Life Persists

Borrowed from our company blog

Newspapers 1.0

February 22nd, 2008

One of my favorite things in life is reading newspapers. I will go to the library or local book seller and sit for hours reading the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The State newspaper out of Columbia, SC and my local newspapers. I also like to magazines. I’m subscribed to Mens Health and Wired, but for other magazines like Newsweek or Time and especially GQ and Vanity Fair, I don’t want to spend the money on the subscription if I can go somewhere and read it for free.

There are a couple problems associated with my information addiction (or pastime as I usually refer to it). One of them being that with Vanity Fair, I may like the bio-pieces they do on a certain celebrity or important person, but I don’t really care so much about the piece on the $700 t-shirt I wouldn’t buy even if I could afford, or their opinion pieces.

On the other hand, one of the things I enjoy the most about my iPod and iTunes is Podcasts. I can get my music fix with the Indiefeed and All Songs Considered podcasts. I can get The News From Lake Wobegon (Prairie Home Companion) and This American Life. I have the Podictionary podcast that gets into the etymology of words. I get my geek fix with Radiolab (which is making me crazy waiting on the new season). The point being that I get all sorts of different content that has absolutely nothing in common in anyway but all as soon as it’s available and all in my pocket and truck wherever I go.

The feature I am most excited about with ADynammic is getting my news and print media the same way I get my podcasts. The same thing iTunes did for radio, we want to do for the print media. I may want the headlines from The Economist and the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page, the new workout from Mens Health, and the latest musings on “Greifers” from Wired– and to have them update automatically on my computer with the same layout and design quality I have sitting in the library looking at the page. It’d also be nice to have them saved on my hard drive so that when the Wi-Fi at the coffee shop goes out (like has happened eight times while writing this), I can still read the article. Of course, I can also save it and go back to it later as long as I have enough space on my hard-drive or the cloud. When I moved a couple months ago, I bet I threw out 100 pounds of old issues of Mens Health that I would occasionally go back to and read. Not to mention all the trash I added to the Spartanburg County Landfill which was already too full.

So I guess for a little while longer I’ll keep having to pilfer through the “Flair” section of The Greenville News while looking for something I want to read. I guess I can handle the strange Dolce and Gabbana ads for a little while longer– but just a little while longer.

Trey

So here's the pre-beta version of our logo

So I've been stressed out over Photoshop for the last two days and haven't been able to look for funny pictures of has-been stars. I have been staring at tutorials online for hours at a time trying to come up with one and this is what I've now got. It could possibly change completely though-- let me know what you think.

We're leaning towards the green.

Hey-- check out my two business partners blogs at http://cglace.wordpress.com/ and asteinb.tumblr.com .

The first one is Chris Glace's our tech guy, and the second is Adam Steinburg the President/CEO's

I think I found the inspiration for Queen Ursula-- The "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin

Scientology protest pic

They have to wear masks and be anonymous so the Church of Scientology doesn't come after them with lawsuits or worse.

I just wanted to exress the range of emotions I feel when thinking about John McCain as the nominee and president.

First new post in over a year.

So I haven't updated this in over a year. Some changes:

• Moved to Clemson to build ADynammic (our new company) with Adam Steinberg (yellow shirt) and Chris Glace (the sunburned curmudgeon in the lovely ultramarine). Also pictured is my our friend but not co-founder Danny Mayes (sorry about the unfortunate zipper position Dan-- theres a episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry has the same problem).

• I got an apartment in Central, SC which is nice enough but I have absolutely nothing on the walls and no dresser or trash cans(grocery bags on door knobs will suffice). I do have a new bed and my desk which is pretty much all I need). I kind of like the minimalist thing right now-- nothing to distract me on my walls and I don't want this too feel like a home (I know we disagree on this Lyndsey). I don't want this too feel like a home because it isn't supposed to be my home-- just a temporary living space on our way to better things. I like to keep the bare existence as motivation to stay focused on the company and get ourselves into YCombinator or TechStars (either would be great if anyone from either of these extraordinary organizations ever reads this) or to get the company going without angel funding and make the money to move to Boston or San Fransisco on our own revenue building.

• I did have to stop being a YoungLife leader (here I am mentoring young Rhett Gibbs) at Dorman which is very regrettable but I think the guys will forgive me either when I am no longer poor or when they realize at 21 it is time to quit talking and incorporate!

• I got a job at Jittery Joe's coffee shop in Clemson where I try my best to get in 40 hours-a-week filling in for people. I don't mind the work and I really like the deals I get. One free espresso drink and all the free coffee and tea I want while I'm working, and 50% off when I'm not working. I definitely like this job better than last years when I was driving for my dad. For one thing I only have to get up before 5am every now and then for this one instead of every day. Another is that I am around people my age instead of cranky secretaries and forklift drivers who pretend you don't exist so they can pretend to be important or whatever their reason. If you're in Clemson stop by Jittery Joe's and say hello-- I won't get you a discount but I will gladly accept your tips (and remember I have to split those with a backbreaking shift leader so don't be stingy).

• Fortunately 2007-2008 (see last post) is proving to be much better to me as far as being a music fan. Artists such as M. Ward, Spoon, Shout Out Louds, Jose Gonzalez, Les Savy Fav, Of Montreal, Ryan Adams, Okkervil River, They Might Be Giants, Vampire Weekend, and Lightspeed Champion come to ming too literally name a few. Music is one of my favorite things in life and these tend too make me very satisfied.

Well I suppose that is all for now-- it is certainly more than I expected to write-- I'm not even sure why it hit me to update this, but it just hit me so here it is.