Philadelphia Prop 8 Protest a Huge Success

15 11 2008

Sara and I decided to join the Prop 8 Protest Rally at Philadelphia’s City Hall today. What a blast! There’s nothing like stopping traffic with a few thousand like-minded activists chanting, hollering, and generally feeling the love. When we first showed up around 1 PM, the crowd was only a few hundred; however, when we left the radio said that the protest was getting bigger by the hour. One of the organizers said that over 5,000 people were there! [Edited: I had thought Brandi said 12,600 people were there, but what she actually said was that 12,600 people had seen the Facebook page. See her comment below for details]. Whatever the count, it felt great to support our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in their fight for equality.

Here some pics! That’s Sara getting interviewed by KYW News! People loved our signs and I expect lots of great photos in the news and online as all the major TV stations and several bloggers covered the event. Oh, a shoutout to Vangie from Dyke Drama who took a second to say hello and introduce herself; she loved our signs. Check ‘em out! (Full disclosure: We got the ideas from earlier protests.)

The spontaneous march around City Hall was my favorite part, and the police were awesome in keeping everyone safe. We expected Pro-Prop 8 demonstrators, but none materialized. The only sour note was a single downturned thumb by a lone driver. Most drivers honked in solidarity! Frankly, Philadelphia is amazing, and I’m proud of my city taking part in this nationwide event and the way that we supported human rights in California and throughout the US today!

To learn more, check out the Facebook Group, the Join The Impact website, and the Courage Campaign website.


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Categories : Ramblings

Windows Live Navigation Sucks

14 11 2008

Excited about a new lifestreaming option for Windows Live users, I decided to go check out the new offering. I signed up to get a Windows Live account yesterday. The experience is terrible. I haven’t a clue as to how to get the new aggregation features to work. Navigation is horrible. Even finding my profile (From Home, Click Spaces (?), then click Profile) was a chore. Despite the fact that their blog talks up the social networking feature, there’s no apparent or obvious UI to set it up. It seems like you have to be a Windows Messenger or Hotmail user to get the aggregation feature, but that requires a Windows-only installation process (I <heart> Mac). This is retarded and I can only see this feature set appealing to dedicated Windows Live users that have some clue as to how the navigation works. So, enjoy it, whoever you are.


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Categories : Web 2.0

Kudos Mr. Olbermann

11 11 2008

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Prop 8 is one of the finest pieces of journalistic commentary that I have ever seen. I just sat here with my wife moved to tears by his compassionate, heartfelt, and sincere plea. Sara said, “That’s how I felt, but he just said it so eloquently.” Kudos Mr. Olbermann.

To anyone who reads this, know that we side with those who choose love, who spread love, who honor love.


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Categories : Ramblings

Zen and the Art of Twitter

6 11 2008

The ephemeral nature of Twitter leads me to compare the experience of meditative “letting go” of concious thought with scanning my twitstream. Indeed, as I skim through the thoughts of my friend stream, I reach a similar state of abstraction as in deep meditation–what Castaneda’s Don Juan refers to as “shutting off the inner dialogue.”

Perhaps, Twitter is training me to truly engage, to mindfully read as well as see “my original face” as the followers of Zen say. Given the pace of today’s modern world, The Zen of Twitter is a tool to manage attention and to tune it even while consuming information.

Behold the Buddhist Twitterati!
The claws that tweet,
The jaws that Jott,
Behold the tweeting bird, and shun
The frumious fail whale.


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Categories : Web 2.0

Late Service on the Web

2 11 2008

I use Flock 2 and was excited when Beta 2 was released a few months ago. Somehow I fubared the system after a while and none of the social features worked anymore. Essentially, no matter whch social network I logged onto, the People Sidebar never activated anymore. I searched in vain for a solution, and while I found other people with the problem, nobody had an answer.

I sufferred in silence for a while until the Flock 2 went out of Beta. New download, but still no luck. After submitting a tech support request; however, I did eventually find a solution to the problem in a user forum. I applied the suggested steps and all was good!

Yesterday, several weeks after my tech support request, I finally get a response from the guys at Flock. A few weeks late, but at least they’re reading their e-mail and had a good response.

My point is: If you get ready to launch, you must also be ready with speedy tech support. Now, the positive thing is the folks at Flock offer the support, do so for free, and must just be inundated due to their success. These are all GREAT things! Still, during my wait for a solution, I explored plenty of other options besides using Flock for lifestream and social network interactions. My inability to find or get a quick answer to a software problem led me to look elsewhere, and that’s what late service means on the web. As my friend Isabelle says “You only have one shot” when it comes to a Web 2.0 launch.

Personally, I think the folks at Flock did pretty well with this launch, and more power to them for making a great product. But there’s a lesson about execution here that shows everything must be in synch at launch, especially when it comes to the techncial support aspects of your product.


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