Something very gross

Nov 11, 2013

I was going to tell a story about a gross thing I did.

The person I was telling it to had a hard time understanding the concept.

A gross thing.  A gross thing I did.  I was going to confide in him a gross thing I had done.

Ok, he said.  You convinced me.

I forgot what I had done.  I forgot the point of the story.  Then I got confused.

Why did I want to tell him something embarrassing?

Gross_courtney chili burger

Was I going to find something gross in the kitchen?  Trash?  Toilet eventually?

You can tell me now, he said.

Um.  I can’t.

You wanted to tell me something gross.  You can’t?

No, I can’t.  I forgot.

No, really.  Was it something I had said or done in a drugged out blackout?

Was I about to confess something so soulless and terrifying my future would be ruined?

Had I emotionally blacked out and reverted to a panic mode, now forced to cover up my indiscretions with a lie?

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No, I’ll tell you.

Honesty.  Honesty is the best policy.

But I forgot.  I really forgot what I was going to tell you.  I can’t remember.

You can’t remember?

No, I can’t remember.  But I can remember.  Give me a minute.

So you had something to tell me that was gross, so gross you can’t remember it?

I had a flash of the gross thing.

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No!  No.  It wasn’t that gross.  I could almost remember now.

No, there’s no way I would ever tell you something really gross!  It wasn’t that gross.

Now I kind remembered that I was exaggerating.  Stop thinking about gross things.  It wasn’t that gross.  You were trying to get a rise out of him and then tell a funny story.

So now it wasn’t so gross?

No, no it was a little gross.  I think it was gross.

Remember, remember.  Was it that gross?  Did I have a period moment?  Did I witness something?  There was the mural I tried to photograph but ran away when I realized there was a man peeing against it.  That wasn’t gross enough to warrant a mention of gross.

Life is hard.

Link City: LA and everywhere else

Nov 11, 2013

Link City!  Art for Angelenos, surprising surprises, and travel news.

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Los Angeles art.

Dana Louise Kirkpatrick up at KM Fine Arts.  This one curated by the excellent Naheed Simjee.

Esotouric, weirdo tours of LA history.  Pasadena Confidential looks especially tasty: Jack Parsons, Sirhan Sirhan, and a 1928 grand stand collapse.

Only OK in LA has a fancy new URL.

LA- based Mortified Nation is out!  Brave, brave people reading their childhood journals= hilariously entertaining.

Son of Los Angeles Henry Rollins is starring in a horror flick.  I’m watching it.

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Surprising stuff.

Remember Style Rookie?  Look how refined and elegant Tavi is now.

Video paintings by Brian Eno?  Available on DVD?  Take my money, please.

Hedy Lamarr invented Wi-Fi?  Must read piece on “the most beautiful girl in the world.”

Squat-to-pay is a thing?  Russians are working their glutes to get on the train.  Amazing.

That Van Damme Volvo commercial, with Toronto trainwreck Mayor Rob Ford’s face.  Epic ridic.

Snapchat, you so crazy.  The startup turned down THREE BILLION DOLLARS from Zucks himself.

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Traveling near, traveling far. 

First, the bad news.  No party train to Vegas.  It was called the X Train, and I’m pretty sure the funding went up someone’s nose.

Haha.  Spirit Airlines made a joke about smoking crack.

The deadliest swing in the world.  Test your kids.

Somebody made an Effie Barbie and took her to Paris.  Hunger Games fans, man.  They go there.

Not done with Rob Ford links.  Canada’s wild mayor is my new hero.  In a totally ironic way.  Kind of.

xoxo

suzymae

Unknown Unknowns

Nov 11, 2013

A string of new projects.  Unfamiliar clients.  New people and working styles.  Unknown unknowns.

Assuming an approach that worked for one set of information will work for the next combination is a dangerous path.   Just because you have a hypothesis doesn’t mean it’s true.  The first step to strategy is to know that you know nothing.

I was in Texas recently, talking about Donald Rumsfeld and his “unknown unknowns” quote, and the categorization of information.

Four categories of information:

1.  Known knowns.  What you know you know.  

2.  Unknown knowns.  What you know you should know.  

Data that exists, but we must obtain.  With luck, this becomes a known known.

3.  Known unknowns.   What you know you don’t know.  

What we know we must discover.  With effort, this becomes a known known.

4.  Unknown unknowns.  Unanticipated but relevant data, revealed unexpectedly.  

Information revealed in an order that could not have been predicted using known data.  

So how do we visualize this?

Attempt I.

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Attempt II.

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Attempt III.

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Attempt III’s going to make a glorious Post-It board.

xo,

suzymae