A few weeks ago, my friend Dave asked me to write a recommendation for his son, Ryan. Ryan had applied to be part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program. For some reason, he thought one coming from me would carry some value. Fortunately for Ryan, that plan didn't backfire. :)
I think the best way to sum up would be to simply share my recommendation letter with you:
It is my pleasure to recommend Ryan to your program. When I was asked, I was honored to write this letter for him. But, the reality is anyone who knows Ryan would write you something similar.
I met Ryan approximately 7 years ago, and was immediately impressed with his very high level of intelligence. He was only 6 or 7 at the time, but he handled himself very maturely and was able to participate in conversations fluidly and cogently even at that time. I left that first meeting with him thinking "that kid's going to do some great things!"
As I've watched him grow, he's matured into a fine young man who is inquisitive and talented. His level of empathy and leadership has truly shown since the birth of his younger brother, whom he very patiently teaches and works with regularly. I have no doubt that, thanks to Ryan's mentorship, I will one day be writing a similar letter for little Daniel.
Since I became the licensee for TEDxRochester, Ryan's father has brought him to every event. One would think a 12 year old boy (as he was at the time of the first event) would be uncomfortable in such an environment, surrounded by nothing but adults. But, not Ryan. He thought nothing of walking up to City Council members, business leaders, community leaders, researchers, etc and just struck up conversations left and right. After every event, I always get numerous people asking me "who was that kid?"
In closing, as much as I believe Ryan will benefit from being a part of your program, I also believe the program will benefit from having him.
The reason for this post is that we're now at the hard part...raising funds. Ryan needs about $7000 to make this dream come true and I'd like to see that happen. I know all too well the horrors of fundraising and so am reaching out to my community of friends and partners to assist. This first fundraising, though is an easy one: he's asking folks to donate their returnable bottles and cans and he'll use the funds from that. If you're willing to donate, message me privately and we'll work out the logistics.
Thank you!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
The Irresistible Ingress
I first stumbled upon the cancerous conspiracy when a baneful video overtook my browsing feed. It was a communication, but it wasn't for me. It spoke of a detestable malevolence that was being unleashed on our world and of those who were conspiring with it. It also made mention of those who were raising their fists in defiance of whatever cackling, squamous fiends were seeking entrance to our world, but only in passing.
Within moments, I started my research. What a fool I was! Since it concerned eldritch terrors beyond our comprehension, I started of course with Necronom.com. I won't go into how I was granted a login to that dread site. Suffice it to say my college years were a time of degenerate experimentation, and better consigned to the dusty, far reaches of my memory. The only evidence of the foul acts I committed in my quest for hidden lore remain within the jabbering chaos that comprise my dreams.
Alas, that accursed digital tome was of no value to my search! Oh, how I wish I was possessed of greater alacrity and could have recorded that feed. Even now, it fades from my mind like some living thing making recollection of its secrets harder and harder to achieve. Of this, I am certain; the dread symbol I saw within was unlike any charm I've ever laid eyes on. It was not the Elder Sign, or any of its ken, but the angles within angles seemed... familiar, but still alien. And, for one who has researched the darkest of knowledge, that is saying much.
My research, however, did uncover one name: Brandon Badger. As ever a contrived nom de plume as ever I'd heard, but it was the only lead I had. I tracked him to the Niantic Project, although that proved to be a dead end as well. No record in any registry I could find, not even an address! The unctuous marketing drivel that was their website left me, in a way, with even less insight than I had before visiting it. The remorseless, conscious thing behind that vague prose was obviously adept at obfuscation.
These failures, however, only fueled my desire to delve into deeper and more obscene fathomage. It was far too easy to find this scant information, and experience has taught that when one finds the first breadcrumbs that the destination is worth finding the rest of the path. So, oblivious to my better judgement, I began scouring the more aphotic reaches of the Internet. Chat room after chat room, dread forum after dread forum, my persistence lead me nowhere except deeper into repugnant frustration.
It was only then that the frighteningly malevolent implications of this connivance began to dawn on me. Even Google, in its acumen and knowledge, seems to have not eluded without taint. Every search either lead to no new insight or worse...to some aberrantly-bestial carnality for which no appropriate age limit could be applied to spare the hapless viewer from permanent scarring.
Thus, this missive. No matter how obsequious in my tenebrous investigation I was, I gleaned no more trace of Niantic or this Badger personage. Whatever conformation their apparently many-tentacled organization takes, it remains adroitly concealed. Ingress to their shadowy coterie can only be secured by parlaying according to their precepts. By placing this document unconcealed on the Internet, I am declaring my intendment to engage in their sacrilegious pursuit. I am powerless to resist my own cupidity for obscene enlightenment.
If my countenance be forever lost to this world, tell my wife and daughters that I loved them. If I am successful, my remaining time will not be my own.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Leadership Rochester: Program Day #1
It's been a while since I've had a chance to really update this blog, and those who know me know why; involved in far too much stuff! Most recently, I've been accepted into the 2013 class of Leadership Rochester. This group takes local leaders and introduces them to not only the problems facing our area in a personal way, but also introduces them to those in the community who are working to make things better. The class is made up of a two day retreat wherein you spend the first day meeting your fellow classmates and then spend the second day participating in a simulated society exercise. After, one day a month is spent engaged in community issues and solutions.
I'm not going to tell anything about that second day of the retreat, as it should remain a surprise to everyone who has the opportunity to attend!
So, instead, I'll tell you about the first program day, Getting Grounded. The class was divided up into multiple teams who each took different routes around the city to get a better picture of our community. My team scored the City's Sectors 4 & 5, which comprise a significant portion of the 19th Ward (where I lived for 15 years) and the entirety of the Inner Loop. We started the day meeting up at the Downtown Presbyterian Church . We were given our driving directions for the day and then let loose onto the City!
Our first task was to stop and check out some new, very expensive homes being built downtown. These homes are located near the Plymouth Avenue area inside the loop and will be going for upwards of $250,000. Not a small chunk of change for the area they're in! The idea, I believe, in pointing these out was to showcase how there is an uptick in the number of people moving back into the City each year. They're not moving into cheap homes, though.
