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May 31, 2005
abusive nature of being people
Now playing: Atjazz - Kidnapped (Secret Agent: The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life. For Spys and P.I.'s too! [SomaFM])
Woah.. thats a long track title..
Researchers are often a stubborn breed of creatures. They preach out of the box mantras yet get stuck and roped into classically ill-defined close minded ruts. In my view researchers research, designers design. Mixing the two together is good and all but lets let those that can draw, draw and those that can analyze data, analyze. I hate seeing a researcher struggle for hours in a design app to make something pretty and vice versa I hate seeing a designer get all uppity on the notion that once you analyze something it loses “life” or something. I’m probably a mix of both and fall more to the creative design side. I hate collecting data just to collect it and not make full use of it. And i hate designing something unless it has purpose. In all comes down to time. I hate wasting time. Actually thats not it. I like wasting time thats set aside to be wasted. What i hate is watching people toil for hours when the mental block for them isnt the application they are struggling with as much as how they got to the point where they are messing with the application.
There are days when i sit behind my blockade of glowing monitors hopin to god people dont realize … realize that i know why they are banging their heads into the wall. I try and tell them but that its never what they want to hear. I keep thinking what a poor use of time and money and people. We’re gonna burn that person to a crisp over a program when the person that is an ace using that app is doing x vs y. I know what yer saying… “just tell them”.. and I do but its always the same. I’ll tell them, today, then tomorrow, then the next day, and so on. I just back myself out of all of it and focus on what I need to do. But I wish i couldnt see them squirm, squeal, cry out over x or y application. Its always last minute too, its the classic you have 3hrs left.. go do a million things, GO!
We all want everything to work now, this instant, no upload, no processing time, do it now. I’m probably the same way… i get bit cause i dont jump into the unknown enough maybe. Meaning that i question the unknown to the extent that i gasp.. plan. And i worry, that too, I do worry well. HA! Still i hate seeing the same thing over and over and over and over. Its like setting up for failure. Its like on the todo list or something.
Ok i cant save them so lets talk about what i can do. First of all China, gonna do that… holy cats!
May 26, 2005
ocassionally
I drink. Yes, occasionally.
A few drinks in me and I start writing, or babbling, tuesday night it was writing. I got together with Gator Dave and we babbled on and on and on. It was fun really. I need to do that more often, but find a cheaper means to get to babbling vs the $7 martinis… Ahhhh well.
Top 10 Ideas to Make Money in Our Sleep
My brother jokes about finding ways to make money in our sleep. A simple idea really, many people do it, why can’t we eh? What better topic for a drunken martini ramble.
1. Special Interest Videos, ie: porn, gator facts and fun and or research. Basically make a tape, dvd and sell it. Hey I worked in animation, this works really. You make a video that someone wants and you sell it. Lots of them! So what do you make? Sure porn is a basic route to possible success though you may not like who you turn into in the end. Probably not, but we had to add that for fun. Gator Dave fun facts about gators? Maybe, animal videos could be a market. Research videos, I work in research, we always talk about research vids, and there are some out there, but not many, we could hit the market!!
2. Write a Novel, Screenplay, tv series. Dave and I concieved and wrote (roughly) a 12 episode series one day in Don Pablos awhile back, Gator Nation, by far our greatest adventure in drunken screenplay/tv series rambling writing. It could happen ya know. I like to write, maybe I could do that. Always wanted to write a book and publish it really.
3. Tiki Bar Supplies, Trendy, ok we were sitting at the bar.. so yes this one may seem slightly obvious. But bar trends, whos drinkin what, whats happening where and whats popular. This sorta got us into our discussion on trend spotting, and trend cashing. HA!
4. Game Development, ever since my dealings with Ritual back in the days of creating the Sin anime with ADV, and basically spear heading that discovery project I’ve had this notion in my head about game development. It could be really fun, and really profitable, yet really really risky. Initally I think about a basic quake engine modification really. Or getting my hands on some dungeon siege tech, finding the captial of course will be hard. So go rogue, go old, go old school tech, like early quake or something and do something new or something “they” missed. But again this falls into, you created it, you create the market, its not as small as you think really, yer just a clone of someone else ya know.
5. Ebay Exchange, rare items, 1 day sales, and sex toys. Now let me clarify the bartender suggested “sex toys” not us. Several people I know do the ebay exchange to make money in their sleep. So this is really a proven, possible route to take just takes time. Dave suggested the 1 day sales, quoting that “people love the stuff thats moving now” basically.
