You want passion, Benjamin Zander defines passion that’s viral, awesome, and addictive! Reminds me how I love classical music sooooo much! Watch it here.

Hey all! I’ve got a little secret to spill that I’ve been keeping hush for almost a year! I’m in a TV show and it premieres on PBS today!!!!

The shows called “Everyday Edisons“:
“Everybody has a great idea that could change the way we work, the way we live or the way we play. Everyday Edisons documents the development process of 14 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them. Selected from thousands, the 14 Everyday Edisons learn how their extraordinary ideas are taken from a sketch on a napkin to a store shelf.”

Check out the EverydayEdisons.com page or the PBS page. Find out your local PBS air dates and times here. (I’m in the 2nd half of the season but will appear at the beginning I think)

It’s a thrill to be one of the dozen inventors hand picked from thousands to be on the show. This adventure continues a project I invented while at RISD back in 1999 which made the blogsphere rounds in 2004-5.

I’m not sure what to expect nor how the show ends (good or bad) but that’s all part of the fun. It might not be as entertaining as reality TV, but you’ll get to see my goofy serious self!! And no, it’s not like the “other” reality show I’ve been on… this one is much more professional. There is no competition, the US patent office sponsors the show, and they actually spend over a year developing each inventors idea!

I’ll post a few articles that have been published about the show and myself after the jump (fun pictures)! Please watch and let me know how it goes, cause I don’t receive the channels it’s being broadcast on (booo).

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Here are some semi super hero links…. I saw Iron Man finally which was awesome. Later on Indiana Jones, Incredible Hulk, Batman, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, Love Guru, Hellboy II, and filming for Transformers 2 just started! What a Super Hero summer this is going to be!

- Japaneses Talking watch!($20)
- Finger Blasters or Finger Missiles! (Makes anyone a kid again)
- Explore the Universe through World Telescope!
- Skin Footwear!
- Crazy Fun Slip n Slide!(video)
- A poorly designed Batman squirt gun… haha

This image reminded me of the many instances in which companies want to save a bit of cash for needed tools. Don’t be cheap… buy the tools you need to be productive or bad things may become of your project or in this instance, a person.
More great images at DarkRoastedBlend

Yet another way to navigate Flickr Photos through Tag Galaxy! Type in a word  “tag”, surf the luminous galaxies, select another planet, then watch a matrix of tagged photos latch onto a planet to spin, flip, and zoom your fingers away. I’m not sure how practical this is, but none the less cool for a bit.

Rhode Island School of Design’s
Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition
Rhode Island Convention Center: May 21-June 1, 2008.
opening reception May 20, 6-8pm

“More than 120 RISD artists and designers across 14 disciplines featured in graduate student showcase of art and design at its very best.

For the second consecutive year, the extraordinary work of more than 120 students receiving master’s degrees from Rhode Island School of Design [RISD] will be on view at the Rhode Island Convention Center in RISD’s Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition. The work of graduate students in painting, industrial design, sculpture, textiles, photography and nine other art and design disciplines will be on exhibit from May 21-June 1, 2008.

An online gallery has also been created to allow “virtual visitors” to view examples of work from the exhibition.”

I’ll be there from 6pm onwards…this should be awesome!

RISD Graduate Exhibition Webpage
Webgallery

update: lots of pics after jump when I went to the show.

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I was at a party last night and stumbled upon a few passionate “CouchSurfing” ladies into Boston for the night from Australia. So what is Couch surfing? Watch the video above, or in my take, it’s the new hotel! It’s free, you meet new locals who can probably give you the best tour of the city skipping all the BS, you become friends, learn a ton about the local culture, perhaps get a homemade cultural meal, and in the end, become an official “CouchSurfer!” What an experience!

I’ve always couch crashed at friends around the world and love it over hotels, but meeting newbies from cities I don’t know might just be the next best thing! I’ve met some of my best friends in the most random situations and this couch surfing idea sounds great! Meet new people, get a free place to crash, and get a heads on dive into the local culture wherever your adventures take you. Sure, it may seem a bit sketchy to stay over at a strangers… but treat it like a friend of a friends! Where there is trust comes new opportunities! They also have global gatherings for CouchSurfers… checkout some Flickr pics.

www.couchsurfing.com
A bunch of Couchsurfing Youtube videos

I’ve been playing around with the free “Shock Aero 3D” application that mimics the pretty cool Vista Rolodex feature and somewhat offers the Mac Expose feature as well. I’ve custom mine to launch by pressing my middle mouse scroll button which also navigates the rolling effect. Pretty sweet if you love the Vista features but hate Vista… I’ve got it on XP running… it was buggy at first, but working fine now. Isn’t it great how innovative ideas on certain platforms can be added to almost any other platform. It’s not about who copied who, but more about embedding great ideas across the world.

via lifehacker

PicLens creates a 3 dimensional experience in browsing images and videos. Install the plug-in and PicLens gives you an option to view image+video searches via their zippity fun matrix gallery. It’s a bit slow but visually cool, especially after a few hundred images upload. The visual browsing experience gets more appealing everyday…hopefully bandwidth isn’t an issue =) (thanks dfresh)

Reminds me a bit of TiltViewer or Searchme.com

It’s been an incredibly busy week of travel and work and I apologize for not posting as much.

First came the wonderful GEL (Good Experience Live) conference in nyc, which made me ask “why” every time I experienced something bad in this world, rather than just letting it happen. Why do voice mail avatars talk for sooo long before I can leave a message, why do the same avatars talk for so long when I want to hear my voice mails, Why does technology direct 2 people calling each other at the same time to each others voice mail rather than connecting them, why is the nyc train system so confusing for a newbie… this world is full of bad experiences, and as a designer, discovering, revealing, and disrupting the norm is needed…especially when it comes to sustainability and health care experiences. I’ll post about GEL later on, but here is a great recap collection.

Anyhow, this week I venture off to the “Art Center: Serious Play” Conference in LA. It’ll touch base on user experience, design, and bits of everything. I’ll bring my laptop, but no promises on live blogging.

After that, I’ll be experiencing the incredible Pangea Day on May 10th at the Sony Pictures Studio in LA. If you didn’t catch my last post, this is MUST do…invite a bunch of friends, family, or even strangers over…gather around, watch this global event for 4+ hours, get inspired, and make change! There will be 24 films, live music, and several fantastic speakers very much like TED.

I’ll be twittering most of my journey on the sidebar..feel free to follow me on twitter, or just on this blog… I’ll post when I can, but for now, a few late weekend links below:

Use Whatever Clock: Pretty cool, sell the function, let customer create looks.
Wearable Chair: I had this idea sometime ago, but executed a bit differently.
Twistori: Following Twitter by emotions.
Scrapile: Using wasted wood to make cool wood composites! Very sustainable!
Sunlight Poem Projector: Public Poem based on sun location. Pretty neat!
Soba Machine: Make you own soba at home. I’m in soba mode after going to Soba Koh nyc.
A billion Pennies: What does 1 billion pennies stack up to be.
Momofuku Ko restaurant: reservations only online! Brings the experience beyond the restaurant.