No1ofConsequence

My little guy being adorable

2009-03-06T10:15:00.000-05:00

Venture Money, now and in the near future

2008-08-19T17:32:00.005-04:00

One of the things I am doing these days is working with young companies. From Linked In to old friends, to guys who read this blog I routinely get contacted for ideas and advice. I am looking very hard for my next opportunity and one of the the things I am struggling with is should I go start up, or should I go back to my roots in the supply chain world. Be that as it may I am keeping my ear very close to the smart people in the web venture world these days for a variety of different reasons.

Brad Burnham, partner at Union Square Ventures in Manhattan is a really bright guy who is about as dialed in on web now and web future as you are going to get. If you are an entrepreneur or an operator, you should listen to what he has to say. The above interview is about 5 minutes long. I highly recommend it.

No 1 of Consequence

Hope springs from the pools of Beijing

2008-08-17T08:48:00.006-04:00

My best man and I fancy ourselves intellectuals. Much of our youth was spent pontificating on the state of the world. Lately our conversations have centered around an apathetic public that has allowed itself to be spoonfed lie after lie, a complicit press corps, and the overall fragmentation fo the attention of the American public.

The basic contention is that there is so much information and distraction available for the population we have collectively lost our ability to focus on what's important. Our economy is in shambles. Despite the most advanced health care system in the world, we prevent those in the greatest need from having access to it. Last but not least we are mired in an ill conceived, fraudulent war that is crippling our ability to defend ourselves and our position on a global stage.

America has lost focus. We are all so busy struggling to survive we stopped caring about each other. We haven't had a thing to come together about in a long time. 9/11 was seven years ago and the aftermath became a twisted heap of collective grief and not something we could all look to as something positive.

Last night I played poker at the Marietta Billiard Club in Marietta, GA. I play there quite often and have marvelled at the odd cross section of humanity that joins me at the tables. From a demographic perspective you cannot find a more diverse group. With a group that diverse you will find a variety of interests and opinions. Last night however, there was a singular focus. That focus was on the far wall where a projector usually shows the Falcons, Braves or NASCAR. Last night the massive picture showed 6'4" half human, half dolphin Michael Fred Phelps and when he and his band of reknown hit the screen everything stopped.

No cards were dealt. No pots were splashed and no one complained of the infamous bad beats you take when you play free poker. The focus was on the 22 year old human fish from Baltimore and his quest for the improbable. The crowd roared when Aaron Piersol hit the water. Piersol's leg was strong and Hansen, who has had a rough Olympics really held his own giving Phelps a real opportunity to pull ahead. Phelps first 50 meters was just ok and for a moment he fell behind the Australian. Then, in the second 50 he surged ahead, each stroke pushing him further and further in front. When the American anchor, Jason Lezak hit the water the crowd's individual chants had morphed into a continuous repetitive cheer. GO! GO! GO! When his outstretched hand touched the wall and Phelps and America were once again champions the crowd erupted as one.

Michael Phelps' excellence unified a bouillabaisse of people last night, bringing their focus to something positive and helping people that have little in common connect. It was beautiful and in a small way gave me hope.

No 1 of Consequence

What don't I know?

2008-03-05T09:29:00.004-05:00

That question might be the most important question you can ask yourself when starting a business venture. Obviously, before starting any enterprise you should have a great understanding of both the industry and marketplace you are getting involved in. You have asked yourself, what is the lifespan of this business? What can I add to the market? What problem am I solving? (Unless of course, you are me, in which case you flush a whole pile of money down a toilet mainly because you didn't ask yourself any of those questions) How is my business different than other businesses trying to solve the same problem? Eventually you will get to questions you don't know the answer to. When you get to those, how you address them will very often be the key to the success or failure of your enterprise.

Fred Wilson over at A VC gave some public kudos to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. Zuckerberg hired a professional operator to take what was recently a very small company, international. Wilson cites the successes of other similar young executives at suddenly massive companies bringing in top notch operatives to keep things moving forward as the reason Zuckerberg gets a pat on the back. What he doesn't address is why this is an important indicator that Mark Zuckerberg (MZ) is a good bet to lead Facebook for a long time.

It seems that MZ has a genuine lack of arrogance. He understands what he doesn't know. He accepted he needed help at the highest level and acted swiftly and effectively to bring in a serious operator to help him through the unknown waters. So I too, tip my hat to MZ, and hope that this incredibly important business lesson is not lost on me in the future.

Hear No Evil

2008-02-20T08:54:00.005-05:00

The Supreme Court of the United States of America declined to hear a case the ACLU filed against the NSA. They declined to hear the case without comment.

Why is this important?

The details of the case are simple. The ACLU is challenging the legality of the warrantless wiretapping that is currently going on in this country.

The court will not hear the case.

If the court heard the case they would be forced to rule against the NSA. Warrantless searching in this country is a Constitutional violation.

The 4th Amendement says:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It states unequivocally that the government can't look, listen to or seize anything without a warrant. No warrant can be issued without specific evidence of wrongdoing and the warrant itself must contain specific things to be seized. The language could not be more clear. Written in an age of tyranny, nothing was more important to the framers than personal liberty.

Now, in the name of expediency and fear, our government chooses to use the excuse that they are protecting us by abrogating our freedoms and liberties. Our Supreme Court is silent rather than speak the truth aloud. This simple truth. Ignoring civil liberty under the guise of protection is facism. To be a truly free society our government must take the more difficult path and protect its citizenry without forcing the sacrifice of liberty. Anything else was unacceptable to our founding fathers and should be unacceptable to the American people today.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would give up essential liberty for temporary safety or security, deserve neither safety or security."

The courts are the last line of defense of the people. They are empowered to stand up and say, "If the United States is governed by the rule of law, this is wrong and MUST cease." If the courts are silent and refuse to act when our organizing principles are ignored then we are no longer a nation governed by laws.

I am frightened for us all.

No 1 of Consequence

Asking the right questions

2008-02-19T11:41:00.004-05:00

I have an idea for a product. How can I get it made?

I can't tell you how many times I see e-mails like this. I was even approached for a consulting gig this week by someone who has a product idea he wants to produce. Is it a good idea? It all depends on whether he asks the right questions before moving forward. Also before I invest my time and energy into someone else's entrepreneurial idea they are going to have to answer some very hard questions from me on the topic of their commitment to the idea.

That's really all it takes to get a product produced. Commitment. It takes a commitment of time and a commitment of money. Time to find the right people to fill the knowledge gap where yours wanes. Time to make sure you know what you want to do with the product once it is produced. Money to pay the people who can fill the knowledge gap and money for the prototype phase and initial production runs of you product. It is as simple as that. Any other challenge you think you will face can be shoved under those two umbrellas, time and money.

Getting it made is the easy part if you identify the knowledge gaps and are willing to pay to have them filled. The hard part is what do you do when you are holding "it" in your hand.

No 1 of Consequence

Social, semantic, 2.0, 3.0, what is the web these days?

2008-02-15T17:18:00.004-05:00

The brilliant boys over at Freakonomics put together a group of top minds to debate the benefits and challenges of social networking. Why has social networking exploded?

Some possible reasons:

Reason 1:

Social networking changes the way business is done. I am currently doing some consulting work for a web start-up. They are two young guys with a very interesting idea. How did I meet them? One of them showed up as part of my fraternity networking group on Linked In. I was interested in his company because I am seriously considering leaving mine. However, they have not received funding yet and aren't realy sure how to seek it. I have given them advice and pointed them in the right direction, but at the end of the day they need a veteran to help them through. I am not in a position to lead that charge for them. However, I knew the perfect guy. I used Linked In to introduce them. They've had a very productive meeting and my veteran friend is most likely going to sign on with my young friends in a mentoring-interim CEO capacity to help them through the funding process. Before Linked In was a story like this possible? No, because it is unlikely I ever would have met the young entrepreneur.

Reason 2:

A serious desire to connect with other people in an increasingly hostile world? It is harder and harder to make friends the older you get and I think it is a daunting task at any age once puberty hits. Social networking gives people the ability to reach out there and find people they really have common ground with, allowing them to connect on a different level than normal. Normal being, "I work with this guy and he isn't a complete ass so let me go to lunch with him." Occasionally those relationships turn into real friendship. Most of the time they disappear as soon as one or the other changes jobs.

Are there more reasons? Yeah, without a doubt, but these are two big ones in my opinion. I started to write this post a long time ago about how fragmented society has become and how that is hurting television ratings. What I am starting to realize is social networking is becoming as fragmented as society at large. MySpace rose, and then Facebook, Friendster, Linked In and more and more. It has gotten so crazy someone started a social network search engine called YoName.

Look at all the networks it searches:

26... I am pretty dialed in webwise and I haven't heard of some of those. I am 100% sure that isn't all of them, because one of my favorites is Ning, and Ning is not included on the list.

What does any of this mean? I am really not sure, but when looking at sociological interactions of the human race, social networking is a very interesting twist in the way we touch each other.

No 1 of Consequence

Yes we can

2008-02-15T12:22:00.001-05:00

Jericho returns

2008-02-12T22:29:00.005-05:00

I haven't written about TV this year. Work has been so busy I have barely had time to watch nay much less write the kind of critique and opinion you expect of me. However, since Jericho returned to the air tonight, I wanted to tell you about it in the hopes you will watch all 7 episodes and keep it going into 2009.

Jericho is a different kind of show. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic America that is trying to put itself back together, two towns in Kansas went to war last season. The last word spoken in the last episode of last season was Skeet Ulrich, captain of the Jericho, KA town militia shouting, "NUTS!" into a field radio to the captain of the evil New Bern, KS town militia who were attacking them.

Then CBS cancelled the show.

The battle would never take place.

New Bern would never receive their due for the evil they perpetrated on beacon of hope Jericho.

Then the fans got involved. The people were sick and tired of imaginative, well written and well acted shows getting decimated before they got a chance to take root. Fan sites sprung up everywhere and CBS was sieged with e-mails and calls demanding Jericho be picked up for a second season. CBS' response, unsurprisingly, was that they appreciated the fans passion, but we could go collectively jump in a lake.

Did the fans of Jericho give up? Nuts to that!!

The fans of Jericho began shipping peanuts in massive quantities to CBS headquarters in New York City. Box after box, pound after pound of peanuts bombed CBS HQ until finally, the programming executives relented and ordered a limited run for 2008. That run premiered tonight and in the opening scene, as one of the Jericho's citizens recovered from the battle in a hospital, he ate shelled peanuts, as an homage to the power of the fans and the power of the internet.

Jericho is the best TV show most of you have never seen. It is uniquely crafted covering the micro and macro views of what America could become following a catastrophe. I highly recommend it.

No 1 of Consequence

Martin Luther King Jr.

2008-01-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

It's a long video. If you have the time watch it. If you've never read King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, please take an hour and read it. It demonstrates a compassion and understanding for humanity that have rarely been seen in this world. This passage moves me every time.

"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

I encourage my loyal few to embrace that understanding of collective responsibility and let it live on through your hearts and actions.

No 1 of Consequence

Why do many people fail?

2008-01-15T08:54:00.001-05:00

I got a call from a recruiter last week who wanted to engage me in a contingency contract to fill open positions I might be recruiting at my current company. I, at the moment, do not have any open positions and even if I did, this particular recruiter does not specialize in representing the kind of candidates I would be evaluating for hire. However, I gave her the go ahead to send me her contact information and invited her to send me an invite on LinkedIN, a business networking site I am involved with.

Did she follow up?

No.

Will she get referred to the person I know hiring exactly the kind of people she reps?

No

Is this a major failure for her and her company?

You better believe it.

Lack of follow up is a leading cause of failure in business. The worst part about this for me personally is I am as guilty as the next person. There are so many things I really want to be doing, but I am working so hard right now it is very hard to spend the extra energy to follow up and follow through on the things I want for myself. I don't really have it to spend. Of course that is excuse making, no need to point it out to me.

If there is one thing I want to do in 2008, it is to be better, in all things. Now I just need to follow through.

No 1 of Consequence

Sir Edmund Hillary - A hero for the ages

2008-01-11T09:50:00.000-05:00

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away yesterday at the age of 88 years old. In my opinion Hillary's greatness did not come from being the first to reach the top of Mt Everest. His greatness wasn't defined by being the first man to lead a mechanized expedition to the South Pole. His greatness is defined by his willingness to try. He stood up and said "I will strive for the untouchable." The attempt to do the impossible is great all by itself.

In addition to being perhaps the greatest adventurer of the 20th century Hillary was supremely generous. His founding of the Sherpa Trust in the 1960's changed Himalayan life. Hillary worked tirelessly for the Sherpa community, building schools and hospitals. His will to give back to the world was as great as his desire to experience what few men have.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Sir Edmund Hillary personified the man in the arena. He knew the triumph of high achievement and in the attempt as much as the achievement inspired the world for generations.

No 1 of Consequence

Further evidence Georgia, well, sucks

2008-01-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

The Georgia Supreme Court is currently discussing the constitutionality of banishment. This is far more important of course than discussing the in effectual, illegal, and un-Constitutional teaching of abstinence only curriculums in the schools. Apparently crossing into Georgia immediately transports you back to the time of Napoleon I. I always wanted to visit Elba.

No 1 of Consequence

Twitter will figure it out

2008-01-07T11:31:00.000-05:00

Fred Wilson a venture capitalist from New York, is an early stage investor in a an upstart social media company called Twitter.

For the blissfully unaware Twitter has been the subject of much debate in the tech community as of late because no one can really figure out how they will make money long term. They are a company that launched without a business model and are hoping that somewhere along the way they will figure out how to make money. I think they will.

Twitter is a service that allows users to deliver quick messages (tweets) to the community of people who follow that particular user. The tweets can be delivered in various ways. It is catchy because in addition to it being incredibly easy to use it is kind of fun. It is stream of consciousness micro blogging. It is also a lot more.

How do you monetize it?

Well the first thing they can do is make it a "freemium" service like Yahoo or countless others. It is free for the basic service, but if you want more complicated features, it costs X dollars a month/year.

Advertising. Web ad spending is expected to double between now and 2011. If this is true it means a LOT of new potential revenue for a company like Twitter to capture and they have interesting ways they can do it. Basic text ads attached to tweets and contextual advertising (Google-ish) based on tweet content are two very simple and possible ways that Twitter could start generating some significant advertising revenue.

