ThingsAmongMany

Having one of those days? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Every day, thousands of Americans and millions of people around the world have a momentary realization that can only be answered with three simple words…

Fuck My Life!

And since the web was specifically created to make light of the misfortunes of others, a crew of ingenious French guys started a site dedicated to those moments. FmyLife.com is a collection of user-submitted moments that we can all relate to…or at least laugh out loud at. Categories range from sex to work to love and money, and the stories just keep getting better. Basically, it’s a textual version of FailBlog that feels somehow more relatable.

Oh, and though it was a little hard to find at the top of the page, I kep thinking “these guys need a Twitter feed!”. Looks like they beat me to it. Follow them here (@fxxxmylife).

Yeah, I’m a fan of Twitter. And yeah, I have to wash my clothes occasionally. Put the two together, and you’ve got Ryan Rose’s tweeting Washing Machine. Need I say more?

I’ll let him explain the rest:

EDIT: Apparently YouTube hasn’t approved the audio for the video yet. Hopefully it’ll be up soon.

As a devout tech geek and also reasonably enthusiastic car guy, anything that demonstrates the collision of the two (no, not literally) is of immediate interest. Back when I owned a car - a joy that I both miss and and dread returning to - I went through my fair share of radar detectors and other gizmos (the Valentine One earns my vote in that department).

Of course, this was well before the iPhone was available and every manufacturer had their own app store. Now that this is the case, there’s a whole new tech gadget available for your in-car needs. I’ve already used my iPhone as a wayfinding tool on trips out of town, etc. But I don’t bother to travel with a radar detector, which did cause me to be a bit more conscious of my speed on my last trip…

This is where Trapster comes in handy. Essentially a virtual, socially powered radar detector, Trapster is an application available for a variety of mobile devices. Power it up while you’re driving and simply click on the map as you pass a speed trap. When another Trapster user drives by the same spot, they’re warned of the impending speed trap, which they can also click to confirm.

There’s also a brief demo video on the Trapster site (but be forewarned, it’s pretty corny).

JPG magazine, the haven for photographers who’re looking for something a little more than Flickr has to offer, has had its fair share of troubles throughout its tenure. Not the least of which were the cloudy circumstances surrounding the departure of founders Derek Powazek and Heather Champ (if you’re not familiar, the story can be found on Powzek’s blog).

Now, to add insult to injury, the current team has announced the closing of the highly lauded magazine:

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success.

Originally scheduled to shutter today, input from the community at large has allowed the team to keep things running for another week or so. There’s also been a huge outcry from the community based at SaveJPG.com. Hopefully the team can work out a means to keep things alive - first thing that comes to mind is shuttering the paper version of the mag and keeping JPG alive on the web. But I’m sure they’ve thought of that.

If you’re a fan and/or member of JPG, get over to SaveJPG.com and show your support. If you’re not yet familiar with it, take a few minutes to read up on JPG and you’ll quickly see why it’s a valuable community that’s well worth the effort of saving.

It’s that time of year again. Yup, the holiday season when all of those creative shops around the world start cranking out their version of “the best, most creativest holiday ‘card’ ever!” They’ve started to pop up here and there, though we haven’t been over-run by them yet. The first couple to cross my desk were AKQA’s Microwaves and the hilarious spoof title A Charlie Brown Ad Agency (anyone know who’s claim to fame this one is?).

But - and yes, I am completely biased in this statement - I think we’ve got ‘em beat. Sure, a short video hosted on YouTube to show clients that you’re in touch with the digital world is fun, but here at POKE, we prefer something that you can actually sink your teeth into. You know, something that you can use to persecute your friends (and enemies) across the interwebs. And since we all know that the reality of Santa Claus is limited to the drunk guy in a red suit puking his guts out after Santacon, we went ahead and took over some of the workload…

Ladies and gents, may I present to you the Global Naughty or Nice List! Now it’s your turn to declare which end of the list your friends should be on. The idea is simple really: you add your friends to the list along with a vote (or two) in the right direction to get them started. Be careful though - karma’s a bitch as they say!

