I read about the reason twitter has been having outages recently. It struck me as interesting the idea that they anticipated traffic spikes from the world cup, an event that had been planned for more than a few years prior to it happening. This made me think, does twitter have a news team? Shouldn’t they? Even one person to monitor up and coming hashtags and world events that might spike the servers, or cause the twitter-verse to twingle?

I then thought that it might be cool if they took a few people and had them act as a Twitter ombuds(wo)men. If they saw a disjointed conversation of import from the non-twitter-savvy-hashtag-using-masses they could offer one up. I know there are 3rd party apps doing this in various ways, or things similar, but it seems that with today seeing Twitter as a powertool to the masses urge to share messages, news and ideas, we might just need Twitter paying closer attention to what is happening in and around the worlds neighborhoods.

I’m sure some will fear that this could lead to censoring of content. Maybe a legit worry, but then again when Twitter goes down we’re all being censored by the machine.

I’m also pretty sure that this not a new thought. Twitter has some smart folk working for them, some of who I know, and I’m sure they have reasons to be working on similar ideas or avoiding them due to problems I haven’t considered.

That said I think a Twitter Ombudsman is a good idea and one that might worth talking about.

Just a thought

Ryan

It looks like it was built this way, but it’s just a stone wall. Was the hole there and the pebble fell in, or was the pebble there for some reason? Either way the esthetic is what I love.

A recent Op-Ed in the NYTImes- Start-Ups, Not Bailouts made me smile(go read it now). I get so frustrated as of late listening to politics back home. The conversation so often sounds like the American people are hopeless and not able to do anything for themselves. That companies who fail mean the world will end. Bullshit. Entrepreneurs can be the change we need to address  the problems of today.

I have a friend who once told me when Northwest was about to go bust for the hundredth time, “Let ‘em”. Contrary to all those people around us saying that if we did the economy would suffer and jobs would be lost. He just laughed at this. He theory and one which I now ascribe to is that when a vacuum is created by one company failing, others will spring up from it’s roots and faster than you might expect!

I think he’s right. The bank bailout, what a joke. I know many say that we had to do it, but in the end if we hadn’t bailed them out, we would have saved ourselves the trouble of doing it later on. Culling the herd one might say. The sick and infected companies, ones who’s inner-workings are corrupt with management structures that have more in common with cancerous growths than with good business practices, will be quickly replaced by a new generation of talent and ideas. They need to be cut out before they spread. Yes we may be a bit sore while  the wound heals, and we may have a scar left, but hopefully that will serve as a reminder to future generations. Don’t let the fact that the healing process maybe painful and take awhile stop us from curing the problem now.

Government is becoming a joke in the US. Recently while watching Robin Williams standup he suggested that congressmen wear jackets like in NASCAR with all the logos of companies who fund them. Great for a laugh, but it would seriously be a huge step towards fixing the government corruption. Maybe we need to cull the herd of Congressmen? What if we took a year and started from scratch. Could be fun to see what happened!

Anyways, back to my original point: We need to invest in the little guys, and when I say we, not the big banks, but you and me. We’re the ones without deep pockets, but we have the numbers. What if there was a KIVA for startups, or a micro lending scheme to help people set up new ventures, and test new models for business. I think it would be interesting, might even work. (there probably already is one)

All I know now though is that the system is broke in the US, and most people rather complain about it than actually try to fix it. Maybe voting doesn’t work because our congressmen have become unable to do anything without the cancerous companies helping them along. Which if true just means we need to dig in and do it ourselves. There has to be another way.

The thing though that scares me most is that we are currently putting money towards holding up broken institutions, and not to the things that actually make society stronger. Education, the only thing that can truly make a society stronger is getting beat up even further. America is becoming a joke around the world for education, health care, and public services. And sadly it’s only getting worse. Everyone complains about government, and big corporations, but they do nothing to change it. People like Bill O’Riely and Keith Olberman whine nightly about what is wrong, but from what I can tell, never do anything other than whine, and breed contempt.

Whiners get no where, and usually end up losing. At least that’s what I remember from grade school.

It’s time to stop ignoring the problem and start investing in the solution: Entrepreneurs and the Education system that will create more of them

’nuff said

Helvetica the film is worth watching whether or not your a design geek, or font lover. Yes a movie about a typeface, font, lettering. Simple and to the point, it has moments that show us how any niche has a language of it’s own. Working in wine people often mock the silly tasting notes, that ramble on with adjectives like a verbal diarrhea. This movie has many parallels. At points typeface designers lose me as they spew nonsensical word masses as they attempt to explain an idea, while all those around them nod in agreement. The language is theirs, the ideas are unique to the their profession. It works for them. Wine babble works for me.

Turns out though communication requires us to remember that our world, is not necessarily our clients, consumer, or audiences. Thank you Helvetica the movie for not only rocking the world of a design geek who’s membership has lapsed, but also for reminding me, that all disciplines deserve a unique language, and yet require us to learn to communicate without it too.

I used to draw a lot. If you didn’t know I have an art degree, in sculpture and painting. I really miss a creative outlet like drawing that let’s me play, be myself, or be someone else for a bit. What ever is needed.

So I’ve decided to draw more. Starting a few days ago I started a regiment of forced doodling. Not much has come of it as of yet, but I do have some nice scribbles coming along. Bit by bit I hope to get this bug back in my fingers, where the twitch to sketch won’t quit…then I want to find a rock and some chisels…to work on that other part of my degree.

I used to draw a lot of stuff, here is one silly thing I did for fun. Not a favorite but one of the ones I brought back from the US this last trip. I have a few more that I like better which I will post when I figure out how to get a better scan. Maybe a photo would work better? Click the picture to see it better. Tell me what you think, or don’t. I’m still going to do some drawing.

In the end I wonder what has changed with basically a 5 yr break from it. What will I come up with next? Who knows, we’ll have to see. Here I go.

, originally uploaded by Ryan Opaz.

Hands down one of the best ice photos from this week.

Loved it. Loved it, not only because I love food and grew up watching Julia Childs PBS shows, while my mom folded laundry in the basement. No, I loved it because I had a chance to watch passion acted upon. Topo many of us have a passion we never do anything about. We all may obsess about it. But only a few act upon it. Gary Vaynerchuck’s “Crush It!
” is a book about how to “act upon your passion”. The problem though is that many people will read his book and just say “yeah that’s what I need to do” and go on thinking about it.

I think I have a solution. Do something stupid. Yep. Go out and do something quickly before you have time to think about it and figure out if it was the right thing later. I wouldn’t be in Spain right now if I had thought about it. Gabriella and I bought a ticket because we could, and look, now we live here. Our passion: exploring the world. At this point we’ve traveled throughout Spain and Portugal. Visited London and Norway numerous times, and have been to India. A series of lucky breaks and a lot of hard work has kept this project/dream/experiment alive. But we’re doing it, and we wouldn’t be here still if we had thought about it.

Juila and Julia both did something, whether or not they were sure what they were doing. They figured it out along the way. They had fun. They made their dreams come true. My dreams are still figuring themselves out…but I’ll keep doing what I need to do, and from time to time, I’ll jump feet first into something I know nothing about, just to see what happens.

Enjoy the chickens: