August 2006 Archives
The same guys who lipsynched to the Backstreet Boys have done another hilarious video of the Blackeyed Peas' Don't Lie.
Here's a funny video of a guy dancing his way around the world. The best part is that his entire trip was sponsored by a gum company. I liked the part in this video where a dog runs halfway across the screen and stops to stare at his silly dance and then runs off.
I just read an interesting article in the NY Times about the growing industry of plastinating human corpses in China. If you've seen the Body World's exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago, you most likely have observed the work of the German scientist, Gunther von Hagens and his team of Chinese medical school graduates.
Because of the success of his shows, a number of copycat competitors have launched their own business in China supplying plastinated corpses to shows in Japan, Korea and the U.S. The practices of these human dissecting factories are being questioned in regards to where the bodies are being obtained. Apparently many of them are unclaimed Chinese corpses. However, human rights activists claim the bodies may be of executed prisoners and the deceased mentally ill. The underground trade of illegal bodies has become a concern for the Chinese government.
The video that accompanies this article provides a look inside Gunther's body factory in China. Some questions and thoughts came to my mind as I watched the factory tour. First, it must smell awful, especially in the heat. Is there any air-conditioning? Why are there fans then? Otherwise the bodies would rot, right? I can't imagine working in a factory dissecting human bodies. How do these workers feel after going through years of medical school and end up having to do this for a living? Can you imagine if you worked there and you came across a body you knew? How creepy is that? Do people who volunteer to be organ donors know that their body could potentially end up at an exhibition viewed by millions of people? Imagine friends and family who might unknowingly attend one of these shows and see your plastinated body. How traumatic would that be?
I understand the educational aspect of these shows and how it benefits people to see the difference between healthy bodies and those that smoked or never exercised, but I wonder the ethicality of it and the amount of money these businesses are profiting from bodies that were donated or not.
My cousin Valerie loves the sweet potatoes. She wolfed down a jar of it like there was no tomorrow. I don't think I've ever seen a baby so eager to eat. I remember when I was little I didn't like eating so much except for sweets.
In high school I remember some people would bring a jar of baby food as part of their lunch and I always thought that was strange. Do kids still do that nowadays?
Ahhh!!! That's the most dreaded thing anyone can say to a designer. And the more insulting, "This should be really easy. It shouldn't take that much time." Especially coming from someone who's not a designer and has no clue what the design process involves. And one of my personal favorites, "Can you just jazz it up or something?" I can't count the number of times I've heard that one.
Once as a favor for someone else, I had quickly designed (if you can call it that) a mission statement for this person who was referred to me. With a full work load already on my plate I took on this task that I thought I could do quickly and get out of the way. The person who I was doing this favor for another person in a different department told me that they were looking for something "quick and simple." That should have been the clue that this wasn't going to be quick and simple.
Their idea was to illustrate their department's mission statement in the form of a building with three pillars. I know it's totally cheesy, but it wasn't up to me. So I drew up the 3-column building and placed the copy and sent it away. Of course that wasn't the end of it. The person requesting the design called me up and wanted it to have more color. So color it was and I sent it away. I get a call again and she is still not satisfied. She says, "Can you make it more exciting?" Obviously they were trying to compensate for their boring mission statement. At this point I really didn't care anymore and wanted to move on to projects that were of higher priority. She suggested that I add a border to the whole thing. All right, border added.
Of course in between all of this exchange, I get emails from several different people from her team that I've been cc'd on their emails with text changes. And everytime she called me to ask for changes, she would invariably put me on hold while she chatted with her co-workers about non-pressing issues that could have waited after speaking with me (and yes she did not hit the hold button as would have been the polite thing to do.) I love it when people waste my time, especially when I'm most busy. And the kicker? Right before they printed it for their meeting they asked me to remove the border.
Well I'm sure everyone has experienced something similar. So it's comforting to know that you're not the only one and others can relate. Clientcopia is a funny site with the top 20 stupid client quotes that will be sure to make anyone laugh. Also check out Ze Frank's Passive Aggressive Communications Solution - a creative alternative to letting out your anger.
