If you are like me, you may have a slight obsessio...

If you are like me, you may have a slight obsession with typographic materials, such as magazine publications, posters, specimens and well, fonts. There is a wonderful opportunity to use your obsession for a greater cause. Building Letters is an annually published magazine that showcases the work of sought after designers with the proceeds going to charity projects. When I say designers, I am talking about some of the greats; David Carson, Neville Brody, and Eboy to name a few. Oh and did I mention it isn't just a magazine, but a magazine with posters and a CD of fonts, graciously donated by still more great designers, such as John Downer, Sami Kortemaki and Max Kisman? It is a beautifully crafted piece, I have ordered mine, you go order yours.

I am starting to realize that there should be a new intention for this blog, and that is to prove to the world that I am, actually, an insane person. While writing some copy for a signage project, the following sentence appeared automagically (thanks to JLT for that word):

I never could tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf, but once I saw a pit bull bite a unicorn's leg, and well, I knew from that point on those suckers were murderous, devil worshiping sonsa' bitches.

The only reason I am here, with you, blogging away...

The only reason I am here, with you, blogging away in the morning, is because I am testing out a new app called ecto, a nice blogging client that allows for offline composition, entry management and various sweet extras. Otherwise, I have nothing to say and I'd really just like to drink a cup of coffee with my 968 1536 unread articles in NewsFire.

My favorite on-line Thanksgiving message today:

"We'd like to thank turkeys for being both stupid and delicious. Of course our thanks go out to Almighty God for selecting George W. Bush to lead us through these troubled times. On that note, we'd also like to thank whoever invented the Martini."

Thanks SFist for being such a lovely read, and thanks to Canada for taking away my delicious turkey opportunity.

People, calm yourselves. If you didn't get the notice, here is the deal. Replace the 'ph' with an 'f' and you can still access the forums, for a limited time, until Typophile completes the ole hosting switcheroo. Everything is going to be OK, I promise. I told you it would be alright.

Woah. This is pretty awesome, so awesome in fact, I would be depriving you of pure joy by not linking this site. Do you want to P-Shift? No, don't hit the 'P' and 'Shift' keys, like I did at first. P-shifting is something along the lines of using God's word to change into another creature, like a dragon or even a pink bunny with angel wings [I swear it says that on the site]. SERIOUSLY. It is on the internet, so it must be real. If you are interested in P-shifting, and are serious about becoming your favorite animal, there are a few procedures one must follow in order for the transition to be a success, things like making sure you have dog toothpaste, (cause human toothpaste makes animals foam at the mouth), getting a good Vet and stocking up on medieval swords. Oh yes, don't forget to become a celebrity RIGHT AWAY after the shifting has occurred, not only is it profitable, but it will prevent any potential kidnapping by the evil army. Jeezus Crikey on Holy Toast.

One more thing, when you get tired of bashing America, take a look at what the French are doing.*Warning: Large download, Graphic content.

Links via Metafilter.

Remember the days when you were a small child, visiting a petting zoo with your family? That was nice, right? Remember all the funny little goats that would approach you, and then gnaw on your hand or maybe bite off your face? Well, there are a lot of people who remember that moment in their lives so clearly that they have devoted their lives to making sure this doesn't happen to others. Scarred and forever traumatized by the events, the Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation has set up a website so that you, and YOU, can help any potential victims of these mad, mad creatures.

Link via The Morning News.

Tonight on the short train-ride home, I saw one of my favorite shoe designers, John Fluevog. Not a huge surprise, it is well known he lives here, but still I thought of his presence as slightly humbling, since well, I WAS wearing my trusty Fluevogs at the time. I then felt it was my duty as a loyal consumer, to let him know that I appreciate him and his lovely shoes – and that I was too cool for skool, of course. I saw him lecture a year or so ago, and I was always upset that I didn't approach him with a fat silver sharpie and have him sign my mid-calf leather boots. I thought to myself, "now is as good of a time as any, I do have a sharpie – it is no silver sharpie, but he can sign the inside with a black one." Yeh, that thought lasted for as much as about a milli-second (because then I started salivating over the thought of having a huge assortment of sharpies and all the things I would draw on) when I remembered that I am unable to approach people of even mild fame and celebrity stature. Unless you are someone like, Carrot Top – who is just a retard, on TV and in real life; or the lead singer of the Autumns, cause, uh, I had been daydreaming about him for what seems like my entire adult life and plus gin helps ease the nerves, or maybe Damon Albarn, cause well – it makes the conversation less stressful when the other guy is passing out due to his heroin problem. My stop came and I left the train, slowly making sure to kick up my heel so Mr Fluevog could catch a glimspe of the giant blue 'F' on the sole of my shoe, me relying on the hope that he is completely obsessed with staring at people's feet, curious about what shoes they might be wearing. Who knows, maybe it makes his day to see is life's work stroll by during the daily commute?

