I have 250+ friends on Facebook, 100 (+/- Note: haven’t checked today) followers on Twitter, can’t remember how many people I follow, and I think I still have my MySpace page. Out of all those people I am friends with on Facebook, I may only keep track of 50, maybe 60, people. Most of the time I am barraged with game requests, fan page updates, or updates on where Friend X is eating inside the Mega Walmart that just opened up near their house.

And email? Who has time? I have an inbox stuffed with friend requests, work requests, some guy in Nigeria who needs my help moving money, and tips on how to in… improve my manhood. Oh, and then there are the box store emails I don’t read, the newsletters that I have subscribed to that I don’t even open, and I may have an email from a friend in there… somewhere.

Hell, we don’t we even need to think or wonder about anything anymore. Got a question? JFGI (Just Fucking Google It). Have a theory? Blog it. Got a dilemma? Get thee ass to a forum-ery. All matter of information is available to us at the touch of a button. We can share as instantly as we receive.

We have laptops, eBook readers, smart phones, super smart phones, tablet based computers, media servers, Facebooking, FourSqareing, texting, sexting, multimedia messaging, and the occasional super poke. The one thing that is not in this list is talking. Instead we have chosen to shout over each other. It’s like being at the family Thanksgiving dinner where people spend more time one upping the other person than having any real, meaningful conversation.

As Jeff Goldblum postulated in Jurassic Park; we’ve spent so much time patting ourselves on the back for the things we can do, we haven’t asked ourselves if these are things we SHOULD do (and yes, I just compared modern communication technology to the cloning of velociraptors #EPICgeekWin). Out of all of this technology, these great interaction tools, these next big things, are any of these really meaningful? Is there any temperance? Other than when the movie starts, does anybody ever turn off their cell phone? Most don’t even turn off their phone for the movie.

Working in the interactive field, the trend is to try to make the next big social marketing app. How do we connect our customer to our product? How do we keep them connected? How do we incentivise it? However, ask the question how do we make it meaningful, and you will get a lot of blank stares. There are a lot of theories on the idea, but most rely on the premise that if you observe the user’s actions you will get so much data on his/her likes/dislikes that you can target ads, incentives, and messaging to that user. In other words, pay attention to the numbers, and then do what the numbers say. The one thing that is not taken into account is whether the user would actually say that the action was ever meaningful. Deriving meaning from an action is momentary, or within the moment. Once that moment is over, does that meaning still exist?

My favorite recent headline in regards to a social marketing campaign had to do with an organic farm having the largest virtual blueberry patch grown in one of the world’s largest online farming games (the one that displays it’s annoying banner everyday in my Facebook news feed). This, to me, is like saying I got the first prize for being the world’s tallest midget. Who freaking cares? I am glad knowing that the virtual crop will feed the virtual people, but come on. Is this really news, or just a bunch of marketers stroking their… egos. Sure it promotes organic farming, but does that really get people to buy locally grown crops, or stop buying processed crap from the one-stop shops? The Target near my house is putting in a produce section. That freaking scares me.

I am sure for some people these new tools allow a means of communication that they could not have before. People with mobility limitations, shut-ins, or limited social venues may see social networking as the opening of a door that they didn’t have before. But what about the rest of us? When you go out to a restaurant, look at the number of people on their smart phones. When you go to the movies or the mall, look at the number of kids hanging out texting each other — instead of talking. When you are at the store check to see how many children are yelling “mom, mom, mom, mom” or “dad, dad, dad, dad” and then look to see what device the parent is glued to. It’s freaking insane. There are a lot of really great applications that we use daily, but more often we schedule our days around the applications rather than scheduling how we use our application around our day.

We don’t make any real connections anymore. We let technology make them for us, and the end result is that we spend most of our time shouting over each other. There are no conversations taking place, no real discussions, just a bunch of moderated noise.

We have focused so much on interactive communication that we are losing real-time, actual, interpersonal communication. Social media is dominating us. It’s not a tool. It’s the Matrix. Social Media is the new Agent Smith. And I see it in our kids. The day my 4 year old grabbed my iPhone and dialed in YouTube, but was still not able to form a sentence, was the moment I knew that there was a problem. I plugged him in. Maybe not on purpose, but trying to do the best I could I wound up taking the easy road simply out of frustration and exhaustion — and he’s paying the price for my modern-aged laziness (the one parenting move that I will never forgive myself for). I am not averse to my children using technology, it’s just that it needs to be gradual and tempered with common sense. Handing a toddler an iPod possesses neither of those qualities.

Enough of my ranting, I need to update my Netflix queue, and retweet the latest Justin Bieber tweet.

Then there’s the stress of people seeing my work, and lending me their 2 cents (asked for or not). Criticism just comes with the gig. In college, I learned to have a thick skin — or did my best to develop one. I knew that the majority of my peers were offering me advice on, so I could either get upset by people who did not get my vision or I could take the critiques and incorporate them into my work. The latter usually made my work better. The former… well, the former didn’t get me very far.