From there, we took a brief driving tour of the Corn Hill section of town. Although I've driven past it a thousand times, and have eaten at the restaurants in Corn Hill Landing dozens of times, I never really took the time to head back behind Nathaniel's to see what was back there. Turns out, that's a shame as there are some truly beautiful streets with amazing and diverse architecture!
Once we'd completed our circuit, we headed back downtown to get to our next stop, the Rundel Library, to meet up with city planner, Tom Hack. I'm ashamed to admit that having lived in Rochester for 18 years, I'd never actually stepped foot into the Rundel. But, then, since I'm a seriously digital-type person, I honestly haven't spent much time in libraries, period, over the last 20-25 years. I'm glad we had to stop in because the Rundel is a beautiful building!
And, what brought us to the library? Well, Tom Hack, as I said! He spent a goodly amount of time chatting with us about plans that are in the pipeline and wishlist for the City. He explained about the "watering" of Broad Street, which would essentially close off that street in a way that pays homage to the fact that it was once part of the Erie Canal. I'd heard about this plan before and always thought it was a stupid idea, but after seeing the full presentation, I'm VERY impressed! It really fits in with the RocCity 2.0 walkable downtown concepts!
Was that the only reason we were meeting up with Tom? Nope. Tom was also there to take us into...the subway tunnels!! For those who don't know, Rochester once had a subway, but it's been abandoned for about 60 years. I'll spare you the background, though. TEDxRochester 2012 speaker, Mike Governdale does a much better job of it on his blog, RochesterSubway.com. I've been wanting to get down into the tunnels for quite some time, so I was stoked when I found out my team would get that opportunity!
It lived up to expectations, too. I know it sounds stupid, but you have to understand that I rode the subway in Philadelphia every day when I was in high school. I never got the opportunity to see anything beyond the platforms and what flashed by as we zipped through the tunnels. I knew it was just going to be a dank, dark hole in the ground, but nonetheless I was glad to have finally gotten the chance. The first thing I noticed? A whole lot bigger than I'd thought! I've seen pics others have taken, but they're typically just of the Broad Street tunnel. There's so much more beyond that, and it was just creepy and cold and oh so neat.
The second thing, which was impossible to overlook, was the graffiti art everywhere. According to Tom, it changes from week to week, yet they've never actually seen anyone in there doing it. Each artist apparently gets a section to work on, and it appears almost as if there's a competition going on down there. Apparently, there's also folks who live in some parts, but we didn't get to meet any of those... :)
After leaving Tom, we continued on our tour. This time, we focused on the 19th Ward. We headed over to the Clara Barton school #2 where we met up with folks from Rochester Roots, a group that works with kids from the schools to farm fresh vegetables which are then sold at the St. Mary's public market. We got a tour of their facilities and greenhouse, but the real point of directing us here was to see the disparity in living conditions between here and Corn Hill just a short jaunt away on the other side of Ford Street. One really gets a sense of what the Occupy movement was about when you get dropped right into the midst of it all.
We then drove to the Boulder Coffee on Genesee Street to meet up with one of the directors of the 19th Ward Community Association. We chatted for a bit about what they're doing to increase the economic potential of that area, including getting the Brooks Landing project approved, funded and built. This has been a great boon to this community as it's driven money into a neighborhood that desperately needed it and the transformation is spectacular. We toured the area around the Staybridge Suites hotel which is just a gorgeous place to spend time.
From there we headed to lunch at Deli Sandros, a new deli representative of the revitalization of that community. Wonderful food, and if you get there an the Buffalo mac & cheese in on the menu that day, do NOT skip it!
At this point, we were WAAAY behind on schedule and so had to zip through the remainder of what we were supposed to see. But, on the whole, I think we got the point...there's a huge disparity in how people live in Rochester, but there's a lot of change happening that should lead to better things. We headed back to the church where we were greeted by a panel of community leaders. Each team then took a few minutes to create a presentation of what they experienced, and every one was so varied from every other. I think the one that was most interesting was the one that headed to Pittsford. Their tour started out visiting a trailer park! In Pittsford!
I learned a lot about our area in that fast-paced day, and have gained further appreciation of the hard working folks who are putting in the effort every day to make a difference in their community. I'm inspired by people like that, I suppose that has something to do with my doing TEDxRochester, and it energizes me to know there's so many people working to make Rochester a better place.
Tomorrow is program day #2: "Who takes care of whom", and about all I know is I'll be at the Open Door Mission at about 6am. So, that means coffee is #1 on the agenda!
I'm not going to tell anything about that second day of the retreat, as it should remain a surprise to everyone who has the opportunity to attend!
So, instead, I'll tell you about the first program day, Getting Grounded. The class was divided up into multiple teams who each took different routes around the city to get a better picture of our community. My team scored the City's Sectors 4 & 5, which comprise a significant portion of the 19th Ward (where I lived for 15 years) and the entirety of the Inner Loop. We started the day meeting up at the Downtown Presbyterian Church . We were given our driving directions for the day and then let loose onto the City!
Our first task was to stop and check out some new, very expensive homes being built downtown. These homes are located near the Plymouth Avenue area inside the loop and will be going for upwards of $250,000. Not a small chunk of change for the area they're in! The idea, I believe, in pointing these out was to showcase how there is an uptick in the number of people moving back into the City each year. They're not moving into cheap homes, though.
From there, we took a brief driving tour of the Corn Hill section of town. Although I've driven past it a thousand times, and have eaten at the restaurants in Corn Hill Landing dozens of times, I never really took the time to head back behind Nathaniel's to see what was back there. Turns out, that's a shame as there are some truly beautiful streets with amazing and diverse architecture!
