It's a seminar day today

In about an hour the first seminar of my social media series kicks off and I go on. It's a sold out session and I'm beyond psyched.

I know I'm not supposed to admit this in public, but I still can't get over the fact that people pay money to hear me speak.

Delta Faucet wants to take a shower with you

Last week, I wrote a post about Delta Faucet's new TV spot that I think is so clever. Here it is again:




Well, that ad for the In2ition is part of a larger campaign and this week, Delta Faucet unveiled a new interactive game that's built around that TV spot.

The game is called Wash the Day Away and you can find it here. In Wash the Day Away, there are six characters and successive game play will unlock two more.

Once you pick a character, he or she proceeds over to the shower. Now it's game time. In this case, it's the Dad.

The game lasts for three rounds and in each round, the player's confronted with a clothed body part. The goal is to wash away as much of the character's clothing as possible in ten seconds.

Don't worry, it's all safe for prime time. Dad even clips his chest hair. Seriously! Look for yourself!

Once the player makes it through three rounds, the percentage of clothing washed away will determine how many chances the player gets for an instant win.

Players can play Wash the Day Away as many times as they'd like, but once a day a player will get the chance to go for an instant win. The instant win round is pretty cool and if you want to see it, then head on over to Delta Faucet's website.

The instant win prize is an In2ition combination shower head of course, and there will be one prize awarded for each of the 52 days that the contest is running.

So play early and play often. For the second time in a week I have this to say, well played Delta, well played.

Stop spamming my blog

Every day, I get a bogus comment from a creature that calls itself Alanna Gracia. Alanna Gracia is not a real person, Alanna Gracia is a leech, a parasite. It is the product of a sleazy website called Kitchen-Remodel-Ideas dot US.

Alanna Gracia leaves the same comment every day:

I found this article very up-to-date and informative as it provides excellent ideas for kitchen remodeling without breaking the bank. With this handy information, you are able to make your decisions more wisely and obtain the best kitchen re-modelling plan for yourself. I would like to add more information about kitchen re- modeling that can help you build your dream kitchen.

It doesn't matter what the topic of a post is, that's the comment it leaves.

I found this article very up-to-date and informative as it provides excellent ideas for kitchen remodeling without breaking the bank. With this handy information, you are able to make your decisions more wisely and obtain the best kitchen re-modelling plan for yourself. I would like to add more information about kitchen re- modeling that can help you build your dream kitchen.

Every day without fail, I delete it as soon as I see it and then I go to the parasitic website that spawned Alanna Gracia and I ask it to stop spamming me. It never does and every day I get a new comment from Alanna Gracia.

If you ever see a link for Kitchen-Remodel-Ideas dot US, don't follow it because it's a scam site. Unless of course, you'd like to leave a spammy comment for them. Leaving a spammy comment for a spammer would be pretty poetic, don't you think?

Now if I link to Kitchen-Remodel-Ideas dot US it will only help their SEO so I won't link to them. But remember to include the hyphens if you'd like to drop them a love note. And Alanna Garcia, I'm looking forward to deleting your comment after this post in particular.

A little bit of autumn

Although I live in a tropical climate now, I remain a Yankee at heart and for as much as I enjoy the fact that it will be 80 degrees today, there are times when I miss a bright autumn day in Pennsylvania. Maple trees get all the praise for turning red but it was the gingkos that always got my heart racing. Gingkos turn the most joyous yellow I've ever seen and they are the perfect respite from the winter everybody knows is coming.

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Gingkos hail from China originally but they've been naturalized in temperate climates the world over. They're a fascinating tree with a natural history that won't quit. So even though I never get a chance to see them anymore, I found something the other day that might bring a little of that gingko yellow into my otherwise tropical existence.

These brilliant leaves are printed so realistically I had to look twice to make sure weren't really gingko leaves.

These gingko post-its are from the South Korean design firm Apree and so far as I can tell they don't have  a US distributor. Hey US stationary and gift people, wanna make a whole lot of money? Get hold of Apree!

And for the rest of you, it doesn't stop with autumn gingko leaves, check out the rest of their stuff.

Tile of Spain asked me "Wanna go to Spain?"

And I responded with a resounding ¡Claro que sí!

Play this video and then read this post as the video plays.





Spain has to have the liveliest national anthem of any I've ever heard. That's the Marcha Reale if you're taking notes.

I've been asked to go on Tile of Spain's Reign in Spain Tour in 2011. I'm one of the journalists who'll be accompanying the lucky winners of Tile of Spain's Reign in Spain Contest. I wrote about the Reign in Spain Contest around two weeks ago and if you're a US-based architect or designer who hasn't entered yet, please do! You can find all the information you'll need and an entry application by following this link.

Madrid's shining Quatro Torres, via Flickr

On February 4th, 2011, I'm getting on a plane bound for Madrid.





View spain trip in a larger map

From Madrid, my traveling companions and I will board the Ave, Spain's high-speed train system.

The Ave will take us to Zaragoza.

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Zaragoza is the fifth largest city in Spain. Caesar Augustus established it some time around 25 BC. It remained a population center and rose to power as the largest Moorish city in Northern Spain in the centuries that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. It remained a Moorish city until the early 1100s. I am salivating at the chance to get up close and personal with Spain's surviving Moorish  architecture and from what I can tell, Zaragoza will deliver more of it than I can imagine.

From Zaragoza, we're heading to Teruel. Teruel is the smallest of Spain's Provincial capitals. It traces its beginning to the latter days of Moorish rule in Spain in the 12th Century. It's a Unesco World heritage site for its many examples of Mudéjar architecture.

Mudéjar was a style of Moorish-lite architecture and arose at around the same time that Gothic architecture was coming to be in France and Germany. Mudéjar was an important transitional style and its contributions to the great cathedrals of northern Europe has been largely overlooked.

Teruel promises to be an architectural wonderland. In addition to the great examples of Mudéjar, there are a variety of buildings in Gothic, Baroque and early 20th Century styles. Any time I can look out over a thousand years of development in one sight line I'm a happy man indeed.

From Teruel we're off to Valencia, Spain's third-largest city. Valencia also started out as a Roman outpost and they called it Valentia then. Then being in 137 BC. It's since been occupied by the Visigoths, the Moors and finally the Catalan and Aragonese. Every one of those cultures has left fingerprints all over the city and I can't wait to see as many of them as time allows.

For all of Valencia's history, it doesn't seem the least bit shy about embracing not just today but tomorrow as well. The City of Science and Arts shown here is a pretty loud announcement of the Valencian peoples' belief in their future.

While we're in Valencia we'll attend the actual reason for this trip, a trade show known the world over as Cevisama. Cevisama is a world showcase devoted the best and brightest in the worlds of tile, bath fixtures, kitchen fixtures and natural stone. Spanish industries are on the march and it's going to be a real thrill to see these products on their home turf.

All of this is being made possible by Tile of Spain, an umbrella brand for ASCER, the Spanish tile Manufacturer's Association. I'm honored and grateful to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the culture, food, architecture and industry of Spain. ¡Viva la España!