Last week I had two occurrences which made me contemplate the information revolution and how it might effect our lives in some unique ways.  Sometimes the technology comes at us so fast we forget that it hasn’t been with us for very long.  I can hardly imagine myself without a cell phone – but less than a decade ago I had never held one – let alone an iPhone on which I check my email while taking the Max into work.  So it’s equally challenging sometimes to imagine how radically different our lives will be a mere decade from now.

On Tuesday I was sitting in the corner of the Green Dragon pub having a pint with a friend when I decided to get up to use the restroom.  While heading to the men’s room, I happened to bump into an old colleague of mine who I hadn’t seen in probably four years.  We chatted for a few minutes, exchanged business cards and agreed to meet up for coffee soon. It was a great coincidence that our paths had crossed.

I’ve always been fascinated by the “bump-in”.  Not so much by the folks I bump into on occasion, but moreso by all the countless folks who must have been close – but I never noticed.  On any given day – how many friends are only a block away?  How often am I at an event in which someone I’d enjoy seeing is there – but I just never happen to realize it.

It seems to reason that in the near future – those sort of situations will be greatly assisted by software.  There are already sites like FourSquare where people check-in at various locations. Of course, there are also sites like Please Rob Me that take that data and use it against you (albeit in a funny manner).

While I don’t think I would be comfortable posting my whereabouts to everyone – I can certainly see myself allowing a select group of folks to know my location at certain times.  It could be useful in an office so co-workers know where you’re at in the building. Useful at concerts to find friends (expected or unexpected).  Suddenly you have a whole new insight at networking events – you can see the entire crowd indexed by your contact list.

As smartphones with GPS become more the standard – all types of information about WHERE you do, what you do will become available – and entirely new types of software will be developed to make use of all that data.  Just as police might now investigate phone records when a crime has been committed – in the near future I wouldn’t be surprised if GPS data of where a defendant was will become standard evidence in a trial.  By looking at entire collections of data – irrespective of the individuals – we will be able to learn volumes about how folks migrate around a city or community.  This information could greatly assist city planners, event organizers, or even transportation officials.

The second occurrence that struck me as funny occurred while riding the #70 bus in the morning.  I looked over at the passenger sitting across from me and noticed he had a name-tag hanging from his waist.  Anytime I see a name tag I’m immediately brought back to my mom’s teaching about kidnappers (whom to my young mind were all about – and ready to pounce at any moment).  Anytime I had a name-tag on, she cautioned – be extra careful that you know an individual, if they say your name. A solid lesson in fear – but wise words none the less.

And indeed, at one time, I suppose an unscrupulous type could approach an unsuspecting person and could possibly con them into believing they were an acquaintance – but for how long?  Today, however, a name can get me a lot further.  As I have no desire to lay out a full stalking of an unsuspecting fellow Tri-Met rider, I will reverse the cards and look up “Greg Spies, Portland” in Google.

Well hello.  Looks like I have some info.  In fact I have:

• My company name, what my business does and most of my clients
• My bio and entire resume from LinkedIn
• Names of fellow past co-workers from LinkedIn
• The college I attended and degree from LinkedIn
• All my Twitter posts, discussing numerous aspects of my job and life.
• Some of my friends and the groups/pages I’m a fan of on Facebook

And that’s just in the first 4 links.  With some effort I’m sure there is more (no, seriously, I’m sure there is more – I Google myself regularly… I admit it).

Now how long could someone keep a conversation going with me?  It’s a bit scary. However it’s also pretty interesting. Information is neutral – it’s what we do with it that counts.

Social media is going to expand beyond just sitting at your computer reading Facebook posts.  It will continue to infiltrate smart phones – and then eventually iPads and all the touch-screen devices that will follow.  Now if I’m in a Group on Facebook – that Group can exist in the non-virtual world as well.  If there is someone else in the coffeeshop who thinks that poodle with tinfoil on it’s head can get more fans than Glen Beck – the two of you could opt to chat about it over a latte.

I already choose as many do, to show that I’m online with Facebook.  I occasionally mention I’m going to an event or a bar.  It’s not a far leap for me to add a bit of GPS data from time to time to pinpoint my location when I’m out and about.  I would certainly GPS my photos so folks could see where they were taken.  I think as we begin to dip our toes into the hot waters of the information age, we will get used to sharing what at one time seemed personal.  Much of what folks share on Facebook and Twitter were moments we would have considered private a mere decade ago.  I have witnessed break-ups, engagements, babies, death and all the tiny details in between from hundreds of people who would be little more than strangers if we weren’t modern day friends of the information age.

Maybe privacy is the bi-product of a lonesome, isolated age – where a lack of communication forced us to suffer and celebrate in small, if not singular parties.  In this new age, we can be connected not only virtually with those around us as we are today – but also in person.  We can discover our old friend is only a few tables over – we can make a lunch decision by seeing where co-workers are at – and we can discover others nearby who share our interests.  Striking up a conversation with a stranger perhaps gets a bit easier when you have some topics to start with.

Or, as always, we can press the off switch and take a few hours to ourselves.  The key, as always, is moderation.

Filed under: Homelife, Life, Media, Networking, Social Media by gspies
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When I was a freshman in high school I began making a lot of observations and conjectures about what was actually going on here.  While most boys my age had girls on the mind – I became obsessed with the nature of reality. I had become a devout atheist in middle school, but being unsatisfied with silently disagreeing with those around me – I decided my time was better spent trying to figure out what was actually occurring – why I was here and why thing were the way they appeared.

A particular observation that haunted me occurred one evening at the little league field in my home town.  While I was a right-fielder in every sense of the sport when suited up – and thus have always disliked the game immensely – going to the little league field in Cornwall NY was just about the only fun thing in town – and many summer nights were spent at the complex walking between the various fields.  From certain spots you could witness multiple fields, and multiple games over the complex.  On one particular evening I began taking notice of the separation of time between seeing a batter make contact with the ball and the sound of the crack of the bat.  This was not a new phenomenon, and I knew that light traveled faster than sound. The only problem was that I had no idea what that meant – it was just an expression.  As I sat there, I realized that the time between the sight and the sound was different depending on which field I was looking at.  The further the baseball diamond, the greater the separation in sound.

Suddenly I imagined myself on an endless field.  I put the action of the batter a certain distance away and in my mind recreated the scenario I was witnessing at the complex – filling in the rough data I had regarding distance and the perceived difference in time.  I then began pushing the batter further and further away – to extreme distances not possible in the park – and began to discover larger gaps in time between action and sound.

I had just explored what is often referred to as a “thought experiment”. A famous example being Sir Issaac Newton’s thought experiment in which he imagined a cannon placed on the highest mountain on Earth.  If it shot a cannon ball at a certain speed it would go such a distance and then fall.  Faster speed, further distance.  At what speed would it have to reach to never fall?  Our modern day satellites fly at that speed – Newton was a bit ahead of his time.

