Category: Personal

Passion for The Job

This morning, my collague John Nack wrote a blog post about the passions which drive his work pursuits, and the last line of that post struck a very deep chord for me:

the deep threat isn’t losing my job, it’s working on something for which I lack passion.

That goes right to the heart of my own career path. I’ve held jobs where I wasn’t passionate about the work that I did, and those are the jobs that grind you down and make you feel a little dead inside. It doesn’t matter if to the outside view they seem like perfectly good jobs – if you’re not truly happy to be doing what you do, sooner or later 1) it shows and 2) you pay a price.

Over time I came to realize that what I care most about is the interrelationship of people and technology. If I were more visually-focused, perhaps I’d have become a UI or UX professional, but I can’t design my way out of a paper bag. And tech for tech’s sake alone also does not interest me — it’s how people use their tools, what they do with them, and how they connect to each other that gets me up in the morning.

So here I find myself, after a long and sometimes convoluted road, in the extremely privileged position of working on something which I have a great passion for – and I get paid to do it. May we all be so fortunate.

Thoughts on Visiting The UK

There was a time that I kept a detailed travel diary. It helped fill the time when I didn’t have a smartphone, MP3 player and/or Internet access to share impressions and fend off boredom when out on the road.

I don’t diary my travels the way I used to but I did want to capture a few personal impressions from my most recent trip to England.

London

William Gibson caught a sense of what it is to be a visitor to London in Pattern Recognition:

[Cayce] has no internalized surface map of this city, only of the underground and of assorted personal footpaths spreading out from its stations

It’s very true, certainly in my case. Getting around London is easy via Tube. Especially when you’re on a tight schedule and need to just get to your dinner, or only have a few hours to cram some sightseeing in, it really cuts back on the ability to develop a fully integrated sense of the city.

That’s not a complaint of course. And despite my lack of a mental map of the city, I like London a lot. It feels comfortable. Probably because although it doesn’t look like New York at all, both have a density and energy that I understand. And the fact that I speak the language (more or less) doesn’t hurt.

I managed to cram in a quick trip to the Tate Modern this trip. Seeing modern art when jetlagged to hell is a different experience. I found it a little easier to experience and appreciate some of the edgier works that I might normally dismiss with “is that art?” Even exhaustion didn’t make Roy Lichtenstein interesting though.

Brighton

Brighton

Several people told me that Brighton was like San Francisco. I’m not so sure. If anything, it reminded me more of the Jersey Shore, although with better food and architecture, and no reality show freakazoids. Spending four days working a conference isn’t the best way to get a good sense of a city though.

I did like what I saw of Brighton, and if I’m lucky enough to get back to Flash on the Beach next year I’d love to add on some time to see more of the place.

A non-traditional New Year

We rang in 5771 in a very unorthodox way – by moving into a new place.

After two solid days of unpacking, there’s still piles of boxes in the office & the living / dining room but the rest of the house is in good shape.

Here’s the kitchen:

It's looking more like a kitchen

So many good things are happening these days! New year, new home, work is going well, and another trip to the UK in 2 weeks. Then Adobe MAX next month. We have a lot to be thankful and grateful for.

A sweet new year to all!

More from Napa

Aside from shooting a bunch of photo in Napa (still processing them, some are here) we also visited a few wineries I hadn’t previously tried. Our last few visits to wine country have either focused on Sonoma or have been somewhat disappointing, but this weekend we hit a few winners.

Most notable:

Castello di Amorosa – more of an experience than a winery but despite the touristy castle attraction, it ended up being a blast. And the wines were not bad either.
V Sattui – Fantastic deli & picnic area AND some tasty wines, particularly if you’re a fan of Riesling.
Mumm Napa – I was somehow under the impression they made plonk but was pleasantly surprised to find I was wrong.

And one more photo, just because:

Dragon

On Prop 8

Prop 8 Rally

So a Federal court has struck down CA Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional. 🙂

At this point it’s obviously just a matter of time before Prop 8 winds it way to the US Supreme Court. So today’s ruling is just one more waypoint on that long journey and, thanks to the stay Judge Walker granted almost immediately after issuing his ruling, nothing has really changed.

What’s bugging me tonight are not so much the outright anti-gay bigots, but the ones who choose to wrap their bias in the cloak of their “activist judges are stepping on the voice of the PEOPLE!” outrage.

It’s really simple. The US Constitution sets the rules by which this country is run. If “the people” vote on something that’s against the tenets of the Constitution, it is completely appropriate to use the courts to deny “the people” their wish.

Don’t like it? You have options. Amend the Constitution. Or go live somewhere else. But this is America and these are the rules by which we operate. Getting upset when those rules go against you is, well, un-American.

I don’t know how this will all end. For all I know the Supreme Court will eventually decide that banning gay marriage does not violate the 14th Amendment and Prop 8 will stand. And I’ll be pretty unhappy if that does come to pass (G-d forbid!). But that’s how America works.

It would be nice if more Americans understood that.