Archive for the ‘misc’ Category

Several things happened this week to draw my life into sharp perspective. First, I realized I’ve been making tiny changes to the same eight documents for the last eight months; granted these documents make up a larger project and encompass several programming languages. But the damage was done before I could really rationalize my way out of it. This then lead me to the realization that my life’s work as of this moment fits comfortably onto a two-hundred fifty-six megabyte flash drive, a three quarter by two inch piece of plastic attached to my keyring.

Right now, I’m not managing anyone or anything. I write isolated (for now) code that one other designer–despite a good nature and eagerness to learn–invariably ruins when trying to use it. I find myself in meeting after meeting being asked to pantomime some measure of authority or involvement, only to be shown time and again that my only real function is as a pair of hands and a walking CSS reference.

Sometimes this makes me want to start a tomato farm or a pizza parlor. Coupled with my commute it’s all I can do to drag my carcass to the car every morning. It certainly doesn’t imbue me with much enthusiasm about my work, except for being home with my wife cooking and playing XBox 360.

So today I made a mix for my wife. The best code I’ve written in months is part of the package. Here’s to the things that keep us going.

When George Bush declared, in response to negative feedback about the then-nascent war on terror, “you’re with us, or you’re against us,” he undoubtedly had no idea he was following in the footsteps of King Leonidas of Sparta. But as Frank Miller and the screen writers of ‘300′ would have us believe, that’s exactly what he was doing.

‘300′ is a fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, wherein Sparta (not alone mind you, but as part of a “coalition of the willing”) fought a statistically superior Persian conscript army to the death in defense of a narrow passage to Greece. In particular the film is concerned with the valor of King Leonidas and has merry band, who held the pass for three entire days before they were ultimately obliterated. The resistance, though very costly to the outnumbered Greeks, ultimately set Xerxes I up for a defeat at Plataea some years later.

This is one of the classic stories of human valor in the face of almost certain death; of the ability of a few to overcome the tyranny of the many. This story has nothing to do with homeland security, WMD’s, secret torture camps or no-fly lists; but in the darkened theatre as I watched these rippling Spartans slash their way through row upon row of hapless, Scimitar wielding Islamist extremists I was unable to avoid the parallel. Such connections are easy to draw, in a world where commercials for the Marines air in between segments of American Idol.

In one scene Leonidas’ manages to mock not only the feckless intellectuals who wish to prevent his launch of a preemptive military campaign against Persia, but also the girly Arcadians and their lack of a professional military or warrior class. One is reminded of the equally maligned French who, upon announcing they would not be attending the war Bush was throwing, were met with cries of “cheese eating surrender monkey” from ‘Mericans stuffing down plates full of ‘Freedom Fries.’

In Miller’s vision the Spartan is a fascist super man riddled with arrows, gritting his teeth to gut a few more magic carpet merchants before scaling Mount Olympus one last time. Before battle, cries of “ooh ah” fill the air, and utterances of love for the folks back home are not advised–lest you be compared to those namby pambies in the senate, with their logic and fondness for young boys.

It’s all quite a spectacle. Though the battle scenes are exhilarating and match the dynamism of the comic book quite well, it feels like watching a combination of Marine recruitment film, excerpts from Triumph of the Will, and something you’d see at a Texas Republican party fundraiser. So while I like a little violence, sexism and hyperstylized heroism just as much as the next guy I think I’ll stick to getting it from Fox News like everyone else and save the movies for escapism, not further programming from the state.

Had a request for this one, so I’ll leave it up here for posterity. This could be thought of as a Thai version of bouillabaisse with fewer kinds of shellfish. You’ll need…

2 Lobster tails, uncooked, cleaned and split length-wise
2 Tbsp butter
4 tbsp garlic, minced fine
2 shallots, minced fine
1/2 Cup of black beans, drained
Dried red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

*Optional:
1/2 Cup white wine, chicken stock, veggie stock
Saffron threads
Basil and cilantro for garnish

Heat the butter in a large skillet until translucent and melted, but not brown. At small bubble stage sautee garlic and shallots. Add lobster meat side down. *You may find adding some liquid at this stage is a good idea, but not much; enough to coat the bottom of the pan is fine. After about three minutes of cook time add the black beans, some of the basil* and dried red pepper flakes.

Watch to make sure the lobster doesn’t get tough. It happens fast.

Serve with a spring mix salad and couscous or rice. While eating, exclaim loudly, “have you tasted this shit!” and enjoy.

A huge part of American culture is the divide between the “cool” and the “uncool”: the “jock” and the “nerd”. SXSW proves that the two spheres of the Venn Diagram we use to talk about these disparate groups intersects quite often, and the sliver in between could easily be labeled “web 2.0 developer”.

I have to say Austin seems like a great town. I’ve been well-fed and well-beered since we arrived, with tons of interesting things to do and see all within an eight block radius. The locals seem friendly, the weather is great and the shower in my hotel blasts hot water for as long as I want it. The culture in the hallways is why we’re here though, and it’s here in droves. The chatter in the entranceways and halls is all next-gen tech and programming languages, occasionally interrupted by someone stepping away to Twitter their whereabouts to the big screens. Crumpler and Timbuk2 bags abound, and indie rock plays before, after and in between the panels. Throngs of fans descend on speakers after each panel for advice, photos and book singings.

In other words, the nerds are running the high school.

