If you're short on time, watch our Bromance is Gone music video. Everyone put in a lot of work, and I think it came out well. Enjoy, bitches!]]> http://www.sixfoot6.com/archives/2008/05/the-eeny-meeny.html http://www.sixfoot6.com/archives/2008/05/the-eeny-meeny.html Thu, 08 May 2008 09:50:44 -0800 I'm very much enjoying the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows. In case you missed last week's music industry buzz, follow that link to download a digital copy of the album at whatever price you'd like to play. A good deal.

Though it opens with a burst of Hail to the Theif energy, the lyrics and melody of Rainbows feel more like 1995's The Bends than their moe recent records. It's still 21st century experimental artrock, but after 3 listens I'm reminded of lovesongs like Fade Out and the most beautiful shimmering moments of Kid A. Such lovely, layered production. [Note: insert clever meaningless phrase here like, "An overcast Pet Sounds for the earbud generation".] A solid next step for the band.

In case you grabbed the digital download and want a pretty picture for your iPod, check out these cover art ideas for In Rainbows on hicksdesign.

Please, log into the PanelPicker and vote for my panel! It's going to be crap awesome, and you'll walk with a smile and a better understanding of what that smile means to your brain and to the people around you.

Vote for me, or may all your work be insufferable.

No, that model doesn't quite hold. Let's be bold and honest with each other, dear website. We haven't had a truly intimate relationship in about 4 years. You were the good friend I used to go drinking with every night, but once you helped me get a full time job in your office, I got sick of seeing your face. Now after quittin' time I'm ready to step away from the internet. I've got a wife and a house, website. Our friendship can only go so deep.

Here's my simplest confession: I believe my priorities are the right ones. But every time I put a creative idea on the back burner (an occurrence now more and more frequent) a small pair of eyes inside me cries, just a little.

Apple isn't showing us stylized people dancing with iPod headphones. They're not showing us the physical product flying through swirly animations with fast motion and "Hello Moto" catch phrases. There's no MSN butterfly to distract us or XP landscapes to convince us that What You Do Will Be More Fun.

After 30 years of personal computers, 25 years of video game consoles, 20 years of digital watches and microwaves, 15 years of ATM proliferation, 12 years of the internet, 8 years of cell phones in our pockets, and 5 years of touch screens in airports and subway stations, good interface design has become something that everyone can appreciate. It's become a primary selling point for the general public, and soon it'll be a requirement.

You can't put that shit back into the bag.

[Note: just pushed some changes to Southers Marsh.com for Will. Slideshow script, Flash video, couple of design tweaks. Hotness.]

So rather than fighting to fit more in (work, projects, ideas, media, people), I'm trying to let go a bit. Realistic priorities. Remember when I was a Let Go sort of person? I do. Funny enough, spring hit (here in the SB, at least) and brought changes. This calls for another ordered list:

Maybe all of this modern grownuppedness (marriage, proper job, multi-responsibilities, travel, settling down far from home) has up-kodakchromed those lazy days of college summers: chicken on the grill, croquet on the lawn, smoke on the patio, the guys in the pond. No plans, just one day at a time. Those were always the glory days, but now the music cheats, presenting them as some kind of high water mark, no longer accessible.

So the counter-attack is clear: do whatever it takes to fill every new night, weekend and vacation with the joy of those days, and then some. The music itself doesn't know any better.

Personal goals and guidelines for this year:

1. Take notes during panels, only as necessary. At the end of each day, distill each panel down to a 3 sentence lesson that I can post here and refer to later for inspiration and action.
2. When notes aren't necessary, close the damn laptop and look the speakers in the eye.
3. Note the podcast URLs of great panels I couldn't get to.
4. When it comes to lunch and bar outings, stop trying to please everybody all of the time. If the administration overhead gets rough, bail.
5. Find a small goup of people during nighttime activities, just like the old days. As Break Bread With Brad taught us on Friday night, there's not much rewarding about giant parties. And they're only going to get bigger.
6. Get to know 3 new people every day. Have an in-depth conversation with one of them
7. Introduce myself to anyone who's standing around alone. Everyone likes to talk, but none of these indoor geeks know where to start.
8. Drink less, get up early, take advantage of the free Residence Inn buffet breakfast daily.

We'll see how many of these are possible. I can't believe how many people are hear this yeaar. It's like a festival rock show.

Jenny and I have had a fantastic & busy couple of months in SB, with her new job as a producer/editor for the local ABC station; lots of cool design projects for me, a visit to NYC to meet the whole PlusThree team, not to mention the birth of my new niece Danika last weekend. Plenty of babysitting in store.

I managed to sleep a bit last night, and I'm excited to see my geek friends, to play with legos and to relax, learn and socialize. Keep tabs on me via Flickr and Twitter (see the updated "Stuff I'm doing block on the front page of this site), and I'll try to post here regularly during the trip. Time to start writing more, eh?

Here's a list of 30 theoretical iPhone uses you may not have considered. Have other suggestions? Add a comment.

I hit up the Santa Barbara DMV yesterday to renew my Cali license. It felt like a luxury cruise compared to some experiences I've had (talk to me after you've spent 3 hours at the Van Nuys DMV) but I still had to wait for the usual red tape - numbers to be called, people exasperated at rules that can't be bent, English mixing with Spanish.

