Visiting Frenchman

I have a Frenchman visiting. I really cleaned my place today from top to bottom. I got a chicken to roast. I got some great vegetables, good olive oil, fine cheese. I had excellent sea salt, good pepper, excellent wine, but I didn't get the right bread. This could be a problem. I need something like this -- great bread, almost as good as French, but very American Sourdough.

February Rocks

Glad it's the last day of January because I love February. First there's my birthday, the Superbowl, then a week later Valentine's Day, then Winter Vacation for my kid's school (and a whole week off!) and a big bunch of my friend's have birthdays in February too.

Best of all it's a very short month and then BANG, it's March and March really starts to feel like winter might end some day.

Everything Right

Did you ever notice that everything wrong with you is everything right with you?

I mean, the things that make your different, the qualities that make you less than perfect, the aspects of your personality you might spend a lifetime running away from, are, in fact, the things that make you unique and amazing.

I've been thinking about my flaws and celebrating them. More later. Out the door now.

Landlord Nightmare

Well, the bad news is this story from a friend in D.C. about a landlord nightmare and a building management company from hell.

The good news is Jen is moving to New York soon and it will be lots easier to visit.

Great Day To Skiskiskiskiskiski Whoooosh!

I'm wiped out, but what a great day it was to ski.

Why I Love Hip-Hop

Well, obviously, first because it's poetry and I love poetry and people who are good at playing with words.

Like the Ludacris riff below in Lovers and Friends, where he rhymes "comfortable" with "Huxtable" is just too great. The problem is, you need to HEAR his delivery of the words to really enjoy it.

The way he plays with words in his mouth, the pacing, the careful setting down of one word next to the other, the sexiness of his tone -- unbelieveable. If he can rap like that, he's got to be some amazing baller. And the way he downshifts into the rhythm of the words "I know you like it like that" -- the whole beat changes and if you could write it out in musical notation -- well, you never could, it's exquisite the way he does it. His natural playful style -- really fine.

Also, it's very interesting how Usher, the good-boy-sensitive-tenor who shines on the bright side, moves over and lets Ludacris be his dark-side-bad-boy and growl the sexiest rhymes from the other side of town between Usher's verses. Ludacris seems to be Usher's alter ego on the song. And Lil Jon adds a whole other style -- raw and grunty -- with a signature pounding beat all his own. The song is great because of these three very different styles.

And then of course, Ludacris keeps calling Usher something like "Ersher" making fun of him a bit and nobody makes fun of Usher who's so white hot cool now, so that's great too.

Why else do I love Hip-Hop ... because it's risky and dirty and smart and irreverent and alive. Don't even get me started on Snoop. I am crazy for Snoop. I'll write about Drop It Like It's Hot soon.

Ludacris is about to be gigantic. In his "Get Back" video with those hilarious giant arms they've fitted him with, he punchs out buildings and mailboxes while dancing with a back-filled back-up big butt team of down and dirty girls I just can't get enough of.

Another reason I love Hip-Hop ... it's obvious, isn't it? It's like blogging in a lotta ways.

Ludacris
Posted by Hello

Gotta Love Luda

Sometime wanna be your lover,
Sometime wanna be your friend,
Sometime wanna hug ya,
Hold hands, slow-dance while the record spins,
Opened up your heart 'cause you said I made you feel so comfortable,
Used to play back then, now you all grown-up like Rudy Huxtable,

Usher
Posted by Hello

Lovers and Friends

Usher, Jon and Luda had to do it again.

All Grown-up Like Rudy Huxtable

LIL' JON & THE EAST SIDE BOYZ LYRICS


"Lovers & Friends"
(feat. Usher, Ludacris)

[Intro - Lil' Jon]
Usher...
Lil' Jon...
Ludacris...

[Usher {with Lil' Jon}]
Yeah, man
Once again, it's on {It's on}
You know we had to do it again, right?

[Lil' Jon]
We had to do it again, boy
Want you to sing to these ladies, man

[Usher (with vocalizing)]
(Ohh-oh-oh-ohh)
A'ight, so I'm up first? A'ight, lemme have it...
(Ohh-oh-oh-ohh)
Let's do it...

[1st Verse - Usher]
Baby, how ya doin'?
Hope that 'cha fine, wanna know what you got in mind,
And I'm,
Got me fiendin' like Jodeci, girl, I can't leave you alone,
Take a shot of this here Petrone' and it's gon' be on,
V.I.P. done got way too crowded,
I'm about to end up callin' it a night,
You should holla at 'cha girl, tell her you shake it and seized,
Pull off, beep-beep, shotgun in the GT with me
She said, "Ohhh-ohhh, I'm ready to ride, yeah,"
"'Cause once you get inside, you can't change your mind,"
"Don't mean to sound invasion, but you gotta promise, baby, ohh..."

