via epicwinftw.com
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Bro Vodka: the definitive beverage of west coast frat boys.
Bizarrely, Google doesn't immediately reveal the factual existence of this brand.
Also, the original article about good typography in product design is interesting:
http://typography-daily.com/2010/12/28/15-examples-of-good-typography-in-pack...
Build Anything: a tribute to and advertisement for Lego. Beautifully done.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/12513670?portrait=0
via vimeo.com
This was always my favorite toy as a kid.
I constructed a rather poor simile of a TIE Fighter, but my proudest moment was when I completed a properly functioning and decently good-looking approximation of an X-Wing :)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Google Ngram: 'Yiff' in literature since 1830. Holy fucking wow.
The article about the medial 's' also pointed me to Google Ngram viewer, which I hadn't heard about.
It lets you graph the frequency with which words occurred in the Goog's vast repository of scanned books, dating back centuries.
Sometimes with surprising results!
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=yiff&year_start=1830&year_end=2008...
From the office of Frank Chimero: Rest in Peace, Medial S
http://blog.frankchimero.com/post/2366570079/rest-in-peace-medial-s-you-know-...
Lovely article about that now-obscure form of the letter 's'.
Also, Google Ngram is rather cool.
Thimble: Industrial design concept proposes wearable tool to help the sight-impaired parse written language on the go
http://player.vimeo.com/video/17873025?portrait=0
via vimeo.com
Obviously this is a concept, not an actually produced device.
Some of the technology proposed is clearly fanciful, such as the ease with which the fingertip-camera could be aimed at a piece of paper for parsing.
It's a solid idea to pair it with a common smartphone like the iPhone, which reportedly already offers significant accessibility for the sight-impaired, and the positioning of the on-off switch and function button seem like well-thought-out choices given human anatomy.
In the video, the lady clearly has some trouble making it seem convenient to wear the thing, though, and it strikes me as something that'd fall off quite frequently without a matching thumb strap.
Further, personal experience with photographic text parsing by smartphones tells me it only works under certain conditions, and that much of the text visible in public places is either too small or difficult for computers to recognize, for instance by being composited over or into a photographic background.
Also, one nitpick from a sighted person: when she supposedly finishes her coffee, both the weight of the cup in her hand and the pattern of coffee on the interior shows it's already empty, and was finished from the other side of the cup.
Yes, I realize it's childish to focus on that and I don't know why it bothers me, to be honest!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The rules for the #SantaVance contest!
This year I've got ten free Evernote Premium accounts to give away. If you don't know what it is, go look at www.Evernote.com: an awesome note-taking and syncing service that allows you to collect, organize, search and synchronize notes, photos and files across a range of computers, devices an the web.
The contest: Christmas Fiction Friction.
Take a movie, novel, comic, song, ballet - whatever, as long as it has a story - and shoehorn Christmas into it.
Violently.
Painfully.
What would your favorite book be called if it took place on the North Pole with elves instead of lawyers? What would you see on your least favorite movie's poster if the hero were a jolly fat man and not some busty spy chick?
Be creative, inventive, push the limits of the rules and show me the depraved depths of your diseased imagination.
You'll need to provide both a title and a tagline or synopsis, but if you really want to show off, I won't hold it against you!
To help me keep track of all the entries, twitter users will need to tag your tweets with #SantaVance. Especially if your submission spans multiple tweets!
The contest will run for 24 hours from the exact minute of this here posting, so put on your Thinking Thong and win a prize!
- Alex S. Vance
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
SoFurry 2.0 "Espresso" design teaser
So, for several months I've been working on the redesign for SoFurry.com. I've been significantly involved with its development (if not the actual day-to-day) for close to two years now. I haven't made a big deal of my involvement, partially, and this is kind of petty, I wasn't happy with the way the site wound up looking and rather than go into which aspects of it I was and wasn't responsible for, I just shut my trap about it.
But Toumal and his coders have been doing mad crazy work on the upcoming 2.0 release, I've been working with them intensely on developing the new look and feel, and frankly I'm too excited to keep quiet any more.
I's an astonishing amount of work, as anyone who's done serious web design for complex systems can tell you. Balancing consistency with context-sensitive functionality is a massively iterative task. I've produced hundreds upon hundreds of drafts, constantly tweaking and revising this or that interface because it turns out that another part of the site needs more space, and so this area must be expanded to maintain consistency, but then that area is no longer in view when the page is loaded on a less-than-HD monitor...
