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I hired Luis Lucas (who sometimes goes by 2CreateMedia) to re-design my website. He requested that I pay 60% up front after signing a contract with him. After paying this, there was a six month window for the deadline of the website to be finished. With one week left in the deadline, he emailed me informing me that "his brother had died" and there was going to be a delay. I was understanding of course because I believed that no one would lie about something so horrific, so I gave him some time. After one month, I emailed him and he told me he was in another country and needed more time. After a couple months of him not responding, I told him I needed my money back or I would have to go to court. He never responded. I then took the case to court, where he never showed up. In fact, he completely disappeared off of the internet; his twitter/facebook/linkedin/website and blog were all deleted, and there was no trace of him. The court case took place in July, and this November of 2012 he resurfaced on all of the previous mentioned internet platforms, looking for new work and promoting himself as a web designer with a fantastic reputation. In addition, two months ago, I recently found out that he stole ten thousand dollars from another client. I have contacted him to give me my money back and he is unwilling. Please do not work with, speak to, or associate yourself with this man as he is a scam artist and thief.

I worked at the LinkedIn offices in Mountain View after I'd taken some courses in technical writing and was committed to get going on a real career. A friend who worked there helped get me an interview, and I ended up with this group that was trying to get a new project off the ground. We were isolated in a little corner of the office on the third floor and only a few of us had contact with other people in the company. They gave me a desk and the HR people emailed me something about the health plan and then I was ready to go.

My manager was a fellow named Hayward who had been with the company long enough that he was given leeway to work on his own ideas. He had formed this new group and took me into his office on my first day and explained what we were trying to do.

"This is all about information flows, " Hayward told me. He played with a large plastic paperclip as he spoke. I sat down across from him, dutifully taking notes.

"Are you aware of the various theories out there concerning information flows?" Hayward then asked me.

"I don't believe so, " I told him.

"There was this fellow named Hastings who taught at Cambridge, " Hayward said. "He's retired now. Most of his work came out in the 1960s. But the thing is that it's still relevant today. Can you believe that?"

"I suppose he was a visionary, " I said.

"What's that?" Hayward said.

"He was a visionary, " I said. "He could understand what was going to happen to us in the future."

Hayward thought about that for a moment. "That's not it at all, " he then told me. "He wasn't some kind of fortune-teller."

"That's not what I was trying to say, " I told him.

"Yes it was, " Hayward said. "I know you think you understand how this sort of thing works. There are these geniuses sitting in their offices trying to figure out what's going to happen next. But that's not how the world works."

"Maybe I misspoke, " I said.

"No you didn't, " Hayward said. "I'm not trying to be critical here. But this is a common misconception. I'm really into this stuff, you know. I read extensively. And the thing is that Hastings and people like him aren't into this notion of predicting the future. That's what the newspapers want you think. What they do is look at present circumstances and then they try to make sense of them. They see things that the rest of us don't. They look like 'visionaries', to use your word, because their findings are still relevant to us today."

"I suppose that makes sense, " I said.

"The world isn't changing as quickly as people like to think, " Hayward said. "Do you understand what I'm saying here?"

"I guess I'm still trying to make sense of it all, " I said.

"I'll give you his book, " Hayward said. "Remind me when we're done here. The point I'm trying to make is that the work we do here is very much based off of Hayward's ideas. What we want to do is control the flow of information inside a sub-network. That would be a network inside a network. We want people to be able to exchange information and disseminate it efficiently. Of course you'll have to talk to the developers to get an idea of exactly what's going on. And we have one writer with us already. So we're not throwing you in the deep end here."

"I can get up to speed quickly, " I said. "I promise you that."

"I hope so, " Hayward said. "I heard good things about. I guess the issue is that we operate under a different philosophy as compared to the rest of the company. So maybe that's why we seem to have our wires crossed here."

"I think I just misspoke, " I told him. "Earlier on, I mean."

"People don't misspeak, " Hayward said. "That word should be stricken from the language. It doesn't even make any sense."

"Maybe you're right, " I said.

