Gratuitiously Great Gifts

With people literally getting trampled and shot to death on Black Friday, it might be a little safer this year to do your shopping online. Here is a collection of the greatest gratuitous gifts the internet has to offer (i love these cheesy videos):

Support your sweet tooth's addicion with this gluttonous gummi creation, the giant gummy bear on a stick, about 90 times the standard gummy bear size and available in blue, green or red.



This should be on every college guy's christmas list: the port-o-pong inflatable beer pong table (girls not included):


Finally, a gift for digital hippies, the USB mini lava lamps:


The Pes Films Fireplace is available on DVD so you can transform your tv into non-functional 'fireplace.' You can also download it as a high-res screensaver for free:


You're not supposed to play with your food, but there is no rule against playing with the utensils:


Historical tragedies are finally fun again with titanic and iceberg shaped ice trays:


ok i actually want (correction: need) this one: clocky, the alarm clock that zooms off your desk and hides if you hit the snooze button:

Oh, Snow

So I now have sort of a love/hate relationship with Snow. I was so excited to see it for the first time in five years. Here is a video of our reunion at my uncle's house in Wyoming on Thanksgiving. (Uncle Rolf accidentally had the camera on record instead of capture).



But then on my way home, Snow covered the sky and ground, made my car fishtail and skid off the side of the road. Somehow I managed to avoid things like guardrails, other cars and anything else that Snow might be hiding. I sat there stunned for about 20 seconds then got back on the road.

Oh Snow...

Action and Environmental Hero

Harrison Ford is pretty much my favorite actor. And I definitely believe in rainforest conservation. Here's an interesting PSA I found that combines the two:


Harrison Ford was somehow convinced to wax his chest as an awareness analogy for deforestation in the Amazon by Conservation International. It definitely gets attention, both negative and positive. It was named the #2 "Most Retarded Way Celebrities Have Tried to Go Green" on Cracked.com. But you have to admit he's still in pretty good shape for a 65 year old dude.


He also recently did an interview with National Geographic which can be found online or in the April 2008 issue. I think its cool that he lives in Jackson, Wyoming now instead of Hollywood.

Close to the top of my Christmas List:

That Time Again

Yep. Time for pre-Christmas overload. An over-indulgence in shopping, seasonal songs and traveling. I actually heard my first Christmas song on the radio last weekend. I swear it starts earlier every year. I mean, the day of Halloween I saw Christmas decorations sprouting up at Target and Walmart. As for my shopping and traveling, I bought most of my friends' Christmas presents when I was in Europe and I have my flight home all set for December 21.

Starbucks turns their coffee cups red every Chrismas anyways, but this year they are partnering with the (Product) Red Campaign. Their website has been counting down the days until the caritas cups are launched on November 27.



Five cents from the purchase of every Starbucks Red Exclusive beverage, which includes the Peppermint Mocha Twist, Gingersnap Latte and Espresso Truffle, will go to the Global Fund to support AIDS programs in Africa. It kind of coincides with December first, which is World AIDS Day.

This attractively art-directed ad by BBDO is all over YouTube:


There's even a Facebook event that uses peer pressure to make you want to go:




I personally can't wait for the Hot Chocolate and Caramel Apple Cider! I'm not really a fan of coffee.

I'm Thankful For...

...yummy meat alternatives, as elusive as they may be. I still haven't been able to find a Tofurkey to take to my uncle and his girlfriend's Thanksgiving dinner in Wyoming tomorrow.


The animal-friendly entree is made by Turtle Island Foods, which has been "providing premium quality soy products at affordable prices since 1980." I eat the deli slices and they really are delish.

I guess I'll try one more time to find one today. Hopefully they're not sold out. I dont think they are THAT popular, but it's Boulder so you never know.


Look how much more fun it is than eating a dead bird :) LoL

UPDATE: Friday, November 28, 6:50 PM:
Success! I bought my Tofurkey roast and gravy at Whole Foods on Wednesday. Molly helped me cook it and I had a great time yesterday. I thought I would get made fun of more on a ranch, whose livestock includes cattle, but everyone was really curious and wanted to try it. Some people even admitted to liking it. Score!

Where's My Package?

Last Tuesday my Young Guns creative brief entry was finally done, printed and mounted. The final step in the process was to mail it to Australia, in less than 4 days.

Good old FedEx came through. It's the first time I really used their online package tracker and it's pretty cool. According to it, my package got their on time, for the hefty price of $116.



It's another reminder that price and time and inversely related. You spend more time to save money or spend more money to save time.

(Sidenote: The YG shortlists are supposed to be up November 30, but honestly I'm not expecting much. I liked my core idea, but I don't think I had enough time to perfect it).

FedEx usually has pretty funny commercials:






Here's their 2008 superbowl commercial. It's funny but 'eh.' Superbowl commercial status just isn't what it used to be.


