Mark Kurtz – Vice President of Client Services
Mark’s been a friend of ideapark for several years and we’re very excited to mix his skills and interests into our group. He brings extensive experience in technology and marketing from both the agency and client perspectives. During his time spent with Seattle-based Garrigan Lyman, Mark worked with clients such as Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, Aveda, Polaris, Nikon, and SAP. As a voracious entrepreneur, he’s started companies in Australia, Singapore and St. Paul. Most recently he served as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the wiki wizards at MindTouch (which recently moved to San Diego). Mark’s lived all over the world, but he’s a Midwesterner at heart (we’re hiding the fact that he’s from the Green Bay area for obvious reasons).

– New faces at ideapark

Looks like MarkK’s found a new home. These guys are very fortunate to have him. There have been a couple times in the last week or two in which I said: “yup, that was Mark’s doing”. His positive influence is still felt at MindTouch and both SteveB and I miss him. Mark heading Client Services is a perfect role for him. He’s amazingly adept at creating and maintaining relationships. Because of my intensity I tend to struggle in the maintenance department, which is one of the many reasons why it was so nice to have Mark around.

On the topic of IdeaPark: these guys are very talented. BTW fellas the Hayes release will have a dramatically improved presentation layer for ease of skinning if you have interest in wiki projects for your customers.

Slashdot | Kansas Adopts New Science Standards

“The Kansas State Board of Education has changed the state science standards once again, this time to take out language questioning evolution. This turnaround comes fast on the heels of the ouster given this past election to the ultra-conservative Board members who originally introduced the language. ‘Science’ has also been re-redefined as ‘a human activity of systematically seeking natural explanations’ (the word ‘natural’ had been previously stricken from the definition). If you’d like to see the new standards, a version showing all additions and deletions is available from the KS DOE’s website (PDF).”

This was just brought to my attention by SteveB. Why is the term ultra-conservative being used as a term to describe religious fanatics in the United States. Is this a way of lessening the rightfully negative stigma of someone who is intolerant and ignorant?

Tara asked me to post her list of ten things she loves in San Diego so far:

1. Filippi’s Cash & Carry Market – for the best 5.99 wine
2. Global Village Marketplace for great customer service and cheeses (coming soon wine and cheese combinations)
3. Mona Lisa Deli for the truest Limoncello you can find outside of Italy (made in Capri no preservatives or artificial flavoring)
– I can personally attest to the quality of this product, it’s almost as good as the Balzano family’s of Meta, Italy.
4. Assenti’s Pasta for fresh pasta (the Chipolte pasta was damn good)
5. Chi Chocolate for amazing and unique chocolate
6. Cafe Italia for a great cup of coffee and excellent service
7. Petrini’s for an amazing Antipasto Salad – Wow!
8. India Ink Papers for unique gifts/cards/ and cool baby stuff
9. Niche Boutique is where you’ll will find unique and wonderful baby clothes and accessories – love it
10. Anthony’s for great seafood (and a good long island ice tea)

All in beautiful Little Italy, San Diego, CA.

There’s this game of blog-tagging that’s been going around for some time now. I was just tagged by my old neighbor in Minnesota. The very lovely and talented JJ Killins who has been such a good friend to my wife and daughter. In fact, her daughter was Ashby’s first friend. This meme (see Unusual #2 below for why I’ve not used that word for two years) has evolved some it seems from the original five things that most people don’t know about me to 6 things that make me unusual and 6 things that make me happy. Here it goes:

Things that make me unusual (Tara helped):

