New Sidebar

I've added a small button for my comments online. I realized that alot of my writing is done as comments on other peoples blogs. I saw someone had the idea of making a del.icio.us tag for all comments and using that RSS feed to allow people to descirbe to my comments. I stole the idea with a quickness. Chris Yeh gets full credit for the idea.

so I've added a small button that looks like this

Comments Blog

There you go, exciting info eh? now I'm working on getting feedburner to recognize my normal feed. More site updates to come soon - I'm not sure how soon.

Tyler

Negative Branding

I kinda feel bad calling this guy out -- but for all I know it was an intentional move on his part, and it made me chuckle, so I don't feel that bad.

So as I was chuckling at this and I decide that I want to know more about Andrew Hillman and PlugStar. So after a Google search I find the site (predictably plugstar.com) and that Andrew Hillman has a name twin who is a notorious comment spammer, irrelevent. Hillman has me curious - but the site is pretty dull, except for a link to his Graphic Designer. I was bored so I followed it, that's when I started laughing.

There is a logo that says under construction but the logo says VD. There is also a drop inside the d. I'm sorry to have my mind in the gutter on this - but knee jerk reaction is "I wouldn't pick that as my logo." It probably doesn't matter for him one way or the other, but I can't help thinking this isn't what you want to have your name attached to. I shot off an email to ask him about his experiences with branding. I'm eager to see if I get a reply.

Email...

Sorry to send an intrusive email.

I was catching up on some blog reading and I see a creative pitch by a company called plugstar, I Google it. A link to your site is featured predominantly so I click it.

I see a logo and under construction message.

I notice the logo...

I have to ask, ignore me if you want. Does that negatively affect your business? I have to think that having a brand associated with Venereal Disease can't really qualify as positive branding. Probably sticks in the clients minds though.

Thanks

Tyler Willis

Gambit Weekly

I've been quoted in the cover story of this week's Gambit.

Here are the excerpts.

"One of the few non-architects in the room, Tyler Willis, 19, was surfing in Portugal when Katrina struck. Thoughts about how he could help would not leave his head, Willis recalls, and he was prompted to action after being challenged via email by an ex-girlfriend, who asked him, "If you have all these ideas, why don't you go there and do something with them?"

A friend forwarded to Willis an email invitation explaining Rethinking New Orleans. "I didn't know what to expect, I was worried it wasn't even going to be worth the bike ride," he says a week after the meeting. "But I was impressed by the knowledge everyone brought. It wasn't just a bunch of people bitching and getting drunk."

Willis was most impressed, he says, with the ideas for preserving the city's distinct neighborhoods and the culture of each. A native of California, Willis is enjoying his transition to life in post-Katrina New Orleans. "The atmosphere seems a lot different from what I hear it used to be, with lots of negativity and [an] almost fatalistic approach to things," he says. "But I've experienced none of that. The energy I feel here now is positive."
...

Despite concerns about a lack of cohesion among the far-flung grassroots groups and their varied approaches to rebuilding New Orleans, activists are making inroads, holding meetings, generating new ideas and sustaining the passion that propelled them to action in the first place.

Tyler Willis created a Web site, www.projectneworleans.info, that includes information on an online math tutoring program, hotmath.com, that he says has great results in helping students. Citing education as critical to rebuilding what Willis labels the "New City of Hope," he has started lobbying local school officials on behalf of the program. He says he has gotten good responses, especially from the proposed charter schools."

here's a few corrections

1 - It was a phone call from an ex-girlfriend, who was significantly more supportive then that sounds. Quite frankly I wouldn't have done it without a kick in the pants from her, and she allowed me to bounce ideas off her and moan about how much some of the work sucked. Less of a "Challenge" and more of an influence.

2 - Blake invited me through IM... I wish I could say I didn't say "bitching and getting drunk" but that sounds suspiciously like me. I guess I should work on my cynacism a bit. Sorry everyone involved, especially Blake. PS - the wine was Fantastic.

3 - I'm not a Native of California, I was born in Missouri and spent most of my life in Ohio. I do like California quite a bit, but I wouldn't wanna ignore my roots. ;)

Aside from that, I'm still very excited. I hope this will give me a bit more traffic and visability - At this point donations are going to be what makes or breaks what I can do here.

Check out my website (www.projectneworleans.info)

Steve Pavlina

Okay

I have yet to find a good RSS reader for windows that I like. They all seem to range for eh to horrible. If you have found a good one, let me know. I'm likely to drive myself nuts until I finally get a mac. This is my problem so I will get on with the show.

Here's a short recomendation about someone I subscribe to. I was switching my RSS from Sharpreader to Feedreader which ranks right up there at eh, I'm importing my feeds and I come across a guy who I've recently added and who is worth checking out. Steve Pavlina.

I found a link to Steve's blog when he had started his polyphasic sleep experiement. I've been interested in polyphasic sleep for awhile, adding 40 waking hours a week to your life is pretty enticing and hey, it worked for Jefferson. Polyphasic sleeps replaces one long sleep with a series of small naps every few hours. I was interested in it and reading Steves post about it I devoured his experiences with it. I think I just might try it when I begin to have more control over my schedule. Right now I have things I want to do that simply don't fit in a 4 or 5 hour time period, and missing one of the naps is aparently pretty bad. I'll have to do a bit more research on the subject before I decide if I want to give it a shot, but reading about Steve's view on it is motivating. Give it a look

DJ Danger Mouse and The Grey Album

A friend recently turned me onto a remix of Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles White Album (Thanks Justin). I've heard a lot about this album, I think I remember Lawrence Lessig using it as an example in his IT conversation about Remix, which is very good.


The Grey Album was surprising. I really wanted more of a beatles influence, but I will say the fact that he did it is amazing. The album is an interesting listen. I think it's a bit musically lackluster but awesome in how much it will influence music to come. As someone who has some musical ideas and a wish to create an art that evolves whats out there into something new it's a great influence. and the more I hear it, the more I like it.


Worth the 45 minutes if you like music at all or if you've heard the white album and want to hear a masterful remix of it. I'm currently reading Vonnegut's Monkey House and the grey album reminds me of a part of his short story "New Dictionary" when he says "As Scholes said later, Yates is the sort of man lexicographers read in order to discover what pretty new things the language is up to."

"The Grey Album is the sound a music aficionado studies to see what pretty new things the music is up to."

Go on iTunes, buy it, sit still for 45 minutes, listen.