One day I shot a picture of my lunch. Pretty much out of boredom. I got a chuckle out of it, and that was it… Until I did it again the next day. And the next. Eventually it just became a bit of a “thing”. Now I try to grab a shot of my lunch every day. It’s not something I do for “health” reasons. I’m not trying to track my calories during lunch. I don’t shoot photos of any other meals. And I don’t generally freak out if I miss a day. It’s just something I do for fun (though I do have a couple of ideas on how to extend it that I’d like to pursue later).

I also started a group on Flickr where other people could join in the fun. Of course, the group was just me for quite a while. But then someone else joined. We chatted. It was nice. And suddenly, over the last week we’ve had an influx of about a dozen new members! It’s starting to feel like a real group!

And, to top it off, we’re being featured on Flickr Group Roulette tomorrow. Not familiar with this group? Well, neither was I, but of course I stopped by to check it out when I learned that they’d be borrowing our theme. Basically, they’re a self-portrait per day type group (there are quite a few on Flickr), but they’re different because each day is supposed to follow a theme of some sort. Tomorrow’s theme? You guessed it: “What I Had For Lunch Today”.

Sound interesting? Please, join up, submit your photos, and take part in tomorrow’s theme!

Continuing the kick, and to answer my own question below, I’d like to direct you to the Styleforum. I stumbled onto this seeminly hidden away spot a while ago, and swing by to peruse the, rather ironically, unstylish but functional message board every once in a while. What the site lacks in aesthetics, however, it makes up for in content. Featuring over a million posts dedicated to making you a better-dressed man, the Styleforum is populated with some of most detail-oriented clothes hounds I’ve every come across.

The guys here can answer just about any style or clothing question you can toss at them. What look will fit your body type, where to find an obscure fabric or custom suit-maker near you, etc. You name it, these guys can answer it. Of course, if you’re a complete fashionista, some of the responses may prove slightly over-the-top. But that just makes them all the more fun to read, right?

Can’t find what you’re looking for on the forum? They’ve also put together a pretty serious collection of books in their amazon store for your perusal.

[and who’s more stylish than Bond?]

As most mid-century fanatics well-know, finding the right piece at the right price is really difficult these days. Factor in the issues of shipping and receiving, possibly having to refinish a piece, etc., and the plight of the mid-century furniture shopper can be downright daunting. Sure, we can scour ebay (and deal with all the trouble that comes with the ‘bay), hunt on craigslist, or spend hours wandering through flea markets and “antique” stores…

Or we could just sign up for Lushpad. Launched in early August (yeah, like 3 weeks ago), Lushpad is an exchange platform aimed directly at the mid-century modern market. Users can browse or place ads for furniture items (and a few other decorative pieces) that meet their fancy from a range of well-known designers. Based on their Canadian price listings, I’m going to assume these guys are based up north somewhere. But that doesn’t limit your ability to shop by location, designer, object type, etc.

Despite being stocked mostly with newly produced reproduction items at the moment, the Lushpad platform is extremely promising for connecting interested buyers and sellers. Hopefully once the word spreads, they’ll limit the number of retailers and promote the system more toward individuals.

Trend-spotting and cool hunting sites abound these days (yes, some might classify this site amongst their ranks). Without getting into a discussion of what qualifies as a such a site, I will say that most of these are blogs - sites that consider their small writing staff a group of experts who others should look up to. Sure, they’re open to commenting and discussion. And not many would argue that a blog is anything but a community-oriented type of site. But now that notion has been taken a step further.

Whether you want to call it more “2.0″ than these blogs or a step toward something even further, social aspects of the connected world are here to stay. And a new site has now stepped forward to bring trendcasting out of the blogosphere. Check out edopter. Created by the pair at One Blue Brick, Matthew Rosenberg and Andy Thompson, edopter allows any user to establish what they see as an upcoming trend. As other edopters join to support that trend, it grows more established within the system. Users who create more popular trends, of course, gain rank within the system.

It probably sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but its something along the lines of trend-spotting blog meets social network (despite their claim that they don’t want it to be a social network). There’s still a few kinks that are in the process of being worked out, but after chatting with Andy, it sounds like they’re well on their way to sorting things out. And if you’re in need of a new trend to support, how about jumping on the *AmongMany bandwagon?