[Chorus - Usher]
Tell me again (Tell me again, my baby),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Ohh, I gotta know, baby, aw yeah)
Tell me again (Make sho' you right, ohh, before we leave),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Ohh, it's a good look, baby)...

[2nd Verse - Ludacris]
Sometime wanna be your lover,
Sometime wanna be your friend,
Sometime wanna hug ya,
Hold hands, slow-dance while the record spins,
Opened up your heart 'cause you said I made you feel so comfortable,
Used to play back then, now you all grown-up like Rudy Huxtable,
I could be your buck, you could beat me up,
Play-fight in the dark, then we both make up,
I'd do anything just to feel your butt,
Why you got me so messed up?
I don't know, but you gotta stop trippin',
Be a good girl now, turn around, and get these whippings,
You know you like it like that,
You don't have to fight back,
Here's a pillow - bite...that,
And I'll be settin' separate plays,
So on all these separate days,
Your legs can go they separate...ways...

[Chorus - Usher]
Tell me again (Tell me again, my baby),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Ohh, it's a good look, baby)
Tell me again (Tell me over-and-over-and-over again),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Make sho' you right, before you choose)...

[3rd Verse - Lil' Jon]
I's been know you fo' a long time (shawty),
But fuckin' never crossed my mind (shawty),
But tonight, I seen sumthin' in ya (shawty),
That made me wanna get wit 'cha (shawty),
But you ain't been nuttin' but a friend to me (shawty),
And a nigga never ever dreamed to be (shawty),
Up in here, kissin', huggin', squeezin', touchin' (shawty),
Up in the bathtub, rub-a-dubbin' (shawty),
Are you sure you wanna go this route? (shawty),
Let a nigga know before I pull it out (shawty),
I would never ever cross the line (shawty),
Shawty, let me hit ya to me one mo' time...one mo' time...

[Chorus - Usher]
Tell me again (Tell me again, my baby),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Ohh, it's a good look, baby)
Tell me again (Make sho' you right, ohh, before we leave),
That we'll be Lovers and Friends (Tell me over-and-over-and-over again)...

[Outro - Usher]
Oh-oh-hoo
Oh-oh-hoo
Oh-oh-hoo-ohhhh-yeaaah...

[Ludacris {with Lil' Jon}]
Please tell your Lovers and Friends,
That Usher, Jon, and Luda had to do it again {Hey!! (Hey!!)}
Please tell your Lovers and Friends,
That Usher, Jon, and Luda had to do it again, that's right {Hey!! (Hey!!)}
Please tell your Lovers and Friends,
That Usher, Jon, and Luda had to do it again {Hey!! (Hey!!)}...

Lil Jon and East Side Boys
Posted by Hello

C.P. Snow

There's still more than enough snow today for all of us here in Boston, but someone told me about this book and I think I need to read it.

Periodically, it's good to think about this.
Posted by Hello

Cheer Up

Glad I could cheer you up today -- and thanks for doing it for me too. I don't understand the Amish thing, maybe tomorrow, I'll get it.

It might look like this again some day.
Posted by Hello

Candy Heart 4 U.
Posted by Hello

All Aboard!

Had a lovely day at a model train show today. I now know all about O and HO and N and Z and all these type trains.

Best Scoble Moment

Scoble and I watched this BMW short together the first day I got there. I didn't know anything about these -- he pointed it out to me and it was incredible. This may have been my favorite moment in the whole week-long visit to chez Scobles.

This is the film -- The Hostage -- Tony Scott/Ridley Scott/Jules Daly and directed by John Woo.

Now Scoble mentioned he knew some guys involved in this, but I don't recall who.

Meanwhile, thanks to Hugh GapingVoid for giving me this link.

Winter Sports

Switzerland in 1936 and Davos in 2005.
Posted by Hello

Davos: World Economic Forum

I have a bunch of friends here I need to check up on. I know Lance Knoble is reporting. Check it out.

Sucking Red Grapefruit In The Middle Of The Night

I'm in my kitchen, back after a week away in Seattle, to this very icy Boston, sucking down red grapefruit in the middle of night.

I'm an absolute disaster at jetlag, I'll never know why. I went to bed here around 9:00pm and slept until 3:30am. If I were on Pacific Standard Time, as I should be, I'd have no business going to sleep then at all.

