PoopTag = Social Defecation

(It's not as gross as it sounds!)

Everybody poops. Every U.S. president. Every Jonas Brother. Every Olympic athlete. Even Michael Phelps. Actually, at 12,000 calories a day, he poops a LOT!

And so while you're pooping, have you ever wondered who else is pooping at exactly the same time? Really? Me, too!

So with the help of some friends, I created PoopTag, a sort of game that strives to be both encouraging and enlightening. It's easy to play: you simply notify PoopTag whenever you poop. You do this by sending a direct message to the pooptag account on Twitter using your mobile device. PoopTag will then determine whether anyone else is pooping at that time. If they are, you will have successfully "tagged" them, and PoopTag will notify its followers of this happy event.

And in response to your direct message, whether you successfully tag anyone or not, you will receive a random pithy reply. That's the "encouraging and enlightening" part.

There are two modes of play: public and covert. You decide which way to play each time you poop.

• Public (send more than one character):

  d pooptag This text will be broadcast to all PoopTaggers



• Covert (send any single character):

  d pooptag !

Obviously, the public notification makes it easy for someone to tag you, though they must be pooping in order to do so.

Eventually, we'll publish statistics at pooptag.com, enabling services like Poop Cycle Compatibility Matching, prospective home-buyer bathroom sizing tools, and life-saving medical history to present to your doctor, among other things.

Come join the fun!

UPDATE 9/20/08: Changed covert pooping method from an empty message to one containing only punctuation due to Twitter no longer delivering blank direct messages.
UPDATE 10/13/08: Covert pooping now triggered by a message containing only a single character (letter, number, punctuation, whatever)

Create

I'm big on creativity. You know, building stuff. Putting things where nothing was before. I think it's both the secret to happiness and the meaning of life. I think it's what humans are SUPPOSED TO DO.

Create. Re-create. Recreation. Play, especially at work.

I follow why the lucky stiff on Twitter. His tweets are usually funny and clever. And once in a while, he'll write something like this:

when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.

Very cool.

Making Gardening Cool

As if we didn't have enough, here's yet another reason ya gotta love Bob!

Trying to Save the Crum & Forster

My grandfather, Lewis "Buck" Crook, was a prominent architect. He and his partner, Ernest "Ed" Ivey, comprised the firm of Ivey & Crook, responsible for almost 600 commissions over the course of 43 years, most of which were built in and around the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

One of them, the Crum & Forster building, a midtown landmark at 771 Spring Street since 1927, is in imminent danger of being torn down. Ironically, the demolition is being proposed by Georgia Tech, who purchased the property in December of 2007, apparently with the intent to demolish it and expand the development of their Technology Square.

Georgia Tech is the alma mater of both my grandfather and his partner, Ed Ivey, who helped found the school of architecture there one hundred years ago this year. Through their works, they made a substantial contribution to the esteemed academic reputation Georgia Tech enjoys today.

Rather than destroy it, Georgia Tech has an opportunity to celebrate the work of Ivey & Crook, just as world-renowned architect John Portman, another Tech graduate, did when he expanded Emory University's student center in the 1980's. Ivey & Crook designed and built the original dining hall at Emory. Portman could've torn it down, but instead he chose to incorporate it into his own vision for the Dobbs University Center.

Georgia Tech has every reason to do the same for Technology Square!

An online petition to save the Crum & Forster has been created. Please add your name.

The building has an official blog. More pictures and info can be found here, here, and here.

Bizzlr

Our first press release!