Chronicle of a Legend

Why are people in such a damn hurry in the morning? It’s understandable when you’re trying to catch the train on the way home, but why in the world are people in such a rush to get to their cubicle?

It feels as though I’m in Spain at the running of the bulls. People ducking, weaving, and sprinting for their lives off trains and through subways. All to slave away at their 9to5.

Maybe I enjoy the journey as much or more than the destination? Who knows. Until people learn to chill and enjoy life, I’m gonna be that guy. That guy who slows down his car when he’s being tailgated. That guy who takes turns a bit too wide so no one can get around him. That guy, who hopefully shows everyone that there are better places to spend 20 minutes than in front of a computer screen typing away at a TPS Report.

On a side note about enjoying travels, Jim and I are embarking on a half-cross country trip in a few weeks. We’re going to drive from Oklahoma to NYC, with exactly zero planned stops along the way. Our goal is to head up north towards Indiana or Cleveland, possibly hit a baseball game or two, and then time permitting, swing by Ithaca on our way East.

We’ll be blogging and Twittering the whole thing I’m sure, so expect some randomness.

written by digitalbohn \\ tags: Add new tag

I love Jamba Juice, and usually hit it up twice a week. As much as I live by their peanut butter and granola smoothies in the morning, I’ve been having major issues with the 13th street location.

The breakfast smoothies are the most expensive per ounce, so when I order a 16oz Chunky Strawberry, I expect to get a full 16oz. The 13th street location would argue, and DID ARGUE that point with me to a fault. I was consistently getting no more than 13 to 14 ounces. I’ve mentioned it to the employees a few times and the only response I got was that it was difficult to manage the breakfast smoothies because of the fresh bananas on top and the granola. They were also quick to point out that it wasn’t store policy to have smoothies filled to the brim, fairly ridiculous if you ask me.

I finally hit a boiling point when I was given half a cup, and they refused to remake it for me. So instead of breaking my opinion off to the manager, I got into the office and ripped off a letter to corporate. I wasn’t expecting much, but the result blew my mind…

Within a few hours of that email I got a response from a customer service agent, apologizing for the issues, and offering me gift cards for a few free smoothies. Not too bad.

By the end of the work day, I got an email from the District Manager of Manhattan asking that I speak with him so he could better educate his Store Manager on proper smoothie production. Pretty good.

By the time I got home that night, I had received an email from the Store Manager asking if I could call him tomorrow to discuss how to resolve the issue. Damn amazing.

In the span of a day, I had turned into a smoothie expert, and was now giving advice to District and Store Managers of Jamba Juice.

In the end, I had a good chat with the Store Manager, who took my advice pretty well. The result? I’ve had 8 or 9 smoothies since then, and have been getting smoothies that are so packed, that they overflow the 16oz cups they’re in.

Affecting Real Change – Legend in the Making…

written by digitalbohn

I’m getting to that terribly unfortunate point in my life where I stand at a monumental fork. It’s the fork that some lucky men never reach, while others, like myself, hit it before they turn 28. Baldness.

My head hair has been slowly thinning since college, which has acted as some kind of catalyst for my facial hair. I shave at 7am, and have 5 o’clock shadow before lunch, which is one of the reasons why I now keep a manly but stylish beard.

I’ve tried to put it off, but I’ve finally hit that tipping point. Which leads to an important decision that I must make this week. Do I continue with my denial, or do I just slap male pattern baldness in the face and shave my head entirely?

I’ll pause for a second to let the heaviness of the decision set in.

My options aren’t amazing. I can  shave it completely, which my wife seems to like, as she’s eager to remind me that Chris Daughtry manages to pull off the shaved head and beard combo. Or I can buzz it military style, to try and hide any weird yet to be found imperfections on my head. Medication and/or surgery aren’t really options for me, as I’d much rather fight this old-school style like an uppercut to the face. Dripping liquid on my skull every night sounds like one of the most terrible things ever.

Within the next week, by next Monday at the latest, I’ll have made my decision as to which route to take.

written by digitalbohn

Why don’t people understand the importance of Zippers?

I don’t mean the ubiquitous YKK distributor (check your jeans, jacket etc. they’re everywhere, even a billboard in Times Square). I mean that tacit yet necessary rule governing all types of merging queues.

I take two forms of transportation to get to work in the morning, the train, and the subway. Both are in dire the zippering, but neither seem to have any idea of the concept.

