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Crawfish Boil, Taste the World, Star Wars Day, Church and State, and a whole lot of other stuff

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This entry is part 21 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

This past weekend was a busy one. Some friends of mine had their second annual crawfish boil. A day full of more food than you can sensibly eat. (Not that that stopped any of us from trying.) Also the requisite and assured good company of good friends. Really can’t beat that.

Followed that up on Sunday with another food-oriented event, the fourth annual Taste the World in Fenton Village, one of the projects I’ve been helping out with for the last few years. It’s a fantastic community event that, four years in, really seems to be coming into its own. This year the weather cooperated pretty well (could’ve done with a little less wind… but that was far better than the rain drenching everyone at the end of the day last year) and we had a little extra boost from Yelp! along with all the normal local support.

Sunday was also May the 4th… Star Wars Day! Not that I did anything special for it, since I was out all day with Taste the World, but it did lead to some very entertaining online things to come home to.

All in all, pretty solid weekend… and one that I could really use another weekend to recover from.

Bad Business, Intergalactic Bad Guys, Some Good Evil, Celebrity How To, and Other Stuff That Makes Me Feel Old

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This entry is part 22 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There was a semi-lengthy back-and-forth in a comment stream today about how celebrities interact with their fans.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of different methods of interaction. Some of them much more personable than others. I’ve seen celebs content to sit behind their tables, offering nothing more than a well-acted smile and nod as their assistant takes the fans’ money and they sign a picture. I’ve seen others end up late to panels or other appointments because they stopped to have an actual conversation/shake hands/pose with a random fan (or five) who crossed their path. There are genuinely introverted people (like Johnny Depp) that fight to overcome their own preferences because they know how important their fans are and there are people (like Jack Nicholson) who are really known for being right bastards (and yet, on their raw talent alone, still manage to maintain some sort of fan base).

The ones who happily and willingly interact with their fans–something that modern technology has made a lot easier to do–seem to have not just a more loyal and active fan base, but one which is willing to follow the star to any new project and (perhaps more importantly) toss money at projects and causes that the celeb is part of or supports. (Alyssa Milano, a few years back, pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars for a clean water charity simply by asking her fans, via Twitter, to donate for her birthday.)

If you are (or become) a celebrity and you don’t like dealing with your fans face to face… do whatever you can to avoid having to do so. Don’t let your management or promoters force your fans to pay good money for a half-assed experience that you’re going to hate (and they may walk away from liking you less). More importantly, perhaps, tell your fans honestly why you don’t do photo ops or meet and greets. Fans–real fans–will understand and appreciate the insight into you… and, as an extra added bonus, you may just make a real difference in their life by making them feel less alone in their own quirks and anxieties.

A Bit of Science, Some Literature, A Tune or Two, and Some Crazy News

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This entry is part 23 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I spent most of my day today, neck deep in code, tweaking Drupal API bits on a data entry form to bend it to the will of my client.

I am not exactly a programmer, so this isn’t my idea of a good time.

But, it needs to be done, and so it gets done. And there’s still a lot more to do, and a ticking clock hanging over every keystroke.

That’s how a lot of our life is–full of things that need to be done that we aren’t all that thrilled about doing. It’s a shame, really. I know people who love the bulk of what they do, but the bulk of people I know slog through the day, pulled forward only by the sweet promise of release from the drudgery of the day and the solace of a cold beverage or a few fleeting hours with their significant other/family/friends before they have to bed down and do the whole thing again tomorrow.

Time is, indeed, the most limited resource we have. (And according to one of the links below, it may literally be running out… that’s kind of trippy to think about… if you have a minute to spare.) Because of that, we should all be well aware of what we do with those precious moments we have where we are in control and can do what we want.

…and that’s about as deep as I have the time to go, since I need to get off to sleep as that code won’t write itself.

https://www.facebook.com/kierduros/activity/10152031641295981

Legal Footwork, Hidden History, Tasty Science, and Some Really Good Ideas

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This entry is part 24 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

It never ceases to amaze (and impress… and confuse) me what people get passionate about.

The big story in the feed today was about the Vibram Five Finger toe shoes class action settlement. Vibram is paying out a pretty penny to a lot of people due to some unsubstantiated claims they made in their advertisements for their “shoeless shoes”… and seem to have done so in order to help quell some noise being made about their footware doing exactly the opposite of what they were saying it can do.

Needless to say, there are a lot of articles out there that lead with the sensation, snarky headlines. (Because, let’s face it the shoes look odd and the people who wear them most are not the most mainstream most of the time… plus, no better way to get traffic than to get people pissed at you, right?) But, almost amazingly, most of the discussion I’ve seen in the FB comments where those articles are shared is both impassioned and calm. A rare combination if there ever was one on the Internet.

There are a lot of examples on both sides–a lot of them personal anecdotes–that people feel strongly about. For every person who had a bad experience, there’s one that had a great experience. And they’re actually discussing their differences instead of just outright shouting one another down.

The bottom line seems to be that, no matter what, nothing is going to work for everyone. But, Vibrum is changing its course a little and doing what it can to keep those bad stories from coming out and ruining it for those who do use and enjoy their product. They’re handling it sensibly (from everything I’ve seen, at least) and the public seems to be responding in kind (some online gossip/clickbait articles aside).

That’s good to see.

Ant Physics, Lots of Television Show Stuff, Godzilla, and an Awesome Optical Illusion

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This entry is part 25 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Over the next week or so, there’s going to be a lot of news on TV shows that get canceled, renewed, and picked up from the list of potentials.

That always breeds a lot of laments and cheers from people… and more than a few quirked eyebrows in some cases.

It also breeds some great discussions about why we like what we like and why shows we don’t like get renewed. That’s what happened a lot today. I won’t rehash it (and if I were going to, I’d probably do it on my ToobTalk.com site… which has gathered quite a bit of dust).

There’s also a lot of highly charged political stuff on the horizon… net neutrality being the big one that concerns me. So, keep an eye out for that, too.