Category: Family

Open API’s: Good for Syndication. Bad for Safety?

Posted by Rich Harris – February 18, 2010

Unearthing Another Reality

I’m usually not focused on writing about breaking news but being a regular user of Foursquare and then watching all the press and online noise yesterday about PleaseRobMe.com, I really started to think about open API’s, their possibilities, the good, the bad, and the bigger picture. While I’m not necessarily offended by what the PleaseRobMe.com guys have done (after all, we all have access to that data), it does remind us how a little creativity + ingenuity + behavioral data = influence. Regardless of how truthful or how it’s spun, we can essentially do whatever we want. I think the PleaseRobMe.com dudes used humor to reveal how ridiculous our assumptions are that we can just use all these tools so lackadaisically and believe that nothing bad could come of it.

It’s Just Data, Right?

There is a data collection procedure that they have done with small children when it comes to their exploratory behavior. I saw it on Discovery Channel years ago but I haven’t found a photo, video or article on it online yet. I will link out to it when I find it, or better yet if you know, send it to me and I’ll append it to this blog post and credit you with the find.

Basically, they would put a toddler in a big playroom full of toys. There would be a camera overhead in the center of the room. The child would also have a small concentrated red light affixed comfortably and safely to the child’s back on his/her shirt or overalls. For about an hour or so, as the child ran back and forth doing things, playing with different toys, hitting several different areas of the room every minute, the camera would capture the patterns of the child’s movements over a specified amount of time, drawing it’s movement patterns for the camera. Child psychologists would then analyze this crazy light pattern of movement to better understand attention spans and other developmental characteristics during playtime.

I think apps/sites like Foursquare are collecting the same type of data about adults and probably tech savvy teens too. I have two teenagers that are under my guidance with their data-enabled phones but it’s a little unnerving to think about how much easier it is now for the underbelly of society to learn about them. I’m not much of a conspiracy guy but there are some evil (and intelligent) mofos out there that see this kind of data as the framework for their silver platter of chaos that they can feast on to their heart’s content. API = Open book.

We Are A Giant Research Project

Think about all the sites and online tools that we love. Think about all those sites and online tools that we love and interact with often through multiple means that have open API’s. Think about the amount of data we are giving them about ourselves, friends and family. Just like when an MRI creates a 3D image scan of your noggin by collecting data, these types of sites are doing the same with your behavioral patterns and those you associate with. The funny (or odd) part about all of it is that we are voluntarily (and excitedly in some cases) providing this information to whoever wants access to it for whatever reason. More interesting is the fact that we are connecting apps like Foursquare to our Twitter accounts, which we sometimes connect to our Facebook accounts and other publicly available accounts like Tumblr, Identi.ca, etc.

Foursquare was designed to be a fun way for us to keep track of where are friends are (hopefully only the ones we truly trust), incorporating the fun/reward factor with badges, mayorship, etc. If you are diligent about using the app, it also is giving people an idea of what your daily routines are, good, bad, ugly and indifferent.

This behavioral data collection phenomenon is not just limited to Foursquare either. Think about all the areas now in which people make available data about themselves. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the fairly recent wider opening of LinkedIn’s API channels can you give you all the info you need, a 95% heuristic view of a person’s life, just shy of physically hanging out with them in their own living room. If you are a social/tech guy like me using all these services, people can now know your name, your aliases/monikers used (47project for instance), your work history, your hobbies, your music interests, what you look like, your schedule, social and business affiliations and the convos you have within those circles…..all of this is pretty much excessible through API’s. They can also, after finding all that out about you, wormhole into your friend’s lists and find out all of those exact same details about them if they’ve posted it anywhere online. This is a really gnarly concept. The gnarliest part about it is that we are feeding it by choice. It’s not all bad but there’s awareness and responsibility that comes with the use of all these cool apps and sites.

Mindfulness

If you are like me at all, waiting hungrily on pins and needles for the next new social app phenomenon to grace your news feeds, so you can be the first to slam it onto your Blackberry, iPhone, or Android, plugging in your login creds, getting on yet another grid, remember that the more of these sites and apps you use, and the more info you choose to reveal about yourself publicly online, should be kept proportionately equal to the amount of vigilance and proactive awareness you should have about the possibilities of your data being used and/or misused.

