love

Getting in on the secret of Pixar's 'hidden' speakeasy

If you've worked an office job for any length of time, you've probably found yourself envying "the creatives" -- the people in the design department, say, who always seem to be having more fun than anyone else, with their crazy cubicle setups and unusual work routines.

Matthew Panzarino over at The Next Web has posted a great little story about one of the most extreme -- and awesome -- examples of this that I can imagine.

Panzarino's piece concerns a secret room at Pixar. Judging from what the author says, I should've known about the hideaway before. But I didn't, and you may not have either, so here we go.

It seems that when Pixar moved into its then-new building in Emeryville, Calif., animator Andrew Gordon (who worked on "Monsters Inc.," "Little Nemo," "The Incredibles," and so on) felt a bit of pressure to outdo his co-workers' cubicle craziness. (You can imagine, at a place like Pixar -- which is packed with "creatives" -- just how inventive people get with their work setups.)

Luckily, he discovered a small access hatch in the wall of his office, and -- creative, curious, and mischievous person that he must be -- he wasted no time in doing what many of us probably wouldn't have. He opened it. Then he got on his hands and knees and crawled into it. Then, lo and behold, he discovered a secret "room."… Read more

Your lover left you? Don't worry, Google Chrome can get her back

Who among us hasn't wept over a lover parting ways, declaring that she could find better?

Who among us has not had second thoughts about getting her back? Because, oh, there was her smile, her legs, her cooking, and perhaps the small fact that the break-up was our fault, not hers.

There is a solution. Google Chrome.

Yes, those might seem like two phrases in search of a sequitur, but I can assure you that all you need to do to bring your lover back is to download Google's fine browser and then use your imagination.

How do … Read more

Courtney Love's daughter says Twitter should ban mom

We have all lived through phases when we wished our mothers weren't around.

Few of us, though, have ever issued a press release asking Twitter to ban the very woman who suffered nine months so that we could suffer the slings, the arrows, and all of life's outrageous fortune.

It's true that not all of us are the progeny of rock stars. But Frances Bean Cobain is surely extraordinary for being the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.

Momma, it seems, gained the impression that Kurt Cobain's former bandmate, Dave Grohl, had impure intentions toward … Read more

The troubling lexicon of texting love

I woke up this morning, dreaming of the In-N-Out Burger that will be my Valentines meal, to discover serious accusations about love's labors lost.

In a quite pulsating treatise on CNN.com, experts were blaming an increase of one-night standing on technology.

Yes, apparently it creates sexual tension. Apparently, technology encourages you to offer sexual banter even before the first date. So, by the time you encounter the person in real life, you've already created the preconditions for a bedtime ending.

Verbal and romantic intimacy is being sacrificed on the altar of truncated messages, delivered with staccato urgency.… Read more

Google's Valentine's doodle might make you cry

There are several reasons why Google can affect one emotionally. It's true these emotions aren't always positive. Sometimes, even, they verge on exasperation at Google's trickeration.

Happily, though, Google's small, but powerful Dept. of Human Beings--aka the Doodlers--is always trying to create an urge to cuddle, rather than cudgel.

Google's doodle for Valentine's Day offers a girl who is jump roping--or skipping, as they call it overseas. A boy offers her a flower. Oddly, the girl is not impressed.

The boy slinks away and googles some more ideas. He comes back with chocolates. She … Read more

Can prof's algorithm reunite Craigslist Missed Connections?

Love is in the air this week. You can tell by the smell of overpriced roses, highly inflated balloons, and restaurant servers who are in the gym early, training to turn tables over four times in a night.

How touching, then, that Luke DuBois, a digital-media professor at NYU-Poly, has used his vast and loving skills to try to bring together those who seek true love on Craigslist's "Missed Connections."

At LukeDubois.com/missed, you are offered hope if you failed to get the phone number or other personal details of someone who stared a little too long at you in your local library or hookah lounge.

DuBois told The Brooklyn Paper that his site uses an algorithm that attempts to find similar words used in different Missed Connections posts in the very same city.

It does sound so much more ingenious than the methods of that slightly wordy lady on "The Millionaire Matchmaker."… Read more

Snappy Valentine's! More women sexting than last year

Sometimes, one is confronted with information so stunning that contemplative navel-gazing will never suffice.

So let me toss this mind-altering grenade and see how it shakes you: women are using technology in a more openly sexual way.

How can I possibly know this? Well, I am leaning heavily (as I must) on the study of women's mores prepared on behalf of Harlequin--yes, those racy people who publish bodice-ripping romances for the everyday commute.

I am grateful to a lady at the Huffington Post for corralling this data and promulgating it electronically.

You will, no doubt, feel light-headed beyond reason … Read more

Top five networking and storage devices that spell L-U-V

We often don't appreciate love till love is lost or broken. The same goes for networking and storage devices.

Do you realize that you're able to read this post this right now because some router and storage device somewhere are both busy at work?

The good news is that every year we have a day to appreciate love. And you may also want to take this opportunity to appreciate the tech tool that's been so underappreciated. Luckily, I am here to help.

Here are the Top 5 networking and storage devices that are not just among the top of their respective categories--including mobile routers, home wireless routers, internal drives, network storage, and external storage devices--but are also collectively sexy, cute, lovely devices that would make a great gift for a special someone. … Read more

Match.com: iPhoners are office romantics, Androiders are loose

You will wish to draw your own loving conclusions. I will merely draw you a picture or two.

For the results of a survey by Match.com have stirred me into deep romantic thought. I am grateful to VentureBeat for having an initial relationship with this data, as it pokes a stiletto into my view of dating.

The data analyzed the behavior of various smartphone owners when it comes to love. Oddly, it declared that Android users are easy, loose, flaunt themselves so much on the first date that they end up having sex far more readily than those with … Read more

Artist vacuum-seals couples for portrait series

If you tend to feel smothered in your romantic relationships, these photos of vacuum-sealed couples might leave you gasping for air.

Yes, you read that right. Vacuum-sealed couples. Because what says love like being shrink-wrapped to your significant other like a couple of old wool sweaters trying to keep the moths away?

First, let us reassure the claustrophobic romantics out there that this isn't a 2012 version of getting pinned. It's "Flesh Love," a Japanese artist's exploration of the intimate ties that bind (very tightly).

"I am currently seeking new dimensions in portrait photography by challenging the majestic theme of mankind, defined through love," the artist known as Photographer Hal writes on his Web site.

New dimensions, indeed. … Read more