Part of me is quite happy here, the part that used to stay up late writing HTML and watching Conan O’Brien, the part that loves Yo La Tengo. But part of me feels outclassed and outgunned, having my head filled with fantastic ideas and notions that my company could never get used to or find a use for. In that way it makes me push harder to build my own app, finally launch it and feel as though I have something to contribute here rather than passively consuming. Until then, a conference like this only serves to confirm my suspicions: that I’m on the right track, that agility is key, that in-house sales forces are a detriment to selling a good app.

Something that did give me hope was yesterday’s panel on design entitled “Learning Interaction Design From Las Vegas” with Dan Saffer from Adaptive Path. Saffer began his panel by quoting Bergson — “Disorder is only an order that we cannot see.” — and proceeded to site examples where the designers of the Las Vegas strip experience showed their innate understanding of UX. Among their triumphs are multi-use design, careful adherence to use cases and user personas, and tiered functionality. They’ve cornered the market on making silk purses out of the twin sow ears of wanton consumption and unbridled avarice. Sort of like making vertical sites with loads of add positions.

I can do this after all. Maybe.

I arrived in Austin this Friday to attend the SXSW Interactive Conference. I’ll be blogging some of my experiences here, if only to have something to do at the end of a long day other than stare at the Colorado River out of my hotel window, drink tequila or sleep.

It’s a little difficult to put into words exactly how I feel about this; the notion that we’re engaged is still sinking in for the both of us. Suffice it to say, however, that I am the luckiest guy on the planet right now.

And I can’t wait to see what the future holds…

Yes, she was actually surprised — quite a feat for me. And yes we both cried like Ned Beatty in ‘Deliverance’.

Well, just in time for the heatwave I’m pulling into Elizabeth City. While getting the lay of the land I’m commiting to memory all the places with truly cold air conditioning (as the one in the living room seems to have seen better days); but all in all we’ve found this to be a friendly place with fun things to do. And if you find yourself bored the beaches and Hampton Roads are minutes away by car.
Speaking of which, I’m throwing in the freelance towel for a while and will be helping the fine folks at hamptonroads.com reinvent some of their sites. I’ve really enjoyed meeting everyone there so far, and have been encouraged already by their love for all things 37 Signals. I also really like Norfolk, which seems to be sort of metro like Washington, DC but without the women in sunglasses that are bigger than their heads elbowing each other for a better seat at the martini place, or the dudes in French cuffs double parking in front of your favorite sushi place that no one went to until the Express decided it was cool. In fact, I haven’t seen a Blackberry *yet*.
Now, I’ve touched this hot PowerBook long enough. It’s back to that tub full of ice water for me. ~

I’ve decided to officially (as opposed to an unnanounced stoppage) go on blog hiatus for a bit. The reasons for this fall rather neatly into two categories: the pity party category and the unassailable truth category. In the former category is the fact that no one really reads it much right now, what with summer being here and vacations to take and tans to achieve. There are a few of you who still do venture here from time to time to do something other than put viagara spam into my comments. And for that I thank you, which takes me to the latter category. I am sick virtually unto death of having to clean my comments of pointless, dumb, mindless junk comments everyday sometimes three times. None of my readers click it and all it does is drive MY Google page rank; that’s hardly what you spammers intended to do I’m afraid, and so in the end you just look like the asshats that you are.

In other news Memphis has been gorgeous, as was Sandbridge and Virginia Beach, VA. And Elizabeth City, NC isn’t so bad either so long as you bring a camera, your workout clothes and a deck of cards. Seeing your favorite person for this long without interruption is also good for what ails you.

Don’t worry. I’ll be back when I have something to say, and it may be sooner than you think. ~

As a musicophile, I’m bound to have some oddities in my collection that no one understands but me and five other weirdos. Chief among them are my extensive Rush album collection and the single “Right Here” by SWV, released in 1992. Three school friends with lots of church choir experience, SWV found themselves under the wing of Teddy Riley in 1991. We have Riley to thank for all those so-called “New Jack swing” records of the early Clinton years–think Boyz II Men and Blackstreet (’No Diggity’ anyone?) and you’ve got a lock on New Jack.
This record in particular, while at times being lyrically less than stellar, is a masterpiece of dense R&B production; cymbals swell, fake reeds thrum and vocals fade into the outside channels in oceans of digital reverb. Best of all an as-yet undisgraced Michael Jackson graces the choruses with a sample taken from his mid-period Columbia hit “Human Nature”. I remember this song pouring out of almost every radio in ‘North Cakalaka’ for weeks in the summer of 1992, and as such it remains one of the ultimate summer jams in my mind. It’s also the classic first single from a 90’s R&B outfit, as Riley can be heard “announcing” the group’s arrival in the opening bars, and again reminding you what name to ask for in the record store as the song fades out. But somehow despite the temptation to make this a rote exercise in hit making 101 the song manages to take on this lovely and slightly melancholy air that lends credence to the simply lyric. Anyway, nestle this one in between your favorite “Guy” remix and anything by Stevie Wonder and you’ve got yourself a hell of a summertime, windows down, we’re going to a barbecue at the park mix.

*UPDATE”
Apparently, New Edition, BlackStreet, Bell Biv Devoe, and Johnny Gill mounted a “New Jack City” reunion tour last year. And I missed the chance to get my groove on. Damn.

SWV - “Right Here”

Where has littlerobothead gone? The better question is, where hasn’t he gone? This month has seen a lot of travel, all the good kind, and has a bit more in store before July arrives. I promise a full update for anyone who’s interested. Until then you’ll find me in the usual places and some not so usual ones. ~