Category: I Think …

Canada’s Most Controversial Music Video – Thank You!

I’ve been a big fan of Hayden as a musician for many, many years now. I’ve never really thought his videos were much to speak of though, so I stopped watching for them. His latest album (which is excellent) includes the lead track “Where and When”, and CBC Radio 3’s R3TV showcased it last week. And rightfully so. Hayden introduces it and its premise, we get a glimpse of the Radio3 people’s reactions to it, and the video rolls.

Now, the video itself is actually a fabulously created and delivered observation on today’s video obsessed Internet culture. Through it I learned about another video that this one is riffing off of called “2 Girls 1 Cup“. After reading about the video I understand how it could become so notorious in Internet-land, and heartily recommend that you don’t even try to find a copy of it – it is disgusting and the epitome of all that is bad with Internet video. I stopped trying to find a copy once I read that Wikipedia description, as that was enough for me (and any sane, normal person).

So Hayden has caught part of this video’s momentum and created a video that looks back at those who are watching these kinds of things, at those who are surfing YouTube looking for a certain type of video. He reflects on the state of music on the Internet and in concert halls. He poses questions about who is the audience and who is the performer. Maybe I’m seeing more in this video than I should be, but damnit I really like it. Heck, I love. OK, fine, I think you should go watch it. Oh, and the tune is mighty fine so don’t think you’ll be losing time or anything.

Here’s a link, where you can also see all the previous episodes of R3TV – a podcast that I firmly believe deserves a lot more attention and love than it currently receives.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights – Public Consultation

I’ve been passed a link to a public consultation on how to define and manage a newly-approved museum in Canada:

The creation of a new national museum, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, is an opportunity to tell the story of the evolution of human rights in Canada and elsewhere. This story is a complex story to tell because human rights resonate differently with individual Canadians. A web-based public consultation will provide the opportunity to receive the views of a large number of Canadians and advice on the possible content and programming of this new institution.

There is a link there to a brief survey wherein you can have your say as to what you think about this new museum, what it should focus on, and how it should measure its success. It’s worthwhile and only takes 5-10 minutes if you give the questions a little thought.

Highly recommended! I think the museum represents an interesting opportunity for discussion and reflection (though I didn’t put reflection as my top priority for a museum – take the survey and you’ll see what I mean).

Stanford, You Had Me At $60,000.00

What an uplifting announcement from Stanford University today regarding changes to their financial aid program:

Under the new program, parents with incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition. Parents with incomes of less than $60,000 will not be expected to pay tuition or contribute to the costs of room, board and other expenses.

The program also eliminates the need for student loans

Now the American and Canadian education industries are fairly different. But my limited exposure leads me to believe that access to higher education in the States is severely impacted by one’s ability to either pay or borrow large amounts of money. This announcement can hopefully be parlayed into wide-spread changes across the States and Canada.

Education, no matter what level, should be available to everyone, not just those that can afford to pay tuition and room/board.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

20 minutes.  That’s all I ask for.  A brief introduction, a story if you will, about the stuff we have in our lives.  Consumption is a national pastime in our culture and I believe we need to take responsiblity for that.  Oh, I also believe we need to change that.  Don’t run away, there’s cartoons!

I particularly like her Radio Shack analogy.  Yes, the radio costs me $4.99 – but was it really that cheap to make?  If it wasn’t that cheap, who actually paid the rest of the cost?

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Birthdays!

Today is my 34th birthday – ta-da! In the spirit of birthdays, here’s a story about births – kind of. Those wacky scientists have gone and figured out how to make either sex unnecessary for conception.

Where will society take this? I can certainly see some benefits here, but again I have to ask – just because we can … should we? This may be valuable in some situations which then leads down the slippery slope of it being used in inappropriate situations. Human imagination can make for a slippery slope indeed.

To Buy Or To Rent – A Difficult Question

I just discovered an interesting data collection interface put up by the New York Times. Trying to juggle the various elements of finances and markets when deciding to rent or purchase a house is difficult. This tool they’ve put together really does simplify the data down to some concrete attributes that most people can easily find . It then lets you “fiddle” with the values to determine how far away a change in outcome really is. Interesting way of doing things – quite creative.

Is It Better to Buy or Rent? – New York Times

P.S. They’ve also put together a few other data interfaces that mix similar interface-savvy ideas with raw, boring, difficult to understand data. Unusual insights abound! List provided by today’s UIETips Newsletter.

2008 – The Year Of Being Creative

Welcome to 2008 everyone!

I’m not usually up for New Years resolutions and such, but I guess you might read this post as such.  Over the past few months I’ve been taking a really close look at my day-to-day activities, my level of life-satisfaction, and my progress towards my long-term goals.  I’ve noticed a pretty important disconnect:

I’m not really on track to meeting my long term goals.  Heck, I’m not even really clear on my 5 year plan right now.

During the fall I attended a UI conference that, for some reason, had a very large impact on me.  Not because it presented particularly challenging  material (though it did) but more because of the introspection I was able to run through while away from work and home.

My conclusion after these months of thought: I need to introduce further creativity into my life and to my activities.  I’m not creating enough opportunities for expression, artistic growth, or creative experiences.

So I have found a new focus or theme for 2008: Being Creative.  I’m going to consciously work towards this goal, setting myself challenging and achievable goals on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  I don’t see this as a New Year’s resolution, but more of a life direction choice.  I’m going to be giving it some daily thought hopefully resulting in some daily action.  I don’t want this to fizzle out after 2 weeks, I’m taking this really seriously.  Maybe I’ll have to provide periodic reports here for some kind of accountability.  Accountability to the masses of people who read my magnificent blog.  Not you Samson, you’re just a temp.  (inside joke from this year’s Holiday Compilation).

Let’s begin!

Happy Holidays From The Bridger Clan on Goggs

Just taking a quick moment to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season, and a New Year full of joy, peace, and happiness.

P.S. You may notice over the holiday season that connectivity is spotty to thebside – the reason (as far as I can tell) is that the Christmas tree is blocking the wireless connection between the server and the router. So there you go – it’s the tree’s fault.