mosjef

battling

Link: Social Networking Wars on Current TV’s SuperNews | Laughing Squid.

who shall win this battle of skanks vs. preps vs. losers vs. g33ks????

stay tuned...

loyalty?

a recent trip to and from boston got the wife and i thinking about loyalty.  our carrier (the one whose credit card we carry, whose miles we covet(ed) and whose time table we know by heart) has started making it extremely difficult for us to remain 'loyal' to their service.

home?

when does where you come from cease to be home?

as i prepare to visit massachusetts with the wife & the hannimal (her first visit to the hub of the universe) this question percolates in my mind.  our home is san francisco.  that is without question.  but where is my home?  with my mother's passing and my father's move from the ancestral homestead i feel that while i should be 'heading home' instead i'm just 'going back east.'

back east...  and into the past at the same time.  to the place i used to call home.  i can't help but think that it might still feel like home with a grandmother to visit for young ms. hannah.  but that is not the case.  so instead in a time machine operated by united...

we're going back east.

inelegant & inconvenient

ms. virginia heffernan takes evite to task  in nyt's the medium.  if it's broke, why not fix it?

ms. heffernan's point, if i may summarize, is that evite is both inelegant and inconvenient.  the service has been around since al gore dug the first trenches and laid the first fiber for the internets... or so it seems... and it hasn't changed since then from as best as she or i can tell.

let's start with inconvenient.  simply put it is a monstrosity that evite does not tell us the basics via email.  no no... page views > customer service in this regard.  but with the demise of red envelope who is left to advertise on their "confirmation" page?  and inelegant: the designs lack joy especially compared to receiving an *actual* invitation by post, pony express or even carrier pigeon.  the service is also inelegant in that it strips the joy out of the invitation... reducing it to a base logistical excercise.

invite...reply...coordinate.... where's they delight?

of course a whole slew of up and comers have tried to defeat the king of the online invitation but they've all failed?  why?  why do we all continue to patronize evite?  behold inertia.  we kill our young in everything else online.  why not the mighty evite?  is jeeves out there making threats?  paying protection money?

so i ask you, oh-non-existent readership: how would you bring online invitation management (event logistics?) into the here and now?

beginnings

the beginning is the most important part of the work - plato

today i leave my current job with a delicious mix of excitement and anticipation.  i personally love new beginnings, new challenges, new people and intellectual adventure.  this new economy we've built feels like one constant new beginning, and while this can become tiresome to the hamster trapped in the wheel, for me at this very moment on this day in this sunlight it feels invigorating.  just this past week i have discussed some of the most exciting new ventures... some budding and nascent, others established and poised for new growth.  each different but connected by the common and fervent excitement inherent in the new.  to me, each is just beginning.

new is the unknown gift
and i am poised at the top of the stairs
ready to unwrap
what's next

extinguished

yesterday my colleagues and i streamed out of our south of market office in anticipation of witnessing history.  and we did.  sort of.  in a history-is-all-around-us kind of way.

as we all know by now the olympic torch was meant to follow a particular path from the ballpark, down king st, along the embarcadero, past the ferry building and then on to civic center.  of course, it did not.  it escaped from alcatraz, hopped a muni line, danced with the devil in the pale moon light, and made out in the back of a dark theater... but it did not traverse the scheduled route.  that it did not do.

but no one got hurt.
and the protesters got to protest.
and the boosters got to boost.
and the bearers got to bear.
and random hookers in the 'loin got to see the torch.  so good on them.

but the thousands of citizens ready to embrace the olympic spirit did not get to see anything of note except a well armed sfpd act as a giant decoy.  we came out in force and with hope.  and we left empty handed.  gavin duped us, gave us the rope-a-dope.  he rick rolled us.  i'm not angry about getting rick rolled... i never am.  usually it's amusing to get rolled... "ha!  joke's on me!"  in fact, the entire episode left me mildly amused.  but now the amusement is gone and has been replaced by a hollow... maybe even a little sadness.  could we not be trusted to behave?  must everything be politicized?  have we all so little faith in one another?  is there no room left for celebration?reasonable debate between reasonable people?

so our city fathers probably made the right decision.  safety, security and appearances were maintained.  prudence won out over hope, and the torch made it out alive.  but in my mind, and in my heart, it's been extinguished.

shame on us.