Day 8
[flickr]5341287675[/flickr]
Day 9
[flickr]5354334179[/flickr]
Day 10
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Day 11
[flickr]5354949154[/flickr]
Day 12
[flickr]5354949232[/flickr]
Day 13
[flickr]5354949420[/flickr]
Day 14
[flickr]5356056897[/flickr]
Photojojo posted a blurb on Pummelvision last month and I’m just getting around to checking it out. All I can say is that it’s awesome:
Ever wished you could rewind your entire life and watch it again?
…
Pummelvision…gives you a breathtakingly beautiful, painfully poignant, and utterly simple video summary of your life. It’s remarkable.It’s just a few minutes, but we dare you not to be moved as you relive old apartments, boyfriends, girlfriends, just friends, jobs… You might even cry.
Pummelvision is the reason you’ve taken photos all these years. Go, go now.
I pummel’d the photos from my 2009 Europe trip, which you can see below or, preferably, watch in HD:
1665 pictures, 12 countries, 3 continents, and 9 weeks expressed in 3:42 seconds.
Original pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/afdn/sets/72157621841422075/
Epically awesome.
For all the work I put in, it makes it worth it when I get notes like this:
@fergbrain:
Perfect, thanks! Exactly what I was looking for.
I appreciate devs like you who create quality plugins backed by outstanding support!
Well done.
See also from Alex King:
When I think of “pace”, I generally think of “keeping up pace,” as if I’m always behind the eight ball, never on top of things, and striving to catchup.
When I read Run Less, Run Faster1, I noticed there is a constant theme of keeping the pace prescribed for that run. Even if you knew you could run faster, you have to run at that particular pace. Pace is vital and keeping the right pace is critical.
We ran 6 days a week, and every day, our “training” run resulted in a competition. No matter how much we bot insisted that “Today, we’ll take it easy,” at some point, one of use would push the pace and then the race would be on! No rest days. No speed days. Nothing but race days.
Having race day every day doesn’t work. I’d like to think that if I can just tough it out — if I can just get through the hour, the day, or the week going at 110%, that then I will finally find time to rest and recover.
That never happens though.
What ends up happening is things start dropping off my plate: I don’t turn things in on time, I get sleep deprived, I don’t do my best work, I neglect cleaning up after myself, I don’t eat well, I don’t get out…the list goes on.
I guess this point is that I run as fast as I can until I can’t run anymore and I crash, not always a big crash but still a crash.
What if I were to force myself to set a pace though? Maybe not even a great pace, but a pace that I can finish. Sure, I’d like to be able to run a seven minute mile for the entire half marathon, but that’s not going to happen2.
What if I ran a ten minute mile? Ugh, that’s so slow. But, I think I can do that without crashing (and I can…almost).
You may be able to see how this might translate more generally to life: setting goals which are maybe not so grandiose, but which are achievable and build upon themselves to propel one forward. I may have lull spots where nothing is happening, and that’s great! I did a little better that expected, but I don’t need to go fill that void with something ten times harder just “for the challenge.”
Obviously, one of things I want to try and focus on for this year is keeping a good pace. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to do that, but I’m going to start by setting some resolutions that are easy and that I sort of like doing already.
Run four races
I want to run in four races this year, spaced roughly 3 months apart.
Here’s what I’m looking at so far:
I’d also like to run a 10K in the Fall, but I haven’t found one yet.
Write something meaningful once a week
This will, naturally, take place as a weekly blog post and starts with what you are reading here. The goal of “something meaningful” is to let what I’m writing marinate over the week so I can really wrestle with it and edit it. It’s also to avoid the well know fact that “Once you start measuring something, people will change the way they behave”3, case in point: “You can tell which people listed blogging as a performance review goal“.
I’ve done that before and sometimes can turn out really lame.
365 days, 365 pictures
Finally, I’d like to take a picture a day. I’ve been having a fun time taking pictures using Vignette for Android and uploading them using Flickroid, which is a nice alternative to carrying my camera around all day. Forcing myself to take a picture a day will make me more observant, I think.
Rules for my 365 challenge are:
I won’t post photos here every day because sometimes they sit on my camera for a bit before I get around to editing them. However, they have been taken and they will end up here eventually!