Here is something I consider more interesting. They could partner with communities that already exist and brand their service to those communities. ESPN tweeting customized score updates through the twitter engine with the ESPN branding and Twitter collecting revenue from ESPN each time. ESPN pays the freight, they give an interesting service to their fans, and the brands expand. I know there are similar sports services out there already, but you can apply to any business, especially some that DON'T already have services like that. I know there is interest, because at my company we have already talked about trying to do something with Twitter. I also made a suggestion to a friend who works for a daytime talk show and he was intrigued about some possible ways to put Twitter to use.

None of these ideas even touch on the potential monetization of Twitter's open API which allow other applications to be developed on the Twitter engine. Twitter is a relatively young company and look at all these different applications that have been built!! Pretty impressive stuff.

Good social media tools become good marketing tools and end up being profitable marketing tools as long as they have good management, technology and support backing them up. I believe there are some smart people working on the monetization of Twitter and they will figure it out. I spent 20 minutes working on it and look what I came up with.

No 1 of Consequence

The bell rings... or maybe tolls for America.

2008-01-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

The Iowa Caucus takes place soon and the starting bell for the next presidential election will ring loudly across the land. Does the election matter? Is it possible for anything to change for the better? Daunting questions, to be sure, but hope springs eternal in my mind that we can achieve something as a united American people.

Meanwhile the disenfranchisement of the American voter continues. (I apologize for the USA Today link) Here is an article about how the caucuses actually prevent participation from interested Iowans because of the stringent voting restrictions.

This is a great piece of writing from Michael Moore. It sounds like Moore will endorse John Edwards if Gore doesn't get into the race. In my opinion if Gore doesn't get into the race soon it will be too late. The former VP recently accepting a partnership at Kleiner Perkins (a leading investment bank)makes me think he isn't running.

I am currently reading a book that was written to scare the living daylights out of Americans. Maybe that wasn't the intent of the book, but it is scaring me pretty badly. I will be delving into it in greater detail as I get further into it. The book is call The End of America, A Letter to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf. I am about 25% through it. I recommend it highly.

No 1 of Consequence

How do people get here?

2007-11-14T16:59:00.000-05:00

I don't have what you would call a tremendous amount of traffic. I have some regulars and a generally increasing number of one and done type people who meander in from Google. I also get some regular traffic from "Why don't we get drunk and blog?", but unless I ever hit the top 25 over there I don't think that is going to increase too terribly much. If Paul Katcher ever linked to me my traffic would really explode.

Right now the #1 traffic driver to No 1 of Consequence is searching: Just end the season

This phrase holds a special place in hearts of Jets fans around the world as it is usually uttered somewhere between weeks 2 and 3 in the NFL season and repeated like a dogmatic mantra until the merciful end of week 17. Then the mantra is something along the lines of, "how will they screw up the draft this year?"

I also receive many hits to my Debbie Cole post because everyone seems to like a feel good story of a garbage person giving back life changing money because it is the right thing to do.

I get a LOT of hits for people searching tilapia recipes.

I quote Aaron Sorkin a lot (won't be linking to all the posts, but I always give him credit, so if you are interested use the search function in the upper left.) and that always brings people in.

How important is this? Not important at all, but it was way more fun to write than a lot of things I could be writing right now.

No 1 of Consequence

The Georgia education system is atrocious

2007-11-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

I am going to write about No Wife a bit today because my anger has reached a point that I may have a stroke if I don't get this out into the world.

My wife is a social studies teacher. She is a summa cum laude graduate of one of the finest universities for educators in the northeast. She has won very presitigious teaching awards from the State of New Jersey as well as been nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by a very prominent corporation. Her lessons are engaging and collaborative. She has significant experience at top rated schools in a state that consistently ranks among the highest in public education. Yet here in Cobb County, Georgia, in two school years of looking she has been unable to secure employment. This is ludicrous.

In a state like Georgia which is supposedly dying for teachers. she is consistently passed over, not only for jobs, but also for interviews. In a state like Georgia, which has an appallingly ranked educational system, how can any principal justify passing her incredibly impressive resume by? In a state like Georgia which is populated by military families and numerous bases, how is it that a veteran of the United States Army with impeccable credentials and an amazing ability to reach even the toughest students doesn't get asked to serve her community?

Our phone should be ringing off the hook. She should not be sitting at a computer shaking her head as one perfect position after another comes and goes with nary a phone call. The middle and high schools in Cobb County Georgia are robbing their students of opportunity on a daily basis because of what appears to be an "old boy" hiring policy. (I have no evidence of this, but nothing else makes sense when you measure No Wife's credentials against the positions available.)

No Wife is a rock star at the front of a classroom. Who is going to step up and give their students a real chance to not only learn something, but love the process of learning it?

No 1 of Consequence

Saliva

2007-11-13T17:59:00.001-05:00

I have not been able to get this song out of my head. It is slamming! My musical tastes are fairly eclectic, but stuff like this winds me up. I would have embedded it here, but the embedding is disabled at the request of Universal Music who haven't learned that the free model, driven and bundled with advertising is the way to go and choking off content from the masses is stupid. What's better? Me bashing Universal for disabling the embed capability or, me embedding the song here promoting Saliva's music and Universal and allowing YouTube to get their advertising to a wider (ever so slightly wider) audience. Silly shortsightedness wins again.

No 1 of Consequence

I'll have a tank please, shaken, not stirred

2007-11-01T15:40:00.000-04:00

OK, so then we'll take the flying carpet and fly over the invisible tanks.

Invisible tanks.... I don't care who you are, that's pretty cool stuff.

No 1 of Consequence

Interesting interview

2007-10-31T12:22:00.000-04:00

You may or may not recall that awhile back a student at the University of Florida was hit with a taser and arrested after asking Senator John Kerry some hard questions during an open mic. Andrew Meyer has dropped of the radar since then, but he gave an interview to The Today Show website and will be appearing on the show Thursday morning. The interview is very interesting and despite his youth he seems fairly grounded. It is an interesting read.

No 1 of Consequence

Jack Sparrow? Not so much

2007-10-30T08:56:00.000-04:00

Being in the international trade game, I tend to look at international stories and politics in a different light than most people. Political unrest and conflict in various areas around the globe cause something called supply risk. I saw a story this morning about pirates off the coast of Somalia seizing a North Korean cargo vessel.

At first blush you can smile and laugh and think to yourself that anything the kicks Kim Jong Il in the teeth a little bit is good for the rest of the world. However if we take a moment and think what might be in that cargo ship and what could be falling into the hands of Islamic fundamentalist pirates we may begin to worry.

Piracy in the waters off Somalia and traveling through the waterways that surround the islands of Indonesia is rampant. Ships and good are routinely seized and held for ransom. My question is, what happens if the wrong ship falls into those hands? Not a pleasant thought.

****UPDATE: The North Korean crew retook their boat when the U.S. Navy showed up.

No 1 of Consequence

41 years

2007-10-28T10:08:00.000-04:00

My parents have been married for 41 years. In years 40 and 41 their jackass of a son (that would be me) has been too wrapped up in the insanity of his own life to remember their anniversary. So, to honor their commitment, I am mentioning the anniversary on my blog.

41 years is a LONG time. 14,965 days. 359,160 hours. 21,549,600 minutes. 1,292,976,000 seconds.

Their marriage, like any marriage, has had its ups and down, but despite any troubles they have remained steadfast.

41 years is a testament to love and commitment. It is also a testament to endurance. In an age where marriage and divorce happen on demand and vows are taken with a very large grain of salt. It is nice to slow down for a moment and look to a marriage that has stood the test of time.

I'm very proud of my parents for being able to achieve such a milestone. I look forward to actually remembering to honor their love and commitment to each other next year.

Mazel Tov guys! I love you.

No 1 of Consequence

Pragmatic Environmentalism: Part II

2007-10-24T14:33:00.000-04:00

I just saw this great article on CNN and was very pleased to see that my family already does a lot of the things on this list. I will be putting out a battery recycling bucket this weekend because as anyone with children knows, the kiddies go through batteries like water. Here is another phenomenal way to save money on batteries.

****UPDATE - Reason #468 why it is important to have readers smarter than you. The battery thing was bogus.

No 1 of Consequence

You know you've been a parent a long time when...

2007-10-22T22:53:00.001-04:00

Your baby pukes in the night and you have his clothes changed and him back to sleep in less than three minutes.

*In the interest of full disclosure this was minor pukage and not full on projectile vomiting over sheets and blankets. Had that taken place the pit stop would have taken 6-8 minutes depending on whether there was mattress involvement. Damned post nasal drip and the latest revelations that decongestants and babies don't mix.

***UPDATE: Second puking episode, this time requiring a tub dunk executed to perfection by mommy, jammie change, sheet changes and some snuggling. I was back in front of the computer in 12 minutes after putting in a stinky load of laundry. BOO YA!

***** UPDATE 2: 4 puking episodes, multiple jammie and bedding changes, and although it was relatively short during each one I didn't end up getting to bed until 2:30. I am retracting my earlier BOO YA!

No 1 of Consequence

A little moralized... hmm

2007-10-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, moralized isn't really a word, give me a grammatical break. I am usually very good to you people. :-)

As I have mentioned in the past, I lived in Israel. Well today I created a social network on Ning for all the alumni of the Otzma fellowship. It was kind of tedious inviting all 240+ members that I have e-mail addresses for, but I think it will end up being worth it.

No 1 of Consequence

A little demoralized

2007-10-15T18:05:00.000-04:00

In the first incarnation of this blog I used to get the occasional drive by comment. Someone who happened by and graced me with some words of their wisdom. I even used to have a contentious republican who would rant and call me a liberal nut. He would still read me ever day even though he hated me. I also had a regular Canadian reader named Grace who would happen by from time to time and give me some comment love. Now... I get nothing. It is kind of disappointing and makes me think my blog sucks. What a way to end an otherwise crappy Monday.

No 1 of Consequence

And now for something completely different

2007-10-15T15:42:00.000-04:00

The Freakonomics guys wrote about something recently that intrigued me. While I am not an anarchist or anti capitalist at all I find something very intriguing about anyone who is trying to do it (life) differently. Because I appreciate different points of view I have created a new link list and added a link to Liz Seymour - Anarchist Mom. Her point of view is so reasoned it makes dumpster diving seem almost palatable. I am planning on making her blog a regular read, because I like alternative points of view.

Here are a couple of other alternative point of view sites for a different way of looking at finance.

Prosper is a community based lending site

Kiva is a community lending non profit for micro finance in the third world.

Both sites are very cool and are helping people.

No 1 of Consequence

Twitter 2

2007-10-12T13:54:00.001-04:00

I wasn't sure about the whole Twitter thing at first. I am not usually an early adopter of technology, so it was kind of strange for me to be using something that is basically cutting edge. However, someone saw yesterday's Twitter message and hit me on the IM to express concern about my general well being. (I'm fine by the way) Why is the IM follow up relevant? It immediately demnonstrates the possibilities.

Imagine you are waiting for some very important news and by proxy your entire support structure both on and offline are waiting. The news arrives, positive or negative, and you tweet it out to everyone who follows you. (presumably the aforementioned human support structure) All around the world, people's mobile phones, e-mails, and or personal Twitter feeds go off letting them know that everything is ok... or not. It is a powerful communication tool that is just scratching the surface of its capabilities.

No 1 of Consequence

Pragmatic environmentalism

2007-10-10T14:39:00.000-04:00

I don't drive a hybrid, but I am interested in the environment. Lately my attention has turned to solar power and its potential for reducing the carbon footprint (excuse my use of trendy lexicon) of the U.S. and the world in general. This is a VERY interesting story about solar power and a new technology that makes solar cells signifcantly more effective. It isn't technical at all and is quite compelling. I recommend it.

No 1 of Consequence

Twitter

2007-10-09T23:24:00.000-04:00

If you look to your right you will see I have added a Twitter widget to my blog. It is a neat little thing that allows me to pop in short updates anytime I feel like throwing a sentence or two on the blog. Also, if any of my loyal few subscribe to Twitter you can "track" me. You can get an update anytime I tweet. If you really want to stalk me you can register your cell phone with Twitter and receive a text message anytime I tweet. Kind of an odd phenomenon indeed, but kind of cool as well.

No 1 of Consequence

J - E - T - S Just End the Season

2007-10-07T23:51:00.000-04:00

Bill Simmons of ESPN recently wrote a column about the different levels of losing in sports. It is an intricately detailed sonnet about futility. He gives personal anectdotes of how each different kind of loss affected him. It is amusing, it is tragic, and after pondering my life as a Jets fan, it is woefully incomplete.

Level F for Futility - When you know before the season ever starts that your team has absolutely zero chance of doing anything worth cheering for because they can't stop the run, can't run the ball, and their QB is so incompetent every fan KNOWS that at a crucial moment he will kill your team's chances with a life sucking interception.

Example: The 2007 New York Jets.

I spent a lot of time on the phone with Annoyed today. We are both Jets and Yankee fans which if is kind of an anomaly if you are from the NYC area. Most Giants fans are Yankee fans and the Jets and the Mets fans seem to match up despite the oddly annoying rhyme scheme that creates. (For an odd twist the Nets are moving right into the hotbed of Jets, Mets fandom in Brooklyn with the hopes of creating an annoying fandom rhyme scheme trifecta.)

After the Jets flukishly jumped out to a small lead Annoyed and I sat on the phone with each other shamelessly predicting when the downfall would occur. Chad Pennington obliged as he always does. One interception demonstrated Pennington's incompetence to such a glaring degree that Randy Cross, who was announcing the game, called it, "truly terrible." When the Jets got the ball back for a final chance to tie the game, Chad predictably threw a soul sucking interception.

To be fair, this particular incarnation of Jets incompetence was not limited to the offensive side of the ball. The defense was equally offensive. The defense's inability to stop the run or tackle was just as incompetent as the offense's inability to run the ball or convert a crucial 3rd down play.

In other news the Dolphins lost again and currently leading the charge for the #1 overall pick in the 2008 draft.

The Patriots may go undefeated.

Joe Torre staved off firing for a day because the Yankees managed to win a game against Cleveland.

No 1 of Consequence

Debbie Cole rocks!!

