I’m still feeling out how I want to proceed with expressing my many opinions and skills on the web, but right now it’s far down the to-do list.

In the mean time, if you are at all interested take a look at some of the things I’m working on:

Greening Neighborhoods. I’m the solitary designer/web person working with this non-profit.

The baseline Calculator. My first web app. Keep track of your utility bills and use Greening Neighborhood’s many tips to lower your bill, save money, and reduce your footprint.

Gaggle, the best trivia game of all time is almost here. Keep up with the progress on our facebook page. I’ve worked on the design of the game with my good friend Nicole. We plan to have this puppy in circulation by the end of the year.

holy cow.

Shepard's work of art

The hope poster, shepard fairey. The iconic sell out artist, not in a bad way of course. A few months back “they” found out where Shepard got the famous Obama hope picture. If you aren’t aware, Shepard made a poster in support of Obama which went on to become one of the most popular depictions of the now president. The so called controversy revolves around the fact that Shepard created the image from a photograph. This photograph was captured by freelance photographer Mannie Garcia for the AP. I don’t much care for the resulting legal battle that must have played out. I’m simply questioning the entire idea that after over a year of this poster being an iconic symbol of a candidate someone would figure out where the photo came from and then start this litigation. How many pictures has Mannie taken of Obama? How many pictures of Obama are there? At what point does the photograph stop having any kind of relevant “ownership”. The original picture that Shepard used wasn’t some kind of master stroke of photography. It was a digital capture of a moment in time, I’ll guess 1/600th of a second, give or take. Within that moment a number of other people were capturing that same man from slightly different angles at other fractions of seconds. I don’t have issue with all those photographers owning each of those practically indistinguishable photographs, they should sell them to media outlets because they are relevant and if they don’t get paid then some events don’t get seen.

No, I’m trying to understand what it means to own an image to the extent that the AP owns rights to Shepard poster (so to speak). I understand that the AP is hurting like all old media is, people don’t care about giving them credit and they are hurting in this new world. I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone at AP really cared apart from the lawyers, who just happen to get paid to ‘blah blah blah’ over this type of thing. I’m thinking beyond that trivial bull shit. What I want to know, where does the photographer’s image end and the shared experience of “real” happen. In other words, was Shepard building an iconic image of the photograph or the man.

Mannie didn’t see the hope poster and gasp “my picture!” nor did the AP, no one did. Over eager bloggers poured through thousands of images of Obama over laying the hope poster on practically the same image but not quite. Until someone finally hit it, called Sheperd out and got a well deserved pat on the the back. Thus creating work for lawyers, huray! Then everyone gets to argue if what Shepard did is original, as if anything is original or a copy (but that is another story).

I want to know how one owns another’s image. The focused photons reflected from a human face are allowed entrance to a reservoir beyond a mechanically operated shutter activated by another human who holds the device. Does the engineer who developed the color filter, or the shutter mechanism get any credit? Does the auto focus get a line in some AP document? How does it all fit together? If we put all the pictures ever taken of Obama, from every camera phone to every still frame from every camcorder, into a machine that stiched them all together what would we have? A carbon copy of a man. Who owns that copy? Does obama get credit for this composite? It is like reality, we all see it, we all get an impression and keep some part of it. We go into the real and take out of it, yet we don’t take anything. I’ve only ever seen Obama reproduced. A fraction of his carbon copy.

Perhaps this idea seems far fetched, who is like Obama? Not many people have everyone around clicking photos of them. Yet, we will. I don’t doubt that the future will record more and more reality, digitize and tag it. This information, arrangements of pixels that relate to the accumulation of photos bounced of the shared reality, will flood the network. There will be a constantly updated reflection of the real world. Will this change how we own images or will is simple destroy it? We will all be reflections, who will own us? Who can take that reflected reality and change it, anyone? no one?

