Geek in Heels - Page 124

Aug 27, 2010 • In Art/Design, Colors, Education, Science

Educational Chemistry Crayons

Want your child to get a head start on chemistry? Try these Educational Chemistry Crayons from Etsy seller QueInteresante:

Children play and draw with crayons practically every day, so why not make the experience more educational? This listing is for a set of 48 Crayola crayons with labels so that while children are coloring, they are also exposed to the names of chemicals that will make those colors! So instead of thinking “I want green” they will think “I want Barium Nitrate Ba(NO3)2 Flame” and then when they take chemistry in high school and their teacher sets some gas on fire and it makes a green color and they ask the class what chemical it was your student will know it was Barium! Genius!

To be completely honest I hardly ever paid attention to color names when using Crayons as a child, and I’m not sure that other children do, either. However, the geek in me loves this idea and may even implement it in the future.

Via Laughing Squid.

Heard a Song (1990 vs 2010)

This chart, found over at Geeks are Sexy, sure brings back some fond memories…

Who knows how many great songs I’ve missed out on over the years because the radio DJ never mentioned the artist, or the song name? And when you ask your friends (“It goes something like duh-nuh-nuuuuuhhhh, da-duh!”) they have no idea what you’re talking about because who can really identify a song from two bars of poorly-remembered melody?

I also remember how I used to sit by the radio, one finger hovering over the “record” button in order to record my favorite tunes on a blank cassette. I got so good at recording songs off the radio that you could hardly identify the ghetto method in which they were obtained. Was recording radio songs onto cassette tapes the first generation of pirating music?

Then there were mix tapes. I was the queen of mix tapes! I made mixes based on mood, messages, genre, beat, tempo…you name it. When I first read High Fidelity I vigorously nodded my head along with Rob’s detailed exposition on the art of making a good mix tape. Mix tapes were slowly replaced by mix CDs, and now, MP3 playlists. I always thought that mix CDs did not have the same heart as mix tapes, and MP3 playlists are not even comparable.

What about you? Does looking at this chart bring back any memories?

P.S. — If I could add one amendment to the chart, it would be the identification of said song with applications/programs such as Shazam. I have Shazam on my trusty Moto Droid and have used it numerous times to identify and discover new songs.

A Slap in the Face

Via Up Next in Sports.

Kitten Nom Nom Nom

This is the cutest video I’ve seen in weeks!

I’m currently dog-sitting my sister’s dog Dante, and when I played this video for the first time both Dante and Comang ran over to investigate. I wish I had a camera on hand to capture their confused looks as they stared at the computer screen, but I was too late.

Via Well That’s Adorable.

Brand Associations [Unbranding]

Last night I read about a new marketing trend called “unbranding,” where luxury houses allegedly send out their competitor’s products to keep their own brands from being associated with celebrities who don’t match their brands’ carefully-crafted images.

Unsurprisingly, they used Jersey Shore‘s Snooki as an example; Snooki was originally known to have carried around a Coach bag everywhere but now seems to have gone on to various other designer brands. Not because she is earning more money and able to afford these new purses, nor because publicists and PR staff are sending her free swag to hawk, but because luxury houses are sending her each others’ bags in an attempt to disassociate themselves from the train wreck!

I don’t think I have ever become more loyal, or distanced myself from a particular brand due to celebrity associations. To me, it is more about the design and the quality. Sure, there are some brands to which I am more partial just based on their names, but there is usually a good reason their brands are associated with luxury: their superior products speak for themselves.

The funny thing is that I have found myself placing negative connotations to certain brands as of late. But not because of celebrities or pop culture. Rather, because of spam comments.

Yes, you read that right: spam comments. Because in the past month or so I have been getting tons of spam comments from people pushing (probably counterfeit) luxury brand items — more specifically, from Louis Vuitton and Christian Louboutin. As a result, I have noticed that whenever these two brand names come up, I cringe inside.

I am well aware that Louis Vuitton or Christian Louboutin has no control over these comments. But the fact of the matter is that these spammers have ruined these brands for this blogger, at least for the time being.

I can think of another example which dates all the way back to high school: a girl who used to bully me had a penchant for Prada bags. Because of this girl, I now associate Prada with painful high school memories and have no desire to own a single Prada item.

Again, Prada has had no control over this situation. It is merely due to my own personal experience that I choose to distance myself from this brand.

What about you? Are there certain brands that you are fiercely loyal to, or tend to stay clear of, due to personal experiences? Are you ever swayed by the products that celebrities use?

Asian Emoticon Stamp

J likes to tease me and call me a “twinkie” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) because I’m not too familiar with the Asian culture. Sure, I like to pretend — and write about it on this blog — but the truth of the matter is that I routinely research and triple-check my facts before writing anything Asian/Korean-related on here.

One of the many trends I still have trouble deciphering are Asian emoticons. After a bit of head-scratching, I was able to figure out simple ones like ^_^ (happy face) and ^_~ (wink), but more often than not I can’t make sense of what the heck my friends are trying to convey when they use Asian emoticons in their online messages.

