but why let that stop me?
MacHeist is a thing, apparently. It’s kind of a big deal. I picked up the current bundle and hope that you do, too.
Why? Because I really want RapidWeaver to be unlocked. Seriously.
One of the quite good apps is MacJournal, from which I’m typing this blog.
When you are testing a microphone, don’t say “test” or “one” or “two”. Say “SCUBA!”
I am male.
I am white.
I am tall.
I am straight.
I have brown hair and hazel eyes.
Aside from my missing appendix, there really isn’t anything at all abnormal about me. There isn’t anything out-of-the-majority. So while I sympathize with everyone who has faced challenges that I will never understand … I also have to admit that I will never understand. Ever. So I feel sorrow and sympathy and empathy, but I can only do so from a place of vast ignorance.
In high school and for a few years after, the general consensus in some circles was that I probably wasn’t straight. But I was never actually treated like I wasn’t. So I don’t understand.
When I lived in Miami, I was in the minority (22%, to be exact), but I was generally accepted, appreciated, and didn’t stand out so much. So I don’t understand.
On the other hand, I found my own things to whine about. Trust me, as a teenager, my life was harder than EVERYONE ELSE. Way harder. You couldn’t have understood. Looking back, I can’t understand, either. Looking back, in fact, I think I was just a whiner. (Facts will show that I basically was, but facts can’t understand how I felt. So facts better keep their damned mouths shut about it.)
So I’m telling you now, unless you are ALSO a tall, straight white man, you don’t know how I feel. And I don’t know how you feel.
I’m also acknowledging that you don’t want to hear me whine. Really at all. Similarly, I don’t want to hear you whine either. Nobody else wants to hear either of us whining.
That isn’t to say you need to keep your mouth shut. Voice legitimate complaints. Cry out against the establishment. Write letters to the editor. Vent to your friends. We all need these outlets. I just suggest that, in so doing, we all try to keep the whining to a minimum.
Nobody wants to hear i
Shit happens. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be a common saying that goes something like “Shit happens.” And it wouldn’t be so common that people have used it to sell baby onesies, insurance, and quaint home decor. Bad things will come your way. They may be coming your way right now. You may have just gotten through the latest batch of shit. We have no control over this.
Fortunately, there is one thing we can control: how we react. Someone cut you off or drove 10 under the speed limit and got you caught at a red light when you were already running late. You could not have prevented it, but are nevertheless thoroughly displeased. How do you react?
Do you get out, grab your tire iron and bash the person’s windshield in? Sure, if you like jail.
Do you can honk and scream at them through the duration of the red light and then peel around them as soon as it turns green? Sure, if you like hypertension.
Do you let it go, tell yourself this ass hat will probably be on the road tomorrow, and leave a few minutes earlier to prevent him from upsetting you so much? Sure, if you like being calm.
This choice is all yours. The right choice will result in an outcome that pleases you. The wrong choice will result in even more shit coming your way. Our reactions are our choices, and our choices are incredibly important. If we really have free will (the philosophers among you can go nuts now, but leave the rest of us out of the discussion), this is where your free will is manifest. And when you really get acquainted with yourself, you will be surprised with exactly how much control you have over your reaction.
Many of us think that reactions are preordained. We place the blame externally so that we don’t have to face any responsibility for the action. It makes sense, right. We don’t want to be responsible for more than we have to. It’s risky and scary and uncomfortable. But we need to get comfortable with it. We need to face our choices and our ability to actually choose. We don’t always have to choose the reactions that seem so natural to us.
You have been offended before. We all have. And it seems pretty obvious that we can decide how to react to the act someone else committed to offend us. We can react to the fact that we were offended. We could punch the offensive person, for instance. We could never talk to them again. We could immediately hug them and say “You are so very mean, but I forgive you!” We can just let it go. But I think this is too late.
