Shannon & Stephanie's

Shannon & Stephanie's, a set on Flickr.

Begginings of photos collected at the wedding.

Shannon & Stephanie's wedding

First dance as a married couple!

Steve Jobs rainbows

On the afternoon of Steve Jobs' death, various pictures of rainbows started showing up online. Some from San Fran, Palo Alto, the Pixar campus and even over Apple's campus!

With Or Without Steve Jobs, We Are Wired To Like Apple : All Tech Considered : NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/08/30/140039539/apples-secret-is-in-our-dna

Apple's Secret Is In Our DNA

Getty Images

This post was originally published when Steve Jobs stepped down at Apple. We're re-surfacing it on the news of his death.

There is a lot of talk about DNA since Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple this week. Mostly in terms of what Jobs has infused into Apple's DNA: impeccable taste, innovation, persistence, attention-to-detail, hard work, different thinking.

All of this talk is great. It's reassurance to all of us Apple fanboys and girls that the company we idolize will continue to produce the products we love to love. Need to love. Can't not love, really, even if we try.

Edward Charles Le Grice/Getty Images

And why is that? Why are so many of us addicted to Apple products (and yes, I mean literally addicted)? What, when asked what she loves about her Macbook and iPhone and iPad, makes my friend Caren respond with: "When something is a prosthesis [an extension of one's body and mind], how can one begin to unravel it?" What makes my other friend, Supisa, carry her Macbook around with her everywhere, like a newborn baby, because she refuses to leave the house without it? What makes me sleep with my iPhone under my pillow?

Why do so many of us get so emotional about Steve Jobs, to the point of crying upon hearing he had cancer and tearing up last week while reading his poignant resignation letter? The answer to all of these questions, I think, lies in mathematics and our own DNA.

AP

I've been researching design aesthetics recently, and in a nutshell here's what I've found: Beauty is more objective than you might think. It's based on numbers and proportions. As humans, we're biologically programmed to seek out and respond to these numbers and proportions because they indicate superiority, in everything from the human form, to great works of art, to musical patterns, to plants, to architecture and to product design. The screen of a Macbook, for example, is a Golden Rectangle, which is based on this magical number: 1.6178, also known as the Golden Ratio, the Golden Mean or the Divine Proportion.

And the pulsing light that softly undulates to indicate that your Macbook is asleep? Well, that mesmerizing light mimics the rhythm of a human heartbeat, a deeply resonating mathematical pattern which can also be found in tidal flows, DNA sequences and blissful cognitive states.

The inclusion of these patterns in Apple's designs is no accident. Steve Jobs knows better than any other modern-day CEO our biological attraction to beautiful things. With the help of Jonathan Ive, Apple's VP of industrial design, he exploits our biological tendencies to give us exactly what we want. He has an uncanny ability to tap into our genetic propensity toward beauty, seducing us through exquisite product design.

Additionally, humans are born to tell and listen to stories. We love myths and heroes and villains and protagonists. Stories are how we make sense of the world and of ourselves. When we purchase an Apple product, we're not only buying into the legendary story of how Steve founded, was kicked out, then saved Apple to make it the most valuable company in the world, but we're also buying elegant tools with which to tell our own meaningful stories and make our own beautiful things.

So, instead of our worrying about what's in Apple's DNA, I just hope Apple keeps worrying about what's in yours and mine. Then hopefully, everything will be OK, with or without Steve Jobs at the helm.

Callie Neylan is a former NPR designer and currently assistant design professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Steve Jobs has died

Right now, I can’t seem to find the words to express my sadness, my deep appreciation and admiration to this truly American visionary. Steve’s effect on my life, my path is as strong, as deeply ingrained as that of my other idols: the Zappa’s, the Jim Henson’s, the Davis Lynch’s of the world.

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

http://youtu.be/dX9GTUMh490

More to come…

 

Gripes from a bookseller

Taken from a closed Border's Bookstore...

Yet another artifact from the slow, painful death of Borders has emerged. A fascinating look inside a (justifiably) angry bookseller’s mind, this manifesto of sorts, “Things We Never Told You: Ode to a bookstore death” informs us of what those helpful Borders folks had to put up with. (I have to admit — seeing the list, I realize I’ve been a bad customer in the past.) Hopefully, we’ll learn from our mistakes and treat the Barnes & Noble people better. The statements from the list are re-printed below — which ones do you agree with?

++ We hate when a book becomes popular simply because it was turned into a movie.

++ It confused us when we were asked where the non-fiction section is.

++ Nicholas Sparks is not a good writer … if you like him, fine, but facts are facts.

++ We greatly dislike the phrase “Quick question.” It’s never true. And everyone seems to have one.

++ Your summer reading list was our summer reading NIGHTMARE. Also, it’s called summerreading, not three days before school starts reading.

++ It’s true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot.

++ We always knew when you were intently reading Better Homes and Gardens, it was really a hidden Playboy.

++ Most of the time when you returned books you read them already — and we were onto you.

++ Limit One Coupon did not mean one for every member of your family — this angered us. Also, we did know what coupons were out.

++ It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We’d rather you do if you’re putting up a stink.

++ “I was just here last week and saw this book there” meant nothing to us. The store changed once a week.

++ When you walked in and immediately said, “I’m looking for a book,” what you really meant to say is, “I would like you to find me a book.” You never looked. It’s fine, it’s our job — but let’s be correct about what’s really happening here.

++ If you don’t know the author, title, or genre, but you do know the color of the cover, we don’t either. How it was our fault that we couldn’t find it we’ll never understand.

++ We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our section destroyed a piece of our souls.

++ Oprah was not the “final say” on what is awesome. We really didn’t care what was on her show or what her latest book club book was. Really.

++ When you returned your SAT books, we knew you used them. We thought it wasn’t fair — seeing that we are not a library.

Little Thing