2007-10-05T10:41:00.001-04:00

When I am feeling especially cynical about the world stories like this make me feel better.

A garbage collector in Florida found a bag of money and returned it to the owner. The bag contained $65,000. A huge amount of money? Not especially. However, for a garbage collector in Florida it is life changing. It would have been two years salary according to the news story. Debbie is a public employee so she can't be rewarded by her boss, but if Loomis security (the people who were responsible for the money being on the side of the road) is smart they will give her a nice reward. I am seriously thinking about sending her a gift card to a chain restaurant and writing her a note about how much I appreciate her showing responsibility and honesty where most others would not have.

No 1 of Consequence

Some thoughts on a Tuesday afternoon...

2007-10-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to point out in the new layout there is a second set of links. The business links are business blogs that I read every day written by very smart people. What you have to take into account when you read the works of smart people, whether it be the Freakonomics guys or anyone who knows what they are talking about is they occasionally fall in love with their own ideas. I do it. I think everyone does to a certain extent.

At one point I thought it would be a great idea to own a retail video store. I thought it would be a great business that could pay the bills while I wrote the great American novel. Looking back now I was clearly an idiot. I bought into a dying industry at the end of its run without knowing a whole lot about retail, market conditions, budgeting or forecasting, or generally anything about business. It cost me on every level, but was also probably one of the better learning experiences of my adult life. Was it worth the lesson? The jury is still out on that one. Failing big is a hard teacher.

I guess the most interesting thing I learned from that failure is that I am not afraid to fail. Perhaps a better way of saying it is fear of failure will never stop me from putting it out there. The true enemy of all success, in my opinion, is fear. Whether it be fear of the unknown, fear of the consequences, fear of being wrong, or fear of life, the biggest factor in anyone's personal failure is being so afraid of the outcome it prevents you from trying.

The business blogs are writte by people that had the big idea or funded the big idea and helped that big idea turn into massive success. Marc Andreessen's blog is especially interesting. As big time minds go, his is among the biggest.

I hope you enjoy the new links as much as I do.

No 1 of Consequence

This is a story about a man named Chad...

2007-10-01T10:05:00.000-04:00

He is a quarterback and he's awfully bad!!

When Jets fans watch him he makes them sad!!

He makes me sick and he makes me mad!!

It's time to say goodbye to the man named Chad!!

On a Monday morning that is what passes for poetry coming from me.

Watching the Jets yesterday was a further exercise in futility. They lost 17-14 to a Buffalo Bills team that was just north of ugly. The defense was pathetic. The Bills only punted three times the whole day. However look at the line for Mr. Pennington (the man named Chad for those uninitiated to the NFL) 32-39 for 290 yards 1 touchdown and two interceptions. First glance at that stat line and you say to yourself, "Chad Pennington is a good quarterback." But you don't watch the Jets... you don't know the tragedy that is his right arm.

I want to like Chad, I do. He is a smart player. He understands the game. However, watching his throws flutter through the air as his receivers wait and wait is physically painful. He lofted a ball in the air yesterday that almost got Jerricho Cotchery killed. Chad Pennington just doesn't have the physical tools to be a winning QB in the NFL. I think he will be a great head coach one day.

Solomon Wilcox, one of the CBS announcers that handles Jets games described Pennington's passes as wounded ducks. They flutter and linger in the air while defensive player have a chance to catch up to the Jets receivers and destroy them with vicious hits. The last play of the Bills game was a Pennington wounded duck interception. The pass floated through the air while one of the Jets receivers waited and waited for it. The ball never got to him and another Jets season went down the drain.

No 1 of Consequence

RAGE

2007-09-25T01:33:00.000-04:00

It is a wonder my faithful few, that I have not snapped living here in red state hell. Atlanta is a multi cultural and diverse city. I don't exactly live in the city of Atlanta. I live just a bit outside in perhaps the whitest community in America. Lily white. Snow white. Even the black people are whiter than me. I am sick of living here. Almost everything that happens in this community irritates me.

Today my 13 year old son brings home a paper that states that abstinence only curriculum approved by local ministers is taught in his PUBLIC school. What's worse is that the program is funded by a FEDERAL abstinence only grant.

I am holding a piece of paper urging me to allow my son to participate in a program that has no hope of success. Not only does the program preach abstinence through adolescence but abstinence until marriage. Good luck!!

There are numerous studies which state that teaching abstinence is not only ineffective, but also irresponsible. Teaching abstinence without teaching proper contraception technique is reckless. Do you know why? Kids are going to have sex. They are going to have sex. THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE SEX!!!!

Why are ministers involved in the teaching curriculum? I am pretty sure that is a clear violation of The Constitution. Why is the federal government giving out absitnence grants. The GAO, the governments own oversight organization said that teaching abstinence without fully teaching contraception techniques (among other things) is a violation of federal law. After the GAO made this recommendation HHS (Health and Human Services Admin) changed the Federal Abstinence Grant guidelines to specifically preclude the teaching of contraception techniques. It is wonderful to see the Bush administration isn't just interested in breaking laws involving illegal search and seizure. They are violating the Constitutional rights of children and endangering their lives at the same time. Rock on.

No 1 of Consequence

The saga is at an end

2007-09-24T15:47:00.000-04:00

Milton Bradley has torn his ACL and is out for the year. 244 Plate appearances and a cloud of dust.

So sad. Sadder still that I care.

No 1 of Consequence

Never tie your fantasy baseball hopes to an insane player

2007-09-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

Read my post about Milton Bradley. Then read this. Then picture myself slamming my head into my desk saying "6 more plate appearances... YOU F-ING LUNATIC YOU COULDN'T WAIT SIX MORE PLATE APPEARANCES BEFORE YOU MELTED DOWN LIKE CHERNOBYL?"

No 1 of Consequence

Today's sign I am a major nerd

2007-09-22T23:16:00.001-04:00

I have been in the same fantasy baseball league for over a decade. I won't go into details about how much more geeky my league is than others but take my word for it when I say, we go above and beyond. I actually flew to NJ last year for the draft.

"No 1, who cares? Why are you telling us this unimportant nonsense?"

Very good question.

Milton Bradley of the San Diego Padres needs 250 plate appearances in order to qualify for the league next year. As of this moment he has 240. I am currently monitoring the Padres - Rockies box score to check each time he comes up to bat.

"Why in the name of all that is good in this world would you do that?"

Another good question.

Milton Bradley has been injured about half a dozen times this season. This is the reason he has so few plate appearances. (500-600 is the norm for a baseball season) He is currently battling a strain to one of the oblique muscles on his side. The Padres are fighting for a playoff spot right now, so if they feel he can't play up to his normal level they may sit him down for the last 2 weeks of the season and play a healthy player instead.

I don't care about Milton Bradley. I don't care about the San Diego Padres. All I care about are these last ten plate appearances. Yes, I am the biggest geek in all the land

No 1 of Consequence

The trials and tribulations of being a busy blogger

2007-09-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

There is no excuse really, but work is once again all I am thinking about. Well, that and how many rounds of Resistance I will get to play on any given night. Well that, Resistance, and the ever blooming entrepreneurial ideas that are gnawing at me.

I want to write about the country. It makes me sad and I want to share that with you. I want to write about the kids. They make me happy and I want to share that too. I want to write about the Jets. They make me suicidal and I am sure that will make you laugh. I want to write about what I am thinking. Some people have found that interesting from time to time. I want to do all of these things. However, I don't have enough time to really explore my thoughts.

What do you think of the new template?

No 1 of Consequence

5 years

2007-09-13T14:50:00.000-04:00

I have been using blogger for 5 years in the first and second incarnations of No 1 of Consequence. In that 5 years I have not changed the layout of the blog at all. I am going to do it. I have links that need to be updated and some more traffic drivers I want to add in. The new blogger layout is much more conducive to easy editing.

This weekend it will happen.

L'Shana Tova (that means Happy New Year to my non Hebrew readers)

No 1 of Consequence

International travel is yucky

2007-09-05T05:25:00.001-04:00

Please forgive the lowbrow title, but I am exhausted. I am in Geneva this week and after spending labor day on various planes getting here. Between all day overnight travel on Monday and working all day and part of the evening on Tuesday I am still not totally recovered. I slept well last night, but am still jet lagged to a significant degree. I will start to feel better tomorrow and Friday, right in time to waste my entire Saturday traveling home.

This place is so absolutely gorgeous it is almost worth the trip. It make me wish I could paint.

No 1 of Consequence

I lived in Israel

2007-09-05T04:05:00.000-04:00

From 1993-1994 I lived in Israel as a participant in the Otzma community service program. At the time a large portion of that program was spent living on a kibbutz and learning to speak Hebrew. I found the kibbutz experience to be one of the most rewarding and peaceful experiences of my life. It was disconnected living for the most part, completely foreign to anything I had ever known in my life as a priviledged teen-ager/early twenty something from NJ.

I worked in a plastics factory and picked potatoes. I ate hearty meals with the community and played basketball every night with my friends. All the pain and heartache that my time at Temple University had worn into me seemed to melt away in the Negev sun. In addition I was surrounded by one of the most talented and brilliant groups of young people I ever had the good fortune to meet and being around them made me a better person.

Gary Becker & Richard Posner, perhaps two of the greatest minds of our time have a blog. They recently wrote about the transformation of the kibbutz movement and postulate that the time of the kibbutz has passed. This makes me very sad.

No 1 of Consequence

One step closer to equality for all

2007-08-31T09:01:00.001-04:00

It isn’t over yet, but a judge in Iowa has struck down a law that prevents same sex couples from marrying. As you may or may not know I find same sex marriage bans to be legalized racism. Discriminating against any person because of who they are is a fundamental wrong. I believe we need to rid ourselves of repressive ideas and reject any ideology that prevents any person from exercising the same rights provided to all others. So today we give a hearty high five to Polk County Judge Robert Hanson.

No 1 of Consequence

You sometimes wonder if the world has gone mad.

2007-08-29T10:48:00.000-04:00

I love the Wall Street Journal. I love it. It is a GREAT newspaper. Reading the "What's News" box on the left side of the front page is usually enough to keep you caught up on domestic and international business and politics. Today, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, above the fold, is a story about 2 young men who started a beer pong supply company. Ladies and gentleman, the world has officially gone to hell entrenched firmly in a handbasket.

No 1 of Consequence

The internet is dead and boring... says Mark Cuban

2007-08-28T10:30:00.000-04:00

Mark Cuban did an interview with Lloyd Grove and said the internet was on the decline. Due to the backlash from the interview he has followed up with a couple of blog posts amplifying and inflaming his comments and detractors.

Here are some of his comments:

The days of the Internet creating explosively exciting ideas are dead. They are dead until bandwidth throughput to the home reaches far higher numbers than the vast majority of broadband users get today. Few people's actual throughput to their homes have increased more than 5mbs in the past 5 years, and few people's throughput (if you dint understand the difference between throughput and the marketed downstream speeds your read from your ISP, you should) to their homes will increase more than 10mbs in the next 5 years. That's not enough to define a platform that allows really smart people to come up with groundbreaking ideas.

Let's be clear about my opinion of Mark Cuban. He is a visionary businessman that has created a billion dollar fortune out of ideas. That is something to be respected, in my opinion, because I spend a large part of my day trying to come up with the next winning idea. However, in this particular case I think he is dead wrong.

Let's assume for a moment he is right about the bandwidth that most people's homes will be able to manage. All that means is the smart people will have to think of ideas to make use of the bandwidth people have. I am sure there are start up companies out their right now that are working on data compression technology that will allow the kind of content delivery Cuban thinks necessary for the internet to advance. Maybe the better questions is why do people need more throughput to their homes for the net to advance beyond it's current state?

Take a look at the history of the internet and the creation and loss of great wealth that has come with it. Look at the new tools that are popping up and the different ways of interacting with everyone that is, was, or will be in your life. To say the net is in its infancy might be a gross overstatement, but it is definitely in its adolescence. The world is making demands and the markets follow demand. If the net truly needs greater throughput to expand, it will have it. My hypothesis is that someone will think differently and come up with a better idea of how to use the bandwidth that exists to advance the net for themselves and for the world.

No 1 of Consequence

***EDITOR'S NOTE*** A lot of my respect for Mark Cuban has been lost. He is scheduled to appear on Dancing With the Stars.

Alberto Gonzales, see ya

2007-08-27T12:43:00.000-04:00

Alberto Gonzales resigned. Democrats are criticizing him as he goes. Republicans are giving him very subdued thanks. If you follow this administrations myriad mistakes you are aware that Alberto Gonzales has made a number of them. If anyone thinks that his actions are independent of this administration's policy of oppression they are sorely mistaken. President Bush and his cronies have declared war on civil liberties in this country. Alberto Gonzales was acting in the service of his king... so called king, self crowned king... facist leader. Should he have risen above the administration and led the Department of Justice on a just path? I think he should have. Am I even remotely surprised he didn't? Not even a little bit.

No 1 of Consequence

Well, it is hot... damned unbelievably hot.

2007-08-22T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hottest month in Atlanta history. YUCK!!!

No mas, I give up.

2007-08-20T09:42:00.000-04:00

Back on August 6, I posted about a law that basically usurped the 4th Amendement rights from a lot of Americans. I intimated in this post that the democrats were asleep at the switch while this legislation was being pushed through.

No Best Man of Consequence sent me an e-mail last night quoting a New York Times article:

Congress accidentally gave President George Bush the power to conduct warrantless searches and seizures when it passed a wiretapping bill earlier this month. Democrats are embarrassed they voted without understanding language that would allow—among other things—some physical searches, and the collection of business records, without a court order.

Another quote from the Times:

“We did not cover ourselves in glory,” said one Democratic aide, referring to how the bill was compiled.

________________

This is sickening on a number of levels. How does one accidentally give broad powers in violation of The Constitution to the executive? How is a bill accidentally passed? I am certain I saw a Schoolhouse Rock episode once when I was a kid that detailed how tough it really is to get a law passed.

That YouTube video is 3 minutes long. Longer than anyone spent reading this pathetic piece of legislation. It also demonstrates that Congress doesn't actually debate laws anymore. They just sign them out of fear.

Scaredy cat signing quote from the times:

Though many Democratic leaders opposed the final version of the legislation, they did not work forcefully to block its passage, largely out of fear that they would be criticized by President Bush and Republican leaders during the August recess as being soft on terrorism.

