02 February 2009

Why Facebook Ads are Awesome

Any smart social network selling ad space will use your personal information to serve ads that are directly relevant to you.  A few days ago I noticed that the ads propagated in the right column were curiously targeted. The first advertisement was for a tee shirt with the year I was born printed on it in a retro-fabulous font. Immediately following was an ad for 'facelift in a bottle'. Thanks Facebook, thanks.

So I started compulsively refreshing the screen to see what other ads would come up. That's when I realized how awesome facebook ads are. Here are my favorites: 

Cartoon

Why does the real picture look more 'cartoonized' than the cartoon. Awesome.

Passive fish

A passive AND addicting fishing game. I'm not quite sure what a passive game involves, other than a bit of awesome and a very mean looking fish.

14daytrail 

Is AcaiBerry Power 500 a 14 day trail? I wonder how many miles that is. That is the trail of awesome and all for 2.16 postage.

Mrmen

A Mr. Men Bruise Soother?  What does that mean? What does this have to do with me? This doesn't even rank in terms of awesome, it's just plain bizarre.

I've been on Facebook for quite some time now and in that period I've only been aware of 2 ads that were relevant to my personal interests. One was for a sewing machine and the other was for a Big Lebowski tee shirt, which was awesome, but I was also wearing it at the time.

31 January 2009

Her Morning Elegance

10 December 2008

Big Lebowski Competition Results

And the Winner is:

Random 

"Those are good pizzas, Walter."

04 December 2008

Yay Me - Epic Fail

As it turns out I've been riding around on the Vespa with a flat back tire for about the last week. I did notice that the scooter wasn't steering very well and I did check the front tire but as it was fully inflated I thought perhaps it was just due to the roads being a bit slick from the cold.

Turns out it was the back tire that was flat. Don't worry, no one was hurt in the process of this realization.

02 December 2008

Oyster Card / Business Card Holders on Etsy

Etsy-shop

If you're interested in an Oyster Card / Business card wallet, they're now available in the Maradoll etsy shop.  I've made about 50 of these puppies for the Brockley craft market and I'm proud to say that no two are the same. I only uploaded 9 to Etsy; it sure takes a lot of time to upload items to Etsy!

So, who's weird now?

My mobile phone rang once today and on the caller display it’s Matt. I call Matt back straight away thinking that this could be something work related and that I’ve missed his call due to my archaic phone.

Straight to message: “Hi Matt, it’s Mara. I’ve got a missed call from you. It only rang once and it’s showing as a missed call from you. I don’t know if it was my phone being weird or you being weird. Anyway, call me back if you need something.”

Matt calls me back: “Sorry about the missed call. I was walking to the post office and was trying to make a call on my iPhone, but I’m wearing gloves. The iPhone touch screen won’t work with gloves on, so I was dialling with my nose. But I was trying to dial my wife’s number and instead it dialled yours and I was trying to frantically hang up with my nose.”

Mara: "Well, it’s good to hear that it wasn’t my phone being weird." 

30 November 2008

Explaning the Unexplainable - Contest

Biglebowski

Have you ever cleared out the photos from your camera and come across a photo that you just can't explain? Yes, that is a Big Lebowski action figure with a homemade pizza - but what are they doing together? Leave a caption for this photo in my comments and on 10 December a comment will be drawn at random for a genuine Maradoll Oyster Card holder.

Result: Heather's Portland Scavenger Hunt

When I set this challenge I was only expecting photos, but I ended up getting hilarious commentary too! Bonus! Thanks Heather - I really enjoyed getting your email with the results!

1. Photo of the most awesome building in Portland.

Portlandbuilding


It was a tie- only because I had 2 days to do the scavenger hunt and wanted to take a photo of the Trinity Broadcasting Building but saw it a few days before my mission. It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere and shaped like like a giant white clam. TBN was one of the 2 channels I got when I lived in Chico. I used to call it the God Channel because it had televangelists 24/7 but sometimes Mr. T would be a guest star. So the possibility that Mr. T was in the giant clam-shaped building makes it the most awesome building in Portland.

So the winner for #1 was The Bins Goodwill Outlet Store. OMG the bins!!  It's really out in the middle of nowhere so you have to know where're you're going. I walked up a hill about a half a mile from the bus stop on the freeway and at the top of the hill saw this massive Walmart-sized building with a gazillion Goodwill trucks parked outside. There's an etiquette you have to learn by watching the regulars. If someone puts something down and they're still next to it, it's no longer theirs. If a cart is "abandoned", you have to yell "is this someone's cart?" twice. People stood in line waiting for a line of new bins to come out and everyone grabbed for something like a pinata for adults. I wished I could've bought a whole pile of robot kids toys and this weird skeleton animatronic hand but my suitcase was already full. The old guy in front of me in line bought 2 crab pots, a stand up arcade game and a pile of plaid clothes for $43 total.

2. Photograph of the yummiest looking pastry in Portland with a photo of the person who made it (or is at least selling it).

Portlandpastry


Easy. Vegan Donut with carob and coconut from Voodoo Dounut. It was the yummiest to me because I knew it wouldn't make me sick if I ate it. The person that made it was busy so this is the guy that sold it to me.

3. Photo of someone wearing a band tee shirt holding a sign that explains why they like that band.

nope. didn't find anyone. there was one guy at Shanghai Tunnels Pub in a Tight Bros shirt but he was gone when I got my camera.

4. One photo of what you had for breakfast, a photo of lunch and a photo of dinner (I love food)

Breakfast


Breakfast- Bijou Cafe. Short stack of oatmeal pancakes with organic maple syrup and marion berry syrup. They were some of the best pancakes I've ever had.

Lunch

Lunch- Esperaza's. Wild Boar BBQ enchilada. They stopped making the ostrich enchiladas.

Dinner

Dinner- Shanghai Tunnels Pub. Curry Noodle Bowl. Too spicy and too many onions. Everybody loves this place so I must have been there on an off night.

5. Photo of something that makes you happy.

Tree


Faces on trees. Pretty simple. I was on a solo hike in Washington Park and saw this tree. It made me smile and say "hello tree." I learned spending that much time alone makes me talk to trees.

6. Bonus set by Aaron: Photo of a Portland Native

No luck. It seemed like people had lived a few places before they came to Portland and weren't planning on staying for more than a few years.

19 November 2008

More Brockley Christmas Market

Oyster-card-wallets

I've come up with a new design for Oyster Card holders. I'm pleased with how vibrant and individual they are. I'm not done yet with these, they're missing their vintage buttons and snaps. There's going to be a lot of hand sewing gone on in these parts from now until the Brockley Christmas Market.

Edit: If you'd like to win a snazzy wallet that will carry Oyster AND business cards, why not enter the Big Lebowski pizza caption contest?

18 November 2008

Heather's Portland Scavenger Hunt

Heather is visiting Portland. One of my main issues with being a goals oriented person is that I think it's fun to visit a new place and to be set a challenge. So I've challenged Heather to the following scavenger hunt.

1. Photo of the most awesome building in Portland.
2. Photograph of the yummiest looking pastry in Portland with a photo of the person who made it (or is at least selling it).
3. Photo of someone wearing a band tee shirt holding a sign that explains why they like that band.
4. One photo of what you had for breakfast, a photo of lunch and a photo of dinner (I love food)
5. Photo of something that makes you happy.

I'm interested to see what Heather comes up with and if she can do all five. Stay tuned!