In my mind I stood there on the endless plain – with the player still moving further and further away – the time between visual and auditory contact growing further and further apart. Suddenly I began racing away in the opposite direction.  I was now speeding away from the batter just as he was departing from me.  At first both the visual and sound could reach me – but the duration between seeing the swing and hearing it just grew longer and longer.  But as I reached greater speeds I eventually surpassed the speed the sound was traveling at, yet not quite the speed of the visual.  Now here my mind had to consider a few options.  Would all sound cease… as certainly the crack of the bat hitting the ball would now never reach me.  Was it possible I would begin to hear the previous swing?

As I continued to speed up I began to wonder how much faster were the visuals than the sound?  Could I accelerate to the speed of the visual – and if so what would happen?  And if I went beyond? That was about all my mind could ponder at that point – but it kept in the back of my mind for years.

In college I would discover that I hadn’t been pondering these thoughts alone – that others had come before me – and some of the questions I had been asking were answered. It turns out sound travels at a rather leisurely 1,125 feet/second.  What I could only think of as the visuals was actually light – and light travels at an outrageous speed of approximately 983,000,000 feet/second.  So it turns out the light was going about 874,000 times faster than the sound.  No wonder I could notice the change in such a short passage of time at the park.

I learned in college that Albert Einstein had discovered in 1905 that the visuals – light – and the speed at which they approach us as the observer, is the only true constant.  That time was relative.  That one’s experience is relative – and that the duration of the time between two events can be different for two separate observers. Your experience is different from mine.

While this of course took a few weeks to fully settle in – what was even more astounding than Einstein’s theory of special relativity and all the consequences it lay forth – was that this amazing realization was less than 100 year old.  That for all of human history man had lived on this Earth, unaware of such an amazing truth.  That most people still walk around unaware of this amazing fact.

What we label as science, is in fact, the truth.  What is so terrifying about that statement is that we know so little.  The big secret is that we have no idea why we are here, or what is going on.  For most of human history we have made measurements and observations of the world around us – only to discover as time went on that those observations were biased because we are not the focal point – we are not the scientist looking through the telescope – we are not outside the Petri dish.  We are part of the experiment – no matter how much we’d rather play observer. And for all the thousands of years humans have walked on this planet – the millions of minds that have had the capacity to think – we’ve hardly scratched the surface. We have had to fill the void of knowledge with an endless array of stories and myths and faiths, because a believable lie provides more comfort than the fear of the unknown.

But the unknown is a curious thing.  There is room to ponder…  And while deep reflection on complex thoughts might hurt the brain at first, that’s just the warming up of brain cells yet untouched.  There are wonderous things to contemplate.

How small or large can things be? I say infinitely.  At one point it was Atoms – then we found Proton and Neutrons.  Then “whoops” there are some quarks inside of there.  Now scientists postulate a concept called “String Theory” that takes us even smaller.  Wouldn’t it make more sense that you could go infinitely small and infinitely large – or perhaps even better, it loops at some point. Think about it.

Everything Repeats. I would argue that one’s capacity to notice variety is directly related to one’s scale in relation to the object. So things on my scale – people, dogs, buildings, trees – I can tell the difference between them.  Looking at the tree from afar I might think all the leaves are the same.  Upon closer observation I would find they are all unique – but obviously the plant cells are the same.  Under the microscope… no.  If this is the case – and the plant cells replicate with variation, and humans replicate with variation – and clearly planets replicate with variation – at what point would this replication with variation stop?  Why would it suddenly stop?  Would it not make as much sense to have multiple universes with variation?  Or multiple microscopic elements smaller than a quark with variation? Attempts to find a solid state – a final solution provide no real answers.  So you bring me to the big bang…. big deal – I’ll just ask you what was going on shortly before it.

The fact is, we’ll never know everything – but we live in a time where we know far more than ever before – and the more minds focused on answering bigger questions – the better. Never forget this is actually occurring – and that we don’t know why. Religion is a simple way out, but what fun is that? Science isn’t the job of scientists – it’s the truth about the nature of reality – and every intelligent person should have an interest in that. Last year for my birthday I purchased a gyroscope after watching a lecture regarding some of their unique properties.  The questions that bizarre device has provided me have been endless – but so has the fun in discovery. While friends that stopped by probably thought I was crazy – some things are too interesting to just let the “scientists” play with them.

Don’t just memorize the facts – contemplate the unknowns. Wonder why things are they way they appear – find out if your observations are even correct in the first place. When was the last time you did some science? Life is more fun when you realize it’s happening.

Be curious.

Filed under: Health, Homelife, Life, Science by gspies
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This week Apple announced their highly anticipated iPad – a revolutionary new device that creates an entirely new category someplace between the laptop and smart-phone. While the media and pundits may have been more focused on the name – my mind has been on fire the past three days thinking of nothing but the potential. I have never been more convinced that The Interactive Dept. and it’s partners of creative designers and developers – as well as photographers, videographers and writers, have a long and exciting career ahead of them. I have also never been more convinced that now is the time to work for yourself or with a small collective of creative types – because the publishing revolution has begun!

The title of this blog post comes from the title of a book by Bill Gates, written in 1995. I was a senior in high school at the time – and Bill Gates was the richest man in the world. It seemed unlikely that a dork such as this would be the richest man in the world, so a dork such as I was quite fascinated, and ran out to purchase this book the moment it hit the shelves. In it, Bill Gates explained his vision of the content revolution – of an internet that everyone participated in – video cameras and interactive touch-screens allowing for instant access to knowledge from anywhere and instantly.

“For more than 500 years, the bulk of human knowledge and information has been stored as paper documents. On the information highway, rich electronic documents will be able to do things no piece of paper can. The highway’s powerful database technology will allow them to be indexed and retrieved using interactive exploration. It will be extremely cheap and easy to distribute them. In short, these new digital documents will replace many printed paper ones because they will be able to help us in new ways.”

While a statement like this seems trite today – one has to remember that 15 years ago, the declaration that paper documents would be replaced was almost ridiculous.  Let’s recap technology for just a second:

1995 I use my parents IBM Aptiva Desktop with a 386processor, a 4800-baud modem and a dot-matrix printer and I go online for the first time with 5-hours of overpriced internet via AOL.
1996 I go to college and get a Gateway Desktop with a ginormous monitor, a bubble-jet color printer and a T-1 line
1997 I buy my first scanner – a giant flat-bed that takes up my whole desk.
1998 I buy my first digital camera.  Under 3-megapixel and a battery life of about 5 minutes it seemed.
2000 I purchase my first cell phone that just makes calls, sometimes…
2002 I get my first laptop – where I can take my computer with me. A giant, heavy Dell.
2007 I get my first smart-phone, the iPhone.
2008 I replace my broken iPhone with a new iPhone.

When Bill Gates declared I wouldn’t need paper anymore – if I had wanted to bring a map with directions on a drive, I had to go down to the basement of my house, fire up the Aptiva – connect via the phone line to Poughkeepsie ($0.35/minute at the time) – wait for Webcrawler to load up – find a mapping service via the search engine – and then try to print the map on my crappy dot-matrix printer. Today I would simply turn on my iPhone, pull up the map, and have it find me or any other location in the world and easily map the route. No need to print it either, as I can simply bookmark it and take it with me.  I haven’t had a printer setup in my apartment in 5 years. Bill was correct.

