Swerdloff Dot Com

I spent the morning in the Beth Israel emergency room. From 4am until just now.

I woke up clutching my chest in the most excruciating pain I’ve felt in, possibly, ever.

I’m pretty sure that a friend from high school just died of a heart attack.

My very first girlfriend died of a heart attack years ago.

It didn’t go away when I moved around, didn’t go away when I drank water, didn’t go away when I relaxed and did deep breathing exercises, just didn’t go away. There was no way I was having a heart attack – I mean, that’s for other people.

I quickly did the basic math:

If I call 911 and am wrong and it’s nothing, I waste time and money and live and get treated for whatever it is;

If I don’t call 911 and am wrong about it being nothing and don’t get treated, I waste time with angina or worse and I die sooner than later; or

If I don’t call 911 and am right that it’s just indigestion, then I am just a worrier and should chill out.

The problem stems from the tension between 1 and 2. I like to call this problem Schrödinger’s Heart Attack.

In what I can only describe as a Swerdloff-style moment, I drew a Game Theory box in my head, deciding on the most rational outcome. With Death weighted pretty heavily and potentially avoidable, and the cost of calling much lower than the cost of death, I decided not to screw around and with shaky fingers, dialed 911.

I spent the next 10 hours getting poked, prodded, and otherwise examined. I am going to live, although the hard living has to be dialed back. Doesn’t mean I can’t have fun anymore, just that I have to be more mindful of my life. And, lest anyone worry, my heart is fine, it was other (eminently treatable) issues.

One interesting side note – in an effort to get more extensive HIV testing done in New York, Beth Israel was giving away free, confidential mouth swabs. I got one done, figuring that I was just sitting there anyway. I was actually very impressed that they were doing it there – bring the mountain to the people, as it were. My test came back negative and then they sent me on my way. So, two pieces of good health news, despite one very scary morning.

I don’t remember how I ended up at my first ITP Winter Show, I just remember showing up and being awed. Was it the one with Botanicalls? I can’t recall, I just remember that it was one of the biggest reasons that I applied, and eventually went to, the program.

I mean, it’s not every day you walk in and see a room full of technology enthusiasts showing off their most creative, loud, moving, blinking, wonderful and lunatic works.

I had two projects in shows, and wish I’d had more. Ramona Pringle, Yaminie Patodia, Josh Shabtai and I had an Alternate Reality Game, Social life, which was a wide ranging game covering Facebook, hacked email accounts, live parties, and more in the Spring show in 2008.

I had, of course, the Floor Four Ventures project in the Spring Show of 2009. We had flags up on student projects for students who wanted their projects to gain trajectory beyond the show.

I’m going to be there on Sunday, probably from 2pm-6pm, and afterwards, some ITP alumni are going to dinner. You should find me, we can all go.

After the jump, the advertisement for the show.

ITP Winter Show Dec 20 2-6pm & 215-9pm – 721 Broadway, 4th floor. You should go!

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been on and off with this site since 1999. Some of my older blogging friends – MJ, Ernie, etc – assayed blogging into something real and interesting. Personally, I gave this site up in 2004, tried to bring it back when I went to ITP, failed, and wonder if, just if, it’s one of the missing pieces in my life right now.

I used to enjoy going out, writing about it, taking photos, posting them, etc.

Now, with Facebook/Flickr/Twitter/Foursquare/Christknowswhatsnext, blogging seems sort of… quaint.

On the other hand, coming back to write here again feels like hand writing a letter in the age of typewriting. More thoughtful, a return to a simpler time, and more valuable therefore.

I am going to be going out a lot in the coming weeks. I’m going to try blogging again. Just to see where it gets me.

I’m sure no one is still reading, but if you are, if you’re coming in through the ITP Blog Blender, or my Friend Feed or somewhere else, welcome. Say hi? I always write better with an audience.

A test of the Wordpress iPhone plugin, in case I ever decide to do anything with this space again.

Talk Like a Pirate ][, originally uploaded by swerdloff.

Talk Like A Pirate Day was today, I realized as I was walking through the West Village and saw this…

• justindonato.com
  (tags: itp)

Evidence of superheroes – recent discovery. Worth reading.

This snapshot was taken just weeks ago by an eyewitness taking the ferry to Staten Island. The object appears to be rather slender and notably smaller than a plane. There are theories circulating about it being a human, or human-like, being in flight. However, I must interject my brief and biased opinion as Communications Commander here at EOS. These theories might be tainted by the exciting discovery of the man who just yesterday flew from the balcony of a building in Ward VII. It is not our place to become hasty and hopeful but rather to present evidence that the public may stay informed.

[From Evidence of Superheroes]

Vegetable Harvest, originally uploaded by swerdloff.

Spent part of this afternoon at the Farmer’s Market. Bountiful harvest!

Strangest twist on the 419 scam I’ve ever seen – TED? Really?