For Work And Play » Fun Stuff

100 Life Experiences

Andrew Woods — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:13:12 +0000

I was inspired to create this by Marina Martin, when I read her blog post “100 Life Experiences“. It’s only right to use the same title on my post. My list is targeted for things that appeal to my sense of adventure, and things are a challenge for me. At the initial time of publishing on July 22, 2009, I have 18 items completed.

Start your own blog.
Sleep under the stars.
Play in a band.
Watch a meteor shower.
Go to Disneyland.
Learn to ride a horse.
Sing a solo.
See the Alamo in person.
Visit South America.
Visit Australia.
Visit Hawaii.
Visit London.
Visit Paris.
Visit Japan.
Visit the birthplace of your ancestors.
Visit Russia.
Visit the Vatican.
Visit the White House.
Walk to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
Walk in Jerusalem.
Visit a Concentration Camp.
Visit the Lincoln Memorial.
See the Grand Canyon in person.
Stand in Times Square.
See the Changing of the Guards in London.
See the Mona Lisa in France.
See Niagara Falls in person.
Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
See the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
Ride in a gondola in Venice.
See Old Faithful geyser erupt.
See Michelangelo’s David.
Visit the Great Wall of China.
See the Sistine Chapel in person.
Go skinny dipping.
Run a 5K
Run a Marathon.
Ride the STP (Seattle to Portland)
Go rock climbing.
Go deep sea fishing.
Go scuba diving
Go snorkeling.
Bungee jump.
Swim in the Great Salt Lake.
Go whale watching.
Go hang gliding.
Go Parasailing
Take a martial arts class.
Teach yourself an art from scratch.
Sleep on a train.
Have a pillow fight.
Take a sick day when you’re not ill.
Build a snow fort.
See a total eclipse.
Watch a sunrise or sunset.
Hit a home run. [In little league baseball I hit several ]
Go on a cruise.
Teach yourself a new language.
Have enough money to be truly satisfied.
Sing karaoke. [I do this a lot]
Buy a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
Walk on a beach by moonlight.
Have your portrait painted / drawn.
Kiss in the rain.
Learn to shoot a gun well.
Go snow-shoeing
Go to a drive-in theater.
Have dinner in your car at a car hop
Be in a movie.
Start a business.
Ride a zip line.
Fly in a helicopter.
Save a favorite childhood toy.
Ride on a speeding motorcycle.
Publish a book.
Have your picture in the newspaper.
Kill and prepare an animal for eating.
Save someone’s life.
Meet someone famous.
Learn to shoot a bow and arrow.
Ride in a hot air ballon
Read an entire book in one day.
Write a song
Organize a major event. [I organized Barcamp Seattle 2 years running]
Ride a train across the USA
Road trip across the USA
Learn to swing dance
Perform 100 consecutive pushups
Cook Christmas Dinner
Kiss a Celebrity
Learn to drive stick shift (manual transmission) car
Build my own house
Learn CPR
Live in a foreign country for 6 months.
Write and release an music album
See the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
Attend a large music festival
Get 6-pack abs
Buy a blue sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar.
Learn to fly a helicopter

The Fine Art of a Playlist

Andrew Woods — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:23:08 +0000

If you ask people what they love, it’s very likely that music is one of the things they say. So it’s fair to say that just about everybody has mp3 player, whether it’s one of Apple’s iPods (raises hand. I luv my nano), a Zune, or another fledgling player. I cant help but wonder “how many people use playlists, and of those, how many plan the contents of the playlist strategically?”. Every player lets you select music by artist or genre. When I talk about playlists, I’m referring to “a themed or purpose-driven, manually selected set of songs”. For example, I like to run around Green Lake in the afternoons after work. One revolution is 2.8 miles, which takes me about 33-35 minutes, depending upon the day. I have constructed a playlist called “Running”, which contains particular songs in a specific order. What determines my order? Motivation. It’s specifically tailored to my sticking points. I know that at mile 1, I have different emotional needs than at mile 2. I’ve included my “Running” playlist to demonstrate.

