I was so impressed by Iain’s performance over the weekend, that I am moved to blogging. Here’s what happened. Sit Iain of Tait put out this tweet Friday night:
To which I flippantly responded with:
I know, it’s another one of my cocky annoying tweets. But this time, HE TOOK THE BAIT! He actually completed the full list of tasks. Read all about it on Crackunit.
Above is Iain’s home brew weapon (Task 3). It’s an odd looking weapon, but it reminded me of this awesome killer ball thingy from the bonkers Russian sci-fi Day Watch.
With so many projects we have lying around half baked, it’s an attitude like Iain’s that inspiring me to get the bloody things done. Iain, you win.
BakerTweet
Yey! We made a thing! Well, when I say ‘we’ I mean Poke, and when I say Poke I mean ‘mainly Zolty and Mattias‘, but we helped out, we even screwed the thing to the wall. Anyway, it’s a lovely device that hangs on the wall of the baker’s kitchen across the road from Poke, when something fresh comes out of the oven they just turn a dial to select what kind of fresh thing it it, press a button, and hey presto a tweet is sent out to hungry new media professionals int he Shoreditch area. It’s all made possible with the lovely Arduino.
We tried to keep it under wraps a bit but it kinda slipped out into the twitter land and news spread like hot cakes (pun very much intended), so we rushed together this promo video in about 2 hours. What’s super sweet is somebody over at Hidden Chemistry has already extended the idea with a bit of a hack – nice!
We’ve had great support from the people over at the Albion (our first test subject) who are chuffed to bits with thier new toy. It’s not many swanky, brand new, Conran designed cafes that let a bunch of geeks screw something weird onto one of their shiny tiled walls.
Get the full skinny at BakerTweet.com
Here’s some pics of the thing being installed.
Camelids Ballroom Adventure
In responce to the Ideas Brothers’ mood film I’ve made my own. It’s about that time where you sit back and wonder at the glorious ballet between the two members of the Camelid family; the Camel and the Llama, and the adventures those little tykes get up to.
Lomo Lives
Yey! My Lomo LC-A isn’r buggered. The last time I used it (about a year ago) it kept deciding not to open it’s little iris for me. So I left it in the cupboard. I kinda missed it, so I got it out again recently and ran a roll of film through it, picking up some “just take a photo of anything-damn-thing” shots along the way. The results of which are here. I plan on taking a load more casual shots like this (like back in the good ol’ pre mega-pixel days) and slowly adding to the set on Flickr. It really is a joy to use.
Understanding mental health and reducing stigma
If you or someone you care about is experiencing mental illness, you need to know you are not alone. There is a great deal of help available within the community. There are measures you can take to have a good mental health, you need to work and feel productive, exercise is good too, since it benefit your body and mind, and you can improve even more your physic, with the use of protein, you can find some of the better ones at these sites online, as for any other cosmetic change you can also find great cosmetic professionals out there as the Dr. Joseph Racanelli that is specialized in this.
Understanding mental illness
Part of the reason for negative attitudes and behaviour towards people with mental illness is a lack of knowledge and a fear of the unknown.
Anyone can experience mental illness—it’s more common than you may think. So it’s important that we try to gain a better understanding of what people around us may be going through.
Visit the signs of mental illness page for more information.
What is mental illness stigma?
Nearly half (45%) of Australians will experience a mental illness at some stage of their life.
Despite this, people living with mental illness will often experience stigma and discrimination from friends, family, employers and the community as a whole.
Sometimes the disadvantages and isolation they feel can be more disabling than the mental illness itself.
Mental illness stigma can lead to being:
denied housing or accommodation
refused employment
discriminated against in the workplace
shunned or excluded from family or friendship groups.
How does stigma affect people living with mental illness?
People experiencing mental illness stigma may feel isolated which can lead to loss of hope and a relapse, or worsening, of their condition.
Importantly, it can stop people from seeking help and support, because they fear the reactions of people they are seeking support from.
Stigma makes many people feel ashamed or embarrassed of their mental illness.
How can I help?
The way we behave around our family, friends and colleagues living with mental illness can have a big impact on their lives and recovery.