I assume these were all created by BBDO New York because according to this article, FedEx has been their client for almost 20 years.

Brain Battle

Here's a neat little agency I discovered while working on the never-ending brief: Sommers Whole Brained Creative is a group of creatives that used to work for bigger design and ad agencies and decided to band together to 'bring back the magic' that they had as younger creatives. The copy on the website is really interesting.



They are based in Ohio and have done a lot of product and in-store design. My favorite is the stuff they've done for Timberland. I wish I was better at distressed design like this.






Since being middle brained is the whole basis of our campaign, I took a quiz courtesy of the Art Institute of Vancouver to see how much I rely on each side:



Well that seems about right. I can think left-brained, but I don't particularly enjoy it. Maybe that's why out of the 1200 points I got on the SAT, about 700 were in the verbal section. Numbers and I have never been very good friends.

Live Stronger

So recently I've been trying to rid myself of those few pesky pounds I gained in Europe. It's hard to do it on your own. But now I have Lance Armstrong helping me out. Well, sort of. I rediscovered the Livestrong website and found tons of nifty gadgets that help you lose weight, get in shape, eat right, etc.



The Daily Plate lets you track your meals online or on your iPhone. It's so easy, you just type in what you ate in the search bar and records all the nutritional info in your food diary. You can also keep track of your exercise and mood. It works pretty well for me because I'm less likely to eat something unhealthy if I have to write it down and look at it again later.



There is also a weight tracker, but there's no way I'm posting a screen cap of that so everyone can see how much i weigh! However, I will tell you I've lost over 5 pounds in the last couple weeks. :)



There's a few other interesting features. You can bookmark your favorite articles, issue or take on 'dares' (i.e. I dare you to lose 10 pounds by Christmas) and the site rewards you with badges for little milestones. I think if I keep up with it I am going to be healthier and happier. Then again its one more thing added to the list of facebook, email, blogger and twitter, that keeps me attached to my mac.

Roomba Rider

Found this video on ICHC. Not only is it funny but its really surprising. My cat Tootsie was scared to death of our roomba at home and always ran away from it. I guess it's kind of like a segwey for cats...

wow. this video was added just one week ago on youtube and already has a million hits.

Better Late than Never

Yay! The pictures from Allison & Brian's wedding are finally up (over a month later)! I just wanted to post a couple because it was a very special day - my first BFF to get married! I'm pretty sure Ali is the most beautiful bride EVER. It was my first time being a bridesmaid, but I'm sure it won't be my last. I'm also pretty sure I'll be the last one of my friends to actually be the bride...

Outliers is Out!

I must read Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Outliers. I loved The Tipping Point and I haven't read Blink but it's on my list. Check out this Barnes & Noble sponsored video about it:

Stranger Surprise

Check out the latest addition to my list of cool blogs: Improv Everywhere. They describe themselves best on their site, so I'll just C&P it:

"Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 80 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City."

Their latest mission was to welcome back total strangers at JFK airport in New York.




How amazing/awkward would that be if it happened to you? If advertising doesn't work out, maybe I'll go be an I.E. agent. Which is almost like a secret agent. Which reminds me that I somehow haven't seen the new 007 movie, Quantum of Solace, yet. I really need to move that up on the priorities list.

Also interesting that this one was sponsored by Absolut Vodka. I guess that's how they make money off these stunts. Advertising really does support the economy.

Best Pie Chart Ever

mmm, pie!
[reminds me of a great inside joke. lol]
found this via digg.

Campaign for Color

Ok pink is for breast cancer awareness, yellow is for Lance Armstrong/Livestrong, red is for AIDS. Colors keep getting branded, and now Yahoo is attempting to claim the color purple.



I went to the website and it's kind of interesting and very interactive, but I don't see much of a point. According to Yahoo, the idea behind their purple campaign is "[to embrace] individuality, fashion, style, art and personality."

The campaign's official theme song "Start Wearing Purple" by Gogol Bordello. This guy is totally a musical version of Borat.


Co-branded with Flickr and Electra, the Purple Pedals Project chronicles the life of a camera-mounted bikes which post pictures from their point-of-view every 60 seconds.



Maybe eventually people will associate purple and Yahoo, but I don't think it's reached the success of the aforementioned spectrum. I guess they're trying to compete with the behemoth creature that is Google.

Still, I might try to throw on a purple shirt tomorrow or something. Do I even own a purple shirt?

The 5th Quarter

You can soon see Jamie's boyfriend on the big screen. He is an extra as a male cheerleader in the film The 5th Quarter. The true story is about Wake Forest linebacker Jon Abbate, who's almost 16 year old brother, Luke, was killed in a car wreck right before his junior year season in 2006. Jon changed his jersey to his brother's former number, 5, and always held up five fingers at the beginning of every 4th quarter. His family started The Five Foundation in Luke's memory.

