One Year Left to Live (Thirtysomething)

Forgive me this self-indulgent entry (even though it is my blog) and note that tomorrow (March 6th) is my 39th birthday, which means I have exactly one year left to live as a thirtysomething. Soon I will on a ship sailing west to the Blessed Realm of the Elves (forgive me again for watching the LOTR movies over the rainy weekend)...

I remember turning 29 exactly 10 years ago and having an incredibly bad year. The thought of turning 30 was too much to bear. Taking stock of what has and has not been done in life became an unpleasant hobby for me. I am trying not to let those Thought Orcs creep into my head again for the coming 12 months, but we shall see.

It's a bit humbling to think that you have a vivid remembrance of your parents being your age and that the gray hairs on your head and chin seemingly lie about the youthful spirit hiding beneath them.

Isn't 40 the new 30? Please?!?

Twitter - Jumping the Shark or Blowing it Up Chief Brody-style?

For those not in the know, which is an absurd notion if you are actually taking time to read a blog, Twitter is a microblogging/network utility that allows people to send and read limited messages of 140 characters, known as "tweets" of other people who are on the network. Twitter has gotten a lot of press recently from reports of Lance Armstrong breaking news of his stolen race bike first on Twitter and the backlash from the media against congressmen who were writing and sending tweets while sitting and watching President Obama's first speech to the Legislative Branch.

The media's instant analysis of Twitter based on recent events is that it is a meaningless, self-indulgent novelty format which distracts people and further adds to the lessening attention span of people in general. To a degree right now that is true. I subscribed to Twitter and then tepidly stepped into the Twitter world, being very cautious to who I would follow on it. I am also not very extravagant with my tweets, with maybe one a day or two if I force myself. I try to keep mine more towards observational points verses "about me" thoughts, which goes more towards my "face in a crowd" persona and my uncomfortableness with the spotlight.

I am very interested in following people, looking for a spark. Much like Morpheus searching for Neo in the one decent Matrix movie, I am looking for the Da Vinci of Tweeter, that person who will elevate tweets to the art form it could be. As haiku is to poetry, so could Twitter be to blogs. It is way too early to call the artform of the tweet refined and someone will find an angle to make this so-called novelty something not to miss. Who could it be?

Sadly, President Obama is not allowed to tweet anymore. I have a friend who is posing as an international movie star and is garnering at least 50 new followers a day. Some of my favorite television programs (okay, Mad Men) have their characters "tweeting" from 1962 to us today. The possibilities are limitless, Twitter just needs to find it's Neo...

Legos = Geek Love

Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out at my friends Bryce & Kathy's apartment for a "B-Movie Night", in which a select group of people, carefully selected by Kathy, brought foodstuffs and in return were treated to a big screen treatment of the forgotten classic sci-fi 1958 flick, Queen of Outer Space, starring a comely Zsa Zsa Gabor and featuring strings of blatantly sexist remarks. It basically is about a spaceship crew from the far future. 1985, that discovers that Venus is inhabited by a race of hot women who only wear really short dresses. The rest just really sells itself.

What made the evening memorable for me was the post-movie conversation that engaged David, one of the guests. David is my age (Late 30's) but, unlike me, did not grow out of his love for Legos at age 11. He is so serious a collector of those plastic building bricks that he has a website dedicated to his projects:

Xenobuzz

Holy cow! Now, I have seen online people dedicated to Lego building, including a guy who rebuilt Yankee Stadium, but this was my first first-person encounter with a "brickhead." Now, everyone needs a hobby, I have bemoaned by someone I live with (my wife) for my collection of soccer jerseys (which topped off at 80 kits but I have been giving some away to friends' kids who love soccer), but I never considered my hobby a lifestyle choice. Go back and look at the Xenobuzz again, did you see the walls of containers full of Lego pieces? 

What made this meeting even better was one of the other guests at the party was a certified "Lego Freak", Jeff, who engaged David in a lengthy fanboy conversation the likes of which I have never heard before. Turns out there are years of Lego kits, series, color schemes and specialized piece that get the thumbs up or down from this niche fan-base. Who knew?

I even heard about a man who required that his company build him work desk made completely out of Legos. My jaw is dropped in shock...

I have to admit to being a joyful spectator to this whole conversation. It's not often that I come across a subject matter that leaves me unable to at least partially engage, being the dilettante I am.

Do you have an obscure hobby or obsession you care to share? 

The Master Plan, Vol. 1

(click on above for larger version)

See, it wasn't bad, evil or destructive. It's informative! Now you can see how I see you all on Facebook. More to come. 

Psychic iPhone

I spent the early evening in San Francisco last night attending an AIA (American Institute of Architects) event and found myself with a few free minutes to walk around my old stomping grounds between the financial district and Union Square. So I popped out my iPhone and took a few signage pics, as I am wont to do. Now how did my iPhone know it created a before and after set of my point of view when visiting this particular establishment in times past?

Social Overload

As the Facebook phenomenom continues to grip the world and I spend my spare minutes at home correlating information for the Master Plan, I have taken time to reflect on the ramifications of social networking on the human phsyche.

