Jon Cronin’s Stream Of Consciousness

We all sit huddled together on the couch, my two year old son, my wife and I. Between us is the iPad, glowing and changing colors. We all take our turn with Adobe Ideas, each of us building upon the others creation; it’s a collaborative effort, more like a board game, a constructive group activity with seemingly endless possibilities. We quickly change to the Eyewitness photo app from The Guardian and we can’t believe the quality of the photos and the resolution, stunning simplicity, even our son can operate it. From there, we move on to the Netflix streaming app and we watch Kipper the Dog, because once my son sees the red Netflix logo he starts chanting “Kippy, Kippy, Kippy!” He usually watches Kipper on the iMac, sitting by himself in the chair, strait up and alone, but this time we are all involved together, attentive and engaged on the couch. The intimacy that this new device creates falls into a new sociological zone. The zone is engaged family togetherness.  Your iPhone is for you, the computer is for lean forward, super focused, often hunched and cramped one on one activities and the iPad is for collaborative group sharing with friends and family. No more huddling around a desktop computer while one person holds the mouse and keyboard, this is a smooth and productive social activity. We are looking at the very beginning of a new category of digital interaction - the family social device category. A category that Microsoft has tried and tried again to get people to jump into over the years, but this time, as in the iPhone, it takes Steve Jobs to revolutionize the category and get people to buy into it.

Here is a list of my ten favorite iPad apps.

• NYTimes Editors Choice
• Netflix
• The Guardian Eyewitness
• Early Edition
• Zinio
• iJournaler
• Adobe Ideas
• Good Reader
• iBooks
• Free Books

What are your favorite apps and how do you use your iPad?

Last week the DeVries PR team headed out to the Kodak Theater in LA for the 140 Conference. We were one of the main sponsors of the event and we brought with us five  things that every emerging conference needs. Power Outlets, Ethernet Connections, Caffeine, a Civilized Place to Drink It, and a Social Media PR Machine.  Working with Jeff Pulver (pictured above), we managed to build an offline meeting place for the online connections that many of the twitter community had already established. Instead of writing a long summary post about my adventures, I have decided to let you enjoy that through taking a look at my tweets during the event and please watch the videos we created on site, in their entirety here or just sit back, press play on the final recap video posted below!

via: http://posterous.com/people/kkKylPQVk
source Nathalia Ponomareva

Interesting look from PSFK at a well known brand removing it's logo from the label.

A little while ago on PSFK we let you know about creative mastermind Rick Klotz’s new campaign to make Freshjive clothing logoless and brandless. PSFK spoke to the man behind the line himself to set the record straight and see what directions he’s planning on taking the company in the coming year- and what it really means for a brand to shed it’s identity. Additionally, Rick has provided PSFK with some exclusive images of his new logoless pieces and a glimpse into the Freshjive Studio.

PSFK: I guess first off, can you tell me how you formed the company and what your original vision for it was?

RK: I started Freshjive in 1989 while attending my last year in art school here in Los Angeles. I was really into skateboarding all my life, and then snowboarding and surfing. And I was immersed in the Los Angeles punk rock scene in the very early 80s, and then the club and rap music culture of the mid to late 80s. And I always had an interest in men’s style and fashion. But I couldn’t see myself designing actual “men’s fashion” and the skate and surf clothes at the time didn’t appeal to me. Just wasn’t my vibe. So I naively started Freshjive with t shirts and shorts to more reflect the mixed influences of my life at the time. I must admit that I was way too inexperienced to have some sort of “vision” of what I was doing. I was just kind of figuring it out along the way.

PSFK: Do you believe that the new logoless-less label is in itself a new logo? Are you trying to completely un-brand Freshjive and have it be an anonymous line, or are you trying to reign- in the image of Freshjive through taking away it’s logo recognition? Is this the end of the Freshjive logo or just a redesign?

