Now, this is interesting.

These days, I've been working a lot with social networking and new social media, primarily in the forms of this blog, Facebook, and Twitter. It fascinates me that with one touch of a button, I can direct all of my friends - friends on vacation in Connecticut and Colorado, friends just a few miles from this office, and even friends in the Ukraine - to read this blog post that you - wherever you happen to be - are reading right now. I'm also interested in what other people are doing with these technologies - this morning in particular, those people are researchers at Northeastern University and Harvard University.

The project, called "Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Through the Day, as inferred from Twitter", pretty much does exactly what the title describes - it looks at Twitter updates across the United States throughout the day and determines the general mood.

Perhaps, like me, you're a more visual person. You're in luck! There's a video, which I've embedded below.

To learn how it works, visit the Pulse of the Nation website! I would try to explain, but let's face it: it will be easier for both of us (you'll actually understand how it works; I'll avoid making embarrassing mistakes and just generally being confused) if you check out their website.

Most interesting bit to me? The fact that people are supposedly so happy in the morning. I like the morning, but the graphs on the Pulse of the Nation page indicate that people are at their happiest at 6 AM. That seems a little extreme to me.

One last question, purely out of curiosity: are you more likely to update your personal Twitter when you're happy, or are you more likely to update when you're upset? Or, like me, do you forget that it exists for longer than is probably acceptable?

Happy Monday, everyone! As you may recall, Friday is the much anticipated, very delicious group breakfast. It's always a treat, and last Friday morning, in addition to scrumptious bagels and very labor intensive coffee (specially produced by Maurice - more on that later!), we had an extra surprise: a new Actual Sizer!

Indeed, my very esteemed title of "the new kid" has been usurped by Chris, a Penn State graduate (continuing the trend of PSU domination in the ASC office) from Aliquippa, PA. I sat down with Chris to interview him (not haze him - I would never do something like that) so all of you could get to know him!

I asked Chris some exciting (read: really lame, unimaginative) questions about how he became interested in design. Chris first became interested in graphic design his freshman year of college, saying "It seemed like art with a job." He mentioned that he had always liked art and doodled, though his primary interest before he learned about design was music. In fact, in addition to studying graphic design at Penn State, Chris played guitar in a bar band as well as trumpet in the marching band. He also plays the keyboards, and it seems that musical talent runs in his family - fun fact: his dad played the sax for The Temptations!

I also asked Chris if he had any favorite graphic designers or graphic design websites (not including ASC, because that's obviously a favorite - I mean, who could really compete with our level of awesome!?), and he referenced FFFFOUND!, an image based website, and Sandstrom, a West Coast design firm that does some pretty cool work.

I also asked Chris if he preferred Apple or Windows, to which he replied, "Are you kidding me?" So, yes, like every other graphic designer in the world, he prefers Apple products.

Alright, now on to the fun part. I have a friend, Maura, who has four questions she asks people when she first meets them. She claims that they really help you to get to know someone, so I threw them onto the end of my question list. Plus, I figure that you all are always up for some good fun. The questions are as follows: 1) what is your favorite color?; 2) what is your favorite food?; 3) if you were to get a tattoo (assuming that you don't already have one), where would you get it and what would it be?; and 4) what was the worst injury you ever sustained?

I think I have to conclude that Maura is correct - these questions allow for some very interesting and informative answers. Chris' favorite color is lime green (which is fortunate, because the office that he is working in is in fact lime green) and his favorite food is applesauce. Some people hesitate for a moment when you ask them the tattoo question, but Chris actually plans on getting a tattoo and answered quickly - song lyrics from Ted Leo (his favorite musician), on his side. Finally, for the final question - worst injury - I'm going to pause for a moment and warn all of the squeamish people that they should stop reading here. Just skip to the next paragraph, because this is going to get ugly. As I mentioned before, Chris was in the marching band at Penn State. When he was auditioning for drum major, one of the requirements was to do a front flip into a split. Well, it didn't end well. Chris ended up fracturing his hip, doing a fair bit of damage to his hip socket, and yeah...let's just say that it really didn't end well.

So there you have it! I am no longer the newest Actual Sizer on the block. Chris is pretty cool. I (probably) won't stuff him into a locker or anything of that nature. Welcome to Actual Size, Chris!

BUT WAIT. What about Maurice and the coffee, you ask? You thought I was going to forget, didn't you? False. My mind is a steel trap. As you may have read in the ASC Twitter feed, Maurice was responsible for bringing in the beverage for breakfast (which was not blue) last week, and he really went above and beyond. He didn't just bring coffee, he woke up at 6:20 in the morning to SIPHON it. I don't know know what that means. In any case, everyone in the office seemed to really enjoy the coffee, and you can read about the interesting process of siphoning coffee here. Thanks, Maurice! Sorry, individual responsible for bringing in the beverage this coming Friday! There's no way that you're going to top that.

If any of you siphon your coffee and/or have any questions about the new Actual Sizer you want answered, let me know!

As I first mentioned in my biography on this very website, I have this thing about fonts. I'm a little bit obsessed with fonts. I have my favorites, ones I rely on on a daily basis, and then, of course, the ones I absolutely cannot stand (I, of course, am referring to Papyrus). So, taking all of that into consideration, you should prepare yourselves.