What we need to do is choose whether or not to be offended. Maybe I didn’t hang up on you, you know? I mean, I was driving home at the time. Maybe it’s a total coincidence that the call dropped right as you were criticizing my taste in movies. I didn’t deserve to be treated that way, I’m sure, but would I really go so far as to hang up on you for it? And I had a choice whether to be offended by your criticism or not. Maybe you thought Zoolander was the stupiedst movie ever because you secretly wanted to be a model and resent how critical that film was of that career. But why did you choose to be offended by the movie? The producers never meant to make you feel that way. You never meant to make me feel that way. And I certainly didn’t hang up on your sensitive, hilarious-movie-hating ass. We should both just get over it.
Or maybe we chose not to be offended by any of those things to begin with. Maybe we recognize some of the common flaws of the human psyche. Maybe we realize that we can’t be considerate of absolutely everything all the time, and some unnecessary things are going to be said.
Shit happens. We are just going to have to Get Comfortable with it.
So we have touched on racism and disability (or we stared at it awkwardly, at least). And we learned something. Well sure we did. Now let’s talk about something that everyone can relate to in this post-racial society.
I set a new year’s resolution to do yoga twice a week. We are now more than halfway through February, and I haven’t done a single pose. True story. Not once.
New subject: My wife is a certified yoga instructor.
New subject: My wife and I have trouble teaching one another things. I haven’t analyzed it so well as to understand why this is a problem for us, but it is. So we work around it and learn things from other poeple. It’s all good.
So now I have three options, really. I can go out to a yoga studio where I will have to spend money that I’m too cheap to pay for and do something in front of other people that I’m too self-conscious to do in front of other people. Alternately, I could take private lessons which are just prohibitively expensive. Finally, I could use one of my silly DVDs at home, which is what my original intention was to do anyhow.
The DVD would be the easy one, but given everything, I’m just not comfortable doing yoga at home. It’s all in my head. It’s not like my wife would actually say anything to me.
I just need to Get Comfortable.
When we are uncomfortable – when we are self-conscious – this is when we lash out. Think about it. People who are truly confident in their abilities support one another. When we are not concerned with things like failure, we can focus our energy in a more positive way. Temerity makes us all jerks. It also makes us less capable. Focusing on the fear can be debilitating.
What does it really mean, and how do you really accomplish that? Well, maybe there will be a part III. In the meantime…
Help yourself find success. Help others find success. Get Comfortable.
Abnormal things catch our attention. Sometimes they frighten, concern, or otherwise upset us. Don’t feel bad. Everyone else feels the same. The one black person walking down Pearl St. in Boulder, CO stands out because everyone around them (even the ones with dreadlocks) are white. Maybe that’s uncomfortable, but that same person in the blackest part of Little Haiti in Miami would stare at me walking through there. I’d be uncomfortable, too, but while I have everyone’s attention, where can I get the best goat around here?
It sucks, but we have to get over it. I’ve decided this all happens when we’re babies. Nobody feels uncomfortable staring at babies, so babies start out staring at everything as well. It’s normal. Later on, their parents will chide them for staring. Maybe that’s a little confusing, since it was fine from day one until then. It’s how we do things in the grown-up world, though, right?
Oh, right, no it isn’t. We stare at short people and tall people. We stare at disabled people. We stare at people who have different colored skin or hair. We stare at people who dress oddly. What is odd? It’s not comfortable and normal, I guess, right?
I’m a good tall-but-not-too-tall white guy with no major deformities and normal brown hair. I grew up in Indiana, surrounded by people who were, for the most part, just like me. I lived in college towns where there were new and interesting Asians and Latinos all over. That was neat, but I was still the normal one. I moved to New York, land of diversity and weirdness, and I was STILL the normal one. It wasn’t until I moved to Miami, where pretty much everyone is some flavor of Latin. 22% of us were the “normal” whites. 11% were black. So black was still a pretty significant minority. But for the first time ever, so was I.
