97: Ice Capades Commercial
I saw this old commercial the other day (watch it)…
…and 2 things hit me.
The first thing was a hand. Megan slapped me because I had immediately fallen into a deep trance and was buying Ice Capades tickets by the bucketful, killing anyone who stood in my way. That snapped me out of it.
The second thing that hit me, though, was just how effective a commercial that is. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ice Capades for hours. Or at least I couldn’t stop thinking about the words “Ice Capades” repeated over and over in an ever-increasingly-creepier whisper, and that’s pretty much the same thing from a marketing perspective.
I wondered why nobody advertises products this way anymore, and I planned to fix it. So I made this:
…and this:
Do you want to buy cereal or scissors now?
Yes, you do.
96: Snowplows hate dots
An observation:
Earlier in the week, it snowed, and now that the snow is melting away, little dots are appearing in the plow banks.
Hundreds of little dots. Such a clean separation. I’m kind of impressed.
Maybe we can harness this technology and put it to better use:
95: Some animations?
Here’s something I made from some stock photography.
Before:
Boring
The more I looked at this photo, the more it became apparent that it needed to be animated.
After:
Much better.
That was fun, so I decided to make a harder one. Let’s try hair:
Let that be a lesson to you about the dangers of resting your chin on your hands.
94: Sheep Comic
Here’s a thing. (click for bigger)
Someone has probably already done this joke (I’m looking at you Gary Larson), but I don’t really want to look it up. So, it’s original to me.
93: Nesting doll family
Happy new year.
I’m in Texas for the holidays.
I’m currently sitting next to my mom on the couch watching Jaws. Neither of us particularly wanted to watch Jaws, but my dad turned it on and fell asleep with the remote. We don’t want to wake him up, because it’s his birthday. So, I figured I could take this time to update the blog. I suppose it’s pretty close to this week’s deadline anyway.
Like I said, it’s my dad’s birthday, and since I didn’t have a lot time for handmade gifts, the guy with 2 gift occasions near Christmas gets the good one. Here’s what he got this year.
That’s a Russian nesting doll with his face on it. His big, pink face. My dad takes pictures while talking. All his pictures are in mid-word, so this doll is too. Also, he is wearing Zubaz pants, because he once bought 4 pairs and wore only them while he was at home.
Inside the first doll is one that kind of looks like my mom. It’s hard to make flattering portraiture on bowling-pin-shaped pieces. And I made these all from memory, so I accidentally gave her a haircut from about a decade ago.
Now the punchline is coming up, so I must explain. These are arranged in order of age, and I have younger twin brothers. So next is me, then who?
I could easily make the technically younger twin the smaller one, but where’s the fun in that?
Two in one!
I split the smallest piece in half, length-wise and painted each half like a different brother. Problem solved!
And here’s a picture of the whole family.
If your interested in the process, I made these all with Sharpie oil paint markers, They’re pretty decent for this kind of work. I just get red, blue, yellow, white, and black and mix them on the surface as I go.
The bodies are from a set of nesting Santas. I sanded a few down, but then I figured out that I didn’t need to, so I just painted over them.
Goodnight, Happy 2012, and see ya next week!
92: Holiday preparations
I’m currently flying high over you right now. Well, maybe I am. If you live between Seattle and Dallas, and are reading this blog post within a few hours of its publishing. So, I’m probably not flying over you right now, actually.
Anyway, I was busy all week working and making plans for travel and holidays, so I didn’t do much I can share. I made a few gifts, but the recipients read the blog, so that’ll come later. I can however, show you what I did last night:
Yep. Gift wrapping.
(thanks to gifsofpopularrappers.tumblr.com for the original image)
I went with a classy black paper this year, and shiny ribbons.
Megan was shipping her presents this year, so she devised a cool way to spruce up the boring old box.
Nothing at first, but when you open it…
BOOM! Christmas explosion!
Well, that’s it for this week. I’ll tell you what’s inside next time.
91: ExtravaCANza!
I updated the Adventures in eating section of the blog today.
Yes! It’s the canned food adventure you’ve all been waiting for!
So, go check out me eating gelatinous and translucent things:
Whew. Got that in just under the wire, this week, again.
See you next week.
90: Hardly workin’
Wanna know what I did this week?
I got a job.
For the first time in about 3 years. So, that’s nice.
But, what does that mean for you? Can you expect the quantity or quality of these weekly somethings to change? I sure hope not. I’m going to try to keep doing this forever.
And for those of you who will inevitably say that this isn’t “something”, here’s a comic I managed to make during my first week of work. Yeah, that’s 2 somethings for the price of one this week. BOOM!
Click for bigger.
89: WordPress avatars
When you leave a comment, a picture appears next to your name. However, if you haven’t uploaded a picture, WordPress will generate a custom avatar using your email address (example to the right). Each is different, and since it stays with the email address it sticks with you and can eventually become your identity.
You’ve probably seen them in the comments on this blog and others. And, you may have noticed that since they’re symmetrical, they function as a sort of Rorschach test. What do you see?
Here’s what I see, when I look at your comments.
Let’s start off with the one I can’t help but see. Every time I look at this icon, I see a little blue person drooling with excitement, and now so will you.
You get the idea. This is going to be a long post, so get your scrollin’ finger warmed up. Read more…
88: Cupcake Diffuser
First things first: Welcome, new subscribers! Thanks for checking out the blog, and please allow me to alienate up to half of you with the following highly controversial statement.
I don’t really like cupcakes.
I mean, I’m not going to turn you down if you offer me one. But as I’m eating a cupcake, I can’t help thinking how much better it would be if it was just a regular slice of plate-and-fork cake. I could go on, but this post isn’t about bashing cupcakes, it’s about averting disaster!
Cupcakes are hot right now, and as a result, everybody has an opinion on the subject. Because of this, bringing cupcakes to a social gathering can be dangerous. It’s practically an open invitation to start an argument. So, how do we solve this potential party faux pas?
Fear not, and be prepared for the inevitable with the Cupcake Diffuser!
Pictured above is the (patent pending) Cupcake Diffuser. It is simply a cake with cupcake-shaped holes already baked in. All you have to do is bring this negative-cupcake to any party, and when someone shows up with cupcakes, fill the holes. Crisis averted.
“But what if no one shows up with cupcakes?” you might ask. Yeah, right… Someone will.
Here’s how I made it:
