Dumb Luck

It's a rummy thing.

Once in a while, I'll sit back and the realization will dawn that I have this Supreme Being who has chosen to take the plunge off life's dock holding my hand, and I wonder: "How the hell did I pull this off?"

Happy Valentine's day love <3

Doubtsourcing

Thanks to Nacho for pointing this out; brand new comic strip awesomeness. And there are only a couple out so far, so you can go back and read all :)

Your Rights Offline

With the number of violations of photographers' rights making the news these days, this little jewel is worth laminating and stowing away in the wallet.

There and Back Again

I was back in Bombay for the holidays which, don't you know, is always a smashing time to visit. Firstly, it's the coolest weather one can expect (clocking in at a marrow-curdling 85F), and secondly, it's the one time of the year when the snappy "Jingle Bells" ditty belted out by the building elevator (to signal that you've neglected to close collapsible grate), is actually appropriate.

Primary purpose of the trip of course was to hang out with the old hive over Christmas-break, but as a side-benefit, I got to celebrate a dear old friend's (Michael's) decision to feed for life out of the same bucket with the lovely Fiona.

While the wedding itself was awesome, the part I enjoyed most was chewing the fat with all the old school friends that I hadn't seen in almost a decade (sometimes more!). What's interesting about a large part of that crowd is that they have practically no internet presence to speak of, and I've had no easy way of getting in touch with them.

Except, apparantly, for Facebook.

While I've heard rumors that Orkut is all the rage in India, everywhere I met up with old cronies, I was presented with the question: "Are you on Facebook?" So there, suddenly, was the "one good reason" I'd been holding out on signing up with Facebook for. And I have to admit, it's pretty scary how many denizens of the old haunts I've been able to find on there.

I still think the site is not all it's cracked up to be, and most of the "applications" are an utter waste of time (send me another stupid "gift" and by Apollo's bronze behind, I'll un-friend you, I swear). But the potential for connection discovery is awesome. Somewhat similar to LinkedIn, but for the non-professional side of your network.

But that brings up the question of social context. I'm part of something like a social network on Flickr/Blogger because the sites are particularly suited towards sharing of ideas within the social context of the photographic community. It'd be hard for Facebook to be the generic social platform for every social context: photography, basket-weaving and physics? That's why I think 2008 will be the year that the industry realizes this and sprouts an eczema of social aggregator companies that claim to unify the experience across properties. This will be an interesting circus to watch...

Playing Hookie

I'm going to be on a solo trip to India next week, and consequently will be separated from Her Radiantness on our anniversary.

So as a substitute, we decided to take last Friday off to loaf about in San Francisco, and paint the town a frivolous shade of 0xff0000. After mangling a spot of dim-sum, and wandering about Chinatown during the afternoon, we caught some nice late light up at Coit Tower, on Telegraph Hill.

Dinner was at this little Senegalese restaurant that we've been dying to try out for the longest time. And since we'd planned to spend the night in SF, it provided the perfect opportunity to grab tickets on Saturday morning for SFJazz's 2008 Spring Season. Here's what's on the agenda:

• March 8: Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, & Jack DeJohnette
• March 14: "Tyner & Taps"; McCoy Tyner Trio with Savion Glover
• March 15: SFJazz Collective
  
• April 11: Wayne Shorter Quartet with Imani Winds
• April 13: Ana Moura
• April 17: Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, & Jack DeJohnette
• May 31: Miles from India
• June 8: Fiesta Venezuela
  

We've even got Coeman coming up for Tyner and the Collective, which means I've inadvertently contributed to The Grand Procrastination...

Wingsuit BASE Jumping

Ok, that is just scary shit.

xkcd @ Google

Randall Munroe (only the creator of one of the best comic strips in the world) gave a talk at Google today. Among the highlights:

• Guido van Rossum asking him "Do you expect me to fly?" (you'll need to have seen this.)
• Randall only discovering that the guy who asked that question was Guido after the talk was done.
  
• Donald Knuth (yes, that Donald Knuth) asking him "What's the name of my O(log log n) search algorithm?"
• Randall sketching (on a sheet covering a projector) an impromptu Google logo created out of his xkcd stick-figures.

I work at a surreal company.