You don't need to travel to grow

I recently had an epiphany.

I hadn't been at home for the last 4 months. And it is only this last month, September have I realized I've been slacking on everything.  It was August and I had not gotten a job and I wasn't volunteering or meeting new people. During my travels in Central America I was constantly meeting new people and practicing Spanish.

So around the end of August, I became bored and started looking for things to do. I settled on learning programming (again). I had begin Udacity's Intro to Computer Science last year but had not finished. I heard about this new one month rails course and learned that Code School had some great classes too. I looked into these options but decided that I need a b beginner course first. So I started with tryruby.com and Codeacademy.

I finished both of those in August. Now I'm on to one month rails. After I finish that I will be moving onto Code School's courses.

While I finished these classes I noticed I could also do some outside activities as well. I began looking and found that every thursday a group of people meet to talk about web development about an hour away from me. Then I found that a startup weekend event read occurring less than 2 hours away from me.  I also discovered that I could couchsurf while I attended these events.

Bam. Right there I had recreated all the experiences of traveling. Without going more than 3 hours from my home.

My friends and I talk about needing to travel to develop yourself, but I've just realized you don't need to go further than a few bucks of gas worth to broaden yourself.

Don't get me wrong. Traveling us a great way to grow. You're thrust into unfamiliar situations and you're forced to meet new people. But if you're persistent, the same can be done here at home.

Gamification cooking

Why hasn't anyone made a gamified version for cooking a la Codeacademy.com or duolingo.com ?

Review of One Month Rails

So far I'm about 10 lessons into One Month Rails, and I'm not exactly liking what I'm seeing.  Basically this website is showing me how to create a pinterest type website in a few hours.  The biggest problem I have is that the site is "showing" me, not "teaching me how to do so.

Mattan seems to know his stuff, but the issue is that Mattan regularly tells you to do this or that, but does not tell you what for.  Regularly I am confused as to whether the code Mattan is writing in is CSS, HTML, Ruby, or PHP, or even some other code.  Mattan never really teaches you what the functions or methods are, he just basically says "now do this, because it uploads this to the website."

That all being said, I'm still going to the finish the course. I'm about half way through so I might as well keep at it.  I'm off to Code School next so we'll see what I learn there.

Quick note, here is my discount plan for learning Ruby on Rails.  I finished Codeacademy's course for free first.  Then I noticed that after googling OneMonthRails.com, I kept getting a discount code on Facebook.  I took the discount code and started the first kind of lessons.  Then I noticed that New Relic will give you a free month of Code School if you sign up and deploy at this address.  Now that I have a free month I'm going to get started on Code School and try to finish up what I can in a month.

If you have any questions about anything let me know!

Startup Weekend Idea

I just came back from a 3 month stay in Guatemala where I studied Spanish in an immersive environment.  I wanted to learn Spanish because I knew it would be a good skill to have.  However, I haven't been the best at using my Spanish since returning to the states.  That's how I came up with my idea for Startup Weekend.

I want to create a way for two people to chat on their phones with each other in a language that the person is learning.  This can connect a native speaker to a person learning a language or connect 2 persons learning the same language.  This service can be a check in for both persons so that the both hold the other person accountable.

I'm thinking I might be able to use Twilio for this service. Twilio has an API and Codeacademy.com has a quick course teaching you how to use their API.

This service can be expanded to include a notification that alerts you if you have not talked to your language buddy in a few days.

Perhaps this service can be expanded to also include anyone learning anything.

Users may be able to sign up for the service, or perhaps the service can be a freemium service where bonus are included if the person pays an extra fee.

I'm not sure what to call the service, but perhaps Digital Penpals!

PS. This reminds me once of a service I requested of reddit.  I asked if anyone wanted to be my anonymous texting friend.  Here's what I posted to reddit. It ended up being pretty fun! My "void texter" and I talked mainly about our accomplishments, friends, and work mainly.

Mi abuela

My grandmother came to this country from the Dominican Republic at the age of 21.  She learned English on her own while she was here.  She earned a living by cutting hair and mending clothes.  Once she amassed enough skills she then opened up her own salon where she employed many other stylists and an accountant.  Because of her, this country received more taxes and had more more employed persons.  I appreciate the work that she did and I am proud to call her my abuela.

I wrote a new joke!

This joke is written in the style of Mike Birbiglia.  I'm trying to avoid shock humor and instead actually write about things that have happened to me.  Here's an example of my old shock humor:

I got pulled over for a speeding ticket today.  Nah it’s okay.  It’s not like it’s my first time getting a speeding ticket.  But I think it was the cops first time writing a speeding ticket.  

He didn’t make me pull my pants down or anything like the last four cops.

 It's alright. Is it true? My lips (and butthole) are sealed.

If you want to check out some of Mike Birbiglia's comedy check him out in the links below.

Without further ado: Here's my newest joke:

I went to a conference for my job recently where I met a bunch of people.  I know what you’re thinking- thank god this guy has a day job because this comedy thing is not going to work out for him.

Anyways, at the conference I’m in this workshop and we’re introducing ourselves and I was like the fourth chris in the room. If you’ve had a class or a job with people who share your name you know how much this sucks, right? Cuz now we have to figure out what we’re going to call each other

So we have to this weird native american ritual to determine who gets what name.
“Well that guy is older so he shall be Chris the wise”
“That guy is indian, so we’re just going to call him Brown Chris”
“That guy beat the shit out of his girlfriend last week so we shall call him Chris Brown" 

"And he’s fired.”