Once we'd completed our circuit, we headed back downtown to get to our next stop, the Rundel Library, to meet up with city planner, Tom Hack. I'm ashamed to admit that having lived in Rochester for 18 years, I'd never actually stepped foot into the Rundel. But, then, since I'm a seriously digital-type person, I honestly haven't spent much time in libraries, period, over the last 20-25 years. I'm glad we had to stop in because the Rundel is a beautiful building!
And, what brought us to the library? Well, Tom Hack, as I said! He spent a goodly amount of time chatting with us about plans that are in the pipeline and wishlist for the City. He explained about the "watering" of Broad Street, which would essentially close off that street in a way that pays homage to the fact that it was once part of the Erie Canal. I'd heard about this plan before and always thought it was a stupid idea, but after seeing the full presentation, I'm VERY impressed! It really fits in with the RocCity 2.0 walkable downtown concepts!
Was that the only reason we were meeting up with Tom? Nope. Tom was also there to take us into...the subway tunnels!! For those who don't know, Rochester once had a subway, but it's been abandoned for about 60 years. I'll spare you the background, though. TEDxRochester 2012 speaker, Mike Governdale does a much better job of it on his blog, RochesterSubway.com. I've been wanting to get down into the tunnels for quite some time, so I was stoked when I found out my team would get that opportunity!
It lived up to expectations, too. I know it sounds stupid, but you have to understand that I rode the subway in Philadelphia every day when I was in high school. I never got the opportunity to see anything beyond the platforms and what flashed by as we zipped through the tunnels. I knew it was just going to be a dank, dark hole in the ground, but nonetheless I was glad to have finally gotten the chance. The first thing I noticed? A whole lot bigger than I'd thought! I've seen pics others have taken, but they're typically just of the Broad Street tunnel. There's so much more beyond that, and it was just creepy and cold and oh so neat.
The second thing, which was impossible to overlook, was the graffiti art everywhere. According to Tom, it changes from week to week, yet they've never actually seen anyone in there doing it. Each artist apparently gets a section to work on, and it appears almost as if there's a competition going on down there. Apparently, there's also folks who live in some parts, but we didn't get to meet any of those... :)
After leaving Tom, we continued on our tour. This time, we focused on the 19th Ward. We headed over to the Clara Barton school #2 where we met up with folks from Rochester Roots, a group that works with kids from the schools to farm fresh vegetables which are then sold at the St. Mary's public market. We got a tour of their facilities and greenhouse, but the real point of directing us here was to see the disparity in living conditions between here and Corn Hill just a short jaunt away on the other side of Ford Street. One really gets a sense of what the Occupy movement was about when you get dropped right into the midst of it all.
We then drove to the Boulder Coffee on Genesee Street to meet up with one of the directors of the 19th Ward Community Association. We chatted for a bit about what they're doing to increase the economic potential of that area, including getting the Brooks Landing project approved, funded and built. This has been a great boon to this community as it's driven money into a neighborhood that desperately needed it and the transformation is spectacular. We toured the area around the Staybridge Suites hotel which is just a gorgeous place to spend time.
From there we headed to lunch at Deli Sandros, a new deli representative of the revitalization of that community. Wonderful food, and if you get there an the Buffalo mac & cheese in on the menu that day, do NOT skip it!
At this point, we were WAAAY behind on schedule and so had to zip through the remainder of what we were supposed to see. But, on the whole, I think we got the point...there's a huge disparity in how people live in Rochester, but there's a lot of change happening that should lead to better things. We headed back to the church where we were greeted by a panel of community leaders. Each team then took a few minutes to create a presentation of what they experienced, and every one was so varied from every other. I think the one that was most interesting was the one that headed to Pittsford. Their tour started out visiting a trailer park! In Pittsford!
I learned a lot about our area in that fast-paced day, and have gained further appreciation of the hard working folks who are putting in the effort every day to make a difference in their community. I'm inspired by people like that, I suppose that has something to do with my doing TEDxRochester, and it energizes me to know there's so many people working to make Rochester a better place.
Tomorrow is program day #2: "Who takes care of whom", and about all I know is I'll be at the Open Door Mission at about 6am. So, that means coffee is #1 on the agenda!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
An open letter to Hasbro and the Brony community
I was going to write a bit of a history intro to this article, but in doing some research on children's TV, specifically the conversion from entertainment to 100% marketing, I stumbled across this article at Cracked (one of the most unbiased sources of news today). The preamble sums it up better than I could:
Most Gen-Xers don't realize that they owe many of their Christmas memories to the FCC. During the early '80s, parents became concerned by the kinds of things their kids were seeing on TV, so they asked for new rules regulating advertisements shown during kids' shows. Bowing to pressure from the White House and from toy makers, the FCC responded to these concerns by pretty much deregulating children's television altogether. Kids' shows quickly became half-hour commercials for toy lines, which parents began buying at unbelievable rates.
I wasn't all that surprised to find that Hasbro was one of the main culprits in this conversion. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was pretty much designed from day one to be a vehicle to sell more action figures from their dead toy line to kids. Following on the success of Lucas' prostitution of the Star Wars franchise, everyone wanted the opportunity to bombard kids with new shows that featured dozens of main and background characters that could be pumped out by being assembled by slave labor in China to a slathering audience desperate to play with such memorable characters as He-Man's friend, Cocaine Bear.
Fast forward to 5 years ago when my wife and I were expecting our first child. Not wanting her to be a fully programmed consumption machine, we made the "difficult" decision to get rid of cable entirely and limit ourselves to online programming only. I quoted difficult because it turned out the only part that was difficult was the follow through of the decision. Five years later, I honestly don't miss cable at all. My wife, stuck at home with the kids all day, is starting to feel the jones, though.
On the whole, I think we've done a good job keeping our girls from being spoiled brats. We limit their TV programs only to what we can find on Netflix or online, and even then only allow access to those shows that either are educational or have a reasonably good message. Our oldest daughter's current favorite is the new My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic series. Now, I'll add the disclaimer here that I have decided to fully embrace my bronihood. I even have my own Zecora figure sitting on my desk at work. (Now don't start being a smart alec, it sits alongside my "new paradigm" dalek.) But, my rant below is all about my girls...
