awesome – whatleydude.com

Five things on Friday #82

Things of note for the week ending July 25th, 2014.

— Above image via this AMAZING photo setÂ

1. Shatner on Facebook Mentions
If you’re a celebrity (hi!) then you’re probably interested in this new app from Facebook, ‘Facebook Mentions‘. If you’re not a celebrity, don’t worry because William Shatner (yes, that one) has written a handy guide.

You can read said guide over on the former Captain Kirk’s super awesome Tumblr page.

2. Destiny
If you’ve been paying attention recently, you might’ve spotted that there’s a beta of a new game out at the moment and its name is Destiny.

Seriously, download it now.

To celebrate this game being amazing, here are some key facts about Destiny:

Activision, the game’s publisher, is apparently investing around $500 million on the development and marketing of this game (that’s an insane amount of money ).
Bungie, the game’s creator, is the team that developed the multi-award-winning Halo series for Microsoft’s Xbox.
The game itself doesn’t actually hit the shelves until September 9th. All of the press so far has been about the limited time Alpha (one weekend!) and the Beta (two weeks!). See the official timeline for details.
Oh, and it is awesome. SO AWESOME. Order it now.

3. A guy walks into a bar
This is wonderful.

4. Moto X Tattoos
This is now a joke: Motorola have launched a new range of temporary DIGITAL TATTOOS that you can stick to your skin and then use to UNLOCK YOUR PHONE.

There’s a fancy video too (it’s only 90 seconds long – give it a watch).

Personally, I think this is awesome. Like, really really awesome. Admittedly the ‘tattoos’ themselves only last for a week (and I think about ten dollars for a pack of ten) BUT it’s a yet another item to add into the wearable tech of the future category that hopefully we might see more of over the coming years.

Hurrah for innovative thinking.

5. The best Philippines fact you’ll read today

Did you know that Vulcan Point (the small island pictured above) is the world’s largest island within a lake on an island within a lake on an island? Well, you do now.

Nature is awesome.

— — —
I’m off Twitter for a little while (long story, check my feed for clues as to why) so if you’re reading this, please share it as far and wide as you can.

Cheers,

Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #61

Things of note for the week ending February 28th, 2014.

1. Peter Sellers in a moving red car trying to take a picture of his wife, Britt Eckland, riding on the scooter near the Colosseum in Rome.
This needs no explanation.

Via

2. Funk is not dead

Jungle – Platoon from Jungle on Vimeo.

3. Awesome 60s Batman Art is Awesome

Via

4. Triple City Exposures

Created completely ‘in-camera’, by photographer Marcus Yam, the above image is one of a larger set putÂ together for a Seattle Times photo essay. They’re all gorgeous, so go take a look.

5. The Secret Life of Heroes
I know I’ve featured a lot of imagery this week, but this stuff – by artist Gregoire Guillemin – is just great. The easy way forward was Batman but he’s already had a go this week so I figured Supes was the next best thing. Plus – THIS IS AWESOME.

via My Modern Met.

Bonus things –

This set of tiny Lego photographer photos are really, really well done.
Like writing letters but never have time to buy the materials? Look at Gramr.
Seth Rogan spoke at a senate committee to help raise awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s funny, moving, and only six minutes long. You should watch it.

That’s me done this week. Technically that’s eight cool things you’ve just had. Aren’t I nice to you? Tell you what, if you liked this post this week, why not tell your friends about it. There’s buttons just down there for you to do that so go on – click one. I dare ya.Â Â

Five things on Friday #53

Don’t call it a come back…

After a year long break (and a few false starts with my Tumblr), I’m bringing Five Things on Friday back for 2014. The good news is, last year I managed to last FIVE WHOLE MONTHS before the itch finally got the better of me. That’s right, five, not twelve. Today’s date (the date of writing, not publishing) is May 1st 2013, and I’m writing this a whole seven months in advance. Mental, I know, but I’m finding a fire truck load of stuff at the moment and I need to bank it somewhere.

So here it is. The first Five Things of 2014. Pre-written, sometime in May 2013. From now on I figure I’d make this project a bi-annual thing. One year on, one year off. Yeah. That.

EDIT: this ^ is slightly untrue. I’m now updatingÂ #5things each week and swapping stuff around (eg: the post from Zoe in at number 4).

Wait, where we? Oh yes, here –

Things of note for the week ending January 3rd, 2014.