Speaking of which, here are this week’s winners:
Day 1 (January 1)
[flickr]5337129623[/flickr]
Day 2
[flickr]5321856405[/flickr]
Day 3
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Day 4
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Day 5
[flickr]5329706006[/flickr]
Day 6
[flickr]5337210235[/flickr]
Day 7
[flickr]5337823422[/flickr]
Here’s to the pace!
What goals are you setting for yourself this year?
Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, Ray Moss, et al ↩
For the record, I can run a seven minute mile…but only for one mile ↩
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2010/11/16/10091537.aspx ↩
Every year I collect quotes in the “Favorite Quotations” section of my Facebook profile. I feel that every year has a theme, which make the quotes of that year somewhat reflective of who I am and what I learned. For me, these quotes — these snipets of ideas — serve to inspire, and remind, and educate:
“… when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Author Unknown
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough” – Mario Andretti
“Whatever makes you nervous” – Michael Jordan in response to what he bets when he plays golf
“Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietum Servitium.” – The Palatine of Posen
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them; disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones – we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple
“When I became a man I put away childish things including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” – CS Lewis
“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
“I would hope that everyone in every profession would take the time to ask themselves on a regular basis one question: Do I tolerate mediocrity? And if the answer to that question is yes, then the next question obviously is: Why? For if we are to have integrity we must answer that question well and not tolerate excuses or half measures. We must lead our lives in an exemplary fashion, offering ourselves a constant, persistent challenge to excel.” – Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger
“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Arthur Conan Doyle
One or more nights were spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Roughly in order of appearance.
Seattle, Washington*
Miami, Florida
Passe Catabois, Haiti
Cap Haitian, Haiti
Boca Raton, Florida
Quilcene, Washington
Leavenworth, Washington
Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
Wenatchee, Washington
Broomfield, Colorado
White Salmon, Washington
Mount Baker, Washington
Gig Harbor, Washington
Hansville, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
I added one new state, Florida, and one new country, Haiti. For comparison, here’s the list for 2009.
Sorry I’m a bit tardy getting this one out. However, it’s still that time of year again! I’ve collected the data, crunched the numbers, and have now published the data for Andrew Ferguson dot NET 2010. As always, these stats mean practically nothing. They are fun (and at time, amusing) to look at, that’s it. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
Top Ten Search Terms for 2010
| WordPress Stats | Google Analytics |
|---|---|
| countdown timer | countdown timer |
| stevie starr | stevie starr |
| how to tie a tie | andrew ferguson |
| how to do a tie | add_meta_box |
| mafalda comics | blockquote cite |
| press pass | awesome things to say |
| andrew ferguson | boeing internships |
| add_meta_box | count down timer |
| blockquote cite | how to do a tie |
| double windsor | seattle accent |
Top Ten Referring Sites for 2010 (by domain)1:
Top Ten Operating Systems for 20102:
Top Five Web Browsers for 20103:
Top Ten Posts for 20104:
Page Views for 2010:
Page views: 223,8687 or 224,0198 or 1,771,714 910
Absolute unique visitors: 154,86511
Posts: 131
Comments by me: 112
Comments not by me: 339
Top Ten Commenters for 2010:
1. Kimmi
2. Ben
2. Amelie
2. Staples
5. Auntie Wendy
6. Grandma Jo
7. Audrey
7. Bryce
7. Carly
7. Nathan Woodward
7. Liz
7. James
Pictures (and video) taken: 5504 (54.3 GB)
Photos (and video) added to Flickr: 1627
Music Interests:
Any other stats people would like to know?
as measured by Google Analytics for the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by Google Analytics for the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by Google Analytics for the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by WordPress.com on the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by AWStats for the entire andrewferguson.net domain ↩
traffic viewed, which does not include “traffic generated by robots, worms, or replies with special HTTP status codes.” ↩
as measured by WordPress.com on the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by Google Analytics for the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
as measured by AWStats for the entire andrewferguson.net domain ↩
traffic viewed, which does not include “traffic generated by robots, worms, or replies with special HTTP status codes.” ↩
as measured by Google Analytics for the andrewferguson.net blog ↩
[flickr]5292043227[/flickr]
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year if I don’t get around to making another post before the end of the year.