"I almost forgot, " Hayward said. He spun his chair around and reached over to a bookshelf he had beside his desk. He pulled out a thick hardcover and then turned back around and handed it to me. "Read what you can tonight, " he said.

The book had a blue jacket with a very plain cover. The title was printed in typewriter-style letters. It read, "Information Landscapes." Underneath it, in a smaller but identical font, was the author's name: "Robert Hastings". Underneath his name was a photograph of a film reel. That was it in the way of decorative touches.

"I'll get through it as quickly as I can, " I said.

Hastings waved a hand dismissively. "Read what's relevant, " he said. "This isn't a detective novel."

I spent most of the rest of the day meeting with other people on the team. When I got home that night I flipped through the book. The text was small, and there were tables and charts all over the place. I tried to find something that interested me. I turned to a chapter entitled, "A Brief History of Interactions", which was somewhere in the middle of the book. I copied down a section of what I read here to show to Hayward the next day. I still have a printed copy of what I wrote that day, which I'll cite below:

"Imagine having a conversation on the telephone. How does it work? The phone rings. You answer it. Hopefully the person on the other line is someone you know. You talk. When you're finished talking, you hang up. Is that it? Well, not quite.

"When most people think of phone calls, they think of themselves talking to some other person via a receiver that they hold in their hand. But is that all there is to it?

"Here is a question to ask yourself: why do we feel the need to have phone conversations in the first place? What is the point?

"You might tell me that certain conversations are important. A family member calls you up with news. This news could be good or bad. If it is bad, we probably need to act about the information we receive.

"Or you might tell me that certain conversations are frivolous. A friend phones you up and you talk about your day. Such conversations may last an hour or more. The information we receive during the course of such a conversation is typically not particularly important. That is to say, we do not need to act based on what we hear.

"You might think that these two examples represent entirely different modes of discourse. This would be a false assumption. The fact is that both conversations were goal-based. This is an important point to remember.

"In both examples, the goal was to impart information. In the first example the goal was to pass along information to be acted upon. In the second instance, the goal was more subtle. You and a friend exchange stories about your life experiences, thereby strengthening the friendship.

"This is what we need to remember, then: a telephone call is a goal-based activity.

"Communication is not always conducted in such a straightforward manner. Consider the example of a medieval village. The main gathering point for people in such an environment was the local church. When we think of church today we think of a place where we go to hear a priest or a minister speak while we listen in silence. But a church in the Middle Ages was more akin to a community centre. The priest did his preaching, of course. But often he had to shout over those who had gathered before him, as they were engaged in other conversations. Often he had to admonish his flock for not paying attention to him. In any event, people would gather long after a sermon was complete to keep on talking.

"Such exchanges differ markedly from telephone conversations. For example, they are not initiated by individuals. Rather, they are initiated by circumstances. You can call up a family member or friend whenever you'd like, within reason. But medieval villagers did not have this luxury. Instead, they had to talk to one another only when an opportunity presented itself. Since villagers were obligated to go to church, the church itself became the ideal forum for exchanging information.

"Moreover, the process of information exchange in such a setting was decidedly not goal-based, at least not overtly. Unlike with a telephone call, conversations began almost by accident. You might run into a few people you know well, greet them, and begin talking with them. You likely do not have a set agenda in mind regarding what you would like to talk about, since you cannot foresee the groupings that will emerge when an entire population of villagers gets together. That is to say, even though everyone is gathered in one place, such large groups have a tendency to hive off into smaller sub-groups. Such sub-groups are formed virtually spontaneously based on who it standing where at what time. Therefore, you cannot plan in advance what you are going to say before entering such a setting, since you do now know who will form the other members of you sub-group until the very moment that it forms.

"It is these considerations that must be kept in mind when we think about a phone conversation. It is an entirely alien mode of communication as compared to a gathering in a medieval church, or other similar gatherings. It is a new way of communicating, with its own set of rules."

I did speak with Hayward again for another week or so. I was busy learning the fundamentals of my new job. But eventually he came to my desk and invited me to come back to his office for another chat. He told me to bring Hastings' book with me.

"So, I hope you're feeling comfortable here now, " he said to me as we sat down across from each other.