For those of us who have spent a good part of our lives without online computer social networking, including the thousands of years of humanity that lived prior to Al Gore's magnificant invention, life was a story with many characters involved in your own personal plotline. Some were major characters with whom you invest time and interest in and are important to the overall arch of the story. Other characters are minor, there to turn plot points, provide comic relief or add a small subplot. This is not to demean them as people, for they have their own starring roles and you were probably a minor character for them as well. In the end, minor characters come and go from your life and eventually become smiles on your face and a warm memory of a moment in time.

Which comes to my quandry about Facebook. Is it good for the human phsyche to keep all your minor characters online and in-tow? Isn't our limited brain powers better spent focusing on the people in front of us at this moment in time verses re-establishing yourself with the woman who once was the girl who sat across from you in 7th grade English class and was the primary reason for you discovering boobs? Isn't she better off being that pretty young girl in your thoughts verses the middle-aged divorcee with two kids and crow's feet you see now?

This whole FB phenom seems to be breaking the system of how life should work.

I try to look at this from the perspective of people who grew up in one place and decided to stay and settle there. Now those people do have a more continous relationship with minor life characters than those of us who had decided to go abroad from our hometowns. These people are proof that life-long social networking works but, then again, they have a constant connection to these people. For those like me, Facebook has been an instant flood of past memories and it's a bit jarring. This fact has been tough to deal with, especially since I pride myself on being open-minded to new ideas and technology.

Not that this situation has been all bad, I have reconnected with a few people from the past who really should never have walked off the stage of my life. It has also been a nice reminder (actually a revelation), that a lot of my attitudes and humor are still regional and youthful experience-based. Facebook Friend "BK", who now lives in North Carolina and hasn't lived in our shared hometown (same part of town, same catholic schooling) for the same amount of time as me (16 years) has the exact same "personality quirks" as I do. Besides feeling bad for his spouse, it's been pretty cool chatting with him and only Facebook provided that venue.

Despite those few exceptions, I think I am finally showing my age and realizing the what the new generation gap is going to be about. Based on going back to school recently and interacting regularly with young adults technically old enough to be my kids, I do believe that there is a real shift in humanity's ability to deal with ramifications of online social networking to the point where there are no ramifications. Much like the ability to read long passages of text on a computer monitor verses on hard copy (which I prefer), you are seeing the rise of a new human being, one who see no difference between friend and online friend. Who they went to kindergarten with will be a continuable acquaintance of theirs even if they move to Nepal and raise sheep on the side of a mountain or just move to San Ramon with a new job...

Basically, those of us in our 30's and 40's are stuck in a transitional generation. We, along with said genius Al Gore, may have invented the internet and all it's possibilities, but we are the last generation to actually remember living our lives without it.

The Master Plan (Spoiler Alert)

Most people know me as a rather gregarious fellow with a heart of gold but also a penchant for push-button language. I'm also a bit of a fan of Facebook, which has been a great tool for connecting, however vicariously, to people I have lost touch with due to moving forward in life. The social network has been especially good for reconciling my life prior to moving to California in 1992 to where I am currently.

It is also good for building a network based on common interests with people whom I do not know on a face-to-face basis. Some people, mostly of an older age, find that an odd thing but the newer generation takes online friends as common and acceptable. It's the future, people, get used to it.

While my wife also enjoys Facebook, she doesn't quite feel the same affection for "collecting" Facebook friends, that I do. I have read that this difference is a function of gender. Men can bond over a beer and a football game and be friends for life. Women tend to bond over deeper emotional issues, thus are a little more reserved to opening themselves up to people online unless the connection is "real" and deep.

Over the last few months I conceived an idea of what to do with my Facebook connections in commemoration of gaining 400 people. Since Facebook is not a working network, why not have fun with the whole thing. Being the born provocateur I am, I decided to add a bit of brashness and mystery to my pet project by announcing my countdown to 400 Facebook friends on my status line, nicknaming this venture as "unleashing my Master Plan." When someone inquires about said plan, I respond with the famous Fight Club quote of "The first rule of the Master Plan is NO ONE talks about the Master Plan!" I am even keeping a log of friends reactions for a future use as will be explained below. Now god bless these friends, some are giggling, some might even be freaking out, some are actually threatening to de-friend me in hopes of me never getting to the magic number. Honestly, who doesn't love a little mystery in life? I love it and I hope they are all having fun with it as well.

Oh, but I've gone too fast here, so let's step back a bit.

I am a graphic designer and have an affection for visual information. For the last few years I have truly enjoyed the blog of Craig Robinson, a british designer, world traveler, baseball (Yankees, yuck) and Liverpool (Yay!) fan. He is dynamite with info graphics and I love his breakdown of seemingly ubiquitous material and repacking it all in fascinating ways visually.

Which brings us all to today. I had decided that once I reached the 400 friend plateau (Update: Friend 400 was confirmed on Monday, 8:36pm), I would start a series of info graphics breaking down my Facebook friends into catagories from the easy (male to female) to the sublime (Friends who knew me as a smoker verses those who knew me prior to meeting my wife Johanna). It's going to be a laborious but very fun exercise and one that I totally owe a great debt to the Craig. He's the man.

So I give you, my loyal readership of 3 or so, the inside scoop. Call it an easter egg blog posting. I am not going to blow up the world, hack Facebook or destroy the world's credit history, ala Tyler Durden, though that might not be such a bad idea right about now...

Cheers!