Other Great Articles on The Subject

ZDNet: Please Rob Me: Ethical or not? [poll]

Mashable: Are We All Asking to Be Robbed?

CNET: The dark side of geo: PleaseRobMe.com

Information Week: PleaseRobMe.com Solicits Social Theft

Onward.

Facebook’s Juxtaposition of Reality, Our Responsibility

Posted by Rich Harris – February 15, 2010

The Information Consumption Routine

Every morning I boot up my MacBook Pro, I start some coffee, throw together a quick breakfast, load up Gmail, Facebook, etc. and start observing,  joining, or creating conversations. You never have any idea what you are going to be talking about every day on Facebook, it just happens. The access to these conversations every day is starting a huge cultural shift in personal communication and all of it’s different levels of value and meaning. While there is no replacement for the real deal, we’re learning very quickly how to “read” the correct emotional tone of Facebook statuses, Tweets, IM chat sessions, based on who we are talking to, when we are talking to them, who their other friends are on Facebook, and what your history is with them.

We’ve also started joining groups and fanning pages en masse, not even for the sake of the participating in the group or page itself, but just to have an opportunity to announce publicly in an information stream….to let the world know….(diminuendo to a dramatic pause)….that you’ve just become a fan of “Standing On Your Head While Stacking Golf Balls On Tuesdays After 3pm PST” and you don’t care who knows it!

The Needle

There are a couple things going on now that I think we really need to pay attention to. There are benefits and inherent flaws in the mobilization power contained within an environment like Facebook. The feelings of immediate connectedness can almost distract us from the thought of what it really means to be connected and reciprocal with others around us.

Benefit

Facebook on one hand has made it possible for us to amass quickly with like minded individuals for a passionate purpose. It puts those that have always wanted to make a statement or do something big with their opinion but never had the right medium for it. They were too shy, too localized, or too overwhelmed at where to even begin. All understandable of course. This has opened doors for them and given them a voice that puts them on the map. This is a very positive thing.

Caution

There is another side to this coin however, a price or cost that is being paid. Unintentionally I think we are training ourselves, to some extent, to feel morally validated by joining a group on Facebook called “Cure Cancer” and that’s all. It’s as if somehow we’re giving back by joining the group publicly and opting in to messages/news from the group or fan page. Now I do believe strongly that the dissemination and forwarding of information by supporters is awesome and will never be a bad thing. It’s a tangible contribution and good reason to join a group. Fans of a cause on Facebook can get the word out quick and promote. But we can ALL do that on Facebook, with just the click of a mouse, and then we update our status with how much we love bacon and then play Farmville (FB games are not my gig).

I don’t have the stats but I just wonder what the ratio is of people on Facebook that ‘joined’ a great cause to the amount of people that have actually either volunteered 1 hour of their time or $1 to any charity anywhere within the last month. I very much include myself in the group of people that wasn’t really giving, and did so without really realizing it. I was joining, and still do, online communities with a premise that I support. I share their posts on my wall, I retweet stuff to spread the word. I just started to question myself on how much have I actually tangibly given back or made any real contribution to any of these philanthropic institutions or initiatives. When I looked back at my level of giving back vs. what I took for myself, it wasn’t looking promising. I was out of whack and am still in the process of scoping out a way for me to contribute that allows me to also keep the quality of the other things I’m doing in my career and family life extremely high. Both can easily be done. You just gotta get creative.

Balance

I realized I really need to step it up in the area of real, actual contribution. Even a dollar a month helps, or donating an hour of your time at a teen center, a homeless shelter, an understaffed public school, or an old folks home giving some people your conversation time to brighten up the tail end of their existence as they get ready to move on. Look through one of the big charity fan pages or groups you’ve joined on Facebook and see if there’s something in your local area you can check out and contribute to every couple of weeks for an hour or so.

Reciprocation, Social Responsibility

Not to get all preachy here but the online world is permanently infusing itself with our psyches, our communication, sense of belonging and community, all at the click of a button. We need to be careful to not get complacent with a subconsciously perceived substitution for physical interaction and presence, for actually going somewhere to help a perfect stranger that could really use someone to talk to for an hour, a family that could use a $20 bag of groceries this month, a dollar to Haiti, or donating some old books you’ll never read again to a school or two.

