Erich Stauffer

Category: Pop Culture

  • Time to Pretend by MGMT

    I really like the song, Time to Pretend, by MGMT. It has an interesting sound and a playful beat, but when I read the lyrics online, I was a little disappointed in the content. When I heard the lyrics in my head, they sounded much different – so I decided to re-write some of it to be more optimistic, but still keep the same tone:

    I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life.
    Let’s make a startup, make some money, have the time of our lives.
    We’ll write some code up, get some funding, and dance with the stars.
    We’ll make the software, and the website, and drive elegant cars.

    This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
    We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun.
    Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do.
    Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute?

    …

    But there’s really nothing, nothing we can do
    Love can’t be forgotten, life can be the start up of you.

    The original lyrics are tainted with drug abuse and divorce while longing for a time when they used to spend time digging for worms in the sandbox at home. I remember picking cedar berries out of my friend’s sandbox, making highways, and rivers. It was a time to create with little fear of failing. The older you get, the harder life gets so why not fail early, fail often?

    I can see why MGMT may want to live recklessly and die young. It’s a cop out to the life intended for us. Life is hard, there is no doubt. But within those constraints, there is fun. Life can be a game that can be beaten. The fear in each of us is the fear of losing – so don’t lose. Choose to win. The only ones way to lose is to stop trying to win. So choose to win.

  • 10 Items or Less

    This is a review of the TBS TV Series, “10 Items or Less”, not to be confused with the movie that came out the same year (2006) starring Morgan Freeman, Paz Vega, and Jonah Hill.

    I like watching Netflix because of the ability to find and stream shows instantly. Today I discovered a show called “10 Items or Less” starring John Lehr as Leslie Poole.

    The series starts out with Poole as the new manager of “Green and Grains” grocery store who has taken over the store and it’s employees from his recently deceased father.

    While the first few episodes (okay seasons) had some continuity issues (they skipped ahead four years at one point, then back to one year in season 2, but the kid stayed the same age), it still has the power to keep you wondering if any of the characters will ever evolve. You want them to, you really do, but they do it soooo slowly.

    For example, you want Leslie, the manager to be a better manager – and he does get better, but still has his share of mistakes. You want the butcher, Todd, to be less sexist, and while he tries to be more professional at work, the ladies keep him exactly the way they want him. And you want the [manager], Amy Anderson, to warm up to Leslie, but for save some rare moments, she does not (or does she?).

    One thing I couldn’t shake was how much John Lehr looks like Jason Bateman in Arrested Development.

    And while it may be more of a coincidence that the movie of the same name centers around a grocery store and came out the same year, it may be more strange that, according to IMDB, the 10 Items or Less movie was the first film in motion picture history that was legally available on the Internet while the film was still in theaters, which makes it odd that it’s not available for streaming on Netflix (or Amazon Instant Video), but the television show is.

  • The Epic Generation: From the Garden to the City

    “You know I always wanted to pretend that I was an architect.” – George Costanza, Seinfeld

    Nathan Norris recently wrote an article entitled, “Why Generation Y is Causing the Great Migration of the 21st Century” about ‘under 30’s’ moving into the cities and driving less – the new migration into urban spaces. Norris writes, “At the same time, television shifted from glorifying the surburban lifestyle in the 1960’s and 1970’s (e.g., Leave it to Beaver and the Brady Bunch) to glorifying the urban lifestyle in the 1990’s (e.g., Seinfeld and Friends). These cultural changes have pushed Generation Y to look for more adventure than previous generations, and they are less fearful of cities than previous generations.”

    I forwarded it to a friend and he wrote, “Art (used loosely here) imitating life or vice versa?”

    I wrote that I’ve been watching the TEDtalks “Building Wonder” curated channel on Netflix, which is mostly about architecture and it’s seemed to correlate with conversations I’ve had with him (in the past and recently) about the desire to be part of a community like Bloomington, Broad Ripple, or Nora. We sort of had that community in high school, now that I think about it, with Benjamin’s Coffee House or even to a small extent at Heiskell’s Restaurant (at the height of our takeover). We also had it at church and at college and we also had it for a time in Daleville (before the breakup began). Community is what you make of it – but physical constraints help.

    This “art” reference he mentioned made me wonder if I haven’t been yearning after that ‘public living room’ that Friends had in that apartment or Jerry’s apartment. People came and went as they pleased. There were four locks on the door, but they were never locked. They also had that other space, the coffee shop down below – Seinfeld had it with the diner. In Daleville, we had La Hacienda and Starbucks. We knew the people working there and they new us. Remember when George found the rubber band in his soup and playfully sprang it back to the cook who left it there? I think we all long for that sort of community where we all know each other on that level.