When there are 2 lanes of traffic merging into 1, in my case 2 lines of commuters merging through 1 exit, the most sensible, logical, and efficient method of consolidation is the Zipper. A simple alternating “tag” between the two lines, allowing both sides of the train to exit at the same rate. When the Zipper doesn’t occur, everything breaks loose

You can usually tell who the zipper-breakers will be. They shuffle their feet, right up on the person in front of them, ready to pounce at the slightest hesitation of their co-zipper partner on the other end. This morning, I was the fateful one to come into full force contact with my co-zipper.

I could see her coming a mile away, watching the way she prepared her umbrella for the rain just outside. I prepared for the worst by resting my finger on the trigger of my umbrella, so that when it was my turn I could simultaneously hop outside and pop my umbrella, ensuring that someone wouldn’t leap in front of me. The next think I know, the woman who should have let me in catches me by surprise, and jumps forward when she gets to the door. The result – her purse snagged on one of the partially opened spires of my umbrella, almost ripped off her shoulder, and I was left with a bent umbrella…

Someone has to take one for the team and stand up for the rules that no one speaks of, and that person will forever be me.

written by digitalbohn

If you’re up on your Internet Meme’s, you’re undoubtedly aware of the “Rick Roll” phenomenon. If you’re not, Wikipedia sums it up pretty well. “In a RickRoll, a person provides a link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand which actually takes the user to the Rick Astley video,” specifically his 1989 single “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

It’s been making its rounds over the past year, but is making a full-force appearance today, April Fool’s day. YouTube is linking all of it’s Featured Videos on it’s homepage to the video, bringing the phenom further into mainstream culture. The NYTimes is probably the first major source to get “Rick-Rolled.” They wrote an article involving an apparent Rick Roll at a women’s basketball game at Eastern Washington University. They later posted a correction, that the video was a fake, and admitted that in their attempt to expose the Rick Roll meme to the mainstream, they had been Rick Rolled themselves.

Wired Mag even managed to get a snippet of a recent interview that Astley had done with the LA Times about his sudden re-appearance in pop culture.

written by digitalbohn

I usually take the first 20 minutes of my day at the office to grab a coffee and surf around the web, Digg usually being my starting point. I don’t normally like re-posting Digg’s, but one that I came across this morning was so sick I felt obligated.

You can check out a handful of the better ones here, which includes the video above. The Pulp Fiction and Big Lebowski ones are two of my favorites, but since they both contain fairly strong language, I figured it best to link to. A quick YouTube search of Kinetic Typography pulls up a more comprehensive list, though arguably not as polished as the first compilation.

There’s something strangely intriguing about visualizing speech, and it’s amazing that the creators of these videos can portray things like inflexion and attitude with typography.

written by digitalbohn

What is the fascination with Schwag, especially in the media/interactive world?

I’m sitting here staring at a pile of laundry from SXSW, including almost 20 shirts (most pictured above) that Jim and I managed to snag from the exhibition booths, parties, and even on the flight back to NYC. And it wasn’t just t-shirts. We picked up dozens of stickers, mouse pads, cozies, notepads, and even a tin of organic wheat grass.

Over the past year I’ve amassed quite the collection. I have an entire shelf in my home office filled with notebooks. A box full of t-shirts in the attic. A bag full of branded footballs, basketballs, a cupboard full of cozies, pint glasses and mugs. A drawer full of bottle openers, key chains, and pens. Even a branded mini-fridge that fits a six-pack.

I guess Silicon Valley loves giving out schwag as much as I’ve contracted a habit for collecting it.

written by digitalbohn

Jimmy Deep and I made it on Yahoo! Tech Ticker while we were at SXSW 2008. From about :40 to :59, you can see Jim to the right of Sarah Lacey’s head, and I’m the bald(ing) guy just to the left.

It’s been a bit crazy around here for the past few days. We got our new puppy finally, Tucker.

He basically runs around for an hour, then sleeps for 3, but he’s the man already.  He’s only 10 lbs now, but will probably be up to 70 within the year.

Check out some pics of him.

written by digitalbohn

After the Sarah Lacey train-wreck interview with Mark Zuckerberg, we rolled through Austin for our 4th night here.

We hit up some great events, especially the Pop Sci party that lined up some awesome bands, like the Lemurs. They definitely tore the house down, so much that I bought their album, which is something that I haven’t done in probably 2 years.

written by digitalbohn \\ tags: sxsw2008