Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Transition To Teaching:

Posted via email from Transition To Teaching:

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

via nytimes.com

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via mlb.mlb.com

Wow. I have a lot of respect for what these two men did. Joyce, for not phoning it in today, but going out there and doing his job in the face fo criticism and jeers. And Galarraga for showing no disdain whatsoever.

I’m not convinced, however, that in this particular situation, Bud Selig couldn’t intervene and fix the blatant mistake that occurred in a nano-second.

Even if the umpires would’ve conferred for like 5 seconds, they could’ve called an out and all would’ve been forgotten. It’s too bad for Joyce, and it’s too bad for the game from here on out that EVERY perfect game from here on out will have an asterisk: The 21st will really be the 22nd, and so on.

Nonetheless, it’s still the greatest game, and today’s show of class was something special.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via mlb.mlb.com

There’s plenty being said about Joyce’s missed call that cost Galarraga his perfect game. And the noisy Joe West is getting regular press this season between his unsolicited comments about the Yanks and Sox as well as his tiff with White Sox’s Ozzie Guillen.

But I want to go back to last fall and McClelland’s crack-smoking during game four of the 2009 ALCS.

Watch this clip, look up the other two, and tell me something isn’t entirely remiss here. What is going on with the umpires?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m ready for instant replay or a change of the rules regarding appeals.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via theconversationprism.com

Very interesting infographic on social networking. Go to their homepage, http://theconversationprism.com for more info.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via enjoymentland.com

Buster Benson has made a web app I absolutely adore. It’s not just a piece of software that simplifies a task like hydraulics give us power steering and power brakes–both of which I’m grateful for. Benson’s 750Words.com literally is making me a better man. And I feel guilty for having slumps where I can’t or don’t get to my daily entry.

Click through to read Benson’s “eat your own dogfood” testimony on his blog, and if you haven’t taken the challenge yet, perhaps the author/developer’s personal reflection will challenge you to do so.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via theleagueofmoveabletype.com

If you need some solid typography, but are overwhelmed with the choices, look no further. Here’s a great collection of sound, timeless typefaces that will make any document sing.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via inc.com

Jason Fried nails it. Businesses that are in business to make money while making us stupid aren’t businesses worth doing business with. I think this is one of my biggest frustrations with the business world–that there’s too much fear of offending customers, and too much “spreadsheet thinking” that governs the decisions that dehumanize the marketplace and leave if void of interesting thought and personality. I think the desire for the types of companies that Fried uses as examples in this article will trump generic, big business in significant ways in the years ahead.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Transition To Teaching:

via s3.amazonaws.com

via @daringfireball.net

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via online.wsj.com

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

div class=’posterous_autopost’>

<

div class=”posterous_bookmarklet_entry”>

This ran yesterday, but I keep thinking about it, and had to repost it today. There have been a number of milestone moments for Apple where I’ve said, “If I could, I’d go ALL IN with Apple right now.” Looks like those risks would’ve been worth taking. I’d love it if the author/developer of this page, Kyle Conroy, would do a similar comparison of other major consumer brands.

<

blockquote>

div class=’posterous_autopost’>

<

div class=”posterous_bookmarklet_entry”>

This ran yesterday, but I keep thinking about it, and had to repost it today. There have been a number of milestone moments for Apple where I’ve said, “If I could, I’d go ALL IN with Apple right now.” Looks like those risks would’ve been worth taking. I’d love it if the author/developer of this page, Kyle Conroy, would do a similar comparison of other major consumer brands.

<

blockquote>

via nytimes.com

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via reflectionof.me

I LOVE this.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via holykaw.alltop.com

I imagine this story will be told a thousand times over.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via npr.org

I heard this story during this morning’s drive. I love how provocative Brian McLaren is and that his work has reached the level to make NPR headlines. The drama alone is interesting…largely in part because McLaren is definitively non-dramatic.

What he is, though, is a brilliant and prophetic voice of reason in an age where people of faith have grown complacent and lazy about what they believe and why they believe it.

Christianity, especially “American Christianity,” is long overdue for substantive, careful, and deliberate reform.

