JESSICA’S DIARY

When life gives you a day job…

I started a new job yesterday, but I can’t really say much about it yet. This can be frustrating to one who chooses to noisily and publicly broadcast her every waking moment online without much concern for decorum. I am slowly trying to untangle my situation and how best to proceed. I figured the best place to start was with some good old fashioned photomanipulations. When I was 19 and discovered Photoshop for the first time, imagemaking became my primary method of online communication (see deviantart gallery here). I had a lot of teenage rebellion left to spend, and for the first time my angst had a positive outlet (instead of, or in addition to, razors, vodka and vomiting).


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What to do when you get the self-censorship blues

KELLY’S DIARY

Different people than we were a year ago

It was time to finish cleaning out the car (we got back from camping monday) which led me to write more in-depth about our trip and camping in general.


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BONUS!

Behind My Eyes - Chore Card

What is a chore card?

A chore card is an image that we create every time we do a post about a chore. Composing the post and getting the chance to do a quick illustrational exploration is great motivation to get chores done. The cards become parts in a series that one can collect. After time, the sum of the parts becomes more valuable that the parts on their own.

Gotan Project Radio

I thought I’d walk you through my process of creating one, so you can see for yourself just how fun it is. I borrowed the background from an Armani Pandora ad.

Form before function

Upon later reflection, I realized that this decision gave the image a dark feel- which is not at all how I felt about the situation or what it was like. Because I chose the design element on a whim, just because I liked it and it was there, the final piece does not as accurately reflect the situation as I would have liked.

Sand. Everywhere.

The colors and textures are copied from the images contained within the post. I cut some strips to match the lines in the background- and some not- and adjusted the blending layers accordingly.

Glitter Brushes

The flueron in the bottom right is a glitter brush. Its the first result when you Google “glitter brush”. Thanks obsidiandawn.

“Erik Spiekermann’s most economical typeface ever”

The typeface is The Popular Podcast’s house face, FF Mt, and is available for free download from FSI FontShop International.

I don’t think the image is totally resolved, but then nothing really ever is. The exercise is a nice break from other types of work. And now I might get more chores done.


True Life - Unpacking Camping

icon for podpress  The Popular Podcast #136: Audio Logo, Brbtrbnb: Download

Joy introduces us to a new noise that you can make when someone gets shot, dies, or drowns. Email us your own version of the audio logo!

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TPP B-REEL

Joy, I need you to make that noise again.

We really needed to hear Joy make the noise again because she is the originator, and we just can’t do it as well as she can. We decided to record the phone call so we can play it over and over and perfect the noise.


Watch the phone call below | 00:01:48


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TPP PREROLL

I don’t want to get my hair wet

It looks better dry. You have to watch this one to see what it is about, because I don’t remember. I would have liked to have gotten my hair wet but didn’t mind keeping it dry ;)


Click below to watch the video | 00:00:54


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TPP POSTROLL

Jessica takes her shirt off

Will we get to see boob? Only the subscribers will know!


Play Where’s Boob Waldo Below | 00:01:02


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The Popular Podcast #136: Audio Logo, Brbtrbnb

icon for podpress  The Popular Podcast #135: Lifefucking in the tub: Download

Showing off our water shoes, we introduce a new segment - Stay Slim Secrets. If you want to stay slim, you have to get drunk and fight.

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TPP PREROLL

Tip of the towln’ 2 ya

Setting up the scene. See jessica’s bruise on her ass from when I smacked her with my high heel. Pony has some…interesting input. dookie booty. the water is way too hot!


See the bruise on Jessica’s ass below | 00:03:39


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TPP PREROLL

Sup Al?

our neighbor al is playing dominoes right outside the window. we don’t have a curtain on our window in the shower.


Click below to watch the video | 00:00:27


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TPP PREROLL

Finally got the sound to work

is it working? no.


Click below to watch the video | 00:00:22


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TPP PREROLL

Pony Sez: My Moms R Internet Sluts

forgot to hit record. again. at least we didn’t blow our load and get wet yet. we finally get wet. and you’ll see why i had to cover my front with my legs. and jessica shows off her bruise again. jessica is scalded. pony tries to ruin the shot by trying to block jessica calling us “internet sluts.” its really hard not to pee. then we put on our water shoes.


Are we Internet Sluts? Find out below | 00:14:27


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icon for podpress  The Popular Podcast #134: Thank you EasyPayPal!: Download

After struggling for months to find the perfect ecommerce system for selling premium content, we have finally found it with the WordPress plugin EasyPayPal. Now all of our premium content resides on thepopularpodcast.com (not on a separate site). All you have to do to see it is register as a member! Sadly, we’re interrupted by a quicktime glitch.

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TPP PREROLL

Kelly’s tired + her pussy hurts

How’s our lighting? Good enough for a poke? We decide to talk about our new premium content system and how we’re going to celebrate tonight.


