icilabas

The Power of Now & The Joy of #Squash

This footnote from James Zug’s book, Squash, A History of the Game, shares the “power of now,” quoting an English gentleman from the 1800’s:

“He feels neither the past nor the future in the instant. Debts, taxes, domestic treason, foreign levy, nothing can touch him further. He has no other wish, no other thought, from the moment the game begins, but that of striking the ball, placing it, of making it.”

Heads Up!

Stretching the truth around the world.

howdoirelate:

Sooner than you think. #edcmooc

Utopia or distopia? In 1996, we were working on a regional ad campaign for Ericsson cell phones in Asia. Our client wanted us to think big. I wrote the brief and Tony Redman and his creative teams at Batey in Singapore blew our minds!

The cell phone was fairly low in penetration, so we sought to promote it’s benefits, like being able to call in from a roadside accident. How can it help me now? This was a graphic campaign by Mark Ringer and Scott Lambert.

The other part of the brief was to project the future. Here, Redman’s genius went to work.

Imagine you have a small patch sitting quietly on your forehead. The mobile phone of the future.

It allows you to communicate telepathically.

Example: you are thousands of miles from your lover. In a taxi. You hear an old song on the radio.

The song you heard when you first met.

Imagine you could send your love what your’re hearing.

You want to send it now. Instantly.

Well then, just think of her. And you’re connected.

You can share the moment because you are communicating on brainwaves. Thoughts. Telepathy.

On those brainwaves you can send not only music. But feelings. The touch of a hand. Dreams. Perfume.

Sound far-fetched?

That’s what people thought when we invented the car phone in 1901.

Ericsson
Sooner than you think

It scared the sh__ out of the client!

And, now, looking back almost 17 years, I can relate to this because our EDCMOOC is touching on the subjects of utopias, distopias, role of technology in our lives, in education, …

This Coursera course is fantastic.

Squash Survey

Time to take a look, again, at the ongoing Urtak survey about squash, now with almost 22,000 opinions to over 150 questions. Links below are to questions and real time results (with data as of 4/2/2013 noted next to the selected questions). This survey is shared with squash players through facebook, blogs, email, and other channels.

Most cared - 100% care to answer
Do you cheat? 4% yes, 96% no
Are you addicted to squash? 81% yes, 19% no
Do you play 3 or more times a week? 75% yes, 25% no

Most agreed
Is it sweet to beat someone who beat you? 100% yes
Do you enjoy watching pros play squash? 98% yes, 2% no
Have you ever taken performance enhancing drugs? 2% yes, 98% no

Most divided
Are you supporting urban squash program developments? 51% yes, 49% no
Are you very verbal on the squash court? 50% yes, 50% no
Do you volunteer to work for your local squash assn? 51% yes, 49% no

Special Subject - Injuries
Is it common to share squash injury stories? 73% yes, 27% no
Do you enjoy the feeling of pain after you play squash? 65% yes, 35% no
Do you stretch before you play? 63% yes, 37% no

Please add your questions and opinions to the ongoing survey about the greatest sport, the fairest game.

Squash Survey

“Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know, it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again you could be.”

“I Feel Bad About My Neck” by Nora Ephron

Mother nature and technology.

This photo was taken at our NYC apartment on November 1, 2012, at a gathering of friends from below 34th street. Due to Hurricane Sandy, they had no power in their homes, no hot water, dark streets, and dwindling battery power in their phones and computers. Friends brought over thawing food from home freezers, a few bottles, and great cooking skills. And, they voraciously plugged in.

Loss of technology can be good.

How long does it take to build an app?

How Long Does it Take to Build an App? infographic by Angelina.

The Curiously Intelligent Community Query Machine

The Urtak widget is a free new way to engage online communities (get data) and share real-time insights (knowledge). Go to urtak to create a poll, embed it on your site or invite people directly to your urtak poll url.

Urtak is better than traditional online surveys, like survey monkey and polldaddy.

1. Urtak is more fun for participants. With one simple question format, it’s addictive and entertaining to answer questions.

2. Urtak attracts and includes user questions, adding greater perspective than traditional one-way questioning.

3. Urtak reveals what communities care about most.

Anyone can create an Urtak and gather questions in an efficient and creative way. Participants enjoy answering a stream of questions, ask questions, and build a real-time encyclopedia of community opinions.

Yes. No. Don’t Care. It’s that easy to question your world. Create your own Urtaks.

I now have 41 Urtaks 1,962 Questions 102,815 Responses and am learning from others all the time. My favorite poll so far is:

Squash

“How to Write”

On September 7th, 1982, David Ogilvy sent the following internal to all agency employees, titled “How to Write.”

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They
are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the
recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

iphone photos - selects from April through June 2012

Pygmy marmosets

Salvador Dali calls his work “Magnificent and Monumental”

Some of Neal Gibralter’s work from a 1974 show in NYC.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Ira Glass (via nefffy)