sleepinginmyhead

Damn shortcuts...

I use MS outlook for my mail here at work, and i just got caught out by a shortcut.

If you press 'option' and 'enter' together: the mail is immediately sent.

I just got a mail from a very senior director in Tokyo, and i was in the process of writing something along the lines of "OK many thanks for sending the files over...." etc. etc. 

In the middle of writing however, i got distracted and hit the shortcut without thinking. Hence, i sent an email to this bigwig which just reads "OK man".... 

Brilliant, good job i'm leaving.

Tuttuki Bako

Japanese toys are the most inventive in the world: fact. The nintendo wii is testament to that on a grand scale, but there are countless examples of tech-entertainment which are released on an almost weekly basis on the tiny island. One which caught my eye recently is "tuttuki bako". In essence it's a tamagotchi with a few other basic games, but the USP is the fact that your finger goes' 'inside' the LCD, sorta like TRON. As you wiggle your finger inside, a virtual finger mimics your movements, like a moving version of the 'pinman' toys of the the late 80's. A friend of mine is going to Tokyo next week and i was going to ask her to get me one, but i just went onto youtube, and now i can only think of one thing.

Honestly, the directors MUST have known what that looks like, or is it just me?

Ashley Todd

After my last post, i realised that i had set myself up. After declaring that i wanted to go for quality, not quantity, i suddenly freaked out: what should be my next post? Thankfully, the American election took hold of the situation and dished up a treat: Ashley Todd.

Now this might be old news to some of you, but I'm going to write about it anyway. To outline the story, Todd, a 20 year old Texan, claimed a 6 foot 4 black man attacked her and stole $60. Noticing she had a John McCain sticker on her car, she claimed he punched her to the ground and carved a "B" into her cheek, saying that she should vote for Barack Obama. Now here's the thing: the "B" was backwards, implying that Todd had carved it into her own cheek, whilst looking in a mirror. Honestly, you couldn't make this up. Sadly, it appears that Todd is suffering from mental illness, but the incident is having some serious repercussions on the McCain/Palin campaign, as Todd is a campaign volunteer.

This reminds me of a story from my childhood. My design teacher at school, Mr. Saville used to work in a really rough school in the back end of Nottingham, and he had a kid in his class who, whilst unruly, was good at heart. He was expelled from the school before his GCSE's and it transpires he began dabbling in petty crime, and ended up in a young offenders institute. Years later, Mr. Saville bumped into this lad in the street, and they had a brief conversation. During his time in borstal, this young lad had decided to give himself a 'skins' tattoo, in support of his love of the skinhead movement. Problem was that it was on his forehead, and he'd done it in the mirror. He will forever be known as the kid with "SNIKS" on his forehead, written in russian letters.

"sorry for the silence"

It's a phrase i've been increasingly reading on blogs over the past few months. It seems to me and many others that blogging is undergoing something of a change. Charlie has written a nice piece on his blog about how he feels, and to be honest I’m coming round to his way of thinking. I began sleepinginmyhead as an experiment a few years ago after my good friend Mat put me on to the idea. It was nice to have a place to say things, to collate ideas and write about cool stuff i'd seen. In my previous two jobs, I sent out a weekly webwatch as an email. As the mailing list grew longer, and I moved from job to job, a blog seemed like a sensible way to reach old friends and to save an archive. A few friends asked me 'why do you do it, what's the point?', and i just put them down as tech dinosaurs. It was fun, like writing a fanzine or something. Here's my life, come take a look. 

To be fair, bloggers were show-offs, they wanted to share their unique take on the world with as many people as possible, and as more people got in on the act, an inevitable race was set in motion. Blogs suffered from a deluge of posts. Engadget became nearly unreadable at one point, with updates covering every TV, mobile phone or other gizmo which popped up. Hypebeast showed every single shoe, jacket and denim collaboration they could get a picture of. People began 'liveblogging' apple events, presentations, conferences and even celebrity weddings. The novelty of being able to update your blog anytime and from any device was addictive, and I got caught up in it a bit too, to be honest. Something had to change, and it did. Blogs got editors, sites got professional revamps, teams of writers, adverts and sponsors. The blogosphere split into two distinct camps: the professional and the amateur, and I fall into the latter category.

I have a busy worklife and sleepinginmyhead just fits in around it. I currently pay for this site, admittedly only 80 bucks a year, but i still pay. Whilst I know many of you enjoy some of the content, and i've had close to a quarter of a million visitors since the blog began, (which is mental), I’m starting to sound like those initial doubters and I’m asking myself ‘Why?’. I make no money from this endeavour, and I don’t really want to, but I put a fair bit of work into it. The three regular features (webwatch, etymology wednesdays and music monday) were an attempt to get some sort of forced regularity, but even that has stopped working of late. As with every hobby you need two things, time and passion, and both are in increasingly short supply. In two weeks i leave my current job for pastures new, and to be honest i'm not sure a new employer will tolerate the amount of time i spend researching, uploading and editing posts for this blog. 

