joygantic

No Longer Hiding Under My Desk

Having no time or energy to actually craft a post this evening I decided that I's delve into the vast but largely unaccessible Joygantic 1.0 archives and see what might have happened on this day in past years.  Excellent timing, if I do say so myself. Three years ago I was diving under my desk.  Note the gorgeous circularity of the universe when you read this post-from-the-past:  I am now again working for a start up in Pioneer Square and the devasted building in the last link is a block from my current work and about a month from being reopened as the Klondike Goldrush National Historical Park.

If you were in Seattle three years ago what were you doing during the quake?

2.28.01 . . . i hid under my desk
Nothing grabs your attention quite like an earthquake. Especially when you've just arranged an inspection to have your house retrofit for earthquakes and are waiting on a quote for earthquake insurance. With work evacuated, I beat a hasty retreat home hoping that Dia wasn't pinned under a falling bookcase, the cats hadn't run away, and we weren't facing financial ruin. She wasn't, they didn't, we aren't.

A planned webStrategic reunion/W2 pickup party was, however, cancelled. We'd planned to meet at the bar in Pioneer Square where we drowned our sorrows when the company cratered almost a year ago. We were soooo ahead of the curve, going down as we did well before the 'dot com crash' made pink slip parties au courant. Nothing like being a trendsetter. But Pioneer Square was really not the place to be tonight given the hangover from the riots last night and today's quake damage.

Counting Shmoes

Beautiful Glimpses of Death

I've missed very little since we de-cabled our television.  On average I spend probably four hours per week in front of the glowing screen.  If there is one thing I miss, though, it's Six Feet Under.  But of course if you believe in the Intarweb, it provides.  No, I'm not talking about Bittorrent, I'm talking about Underbunny's photoset . . . undertaking on Flickr.  It's a nice reminder that Joygantic needs more beauty.

MSN Lost

MSN Search just launched a "viral" marketing campaign called MSN Found.  Wow.  This is truly embarassing.  Six fictional "bloggers" each use their own cutsey schtick to demonstrate--are you ready for this?--that you can find whacky stuff on the Internet!  Who knew?  Everything about this is fake, insulting, and completely and thoroughly sucks. Not just "sucks" but is so completely tone deaf to the way that people interact with the Web that somebody should get fired.  This must be the horror that Scoble railed at and refused to link to over the weekend.  As they used to say on Almost Live: Laaaaame!

Hiding Out

I've been laying low this week partly by choice and partly due to the 48 head cold that I successfully transferred to Dia.  With a laptop, WiFi, and VPN I was at able to more or less keep up with the temporary launch madness and lay on a soft, comfy bed.  Now that's progress.

Distractions have been few, though I enjoyed the A Scanner Darkly trailer thanks to Ariel (who beat professional blogger jkottke to the bunch by 24 hours--and she's only part time, people!)  THROB has also been really entertaining of late.  And I read with interest the Yahoo! to mate with Flickr rumor.  (Speaking of Flickr, can anyone help me figure out easy ways to embed thumbnail Flickr photos with a like to the larger photo on my Flickr site?)

My original thought is going somewhere other than Joygantic for a bit more; I promise it will return soon.

10 Things I've Learned Running a Pub Quiz

(1) The things I think everyone should know are not generally known
(2) The things I think are obscure facts are things most people know
(3) I attended an exceptional high school and a very good university
(4) 90% of the world wants to enjoy themselves, the other 10% wants to enjoy themselves as well but can't unless they are right
(5) Most people have no idea how difficult seemingly simple things are
(6) Most people are kind and generous
(7) When you are under the gun it only takes one uptight person to make you forget #6
(8) If you have the microphone you have power and you can use this, variously, to create humorous moments, to evoke sympathy, to maintain your integrity, and to harness the mob
(9) iPods are lovely devices but they are more unreliable than anyone is willing to admit
(10) In general people like to gather with a seemingly common purpose, governed by a set of rules

Thinking About the World

The folks over at WorldChanging run a great site that you should be looking at frequently.  They offer posts that run into <shock> hundreds of words and provide food for thought each and every day.  In a post today Jamais Cascio provides details of projected population shifts  based on UN data.  This is the sort of stuff that you should really ponder, I say.  Check out this table with data listing cities of a population over 10 million.  There's much you can make of this data but if you don't firmly get the sense that the center of gravity is moving SE then I guess you're not paying attention.

My (Formerly) Small World

Today's Seattle Times ran an article today on mobile video. It's such a small world.  The article mentions Idetic, where Forest from Necronomicone now works and where Fhay, who used to work for me used to work.  Mobliss is highlighted and in fact you can see Elaine in the background of the picture.  And Lee is quoted.

This mobile video.  I tell ya, it's gonna be BIG. 

Three Reasons Being Famous Might Suck

1. A "friend" of George Bush recorded their phone calls
2. Paris Hilton's Sidekick got hacked
3. Hunter S. Thompson killed himself

Dia's Home (Five Things I Love About Dia)

Dia's home!  She's been gone a week and I've missed her terribly.  This is karma in action as the feeling I have when she leaves for a week is different than the one I have when I leave for a week. In either scenario I miss her, but when I'm the one on the airplane it's 'cause I'm doing something that I'm getting off on and, well, I know she supports me getting off.  When she leaves I notice the big gapping hole in my world.  But I am working on getting used to it as our evolving plan calls for her to spend the dark months in California.  This plan got a shot in the arm via Corrine.  It looks like Dia will sublet Corrine's apartment next year whne it's (usually, not this year) crappy in Seattle. 

I picked her up at the airport and we went home and did some horizontal cuddling (no, not that you sick people, just cuddling).  And we unpacked her gargantuan suitcase and she scooted to a buisness-related party.  I just couldn't go.  We'll be spending tomorrow night with her work crowd and after a hectic week I only have the energy to mount a persistent smile for one day this weekend.  But as penance for my lack of attendance I think I'm overdue in publicly listing five of my favorite things about Ms. Dia.

1.  She is, unfailingly, the most supportive and optimistic person I have ever encountered.
2.  Her feet are warm and soft when I play footsie with them moments before I fall asleep.
3.  She recognizies that the drive to "be right" is wrong.  If there is one thing to learn from Dia it's this point, which is not to suggest she's ever wrong.
4.  She's hot.
5.  Her heart is bottomless; she has compassion for people and their situation that make me realize, frequently, what an asshole I can be when I judge people on first glance.  Hopefully I don't do this so much anymore.
Bonus: She's becoming a hell of a leader.