CNN has posted a new interactive tool that allows the reader to get more from the story and the history by combining photos, maps, and video to demonstrate the facts and progress of the crimes
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/news/grim.sleeper/index.html
CNN also allowed readers to comment and it was fascinating to see how many folks are trying to solve the crime and offering up new perspectives and interesting correlations.
“In his IA Summit 2009 closing plenary, Jesse James Garrett sounded the overdue death knell of division by job title. The information architect and the interaction designer are no more: we are all user experience designers, and we always have been. Amen.”
Sign the petition…I did :)
http://itsjustux.org
I’m compiling a list of card and board games that fun and skill-building for UX professionals. The list so far includes:
Suggest others in the comments and they may make a debut at the 2009 IA Summit board game night!
On Sunday, November 23rd, I successfully ran my first marathon. Here’s the proof:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckubitsky/sets/721576
The training was intense and long but it gave me the confidence to know that I *can* run 26.2 miles. I couldn’t have completed all the training or run the race if it wasn’t for the support of a few fantastic folks:
My husband, Dinko, gave me the daily encouragement I needed and took care of things around the house when I was running. He helped me to be a better runner by coaching me on food and speed. I now know that the hardest part of running and training for a marathon is simply the way you think about it. The physical part is so much easier.
My good friend, Regan, was the best running partner I could have ever hoped for. We ran the same pace and spent my long training runs together. We kept each other company, pushed each other to improve and pulled the other during rough patches. It really would have been a lonely 26.2 without her.
Thank you to everyone who came out and cheered the runners on during the race, and to all the friends that helped during training. This is my best accomplishment to date and I thank you for helping me get there.
My City Friends!!
I am running the Philadelphia Distance Run on Sunday. Race starts from Eakins Oval at the Art Museum at 7:45AM. We love it when folks are cheering for the runners, so if anyone is interested in coming out to cheer me on here is some information:
Where and when you might be able to see me…
- City Hall around 8:00AM or later
- Washington Sq around 8:10-8:15AM or later
- West River Drive around 8:30-8:45AM or later
- Boathouse Row around 9:50-10:10AM or later
Map of course
http://www.ingphiladelphiadistancerun.com/Assets/runphilly/images/pdr_08_coursemap_color.gif
Race information
http://www.ingphiladelphiadistancerun.com/race_info.html
I’m targeting a finish time of faster than 2h 15min which I hope I can do considering the stomach virus I’m just getting over. Good luck to everyone running :)
I love movies and for the past year I haven’t really devoted much time to watching any. There always seems to be another obligation to attend to and I can’t seem to find 120 minutes of relatively continuous free time.
Last night I began surfing iTunes to find movies to rent for my upcoming trip to Croatia. I love having my own personal media service when flying. I was amazed at the number of titles I wanted to see. Here’s the list, in aphabetical order:
I’ve rented about half of them from iTunes. I can’t wait to watch them on my various flights and train rides :)
We just received the brand new starting set of rules and regulations at our Condo. It’s long overdue. We’ve been living here since October 2005. Most of the rules are normal rules that are designed to maintain peace, safety and security of the complex and its residents. However there are many surprising rules that we feel are really ridiculous that you wouldn’t find in a typical street were house are absent of home owners’ associations. Here are a few of the ridiculous rules:
The list goes on. It will take us awhile to accept some of these. I refuse to accept the blinds rule. My blinds are tan, not light tan and they were hundreds of dollars.
I’ve finally gotten around to planning out my training for the upcoming Philly Marathon. It will be my first marathon and I’m really excited to get started.
After much debate, I opted to work from a marathon training program developed by Bart Yasso. My husband just read his book, My Life on the Run, and found it very inspiring and the training plans in the back to be easy and sensible.
I really hope that my friends, Adrienne and Regan, will train and race with me. Here’s a look at the schedule.
Over the past couple of months, my experience with shopping in retail stores has been extremely terrible. I used to just complain that brick-and-mortar stores were terrible because they never had what I wanted in stock. Selections were poor and stock was always low. Now I can add poorly kept stores, terrible customer service and ERRORs everywhere to that list.
I shop online, but I’m not a fan of shopping online for everything. Sometimes I like the experience of being surrounded by the physical goods, inspecting them, and trying them. Especially for clothing and electronics. I don’t enjoy needing to return things, which seemed to happen far too often when purchasing goods online for me. But, now I can extend the pain of needing to return things to my in-person shopping as well.
Every single shopping trip I’ve taken in the past 2 months, including large grocery store trips, has resulted in me returning items to the store. I’ve had to return a faulty aluminum water bottle, a ripped purse, a pair of 2 right shoes, wilted spinach, missing parts from Ikea lamps, cracked pot for plants, etc. What’s up??? Why are products in stores so poor. Why are the staff so mean when you return them nicely?
I had the pleasure of listening to a talk with George Lakoff, introducing the concepts of his new book, The Political Mind. He argues that the political divide in the United States is not just about the usual arguments of money, power, social structure and history, but that that the ultimate source is in the brains of its citizens.
He goes on to explain the amazing new research has shown that much of our reasoning is unconscious. We all use frames, prototypes and metaphors to rationalize our ideas and decisions on a subconscious level. Previously it was thought that emotion stood in the way of reason, but it is quite the opposite. Emotion is required in order to be rational.
I was so inspired by Lakoff’s 60-minute talk that I immediately bought the book and began reading it as I waited in line for a personalized autograph. I hope to be able to use this book to gain a better understanding of how people make decisions and how we can use empathy, understanding and language to bring about new ideas and new perspectives. I look forward to finding interesting symmetries between his work with linguistics, cognitive science and political theory to the world of information architecture and user experience.
