Thank You Note from Mom
But she still won’t approve my friend request on Facebook. What’s up with that?
Sam the Cooking Guy
Sam the Cooking Guy with Morgan the Eating Guy
I love to cook. So I had to meet Sam Zien (aka Sam the Cooking Guy) at a book signing today. He’s quite the character in the kitchen on TV, but super nice and humble when you meet him. He spent time talking with everyone. I was one of the last people in a very long line to get my book signed (see video of crowd on Facebook), and he still took his time, chatted with me, joked and we laughed… it was great. He even thanked me for waiting so long to get the autograph. What a cool guy, and I just love his cooking philosophy: big taste, little effort. Perfect!
Some guy (not me!) shot some video of the event (see below). It’s a funky little edit job, rather sophomoric, but the only video I could find.
My Father’s Hands
These are the hands that I held when I was very small. These are the hands of a meat cutter who followed those of his father. These are the hands that showed me how to lay my fingers across the threads of a baseball to throw the perfect pitch. These are the hands that gently rested on my shoulders while singing “Sunshine on My Shoulders” in the car. These are the hands that taught me how to hold a racquetball racket and grip a golf club correctly. These are the 74-year-old hands of my dad on Fathers Day — hands that I am blessed to still be able to hold.
Sea, Sand & Sun Dogs
While at the beach on Coronado Island, I looked up from my novel and I caught a glimpse of a sun dog. A sun dog is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.
The photo was taken with my mobile phone and doesn’t do the scene justice. The sun dog on the left was more prominent than its counter-puppy on the right. The distinctive halo is not easily seen in the photo, unfortunately. The pink “petals” and the two horizontal rays coming out of the sun are refractions in the lens, but the bright spots at the ends were truly there in the sky.
Here are a couple of other photos I snapped.
A lone sun dog hovers over the Coronado islands on the horizon.
Looking south toward the world-famous Hotel Del Coronado, with Mexico in the distance. It was an awesome day at the beach — 79° in mid-December. Ah, paradise in my backyard.
To find out how sun dogs are formed, accompanied by even better photos, see this Sun Dog article.
Make The Logo Bigger
What can we learn about (in)effective creative design from a rock video and a movie? Are you big enough to handle the truth?
Buzzing About Samsung LED TV Noise
This past summer, after studying favorable reviews of the Samsung LED TV series 7000 and 8000, I decided to get one. I ordered the 8000 Series unit (UN55B8000) with 240Hz refresh rate. It arrived in perfect physical condition and worked great. I was thrilled with the picture quality.
But then, things went terribly wrong …
Steps for Putting Fun Back Into Function
This video illustrates how to make a difficult process a fun thing to do. What can we learn from this about web design? We are so absorbed with form and function but have forgotten a critical third element. If fun can increase traffic 66%, I believe this shows how development dollars can improve mundane tasks with surprising results.
Happy Nines Day
Yes, it’s 09/09/09.
Shut Your Facebook
A recent NY Times article reveals why some people are leaving Facebook. In May, I deactivated my Facebook account when the signal-to-noise ratio had clearly gotten out of whack. Ironically, I found myself back on Twitter which I had left for Facebook when the latter seemed to offer a bit more value. That was a different time. Now, Facebook has just gotten altogether too silly with quizzes and games and all the same high-school shenanigans your classmates would have outgrown over the last few decades. Alas, I’m back on Twitter.
Update: OK, I’m back again on Facebook. They’ve added enough filters now so you can hide all the ridonculous stuff. Rather than shutting my Facebook, now I can shut your Facebook, ftw.
The Vendor Client Relationship
Hilariously brilliant video that precisely nails real issues designers and developers face with clients all the time. If this makes no sense to you, you’re not one of us.
