This week on +Future Chat, we talked about all the new gadgets coming out in September. Hopefully we helped get you excited for all the new technology we’ll surely be playing with in a month or two. We had a lot of fun with this one!
Future Tech Chat #22: Gadgets Wrap-up!function(a){var b=”embedly-platform”,c=”script”;if(!a.getElementById(b)){var d=a.createElement(c);d.id=b,d.src=(“https:”===document.location.protocol?”https”:”http”)+”://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js”;var e=document.getElementsByTagName(c)[0];e.parentNode.insertBefore(d,e)}}(document);
Tag: Friends
Future Tech Chat #22: All the Gadgets!
Ottawhat #16 – Liz Messner
Check out this week’s episode of the Ottawhat? podcast. New every Thursday!
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Rob’s Listening Party – Week 1
Sometimes, you find yourself wanting to recommend cool things to friends and acquaintances. At times like these, I like to blog about them. My music and podcast recommendations of the week are:
John Mayer: Born and Raised – Music on Google PlayI listened to this album again at work this week and it just reminded what an awesome guitarist/soloist this guy is!The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart | Comedy Central
This podcast is only 2 episodes in, so now is the perfect time to start listening! Also, great remixes of the Daily Show theme song every week!!function(a){var b=”embedly-platform”,c=”script”;if(!a.getElementById(b)){var d=a.createElement(c);d.id=b,d.src=(“https:”===document.location.protocol?”https”:”http”)+”://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js”;var e=document.getElementsByTagName(c)[0];e.parentNode.insertBefore(d,e)}}(document);
Ottawhat #15: Damien Broomes
Check out this week’s episode of the Ottawhat? podcast. New every Thursday!
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Attrell Update – This is not about ALS
Here’s my +Attrell Update for the week. I talk about my nomination for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and why it’s not the only cause we should all do more about. That doesn’t mean I don’t get cold and wet though, so don’t miss it!
If you want to keep up with these videos, click on the “i” in the top right of the video and subscribe!
On Tuesday, Steph gave us all a taste of her road trip to Montana! Yes, the video was a little late, but I guess we’ll forgive her!
Self-Improvement
I’m going to talk to you today about self-improvement. As somebody who makes a lot of stuff and then puts it on the Internet, it is very easy for me to look through my “back catalogue” and see that the thing I did two months ago is just TERRIBLE. I can’t even bother comparing my 8-week old project to the one I just finished, because they are on completely different levels. Take, for instance, a recent episode of Future Tech Chat:
Now, compare that live video to one from April:I “accidentally” listened to the older one last night, and it is absolutely painful for me to compare the first minute of the two shows. Now, don’t even bother comparing the two title cards, as I have recently redesigned them to look consistent and clean, but not in a boring way. I’m just talking about my tone, my purposefulness, and my preparedness in starting the two episodes. I was actually probably a little more excited to talk about wearable devices than I was about bicycles, but it’s no contest if you ask me which is the better introduction to a show.Honestly, what comparing my present self to past versions of me has shown time and again is that if I keep putting effort into improving myself, eventually the bicycles episode will seem just as terrible as the wearables episode does now. I can only improve by continuing to try. The guys over at +AsapSCIENCE, (a GREAT YouTube channel in case you were wondering) made a little video about their first upload this week, and they felt exactly the same way I do.
So, where does that leave me? Basically, I will keep working every single day to get better and to feel more comfortable doing the work I do.I know I’m kind of burying the lede on this one, but frankly I’m a little nervous about asking people to help me out and to continue to improve. I’ve created a profile on a creative support (aka crowdfunding) platform called Patreon, with absolutely no expectations as to where it will go or how much it will help me. I will continue in earnest with all the projects I’ve already been working on (I’m so lucky that basically everything I do on the Google platform is effectively free), but having some funds available will enable the technology I work with to improve, and I’ve tried to include some perks that will encourage you to help me out. The Patreon funding model is either on a per-project, or per-month basis, but I’m told that you can make a donation for a month and then simply cancel your subscription and support me in a small, lump sum kind of way. Honestly, any positives the use of this platform gets me are more than I’m expecting. You can find me on Patreon at the link below, and thank you to all of you who are already supporting me by sharing my work and chatting about important or mundane things with me on a regular basis, it means more than I can possibly tell you. I would also welcome other methods of support, financial or otherwise, if you’re skeptical about crowdfunding but would still like to help. I just really want to keep making stuff.
