Classics in Lego
At one point or another, Eric bookmarked this flickr set for me called “Classics in Lego“. Basically, the photographer has taken the time and effort to re-create classic photographs with Lego. It’s pretty awesome.
My favorite is Bigfoot (because of the appropriate use of a Star Wars mini-figure), side by side with the original image:
For the full flickr set of some classic images recreated with Lego see here.
Tired of the scheming, scamming and spamming
Inevitably, when you hang out your virtual shingle on the internet, you’ll subject yourself to people (or their bots) who think it’s great fun to fill your inbox with garbage.
In the last 24 hours, we’ve received about a dozen emails full of gibberish on our contact form. These make me chuckle at least, since I call them “IP removal requests”. (Our contact form lets us know the IP of the originating contact person for just such occasions!). These are pretty innocuous, since it’s just spam. There’s no viruses, but I seriously have to wonder what the purpose of it is. There’s even fake “links” with just strings of letters and ending in .com. So it’s not even trying to get me to go to some lewd site or anything, or try and trick me into submitting credit card info. I’m sure some day when an alien species does some techno-archeological dig, they too will scratch their heads and wonder, “WTF?”
In the last 24 hours we’ve also had a “personal shipping”/”money mule” scam. This is the third time in as many months that someone has tried this on us. It’s rather annoying since we do answer every customer email we get, and the poor English of the first email always makes my spammy-senses tingle, but I do appreciate that not everyone takes the time to write in perfect English. Thus, it usually takes a second email for me to block their IP :P
What is a “money mule” scam you ask? (Well, I actually had to ask too). This link and this one have some good info.
- Basically, someone wants to buy something from you online, and they ask you in really poor English.
- I’ve found that the person usually uses a very common sounding name, like “Joe” and “Janet” and/or “Jane”. In this most recent incarnation, the first emails were signed “Janet” and then switched to “Jane”. They don’t care if you make mistakes on their name, since well, it’s not really their name.
- They always insist that they use their own “personal shipper”. This mystery shipper also cannot be contacted by you directly.
- They refuse to call you, (in the case where we were privately selling a car online, but locally). They also refuse to meet with you.
- I just wonder what the real side of these operations look like. Are they like call centers, but the people are huddled at computers trying to do their little bit of scheming to launder money?
In any event, be forewarned, internet. This was the first time they hit our business website, but the other two “inquiries” were for listings on Kijiji and one on “Used Ottawa”. Oh, and I just remembered this link details a similar scam regarding the online buying of hay bales (! - really? you can buy hay bales online?!). I <3 the internet for quick answers on scams :)
A couple of cool images
This first one is the “Real-World” photoshop. There’s a Flickr set of how they put this image of the Photoshop interface using real-life objects:
(via BoingBoing. See the full-size image here).
The second one is a great illustration by Patrick Moberg:
(via Drawn! See Patrick Moberg’s blog here).
New in the store: Rings and “Make Your Own” Metal for Monster
Hey, check it out — we added stainless steel rings with some lovely inlays to the store:
They’re good for both men and women (as both Eric and I have worn them), and are available in sizes 5-10 in half-size increments.
Also, we just added “Make Your Own” Metal for Monsters pendants (in both wide and tall orientations).
We know there are plenty of creative types out there: people who doodle, or people who have kids that make wonderful drawings that parents would love to show off, or perhaps you just want to make your Roscharch/palm print ink blot masterpiece.
Whatever the case, you can do it on our ’small canvas for a big cause’. To make your own Metal for Monster pendant, just download this PDF, create, and send it back to us either by email or fax (full instructions are on the PDF). You can sign it on the back, or write a special message, or even put another little doodle. We’ll send you back a mock-up for your review before it gets produced, and then you’ll get your very own completely custom, laser-etched stainless steel pendant. All that, and $16 from the sale price will still go to UNICEF. Pretty cool, eh? :)
A winner for our “One fan = One dollar in merchandise” giveaway
Well, our giveaway closed on October 31, and after compiling our list of 312 fans, we randomly drew a name and came up with Gayle B. Gayle B. wins $312 in Blend Creations merchandise! :)
Oh and psst — we’ve got a newsletter subscriber-only coupon code floating out there that’s good for 25% off your next order of $50 or more. Make sure to join our newsletter and we’ll pass along the coupon to you.
Test your Colour IQ
I had seen this a while back and meant to blog about it, and then noticed that Drawn! mentioned it today — this is a fun little test to see just how well you can discern varying hues. Good fun for all you visual-types :)
It doesn’t take that long to do, and in case you’re wondering here’s my result:
The lower the score the better, so not too shabby for someone whose eyes feel a little fuzzy this morning.
Our Facebook page contest ends this Thursday
Back in July, I posted about a little contest we are having called “Be a fan of Blend Creations on Facebook“.
Well, the contest closes this Thursday, October 31 (Hallowe’en), and right now, our fan base is up to 304 fans, which means the winner of our draw would win $304 in Blend Creations merchandise* if we drew today. So if you haven’t joined already, now’s a pretty good time :)
*Obligatory fine print: Sorry — relatives, suppliers and retailers of Blend Creations are not be eligible for this contest, but they will still count as a “fan” for the prize pot. The final prize is non-transferable and has no re-sale value. You can use it to buy all your Christmas gifts, but it cannot be sold to someone else. The maximum giveaway amount will be for $1500 even if the number of fans exceeds 1500. The giveaway prize is redeemable only for merchandise valued at regular price and not sale prices; it cannot be used in conjunction with any promotional codes nor can it be used for the purchase of any Blend Creations collaborations, limited art editions and/or custom work (e.g. “Metal for Monsters” pendants). The merchandise will be shipped to the winner in a maximum of three separate shipments either to three different addresses or to the same address spread over a period of time.
The Story of Stuff
The Story of Stuff has been online for a little while, but I’m a little slow sometimes in catching up to everything interweb. The whole movie is about 20 minutes long and gives a “fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns”.
The three teasers are below. Good food for thought.
Vote for environment
On Tuesday, October 14th, there will be a Canadian federal election. It’s dizzying trying to research each party’s platform on different issues and evaluate the best choice for us. This site: voteforenvironment.ca was sent to me by my one of my brothers, and could be of interest to you if you’re in the “ABC”-minded way of voting (ABC=anyone but conservative).
I also found this link in the Vancouver Sun about the people behind Vote for environment. It’s an interesting read.
Diversions
Well hello there. Looks like it’s been a little while since there’s been a blog update.
The household was (and still is) under siege by some lovely cold virus that seems to be making the rounds. So priority has been given to sleeping more, resting more and trying to convince the smallest member of the family that that is a good idea. (As I type this, he is in his room fighting the idea of a nap).
When we haven’t been working, we’ve been suckered into various online games like Loops of Zen and Fantastic Contraption. Both of which are quite fun and time-sucking. Oh yeah, in between those games, we got also got a Wii recently. In amongst all the fun of the associated games, we also made Miis from all our favourite shows (like most of the cast of Heroes) using instructions from this site. It’s helped when playing Wii fit to see Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan doing step aerobics with me.
In other news, Blend Creations has recently been mentioned in a couple of recent publications:
Dynamic Graphics + Create (for our Metal for Monsters line)
Family NJ (for our laser engraved wood necklace) and
Stationery Trends (for our washi line).
We’ve still yet to add the cover images and links to our press page though.
After three years in the biz, it’s still a nice surprise to see our products in print. :)