Or maybe I've jumped right back into my regular weird sleep habits. I mean, heck, when I'm home on my regular schedule I'm up at 3:45am often as not, sucking down red grapefruit in the middle of the night.

How did this fruit get here anyway? Is it also jetlagged? Did it travel from far away -- must have, since the only thing growing on the trees around here is ice cubes.

Is it from Florida like Buzz and Rod? Is it from Texas like Adam? Maybe from sunny California like Doc? Miss my blogging buddies. I wonder if Scoble is awake. Midnight 47 in Seattle, I'll bet he is.

Delish!

Maryam just made me the most delicious lentil soup for lunch with extra lemon juice added. Loved it.

Just Need To Think About This Blog Business Summit

There's been fabulous coverage of the Summit here in Seattle this week. Check out the blogs listed on the right of the Blog Business Summit page.

One thing that's kindof knocking me out is how many business models are sprouting here. I had an assumption this would be one more event where experienced bloggers would clue in the slightly clueless corporate types -- but it really isn't like that at all. The seasoned bloggers are full of innovative cool ideas. The corporate types are very clued in and equally full of great ideas.

The great talks by Chris Pirillo, Marc Canter, Glenn Fleishman, Steve Broback and of course, Robert Scoble, all suggested new innovative ways for individuals to use blogs to make money with ads, sponsorships and other strategies. It makes it feel like there are many business opportunties for individual entrepreneurs. The "How-To" folks like Molly Holzchlag and DL Byron made this clear and simple and intriguing. I got a real "hey, anyone can do this" feeling.

The excellent speeches by folks like Buzz Bruggeman, Anil Dash, Jason Fried, Matthew Oliphant, and Pete Blackshaw gave me a new perspective on how corporate blogs can make waves and how many currently are and many will in the future.

Speaking of the future, Nick Finck, Biz Stone and Mary Hodder were all over that with their great pitch on wikis, the death of email and other ways to use social software.

People who taught me tons -- D.Keith Robinson, Lenn Pryor, Jake Luddington, and of course, Mr. Wonderful, Stowe Boyd.

People who always say fascinating stuff and I wish had been talking more: Debbie Weil, Jennifer Rice, Renee Blodgett, Susannah Gardner, Mitch Ratcliffe and Steve Broback.

Holy Patriots

I fell asleep here in Seattle last night at 6:00pm ... and TOTALLY MISSED THE PATRIOTS GAME ... even I can't believe it. I slept nearly 12 hours. 41 - 27 -- oh my god what a game it must have been.

Party On Party Off!

John Porcaro and Chris Pirillo did some awesome posts about Scoble's 40th Birthday Party. Maryam, Robert's wife, did an awesome job of throwing a wonderful bash! We are all a little tired ...

But it was so much fun to meet all you guys. I think we'll have to do another one soon, especially since I didn't get to read everyone's fortune and I'd like to do all necessary rain checks on that score.

Coming Clean On Relationships

There are a lot of songs with killer lyrics lately that are all about how hard it is to be in a relationship and how they are often a battle to keep going. I love them. They are right on the money with psychologist like my pal Terry Real -- he's real all right, and all about that every relationship has it's ongoing battles for independence and honesty and union and disconnection. It's just the way it is.

Love these lyrics of Black-eyed Peas "Shut-up!"

HangUnder

Okay, I didn't drink any booze last night at the party, so this morning, I don't have the good excuse of a hangover to take it easy ... still, I need to take it easy. Can I have a hangunder? I just need to sloooooooooooow down today.

Still Coming Down ... Sortof

I got a quite reliable snow report from my kid this morning about the Blizzard. No high tech meteorological approach, he just looked out the window.

"It's still coming down ... " he started.

"Actually," he said, "It's not really coming DOWN, it's coming across and around and then up again and back around -- it's swirling Mom, that's what it's doing."

No Dancey

Scoble knows best -- the party was a blast, it was packed and no geeks danced.

Weinberger on Blogging v. Journalism

David nails it per usual and saved me the time of going to the Harvard event. Thanks man. Check this out:

So, here's the cognitive gap that I see: The media folks (generalizing) still think that the important effect that blogging is having on them — and they do believe it's having an effect — comes from bloggers who are sorta kinda journalists. But that's a tiny percentage of the blogosphere. The truly disruptive effect of bloggers comes from the rest of the blogosphere that doesn't think of itself as journalistic at all. We're not the farm team for Big Media. We're a different ballpark entirely.