RK: Well the new logoless label can be considered a logo in itself. But it’s not quite new, as it’s just the same labeling we’ve been running on our garments, less the brand name on it. Hopefully, the company will be anonymous on the retail floor, but it’s still the Freshjive company. It is some form of re-branding as opposed to an un-branding you can say, but it still is taking off the existing company logo/name which in one form or another, in various typefaces has been in use since 1989. Yes, you could say I am trying to reign-in the image of Freshjive through taking away its logo recognition. There’s a lot of baggage in the name, and I thought to myself I could just get rid of the baggage by just dropping the name. And a couple more things: 1) it just looks bitchin’ without any names on the labels. And 2) it’s a total mindfuck.

A little bit old, but I don't think many of you have seen this?

from: http://www.dumblittleman.com

1. Accept yourself exactly as you are
   I know that sounds totally counter-intuitive, but the paradox is that when you try to change yourself from a perspective of negative judgment of yourself, your self-criticism will make you feel bad, which will have a negative impact on your motivation.

   Attacking yourself with self-criticism will also activate your stress response, which actually changes the biological functioning of your brain and body and reduces the flexibility and quality of your thinking. This in turn uses up more of your energy, makes you think and behave defensively rather than proactively, stresses your body out and makes you tired and even ill.

   When you accept yourself, you stop fighting yourself and your relaxed state will improve your motivation and the flexibility and quality of your thinking. This makes it much easier for you to make your changes - and to enjoy the process of making them. We think and perform much better when we’re in a state of love, rather than fear. Love opens our hearts and minds and we change much more easily when we have open hearts and minds.

2. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want
   We have a natural tendency to focus on problems and sources of stress in our lives. And, this makes sense - we do it because we want to “keep an eye” on potential threats so that we can respond more quickly, and ensure our survival. This usually is a good strategy for ensuring survival but it’s not a good strategy for thriving.

   Focusing on what you don’t want will elicit your stress response and close down your thinking, making it more difficult to think creatively when you respond to the threat. Knowing, and focusing on what you want, rather than focusing on what you don’t want is also important because it’s the beginning of getting familiar with what you want.

3. Get familiar with what you want
   We move towards what’s most familiar, and we resist what’s unfamiliar. If you’re familiar with how your life has been or is, but the way you want your life to be is unfamiliar and vague, then a part of you will resist going towards the unfamiliar and you will seek to repeat your current habits. Because you’ve survived by doing what’s familiar, a part of you assumes that familiar is safe, even if it doesn’t make you happy. Guess what, if we ever feel that we have to choose between safe and happy, we’ll usually move towards what’s safe. So, to dissolve your own internal resistance, get familiar with being the way you want to be by going their mentally, and filling out the detail even before you start making your changes.
4. Focus on changing your thinking, rather than focusing on changing your behavior.
   Our behavior flows from our emotional state, which is informed by our thinking patterns and the stories we tell ourselves. So discover the thinking patterns and stories you’ve been using that have prevented you from already having the life you want and being the person you want to be. You can do this by asking yourself,“What have I been assuming that’s prevented me from having what I want?” And then question those assumptions, ask yourself what other assumptions are possibly true in that context, and choose to operate under those liberating assumptions instead.
5. Focus on the feelings
   Ultimately, it’s feelings we want and we only want other stuff because of the feelings we think it’ll give us. So become aware of the feelings you’re seeking. This will have two great results: first you’ll have what you ultimately want right now rather than having to wait till you’ve changed your circumstances. Second, by feeling the way you want to feel, you’ll be getting familiar with the changes you want to make, making it easier to make those changes without your own internal resistance.
6. Break your change into small, achievable steps you can take on a daily basis
   It’s much easier to make change incrementally than it is to make major changes in a few areas of your life all in one go. This is because more change means more unfamiliarity and the greater the unfamiliarity, the more likely that a part of you will resist the changes and try to go back to what’s familiar.

