Let’s face it, Ulong is the worst tribe to ever play the game. Never has a tribe lost all of the immunity challenges. Watching tribal council is no longer a tense part of the show when you ask “I wonder whose gonna get the boot?”

I really don’t care at this point. I think the two that are left, Bobby Jon and Stephanie, should be ejected from the game if there is no merge, and I would love to see a no merge. Fight to stay alive in the game.

I guess I’m just disappointed that a show I have enjoyed watching for some time is just not much fun to watch anymore. I know it could be more exciting and when it isn’t it’s a letdown.

Do you watch Survivor? What are you views on this season, Palau?

I sent the following comment/rant to Wired Magazine’s editor:

The Wired Magazine article Are you sure you’re buying American? (Feb
2005, pg. 42) delivers the not so shocking news that domestic vehicles’ parts
may be coming from various countries other than the United States.

“Take the Saturn Vue: Some 30 percent [*] of its components come from
10 foreign nations on three continents. In fact, some ‘domestic’
cars are merely assembled in the States”

The infographic, the only well done work on the page if albeit inaccurate or
incomplete, is well done. Commendation stops here.

I guarantee you the Saturn Vue is made with more than “30 percent”
imported parts. Is 50 percent too high? No, that conservative. I don’t
have a problem with the truth, but trying to feed the readers of Wired phony
statistics is a slap in the face.

Ever had to replace parts on your car? Almost all of the original equipment
manufacturer parts out there are imported. They don’t fly the globe for
kicks either.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to step out to go pick up my
Ford Taurus [#]. After all it is 95 percent American.

P.S. I don’t think there is such a vehicle called the “Plymouth
Crossfire” but I’ve heard of a Chrysler Crossfire. I’m not
sure if they’re related, though.

What things do you like and dislike about Graphically Speaking?

I’m looking for some really good suggestions of what I can do to make Graphically
Speaking better; these suggestions must be on the minor side of change, but
change nonetheless.

I’ve got five Gmail invites to give to the persons with the best suggestions.
Please write a detailed description in the comments, and be sure to include
a valid e-mail address so I can mail out the invite.

This is A Design Improv.

My first impression was, “This looks interesting; familiar even.” Then I proceed to trying to figure out what the purpose of the site is. I realize that this site is not really targeted to web design, and, although I’m no expert on usability, the entire main page is a usability nightmare. I felt confused, disappointed, nauseous even. My brain was clicking and whirling, to no avail. Honestly, I only saw three pages on the site, but I was not a bit impressed.

What is so wrong?

If I could pinpoint it to one thing, I would have to say information overload. There really is no hierarchy, organization, or good navigation to make the site usable. The content may or may not be great. I’m not about to find out.

Have a great weekend!

Customer Centric

No doubt, you’ve heard the term customer centric thrown around in meetings; it has become more cliché than it should. Keep in mind, though, commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services, so one is going to buy (customer) and another is going to sell (business). Both parties are required for commercial interaction to take place.

“I’m A Graphic Designer.”

Oh, really. Me too, but let’s reword our title and see what we come up with.

Commercial Artist – A person that produces media that encourages the buying and selling of goods and services.

In coming up with techniques to encourage the buying and selling of goods and services, graphic designers need to do research on what they want to sell and who their selling these goods and services to. That implies creativity; thinking outside the box, as it were.

The level of knowledge of the creative director(s) at Veer really shows. They know their target audience, and really strive to make buying their goods more pleasurable, if not easier. Their site features seem to be second to none in their category. Font previewed with user customizable text, great looking photography and illustrations, responsive searching tools, and, most recently recognized, the browse by audience feature.

here kitty kitty…

Napster 2.0 is due to arrive, in addition to all of the other mp3 sites including iTunes for windows. A wired news article analyzes one of napsters ad campaings. i recommend that you read it for yourself.

ok. so welcome back. at first the article points to previous similar campaigns. first off the windows butterfly stickers were not part of an ad campaign. that was outright defacing of property and i would have gotten them for littering the streets. this confined napster kitty wall is a very cool adaptation or version of other ideas. when it comes down to it the original billboard designs were all rectangular sizes. then the breakout shapes appeared, like that ghastly lawyers head petruding from the rectangular canvas. and then 3D props were being used.

see, it’s the evolution of how this medium is used, not how original the idea. so i give the napster ad team a hooraa for nice work. im filling the idea away too guys. oh and just a suggestion, don’t do this ad wall in the farms of Tulsa.

gagical matherings?

we might have all seen it. it is vaguely familiar to last years campaign. no, it’s not gagical matherings. it’s magical gatherings, im guessing because someone ate those disney baked beans. [trying to care a tune] ohhhhh, beans, beans , the magical fruit, the more you….

oh sorry. back to the gagical matherings. i saw the tv ads for walt disney world. my reaction? it wasn’t a moving event. they seemed oh so similar to the last two series of commercials, starting with the 100 year celebration. i would like to see a drastic, or semidrastic, change in the way they market themselves.

till next time, mather gagicaly.