Random Thoughts For Sh*t Someone Says Tuesday January 31, 2012

Alright, I’m sure everyone has seen the Shit Someone Says meme. If you haven’t well, I’m just sorry for you. It’s been all over the internet.

But unlike many people, who are completely burning out on the meme, I personally love it. And the main reason I enjoy it is, that unlike other image based meme where all you need is MS Paint or Photoshop. To create a really good SPS video, you’ve got to put some real time and energy into it. Film it yourself and then edit it perfectly.

Sorta like my favourite example, the Sh!t DC People Say video below.

BTW, have you heard? That place has got an amazing brunch.

First – Hey! Speaking of memes, how about a little Silicon Valley Ryan Gosling. Girl, I know you want to.

Second – Prometheus essentially looks like Ridley Scott’s Alien 2.0… but it still looks freaking stunning.

Three – One of our favourite spots in DC/VA is Northside Social Coffee House. It’s a quaint little coffeeshop that we frequent quite regularly. One of the things they do is promote local artists, by adorning their walls with art. Over the past few months, they’ve had the paintings of local Arlington artist, Chris Bishop all over their walls.

There’s something about his work that I just adore. The combination of the aesthetic and bright colours, catches my eyes everytime we walk. Anyways, it’s one of my favourite local artists and I’m hoping to pick up a print before we leave the district.

Fourth – If you haven’t heard, Twitter is now going to work with governments to block and censor some select tweets and accounts. While on the face value it’s a some what daunting development, here’s an interesting read on why it’s not that bad of a policy.

Fifth – I’ve been holding on to this for quite sometime, but this article from Eric Francis is just another example of why he’s a hack writer. I understand the hatred for this kid, but it’s clear that Francis knows nothing about Ovi… nothing… nothing.

Sixth – A couple of weeks ago, Kanye West crawled out of his online fortress of solitude to embark on one of the most talked about Twitter rants in recent history. Luckily for everyone, the sports blog Grantland has transcribed the entire rants.

Seventh – Did you know that Dungeons and Dragons is being redone? No, not the horrible Jeremy Irons movie. I mean the actual ten-side dice, playing with little figurines board game. Yeah and it’s being built through crowdsourcing. Please insert ten sided dice joke … here

Eighth – Awesome overload, AT-AT Dog eating a birthday Treat.

Ninth – A full retro-redesign of all 32 NFL logos. (via @Brennancreative)

(Even though I still despise Teebow, I’ve got to say Denver has the best redesign.)

Tenth – An interesting essay on how PRINT design, yes I just said print design, is going to be the future of the internet.

I feel dirty just agreeing with that statement.

Eleventh – Remember my little post on the Calgary food scene? No! Well then, scroll down a bit.

Anyways, it turns out that it got featured in Calgary Open file last month.

Twelfth – Reason #224 why Obama is going to win re-election in 2012, he looks far cooler as the incredible Hulk than Mitt or Newt.

Thirteenth – I’ll say this once and I’ll say this again, Detroit is easily one of the most facinating places on earth at the moment. Delapitated, desolate and depressed… Hell and that’s only the Pistons current record.

Okay, okay. Here is what looks to be a fascinating documentary on the dystopia that is Detroit

Categories: The-Random, The-Blogosphere, The ArtWorld, The Calgary Vibe, The D.C. vibe, The Football, The Humourous, The Inane, The Pop-Culture, The Ravens, The Redskins, The Social Media, The Southern Neighbours

Random Thoughts For The Mother of All Random Thoughts Monday December 19, 2011

See, here’s the thing, as a freelancer/business owner December and late November are the worst times of the year. Sorry, scratch that August and July are the worst times of the year. December and late November are the busiest times of the year.

Hence, the lack of Random Thought updates… or for that matter any sort of update on c.t.overdrive.

But that changes today… So for your Christmas week enjoyment, here is the Mother of all Random Thoughts.

First – Music-critic.ca, the site that Armadillo has maintained for a few years now, has launched it’s Annual Top 5 Records of 2011 feature. (And of course, one day later this month I’ll talk about my picks for 2011… I promise)

Second – Um… A Steampunk Cobra Commander T-Shirt. I must have it. This I command.

Third – The Baltimore Orioles have redesigned their branding with the retro comicbook bird symbol. Thus reestablishing him as the coolest corporate branding bird over that annoying thing they call the Fruit Loops parrot. (Thanks to Cam Hoff for the link)

Fourth – Have a web designer on your Christmas gift giving list? No? Well, good lord, what is wrong with you.

For those of you that do have a Web Designer on your list, here is the definitive list of 25 books for Web Designers and Developers. It’s okay, you can thank me later.

Fifth – In Calgary in January? Want to join in on a killer party in the middle of a snowstorm? Then High Performance Rodeo’s Snowblower Festival is where you need to be.

