Blog Title: AllMyLiesAreWishes.com

“Free Food in the Kitchen!” - An Anthropological Phenomenon

The minute any food shows up in the kitchen at work, a fascinating anthropological event transpires. First comes the discovery: Someone walks by and sees the plate, which has appeared as if by magic. The alert is instant, epic, and never detailed. “FOOD IN THE KITCHEN” is broadcast with the aplomb of an archeologist who just read more..

TV Show Music: Song from Chuck Season 2 Premiere

Chuck came back this week. What a strong opener it was. That Josh Schwartz knows just the right music to use in his TV shows. Last year we saw Band of Horses used to a pleasing effect. In the premiere we got a taste of an equally great track from an even lesser known band. The read more..

The Deal with My Blog

So in the years this blog has existed it’s been a number of things. All of them inspired, none of them that well executed. To be honest, if I didn’t like the design so much, I’d probably take the whole thing down right now. But I do like the design, so up the blog shall read more..

I don’t like to talk on the phone

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much I dislike phone calls. I don’t mind a quick call here or there (though I prefer a text message,) but any long call that involves important decision making or conversation I dread. I wasn’t sure if it was just me, or even why I felt that read more..

Live the FiLife

FiLife.com, a personal finance site for people who don’t like personal finance, had its public launch today. It’s already being written about as its status as a partnership between Dow Jones and IAC gives it a lot of visibility. This is where all my time has gone over the past few months. We’ve all worked very read more..

Friday Design Review: whatthefuckdoineedtoknow.com

I came across this site via Tumblr. It’s created by topherchris. I love the concept—one short news byte each day—almost as much as I love the minimalism. Helvetica Neue strikes again and as always, never fails to disappoint. I think, if the design wanted to really be a type-gangster (and don’t we all?) that he could’ve read more..

The thing you’ve been putting off takes less time than you think

I have a lot of ideas for new projects. I find that I only execute a small number of these ideas however. The past month that I haven’t blogged? It hasn’t been writer’s block. I have a lot of ideas for drafts, I just never write them. I always think that I don’t have time to read more..

Make Email Easier with Greasemonkey

I’m a fan of the email signature. It’s a great way to supply the people you talk to with your contact info, and once you set it you can forget it. One of my favorite things about desktop email programs (like Entourage) is the ability to have multiple signatures that you can select for the read more..

I am now a Brooklyn Resident

Ink hit paper Friday and now I finally have an apartment in New York City. I’ve been here for a few months and have looked, and looked for an apartment. It’s not an easy task. There were trials and tribulations along the way, but I finally found a place I really like. It’s in Carroll read more..

Nifty Font Trick for Leopard Users

Hoefler & Frere-Jones posted a great tip for Leopard users. In case you didn’t realize, you can preview any file quickly by selecting it in the finder and hitting SPACE. This works for images, documents and, it seems, also for fonts. The coolest part of this trick is that if you select a family of read more..

Naughty Language

This is a very NSFW video, but it’s one I also find to be quite awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJsM1Tl7_jE My favorites: Sarah Chalke (in German) Judy Reyes (sounding saucy) Zach Braff (sounding completely unthreatening) Rachel Bilson (sounding adorable, even when swearing, as per usual) Jamie Oliver (the British people don’t sound as taboo when swearing. why?) Derren Brown (in a laundromat?) Peter Krause (sounding awesome, as read more..

I am a mature adult

I was looking for an email with a certain link in it the other day and remembered that the email thread turned into a bunch of “your mom” jokes (as emails are wont to do) so I performed the following search in gmail: This was the result:

And the Award Goes to…Mirror Show Management

I used to work at Martino Flynn. While there, besides having more fun than I ever thought possible at a job, I worked on a lot of web sites. One of those sites was for a company called Mirror Show Management. I was very pleased with the site, which was designed by my boy Scott read more..

AllMyLiesAreWishes in the Brazen Careerist Network

I’m pleased to announce that I am one of 50 bloggers featured in the Brazen Careerist network. I’d like to welcome any new readers and invite them to peruse my archives (which are a bit disjointed) and subscribe via the link in the right sidebar. I’m very excited to be a part of this network. I read more..

Top Chef: My Predictions for Season 4 - Pre Week 1

Here’s how I think it’ll go: Eliminations: Week 1: Nikki Week 2: Valerie Week 3: Zoi Week 4: Nimma These first few weeks will just skim off the weak. Week 5: Mark Mikey, he might be, but I don’t think he has the focus to continue much further. Week 6: Jennifer There’ll be a curve-ball challenge where her lack of fundamentals will be her downfall. Week read more..