"Everyone is nice, " I said.

"Everyone is always nice, " Hayward said. "That's the nature of the modern workplace."

"Well, it makes things easier, " I said.

"In some ways it does, " Hayward said. "Mind you, I'm not trying to rock the boat on this particular issue. But there are management methods that I'd like to try out here that are out of style. Not that I think we shouldn't be friendly to one another. But when we make that a priority, we tend to discount certain techniques that are available to us to enhance efficiency."

"I suppose that makes sense, " I said. "I'm not overly sensitive or anything. You can say what you want to me."

"People like to say that, but it's rarely true, " Hayward said. "But let's move on. I assume you're been reading the book."

"It's interesting, but some of it goes over my head, " I said.

"That's to be expected, " Hayward said. "We're not in the right setting to study its contents appropriately."

"I think I'm done with it for now, " I said. "You can have it back if you'd like."

Hayward waved his hand at me again. "It's not some keepsake, " he said. "I know what you think. You've probably made jokes with the rest of them out there about me sleeping with this book under my pillow or something. But I don't worship the man. You could throw his book in the ocean for all I care. It's not the book itself that I prize."

"I think many people would still label him a visionary, " I said. "Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of the word."

"I understand its meaning, " Hayward said. "But it's an incorrect application in this particular situation. It's an insult to call someone like Hastings a visionary."

"Maybe you're right, " I said.

"You don't have to say that, " Hayward said. "You can have your own opinions. I'm not asking for you to agree with me."

"Then I take it back, " I told him. "I believe that Hastings would be considered a visionary. Though I'm not sure if I would think of him that way."

"So you don't like the book, then, " Hayward said.

"Perhaps I don't understand it, " I said.

"Well, thank you for being honest, " Hayward said. "I mean it. Keep it up."

"I'll do my best, " I said.

I started working for LinkedIn Corporation after I moved down to San Jose. I had grown up in San Francisco and had lived there for my entire life, except for four years spent in Berkeley. The thing is that I would say that I was getting tired of the place, and maybe that would make sense. But the fact is that living there was beginning to make me feel physically tired, a phenomena for which I still cannot find a reasonable explanation.

I knew a lot of people, of course, since I was a native and there were always new folks streaming in desperate to find friends. But I cut back on my social commitments and my fatigue still grew worse. I went to my doctor who referred me to a sleep specialist who put me on a regular sleep schedule, even though I was pretty much on a regular sleep schedule to begin with. But that didn't help either. By the time it hit midday I could barely keep my head up. I didn't dare nap because of the sleep specialist's rules. Instead, I plugged on in agony until my proper bedtime.

The strange thing, however, is that once I moved to San Jose, this problem just went away. I noticed the difference right away. I rented an apartment in a new development near downtown. The company had built two apartment blocks and a strip of shops and restaurants across the street. We were sort of on an island, as the surrounding neighbourhood was still a bit dangerous. But I enjoyed the modernity of the place. Everything was new.

The LinkedIn people hired me because I'd done a lot of writing back in my old job in San Francisco, and they were looking to launch a new program for staffing agencies that would allow them to fine-tune the ways in which staffing agencies could search for prospective employees off of their website. LinkedIn offers all kinds of little services like this that you've never even heard of. I thought before that it was just a place where you'd put your resume online.

Anyway, the person in charge of this new initiative was a fellow named Kent, and there were about a half-dozen of us crammed together in a space on the second floor of the building. LinkedIn was one of those companies where you could see everyone else around you wherever you were working, but they built up big cubicle walls to hive off different project groups. So we had our own little habitat that was sectioned off from the rest.

I'm going on and on here, when I should be getting more to the point. I'd been with the company for about a month when Kent called me over to his desk and then led me to a meeting room on the far side of the building. "I hope the others didn't see us leave, " he said as we sat down.

"I'm sure they noticed, " I said. "But that doesn't mean they're thinking that anything strange is going on."

"Who said that anything strange was going on?" he asked me.

"I meant that hypothetically, " I said.

"What are people saying about me?" Kent said.

