Contagious Curiosity : Art

Women who think

llangit — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:19:25 GMT

Apparently there were some that came before me as well. If you get to Balboa Park in San Diego, this portrait is worth seeing.

Timken Museum: John Singleton Copley

Michael B. Oren - "Power, Faith, and Fantasy"

llangit — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:47:23 GMT

A good read. Eloquent writing and interesting history. I've just started this one, but am quite gripped by it so far. Here's a sample of the writing (from page 6):

"There (in London) he gained the attention of the prestigious African Society and of its flamboyant secretary, Henry Beaufoy. Impressed with the 'manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eyes,' Beaufoy propsed that Ledyard probe the length of the Nile, from Cairo to Sennar in the eastern Sudan, a journey never before undertaken by a Westerner."

Michael B. Oren - "Power, Faith, and Fantasy"

Writing is Understanding

llangit — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:34:01 GMT

As my regular blog readers may know, I am writing again. I am working on a big project - "Building Business Intelligence Solutions with SQL Server 2008" (for MSPress to be published later this year). When I am writing, I need a few things:

1) Quiet time - to organize my thoughts
2) Physical Exercise - to balance the mental gymnastics that accompany writing
3) Inspiration - to keep me motivated for the long-running task

I often find the third one by experiencing the work of other creative people - musicians, visual artists, and especially, other writers. Occasionally I'll come across something that resonates particularly strongly - almost like finding a kindred spirit. I recently experienced this pleasure when reading page 208 of Symmetry by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy.

Browse Inside Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature by Marcus du Sautoy

The Scientist - Natasha Bedingfield

llangit — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:01:51 GMT

Great song, great voice - thought I'd share, enjoy.

The Scientist - Natasha Bedingfield

Presentation Zen

llangit — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:23:45 GMT

I've been thinking quite a bit about what I call the 'visualization problem' lately - meaning ineffective visualization for presentations, reporting (or business intelligence), search engines, blogs, etc...is it just me, or does the preponderance of crap out there just seem to be increasing exponentially? I honestly have difficulty walking into stores like Best Buy, because the bombardment of media just wears me out. Also, having just returned from a week in Las Vegas, a quiet day on the beach today was quite therapeutic.

I am pretty much of a 'zen' person generally - less being more and all that, so when I got the book 'Presentation Zen' at last week's meeting, I took note. I just finished reading it, all in one setting, and recommend it heartily. The timing is good, I am just starting to think about how I will present the content at the local MSDN launch events in April and May (both of which have sold out - thanks to you!).

If you do presentations, you should read this too.

Presentation Zen

Things that Endure

llangit — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:48:14 GMT

So, I am stuck in cold and wet Seattle for a week (for internal company training), worse yet, in my hotel room since I came down with a nasty flu. Trying to recuperate, I am reminded of the idiocy of TV (which I don’t normally watch at all while at home), and don’t have my music collection to cheer me up. Normally when I am feeling down one of three things usually brings me out of it – music, reading or running. It’s too cold to run, I have no books, so I’ve checked around for some ‘comfort music’ online.

I first heard Keith Jarrett’s work many, many years ago (‘The Koln Concert’). It has always had a profound effect on me. Most of my first book was written to his music. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him perform live twice – in Munich and in Los Angeles. In our ever-eroding-attention-deficit world things that endure, whether written or lyrical, are important to me.

Make It Rain

llangit — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:40:42 GMT

I'm headed to Seattle for 9 days, so why not? ;)

Tom Waits is rocking my world today, so I thought I'd share - enjoy.

Happy Holidays from SoCalDevGal

llangit — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:02:44 GMT

Hey readers - thanks for sticking with me so far. I hope you are getting something meaningful (and maybe even occasionally entertaining) from this blog. You certainly make me smile - whether you are legitimately complaining about some lame thing or some oversight in our products, correcting or complementing some presentation I did, or just showing interest in something I've said either here or at a live event.

In lieu of sending all of you a holiday card, I decided to attempt a holiday message...

So, it's the holidays. Time to reflect on another year here - to think about what's good, what's not so good and what you want to do next. Did something significant happen to you this year? It did for me. You know, you'd think with all the fancy places I visited, that I'd be most affected by one of them, maybe something like the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, for example, but no...

Rather it was the most remote place that had the strongest effect on me. In the middle of a soccer field in rural Africa I met a group of children. They approached me, very tentatively at first, probably due to my (unusual to them) appearance -- white skin and red hair! Soon we were 'chatting' as best we could, their Tonga not being a language familiar to me.

Why is it that 1 out every 5 of those children won't live past age 5? Isn't life itself a human right? What can I do to help the health crisis in Zambia (life expectancy is 39 years old)? So, that's why I spend as much time as I can working with other volunteers to help the SmartCare electronic medical record system that is being implemented nation-wide in Zambia now. SmartCare has been 7 years in the making, progress, but slow progress. The small team in Lusaka works incredibly hard. The system is having such a positive impact that it is being expanded to other countries - currently Ethiopia. There's much work to be done -- I'm going continue to do this for the rest of my life.