And don’t give me that, but c.t.o, I hate dance music. Yes, you don’t have to be a base head to enjoy a sprawling three block dance party in the middle of the Canadian Winter.

Sixth – A creepy compilation of some classic death scenes in a wide variety of video games from the 80s and 90s… all set to a digitized version of Mad, Mad World.

Seventh – It wouldn’t be a Random Thoughts without an infographic, so check out this massive depiction of our overlord Walmart’s ever growing power from Fast Company.

Eighth – The intriguing story of one of my favourite sites on the web, Vimeo, and how it forged it’s own niche within the clustered online video market.

Ninth – Speaking of Vimeo, Sleigh Bells has released a preview clip for their upcoming album. That new record is going to be called Reign of Terror , or as I will refer to it finally a new record that doesn’t sound like the soundtrack to a damn Wes Anderson movie! (Thanks to Jim Bones for the link)

Tenth – Have a kindle? Or better yet have the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad? Then go and down load Julien Smith’s new e-book Flinch. Long time readers, will know how much admire Julien Smith and his brand of in your face motivation, so do yourself a favor and download this fantastic book.

Eleventh – The Conference board of Canada just released an interesting report detailing the potential for 11 CFL teams. To all my American friends, the CFL stands for the Canadian Football League it really does exist.

To all my Canadian readers, the only disappointing information in this report, is that it doesn’t delve into the details of how many of those franchises will be named the Roughriders.

Twelfth – The geniuses behind Obama’s 2012 re-election team are already understanding how important visual design is to the motivation of the youth vote in America. In prep for the next election cycle in November, team Barrack is already crafting contests to get print designers and graphic designers involved in getting the ball rolling.

Thirteenth – Indie game developers, Super Giant Games have released Bastion for the Chrome Web Browser. If you’ve followed the site for a while, you’ll understand my love for this game, so it goes without saying that having this game playable through your browser is an absolutely incredible feat.

Don’t believe me. Check out the trailer.

Yes, you can now play this game … in … your … browser.

Fourteenth – Speaking of indie game developers, if you think it’s easy to launch and create a simple iPhone game and become the next Angry Birds… well think again. Local calgarian game developer, Bulletproof Outlaws, has an incredible run down of what it takes to market and launch an iPhone app.

Yeah, not as easy as you think.

Fifteenth – Chris Brett is a fantastic up and coming artist from Vancouver. And earlier this month he released a little time-lapsed video of the creative process for one of his pieces of work. If you’ve got some time, definitely check it out.

Sixteenth – Thanks to Mr. Rennie for this one.

Seventeenth – A small Canadian (actually Albertan) board game developer has broken records on KickStarter for funding of their new cooperative board game D-Day.

A couple things which makes this such incredible news. For one thing, any small Canadian company to break records on Kickstarter is a pretty incredible feat, but to do it for a dice board game in this techno-centric society… That right there, is a feat to be proud of.

Very well done guys.

Eighteenth – I was going to post the trailer for The Expendables Two, as I thought that would be the most 80s inspired sequel of all time… but then I saw the sequel for the 2nd G.I.Joe movie.

Alright, it’s rare that a movie that was such an epic (and by proxy hilarious) disaster turns into a sequel in which I can’t wait to see. I know, the director’s pedigree is Step Up 3D and The Justin Beiber Doc, but come on, it has Bruce Willis. Everyone knows that Bruce Willis is pure gold..

Well except for that whole Hudson Hawk thing in the late 90s.

Nineteenth – Speaking of Obama and print design, Shepard Fairey, the genius behind the Hope poster and one of my personal graphic design idols, was commissioned to do the TIME 2011 person of the year cover.

Twentieth – By the way, do you want to know the track in that G.I.Joe trailer? It’s Glitch Mob’s Seven Nation Army Remix.

The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix) by The Glitch Mob

Categories: The-Random, The-Site, The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Books, The Calgary Vibe, The Canada Vibe, The Comrades, The Craziness, The Humourous, The Inane, The Music, The Nationals, The Political World, The Pop-Culture, The Soapbox, The Southern Neighbours, The T-Shirts, The VideoGames, The World, Want To Be A Web Designer

Random Thoughts For The Ragin' of Brian Wilson Saturday November 5, 2011

Last week, the Cardinals won the world series. I know a lot of people watched the final two games, but again I missed’em. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy seeing a Nationals game here in DC, but for the life of me I can’t get into watching baseball live. So I’ll have to do what I did last year and catch a recap on the Sklar Brothers Podcast

Anyways, last year after the Giants won, the Sklar Brothers were over the moon raving about their down to earth players. In particular, Giants closer Brian Wilson, who now famously started off the post-game celebrations with one of the greatest moments in live television.

