Create more, consume less.

My New Year's resolution.

Image by Ian Soper

David Tate has a great recent post on this - 
http://blog.davidtate.org/2011/12/the-dangerous-effects-of-reading/

I licked, therefore I won.

To those who have never been to SXSW Interactive, it is a crazy, crazy scene. Thousands of people everywhere down by the Austin Convention Center. There were almost 20,000 badge holders this year. If you include people like me, who were just there for the spectacle of it all, there might have been close to 23,000 people there.

This year, I went to SXSW Interactive badge-less. Due to a heavy workload in the months leading up to this year's SXSW, I decided it wasn't going to be worth it to get a badge, especially since I wasn't going to be able to make it to many sessions. Based on my experience from last year, a lot of people at SXSW are there mainly for networking purposes and could care less about the panels. There is a lot to do and see during SXSW Interactive, even if you don't have a badge. From the Apple pop-up store to the cheap/free food, there were still a lot of compelling reasons to try to make it downtown this year. And, by the end of this post, you'll see that I stumbled upon another great reason to fight the crowds and hassle and get to SXSW Interactive, with or without badge.

In recent years, SXSW Interactive has become the place to announce/debut the latest/greatest app. Twitter arrived on the scene at SXSW in 2007, while Foursquare made their big splash in 2009. As a result, now every up-and-coming company tries their best to tap into the SXSW vibe/zeitgeist in hopes of achieving the same results as Twitter and Foursquare.

I made it down to the Austin Convention Center around 2pm on Saturday, March 12. I had read that Mike Tyson was going to be making an appearance at Screenburn to debut his new iPhone app, and thought that would be as good a place to start as any. I grew up watching the rise and fall of Iron Mike, and thought it'd be neat to see him in person, maybe even get a photo with him, nibbling on one of my ears. Apparently, not only has he turned over a new leaf, but he's also turned into quite the renaissance man! When not developing iPhone applications, he's busy raising racing pigeons. He also helps people break their Angry Birds addiction, so if you fall into that category, give him a call! Unfortunately, I got the days wrong, and he wasn't scheduled to appear until the following day. I was disappointed at first, but it turned out for the best, as it seems his appearance drew a large crowd the next day.

Feed me!

After that, I dropped by the Circus Mashimus lounge and chatted with a couple of developers from Lulu.com. They offer a very cool Publication API that allows you to create your own web applications as well as publish your own books. They were running a contest. To enter, you just had to publish an eBook through their API. Gavin from Lulu and Ben, a developer who has used the Publication API to create Before I Grew Up both encouraged me to enter the contest. At that time, there hadn't been many people who took up the challenge, and they told me my odds at winning would be pretty good. They attributed it to most people were busy networking or partying, and not really interested in doing much else besides that after a long day traipsing around the Convention center. So after I got home that night, I went ahead and entered the contest. The Publication API was as easy to use as advertised. (If you're looking for an easy to use open-publishing platform, this is it.) It took me less than 30 minutes to complete the task, and I was done. I didn't think much else of it at the time and soon after that, met up with some other badge-less friends and went exploring outside the Convention Center.

That's when we ran into a tiger, parrot and jungle keeper/balloon artist who were letting people know about the Socialcam Challenge. Sponsored by Socialcam, Hipmunk and AirBNB, the grand prize was a trip for two to a private island! While intrigued by the prize, I didn't think much else of it at the time, as we were hungry and looking for free food. That being said my friend Vina got a very cool balloon hat from the jungle keeper!

Awesome hat!

While I was not familiar with Hipmunk or AirBNB before this encounter in the street, I had heard of Socialcam, due to my coworker Chris Cain (aka Captain Internet, for his ability to find the most random things online). From the folks at Justin.tv, Socialcam officially launched on March 7, and was referred to early on as the "Instagram for Video". The goal of the application is to provide an easy and simple way to upload videos from your phone to then share on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. The week before SXSW, Chris was aware that I was thinking of going to  badge-less, and suggested I should use the Socialcam app to broadcast my upcoming escapades. I thought that wasn't a bad idea at the time, and so I installed it onto my HTC Evo. Based on a brief test, it seemed like a pretty cool app, but up till that point, I hadn't done much with it. While waiting for the jungle keeper to finish his masterpiece, I remembered I had the app installed, and decided to test it out again. The app worked fine, but I didn't think the video I recorded of the making-of-the-balloon-hat was worth uploading and promptly deleted it. By this point, we were all really hungry, and thankfully found the free grilled-cheese sandwiches being given away by GroupMe.

Thanks GroupMe!

