Nom Nom Nom winners!

To our complete surprise, Kai and I won the Nom Nom Nom competition last Sunday!! We are not the proud owners of the NomNomNom09 trophies, Kitchen Aid blenders, and a few more goodies. All the nice photos of the day are here.



Now the online vote just started and we're going to ask for your support! Please vote for The French Connection, the name of our team

This was the three course meal we prepared:



A salmon tartare to start with. We were originally going to make it with tuna but one of the criteria of the competition was sustainability so we thought salmon was a bit better. The fresh salmon is marinated in lemon for an hours or two and then incorporated to a mix of finely chopped tomatoes, onions, chives and a bit of fromage blanc on a bed of thinly sliced cucumber. Thank you very much to Epicurean.com for the recipe and Kai completely mastered the preparation of it.



For the main, we cooked duck breast with spiced apple chutney and a side of salad. The duck is marinated in fresh orange juice, soy sauce and a pinch of chillli powder for a couple of hours before being seared on a frying pan. The apple chutney is slowly cooked with cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, and a few more spices. Pretty easy to do though the balance of spices can be depending on taste to get right. We were told it was a bit overpowering (the judges should have tried the one I made the day before on our practice run, that was intensely flavourful!).



Now surprisingly our star dish seemed to have been the dessert. I'm not a big fan of cooking desserts and even less baking. The recipe was suggested by Hazel, my flatmates girlfriend and thank you again for that! I had never cooked it the day before and hadn't made a meringue in about ten years (and had failed) so we were close to changing the dessert but kept to it and it seems it paid off! A meringue base cooked with chopped pecans, topped with mascarpone, double cream, raspberries and dark chocolate shavings - delicately roll the whol thing up, et Voila! It's not actually that difficult, give me a shout if you want the recipe!

Nom Nom Nom 09

I'm going to be cooking for the Nom Nom Nom competition tomorrow with Kai. We're going to be documenting the day and there will be an online vote based on photos and videos of the day so there will be a more complete post coming up and I'll be asking everyone I know to please vote for our team ;)

We didn't practice together yet and still thinking about changing the dishes we planned on cooking but in any case I have taken a bit of time to practice during this past week. Here's a picture of the main course practice run: Duck breast with apple chutney. It was delicious, though the dish is not dressed properly at all on this photo - the plan is for this to look a lot more attractive on the day (Though I must say it was already delicious ;)

Lots of random stuff

Dusting off the cobwebs around here so here's a bunch of stuff from the past month:

Today's Venn diagram:


Prototype is a video game that has been mucho hyped months ago and is now coming out on Xbox 360, the site is pretty cool because as far as I know they are the first to integrate Facebook Connect in a really smart way so that in just one click from the user half your life is mixed in te game's trailer, really good stuff.



My brother Bjorn's new restaurant opened a few weeks ago, called Eastside Inn. It's absolutely awesome (Sure, I'd say that - but it really is ;) and deserves a post of its own, but in the meantime here are some reviews: Evening Standard. London Paper. Come and join us on the Facebook page, if you make it to the restaurant you can write a note or a review about it directly there.

I also liked the Lacoste Colour DNA website, I'm sure you'll be glad to know I'm a Firelight. Nice idea, colour / personality intepretations have been around for a while but it's the first time I see a brand take advantage of it online. They also have a Twitter account for the campaign.

Also in family news, my little brother Morgan who recently moved to Bolivia with his girlfriend is going to be a daddy, so I'm going to be an uncle once again. I'm planning to go visit Peru and Bolivia at the end of the year.

My best mate James started participating in an online mag called Bai Cai Mag and I'm going to write a piece in it - though I'm already late with that...

On the work side of things, pretty busy on a bunch of stuff, and among them summer activities for VW vans / campervans under the VW Escape title. We are managing some social media presence with Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Youtube. We wraped some vans with illustrations and will be at several events, first of which at the Blackheath Bike and Kite festival in a couple of weeks which looks like it's going to be pretty cool.

Sure, a lot more has been going on in the past month, but let's just finish with some randomness - it's Pet Fashion Week, which also reminded me of the My Little Pony movie characters:

Coraline

If you remember, I mentioned before I was really looking forward to seeing Coraline - the new movie by Henry Selick and Laika studio based on a Neil Gaiman book. I was lucky enough to go to a screening last week invited by Melinda and Cristiano.

As mentioned before, the whole movie is made in stop motion animation and every single thing in it was hand crafted. On top of that, the movie is shown in 3D in certain cinemas, so it gives it an additional strange 3D animation quality even though everything is in stop motion.

The result is a stunningly beautiful animated movie and I highly recommend it - particularly if you like strange and dreamy universes - and Neil Gaiman. The storyline itself is not extremely original, but thinking of it as a children's fairytale it doesn't matter that much. The characters are really original, weird and quirky. The whole movie is visually beautiful. I don't really have much more to say right now, just go see it (Melinda also wrote a pretty comprehensive review here).

Absolut Kindness

I don't talk about work we do at iris Digital that often here, but here's a little piece we are running at the moment that I'd like to mention so I'm doing some blatant self-promotion.

