zacharyc

I took one picture in this video (if that), and they were nice enough to mention my name in the credits. Honestly, I was just happy to be a part of the event. I’m against hate and especially against religious persecution. This was an amazing experience, and while this video captures some of the magic, it doesn’t do it complete justice. The sheer number of people present on that little lawn was amazing. It was so hard to move around. There were so many people for the rally and maybe 10 for the WBC.

zacharyc :: Mar.02.2010 :: Personal :: No Comments »

I had an epiphany this morning. Facebook is really stealing from us. Not in the normal sense of “Oh, I’m taking your purse and running down the street with it”, but more in the sense, “hey, you own this music, I’m taking it.”

Back up…. How did I get here? I was reading Merlin Mann’s FAQ. He talks about how he has a facebook account but hasn’t checked it in over a year. Also on this page he confesses that he is a “writer” or creator of content. I think the fact that he is a writer and the fact that he hasn’t used his facebook account in over a year are connected.

Facebook takes your content and displays it in a way that they want to. They put it in their look and feel (which I’ll admit is starting to get a bit cleaner, finally), and redistribute it to everyone on your friend list or everyone who if the you let the content be public. Your creative thoughts are broadcast to everyone, and do you see any profit from it? Nope. Do you have control over presentation or how you are represented? Nope.

I’m not including the time or addictive nature of facebook in this conversation. If you consider the time you spend entering comments, or reading others posts, you have even more of a determent to your life.

Starting immediately, I will be taking steps to capitalize on my content, more of it will be here on my blog zacharyc.com and various other local places. I’m also only going to check facebook once a day.

zacharyc :: Mar.02.2010 :: Personal :: No Comments »

For those of you who have known me for more than, say, five years, you know that one of my original web properties was handspringman.com. Unfortunately, due to issues with the way domain registration works, it slipped out of my control. At the time it was prohibitively expensive to reposes (somewhere in the several hundred dollar range).

Well, good news, it’s coming home. I recently checked it’s availability on GoDaddy and was able to procure it relatively inexpensively. I will do my best to put something up there soon.

zacharyc :: Jan.20.2010 :: Cheerleading, Personal, Web :: No Comments »

Part of the reason I haven’t been writing is because I have been reading more and more Merlin Mann these days. And while I’m not a writer, some of what he says resonates with me. I want to stop writing just for the sake of writing or putting more content out there. I want what I write to matter and be of good content. I want to produce worthwhile content.

This is not one of those meaningful posts, so if you want to skip the fluff, go ahead and skip this one.

A couple of years ago (okay, four at this point, but who’s counting) I posted an article on my new years resolution. My resolution was simply, “I will DO more!”. The article can be found on one of my legacy blogs: maczack.blogspot.com, along with other interesting things I wrote when I was young. To quote one paragraph that gave me the inspiration:

I recently re-watched the movie “Batman Begins” and was struck by a single line in the movie. “Its not who I am underneith, but what I do that defines me.” That really struck me hard, as I have always lived with the notion that it is enough to be a good person. This line means that being a good person is simply not enough. You have to do good things. I cannot succed at life if I am mearly a good/smart/intellegent/athetic person, I have to do things with my gift. I am not who I think I am, I am what I do with myself.

What I like about the “I will DO more!” resolution is that is easy to achieve. Okay, my goal might be to build a west coast version of the Empire State Building, but I’ll be happy with myself if I can just get the sketches down, because that is more than I have right now. People who talk about getting “in shape” have a notion of what they want to be at the end, and work towards that end. When they don’t see the end happing right away, they get discouraged.

One of my coaches at the moment has fundamentally altered my way of working. I no longer focus on the end result. I focus on the process. If I keep working the process, the end result will be better. I might not be a master of my craft now, but if I keep studying, someday I will. I’m no longer focused on being the best, or achieving this monumental accomplishment, I just focus on being better, doing better, achieving better. Eventually greatness will come.

I’ve been doing this “I will DO more!” type resolution for the past couple of years. Last years was “I will read more!”, and I did. This single unifying process that allows me to keep being productive every year.

