What Makes Me Happy

My nieces are amazingly cute, I think.

No.

Wait.

I think that's objective.

My nieces are amazingly cute.

Ellie is now at a point where she can actually hold a conversation with me, which is awesome, and Cara, while not quite there yet, is a master of the call and response uttering, listening, responding, and so forth.

And while this, in general, makes me happy, I had a recent conversation that I found to be particularly hopeful.

It was shortly after the election, and I was talking with Ellie, and asking her if she had heard about the election - did they talk about it at her school? She said yes, and we talked a little bit about how Obama was our new president.

Adrianne had told me that her teacher had explained that this was a big deal because he was our first African American president, and, more than that, the first time that a minority was in such a visible position of power. Blah, blah, blah. So I asked Ellie about this, and in her kid-like agreeability, she affirmed all the things I was saying about how important that was, and what a big deal this was for society.

"Uh huh."

But it was in talking to 3-year-old Ellie and understanding that she didn't really grasp the gravity of what had just happened, that I found the most poignant reason for feeling hopeful: realizing that she was part of a generation that would grow up to accept the concept of a black man running for, and winning, presidency of the United States, as common, the simple reality that they've grown up with and accepted as life.

I just really think that's inspiring. Thanks, Ellie. I can't wait to watch the steps your generation takes to help move the world forward with open minds, open arms, into a wide-open future of possibility.

Spa Treatment!

So one of the clients I work with doesn't have that much money - so I only do a little bit of work for her here and there when she gets paid. Usually at some point near the end of the month with her saying that she has x amount and was hoping I could so y and z. And she's a wonderful woman, so I always say yes, even if it's below my normal rates. I've got a soft spot for good people, I suppose.

Anyway - recently she said that, since she knows she underpays me a lot of the time, it was the least she could do to give me an hour at the spa she worked at with the person who was, in her opinion, the best there… so we booked a day - which happened to be today, and I went out there to have my massage. Tip was included… so I just had to show up, and relax.

Very nice.

So I get there, and the woman (my masseur) has me strip down and get under this blanket (so I'm covered - nothing sketchy, guys) and begins giving me my 45 minute head-to-foot massage.

Now, I've both given and received a lot of massages in my life - and when I think of massages, I think of kneading out knots, hitting pressure points, lots of hard pushing and pounding (well, not pounding, but you know what I mean). And this was far from that. In fact, there were time when I wished I was being handled a little more firmly - but she spent a lot of time just kind of running her hands over my back, arms, legs, etc. Some massaging, sure - but a lot of it was more just comforting, rather than satisfying, if it makes sense to use those words.

I don't know. Maybe this is not a typical massage - but, as I was lying there, feeling her hands gently on my back - what it made me think of… esp. because I was under a blanket, was getting tucked in at night as a little kid. You know? Your mom tucks you in, says good night, and, perhaps, runs her hand along your back as she walks away. As I said: comforting.

And I wonder - if this is other people's experience, is that the point? Is the point of a massage not really about getting your body worked - but about just feeling that sense of "I'm in your hands, take care of me…" that bring us back to feeling secure in the wombs of our childhood beds?

Just throwing that out there.

Here's to hoping

This is the latest entry that I wrote for the PeachyHost Blog.

As my last post commemorated, November 7th was PeachyHost's official launch date. On the 9th or so, I talked with a good friend of mine and told her, "So… guess how many sites we have on PeachyHost?"

She thought for a minute and ventured, "100?"

"Nope," I replied, coyly… "zero!"

And we both had a laugh.

But I was only laughing on the outside. Inside I was thinking, "I gotta start pounding some pavement, and getting the word out, because clearly, the word isn't running all over town by itself. It's much too modest."

So the next day, Keith, Nam, and I made a concerted effort to start hitting up people we knew and really spreading the word in a contagious way. By the 11th, we had our first official customer, and are proud to be hosting Thymos.org, a northwest-based Asian American Activism organization. Byron Wong, who writes his own blog, the Big WOWO, focusing on Asian American Activism and Intellectualism, was the first of our friends to get his act together and get his site completely transferred over to us. Thank you Byron, and thank you Thymos.

Several other of our friends and family are in the process of transferring their sites, and we are happily awaiting the opportunity to help them along in this process.

I'm sure that, at some point, all of these technical motions will become mundane, but for now we are savoring every moment of each transfer while we plant the seeds and water the roots of PeachyHost. I'm excited to see the list of sites hosting on PeachyHost grow, and proud to be able to deliver honest and open service to them.

