Found this this morning on Craigslist. Just made me laugh.
A blog by Raul Coto Batres.
Archives for category: Opinion & Humor
Hah! I probably spend about 1 third of my day lost in there. It’s horrible. By Fuchsia Macaree.
Check out this comedic short I helped produce with Respect! Films for Atom.com. Featuring Sarah Kozinn, Tom McCaffrey, Whitney Meers, Eddie Brawley and Sean Hart. Written by Whitney Meers.
Took a nice little trip with friends up to Bear Mountain to view the scenery and possible location scouting. The trails are beautiful this time of the year with all the snow. Armed with our cameras we walked around for about 2 hours trying to reach our goal: Doodletown, an abandoned town dating back to the 1700′s. Unfortunately, to our dismay there was not much left to see. Most buildings were just rubble and blanketed with snow. Shortly after arriving to Doodletown we had to start our trip back as it was quickly getting dark. Another 2 hour walk through the trails at night, where all you could hear is the echo from your footsteps and the occasional snow falling off branches. Quite a trip. Thanks to Elaine and Steve for dragging us out there :)
This is exactly how I’m feeling right now.
Castle, I don’t even watch the show but I have a lot more respect for the writers who finally brought image enhancing back to reality. (more…)
It’s very strange when you see a connection with the media around you, a cohesive theme or pattern that seems to be underlying in the world around you. This is the case with two videos I’ve watched recently with one theme in particular, “Why?”. Realizing this pattern has made me change the way I see the world and how to put it to practice be it at work or in relationships. In essence the word Why is not just a question but an answer to the many things that drive us as people. Innovation would not have happened without the reason to why. Why do we do things we do? Why did we do it a certain way? Why is it important to us? Great leaders have inspired us not by telling us What they want or How they want it but Why they want it. The first piece of the puzzle that made me aware to the power of why was the talk on TED by Simon Sinek. He brings to the table the many ideologies of great leaders and successful companies and how they have used Why as their reason for selling us ideas and products.
People don’t buy What you do but Why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs What you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. – Simon Sinek
Watch Simon Sinek on How Great Leaders Inspire Action via TED:
Just two days later I watched the documentary Art & Copy about the giants of advertising and how they are shaping our world. Advertising as a whole is looked down upon for being trashy but there’s much more that you can do. The people behind these campaigns are incredibly creative and innovative. They could sell you a simple pen in just minutes. I admire their creativity and their ability to think outside the box.
Advertising should be statements of the hell you think life should be about. – George Lois
But the hardest part for them is not coming up with ideas but selling them to the clients. The clients cannot understand these abstract concepts and ideas. So it’s a constant battle between what the client thinks they want and what the advertising creatives know the client needs.
These creatives know to the core that they are shaping our world and lives and it’s these emotions and enthusiasm that enables them to sell their ideas to the client. Just like inspirational speeches have made us feel it is us that’s making a change and not the speaker behind the podium. Which brings us back to the power of Why; this is why they do it, this is why they believe in it and this is why they make it happen. Why is the cause, the drive, the urge, that ignites creativity and shapes our lives and world.
I urge you to watch the documentary to better understand how Why has enabled them to do the things they do and realize how it can help you.
Last night riding my bike home from a party proved to be a fun and challenging task. I was accompanied by my friend Jordan R. as we traversed the dark and lonely roads from Harrison to Mamaroneck at 2:30 AM. As I took a sharp turn, the front wheel betrayed me and decided to turn on its own accord. Forcing me to be launched off the bike as all balance was lost. Instincts kicked in. Instincts long ago forgotten with my last bike, stolen almost 9 years ago. The graceful roll as you land on the harsh pavement. Minimize the damage. Control the uncontrollable. It was all over in a split second. As I realized what had happened, I quickly yelled out “YEAH!”, an ironic reaction to the event. But I was happy, I was excited, I was glad this happened. I have not had a spill on a bike in over 9 years and it felt good. Really good. I was not badly hurt, just a scrapped knee and elbow. A very low price to pay for this joy.
Watch this great Frontline film that raises many of today’s questions about technology and the internet. How competent are we really as multitasking our daily activities becomes the norm? How do we solve and embrace the growing short attention spans of students? Can virtual worlds and gaming allow us to connect with others or only alienate us further?
(Click on image to watch documentary)
I found this film very personal and intriguing as it connects to many aspects of my life. As millions of others, I cannot live without being connected at all times. It made me realize how just this morning I wake up and my iPhone is not next to me, I start going crazy looking for it as I have this insatiable need to check my emails and messages. A morning ritual that’s so second nature to me that never existed in my life a few years ago. I hope this documentary is an eye opener for everyone as it was for me. Technology is rapidly evolving and we are too, we just have to embrace it with an open mind and not let it take over.