1. Dioramas of Death
These are proper gruesome.

These miniature death scenes remind me a lot of one of my favourite werewolf films, Ginger Snaps. In it , the two main protagonists have an obsession with recreating death scenes as art (and it’s kinda awesome). The artist behind this work, Abigail Goldman, covers everything from crime scenes through decapitation and death by lawnmower. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by them, but they’re just really cool and, should I ever have a place suitable, they’d be on display in my house in a flash.

2. IRON MAN!!! YEAH!!!! IRON MAAAAAAAAN!

At the time of writing, Iron Man 3 has just been released and the above photo was taken at a special screening of the film put on by Disney to say thank you to the teenagers of the Police Athletic League who volunteered to clean up the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged areas of New York.

Why is the kid freaking out so much? Robert Downey Jr. had just turned up, unannounced, to say thank you in person. Amazing.

Via.

3. Abe
This 8min short film about a human-obsessed android is dark, but beautiful; I loved it. Be warned: it is not an easy watch.

*Shiver*

4. ‘Ten’
I haven’t seen Zoe Margolis for too long now, but I stay on top of how things are with her via the wonders of social media and, of course, her blog ‘Girl with a one-track mind‘. Zoe’s latest post, published Jan 1st, 2014, marks ten years of blogging and is full of insight, life lessons, and love. This is one small excerpt –

Back then, it felt like I was shouting about sex into a vacuum where there were two extreme, opposing perspectives: one, in womenâ€™s magazines, where women were portrayed as basically â€˜innocentâ€™ non-sexual beings who â€˜giveâ€™ away their virginity to men and whose objective is to a) find a man and b) please him; and two, the other end of the media spectrum, where women were seen as ‘sluts’, and sexual â€˜liberationâ€™ meant the ‘freedom’ to be objectified for menâ€™s titillation and gratification. I related to neither position.

Take some time out of your day and read it. And Zoe, if you’re reading this, you still continue to inspire me and I remember our stroll around Soho fondly. Big love.

5. Because Bruce Lee

Guess I’ll see y’all back here next week…

COME ON 2014! WHATCHOO GOT?!

Happy Halloween!

Mwahahahahaha…

Sorry to scare you but I genuinely want to help you guys out!

This year, I went as a hipster werewolf victim post-attack and mid-transformation.

Why? WHY NOT!

How? Ok, that’s a better question.

First off, I had an old white jacket and an old pair of white trousers that aren’t part of a suit but do go together. Collectively I’ve worn them about three times over the course of six years. So I hacked those up with a pair of scissors. Next up, the feet and the hands were left over from THIS COSTUME (amazing, I know) from last year.

And then I sought out these additional items:

Contact lenses: Â£10
Moulded werewolf teeth: Â£7
Make up set from Charles H. Fox* in Covent Garden: Â£24
Everyone’s reaction at the party: PRICELESS.

(Sorry, had to)

As many of my friends will tell you, I take my fancy dress pretty darn seriously. Planning is everything. But that aside, whatever you’re getting up to this Halloween**, have an awesome time.

RAAARGH!!!

*Does not include the three months of theatrical make up training I completed in my youth.

**Amazingly, I’m not actually out on the 31st this year. My party was at the weekened. Instead I’m off to see THOR: THE DARK WORLD with some friends. Expect a review shortly after…

BONUS TIPS: Go check out YouTube user ‘Kickine‘, I follow her on Instagram (same name) and the stuff she’s been doing all week is AWESOME (and of course there’s how to videos on herÂ channel)

Team Ogilvy London vs Tough Mudder UK

“We came. We saw. We kicked its ass.”

Saturday, October 5th – my Ogilvy colleagues and I completed the Tough Mudder North West challenge. 12 miles. 25 obstacles. One amazing feat.

Back in May, I started working with Ogilvy & Mather London Advertising on the Expedia UK account. The team were awesome and welcomed me with open arms. However, as an official member, I was told that I would have to join them in their Tough Mudder.

Comedy moment in the office as the O&M bunch attempt to rope me into their Tough Mudder team for September. My response: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

â€” James Whatley (@Whatleydude) June 19, 2013

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js30mins later (after much heckling and also the clincher comment ‘James, it isn’t a race – it’s about TEAM BUILDING’ – I’m such a sucker for that stuff), this happened –

Comedy moment in the office as the O&M bunch manage to successfully coerce me into their Tough Mudder team for September. My response: ARGH!