You know me, I love social networking and yammering on about nothing more than most of you probably ever will but I am reminded constantly by my kids how important it is focus on the tangible.

Onward.

DNA: Science, Subversion & The Future

Posted by Rich Harris – February 5, 2010

Opinions & Conversation

Recently I was privy to an interesting conversation on my Facebook page where I had posted an article on CNN: “The government has your baby’s DNA“, written by Elizabeth Cohen. The overall premise of this article is the debate on whether or not it’s safe and ethical to store information about a person’s DNA, or not.

At first glance after reading the article, I wondered to myself what really is the issue “problem” with this concept? So at the risk of sounding clueless, I posted the status/comment, “…not sure what the big deal is here” and I was genuine when I posted it. I’m glad I did as it brought in some really great comments.

If you push conspiracy theories aside, and fundamentalist religious practices that may be opposed to it as well, what is the real harm in retaining that data? Here are a couple posts with varying and opposing views from that conversation on Facebook:

“…so from a law sort of standpoint you could be falsely accused of a crime, your DNA coming close to matching that of the assailant. In this day and age of CSI, Bones, NCIS, etc. people think they know what they need to know about DNA. You’d pretty much be hosed. Even if you were eventually found innocent your life would pretty much be a shadow of it’s former self.”

“Big concerns are the potential for abuse by insurance companies or future employers, as well as general privacy issues with this being easy to obtain. Do you really want someone with a little cash (e.g. aforementioned employers, government, tabloid reporters, political opponents, etc) to be able to find out you have Klinefelter’s syndrome, or a predisposition to schizophrenia?”

“So I fall on the side of making genetic testing manditory for every newborn. There are so many genetic issues (David mentioned Klinefelters as an example) that if treated early can help improve the quality of life of the individual who has it. Too many people find out about this stuff later in life and say “that explains it!”. Anyway, I think once the intial screen and notification is done, the DNA should be “separated” from its owners name and used for whatever (except cloning)”

Is The Extreme Polarization of Approach The Only Option?

I think all the points I quoted above from others are completely valid. I think the bigger question here, in my opinion of course, isn’t should we retain the data or not. The bigger question really is: Can we do it in a way that is ethical so that the benefits of this data analysis are yielded by humanity while the DNA data itself is owned, protected and secured by some sort of diverse council or committee of people to keep things objective when it comes to the release of information. Membership of this council or board can have a set of strict prequisites the aid in the protection of this data and it’s proper use. For example those nominated are not allowed to have a strong affiliation with any religious sect, political ties to special interest groups or parties, etc.

I know to some extent I’m oversimplifying it here and that with every well-intentioned person, there are 10 people with bad intentions unfortunately. The dilemma that I have morally is this I guess….why completely avoid something that can have great benefits for those with a predisposition to diseases, syndromes, conditions and other various health problems, out of fear that it will get into the ‘wrong’ hands? Why not try and figure out a way to have an objective process that is well thought out and governed by a globally represented scientific/healthcare community to manage and protect it for good use? Of course bad people do bad shit but if we shut down every innovative and positive idea intended for the better out of fear (like doing business online), then we might not get anywhere.

Onward.

Out With 2009, In With 2010

Posted by Rich Harris – December 26, 2009

2009 has been a long one for me but it has been probably one of the most fruitful when it comes to my career and personal growth, more so than any year I’ve had in the last decade. I have a great circle of friends and family which I’m very thankful for. Most of all I’m proud of my 3 sons for doing such a phenomenal job in school and in life. Their sense of humor and intelligence knows no bounds and they continue to teach me important lessons about myself, even when I don’t really want to hear it or acknowledge it. They rock and continue to enlighten me.

I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and and I wish peace and prosperity to all of you for 2010. Cheers to the next reset button, chapter, volume, book…..

A Quick Post for Veteran’s Day

Posted by Rich Harris – November 11, 2009

Richard Brent Harris Senior

Sgt Richard Harris, Dai Loc Pass, Vietnam, May 1970

Sgt Richard Harris, 1st Marine Division, Da Nang, Vietnam, April 1,1970

Sgt Richard Harris, 1st Marine Division, Da Nang, Vietnam, April 1,1970

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all of our veterans and brave service men and women out there today who continue to lay their lives on the line every single day so that we can all have the lives and opportunties that we have here in America. We may not always agree with what wars we are involved in and why but the more important fact here is that our military personel do their jobs with not many complaints. They are the pinnacle of selflessness and sacrifice for America and we should continue to show unconditional support for them and their families.