This seriously has to be the single greatest quote of all time.

First – I meant to post this about two weeks ago, but the official trailer for The Avengers has been released

Second – For those of you who yearn for the days of making life decisions by 10 sided-dice, Atari has introduced Dungeons & Dragons for Facebook. Yes, no longer will Facebook feeds be dominated with numerous updates on the latest cow purchases or crop updates, we can now all watch our friends try to achieve level ten dork herder status.

Third – You know what’s funnier than a tumblr blog dedicated to the always dreamy Ryan Gosling? A tumblr blog dedicated to the always dreamy Ryan Gosling as a hardcore academic femenist (thanks to Mr. Rennie)

Fourth – A few weeks ago, the Globe and Mail got in hot water for a series of Celebrity Photos which also had a hysterical Occupy Wall Street tinge to them. Of course this faux controversy is only only made funnier by two things.

First, Vice magazine has been doing this same schtick for year with their amazing do’s and don’ts section. Second, the only reason why some people were up in arms about this, is because nobody actually reads the celebrity photo gallery in the Globe and Mail. If they did, they would have known they’ve been doing this for years.

Fifth – A fascinating article on businesses leveraging Gamification in the workplace.

“The reason why gamification is so hot is that most people’s jobs are really freaking boring,” says Gabe Zichermann, organizer of the “Gamification Summit” conference held last month in New York.

Gotta say, this article did really change my view on how gamification can be applied in larger corporations. This is coming from someone who has a) worked in corporate training and dealt with those challenges and b) been skeptically watching the trend of gamification for a few years.

Sixth – Speaking of Brian Wilson, I may infact have a man crush on him. Brain Wilson’s Advert for NBA 2K12’s legends series.

Seventh – This is pretty self explanitory, but you should read Bayhem, which is an Infographic set About Michael Bay’s amazing film career

8 Movies, almost 960 explosions.

Eighth – The best part about Groupon’s highly inflated IPO launch this week is that it’ll make a bunch of people a tonne of money in the first week… then subsequently, tank when investors realize that the company is doomed for failure.

Oh, Groupon, karma is such a bitch.

Ninth – It’s hard to be sympathetic during this year’s NBA Lockout, but this interesting little article from Sporstnet magazine on rising Canadian basketball star Tristan Thompson, is worth a read. Which in turn is pretty much signalling Canada’s own reverse Gretzky effect but for basketball and with Steve Nash as the centre-piece.

Tenth – Cracked.com’s 5 Most Needlessly Evil Movie Villian Plots of all-time. The synopsis of the Fifth Element evil plot is so perfect.

Eleveth – Eboy.com’s pixelated master piece of Balitmore is now available for purchase

Categories: The-Random, the-nationals, The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Books, The Humourous, The Inane, The Pop-Culture, The Social Media, The VideoGames

Random Thoughts For FIFA 2012 vs. Steve Nash vs. BTTLS Friday October 7, 2011

If you’re unfamiliar with Steve Nash’s background, you probably don’t know that Mr. Nash is a pretty accomplished soccer player. Turns out that back in the day he had a few offers to play soccer with the Canadian National team, but instead decided to turn them down to go to Santa Clare University. Because of which, he’s become the defacto poster child for the EA’s FIFA Soccer franchise in North America.

So with that tid bit, I present to you the latest FIFA 2012 commercial. Yes, a FIFA soundtrack featuring Steve Nash and a track from BTTLS (my favourite prog rock band) equals pure ctoverdrive delight.

You can also enjoy this one-on-one uber nerd battle between current soccer it girl Hope Solo and Steve Nash.

First – The United Pixel workers are back at it again. This time hand crafting a series of United Pixel Worker T-Shirts for all 50 States

Not gonna lie, I’ve got my eye on the Virginia one… because as everyone knows Virginia is for Hustlers.

Second – It’s not often that I get even remotely excited about Marching bands, but this University band from the university of Ohio in Ohio and then right outside of Ohio (or something like that) is pretty impressive. Especially, since it’s a cover of LMFAO’s guilt-free hit Party Rock. (Pssst. It starts slow but gets better)

Third – Michael Lewis, of a little book called Moneyball fame, has a new book out called Boomerang: Travels In The New Third World and it looks amazing.

Fourth – Poploser (aka. Tyler Herald) has started a Grantland-esque sports blog called Fifty Mission Cap. It has a great Canadian tinge to it and it is easily RSS Feed worthy.

Have I mentioned that I’m loving this renaissance in sports writing? No? Well, it’s amazing.

Fifth – Speaking of Grantland… did you know that the NBA basketball season should have started next week? Well, you know, if it wasn’t for that pesky little players strike.

