Armor is a strange book. I read it because it was recommended to fans of The Forever War (one of my favorites). I kept seeing it on the shelf, but there was always something I stumbled across that pulled me away. I finally broke down and grabbed the paper back. What really drew me in what a quote written on the inside cover page:

"You are what you do, when it counts."

That really stuck with me... got me excited to really explore and discover what it meant. In this regard, Armor really delivers.

Again, Armor is a strange book. It is written from a few perspectives... the first a 3rd person account of a very talented soldier who faces extreme odds... the next from almost a first-person perspective of a conflicted ex-pirate. The two perspectives are woven together in ways I can't really describe.

What really amazed me about this book was how it conveyed the psychology of war... It tries to climb in the head of a soldier, faced with the reality and futility of a horrible situation... and the psychological mechanisms that are built up to help you deal with that futility... to accept your fate... and to then become successful because of that. It is truly amazing.

I will say this book is far from perfect. The characters seem a bit rough... and some aspects of the plot just really aren't well explained, to the point that one of the big twists didn't make much sense to me... (The Golden?)... but I can forgive all that. Armor is one of those books I will always remember... It is ambitious... and if you come to it wanting to learn what it is trying to teach you, I think you will come away happy.

Changing Audiences, Changing Methodologies
Audience Research has long been a vital part of the media industries: research help determine which ideas get produced, where content is distributed, and how content is monetized. Shifts in consumption patterns brought on by cross-platform digital distribution have forced media researchers to re-evaluate their notions of the audience. How is knowledge about the audience produced when emerging sites of consumption are not completely understood? How have research practices adjusted to new ways of gauging audiences and making that knowledge useful? How do researchers understand audiences across platforms? How do different stakeholders ascribe value to the audience? How does research contribute to monetization models for digital content distribution? How has traditional research adapted to keep up with the demand for better metrics? This panel will draw from a variety of industrial and academic perspectives to understand how we imagine media audiences and how we make them valuable.

Panel
JuYoung Lee – Co-Founder & Chief Scientist,ACE Metrix; David Spitz – Director of Business Development, WPP;  Mark Zagorski   – Chief Revenue Officer, eXelate Media; Trapper Markelz – VP Products, GamerDNA

Should be a good time! Almost all that we have done this past year at gamerDNA has been about coming up with data-driven methods for quantifying the gaming audience... taking it beyond the stereotypical classifications of "hard core" and "casual" and finding the true segmentation around genre... content... play mechanics, etc.

I have mainly been contemplating market competition. Truth be told, I am not a competitive person (in a typical sense). I use to be... in high school... but college sort of took it out of me. I also managed to read a book that really had an impact on me called NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny which caused me to see competition and cooperation in a different way.

My friend Kevin linked me to an article the other day called The Awesomeness Manifesto:

Innovation: it's the ultimate source of advantage, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the economic ring. Innovation is what every organization should be ruthlessly pursuing, right? Wrong.

I'd like to advance a hypothesis: awesomeness is the new innovation.

Let's face it. "Innovation" feels like a relic of the industrial era. And it just might be the case that instead of chasing innovation, we should be innovating innovation — that innovation needs innovation. Why? When we examine the economics of innovation, three reasons emerge.

Read More

The article goes on to explain why "Awesome" is the new innovation... and as I read it, I find it has roots in the non-zero way that we can think of markets.

In short, the way I think of competition:

We should be trying to enable markets to be more valuable instead of destroying markets for the sake of other markets.

Given that I work in the gaming space, the commercial question to myself is, how do we expand the commercial success of the gaming industry by using the tools available to us: Content, data, relevance, experience, technology, creativity?

But at the larger level, what other markets are ripe for enabling? Given that my family just went through a personal tragedy, I find myself directly plugged into the tragedy that is happening all over the world. Why did I have to experience tragedy to feel connected to something that already existed in the first place? Is there an enabling way to bring that connectedness to others without them having to actually experience a loss? In this case enabling the support and charity markets of the world.

I stand at a personally interesting cross roads, working in an industry that is ready to embrace technology to make everyone's experiences better. To connect people in relevant and repeatable ways that is good both for the consumer and the content creator. And I can't help but thinking about all the industries out there that could benefit from some of the patterns that I am seeing emerge.