That said, there are people who view criticism as a means to attack others. They are individuals who believe they have the luxury of destroying another person’s goals, or dreams, or vision. These critics focus on the negative simply because they are lazy. They do not wish to look at any artifact other than through a lens of scorn and derision. They make it known that they enjoy very little, and they encourage (or demand) others to do the same. As long as they are able to direct the course of public discourse, they are content in knowing that the latest art installation will be a flop simply because they wish it to be.

To these people I simply say, “Your Mom!!!” That’s my counter argument to their derision. If I let every person with an opinion try to talk me out of doing something that I wanted to do, then I wouldn’t get anywhere.

And “Your Mom!!!” seems just a good criticism as any.

We look at still lives as if they capture a moment. But even within that moment, the subject or subjects have changed significantly. It is as if we want to believe there is some part of life that is free from time. Sadly, this is, as is most art, only an illusion lulling us into a false sense of security. We overlook the dynamics of the world around us. We toss around words like ‘change’ and ‘status quo’ as call to actions or weapons to hurl, when in fact that change is happening whether we want it to or not.

Just a thought.

I’m trying something new. I’m trying to add a new piece every chance I can. If for no other reason to motivate me to use my creative brain again. I have been putting on Les Baxter, and letting my self just go with it. It’s not easy. As professionals, we are told that it must have purpose — there must be a point. However, as I get older and see life more askew than when I was younger I realize that sometimes things just need to be. There’s no point. No rhyme. No reason. Just this artifact simply existing because I want it to.

That’s not to say that ultimately the piece does not have purpose. By wanting it to exist, I injected purpose into the piece. What I did not do is fill the piece with a contrived, manipulated meaning. I let its purpose be defined by the act of making it. From there I can move on to the next piece (which incidentally does have a purpose for me).

In this day of instantaneous messaging, many to many communication, social marketing noise, it is easy to forget that not everything that appears on our screen has a message. It is easy to forget that we need to just enjoy some things for what they are — simply being created.

It’s important that each moment need not be a purpose driven moment. We need to, on occasion, follow the flow of the river for no other reason than the direction it is flowing. We need to walk with our heads in the clouds. It is important for our sanity.

Well, that’s where Sons of the Moai comes from. I still haven’t figured out where it came from, but I saw this picture and needed to recreate it. It’s out there somewhere in the ether, and I’ll probably see it again soon. However, for now I can let it rest.

Speaking of rest, I’m taking a slight hiatus from anything too strenuous with TKD. So much has been going on lately, that I would up not only burning candles at both ends, but I added a few extra wicks and decided to burn those too. It started to cause a mini breakdown, and made me realize that on occasion I need to take a step away and work on things more recreational — hence Sons of the Moai. If all goes well, I will be able to use the time to work on more blog posts, write up some tutorials, and work on some much needed art ideas. I have notes for about 25 pieces that have been started, and yet to be finished.

The hiatus will also give me time to work on the new site and bring it up to IE speed (or is that down to IE speed). The site itself is far from done, but it is at a point that I can add and take away pieces a lot easier than I could before. It also gives me a chance to put myself more out there. I also need to rethink the CafePress shop, but that is a leisurely hobby and something I can take care of at my leisure.

It took a while, but I finally got the site up and running (mental note: when you update your instance of WordPress, make sure you don’t hose your entire database… and when the little alert says “Make a backup” DO IT!!! Just sayin’).

The site is far from complete. There is still the matter of browser testing, layout tweaks, site performance, CSS cleanup, and functionality testing, but for being a soft launch, the new TikiKitchen is live. I am making the conscious decision not to support IE6 anymore, and I have half a mind to only partially support IE7. I don’t necessarily like to do that, but since IE6 is under 5% percent of the browser market share I feel it’s pretty safe to drop that headache altogether.

So with everything said and done, please take a look around and let me know if you find anything.

Thank you, and drive through.

After some consideration (5 minutes), I decided to open a store with the help of the wonderful people at CafePress.com. I kind of went wild with all the different shirts and stuff, but it was fun getting it set up

If you are interested in getting anything, feel free to go to : The TikiKitchen Shop »

I’ll be adding, deleting and revising what’s there as I continue to learn how CafePress works. Who knows, I might even be able to buy a taco from Taco Bell when this all pays off (soft shell).

Dare to dream.

Usually, I make excuses for myself. I don’t have enough time, there’s too much work to do, I should really get some sleep. These are all phrases that come to mind when motivation sets in. Instead of going with the motivation I run away from it — wearing a mask so to speak.

If I hide long enough from motivation, it will no longer haunt me. It will no longer move me to do what it is I really want to do.

That brings me to a very interesting question. Why do I hide from motivation? Is it that I am lazy (and sometimes proudly so), or is it that if I put myself out there that I have a greater chance to be ridiculed for my work. Am I so scared of my work being criticized that I would risk not making it? Seems rather silly, yet here I am. A 38 year old man trying to find his voice.

I think I got my voice back. Now I just have to push myself.

In honor of Towel Day, I created The Mothership Connection. I needed to work out my inner geek, and become comfortable with nerditude.

According to the Hitchiker’s Guide:

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough”

— Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)