natecooper.net

While the story in the above video is somewhat interesting, what I find more fascinating is the library workers interviewed for the piece. Seeing their meticulous organization and preservation work all while wearing fancy little doctor’s coats is kind of neat. The zeal with which they prepared the work and the giddiness I sense for their discovery of the hidden picture in the cardboard slats is very endearing.

I guess I have a soft spot for collectors. Many of my best friends (and myself) could be considered pack-rats and it makes one wonder where the line between obsessive collector and archivist really is drawn. There’s a sort of joy in seeing people who are clearly competent and really enjoy their job. The way the girl with the green hair in the video looks lovingly to the patch collector is quite nice.

(via The NY Public Library Blog)

Pictured above is among the more radical of interesting new takes on bedding design from an article on weburbanist.

I myself prefer the hammock but all of them present interesting ideas and something to think about considering how much time we (human beings) spend on average in bed over a lifetime.

For reasons I cannot go into at this time I have been advising over the course of the pass several weeks a person older than myself in the ways us younger people (can I still claim that?) use social networks. Most specifically we’ve been looking at Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been hesitant in my advice for a few reasons: 1. I am basing my lessons purely on my own personal observations with no real outside citations and 2. I have had at length conversations with others my age (I’m 28) about how we don’t fully understand how people who are younger than us use these resources.

However, in thinking about these things I have just proven correct one of my tenets of social web sites. I had been telling my tutee that Facebook is more casual and merely an extension of real-world relationships and twitter is a bit edgier in that it does not rely on approval for connections to be made. Instead Twitter is less about friendship and more about reputation. Browsing around the web today I just discovered some evidence which seems to prove me correct.

I just read an article from Kottke.org about Facebook and Twitter and decided to look Jason Kottke up on both networks. Given Jason’s status as an internet celebrity it’s not surprising he has a large number of Twitter followers (nearly 10,000 as of this writing). A glance at his Facebook page is quite a contrast, however. He has a mere 13 friends. Interestingly he does have a public profile meaning that anyone can browse through a large amount of info on him — that’s something for a separate post.

This probably comes as no surprise to anyone who regularly uses both forums but given that I have been teaching someone social etiquette on these sites it’s nice to have outside verification of my assumptions. I wonder if anyone has done a comprehensive book on how people use Web 2.0. I suspect that it would be outdated shortly after writing it. Until then we’ll have to live with Internet Party as a singular source on the topic.

To describe the fun of using Poladroid really just pales compared to experiencing it. This little bitty app closely replicates the experience of using a Polaroid camera. Not only does it take any picture you drop onto its funky camera icon and convert it into a Polaroid-like photo with faded colors and that classic white border. It also actually makes you wait for the photo to “develop”.

As you sit there staring at the little mini picture slowly come into focus through the brown developer you can actually use your mouse to grab and drag the images so as to “shake” it. When my roommate asked me if the shaking makes the photo develop faster; I replied “I don’t know! Just like a real Polaroid!”

This is a must see random app.

(via hrrrthrrr)

Kind of a little excited by seeing this pic.

These are my delicious and google reader posts for October 10th through October 17th:

• Trilobite Beetle of Laos -
• Hush -
• PalinAsPresident.com -
• The one and only Charley Harper. -
• Robocorn -

A compelling argument for why companies shouldn’t be avoiding social media. Statistics seem to indicate that individuals want a more open dialog but only a small number of Fortune 500 companies maintain a blog.

(via britopian.com)

These are my delicious and google reader posts for October 10th through October 17th:

• Trilobite Beetle of Laos -
• Hush -
• PalinAsPresident.com -
• The one and only Charley Harper. -
• Robocorn -

Being in a somewhat captive audience on the subway it’s hard not to soak in the visual stimuli provided by advertising on the train. In between the blur of Budweiser and city services ads every so often an ad or a campaign stands out. A more recent series that has burned an image in the back of my brain is an entry from Dentyne to promote their gum. The ads play with the concept that internet technology and culture have wedged themselves in-between actual human contact. The ads use naturalistic photography juxtaposed with plain text representations of common internet phrases and communique. The implicit meaning is that these locutions are insufficient compared to their real-life counterparts and that one should reject the distance created by technology. The warmth of actual intimacy — while chewing gum — is apparently preferable to the sterile distance of online communication. I like the ads. Whenever I board the train and see one I find myself staring for lengthy periods of time but I also feel that I have a completely opposite reaction than the ads direct meaning.

One of the greatest tools several thousands dollars of debt and a film degree have given me is the ability to perform and obsession with imagery analysis. I like the idea that pictures carry a visual vocabulary of meaning. The Dentyne ads to me carry an emotional weight in that their imagery communicates feelings like love, friendship, communion, humanity. They are beautifully shot and really have a sort of aesthetics of the real kind of feel to them. For a while, the reason behind my fascination eluded me, I liked the images but felt off-put by the message. To me the internet is not a de-facto distancing technology, but quite the opposite. It can be used to extend and facilitate real human interaction. It is useful in its supplemental function as a way to find people who might otherwise slip through the cracks and its ability to communicate information like performances, parties, gatherings en masse. When used properly in fact the internet can be the means to an end for real-life human intimacy. It finally hit me when I saw the above image “Friend Request Accepted” and I realized what it was about the ad campaign that stood out.

For me, far from criticizing or commenting on the distance between what these words mean and the representative picture of the women hugging I think the emotional connection I associate with the image and the meaning of the words is one and the same. In a way “Friend Request Accepted” is a sort of virtual hug between two people. What’s bizarre for me is the way in which I realized I had associated emotional significance to such phrases in the same way I attributed the same feeling to imagery. In a way the sterile, unassuming phrases we are accustomed to seeing online become a snap-shot of an emotion that is both visceral and in a way hyperreal.

After all, how often are we conscious of the moments we become friends? I can name many people I would consider close friends but I can’t name the specific point at which that became the case for each relationship. I can think of instances, moments when that connection manifested and I became aware of the reality of our friendship. But, as with many people my day to day interactions are not so much a catalog of those moments of clarity but instead a deluge of taking life for granted. That is what really hits me about this campaign. The isolated clips provide a window into an untapped level of awareness. Whether they be generic computer phrases or beautiful photographs.

I wonder how my recent arab-fetish fits into my desire to remake my room with all of these comfy pillows. I am totally in love with all of the decor in these photos. Click on the pic for more.

(via style-files)