The National Forest Map via NASA.

This crossing guard mistakes me for a high schooler every morning on my walk to work and insists on taking me across the street.

I met a guy named John Crockett. This is his business card.

I’m tempted to say This is the future of business cards. But that’s silly. Business cards already seem anachronistic. 

However, this strikes me as the future of self-actualization. I think people more often will understand and describe themselves as sets of granular expertises. Organizations that help people accredit themselves will usher this movement, I think.

Scorekeeper’s interaction design is air tight.

(Source: youtube.com)

Isaiah’s birthday at the office.

“Some Favourite British Birds’ Eggs” (by mando maniac)

Conspicuous Production

Yancey Strickler posted an item yesterday about the wane of conspicuous consumption among wealthy people in Silicon Valley. But, as it turns out, conspicuousness hasn’t vanished. The post suggests that the Startup is the new conspicuous. Look at What I’ve Done.

The first comment on that thread introduced a term: Conspicuous Production. It struck a chord because I often behave this way. Many people do.

It’s a fascinating prediction for mainstream consumerism, with both valuable and inane consequences. I’m interested in more creativity and self-reliance for all, but the flip side are folks who will buy a Prius instead of a Gas Guzzler in order to do something for the environment without modifying other behavior that is wasteful (aside, last night, a friend clued me into a study that demonstrated that people who shop at organic markets also tend to leave their lights on at home while they’re away more often than average).

Another intriguing ramification is the production of data. Quantifying ourselves with Tweets and Tumbles and Check-ins is already popular, but I wonder how close to Felton we’ll get. I suppose we’re quickly moving to a point where we all commonly share good data. A massive frontier, I believe, is the development of interfaces that allow us to capture, share and read this kind of data. The kind that makes us look productive in a vast sense of the word.

All of these leads me to wonder, “Who will consume all of it?” My first thought is that it’s for ourselves.

Micro Macro by Encyclopedia Pictura.

(Source: encyclopediapictura.com)

The Future Belongs to the Curious (by Skillshare)

Brief update on the Beaver Brook tumblr theme in progress:

• I added photo captions, now they appear when you rollover an image. 
• I want to submit it to the theme store, but Tumblr requires that themes support all post types (chat, audio, etc), which I haven’t had time (or interest, given this is photoblog) to build.
• Do you have a theme in the Tumblr store and are you interested to help me wrap this up? There seems to be a lot of folks who want to use this theme and I’d love to get it to them — you could help! MSG me.

Startled by this view on my walk to work.

I’ve lived at sea level my entire life. It’s wonderful to have topography now.

If you like pictures of bikes, follow Mission Bicycle. The team posts many of the bikes they build, and document the progress of a new frame they’re inventing.

Teaching kids how to make their own toolboxes today (Taken with instagram)

Big images of Beaver Brook now at beaverbrook.com.

This weekend, while visiting Indiana for Christmas with the fam, I’ll clean up the codebase and submit it to the Tumblr Theme store — I’m really digging full-screen, stacked image scrolling, would like to see more photoblogs this way.

My friend Meagan Bennett made me a Beaver Brook diorama ornament.