I don’t know anything about Jeremiah McDonald, but he has completely won the Dude over.
An awesome idea played out to perfection. 12 year old Jeremiah interviews his 32 year old self. 20 years later. 1992 – 2012. Classic.
Very clever. Very charming. Kudos Jeremiah.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGAQrEUaeU[/youtube]
Seriously, you should stand more.
The Dude has been dropping some healthy living knowledge recently. Although, now that I mention that, what qualifies me to drop health knowledge?
Nothing, really. Other than the fact I’ve been trying to develop a healthy lifestyle for myself for many moons. As I mentioned, I was a certified personal trainer, but that just means I passed a test; I never used it as an occupation. But I have been researching and developing my healthful approach to life for years.
So, bam. I just qualified myself. Maybe all the book knowledge from The Man just gets in health professionals’ way anyway.
But back to the subject of this post, from someone that has no qualifications to discuss this subject; standing. You should stand more.
I’ll preface this post by saying that this may seem a bit strange, but challenging the status qua is a good thing. Strange is a good thing. Embrace it.
I came across this “stand more” idea a while ago, and I committed to standing at my home computer about a year ago. I sit all day at work, so standing at home made complete sense after I dug into it a bit.
Although, I kept sitting at work. I guess I let the strangeness “stand in my way” – you like that play on words? 🙂
A couple weeks ago I started standing at work too. And I love it. I vary between sitting and standing, but that’s probably because I don’t have a standing desk to be comfortable at. Here’s what the Dude is rocking for his standing desk…
I’m standing more than sitting these days, and it’s super rad. My butt hurts if I sit for much time now.
But (bam, playing on words), don’t take my word for it. Check out all of this stand-up cheer-leading…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csJlN-k1F5I&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]
Hemingway Standing Desk
Sitting is Killing You Infographic
You should stand more.
I’ve mentioned Mister Rogers a couple times on DKB. I never knew the kind-hearted soul had such a pull on the Dude’s nostalgia.
This video is making the rounds today, and I’m loving it. Mister Rogers remixed and autotuned.
Autotune is awesome in a mostly hilarious, but kinda cool, kind of way. It turns average speech into a musical masterpiece. Check your nearest ITunes store for some handy apps to work this magic yourself.
Mister Rogers remixed and autotuned is perfect. But it does make me wonder all of the other great candidates for some remixing…
The list is endless.
Enjoy everyone’s favorite neighbor getting jiggy with it…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzXaFbxDcM[/youtube]
Tip o’ the hat to Kottke.org for sharing.
Small Group = Change
The other day I posted a video of a 12 year old dropping some serious knowledge about how The Man is hosing us with an economic/banking/big-business system that is clearly broken. The video is well worth the 6 minutes it takes for Ms. Grant to break it down to terms even a 12 year old can understand.
The end of the video closed with a vote by Margaret Mead…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
And now there seems to be evidence that Ms. Mead is right on. A recent study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrates that the tipping point for spread of ideas is 10%.
10%! That’s amazing. We can change the world with a 10% consensus. Think about that.
Now, the Dude’s padre is a statistics professor who continually reminds anyone who will listen that many studies are not performed well, and the results are questionable. So, we should take this study with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting none-the-less. And if it is even remotely accurate, there are far-reaching implications for the ability to make significant changes to the world we live in. By the way, RPI is a pretty reputable school.
Here are a couple impressive quotes from the researchers/studies:
Thanks to Tom Woods for sharing.
The Dude has been burglarized on a few occasions; a few cars, a couple houses, and an array of locations. I recovered some goods, lost some, but overall none of the instances were earth-shattering. I did feel a bit unlucky – karma?…not sure for what.
While my life did roll on normally, I can say that it does leave a creepy, violated feeling that lingers for a while. However, I really don’t think of it much, and I don’t view the world as a negative place with thieves around every corner. Although, I do consciously lock my doors, and I have a baseball bat next to my bed – as a dad, these precautions just make practical sense.
These anomalies to my everyday life don’t come to mind too often, but I saw a neat post on swissmiss.com, and since I can relate, I figured it was worth sharing. Some common sense ideas that we should all have lodged in our mental space.
Tips from burglars. And after reading the list, I can say that if I followed these, I probably could have avoided some of the violations.
Worth a quick read…
As we all probably know by now, one of the trifecta that make up the Beastie Boys passed away last week. I was tempted to scribble out a post memorializing MCA, but the interwebs were bursting at the seams with MCA-related posts; so I held off.
I mourned in my own way – I added a Beasties station to my Pandora (how did I not have a Beasties station?!) and cranked up the car stereo while cruising. I’m sure MCA can respect this.