I’ve have a couple photos to post here of my father, Richard Brent Harris Sr. from his days back in Vietnam. He’s still alive today and I’m proud. Happy Veteran’s Day pops. Everyone that knows you is very proud of your service to our country as well as the the sacrifices your brothers in the Marines made during that time.

Social Media: Living In Cultural Lethargy

Posted by Rich Harris – October 31, 2009

Forgive the Easy Rider Fonda era tone/vibe to this post. I typed the initial bulk of this post at 3AM on my BlackBerry, Halloween morning.

It seems funny to me that Social Media is considered this new thing to everyone. It actually seems kinda sad. A natural behavior that sites like Twitter and Facebook just happen to catalyze, has a *special new name, if not only for the reason that apparently we repressed a natural aspect of who we really are. Since we are not repressing it anymore, something that was always there inside us is now considered some new way of thinking, the brilliant new marketing method and approach that everyone is hyping and talking about. Why do we find it so surprising and fresh human beings actually want to engage other human beings directly in business? Are we using the fact that there was no Twitter or Facebook or MySpace before as an excuse to not directly engage customers? Are we somehow ready to come out of our little anti-social hovels and holes and cubicles that we essentially put ourselves in as a standard for the last bunch of decades?

It’s funny to me that we have ads and TV commercials whose attempt to yield a return were created with a “personal touch” by our usually overpaid agencies of record to be successful…yet they were all one way communications, directly engaging no one. It’s like a mother trying to nurture her new baby and raising her child through a glass window. The child never gets to actually be touched but the mother is there talking him/her through life without ever truly bonding or connecting with it. This is how marketing has always been so we never questioned the morbidity of it as a standard. We needed the internet, a bunch of computers (in essence a robot network), to teach us that what we needed all along was inside us already but that we were too caught up in corporate insecurity to realize the natural importance of engaging other humans directly as a standard in business.

Social Media to me, I’m starting to discover, does not currently exist as this great new idea. It is just filling a gap in business of sociological depravity that we have created for ourselves emotionally in our culture. Think about the family-owned bakery in a small village in Greece somewhere, 10 generations deep. All they know is consistent sales, happy loyal customers, and real relationships with those customers. Take a look at all the cultures that don’t have big business but still consistently make money because of a human touch that they just executed on naturally. Social marketers could learn a thing or two from these people. Yet, here in big business, while billions of dollars have been made, billions have also been lost because we struggled to have that winning marketing campaign in Q1 of nineteen eighty whatever when the culture-created consumer zombies stared at the TV, watched our commercials that didn’t quite stimulate them enough to get that false sense of “I need this to truly be alive inside” that we were hoping.

Are we finally ready to stop being in denial that being social is necessary for the survival of business? Did we just need the information age and networked computers and the chat rooms AOL introduced us to in the 90’s as an excuse break down walls so that we could learn this new fascinating discovery about being alive called “talking directly with other people?”

Don’t get me wrong, I love social marketing but Social Media and it’s current success as “the new thing” is kind of a big slap in the face reminder that we’ve kind of lost ourselves, as a standard. Maybe it won’t just help our companies. Maybe it will have cultural healing properties and help us exploit human qualities that currently STILL work to bond indigenous tribes in remote parts of the world with their families and communities.

Social Media is about the basics.

Pseudo hippie rant done.

Onward.

Social Media: The Kids Are Alright (but make sure you talk to them)