    Another friend wrote in reply, “I think it has to be ‘art’ imitating life. It isn’t like Seinfeld or Friends glorified New York as the central scene where all things are happening – that had already been the prevailing public opinion since at least the 1920’s. Although, I don’t think it is “imitating” so much as it is a broadcast company’s calculated offering of what the public will find interesting or novel. Green Acres wasn’t about the country, it was about the voyeuristic experience of someone foolishly leaving the wonders of the big city for the country – adding in the tension of the couple having different perspectives.. Beverly Hillbillies was about the opposite – people who don’t. belong in the wonderful urban/suburban area and the comedic tension. Andy Griffith played on the mundane and simpleton of the small-town, where previously there wasn’t any television that was centered on a “watch the paint dry” town. By and large, I think TV producers expect there to be curiosity and reverence for NY and LA from outsiders and appreciation from those who live there. Other than a few shows who are using the difference in location as a position separator or as central to the theme – shows and movies have generally been based in NY/LA/Other large metro.”

    Here’s the list of TED Talks for those of you who don’t have Netflix:

    1 Bjarke Ingels: Three Warp-Speed Architecture Tales 18m

    2 Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral 16m

    3 William McDonough on Cradle to Cradle Design 19m

    4 Cameron Sinclair on Open-Source Architecture 23m

    5 Joshua Prince-Ramus on Seattle’s Library 19m

    6 Liz Diller Plays with Architecture 19m

    7 Alex Steffen: The Shareable Future of Cities 10m

    8 James H. Kunstler Dissects Suburbia 19m

    9 Kamal Meattle on How to Grow Fresh Air 4m

    10 Jane Poynter: Life in Biosphere 2 15m

    11 Anupam Mishra: The Ancient Ingenuity of Water Harvesting 17m

    12 Mitchell Joachim: Don’t Build Your Home, Grow It! 2m

    13 Rachel Armstrong: Architecture That Repairs Itself? 7m

    14 Joshua Prince-Ramus: Building a Theater That Remakes Itself 18m

    15 Magnus Larsson: Turning Dunes into Architecture 11m

    16 Michael Pawlyn: Using Nature’s Genius in Architecture 13m

    17 Ellen Dunham-Jones: Retrofitting Suburbia 19m

  • Context

    It’s amazing how a name and a little bit of context can allow you to find someone you met once over 10 years ago.

    In 2001 I was a student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and one day in the beginning of the Fall semester there was an art sale where I picked up this painting by Matt Dobson named, “The Sky is Falling.”

    The Sky is Falling by Matt Dobson

    I hung it on the wall in my apartment, in the house my wife and I rented shortly after getting married, and then in the house we both live in now.

    Yesterday I was painting the room where it was hanging and I noticed the author’s name was on the painting so I wondered if I could find him online.

    I initially searched for: Matt Dobson artist the sky is falling. This was a poor choice as it didn’t assume the “Matt” and “Dobson” should always be together and that he would be talking about the painting, “A Sky is Falling” in any sort of manner online.

    I realized that I knew more about the artist than just his name and the name of his painting. I knew he went to Ball State, just like me, so I switched my search term to: “Matt Dobson” Ball State artist. I used “artist” as a qualifier against other Matt Dobson’s from Ball State.

    This worked.

    I was able to find Matt’s blog bio where he talked about graduating from Ball State. After all that work of searching I was a little let down to find his blog located at mattdobson.com, which a cursory search for “Matt Dobson” lists as the #1 search result. Any noobie search user could have probably found him much more faster than I did, but that’s why Google is a level playing field. You don’t have to be a librarian to find what you need on Google, but it can help.

    Since Matt had a contact page, I decided to email him a picture of his painting and tell him the story of how I bought it and what it’s been doing for the last 10 years:

    Matt,

    I’m pretty sure I bought this painting from you in the summer of 2001 at the Ball State Art Yard Sale and I’ve had it hanging in my home for about 10 years. I just wanted to share with you that it’s still around and wanted to let you have a picture of it in case you wanted it for your portfolio or something. Not everyone had a digital camera in their pocket back then.

    And Matt wrote back:

    Erich,

    Wow. Thank you. It is really great to know you have enjoyed that piece for so long. I didn’t remember that particular piece it is very strange to see it after so long.

    I don’t know if you had a chance to see the design work I am doing now on my website but I am also still pursuing art and you can see some photos of my most recent show here: http://mattdobson.com/Stirring-Art-Show

    Thanks again for sending that my way.

    Best,
    Matt

    I encourage you to check out Matt’s art as he’s doing some really great stuff. It highlights the amazing talent we have here in the Midwest.

