Jamie.

My friend Jamie Dordek died yesterday.  Normally I wouldn’t share such news on my blog, but it so happens that I’d only met her once.  She was someone that I’d gotten to know mostly through Twitter and IM.  Her passion for life and all that it had to offer was truly an inspiration.  We would sit and talk for hours on IM and the phone about music and life and cooking and anything else that happened to make its way into our conversation. I’m so saddened that I will never get to make her the mix CD I promised.

Many have said it before, much more eloquently than I could ever could, so I will just say this:  Social Networking sites connect us to people.  There are so many relationships that I know I value that have started on silly websites like Facebook and Twitter and Myspace and OKcupid and Match.  They are real, whether you’ve spent time with the person in “real life,” just talked to them over the phone, or just online.  All these relationships mean something.  That fact is never more pronounced than when someone is suddenly gone.

There arent ever the right words to say when something like this happens.  The standard response is “I’m sorry,” but that doesn’t really convey what really happens when a hole is made in your life.

So, it was a pleasure to have had Jamie in my life, we were all richer for her existance, and the world lost a killer smile this week.

So long, kid.

Safe travels.

I have about six different blog posts half-written on all different subjects (including the failure of classical music to catch on with many of today’s music fan, something about the economy, and other goodness) but partially inspired by Chris Brogan’s “Things not to do in 2009″ and partially due to the typical end-of-year reflection and thinking about the future, I wrote some resolutions for myself in my personal journal.

Upon thinking about it and discussing with a few folks, I present them here, unabridged, with the thought that some of you may find a few of them useful to yourselves.

Jeremy’s Resolutions for 2009

• Collaborate more, professionally and personally. Engage others and allow myself to be engaged with.
• Trust, share and value my emotions during the course of every day.
• Spend more time with friends in person (especially if travel is necessary), reconnect with peripheral people.
• Treat myself and the world around me with more love and respect.
• Go after what I want without letting fear stop me. Say yes more than I say no.
• More precisely define my passions, figure out how to make them more core to my day-to-day existence.

Your feedback, additions, thoughts are very welcome.

[Thanks, MuppetCentral!]

One of the projects I’ve been working on at Sony is a video series entitled 60 Second Soundtracks. The concept is simple. I work with some of the biggest music geeks I know, but we’re rarely given the opportunity to share our love of music professionally from a personal viewpoint. The series was conceived to give us all a place to talk about our favorite albums and why we love them so much.

There was no direction given as to which albums to choose, other than that they were in the SonyBMG (now Sony Music) catalog.I encouraged people to pick albums from deep in our catalog rather than the obvious choice (I strictly forbid anyone from picking “London Calling,” for example, we have so many Clash fans!)

The result is, I think, a really interesting collection of stories of people’s love of a wide range of albums and songs, and reminiscences of their own personal histories. Nobody picked albums we ‘happened to be working on this quarter’.There was no business reason behind the choices, other than that they felt that these albums needed to be heard by more people.

Thanks to Chris at Etc. Productions and Joe at Vella Interactive for making the vision a reality.

I hope you enjoy them.

This is the part of the blog post where I would embed a YouTube player, except that my companies YouTube strategy is to disable sharing on all the videos that we deliver to them. So you will have to make do with a:

Link: 60 Second Soundtracks playlist on YouTube

Update: here’s a widget with some of the vids, not all.

Came across this in my Documents folder.

I am the only one who ultimately controls my emotions and situation, and the only person whose habits I can change. Trying to change someone else’s habits is fruitless and frustrating.

I am entitled to feel whatever I feel whenever I feel it, and to love and be loved in return. Anything else is selling myself short.

I am entitled to pay attention to my own needs. This does not have to lead to a fight, and does not invalidate my needs if It does.

I am entitled to fulfillment, and for people to treat me well.

There are many things that I am good at, and I should feel proud of them.

I don’t have to feel trapped by life. When I do, I can change my responses to behavior in order to not feel trapped.

Identifying patterns that are destructive or no longer productive is the first step to improving my quality of life.

Growing up is a process that is not easy, takes time and requires patience and courage. I have more of that than I think I do.
See Also: Jeremy’s Rules For A Better Life