Brad Barrish

Thanks to Om for pointing me to Mobster. I'm always interested in programs that take pay attention to music I am listening to, and based on data it collects from other sources (be they people or collaborative filtering engines), tells me what else I should check out. I don't know why there aren't better recommendation engines for web sites to use. I'm talking about the music variety here, but it could extend out as more people listen to or watch streaming media. At this point there are quite a few more people listening to music on their computer than there are people watching TV shows or movies on their computers.

I have a flickr pro account to give away. I would prefer to give it to someone with an established free account or someone that will use it. Justify yourself in the comments and I'll pick the winning plea. If you are a current flickr user, make sure you leave your account name so I can find you.

Adaptive Path is pretty much THE company when it comes to Information Architecture (IA). As I've been settling into my new job, I've been reading more technology-centric stuff. The CEO of Adaptive Path wrote an extremely inspiring (and validating) essay on the future of the Internet.

For five years we’ve been working to refine what we know, and rest a bit after the madness of the nineties. And now we’re ready to dive in again — wiser, perhaps, but no less captivated by invention than we were ten years ago. Sure, everyone is excited by Google Satellite Maps and Yahoo’s acquisition of Flickr, but it goes beyond that.

Catching up and getting back in the game is really exciting. Since I left my last job and consulted for the past year doing Mac stuff, I had a lot of time to think about the future of the Internet and I couldn't agree more with what Ms. Fraser had to say. These are inspirational times. People that were burned out after the late 90s are starting to appear again. It's all a big ripple effect and it feels great to be involved again.

It's easy to miss my del.icio.us bookmarks at the bottom right of the screen (scroll down all the way), so I just wanted to give a few of my favorite new places a spotlight.

Audio Arsenal is a new weblog that collects links to free MP3s, ring tones, videos and everything in between. It's just getting started, but it promises to be a cool new daily visit for me.

oyayubizoku is the weblog of Jason Fields, a long-time buddy of mine from back in the day. His whole blog centers around all things digital and pretty.

LiveModern has proved to be an amazing resource for A and I. We're not quite ready to build, but we're going to be buying a house in the near future. Our plans are to live in the house for a year, save some money, wreck the house and build an amazing prefab.

It's always gratifying when you set goals or determiations and are able to reach them. Long before I read Conversations With God, I made a habit of writing down goals every once in a while. I'm too lazy to look up the exact quote, but in the book it mentioned something about setting goals, writing them down, saying them out loud and thinking about them. It went on to say that if you follow these steps, you can make anything happen. It's very similar to what we are taught as Buddhists, and it's very true. There's nothing magical about it, though it can seem a bit magical when you see the results. I don't mean to suggest that you have to be religious or spiritual to make things happen in your life. You don't, but faith plays a big part in it. Faith in yourself and faith in the law of cause and effect. It doesn't take much time to write these kinds of things down. I keep a small Molskine notebook around to scibble these kinds of things in. I go back and review them every once in a while and literally read them out loud. There is very little in my life that I have not been able to make happen. And those things that have not yet happened, they will. I'm a little impatient, but patience seems to come with age and I'm only getting older.

According to a Financial Times article labels are looking to raise the price of digital downloads. I happen to be of the opinion that the $0.99/$9.99 pricing scheme is the sweet spot. I still purchase CDs in stores, but I also download quite a bit as well. I'm just barely comfortable not having the physical product and all of the limits that come with music files that contain DRM. If they decide to raise prices, I probably will buy more CDs in stores and download even less. While I have somewhat of a moral objection to illegally downloading music (without purchasing it somewhere else), I'm sure raising prices would push a lot of people over the edge and music piracy would again be on the rise. I sure wish the labels would stop being so damn greedy.

I'm a taken man, but if I weren't I would likely hang this on my wall and read it like it was the bible. It's a damn funny read even if you aren't looking around.

We were having a conversation about the fact that the guy that Elizabeth had started dating a week ago wasn't for her. She was explaining that he was really nice, but that he was pretty different from her. Actually, she made it abundantly clear that he was very different from her. During a conversation with our cousin Laurel earlier that afternoon, she used some form of 'he's really different from me' many, many times.

"So how is your dating life going?" Laurel inquired.

Elizabeth shoots me a polite smile that says, 'Don't say a fucking word. Just keep your mouth shut while I paint a rosy picture of Daniel. Just humor me, okay?'

"I just started dating this really nice guy," she says.

"Oh, do tell!"

"Well, he's Jewish, a doctor..."

"What kind of doctor?"

"He's a pediatrician and also practices internal medicine."

Elizabeth would know. After the night of their first date, she called him about a rash that had developed overnight. She also proceeded to ask him about a few other things that were ailing her, asked if he could write her a prescription for Xanax. Xanax... Yes, she probably needed that the most.

