Ed Reilly

Peoplescape

I heard about an interesting social exercise on NPR's "The Story." It's called "Peoplescape" that involved making a meaningful connection (in person) with someone new for 365 days. There's an increasing amount of publicized experiments in "offline" human connectedness not to mention the mix between "on-line" encounters leading to face-to-face interaction. Also, projects like Bookcrossing and others invole real world experience without direct human contact. Not sure what it all means, but it's very fascinating to me.

Recent studies have found Americans have 1/3 fewer friends than 20 years ago, and a quarter of the U.S. population reportedly does not have a single close friend. These are puzzling figures given that we are in the midst of the social media revolution. In fact, today a record number of people are airing their most intimate thoughts and emotions through blogs and social networking profiles, and an equal number of people log in everyday to read them. But are we really connecting with each other?

From June 2007 to June 2008, Maria made it her mission to have a significant social exchange with someone new each and every day, a task that took anywhere from 20 minutes to 12 hours. She documented each interaction with a photo and a narrative based on the circumstances of the meeting and the connection that occurred. Persevering day in and day out, armed with a camera and a notepad, 

Objectified

I recently saw Objectified by director Gary Hustwit at the Walker Museum in Minneapolis. Gary's fame stems from his work on the documentary Helvetica.

I had high hopes for Objectified. I had even considered flying down to Chicago to see the premier.

Honestly, I was disappointed. The documentary is a decent introduction to product design for those that have no idea what product design is. Unfortunately, much of the crowd, like myself, are design geeks. I found Objectified neither original or thought provoking. To a larger, unfamiliar audience, I believe it could have success, but I'm curious why take it on the road to those who will be most familiar with the issues it addresses.

My last Letter to Dad

Lyddle End 2050

Russell Davies has done it again with another interesting project. It began with a simple post here about speculative modeling and evolved into a wonderful worldwide contribution of alternative futures found here.

My contribution is here:
http://prezi.com/11379

It's bad when you have to explain things. It means you didn't do a good job, but my inspiration came from the book, The Pentagon's New Map, and Lyddle End's War Memorial...

Many thanks to Russell for all the fun.

Think Really Small

I've been collecting examples of miniatures use in culture from advertising to art. I believe there's a way to capture this cultural fascination in the creation of personas. Borrowing from current cultural cues is a long standing practice of advertising agencies.

Please check out http://www.thinkreallysmall.com. My favorite example is from CISCO where they made action figure personas for their staff to collect.

Thanks Ben and Russell

I had a wonderful delivery from England Friday. "Things our friends have written on the internet in 2008", a collection of posts layed out as a newspaper by Ben and Russell. Fantastic and brilliant!

Never too late for a few predictions

Ed Cotton over at Influx Insights asked his readers for some predictions for 2009. I contributed, and his was kind of enough to include my ramblings.

Find others' predictions here.

Eulogy of John James Reilly by Edward Reilly

I want to thank Reverend Neil and Petrie Memorial for their kindness during this time. I want to thank my family and friends who are here who traveled from afar. Coming to Elkton is a bit like coming home. Petrie was Dad's nice-cow church. It's an honor to stand here in this pulpit, the same pulpit my dad spoke from for eight years.

How does one begin to encapsulate such a rich life? He was a good father, caring Son and Husband, Brother, and Pastor to many. Some of you may not know that he was also at one time a volunteer fire figther. In addition, he enjoyed playing chess with death row inmates in Eddyville. Some of you may remember that he worked to improve race relations in this community. He loved traveling to the Holy Land and Ireland.

I want to leave you with three thoughts about my Dad. His buckets of Love, his Grace to endure, and how crowded he believed heaven will be.

Within the last year, my Dad read a book of poems called "Bucolics" by Maurice Manning. I'd like to read you one passage. The poem was written through the voice of a southern farmer who refers to God as Boss.

The two of us
We're cut from the same cloth Boss
Though I am just a thread compared to you
O you cam do it all
You raise the wool up on the sheep
You put cotten in the patch
I'm just a string on the spindle Boss
That's all I'll ever be
When I see water running from a rock
I think you must be down there in the ground
You're a workhorse Boss like me
You work the pump
I work the bucket
Fair enough
We're tough as leather Boss
Tough as nails
We go together don't we
The way nip goes with tuck
We grin we bear it Boss
O does that ever cross your mind

God works the pump, and oh how dad worked the bucket sharing God's love with all of us.

Another thing Dad taught me was how to endure with Grace. He had 15 heart caths, and several surgeries on top of that. I've seen him going into surgery singing Irish drinking songs including, "They're moving father's grave to build a sewer." It's not that he had a high tolerance for pain. I believe it was his strong faith that helped him never feel sorry for himself. One of the last times were were in a restaurant, I offered him a seat at a table, and here's my dad on disability and he says, "I can't sit there. That's for handicapped people." He never gave up.

Finally, my Dad liked to say "There's going to be a lot more people in heaven than some people think." And Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place fo you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

I believe Dad has gone ahead, and one day will lead us home.

Amen.

This past holiday season

On December 21st, my Dad passed away. Grieving seems to be a strange beast. You can find my eulogy for John James Reilly here.

The Daily Zoo

The Daily Zoo is the work of Chris Ayers. Chris is a character artist in Hollywood, and nearly three years ago was diagnosed with Leukemia. During his illness and recovery, he sketched a character each day. The Daily Zoo is a hilarious and heart warming collection of his characters from the first year. I highly recommend it, and I'm looking forward to volume II of his work.