Previously: I still enjoy looking at this.

Thanks to everyone who entered for helping me test out Rafflecopter. It was extremely easy to administer.

Emperor Palpatine with Firing Force Action

Rafflecopter will be updating their widget soon, and if this test is successful I’ll run another giveaway when they release their new code. *Note: If you don’t see the entry mechanisms, you may be in an environment that doesn’t support JavaScript. Visit the page directly via a standard web browser if you are having problems seeing it.

This is Shepard Fairey’s initial well-known public work, a Buddy Cianci sign where I grew up in Providence. I used to see it out the bus window as my bus went from the East Side to Smith Hill or downtown. This piece had an amazing and inspiring outcome. It inexplicably traveled like memes do today, except in the purely offline world of 1989 and the early 90′s, via sticker templates that organically traversed the world:

Shepard sold groovy one-off t-shirts of the Andre sticker design at Thayer Street sidewalk sales and RISD sales. I wish I still had a couple now.

As a now-cancelled Kickstarter project for a documentary about Shep’s early years explains:

“…Shepard received a historic assignment that would later establish his legacy in Providence, Rhode Island. Each student in the class was given a fortune cookie, and tasked with illustrating his or her respective fortune. Shepard’s fortune read: TO AFFECT THE QUALITY OF THE DAY IS NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT. He then decided to paste his Andre graphic over the face of notorious Providence Mayor, Buddy Cianci, on his re-election billboard, located in the heart of the city.”

I wonder if the documentarian eventually came across the work of my friend Helen Stickler, who did essentially the same thing years and years ago.

[Found via LaughingSquid]

In the last 2+ years, I’ve done lots of different types of work for different partners and clients. Working for evolving agencies with evolving visions has afforded me the chance to be a part of many projects that I’d otherwise not necessarily be in a position to take on. It has also given me a chance to stay closely connected to the direct, productive work of making things, which is and has been absolutely essential. Although the core of my focus has continued to be in creating, planning, and supporting content initiatives, in practice as the needs, goals, and make-up of agencies and their clients shifted, that focus tended to drift over time into wherever I was needed. Important attributes like flexibility, situational awareness, the ability to apply known approaches to new challenges, and broad perspective develop from those utility infielder roles. There’s a lot to be said for all of that, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to grow a bit in so many directions.

The time came when I was ready to shore up and focus my energies a bit more pointedly on what I’m most passionate about, what we talk about when we talk about content strategy. As I drew out in a WordCamp talk, I believe that to be a crucial and central function that agencies can help companies execute, at a higher order than and no matter how the various things that “social media” has come to mean may evolve. I considered taking on the challenge on my own, but after careful consideration and introspection, I decided that this time around I’d rather hit the ground running as part of a team of smart people that already operates at a high level, who I can learn from and be inspired by. I sought a group that already had something of a focus in this direction and a shared understanding of its value. Having counted many members of the Voce team as respected industry leaders and trusted friends, theirs was the name at the top of my list. After extensive exploratory conversations, the initial suspicion that we had something of a shared vision was confirmed. I’m excited to get started today.

The changing of the “Feeling Most Like” icon on the Extraface “about” page has become a customary part of all of my transitions. Today I switch from Brother Mouzoune from The Wire…

…to…

…a guy Breaking Bad fans will know simply as “Mike.”

It only matters for me because I use an Android phone (and an iPad, and a Mac Mini) and have built all of my sync stuff to date around Google Sync since it works so nicely for Android phones. It may or may not end up being a big deal – here’s hoping for not.

In case it appears that I’m flailing my arms around (“going nutsos” in the parlance of our house), really I’m taking it in stride and just wanted to provide a heads-up in case it might affect others in a similar spot. Systems, device configurations, users, and their use cases are varied and complex and there are always kinks to be worked out.

Update: So far I disabled iCloud contact sync, and am continuing to use Google Sync via Exchange. Working fine.

Here’s a shot from the making of the birthday week spinner I created for Molly:

Max annoying my dad, who is trying to get down to some serious solitaire on the iPhone:

This one feels like a polaroid:

I should meditate more often.

The Internet button on planes continues to amuse me.

It’s nice to see him in the sunshine fully enjoying what dogs like to do – eat bones.

There’s been a lot fun and human about Turntable.fm, right down to the lovable, JIT, slapdash maintenance screen they just flipped on. It makes a big difference in terms of how I bond to an app.

I haven’t been this excited about the early-ish stages of a community since my summer of Vox.com, and maybe Sissyfight.com before that.

• Coffee in the morning
• Yogurt or steel-cut oats for breakfast
• A run at some point
• Lunch
• 409 King’s Tea in the afternoon (out of a trip buddy usually)
• Music
• An episode of Back To Work with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin