apologies for 2012

So I never did post a best-of list for 2012. I listened to a lot of music, but somehow very little actually stuck. In the end I felt like I could throw something together but it would be the equivalent of fakin' it.

There was certainly some interesting music. Fiona Apple and Neneh Cherry put out some pretty cool weird-good records (mad newfound respect y'all!). I mean, you can't go wrong with a name like "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do".  And Ssion did a wonderful Erasure reprisal.

But ultimately, the record that completely and totally rocked my socks off, and made the infinte-repeat playlist for the year was something that was released in 2011. Wax Idols - "No Future" on Hozac. It made a best-of list completely meaningless because nothing in 2012 came close. Yes - it is that good!

The good news is that 2013 is already starting out pretty solid - MBV, Veronica Falls, Eat Skull, Matmos ... and we're only in February.

<full disclosure>I still haven't properly listened to the Frank Ocean album, and I should pretty much stop talking about music until I do that.</full disclosure>

the new thing

This blogger thing has a new composition thing. I think I like it. Dare I post an unmediated opinion without seeking affirmation from the internet first?

safety net

I'm having lots of thoughts and feeling vaguely non-confrontational which means ixnay to the acebookfay.

So I now know at least three people that have given TEDx talks. More power to them. Really - I'm quite happy for them.

On the other hand they all seem to come from fairly privileged backgrounds, where there is a pretty massive familial safety net. I'm really curious about the demographics of the average TEDx speaker. Yes - it is really cool to see folks breaking the mould and scratching their itches and generally inspiring people to do/make/say/think interesting things. But it is much easier to go out and do these things when the price of failure is pretty low. When the worst that can happen is that you end up doing something else.

I'm really curious about what the numbers say. A TEDx talk on the demographics of TEDx mayhaps?

Reflections on the Eve of XXXV

Roman Numerals. You like that? I am on the verge of becoming ancient. Pre-historic even. I am about to be aged out of a critical demographic. After tomorrow, I will no longer be of interest to marketers targeting that oh-so-key 18-34 demographic. As the bald spot on my head grows increasingly prominent, I must confront the possibility of a looming mid-life crisis.

Am I too old for <insert thing i am supposedly too old for>? Should I have done something significant with my life by now? Am I going to fall into a reverie lamenting my place in the world, while simultaneously coming to terms with life, the universe, and everything by having a sudden epiphany about how glorious it is to be the parent of an amazing and wonderful 5 year old? (Whoa - I think that last sentence actually held together!)

This is going nowhere fast. I only have two more hours. I think I'm going to do something more productive. Like opening up a fine bottle of Mikkeller Monk's Brew. The only epiphany here is that my beer gets fancier as I get older. 

clocking in

There, there - you didn't think I'd leave you hanging without a bit of year-end list action, did you now?

Here we go:

2011 Top 10 Tings (since lists of random things seem to be in vogue these days)

1. Celebrating NYE on East Coast time

Parenting is all about tricking the mind into believing insane things.

 

2. Kolaveri Di

Translation: "Why This Murderour Rage, Girl?"

 

3. Google Plus

even if I am one of the only 6 people using it.

 

4. Spotify

 

5. Food Trucks

 

6. Folding laundry while watching sports

or is it Watching sports while folding laundry? Either way - I've discovered the most effective use of my Sundays.

 

7. The importance of the chamois patch, as it pertains to bicycling.

 

8. Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach

 

9. Reconnecting

Managed to reconnect with a lot of old peeps this year. Feeling warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

 

10. Words With Friends

More exciting than Scrabble; better FB and mobile apps.

The question is

Should I switch to Tumblr? All the cool kids are doing it.

Things I don't really get

• Golf
• IPA
• Fugazi
  
• The second amendment
• Aquatic pets (i.e. fish)
  

shiny and new

Just got a new macbook pro. I am loving the speed - 8GB RAM, quadcore, Solid State Disk. And silent. As in - "Real G's move in silence; Just like lasagna".

Anyway here is what I'm putting on there over the base install (It already comes with MS Office, Firefox, Thunderbird and Parallels).

GUI Applications
* Chrome
* TextMate
* Cocoa Emacs
* ITerm
* Dropbox
* Seashore

CLI Stuff
* Homebrew
* RVM + ruby 1.9.2
* git
* node.js

Python Stuff
* pip
* Django
* virtualenv
* yolk

javascript for all

dusting off the cobwebs

Hello there! Yes - serious cobwebage around here. (There is a 'web' pun in there somewhere, but we don't want to force it now, do we?)

In my quest for self-improvement I've started thinking about what I want to start doing better. I'm asking myself - what do I want to learn, as I head into the middle ages?

I've always been really bad at tinkering with mechanical things. I'm just not a very good fix-it-up kinda chappie. Some of this is not having the right baseline knowledge. But much of this comes from good old fashioned mental blocks. A kind of learned helplessness.

So I'm taking the horns by the bull. Or is it catching the tail by the tiger?



Pardon the digression, but really - who doesn't love a little Fraggle Rock in the middle of their epiphanies? As I was saying, I'm trying to fix my mechanical inadequacies. I've also become increasingly interested in bicycles lately (bicycles might just be replacing motorcycles as the symbol of the new urban midlife crisis, but that is a whole post in itself). Ah - bicycles! The simplest of machines - pure Newtonian physics at work. And sexy to boot.

