Weather Pixie

Have you noticed the little Weather Pixie I added to my blog a few weeks ago?

The current temperature is displayed and little Weather Pixie's clothes change to match the weather.

Occasionally a little kitty cat appears with Goth Weather Pixie. Why? According to the site's FAQ page it is because "He is a cat. They're like that."

There are lots of little Weather Pixies from which to choose. My favourite is Goth Pixie 4.

Miss Digital World

I discovered that there's a beauty pageant for the digital world - Miss Digital World.

On the official website, creator Franz Cerami has described the competition as "the search for a contemporary ideal of beauty, seen through virtual reality".

This year the title went to Chilean beauty Katty Ko, who is based on a real person (a Latin American soap opera star) and was created by artist Flavio Parra (the digital version that is, duh).

Apparently these digital beauties are more than just a bunch of pixels thrown together. A Wired News article highlights five of the contestants and -- in addition height, weight and birthplace -- lists each model's manager, claim to fame and personality type.

And it's not just physical beauty that's important for the competition. In this CNN article, the competition organisers said that the entrants "... should not have taken part -- not even as extras or cameos -- in pornographic films, shows or plays nor have made statements... in any way out of tune with the moral spirit of the competition."

The competition proved to be quite popular, attracting thousands of entries from all over the world.

So, if you are an aspiring graphic artist with an eye for beauty, you'd better get cracking because the search for Miss Digital World 2005 begins on 1 January!

Another avatar creator

I found another Avatar creator, Dookyweb. Here are some samples I created.

What do you think?

Avatar creator

I found this cute Avatar creator, Portrait Avatar Maker. Here's the one I created for me.

You know she's me because:

• she's got long brown hair
• she's wearing a purple top, a black skirt, and black boots
• she's cuddling a kitty cat
• she's got a mobile phone

These are all very Jasmine things. The only thing missing is that she isn't solving a Rubik's cube!

Here's the avatar I created for Peter.

He's carrying a mobile phone, which is a very Peter thing. And he looks worried about something, which is also a very Peter thing.

Angels & Demons

After The Da Vinci Code, I was kinda in the zone for more, so I read another Dan Brown book – Angels & Demons. It was basically the same book except that it was set in Italy instead of France, and involved the Illuminati instead of the Priory of Sion. Here's a dot point summary which could easily be describing either novel:

• prominent and respected man is brutally murdered by a mysterious assassin
• mysterious assassin takes orders from an even more mysterious leader, who only contacts the assassin by phone and whose identity and name are unknown to the assassin
• weirdness of the murder scene suggests a secret society is involved
• young female relative of the victim teams up with Robert Langdon (professor from Harvard who's an expert on secret societies and religious symbology) to solve the mystery
• young female relative is attractive, intelligent, successful and headstrong
• some characters who initially seem to be 'the good guys' turn out not to be, and vice versa
• lots of references to religious and historial artefacts, symbology and locations
• occasional references to potential romantic tension between the male and female protagonist
• male and female protagonist must solve a series of puzzles, codes, cryptic messages, etc. to get to the bottom of things
• male and female protagonist solve lots of puzzles, codes, cryptic messages, etc. and get to the bottom of things

I think that about sums it up.

Peter loves his new iPod

Peter received his newly purchased whizzy fourth-generation-40GB-click-wheel-iPod yesterday. He's very excited - like me with a new iPAQ. ;)

iPod

Peter asked if I was interested in getting one too. I am, but only because it's a gadget and I love gadgets. I don't think I'm actually all that interested in having a portable music device. I don't have a discman and I wasn't sufficiently interested in MP3s to fill a 256mb SD card in my iPAQ, so it would probably be silly for me to purchase a 40GB iPod.

The iPod is very stylish. Style is important when it comes to gadgets. Many people just focus on functionality and features (which are key factors of course), but we shouldn't forget style. I know Jenneth would agree!

Jenneth had links to some great iPod cases, including a purple one which glows blue! Very pretty. Unfortunately the purple case is not compatible with the new fourth generation iPods so Peter will have to wait to get a cool case.

Cool iPod cases