Posted by Rich Harris – August 14, 2009

It Started With My Skate Shop

st05-boy-computer-240-g-skd227302sdcA few years ago, around 2005, MySpace was at one of it’s most optimally active times with teenagers. I had opened up a local skateboard shop and teens were in there hanging out all day, checking their MySpace pages, talking about MySpace, etc…I had actually avoided MySpace for a year or so after that and even then now I don’t use it that much. One thing I did get exposure to since I wasn’t their parents and had the street cred as a funny tattooed skate shop owner guy that listened to all their problems (and let them complain about the world), was an unfiltered view into what these kids were really thinking about and doing on MySpace. I unfortunately also got a glimpse into how much their parents didn’t know about it, and more sadly, how much their parents didn’t communicate with them about what they were doing on there. They weren’t engaging them about something that was consuming 60% of their teenager’s week socially. As I started my own foray into Social Media for business and personal reasons, I realized that there’s this whole other social element that will be a defacto standard in less than a couple years for all teenagers and kids – having a ‘profile’ somewhere…anywhere..that is accessible to their friends and family, but also accessible to some of the wackos that roam the earth. At the time I owned the shop, my kids weren’t old enough to get started on MySpace so I kind of steered them away from Social sites as long as I could so I could spend more time on the sites to figure out the risks as well as the benefits (there are lots of cool reasons to be on these sites for adults and kids).

NOTE TO PARENTS: Just because you don’t understand or know about something does NOT make it bad for your child. If you see that it’s popular and it’s a trend, get involved as soon as possible. Our culture STILL supports too much reactive parenting in my opinion and that is what drives a huge wedge in between us and our teens….but that’s another blog post. :-)

The Bad

We already know about online predators. We know about hackers stealing personal information from websites and your home computer. With social media it’s more complex and nebulous because predators and assholes in general know how to create multiple accounts and very subtly get connected with people that don’t know them. They’re smart, bored and insane to an extent. Social sites have continued to put some controls in place for administering your accounts but it will always be a battle that we need to be proactive about. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are no exception and STILL have major issues with predators, spammers, stalkers and hackers setting up multiple impostor accounts, using some racy female profile photo so that they can request to add your teenage son as a friend…and out of hormones and curiosity, your teen might accept it…unless you get engaged and educate them on the etiquette and red flags….which I’m getting to……

The Excellent

Whether you like it or not. These current generations are being raised in the information age and setting up an account on Facebook/MySpace is one of the first things they’re gonna want to do to look cool and will probably be pressured to do in jr. high and beyond. Social sites are a great thing for kids. They’re a creative expressive place for them to stay in touch with their friends all over the world and with relatives that don’t live close by. More importantly, for us parents, is that if we embrace it, we can be ‘friends’ with them online, stay out of their business, but still be able monitor/observe their interactions with their friends, see who else they are friends with, etc.

Just remember that your pre-teens/teens need their space and time to have their own social lives without mom and dad interfering all the time, getting all up in their biz. Another cool thing is that I’ve added my son’s friend’s parents to my list and we can all kind of keep tabs together forming a big protective space for our kids to all be teenagers and do what they do.

In a nutshell, if you aren’t privy to social media/sites, your kids probably already are and if they are not legal adults yet, get involved and talk to them about it. Embrace it and get informed and watch what is going on. They (and you) will benefit from it later. Just don’t micromanage them and post crap on their Facebook wall all the time. They need their own space. :-)

The Rules

Set up some basic rules for them online about what’s appropriate online and what isn’t. Because teens typically don’t realize the entire world is watching them while they’re online B.S.’ing with their friends, we need to remind them to avoid and/or be careful about publicly joking about topics like sex, religion, race, sexual preference, murder, suicide, etc.

In your mind you might be like, “What??? My children don’t do that! They’re only in Junior High!” I’m telling you all right now that public or private school, healthy or unhealthy home life, they hear about it, sometimes participate in those discussions, and are surrounded by those conversations and that kind of humor every day at school.

Denial is a parents’ worst enemy….and denying THAT is even worse.

At the End of the Day

Your kids don’t run the show online. You do…but you can do it while letting them enjoy the information and all the social stuff that comes with it.

I’m sure my teens are cringing, reading this now and rolling their eyes. :-) I’m almost positive I’ll get crap for it later.

Here’s a good link (there’s tons’ more just Google stuff) for Teens and High Tech:

Keeping Teens Safe Online

/Onward

Facebook Is A Chemical

Posted by Rich Harris – June 12, 2009

FacebookWhat has always existed…

Human beings have always wanted to connect. It is the nature of who we are. You may have seen some of those documentaries where babies were not given the proper physical/emotional connection with their mothers. They end up rocking uncontrollably in the corners, cerebral synapses needed to function correctly just couldn’t connect, and it can’t be undone in most cases at that level.

