Archive for the ‘Can The World Hear Me’ Category
Can The World Hear. . . Us?
Not sure if any readers have noticed but the title of our blog is a slight flaw as it implies only one mastermind behind this idea and this dream. Although I am the primary writer, I want to make sure everyone knows that Josh is also intricate to the blog’s process with the backend work and constant discussions to further ideas and the future startup.
But beyond the naming problem, I realize this could lead to problems in the future over say copyright or ownership of this blog. As we go separate ways (I hope not), two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and we may never know where we may end up.
I hope when that time does come, this blog still stays alive and our memories and experience really advance us in wherever we are. I know thatsounds corny but the inevitable does happen so although the title says “Can The World Hear Me” I really want it to be “Can The World Hear Us” as I believe there are more people than just Josh and me that share this dream.
On forth!
~Kevin Xu
A whole new twist to your FriendFeed
While reading around my rss feeds, a lot of the top blogs have been mentioning a new little toy called FriendFeed. Apparently it aggregates all the top social networking sites together into the monolith of social networking all in a nice web 2.0 fashion.
I have never been the one to always follow the crowd so I had not joined yet until I read that Nate Weiner over at the Idea Shower decided to join so I knew something had to be up. I finally decided to give it a shot and I must say I am impressed.
The UI is nice and clean, the networking is strong, and overall it’s actually quite useful. It also brought to light just how many sites I signed up with which appears to be a lot. I don’t have too many friends right now but I hope to change that and this actually got me interested in twittering again.
If you add me as a friend, I’ll add you back, and let the networking begin!
FriendFeed - http://friendfeed.com/kevinx
~Kevin Xu
Always keep it simple
Uncomplicated, straightforward, austere, smooth, easy, simple.
Everyone likes it when things are simple. From web design to project assignments to blog posts. Simplicity has that rare beauty to delight the eyes and at the same time convey info.
Sadly the world is not always simple and but it is up to web designers to at least make the virtual world simpler. A favorite example of mine is Google, I mean have you seen their homepage? You go to Google to search and it lets you make a search without distraction. Easy, straight-to-the-point, simple.
Recently I received a certificate from Google for participating in the GHOP contest I mentioned earlier and I love it’s design.
Clean and simple, done
There’s absolutely no need for colorful backgrounds or random images to make it look “pretty”. It’s a certificate with my name, the contest, and a signature and I’m happy with it.
So with that in mind, we want to make “Can The World Hear Me” as simple as possible. Wordpress is the master at aggregating and automating many parts of the blog but sometimes it gets cluttered. Fortunately everything is customizable. Uncluttering the website and making the content stand out is our current goal.
And to our new readers and old readers― we have revised the point of this blog to its simplest form:
A chronicle of two boys’ journey to leave their mark on the world
~Kevin Xu
P.S. If anyone wants a really simple blog, Tumblr is the way to go. Simple design and simple posts give a whole feeling of calmness. I’m even considering creating a personal blog using Tumblr ;D
Why be extra-super-duper-ordinary?
Hi, my name is Kevin Xu, and I am solipsistic.
Solipsism is apparently the philosophical idea that “My mind is the only thing that I know exists.” When you think about it, it’s true. Only I know what I feel when I touch something. Only I know what I think and everyone else’s thoughts are synthetic. I don’t know if anyone even exists when I’m not with them. Maybe all life was just created to further my life? Yes I’m saying that none of you are real and are only here to entertain me.
Of course, all of the above is sarcastic. But solipsism can be a major ego-booster if you’re ever feeling down, try it out.
Hello San Francisco!
Tomorrow I’m flying to California for a week-long super vacation extravaganza!
Basically I want to check out the startup culture and visit some colleges. I view San Francisco as a city full of wonderful opportunities for a young lad like me. Just by meeting the right people and making the right connections can get me really far in my dream.
First up I’ll be in Los Angeles from the 16th to the 18th. There will be a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tourney that I hope to get in. Only first 256 people though, let’s see how clever I am.
Then I hit the road and off to San Francisco from the 19th through the 22nd. I will be visiting Stanford on the 21st but other than that I will just be around the area just basking in the culture. I don’t think any big companies like Google or Apple will just let me talk to someone if I go into HQ. But I sure will try to take lots of pictures in front of those company logos!
I’ll also be sure to blog anything worth mentioning here. California has great wi-fi spots =D
So if anyone is in those areas, I will be more than happy to meet up with anyone! Just send an email or leave a comment. Aaron Stanton from CanGoogleHearMe actually offered to have lunch with me after reading my last post. He hasn’t replied back to my email but here’s me hoping for the best.
~Kevin Xu
Congratulations ‘Can Google Hear Me’
His quest started with a simple question: How do you get a big company like Google to really listen to a good idea? Now Aaron Stanton is on his way back to Google HQ to turn that idea into a reality.