So what now? I like this blog, and i know some of you do, so i'm not pulling the plug. All i can say is that i'm going to try and increase the quality and decrease the frequency. Your input is useful in this case. If you can tell me what you like, what you don’t or have any suggestions of what you’d like to see more of, please let me know, either in the comments or by emailing me. In the meantime, sleepinginmyhead will continue, but at a more leisurely pace.

confusing eavesdrop 1

overheard near lloyds of London. Man, early 40's, grey suit, armful of papers 

"he treated my feet like eggs"

anyone make sense of that?

Sounds delicious

Selecting a soundtrack for your TV ad is tricky, but when used correctly, ad music can be amazing. Artists can see their success rocket overnight when their work is featured on a TV ad: think Shaggy for Levis, Feist for Apple or Jose Gonzales for Sony. There's a couple of great sites for finding songs featured on ads, namely Commercial Breaks and Beats, and Sounds Familiar, but that's not really what i want to discuss here. I remember when the music for TV adverts was written specifically for the product. I'm not talking about jingles, but real full length songs. Remember the Um Bongo song, the Kia-Ora song, the softmints song or the one for Milky Way? These are all good and nostalgic, but the kings of the genre have to be McDonalds. Their jingle: "two all-beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickled onions on a sesame seed bun" is good in itself, but their back catalogue is immense. I began digging around, and they have produced literally hundreds of songs for their adverts, they even released a few 45's and flexidisks. Try the menu song, to win a million dollars. How about watching Jason Alexander from Seinfeld sing an eighties classic, or marvel at the McNuggets rap.

What's interesting is how many top notch artists McDonald's managed to get to sing their theme tune. Below are just a few, but Jose Feliciano is easily the best.

mcdonalds - peggy lee

mcdonalds - the stylistics

mcdonalds - gladys knight

mcdonalds - jose feliciano

It might be all rose tinted rubbish, but i quite like the idea of a song specifically for your brand. I have a whole album of such songs, but they're mostly from the fifties. I'd love to hear the Audi song, or the Nike song, wouldn't you?

music monday 60

I like a good bassline, that's no secret. The squelchy noises make me curl up my lips, which i'm sure isn't attractive, but i can't help it. It's clear that we're heading into a new bass heavy hip hop era, just ask the Cool Kids, and I for one think this is a good thing. Today isn't about the Cool Kids though, it's about Danny Breaks. This fella has been making music for many years, from the early days of Jungle and Drum n Bass on the fabulous Suburban Base label, through to his current incarnation on Alphabet Zoo. These days, the tempo has slowed somewhat, but the raw ooomph is still there. Today's track is a good example of why i like him, go dig out some of his other stuff, if you can find any.

Danny Breaks - The Jellyfish

creative review rebrands

Creative Review is a great magazine, and always a worthwhile blog visit. Whilst their usual content is branding, advertising and graphics, they have always managed to keep their heads out of the bullshit. I was therefore a little surprised when i heard about their rebrand. The old logo was a negative space CR marque, nice and simple, printed over a full bleed image. The new logo is the word "creative review" in a modified version of Arial, plus a marble on the side as an ident marque.

Whilst i have to say i prefer the original, and the new logo is a little complicated, it's the press release text which gets me smiling. You can read the whole thing here (i recommend it), but here's a few highlights. Honestly, i'm not sure if this is a joke.

"Following a universal brand audit instigated in the wake of an immersion expedition led by a cohort of leading brand ideators, we engaged in a thoroughgoing knowledge accumulation programme to facilitate blue-sky thinking and empower Creative Review® in the vanguard of world class best practice in thought-leadership. The following brand muscles were established: innovative, dynamic, square-shaped."

The marble logo isn't a marble, it's a "MaRble®", and it "employs premium cues including the addition of vitreous accents denoting excellence and quality, deep hues, and a glazed lustre with an updated color palette and increased contrast. Its interconnected, dynamic graphic devices leverage CR®’s position as the epicentric enabler of an innovation matrix creating compelling brand equity."

Finally, the jobs at Creative review have been rebranded. The Editor is no more, he's now the "Executive Infonaut"

Maybe they should employ a "Bovine Expulsion Prevention Engineer"

Rick Sanchez is going to blow a gasket

One thing about 24 hour rolling news is that procrastination is often needed to fill the dull days. However, when something big does happen, the anchormen go berserk.

webwatch 134

When i last went ice climbing, i was constantly worried about my axe coming out or breaking off a chunk of ice. Even if that happens, it's not the end of the world, as you're roped up, and your partner should be well bolted in. If this happens though, no two ways about it, you're fucked.

Those russkies at Art Lebedev have a real knack. Fuck the rain.

Sandy Smith's Mauritian Sunset. I think the doorway is a real shame though.

Doctor Who? What are you doing here?

Well done Victoria and Albert, what a brilliant campaign.

No matter how natural McDonald's tell you their food is, it's hard to see how this can be natural.

Mark my words, kinetic power is going to be big. Trust me, invest now. Here's a sweet idea to start with.

The Great Schlep. Sarah Silverman tries to convince Jews to go to Florida and get their grannies to vote for Obama. Cute. (thanks Angus)