20×2 is a tradition where 20 people are given 2 minutes to present their answer to the same hypothetical question. This year’s question was, “What if…” Kevin decided to do his on “What if Max were in charge?” Hee. Check out the video to the left. I heard someone did hers on “What if the internet didn’t exist?” My initial response: oh the horror! ’80s flashbacks with the hair and the leg warmers. Arrrrggk. I am looking forward to Kevin’s recap. Aren’t you?\
Kevin’s birthday is coming up. What should I get him?\
Auntie M wanted to know why, when, how I am going to Paris. Here’s the explanation: Kevin was asked to speak at a conference there in May. I decided to tag along. My mom even agreed to watch the kids. YAY!\
I have a meeting with Max’s new principal tomorrow. I am really tired of the run around I have been getting from the school, the district office, my dr’s office. Even the phone book and internet haven’t been useful. Grrr.\
In slightly similar news, Anne typed in a two paragraph’s of Max’s favorite reading material, The New Scientist, into a website that can determine its reading level. One paragraph came in at 9.5 (half way through first year of high school) and another came in at 15.3 (part way through third year of college). Cool, huh? Not sure how much Max actually understands since we don’t read the magazine too, but he talks about the articles a lot like he understands them. Max also enjoys reading kiddie books too, like James and the Giant Peach, so he’s fairly well-rounded. He is even starting to get into the world culture books Nana bought him.
20×2 7.0: What If?
20×2 was tonight, and I was #8 in the lineup. Max and I created the movie below, and it was shown tonight… the “world premiere” if you will. Here is it, if you want to check it out. I was thrilled that people laughed in the right spots, and it got some big applause afterwards.\
A huge thank you to the star of the movie, Max, for sitting through my silly questions and giving such thoughful answers. I’ll try to put together an outtake package of the stuff that was funny but didn’t quite fit into the 2 minutes. But, right now, it’s sleepytime!\
<embed src=”http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=153002″ quality=”best” scale=”exactfit” width=”400″ height=”300″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”></embed>
<br />
<a href=”http://www.vimeo.com/clip:153002″>20×2 2007: What If We Put Max in Charge?</a> on <a href=”http://www.vimeo.com/”>Vimeo</a>
Speechless: Injured soldiers being sent to Iraq.
Ugh
Booooooooo to Daylight Savings. The sun isn’t even up yet.
The Jaywalking Hokey Pokey
I went to dinner last night with some folks from the Ghost in the Machine panel and some of my favorite south-by pals. Kevin Smokler convince a bunch of loons into doing the Hokey Pokey in the median of South Congress. I, being a rational human being aware of his own mortality, did not. But, that didn’t stop me from filming it:\
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<p id=”HokeyPokey_480×360.flv”><a href=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>Get
the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</p>
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UFO.create(FO,”HokeyPokey_480×360.flv”);
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Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online
Today is panel number one for me at SxSW. I just got back from lunch with the panelists, and I have to say, this panel is going to be a lot of fun. I feel a little out of place, but I’m honored that James asked me to join in the fun. The panel is hopefully going to be led somewhat by the audience, but we’re probably going to talk about how being online and talking about religion has impacted our lives and our faith, and how online community both helps and hurts. It should be an interesting discussion, and one that hasn’t really taken place as SxSW before.\
I hope to be able to contribute something. James and I are both “generalists” on our blogs. We talk about whatever strikes our fancy. The other folks on our panel: Rachel, Hussein, and Gordon are all pretty specific in their subject matter. I think there’s an interesting discussion in how we use our blogs to discuss religion, and how our blogs have changed how our friends and families interact with us, and how we interact with your faiths. We’ll see what happens.\
Whatever happens, lunch was a special experience. We had six people (Gordon’s wife joined us) around a table sharing a meal, and discussing their faiths without judgement, with interest is what each other had to say and how each other related to their faiths and the “real” world. It was a lot of fun. If that same spirit carries on in the panel, we’re in for a treat. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.\
Today at 5 in 9C (or 9-something… I don’t remember).
Kevin Smokler and Dave Thomas Under Pressure
I stayed up way too late last night having fun with my SxSW pals Kevin Smokler, Dave Thomas and James McNally. I ended up driving us around to Bryan Busch’s SxSW Karaoke Kick-Off (not the real title, but close). I didn’t plan on singing anything, but I ended up doing a duet with MD of TMBG’s Don’t Lets Start, and with Dave on Shock the Monkey. The song of the night though, was Kevin and Dave’s version of Queen’s classic Under Pressure. I didn’t get the whole thing, but here’s the last minute:\
<p id=”MVI_0450_480×360.flv”><a href=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>Get
the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</p>
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var FO = { movie:”https://media.dreamhost.com/mediaplayer.swf”,width:”480″,height:”360″,majorversion:”7″,build:”0″,bgcolor:”#FFFFFF”,
flashvars:”file=http://dev.lawver.net/media/MVI_0450_480×360.flv&showdigits=true&autostart=false”
};
UFO.create(FO,”MVI_0450_480×360.flv”);
</script>
\
I think you’ll agree, it’s superior to the original is almost every way.