Yesterday was oldest daughter's first day of pre-school, so I took the opportunity to hit a Toys R Us to see if I could FIND a Zecora for her. You see, the problem with My Little Pony is there are primarily two types of people buying the figures: adult bronies with cash to spare and adults scooping them all up so they can resell them online for higher prices. The fact that these are toys made for kids doesn't come into the equation. Zecora sells out within hours of being put up on the Toys R Us websites, and almost as quickly in the stores. If you want one, you've got to be fairly lucky or willing to spend twice as much to get one.
And, whose at fault for the root of this problem? Richard Garfield. "Wait! Isn't he the guy who invented Magic: The Gathering?" Yup. And, as much as I love the game, I have to admit the deleterious effect it had on the gaming industry. Most card games after ended up being collectible. Why? Maximizing profit, of course. Hell, even the newest iterations of D&D now use miniatures that come in semi-collectible blind packs.
Thanks also to Pokemon, this meme has infected the general toy industry, too. Nearly every toy line these days has at least one set of items that comes in a blind pack and is collectible. Except...they're not, really. The companies have learned that they can gouge the hell out of their customers by creating an artificial scarcity for their products. This forces consumers to buy large quantities of product that they don't want in order to acquire the small quantities they do. As a result, secondary markets open up that serve to gouge consumers further by charging insane prices for the individual items folks should just be able to buy to begin with.
And, it leaves me scrambling to find boy ponies for my daughter. Of the little molded figures that come in the blind packs, and are the most fun and easiest for small hands to play with, that's what she wants the most: some boy ponies. We caved and bought her quite a few of the blind packs so she could have the small ones to play with, but she was disappointed to find no boys in the mix (I know, I'm worried, too). This latest set is the first to have boys, so when I saw some packs I decided to get her some. But, first, I looked online because I knew some collectors had "decoded" the codes on the bags to determine what was inside.
With a list of the four codes representing boys in hand, I hit the store only to find two full display boxes full of bags...and only one boy in the lot (fortunately, it was Big Mac who she wanted most of all!). The store had even taken to shrink wrapping the bags to minimize the possibility of folks buying only the most "valuable" ones.
Assholes.
Here's the deal collectors: you might make a small amount of profit by taking toys from my daughter for a short period, but if you think putting these in boxes to fund your kid's college education in 15 years is going to work you're sadly mistaken. Remember, it's an artificial scarcity only. The increased prices will only last as long as they're on the shelves. After that, prices WILL fall. In 15 years, that box of Big Macs you've got stashed away will be worth less than what you paid for them, even counting for inflation. Trust me. Fortunately, my little girl's got a daddy who will jump through hoops to get her the one or two figures she really wants. But, if I catch one of you in the store rooting through blind bags...well, just keep in mind, the baseball bats are near and my anger is quick.
As for Hasbro, I know you're not going to change. You're a prime example of the evil side of capitalism. You're happy to gouge the parents of kids who just want some toys to play with only to maximize your bottom line. Rather than putting out these figures into boxes that allow me to know what I'm getting, you'd prefer I instead pay $60 for the figure I want rather than $2. I hope each of your executives spend an eternity in hell being finger-cuffed by Rarity and Twilight.
Oh, and Princess Celestia is white. You might want to watch your own damn show before putting out toys based on it!
Most Gen-Xers don't realize that they owe many of their Christmas memories to the FCC. During the early '80s, parents became concerned by the kinds of things their kids were seeing on TV, so they asked for new rules regulating advertisements shown during kids' shows. Bowing to pressure from the White House and from toy makers, the FCC responded to these concerns by pretty much deregulating children's television altogether. Kids' shows quickly became half-hour commercials for toy lines, which parents began buying at unbelievable rates.
I wasn't all that surprised to find that Hasbro was one of the main culprits in this conversion. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was pretty much designed from day one to be a vehicle to sell more action figures from their dead toy line to kids. Following on the success of Lucas' prostitution of the Star Wars franchise, everyone wanted the opportunity to bombard kids with new shows that featured dozens of main and background characters that could be pumped out by being assembled by slave labor in China to a slathering audience desperate to play with such memorable characters as He-Man's friend, Cocaine Bear.
Fast forward to 5 years ago when my wife and I were expecting our first child. Not wanting her to be a fully programmed consumption machine, we made the "difficult" decision to get rid of cable entirely and limit ourselves to online programming only. I quoted difficult because it turned out the only part that was difficult was the follow through of the decision. Five years later, I honestly don't miss cable at all. My wife, stuck at home with the kids all day, is starting to feel the jones, though.
On the whole, I think we've done a good job keeping our girls from being spoiled brats. We limit their TV programs only to what we can find on Netflix or online, and even then only allow access to those shows that either are educational or have a reasonably good message. Our oldest daughter's current favorite is the new My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic series. Now, I'll add the disclaimer here that I have decided to fully embrace my bronihood. I even have my own Zecora figure sitting on my desk at work. (Now don't start being a smart alec, it sits alongside my "new paradigm" dalek.) But, my rant below is all about my girls...
Yesterday was oldest daughter's first day of pre-school, so I took the opportunity to hit a Toys R Us to see if I could FIND a Zecora for her. You see, the problem with My Little Pony is there are primarily two types of people buying the figures: adult bronies with cash to spare and adults scooping them all up so they can resell them online for higher prices. The fact that these are toys made for kids doesn't come into the equation. Zecora sells out within hours of being put up on the Toys R Us websites, and almost as quickly in the stores. If you want one, you've got to be fairly lucky or willing to spend twice as much to get one.
And, whose at fault for the root of this problem? Richard Garfield. "Wait! Isn't he the guy who invented Magic: The Gathering?" Yup. And, as much as I love the game, I have to admit the deleterious effect it had on the gaming industry. Most card games after ended up being collectible. Why? Maximizing profit, of course. Hell, even the newest iterations of D&D now use miniatures that come in semi-collectible blind packs.
