Can you believe it? 10 days left until Christmas! That means that the 30holidays project is 2/3 complete. See the latest over at the 30holidays Flickr group, see a map of photos, or check out the 30holidays calendar at justinrussell.com/projects/30holidays/.
A revvolutionary redesign
December 8, 2006
I have to complement Revver on the redesign of their site. It’s wonderful – it’s simple, and it includes just about everything you’d want to do in an easy layout while leaving out all the extraneous stuff. Quite simply, I’m inspired.
To see a sample video page, check out today’s Ze.
Sculpting my focus
December 4, 2006
Through the last few years, I’ve known that I have three main focuses in life: writing, photography, and Web development. The challenge for me has been finding the proper balance between them.
Before you suggest that I start an online newspaper at which I do photojournalism, realize that there are certain conditions to my interests. I wouldn’t be interested in photojournalism in its purest sense, for instance, because though I like the research, writing, and photography aspects of it, I really wouldn’t want to have to interview people when they have just gone through a crisis or other momentous event. Because of this I’ve decided to offer a quick summary of what I enjoy about each of the three areas. (In all honesty I’m doing this as much for my own good as I am for the interest and/or keeping-in-the-loop of whoever may read this.)
I love to write. This blog has been an amazing outlet for my writing, but once again the pendulum of indecisiveness swings. I’ve decided to create a new blog focused on technology and the future (one of my top interests); once I pin down a name, I’ll be sure to supply a few links.
This year has also been great for my photographic interests. I’ve taken more kinds of photos (sports, performance, portrait, nature) than any year in the past. I had the wonderful opportunity to head to a few of my favorite Marsh Island spots with my friend Jenn on Saturday, and I took a couple hundred photos of her. I’d love to do that again, both with her and with others; it’s such a great experience to see how people appear in the photos that you’ve taken. It’s gotten to a point where I’m frustrated attending any concert or performance at which I can’t shoot. I’ve come to find experiences richer when I partially experience them through a viewfinder.
And then there’s Web development. I’ve often tried to explain to people why my main interest lies on the Web, and how my interest in it spans far beyond lines of code and a few pretty graphics. Since the beginning of college, I’ve wanted to connect people in new ways. I’ve also wanted to solve some of the world’s problems by making different sorts of information easier to access (sound familiar?). I enjoy that. I enjoy receiving e-mails from people asking me to revive gre.gario.us. I’m not afraid to admit that I love it when I see multi-lingual reviews. More importantly, though, I want to help people. I want to make a difference. I don’t care if I become rich, famous, or “popular.” I’d rather be known as a guy who helped solve a problem. And yes, I’m one of the crazy ones who still knows it’s possible.
Jessie calls this a quarter-life crisis. Maybe it is. I dunno. I just want to get started.
The Oklahoma Snow song
November 30, 2006
Oh I wish I were in Oooooklahoma,
Where there is lots of snow.
In Maine we have no fluffy flakes
That we used to closely know.
There are cars buried under a thick white blanket
And people staying home from school (grr)…
My friends stay inside with warm hot chocolate;
I just wish it would get cool,
but…
For now I’ll wait for snow to come,
To fall on the Pine Tree State.
The first snow is such fun to see –
Especially when it’s late!
See the über-ultra-cool Flickr map for central Oklahoma snow photos from today (I LOVE that). The picture above was taken today (about 4 hours ago, from what I can tell) by jjosh2004, a person I’ve never met, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, a place I’ve never been. That’s also pretty cool.
Podcast update
November 29, 2006
After Matt let me know that UC Berkeley was putting some of their courses online for free, I took a spin around iTunes to see what else is out there. Here’s a quick update of the podcasts – both old and new – that I’m listening to and watching lately.
the show with ze frank
Ze does a great job with quick, sharp humor. It’s quirky, unexpected, and it’s made me literally laugh out loud almost every weekday since April.
Accident Hash & Managing the Gray
AH was my first real experience with podcasting, and I haven’t stopped listening since. C.C. Chapman does an amazing job with both his music and marketing podcasts. Accident Hash is tied with Ze for my top spot.
AmandaAcrossAmerica
Amanda Congdon (formerly of Rocketboom) has been traveling across the country doing interviews and visits along the way. The team just finished their trek, but Amanda will be showing up on random ABC shows as well as some other places pretty soon (good job Amanda!).
Psych 156 at UC Berkeley
This is a full, free Berkeley course as it happens. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it’s a psych course… about human emotion. My face lit up as I started listening to the latest lecture. (Social psych, my all-time favorite, is also available – though I don’t think anyone could top the lectures of the late Michele Alexander at UMaine.)
Speeches and lectures from Bowdoin, Princeton, and Stanford
I went to a state school (and I’m proud of it), but hearing some of the people who pass through these campuses is awesome.
TEDTalks
TED provides the gold standard innovation video podcast. Their speakers are amazing and every session is engaging.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and IT Conversations
Both of these podcasts feature speakers having to do with business and IT. Again, there are some truly amazing people who have spoken in these series.
There are many others in my list; actually, there are more than I can handle. Personally, I’m fine with an abundance of free content.
And the bonus: Jonathan Coulton, a very cool songwriter, did a Thing a Week project in which he wrote a song-ish thing a week. My favorite is Code Monkey.
30holidays
November 26, 2006
I’m starting a new project today called 30holidays. From now until the 25th of December, I’ll be posting one winter or holiday-related photo a day. I didn’t really get into the holiday spirit last year, so hopefully this will help improve that a bit this time around.
Here are a few links that may be of interest:
- My 30holidays photos – Keep up to date with my latest photos.
- My 30holidays photos (RSS) – Subscribe to a feed of my latest 30holidays photos in any RSS reader.
- 30holidays group map – See where 30holidays photos have been taken.
- 30holidays group – Want to be an accomplice? Read the guidelines, join, and then tag and add your own photos.
Wired gets me wired
November 19, 2006
I came home from a wonderful weekend trip to find a picture of Jessica Rose (lonelygirl15) slumped across a bed in a bad entertainment magazine style photograph on the December issue of Wired magazine. I was laughing for 3 or 4 minutes straight.
For the record, I have a year and a half’s worth of Wireds in a two foot high stack on my kitchen table simply because it takes me two or three hours to read each one. It’s simply a fantastic magazine.
BarCamp Manchester
November 17, 2006
Kelley and Ian recently let me know about BarCamp Manchester. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything spontaneous, so I took off from work at 5:30 and met Ian at Jillian’s. I’m excited to meet some new people.
Justin Russell, reporting from beautiful Manchester, New Hampshire.
Web developers
November 9, 2006
Ze posted about Web developers today. Most of that’s true… in least in an aggregate sense of all the Web developers I know. And a couple things actually made me laugh out loud. seriously.
An interesting note: Ze’s a Web developer. *shrug* Thought it was worth mentioning.