We met just before the Perseid Meteor showers and I fell in love with you when they peaked.
Not long after we met I lost a mother figure. I pulled out my phone when we separated for the night and read the text. All I wanted was you. Somehow you had service even though you were already underground and you came back to meet me. I remember sitting on a ledge at the edge of a building, crying. You beside me, patient and warm.
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I believe that in the future more and more people will work for themselves. Many of these indivuals will use the Internet to create location independent businesses. This creates a landscape where anyone can literally work and live anywhere. Some of these people are becoming digital nomads who work while traveling the world. Others just enjoy the liberty of being able to earn a living on their terms.
Problem is, taking the plunge can be scary. A lot of people have an idea but they don’t know what to do or where to start. Or maybe they are already freelancing but they want to figure out how to turn their work into a more sustainable business?
I want to help these people make it happen.
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I realize today that we don’t have much time. Time to look at the mountains, to smell home cooked food as it wafts down the block to where we’re sitting. Time to let things sink in or to feel everything. These moments will be gone quickly and all that will be left are the people and things we felt them for.
I’m sitting on the rooftop of a fourth story coffeeshop with big open windows. It feels like I’m in a Jeep Wrangler with the doors and top popped off. All those extra parts (the sides of the car and the roof) are off somewhere sitting in someone’s garage. There’s structure around me but for the most part I feel free from the typical confines of buildings. Covered but not, like the outdoor-acceptable version of naked on the go.
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Home sweet home, editing a content marketing piece completed by my extraordinary new employee, Dor. It rained today and I celebrated with a run along the East River trail. Even though I live alone I still yearn for these jogs of solitude. Nothing beats the experience of bounding down one side of Manhattan (skipping and singing and hollering), surrounded only by tall buildings where people are hidden away to stay dry.
I took a quick detour to slip and slide on a turf field today. If you caught me between conference calls you would have found me soaked through and dripping, diving headfirst with abandon and sailing across the turf with a huge grin smeared across my face.
The Future of Music Revenue Models
There’s something bubbling in the music industry, and I think Beyonce, Jay Z and Kanye are closest to what’s next.
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Back from another run on the East River Trail, drinking coconut milk and eating fried tortilla neons* of two varieties. A main entree (or plato fuerte) of Justin’s almond butter and jam spread elegantly over a lightly crisped tortilla followed by nutella and cayenne pepper roasted marshmallows atop a lightly carmelized/sugar-fried tortilla for dessert. If there ever was a non-Mexican meal that represented me, this might be it.
* Neons are crackers (or cracker-like things) with two or more toppings on them. For example, Breton crackers with fig jam and feta cheese or Wheat Thins with apple slices and smoked gouda. My mom invented this definition of Neons and so even the mention of them makes me feel special. You know, like the President’s coming to dinner.
1.1 Cleanly
I tried Cleanly this week and I’m still deciding whether it should be a part of my regular routine. In case you haven’t heard, Cleanly is pick up and drop off laundry services that you can order from a streamlined and beautifully designed app experience. Another one of those services that lets people pay other people to do the things people’s parents once did for them.
I was on the phone with my mother when I realized our end was almost as extravagant as the beginning. My Mom and I, we’re just now able to talk about the way life feels. And so in my new openness I tell her about you, filling in the gaps I was afraid to share when we first began.
I told her about the night we met. How pivotal it felt when I went back to the oatmeal shop and told my friends about my adventures. The way we closed down the bar at 4:00 and then pedaled over the bridge into Brooklyn. How we lied down near the carousel and watched the sunrise over The City. The beginning couldn’t have been more romantic.
And then there was the end.
The Rose Bar at the Plaza Hotel. Fresh off the gondola in Central Park. A fancy bar in our summer clothes. You and me, we’ll always be ones for opulence.
Software always looks simple from the user’s perspective, but anyone who’s dug in their heels and actually prototyped, you realize that every pixel is a decision. When the product is your baby every pixel is a heartfelt decision and then some.
I’ve been working on Superflare for about a year now, and as I head to South Korea I can’t help but feel like it’s time to actually launch this thing. All I have to do is finish prototyping and then let this thing fly.
I’m terrified to fail but also full of so much hope. It’s time to tighten up the leftover loose ends. I’m so close and I’m going to conquer this list once and for all. It’s time to turn these ideas into something real and working.
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Finding old to do lists always feels a little like recovering old fragments of self stuck in time. I’m sure they’re of no interest to anyone else but I’m going to start keeping my tasks here for progress tracking and archival purposes. I like the pressure of transparency and want to look back on these and get a little of that breathe-easy, grateful-to-have-survived feeling. So here we go, my first to do list that’s still a work in progress. [continue reading…]
I’m in the most stunning coffeeshop I’ve ever seen. Drinks are 8,500 won, which is about twice the price of a typical coffee shop (e.g. Starbucks or Cafe Bene) in Seoul. For a little extra context, you can get a legitimate meal in most areas of Seoul for 7,000 won. Yet 8,500 for a coffee s is normal for Gangnam’s other boutique spots, and in some ways this coffeeshop is just on par with others in the area. There’s something different here though, and I think it’s the sheer size of the place.
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I arrived in Korea late on Friday night, just in time for a nap and the beginning of New York City’s workday. I could barely keep my eyes open so I took a catnap and woke up just in time to power through some work and a couple phone calls. Nearly a day of travel had gotten to me so on my first night in South Korea I crashed to sleep at AMASS Hotel and dreamt of nothing.
