Just a quick note: I'll be in San Jose, California (Campbell, to be more precise) from March 25 to March 31st for work. I'll be quite close to The Pruneyard (walking distance, even), where we had a small geeky gathering over coffee and food. If you're in the area and would like to hang out some evening, leave a comment or shoot me an email with your cell number. I'm not sure what day it will be; it sort of depends on how the work goes.
I have a terrible memory for names and faces, so I tried to take as many short video clips as I could to help me remember. I edited the segments together into a 14-minute video to convey my SXSW experience. Next year I may have to actually bring a real video camera instead; this was shot with my Fuji FinePix F30d compact digital camera.
The video service I'm using, Viddler, allows people to annotate the video with tags and comments at specific places in the video stream, so have at it :-) I will tag the video with names when I get a bit more time, or you can tag yourself! :-) Viddler, unlike a lot of services, also retains the quality of the video; note that the graininess of this clip is because I shot at low resolution under low-light conditions with a digital camera, so that's my fault. The cool thing was that Viddler's servers didn't recompress the already bad video (like YouTube would), since I uploaded it as a Flash Video (.flv) file.
UPDATE: BTW, if you're on this video and don't want to be, let me know and I will re-edit. So far everyone has been very cool, thanks!
South By Southwest (SXSW) was, once again, an energizing experience that reminded me that there is a lot of crazy people doing crazy things out there that just might work. It is the best thing, ever. However, the experience also overstimulates me, so when I got back home last night I immediately vegged out in front of the TV, watching Eli Stone, Bones, and King of the Hill back-to-back.
This was the third year attending the festival, but it's the first one that I didn't feel particularly hurried. I took my time, and didn't go to every panel. I didn't worry about not meeting everyone, and I didn't worry that much about not being as social as I wanted to be. I essentially accepted my introverted nature while allowing myself to be drawn into other people's worlds. Last year I berated myself for not being more proactive, but this time around I didn't let it bother me that much.
Since this was my third year, I was looking forward to see what conclusion I would draw about SXSW, since it takes three experiences for me to form an opinion I can stand behind. It's related to the way I make observations: first time is just imprinting on what I find interesting; this is a continual process. The second time, I notice that I've felt this interest before, which makes me curious about the root cause. After that, I am in "collection" mode, looking for enough data points to support or discount my theories. It takes at least three data points for me to extrapolate a first set of assumptions; successive data points continue to refine or create new underlying models.
There is one definitive conclusion I can draw right off the cuff: SXSW keeps me in touch with sources positive creative energy, and it has so far renewed me every year. I didn't even realize I was running low on this until I boarded the plane back to New Hampshire and realized that the further away I was getting from Austin, the grayer I felt. My fellow passengers on the plane had different lives, probably quite stable and interesting in their own right, but very local. By the time I landed in Manchester, I was fully aware that now any such creative energy would have to be created by myself. At SXSW, there is so much of the stuff concentrated in one place that it takes no effort to tap into it. There is so much talent, so much creative diversity, and so much sheer possibility that you take it for granted. It is hard to explain. I imagine that some parts of the country are just like this with their close creative communities. If you've ever worked with a great product team, been in a really outstanding art department, or worked in a tight-knit research group you might know what I'm talking about. Back home, in my cluttered office, I'm cut off from that energy again. To get it back, I have to build my own sources of it.
It takes a certain mix of people to build that energy, and making it self-sustaining for an entire year will take a certain level of commitment to building that structure. We've seen over the past few years dozens of Barcamp and Refresh grassroots organizations take seed, which is awesome. I'm curious how to create a broader experience beyond technology and new media, though. It is an interesting puzzle that I'll be trying to crack with the other social-minded geeks in the area.
I also had an insight about personal branding and business cards, and it's probably not what you think. As I met and chatted with people around SXSW, what would typically happen is this:
With past SXSW acquaintances: "Dude! Good to see you again! What's up?" We exchange cards as memory tokens, a promise to our future self to keep in better contact throughout the year. We take note of what's changed since the last time we met: a new job, maybe a new venture or a positive contribution to whatever community they belong to.
