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Ask For What You Want

Every waking moment that I am outside of my apartment in NYC, I am constantly asked at every corner, subway stop, and on every train for some change. I normally don’t carry any cash or change so its very easy to avoid any awkwardness.

I’ve lived here for just over a month and every day the same thing, “change?” over and over again. That is until a few days ago. An obviously homeless man walked up and asked me for twenty dollars. I was shocked but instantly compelled to pull out my wallet and give him my only twenty.

In an instant this man had done something to me that led me down that path. He stood out from the crowd by asking for what he really wanted. He started an internal dialogue inside of me “should I do it? twenty bucks is a lot of money! but I’ve had those times when twenty bucks would seemingly fix almost anything”.

I handed over the cash and he said “thank you kindly” and then he walked over to the a deli and ordered a sandwich.

In reality the story at hand isn’t about him or me for that matter. It’s about you. How many times have you asked for less than you really wanted and gotten exactly that. As a designer under bidding a project, or for a birthday asking for a sweater when you really want a pony. Chances are if you ask for a sweater you won’t be getting a pony so why set yourself up for failure. Ask for a pony and you never know what may happen.

My Sister

Everyone should have a sister like mine. My birthday was on Friday and I was in the theatre seeing Super 8 when she called to tell me happy birthday, and this is the voicemail I found when I got out of the movie.

Voicemail

Fun

I love this video

Presumed Socially Disadvantaged

Ran across this today and could not believe it. This comes off as completely racist to me.

The 8(a) Business Development Program is an important resource for small businesses seeking business-development assistance.

This is where it gets interesting.

Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for the program, a small business must be owned and controlled by a socially and economically disadvantaged individual.

Under the Small Business Act, certain individuals are presumed socially disadvantaged: African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native Hawaiians), and Subcontinent Asian Americans. An individual who is not a member of one of the groups listed can be admitted to the program if he/she shows – through a “preponderance of the evidence” – that he/she is socially disadvantaged. For instance, an individual may show social disadvantage due to race, ethnic origin, gender, physical handicap, long-term residence in an environment isolated from the mainstream of American society; or other similar causes.

I can’t believe that our government presumes anyone to be socially disadvantaged. Our government is supposed to promote equality. I find it incredible that in 2011 anyone is presumed to be inferior to anyone else. Does anyone else find this disturbing?

You can read about the program in its entirety here.

Freedom from Government?

It is 2011. Each day I seem to come across new ways that the government wants to try and sneak into my life and I find it completely maddening, and distasteful.

Last summer I was talking with my cousin about how cellphone companies should ask you when you sign up if you would like to receive picture messages of amber alert children as they come up in your area. Everyone has a cellphone and that has got to be a really quick way to spread the message to a lot of people. I can’t see a lot of people not wanting to opt into that.

Today I glanced some news and found this article. A National Alert System is set to launch in NYC. It would send Amber Alerts, information during terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Now the sentence that caught my attention is “Consumers would be able to opt out of all but those presidential messages.” So what I am reading is that I pay for my cellphone and I have to receive messages from the President? I think this is total bullshit. It’s not that I wouldn’t opt into this feature, it’s that I don’t have the choice that bothers me.

Little things like this sneak up and turn into larger things. Don’t give away your personal freedoms, you have to fight and sometimes die to get them back. Not to mention someone has already fought and died for our freedoms. The more you give away for free, the less freedom you have.

Free Idea

Free idea for anyone who wants it, I just want to see it built.

Idea:
iTunes plug-in that scans my artist library and then pulls tour dates from each artist and alerts me when any of these artists will be within a certain distance from my location. You could have all artists selected or a specific few. It would be really neat if it added them to iCal as well.

*Bonus*
Work out a deal with Apple that allows you to purchase tickets with your iTunes store account.

Problem:
There is no centralized place in which artists post their tour dates. Figuring out where the majority of them are stored is probably best for the first iteration. You could always add sites data is collected from later. Keep it simple and out of the way or it could become a nuisance.

Please build this and allow me to use it, if someone knows of this existing please send it my way I would really love to use it.

Depth of Field Photos iPhone Style

Do you love those really great short depth of field photos you get with your DSLR but hate carrying with you everywhere? Do you have an iPhone? I was sitting around being a little more goofy than normal and realized how to achieve a semi-ok quality effect using only your standard iphone camera and an office chair. Hold your iphone out in front of you while sitting in the chair. Start spinning and snap some pictures. You should be relatively in focus while the back should have a pretty ok blur. Here are a few of my first attempts.

P.S. Do not eat before doing this. I had some donuts and almost captured a photo of myself getting sick; it wouldn’t have been pretty.

10 things I’ve learned living in Wyoming

Wyoming really is an amazing place. A lot of work is done on handshakes and understanding. People know each other, help each other, and respect each other. A lot of these things are pretty common everyday ideas but here in Wyoming they are very magnified. These are a few things that I have picked up from my time here in Wyoming so far.

1. Enjoy the summer.
2. 30° is not cold. -30° is cold.
3. There are still a lot of honest people.
4. Hard work is expected.
5. Helping people pays off.
6. Have some indoor hobbies.
7. Don’t always count on technology.
8. Know the names of the people you deal with and engage.
9. Look at the scenery.
10. Don’t talk about people behind their backs, in a small town in comes back around.

Leave me a comment letting me know some things that you have learned, from where you live?

I need a word for a type of Time Travel.

Ever listen to a song only to immediately be taken back to a specific time and place?

A song came on today that completely transformed my reality to the past. It genuinely felt like I was time traveling. I tried explaining to someone the way it felt but I came up unsatisfied with placing the right words with the feeling. So which of my bright and clever friends can best describe Sonic time traveling in a simplified way. Leave me a comment, I can’t wait for some answers.

Jack Daniels explains the deficit.