everyday observations of regular people

Re-

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:13 -0400

lowindustrial:

We spend our lives rereading and rewatching and relistening and relearning. We eat the same things over and over. We end up loving people who remind us of other people. We perform these rituals, this spacetime origami, because the basic fact of our n-dimensional existence is this: Most things can be recalled and some things can be revisited but precious little can be relived.

do new things. make good things. experience life, stop trying to box it up.

The Feast Salon

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:33:00 -0400

dihard:

Yesterday I attended alldaybuffet’s The Feast Salon and was quite inspired by all aspects of the event.

First – The space: MEET at the Apartment.

Located at 101 Crosby Street, Meet is a highly stylized loft created to provide an intimate space to hold events and business meetings. It is “intuitively outfitted with idea-generating essentials,” and is really just beautiful. What a great concept, and a comfortable, hip place to hang.

The speakers:
Noah Brier discussed LikeMind, a concept he and Piers Fawkes of PFSK created out of the desire to just meet and converse with people. Likemind facilitates the meeting of like minded people over coffee and conversation in the morning. It has grown from its inception in New York in 2006, to a global entity, with meetings in over 65 cities across the world. Perhaps I’ll give the next NY one a go.

Steve Larosiliere spoke about his non-profit organization, Stoked Mentoring . Stoked is great. It’s a mentoring program that helps at risk youth through the use of action sports including skate, surf, and snow. As a mentor, you join your mentee in learning how to either snowboard, surf, or skate over the course of the year. They’ve also grown to include programs focusing on graphic design and sports photography. I admire that Steve found a way to combine the hobbies he loves with his passion for helping at risk youth. In his talk, he advocated two things. One - a book called No More Prisons, which I just ordered. And two - a mentor with whom to just kick it twice a month and from whom to learn. I’ve got to get me one of those.

Perry Chen spoke about Kickstarter, a new platform for funding new start-up ventures. To demonstrate the site, he showed us Allison Weiss’ video, soliticing donations in return for “cool stuff” in order to help her make a new EP. It reminded me of Kiva, but more of a pledging system for personal creative art-focused projects. On the site, one can raise money to build an i-Phone app, print a book, start an art project, and even empower women in Rwanda. Looks like it has the potential to be a very powerful platform.

The food: I think the delicious chocolates were from SweetRiot, though I can’t be sure..

The guests: I met quite a few diverse people with varying jobs – photographers, web developers, founders of non-profit organizations. Overall an inspiring and refreshing evening.

this is the 2nd event @ MEET that i haven’t been able to make it to. first was a CreativeMorning and now this. i purchased a ticket but the whole car situation meant i had to get katie her car back after work on monday instead of heading into manhattan. one day i’ll make it.

Toward a theory of information relativity

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:48:54 -0400

Toward a theory of information relativity:

People will also believe that they understand something when they don’t really understand it. Have you ever left a meeting where everyone seemed to be in agreement, yet their later actions made it clear that they didn’t agree after all? It’s common to see nodding heads in a room when people don’t agree – they think they agree but in reality they don’t. This is because when an explanation is sufficiently vague, people are free to believe what they want to believe. Politicians often use this rhetorical principle to great effect. Words like “freedom, justice and fairness” mean different things to different people. Vague explanations are common in business, and they can give the illusion of agreement. But they don’t get results.

was going cleaning up some of my contacts

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:42:07 -0400

stammy:

in my address book, adding their emails, websites, etc, so i could sync across mobileme, import to google voice, etc, etc. and this dude whose vCard i have.. has 5 phone numbers! okay i have 4 phone numbers but 5 is just pushing it jratlee!

haha sorry man! i’m on par with you now and only have 4. got rid of the land line you prob have in there. i’ll shoot you a note w/ the ones you can keep.