I’m not all that sure what it means. I built a sort of composite of Obama, from a simple Google search I put together about 40 pictures of obama all placed one on top of the other with a 5% opacity. I’m not giving any credit, because I don’t think any is due. Not because I don’t value the work of people who go out and capture the real world. No I don’t want to give anyone credit for what I made because it isn’t Someone’s Obama, it is simply Obama. Just some guy. He could be a potted plant or a grain of rice but it is a man.

Saturday was 4th state metal’s Gill. 4th state is a metal fabrication studio where my room mate works. Nice group of people, clients and friends all down in Williamsburg. Quite an exciting day, first of all, the food was amazing. I’d say the best meat I’ve ever imbibed. Expertly prepared by a man wearing a shirt that said

“bacon, the gateway meat”

Obviously the food was too good because by mid afternoon about 20 cops show up and start handing out tickets and citations. I sat back and watched the scene unfold. Some woman got put in cuffs and I over hear talk of a non-drinker getting an open container ticket for trying to clean up some bottles. An over all bad performance by the NYPD, left a bad taste in my mouth. Though that was quickly fixed with some steak from the grill master, who also was given a ticket for kicking too much ass.

Later we go to Evan’s house warming party in “Bushwick”. Fun was had by all, Evan and Mel have a very nice place and are doing well with just a single giant room. We leave around three for the not-SO-long bike ride back home. Four of us riding in the night down Dekalb.

The night ends with a sun rise game of darts in our kitchen.

Sunday started with a trip to Red Bamboo, a vegan/veggy restaurant in Clinton. No-meat chicken wings and jerk chicken. What I’ve always though strange is that when making fake meat, why do people want boring meat like chicken? I’d rather eat Pterodactyl or Griffin meat! I’m sure it all tastes like chicken anyways so you don’t even need to change anything apart from the name. Go ahead and steal that idea vegan restaurant entrepreneur.

That night was BBQ number two. Kyle’s house. Corn and hot dogs. Plus a little treat that Kyle and Audrey have been cooking up for the past two days. A watermelon infused with vodka. Very, well, dangerous treat as it was so delicious I quickly ate five or six slices with in a few minutes. It was like candy that made you drunk, what a concept. To end the evening we made S’mores with these giant marshmallows, like big as a bottle of extra strength Tylenol. That night I struggled home on a full stomach.

The next day was spent on Rachel’s roof, from about the time I woke up (at one) till the sun set over the city we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with good company on a hot roof in Brooklyn. I was able to get away with only minor sun burn on my chest (it looks like a red dickey) and a bit on my back where my hands and sunscreen didn’t quite reach. So that is pretty good for me as I normally burn like a victim.

All and all a very good memorial day weekend.

1am: I’m on facebook for a moment when Mike G. pops-up in chat. He quickly tells me that he is in London, and has been held up at gun point. He goes on to say that he needs to settle the hotel bill of $800. Naturally my always wanting to help and be a hero kicks in and I offer to send him the money. Long story short Western Union Online denies my transfer, basically setting in motion me NOT getting scammed.

It doesn’t end there, naturally, but let me first explaine why this scam worked (why I’m not a compete moron). Well first off, when a friend tells you that they just lost everything at gun point, you tend not to demand much detail. The other major factor was that “Mike” had conntacted me through FaceBook. This wasn’t some avatar that I knew as a “friend” this was the online reflection of a real person. I’ve played with this guys kid, I know his wife. We went to school with me for gosh sakes! So it felt real, even though there were things already that weren’t adding up. He didn’t seem to answer specific questions, like if he was there with his wife and kid. I’ll say he didn’t seem quite like himself, but in retrospect that seems true though I know at the time he WAS him, I made sure that the person I was talking to over the internets WAS Mike in my mind. All the unanswered questions, and quick jump to western union, how he knew just what to do. How he was online, what was with the poor grammer? I was able to write it off as “oh he must be sooo scared” etc. etc.

