you should watch the speech...don't allow my synopsis to stop you. it's 15 minutes of your life, which is a small investment to watch one of the great innovators and entrepreneurs of our times. it doesn't matter if you like Apple or even care about the whole tech industry, because the things he shares are pretty universal.
in his mind, it all came down to three things:
one anecdote that i found powerful was something he did every day. he'd wake up in the morning, look himself in the mirror, and ask, "if this was the last day of your life, would you really want to be doing what you're going to do today?" if he answered no too many times in a row, he realized it was time for change. this mindfulness, the ability to step out of the river that can often push us downstream in life, is key.
deceptively simple messages. on the surface, they may seem naively idealistic, but are they? really? follow your heart, realizing that you've got limited time. one chance. no do-overs. this is your one-and-only life. make it count.
thanks, Steve (and Rita).
]]>enter new ways to blog: microblogging (twitter, pownce, jaiku and facebook), and image blogging (flickr). there are other things that could be seen in this light (e.g., dopplr, YouTube), but i'll only focus on the first two.
new ways to tell stories
blogs, microblogs, image blogs, presence blogs, video blogs – all of these things are tools for storytelling, but with different forms. a blog like this one is long-form (maybe too long-form), microblogs are (very) short form, and things like flickr are picture books, but with an amazing layer of other stuff attached. for the purposes of this entry, i'll refer to all the stuff other than regular blogs as "second-generation blogs" (2G blogs or channels).
each of these 2G blog channels supports the core motivations for blogging (communication, many-to-many connection), but with a different kind of effort that's easier to support more continuously. it's also easier for others to engage with these channels, or to ignore them without worrying too much about missing something important.
microblogs like twitter are about as lightweight as it gets. anything and everything is fair game to include in these streams of personal information. any single message is, for the most part, meaningless and very easy to create and consume (or ignore). the aggregate of these messages gives one window into what people are doing with their lives. it's not a rich connection, but it's a connection, and face it: people only have so much time and energy for real rich connections.
flickr is interesting. people put a LOT of time and effort into flickr, and it's an incredibly vibrant community. i was mistaken when i originally thought it's just a photo-sharing site. it is that, but that's secondary to it being a social network, with all of the associated drama, emotional energy, and fun. also, the nature of the effort to engage on flickr is different than with a narrative blog. the mental overhead is relatively small when it comes to taking a picture and posting it with a small description or witty title. it's not that it doesn't require talent, or creative thinking, it's just much different than the effort needed for narrative. this is also not to say that some people don't put a lot of effort into creating narrative that goes with their pictures.
so what do we get out of all this?
like storytelling, the rewards are different depending on what is consumed. long-form blogs take more effort, which hopefully leads to richer rewards. microblogs require little to no effort, with lots of small rewards, all of which add up to a heightened sense of connection and community. and flickr? for me, flickr is more about emotional inspiration and fun, tied to connecting with people through the way they see the world, as opposed to the way they think about it. the rewards here are more complex than microblogging, but different from the long-form.
as much as all of these forms of storytelling are about connection, they are also very much about our ultimate vanity and self-interested virtue. people love to feel like they are important, like people are paying attention to what they think and say and do and see and feel, that others find them engaging, interesting, funny, sexy. in addition to communication and connection, blogging (in all the forms i've discussed) is about giving and getting attention, and all of these new channels make it easy to get and give: they're free, they're fun, and they're easy to use.
and what the hell is my point, anyway?
i don't think i'm saying anything new here. if i had the energy to dig, i'm sure i could find 100 blogger or social media pundits who've already made these points better than i can. if i had to distill it, though, i'm saying that i think the internet is enabling people to share and engage with new kinds of stories, each with their own social rewards.
i'm also just thinking out loud about why i engaged with those other channels to the exclusion of this blog. it probably just comes down to me being lazy, and being able to connect (and get more attention) in those other channels. i still relish the ability to come back here and tell longer stories; i just also wish i had the time and energy to do that more.
]]>in summary, i'd have to say that during the 12 days we were in China, i probably ate better, and more continuously, than i have at any other point in my life. each meal (most of which were orchestrated by my father-in law Eric) was an adventure, filled with surprises and delights at every mouthful. from banquets in imperial palaces, to hot pot at a college student hangout, it was all amazing...this culinary journey was just as much a part of our adventure as the places we visited.
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On our way back from Huang Shan, we stopped and visited an ancient walled city called She Xian. while much of the city is modern (relatively speaking), a lot of it has been preserved as it has been for hundreds of years. A truly authentic cultural experience, not one that most tourists would get, and one we certainly wouldn't have had without Eric and Debbie as our tour guides.
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after a tragicomic series of mishaps, elaine and i finally managed to see Sunshine, the latest effort by director Danny Boyle (Millions, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). i was a huge fan of both Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, and so have been very eager to experience Boyle's take on the sci-fi genre.
and so, after all our trials and tribulations with seeing this film, was the wait worth it?