Thanks also to Pokemon, this meme has infected the general toy industry, too. Nearly every toy line these days has at least one set of items that comes in a blind pack and is collectible. Except...they're not, really. The companies have learned that they can gouge the hell out of their customers by creating an artificial scarcity for their products. This forces consumers to buy large quantities of product that they don't want in order to acquire the small quantities they do. As a result, secondary markets open up that serve to gouge consumers further by charging insane prices for the individual items folks should just be able to buy to begin with.
And, it leaves me scrambling to find boy ponies for my daughter. Of the little molded figures that come in the blind packs, and are the most fun and easiest for small hands to play with, that's what she wants the most: some boy ponies. We caved and bought her quite a few of the blind packs so she could have the small ones to play with, but she was disappointed to find no boys in the mix (I know, I'm worried, too). This latest set is the first to have boys, so when I saw some packs I decided to get her some. But, first, I looked online because I knew some collectors had "decoded" the codes on the bags to determine what was inside.
With a list of the four codes representing boys in hand, I hit the store only to find two full display boxes full of bags...and only one boy in the lot (fortunately, it was Big Mac who she wanted most of all!). The store had even taken to shrink wrapping the bags to minimize the possibility of folks buying only the most "valuable" ones.
Assholes.
Here's the deal collectors: you might make a small amount of profit by taking toys from my daughter for a short period, but if you think putting these in boxes to fund your kid's college education in 15 years is going to work you're sadly mistaken. Remember, it's an artificial scarcity only. The increased prices will only last as long as they're on the shelves. After that, prices WILL fall. In 15 years, that box of Big Macs you've got stashed away will be worth less than what you paid for them, even counting for inflation. Trust me. Fortunately, my little girl's got a daddy who will jump through hoops to get her the one or two figures she really wants. But, if I catch one of you in the store rooting through blind bags...well, just keep in mind, the baseball bats are near and my anger is quick.
As for Hasbro, I know you're not going to change. You're a prime example of the evil side of capitalism. You're happy to gouge the parents of kids who just want some toys to play with only to maximize your bottom line. Rather than putting out these figures into boxes that allow me to know what I'm getting, you'd prefer I instead pay $60 for the figure I want rather than $2. I hope each of your executives spend an eternity in hell being finger-cuffed by Rarity and Twilight.
Oh, and Princess Celestia is white. You might want to watch your own damn show before putting out toys based on it!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Confirming my bias for t-shirts
I've been thinking about writing an article about this subject for a while, but based on events of the last week, it's obvious to me that the universe has been prompting me to do so. The last little nudge, described below, was what prompted me to finally sit down and put fingers to keyboard.
So, aside from the fact that I'm generally a bit of a slacker, I have a fondness for t-shirts. They're soft. They're comfortable. And, they more often than not have a symbol or saying on the front that is representative of my mood that day. It's like wearing my heart out on my sleeve, only in this one's on the front.
The whole thing started on Father's Day when my wife and oldest daughter presented me with my gifts, a couple of awesome t-shirts:
Now, before y'all think I've gone and lost my mind, I ask you to remember: I have a couple of daughters. Bigger daughter is a huge fan of the new My Little Pony show. The problem is, so is a significantly large population of adult males. Bronies, they're called. And, while I have to admit I do enjoy watching the show with her...No, really, it's not a terrible show. Some of the plots are fairly complex and have lots of jokes for the parents! Like, the bowling episode where everyone in the bowling alley is from The Big Lebowski. And...you've stopped believing me. Okay, moving on...
While I do enjoy watching the show with her, and consider myself a closet brony, that's not why I have My Little Pony t-shirts. I have them because it's almost impossible to find themed shirts in kid's sizes! Really, and truly! Adult My Little Pony clothes? No problem. Kids? Sure, if you want to spend $20 on a t-shirt for a four-year-old. So, the reason I have a few of these shirts is I wear them for my daughter. She can't, so I wear them for her. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Now, the acquisition of these fine t-shirts made me realize that I need to re-think my t-shirt collection. I haven't counted yet, but I'm sure I've got at least a hundred of the things. As I've lost about 40 pounds in the last year, a large majority of them don't fit anymore, so maybe it's time to prune. Before getting rid of them, though, I thought it might be funny to take pics of all of them and put them out there for everyone to marvel at.
Then, I forgot about the idea...
A few days later, though, Gizmodo ran a story about the "World's Most Awesome T-Shirt". I'm not going to bother trying to find it to link to because frankly it was a stupid article. The t-shirt was a $65 thing with nothing on the front except a tiny logo. Sorry, I've got more brains than money...still, the universe reminded me I needed to write this article!
Then, I forgot about the idea...
But, two weeks ago I got my weekly e-mail from ThinkGeek. Big fan of the ThinkGeek, they sell some quality stuff, but this issue had this baby:
I have to say, I thought about it for about 24 hours before laying down the cash. DJ PON3 in Tron stylee? It really does fit both of our styles (largest daughter and I), so it really was about spending the $20. Once I made the decision, though, I decided to also take advantage of their "One Random Shirt of Surprising Awesomeness" special. You spend $7, and they send you a shirt, whatever they have left. What the hell? I'll roll the dice.
My package arrives and what's inside?
Okay. Being a math and science geek, I like it on the face of it! But, what could this equation possibly mean?? After racking my brain for a minute trying to think if I'd seen it before, I decided to look on the back...
Awww! Have to be honest, I had thought of buying this one when I first saw it! Well, that was a heck of a deal. Rolled the dice and won! That don't happen often enough. And, lest we think I accept the plot of just any equation, I asked Wolfram Alpha what it thought:
Ha! Confirmed!
As I said to my wife, this is such an awesome representation of our relationship. We both had been going through some tough stuff early on and weren't too sure if we'd make it. But, we took a chance and have a happy and loving home as a result. This one is now in my Top 10 favorite t-shirts because of that.