Once again we have checkers playing politicians in a chess playing world. This isn't even hard folks. I bet if I asked my 13 year old son how he would handle this kind of criticism he could easily come up with a deflection strategy that would be viable.

How about this, and keep in mind I 've spent exactly 3 minutes thinking about it.

Hypothetical politician responding to hypothetical criticism that he is soft on terrorism when faced with passing legislation that significantly impacts the rights of American citizens.

"When taking my oath of office after the citizens of (insert state here) saw fit to elect me as their representative I swore to uphold The Constitution of the United States of America. This legislation, while it may be expedient, does not protect the bests interests of Americans because it impinges upon their civil liberties. Voting for legislation that oppresses law abiding citizens is a violation of my oath and I will not sign, EVER. This administration has refused to do what's hard, which is protect Americans from terrorism without infringing upon the freedoms that make this country what it is. Until President Bush and the republican party take freedom as seriously as I do, and are willing to do the hard work involved in protecting that freedom, we will not be safe from ourselves, much less terrorists."

Think that would send any critical right wing elements scrambling? I do. Imagine what someone who does political spinning professionally could come up with.

No 1 of Consequence

Miracles do happen

2007-08-17T10:51:00.000-04:00

The victories for liberty have been so few in this country lately I wanted to share this small one with you.

Read this and smile, for The Constitution still exists, if only for a moment.

No 1 of Consequence

So long Scooter

2007-08-15T17:47:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't been paying attention or don't really care, baseball lost a great envoy this week. Phil Rizzuto wasn't just a great shortstop and great New York Yankee, he was greatly responsible for me loving baseball.

I was born in 1971 and some of the earliest memories I have of my father revolve around him coming into my bedroom to say goodnight and tuning in the Yankees games for me on a transistor radio. I listened to the exploits of Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Ron Guidry, Thurman Munson et al through Scooter's descriptions and stories. My love for the Yankees was born in those moments and refined over years and years. Listening to Phil shout "Holy Cow" into the microphone punctuated some of the greatest sports moments of the 1970's and my childhood.

Like many people who lived in Essex County, NJ I have my own Phil Rizzuto story, and it isn't just about the time I ran into him at the Millburn Diner with his wife Cora. In his later years Scooter was big on strolling around the local malls. He had a secretary that drove him around the area and he would shop and chat with people during the day. I used to get my hair cut at the Livingston Mall and as I was popping in for a trim he was walking out of the mall.

"Mr. Rizzuto," I said, reaching out to shake his hand, "I just wanted to tell you what a big fan I am and thank you."

I spent a few moments relating how my dad used to turn the games on and how my love of the Yankees was born listening to his voice.

He smiled and said, "Holy Cow! What a memory you've got!"

I laughed and beamed as he went on about his business. I know he threw his catch phrase around pretty liberally, but that one was just for me.

Rest in peace.

Boy Genius

2007-08-13T17:52:00.000-04:00

Karl Rove has resigned from the White House to resume his position as {insert satanic joke here}.

Say what you will about Karl Rove, and believe me, most of what I want to say uses language I tend to stay away from on this blog, the man was a genius.

He was, perhaps, the only chess player in an administration that was repeatedly caught playing checkers on a global stage. Rove's ability to manipulate the conservative vote by putting polarizing referendums on ballots in swing states was truly diabolical. He conquered. It is unfortunate that he never chose to use his brilliance for the benefit of all Americans, rather he spun his maniacal webs of deceit for the benefit of The President and his cronies.

Karl Rove is also guilty of treason. Scooter Libby took the fall for the outing of Valerie Plame, but the only person who doesn't think that Rove was ultimately responsible might be President Bush. If Karl Rove revealed the identity of an undercover CIA operative during a time of war he is guilty of treason. At the very least he should go to Fort Levenworth for the rest of his life. Karl Rove might be responsible for more damage to the United States than any other single human being in the last 30 years. The only reason I am not jumping for joy is because now he will be free to continue to plot against America without any oversight. I am truly fearful of the next time we hear his name in the news.

No 1 of Consequence

Since the first post was kind of a cheat...

2007-08-13T16:42:00.000-04:00

... and I am way more interested in posting than I am in working, I will give you a second post today.

For those of you that talk to me regularly you probably know I am a big fan of a book called Freakonomics. It is a well written, down to Earth take on some real world issues and gives you different ways of looking at them.

Here is a very quick example of some of the contentions of the book:

Roe v Wade was actually responsible for a significant drop in crime in the US.

Measuring teachers and school districts on the results of standardized testing leads to teacher cheating.

Reading to your child has little or no impact on their intellectual development, but having a lot of books available does.

Without reading the book none of that information means anything, but I was trying to whet your intellectual whistle a little bit. Read the book. It will teach you something, either about the world or about yourself. One thing it helped me with was asking the right questions when confronted with a situation.

Overall the book really trained me to ask the question, "Is this information relevant to the topic at all, or should I be looking for different information." It is a GREAT way to tune your personal BS filter.

Be that as it may I am writing this post for two reasons. First, I suggest everyone read this book. You may reject everything in it as hogwash and you may decide the questions the authors end up asking are wrong, but I guarantee you you'll be thinking about the book long after you are finished reading it. Secondly, I want to let you know that the authors, in association with the New York Times have a blog. It becomes severely pretentious at times as these guys do get wrapped up in themselves. Overall, however, it is a brilliantly written, thought provoking blog and it will give you something very interesting to think about almost every day.

Check it out It is a daily read for me.

No 1 of Consequence

***EDITOR'S NOTE*** I know I wrote about this about a month or two ago, but I didn't feel like I gave it the attention it deserved. So for the second time today I am cheating you out of real content. Bad No 1!! The Freakonomics blog has also been linked on the sidebar for all eternity.

My nerd-dom knows very few bounds

2007-08-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

The Princess Bride

2007-08-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Last week for the first time my two older sons watched The Princess Bride. My oldest (13) thought it was ok, but my middle son (7) was completely enamored. For the last week he has been bouncing around fake fencing and quoting the movie. Saying things like, "I know something you don't know... What's that?... I am not left handed," and "Who are you?... No 1 of Consequence... I must know...Get used to diappointment." He puts on a little Spanish accent when imitating Inigo Montoya and it is about the cutest thing ever. I don't write about the kids a ton, but since he fell in love with the movie that inspired the name for this particular blog, I thought I would share it with you.

Inigo Montoya: Who are you?

Westley: No one of consequence.

Inigo Montoya: I must know...

Westley: Get used to disappointment.

Inigo Montoya: 'kay

No 1 of Consequence

We have to protect you, by taking away your civil liberties.

2007-08-06T11:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I don't even know what to say. It is a rare thing to find me speechless, but I am. You hope things would change since congress is now majority democrat.

The your government passes this law on a Sunday, while you weren't watching.

The Constitution becomes more and more a historical document every day.

I am going to go throw up now.

No 1 of Consequence

Fishy fishy in the sea.

2007-08-05T16:51:00.000-04:00

On my way to the Atlanta Zoo today I rode behind a Saturn Vue. This particular car, like many cars in GA, had a Jesus fish stuck to the back of it. Something was written in this particular fish and my naturally inquisitive nature tried to decipher it. Finally, I thought I had figured it out and read something so baffling that I laughed out loud.

"What?" asked No Wife of Consequence.

"I could swear the Jesus fish on that SUV says gefilte in it," I said with as much shock as I could muster.

"You're an idiot, it doesn't say gefilte," she said, "It probably says "gives life" or something like that."

I was forced to agree it was unlikely it said gefilte. As we pulled into the zoo parking lot, the Saturn was a couple of cars ahead. My wife was forced to pull very close to them as we entered the parking lot.

"Yeah, that's a Jesus fish that says gefilte in it," she said.

We parked very close to family that had the gefilte Jesus fish on the back of their car and I went right up and asked them where they procured this delightful little novelty. The husband told me he found it somewhere on the net.

Guess who's ordering a gefilte fish for his car? You bet your tuchus I am!

By the way, Pandas are super cute. I mean ridiculously cute. You almost can't determine a cuteness level they are so cute. If you don't believe me, click the Atlanta Zoo link above and load up the panda cam.

No 1 of Consequence

Resistance: Fall of Man

2007-07-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

I got a Playstation 3. Annoyed got a Playstation 3 first. No Brother got a Playstation 3 last. The Playstation 3 has WiFi. If you log on to Playstation 3 with No Brother and Annoyed and play Resistance: Fall of Man it is more fun than any 3 grown men should be allowed to have. The best part of all of this is when my oldest son is playing Resistance and trash talking No Brother and Annoyed. High comedy. High comedy indeed.

No 1 of Consequence

Live from the United Kingdom, China's got problems

2007-06-20T07:08:00.000-04:00

In the business I am in, I often hear people in the US raging against China. They worry that China is stealing their jobs, their money and their future. They worry about the power of the Chinese economy and how much of our foreign debt the Chinese government holds. I hear the voices of fear and in many ways those fears are founded. However China's internal struggles are enormous, and could be potentially crippling. From the oddities of having a massive migrant population to the atrocities that people seeking freedom have to endure China is poised for major change in the next quarter century and all the changes it will see won't be positive ones.

Read this article about the Great Firewall of China and you will get an understanding that the information revolution in China could be the first tumbling stone in the avalanche of actual revolution and I don't mean the perpetual revolution Mao Tze Tung was talking about when he wrote the Little Red Book.

_________________

As a general side note, TV in the UK absolutely sucks. Thanksfully I brought the first two seasons of Rescue Me on DVD with me. I watched a few episodes last night and they were as enjoyable as my brother and the annoyed guy promised.

No 1 of Consequence

Everything that has a beginning, must have an end.

2007-06-13T09:23:00.001-04:00

No, I am not talking about the Sopranos. I will save that discussion for another post (maybe today) when I have a few minutes to really delve into it. No this is to chronicle the demise of the regular, fairly large poker tournament that I created a few years back.

The first tournament was held at my parent's house in South Orange, NJ. It had about 50-60 people and we used awful plastic chips. My father's best friend was the champion and pocketed a couple of hundred dollars. Great fun was had by all.

A few months later my buddy and I secured a larger venue at a local synagogue and we had another tournament. It had about 70 people and was a fairly rousing success.

Eventually my work situation changed and my buddy and I were unable to run the tourneys anymore. However, one of the players picked up the mantle and continued what we had created. For the next few years she ran the tournaments and while I have been living out of the state for the last 2 years I even managed to make the last one, because I was in town visiting friends.

I found out this morning, that the last tournament, was most likely the end to that particular series of poker tourneys. It makes me sad to know something I helped create will be no more.

No 1 of Consequence

Look out time management

2007-06-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

One challenge I face being an abnormally inquisitive person about the world at large is that I will occasionally suffer a massive time drain to something I find compelling. This puts me behind at work and that causes me serious problems. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I am in terrible danger of it happening today. The guy's who wrote Freakonomics have a blog. I did not know this before today. I am in danger of losing the whole day reading it. I must be discliplined. I must be disciplined.

No 1 of Consequence

Civility

2007-06-08T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just read this article by Joe Klein. It interestingly details how he was slightly misled by a politician only to be completely lambasted by left wing bloggers. The politician called to tell him the misleading statement was unintentional and apologized. He printed the apology and got crushed again by the writers carrying the banners of the left.

I am absolutely a left leaning guy. Some would say I lean so far left I am actually laying down. They might be right. :-) My point in this little foray back into the political is that the inability to argue points with civility is what prevents progress. If someone is hateful, spiteful and vindictive is drags down their entire cause.

I fall into it sometimes, as do most people. I freely admit that the mention of Ann Coulter causes me to lose all ability to reason. Overall though, I try and keep an open mind.

Raising the level of debate in this nation is important. We have to ask more of ourselves and our countrymen. We have to focus our eyes on what is important and definitely learn to separate the things that aren't from the national stage. Publicly eviscerating people for making minor errors doesn't help anything or anyone.

_____________________________

Some notes from the UK

- TV here sucks. It just out and out blows. I was stuck watching reruns of Bones last night and felt like it was almost a good show because I was that bored.

- I don't sleep well here. It is hard to be super productive when I am dog tired a lot of the time.

- My brother calls my international cell phone to talk about fantasy baseball. I love that.

- I found out that significant time in Geneva is going to be in my future. I am note sure how I feel about this. Of course it means I will probably hit platinum medallion status on Delta.

- I really like the guys I am working with here. This consulting bunch is fantastic. They are a LOT of fun to work with and while I don't enjoy being away from my family that much, it could be a whole lot worse than it is.

- The UK is so damned expensive I can't even begin to tell you. The US needs to get the dollar back under control and they need to do it very badly.

- I found yesterday I have a new boss... sort of, maybe two new bosses, it still hasn't fleshed out and I am not really thrilled about it.

- There is a 99% chance that I am going to start doing podcasts. I just need to figure out if I can record using my Skype headset and Polycom Communicator.

No 1 of Consequence

Back in the saddle

2007-05-31T13:13:00.000-04:00

You know, I haven't been very good to my faithful few for awhile. I love this blog, but I fall in to the age old chasm of lack of time. It is an excuse to be sure. One could say if I truly wanted to devote time to this blog, I would.

I have been traveling extensively internationally and that is going to continue through the end of June. Hopefully, come July, I will be able to devote some time to writing about some of the absolutely messed up stuff that has been going on in the world.

A guy with an almost incurable form of transmissible TB knowingly getting on an international flight. This hit very close to home, because I have been in Hartsfield Jackson airport in Atlanta more times than I care to count in the last couple of months and I have been on several trans-atlantic flights, with several more to come in the next few weeks.

The deomcratic party slowly but surely squandering its strategic advantage heading into the 2008 election.

The pathetic display of the New York Yankees on the field so far this year.

and much much more.

I have about a million things I want to write about. I hope to give you more to read soon. If not, please be patient, this blog lives.

No 1 of Consequence

Puppet

2007-05-05T08:47:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been feeling like a marionette. I feel like I have not been in control of my own destiny. Work this last year has been tumultuous at best and while at one point I thought this position would bring me fortune, I am beginning to think that is not the case.