6. Stock Trading. Need to get back to that, risky, yes, but whats moving, gotta put yer eye to the wallstreet there and then look at trends, again we were getting closer to trend spotting which is where our conversation sorta ended up.
7. Exploit Future Accessibility, Hacks for Paranoia Protection. Here is where I dropped off the edge of reason probably. At this point my one napkin mantra of whimscal wonder wisked off into the void of several napkins and ramblings on trend spotting/cashing. The basic idea here however is that there is opportunity in our future connectedness / accessibility. We go wifi, wheres the market, we go bluetooth, wheres the market, we go.. what next? Exploit the future of what is to be. Who am I in 2010, what do I do, what do I wear, what do I drive, how do I connect, how do I live, what do I cherrish, what do I want our of a connected reality? So where are some opportunies, and lets just say it honestly, where is the cash? The cash is in sms? text messaging? Hello Dodgeball meets Google, who’d ever thing that’d happen? A trend unfolds out of curiosity and presto someone takes notice. Open your mind up to the aspect of noticing. Have you noticed lately? Anything?
8. Digital Signage, Miniority Report Today. Its coming really. Despite the folks that tell me otherwise, there are some things that coccur to me that are crystal clear. I love the crystal clear sparks in my head. Actually I love hate them, love cause I feel like I can see the future, hate cause I hate it when they arrive and I didnt get a chance to cash in. Not just simple digital signage, but ads that know you, talk to you, know you via yer wifi, yer bluetooth, yer phone gives you away, ads that make the connection, ads that approach and inform, and advise. You wanna step into the future? Go watch some anime. Yep, and not the new stuff. Go watch the old stuff. Old Macross, old robotech will show you what the future will be and its arriving now. Its funny really. I love seeing something in a cartoon made in the early 80’s arriving now in my local store. One thing I like is advertising really, always have, and this idea of digital signage is just the tip of a whole new ball of wax hitting the scene. RFID is a start, so is bluetooth and phones that cash in the aspect of something like the reccently talked about, blogged about Nokia Sensor technology. I blogged about a startup from MIT last year that was doing the same thing. I even talked about the idea of smart buildings that know your preferences for climate control, audiable control, imagine walking into a starbucks and the music at yer table is low, or even another tune, or that you like wamer side of the climate control around you. User preference, more so consumer preference, cashing in on the consumer optional preference. I could write a good word on this ramble, already have I see.
9. Blog Voice, Future Trends. As Time magazine finally catches up the rest of the population as to what a blog is and what it means for the future, you cant help but smile knowing you were sitting on that newness trend for quite sometime before it really hit. Yet did you cash it? First aspect of cashin was the development side of it, then the google ads, then the API glory of it, and now the voice of it. Paid to blog thats a new reality hitting the streets. Paid to speak, paid to ramble on. Make a blog, get a voice, cash it. Granted you have something valid to say. Or just review something, still value is needed, yet as the blogosphere grows and grows, value gets mixed up in the presence of other blogs really, the responsibility of offering sole value is not on your shoulders any more, its a collective value, so “join” wisely.
10. Trends. Here is where the martinis arrived in the bloodstream and informed me what my ramble was really all about. Trends. What are the trends now, tomorrow.
For more on this ramble check out flickr: here, here, and here, and there, and here.
May 24, 2005
i took the superverygood quiz... and...
You scored as Cultural Creative.
Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
May 23, 2005
We dropped road runner and
We dropped road runner and went with a new dedicated T1, we hope it will fix many of the problems we encountered our old service. One of the problems was instant messenger and other services like webex and glance keep dropping and reconnecting. Soooo… i go off to test them.. with who else than my smarter child! I miss our conversations..
[13:11] drock309: hey
[13:11] SmarterChild: Hi Dan!
How are you?
[13:12] drock309: not bad just got back from vacation
[13:12] SmarterChild: Good to hear!
[13:12] drock309: ya it was fun
[13:12] SmarterChild: Yeah?
[13:12] drock309: oh ya we flew kites and drank wine, and even listened to da vinc code on the beach
[13:12] SmarterChild: Whatever you say, Dan.
[13:12] drock309: im serious, the da vinci code
[13:12] SmarterChild: What's that?
