All Hallows Eve is just around the corner, and it’s no secret that we are big fans of this costumed, candy-laden holiday. Ideas for costumes abound, but I have chosen a few makeup tutorials to help you put the finishing touches on your ensemble. Whether you’re a zombie enthusiast, or you squeal every time you see a cute fuzzy animal, you can find something that matches your personality.
For the zombiphile:
For the sci-fi nerd:
For the animal lover:
For the artistically inclined (this one looks difficult!!):
And last but not least, for the traditionalist:
There are countless Halloween makeup tutorial videos, so if you don’t see what you’re looking for, YouTube is a goldmine. It’s time to get creative!
Update
Check out our video of the making of Schipul zombies!
We appreciate the opportunity to work with wonderful clients who make each year possible.
It was a grand time with great friends, photos and fun. It ended with an office email about a sketchy looking fridge, large print books for Ed, and the million dollar question:
It’s wedding season in my world right now, both for friends of mine and for myself. For the past 7 months my fiance, Brooke, and I have been busy planing our wedding and attending a few others. Next week we will be going to wedding 7 and two weeks from now will be the 8th and final on our list for the year.
Today is actually 6 months to the day from my own wedding so I figured I’d share a few things from a guy’s point of view that have helped me thus far for anyone else in the same boat. First tip, don’t call the day six months from your wedding your “negative six month anniversary”. I just learned that last night.
Second, pick a couple things you are passionate about to be more involved with then let your bride-to-be have final say on everything else about their wedding. I call it “their wedding” because it is. You get to be involved, be excited about that.
That doesn’t mean you cannot care, answer questions and have an opinion. If she’s asking she wants to know. Give your input then focus on what you can do about those couple things above.
Mine were/are…
Groom and groomsmen wedding attire:
I don’t really want to put what I get married in back in a bag and return it to Men’s Wearhouse so I’ll be using this opportunity to rationalize buying a killer Don Draper-esque suit. If suits are your thing, J Crew has some pretty rad options. Otherwise department stores give you a chance to see a wide variety.
No matter your preference on a suit or tux you will want to make sure it fits. And actually fits, not like the guy at Al’s Formal Wear says it fits to sell it to you. GQ has a couple quick slides online about buying a good suit and Esquire offers an easy 7 point diagram covering the basics.
The folks at Saint Arnold Brewery were kind enough to let us use their nifty building for engagement pics.
Photographer: I like photography and think when it comes to weddings a lot of it is lame. I’ve been in weddings where the photographer needed other people to suggest photos and help arrange shots. I didn’t want to worry about this so finding a good photographer was important. One thing I found very helpful was meeting with them to see their style and how they interact as a person, not just what they post online. In the end we got a killer photog and the pictures are going to rule.
*Bonus tip for the ladies – if you follow her or friend her you can win free wedding stuff.
Music:
You want the music to get grandma on the dance floor but not be cheesy at the same time. Or I do anyways. Everyone’s style is their own so no help there but what has been useful is keeping a running list as I hear songs or think of them. You probably don’t need to write down “Shout!” but the song you and your better half scream all the words to in the car may slip your mind when it comes time to picking tracks.
And while I’m not positive yet, I think the same theory covered in this post will apply to another big wedding element… registering. We are starting this process tonight so we’ll see how it goes but my plan is to register for highball glasses and an iPad then let Brooke pick everything else. Everything minus a butter dish because those are useless.
I tried to defect from Facebook, but they kept pulling me back. Now that I’ve seen The Social Network, and two incredibly cool new additions to the site, Facebook Groups and Data Portability, I don’t think I’ll ever leave.
Facebook Groups
Data Portability
What it all means
Facebook Groups
With the new Groups design, users can customize their online experience on the public site with private group options. Anyone on Facebook can create a group. Then they have the option to make the group “Open,” “Closed” or “Secret.” The great thing about this feature is your privacy settings are maintained and only friends can add you to a group.
Other great things about the new Groups feature is the ability to create Group Docs that can be edited and viewed by all group members, as well as the Group Chat function that allows users in the same group to have an open discussion, (individual or private chats are still restricted to Friends so group members who are not friends are only able to chat within the public group chat).