In the last couple of weeks I have taken steps to regain control of my destiny as it were. I have launched an entrepreneurial venture that could prove very lucrative should my partner and I be successful. He has a history of success in these types of ventures so he seems like the ideal person to be getting into business with.

Also, I have been working on an invention, design modification that will increase the fuel efficiency of Class 8 18 wheeled tractor trailers by a significant amount. I have been told that if you can save truckers 1 cent per mile your invention has merit. If that is the truth this is potentially worth billions. I have approached an engineer with a long history of achievement to assist me because while my little mind can conceive a great many things, I have NO idea how to actually make it work. I am meeting with a patent attorney this week.

I have a number of other entrepreneurial ideas bandying about in my addled mind, but these are the two that are getting launched within the month. Of course, the patent attorney could tell me I am late to this particular party and I will have to flush the idea and the venture with my non-engineering partner could crash as quickly as it took flight, but I am cautiously optimistic.

No 1 of Consequence

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are being played...

2007-05-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

...and so am I.

Unfortunately, there is not a damned thing we can do about it. We like to drive our cars and therefore we need to buy gasoline. When we buy gasoline we enrich those who strive to screw us, but we need to get to work, or the beach, or wherever.

Read this please.

That article details how gas will reach record highs in relatively short order despite crude oil being about $10 a barrel cheaper than it was last time gasoline breached the $3 a gallon mark.
The reason it details is an unusually high number of refinery outages lately and an inability of the oil companies to bring gasoline to the masses.

Hmm... If I was a multinational oil conglomerate or ten and I wanted to drive record prices during peak usage time, would I manufacture a reason to reduce the gasoline supply to the marketplace? I think I would. The oil companies know we will buy the gas anyway. Because they know we will buy the gas anyway they can do whatever they want. The only way to get them to turn the tap on and keep it on is to reduce demand. Will we reduce demand? Under no circumstances. So when paying $3.75 a gallon in July for regular so you can drive 500 miles to your destination of choice, remember, we are all to blame.

No 1 of Consequence

Dead to Me #2 Mike Nifong

2007-04-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

I guess we should really blame O.J. Simpson. I mean, anyone who read this blog regularly knows he murdered basketball for me. However, O.J. is also responsible for bringing that nimrod Judge Lance Ito in my life. Ito was the first working judge to really become a household name when he allowed cameras into his courtroom and turned a murder trial into reality TV. Since then there have been myriad wannabe famous judges prosecutors and lawyers that have tried to turn their cases into fame and fortune for themselves. The latest loser?

Mike Nifong

If you have been living under a rock for the last year or so Mike Nifong brought an indictment against three Duke University lacrosse players for allegedly assaulting a stripper they brought to a fraternity party. I won't mention the names of the players because these guys have been harmed enough and they certainly don't need me bringing more attention to them. However Mike Nifong, assclown of the year, smeared these boys in the press, to their families and to the general public. He painted them as monsters, predators and everything that is wrong with college sports.

The problem? It was all a lie.

Mike Nifong had NO case. There was no evidence. The complaining witness was not even remotely credible. Did Mike Nifong care? Nope. He saw fame and fortune and who the hell cared if he ruined the lives of three people to do it. They were rich kids anyway, they would survive.

Today, to add insult to egrigious injury, Mike Nifong apologized to the boys today, after North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges yesterday and proclaimed the boys innocent and Nifong a rogue. I tried to pull up a copy of the written apology, but for some reason I could not find a working link. In reality it doesn't matter what he said, how could it possibly help.

Mike Nifong will most likely be disbarred for his behavior and that is good. He will also probably spend the rest of his life paying off the judgement these three young men will win against him in civil court. If I was the State of North Carolina and the County of Durham I would write a big fat check now and save everyone the pain and embarrassment of the lawsuit.

Mike Nifong, dead to me for all time.

No 1 of Consequence

Running with, what the hell was that about??

2007-04-10T23:54:00.000-04:00

Running With Scissors is a movie based on the personal memoir of a man named Augusten Burroughs. I am going to spoil part of this movie for you if you haven't seen it. If you have, then feel free to commiserate with me in the comments section.

The movie, essentially is about Augusten's search for a normal childhood which is stolen from him because his alcoholic father leaves and his psychotic mother dumps him on her shrink. Augusten and the shrink's wife form a relationship and the payoff of the movie is her showing him a mother's love as he jaunts off into the world. Sound sweet?

There are a couple of major problems in this movie. Every commercial, every preview and everything I saw marketing this movie billed it as a comedy. It is NOT funny. It is not even remotely funny. There are a couple of moments that make you smile and some comedic depictions of insanity, but make no mistake, this is a dramatic film. It pisses me off when I am so misled by a movie's advertising. The comedic marketing of this film was a cheap manipulation and it sapped my enjoyment.

The cast is top notch and the acting is superior, so watching it, while irritating, was not excruciating. The irritating part is the climax of the movie is a culmination of Augusten's relationship with Agnes, the shrink's wife. However aside from a single scene starring Hamburger Helper the movie never delves into the relationship in a substiantive way. Why does Agnes love Augusten? I am still not sure.

The book may enrich the plot points that are so egrigiously missing from the movie and the story is mildly compelling so if I ever get a chance to read for pleasure in the near future I might pick it up. Now that you know what to expect I can say Running With Scissors is worth watching, but don't expect a comedy, you will not get one.

No 1 of Consequence

UPDATE: I wrote this last night when I was ridiculously tired and couldn't sleep. Re-reading it this morning tells me I should NEVER do that again. I won't delete it, but be aware I know it sucks.

15 years without laughter

2007-04-10T15:50:00.000-04:00

When I was a boy I listened to stand up comedy. Many nights I would fall asleep to the sounds of Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and many others. Then, around the time I was 14 or 15 I heard a guy named Sam Kinison. He was so raucous, imaginative and over the top I was completely blown away. He made me laugh almost every time I heard him speak. I waited on line at Sam Goody to buy his new albums the day they were released and I listened to them until I could recite them in my sleep. 15 years ago today he was killed on the road to Las Vegas by a drunk driver. An ironic death considering Sam's hard drinking and drugging lifestyle, but a tragic one nonetheless. Sam brought political correctness to its knees during his day and in a world that thinks Dane Cook is the funniest guy around I find myself missing Sam's raw observations more and more.

No 1 of Consequence

Code or Censorship

2007-04-09T15:24:00.000-04:00

From the New York Times

I find it interesting that blogging has become so prolific that people are sitting around discussing ways to make it nicer. Even if some community of bloggers comes up with a comprehensive code of behavior who is to say who will sign on to it and who won’t. Some people allow anonymous comments (me) and some don’t. I don’t really care what anyone says about me or anything I write. I welcome dissension and argument. If somebody posts something I don’t agree with I will just ignore them. If they post something I find offensive I will just delete their comment. If I stumble upon a blog I don’t find savory or palatable I won’t go back there. I am not sure I need a codified blogger standard to guide me. I apply my own filters to the world. I think most bloggers are capable of doing that.

No 1 of Consequence

Sometimes you have to laugh

2007-03-28T11:13:00.000-04:00

I love to play poker. Anyone who knows me really well knows this. I am a solid, if unspectacular player and my only failing is that I really don't play enough to be really good. This past Saturday the wife and I saw an ad on the net that intimated there was a live game at a local club that skirted the gambling laws. Being the outlaw gamblers that we are we decided to give it a try. Did I mention this was a big time redneck club? They have a website... here it is.

Now for me to be in a place like that to begin with? I don't drink or smoke. I also don't like loud music as I suffer from tinitis and this exacerbates my symptoms. So stepping in the door of this place is out of character for me, but I moved my wife to this ridiculous state and sometimes you have to bite the bullet. Also, because I like to play poker I figure the night won't be a total loss.

Unfortunately it was just an ad to bring people in. After paying the cover we found that there was only one poker table and you could buy chips, but not cash them out, so you were basically renting the seat and you could play, but not for money. Playing poker for anything other than money is stupid. However, we already paid the cover and figured we would play for awhile and hang out.

After about an hour I was bored out of my skull. My ears were ringing, my eyes were burning from the smoke and the general amusement I get from people watching had worn off. My wife, who doesn't have a general aversion to these places the way I do was having a good time. She doesn't get to go out much to places like this, so I didn't say anything. I tried to enjoy myself. I did enjoy the live they had. The singer was very talented and while I don't particularly like country music I would have to classify this more as southern rock and I like rock music. Unfortunately the volume was just too high for me.

Finally as we got up to leave the highlight of the evening took place. A seat opened up next to my wife at the poker table and a very tall blonde woman sat down next to her. She leaned over and began chatting up my wife. I couldn't hear much of anything at that point so I had no idea what they were saying. Turns out she thought my wife was pretty hot and wanted to take her home. So the highlight of my evening at the most rednecky place I have ever been was that a blonde redneck lesbian tried to pick up my wife. It was almost worth the ear pain.

No 1 of Consequence

Where the heck have I been?

2007-03-19T11:21:00.000-04:00

Good question. I have been working like a dog. I was actually in the United Kingdom for a week in the middle of my absence for work. Traveling on business has a lot of bad points and only a couple of good ones.

Bad points to business travel:

Long airline flights
Being away from the family
Not sleeping in my own bed
Working twice as many hours as normal (this is time zone related and kind of unique to European travel, because half of the US day or more remains when I get back to my hotel)

Having conversations like this over skype:

Me: Tell the baby I love him
Her, to the baby: Daddy loves you
Her, to me: He said, "Who's daddy?"
Me: Ouch

It was said in jest, but the fact remains that traveling is as hard or harder on my wife and kids than it is on me. As I said there are some good points to business travel for me and NONE for my family.

The good points to business travel:

Per Diem expense policy: If you are on a per diem expense policy and you are willing to sacrifice on accomodations or dining you can make a lot of extra cash. On my UK trip I got a hotel that was approximately 100 dcollars less than my per diem allotment and I brought enough food that I was able to eat about 75% of my meals without spending money. I profited close to $1200 on the trip and that money is basically paying for our family spring break vacation back to NJ. I also learned some valuable lessons about bringing food on trips and will be able to make even more money next time. If I had been willing to really sacrifice and stay in a youth hostel I could have made double the profit on the trip, but I am not a young man anymore and a youth hostel is not on the agenda.

The plush hotels: I have travelled twice to Europe in the last 6 months and stayed in 3 hotels. They were incredibly plush. The last one I stayed in was so sweet I felt guilty being in it alone.

Broadening my horizons: I like to experience new things and it is nice to be able to say I was here, I was there. I probably would never have travelled to the UK or Switzerland if not for my job, so that is nice too, even though there was no real time for sight seeing.

_______________

Work has gone from breakneck to dangerously close to killing me in terms of intensity. We have launched one new product in the last couple of weeks that I have a LOT of responsibility for and will be launching the biggest new undertaking since the company itself took flight back in 1999. I have major responsibility for getting it ready.

______________

I hope to get back to a regular posting schedule. I don't like not writing and I am not going to let the blog slip away. I just have to be more disciplined and take time that I spend watching TV to decompress at night to generate content for the blog.

Keep checking back. More to come.

No 1 of Consequence

This week in the world of no one.

2007-02-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

This week I am learning an advanced software testing package as part of my new job responsibilities. I have never really worked in an information technology role so this is all new to me. I am a bright guy, but a LOT of this is beyond me. Things like custom scripting and regression testing are beyond my current skill set. I am ramping up quickly, but trying to learn an entire new profession ini 5 days is like... well, trying to learn an entire new profession in 5 days. It is as daunting as it sounds.

Some of the people in the class are very senior programmers. One interesting thing I found is that I am finishing the exercises a lot faster than they are and with few if any mistakes. I couldn't figure this out until this afternoon. It turns out being an IT dummy is actually helping me in these situations. I follow the instructions in the book to the letter and make no mistakes, they try and do fancy IT stuff and ignore the interface and screw it up. Being dumb in this instance is cool. :-)

No 1 of Consequence

Sometimes being a parent sucks

2007-02-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

While I had planned on doing a lot of reading over the last week or so, I truthfully didn’t get much done at all. I spent a majority of my free time, doing laundry, changing diapers and trying to comfort my sick little baby. I have three children and while they have all been sick at any given time, neither of the other boys has EVER been as sick as the baby was this week. Between the vomiting, diarrhea, trips to the emergency room for IV fluids, and about a million diaper changes I was probably as scared as I have ever been for one of my children. He just didn’t seem to be getting any better at all. Thankfully it the illness seems to be behind him at this point.
I have a newfound respect and appreciation for people who have a chronically or catastrophically ill child. I cannot imagine having to endure that permanently. The powerless feelings of not being able to help or in some cases even comfort the little guy are terribly painful. The thoughts, however brief, that we might lose him aged me ten years. Having to live with that feeling full time would be crippling to me. I can’t imagine how parents survive it.

Some lowlights of the last week:

I had to hold my little guy down while they gave him an IV. Since he is a bit of a chubby baby they had trouble finding a vein. So, they had to stick him three times. One of the times they jiggled the needle around inside him a bit to try and get the vein. He screamed. He screamed a lot. It wasn’t pleasant.

That of course, came in a close second to having to pin him down while they gave him a catheter to get a clean urine sample. Now, I held him for his circumcision, but this was something completely different. I can’t imagine something more unpleasant. He just cried and cried. Thankfully it was brief, but if I never see the inside of an emergency room with one of my children again I will be OK with it.

Overall it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life and I am drained just thinking about. I will tell you this though, coming home last night and seeing him smiling and giggling while splashing in the bathtub was one of the more uplifting experiences I have had in a long time.

4 books I intend to finish before Feb 12

2007-02-01T10:41:00.000-05:00

Why on Earth is February 12th the goal? Well, I have accepted a role on the global management team of my company and I am starting some intense training on that date. After that, things are going to be a whirlwind with multiple trips to Scotland on business, countless hours working, and very little time to focus on any leisure reading outside of news and keeping up with my various fantasy baseball teams. So this is the goal I have set for myself.

I have a legitimate shot to finish three out of the four, mainly because I have already started reading three of them. The 4th is over 1000 pages long and apparently the beginning of a rather intricate tale.