Then as children, kids automatically start trivial little clubs with their friends….the desire to connect with others and identify with others. Whether it’s a negative environment (teenage gangs, etc.) or a positive one (communities coming together to help those less fortunate than themselves). We can’t help it. We convene, we group together, we reach out. When we don’t connect with other human beings at least on some level, I don’t care how ’solo’ you THINK you are (for those self-proclaimed loners out there reveling in themselves), we as individuals head down a destructive path…from mild depression to suicide or other violent behavior if we don’t connect with other people somehow. This one of the few common elements in every single human being.

I know at this point you are probably wondering if I’ve fallen off the deep end and “where the hell is he going with this?”

I’m a kooky bastard but I’m getting to that I promise.

Facebook On It’s Own

I use Facebook A LOT, more than your average dude for sure. All my ‘friends’ know it. I’m sure about 80% of the people who are my friends probably thirst for a way to effectively filter Rich Harris. I’m ok with that. :-) I do stuff on Facebook for a living so I’m on it all day, making it easy for me to be active for long periods of time. When I created my Facebook account awhile ago, I first started reconnecting with current co-workers, then co-workers from my previous job, then with as many co-workers as I could remember in my entire career.

Slowly I started finding people from high school, then junior high school, then elementary school, and of course my own immediate and distant family members.

Now, whenever I attend an event for business, almost every new business contact I make is on Facebook. I then find and connect with them.

Facebook is Way Bigger Than Facebook Whether They Realize It Or Not – Keeping Humanity Up-To-Date In Realtime

I realize that MySpace is one of the originals in this social frat party phase of the web but I’m going to use Facebook here since it’s more sophisticated, refined, and people are starting to at least subconsciously feel how it has unlocked something amazing that was hindered before, and rumors about that peeople are starting to bail on MySpace.

The lack of technology: essentially the great wall that existed due to limitations in communication methods, coupled with the shear size of this planet, and lastly, the randomness that holds true when it comes to where each individual ends up geographically while living their lives as adults.

While I do credit the overall Information Age with opening up doors to people/places/products in other parts of the world that we never got to see before, Facebook has started gluing humanity together. It has proved synergistic in catalyzing something that has always been in our genetic makeup since humans first walked the earth: Connecting with other humans.

PeopleIt blows my mind that I now have friends all over the world, to varying degrees of closeness, that I now always know what is going on with them, with their kids, their careers, their health, their hobbies…with pictures and video. If there is someone that I knew that was associated with that person, regardless of where THAT person maybe, I actually have a decent shot at reconnecting with them. This is really cool for an obsessively social bastard like myself and maybe scary to those who are much more private.

While I don’t feel obligated to communicate with some of the almost 1000 people I’m connected to on Facebook/MySpace via email or private/public messages more than once a month, if even at all, the fact that I can “like” something they posted or quickly comment and nothing more, puts me in touch with everyone worldwide on some basic level at almost any given moment without really invading their privacy. They’ve kind of ‘opted in’ by posting it. I now get such an amazing 360 view of the world, where everyone’s paths have gone and continue to take them and their families…and they are sharing it, almost constantly. I’ve even noticed that friends of mine who are  much more introverted in-person, have no problem throwing it out there on Facebook for everyone to see and comment.

One dynamic that is hilarious to me is that I have pockets and clusters of friends, with varying degress of spirituality, believing in different religions or none at all, different types of humor at various levels, progress in their career, different types of careers, developing chapters in their lives, etc. No matter what I say or post, how liberal or conservative, how right brain or left brain, how logical or abstract, how sensitive or harsh, various clusters of people are drawn in to comment or participate who have commonality with each other and with what it is I had just posted…..affirmation that we are all very different but we all have something to say.

Human beings could never interact like this before. It used to be that after high school, you graduated (hopefully) :-) and then people went to work or to college and just kinda got lost out there in the world. It used to be a freak of nature moment to re-connect with a childhood friend that had gone away from the town where ya’ll grew up to go to college or to travel on some exchange-student program. Now it’s almost expected that we get to stay in contact with these people the rest of their lives instantaneously.

My 3 sons will never know what it’s like to not be able to find someone as all their friends are being raised to use Facebook/MySpace. I think it’s gonna be one cool way to keep their minds open to new ideas and paths that they can take in life. Life is about choices and the nature of Facebook helps remind us that you can do whatever you want in life at any time.