Some not so great things about the new Groups design: it opens up the possibility of cyberbullying, which flies in the face of efforts like the It Gets Better Project, a series of video messages created to encourage GLBT individuals in crisis.
With the ability to create exclusive and secret groups, it’s hard to exercise control over targeted acts of meanness. We’ll see what happens though.
The Facebook Help Center provides details about the new Groups design including how to create and join a group, or leave and delete one.
Data Portability
Raise your hand if “data portability” translates to I can get it on my phone.
Yeah. My hand is up, too. But that’s not what it means.
Data portability means a copy of your carefully crafted Friends list, Groups, Wall Posts and Photo Albums can be accessed outside of Facebook.
According to AllFacebook.com, the feature creates a mini website on your own computer that allows you to click through, view and access all your profile data, messages, pictures, and more.
What It All Means
Overall, the new Groups design and data portability means Facebook is still growing and changing. (To quote the movie, “It’s like fashion. It’s never finished.”)
More specifically, it means users will have more control over what we can do with the information we share on the site and with whom we share it within the walls of the site.
If you know anyone that works here at Schipul, you’ll know we’re a pretty competitive group. Not a whole lot of us are want to lose, and I’m sure there is a sub-set of us who no one wants to see lose for fear of flying objects or obscure injury.
So of course, we started a fantasy football league.
Rookie Commissioner Michael Coppens put together the crew, a batch of 10 Schipul misfits and a couple of the company’s close friends. Draft day was held after-hours in our conference room where dinner and libations were consumed and the crap talk immediately started flying.
We live to draft: The War Room
Aside: For those of you who aren’t familiar with fantasy football, it goes like this: A certain number of teams (usually 10 or 12) divvy out NFL players by position (e.g. you get quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, a kicker, and a defense) and, depending on their individual performances each week, they garner a certain number of points. The sum of these points is put up against the sum of your opponent’s points that week. Team with the most points wins. Repeat weekly.
After three weeks, I’d like to proudly say I’m in dead last place. This is obviously because I’m cursed with too much knowledge. Mr. Coppens himself is in first place which, as I’m sure we’ll all agree, is a little suspicious considering he’s the Commissioner. And although it’s still early, it’s gotta be hard for people like Project Manager Derek who (see standings below) has scored the third highest point total of any team, but has only won one game. Such is the life of a fantasy football owner.
What’s the point?
In all seriousness, Schipul values its culture above almost everything else (customer service is easily number one). And even though not everyone in the league has two televisions turned to one game and the other to NFL’s Red Zone while streaming a third game from ESPN3.com with four separate StatTracker windows open to keep up with fantasy stats like some people, it’s a great opportunity for our employees to hang out with each other and chat it up around the water cooler.
Even though dead last place takes a beating on Monday morning in the smack talk, I can’t wait for that shiny, shimmering moment when one of my players explodes, I smash my opponent, and I can get my own comebacks in.
No wins after the first three weeks? Only sounds like it’s going to be more of feat when I come back and win.
The design was a fun one, incorporating their updated branding and using new template designs to differentiate between the bi-annual events different Houston locations. Be sure to stop by the Bayou City Art Festival site to say hi, connect with the crew on Twitter (@houstonartfest) and head over to downtown Houston on October 9th – 10th for a fantastic event!
Additionally, Facebook made changes to its photo albums, including photo browsing on a single page that let’s users view thumbnails of all photos in an album on just one page. Also, they’ve added a new tagging feature akin to Picasa’s face recognition tagging. Now when users upload a photo of a friend, they’re prompted with a question,” Who’s face is this?”
Before, photo viewing wasn’t entirely cumbersome, but the feature is a pleasant addition that makes photo viewing that much better. Considering photos are a large portion of traffic on Facebook, any improvements to this area of the site are welcome.
Flexibility in Updating Privacy Settings
And with Facebook’s ever enduring privacy battles, the makers of the social networking site have made it easier for users to access and change their privacy settings from any device. Prior to this, users would need to be logged into the site online to make changes to their privacy settings. Considering you can do much of anything from a mobile device, it’d be handy to be able to change or update the important stuff from a mobile device as well.
Now, instead of waiting until their home, a Facebook user can disable the feature of Facebook places that lets friends “tag” their location as well…which definitely decreases the likelihood of someone being in two places at once.