Quickie Update
Kevin is off for SXSWi. Every year he claims it’s a work thing and every year I swear it is “Geek Spring Break.” I have planned lots of projects around the house and fun activities to do while he is gone. Instead though, I think I will hit the store for some bonbons and lie around watching the Pussycat Dolls reality show. How many of you watched it? Come on, be honest!\
How many of you are mad at me because you can’t find orange Cadbury cream eggs at your local supermarket? I wasn’t just trying to tease you. Promise. I can’t find them at my regular store either. Poo! We were out running errands on Saturday when we ducked into a store for something quick and that is where I found them. So no orange cream eggs for me.\
Brian is a delayed speaker. He only recently started really talking. Here are some of his unique pronunciations, saved for posterity:\
Airplane= Sissy. I don’t know why. It was one of his first words.\
Thank You= Go. Yes is also Go, even though he can say “yes.” Can only tell meaning by context.\
Triangle= Up and down and around. Cuz that is how you draw them, duh.\
Rocket= Rocky. At least he’s close with this one.\
Maxi= Batty. Kevin likes to joke that he is saying “butt.” Max isn’t amused.\
Muffin= Frossies. Again, I have no idea why.\
Seep= See. Wow, he almost gets this one right too!\
He still says a bunch of words we don’t understand, but he has come along way in the last 3 months. YAY!
Hello, Ficlets
It’s been a very long day, and it’s not over yet, but I couldn’t let the day be done until I posted about this. Today, we took the covers off of the project that I’ve been working on for the past three months: ficlets. It started as this little thing I was going to do all by myself to learn Rails, and ended up what you can see over on the site.
I don’t even know what to say about it, really. Cindy, Jason and I have been dancing around it so long on twitter, calling it Ape Shirt, that talking about it now in the open feels kind of weird. But, here we are. There’s more information about what it all means on the ficlets blog.
Ficlets is very much an experiment (we like to call it “a prototype we just happened to launch”), and this is our very first release (we’re the first product in AOL to roll out on Rails, so we’ve still got stuff to learn about it…). So, things may go weird and wonky from time to time. Just give it a minute, and then reload.
I am truly fortunate to work at a company where I can get away with stuff like this. This started as my own little thing to do on the side. When I realized that it was actually a pretty cool idea and that I didn’t have the time or talent to do it all myself, I presented it at a meeting, and the next thing I know, I’m working on it full time with a small team of amazingly talented people. It was a pirate project in the best sense of the word. We didn’t really do a project plan or start with a big committee. It was four people in a room, working towards something we were all geeked about. From the beginning, we treated it like we were in a startup, very few rules, no defined roles (except that I got two votes, and Kerry got three). It worked so well, and we had too much fun designing and building it.
I never imagined it would look so good, or be so much fun. For that, I have to thank the designers who worked most closely on it: Cindy Li, Ari Kushimoto, Jenna Marino, and Jason Garber, who did 99% of the markup (all the good stuff), the CSS and most of the javascript (I worked on it some, I swear). We make such a great team, and I’m so proud of the work we did. We had lots of other help too, from folks who helped design the stickers, buttons and shirts for SxSW: Shadia Ahmed and Jayna Wallace, to the folks who played around with concepts early on: Elisa Nader, Elsa Kawai, Tom Osborne and Justin Kirk.
There are tons of people to thank, and a lot of people helped out. We had tons of support and “air cover” from Kerry and text and language help from John, Amy, Suzie, Nancie and Erin. My pal Tony was an immense help figuring out how to deliver everything in working order to the Greatest Ops Guy in the World, Dan, and Kelly helped us bend a few rules to get all the other opsy bits in order at the last minute. We had legal help from Holly and Regina. And my bosses let me steal Jason, and go work on it, so big thanks to Alan and Bert too.
This has been so much fun, I think we should do it again. I have big plans for our little story site…
One last thing… if you’re going to be at SxSW Interactive this weeked, come find me. We’ve got some lovely stickers and buttons to hand out (while supplies last). I should be pretty easy to spot. I’ll be the big fat guy with the ficlets shirt on (well, for two days… ).
Now I have to go finish packing!
The Amazing Mr. Chipman
The Amazing Mr. Chipman strikes again. First, it was his great sculptures (OK, before that, it was all his javascript toys). Now, he’s gone and turned Cindy’s frightening portrait of me into an almost more frightening drawing. You can see the whole thing progress, which is even cooler than the final product.\
I have amazing friends.