Which brings me to what I really wanted to talk about in this post… and that is the principles upon which PeachyHost was founded. "They" (whoever they are) say that brands and names need to be heard a certain number of times before people will remember them in any sort of meaningful way. I'm sure that the mission, vision, and passion behind an organization also has to be voiced multiple times for them to be apparent as well. And I will be the first to say that I rarely read all the small print - so if a company wants to get something across to me, they better hit me with the big.

So with that as a disclamatory preamble, I am resolute in talking about PeachyHost as, not only a wonderful collaboration of friends (and not just Keith, Nam, and myself, but also Byron and anyone else who wants to join in and Peachy-Power their sites), but as a company that is curious to find out how a company that is open and, more importantly, honest, can fare in a society and an age that is becoming more and more technologically and informationally savvy.

A good friend of mine asked me today about the specs on our plan, and pointed out that 5GB of space wasn't as much as some other hosting sites will promise for comparable prices. And this is true, I told her - she had done her research in terms of what plans advertised well. BUT, as Keith aptly pointed out, "those jokers will shut you down long before you use that allowance."

The idea is this: most people don't use more than 5GB of space, and that is precisely what some other hosting sites bank on when they advertise their specs. And I've heard many a horror story of people who approached their quota and were shut down because at the specs that were promised, it's not actually worth it for the companies.

To make sure I could back this premise up, we did only a quick search and found these:
http://corlan.org/2008/10/13/my-nightmare-monday-thanks-to-godaddy/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-fendelman/why-i-dont-owe-godaddy-65_b_129276.html

The second story was picked up by consumerist and discussed here:
http://consumerist.com/5056063/perhaps-you-dont-owe-godaddy-6579

These companies hope to make money on a false sense of "value" since they sell you things they hope you won't use.

PeachyHost is a reaction to that kind of business model, and we hope to "fight the good fight" so-to-speak, and be straight-up about what you will get for each penny you invest in your company and in your website.

If you need more space then we've allotted in our initial plans, then talk to us, and we will work out something fair. If you purchase an initial plan and start to find out six months down the road that you've grown and need more of everything - that's fine too. We will not shut you down when your usage increases. We will simply contact you and figure out what kind of plan would now suit your bigger business.

This is the first of, I'm sure, many iterations of this ideal. But I think it's important to get across. PeachyHost is not simply trying to provide a cheap alternative to already cheap alternatives. And you should not join up with us just because we are a smaller company that won't have over-saturated servers.

PeachyHost is a reaction to slimy business practices, and an attempt to bring honesty to that invisible hand that runs a capitalist market. Because while the best man may not always win… wouldn't it be nice to hope that he could?

Raise a glass, or pick a peach. But here's a toast to hoping.

And the rich get richer…

There's a saying, right - something like: Life is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Well, fine. I know what that saying is saying… but I think that life, from the point of perspective, is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration. This is not to say that you don't have to work to keep perspective - but that in keeping a positive perspective (inspiration), you can be a lot happier without having to quantitatively change anything…

Example.

I do a lot of stupid shit. I don't even know where to begin talking about what kinds of stupid shit I do - but I feel like I do a lot… all the time. Take the case of forgetting to pay a bill and getting slammed with a $35 late fee for a $10 balance.

Now. Someone with the wrong perspective might be really upset by this… thinking - How the hell is it right that my bill should increase by 350% just because I was late paying it? And that someone would be mad.

I, on the other hand, prefer to take this in stride and say: that was my stupid tax. I should have paid my bill, but I didn't because I'm stupid. So life taxed me.

And because I'm socially liberal and believe in the good of all people, even at the expense of the individual, I always gladly pay taxes. So this is no problem.

Another example.

On a date last year at an outdoor bar in Union Square, I was sitting across from this girl, drinking margaritas. She was soooo pretty. Soooo pretty, I just let her talk. And talk and talk and talk… and it didn't matter. I was just stoked that she was talking at me. And she was talking at me. I was mesmerized by soft, red, lips, and intoxicated (literally) by tequila. And I can vaguely remember hearing, in the heat of the moment, something clatter near my feet… but didn't think much of it. I didn't want to break my own trance…

Anyway - she closed the place down, and, after walking her home (not even getting a kiss goodnight!), I made my way to the subway… and reached for my iPod, which normally hangs from around my neck.