â€” James Whatley (@Whatleydude) June 19, 2013

Turns out the best date we could all do it wasn’t in September after all. It was today. And guess what? We nailed it.

— Briony, me, Amelia, Harriet, Stephen and Joey —

There was blood. There was mud. There was euphoria. We climbed 12ft walls, we ran through electric cables, and we plunged ourselves into ice – and that is very much not even the half of it.

So far, we’ve raised just over ~~Â£800~~ Â£1000(!) for Action on Bladder Cancer, the charity of choice of the Expedia UK marketing team, and there’s also (perhaps somewhat delirious) talk of making TM an annual Ogilvy event too – amazing.

If you’d like to sponsor me, or anyone else on my team, then you can do that on our dedicated sponsorship page (please do, even if it’s only a couple of quid it’d be appreciated).

I think I have a longer, more meandering post about how much of a personal achievement I feel this is (given that I only started running back in January), but that can wait for another day.

In the meantime, I’m headed home for a very long bath and while I do that, you’re going to sponsor me, right?

UPDATE: Photos now up on Flickr.

Five things on Friday #41

Things of note for the week ending October 12th, 2012

1. Awesome birdhouses
From the stylish to the down right scary, these incredible birdhouses have been made specifically to raise money for charity (which is doubly awesome). The whole set is quite fantastic and the one I’ve used above does nothing to illustrate how artistic the creators get…Â it just really makes me laugh.

via

2. Blogger Engagement
A good piece of blogger engagement goes a long way. This is not news admittedly and there’s probably enough in this to warrant another blog post for another day (note to self: start this draft). But for now, let’s talk about some great pieces that have happened lately.

First, from the lovely chaps looking after social media for Tsingtao Beer. I’m not a huge Tsingtao drinker but, after some great banter with the aforementioned digital team – I know I’m going to order it next time I’m out for Chinese, certainly. I’m also going to vote* in the Tsingtao Beer ‘Legacy of Taste‘ competition, which is the search to find Britain’s favourite Chinese restaurant. You should vote too.

Second, Motorola announced their brand new Motorola RAZR i the other week and, in all fairness, I rarely take notice of anything Motorola do as I’ve never used any of their devices and it’s not a brand that’s ever interested me. However, after a delightful email from their representatives here in Europe, not only have I LIKED THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE but I’ve also mentioned the phone a couple of times on the podcast AND I’m also looking forward to actually getting my hands on one and having a play.

That’s all down to decent blogger engagement.

Look, I know this all sounds incredibly pompous but I collect blogger engagement. When I was engagement director at the ‘heads I made it my job to constantly review with the way we engaged with different communities; I have given entire presentations (internally, of course) based around bad engagement copy. It’s a habit I’ve kept since leaving and well, blogger engagement done well should be applauded more often.

So, Christine at Edelman and Tom/Robbie at McCann, if you’re reading this – good work.

3. BMX Boy
This is four year old Malcolm, out BMX-ing/Mountain-biking with his dad. It’s nine minutes of smiling from ear to ear.

My dad and I used to go scrambling around tracks like that. I miss it.

4. The Mayor of Mars
The Mars Curiosity Rover is using Foursquare to track its progress across that reddest of planets and, just last week, it became the Mayor of the Gale Crater.

I love love love the way that the team at NASA are using social media tor drive interest around this most awesome of human exploratory missions. And big up to the Foursquare team who are helping them do just that. Well done.

5. Stupid stuff
My girlfriend sent me this during the week and for some reason it makes me crack up just looking at it/him –

I’m laughing right now. Hahahaha… the artist behind this masterpiece is one Natalie Dee.

Go seek her out.

—

Bonuses this week: a 15min speech from the Australian Prime Minister labelling the leader of the opposition a hyprocritcal misogynist is absolutely fantastic (seriously, watch it); a blog post entitled ‘the most interesting underpants in London‘ really does live up to its name; and finally, this is probably the best volcano video you’ve ever seen – hit HD, make it full screen and ENJOY.

*If you’re interested, Royal China got my vote.Â

Panda Style!

So, this happened –

The chaps at work are looking after the Cheng Du Pambassador programme and well, when you leave a panda outfit laying around the office, mad things are bound to happen.

Love. Love. Love.

Moreso because I both know a fair few peeps in the video as well I know exactly what bits were left on the cutting room floor (perhaps they’ll get leaked a tt later date) .

For now, go Tweet and Share the hell out of this video – the WORLD needs to see it!

