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It’s easy to forget about our past lives. If you’re pushing yourself to new heights, new adventures and new skills, you of yesterday should be distant and nearly irrelevant.
Elizabeth and I spent an evening in Washington DC catching up with friends she went to school with. There was dining, drinking, dancing and storytelling. It was a nice evening and I was the designated driver. We arrived in DC around 5 and finally went to sleep at 3AM. To be on foot in DC visiting U and H street venues, it was a close resemblance to Polk street in San Francisco. There were kids our age and they were dressed to impress. There were taxis and street performers and beggars and I was among peers.
It was really strange.
San Francisco was only 1.5 years ago but I’m out of touch with drink prices and the realities of Saturday nights in a city. I wasn’t uncomfortable but things were crazy. We all shared stories of city-life except most of my stories felt like a long time ago like it was decades ago. The scary excitement of The Tenderloin surpassed the insanity of DC at midnight but there were similarities as there should be in any big city. I laughed and retold these stories that have appeared many times on this blog but my mind was pondering and sitting still. I wasn’t entertained with these stories.
I was spending an evening with a couple that, combined make more than me but they were living in an apartment above a bar and facing a busy street lined with stop lights. The city was noisy and busy and taxis were honking and speeding past. I got a little stressed out. It’s not anxiety or an overwhelming feeling but it was a feeling that my mind wasn’t happy and would have rather been somewhere else, somewhere quiet and somewhere where I can hear the birds chirp and the wind howling.
I can see the appeal of city-life. For me, San Francisco was something that came along with the technology jobs based there. I wanted to work at a great job and be 15 minutes from a cabin in the woods. That’s what I have now but if I lost this job, there aren’t 200 more to replace it across 50 startups that are competing with each other for talent. In DC, amidst the noise and action are companies who are hiring and are demanding of new cheap talent and old seasoned talent. I’d like to think I’m somewhere in the middle but that apartment was so tiny!
It’s funny to laugh about the all night coffee houses that are, at times, full of homeless people or the fact that the best bars are in neighborhoods that are gentrified and sort of run down. I appreciate that awesomeness of getting a slice of pizza after 8PM but along with that comes a range of other issues like public transit, high fuel costs and living expenses. The woman with us was recently mugged and it wasn’t a show-stopper where the conversation remains with her for half an hour. We listened but then moved on because that’s what happens in cities…you get mugged and then go back to living life.
I don’t really think that either way of life is better than the other. From my cabin to the big city with suburbia right in the middle, each have their advantages. City people come to my cabin to unwind and I go to cities to experience the beauty of a pizza after midnight and walking to a bar. Each have their place.
The problem I’m having is that I can’t decide which one I want. I’ve never been happier at my current place. It’s been the best year of my life but city life is fun as well. Where do I belong in this mix of various living conditions? At 25, I have time to decide but then again, I’m already 25. It’s time to choose so I can settle in to one place and be sure that it’s where I should be.
I may be an hour from a Starbucks…but I don’t have to wait for a bus or walk to the grocery store.
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Steve Jobs, “The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
These two photos really capture just how terrible the experience is when someone tries to buy an Alienware PC (now a part of Dell). Alienware was a company that made PCs that were incredible. I used to tear out ads in PC Magazine and put them on my wall. The Area 51 was a sexy case with components that were simply incredible. Now, they’re just another Dell.
Yes, Microsoft Office is considered an addon that “Adjusts Performance” and after spending over an hour deciding what wallpaper to choose for my new PC, I got overwhelmed and gave up. Wallpaper is a HUGE choice! There’s nothing about this PC to actually customize except for wallpaper and what kind of keyboard you want. This is Alienware we’re talking about. Oh well.
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I get asked this pretty often so, following the festivities of this weekend, I opened on my home iMac a few tabs of people I met who are “celebrities” but YouTube stars which is different than a real celebrity. Anyway, I gave it 48 hours. Basically, twice a day I refresh the pages of these guys and see if their accounts are of interest to me. There wasn’t too much going on really and these are interesting people but the past 48 hours of tweets weren’t incredibly engaging. Dom Sagolla wrote about an issue that happens when someone gets more followers or gains popularity as has happened with me and friends on small levels. The more people follow you, the more pressure you have to be reserved, respectful and act as if your Mom was reading each tweet even if your brand is vulgar and sexist, you don’t say everything because 200,000 people will see it.