After that, we walked past the Glennz Tee's pop-up store, and we decided to pop-in (hah!). I've actually been a fan of Glenn's work for awhile now. He's a great artist and his designs are very humorous and clever, without being obscene. I was actually wearing one of his t-shirts that day and proudly showed it off to one of the guy's staffing the store. He then asked me if I would like to meet the man himself! I said of course, and out came Glenn! I told him how much I liked his work, we talked about some of his more recent designs and he told me that the store was doing well, and he seemed happy to meet someone who appreciated his work. After the obligatory photo with Glenn, we left the store to continue our quest for more exciting things to do. We hadn't gone far when one of the Glennz Tee's employees came out and handed me a couple of shirts, courtesy of Glenn. This whole experience has pretty much cemented Glenn's position at the top of my list of t-shirt designers. Do yourself a favor, and go buy yourself a tee from Glenn!

Glennz fan!

 After that, we stopped by the Pepsi Max Stage/Lot, played some actual foursquare (sponsored by the folks from Foursquare), grabbed a few free drinks, and then decided to call it a day. I was satisfied with the day's events to feel like that was enough SXSW 2011 for me, and didn't go back on Sunday.

On Monday, I was at work when I found out via this tweet from Lulu that I had won the their api contest! I had one of my friend's who was still at SXSWi that day (SXSW Interactive ran through Tuesday) pick up the the prize for me. The fact that I won actually reminded me of the video contest by Socialcam. I went ahead and visited the Socialcam Challenge contest page again, as well as viewed some of the other entries that had been submitted. The fact that I wasn't impressed by any of the entries up to that point (kissing the tiger, really?) made me think I still had a good chance of winning the contest, if I could just come up with a clever enough idea.

Basically, the goal was to come up with the most interesting, funny, ridiculous, goofy, entertaining video recorded using the Socialcam app that would meet one of the following five challenges:

1. Lick something
2. Sing like a rockstar
3. Do your best dance move
4. Barrel roll
5. Find the animals
6. Choose your own adventure

Out of the above challenges, to me, the one that is inherently the most funny, is licking something.

Thanks to countless viewings of A Christmas Story, and the fact that I always cringe and laugh when I see the above scene with Flick, Ralphie and the frozen pole, I decided that was the challenge I should go for.

Since I didn't want to involve the fire department, I knew I had to lick something that was less hazardous to my health, but funny and relevant at the same time. That was when the light bulb went off, and I thought, "iPad 2!" It wasn't that hard really to think of it, since it had just come out and was in the collective geek/nerd consciousness. I think just about every article in my Google Reader made some mention of the latest and greatest must-have gadget from Apple, and so it was definitely on my mind. I went to bed that night, knowing that I had the general idea for what could be a decent video.

The next day, Tuesday March 15th, I woke up, unsure of my idea and whether I should proceed with it. It would actually be quite convenient, since I work within a 5 minute walk from an Apple store. I went ahead and asked the Socialcam folk via Twitter whether it was worth entering the contest still. See their reply here. Based on that encouraging tweet, I asked a couple of coworkers if they could assist me with a non-work related task during lunch. The first person I asked who agreed to do it ended up being unavailable, which was quite fortuitous, since the other person turned out to be the best videographer/producer/partner-in-crime I could have hoped for. When I told Jonathan what I was planning to do, he thought it was a great idea, and we immediately started bouncing ideas off each other. Jonathan actually came up with the catchphrase I use at the end of the video.

By the time we walked over to the Apple store, we had formulated a plan. Since neither of us had actually seen the iPad 2 yet, we decided that we would first go in, check out the iPad 2 and the store layout, do a dry run of the video, then leave the store and come back and actually record it the second time.

However, the perfect opportunity presented itself as we were about to leave the store. The person using the iPad 2 closest to the end of the display row against the wall had just walked away. Jonathan and I both looked at each other and I think we realized it was now or never, so we decided to go for it. In case you haven't seen it yet, here it is....



I don't think Jonathan expected me to actually go through with both the licking and the shouting, "I licked it, it's mine!" at the end. Thankfully, he was able to keep recording through his giggling fits. I was also surprised at the lack of reaction from the people in the store. I guess people have come to expect crazy shenanigans in the Apple store these days. My stunt seems pretty tame by comparison.

Jonathan and I returned to the office, pleased with our "accomplishment". One of the cool things about Socialcam is that it uploads the video as soon as you are done recording it, so the video was already up on the interwebs by the time we returned to the office.

That same day, I found out that the folks at Socialcam liked my video, via a tweet, going so far as to declare my video "awesome". Since the contest ended that night, I thought to myself that was a pretty good sign. In the meantime, Jonathan went into full "PR" mode and started tweeting the link to the video.