—

Yeah yeah, two panda posts in one week. It’s not like I’m influenced by anyone who loves pandas or anything…

THE PANDA MADE ME DO IT

It really did -Â

I LOVE THIS TEE.

Last week, whilst in attendance at the Social@Ogilvy Spin event over in Shoreditch, I ran into Ade Cockle, Digital Innovation Manager for the World Wildlife Fund.

He and I have chatted over Twitter a fair bit and we’ve also shared a table at various IAB Social Media Council meetings together too but the other night was the first time we’d actually met and spoken properly.

The first words out of my mouth?

“Ade! What do I have to do to get my hands on one of those awesome Panda shirts?!”

How did I know about them? I saw this video –

Lovely, right?

Anyway, the next thing I know Ade magics the above t-shirt out of his bag and thrusts it into my hands! Amazing.

What did I do in response? I gave him a massive hug, and then I GOT INVOLVED.

You should too.

19 Batman things of AWESOME

So I’ve been hoarding a metric ton of Bat-related stuff for some time now…

And it’s about time I posted it all really.

Let’s do this –

1. Awesome Bat Converse (for me)

As spotted at the Converse store on Carnaby St.

2. Bat-leotard-tastic

3. Retro-Bat Dress FTW

Both spotted at Lazy Oaf, Carnaby St.

4. A Red Carpet Giant Cowl of EPIC proportions

5. Holy Flaming Bat Symbols Batman!

6. Yeah, this is my Tumbler

Yeah, I know. OK, so that last batch was from The Dark Knight Rises premiere… and yeah, it was pretty damn cool.

7. Nokia Maps 3D Gotham City

January 19th 2011.Â That was the day I first wrote the words ‘Nokia Maps: 3D Gotham City’ in my Moleskine —

July 5th 2012, this video dropped –

Then on July 6th, it went live. 18mths of hard work from a multitude of super-smart people and the dream became real. It still makes me smile.

8. Hanging out on the Batman set

Well, kinda.

The above image is taken form Batman Begins. It was shot on the grand staircase at the GORGEOUS St Pancras Renaissance Hotel… and here’s the GF hanging out on said staircase.

Winner.

Ps. You HAVE to stay at this hotel. It’s one of the best, if not THE BEST that London has to offer.

9. Behind the scenes of Batman, 1966

Big up toÂ MichaelÂ for putting me onto this. The photo above is great, but the rest of the set is awesome.

10. Amazing Dark Knight Rises Wallpapers

This is just one of many amazing TDKR wallpapers that are available to download. iO9 has the set.
Go, get!

11. Dark Knight Rises Reactions
I wrote a spoiler-free review of TDKR straight after seeing the premiere, but the film itself sparked a whole ton of various reactions, eclipsing even those inspired by PROMETHEUS.

To my mind, Comics Alliance posted the best collection of TDKR reactions to date. Seriously. My note on this one said — ‘Best post ever (may save back for a bat-post of some kind)’

12. Batman Maybe
A Batman-inspired version of Call Me Maybe? SIGN. ME. UP.

CONTAINS MASSIVE DARK KNIGHT RISES SPOILERSÂ

There are no words. No Batman-stache.Â

13. Batman: Dark Knightfall
This super high quality six minute STOP MOTION ANIMATED Batman film has to be seen to be believed..

14. A Lego Tumbler? OH GO ON THEN

H/T Rodakk

15. David Cronenberg ain’t a Bat-fan

“I donâ€™t think they are making them an elevated art form. I think itâ€™s still Batman running around in a stupid capeâ€¦ [A] superhero movie, by definition, you know, itâ€™s comic book. Itâ€™s for kids. Itâ€™s adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying, you know, â€œDark Knight Risesâ€ is, you know, supreme cinema art,â€ I donâ€™t think they know what the f**k theyâ€™re talking about.”

Fact.

16. History through Batmobiles

A quite franklyÂ beautiful photograph, used to help tee up the Batmobile Documentary.. Amaze.

17. Super cool Batman Spray Can Art is super cool

I love this so hard

18. New Mondo Batcave poster

The mood (and detail) of this is fantastic. Good job.

19. Shanghai Batman

Shang. Hai. Bat. Man.

…and Bane.

…and Catwoman.

HIT. PLAY. NOW.

…and I’m spent.

Liked that? Tell your friends with the buttons below —

I love my All Stars

That’s all I got.