This has been a massive exercise in reductionism. Taking the vast array of functionality SoFurry already offers, plus the cool new stuff coming in 2.0 and smoothing that down into the most usable, least intrusive form. "But Alex, how will people know about this or that function if it's not at the top of the sidebar?" a coder would ask me. "Shut your ugly face, nerdhole," I'd say, and adjust my turtleneck and sip my cappuchino macchiato, "You should know better than to question an arteeste."
There's still a whole bunch to do. The 'completed' areas are being mashed into HTML and PHP and JS and other FDA-approved TLAs, and when the closed beta starts I'm sure I'll have a bunch more work to do becaus I -- yes, it's possible -- hadn't thought of every little goddamn thing.
It's unfair, of course, to claim that this is solely my work. The coders and Toumal have been invaluable and on a fair few occasions have put me in my place when my drive to simplify came at the cost of significant functionality. Others have proposed sometimes subtle, sometimes radical adjustments and while obviously I fought every single one of them tooth and nail, some of them made this stuff much, much better.
So here's a sneak peek. I know, it's corny, it only shows a few glimpses and since this is all placeholder stuff (note that all the visible art and icons were stolen and do not imply endorsement on the part of their owners -- except myself, natch) so the vaguely visible references to Moby-Dick and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air are kind of ridiculous. There's more to come, lots more.
A lot of work has gone into the story listing, fltering, and display interfaces, obviously, because as a writer I have a vested interest in making SoFurry the best place to find stories and showcase your own. Groups will be more useful, the Watchist's functions will be expanded, and in terms of the interface I've made it my mission to make these far more useful for finding new cool stuff than the simple 'browse latest' that so many people are still using.
Much will still change, so don't even think about drawing any conclusions from what you see here. For one thing, I turn thirty years old on January 1, so that alone will need to be changed...
What do you think?
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Modern Times: a no-budget sci-fi short with heart and humanity
http://player.vimeo.com/video/17631561?portrait=0
via vimeo.com
A sweet, sentimental piece shot entirely against green screen with friends for actors. Beautiful.
For those interested; the making-of is here: http://vimeo.com/17761334
Modern Times: a no-budget sci-fi short with heart and humanity
http://player.vimeo.com/video/17631561?portrait=0
via vimeo.com
A sweet, sentimental piece shot entirely against green screen with friends for actors. Beautiful.
For those interested; the making-of is here: http://vimeo.com/17761334
Seagulls and ducks at noon: THE MOVIE.
On my way home yesterday, while taking snapshots of the snow-covered park, I came upon a couple on a bridge not far from my friend Kensaro's home, who were feeding bread to an angry mob of gulls and ducks in a small section of a creek that hadn't yet frozen.
Friday, December 17, 2010
You know that Internet expression 'ROFL', and how much I hate it? QWOP made me actually do it.
Currently only available in Flash, though an iPhone version is awaiting approval! http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html My insides still hurt from the figgle git it gave me. Oh man. If you can't use Flash, here's a trailer for the iPhone version: http://www.youtube.com/v/FqFblpzqego&hl=en&fs=1 Seriously, try it for yourself if you can.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Snow Nautilus: impressive snow sculpture.
via epicwinftw.com
It actually seems too unlikely to be true. Pretty to think so, but I just don't see the top part being structurally sound.
The world according to Facebook: beautiful data visualization at work.
via facebook.com
A Facebook engineer mapped Facebook's massive social graph by weighting cities according to the number of friendships within and between them, producing this jewel of a visualization.
What's fascinating about this, apart from its beauty, is that depending on what you know about a country's politics, technological development and popular tech trends, the map implies or confirms different things for different countries.
China is a big black hole most likely thanks to the Great Firewal. North Africa i mostly dark due to lower population density and developing communication infrastructure, except for the expected hot spots like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and (I think, it's hard to tell) Senegal.
Russia an Brazil nearly don't exist according to this map, but that's likely due to other social networks being more popular there. Probably Vkontakte and Orkut, respectively. Curiously India, also a big user of Orkut, is also very intense on the Facebook map, possibly suggesting they're comfortable maintaining several social networks.
Further, the relationships are fascinating. It's no surprise that Hawaiïans have more connections with the mainland US than with the Asian Pacific Rim, but I was surprised Australia and New Zealand have a stronger connection with south-east Asia than with Europe. Partly due to their colonial history, and Oz's inclusion in the Commonwealth, but also because those countries are tremendously popular retirement and emigration destinations for northern Europeans.
