Overall pretty fun. MESaG is as funny as you might agine given the cast and that it’s about the New Earth Army. VT filmmaker showcase had some gems including Anti Di Presence, a great trick film. Also the BHS film club had a solid entry about man’s inner dialog regarding trying to pick someone up at an art gallery. And of course, Michael’s piece, Reap, was gorgeous.

There are some Cuban films I hope to check out on Friday if I can pound through the work I currently have on my plate.

Big music project related to an upcoming Dogsharks cartoon, completing a film festival bumper, fleshing out an augmented reality project for a Burlington VT art show. Oh and follow up with all the awesome people I met at the Blogworld conference.

G

Going through my email inbox in the Getting Things Done way, with a 2 minute timer. Some things you can get done in two minutes, others you can’t. Some things I thought I could do in two minutes but I was wrong.

Here’s me today:

Takes less than 2 minutes

• starting this blog post
• renewing a library book via the Fletcher Free Library online renewal thingie
• quick scan of web article, turn it into a Twitter post scheduled for the future via bit.ly and cotweet.
• sending a worthwhile web resource to my Evernote notebook.
• Sifting an email that’s been put off and put off and put off into the right folder (it was reference and I kept thinking there was something that needed to be done with it).
• Sending a quick note catch up with a friend for coffee.
• Sending a quick note on a rate change to a client.
• Checking in on a proposal that has been sent.
• Leaving a comment on a great blog post.

Takes more than 2 minutes

• logging in to Facebook to approve a friend request (get distracted)
• read a web article to see if it’s worth sharing with others.
• reviewing Howcast video and scheduling a future twitter post.
• sending a client intake request for information.
• Reading a great blog post.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is locational information foraging. Whether it’s a Burlington augmented reality art project or localized SEO or playing with Twitter hashtags or any other location-contextual topic/service/whathaveyou.

Today I was using Foursquare to find a place to eat in Tribeca, I’m in NYC doing some on-site work for a client. I looked at the nearby tips and found one that mentioned the 388 Greenwich building. I’ve never been in 388 but it’s close enough that I could throw rocks at it if I felt like it. The Foursquare tip mentioned a website, Serving Other Deck, which gives the complete breakdown on how a double-decker elevator system operates and how to game it both in raw gaming terms and also in terms of gaming it so you don’t damage social relations with the passengers (who you will likely be inconveniencing if you game the elevator).

It’s a fascinating read for anyone who likes systems and how systems interact with human behavior.

Definitely prefer the place in the old north end. But having cheap eats downtown is good too.

Service is a little off kilter. Slow side of off kilter. I hope they get that worked out before winter. Service is friendly and nice though.

The salty limeade is tasty and umm salty. The dish I’ve had so far is also a little salty and oily.

Hmmm. I’ll probably stick to Asiana Noodle for my cheap eats at the Church Street Marketplace. But Saigon will provide the occasional diversion.

When I get a scratched disc from Netflix (which has been the case for me in 3 out of the last 4 discs), I typically just watch through the rest of the film, hoping I didn’t miss too much. If the scratch is halfway through the movie it isn’t like I’m going to just stop there, fill out the Netflix scratched disc form, and then finish watching the movie in a couple days.

When you report a scratched disk to Netflix, they give you the following options:

• Send a replacement copy of the same movie.
• Don’t send me anything I’m fine.

The problem, of course, is that I’m not a satisfied customer and sending me the same movie isn’t going to me make me satisfied either.

Seems to me the offer that Netflix makes to people who report scratched disks has little to no value. There’s no reason to report a scratched disk because they’re only going to give you what you already saw but you’ll have to wait a few days. I’ll continue to report scratched disks to them so that other people won’t have the same bad experience I did.

I guess Netflix has successfully outsourced customer service to the customer.

Related articles

• Craig Newmark: “Customer service is public service” (huffingtonpost.com)
• Netflix Fills New Chief Service and DVD Operations Officer Position (readwriteweb.com)
• Netflix Customer Service Wows Me Again (life.firelace.com)

One of the books is about non-linguistic communication. Like body language. But tied to a research device that detects all the parts of conversation that aren’t the linguistic/word content. For example, physical distance between speakers, body posture, tone changes in the voice etc.

The book then categoizes these data points into different human social display types like influence, mimicry, activity and consistency. The influence display includes having a greater share of conversation time as well as triggering responses that are sort of old-brain stuff. One of the examples of an influence display is someone peppering another person with questions at a rate faster than a response can be given.

The other book I’m reading is about the theories of the “strategic colonel” Jonathan Boyd. He pretty much invented continuous improvement processes via the OODA loop I’m so fond of talking about.

One of the ways to overcome an adversary, according to Boyd, is to “get inside” the opfor’s OODA loop. Boyd honed this strategic method while training fighter pilots. Consider manned air to air combat a form of non-linguistic communication involving the influence display pattern.

Third, my netflix queue is jammed with Gordon Liu movies. Martial arts movies have a lot of non-linguistic communication centered on influence displays.