That was pretty eye opening. I got to see what it’s like when everyone but you is “normal” and everyone but you knows how to act and be and do and function, while I was just standing there trying to keep up. I pray I never forget the lessons that taught me. And to help me remember, I think a LOT about it. I don’t really like being “normal”.
Boulder is a fine city, but I love going to Denver. I like to surround myself with non-white people and Get Comfortable. That doesn’t mean emulating them. I don’t need to act like someone else. I don’t need dreads or habañero salsa to be comfortable. I don’t need to appreciate the music or the food to be comfortable. I just need to embrace the fact that for all of our differences, we’re all basically the same. We are all “normal”.
Sometimes… I still stare. I just make sure to do it when you’re not looking. But let’s face it: for as “normal” as we all are, you’re pretty weird. So am I. Let’s Get Comfortable with that, too.
I am watching a pseudo-documentary called Being Dad. I didn’t know what to expect. would it be too silly? Would it be serious enough? would it be too gross in an effort to “be masculine”? you never know.
I have almost cried three times. It is wonderful.
Lots of stories from new dads,
but it’s like a bunch of unmoderated pub conversations. since they are drinking, it gets funnier and more honest as it progresses.
More when I get to a real keyboard.
PreambleI love drum and bass. And one of the artists that I’ve recently discovered and am absolutely nuts for is Sub Focus. He has a self-titled album that was released last year. I finally purchased it. Well, I purchased and downloaded the MP3s of it. Since it’s a UK release, the actual CD is over $30 on Amazon. Completely ridiculous. The download was $10.
For my birthday last year, my amazing wife bought me a Cuisinart ice cream maker. It’s basically a machine that spins a frozen bowl for a while. As long as the bowl freezes and the spinny motor works, it can do no wrong. In my two previous attempts to make ice cream, however, it has been soundly proven that I can do plenty of wrong. They’ve both been awful.
The same amazing wife, however, has made three amazing batches of ice cream in the thing so far. Most recently, pistachio ice cream (where I learned that you don’t actually need food coloring to make it green. Wow.) It was phenomenal.
Last night, she made ice cream with me. I performed NONE of the planning (except suggesting the addition of cardamom – I can’t get enough of that stuff lately!) She planned it all out, and I performed most of the actual tasks involved in making it. I crushed the cardamom and split the vanilla pod. I cooked the milk to infuse the flavors of the cardamom and vanilla. I separated the eggs and mixed that stuff together. And since Kia was watching me, I didn’t actually screw anything up.
After straining the cardamom and vanilla back out of the milk, I dropped them into my weekday thermos and left it sit in the fridge overnight with 16oz of milk.
Now I am listening to Sub Focus on repeat and drinking coffee with vanilla-and-cardamom-infused milk. And it is an exceptionally good morning.
Go here: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi
Click the [Get Involved] button.
Nominate your community for a Google fiber program. They already know everything you do on the internet anyway.
This was my submission:
You have Google offices here. (Familiar!)
You have a MASSIVE start-up community here. (Eager!)
You have a MASSIVE tech-savvy community here. (Capable!)
You have a supportive, idealistic community here. (Positive!)
It’s not a HUGE community, so it will be a smaller commitment than, say, a metropolitan area. (Manageable!)
You have a pretty well funded community here, so people will actually be able to afford it pretty much throughout the city. (Marketable!)
You have an awesome college here. (Whatever!)
You have a bunch of bloggers, marketers, and other connected, recognized, respected residents. (Exposure!)
You have a bunch of current and retired Olympians here. (Seriously!)Honestly, it’s just logical to select Boulder. You already love us. We already love you. We want and can afford the technology. And we are already a community of leaders, so we will be preaching the gospel.
The Apple iPad. Ganked from apple.com/ipad
Apple just announced their KindlePod Touch Plus today. It does everything the Kindle and iPod do, AND MORE!