Well, hell! Now, the universe is practically SCREAMING at me to write this article! Alas, though, I really had no idea what I'd write about. I'd had some ideas floating around, so I let it percolate for a few days before the last reminder showed up.
My wife is friends with, and now works for, a fellow who owns a local horror-themed t-shirt company named Fright-Rags. Fright-Rags doesn't do your typical horror t-shirt, though. They often try to pull out some tidbit from a movie that only a true fan would know, such as the ever-popular "Damn enchiladas" from Friday the 13th.
Beyond the fact that they make a high quality product and have great customer service (their shirt folding peon's pretty awesome, too!), the owner, Ben, is a really great guy. As an example, he has a friend with breast cancer who is without health insurance (oh, look, the Supreme Court just spoke on behalf of the universe today as another reminder!), so he put out an amazing, limited edition t-shirt with all profits going to his friend. It's NSFW, so scroll down carefully!
Yeah, I know. In 21st century America, I shouldn't have to call THAT out as NSFW, but there you are. Anyway, after all of this, I mention Fright-Rags because they're currently taking part in Chase' Mission Small Business. Please, please, please...click that link, sign in and vote for them! These folks REALLY deserve to win the $250k. Maybe that cute shirt-folding peon will even get a raise! If there's anyone who deserves to win, it's Ben. The universe will thank you for it. After all, it's been reminding me all week to tell you about it...
....or, has it? You've now just taken part in an example of confirmation bias. This is the failing of how your brain is built that forces you to favor information that confirms your beliefs. On a small scale, confirmation bias is why when you break up with someone, every song seems to be a sad love song. Or, when you are thinking about buying a particular model car, you start to see that car everywhere you look. You'd probably seen dozens of that model of car the day before you decided to buy one, or heard that song on the radio before you broke up with your significant other, but because you're thinking of it now you notice it more.
On a larger scale, it's why when trying to disprove some lefty/righty nonsense, you only find unequivocal righty/lefty brilliance to debunk it. It's your brain telling you "you're right". Sorry, it's not the universe or any other higher power talking to you. It's just another example of how natural selection can never get anything perfect, least of all your brain.
Congrats, you now know what that fallacy feels like, and will never fall for it again! See, a great article, and I snuck some critical thinking in on your ass. Ha! So, next time you're thinking some higher power is pushing you toward one side of a decision, just look down at your t-shirt. It'll always steer you right...
So, aside from the fact that I'm generally a bit of a slacker, I have a fondness for t-shirts. They're soft. They're comfortable. And, they more often than not have a symbol or saying on the front that is representative of my mood that day. It's like wearing my heart out on my sleeve, only in this one's on the front.
The whole thing started on Father's Day when my wife and oldest daughter presented me with my gifts, a couple of awesome t-shirts:
Now, before y'all think I've gone and lost my mind, I ask you to remember: I have a couple of daughters. Bigger daughter is a huge fan of the new My Little Pony show. The problem is, so is a significantly large population of adult males. Bronies, they're called. And, while I have to admit I do enjoy watching the show with her...No, really, it's not a terrible show. Some of the plots are fairly complex and have lots of jokes for the parents! Like, the bowling episode where everyone in the bowling alley is from The Big Lebowski. And...you've stopped believing me. Okay, moving on...
While I do enjoy watching the show with her, and consider myself a closet brony, that's not why I have My Little Pony t-shirts. I have them because it's almost impossible to find themed shirts in kid's sizes! Really, and truly! Adult My Little Pony clothes? No problem. Kids? Sure, if you want to spend $20 on a t-shirt for a four-year-old. So, the reason I have a few of these shirts is I wear them for my daughter. She can't, so I wear them for her. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Now, the acquisition of these fine t-shirts made me realize that I need to re-think my t-shirt collection. I haven't counted yet, but I'm sure I've got at least a hundred of the things. As I've lost about 40 pounds in the last year, a large majority of them don't fit anymore, so maybe it's time to prune. Before getting rid of them, though, I thought it might be funny to take pics of all of them and put them out there for everyone to marvel at.
Then, I forgot about the idea...
A few days later, though, Gizmodo ran a story about the "World's Most Awesome T-Shirt". I'm not going to bother trying to find it to link to because frankly it was a stupid article. The t-shirt was a $65 thing with nothing on the front except a tiny logo. Sorry, I've got more brains than money...still, the universe reminded me I needed to write this article!
Then, I forgot about the idea...
But, two weeks ago I got my weekly e-mail from ThinkGeek. Big fan of the ThinkGeek, they sell some quality stuff, but this issue had this baby:
I have to say, I thought about it for about 24 hours before laying down the cash. DJ PON3 in Tron stylee? It really does fit both of our styles (largest daughter and I), so it really was about spending the $20. Once I made the decision, though, I decided to also take advantage of their "One Random Shirt of Surprising Awesomeness" special. You spend $7, and they send you a shirt, whatever they have left. What the hell? I'll roll the dice.
My package arrives and what's inside?
Okay. Being a math and science geek, I like it on the face of it! But, what could this equation possibly mean?? After racking my brain for a minute trying to think if I'd seen it before, I decided to look on the back...
Awww! Have to be honest, I had thought of buying this one when I first saw it! Well, that was a heck of a deal. Rolled the dice and won! That don't happen often enough. And, lest we think I accept the plot of just any equation, I asked Wolfram Alpha what it thought:
Ha! Confirmed!
As I said to my wife, this is such an awesome representation of our relationship. We both had been going through some tough stuff early on and weren't too sure if we'd make it. But, we took a chance and have a happy and loving home as a result. This one is now in my Top 10 favorite t-shirts because of that.
Well, hell! Now, the universe is practically SCREAMING at me to write this article! Alas, though, I really had no idea what I'd write about. I'd had some ideas floating around, so I let it percolate for a few days before the last reminder showed up.
My wife is friends with, and now works for, a fellow who owns a local horror-themed t-shirt company named Fright-Rags. Fright-Rags doesn't do your typical horror t-shirt, though. They often try to pull out some tidbit from a movie that only a true fan would know, such as the ever-popular "Damn enchiladas" from Friday the 13th.