It makes me excited to still be in technology.

I gave the Eulogy at both services... many have been asking for a copy, so here is the most recent version that I spoke in Chicago.

For those of you that didn't know June Elise Markelz all that well during her short life... my Boston neighbor Bruce Wright summed it up with the best quote I will remember about her:

"There is nothing small about that baby.." - Bruce Wright

She was big both in size and in love. And in capability... for she has brought all of us together today.

June was the perfect baby. She only cried when hungry. She enjoyed watching Hannah and Lucy play. She loved to be held, loved to stand tentatively on her chubby legs. She was just learning to laugh when tickled. Because she was such a good, happy baby, Maureen and I both felt like we really enjoyed her time. We are confident she knew how loved she was and we saw how much love she gave our family.

I am not religious in the traditional sense, but am guided by a strong 'humanist' belief that we all are collectively pursuing perfection both in being... and in knowing. And so from this terrible tragedy I hope that I can learn to live better. Learn to 'be' better. And as I reflect, I feel that June is already already teaching me these things.

Maureen and I have always known we were loved... by our family... by our friends... but the true extent of that love and the impact was much more amorphous than it is today. In the last few days we have rekindled old relationships... have been introduced to new people and new communities that have accepted us into their hearts. If June can do this... if she can help all of us be better... know better... live better, than I feel that is the greatest honor of her short time with us all. June has really taught us how loved we are. I thank her for that gift.

Maureen and I have found solace in the writings of many poets and authors this week. Our outlook is best described by one Ekhart Tolle who writes:

Accept, then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.

It has been one week since June's passing. September 19th was the worst day of Maureen's and my life. We accept this. But the next day was not the worst day... and neither was the day after that... or the day after that. And neither is today. It is said that a tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom. So we will carry this new tool with us. It will not define us. It will help us be better people. We will use this wisdom in honor of baby June. I hope all of you use it as well.

Goodbye baby June. We love you.

We now go forth to celebrate her life each day. Maureen and I are changed because of this and we look forward to seeing how this change affects our life.

June's memorial song is "You are the New day" by the King's Singers. You can listen to the song and read the words... for they also showcase the optimism that has been guiding us each day:

Song: The King's Singers, New Day album, Track #1

Lyrics:

I will love you more than me
and more than yesterday
If you can but prove to me
you are the new day

Send the sun in time for dawn
Let the birds all hail the morning
Love of life will urge me say
you are the new day

When I lay me down at night
knowing we must pay
Thoughts occur that this night might
stay yesterday

Thoughts that we as humans small
could slow worlds and end it all
lie around me where they fall
before the new day

One more day when time is running out
for everyone
Like a breath I knew would come I reach for
the new day

Hope is my philosophy
Just needs days in which to be
Love of life means hope for me
borne on a new day

You are the new day

After reading Old Man's War and the others, I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to the characters in that series... so I picked up Zoe's Tale. It is essentially the same story as The Last Colony, but told from the point of view of the young daughter Zoe... instead of her parents.

When I first started, I lost almost all motivation to read this... I guess it was just too soon to re-read the same story, so I just wasn't that into it. I took a break... and recently picked it up for a plane flight. It didn't take long to fall back into the awesome universe that Scalzi created for these stories.

In the beginning, I was a bit put off by the young female character... after all, she is a teenager and her behavior and reasoning is that of a teen girl. It was initially hard to identify with her... but as it progressed and the story weaved in with everything from the Last Colony, and as new situations were added that were not covered in the story... I really began to like Zoe... and root for her.

Some pretty awesome stuff happens in this with some really well written scenes. There were a few moments where I was pretty emotionally moved by what was happening. When reading The Last Colony I wasn't nearly as invested in those moments, but in Zoe's Tale they just meant so much more due to Zoe's perspective.

In the end, this was a great finale to the entire Old Man's War universe. I definitely recommend coming back to this fourth book after you take a break when completing The Last Colony. It made it work much better for me.

I would love more adventures from Scalzi in this series.