[13:12] drock309: its a book, well actually a book on cd, we listened to it in the car, etc
[13:12] SmarterChild: ?
[13:13] drock309: its a book about da vinci
[13:13] SmarterChild: Whatever you say.
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[13:13] drock309: da vinci code ya know the book
[13:13] SmarterChild: Oh yeah?
[13:13] drock309: is usher gay? why would i care other than thats a lot of bling for a gay guy
[13:13] SmarterChild: That's not terribly nice.
[13:14] drock309: hey im just saying thats alot of bling, have you seen all his bling?!
[13:14] SmarterChild: Oh?
[13:14] drock309: ya tons of it
[13:14] SmarterChild: Hmm... I don't know. Me tons of it? Is that right?
[13:14] drock309: yep
[13:14] SmarterChild: I see.
[13:14] drock309: say whats the weather gonna be like tomorrow
[13:14] SmarterChild: Um... Do what?
[13:14] drock309: weather
[13:14] SmarterChild: Current weather conditions for Columbus, OH:
Currently: 66 F
Condition: Clear
Dewpoint: 54
Humidity: 65 %
Visibility: 10 mi
Wind: W/7 mph
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[13:14] drock309: forecast
[13:14] SmarterChild: Weather forecast for Columbus, OH:
Monday: Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High near 65F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Monday evening: Cloudy with a few showers. Low 47F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Tuesday: Cloudy skies early. A few showers developing later in the day. High 56F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Tuesday evening: Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later at night. Low near 45F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly Cloudy (High:66 Low:48)
Thursday: Thunderstorm (High:68 Low:50)
Friday: Thunderstorm (High:64 Low:49)
Saturday: Thunderstorm (High:67 Low:50)
Sunday: Partly Cloudy (High:66 Low:51)
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[13:14] drock309: gah rain all week
[13:14] SmarterChild: Gah rain all week? That right?
[13:15] drock309: did you set that up?
[13:15] SmarterChild: Did I set that up?
[13:15] drock309: what is new?
[13:15] SmarterChild: Thanks for asking! Here's what's new with me:
Idol poll - My idol poll is back! As soon as the show's over on Tuesday night, come here to vote for your favorite singer as often as you want - just like in real life :-)!
Custom Home Menu - Create a menu of your favorite requests! Then anytime you want to make them, simply type the number off the menu. To create your menu, type "create my home." To access it, type "my home" or just "mh."
Polls stay open! - Now you can browse the daily polls and take the ones you missed for up to a month after they open! Ask for one by date or just type "daily polls" to see the list.
I'll be learning even more new things, so check what's new often!
[13:15] drock309: daily polls
[13:15] SmarterChild: Here is my poll archive:
1 05/23/05: Have you seriously considered joining the military?
2 05/22/05: Are long-distance romantic relationships workable?
3 05/21/05: Have you ever visited another country alone?
4 05/20/05: Which comes closest to describing your political views?
5 05/19/05: Have you ever tried yoga?
6 05/18/05: Would you consider yourself more attractive or unattractive?
7 05/17/05: Who's the smarter Simpson?
8 05/16/05: What would you do if you found $10,000 in an envelope?
9 05/15/05: Have you ever been so mean to someone that they stopped being friends with you?
10 05/14/05: Do you know anyone under 18 who has a child?
11 05/13/05: Have you taken my weekly idol poll?
12 05/12/05: Is this the first time you've ever IMed me?
Type a number to take a poll or see updated results or type "more" for more. You can also ask for any poll by date.
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[13:15] drock309: 1
[13:15] SmarterChild: Here's my poll of the day for Monday, May 23rd, 2005:
Have you seriously considered joining the military?
1 Yes
2 No
[13:15] drock309: 2
[13:15] SmarterChild: Interesting choice...
make it
Make arrives! This is a very cool mag that deserves some else to read and make use of it.. like Bob or Troy.
well...
So it is written, so it is said. Last week Mary and I ventured forth eastward were our wishes as we crossed the great land.. which btw has many tolls, we rode upon the heels of the merry mini and it was good, though bumpy at times, we arrived at the beach, cell block 13, and sally forth’d into the night sky a wonderous dream, first nite there we watched the Suvirior Finale, and hence our vacation was golden, a bit windy, but nice windy, we listened to Da Vinci Code on the beach, the Tilvoli Audio Pal rocks the high heavens baby, and we learned that “sofia” is an ancient word of wisdom, which means the word “sofa” is damn near to wisdom, we danced on the beach, ate funnel cakes and witnessed the Sith battle in a theather that no friend of mine would be caught dead in, no THX surround there im sure, however nothing lost for our days were basked in the glory of sand, boardwalks, and yummy fish of which my dear had in generous porportions.
