• Posts

    “If” by Rudyard Kipling

    I’m working on my New Years resolutions – and yes, this is my favorite holiday.  For now, I’ll leave you with a poem I like to read when reflecting on the kind of person I’d like to be.

    IF by Rudyard Kipling

    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    ‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
    if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

  • Posts

    MostRecent.net Soft Launch – Community Driven News Portals

    As a member of the Seattle Tech Startups mailing list, I received the word from Ian on the list that he was ready for us to give it a try. I’ve created a page to track Mobile Social Network news, and spent 20 minutes getting it started. To get an idea of how this works, watch the quick demo video on their homepage.

    Thoughts & Suggestions

    1. Without RSS this page I have just created will not remain current for more than an hour – at best. I wish I could provide a feed URL (such as a Google search of blogs for the term “mobile social network”) to feed into the page in order to keep it current.
    2. Once I have added component to the page, it appears impossible to delete it.  Update: I figured out how to do this, there is a button called “Archive” after you double-click on something.  Took me trial-and-error to figure out what this meant.
    3. If I go back and then forward again, all the changes I’ve made are lost. That’s painful (I just did this on accident).  They have a note at the bottom of the page which I didn’t even notice – maybe that should be front and center.  Better yet, don’t flush the data so soon – you probably want to hang onto aborted sessions of contribution anyway for metrics purposes.
    4. When I add a news story link, such as the link from TechCrunch, it seems like it would be nice to have a little Ajax lookup of the URL that grabs the meta data (author name, title, date posted, blog name) so that I wouldn’t have to enter all that as text.  Structured data is gold.
    5. I’m primarily a keyboard user (avoid the mouse whenever possible) and the tab order did not include the “Save” buttons, so I had to use my mouse frequently.
    6. I’m not clear on how I can get my friends to subscribe to this page, so that they will hear about updates when I add to the page.
    7. I was unable to add more than one link to the 3rd (far right) resources box – seems like a bug.

    Fundamentally, I am unclear on how this is better than a feedreader + forum combination for managing a community that is interested in a specific topic.  That being said, I know this is a soft launch so I can only imagine there is a more feature-rich version of the service in the works.  I can see promise in this, as a feedreader-style landing page that is public.

  • Posts

    My Goals for 2009

    I wanted to come up with three high-level goals to encapsulate how I’m approaching 2009.  I made this video this morning at breakfast, and I’ll be explaining them more in depth soon.  For now, here’s what I’ve got:

  • Posts

    A Slippery Ride, a Scary Ending

    Heading into the office late today, I just happened to be on I-5 shortly after the two charter buses crashed into the guard rail.  To say they were “dangling” over the freeway is an exaggeration, but there is no doubt in my mind that the driver and passengers must have been terrified.

    Here’s the video:

  • Posts

    Who Exactly Are We Kidding?

    Listening to talk radio this morning, the host asked listeners what the deal was with their reaction to the financial situation of this country.  Why aren’t they panicking?  Why is everyone continuing on as if nothing has happened?  As large sums of money get thrown around in conversation like they’re nothing, it does seem a bit odd that the average person on the street seems somewhat disinterested in talking about the economy.  Is it because we’re just so sick of the doom a gloom — or do people actually buy into the idea that this crisis is a creation of the media, as opposed to a legimately disasterous policy debacle?

    I’m certainly aware of these bailout and their long-term impact on me, my family, my business, my goals, and ultimately my entire future.  I’ve heard so many people say that the losses of the stock market had no impact on them, and therefore how can it really be that bad, as I’ve watched my investments’ value cut nearly in half.  Investments that aren’t just stocks, but 401(k) plans I packed tight with money for the 2 1/2 years I worked at Expeditors for tax reasons.  Le sigh…

    I also notice the price cuts all over the place, even Starbucks was offering 20% off all merchandise and whole bean coffee in their store – and if you imagine that is happening nationwide then that could indicate a significant drop in profits.  So what am I doing, panicking?  No, but I do think it’s important to have our eyes wide open now and through the coming months while Barack Obame takes over the roll of president.  The risk of further dillusionment of Americans towards their government is great.

  • Posts

    Have You Forgotten How To Love Yourself?

    Love yourself with great music.

    This song resonates with me deeply, and while I’m on this Mark Kozalek kick in the blog I’ll include a video that has the song (a redone version of the original) in it, AND scenes from one of my favorite foreign films “He’s Loves Me… He Loves Me Not” (1992) with Audrey Tautou playing an erotomaniac (only the French, I swear!)

    Enjoy!

    Thinking you recognize this sound. Red House Painters (Mark Kozalek lead singer) has a song on the movie “Excess Baggage” called “All Mixed Up”. You might like it if you like this. Click here to view (embedding has been disabled).

  • Posts

    Meg – My Uber Talented Lil’ Sister

    Megan just sent me this video of her playing John Denver’s “Around and Around”.  If you know much about me or my musical influences, you’ll recognize John Denver as one of my earliest folk singer favorite (thanks to summer camp).  Most of his songs make me nostalgic.

    This is played in the style of Sun Kil Moon (and Redhouse Painters) lead singer, Mark Kozalek – who is one Meg’s main influences.  Check out her YouTube channel for more songs and videos.

    Meg Clark singing Around & Around by John Denver

    Lyrics (by request):

    Time as I’ve known it
    Doesn’t take much time to pass by me
    Minutes into days turn into
    months turn into years
    They hurry by me

    Still I love to see the sun go down
    And the world go around

    Dreams full of promises
    Hopes for the future
    I’ve had many

    Dreams

    I can’t remember now
    Hopes that I’ve forgotten
    Faded memories

    Still I love to see the sun go down
    And the world go around

    And I love to see the morning
    As it steals across the sky
    I love to remember

    And I love to wonder why
    And I hope that I’m around
    So I can be there when I die
    When I’m gone

    I hope that you will think of me
    In moments when you’re happy
    And you’re smiling

    And that the thought will comfort you
    On cold and cloudy days
    If you are crying

    And that you’ll love to
    see the sun go down
    And the world go around
    And around and around