26. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

Cryptic title, I know. What I mean is, the things I see on my computer - the electrons - make me reflect on my corporeal being - the atoms. Facebook has really messed with my mind many times. For instance, folks I’ve not seen in twenty or thirty years from my little hometown are now talking to me on Facebook. I see their pictures and they’re not the ones I knew back then. Logically, what would you expect? High school was a long, long time ago.

On the other hand, the realization of the amount of time that’s passed smacks me around a bit. High school reunions just wash over you and you get a lot of it out of the way in one “fell swoop.” Facebook is a steady diet of, “Oh, man, has it been that long?”

To anyone under thirty-five or forty, this is probably fairly meaningless. It occurred to me that history teachers probably have a hard time because it’s not easy to get someone to appreciate other folk’s history when you don’t have one of your own. When your own is still being written, the ever-lengthening scope of it tends to skew how you record it.

It doesn’t stop the melancholy, though, and that’s just life. While that’s easy to say, the emotions color everything. Being fairly ambitious, my tombstone will not read, “Nice guy, but unmotivated”, so I think about my legacy. What example will I leave my children? Probably that of a workaholic but, in many respects, that’s a man’s world to me.

All that aside, there’s still the fact that I’m deep into middle age and the re-connections make me think harder about what being my age really means. Things are more finite now. My life is good, but there’s a gravity and a lightness that coincide. I can glimpse the end and the beginning, see all the good that’s passed and imagine that which is coming. The age old questions - What have I done with my life? How will I get by when I’m old? Etc. - bear down but, being pretty optimistic, I always assume that I’ll bull my way through it all. Still, there’s a little nagging doubt and ’round and ’round we go. That’s life, though, and it’s a far better thing than the alternative.

Posted in Intelligence, blogs, blogging, FrankyGee3, Frank Goad, "The Frankifesto", creativity, Frank Communications, Frank | Print | No Comments »

23. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

Oh my, it’s happened - some advertisers are tired of paid political pundits, inflammatory language and plain old bombast used to keep eyes and ears glued to their channel. Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico, Walmart Stores and Men’s Warehouse have, according to Advertising Age, “… taken steps to ensure that their ads will no longer appear during Fox News ‘Glenn Beck Show’. Procter and Gamble and and S. C. Johnson said they never intended to advertise there and ads were placed there by mistake. Clorox Company has said it’s taking its ad dollars out of all politically oriented talk programs” (For those unaware, Beck put his foot in it recently in a big way.)

It’s about time folks realized that many (most? all?) of the pundits on TV, radio, the Internet and anywhere else have a primary goal: Keep high ratings. Being measured and balanced about their views doesn’t get listeners and, without listeners, the folks carrying them will go out of business because no one advertises where no one goes. Folks forget that pundits are paid to be outrageous. It’s that simple. You can defend them but, in the end, they’re paid to be on the air and draw viewers or listeners.

You might say, “But what about the newspapers?” They’re trying to draw you in, too, but folks who are in broadcast have to keep you glued for thirty or sixty minutes or more; that takes emotion. A newspaper reporter or columnist only has to keep you for one column’s worth of time and there are different and (gasp) opposing opinions right next to yours. Going over the top makes you seem a bit daft because there’s another article inches from yours that could seem sane by comparison.

The other side of the coin has an engraving that shows Joe Sixpack or anyone else who listens, spouts and repeats without doing any real research on their own. I once had a guy tell me that he listens to Rush Limbaugh because, “… he speaks my language. He thinks like I do so I know I can trust him.” I asked him if he reads the newspaper, and he said, “No, they’re just a bunch of liberal ——-s.” It’s not about whether he does or doesn’t read the newspaper. The conversation revealed that all he does is listen to folks who think like him. Willful ignorance is no excuse.

My beef isn’t with people on the right or the left, it’s with anyone who blindly takes others opinions without trying to figure it out on their own. Please note that I said opinions, not facts. If you know the facts, then you can sort out the opinions. All of the pundits - right and left wing - have their foibles, misstatements and outright intentional misinterpretations. I would just appreciate it if folks decided to do a little research and stopped parroting things simply because it sounds good to them.

Posted in Frank, Frank Communications, Frank Goad, FrankyGee3, advertisers, right wing, backlash, Beck, left wing, Advertising | Print | No Comments »

15. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

The video linked below tells a somewhat mind-blowing story about how scientists and astronomers rolled the dice and pointed the Hubble telescope to a tiny black point in space. That doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but time on the Hubble is a huge prize for scientists, and very expensive.

We think we know about infinity, know that as humans we can’t really get our minds around it, but now there’s some evidence that simultaneously helps us understand it better and makes it even harder to conceive; that’s what it does for me, anyway. I cannot grasp the concept of infinite, nor can the average human. The measures involved in these discoveries boggle the mind and make it even more amazing and daunting:
- The light that the Hubble captured left its source thirteen billion years ago
- The galaxies they discovered are as far a forty-seven billion light years away
- Over 10,000 galaxies appeared in a section of the “sky” described as “the size of a grain of sand held at arms length.”
- There are over 100 billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies in the universe

The number of galaxies has to be an estimate because, if we’re finding new ones and seeing farther into space, how can we really know? And if the universe is infinite, how can we think we know? (And, no, I don’t believe it’s turtles all the way down.) Beyond that, how do we actually comprehend this? I don’t know about you but trying to picture infinity in my head makes it hurt. The video helps, believe it or not, and perhaps you might find some help in it, too.

As a Christian, thinking about the scale of these things amazes me even more. That the Father can do anything, and that the scale of the universe is so amazing, it affirms in my mind that there is a master plan and Master Planner.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Posted in FrankyGee3, Video, Frank Goad, Frank Communications, creativity, Frank | Print | No Comments »

3. August 2009 by Frank Goad.

This is a great little animation with music done on a whiteboard; or maybe it’s with a whiteboard and a computer (I haven’t figured that out). Whatever it is, it’s wonderfully creative. Why would I post this here vs. over at Frank’s Silicon Buffet? (This is supposed to be my thoughtful writing blog and FSB is supposed to be for blurbs and curiosities.) Because it shows how cool a whiteboard is to create and think. It’s not just for classrooms or meetings to record what was said or what you’re thinking - it’s a fluid space that gives you lots of room to create islands of thought and then connect them, or move them around like some cerebral tectonic plate shift.

I like to use a whiteboard to think, plan, create and develop. If I could, I’d have an office with two walls painted in whiteboard paint so that I could wander around and draw what I was thinking. I use lots and lots of paper and post-it notes to think and plan. I’ve tried using some computer programs to emulate that (for instance, working in PowerPoint and telling it the paper was 15′ x 15′), but I like to be able to see it all or walk close and see just a bit. The tactile part of it is so much better than a computer. Scrolling around the page that’s in the computer, well, the screen makes you feel like you’re trying to navigate a submarine - you get one little window to look out at everything and have to keep swiveling and turning to see everything. (Does that make sense?)

Just as cool is using post-its and a white board - maybe cooler. Anyway, that’s just me. Some folks don’t need paper at all. They just close their eyes and it all gets mapped out. Some folks get one letter-sized sheet and they can map the world. Not me.

Go check out the animation - it’s a great few minutes.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpjpd_whiteboard_creation

<a href=”http://feedshark.brainbliss.com” id=”OV424331″>Ping rss</a>

Posted in design, animation, FrankyGee3, Frank Goad, creativity, Frank Communications, Frank | Print | No Comments »