The Bing marketing campaign

Time

To complete a background investigation for work today, I had to list every residence I have had for the past 7 years.  This got me thinking about time.

In the traditional study of history, we tend to conceptualize time in terms of eras and blocks.  For example, in Western history, you have the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate, the fall of Rome, the Middle/Dark Ages, the Rennaisance, the Enlightenment, etc.  I think this way of thinking comes naturally to us.  We often hear how time is perceived linearly.  But past time seems to be perceived incrementally.  When I think of the past two years, the time is broken into different "eras."  And my "eras" will be different from most other people's "eras."  For example, June 2007 to August 2007 was my post-graduation summer in Providence.  Then September 2007 to November 2007 was my apathetic post-graduation time living with my parents in Richmond.  December 2007 to August 2008 was my time in New York.  September 2008 was a transition month spent in New York, Richmond, and San Francisco.  And October 2008 to the present is my time in San Francisco.

Obviously these "eras" were defined by where I was living at the time.  However, I think we break time into other increments as well.  For example, I remember October 2008 was the time I was in San Francisco but hadn't made any friends yet (i.e. a time of great personal productivity but significant loneliness).  And December 2007 and most of January 2008 were a time of joblessness and Lost season 2.  There are relationship timelines of course.  One ended in September 2007.  It started up again in January 2008 and lasted until August 2008.  And there are work timelines.  One job spanned summer 2007.  Another spanned January to August 2008.  And my current spans September 2008 to the present.

These are some of the ways in which I perceive the past two years.  But my increments are nothing like someone else's increments.  My friend Taylor has been living in a small town in Japan called Yakage since the summer of 2007.  So place would not be a significant marker of different "eras" for him.  I wonder what his perception of the last two years is.  And my friend Owen has been in Brooklyn that entire time.  I imagine his are defined by other things.  My friend Michelle was still in school for a bunch of that time so her perceptions are obviously different.  And my friend James was in Chicago for most of that time, so I'm sure he has a different point of view.

I think having "eras" is a good thing.  Maybe even an important thing.  The point when we stop perceiving events of significance in our lives to differentiate time periods is a point I would rather not come to.

Goats

On the way home from work, I saw about a million goats grazing in this field right next to the office.  I like seeing juxtapositions of the "high-tech" and the "natural."  But I do wonder why they were there.  Where was their shepherd?

[Edit: It has been brought to my attention that goats have a goatherd, not a shepherd]

I now work in a building closer to the center of campus, which is neat.  But, more importantly, I'm in the building with the absolute best breakfast on campus!  (All the more reason I need to start running again).  I've transferred to the Enterprise Support team.  There's a lot for me to learn.

I leave for Japan for a week on Wednesday, so I may post sparingly.  Not that I've been that prolific recently anyway.

Thoughts on Privacy

I read this article today and was pretty excited about the idea of work that fuses international relations and development with technology consulting.  Maybe I finally have a small idea of a future career path.  We'll see - don't quote me on that.  I also plan on being the jolly owner of a small but delicious restaurant with a lot of regulars whose lives I'm very familiar with since they come to my restaurant all the time and I just go around listening to their stories and telling my own stories and laughing a lot.

I've been having a conversation with several people over the last few days about privacy, which I think is a really interesting topic right now.  Some folks argue that throughout human history, privacy was not an expectation in the way it is today.  Think back to small village structures, or even small towns where everyone knows everyone else's business.  However, with the industrial revolution and the resulting exponential growth in the human population, we scaled past these models of intimacy into the modern city's mass anonymity.  But, with the recent explosion of technological innovation, and social networking in particular, people see a decline in that anonymity.  Our technology has returned us to that small village intimacy, even within 20 million person cities.  It's really a proliferation of information, or access to information.

Obviously this makes people uncomfortable who are used to the former anonymity and information siloing.  I think this is definitely a case of a new technology or social change causing some to be uncomfortable before widespread adoption and satisfaction (e.g. the Facebook news feed, which was hated by most people at first and is now one of their most popular features).  The more interesting question is whether this is good or bad?  Is all this information enabling stalkers and terrorists and criminals?  Is it exposing people's intimate private details to public ridicule in an unfair way?

I like to think that most of the hate and maliciousness in the world, at least on an organized level, is based on disinformation and ignorance.  So I see these modern developments in a very positive light.  I honestly think that the way to "world peace" is through information proliferation.  Of course, my notion of "world peace" is not universal harmony and happiness - humans inherently have conflicts with other humans.  However, I think that information proliferation will shift these conflicts from the many-to-many model of national or group-level conflict to a one-to-one model of interpersonal conflict.  This is because humans individually have traits that are incompatible with other humans.  However, nations don't necessarily have these same traits.  Nations or groups only succeed in fomenting conflict and hate through disinformation and ignorance - if you know nothing about a group of people, then you can view them en masse and project whatever characteristics you want onto them.

The tricky part is making sure that individual humans have control over their own information.  My notion of information proliferation hinges on the idea that someone else doesn't control your access to information in an organized way.  For example, a government shouldn't be able to prevent you from gaining access to information that another individual wants to share.  But that individual should be able to prevent you from gaining access to their own information if they want to.

We live in a crazy time.  It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out; and despite my optimistic arguments, we'll have to be extremely vigilant to ensure things end up the way we want them to.

Lions drink this tea

You might think this image is just marketing.  But you would be wrong.  According to the box, "When the king of the animal kingdom has tea, he sips Madagascar Vanilla Red Tea."

Performance Review

It's "perf" time at work, where you get feedback from co-workers and bosses and whoever wants to send it to you.  It seems like this is supposed to be a stressful time, but I really am looking forward to getting this feedback.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to read most of my peers' feedback.  However, an engineer sent me his, since I think the engineers operate on different rules.  In his feedback for me, he said I should be more confident.  He also said he thinks I work too much and I need to get some hobbies (haha).  I think his first point is apt, and it's something I'm working on.  I've often wished there was something like "perf" in life, where you could give all your feedback to your friends and family.  Of course, this might not go over so well with some folks.  But I love getting constructive feedback.  If anyone wants to give me some "life perf" reviews, feel free to email me, subject line "Life Perf."

I'm moving across town tomorrow, from the Mission to the Haight.  I'm pleasantly surprised tonight by the minimal amount of stuff I actually have to transfer.  I just moved across country 6 months ago (wow it's already been that long?!) and haven't really added much to my possessions here.  Just a guitar, a TV, a desk, and a bed.  I have a small armada of cars helping out, and it will hopefully be a smooth and not completely time consuming process.  Far easier than my last move.

I wrote my grandparents a letter a few weeks ago and really enjoyed reading their response letter.  I think I will try to keep up a written correspondence, time permitting.  This is one of several things I hope to accomplish in the next few months.  In the interest of committing myself to these goals by immortalizing them on this well-trafficked (ha) site, here they are:

1.  Go on hikes, either by myself or with friends, at least every 3-4 weeks (i.e. take advantage of all the neat stuff just outside the city)

2.  Finish my album/EP with Henry

4.  Cook more meals with Steven; continue exploring SF restaurants with him

5.  Talk to my sisters more

6.  Finish learning Ruby on Rails
7.  Read at least every other book for book club

No more Nintendos

It's not too often you hear about something that actually seems like it'll change a whole industry (though the claim is often made).  But this really does seem to have a lot of potential.  My main reservation about buying a Mac for a while has been that they're generally not good for playing games on.  This technology would certainly address that!

http://pc.ign.com/articles/965/965535p1.html

and

http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/23/steve-perlmans-onlive-could-turn-the-video-game-world-upside-down/