I love stuff that pokes fun at people who take themselves too seriously.  And Nicolas Cage definitely seems to take himself too seriously (helloooo, pyramid tomb anyone?)! 

A lot of these are just bad, but there are some really funny ones in there:

Nic Cage As Everyone

Makes me want to go home and make one.  Mean?  I don't think so.  If I were a celeb, I think I'd be flattered.  I'd hope I'd be the kind that can laugh at myself, a la



As Nikki Sixx - this is actually a believable photoshop



As Zach Braff

Speaking of "taking ourselves too seriously"...

And as another who takes themselves too seriously, Celine Dion

He's Rick James, Bitch!

Kool-Aid Man, Oh No!!

In honor of surviving the passing of "Raptor Jesus Day 2011", I had to post these. These crack me the heck up. Esp the first one.

NOTE: I did not create and I do not claim the right to any of these pictures.

Woot!

This friggin' rocks.

The Art of Video Games

This speaks to the geek in me.  So many days of my childhood spent playing Pacman and Pitfall on the Atari 2600, and later Super Mario Brothers and the many games of the Sim City franchise. Ahh...sweet sweet video games.

I remember when these graphics:

Seemed so advanced and blew my mind.

I'm sorry I missed the voting.  The curators solicited votes from the online community to determine which games would be displayed in the exhibition. Here's a fully immersible 360 degree video game called Titanic: Adventure out of Time for the PC that I used to play all of the time (circa 1997-1999) and loved the visuals. Apparently, there is still even a blog about the game.

This brings justification to me. To the professor in the early 1990s who told me there was no correlation between a Computer Science major and an Art major, I say, SUCK IT!




And while we're talkin' 'bout video games.....Best Birthday Cakes EVAHHHH:

Super Mario Bros Cake

Pacman Atari Birthday Cake

Ummmm.  Wow.  That's all I have to say.

Japanese Lab Invents Internet Kissing Machine

Twee - I just learned that word yesterday.  It's British slang for "cute".  Been dying to use it, and now I have a reason!

I present the following heart-twistingly cuddliness:

Animals With Stuffed Animals of Themselves

Animals With Stuffed Animals

You're welcome. 



I don't like rats, but ZOMG!!  The cuteness!  Gah! 

We as designers don't always think about the impact our work can have on the world. Check out this article on CNN about the supposedly infamous "War Room" photo:

What Situation Room Photo Reveals About Us

Apparently, this photograph:



Photo by Getty Images


Has become the most viewed photo on flickr. According to the author of the article, this photo reveals three history making and earth shattering messages to us.  It supposedly is changing perceptions on:

1. Race
2. Women
3. "Presidential Swagger"

For those of us not up on our presidential lingo - like me - Presidential Swagger refers to the machismo of the president.  Or at least, how macho the public perceives the president to be.

The race thing is because they contend this photo does not portray Obama in an "Angry Black Man" stereotype.  And women because historically iconic photos of the president (think Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs) do not have anything other than MEN MEN MEN MEN Manly MEN in them.

And, on a local slant, some professor from Lehigh was quoted.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for progressive thinking and removing stereotypes.  But really?  Really? Dude is almost up for re-election people.  Can we get over the omg-there's-someone-not-white in the White House?  Don't forget he's 1/2 white.  But he's always referred to as a black man when someone on either side trots out the race card.  Who cares??!  He's a person!!  Good God. 

And women?  Yes, it's great we're all showing up more, but gasp!  This isn't the 1950s anymore.  Women are allowed out of the house now.  We might show up in important pictures.

I honestly did not think any of those thoughts when I first looked at the picture.  My thoughts were 1.Wow - look at the emotion and intensity on President Obama's face.  It is obvious he didn't take this lightly.  2.  Do all of those old guys go to the same barber? And 3.  Hillary actually has an emotion on her face.  Turns out, she was probably just trying to cover a cough. 

Which brings me to my point. Perception is everything. Some people want to read something into eeeeeeeeeverything. 

In the photo above, the expert from Lehigh weighed in on Hillary:

Yet you see two powerful women in the Situation Room photograph -- Clinton and Audrey Tomason, director for counterterrorism, who is straining to see from the back. Their inclusion shows how far women have come, Ambar says, even though Clinton's response is ambiguous because she's covering her mouth in what looks to be alarm.
"God only knows what she's seeing on the screen," Ambar says.

Perception. So-called expert sees something, says it in on a global stage (ie. the interwebs), and many who read believe. All along, she's probably just trying not to cough at an inappropriate time.

I'm not saying we're all going to design things or photograph things that will impact on a global, or even national level.  But it is something to think about.  This is why I'm so fascinated with Photoshop disasters.  What message will you send to your audience, whether intentionally or unintentionally?  What will they perceive from what you present?  How can manipulation of reality affect people's morals, values or actions?  Or maybe, as a people, we over-analyze waaaay too much?

Imagine.  Maybe McCain's thinking "I need a nap" or "I shouldn't have had that second tacquito".  Maybe Obama's thinking "I could use a smoke right about now."  Maybe they're watching Family Guy. Who knows for sure?

1. Print-to-Web
2. Archer*
3. Webking Redesign
4. Blog (here, obviously!)
5. Portfolio Site

*fyi should anyone be looking at this other than those in my class, this assignment was an early assignment so therefore only the cast link and subsequent character pages are coded.

I put my portfolio site live late Saturday night/Sunday morning. Since then, I've been obsessed with checking it, as if the internet gremlins are coming to muck with my copy or jumble up my images or something.

So, it kind of surprised me to find this site for VIP Design, Inc, located on Center Street in Bethlehem.  Look closely at the image below, and you'll a few things that jumped out at me as just plain wrong (the main one is not circled in red).


Did you see it?  (hint: all of the letter As on the page have been replaced with E).

As I was reading the copy to myself, I was hearing the words in my head in a Russian and/or German-esque accent.

And it's not just on the index page.  It's on the customer service page too.  I didn't really want to go any further and check any other pages.

Wouldn't you NOTICE that?  WOW.  And to say "You'll get e high-quelity design for less money" (see first circled area in the pic above).  Whet [sic] could be better? Indeed!

And further, it is not exactly confidence inspiring to see the words "This page has been generated with the Demo version of EZGenerator" at the bottom of the page.  Why in the heck would I want to pay someone to create a site for me when I could download a DEMO version of a program and do it myself?

The thing is...apparently this firm/dude is getting some biz.  There's stuff on the portfolio page.  Guess I shouldn't obsess about my site as much anymore, huh? ;)