For me the holidays provide me with some time to think and to make sure I've got my priorities straight. Having the skill (or maybe flaw) of curiosity tends to allow distractions to pull me in various directions.

It's simple really, we've all only got three big buckets - people (or, more broadly, living beings), ideas and things. So what is it? Where are your priorities? Do you feel good about how you spent your time this year?

Do something for me then, turn it off (all of it - the computer, the TV, the game console, etc...), go find the one(s) you love - hug 'em and tell them you love them, then go outside somewhere you like (for me - it's the beach) and give thanks for all that you've got, and do take a bit of time to dream. Imagine your future, our future.

Happy holidays - talk to you next year.

Complexity and Simplicity at MSDN events

llangit — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:54:16 GMT

Althought I enjoy complex music, art and people, when it comes to code, the simpler the better. Can you join me next week in Irvine (Tues, Dec 4 from 8am to noon) or Riverside (Thursday, Dec 6 from 1pm to 5pm) for my MSDN sessions on reducing complexity in your world? As usual I plan to share info and (code) showing forward directions for you. This round has a particular focus on web development technologies.

By the way, in the previous quarter in IRVINE, we had the LARGEST audience in the US. Can we do it again? I see that we are about 15 registrations behind NYC at this point...

I am looking forward to seeing you there. Here are the 'official topics':

Session 1: What’s New for Web Development in Visual Studio 2008

Session 2: A New Paradigm for Data Development with Web Based Data Services (code-named Astoria)

Session 3: Building Rich, Dynamic Web Experiences with Microsoft Silverlight, ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX

Yue Minjun - Laughing Art

llangit — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:35:00 GMT

This month's Vanity Fair had an interesting article on the contemporary art scene in China. The work of Yue Minjun caught my eye more than the other artists shown. I've always particularly liked art that made me laugh (and think) at the same time.

I've got to say that from the works shown on Yue's website, 'Big Ear' (shown below) is among my favorites. 'Color Rain' is also wonderful. But there are many examples of stuff that I really like - check it out, giggle, enjoy, laugh!

Pause for a moment...

llangit — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:43:41 GMT

I've been working too hard this week. As I was reviewing the photos on my camera, I found the one below (that I had taken a couple of weeks ago). I thought you might enjoy it as much as I do.

It's lonelygirl15's world, isn't it?

llangit — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:05:22 GMT

It's lonelygirl15's world, isn't it? Maybe not yet (at least for me)

After spending a day at the New Media and Podcast Expo, I am thinking that the 'next Web' is all about micro-content.
Well, that and oddly-colored hair if the attendees are actually influential.

Viral video presenters on a panel with me, talked about 'shows' with lengths of 60 seconds to 5 minutes long each.
Oh, and of course, sex sells (some things don't change). Everyone just wants their '15 minutes' although now I think it's more like 15 seconds, their 'quarter Life', or just whatever...

Another trend seems to be virtual lives - including participation in the "lives" of characters in microshows and beyond -
that is, thier 'character's' blogs, social network sites, even 'real life' events, etc...all of which are, of course, fake.
Kind of a Second Life on steroids, I guess. It seems also to be all about emotion (especially spectacle - even better if it is fake) - divorced from thought. The line 'spectacle first, story second' was kind of a mantra.

This attention frenzy is a bit much for me. My response is to feel like reading a book, slowly and for a good long time.
Fortunately, I've got one that interests me particularly now - linguistics and semantics - now there's a topic that I
enjoy giving some dedicated attention to. Sometimes the best thing to do is just to unplug for awhile...

One of the most important problems: Data Visualization

llangit — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:13:11 GMT

Great article with interesting approaches. Given the volumes of data that we (should) be working with, this is a problem that I've been giving quite a bit of thought to lately. The reason I say 'should' is my bias toward data warehouse stores, given my work with Business Intelligence (or OLAP). What's even more interesting is that application of Data Mining algorithms to this data and these visualizations.

My favorite from this collection is the Shape of a Song. Below is Madonna's Like A Prayer. I'd really only thought of classical musical as having such a beautiful shape prior to this. I'd often actually tried to envision the geometry of some of my favorite classical pieces as kind of a relaxation exercise - Bach, Brahms, Rachmaninoff. This site gives a new perspective to that.

Data Visualization: Modern Approaches | Graphics

Do You Talk Too Much?

llangit — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:09:03 GMT

Even though I talk for a living - some days I'd just rather listen. This afternoon I am supposed to give yet another talk and I just feel like the picture below.

Link to Do You Talk Too Much?

Hands on: Running Vista on a MacBook Pro

llangit — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:15:21 GMT

For my Quark audience of today, here's the detailed information you are looking for.

Hands on: Running Vista on a MacBook Pro