November 2007

Nov

2007

Random images of the moment.

Every once in awhile while reading news or surfing the web, I stumble upon really funny/interesting/crazy images. When I run into them, I always save them knowing that one day, I will post them on my blog. Today is one of those days that i’m ready to post a few of them. This post is a collection of a few images that i’ve saved from the last couple of weeks.

1) FedEx owns on UPS in this image.

2) I’m so confused. That’s all.

3) He’d get my dollar for creativity, not to mention that smirck on his face.

4) Chavez is evil.

Web & Tech View Comments

Nov

2007

Thanksgiving in Vegas.

I get so bothered when hotels don’t offer free internet. It drives me nuts. Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been able to blog during these last couple days. It’s been a great Thanksgiving weekend. My dad’s a big BYU basketball fan, so as a family we all went down to Vegas to see them play in a holiday tournament. BYU played really well. First, they upset number 6 ranked Louisville (coached by the great Rick Patino). It was an awesome game. It was a big upset. Then on Saturday, we gave number 1 ranked North Carolina a run for their money. It was an amazing game…almost a huge upset. BYU hung tough the entire game. NC pulled it out in the end though. It was fun to see BYU play so tough. If the tournament is any indication of how the year will look, BYU will be set to make a run in the big dance in March.

The photo on the right is when I decided to give one of the dudes in the Blue Man group a serious noogie (spelling?). I got blue paint all over me. It was fun though.

Anyway, it was a good weekend in Vegas. We were there Wednesday night till Sunday morning. A lot of Golf (that’s all we did almost everyday during the daytime). A lot of great basketball (almost every single night). We also were able to run around the Strip and check out all the fancy hotels (Wynn, Venetian, etc). We saw the Cirque do Soleil at the MGM. Enjoyed it. My wife and the other girls went to a bunch more shows while we were watching b-ball games. Enjoyed it.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner at some fancy steak house. Our “official” family Thanksgiving dinner was actually last Sunday at my parents…where we were able to eat the usual goods, get bloated, and just relax.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was fun. Vegas was sweet. Now i’m off to NYC. I was able to spend a few good hours resting at home, relaxing…and now i’m off to the races again. Peace.

Btw, here’s a part in the Cirque Du Soleil that I really liked.

Day to Day View Comments

Nov

2007

What was Huckabee thinking?

Andreesen pointed out this Mike Huckabee commercial to everyone. Wow. It has got to be the stupidest presidential campaign commercial in history. The dude in Huckabee’s camp that put this together is a complete moron. Supposedly, this will be Huckabee’s only commercial. It’s also his first. Apparently, he’s bragging about it everywhere. So sad.

Nothing against Chuck Norris. This is just a classic case of someone going way over the top to try to be funny. Presidential Campaign isn’t really the time for this.

Full disclosure: I am a republican. I’m voting for Romney.

News View Comments

Nov

2007

The two rock stars of the day.

Steve Nash is a stud. I love his tenacity, his fearlessness and his passion for life. Rock star number 1 is stevie boy.

Macgyver is another rock star in my book. He’s a problem solver. He gets the job done. No excuses. No complaining. It’s about results. Nothing else. He’s got it figured it out.

Sports/TV View Comments

Nov

2007

Not sure about Amazon’s Kindle

So Jeff Bezos and the book worm club over at Amazon are releasing a new ebook reader called the Kindle. It’s a device that allows you to read blogs, books, and other text-based “stuff,” for lack of a better word. It lasts 30 hours. and only takes 2 hours to recharge to full capacity.

Newsweek did a 7 page article. Blah blah blah blah blah. Supposedly, Amazon and this Kindle gadget is completely changing the way we read books. It costs $400 bones. Sucky. But it does have some impressive features (wifi and cellular connectivity) that Sony missed the boat on when they released their eReader a little while back.

So I’ve got two simple problems with all this

1) Do I really wanna read a friggin’ 500 page book on a computer screen???? So this isn’t a knock on the Kindle, this is a knock on the whole eReader idea! My eyes hurt after just a few hours of reading news and blogs on my computer. I know, I know, the Kindle supposedly has a fancy-dancy type of screen. But still, I have a hard time believing that it’ll be THAT much different on my eyes. Nothing can be as easy as an actual page of text that I can hold, krinkle and throw.

2) It looks completely unsexy. Yup. It’s ugly. How can I actually read a book on this thing if every time I take a look at it I barf?? Design on this thing is just nasty.

