What's Missing From This Sign at Airport Security?

Me (to the friendly TSA ID checker):  Do I have to remove my laptop computer?

TSA Employee: Yes, you do.

Me: It's not listed on the sign

TSA Employee: Well, it's the most important thing to remove.

Me: But not important enough to be on the sign?

TSA: It's supposed to be on there, the people that printed it messed up (rolls eyes).

The TSA folks have hard jobs and I appreciate what they do. However, it doesn't exactly give me a safe feeling when the instructions for moving through the line efficiently are "messed up" and no on seems to care. 

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You've Spoken: Common Craft and Politics

Through nearly 50 comments and 15-20 emails, you have spoken. You don't want to see politics on Common Craft. I agree that it is the right move - political discussions will not appear on the Common Craft web site. We may make videos about events that relate to government, but these will not reflect personal/partisan views.  A couple of things:

1) First, wow.  We are both so excited to see such amazing comments. The thoughtfulness is inspiring. Thank you so much for being involved - we are lucky to have people like you around us. My Mom even got involved via email (thanks Mom!)

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Not Talking Politics is Hard

Sachi and I have an ongoing discussion that I want to share with you, dear reader, because I want to hear your feedback.

When I was a consultant, people would ask me what subjects are appropriate for a blog.  Inevitably I would say that it should reflect the person behind the blog and what is important to them. It should be multi-faceted and provide personality along with on-topic content.  I would also say that context matters - company blogs deserve special care, for instance.

So here I am with the Common Craft blog and there are two things that are very important to me right now:

1. Making videos

2. The Presidential Elections

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Friday Funny: Demetri Martin's Flipcharts and Indexed

Thanks to Mary for making me crack up at this flipchart-based comedy skit by Demetri Martin, a young New York comic that also appears on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Hope it makes your Friday a little funnier.

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China Week: It All Started In China

In honor of the start of the Beijing Olympics, we've decided to make it "China Week" here on the Common Craft blog. 

In a lot of ways, China was where we first started to experiment with video.  We bought our first video camera (a Sony DCR - PC 1000) in Hong Kong, just before spending about a month in mainland China in 2006.  Over the time in China, we edited and posted our first "real" videos.   

This week, we'll share a few of those videos and some stories from our time there.  It's stuff you won't see on NBC, I promise.

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Are Spammers Machiavellian?

It started with a tweet.  Eddie Codel described Boston's streets as "Kafkaesque."  I found it on Wikipedia (it means disorienting), along with a listing of other name-inspired words. One caught my eye: Machiavellianism. The first line of the Wikipedia entry:

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10 Photos from Our Time in Japan

The delicious food, the amazingly nice people, the sites, the experience, Japan is one of our favorite places. Thankfully one of our friends moved there recently and has an extra bedroom (thanks Ken!).  Before the planning was done, 5 of us from Seattle decided to go. The photos below will give you a taste of our time there.

I took 2,900 photos in the 15 days we were gone. You can see a set of 135 photos on Flickr.

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Having an Old Dog

He's 13, his breath smells really bad, he's deaf, he walks like a retired football player, begs with renewed vigor and is increasingly obstinate. 

Indeed, the old dog experience is so different than the young dog experience. He's still the same sweet dog, but with new quirks that keep things new, even in old age. He is not the Frisbee catching dog of yesteryear. He is more like Jabba the Hut. A deaf Jabba the Hut with with a better disposition.

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China's Three Gorges Dam Project - Our First/Only Documentary

Exactly one year ago, we published the video below - one of our first. We had just finished a six day river trip from Chong Qing to Shanghai, China on the Yangtze River, which goes through the Three Gorges.

China is damming the Yangtze River with the Three Gorges Dam Project, the worlds largest dam. It has displaced over a million people and caused a huge and well-deserved global controversy.

At this time last year, we had just purchased the camera we use today. I decided I'd try to do a short doucmentary about the things we learned about the project and it's impact.

I admit it's a bit cheesy, but I thought you might enjoy seeing something besides a whiteboard

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Would You Share Your Retina Online?

Robin Hamman just got new glasses and at the same time, had high-res digital scans of his retinas...

Today, about a month later, I've finally received an email with those images attached and they're really beautiful. Not just because they contain a view of my own eyes that I've never been able to see before or, indeed, because my eyes are in any way particularly lovely or different from the next person's. But from a "isn't biology wonderful" and "hey, check this out" perspective, I'd love the post the photos here and/or on flickr.

The question is, should I?

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