I like fire. Not in a call-the-police, lock-up-your-matches kind of way, but I do like being around fireplaces, especially in winter. The problem is that I live in an apartment, so any fire here is probably not going to be a relaxing, toasting marshmallows kind of affair. More like a mad dash to grab the photos, grab the icecream-maker, grab some chocolate and run. So I was excited to see these bizarre looking fire bowls on Fab.com – they’re made by Lumacast and they cost around $3,000 for a 32 inch ‘fire wok’. I like the idea of carrying the bowl over to the dining table to scare guests who think that you’ve overdone the Masterchef flambe and burnt their dinner, but apparently these handcrafted concrete bowls are meant for patio use only. Though since my balcony isn’t gigantic and already features one gas-powered fire machine (which also cooks delicious food), I think this will have to wait til I’m grown up and living in my dream house. With a hi-tech sprinkler system installed, just in case.
Tag: clever
Draw Something. Anything.
I think I’m very late getting on the bandwagon, so you’ve probably already seen the Draw Something app. Essentially, it’s online Pictionary with random strangers. Or, Words With Friends in picture format, if you like. And I’m hooked. I can’t really draw – a fact that is becoming more and more apparent with each game that I play – but there’s some satisfaction in your scribble being identified as your intended image. Basically, you choose from one of three options to draw (for your team mate to guess). And then you get awarded coins, depending on the alleged difficulty of what you chose to draw. An everyday plodder drawing equivalent – say, HAT – will get you one coin, while the nimble Russian gymnast drawing equivalent – say, PETSHOP – will get you three coins. (For the record, I have drawn both hat and petshop and they have been identified correctly by the person on the other side. How, I do not know, but that is beside the point.) You can use your virtual coins to buy additional virtual paint colours to brighten up your drawings, or to buy additional virtual bombs to blow up some of the letters that you choose from to name what the other person has drawn. People use bombs to help them decipher my drawings quite frequently – but I like to think that, like Picasso before me, the hidden depth of my work is not immediately obvious to everyone. I am also comforted by the fact that Picasso never had to try and produce a masterpiece using a canvas half the size of a phone screen, with an index finger as a paintbrush. The virtual artist’s life is not an easy one, I tell you.
However, there are some amazing people out there and I am regularly in awe of the quality of their drawings. Others, and I include most of my own drawings in this number, are either intentionally or unintentionally comical and I find myself shaking with laughter as I look at them on my way to work or waiting in line at the supermarket. For an app that is either free or upgraded to a 99c version, Draw Something definitely gives me my money’s worth in entertainment on a daily basis. Judge for yourself…
(Ok, that last one is mine. CMM4. See what I mean?)
Wise words
Got the cards, got the poster, even got it on a cushion on my lounge at home. Love your work, Holstee. Words to live by…
Kids these days…
Some highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be) of a recent survey of Australian school children were published in the Sydney Morning Herald this week. And I still think it’s funny that more than 1/4 of the kids that they surveyed in year 6 (so, around 11 or 12 years of age) thought that yoghurt grows on trees. I blame that Willy Wonka and the edible world inside his factory. He has confused our kids into thinking that you can create trees that grow all sorts of delicious sweet things, so why wouldn’t it make sense for a tree provide us with yoghurt? (Mr Wonka has also misled kids to believe that you can import orange-skinned little people from a foreign land, dress them in overalls and have them run your factory, forcing them to sing and dance on command. And work for chocolate. If only, kids!)
Anyways, I have to go now and check on my backyard crops. I’m growing meat pies, chicken flavoured chips and cherry ice cream. And any kid knows that those ice cream plants start to melt on a sunny day like today.
Free fingers
This image caught my eye(s) on Fab.com – it’s kinda creepy that the gloved hands are just hovering there in mid-air. And typing an email shouting about FREEHANDS GLOVES. (Who is the email for? And why the shouting? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?) And maybe I watch too much tv, but those particular gloves look just like the ones that psychotic murders wear (no offence intended, Hand Model Guy). Apparently Josh Rubin and his “glove-maker-father” developed these so that you could protect your hands from the freezing US winters while still texting and emailing your peeps. And playing Words With Friends. They’re sort of like little hoodies for your thumbs and pointer fingers (sorry, I don’t think that second one is the correct anatomical term). Think about the marketing possibilities…these little beauties are not just a must-have item for geeks-on-the-go, but for nose pickers, outdoor-winter-fingerpainters, freezer-loving-cross-stitchers and those people who insist on frequently applying lip gloss out of teeny tiny pots. Which probably covers 97% of the population. Genius idea!
everydaysparks 