boston guy

Knight News Challenge Round 3: Evening Edition

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:58:30 -0400

Knight News Challenge Round 3: Evening Edition:

1. What is your project? [1 sentence]

Evening Edition is a daily commuter-targetted synopsis of the day’s news, written and summarized by journalists, published every weekday at 5pm local time across several locations.

2. How will your project use mobile tools and approaches? [2 sentences]

…

I've moved. (Online.)

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:12:33 -0400

I enjoy Tumblr well enough, but - as of today - I’ve moved to Posterous.

Posterous is still a microblog, but it seems more supportive of using a microblog like a regular blog. Which is what I like to do. If I want to truly microblog, I’ll use Twitter, thank you very much.

Plus Posterous has integrated comments. Would comments (that aren’t confusing third-party add-ons) have been so hard Tumblr? Hm?

Anyway, come play!

Mondays Are Days Too

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:15:11 -0400

My good friend Lauren - who writes this amazing blog about searching for love in NYC - just posted something I made 8 years ago on her blog. It’s a sign I made her in Freshmen Year to remind her not to hate on Mondays. (Yes, I know the picture is sideways. Life goes on.)

“Mondays are days too! Cuz you can’t go thru life hating 1/7 of every week!”

I look at Mondays as another day in the week. Another part of the adventure. But sometimes it’s hard to keep true to that philosophy, so I do “crazy” things on Monday — just something outside my normal routine. These range from bringing in Munchkins to work, to making a point to have lunch somewhere different, to having something special to look forward to that night.

Last night I made a point to watch a movie at home, and I rented Hot Tub Time Machine. Not a great movie, but pretty good; it had its funny moments. But the point was that it was really fun to watch and added a little pizzazz to my Monday.

Do you do anything different on Mondays to make them more interesting?

Living in Fear

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:04:23 -0400

Dude, that absolutely sucks. That’s just lame. MAYBE I can see having a law about that. But $150!? That’s ridiculous. Start a petition!

jimisland:

I got pulled over today on my bicycle for listening to music. I looked it up and it’s going to be a $150 ticket. I’m trying to understand you LA…I really am. I’m riding my bike through heavy traffic and poorly paved roads, so I can say i did my best not to contribute to the smog and pollution that bogs this city. I pay every day with my seat and tears and still you want more.

I complain, but whatever. It just seems a little harsh…so much for saving on gas money.

Poppadecorn Shrimpies

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:32:54 -0400

Look. Approximately from when I was three until I was six, I was *obsessed* with the Muppets. (Ok, I still am.) So, man, has it made me joyful that the Muppets have made a comeback in a huge way on YouTube.

I’m sure you all know the absolutely phenomenal Bohemenian Rhapsody cover (or at least over 15 million people know it), but there have been some great other Muppet videos that they have put on YouTube.

And because you can never have enough Muppets, or enough YouTube, here are some other recommendations:

1) Stand By Me - The monster!? Or the bunny?

2) Beakers Ballad - Beaker sings a ballad. Too bad YouTube doesn’t let him finish.

3) Ode To Joy - Beaker’s version of Ode to Joy. Times six.

4) Pöpcørn - The Swedish Chef makes popcorn shrimp. Amazing.

Oh, and the world of Muppets gets better. Jason Segel is writing and starring in 2011’s Muppet movie: The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made. And the crew from this new Muppets film just went to Pixar to get feedback from the Pixar braintrust about their script.

Pixar + Muppets + Jason Segel = win.

In the meantime, I’m happy with YouTube.

Old Spice for the Win

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:15:00 -0400

Okay, so clearly the Old Spice commercials are some of the best on television. You know, the ones where the Old Spice Guy is riding a horse backwards? The ones where the Old Spice Guy is seducing your lady? Or is just simply awesome?

These are the kind of commercials that are worth playing even when you have a DVR. And this morning I discovered that it just got better. Old Spice just created the coup de grace of viral internet campaigns.

Two days ago, Old Spice Guy started interacting with the internet. Normal.

Well, specifically, social media. A little more cutting edge.

But not just regular text interaction; he created individual video responses to fans’ questions on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, blogs, Yahoo, etc.

Epic win.

These videos range from addressing Perez Hilton, to helping twitterer knitmeapony who wanted to use his voice on her answering machine, to some guy who wanted Old Spice Guy to propose to his girlfriend — which Old Spice Guy did. (And she said yes. For real.)