Stuff you can do:
Ways you can do it:
It has the same size screen as a Kindle DX (9.7 in). And a way shittier battery life. It has a way better screen than the iPod Touch and about the same battery life. It does as much or more than a netbook, and faster, apparently. And you look more stylish using it.
So stop bitching about what it DOESN’T do (flash, OS X apps, camera, webcam) and think about this…
$259 – Amazon Kindle
$299 – Apple iPod Touch (32GB)
$489 – Amazon Kindle DX
$599 – Apple iPad (32GB)
$699 – Apple iPhone (32GB, no contract)
$729 – Apple iPad (32GB 3G)
Myself, I’m going to wait for the iPad 2G (which I’m sure will be a vast improvement over this, even. GPS? Webcam?) Either way, given the device’s current capabilities, the price point really is terrific. Early adopters should love it.
This is going to be short and sweet because my piece of shit Macbook Pro battery died without warning and ate an excessively lengthy post. It won’t be as fun, either, because I’m pissy right now. Welcome to my professional facade…
Super awesome. Left work, met wife and friends at The Med for happy hour. Podcamp Boulder planning session next. It was excellent. numerous people that I deeply respect and completely adore were in attendance, including Jeremy Tanner himself (who planned the whole thing). I threw two ideas up on the board to consider for sessions: Workflow Simplification and Portrait Photography.
Workflow Simplification is important for people like me who have a very low ratio of content creation to ideas. The hope was to have someone who was good at that help me become … at least slightly less bad at it. In honesty, I think my problem is more one of laziness and general disorganization (or scatter-brain-ed-ness) than of having an inefficient workflow. Semantics.
Portrait Photography is important for everyone who photographs people during an interview, at a social event of any sort, or for any other reason at any other time. Representing people in the best possible light looks as good for the photographer as it does for the subject. Not only do I want to learn a few simple techniques to make YOU look better at our next event, but I also want YOU to learn a few techniques to make ME look better. Let’s face is, you and I being completely gorgeous models is only part of a great shot.
In the end, neither of my topics were selected in the free-for-all melee that followed. A time slot grid was crammed with topics and the people who intended to speak or lead the discussion. Due partly to the quality of people present, and partly to the quality of beer (a variety of flavors of Avery Brewing Company’s finest), the whole evening was rich. I was sad to leave so soon, but Saturday was fast approaching…
We began in pursuit of bargains at the Hospice Thrift Store. From there, it was time for breakfast burritos at Whole Foods. Then we picked up our Windsor Dairy milk share in Boulder and my wife dropped me off at Threadless HQ. I had already missed the first sessions and half of the second, so I slipped in quietly on the first one I found.
PodCamp Boulder givaways from Blue Microphones
Given the format, most of the sessions very much blended together. The day feels like one giant conversation, the management of which just changed hands a few times. The conversation lived, breathed, moved, changed form, and danced beautifully through the day. It was really fantastic. In an effort to fully experience this magnificent creature, however, I took no notes. I just followed the dance and participated as best I could. No aspects stand out, aside from a very small session lead by Larkin, in which we discussed disaster response. By that time, my wife had arrived to join us. She participated in these steps of the dance, and her contribution was lovely. I think the fact that it took place in the main conference, behind closed doors, was one of the main aspects that delineated it from the rest of the day.
Nothing concrete came of any of the talks, I confess, but that is not the point of the day. It is a starting point. And I was thrilled to be there.
Another sponsor, Blue Microphones, provided SEVEN (7!!) microphones to give away. 3 Snowball mics, 2 Snowflakes, and 2 Mikey high quality iPod/iPhone mics. NICE! We won a Snowball. Unfortunately, the manual explicitly states that it should not be stored in the freezer. Fortunately, we’ve both been wanting a terrific mic, and this is very obviously that. We are THRILLED to be the proud owners of this. In fact, my wife is playing with it right now.
