For the past 10 years (as long as I’ve been noticing) March has been tough month for me. It’s as if my mind and body finally succumb to the winter’s weight. The smallest things start to seem overwhelming and their failure inevitable. Rather than magical place full of opportunity and wonderfulness, the world seems trite, annoying, and unhelpful.

It’s not an enjoyable way to spend one day or 31.

Yet, despite the calendar marking the end of May and the mercury forecast to hit 90°F, my mind is stuck in March.

Theodore Sturgeon is credited with saying, “90% of everything is crud”

In this age of always-on, real-time, democratized media there’s so much more of everything – 90% isn’t what it used to be.

Even if we determine the remaining 10% of everything isn’t complete and utter trash. We still need to cull for relevance, importance, and action-ability. Another 90% gone?

Yes. I think so.

“Most things in the world don’t need you, you don’t need most things in the world” – Dave Slusher

It seems to me, that like XML and violence, the world would be a better place with less Javascript.

Back in art school – I spent some time with a designer-turned-fine-artist name Eric (last name since forgotten).

Aside from his crash course in contemporary fine art of the late 1990s the thing I remember most about him was his answer to my question:

Why did you switch from design to fine art?

He looks up, while adjusting the positioning of a Deutsch Mark on a string and a piggy bank in a sculpture spanning the diagonal length of his apartment, and states:

“Graphic design is ephemera. It’s meant to be thrown away. I want to create something that’s meant to stay.”

Great talk from Linda Stone on what comes after ‘continuous partial attention’. She argues that it’s filtering, engagement, discernment, and a striving for intimacy and a quality of live. “Understanding Workers” vs. “Knowledge Workers”

Conversely, being tuned into the always-on, real-time stream creates a constant sense of crisis. Additionally, this constant fight-or-flight actually prevents innovation and creativity.

I wholly agree. But you already knew that.

Good stuff.

May I have your attention please? – Linda Stone – SIME 09 from Ayman van Bregt on Vimeo.

My mobile phone is starting to show it’s age. More sketchy connections, increased static and general inability to hear the other person on the line.

All independent of who I’m talking with or whether I’m on T-Mobile’s GSM network or a WiFi network.

All making me more unhappy with a device that increasingly feels like a buggy whip.

This weekend, I stopped by the T-Mobile store in the nearby mall. It was disheveled, half the demo phones were missing, and the displays were falling apart. Like their website, I couldn’t get a good sense what interesting phones they had – let alone which ones they wanted to sell me. The associate behind the counter was more interested in determining if my account was eligible for an upgrade than upselling me on a sexy new handset.

I kept thinking – maybe I should just buy an unlocked Nexus One.

Though – all I’m really looking for is an easy way to make voice calls- all that other smart phone stuff? Between a laptop, iPod Touch, and iPad, I’ve got it covered.

Two years ago, I predicted that once it expired, I wouldn’t be renewing my monthly mobile phone service plan.

If you’re a betting man – it still looks like a good bet.

The question is – if I drop my monthly mobile phone service, how do I make voice calls?

I’d like a mobile device optimized for the voice call experience. I don’t see that anywhere on the market.

So, what should my next phone be?

Upate 27 May 2010:
Early tests show Peter Cooper may have the answer.

“Ooh, a docked iPad + Skype == an awesome desk phone (sound is great both ways) even stuck with the scaled-up iPhone app for now”