Friends in a Digital World
I’ve been told throughout my life that I don’t have many friends. I’m certainly not one to mind being characterized in that way, but I started wondering if that is actually true, or even if there is a tiny bit of truth to a statement of that nature.I’m sure there are lots of people in my neighbourhood, in Ottawa, in Canada, and in the world who have a fear or open dislike of personal or social interactions in one form or another. I wouldn’t say that my thoughts go that far, but I can say with almost complete assurance that I often find menial social interactions (small talk, etc.) unnecessary, to the point that I would rather say nothing in some social situations than to try to pointlessly fill time with chit-chat with anybody I have nothing in common with.(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Post by Mike Attrell.I am much more comfortable in social interactions with only one or two other people. Perhaps this means I’m on the very low end of the autism spectrum, who knows. When I am in larger groups, I tend to stick to engaging in conversations with the people I already know than to branch out and meet new people. It doesn’t help that I know I have a bad habit of trying to pay attention to conversation and immediately forgetting people’s names as I am introduced to them. Having said that, it’s worth noting that a lot of the things I find pleasurable (obscure TV shows, a majority of pop music, web design, video production, writing, science and learning, etc.) are things that I don’t have in common with most people, and so I find it easier to keep them to myself than to bring them up in conversation or to try to get to know new people.
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Post by Rob Attrell.In fact, a good majority of the people I encounter in my day-to-day life are what I would consider acquaintances, and are not friends by most strict definitions. I don’t really know too much about what is going on in their lives, and they don’t really know much about me outside of the time we spend together (in sports, work, leisure, etc.).That brings me around to the main point of writing this. With social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, etc., etc., etc., what does it mean to be friends with somebody?I have a strong feeling in my gut that when I let someones friendship request on Facebook sit “pending”, it affects my relationship with that person. Most people I talk to would see it as a slap in the face if I don’t accept their “friendship” immediately, and this is such a tightly engrained part of the human condition that there is literally a stigma associated with “un-friending” somebody on Facebook.Personally, I don’t use Facebook’s friends list feature as a measure of my association with a person. I know plenty of people I see regularly and spend time with who I have never considered being “friends” with, and all of my current “friends” are really only grandfathered in since I started to allow people to follow my Facebook feed without actually being my friend (something Facebook allowed starting in 2012, like Google+). Since I use Facebook to post updates publicly, like Twitter (you have the choice of your audience every time you post something, like Google+) I don’t actually need the concept of “friends” on Facebook, and in fact I don’t use Facebook that way.If not for Facebook Messenger (which will apparently start indexing the contents of your private messages now, so there’s that) I wouldn’t use Facebook at all, but I still don’t want to alienate people. I post all kinds of content on Google+, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, on this blog, and across the internet in 100s of places. If you want to see what I’m doing on the Internet, or send me a message via IM, email, video chat, anything, you are free to do so. Please don’t think that my not accepting your “friend request” on Facebook means that I don’t want to interact with you online, or that I don’t want to get to know you better. I just think there are better ways to keep my digital life and social connections organized, and you’re welcome to follow me (sending me a friend request also automatically subscribes you to what I post on Facebook), and if you have followers enabled (from the link) maybe I’ll follow you back. Send me a message on Hangouts at +Rob Attrell.If we’re friends in real life, that can be enough. We don’t need to prove it on Facebook.I have more to say on real life vs. digital friendships, but I’ll save it for another day.While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out the latest video on my new YouTube Channel, +Attrell Update! Hope you like it!