Unfortunately for those late-comers (like yours truly), the campaign ended today - as heralded by this hilarious goodbye:

Fortunately for the Realm of Procrastination and Hilarity however, there are dozens (if not a hundred or so) videos of Old Spice Guy addressing individuals in amazing ways on Old Spice’s YouTube page.

Talk about a great way to increase visibility for your brand.

One Minute Rule: More Happiness

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:46:36 -0400

Recently, in the midst of a crazy (awesome) July, I moved into a new one bedroom apartment. Moving into my own place is something that deserves a post of its own, as it’s a major milestone in my Boston adventure. But this post isn’t about that. This is about something I’ve taken to heart during my unpacking phase that has increased my happiness: the one minute rule.

The one minute rule is simple: if I see something that needs doing, and that thing will take one minute or less to do, I do it.

Why have I been happier because of it? Simple. There’s less clutter, more things seem to get done faster, and - bonus! - I feel more moved in.

For example, Tuesday morning, I was getting ready for work, normal routine. As I was walking out of my bedroom, I didn’t like where my dresser was, and — since it was still empty from my move — I dragged it across the room. Took me less than a minute, but boy did it increase my happiness. And it enabled me to do another quick one minute project when I got home Tuesday night: unbox the pictures that sit on my dresser. Just like that, another box gone!

Sure, there are projects that will take more than one minute, like setting up my computer speakers (5-10 minutes), setting up my Wii and Playstation 3 (15 minutes), unboxing all my books (30 years). But the little things! The ones that usually get in the way of big projects — these I can accomplish in the midst everyday life.

I definitely recommend trying the one minute rule. And experiment with expanding it too, when you have more time. Maybe it could be the five minute rule one night! It’s great for those things you see and you think “uggghhh, I’ve been meaning to do that forever” and then do something, letting it remain undone, because it’s too hard.

I used to let forever go on way too long. Not anymore.

PS - Credit where credit is due! The “one minute rule” originally came from a post on the Happiness Project blog. Definitely check Gretchen out, she’s got great ideas.

This is CRAZY. And AWESOME. This is not a...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:50:44 -0400

This is CRAZY. And AWESOME. This is not a photograph.

It’s a small-scale model made out of various materials. This one is called “DIY Paradise” and is made out of cotton, salt, cooked sugar, tin foil, feathers & canvas.

See more from the artist Matthew Albanese.

Do you turn your phone off at night?

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:33:40 -0400

Each night, like the rest of the world, I go to bed. And each night, before shutting off the light, I make sure to shut off my cell phone.

(Nerdy note: I actually turn my iPhone to Airplane Mode. This is a feature that disables iPhones from receiving phone calls. Yes, I could just shut it off, but I also use my iPhone as my alarm, so I kinda need it on to wake up.)

Anyway, leaving your cell phone on or shutting it off at night has been a cause of debate between me and some friends.

Those of my friends who like to be as connected as possible leave their phones on. They argue that if someone needs them enough to call in the middle of the night, they want to be available. ”What if something really bad happened, and someone needed me?” “What if someone needed to talk?”

I say that if someone really needed me in the middle of the night, for something absolutely unthinkable, I’d probably be better equipped to handle it in the morning after a little more rest. Plus, there are always those friends who might be out all hours of the night, enjoying one or five drinks, and think it would be great to call me at 3am. Tipsy voicemails? Hilarious. Me being woken up to attempt to talk to you while your slur your speech? Not so funny.

Or, more likely (and a bit more innocuously), what about someone who is calling to catch up just a little bit too late on a weeknight I decide to go to bed early?

Prior generations didn’t really even have the option to think about this. The house phone was always on. Now, as in many more areas of our life thanks to technology, we have more control. How do you use that control?

Postscript: I’d like to dedicate this post to my girlfriend who silenced her phone last night, which prevented us from being woken up waaay too early this morning from a phone call.

Post postscript: Also, if I know something is going on that might warrant an early or midnight phone call, I’ll leave my phone on. I guess maybe it’s about expectations?

"Begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life."

Sun, 30 May 2010 11:40:15 -0400

““Begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life.””

- Seneca

Keep Life Weird

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:04:00 -0400

When I was a kid, life could very easily be weird, unexpected, and very interesting. At least compared to life as a young adult.