So let’s begin the latest installment of what is No 1 Reading:

Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How it has Failed the Public. By Helen Thomas

This work is extremely critical of the White House press corps and the press in general, essentially accusing them of being complicit in the abrogation of our constitutional right to know what the hell is going on with our government. She accuses them of being fearful of falling out of favor with a bully of a White House and not asking the tough questions. Helen is a long time Washington correspondent and has been continually snubbed by the President and his handlers during press conferences because of her desire to find the truth for the people.

Why am I reading this? Well, I have been making a similar argument for a long time. No Best Man of Consequence works in the media and I often challenge him and the industry by proxy when I see what I feel are significant injustices taking place in the world. He always comes back at me with the “people don’t care about anything anymore argument,” which I partially agree with and we usually move on to something else. (I have a partial post about our distracted society and how we all suffer for it, but that is a different discussion for a different day.) Anyway, he usually has me outclassed in the argument because I don’t have anything empirical to back me up when we talk about it, so I am trying to broaden my mind in this particular area.

Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book – By Phil Gordon

This is considered by many to be the best poker book ever written. I am only a couple of chapters in and am already enthralled by his simple and concise style. Annoyed and No Brother both recommended this book very highly and since I respect their opinions and their poker abilities I definitely want to finish this book.

Why am I reading this? I want to be a better player. I do well in my home game here in GA and I do well online. I, hopefully, am going to be in Atlantic City in late February and am definitely going to be in AC in early April and I want to be at the top of my game. Digesting the information in this book and integrating it into my personal strategy of play is one good way I can do that.

Now I Can Die In Peace – Bill Simmons

Anyone who reads this blog knows I am a big fan of Bill Simmons. I read anything he writes and I enjoy about 80% of it. The odd thing about my liking this guy is that he is a huge Red Sox fan and this book is a collection of articles and associated commentary leading up to the Red Sox defeat of the Yankees in 2004 and their World Series championship. I have been reading the book for awhile and I am really enjoying it. I am planning a detailed post related to it because it offers such a unique perspective to a Yankees fan. Also, for a Red Sox fan Simmons has a very good understanding of the mentality of Yankees fans even though he calls rooting for the Yankees the same as “rooting for the house in blackjack.”

Why am I reading this? You have to support people who have entertained you that much in your life. Even though the subject matter is not something I am terribly interested in the writing is good and I have been entertained throughout.

Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin

This book is the first in a significant series. HBO is turning it into a TV series. When they made the announcement, No Accountant of Consequence, who is an expert in this particular genre, was very excited. He highly recommended it so I picked it up.

Why am I reading it? The recommendation is a big reason, plus HBO’s de facto endorsement of the content carries a lot of weight with me. Of all 4 books I have going right now though, I will probably not get this one finished by my deadline.

_____________________________________

Some quick hits not related to what I am reading.

I have about 10 posts in draft and this causes me to be significantly irritated with myself. I really want to write more, but I won’t just throw anything up and a lot of the topics I want to cover require research because as most of you know, talking out of my ass is something I don’t really like to do.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training imminently. (Feb 14) I am very excited for the coming baseball season.

Work has taken a lot of interesting twists and turns this year. This is my 24th month with the company and if you had asked me in my 4th month if this is the way it was going to go I would have told you that drugs were bad and you should really get your head checked.

Projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea from your almost one year old baby is not really fun. There is just something about a very sick little baby that is especially pathetic. There is also an acute feeling of powerlessness that happens when your child is sick. My little man has the flu right now. He can’t keep anything down and he is just miserable. It just sucks that there is nothing we can really do for him.

Disney World is an incredible amount of fun, but while it may be the most wonderful place on Earth, it isn’t even the 1000th most relaxing place in Florida. I still have blisters on my feet.

The Last Day of the Month

2007-01-31T09:29:00.000-05:00

The last day of the month is an interesting time at my office. My company is doing very well financially and while it hasn't been as much fun for me lately as it was when I started, this is a great place to work.

The last day of the month though is about one thing at any company that is driven by the sales team. Booking revenue. The sales team is a bunch of young hungry guys and they walk in the last day prepared for battle. The office smells like toasting bagels in the morning and catered whatever around noon. If you walk over to the sales bullpen you can feel the buzz. The phones are ringing or keypads are being pounded. Voices are raised as the team passionately tried to close deals. Everytime someone walks to the board to put up a sale there are high fives. It isn't a boiler room environement per se, but there is that kind of a feel. The energy is burning in the room. Cans of Red Bull are pounded as the day goes on to keep energy levels up. The rest of the month, sales styles clash and tensions run high but on the last day of the month, when team bonuses and records are in reach there is one goal. As headsets are tossed aside and beers are opened at the end of the day, the sales team has almost always crossed the finish line victorious.

No 1 of Consequence

Funny Commercial

2007-01-26T17:42:00.000-05:00

I can't endorse Kyocera products, being as I haven't used any, but this is pretty funny.

Out of the carnage... Life will find a way

2007-01-20T17:09:00.000-05:00

This is the story of six fish. The story of six little fishies that had the fortitude, the guile and the will to live. Six fish that bucked the odds, apparently hid under something and survived the Christmas carnage. Just the other day, when the winter weather here in Georgia abated and the temperatures climbed into the 70's I heard a rousing cry from the kitchen. I walked in to see what the ruckus was about and there, in my beloved koi pond were six survivors.

I didn't believe it at first. There had been a rumor that one survived, but I did not have personal visual confirmation. Then, just the other day, the six fish that survived the apocalypse showed themselves and proved once again that life will find a way. Turns out Jeff Goldblum was right.

Credit where it is due

2007-01-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our internet access at home is completely screwed right now. We have Bellsouth DSL and for whatever reason we cannot access any websites save the Bellsouth home page. This, of course, is a significant problem, because both No Wife and I are wired people. We communicate with friends and family through the internet. We get our news from the internet. I work for an internet company and when I work from home I work on the internet. We are wired and right now we are disconnected. Our issues began yesterday at some point in the early afternoon. After I got home from basketball practice I called Bellsouth customer service and a rep named Jim spent over 2 hours on the phone with me trying different fixes. He was incredibly patient and extremely knowledgable. He was also reasonable and logical. We had a disagreement about the source of our DSL nightmare, but when I took him through the sequence of events that clearly laid the fault at the feet of Bellsouth he did not get belligerent or try to obfuscate. He simply said, "I have exhausted things on my end. Let's set up an appointment for a technician to come out to you." We set a time and hopefully things will be fixed on Thursday morning. It might have been the best customer service experience of my life. So I say bravo Bellsouth. Bravo!!

UPDATE: Apparently, it was a dns error that could have been fixed over the phone. I still give credit to Bellsouth, because the guy who came in fixed it immediately, but damn 2 hours on the phone for something that should have been a 30 second fix. Ouch!!

No 1 of Consequence

Bad luck in Atlanta

2007-01-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I am a HUGE fan of the Georgia Aquarium. We had season passes last year and would definitely consider them again in the future. I can't say enough about the place as detailed in my original review here. Unfortunately two of the most popular animals in the aquarium have passed on in a relatively short amount of time. Gaspar the Beluga Whale and Ralph the whale shark have both died in the last month. Gaspar had been significantly ill before he ever came to the aquarium so his death was not a huge surprise, but Ralph's death was sudden and has thrown the aquarium staff for a loop. Here are a couple of pictures I took of them last year.

Bye big guys. I'm gonna miss you.

Gaspar Ralph

No 1 of Consequence

They're dead to me #1

2007-01-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

In an homage to my man Annoyed and his "People I can do without series." I am starting a posting series of my own, called "They're dead to me." This term originated in my vernacular when Chilis took their tuna steak sandwich off the menu. This pissed me off to no end and I have only eaten there under protest since. However, since Chilis being dead to me is old news we will dedicate this initial post to another restaurant that crossed the line.

The death of a fun restaurant franchise.

Every chain restaurant is basically the same. You walk in, are seated, place a quick drink order, order appetizers, are served appetizers, order food, are served appetizers, eat appetizers, are served food, eat food, order dessert, are served dessert, eat dessert, get check, pay check, leave. This happens, obviously, in varying degrees. Aside from menu items and style of food, there is very little variation to this. In fancier restaurants this is spread out over a couple of hours. In cheaper places you can be in and out in 30 minutes or less.

One way for a restaurant to differentiate itself is with its branding or style. The Cheesecake Factory, for example, has developed a concept that drives people to order dessert. How can you go to a restaurant called The Cheesecake Factory and not order a slice of cheesecake? Higher end places are carried by their name, Jean Georges, Nobu.

Another restaurant that formerly had a significant differentiator is the Rainforest Café. The food was decent, as good as any other chain, but the atmosphere was something special. The incredible fish tanks and décor, reflecting the sights and sounds of rainforests including animatronic animals and mock thunderstorms made it a really fun place to go. It was pricy, but not ridiculous and it was worth an extra couple of bucks an entrée when you factored in the user experience.

Last week No Family of Consequence dined at the Rainforest in Orlando, and while the décor, staff, and food were what they always were. The prices had skyrocketed. An average price of over 25.00 an entrée, 2.50 for a soda and 7.99 for a kids meal tells me that the restaurant is dying and in an effort to save itself it is raising prices to try and suck as much money as possible out of its guests one last time.

It is disappointing that sometime corporate America can be so uncreative. I love tilapia, as we know from this post, but 26.99 for a tilapia dinner at Rainforest means I will never be darkening their door again. Cute frog mascot and nice fish tanks or not, they are officially dead to me. Never to be spoken of again.

No 1 of Consequence

Chad Pennington / Chris Burke (Corky) separated at birth?

2006-12-29T13:25:00.000-05:00

Bill Simmons wrote the following after watching the Christmas night Jets - Dolphins game, which, if you didn't see it, was one of the most boring NFL games on record. Two of the announcers, Tony Kornheiser & Joe Theismann spent 80% of the game bashing the Jets QB.

On an unrelated note, if there's a hell -- and I'm pretty sure there is -- part of the eternal sentence of damnation should involve an ongoing conversation between Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser about Chad Pennington's arm strength. Good golly. The only person who enjoyed that Christmas night broadcast was Tiki Barber's TV agent.

Here is the thing about that commentary. It was incredibly annoying. It did drain enjoyment from what was an already mediocre football game. However, it was 90% accurate. The Jets would probably be finishing the season 12-4 if they had a quarterback with a cannon for an arm. Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery have evolved into an elite receiving tandem despite Pennington, not because of him. Not to mention Pennington routinely hangs his receivers out to dry. In a four play span during Monday night's game he got two of his receivers absolutely obliterated by Dolphins defenders by throwing little floater passes instead of rocketing the ball into his receiver's arms. At one point I remarked that Pennington was going to get someone killed. About 5 seconds later the phone rang. No Wife answered it and the first words out of No Brother's mouth were, "Pennington is going to get somebody killed." She made some comment about us sharing a brain, but if you watched that game you know the New York Jets are not going to win a super bowl with Chad Pennington at the quarterback position. The main point being, he had no choice but to throw the floater passes because the words "rocket arm" and Chad Pennington are mutually exclusive.

No 1 of Consequence

Does homeowner's insurance cover this???

2006-12-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

When searching for a house in Georgia we had a lot of fexibility. We had a small bi-level in NJ and because we lived in a fairly deisrable neighborhood with good schools, when we sold the house we received a significant premium over what we paid for it.

This allowed us to get a house that would probably be worth close to 800K+ if we had purchased it in NJ and if it was in a more desirable locale than Sussex County where we resided (Mendham, Livingston, etc) it would be worth well over a million dollars. However, since we are living in Georgia we payed a good deal less than we sold our little house in NJ for.

One of the reasons I loved our house in NJ is because there was an actual river running through our backyard and I really enjoyed looking out the kitchen window and seeing the river or spending time on the deck and enjoying the view and the sound of the gently rushing water.

Here in Georgia, everything is broken down by subdivision and since we have children, living on a lake was pretty much out of the question. However, the house we decided on has a koi pond. We found this pretty appealing. The pond is located right outside the kitchen windows and when they are open you can hear the little waterfall that splashes into the pond. Also, when you look out the window you have a great view of the fish swimming around and I found myself routinely looking out at the fish. The first summer we were here there were frogs that had taken up residence in the pond as well and this was amazing.

There were two frogs and they would sleep in the waterfall, apparently enjoying the water rushing over them constantly. On very sunny days they would sun themselves on the rocks that the pond was built out of and routinely dive into the pond for a swim. I remember one day sitting at the kitchen window for over 30 minutes, just enjoying the little frogs playing in the water as the koi swam around them. They didn't return this summer and I really missed them.

Yesterday was Christmas here in Georgia and the weather was miserable. It was cold and dank and fairly depressing. No Dog of Consequence was kept inside as the weather was not conducive to his usual days of lazing around the backyard and sunning himself on our deck. I only bring up No Dog, because if he had been outside yesterday, the tragedy I am about to describe might never have happened.

No Family of Consequence was hanging around the living room as presents were opened and holiday merriment was enjoyed. However, No Baby, butt wiggling. as he crawled made a beeline for the kitchen. He was quickly scooped up by Mommy who let out a loud, "Oh my G-d!" followed by an equally loud, "Holy Crap!" I quickly got up from the couch to see what was happening and as I did I noticed a very large bird flying away. Apparently I missed the carnage.

It was a gigantic heron and it ate all of our koi. All of them. Gone. The waterfall continues to gently splash into the now empty pond and I feel like I was a bystander to a bad Discovery Channel documentary.

Mature koi cost between $30 and $100 apiece. So yesterday's birdy buffet cost me between $500 and $1500 worth of fish. My question remains, can I put in a homeowner's claim?

No 1 of Consequence

John Corzine, friend of gay Americans

2006-12-21T17:47:00.000-05:00

Today the governor of the great state of NJ signed a bill that effectively allows gays to marry. I applaud New Jersey for its progressiveness and hope the rest of the United States will get its collective head out of its ass and stop one of the last forms of legal discrimination.

Read some of my thoughts about New Jersey and Jim McGreevey's homosexuality here.

Read some of my thoughts about homosexuality in general here.

More baseball. Yes, I know it is December

2006-12-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

I read this very sad article about Mark McGwire last week and wanted to wrtie about it, but I have been absolutely swamped at work. The article is long, but the general gist is that Mark McGwire has faded completely out of the lives of everyone he ever knew before the steroid scandal. He doesn't see his old friends from home anymore. He doesn't talk to his former teammates, agents, or coaches anymore. He lives in a gated community and plays golf and is trying to live as quiet an existence as possible.