And realized just what that clattering was…

Long story short - I went back to where we had had drinks, jumped the fence (because it was closed) had a run in with a cop who seemed dubious that I was just looking for an iPod… and, after some fast-talking and earnest pleas, went home in-and-with silence.

The next day, I bought myself a new iPod for a couple hundred dollars, and chalked it up to my being-a-boy tax. And… if I am to believe what all my female friends say about boys - this is the same as, yes, a stupid tax.

Anyway.

Now that I have moved up in society to my swanky Wall Street abode, I would be happy to pay a graduated stupid-tax. And sometimes I do. I bought some jeans the other day, for example, because they were on sale for $30. I then brought those jeans into the local tailor, and when I picked them up, was asked for the $40 hem fee…

Next time I'll just buy the jeans that fit in the first place, even if they are twice as much. I'll still come out ahead, and it will probably be more stylish(!)…

But the tax isn't actually graduated, outside of a few isolated examples, like the one recounted above - because within the warm walls of 63 Wall Street, I am "safe." Whereas I've forgotten countless things around New York, returning minutes later to find them gone… here on Wall Street nothing is ever taken by lucky opportunists. Laundry cards with $50 on them can routinely be found sticking out of the machines they were last used in - and people just leave them for the rightful owner to retrieve at their convenience.

I left my iPod in our building's gym this morning ALL DAY, and came back to find it still at the same machine I had used earlier… By all means, I felt like I should be buying myself one of the new nano-chromatics. But instead I can use that money on margaritas.

In the laundry room, I was loading in a machine, when an older woman came up to me and asked if it was safe to leave the laundry in the machine and come back when it was done, or if she should wait while it went. I kind of laughed and told her no one was going to take anything. She shook her head and said, "This is so weird. I am visiting my daughter, so I don't know these systems - but where I am from, there is no way I could just leave something."

I just smiled, patted her on the back, and said, "Welcome to Wall Street, where the rich get richer, and no one pays stupid-taxes."

Yes, and…

So this past Saturday I went to my first in a series of eight improv classes… classes that normally would cost over $300, but that I get to take for free because my friend Jessi is completely awesome and won them in a raffle, and then gave them to me.

In-as-much as the class is geared toward teaching us how to interact in spontaneous ways to create comedic sketches, the things we learn about, and perhaps, I guess, out of necessity, teach us to listen and respond in ways that affirmatively move dialogue and plot forward. To this end, one of our main exercises was doing three line exchanges with a partner. It worked like this:

Two people stand up (just first to stand get to do it - but the unspoken rule is that no one goes twice until everyone has gone once) and take the stage.

Someone (anyone) yells out something (anything). Could be "outer space" or "shovels" or "scared."

The two people on stage then take turns taking that idea somewhere in three lines.

The point is not to be funny - but simply to respond in a logical, affirmative way (no questions because it puts all the creative onus on your partner!), building on what the other person gives:

A) Wow. These shovels sure are dirty!

B) Yes. These shovels are dirty. And the dirt is awfully stinky.

A) Yes. It is stinky. And I think I see the pile of shit that is to blame!

It was a really fun time… and I'm looking forward to my next class…

If Only

I was talking to my buddy Keith, with whom I'm starting up PeachyHost.com with, and we were just kind of talking about entrepreneurship in general and, in particular, all those things that you totally could have done yourself if only you'd thought of it.

Jackson Pollock is a great example of this. Everyone looks at his artwork and says, "Well, gee whiz… I can do that!"

I just did a quick search for a link to job your memory - but, you know, amazingly, I couldn't find one that had some good high quality renditions of his famously splattered paintings. You can read about him on wikipedia, or, better yet, click here to have your own Jackson Pollock experience (just click your mouse to change colors). Kinda fun. Get those screen shot keys ready and you can make your own artsy screen-saver.

Anyway - the example that we got caught up on, since it also had its roots on the web, was the Million Dollar Homepage. The basic premise was that this guy, Alex Tew, 21-years-old, made a homepage that hosted an image, 1000 pixels by 1000 pixels (one million pixels total). For the price of only $1/pixel, you could buy space on his page to advertise. Because he got so much attention - people went to the site - and people wanted to get their name on it.

Well, gee whiz… a page with a one million pixel image? I can do that!

Of course that's not the point. He had the idea - and it was worth one-million dollars.

