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.

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.

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.)

You know what we love here at Actual Size Creative? We love it when two things come together to make something even better. You can think of the classic combinations as easily as you can think of your own name. Peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Ketchup (Heinz, of course) and French fries. (Man, I must be hungry!) Well, this past weekend, two of our favorite things came together: the Three Rivers Arts Festival and Maurice, ASC's super cool web developer (and also one of the people who helped me to figure out how to use the bus!). I had a chat with Maurice about one of his bands, The Bureau of Nonstandards - here's what they're all about.

It all started in 2004, when Maurice met Kevin while they were both recording Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 13 (it called for 100 electric guitar players, can you believe that!?). They got to talking about Pittsburgh and their mutual friends there, so when Kevin moved back to the 'burgh in 2006, he gave Maurice a call. The rest, as they say, is history. The Bureau of Nonstandards currently has one release and plays local gigs. They use circuit bent toys - such as Furbies, which Maurice jokingly refers to as the "little divas" of the whole production - as well as keyboards to creative a cool, improvisational brand of music that ranges from "ambient machine noise" to "everything breaking down at once." Maurice says that it fits in with the other work he's done before - you can check that out here: http://onezeromusic.com - and notes, "Every event is a unique challenge - you can't rehearse. The results are generally surprising to everyone."

To hear more from The Bureau of Nonstandards, check out their full-length release (http://nonstandards.bandcamp.com). Enjoy!

The last you heard about new people joining the forces of good here at Actual Size was over the summer. That's some old news. Both Mike and Kyle have moved on to greener pastures, and we're happy for them. Really. We are. *sniff*

Much more recently, though, we've added a new star among us, and his name is Steve. Steve Swackhammer joined us in early December, hit the ground running, and hasn't stopped yet. He's a front-end developer, and he's a welcome addition to our team. We've enjoyed getting to know Steve....he has a cat named Physics and when he completes a project he shouts "the hammer has fallen." 

In addition to Karl coming aboard recently, we've added two – not just one potential grifter, but TWO - new members to our team. Meet Mike and Kyle.

Mike is here or not. Depends on the day, talking to folks about all the projects we'd love to with them on. As a bonus, he's found the people watching to be tremendous in this part of town. And it is, believe me.

Kyle is as serious about design as he is about his beloved Red Sox. Although, he does have a soft spot for all things Pittsburgh, and would love for the Pirates to finally break that dreadful streak. Mainly out of pity, but they'll take all the support they can get.

It's getting crowded in here! Or maybe it was just sparsely populated before. Either way, welcome aboard guys - don't touch my yogurt in the fridge! (seriously.)

Although she is still with us in spirit, Elizabeth or "Lizzybar" will be primarily working for Actual Size remotely. She will remain in constant contact with the ASC team and will continue to monitor all client messaging. This new arrangement is completely "unrelated" to Elizabeth's CMU post from last week but for those of you keeping count, that is 4 Penn Staters, 1 Tartan again at the Actual Size headquarters.

When a trail of blood was discovered outside of Actual Size World Headquarters during what was supposed to be a safe and relaxing lunch hour, Mary put her inner-detective to work. With her nose to the pavement, Mary followed the trail to its source in the sports store around the corner. She questioned several would-be witnesses, but they refused to cooperate. The mystery remains unsolved, though it is widely believed that the victim bled then fled the scene by bus.