Recently, I came across a site that I have a feeling you all will enjoy, font enthusiasts and technophobes alike. This website brings up an interesting question that you would probably otherwise never be asked: Cheese or Font? Perhaps you've never noticed (I certainly had not), but it's true - a lot of names of fonts sound quite similar to names of cheeses.

You might think you know your fonts or your cheeses pretty well, but let me tell you - you'll be surprised, and it's much more difficult than you might think. For example, who would have guessed that Newcastle, Carattere, and Hubert are all names of fonts, while Molbo, Kenafa, and Waterloo are actually cheese names? I certainly didn't.

Happy guessing!

Do you recall that post where I went on and on about how nice it was to have an actual Wall, Facebook style, in our office? Well, those days are long gone.

Due to a shortage of the very crucial dry erase speech bubbles, a whole lot of drama unfolded here on the fifth floor yesterday afternoon. Joe allegedly stole Mary's speech bubble in order to tell everyone in the office (read: brag) about his new iPhone. Mary furiously noted and complained about this alleged theft in the hallway, where several other Actual Sizers overheard. Mary and James then retaliated by writing disparaging comments on various other speech bubbles.

In any case, it feels a little dicey to be working in my office right now...it's really close to the Wall, and I'm not prepared to be in a fistfight today.

Hello, friends! Hope this heat wave we've been experiencing isn't being too hard on you. What can I say? Pittsburgh's a hot city right now. And I don't just mean that literally - I'm not just talking about the weather: Delta Airline's Sky Magazine has done a twenty page special on what makes Pittsburgh so...well, special.

The Actual Sizers have long realized what a great city Pittsburgh is, and we're all glad that it's finally getting the recognition that it deserves. So move over, Paris! Las Vegas - we have casinos too! New York? Please. Soon they'll be writing songs about Pittsburgh.

What about you? What's your favorite thing about the 'burgh? Besides Actual Size Creative, of course. (Unless you want to tell us how much you love us. That would be cool too.)

Oh yeah, and one more thing...does anyone else enjoy inflight magazines as much as I do!?

Every Friday marks one of my favorite - or shall I say flavorite - traditions that make working here at ASC so pleasant: group breakfast! At the end of the week, everyone in the office gathers in the conference room to chow down on the delicious treats that two of the ASC team have selected for the grand occasion.

This week, things became very interesting when James was in charge of bringing in the beverage.

Juice? It's been done before. Coffee? Boring; we have that all the time. Smoothies? A little too fancy, perhaps. And thus, everyone got to try something special, something new. Something so specific and unique that you'll know I can't be making it up. This week, the Actual Sizers were treated to something I can only think of calling Blue Drink.

Well, it was technically blue raspberry, if you want me to be specific. Now, if you're like me, your first thought is probably something to the effect of the following: "What...what...how do they even make that!?" Well, I did some investigating, friends, and it turns out they make it with ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup. citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, potassium sorbate, acesulfame potassium, sugar, neotame, sucralose, sodium benzoate and of course, (presumably a lot of) Blue #1. Nutritious, no!?

If you're still like me, your second thought is probably something to the effect of the following: "What does that taste like?" Again, friends, I've done the leg work for answering this question, so allow me to enlighten you. First, I have to mention that whe [removed][removed] n you pour Blue Drink into a glass, the specific color of the blue looks different than it does while in the bottle. Once in the glass, it is significantly lighter and brighter. Okay, so there's that. As far as taste goes, Blue Drink tastes exactly like a blue raspberry snow cone but without the shaved ice. It's the kind of thing where, as you drink it, you sort of wonder if your tongue is now going to become that color. It's very, very sweet, in both senses of the word - it is literally sweet (so much that it sort of makes your teeth hurt a little bit) and it is also awesome.

All in all, it's a very interesting beverage, particularly at 9 AM, but I'd say it certainly helped me to get my day going.

I've got to fill up the swimming pool five times, watch Independence Day 48 times, and bake 3 dozen blueberry pies. Or at least that's what I could do this 4th of July weekend, if I play my cards right. But this weekend, unfortunately, over 200 people will die in drunk driving accidents, too. If you play your cards right, you won't be among them.

That means celebrating America's birthday with style, class and responsibility. It's in that spirit that we have toiled away to create another eCard for The Century Council urging everyone to be safe this 4th of July!

Check it out and help spread the word. Be safe and have fun this weekend!

check out this project >

Last week at Actual Size was an exciting and productive one! (Word on the street is it was so awesome because of a certain new intern...just repeating what I've heard.) In addition to meetings with clients, phone booth production (more on that later!), and delicious bagel breakfasts, James created a great new typeface for upcoming Pittsburgh Steelers projects. Let's just say that this typeface is so good that it too should have six Superbowl rings.

But don't just take my word for it: see for yourself! It's actually a pretty exciting process - who knew spray painting was involved!? Nice work, Dude!

Here at the Actual Size office, we appreciate the modern phenomenon of social networking. But you know what we dig even more?

Our version of the Wall: a so-called "analog Facebook" that features the beautiful, shining faces (err, cartoon versions, that is) of the Actual Sizers as well as speech bubbles so that we always know what's on everyones' minds. Plus, the dry erase markers offer a way for us to try out new looks (sunglasses, mustaches, and more). Not everyone has made it onto the Wall yet, but those who haven't are holding out hope or, if they're like Steve, finding creative ways to get there.

Does anyone else actually have a real (as opposed to virtual) Facebook Wall? Do you wish you did? (Yeah. Admit it. You do. You're completely jealous.)