The first is from sometime around 1986ish – middle school. My then best friend took a few of his friends to a Holidome in Columbus, Indiana for his birthday. Being 10 or 11 at the time, only a few fragments have remained. Of course I remember the swimming pool in the large indoor area that Holidome’s are famous for. Who could forget that? I mostly remember playing Karate Champ in the hotel arcade with my Sony Walkman.

Fast-forward to 1991, where I was now a freshman in high school in art class. During the portion of art class where we worked on our projects, music was played through a little boombox the teacher made available to the students. This particular day I was lightly singing along to the music brought by another student while working on the project du jour.

Lastly was just the other was just the other day. 6-month old daughter was in the Bijorn, and we were dancing around the house as we awaited the arrival of the wife/mom.

The link between these two events was the Beastie Boys, and their breakout album Licensed to Ill.

I wore that first cassette copy of Licensed to Ill down. My first copy of Check Your Head on CD got so scratched up from being handled that it had to get replaced. Oh yea, there are the at least three times that different copies of Beastie material has been stolen from my house or dorm room in college.

I’m not sure what it is about the B-Boy’s that stuck with me. I’m not particularly big on rap, but the genre did make a mark early. Public Enemy. Big Daddy Cane. Rob Base. Too $hort. But none of them had the staying power of the Beastie Boys.

As different genres came and went through the years to the forefront of my listening, there was always a place for the Beasties in the rotation. The inclusion of their own instrumentation only strengthened my respect for them as artists. Their apparent sense of humor also humanized what they did beyond what I was listening to. The same can be said for the political messages that one may or may not subscribe to.

Today’s announcement of the unfortunate passing of Adam “MCA” Yauch is hitting me more than most celebrity deaths. Sure, he was my favorite Beastie early on, and I remember doing his parts when my sister and I would sing along.

I think it’s hitting me because it’s a part of my adolescence that followed me into adulthood. In my mind they started as caricatures (as everything is when you’re 10), but they amazingly grew into real artists. I’m going to regret never seeing them in concert, but I’m going to remember all the great times I had with friends and family with the Beastie Boys as the soundtrack.

A quick hit list of my personal experience

• I didn’t go to the game
• I didn’t go to any Super Bowl related activities in the few weeks leading up to the game
• I watched the game from home when the routine of getting an infant to sleep allowed
• The commercials sucked this year more than any other year
• Too much lip-synching
• I love watching the Patriots loose – Let’s be honest, they didn’t win the AFC champ game, the Ravens lost it.

It was the Cosmonaut Wide Grip Stylus.  It’s a capacitive stylus for touch screens like the iPad and such.

I’ve seen press on it many times in the past month, all positive.  Good product…  Interesting roots…  Creative packaging…  Blah blah blah…

My experience?  When I got it, I was almost giddy tried it out immediately.  Just as quickly I thought “what a piece of junk”.

The response of the stylus on the screen was horrible.  I could touch the stylus to the screen, and move it about with no response whatsoever.  My tiny stylus from over two years ago was so much better despite the fact that it is not very good.  From what I recall, I’d be better off using a frozen link of sausage than this stylus.

Then came the January 1 update through KickStarter.  The first half of the email was all roses and such about delivering the product and all the praise.  Then came the following statement:

We have discovered that a batch of Cosmonauts were shipped out in which the tips did not meet our quality level.

I guess a measure of quality control was not built into the process.

Users with this defect were directed to contact through Kickstarter website or an email provided.  I sent an email on January 4th, requesting a replacement tip.  I received a response email the same day asking for my address to ship the replacement.  I supplied the address that same day.

So, 4-weeks later, I still have a useless thing in somewhat cool packaging.

This is a poor start to my KickStarter experience.  Compound that with the frequent delay and outsourcing to China adventures from the Pen-Type-A project, and I’m really questioning my decisions.

UPDATE: In an email with the project people, I was assured that my replacement tip went out sometime in mid-January.  We agreed to wait until the beginning of Feb. to see if it showed up.  It didn’t show up.  So, I’m either getting wool pulled over eyes, or USPS sucks.  Both are entirely plausible.

No really.  It’s a bad reference from the often utilized back-catalog of my bad movie references.

