I sit at my desk overlooking the trees and lower street of Waveland i’m beginning to get back to reality and life. I’m officially in Chicago as of Saturday. It’s been such a fast paced month. I don’t think i’ve ever gone this hard in a while. It feels weird to sit here now. Such is the feeling of I should be doing something. Well, there is its called taking my leftover boxes to my storage closet in the basement. It’s one day at a time.
I was excited today to actually cross off every one of the 10 tasks I had laid out as well as work the full the day. The first day of working from home was pretty good. I stayed busy waiting for the apartment doods to come fix some things as well as Comcast to come bring the Internet to me. Once I had that running life started to get on track. Weird how much we deep on it now like electricity.
So why am I here? I’ve been accepted into the Institute of Design’s Masters of Design Methods program. And I can clearly say I’m so pumped to be here. It’s been a life purpose that has taken a while to get me here. I know God has brought me here for a reason and I’m so excited to discover just what that is. I met with my adviser for the first time this am to begin working through what i’m going to start off with on my learning quest. Stay tuned as I focus my blog on the tales of design in the coming months.
On the home front, the apartment is slowly starting to shape up. I know many want to see how small of a box I can live in and I can say this place is really a good size and I’m super happy to be a resident of the Ravenswood/ West Lakeview area.
Zack Perry Current Affairs, Experience, Innovation, Life, Web/Tech
For the fourth or fifth time since being on Typepad I'm kick starting this blaggg. I've neglected it a bunch in favor of Twitter. I think the instant moblogging has been so much more effective for me personally but its limited my traffic. 100+ followers, some truly follow, others check in occassionally. BUT the blaggg drives specific traffic. Either you are seeking information out, stumbling upon it through search, or you have an RSS feed.
My brahhhh Sean Hudson and I have discussed this recently. He was once a heavy blogger back years ago but found as life gets more complex and the free time to write dwindles, twitter has become a better option for him. I would say I'd have to agree. But I miss long form. 140 characters is good for during the day thoughts, questions, answers, and messaging, but I find there has to be a time when you need to bang out a deeper thought. Heck, is 11:15pm and I should be asleep but i'm a bit on edge from the day so i'm up and i've got a few minutes to think and write.
Geoff Livingston made a good point two weeks ago over dinner with Eric Mathews and I. Pick two things and do them well. That really stuck with me and as I look at my patterns its slowly dwindled down to just that. Facebook and Twitter. But I'm going to see if I can juggle three. Identity/ Presence, Short Thoughts, and Long Form.
BTW - Typepad, love the new blogging entry redesign. Simple, arranged, intuitive, and in control.
Zack Perry Current Affairs
As I collect my thoughts of previous research i’ve explored in the area of urban megacities, by all accounts this website is pretty accurate. Its a short flash explanation of the next twenty years and the explosion of megacities around the globe.
http://www.192021.org/
Zack Perry Current Affairs, Life
Just when you think your Grandmother, aka Slaw-Ma, is out of touch with reality she makes a comment about the state of the environment and claims we as a country need to do something about global warming. Wow.
Zack Perry Current Affairs
While I applaud OPEC for its recognition of our coming disruption of oil/ energy consumption I think its a tad premature to come out with statements like this. We are already suffering at the pump this could really spike it.
In all honesty, looking at the future we are at least 10-20 years away from breaking this dependency. So if it takes industrialized nations 15 years to get off oil. By that time we could be paying 10-15 dollars a gallon based on the rise in the last couple of years. Just my thoughts.
Story from Treehugger:
"The president of OPEC said Wednesday that repeated calls by
industrialized countries to reduce dependence on oil could lead to a
reduction in supplies from the cartel. ‘‘Today’s policy announcements
could translate into scarcity of supplies in the future,’’ Mohamed Al
Hamli, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries,
said at an energy conference. He noted that OPEC is made up of
developing nations with limited resources, and it would be a ‘‘waste of
badly needed funds’’ to invest heavily in oil production if demand is
unclear." What a clever man. He’s figured out the general idea behind
OPEC customers seeking more efficient vehicles and increased reliance
on renewable power. Must be why they made him OPEC President.
Trying
to get a feel for things are supposed to go, after this announcement,
from the OPEC viewpoint. Let’s try to imagine what the official world
future would be if OPEC had their way in other words.
Short Term
OPEC threatens to slow investment in oil field development, which
infers reduced long-term oil production in the face of increased world
demand: i.e. a threat of continuous price increases.
Oil traders, fearing reduced margins on long term positions, have a
new incentive to lobby against government programs for stringent CAFE
standards, public transportation improvements, and the like.
Government officials, fearing voter restlessness over gas prices and
cutbacks in GDP due to increased operating costs for energy intensive
industrial sectors, get cold feet over energy efficiency programs.
Mid-Term
US fails to deliver on drastic oil conservation measures, keeping demand high.
China, seeing a lack of leadership by the G5 nations on a new,
post-Kyoto climate treaty, stays with the Iron Age strategy of resource
inefficient, energy intensive development.
Via:: The Pueblo Chieftain, Business Edition. Image credit:: OPEC Website
Zack Perry Current Affairs
I’m officially turning off my Skype account. Wal-Mart and Skype have struck a deal for the mega white trash giant to carry Skype based phones and prepaid minute cards. So because of this I wonder what Wal-Mart could be up to????? Could this be an opening to eBay????? Hmmmm, I’m gonna let that mullet grow a while.
Zack Perry Current Affairs
an absolute dead on article in the Economist about the past, present, and future of global cities. Pay attention to the last two paragraphs. They are so correct in the outline of things all countries will face. I recently had to write a paper on predicting the future or at least what I thought of the next 50 years of development. These elements identified were things I identified plus foreign policy, economics, immigration, and health care. In my opinion, the countries/nations/cultures that will survive or emerge similar to the West dominance over the last 15+ year will be the ones who can manage these elements with the least amount of resistance.
Who will that be?
I definitely have my money on India and Western Europe. India for obvious reason of science and technology but they still need to be told were to focus. I think Europe as we know it today will be transformed over the next 50 years mostly do to a couple of things. Aging populations will destroy the European base. Globally we will finally figure out alternative energy and stick it to the Middle East. When this happens watch the F out. The rich will leave while the rest of the population will suffer economic hardships and see massive poverty, disease, and violence. When this happens immigration will explode to Europe. The existing infrastructure will change minds and perspectives. The Middle East immigrants will be able to take over and run with the existing European Union. This will be the saving grace that rebuilds Europe for the following 50 years.
So that’s an interesting prediction……
Zack Perry Current Affairs
Total RESPEKT for Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski. There is an article on Yahoo News today about his attempt to live on food stamps for a week. What an amazing, humbling experience. Lets hope he is for real and not doing this as a PR stunt.
I think more politicians should live at the level of their voters or at least the ones that are affected the most by their decisions.
Zack Perry Current Affairs