McLaren doesn’t have all the answers, but the questions he provokes are the right ones for all believers…an excellent topic as we solemnly approach the remembrance of Jesus’ death and more importantly, we jubilantly celebrate the resurrection.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

For my birthday this past week, my dad wrapped up his vintage Technics SL-1500 Turntable as a gift. Mom grabbed a hilarious stack of records from Goodwill for 

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

via colourlovers.com

What an amazing scientific explanation. I love the blend of the subjective world of art and aesthetics with the facts of science and gender studies. Very interesting.

Posted via web from Transition To Teaching:

via en.wikipedia.org

If I had known 6 years ago that Lost was going to come down to this, I never would have bought in.

Too late now!

via @lvlewitinn

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via nytimes.com

Today is my birthday, and Passover’s right around the corner. So, this recipe for a matzo-like flatbread seems like a natural way to celebrate. Consider it my gift to you.

I’m feeling downright generous today, and who could blame me? Last night, the government gave me the promise of a country with affordable healthcare–something I believe is long overdue, even if the current bill is somewhat of an ugly duckling. Nonetheless, it’s the most original birthday gift I’ve ever received!

That said, I’m really jazzed about the fun my family provided for me with an AMAZINGLY SINFUL chocolate cherry cake (thanks, Steph!), some great gifts, including my dad’s vintage turntable and stack of vinyl, and my wife indulged me with a subscription to MLB.tv. Yup. I can watch all 2400+ games this year if I wanted to.

So, happy birthday to my fellow Spring birthday buddies. Tonight, I shall raise a glass to our collective health! Join me in enjoying some simple cooking pleasures on a beautifully rainy March day in Indiana.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via nytimes.com

I’m totally going to try this!

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

And just like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson, not to mention Sean
Hannity and other meatheads, Beck went and ostracized all of
Christendom with his comments denouncing churches that practice let
alone preach “social justice.”

Amy Sullivan spells it out in a post at Time.com

Still uncertain? Have a look at this infographic by British designer David McCandless and try to figure out how
there isn’t a serious disconnect between a neocon’s agenda and just
plain ole’ common sense, as well as the teachings Jesus.

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

via imjustcreative.posterous.com

I absolutely love it. (via imjustcreative.posterous.com…via soulride.tumblr.com)

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

–>

WASHINGTON — People in sunny, outdoorsy states — Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida — say they’re the happiest Americans, and researchers think they know why.

A new study comparing self-described pleasant feelings with objective measures of good living found these folks generally have reason to feel fine.

Hoosiers, however, were among the least happy in the country — third from the bottom of the list. Indiana does have some things working against it on the happiness front.

Through the winter, leaden skies can block out the sun for weeks at a time. We’ve still got a high unemployment rate, and we have problems with pollution. And then there are the Pacers.

The places where people are most likely to report happiness also tend to rate high on studies comparing things such as climate, crime rates, air quality and schools.

The happiness ratings were based on a survey of 1.3 million people across the country by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It used data collected over four years that included a question asking people how satisfied they are with their lives.

Economists Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., compared the happiness ranking with studies that rated states on a variety of criteria, including availability of public land, commuting time and local taxes.

Their report in today’s edition of the journal Science found the happiest people tend to live in the states that do well in quality-of-life studies.

Oswald said “this is the first objective validation of ‘happiness’ data,” which is something he said economists have been reluctant to use in the past.

Ranking No. 1 in happiness was Louisiana, home of Dixieland music and Cajun/Creole cooking.

Oswald urged a bit of caution in that ranking, however, noting that part of the happiness survey occurred before Hurricane Katrina struck the state in 2005, and part of it took place later. Nevertheless, he said, “We have no explicit reason to think there is a problem” with the ranking.

I heard this story on NPR today and was stunned that Indiana ranked so poorly. Then on second thought, I understand some of the criterion. But still….third from last?

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

I was incredibly fortunate to have attended this past Sunday’s Colts/Broncos matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium. We had a corporate Christmas party outing to the game, and as I had anticipated, it was THE GAME of the season.

There have been much more tense games this season, but Sunday, the Colts proved their dominance in the sport, and put themselves helmet and shoulderpads above the competition of this season as well as all-time.

Clinching simultaneously, the envious playoff position of home-field advantage alongside the coveted bye-week, AND securing the record of best winning record with the most consecutive wins ever, with a streak of 22.