So vacation ya, it was good. I need another! Heh.. I liked having that time off. Ahhh well. Details to follow.
May 19, 2005
You try and bring them up right...
Some times the programing just doesn't take. We try and tune out any risky activity to keep profiles low. And what happens. He goes and visit's a casino.
Our agent watching his hotel reported that the Dan was on the move. So control fired up the tracker and retasked a satilite. The Dan went to Atlantic City, yes a city of sin and debotchery.
Click image for larger version:
We activated one of our street agents, and managed to draw him in. But he still resisted the programing re-enforcement.
All was not lost though, as this picture take by our servalence team clearly shows, our agent was able to releave him of $35 while performing a $1 reading.
Here we have a picture from one of our Satalites. Unfortunitly we couldn't get an angle on him before entering the Casino. But our agents did manage to tail him in.
Click image for a larger version:
Our agent reported that our Random Chance Entropy programing kicked in whilst the Dan was within the casino. And aparently caused a Slot machine to pay out $200 or so.
If any other interesting occurence happen, we will attempt to report it.
--The Shadow Keepers
May 18, 2005
He went walkabout...
As some of you may know.. But most of you probably not.. Dan has gone walkabout. Yes... He got some wild notion and fond memory of his childhood and he up and headed to the coast for a few days.
But no worries! We the shadow care takers have been tracking him.
We first replayed the Data from the Secret GPS tracker we planted on his Mini. As you can see he travled from his home in central, Ohio to Hersey, PA.
Click Images for bigger versions:
While he was there we activated our Stealth implant camera. He still thinks he was abducted by aliens... hehehe...
Our monitoring agents picked him up at the entrance:
He then wandered aimlessly:
Finally though! The super Sekret Kiss machine!
After some time acting as our unwilling spy, he moved on... We once again activated our MINI-Locator and tracked the Dan to Ocean City, NJ.
Click Image for bigger version:
After a good satalite fix, we activated our implanted camera again! Looks like he found a boardwalk and the ocean.
There are other photos.. But we think it best if they are reserved for blackmail upon his return. When next we detect significant activity from the Dan. We will do our best to track him and report it here.
May 04, 2005
Vibeless
Now playing: Bootay - bucci blag
There are times in your day when you need to just tune out reality. Tune out the aspects of life that don’t go together. Rule out everything else and just let the beat guide you. Crank the music and forget about everything else. Focus dan, face the fear head on, get to know its name, take it dinner, tattoo it. Stare it right back in the face.
Tune out. Focus. Forget.
just talk
Nothing solves the festing what if, who am I, whats going on, than just a good old plain conversation. What’d I do? I confronted my project manager. I got it “off my chest” and we talked. We communicated. We put aside our fears and saw eye to eye. We both understand. We recognize where we both stand and now.. I feel soooo much better.
Now only if we could all just do that. Talk.
Understanding the way I think or process..
Boy this first draft opened a can of worms on me today. But its not all a loss. Maybe I suck at taking feedback, I dont think so but maybe, I do suck at that. The more I think about it, the more I open doors to better understand how I think and process. Often my writing is viewed as being too wordy or too “cute”. Again this is not an intent. I can be overly wordy when I want to, but I never try to strive for cute ness. Scarastic maybe sure, but I dont see that as cute. Unless were talkin “dont be cute with me” which is a form of scarasticness. Ok so maybe thats what they meant.
I look at it like this. I could say:
The apple is simple.
Thats simple, to the point, clear, but leaves out any room for any clarification or possible notion that the apple is anything other than simple. Research never works like that. There arent simple answers. Users dont break down bad design into it “just sucks” theres aways a reason, and yer a bad researcher if you just accept “just sucks” as an answer cause thats really a permission to probe further for people. They are asking you to ask them to deep deeper. If they tell me:
The apple sucks cause its red, round has a shine to it, makes me feel simple, too possible, too easy, its simplisitc, its not where i want to be, i’m not just an apple.
