Even Colbert thinks you're a Dick

I’ve managed to keep away from a large majority of the events surrounding Bubbles the Chimp’s primary caregiver.

YAY ME!

But I caught wind of my beloved Stephen Colbert covering the atrocity otherwise known as Richard Wilkins Reporting Jeff Goldblum’s Faux-Death.

If I didn’t love this man enough already, this video cements it. Jeff wins points too :)

And because it’s Friday and I’m in a great mood, here’s Keyboard Cat saying goodbye to Michael Jackson:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x06gxdypEOM

Great Job, Dick

Did you get caught up in Friday’s Twitter flutter about Jeff Goldblum faux-dying? Right in the middle of us dealing with the loss of Michael and Farrah within hours of each other?

I saw a handful of tweets about Jeff’s demise – I even RT’d one – but the real icing on the cake was Richard Wilkins paying homage to Mr Goldblum’s outstanding career on Friday morning’s Today show. Complete with video montage. You can watch how it all unfolded on YouTube – Part 1 and Part 2.

The website claiming to have the scoop on Mr Goldblum is one of those sites that generates content based on the URL. The http://jeff.goldblum.media…. was what initially gave it away to me. Looking more closely I realised the site didn’t even have a date or timestamp.

But the real give away was the quote at the bottom of the page:

So in the end Dickie Wilkins had that other bloke from the Today show make the apology. Can you say “cringe-worthy”?

It’s one thing for mongs like me to initially believe the fake web site, but there’s a very big lesson in this for real* journalists: DON’T TRUST TEH UNKNOWN INTERWEBS FOR NEWS SCOOPS.

*Yes, I realise some wouldn’t classify Mr Wilkins as a “real” journalist, but he’s more of a journalist than I am.

Obama porn

I’m an unashamed Obama girl. I see or hear Obama on the news and I swoon.

One of my favourite places to check out Obama is the official Whitehouse Flickr Photostream:

And this week this video was released which features John Hodgman more than Obama, but the Obama bits are full of awesome:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7OPByRGDY

And all I can say is…

*swoon*

In defence of street artists

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about graffiti in Sydney. Now that I’m 30 and listen to AM radio, I’ve heard a a lot of talkback on the topic.

I’ve gotten so close to ringing the radio (oh my god, I really am turning into my mother) because the close-minded opinion that graffiti artists just do it to piss people off was, well, pissing me off.

The word graffiti is being used far too broadly—graffiti really is moreso about illegal artworks and “tagging” (I hate tagging). Street art refers to those beautifully thought-out and executed pieces where most-often the artists have gained permission of the owners to decorate their vertical real estate.

Me? I’m a fan of street art. If I had that kind of talent with a spray can, I’d be going for it, too. And I really do hate tagging – it’s thoughtless and it’s a spray-can equivalent of a dog taking a whizz on every blade of grass in the neighbourhood.

Our garage wall had been covered in graffiti – meaningless tags and spray drips that made it look more like a training ground for junior street artists. Then late last year we saw a group of guys working on a wall near us that ended up looking like this:

We got to talking to the group of guys and offered them our tacky garage wall as a canvas. Turns out that most street artists get the permission of the property owners (or in our case, renter) and go as far as getting contact details of the property owners so that they have a fallback position if the cops start asking questions. Cause they know that doing it without permission is, you know, illegal.

The guys we met over the course of a few weeks while they worked on this wall as well as hours, we found them all to be intelligent, articulate and most of them had day jobs and this was just their creative outlet after hours.

I like that.

And I have since had greater respect for the street art I see around Enmore, Newtown, St Peter’s and other places around Sydney.Yes, I know there are some bad apples around, but aren’t there always in social groupings?

I’m making it my mission to educate everyone around me that there’s a difference between graffiti and street art and that there is a hell of a lot of street art-talent out there.

And for the record, ever since our garage wall has been done up, there has been NO MORE TAGGING on our roller door. Kinda goes to show that there is a level of respect for each other’s talent in the street art world.

I wrote about the blue monkey here.

5 web sites great for small business

Since I started LRKane Creative earlier this year, I’ve looked at (seemingly) a million web sites to inform and inspire me in these early days of my small business.

Here are the top 5 web sites that I’ve found to be the most helpful in terms of getting started with my small business:

1. ATO
   As much as I hate the tax office, I have to admit their web site was pretty good in giving me the answers I was looking for – whether I need to charge GST and complete a BAS every quarter (I don’t think I do because I’ll be earning less than $75,000 a year)
2. ABNs and business info
   I had no idea that ABNs are free (WIN!) and this site’s been a huge source of info, especially the how-to guides
3. Click Business Cards
   Not only are these cards a dead-set bargain (less than $70 for 250 cards incl delivery), the cards were on my doorstep within 36 hours of me submitting my order
4. Easy Signs car magnets
   A cheap alternative to stickers on my beloved car and the beauty is that they’re removable! Perfect for when I’m in the need to let out some road rage
5. SmallBiz
   I’ve only found this site fairly recently, but already finding the NSW-centric info really really helpful.