I see that with a lot of guys and maybe that’s what I’m seeing here. Additionally, these personalities get so many replies that they rarely see even 1 out of 100 and maybe reply to 1 out of 500 replies so for me to follow them, I’d like to reply sometimes and I’d like a conversation to happen. If my reply is never seen or responded to, well I just need that interaction and celebrities don’t connect that way except for the 1:1000 ratio of conversation to amount of replies they receive daily.
So, the reserved personality of the tweets where they’re frankly pretty boring and the constant fabrication of interesting moments for the fans (trust me, not all of the stuff celebrities tweet out actually happens) and the fact that I’ll never have a conversation unless I send an average of 500 tweets to them a month makes the relationship hard and those reasons enough keep me from “following”
Then there’s the spam….
These YouTube personalities (3 of the 4 that I met) post links to their latest YouTube video at least 3 times on the day the video was uploaded and again 2 more times in the next day or two. Each of these tweets doesn’t say, “have you seen my new video?” or “a reminder that I posted a new video today. Like it?” No, the tweets are misleading in a way that you would think it’s something interesting not created by the YouTube person but by someone else OR that it’s a completely new video. Example:
Here is a link to 7 tweets from one person where the same video is in the URL: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
The guy tweeted the same video link within 24 hours. Today, I see FPSRussia (someone else who I was tracking debating on following) replied to someone with this:
He also has posted the same Glock destruction video multiple times and has helped me make up my mind on if I still want to follow him.
This may only apply to YouTuberz but it might apply to others as well like Bloggers and Photographers but you can’t treat Twitter Followers like they’re subscribers. If they want to subscribe to your RSS feed or YouTube channel, that’s fantastic! It’s a great feeling when someone opts in to a channel featuring your content. If you then abuse your Twitter followers just like you would a YouTube subscriber, you’re breaking the circle of trust. Here’s why I follow people:
- To be entertained / informed
- To interact and engage in conversations
- To keep up with friends and colleagues
I don’t follow people on Twitter that don’t meet at least 2 of those items. If you inform me and you’re a friend, that’s great. If you entertain me and we chat on Twitter, that’s great too. I don’t follow my Mom on Twitter. Why? She doesn’t tweet anything I care about and we don’t engage on Twitter. She only meets 1 criteria point. I don’t follow Twitter accounts for companies, blogs, celebrities, media organizations or loud mouths that ONLY tweet out links or ONLY retweet everyone or ONLY have conversations with others. You buy a DVR to fast forward through commercials. Why do you then follow a bunch of accounts who don’t interact with you and spam you with content you never asked for?
I believe that the YouTuberz I analyzed are great people. I say that because I met them and enjoyed their company for an evening. I also believe these people are talented and work very hard but I don’t believe in how they are operating their Twitter accounts. It’s nothing personal but I believe they’re doing it wrong or at least they’re operating in a way that doesn’t represent them as a person (censored tweets or overly sensational tweets about things that couldn’t possibly happen and spammy tweets that link to the same video).
@Hoppecomi is right. We follow you because we care about your content. Don’t spam us with the same link throughout the day. The reason I only follow 142 people and have 4,000 people follow me isn’t that I’m some psycho who gets off on that great friend follower ratio. It’s that I am very selective on who I follow because my time is valuable.
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via Gizmodo but their blog title was pretty bad so I adopted my won:
Now SOPA is not segregation, no matter how much we hate it. But with a lesser cause, we’ve shown an exponentially lesser willingness to do anything more than click buttons and change pictures. Do you want to stop internet censorship? Why don’t you try calling a legislator, or organizing a boycott of the bill’s supporter? Even a simple Facebook status or tweet link explaining why SOPA is bad works. Do you want to help Iranian dissidents? Open a web proxy so they can talk safely with the rest of the world.
Or, christ, don’t do anything at all. But turning your profile picture green, adding a black banner over your face, or tacking your surname onto another online petition is the adult equivalent of slapping a peace sign onto your teenage backpack. Fauxtivism is worse than nothing—it trivializes the issue, mistakes gesture for action—and makes you feel good when you haven’t accomplished a thing.
