Kinect and Clothes

I'm a big fan of new technology and am very excited to see how the Kinect interface continues to evolve. I really think it has the capability to be one of the greatest innovations we've seen.  This Kinect "dressing room" is one fun example but it could evolve to helping you decorate a whole room all they way up to walking through a architecture schematic.

I can't wait to see what happens next. 

Seasons and Silence

Last week I did a lot of driving... 32 hours to be exact.  I drive about 30 minutes to work each way and have found that time to be one of the few moment's of peace I get all day. 

I work in an open plan office in an industry where I'm interacting with creatives and clients and vendors all day long.  The computer is on, the phone is ringing, there is music playing and other people having meetings and phone conversations.

At home, I walk into the house with animals barking and running, the TV is often on and I need to share time with my husband.

While most of these are good, or at least interesting, things, for a "Highly Sensitive" person they can be overwhelming and exhausting.  I tolerate the stimulus as much as I can, but eventually I need to recharge and, frankly, hide out!

As a child, I had a walk in closet.  My bookshelf was in there and I would sit in there with my back to the door and relax and read.  Even now you will sometimes find me in my closet sitting on the floor and just organizing stuff.  And if I'm away from home, after a time I will need to go away from people and sit in a quiet room.  There is only so much I can take.

Moments of peace are hard to find in the over-sharing, over-stimulated, over-bright world.

On my drive home, I will frequently leave the radio off.  The wind and tires are enough background noise, akin to white noise, and they help me to transition from work and prepare for home.

Lately I have been using the TED app on my iPhone to listen to TED talks.  There are so many great ones to choose from  with topics ranging from activism to inspiration.  I just love them!

These are particularly appropriate:

Five Ways to Listen Better

Four Ways Sound Effect Us

Music, can muffle and soothe (my favorite is classical or African singers such as Habib Koite) but my favorite thing to listen to is....

The tumble dryer!  It could be the association with warm, clean towels or afternoons at home, but I love it.  I listen to that or the "cat purring" environment on iSerenity.com all the time!

The darker days of Fall and Winter, with early dusk, rain and cool weather, are my time to recharge.  What do you do to relax, pamper and protect yourself?

Cutey cute

My Favourite Things from kidswithcrayons on Vimeo.

P.S. Cynical me says "Why did he take her box of Favorite Things without her permission?"

Distraction

Between trying to get work done before I'm out for the holidays and videos like this, I can't focus at all!

How are you making it through this pre-holiday week???

A little something to make you smile

The boy makes a suit look good...

Oh, yeah, and this scene was worth the whole movie...

Call me Crazy

Because this week has been completely crazy here is a little something cute and funny to distract you from my lack of writing. Tonight I can take a breath!

Don't Shop

I just viewed the Style Coalition video called "Don't Shop" and immediately engaged in discussion with many other bloggers on Twitter.

The purpose of the video is as stated:

Concept: on June 22nd, Style Coalition hosted 13 top NYC fashion bloggers for a special video shoot at DEX New York studios for DON'T SHOP! campaign, supporting the fashion industry and inspired by DON'T VOTE! video. In a similar way our video starts with "don't shop" message, and slowly turns into campaign message showing the importance and value of supporting our favorite fashion designers in these tough economic times.

Putting aside the fact that, as I work in advertising and marketing, I don't like when people copy other campaigns (let's call this an homage) I wasn't quite sure about the overall message.

Yes, we are in a precarious economic time. And yes I value the work and artistry created by fashion designers, established and up-and-coming. I appreciate the beauty and fun that shopping and clothes and shoes bring to our lives. I would be sad if some of my favorite designers closed up shop.

But...

That said I don't agree with what was stated here.

For one, to most people the majority of the designers listed are out of reach. Even to get a single piece. I don't think that the masses are going to be buying any less than before. And for those who were buying and passionate about these designers, I think they will still buy. Maybe not as much but shopping is still going on. Consumers are actually making fewer but better/higher quality purchases. And we're not going to suddenly not have clothes either.

