From NY to SF

it takes three

  Carrie wins... 
  Originally uploaded by jonathanhstrauss.

this is why i always question people when they talk about "convergence" or the need for a "centralized hub" or "one device."  because . . . while those theories are widely discussed, i find that they're often not realistic.  this photo is an example of the myth of one device.  i have THREE.  three is not uncommon.  each device does exactly what it's supposed to do, and does it better than the other two.  the phone makes calls, texts, acts as my address book -- it has itunes, but that experience is annoying for a number of reasons.  the treo is for email and calendar -- horrible for calls.  the ipod, well that's for music.  i am not an anomaly among consumers in this way; i find it to be true in silicon valley and beyond.  many people carry at least 2 or 3 devices.  in fact, i know many people who carry four, including an additional ipod.  they have a nano for the gym and a larger ipod for storage and use with their stereos. 

assuming that people want *one* device or *one* central place to interact is dangerous.  because what happens when you design for that case is often that you end up being the preferred choice of nobody for nothing. 

i have only addressed the web analogue in this post referentially; look for more to come on this topic, i have to get back to work now.

small but mighty

i never really think of myself as being little -- i only realize it when i look at pictures, at which point i often have the same response "i look like such a shrimp!" to which i often receive the reply "that's because you are a shrimp!"  however, i am the second biggest westlake woman (out of 4)!  and we all think of ourselves as just as big as the rest of the world.  i was reminded of this when i was home in hudson, oh.  this pic was taken when my mom, little sister and i headed out to go shopping and encountered a fallen tree on our driveway.  we hopped out of the car and hauled away the dead tree, and continued on our way to the mall . . . but before i started slinging branches into the woods, i snapped a picture as evidence that while we may all be pretty little, we're still (relatively) tough :)

My first earthquake!

so i was just randomly surfing and had happened upon twitter, when i felt my first earthquake.  i jumped up, because it felt like a truck had hit my building so i thought maybe someone had run into the garage.  then i realized:  silly girl, you live in CA now . . . there are earthquakes!  it kind of felt like riding a roller coaster or a wave.  so i searched to confirm that it actually was an earthquake.  i checked USGS, NBC 11, SF Gate.  nothing to be found.  i went back to looking at twitter, figuring i'd check back on the earthquake later.  on the front page, there were recent posts from the community about the EARTHQUAKE!  i was right, there was one.  i hit refresh a couple of times and someone had already dug up a preliminary report by the USGS and linked to it.  totally awesome.  i'm a little too shaky to write anything too profound about how cool that experience is -- about the implications of the web, mobile technology, and community on our daily lives, but i think there's little explanation needed.  the story says it all!!  COOL!!

trying something new

yay!  here i am . . . ready to write.  in moving to sfgirl, i've abandoned a year of posts on my old blog.  perhaps this is a good thing; starting fresh can be a worthwhile endeavor.  sixteen months ago i started over in many ways, moving across the country to a new city, new job, new friends.  and now i have the perspective to look back and say that it was undoubtedly worth it.  worth the stress of being so far from family and friends and thrown into a bunch of unknown situations.  if you want to read about the first year that I spent in SF, feel free, it's all still there.  i'm going to move onto the next stage now . . . and write about it here.