"Is that why you brought me here?" I asked.

"No, of course not, " Kent said. "But while we're on the topic, you know."

"Nobody says anything about you, as far as I know, " I said. "Except in the context of work-related issues."

"Nobody jokes around with me, " Kent said. "Did you notice that? In the last project I was involved with, there was a lot of joking around."

"I suppose it's a serious group, " I said. "I don't really know any of them well, now that you mention it."

"Maybe I should ask one of the others, if you're not close with any of them, " Kent said. "They all might be talking behind your back."

"It wouldn't bother my either way if they were, " I said.

"But I have to look out for my own reputation, " Kent said. "You can do whatever you want."

"I didn't know you were so concerned about such things, " I said.

"I'm not, " Kent said. "What I mean is that I don't mean to be. But there was someone who used to work here. A friend of mine named Brooks. I guess I wouldn't call him a friend. I don't know what I would call him. But we'd worked together on a lot of different things, and I thought he was a rising star. You know, he'd go out and give presentations to our big clients and that sort of thing. But then one day he just disappeared. That is to say, he sent around an email telling everyone that he had had a great time working here but that it was time to move on. You know, the usual thing people send when they go. But there was no notice whatsoever. And then I heard later on that people thought he was a 'problem'. That was the word they used. I mean all kinds of people thought he was a 'problem'. It was the same word over and over. People who worked with him and people who he worked for. I had no idea. You know, so that's why I'm concerned. Apparently I'm not very perceptive when it comes to these sorts of things."

"I can keep a closer eye on things, if you want, " I said. "Unless I have the same problem. I don't think I do, but I suppose I can't make any promises."

"I'd appreciate it, though, " Kent said. "We should meet again soon. Maybe we should make this a regular thing. I can trust you, right?"

"You can trust me, " I told him.

Part of our work involved the designing of "characters" that represented hypothetical individuals that a staffing company might find on LinkedIn's website. The idea was that an agency could build up a stable of "ideal" characters, and then refine their searches based on these imaginary people. We were supposed to be extremely specific in describing these characters, to the point of inventing little lives for them.

For example, I might begin writing a character with the following description: "Harold Hammond. 37 years old. Recently divorced. Harold had been married to his wife Sarah for five years. The met at college and he assumed that he had his whole life mapped out in front of him. He worked as a programmer for a software company in Palo Alto. His wife worked as a programmer as well, but then stayed home with the kids. They started to fight a bit more towards the end of their marriage, but Harold still did not assume that there was any serious trouble. But then one day he came home and Sarah sat him down and gave him a speech that she had obviously been preparing for years. It described his faults down to their last detail. It was then that Harold realized that he was in fact a rather lousy husband and father to his children. He worked too hard. After the divorce was finalized, he stayed on good terms with his ex-wife, and changed jobs so that he would be working less. Secretly he wished he could reconcile with Sarah, but he knew that that was never going to happen. He was happy enough to have straightened out his life, however. He was glad to be a better person."

I know this all sounds foolish, and maybe it was. But that's what the LinkedIn people wanted.

Kent indeed meet with me regularly to inquire about the overall morale of our group, and to make sure no specific complaints had been made about him. About six months in I could tell that he was becoming increasingly agitated. "I'm worried about the status of our project now, " he told me in the little meeting room where we always got together. "There used to be a lot of buzz about it. Do you remember that?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, " I said.

"I guess you weren't here yet, " Kent said. "But they used to bring me into meetings and have me help them refine the work that we were going to do. They kept telling me how important this was. It's still kind of a pilot project, you know. We're working with a few different agencies on this. But they told me that it could become a template for a whole new suite of products that they might offer. They were really excited about this. But now I hardly hear from anyone anymore. I met once a month with the higher-ups to tell them how things are going, but that's it. They haven't even asked me to write a progress report."

"I think things are still in the early stages, " I told him.

"It's not that, " he said. "I know that something's wrong. They've moved on to some other big idea, I'll bet. They're just letting us spin our wheels until they can think of something else for us to do."

"I enjoy the work, though, " I told him. "I have to admit that."