I have a hard time believing this new gadget will be that disruptive in the market. I believe books and magazines will always exist. There’s something about feeling the paper, actually turning the pages, or even just closing the book (with your bookmark in place) to see how far you are that brings a warm fuzzy feeling inside. It’s fulfilling. You feel productive. You feel happy. Reading a huge book on a little screen is straight up depressing. I see no light at the end of that tunnel. I’d hardly feel any progress. No doubt, a lot that goes into reading a book is strictly psychological.

And worst of all with all this, my eyes would hurt. Blind Mickey after a year. Bottom line is i’m feeling bearish on all this. Put this junk back in the trunk.

News/Web & Tech View Comments

Nov

2007

Yup. The Soulja Boy.

So everyone and their dog is doing or has at least heard of Soulja Boy’s “crank that” by now. If you haven’t….then I don’t know what world you’re in. Joe and I have messed around with it a little at the office…but just briefly.

Anyway, last weekend (I think it was), Rachel and I went to one of her friend’s husband’s company dance party. Mainly young couples (some married, others not) in their 20′s, etc. It was a big ol’ dance party. They played Soulja Boy like three times, and everytime it came on we all got excited. Problem was that we didn’t know it super well.

So after the party, we resolved to learn it a little better so we’d be more prepared for next time. So we practiced and then we quickly just pressed record, hit play on the music, and danced our hearts out doing the Soulja Boy. I hope you enjoy.

p.s. And if you can’t already tell, i’m not taking this at all seriously.

Well there you have it. Our Soulja Boy. Hope you enjoyed it. For those who really wanna learn it, make sure you check out Soulja Boy’s Instructional Video on Youtube. It’s crazy how that video has been viewed almost 17 million times…whatever marketing dude behind the rap artist Soulja Boy that had this idea is freakin’ genius. Song is number 1 for who knows how many weeks now. The dance has everyone talking about it. It’s the ghetto Macarena. It’s pretty tight.

Anyway, a ton of people have posted videos of their Soulja Boy dance. Here are a couple that i’ve enjoyed. Check ‘em out. They are pretty sweet.
+ A bunch of young kids in a dance studio doing it. They rock.
+ Texas Longhorns doing the Soulja Boy at their football game. Yes, these are the actual players.
+ Golden State Warriors basketball players doing it on center court. “I am loving your national anthem!” Golden State’s Latvian power forward Andris Biedriņš was heard shouting. Haha.
+ A bunch of college dudes doing the Soulja Boy at Millsaps.
+ Barney doing the soulja boy. Yes, it’s not legit until Barney does it. He did it. It’s legit.

Better Half/Dance/Me View Comments

Nov

2007

I am more than a test score.

At the end of the day, these people will be defined as just numbers. How unfortunate. Zinch.com

Zinch View Comments

Nov

2007

I love to learn.

It’s so interesting that I grew up in an age of the web. I read the newspaper (the physical paper) every once in awhile, but I definitely prefer reading online (NY Times, Slate, Digg, USA Today). Same thing goes for magazines. Books are the one thing that aren’t very fun to read online…so I still read the physical books (I’m reading a really good book right now that my dad gave me. Once i’m done with it i’ll blog about it and give my thoughts). Most of my reading happens online. It’s funny because my wife sometimes asks, “I wish you’d read more.” Are you kidding honey, I read sooooo much. She doesn’t realize that during many of the hours that i’m on my computer at night, i’m reading and learning.

A lot of it is through blogs. It’s so interesting how that’s really becoming the new media. I subscribe to over 70 blogs in my Google Reader. There are dozens more that I keep reminding myself I still need to add. Sometimes people have the misconception that blogs are just personal journals of what Sally and Bobby did over the weekend. My wife has a blog and so do all her friends. Those are certainly not the type of blogs i’m talking about when I say I read and learn every night for hours. There are thousands and thousands of blogs that, if the entries were split up into sections/chapters, could easily be books, newspapers, or magazines. Those are the type of blogs I’m talking about. Real news. Real education. Substance. Content. Mojo.

It’s so hard to keep up with all of ‘em….I don’t know how I do it. But every time I get catching up….I just can’t stop. So much of what I read is about technology, entrepreneurship, anything business related, world news and current events, design & innovation, sports, random funny stuff, wall street and investing, and Higher Education/College Admissions news.

Every night when I get reading stuff…I realize that there is just so much more knowledge, so much more information out there that I simply just don’t have. Yet, I wanna learn. I eat it up. I love it. I really wish I had more time to learn it all. It is so fulfilling. To really understand the different market trends, newest disruptive technologies and innovations, business principles and teachings, etc.

