Matthew was carrying something he shouldn’t have. Can’t remember what.

I said, "Matthew, put that down".
Matthew: "Mine" (Matter of fact)

Daddy: "No."
Matthew: "Mine?" (Are you sure?)

Daddy: "No."
Matthew: "MINE!!!" (Screaming like a teradactyl)

Daddy: "No."
Matthew: "Miiiine" (Whining)

Daddy: "No." Matthew: "mmmmmmmiiiiinnnneee" (Like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings…’precioussss’)
Daddy: "No." Then he just let’s it drop in slow motion. He had a very sad look on his face.

A colleague lent me this book. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. I read the first few pages and I am really intrigued. Here is the cliff-notes edition of the first 5 pages.

The guy is a sculptor. He visits elementary schools once a month for a whole day. He sits with each grade one at a time. He basically starts the same way. “Hi, I am an artist! I noticed all the art work on the walls, there must be other artists here too. The great art on the walls makes me happy and energized. Who here is an artist besides me?”
Kindergarten: All the kids reach sky high and wave their arms around.
First Grade: Half the kids raise their arms shoulder high.
Second Grade: A couple of kids raise their arms tentatively. Looking around to see if it’s ok.
On and on it goes until the 6th grade where hardly anyone raises their hand and those that do try to be very quiet and subtle about it.

His question is: What is going on? What is happening to the creative spark that is inside of us?

I am going to read the whole book. Read the reviews on Amazon. I think this may be a special book.

Check out this framework for motion tweening in javascript. This is brilliant. It is pretty concise code. Easily readable. It allows for Flash-like effects making things fade on and off and move on the screen. I am using it for a bunch of effects. It is the best framework of it’s kind that I have seen so far. View the examples.

Monday, May 22 was my birthday. I am 34. I used to be 33. 33 gets rounded down to 30 and is almost like being in your 20’s. 34 gets rounded up to 35. 35 is nothing like being in your 20’s. This is the first time I have felt old. I didn’t do anything for my birthday. Katie might think I am old too now. My hair is thinning. I am losing many hairs each day. My gut is growing. I am about 200lbs. This is unacceptable. I need to stop eating. Maybe exercise would do me some good.

I am reading Freakonomics. Good book. Easy read. He states that the drop in crime during the 1990’s came directly from Roe v. Wade and makes a great case for it. In a nutshell look at the stats. 1.5 million abortions every year since Roe v. Wade. These children (had they been born) are at high risk to be raised in poor surroundings with a mother that didn’t want them. These kids are prime candidates for criminal activity. We basically eliminated the at risk children and then fast forward almost 20 years and there are fewer criminals. I am not doing justice to the whole explanation, but it is pretty convincing.

Guess how many abortions there are every year? Answer: about 1.5 million. That’s alot.

Everyone take a look at http://www.quicken.com. It is not one of my favorite designs, but I did the information architecture on it. Woo Hoo.

Ever since Shaq entered the league, I have hated basketball. It was all bump, bump, slam. The post was the worst play in the world. It was boring. What happened to the no-look pass? What happened to the 3-point shot? What happened to faked him out of his shoes that Michael Jordan made famous?

Well, I am here to say, Steve Nash is the second coming of basketball. He is fun to watch. I love watching the whole suns team. He PASSES the ball. He dribbled between his legs. He is smooth and fast. All of the sudden I am seeing athetes, not pituitary giants. Thank god. Finally!

So I am officially interested in basketball. I guess I am a Suns fan, but not seriously. It’s a casual thing. Don’t worry Jets, I promise I will never really love another team. I love you Jets. Hugs and Kisses. Why don’t you love me back? Bastards.

Yesterday, we had a great Mother’s Day. In the morning, we went over to Burlingame (a very nice community that we hope to live in one day). Ethan was petting someone’s dog and said that he could make the dog sit. The owner said, “Ok, give it a try, but he is only a puppy.” He called the dog and got his attention, “Sit!” he said and used the international dog symbol for sitting. The dog promptly sat down. The owner was pretty impressed.

After that Ethan was calling out, “Teach your dog to sit! One dollar!” No other customers showed up, but Ethan was determined. He said, “Daddy, I have an idea”.

“I am going to put together a lemonade stand and sell lemonade for 50 cents a glass. I need help. Can you put the nails in the wood for me? And mommy, can you write down ‘Lemonade, 50 cents’ on a piece of paper so I know what to write on the sign. Also, I need to know how to make lemonade, can someone show me how to do that.”