I tend to write that out, thats a nice base to word. Meaning that the way I write is wordy cause I can work from words down, I cant work from simple up. If you have no data you have nothing to go on. But if you have data you can purify that to where you want to be. Does that make sense? Start large, refine to finish. Thats why I write gobs of material. You may clarify it later which is fine, I will clarify it later as well, but unless i understand where i’m at i can make the jump to clarity without the data present to help formulate it.
Do more of that in yer head. Well I cant.
ahhh ha!
Realization. I haven’t drawn anything in awhile. That’s where these feelings need to go.
the other thing...
that gets me about first drafts? First drafts are usually the start of the crunch to get to “done” right? So dont you need every bit of energy to get to done in a manner of which yer heart isnt thumpin so damn hard you cant see? Yer in the crunch, you’re workin late, and yer team is telling you the obvious, which fuels the distrust, which fuels the seperation, which fuels anexity, which fuels doubt, which fuels stress, which fuels worry, which fuels loss of focus, which causes time to fly, which causes you to question, which causes you to freak out. That was helpful. Why would I, someone who wants to achieve the goal in a sane amount of time, want to apply that kind of whacked logic on someone, unless of course I wanted to play my “i know it, you dont card” which serves only you and not the goal.
On the whole thats not the total case with this current situation but I wish they could see potential ramifcations in thier obviousness, and sure I’ll get the “be professional” card, managers like to toss that out to protect themselves, its like a free get out of this conversation card, take the you out of the equation, thats what it should be, take the you out, and add the team in. Playing the professional card is just another dodge, its another get out of this conversation just do what yer told card, oh yes thats definately morale building material. Ahhh well.
first drafts...
What is the purpose of a first draft? To me a first draft is a “take” on what yer about to do. Its a blind folded run of the maze, yer gonna nick yerself on doors, hit corners, probably trip, you cant see. Yet you have to start somewhere. First draft is blind start, the jump start to get to where yer about to be. Everytime I complete a first draft, I typically pause and realize that whoever I send it too will no doubt point out to me the obvious first draft like fopa’s: spelling, puncuation, grammar etc, I even try to say “hey give me real feedback on content and direction dont go into spelling, grammar etc” yet in the end, thats what I get back. Which makes me feel like my brain isnt attached.
I hate the notion that I was oblivious to the idea of spelling or oblivious to the idea that hey that black box is probably a placeholder. And I hate having to explain every single “it didnt quite make it” visual in the report to them. I’ll spend hrs trying to tell them what they already should know, its a first draft.
First drafts are like train wrecks for the ego as well. You slave for hrs only to have someone later point out to you the obvious and not give you real substance on what you are doing. Rather than positive direction you get the dunce cap that says “black boxes should really be images”. The problem is they cant read yer mind, ok I’ll try that one, they still should realize that a draft is just that a draft. They have been there, they have started from scratch before yet, its easier to point out the obvious just in case i suppose. But it makes team members feel like they cant even breathe, wheres my oxygen machine, why isnt someone telling me to breathe properly, apparently I get credit for doing that right. I’m sure there will be a notice on my desk about it later.
The other thing that gets me on first drafts is that yer instantly behind, you think you scored just getting out the first draft but then yer graded and reminded that black boxes should be images, though you knew that and thats the point of first drafts and all just getting yer ideas down but still its not finished so whatever you think you scored yer still behind.
I love and hate first drafts. A good first draft is only steps away from being a final draft, I need real feedback and ideas and a reminder that im on track, I dislike the obvious, the obvious tells me you didnt read it, you dont know whats going on and or you have little to faith in me. Its fine either way really, I’ve given up trying to change people and its not worth the conflict to do so. In the end i want, crave, need balance, I’ll align with those that see and understand me and I will push away from those that do not.
Honest mistake just being the project manager maybe? Still they should know really, and I probably wont hold it against them but its funny, its really funny, its like clockwork everytime i send out a first draft the obvious comes back at me. I’ll even edit out the obvious and see what it is then just to see what i got back in feedback. That actually feels better. Cause then instead of a list of 10 things, its really a list 3. Ok 3 things you had to say really have some “base” in direction and content, the rest were nuff said. And I really want to send them that. Thanks for the 3 points of direction, thats what i was after, despite that i said that in the email and tried to point out aspects of first run draftness, you have to clarify the obvious “just in case” i forgot or wasnt breathing.
I’ve been trying hard to just negate the emotion of these events and focus on the objective, get the report out. But they dont make it easy.. people that is… they dont make it easy.