June 2007 Archives

I'm officially obsessed with the Flight of the Conchords now. I just caught their first two episodes on HBO, a subject of a whole new post altogether. In the meantime, watch this.

My younger brother sent me an email on this yesterday and I'm floored and bummed to read the following:

My friend Lee just got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  He has no health insurance and just had to spend 6 days in a hospital. So needless to say, he's hurting badly financially and psychically. Lee is an awesome guy and a great skateboarder. He has personally helped me out a few times and he deserves my help.  This website, Azpx.com, is selling some T-shirts that Lee did the art for and trying to raise money to help him with whatever bills he has and will have in the near future.

Lee Bender is his name, and he's been a fixture in the Arizona skateboarding scene for quite some time.  Upon diagnosis, he found himself in the hospital for six days -- and unfortunately, he is without medical insurance.  So the story goes these days -- the guy is probably so far in debt right now he can't even see straight.  He's got a lot of support behind him already, but it would be cool to see that effort continue for a guy that just found himself in some really, really deep water without too much of a life preserver keeping his hospital bills close to 100% paid.

Part of the effort so far is described on AZPX.com...

I, along with the rest of the AZPX family are devistated with the news. Lee and I have been talking about doing an AZPX Bender Bro Model for some time. He even laid out some graphics for the project. In an effort to get some needed $$ into his pocket to cover his 6 day stay in the hospital, we jumped the gun and are revealing the graphics on a benefit t-shirt.

The t-shirts are $15 and $10 from every purchase is going to go straight into Lee's pocket to help him out.  I just bought one, and I think that most that would support skateboarding or the region would know that this is a guy worth helping out.  I'm glad my bro tossed this my way.

The Simpsons Movie is coming out on July 27, so you better believe that the marketing effort has been significantly stepped-up in anticipation.

If you head on over to SimpsonsMovie.com -- you can create your own Simpsons-flavored avatar.  Mine's still a work-in-progress.

It's been a couple weeks since I started my new job, and one of the perks that my new employer offers might prove to be a little problematic for me and my growing waistline.

Google offers free lunch for all of their employees, and the benefit to me so far has been huge.  It's such a weight off my mind to not have to worry about making lunch or braving the crowds in the Loop to grab a lame sandwich that costs $7.  The food is fantastic and I've found something really, really good at each meal I've had so far, including the New York City trip I took as part of our orientation.  Others have experienced the cooking and Mountain View and so far the reviews have been mixed, but generally speaking, everyone is a happy camper that Google now picks up the tab.

Problem is, though -- with the free lunch also comes many other little snacks, candies, and goodies that are offered in mass quantities.  Including snacks that I truly cannot avoid if put in a situation where I'm forced to.  I've determined that it will truly be impossible for me to avoid all of these goodies without some help from the public in general, so I've decided to start a little weight-loss challenge for myself.

I'll publish the results as much as possible and I'll only be including relative percentages to show my progress.  Starting at yesterday morning's weigh-in and computing the change after the weigh-in today, I'm showing that I'm down about 2% of my total body weight.  I'm sure most of that is water weight lost after our weekly Monday night bowling league performance -- alcohol is a hugely effective diuretic, by the way -- but at least it's headed in the right direction.

Weight Watching Progress:

Day 2:  -1.69%
Goal:  -19.64%
Progress:  9% of Goal

Yesterday I was out in the 'burbs and we decided to take a gander into the nearby Barnes & Noble bookstore.  I picked up a few books, even though I probably still have a stack to get through on my bookshelf already.  These were some that I had wanted for a while.  In one book's case, I needed it much more than I would say, "I wanted it."

I'll be on a longer train ride this week while I figure out the best way to get downtown to my new office locale.  I usually don't mind the EL if I have a really good book.  And a full iPod.

Here they are -- anyone read these yet themselves?

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss -- What can I say, I'm a sucker for these types of self-help books.  I think it's in my nature to appreciate some of the common sense that flows from a lot of books that read like this.  I'm a couple pages in and I'm a little worried it's going to be slightly culty, so wish me luck.
• Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman -- I read about this one a while back and never picked it up, so I figured now's a good time.
• Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb -- Comes highly recommended by a friend.

