Two videos came across the transom this weekend, videos you should watch, videos that may make you cry a little.

1. An autistic boy get his chance to play basketball. Glorious mayhem ensues.

2. General McArthur leads the final Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in the bay of Tokyo, ending World War II. Google Video has put up hundreds of hours of video from the National Archives. You could lose yourself for hours in this archive.

Update (2/28): CBS apparently send YouTube a nastygram, so they had to take the widely-distributed, incredibly viral autistic basketball player video off their site.

Nevermind that it was the first time I’d watched any CBS news in years. Not a smart decision on their part. Here is CBS’ position.

Very interesting article from Stowe Boyd about advisory capital, the consulting analogue to venture capital.

A consultant is unlikely to want to part with a strategic concept that could make a client into a $100M player, potentially, in exchange for a per diem and the possibility of some downstream consulting, maybe, if you’re lucky. And the best results may not come from a few days of consulting, but a long-term strategic involvement, like venture capitalists typically make in their portfolio companies, the expense of which small companies have historically been unwilling to take on.
What I think is needed is a fusion of the best of both the venture capital and advisory board models. I call this Advisory Capital:

I do a lot of informal consulting to friends and nonprofits; this may be a model that can really support that as a profession.

[tags]Advisory Capital[/tags]

If one of your employees is prone to cutting elevator lines, annoying fifteen or so potential customers, then perhaps you should suggest she not wear a brightly-logoed WebSideStory shirt. It may degrade your brand equity.

I used to run conferences for a living, traveling around the country, staying at beautiful hotels, pounding pavement, tempting fate. I closed down the Tonga Room at the Fairmont in San Francisco, singing in harmony with two friends, blowing kisses to the maiden on the stage. I carried a co-worker down Bourbon Street at three in the morning, helping her through the after-effects of one too many hurricanes. I once checked my dinner at the Rainbow Room and two of us drained three bottles of champagne while dancing to the old-school swing band.

This week, I’m in Orlando at a conference. I have not left the hotel. I’m going to bed at 7:30pm, trying desperately to cure my baby-induced sleep deprivation.

What a difference a decade makes.

[tags]parenthood[/tags]

I’m in Central Florida for the next few days, attending the Newspaper Association of America‘s Marketing and Classifieds conference. The next four days will be chock-full of panel presentations and trade-show schmoozing.

I flew down from Boston on JetBlue, excited to fly them given all the buzz they generate. It was “fine,” but I wasn’t blown away. Flying is flying, and startups like JetBlue can’t do a whole lot to change the basic experience. I did enjoy interacting with reasonably pleasant employees, though, as opposed to USAir’s trademark insta-surlies.

[tags]NAA, JetBlue, Orlando[/tags]

I finally got around to dropping a Google search box onto the site. Up in the top right (on the homepage) is the box from which you can search all of JPButler.com, or even all of the web.

Another reason to just go ahead and make JPButler.com your homepage

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve given up some linky goodness! Bad blogger.

Ethan Stock: Interesting article on the transactional nature of classifieds, and how layering in social elements won’t get you better results.

Another one from Ethan Stock, freshly added to NetNewsWire: The three types of user-created content. Selfish. Social. Selfless.

The 10 best science-fiction films never made. I don’t think of myself as a sci-fi geek, but I’m far too familiar with the works he describes.

This also reminded me of one of the all-time best quotes:

He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way down it.

What it’s like to sit in the audience at the Daily Show. She picked a great one to go to, and she got an on-air shoutout from Jon himself.

Previously: What it’s like to be on the Daily Show by Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You.

Mark Hurst: The experience experience

I’m afraid many marketers fall in that last camp, thinking that slapping the latest buzzword on their product somehow makes it more competitive. A friend of mine was accosted this week at the fragrance counter in Bloomingdale’s, asked if he wanted “the Hugo Boss experience.” Not surprisingly, he hurried along downstairs to the men’s section where, wouldn’t you know it, there were no actual sales or service people available to help in his actual customer experience.

And, of course, the silly story of the emailing lawyers.

Because it’s her three-month birthday! Yes, little Sadie Butler joined us on November 14th, 2005.

It’s been a fun three months.

Sadie recently discovered her thumb, and over the past couple of weeks, she’s found that she doesn’t really need us — all she needs is the thumb. And sometimes the whole hand.

I worry a little bit, though. She loves to have her fingers in “the claw,” and she’ll often thrash her fingers around. I’d prefer not to have to go to Holliston Pediatrics to have her eyeballs reattached.

I know I’ve been away from the blog too long when I start getting the checking-in emails, calls and visits. So, quick update (and maybe a couple of posts).

So much to do, so little time. The baby’s growing well, turning into quite the little jabberer. She’s not shy about her opinions. Kinda sweet, except when we’re trying to get her to sleep.

Work is heating up. Now that I’ve been there four months, we’re starting to launch all sorts of fun stuff, and we’re working on redesigns. I’ll bore you all with shameless plugs in over the next few months

I’ll try to get more posts up more frequently…