This year, I’m a little stuck, there are bunch of new things I’d like to work on:

• Get in better shape
• Become a better programmer
• Be a better friend
• Become a better artist
• Write better articles
• Give more hugs

These are all important, to do each of them only requires minor steps in my general routine. So instead of one New Years resolution, this year I have six. Oh fun.

Just as a little aside, here are the books I read this past year (I’m sure I’m leaving some out, but they probably weren’t memorable):

• The Blind Side
• Code Complete 2
• The Cult of the Amateur
• Outliers
• The Creative Habit
• Web Form Design

zacharyc :: Dec.31.2009 :: Personal :: No Comments »

I found out the other week that one of my many mentors throughout school has passed away. Father Thomas Martin O.S.A. was one of my college professors, who in my senior year, severely (in a positive way) changed my appreciation of the Catholic church.

I chose to go to Villanova because of their strong academic and athletics program. I knew I wanted to cheer in college, and I knew that I wanted to be successful academically. It was important for me that the school I choose have both a strong academic program and also a strong sports program to pursue both of my interests. The one downside I saw to Villanova was that it was Catholic. I, my friends, am quite Jewish. I was apprehensive to say the least. I was afraid of the religious classes I had to take.

My first religious class (1050 Christian Fundamentals) was that nightmare. The teacher was a closed minded Franciscan Nun. She was nice and all, but did not care about my views because I dissented too much. Despite my hand being almost constantly raised, I was almost never called on. I felt dejected and rejected from the class and the school.

My second religious class was of an optional nature, I could study any religion. I chose a southeast asian religion class where I thought I’d learn about Buddhism. I was wrong, while the class covered Buddhism, it mostly covered Hindu. I learnt a ton and enjoyed the class despite my initial disappointment about Buddhism instruction.

Finally my senior year rolled around and I had to take my last religious requirement. Again, it was required to be Catholic. I decided to take a class on Christian Spirituality. The teacher, Father Thomas Martin. I’m not going to dissuade with you images of me being the most prestigious student in the class. It was second semester senior year and I was already counting my way out. I spent much of the class browsing the internet on my laptop in the back corner next to Allan Ray (one of the star basketball players).

Despite my lack of academic interest in the class, the teacher caught my attention. He was very vibrant and energetic, and above all more open minded than any priest I had known before. He seemed to care about the fact that my religion was different and wanted to learn about it. He was quick, intellectually, and very considerate. I don’t remember how long it took, but after a short while I got into a habit of walking with Father Martin from class to his office. We had many interesting conversations, sometimes about the class topic or something I caught that was interesting, or sometimes just about my religion and his. He always talked to me with respect and kindness.

The most memorable of these conversations might be something that would get him in trouble. I once asked him about what happens to people who don’t believe in Jesus as the messiah, after death. I have my own deluded notion of Judaism. I believe that my responsibility is to be a good person here. I don’t believe in Jesus, and I don’t believe I should be concerned with the afterlife. If it exists, that is great, if it doesn’t then I’ll be remembered for how I am here. This is in stark opposition to anything Christian I have heard. According what I had heard at the time, if I died, I was going condemned because I didn’t believe in Jesus.

I posed the question of what would happen to me to this priest and I asked him for his honest opinion. I could take it, but I was curious. He turned to me and told me that he felt G-d would take care of all those who are good people, I might not believe in all the aspects of his G-d, but if I’m a good person that should be enough. I guess a part of me has always wanted to believe in the magical nature of the afterlife.

I felt like he had stepped outside of the realm of his role to come to down as a person and converse with me. He was awesome and will be truly missed. I had tried to connect with last October, but was unable to find time in our schedules. I didn’t know it was the last time I’d ever be able to shake his hand. I’ll miss him and remember his kindness forever.

