cardboard robot ninja pirate monkey

believe in a hero

loving this advert so much. i wonder if they really did make a model of it, or whether its some very clever rendering. im hoping for the former

more campaign for real management

campaign for real management poster series continues

forward thinking and innovation talk

after doing a short introductory (well, probably not short enough) piece at tonights she says night - on forward thinking and innovation, i was asked to make available the links and reference that i talked about in my part of the presentation.   soo, i figured the quickest way would be to post them on here.  many are repeated from things ive already posted about, but at least this way theyre all in one place.

plus then if anyone wants they can have a nosey around at other things that ive been collecting

/r

please dont get annoyed robot fans...

for all those people who are arriving at my site because they want to know how to make a cardboard robot, well, this URL wasnt bought just to piss people off.  there is a project of that very thing which i am in the middle of doing and should be completed in a couple of months, it just isnt here yet, due to me having lots of other work going on.

in the meantime, heres some great robot building sites and pictures ive found around and about:

 

http://www.artforrobots.com/_images/cartoon/PoseableHoff_Final.pdf  -  posable david hasslehoff!

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/10/cardboard_robot.html   - halloween costume

http://www.mycraftbook.com/craftidea.asp?craftID=298   - bit basic, but has a rudimentary charm about it

http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/robotFinger/assembl.html   -   articulated robot hands!  although youll need a hefty imagination to be able to make the rest of the robot to go with them.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/13/random-jpeg-of-cuten.html   - perfect example of ideal child robot outfit.  gaffa tape is a must.  ray gun is just an exquisite bonus.

http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-vs-Robot-James-Kochalka/dp/1891830155   - buy these books now if you like robots (and monkeys)

http://mugshot.org/visit?post=FW85CljcJxMcQr   -  many forms of inspiring robot costumes

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Robot-Suit/   - amazing.  "make a robot suit to scare your friends..."  yes please!

the robot that started it all for me  -  fully articulated cardboard robot.  1ft tall.  made by me.  a while ago.  KIT COMING SOON!!

now you cant say i didnt at least try and help.

reporters without borders

link: reporters sans frontières - bloggers, the new heralds of free expression.

why blog?

along with a million other shitty blogs (probably mine being one of them) produced a day, the real use and maybe lifesaving purpose of this personal form of expression is really coming to be seen. 

throughout the crisis happening in burma, in an exceedingly censored state, vital information is being finding its way out from the country via the extensive social networking and user generated content sites that now exist. link:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7012984.stm

what some treat as a reason to be able to talk about what they ate (and then later pooed out) for their lunch others are able to use as a way to bypass fierce military intervention - giving them a way to be able to tell the world about what is happening in their country, without putting themselves in immediate physical harm. 

i think for me, this is the real point of blogging.  aswell as the pointless tat, its important for people to be able to voice their opinion.  people dont have to read things they arent interested in, but at the same time, the more blogs i read, the more i realise how different peoples lives are.  its easy to get blinkered into thinking that the world is the same, even the news and media can make other worlds seem disproportionately far away.
and for another thing, when so much content on the internet is advertorial and prescripted, worded carefully to give a certain point of view or way of looking at things, i find it highly amusing that people actually have such voices.  the comments left on blogs have to be some of the funniest things to read, and really, can totally validate or break a persons arguement in just a few words.  they are so good sometimes that  you can actually make a blog just out of them...

what i want for christmas...

link:  http://www.altabikes.no/

calvin and hobbes...

i feel sorry for kids these days in some ways.  they wont know the joy that was a new calvin and hobbes cartoon every saturday with your dads paper.  the excitement as he went to the newsagent to pick up the morning copy.  the car coming back up the drive and him handing you the weekend section  which would then start the 4 hours worth of laughter and rereading the old cartoons that youd cut out and kept from the past months.  the amazing cartoons of a 4 year old kid that talks like a 40 year old.  theories on life, love, education, entertainment, family, relationships, friendships, hope, fear and every other emotion known to man.
as a kid i think its the perfect time to discover the wonders of watterson.  you might not understand everything hes talking about but the revelation that cartoons dont have to be kiddy and dumbed down for them to make you laugh.  i think they genuinely taught me real sarcasm and irony.
i can still remember the first time i read the lengthier piece in the revenge of the babysat book (i think it was, or it might have been homical psycho jungle cat) where calvins family went on holiday forgetting hobbes.  the whole time reading it i can remember feeling worried like calvin was.  desperate to know whether his friend was ok.  and when they got back got back to the house to find they had been burgled, and they couldnt find hobbes, i was genuinely upset.  theres nothing quite like being able to lose yourself in simple stories like when you are young.  not afraid of believing everything you see.
as you get older and more cynical and more realistic, we too quickly lose the power of imagination.  everything has to be in the realms of reality.  harry potter mananged to take people back to their childhood days, where magic does exist and your toys can talk to you.  i dont need wizards and spells for that magic though. 
give me a small kid and his toy tiger anyday.  one cartoon and im back being 7 again.  sitting on my parents sofa.  with the purest of smiles on my face.

amazing japanese course info game

very very addictive growing island game where you have to choose different engineering/science courses to make things on an illustrated island grow and develop.  really quite difficult, but extremely addictive and very well built.  thousands of possible combinations and most of the instructions in japanese so makes for more fun exploration and play.
you cant beat the satisfaction of finally working out the right order to do things and seeing it completed.

link:  http://shingakunet.com/special/16608701/0285/index.html

theres no such thing as cant

thanks to mike for the screenshot.  the most abrupt illustrator dialogue box ive ever seen.  not so much dialogue but a disgruntled defeatist teenager box.  prizes to the person who can genuinely beat that...