So my new project is to get better at fixing bikes, working my way towards putting together my very own road bicycle. And hopefully, I'll learn a little about tools and grease and how mechanical things go together. Not shooting for genius level wizardry here - I'd be happy if I can simply achieve basic competence. And maybe I can start to have half a clue when my dearest beloved starts to throw down her handygrrrl skills.

the scenic route

This was a bag I had shipped from SF to Oakland. Fedex decided to ship it through San Leandro by way of Sacramento. The sad thing is that the company that makes the bag is all about zero-waste and even mails it to you in a reusable canvas mailer that you return to them upon delivery. Sigh!

rubbish

every time someone has a conversation about astrology, my instinct is to interject with a: this is a nonsensical conversation. this is inane and reductionist and insulting to generations of scientific progress.

but i don't. i smile and nod, and stop myself from being an ass. ah - the tragedy of enlightenment. but really - 2010 and we still believe in this bullshit?

1.0

Feeling re-inspired by v1.0. A lot of it is sophomoric and cringeworthy. But there are also several moments of total fucking genius. And there is some funny shit in there.

I think it was good for me to be prolific. The more I wrote, the better my stuff got. Or at least I managed to hit paydirt more often. Ya know, more darts = more chances to hit bullseye. Umm - WTF - a darts analogy? I think that might be a first.

analog

mark me down, mark me up

I've been recently introduced to Markdown. Markdown provides you with a simple syntax for creating text documentation that can be easily converted to HTML.

If you've ever used a wiki, it is pretty much the same principle. For example, headers are just underlined words. And bulleted lists can be created by simply using a bunch of asterisks. Like zis:


Title
=====
* item 1
* item 2
* item 3


What makes Markdown powerful is that the syntax is decoupled from a specific web service (such as a wiki). This means that you can write your docs in your favorite text editor (insert obligatory emacs vs. vi showdown reference), and convert it to HTML with a single command. The standardized format means you have very elegant looking README text files, that easily turn into first class html pages once passed through the Markdown converter.

There seems to be a whole eco-system that has evolved around Markdown, and it appears to be the format of choice for a number of git based code repositories. Now if only Blogger supported the Markdown syntax.

And once again, I've jumped on the bandwagon much later than I should have.

when in doubt, drop core

Now reading

Bicycle Diaries - David Byrne, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler - Italo Calvino, Pragmatic Thinking - Andy Hunt

Listening to

Brazilian Girls, The XX, Ke$ha (you heard that right - Tik Tok is Da Bomb)

On (internet) TV

Old Lost episodes, Parks and Rec, NBA playoffs

Drinking ...

Ritual Coffee, Beckman Vineyards 2008 Cuvee Le Bec (I bought a case - seriously!)

Current internet hangouts

The Changelog, Mashable, Signal Versus Noise

games

Lately, I've been on a mini-quest to find interesting, well-crafted games that are playable in your browser. I am less concerned with the challenge or level of difficulty associated with a game. Rather, I focus on aesthetics, innovation and ideas. Games that are works of art. Stuff that makes me go Wow! within the first 5 minutes of play. You get the idea.

So if you have any suggestions send them my way. I tend to like logic and puzzle based games, but I'm open to anything that pushes the boundaries of design and concept.

I'll offer up an exhaustive list of my findings down the road. You can get started with these two fantastic gems that I've run into:

• Continuity
  
• Auditorium
  

happy 3

although it sometimes feels like the personal blog has gone the way of Diaryland (remember Diaryland?!!) and that this seems a bit like making sound in a vacuum, it is nice to pop in here now and then. must make sure those database tables are getting exercised every once in a while.

very nice little birthday party in the park for the (not so) tiny (anymore) one. managed to find a balance between grown-up conversation and enjoying the kids playing in the park, which is something that i've been striving towards for the better part of three years now. when you can seamlessly work your way through Raaaaaaaandy, nap schedules, Ruby-On-Rails, indie rock coloring bocks, bike geekery, preschool politics and 90s hiphop, I think you can safely declare WIN.

yes - have to drop a link to Aziz Ansari's genius Raaaaaaaandy videos.

ended the evening with a rare night out - De La Soul show at Yoshi's SF. they've totally still got it going on. thanks for a great birthday weekend tinu.

top 10 tings o' 2009

Dominant memes in my personal zeitgeist for the year:

• Ruby-on-Rails


• Bicycle fever


• Twitter


• School days for the family D.


• Aunt Mary's Cafe


• Travel travel travel


• Sesame Street


• weddings


• Infinite Jest


• The farmer's market

Stuff that hasn't been getting as much play:

• DJing at KALX


• Trivia night at the Nomad Cafe


• Java


• The New Yorker


• International business trips


• Yoga


• Blogging


• 43 folders


• The afternoon nap


• Live shows

naughtie naughtie

there seems to be a backlash against the "lifehack" type productivity blogs. apparently the productivity gurus realized that people seemed to be spending more time diddling with productivity pr0n than actually getting things done. merlin mann of 43 folders has had some particularly lucid rants that are worth reading, in and of themselves.

it looks like we are starting to see casualties from the naughts. 5 years from now we'll all be like - "lifehacks - those were so naughties". That said, I'm not sure that the term naughtie or aughtie or whatever the hell we are calling this decade will make it that far either.