1st

September

2008

Reading a story from the New York Times about the people of New Orleans leaving the city for a shelter 350 miles away surprised me slightly. It could be that I have been drowned in the hundreds of ‘happy-ending-disaster-movies’ but the image conjured in my mind was of the American people taking pity on these people and standing on their porches, welcoming them with open arms. Apparently not. Hearing that 1200 people are arriving at a shelter made for 500 is disgraceful, and maybe I’m wrong, but surely there are people willing to put up people for a while until it is safe to return to their homes. This isn’t the third world after all, most live with TV, hot water and 4-bedroomed houses, and you would think that they could lend a hand.

Maybe humanity just isn’t what it used to be, or maybe I’m wrong, but feel free to correct me that there is something wrong when a person in need is not helped. Katrina showed that, I thought people would have learned.

(NYT)

29th

August

2008

I recently began wondering why all my twitter contacts ( I’m using Twinkle on the iPhone btw) were suddenly using similar avatars, then someone mentioned the website Faceyourmanga.com. This website apparently allows you to create cool looking avatars like the one shown below, and make them look just like you, L33T!

So I add it to my to-do list for the week and then mossy on down when I have a minute and BAM! , its down. And its still down now, its been a few days and I’m hoping it ain’t gone forever, I want my Manga. Whether its a bandwidth problem or an enemy manga hacker I don’t know. Any information would be appreciated.

UPDATE - Back online people - rock on!

11th

August

2008

The web is a ever growing and amazing place where people can stay more connected and informed than ever before, and lately I have really been using this to my advantage. As most of you know, Twitter and Delicious are amazingly useful to people who spend a lot of your time in front of your computer (or iPhone!) and help you stay connected and informed wherever you go. So, this is a round up of my top 5 websites and services that currently dominate my bookmarks bar:

1) Twitter

I really am now addicted to this. Twitter allows you to post short clippings of text I which you can type anything you want, from what your doing at the moment to a funny website. This really takes the whole idea of a life stream to the next level and makes it brilliantly addictive. This is a service that you will either love or hate , or simply not understand at all, but once you start using it you won’t be able to remember what you did without it.

2) Delicious

When I first started using this I couldn’t understand the point. Why do you need online bookmarks? Well, because it makes it brilliantly easy to save pages and then find them easily on any computer. They will also never be lost when you hard drive commits Harry-Carry and pages can easily be assigned tags and descriptions for further reference.

3) Last.fm

I listen to a lot of music and have never really been able to track my own taste accurately, and admittedly I really am a stats freak. Last.fm tracks every track you play thought iTunes or on your iPod then suggests new music and introduces you to people who have similar tastes, absolutely brilliant.

4) Facebook

A guilty pleasure of mine for some time now. Facebook is like a living address book that will never forget someone’s number, because if they change it you can always find them. Keeping me amazingly connected to my ‘real-world’ friends and providing a simple way to post events and find new contacts make it a must. Myspace eat your heart out (You ugly mother you!)

5) Gmail

For gods sake ditch Hotmail! I recently moved to Gmail and have never looked back. The ability to get my mail in both Mail.app and on my iPhone using POP3 is a necessity that Microsoft just don’t want to allow, without paying for it. Gmail also has a slick interface and quick load times making it a brilliant web mail client for when you aren’t sat in front of your own computer.

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6th

August

2008

For my first project in Adobe Illustrator I chose to do something with a text basis, and this was the result.

Download it here.

(1280 x 800)