Clever Thoughts

2010: Dean of Awesome?

// January 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

An open letter to the Awesome foundation:

Dear Awesome Trustees and other affiliated Awesome People,

I would like to openly submit my name for consideration for the position of Dean of Awesome. I believe I have the skills and time to help spread the word and continue to build the community of Awesome that you have begun.

In regards to my experience, please see my linked in page here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/guidostein

Please see the people who recommend me for the position of Dean of Awesome here:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=guido4dean

Three years ago I had a dream about how community could be fostered around fiber activities (knitting/crocheting/etc) in Boston. There are a powerful amount of fiber folks online and in the Boston area. It was time to bring the community together and celebrate the common interest as well as the things that make us unique.

To this end I worked on building a Guild, Common Cod Fiber Guild, which meets once every other month. With the guild we have created talks, fashion shows, and most recently (see photo to left) we put on FiberCamp Boston, the first un-conference for fiber folks.

I want to bring this kind of vision and social experimentation to your group. I want to see what your community looks like and how it can manifest itself. I want to be, Dean of Awesome.

Speaking of dieing…

// August 14th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

(photo White House by phototram)

Having recently had my aunt pass away I am keenly interested in how people people face death. My aunt showed an incredible amount of strength in spirit as she faced her own mortality. She had been fighting ovarian cancer for years before getting to the point where there were no other options, at which point she began to work on her memorial and spend her time expressing her feelings to her loved ones with the energy she had left.

I love her and miss her.

This morning I read an article in the Boston Globe(paper copy) that stated “Senators eliminate end-of-life provision“. For those of you who don’t know, the provision in question allows for patients to speak to their doctors about their medical options when dealing with death in the current health care reform bill that is currently being fought over debated.

This really depresses me.

Basically, opponents of this provision have turned this into a question of putting old people down like pets. They refer to it as the “death panel” provision. The fear here is that if the government gets involved in health care the choice of who gets care will also include a choice of who will be killed off for the betterment of the nation.

How is it that this issue is being dropped. Isn’t it important for patients to talk to their doctors about living wills and who will make choices in case the patient is no longer capable. Where are all the cancer walkers and the democrats? Why is it so easy to convince everyone that talking to your doctor about death means you are talking about euthanas?

It’s just heartbreaking that this is being dropped. I guess it’s insane that this was the focus of the debate when the whole health care system costs and quality at large is really what is at issue with this bill… no?

Twitter is to conversation as Direct message is to…

// August 12th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Rules of conversation are relative. It all depends on what you learned from your family and friends and where you are from geographically. In some places you can end a conversation over the phone without saying good bye (I would find this very disruptive)

With the advent of Twitter it seems that we are all learning a new way to converse. With only 140 characters and a few explicit ways to manage and direct the conversation flow, I find that is more important than ever to understand how to interact with others.

With this in mind I would like to share one of my core beliefs about the the Twitter conversation.

If Twitter is a conversation in a huge cafeteria where everyone can select the people they want to listen to, then Direct Messaging(DM) is the equivalent of asking someone into the hallway for a moment.

Using this understanding of DM, it would be ok with me to have you DM me about something personal, like your email or phone number. it would be ok to DM me something that might embarass me or you in front of the rest of the group, like asking what a hash tag is or telling me my avatar is super sexy.

It is NOT OK to direct message me generic information. If you DM me to thank me for following I get suspicious. If you DM me about a pyramid scheme or how to get more followers, I stop following all together.

Today I received multiple DMs about a charity that is trying to get people to tweet their specific congressmen about their cause. They created an app that puts out a message with a hash tag about your local politicians. Clever… but it also has an opt out button that asks to DM all your followers.

By sending DM to all your followers you will be setting a bad rep for you and thing you are sending the DM about. Follow me, based on what I have said so far… I have been asked into the hallway multiple times today to ask to join a cult charity. This was ok the first time, but with every new DM I get from a friend about this, I start to get more tired and unfriendly about the cause.