PeachyHost.com

Hey guys - I just posted a blog for a company I'm starting up with a couple friends - it's supposed to document the experience - you can check it out here. Even though it's a blog for PeachyHost.com (a site that, if you click that link will still be in early stages of construction) it'll give you a pretty good update on a project that's been taking up a fair amount of my time… and I really do intend to write more up here soon… not just one-liner links to other sites… :)

Roaming Teaser…

I finally finished up shooting Roaming… the movie that I included some stills from a couple posts back. I have a trailer up on my website… you can check it out here! Enjoy!

New Website Launch

Just a heads up that I just finished up re-designing Sight Sound and Sentiment! Come check it out!

Another School Year

So I just started up another school year… still in New York, still at NYU… and, because it's my degree, still focusing a lot on Music Technology.

I'm pretty excited about a website I just put up for a company I started called, Sight, Sound, and Sentiment. I'm hoping that I can use it like a digital business card accessible to anyone who wants to see the work I do.

I've also started doing a lot more with film, like from behind the camera. I just bought a Panasonic DVX 100B and have been playing around with that. Most recently, I finished up a short film called Roaming, written by Steve Burton. Now I'm working on a short(er) teaser for it, and he is planning on submitting it in festivals.

I've also been doing some projects for myself. This summer, I entered this Tea Commercial into a contest. I didn't win, but it was fun. The handsome devil in it is my dad! I'm also finishing up a screenplay that I hope to shoot later this winter that I'm sure I'll post up here when it's done.

Still doing music as well… most of my more recent (as in, from the past few years) stuff is up on the sound page of my website. I'm hoping to continue updating that site more frequently than I remember to blog!

I'll leave you with a couple stills from Roaming…

Long time comin'…

Sooo… with the best intentions to write up here once a month, I’ve forgotten for the past few. My bad.

In any case, I’ll give a quick update. First… I’m finally happy with my abode. I brought back my electric and bass guitars to keep my acoustic company… and have been getting lovely artwork from Ellie to make me smile. So, for anyone who’s curious:



So that’s that.

I’ve been working a lot doing some audio recording and video production for online video tutorials for a company called Finney Learning Systems. The bulk of the videos I worked on are on their Excel page, and the videos all come complete with cheesy music I wrote (aesthetically guided by my boss – so don’t judge the style!). I also did some of the coding for the site but the bulk of its architecture was done by a real programmer.

Outside my work there, I’ve also been keeping busy with sound design for films/music and have even started getting to the point where I get a lot of offers for paid gigs, which is really sweet. With any luck, I'll be putting together a website with some examples of some of this sound stuff, which will, no doubt, be up here too.

As for school – I just wrapped up another semester. I took a class on music editing for film from Tim Starnes which was really fun, and am gearing up for some intense classes on live recording this summer.

I’m also going to be in the city for most of this summer (though I’ll be back on the west coast during July) so I’ll finally get to do all the fun summer things I haven’t gotten to do yet. I think it would be funny if I ran into my friend, the exotic dancer. Maybe I’ll spy her from across the way, smiling and laughing with all the new friends she made…

Aaaanyway - to continue with my commitment to including as many visuals as I can on each post - I'll leave with you with an image I did for this video production company that's starting up. I got hired on to do sound work, and then randomly got to talking about photoshop and then they asked me to make them an image… so this is it… keep an eye out for it :).

Happy Birthday Ellie!!!

Ellie turned 3-years-old yesterday! Yay for Ellie!


To celebrate, I hopped on a plane and flew from London to New York, so that I could be a little bit closer to her (and also in a country where my cell phone worked) to call and wish her a happy birthday!

Before that, I'd been in London for two weeks, taking an intensive course on Global Music Management: a class in the music business department that looked at how music companies expand internationally. The course was interesting, and we got to meet (as guest lecturers) Alan Ridgeway, the CEO of International Business at LiveNation, Julia Jones, the woman who started the (now international) BritBus tour, and Keith Jopling, a music and media consultant, currently working with Guy Hughes, CEO of the EMI record label. We even went to a few required rock shows and were given $50 gift cards to HMV so that we could get international music!

I also had a fair amount of time to sightsee (check out the pics below)… it was a really fun time… a great way to start the new year… and enough to make me think about perhaps moving out there one day (although in London, I think I’d found one of a few cities in the world that was more expensive than New York).

Happy 2008 to you all!

xo

The Crave - the best band I saw while I was out there. Going to rock shows was part of class!!!

Tower Bridge

The Eye

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery

Inside the Windsor Castle

Stonehenge!