so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess?

“White wedding” took on a whole new meaning for me, a couple of years ago.

I’m reminded of this by the convergence of three things: another wedding in the family this summer, the pending conversion of yet another neighbourhood dairy farm into a subdivision, and the playful reincarnation of the iconic Got Milk? campaign.

(Bear with me — this will all start to make sense in a minute!)

So, as I’ve hinted, we’ve just celebrated another wedding in the extended family — and those of you who’ve been there can well understand the potential for both magic and disaster. So many details to coordinate with military precision! Everything must be perfect… Such high expectations, and such high stress!

Well, our most recent family wedding breezed through on the magical side, I’m thrilled to report.

But in this story I’m about to tell you of another wedding, a few years back… not so much.

Let’s not even speak of the soloist’s hiccups, the drunken photographer, or the brutal heat wave that turned the wedding reception into a sauna and the expensive ice sculpture into a melting lopsided phallus that soaked the buffet table linens.

No, we’ll pass over those minor points.
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Shampoo and coffee do not mix well. Not in a mug or in the mouth, anyway, although I’ve heard of brunettes who rinse their hair with strong coffee to enhance the colour…

My point is —

In a more perfect world, I’d love to figure out how to have that first essential morning cup of coffee and a refreshing wake-up shower, both at the same time. One possible solution? Caffeinated soap.

No, seriously.

It’s at BalmWorks, sold as singles or a set of three, with each bar of delightfully caffeinated soap going for about the price of your upscale mocha-latte. Or a couple large double-doubles over at Tim Horton’s. Or a small package of ready-ground coffee beans at the supermarket.

H/T to Cali Lewis for this one!

I always wanted to be more animated…

You’ve probably seen a lot of these Voki animations around… more frivolous stuff, driven by advertising, right?

Well… yes.

But in defence of the 15 minutes I just blew away by making my own talking cartoon self… let us not forget that a clever educator can find all sorts of ways to make a teaching experience out of this sort of thing.

Anyway, the animated characters also come in dog, cat, celebrity, alien, and anime styles, as well as the “classic” bland cartoon face style I’ve used here. (And believe me, I was sooo tempted to go all talking poodle on this!)

You can pick the clothing, hairstyle, background, etc., of course. Sliders and a color-picker let you refine the appearance of your Voki in some fairly entertaining ways, more than I’d expected would be possible, so there’s fun to be had in that.

The service does give you the option to upload an actual sound file, or to record your voice by phone or microphone… but the text-to-speech thing is good enough for this talking avatar, thank you very much.

So, there you have it — that’s Voki.

Have at it, if you’ve got a few minutes to spare or maybe an 11-year-old visitor to entertain on a rainy afternoon!