Last week, I visited my parents. Having only little time for myself, I enjoyed the stay and also visited my grandma for her 71st birthday. Here are other things that enlightened or simply amused me last week:

Swimming in the rain

Projection mapping my ass – My friend Pieter pointed out a guy from Japan who did exactly that: map a projection on his ass. This rather silly idea is executed very well, therefore I mustn’t miss out on that one. Watch the whole short here.

Officer: A Beacon Prototype – Again it was Pieter who pointed out this IOT demo from Jens Nikolaus and his creative team. The idea is as simple as that: time tracking via proximity to a beacon that discovers your bluetooth signature. Nice thing that came along with it was Zeropush, a nifty service that lets you hire a push notification server. Watch the Officer prototype here.

Postcards from Chernobyl – In 1986, a mistake caused the first major accident in an atomic power plant in Chernobyl. 28 years later, the site still looks like a post apocalyptic scenery that inspired tons of Hollywood splatter movies. And while drone video footage isn’t that of a surprise anymore, the combination of just that and the terrible effect the human kind had on that part of the world makes me think. Watch these 3 minutes of (somehow depressing) beauty, now.

Conversions @ Google – I’m a long time fan of Luke Wroblewski as I appreciate his work on mobile UX. There are some more talks he has given in the past that were equally good, but this one sums it up really good. The main takeaway: put extra thought into your work, and don’t outsource the effort to your customers in order to raise satisfaction – and with it revenue. Watch part 1 of the talk over here.

Das Kuscheltier – It’s christmas time again and Gerald Hensel inspired me to do a special section “Gifts from friends”. The idea is, that everybody has a friend, that makes something you like. And for christmas you can support this friend by recommending his work/product in order to help others find nice presents. My pick: Frances’ first book “Das Kuscheltier”. I love the idea and the execution as well. (Can’t wait for the real Kuscheltier as a stuffed animal.) Have a look – and buy – the book here. (GERMAN)

Pastafari Nudelmesse – Whenever the curch is trying to defend its “values” against satire, I can hardly stop laughing. And exactly one more thing happened just last week, when Pastafarians are allowed to promote their “noodle masses” on the same spot, regular churches normally do. Read the whole article on Nerdcore. (GERMAN)

That’s it for this last week. What made your week? Let me know on Twitter!