email me: chris@chris-karath.com
July 2009
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Ducks hanging out in front of the Coldstone Creamery
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

River that runs under Kent Trails at Ramblewood.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Posted for Comfort who just thought the oversized Newspaper format and Jeff and Dan both reading them at the same time was amusing.

Fell asleep on couch after game night last night. Now to bed for an hour or two of extra sleep. Good night my non-vacationing friends.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
Random Non-Sequiters
I don't really need anything.
I'm quite happy with the internet, my gadgets, my tinkering, movies/tv, comics, books, my couch, studio, bed and good conversation with friends.
Yet, you've got do do more than that to be useful and have a sense of purpose.
So if I don't need anything, then I should find a way to be useful to other people and help them with what they need.
But you can't just do things purely for other people 100% of the time, because that removes all value from what you are doing.
Selflessness is nice but over time, humans are built to not value selflessness and view it's practitioners as naive at the very least, and more commonly as stupid for not valuing their time or skills by requesting something in return for valuable acts.
So that leaves a situation whereby you have to find things to do for other people who can in return do something for you, but it also has to be organic and mutually reciprocal lest it become an impersonal business transaction and thereby lose its humanness-- but for the most part, I don't need anything (except of course occasionally money, but that's what my job is for.)
Quandary.
Random Non-Sequiters
Generalist Blogging I haven't been updating the blog much the last couple weeks.
Normally on the weekend, I go though a large pile of items in Google Reader that I've starred throughout the week for later viewing. The last few times I've done this however, I've been finding that at the end of this catch-up, I really don't find much worth sharing on the blog.
Things move very fast now, and the news cycle on a lot of this stuff is very short. In a world of Twitter and Facebook Updates, blogs are becoming like quaint slow moving newspapers in a 24/7 cable news world.
It also feels like a rough time to be a generalist, because to truly keep up with most of these things, you really have to focus and specialize. In fact the only valuable time to be a generalist is if you are out on the frontier of change in an undefined process zone. Because then the generalist can pull from multiple disciplines to define the new frontier. These new frontiers are getting harder to find and with the ease of coordination today, undefined zones do not stay undefined very long.
Speaking of News
The above analogy of slow moving newspapers vs. 24/7 cable news is actually kind of old. Cable News went out of business as soon as Obama was elected. Switch on any 24 news channel today, you will be very unlikely to find news, you will find two heads talking about their feelings on various topics of the day and other talking heads appling dramatic narrative overlays on one days event or another... but you are very unlikely to find news.
This really bums me out, because putting aside the damage a non existent 4th estate does to a democracy, it gives me no station on TV to play in the background for background noise.
More and more I'm getting my news once again from newspapers as well. (at least their online forms)
Palm Pre
Still really enjoying this shiny new toy.
The new WebOS 1.1 update has really made it snappy. Little clicked up touches of animated pop ups and subtle interface and functionality tweaks. Great update.
The homebrewers are really starting to pick up steam on the Pre too. Just a couple days ago they released both a desktop 1-click homebrew app installing solution, and a Pre App that will from the Pre also directly install apps without the need of a desktop.
When I got my Eee PC netbook there was a similar community of innovation that sprung up briefly for a time. It's fun to find and play with these status quo changing devices at their beginnings when these hacker culture communities embrace them.
I really want to work on my own custom apps for the pre soon, they will have to be eccentric though, because the general stuff if probably all well on it's way to being constructed in the next few months.
Back to Twitter
Two more good “real-life” friends joined Twitter this past week. Love Twitter, it becomes even more useful the more real people that you have real connections with on it.
Throw the Pre into the mix and Twitter becomes even more useful. It's definitly a tech that's been worth the hype... especially as your friends and followers become more connected to you in real space.
Four types of Paragraphs
Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.
I guess the above has mostly been about the the first three; had I been shooting for the the 4th, I would have went with more out-there metaphors, otomotopia and retorical repetition.
I bring up the four types of paragraphs because I've been toying around with them as applied to conversation and activities in the real world too.
Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.
The above is about deciminating information... typing it, makes me think is there a corollary to gathering information?
Reports/Documentation collection, Interviews, Surveys, Focus Groups, Direct Observation, Model Testing?
InterviewsDuring the analysis process, interviews are conducted for a variety of purposes and with a variety of goals in mind. An interview can be conducted at various times within the process for
-Initial introduction
-Familiarization or background
-Fact gathering
-Verification of information gathered elsewhere
-Confirmation of information gathered from the interviewee
-Follow-up, amplification, and clarification \Goals of the Interview?
At each level, each phase, and with each interviewee, an interview may be conducted to:
Gather information on the company
-Gather information on the function
-Gather information on processes or activities
-Uncover problems
-Conduct a needs determination
-Verification of previously gathered facts
-Gather opinions or viewpoints
-Obtain leads for further interviews
Media Fragmentation
So many stories to read, watch and listen to. But what aditional: Influence, information, expression or entertainment do they provide if experienced in a vaccuum?
With the possibility of of completely individualized programs encompassing the above 4 where will the commonality come into place. Humans are social creatures and individuals. what a balance to strike, when it's so easy to swing to either side.
fini
...and so ends my random non-sequiters for now.

It's like the grass in the cracks of the parkinglot got hit with Miracle Grow.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Black Lantern Freebie Ring and the Green Lantern Ring that came with Hal Jordan Power Battery.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
Wealthy Theater

Went to the Wealthy Theater tonight and saw The Muppet Movie.Delightful experience. The theater is very charming, the people were interesting and friendly (employees and patrons) And it was all around a really nice time.
I'm definitely going to keep an eye on upcoming Tuesday night Meanwhile series of movies.Upcoming showings of Alien, Aliens and Fight Club will probably be must sees. good Times.
Rick Astley/Nirvana Never Gonna Give You Up/Smells like Teen Spirit Mashup




Pretty cool.
Video Games I Have
I just made a page with all my PS2 games on it. Yes I just have a PS2. I can't really beat those games, so an XBox 360, Wii or PS3 isn't really high on my to buy list.
Why did I make this list? I've been seeing alot of good discount bins for PS2 games and just wanted a reference on the one I already had.
Leave me a comment on any PS2 games you think I need to add to the above. (Sure they might be old, but they'll probably be new to me.)
Let's Go Surfing









Let's Go Surfing



























It lasts until you close the app.





Mini-rant
"That's going to be changing in two months, three months, six months etc."
Running into some challenges where there are some roadblocks to doing things because: we are waiting for the process to be final, or the final people to be in place etc.
The process is never final though. People will never be final either. Both are and should always be changing, tweaking, refining getting better. Learning from each project and having a feedback loop that makes the next project better.
Do what can be done now. See the goal, and steer to it, but if you are waiting to the road to be final, it never will be.
If you have a window of "no change" then those that want no change will stall until they reach that window or the next, and one week slides into the next.
Change needs to be part of every process. Nothing is done, nothing is final.
There needs to be a distant point down the road where everyone can focus on and measure whether they are on course or off course. But that point can not be a small specific idea, that point needs to be a big broad idea.
Google's: "Don't be evil" as an example. Everyone at Google can ask, does this make us more or less evil. It's a big idea, it's a bright star in the sky to guide by. Everyone can look up and see it, and there is nothing final about it. There isn't a point where Google is going to be: in 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, we'll no longer be evil once the non-evil plans are in place.
Google's: "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful..." it's a big idea, it can never be "done" but you can keep steering to it.
Nothing is final... everything is work in progress, bright guiding stars need to be in the sky and they have to be real, and people have to buy into them. You need to get people focused on the same stars that are charting the course.