Galvanize.us

mslistliss: I want one! Great way to bring your hiding place...

kthread — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:26:47 -0400

mslistliss:

I want one!

Great way to bring your hiding place with you as you go and create temporary structures.

Happy spring from the Galvanize team!

thedailywhat: Street Art of the Day: Last month, children’s...

kthread — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:11:21 -0500

thedailywhat:

Street Art of the Day: Last month, children’s author Aaron Zenz sat down to watch Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop with his kids.

10-year-old Gracie was so inspired by the film, that she immediately declared her determination to become a street artist when she grew up. Her dad explained to her that “while the art was fun and the story was great, vandalism isn’t a good thing.” So all together they came up with a project that was artsy, stealthy, public, “and in no way damaging”:

I bought a big sack of rocks, washed them, and painted the base colors. Then Isaac, Gracie, Lily, and I each claimed a color and decorated them with as many faces and expressions as we could thing of. 48 rocks in all. […]

Hopefully we were able to spread a little happiness to anyone who stumbled across these little guys.

[igl / @ironicsans.]

We love this project. Way to hide rocks for a pet passion project.

Every Badass has a library and a hallowed out book

kthread — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:58:01 -0500

blacktieknight:

Learn how to make a hallowed out book here. It’s good to have places to hide things that might come in handy.

We agree! Fun project for a snowy day…

curiositycounts: NYPL Map Rectifier, a tool for digitally...

kthread — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:53:42 -0500

curiositycounts:

NYPL Map Rectifier, a tool for digitally aligning historical maps to match present-day map precision. More examples of the citizen cartography groundswell. (Thanks, Kyle.)

Fascinating.

"The “seed bombs”—essentially seeds packed with mud—started dropping in 2009. The group says it is..."

kthread — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:51:51 -0500

“The “seed bombs”—essentially seeds packed with mud—started dropping in 2009. The group says it is teaching the masses to collaboratively cultivate open spaces to combat rising food prices and wean the populace off traditional supermarkets. Its website boasts a stylized manifesto that proclaims (in Spanish) “I know you/I know/where I come from/I help/help me/I live here/I care/I learn/I eat/as others see me.” “Our goal is for people to find carrots, courgettes or quinoa when they take a stroll … and we want to show them how to care after the crops,” a coordinator told Reuters. Although it is arguably more vital with every passing day, guerilla gardening is nothing new. For decades, crafty cultivators have been tossing seeds into underused pocket parks, sidewalk cracks and road planters. The idea is to reclaim “orphaned” land and make it productive and beautiful to benefit the community.”

- Secret Seeders Plant Edible Veggies for Inner-City Poor | TakePart - Inspiration to Action (via apsies)

Galvanize Valentine’s Day (hide splendid things for people you love) Idea #4:

Guerilla Gardening. You could give flowers. [Yawn.]

Or you could plant flowers together (or bulbs and direct friends there in a few months!)

Go, you rogue Cupids, go!

photojojo: V-Day is soon! Nooo, not Veteran’s Day. Valentine’s...

kthread — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:42:26 -0500

photojojo:

V-Day is soon! Nooo, not Veteran’s Day. Valentine’s Day.

Check out our 5 Fun Ways to Share Your Love with Photos

Here’s a sneak peek at a few!

Decorate these rad color-me-in Valentines from designer Yellow Heart Art

Show your love with a photo cupcake or cookie! Follow our quick guide for step-by-step instructions and paste your love’s face onto something sweet!

Download and fold-together these cute colored papercraft cameras and use them as a cute package for the camera loving Valentine in your life.

Combine photos of you and your other half to see what your babies might look like!

Fill your photos with lots of love! Break out your Bokeh Kit and fill the background of your photos with hearts everywhere! ♥ (like in the photo!)

More ideas for the people you love from the lovely people of Photojojo!

Galvanize Valentine Gift Idea #3: We are, ahem, struck by this...

kthread — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:46:00 -0500

Galvanize Valentine Gift Idea #3:

We are, ahem, struck by this idea from Design*Sponge: DIY vintage arrows.

You could easily wrap a sheet of paper around that arrow with a message and stick the arrow in an appropriate tree. Or door jamb of your apartment.

Go ahead, you daring archer, you.

nerdvalentine: Sterling Silver Alien Invader Stud...

kthread — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:37:51 -0500

nerdvalentine:

Sterling Silver Alien Invader Stud Earrings by Miscii on Etsy

Galvanize Valentine’s Day Gift Idea #2: Think about it. You could hide earrings or cuff links inside a jewelry box or under a pillow. They could invade any space you placed them in!

And it’s an eco-win, since you don’t have to wrap this type of gift.

Want: Personalized Hot Chocolate Spoons

kthread — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:57:00 -0500

fritesandfries:

I saw these spoons on The Bedlam of Beefy and I thought they were pretty cool:

Each spoon has a personalized message (written by you!) hidden in a block of chocolate. Once the chocolate melts, your “Valentine” can read your secret message:

(…unless if you bought it for yourself — then it wouldn’t be a secret would it?)

Galvanize Valentine’s Day gift ideas #1:

Neat romantic gift (too late to order for Valentine’s Day from this company, but one to bookmark!)

You could perhaps riff on the theme of a secret message on cutlery that is revealed during a meal or just after…

hdma: The other day I received an envelope from an anonymous...

kthread — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:51:46 -0500

hdma:

The other day I received an envelope from an anonymous person in the Philadelphia area. Inside was this map along with the following note: “My sister sent this to me along with the latest pictures of her kids. No explanation about the map, but I hope Matt found the treasure.”