Asbolut Vodka are running a campaign in London this week within the idea 'In an Absolut World, kindness would be currency'. We created this website (You'll notice it's in WordPress, all the rage at the moment ;) and a Twitter account to engage with people with questions such as 'If kindness were currency, who do you think the millionaires would be?' informing of the events taking place in London throughout the week organised by the team over at iris Experience. For example, it started Sunday at the Clapham Picture House and at Screen on the Green in Angel. Kai made it to the cinema in Angel and took some pictures.

It all happened extremely fast so unfortunately we didn't have time to engage that much with people before the events started, but starting work on the Twitter account over the weekend was a great experience already. I find it quite exhilarating to represent 'the face of a brand' and getting to practice what I talk about on a regular basis. (Luis has been leading on the project, I was mostly just helping over the weekend)

"Can I haz Kindness?' We are also working alongside We are Social, spreading the #kindness all over the Internets and telling people about the campaign and the events happening in london.

There are more events taking place tomorrow, Thursday and Friday - check the Twitter stream if you're going to be around Soho or Shoreditch!

PS: Luis just got back from lunch as I finished this, just have to add it in. #Kindness everywhere, he found a purse by the Tate Modern and called the owner's to return it - Without stealing anything! You just can't make that stuff up ;o)

We're all Slideshare RockStars!!

There are a bunch of April Fool's day pranks going round today (I liked this Guardian article), obviously but so far respect for Slideshare for theirs!

I received this email - as did a lot of other people:

Hi Willemvdh,

We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-)

Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

Congratulations,
-SlideShare Team

I checked my Slideshare and the only presentation I have on there suddenly has over 30,000 views! I think they added an extra 00 or something to everyone's numbers and sent that Slideshare RockStar email! RickStars, more like ;)

It's already trending on Twitter as the number 4 topic. Really simple and elegant idea, lots of buzz and conversation created from it. Brilliant. And it plays with people's egos, so all the more reason to talk about it, they probably also saw a big surge in visits to their site. They must be LTAO ;o)

Earth Hour

It's that time of the year again! WWF are calling to everyone on the planet to turn their lights off for an hour on Saturday 28th March at 8:30pm GMT.

All you have to do to participate is turn your lights off. Get some candles. I participated last year (Reminded last minute by Google that changed their homepage for the occasion ;). You can also sign up here to show your support, it'll only take you a couple of minutes and it's for a good cause.

There are a bunch of resources here for your blog, banners, etc - but what's pretty cool is they also created a highly fashionable augmented reality 'Earth in your hands' thing - if you never saw 3D augmented reality, the concept is that you print out a specific design handed out and then show that to your webcam on the site, and voila! A 3D design appears in your hands. Pretty nifty, heh?



Even the pandas are doing, so why not you? Crazy pandas...

McDonalds Ad..? Or am I being cynical?

I received this email chain from a friend. I hadn't received any in so long, I'm just thinking it's a McDonald's marketing campaign ;) Touching story I guess, though a bit too much God in it.

Do you think God eats at McDonald's?

Don't get me wrong I'd gladly sacrifice 10 friends on Facebook to give a Whopper to a hungry/homeless person, I just don't think God, McDonald's and this email will help them that much.

My friend Adam said I wasn't being too cynical, just too French. I don't know what he means..?

PS: On this note, I'm making a donation to Crisis and I encourage you to do the same, it will make more of a difference than forwarding this email around!

A Return is Requested....You'll see why.

Breakfast at McDonald's

This is a good story and is true, please read it all the way through until the end! (After the story, there are some very interesting facts!):

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree.

The last class I had to take was Sociology.

The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with.

Her last project of the term was called, 'Smile.'

The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning.

It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.

I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible 'dirty body' smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was 'smiling'

His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.

He said, 'Good day' as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted.

He said, 'Coffee is all Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).


Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes.


That is when I noticed all eyes in the
restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.

I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you.'

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.'

I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, 'That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope..'

We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.

We are not church goers, but we are believers.
That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand.
I turned in 'my project' and the instructor read it.
Then she looked up at me and said, 'Can I share this?'
I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.

In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my son,the instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn:

UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

Much love and compassion is sent to each and every person who may read this and learn how to

LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS -
NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.

There is an Angel sent to watch over you.

In order for her to work, you must pass this on to the people you want watched over.

An Angel wrote:

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart

To handle yourself, use your head..
To handle others, use your heart.

God Gives every bird it's food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

Send it back, you'll see why !

A box of gold

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

With a secret inside that has never been told

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This box is priceless but as I see

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The treasure inside is precious to me

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Today I share this treasure with thee

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It's the treasure of friendship you've given me.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

If this comes back to you then you'll have a friend for life

but, if this becomes deleted, you are not a friend.

Send this to everyone you consider a friend!

It will grant you one wish and only one wish,

that is, if you decide to send this to others. You can wish for anything.

Repeat your wish until you have stopped scrolling. Make it count!