  • Other Eric(h) Stauffer’s Like Me

    My wife recently pointed out how similar some of the other Eric(h) Stauffer’s in the world are similar to me so I thought I’d highlight some of them here. If you’re one of them and you want me to take your info down, just contact me or leave a comment below.

    Eric Stauffer – Entrepreneur, Payment Solutions Consultant, SEO Ninja, and Business Development/Content Creation

    I’ve added this Eric(h) Stauffer I found on About.Me because he’s an entrepreneur, is interested in payment solutions, SEO, and business development. On all of those things we’re a complete overlap. It’s a little odd actually. I currently do SEO and content marketing, but also run blogs on items processing and digital wallets.

    Erich Stauffer – CEO bei Starbusiness

    Located in Basel Area, Switzerland, this Erich Stauffer does Management Consulting, which is also something I have both done in the past as a business analyst and something I currently do. I’m also CEO of my company, but I know that’s a stretch. My mom is CEO of her company and my friend, Jason Cobb, is CEO of his company too. Everybody’s a CEO nowadays. 🙂

    If Starbusiness is anything like the .SU website, then it’s a multi-level marketing (MLM) business that’s currently expanding into Russia. Good for them! I’ve done my share of MLM (and so has my mother – we have so much in common!). I did Amway and sold Tri-Star vacuums (one to – again – my mother). She sold Tupperware in her day (when she was my age).

    Eric M. Stauffer – Eric M. Stauffer

    According to his Twitter account, this Eric(h) Stauffer is an “Instructional Technologist, Consultant, Creative Problem Solver, Runner, Husband, Comedian . . . Not always in that order.”

    I’ve often tried to be a comedian, am currently a husband, and creative problem solver; and I’ve called myself a technologist and consultant. This guy looks like he travels more than me, but that’s okay. We need different types of Eric(h) Stauffer’s in this world, even if we all have a lot in common.

    Then of course there is the guy I’m named after (who was also a designer like me, even if he was designing fake Hummels).

  • Map Pins and World Maps

    While not expensive, the types of map pins you choose can greatly affect the way your wall maps end up looking over time. Whether you’re displaying your map behind glass, in a restaurant, or in a corporate environment, you’re going to want to choose from a selection of different types of map pins.

    Map pins are different than normal stick pins or push pins because of their balled tops and short pen stems. Choose from red, gold, and assorted colors of map pins here at Map Strings, your resource for online and offline map technology for geospatial analysts working in geospatial information technology.

    Maped Map PinsMaped Map Pins in Reusable Plastic Case, 100 Pins per Box, Assorted Colors – synonymous with continuous innovation, top design and high quality. These 5mm Map Pins are packaged in a handy reusable plastic container that allows you to safely store your pins without fear of poking yourself in the finger every time you rummage in your tool box or junk drawer. They are available in a pack of 100 pins in assorted colors and perfect for all map pinning needs. For over 60 years Maped has been creating innovative, high-quality products and renewing the often traditional school and office accessories markets with an assortment of ergonomic and eye-catching products tailored to the needs of the consumer.

    Map Tacks Red1/8 Inch Map Tacks – Red – 1/8 inch red map tacks from Moore Push Pin Co are perfect for marking addresses, sales territories, shipping routes, franchise locations, and more. Medium round head map tacks. 1/8″ head, 5/16″ point, quantity 100. One reviewer said, “I just pushed the little bugger in and there it stayed just like magic! so awesome, I’m so happy!” Moore Push Pin Co are the designers, manufacturers, and marketers of innovative fastener products. These include Push-Pins, Twisted Picture Hangers, Map Tacks, Clip Hangers™ and Sharks Tooth Picture Hangers. Now entering it’s fourth generation of family ownership, Moore continues to produce high quality, market creating items used around the world.

    GEM Map Tacks Plastic AssortedGEM Map Tacks, Plastic, Assorted – Round head map tacks mark locations on maps for easy and quick identification. Made in U.S.A. Head Material: Plastic; Head Diameter: 3/16 Inches; Pin Material: Steel; Color(s): Assorted. 3/8″ is referring to the length of the METAL PIN only. The pin head measures 1/8″ and the full length is just over 1/2″. If you want a container for your pins, get the Maped pins above. GEM map pins are made by Gem Office Products, LLC., which is a part of Advantus Corp., a diverse consumer products company headquartered in Jacksonville Florida. Advantus has been making quality products since 1913. They manufacture over 1,500 products in Jacksonville, Florida, Mequon, Wisconsin, and in Asia.

