SpinRants

I met a fairy the other day and she said she would grant me one wish.

“I want to live forever,” I said.

“Sorry,” said the fairy, “I’m not allowed to grant that particular wish.”

“Fine,” I said, “then I want to die the day after Congress gets their heads out of their asses!”

“You crafty bastard,” said the fairy.

Filed in Fun Stuff,Political Rants | No replies

Okay, so Pinterest is a site that lets you post pictures of stuff. Isn’t that like every blog and/or social media site on the planet? I’m talking about you and animated cat gifs, Google Plus!

In a manner of speaking, yes, but they do have a kind of twist to it that seems to be catching on.

The simple stuff first: you have a picture you like, you upload it to one of any number of “boards” you’ve created–you “pin” it there. Get it? Yeah. The (to me) cooler feature is when you run across something on the InterTubez that you want to share: through a plugin for your browser you can “pin” those, too. I’ve tried it several times and, apart from the restriction where you can’t pin stuff directly from Facebook posts, it’s really convenient.

What happens then? People see your boards. I’m not entirely sure how so many total strangers suddenly began seeing mine in less than a day, but the initial email traffic I got from likes and “re-pins” was much heavier than I expected and impelled me to change my account settings to stem the tide. What is this “re-pin” of which I speak? That’s part of where the social aspect comes in: people can easily share and re-share your pins via their own boards. See how this could quickly go viral?

What else is cool about pins? They retain a link to the original source. Yeah. You post something wicked cool on your blog that has an image associated, and people find it good enough to pin. Now you have incoming links that, if your stuff catches on, can multiply like bunnies. I’m no marketing maven but even I can see how that can drive traffic to your site.

What can you pin? Besides images, you can upload video or (I prefer this method) pin stuff from YouTube. As a 3D graphic artist and animator I now have a venue for strutting both static pieces and animated ones. Pretty cool!

Oh, another social aspect to all this is you can anoint other members to be able to pin to your boards. Now you have a collaborative, shared space. I’m on a couple of shared boards already and it’s a lot of fun…well, sharing stuff on them.

I’m sure there’s more to all this that I’m not getting yet, but hopefully this gives you the elevator pitch. I’m enjoying it thus far and I think you would, too. If you’re still on a long waiting list for an invite send me a message with your e-mail address (my contact link is top right) and I can hook you up.

If you’re curious here is a link to my own Pinterest Boards.

Have fun!

Filed in Artsy Rants,Social Media Rants | 2 replies

It’s no secret I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and through those activities I make a lot of great connections with interesting people. One such person, Mitch Mitchell of the I’m Just Sharing blog asked to interview me about my 3D modeling and animation activities. Of course I had to think about it I said, “sure!”

It was a lot of fun, Mitch asked several penetrating questions that really made me think. He’s posted the results at this link.

Enjoy!

Filed in Artsy Rants,Business Rants | No replies

Hey, just saying….

And fat makes meat taste better, too!

Filed in Fun Stuff,Random Rants | No replies

Apple has made a big deal out of their roll-out of the Siri voice interface for the new iPhone 4S–and rightly so. I’ve heard a myriad of nay-sayers claim it’s “just voice activation” and “Android has had this for [insert exaggeration here]” or “Vlingo does the same thing.”

Not so, sorry.

See, you’re completely overlooking the entire back-end processing ability of Siri, with an advanced AI engine that interprets, and even anticipates. It’s not just some dumb parse-command-and-execute module.

An example? Someone I know is devoted to his Android phone, and uses the voice commands often (and has taken some opportunity in the past to tweak me for the lack of same on my old iPhone 3GS). Recently we were both out of town and wanted to find directions to a nearby attraction. The problem was, we knew how to pronounce the name but the actually spelling was, well, weird, and we didn’t know that spelling. Well, he tried and tried to get his phone to find this place, trying to guess enough of the spelling and/or attempting other tricks to tease out an actual hit. His phone slavishly tried to follow his attempts, but with no assistance offered. I was in another car so I don’t know the full details of his attempts (I’m sure his carload of giggling schoolgirls didn’t help the voice interface, but guess what? Siri excels at filtering that out, too), but I do know I sat for a long, long time waiting. Finally I decided to step in, pulled out my 4S, and asked Siri to find the place. I got back, “I don’t know how to find [phonetically perfect mis-spelling of what I said] but here are some similar matches.” There, on the short list, was the place. I told her to navigate there, and boom. Done, and it took fewer than 30 seconds.

And this is just the beta. It’s only going to get lots, lots better, and soon.

Never, ever, claim “voice control” is the equal of that sort of power. Just don’t do it.

That is all.

Filed in Geek Rants | No replies

Blame my mother for sending me this…

The room was full of pregnant women with their partners. The class was in full swing.

The instructor was teaching the women how to breathe and was telling the men how to give the necessary help and assurance to their partners at this stage of the pregnancy.

She said, “Ladies, remember that exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. It strengthens the pelvic muscles and will make delivery that much easier. Just pace yourself, make plenty of stops and try to stay on a soft surface like grass or a path.”

She looked at the men in the room, “Gentlemen, remember – you’re in this together. It wouldn’t hurt you to go walking with her. In fact, that shared experience would be good for you both.”

The room suddenly got very quiet as the men absorbed this information.

After a few moments, a man at the back of the room slowly raised his hand.

“Yes,” said the instructor.

“I was just wondering, would it be all right if she carries a golf bag?”

Filed in Fun Stuff | No replies

It has been a roller-coaster ride for Apple fans this week. Hype, hysteria, widespread disappointment, then heartbreaking tragedy. I’m a relative newcomer to things Apple but, during the short time I’ve used their products, I’ve come to understand why they are such a draw and I felt myself caught up in this week’s events like any long-time MacHead.

I didn’t know how to wrap my thoughts around the whole thing, but then this morning I read some words that seemed to do it for me. The author is Robert Scoble, a tech reporter of some renown. He originally posted the piece here on Google Plus. You can follow him there at this link, and at this link on Facebook. I recommend it.

I’m going to borrow his words, now:

Dear Tim Cook: I’m sorry

I gave you a tough time today. I thought you didn’t come up to some imaginary bar I held in my head. I didn’t get why you didn’t come out with bigger news. I didn’t get why everyone in my network was telling me about the big things that were planned that didn’t come out.

Now we know.

Today a guy I know at Facebook told me that Apple just “went dark” this weekend and stopped answering emails and phone calls (they had amazing new iPhone and iPad apps and a new developer platform all ready for announcing). Folks inside Facebook thought they had done something massively wrong. No, they hadn’t. Truth is you had something deeper to deal with.

The fact that you, and your team, went on stage, knowing that Steve Jobs was close to death, is a testament to your professionalism. I felt that you had called it in a bit, but now I know the truth. You weren’t calling it in at all. You were doing an amazing job while knowing what was coming.

Today I feel guilty because I gave you a tough time about your first press conference. Now that I know what was going on behind the scenes I owe you an apology. I’m sorry, I owe you and your team one.

My heart is with you during this tough time.

I also recommend his touching follow-up blog post:

My apology to Tim Cook and remembering Steve Jobs

That is all.

Filed in Geek Rants | No replies

Okay, okay: maybe if you’re playing a Tour-level course from the tips, and think you’re going to hit the clubhouse doing better than bogey average, you need those first 250-odd yards off the tee. How many of you really play that game?

I didn’t think so.

In my last blog post I talked about game management. Yesterday’s round drove the lesson home in style.

My driver woes are still with me. I got in a couple of nice whacks, but most of the time I still maintain I could have done better teeing it up with my pitching wedge. Yesterday’s Child was a combination of toppers and 90-degree slicerrific horror. Let me explain: I don’t slice. Most of the time I hit it either straight (maybe not straight where I was aiming, but still straight) or with a nice little draw; my mis-hits are hooks.

Except with the driver.

Don’t ask me to explain why that club, alone of the tools in my bag, still confounds me so. It just does. I stubbornly insist on dragging it out, hole after hole, trying something new each time in the hopes of alighting on “it,” the key change that will get my pumpkinhead-on-a-stick smacking the ball like it ought. I need some quality range time, preferably with “my” pro, but my lifestyle already has me time-squeezed getting in actual rounds before the short season ends (and trying to get my money’s worth out of my membership dues). It’ll come.

But, guess what? I really don’t need it. Why? I can be a demon of recovery.

