by rustedrobot | Jul 30, 2008 | Random
Time to sift through the sock drawer:
- It’s been happening for a couple of years now, but really, I’m getting tired of executive assisstants of supposed Hedge Fund managers leaving me messages looking for insight into the online search & media business. They always throw words around like “totally confidential” and “independant,” etc, etc. Unfortunately, I can’t believe any of them at this point. My suspicion is that these are parasites who are either a) day traders posing as someone else or b) Wall Streeters looking for an edge. Either way, they’re not getting shit from me. Ever.
- To that end, our phone system at work is totally awesome because you have to announce your name when you call me. So when I pick up the phone, I hear the name you’ve announced and then I decide if I want to take the call (press 1) or send it to voice mail (press 2). If I don’t know you, forget it. If it’s a potential work call and I don’t know you, you’ll leave a message anyway. Most of the time when people don’t announce their names to try and get around it, I’m not answering.
- Does anyone actually have (or even want) an Amazon Kindle? As ugly as it seems in the pictures, I kinda want one. I love the idea of just buying books on the fly and being able to subscribe to newspapers and have the whole paper on the Kindle every morning (having time to read it – hah – that’s another thing). The biggest problem is that I can’t see one, hold one or use one unless I buy it or I know someone who has one. Right now, I don’t know anyone who has one. It looks like something from 1984, but there’s something luring me to it regardless.
- Dell has an interesting new product out today. Apple rules the roost when it comes to sleek and stylish, but you didn’t think the others were just going to sit around picking their noses, did you? Very cool.
- I love what Fred Wilson is doing for the Web 2.0 Conference Keynote speech in NYC this fall. He’s been asked to give the keynote and has set up this wiki to encourage the community to help him write it. I wish I had this option when I was in high school and college! Which makes me wonder – what percentage of college kids are pulling papers from the web? I was having a conversation with our babysitter, a 19 year-old college student and she tells me that just about everyone has laptops in class now. I told her about 1994, when I had a laptop at school, but didn’t drag it around, actually had to go to the library for research and NOBODY ever had a laptop in class. The whole “going to the library” thing was a relatively foreign concept to her! Odd. I didn’t even want to ask her if she knew what microfiche was!
by rustedrobot | Jul 27, 2008 | Memories
Today (Sunday) I was able to rekindle my photo archiving project. For any of you who may remember, I managed to secure a ton of old pictures from my immediate family a few months before the twins were born for the purpose of establishing a digital archive. I want to make sure as many of our old photos are stored online somewhere for the rest of time.
It’s a large initiative. There are a ton of old photos in my possession and still some others I haven’t gotten yet and yet others that are, for now, missing, but might be found. I hope they are found.
Of course, I’m not above posting pictures of myself that are slightly embarrassing. And oh boy, do I have some of those – and I’ll be posting them as I scan them. But this one here is particularly entertaining as the ongoing “did-he-or-didn’t-he-have-a-mullet” debate rages on. This photo, taken either in 1985 or 1986, sure seems to be some damning evidence of a mullet. I’m in the background, by the way and it could be argued that my cousin Kevin (foreground) doesn’t have a mullet here, as his hair was long all over. There is no decisive factor here, though, as my hat covers what would be the final verdict. We’ll never know.
As an amusing sidenote, Stephanie took a look at this picture tonight and had a good laugh, especially the hat and the hair. The best part is that this is what I looked like, more or less, when she first met me in the fall of 1985. Heh……a real looker, aren’t I?
Rest of the archives here.
by rustedrobot | Jul 25, 2008 | Babies, Music
Okay, a couple of things on this early Friday morning:
- Parents, question for you: every night before we go to bed, Steph and I walk into the boys room and just sit there on the floor and stare at our babies as their little chests heave up and down in a dead sleep. We typically sit there for about five minutes. You do this, too? We’ve been doing it for a year and there appears to be no end in sight. Leave comment?
- I’ve probably mentioned this before, but Nada Surf continues to kick ass. Every time they put out an album, I think “ok, it’s going to be hard to top this.” And then they do it. Every time. Nothing better than a band at its creative peak. When the creative peak lasts 3-4 albums, then you’re getting into Jeff’s favorite-band-of-the-decade territory. Try this one, called “I Like What You Say:”   [audio:like.mp3]
- I know I mentioned The Black Keys new album a few weeks back, but one of their older songs just popped up on my ITunes and I’m feeling like you need to hear it. Why? Because it’s awesome, that’s why. This one is called “Keep Your Hands Off Her.” I bet these guys smoke live.   [audio:keep.mp3]
by rustedrobot | Jul 23, 2008 | Television Pause
One thing you can be mighty sure of – if you’re surfing TV channels, you’re almost always going to run into George Foreman selling something. Grills, protein powders, diet supplements, whatever. He’s probably made more money from this stuff than he did when he was boxing. My favorite thing about George Foreman: he has FIVE sons – ALL of them named George. Maybe I should have named both of the twins Jeff.
Anyway, I thought this was as good an opportunity as any to set up another installment of Television Pause. In this, I have visions of Foreman selling his diet supplement and then stopping dead in the middle of his pitch, pausing, making this face and then FARTING really loud. It’s fun to dream.
by rustedrobot | Jul 20, 2008 | Random
I think today (Sunday) is the first time since the babies were born that I’ve been on my own all day. I don’t mean on a work trip and all alone, I mean at home, all alone, no set plans…..nothing. I can’t lie that I was a little excited about it – everyone needs a break now and again from the non-stop GO of having children.
Funny how things turn out. It is now 4:16pm and this very moment is the first time all day I’ve been able to sit in my home and do anything. Other than a 30 minute diversion in the car earlier, it’s the first “me-time” in what feels like 10 years. Here’s a summary of the day:
- 7am to 8:30am – get up, help feed and dress kids, play with them for a few mins, help put ’em in the car. And they’re off!
- 8:30 – 9:00: shower, get dressed, have some OJ (with lots of pulp, of course)
- 9:00 – 9:15: Internet time: hit ConsumerReports.com to print some ratings and set fantasy baseball lineups
- 9:15: off to Lowe’s in Leominster, Mass. (link)
- 9:15 to 10:50: shop for refridgerator, standing freezer, dehumidifier and some shades (which explains the Consumer Reports ratings)
- 10:50 to 11:30: drive around Clinton and Lancaster, drove by the old house where I grew up, my grandparents old house and all the other local landmarks. I literally haven’t been there in years, so it’s extremely odd how everything looks so different now. (link)
- 11:30 – noon: drive home, need lunch. Stop at Bolton Orchards, but the line is too long, so I leave and end up picking up lunch from Greak Brook Farms – a chicken salad, walnut and cranberry sandwich on Honey Wheat bread. Very good.
- Noon – 12:30: eat lunch, check email
- 12:30 – 2:00: go outside to cut grass, weed whack, pull weeds and sweat my ass off. Yes, my ass is actually gone from sweating so much.
- 2:00 – 2:15: take a nice, cold shower. My second of the day.
- 2:15 – 3:30: replace a light in our kitchen with a new one that we bought a couple of months ago. Like I said, I’m busy. It sometimes does take months to do this stuff.
- 3:30 – 4:00: drive to Twin Seafood in Concord, MA to pick up dinner for tonight. Haddock for Steph, salmon for me.
- 4:00 – 4:05: quick diversion into Cumberland Farms, Maynard for the Sunday Boston Globe
- 4:05 – 4:15: sweep out the garage, get shades and dehumidifier out of car
- 4:15 – now: type this post, thunder and lightening outside. Glad I mowed when I did!
So……there’s my “day off.” I’m easily as tired as usual.