After the sessions were over, Jeremy gave a terrific talk on the actual planning of the event. It was a session in and of itself that many people wanted to know more about. Afterward, we were welcomed to mingle and converse among ourselves for a while. We began our round of farewells, but kept getting caught up in brilliant conversations. It was maybe a full hour before we finally found our way to the street.
Unexpected Gift of FUN!
After Podcamp and a tasty salad at home, I made my way to the home of Gwen and Joel for a Nintendo-sponsored event about connecting the Wii to the internet. The ingredients for a few hours of tremendous fun were as follows: excellent people, 2 Wii consoles each on a big screen, 6 total controllers, a few platters of great food, a couple bottles of wine, and a small crowd of excited people. Everyone had a blast.
Afterwards, Nintendo, and the event organizers, Brand About Town, wanted to ensure that everyone continued to have fun. The ingredients to ensure that were: 1 Wii Sport console with included cables and a controller, 1 additional controller, and 2000 Nintendo Points. Those ingredients were for each guest in attendance. We were all thunderstruck by the hospitality and generosity.
As if the weekend had not already been full of amazement, and utterly exhausted of adjectives to describe it, there was another full day left. The night before, we had invited several people to join us for breakfast at Centro Latin Kitchen. Their breakfast is unbelievably good, and the company was even better. After brunch, the group of 7 broke off for their own activities, with 3 of us finding ourselves at The Cup. There, we ran into another excellent person and had delightful conversation for another couple hours.
At brunch, we learned that a friend had been hospitalized on Saturday.
After we got home, I spoke to a family member who informed me that their marriage was in trouble due at least in part to to their spouse being an alcoholic. This was far from shocking news. In fact, it was good to hear that the issue is being acknowledged. I look forward to seeing positive action.
And then I was able to follow up with the hospitalized friend to find out that no cause had been found for the problem, but they will be doing followup tests to look for anything serious. They are in good hands, and are going to do everything possible to make sure that the best care is sought. And they have health insurance.
Since things sometimes seem to happen in threes, I later found out that a dear (if not close) friend has had two unfortunate situations recently. I offered what words I could, but everything that can be done is being done here as well.
While these three surprises were the least welcome of the weekend, there is still a silver lining. One had been a long time coming; another, while sudden and surprising, is being swiftly and thoroughly addressed; and the third has the smarts and support to get through everything.
I want to thank everyone who made this weekend as completely outstanding as it was. I will never turn down free stuff that I have a use for. I will never turn down enjoyable time spent with amazing friends. I will never turn down engaging and thought-provoking conversation. And I will certainly never turn down an opportunity to be there for a loved one in a time of need.
To all of you both near and far, I offer my gratitude and strength.
The subject of confidence is never far from my mind. I’ve discussed it several times before, and it often comes up when I’m speaking on an entirely different subject. It is one of those fundamental things on which life is built.
A couple days ago, a light bulb went off over my head. Literally. And I realized one of the fundamental ingredients of my self-confidence itself.
You have several disadvantages. You may be offended to hear this from me, but inside, you’re nodding. You already know it. And those disadvantages torment you. This isn’t news. You lack confidence, often times when you’re doing the most to seem confident. You are not perfect – not even close. And it drives you crazy. You lack the time and patience to gain the skills and abilities that you want. You are sometimes just overwhelmed with your own inability. And it hurts. It even hurts to acknowledge it.
You should not let this bother you, though. First of all, everyone else feels the same way, whether they are willing to admit it or not. To some degree or another, everyone shares these feelings. Second of all, you have more control than you think.
No, you cannot change the number of hours in a day. You cannot pause time and learn how to do everything you want or catch up on sleep or take extra time to do something Just Right. In fact, you only have control over one of those things. But that one thing will change all of the others. It will give you an advantage – the advantage – to overcome all the rest.
