I think of myself as young. I’m 32. ( I can hear you chuckling ;) ) But I feel, at the core, pretty much the same person as i did when i was 22. So it gives me the illusion that younger people might be living their lives, having the same experiences i had. I assumed that being younger these days is similar to how it’s always has been.

“I more or less understand what younger people’s lives are like” I thought. Turns out i had absolutely no idea! I was wrong on pretty much every count.

Answer this: 1 in 3 children carry…

A. A knife or gun   B. A mobile phone    C. An mp3 player    D. A book   ?

I was challenged by Andy to have a look at the stories and evidence here. I have to say i’m pretty shocked. I won’t reveal the results, as i’d urge you to go and have a read of these 10 points, about life today for Teens. You might be surprised.

If you’re a teen yourself i’d be really very interested to hear from you whether you feel this reflects your experiences ? Please do comment below. And do watch the Teens’ Speech ( live on Myspace ) on Christmas Day. I’ve seen a sneak preview and it’s very enlightening watching. You can read all about it here.

Come and visit us at That’s A Cappuccino! And add your best and worst coffee shops to the map :) You can read all about what makes the perfect Cappuccino from the experts here. Our Mission is detailed here spelling out what we stand for and how you can assert your right to a proper coffee ;)

Special thanks to the rest of the very awesome Team#1 who managed to get this from idea to working website in under 24hrs. Impressive! Super work Iain, Gav, Meachin, Chris R, Aina, & Kate.

It’s our very first Hack Day here at Poke. And we have 24hrs to come up with an idea and build it into a real ’something’ on the interweb.

It’s a touch challenge. And i hope that Team #1 can live up to it’s name. We battle valiantly against some of the best in the industry today. The theme has been set: FOOD…… read the rules etc here :)

Our thoughts turn to the ( very disturbing ) slippage of standards, of Cappuccino making we been experiencing recently! We will stand no more for these ropey Lattes passing themselves off as Cappuccinos. What’s with all the milk ?? It’s diluting the caffeine! An overly milky coffee plainly isn’t good enough to keep our hard working brains afloat. It’s simply a dangerous predicament. So we’re standing up and shouting about it.

Introducing “That’s a Cappuccino”. The campaign to seek out and highlight the best and the worst of the offenders who shun ‘The Golden Rule’ of 1:1:1 Espresso to steamed milk, to froth. We will expect no more, no less. And we will be coming to a coffee shop near you very soon ……

This is bloody ace! You can sing into your phone and it appears in the track. Awesome. Then choose which of your mates you want to sing each note. And bang, you’ve got an amazing / ridiculous cover version. Having lots of fun with cat noises today … must remember to do some work as well. Visit the site here to make a track for your Facebook or Blog. ( Great tech work here from the Poke boys. Crazy voodoo magic to get this one working ).

Photos above taken by the Flippers!

I think it’s fair to say we were quite badly behaved.
Highlights were:

‘Elf n safety
- We can have plastic gun’s right ? It’s a cowboy duel.
- No guns… There’ll be children present. Not with the current climate.
- Well, we’ll use bananas in our holsters instead ?
- No, you can’t use bananas, people might be allergic to bananas
- …….  ?

The contraband booze boxes wrapped up in brown paper and marked “Hat Box”, “Box of Moustaches”, “Pony food” etc ;)

A lot of people not realising the ‘cold tea’ was in fact Jack Daniels despite it being in a Jack Daniels bottle.

Being allowed to legitimately shout out disgusting swear words at the top of your voice through a loud speaker at a baying crowd ( Adult’s night )

Lots of parents forcing their kids to play repeatedly, to get as many 50p shots in as possible before home time. ( Family day )

Mr(s) Simon Waterfall in a corset and yellow high heels.

Chris being helped into his chaps by two twin cowboys.

‘Slut in a bin’ incident - Our saloon whore getting carried away in the role. She made 20 quid for ’services rendered’ and lost it down her cleavage.

Will Dogg’s five year old nemesis who kept coming back and whopping him at pictionary

The dubious and controversial drawing of ‘Berlin’.

People queuing up thinking we were the actual bar.

Branding a bare arse.

An amazing couple of days was had at this, the final ever V&A Village Fete. Our Saloon was in place in all it’s glory. Punters were rounded up by the posse. We were ready. And as the crowd gathered, the cowboys dueled it out in the hot sun, to crys of “Sausage!”  “Godzilla!” “Gary Glitter!” “Jumping The Shark!”, followed by slightly less savory things later in the evening… ( they were skull and crossbones pack ). It was brilliant fun, all fueled by many shots of “cold tea”. A storming success with some hilarious moments. Excellent work team StuffClub! You can see the proud posse above. Five cowboys, one bar tender, one little Apache (me), and two saloon whores for decoration. ( One was a bit hairier than the other ).

