This is a mash-up:

So I really don’t think EVERYONE should blog — but we quote this YouTube video (below) at our office all the time. It’s hilarious (or at least to us it is).

Within the past week Twitter has been blowing up about the website www.faceyourmanga.com. This site has completely gone viral — which is just fancy corporate jiber-jab-er for “everyone is telling everyone about it and everyone is doing it” (I swear that makes sense in my head).

The website is simple, it’s a tool for creating your own avatar. There tons of choices and options (much like the Nintendo Mii). Pointless? Maybe. Fun? Yep! Check out mine below and (i’m still not convinced it looks exactly like me) go to www.faceyourmanga.com and make your own.

I read an article in the New York Times regarding last months launch of www.criminalsearches.com. Essentially it’s a free service that lets you search government records criminal backgrounds. And you can search for everyone… in every state. Keep in mind, it’s using all public data that’s available — except now it’s online and for free. Whoaaaaa - what!?!

“…the site draws data directly from local courthouses and offers records of arrests and convictions in connection with everything from murder to minor infractions like blowing past a stop sign — at least for jurisdictions that include traffic violations in their criminal data. It also lets users view a map showing addresses and names of all those arrested or convicted of a crime in a specific neighborhood, and to place alerts that prompt e-mail when someone in their life gets busted or someone with a record moves in nearby (via).”

It’s increasingly more common for everyone — not just HR departments to “Google” your name to see what kind of information they can find out about you. I’m sure there are critics out there that will say this is “creepy” and “unfair”. However, if the information is not restricted in any way, placing it online for reference is was inevitable. Try it out, you know you want to .

» www.criminalsearches.com

Brilliant interpretation of lolspeak! I love it.

For anyone involved or around graphic design, typography or branding, you might find yourself chuckling at this “Font Conference” sketch (I know I did). Personally my current favorite font is Trajan (it changes frequently — 3 months ago it was Garamond). The fact I have a favorite font — is a CLEAR indication I’m totally a geek.

Over dinner tonight I found this snippet in Wired magazine about “What Not to Say in a Facebook Status Update”:

1. Rockin’ Freebird!
2. Rubbing cream on that thing I noticed last weekend. Doesn’t seem to be working.
3. Buying DC Universe Classics Wave 5 the Atom at Wal-Mart! Build-a-figure Metallo is complete!
4. Feeling trapped in this male body.
5. Jesus, I’m lonely.
6. D’oh! Accidentally trimmed my pickin’ nail.
7. Watching The Notebook again.
8. Quick! Does anyone know the age of consent in Kentucky?
9. Just came up with a new emoticon for sanguine [:<≠>
10. Thinking about maybe talking to someone.

On a related note, I had interesting dialogue today with a client in which I was describing the increasing importance of managing your own Personal Brand. Facebook status updates are one piece of the puzzle to building your Personal Brand. The keys to success with Facebook status updates? Be authentic, compelling (add value), be consistent, and update it frequently. You’ll be surprised the mileage you can get out of utilizing Facebook status updates when you follow those principles.

So like the rest of America, I went to see the new Batman movie this weekend anxiously anticipating “the hype” of the Oscar winning performance given by Maggie Gyllenhaal Heath Ledger.

Do yourself a favor and go see it.

While a highly critical person like myself could find minor flaws and make arguments against it, it’s an impressive motion picture that holistically is a masterpiece. Period. No matter what I do to describe the movie, regardless of your expectations and knowledge prior to seeing the movie — it will pale in comparison with what The Dark Knight is prepared to deliver. It’s full of surprises you don’t see coming.

Most comic book action movies are shallow at delivering substance. Why? Because most action movie story lines and acting suck. This movie brings a deeper dimension not only to the Batman series, but for action movies in general.

After you watch the movie consider this; the poetic delivery of the theme “evil” and “darkness” throughout the movie is ambivalent. I personally found myself drawn in to Ledgers’ morbid visceral creepy performance of the Joker so brilliant it was hard to swallow the fact I was falling in love with the villain of the movie — not the superhero.  Here’s a video comparing the performances of both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.  Who do you think was is better?

• Did you know… the orchestral score of the movie was done by Hans Zimmer and James Howard. Zimmer and Howard gave the director an iPod filled with 10 hours of music cues based on just the script, which Zimmer contends the director memorized on flights to and from Hong Kong.

• Did you know… IMAX technology was used to shoot some of the action scenes.

• Did you know… the caterers on the film provided intricately thought-out fruit plates for Christian Bale that were a bit more composed and deliberate, whereas the food for Heath Ledger was arranged in a more frazzled, chaotic, Joker-like fashion.

My favorite shot/scene from the entire movie is actually only a 5-second clip — the part with the Joker, when he has his head out of the cop car. What a beautiful shot.

If you’re in the web business, an entrepreneur, or just a plain geek at heart — you’ll get a good laugh at this video (below).

One of the blogs I have bookmarked on my RSS reader for comedic relief is called indexed. Essentially, the author (Jessica), posts a random index card with either a chart, graph or ven diagram. It’s completely random in subject matter, but follows the common theme of “make fun of some things and sense of others.” Maybe it’s the corporate presentation and context of “charts and graphs” that help, but I find her sense of humor hilarious. This was one of my favorites of her most recent posts:

Someone dropped this link in my inbox today — and it made me laugh out loud. While it’s totally a viral campaign for Converse, it’s either genius or just plain stupid. I’m erring on the side of ridiculously creepy funny.

Check it out @www.kissingwithross.com

I was working with one of my graphic designers today and she had this uber cool background image I thought was awesome. This design “style” is pretty widespread right now (the swirly thingys — I’m not sure if there is an official name for the style?) and this creative execution (below) is pretty clever. You can also download the wallpaper for your computer here if you would like it (source here).