But for those who are familiar with Asian emoticons and regularly use them, I stumbled upon a product that may be of interest…

The Kaoiro Emoticom Stamp from Ginghami looks like a regular stamp at first glance, but upon closer inspection you’ll soon realize that it is capable of producing hundreds of cute Asian emoticons.

The office supply lover and stationery geek in me wants to purchase one pretty badly. However, I’m not sure how I would be able to produce concepts that I don’t understand…do you think it can be used as a learning tool?

Via Neatorama.

The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of

Via Geekosystem.

The New Generation of Sticker Pictures

I’m sure my Asian readers will be more familiar with the sticker picture phenomenon that was so popular in the late 1990s to early 2000s. My friends and I always took sticker pictures when we got together, and traded them among ourselves like baseball cards. It was always fun to find a familiar face on someone’s sticker picture collection, to exclaim, “I didn’t know you know _____!”

I used to collect all my sticker pictures in my planner, which I personalized and made pretty with tons of stickers and colored pens (decorating planners was another trend back then). Here’s just one page out of the dozens I had in my planner:

Slowly, the sticker picture fad died out and was soon replaced with purikura, or photo booths which went a step further by washing out the colors in the photographs to make the skin look smoother and lighter. I knew that these “Photo Clubs” existed all over Asia; however, I was surprised to read the latest trend in photo booth pictures: eye enlargement software. Take a look at these “before” and “after” shots:

Examining these photos even further, it seems that the software also slims your face (a trend that is very much desired in Asia) and perhaps trims your jawline.

Recently, a Japanese television show decided to run a picture of the Mona Lisa was run through the software and got the following result:

When shown a picture of the original Mona Lisa alongside the new, purikura version, most Japanese women tended to favor the sticker picture version.

I’m curious as to how I would turn out using these new generation of photo booth machines. However, this would be purely for fun as the changes that are produced are a bit too drastic for my tastes.

As for the experiment being conducted on such an iconic image, a priceless piece of art? And to have the majority of pollers prefer the new version? The word “travesty” doesn’t seem fitting enough. (But then again, this classical art aficionado is biased.)

Via Kotaku.

P.S. — As Kotaku points out, I want to make it a point to say that skin-whitening and larger eyes are not evidence of Asians attempting to look more Caucasian. These features have been desired in Asia long before contact with Westerners.

Geeky PIN Numbers

I must confess that I’m horrible when it comes to passwords and PINs…I really need to be more creative and diversify! (Did I just open myself up to hacks and thefts with that opening sentence?) Perhaps this will help me think of some good combinations…

Via Spiked Math Comics.

Six Random Thoughts

The Geek in Heels household is in a bit of disarray at the moment. J is sick. I am still suffering from insomnia (and am a walking zombie as a result). I sent Comang to stay with my sister for a couple of days while we try to recover and we’re missing him dearly. And I have a gazillion thoughts running through my head at all times…

So I figured, why not write about some of these thoughts?

1. My hair smells like perm chemicals and I like it. I can’t stand most perfume scents, but I have never had a problem with perm chemicals. Or the smell of gasoline. Why am I so weird? (I’ll try to post pictures of my new hair tomorrow. I don’t want to take a picture today because I can’t wash my hair for at least 24 hours and so it’s a royal mess right now.)

2. I think I have gone to the bathroom more than 20 times today. And I can’t remember the last time I had a long, satisfying pee.

3. I want to cry whenever I see our guest room, which is currently overflowing with boxes and bins and is a complete mess. We can’t move anything down to our storage unit until our condo’s management company cashes our first check, and they confirmed this morning that they still haven’t received it. I hate that our management company always takes forever to sort their mail and only goes to the bank once in a while to cash checks. We can’t do ANYTHING to the nursery until this stuff is moved out.

4. Seeing this made me smile today, because I just know that J will give all boys a hard time when it comes to our daughter:

5. My mom calls me every day, sometimes several times a day, to see how I’m doing. On one hand, I want to scream, “WE WILL LET YOU KNOW IF ANYTHING’S HAPPENING.” On the other, I’m grateful because she’s the only one who calls me regularly. I have turned into the lonely pregnant woman again and I’ve been really down lately. I do not know anyone else in real life who is pregnant, and most of my girlfriends are still single. So far, only about 5 people have RSVPed “yes” to the baby shower and they are all family members. (And I know that it may seem like I’m sad no one will buy us gifts, but I honestly don’t care if we do not receive any gifts…I’m just sad that so few people seem to want to come celebrate the baby with us.) I have been trying to make some new friends whose lives are at similar stages as mine, but it’s difficult when even walking around is physically painful. Pity party for one, please.

6. I realize that the majority of these thoughts are negative ones where I am complaining and/or b*tching. I apologize for this — I’ve just been so tired, cranky, and emotional lately. I took pride in myself through the pregnancy for not turning into a crazy pregnant lady who takes everything too personally and cries over every little thing, but it seems that the stereotype has finally caught up with me in the past month or so. All I can do is tell myself to keep looking forward, and stay strong for our little girl.

Educational Chemistry Crayons

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