Category: Aside

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Twitter: It’s Here, It’s a Little Confusing, and I’m Almost Out of Characters

You can now add “Webinar Co-Host” to my CV*. I was honored to be invited as a speaker for one of Lawrence & Schiller’s Social Media Boot Camps. This one was called Twitter Demystified. The topic, as you can guess, was Twitter, and I was joined by Robin Temple, as co-presenter, and Dave Haan, as mediator.

* I don’t actually have a Curriculum Vitae.

Read the blog post and watch the video at Twitter, No Longer a Mystery? on L&S Unscripted.

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What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?

(Possible LOST spoilers! (depending on how crafty we are at guessing))

  • A beach
  • shade
  • Nothing (because it doesn’t produce a shadow)
  • Sunbathers
  • It depends on the time of day
  • The Time (because it’s a sundial)
  • Danger
  • Another smaller statue
  • Ocean (probably a valid answer despite what direction the show goes with it)
  • a monkey
  • polar bears
  • Ben (but, then again, he lies everywhere)

UPDATE: I was informed by a motivated reader of two more suggestions. Chris S calls him “d bag”, but the person in question says his name is “Dumb Answers”. (I’m guessing on gender, here. There’s no hard-and-fast rule for “Dumb”.) I’m not sure either name is considered valid by the U.S. Social Security Administration, but maybe Dumb had hippie parents. He mentioned having an eight year old, which (I hope) has a more traditional name like “Sam” or “John”. But, seeing as how Dumb may very well live up to his name, the 8yo is probably named “Dumb II” (or 2Dumb to friends) or “Terrible” or “Awesome”.

  • Jughead
  • The Temple
  • “d bags” (I assume Chris meant “dumb bag”, but this was a convenient abbreviation)
  • Dumb Answers

Why am I posting this update? Because I can’t imagine why anyone would take the time to post such a derogatory comment on a post that is obviously meant for comedic relief. UNLESS WE’RE TOO CLOSE TO THE TRUTH. Because of this, even though I added “Jughead” and “The Temple” to the list, I don’t think those are viable (since D-Bag mentioned them).

D-Bag mentioned “trees” and “a beach”. I mentioned “a beach”, but not trees (maybe I should have!) which has left me perplexed for now. D-Bag also mentioned an eight year old, which at first seems unspectacular. However, what eight year old has the patience and wherewithal to regularly enjoy a show like LOST? None. I think the eight year old isn’t an eight year old HUMAN, it’s an eight year old TREE. A quick Google search turned up an interesting result: 8-Year-Old Silver Tree Takes Fort Marcy. The article in question isn’t about a tree at all; it’s about a HORSE. Like the horse that KATE SAW. Kate spent quite a lot of time in the POLAR BEAR CAGES, which seems to suggest that the answer of what lies in the shadow of the statue is, in fact, POLAR BEARS.

I guess I’ll have to mark this post as DEFINITELY SPOILERS. Thanks, D-Bag.

UPDATE 2: Apparently we were all wrong. It was “sand”, but not a beach’s worth of sand. It’s a technicality, but that’s how LOST is. GO LOST!

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Ask Lost

Inspired by my wife, who has asked two questions of LOST, I submitted my own tonight.

A great deal of symbolism and metaphor plays into every episode of LOST. So much so that I assume the entire series is, in fact, another (greater) metaphor or symbol. It seems to me that the struggle between Whidmore and Linus over The Island bears strong resemblance to the Dokdo/Takeshima kerfuffle between Japan and South Korea (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/dokdo_or_takeshima.html). Can you confirm or deny that LOST is, in fact, little more than an impressive, epic incarnation indicative of an inane Asian insular impasse?

Eagerly, m!les

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Mozilla Labs Presents “Bespin”

The Bespin Code Editor
The Bespin Code Editor

I can program your website in Notepad. If you dare me, I’ll totally do it. Any programmer would. The geek cred for doing an entire website in Notepad is off the charts. People familiar with FrontPage, iWeb, or Dreamweaver shudder at the thought of being forced from the warm embrace of these applications to the cold, emptiness of Notepad. I would quickly embrace such cold emptiness. Any programmer would. It is that, we tell ourselves, that separates the true developers from the WYSIWYGers.

The honest truth, though, is that I would hate nearly every second of it. A hammer and a nail gun accomplish the same task, but I’ll take a nail gun over a hammer any day. Any programmer would. (Plus, a nail gun is cool on so many levels.)

Some background: behind every website is a bunch of folders and text files. Because of this, programmers have a lot of tool options since folders and text files are two of the most fundamental components of computers. The tool a programmer uses to manage and write his code is called an IDE. FrontPage, iWeb, and Dreamweaver are all IDEs, as are Notepad, Visual Studio, and Eclipse (to name a few).

Enter Bespin.

Continue reading “Mozilla Labs Presents “Bespin””

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The Sanford Project 2009

The Sanford Project 2009 (http://www.sanfordproject.org)
The Sanford Project 2009 (http://www.sanfordproject.org)

Occasionally, we get the chance to work on projects that don’t just promote a product, a service, or a company but also hope, promise, and potential. Nothing better embodies that then The Sanford Project (http://www.sanfordproject.org/). For the unfamiliar, The Sanford Project is devoted to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus or juvenile diabetes. This type of diabetes affects between 500,000 and 1 million people in the United States, which makes finding a cure a big deal.

Usually, the audience that we craft our sites towards is pretty cut and dried: our client’s customers. That can be easier if your client’s customers are people who bank in the Midwest or people who love flowers, but what if your client’s customers are as varied as people who have a body? Our challenge for the design of this site was to appeal to anyone touched by type 1 diabetes: patients, parents, physicians, and even researchers. A design like that has to say a lot to many people. Taking a cue from existing Sanford Health print materials, the design for the site is dark blue and technical, showcasing that serious medicine and research is behind this initiative.

Even if your life hasn’t been affected by type 1 diabetes, you can still find plenty of insightful and interesting content with regards to this monumental project. You can learn more on the Sanford Project page. Browse the Newsroom to see what latest Press Releases have gone out. Don’t forget the Video Library, where you can hear the stories and see the people who are helping make this cure a reality. For those feeling generous of time or money, you can easily Sign Up For Updates or Make A Gift Online.

A site like The Sanford Project is a good reminder that not everything a marketing and advertising agency does is about selling something to someone. Sometimes it’s about lending a helping hand to make the world a better place. Those are some of the best times.

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Love Ya…

(9:22:42 AM) Holli Rausch: LOST podcast is back
(9:22:58 AM) Miles Rausch: I know.
(9:23:04 AM) Holli Rausch: Listen to it yet?
(9:23:05 AM) Holli Rausch: I’m gonna!
(9:23:05 AM) Miles Rausch: It’s in my iTunes, waiting for us today.
(9:23:09 AM) Holli Rausch: Oh
(9:23:13 AM) Miles Rausch: It’s video, and I was going to wait.
(9:23:24 AM) Miles Rausch: You can watch it, though. If our relationship means that little to you.
(9:23:29 AM) Holli Rausch: It does.

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Quote A Day – August 1, 2008

Complication is often the path of least resistance for the designer. It is either the result of lack of knowledge or lack of adequate thought. The simple way of doing something is not usually the one that first springs to mind.

Arthur E. Raymond