Here is a collection of some other links:

• Fr. Thomas Martin, O.S.A.
• Fr. Tom Martin, OSA, Augustinian Scholar
• Father Thomas F. Martin, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Dies at 66
• Rev. Thomas F. Martin, O.S.A. (1943 – 2009) – Interesting note, that it turns out that Thomas Martin went to Tolentine College, and I had my class with him in building called Tolentine at Villanova
• His Personal Villanova Page

Just for some additional fun, here are some of the papers I wrote for his class:
John1 and Didache
Sailing Up The Wall of Ocean
The Life of Antony and Pythagoras Contrasted

zacharyc :: Aug.05.2009 :: Personal :: No Comments »

I thought it would be worthwhile to publish my expenses for my college team last year. This is useful for anyone who is interested in calculating whether or not you can afford to an open cheerleading team. I cheered for CheerGyms.com. They were a good team and I will talk about my pros and cons a bit lower, but first lets look at the expenses.

This is just the hard numbers and I’ve gone a little soft on the miles and gas price. The point, however, is still relatively strong: I spent nearly $2,000.00 no an open team last year. I had a good time, but that is really expensive, so I’ve decided not to cheer again next year while I try to get my finances in order.

I’d also like to list some of the pros and cons of my experience at CheerGyms.com so that others can decide if it is the correct place for them:

Pros

• Great History – CheerGyms.com has been around for many years and is a staple in the local cheerleading community. Even those programs that are run by other coaches normally have some connection back to CheerGyms.
• Great Administrators – My experience with the administrators of the program was great. Morton and Danny are the co-owners of the gym and all my experiences with them were very positive. They are strong leaders and GREAT coaches
• Great Facility – CheerGyms have two gyms, one in San Jose and one in Concord. They are both relatively large facilities as cheerleading space in the bay area goes. Their gym in Concord is the biggest gym I’ve been to within comfortable driving distance. Both gyms have full cheerleading floors with relatively high ceilings. Both gyms have at least one tumble track and a crash mat.
• Good Teammates – Throughout the year we had our disagreements, but in general the team was full of good people. I wasn’t best friends with everyone, but I felt that everyone cared about the program, and I was very excited to be a part of it.

Cons

• Lack of Skill Practice – This is part of the way that CheerGyms work, but they don’t get a chance to factor in skill growth into practice. We only met for about 2 hours a week, so this is acceptable, but it is really something I enjoy doing.
• Lack of Consistent Leadership at Practice – Throughout the year, we shifted coaches. It was not entirely avoidable as our head coach had his hip replaced, but still it would have been good to have a strong coaching experience. I do not feel I had one. I also think that this doesn’t persist to other teams at the gym, I think it is unique to the college team.
• No Coed Nature – this team is very small coed, despite the fact that we had 7 to 9 guys on the team. Guys did not do any direct toss stunts. While this is the nature of the business of most teams in the area, it was in stark contrast to what I was looking for.
• Lack of Team Togetherness – I never really felt part of the team. There did not appear to be too much team bonding and it made for a very disjoint feeling. This is something I’ve had on my previous All Star teams and I missed it sorely. Again, I think this is unique to the College team due to the distances that people live from the gym, and how often practices are.
• Distance – This one isn’t really the gyms fault, but mine for joining the gym. It was way too far for me. Nearly an hour every sunday morning each way. This was just too much.

All of that measured, I’m glad I had an opportunity to be a part of that program. I wish them all the best, but for me it just doesn’t work.

zacharyc :: Jun.21.2009 :: Cheerleading, Personal :: No Comments »

Last night a friend invited me over to her place for a get together to celebrate the ending of passover and the ability to eat leaven bread. I, being only quasi Jewish, have been eating leaven bread for the entire passover period, but my religion is a story for another day.

I end up in this room, and she has a bunch of friends over, and we get to talking and somehow it comes up that my father was the president of J.Crew for a couple of years in the 90s, and she sparks up, stares at me and says “We must be cousins!”. Honestly, I was a little put off at first. I don’t know how to act. I’m not particularly close to my family, which is something I wish I could change, but finding random family across the country is weird, to say the least.

