Pseudoreid's Top Albums of 2008 - December 16, 2008

In no particular order, I aggregated a list of the top 30 albums I loved to listen to this year. Once again, I must make it clear that there is no particular order to this list. Unlike Shark at the Jo-Tel, I will not be dropping any mad knowledge, nor will I tell you why I chose each album. I will also not go to the extent of giving any details about the musical nature of each album. Just take this for what you will!!!

1. Empire of the Sun - "Walking On A Dream"
2. Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes"
3. Of Montreal - "Skeletal Lamping"
4. Crystal Castles - "Crystal Castles"
5. Girl Talk - "Feed the Animals"
6. Chairlift - "Does You Inspire You"
7. Death Cab For Cutie - "Narrow Stairs"
8. The Hold Steady – “Stay Positive”
9. Okkervil River – “The Stand Ins”
10. Conor Oberst –“Gentlemen’s Pact”
11. The Walkmen – “You and Me”
12. MGMT - "Oracular Spectacular"
13. Kings of Leon – “Only By The Night”
14. Vampire Weekend – “Vampire Weekend”
15. Elbow – “The Seldom Seen Kid”
16. Lil Wayne - "Tha Carter"
17. Bon Iver – “For Emma, Forever Ago”
18. She & Him – “Volume One”
19. Robyn - "Robyn"
20. The Islands – “Arm’s Way”
21. Beach House - "Devotion"
22. Portishead – “Third”
23. Shearwater – “The Snow Leopard”
24. Alina Simone – “Placessness”
25. Haley Bonar – “Big Star”
26. Mountain Goats – “Heretic Pride”
27. No Age – “Nouns”
28. Santogold –“Santogold”
29. Flying Lotus – “Los Angeles”
30. The Helio Sequence – “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”

Tweetwasters - December 15, 2008

I've never been a huge proponent of Twitter, nor am I an avid user of the product. I do recognize the value Twitter provides individuals & brands , however, there is a distinct problem Twitter faces, mass adoption. That being said, Twitter has been successfully used by all sorts of people and brands and companies to help communicate their message, but was it really worth the time and effort?

A newly birthed piece of Twitterware has been developed, and its purpose is to show how much time someone has spent tweeting. The way Tweetwasters calculates this number is by taking the amount of updates someone has posted, and then multiplying it by 30 seconds (the big caveat is that it assumes it only takes 30 seconds of time to tweet). Tweetwasters will then let you know how many hours of your life you've spent tweeting, as well as how you rank amongst the rest of the Twitter population.

It's a cool idea, especially if you try to use it to determine ROI for any brands or companies that have a presence on Twitter. AdLab had a great break down of the Comcast Twitter feed (ComcastCares):

"ComcastCares is run by the company's director of digital care who makes, let's say, $50/hr and has written 20.719 tweets in ~173 hours. Total time investment into Comcast's Twitter account is $8,650. The account has 6,001 followers, which results in $1.44 per follower"

It's an interesting attempt at giving marketers an idea of what it costs to get a follower, however, it neglects to measure the additional sphere of impact a brand generates by having a focused and relevant feed on Twitter (however, that may be impossible to ever do).

Things You May Not Know - December 10, 2008

Ahhhh....jell-o!  It's incredible.  But do you know where jell-o came from?

Gelatin has been well known and used for many years. It was popularized in the Victorian era with spectacular and complex "jelly moulds".

Jell-O was first started in Venice, Italy. Jell-O was also first started in Gelatin and was sold in sheets and had to be purified, which was very time-consuming. It also made gelatin desserts the province of the relatively well-to-do. In 1845, industrialist Peter Cooper (who built the first American steam-powered locomotive), obtained a patent for powdered gelatin.

The first jell-o usd ground up geese bones.  Yuck!

Here are some great shots of jell-o's fantastic uses:

Drawdio - December 8, 2008

If your pencil or pen ever had a voice, do you wonder what it might sound like?  I imagine that an expensive felt-tip calligraphy pen with rich and potent black ink would sing opera, while a dingy, gnawed on number 2 pencil might have a tinny squelch. 

Drawdio (draw + audio)want you to know!

Drawdio' created by Adafruit and Jay Silver is a pencil that lets you draw with the music.  The kit is an analog  synthesizer circuit that straps to any soft-leaded pencil, and lets you crank out electronic sounds while you  sketch. Using a single AAA battery for power the 'drawdio' works by taking advantage of the conductive properties of the graphite in pencil lead.

Healthy or Unhealthy State? - December 4, 2008

Do you live in a healthy state? Here is a list of the most healthy to unhealthy states in the U.S. Alright, my home state Texas still ranks as one of the worst places to stay fit!!!

1. Vermont


2. Hawaii

3. New Hampshire

4. Minnesota

5. Utah

6. Massachusetts

7. Connecticut

8. Idaho

9. Maine

10. Washington

11. Rhode Island

12. North Dakota

13. Nebraska

14. Wyoming

15. Iowa

16. Oregon

17. Wisconsin

18. New Jersey

19. Colorado

20. Virginia

21. South Dakota

22. Kansas

23. Montana

24. California

25. New York

26. Maryland

27. Michigan

28. Pennsylvania

29. New Mexico

30. Alaska

31. Illinois

32. Ohio

33. Arizona

34. Indiana

35. Delaware

36. North Carolina

37. Kentucky

38. Missouri

39. West Virginia

40. Alabama

41. Georgia

42. Nevada

43. Arkansas

44. Oklahoma

45. Florida

46. Texas

47. Tennessee

48. South Carolina

49. Mississippi

50. Louisiana

To find out more about the most obese states, check out the Calorie Lab.

Warchalking and Hobo Codes - December 1, 2008

During my Thanksgiving vacation my Dad alerted me to a recently failed trend, warchalking, which was intended to inform pedestrains about locations of free wi-fi.

The idea was to develop a set of standard icons/symbols that people would associate free wi-fi with. It was the responsibility of anyone to draw an icon/symbol in a public place where it was viewable by others. It sounds like a great idea, but nothing ever came of it.

I think the more interesting story is the fact warchalking eminated from hobo code. Hobo code was a means of icons/symbols to help aide the homeless in finding shelter, avoiding dangers, locating food, etc. It was established at the National Hobo Convention, which was founded in 1900 and has been held every year since.

Here are some various ways hobo code can provide helpful information:
- A cross signifies "angel food," that is, food served to the hobos after a party
- A spearhead signifies a warning to defend oneself
- Three diagonal lines means it's not a safe place
- Two shovels, signifying work was available