Be Confident
It will not happen overnight, but it can happen just because you decide it is so. And once you realize that everyone is on the same, level playing field, it is almost easy. Once you realize that your confidence is the one advantage that you have over everyone else on that playing field, it does become easy. Once people recognize that advantage in you, they reinforce your confidence. The other confident kids choose you to be on their team (even if you used to be the last one chosen for kickball and the first “easy out” in dodgeball). The other kids look up to you. And you start to develop a little bit of a strut.
Alright, cut the strut. You’re starting to look like a punk. Your confidence is a strength. Your cockiness is an annoyance. While they do kind of go hand in hand, there is a difference. There is a line between them that you can slice through. Keep the good stuff only. Now that you’re on the winning team, praise the other players when they do well, and help them join your team, or at least become a more positive contribution to their own. Remember, even with your brilliant new confidence, you still have the same skills as everyone else out here. You just go for it a little harder and miraculously succeed a little more often. Or it seems that way.
In truth, you still fail as often as everyone else. The only difference is that your failures are no longer a discouragement. They are a lesson. You know that life is a long string of failures. You also know that you can’t fail all the time. Your positive attitude is appealing and inspiring. Heck, even I am surprised by your progress already. And I knew you had it in you all along.
Your failures are brilliant. Your confidence is enviable. Your ability to leverage your strengths and stride on through mistakes and mishaps makes you an amazing creature.
I’ve always thought new years resolutions are a bit silly. Why wait until this arbitrarily significant date to decide to improve one’s quality of life? But then I’m a human, and humans are also silly. Silly creatures do silly things:
That’s enough for one year, right? I also hope to do a few fourteeners, but that’s not really a resolution, to me. It’s just a goal.
I spent a little over an hour in Illustrator tonight vectorizing my stamp avatar. My wife got the stamp for me for Christmas last year. It’s a stamp, and I love it! She ordered it custom on Etsy.
The stamp itself is amazing. This is the image on the back of it, which I scanned (and photoshopped to fill in the corners, because the stamp is actually an oval). It works pretty well on the computer, but I thought it would be fun to vectorize it so that I could scale it up to a building size if I wanted to. Because let’s be honest … I could need that some day.
The other cool thing is that when I exported the PNG file at 600×600, it’s only 24kb. PNG is an amazing file format.
Let’s first be upfront and admit that this post has NOTHING to do with religion. Commercemas is the best of all the winter holidays: Commerce. Retailers have united to get you to spend money in the name of your faith, belief, love, and obligation. So no invocations of God or gods, ok? :)
You’re not married? Whatever. Fiancee. Girlfriend. Significant other. That’s a guy? Ok, look, ladies … you know better. You can stop reading now. I’m just talking to the guys, because I know what dumbasses we can be.
You know what you love. And you know the golden rule. But you also know that not everybody is exactly like you. Least of all you wife. I say this because I’ve found that many people marry their complement. (Different word from compliment, but those also work well in marriage!) I am nerdy and extroverted. My wife is neither. Her wishlist, if she had one, is almost nothing like mine.
So knowing that your wife is not yourself, you need to get inside her head to figure out what she would most love. This is a multi-step process, because you need to get everything else OUT of your head first.
Get these out of your head:
Now there exists but one person in the universe: Your Wife. She is wonderful and divine. And you want to bring a smile to her face. Think about her smile. When and where do you see it? Remember those places and occasions, and create a new one with your gift. If your girl just loves ice and bling, then go get her some jewelry and you’re done. Great. But if her truer desires run deeper than “Every kiss begins with Kay,” you need to put some thought AND FEELING into this.
I want you to think about a few things, big spender:
Lots of boys buy lots of girls lots of things, but how often is it really special? Asking more of other people rarely ends well, but we can always ask more of ourselves.
Things Not To Get Your Wife For Commercemas
Having said all that, I promised you a list. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but MOST guys can be certain your lady doesn’t want any of these for a special holiday gift (even if she wants them for some other occasion). And now is a time of special holiday gifts.