I’d do spontaneous things, I’d embrace creativity, I’d dance or sing just because. When young, actions that are outside the norm are easily “forgivable” or “accepted”.

As we get older, there are more “rules” to follow, more “norms” to adhere to, more consequences to our actions.

Yet I still love to let go a bit here and there. Sometimes it’s in bigger ways that are readily apparent (quitting a stable job and moving to another city without another job during a recession comes to mind). Sometimes it’s in smaller ways that are not observable (for example, I’ll randomly - not always - pay for a car behind me when I go through a toll).

This post on Tiny Buddha included 25 ways to make any day more interesting and included a few gems. My three favorites:

1. Start the day with a blank piece of paper and the question, “What if today were my last?” Write down what you’d do differently and then try to do at least 5 of those things.

9. Make it a goal to talk to five people you don’t know. And I mean real conversations. Ask them what they do on the weekends, what their favorite memory is, and whether or not they like spam. (OK, the last one is less interesting—but I think it says a lot about you if you eat unidentifiable lunch meat.)

10. Commit to complementing everyone you encounter on something. Sometimes it will be easy; sometimes it will be challenging. Every time it will brighten someone’s day and fill you with joy.

Do you have any tricks to make life interesting, weird, creative?

Why I Loved the LOST Finale

Tue, 25 May 2010 11:19:59 -0400

If you have never watched LOST (or haven’t seen the Finale yet), I implore you not to read this entry. It will ruin the journey of an epic show for you, as this post is full of spoilers. Onward…

I liked it. No, I loved it.

The word “LOST” appeared on screen for the final time, with a lighter note than the traditional “boom”. I knew I was emotionally content. I also knew I was also pretty confused. But, I keep thinking about the show and the finale. Over the past day or so, I have formed a bit of a clearer idea of what happened and why I enjoyed the end so much.

The show ended in a way that honored the entire series, was true to its characters, pushed the boundaries of television, and didn’t spoon-feed anything to anyone. To fully express why I liked it, I first want to touch on (my interpretation) of what happened and segue into my thoughts.

The first 2 hours and twenty minutes of the finale were pretty straightforward (and very enjoyable), so I’ll gloss over that. It was the last ten minutes that threw the curve ball.

Jack finally remembers everything when he touches his dad’s coffin. Then, he sees his dad and has the following exchange:

Jack: I don’t understand. You died.
Christian: Yeah. Yes, I did.
Jack: Then how are you here right now?
Christian: How are you here?
Jack: [realizing] I died too.
Christian: It’s OK. It’s OK son.
Jack: Are you real?
Christian: [laughing] I sure hope so. Yeah, I’m real. You’re real. Everything that’s ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church, they’re all real too.
Jack: They’re all…they’re all dead?
Christian: Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you.
Jack: But why are they all here now?
Christian: Well there is no “now” here.
Jack: Where are we dad?
Christian: This is a place that you all made together so that you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
Jack: For what?
Christian: To remember. And to let go.
Jack: Kate - she said we were leaving.
Christian: Not leaving, no. Moving on.
Jack: Where are we going?
Christian: Let’s go find out.

So the flash-sideways timeline wasn’t “real”. It was a place they all made together to find one another. After the bomb explodes at the end of Season 5, we assume that it splits our characters into two timelines. But that’s not what happens. All the bomb does is reset the 1977 timeline, yank our characters out of 1977, and put them all into 2007 — which is the present time on the island. Everything that happened on the Island throughout the show actually happened and was real.

At the beginning of Season 6, when we see Jack in Oceanic Flight 815, it’s simply an introduction to the place that our characters created. It wasn’t caused by the bomb at all. They had created a reality for themselves where they were not affected by the island and their lives weren’t as flawed. Jack had a son, Sun and Jin were happy together, Sayid got to see Nadia. But their connections they made on the Island were stronger than this less flawed reality. I don’t think every answer about how the sideways world works needs answering, but I do think seeing the Island underwater at the beginning is significant, though I’m not sure how.

The ending doesn’t answer all the questions, but by the time we were down to the last few episodes, did you really expect it to? I certainly didn’t, and it doesn’t really matter to me that I will never have a hard reason for why the random Dharma food drop happened. (Also worth noting that broader questions, such as why women can’t give birth on the Island, have been answered implicitly.) What matters to me is the resolution of the characters.