Top Chef: Let the Flames Begin Indeed

I’m a Top Chef fan. That’s really no secret. With season 4 starting next week, the anticipation is palpable. This being the first season where I’ll be watching (and living) in NYC, I feel a closer affinity to the show since it gets so much coverage here (7 out of the 16 contestants are New read more..

TV Commercial Music: Match.com Ad

I’ve gotten a lot of requests to track down the music from the Match.com commercial where you see a couple’s relationship in reverse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEoNv40×4wk The song used here is by Paul Brill. The tricky part seems to be that the song isn’t released yet. This type of thing is frustrating for people who see the commercial and read more..

“The Fall” Makes Love to your Eyes

A long time ago, there was a movie called “The Cell“. It had Jennifer Lopez before she had kids, Vince Vaughn before he started doing dick-joke comedies, and Vincent D’Onofrio before he was on Law & Order and was only known for Full Metal Jacket. It was visually very strange, even beautiful. It was directed read more..

TV Commercial Music: Old Navy “The Urban Explorer”

Continuing their holiday tradition, Old Navy has a new commercial featuring a great song by a female singer. This time, it’s a song called “February Air” by the band Lights. Here’s the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOffLJ3e48A and here’s the video for the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6urJixiepo In my research I found that the band “Lights” is actually the girl “Lights”. And she likes read more..

TV Commercial Music: JCPenney “American Living” Oscar Commercial

As I watched the Oscars last night I was wishing that I was at home, with my Tivo, so I could fast-forward through all the crappy commercials. Then I saw the following JCPenney ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-c_esQckZc (Apologies for crappy audio, listen to the entire song here.) This song was used in a few JCPenney commercials throughout the Oscar broadcast. read more..

Facebook Spam: The Other Shoe Has Dropped

So, it finally happened today. I got spam on my Facebook wall. Maybe this is common, but it’s the first I’ve seen of it. I thought something was suspect when a guy from my High School wrote on my wall apropos of nothing. Turns out he wanted to let me know about a site with read more..

Windows XP and 98 Music Remix

This music was created using only sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98. It’s a lot better than you’d think. I’ve listened to it a few times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsU3B0W3TMs via Larissa Meek

TV Commercial Music: House “Frozen” Promo

While I didn’t get to watch it since I was driving home after the game, the episode of House that immediately followed and was touted throughout the Super Bowl looked like a good one (I’m a big fan of the show.) I was also pleased with their choice of music. I already love the theme read more..

TV Commercial Music: Playstation 3 Ad

I saw a few good commercials yesterday during the Super Bowl. One that stuck with me was the following Playstation 3 ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHZ2xaigwk I liked the song. It has a good evil-broadcast-from-a-podium, “can you dig it” vibe and some pleasing rhymes. So, in the wake of the popularity of my last two commercial music posts, I thought read more..

There’s something else in the box

  Way back when, Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake created an Internet phenomenon with their Dick in a Box song. If you’ve been in a cave, or want a refresher, check it out here. There’s been a lot of imitators and posers, most of them exactly as bad as you’d expect. “Step 1…cut a hole in read more..

Technorati Mish-mash

Disregard this post. It’s all fancy Technorati behind-the-scenes action. Technorati Profile If you want to support me, add this site to your favorites on Technorati.

Steve Jobs Tells Three Stories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ps1c1Z2Rl8 This is a commencement speech Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class of Stanford (full context here). He tells three stories from his life. It’s long, but I think it’s moving, and worth it. Typography. Turns out that after Jobs dropped out of college he audited a few classes. On of these was calligraphy. This class read more..

TV Commercial Music: Apple Macbook Air Song

The new Apple Macbook Air is an amazing device, no doubt. As soon as it was announced yesterday you were sure that Apple would release a commercial for it with some awesome song by a sexy-sounding female singer ala their iPod Nano ad. Well the future is now, and the commercial is out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBCfW9-hjKI What’s this song read more..

How Do You Art Direct a Cow?

DJ Stout has redesigned the magazine Dairy Today that is launching this month. In addition to a bold new logotype, the magazine will feature a stylized “portrait” of a dairy cow on the cover of each issue in an effort to differentiate it from its competitors. I think these new covers are beautiful. Maybe it’s because read more..

Brendan Dawes: Play-Doh as Interface

http://www.vimeo.com/267097 I saw this at FitC last year and it’s still mindblowingly awesome. Brendan has more annoyingly creative stuff on his blog like bouncing pixels for popular posts.

Merry Christmas

Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You Olivia Olson - All I Want for Christmas Is You from Love Actually

FiLife on NBC Last Night

It might be brief, and not actually about us, but our Managing Editor Ron Lieber had some air time last night on NBC as a segment on the ubiquity and potential negatives of gift cards around the holidays. FiLife was mentioned insomuch as a subhead under his name. I’m sure there’ll be more press as we read more..

