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Category: thought

Me, Twenty-Five Years Ago

Twenty-five years ago, my Grandmother took this picture. She was likely excited, though not in the least bit surprised, that I was wearing my Dillard University shirt — having been accepted for attendance the coming Fall. Dillard was our family school. Located just blocks from our family home in New Orleans, LA. My attendance marked five generations of our family having attended the school. My Grandmother was not only an alumni but also on the Board of Trustees and a major donor. My acceptance was certainly less due to my academic performance as it was simply a matter of birthright.

The summer that stood between this picture and my leaving for NOLA (the local term of endearment for the city) was what I still consider to be the best of my life. Everyday of this time was both routine and full of surprise and wonder.

That summer, I would awake, dress, and head almost immediately over to my friend Derek’s house a leisurely walk away. We would hang out from late morning until early evening. Lifting weights in his basement, jamming to the latest music (some solidified classics as well), driving his Trans-Am to the liquor store to buy a case or two of Miller High Life for the night ahead, being thankful that we were so well recognized that our fake IDs would not be subject to further scrutiny, and generally having as few cares as one does as that age.

Come evening, other friends would show up, their cars pulling up in front as we sat on the front porch tipping back a few. Derek was one of those guys that knew everyone. Every school has that guy who everyone loves and is the center of the social. As such, he would have the line on the parties, band jams, gatherings, and places to be for the evening. We would pile into vehicles and head out, not missing a single one. Derek would have them all memorized by cross streets and we generally, perhaps not mistakenly, believed that the party would not really start until our arrival.

For the first time in my life, I forgot how skinny and awkward I was. I forgot my natural introversion. I forgot my true and natural place in this teenaged society. I was one of the cool kids. I knew the parties would one day end. At some point, the Fall would come, I would leave, and the social capital I had right then would mean nothing where I was going. To me it seemed twenty-five years away. All that really mattered was the night and trying to make it last just one more day.

Inventing a Planet » Socio-Economic Caste Systems

Inventing a Planet » Socio-Economic Caste Systems

“Classes” are the the “castes” of democracy. Put it this way: democracy is a “wiki-caste” system by which we categorize and define each other collectively in economic, racial and other various terms. The result is a social hierarchy that we can claim is not a caste system because it lacks formal designation or enforcement.

A single quote of this essay, no matter how brilliant, is no where near the brilliance of the whole. A must read. (and bookmark the entire site while you are there).

Wearing & Tearing « A Continuous Lean.

Wearing & Tearing « A Continuous Lean.

GAP says the denim is “Japanese” which I suspect to mean Japanese inspired, but made in China. Not that it really matters in this care, nor do I care. This was an experiment. Besides, those French jeans are made in Macao and cost $140. The point was: “Were the $300 jeans I am buying that much better? Could a $54 pair from a huge chain wear-in and look good?” I brought the jeans home, tried them on and then proceeded to wear them everyday for about 11 months straight. Those GAP jeans wore in amazingly.

I own a pair of these and can second this assessment. These are my favorite pair.

… it was as if he had filled a water balloon liquid nitrogen and decided that everybody needed to know how serious he was about his interpretive dance routine.

Wait, What? – One of my new favorite things.

Jen Spencer on Curation

Jen Spencer on Curation

You can’t automate great curation. The Industrial Revolution automated production, and the technological age automated just about everything else in our lives. But factories and technology can’t automate creativity, imagination and instinct. If you want to make yourself irreplaceable, start getting creative.

Nice piece on the responsibility we all have to be great curators. (thx MiGrant)

Wikibollocks: The Shirky Rules – Whimsley

Wikibollocks: The Shirky Rules – Whimsley

If you want to provoke discussion, logic and detail are not your friends. Instead, don’t worry about loose ends and half-expressed ideas – just keep the audience’s interest and provide colour, and let them fill in the gaps later. Make sure your audience is not sure what’s coming next, not sure if they quite understood what they just heard. That’s what makes for good entertainment. It’s the First Rule of Big Ideas: tell stories and think by analogy.

Extremely well written editorial on the nature of storytelling, analogy, and augmentation. Also, Clay Shirky. (thx Al3x)

48 Hour Magazine

48 Hour Magazine

Here’s how it works: Issue Zero begins May 7th. We’ll unveil a theme and you’ll have 24 hours to produce and submit your work. We’ll take the next 24 to snip, mash and gild it. The end results will be a shiny website and a beautiful glossy paper magazine, delivered right to your old-fashioned mailbox. We promise it will be insane. Better yet, it might even work.

Brilliant and fascinating idea from Heather Champ and Derek Powazeck. I’m a big fan of magazines and have a special place in my heart for these two.

Curate Thyself!

As regular readers know, the role I assume here and aim to fill is that of a Curator. My stated goal of this site is to find interesting items that fall under the stated topic area and gather them together along with some commentary that will hopefully provide interest, context, and cause you, the reader, to investigate further.

While I think I am doing a fine enough job of this for the site, I am horrible about it when it comes to aggregating all of my online projects into one central place where people can find it all. While I am certainly thinking about a way to execute such a place on a more permanent basis, I thought I would take some time out here to post all the places you can find my work:

patrickrhone.com – My personal site where I write essays on just about anything that captures my interest as well as personal topics. The latest post, certainly of interest in this context, is titled Why I Curate.

The Random Post –  Where I curate the things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else.

Minimal Mac – Minimalist computing as it relates to the Mac universe and the general topic of what is “enough” when it comes to technology as a whole.

Practical Opacity – Exploring the idea of “enough” as it relates to social media, email, and online interactions and distractions.

Duchess Beatrix – Where I “ghost write” a blog for my daughter, The Duchess of Heckofalot (go read it and it will all make sense).

A Better Freelancer – I coauthor and cocurate this site along with Aaron Mahnke. A place that helps freelancers such as myself become, well, better. If you are a freelancer or thinking of becoming a “business of one”, check it out.

So, there you have the bulk of the places you can find me. Hope this helps. Especially those I have received feedback on doing this very thing.

Note: I will likely cross post this at the other locations as well so do not be put off by visiting and seeing this duplicated.