    Map Tacks Gold1/8 Inch Gold Map Tacks – 1/8 inch black map tacks. Perfect for marking addresses, sales territories, shipping routes, franchise locations, and more. When considering pin colors, think about the background color of the map. Actually, map pins aren’t just for wall maps. Art galleries buy pins with numbered heads to identify artists work and planners use map pins on schematics to identify key tasks in a project. Some Chinese plastic pin heads will crack and break, so look for pins made in America. However, this may be harder to do than meets the eye – just because a company is headquartered in America, doesn’t mean the map pins are manufactured there.

    Map Tacks Assorted Colors1/8 Inch Assorted Color Map Tacks – 1/8 inch assorted color map tacks. Perfect for marking addresses, sales territories, shipping routes, franchise locations, and more. Box contains 20 of each of the following colors: red, green, blue, yellow, and orange. One reviewer said, “The tacks arrived on time and were a pleasure on the wall maps of our world travels. I had to reorder because I did not get enough.”

    World Executive Poster Sized Wall Map

    This elegant, richly colored, antique-style world map features the incredible cartographic detail that is the trademark quality of National Geographic. The map features a Tripel Projection, which reduces distortion of land masses as they near the poles. Corner inset maps feature vegetation and land use, and population density. Winner of the 2001 Premier Print Award from Printing Industries of America for unique ability to create visual masterpieces. Winner of the 2002 Best Reference Map from the American Congress on Surveying & Mapping.

    World Executive Poster Sized Wall Map

    • Convenient, easy to frame poster size (36” Wide x 24” Tall)
    • Scale size: 1:45,366,000

    Founded in 1915 as the Cartographic Group, the first division of the National Geographic Society, National Geographic Maps has been responsible for illustrating the world around us through the art and science of mapmaking.

    Today, National Geographic Maps continues this mission by creating the world s best wall maps, recreation maps, atlases, and globes which inspire people to care about and explore their world. All proceeds from the sale of National Geographic maps go to support the Society s non-profit mission to increase global understanding and promote conservation of our planet through exploration, research, and education.

  • Post No Signs

    Why do it for the lulz?

    “Sign Lulz” was a web site dedicated to capturing funny signs wherever they may be. The term “lulz” refers to the plural form of “lol”, which stands for “laugh out loud”. Sign Lulz was published by Cost Publishing, a division of Watershawl, Inc.. I’ve since moved all of the funny signs to a category of The SDN.

    The logo was from a a sign that hung on the Wan Shi Da Bakery across from the Pui Tak Center in The Armour Square area of southern Chicago, otherwise know as Chinatown, Chicago. The picture in the logo was taken in 1997, but you can see a more recent version of the sign on Flickr, which was taken on April 8, 2006.  However, according to what we can see on Google Street View, the sign has been removed (but no signs have been posted!).

    Across from the Wan Shi Da Bakery to the north is the Pui Tak Center on South Wentworth Avenue, which is a great community center. It is run by the Chinese Christian Union Church and have lots of programs to offer. Many student fellowships are held in this center. Volunteers tutor reading and math after school and on the weekends in addition to the English as a second language classes for adults.

    Further south on South Wentworth Avenue is the actual Chinese Christian Union Church, which is one of the few Christian churches in the Chinatown area. The church serves as a preschool center as well. The children there love to play with the toy Godzilla. It is their favorite toy.

  • The Top 10 Comedy Movies of All Time

    As you can see, 1980 and 1994 were very good years for comedy movies. The following is a list of the top 10 comedy movies of all time:

    • Airplane – 1980 – Paramount
    • Animal House – 1978 – Universal Studios
    • Borat – 2006 – 20th Century Fox
    • Caddyshack – 1980 – Warner Home Video
    • Clerks – 1994 – Miramax
    • Dumb and Dumber – 1994 – Warner Bros.
    • Groundhog Day – 1993 – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
    • Monty Python and the Holy Grail – 1975 – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
    • The Big Lebowski – 1998 – Universal Studios
    • The Hangover – 2009 – Warner Home Video

    (more…)

  • Now More Instant Video Downloads from Amazon.com

    Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO of Amazon.com has posted a special message to customers on his website:

    “Dear Customers, In just the last few weeks, we’ve added hundreds of movies to Prime instant videos, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Notting Hill, Billy Elliot, Being John Malkovich, and Elizabeth. Coming soon, we’ll be adding over 2,000 more movies and TV shows, inlcluding Star Trek, The Tudors, Numb3rs, Frasier, and Cheers.”

    Most instant view movies are just $2.99 there are over 90,000 movies and TV shows to choose from, both new releases and classic favorites – all in the Amazon Instant Video store.