Spilling my Guts

Design. We’re chewing it up and soon we’ll spit it out. What then?

If you haven’t seen the IE video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkM6RJf15cg

It really got me thinking about phases of technology. And what’s the #1 valued aspect of technology? And what have been the phases of that #1 slot? The current #1 is undoubtedly design. Apple is on top and everyone is chasing them, Microsoft included.

But design wasn’t always the most important aspect. Look at that video. What sold products in the 80s and 90s? What was valued about technology? 

Novelty and gadgetry. (Still important, it’s not just #1.)

Before that?

Convenience. Microwaves, cars and whatnot.

Before that?

Something to do with manufacturing or war, I dunno, I wasn’t alive.

Still. What’s next?

Technology has made our lives (mostly) convenient; we’ve (largely) figured out what gadgets are useful and which aren’t; and we’re currently figuring out how to make it all look nice and pleasant to use. But once that’s a given, what the eff then?

Well, after the girl next door (convenient), the goth girl (novel), and the hot girl with the nice hey-hey and the fun what-whats, who do you date? The woman who’s smart or who has the great personality.

The one who takes away the loneliness.

So there’s the next #1 technology priority: humanization. Technology that makes you feel less alone. And I’m not talking about social networks that require actual people on the other end.

Think Siri, but better. That “Hello!” on your microwave, but better. Computers that go beyond tools and actually push back. I want to write a line of code and have the computer call me “dumb f***ing thunderc***” like a human would.

Though, really, I have no damn idea. I started this post with an entirely different conclusion: Utility.

The point is, it doesn’t matter what the next #1 is, the point is that there is going to be one. So figure it out and get rich you dumb bastard.

Or don’t you c***-sucking thunderc***.

2013 goals, items 19 & 20 or: Drinking!

#19 - Start drinking again

I was staying sober until my follow-up visit with a urologist. I recently visited the ER because of kidney stones and they saw something on the CT. No big, they said.

Fast forward to last week and I show up for my appointment only to realize I’m standing in the Urologic Oncology Center.

“Oncology? Well that can’t be good.”

I was actually more concerned that the sign said “Center” and not “Centre” but anyway, I sit and wait and start thinking about what I’d be like to have cancer. Maybe I’d meet an Anna-Kendrick-in-50/50-style chick. Could be worth it.

Anyway, the pee-pee doc says it’s no big and that my kidney stones were likely gone since I haven’t felt more pain. 

So I get back to the office and my Asian amigo offers me a glass of wine.

“Cheers! To cancer!”

Number 19, complete.

#20 - Drink only whiskey

Dammit.

Number 20, failed.

Dear spiritual ape testicles, please bless my 40 goals for 2013

Fifty was a bit much. So this year I’m going to try 40. No dupes from last year, not even the failed ones. I also added a bonus category with stuff so hard that if I do any of ‘em I win the year.

Now for the list. And as with last year I’ll break up the groups of 10 with pics from some of the best days of 2012. 

Here we go.

1. Master a duolingo tree

2. Sit on a purple chair

3. Eat out alone once a month

4. Go to a market, buy something

5. Half a million days rated in Illuum

6. Make money in another way with Illuum

7. Don’t wear socks for an entire week

8. Secret goal #1

9. Secret goal #2

10. Secret goal #3

11. Run in something where they make you wear a number on your chest

12. Stick to my Mint budget all damn year (not including travel)

13. Get a new credit card (or new type or new design or something)

14. Clean up my apartment’s storage locker; actually use it for storage

15. Decide on TV setup; stick with it

16. Do something about that horrible noise. You know the one

17. Get a doctor and show him/her my balls if he/she wants to see ‘em

18. Get a dentist but don’t show him/her my balls even if he/she asks

19. Start drinking again

20. Drink only whiskey. Only. Only whiskey. No beer, no gin. Whiskey.

21. New glasses!

22. Make someone happy

23. Make someone sad (inadvertently)

24. Make someone a sandwich

25. Ask someone for a favour that seems like too much to ask

26. Do something that scares me MORE than a roller coaster

27. Do someone who doesn’t

28. Ride a bike through the streets of Montreal

29. Go to the Biodome then watch a movie that doesn’t have Pauly Shore in it

30. Finally buy that weird soda stuff I see at the store all the time

31. Hunt for the still-elusive Montreal bestie

32. Go to a meet up that has nothing to do with any of my interests

33. Get a yoga mat

34. Make up a yoga pose called “the wild Angus”

35. Go to a zoo and do “the wild Angus” for the wild animals

36. Feel fucking fantastic

37. Work like crazy but don’t use that shit as an excuse bitch

38. Build something with my hands and some tools I don’t own yet

39. Cook a cut of meat I’ve never cooked before

Aaaaand, the one-word overarching goal of 2013. Now, I thought about this for months. I was thinking about it way back in the summer. I came up with dozens since then, but this right here is a bit of brilliance.