Morning Exercise by The Heavenly States
Bad Reputation by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Slave to the Grind by Skid Row
Monkey Business by Skid Row
Lost in the Light by The Heavenly States
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World
Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet
Middle of the Road by The Pretenders
Cold Hard Bitch by Jet
Go Faster by The Black Crowes
Take It Off by The Donnas
Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis
Workin’ for a Livin’ by Huey Lewis and the News
Mistaken by Save Ferris
Dakota by Stereophonics

As of now, the total time for this list is 53.3 minutes. It’s always good to have a few extra songs in case you exceed your normal routine. This list is purpose-driven. Another way to create a list is to organize around a theme. I have a list called “Happy” that is designed to put me in a good mood. There are many other themes you could use like creativity, productivity, nostalgia, and relaxed – the possibilities are vast. I’m also including my Happy playlist.

Ain’t That a Kick in the Head by Dean Martin
Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson
Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles
I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness
Kodachrome by Paul Simon
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder
Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
A Wink and a Smile by Harry Connick Jr.
You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher by Jackie Wilson

How do you organize your playlists? Share one of your playlists in the comments.

My Cyborg Name

Andrew Woods — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:45:22 +0000

One of the people I follow on Twitter, Cali Lewis, tweeted about her cyborg name. Being the geek that I am, having my own cyborg name appeals me. So I used their system to give me one. First I tried Andrew Woods, which they balked at, saying the name ‘Andrew Woods’ was too long. So I gave it my twitter name ‘awoods‘ for which it told me that it stood for Artificial Wireless Organism Optimized for Dangerous Sabotage. They know me so well!

Get Your Cyborg Name

Karaoke and the Tour

Andrew Woods — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:52:38 +0000

Karaoke for me is a funny thing. While karaoke itself hasn’t changed much, my idea of it has changed dramatically over the years. In years past, I held a highly unfavorable opinion of karaoke and the people who did it. Back in the day (during my college years) I saw it as something that the talent-less did for entertainment. Every time I heard somebody do karaoke, they were awful. Even worse, they weren’t even playing instruments. At least bar bands could play. Yeah, that’s pretty snobby, but I see that now. So what changed? A couple of things have changed. I’ve gained maturity over the years, and my love and appreciation of music has grown in leaps and bounds. Also, I learned how hard it can be to get on stage in front of a lot of people through my experiences with open mic nights. How did I do? when i was starting – lets’ just say they weren’t my finer moments. I was super nervous – I’d forget lyrics; my hands would shake from stage fright. With time I became better and more confident as a performer. Another thing that changed was I took singing lessons. Through this experience, I learned just how hard it is to be a good singer. It wasn’t really until I took singing lessons, that I saw karaoke as the ideal vehicle for work on my singing. It freed me from having to concentrate on the chords i was playing and providing the rhythm. Somwhat recently, I discovered that people I already knew in the Seattle tech scene liked to perform at karaoke. So I’ve started doing it and discovered that I really like it. One of the things about doing open mic nights in the past, I limited song selections to what I could sing and play. With karaoke, I’m free to work on my singing and related activities like composure, stature, pitch, breath control, and be in character. Now when I think about song choices, I think: do I like the song? is it within my range? do i think I could do it well? As I try more songs, I surprise myself on the number of songs I’m finding that I think I can do well. I’m also noticing that I’m not nervous anymore when I go on stage. hmmm, I wonder why that is? Nevermind for now. That is a different post. So what about the “tour”? The Seattle Karaoke Tour was devised by Jeff Croft and Alix Han. Eight nights in a row of karaoke, where each venue is different from the last, throughout Seattle. I’m looking forward to it. Last night was a great start. I’ve got a list of new songs that I haven’t tried yet. I’m hoping to make it to each night, to try them all. We’ll see what happens.