I was resigned to waiting until the 31st, since that was when the contest rules said they would announce their decision. So, I was greatly surprised to read this on the following Tuesday afternoon, March 22 -

As you can imagine, I jumped up and down with glee, to the surprise of my coworkers sitting nearby, then ran over to inform Jonathan. He was genuinely happy for me, and to his credit, did not immediately ask to accompany me to Fiji. For the rest of the day, it was pretty difficult to concentrate at work, I must admit.

Why did my video win? According to Socialcam on their blog, it was for "audacity, viral success, nerd cred, and for the fact that it made our entire office laugh our butts off". Mission accomplished. ;)

The entire video contest turned out to be a great success for Socialcam as well, as described in this Mashable piece that came out the next day, entitled "Man licks Ipad 2, Wins Trip to Fiji". They created a lot of interest in their app with the contest, and had around 150,000 new accounts created during SXSW.

Whew, after this long recap, I think I'll just end this blog post with a tweet from my friend upon hearing the news that I won the contest.

Moral of the story: go to SXSW next year, and enter every contest you can. Who knows, you just might win yourself a trip to a deserted island, and in the process, make your spouse very, very happy.

PS. I think I started a new fad.

Great Expectations: TEDxAustin 2011

This past Saturday, I spent the day with 500 "thought leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, performers and innovative doers" at TEDxAustin 2011.

To those who are unfamiliar with TED, it's basically a gathering of thought leaders in the technology, entertainment and design fields, with the stated mission of spreading ideas. The annual TED conference held in Long Beach, California costs $6,000 to attend and it's not an easy ticket to get. Due to the high cost, and the very successful people who get invited to attend, TED has been accused of being elitist. One way TED has tried to counter that accusation is by releasing all their presentations online. Like many of you, this was how I was first introduced to TED.

There are now many TEDx (local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience) conferences held around the world. Austin had it's first TEDx gathering last year, at the former Austin City Limits studio, with an invited audience of 300 people. They doubled the size this year (as well as doubled the cost to attend, from $50 to $100) and hosted it at the Austin Music Hall.

With that rather lengthy explanation, this will be my attempt to recap what I experienced at TEDxAustin 2011. The Digital Savant has already done a fantastic job of reviewing the event, so there's no need for me to get into as much detail. I'll just use this opportunity to review my thoughts about the day.

First thing I'd like to mention is that I'm not sure how I got accepted to attend this rather exclusive gathering. Note in my first paragraph I didn't write "500 OTHER thought leaders, entreprenuers, scientists, performers and innovative doers" because that would imply I'm one of the above. While I wish that were the case, the truth is much more boring - I'm just your average modern day internet professional, with a minivan, 2 young kids, and an awesome wife who agreed to let her husband spend the entire Saturday at this event.

Registration and breakfast began at 9am. The breakfast bar consisted of yogurt, granola, muffins and bread. It was literally a breakfast bar, as the food was served on the downstairs bar, under very dim lighting. During breakfast I was able to meet a few people, who all had varied backgrounds. From the wind engineer to the director of a radio station to the software engineer at the Workforce commission one thing they all had in common was that they were quite excited about TEDxAustin, and had high expectations for the day. I also had very high expectations for the day, just based on my experience with TED and the quality of the talks that I've watched before online. And I think that was the reason why I walked away from TEDxAustin 2011 a little disappointed. I think I set the bar a bit too high, and what I was hoping for probably wasn't even possible. My hope was to walk away from the day full of inspiration, motivation, and a desire to take action on great ideas. And while many of the speakers presentations were inspiring, controversial and even tear-inducing, I don't know how well they addressed the topic of TEDxAustin, which was "Right Now". As in, what can we do "Right Now" to cause change, to act, to do something, anything. I heard a lot of grand ideas, but not much practical application, or handles.

Regarding the actual production and organization of the event, it was first-rate, all the way. I walked away with a tremendous amount of respect for all the work that went into organizing and producing such an event. From the well-designed handouts, to the seating area, surrounded by black curtains, and referred to throughout the day as "the black box", it was very, very well-done. This was demonstrated by the opening musical performance by Mother Falcon, a local Austin "pop-chamber orchestra" group, consisting of mostly teenagers and 20-somethings. It was a great opening act, and they sounded great. So great in fact, that I'm considering taking my wife to see them this Sat at their new cd release concert.

The first speaker of the day, Sunny Vanderbeck, a venture capitalist with Satori Capital, gave an excellent presentation on sustainability and conscious capitalism. A few choice quotes - "Business has lost its way." "Purpose - the nonfinancial reason for existence." "Capitalism is the most powerful force in the world. Want to change the world? Change capitalism." Besides having the most well-designed slides of the day, he also had one of the clearest presentations, and made the entire topic of conscious capitalism easy to understand and grasp.