Along the way Bill obviously got side-tracked, because Microsoft certainly hasn’t been on the cutting edge of this revolution.  I like to think Bill’s philanthropic desires overshadowed his otherwise prophetic business mind – but regardless, it has been Apple that has carried the torch of this great evolution in information to our current moment.

It was Apple that changed the music industry forever – by allowing me to put every song I could have ever wanted to hear in a device I can carry along anywhere.  While Sony Executives were bragging about the endless bounds of their CD-Discman’s Skip-Protection capacity (”We’re up to two whole minutes of shaking!“) – Apple realized folks might wish to carry more than a single CD’s worth of music with them.  Oh – and while we’re at it – why not create a marketplace that makes the purchasing of music a gazillion times easier. I can now listen to music from bands who have never stepped into a corporate recording studio, whom I have never seen live.  The transaction, if any, can be conducted between us.

It was Apple that changed the telephone forever – by creating an entirely new interface and experience with a phone that for the first-time ever made having a cell phone truly useful. I could now listen (or not) to voice messages in the order I wanted to, with actual useful controls that didn’t require me to remember bizarre number combinations.  They created a phone that could be used for all the things you never imagined a phone could be used for.  And again they created a marketplace where I could easily purchase or download thousands and thousands of applications to make my life easier or more fun.

With the iPad – I truly believe Apple has created a device that will change the way we interact with tons of things we take for granted today – especially all those documents that still require paper.  For example, I still bring a notepad and pen into meetings. I don’t like the sound of typing or looking at my screen when I’m trying to discuss a project with my client so the laptop doesn’t work for me.  I would however take digital notes, or even record the audio of the meeting with a device like the iPad.   It would result in less scraps of paper around the office – I could immediately sync it with the clients files – and the ability to pull up samples of work or other websites right there in the meeting would be huge.

At home – I can finally see myself using an eReader.

I’m sorry Kindle fans, but when I look at one compared to the iPad, I think “how 90s.” I’m psyched that Amazon has had so much success, but the market for a solid eReader was WIDE-OPEN, and I think Apple has just taken over. Not only does the color screen allow for supplementary photography, video and audio – but once again they have created a solid marketplace for purchasing and downloading books from the comfort of your bed – and I’m particularly interested to see what happens to the publishing industry, as lessons from the music industry are learned, and new under-discovered writing talents begin creating their own marketplaces for selling their writings directly to the public. There is no art-form that requires so little to produce, but so much to share, as writing – and a solid eReader has been the last hurdle for unleashing the full potential of the publishing revolution.

Imagine students no longer having to lug around text-books. Think of a world where you can search for thoughts or ideas through endless epochs of written word, find something of interest, and begin reading it in its entirety – all while sitting on the train during the morning commute. Imagine a world where our need for paper is diminished, and our forests flourish.

The way scientists perform research, students study, academics write papers or even simply how a child writes a book report is going to change gradually but profoundly. Upon completion of a book, rather then a written page of “other books by the author” – those will be links – and those links will have links – and a new type of dewey-decimal system will develop of its own design based on our informational needs as knowledge is reorganized and rediscovered.

I look forward to playing video games in my hands – watching movies from my bed – and showing large and gorgeous photos and home movies to my parents.  I look forward to the next round of devices that will expand upon what Apple delivers.  I anticipate shared touch-screen applications in all sorts of places and locations we don’t experience them now. I look forward to seeing the ways we replace old technologies and concepts with touch-screen applications.

In this new world, a screen on the wall could be my light-switch, my music remote, my phone, my weather, my recipe, my security, my door bell or my art work. Apple has made the first step, with an earnest attempt to remove the keyboard and mouse. How will we develop products and interfaces that have no bounds?  That first digital camera I bought in 1998 looked like it still had film inside of it. They wanted it to feel like a camera still.  Now most digital cameras are slim and have redefined how a camera should look and work.  With the iPhone – the camera took on a whole new shape.  So many other devices still cling to their industrial heritage – but as the iPad begins to acquire their tasks, new applications and interfaces will be devised to create efficiencies that were impossible in a physical world.

Steve Jobs said in his speech this week that there will be a new gold-rush.  While I agree that there will be plenty to be made producing applications and tools for these devices – I disagree with the terminology of a Gold Rush.  Yes, there will be some wave of success at first – but this isn’t some new patch of territory that is going to be quickly discovered, claimed and cleared.  Rather – this is a new economic era.  For thousands of years, man has traded goods and services.  These primarily have been tactile items – foods, clothes, tools, etc.  Over time, things like education and knowledge became prized.  The arts flourished, and someone could be paid for their creativity.  However, there could only be so many books published, so many painting painted, so many students taught.  With the publishing revolution – that changes.  Suddenly there is an endless supply of a whole new world of products never before imagined.  I can design and build a game of my own imagination – produce it myself – sell it on the App Store – and make a full-time living having never left my home or created anything tactile.  The more our money chases virtual products of the imagination – the quicker our economy will have to evolve.

The solution to unemployment isn’t getting the old jobs back – it’s awakening to the new economy.  It’s acknowledging the publishing revolution has begun.  It’s educating the next generation of children not simply how to memorize, but to learn. I was lucky that Bill showed me the Road Ahead when I was 17. It shaped my path through college, it gave me focus in my 20s as I bounced from various start-ups.  It gave me the confidence to start The Interactive Dept – and it fills me with overwhelming excitement when I see a product that will transform the way we communicate and share ideas.

I have seen the road ahead – and it is beyond exciting.

Filed under: Homelife, Life, Media, New Media, Science, Websites by gspies
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As someone who spends a good deal of his time in front of a computer (that coincidentally is next to another smaller computer) I spend a lot of my time online.  While there are a whole variety of websites I might use on a semi-regular basis to manage my life, inspire my imagination, or simply pass the time while I’m waiting for a .zip file to download – there are a handful of sites that have become so valuable to me, that I can’t imagine going through a single day without them.  Similar to the way I ponder how anyone managed to find a particular location before GPS or at the very least MapQuest – I’m beginning to forget how on Earth I accomplished any tasks before I started using these website.

LogMeIn
www.logmein.com
cost: FREE

In a perfect world I would have one computer in a mystical realm of the internet, and at home and at work and everywhere in between, I would just have monitors and keyboards that could connect to my computer – and so all my files and applications would be available from any location, any time I needed them.  While that world is rapidly approaching – in our current moment I would often find myself getting home only to discover I had forgotten a file I needed back at the studio.  I have struggled with .Mac accounts, MobileMe accounts, and iDisk accounts – and nines times out of ten the file I needed was never where I needed it.

With LogMeIn I simply register my various computers (currently three of them) with my account – and once logged in, I can control the desktop of any of those machines through the web browser.  I close down applications I may have left running – I can post or email files that are only on one machine – I can even use software that I only have a single license for.  I’ve converted video files, for example, using my Mac Pro in the studio, from a web browser on my MacBook at home.

There is also a paid version of the website that has more features – like being able to drag files onto the browser to place on another machine – or creating a virtual network between all your machines online.  However – I’ve been fine with the free version.

