InDesign is fun... and Google analytics is useful

So I've been messing around with indesign.... it's a great program... I think it has a great interface (a bit tricky at first but... still good... great for printing bleedmarks and all the rest of it)

 
I followed a great tutorial and make a coffee shop menu :)
I really like some of it's inbult features like tab's and the styling... it's great!















Moving on to anayltics... well... what can I say? I found where users were going (and most of them were clicking on a link that wasn't going anyway... my fault I suppose) and also looked at where they were going... it's also interesting to see where they are from (one visitor was from Quebec!)
This was the part that saddened me

1.	Harrogate	4	5.00	00:00:24	75.00%	25.00%
2.	Leeds	4	3.00	00:03:41	75.00%	50.00%
3.	Bradford	3	9.00	00:18:32	33.33%	33.33%
4.	London	3	3.00	00:04:16	66.67%	33.33%
5.	Chester	2	7.00	00:31:05	0.00%	50.00%
6.	Stoke on Trent	2	4.00	00:02:31	50.00%	50.00%
7.	Bolton	1	1.00	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
8.	Bournemouth	1	3.00	00:00:17	100.00%	0.00%
9.	Coppull	1	2.00	00:06:03	100.00%	0.00%
10.	Manchester	1	5.00	00:00:39	100.00%	0.00%

Where are all of my Manchester homies at? Whereas I do live in Bradford right now... I'm sad that my peeps in the North West are so few in number... why so few of you? I mean... even Stoke on Trent is there... :(
Oh well! Another point for Yorkshire
:)

ifttt

Gosh I love
http://ifttt.com/recipes
it reminds me of actionscript <3

not-for-them: Real life Photoshop

not-for-them: Real life Photoshop: source: flickr

I think this is superb

Merry Christmas :) and a social commentary about Nightmare Before Christmas

Never been a massive fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, but I know that if I draw this and upload it to an art website it will get 100000000000000000000 likes and views because the film has achieved some strange cult status...Why?







This is something I've never understood... but


1) any 'alternative' person feels as if it is almost a pre-prerequisite to like this franchise... because it's vaguely gothic/arty/different/


2) It has been marketed superbly through the years...


The owners of the franchise have undertaken an extensive marketing campaign of these characters across many media. In addition to the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland featuring the film's characters,"[12] Jack Skellington, Sally, Pajama Jack and the Mayor have been made into Bendies figures,[13] while Jack and Sally even appear in fine art.[14] Moreover, Sally has been made into an action figure and a Halloween costume.[15]


Oddly enough, Jim Edwards actually contends that "Tim Burton's animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas is really a movie about the marketing business. The movie's lead character, Jack Skellington, the chief marketing officer (CMO) for a successful company decides that his success is boring and he wants the company to have a different business plan.[17]






(The font of all knowledge wikipedia)


Then there was 'nightmare revisited' where they got lots of popular bands from the alternative gothic/rock/ music genre to record the songs from the film. (Marilyn Manson, Amy Lee, Panic at the Disco to name a few)


3)It is about Christmas... and Halloween...that's two massive holidays in one film.


4) It's the only 'dark' Disney film of it's kind (really)... well it's the only one with that dark aesthetic


5) It's a Disney film... so it's had loads of video games, books, toys, plushies, etc


6) It was part of the Kingdom Hearts franchises (Square Enix and Disney... so that's all the Japanese fans sorted).


7) At Halloween at 2 of the disney parks these characters take over the haunted mansion ride.


8)It gets so many mentions on so many social media websites that i don't even know where to begin


So when you think about it... it's no surprize it's so successful... consumerism... what a well oiled machine

ALSO TYPE IN 'LET IT SNOW' ON GOOGLE...

Redesigns galore and what about twitter?

After seeing youtube redesigned and facebook redesigned and even gmail redesigned... twitter have decided to give it ago and redesign their presence too. I've heard rumour that it's about being more brand focused...others have said it's in competition with facebook...

(from Hex)

What do I think of this? Well I recently noticed that twitter had made buying off the platform much easier, trying to build in functionalities where you can tweet reply '#buy'

 and the wonders of tweetbots... tweeting everytime a blog gets updated...

Such functionality makes me think... what exactly are twitter going for here?
 I mean twitter (in my mind anyway) was a microblogging site where one could discuss interests and it's a community...secondly... it's a personal thing, it's about what one is doing right now (it asks me everytime I post a tweet).
So... Add more corporate presence won't sell it to me in the slightest... also... I already have facebook... so why would I want a facebookeque interface...

I like twitter... it should stay the way it is

Hi blog *blows off dust*

Hi blog long time no speak... So I'm going to talk about something that has nothing to do with work (really....) and talk about a new project that's really caught my eye.

A long time back, I spoke about a game called 'Clocktower' (under click and point) It was one of the first survival horror games back in 1995... And it scares the hell out of me... I only just finished it properly this time (and hey... only 3 of my friends died... in this game...that's a result)

So that's the original... then... guess what? they made a new version... and have somehow made it EVEN worse... (I didn't think this was possible... but hey I was proved wrong)

In other gaming news Sonic generations looks fantastic! Can't wait for that <3

RIP Steve Jobs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/steve-jobs-and-the-beatles/2011/10/05/gIQAzbrhOL_video.html

I decided I would buy an ipod the other day... after having an extremely disappointing COWON X7 (sounds great...usability-wise impossible). I mean I'm not a fan of the old apple, but I can't argue when it is cheap, so easy to use and the sound quality is good enough.

I'm truly very sad to hear about Mister Jobs. My boss was telling me the other day how he would take an ipod... and look at it... but then take some headphones... put them in... and then say 'the click didn't sound right when I plugged them in... Change it'

Such a perfectionist in just one aspect of product design shows in the high levels of quality products that apple have created and can be proud of.

I'd like to take a quote from his Stanford speech, a little dramatic, but the message is good:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."


RIP Steve Jobs