Anyway.  I’m currently at the end of probably the worst illness than I’ve had in many, many years.  So, what has a 6-day on and off fever taught me?  I learned a lot about fictionalized biker culture from watching Sons of Anarchy in a semi-lucid state, but I can’t really pin any life lesson to that.  I got my first dose of taking care of a sick kid while being sick, but I hope that isn’t something I have to repeat very often.

What I really learned is that I need to be more amenable to ask for help when I need it.

I’m pretty bull-headed and do everything I can to get things done – preferably on my own.  Despite what it may look like from an outside perspective, I’m not that much of a loner.  I think It just winds up that way because I’ve been let down by others enough that I started just doing things on my own.  I need to revisit that last lesson I internalized so long ago and make an effort to stop my stubbornness to let friends and family in.

For me, it usually takes physical impediments to get me to ask for help.  I know I’ll need help getting an overstuffed chair into storage. I know I needed my father’s help getting a small chest freezer home and into our garage (thanks dad).

With having a child, it’s hitting me more often that a little help at times of need and happenstance can go a long way.

I know I’m going to need to open up more to ask for, and take advantage of the help that others can give me in terms of child care and general support.  It will be necessary for my peace of mind.

It’s a place where people put their ideas up and a goal to reach some level of funding to make it happen.  Web users can then pledge how much or little to any given project.  Many projects give physical or virtual goods back at certain levels of pledging.

I think that’s a decent, quick description.

But the site has really taken off lately.  Mostly through lots of successful projects.  The project that put it on the map was a piece to make a watch out of an iPod Nano (LINK).  I read somewhere that this was a project pitched to Apple, and they passed.  Their decision was reversed with the success of the project.

I’ve currently pledged to 4 projects.

• Mar. 29: The Cosmonaut – wide grip stylus
• Jul. 19: Trigger Trap – camera trigger
• Jul. 21: Pen Type-A – a unique pen
• Dec. 20: RENDER K – Another unique pen

All projects that I’ve given to are design projects where the end result is bring a designed product to market.

The bad – I have yet to receive a single product.  One is supposedly on its way after being very much past deadline, and two are also past deadline with no static ship date.

I’m also a little disappointed about Pen Type-A project.  First in that it’s past deadline, but also that it involves manufacturing parts in China.  I assume most electronics are made in China, but a low-volume, machined part seems more logical to do in more local settings to the design and audience.  I would have liked to know that beforehand in the project details phase.  It’s not worth the pledge amounts for a hunk of metal machined in China.

The pen I did just pledge towards specifically mentions fabrication in the US.  That was a big factor.  It’s also much cheaper.  While its features are different, both pens use the same cartridge.

Anyway.  There are a ton of other projects that I’ve been really close to hitting the pledge button, but I’m being a little more restrained.

One of these days I’ll give to a non-product project, but none have really jumped out at me.  Some I don’t find out about until they were funded.  The film Rise and Shine: the Jay DeMerit Story was funded through Kickstarter, and I didn’t know about it until it was in a local film-festival.

Regardless, I’ll blog about each of them as they roll in.

The past 8 weeks is more than an interesting experience.  I don’t even know where to begin…  Short thoughts that come to mind:

• One smile changes my whole day
• The stock market is more stable than my sleep schedule
• It’s odd at how calm one gets concerning the handling of fecal matter
• I thought I was busy before
• It definitely makes it harder to concentrate on work
• I always go back to the smile thing

It’s so, so mind-boggling.  Then again, I’m never one to over think things.

Being a father is so different.  I’m not going to make some impassioned speech about it changing my perspective or such, it just adds another layer to my thoughts about the past, present and future.

I was pretty lax about letting the future happen, but I’m feeling more and more like I need to be proactive about my hopes and dreams for my child.

Most are more abstract than specific.  I’d love for her to get a well balanced education full of creativity.  I’d love for her to see some amazing places when she’s old enough to appreciate them.  There are things from my past that I don’t want her to experience, but I also know that sheltering is not necessarily the way to go.

So far I can already say with confidence that I never appreciated what being a parent was.

That’s more than deep enough for me right now.  My brain hurts from thinking to hard, work, a lack of sleep, or any combination therein.