This ending honored the characters. It honored the series as a whole. Everything that we saw happened on the Island was, to many of the characters, the most important part of their lives. There’s always a question in art of “why” a story is worth telling, and to follow the growth, connection and love of a group of people seems pretty compelling to me.

Perhaps, for those that weren’t in the church at the end, the Island wasn’t the most important part of their lives. (We know that Michael, for example, can’t move on. Walt had a long time to live after the Island, and it’s likely more important things happened to him.) Perhaps, also, Sayid has been missing Shannon more than we know (does he ever explicitly say Nadia in Season 6? I remember him telling the Man In Black that he wanted him to bring his love back from the dead, I don’t know that he said Nadia). I’m okay knowing that Lapedius (so happy he was alive), Sawyer, Miles, Kate and Claire got off the island. Who knows how their stories played out? It doesn’t matter to me — what matters is knowing that they did play out.

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts, and if this interests you, it’s worth reading a few of the other articles out there about the finale. Also, I owe my brother major props for calling me around midnight after the finale and sharing theories of his and his friends, which definitely helped clear my head.

I’ll close with a 2007 quote from co-creator Damon Lindeloff:

This show is about people who are metaphorically lost in their lives, who get on an airplane, and crash on an island, and become physically lost on the planet Earth. And once they are able to metaphorically find themselves in their lives again, they will be able to physically find themselves in the world again. When you look at the entire show, that’s what it will look like. That’s what it’s always been about.

Kentucky Dreamin': Issues Facing Appalachian Kentucky

Mon, 10 May 2010 18:57:51 -0400

One of the many things I love about traveling is how it forces you to minimalize. No matter how big your bag, you can’t take every thing with you. I take pride in having once traveled Europe for a month, with absolutely everything I had with me in my backpack. Of course, traveling just means a short trip; you couldn’t possibly live with so little, right?

Wrong. That’s what Neon, Kentucky slapped me in the face with when I first traveled there in 2000. People there live minimally because they have to. They can’t have that perfect house, or that perfect car. They make due with what they have but then they make up for it in community and religion.

Coming back as an adult, I was less focused on myself, and how the trip impacted me, and more interested in learning about the community itself. A condensed version of my observations are below. Keep in mind that this is only my perspective, but it is a perspective created from stories of at least a dozen locals that I spoke to.

First of all, it’s a welfare state, in the worst ways. It was one of the common threads in almost everyone I talked to: the disarray of the welfare system. Welfare is completely broken. People actually choose not to work because they can actually make a living on welfare. This is so bad that there’s a work shortage, and one local business owner I spoke with couldn’t find an honest person to man his shop for 8 hours a day. He has posted a sign on the front door of his shop to have potential patrons call him, and he’ll come in to assist them.

Compounding the welfare issue is the drug issue. So many people turn to drugs - ostensibly as an escape from poverty. A relatively recent report corroborates this stating that “in the poorer counties in the region, reports of drug abuse and general mental health problems are significantly higher than in the rest of Appalachia.” (Worth noting that there is no found relation between the drug abuse and mental health problems.)

The drug problem compounds the welfare issue because it creates a market. People go to doctors and dentists, and fake an illness (or break their toe or pull their teeth - seriously) to get drugs they can then sell for big money that helps tide them over to the next welfare payment. Why would the doctors do this? Simple. They can list each prescription they write as an appointment and collect the insurance money. It’s actually impossible to have 100 appointments in an 8 hour work day - unless they were 4.8 minutes a piece - but some doctors evidently do with this racket. Unethical? Sure. Quick way to make money? You betcha.

And this doesn’t even touch the issue of coal mining as the still-dominant industry. While one local pointed out how the coal mines are having to advertise for the first time ever, they still are one of the highest paying jobs in the region, who also provide health insurance. Seeing a man walking up to a ice cream stand covered head-to-toe in soot made me wonder how anyone could withstand that as their job. Or simply survive. But I guess when you have to make ends meet, and that’s the only option, you make due.

“So why isn’t any other industry moving in?” I asked that question, because it seems that something needs to jumpstart the area. The answer, it turns out, is simple: there’s not enough access to water, and the mountain-filled region makes it almost impossible to buy usable land at a cheap price.

In the meantime, it seems that what our group was doing - combating poverty through building and renovating homes - remains one of the best solutions. But it will definitely take other changes to resolve some of the issues above. For right now, the locals turn to each other and create a community to survive these issues.