For some reason, my desire to learn has increased so much. I’m starting to realize how I operate. When i’m put into a position or place and forced or told what to do, subconsciously I push back a little. However, when I feel unrestricted and free, I embrace the task or duty. At Princeton, I was put in a place where I was pretty much forced to learn. Sure, I did it. But my desire to learn wasn’t truly there. Today, i’m in a position where no one is telling me I have to learn. However, I WANT to learn. That desire is so much greater when I feel unrestricted, unconfined.

It’s weird how that works. Bottom line is that I love to learn.

Books/Startups & Business/Web & Tech View Comments

Nov

2007

One year of marriage. Time flies.

Rachel and I have been married for a year now. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. It’s crazy that it’s already been a year. It seems to go by so fast. It seems like just yesterday that we were on our honeymoon in Cancun. Time flies.

The first year has been filled with a little of everything. Lots of fun, lots of laughter, lots of getting used to each other and learning, lots of this and lots of that.

Anyway, my wife rocks. I love her so much. I could go on and on and on about her….but I don’t wanna bore everyone. So i’ll just keep it simple: She’s straight up dead sexy. She’s thoughtful, generous and caring. She’s spiritually strong, committed. She’s well disciplined, hard working. She’s so sweet, sincere and nice. She’s such a supportive and loving wife. She’s such a good best friend, always there for me. It’s so great to have her at my side, such a positive influence. She’s everything I could have ever wanted in a wife.

Marriage is a lot tougher than I ever imagined. But because she’s so patient, understanding and all-around wonderful, marriage has definitely been an overall great experience.

Hopefully this 2nd year can be better than the previous! I love you Rachel! You are amazing.

Better Half/Love/Me View Comments

Nov

2007

Meeting the Survivor China WINNER.

UPDATE: So it turns out that this guy went on to WIN the whole thing. A million bucks. Nice work Todd.

So it was pretty funny when Rachel and I went to Gold’s Gym tonight. We ran into Todd Herzog, a contestant on the well-watched TV show, Survivor China.

His hometown is Pleasant Grove (where we live). When we walked into Gold’s tonight, I saw him on the stair-stepper. It took me by surprise. I didn’t wanna make a scene, so once we walked past him, I pointed it out to my wife. It was funny cuz she freaked out. She hasn’t really seen a lot of “celebrities” in person. So she was completely star-struck. It was hilarious.

Anyway, I didn’t wanna pass up the opportunity of chatting with him. So after stretching for a few minutes, I told Rachel I was gonna go talk to him. I tapped him on the shoulder, signaled to take out his headphones, and I started talking to him. I said, “My wife is a huge fan of you and the show, she was too embarrassed to say hi, but it’d mean the world to her if you went over and said hi to her.” He told me to wait 3 minutes while he was finishing up his workout. I was afraid he was gonna be completely bugged…but he actually was really nice about it.

Anyway, he came over to where we were on the treadmill, we stopped, and we got chatting with him for about 20 minutes. We got asking him about all sorts of show-specific questions. Of course we teased him about if he made it to the finals or not, etc. Obviously he couldn’t say. We asked about if he’s still in touch with any of the other contestants, he said he still keeps in touch with Courtney and Frosti. He said that they taped in the summer, and got back in August. Apparently they are in the process of taping an All-Star season right now; he said James and Amanda are in it. Interesting.

I asked him about Aaron, and what he thought about him getting voted off early. He was fine with it, cuz it meant less competition. I asked him who he’d want with him in the finals, if he were to make it. He said Courtney. He said his alliance with James was a lot tighter than the show made it seem. Apparently tJames would give Todd the immunity idol anytime he needed it. Anyway…we went on to talk about a lot of stuff. It was really cool talking to him and he’s a really nice guy. Down to earth. Friendly. I’ll definitely be rooting for him to win.

Apparently, until the final episode in December, he’s working as a waiter at Wingers. They don’t get paid till then. Anyway, apparently there’s a big thing at Wingers in Provo in a couple weeks. Where everyone will watch the show, he’ll be there to answer questions, etc. He invited us. We’re probably gonna go.

The whole thing was just really funny cuz my wife freaked out about the situation. She was really excited to see him. Anyway, it was funny that we ran into him. He’s a nice guy. Hopefully he gets far in Survivor.

Day to Day/TV View Comments