Categories
Web Stuff

Saturday Night Funny

First, watch the video before you read on….please. It’s well worth the 4:30 minutes.

When I first started to watch this, I thought, “OK, some tool is going to dance at a bunch of different places around the world.” Then, I see everyone else join in, and I was moved. Some guy dancing is one thing, but the joy of everyone else dancing with him, was really cool. I also love the concept. It’ goes back to my love affair with Post Secret. It’s something of an art project, part silly & part inspiring. No matter where you are at in the world there are still things that are universal, dancing is one.

If you read Matt’s bio, you will find that he’s didn’t make his millions off the internet boom and travels around the world. He’s a normal, lazy guy, who fell ass-backwards into this and got the folks at Stride gum to pay for it. Stories like this keep me inspired to find that next, big thing, or die trying.

Categories
Web Stuff

File under: Things I should have thought of.

How many times have we said, “I could have thought of that”? Well, I had one of those tonight. While doing some website research, I was checking out some design work and one of the sites I stumbled upon was this:

http://www.iwearyourshirt.com/

I can’t explain it any better, so I will quote his site:

“In this up and down economy I’m outsourcing my wardrobe (namely shirts) to corporate america and you! I’m going to wear a different shirt for 365 days straight in 2009, take multiple pictures throughout my day and blog about it. Days are sold at “face value” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365.”

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By my figures, he stands to make $66,795 if he sells out the entire year (he’s sold out through September already). So, kudos to you, Jason, I should have thought of it.

Categories
Technology Web Stuff

New Bundle of Mac Software

Most of the software that I use on my Mac is from bundles. You get a boatload of apps for $49. It’s a great way for Mac users to get a bunch of really cool stuff for cheap. I think the value of this latest release is about $330 for $49.

If you are looking for a nice bulk purchase of applications, (there are always at least 2 that I will use on a daily basis), then jump over to the Mac Bundle Box and check it out.

Categories
Big Picture Cool Quote Politics TED Talks Web Stuff

Two Great TED Talks to Share

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I stumbled onto TED about 4 years ago. For those of you that don’t know, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design. To quote from them: “It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.” The premise of TED is to give speakers 20 minutes to share their ideas, talents or findings with the world. I have watched hours of TED videos in the past 4 years.

The other day I watched a talk by Barry Schwartz on the Loss of our Wisdom. It’s a great talk and speaks volumes about the state of our society. It’s well worth the 20 minutes.

Just tonight while flipping through TED talks on Tivo, I watched a great one by Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law. As someone trying to put creative content out there, I think that it’s especially interesting. (He even references John Philip Sousa, so that makes it cool on it’s own right.)

Bonus video:
One of my favorite all time TED talks is: Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen

Categories
Big Picture Web Stuff

Post Secret Event

This week, Jen and I attended a Post Secret Event held at the U of I. What is a “Post Secret Event”? Well, that’s a good question, first you probably should know what Post Secret is. Post Secret is an art project started by Frank Warren. He started it by walking around Washington DC passing out post cards that were blank on one side and had instructions to share their secrets on the other. He would introduce himself, “Hi, my name is Frank and I collect secrets.” That’s how it began and slowly he started to get people to mail him their secrets. A few a day at first to now he receives over 1000 a week. That’s the short version, for the extended-dance-mix version, click here.

Every Sunday, Frank posts about 20 new cards on his blog. I first heard about Post Secret a couple of years ago and have been following it since. The popularity of this project has been nothing short of unbelievable. To date, he’s received over 300,000 secrets, has published 4 books (with a 5th on the way) and has had over 215 million visitors to his site.

I think it is one of the coolest social experiments that has ever existed. The cards range from the funny; “I cried when my favorite Sim died.” , to the weird; “I love the smell of my pee after I drink coffee.”, to the brutally serious; “After I was date-raped, I dated and slept with the guy that did it 3 more times. I hoped that if I could make it a “real” relationship, I wouldn’t have to admit to myself that the rape was real.”

At the event he shared with the group some of the postcards that he couldn’t publish in the books because they had copyright infringements or were too graphic. He also shared some of the stories behind some of the secrets. He then asked if anyone would like to share a secret with the group. Several people went to the microphones and shared. It’s amazing to me what effect this project has had on peoples lives. Frank has used it to support the national suicide help line, raising money for their cause to keep the line going. I think it also lets people know that they are not alone and that others have dealt or are dealing with the same problems they are. One kid that shared his secret at our event said that he denied for 10 years that he was gay and would encourage anyone that is struggling with that decision to not spend another day fighting it and not live the life he’s had for the past 10 years.

Frank believes that we all have secrets and that everyday we decide to bury those secrets deep down inside of us or we choose to share them and free ourselves of that burden. If you have not read any of the books, I would encourage you to pick one up. I have put links to them down below.