It’s okay. Don’t be ashamed. I completely forgot about professional basketball and I live in a basketball market. But it looks like the only guys that haven’t really forgotten are Bill Simmons and Jay Kang from Grantland.

(BTW, if you make it through that entire renegade league rambling you deserve a special status on the Internet. I thought the article was really funny and even I couldn’t get through the reasoning behind the naming of the Kansas City Klondike Bars)

Sixth – Techland (which appears to be a Time’s bush league version of Wired) has a great article on the world’s greatest 404 page.

It comes from nosh.me and it’s worth the watch.

Seventh – If it wasn’t a) 220 dollars and b) completely sold out, the new Deftones 15 year Vinyl collection would be number one with a bullet on my Christmas list.

Eighth – You can probably place this tidbit in the you know you are old when series of posts, but if anyone is looking for an amazing spice company (for slow cooking, BBQ, or making a 2 dollar piece of chicken taste like something), check out Calgary’s The Silk Road.

It’s a fairly new company, but they’ve been making some amazing headway locally and nationally. And I know talking about spices is about as lame as discussing baby formula or the latest children’s toy that is covered in arsenic , but hear me out.

These spices are amazing! just check out their Sea Salt Chili & Lime Seasoning and St. Laurent Steak Seasoning…. ummm salivating.

Ninth – Hey, I’m as guilty as anyone for lovin’ me some Daft Punk. That being said, does the world really need a limited edition Daft Punk collectable Coca-Cola bottle series?

Tenth – last and not least, one of the forefathers of the Hacker movement gives some quick opinions on the resent surge in hactivism.

Categories: The-Random, The-VideoGames,

Random Thoughts For The BBoy Stance Tuesday September 27, 2011

Umm… Yeah this video from The Notorious IBE Championships is just… absolutely… sick.

That’s all I have to say. (Thanks to my new favourite site Devour.com for the link)

First – I’ve actually never played any of the Fallout series , which is a shame because I hear that Fallout 3 is based around the District.

Anywho… even without playing the game or being an extreme fan boy, anyone can truly appreciate this handcrafted Fallout Monopoly Game board

Second – It’s been a while since Michael Moore has even appeared on my radar, but this excerpt from his new book – Here Comes Trouble – is pretty gut wrenching.

The agency protecting me had a threat assessment division. Their job was to investigate anyone who had made a credible threat against me. One day, I asked to see the file. The man in charge began reading me the list of names and the threats they had made and the level of threat that the agency believed each one posed. After he went through the first dozen, he stopped and asked: “Do you really want to keep going? There are 429 more.”

Regardless of your own personal take on the man, no one deserves that much hatred. (P.S. If you read the entire excerpt the story does turn out to be a positive)

Third – Umm… Keep this on the downlow, but Myp2p is now Wiziwig. If you are unsure of what that means, don’t worry about.

You’re probably not a broke sports fan.

Fourth – Umm… Retro World War Two Captain America promotional posters… don’t mind if I do.

Fifth – Oh geez, won’t someone think of the KIDS… and of course their ez-bake ovens.

What am I talking about?

Oh, sorry. Does anyone remember that earlier this year, during the middle of the budget crisis, the US Congress made the critical decision to ban incandescent light bulbs. Well… it looks like nobody thought about older versions of the Ez-Bake Oven. So, if you happen to have an Ez-Bake Oven in your garage, you better stock up on incandescent light bulbs or your going to be in trouble.

Sixth – You can all thank Cam Hoff for this heads-up. But just in case you were wondering how the Florida Marlins could possible come back from relative baseball obscurity, then you clearly underestimated the pure stupidity of the marketing department and their ability to create a branding disaster of such epic proportions.

Yes, that’s right, this is the new logo for the Marlins…

Two things to think about.

1) At least the London 2012/Lisa Simpson doing something inappropriate logo, has something to feel better about.

2) Remember when the Marlins were cool and were even featured in Seaquest:DSV… Oh yeah, those were the days.

Seventh – Well that was quick. It appears that the big Gooooogle machine is now throwing some of it’s immense lobbying funds towards Republican lobbyists.

From a political standpoint it makes sense. A big corporation like that does have to cover it’s bases. It’s just, that I kinda yearn for those days when they truly believed in the philosophy of do no evil.

Eighth – Speaking of Google… Well I guess they’re not completely evil.

Ninth – And because I probably destroyed your palette for decent Baseball logo redesigns, here’s a look at the new-old-new Toronto Blue Jays logo.

The best part about this logo is that it’s retro, but not in the horrible-pastel-shoulder-pads-miami-vice Florida Marlins sorta way.

Categories: The-Random, The-Pop-Culture, The Blogosphere, The Craziness, The D.C. vibe, The Humourous, The Inane, The Nationals, The VideoGames