DSC_4258 (via tmd) i’m always at home behind a lens. i...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:01:23 -0400

DSC_4258 (via tmd)

i’m always at home behind a lens. i miss it a lot.

this was during #biro_nup, after the pictures we had just checked-in to the hotel and were on our way to the reception. i was bringing tom’s D300 for him. elevator doors closing, i decided to catch myself.

fast forward a week, life decided i was having too much fun and broke my toy. i was taking colleagues through manhattan out to long island for a client event. i almost wish i was stuck in traffic on my way home now instead of waiting for state farm to call me back.

of course, it’s raining again. w/ no whip, not sure how my weekend is going to pan out.

"Word of mouth is a byproduct of a remarkable culture."

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:28:35 -0400

“Word of mouth is a byproduct of a remarkable culture.”

- Ben McConnell

this is the beginning and the end. it has to start somewhere. if you don’t have it - find it, create it, foster it. there is no shortcut here. if you can’t take the heat, get out of the fucking kitchen.

slantback: …the display informs drivers that the lights are...

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:01:14 -0400

slantback:

…the display informs drivers that the lights are synchronized and lets them know the proper speed they must maintain in order to avoid having to stop for a red light. (via What if a speed limit sign told you the most efficient speed to drive? « Nudge blog)

throughout my childhood, my mother would figure this out on her own driving the many roads in our town. i’ve adopted it and can properly reach speeds that are necessary to minimize stoppage. sort of like a real world back to the future.

"Increasingly the choice of whether to adopt, or opt-in to a technology is one of whether to opt-out..."

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:57:36 -0400

“Increasingly the choice of whether to adopt, or opt-in to a technology is one of whether to opt-out of society.”

- Practices Around Privacy - Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect (via slantback)

"For me, experimentation is not about the technology. In an ever-changing technological landscape,..."

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:30:49 -0400

“For me, experimentation is not about the technology. In an ever-changing technological landscape, where today’s platforms are not tomorrow’s platforms, the key seems to be that any one of these spaces can use a dose of humanity and art and culture.”

- Ze Frank. He seems to be hinting at this: maybe your efforts are better spent trying to make something within existing technology, instead of chasing after the next big thing. (via dailymeh)

bleikamp: Interesting job requirement for Apple’s lead front...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:42:00 -0400

bleikamp:

Interesting job requirement for Apple’s lead front end engineer position.

not sure how to feel about this. innovation is good, yes. arguably the lifeblood of apple’s dominance. however, i’m not sure they used the language they want to use here. either they’re overturning a new leaf and opening up a bit or they, amazingly, might not really understand how to approach the social web.

inherently, we share things we find interesting, valuable, useful, etc. but, more often than not, when people try to design things only to generate attention - the opposite happens. not doubting apple’s value and function tenants but the vernacular - as ben said - is an interesting choice.

maybe they’re just trying to communicate what they want in someone to the lowest-common denominator? if so, hopefully, those won’t be the kind of applicants they get.

Tom & Lara’s wedding weekend video #1 as i said, this past...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:35:00 -0400

Tom & Lara’s wedding weekend video #1

as i said, this past weekend was pretty stupendous. not only was i blessed to be part of two good friends celebrating their marriage but i threw down some interesting POV video skillz.

sharing, not caring.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:27:00 -0400

consider it the minor leagues for things that interest me:

google reader

tumblr

btw, tom’s wedding was pretty awesome.

"So folks on Twitter have been turning their avatars (little profile photos) green to show solidarity..."

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:06:58 -0400

“So folks on Twitter have been turning their avatars (little profile photos) green to show solidarity with the protestors in Iran. There are websites to help you do this. But why do this? How does it help? I want the Iranian people to live in freedom, just as I want all people to live in freedom. But the point of the gesture eludes me, unless the point of the gesture is to be seen making the gesture by others who will credit you for it. Like so many political gestures, it is vanity dressed up as elevated moral consciousness. It doesn’t help”

- Signaling and Solidarity (via josephweisenthal)

Questions for Buzz Aldrin

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:07:23 -0400

Questions for Buzz Aldrin:

You gave yourself communion on the surface of the moon. Are you still a churchgoer?