In fact, we're not a ballpark at all, of course. The other big gap between us is easy to state but hard to explain: The media is owned. The blogosphere isn't. We together are building it. The media have to try to get us interested in what they do, but the blogosphere is constructed out of our interests. It's ours not (just) in the sense of ownership but in the sense of what we care about and what we are.

Stop Blogging!

Now that's ironic. Scoble came into the office here and told me to stop blogging and get ready for the party. Pot calling the kettle black and all that. There's almost nothing to do -- Maryam's got it all together downstairs. I guess all that's left is my hair. Big deal. A few cans of hairspray and I'm good to go.

Patriot's Day

Fingers crossed that the Patriots/Pittsburgh game will still happen tomorrow, despite the insane weather back East. Please, please, pretty please!

Snow Day

Asked Tom Peters and his pals where they are now as the snow does serious damage in New England. Check it out.

God, What Smells So Good?

The Scoble kitchen is letting out most wonderful smells ... can't wait to see what's cooking.

Meanwhile, I'm upstairs blogging, thinking about what to wear (we're all supposed to wear black, as Maryam believes turning 40 is kindof like a funeral -- sheeeesh, thanks?).

The house looks awesome -- all the OVER THE HILL balloons decorating the joint. We picked out good music, but Robert assures me geeks don't dance.

I'm out to prove him wrong. I wonder if Chris Pirillo dances ... he'll be here tonight rumor has it.

Snow Blows

Already heard some people won't be able to make the party tonight because of the big snows back East and many flight cancellations. Too bad! It's not every day Scoble turns 40 and has half of Seattle over to his house to celebrate!

We came back with a carful of balloons that made it almost impossible for me to sit in the back seat. This will be an awesome party.

It's Just Funny Somehow

Being at Scoble's house is very cool in one specific respect ... he disappears sometimes ... his wife and I look at one another ... we know ... he's blogging! It's funny somehow to see another person do it, so much like how I disappear.

And what's so good about that is, for once, I'm not the only disappearing blogger. It's a bit like the way smokers disappear after a family dinner to go out on the porch to smoke, we just can't help ourselves.

Maryam, you're the best -- thanks for being so understanding of our addiction.

Thanks So Much

Okay, so with a three-hour flight delay, the Scobles still waited for me at SEATAC airport and fetched me at the ungodly hour of 12:30. Being someone who goes to bed at 9:30pm most nights, this seemed heroic, if not godly.

They are too nice and Robert's birthday tonight is going to totally rock.

We got back to the house and of course, ended up talking for a few more hours. Going to sleep at 2:30am is so exotic! I feel like I'm on GMT or something. What time zone is this?!?

Thanks so much, you guys are too kind. Maryam, can't wait to get our nails done. Let's head to the mall.

Holy Snow!

Hope the folks heading west for our conference get out before the snow dumps on them.

Reading Worthwhile

Well, it's pretty fun to read YOUR OWN MAGAZINE on a plane from Boston to Seattle. With the deadlines and delay, you write something weeks in advance and by the time it's out you forget what the heck you wrote.

So, I had a copy of the new issue of Worthwhile in my knapsack as I grabbed the plane, together with the new Dan Pink book, A Whole New Mind -- my next book to review for Worthwhile -- Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (fun reading since I'd never read it), When We Were Grown-ups by Anne Tyler (to start after finishing Rand which I did last night), my diary, my presentation for the Blog Biz Summit, my Tarot cards.

I got to catch up with all my pals here and Kevin Salwen, your piece about how to get people out of your office was so frigging funny I nearly choked on the aeronautical trail mix or whatever the hell they fed us last night. David W, liked your thing about appropriate behavior in the office -- am I the woman with the too wild hairdo (dread!)?! And Kate Yandoh, your tips on how to make a business trip more fun and productive were way good. And here I thought it was all about dragging home as much hotel soap as possible.

And did I mention we had a three hour delay in Boston in that lovely 0 degrees temp ... I was terrified they would send us back home, but we finally took off about 9:00pm instead of the scheduled 6:00.

Shhhhh ...

It's nearly 10:00am here in Seattle and yes, I know normal people actually sleep late on Saturday mornings, but I'm staying with the Scobles and they aren't up blogging yet. What the hell?

I mean -- come on Robert -- how are you ever going to make your name as a blogger unless you're productive?! You can't sleep the day away and expect people to take your blogging seriously.

