Ready or not

Ready or not on two levels. First, the website is close but not quite done, however since we sent the invitations out yesterday there's no reason to keep it a secret. Second, in just under six weeks time Nicole and I will turn our two adventures into one adventure.

We've been working on an adventure consolidation plan for about a year now and now it's time to implement. How romantic.

Best Screen in Times Square

Times Square can be a pretty annoying place. It is packed with people, which isn't so bad, unless you want to cross the street to get lunch. It is packed with exhaust, which isn't so bad, unless you know what real air smells like. But worst of all, it is packed with ads. I can't think of a scenario where ads aren't annoying.

There is however, one sign which I look forward to seeing every so often. The video screens outside of the Quicksilver store. They actually have someone doing something other than looking cosmetically enhanced.

I came out of the subway last week and they had loaded some new video content onto the screen. There is a two or three minute segment of Tony Hawk doing some really smooth stuff. There is a short sequence of this one fella doing some nice simple filp tricks that just look good and are not overblown. Then there is a treat for the old school among us - a four or five minute section of a guy having a really long run in a series of pools. It is really nice to watch.

The chicken is pre-meditated

The subservient chicken was the distraction of choice in the newsroom late last week. It's really pretty fun if you get creative with it. One of my favorites was, "Build a fort." Give it a try.

Folks were wondering if it was a live web cam, and who that crazy man with too much time on his hands was? When I first saw it earlier last week I didn't notice that it was branded by Burger King. I think it wasn't branded at all when they launched it. Over the week, if my memory serves me correctly the branding increased - now it's pretty obvious.

As for the live webcam - that was doubtful. Today's USA Today confirms that one. The online version of the story doesn't go into details, but the printed version has an inset about the chicken which says it is indeed a database driven list of pre-recorded actions.

USA Today mentions that the chicken was an experiment to try and reach the "illusive" younger male audience. Judging from the chortling young chaps I saw glued to the monitors last week - it worked.

The 23rd page

Here's an interesting snapshop idea. Doug complies with the following request, as do I.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Here's what I got:

The President saying, "Go find me a way to do this."

Would be a great study to see what people have at hand. Maybe you should cruise back through the referring links, starting with Doug.

Crushed under the weight?

Ben wrote an interesting post last night. It started out wondering why he was purchasing a copy of the Kill Bill DVD, it ended with a contemplation of forgiveness.

Is forgiveness the opposite of vengeance? Google didn't know. Webster didn't know. I'm not sure. Is love the answer? And how do we find that place? Seems like it takes an awful lot more courage that vengeance. And it's a much less of a dramatic story arc. But it seems like a much happier ending.

I don't see a lot of movies, and certainly not the "horror" type, but for some strange reason I found myself in the line for Kill Bill on it's opening night last year. I sat through that one with a few friends in DC and it made an impression on me. First - being of the old shool kung fu ilk - the fight scenes where horrible, just horrible. And if anyone could look more ridiculous than Uma Thurman trying to weild a semitar, I've yet to see it.

But as Ben mentions, the movie was primarily about vengeance, and in making you feel that emotion - it is extremely effective. There were several times in that movie when I felt absolute rage on behalf of Uma's character. She had been attacked and nearly killed at her own wedding and she had been abused while she was in a coma for goodness sakes. Several children in the movie watched their parents be murdered right before their eyes. Vengeful feelings pulsed through my veins - I have a hard time taking entertainment lightly.

But to Ben's questions. I think that when someone gets hurt like that, whether emotional or physical or whatever, there is a price to pay on the other side of that. It's like physics yo. There is an equal and opposite force created when someone gets messed with.

I heard something a few weeks ago about forgiveness. The dude said that someone has to take it on the chin. If you forgive someone, you have to swallow the pain, if you get vengeance, they pay. Unfortunately neither of those choices seem scalable. If you get too much of either you're bound to be dealing with more issues than you started out with.

Is forgiveness the opposite of vengeance? Yeah I think so. Are they the only two options? I think Ben was onto something when he kept the questions coming. Is Love the answer, I think it is, but certainly no understanding of that word that we throw around every day.

If there is indeed a burden to be bourn for every offense, that's a lot of burden to be bourn. It weighs on me to even think about it. This is one of the reasons I've hesitated to see the Passion.

Holding hands

I was getting on the old 7 train to come home this evening and I got stuck behind an older couple who were holding hands. I followed them for a few hundered yards through the maze that is the Times Square subway station. They would seperate to move around people or objects, but always come back together and hold hands.

It reminded me of the diamonds commercial from a few years ago which featured a young couple walking briskly through a park and having some sort of turse-looking discussion. Toward the end of the commercial they came up behind an older couple who were walking slowly and holding hands. As the younger pair split to go around the older, they took notice and remembered what it was all about. When they met in front of the old couple, they were holding hands once again. How sweet.

But I got to thinking about the whole holding hands thing. Who thought that up? I ran a quick Google search on the history of the phenomena and only came up with this. Mildly interesting, but not the answer.

I thought of Nicole and I. Whenever we go out anywhere we are holding hands. I wondered if it was for the public. Is it something we do to let others know we're together? No, couldn't be that. If anything I'm less compelled to hold hands when others are around.

Nicole sometimes will tell me stories about how in Kenya folks who are close friends walk around holding hands. Just hanging out.

Maybe holding hands is to friends what the handshake is to associates. An agreement of sorts. I suppose lovers who are arguing aren't going to be holding hands as much and associates who don't trust one another may forgoe a handshake.

Seems plausible. I was just curious.

SNIZZAPP!!!!

I've been totally had! I just fell, and I mean fell fell, for a great April fools day gag.

Check out my post below about Doug Bowman and his new redesign. Doug (Stopdesign) and another web design guru Dave Shea (MezzoBlue) totally switched out their homepages and totally messed me up - along with a bunch of other people.

They even added a little clever text about how shameful it was that folks where stealing their designs.

Blast those clever little devils!!! I'm gonna be laughing all day.

Doug does it again

Douglas Bowman unveiled a new design on his site today - another oasis for the eyes. Over the years he has brought us many beautiful things to look at on the web. There's the Wired site and Adaptive Path redesign or my personal favorite, his entry at the CSS Zen Garden called the Golden Mean.

Doug is also super helpful and if you are trying to learn CSS design or thinking about how hard it is to design beautiful things using the language contstraints of web programming, I would suggest reading some of his articles.

I remember sitting in a fine local establishment in Columbus and talking with Doug while he tweaked his website and took joy in the little details. That's inspiring to me - someone who takes joy in the little details.