With readers of the blog: "Hi Dave! I'm a fan of your blog and I just wanted to say hi!" To which I would respond with a sheepish smile and say, "Really? It's awesome to meet you! What do you do? Neat! Give me a card! Can you tell me, out of my own curiosity, what it is you like about the blog? I'm trying to figure out why people read it." I'd happily exchange business cards with them, and make a note to see what they were up to. I liked these interactions the most.
With people who have heard of my work: "Oh, Dave Seah, it's great to meet you. I've seen your work. Tried it for a while even, good stuff." This would happen often through an introduction by someone I knew. Since I am not one to readily mention work I've done (I know, bad bad bad), often the person I was with would say something like, "Dave's the guy who made The Printable CEO bubble thing". From here, a conversation would start based on the level of enthusiasm displayed. Cards are of course exchanged.
With complete strangers: "Nice to meet you, Dave. So what is it that you do?" Polite and friendly conversation ensue, and cards are exchanged to remember the encounter by.
With OLPC fans: "Is that one of those $100 laptops? I've never seen one. Wow, it is so small and cute. How do you like it?" I was one of the few people carrying these around and trying to use them. Carrying around an OLPC XO laptop at a conference like this is just like bringing a puppy to the park. The nicest people came up to me and asked about it. People who recognize this laptop are the generally ones that are socially conscious, sympathetic to the cause, and are really nice. If the conversation ended up being about more than the laptop, we'd exchange cards.
Business cards, at a conference/festival like SXSW, serve as access points to our websites more than anything, and that's because we can find out a lot more about the people we just met. And why does this matter? It's because we want to make a GOOD social/business contact; at SXSW, the chance that this will happen is many times higher than the typical networking event in your home town. The people at SXSW generally are passionate about what they do, or they want to be. These are people who I would like to have friendships with. Friendship matters.
My eureka moment was that I should be designing my website to make friendship that much easier to establish. As I look back at the evolution of this blog, one of the constants has been the way I tend to write as if I'm writing to my friends. And if you ARE reading this blog every day, we probably COULD be friends. Which leads me to the following blog and content design principle: I am not interested that interested in marketing my services on my website just for money. What I am doing is friend-focused marketing. Make it easy for people to see what I've done, what I'm interested in, and who else I'm talking to or working with on interesting project. Above all, practice good friendship by being generous with what I can give, being authentic, and showing instead of just saying. And to close the social networking loop, make it easy for my friends to introduce me to their friends.
There's a lot more to this than meets the eye, so I will probably write more about the design concept as I start looking at my site. Should be quite interesting.
A good friend of mine recently went to London, and on return announced she'd gotten me a present that was not very "London", but was likely very "Dave". I was in San Jose at the time, however, and had to wait a week until I got to see it, which gave me plenty of time to think of what it might be. Gifts are an interesting window into friendship, as they give you an idea of how you are being perceived. In the worst case they are way off the mark, but in the best case they illuminate something that's more fundamental and perhaps unexpected.
When I finally got to see what it was, I was somewhat surprised to see it was a leather notebook. I'm super picky about notebooks and stationery, so this was a bold move (though I doubt it was realized at the time of selection). I am a fan of sturdy tightly-bound journals and durable papers; my current favorite carry-around is the Moleskine Reporter format. The new notebook was pretty much the opposite of my Moleskine. It was just a sleeve of hand-tooled leather, decorated with repeating die stamps. A sheaf of fluffy textured paper was cut to fit into the sleeve, and held in place with a long string that was punched through the spine in three places, which also wrapped around the entire notebook to keep it tidy. After the initial surprise wore off, I was struck by the idea that this notebook binding might have been the way it was done long ago, and that this could be some kind of replica or artifact. I loved it.
No, it was nothing of the sort; it was just something she saw that she thought I'd like, perhaps because I am constantly hauling out tiny notebooks and am writing in them at the coffee shop. I've been getting away from computers more and more these days when I'm thinking, as I find making marks by hand engages a different part of my brain. I feel more connected to the ideas, and the lack of "undo" makes me more mindful of what I put down. I use my Moleskines as daily working notebooks and have learned to treat them as "sacred scrap paper", but this notebook was just the sort of thing I knew I would have great difficulty writing in. The kind of words I would write in such a notebook would have to carry their weight in artfulness or importance. I would hate to blemish such a notebook with anything less.