Well we get to me, and I firmly say that I’d like to be called Chris, just Chris. But I joke that kids in middle school used to call me Mother Goose, because my last name sounds like Goose. And because little kids are assholes.

But they actually choose to refer to me as Mother Goose! Even the leader of the workshop who is the president of a multimillion dollar organization.
They didn’t even try to pretend they were joking about it.  At one point I ask a question, cuz I’m a loudmouth, and the president guys responds-
“Now, that’s a very good question Mother Goose”
“Mother Goose raises a good point here, how DID humpty dumpty fall off the wall [trail off] and what can we do to put him together again?”

I'm still working on the ending.

Notes from first night of the ethnography

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

Thought the open mic begins at 9:00, I arrived at 9:45 due to a combination of having difficulty finding parking and leaving late.

One of the first things that I noticed is that there is no community here from which to draw conclusions about a culture.  The comedians get up, perform, and leave the stage.  One may not be able to conduct an ethnography in these conditions.  Watching comedians perform is not observing a community, it's commentating on their performances.  I stay anyways.  The thought did come to me that perhaps I could conduct an ethnography of an Improv troupe.  My local theatre is hosting a Improv 101 in the near future.

Jokes that I notice throughout the night:

• Jokes about sex
• Jokes about drugs- weed, coke.
• Jokes about race
• At one point there was a joke about smoking weed while having sex
• There were also jokes about TV shows and Movies
• These jokes were not as perverse.
• These jokes tapped more into the stream of pop culture
• I wonder if comics tell jokes on these premises because it is a shared experience that the comic and the audience has.  That may be true for all jokes.

The first three jokes seem to suggest that here in this open mic performance, the perverse is the norm.  Almost every comic makes fun of a topic that would not come up in day to day conversation.  However, I should note that these topics don't come up in my day-to-day conversations, but perhaps they are often discussed among others.

After the first comic I see performs, the next comic is introduced.  The host goes in detail that he has performed in over 4 rooms and many shows.  It seems that he is a high status individual because e has performed in many places and many different times.

I also wonder what makes each comic unique. Is it their size, race, or voice?  Some comics seem to point out their race or voice.  Their names may also make them unique.  One female comic went by the name of Pixie Rose, which made me question if that was her real name and that was one way of uniquely identifying yourself in a room of many comics.  The comics do not seem to be in competition with each other as there is no prize, but perhaps they strive to be unique somehow.  

Some traditions I noticed:

• New comics
• It was a comic's first time performing this night.  The said that he had some rules for the audience for the new comic's set
• No judging
• Be supportive
• Applaud the new comic as he comes to the stage
• Additionally I noticed that the comic had his own tradition- he brought many friends.
• It is interesting that a new comic is given so much support, when the host and the audience could easily have reversed their positions by basically giving him no mercy.  Intead the new comic is cherished and coddled.s
• 3 item minimum
• The host only said this once
• May not be a tradition, and more of a business requirement.
• Headshots
• A headshot is a picture that a comic has to give to promoters.  
• When the host introduced one comic, he said that this comic could host, but first he needed a headshot.
• It seems strange that a headshot is needed when comedy is all about the jokes, there is no need for a headshot on stage.  However, there is a need for the headshot for the advertising and promotional materials.
• Additionally, the comic is judged by their headshot. The host said that the comic's previous headshots were not good enough, he needed to get better ones.
• Audience Participation
• Many comics engaged in a call and response segment of their performance.
• They would ask a general question- "Anyone hear smoke weed?" And the audience would yell back
• This may not necessarily be a tradition, but may serve as a confirmation to the comic that he is still being heard.
• Thinking quickly
• One comic was given many laughs and applause for thinking of a joke on the spot.  That is probably "worth more" to be a quick thinker than to be well rehearsed.
• Timeline
• The general timeline indicates the status that one has as a comic.
• The opener is given respect.  It is an honor to open the show.
• After the opener, the various amount of open mic comedians perform while the host introduces each comic.
• If a comic has high enough status, they are invited to jump in the line up of open mic comedians and do a few minutes, even though they did not sign up to perform that night.
• Finally, the feature comic performs, he is given at least 15 minutes to perform, while the open mic comedians are given 3-5 minutes.
• It seems that the more time you are given to perform, the higher status you are among comics.
• Age and High Status
• It also seems that comics are given high status based on the amount of times that the have performed or if they are retired and coming back to perform.
• It also seems that older comics are well respected and that exceptions to that are pointed out.
• One comic was young and the host pointed that out.  The host said that the next comic was going to make the older comics mad because this comic was young and had a lot of talent.
• This suggests that older comics are given a higher status or more respect, but having more talent overrides that

Some of the comics discussed race and the demographics of the room.  One comic asked for the people of different races to shout out.  Based on his audience participation, it seemed like there was a lot of white males, but not too many black males.  There were also white females, but no black females nor any hispanics.  The comic did not ask about asians.  I'm not sure what the point of the comic doing this was.  One comic admitted to having white guilt twice.  He said that he watched Tyler Perry movies and then at the same time accused Tyler Perry being racist in his portrayal of Blacks in America.  This comic also seemed to note his privilege as a white male, while making fun of a female comic that had performed before him, he made a joke about her sexual promiscuity.  He then apologized saying "I'm sorry, I'm just a white guy who..." He did not finish the sentence, but it is curious he noted his race and sex while apologizing, as if noting his privilege.

I left the open mic once all the comics finished performing.  I did not stay long, but I did not notice many of the comics talking to each other, instead I saw them speak to the friends that had come with them.

I will follow up with this next week, however I may have to give up on the ethnography idea and just study the performance of comics through a sociological lens.