Find out how we’re going to celebrate below | 00:02:44


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The Popular Podcast #134: Thank you EasyPayPal!

the premium content stream of the popular podcast
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TPP Premium is the premium content channel of Kelly Cree and Jessica Mullen.

We are lifestreamers who believe nothing is private; how dare we charge to see updates about our lives?

Our lives are just that good. It’s not a line between public and private, it’s a line between public and premium.

TPP Premium holds constant updates of Kelly’s and Jessica’s lives that cannot be seen anywhere else on the web.

Using an amazing WordPress plugin EasyPayPal, we are able to include hidden content in our posts on thepopularpodcast.com, that only users registered with our site can see. We make premium posts often, with podcast outtakes, confessionals, gchat transcriptions, aquafan content, health tips, diary entries, and more. The best part? Now when we make a premium update, it’s included in our main TPP RSS feed, so you can get all your TPP content in one place ^_^

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Register today, so you don’t miss out on any of the tasty, delicious content that is waiting for you right now!


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categories of content

We generally post premium content in one of the following categories:

Aquafans, Adult, Diary entries, Meta-podcasting, Design, True Life and Episodes

To unlock the hidden content on this site, you simply have to register as a site user.

register with wordpress

After you register, you will see the message “Registration complete. Please check your e-mail.” Retrieve your password from your inbox and log in. You will be briefly redirected:

redirect

And then taken to a PayPal payment page for Jessica Mullen Design. Submit your $7 payment here for 30 days of access to the premium content on this site. In the future, we will offer subscription billing, but for now once your 30 days of access are up, you must submit another payment for access to the next 30 days.

paypal preview

After you submit your payment (thank you!), you will be taken to your new WordPress dashboard, where you can manage your profile, avatar, and comments on the site.

paypal preview

Return to thepopularpodcast.com and you will now be able to see all of the unlocked content in each post. Having problems signing up? Just send Kelly or Jessica an email and we’ll clear it right up.

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The Popular Podcast’s Premium Content Channel

  • Written by: jessicamullen
  • June 26th, 2009 at 10:21 am
  • Filed under About Premium
  • Tagged with

Dear lord I’m just trying to get my day started and I’m so distracted by emails and tiny post edits and iphone chargings. So we woke up late; I blame the entire 2.5 glasses of wine I had. I hope you liked the photoshoot :]

Today I have a rather full plate, and we have some swimming planned for later…

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The morning of a million alarms

A preview of our more adult content on TPP, Shakeit photo style.

We were going to do a photoshoot with our nice nikon d70…

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Wednesday night photo shoot…

When Jessica brought up the ShakeItPhoto iPhone ap again yesterday, I really did not feel it was worth revisiting. I do, however, enjoy making fun of the photos - which led me to idea of doing a legitimate, critical, and objective critique of the photos.

This will give me the opportunity to discuss some of the underlying concepts of the tools and express my feelings about the aesthetics in a (hopefully somewhat) academic manner.

She plans to retort in the comments. I look forward to that.

This photo demonstrates many of the great aspects of SIP. The border, tight crop, and square format add drama to the scene- putting the mundane futon and pillow in a context outside itself. These visual tactics help give the audience the feeling of the scene having significance, though that significane may not be implicity clear. The color saturation gives the photo depth.

As you can see, there are some compositions that the ap just cannot help. However, this photo is probably still more visually appealing than its not-filtered counterpart. At least on the surface. The visual tactics mentioned above also evoke a feeling of nostalgia. The color, composition, and format give the image the illusion of being aged. The audience then attaches a feeling of nostalgia to an event that just occured moments ago. Is that what we really want to do? Create nostalgia? I am anti-nostalgia. Live in the now.

Its like when you look back at old photos and wonder - what was I wearing? or what is with my hair?

How do you decide when to use and when not to? Then some photos take on more significance than others.

Our responsiblity as creators is not to accept these things that water down what we do. Are we complacent with this, or should we be figuring out new, better ways to communicate visually?

The End of The Professional

On the other hand it puts tools into the hands of amatuers. It gives anyone who wants to an opportunity to create something that is potentially more powerful than something she could do on her own. Without having to put in any more effort.

The concept of citizens being able to perform tasks previously reserved for professionals is the one in which I am most interested. Because this can translate to a lot of other situations.

Like the automotive industry. Or business. And especially design.

In the end, it is just a filter. An action. A macro. A program. Are those of you who support the use of these filters suggesting, then, that the machine is better at creation than we?

This is still a bad photo.

So is this one.

Ok I actually like this one.

Beautiful.

Making the family proud.

I realized I was wearing all red. At least I wasn’t wearing all blue.

Good photos are not about gimmicks. They reflect the way one looks at the world. Become a better photographer by re-examining your reality version. LifeFuck.