"You know, I don't know what I would write in this," I admitted as I examined it further. "It's so nice."
"You'll write ideas for stories in it!" my friend proclaimed vigorously. "Things you hear other people say, phrases like that one we keep wanting to use...uh, what was it..."
"It was 30 degrees above warm?"
"Yep, phrases like that! And other ones that you come up with." And that was the end of the discussion.
It's not very often that I get a present that so successfully combines so many personal quirks and goals into one package, so I was doubly-impressed. Of course I didn't want to use any old crappy pen, so I started looking around for a nice fountain pen that I could carry with me along with the notebook. I found that Pilot makes a $1.89 disposable fountain pen that apparently writes fairly well and would be a good test. I tried my local Staples to see if they carried it (they do on the Website), but they only had a few mediocre-looking pens in stock for more money than I was willing to spend. A bit more Googling revealed the fascinating cult of fountain pens and moleskines that already exists. I took note of a few brands that were mentioned, and decided to just keep my eyes open for stationery stores. For some reason, we don't seem to have them in New Hampshire, so it would have to wait until next time I headed south.
I was visiting my sister last weekend in Rhode Island for fun, and we stopped by one of her favorite stores, Figments, which is run by a RISD graduate / graphic designer named Peggy. It's a small store that stocks an eclectic variety of stationery, furniture, one-of-a-kind gifts, and other tasteful artifacts. I'd been there once before, having gotten excited by some aluminum binder covers that I didn't end up buying because I (again) didn't know what I would put in them...they were so cool :-) This time, I saw that Peggy carried a handful of the German Lamy pens pens I'd read about online, though it took me a few moments to remember this. I got the Safari, which is regarded as an inexpensive and reliable fountain pen, in a color I am very fond of. My sister commented how she doesn't ordinarily like fountain pens because they feel scratchy and catch on the paper, but the Lamy was very pleasurable and smooth. She called me up later to say that she wanted to go get one. :-)
I actually haven't tried writing in the notebook yet with this, because I haven't yet heard or thought of any interesting phrases to put into it. I also want to get some brown ink, so it looks extra-ancient when I write in it, but in the meantime I'm willing to use the blue cartridge that came with it. I am a little concerned that the paper will be too porous for the fountain pen, but I will try it out later this week and see what happens. It may be that the other pen I got at Figments, a Lamy Vista Rollerball, will work. I wasn't planning on getting this pen, but I was sharing a story with the owner about how there was a certain green Pilot rollerball pen in the 80s that I used to love writing with. My enthusiasm must have triggered something, because she hauled out this pen and had me try it. As I doodled, I got lost in the action of the pen...it was very smooth, and ink flowed out of it effortlessly. It has been a long time since I've used a pen that made me want to make marks on paper...not since that green Pilot in the 80s, actually. My current everyday rollerball is the Pilot G2, but this pen has more resistance and is kind of scratchy. It reminds me of work. The Lamy Rollerball reminded me of recess on a warm spring day, drawing endless doodles on the picnic table with my friends by the soccer field.
So I have my notebook, and I have my pens. I'm looking forward to making some marks on paper next time I'm in the coffee shop.
I flew to northern California last Tuesday for a week-long onsite working session. The routine is a bit more established this time, and I'm starting to make some progress that feels like progress...that is, I can actually see stuff on the screen now. I've been ramping on some video game graphics technology (Microsoft's XNA 2.0, which we've switched to after giving Managed Direct X 1.1 a go). XNA has a much cleaner API than MDX, and does away with a lot of legacy issues that I'm glad I don't have to worry about. What's been frustrating is the documentation, which on the surface looks comprehensive but lacks the kind of detailed guidance at the mid- and low level references that help flesh out the complete picture. I've been making my own references to fill in the gaps.