"I'm surprised to hear you say that, " Kent said. "I thought that this would all be a bit boring for you."

"Why would you say that?" I said.

"You wrote a lot of promotional material where you used to work, right?" Kent asked me.

"It was a marketing firm, so that's what I did, " I said. "Here, I do something else."

"I think I'm in the wrong business, " Kent said. "Maybe if I were in your shoes. I suppose I could see how this could be interesting. Your work is good. Your characters are among the best in the group. I probably shouldn't tell you that."

"I won't get a big head about it, " I told him.

"I took a marketing class in college, " Kent said. "That seems like forever ago."

"It was forever ago, " I said. "It was forever ago for all of us."

"Where did you go?" Kent asked me.

"Berkeley, " I said.

"It was Stanford for me, " Kent said.

"Impressive, " I said.

"I don't know, " he told me. "I remember walking through campus once and getting this strange sense that I had done something horribly wrong. You know, like I had ended up on a trajectory that was going to lead me to misery. But I'm not a miserable person. That's the thing."

"We could all be happier, " I told him. "Everyone thinks that they've made some big mistake in the past. That's the way it is."

"This project is getting shut down, " Kent said. "I'm telling you."

"It's no big deal, " I said. "They'll move us around. There's other work to do."

"You can say that, " Kent said. "I'll take all the blame for its failure. That's the problem."

Kent was right. A few months after that meeting the project was cancelled, and they moved us all around to different divisions. I stayed on at LinkedIn for a while, and then moved on to other things. I never saw Kent after they broke up the group. I don't even know if he was with the company when I left. I'm still free of the fatigue problem that plagued me in San Francisco, however. For some reason I was cured when I went to San Jose.

Kelly o'neal + linkedin = you will be swindled! Read kelly o'steal's profile on linkedin.com and it's obvious that every negative post about him and his scuzzy crew of con artists is true... He can't even fill out a professional survey without resorting to smarmy answers, missing info and outright lies. Try googling 'kelly o'neal + thief' or 'design legacy + swindlers' and you'll have a good idea of just how many vendors, artists and customers this walking disease has ripped off! Remember: if you work with or buy from kelly o'neal or design legacy, you are supporting theft from artists! Thank you for your support in shutting down this vile company!

Andrews University Michigan has neglected its dorms. Burman Hall the last dorms that was built was built in 1981.

Andrews has 3 dorms Lamson for the women and Meier Hall for the men and Burman. Lamson was built in the 40 almost 70 years ago and Meier hall was built around 1964 almost 40 years ago. The university enrollment hasn't gone anywhere. In other words it hovers around 3000 students.

Complaints.