Us too!

:) Off you go!

kthread — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:47:18 -0500

:) Off you go!

thedailywhat: Sign Of Olden Times of the Day: Oregon Trail sign...

kthread — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:09:55 -0500

thedailywhat:

Sign Of Olden Times of the Day: Oregon Trail sign “spotted” in Los Angeles.

The world needs a lot more of this, and a lot less of everything else.

[pleatedjeans.]

See Also: Oregon Trail is now on Facebook.

We Need Your Help! (Please)

kthread — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:44:46 -0500

The background:

Hundreds of amazing people are part of Galvanize, hiding gifts and finding gifts hidden for them.

The problem:

The first screens of Galvanize, our log-in and join screens, need some love.

They’re fugly. (We also really want to build the Android version! That’s next.) While we’re still testing and in a public alpha stage, everyone wants to use Galvanize as a real service. This is a wonderful problem, except…

Why It’s Urgent:

We have heard that one of our members wants to use Galvanize to propose on Valentine’s Day. We need to make sure the app works perfectly for the proposal!

How You Can Help:

We’re small (it’s Kristen working on this, with some help from Cameron).

We’re scrappy (we are bootstrapping Galvanize with Kristen’s savings).

We really need a developer that could give us a little or a lot of time. We can pay a little bit + give lots of credit online to this amazing person.

This person could become a technical co-founder, but we know how very busy all the awesome developers always are.

If you know anyone who can do some iPhone work in the next two weeks (it takes a little time to submit an update to the app store, so we need to allow for that), please let us know?

You can send an email to: kristen@galvanize.us

Besides having our eternal gratitude, Kristen will cook you dinner the next time you are in NY! (We promise she knows how to cook and this is a good reward.)

Thanks in advance. Let’s make the V Day proposal happen!

Questions? Thoughts?

And here’s another video from this work,...

kthread — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:45:01 -0500

And here’s another video from this work, “Conductor,” in progress—The Map Room blog’s Jonathan Crowe points out this is based on Vignelli’s 1972 subway map.

More on Alexander Chen’s blog (chenalexander.com) and Twitter (twitter.com/alexanderchen).

The NY Subway Map as an instrument (this is one of two posts) by...

kthread — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:41:00 -0500

The NY Subway Map as an instrument (this is one of two posts) by Alexander Chen.

“Currently HTML5/Javascript. Hopefully iPad version later on. Blog with progress at chenalexander.com - Twitter: twitter.com/alexanderchen”

(We found this on @maproomblog!)

Stitching Postcards is a whimsical project by Kölm-based...

kthread — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:51:42 -0500

Stitching Postcards is a whimsical project by Kölm-based distributor Details that encourages users to stitch cities together with thread.

If sending postcards already seems like an antiquated activity, and Google Maps is able to pin locations down digitally, then Stitching Postcards appears as a nostalgic throwback to old-world correspondences.

The postcards come packed with a needle and thread, and cover six different countries, some cities and a world map… (from Design Taxi)

rubikscubesareawesome: If you thought that the original Rubik...

kthread — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:33:46 -0500

rubikscubesareawesome:

If you thought that the original Rubik Cube was difficult (and I say that having never solved one without either peeling off the stickers or prising one apart with a screwdriver) then this cool Earth themed variation of the Rubik Cube could offer somewhat more of a challenge as you’ll need at least a fundamental appreciation of basic geography in order to solve it.

We love meta gifts. brb, off to hide rubik geocubes!

It’s like second Christmas! Thanks to Maria (@brainpicker)...

kthread — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:46:00 -0500

It’s like second Christmas! Thanks to Maria (@brainpicker) for the shout-out (BrainPickings is one of our very favorite resources of interestingness) and a big welcome to all the new Galvanize members.

We have been quiet over the holidays because we were busily hiding gifts for our families and friends, natch.

We’re now back at work on the next version fixing some important things (we know the log-in and sign-up screens need polishing) and we have some new surprises for you.

Also: we want to meet you and hide gifts with you in your neighborhood, so let us know if you want a Galvanize block party with your crew.

If you’re interested in being involved as start testing some new features or have feedback in general (we love that!), drop us a line: hello at galvanize.us

More soon and thanks for your support in 2010. It means the world, truly.

We hope all of you are having a splendid 2011 so far.

laughingsquid: Urban Spelunking, Four Days & Nights...

kthread — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:45:18 -0500

laughingsquid:

Urban Spelunking, Four Days & Nights Exploring NYC Underground

Neat-O. Not really spelunking, but it’s a fun word that just can’t be used often enough.

"Jim and Della live their lives with such a sense of humor (O. Henry’s wit is ever present,..."

kthread — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:25:36 -0500

“Jim and Della live their lives with such a sense of humor (O. Henry’s wit is ever present, even in “Magi”). His nonchalant reaction to the irony (yes, Alanis this is ironic) makes the love story even more moving; she puts the pork chops in the frying pan, and their lives as a passionate couple move on. It’s the consummate illustration of love being greater than the possession, and the case in point of there being a gift in giving. In the age where shoppers line up at 3 am to buy a HDTV at a 10 percent discount, perhaps the story constantly resurfaces to serve as a sort of moral compass, steering us back on course to the “season of giving.””

- - from “The Gift of ‘The Gift of the Magi’” in Fast Company

Nice piece, pointing us, once again, at the gift of giving.