Temperatures Dawn to Dark

My day started by putting my very bundled-up kid on the bus here in below 0 F degrees weather in Boston and ends tonight in rain and 50+ F degree weather in Seattle. (His dad picks him up today at 3:00 when it will have warmed up to 10 degrees!)

Try figuring out what to wear to the airport! Ski underwear and an umbrella and a heavy winter coat you won't need the minute you get to the airport, but if you don't wear, you'll freeze to death on the way.

Oh, and one other great thing about Logan today. I'll need to wear that high security outfit -- easy-to-slip-out-of Eskimo boots should do the trick.

Gillmor Interview

My interview with Dan Gillmor about his new grassroots journalism initiative is up and live at IT Conversations. Check out my show, Memory Lane.

FCC Chairman Powell Resigning

Interesting. Some details here.

Legos of Yesteryear

I had a blast interviewing John Patrick on my net radio show Memory Lane. Apparently everyone else is enjoying the interview a lot as well, since John's gotten high rates of download and a lot of email about the conversation.

He blogs today about a colleague who remembers getting some of the earliest Legos ever manufactured as a Christmas present since he grew up in Norway, close to Denmark as a kid. Great post.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Business Blogs, But Were Afraid To Ask

Call me crazy, but why would you spend $349 for this, when you could spend $0 for this, or spend $395 for this and this and this.

Black Lentils

I have met a bunch of really terrific men who cook in the last few years. I've always known a lot of great women cooks, but it's been terrific to find all these wonderful men who cook wonderful things.

They've taught me not only how to cook better, but many new recipes and even more than that, reminded me how satisfying it is to cook and eat at home and enjoy food you often can't find in even the best restaurants.

So today I'm making lamb chops and haricots vert (skinny French green beans) and black lentils for lunch -- just for me -- and ohmygod -- it smells so good and is a perfect winter lunch.

Detroit Car Show

Everyone's salivating over those hybrid SUV's and I'm not surprised.

Blogging + Ethics: The Discussion Continues

Here's another take on the subject of Blogging and Ethics from Steve Gilliard.

David Weinberger Weighs In

I like what David has written over here about Zephyr. I know Zephyr too. I like her. I worked for her at the Dean campaign. I didn't do it for any fees or considerations. I don't like the way people are dragging her through the mud not knowing much about the real story, or knowing the real person.

This hypocrisy that we have "a wonderful community" here and can all share our real lives and real opinions on the blogosphere is certainly crashing before our eyes as someone like Z decides to tell her side of the story and such vicious ad feminem attack comments are placed on her site to threaten and shut her up. [Update: she's taken comments away, reasonably.]

Zephyrgate From Another Point Of View

Chris Nolan's written an interesting post about it too here.

Patriots! Patriots! Patriots!

Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes! Go! Fight! Win! Yes!

Madonna Singing Imagine

Great way to start this. Any other singer daring to cover John Lennon ... seems unthinkable. Great to hear Madonna sing this to open the Tsunami Aid concert and help us all get our heads around what happened over there. Hell, even great to hear Bill O'Reilly talk about this big god-damned mess and how we can help. I don't like him, but I appreciate and honor his leadership.

Coming together to help the tsunami victims might actually be the event to bring this very divided country together. It's so much bigger than all of us.

Dan Gillmor Chat

I got a chance to catch up with Dan Gillmor last week and recorded a new edition of my radio show, Memory Lane here with him. (It should be up by next week.)

The subject ... of course ... what the heck he'll be doing now that he's left The San Jose Mercury News as Tech Reporter and Blogger Extraordinaire and now running his new Grassroots Journalism initiative.

Has everyone updated their link to Dan's site? Do it!

Tonight

It's gotten a lot colder here and then you think, "Well, it IS Boston and it IS January ..." and you know you can't be TOO surprised or annoyed or resentful, but still when you get to enjoy those little junkets to 50 degree weather every now and then in the middle of winter, it's hard to plunge back into 19 over night and then lower and lower ... ugh!

Rock, Paper, Scissors Revisited

I wrote a piece here about Jeremy Wagstaff's article on using a paper notebook to replace a PDA or other things digital.

When digging around for background into on that post, I came across this great and funny exposition on why rock or paper or scissors should surely be the winner of the age old controversy and game by that name.

Check it out. With such reasoning, one must take paper very seriously ...

Paper is one of the single most important inventions ever; it has so many more uses than rocks and scissors combined. When Puff Daddy wrote "It's all about the Benjamins", d'you think he was referring to rocks or scissors? Hell no! He's talking about the most popular form of paper: money. It's been a long time since anyone used rocks to pay for anything, and they were abandoned for the lighter and more portable paper format; scissors aren't going to replace paper in this (or any) lifetime, continuing paper's dominance.