1) Meier hall is an architectural disaster (Worthy of "Architectural Disasters Digest") that is poorly designed and difficult to renovate. Other Universities
realize that a really good dorm really draws students. There is a trend sweeping Universities concerning the modern apartment style dorms which Berrien Springs is about 40 years out of step with.
AAA) A really bad dorm will create a bad reputation for a University by lowering enrollment standards after all who wants to live in squaller. A lot of the graduate students didn't stay in the Mens dorms at Andrews and a lot of the Students left after 1 or 2 years. The University retention was terrible.
88) The University is Cheapskates with the mens dorms. They spend almost nothing on the dorms. Thats right Zero.
99) The University doesn't have a committee for dorm issues or any student input on the dorm process and makes decisions without student input Unilaterally.
Not spending dorm money when they really should and using any excuse not to spend money on any dorm.
:)() The University Deans made sure that Burman Hall had a really nice apartment for the Dean while all of the students in Burman rot in chicken cages worthy of a slum lord.
2) Meier hall is strangely shaped and oddly designed building with 4 wings shaped
like an X and 4 ugly concrete stairways. This means that carrying furniture and clothing up three flights of stairs. Worse if you have a suburban and a U-haul and impossible if you have a truck load of possessions. Meier Hall and Burman are both inaccessible.
Worse yet the 4 dorm wings are connected to a two story core which prevents adding an elevator. The Meier hall dorm should have been square. Instead, Meier hall is an x shaped disaster. If a dorm is funny shaped then this effects the students perceptions whereas a straight square building is conventional and encourages affiliation with a University.
X. The University put really tiny dorm rooms in Burman which are chicken cages. There about 15 by 15 feet and if you share a room mate this is horribly tiny. This is even worse when you have an inmate for a room mate.
3) The men's dorm is not positioned for the 21st century. Universities are now rebuilding apartment style dorms.
4) The men's dorm is not secure and anyone can walk into it and the University has done nothing.
5) A university enrollment won't expand when you aren't
renovating or expanding the dorms. There is no recreational facility in Meier hall such as fireplaces or a game room or TVs or advanced networking such as the newer Universities have.
6) The women attracted a Miss America pageant contestant, but there is no Mr. Olympia. One of the male seminary students assaulted one of the teachers. The seminary students have a poor reputation including as one site said sleeping around and seducing naive women. The University put very little effort into upgrading or improving the Mens dorms. The male students at Andrews University are sorely lacking
7) The men's dorm's are not secure. Anyone can enter it or steal it. There are
4 concrete exits and it would be impossible to secure all of them. The men's dorm doesn't provide
an electronic access card like hotels have as some Universities are adding. Other Universities are upgrading the dorms with enhanced security. With the school shootings security is an issue.
8) The University Sucks.
X. Andrews University 0 dollars spent on Meier. Miami University 7 million dollars to renovate Ogden Hall.
X. Having stuff stolen in the dorm is not cool and this happened at Andrews.
X. The University has encouraged an adversarial relationship with the Berrien Springs Police department concerning the Male students and actively uses the police to resolve male student problems instead of internally.
X. The University retroactively assigns room mates without any consideration for whether you requested one.
X. The University charges 15000 dollars plus per year and then doesn't spend much on the dorms.
K. Sucks. The university doesn't spend much recruiting male students in the dorms which results in fewer opportunities for women to meet affluent men.
Z. Sucks.
PU. The University Professors favor female students in some classes since the University has neglected to spend money on the Mens dorm or provide incentives such as athletic programs that would draw affluent male students like Dean Kamen.
9) The University built Burman as an undergraduate dorm for a graduate student there with the stipulation that there was an age limit. Better yet they put Burman 150 feet away from Meier with 4 parking spots in the back. They also force students to move out of Meier and walk 150 feet away during the summer down three flights of steps and cart all of there belongings to the other dorm.
The University must have felt there was a need for a graduate dorm and that the Undergraduate male students weren't worth letting into Burman. Later, the University started moving all the first year students into Burman at the expense of the older students.
Newer buildings can be cheaper to operate which is another way the University has shot itself in the foot.
Andrews dorms where monolithic large monstrosities. The University should have made smaller dorms
which easier to change than two dorms with 80% of the students in Meier Hall.
Burman has chicken cages for rooms. Modern dorm rooms should be overly large and
apartment style.
The men's dorms favor the room mate system (antiquate). The room mate system is only as good as your room mate. And really terrible if you have a bad room mate. Every student should
have their own room and only share a suite with other students. As one Administrator of a University would say, "Every student wants there own room."
10) The University favors the female students and doesn't provide or expend any effort with the men's dorms. Some of the women married a bunch of losers for husbands. In some classes the female students got preferential treatment while minority male students got deferential treatment.
11) The University used a 10 million dollar donation to fund a stable for the cows in the University farm. Instead of improving the University 40+ year old mens dorms they "gave the money to the cows." The cows were more important than the mens dorms. The University spent 20 million dollars on Howard Center and 10 Million on the Church but has very little zeal for improving either the womens or mens dorms. The University has the attitude that the men aren't worth a modern ahem (not 50 or 80 year old mens dorm).
13) The University closed down a wing of Meier Hall so it could be used as a Hotel. This meant fewer rooms for students.
16) The University didn't provide any reputation management for the male students.
17) The University tried to make the dorms a Jack of Trades and a master of nothing. They made Burman into a concert hall/graduate dorm/undergrad/dean's apartment.
20) Caveat Emptor and when you see Meier Hall, Run.