]]> yes. mostly.the film is a visual spectacle, with gorgeous cinematography and composition, eye-popping space visuals worthy of the best NASA CG animations, and some nuanced, compelling performances. it's just a feast to watch, and for the first hour plus, we were all riveted in our seats. cillian murphy turns in another fantastic performance, and the cast that supports are equally top-notch. the writing is where things go south with this film, sadly, even with the experienced hands of Alex Garland at the helm.
the film is clearly intended to be thinking-person's sci-fi, with ruminations on god, sun as giver and taker of life, death, and basic human frailty. the sun becomes a metaphor for god, and the film does a pretty good job of exploring this territory. at the same time, on a more literal level, it does a great job of exploring some of the real challenges (both physical and mental) associated with long-term space travel. pacing, acting, script – they all work in lock-step for the first hour of the film, gradually building a sense of foreboding and tension.
sadly, somewhere near the last half hour, the film pretty much jumps the shark, as things descend into a space-based horror flick a la Event Horizon (which i hated with a vibrant, mouth-frothing passion).
why did Boyle and Garland take this route, is my big question? to make it more palatable to an action-oriented crowd? clearly, that didn't work, since the film only grossed about $3.5MM (much of which i attribute to horrendous marketing). more intellectual fare like Soderbergh's Solaris was less well-received critically speaking, yet still managed to make $15MM at the box office.
so, i wound up with mixed feelings about the film. i loved many aspects of it, and will watch it again, but hated the facile and ham-fisted way they chose to end it. danny and alex: i expected more from you.
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during our stay in Beijing, we visited the spectactular Summer Palace, playground for the emperors. it's a massive complex, with more than 200 buildings, scattered around several man-made lakes.
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five days in Shanghai wasn't nearly enough to sample this huge metropolis, but it was enough to get a sense of things. we had an absolutely fantastic time here, ending our trip with a stay in the Grand Hyatt Pudong.
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of all the segments of our trip to China, i have to say that our visit to the mountain region known as Huang Shan was the most memorable. Elaine, Bernie, Eric, Debbie and I spend a total of three fantastic days in this indescribable place. i hope these photos can help convey what we experienced.
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We had a terrific New Year's Eve with Joe, Betty, Trevor, Pam, Tony, and Roberto. Cocktails led to dinner led to cocktails led to celebration led to more cocktails led to hangover. Dinner was at Citron in Berkeley, and cocktail hour(s) were held at Joe and Betty's in the Oakland hills. of course, photos of the festivities are available.
Happy New Year's wishes from us to everyone else out there!! we hope you have a fantastic 2008. We're looking forward to lots of fun and adventure ourselves.
Photos from the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, including shots like this where Elaine impersonates a Russian fashion diva.
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The latest set of photos from our China trip has been posted, this one a collection of shots from our tours of the Beijing hutongs.
]]>i was trying to plan a movie night with friends to watch it here on my new big screen HDTV (aka Wank-o-vision), but i had to wait until it was out on rental. i figured a month or two after our aborted attempts to see the film, we'd be munching popcorn, having cocktails, and watching the gorgeous vision of Mr. Boyle. not so.
i waited. and waited. and waited. and amazon didn't post a DVD release date. and now i check back, and it's January 8, 2008. are you kidding me? from a theatrical release of July 20, 2007? this is the modern age, people. digital means everything is faster, mmkay?
i am certain, now, that when i get this movie from netflix, the disc will be scratched, and i will send it back for another one, and before it comes back, my house will be struck by lightning and burn to the ground. i will never see this movie.
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I've posted photos from high-speed jaunt Elaine and I took in the Forbidden City. as usual, i'm filled with intentions of writing a blog post about it.
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last week i was in New York for business, and manged to finagle a few extra days so that i could hang out with my friend Chookyfuzzbang and see my childhood buddy Michael. i spent all of my time in manhattan and brooklyn and generally had a fantastic trip, despite being a bit cold and getting totally soaked with rain one night. new york remains one of my favorite "places-to-visit-but-you-wouldn't-want-to-live-there."
]]> during the business part of the trip, i shared a room with my buddy Seth at the Hotel on Rivington on the lower-east side. highlights include all black hallways that are perpetually dark, groovy designer flourishes, and a bar called Thor. it was a fun place to stay, and pretty centrally located; we also had a fantastic view from our 15th floor room.after my business was done, the trip was spent eating, drinking, and walking, which is pretty much what you do in Manhattan. highlights include:
it had been nearly 10 years since i'd been to manhattan, and while many things changed, so much was still the same. you can change buildings and restaurants and stores, but there will always be the collection of little things that add up to make Manhattan: the alternately quirky and ultra-fashionable ways people dress, the pace of life, the sea of cabs, the byzantine subway, the feel of walking down 5th Avenue, the menagerie of incongruent people and things smashed together. there's no place else like it.
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