This is only relevant because he recently became eligible for the baseball Hall of Fame. There has been great debate lately on blogs, on the radio, on ESPN etc as to whether McGwire should be elected to The Hall, whether he will be elected to The Hall and what is going on in the minds of the voters.

Most people I know don't think about this or care about this. I am not sure I particularly care either, I just hate hypocrisy when I see it. For all the talk about cheating and degrading the great game of baseball the facts seem to support that the press and MLB management knew about the steroid problem long before the ridiculous congressional hearings. They knew about it before BALCO. They knew about it before Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth's home run total. They knew about it before McGwire was humiliated in front of the nation. The press and management knew and collectively did nothing.

Why?

The 1994 baseball strike crippled the business of baseball. It alienated the fans and tarnished the game for a LOT of people. The 1995 season saw significantly depressed attendance. merchandise sales were way down, television and radio ratings were off and ownership was in a panic. Things started to come back in 1996 and 1997. Then we reached the golden summer of 1998 when baseball recaptured America's sporting heart. Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa's home run title chase became the only story of that summer. McGwire's fist pumps and Sosa's heart and finger kisses were on Sportscenter every night, in every magazine, on every newspaper. As McGwire got closer to 61 home runs the brought out Roger Maris' family to celebrate in pomp and circumstance of a sport reborn.

Sure, McGwire weighed about 65 pounds more than he did when he was a rookie and looked to be bursting out of his uniform. It was true Sammy Sosa looked like he had been inflated with an air pump. Yeah, Barry Bonds looked like a human bobble head doll. Who cared? Sportwriters wrote about the glorious romance of baseball's resurgence and the ownership breathed a collective sigh of relief as fans flooded back to the stadiums and people turned on ball games in record numbers.

Any baseball writer who wrote about the glory of the summer of 1998 who deson't vote for McGwire's candidacy is a hypocrite. Any baseball owner who talks about how steroids soiled the game are also hypocrites. That Mark McGwire has been humiliated to such a degree that he can't even talk about baseball with his neighbors is an absolute shame. It is a crime against baseball and baseball fans.

In the grand scheme of things is this important? Not remotely, but the article made me sad for the big guy.

No 1 of Consequence

Strawberry, the voice of reason.

2006-12-20T09:20:00.000-05:00

You have truly reached a bizarro reality when Darryl Strawberry is a voice of reason. Essentially the linked article talks about how Derek Jeter needs to embrace Alex Rodriguez and make him feel welcome after his rough year last year. You can make a valid argument that A-Rod is making 25 million dollars and he should stop his girly crying and play up to his abilities. However, I tend to believe that we are all human beings and even those seemingly above it all can be affected by significant negativity in their surroundings.

I also heard an insider story that A-Rod showed up at Jeter's house and basically begged forgiveness for the 2001 article in Esquire that caused friction between them to begin with and was turned away.

A-Rod was quoted as saying: "Jeter's been blessed with great talent around him. He's never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun. And he hits second -- that's totally different than third and fourth in a lineup. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O'Neill. You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.' He's never your concern."

Competitors like Derek Jeter have egos the size of small planets. They aren't going to take something like that lightly. Especially when the guy doing the talking has never won jack squat in a team environment. Rodriguez has been a significant individual achiever in his career, but his teams have done nothing in the playoffs. Hang on, I feel myself meandering off point here.

My point is this, Strawberry is correct, Jeter needs to let it go. He needs to publicly step to the microphone and say something to the effect of, "Alex Rodridguez is one of the greatest individual performers in baseball history. He has shown himself to be a great team mate and contributor to the New York Yankees. His selflessness in switching to 3rd base when he arrived in NY is evidence of his commitment to the continuing greatness of the Yankees franchise and to our incredible fans. I am proud to call him my teammate and proud to run out on to that field next to him every day. What's past is past, the only future that matters is bringing the 2007 World Series championship to New York and paying back our loyal fans for their tremendous support."

Then, he needs to act like he meant it. No one will boo A-Rod again. A-Rod will hit about 75 home runs and drive in 150 and the Yankees will win the World Series, which is all that matters. Leadership by work ethic and example are all well and good. Sometimes you need to lead with your words. This is definitely one of those times.

Unintentional Comedic Moments in Parenting

2006-12-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

This is a story of a boy and a mask. I have been a dad for a long time now and if there is one thing that is absolutely awesome about being a parent aside from the unconditional acceptance and love, it is the kids will absolutely make you cry laughing at least once a week.

My middle son, six year old bundle of energy that he is, received this Darth Vader voice changing mask for Chanukah. Now while my six year old is a gigantic bundle of energy you have to understand he is not the largest of lads. He isn't very tall and he is super skinny.

Why is that particularly relevant?

It isn't, but when the kid wears his Darth Vader mask he looks like Rick Moranis from Spaceballs. This, if you are unaware, is high comedy all by itself.

The mask is far too big for the little guy's head. He looks like he could fall over at any moment when he is wearing it. Also, I am 99% certain he can't see a damned thing while he has it on his head.

Saturday morning he was bopping all over the house, making Darth Vader's breathing noise into the microphone that contains the voice synthesizer. I hear him bound up the stairs, thump down the hall, thump back down the hall, and start back down the stairs. Curiously the trip down the stairs is going a lot more slowly than the trip up. All of a sudden there is a great crash at the bottom of the stairs and I hear molded plastic hit hardwood.

Then, moments later, from down the hall, Darth Vader's deep childlike voice booms out:

"I'm OK!"

I am still laughing about it.

No 1 of Consequence

The NFL, Tivo, and me.

2006-12-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

After absolutely taking it to Green Bay on Dec 2. The Jets reverted to their regular pathetic under achievinig form this past Sunday. However, there was one ray of sunshine about this game. It is the first time I have ever watched a sporting event that was either completely or partially recorded with Tivo. I coach youth basketball on the weekends and this week's game fell during the Jets sad performance against the bills. I set my Tivo to record the game and went about my business.

You never realize how much wasted time there is during an NFL game. The walking around, the incessant commercial breaks, the unbelievable amount of time in between plays. Tivo gets rid of all of that. I walked in the door to my house about midway through the second quarter and by halftime I caught up with the live action. It was awesome.

I have so much I want write about and NO time right now. I promise more content soon.

No 1 of Consequence

J - E - T - S Jets Jets Jets?

2006-12-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Jets won on Sunday, absolutely blasting the Green Bay Packers on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. The victory brought the Jets record on the season to a surreal 7 wins and 5 losses. ESPN's headline was The Jets improbable run continues. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that my own prediction for the Jets success this year was that there would be none. In fact, after looking at the Jets schedule I predicted the Jets would be 4-12 at best. No Brother of Consequence had them at a pathetic 6-10 and No Dad of Consequence, who doesn't use the schedule to make his predictions picked them to go his usual 2-14.

There have been a couple of moments this season that have led me to believe that these might not be the "same old Jets." The fact that the Jets did not collapse against the Packers. Despite playing an appalling 3rd quarter which saw the Packers score 10 points and appear to regain momentum while the Jets fell over themselves, the Jets regained their footing in the 4th and really focused, putting the game away.

Against the Texans, Chad Pennington took a serious hit. It appeared that he landed on his surgically repaired shoulder in such a way that NoBro called me immediately and we were both of the opinion that he was done. He has had two surgeries on that shoulder and the blow looked really bad. To our surprise Pennington picked himself up off the turf and jogged over to the sidelines. He waved his arms in the air, pumping up the crowd which was invariably thinking the same things we were.

"At least he can raise his arm," said NoBro, who promptly hung up.

Both critical incidents that in other years would have spelled doom for the Jets season.

Another bright spot has been the fact that the Jets seem to have found a good running back combo with Cedric Houston carrying the load, Leon Washington as a change of pace back and Kevin Barlow carrying the ball in short yardage situations.

Some things to be worried about if you are a Jets fan:

- 0 pass rush. You can't win playoff games if you can't pressure the quarterback. It is a major problem that a defensive back leads the team in sacks.

- Ahman Green absolutely shredded us. If the Packers had gotten a lead and could have run the ball at all we would have been dead. Every time they gave him the ball he rushed for about 15 yards. 14 carries for 102 yards. Giving up 7.25+ yards a carry is not winning football.

- Pennington missed some wide open receivers. Justin Mchowever you spell his last name beat Charles Woodson badly and Pennington under threw the ball which allowed Woodson to catch up and make a good defensive play on it. All you heard Phil Simms talking about was that Woodson's speed has come back and he was able to close on McCairens when the video clearly showed that the ball was under thrown and McCairens had to slow way down and wait for the ball.

The good news is we don't play a team with a .500 record the rest of the season although a loss to the Dolphins on Christmas night is a mortal lock and it would be just like the Jets to blow the last game of the season against the hapless Raiders to miss the playoffs.

No 1 of Consequence

I hate methamphetamine

2006-11-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

It's true. I hate methamphetamine, and not for the reasons you might think. (That it is a scourge on society and is destroying families in both America's heartland and cities) Nope, I hate meth because it ruined NyQuil. NyQuil, the greatest, most effective night time cold remedy there is. NyQuil, the drug that inspired one of the funniest stand up comedy bits of my generation. NyQuil, the ONLY F-ING THINGS THAT LETS ME SLEEP WHEN I AM SICK!!!

How did meth ruin NyQuil? Good question. NyQuil used to contain a decongestant. Apparently, the decongestant is the thing that would knock you out. Now, NyQuil has removed the decongestant in order to prevent freaking meth addicts from making meth out of the decongestant in NyQuil. If they left the decongestant in, NyQuil would have to be sold from behind the counter at the pharmacy and not out in the aisle with all the other ineffective night time cold remedies. People would have to specifically ask for it. Guess what jackasses at VICKS? I would ASK FOR IT BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY F-ING THINGS THAT LETS ME SLEEP WHEN I AM SICK!!!

Instead of sleeping last night, what did I do? I am glad you asked. After flipping channels for about an hour finding nothing remotely entertaining to watch I settled on Bloodrayne. Bloodrayne is a vampire movie based on the video game of the same name. I have never played the video game, but I was willing to give it a shot because Michael Madsen and Sir Ben Kingsley were in it. I watched the whole thing because I couldn't sleep. It may have been one of the five worst movies I have ever seen. (Congo, Sphere, The Vanishing, and Last Man Standing being the other 4) The acting was horrifying. The combat was weakly choreographed and the plot resolution made no sense whatsoever. The only good thing about the movie was almost everyone in it died. I BLAME METH!!!! IF NOT FOR METH I WOULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING LIKE A BABY!! A baby who snores, but a baby nonetheless.

So do me a favor, today on National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, punch a meth addict in the face and thank him for ruining NyQuil the last pure good in this world.

Yes, this is what happens when I don't sleep.

No 1 of Consequence

An issue I care about

2006-11-27T19:33:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of Myanmarian children who were rescued from a child slavery ring in Asian. The kind of life these children were headed for is unknown to me. They could have been bound for a life of slave labor or unspeakable sexual exploitation. Either way, the innocence that they were graced with at birth was stripped from them.

These kind of surrealistics horrors take place every day in every country, including this one. This article is about a murdering scumbag who ignored the cries of the 19 people stuffed in his trailer as they suffocated and died while trying to reach the U.S.

This is a link to the yearly Trafficking in Persons Report that our government is legally bound to prepare every year since the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 was passed. It is long, it is terrible, and for some reason I feel compelled to read it every year. I am not saying you should read it, I just wanted you to know that we live in a world where Human Trafficking is so prevalent that our government, and many others are statutorily obligated to track it.

No 1 of Consequence

Woo hoo Showtime rules!!

2006-11-19T19:25:00.000-05:00

Showtime has given me my first blog notoriety. They linked to my website because of my post about Dexter. So because they gave me some respect I will once again talk about how unique and entertaining Dexter is. I recommend everyone give it a try. Episodes one and two of Dexter can be streamed for free from the Showtime website.

No 1 of Consequence

The week to come

2006-11-16T14:48:00.000-05:00

I am taking off from work starting tomorrow through the Thanksgiving holiday. I plan on writing, networking, and hopefully, sleeping. Check back, because I plan to change the blog a bit, as well as add some interesting content... you know, more than flash games about beating defenseless animals.

No 1 of Consequence

Knucklehead Time Wasting Fun

2006-11-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

I am a pretty hard working guy, but links like this one can cause me to lose hours of productive time at the office. You click your mouse and the little penguin jumps off the tree stump, as he gets close to the sasquatch you click the mouse again and the sasquatch hits the penguin with his club.

The penguin flies through the air and lands in the snow and the website gives you a distance of your hit. I have 488.1 feet on the fly and 533.4 feet on a skidder. Fun for the whole family. How far were your hits?

For you PETA folks no actual penguins or sasquatches are harmed during this game.

No 1 of Consequence

I just had to share this one

2006-11-10T02:59:00.000-05:00

I don't have a huge amount of time because I am about to finish up the training I came to Switzerland for, but I saw this story on Drudge and I had to share it.

I don't even know what to say about it. You have to read it to believe it. Apparently the pair to the left may need to be called back into service, except in real life and in the UK. Those wacky Brits.

_______________________________________

One other thing that I can seriously do without about Europe. Everyone smokes. I mean... everyone. Luckily the guy who is acting as my host does not, but a lot of people in the office do and it is still legal to light up in restaurants so when we go out together I end up smelling like crap afterwards.

Overall, everyone I have come in contact with in Switzerland is incredibly gracious and very pleasant and I have learned a ton on my trip. I am taking French lessons in the U.S. and I really need to ratchet up my studies. I have felt very much like the stereotypical American and I have really tried, in my life, to not be like that when I travel overseas.

No 1 of Consequence

Live, from Geneva, it's No1 a go go

2006-11-08T08:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's me, your favorite blogger away from my beloved country in Geneva, Switzerland. This is my first trip to western Europe. I have travelled in eastern Europe and the Middle East, so I am not culturally deficient, but this has been an experience.

Some quick reasons Switzerland is cool. The people are super friendly. Even though I am right near France I am not feeling any of the French, "we hate America" attitude you hear a lot about.