But wait ... maybe rock does rule?

The rock is truly man's best friend. Indeed human civilization and perhaps even humanity itself would not have ever developed if not for the rock. Our first invention, fire, came from banging rocks together. Our first weapons came from picking up the sharp rocks. Our first currency was the pretty shiny rocks. And of course man would never have had the chance to discover all the myriad uses of rocks if a big rock hadn't come along and wiped out all the dinosaurs for us. Even today mankind has continued to honor the rock for all it has done for us. Our music (Rock & Roll), our mythological heroes (Sergeant Rock, Rocky Balboa) and even the human sexual act (Rock the Casbah) have all been named to honor the mighty Rock. And no one less than the great Calvin himself has shown us that rocks are possessed of divine power when he described them as being "ballistic missiles from God."

Poor scissors ... all threat but no action I think:

No mother ever needed to tell her child not to run with paper or rocks. Scissors are dangerous--specifically to you and Brendan. Rock isn't: we live on a huge rock. The substance is positively benign to us. And paper? I can thump my dog with a thick paperback book, 800 pages, and she doesn't even notice. That's not dangerous.

Saturday Morning

Awesome weekend -- Tsunami Aid program on NBC tonight at 8:00 -- Golden Globes tomorrow night -- Patriot's Game tomorrow afternoon -- hockey practice, Monday holiday, Gospel concert at church!

Survivor Stories

These stories are pretty incredible. Thanks to Curt for the link on Worthwhile.

New Amazon CTO

Big hug and high five to my pal, Werner Vogel, the new CTO of Amazon. So glad to hear he's stepping into this great role at this great company. Good news for all involved.

Just Checking

I haven't been able to publish for a few days and now I just come in here, write something, leave it and figure I'll have this blog fixed and it will be published.

[Later: Yes, big thanks to friends at Blogger for getting this up and running. They rock!]

Business Blog Summit

Looks like the Seattle conference is getting mobbed. It will be a great event.

Harvard Square

There's something great about it. There's nothing great about trying to walk along the ancient brick sidewalks in high heels however.

Testing Again 1-2-3

Having some funky publishing issues. Let me see if I can test the microphone here on the stage in the auditorium at my high school. I'm not wearing my poodle skirt, which the AV boys love, but jeans.

"Testing 1-2-3" noises like brrrrrrrrrr, eeeeeeeeeee, crunch-crunch, high whine.

There. That's better.

Software For Writing

A colleague asked me for recommendations for software that could help writers organize their business writing. I know about the great software for writing screenplays, but if anyone has recommendations for software that helps you put ideas, quotations and other bits and pieces of work on "3 x 5 cards" (electronic ones that is) and has flexibility in letting you move ideas around and structure your essay or proposal or article or research paper, please let me know in comments below. Thanks.

Just Joking

I definately don't hate Tom's guts (per below) and I like what he wrote here.

Tom Peters I So Hate Your Guts!

Like man, I hate your guts which means, I love your guts, because, jeeeezzzz, you're so ahead of me on all these cool things like this book list ... mmmm, mmmm, good!

Pray Day = Sunday

I'm off to church with a pile of people to pray for. I might need a backpack to load all the prayer tickets into. I have some serious aerobic praying to do today. I need to understand what God's play book is up to -- lots of tough stuff going on in all my friends' lives.

Motley Crue

Of course, they are now cool again. Their lead singer, Vince Neil, has had a full makeover -- plastic surgery, diet, new threads -- and they are re-cooled now. Their new video is really cool.

I'll write about this more later, because on one level it's insane and on another level, it's brilliant. What the hell is the deal with American's fascination with make-overs?!

Perhaps this the quintessential brand feature of the old US of A. America is a place to come and make yourself over. Half of all TV programs these days seem to be about making over a person, a house, a neighborhood, a car.

I mean, do you LOVE Pimp My Ride, or what?!

Pop Culture Hit

If you're not watching the Top 20 Video Countdown on VH1 on Sunday Mornings, you're dumb. It's the fastest easiest way to get a quick hit of pop culture -- music, graphics, fashion -- and it's only two hours (8-10am) and you NEED to see it even if you LOATHE pop music. It's a pulse of what 10-35 year olds are doing.

Gwen Stefani If I Were A Rich Girl

What an incredible video -- no surprise -- because, what an incredible song. To mix "If I Were A Rich Man" from Fiddler with rap lyrics and her new posse, the gang of those wild Harajuku Girls. And top it all off with Eve! Shit! Too fun!

