"The proponents of the strategy-based approach say, 'Don't worry about form. We'll save you with design thinking.' I think that's crap. Design has always been a complex synthesis of analytical and intuitive processes."

Digital Thinking at Rhode Island School of Design → fast company’s got a little on john maeda’s work at RISD.

Arts, Briefly - ‘X-Men’ Heads Back to Boyhood - NYTimes.com → THIS IS A BAD IDEA. but i guess smallville’s worked out, huh?

Well, I’ve missed it again, but it’s okay! November 13 is this blog’s birthday, and it is now 8 years old. Eight years! Amazing, that this thing has existed for this long, even more amazing that I have not embarrassed myself more than I already have. I know there has been a significant decrease in frequency of posts, but I’m trying. And now that this whole Mix Tape thing is going on, I feel like that’s the best excuse ever to continue.

I don’t spend much time looking through my own archives, but every once in a while it’s good to see what was happening in my life, since I’m getting old and don’t remember much of the details some of the time. I don’t know that I have any specific posts that are really my favorite, but there are phases that I went through that I really enjoy reading about—So thanks, blog, for being my imperfect memory.

2012 - Moviefone → i thought this was a joke, like a rickroll, and was going to be a trailer about how the end of the world starts out with sarah palin winning the GOP presidential nomination. i actually haven’t seen the trailer yet, but if i’m right: end of the world! FTW! awesome!

Eric Ripert | Avec Eric - We Cook, Therefore We Are → this is pretty awesome—A complete guide to doing a dinner party right with delicious sounding food and even wine pairings and prep (down to the hour) advice. now if only we could find 6 other people and enough room to make all this food and eat it with them.

New World Order → “Whatever scares you most.”

Just a reminder that all these songs are still available! Take a listen to last year’s list over here to get inspiration from this year. Honestly, you can start recording anytime. I’m shooting to have at least 15 songs again this year, and will start posting December 10th, earlier if we get more songs, so the more songs we get, the sooner we all get to listen to them.

I’m looking forward to doing this again, everybody. Seriously, get your voices warmed up, it’s almost the middle of November! Before you know it, we’re going to be carving turkey.

America Serves | Change.gov → “Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.” can you imagine what kinds of things colleges can do for communities with 100 hrs/week at their disposal? i can’t think of any major or department that couldn’t make a contribution to their community.

WA - November 4, 2008 General Election Results → go whitman county! austin, tx of eastern washington. but what i really wanted to point out: why is joe biden’s picture the only one in color here?

The Playful Librarian: Here’s to Hope → well said, my friend.

For the last time on Saturday, we finished another day of canvassing. I insisted on not staying on the sidelines this election, so have been spending the past five weekends or so in Philadelphia knocking on doors. Our totals for door knocking were somewhere around 500 between the two of us.

For the most part, people in NE Philadelphia were conversant, intelligent, and open-minded. There was the occasional yelling, from people that did not want to have anything to do with Obama or the campaign: One guy yelled at us from his window, “Get outta here!” Several people were flippant after the second sentence, “I’m a volunteer with the Obama Campaign.” Their replies included: “See ya later,” while waving a hand. “I don’t vote for that guy,” while shutting the door. “This is a McCain household,” while barely containing a horse-sized dog in the house. I found several people were yearning to be heard and wanted to tell us that we had it all wrong; we were lectured several times. One man explained a court room to us, as if we hadn’t seen one on Judge Judy before. Or even Night Court, for chrissake.

Another woman and her daughter tried to convince us that though perhaps Obama isn’t Muslim now, he really hasn’t made up his mind about what religion he is. This woman was particularly off-the-wall: She also believed the Vice-Presidency isn’t a job a woman should have—any woman. She waited on her front lawn because she could see us walking down the street towards her house. She stood there with her dogs that she trained for the blind and we listened to her say she didn’t believe women should get equal pay, which I frowned at since I wanted to drop some Lilly Ledbetter science on her. She was convinced there wasn’t enough Christ in the government so neither candidate would do. But we still had a conversation, pet some dogs, and were on our way.

A speaking of dogs, the dog-to-house ratio in NE is ridiculous, meaning at 9 out of 10 houses we were met with a dog barking after knocking on the door.

But there were also good conversations. On our second day out, we spent a good half-hour (much, much longer than what the campaign really wanted us to spend, but it was too good to pass up) with a couple that was undecided. The husband was leaning heavily toward Obama, but the woman had trust issues. We talked to her about the economy and McCain’s Palin pick. She didn’t like the pick and thought it was obvious that she didn’t belong anywhere on the ticket, but she still wasn’t convinced. We tried to show her that that in itself, the pick, was irresponsible, rash, and showed poor, poor judgment on McCain’s part. I think it worked a little bit. This was before the Vice Presidential debate, and I asked if that outcome would sway her vote. She said it probably would.

We met several older people who were refreshingly hopeful, inspired and excited about the chance to vote for a candidate they could actually believe in. That was nice.

We saw Bruce Springsteen play by the Rocky steps at a rally. We even got to volunteer at another rally where Senator Obama spoke. We really just ushered people around the grounds and got to get up close to Obama when he came and left, and I delved deep into the middle of the crowd to distribute signs. I use the term distribute loosely, it was really just a bunch of grabby-grab hands reaching for signs, but it was cool.

But look, it wasn’t all politics, it was also a chance to feel connected to something and to eliminate some of the anxiety that I’d been feeling since the McCain campaign was re-energized, however short-lived, by the Palin pick. And it was fun. Before we drove home every Saturday night, we’d stop by the Wawa next door to our field office and grab some snacks for the road. We ate crap pretty regularly—I’m pretty sure Burger King at least twice and McDonald’s once. Candy bars, Tasty Cakes and Nantucket Nectars galore. I donated money, I donated time, but I feel like I got just as much out of volunteering that I put in. Tomorrow is it: If Obama wins, I’ll be even more grateful for the experience.

So this is it. Let’s not blow it. If it wasn’t clear: Barack Obama for President.