He was followed by Dr. Ralf Wagner, who spoke on synthetic biology, aka genetic engineering. Unfortunately, Dr. Wagner wins the award for most poorly-designed slides of the day. His topic, while definitely an interesting one, was also chilling to me, in its implications. He stated from the start that he and his company Gene Art were not interested in "playing God", but yet later on he had a slide that showed a three-eyed frog, framed in a positive light. His talk piqued my interest again when he showed pictures of algae farms and described how these could be harvested as an alternative engery source, and turned into biodiesel fuel.

After that we were shown a talk given by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron last year. I've embedded it below, and it's definitely worth watching sometime.



This was one of the three TED talks that were recorded from other TED gatherings and that were shown to us throughout the day. All three of these talks were excellent, but I question the wisdom of showing these recorded talks, for the following reasons - 1. In hindsight, all three talks were better than most of the live presentations given that day, and thus it seems to diminish the value of the live speakers 2. The recorded sessions came across as time-fillers, as in, "we couldn't find another speaker, so here's a great session from somewhere else!" 3. I'd never seen those three talks before, so they were new and fresh to me, but I'm sure others in the audience had seen them before, so there was less value for them to see them again.
Update: Stacy Weitzner informed me that TED requires that recorded talks be shown as a part of every TEDx event.

After the Cameron video, Robyn O'Brien , aka "the Erin brockovich of food" gave a moving presentation on how she became a food advocate. A reaction that one of her kids had to a food product caused her to ask this question - "How can children be allergic to food?" She started doing research and found evidence that the food industry and the government started allowing genetically modified food to be introduced into the US food supply without adequate human testing. It was interesting how Robyn's anti-genetic engineering talk came soon after Dr. Wagner's presentation on the benefits of genetic engineering. Maybe that's why the organizer's decided to show us David Cameron's talk in between, as a sort of TED-buffer. O'Brien's presentation also received the first standing ovation of the day as well. While her story is moving, I was disappointed that she didn't present any real suggestions, besides buy organic food, even though it costs more.

The next speaker was in my opinion, the most inspiring of the day, which looking back, is not good, since we were still in the morning session. Gilbert Tuhabonye was almost killed as a young boy in Burundi. His message of forgiveness and living your life with joy was quite touching. The group he founded, Gilbert's Gazelles, now helps raise money to bring clean water to Africa. He also received a standing ovation, deservedly so.

After Gilbert's speech, we broke for lunch, which consisted of a sandwich meal from Whole Foods, which was served upstairs. The line was long, but moved quickly. This was where I first saw the amazing photographic work of Esther Havens. She calls herself a humanitarian photographer, and rather than show the typical "starving child in Africa" photo, she tries to "capture stories that transcend a person's circumstance that reveal the strength of an individual regardless of the situation in which they find themselves". If you take a look at her work, I think you'll agree she does a great job of it.

The second session after lunch had some very good presentations - Osama Bedier spoke on the future of payments and how the size of two horses behinds were the reason "behind" the limitation of one of the greatest modes of transportation of all time, the space shuttle. It was a great demonstration of how much we are constrained by the past.

Sylvia Acevedo, an education advocate, discussed how Texas is one of the few states (along with California and Florida) that is experiencing a baby boom, and how this will either be a tsunami that wipes us out here in Texas, or a wave of opportunity, similar to the nationwide baby boom of the 40s and 50s and how it ushered in unprecedented times of prosperity. Her main points were 1. Get informed 2. Be proactive, not reactive 3. Choose your line (choose where you want to go), choose your future.

Gregory Kallenberg, the director of the award-winning documentary Haynesville spoke next. He spoke on behalf of the "rational middle" in the energy debate. He stated that energy is really, really complicated, and as such requires a solution that includes the use of all energy sources, including the one in Haynesville, to buy us time before a real lasting solution can be found.

After Kallenberg's presentation, there was a strange jump to the Intergalactic Nemesis, a live action graphic novel presentation. I'm a big fan of comic books and graphic novels, and it was neat seeing them perform it live on stage, but it felt like a weird place to insert it. It seemed to drag on for too long, and kill any kind of buzz that had been building from the previous three speakers. After the Nemesis finally ended, the second pre-recorded presentation of the day was shown - Maz Jobrani, stand-up comic.



Definitely funny and entertaining. Inspiring? Not so much. The next live speaker however was very inspiring - Joaquin Zihuatenejo, an English teacher who grew up in a Dallas barrio, who spoke of salvation being found in words. He received the final standing ovation of the day.

From the high-energy and excitement of Zihuantenejo's speech, we went to the slow, low-energy speech by Flint Sparks, zen psychotherapist. He discussed taking time to pause, reflect, and connect. Gotta admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of his speech.

He was followed by another bald man, Gary Thompson, "business-artist" and co-founder of Cloud Inc. I also wasn't the biggest fan of his presentation, as it came across as a bit hokey, and not moving, as he probably had intended it to be.

