Informational Geometry

I'm struggling to write my holiday greetings this year. As I write I was hoping to announce a change of address and some good news that I've bought a house, but alas I am not immune to the insanity that has gripped the rest of the country. I am still functionally homeless as I wait to close on a foreclosure, hoping it happens before Christmas. Despite domestic inconvenience, 2010 has been a wonderful year. Business has been growing steadily throughout the year as Gavin and I reinvent the very definition of the word "work" by incorporating it with things like "play" and "life". It just seems like we are always doing a lot of all of those three things at once, and it somehow works. We are looking forward to settling into a new home/office in 2011, finally setting up the kind of creative environment I've been dreaming of having since college. I'll just be happy to be able to start making all the food and art I can stand, but the main benef...

I do some internet marketing, I see a lot more poor internet marketing. Here's a contest which I actually like! Blog to Asia with Pei Wei Asian Diner . Why is this a well designed internet contest? It's collaborative and social and it all takes place online.  Even after the contest is over it carries on via the ongoing blog.  Picking blogging as the challenge is accessible for people and fun... who doesn't love to write about food? Because blogging is social media, each person who enters the contest is probably already sharing their blog with their personal network of friends - creating a viral marketing effect. Clearly Pei-Wei has really thought this out. This IS the type of effort which utilizes thoughtful marketing teams with a plan that will carry forward well into 2012 - generating buzz and enthusiasm for their brand.  This is NOT one of these sloppy internet marketing contests that puts American's out of work. There are so many food bloggers out there ri...

My local Giant Foods has been bugging me. It seems like the experience of shopping there keeps getting more ghetto (and it's not even in Baltimore). I go out of my way to shop at other stores because frankly I'm annoyed by all the new technology in my neighborhood  Giant. Technology that seems to be designed to police shoppers rather than to help them accomplish their actual mission of buying food. 7 Reasons Why Robots And Groceries Don't Work Unemployment is at its highest in decades so why the heck are supermarkets replacing jobs with robots? By robots I mean, robo-cashiers. At the Giant Foods by my house when you walk in you can pick up this hand-held scanner. As you move around the super market you essentially ring yourself up while you shop. All this technology sounds handy, and this may be a boon to the anti-social or impatient, but there are fundamental problems with this; #1 It's obviously very expensive to develop and deploy this type of technology. Cou...

I'm very excited about this new brand I'm working on. Breakaway. There will be more breakaway branding delight rolling out over the next 2 months. Here's a preview for now. Want to update your brand? contact me, Stephanie and I'll hook you up.

If I were in San Francisco this weekend I would be going to the "The Fashion Aid" party at the Barber Lounge.  Jonathan Baker, already a rockstar stylist at the Barber Lounge is also San Francisco's up and coming fashion hero - AND WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SEND HIM TO NEW YORK FASHION WEEK IN SEPTEMBER!!! The Barber Lounge will be hosting a party that evening highlighting several San Francisco designers and a special music performance by Rachel Silva. Come for the fashions and help Jonathan get to NYC

We finally got our offer accepted on Friday for the forcosure we've been trying to buy. It's a bit of a fixer-upper but in Baltimore this can be pretty affordable. Total cost after remodeling should be under $180,000. We start the really fun process of inspections and crap this week. So we'll see if there's a hole to Hell in the basement that might kill this whole deal. If not we have to build a huge list of all the stuff we need to do and find contractors ... basically a huge project is starting. We'll be able to move in around Thanksgiving. THANKS! I guess I'm happy. I keep muttering the word "finally" over and over in my mind. Now I can FINALLY unpack from my move over two years ago! Now I can finally have the space to work on Art. Now I can finally start my culinary experiments (starting with beer making and then onto the wood burning outdoor oven). Now I can finally have my own yard to garden in - city farm coming soon!  Now I can fina...

Where do I get my news from? When I'm not too busy I'll scan the Washington Post (first, since it's the best US paper) and then I'll scan NYT . We are always scanning the BBC radio, or the BBC website . I have BBC , NPR , and Huffington Post apps on my iPad and I was scanning all the news from the apps during my commute. I am now totally convinced that smart phones and mobile devices like the iPad are MADE for commuters. For laughs I'll go to SFgate.com or Latimes.com . Just to see how Californians are screwing themselves. I am not into TV news but I'll occasionally tune into Mad Money,  BBC, or Fox news (because CNN sucks right now). I'll watch 60 minutes if they have an interesting story (I do love Andy Rooney). Thinking more, I read magazines but not that much since I'm too cheap to actually buy magazines nowadays. I'd rather buy a latte than Time. I will start getting more magazines on my iPad though. As far as I'...