I blogged about him when the blog started, but it’s almost surreal to watch his progress from idea to execution. Stanton blogged frequently about his first adventure to Google HQ mainly because it was the crux of the site but then the posts started dwindling. But I knew that he and his team were hard at work programming the Novel Project into something that he could be proud of.
It is now more than a year since he started and he has almost gone full circle. He got the idea, the motivation, the publicity, the partners, the time, the money, and even the office space (his living room).
We chose the name Can The World Hear Me not because we weren’t original but because we applaud what Stanton has done so far and what he will do. Seeing his success drives us to go forward with our plans because in reality (just like in fairytales) anything can really happen.
Funny thing is, he still hasn’t told us what his idea is! I’ll be in the San Francisco area next week as well so maybe I might bump into him on the streets? You never know…
~Kevin Xu
Back In The Swing of Things…
Can The World Hear Me was meant to be a starting point for us to create something notable enough for the world to know our names. And it is still that.
Besides the daily occurrences of schoolwork and social life, there is so much more to be done in one’s lifetime. We’re glad we didn’t realize that too late in our lives. If we just kept going with the status quo the whole time, we would just be another head in the crowd.
So this blog will chronicle major points in our journey to do just that. It has served well as a place to talk out our ideas and it will continue to do that. We want to extend its use to become an online portfolio as well as a planning area. We also got Moleskine notebooks for private ideas and planning.
Currently this is the laid out plan:
- Full redesign of the blog― Expected date: March 25
- Launch Birthday Blog Idea― Expected date: End of Spring
- Establish first Startup― Expected date: End of Summer
- *Meanwhile gain experience and startup know-how
There may be a slow down in the number of posts per week but that is only because we want to emphasize major updates in our journey. It may seem like we have been re-iterating our same goals but that is because of our constant posting. We’ll try to fit in a post a week to keep everything updated and that also serves as a due date to make sure we do something interesting every week.
We are also very interested to hear from our readers. Either drop us a comment or email us, we’re interested in the general reaction.
~Kevin Xu and Josh Belanich
Hiatus
You know, I’m really getting the hang of making these ‘overused web 2.0-ish-y’ logos. Yeah they are really common-place and probably getting on some people’s nerves but there’s no denying that it is here to stay.
Sorry for the lack of posting again but we are re going on a hiatus for Midterm week and the SATs. Yeah, the trials and tribulations of being a student… *sigh*
In other news, has anyone figured out what our possible idea was?
~Kevin X
Don’t worry, We’re working!
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Sorry for the lack of updates recently, since the new year started school has taken full swing on our minds and sapped our ability to write a decent blog post (Ok that was a lame excuse but just go with it). But we have been working very hard toward our long-term goals! Don’t believe us? Here’s a quick run-through:
- Kevin has been pro-actively studying like a madman for the SATs on January 26 thus the lack of posts as the main author. This is one of the final obstacles in the way of his dream college and he is planning to go all out on this one and do his best so he will not have to worry about it ever again. He has forcefully reduced himself down to the “good asian student” and postponed all other aspects of “fun life” until after January 26.
- Kevin has also created a website for ThinkQuest about Dunbar’s Number. This was done in an extreme example of an all-nighter but on the plus side it looks awesome and he played with more code than was possible in a small amount of time. He hopes to get it uploaded online soon so our readers can see it, critique it, and become educated as well.
- Josh has run through several drafts and templates for a new design for the website. Below is his current draft and any suggestions, advice, critiques are HIGHLY appreciated: (click for larger view)
- Josh has also been thinking about a new section for all our various ideas and projects. One of the main things that we lack is credibility and even though we are slowly building it up, we want a place on our blog to store all that stuff too. Kind of like an informal online portfolio so people know that we are serious and not just kids playing around. This will take some tweaking of the Wordpress code but if anyone knows an easier way to do this then please leave a comment!
That would be considered hard work right? Well we hope it all pays off in the long run. The fun thing about having a blog and dreaming of a startup is that you really don’t know where you are going to end up. Enjoy the ride as they say.
To conclude, we also have an idea! It’s not a super-big idea like Facebook but it is an idea and we might go for it. One thing we do know is that it hasn’t been taken in any which way or form so thats really good. It might lead to something and it isn’t that hard to create either (we think…).
We feel like being a tease so let’s say that it is a rare topic mentioned on blogs but everyone has one and it starts with the letter “B”. To make it more exciting, we are also going to give the first person that guesses it right Zen Habit’s E-Book Zen To Done by Leo Babauta for free! We are allowed to do this now since he released his copyright and we hope that someone can benefit from Leo’s guide for a simpler life!
~Can The World Hear Me
Ravejelly Guest Post!
Today we are presenting our very first guest post! The author is a fellow lad from Great Britain who instantly fell in love with our blog, our dream and our question, Can The World Hear Me? Part of our goal is also for the the world to hear other people too that have a strong message but don’t have a blog yet or currently no strong means to reach out to the 6 billion people out there. By having a contact in Britain, that means we are also going international 
Now without further ado, presenting “Seb Huckle, RaveJelly (Coming soon…)”