We went through a bit of history and by the end of the night we had solidified that we were indeed cousins, related through my grandmother on my father’s side. This was a very happy surprise, and while I wasn’t captured by it at the moment, the more I think about it the cooler it would be to have more family out here (3000 miles away from the rest of my family).

And while this is really cool, this leads in the rest of this post which is about the Small World theory. You better know it is as Six Degrees of separation. In which Stanley Milgram found that through an average of 6.1 mailings, someone in the middle of Nebraska or Kansas could connect to a person in Boston. You can read about the full experiment on the Wikipedia page.

My argument today is that world was much smaller than 6 degrees during the time of Milgram’s study, and that the world is only continuing to shrink over time (thanks mostly to technology).

First premise, the world was smaller when he did the study. The parameters of the Milgram study said that you should send the letter to the person you believe to most likely to have a connection to the Target. My belief is that people don’t know who is in each other’s address book. We might have a vague idea, but we are not the best at knowing how all these connections exist.

Sue, in Kansas, might have sent the mail to Paul in Pennsylvania because he is geographically closer to Boston. What Sue doesn’t know is that her friend Emily, two blocks down the road happens to have met the Target at a conference in New York. Paul doesn’t know the guy and has to forward the note on. Thus what was a one person connection is now greater than 1 connection.

Secondly, the world is getting smaller. With the invent of commercial air travel, I can easily move to California while still having a connection with my family in CT. I now know a ton of people in different parts of the country. I’m a one level connection to all my friends and family in CT.

If we are willing to allow connections to be electronic (working professionals who live in different countries but communicate via email), the computer industry has opened up our connections to many different networks. This doesn’t even include people who have met because of their online connection (online dating sites is an example).

I’m not going to venture a guess at the number of links between people, but I wonder if you started with Kevin Bacon, and counted the AVERAGE connection to him, you might have a better guess. Just a thought.

zacharyc :: Apr.17.2009 :: Personal :: No Comments »

This is ridiculously funny, yet potentially also cruel. Either way, I agree with Jon Gruber, this is totally what happened in Caddy Shack.

Daring Fireball Linked List: Spokane to Detonate Squirrels Tearing Up Parks.

zacharyc :: Apr.15.2009 :: Personal :: No Comments »

We went up to Napa this past Saturday. On the way back, after the majority of the car had consumed a significant amount of wine, we stopped off at Taylor’s Refresher for a burger before the drive home. One member of our crew decided that we should get a full bottle of wine. Just so we are clear, I don’t really drink, I had a few tastings that day, but had already consumed more than I had wanted to, so I was out on the bottle. The three remaining members decided to attack a bottle of red wine in one lunch sitting.

The wine of choice, something interesting, called “The Climber”. A nice red, with a mix of various different types of wine. Sounded interesting, so they got it. Once we got it to the table, we realized, with some shock, that the wine was made by Cliff. The same company that does the amazing Clif energy bars. Needless to say, after they were thoroughly “happy” off their wine, the bottle was rinsed and the cork was wrapped and packed along for the trip home.

I’m going to write a post soon on The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition, but one interesting part of the book talks about the relevance of products used to extend a brand. I’m not sure that wine has a strong correlation to the core clif bar business, but if my friends are any indication of the clif consumer, they were ecstatic when they found the bottle and this might just work.

Note: I did not actually try this wine, by this point I was done drinking, so I cannot comment on the taste. Those who were drinking it said they somewhat enjoyed the taste, but that the novelty of the item might have had an impact on that enjoyment.

zacharyc :: Mar.23.2009 :: Personal :: No Comments »

A lot of my posts recently have just been posts about interesting things I have read on other people’s websites. This is another one of those posts. I’ve been catching up on 43Folders.com recently and quite captured by Merlin Mann.

Today I say his video on Creativity Patterns. This video changed my entire personal perspective, about myself and about my abilities at least for the day. He’s a great speaker and the concept is motivating. Check it out if you haven’t, and consider reading/watching more of Merlin if you have the time.

zacharyc :: Feb.27.2009 :: Creativity, Personal :: No Comments »