FunctionFox – TimeFox
www.functionfox.com
cost: $35/month

Time is money as they say.  Never is that expression more true than when you run your own services business such as myself. While we typically quote a flat price for larger projects such as websites or branding packages – much of our time is actually spent making smaller updates to websites and applications we’ve created for clients in the past.

On any given day I might do work for 6 or 7 different clients.  Some of these might be multi-hour tasks, while others might take as little as 10 minutes.  However – over the course of a month those smaller tasks add up – and if you’re not counting them, you’ve just lost a good deal of revenue.

There are a lot of Time Tracking applications and websites out there and I’ve used a variety of them over the years.  But I haven’t found anything that works for my needs like Timefox.  It is purposely under-designed and under-featured, to handle the one thing I need it to do – record my time for various projects from numerous clients. It is then super easy to generate a variety of reports, so I can quickly determine what I need to invoice each of my clients – or how we are doing on a particular project based on initial estimates, and what time we’ve put in to date.

Plus – about a year ago my colleague Jessica and I were contacted by the CEO of the company, Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms because she was going to be in Portland and wanted to take a few of the long-time customers out to breakfast at The Heathman.  Now I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of services over the years – and never received so much as a thank you – let alone a complimentary breakfast and some great conversation.  Take a tip from a Canadian company – that simple breakfast not only made me a customer for life – but also a part-time sales rep, as I now recommend FunctionFox even more than I did before.

Mint
www.mint.com
cost: FREE

While I can’t say I’ve been the best accountant for my ever growing small-business (and as of 2010 have handed most of those reigns over to a spectacular new CPA) I have always been good about keeping track of every expense and income the business made, using Quickbooks.  It is a pain sometimes to muscle my way through it, but since the very beginning I have known exactly what my business made and where that money went – and that knowledge was vital.

When it came to my personal life, however – that was another story.  The closest thing I had to records was my monthly statement from my bank – and when I went paperless a year ago – I all but lost any record of where my money was going.  I was like the federal government – only without the capacity to print more money. That’s where Mint.com stepped in.

Mint is like a very slimmed down version of Quickbooks (and as of late last year, is owned by the same company).  You attach your various personal checking and savings accounts, any credits cards or investments, car payments, etc. – and Mint.com does most of the rest.  I was able to quickly create a monthly budget by entering in the various recurring bills (rent, cell phone, netflix, etc.).  When those transactions occur – Mint.com updates my monthly budget so I know how much I’ve spent in the various areas of my life.  Once you’ve identified what type of an expense each transaction is (and it actually does a pretty good job guessing) – the next time you go back to that vendor, it fills in that information for you.

Best of all, Mint.com is free!

So now I can very easily determine how much I’ve spent on food, or utilities, or even beer.  It’s a lot easier to understand what you’ve been doing (or at least spending your money on) when your personal life is broken into a pie chart.  Other tools on the site help you to create strategies for working off debt, building a saving and more.

Smashing Magazine
www.smashingmagazine.com
cost: FREE

There are a lot of great websites out there to gain inspiration from in my field.  I’m lucky to be a part of an industry that is rapidly changing at every moment and in almost every facet.  New trends form in web design almost every day – and the trap of falling into your same style or layouts is always present. That’s why I start out almost every day checking out Smashing Magazine.

Not only does their Twitter feed drag me to their site several times a day – but anytime I find myself hung-up on a technique, or trying to find a simple design solution for an eNewsletter or campaign site – their lists of “Best Of”s always have something that solves my dilemma.  And no – I’m not just saying this because they featured our website for Aviation Gin on a blog post about websites for the alcohol beverage industry.

Some of my favorite posts have been:

25 Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity

50 Fresh Portfolio Sites For Your Inspiration

Web Design Trends for 2009

Expecting Rain
www.expectingrain.com
cost: FREE

This is probably the site I go to every day that would be the least useful to anyone else.  That is unless they happen to be a fanatical Bob Dylan fan.  Expecting Rain takes its name from a line in Dylan’s classic “Desolation Row” (Everybody is making love. Or else expecting rain.) The site is a collection of all Bob Dylan news stories and ramblings from across the internets.  On any given day, 15-20 links will appear, ranging from blog posts on obscure bootlegs to concert reviews from German press outlets.  It never ceases to amaze me that one man could have so much written about him on a daily basis – but apparently the world of Bob Dylan never stops.

The site also posts links to stories about Dylan collaborators, cover songs and great YouTube clips (which are usually removed from YouTube a few days later at the request of Columbia Records).  Certainly not for the casual fan – but for those with a bit of a Bob Dylan obsession – this site is a life saver.

Filed under: Homelife, Media, New Media, Websites by gspies
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On Christmas morning I saw a Facebook post from my cousin regarding a video game called Braid. As it is rare to see any female make a post about a fun video game – I decided to check it out.  The write-up seemed interesting and the graphics beautiful – so I dropped the $10 and purchased it for the Mac.  For the next few days I played an absolutely brilliant game – that was like many classic games I had played – but yet completely different then anything I had ever seen before.

The game focuses on time.  The main character, Tim, has the unique ability to control time, forward or backwards.  I first discovered this on the second level when I accidentally fell into a pit and died.  Rather than the typical fade-out, and starting the board again – I simply pressed the SHIFT key, time began to rewind, and I was back alive as if nothing had ever happened.

However – something had happened.  I had a memory of an incident occurring that no other creatures in the game did.  I now knew what was about to happen, and nobody else did.  What a spectacular power!  But the brilliance of Braid is that as the game unfolds – you begin to look at time entirely different – and both the positive and negative consequences of your actions.

The main storyline follows Tim’s quest to reclaim his princess who was taken away by an evil knight.  There are 6 chapters – each with it’s own unique take on time.  At the start of each chapter there are a series of books that provide insight not only into Tim, but also the characteristics of the world you are about to enter.  As the boards progress, your interaction with time become more and more profound and required.  Some solutions can only occur in reverse, or when time is manipulated entirely.  By the final boards, the natural pace of time is in reverse – and you must anticipate how things began in order to move forward.

However, this post is not a game review – this is a discussion on time.

As humans, we are 3-dimensional creatures witnessing glimpses of our 4th dimensional-self.¹ We experience time as a linear path completely out of our control.  Whereas we have full control over the dimensions beneath us (I can walk forward/backwards, left/right, can go up and down) and have almost no observations of the dimensions above us (a topic for another blog post) – we remain trapped in the 3rd, aware of time (4th), but unable to move back and forth within it.

However – human beings have this amazing gift of being able to predict and conjure up scenarios in our brains.  No other species known to man can project plausible outcomes the way humans can.  Nor does any creature have the ability to reflect on the past and re-associate past experiences the way humans can.  You will never meet a dog with long-held regrets, or a fish with long-term goals. Our species alone has the capacity to explore beyond the moment. One has to begin to wonder – is it possible we have some mild control over this 4th dimension?  That time is not the master.  Or rather, that our minds can see the fringes of the 5th dimension where all those possible realities exist?

