Garrick van Buren – Page 177 – About time. And product. And being more deliberate.

Big Thanks to the City of Big Shoulders

We’re heading back north in the morning after a few days in Chicago. Huge thanks to the Dihiansan’s for a very enjoyable backyard dinner earlier in the week and the Smith‘s this evening. On both counts it’s great to see kids older than Cooper, where they’re at as people and how Cooper interacts with them. Not to mention a good adult conversation. Thank you both for sharing your lives with us – if only for an evening.

We spent this afternoon at Millennium Park – and I have to say, the bean, er – Cloud Gate is far cooler up close than the pictures depict. The sculpture needs dozens of people underneath it all searching for their reflections. By contrast, I wasn’t as impressed with the Spitting fountains. No, it didn’t spit while we were watching it. Sure, the fountains were nice as a public bathing pool and they did alleviate some of the inherent urban oppressiveness. But.

We walked up and down Michigan Avenue – always a good walk. Especially when you have no particular destination. Through it all – Cooper had a fantastic time. Laughing, giggling, making new friends, watching the storefronts and cars go by. He’s definitely more city mouse than country mouse.

Things we missed about Chicagoland that came right back; Joy Yee’s bubble teas, Giordano’s stuffed pizza, Lake Michigan.

Things we didn’t miss about Chicagoland that came right back; traffic, and the hour it takes to get anywhere.

Extra special thanks to Jen’s uncle for hosting us and a congrats out to Capital K for his engagement. Looks like we’ll be back next year ’bout this time.

New iTunes Podcast Categorization and WP-iPodCatter

On Friday, I received an email from Apple’s iTunes Podcasting team that they’re changing the categories in the iTunes directory. So, I updated the WP-iPodcatter plugin to reflect these changes.

Like their removal of item-level categorization, I’m not crazy about these changes.

There are 2 ‘Other’ categories (in Religion, Games & Hobbies). But not in any of the other categories. ‘Other’, like ‘Miscellaneous’, is an acknowledgment of an unsuccessful categorization scheme. Conceivably, ‘Other’ will have the most things in it – so filtering that category will be the challenge.
These categories feel more like Apple trying to form and mold what’s in the iTunes directory rather than fostering what’s currently being published.
I have no idea where to put the First Crack Podcast. Best I could do was; Business, Technology, Arts:Food. I know. Not accurate.

Then again, iTunes is a pretty worthless interface for finding podcasts, and these category revisions only make the problem worse. While doing nothing to eliminate podcasters gaming their placement with; -, –>, :: , ‘, ‘”, “”””””””””””””””””.

All podcast directories have a similar problem – trying to be the Yahoo of podcasts (hierarchical directory) rather than the Google (really good filtering). If you’re looking for good podcasts – I recommend AmigoFish or a regular web search (Google, Yahoo, etc) with “podcast” added at the end.

How ‘Bout Just the Lot?

As expected, the contractor that bought our old place is now selling the lot. If you were interested in the location, but not so much the house itself. It is now a blank canvas. Build as you wish.

Reminds me of scene from the Chevy Chase classic Fletch Lives (which, coincidentally, I saw at the now boarded-up theater in the Village):

Fletch: [flirting] Hey Betty, how about lunch at the In N’ Out Burger?

Betty Dilworth: [disgusted] No.

Fletch: Okay, forget the burger, how about just the In N’ Out?

[she sneers at him]

Fletch: Ok, how about just the In?

Darrel Austin on ‘Customer as Silo’

“A modest proposal to online retailers: let me give you my money first, THEN ask me to create an account” – Darrel Austin

Google Checkout First Impression Podcast

I walked through Google Checkout this morning and recorded my initial reaction as a podcast (wherein I curse a little).

Marshall Kirkpatrick at Techcrunch brings up the same issues.

Support Free College Tuition for Minnesota’s Best Students

MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty floated a plan today that would provide high school students graduating within the top 25% of their class 2 free years of college tuition. For an additional 2 years, just major in math or science.

Education is on my list of things I think US citizens should ‘get for free’, so I give the plan a hearty,’Hell yeah!’

It’s a smart solution and all MN gubernatorial candidates should be supporting it. According the the Strib and Minvolved, this change means 15,000 students getting an education without looking at a decade of student loan bills (which jump 1.84 percentage points on July 1 – ouch).

Sure, making it free doesn’t eliminate costs – there’s still infrastructure costs, decent salaries for professors and staff, etc. So, there’s a conversation around how those costs will be met. The obvious answer is to distribute the costs to those students still paying tuition; out-of-state students and those greater-than-25%-smart students. Providing a helluva disincentive to _not_ attend college. Definitely the wrong message.

There are other more interesting and sustainable options – like taxes. In fact – that creates a virtuous circle – better educated people make more, therefore they have more income, therefore they can be taxed a higher rate.

If I’m buying a ‘free’ education with my taxes – sign me up.

Garrick Speaking at Civic League’s Future of Policy Making in MN Series

On August 22nd, as part of the Citizens Leagues’ 2006 Summer Policy Series, I’ll be joining Tom Swain, Jean LeVander King, Jen Alstad, and Steve Borsch for a conversation on the Future of the Web and Civic Engagement. Should be an interesting conversation – especially since it kicks off at 7:30am.

Here’s my initial thoughts on “myspace meeting our space” – more flushed out as the date approaches;

Collaborative document tools like: Wikis, Writely, SubEthaEdit, WriteBoard – provide a place where groups can refine and revise their message prior to sharing it publicly & in a more structured way than blogging provides.
The number of people with their own blogs will continue grow. Meaning, the information about what’s happening in a very small geographic area (i.e. my block) will continue to grow. For civic leaders this means 2 things; first – they may be expected to blog, second – a network of publishers to spread messages and engage others is ever growing.
All of these technologies are but extensions of existing social behavior and the foundations of civic engagement. To me, that’s the most important bit.

Special thanks to Mike O’Connor for recommending me to Sean Kershaw at Citizens League for this conversation.

Reliving My Past Lives

So, rewind a week or so Jen asks;
“What’s this $40 charge for Susy Q Hat Co?”
Me: “Susy Q? Huh? I have no idea….Oh, I ordered some Too Much Joy bootlegs and their tour/video DVD.”

Three discs, 2 from 1993 and the third from 1991 loaded into the iTunes a few days ago. I’ve been rocking out since. Odd thing is – unlike the polished, studio recordings I have – the bootlegs take me back 15 years. As soon as I hit play.

Which presents a fair question: Why would you want to be taken back 15 years?

In a lot of ways, the early 90s could have been better for me. Yet somehow, it’s the sunny, optimistic memories that are brought back.

Blaring TMJ on my dual cassette boombox sitting in my sunny bedroom.
Snowboarding the back hills of northwestern Wisconsin.
Blaring TMJ on my dual cassette boombox driving a raised Ford Ranger through the rural back roads

Thanks TMJ.

Looks like things in fact, have not gotten worse.

The Future Soon Flickr Flick

I got another Jonathan Coulton tune stuck in my head last week. As I’ve discovered, the best way to get the earworm out is to make a music video for it (i.e. purposefully listen to it repeatedly hundreds of times).

Inspired by JC’s classic Flickr, and the recently launched JoCoPro, I present you:
Future Flickr [quicktime].

Thanks to all the photographers (and JC himself) for publishing their works under Creative Commons – with special thanks to Chuck Olsen and J Wynia.

The Newest Urbanist

Congrats to Sam & Jen on the arrival of Joe Urban Jr..