So, am I crazy about what the meaning of DM is? Is this how you see DM? Let me know what you think.

(The img used above by creative commons use is Lunch by adactio )

Notes from Podcast Boston 4, Aug 2009

// August 9th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

I am exhausted physically and energized spiritually from three days of social media.

I presented a session on getting started on podcasting. It was a wonderful talk with people who are finding their voices and Adam Weiss. You can download the slides here.

My take aways from the weekend are as follows:

• There are always newbies trying to understand social media/internet
• Podcamp is a wonderful place to share and talk about “the conversation”
• Respectful debate is the next frontier

As always, I made podcamp what I wanted it to be, a few good conversations with thoughful people who want to understand what matters online. I had these talks with socail media pros, marketers, and newbies.

Please comment and let me know what you took away from podcamp.

Feeling petty

// August 5th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Look, I am happy that the two reporters are now back from North Korea. I hope that they and there families will heal from the events that have happened in their life soon.

That being said, this is now the second event this summer that focuses on people with connections to the current administration that has had a resolution for only a few people. The other example is the gates police encounter.

I guess I am feeling like I want a story that shows me that we are all gonig to be saved by Clinton and or Obama. I mean, will Obama invite me and my knitting friends for a cold breew at the white house? Will Clinton fly into Barre and help my friend who is losing his house because he did not have money to keep it after his wife died of a surgery that left her paralyized that was supposed to help her with her cancer.

Let me know that health care is going down in price… let me know that there will be free wifi for all, let me know that we will all have a three day weekend more often…

ok… like I said, just feeling petty. (I know Obama really does want better health care, but those pesky nasayers seem to be getting in the way {without any solutions of their own})

Welcome…

// May 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Welcome To Interaction by craigmdennis

I never know who is going to stumble on this site and I think I need to do a better job at rolling out the welcome carpet.

In case you don’t know… this site is about me, Guido Stein. I am a guy in his thirties who has a lot of varied interests. I spend a lot of time in two categories, knitting (personal) and GIS (professional). I like to share my thoughts and help others with all the things I do. I am constantly learning new things.

If you look to the right of this web page you will find links to some of my projects online (More Content). I have ordered them from the most active at the top to the least active at the bottom. I will update this list as I start new online projects (hint.. hint…).

I hope you enjoy some of my musings and have a look at my many other projects online.

:)

In the land of Maztah…

// March 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

I am a big fan of Passover. This may seem weird seeing as I am not Jewish, but it was always an important event growing up. Something about the social justice, story telling, and matzah balls always worked for me. I am still pleased to play the role of the rebellious child in the Haggadah reading.

That being said… I can’t seem to nail cooking the Brisket to save my life. I thought I was making a good brisket until I tried my Aunt’s Brisket this year. I am using a recipe out of “the mensch chef” and I have been cooking it in a dutch oven, so how can I go wrong… right? Well… it turns out that my Brisket is hard… tasty but hard. I am so ashamed.

anyhow… happy easter and pesach… I hope you are all well…

Weekend foodie Recap 3/1

// March 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

While I like to eat out I also feel really guilty about doing it unless it’s during the weekend. I have had too many jobs now where eating out was so easy and I am trying to break myself of doing this by reserving the yummy adventures for the weekend with my Pumkin Wife.

So last weekend my Pumkin and I had two food adventures I want to share.

First was our Friday Night/Date Night dinner. We decided to go local and walk around union Sqaure looking for something good. And, we found something good at Cantina la Mexicana.

Cantina La Mexicana is an expansions of a burrito/mexican restaurant. They took over a space that used to be Irish Eyes, which used to be a scary bar. The once green interior of the old space was now replaced with bright oranges, reds, and wood accents. The atmosphere felt festive, clean, and well thought out. I liked a lot of the accents and playfulness provided by lighting and glass work.