Regardless of your views on Quantum Physics, it is quite easy to see that one’s actions have consequences, positive or negative.  Two years ago, before I was getting ready to move to Spain for two months, I decided to sell my car.  The money would be helpful for the trip I felt, but more importantly, I began to believe it would have positive consequences for me in the future.  Sure enough – upon my return to the States, I began walking to work every day.  More amazing moments and coincidences have occurred during these walks to and from work then I could have ever experienced before.  I’ve discovered a grocery store I never would have stopped in while driving, that has changed my diet and the foods I cook.  Then there are the realities that never occurred that I might be unaware of.  Car accidents on the negative, perhaps unexplored road-trips on the positive.  Regardless, the trajectory of life was changed drastically, as it almost always is by our decisions and many of the positive elements that have occurred I was able to foresee before I sold the car. That realization that I can make sweeping changes for the future with simple actions in the present has become a major force in my life.

It is safe to infer then, that actions in the present will create new realities in the future.  Unfortunately though – the implication here is that everything that is occurring in your current moment, is the direct result of your past actions.  Most would prefer to think otherwise – that the moment is the moment – and the past is memories, the future unforeseen.  This is where I disagree entirely.  The future is quite foreseeable, the past quite easy to manipulate – and the current moment is nothing but an opportunity to explore time and create reality.

So how do you begin to control time?  First off, as almost every guru/preacher/life-coach/grandmother will tell you, you need plans.  You need to know what it is you want to do – how you want to live – where you want to be – with whom you want to be with – and all the other details of the life you desire.  There are plenty of other blog posts that can explain the importance of knowing yourself at the core, and the pitfalls of the unexamined life – hopefully you have already begun this process. If not, turn off Mad Men and begin exploring.

With a plan in mind – the next step is to truly envision that life.  Not in the abstract – not just the feeling – or some photos from a magazine – it needs to be as clear as the memories in your past.  You need to be able to call on it at any point, explore it, and connect it to other memories. Don’t just focus on the goal of that memory – look around.  Seriously, turn around and see what is on the wall behind you in this fantasy.  If you’re envisioning a person, what types of socks are they wearing?  Force your mind (especially if you’ve let it sleep most your life) to begin working its magic.  All the details are there.  Put down the iPhone – the greatest piece of technology you own is your mind.

Do you have it?  Can you feel it?  Your brain is touching the 5th dimension – and you are now moving within the 4th.  Here comes the tricky part – working your way backwards through time.  With a clear vision in mind, press the SHIFT key and rewind your life from this future point back to your present.  Go as slowly or fast as you need to, and as often as you need to.  Just make sure your mind is doing the work and the details are showing up.  Your mind will produce the details – and more of them the more often you review these future memories.  Take note of the actions, and patterns that exist in these conjured scenarios. You will have a less challenging time jumping the pits and dodging the fireballs of life when you know they are coming, and how you defeated them.

If there are conflicts prior to your current moment in the 4th dimension, do not be hesitant to go back in time and fix those issues.  While you will fully remember that they occurred, if you go back and fix them, you will find the rest of the world for the most part forgets that they ever occurred (okay, this is more like the game, but in reality nobody really cares that much about anything other than themselves, so if you truly do make amends for past issues, or just face up to problems that have been plaguing you – rather than just ignoring the past – you do change the current moment).

Most importantly – remember that life is occurring… always.  That just like in the game, we don’t know why we’re moving forward in the 4th – or where we are headed in the end – but if we are smart, clever and persistent with our efforts, we will have a wonderful experience.

“Know yourself; And urge yourself ceaselessly.”

SOURCES:

1. Imagining the Tenth Dimension
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA

Filed under: Health, Life, Science by gspies
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These are things the elderly woman sitting beside me on my 3.5 hour flight from Houston (a stop-over on my flight from Philadelphia) told me. I won’t bother to detail which points I agree with or disagree with. The point of this exercise is that we are all bat-shit crazy, and should probably just learn to smile more and listen for the sake of the story.

• She was born in Chicago, but moved to Missouri
• She was 1 of 11 children.
• She acquired the job of head editor for her high school newspaper because the girl who had received the position originally was lazy. When a famous riverboat performer came to do an assembly at the school and refused to give interviews because of limitations on her time, she had offered to help the woman pack up her stuff, and in the process recorded short notes. When the performer noticed this, she suggested that because the packing had gone so smooth, she now had time for an interview. With story in hand, she took the position right out from under that other lazy gal.
• She has 3 children. One lives in Portland, one lives in Honduras working as a missionary and the other lives in California.
• There are various types of fish oil vitamins on the market, but only one in the US that uses purely Salmon.
• Her favorite bible passage is Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
• While she and her husband and two of the kids were stationed in West Germany in the 50s, they took a two week camping trip through 9 countries. They purchased a German VW which they eventually had shipped back to the states when they attempted to homestead in Alaska.
• Cell phone towers only exist in the US. Everywhere else people just use their cell phones and there are no towers. She knows it sounds a bit crazy, but she believes the towers are probably used to track us using those very cell phones.
• She sold the German VW several years later for $500. A local car salesman had offered her only $150, but she felt she could sell as good as him and proved that. She was offered $250… she was offered $400… but she held out till the morning and sure enough got what she wanted.
• When she and one of her sons went to attend her daughter’s wedding in Honduras she had him stay with this older couple and a young man. Unbeknown to her, the young man had a sister, who on the second day stopped by, and though she spoke no English, and apparently he no Spanish, by year’s end and after three trips down, they were engaged.
• She hiked the base of the grand canyon in two days. It was her 3rd attempt. The first time, her group was too large with 28 individuals, so she offered to stay behind. The second time, her knee began to hurt right before the hike, and had to pull-out. The third time was with her brother. He had done it before alone in a single day. She says if she had done it alone, she would still be there.
• As a child, she wrote to the head of the local dentistry school at the haste of her mother, and he was so moved by the letter he allowed her to get braces at the school at no cost, even though she needed stage 3 braces, which the school wasn’t totally qualified for. She couldn’t stand the delay, so when not in the presence of authority figures, she would tie as many as 8 rubber-bands on each of the braces. When the braces came off, the doctor told her to put on some lipstick. “No, more he said. A girl is told she has a nice smile, she starts thinking about her hair – she cares about her hair, suddenly she starts dressing nice. Boys start to pay attention. She went from being on the 5th rung (1st Rung: Popular kids, 2nd Rung: Athletic Kids, 3rd Rung: Kids with money, 4th Rung: Nerds and Bookwords, 5th Rung: Nobodies) to the 1st rung – a real popular girl.
• 98% of women who have abortions are later diagnosed with breast cancer
• Sales runs in the family apparently, because when she posted her truck for sale (now living south of Eugene Oregon) a farmer from outside Portland drove all the way down after talking to her son on the phone, unaware that the voice on the other end was that of a 11 year old. He had to wait around till she got home from work to close the deal.
• People with Vitamin B deficiencies have a long canal running down the middle of their tongue. Upon closer inspection, my tongue suggests I am VERY deficient in Vitamin B and while she’s not saying this about me in particular… people like me are often short-tempered, easily irritated, and while they might be super nice to an old lady they don’t know, such as herself, we can be super cruel to our own mothers and the people who love us. It’s easy to pretend to like a stranger, but when we, the vitamin B deficient, know someone loves us, we can afford to be quick with them and often quite mean, because we know they won’t abandon us.
• By the very fact that President Obama can not produce a birth certificate, he must be a foreigner and untrustworthy.
• She hadn’t been raised religious, that was more her husband’s thing. But he had been attending a church and they asked if they could come over after dinner a few times a week to chat with her about God and her faith. They explained that they wanted her to sign this card to pledge her devotion to God. She said she would probably never do that, but agreed to listen to them, and invited them into her house. The first evening, they chatted a bit about life and family and work, but they spoke a good deal about God. When the meeting concluded, they asked her what she had though – and she said she wished they’d done 80% real issues and 20% faith discussions, and not the other way around. But she agreed to meet again. They did this for three weeks, when she suddenly woke in the middle of the night and knew she had to sign that card. She didn’t know why – she just felt compelled by God to do so.
• In response to an article that downplayed the use of vitamins in curing certain kidney ailments, she wrote an editorial that was read by a deacon in her Church, who apparently was associated with a vitamin company and asked her to become a rep, a job she has till this day.
• Many of our health issues comes from aluminum something both the industry and the government has been suppressing for almost a century now.
• She sold encyclopedias for a brief time, but never had much luck. The crutch of the sales pitch was showing how important it was for children to be able to get information when they are inspired in the moment – a service your local library just can’t provide. She never had a sale, although her husband did sell one set to a co-worker for her, but she doesn’t feel that counts.
• On the prior flight from Honduras to Houston, the gentlemen beside her was an intern for a senator, who had sent him there to monitor the elections. Apparently he was not associated with ACORN.
• She was married to her husband for 27 years, then one day he said he just couldn’t stand to be tied down any more and asked for a divorce. Several years later he came back and admitted he had been foolish and asked her to take him back. She said if he could be faithful and a good husband for a year, she would agree to marry him again. He stayed for five months and then left again. She gets asked out for coffee from time to time by gentlemen, and that’s all well and good. But coffee leads to dinner, and multiple dinners lead to the bedroom, and she has no intention of going there. Sure, she can keep a conversation with a guy like myself, but I’m her youngest son’s age, so the pressure isn’t there (and I shouldn’t be offended by that). If it’s God’s plan for her husband to come back, she doesn’t want to be tied down to someone else when it happens.