1. I’m blunt. I mean really really blunt. I speak my mind like no one I know. Want to know what I think? You may not even need to ask me. You may have to ask me not to tell though.
2. I don’t like things that are trendy or particularly popular. Whether it’s a band, a restaurant, fashion whatever. If something becomes popular I’ve been known to drop it. If it’s already popular when I’m introduced to it I’ll likely avoid it like the plague. I’m making an exception for blog-tag I suppose, which is surely very trendy right now. This aversion for the popular or trendy has, on some occasions, proven to be counter-productive professionally because there can be wisdom in crowds. Some examples: I stopped blogging when it became really popular and abandoned a thriving and growing community of readers for a couple years. I refused for over a year to use any application with tagging. I avoided anything Web 2.0 (confs, groups, etc) for over almost two years. Anyway, the wisdom of crowds does not often manifest itself in pop culture.
3. I never leave home without my knife and my camera.
4. I enjoy reading, but mostly I consume my books in audio format on my iPod. The only novel (fiction) I’ve read in the last ten years (I think it’s been ten years) I read on my Treo600. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always reading something, but I don’t read fiction often. The reading a novel on my Treo (smart phone) is what Tara suggested was an item that makes me unusual.
5. I like documentaries lots. I watch a few a week. This tends to irritate friends, family, and my wife who are all not as fond as I am of documentaries. Tara likes documentaries, but she doesn’t want to watch one every night. As I write this I’m watching “Jesus Camp“. Craaaa-zy–Duude, Ted Haggert has a cameo appearance, you know him. He was the evangelical preacher who was snorting crank, banging a gay prostitute, and advising George W. Bush every Monday of the week. At home right now I have: “Grizzly Man” (Steve recommended it a long time ago), “Terror Storm” (apparently you can watch it free here), and “Who Killed the Electric Car“.
6. Tara says I dress like an old man. Particularly my socks, shoes and hats. I almost only wear Birkenstock’s and I like hats. I don’t know what’s wrong with my socks…

Things that make me happy:

1. My daughter Ashby makes me happy in ways I never thought possible. All I have to do is look at the girl and regardless of my state of mind I’m filled with happiness.
2. Sex. And my wife in general. Tara is so funny. See Unusual #1.
3. Making the world a better place. Diminishing poverty. Helping under-served people and communities to improve their quality of life. Facilitating education. I love helping people learn. Knowledge is everything man.
4. Camping. I try to make at least one solo camping trip a year. When I had fewer responsibilities I spent a lot of time in the Boundary Waters.
5. Sharing. Sharing knowledge, ideas, emotions. Sharing is good (most of the time). This may account for Unusual #1 and Happy #3.
6. Diversity. In everything, but particularly in culture and ideas. It’s hard not to love California when you love diversity.

Now it’s my turn to tag two people. Definitely PeteE who, because he’s so much cooler than me, has probably already been tagged. And Paul Jones who I barely know, but admire greatly.

I’ve been listening to Beck, The Information. It’s brilliant! Sea Change was a great album, now this. Beck rules.

Hailed as “a deeply natural songwriter” (THE NEW YORKER) who “defies expectations in his own way” (TIME) and “Gen X’s most famous absurdist” (BLENDER), BECK is the single most inventive and eclectic figure to emerge from the ’90s alternative revolution. In an era obsessed with junk culture, Beck seamlessly blends pop, folk, hiphop, indie/underground and electronica with the end result being an authentically uncategorizeable musical style that nevertheless has sold millions of records and scored multiple Grammy awards.

Three years in the making, THE INFORMATION is the album Beck began work on in 2003 with producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead’s OK Computer, Kid A; Beck’s Sea Change, Mutations) and finally completed this year once Guero’s massive success and encore touring engagements, as well as Nigel’s other commitments, were fulfilled.

We went out for seafood at Anthony’s Fish Grotto for Valentine’s Day. It was pretty good. It’s very casual and is on the harbor only a few blocks from the condo. I liked it. The food was above average and the service was good too. I’ll give it a 7.5/10.

We didn’t catch a donkey show, but we were in Tijuana, Mexico and did see a Zedonk (photographic evidence below). That’s right, we drove across the border into Mexico. It was fun. My Spanish sucks. We went to some crappy mall initially, of course, don’t take my word on this because I think all malls are crappy. My mother asked some clerk, who barely spoke English, "where do the locals shop". The woman seemed confused and surprised. I know enough Spanish to know the woman was trying to figure out why my mother was asking: "where do the crazies shop" (locals sounds like locos and locos could mean crazies) and I helped clarify the question. She directed us to Via Revolucion, which definitely is not a shopping center frequented by locals and is definitely commonly trafficked by tourists, but it is a colorful strip to walk and shop. And I suspect one could get raging drunk at discos or one of the many strip clubs that line the road were they inclined.