Considering I'm not much of a reader, this should be a good experiement for me to see how quickly I can get through it.  Should be fun.

I used to frequent this bar quite a bit back when I lived down in Roscoe Village, and I went here last Tuesday to get together with Whitperson to talk Live Music Blog stuff. It was fun, but I'm not a huge fan of this place anymore. The service is relatively nonexistent; I think I prefer to have someone bring me my drinks as opposed to standing and waiting at a bar while my food gets cold.

They have a cool fountain, though.

I've seen Apostle of Hustle at Schubas twice over the past two weeks and they're playing again one last time in Chicago (for now) this upcoming Wednesday night. Same place. Roughly same time. I'll probably be there, and this time I'm going to ask him where he gets his awesome t-shirts.

Anne over at Transmission sums their essence rather accurately. They're a band that cherishes the live show, the concert, the chance to connect with fans directly. Right in front of their face. It's the best way to win someone over. Apostle of Hustle has won me over four times already, and I hope to make Wednesday the fifth. 1, 2, 3, 4...FIF!

I just spent some time doing a little upgrade for Ward-o-blog -- I'm now running Movable Type 4.0 beta and I thought I'd give it a shot with a blog that needed a little attention.  Considering that Live Music Blog is now on hiatus, it's only fitting that I try out a couple new things in the offtime to get ready for whatever future lies ahead.

Plenty of little upgrades and changes will be coming once I sink my teeth in a little more tomorrow.  In the meantime, I just wanted to see if I could tie everything together and queue up a nice little template ripe for my lame CSS techniques.  We'll see how it goes.  Drop a comment if you notice something isn't working right.

My wife just sent me this over IM and I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Sure, I've seen a million "facts" from the Chuck Norris fact generator but I think this one was the best I've seen written.

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

It's this type of quality item that you've grown to expect out of Ward-o-blog...I'm all about quality over quantity. That's just how I roll.

Before I went to New York, I got to attend the Saturday Cubs vs. Braves game here at home. Lou Pinella ended up getting ejected at this game, which was about the most exciting moment of the game. The rest of it was just the Cubs losing.

It was a close one, though -- still fun to watch.

The first order of business for me at my new job was orientation, which just happens to be in New York City, so I was out there all week taking in the sights. Even though I didn't really do any of the touristy stuff; I thought I'd save that for next time. I did get a chance to get some authentic New York-style pizza with a bunch of my colleagues...

It was incredibly good. I would go back there again in a heartbeat.

Apple has started the official iPhone push with their release of three TV ads on their home page.

It does look pretty sweet, but I'll be hard-pressed to give up my current cell phone that I just got my hands on recently -- the Sony Ericcson W810i. The phone is currently on-sale through Amazon.com for a whopping -$99. That's right, negative 99 bucks. If you're on the fence and price is going to be a barrier to entry for the hottest new phone on the market, go with the W810i.

I'm be really impressed once I can put one of these in my hands to play with myself. I imagine they'll be stocking these at the Apple stores, which has to be a logistical nightmare if they'll be setting up cell phone contracts at the stores along with the purchase. Still, I'm sure it'll be worth the trek down to Michigan Ave. to see what the hype is all about. I mean, come on -- look at that friggin' thing! It's a beauty.

I love this photo. Atta' boy, Tim!

For the night preceding the official Google / FeedBurner announcement, the folks at FeedBurner had a little party to celebrate all the hard work and effort of everyone within the company, complete with toasts by the CEO, a piñata, fantastic wall art, and a hell of a lot of fun. Our resident photographer and designer Rachelle took photos and they're up on the FeedBurner photostream. Enjoy.

I think this one was my favorite...

For the past year, I've been working at the market-leading feed management company that a lot of web publishers have really taken a liking to: FeedBurner. It's the best place I've ever worked.

On Friday, both companies announced that the rumors were indeed true -- FeedBurner has been acquired by Google. I'll be keeping my job as is along with taking on some of the integration effort, and I'm hugely excited to be starting with such a well-respected company. So are all my co-workers.

I'll try to write some more on what I had to go through as part of the process (assuming I can keep the confidential details exactly where they should be); it was interesting to me (to say the least) and I think that it could help would-be startup lackeys that might consider a career working for a startup vs. working for the man.