Most interesting, though, is the view this map gives of the relative prominence, at least on Facebook, of nations regardless of their size. Look to the right of Africa's lower tip; the two tiny dots of Reunion and Mauritius are tighly bound by a glowing cord of intense social connectivity, while the lower population density of Madagascar reveals itself as a loose web between the major cities.
And then there are the little geographic mysteries. For instance: what's that little hotspot east of Turkey, northwest of Tehran? It's too far to the east to be T'bilisi; it has intense, short-distance connections mostly toward the west, so it's almost certainly very near the Caspian coast, but what could it be?
Oil, water, and the alphabet: a surreal, hypnotic dream about letters.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/17509873?portrait=0
via vimeo.com
Jesse Zanzinger follows up his previous Refraction experiment ith this beautiful piece. A light table, some letter cut-outs, a camera mounted over a glass of water with some oil poured in. Jaw-dropping stuff.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Awesome, terrifying Hungarian dance routine looks like stop-motion Joker clones on crack
http://www.youtube.com/v/2dIES2KSneQ&hl=en&fs=1
via youtube.com
Okay, FUCK that Vamps vs Wolves bollocks -- THIS is what Hungary has to offer us.
When m'buddy Jotun showed me this we spent a little while arguing whether there was any trick photography regarding the frighteningly staccato motions early on. It turned into one of those situations where he was right, but I won the argument.
Here's the hip-hop dance troupe No Comment performing a mixtape and proving that a mask and a good costume really can make a gigantic difference for a performance. There's no way the disturbing illusion of inhuman motion would have been carried off without the white faces, gloves and boots.
Oh, and here's the same troupe, also on Hungary's Got Talent:
Fifty flavors of faggotry: "Vamps vs. Wolves: The Dance-Off"
http://www.youtube.com/v/8GM4G4QVu-Y&hl=en&fs=1
via youtube.com
From Csillag Születik (Hungary's Got Talent) a performance involving copious amounts of body paint and perfume that... I don't know, should I be turned on by this? I mean, would that be okay? Would I be a bad gay if it didn't turn my crank?
Plz let me know, thanks.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Satellite view of 24hr Air Traffic: the ebb and flow of the people of Earth in night and day
http://www.youtube.com/v/4gkJTJIPWqo&hl=en&fs=1
via youtube.com
Mesmerizing. Notice how the major traffic centers suffer an exodus when darkness approaches, and how they seem endowed with magnetic attraction just when sunlight hits them.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
"It's all too exciting." Leonard Bernstein, in 1957, gushes to his wife about the success of West Side Story.
For the transcript, do click through to the original post at <a href="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/12/its-all-too-exciting.html.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/12/its-all-too-exciting.html.</p>Friday, December 10, 2010
After you're done keeping calm and carrying on...
via flickr.com
The first is a poster created by the British government in the second world war, to be distributed in the event of a German invasion. They rightly assumed that this was such a powerful, profound statement that it should be saved until the darkest hour, when it could do the most good.
That day of course never came and the posers were forgotten, until a batch was found in 2000 in 'Barter Books' in Northumberland, and it rapidly developed into the British version of those Che Guevara prints.
The second is an awesome response to it from designer Olly Moss. I do so love him. He's opened a webshop, and is selling prints!
http://ollymoss.bigcartel.com/product/now-panic-and-freak-out
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Today's morning porridge: thicker than bread dough!
Delicious, though. Bit of honey, loads of maple syrup!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Mountain, tunnels, roads, sheeeeeeep.
via epicwinftw.com
Brokeback Mountain would have turned out very different if they'd had to shep this herd.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Gorgeous puppy portraiture from Tim Flach
From London-based photographer Tim Flach, a series of stunning photographs of the world's finest four-leggers. Afghans, huskies, Doberben... simply stunning.
Full gallery here: http://www.beautifullife.info/art-works/absolutely-amazing-dog-photos-from-ti...
Flach's portfolio (a flash-based site) which also contains a very worth-while series on horses titled Menagerie here: http://www.timflach.com/
Sinterklaas. This is, for real, the biggest national holiday in Holland.
David Sedaris was baffled by our traditions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbJpRLhaSqs&feature=related
I'm not goign to get into it, but them thar colored boys aren't minstrels, they're Zwarte Pieten. It's not racist, we swear!
OMG, so cute. Baby Car Logos, by Communicadores.
