And I still haven’t updated this blog? So what - I’ve been busy! I don’t have to justify myself to you. Do I? Well fine then, I will: my mom is in town, backpack is ruling my life (and increasing my productivity threefold), I love my iPhone, and I’m slowly coming to the harsh realization that I’m getting burnt out and demoralized at work. C’est le Vie, life goes on, another day another dollar, tough luck, and all that nonsense.
Is it Friday yet?
Yesterday I went for a nice hour long photo walk with my Lensbaby. You would be surprised at how difficult focusing a Lensbaby is while perched on one leg, the other knee jammed into the button to make the fountain produce it’s liquid bounty.
“Fountain” by sparktography
More experimentation with the photos taken on Sunday’s photo walk. Lensbabied shot (f8) taken in the shade with a reflector then digitally crushed the shadows in post. It looks almost like moonlight shimmering on their delicate heads.
Yesterday I was introduced to Backpackit and Ta-Da Lists, two fabulous web based information collection and management tools. Ta-Da Lists is the most simple of simple web based task/list management solution, but implemented with a clean and sensible design. Backpack picks up where Ta-Da lists leaves off and offers a full blown web based information capture, search, and management solution.
Backpacks genius lies in its simple interface to import email, notes, lists, and documents and allow the user to organize them into meaningful groups and pages. Entering information can be done through the AJAX powered web interface, or emailed to unique email addresses per page you create.
For the mildly OCD and scatterbrained professional like me it’s a perfect information dump solution. Previously I had accomplished this task with a mixture of desktop search technologies (Spotlight and Windows Desktop Search) and text files. Backpack allows for the capture of my stream of consciousness and later triage and sort information into tasks, savable bits, and ideas.
A web based solution is the perfect answer to my multi-computer, multi-platform lifestyle - all of the power of text files on OS X, OneNote on Windows, and accessible from any browser at the drop of a hat. Each page also has a unique email address making it possible to send notes and todo’s from any email capable device for quick entry on the go.
Backpack tops off it’s powerful information management technology with a well implemented developer API, SMS or email based reminders, and basic calendaring and calendar sharing functionality. I’m hooked on the Exchange/Outlook calendaring solution at work, but were I not chained to the evil empire the calendar looks well enough implemented to live out of.
Ta-Da Lists is likely enough for most people, and is entirely free. Ta-Da offers a maximum of 10 concurrent lists, and a very slick iPhone specific interface for those iPhone owners dying for a task/list solution. Backpack is very iPhone friendly, but lacks an iPhone specific interface which does make it slightly less useful on the iPhone, but Backpack’s power-user interface and abilities to go beyond simple lists into key-worded pages full of lists, notes, images, documents, and emails makes it an easy sell.
Backpack offers a free version which is likely sufficent enough for most users, but for a small monthly fee they will increase the number of pages you can create as well as increase the amount of storage available for you.
Check it out - it’s free for basic use and if you manage information anything like I do you will be instantly hooked.
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later: I turned 26 and I’m now in the last year of my mid-twenties. 26 doesn’t seem any different from 25 was, or even the year before. Change in my life seems more gradual these days, a side effect of getting older I suppose; each year being less tumultuous and seeming shorter given it’s comparative length is shorting as my life experiences lengthen.
My actual birthday was last week, but I didn’t celebrate too much on that day so as not to make the next day at work not be a living nightmare. Brien bought me 300 on HD-DVD and took me out for a nice dinner. I did crack a tooth at dinner (on Pad Thai no less?!) which did manage to put a bit of a damper on things, but overall it was a great end to the first quarter century of my life.
Yesterday was my annual birthday movie marathon. Some very good friends came by to have a drink, watch movies (this years theme was Action!), and celebrate the passing of another year. After a number of flicks (and much berating of Judge Dredd - how blasphemous) we dined and I went home to snuggle in bed with Skype.
This morning I took a photo walk with my lensbaby while in quite the strange mood. All of my shots today feel very experimental for me - not what I would typically look for in shots. I like what I got - check out the the all of todays photos, or see my two favorites below.
This poor abandoned TV got quite a few treatments and this ended up being my favorite. Blur effect done entirely in camera with the Lensbaby. I keep feeling like this photo makes some profound statement about the grand life-cycle of technology, but capturing that statement and writing it down eludes me.
“Televised” by sparktography
This shot is another in my sticker series. I’m highly amused by this angry little cloud. It was taken on the side of a Seattle Weekly newspaper box, and recently it looks like someone spilled some bright red/orange paint down the side putting this poor sticker in jail.
