For those of you that don't know me, I'm not a fan of Facebook. I like to keep my personal information private and only share it with the people that are important to me. I don't want friends of friends knowing that I'm going out of town for a week, that i was born on some day of some month in 19xx, or that I have a child that goes to a certain school. Now, I'll admit that the concept of Facebook is great and the execution has been a huge success, but at the end of the day Facebook is a company looking for new ways to generate revenue, either by selling advertising space, or sharing private account information with third party companies.

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Upon browsing the vast waves of the internet, I stumbled upon a very ambitious project called Diaspora*. Their motto: "The privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network."
For those wondering the meaning of diaspora: "diaspora ("a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers to any people or population who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture."

Not slated for release until September 2010, they've managed to acquire over $200,000 from over 6000 backers on kickstart and have been diligently working on the project all summer.

The initial release will include the following:

• Full-fledged communications between Seeds (Diaspora instances)
• End to end GPG
• External Service Scraping of most major services (reclaim your data)
• Version 1 of Diaspora’s API with documentation
• Public GitHub repository of all Diaspora code

It'll be decentralized, allow end to end encryption of data, pull all of your social media content back into one place, and allow members of the community to expand and build upon the core ideas of a private social network.

I'd recommend checking out their faq, blog, and media page if you're interested in learning more, and I'm hoping for a huge reception to the newest social media concept from those that are fed up with privacy issues.

Most of us have seen the latest Old Spice TV commercials - an attractive, shirtless, bearded dude, spouts a ridiculous yet witty sales pitch as the setting changes around him (if you haven't seen them, watch the latest here.)

Old Spice has been updating their image rather successfully lately with their hilarious, off-beat commercials starring Bruce Campbell and, now since the Super Bowl, Isaiah Mustafa of Seahawks fame. Today they've taken their campaign a huge leap forward through viral social media by taking over the @oldpsice twitter feed, announcing "Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into Twitter, Or maybe the Old Spice man shows up."

Sine then, the "Old Spice Guy" has been going strong, fielding questions and comments from users on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit and responding with personalized videos posted to YouTube. What's more, these personalized responses are being posted about every 10 minutes and are getting the attention of celebrities, tech magazines, and newspapers. What's more, this campaign isn't just selling product, it's bringing people together. In the following video, the "Old Spice Guy" proposes to a woman on behalf of a twitter user.

She said yes.

If you're looking for a laugh, to learn how Old Spice can make you smell like the manly Old Spice Guy, or to see an awesome viral campaign at work, visit the Old Spice channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice or tweet them @oldspice.

Though the temperature lately has probably got you thinking of wearing the least amount of clothing possible, let me introduce you to the phenomenon that is Threadless. Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store where members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.

The Threadless phenomenon reaches beyond just voting for T-shirt designs. The site also hosts blogs, Threadless TV, and interviews with designers, all the while fostering self-expression and originality from its contributors. Commonly the most successful designs boast interesting conceptualization, attractive colour schemes, and unique illustration styles or techniques - and a cheeky tagline doesn't usually hurt either. This outlet for designers is just another way graphic design is being encompassed in to the everyday, no media being left out. So maybe it's time to upgrade your tuxedo t-shirt afterall..

And no excuses, there really is a shirt design for almost everyone.. Here are a few that remind me of the guys in the office:

"I Thought the Future Would Have More Beep Boop Sounds"

"Nutritious Breakfast"

"Revenge Of The Sushi"

And my personal favorite:

"Real Bear Hugs Are Often Fatal"

Dave forwarded on this hilarious story regarding the bumbling Toronto Police Chief and his handling of the G20 security. In the article, it appears that a man was stopped by the police while riding the city's public transit and relieved of his "weapons", which included:

- Arrows with pool-noodle tips
- Foam shields & swords
- A chain mail vest

What horrible misdeed was this fiend planning? What filthy plan had he for destroying the peace and civility that Chief Blair and his men had so carefully maintained?

He was going LARPing, or as us non-nerds know it, Live Action Role Playing.

If you're not familiar with LARPing, good for you because it probably means you have a healthy social life and reasonably clear skin complexion. Essentially, it takes the notion of a role-playing game (like Dungeons and Dragons) and brings it into the real world, with participants acting out parts and battling each other with, you guessed it, foam implements of pretend war.

You'll find below a clip of LARPing in action, although I doubt seeing it in video will do much to remove the mystery as to why people actually do this.

I think after seeing the video you'll all agree that, despite Chief Blair's other obvious faults, he is owed a debt of gratitude; he may have embarrassed a city and country, but at least he saved a man from embarrassing himself.

Chandra, our marketing manager, decided that it would be a great idea to have a cooking competition with smoked oysters. We’ve started working with Ocean’s, so as part of our monthly “happy hour”, we decided a smoked oyster competition it is. The requirement for the contest was to use Ocean’s Smoked Chili Oysters in an appetizer. The winner of the contest will have a photo of their appetizer featured on the Ocean’s website. The Studiothink team judged the competition, and the judging was split into two categories: taste and presentation.

Here are the list of appetizers:
Rob – Deviled Egg Oyster Surprise
Caitlin – Spinach Oyster Dip
Dave – Smoked Bacon Oyster Bites
Mike – Oyster Chowder
Chandra – Jalapeno Oyster Poppers
Sherry – Bacon Double Oyster Pizza
Sarah – Smoked Oyster Spread

Drumroll..........and the winner is...

Dave’s (with help from wife Diane) Smoked Bacon Oyster Bites

Runner up was Chandra’s Jalapeno Oyster Poppers and Mike’s (actually made by Mike’s wife Susan) Oyster Chowder.