Don't you just wanna give a nice ball or chromed yarn to that adorable little rascal of a baby Jag?
A family of ducks is scattered by an epic gust of wind.
http://www.youtube.com/v/SEBLt6Kd9EY&hl=en&fs=1
via youtube.com
The poor little guys! Like little golf-balls being knocked about. They're so bave, though, rolling right back onto their feet and trotting after mum!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Frozen in Legonite. "He's no good to me pixellated."
via epicwinftw.com
Around age 14 I had perfected both the X-Wing and the TIE Advanced, built out of components from then-available kits.
Kids today, with their ready-made kits that come pre-fucking-assembled are a bunch of pussies. Offa my lawn!
:)
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The History of Blasters. How many do you recognize?
via epicwinftw.com
Click the via link if you're stumped, the commenters helpfully provide video clips!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
I, Reader by Alexander Chee - The Morning News
Much of what I love about books, and about the novel in particular, exists no matter the format.
A fellow Alex has penned a beautiful essay on his love of reading, books, and the rise of the Devices.
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/i_reader.php
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Behold! My friend @fuzzwolf gifted me with a redesigned Heathen City logo :)
He knows what I like. Comic Sans? Fuck yeah! Cheesy gradient? Oh baby! Stock lens flare? Almost at the station! All that's missing is a goddamn or tag. How Fuzzwolf mocks me! Even his goddamn email was in Comic Sans... In pink! I'll get you, Fuzzles. I'll fucking GET you :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Actually, Schiphol Airport in winter is kind of pretty.
See that, remember the giant marathon hamster wheel? They hung light on! So pretty.
Schnowwww!
November, man. WTF. This took less than one hour, and it shows no sign of letting up any time soon :)
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Giz perfectly summarizes James Cameron's Avatar:
This is a movie about a man who rapes a dragon until it loves him, then immediately abandons that dragon for a better dragon
via gizmodo.com
I think I need to see it again.
"Maybe it's just catharsis. But I think it's more." A letter from Gene Roddenberry.
Written to his agent during the negotiations for the original Star Trek series, Gene Roddenberry. Patient and principled. Rest in peace.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Let's sing a damn song!
There was a time when people whistled their way to work and headed home singing, when the music in a shop came from the shopkeeper. A time when the 'national throat' was well-lubricated through daily exercise. Radio didn't kill it, but it did give us as a people an excuse not to belt out a tune any more.
Nowadays too many grown men and women shy away when invited to join in. They bashfully abstain, ashamed of their rusty, unpracticed voices. Who can blame them? They hear pitch-perfect auto-tuned studio-engineered hi-fi songs every day; how could a mere mortal measure up to that?
Who cares, say I.
If we just stop being so childish and shy we might get a bit of practice in, and the streets will sound a lot livelier with couple of verses being belted from an open window. And so will this dreary internet of ours.
So shut up and sing. Even if it's only when you're alone; under the shower, vacuuming the floor, cleaning your gun collection. You'll get better, and you'll appreciate music more. You can join in when a song goes up even outside of the drunken comfort of a karaoke bar.
Listen to me: I dare you.
I dare you to grab your phone and download Audioboo, whip out your MP3 player, whatever you might have that can record audio and sing your favorite song.
Right now if you can. Later if you must, but before you go to bed, give your ol' larynx a good workout!
Mess up the words? No sweat. Keep going. Hum a few bars if you have to. Make it to the chorus and belt that shit out, and keep repeating the one verse you can remember. Miss a beat? Take a breath and pick it back up. What do yo think Mick Jagger does when he messes up on stage? Do the rest of the Stones pause and start over? Nah, man.
You know you wanna do it. You already know, right this second, what you want to sing. So why not, just this once?
Maybe you're at work now, or on the bus, that's fine. But when you get home... plug a headset into your computer or whatever, discharge your lungs and post it proudly on the internet. Blast it onto YouSpace or MyFace or toss it in a tweet and tag it with #singadamnsong. Just go for it.
And of course, I'll put my raw, scratchy throat where my mouth is.
Here's my favorite song to sing: De Stad Amsterdam, which is a Dutch translation of Le Port d'Amsterdam by Jacques Brel. I'm not nearly as sweaty as he is, but damn I love that song.
Who's next?
Give me a poke when you post yours. I'd love to hear it!
