that’s right, i’m the new kid on the block… so i thought it might be cool to take you on a little tour. sit back, relax and sip that coffee (or if it’s after noon, i recommend a beer).

well it was a bit of a whirlwind tour as you can tell - i decided it’s a bit early for everyone here to realise that i’ve totally lost my marbles, let’s at least give it a week.

happy thursday xxx

people are always asking me what blogs i read, sites i use etc. incase you don’t follow my links on del.icio.us i thought it would be great over the next couple of weeks for me to recommend what i read/use for…

• inspiration
• wonderful webappness
• blogs
• podcasts
• shopping sites

so what a great day to look at inspiration. having started at aardman animation on monday, i’ve spent much of this week familiarising myself with the industry and looking for cool film producers / animators whose work i like. the following aren’t all based on animation at all, but they’re inspiring i think…

• peter callesen paper. seriously. check it out.
• muto - a wall painted animation by blu.
• mammon - by robin fuller.
• soñadora - bedtastic animation by andrea lira.
• eden soto and all of the work that he does, he rocks!
• a.viary - not only b-e-a-utiful but cram packed with features for designers.
• fuzzwich - create your own animations - you, animations, go make!
• design shack - beautiful sites always make me smile inside.
• ponoko.com - you design stuff, they make it - sounds perfect to me.

well hopefully that’s a few links to keep you busy. i’d love to hear of any sites you find inspirational…

i’m not a web chick that gets on her high horse and complains that things are unfair. i might be naive but i like to think if you’re good at what you do, you’ll be recognised for it - regardless of your sex. you might hear me on twitter bitching about boys, but it’s all in jest. in other words, i’m not a feminist in any way.

all of the above said, tonight i had an experience that i found both disturbing and upsetting. it’s not the the first time that i had logged on to Ylive and i thought it would be good to log on, chat to some friends and update people about my job given the number of tweets i’d had asking how it was going.

within a couple of minutes, the chat room was being swarmed by “anonymous” users making crude comments about me and what they’d like to do to me. i’m not naive and i can normally handle most of that stuff. but people telling me to strip and offering me money to perform acts is in no way acceptable and makes me hate the web.

i’m enough of a web-o-holic to not let this deter me. i know that the majority of people are good and it’s the minority that ruin it for the rest. but somethings for sure, i won’t be using Ylive again (especially when you find that some of the people making crude comments are also my twitter followers).

sorry for the rant, but the whole situation made me really disappointed. everyday i work to create communities, harmony and open conversations and it can take just a 10 minute experience like that to take so much away again. my final words - if you’re going to be a total scum bag and make horrible rude comments, at least have the balls to show your face!

btw - thanks to @innonate @kastner @jaygreasley @ryancarson @keirwhitaker @grahamgilbert @adamstac @jamfactory @alashcraft for showing up and being nice… x

today was my last day at carsonified - so i thought it only right that my random thursday video reflected that. i hope that you enjoy