Filed under: Health, Life, Networking, Politics, Science, Travel by gspies
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The photograph taped to the dashboard caught my eye the second I entered the cab.  A beautiful African women in traditional clothes, sitting gracefully with a large book spread-open upon her lap and a smile that filled the car.  I assumed by her apparent age and the drivers age – that it might be his daughter.  I was soon to learn it was his fiance.

“She nearly died two days ago.  I saved her life.  She was dead – she died and came back,” he said with a voice both thick with accent and emotion when I inquired who she was.

“She died and came back?”

“She was dead – she was on the stretcher being taken to the morgue – and then she coughed and the doctor said ‘this woman is still alive.. quick… return her to the hospital.‘”

The woman in the photograph, his fiance, lives in Ghana and judging by the photograph was the epitome of youth and health.  However, earlier in the week she had complained to him via the telephone of a headache and he had told her to see a doctor.  Check-ups are not the sort of thing most can afford in Ghana – but he wired her money and insisted she visit the doctor.  However, before she could make an appointment she collapsed in the street. As no ambulance was available – her friend using the money he had wired was able to pay a man with a van to take her to the hospital where by all accounts she was declared dead.

“He would not take her until they paid him.  What kind of man is this who would not take a dying women to the hospital?  This is the way we live?”

“Disgusting,” I replied, trying to grasp the story he was rapidly unfolding for me.

“I saved her life,” he said again – his glassy eyes piercing mine through the reflection of the rear-view mirror. “If I was not her fiance, she would have died in the street. Her parents have no money – and if she was married to one of the local men – they have no money. I have the money,” he said proudly.  “They told the doctors she has a fiance in America and so they took her in.”

In the end, it turns out she is anemic and had no blood in her system.  “A heart with no blood can not beat.”  Several blood transfusions later and she was now doing well. But blood does not come cheap in Ghana. Her bill totaled in the millions for the local currency – clearly wrought with inflation. $300 US dollars – which according to him is more than the average person in Ghana would make in a year.  Her parents have no work and no money.  She supports them with the small income she makes from selling clothes that he purchased in bulk and had shipped to her.

“She must be so grateful to you,” I said studying the coarse lines of his face – the subtle in-and-out of his wide nostrils – the thickness of his neck – the indent on his right ear – the dark coarse hair that faded to white at the edges.

“Oh yes. She has called me three times in the last day just to thank me.  Her parents are so thankful she is engaged to me.  But I am thankful that she lives with them.  I had sent money and told her to move to my home in Ghana. I have a beautiful home but it is far from town and she did not want to be there all by herself.  If she had listened to me, she would have died in my house alone.  And then I would be blamed for her death.  And not being there to defend myself people would talk.  They would not learn about her anemia, but say that my home was cursed.”

“Instead you’re a hero.”

“Yes.  Instead I am the hero. I saved her life.  If she was not engaged to a man who is in America the doctors would not have seen her.  ‘Her fiance is in America‘  her parents told the hospital, so they knew she had money. And if she was here, in America, I would not have been able to afford to help her.”

“You’d be paying for the rest of your life,” I smiled into the mirror.

“Yes,” he burst out laughing and embraced the steering wheel.  “I’d be paying forever. Instead I paid $300 and saved her. A large amount in Ghana, but here, not so much.”

“Amazing,” I said darting my eyes from the mirror to the photograph and back.

“When will you return to Ghana?” I inquired.

“I am hoping in February.”

“It will be good to see her I bet,” I said while reflecting on the scale of their long-distance relationship.

“Yes, very much so.  I hope she remembers though.  A woman can forget.  When a man is not around, a woman can forget.”

“You saved her life – I don’t think she’ll forget that.”

“A woman can forget.  And it is wrong to remind them.”

“Yeah, you gotta save that one,” I joked.

“YES!” He burst out laughing again, bear-hugging the steering wheel with his massive frame.

“When she says a few years from now, ‘you never did anything nice for me’,” I continued joking.

“Yes, yes,” he roared.  “I did nothing?  I saved your life! I paid for the blood that is inside you.”

We both laughed hysterically.  “Save that one,” I joked again as the cab pulled up in front of Union Station and a light rain streaked the windows I’d ignored the entire ride- focused only on the photograph taped to the dashboard and his eyes reflecting in the mirror.

The stories people share far surpass those of any TV program or movie. This is why I travel – this is why I talk with everyone I meet.  This is what I am living for.

Somewhere in Washington DC there is a cab driver who is engaged to a beautiful woman in Ghana who died and came back on Wednesday. He spends his days driving passengers around who are likely convinced they are doing better than him and for a moment perhaps, ponder whether it is his daughter or wife in the photograph, but choose not to ask.  And the small tips and salary he makes, he sends back to Ghana, where he is a wealthy man. A man with a large home and a beautiful fiance. A man who saves lives.