Charlie Brown Christmas Decorations - The TV Special Comes to Life

Some people really go all out. This is a good video, and it is a great Christmas special. I know I’ve been rocking out to this Charlie Brown Christmas Mashup for the last few weeks. Dig it!

A New Chapter

Game on mother fucker.

Martino Flynn goes Sans-Email for the Day

In what will be my last post about Martino Flynn (it’s my last day) I want to share this news broadcast. We recently gave up email agency-wide and the cameras were there to record the results. Fun drinking games to play while watching the video: Take a drink every time you see or hear Danielle Take a read more..

White People Be Crazy

Old Navy and JCPenney TV Commercial Music

This holiday season I’ve noticed a slew of commercials using very similar music. I’m thinking of Old Navy and JCPenney especially. These commercials usually have a lot of beautiful women lounging in sweaters, petting dogs, walking in the snow, etc. The music always has a female singer and is sparsely composed–usually just a guitar or read more..

Your 16oz Maple and Sage? I don’t eat that, I’m not from The North.

Devoted Customer Upset Jimmy Dean Downsized Sausage 16oz To 12oz But Charges Same Price. This is the greatest thing I’ve heard in awhile. This poor Texan just wants to feed his plump wife and 600lbs of men in his home. How could you Jimmy Dean? PS. Those Jimmy Dean “Chocolate Chip Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick” read more..

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry (not “Michael Gondry”) is a French filmmaker know for his odd, dream-like style. His most recognizable work was probably the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which showcased his unique visual style. He’s also directed numerous music videos and commercials, many of which have the same style. I’ve always liked his work read more..

I’m Moving to New York City

So, it’s finally happened. I’ve got a job and I’m moving to NYC. I’ve been talking about this for a long time and I can’t express how excited I am to finally be doing it. The Job I’ll be working for IAC in the awesome Frank Gehry designed building in Chelsea. My job title is “front end read more..

Balls on Your Desk

via Fresh Arrival These magnetic balls are meant to hold business cards, pictures, or anything else on your desk that you’d like to display in a fresh-to-death way. They’re also good for hours of fun–pull them apart and watch them slam back together. How cool. Watch the following video to see just how cool it gets. Visit read more..

Gosh Darn Knit

I have a confession to make. I love notebooks. I love getting new ones and flipping through them for the first time, when they’re crisp. I love filling them up with notes and changing their definition. What was once a bunch of blank pages becomes design notes, then it becomes job interview details, and on read more..

The "Millennials” Are Coming

My boy Ryan Healy was on 60 Minutes tonight. First off, congratulations. Second, what’s with the expose being alarmingly snarky and negative toward our generation? I blame jealousy and a nostalgic “when I was your age” sense that Gen X and the boomers seem to have toward us. “Oh no, they want praise, they’re confident read more..

Flock Blog Post Test

I just installed Flock 1.0 and I’m writing this from the browser. Let’s see how it works. Blogged with Flock

Remember When I Said I Wouldn’t be Food Blogging?

A little while ago I exposed the virtues of not blogging about food. Well, in signature fashion I’ve done as I do, not as I say and am now, in fact, working (to some extent) as a food blogger. I am, as of yesterday, one of four interns for Adam Roberts over at The Amateur read more..

Bernstein is Cuddy, Finkel is Einhorn, Einhorn is Finkel

Einhorn is a man! Lisa Edelstein, on the other hand, isn’t. Well, I don’t have first-hand knowledge of that but all evidence I’ve seen suggests that it is true. The true gender of Edelstein is not the point of this. The point is that Lisa Edelstein—who plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House—has always looked familiar read more..

A Conversation About Design

This is great. I wish I’d had this video to refer people to when they ask me what being a designer means. That it’s more than graphic design or industrial design. You don’t need a beret or a drafting table; a compass or a set of paint brushes. It’s just telling a story. Also, this read more..

Have YOU Met Ted?

This won’t be news to most people who know me personally since I’ve been demanding people participate for the past couple months. That being said, I’m proud to announce my newest project: Have You Met Ted: The How I Met Your Mother Blog. I launched this site in the beginning of September and have been read more..

Happy as an Old Hammerdog

I remember I was hammering on a fence in the west pasture when Papa approached. He was carrying a letter or something in his hand, and he looked worried.I continued to hammer as he came toward me. “Son,” he said, “why are you hammering on that fence? It already has plenty of nails in it.”“Oh, read more..

Feel like a cow? Weigh yourself on the animal scale

I don’t know if this would be funny, quirky, and amusing or incredibly depressing. I, for one, don’t really need the knowledge that I am the same weight as a cloven farm animal. via Angry Retail by way of Swiss Miss