To give you some sense... here is where we were:

Here is where we are now:

A couple of the accomplishments include:

• A system wide alerting system to let you know when things are happening. Making it easier to get involved in the conversation.
• Complete conversion from a "friend" model to a "following" model.
• Real-time activity feeds of what people you are following are doing on the site, as well as any content being added around games that you are interested in.
• A "Spotlights" feature that bubbles up stuff you might be interested in based on all your past gaming and content consumption... it learns as you use the site... each day suggesting up to 10 items for you to check out.
• A roll up of games that your friends are playing, what is hot, new, and upcoming based on people similar to you.

In general, we have done everything we can to make the site smarter about you as a gamer. As you use gamerDNA, these systems learn what you like and the content you get becomes more relevant.

In addition, the profile section is revamped to better showcase your identity. Here are some examples...

The profile page starts out with showing your most recent gaming activity.

All of your gaming history is aggregated. Because we now import games for new users from their favorite services, you can have a rich game page of data from the get go. In some cases (when we can) we pull your friends form networks as well, so you can have a good set of people to follow as well giving you a good content stream.

Media is also a big part of interacting on the site... so the content you upload (screen shots) is now presented in a fun gallery format.

All in all, it has been a really fast three months. What you don't see is also all the improvements that were made to the system architecture... and also all the work we did to build a full set of commercial tools for our targeted media network (which is really exciting if you are into behavior targeting and ad networks).

In short, times are awesome at GamerDNA! We have an awesome new consumer product, some really powerful commercial products that are lighting fires in the ad world... what more could we ask for?

I love my job!

For your seventh anniversary, the traditional gift is copper. 

Maureen got be some copper cufflinks...

I got her a copper tea kettle...

Maureen also got us an anniversary journal that she filled with pictures and memories of each of our anniversaries up until now. We have to take a second pass to fill out some more of the details. 

After dinner, we finished off the night watching the Cubs beat the Reds 4-1 at the restaurant bar sipping decaf coffee and dreaming of a full night's sleep.

It was a perfect little excursion to cap seven perfect years. And even though that might NOT sound like a party to you... here is a photo from this summer's Flybridge Capital Partners summer costume party that shows we still know how to hang... 

(The theme was Heros and Villians and we went as Guitar Heros!)

1. The oldest child is typically the strong attention hound... they are the first one out... they get all the extra food and are use to that treatment.
2. The middle child shows up... is normally a handful... has to be to offset the attention-hogging powers of the older and fight for what they can get.
3. The youngest child is often the quiet one... tries to fly under the radar... by this point extra food is running low... just trying to not get left behind.  

The story is pretty straight forward. Great technology ideas that make interstellar travel possible... humans venture out into the unknown... chaos ensues... mix in psychic powers, immortal beings... and you have a fun little sci-fi romp. 

What I find remarkable is that if you compare the writing in Mindbridge from 1976 to that of Joe Haldeman's Marsbound released last year (2008), they seem very similar to me. I say this in a good way. I continue to find Haldeman's stories very comfortable. 

One last point is that this sucker is short. You could probably knock it out on a long plane flight. It took me four sittings to rip through it... maybe 6 hours of reading total... for the length, it is well worth your time... if you like Haldeman like I do.

1. Redanka - Ghosts in the mist2. Christian West - Quench (Part 1)  
2. Shmuel Flash - Chilling Moments
3. Lemon 8 - New York, New York (Out of the Sancuary mix)
4. Ashtrax - Digital Reason (Filterheadz Remix)
5. Midtone - Pearl (Original Mix)
6. Gus Gus - Desire (Burns' Dirty F*cker Remix)

I love summer in Boston. Last year we had just moved in... the job was new... things were pretty crazy so we didn't really get to "enjoy" the New England Summer. Our plans are much different this time around. We have some familiarity with the area... have a good group of friends... which should make for some good exploring.

We also have a pretty solid stream of people coming through. Maureen's parents were here for a week. My sister came through... Maureen's brother and wife are headed this way in a few weeks... Maureen's sister after that... all kinds of good fun.