He went on and on about finding the right location, getting set up and making dollars. He also stated WHY he wants to make money. He wants to start a dodgeball club at school and to do that he needs matching wrist bands. We think he needs about $10 to make it happen.

He is so driven for this goal. He has been working at it for months. I think he needs an allowance. We should put it on the calendar. I am proud of him, but I mentioned today that sometimes having a good business idea doesn’t equal alot of money. But, I guess that is a lesson for another day.

I volunteered with some people at work to help a non-profit. They provide technology and communications specialists to emergency areas. So if an earthquake hit San Francisco to help drive the prices of homes down, then they would swoop in and set up wireless networks so people could communicate. They would rebuild the cellular tower that fell, etc.

So they need a brand name. They want to draw in engineers to volunteer and they want the public service community to know about them and what they do. They will grow over time (maybe) and want the name to be scalable.

It should communicate a group that is
1. Responsive
2. Objective (non-partisan)
3. Peaceful and helpful
4. Technical experts
5. Available to help worldwide.

So please throw your names into the ring. We are going to try a hyper-speed branding exercise. Ask your friends. The more the merrier. It’s for charity.

Work has been really frenetic. So many different projects and so much to do. I got approval to hire and manage a web developer to free up some of my time to work more on Information Architecture and UI Design.

The guy we hired was offered alot of money from his previous employer to stay, but he said no. It has always been important to me to look out for the professional development of everyone I work with. It always comes back to you. I remember the Mission Statement for Kokopelli. (Is this right?)

Effective Solutions for every Customer,
Professional growth for every Employee,
and Value for every Shareholder.

I was always proud of the education and teaching I was involved in. I think teaching is the thing I enjoy most about my job.

I think soon (next week) Quicken.com is going to switch to a homepage that I designed the IA for. And Intuit.com sort of has the html I made, but not really. I have to figure that out.

Lately at work I am trying to persuade the powers that be, that designers should be in an open creative environment to thrive. Right now we are spread out in different buildings and put in cubicles.

—

Peeing story. This morning, Matt takes off his diaper in our bed. We get up and start our morning routine. Jared yells, “Daddy! Matthew just peed on your clothes.” I look, and see Matt, smiling his devilish grin. He is absolutely trying to be the dominant dog in the pack. We must break him.

When the draft was over, I was thinking about the hundreds of guys who didn’t get picked. On this one single day, they go from their old lives as collegiate superstars to the potential of being picked for the NFL (which carries with it a hefty salary check) to being left out in the cold. Of course many of these players will go on to the Canadian football league, arena football, European football or maybe professional wrestling. But for many players, the golden days are over. They will need to get a job just like everyone else.

I wonder about those guys. How do they adjust? Where do they end up. I wish there was a website where you could look up anyone and find out what happened to them. Not just celebrities. I want to know what happened to Dr. Beisel, the best teacher I ever had. Or what happened to Bo Peabody from the dot-com days who sold for a boatload of money. Or what happened to that girl I obsessed about in high school.

What happens to people? If only everyone had a blog.

For the second time, since I can remember, I am not unhappy after the NFL Draft. The first time was when the Jets selected Abraham, Ellis and Pennington. All good additions. This year the Jets selected 10 players. (This is alot for a draft). And I am very happy.

If I were grading them based on my expectations, they got an A+. They blew away my expectations. If I were grading them on a bell curve, compared to the other teams in the NFL, they would get an A. Not the best of the draft, but damn good. If I were grading them based on the “perfect draft” which even today can not be judged, because who knows how late picks will pan out, I would give them a B.

My amateur analysis:

• D’Brickashaw Ferguson T Virginia - Perfect pick

• Nick Mangold C Ohio State - Needed a Center, smart pick
• Kellen Clemens QB Oregon - Might be awesome. Depends on Ramsey/Pennington.
• Anthony Schlegel LB Ohio State - Huh? Is this kid a starter? There were better picks.
• Eric Smith CB Michigan State - There were other better picks at the time.
• Brad Smith QB Missouri - Is he even going to play QB? Will he make the team?
• Leon Washington RB Florida State - Dont know much about him.
• Jason Pociask TE Wisconsin - ok
• Drew Coleman CB TCU - Will this guy make the team?
• Titus Adams DT Nebraska

Lots of movement, some sophisticated trades. Overall, Coach Mangingi and GM Tannenbaum did great. This was their first draft and they showed patience and focus. Great job guys. Now all you need to do is win the superbowl this year. Piece of cake.

Oh, justfor records, God has not yet told me who is going to win the Superbowl next year. I have a hunch, but I will wait to hear it directly from the big guy.