Posted in 80's, Design, Experiences, Good Ideas, Insights, Life's Little Gifts, Technology, tagged Communication, Delight, Design, expression, Freedom, Friends, Gratitude, Joy, Memories, Over-connected life, Seeing things with new eyes on May 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
One of the more favorable things I am grateful for in my life has been the amount of inventive and creatively talented people I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by.
Thomas Crenshaw is one such individual who a few days ago put together this little tribute video for one of his (and mine) favorite TV Shows. The video is fun, compelling and burning up the replays on youtube right now.
Enjoy
Posted in Design, Life's Little Gifts, Light, Sincere Moments, Technology, tagged Communication, Community, Design, Life on May 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The fact that information is freely available and ubiquitous requires us to be creative. The collaborative creation of new ideas is the new currency. It’s the only currency we have.
Posted in Sincere Moments, The truth, tagged Authenticity, Christ, Christmas, City Livin, Communication, Delight, Freedom, Friends, Life, Morality, Truth, What the?, YMCA on December 20, 2010| 2 Comments »
Lately I’ve been concerned with the absolute blatant eradication of Christ from Christmas Activities in modern life.
The best evidence is the New York City chapter of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) has chosen to rebrand itself as the “Y” and no longer allow Santa at it’s holiday parties. They’re replaced it with Frosty the Snowman.
From Christ to Santa is a stretch as it is but calling Santa too Christian at an organization founded as a Christian society is ridiculous. I’m starting to feel like the history books are being rewritten.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised and happy to find this gem that was forwarded to me. A true modern Christmas story. Merry Christmas everyone! And if you don’t celebrate it or recognize that others do, enjoy the time off from work, compliments of those who do.
Posted in Experiences, Technology, tagged Authenticity, auto-correct, Communication, Design, expression, Iphone, language, Over-connected life, Phone, texting on July 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The role of the auto-correct function on my iPhone is so AWESOME when it works as I intend to communicate. But when it so totally fails, (which is %50 of the time, it usually just makes me sound stupid. But in this case it makes my message completely indecipherable.
http://gowalla.com/l/phtw/2anVs
What I meant to state: “Jetting with JetBlue” (Note: I like flying with Jet Blue, who’s marketing campaign states that with Jet Blue, you’re “Jetting” not just flying.)
What the auto-correct spit out that I did not notice until posted:
I suppose it’s all relative, I wonder if the auto-correct turned off would be more or less frustrating. At least maybe what I did send out would be better understood.
Posted in Design, Good Ideas, Technology, tagged Communication, Copy, Delight, Design, expression, Google, Microsoft, Over-connected life, Search Engines on June 10, 2010| 1 Comment »
If you’ve drinken the Kool-Aid or Google-Aid as it would be renamed if Google had a product for it; Guess what? They don’t invent or innovate everything.
I was surprised and little stunned to see such a blatant follower move by Google search today as they debuted the image on their search page… a la “bing.”
But to steal a stolen phrase from an article by Cameron Moll. “Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal.” Where did he get that? Picasso. Who reportedly said. “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
Google becoming a not so fast follower?
Posted in Experiences, Good Ideas, Sincere Moments, Technology, The truth, tagged Authenticity, Blogging, Communication, Emotional, expression, facebook, foursquare, Freedom, gowalla, Life, Over-connected life, social media, twitter on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I’ve recently been acutely awakened to the fact that our modes of communication have a very bad side effect as illustrated in this comment by my good friend Rachel.
“If it can’t be understood in a 30 second sound byte America doesn’t get it.”
I am indeed guilty of such brevity in many ways. Every twitter feed, status and mini-post I make can be recalled as only a small sound byte in the full orchestral movement that is my life.
This actually limits my freedom. My freedom of speech in a way. It limits my ability to fully address all issues
that have a sense of gravity in life, because nothing that is important is without debate and complexity. The “brevity bias” as I will call it, is sensational and appeals to a visceral reaction. It doesn’t allow for all the facts to be brought to the table. It is not patient, it is not humble, and it is not forgiving. The brevity bias is not forgiving because it breaks each statement into it’s one full and complete statement without giving ear to context which is everything when understanding statements of power. It suppresses our ability to truly communicate and be understand only giving clues to the audience giving them control to interpret based on their own context. It also limits my topics. Wanting to be fully understood and understand other points of view, I avoid topics of controversy knowing that and sound byte of info is not enough to give respect to important topics. So if I do know find an outlet that allows me this freedom, I in fact bind myself via my modes of communication.
I fully admit that these forms of communication have a place in our arsenal of communication, but they must augment it as a piece in the puzzle rather than drive it. For someone who spends a lot of time in the social media world this can be difficult to find the right place for it. Recently in his address to the 2010 graduating class of the University of Iowa Tom Brokaw made this statement. “It will do us little good to wire the world if we short circuit our souls. And you should not surrender the essence of the human experience to 146 characters on Twitter or a Facebook page however cleverly designed it may appear to be. No text message will ever replace the first kiss. No keyboard will ever take the place of someone you love nor will it spell out for you just what love is. That irreplaceable condition of the human experience.”
My hope is that we’ll find the patience to think before we act based on a well informed position so we can act with civility, rather than viscerally.
Posted in Design, Environmental, Good Ideas, Life's Little Gifts, Technology, tagged Communication, Gadget, Ipad, Pencil, Tech on January 26, 2010| 1 Comment »
The Dixon Ticonderoga No 2. Pencil
Best Tech Gadget of the Year.
Effectiveness= Not as good as a pen, but legible.
Cool Features= Easily Erasable and correctable, always works, in all kinds of environments, including upside down.
Versatility=High
Able to create multiple types of communication with the same feature set.
Sturdiness= Moderately Durable
Works every time until it’s dead, until it doesn’t fit in your hand anymore. Can always be used by children as it gets smaller.
Dependencies= Requires soft enough writing surface, paper, pad, concrete,
Price= Moderately Cheap
Portability=High
Battery power= Not Applicable
Green= Renewable resource… No oil at all. Only carbon footprint includes the energy taken to make it. Given they are made at scale, the footprint is probably limited.
User Experience= This is a top quality product in it’s class. Writes smooth, the eraser is soft enough to be effective. Colorful shiny metal and gloss type give sense of a high quality product.
With speed in mind and sketching becoming a popular way to communicate ideas, the future use of this tool is consistent, despite our means such as electronic communication.
Benja's b - log 