Secondly, this is not 9/11, where people were afraid to leave their homes and travel. Heck, I worked at Walt Disney World at that time period and when the President said to go to WDW, we were happy because people were afraid to travel to populated destinations for fear of getting attacked and killed. No, right now we're in a big economic mess because of bad debt and bad lending and a lot of bad financial decisions (and other scary complicated economic things).

But the biggest issue threatening high end designers and luxury houses and stores, in my opinion, isn't that people aren't spending. It's been the greed and shoddy business practices of these companies over the last 5 - 10 years. Reading Deluxe was very eye-opening. I think anyone involved or interested in the fashion or the fashion industry should read it.

These brands have cut costs, thrown away heritage and craftsmanship, churned out junk, contributed to the massification of their brands and in many ways deceived the public. They have flown high on cheap leather goods, over extended their brands and misrepresented their numbers. I've seen prices on some shoes double in the last few years and it's not because of better quality materials or craftsmanship. I've actually seen that go down.

And why should I keep buying from them if mass brands are getting better and the luxury brands are getting worse?

If these companies want to keep my business and get me to spend with the reduced amount I am still going to spend they need to make their pieces better, make them special, make them available to me and make me feel catered to.

Right now I see the opposite more often than not.

I am still going to spend. There are still things I want. But I don't think I can get behind this.

Frankly, I'd rather see the money and effort go to some of the charities that are struggling as donations go down.

So here's my message...

Don't shop.

Give $5, $10, $25 to your favorite charities instead.

Picture Perfect... and Pink!

As I've done more with the sites here I've been wanting to upgrade my technology. I swear, it's not just that I like new gadgets... it's for valuable work reasons! And since I don't work on a MAC and have been wanting to do more video, I decided I needed a recorder of some kind. I've had my eye on a Flip for a while now and thought, with the upcoming trip to NYC, that now would be a good time to get it.

There are 4 levels of camera you can get but I ended up getting the Flip Mino. It has great quality, plenty of storage, and just as important... you can customize it!

Not only do they have cute colors and a huge amount of designs, a pattern generator or you can use any image and have it added to create a true one-of-a-kind look.

Guess which route I took?

First I was looking at the pink and Hello Kitty designs but then I saw you could upload a unique picture for no additional cost! I decided on adorably delicious, pink macarons for mine.



How adorable is this? Well, in person it's even more adorable because it is teeny tiny! I need to take picture of it for scale. But it's smaller than my iPhone or iPod and lighter too. Which is great because I now will be carrying around 5 or 6 different electronic devices in my bag!



It's also amazingly simple to use - just turn it on and record. Using the simple touch screen, you can zoom in and out, delete videos right on the spot. And then when you plug it into the usb, you can edit, create stills and save to YouTube, AOL, for emailing, etc.



It took less than a week to arrive and I also added on the extended warranty (since I'm going to carry this around in my purse everyday) and bought the pack of usb cables so I can have one in my cord case, one at work and one at home. If you want to get really fancy, you can get a flexible tripod or even an action mount.



So, it's simple, pretty inexpensive and adorable. But does it take good video? I say yes! I res'd this down to the emailable level and it still looks great. When you look at it at the standard level it is even better.

By the way, this is my pup and he was with me at the office together having, obviously, too much fun!



Now, I can't wait to get to NYC so I can shoot a ton more footage.

Beware!

How to Make a Leo Fall in Love with You

This is just so right that it's wrong!

Sadly if you hit all these checkboxes you would make my silly Leo head spin.

Of course, you have to be a good person too. I mean, that's right up there with the whole "expensive gifts" and "flattery" stuff...

Really....

Video Courtesy of Howcast

Beauty Has No Pain

I thought this was an interesting video on the cultural and historical significance that shoes, mainly high heels, plays in our society.

Of course, I kept getting distracted naming all the brands of the shoes I recognized... but still... interesting. And I would totally wear some of those historical shoes that were featured.

Do you agree with the commentary expressed here?

P.S. Thanks to the Shoe Girl for finding this!

Don't be a Betch!

I love Kelly!



So don't be a betch and let me borrow that top!

P.S. And sadly, my industry IS like this. Sad but true.

What a Wonderful World...

I was just amazed with this video so I posted it on Pink Luck Cat.



Hope it makes you smile today!

Luv,
Poochie