skrapnel

Moving to Austin hasn’t been as easy as I expected.  I thought the transition would be less bumpy when going back to a place where I had lots of friends from college.  I was wrong.

Talking to one of my good friends in SF really helped put things into perspective:

He’s right: Building friendships takes time.  Even getting reacquainted to old friends takes time.  If I’m worrying about things not “falling into place,” then I’m wasting energy that could be poured into other things, like the book, the new site or my own health.

Thanks, Jason!

Getting really excited about launching the site. It finally feels like it may come together!

My favorite video so far is one that we took at ArtErotica.  You’ll have to wait to see the finished product, so for now content yourself with these screengrabs:

Trying to figure out what to do for the intro

"Hmmm...Should we be silly or serious?"

Since I decided on silly AND potty mouth, this take didn't make the final vid. (I said the F-word!)

About to interview Scott Bellew, one of the Co-Chairs of the event

Jasmine and I interviewed one of the owners of The Great Outdoors on South Congress.  Going over the b-roll, I found this great footage of a 3-story high set of wind chimes hanging from a Live Oak tree.  Be sure to turn the volume up on your computer and enjoy the soothing deep bass tones.

Tweeted this out earlier in the day:

“I will be gleeful when the AP goes out of business.” A look at original news sources: http://tr.im/iSYy (HT @jemimakiss) View Tweet

Which led to this conversation:

For my follow-up to this conversation, check out this post on socialTNT.

Working hard on the images for the new brand. People judge your site in the initial 0.0002 seconds, so getting the right look is key. We’re still planning on launching in (eek) 3.5 weeks, and I’m intent on getting the right graphic.

I usually do my own graphic design, but, well, I can’t draw an armadillo.  Here is the tentative sketch of the main graphic (click to enlarge):

The style will be reminiscent of Soviet and Chinese Propaganda posters like these:

I know propaganda posters can look a little harsh, but I’m hoping that using more white  and softening up the colors a bit will make it more inviting. I also want it to look strong, but be mostly playful and tongue-in-cheek.  Plus, the imagery goes with the name…Sorry, can’t tell y’all that yet

What do you think?

It’s official: I’ll be moving to Austin at the end of this month.  Peep this image, courtesy of Google Streetview, of the new digs in Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood.  I’ll be sharing the place with some old friends.

My new house in Austin

For those of you not on Facebook, here are 25 random things about me.

1.  Because I was born on the 1st day of Christmas, I was sent home in a baby-size Christmas stocking.

2.  A couple weeks after I came home from the hospital, a friend of my mom’s accidentally dropped me down a flight of stairs.  I hit my head on a brick.  Since I was a newborn, the bones hadn’t hardened, so everything was ok, although some may say otherwise

3. When I was 8, I decided to taste some leaves from a bush next to our back porch.  I passed out and fell down the porch steps.  When I woke up, I was on a table in the doctor’s office.  They had pumped my stomach and stitched up my chin.  I had a metal beard for several months.

4.  In 2nd grade, we had to take an aptitude test.  For the three testing days, we were trapped in the cafeteria.  On the second day I had a bit of a stomach problem. I raised my hand to ask if I could go to the bathroom.  The teacher came over and I puked on her.  I then puked on the school nurse and the principal.

5.  Although I modeled from age 19 until I was 28, I had a low self image.  I’m so glad I’ve finally grown into the arrogant bastard I always wanted to be

6.  My mom never understood me or my brother.  She thought he was the actor/musician/artist and I was the engineer/math/science dude.  We grew up to be the opposite.

7.  I want kids.  Like most guys, I want two boys.

8.  I got married in Berlin.  My family found out through Facebook and MySpace.

9.  My BFF in Jr High and High School committed suicide in 1999 after his mother was unable to accept his homosexuality.  When I found out, I drove around Austin, making a continuous loop and draining a full tank of gas.   The entire time, I felt like he was sitting in the passenger’s seat next to me, so I yelled at him.   It sent me into a year long depression.  In high school I used to spend the nights at his house on the evenings after my mom had attempted suicide.  He was one of three gay guys from my high school who committed suicide after graduation.   They all shot themselves in the head.

10.  My favorite outfit as a kid was a superman cape and superman underroos.  I wore them to the store, restaurants, everywhere.  I was certain I could fly.

11.  When I was 11, I had to have dental surgery to cut out two extra teeth that, had they not been removed, would have grown from the roof of my mouth.

12.  I used to get in so much trouble for crawling through sewers, painting my body with wild blackberries, playing in rainstorms and digging holes in the backyard.  I think those experiences led to my love of gardening.

13.  The scariest moment in my life was waking up hungover in Brooklyn on September 11th, 2001.  I just barely saw the second tower fall.  The first person I called was my Aunt.  Neither one of us said anything, we just cried.  My mom couldn’t reach me until 5 PM.  I’m so thankful to Amy for being there for me.

