Caine’s Arcade – a boy and a dream go viral

Imagination. Innovation. Incredible power of social media.

A 9-year-old boy in Los Angeles with a big dream and tons of creativity spends his summer building an arcade out of leftover cardboard, hoping customers to his dad’s auto parts shop will stop and play.

But in this day of online shopping, his dad’s customers shop by mouse click, not by foot.

No one stops to play.

Until one day, a customer shopping for a car door handle stops to play, buys the fun pass, and becomes enamored with the boy’s imagination, innovation, and incredible execution.

That customer, Nirvan Mullick, dreams another big dream, and the rest of the story is how videos go viral.

Watch.

Postscript: More than $100,000 has been donated to a trust fund for Caine’s college education. Imagine the technological wizardry to come from this boy’s imagination.

Perfectionism is killing me

I’m a closet perfectionist. It’s in my DNA.

The danger of perfectionism is that nothing gets completed. Sure, I get work done, but that often leads to me tweaking and refining and perfecting and revising and reworking and never reaching the point where I am satisfied.

Because I’m shooting for the perfect, when I should be shooting for the good.

Funny thing is I just read about it in this post by ProBlogger Darren Rowse, “Perfectionism: the ultimate time drain?”

You should have seen how much angst I put myself through just getting this post started, written, and finished.

There.

Be the ball

be the ball

Coaches often tell a player to “be the ball.” I heard that phrase as a beginning bowler from my bowling mentor. He said to “be the ball” in order to understand how I’d roll down the lane if given certain types of spin.

In this latest album of photos, I was asked to shoot images of golfers. Having seen numerous golf shots of the same, boring image of foursomes lined up shoulder to shoulder (like fence posts), I decided to photograph the golfers from an entirely different angle and perspective. I decided to be the ball.

What do you think?

Amgen Tour of California – geewhiz photos

Convergence (n) – the point at which objects meet.

On May 15, 2011, my hometown of Sacramento became the convergence point, and I could only be at one place at one time.
So, I shot photos at the Amgen Tour of California as it blew into my hometown.
Wrapping itself around the state capitol for its final leg of this “opening” stage, the race finished just blocks away from where I also wanted to be, the Sacramento Community Center.

For it was at that precise time and place that my other true passion was converging.
The technical communicators’ annual conference!

My best photos. http://on.fb.me/mdbjvl

Draw me a picture (at SXSW)

Not able to attend SXSW (the South by SouthWest conference), I have to live vicariously through the tweets, blog posts, slideshares, and other conference notes from attendees who happen to be among my social media contacts.

So, this set of hand-drawn notes by ad agency Ogilvy appeals to me on several angles.

First, it’s visual. Colorful. Image-based, more than text-based content.

Second, it’s good for business. Clever that this agency differentiated itself from others, the illustrations open potential business opportunities for Ogilvy, simply because presenters and followers who request a free 11×17″ print might linger, browse, and perhaps do business with Ogilvy.

Third, it’s cleverly different. Unlike the presentations posted on other sites, notes posted on blogs, and photos and tweets, this visualization of the content got my attention.

Prepare to be visually fascinated!
See http://ogilvynotes.com/

Twitter Mozaic

I updated my Twitter Mozaic, which I first blogged about in July 2009:

Get your twitter mosaic here.

What tech can’t you live without?

Quick. What’s the one technology you can’t live without? Not a day goes by without you using it.

Is it your laptop or desktop computer? HD TV? cell phone? digital camera? GPS device? satellite radio? hand-held game? eBook reader? personal health monitor? universal language translator? transporter? (Oh-ooops, not supposed to tell anyone about that one yet.)

I can honestly answer, all of the above. Well, just one device has all of the above. It’s my mobile phone, as known as a cellular phone. It’s also the one device that does all of the above.

My phone is more than just a phone, with its directory of all my friends and family. It’s my business contact manager. It’s my universal communicator with its text, voice, and file attachment capabilities. And, it’s my instant link to my social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, tumblr).

my iPhone icons

My phone is also my source of spiritual strength. No, I don’t worship my phone. I have YouVersion, my online Bible, with all its translations, daily reading plans, and bookmarks. I’m given daily pop-up reminders of the next chapters and verses to read to stay up with my goal (to read the entire Bible in one year).

My phone is my satellite radio, thanks to Pandora radio, iTunes, and other online music sources.

My phone is also my eBook reader, storing podcasts, eBooks and Web pages to read later.

My phone is also my backup digital camera. On the very rare occasion that I’m not packing my DSLR with lenses and speedlite in its slingbag, I’m still able to capture that visual moment, that image, that memory.

My phone is also my GPS, with maps, satellite view or street view, address finder, and driving directions. (“Honey, I don’t need to stop for directions. Trust me.”)

My phone is also my personal health monitor, thanks to apps like LoseIt, which store my food and exercise log and show me if I’m practicing good daily wellness habits that will lead to my goals. (I voluntarily show my results to my personal fitness trainer, who has helped me change a few bad eating habits.)

My phone is also my hand-held gaming device, thanks to iTunes’ app store and its access to downloadable games. “Words with Friends,” anyone?

My phone is also my universal translator, thanks to Word Lens. Spanish to English and back again.

My phone is also my transporter device. Scotty. Energize.

A Post a Week in 2011

I want to blog more.
But instead of just thinking about it and saying it, I’m going to do it.
I will post to my blog at least once a week for all of 2011.

Now, I know why my blogging has tailed off in the past few years. When I first began blogging in 2004, there were fewer challengers to my time. But in the last few years, I’ve added social networking through Facebook, business networking through LinkedIn, microblogging through Twitter, and photoblogging through Tumblr.
I’ve graduated from a simple cellphone to an iPhone with all its distractions.
So, my blogging here dropped off.

This year, I’m taking the WordPress challenge. I’m making use of WordPress’ The Daily Post to help me along the way.

If I need help, I get to ask for it. If I can help someone else, I promise to volunteer.

I hope you encourage me with comments and likes.

Here’s to a new 2011.

Touchscreen or keyboard?

As designers add tactile touchscreen interfaces to devices, some debate the ease of use.

Some users suffer from limited tactile sense control. Others struggle with the smaller size of the visual keys. Still others need the audible and tactile feedback from hardware keys.

Would these hacks solve those user interface problems?

Discovered at socialjunjun.typepad.com/.

Tips for Photographing a Conference

Schwarzenfeld Photography guest-posted a great entry at Digital Photography School’s site on tips for shooting conferences.

Tips include knowing the agenda, changing your point of view, and taking the must-have shots.

I happen to agree with many of the points, and engaged in some conversation regarding the topic.
Read the entry at DPS.

The power of sticky notes

When a  team asks me to join in a brainstorming session, and the first thing I see is someone with a notepad trying to capture all their thoughts, I always find a way to have them change to sticky notes and a large wall space. Why?

Team huddle shakes up boring meetings

How are your team meetings?

• Do they drag on endlessly while your staff watch the clock, aware that work isn’t getting done?
• Does the staff leave the meetings no closer to producing results than when they came into the meeting?
• Does the staff leave the meeting unsure of team priorities and “TOP 3″ targets for the day or for the week?
• Does the meeting leave the team’s morale downward at the meeting?

If your team meetings need a kick in the seat of the pants, try something radical, like a structured team huddle. Watch the video of a team huddle and find the six key parts of the huddle.