No, I haven’t read Issaccson’ s book yet, and I am not sure I want to.

On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future.

Clean your history, simple.

Via Daring Fireball.

Starting at Canlis in Seattle.

I wasn’t making parts for machines that saved people’s lives; I was interrupting people’s dinners. But I had enough time and energy to pursue my design interests after work, and I could hang out with people on my break, and I commuted to a respectable little urban plaza instead of the middle-of-nowhere warehouse where machining shops are usually located.

I helped ruin American factories. I’m not proud of it, but I’d do it again.

I think we all have stories like this to tell.

I remember as a kid visiting the printing business my Dad worked at and being shown the big Heidelberg printers that were impressive, but dirty. Then we were lead upstairs to watch the people use the early scanners and computers to modify photos and I thought the future just had arrived and I had to get a taste of it.

Yes, at some point in my work career I also worked at an assembly line, putting car batteries into Mercedes-Benz E-Classes but it was commonly understood that the job to aspire to, to dream of and work for, was a job upstairs, at a desk, behind a screen. A clean job. One that would allow you to live and enjoy life outside your 40 hr workweek.

I’ve learned over time, though, to keep my laptop or phone handy while picking out those movies. Comcast gives a little bit of information about the movies, but nothing from users or professional critics. Since they occasionally push sub par stuff onto their lists, presumably because they’re being paid to promote it, it’s worth it to check it out on IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic.

Totally agree, would love to Netflix to add movie trailers to their Roku interface. Rather than having to start a movie and hope for the best, you could watch the trailer, get a feel for it and then decide if you want to plunge into it.

Here’s Nikki Talotta’s most excellent article in block quotes with my somewhat tongue-in-cheek commentary inserted:

Last year, the Weekly Volcano chose musician and badass Jerry Ziegler as “Best Olympian,” based on his unwavering devotion to Olympia’s epic rock scene – an integral part of our Olympian identity.

All you need is a red guitar, three cords and the truth! (Another U2 reference, you’re welcome!)

This year, the Weekly Volcano chooses Mathias Eichler.

Eichler, too, is a badass. And he, too, has an unwavering devotion to Olympia.

I really want to live up to that “badass” title more. What should I do?

Eichler’s just comes in the form of community development through local business, events and overall downtown livelihood – another integral part of our Olympian identity.

Eichler has worked extensively with the Olympia Downtown Association to create events for the community, such as First Friday, where participating businesses stay open until 8 p.m., A Table for Olympia, essentially a giant community picnic featuring the chance to support local non-profits, and Craft X Northwest, a craft expo downtown and on the Westside.

Work extensively is overstated. We partnered on some events. The ODA sponsored First Friday for the first year and supported other events financially. But we never worked together on creating a combined event. The ODA has a completely different goal with their organization and this community and most recently we don’t see eye to eye at all.

Also, not at all involved with anything happening on the Westside though.

In 2010, Eichler manned nearly 20 events, all of which didn’t exist before his input and ideas took form.

Yeah, that was a crazy year. We had fun…

“You get drunk doing events, it’s so much fun!” says Eichler, who is originally from Germany and speaks with a charming accent.

Was für ein Akzent?

For our interview, Eichler wears bright shoes and a bright smile.

I feel a trademark coming… those shoes are making quite a scene, I love it.

Eichler moved to Seattle 11 years ago and settled in Olympia in 2007. He, his wife Trixy, and pal Brandon Rosage, opened einmaleins, a creative-design studio in downtown Olympia (you know the place, kitty corner from the bus depot, with huge windows and those cool black and white flags).

Trixy and I opened Einmaleins as a kitchen and house ware store. Brandon and I started working on Einmaleins TV in the beginning of 2011. And I do love those black and white flags, thank you!

Besides running events, helping global and local clients with his creative-design business and raising a family, Eichler also writes insightful blogs at everydayolympia.com, and films entertaining and relevant shows with einmaleins co-founder Rosage. The shows are aired on einmaleins TV - Olympia’s Internet Broadcast Network. Eichler currently hosts five shows, including “Don’t Watch This,” a thought-provoking opinion show, “You Make Olympia,” where city council candidates are interviewed, and “Live Life Loud,” a show that takes a tasteful and interesting approach to cultural topics like the fate of the Olympia Brewery world.

Eichler’s high-energy attitude is contagious, and his motto, “Be an inspiration,” is already working its magic on Olympia.

I live for being an inspiration.

“I give him kudos for all that he’s done,” says Dave Platt, owner of The Mailbox and former chair of the Olympia Downtown Association. “We need more people like him.”

Thank you Dave! Where do we find more people like me?

It wasn’t long after moving to town that Eichler realized community involvement was very important to Olympia – not only for businesses downtown, but for enrichment of the consumer experience as well. And so, Eichler started First Friday.

And I realized the huge shortcoming of most events, hello Lakefair? and the ability to step into this huge vacuum and carve out my own niche.

“Like that U2 song, throwing your arms around the world, you have the chance to throw your arms around Olympia and really have an impact,” says Eichler.

Yes, I did manage to get U2 into that interview… I am awesome!!