   Focusing on big changes can also cause overwhelm and stress, which closes down your thinking, causing de-motivation and making it harder for you to make your changes. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the changes you want to make, break your changes into small steps and focus on doing only the next step that feels achievable and liberating.

7. Practice, practice, practice
   Every time you practice feeling the way you want to feel, thinking the way you want to think and taking action to use and develop your skills, you’ll get your mind and body more familiar with feeling, thinking and behaving that way, and you’ll strengthen the neural networks involved in making your changes. Initially, while those neural networks are just beginning to form, those ways of feeling, thinking and behaving will feel awkward, slow and difficult, and you’ll have to do them deliberately. But over time, with practice and repetition, they’ll become automatic, natural ways of being. A lot of people try to skip this step because it can be boring and requires patience and discipline, but there isn’t a way to mastery without this step.
8. Surround yourself with people who are being the way you want to be and living the life you want to live.
   We’re a tribal species, and part of the bonding process involves us naturally becoming more like the people we’re bonding with. Often this happens automatically and unconsciously, which means that we change easily and effortlessly. So be sure to hang out with people who are being the way you want to be - otherwise you’ll find yourself naturally and effortlessly becoming less like the person you really want to be.

If you call my father's phone and he doesn't pick up, at the end of his voicemail message he says his famous line  "and remember...... keep smiling". I always thought it was a little corney as a kid, but I think that message is extremely important today - especially as we push through these difficult times. I wanted to share with you all this great article excerpt from Erika Perry about the power of positive energy. Enjoy!

Imagine a world void of caffeine and nicotine, a world where people are energized—dare we say—naturally. There’s more to it than food, water and rest. There’s the energy we receive from a stranger’s smile, a friend’s laugh, or a family member’s hug. This is the positive energy that charges us up and gives us the boost we need to, in exchange, exude positive energy ourselves. Of course, there is the flip side to every energy equation.

According to the famous psychological Swedish study “Unconscious Facial Reactions To Emotional Facial Expressions,” both positive and negative emotions are contagious. The researchers exposed participants to images of faces while they monitored their facial muscles through electromyographs (EMGs). When exposed to happy faces, participants moved their zygomatic major muscle (used in smiling); when exposed to sad faces, participants moved their corrugator supercilii muscle (used in frowning).

So, both smiling and frowning are contagious but is there an advantage to smiling versus frowning? According to Dr. Mark Stibich there is. The Duchenne smile specifically has the best results. Duchenne smiles are the ones that are real and authentic. The smiles where your eyes light up, and your face wrinkles. These smiles are proven to:

– Boost the immune system
– Increase positive affect
– Reduce stress
– Lower blood pressure
– Enhance other people’s perception of you

Laughter has many of the same health effects as smiling, just intensified. This would explain the rising boom in laughter yoga, and an emerging therapeutic field known as humor therapy.

For argument’s sake, lets suppose everyone started off their day with a full tank of positive energy. Is it possible to sustain that level by giving and taking only positive energy? Maybe. There must be a reason the concept of “what goes around comes around” is pervasive in so many cultures around the world. Kindness is one form of positive energy and has been the guiding force for some of our most influential leaders. The Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” Verena von Pfetten of the Huffington Post believes,

“Once you start thinking kind thoughts and forcing unkind ones out of your head, you’ll find that you start attracting the type of people who are energizing to be around. These are the type of people you want as customers because they will continue to feed your business with positive energy and spread the word to people they know. There is absolutely no downside to kindness. The more you give it, the more you get back and the happier and less stressed out you become—that’s power.”

Full article

image James Swain

Thanks to Roku and Netflix, I finally was able to watch the documentary film "The Garden". If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you add it to your Netflix Queue tonight. The film was nominated for an Acedemy Award and does an excellent job of following the ups and downs of the lagest community garden in the US in South Central LA. The South Central Farmers are inspirational to us all, especially now as we look to ways to increase our connection to The Earth, The Communnity and food.

Movie synopsis:

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers: