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  • The iPhone: This Generation’s Polaroid Camera

    Mobile phone photography is instant and everywhere, easily shared, often quirky, and always of suspect quality. Sounds a lot like many of the Polaroid photographs I’ve seen. Even better is that I don’t have to buy film or pay for processing when taking pictures with my iPhone.

    I frequently use my iPhone to capture discrete and fleeting moments that would, otherwise, be awkward to photograph with my DSLR or even a point-and-shoot. Often my hand shakes. The lighting is never perfect – usually too dark. Sometimes the iPhone camera quirks and produces a fractured or smudged photo. You would think these imperfections would detract from the photos, but when I view my mobile photos collectively with a macro-mindset their unparalleled character comes into focus.

    Spontaneous. Fun. Unpredictable. Click here to see my iPhone photographs.

  • Tiger Returns

    Tiger Woods returns to the PGA Tour today and tees off at 2:02p. I have been looking forward to his return for months. The PGA Tour is just not the same without him – either because he draws interest or people just want to be interested in him.

    From what I’ve seen and heard on the Golf Chanel and ESPN, it looks like he’s ready. The commentators are professing that they’ll be surprised if Woods doesn’t win. I feel the same way. Last time he took a break to fix the knee, he won… The 2008 U.S. Open! A couple years before that, when he took time to drain the knee, he returned and won at Torrey Pines.

    The choice to return in a match play tournament was a wise one. Match play is a different beast than stroke play. Unlike stroke play, match play allows you to have a bad hole and not have to dig your way out of it stroke by stroke. If Tiger is at all inconsistent, he’ll appreciate the chance to throw away a few holes. Further, unlike stroke play, match play is more emotional. Tiger can better scrap out a win against a feisty opponent. Finally, if Woods is ousted early he’ll be disappointed, but no to the degree of a missed cut.

    There’s a lot to watch for today at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship. And when it’s done we’ll still get to look forward to Tiger’s stroke play debut. Bam. Bam. Boom!

    My bracket for this tournament.

  • I am here because…

    In working on a cover letter it dawned on me that there is much more to who I am, where I am, and how I’ve arrived at this stage of my life than my academic and vocational accomplishments. The formality of a cover letter – especially one targeted to lawyers conducting serious business at prestigious firms – is constricting. Thankfully, my blog is none of those things! So, what I have to say follows.

    I was born in the cherry capital of the world to the two greatest parents in the universe. I am here because I watched hours of Voltron and Thundercats, experienced the creative wonders of Disney World at an early age, and learned hockey stickhandling from Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe. I am here because I spent every spare second from my 9th birthday through the beginning of college consumed by the sport of golf, which taught me the value of patience, brutal honesty, and friendship. I am who I am because of the many wonderful people who have been kind enough to say hello to me when I was too shy to say hello to them and because of the few great friends I’ve had over the years and because of the girls with whom I’ve fallen in and out of love. I am here because my sister has made me laugh, inspired me and nudged me in the right direction.

    I built monsters and houses from LEGOS and Lincoln Logs. Refrigerator boxes became spaceships. Summer days ran until dusk then darkness. I fell down, then stood up again. Those hours of sax practice – or the lack thereof – are not lost on me. I will never forget the dinners at Mabel’s. I studied economics in college while wishing I was a writer. When not writing and reading, I played poker with friends until the sunrise. Law school has been a good excuse to explore New England, a place that reminds me of home. And a reminder of home is always a good thing.

    I am here in Concord, New Hampshire two months away from graduation to the next phase of my life because I’ve done a million different things in my past. I have a feeling, regardless of how I package who I am on this cover letter, it will matter more that I’ve been where I’ve been, seen what I’ve seen, and met the people I’ve met.

    Here’s to the next step – the great beyond. I love looking back, but I have to move forward. There’s a ways to go.

  • My Oscars 2009 Predictions

    This year marks the 81st Oscars. I was born in 1981. I believe that makes me more than qualified to spout my predictions for this Sunday’s awards show.

    Here’s a semi-complete list of movies I saw in theaters in 2008. Missing are the Best Picture contenders. I’ve seen three of the five.

    My predictions are as follows. The selections above the line are educated guesses. Those below the line are pure guesses. I have not read the predictions that were leaked online, nor have I read many other published predictions. I’ve seen all of the movies to which the above-the-line nominations apply, except The Reader (Actress: Kate Winslet).

    Actor: Frank Langella
    Supporting actor: Heath Ledger
    Actress: Kate Winslet
    Supporting actress: Penélope Cruz
    Animated feature film: Wall-E
    Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
    —————————
    Art direction: Benjamin Button
    Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
    Costume design: Benjamin Button
    Directing: Frost-Nixon
    Documentary feature: Man on Wire
    Documentary short: The Final Inch
    Film editing: The Dark Knight
    Foreign language film: The Class
    Makeup: The Dark Knight
    Music (score): Benjamin Button
    Music (song): Wall-E
    Short film (animated): Presto
    Short film (live action): New Boy
    Sound editing: Iron Man
    Sound mixing: The Dark Knight
    Visual effects: Benjamin Button
    Writing (adapted screenplay): Benjamin Button
    Writing (original screenplay): Milk

  • Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

    Last fall I read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ( hereafter “Running“) by Haruki Murakami. It’s a small book with nicely spaced lines of text. A quick read.

    As you may well imagine, even before you open the yellow and red cover, Running is neither a running or writing book. It is about life. Murakami talks of owning a jazz bar in Tokyo in the 1960s. And hating it, but working hard. One day he decides to write a novel, submits it and wins a prize. His life begins as a novelist when he sells the bar and turns his full attention to writing. His writing success continues, but is secondary to his discussions of running. Murakami credits running for his writing success. He draws many similarities between the two pursuits. The solitary approach required by each. The pain of each. The decision to not suffer. The focus required.

    Running provides a practical approach to life. Murakami talks of struggling with his slowing marathon time. Training harder, longer, or differently does not help. He is simply growing old and slowing down. He acknowledges that this doesn’t translate to writing. That writers peak at varying ages.

    The bottom line is that to be successful running a bar, writing fiction, or running marathons, he has to work hard and be extremely focused.

  • Should I Quit Facebook?

    First, read the following excerpt of the “Licenses” clause of Facebook’s new terms of use:

    You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

    If that’s not bad enough, read the “Termination” section:

    The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: … Licenses …

    Since I’ve been alerted to Facebook’s new terms of service, I will not longer be importing the posts from this blog to Facebook’s Notes application. Further, I will no longer be importing photos via the “my flickr” application or directly into Facebook’s default photo application.

    Facebook is now just an elaborate address book to me.

    Update: Consumerist has a nice summary and highlights that if you restrict your privacy settings then you may not be as exposed to the drastic licensing provision quoted above.

  • More Time Needed

    I wish I had more time for everything because there are so many things that interest me. It’s inevitable that I discover and archive, drive by, dream up, and am assigned much more than I’ll ever be able to take in thoughtfully. And that is just one day. The next day it starts all over again. It’s not a feeling of being overwhelmed as much as it is disappointment that I can’t effectively absorb more.

    I wonder if I would feel the same way if I stopped reading so many blogs, twitter posts, and facebook notifications. Consuming all of that “pop-life” is like trying to get my brain to record the lives and events of a thousand different people each day.

    It is my hunch that if I were able to better focus on “local-me” that I would find each day more fulfilling and, in turn, less stuffed. And who I am trying to prove something to – that I care about all of the useless gadgetry, latest fashions, and most obscure routines of people I’ll never know? It can’t be anyone except myself.

    So many people.
    So many stories.
    So many facts.
    So little time.