This is what we call “painting yourself into a corner” or some such cliched saying. Ladies and gentlemen of the internets, I give you my new hobby for the next few weeks, Prom Night Fist Fight, coming to a computer near you in (hopefully) late November.

Podcasts of most of the main presentations from the recent AIGA Design Conference are available for free download. Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, DJ Spooky, and a host of other interesting presenters.

Help me out here. Is it “a-rama” or “o-rama?” (For example, your favorite local skating rink might be called either “Skate-A-Rama” or “Skate-O-Rama.”)

Ty suggested the following very possible scenario: a business moves into town, chooses their -vowel- wisely, and proceeds to set up shop. After a short amount of time, a second business owner decides the local economy can support a little friendly competition and, lacking the skills and/or monetary resources necessary to create or procure an original name for their new business venture, simply chooses a different vowel instead.

(Hopefully said vowel choice is not e, i, u, or sometimes y. After all, Skate-U-Rama doesn’t work very well and Skate-Y-Rama is more than likely bad Spanglish.)

I don’t buy Random House’s explanation.

Whoever spent the time to create and code the IM Prank Bot should be dangled by their pinky toes above a pit of abnormally large and ferocious malnourished wolf spiders. If you try this on me, I will slay you and/or publically mock you via this website.

Upgrade your iPod Nano to 200gb of storage. Link via Cameron

Southern California is on fire.

57 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. Although I still say nothing compares to the mindbender that is the Checkershadow Illusion.

If all goes as planned, a few various nonfunctioning parts and pieces of my truck (little things like the turnsignals and the fan that cools the engine) will be replaced on Monday morning, everything I own (which is minimal) will be packed that afternoon and loaded into a U-Haul trailer, and i’m driving to The ‘Nooga on Tuesday morning (ish) and bidding a slightly bittersweet very fond farewell to the state I love.

Granted, I don’t have an apartment yet… but I have new friends to stay with and I figure this business of driving back and forth (at the rate of about 7 hours and $100 of gas roundtrip) is a ridiculous waste of time, energy, and funds. Considering that i’m already doing occasional work for Tubatomic and they want me in-house with a quickness, prolonging the moving process is just plain dumb.

My sense of adventure is enjoying my life right now.

Tokyo Plastic updates with Opera Guy. Sure, it’s a one trick pony. But that’s still a fun trick.

A very simple way to download complete music videos from the iTunes Music Store.

Puma’s MESSENGER follows Alfred Bobe Jr., Co-Captain of Team PUMA, through the day of a New York City bike messenger. I like that Puma didn’t go create a team for this campaign, they simply found people who are actually doing it, and brought them on board. Are companies finally getting the concept of authenticity?

The BBC’s Big Read Top 100 Novels list (and on a more nerd-ish level, World Literature Today’s Top 40 Most Important Works in the World.)

My design portfolio HRTWRK is updated with a few new things. More work on the way, as always.

Kirsten Dunst reveals the Spider-Man 3 villains to be played by Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace. Of course, she’s a few floats short of a big parade, and doesn’t know who’s playing who. (Seriously… if freaking Topher Grace plays Venom i’m going to swear off comic book adaptations all together. That’s worse casting than Michael Clarke (ENUNCIATE, DANG IT) Duncan as The Kingpin in Daredevil.)

Perry sent me the Biblical Curse Generator. “I hope you will have more mother-in-laws than King Solomon, O ye wayward winebibber!” Ouch.

Last night I saw Coldplay with friends in Atlanta’s Phillips Arena. Very enjoyable show overall, despite a few technical glitches (apparently they just switched out the entire crew.) There is a massive amount of musical force coming off the stage and they interact with the crowd so very well. I will say this, though… and keep in mind that i’m not a raging U2 fanboy or anything… but despite the often made comparisons, Coldplay is no U2, and Chris Martin is no Bono.

That being said, I wonder if there will be a day when it becomes obvious to everyone that the passing of the crown has occurred?

I’ll be heading back to Atlanta tonight to see this little british band.

Shane Mielke, one of 2advanced’s art directors, has a nice photoblog. There’s a lot of variety to what he shoots, which is a welcome change. I like seeing stuff like this, this, or this.

Are you a manly (or womanly) outdoors-person? A regular Bible-reader? Do you find these two aspects of your life constantly at odds with one another? Then you definitely need the 100% waterproof, rugged, tear-resistant Outdoor Bible.

iPod Mods is what it says. (i.e. service, repair and modification of all iPod models)

If you’re a design professional, go fill out Coroflot’s 2005 Salary Survey.