Being there to witness this is now in my books as a truly historic moment in sports along with: 2007 winning streak by the Colorado Rockies, followed by GAME FOUR of the World Series, watching the Red Sox beat my aforementioned team, and most notably, watching the Cincinnati Reds’ Tom Browning pitch a perfect game in September of 1988.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m good luck to the teams I cheer for!

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

What an interesting experiment and journey.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

The Poem is by Walt, the recording by Will Geer. Such a nice piece of writing and a wonderful recording.

(Thanks to the Levi’s commercial, by way of www.artofmanliness.com)

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

I love food. I love thanksgiving. And I love this thought.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Eric Nentrup
http://ericnentrup.com

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Eric Nentrup
http://ericnentrup.com

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Quite possibly the coolest use of legos EVER.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

Thanks to Chris (http://tr.im/wJjm) and MacNiven’s ( http://tr.im/wJjB)…I now love Scotch Eggs and am going to have to make some!

Check out the recipe.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Oh. Wow.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Oh, Yes, it’s all about Performance.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Simply astonishing. Mark Buehrle’s perfect game is captured here, out-for-out in five-and-a-half minutes. What a thing of beauty. I can’t think of anything else in all of sports like a perfect game.

If you don’t understand what the fuss is about…this video is the best example I can think of as it condenses the whole game into mere minutes.

I swear, your jaw will drop at 4:15 when you see DeWayne Wise chase down a centerfield homerun and blatantly STEAL the ball from the forces of evil that would dare try to put asunder such an accomplishment in the making.

I was incredibly fortunate to be at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati for the 1988 Tom Browning perfect game against the Dodgers. I was only a 12-year-old and had no idea the magnitude of what I was watching that September night with my lifelong friend Rudy and his grandparents. Especially since we waited out something like a 3-hour rain delay. Browning’s was the 12th EVER. I still have the ticket stub some 20 years later.

To see Buehrle throw only the 19th EVER today gives me a fresh appreciation for seeing Browning do it. And I can’t overlook DeWayne Wise who left it all on the field for his teammate. Can’t say any starting pitcher for the Dodgers could count on Manny Ramirez to do the same.

Way to go Mark Buerhle. And thanks for making baseball a game to love.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

Posted via email from Eric Nentrup

I love Shepard’s work. And I’m so glad to see his involvement with Lance’s return, not for the sake of celebrating an athlete, but for the cause.

Posted via web from Eric Nentrup

“This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”

So, is he right? Are innovations like Amazon, the iPhone, Google Books and other mashups of modern hardware and software with classic content reducing our intellects to the semblance of truth as opposed to the attainment of genuine wisdom?

Remember…David Allen of Getting Things Done fame chides one for using your brain as a “trusted system,” admonishing one to export, download, and contain your data anywhere besides your noggin, because your brain is NOT capable of keeping up. So, put that in your marble pipe and smoke it, Socrates.

Really, we have Gutenberg to blame, not Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. Gutenberg’s contribution to society was the ultimate liberator. It began the toppling of the pseudo-theocracies of the time, or whatever you call a governing body ruling strictly on the basis of having more cumulative knowledge than the masses. Wait…that’s ANY tyrannical governing body.

Regardless, the printing press ushered in an era of “privacy” and individualism where one could “hole up” with a good book and engage ideas without the intervention or guidance of others. They could decide for themselves what they thought or felt about a subject. Of course, that’s a transactional occurrence. The “deposit” into individualism was made by a “withdrawal” from public and communal life activities: public storytelling, theater, speeches, etc.

Considering that we STILL have public performance in many shapes and forms today, and have the added bonus of being able to REVIEW the text of these performances (that used to be exclusively “you had to be there” situations), it seems to me that Gutenberg’s printing press was a non-zero-sum, win-win, invention and contribution to society. And for years I’ve thought that the public domain collection at Gutenberg.org was fantastic and I have wanted a better way to access it than trying to read it on my computer screen or print it myself. Finally the hardware/software has caught up.

So, maybe Socrates couldn’t envision an Amazon Kindle, let alone a Barnes and Noble. And that’s okay, he had bigger fish to fry.

One more Gutenberg observation, I’ve heard it claimed that it was the printing press that was the second coming of Jesus Christ, because suddenly, the Word of God was available to any and all, not just the elite and educated. The theory maintains that because Jesus was the “Word made flesh” that the availability of the printed Bible constituted his anticipated second-coming. Not sure about that, but being able to READ such crazy theories is always enjoyable and entertaining. I’d argue that reading these thoughts is more mentally stimulating, in comparison to hearing someone rant extemporaneously about it. But what do I know…by typing my opinions, I’m using the very medium in question.