Every light has a motion sensor attached to it. You walk into a hallway, a light comes on, you walk into another part of the hallway, the first light goes off and others go on. It saves a tremendous amount of electricity. Also, in your hotel room, your hotel key activates the electricity in the room. So when you leave and take your key, everything automatically turns off.

Everything is beautifully clean. The countryside in Switzerland is gorgeous and the alps... Wow. You can see Mont Blanc right from the office where I am working this week and it is truly magnificent. Unless you live in Colorado you can't imagine. Waking up to such beauty every morning is both humbling and empowering.

Pay one price salad buffets. In the US, if you go to a salad bar (Sweet Tomatoes notwithstanding) you pay by the pound. Here you pay by plate. So you can get a nice hearty salad for lunch and not pay through the nose for it. Of course it is the only thing you don't pay through the nose for.

However, not place is perfect and there are some major downsides for an extra large American like myself. Everything is tiny, from the cars to the chairs to the hotel rooms. My ass has been in pain for about 72 hours straight.

Hotel rooms are ridiculously expensive as are most meals. They wanted 50 Euro in the hotel for breakfast. I actually laughed out loud before I walked out of the hotel restaurant. My gracious host paid about 25 dollars for me to eat a small plate of dark meat chicken & mushrooms and a roll last night with a small bottle of sparkling water. A meal like that goes for about 12 bucks in the U.S.

Swiss/French TV sucks. I tried to watch How I Met Your Mother online last night and the CBS site said the programming was not available for viewing outside the US. Same for the NBC and ABC sites. Yuck.

Being out of touch sucks. I am a husband and a dad. Not coming home at the end of the day is something I can seriously do without. Not much as lonely as arriving back in a hotel room at the end of a super long day and not being able to talk to anyone or get pounced upon by the little ones. Double Yuck.

Overall the trip is going very well, but I am really looking forward to coming home.

No 1 of Consequence

Have you ever experienced, deja vu...

2006-11-03T13:05:00.000-05:00

Have you ever experienced, deja vu...

Have you ever experienced, deja vu...

Have you ever experienced, deja vu...

Guess what, election shenanigans have started early this year. Yup, that's right, in Tennessee, some cards that can be programmed to wreak havoc on electronic voting machines have been stolen.

___________________________________

This story is almost equally bizarre. It appears the government of Mexico has banned itself from doing business with FedEx for three months. You have to wonder about a government that acts without explanation in a way that could affect the livelihood of 275,000 of its citizens. That is pretty messed up. I wonder why they are doing it.

No 1 of Consequence

Fishy fishy in the sea, won't you come and play with me?

2006-11-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

A study was published that says there will be a global seafood collapse by 2048.

I think this is going to be the one that actually comes true. The global fishing economy is too huge and impacts too many people for there to be a global consensus on fish conservation.

The article says:

"Joshua Reichert, head of the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program, pointed out that worldwide fishing provides $80 billion in revenue and 200 million people depend on it for their livelihoods. For more than 1 billion people, many of whom are poor, fish is their main source of protein, he said."

In a six billion person world that is about 16% of the globe that depends on fish for its main source of protein.

What are the repercussions of a global seafood collapse. Mass starvation in third world coastal communities? An explosion in thirdworld brith defects and still birth as protein deficient mothers are unable to produce healthy babies? I don't know if either one of those things are true, but they easily could be.

No 1 of Global Environmental and Socio-Economic Consequence

Some new stuff that I am watching and reading and listening to

2006-10-20T16:11:00.000-04:00

What am I watching?

I am a TV guy. I enjoy shutting my brain down for a few hours a night after long days at work where I am forced to make about ten thousand decisions. Also, work has not been nearly as much fun as it was when I started with this company so TV in the evenings is my escape. There are three new shows I have been watching this year with great enjoyment and I wanted to share them with the three people who still read this blog regularly.

The first one is Dexter on Showtime. Michael C. Hall, plays a forensic blood spatter specialist who moonlights as a serial killer. He only kills evil people, which is explained through a series of flashbacks. It is well written and unique. The uniqueness of it is what I find really compelling. An original idea is SO rare these days, so when I find one I really treasure it. I want to really give Showtime some credit. It took them awhile to get their act together, but they have stepped it up. Sleeper Cell was amazing last year and they are bringing it back. Weeds makes me laugh out loud every week. Brotherhood, which I have not seen is on my must rent list as soon as it comes out on DVD. They have really tried to pick up the gauntlet that HBO has thrown down over the last few years.

Of course, being the Aaron Sorkin devotee you all know my to be, I am watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip diligently. The writing is as good as ever, but I find myself not embracing Studio 60 the way I loved Sportsnight or revered The West Wing. I think a lot of it has to do with something that the Annoyed guy and I discussed awhile back. He postulated that the show, unless it was a mega hit would not be around for long because the cost to produce would be absolutely staggering. I could find no fault with this argument and I think that has been nagging in the back of my mind through each episode and knowing I could lose the show at any moments has really prevented me from loving it.

Lastly and perhaps most guiltily Heroes has made it on to the MUST SEE agenda. I grew up a comic geek and this show is literally and figuratively a comic book come to life. It isn't star studded like Studio 60 and it isn't socially important like The Wire. However, it is as well written a show as I have seen in my lifetime. It is mysterious and thoughtful. It is as unique an idea as Dexter is in its own way and I am finding it absolutely enjoyable.

That's some of what I am watching. What are you watching?

________________________________________________

What am I reading?

I just wanted to call out a couple of new blogs I have been reading religiously and share them with you.

1. Is everybody crazy, or is it just me? A thoughtfully written toe dip into the blogosphere by No Wife of Consequence. In her first three posts she has lamented about our adopted home state of Georgia and its marked lack of Italians, called me a retard because of my lack of musical knowledge, and bashed the US government for banning online poker. Stay tuned, it is only going to get better.

2. From the neck up - Another well written jump into the e-journaling medium by the better half of the esteemed author of People Places and Things that tend to Annoy me . She is honest and smart, two of the key ingredients of a good blog. Definitely check her out.

3. Why don't we get drunk and blog? The guy is funny. There is no getting around it. He also posts often, which more than I can say for myself these days. I have made him a twice daily check in because I usually laugh each time I pop on over there.

I terms of my literary pursuits, I don't usually have a lot of time to read. However, the last business book I read, Blue Ocean Strategy is the best thing I have read in a long time. It is uniquely presented with real world examples of marketing success. I am not in the marketing field, but anyone with even a passing interest in business will appreciate it's cerebral insights and case studies.

What are you reading?

_____________________________________

What am I listening to aside from Sirius Satellite Radio?

I am not one to write much about music, save for how little I know about it or how I don't have as much an apreciation for it as a lot of people I know. However, after reading about this Israeli rapper named Subliminal, I asked NoWife to download a bunch of his stuff onto my MP3 player. My ability to speak Hebrew has atrophied to the point where I can barely understand a word here or there, but there is no mistaking the guy is talented. I have absolutely enjoyed listening to his stuff over the last couple of weeks. Check out his website. It is hip hop mixed with this middle eastern sitar flavor and I think it is awesome. The website has two tracks embedded in it. You can get a sample, just by navigating over there. There is some bad language in English, so I wouldn't do it at work or around children.

What are you listening to?

No 1 of Consequence

Democracy - Rest in Peace

2006-10-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

I read this article today. If you don't have time to look at it, the short version is that despite a lot of raw polling data that says the republican party is in trouble come the mid term elections in a few weeks President George Bush and his minion Karl Rove are bopping around Washington inexplicably upbeat. They don't believe they will lose the house and although statistics indicate that as many as 25 house races are in jeopardy for the GOP the evil dynamic duo are laughing it up.

Why?

Good question. The answer could very well be that the races have been pre determined with the republican candidates coming up victorious.

I am not a conspiracy theorist. There is some hinky stuff going on with our electoral system lately and NO ONE is really talking about it.

No Wife of Consequence hates when I link to things in my blog but I emplore you to read this Rolling Stone article by Robert F Kennedy Jr. Your first question should be why are articles like this in Rolling Stone and not in, you know, Time, Newsweek, USA Today... mainstream press?

Our press has failed us in very much the same way our government has failed us. The sheer vastness of the failure is what makes it so daunting. The United States of America is as much an idea as it is anything else. A government, by of and for the people that was once within our reach is now a distant memory. The idea of this country has become a distorted mess cloaked in false patriotism, religious fundementalism, greed, and outright lunacy.

Why wouldn't the press of this country seize on the massive voter irregularities in Ohio in 2004 and if nothing else drive the government to investigate itself? Wait a minute, the government did investigate itself. This 107 page report from the GAO confirms massive voter fraud in 2004. Our own government's oversight office, stepping up and saying, "Hey, umm, the guy who is in the White House, technically, not the president."

In general the people who read this site are well informed and intelligent. How come nothing happened? Our country, for lack of a better term, suffered a coup d'etat and collectively the people and press shrugged their shoulders and said, "oh well."

Where is the action? Where is the outrage? Where is the press, defender of the people? These stories are relegated to "free press" internet sites and magazines few people read. One of the fundamental organizing principals of the United States is the right to vote. That right was usurped in Florida in 2000, it was usurped in Ohio in 2004 and now, when things are looking bleak for the GOP, Pinky and the Brain are skipping around like nothing is wrong.

Are they going to screw this country again? Are they going to disenfranchise legitimate voters and fraudulently shift election results? Based on what I have read and the overwhelming evidence in support of that hypothesis I say they are.

Will anyone stand up? Will our press or any of the men and women with the power to do so that have sworn an oath to The Constitution of this nation step forward and act to protect the people. Will they protect our right to vote, our quintessential freedom? I don't think they will.

Democracy, if not dead in the United States, withers before our eyes.

No 1 of Consequence

SuperTeam, no more

2006-10-08T13:55:00.000-04:00

For all of my lamenting as a sad sack Jets fan, I also have the pleasure of rooting for the New York Yankees in the baseball world. My Yankees fandom started early in the 70's. For some reason my father, a lifelong National League fan, began putting the games on for me on my transistor radio. Many nights of my youth were spent listening to Phil Rizzuto give the play by play as Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, Reggie Jackson etc, went to the World Series in 1977 and 1978. I was imprinted with the pinstripes at that time and my love of them has never waned.

There have been some lean times. 1982 to 1993 were awful. The Yankees were a pathetic mess. 1994 was ashame because they Yankees were awesome and were on a collision course with the juggernaut Indians in the playoffs. Also, the Montreal Expos had the best record in the National League before the strike and I was very excited for their long suffering fans. 1995 marked the Yankees return to the playoffs and I was lucky enough to witness one of the greatest playoff games of all time which included Don Mattingly's only postseason homerun and a game winning home run by Jim Leyritz in the bottom of the 15th inning. The Yankees ended up losing to the Mariners because Randy Johnson was an assasin and Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Junior were absolutely unstoppable, but there was no denying that Yankees were back. The return to glory was imminent.

Joe Torre took over the team in 1996 and the Yankees won the World Series. A fresh faced Derek Jeter was the rookie of the year and it was like Camelot for Yankee fans. 3 more World Series championships followed in 4 years and it was an embarrassment of riches. The New York Yankees were the kings of baseball and all was right with the world as far as me and baseball were concerned.

Yesterday the New York Yankees completed yet another series in which they choked very hard against an opponent they should have dispatched. I am not going in to a deep analysis of the series, but there is no way they should have lost to that Tigers team. The Yankee pitching imploded and their vaunted bats went silent. It has happened to them far too often in recent years at critical times. We have become the Atlanta Braves of the American League and the Yankees need to be fixed.

The Yankees manager in 1995 was Buck Showalter. In 1996 Joe Torre took over and the Yankees got over the hump to win the World Series. 10 years later, with a heavy heart, I think the Yankees have no choice but to part with Joe Torre. There are rumors Lou Pinella would replace Torre and while I don't think he is a great choice, there are worse ones. His personality is almost the diametric opposite of Torre's and I think the Yankees need a kick in the ass.

I am going to try and put together a "Fixing the Yankees" series of posts, but work is as insane as ever and I don't know how much time I am going to have to write.

No 1 of Consequence

No1ofConsequence

My little guy being adorable

Venture Money, now and in the near future

Hope springs from the pools of Beijing

What don't I know?

Hear No Evil

Asking the right questions

Social, semantic, 2.0, 3.0, what is the web these days?

Yes we can

Jericho returns

Martin Luther King Jr.

Why do many people fail?

Sir Edmund Hillary - A hero for the ages

Further evidence Georgia, well, sucks

Twitter will figure it out

The bell rings... or maybe tolls for America.

How do people get here?

The Georgia education system is atrocious

Saliva

I'll have a tank please, shaken, not stirred

Interesting interview

Jack Sparrow? Not so much

41 years

Pragmatic Environmentalism: Part II

You know you've been a parent a long time when...

A little moralized... hmm

A little demoralized

And now for something completely different

Twitter 2

Pragmatic environmentalism

Twitter

J - E - T - S Just End the Season

Debbie Cole rocks!!

Some thoughts on a Tuesday afternoon...

This is a story about a man named Chad...

RAGE

The saga is at an end

Never tie your fantasy baseball hopes to an insane player

Today's sign I am a major nerd

The trials and tribulations of being a busy blogger

5 years

International travel is yucky

I lived in Israel

One step closer to equality for all

You sometimes wonder if the world has gone mad.

The internet is dead and boring... says Mark Cuban

Alberto Gonzales, see ya

Well, it is hot... damned unbelievably hot.

No mas, I give up.

Miracles do happen

So long Scooter

Boy Genius

Since the first post was kind of a cheat...

My nerd-dom knows very few bounds

The Princess Bride

We have to protect you, by taking away your civil liberties.

Fishy fishy in the sea.

Resistance: Fall of Man

More problems with TV in the UK

Live from the United Kingdom, China's got problems

Everything that has a beginning, must have an end.

Look out time management

Civility

Back in the saddle

Puppet

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are being played...

Dead to Me #2 Mike Nifong

Running with, what the hell was that about??

15 years without laughter

Code or Censorship

Sometimes you have to laugh

Where the heck have I been?

This week in the world of no one.

Sometimes being a parent sucks

4 books I intend to finish before Feb 12

The Last Day of the Month

Funny Commercial

Out of the carnage... Life will find a way

Credit where it is due

Bad luck in Atlanta