Kentucky: High School Style

Mon, 03 May 2010 22:10:00 -0400

As I mentioned in my post last Wednesday, I recently helped lead a youth group of 37 high schoolers to a small Appalachian town in Kentucky. The youth group spent a week building houses and doing other construction work for a local organization. Eight years ago, I was one of those high schoolers — a senior, in fact. Two years prior to that, I was a sophomore, traveling on the group’s inaugural trip to Kentucky. We had no idea it would become a tradition.

It was February of 2000 and I was ready to “sacrifice” a week of break to help others. Looking back, I realize that that first trip to Kentucky was a wonderful loss of innocence. I had never seen such abject poverty. I was 15 on this first trip to Kentucky and had only really lived in safe and comfortable environments. The trip changed me: not just seeing that people lived in such poverty, but that they lived in such poverty and still lived. They worked to have the essentials and found strength in their family, community and faith. During that trip, I not only bonded with a large group of other high schoolers and learned about my faith, but helped other people and began to question the simple luxuries of life.

I scribbled some thoughts after each trip, in 2000, 2001 and then more formally in 2002. I just found some of these thoughts, in which I wrote:

i wish that people in suburbia could be like people in kentucky. people here are not as geniune. we are always looking out for ourselves and not so much others. maybe that is what we are doing wrong. cuz if you think about it, we have to be doing SOMETHING wrong if people in KY (who live in abject poverty) are happier than we are in suburban towns (we live in luxury!)

This thought spurred a lot of thinking on my part back in high school. It defined my college applications, and many internship applications after that. But, more importantly, it sparked me. This line of thinking is definitely a large piece of the puzzle as to why I went back to Kentucky this year. Vacations are often all about ourselves. We work so hard at our jobs, and we are all truly working hard, and - dammit - we want to vacate them. But sometimes indulging myself is not enough. I need to give back. Because we’re not missing the essentials of lives, and we really do mainly look out for ourselves. Sometimes looking out for others makes all the difference.

I’m not knocking the trips we take to Cancun (hell, I’ve been there!). I’m just saying that I was ready to give a little more back than I have since high school. And that’s what I did. And man, was it different as an adult.

[More on that to come!]

Apple versus Adobe. Round 3. Fight!

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:26:00 -0400

I’m a little all over the place at the moment, and the aforementioned Kentucky series will resume later this weekend. For now though, enjoy a techie tangent.

Whether you know it or not, there is a long-standing feud between Apple and Adobe, which is why we can’t get Flash videos (think Hulu) to work on our fancy-schmancy iThings. Apple is pushing for an HTML5 standard, which accomplishes some of same things as Flash, in a different way.

Just this week, Steve Jobs posted an open letter summarizing his thoughts on why Apple doesn’t support Adobe. His conclusion:

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

I asked my friend Alex — who is far more up-to-date in the technology world than I am — for his perspective. He codes websites, creates videos and, yes, even works in flash. He replied with an insightful response, which I’m reposting in full, with his permission.

As consumers, we’re not going to really notice anything different, so it’s interesting to see why this battle is worth fighting for those who make the Internet work.

(I’ve bolded some essential points if you are in a skimming mood.)

———
1. “Open”

Apple’s argument is that Adobe’s software is proprietary, but they want to favor open standards. But if you jump down to the “Reliability, security, and performance” section, Jobs essentially responds to his own complaint. The reason Flash has been so successful is that it gave web developers (and now software developers) a reliable, consistent environment that worked identically in IE, Firefox, and Safari. There was a long time when most web applications, especially enterprise-level ones or ones that required multimedia, were all built to work in IE on Windows, and didn’t work anywhere else. Then Flash came along and offered a cross-platform alternative, and now a lot of those applications work everywhere, regardless of browser or OS. By locking down the system, Adobe didn’t have to worry that one browser would implement their system incorrectly. Compare that to HTML 5, which is all over the place, even though it’s an “open standard.” Just because a committee has decided how it should work, doesn’t mean that it actually does work. Firefox supports different video specs than Safari, IE doesn’t support much of it correctly at all, even the Safari on the iPhone/iPad doesn’t support things the same way that Safari on the desktop does. So as a web developer, you have to go in and build in all of these little checks to figure out which specific version of HTML 5 is running, and then decide what to do about it. Or you have to build a different version for each platform. But then in three months, everything’s changed, so you have to go back and tweak it all again. With Flash, you build it once, it runs everywhere exactly the same (except on Apple products, of course).