Noticed any cool/disturbing/noteworthy updates to facebook? Feel free to share ’em in the comments!
The Houston Zoo (a Schipul client) is hosting the annual AZA 2010 conference in Houston this year and we are lucky enough to join them to document the experience!
From a fantastic kick off bash at Houston MFAH to a standing ovation for keynote speaker Jim Collins (author of Good to Great), the AZA 2010 conference is a great and interactive experience for zoo and aquarium leaders to learn, connect and innovate.
Jim Collins led a great panel on moving Zoos from ‘good to great’ – some tidbits from the panelists:
When businesses do well, they are making a bunch of money. When Zoos are doing well, they are making faces and running around happy. They don’t know they are successful until they see it.
Graffiti – you go into a school where kids don’t honor their spaces. In Zoos, you see no graffiti. People respect your facility and honor it.
Hire for people skills, as well as animal skills.
Be strategic in what you accept and what you don’t do for revenue streams – even if you really need the money, you must stay true to your mission.
How do you decide what donors to partner with? Money is good, but mission is important. Do the sponsors make you feel ‘icky’? Will they shine a negative light on your brand. Then the answer is no.
On staffing, Jim says ‘first who, then what’. There is a difference between seats and bus – someone can be the right person on the bus, but you must put them in the right seat?
How long should you be patient? Values, will and skills – if it’s a skills question you can be patient longer. Either you are self-motivated or you are not, there is less time for this. Then there’s the values – and that’s a no patience zone. Either they match yours or they don’t. No patience.
What’s changing – what are the brutal facts?
People come to zoos that care and love us, but not for the reason we want them to. Zoos are passionate about conservation and education, but most attendees come for a fun experience. We are aware and we wrestle with that.
Biggest threat to wildlife is that we have a generation growing up that has little connection to nature. We must teach them our values and connect them to what’s important – and, as always, our educators are leading the way.
It’s wonderful to see zoos using animals as ambassadors – not just nameless objects. Give them a personalized experience that pulls visitors in. But it’s important how we position themselves to animals, as other organizations are connecting with the allure of animals. We must remain authentic, educational and passionate.
Want to see some more great #AZA2010 posts? Check out these great ones on the Houston Zoo blog:
When I started blogging several years back, it was considered a cardinal sin to devote an entire post to nothing but pictures of your cats. It was a standard bored blogger fallback. Nothing interesting to say, but still want to put up a post so your readers will check in? HEY GUYS, LOOK AT THIS CUTE THING MY CAT DID! Perhaps understandably, to many people those posts signaled a blogger who had just lost all street cred. [Blogger “street” cred being so very important of course.]
Funny how times have changed. Now it’s not only acceptable to post pictures of your cats, if you slap a silly saying on top of it you have the potential of becoming an internet sensation overnight. If you’ve ever visited the Schipul office, you know that we have a fondness for these four-legged furry creatures. Some of us have cats that are so talented theytweet! LOLCat images find themselves in just about every office-wide email thread, and some of us [not saying who] might have a small collection of the images prepared for any occasion that might arise.
We’re also big fans of (client) IKEA. From delicious lunches to roaming the aisles looking for that new great thing we just have. to. have. So naturally, when we got wind yesterday of a marketing experiment from IKEA UK that involved dropping 100 cats in a store overnight, just to see what would happen, we fell in love. It’s a very creative campaign and as you’ll see, resulted in some lovely images. We can’t wait to see what the final product looks like.
UPDATED: Here’s the final product! Thanks @McTello for the link!
Another big event in Schipul-land this week was the introduction of Google’s new instant search. Now that we’ve all gotten a chance to play with it, it’s interesting to look at how this new move from Google will change the way we search, and as a result, the way we build websites.
But you didn’t want to hear about any of that stuff right now. This is FRIDAY FUN time! So instead, check out the fun application of the instant search from Urlesque.
Now that we’ve killed your afternoon workplace productivity… Have a great weekend everyone!
All Hallows Eve is just around the corner, and it’s no secret that we are big fans of this costumed, candy-laden holiday. Ideas for costumes abound, but I have chosen a few makeup tutorials to help you put the finishing touches on your ensemble. Whether you’re a zombie enthusiast, or you squeal every time you see a cute fuzzy animal, you can find something that matches your personality.