Happy Holidays and good luck. If you’re reading this for any other reason than boredom, I wish you the best. You’re running a little late. Especially if you’re Jewish. ;)
I removed the spaces, so it sounds like a Japanese Video Game.
In a not-so-rare fit of materialism, I’m going to list out a few things that are insignificant in the overall picture of my life, but I would nonetheless like to have.
This is just the most beautiful camera I’ve ever seen (for less than a grand, anyway). I’ll gladly trade my my Nikon D40 for it. Seriously.
I want a smart phone. A really good one. Dunno which, though. Funny, huh?
I hear it does everything.
Once upon a time I was a total loser. I’m exaggerating with the use of the word ‘total’ but the rest of that sentence really is true. I would fail and give up. I would settle for whatever I got. I was not happy. Those days are gone, and I am grateful to be aware of the lessons learned on the road to becoming the man I am today.
These were the two greatest lessons I can think of from that transition: Fake it til ya make it, and Be the best you that you can be.
There are tons more tremendous lessons, like love, which are far greater than these two little things. But love was a lesson I already knew. I’m talking about the 2 big things on the path from being a bit of a miserable loser to being the kind of person who is happy to say what kind of person they are. But you just got those for free. Do something with it. :)
This is what I was going to present on at IgniteBoulder this week, but I stopped promoting my topic. Another person is talking about owning situations, which is similar in goal to my talk. And his popularity is immense. It would’ve been silly for both of us to talk. So now I get to have a stress free evening while James Baber lays down the gospel of being awesome. He’s probably better equipped to do so anyway. :)
Anyway, the lesson is one of confidence. The breadth of benefits of this lesson exceeds the scope of this tangent. Suffice to say I learned that it has to come from within, not without.
Back from our little tangent. Here’s the meat. After a string of failed relationships, I focused my energy on creating a better relationship with myself. The logic is simple:
When I meet the woman of my dreams, will I be the man of her dreams?
Then it became a question of potentially lost opportunity, which would lead to regret and all sorts of other unfortunate things. I could prevent that. But I would have to prepare. We can’t claim any opportunity at any time, you know? We have to be ready. Like this job I’m working at. I never would’ve gotten it before Miami, because the decision to hire was based on knowledge I gained working at HMOs down there.
And so, with all this in mind, I had work to do. It was hard work, honestly, but it paid off in very little time. Now I am a proud, strong, and warm husband. I have a loving, brilliant, sweet wife. And we are expecting. My career has skyrocketed to inpredictable heights, and my life is, for the most part, very much in order.
Not only do I have everything I need, but I am also a very fulfilled person. There is always something to want, but my wants are for the trivial things, like a cranberry bagel, or a sunny weekend. All of the big things … have just fallen into place.
And yet my work continues! I must work to keep my relationships, not just with my wife, but also with my friends and family, strong and healthy. I must work to keep my job, and to advance my career. I must work on my education, to continue learning and growing as a person. It is mostly happy work, though.
You know, then there’s the other stuff, like brushing my teeth or taking out the trash. but until we trade in all our non-white people for robots and flying cars, there’s not much to do about that. ;)
(Culturally insensitive Jetson’s reference for the win!)
I want to what you consider when deciding who to follow on Twitter. How do you find new friends? When someone follows you, how do you decide if you’re going to follow them back or not? Who do you block? Who do you report for spam?
I want to know your criteria. Drop a reply on here, start a discussion with me on Google Wave (tcabeen), hit me up on Twitter (tcabeen) or Gmail me (tcabeen) or simply tcabeen me (what?!?).
This is some graduate level research. You will not be monetarily compensated. Results of the study will be shared with participants for their benefit.
Doom to men’s cancers, that is.
This month is No Shave November, and also Movember. It’s a big month for facial hair. And for cancer fighting. So really, we’re all like super heroes, except with bushy scruff instead of capes.
