Excellence

Sometimes when I write a blog post I feel like I just don't quite get it right. It doesn't  have everything I want to say. I can't quite find all the examples that I want or I leave myself feeling conflicted about some parts of it. That's how I felt recently about my "equality" post. Anyhow, this article fully gets it right, and says everything I wanted to say, and then some about equality, and the illusion of it, in our times.

The article also uses awesome pop culture references to help you wade through the heavy bits. Highly recommended reading. Have girls gone anti-feminist?

Video Barbie

Here she is, the truly modern Barbie. That's right folks, this Barbie offers a first-person perspective to the kiddies by including a built in video camera. The lens is...somewhere on the front, while a colour LCD screen resides on her back, allowing for an all-in-one recording experience.

She'll also come with online editing software to allow users to make their own movies!

It can record up to 30 minutes of footage and the software allows for the addition of music, other sound effects and some visual effects as well. Available in July of 2010!

Now, what to do about those terrible denim capris?

I have to say this is pretty cool, and as a kid I would have loved this toy. I see the generation of teens younger than me who are so savvy on how to make/edit videos,  using photoshop to edit their pics for the net, writing html code, etc. Imagine what the generation behind them will be able to do at a young age? It is mind boggling. Also, it makes me happy with my decision to not specialize in web or graphic design and instead use those tools to break into another career field. Because if I had stayed in that field I would  have to constantly worry about keeping my skills up to date - these kids are going to put lots of designers out of work in 10 years. The ones sitting on their 10 year old college degrees, wondering why all these 18 year olds are so much quicker than they are. They'll be able to think a webpage into existence, I swear it. Creative designers will (well, should) always have work - but the ones who are simply technical designers...look out.

BTW, it still sucks they made Barbie's boobs smaller and her eyes larger and wider set. I don't get it.

Lightening Up

Gah! I've been so ranty lately.

So here's something different. I've been working on decorating the place a bit, I guess since we bought the place I've been doing things over time but lately it has ramped up and we have a picture of what we are working towards. I like colour, a lot, But I'm also practical. The first room I decorated was our bedroom. It is something along these lines, though it was done before I found this picture:

I don't have the chandeliers, not my style. I wish I had these lamps, those are the only things I really haven't rounded up yet for the bedroom. I'm waiting for just the right ones at just the right price. These are amazing. But the room is bright white, dark wood, orange, fuschia, red and yellow. All the colour is in the accessories and linens and artwork. So that gives you a starting point for my home.

For upstairs, as I mentioned we recently got an orange sofa. The colour palette is going to be softer up there- if you could call it softer, but will be an all-colours welcome design, though with a focus on orange and touches of navy - not a lot, mostly already in the artwork. There won't be any harsh limes or fuschias...simply primary and secondary colours. Yeah, just yellow, red, blue, orange, green and purple. Six colours isn't too many is it? I'm leaning towards a look with antique white walls, which is why so many of the upcoming pics have white walls. We already have a mid-century credenza and lots of other natural wood and 70's brown stuff as our foundation, that will help soften the look of all those colours.  All the brown stuff is hand-me-down or 'inherited' for the most part - the ideal thing about hand me downs is if you are lucky enough to have them all from the same era, they all match.

I've got Piet Mondrian-inspired stained glass going into the panels in my kitchen cupboards, to give you a sense of my commitment to the all-colours idea. Basically, with the warm woods and orange sofa, orange is going to be the main focus colour that will stand out. Not just because it is pylon coloured! Obviously, since I have a big ol' orange couch in the middle of the space now.

Here's some pictures I have in a folder of home decor inspiration.