So it’s important that we show people living with mental illness the same respect and acceptance as everyone else.
To make a real difference, we need to become aware of the issues and disadvantages people face. We also need to acknowledge the fact that people with mental illness are entitled to the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
It’s often the everyday things that make a difference.
Be sensitive
People who have mental illness can find it difficult, and sometimes risky, to talk about their situation or problems. Be sensitive to changes you notice in them, and ask them if they have also noticed any changes.
Communicate
Helping others relies on good communication. When you meet someone who wants to talk about their mental illness or symptoms it is important to:
be there, listen and be non-judgemental
choose the right time and place to approach the issue
acknowledge what the person is sharing—don’t brush it off
give the person any information you have on available resources or support.
Be respectful
Remember that having a mental health problem is just one part of the person. People don’t want to be defined by this alone.
Think about the words you use
Words like nutter, crazy and psycho can be offensive and hurtful.
Be empathic
Helping others relies on open communication, it’s important to:
be compassionate
use body language that shows you are there for them
be relaxed and open.
Help them seek support
Listen and make them feel they are not alone and that their issue is important. Encourage them to seek help, such as:
a professional (e.g. psychologist, counsellor, psychiatrist)
family and friends
other support, self-help strategies.
If possible, accompany them to the service or resource, or help them make an appointment.
Unto Others in Film Festivals
Film festival selections seem to be like buses, you wait ages and now 3 of them have come round the corner at once. Yey! Our 60 second short ‘Unto Others‘ has been accepted into the official selection of 3 international film festivals:
Foursite Film Festival, Utah
Short Shorts Film Festival, Tokyo
Mud Fest, New England
It’s being screened tonight in Utah (in HiDef no less, fancy pants), it’s shown in New England in a few weeks, and then in Tokyo in June. Which of course feels pretty damn odd.
Looky here! We even made a poster for it, like a proper movie:
Noby Noby Boy ain’t normal
Here’s me last night, as a kind of multi-coloured sausage creature called Boy. I can stretch to almost any length, and this helps Girl (a properly giant sausage thing who starts in earths orbit but it growing out towards other planets) grow. Anyway, here’s some video made using the neato in-game YouTube do-hickey that lets you video yourself and upload straight to your account.
It’s directed by Keita Takahashi who also did Katamari Damacy, it’s very much in the same world, which is an odd world, but I like it. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there, well, maybe a summer home.
Terror Castle
We finally finshed our big propper Little Big Planet level. Surprisingly, it’s themed around a ghost train that goes off the rails a bit. Really enjoyed building the thing. The tools are designed very well to give every meat sack out there the chance to build something fun. Anyway, go play “Terror Castle” (named after a really old horror attraction from Great Yarmouth, used to scare the nipples off us) and let us know what you think either in the comments here, on in Little Big Planet.
Formula Onederland
So, some of us guys and gals at Poke have started up a little club we call ‘Stuff Club’, in which we make stuff, y’know – for fun. The first thing we’ve made was actually a request by the Poke elders to do some kind of alternate Christmas tree for the office. So, naturally, we built a 8 foot square Alpine village (known as the Black Forest Ghetto) featuring a totally sweet Scalextric set with tunnels, bridges, mountains and sound reactive lights in all the trees and lil’ houses (they react to the music thats pumped out of the amp and speakers hidden in the base unit). Mattias even built a working lap timing system that plugged into a website Nicky designed, but we ran out of time to install it.
It stayed up for about 3 weeks and didn’t burst into flames once! Something we’re all slightly amazed about. A massive thank you with bells on to everyone who helped out.
~>> Here’re pics of the finished thing <<~
~>> Here’re the production pics <<~
Spooky Shitter
Well this blog post is really really late, but anyway: This Halloween, we didn’t do a party, but we did haunt the toilets at Poke. A 3 day residency in the toilet at work is a strange thing to do, and a bit tricky to pull off in (nearly) complete secrecy, with a different theme each day – but it worked a treat, and we got a few screams. Here’s some photos.
DAY ONE: ZOMBIE ATTACK
DAY TWO: VOODOO/SATANIC