I don’t partake in ANY online activism beyond what is written on this blog. Changing my avatar does so little because you get what you put in. If your only contribution is changing your avatar green, don’t expect it to have any impact on the results of what you’re rallying for or against. I have taking action on things myself by donating time, money or a phone call to things I believe in. I don’t take my blog offline to prove a point like Wikipedia is doing.
So you’re raising awareness? Great! Now, the entire world is VERY aware of the problem but no one has actually done anything about it. While you’re busy spreading awareness, I’ll be busy finding a solution. We should find more solutions instead of just passing this note on to 20 friends with one click of the Forward button in our Inbox.
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via Quora:
Exercising every day. Nothing beats this. If you really want to make a change to your energy levels on a daily basis, your overall mood, your self confidence, your health and your happiness, then this is one thing that will get you there.
Back in the day, life was active. To survive, you had to perform tasks with your hands like chopping down trees and farming. Then, things did get easier but people had hobbies that were sporting or were task based. Only the most socially inept sat around building models and reading. Now, just having an active hobby isn’t enough to pull us away from the awesome things we can do just by sitting on a couch.
You will live a half-life if you don’t remain healthy. Believing you’re exempt from this is a lie.
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via Alternet:
For most of history, meals were very variable. A medieval northern European peasant “would start his morning with ale or bread or both, then bring some sort of food out into the fields and have a large meal sometime in the afternoon,” Freedman says. “He might have what he called ‘dinner’ at 2 in the afternoon or 6 in the evening, or later” — depending on his work, the season and other factors.
“He wouldn’t have a large evening meal. He would just grab something small and quick. Dinner back then tended not to be as distinct as it has become in the last two centuries.”
And it tended to be eaten in daylight — not because eating earlier was considered healthier, but because cooking, consuming and cleaning up is difficult in the dark or by firelight.
Eat when you’re truly hungry and allow yourself to be hungry. Feel hungry for an hour before you decide to finally eat and, when you do, eat a raw and unprocessed vegetable item followed by a small portion of protein via vegetables or meat and wash that down with two glasses of water. You’ll feel full for hours and hours after without any desire to snack. When you’re hungry…eat again.
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Via Gizmodo:
An executive in a really nice suit from an up-and-coming display company tells me they plan to ship a half a million units this year. I try to figure out how much that is in kilograms of rare earth metals, but I can’t. Wolfram Alpha turns out to be pretty useless for this kind of thing. The CEO is available for interviews.
There is a hole in my heart dug deep by advertising and envy and a desire to see a thing that is new and different and beautiful. A place within me that is empty, and that I want to fill up. The hole makes me think electronics can help. And of course, they can.
They make the world easier and more enjoyable. They boost productivity and provide entertainment and information and sometimes even status. At least for a while. At least until they are obsolete. At least until they are garbage.
Electronics are our talismans that ward off the spiritual vacuum of modernity; gilt in Gorilla Glass and cadmium. And in them we find entertainment in lieu of happiness, and exchanges in lieu of actual connections.
And, oh, I am guilty. I am guilty. I am guilty.
Speaking of my post about taking a break from tech conferences…
This sort of writing isn’t about CES. It’s about technology as a whole and it’s about how we interact with that technology and how it is utilized. If you use technology like a utility to communicate, educate and create then you’re on a good path. If Technology becomes a replacement to your television, then that’s not how it should be used and yes, I’m guilty of being too entertained by my electronics and then upgrading to the latest tech when it comes out. Read this post and think beyond CES and look at your self in a mirror while reading it.
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UPDATE: The video I was in is now online. You can watch it here via YouTube or the embed is at the bottom of the post. I make an intro at 4:57. Also, WoodysGamertag posted this behind the scenes video you might enjoy.
Urban Dictionary’s definition of “YouTube Stars”
One of the people in a youtube video that gets mad view counts. although youtube star status can be acheived through any type of video, people who are youtube stars are usually considered to be the type of people who have no lives and think their videos make them awesome beyond comparison.