I’ve watched Owl City slowly climb the charts as he blatantly rips off the Postal Service. Owl City is a watered down, stale version of the Postal Service by Minnesota born, Adam Young. In an interview with EW, laptop totting synthpop Adam Young admits his no. 1 single “Fireflies” and the Postal Service in general “are pretty similar,” but at the same time claims he’s “a lot more of a Death Cab fan.” For example, he’d only heard Give Up “a little bit” before people started pointing it out.
EW: A lot of people wish they would put out another album. Is that something you would look forward to hearing?
ADAM YOUNG: I think [Give Up] left everyone asking, “What are they going to do next?” Since no one has done anything quite like it, it’s almost like everyone is naturally saying this is the next step — maybe that’s me, maybe that’s this record.
Ian Cohen of Pitchfork said it best:
But I doubt Ben Gibbard is losing sleep over Owl City’s Adam Young squatting on what is essentially vacated property. Death Cab reportedly cleared $5.4 million in revenue during 2006, basically anyone who’s watched TV in the past three years has heard the Postal Service, and Gibbard is married to the fantasy of every guy this song [Fireflies by Owl City] was ostensibly written for…
Don’t waste your money and bandwidth on this guy. True, there is no new Postal Service anywhere in sight but Owl City should not be your rebound. Judge for youself:
[audio: fireflies.mp3 |titles=Fireflies|artists=Owl City]
Sources:
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So I sit in front of my computer playing around with ideas for my new business card and I’m really debating adding one of those scannable “Quick Response” codes, similar to the ones on prescription drugs and postage. The advantage of doing this, is clients and friends with compatible phones will be able to quickly scan my card and get all my information. No more worrying about loosing business cards or tediously inputing all the information into your address book once every so often. Plus, it looks damn cool. Business cards are boring, lets face it, making them stand out should be your priority, especially being in a creative field. Unfortunately the only phones that currently support this technology are Android based phones, so it would be a very small market. Phone manufacturers and software developers need to step up their game and embrace this technology for the sake of my business card. I think my “Quick Response” coded business card will have to wait until 2011.
Ok, so I almost stopped myself from posting this one as I realized the irony of the story being in an ALL CAPS blog. But it was too damn funny to pass up.
Sibuna comments: BREAKING NEWS WE BROKE THE SHIFT KEY. MORE NEWS AT !!
via Gizmodo
It was extremely satisfying, finding that first hidden cache behind the grave of Alithea Gedney. There was 3 of us as we searched through what are the remains of an old stone wall that encircles the Gedney Cemetery near I95. Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt where using GPS devices you must find hidden caches scattered around the globe. You follow a series of hints and coordinates to find the location of these treasures. The hint was encrypted with the simple algorithm of substituting one letter for another, not clever at all but annoying actually. We walked around the cemetery trying to read the weathered gravestones until we found the one we were looking for,
Alithea Gedney daughter of Gilbert & Mary Gedney
Died June 30, 1900
Aged 65 years
We then proceeded to search the stone wall directly behind it. We looked through every crack and crevasse, searching for any kind of misplaced container. After about 5 minutes, Eric lifted a conspicuous looking rock and there it was, the Holy Grail of Gedney Cemetery! It was a medium sized plastic hermetic container painted black. Upon opening it we found an assorted curiosity of small objects; business cards, toy soldiers, bouncing balls, yo-yos, foreign coins, discount cards, it was an incredible find. There was a small notebook with a log of names, dates and items from other Geocachers that have stumbled upon this cache. We proceeded to write down our names and date, and left small items for the next hunters. I took one of the “bugs” which is a traceable item with serial number that you can track using the website. This specific item had traveled 187 miles from cache to cache to find its way here.
It was such a fun little adventure. Just to think that dozens of people have come by this very container to leave little souvenirs for others brings me so much excitement. I now have taken it upon myself to find all the local caches. I encourage anyone to join the website and start Geocaching in your area, its so much fun! It’s real life treasure hunting without the danger of getting attacked by pirates!
It seems like whenever I go out I spend half the time trying to communicate with friends, cutting down my partying time. This Halloween, I was overburdened trying to give directions to friends, comparing parties and trying to tweet for those far away (ahem, Jordan). It was the first time where I had half the conversations of the night looking down at my phone. It’s a tough situation because you’re always on the lookout for the next big thing, so you’re texting friends about directions. In the meantime your friends that are running late to the first party have to be informed that you’ve moved on and therefore will have to be given directions. It’s all one big chain. I feel this is a complex for people in big cities like New York. In other regions there might be one option for the night and all your friends are expected to be there. Twittering has solved some of these problems but not all my friends are on Twitter, so they still rely on one to one conversations. Google also has tried to solve this problem with a great app called Latitude. It works great if you can get your friends to sign up. Many feel it’s too intrusive, as it shows your location to all friends on a map. Social networking can solve this problem, it’s just a matter of deciding on one medium to communicate with all friends effectively, without having to text every 5 minutes.