Peter Hall, a design professor at UT was next, and he spoke about maps, mapping, and the mapping process. The question he said we should ask about a map is not whether it is a good map, but what was the process behind the creation of the map? "Always make maps, always question maps."

Professor Hall was followed by Dr. Lionel Tiger, the man who first coined the term male-bonding, and who wrote the book "The Decline of Males". His presentation was probably the most polarizing. While he did indeed seem to ramble and jump all over the place, his basic premise is that feminism and its fight against what it considers the patriarchal system in society is what has resulted in the problems we are seeing in boys today, and also the amount of medicine prescribed to young boys. He discussed how the University of Toronto has 40 courses on female studies, but only 2 on male studies - one on homosexual males and one on transgendered males. The male species is under attack, he argues. As you can imagine, that didn't go over too well with this crowd. He received a standing ovation from 1 person, I believe. No it wasn't me, although I do believe his theory carries weight.

After that was probably the best speech of the day, and it was a recorded one, from last year's TEDxHouston. Dr. Brene Brown, a researcher, spoke on vulnerability and the need for it.



She states that we do our best to numb vulnerability. We are the most in debt, obese, sedated cohort in human history. However, she argues that we cannot selectively numb vulnerability. But in our attempt to try, the result is that we numb everything. We make the uncertain the certain, we perfect, and we pretend. Quite eye-opening.

I had high hopes for the last two presenters, but felt like they didn't have any practical takeaways. I learned from Tavo Hellmund, the entreprenuer and former race car driver, who is bringing F1 racing to Austin, that his grandfather said to "never judge a man by the size of his wallet, but by the quality of his relationships with his family, friends and community." and to "Never be careful, always go for the edge."

Finally, from Dustin Haisler, former CIO of the city of Manor, and still only 24 years old, to get engaged with government, a very similar message but much better presented by David Cameron earlier in the day.

Following Mr. Haisler was a happy hour time, which I didn't stick around for, as my family was anxious for me to get home "Right Now", after spending the entire day away.

Whew, guess that's it. I wasn't planning on recapping the entire day, but I guess it's better to jot this down while I still remember it all. Overall, it was a positive experience and I am grateful and glad I had a chance to experience TEDxAustin 2011. I hope this post doesn't come across as too critical, as that was not my intention. My hope is that TEDxAustin will rise to meet the even greater expectations in the coming years. And I'm confident that with such a strong group of producers, organizers, volunteers (and attendees!) it will continue to get better and better every year. After this post, I just hope I get invited back... ;)

Happy 2011!

I have decided I need to properly document my resolutions for the year. In no specific order, here they are -

1. Exercise more.
2. Eat less.
3. Blog more.
4. Tweet less.
5. Save more.
6. Spend less.
7. Read more.
8. Watch less.
9. Learn more.
10. Worry less.
11. Pray more
12. Stress less.

Not sure if those are even grammatically correct. But you know what, it's my blog, so shut up already. ;)

Who is the Hero of the World?

I couldn't be prouder.

@samuelyu Hello dear blog, it’s been awhile.

Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t posted an entry since March. A lot has happened in the past 9 months. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. I’ll dedicate a future blog post to that.

One thing that has happened is that I found other ways besides blogging to express my deep thoughts – namely Twitter. Yes, I have become a veritable Twitter-holic. There’s something about having to only come up with 140 characters that is liberating, and less intimidating than having to come up with a great idea for a blog post. Why stress over what to title my blog post when I can just tweet “Having leftovers for lunch” instead? I recognize that this might not be interesting to many people, and that they’d much rather read a blog post on why I think minivans rock (they do!),  but with 2 kids (Did I mention my dear wife and I now have 2 kids? Part of the "a lot” that has occurred in the last 9 months), a full-time job, church life, who has time to sit down and blog? Especially when everything I want to say is being tweeted already?

So that brings us to this very moment. Why am I sitting down and actually “blogging”? I’d like to say I was inspired by Julie of Julie & Julia fame (saw the movie, didn’t read the book) and thought that maybe I too might someday score a book deal based on my amazing way with words, but that would not be true. I’d like to say it’s so that I can remember how to spell out entire words (OMG! LOL! FTW!) again, but that’s not true. The honest truth of the matter is that I have realized that there are some things that you just cannot express properly in 140 characters, no matter how concise you try to be. Like my opinion on anti-minivan parents:  “Hey parents with young kids, let me tell you a little secret…GET OVER YOURSELVES. YOU ARE NO LONGER HIP AND COOL. YOU ARE A PARENT. DEAL WITH IT. STOP TORTURING YOUR CHILDREN BY SHOVING THEM INTO THE “3RD ROW” OF YOUR PILOT/HIGHLANDER/ARMADA. GROW UP AND BUY A MINIVAN ALREADY. TRUST ME, SLIDING DOORS ARE THE NEXT BEST THING TO SLICED BREAD.” See what I mean? I don’t think I could have squeezed all that into 140 characters, without losing the subtle texture and depth of feeling of what I was trying to convey. 