- Alex
Teenage Dogs Now Available in Snack Packs
Teenage Dogs Now Available in Snack Packs
I love True American Dog so much.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Caborrower: a counter-cultural mirror to the traditional Calendar. By Alex F. Vance.
Every year, the same old thing. Winter, summer, winter again, sometimes with a spring and autumn tossed in just for color, but ultimately it's cyclical drudgery.
And why? Do we really benefit from the same boring tidal oscillation of moods and atmospheres?
Let's try something different. Instead of lending, let's borrow (disclosure: I briefly toyed with the idea of a castealer but worried about the legal implications) and reinvent our year, beginning with the names of our months:
- Jaoldary: While we're used to frothing at the mouth at the prospect of the shiny and untried, at the opening of the year, maybe we should put Janewary on hold for a year and instead reflect on all that's come before.
- Februwatery: All that vapid, noxious gasbaggery we always engage in around Februairy is well and good, but wouldn't a nice splash of fluidity be more refreshing? Also good for otters.
- Saunter: Come on, guys. The year's still young. Should we really be Marching in lockstep already? Chill.
- Primateril: There's more to the ungulate, dextrous animal kingdam than just the hairy brutes we always celebrate in Aperil. So we can either cycle through (Monkeyril, Lemurril, Macaqueril, etc.) or we can decide we are all brothers and celebrate our opposable thumbs together.
- Ringworld: Perhaps it may not be as popular as Frank Herbert's world-renowned June, but Larry Niven's month also won a Huga and Nebula award, and a Locus, thank you very much.
- Juhonest: With half the year over it may be easy to slip into bad habits, but fibbing, as we typically do in Julie, is not cool. The truth will out, so let's stick with what works.
- Aubreeze: In many parts of the inhabited world we're just enjoying the last spasms of summer, so if we really must have the wind caressing our skin, let it be the warmth of this month instead of the shocking Augusts we've resigned ourselves to.
- Antiseptember: Just because the hard part of the year is over is no reason to become complacent about hygiene and cleanliness. Be clean, disinfect, or your house will smell like a Septembic tank.
- Squidtober: Technically I could have gone for Coleoidtober in the vein of Primateril's all-inclusive equality, but there's only really three subclasses to worry about, so it'd be nice to let them take turns in the spotlight. We've had October for a while, so I propose we alternate between Squidtober and Cuttlefishtober for the forseeable.
- Yesvember: Why so pessimistic in the penultimate month? I've had enough ot November, where everything I propose is shot down because there's so little time left. Let's be more positive for a change!
- Cember: We deconstruct, declassify, even decry on occasion, and at the end of every year we December it. Aren't you curious what would happen if we didn't remove it? If we just Cembered on for a bit? Let's find out!
I'm looking forward to 2011, let me tell you.
Who's with me?
- Alex F. Vance
Friday, November 19, 2010
FC '08 Writing Panel #3 - Meet the Editors
The third furry writing panel I gave at Further Confusion 2008. The turnout was a bit slim as the panel was planned on the very last day and most people had already left, but good fun was had nonetheless.
I was joined at the table by two fellow editors. There was our own Ben Goodridge, who edited the first volume of our non-erotic fiction anthology ROAR, and Quentin "Cubist" Long who edits ANTHRO, the online anthology.
Pretty much all the attendees were writers, which made for an interesting and diverse set of topics.
FC '08 Writing Panel #2 - Narrative Techniques
In early 2008, in the strange land of California, a slightly younger me gave his first furry writing panels in person, to standing room only.
The previous one was concerned with the Fundamental Story; this one delved into the judicious use of a few more advanced narrative techniques, including surprise/suspense, tragedy, sentimentality, and that most terrible and terrifying of techniques: the joke.
The audience was wonderful, and a delight to speak to. In attendence were authors Ben Goodridge, Teiran Dragon and André "Badger" Blaireau, each of whom had a book published by Bad Dog Books.
Among many fine, insightful, and sometimes hilarious others.
FC '08 Writing Panel #1 - The Fundamental Story
In this episode, we hear a recording of the first writing panel taught by Alex Vance at the Further Confusion convention in January 2008 in the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California.
In this panel, Alex discusses the Fundamental Story. Also known as the hero's journey. Lightly touching on Vladimir Propp's 'Morphology of the Folk Tale', the session quickly spirals out of control with a deconstruction of a bizarre hybrid of The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
Sadly, the recording failed after only half an hour due to a technical malfunction, but the portion that is recorded here, at least, should hopefully prove informative.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
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