Dear Santa,

The holidays are upon us, and my duty as a child is to work out a wish-list, cause that is the perfect thing for me and my life, more stuff to do, wear and look at. I have worked out a small list of items, one recent addition I have no URL for, but just imagine a tiny little bear that fits in the palm of your hand* (not a toy, it must be a live creature. Teeth or claws are OK, just as long as they are very, very small, cause when little tiny creatures bite and try to defend their sweet little lives, I can't help but giggle). Other items include, but are not limited to, the real reason I go to London, something to help me keep my iPod slightly more alive (I dropped it again, today) than Yasser Arafat (huzzah!), and last but not least, who could live their life without a Neiman Marcus Zeppelin. All the kids at school have Zeppelins, and well, I am feeling a little left out.

Ok, my real list is really just made up of books and magazine subscriptions, but don't tell anyone.

*You think I joke? This information is so public it's true.

I have had dozens of nice emails and things from people regarding my recent computer tragedy, I really appreciate all the generosity and support, thanks.

I am close to recovery I suppose, I do have tons of work to make up but I am optimistic about it. I did get a new laptop, so I am not completely out of touch with the world – but of course it put a nice dent in my finances. And because I am starting from scratch, the most important things I have had to do is re-configure, everything. Fonts must be installed,folders must be created and organized as well as all music uploaded and rated accordingly, cause you know, a hierarchical music system is much more important than my educational goals. Bookmarks shall be set, accounts and passwords input and saved, calibration and application installs – and now some toying with complex things I don't really understand, like MySQL and PHP, Wiki wiki wack. I'll be here for a few days.

One of my worst nightmares just came true – my laptop, my work life, my school life, jeez I suppose my entire life – was stolen out of my bag tonight while I was having a lovely meal at a neighborhood restaurant. What baffles me is that I never saw a thing, I never felt the presence of that criminal hand that reached below my feet to sift through my bag. I was too distracted by a book I just purchased, and I never thought I would ever say that I am pissed as all hell those words completely consumed my mind. I don't even want to finish the book now, it is too upsetting. At first glance, once I reached for my wallet to pay my bill, I sensed something was wrong, my umbrella laying at my feet and the unusual lightness of the bag as I lifted it. It took a moment or two to realize whether or not I was completely insane and that perhaps I had just 'left' the fucking thing somewhere. I knew that was impossible and my deepest fear turned into a reality once I saw some of my paperwork laying on the table behind me. I wish I would have seen then man, (two waiters did see him) because I would be out on the streets right now with club in hand, ready to take back what it rightfully mine – but instead I will just sit alone with my tears, wondering how on earth I will replace the dozens of hours put into projects (that yes, I did not back up properly, and I know this is my own damned fault so please, don't even mention it) and catch up on over two months of work that I was already failing to keep up with. I hope to be back in the digital realm by tomorrow's end, I am forced to replace the equipment of course, please send money.

The genre of science-fiction taught us that the future was going to bring new forms of human communication and interaction; video, holographic projection [provided only by your own personal R2 unit] and of course being 'beamed' to various locations (efficient modes of transport) are the most common examples of what the future would be like. In elementary school I used to always sit around with friends and calculate my age when the new century would begin, "Oh I will be 23 years old in the year 2000 and I will fly around with a rocket booster and talk to my friends through the television!" This isn't quite how things worked out, I have no rocket booster, have no flying car (nor any car) and well, my television hardly renders basic cable (but then again HDTV is fairly impressive, just not in my price range). However, from time to time I am confronted with the reality that we have, in many ways, reached these milestones and even surpassed certain expectations with current technologies. They have managed to comfortably integrate themselves into our lifestyles (this of course can be argued on many levels), and well I almost didn't notice the change, at least not in the way we thought we might notice, or be affected by it. A large bomb was not dropped on my head containing space suits, rocket powered roller-skates and floating skateboards.

I use applications, like iChat, religiously. It is how I communicate with many of my peers, family and sometimes pets. On occasion video chats take place and I am sometimes forced to say to myself, "Holy shit, this is amazing! I am freakin' talking to someone through my screen in real time!" I had one of these moments recently, when a furry-faced man magically appeared in front of me.



Christmas is upon us and I do believe I need an iSight. I am not so sure of my comfort level with allowing everyone to see myself hunched over a laptop most of the time, and I don't know that anyone wants to see me picking my nose in a sea of empty bottles of Terrible. Then again, I can eliminate things like emoticons and mispelled words from all my drunken chats – saving my precious fingers for nose-picking and making shadow puppets.