FOR YOUR WISH TO COME TRUE YOU HAVE TO SEND IT TO:
3 PEOPLE - YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE EVENTUALLY
5 PEOPLE - YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE IN 3 MONTHS
10 PEOPLE - YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE IN 5 WEEKS
15 PEOPLE - YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE IN 1 WEEK

CAN'T WAIT A WEEK???

22 People-Your Wish Will Come True In 1 Day!

****** **********REMEMBER**************
THIS MUST BE SENT OUT THE
DAY YOU READ IT FOR
YOU TO GET YOUR WISH

First day of SXSWi

I don't know if I'll be writing a post every day for this, but I'm not being too crazy tonight and can write so I might as well ;)

First really busy day of conferencing, and it was pretty amazing! Glad I got up early and managed to do my registration and grab my badge really quickly given the Convention Centre was pretty much empty. My hotel is a little far from downtown - not too much but enough that I can't really easily be going back and worth walking if I need to srop something off. Like the gigantic goody bag I got this morning. Hanged around the huge Austin Convention Centre for a couple of hours, came across Alex from Hide & Seek and Jeremy, and talked with a few other people as well before catching up with Katy for lunch.

Went according to plan for the first panel of the day: 'Minority Report is real' and it was very cool - exactly the kind of research and forward thinking I was expecting from coming over here. Three people on the panel, all seriously interesting people, but not exactly into interface design - this was more of a side research project they started conducting together, looking into how movies and sci-fi have influenced new technology developments and still are - or sometimes the other way round as well.

They distinguished several trends in interface design / gestural UI development, and showed us examples in movie clips and then how close or far we are from those in real life. That was very cool and beautiful, but it was really great they kept asking the questions going further about what they might be used for and whether we really need an oblong beautiful Minority Report right now, how much is it exactly used for good, etc.

Next wasn't so good, unfortunately. I was hesitating between a web design one and this one about a company doing ARG types games, I probably should have gone to the other one, but hey - it's also part of choosing between so many things, and some other people told me most of the other talks at the same time as the last time weren't very good - I chose right for the 1st one, I guess. The company in question, The Go Game, actually do really interesting stuff in terms of games for corporate / team building events but I thought they didn't really have much to say and didn't feel like they really prepared for this talk either - they probably could have done it in 10 min with the material they had but talked for an hour... Nice people and their games look definitely great but not so great at talking in a panel...


Next was one of the big talks of SXSWi with Alex Bogusky - the B in CP+B - Talking about 'Can an Ad guy bring bike sharing to America?' Having quickly found out that the answer was in fact no, the topic shifted slightly to 'The art of sticking your nose where it doesn't belong'. He introduced CP+B and talked about who they are and the kind of work they do; as you do in such a talk - I actually didn't mind given I'd never heard him talk in a conference and apart from BK these days I haven't been talking about everything they do and found about a couple of campaigns I didn't know about as well. But more importantly, he talked about a load of pretty fucked up things on this planet via a bunch of good quotes and stats (#collapsonomics) and about making a difference. At first it could seem like it's all hopeless, but going from the fact that human knowledge is growing exponentially and a few other things - basically just go out there and do something to help, anything you're passionate about. 'Poke around' Go with an idea, talk to some people, meet some people who know people who know people, stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

He essentially shared this through their project (Humana, Trek and CP+B) of bringing bike sharing to America - a similar system that exists in Paris with the Velib. All really interesting stuff and pretty inspiring!


Mr Alex Bogusky

I ended up going off to a bar from there with Alice from BBH, Nicole (whose Husband was freelancing with us at iD recently), Damiano from the RSA, Conor from the RoundHouse and a couple of other people. Originally well intended wanting to go to the first official drinks for SXSW but way too much queue and it turned out Nicole's sister is a bar manager in Austin, so we went there for drinks (I then tried going to the 2nd official event - saw the queue, turned around) and then on to a Mexican restaurant with a few other Austin peeps. Turned out, we ate close to the Hotel where I'm staying so I thought I'd go back and write this - keep the big party energy for tomorrow ;)


The Gueres Taco bar

Quick SXSW update

I finally landed in Austin, Texas for SXSWi! Long flight (s) and some delays, but got here in the end and that's what counts! Couldn't wait to have a beer and walk around a little as I arrived at the hotel and the event already started. Loads of people were already on the flight and the hotel bar had a few people there already pre-celebrating...

Already maing some contacts, the first person I saw at Heathrow this morning at 8am is also the first person I saw arriving here and turns out to be in charge of new media at the RoundHouse in Camden - very cool Irish guy. We had a really good chat about online and music - having just completed the HERD chapter about WoM and the Arcic Monkeys, I had stuff to talk about ;0).

All looking pretty awesome!

Also met a bunch of other people, including a colourful and pretty lively couple from Tennessee - that I might just try to avoid slightly in the coming next days ;)

Very excited, though tomorrow morning is going to be a very long queue to register for the event, apparently the queues were already huge this evening for the pre-registration...

I realise I should have some kind of picture illustrating, but that will be for tomorrow.