in 2008, ze frank has started a new project, which unfortunately ended before i even noticed it. it’s titled “color wars”.

my favourite competitions:

young me – now me
google streetview scavenger hunt

notice the book of the first one’s bronze winner?
it’s “life, the universe, and everything” from the hitchhiker trilogy. timeless literature! :)

today’s unusual instrument: the hand. ;-)

 
(last year’s unusual instrument: the nose recorder)

fcuk you, penguin – a blog where they tell cute animals what’s what.
highlights: reindeer act like they dont know, i know you can hear me, fox and resorting to props is fcuking pathetic, raccoon (fcuk?)

xkcd: a guide to understanding flowcharts

label the world – labels for EVERYTHING!
reminds me of “pictures of things belong to the things they’re pictures of” by dewey’s friend chad (malcolm in the middle, season 6 episode 15).

i can has cheezburger: *boo!* and happy new year!

auditorium – a beautiful online game combining music, light and puzzles. i wasn’t this inspired by a puzzle game since “the incredible machine”.

this year, my brothers tom & anton and i¹ did something special to spread the christmas joy:

for the higher quality version (recommended!), click here and then “watch in high quality”.

update #1: i’ve added the making-of video.

update #2: mom took some photos during our performance for the family. they’re online now.

update #3: there’s another clip of our christmas caroling on december 24th.

[view photos: spreading the christmas joy with nose recorders]

we wish you all a merry christmas, and some calm and peaceful holidays.

i first started this as a joke, but have realized that there are several advantages to “markus style” gift wrapping:

efficient gift wrapping, markus style

rumple a piece of wrapping paper, making sure it gets lots of irregular foldings and wrinkles.
find a way to cover your entire gift, try to keep the ends slightly overlapping on the upside.
use two or three small pieces of sticky tape to fasten the corners of paper together.

doing it this way, you can

• save time
• recycle (reuse old wrapping paper, nobody’s going to notice)
• save on sticky tape (just fasten the corners, everything else should stay in place)
• say “i did it myself!” proudly when handing it over, and most people should get the joke.

something else that goes very well with these gifts: self-made toddler-style invitation cards (use the hand you don’t usually use for writing, hold pens making a fist, insert silly spelling mistakes).

When my son was 4 in England, (…) he was in the nativity play. (…)
You know the bit where the three kings come in. They come in bearing gifts, and they bring gold, frankincense and myrrh. (…)
Anyway, the three boys came in, little 4-year-olds with tea towels on their heads, and they put these boxes down, and the first boy said, “I bring you gold.”
The second boy said, “I bring you myrrh.”
And the third boy said, “Frank sent this.”
– Ken Robinson at TED

if you’re interested in ken robinson’s TED speech about creativity (and how schools destroy it), you can watch it here: [more...]

recently, in a doctor’s waiting room, i saw a scientific poster about allergy-related research.
at the end of the poster, in the acknowledgements section, it said this:

i didn’t dare to take a picture in a full waiting room.