I stood in the "Start Here" line, form in hand, and looked over at the wall. There, staring sternly down at all of the dozens of people waiting to get out of there, was this portrait of Arnold Shwarzenegger. I actually laughed out loud. In a split second my mind ran threw every possible reason why a portrait of Arnold might be hung in a DMV (a symbol of strength and efficiency; whining will not be tolerated; an inside joke; one of the counter ladies is a huge fan; someone found it in the parking lot; pure irony). Then I remembered the real reason: he watches over this bureaucracy.

Picture it. Two dozen people sitting in blue chairs, standing at brown counters. After everything he's accomplished, Arnold hangs on the wall of the DMV.

I was the same way, 5 years ago. Until I'm better embracing the part of me that remembers creation is mandatory, here's a list of what I've been up to. Sometimes you've gotta dump the brain cache of potential posts to make room for fresh material, for life.

• 8/9: Bachelor party in Vegas. Cracks me up to think about it.
• 8/12: Married Jenny on a truly beautiful day. All wedding receptions should have a bouncy castle. Check out 94 formal photos from the wedding. Or thumb through 600 candids from our wedding day. Or hold your breath until we pick a manageable set of 50.
• 8/17 - 9/1: Honeymoon in Thailand. Fun and relaxing.
• October: One of the best New England autumns I can remember. I made it a point to go jogging for a few minutes each day. The sun, the air.
• 10/6: Started a new full time job with PlusThree after considering multiple offers. They've got me doing interface design (Photoshop, XHTML, CSS), big rollouts for political campaigns & non-profits. It's great working from home with structure and project management. (designed book site for Edwards, working on this). Thanks to Rusty for helping me get the job. (again).
• 10/7: Spent the day in Salem to celebrate my friend Hollis's 30th birthday. What a nice, witchy town.
• 10/21: My PC died its final death when I sat down (under the influence) to show my friend Jake the video for Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Shut down and never turned on again. Good riddance.
• 10/22: Bought a 24" iMac from the Apple Store in Braintree, MA, along with a copy of Parallels to browser-check XP in realtime. With me second monitor, it's the ideal system. Wish I could have done this years ago.
• 10/26: Rigged the "Stuff I have Created" section atop the Sixfoot6 front page to load random items on refresh. More coming.
• 11/7: Flew to NYC with Rusty to visit the company office and see friends. Fantastic to be there for the elections - all our candidates won. Such optimism, the mood at the Drinking Liberally party on election night. Sipping coffee while staring out of a 27th floor window, in NYC on business, it occurred to me that I'm an adult. It's nice, and I'm not bad at it.
• 11/10 - 11/17: After 13 wonderful months, left Massachusetts behind (again) and drove west. A crying mother is never an easy thing to bear. I miss my parents, my backyard, downtown Plymouth, Molly, Josh and Dave. A good drive, my 7th cross country leg - Boulder and salt flats in Utah were highlights.
• 11/23: Thanksgiving in Santa Barbara. I played with my nephew and our friends' daughter, Etta. Back in Mass, my parents had no children around for the holiday : (
• 11/30: The first of three McPilgrim shows at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. Catch us at 9pm on Dec 7th or 14th, performing with another comedy troupe. Felt good to be on stage again.
• 12/1: My Nintendo Wii arrived, a housewarming gift to ourselves. Best thing ever. Tennis! Zelda! I agree with Jason's Wii thoughts. And once i figured out how to catch fish, Zelda has been a blast.
• 12/2: Jenny and I moved into our new house here in Santa Barbara, a beautiful 3 bedroom home near the Santa Barbara Mission. It's good to have warm weather and our own space again. Now we just need to unpack.

Now I need to massage my somewhat creative brain. And buy some groceries.

At the bottom of the ballot, an impressive unexpected question #4: Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would make possession of less than one ounce of marijuana a civil violation, subject to a maximum fine of $100 and not be subject to any criminal penalties?

second: the October switch into autumn proper, the leaves change color and the nights cool; there are colors everywhere. phase 2 is the autumn we fantasize about. cool enough for flannel and sweatshirts, no need yet for heavy coats.

the cusp between 2 and 3 is everything i long for.

sometime between the end of daylight savings and halloween that final fall finally kicks in, trees swaying leafless, nights getting cold. it was warm today, (some seasonal phase jumping, thank you, global warming) but with the 4:30 sunset now in full effect, i know it's time to go away again.

i move west in 10 days, probably for good.

and i'm thinking: naturally one would dream about things one does all day, for what feeds a dream? then it occurred to me that i spend every day staring at computers for hours, and i never dream about computers. i never dream about using computers. or watching tv or movies for that matter. rusty suggested that maybe these experiences get written directly to memory, don't need to be reviewed and o'erhashed. as if data fed straight to the mind sublimates symbolism. i thought perhaps our dreaming mind evolved within this physical and social world could only assemble narrative based on tangible people, places, objects. movie stars always become people in the room.

but what if it's just that screens have nothing to offer your dreams? maybe computer interaction is just as dreamformation-dense as staring at a bare white stucco wall. and that night, when you fall asleep after working too long a day, all there is to REM refrag is one single image of the coffee mug you held in your hand during a long workday.

Sip. Sip. Stand. Sip.