Adrian’s Microblog

C: Buenos nachos! B: Hasty bananas! : )

For some reason I’ve been curious about bitcoin lately. I watched two documentaries (I thought The Bitcoin Story was pretty good, though short), read news stories, checked out some apps and websites, etc. I feel like I’d like to dip my toe in.After checking out some alternatives, I think I really like the approach by Circle Internet Financial. Right now they’re in the process of rolling out dollar bank accounts that can sit alongside your bitcoin account, and seamlessly go back and forth. That idea appeals to me, and as they point out, it means you don’t have to play the currency exchange game in order to use bitcoin. In the meantime, you can still link it to your credit/debit card and/or existing bank account for transaction free bitcoins too.Possibly more on this later, but thought I’d share for now. Enjoy!

Felt App

I played this game on Saturday for the first time, and it was a blast! (no pun intended) ;)

BANG! was created by Italian game-maker Emiliano Sciarra, but has a Wild West theme, where sheriff, outlaws, and renegades duke it out to accomplish their goal: sheriff (defeat outlaws and renegades), outlaws (defeat the sheriff), and renegades (defeat the outlaws and successfully face-off against the sheriff).

Along the way there’s fun cards to draw, like different weapons, horses, barrel defenses, dynamite, and more. And there’s even expansion paks, should you want to take it to the next level.

I’m placing my order, and give it two thumbs up!

You can do anything, but not everything. —

by David Allen; shared by Shawn Blanc in his blog post entitled, “No. Times A Thousand”.

Reminds of a book I’d like to read at some point: “The Power of Full Engagement”. But I feel better about having not read it, based on this post about anti-libraries which states that “read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”

A great 3m vid about what our e-mail would look like in real life – fun watch. :)

And if you’re serious about making e-mail better, check out EmailCharter.org.

austinkleon:

While the popular legend has been that Charles Darrow invented the board game Monopoly during the depression, its roots go back decades before, starting with a woman named Elizabeth Magpie: Magie lived a highly unusual life. Unlike most women of her era, she supported herself and didn’t marry until the advanced age of 44. In addition to working as a stenographer and a secretary, she wrote poetry and short stories and did comedic routines onstage. She also spent her leisure time creating a board game that was an expression of her strongly held political beliefs.Magie filed a legal claim for her Landlord’s Game in 1903, more than three decades before Parker Brothers began manufacturing Monopoly. She actually designed the game as a protest against the big monopolists of her time — people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.She created two sets of rules for her game: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents. Her dualistic approach was a teaching tool meant to demonstrate that the first set of rules was morally superior.From The NYTimes Book Review:Magie helped form a company to market it, but it never really took off. The game appealed mostly to socialists and Quakers, many of whom made their own sets; other players renamed properties and added things like Chance and Community Chest cards. Even less auspiciously for Magie, many people began referring to it as “monopoly” and giving it as gifts. Then in 1932, Charles Darrow received one with spaces named for streets in Atlantic City…In November 1935, eight months after Darrow and Parker Brothers made their deal, the company persuaded Magie to sell them the Landlord’s Game patent for $500. The contract provided no residuals, but she hoped the famous game company would turn her “beautiful brainchild” into a popular way of disparaging greedy ­monopolists. The company had other ideas.You can read more about the story in Mary Pilon’s new book, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game.

My favorite character from Sesame Street has apparently turned life coach – he says some pretty profound things in here. :)

(Btw, if you haven’t seen “Everything but the News”, it’s pretty cool too.)

by yours truly

austinkleon:

In this week’s newsletter: 10 things I learned while writing my last book.

Great tips.

hey jen renee: folded notes + love notes, junior-high style

nonconcept:

San Francisco Bay View Residence by McCracken Architects. (Photography: Rien Van Rijthoven)

This is pretty funny.

katykelley:

actionjacksonlovesbbq:bookoisseur:apsies:allisonunsupervised:gladtoseayou:Jeff Jackson, a young Democratic NC State senator is the only senator in the general assembly today due to the snow.He’s got my vote.Jeff Jackson for President.

a++++++

Hilarous 

Ash Wednesday starts Lent today. If you’re Catholic, I highly encourage you to avail yourself of the great gift that is the Sacrament of Confession, wonderfully described in this video. If you’re not Catholic, and are curious what it’s about, check out this video.

‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’

Swipes - Task List made for High Achievers

sufficientlyantique:

The dark and dangerous Mantis Shrimp

Officially amazing.

staff:

Don’t let this happen to your internetThe internet belongs to all of us. It’s an open, fair, democratic place that we’ve all helped to create, together. On February 26, the FCC is going to decide whether to leave the internet in our hands…or whether to turn it over to the cable companies.You don’t want them to pick the cable companies. Join everybody on the internet and help the FCC do the right thing.This is it, guys. We’ve been been fighting this fight together for a long time now. You did a sensationally good job back in September, making 135,343 calls in a single day and shifting the political momentum back toward real internet freedom. You been pulling more and more policymakers—including the president himself—over to the side of internet freedom. We’re almost there. Let’s bring this one home.

How to play Cuban dominoes? by 3 Guys from Miami.

Great summary of an awesome game. :)

Marissa Mayer (an ex-Googler and now Yahoo! CEO) interviews Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg of Google about their book: “How Google Works”.

Fun talk, and heavy emphasis on the importance of hiring the right people and managing them well.

Wooowww…

(via katykelley)