IMG is nothing?

Every year, I obsess over finding a cool father’s day gift for dad. I always start out expecting to find some super gift that he will love, but somehow I always end up getting him a tie, some tool, or just taking him out to dinner. The problem is that while I know Dad will appreciate anything I get him, I also know that he doesn’t really need or want much: he’s the type of guy that will buy whatever he wants and he’s past the point where he has many “needs”.

This year, as with Mother’s Day, I decided to make shopping a project and focused on the most efficient way to find a gift. I’ve got some issues with Amazon.com (had some customer service issues a while ago), so I’m trying to avoid them (I know that’s counterintuitive since I’m looking for 1-stop shopping, but bear with me). After doing some surfing, I came back to the Collectibles Today. They have a Father’s Day shop that is really easy to use. I found a great digital photo wallet that can hold up to 60 pictures (it has 16mb, so its really like 20-30 pics on most cameras). It just so happens that I gave the folks a bunch of pictures last month (lil brothers birthdays and holidays), so now Dad will be able to look at the pictures without having to use his computer (he seems to spawn viruses just by looking at his laptop).

So, I’m really happy with my choice. I’ll still be taking Dad out for a beer, but I finally got him something worth while too.

I’m curious if anyone else has the same shopping problems I do (see previous post for more on that). If you have problems or have found a cool solution, then leave a comment.

Every year I find myself in the same situation: its a week or two before Mother’s Day and I have no idea what I’m getting my Mom or Step-Mom.

I am a reluctant shopper in the best of times, but mix that with my guilt for not calling more often and the string of well-intentioned but poorly-planned gifts in the past; and I become damn near incapable of buying anything. Its not that I don’t want to give my Mom(s) great mothers day gifts; its that I’m terrified that anything I pick will elicit the standard hug, a “Thank you”, and then be put in the closet.

Maybe I’m alone on this one, but nothing hurts like finding your mother’s day gifts on that shelf in the spare bedroom where knickknacks go to die.

This year, in order to reduce the anxiety, I chose to shop online and look for a single store with a lot of mother’s day gift ideas. I figured a mother’s day jewelry gift would be a safe bet, but also wanted some less obvious options (music boxes anyone?). Right now, I’m hooked on the Mother’s Day Shop at Collectibles Today. It has hundreds of mother’s day gifts including mother’s day rings and necklaces, figurines, music boxes and some stuff I don’t have names for…

I haven’t decided on which gifts yet, but I expect to decide today. Check back to find out what I came up with.

There is a great article in the International Herald Tribune, written by seven U.S. soldiers about what Iraq is really like. While its not a glowing critique of our time and activity there, it is a logical and measured assessment of where we are, what we do, and what needs to change.

The Iraq war as we see it

Here are a few of highlights [comments by yours truly]:

“In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: One of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, a U.S. Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a “time-sensitive target acquisition mission” on August 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse - namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force.”

[I’ll raise a toast to Sgt. Murphy and his recovery. The rest of you keep your heads down, so I don’t become an alcoholic.]

“The most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in communities barricaded with concrete walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In an environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act.”

[Why don’t we hear this stuff when Petraeus goes on Fox News?]

“We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.”

[You guys rock and I wish we weren’t making your jobs harder with poor strategy.]

Thanks to the Men & Women of the U.S. Armed Forces. We’re proud of you.

Kurt Vonnegut died last night. [Bow your head for a moment of silence].

He wrote what we needed to read:

1. our truths masked as someone else’s;
2. our folly put into focus;
3. our world as it was, without forsaking what it could be.

I still re-read Mother Night. Breakfast of Champions helped me survive a deep depression my 3rd year of college.

If we made Slaughterhouse Five mandatory reading in high school, we’d be able to revive the publishing industry and develop some really smart kids.

The NYT obit

A nice piece over on Salon by Andrew Leonard. Leonard played chess with him as a boy. I now have to be jealous of Andrew Leonard.

Michael Dannenberg and Phillip Longman - A Bid for Better Student Loans - washingtonpost.com

Web 2.0 isn’t a new topic, but its what’s happening now and its principles will be seen in everything still standing after the next tech explosion. Yet business still doesn’t get it.

I was catching up on my NussbaumOnDesign reading. If you haven’t checked him out, Bruce Nussbaum is the guy who talks about design and innovation for BusinessWeek. Bruce regularly talks about products you’ll love someday. Cool job.
His post about Davos and Web 2.0, lines up pretty well with my earlier post on the topic.

I’ll be writing more on 2.0 real soon.

I can’t say I’m happy about the outcome of the Bears-Colts Super Bowl. As a Chicagoan, I’ve spent my life hearing about the glory of the ‘85 team, but not having much to enjoy in the present. That traditions continues.
Yesterday, we looked good for a few minutes (Thanks Devin Hester), but then fell apart. Thats all I can stand to say about the Bears right now. Losing sucks.

One thing I can’t talk about enough is the half-time show. Prince came out and did what I consider the best, funkiest, and most enjoyable Super Bowl performance ever. It rocked.

Here it is:

Prince’s Half-time show

BillSullivan takes pictures of people when they aren’t looking, when they aren’t trying to show their game face. He finds these moments in elevators and subways and in the middle of Time Square. He finds them by studying common situations. Check out ‘More Turns’ then look at his other work to see what I’m talking about.

I found this on Design Observer

Read about DVD Flick over on LifeHacker. Downloaded and tried it. Now am burning all the movies I’ve picked up onto DVD. I’d tried a few other programs (including DVD Shrink which is pretty good), but always found that some stuff just wouldn’t play.

It seems like LifeHacker is always there for me. Schooling me to the cool stuff before the other kids know about it. Or, making sure I don’t blow my fingers off on the 4th of July . I’ll add DVD Flick to the list of Life Lessons that my Big Bro’ LifeHacker has passed on. Thanks Bro.

Here’s the article:
Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD - Lifehacker

Just got done reading Ben Stein’s piece for the New York Times,”The Hard Rain Falling on Capitalism“. Based on the description of his home in California, he is obviously living well, but he sees a real problem with our economy and government–the rich continue to get richer, while the wages and opportunity for the rest are stagnating.

The thing we have to remember is that this isn’t a necessity of capitalism. Yes, the wealthy can invest to expand their wealth, and some people will get paid more for their work. Yet, traditionally, American capitalism meant that anyone with a great idea could seek capital to make that idea reality; it meant your contributions and compensation would be correlated (you’d get what you’re worth or close to it).

For Stein, the issue is trust. How can we continue to believe in a system [capitalism] that doesn’t compensate based on value, but rather allows the top percentiles to decree what the rest of us will get (while demanding their own ever-increasing pay). He’s really focusing on the ridiculous salaries of CEOs, but this also applies to the connection between corporations and the public. We trust government to tax corporations that use public resources and use that money to better society. But oil companies reap billions in profit, then are able to squirrel away these funds in tax havens AND further enrich themselves with subsidies. Government allows this because those who govern receive their share while the rest of us watch our opportunities evaporate.

Stein writes that capitalism is,

“built on man’s notion that he can trust his neighbor with his money, and that if the neighbor misbehaves, the law will chase him and catch him, and that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom, that even the nobles get properly handled (Bob Dylan again) once they have been caught.”

I don’t expect CEOs or governments to forget profit or their own interests, but I expect them to pursue those interests in a way that leaves the middle-class and lower-incomes with mobility. Their greed and cronyism, coupled with our apathy or skepticism means we will eventually lose the trust in capitalism that lets janitors become millionaires and crooked executives become inmates.