Journal
Take the test for yourself. And yes, that was my actual score. Honestly!
After taking 3 weeks of swing dancing lessons (so far) I've come to realize that I have a long way to go before I'm a proficient at even one dance. In honor of this, I'm posting a video from a guy who really has his bases covered. Quite a few of the dances remind me of high-school and the antics of Josh and Lana on the dance floor.
This post is in response to this article
Amongst some of my friends I'm known to hate Corporations (aka. "The Man"), an assumption that is very far from the truth. Corporations are not fundamentally evil by any standards: they exist to provide us with valuable goods and services, build equity for shareholders and employ people. All of these are great things. However, the downfall of corporations is that they are not hardwired to look at the big picture of overall stability, well-being and efficiency of nations. Racing after the elusive consumer dollar has led to these unfortunate realities such as pollution, sweatshops, obscene levels of ads and unfair political sanctions against small countries.
I agree with this article that the current situation of corporate regulation is not working. Business' are much better with pursuing innovation (and money) than doing things by the book:
We, like Sisyphus, are caught forever pushing the damn rock up the hill and that really sucks. When we finally decide to get out of this losing situation, we will work on changing the economic logic so that corporations pursue a different kind of profit while better respecting natural capital.
This is an awesome article detailing the falsity that Hi-rises are bad for the environment. Just the opposite is true: Urban sprawl leads to more driving, more highways, more resource use and higher house prices to boot. As you will find with this article and the others is that I am a bit of a pragmatic progressive. In my heart of hearts I know that I am a big, greedy capitalist. However, in most cases I think that progressive solutions to core issues saves money and resources in the long term which increases wealth and productivity for all. I liked this point in particular:
Not only are worse commutes bad for their own sake, but also bad for the economy and for family life. Longer times behind the wheel mean billions of man-hours in lost economic output, as well as lost time spent with family or doing other activities.
Just when I thought the end of school meant slowing down my pace I am blind-sided with the fact that I now have to focus on working full-time and finishing up a ton of different projects (2 Wedding photo packages, 1 Website, 2005 accounting + over due government stuff + taxes!).
All of this equals an extremely hectic week, especially seeing that I am the only web developer on full-time at Image X and there is a huge work backlog. Especially when I consider that I have Spanish night class starting May 9th. The current plan is to try and finish up as much as possible (hopefully all) projects and take a much needed break from night time projects until about July. No bringing extra work home, nothing else extra, just "me" time. I really need to have some downtime to reflect, recoup and re-connect with a ton of people. For who knows how long I've been letting myself pack too much into my schedule... I just want to get to the point where I can go watch a movie, go out to a concert, swim or play guitar without having to stress about what I should be doing.
The Canucks have a new logo...
10.0: Must be Radiohead
9.5-9.9: Great enough to play on your college radio set
9.0-9.4: Try playing this one on your guitar all night in your dorm room
8.5-8.9: The CD is pretty good but runs the risk of becoming mainstream
8.0-8.4: You should buy any green washed out retro t-shirts by this band
7.5-7.9: Good enough for maybe a sticker on your guitar case
7.0-7.4: Decent enough to talk about in the coffee shop
6.0-6.9: Needs more white guitarists with black-rimmed glasses
5.0-5.9: Might be good for a fratboy band, those neanderthals
4.0-4.9: Reviewer couldn't find any Cloves before writing and was angry
I just had to post this, as my sis always is always taking crazy photos of herself. This is one of the more interesting ones, so I thought that I would share it!
I think that it deserves to be mentioned that Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, who is best known for his slick looking portfolio site 31 Three, is an amazing designer.
However, when I took a look at his newest creations today, I had a newfound respect for just how consistently good his work is. Not only is his work styling and clean, he is able to produce a good number of sites in a short time frame.
What's more, is that his designs are 2006 without succumbing to such "Web 2.0" fads such as incredibly large, bold type and too much simplicity.
I attended the first meeting of the Vancouver Drupal Users Group (VANDUG) tonight and let very excited about the project and community. I am lucky to live in Vancouver, which seems to be a Drupal magnet, with the OSCMS conference last month, and Bryght next door.
There was a free food, free wifi, free beer and the free exchange of ideas... and a ton of Macs. It doesn't get much better! Thanks to Boris for putting it and to Take 5 for staying open a bit late. Rather than write more about the meeting itself, I'll leave you with the Basecamp message I typed to my colleagues when I got home.