Anyways, as the sister of a Wake student, I vividly remember that season when they went all the way to the ACC Championship and the Orange Bowl. The film is being directed by Rick Bieber and stars Ryan Merriman (my former Disney-channel star crush) as Jon Abbate. Here's the entry on imdb so far and a local news report. I think its cool that they are using some actual game footage and some people from the real-life story. The movie is due in theaters May 2009.

ad remix

here are some cool commercials remixing classic movie footage.
how else could you combine audrey hepburn and ac/dc?

created by the method studios and maybe gap is in-house? couldn't find any credits

and apparently gene kelly drives a golf.

by ddb london, creative director Jeremy Craigen, art director Steve Jones, copywriter Martin Loraine, agency producer Richard Chambers and account manager Matt Ross. production studio was stink digital.

back-in-the-day barbie

apparently mattel is attempting to rekindle womens' nostalgic feelings for the barbies of their youth. barbie for grownups is kind of an interesting and interactive look back on the history of the darling doll. it would kick ass to own the original one from 1959. all the ones from the 90's look like they were inspired by pretty woman, aka hookers. if i could transform myself, i would totally be malibu barbie. i was never that much of a barbie girl, but i definitely prefer them to today's horrible bratz dolls.

why not post some quality barbie advertising?

thank God the 80's are over...

i totally had this one! probably because i was doing gymnastics as well...

my pei wei plug

ok time for a blatant endorsement. pei wei asian diner is pretty much the best asian food i have ever eaten! it's surprisingly healthy, fast and cheap. everyone wins! find a location near you and tell me i'm not right. i recommend the tofu and veggies lo mein.
oh yea, their website design is pretty sick too.

cool agency in colorado

i saw some cool commercials tonight when i was watching family guy on adult swim. just from watching the commercial, i had no idea what 'own your c' was all about. i checked out the website, and it's pretty cool. summed up in a single sentance:

The Colorado State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership in the Colorado Department of the Public Health and Environment (the Department), in conjunction with its contractor, Cactus Communications Inc. (CCI), is promoting an interactive website-based program aimed at the prevention and cessation of tobacco use by youth, named Own Your C ("OYC").


it's hard to top the truth campaign, but this one comes creatively close. cactus is also behind the 'the cigarette is dead campaign.' i could totally work for this agency. there share my loathing of tobacco.

the commercials i loved aren't on youtube yet, but you can see them if you go to the website>>>menu>>>c-campaign>>>plugging in & refreshing.

here's a cute one i did find on youtube:


the cigarette is dead:

we feel fine

here's a cool website i recently discovered. it's hard to describe, so i'll just copy and paste part of their mission:
"Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.)."
find out how many people are feeling the same way you are right now. it's super fun to explore!

new pepsi packaging

check out the new pepsi bottle designs i found on brand new. the logo itself doesn't look that different. i wonder how much they spent on this redesign; at least six figures i bet. intentionally more minimalist. and [hopefully] unintentionally more phallic. i'm not sure if i like it but right now i'm leaning more towards 'no.' i hate that the logo is inconsistent and changes based on the product.

temporary hiatus

my life is over for the next 3-5 days. the macbook is sick at the apple store. my screen just stopped working for some reason on monday. i am pretty much incapacitated, lost and confused without it. ahhh!

collective election coverage

current tv, digg and twitter are collectively covering the election tomorrow. i'm going to try to tune in because it's probably going to be more relevant to my gemeration than what i would see on fox or msnbc.

chewed up and spit out

the gum election may not be as accurate or pc as the gallop polls, but it does show the popular opinion of gum chewers. these posters have been out since early october in new york and now they've made their way to boulder. not surprisingly, mccain has accumulated more wads of disapproval here.




sidenote: i can't wait for all this horrible political advertising to be overwith!

halloweekend recap

as promised, here are a few pics from (halloween + weekend =) halloweekend.

kristina as a droog from a clockwork orange, me as anna kournikova (you can't see my tennis racket), theron as a geico caveman/masquerade lumberjack/teenage wolfman (his costume is open for interpretation) and ive as a 50's bowler girl.

me trying out for the broncos and kris looking like axle rose on acid


i found a sweet tie-dyed chair!



two of my favorite costumes: live covers of time and people magazine.


and alex came as an AIM buddylist. lol.


i have a great class at cp+b in which we become better acquainted with css and dreamweaver. basically we are building portfolio websites. i am kind of familiar with html so its not that bad learning xhtml. geekiest 'costume' award goes to computer code tattoo guy.


hands down the most popular costumes this year were sarah palin and the joker:


too bad i missed out on seeing the 10th annual boulder naked pumpkin run live...