June is a great baby... so that is helping out a ton. Moving from two kids to three has been quite a jump... given that you are always outnumbered where ever you go. But June has been sleeping well... eating well... doesn't spit up much... doesn't cry much... pretty much a model new born. We can't complain about that.

Things at gamerDNA continue to rocket a long at warp speed. Each month I give a board presentation and the sheer list of awesome keeps getting longer and longer... our press has been great... our product progress is on track for an awesome end of summer revamp... all kinds of great things that continue to make it exciting to be at work each and every day.

We are in a pretty good grove here in Boston. Although every time I say that, something crazy happens... so I guess we will see what happens next!

What a brilliant ending to a three book series. The Last Colony was everything I wanted it to be and more. It takes all of the characters set up in Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades and uses all of those introductions, political machinations, and introduced alien cultures and brings it all to a fantastic climax.

Not only was the story good, but the solution that the main character (John Perry) use to more-or-less save the day is an idea that I have often had when thinking about international politics, which made me appreciate the ending that much more.

Turns out there is one more book that takes place in the Old Man's War universe called Zoe's Tale which I plan to pick up Monday... so I don't quite have to leave the characters yet. :)

Running across a writer like John Scalzi makes me excited to know that there are so many undiscovered writers out there that I have yet to stumble upon. I am the kind of reader that likes to keep a small number of authors close to my heart... because it isn't realistic to follow the works of everyone... and I like always having some names I can look for when I go into old used book stores and such. That said, it is obvious there are so many good stories to read out there (not even counting the sci-fi classics which I never find myself motivated to tackle). I also have a new found respect for multi-arch paperbacks... you can just crank through them and because they are told over multiple books, the universes get to be so rich and fulfilling.

So, now I am on a search for the next thing... after Zoe's Tale of course. Any suggestions?

The sequel to Old Man's War... awesome as ever. I am now 100% hooked by this series... reading The Last Colony as I type this.

The Ghost Brigades is awesome because it takes an entire class of characters introduced mysteriously in Old Man's War and gives you an origin story (with a twist of course!). Lots of fun stuff in this one as you get a picture of Scalzi's world from the perspective of yet another super soldier.

Besides the new scenery, layers of political intrigue are introduced and piled on... plenty of action... plenty of moral dilemmas. It was a fast and interesting read.

I don't think I will be sick of Scalzi's universe any time soon. I also discovered there is another book after Lost Colony which isn't a direct sequel but takes place in the world called Zoe's Tale. Consider it purchased!

It has been a tradition with my other two kids that I grow a beard for two weeks after they are born. It started with Hannah... in that I took two weeks off of work and decided to not shave.

With Lucy, I figured I would continue the tradition. I didn't take as much time off of work, but I did get some nice growth.

So this picture is the result for June. Looking back in Flickr at all my other attempts, they all look pretty much the same. For some reason it felt like I got some better growth this time... but it doesn't look that much different. I guess I am at the peak of my growing abilities. :)

I was looking for something new to read... and came across a review that said "If you like Forever War by Joe Haldeman, you will love Old Man's War by John Scalzi". That was all I needed to jump in the car, head to the book store and pick up a copy.

The review was right. A deep universe... rich characters... fantastic ideas about culture and technology.

Old Man's War has a simple premise. In the far future, an alien technology allows you to be young again. The price of admission? You have to serve in the military to get it. So the only people who can sign up for the military are people that are 75 years or older. This makes for great fun. The military isn't full of young 18 year olds with no experience... it is littered with people with lifetimes of experience... weird habits, opinions and all.

I love this book. I am reading the sequel right now and plan to check our all of Scalzi's work. He writes just like Haldeman in many ways... which is a good thing.

The 3rd Markelz has landed. June Elise Markelz. She was born today at 3:17pm, weighing in at 8lbs 4.5oz. Labor was longer than Hannah, but shorter than Lucy, but harder than both due to her size and position in the womb.

We delivered at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. They were fabulous... and the Midwives here were awesome. Knowledgeable and attentive.

The whole experience was awesome, and I found myself the most emotional after this birth, maybe because this is probably our last baby. That means the Markelz Family is complete. The next phase of our lives begins... so ends the baby era... not begins the school and childhood era!