On the flight to San Jose, I perused Southwest's "Spirit" Magazine and took some notes:
Possible Food Destinations: The Independent Retail Cattleman's Association is an organization that promotes "the great steak houses of North America", which is an idea I could really get behind. Steak seems to be a big part of airline magazine advertising for some reason; perhaps business travelers looking for deductible junkets are the target audience. I noted a few other mentions of beef places to look into: Arcadia Modern American Steakhouse here in San Jose, Austin Land & Cattle Company in Austin (might have to visit there for SXSW in March), and a place called Lawry's for (yum) prime rib. I love steak because it's an elemental food when it's prepared well: it's essentially meat + heat, with a dash of salt. Once you master the heat aspect, you can do a lot of interesting variations on the basic theme. I
Cirque du Soleil packages excellence, and so should we: The article described how world-class athletes are swarming to Cirque Du Soleil for work, and it's quite a competitive process. What struck me about the article was that Cirque Du Soleil has really developed a methodology for putting on sustained productions of exceptional artistry and uniqueness. Because they handle every detail of the productions they develop, they are the go-to people for creating this type of entertainment experience. So how can we apply this to our own, less acrobatic work? If we can make our obsessions pay off (that is, financially they turn a profit), I don't see why we shouldn't relentlessly pursue them IF we are also competent judges of our own excellence. That takes a pretty uncommon objectivity.
My New Car Could Be a Mini Cooper: The original re-issue Mini Cooper was very cute, but just too small. The new Mini Clubman, though, adds way more rear legroom and cargo space that's accessible via two swinging rear vertical doors. Cool!
Randal Ford's Norman Rockwell-inspired Photography: Randal Ford staged and shot live versions of Norman Rockwell's classic illustrations of Americana. It's amazing that actual people can actually contort their faces into the exaggerated expressions depicted in the original paintings.
Receipt Filing Service: I hate filing receipts, so I do a very poor job of it. I was intrigued to read about shoeboxed, which will consolidate your online receipts and scan in your printed ones. They have a service where you can mail in your receipts and they'll scan 'em into your account, and mail them back to you. While the receipt service itself is free, the scanning service is not. It's an interesting idea! I suppose a real accountant would do the same thing; I wonder how much the difference would be in cost.
And here in San Jose:
Old School Mac Stores: In San Jose I got a chance to visit an actual old-school Macintosh store called Mac Pro, which by strange coincidence is the exclusive North American distributor for be.ez laptop bags. I had just read about the LEvertigo 17 the week before, which seemed to have the combination of vertical carry and cleaner styling I wanted for the new 17" Macbook Pro. My hands-on experience: it's a nice bag, though lightly-built compared to the rugged Briggs and Riley Computer Brief that I used for my smaller laptop. If Briggs and Riley made a 17" version of their brief, I would be so happy.
I want Fry's with that: I also have been to Fry's Electronics in San Jose a couple of times already, and I was enthralled by the selection of components available. I saw things in person that I've only read about in online catalogs. I wish we had one back East; the closest thing I've seen is the Micro Center in Cambridge off of Memorial Drive, and it is nothing like Frys. Not even close.
I probably won't have time to do a tour of the historical landmarks, but it's just cool to be in the birthplace of the (micro)computer revolution.
Although I don't own any stock in Starbucks, I do drink an awful lot of their coffee as part of my morning wake-up routine. I've actually gotten a little sick of it. Their coffee is not all that good. Their pastries are, despite their tempting appearance, mediocre to the point of making me angry. What keeps me going back is the sense of energy, not the coffee. I think of the food and drink I buy as a kind of "social tax" I have to pay in order to be part of the community.
The seeds of discontent thus planted, I was keenly interested when I heard that Starbucks has their old CEO and founder Howard Schultz back at the helm through my Advertising Age e-newsletter. The cool thing about Ad Age is that they tend to write from the "brand perception" perspective; I was intrigued to learn that the changes that Schultz had in mind were related to customer experience, for example the complete lack of coffee smell at Starbucks (hey!) and that view of the barristas are blocked by the equipment (yeah, that's right). I found this article at The Washington Post regarding the malaise of Starbucks particularly interesting, because it drew attention to just what I was missing from the coffee house experience.