SoCal Trip/Family Reunion Photos

Posted by Rich Harris – February 18, 2009

So I just got back with my 3 sons from a family reunion trip down in Orange County, CA. I had an amazing time. My sons were angels the whole time and we had a blast. It was really touching to see them meet some of their cousins and other family members for the first time. I wish they could hang out with them more often. My oldest was pretty bummed we were leaving and it made me all emotional since that’s where my roots are. Anyway…I’ll now get out of the waaaambulance. Below are some of the more artsy photos of the set I shot at our reunion and just generally on the trip. I hope you dig ‘em as much as I do….I love candid, that’s how I roll.

Full photo set on Flickr

A Sample Of My Evening Routine

Posted by Rich Harris – February 6, 2009

My 6 year old and I have a nightly routine before bed of making a couple ridiculous videos. This is the 80,000th one we’ve made this month. This routine goes on for about 30mins every night. Liam is currently the head of the household. I just live here and pay the bills. He’s a goofball.

My Brother Tom…

Posted by Rich Harris – February 4, 2009

He lives in Minnesota with his wife Jenny. She sent me this photo of him to my phone and I couldn’t resist posting it here. He’s the only guy whose sense of humor has a depth that matches mine! Look how sexy he is in this photo. Sorry ladies, I know he’s one hot bastard, especially in this get up….but he’s taken. I however am single and just as ridiculous as he is.

tom

Music, Great Weather, Family Reunion

Posted by Rich Harris – February 4, 2009

The weather in Santa Cruz has been phenominal lately. I’m a little scared cause I’m convinced a drought will happen for our county this summer and we’re gonna have to do some wacky hippy water rationing thing where we all shower in the mountains with buckets of water and live in some commune but it’s all good. I’m thankful for so many things right now…my children, my home, close friends, art and music. Life is uneasy at times but it’s a blessing to be able to even walk to earth for the most part.

I’m heading down to Southern California with my 3 sons to attend a family reunion. I can’t wait to hang out with my brother again. We’re getting closer as we get older and I’m really enjoying his company. His wife is amazing and was like a sister to me the day we met. My mom is a total champ and has been overly accomodating with providing us a place to sleep etc. Should be awesome. I’ll be taking a ton of pictures when I’m down there so stay tuned for that onslaught. :0)

I’ve been working on a bunch of music lately. I started a new accoustic project with a friend of mine and it’s going really great. I’ve been inspired to write a lot of tunes lately and can’t wait to hit the local coffee shop circuit to test out the songs and see what the response is. I’m also in a new rock band called Zed that I’m playing drums for. Our sound is along the lines of Clutch/Zeppelin with a heavier twist. I’m in it with my bros Pete and Mark from my previous and better known in San Jose, CA project Stitch, as well as a new close friend Greg Lopez. Our sound is gonna be fun to try out in the local clubs and I can’t wait. I shot some photos of the inside of our band rehearsal space yesterday. Posted some below. Enjoy….

The Midwest, A Wedding, Moving…

Posted by Rich Harris – September 29, 2008

Well in the midst of a lot of personal crap I’m going through, a lot of my creativity has been hampered to hiatus status as I close a big chapter in my life and open up a new one. I had an opportunity to travel east to see my brother get married and it was a really awesome mind-clearing break for me. Those mid-westerners can drink their weight in Jim Beam, which they dragged me along to do as well, but I had such a great time getting out of my grind for a little bit. I took all the core photos at their wedding and got some good shots. The lighting at the venue sucked but I was able to mess with the photos a little bit to get some cool, interesting more lifestyle shots. I can’t wait to go back out there when there’s no wedding or schedule so I can get some more photos of the Hudson, WI and St. Paul, MN areas. Below are a few of the ones I took:

Full photo set on Flickr

Tennis Ball Fight

Posted by Rich Harris – September 3, 2008

Me and the boys, hucking tennis balls.

Camping Trip at Butano State Park, CA

Posted by Rich Harris – August 12, 2008

I just got back from taking my 3 sons on a camping trip in the bay area. We had a great time, ate a bunch of crappy snack food and s’mores, and didn’t sleep much. Lots of hiking and exploring the Pescadero area. It was a blast and we can’t wait to go again. Here’s some photos from the trip:

View the full photo set on Flickr