So I have been on a pretty major self motivational kick recently.

As a result, I had a lot of interesting personal breakthroughs this week and today actually had a really amazing, kind of powerful vibe to it, I cant quite explain.

Anyway as I left the office after work today, I was really hyped up and feeling really charged and BAM! I almost tripped over this shiney new Lamborghini parked at the front door.

I think it was a sign.  Without stepping too deep into tinfoil hat land, I will have to admit that I really believe in these types of things. Signs.  Strange reinforcements of your emotional state, materialized into the real world. Seeminly random events jumping out in an eerie sort of synchronicity. 

Strange exciting times.

What do you think about this kind of stuff?

Who needs fancy design programs?  I dont need no stinking design programs!! 
When the inspiration hits, just grab some sidewalk chalk and get on your knees, fool!

DO IT!  NOW!  Wimps!

Just be careful not to draw arrows in traffic, because that could get interesting.

Seriously, though.  I get a lot of people asking me about what programs I use for doing wireframes, and it's really hard to answer.  Usually the best tool I can recommend is paper and pencil. I keep one with me at all times.

Do the bulk of the sketch work in your notebook and worry about making things pretty later.  Or do what I do and just snap a picture of whatever sidewalk, napkin, post-it note, white board, crayon, stick in the sand that happens to be handy.

The important thing is to get the idea out before you forget it.  The medium is irrelevant. Ideas force innovation.  Pretty wireframes dont.

My wife was teasing me for writing on Posterous about my fascination with all the various weird little candy and toy crap I keep buying since visiting Europe.  She then had a Freudian slip and said "are you writing about Crandy again?"

Crap + Candy = Crandy! Genius!

So in addition to all my other stuff, welcome to my "Crandy" marketing blog...

I even got all psyched and tried to register the domain name crandy.com but it turns out some mobile company beat me to it.  Bastards!!

Oh well...

Hey, i'm an adult and I can buy whatever I want to right?  So there... so if I see something stupid in a kiosk on a snowy sunday that is only a buck, i'm going to buy it, just for curiosity's sake and maybe an extra 15 minutes of intertainment.  Considering there's nothing else open and there is nothing else to do on a Sunday in Germany anyway, well, so be it.

Anyway... this is what I got.  They're called Rabbids.  Some kind of zombie bunny card game action figure thing.  The packaging has some Wii games on it so i guess it's something bigger than I expected.  But the packaging was colorful and blue and for some reason, i just HAD to have it... I like zombie stuff...

Considering it's snowing like hell outside, I thought this little frozen dude was quite fitting, dont you think?

Kinder-Überraschungs (Kids Surprise in German) are one of the coolest marketing ideas yet to come out of Germany.  Like Cracker jacks on crack, they are little, hollow chocolate eggs that have a yellow capsule inside.  Inside the capsule contains some sort of toy that usually requires assembly and when finished provides a good 15 minutes at least of sugar fueled hyper activity.  Cars, planes, spaceships, little hopping fairy creatures, even sponsored characters like the Simpsons are also featured as well. There are always instructions and stickers too, so its really amazing what they can squeeze into that little plastic pill.

The kids swear that if you shake them in the store before you buy them, you can hear a certain thump specific to the "good" toys, whatever that is.  I think maybe it's a logic lost to adults that only makes sense to a kid.

There are literally millions of toy varieties and have been around since the 70's so as you can imagine there is even a collectors market for rare toys. You can find them in most countries although the USA is excluded because apparently the FDA decided that the chocolate didnt have enough vitamins and small parts... or some kind of crap like that.

Anyway, I think they're cooler than snot.  This one in the picture had a space glider and a pile of pieces.  My daughter stuffed the chocolate in her mouth too quickly for me to get a picture of that part though.

Are the best! Just sayin...

Ever since I stopped smoking, i've been experimenting with any kind of orally gratifying obnoxious sugar pops, pretzels, gum, chips...whatever.  Here's the experiment of the week. It was bright and pink and I just had to have it.

He he...

Just testing what Posterous does when sending to my new Facebook Page

Here is a photo from a table top promo at a restaurant called Mosch Mosch in Wiesbaden.  They were having Anti Depression week and the tables each had these squeezable laugh boxes.  Interesting promotion, unfortunately the stomach pain after the meal didn't help lift the anti depression...

 

Someone left a mysterious Momiji on our doorstep this morning...  I dont exactly know why or what it's purpose is, but I kind of like it.

What happens when I push THIS button?