While I enjoy the story of scrappy independent coffee houses battling the Starbucks behemoth, what it really comes down to is that I want a place where I can hang out and have all my senses engaged in a comfortable (but not dull) fashion. I love the smell of good coffee. Unfortunately, the best coffee I've had in some time has been from the coffee maker of my cousin Ben in California. He went through many batches of Pete's coffee to find the magic blend of grounds and water to brew a fine cup. I need to do the same thing here, or find it somewhere.
One of the powerful draws of one's home town is, I think, those places where you can let down your guard and be infused with the sense of community pride. Food seems to tie into this feeling a lot of the time. It might be the familiar taste of Hellman's Mayonnaise in the chicken salad from that little market down the street, where you could get heirloom tomatoes way before they became "fashionable". Maybe it's the pizza parlor you went to as a kid, could be something about the crust that keeps you coming back, or the memories playing Asteroids back in the 80s after school, trying to stretch that quarter to a million points before going home. People recognized your face and knew what you liked, and in return you looked them back in the eye and smiled in recognition. That's a good feeling, and one of the most accessible sources of this in any town is the coffee shop. Coffee drinkers share the love for the beverage, and we exult in the smell and the ritual of getting our cup just right. It's just enough to pull you into a community without asking too much of you, the bare minimum of interaction to remind you that you are part of a greater humanity. At a great coffee house, you'll see the regulars and get a sense of their personalities by overhearing what they are ordering. The great barristas anchor the experience like bartenders, assuming that your coffee comes right and smells like a morning that you look forward to.
December 9 through December 14 I'll be in San Jose, California for an extended on-site, getting serious about coding for the Big Project. Although I don't yet know our schedule (it is going to be pretty intense), I thought I'd see if there was any interest in having a productivity geek dinner at some easy-to-access place that's quiet enough to hear each other talk.
When I used to run user group meetings here in New Hampshire, I would encourage people to bring some objects (not on a computer, though, unless the computer itself is cool) for a kind of informal show and tell. The criteria? If you think it's interesting, then likely other people will too. When you bring some object to serve as a conversational prop, our geekly excitement tends to override any hesitation. It works great, and it makes it much easier to remember people.
Any takers? Leave a comment if you're interested, and a suggestion for a venue. I guess we could make a page on the Public Wiki for coordination. You'll have to register first. I guess it is also time to bring a forum online as well. If there's any interest, I'll set it up.
I've been to Salem many times, largely because one of my best friends from high school lives there. It's also because there is an excellent gourmet pie store, Gourmet Fare, on Pickering Wharf off Derby Street, a very good Thai restaurant (Bangkok Paradise), a pretty-decent comic book store (the name escape me), and a crowded little joke shop near the Peabody Essex Museum. And of course Salem is infamous for being the epicenter of the Witch Trials of 1692, in which hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft. Nineteen people were hanged before people woke up, sealing Salem's fate as Witch Central for the next several hundred years. Today, Salem is host to several museums and attractions about the witch trials. It's easy to find practicing witches, fortune tellers, spooky houses, magic shops, trinket hawkers and ghost tour operators that make Salem an interesting hodge podge of kitsch and history. I purposefully get my hair cut in nearby Danvers because it ensures I am in the area at least once a month to have dinner with friends. It's a relaxing place to hang out.
It was a beautiful late autumn day, and I was hanging out with several friends and acquaintances from out of town. We were there to get tarot readings from a medium who was, according to a friend of a friend, one of the best she had come across. I'd never been to a fortune teller before, so I tagged along for the experience. I'm generally a rational person, but there's a superstitious side to me that I rather enjoy exercising. I am the first person to toss pinches of salt over my shoulder, admittedly after a slight hesitation as my left brain flinches at the sheer irrationality of it all. If I inadvertently say something that sounds unlucky, I automatically look for the nearest piece of wood to knock. When I board an airplane, I do a private little ritual upon boarding that I am not going to share JUST IN CASE such rituals need to remain private to be effective. I don't know why I do these things, but part of me probably figures that it can't hurt. And who am I to believe that either I or Science really knows the Alpha and Omega of how the universe works? So I toss my salt and am nice to cats. A more practical application of my latent superstition can be seen in how I process patterns. When I notice something happen twice, I will often postulate that there is some cause or theory that can be divined. Should I notice something THREE times, then my brain is compelled to drop everything and investigate the matter more thoroughly. I see the repetition of three as a sign or omen that I should be paying attention. It's not so much that I believe in the Rule of Three, but I figure if I notice something that many times, my brain must be attuned to it in some way for some reason. Finding out why is often quite illuminating.
