The 365 Phenomenon

What could you see yourself doing every day for a year? Not basic stuff like eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, etc. But some kind of creative endeavour. I’ve been getting hooked on the 365 things lately. There are quite a few of them out there. I don’t know where or who it started with. Here are some I know of:

Make Something 365

Project 365

365 ProjectTwitter – A photograph every day for a year.

Photo 365

Mini 365

365: Make a Book a Day

365 Days of Make and Bake

Crafting 365

Flickr: 365 Days, the knitterly and crafty types

Flickr: 365

Flickr: 365 Days (Self portraits).

365 Letters – Writing a letter every day.

Clouds 365

CAPTCHA Art

How do you tell computers and humans apart? In cases where we can’t see whether we are interacting with a real human or a computer, CAPTCHA is sometimes used to prevent comment spam.

CAPTCHArt : A blog for turning random CAPTHCA phrases/ letters into art.

Know your Meme: CAPTCHArt
Rhizome: General Web Content – CAPTCHArt
Urlesque: Captchart Turns Random Captcha Phrases into Art
Geek O System: Captchart – The Art of Proving You’re Human
Cerebral Pop: Found – CAPTCHArt

captcha comics
Comics Alliance: Captcha Codes Find True Meaning in CAPTCHArt Comics

What do you see Outside your Window?

What’s Out Your Window? – I’m not looking out a window from a highrise building. I have, in the past. But these days I’m in a one storey house. I can still see snow outside but the roads are clear from the snowploughs and the sunshine we had all day today. It’s after midnight now so outside it is quiet, dark and a bit mysterious. I can see everything from the streetlight at the bottom of my driveway.

Share your photos and stories with the Highrise – What’s Outside your Window project.

What do you Know about Typography?

Dzineblog has a post about trends in web design. One of the elements they write about, twice actually, is typography. What do you know about it?

I Love Typography: A Guide to Web Typography
The Font Feed: Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips
A List Apart: On Web Typography
Smashing Magazine: 10 Principles for Readable Web Typography
The Blog Herald: The Ten Commandments of Blog Typography
The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web

Extra Resources:

Typography Daily
I Love Typography
We Love Typography
The Font Feed
Ministry of Type
The Typographic Hub
Twitter: Typegirl
Twitter: TypeTweets
Twitter: Typophile
Twitter: Friends of Type
Twitter: Ray Larabie: typodermic
Twitter: espierkermann
Typedia
Design Muse
Flickr: Typography and Lettering
Easily Amused
Eight Face
Letter Cult
Addictive Fonts
Upscale Typography
Typography Served
Flickr: Typography and Design
Flickr: Typography and Lettering
Flickr: Ink and Typography
Flickr: I Love Typography
The Case and Point
Twitter: TypeMedia

Typography Groups

The Type Director’s Club
Association Typographique Internationale
The Society of Typographic Aficionados
TypeCon
Type Camp
Flickr: Letterbugs – Typography by shutterbugs.

Vintage Typography

Flickr: Font of all Wisdom – Unique vintage lettering.
Flickr: Historical Type and Lettering
Flickr: Vintage Product Signs/ Murals

Hand Lettering

Flickr: Hand Drawn Type
Flickr: Hand Lettering
Flickr: Typostruction
Flickr: Custom Lettering
Flickr: Signpaintr
Flickr: Handpainted Signs of the World
Flickr: Handmade Signs
Flickr: Handmade Typography/ Lettering
Flickr: Bad Type
Flickr: Folk Typography
Flickr: Blackboard Lettering

Found Typography

Flickr: Found Typography
Flickr: Urban Typography
Villa Type – Type and lettering found in the public domain.
Letterpeg – Fonts found around Winnipeg, Manitoba
NYC Type – Typography and lettering found in New York.
Flickr: Street Typography
Flickr: Found Type
Flickr: Signs, Signs
Typarchive
Flickr: Fontspotting
Flickr: I Love Typography
Flickr: Signage and Typography
Flickr: Font Whores
Flickr: Barn and Building Painted Advertisements

Ghost Signs

Flickr: Faded Signage
Flickr: Ghost Signs
Flickr: Old Painted Wall Advertising
Flickr: Old Signs
Flickr: Ghost Signage
Flickr: Ghost Ads
Flickr: Half Lost Signs
Flickr: Old British Signs
Flickr: Fragmented Urban Language

Font Making

With FontStruct or BitFontMaker: Try creating a font of your own.