Eichler says that by promoting downtown Olympia through events like First Friday and Table for Olympia that people will find the community has much more to offer than just shopping. The events, he says, are a chance for people to get to know one another, to network in person and to be more active with neighbors in their daily lives.

It’s called building a neighborhood!

And Eichler’s ideas are working.

I’m glad people feel that way. I am very impatient and would like to be much further along with my ideas. Yes, there are working, but slow as molasses.

“Eichler’s leadership and coordination led us to creating an event that, in its first year, attracted over 300 people – which is quite a feat for a first try,” says Rob Richards, who helped bring Table for Olympia to fruition.

Make that over 700 people… come on Rob, don’t sell me short. It was a truly fantastic event.

“When he has an idea, he puts his head down and grinds it out, and the result is, more often than not, ‘ah-may-zing!” adds Richards.

(Anyone who has seen Eichler in action is familiar with his “ah-may-zing!” catchphrase – usually delivered with a big grin and hands spread wide.)

I love that I am perceived as so positive… do you want to know what I really think about Olympia?

Eichler says his motivation comes from the neighborhood potential that downtown Olympia has. He says it reminds him of some of the neighborhoods in Seattle, like Wallingford or Ballard, but better.

Oh, Ballard, I miss you. There people can actually live in the neighborhood.

“You get that urban feel, but you are still able to drive to a National Park or the beach in fifteen minutes without grueling traffic,” he says.

That’s the unique aspect that I’ve been talking about for many years now and the VCB completely fails to promote. Olympia has more to offer then blurry picture of nonprofit fundraisers.

Maybe it is that captivating combination of city life and the great outdoors that brings wonderful people like Mathias Eichler to Olympia. Maybe it is that combination of Thai restaurants and bike shops and beautiful evergreen trees that make wonderful people like Mathias Eichler want to stay.

Or, maybe, it’s the water.

It’s not the water. Olympia is great, because we are here. Shop owners, community members, entrepreneurs, families and yes, state workers. It’s the people that make a city great. It’s each and everyone that chooses to get up in the morning and choose to make a difference in peoples’ lives. People with vision, people that choose to engage and people that want to inspire. And yes, we need more of us.

I am now purposely choosing to fight against laziness, slothfulness, the cheap trick to do less and complain more.

I’ll be joining Seth!

The center has nothing to do with geography any longer. The center is a state of mind.

Seth Godin nails it again.

The skiers and the snowboarder had been in out-of-bounds areas bordering the resorts. High avalanche warnings had been issued for some areas Sunday.

Sometimes you gotta dream big and chase the dream. Sometimes you gotta dig deep and let small iteration speak to the progress of you work.

Latest episode on ‘Don’t Watch This’, brought to you by The Chifferobe.

Germany NOT restarting nuclear reactors due to cold as widely reported — In fact, now “massively exporting electricity” to help nuclear-powered France this winter -Reuters

… US National Team forward Eddie Johnson, who joined the Sounders in a trade with the Montreal Impact on Friday, adding a veteran of 41 appearances with the Stars and Stripes…

Fantastic high-profile signing from the Sounders.

Sad to see Neagle and Fuchito go, but I’m getting excited for the new season. This will be the year Sounders fans.

Also, welcome to Seattle Eddie!

Trading always sucks, but it’s hard to read the comments under the article I linked to and realize how hard it must be for a player to come to a team in a trade against two beloved players of the fans.

So, welcome to Seattle. Bring your best, like what we expect from every one and we will love you, cheer for you in the rain and sing your name late into the night!!

This the future – it’s here, at your fingertips!

Certainly many brands are guilty of deploying technology strategies without designing a holistic experience.

Either way, we’re going to have a blast and are taking the cameras with us for an epic episode of  ’Go Outside And Play‘.

Our intrepid reporter Trevor Gilbert is hitting the road to find great stories outside the echo chamber.

We checked to see if a contest for German additions to the American vocabulary exists, but U.S. culture appears to be predictably insular in this regard. If only more of us would get over the angst we seem to have about foreign culture from kindergarten on, maybe we could make the many foreign borrowings of English a bigger part of the zeitgeist.

Using no ink whatsoever, these 18″x24″ posters are foil stamped and embossed to create an alphabet composed of letters from many of the more famous (and some infamous) logos of all time.

Now in the Einmaleins Workshop thanks to my amazing Trixy.

But just because I believe that innovation can come from anywhere, there seems to be an expectation from readers that I must believe the inverse: That innovation will necessarily come from everywhere. It won’t.

Great post all around – best one on PandoDaily yet?

Sara’s words are not defensive but an encouragement to get out there and ‘do it’. Be the next Silicon Valley. Don’t talk about it, but dig your heels in and word.

It’s 2018, and an American space mission discovers that there’s a huge colony of Nazis on the dark side of the moon, living in a swastika-shaped castle and bent on invading Earth. The comedy ‘Iron Sky’ has proved a surprise hit at the Berlin Film Festival.

Must watch this!

‘The Small-Mart Revolution’ by Michael H Shuman is the topic. Good listen!

Isn’t there anyone in San Francisco that could tell them how to get their audio sorted out?