Notice the reference to fashion and cell phones ... interesting how pop culture looks silly, but HELLO, it's all about business.

Eminem Mocking Bird

I love Eminem. This song is really something.

Hockey Practice

My kid's got his hockey hunk gear on, off to practice. Be back soon.

Testing

1-2-3

Iced Sugar Trees

A friend called to coax me into cross-country skiing around noon today. It had been snowing and snowing and snowing since last night, through morning, into "Schools Closed!" cheers at breakfast, past cinnamon toast, onward into morning cartoons, on and on and on it snowed and when my son and I got the car cleaned off enough to see a road out and all the equipment in the trunk, we headed over to a golf course in town to meet my friend and her daughter.

The two of us mothers were not sure if my boy kid and her girl kid would get along and go sledding while we skied, but we risked it. They hit it right off and headed with tubes and sleds down some nice greens which were anything but.

All white. In all directions. The golf course was a forested winter wonderland of white with iced sugar trees and woods on all sides. There was literally no one there but us. I looked down to see a black coffee colored stream, dotted with white furry rocks and ice shards, sewing up the perimeter of the property like a loosely sewn hem. The quiet, the white, the snow, delicious and awesome, was taking our breathe away ... or maybe it was the hard work of the skiing. I wanted to live under the snow pines, pulling the duvet of snow up around me, it looked so soft and it must be warm. I was.

Cross-country skiing is known to have an aerobic knock-out punch and it certainly did today. I was sweating as I crossed the wide white ways as if I were crossing desert sands dunes.

I got hot-dogging it down hills and fell on my face a few times, couldn't resist. We skied long expanses and had fun retracing our tracks up and down.

After a while the snow started turning into little ice pellets that bounced off our coats like tiny polite popcorn, but this was not a good sign. The ice balls got harder and stung our faces and our kids appeared red faced, tired, sleds dragging behind. They were ready to go. We gave in and gave up, after a wonderful trek and many heart-warming private snow moments out there.

Six Apart To Acquire Live Journal

Big news and very cool! Congrats to Joi, Mena, Ben, Barak, the whole team.

Blogger Event Of The Season

The Blog Business Summit conference will be a really great one ... the blogger event of the season, maybe of the year? Yes, yes, I'll be speaking there.

And I got airfare to Seattle from Boston for WAY CHEAP on Alaska Airlines. So don't say you can't get there from here.

Corante has a discount rate set up so you can register here.

Snow Day

I got one happy customer here. No School. Get out the sleds and the skis.

CES Blogs

Any other good bloggers blogging CES? Just let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Next Best Thing To Being At CES In Vegas

My friend Renee Blodgett is in Vegas for CES which I nearly went to, so I'm glad to see she's covering it extensively in her blog, Down The Avenue.

Here's a link to her thoughts on Bill Gates' keynote speech.

Force

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love? -- Igor Stravinsky

Meeting

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed. -- C. G. Jung

Scoble Suitt Stone

Robert Halley Biz. No, we're not a rock and roll band ... yet. But we are all sitting in that cozy line-up here on the Speakers Page for the Seattle Blog Business Summit. It's going to be a way cool event.

Music I'm Loving: Gwen Stefani L.A.M.B.

I've only mentioned this a million times or so. I'm loving Gwen Stefani's new Love Angel Music Baby.

Love. Angel. Music. Baby. I mean.

The song "Cool" is my favorite.

Music I'm Loving: Usher

How can anyone not love Usher?

Music I'm Loving: Best of Bowie

Did I blog this already? Foggy this morning.

Whatever ... I'll blog it twice.

Anyway, this BEST OF BOWIE CD is spinning around and around and around at my house -- love it.

Shigekix

Our Japanese neighbors are just back from holidays in Japan and brought my kid these weird excellent super sharp candy -- purple gumdrops with very sour sugar fur -- and there is not on word of English on the package except:

http://shigekix.com

and so ... you guess ... what the heck is this stuff? Whatever it is, it corresponds to this graphic link on their home page. It tastes good -- but maybe we'll be tripping in another 15 minutes or so. Sigh-oh-nara!

Going Home

We all have an idea and an "ideal" of what home is. I think men and women have separate and different ideals of what home is. When I first got married, I liked the sweet idea of my husband telling me he wanted a living room where you could put your feet up and no one would yell at you. I liked that -- one should be at home at home. I still like that.

