Ryan Trembath (dot) Information

My friend Goldburg says anything typed with thumbs probably isn’t that important.

I was doing some reading online today and found Juan Damia’s Blog. Though he usually focuses on research and analytics, a topic I’ve come to hold dear to my heart, he recently posted this list of text messaging slang.

A couple favorites I’ve never encountered and wouldn’t have understood:

A3 - Anytime, anyplace, anywhere
AAMOF - As a matter of fact
AFAIK - As far as I know
EOD - End of day
FWIW - For what it’s worth
FYEO - For your eyes only
IANAL - I am not a lawyer - Careful how u lead up to this 1
JAM - Just a minute
WRT - With respect to
YW - You’re welcome

I didn’t realize I was so out of the loop, I’ve been wasting my productivity time spelling words.

At my old job, the “Lifestyle Shot” was a topic of hot debate in the boardroom every time a new site was being designed.

Unfamiliar with the term?

It’s used to describe the main photograph, usually involving people smiling and doing something, on the homepage of a site. The “lifestyle shot” is supposed to help your customers feel comfortable and “see themselves” in your site. Check out how happy you are about insurance, or meet a friendly dentist up close and personal.

Get it?

If you’re designing a site with this look/feel, always keep in mind that your users may not perceive the image(s) presented the same way you do.

For example, I worked on this online pharmacy site. The call center staff said that our customers would often ask why we had two gay old men on the front page. From the perspective of the design team, it had just been two friends, healthy and strong, saving on their medications.

Another example is this vegetarian dating site. Some guy grinding a model holding a bowl of uncooked tofu? Seems a bit…lame. Do they really know their audience?

Bottom line here would be: people like to see themselves in your content, just make sure you’re on target with who “they” are or you might be doing more harm than good.

You may have noticed the make your own Simpson’s character fad courtesy of the the Simpson’s Movie page. Guess who’s on the bandwagon?!

Go give it a try. It’s easy to use and walks you through what to do with the picture once it’s generated.

I saw the movie last night at the cheap seats. Since it’s probably been 6 years since I actively tried to watch an episode of the show it was good to see everyone still kicking.

My friend called it “mediocre” but I thought it was pretty funny. There was quite a few little throwbacks to episodes for the Simpson’s geeks out there. What do you want?!

There just ain’t enough good songs about truckin’ anymore. Red Solvine is THE guy.

Yeah, this is normally more tech/music oriented, but lets file this post under “Branding”.

My friend Maria was in town a few weeks ago. It was late, we were hungry and the local 222 line put me on hold.

What to do?

I figured I’d help Maria get the most out her Winnipeg experience and indulge in a Porno Pizza, the latest international pizza phenomena.

I called the number, ordered a 2 topping large pizza, and was told it would get to us around an hour.

Let the waiting begin.

Pizza Arrives

Pizza arrives just over an hour after we order. Not sure how long the pizza actually took, the ringer on the apartment phone was off. An annoyed delivery driver called my cell phone to let us know she was out front.

Hot sauce…check. Ranch dressing (for dipping)…check. Greasy porno? I guess we’ll have to seek it out!

Bring Your Pizza Cutter

Business was so busy they couldn’t cut the pizza enough, or they just don’t care. I put Maria in charge of cutting. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad job after all.

What the hey?

What’s this under the pizza? Maria is confused.

Fluffer!?;

The pizza action was cooling down, so I decided to heat things back up. Burnt my hand pulling it out of the stove. HOT ACTION!

There she is

Finally some porn.

They made up for our vegetarian ways by giving us more meat in the picture. Two guys, one girl, many greasy stains.

The picture itself looks like it was laser printed off the internet. A chemical bond between the printer ink and the wax paper under the pizza has formed making the picture scuzzier then it was initially.

How the pizza sliced - Ratings out of 5

Pizza - 1.5
Price is a big factor here. We could have gotten 2 bigger pizza’s from the hotline and tipped the guy 5 bucks instead of this. Wasn’t sliced, was cold and 3 slices made my hungry tummy turn.

Porno - 2.5
I would give the porno three X’s (XXX). It was pretty hardcore. Grease stains don’t turn me on.

Overall, this is a novelty. It’s staying power is questionable, but it might survive on the fact that Winnipeg is a tits and ass town and they’re open until 5 AM. Personally, I wouldn’t waste $25 bucks again, but it’s off my list of things I didn’t know I wanted to try.

In case you were wondering, Maria and her room mate ate the remaining pizza the next day and felt ill. I’m sure the pizza people would say she was hung over.