

The Chef'n Good design though, is amazing! I love the color scheme and it's incorporated throughout (right down to the bright purple bubble wrap to go with the purple in the logo). Not your typical, Williams and Sonoma/Crate & Barrel look. Their products all have a certain feel to them. Very sleek, ergonomic, and purposeful (and FUN!). The strainer in the image there is so cool! The green part expands when you dump your food in then closes back up to save space. And everything is made with heat and stain-resistant silicone. Very fancy stuff. You can tell a lot of thought goes into all of their products.

Needless to say, I was MOST impressed! And we'll definitely be sending out some emma swag to them as well. But seriously, check out their site. They've got some really nifty products, a very stylish website and snazzy product design overall.

Concerts and Such

So, Damien Rice is a no go. Boo. Waited too long for tickets. BUT Nickel Creek is playing end of November and tickets go on sale Sep. 21. Thought of maybe going to see Kings of Leon but I hear they're not that great live and they've got really bad attitudes, and I'm not a HUGE fan. I only know a few of their songs.

I REALLY wish Iron & Wine would come through. That would kick ass.

It ACTUALLY feels like fall today. We got a ton of rain and mix that with all the heat-wave-induced dead leaves, it smells very fallish. And the weather definitely has a Fair-week feel to it. It's still warm, and super humid from the rain, but much cooler than usual. It's all gray and gloomy. I LOVE it. :-)

Crumbly Bits

I really miss my family tonight. Particularly my sisters. I cried a little.

I like the smell of candles after they're blown out.

I really procrastinate when it comes to doing laundry.

Ben & Jerry's tastes better from the shop than the carton.

Contacts dry out my eyes.

I want fall. Really really bad.

Coffee flavored Nips Candies are delicious, but stick to your back teeth.

I can't wait for Shelby to meet Rhonda Wall tomorrow. I'm antsy for her reaction.

I want to go hiking.

I like Guster. And Badly Drawn Boy.

Entertaining Entertainment

Went to see The Ten at The Belcourt last night. Hilarious. It's directed by the same folks who did Wet Hot American Summer. I have to say I loved it. Not too many good reviews from what I've seen while perusing the interweb, but I liked it. It was totally cheesy, campy, hokey, and great for some good laughs. It's no Superbad, but neither is Wet Hot American Summer. It's ten short stories each based on one of the Ten Commandments. They are all kind of linked together, with no one major plot. I found pretty much every story surprisingly funny, and not one of them easy to predict (because really, when you think the Ten Commandments, it's easy to have preconceived plot notions). I'd say if you've got a spare 8 bucks it's worth a go.

Swap O' the Wifeys I actually watched some TV tonight that is not in the form of an Arrested Development DVD. If any of you have not seen the ABC show Wife Swap, I highly recommend it. Tonight was HILARIOUS! The one family seriously thought they were pirates. No joke. They live a life of "Piratude." No rules, no cleaning, fleas and total chaos. And they swapped with a Barbie doll-type family. The woman and daughter both looked to much like Britany Spears for my comfort and EVERYTHING in the house was labelled in it's own plastic bin. Food, Clothing.. everything labelled. Which bin for light clothes and darks, every shelf in the pantry was labelled. It was nuts! Bins for lined paper, scratch paper, fancy paper, photo paper. A separate Rubbermaid bin for light bulbs! Everything in plastic (which really was fitting for the family). Needless to say, it was highly entertaining seeing the two wives switch places.

In other news. Nothing. I worked late today cause I had some picky clients so I didn't join the gym, was lazy and ate two packets of easy mac and a banana for dinner. Watched TV and am now going to return a movie to Blockbuster (The Bridge. Crazy. Very sad, controversial but really interesting. It's a documentary about all the folks who jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004 with interviews from a survivor and various friends and family members of the victims).

Anyway, I plan on a full night of sweatpants (maybe Ben & Jerry's, but the afterguilt may be overwhelming) and Harry Potter VI.. and I don't even have PMS! YEAH LAZINESS!

Barcamp Nashville 07

So I'm a little late on this post, but I couldn't just ignore this event. For those of you that don't know, I attended a technology "unconference" known as Barcamp. Barcamps have been popping up all over the U.S. and two awesome dudes I work with at emma (Marcus Whitney and Dave Delaney) brainstormed and brought to life Barcamp Nashville which took place last week at Exit/In. I have to say, it was wonderful! So informative and inspiring!

I forget a lot of the speakers (in part because I've waited over a week to post AND I was helping with registration so really didn't pay attention as much as I'd planned) BUT the ones I do remember were phenomenal. The main theme of the event seemed to focus on community, the online community.

Chris Houchens spoke about Marketing and embracing the digital world. Marketing peeps and all folks in the commercial realm really need to take note of the online action and hop on the bandwagon. Blogs and online marketing are more influential than ever. Companies should be getting to know their consumers, using Wikis, creating blogs. Be personable. You can see a slideshow of his presentation here.

Mitch Joel was soon to follow and was quite excellent. He went into great detail about how 'conversation' is changing, our world communicates now on an entirely different level. He was witty and to the point. He had some crazy statistics and basically drove home that as a world, a community, we need to really embrace the changes that are going on. There needs to be more trust in the economy, people need to not be treated as 'products.' Companies need to realize that while they still control the price and production of a product, the Consumer's voice is now just as big as that of the Company, putting the two on equal terms. The online community needs to not just be observers but get in on the action and create. Be a part of the growth. Create a blog, upload a Youtube video.

Some of Mitch's most surprising points:
• 48% of leisure time is pent online.
• youtube's (Canada) growth from april 2006-2007? 616% wow!!
• facebook (Canada.. Mitch is Canadian) growth from 2006-2007? 2424%
• "i really don't know whether we'll be printing the times in five years, and you know what? i don't care either." - arthur sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of ny times

And my other favorite Keynote was Penelope Trunk. She is a "Brazen Careerist" and tells of 10 myths of the job market. It was SO interesting! She basically brought to the point the differences in generations and our views on 'careers.' People aren't staying in the same job for 15, 20, 30 years. It's important to find what you're good at and do it and do it well. If you accomplish that you'll be successful. She blogs full time (and Penelope Trunk was a psuedonym that she had legally changed to be her real name. Crazy). She currently gives career advice, helping people live and enjoy life yet lead a successful career path. She's very much an entrepreneur and VERY inspirational!

Click here for some great points from all the keynotes.

More Pics from Barcamp Nashville!

Overall a fantastic event. I do wish I had gone over to Café Coco to check out some of the PHP stuff. Definitely makes me motivated to really get my PHP skills sharpened and get on my way to blogging from scratch.

p.s. HUGE blog about a way cool printing press in the very near future.