Written on March 5, 2012 at 10:19 pm, by admin
To update this post I made last year, I am still not going back to SXSW… Again, not because it’s too big, too commercial or too social media focused (I’m sure it’s all of those things and a million other reasons you wouldn’t want to go if you are looking for excuses), but because I have an undetermined muscular disease and can’t walk the distances I would need to make it past day one.
I normally don’t post personal stuff on this blog (and in the last year, I haven’t really blogged here at all), but here’s the story with this, since I have been asked these questions a lot:
About twelve years ago I started getting tics / twitches in my right leg. They spread to my hands and the rest of my body and then I started getting charley-horse cramps everywhere, especially when I was tired, over-caffeineted or stressed (so if you know me, basically always). Up until 18 months ago these were bothersome and annoying, but that was it, and the doctors thought they were benign – literally something called Benign Fasciculation Syndrome.
In September of 2010 they started getting worse and over a couple month period it got so bad I was frequently walking with a cane for support. Due to some improved medication and diet changes, I am stable now… I have good days and bad days. My muscles are all still here and plenty strong, they just don’t work right anymore. They don’t all fire together and hold the contraction right. The new symptoms are often painful and I’m on a lot of strong medicine to overcome that part of it. It’s also pretty exhausting when I’m on my feet all day, so just like last year, I can’t walk a lot. You may not realize if you haven’t been, but SXSW is a lot of walking… so unless I want to get Gob Bluth’s segway, I don’t think I could make it past the first day.
In last year’s post I posted how I had hope of returning to normal activity by the summer, well that time has come and gone and I’m still not there. I have a lot of faith in God and a little bit of faith in doctors and it’s possible that I could eventually return to normal activity and I’m working towards that as a goal. I’m currently seeing a new doctor who says I will have a diagnosis and a firm prognosis in the next couple of months. I’m looking forward to knowing what my long-term prognosis is, good or bad, and once I know I’ll figure out whether I will buy a segway for next year or maybe even being able to attend SXSW without a cane.
Written on March 12, 2011 at 7:36 pm, by Brian Schwartz
In every post you see about the iPad 2 launch on Engagdet, Techcrunch, Ars, et al there are people arguing in the comments about Android verus iOS (or people just bashing Apple). Why do these people care so much about the hardware / software on a device that they don’t own, don’t develop for, and for a company in which they don’t own stock?
When and why did people get this passionate about technology that doesn’t really impact their well-being?
Tangentially why does every clichéd reference of a blogger refer to him (never her), blogging from their parent’s dark basement?
*For the record, I’m blogging from my couch, in a house I pay a mortgage on (I don’t call that owning), while the kids are asleep, and thinking about not being at SxSW*
Written on February 3, 2011 at 3:05 pm, by Brian Schwartz
After a lot of deliberation, I’ve finally come to realize that I’m not going to SXSWi 2011. You see this title and probably think this post is some diatribe about how it’s gotten too big, or how Social Media “gurus” have taken over, or how last year’s keynote was boring, but it’s not for any of these reasons.
Why am I not going? Well, I have a muscular disease that I’ve kept really quiet for the last 5 months, but it has damaged my muscles to the point where I’m usually walking with a cane right now. Without going into all the details, I have hope that this damage is reversible (although not curable), and with the right treatment I’ll hopefully be back to close to “normal” activities by late Spring or early Summer.
Looking back on last year’s SXSW (which was a great time meeting a lot of people and learning a lot), I realized I walked. A LOT. And no matter how much I want to, I wouldn’t be able to do it this year.
I know I could still go to SXSW and not walk as much, but I’m worried that I would be end up being disappointed with my experience, and likely in a lot of pain even after limiting my activities.
So I’m not going to SXSW this year… I will miss catching up with the DCTH crew, Scott Bishop and his crazy pirate friends, friends from St. Louis, Roberto and others. I will also miss trying to find a worse session that this one and then blogging about it.
No worries on my end though because I know this is the right decision. I am sure I am going to Big Omaha and probably An Event Apart – Atlanta (I figure there will be a lot less walking for these events). Hopefully I run into friends at these, see some great speakers and learn a lot at the sessions.
Written on January 5, 2011 at 12:16 pm, by admin
Here is a site (and brand) we created at Spoke for a new company focusing on retirement planning.
Sentry Retirement focuses only on people at or near retirement and provides (from their site):
We use a variety of strategies, tailored to each client’s objectives and tolerance for risk. The goal for each is to advance the value of their investments, while helping to cushion them from downturns and natural fluctuations in the markets and global economy. In other words, “advance and protect” versus “ buy, hold and hope”.
This site is using fonts from Typekit and built on a custom wordpress theme. Updates will come soon for adding a custom event management module.
Written on August 24, 2010 at 5:53 pm, by Brian Schwartz
I recently helped my friend Kevin Redel update his website to WordPress (complete with custom post types) to show his inventory. The project included creating a custom post type for his forklifts, custom taxonomies for the classes and filtering and then some custom themes for displaying the forklifts. Not a ton of documentation out there for custom post type’s yet. But it’s a pretty great feature and I look forward to using it more.
If you are looking for a used Forklift in or around St. Louis Missouri you should checkout Forklift America. Kevin is constantly updating his inventory and refurbishing the best forklifts he can find.
Written on April 11, 2010 at 7:35 pm, by Brian Schwartz
http://ping.fm/p/Wa3dN – Jen taking care of Jude in style
Written on March 22, 2010 at 2:19 pm, by Brian Schwartz
Written on February 28, 2010 at 8:13 pm, by Brian Schwartz
A friend in middle school became disturbed in high school (for storytelling sake, let’s call him Ahab). Technically I’m pretty sure Ahab’s a paranoid schizophrenic and from anecdotal accounts of close friends of mine, he became violent, paranoid and pretty crazy. I think his family eventually had Ahab institutionalized. I really hadn’t thought about him in years.
Fast forward 15 or 16 years and in today’s age of instant access to old friends. He requested to be facebook friends with a friend of mine (let’s call him Joe). Once the friendship request was accepted, Ahab sent Joe a scathing email where he blamed Joe for all of the problems in his life, tried to extort money out of him and said he knows where Joe’s family lives and will do them harm if he doesn’t pay.
So Joe did the responsible thing and called the police, they advised him to keep all the threatening messages, but delete his facebook account and after tracking down Ahab’s family, Joe found out Ahab at least lives out of state (and has been off medication for over a year). So Joe and his family are concerned, but much less so knowing that Ahab lives far away.
Scary story and absolutely true except for the names.
Hearing this got me thinking about what I divulge online. On twitter I’ll happily share the names and pictures of my kids, where I am (via foursquare) and other personal details about my life (where I work, where I’m going on vacation, etc). On facebook I post photo albums to share with friends and family. One personal detail I’ve always left out is my home address, but I have friends who have added their homes to Foursquare and checkin when they get there.
I think social media is one of the last nails in the coffin of privacy and for the most part I’ve accepted that and would rather engage and share what I want to share without fear of deranged people.
A lot of internet privacy stories are ridiculously sensationalized by the media. (Tangent thought: pleaserobme.com is a joke, ok, as a friend tweeted to me about this story: “Know what else tells robbers where you are besides Foursquare?? Being a reporter on a scheduled nightly newscast!!”)
But after hearing horror stories like the one above, I at least need to pause and think about what I share.
Do you? Does this give you pause for concern? Let me know in the comments below.