We ordered shrimp cevache, a litre of sangria, chiles relleno, The Union Square Gringo(assortment of meet wrapped in cheese and corn encasings), and flan. The food was good and tasty. Sadly, the salsa and some of the seasoning was not very spicy… but the actual food made up for this. The only thing lacking about my huge portion of food was a little side salad or beans. The Flan however was amazingly huge and delicuous, image a half sheet of brownies, but in flan form.

Besides the spice, my only complaint was that the service was lowsy. We were ignored most of the time, plates were not taken away when we finished them, and it took a while to get our check. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it had not been for the fact that the owner of the resaurant was hovering over the table next to us, I think there was some local media there… hey buddy… share the love with the rest of us people who are paying for a meal.

The second meal we ate was at the Eatern Standard. This place is big in town, not just their website. They get a lot of good reviews and I was excited to try it for the first time. The atmosphere was kinda pretentious, but warm none the less.

The service here was amazing, they actually apologized for the wait on our appetizers and took them off the price for our meal. Everyone’s food was wonderful, french toast/dulce de lech crepe, but mine. I ordered the fritata and I wish I hadn’t. The portion for the fritata was very small and it was very bland and lacking character. I was expecting something with a lot of cheesey kick and perhaps some semi-burnt edges, what i got was a soggy spongey thing instead. And if that was not enough, the chorizo sausage I got with the fritata was really small and also very underspiced… pooh…

So, I hope that sharing this is helpful to others. I am going to start to put these kinda reviews and thoughts abot food here and on yelp and chow. I think that this will give me a new community of people who share some of my passions outside of my regular knitting crew…

that’s it

Foodies Unite

// February 28th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Uncategorized

I went to an interesting event the other night at WBUR. It was an Eat-up Tweet-up.

Imagine, if you will, a room full of people who like to talk and blog about food. It was awesome and delicious. There was an interesting exchange of ideas and thoughts about the local food scene and how it’s being covered. There was food brought by many. There was wine. There was a lot of people trying to figure out how they fit into the group.

I was also trying to figure out how I fit into the group. I realized recently that this is a group that I should participate in because I have a great passion for food. I don’t think I want to start a food blog, but I do think I want to participate in the food websites like chow and yelp, reviewing the places that I like to eat. I am not an expert persey, but I know what I like and want to share that with others.

So, here are some of the interesting people I got to hang out with at the #eattweet:

• Lauren Goldberg – Lauren is working her way into the blogging world trying to figure out if there is a niche she can fill. I understand her concern about not wanting to add more of the same content… but I feel that blogs are about points of views and every person brings their own view/style and that is what separates the content… so Just Do It I say
• Owen Mack – Owen is the charismatic owner of Kitchen Arts on Newbury Street. He currently has a very interesting website that has some fun video demos of cooking tools and toys in his shop. I am looking forward to visiting his store in the near future to play. (don’t tell my wife)
• Mary Reilly – Mary is a personal chef with a yummy blog. She brought some wonderful healthy vegetarian fare to the event which included beets with cauliflower and lentils with feta cheese. I think I may ask her if she would be willing to teach a class for me about weekly cooking.
• Lynne Viera – Lynne has sexy video blog that highlights cooks and foodies in the Boston area. She brought some delicious cupcakes that were filled with a rasberry mouse. You can find the info on the cupcakes here.

So, I have an alterior motive for attending this event. I want to go to a CupCakeCamp in Boston, but I have to many projects already on my plate(giggle). So I have been aproaching everyone I can to get this dream of mine off the ground. I am happy to help connect people and be a cheerleader, but I canot organize this event right now…

Thanks again to Ken and his staff for organizing this delectable delight. I hope that this post and my future posting about the food world in Boston is worthy of the #eattweet group. :)

photo by jbcurio

Costco Lifestyle pt 1

// February 17th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

I am really interested in eating better. I have been trying to make better choices about not only what gos into my body, but what comes out of my wallet. It is in that vain that I am really interested what my meals really cost and what each part of a meal costs.

After my last run to Costco I took my receipt and broke it down by unit and here are my results:

Let me let that sink in and later I will do some meal analysis