14.  One of the happiest moments of my life was two weeks later in Paris on the Eiffel Tower with my grandparents.  It was something I’d always dreamt about as a kid.

15.  Goals: I  want to be a media mogul.  I want to change the way we tell stories and share experiences.  I want my next book to be published.

16.   While living in Cologne, Germany, I ran into Jasmine, a good friend from college.   It was completely unexpected.  Neither of us were having a good time, so we decided to just backpack around for a while.  I was living above a Chinese restaurant at the time.  I went downstairs and told the owner that I had a family emergency and had to leave immediately.  It was the biggest lie I’ve ever told and it worked.  I still have a hard time walking by that restaurant when I’m in Cologne.

17.  I slept with a stuffed Pooh Bear until I was 26.

18.  I have slept overnight on benches in parks in Austin, New York, Paris, Barcelona and Rome.

19.  When I was living in Berlin, my roommate stole everything I owned.  Since I didn’t have any clothes, I had to get them out of a dumpster.  I also collected bottles and cans for money.  You learn how to budget real quickly in that situation!

20.  As a 16 year old, I gave CPR to a drunk driver who had flipped his jeep.  Almost a third of his face had been ripped off.  He died in the hospital.

21.  When it comes to memories, I have no concept of time.  10 years feels the same as a month or a week.  I also forget what city I’m in at least once a day.

22. The first time I lived by myself, there was a wasp’s nest in the bathroom window.  Being the hippie that I am, I chose to live in harmony with the family of wasps.  They loved to crawl around on the bathtub walls while I showered.  They never attacked me, but they were leery of strangers.

23.  I accidently shot my younger brother in the back with a BB gun when I was 12.  Luckily, I was so far away from him that the BB just got stuck in his skin and didn’t go in to his spine.  We never told our parents.

24.  I found my first dog, Sarah, while riding on my paper route.  I’d always catch her and then return her to her owners.  Finally they just let me keep her.  She used to ride in the bags that I carried my papers in.

25.  For a short while in 2004, I had the most friends on *ahem* Friendster.  A news article, “The case against The Facebook,”  questioned whether I really could have 288 friends.  (http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2005/1/13/log-off-the-case-against-the-facebook) Oddly enough: Two years after that article, I was quoted in the New York Times. It was about Facebook http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/technology/06facebook.html

Bonus:  I am blessed with such an amazing group of friends, family members and former co-workers from all over the world.  I love all of you and thank you for being a part of my life.

Here’s my horoscope from Free Will Astrology this week.  I’m down to the final push to finish the book, so this hits it spot on.  This novel is just one part. I also need to work on the other blogs and continue learning how to use Final Cut.

According to expert gerontologists, Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards (a Sagittarius) should have passed on to the next world a decade ago. The man has abused his body so thoroughly, his continued survival is a mystery. You’re currently in an excellent position to achieve equally stupendous feats of persistence yourself, Sagittarius. More than ever before, you have a dogged capacity to keep pushing — even in areas where you’ve been flighty or sketchy in the past. I’d say this is an excellent time to deepen your commitment to your dreams in very practical ways.

via Free Will Astrology : Sagittarius Horoscope.

My favorite quote describing the Gina Trapani situation came from Mary Wallace in the comments to this post:

Gina’s blanket vomit of so many PR names was like the mean teacher in middle school who screams ‘detention’ instead of teaching kids how to behave. Very old school and shows she and the author of the wiki are best at knee-jerk anger, instead of cooperative involvement. I understand being pissed, I understand venting, but a wholesale list of the local pr industry is bitchy and destructive.

I also completely understand Gina’s position; I wouldn’t want to get hit with so many emails on my personal account. She still doesn’t get why her “punishment” was a bad move. Check out socialTNT’s posts here and here explaining the situation.

Her Tweet, below, reminds me of a high school kid who wants to do something rebellious just so the other kids will think she’s cool. Yeah….

Today we posted “Top Tech Bloggers Define Web 2.0” featuring Dan Farber (CNET News.com), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Mike Butcher (TechCrunch), Dean Takahashi (VentureBeat), Scott Beale (Laughing Squid), Josh Lowensohn (Webware).

We got an email from All Things D‘s Kara Swisher saying no women bloggers were featured in the post. True, but we did try. Sadly, Caroline McCarthy from CNET and former-Valleywag-now-freelancer Meghan McCarthy both were too busy for a short–2 minutes max–interview. We did feature Mashable’s Kristen Nicole and BlogTalkRadio’s Hilary Leewong in our Daily Wrap-ups.

I’m not a big fan of featuring only old white men, and neither is Marie. My mom is a strong defender of civil rights, especially for women. As a lawyer, she fought so that women could run around bare-chested in Texas. I also worked on my Bachelor’s degree studying race and urban spaces, and wrote my senior thesis on how the Texas history museum only tells a male–mostly white–story.

We want to interview women reporters and blogger, so give us a shout.