June 26-27, 2013
Yesterday, I had the privilege of being escorted by beautiful, happy, young Bay Area employees of Google, on my first "Google Glass Adventure". It was the best day of the week, having been sunny and hot after two days of rain in both Marin and San Francisco. There was a great, cool breeze on the water, but not so much to make you cold enough to need a jacket. Perfect day. I arrived at the Embarcadero with enough time to wander the shops.
It was the day that SCOTU struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and vacated the ban on same-sex marriage in California. Many of my friends were in SF waiting to hear the results, and in general, it was a special day for a lot of folks in all of the Bay Area. I have a lot of gay friends, and many of them are already married, but today was really special because it finally said that we are all human beings and we all have rights no matter who we love. This is an amazing time to be alive-- not only do we have equality in marriage and women "Leaning In"... but we have Google Glass to record these amazing new chapters.
As I was marveling at the beauty in this day and all that had happened thus far, I headed out to the secret pier we were told to meet for the Google Glass fitting. My adventure began at 4:30pm, and we departed by motorboats with pontoons and a below cabin area for storage. There were 5 Google Explorers in our boat, and 3 assistants to help us get to our next location. Note here that all the employees and boat crew were already wearing Glass with the polarized shade attachment. It was an entire Glass operation, from the moment we met at the pier, all the way back, Google Glass was being worn by all.
The boat ride took us under the Bay Bridge and across the Bay to Alameda. There was a bus waiting to meet us at the next location! The bus and more helpful Glass staff took us to the building where we would receive our Glass. Not only Google Glass, but glasses of champagne, heirloom tomatoes, festive white lights, music and beautiful young people dressed in clean, matching GAP-like, uber-casual Friday fashions. It was the Google version of the Apple Store, but somehow pumped up a notch, with all the employees wearing colorful Glass computer headgear and being super hip and helpful. I think my guest and I may have felt a little bit old in this environment, but they all made me want to fit in. I surely wanted to be one of these shiny, happy people with Glass.
Yes! It was cool to be an explorer. I'm in! Sure, I'm 45 and a single-mom, but I can pretend I'm 30 again, and but for a few wrinkles around the eyes and my not so 30-something body... well, I really do look 30. Yes, I am ready to start over with Glass! (For all those 20-somethings out there, who have no clue how quickly you will be older, these are the thoughts we think at 45, when life is starting to feel like it's moving too fast in the wrong direction.)
From the moment I signed up to pick up Glass (having been selected as one of the 8,000 tweets to get to Alpha-test this device) it has been a clandestine, and fun journey. Having had three contract jobs in the last three months, I wondered how this would financially come to fruition, but magically, it all worked out. Just to remind those who are big time planners out there, this moment never could have been planned. I worked very hard to stay employed, and I spend a lot of time sharing with friends and others that care about art, cycling and the Bay Area on Twitter. These are the reasons I am here writing for you today. I tweeted to Google that I wanted to use Glass to record cycling shots from my bike for use in
my paintings.
Riding a bike, we see a lot of colorful people and shapes pass by us, but don't have time to stop the bike and pull out a camera. I thought that Glass could help me to capture these brief but fantastic moments that I can only have in my memory for less than a second. Inspired by this new way of seeing things, I believed it would only inspire my art in a new way. Here is the start of my journey. Please follow along as I learn about Glass and work to use it in my art, and hopefully in the art of others in my community. I would like to also feature other local artists while I am testing Glass, so if you are reading this and are in the Bay Area and would like to be interviewed through Glass, send me a note below in my comments. Click the thumbnails, below, to view more from the Google Glass Fitting. My next post will be about the pros and cons of Glass as it is right now, including photos taken by my 11 year old twins. Stay tuned...
When I was seated outside of the café for lunch, I had a couple comments, "Cool"... as people walked by and saw the Glass on my head. Marnie Delaney, owner of Doodlebug stopped by and wanted to give it a try. She took this photo of me with Glass. I edited directly in Google +, where Glass automatically backs up the images that you take when you are connected to wifi. All images, at this point in time, must be shared to Google+, but you may tweet an image with no text, or send an image to Facebook with no text. I am an iPhone user, and they do not have the app ready yet that will allow me to send better tweets and FB posts straight from Glass. I have to download the photos and tweet or FB them later if I want to add captions. This is a huge deal, and it has to be improved and ready before anyone will buy this device in the mainstream market. People love to share their photos... and they want to do it they way they like, so I look forward to the sharing apps being released. If you are working on one now, please contact me if you need a beta-tester! (not sure if Google will allow it, but I'm in!)
I was excited to share Google Glass with my sons' computer programming camp. The kids were learning animation in SCRATCH and they were all really wowed by GLASS. Of about 20 kids that tried it, all were able to take a photo, record a video and could see the screen really well. They loved it. One student, who had his own prescription glasses had a harder time, but he could see the screen when he put Glass over his own glasses. (I have tried this too, and it is doable. It's obviously better to wear contacts if you have them at this point, but you can get it to work with glasses. They will have to work on this element for some people). One boy mentioned that he felt a little dizzy after trying them. One girl was very soft spoken, and had a hard time getting Glass to move from the start screen to the second screen where you can initiate a list of voice commands. (You can also swipe through them with the side bar that is the arm of Glass, but that is harder to teach kids to do in a short amount of time). The swiping and tapping of the side bar works really well, but it does take some practice to get comfortable with it. Here is one of my sons, who was in a moviemaking class, being recorded by another student. It's funny how kids are pros at these things from the instant they use them. I can definitely confirm today that kids love the photo and video recording aspects of Glass, and they think it is really, really cool.
The boat ride took us under the Bay Bridge and across the Bay to Alameda. There was a bus waiting to meet us at the next location! The bus and more helpful Glass staff took us to the building where we would receive our Glass. Not only Google Glass, but glasses of champagne, heirloom tomatoes, festive white lights, music and beautiful young people dressed in clean, matching GAP-like, uber-casual Friday fashions. It was the Google version of the Apple Store, but somehow pumped up a notch, with all the employees wearing colorful Glass computer headgear and being super hip and helpful. I think my guest and I may have felt a little bit old in this environment, but they all made me want to fit in. I surely wanted to be one of these shiny, happy people with Glass.
Yes! It was cool to be an explorer. I'm in! Sure, I'm 45 and a single-mom, but I can pretend I'm 30 again, and but for a few wrinkles around the eyes and my not so 30-something body... well, I really do look 30. Yes, I am ready to start over with Glass! (For all those 20-somethings out there, who have no clue how quickly you will be older, these are the thoughts we think at 45, when life is starting to feel like it's moving too fast in the wrong direction.)
I had the pleasure of meeting both Joanne Sollecito and Ruby Hackney today in their new "Vintage Farmhouse Chic" shop on the Square in Nicasio, California. Ruby is a mother of two with an amazing design sense and flair for merchandising. The color spots she had created in the shop were so enjoyable, and the found mason jar flower displays were unique and fun. I loved being there, and didn't want to leave! 
