Completely Unlike a Snake on a Plane

I had a very strange conversation earlier this week. On the other side of the table was someone trying to figure out how to use local weblogs and podcasts to build pre-release buzz for a movie no one’s seen yet.

If we assume this site and other bloggy publications are extensions of our everyday word-o-mouth, then it’s tough to recommend something you’ve had no experience with. That said, I wasn’t clear on what the movie was about. The existing materials didn’t help, nor was the backstory inherently compelling – best I could glean was something like Lost in La Mancha on a much, much smaller scale (That’s my everyday life).

Which brings me to a point about a movie Jen still doesn’t believe is real:

“Let me suggest that we promote a movie we’ve seen next time, and avoid hijacking our own channels into promoting something that will go down as the highest grossing crap B movie ever.” – Karl Long

While I’m completely behind Karl’s sentiment – the movie doesn’t really matter.

We all know, instinctively, intuitively, what kind of movie Snakes on a Plane is. It’s all in the title. The movie didn’t even have to be made. That’s the power of it. That’s why it’s compelling – 105 minutes, millions of dollars, plot line, all compressed into 4 words.

See the movie? Why? I’ve already changed my MySpace page to Sharks on a Tractor (thanks Conan O’Brien).

“The quality of the film matters nothing.” – Terry Heaton

. Terry’s got other tasty bits in there as well.

I’d like to thank Seth Godin for succinctly wrapping this post up for me.

“I knew all about SOAP and had no desire whatsoever to go. I’m just not ready to sit in a theatre with a bunch of people afraid of airplanes.”

“I’m afraid we come back to something that marketers have been struggling with for a really long time–the best way to succeed is to have a really great product.” – Seth Godin

First Crack 84. Rich Huelskamp on Making an Energy Efficient Home

Rich Huelskamp built a 100% off-grid, renewable-energy home down in Red Wing, MN. He and I talk about how he got his home down from the average 25kWh/day to 6. Along the way, he goes through the steps to making a urban/suburban home more efficient.

If you’re looking to replace your home’s appliances, Rich recommends picking from ACEEE.org’s list of most energy efficient appliances

Listen to Rich Huelskamp on Making an Energy Efficient Home [36 min]

Sunday Morning Dot Connection

“Airport security is the last line of defense, and not a very good one at that. Sure, it’ll catch the sloppy and the stupid — and that’s a good enough reason not to do away with it entirely — but it won’t catch a well-planned plot. We can’t keep weapons out of prisons 1; we can’t possibly keep them off airplanes.” – Bruce Schneier

Interesting note on my media readership. I had already paged through the Sunday Star Tribune, read all the usual stuff, got frustrated with the huge amount of FUD and general insipidness, when I loaded up my NetNewWire for the morning. Right there in my ‘must reads’ list is the above article. If you follow the link, you’ll notice it was also published in the Op-Ed section of the paper I just put down.

1. Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv. My vote for most, um, innovative is the sharpened tablespoon.

Moved Servers

This means the heavy lifting of moving garrickvanburen.com to a new server, and the firstcrackpodcast to it’s own domain is complete (finally).

If anythings not working as expected, please drop me a line. Thanks.

Two things I’ve noticed already:

  1. The forums haven’t migrated yet, I thought I’d take this opportunity to try and solve the spam problem I talked earlier.
  2. The fastcast is all thrown off. Since the new server server thinks the files were uploaded now, rather then when they really were, the order is all thrown off. Let’s see if that’s an easy fix.

How I’m Getting Things Done

After years of using Apple’s Stickies as my standard To Do list organizer, I’m a month into an entirely new productivity system. It’s working out pretty well.

With David Allen’s Getting Things Done as a foundation, here are the modifications I’ve made:

  1. Next Actions:
    This is a stack of index cards. One thing per card – boiled down to the smallest task discernible. The task I’m working on right now is on top. If I get distracted, just look at the stack of index cards to re-focus. Work-related things are added to the calendar at the same time the index card is made, to reinforce the commitment. Best part – crumpling up the index card when it’s complete and tossing it across the room to the circular file (iCal gives me the record of when).
  2. Tickler File:
    Yes, I’ve got my 43 folders – manila. On my physical desktop. Don’t have anything in them yet, I’m checking daily, just in case.
  3. Waiting For / Someday Maybe: Both are iCal calendars I add to via Quicksilver (activate Quicksilver, ‘.’, type thing, create iCal To-Do, select corresponding calendar, return.)
  4. Inbox:
    I have 3 inboxes:
    1. Mail.app – a bit of hack, a Smart Mailbox that only shows me today’s mail
    2. Clean Out – this is a directory on my MacBookPro’s Desktop where browser downloads go, where NetNewsWire dumps to, basically where everything digital goes – that isn’t mail.
    3. Physical Inbox – a little IKEA cloth basket sits on my desk behind my MacBookPro anything physical goes there for processing.