Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Potpourri

I thought I'd take a minute to create a list of some of my recent favorite stuff:

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Cool Site

check out this gadget site. Pretty cool!

Awesome!

I'm sitting here listening to Buzz Out Loud and all of the sudden they start talking about Topps 3D baseball cards. That's one of our projects. While we did not create the technology we (WonderGroup) created ToppsTown.com, the site where you activate these cards. So cool, to have your favorite podcast give props to a project you're working on. So awesome!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Who's Driving?

A dead, barren tree stands by the road.
No time to think of the implication
We must drive and talk and go.
And that's our life; no meaning to grasp.
Only task after task after task.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Thanks Microsoft

I'm amazed when I watch someone try desperately to use a piece of software, whether online or offline, that is just a piece of crap. When I see an application with bad UI, overly complex, unstable and inconsistent features, I scream, I complain and if possible I refuse to use it. However, as I watch people use things like Powerpoint and Word, I realized, they have been duped. MS has convinced them when something doesn't work right, it's their fault.

I just saw this when I was working on filling out my time sheets. We used this software called Advantage. It may be the single worse software ever written. When I complain, the response is often, it's not the software's fault, it's the user. It doesn't matter that I have 25 years experience. It can't be the programmers, it must be the user.

I blame MS, they have lowered expectations to the point where mindless lemmings, fight bugs, spam, viruses and the blue screen of death never once questioning whether there might be a better way.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Day Political Post

I've been avoiding posting a political opinion during this election cycle. I figure, when everyone's screaming why add another voice to the cacophony? But something occurred to me that I have to blog.

It all started when I heard sequential audio clips from Barrack Obama and John McCain about the economy. The bottom line; Obama believes in bubble up economics, meaning if you give a tax break to the middle class they will spend more money on products generating business growth. McCain believes in trickle down economics, meaning if you lower taxes for businesses, they will invest more in their companies, increasing incomes and employment, allowing the workers to purchase more generating economic growth.

I know that's simplistic, but I think that's the nub of it. What do I believe? I believe both are probably true, sometimes at the same time, sometimes at different times. And therein lies the problem with the dreaded two-party system. It requires the partisan to believe everything the "other" says, to be wrong, evil, un-American and dangerous.

Partisanship requires the partisan to stop thinking, stop questioning, shut up and just vote the party line. So the next time you are calling Obama a socialist or Palin a retard, why not try a bit of anarchy and think for yourself.

Monday, October 27, 2008

A Visit to Michigan and Madison Square Church

I guess the main reason I post to this blog so rarely is because I feel like it needs to be be more than a glorified twitter feed. Does anyone really want to know what I had for dinner, what I'm thinking or whether my stomach is upset. The answer is obviously a resounding no.

So as I struggle to think of something profound or meaningful, I often find, there's nothing that is worthy of the expectation that anyone would take five minutes out of their day to read this thing. Maybe, that's why there are so many dead blogs and so many people have migrated to twitter. At the end of the day, reading 140 characters is a pretty low commitment to ask for.

I say all that, just to say, read the following post at your own risk. It's not profound it's just something that happened this weekend.

Saturday morning we headed up to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit my daughter Michal at Calvin College. It was a nice drive and that evening we went to the fall concert, which was amazing. Imagine a performance that includes Classical, Gospel, Show Tunes, Jazz, High Church and Chamber music. And it was all spectacular.

On Sunday, we visited the church Michal has been going to, Madison Square Church. The place had an oddly compelling energy. As you looked around the congregation, the diversity was pretty impressive. A small choir, lead the worship music and I was surprised by the soul they with which they infused every song, even an old hymn like It Is Well.

Here's the bottom line: That's what connects with this generation. The idea that a relationship with God will actually make this world better. That people who might hate each other without God, come together in peace with Him. But often, they see people fighting over styles of music. They see protesters shouting invectives at those with whom they disagree. They see political agendas and hypocrisy. What a shame!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Ironic Mistake

Erica and I recently wrote an article for a British publication presenting our latest thinking on social media and it's impact on young consumers. A few minutes ago the editor sent an email to the publisher with my email address. I had neglected to include it in the contact info.

I found that very ironic. It serves to illustrate how, even us who work in the medium every day can easily forget about facilitating digital contact points.

So just to make sure you all know:

twitter: wonderjeff
AIM: senojjeff
gmail: senojjeff@gmail.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeff_Jones/728185251

There you go.