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Watch episode make-outtakes and more!

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ShakeItPhoto Follow Up to the Follow Up

Jessica’s Diary

Lifefucking your banner design

I’m working on making new banners for thepopularpodcast.com and putamadres.com. The blocks on our sites are pretty modular, so we can keep our sites up to date with fresh imagery and messaging. We’re introducing the word LIFEFUCKING into the podcast today, so I wanted to show you a little process behind creating a premium lifefucking banner :]

Unfortunately, this video I’m sharing with you is enormous (41.2MB). And long. But if you let it download all the way and scrub through it, it’s neat. Next time I promise I’ll open Aftereffects and export a sped up version…


Watch Jessica design a banner | 00:27:01



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New Banner: Premium Lifefuck

icon for podpress  The Popular Podcast #133: lifefucking brainstorming sessions: Download

We had to pitch the whole “overriding your pretentious reality version” slogan in favor of something much more concise: lifefucking. (Listen to a mini-clip about it from our bike ride today.) We talk about our brainstorming sessions and how useful they are, especially combined with exercise! What are your brainstorms like? We’d love to see your notebooks or videos.

Below is one potential design process for brainstorming sessions that we’ve utilized before:

1. general topic research
2. remove oneself from technology
3. two hour brainstorm

  • a. define problem background
  • b. define agenda of brainstorm session
  • c. identify overarching life goals
  • d. ask how the problem can be solved in a way that furthers life goals
  • e. find solution, give up because it’s too hard

4. take break, at least overnight
5. review notes/brainstorm
6. organize information and make new connections
7. find simplest enactment of solution
8. break solution down into actionable steps
9. complete one step per day until solution is complete
10. verification/testing/revision

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TPP PREROLL

Jessica’s new part

Kelly doesn’t like the futon placement. We’re planning a nude photo shoot for tonight!


Find out more about the nudie shoot below | 00:08:01


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The Popular Podcast #133: lifefucking brainstorming sessions

Download the full Barton Springs feature [2-parts] now by clicking the link below…
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Underwater Content is Back!

icon for podpress  The Popular Podcast #132: a purse full of hypocrite : Download

Jessica does a complete 180 on a major design/photography issue: SHAKE IT PHOTO IPHONE APP. Then Kelly instigates a confrontation with the backpack police at Book People in Austin, Texas.

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TPP PREROLL

Touch Me man

Kel has a story to tell me and I have a giant confession to make.


Stories & Confessions below | 00:01:56


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The Popular Podcast #132: a purse full of hypocrite

jessica mullen in front of PCL library on the UT Austin campus

Yesterday’s afternoon excursion first took Jessica and I to Perry-Castañeda Library- the main UT Library. She was looking for a book Sharon recommended, and I was just there to browse.

jessica mullen inside Perry Castenada library on the UT Austin campus

kelly cree jumping inside Perry Castenada library on the UT Austin campus

Taking an adventure in the afternoon can be a great way to break up the day and fight that 2pm fatigue syndrome.

We split up and I browsed the business / marketing books. Waste of time. Anything modern was out of date, and I realized I need to be looking for a specific book if I am going to read something historical.

Any suggestions for a basic intro to business and/or marketing?

As a special treat to the annoying ass shelver who was slamming shit around the whole time, I left scattered about all the books I decided not to foster.

And almost left my brand new notebook there in the process.

Luckily I remembered it in the nick of time. Which made me feel I was justified in making annoying the life of the shelver who had annoyed me. Almost not justified, but then the justification gods changed their minds at the last minute.

kelly cree sketchbook poetry of the future

I was going to scan this for you, but then I realized I still don’t have cs4 up-and-running. Very annoying. At least I finally managed to get my sound card installed last night.

I heart lamp.

Anyway, Jessica was able to find a delightful array of non-fiction.

age of spiritual machines kurzweil mirror worlds gelernter

We did not take any photos at HEB because it sucked. We had been hearing HEB on 41st was better than the ‘Hood HEB as far as user experience and produce. Well, it really was not that much less packed than the one we usually go to and it was filled with sick hipsters and entitled wasps complaining about… everything.

Oh, I forgot to mention, a lot of the hipsters were with their parents.

And the check-out? Please! One major gripe about the ‘hood HEB is that it takes longer to check-out than shop. Well, I’m pretty sure that must just be true at every HEB ever, because 41st was no different. We did manage to test out Jessica’s new voice recorder iPhone app tho.

Pretty tight.

duh man

I have psychic connections with my cats. This morning, I became rather distraught for no good reason at all and had to flop around on the futon like a fish. I thought there was nothing in the world that could make me feel better, until I started calling for Linty with my mind. And…
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Register to read more about Jessica’s witch powers

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Since I am a witch,