A year of iPhone pics

I just figured out I’ve had the iPhone for almost exactly a year, so I took a look through the history of pictures I’ve taken, and, coincidentally, as of this morning, the total is exactly 1500.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Pictures with Furio: 619 (that’s 41%)
• Pictures with Lisa: 323
• Pictures with myself: 127
• Pictures takn with a friend from HBS: 190
• Pictures with any member of my family: 118

Here’s the breakdown by place:

• Pictures taken in Boston/Cambridge: 1134
• Pictures taken on the Cape: 120
• Pictures fromCalifornia: 14

[The totals when you click through the links don’t match the listed totals, because only the decent pictures get uploaded to Flickr]

This is biased, because, when I’m away from Boston I tend to have my Canon camera with me, so most of those shots wouldn’t be taken on my phone. Additionally, I tend to take a lot of pictures of the cat around the house when I’m bored, which is why his total is so high.

Here’s a better way to get a sense of the breakdown of my high-quality pictures.

An argument for recording meaningless moments… with the Flip

merlin:

Ellie in the Park

A few years ago, my Mom gave me a snapshot of her and my Dad that I’d never seen. It looks like it was about 1971 or so — well before Dad got sick — and they’re in somebody’s kitchen. I’m not sure whose. Dad’s sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a Winston and drinking a very bright red can of Coke. My Mom is standing next to him, leaning on him, laughing, and hugging his neck. She’s wearing yellow shorts and a small, metal-banded wristwatch, and she looks deliriously happy.

It’s just a snapshot, and I’m so happy I have it.

---

I’m starting to wonder if you have to have a kid to fully understand the appeal of the Flip. I don’t really think that’s the case, but being a new-ish parent really highlights why this dumb little piece-of-shit video camera is such a game-changer.

Say what you will about the (numerous) technical limitations of the Flip, but, in terms of catching the small, trivial stuff that ends up comprising the connective tissue of memories, it’s the real deal. 90% of the gold I get with the Flip would never have seemed “important enough” to shoot with my $1k HD camera — plus who carries a softball-sized video camera everywhere they go?

This thing paid for itself the day I turned it on and shot one evening of Eleanor’s bath-to-bedtime ritual, but I still never stop marveling at the little moments I end up capturing while just horsing around.

---

I don’t really think you have to be a parent to get the Flip, but watching your kid change and grow even over the space of the cumulative one hour of shooting in the camera’s memory tells an important story: all that stupid little stuff that’s not worth pulling “the good camera” out for is what it’s all about. That’s the stuff you’ll pray you had captured more of when you had the chance. I can already feel it, looking back at that bath and thinking, “Wow, I wish I’d shot hours of this.”

Every can of Coke, every funny hat — every minute where I might accidentally catch my little family being deliriously happy — man, that’s the stuff.

I couldn’t agree more. This is why I have stacked Flickr and Vimeo accounts. I don’t have kids yet, but I don’t want life’s great little throw-away instances to slip from my memory, especially when it’s so easy to capture them forever.

Movie idea: “Uncommon Law”

Now that same-sex marriage is becoming legalized, I had an idea for a movie where two dudes (think Dax Sheppard and Will Arnett) have been roommates all through college and after (a little over a decade).

Dax finds out Will has done all sorts of dirty things over the years (stolen money, nailed the other’s girlfriend, etc). Dax moves out, but Will is down on his luck (after losing his money on a hilarious series of get-rich-quick schemes), and sues Dax over what he tries to take with him on his way out, claiming they had a same-sex common-law marriage.

He goes after half of Dax’s belongings, but one of the stipulations is that they have to have “held themselves out to the world as husband and wife”. We play a montage of moments where they behaved very much like a couple:

1. Signing up for a joint gym membership
2. Public spat about something trivial in a Costco
3. Will comforting Dax after a sad movie

Over the course of the “divorce” proceedings where they fight over dividing their belongings, they go rediscover why they liked living together in the first place, and reconcile their differences.

“Can you please take it out?”

In the last year, bouncers, doormen, and airport security personnel have all started asking me to take my driver’s license out of the plastic window in my wallet. Here’s my beef:

• It’s a hassle for me, because it requires 2 hands to pull it out, so I have to put down anything I may have been holding.
• I know that it’s not the case that everyone in line has an ID window in their wallet, but many do, and requiring everyone to pull out the ID slows down the line.
• 99% of people I know over 21, but under 60 had a fake ID for at least the 3 years from when they were 18 to 21. These things are easy to fake, and like drug testing in the Olympics, any test that comes along to prove authenticity can quickly be cheated. I know people who can print holograms. Withholding alcohol from college kids is a powerful incentive to figure this stuff out.
• The airport is not safer because I have a driver’s license. Anyone planning mischief at an airport will not fail to track down a fake ID. Especially in an era where most people print out their tickets at the airport from their credit card, there’s NO reason to require licenses.
• I know that bars have to be concerned about underage drinking, but I haven’t looked like I might be less than 20 since I was 17. Is holding an infrared light up to my license really necessary? Any 20 year-old that looked like me has some sort of rapid aging disease, and deserves a beer in his last few months on this earth.
• Doormen are really flattering themselves that they’re the last line of defense for their tenants. They’re some of the nicest people in the world, but their job is to create a friendly, community atmosphere in a big building, and to sign for packages. I don’t want them running background checks on guests.

Is anyone else noticing this trend? Should I just get a different wallet?

How we spent the weekend

I don’t have pics of everything, but here are a few highlights:

• Visiting a startup: We caught up with my buddy, Spaly, who is the founder of Bonobos at their HQ. It’s really cool, and looks like it’d be a blast to work their. It sounds like amazing workspaces don’t just build themselves either. Those guys put a lot of planning and work into getting their dream space.
  
• Eating at a classic NYC deli: We had lunch at Katz’s, where there’s the famous lunch scene from When Harry Met Sally. The pastrami was incredible.
  
• Seeing a musical: We thought Avenue Q would be a good compromise between Lisa’s interests and mine. We were right. It was hilarious, incredibly well executed, and a little raunchy (there’s an explicit sex scene with puppets).
  
• Hitting a museum: We both enjoy bruising museums, even though neither of us have tremendous “talent” when it comes to art appreciation. The MOMA hit the spot perfectly. It was exciting for me to see this one, too, after being in a play about it.
  
• Dining in style: We both love steak, and Mecca for steak lovers, is a place called Peter Luger’s, in Brooklyn. It did NOT disappoint.
  
• Catching up with old friends: We both know a bunch of people that live in NYC, so we tried to squeeze in a bunch of get-togethers. We could have spent a week doing this, and we didn’t get to see everyone, but the reconnections felt fantastic.