Photos above, and a bunch more great shots taken by Stuff Club’s own Katie Marcus. Check them out here.

Thanks to everyone involved, everyone who came down and made it such a great couple of days, and also a massive thanks to Poke for sponsoring StuffClub for the materials, the big ol’ van and the booze! And also for letting us take the afternoon off to run around in silly outfiits ;)

Update: Wrote up the highlights for the Poke blog today ;) Check them out here.

It’s Giant Pictionary! In a Wild West stylie.

Yes, Stuff Club from Poke have been beavering away in the evenings constructing the Quick Draw Saloon - the setting for a duel of the marker pens. A few work in progress sketches above….

The game works like this: The barman gives out the cards. It’s markerpens in holsters at noon. The Sheriff’s decision is final. Winners get deputised. Losers get branded on the arse. Should be brilliant fun - or at least loud fun. If you fancy joining in, come down on Friday night for the boozy opening, or Saturday daytime for the Kids and Family day, at the Victoria & Albert Museum Village Fete.

Been meaning to blog about this awesome Augmented Reality game but i’ve been a little under the weather for a few days. So in case you’ve not found it yet … may i introduce RubberDuckZilla in … Massive Aqua Rampage!

With a simple printer and webcam, and through the wonder of AR, you can become a crazed water hating giant duck and rampage through the city blowing up buildings with you laser beam eyes …. so what’s not to like there then! ?? ( PS. there’s a tutorial video in there with the two japanese girls from the tv ad - shows you how to print out the code and stick it on your head in order to transform into the duck ). Print the AR Code from here then —>   Play it here!

And here’s our glamorous assistant Chris with a demonstration video.

I ( of course ) have a love monsters, and they don’t get much better than Gozilla. So i bloody love this! A big shout out the the very talented Poke boys who’ve been working hard on this one - especially Jason and Rex - in collaboration with the cheeky fellas over at LingoBee. There’ll be 4 games in total as the AR codes are released in the press. So keep your eyes peeled.

Heard some great news today, that our Balloon based bundle of fun Balloonacy has had a special week. I’m super chuffed to announce we’re expecting a lovely Golden Cube and a big ol’ spring ( ADC and Webby Award ) in the post. Thanks so much to everyone who voted, and who took part in the event itself…. I’m welling up… Go Raccoon! ;) More info and news on the Poke site.

Baker Tweet is here! After several weeks of noodling, soldering, tweeking, twiddling, posting and polishing, mad scientist Zolty from Poke has unveiled his mouth-watering machine. The ingenious contraption harnesses the power of the internets to deliver up-to-the-minute baking news flashes from across the road in the Albion kitchen. And so, as the era of the cold roll is banished forever, we usher in the glorious age of warm juicey cupcakes.

If you’re in the Shoreditch area and you want the latest cake update, checkout the @AlbionsOven Baker Tweet feed. To read the back story ( and upcoming tutorial on the very exciting make-it-yourself Arduino technology used ) visit the Poke site. Also - lots of pics here. And a glimpse of the back end here.

Ps. I chipped in the little birdie logo… Mattia’s cooked up the site, Nik Roope took the snaps, and the Flippers made the movie.

We arrived at Poke this morning to be greeted by a Giant Lomo Wall of colour. World Champion Lomographer Mr.Lomo and his lomo compadre Peek London ( aka Marc and Greg ) were here into the wee hours the past few nights concockting a huge colourscape of prints that spans the whole entrance wall. It’s flippin awesome. It features a lot of the Poke fellas and ladies from across the years, a wealth of London street art, and signage from around the world. Not to mention a fair few pics of Cookie and I in various states of fancy dress. Rummage in their treasure troves of images on Flickr - Mr.Lomo & Peek London.

I know everyone’s pretty skint at Christmas what with all the present buying, catching up with friends, and Christmas party outfit purchasing! So i thought you’d like to know that, the little Topshop thing we did, still has a Year’s Supply of Shoes left to win, and with only a day to go you could get yourself one more present sorted - or keep them all for yourself … well i would :)

“A dirty nasty evil Witch, has entrapped the village, what a bitch!

To win some shoes, you must peruse, the forest but - be quick!”

Or something like that… It’s a little competition we’ve been working on here at Poke for Topshop. They launching their Gothic Christmas theme and we thought what better than a victorian inspired mechanical toy. A bit of Zoetrope action combined with a credit crunching Year’s Supply of Clothes or shoes to be won. Not bad.

Leave me a message if you fly over, say hello!

The race is on! Help me People!  :D  Click here to visit my balloon ( where ever it is on the internet ) and give me a buddy boost! Thank you thank you ;) Nicky xx