We didn't have one of those prissy living rooms -- or that crazy thing of having a tv/wreck room where people really relaxed and a "fancy" living room where god knows what happened. Those living rooms where you weren't supposed to be "living" very much, actually they were made for acting like you were dead or a ghost.

My idea of home is about something simple, clean, cozy, relaxed. If it's so perfect you can't put your feet up or fart -- forget it. If it's so messy, it's chaotic, that's not good either. I do a lot of tidying up and tossing out.

With a kid, there are always so many little GI Joe army boots and stray Lego pieces and motorcycles who've lost their action figure riders and art projects lying around, it's a tough row to hoe to keep things tidy.

And the clutter wars will always be with us. It's so hard to manage unless you do a lot of tossing and purging on a regular basis. This can lead to trouble with men and boys who like to keep special dear items like an old acorn they found on the way to kindergarden, or their freshman year in college running shorts or ... the list is long.

Emotionally home has a climate as well. You should be loved at home. You should be hugged at home. You should be able to laugh and let your belly hang out at home. You shouldn't feel like anything you say will be criticized or rejected at home. But sometimes homes are not so homey and it might cause you to leave home or start a new one.

When we began to edge up on divorce, I noticed I wasn't happy being at home, it wasn't homey, it was dangerous in that it felt like I could no longer be real there -- my real self -- and if I showed my real self -- there was hell to pay in subtle ways. I was disapproved of. I wasn't okay there. I wasn't liked there. These things had started small. In little ways, they were there, just hanging there like slightly peeling wallpaper, not too noticeable, but then it got worse and there were big tears in the wallpaper and we were ripping one another apart emotionally. But it's never that "big" -- it's more like small sighs of sadness. We would look disappointed or mad or annoyed or fatigued with one another. It started to build and it all turned into an avalanche and it had to change.

We probably both noticed it -- that we felt more at home OUTSIDE our home and in the big world, where people were nicer to us than at home. That's telltale. It either requires a massive change -- turning a cruise ship around, all the way around -- or an "abandon ship!" When you have to man the lifeboats, you just do it. There is no going back.

No one I know who's divorced ever wanted to end up divorced, especially people with kids, but there's a point of no return where you absolutely must rewrite your life. Before you reach that point, it's nearly impossible to conceive of a new life, but when you arrive at it, you surprise yourself with your agility and ability to live in a new way.

You long for a new home where you can be the new person you've somehow become. You long for a new home where people like that new person, where people LIKE you. It's not a lot to ask, is it? It's simple. It's home.

Worky Outy Yes Bloggy No

If I work out in the morning, I don't blog. If I blog in the morning, I don't work out. If I make love in the morning, I don't blog or workout ... hmmm. Surely time for a cloning solution -- send one of your selves to the keyboard, one to the gym, one stays in bed. Maybe make an extra one for bed. Imagine a threesome that starts with a few clones. Nice.

Seattle Blog Business Summit -- Can't Wait

This is gonna be a great event. I'm going to speak there. Can't wait to get to Seattle -- missing a lot of friends who live there now -- and haven't seen in quite a while.

Check it out.

Dan Pink's New Book

Today I was wearing almost all pink and I happened to visit some friends at MIT and happened to mention Pink the singer, the ad in Sunday's New York Times for Chanel featuring pink, the next page fashion column saying pink was the big new color, and then got to pull out of my pink jelly purse, a copy of Dan's book ... which in galley format ... is red ... but I was happy to be raving about it.

It's called A Whole New Mind and it's great.

Admit It -- Alpha Male Hot

Jason Pontin (nee Red Herring) is the new editor at the MIT Tech Review. Admit it -- he's alpha male hot and this means the magazine is a must read.

MiniPops

I know you're going to like this. Craig Robinson has this insanely cool book called "MiniPops" which are very tiny pictures of famous pop celebrities like U2, Elvis, The Red Sox, Jesus, Madonna which you look at and even though they are very TINY, you quickly read the brand perfume right off of them. Check it out.

It's one of the best Xmas presents I got -- you must get it. It's so fun as a coffee table book. You just sit around in your living room, hanging with friends and quizzing people to see if they can guess who's who.

Thanks to Dan Williams at Motorola for the link on this.

ABC News People Of The Year: Bloggers

ABC News has been talking about how great bloggers are. I can't say I'm surprised to learn bloggers are the best. (I knew that.)

I want to do a special shout out to Jonas Luster and his new blog (per Joi Ito's mention) Bloggers Without Borders, as well as all the other bloggers who are helping in the Tsunami relief efforts.