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Last week I decided it was time to make an appointment with the eye-doctor and freshen up the old prescription.  It had been about two years and I had a suspicion my sight wasn’t as strong as it had been. Losing your sight, as I have been for over a decade now, is sort of a bizarre experience.  It’s not like spraining an ankle or catching a cold. It is a far slower and more gradual awareness that overcomes you.  One day you notice you can’t read a street sign, but have a sinking suspicion that at one time you could have. When you get your new glasses it’s like being in some sort of fantastic hyper-realistic dream – everything is so sharp and you notice items in the distance you never knew you could see.

This time however I wasn’t going to get a new pair of glasses – I had decided to make the switch to contacts.

My reasons were two-fold:

First, having given up my car over a year ago – I now walk or bike just about everywhere.  With the winter months approaching, I was not looking forward to another mist-filled season of walking to work blind.  While the rain isn’t enough to really get me wet, it does cover my glasses pretty instantly, and I’m forced to either keep wiping them free of drops, or abandoning them altogether and just walking in a blurry haze into downtown.

Second, I was tired of choosing which accessory to wear every day.  If I had some budget to throw-around, perhaps I could purchase a dozen pairs of glasses and enjoy some creativity in my presentation.  But I only have two pairs – my slightly broken but highly functional metal pair, and my Portland-hipster thick framed ones.  While I certainly enjoy both – wearing one or the other every day was as unbearable as having to wear a uniform to work would be.

So why hadn’t I made the switch years ago?  Simple… I’m a human being.  And as such I had filled my mind with a whole handful of insurmountable fears and reservations.  For example:

- My eyes are sensitive, and thus I wouldn’t want a piece of plastic jammed into them.
- It would be too much of a pain putting them in and taking them out each day.
- I’m going to get laser eyes surgery SOMEDAY, so why do anything TODAY?

The typical collection of excuses and misconceptions that lead to inaction.

My sister Jillian helped calm my first major fear: that I suffered from ultra-sensitive eyes and my precious peepers couldn’t possibly handle this thick piece of plastic shoved inside of them.  Her response was, “What are you, an idiot?  Who do you think likes having pieces of plastic shoved in their eyes?” I suddenly realized that I had no idea what a contact lens actually was.  I had never touched or really seen one up close.  At Lenscrafters I discovered what they are actually like and realized my fears had been completely incorrect and based on false concepts – these weren’t “lenses”, they were more like a thin film.  Not only that – once in, they were completely unnoticeable in my eyes.  In fact, I realized that it’s not contact lenses that are uncomfortable – it’s a giant lens contraption hooked to your ears and strapped across your face that is the uncomfortable solution. Contacts aren’t MORE uncomfortable than glasses, they are far LESS.

The second fear that it would be too difficult and thus a pain to take them in and out is already proving to be false.  Taking them out is a snap and just an added minute to my typical night-time routine.  Getting them in is still a bit of a trick, but each day I get better and this morning was rather easy.  It’s fascinating how the mind learns new activities. If you just trust your mind to it and don’t try to force your own solutions, the body quickly learns how to do what you want.

The final reason – that there is a better solution that I will eventually use, so no sense in taking this first step – is a major problem that I’ve been trying to work on recently.  While it is always important to keep a focus on where you want to get to and the life you wish to lead, day-dreaming is no substitute for improving your current state.  In the words of Bob Dylan, “When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?” It’s a bit selfish to be living in this modern time, with all the gifts I’ve been afforded – the sort of life almost no human being on earth could have dreamed of a mere century ago – but to say “This isn’t enough yet for me to be happy or to enjoy this gift. Sure I have a nice apartment, but I want a house.  Sure I have my own business, but I want a full company. The things I have are nice, but I want better.“  Seriously? So because there is something better out there, I can just ignore the current situation, or worse, look down upon it?  That is a rather foolish philosophy, but it serves its purpose, albeit a negative one. By placing the bar too high, we can easily ignore all the smaller steps we could be taking to improve our situation.

I’ve recently tried to take each of these major tasks or life goals and create smaller steps or solutions that I can begin tackling immediately.  Fixing my sight, which eventually will lead to laser eye surgery suddenly had some smaller steps.  Some included researching the laser procedure and pricing, which I have started.   But the other steps revolved around improving my sight in its current state with an eye exam and to explore contacts as a middle-ground.  That exploration took very little time, and now I get to see things massively better than I did before and I’m further down the road when I eventually have the money (or health insurance) to tackle the major goal of fixed sight.

So beyond the fact that I can see remarkably better than I could before, and I’m no longer forced to wear the same accessory each day like some sort of cartoon character – I have also learned an important lesson about moving forward in life and business.  When faced with a perceived obstacle, make sure your fears are grounded in reality, research and find out the facts, and remember that small steps take you a lot further than doing nothing at all.

Filed under: Health, Homelife by gspies
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As an avid traveler and west-coast transplant who is lucky enough to travel home to NY a few times a year – I am no stranger to airports.  I have run from one end of Chicago O’Hare to the other (only slowing to enjoy the underground laser light show) more times than I care to recount.  I have been re-directed, put up in hotels, paid-off for my seat and had my bags lost while in Europe for just a week. Earlier this year a flight to Amsterdam with a stop-over in Chicago resulted in additional stop-overs in Philadelphia and Manchester, England – a 24-hour flight adventure.  The combination of crabby travelers, relentless and often mind-boggling security procedures, utterly confused seniors and over-energized kids, all crammed into a prison-like mall makes the airport an unlikely place to look forward to.  That is, unless, you happen to be in Portland, Oregon.

I Look Forward To Going To PDX Airport

Whereas the requirement to arrive an hour or two early for the airport is one of those frustrating rush-and-wait situations, I actually give myself more than enough time to hit up PDX.  My flight this evening leaves at 10pm – but I actually got here at 7:30.  Why not?  I’m sitting at the Rogue, having a delicious beer and enjoying one of their mouth-watering bacon-swiss burgers.  The ‘Brutal Bitter’ is a spectacular pre-flight pint and absolutely crushes the typical 20-ounce of corporate swill with optional side-shot served at most over-priced “bars” in airports around the US.

Getting to PDX couldn’t be easier.  I basically walked four blocks from our studio over to the MAX line and took the red line all the way out here.  $2… sit down… 35 minutes later I’m at the airport.

And how and I’m writing this blog post?  Am I spending $9.95 for 2 hours of internet access?  NOPE…  FREE WIFI at PDX Airport!  I’m assuming they are aware they could charge for this – that they could join all the other airports in this country in sucking you dry of every last penny by forcing you to provide your credit card to some unknown entity.  My guess is that someone in the organization must have said, “Yah – but that would be a really shitty thing to do.”  And so PDX provides you internet at THEIR cost.  This allows me to get work (ie blog posts) completed while I await my plane – and another reason why getting to PDX early makes sense.

Best Non-PDX Airport Bar

I think of all the bars I’ve waited for planes in, my absolute favorite would be a little Irish bar called Murphy’s Irish Pub located just beside gate D10 in Amsterdam Airport (Schiphol).  I discovered it the first time when returning to the States after my 2-month stay in Barcelona. I returned for another cold pint in May when visiting Dublin and the bartender actually remembered me – now that’s a solid bar!  You literally feel like you’ve not only left the airport, but also Holland when you walk into this classic pub.  A good selection of Irish brews and always an interesting person to strike up a conversation with at the bar.