Thus, I have decided I need to start blogging again. I’m definitely a bit rusty, and I am busier than ever. But I feel I owe it to myself  to not just limit myself to tweets and Facebook updates. Because really, when it’s all said and done, doesn’t everyone deserve the opportunity to hear my opinion?

 

 

                                                                                  Deal with it already.

Birthday Party fun

This past Saturday the rain stayed away, and Benjamin ended up having a great time at his birthday party, despite the fact that he didn't want to hit the pinata. (Note to self: do not let pinata become a part of the family by letting it stay in the house for over six months before getting "whacked" at birthday party). However, everyone else did a good job of putting the Kung-fu panda pinata to good use, and it rained candy for everyone. The candy probably helped comfort Benjamin, who at the end of the violence, turned to me and said "Panda dead, daddy." Here's hoping this poor kid won't need any counseling in the future.

Good thing Caroline was there to help cheer him up! The above photo was taken by our friend Melissa. You can see the rest of the party pics here. She's obviously very talented and is willing to take the extra step necessary to capture the perfect shot. She even climbed up a tree, fought off giant tree roaches and got slightly injured in the process, just to get some good pinata shots. So, if you're looking for someone to help capture memories at your next wedding/bar mitzvah/birth, be sure to give her a ring.

Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

I haven't updated this blog in awhile. My excuse? We've just spent the last 3 weeks in various stages of sickness, and we are in the final stages of recovery, hopefully. Not only that, but I was busy wrapping up work at my previous job this past Friday. Yesterday, we took Benjamin to the Book People puppet show (lame-o) in the morning, then went to the grand re-opening of Recycled Reads in the afternoon (50 cent picture books!), and then celebrated Vanessa's birthday at the Salt Grass Steakhouse (thanks for the giftcard Mom & Dad!) later that evening. Today was equally busy. This morning, we served with the 4th-6th graders (topic: Mary the Madgalene), went to the Austin Kite Festival in Zilker Park afterwards (Benjamin loved it! Where were you Selena G? We missed you!), then went to the Lord's table meeting this evening, and had dinner with the Nguyens. Tomorrow, I start my new job at Convio. What else? Oh yes, Benjamin turns 3(!) on Wednesday, and we're having a birthday party for him on Saturday. Then my cousin Sharon is flying in town, also on Saturday, to spend her spring break in sunny Austin, not freezing Boston! I think the last time she was in town was for Vanessa and I's wedding, way back in February 2003. Not only that, but for those who didn't know, we've also got another little one due in the middle of June. There will soon be another girl in the family to keep Vanessa company. Yeah! Vanessa is thrilled, to say the least. But she is also suffering through the difficulties of pregnancy. So, while we are by no means the Diller household, life has never been busier for us. Thankfully we still have our keys! (Please reference aforementioned blog for the meaning of that last sentence).

So, as you can clearly see, the times they are a changing. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the pace.  Thus, you'll have to forgive me if this blog's update become less and less frequent. But at least you'll understand why. :)

Zombies invade Austin! Run for your lives!

Is this a nationwide phenomena, or is Austin the only city under attack? Just remember, you can always outrun a zombie. Also, make sure you completely severe the head from the body to prevent the zombie from making a comeback.

For more useful tips on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, I highly recommend Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide, available at Amazon. (Let's just hope your local UPS delivery man hasn't been zombie-fied yet.)

Sign Hacker broadcasts zombie warnings

12 megapixel camera? Try 1474.

If you haven't seen it yet, you need to check out David Bergman's shot of the inauguration, seen above. Apparently, it looks like any other of the millions of digital shots taken this past Tuesday. But what if I were to tell you that it is over 1400 megapixels large and over 2 gigabytes in file size? You might begin to  think, "Alright, so it's a big photo. So what?" Then, as you begin to peruse the photo in more depth, you realize, "Cool! I can see Yo-Yo Ma taking a photo with his Iphone!" And that is when it dawns on you that, like Mr. Ma, there's no way your trusty ol' cameraphone would have been up to the Herculean task of capturing this scene.

Hats off to Mr. Bergman for an amazing photo...

How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address

Watch the Obama Inauguration here LIVE!

Ah, you just gotta love technology! Thanks to the fine folks at Hulu, you can watch history being made, live, here on my blog.

Digital, thy time has come at last!

President Obama's official portrait: the first ever taken with a digital camera - Engadget

Looks like the move from film to digital is complete. Anyone out there still using film?