Writing in the Snow

You may have made a snowman, a snow angel or even a snow fort, but… have you written in the snow? I found this group on Flickr while looking for something else. Funny how I find some of the best and interesting things that way. I’m sure if I went looking for resources, blog posts, groups, etc. about writing in the sand I would find many resources. However, for writing in the snow there was only this one.

Flickr: Snow Writing – About Snow Writing: Words in the snow. Anything can think of writing in the snow with your finger, with your feet or any other tool: branches, pine cones, sticks. Just has to be words in the snow.

Assuming you are in a snowy area, today when you are outside make a point of picking up a stick (or something) and write your name or something in the snow. Take a photo and send it to the Snow Writing group on Flickr. Support the snow writers of the world. There are only a few of them!

Extra Resource: Flickr: Names in the Snow (Does not seem to be an active group).

Drawing Flowers

I like to draw a bit. Sometimes they get online, but my scanner is a bit temperamental, so sometimes they just get added to the pile of drawings I have done. I used to keep them posted to Flickr as well but I haven’t kept up with them there.

What do you draw or doodle when the mood comes over you? How do you feel when you draw? How is it different from when you are writing?

The Food Project Blog Challenges

Food Buzz had ten challenges for food bloggers in their Food Project Blog. The contest is over, the winner announced. But the challenges can inspire some fresh ideas for all bloggers, of every niche.

1 Ready, Set, Blog!

Recipe for Success. Be yourself and be present. – This was where the bloggers enter the challenge and introduce themselves to everyone else participating.

2 The Classics

Cooking outside your comfort zone. – Food bloggers were to tackle a new dish outside of their usual fare, a foreign dish was suggested. But I would think foreign dishes are not the only option a creative food blogger could come up with. How about a chocolate sculpture?

3 Luxury Dinner Party

Impress your guests. Hosting a luxurious dinner party. – Bloggers create and promote their event and readers on the Food Buzz site vote on which they would most like to attend.

4 Picture Perfect

Designing a dish for the camera. – Tutorials can help you learn food photography so you can take scrumptious photos for your blog. Tempt readers to take a bite.

5 Recipe Remix

Honing your technique, make a recipe your own. Contestants were to take the typical pizza and turn it into their own unique creation.

6 Road Trip!

Food to go, presentation is king. Design a meal to go on the road, one that can be carried around and still come out looking good enough to eat.

7 Video 411.

Lights, camera, cook. The challenge is to make a video in order to teach your recipe to your readers, or the readers of Food Buzz in this case.

8 Piece of Cake.

How to get a great performance from your oven. A seasonal ingredient was used to bake something that shows off a knowledge of the science behind baking.

9 You’re the Critic

Asserting your opinion and telling a story. The bloggers take it out to a restaurant, write their own review and rate the dining out experience.

10 The Final Post

By this time the challengers were narrowed down to three. They were given a last chance to post about their experiences during the challenge and what they learned.

This must have been a fabulous experience for all the bloggers who kept up with it all. Even if they were out of the running by some point, it would have been a real achievement just to do all ten of the challenges.

Look at the list and think about what you could do, step out of your own comfort zone and try something new with your blog.

If you have a food related blog you can find Food Buzz on the web, on Twitter and on Facebook.

Lava Doesn’t Care if it Hurts Your Feelings

Sometimes odd phrases just pop into my head. They don’t make sense in a logical way, but they reflect my sense of irony and personal logic. Today I’ve been watching a marathon of TV shows about geography of the planet.

Chances are people assume geography is about knowing where places are, like towns and countries. That’s only a small part. Geography is as vast as our planet, it is the study of our planet, the elements that create our planet and continue to change it. I love the science of geography. Everyone should take a moment to think about geography once a day, it keeps you humble to know we mean nothing to the planet we live on. That must be why "lava doesn’t care if it hurts your feelings" popped into my head this afternoon and made me laugh.

Geography (Definition from Dictionary.com) –

the science dealing with the areal differentiation of the earth’s surface, as shown in the character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world of such elements as climate, elevation, soil, vegetation, population, land use, industries, or states, and of the unit areas formed by the complex of these individual elements.

Draw the globe, the world with it’s land masses, as correct as you can by memory. Start without looking at anything, just to see what you can do. Do you remember what the world looks like?