2. “Full Web”

Yes, it’s true that most of the big media companies are starting to publish their video in a format that’s iPhone-compatible. It also happens to be Flash compatible, and most of it is still being delivered through Flash on the web. But what if you want to do something beyond publishing a single, self-contained video? What if you wanted interactive ads to play on top of it? What if you wanted it seamlessly embedded in your site? What if you wanted synchronized content? What if you wanted it streaming? What if you wanted it live? What if you wanted to encrypt it? Adobe’s been working on these problems for years, and Apple’s just starting to figure it out. Their solution isn’t to offer an “open” way to do it, though. The only solution they can provide is to do these things inside of closed apps that have to be approved by Apple, not just for technical quality, but for content.

Meanwhile, there are a million cool things that Flash can do beyond video that HTML 5 can’t touch. They might be a little techie, but they are the reason it’s such a common platform. Everything from complex animation to heavy data processing to cross-domain data transfer.

3. “Reliability, security, and performance”

Apple should be eternally grateful to Adobe for even trying to get Flash to work on their OS. I hate to break it to Apple, but there’s a lot of other software that just doesn’t work on their system, as great as they may think it is. As for performance, I’ve seen both live demos and videos online of Flash working wonders on jailbroken iPhones, so I don’t know what they’re talking about. Meanwhile, Adobe is planning to have Flash 10.1 working on every other major mobile platform by the end of the year, and I’ve seen stunning demos of that too.

4. “Battery life”

If Adobe were granted access to use the internal video decoder, it would use it. That’s how it works on the desktop, that’s how it’s going to work on other mobile platforms.

5. “Touch”

Some older Flash applications use rollovers. So do some older HTML applications. It turns out its about 100x easier to just fix or modify that one little aspect of the application than it is to entirely rebuild it in a new language without nearly as many resources available. Oh, and Flash 10.1 has full support for touch gestures. Frankly, this is nitpicky.

6. “Third party layer”

This is the one that’s caused the biggest uproar recently, because it really threw off Adobe’s CS5 launch. The problem with this argument is that Apple is trying to have its cake and eat it too. On the one hand, they’re saying that if there was a product available that allowed developers to create cool apps that worked identically across mobile platforms, developers would flock to it. On the other hand, they’re saying that a cross-platform tool would potentially prevent developers from accessing cool features of the iPhone OS, so the apps wouldn’t be that cool. Well, the problem here is that Apple is trying to control what should be a free market equilibrium. The fact is that, given a choice, developers would split somewhere between using Apple’s own development tools and using cross-platform tools. Developers who needed a native OS feature to make their app rock would stick to Apple’s tool. Developers who wanted to save time on an app that didn’t require anything fancy might lean towards Flash. Ultimately, Apple would still get to decide whether the app was qualitatively good enough to appear in their store, so who cares how it was written? And this brings us back again to why Apple won’t allow Flash in the browser - it would mean that developers could build awesome apps that ran everywhere, on every platform, and Apple wouldn’t get to skim 30% off the top each time.

What it ultimately boils down to is that Apple doesn’t want anyone, consumers or developers, making free choices about their technology, and it’s because they’re terrified of the choices people would make. Imagine, for example, that iPhone/iPad users could choose (as they do with their PCs) to go out, download, and install Flash at will. How many iPhone users do you think would balk at that choice? Would you?

Country Roads, Take Me Home...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:28:18 -0400

On Friday April 16, I departed to Appalachian Kentucky for eight days. I was helping to lead a high school youth group to build affordable housing. As I am constantly reminded, it’s an unusual way to spend vacation time….

I left behind internet, television, any semblance of reliable cell service, and embarked on a twenty-hour bus ride. I stepped outside the world of general luxury where I tend to reside, where people’s basic needs are met more often than not. I entered a world of unquestioned faith, strong communities, incredible hardship, beautiful landscapes and physical labor.

It’s a trip that is difficult to explain, something I knew would be true going into it. This was not my first time traveling on this trip to Kentucky. Eight years ago, I was a senior in high school who “sacrificed” another of his Spring Breaks to take this very trip - or, rather, the 2002 version of it.

Eight years later, I have a little more perspective, a little more experience writing and a little more desire to share. Bear with me, as this blog becomes a bit less “Boston Guy” and a bit more “Kentucky Guy” for the next week or so.

