Tools Are For Building

I just read a great post from Richard K. Miller about Apple’s OSX Leopard that is being released Friday, the 26th of October. He says:

I thought my strong interest in the new operating system was justified since I’m going to take the opportunity to replace my 4½ year old Titanium Powerbook with a new Leopard-powered notebook. But then I got thinking, it’s just a tool. Using a Mac isn’t my goal per se. I might as well get exciting about all the tools at Home Depot — and I do — but if I don’t build anything with them, they’re useless.

It is an interesting thought. A lot of my fellow students feel the same way about technology. They are known to say things along the lines of, “If I had a better camera, if I had a faster computer,” and so on. I met a bunch of students at Collins College a few months ago, and was really disappointed watching their reels. Many were short, and lacked good content, and when asked why, they responded that they haven’t been involved in that many projects. I couldn’t believe it. Why, if you are at film school, and you have all of the tools in the world, are you not out building a better reel?The problem I think is not knowing the tool.The thought needs to be different. Learn, the tool, and then use the tool.Richard says to:

Use whatever tools work best for you, but use tools to build something.

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Bloggers Are Dangerous

It’s true… To protect the kids on the street, here are a few of the telling signs.

There are some serious common misconceptions about Bloggers within the Enterprise.

Many company executives see bloggers almost as a roving band of gangsters. Forbes wrote about “Attack of the Blogs”.

It is all true. Bloggers even have gang hand signs. Sean Bonner, curator co-owner of the sixspace gallery came up with the original gang sign on September 23, 2005. Boing Boing covered the story, complete with the blog T-shirt war that followed. The poster above gives a more detailed view into the intricate workings of the blogger underworld.

Via Innovation Creations

A Quick Note…

Four things:

1.I drove through six counties in Utah today and there was snow falling in all of them. That my friends is awesome.

2. I got a new job working with my friend Ryan at BrideAccess.com. I am pretty pumped about the job. I will be doing some graphic design/web/editing/stuff. Sounds like it will be fun and low stress. That is what we all need right?

3. I interviewed the other day to pick up a small part time job working at Simmons Media Group, (the guys that own X96) to work locations at KALL 700. I would work all of the Utah football and basketball games, driving a new truck and run the BBQ. Sounds like fun to me.

4. Got an email the other day finally giving me the go ahead to start writing for LifeInTheOffice.com. It is a fansite for the office, and so far has been a lot of fun with the season premiere on Thursday.

That’s about all, until next time.

Principles and Guidelines for the Modern Photowalker

Saw this on Scoble’s Twitter page. Interesting notes on photography, and can really be applied to any passion. This was interesting.

9. Money spent on gear is almost always worth it. Yes, one downside to photography as a lifestyle is that it is ****ing expensive. And the more it begins to live inside you the more you begin to physically NEED that new 14mm ultrawide lens or that Hasselblad that you know you can’t afford but that you know would just look fabulous on you, etc. etc.

Spend the money. You’re making making art. Art is more important than money.

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Twittergrams

Scoble was down at the Facebook headquarters and was able to talk to them about why it was down. Apparently they where trying to push out some new features, and it brought the site down… Whoops. What is cool about Scoble, is he made a phone call, and immediately 4940 people knew the results. Cool technology. For more info, check out Twittergram here. All it takes is a simple setup, and you are ready to phone in. Updates show up in about 30 seconds.

The Tubing Mishap

Or how to utterly destroy your face…

Well, here is the long story with all the gory details…

Boating started out pretty normal Wednesday, the 18th of July. I jumped onto a boat that had been rented for the Management Retreat at Pirates Cove. We rode out, and prepared for a day of tubing, and wakeboarding. Two tubes where inflated and, and the first group got into the water. After going for a little while, we decided to have a line change, and the five that were in the water hopped into the boat, and the five of us that were in the boat hopped into the tube.

It started out great, we went left and right, we went up and down. We got moving pretty quick, and the tube that I was in, went right over the top of the other tube. At this time, the guy that was behind me cracked his forehead right into the back of my head. He fell off the tube, and into the water. I was pretty sore, but held on. The guy who fell out said that he was blacking out, and that he might have a concussion, so he hopped back into the boat, and another guy jumped back on. This time when we took off, it was with a little more speed then before. The boats speed climbed, and it planed out. My speed estimates where somewhere around 25-30 miles an hour.

This is when it got a little crazy

As we where flying down the water, the driver took us into a sharp left turn. In the tube we flew out to the right side of the wake, and then flipped over. At some point during this flip, I caught the knee, and hit knocked me bad. When I came up out of the water, I felt my teeth and could tell that I was in bad shape. I thought that I had lost a lot of teeth, but it turns out that wouldn’t happen for another week. I did however manage to somehow rip off half of my lower lip in the process too. There was a large gash running under my chin, and several small lacerations around my lip.

I hopped back into the boat, along with the other injured people. The dude whose knee I hit had a huge gash that was surely from my teeth. We rode into the marina, and waited at the dock for an ambulance to arrive.

When we arrived at the dock, the local Forest Rangers where contacted, and they proceeded to call for an ambulance. After a few minutes of waiting, I heard the sirens, and headed out of the boat. It turned out just to be the Rangers, but they where anxious to help. I had left the boat with no shoes or shirt, so, as can be imagined I was getting hot standing on the baking concrete of the boat ramp. They instructed me to go and sit on the dock.

While sitting there, I started to feel a little queasy, presumably from all of the blood that had gone down my throat, and I started throwing up all over the place. The Rangers thought that it was imperative that I have an IV placed to get some fluids back into my system. They placed the IV in my left are, and let it drip for a few minutes. It was quickly realized that it wasn’t dripping right, so they went after the the cause. At the same time I looked down to see a golfball sized bubble of saline solution in my arm… They decided to start over, this time on my right arm. After feeling the prick, and hearing them grimace, I looked to see my

right arm now covered in blood. They got it in, but not without letting me bleed all over Lake Mead. After nearly 45 minutes of waiting, a backboard showed up, and they decided to strap me in. My neck and back was felling fine, but I complied to there every request. In the process, the IV was ripped from my arm, thankfully permanently. The person who received the concussion, he and I where loaded into the same ambulance, and where taken to Henderson to the hospital.

It was at the hospital that I met some of the friendliest, most caring staff ever. The ER doctor quickly brought in a well qualified Plastic Surgeon who stitched me up great. In the process I did have to undergo what he called “Nerve Stoppers” which deadened the area around my lips.

I have never understood why it takes so much pain to heal something…
At this time some of the upper management where gracious enough to fly my wife down to be with me. It was very thoughtful, and I really appreciate it. The next day after seeing an oral surgeon in Vegas, we flew back to Utah. It was good to be back home.

This has been a really traumatic experience, and there has been a lot of people who have been by my side helping me every step of the way. It will be a long recovery, but true friends and family will stay by my side. Thank you to all that have helped, I appreciate it so much.

Jake

WordPress in Facebook?

Could life get better? I submit that it cannot… It has been a crazy week for me. For those that don’t know, I had a pretty serious accident last week involving my face, and Parker Harriss’s knee. I have a longer post coming that has all of the gory details. Maybe a few pictures too. Thanks to everyone that has called, emailed, and stopped by and offered help. I really appreciate it.