My sisters exclusively get their entertainment from YouTube. For them, my friend Ben is a “celebrity” and they’re a bit creepy about it. Telling them stories about my friend Justine leads them to tears as if you were to tell me that you’re best friends with Bill Murray except I’d be stoked but not crying tears of joy. Anyone can be a celebrity if their image, achievements and popularity are high. The more you see someone in places that are exclusive like TV, magazines and web sites, it’s a complex we have as humans to follow those people and adore them. The more airplay a band has, the more popular they are despite the actual quality of their music. I was pretty cool yesterday among friends for going to this “YouTube Celebrity House Party” thing but I never really got that excited. For me, living in the mountains, any event is awesome no matter what. Let’s start at square one.
I don’t follow celebrities on Twitter. Hell, I don’t even follow accounts that don’t mutually follow me back. As I’ve said before, that’s an ego thing I have to get over. If you unfollow me, I will unfollow back no matter how much I like the person. So, I do subscribe to a few YouTube channels..18 to be exact but I don’t follow the guys who create these channels despite their tweets being pretty entertaining. I’ll check individual accounts once a month to laugh a bit but never follow. It’s a personal choice. Anyway, Saturday morning I was watching YouTube via my AppleTV when a Call of Duty commentator posted a skiing video…from Killington which is 40 minutes from my house. I was bummed that this guy was at Killington at some point and never did a mini-meetup. Not many people come to Vermont so it would have been a treat. In the description, I noticed he was at Killington right then. I commented on a YouTube video for probably the first time ever saying how bummed I was because my plan was to go snowboarding that day but I wasn’t feeling well after 6 days of eating only juice.
The day went on, I blogged about it and then I received a note from someone via email around 6PM….”Hey, why don’t you hang out with the guys tonight at Killington. Just check our Twitter accounts in a bit.” I did and I saw this:
I texted Elizabeth, put on some pants, grabbed a crap load of alcohol and jumped in the car. At 8PM, we arrived and that’s when the fun started.
As expected, the great thing about events in New England (Not Boston but REAL New England) is when there are events up here, don’t expect a crazy crowd which is great for me because I like more intimate gatherings. It’s why I’m skipping SXSW this year. Large crowds really dilute the experience. I’d prefer to just bullet out everything that happened below but keep in mind and I know this is being enforced too much, I’m not like giddy about meeting celebrities. I got over that in San Francisco over years of celebs being around the tech scene. However, from a “fan” perspective, these are all interesting things.
- Muscles Glasses poured me a beer. The pour wasn’t very good but having a youtube star make you drinks was certainly interesting.
- I got to meet FPSRussia
- I also met the entire Epic Meal Time cast and crew
- I also got to chat with WoodysGamertag
- I once again realized that so many of these guys really don’t know what to do with fans. They’re far more awkward about it than the fans are. You guys are celebrities now. Deal with it.
- I was filmed a few times during the show..not sure if those will make it into the next episode.
- I got to taste candied bacon cooked by EMT. It was delicious.
- Elizabeth was able to sit in a room where combined Twitter Followers surpassed a million. I think she enjoyed that.
- Some really cool people were there. Maybe a total of 15 people showed up outside of the cast & crew
- I got to see an episode of Epic Meal time being filmed.
- Laughing your ass of for 6 hours REALLY makes you abdominals sore. I wish EpicMeal Time would upload the outtakes because these guys are REALLY funny
- I’m getting TOO old to stay up past midnight. My entire Sunday was ruined.
- 15 days into my detox of no meat or alcohol, I did have meat and alcohol. I didn’t have a lot but I did falter for one night.
So, that was my night in summary.
Behind the Scenes:
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On Sunday the 8th, I had dinner with my girlfriend and that was my plan for the last solid foods until today, the 16th. The 8 day fast became a 6 day fast which is disappointing but I was invited to an event where the food being served was simply unavoidable. I’ll write more about that in tomorrow’s post. After my evening of solids, I spent days 7 and 8 back on the juice. Of the 8 days, I only had juice supply for 6 so a lot of that time was spent with water but with one vegetable juice at a juice bar in town. Overall, things were similar to my last fast. Day 1 is fine but 2 and 3 were pretty painful. By day 4, things were completely fine and I could continue indefinitely. That’s how most people feel during fasting. Hunger goes away and you will psychologically crave food more than your body actually needs it.