To set the stage:

The youth group, referred to as HYG, is from a local suburban church, which I attended as a kid. The group that traveled to Kentucky is made up of 37 high school kids and chaperoned by 6 adults. Within the 37 kids, there are six who have been elected Officers of the group. Two of these Officers are Co-Presidents.

The town we travel to is called Neon, Kentucky. It’s technically part of Fleming-Neon, but I’ve never heard anyone who lives there calls it anything but Neon. Less than 900 people reside there.
The organization we volunteered through is called H.O.M.E.S. Inc, which stands for Housing Oriented Ministries Established for Service, Incorporated. It is a local version of Habitat for Humanity — with many of the same goals and tenets.
HYG has been doing Spring Trips for as long as I can remember. (Again, it is part of my childhood church.) Back in 2000, the youth group had grown too big to be utilized by any Habitat for Humanity affiliate, which is what each Spring Trip had been until that point. It was then the church found out about H.O.M.E.S. I was a Sophomore in high school, and attended this first trip and the two subsequent ones while I was in high school.

These posts about Kentucky will include perspectives on the economy there, the local faith and religion of people, the trip in general, the group and reflections on my high school trips as well as this most recent one.

The next post will travel back in time to April of 2002. I was in high school, finishing another Spring Trip that would indelibly impact my life. Going as a high schooler was the true beginning of this most recent trip: it was what opened my eyes even to the possibility of doing this. And it seems only appropriate to begin at the beginning. Stay tuned.

nikkidecoy: sepiastars: (via kabople) this is just too cool...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:58:11 -0400

nikkidecoy:

sepiastars:

(via kabople)

this is just too cool not to reblog.

Boston Baseball

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:04:15 -0400

Blame the beautiful weather, blame the fact that an extra hour (at least) of my day is taken up by a commute (I’ve got an office now!), or just blame baseball for the fact that I’ve been slacking with blogging.

I love baseball, and I have to say, I love it more when I’m in Boston. There’s something about this town that makes baseball truly more than just a game. I truly believe it was the pesky 86 years of defeat that caused baseball here to become part of family. Father passed it to son, the desire to see the Red Sox win the World Series. And, lo! It happened! And yes, there are plenty of annoying bandwagon fans (though they seem a little less these past years), but the importance of baseball remains.

In DC, I’m sorry but, generally, no one gave a rat’s ass about the Nationals. Sure, it was fun to pay attention, and there are even a few fans, but to say that wins or losses impacted the city would be an enormous stretch. Here, the topic of baseball binds. It is a part of the culture here. The Sox win or loss is an easy topic of conversation that brings two people together.

The big difference between DC and Boston here is the knowledge and desire to learn. Sure, in DC, you could mention “Oh, did you hear about the Nats’ loss last night?”. But that would be the extent of the conversation, with a response of “Yeah, that was awful” or “No, but I’m not surprised”. In Boston, you can mention the Sox game, and then continue talking about stats, or whether Ortiz really should have been DH for that LHP matchup. And in cases where people don’t know enough, they are more often than not willing to learn.

Finally, any Sox game can be an event. “Hey, want to come over and watch a Nats game” just doesn’t have the same pull as “Hey, want to watch the Sox tonight?” Which, by the way, I’m totally up for any night of the week. Just drop a line if you’re in the area!

This is my first time being in New England for the beginning of a Sox season since 2005, and even though I’m not a fan of this 3-4 start, I’m excited to be here.

On Buying a Car...

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:34:00 -0400

Ready to hear something you don’t often hear? I had an absolute blast buying my brand new car. I didn’t get swindled, was in control the whole time, and drove off in a brand new car that was over $1000 cheaper than what the dealer paid for it. (Over $2,000 cheaper than MSRP.)

It all began about a month ago, when the possibility of getting office space quickly became a reality. This was great news — I was tired of my bedroom furniture being my coworker — but it also made buying a car my number one priority. Because I needed, you know, be able to get to work.

I quickly narrowed it down to Subaru and Honda based on reliability, resell value and safety. I’ll save you the suspense: I bought a Subaru. I did some basic online research about the cars. I looked at new and used from the past few years. Then I went shopping.