Superman: Caped Hero
Sam Elliott: Moustachio’d Hero
The method of our heroism is simple: We raise money for two super awesome groups:
So now that you’re convinced that we’re Really Impressive, and you want to join our cause, here’s what you can do.
Because if I get the most donations, then I can run around all ego-crazy about how great I am. But more importantly, I will feel like this remarkably uncomfortable facial hair has been worth bearing with for this month.
Seriously. I have some funny stuff going on here. I’ve never been a particularly hairy dude, and my wife clowns me for having a bald spot on my face. Terrific. And now that my moustache has grown long enough that it can reach my lip, kissing her (my wife) feels REALLY weird. Like … my own facial hair is coming back at me. And I don’t like it.
Fortunately, I’m going to lose the fuzz this Friday. And it’s going to be awesome. You can go read Matt Bernier’s blog post on the subject (and see his own scruffage), or simply:
RSVP for the Party on Dec 4th at The Rackhouse Pub
I look forward to seeing you there!
Photo credits:
Superman: The Internet.
Sam Elliott: Dave Hogan / Getty Images from About.com.
Beneficiaries screengrab: Click the image
You: want to play with the Twitter API and don’t need much help figuring it out. Just a little syntax.
Me: Still learning, but hopefully a week ahead of you. So I’ll help as much as I can, but won’t get all know-it-all cocky.
Requirements:
Reasons:
Narration:
Ok, I’m on dreamhost. So we have PHP5 already installed. I started learning this through the Zend Framework, which was supposed to be easier, but it actually made things more complicated for me at the beginning. So I tried using the Twitter API directly. That worked really well for me, because CURL is neat. If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry about it. It’ll work.
BEGIN: Create a file and test PHP
Create a nice HTML file. Whatever your flavor or style is fine. We’re going to put some PHP in it. Let’s do a quick test to make sure it’s working ok for you. Drop this in the BODY of your HTML file.
<?php phpinfo() ?>
Yep. That’s it. That’s all you want between the <body> and </body> tag. It’ll fill up a whole page of information. At the very top, it’ll tell you what version you have. Below that, it’ll give you lots of information. Not more than you could shake a stick at, mind you, but you can shake a stick like nobody’s business. I’ve seen it. Put the stick down and go make sure that works.
If so, YAY.
If not … go look up a tutorial on installing and configuring PHP. Because like I said … you’re on your own, there. :)
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This is where things get really easy for me. You’re going to start where I did when I gave up on the Zend thing.
Go here: How to Use the Twitter API
Come back next time and we’ll learn how to authenticate our username with Twitter. Neat! Oh, don’t worry. I’m not abandoning you. You’re in really great hands with this tutorial.
This one’s going to seem like a bit of a stretch. Maybe a little racist. Maybe a little sacrilegious. Bear with me and it’ll all make sense. Ok, it’s definitely a stretch. But it’s all in good fun. (Also, I cleared it with my wife, so I’m covered.)
So I saw a maybe 11 year-old black kid rollerblading down the sidewalk in a commercial area of Lafayette, CO tonight. And he didn’t have strong ankles. So the rollerblades were all wobbly and at a steep angle. It didn’t look like a good situation for his ankles. Besides that rollerblades are dorky to begin with. And it occurred to me that black people don’t have to look dorky. Ever. Urkel did that for them.
Jesus died for the world’s sins. He suffered so that we do not have to.
Urkel was a dork for the world’s blacks. He spared his people a great deal of suffering as well.
Urkel was only looking out for his own, though. Which is fine. It’s not like he was the son of God or anything. He was just a kid with high pants on. Both were noble goals, though on slightly different scales of significance.
Given the sacrifice that Jesus made, it’s a sad thing for a Christian to see someone squander that gift.
Given the sacrifice that Urkel made, it’s a really sad thing to watch a black kid stumble around on rollerblades like a dork.
If I had any authority in the matter, I’d start a mission to help dorky black kids be not dorky any more.
For white kids? Well, there’s not much hope there, now, is there?