I was on the phone with Western Union for half an hour trying to get this money sent. For what ever reason they didn’t send it (which they don’t disclose) saved my ass! So I told “Mike” that I would wake up at 8:30 that morning and get the money to him! I wasn’t going to fail this mission. I was going to be the hero, saving Mike and wife and baby! I’m not naive in thinking that us humans operate in self-less ways. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do almost anything for friends, but every action is tainted with self interest. I wanted to be the hero who got out of bed at 8am after a restless nights sleep, body aching from the flu. Running to the bank and taking eight crisp hundred dollar bills to the Pay-O-Matic (which is a check cashing place, not some machine) and send them off to my buddy Mike! Which I guess I got. I got to be the hero, I sent the money, I worked hard, I over came a mild flu and woke up an hour earlier than normal. I felt good about myself.

Then I got home, booted up my computer and… There was a status update on the Facebook from Mike.

MY FACEBOOK GOT HACKED!!!! Do not respond to or accept anything from me until further notice. And to the hacker: May you drown on fire.

oh %(@! I just got had. Quick as I could I called Western Union and put a hold on the money. I had been in e-mail contact with “Mike” after the online transaction failed. Not 15 minutes later I get an e-mail saying that “he” couldn’t get the money, there was a hold. Why I put a hold on it, well there was still a shred of hope it could still not be a scam. So I e-mail him back asking him a simple question that Mike would know. Here is what I got back.

Are you verifying me!!!Have you ever had a gun pointed at you before..would you feel great after the whole mugging…Moreover if i wasn’t the one i wont ask you wire to my name as we both know i will need some kinda of identification before i get the cash picked up at the bank..Western union will need a valid identification before i get the cash..I’m really freak out and scared right now and i cant think straight..Hope you understand what am presently going through right now…I really appreciate your effort but you need to call western union and correct the country..Is United Kingdom..I’ll definitely refund it tomorrow…

Wow was I an idiot or what! That grammar, I mean I know Mike and I went to Art school, so I don’t expect much but geez! How could I be so blind. The rest of the morning was spent calling people to see if I could some how scam the scammer. I was in contact with him, he thought he had me, hell he DID have me!

I ended it with the scammer, I told him I knew he was full of shit. I gave a little rant about how he is stealing money from people who can’t afford to be stolen from. I’ve worked very hard for the past two years to be able to drop $800 at a moments notice. So this has been a good lesson. Next time someone needs something I need to ask them personal, private questions!

Also another lesson, your online identity isn’t going to be safe just because you don’t think you have nothing for someone to steal. I went around to all my important accounts online today and changed my password so that all of them were “strong”. Use numb3rs, letters, miX CaSE, and $ymbol$. Plus understand that your mind is fast to fill in any logical gaps when dealing with familiar things. I turned a rat scammer who barely had a grasp on English grammar into a personal friend I’ve known for 4 years! Like magic.

translation: This is an example of some text that you can see because you have a QR code reader.

I find this cool for a number of reasons. First off, it is kind of like a geek secret code. These QR codes can be but on an surface and only those among us with the right tools can decode them. Furthermore I’ll bet they could be hidden inside of designs, hidden from everyone except the electronic eye. From what I’ve read on QR codes, they are fairly big over in Japan where the cellular technology is able to thrive. Products can literally communicate with consumers, giving them extra information, web sites, phone numbers, even text messages.

Naturally I wanted to get in on this. So I found a QR-Code Generator from kaywa.com. I’ve been making random codes for the past few hours and pulling them right off my screen onto my phone. I’ll be back with more doodles later, I’d like to incorporate this into my business card.

Just moments ago I launched my good friend Max’s web site maxrose.com I’m very excited about this site, not only because Max is a swell guy who needs to get his work out there, but also because this is the pilot test of what I hope to be a light weight frame work that I can translate into more portfolio sites for other artists.

Well I’m off now, I have to bike around Brooklyn until I find someone I know because I left my phone and bag at Sarah’s apartment the other day. So now I am stranded like 1992 style, I might just have to find a payphone!

The title bit of Max's site, I hope he likes it.