Anyway, given my particular superstitious-rationale proclivities, I was looking forward to having my fortune read by an actual medium. I am also a fan of Penn and Teller's show Bullshit, a show where the two libertarian magician-carnies investigate and debunk common wisdom and beliefs. It's fairly well known that mediums often employ a technique called Cold Reading, where you can convince someone that you know a lot more than you actually do through careful questioning. For example, I could ask you a number leading, open-ended questions design to illicit a reaction that is given away by your body language, and use that information to draw several conclusions which I can then use to postulate certain statements. Poker players will also be familiar with the tell, the noticeable change in behavior that gives other players some idea of the state of their hand. Has there been an increase player A's heart rate? Did their brow furrow for just a fraction of a second? The untrained body reacts involuntarily to stimuli, and the resulting microexpressions give away quite a bit about a person's emotional state before they are masked. You can even pick up emotional cues from instant messaging by observing changes in grammar and typing speed. The general gist is this: our bodies leak emotional data like a sieve, and there are people who are skilled at collating this data into educated guesses about a person's emotional state and belief system. And we're not even taking clues like speech patterns, social habits, style of dress, and ethnicity into account, which provide MOUNTAINS of contextual data to further polish the cold read. With all this state readily available to the cold reader, all it takes is an innocuous statement or two to start a cascading chain reaction of micro expressions, bodily movements, and often additional volunteered information. A well-worded and delivered inquiry swathed in the cloth of a statement is all it takes. It's not unlike mindful graphic design, marketing, or branding. On a personal level, however, a good-hearted cold reader will use this knowledge to help. Con men will use it to disenfranchise the gullible, who are those people who desperately need to believe in something for a particular reason at a particular time. And of course, that means we are ALL gullible.
I've been to Salem many times, primarily because one of my best friends from High School lives there, and partially because there is an excellent gourmet pie store, Gourmet Fare, on Pickering Wharf off Derby Street. The town is also host to one of my favorite Thai restaurants (Bangkok Paradise), an excellent comic book store, and a crowded joke shop near the Peabody Essex Museum. And of course Salem is infamous for being the site of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, in which hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft during the frenzy. Nineteen people were hanged, sealing Salem's fate as Witch Central here in the United States for the next several hundred years. Today, Salem features several museums and attractions about the witch trials. There are also plenty of practicing witches, fortune tellers, spooky houses, magic shops, and ghost tour operators that help make Salem the interesting hodge podge of kitsch and history that I enjoy. I purposefully get my hair cut in nearby Danvers because it ensures I am in the area at least once a month to have dinner with friends.
This past week, I was back in Salem for a different reason. It was a beautiful late autumn day with several friends and acquaintances, and we were there to get tarot readings from a medium who was, according to a work acquaintance of one of my friends, one of the best she had come across. I'd never been to a fortune teller before, though I'd thought of going for a while for the experience. While I'm generally a rational person, there's a ritualistic side to me that I enjoy exercising. I am the first person to toss fistfuls of salt over my shoulder should spillage occur on my watch. If I inadvertently say something unlucky, I automatically look for the nearest piece of wood to knock. When I board an airplane, I do a private little ritual that for some reason I don't want to share in case it's bad luck. I don't know why I do these things, but part of me likes the idea of being mindful of what you do. So there's that part of it. A more practical application of my latent superstitious side can be found in how I process patterns in my experience. When I notice something happen twice, I will often postulate some cause of theory related to that observation. When I notice something happen THREE times, then my brain is compelled to drop everything and investigate the matter more thoroughly. I see the repetition of three as a kind of sign or omen that I should be paying attention.
