Baltimore

Justin on February 8th, 2010

As you may have heard, the Mid-Atlantic US (in which I currently live) got hammered by a massive snowstorm this weekend.  Weather reports had been sensationalizing the potentially apocalyptic effects of the storm for days, warning that we could see a record snowfall and complete paralysis of city functions.  And if you doubt that people [...]

Continue reading about What Are You So Afraid Of?

Justin on January 15th, 2010

Whenever friends from Pittsburgh ask me how I’m adapting to Baltimore, I tell them the truth: Baltimore and Pittsburgh are so similar on so many levels that “adapting” hasn’t been necessary.  It’s more like I’ve just moved to an extremely remote Pittsburgh neighborhood, and now it takes me 4 hours to get to the nearest [...]

Continue reading about Baltimore: City of Shit

Yesterday, I explained why I think Microsoft sees its customers as idiots — an opinion that sparked a debate about the very nature of advertising.  Like politics, war and most other conflicts, advertising boils down to the challenge of convincing other people that YOUR worldview (or your client’s) is the most valid. So does that [...]

Continue reading about Detroit: America’s Self-Loathing of the Rust Belt (And What That Says About Us)

Justin on October 21st, 2009

If social media is one big conversation, then persuasion is one key to propelling that conversation forward.  If nobody ever agrees on anything, we’ll never move beyond the same presumptions we began with, and our present state will never change — at least not on purpose. Yet, having witnessed just how ineffective people actually are [...]

Continue reading about 5 Asinine Ways to NOT Win an Argument

Justin on September 28th, 2009

This weekend, I attended my first Small Press Expo, which is (according to its website) North America’s Premiere Independent Cartooning and Comic Book Arts Festival.  My friends Rachel and Josh went last year and they loved it, and since Baltimore is only an hour away from the event’s Bethesda ballroom, I joined them on this [...]

Continue reading about 10 Things I Learned at the 2009 Small Press Expo