Worst Airport Artwork:

SERIOUSLY?  George Bush Sr. in bronze, looking like Clark Kent trying to find a phone booth.  The first time I saw this ridiculous statue at Houston Airport, I thought perhaps our former joke of a President had been frozen in carbonate like some sort of cold-hearted Republican Han Solo.  Of course Houston is Bush country – and this ain’t no joke.  Bush is the real deal and all man (regardless of what his casually curving legs might suggest).  I stopped to take a photo of this amazing work – and then realized folks looking at me taking this photo probably couldn’t discern that I was finding this work ridiculous, rather than trying to capture a great moment in my life.

Most Bizarre Way To Get Around An Airport

By far the oddest way to get around an airport occurs in Dulles Airport in Washington DC.  They call them the “Mobile Lounge Transports” – but I call them the really weird rooms that slowly roll across the parking lot.  First off – a lounge should have drinks – or at the very least good lighting. This is not a lounge.  This is like a large elevator that goes sideways.  A hallway would have probably worked better – but the rocket scientists at Dulles decided to create these outrageously large and completely bizarre contraptions to carry folks around their horribly laid-out airport. If you’re going to waste my time getting from A to B in an airport – it better be a monorail!  This is no monorail.

Filed under: Portland, Travel by gspies
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By Greg Spies

1. Walking/Biking Into Work

When I was kid we lived out in the country, about a 20 minute drive from school.  So when the day would end, I’d have to run to catch a bus while my local friends would socialize out front and slowly meander back to their homes.  As silly as it seems, I dreamed of an adult life where I would bike to work and would never have to commute back and forth again.  However, back east that didn’t seem like an option. My father had a 45 minute commute to work each day and I know folks who live in Connecticut who drive almost two hours to work in NYC and back. The first time I rode down beneath the Burnside Bridge, along the stretch of floating walkway on the Willamette on my 10 minute ride to work, I knew I had found my place.

I sold my car more than a year ago and have never looked back.  Most days I walk to work because I enjoy the 20 minutes of quiet contemplation prior to starting my workday.  I take a slightly different route each day, decided typically on impulse and hardly a day passes that I don’t come across something unique on my way in.  Whereas sitting in my car blaring the stereo, or cramped on the morning bus with my iPod pumping, separated me from the city on my way into work – I am always very present on my walk, noticing new shops, bumping into colleagues and friends, or even just exchanging a pleasant glance with a passer-by.  It’s typically the highlight of my day.

2. My Awesome Studio/Building/Area

I’ve worked in a variety of places around Portland and beyond.  From incubators to cubicles – windowless rooms to coffee-shops, I’ve probably tried them all.  But I’ve never felt more at home and productive then at 431 NW Flanders.

First off, the Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood (which I like to refer to as The Interactive District) is alive with all sorts of energy.  The combination of art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, architecture firms, web development studios and the Chinese Gardens makes this a creative’s dream.  Anytime I’m at a loss for inspiration, a quick walk around the neighborhood is always enough to get me back on track. I’ve also had the great honor to work with Central City Concern the past two years – and so every day I can see the progress they are making on the great challenges facing our community.  I pass by the amazing residences they’ve cleaned up and improved, and run into people who have made it through their programs and I’m inspired by the potential for change - both within humans and a city.

As for the building itself – could you ask for anything better?  High ceilings, great views of downtown, all sorts of insanely talented folks (and their crazy dogs) working together in one place.  I started out working in the corner of the basement when the first floor was occupied by Livengood/Nowack.  I now share a suite on the 2nd floor with my partner in crime, Pail Design.

Plus our landlord Steve Bloch is about as great as they get – not to mention a spectacular photographer.  All in all – the perfect spot to work.

3. The Carts

SERIOUSLY… how awesome are the carts?  An endless variety of cheap, delicious eats all located in a few central spots.  A stroll along the promenade takes you from India to Mexico, from Thailand to Philly – and a few places I didn’t even know existed. Go there with a group and everyone gets what they want – and can meet back up to share in the delights.

I have NEVER gone to the carts and not run into someone I know – it’s the grand dining hall of downtown Portland whether rain or shine (although of course we all prefer it in the sun).  While Portland certainly has no shortage of great restaurants – when it comes to lunchtime – nothing beats the carts. I considered listing my personal favorites – but I honestly don’t have one.  It’s the pure variety that makes this spot so special. While my passion for cheese steaks and Pad Thai typically dominate my lunch choices when not at the carts – something about this spot always pushes me to try something new.  Rarely am I disappointed.

4. A Creative and Cooperative Culture

I’m not a competitive person. Sure I want to do well, but not at the expense of others. I’d rather work in conjunction with others, using all our best talents and ideas together.  No other place I’ve been shares that passion more than Portland, Oregon.

In any other city, other web development studios like Metal Toad Media, eROI, Rose Coloured Glasses or Enact Development might be seen as “the competition“.  In PDX they are collaborators, partners, resources and inspiration.  I can send my clients to them when the work requires it – and vice versa.  I’m excited to see the work they produce and eager to assist or utilize their talents when the opportunity arises.

This culture of shared success is nurtured and reinforced by an almost endless collection of networking events, meet-ups, Tweet-ups, creative conferences and social gatherings (see #5).  Because Portland is smaller than most major cities, it didn’t take long to recognize faces and create meaningful partnerships with other talented creatives.  Folks who offer the same services as you are quick to introduce you to those they know and connecting the dots between talent and business is almost a past-time of sorts.

Never has this been truer than in the past year, as a rough economy has forced some to close their doors and other to create new doors to open.  I’ve been amazed to see where folks have ended up – the new partnerships that have formed – and the general spirit of community within the creative culture of Portland.  Challenges become opportunities in an instant: new ideas form – creative events emerge – and a community that works together only grows stronger through adversity.

5. Proximity to Great Bars For Happy Hour

When the work-day is done, it’s time for a cold beer.  Originally from NY, the choices afforded me there were the corporate suds of Bud, Miller, Coors or worse, the light versions of all three.  In Portland that is most certainly not the case.  Within a mile of my studio are more bars, microbreweries, wine bistros, cocktail lounges, saloons, taprooms and taverns then I could ever possibly list, let alone visit.

Portland has a distinct happy hour culture.  Walk the streets from 4pm on and you’ll see bars bustling with activity.  Cheap eats, delicious IPAs and eclectic atmospheres hell-bent on keeping Portland weird and beer’d put you in the unique position of not deciding whether to have a pint, but rather, which locale to drink it in. In the summer we search out patios, in the winter we escape from the rain in a comfy booth. We sit at long tables where conversations with strangers inevitably ensue over mouth-watering cocktails.  Whether it’s networking at dMob or $5 Aviation cocktails at Recession Proof Mixology events – the bars are where it’s happening in PDX and the perfect place to end your work day.

Filed under: Networking, Portland by gspies
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