The $450 6 day juice supply is so expensive that I won’t be doing it again. I decided after my 2nd juice shipment arrived that it was time to find an alternative. BluePrintCleanse charges $75 a day and that includes the overnight shipping of fresh juice. It’s cheaper if you live in NYC and can pick up the juice each day. I decided to purchase my own juicer. It’s a Breville juicer with different speed settings and is really easy to clean up and is mid-range of their line. I’ll talk more about it after a few weeks of use. This morning, instead of spending $75 in juice, I instead bought $60 in vegetables and that will last me 4-5 days. My weekly investment minus the $200 juicer should come out to $100. I’m thrilled with this number and I’m getting fresher juice and am also controlling which ingredients go in my body. BluePrintCleanse offers a 21 day fast but those juices got boring after a few days. Now, I can spice things up.
Alongside the juice, I also bought a basic $80 Colonix program for 30 days from Dr. Natura. My parents did this at age 40 so I thought my juice diet would be a nice time to also take on this colonix program. I’ve seen results already which is great! I’ll continue that until the pills, fiber and tea run out mid-February.
After completing 6 days of juicing, I was feeling pretty weak. I had energy but not my usual energy. Eating solids would probably be good but maybe giving up on meat is certainly an option for me as I didn’t miss meat. I just missed things like eggs, apples and cheese. I’d love a cookie right now or perhaps some ice cream. Things like that are what I miss, not steaks and burgers. The plan was to go snowboarding all weekend since I have Monday off but I just don’t feel like it. I get lightheaded on my morning run so have decided to spend my time on deep breathing exercises, stretching and simple things like pushups. Most of my time is spent laying down reading. If you like reading, fasting is pretty nice.
My next steps will probably surprise you. I’m going to keep juicing but not fasting. Until I decide not to, I’ll start my day on 15 minutes of juicing where I take roughly 8 pounds of vegetables and juice them into my washed BluePrintCleanse bottles. I’ll make 5 juices and the 6th will be a breakfast drink consisting of 5 oranges juiced with the peels on into a glass of fiber powder. I’ll have carrot juice for lunch, celery, spinach, kale and apples for an afternoon snack and then dinner can be either a juice OR a well balanced meal of a spinach and walnut salad with chicken, eggs or fish and something hearty like a baked potato. By allowing myself to eat dinner, I can go back to the gym every day and workout without feeling lightheaded. BluePrintCleanse calls this “Juice till Dinner” and I’m excited about it. Basically, I wake up 30 minutes earlier and prepare every meal for the day and set out chicken to defrost and then, before 8PM, I’ve only taken in roughly 500 calories and about 10x what my body needs in fiber and, at dinner, I add another 700 calories in the form of a dinner following my work out and a 300 calorie whey protein shake right before bed.
The new diet will continue until I don’t want to do it anymore. We’ll see how long I can last. I haven’t weighed myself yet but I will be doing that tomorrow at the gym. Of course, for the remainder of the month, my “detox” will continue which is just over 2 weeks from today. I promised myself no meat but once a week and I’m going to scratch that. I may not eat meat every day but there are days I’d like to have it. Where possible, I’ll use fish, eggs and soy based protein in order to adhere to my detox but no promises.
So, that’s the update! Overall, I’m halfway into the detox and everything is great. I didn’t have any weight loss goals for this month. It’s just a reset of my mind’s approach to what I do each day and it hasn’t been easy. However, I don’t miss coffee as much as I thought or beer or alcohol. I don’t miss the things that were thought to be essential to my weekly routines. I like that. I also finished reading the 1st book yesterday and start a new one today. Everything is on track and I look forward to sharing my juicing results with you all in a few weeks!
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Elizabeth and I were going to go snowboarding today. She ended up going and I stayed home. The reason is that after 6 days without any solid food, I’m not confident that I can snowboard and stay conscious. I’d rather not push myself. The bad news is that I find out 5 YouTube personalities I subscribe to
Well, they’re all in Vermont skiing right now at Killington where I have a pass. I shouldn’t have been so lame and I probably could have met up with these guys. Oh well. It’s 12:30 and I’m well into a book so I should just keep drinking juice and forget about it. Sigh.
I'm Adam Jackson and today, this 24 year old helps companies do cool things with technology.