Beyond the fact that they make a high quality product and have great customer service (their shirt folding peon's pretty awesome, too!), the owner, Ben, is a really great guy. As an example, he has a friend with breast cancer who is without health insurance (oh, look, the Supreme Court just spoke on behalf of the universe today as another reminder!), so he put out an amazing, limited edition t-shirt with all profits going to his friend. It's NSFW, so scroll down carefully!
Yeah, I know. In 21st century America, I shouldn't have to call THAT out as NSFW, but there you are. Anyway, after all of this, I mention Fright-Rags because they're currently taking part in Chase' Mission Small Business. Please, please, please...click that link, sign in and vote for them! These folks REALLY deserve to win the $250k. Maybe that cute shirt-folding peon will even get a raise! If there's anyone who deserves to win, it's Ben. The universe will thank you for it. After all, it's been reminding me all week to tell you about it...
....or, has it? You've now just taken part in an example of confirmation bias. This is the failing of how your brain is built that forces you to favor information that confirms your beliefs. On a small scale, confirmation bias is why when you break up with someone, every song seems to be a sad love song. Or, when you are thinking about buying a particular model car, you start to see that car everywhere you look. You'd probably seen dozens of that model of car the day before you decided to buy one, or heard that song on the radio before you broke up with your significant other, but because you're thinking of it now you notice it more.
On a larger scale, it's why when trying to disprove some lefty/righty nonsense, you only find unequivocal righty/lefty brilliance to debunk it. It's your brain telling you "you're right". Sorry, it's not the universe or any other higher power talking to you. It's just another example of how natural selection can never get anything perfect, least of all your brain.
Congrats, you now know what that fallacy feels like, and will never fall for it again! See, a great article, and I snuck some critical thinking in on your ass. Ha! So, next time you're thinking some higher power is pushing you toward one side of a decision, just look down at your t-shirt. It'll always steer you right...
Or. Not.
Monday, January 9, 2012
A tale of great customer service
Last year, at Valentine's day, my mother-in-law bought our daughter a pink, stuffed cat. Pinky, as he's been named, is my daughter's "favorite and best!" Pinky sleeps with her every night and comes down every morning to sit with her as she has breakfast or watches TV. Out of the last four show-and-tells at school, she has taken Pinky to show off four times. I'm not exactly sure how to make this clear to you, but....
She really loves this cat!
My wife and I live in terror of the day something happens to Pinky. Since we got our new dog, we've found she has a fondness for chewing on stuffies. Since he is well loved each day, Pinky spends a lot of time in the washing machine and has lost a lot of his luster. You can see this clearly in this picture with him and a not-so-loved sibling.
So, on a whim, we decided to look around some to see if we could find another kitty just like Pinky we could keep on hand as a "spare". Now, we know clearly that should we need to replace Pinky, it isn't going to be a one for one swap. She'd know immediately it wasn't him. Our planned cover story is that Pinky's brother came to town to be her friend since Pinky got lost. Or, something like that.
After poking around for a few, I decided one night to just look at Pinky's tag. Sure enough, the name of the company, Galerie USA, was there along with a URL. Score! I was a little discouraged at first as it appeared they might not deal directly with individuals, but figured I'd drop them a line all the same.
I relayed basically the same story to them as I have now to you and a day later I got an e-mail back from someone in customer service with a picture attached of a stuffed pink cat. She wanted to know if this was him, and if so they could help us out right away. It wasn't the Pinkster, so I sent her one of what's left of our boy (note: see the above picture again). The next day, they replied right back with a picture of a brand new Pinky!
I replied that was our kitty and offered to pay however necessary to get him in hand and was told...nope, thanks, just send us your address, we'll send him out to you. Wow! When I sent the address, though, they told us they were sending...well, let's just go to the picture...
Yup, that's Pinky, second from the left, surrounded by THREE siblings! They sent us THREE! They arrived today and are waiting patiently for the day they can come out of their box in the closet (our second daughter is arriving next month, perhaps she will one day get her own Pinky).
Now, granted, this was a small gesture and probably cost them all of $2 to do this, but that's not the point. Joni, the lady I dealt with spent a couple of days e-mailing me back and forth trying to find the right toy and then shipped them out within minutes of confirming we had the right one. It made a big difference to this dad to know there are potentially a couple of future tears that could be avoided by our having something to fill the void should it ever come, and that means the world to me.
Thank you, Galerie, and especially Joni, for helping us out. You got 2012 off to a great start for us!
She really loves this cat!
My wife and I live in terror of the day something happens to Pinky. Since we got our new dog, we've found she has a fondness for chewing on stuffies. Since he is well loved each day, Pinky spends a lot of time in the washing machine and has lost a lot of his luster. You can see this clearly in this picture with him and a not-so-loved sibling.
So, on a whim, we decided to look around some to see if we could find another kitty just like Pinky we could keep on hand as a "spare". Now, we know clearly that should we need to replace Pinky, it isn't going to be a one for one swap. She'd know immediately it wasn't him. Our planned cover story is that Pinky's brother came to town to be her friend since Pinky got lost. Or, something like that.
After poking around for a few, I decided one night to just look at Pinky's tag. Sure enough, the name of the company, Galerie USA, was there along with a URL. Score! I was a little discouraged at first as it appeared they might not deal directly with individuals, but figured I'd drop them a line all the same.
I relayed basically the same story to them as I have now to you and a day later I got an e-mail back from someone in customer service with a picture attached of a stuffed pink cat. She wanted to know if this was him, and if so they could help us out right away. It wasn't the Pinkster, so I sent her one of what's left of our boy (note: see the above picture again). The next day, they replied right back with a picture of a brand new Pinky!
I replied that was our kitty and offered to pay however necessary to get him in hand and was told...nope, thanks, just send us your address, we'll send him out to you. Wow! When I sent the address, though, they told us they were sending...well, let's just go to the picture...
