LATEST ENTRY

RANDOM | Noah Brier

No Rhyme or Reasons

A bunch of random ideas, links, etc.

June 20, 2007 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 10 COMMENTS

Okay, life is a little nuts as I try to get back into the swing of things, so I'm just going to offer up some quick bite things I've been thinking about/reading. Hope that's cool.

  • First off, a reminder about happy hour this Friday, have 10 hosts but would love more. Again, it's at 6pm until whenever at Sweet & Vicious, 5 Spring Street (off Elizebeth).
  • I've been using Twitter more and more. Two observations: One, it's great for our office because it allows us all to keep up with what each other are up to and two, it is the perfect way to keep people informed of what you're up to while you're away. Twittering while in Israel saved me a lot of money in phone calls.
  • There was a lot of instant coffee in Israel . . . that's gross.
  • This is probably a full entry, but one of the fascinating things about my trip was thinking about the way required army service shapes Israeli society. At 18 every citizen joins the military. Unlike college, it's not a choice where you go or who you're with. This not only matures young people quite quickly, but it also forces them to learn to deal with people who are different from them. Whether we like to admit it or not, in America we tend to go to college with people like ourselves.
  • Grant is almost always on a roll, but I've especially enjoyed his last few posts. Reinventing the conference, blogger and new media style and The World is Sorting are both serious insights into today's postmodern world.
  • Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. That is an actual sentence. (Thanks Charles.)
  • Like everyone else, I've been playing a lot with Facebook lately. I don't have anything particularly insightful to add yet, but I'll work on it.
  • Did you know you can wash a keyboard in the dishwasher?
  • While I was sitting on the plane home from Israel someone asked me if he could trade seats with me. I had the aisle seat and next to me were two of his friends. When I asked him if he had an aisle seat he said no, he was in the middle. I wasn't willing to trade an aisle seat on an 11-hour flight for a middle seat. However, I might have been willing if he threw in like $30. That gave me the idea that during boarding flights should allow you to auction off your seat. If they used the little TV and you could put your seat up for a price it might be interesting. No idea if this would actually work, but it's a fun idea.
  • I'm trying to write an article for a magazine right now and I'm realizing how hard it is after blogging for a while. Because I can't use hyperlinks to give people credit I just keep thinking that I'm pretending to have come up with other people's ideas. I don't like that. Blogging seems much more honest.

I think that's it for now.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY

LEAVE A COMMENT

First name, first and last, whatever you feel like.

Required, but not displayed (so don't worry about spam).

If you've got one, flaunt it.

You can use some HTML (a's, br's, p's, oh my!) if you'd like, if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it.
REMEMBER ME?

COMMENTS

1jeff

you're losing your mind. "I'm trying to write an article for a magazine right now and I'm realizing how hard it is after blogging for a while. Because I can't use hyperlinks to give people credit I just keep thinking that I'm pretending to have come up with other people's ideas. I don't like that. Blogging seems much more honest."

dude, just use quotations. and then make points based on quotations. that's how we did things before the magic box bloghat revolution.

June 20, 2007

2Noah Brier

Yes, I got that part. But the whole third person thing doesn't allow for giving other's credit as well. It's also an editorial, not a news piece. It really is odd.

June 20, 2007

3chartreuse

i'm not a fan of forced military service (though if put to a vote i'm sure it would pass, we're a blood thirsty bunch), but i think compulsory community service for a year would be a great idea.
Auctioning your plane ticket? The house will want a cut../

June 20, 2007

4CK

So $30 bucks would have been worth it, eh? Funny. I might have let him have it for part of the time or all of it, dunno...but $30 wouldn't have been worth 11 hours to me. Glad you had a great time (besides the coffee).

Yeah, switching between blogging and article writing is tough. Totally different.

June 20, 2007

5Noah Brier

Chartreuse, long time no see . . . hope all is well. Compulsory community service is an interesting idea, is there anywhere that requires that?

CK, I don't actually know if $30 would have done it. And for the record, he did sit in my seat for about two hours as I chatted in the back of the plane . . .

June 21, 2007

6Charles

In terms of facebook, I've been fascinated by how well they've treated their community of developers. Also, they post crazy math/geek puzzles as ways to find job applicants. This is awesome, in that it shows they're investing/acknowledging the geek foundation that their site relies on. I think they owe much of their recent success to this.

June 21, 2007

7El Gaffney

One, I just saw your twitter and wanted to let you know that I experience the same sneezing attacks (and running nose) for my first week back from Israel. Unfortunately it was also my first week on the job so I ran the risk of being called Sick Boy a la Van Wilder or the Sixth Dwarf (but he was allergic to flowers). I also am part of the possibly 25% of people with photic sneeze reflex (sun sneezing), but that wasn't it. Anyway, it went away after a week.

Two, did you fly El Al or Israir? I got Israir. Definitely would not have given up the seat on either though. I've always wanted to write "the" book on Walking etiquette and more recently have seen the need for one to dictate Plane or flying behavior in general. No need to rant now.

Three, love Chartreuse's idea. My friend and I submitted an idea to Amex's Members Project competition similar in its attempt to raise the volunteer level in this country. We believe working through and with companies/employers to implement programs (and mandate service from top down) could be effective. Waiting to hear if we're a finalist and will keep you posted.

Four, hopefully I'll see you later.

June 22, 2007

8bb

I think your blog is great, but I particularly adore your random blog postings like this. This one was fab. (Though, I must confess, I hated you momentarily this morning when I couldn't get the "Buffalo buffalo buffalo..." thing out of my head all the way into work...)

Maybe I'll make one of those happy hours one day when I'm visiting swissmiss out in NY...

June 22, 2007

9Steven Kalifowitz

On the question of compulsory community service, I don't know of any place that "requires" it, but there are several organizations that can help people do that type of service. Every morning on NPR I hear an advertisement for City Year which offers kids in high school an opportunity to volunteer for a year or so in a variety of communities.

In a similar vain, when I was in my Junior year in high school, I was in the student government and tried to get the school to institute a program where 2nd-semester Seniors could choose to volunteer somewhere for that semester - rather than do nothing for six months. Surprisingly, the students liked the idea and it was the school that shot it down saying it wasn't something they could administer. I went on to join the volunteer fire department, and then graduated in January (at the end of the first semester). There were more important things I had to do, like start my career in the film business (which ironically enabled me to pay for college).

June 22, 2007

10Ari

Interesting comments about Israel. Funny thing is I don't mind instant coffee. As for compulsory military service that is indeed a buzzkill. Maybe the fact that the whole country has been through the military is part of the reason why Israel is so militant and aggressive.

June 27, 2007