Barcamp Seattle 2009 Schedule

Andrew Woods — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:33:53 +0000

Some of you may be wondering what the schedule is for Barcamp. Friday Night there is a kickoff party/book signing at office nomads . Tara Hunt (@missrogue) will be selling and signing copies of her book “The Whuffie Factor“. Saturday morning at 10am the doors open for Barcamp Seattle. People will mingle for a bit and around 10:30 we’ll make announcements and let people signup themselves up for sessions on the board for the day. Everyone who shows up, has the opportunity to run a session. At 5pm, the sessions will wrap up for the day. Afterwards, we’ll head over to the Red Door, which is just a couple of blocks away. On Sunday, another set of session will start at 10am and will wrap up at 1pm.

Fri 6-9pm Kickoff Party/Book Signing at Office Nomads
Sat 10am-5pm Barcamp Seattle, Day 1
Sat 6pm-11pm Party at Red Door
Sun 10am-1pm Barcamp Seattle, Day 2

Barcamp Seattle 2009

Andrew Woods — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:55:21 +0000

I’m looking forward to Barcamp Seattle 2009, which is just a few short weeks away. My friends/fellow organizers have been hard at work organizing the event for you. This year we’re trying to attract other groups outside the “tech bubble” to increase the variety of the sessions. We want everyone to participate as it makes things more interesting, we learn more, and it expands our world in more unexpected directions through the people we’ll meet. If you don’t know what Barcamp is, allow me to help. Think of the last conference you attended. Now imagine the list of speakers and schedule didn’t exist. Then add your name and a topic you think others might find interesting to the schedule. When the scheduled time comes, you give your presentation. Lastly imagine not paying a registration fee. Anybody that attends has the opportunity to present. That’s Barcamp! Historically, Barcamp has been a very geeky event filled with Software Developers, Web Designers, and Mobile enthusiasts . But the beauty of Barcamp is that it can be anything you want it to be. In that spirit, I’d like to suggest some topics that I’d like to see at Barcamp Seattle 2009. If one of these interests you, take it and run with it.

How To Be a Good Wingman
Accessories for Men – How to Augment Your Personal Style
Dressing Better : Improving the Nerd Wardrobe (provide theory and tips)
Entrepreneurship: Starting a Services-based Business
How to date a Model AKA Girl Baiting – A Nerd’s Guide to Getting the Girl
Become Extroverted – How to Defy and Overcome Your Shyness

I’d like to hear what you’re interested in hearing about. Write it in the comments below.

Event Details

Sat Jun 13, 10am-5pm. Sun Jun 14 10am-1pm. Adobe Conference Center 801 North 34th Street Seattle, WA 98103 Map to Adobe Register for Barcamp Seattle.

Seattle Twestival 2009

Andrew Woods — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:07:13 +0000

On February 12, 2009, cities around the world attended an event called Twestival. Its composed of people in the Twitter community who gathered to raise money for a common purpose – clean and drinkable water for poorer countries. This was done in association with Charity: Water. It was a great implementation of the slogan “think global, act local”. I attended the Seattle Twestival, and had a great time. Seattle has a strong Twitter community, and it was great to see many there Thursday night at the Spitfire Grill. I saw several of my friends there, and met some new people as well. It’s a fantastic thing to be able to meetup with these people. It strengthens your relationships when you take the online relationships offline. It solidifies the sense of community, and the feeling of connectedness. I haven’t heard yet about the amount of funds raised, but I’ll updated this post when I find out. Whatever the outcome, every little bit helps. Some people’s lives are going to be changed for the better, and that’s a good thing.

Seattle Startup Weekend 2 Wrapup

Andrew Woods — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:09:44 +0000

This was the best startup weekend I’ve ever been to. Ok, so this was my first one, but it was still awesome. On friday night, about 150 people were there. As you know from previous posts, I had 2 ideas. I picked one, then pitched it to the group. I’m not well versed in public speaking so I was pretty nervous about giving the presentation. Sure, it’s only a few minutes, but I had never in my life spoken to 150 people. That’s kinda of a big deal for me. I actually handled it better than I had anticipated. Result: pleasantly surprised. It’s a great opportunity to be able to interact, converse, and share ideas with so many smart, creative people. There were 48 project ideas pitched, of which 16 were built. Here’s a list of all the projects that were created.

