Not Yet Ready for Prime Time

I hate to do it again (not really) but here's another quick bites edition since I don't know that I've got a full entry in me (I still have a bit of vacation hangover).

I ran into Johnny Vulkan of Anomaly fame this morning outside the Apple Store. He's first in line in Soho for the iPhone and he's doing it in support keepachildalive.org. I asked him to send me an email explaining it. Here's what he had to say: "We're doing it for Keep a Child Alive, an amazing organization that provides aids drugs for kids in Africa. The iPhone will be a great product for connecting people but as we wait to enjoy them on Friday its good to remember we already connected to people all over the planet and we can all do our bit to help. eBay auction for the phone will start friday and we hope Alicia Keys will present it to the winner. We're also selling space on our t-shirts for sponsors - $500 minimum. In the meantime please donate at www.keepachildalive.org" (Update (6/26/07): Johnny posted some more info over at Flickr.)
I was watching kids play in the park this weekend and they just copy what one another do. It was at that point I realized we never really mature past three, we just get slightly better at hiding (or justifying) the fact that we're copying the kid in front of us.
Checked out the Shepard Fairey show in Brooklyn this weekend. It was good stuff. It's in DUMBO until July 21. If you don't know Shepard Fairey or Obey Giant, the first article I ever had published just happened to be all about it.
I tried to use a pay phone this weekend. I was on a run and didn't have my cell on me. Did anyone know it now costs $.25 a minute to make a long distance call with a four minute minimum? How crazy is that. It got me thinking that while everyone credits cell phones for the demise of pay phones, it also probably has a bit to do with the rise of long distance numbers as a result of cell phones. I know lots of people who live in New York and have area codes from all over the place.
While writing that I just searched my site and found these two old articles I bookmarked from the New York Times: Area Codes, Now Divorced From Their Areas (October, 2004) and Area Code, Sweet Area Code (February, 2006)
I think I finally made it through that article I was writing, but there's a full blog post about how difficult it was. My final realization was that I was no longer using writing in the way that media outlets do. Writing has become an act of thinking for me and the idea of starting with a conclusion and working backwards feels a lot like work (specifically schoolwork).
I recently read or heard the best description of geek I've ever heard: A geek is a self-aware nerd.
Last, but not least, danah boyd's essay on class divisions through Facebook and MySpace has been getting a lot of play recently. I've yet to read it, but I found it very interesting when Umair from Bubblegeneration argued against it, suggesting the essay is "shallow, simplistic, and almost insulting stuff." Now I haven't read it yet, so I can't really comment, but this screams of one of Paul Graham's "offensive ideas". Everyone seems to be agreeing on Boyd's thesis and there's one voice of dissent that makes people slightly uncomfortable because it says, "She almost sounds as if she pities Myspace kids." Not saying Umair is right, just that it's worth thinking about . . .

I think that's it.