Ironically, there’s a bit of a controversy around the fact that the cheats for Grand Theft Auto IV were released early. Who would have expected fans of a game centered around stealing cars, smacking hookers, and killing people to be so concerned about keeping the game fair? And to think I thought the whole premise of the game about breaking laws and cheating. Shows how out of touch I am.
What surprised me most is that Grand Theft Auto IV is expected to take in $400 million in its first week making it one of the biggest entertainment events of the year. That’s more money in its first week than the total US gross for films like Star Wars, the Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, and Forrest Gump. Another sign of a world where people want to participate in their entertainment rather than passively consume it.
Off to “Vice City” on Saturday which is much more like this guy’s photographs than the video game. A good chance to see family and friends before the big trip and the big move East. I can’t wait to be home.
I think we’re approaching the most eventful 100 years in history.
My friend Alnoor sent me this video of scientist Aubrey de Grey at the TED Conference sharing his prediction that we’re closer to dramatically extending human life than we think. He also says that the first person to live to 1000 may be alive today. I love that we live in a society with the balls to challenge the most basic “facts of life” and approach them as “engineering problems” we can solve.
This isn’t as far fetched as it sounds. A friend of mine works in an MIT lab next to some students who have managed to extend the life of mice by 1/3 by restricting their caloric intake. Meanwhile, people on the calorie restriction diet claim they’re extending their lives by minimizing their caloric intake while getting precise amounts of the nutrients they need.
I can’t think of anything more brave than a world where people’s lives span 10 centuries and a first generation will manage a thousand years of life without any role models having gone before them. Go humans.
Just discovered the lexicon tool on facebook which has had me (sadly) glued to my laptop all night.
But the good news is that I now know that people describe things as “good” more often than “bad”, and that people mention “sex” more often than “Jesus” on all days of the year except for Christmas and Easter while “God” trumps them both across the calendar year.
I’ve learned that Obama is by far the most talked about candidate in the US election and that China gets slightly more chatter on facebook than India with the exception of during India’s tourist season and the occasional disaster where India overtakes. That among the sexes, girls are mentioned more than boys while men are talked about most of all and women mentioned least
I thought this man was a legend when I took his picture at Paddington. It was only on my way to work this morning when I snapped the picture on the right that it became a confirmed fact.
He represents an endangered breed Englishman that I once thought existed only in storybooks. They now seem to be following me everywhere I go.
There’s something about a spring day in London that almost makes you forget the previous nine months of bone chilling rain and soul sucking gloom. Crisp air that makes you overlook the moments when a tube station shuts at rush hour because there are too many people and not enough trains. You stop brewing over the fact that your short journey on that tube line both costs and sucks more than a long journey in a New York city cab. The kids in my neighborhood are playing instead of beating each other up on camera and posting the videos on the web. Spring is here, and I think this is going to be my last bit of complaining. Because from May 2nd, I’ll be giving London a second chance and experiencing it in the way every city should be experienced: without a job.
The best antidote to indecision is a decision. Sometimes any decision will do, but this time I think I’ve made a good one.
It’s a chance to build something that excites me at a design firm that’s open to doing some innovative stuff across Asia. It’s also the chance to spend my weekends sitting on the beaches of Southeast Asia which has never been an element in any bad decision I’ve ever heard of.
So with that in place, I can now worry about making sure four months as a scruffy traveler don’t leave me incapable of doing whatever it is these good people have hired me to do.
I spent a morning this week at the Indian Embassy and walked away inspired. Amidst the usual bureaucratic carnage, there was a linearity to the way it all worked that made me wish my life was so straightforward.
There’s just something about a process that asks you to show up on time, take a number, fill in your forms and wait your turn that’s both foreign and mindlessly refreshing compared to the circus of uncertainty, politics, protocol, and constant negotiation that has characterized my life over the past few months.
Some context for the reader:
About three months ago, I decided to resign from the wrong job (circus) in London (protocol) to find the right job (negotiation) somewhere (uncertainty) in Asia, and take a three-month sabbatical before starting it (thus my morning at the Embassy)
I’ve reached the point where I have a couple of options in hand only to realize that I’m much better at finding opportunity than I am at committing to it.
So instead of focusing on the decision at hand, I’ve chosen to start a blog – a decision I think characterizes me very well.