On March 13, I went to a Honda dealership and a Subaru dealership to test drive cars. (Many thanks to my girlfriend Kelly for the ride, company and laughter on that trip.) I picked one from each dealership that best fit what I wanted. Then, I blessedly never visited a dealership again until I was ready to sign papers.

That’s right. All my haggling and negotiating took place from the comfort of my office. Thanks to the folks at Fighting Chance, I knew how much every car and its accessories invoiced for, their respective MSRPs, and what “behind closed doors” money was being left on the table. (Fighting Chance also gives some killer templates to use too. They cost me $55, but I got over a 3500% return on that investment, so I’m okay with it.)

Using that knowledge, I called then local Subaru dealers to let them know I was doing a competitive bidding process and that I would like them to participate. One dealer sounded so morose when I explained my process that he said, “You’re doing this so I fight against other dealers and you get the best price, aren’t you?” Um…? Damn, right I am!

I followed up each call with an email and almost all dealers sent me a quote by the next day (Mr. Morose Dealer didn’t - shocker). I then called them in order from highest bid to lowest bid, quoting the lowest bid each time. Each dealer scrambled to beat the lowest — and wow, were those phone calls fun. I had to put one on mute to laugh out loud while a sales manager was literally scrambling to explain that he would love to beat that price and earn my business.

It’s worth noting that I based the winning dealership off price, distance from home, and dealer ratings from Yelp and DealerRater. There was one dealer that was willing to sell to me $500 cheaper, but his dealership was reputed to do bait and switches, sell lemons and got all around awful reviews. I was willing to leave $500 on the table to go with a close dealership I felt great about.

Yesterday, I walked into the winning dealership (CitySide Subaru in Belmont, for what it’s worth). I signed some papers, which had been explained on follow-up phone cars, and drove off in my brand new car: a silver hatchback 2010 Subaru Impreza. Which, for the record, ended up being close to the same price as some of those used cars I looked at in the beginning.

Epic. Win.

Boston Pride

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:37:37 -0400

One thing that is wonderful about Boston is the sense of pride and belonging. DC never felt that way.

Yes, there’s transition all around us, wherever we go. Sure, us people in our 20s are notoriously hard to pin down. And yup, Boston may be have about four billion colleges, with students constantly coming and going. But for all that, there’s something about Boston — some reason that more people seem to feel “home” here.

I had a home in DC, and loved my time there. The neighborhoods, my friends, my house. It was amazing. But while I had a home there, the city never felt home. It was always a stop along the way.

Do I feel more at home because I’m from the Boston area? Sure. I know a lot of people here. But I think there is something to Boston. I was open to DC becoming home. It just didn’t happen.

Here are three reasons why I think Boston has some of its pull:

Family. People are from here. A lot of them. People in DC … well, most move. Majority of people in the Northwest quadrant of DC aren’t from DC. They’re there because of work, because of transition, because of something. Yet, in Boston, a sort of generational stability has led to a culture. (Being originally from the suburbs, I can’t even claim to be 100% part of it.) But in living in Boston, no matter what, you pick up parts of it. In DC, you pick up political knowledge, if that. DC is all about the politics — or it’s about not being part of the politics, depending on where you fall.

Sports. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of sports, you can’t help but be aware of the passion for games here. (I think it stems from these brutally cold winters making us want to enjoy the hell out of the warmer months.) From hockey to soccer to basketball to football, the passion abounds. Baseball, in Boston, deserves a category of its own. Yes, Red Sox fans can be annoying nowadays, but man did 86 years of misery band us together. More than many towns, people up here not only care about sports, they also know about sports. There’s a damn good chance that in mid-June, I could approach some random girl in some Boston bar and she’d be able to name the Sox starting nine. In DC, I doubt any girl at a bar knows half the starting nine of the Nats.

College town. I’d guess that the fact that Boston is a college town works to its advantage. A new influx of people is introduced to its culture every year. They don’t all stay, but I’m sure a certain percentage does. It makes the city alive. DC has the Federal Government turn over leadership every 4 years, causing people to move and transition. But Boston has seniors graduate every spring and freshmen arrive every fall. This yearly give-and-take probably makes the impact more gradual. These college kids bring part of themselves to Boston and take part of Boston culture with them. (Good marketing for a city, really.)

I’m sure there are more possible reasons that are escaping me right now, but I blame that mostly on Saint Patrick’s Day fun in Southie. St. Patty’s in good ol’ Irish South Boston. Now there’s debauchery for you. Even in all this rain.