40. Fail

Note that this can only be achieved indirectly. If I try to fail, I actually succeed and don’t attain this goal. If I try all year and fail a lot, then this is complete. If I only try things within reach, and reach them, then I failed to fail.

BONUS ROUND!

• Complete an additional duolingo tree (no need to master, just complete)
• Run in an actual marathon (completing the half will do)
• Get an armchair. (Seriously. Why is this taking so long?)
• Take secret goal #2 to crazy-messed-up-holy-shit levels
• Do 80%+ of the Montreal Wikitravel “Do” section (http://wikitravel.org/en/Montreal#Do) (Would love to aim for 100%, but one of them is watch the Canadiens. Ummm.)

The fifty goals of 2012. How many did I finish?

I had fifty goals. This could take a while, so let’s move quickly. I scored 35/50 when the year was done. I could’ve easily gotten a few more in there but to hell with it, it’s not about what I can do.

Most of this year was shaped by going to FounderFuel, moving to Montreal and joining the greatest startup of all time.

15 Goals I Easily Did

4. Attend some sort of multiple-day event.
-> FounderFuel, 48hrs in the Valley, International Startup Fest 

9. Increase the number of Illuum users tenfold. 
-> Sells itself, baby. Ended way higher than expected

25. Take a working vacation, whatever the hell that is.
-> Everywhere I went seemed like one of these

12. Watch a movie with subtitles.
-> VLC turns them on automatically (a lot)

27. At some point have enough liquor in my apartment to intoxicate a family of elephants.
-> http://vimeo.com/41675603 

29. Turn 29. (Should be easy.)
-> Did it, and what a day. Mentor day at FounderFuel, surprise cake, etc

35. New glasses.
-> Several pairs, one of which I broke! 

42. Hang something on a wall.
-> Pictures, chalk board, posters, this list, an iPad, lots of stuff 

43. Hang with someone near a wall.
-> Yep. You know who you are 

44. Jump.
-> How high?? 

47. Write 25 blog posts.
-> Between this blog, illuum and ooomf, no problem!

30. Don’t turn 30. (Should be even easier.)
-> No time travel for this guy! 

31. Host a party. Invite lots of people. Hope some of them show up.
-> Hosted a bunch. Invited lots of people. Hoped they showed up. Some of them did! 

36. Replace the HDD in my Macbook.
-> Done! Just before switching to an online music service which negated the need to do do 

20. Exercise 100 times. Walking for > 30mins (in a stretch, not a day) will count only if there is no destination.
-> Moving to Montreal took care of this 

5. Use up my Aeroplan points.
-> Going to Seattle for two days took care of this 

1. Sit in an orange chair.
-> There really aren’t a lot of orange chairs around 

3. Go to a place which I’ve never been, stay at least a week. 

19. Read 10 books.

22. Buy an expensive bottle of scotch and drink the shit out of it.

26. Have people (2+ guests) in on average once a month. Don’t murder any of them.

37. Start the lengthy, painful and expensive process of making my teeth nice.

40. Get a whole new pajama rotation.

45. Have some sort of sexual relations with a willing human participant.

48. Confront someone about something outside of any regular conversations about said something

49. Apologize to someone about something outside of any regular conversations about said something.

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And that’s all of ‘em! Now to end it, a picture of me on my birthday.

6 overly-filtered photos of my apartment in Montreal

My Montreal life is slowly coming together. After two months of exploring and basking in the skin-cancerous summer sun, September was about setting up my new place. So far the furniture is all in but there’s little in the way of decoration. Here’re some pics.

First, the wide shot, as if it was found in a shoebox about to burnt some thirty years later, after my kids have grown up and murdered me for my money.

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Then, my workspace, with an emphasis on the light touch of the light. See the way the light plays with the other light? Light!

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Then, a knife waits alone on a cutting board without anything to cut. Lonesome because he so sharp? Or sharp because he is lonesome?

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Three control devices battle for control from different sides of the arena. With the remote turn on the TV before the keyboard switches off the computer? Will the iPad ever  feel as useful as the other two?

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Bowl of fruit, almost black and white … alright, I phoned this one in.

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And last up, the view to the southwest. In a stark cinematic film noir style. The seedy street of Sherbrooke with its dastardly cars!

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That’s it. Thanks to pixlr-o-matic for the filtering and the random button.

My review of Mac OS X 10.8 / Mountain Lion

What’d they change?

EDIT: Fuck it, who cares.