Poor Sooners (and Buckeyes) ...

The now-iconic image broadcast by Fox Sports at the end of the National Championship game. Thanks Fox Sports for ruining this poor girl's life. Or should I say, thank you Tim Tebow and the Gator Nation for proving which Big 12 school really belonged in the Big Dance. For further proof, see below for "Big Game" Bobby Stoops record in the last 5 BCS games...



Texas > OU, and this poor boy knows it...




Finally, one more for the Ohio State fans out there...

Sorry Crazy Buckeye Fan...

 

Better luck next time! Congratulations to the Longhorns, 2009 Fiesta Bowl Champs!

Happy New Year!

Here's to a year full of happy new memories and hopefully more corresponding
blog posts!

Y I love Sesame Street!

Having a 2 year old gives me a great excuse to still watch Sesame Street. Even after 35 years of being broadcast, it still rocks! I mean, how do you beat the combo of Elmo, Norah Jones and the letter Y? Here's to another 35 years of Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Mr. Snuffalufagus!

The Giving Tree needs to stop giving me the creeps…

Pictured to the left is The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. It is arguably one of the most beloved children’s books of all-time. Surprisingly, I don’t remember ever reading this book when I was in grade school, even though I was a pretty big bookworm at the time.  But when I was in the 5th grade, I did become a big fan of the author’s books of poetry – Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. I couldn’t get enough of his funny drawings and his even funnier rhymes. The fact that they bordered on the edge a bit is also probably what appealed to my juvenile mind at the time. For example, here is a short poem from A Light in the Attic -

ROCKABYE

Rockabye baby, in the treetop

Don’t you know a treetop

Is no safe place to rock?

And who put you up there,

And your cradle too?

Baby, I think someone down here’s

Got it in for you.

 

Pretty clever eh? It wouldn’t suprise me if many of today’s top comedic writers (think any Pixar animated film) were big Shel Silverstein fans growing up as well! So, with that background info, you can imagine how happy I was when someone gave The Giving Tree as a gift to my (now 2 year old) son Benjamin. I am not sure exactly who gave it to him (thank you whoever you are!) or when it was given to him, but he  just recently startd wanting us to read it to him. Tonight was one of those nights, and after reading the book again, it inspired me to postpone my sleep to write this post…

WARNING: PLOT SPOILER AHEAD! STOP READING THIS NOW IF YOU STILL NEED TO READ THE BOOK!

First thing I want to address is that I don’t think I get the message of the book. The tree ends up as a stump for the boy in his old age to sit on? Wow, that’s quite a downer. I guess the point is the tree gave everything it could to make the boy happy? Is there some deeper symbolism that I am missing here?  Is the book addressing the problems of self-entitlement? Any of the more literary types out there who might read this post care to enlighten me? ( Hannah, this means you.) 

Second thing, and not as serious, but maybe even more important for the sake of future sales of The Giving Tree, is this big question: What is the deal with the photo of the author on the back cover?!

Scary Shel Silverstein!

I want to know what sales/marketing genius thought that this was the best photo to use to help convince parent’s to buy the book? Can you imagine their conversation -

“How about this photo of Mr. Silverstein smiling and looking happy?”

” Nah, too common. How about this shot where Mr. Silverstein furrows his brow and grimaces like he is suffering from severe indigestion?”

“Oooh, I like it! That will definitely not frighten any young children nor their parents!”

“Even better, let’s make the photo the size of the entire back cover, so there will be no way to avoid his beady-eyed gaze!”

This post is in no way meant to belittle the rugged good looks of Mr. Silverstein. We have all suffered from bad photo days, and most of them remain hidden on our drivers licenses or Sam’s Club membership cards, and not splashed onto the covers of a best-selling children’s book, so it is not like I am not sympathetic. It’s just that I can’t believe they used that photo. And actually, by the power of Google, I discovered the photo they used on the first edition of the book -

 

Much better and definitely less scary

While Mr. Silverstein definitely bears a striking resemblance to Che Guevara in this photo, the fact that he has a head of hair, is not grimacing in pain and that the photo is not just a head shot blown up to take up the entire back cover, makes a huge difference in presentation. This is a cover I would not be wary to pull out to read to a group of impressionable young minds.

What? You think I am just being silly? Actually, I am quite serious about the matter, and I even did some investigative reporting, to see if it was just me who suffered from Shel Silverstein shock, and well…I think you just better take a look at this teacher’s classroom experience.

My solution to this entire problem? Either go back to using the original “Che” cover shot, or use the one that I found below, where Mr. Silverstein is humanized somewhat by the fact that we can imagine he is playing some nice lovely melody on his guitar, while humming along in a equally soothing key…

 

 

Unfortunately, the fact that the viewer’s eye cannot help but be drawn to Mr. Silverstein’s giant foot and gi-normous toes, confirms that some of us are just not meant to have our photos taken.