"He also started a hospital in Mexico for poor people," she said nonchalantly and smiled (at me).

"Wow, this guys sounds really cool. Do you like him?"

"Yeah. He's really nice, but we're pretty different. He's not as materialistic as I am and I think that could be a problem."

I started laughing.

"Shut up, Jeremy."

"What?!!"

Laurel just smiles.

"He's just... He's cheap, okay? He wears these awful chinos and button-down shirts to work. He looks kinda like a slob. Oh, and his house is a mess. Well... It's not really a mess, but it's not very neat. He's a doctor. He should get a cleaning lady. He's just not as neat as I am."

Laurel is just staring at Elizabeth, emotionless.

"So, what do you guys have in common?" I ask.

"We... I've talked to him on the phone quite a bit. He's really nice, but we're different. His car is kinda gross."

"Well, he probably thinks your car is gross."

She drives a pimped-out Cadillac Escalade with 24" wheels and chrome rims.

"Actually, he was a little freaked out about my car."

"Sounds like he's pretty different."

She turns back to face Laurel.

"He's nice, but we are different. He reminds me of Jeremy and dad. He's very caring and sweet. He cares a lot about people."

"What, and you aren't caring?" I shoot back.

"I care, Jeremy. I just think he's a little more caring and nice. He's a doctor! You have to care if you're a doctor. We're just not exactly in line, if you know what I mean."

"You mean you guys are different."

"Right."

"How many times have you gone out with him?" Laurel asks.

"I went out with him a few times. We had such an amazing time last Saturday. We literally stayed awake all night and talked after an amazing dinner. I called him the next day and he asked about getting together for lunch the next day. He invited me over to his house and had cooked me my favorite dish for lunch. Can you believe that?"

"Wow, that's so wonderful. He sounds like a very sweet guy."

"He is, but I think he might be too nice."

"Yeah, god forbid someone treat you well, Liz," I slip in.

"Shut up, Jeremy."

Laurel smiles politely.

"Well, I hope you guys work out. He sounds like a very interesting guy."

"You know what I think?" I say. "I think he's a fantastic guy and you're afraid of liking someone that's not only smart and is going to treat you well, but you're going to judge him by his outside."

"Jeremy, would you date a girl who wore $20 jeans?"

"Where do you get $20 jeans?" Laurel inquires.

"He buys his jeans at Sears. They are the store brand or something."

"What?"

"I dunno. They say Sears on them."

"Wait, you actually looked?" I say.

"Yes!"

"You're terrible," Laurel says as we all laugh.

"Look, we just spend our money on different things."

Hours after this conversation takes place, the family and a few friends gather in the living room for some post-party conversation. Brandy's phone rings. She sounds very excited and her voice goes up a couple of octaves.

"Oh, that's so sweet..." She says into the phone.

"I'm..."

"Yes, that sounds like fun," as she rolls her eyes to us.

"I think I am just going to stay around here with the family."

"Thank you for inviting me though."

"Yes"

"Okay, bye."

Obviously it was Daniel.

"You should just cut him lose," mom says.

"What's you're problem, mom? You don't even know him. He's really nice."

"Liz, if you say 'he's nice' or 'he's different' one more time, I'm going to call him for you. During that short conversation we had with Laurel, you said something like that at least 10 times," I say.

She smiles and starts playing with her phone.

"Well, he is different than me! He wears cheap clothes, doesn't drive a very nice car and his house is kinda messy."

"He probably has bad hygiene too," Brett says.

Elizabeth thinks about this for a minute. She clearly hadn't taken it this far in her head. A peak inside her brain would reveal the following line of logic:

He's a nice guy. Real nice. This is very suspect and starts her thinking that perhaps there is something wrong with him. He doesn't dress very well, which means he doesn't care. The fact that his house isn't ready for an Architectural Digest photo shoot further feeds this line of thought. The car... We mustnt forget about the car. The car generally says a lot about a guy and his is American. So you see, because he clearly doesn't care about his outward appearance, but is so caught up in taking care of other people, he probably neglects himself in ways that she hasn't seen yet.

"Have you seen his cock?" Brett asks very seriously.

The entire room laughs.

"NO!"

Mom gets up to leave the room.

"Well, expect a jungle when you do."

"Brett!!"

"Well, anyone that wears $20 jeans, doesn't shave down there."

Shayna showed the way to a magnificent short film in honor of the late Jim Henson.

With as much rain as we've been getting, I seem to need a little extra sunshine these days. I can always count on the Venice boardwalk to provide some entertainment. These breakdancers were great. Between you and me, I used to breakdance. My brother and I took lessons. Joe Nackman and I would dress up in our breakdancing outfits and bust moves at parties and stuff. I think photos exist somewhere.