Tweet Reporters – http://tweetreporters.com
Obey The Decider – http://obeythedecider.com
Tweetsum – http://tweetsum.com
Fresh Local – http://FreshLocal.org
Favorwish – http://favorwish.com
Tripzilla – http://apps.facebook.com/tripzilla
How to ESPN 360 – http://howtogetESPN360.com
1nvite – http://www.1nvite.com
Knarly Vote – http://knarlyvote.com
Infinite Mosaic – http://infinitemosaic.com
Trip Champ – http://trip-champ.com
Scrampede – http://www.scrampede.com

During the event, Q13 News from Seattle came by . Here’s is video It’s clear from this video, and the twitter messages after the event, that Tom Music’s project Obey The Decider is the favorite project. Cassie Wallender’s project Tweetsum is close second, with it’s talented development team and outstanding UI design. Their upcoming public beta release should arrive soon! I look forward to seeing what happens with all of these projects.

Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 02

Andrew Woods — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:29:01 +0000

This is the second of two ideas I’m contributing for Seattle Startup Weekend. Nomidate This is a social network designed to augment your dating life. You create a profile to specify the qualities and attributes you’re looking for in someone that you would like to date. The feature that separates this site from others, is that your friends are making the initial connections to your potential mates, on your behalf. The beauty of this is that it’s acceptable for married people to be on the site. In fact, I expect that married women will be one of the core user groups. It’s just like your buddy’s wife, who enjoys playing matchmaker for her single friends. Here’s another scenario that I imagine would be quite common. Lets say there’s a guy, we’ll call him Clark. Clark has a neighbor and has a crush on her. We’ll call her Lana. Clark asks out Lana and they begin dating for a while. It’s comes to an end, but on good terms. Clark and Lana are both on Nomidate and connected. Lana’s profile mentions that she dated Clark, and thinks hes a good guy. Lana sends Chloe a message recommending that she date Clark. Chloe looks Lana’s profile, and sees that she’s rated as a good person for making matches. Chloe sends Clark a message saying Lana recommended him. Now Clark and Chloe can date.

Revenue model: Low signup fees + Vendor subsidies. Our partners post their articles in the advice section of the site. They pay us for that priviledge.
Partnership opportunities: Magazines like Cosmo, Men’s Health
UI: XHTML/CSS, PHP, MySQL

Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 01

Andrew Woods — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:42:20 +0000

UPDATE 2009-feb-11: I’m still interested in doing this project. however, it’ll be more challenging as I’ll need to do it in my spare time. UPDATE 2009-feb-07: I was unable to get enough team members together, so I swtiched to the tweet reporter team. UPDATE 2009-feb-06 : I selected this project, and pitched to the group. There were 48 projects submitted. This project made it into the Top 16. Were moving forward tomorrow morning. I’ll be at Peet’s Coffee in Fremont tomorrow at 8:15am for anyone that would like to discuss the project. Original Content I, like 150 others, am very much looking forward to the beginning of Seattle Startup Weekend this evening. This is the first idea of two. Borrow Local Stuff. This is a social network, but very different than most, as it emphasizes those who are closest to you geographically. Also trust is a key component. The way this works is you create a profile, which contains a catalogue. Then you add items to your catalogue that you’re willing to share with your friends. You might start small, with things like: books you’ve already read, CDs that you have, or maybe some tools you don’t use often. Now that you’re set up, look for things that you want to borrow. Doing a search will look through the assets that your friends have, and return any potential matches. When you find something you like, you send a request for that asset. The owner will then accept/deny. If they accept your request, you meet them in some public place and make the exchange. They’ll update their record they delivered the item to you, and will enter a due date of when it should be returned. If you have not returned the item by the due date, you’ll receive an reminder email everyday until you have. How can you ship things, you wonder? You cant. Items are delivered via the Sneakernet.

Revenue model: Free/Premium. Premium accounts will allow you get insurance on items of particular types. In order to borrow a premium item , you pay a rental fee.
Partnership: Delicious-Monster.com – They have cool software that makes adding things to your catalogue easy.
UI: xhtml/css, and add some AJAX-y features for good measure. Future versions will include mobile apps.