Congratulations President-Elect Obama

Regardless of your political affiliation, it is hard to deny the history made with the election of Mr. Barack Obama. Despite his relative youth and inexperience, his overwhelming victory at the polls spoke of our country's need for something new. While I don't agree with a lot of his politics, he is still my president, and as stated so eloquently by my friend Nicole on her blog, there's no way I am moving to Canada! I must admit it is encouraging to see so many of my fellow citizens happy and hopeful again, even if that hope might be short-lived.

After 2 years of endless campaigning, I think we can all agree that Mr. Obama deserves a nice respite before assuming the office of President. Only 71 days until the inauguration, and unfortunately, there's not going to be much rest for the weary.

The above photo was taken by my wife at Obama's first political rally in Austin, Texas, held on February 23, 2007. She went with a few friends (all who are proud conservatives) who went to the rally mainly because they were just curious about who this person was, and they all had to admit afterwards that the man had charisma in spades and was going to be a strong contender for the Democratic nomination. Now, almost two years later, I tell Vanessa that this is probably the closest any of us will ever get to the POTUS!

Below are a few links to some cool articles/photos/references regarding the new president.

Behind the scenes on election night (photoset from flickr.com)

The next President of the United States (photos from The Big Picture)

Newspaper Frontpages from around the World, Nov. 5, 2008

One of these ones is not like the others...

Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know

change.gov

A Real Hope…

I just got back last night from attending a Christian Young People’s Conference in Odessa, Texas. There were about 120 attendees, ranging from junior-high to college-age.  The topic of the conference was “Experiencing Christ as the Good Land of Canaan”. If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you will know that there is a major focus on entering and possessing the Good Land. We saw this weekend that this is just a type or picture of the New Testament believer, who’s focus and goal should be on gaining and possessing more Christ. It is not good enough to just be a Christian who has partaken of the Passover Lamb (signifying redemption) or one who has crossed the Red Sea (signifying baptism). Even one who is enjoying the manna (signifying Christ as our real food) in the wilderness cannot fully accomplish God’s goal. God needs a group of people who give themselves to walk in Him (Colossians 2:6), and allow Him to make His home in their hearts. (Ephesians 3:17). Once the land has been gained, there is a way for the city and temple to be built, signifying God’s authority and representation.

Being in the enjoyment of the conference, I completely forgot about what was going on with the presidential election.  The analysts have been saying that more people will vote in this election than in any presidential election in U.S. history. Seems both sides are quite fired up for their candidate of choice. While I do have my choice of who I want to see in office,  I was reminded this weekend that my hope is not in a person named Obama….or McCain. Or Palin. Or any other cause, for that matter. As Christians, we have a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). This hope is the real hope, and this hope is what keeps us going day by day, even when things don’t seem to go our way.

Regardless of who wins the election tomorrow, may we grant the new President the proper prayers and respect that is fitting for the highest elected office in our great nation…

 

1 I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men;

2 On behalf of kings and all who are in high position, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity.

3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God,

4 Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

                                                                        - 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Dino-fun at Zilker!

I spent 3 hours today installing our new dishwasher after our old one gave up the fight after a brief 5 years of service. I am by no means the master of home improvement (just ask my dear wife), but since I installed the original dishwasher 5 years ago, I thought it would be a piece of cake. Turns out, some cakes take a long long time to make. Needless to say, that’s 3 hours of my life I won’t be getting back again. But it wasn’t all bad. Today, we finally made it over to the Zilker Botanical Gardens for the Dinoland exhibit! It was a beautiful day for a family outing, the sun was shining, but it wasn’t too hot.

When we arrived, parking was an issue. It took us a good 15 minutes to find a spot. Guess Dinoland is a popular place! Admission is free for kids under 3, everyone else is $5/person. The last time we were in the Botanical Gardens was when we took our engagement photos, almost 7 years ago(!) I must say, ZBG is still as beautiful as ever. If you are graduating from high school/college or need to take special occasion photos, you can’t go wrong taking them there. That’s my free tip of the day.

As for Dinoland, it was a huge hit for the dinosaur fan in our family. Benjamin liked it too. :)  He kept saying “big dinosaurs” in awe.   He enjoys his “little dinosaurs”  (the dino-chicken nuggets from Costco, which I highly recommended to all nugget fans) so he was amazed at seeing them full-size. If you’ve got a little dino-fan you know, I suggest you take them to the Dinoland exhibit. It runs until November 30th.  Below you will see some photos from the exhibit. The last one is from our lunch at P. Terrys, which has some of the best burgers in town. Okay, that’s my second free tip of the day. Aren’t you glad you read this post?