Although the printed page is getting more and more pressure, Johannes paved the way for us to come up with a better mouse trap. So, does the mouse trap make our lives better or is Socrates right? Does it matter to our gray matter? Or is it GREY matter? I don’t know…I’ll have to look it up on my smartphone.

I’ve been wanting to put together a fixed gear bicycle for quite a while now. Last night I got this guy up and running. And man…it is FUN. It’s about as simple as you can get on a bike, with no shifting, no coasting, and one brake lever. I had no clue how it was going to ride or that I’d enjoy it so much. I still love my road bike, but this old Fuji that I picked up for $1.99 at Goodwill (seriously) is my new toy!

I’m looking forward to painting it up and giving it some character. More photos to come!

I pre-ordered a case of Fat Tire*8 and a couple bottles of their Mothership Wheat and 1554.

New Belgium not only makes a fantastic product, they do it with passion and do it well. They protect the environment, give generously to the community of Ft. Collins, and take righteous care of their employees. I tried VERY hard to land a job there a couple of years ago!

Can’t recommend it enough. Stop by next week and see for yourself!

Baseball has returned and winter is declared over. The Yanks and Mets have new cribs, players have shifted around the leagues, and somewhere today, vendors will be crying COLD BEER, HERE! Nachos, and hot dogs will be slathered and gulped. There will be controversy, there will be disappointment, and somewhere after the All-Star break, there will even be a sense that October will never get here. But those moments are fleeting, or should be, and ultimately pale in comparison to the evergreen grass, the rich patina of a loved leather glove, and the glorious crack of the bat.

The game of baseball is one of our most enduring emblems of hope. It persists, season after season, and the promise of players giving it their all against the backdrop of an eager Spring, is something we all need. Play ball!

Even as the inauguration from two weeks ago begins to fade into history, and the bleak realities of a world in trouble take their place, still present is the hum, the hope of something different.

Maira Kalman’s illustrated tour, “And the Pursuit of Happiness,” captures the fleeting moment well, and frames a new perspective looking forward.

I’ve been marking every 1,000th day since 10,000. I stumbled across a website that does it for you and you might find this more interesting than your own birthday…especially since it takes nearly three years to log a thousand days.

13,000…here I come!

From NYTimes.com

There is something different about America today. Something substantially different. Subtantially.

That’s the word — “of substance.” What we’ve experienced today is personally moving, and the best is yet to come as it’s so obvious that the President is ready to go to work.

I have had many moments today, of absolute joy about Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony.

If you weren’t able to see or hear President Obama’s speech today–even if you did–I encourage you to give it some time. It will be well spent.

You can listen to it here. And I’ve uploaded a PDF transcript, along with my annotated comments about the speech, for you to follow along. It truly bears a second and third review.

Written by Jon Favreau, who is quite dialed into the literate and eloquent Obama, I believe there are a few phrases in there that we’ll be quoting.

Here’s the speech in it’s entirety:

The Guardian has an excerpt from the book about the 10,000 Hour Phenomenon–the commonly recurring statistic hypothesizing that the truly great masters of any discipline have in common, around 10,000 banked hours of practice. That is roughly 3 hours a day for a decade. According to Gladwell, there are other contributing factors, but it’s the sheer discipline that separates an “outlier” from the rest of the pack.

I’ve yet to pick up a copy of the book, but I’m already considering how I’ve spent my last 10,000 hours, and how I plan to spend my next. Right now, I’d have to say it wasn’t the most terribly focused time spent on one particular discipline. But if you could figure it all out, I’d say it was spent mostly on a Mac, probably working in Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, or on web stuff. Basically, that would mean I’m an ‘expert’ at Multimedia Production, generally. 

And though I make a living with those skills, I don’t consider myself an expert. The rabbit holes are DEEP. I’ve had to do what I’ve had to do to earn a living in multimedia with an emphasis on video production.

So. I’m going to work on a plan for my NEXT 10K Hours. I’m confident I have plenty of equity to bring forward. But I’m also convinced I need to sharpen it up and make some commitment to a specific role.