Take a typical hole yesterday, a par 5, hard dogleg right, and a big pond guarding the green. I topped my driver shot (again) and spun it forward maybe 60 yards before the rough killed it. Did I sink into a miasma of shame and despair, forcing myself into the mindset where my next shot just had to make up lost distance?

Nope.

I looked to the 150 marker. There it was, a very makable distance, and the spot from where I could make the green in regulation anyway–or in one over, which is my current goal when playing. No problem! Pressure eases off, I pick my go-to club for second shots out of the rough (4-iron), and boom. I was so relaxed, hit the ball so nicely, it made it inside the 100 marker. How can anyone be unhappy with that? Inside 100 in two on a par 5? That’s money where I come from. And I did it with a crappy tee shot. If you’re playing at home, I bounced my gap wedge off the back left of the green (the pond in front of me got into my head and I gave the approach shot a bit too many Cheerios), chipped back on, and two-putted for bogey. I will take a bogey any day!

All this really came together yesterday, and I’m tickled to report that, for the first time in my misbegotten golf “career,” I broke 100. I hit the clubhouse carding a solid 93, and I’ve never been happier.

What driver?

Filed in Golf Rants | No replies

So, let’s clarify one thing: I love golf. The game confounds me, it drives me to the brink of tears, it angers me, and yet I can’t stop coming back to play “just one more round.”

A couple of years ago I posted a lot of golf-related stuff here, including some intense play-by-play descriptions of games wherein I was trying to learn something, to follow that haunting call every golfer (and wannabe) hears to “get better.” It’s been a long time since I felt motivated to yak here about the game, for reasons I don’t entirely understand. Today I feel like doing so, and there it is.

Yesterday I played a new and unfamiliar course with my smallish weekly league for our mid-season outing. I ended up with one of my better 18-hole scores to date (104, if you must know, and my 36 handicap brought it down to a 68 which was good enough to win the prize for low net), and I most emphatically do not owe that outcome to the purity of my ball striking. No, in fact all but maybe two of my tee shots with driver were pitiful: I would have fared batter had I teed off with a pitching wedge, at least I know I can clear 100 yards with that handy club. For reasons I still have not discovered I manage to slip that enormous 460cc club head almost completely under the ball and send it flying about a zillion miles straight up and maybe 50 yards forward. Not cool, no?

The important thing to note is that this time I didn’t let it get me down. No, not because of the cooler full of beer in the cart basket, though that helped. What turned the game around for me was realizing I just needed to apply some good course management and work with what I had.

See, given your typical Central New York golf course, played from the white tees, you’re looking at between 330 and 380 yards for any given par 4 hole, and maybe 450 for a par 5. What I realized is that once I get inside 150 yards I have numerous clubs that I can use to get onto the green in one or two more shots (depending on accuracy for any given attempt). That means that I only need to account for around 200 yards of distance from the tee before I get into my comfort zone. Let’s say I hit driver for 80 yards because of another sky ball: that means I only need 120 yards for my next shot and I’m in the zone! From there I can land it on the third shot and have a chance at par or bogey, or miss the approach, chip on, and have a shot at bogey or double. If I can get away from a testy hole with a double, that’s a win for me!

See how the stress and anxiety could just melt away? I was able to relax, smack my second shot (normally using my trusty 4 iron because fairway woods are another mystery nut I have yet to crack) well within 150, and press on.

It worked!

I stuck with the driver (stubbornly trying to puzzle out what to do differently) until the last couple of holes. On the last few holes of the round I finally gave up trying to make friends with the big dog, and switched to hitting my 16 degree hybrid off the tee. Only the aforementioned stubbornness prevented me from taking that sensible step much sooner in the round. I have another 18 holes coming up tomorrow and methinks the driver will stay sheathed until I can get someone (preferably a teaching pro) to look at why my driver swing is so drastically different from the (pretty decent, I must say) swing I use with my irons. If I can start getting 180 yards or better reliably off the tee? Look out, PGA!

Heh. Okay, maybe not. But I’d be liking it.

Filed in Golf Rants | One reply

Make no mistake: it’s been one helluva week in the U S of A. Here’s a nice little pictographic run-down:

And it’s only Wednesday.

NOTE: I understand all this is serious business–except the Birther part. And Trump. Still, when things get so messed up that one is tempted to throw up one’s hands in despair, I say find something to laugh about. It’s healthier.

Filed in Fun Stuff | No replies