OK.. I think I’m in love.with an idea..The last couple of months I’ve been starting to follow an idea loosely called “open data’ the basic concept is that entities like cities, states and nations, individuals and even sometimes companies are putting data online for anybody to use. It may not sound like such a radical concept but it is.. Just like the open source movement for code and the maker movement for things.. the open data movement is about sharing things with the hope that someone else might find it useful. .
. It’s a cool blend of altruism and capitalism.. the data is put out freely.. but there are lots of folks starting to make money out of turning it into soemthing useful. Cities like Chicago, NYC. San Fran. DC, Honolulu, Helsinki, Zurich etc are holding social ‘hackathons’ were a combination of social do-gooders, hobbyists and entrepreneurs come together to try and spin data into useful apps for citizens use.. I’ve seen apps for vacation planning. snow plow tracking, bike route planning and pot hole reporting.. Over the past couple of years I’ve donated code to open source, designs to the maker movement.. now I want to try my hand at open data.
My buddy Tim and his company are organizing a civic open data hackathon for this coming October and I’m planning to help. It’s a cool convergence of my hobby interests and my work. We’re speaking to the governors office and the mayor’s offices of Burlington and Winooski to set this up. I’m curious if there are folks out there reading this who would be interested in helping ..
OK.. gotta go render a video.. more tomorrow.. Let me know if you’re interested
nite all, nite sam
-me
You know, I always have felt that I have had infinite energy when I needed it.. but today I’m not so sure.. I had so much packed in to the day.. but I just didn’t seem to gether the energy required for any of it. I had a bunch of touch.g but interested work meetings.. and interesting lunch meeting with the city of Burlington on open data,
a retirement party and more meetings.. then a show in the evening. I needed to really kick butt today in all of those things.. but I just wasn’t feeling.it.. do you have days like that ?
At least I got to meet the kids at the GIV Games program. I did a show for them.. it’s always fun meeting smart kids this age..
ok.. nearly 2am and I need to sleep..
more tomorrow.. if I can muster the energy
-nite all, nite sam
-me
It’s funny what can bring back a memory. I worked from 8 to 6 today with only a 15 minute brake, it wasn’t a bad day.. Just a busy day. When I stood up finally at 5:50 I realized I had time to make dianes Monday night yoga class. Usually I skip Monday and take her meditative Tuesday night class. The Monday class has too many down dogs for my liking.. Still , I was feeling a bit stiff from my date with scythe yesterday so I spread out my mat and started to bend.. I always set up in the back of the room so I have the walls for company and a window to stare out during the parts I space out on… Today we were doing some sort of floor move when I caught site of the dents in the floor. Well, not in the floor actually, they were in this black foam mat that covers the back quarter of the floor. We got that mat to protect the floor from Sam’s band practices . They would always set up the drums, mikes and amps on those mats.. The thousand of tiny dents in the mat each correspond to a mike stand or a cymbal or a drum…
I don’t know what I was supposed to be doing.. But I just lay there and stared at those dents. I ran my hand over them trying to remember the sound of those bands.. Usually metal .. High speed drums, shouted lyrics… Loud , angry and really fun. Sam was in his element whien playing whether it was drums.. His usual.. Or bass or guitar. I actually started crying a little as I tried to grab my left foot with my right hand in some sort of contortion we were doing …
The moment past land we we standing agin.. But part of my day is till there laying on the floor up there
Somehow I managed to sleep until almost 9:30 today… i can’t remember the last time that happened. I remember Diane getting out of bed around 6, .. the next thing I know it’s mid morning and there’s a yummy fruit smoothy sitting next to my bed (I know I married the right girl 🙂
i woke up realizing that I had nothing at all planned for the day.. always a rare pleasure. I decided that I’d spend the day doing some trail maintenance on the Rivershore trail we run on most days. The foliage is getting high and it’s a pain to run to in the mornings when it’s wet. John H. down the street had offered us his scythe .. so after breakfast.. Diane , and I took the girls and headed down the trail… Here’s me as the not so grim reaper…
I also borrowed George and Jane’s weedwacker for the tougher parts.. The medieval approach is far more satisfying .
I spent about 3 very peaceful and mindless hours swinging that blade… pure bliss….
The rest of the day was very peaceful… we had many friends drop by for one reason or another.. Lots of folks borrowing intertubes to float the river… .. but the river is so low.. lots of paddling required
ahh.. I hear it raining.. that’s great…. we need it so badly…