Yup, that's Pinky, second from the left, surrounded by THREE siblings! They sent us THREE! They arrived today and are waiting patiently for the day they can come out of their box in the closet (our second daughter is arriving next month, perhaps she will one day get her own Pinky).
Now, granted, this was a small gesture and probably cost them all of $2 to do this, but that's not the point. Joni, the lady I dealt with spent a couple of days e-mailing me back and forth trying to find the right toy and then shipped them out within minutes of confirming we had the right one. It made a big difference to this dad to know there are potentially a couple of future tears that could be avoided by our having something to fill the void should it ever come, and that means the world to me.
Thank you, Galerie, and especially Joni, for helping us out. You got 2012 off to a great start for us!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Life logging with Evernote
One of my primary reasons for moving back to Evernote is that I've always wanted to keep a journal. I've never been good at it all, and it's come back to haunt me from time to time as I try to remember when a certain event happened. Before my journal, my e-mail served as my primary method of refreshing my memory, but that's limited to stuff I might have needed to say to someone. Major and minor events went unrecorded.
I've also been thinking about all of the data that I put "out there" each day that is captured only on Facebook or Twitter and might be difficult to find again in the future. Or, I might want to relate something that I posted on Facebook to something in my journal. Sure, Facebook's Timeline feature helps a great deal in finding older posts, but I'd like to have as complete a record of my day as possible in just one spot.
So, inspired by this TED video, I needed to figure out a way to create my own aggregator and use it to log my life...or as much as possible.
In terms of a basic app where I write what happens each day, Evernote is perfect. Each morning, I simply create a new note in my Journal notebook and type away. But, we're here today to talk about some of the other stuff I put in there.
Similar to in my previous post, the secret sauce that will tie the social network aspect into the journal is IFTTT.com. To recap, "If This, Then That" monitors the social networks you give it access to, and when something happens that matches criteria you setup, it'll trigger an action you specify. In this case, a lot of what I wanted to pull in is covered by the default triggers and actions. When I post a status, it's pulled directly into Evernote. When post a photo, same thing. Easy!
Twitter's a bit more difficult. I'll admit, not a big fan of Twitter. I use it because I have to, because so many others use it. But, as the first network I'd axe if I could, yup, Twitter. As a result of my disdain, I rarely ever check the Twitter, so I miss things. But, not anymore! I've setup actions so that if someone mentions me (or TEDxRochester) or sends me a message, I'm sent an e-mail. My own posts are injected into Evernote directly. Why do I have it go to e-mail? So I can see it, of course! I've then got a filter setup in Gmail to automatically forward those to my Evernote account. Two birds (it's Twitter. Tweets. Get it? Birds?), one stone.
The big drawback to this methodology is I get a very cluttered journal. My end goal is to have one note per day that I can go to. Evernote itself provides the mechanism in their Merge Note feature. Select two or more notes and you'll have a bunch of options come up. Simply choose Merge! Now, a hint: click on them in the order you want them in the merged note. I start by clicking my daily note, then my e-mails with my wife (more on that in another article) then the social network stuff notes before hitting Merge. That way, they end up in the note in that order. Done!
With these simple steps, I'm able to cull together a daily journal entry that covers a lot of what I do during the day, but it's not perfect. Still a number of things to pull in. Most importantly are the conversations between the most important person in my life, my wife! But, that's still a work in progress with lots of custom stuff to make it happen....
In the next installment, I'll tell you about the tags I put into posts and how I can use them to gain some basic statistical insight into my life. I'll also talk about some of the more esoteric data that makes its way into the life log.
I've also been thinking about all of the data that I put "out there" each day that is captured only on Facebook or Twitter and might be difficult to find again in the future. Or, I might want to relate something that I posted on Facebook to something in my journal. Sure, Facebook's Timeline feature helps a great deal in finding older posts, but I'd like to have as complete a record of my day as possible in just one spot.
So, inspired by this TED video, I needed to figure out a way to create my own aggregator and use it to log my life...or as much as possible.
In terms of a basic app where I write what happens each day, Evernote is perfect. Each morning, I simply create a new note in my Journal notebook and type away. But, we're here today to talk about some of the other stuff I put in there.
Similar to in my previous post, the secret sauce that will tie the social network aspect into the journal is IFTTT.com. To recap, "If This, Then That" monitors the social networks you give it access to, and when something happens that matches criteria you setup, it'll trigger an action you specify. In this case, a lot of what I wanted to pull in is covered by the default triggers and actions. When I post a status, it's pulled directly into Evernote. When post a photo, same thing. Easy!
Twitter's a bit more difficult. I'll admit, not a big fan of Twitter. I use it because I have to, because so many others use it. But, as the first network I'd axe if I could, yup, Twitter. As a result of my disdain, I rarely ever check the Twitter, so I miss things. But, not anymore! I've setup actions so that if someone mentions me (or TEDxRochester) or sends me a message, I'm sent an e-mail. My own posts are injected into Evernote directly. Why do I have it go to e-mail? So I can see it, of course! I've then got a filter setup in Gmail to automatically forward those to my Evernote account. Two birds (it's Twitter. Tweets. Get it? Birds?), one stone.
The big drawback to this methodology is I get a very cluttered journal. My end goal is to have one note per day that I can go to. Evernote itself provides the mechanism in their Merge Note feature. Select two or more notes and you'll have a bunch of options come up. Simply choose Merge! Now, a hint: click on them in the order you want them in the merged note. I start by clicking my daily note, then my e-mails with my wife (more on that in another article) then the social network stuff notes before hitting Merge. That way, they end up in the note in that order. Done!
With these simple steps, I'm able to cull together a daily journal entry that covers a lot of what I do during the day, but it's not perfect. Still a number of things to pull in. Most importantly are the conversations between the most important person in my life, my wife! But, that's still a work in progress with lots of custom stuff to make it happen....
In the next installment, I'll tell you about the tags I put into posts and how I can use them to gain some basic statistical insight into my life. I'll also talk about some of the more esoteric data that makes its way into the life log.
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