I’m Crowdsourcing My Next Car Purchase Decision

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Justin Scott

All my car people, I need your advice! I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that I’m moving to San Diego. When I move there I’ll need a car. No more public transit or riding my bike to work for me unfortunately.

My original plan was to do a two year lease on a car. That seemed like a good idea until we broke down the mileage. 12,000 miles a year just wouldn’t cut it for me I fear. The overage charges for a lease are pretty high and the amount of money spent over the two years is closing in on the cost of a decent used car.

So that leaves me with buying a car. Deal is I might only be in San Diego for six months so buying a car to own for years and years might not be practical but at the same time I don’t want to suffer through six months of a clunker right?

Here is where your advice comes in. I’ll list a few needs and maybe you can give me some ideas of what car to get, should I go used or new and maybe even where to buy it in San Diego? Continue reading →

Au Revoir San Francisco, I’m Moving to San Diego

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Justin Scott

So right now I’m vacationing with my family in the Florida Keys. The following week I fly to New York City to go to WeWork Summer Camp and visit Keith and the Girl. I then fly directly to Texas for work meetings and get this, on August 31 I move to San Diego.

That’s right. I’m giving up the cold blanket of fog for the warm sunshine of America’s Finest City. Starting September 1, all things going as planned, I’ll be moved into my new home and starting work a couple of days later.

If you feel taken aback by this news rest assured you’re not alone. Three weeks ago I’d never have even thought twice about moving to San Diego. I’d never even been to San Diego! Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an incredible job opportunity opened up. I jokingly responded something like, “Oh if only I lived in San Diego!” and then boom, two weeks later I’m in San Diego on interview six or eleven (depending on how we’re counting). Continue reading →

Death and Taxes 2014: US Federal Budget Infographic

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Justin Scott

I received an email today from the good folks over at Visual.ly. One of the charts they sent, really an infographic, is one depicting the United States Federal Budget as proposed by President Obama. There has been a good bit of controversy on the 2014 budget. Not just because of the content of the budget but because of how late it was.

Obama presented his first budget on May 11, 2009, a month and two days longer than President George W. Bush’s budget was released during his first year in office. However, every year after that his budget was delivered in February, just like George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. This year, on the other hand, Obama was two months late. Not the end of the world but this was the latest submission by an incumbent president as far as I could go back, 1923. Continue reading →

I’m 28 and Going to Summer Camp

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Justin Scott

I swear this isn’t a call for help. I’m not trying to relive my childhood. I’m actually going to the WeWork Summer Camp at the Raquette Lake Camp located in the center of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it?

I’ve never been anywhere near the Adirondack Mountains but the images that popped up on Google and Flickr look amazing! I’m as excited about getting to camp as I am getting a change to take pictures of the 6.1 million acres of stunning scenery!

I’m even tempted to rent some video equipment but I’ll just have to deal with whatever I can get from my iPhone 4S. At this point you’d think I’d either have the Nikon D800 or some other camera capable of recording HD video. I need to start seriously raising money for a new camera huh?

I’ll be flying into New York City August 14th and heading to Camp the next morning. I cannot wait to experience this amazing event with hundreds of other WeWorkers. An extended weekend in the mountains of New York with hundreds of strangers is something I could really use right now.

I haven’t put myself into an adventure like this in long time; going somewhere I’ve never been, and basically with total strangers. In fact the only people I’ll know are a handful of WeWork employees and I’m pretty sure they’ll be busy making this all go smoothly. Continue reading →

Nokia is at it Again Misleading Consumers

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Justin Scott

Remember last year when Nokia released the Lumia 920 and they just wouldn’t shut up about the new PureView camera? They even put out a video to show off how good it was at optical image stabilization and wow, was it good!

Oh yeah, it was also faked. If you look closely at 27 seconds in, not only is this video being shot from a box van driving next to the girl, shot by someone else from a bicycle, as it implies, it is also being shot with a full DSLR video rig. Turns out the Nokia Lumia 920 video was actually shot with a DSLR, not with the PureView camera with optical image stabilization (OIS). Continue reading →

Rethinking the Ike’s Place iPhone Application

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Justin Scott

If you were to ask ten San Franciscans for the best sandwich shop in town I wouldn’t be surprised if they all exclaimed Ike’s Place as the best sandwiches. Ike’s menu is absolutely astoundingly huge with eighty listed sandwiches and many more secret sandwiches that only the cool kids know about.

Ike_s_Place-3

I’m a bit spoiled to be honest as I live just one block away from an Ike’s. I found myself tempted to eat one of their gargantuan sandwiches just about everyday back when I worked from home. Thankfully I had the willpower to know better. Their sandwiches range in price from $10 all the way up to $20 (though the average price is $10.60) and they’re famously large with The Kryptonite sandwich clocking in at 5,700 calories!

Those same San Franciscans that would have suggested Ike’s Place would also add the caveat “But be ready to wait in a long line or order ahead.” Ike’s Place is so popular that they’ve been kicked out of their shops at least twice (?) since I moved to San Francisco. Neighbors pushed them out due to the extremely high traffic. Ordering ahead of time is absolutely essential with some wait times exceeding an hour!

Thankfully Ike’s Place has an iPhone app for ordering ahead of time (no online ordering through their website which bewilders me). It’s made by mCommerce Innovations Group and it’s pretty horrible. Look Ike Shehadeh, I LOVE your sandwiches. I just want the best for you guys which is why I wrote up this post. It’s full of criticisms, corrections and the like but it’s also full of solutions and love.

Disclaimer: I’m not a real designer, I’m not a UX/UI expert for some big dev company, I’m not a real programmer or a guru at any of this stuff. This just what a casual user, who has a touch of OCD, observed when trying to order a sandwich from his favorite sandwich shop.

Continue reading →

Learn How to Make a Perfect Negroni

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Justin Scott

A lot of you know that I’m obsessed with wine. A handful of you know that my love of wine extends into my love of craft beers. A tiny number of you know of my love for old world cocktails. Recently I discovered a cocktail called a “Negroni” and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

How to Make a Negroni

Not just with this cocktail but with cocktails in general. I’m thinking about starting a YouTube channel where I teach people how to make amazing, old world cocktails and complete each one in under 60 seconds. There isn’t really anyone on YouTube doing something like this. There really aren’t any people doing reliably decent and regular cocktail videos which boggles my mind.

I decided to give this a go and make a pilot video. This was built from start to finish in Adobe Photoshop CS6. That’s a first for me, never thought about doing a video in Photoshop but since this was an experiment and since I only shot photos I figured why not? Any who, here goes!

The Perfect Negroni

1.5 ounces Carpano Antica vermouth
1.5 ounces Tanqueray gin
1.5 ounces Campari
1 orange

Fill an Old Fashioned glass with cracked ice. Pour on top of it each of the liquors. Zest an orange over the glass. Express the orange peel (inverted pinch to release the orange oils across the glass) and drop into the glass. Do a gentle stir and enjoy!