December 5th, 2009

Baby Aya Meets Uncle Jesse

This past Thanksgiving weekend, I finally got to meet my first new born niece, Aya Shireen Lawson.  It was a  moment I had been looking forward to since October 14 when I got a call from my mother saying my sister Daisy had her child.

The moment I saw Aya’s photos I knew I would love her unconditionally.  But seeing her and holding her in real life brought a flood of emotions that cannot be properly described.  I can’t imagine what parenthood makes you feel because becoming an uncle has changed me. I have new perspective with my family relationships, an unfamiliar feeling of adulthood when holding Aya, and a closer feeling of connectedness with my sister Daisy.

Daisy, I said this to you at home and I’ll say it again, I’m so proud of you.  You know I worry about you, but you’re such a natural mother that I don’t need to worry.  Aya is absolutely beautiful.  I have a short attention span but I had no problem gazing at her sleeping face for 2 hours straight.  Her soft features and chubby cheeks could captivate even the most callous man.  I grew up expecting to get married and have children but after meeting Aya, it was the first time I think I really knew I wanted to have children.  I love you and Aya dearly (warming up to Elton) and can’t wait until I get to see you both again.

View complete photo album here.

jesseholdingaya

November 25th, 2009

It’s Ok To Dream

While you sort through your confusing twenties, just remember, it’s ok to dream.

“Whose to say this isn’t what happens?  Who can tell me that my fantasies won’t come true…just this once.”

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November 18th, 2009

Twitter Numbers

Jesse TwitterTwitter is a numbers game. No matter how much we want to stress the importance of their real time communication, Twitter is really a numbers game. Everyone is obsessed about getting a high number of followers. More followers means more “influence” your real time tweets have. Not only are people obsessed with the high number of people following them, but they want to follow a low number of people themselves. This Following/Follower ratio is very important to people. The greater discrepancy between your Following/Followers gives the perception that you’re someone important and worth following. So if everyone wants to be followed and few want to follow, what kind of mess does this bring us?

Hypothetically any message you send out on Twitter can be seen by anyone. The reality is that there is a small percentage of people who actually read your tweets, most of the time you’re just another person on their follower list. If your list begins to swell (mine is just over 1,000) then it becomes difficult to read many of your tweets (there are 3rd party apps and twitter lists to help this,Tech Crunch Twitter but that’s another topic).

This obsession over numbers could ultimately kill Twitter. Twitter’s network itself won’t be it’s legacy for decades upon decades. It will be their introduction of real time information to the world. That is a concept that is just being rolled out at a mass scale and that’s what we will all get out of this Twitter craze.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the social network Ning has reached it’s full potential. It’s been around for a while, but I think it’s going to grow within the next few years. I really do.

November 5th, 2009

Art the Key Guy

I recently bought a new car (Honda Civic) and had to get a spare key made. I went up the street to a small key shop on the corner, probably no more than 32 square feet. There, I was met by an old, round man made my key. He seemed so grumpy. However, a funny thing happened when he was done. We started talking. We talked about the economy, banks, car companies, his business, my aspirations. Before we knew it, we had been talking for 45 minutes. What did I take away from this random gem of an encounter?

Art: How old are you?

Me: 26

Art: That’s a good age, I’m 50. Be careful, it’ll be 5 minutes before you’re my age. Go after your dreams. What is your ultimate dream? That is the forest. All these other little ideas, they are the weeds. If you take too much time worrying about them, you’ll wake up, be 50 and still not at the forest.

Thanks Art.

October 30th, 2009

Why Content is King

There has been a paradigm shift in advertising. It’s online media vs. traditional media. With more and more competition for attention in both realms, content is becoming even more important. Traditional commercials can be purchased by any agency or studio that has the money to afford the time slot. The quality of the content can be very low. It doesn’t really matter, their message will reach a great deal of eyeballs, regardless of DvR. Traditional advertising just interrupts people’s lives. It’s exactly opposite with viral videos online. They don’t have the luxury of being forced onto the consumer, which breeds creativity.

Creativity has to be much higher with viral videos. Yes, viral professionals can direct eyes to your content, but the virility of the content is greatly decreased if your content is pedantic. That’s because with viral videos, the power is in the hands of the consumer. There is such a saturated market for online videos, marketers and advertisers have to be extremely creative to develop content that is unique and worthy of being spread by word of mouth. With millions of videos being uploaded daily, you have a small window of opportunity, don’t ruin it with sub-par content.
Continue Reading Here…

October 14th, 2009

Call me Uncle Jesse

October 11th, 2009

Blog from my iPhone

First BoumanBlog entry from my Wordpress iphone app. I just wanted to congratulate Mandi Gum for finishing her first marathon today in 4:40. Congratulations also goes out to Liz Lovelace for finishing her first half marathon in 2:15. Proud of you two! I was supposed to join them like a previous post had mentioned but a leg injury derailed my training. After seeing the elation on their faces today, it only reinforced the crazy idea that I want to complete a marathon. LA marathon 2010?

October 5th, 2009

Reassurance

Sometimes you need a reminder that even the best felt lost, but kept the faith, and let the dots connect.

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September 26th, 2009

Reviews: The Arts

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently bought Steve Martin’s: Born Standing Up, an autobiography about his life in stand up comedy.  As promised, I am going to write a brief review of the book.  As a bonus, I will also be sharing my thoughts on my most most recent trip to the movies….(500) Days of Summer.

Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening. -Steve Martin

Born Standing Up was a quick and enjoyable read.  I read it over a 10 days span, which really means 3 days of actual reading.  I’d wager that I took no more than 4 hours to read it (maybe that’s quick?  it’s a 204 page book, make your own assumptions).  It’s evident that Steve Martin is a writer, which is why the book was so easy to read.  It’s written in a natural voice, making his childhood stories even more appealing.  Naturally, the book is written in chronological order, beginning with his childhood and rocky relationship with his father and ending with him walking away from stand up at what some would consider the apex of his career.

Continue Reading Here…

September 10th, 2009

Steve Martin: Born Standing Up

In my quest for new experiences and meeting new people, I’m contemplating dabbling in stand up comedy and improv comedy. Am I doing this to get discovered and become wildly famous in Hollywood? Of course…..joking, joking. See, I’m a natural at this comedy thing ;)

I’m actually just interested in opening up, overcoming some of my lingering childhood shyness, and meeting some fascinating people. I heard this was a good way to do it, just let go and get over your fear. Maybe this experience will help with my entrepreneurial aspirations and my fear of starting them?stevemartin

As a prelude to beginning this humorous chapter of my life, I decided to buy a book. I bought Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. It’s his autobiography about his stand up life. It received good reviews on the New York Times (I believe). So, last night I ventured out to Borders and bought it, full price. That’s uncharacteristic of me, especially with Amazon a click away. However, my decision to buy it at Borders was two pronged. First, instant gratification. No need for explanation there. Secondly, I figured that by purchasing the book at full price, the guilt of paying the full $15 would coerce me into reading the book cover to cover. Far too many times I’ve started a book and stopped 83 pages into the book. Not this time.

In the coming weeks and months I will be posting my thoughts on Steve Martin’s book as well as my initial foray into structured comedy. Hopefully I’ll have some good jokes by then…hopefully.