No. My Sunday mornings are spent in a recovery meeting in Pacific Palisades.

pretty interesting read about his personal life, Pixar shorting him some cash, and - most importantly - how the U.S. isn’t focusing space exploration correctly.

merlin: Hayakawa’s “Ladder of Abstraction” think about it.

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:37:52 -0400

merlin:

Hayakawa’s “Ladder of Abstraction”

think about it.

deplorableword: Google asks 50 people in Times Square “What is...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:22:57 -0400

deplorableword:

Google asks 50 people in Times Square “What is a browser?”

Worth reminding yourself that this is 90% of the planet thinks.

i’ve been kicking around ideas in my head about a good way for people on the web to realize what matters and what doesn’t. the beauty of technology is the speed at which it happens. very few of us could’ve imagined we’d have the power we have today but the world really changes when we start to understand.

it's a shame

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:42:00 -0400

tratlee:

So i went to the movie theater with my sister tonight to watch the hangover. Hilarious movie by the way. What got on my nerves though is the fact that people talk so much in the theater, myself included. People are talking, cell phones are out, and i can literally feel the lack of connection between the viewer and whatever is on the huge ass screen that STILL can’t command your attention even when it’s completley dark in the room and nonsense is coming out of the speakers. I feel like it should stress someone out when they are constantly checking their phone 50 times a movie or otherwise. I love the jokes in comedies like the hangover but there were so many funny parts that it’s all a blur. There’s no build up, there’s no quality. I’ve also got a feeling that if whoever made the movie didn’t put 927509 jokes all in a row, everyones attention span would shrivel up and d- OH A TEXT! yesssssss

who let the dogs out…

this is the only photo of us from vacation. none of that cheesy...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:44:00 -0400

this is the only photo of us from vacation. none of that cheesy sunset shit. not to say we didn’t try, there were just better things to do. you can’t see, but this was taken on top of a gun turret protecting the commisioner’s house @ the dockyards (which doubled for a “point of interest” and cruise drop-off).

quickly, about the cruise in the background. i’ve gone on one in the past and i won’t go on one in the future. a big reason kate and i were in bermuda was to actually experience the island. not get dropped off, buy $20 fake dreads, eat the same food you’d eat at home and get back on a big-ass boat.

props to my friend sarah and her mom, pennie, for finding us a great deal to stay at the fairmont southampton. it’s a wonderful hotel and we even were upgraded to fairmont gold.

some other notes about the trip, as i can remember them:

t5 is appropriate, not impressive.
buses are a great way to see the island. we didn’t rent scooters.
my calves are too big to properly sport the bermuda short look but i was a fan of the conservative british influence on the island.
every single building in bermuda has a rainwater collection system and limestone roofing. that’s how they get their drinking water.
drink the rum swizzles.
the beaches are amazing.
hamilton reminded me of monaco. the woman whom i bought some china from in bluck’s has a pastor who shares my last name. odds we’re related? pretty good.
the music is primarily top 40, about 15 years ago.
most of the people are, generally, very nice which was very refreshing.

it was a great, relaxing trip. if you can afford it, bermuda is a wonderful time (without the amazing deal we got, we certainly wouldn’t have been there. at least at the fairmont, we were the youngest people there by about 30 years. not counting young families - but still, we were an anomaly).

everything hasn’t worked so smoothly since i’ve gotten back. work has been crazy, my laptop died on me (still isn’t fully functional - here’s looking at you time machine & airport extreme). various things happened in my personal life (sorry internet).

although, tom’s wedding is this coming weekend and vermont not far after that.

me and my boy @ the dockyards.

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:07:15 -0400

me and my boy @ the dockyards.

view from hotel room balcony.

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:05:03 -0400

view from hotel room balcony.