election night with angela & kevin

Photo Booth reels are quickly becoming my favorite photos - the 6-picture series just captures so much different emotion and defines the scene

see my set of photo booth pictures here

election night with angela & kevin
Originally uploaded by kskobac.

Documenting the Vote: November 4th, 2008

Today is the day we've all been reading about, talking about, and thinking about for nearly two years now - hopefully that means everyone at this point recognizes the importance of this election, and commits to voting, regardless of how it might interrupt your day.  Ari and I were in a wrap-around-the-block line by 7:25 AM, and out by 8:15 AM - and of course I made sure to document the whole thing.

Check out my video of the crazy line wrapping around the block, which is now submitted to the YouTube Video Your Vote channel. 

You can also see on a Google Map how close the line ended up taking me back to my apartment.

I also grabbed a few pictures at the voting booth  for Flickr and Twitter.  I'm sure it will be interesting following all of these places as the day moves along, and come 7PM tonight I'll be over at the Washington Post party following the election as it nears the end.

The Phillies WIN !!

From k. b. skobac

This was an amazing team to watch through the end of the season and the playoffs.  Every player came through in one way or another, every player contributed to the team in a big way.  Jamie Moyer’s epic effort on the eve of his 46th birthday, Cole Hamels going undefeated entering the playoffs after only his 2nd full season, the defensive plays, the big hits by just about everyone – it was amazing.

(for more pictures, see the ESPN Gallery)

Gmail Experimental Features Make Gmail More Interesting

If you haven't noticed yet, Gmail opened up a "labs" page a while back that allows you to turn on experimental features within your gmail interface.  It had gotten little attention until the new beer goggles protection feature that was added two weeks ago.  Well I hadn't really felt the need to turn on any features until this morning, when Google added the ability to integrate Google Calendar and Google Docs directly into Gmail, as well as any additional Google Gadgets (though others are done through a hack and are not yet entirely meant for integration) you like.  At that point I turned on 6 features - Google Calendar, Google Docs, Chat to the right, Labels to the right, drag and drop modules, and pictures in chat.  Now all of the sudden Gmail looks like a much more powerful dashboard, and the only thing I really feel missing right now is a to-do list (which I could really take care of by pumping a remember-the-milk module into the left bar via the gadget hack).  I've grabbed a screenshot of my Gmail as it stands right now - if you want to turn on these features, sign into gmail and go to the settings link, then over to the labs tab.

Or you can click here to go directly to the labs feature page.

Donors Choose - Transparent Local Fundraising for Education

DonorsChoose.org is an organization that helps raise funds for education. But instead of donating money to the organization and wondering where the money is going, DonorsChoose creates challenges where individual schools and classes post what they need money for, and groups try to raise money to complete each fundraising challenge individually. Not only do you know what the money is going for, but you know what class and what teacher has requested the money - at that level, you can probably go right to the school and confirm the fundraising initiative!

Right now the major tech blogs are having a competition to see which tech blog community can raise the most money for the needs of public schools - I donated money to help fund laptops for a middle school journalism program, and musical instruments for another class - both New York City schools. Afterwards I received a thank you note from the teachers:

Dear Kevin,
I cannot thank you enough for your generosity in donating money towards the laptop computer. The students will be using this laptop with such gratitude and appreciation. We have been sharing laptops with other clubs, saving documents on flashdrives which is very time consuming. This laptop is going to be such an asset and will make our school newspaper even better. The students were so excited when I told them and could hardly wait for it to come. It is great to know there are generous people out there and people who are willing to give money to the education of the great students here at our school. Once again, we are so appreciative of your generous gift. Thanks

If you want to help out, the tech blog fundraising effort is going on for another week. I'm embedding a widget here for you to donate to Fred Wilson's challenges (where I donated as well):

Tonight I had the Honor of Meeting Art Spiegelman

Tonight I had the opportunity to meet Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, as he took time to speak at a nearby Barnes & Noble about his new book Breakdowns (an auto-biographical graphic novel that touches on how he came to write graphic novels and how he came to write Maus). 

Maus, for those not familiar, is one of the most well read books about the Holocaust, known for it’s distinct graphic novel style and it’s portrayal of the the world as animals.  It’s also a story written by Art Spiegelman looking at his father, who was the survivor (rather than say Night, which Eli Weisel wrote about himself the survivor).  The perspective of the son and the post-survivor generation is different, and intense in it’s own way. 

I’ve read Maus (it’s actually a two part series, Maus I & II) several times, and always it has been incredibly intense and emotional; my Grandfather is a Holocaust survivor, and many many of my relatives died in the war, so thought it is not my family’s story, it is in a way their very story.  Everything about the victims and the survivors is tied to every other, and the emotions of Spiegelman himself as a 2nd generation is just one more layer that survivor families can relate to.

I had not expected for tonight to impact me as it did; I knew that Maus wasn’t particularly the subject at hand, and so I expected more to hear about the graphic novel industry.  He was also not who I had imagined from reading the books – he’s jovial, boisterous, comes off almost as a jolly professor (his talk is filled with literary reference) rather than the burdened tired man I envisioned.  If I hadn't known what he wrote about, I probably wouldn't have expected it from him.  Still, the few images he presented of Maus and his time writing it reminded me that regardless of how he carries himself out in the open, Maus the story and more importantly Maus the life of his father was the defining influence on his life.   His pictures were small peaks into what's deep inside him and what lies embedded in the history of all of our families.

Standing in front of him, I was humbled and thankful – the book he wrote may have been cathartic for him, but it is also incredibly important to my family as survivors, as it is I’m sure for all of us that have ties to the Holocaust.  As he signed my book, I thanked him for the difficult work he did that is so significant to all of us, and told him that as a family of survivors we are thankful for it.  He asked if my grandfather was still alive, where my last name comes from (it’s modified from polish origin), and finished the inscription from above.  It was a short meeting that followed a talk meant more to be humorous and informative, but I walked away from it shaking and emotionally exhausted, in ways that I can only begin to describe here. 

If you haven’t read Maus, make sure you do – it will not take long.

Forget it and Enjoy Life

This is a great quote that is worth thinking about:

“I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.”

I want to leave a mark on the future for people that follow me, be it family or in organizations I care about, but I think that's different - it's seperate from spending all my time trying to earn more money, or prove to people I'm better - it's about feeling like the time I have here is being spent on worthwhile endeavours, and paying forward the great things that people before me have done for me.  The point stands though, don't lose site of enjoying life for what it is while we have it.

(re-blogged from FredWilson who quoted Andrew Lahde)

Disturbing Notice About the Water at Work

Internal notice received today at the office:

FYI:

A new announcement has been posted for 100 West 33rd Street:
------------------------------------------------------------
Brown Water in Restrooms

 

Please be advised that the brown water in the restrooms is a result of the DEP opening and closing certain valves in the street which caused sediment to shift in the water. 

The DEP is stating that the water is safe but it will take a couple of days for the water to clear. 

 

Oct 17, 2008 9:00a