Born in the late 70’s, the Dude is a product of the 80’s, and as a result, a product of the Beastie Boys. I can still recall sitting in my 4th grade class and seeing the Beasties cassette for the first time as a friend passed it around like illegal contraband.
Music was still rebellious at that point, and it doesn’t get much more rebellious than early Beastie Boys.
The Beasties will forever hold a special place in my musical heart. So, it’s sad to see a founding member move on – especially at the young age of 49. To be honest, it seemed like the Beasties would fade away a number of times, but they always found a way to stay relevant. With MCA gone, there is no way to make a full recovery, and with that, it feels like a piece of childhood for many gen x/y’ers is passing on as well. Hence all of the online memorializing.
I stayed out of the online memorializing for a week or so, but now I’ve been pulled back in. A great new video has brought the MCA memorial to the level of kids, and the Dude can relate to kids. So, I had to jump in.
Here’s a tribute to Adam Yauch – aka MCA – by James Winters and his family. James, the Dude digs. Nice work.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/42106181[/vimeo]
Hats off to Kottke.org for sharing the link.
A few posts ago I linked to a Kickstarter campaign for slip-on shoes for everyone – i.e. hickies. A pretty neat idea, but sort of leaning to the goofy side of life. My next Kickstarter link seems to have a bit more potential.
Are you familiar with Kickstarter? It’s a relatively new (year or so?) way for ideas to get funded. Some lame, and some totally awesome. Basically, you put your idea online, ask for money, and if people dig it, they’ll give you money in exchange for some type of return – a free book when it comes out, acknowledgments in the credits, etc.
Giving more power to the people – i.e. a new way to take power from The Man. Rad.
Now on to the brilliance. These dudes from MIT have created a neat little device that will turn just about anything into a touchpad that will control your computer. The video below demonstrates some great – and goofy – examples, but picture controlling your computer with a banana or turning your stairs into the keys of a piano (Big anyone?).
I’m not sure where this technology will take us, but my guess is we’re just scratching the surface. Technology is insane!
You can find out more on the MaKey MaKey Kickstarter page.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU[/youtube]
Hats off to Trent Walton for sharing the link. I’m easily following 100+ blogs at this point, so I’m not all that familiar with Trent, or where I came across him, but he seems pretty cool. Worth a look if you’re into the radness.
We have officially found Little Dude’s BMX role model; Jackson Goldstone.
This little man is killing it on a bike. And he’s only in kindergarten!
Looks like the Little Dude needs a BMX and a helmet for birthday numero dos.
By the way, love the no peddles. We took the peddles off Princess’ bike when she learned, and it was such an amazing difference.
Keep killing it Jackson. We can’t wait to see your next video!
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14568625[/vimeo]
Thanks to Mark’s Daily Apple for sharing the link.
In addition to the core family-life focus of Dude Knows Best, I’ve been cataloging groovy ideas and links that I come across. These topics fall loosely under the category of “Dude’s Flow,” i.e. anything the Dude happens to be interested in at that particular time.
I love the idea of being able to look back on the evolution of the Dude Family and the Dude’s interests. Who knows what twists and turns lie ahead.
The internet connects us instantly to an infinite number of rabbit holes that we can explore, and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs – in the form of Dude Knows Best – seems like an interesting practice.
However, this exercise has underscored an important point for me. We need to be careful with the media we expose ourselves to. And more importantly, we need to be extremely careful with the media we expose the kiddos to.
This video from Miss Representation offers a great lesson for The Princess – and all the ladies in our lives – about being selective with where we put our focus. We need to guard against overexposure to the wrong ideas and cherish the right messages.
Cause & Effect: How the Media You Consume Can Change Your Life
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/38593312[/vimeo]
Have you heard of Jason Silva? Odds are you haven’t. This dude is out there…in an awesome way.
He’s a “performance philosopher” that is spreading some crazy, but great, ideas about what the future holds. And some mainstream publications are listening. Here’s a lengthy article from The Atlantic, and below is a video of a talk he did for The Economist.
Both are filled with wild ideas about the exponential growth and potential that we have as a planet.
Silva merges ideas from a lot of varied areas, and the majority of his thoughts center around the rapid advancement of technology, which in his mind seems to lead us to merging with technology. A singularity.
A technological singularity is not a new idea, but Jason’s fast-talking approach to “performance philosophy” is captivating. And while he just scratches the surface on all of the ideas he puts out there, it’s intriguing, and he paints a positive perspective of the world…which is nice to see these days.
It could be 90% BS, and all areas require additional research and contemplation, but this dude’s worth watching. If for no other reason than he can help us get excited about the lives we’re living and the potential we all have…whatever that means.
I haven’t made it through all of Jason’s “philosophical espresso” on his Vimeo channel, but the Dude will definitely be tuning in for some more wild ideas.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/40464684[/vimeo]