I was unclear how to get to Via Revolucion from the mall. While on the way I asked some police officers I had pulled up next to at a stop light for directions. All the windows of the squad car were rolled down. There were three officers (two men and one woman) in the front seat and three very hip looking criminals in the back seat that had long hair and one wore funky sun glasses. The three cops were super friendly. They conferred amongst themselves and directed me to the next circle, down the road to the left for four or five blocks a right, a left, and another right onto Via Revolucion. I asked for clarification on one of the street’s names (we were speaking Spanish and I didn’t catch the name) and they insisted I follow them instead. I couldn’t believe it. these three cops where going to lead me to the road while transporting criminals! I love Mexico. Anyway, it gets better. In Tijuana they have these crazy traffic circles. it reminds me of Napoli, Itallia. It’s total chaos. While we were navigating the circle our police friends used their sirens to break up the traffic so we could follow them more easily! Unbelievable. Mexico rules. The color. The noise. The people. It’s wonderful.

On Via Revolucion we bought a couple bottles of great tequila: El Jimador Anejo and Centenario Anejo. Both are 100% agave and, in case you didn’t know, anejo (old) means it’s been aged for three years. Also, we bought some bracelets and a couple rings. It’s Tara’s birthday on Sunday, February 11th. If you’re shopping for jewelery in Tijuana and you’re frequenting the touristy sections of town you’ll want to go to El Dorado on Via Revolucion. They actually even have an, albeit crappy, website. Tell them Aaron sent you. 😉 Romulo and Ricardo are the proprietors. Romulo is the silver smith. He’s been making jewelry for 28 years. These guys were great. They were [seemed to be] sincere. They also had the best quality jewelry that we saw and as it turns out many other vendors carry Romulo’s work in their stalls. Some vendors had low quality silver, what I was later told, by Romulo, fake gold, and plastic beads they were passing off as stone. Not that I’m into gold, but I do like stone beads.

Coming back into the United States only took us an hour. Ricardo from El Dorado gave me the advice to always stay in the far right lane when exiting Mexico. I followed this advice and it saved us probably 45 mintues.The trip was loads of fun and I look forward to returning.

Photo set

With my mother in town for a short week we set out to blaze the road most travelled. We’d shown her around our neighborhood, Little Italy, so we set out for Seaport Village. It’s a tourist trap that’s filled mostly with shops that peddle dustables (objects that only serve to be dusted). I did manage to find a killer hat shop. There is also a parent’s group that meets here weekly though and it is a great place for kids. We first thought we would take the trolley thinking we would ride the red line all the way to Seaport Village, but it turns out the red line only runs during special events. We rode the trolley up one stop and got off after realizing this. It’s not like we needed to take the trolley being Seaport Village is only a half mile away, but Ashby likes trains. We walked back along the harbor. It was wonderful.

This photo isn’t from this day, but I had to post it. 🙂

Photo set

Convict escapes while Ashby suffers from a fever. Yes, true story. Ashby came down with a touch of fever on Monday and we took her into the hospital. Being new in town we didn’t (we do now) have a primary pediatrician for her. We were on our way to Children’s Hospital, but I got turned around and couldn’t find our way. So, I called Ken and he gave me directions to the closest hospital to us at the time, which was UCSD in Hillcrest. Well, it was already late so we were going to the emergency room. Turns out this hospital gets a lot of patients from the city and has a contract with the local prison. There were a lot of chained and cuffed convicts and rough looking folks about. At one point, around 2 AM (we were there from 8 PM until after 3 AM) a convict escaped in cuffs! That was awesome.

Needless to say Tara and I were totally wiped out when the movers arrived only three hours after we go to bed. This week has been pretty exhausting. I took a couple days off from work that I desperately needed to get unpacked and have some family time. My mother is in town. We should be pretty much unpacked by Monday.

Man plays dirigido while palms are read in Balboa Park. Tara and I went up to Balboa Park on Saturday. Here’s some dude on the dirigido that Ashby and I listened to while Tara was, of all things, getting her palm read by Randall the white gypsy. Watch it all the way through, you’ll see Ashby grooving to the dirigido.

Photo set