NOTE: I am still getting used to Expression Engine and was not expecting my quick saves to be published...oops! So I will split this entry, which I actually had just started writing, into two posts. And to prevent future gaffes, I've changed my default EE publishing preference to save entries as CLOSED now.
Some friends of mine have been playing World of Warcraft, and they have finally sucked me back into the game. Ok, I admit that I'm curious about the new expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, but I've also read how Joi Ito uses WoW for business networking and socializing. This is a fascinating idea: by learning how to play together, maybe you can find people to work with too. Those of you who have played any multiplayer online game knows how much coordination and teamwork is involved. As the days go by, you really learn a lot about people by how they cooperate online...it's the new golf. The chances of hooking up with another productivity enthusiast at random is pretty low otherwise.
Although I haven't put as much time into WoW recently, I was an alpha tester way back so I've played quite a bit of it through its various incarnations. I still have a few retail chars that I've transferred from my old realm to Echo Isle to hang out with my friends. I'm too lazy to level back up to a "fun level", so this is who is in the character roster at the moment. WARNING: GEEKY NOTES FOLLOW :-)
Rendeihl is a Paladin. Functionally speaking, a Paladin combines Priest (healer) and Warrior (melee fighter) skills, with extra abilities related to divine auras and smiting the malodorous Undead.
I tend to play Rendeihl as a no-nonsense but helpful character. However, it looks like she shops for her armor at the Stormwind Salvation Army...nothing matches! That is probably because she has a penchant for very large axes and can't help but buy the latest one she can afford. I dimly remember thinking that she grew up in a Mediterranean-like environment, hence the swarthiness.
Then there's Rendellini, a level 23 mage who is very proud of his fancy mustache and well-shaped head. It's a sign of excellent genetics, according to his grandmother. I can't remember what kind of magic he specialized in---fire, I'm guessing---but the combination of small stature and large fireballs creates an amusing visual dichotomy.
Since I have the Burning Crusade trial installed, I thought I'd try the new Dranei race to see what their home zone looked like---the art in World of Warcraft is beautiful, so it behooves me to check every nook and cranny of the world (which takes several hours merely to walk across). Rendheml is a Priest (Healer), a class I generally enjoy playing because hitting things gets old. Plus, Rendheml has awesome hair. She's a mere level 3, but is "fierce". Maybe one day she'll be a runner-up "Azeroth's Next Top Model".
I got a "charter" to establish a new guild, which shall be named "Défenseurs des Opprimés", which means "Defenders of Underdogs". After paying for and receiving the charter, the next step is to find 9 other people to endorse it to make the guild an official organization. I suddenly realized that I was now by default the guild master...I had inadvertently started a company!
My first panicked thought was, I'm not ready! There are others better qualified to lead! I haven't played WoW in almost two years, and I don't remember how to play any of the character classes at the level of efficiency that's required to run a smooth run on a big instanced dungeon. I have no custom UI set up, have never used TeamSpeak, and I don't know the back way into any of the interesting instanced dungeons though my character still seems to have all the keys. I remembered one time when I mistimed a heal spell and got the entire party killed just minutes from finishing a 4-hour mission. Failure and doom!
I realized then: this might be good practice for starting a real company some day! :-) What is important is not what skills you ultimately have in terms of game mechanics, but in establishing the groundwork for a functional organization. And that means having a clear mission right up front. I need to get comfortable with that, and remember that my emphasis shifts from being able to "do" everything to "being responsible" for directing other people toward a goal. When you become a manager for the first time, this is one of the mental transitions that you have to make.
In terms of this guild, my main goal is to maintain a friendly tone of cooperation for casual players of the game and make some new friends.
If you're on the Echo Isle realm and want to hook up, leave a comment below and I'll add you to my friends list. I'll likely be playing Rendellini, but Rendeihl is the one who bought the guild charter. I'm not a WoW expert by any means, but it's a fun diversion and I'm looking forward to playing again for a few months.
Find out what happens when a bunch of positive-minded, productivity-lovin' people form a guild!
UPDATE: Here's the Temporary Guild WIKI Page to sign up. Reminds me of BarCamp :-)
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