Back In The Day™ I went to college with a kid named Lance Atkins. We shared many interests, including eating spaghetti every other Wednesday night. We were also lab partners in Machine Design, “an introduction to the principles of mechanical design [where m]ethods for determining static, fatigue and surface failure are presented.”1 We had fun. And we then we graduated. Lance declared his retirement from engineering and then went off to go fly planes — which I find interesting considering I work for an aerospace company and which Lance blames on Top Gun.
Then Lance had a crazy idea:
What do you want most? Start a business? That pretty girl on the subway? Ride a wild ostrich? Believe you want it and do it. We promise, the freedom is wonderful.
As Lance noted though, “…There is one caveat to your dreams, though. You have to risk that which you fear most: failure. So we set before you our risk. We have been working so, so hard to perfection. There are jobs that have been quit, money invested, and a few cuts and criticisms along the way.”2
And thus was born BlackBox Case, a better, stronger kind of protection for MacBooks, and “a product of curiosity, experimenting, and the hard work and obsession of some friends.”3
Andrew: First things first, I remember a very distinct comment from you the day after graduation where you declared that you had retired from engineering (having just graduated with a Bachelors in Engineering, Mechanical Specialty). Does this mean you’ve come out of retirement?
Lance: Aha! You may have caught me… I definitely am using my engineering skills. I’ve always been a builder, so I guess Blackbox Case is a natural extension of that. I enjoy that I get to be an artisan, craftsman and businessman, as well as engineer. Variety is the spice of life, you know.
There have been a variety of cases for MacBooks: neoprene sleeves, hard-shell plastic coverings, shoulder backs. Your case seems pretty unique, though maybe not the first to use wood; what was the motivation to create a different kind of case and what sets this case apart from the rest?
My laptops have always had a rough life. I just hated how they would get abused and develop cracks after a year of traveling around in a backpack. So I guess the idea started with a hardshell case that could isolate the laptop from that compression abuse. The next priorities were light weight and aesthetics. I checked into many materials, costs, and even did some finite element analysis to calculate what it would take to protect a computer from everyday life. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by wood, specifically oak, and it’s perfect properties. It’s stiff, light, and hard but not brittle. As a bonus, it’s pretty darn cool looking.
Is this case just for show or does it actually provide protection? What happens if I drop the case with my MacBook inside?
I’ve already talked about the “crush” protection it provides in a bag. We also expect a MacBook to survive a drop much better inside of a Blackbox Case. The case may be harmed, but a bicycle helmet breaks to protect your head, too.
Right now, the only way to get a BlackBox Case is through BlackBoxCase.com. Do you have plans to expand your distribution channels? Might we see the BlackBox in the Apple Store (online or brick and mortar)?
For now, we will sell only online. We may go retail in the future, but for now we are most concerned with turning out really amazing handmade MacBook Pro cases. We have a few tricks up our sleeve too. New products, new materials, you never know…
BlackBox Cases are currently made in Golden, Colorado, which I’m sure has an effect on the price. Will BlackBox Cases always be made in America?
Yep. We wouldn’t have started it here if it won’t stay here. I love the idea of employing local and buying local. I love designing products and the smell of sawdust, so I think we shall keep it that way.
15 Percent, that’s an awesome idea, one which I really like…almost more than the case itself. Tell us a little more about 15 Percent and what you hope to accomplish with it?
I think giving is, for me, a great way to let go of something I hold onto too tightly. It has the opportunity to do some creative good in this world too. We are challenging everyone to give us feedback about where the money should go, because we want this to be a community effort. What do I hope to accomplish? If we are to dream big, I want to give away $100,000. I don’t know where yet, that’s where you readers come in. I’ve done a lot of studying on the side effects of big money donation, so we seek to give to programs that are set up with wisdom and sustainability. Maybe you know someone who needs a hand up?4
Who else is on Team BlackBox? What’s their story?
My main man is Anthony. He was formerly a professional hardwood floor guy. He’s the chief of production. Austin used to work construction and is a web developer. We have also teamed up with some old friends to make this happen. Evan is a graphic designer, Mike is a business guru, and AK is a videographer. I have been really surprised at all the help and counsel we have gotten from other people. They’re coming out of the woodwork! (pun?) We’re having fun and learning a thousand things a day.
Oh, awesome — I love Anthony, he’s a good guy! Lance, thanks so much for sharing about BlackBox Cases, hopefully I can stop by next time I’m in town (some guy I know is getting married). And while I don’t have a MacBook (yet), you can bet I’ll be talking with you when I do get one.
