Ok, 1984 was the best year in movie history
Some all-time greats in this list.

Five tips for riding a motorbike in Dakar
A Holliston teen is spending some time in West Africa and writing up her experiences. It turns out that it’s not that easy to ride a motorbike wearing a skirt.

What life will be like for Generation Z
I’ve always been fascinated by generational dynamics. I’m a Generation X’er, a fairly cliche one at that. Here’s Penelope Trunk on what life will be like for Sadie, Lucy and the other members of Generation Z.

I occasionally have generational confusion at the kids’ school. Now that Lucy’s hair is a little longer, we can put her hair in a little ponytail sticking straight up from her head. Unfortunately, the early-twenties teachers have no friggin’ clue what I’m talking about when I say we “pebbles ‘er up.” I guess the Flintstones isn’t in heavy rotation these days.

And, by the way, get off my lawn.

If you feel a wave of bliss flowing in from Holliston this morning, you can thank Sadie. She decided to sleep until 6:30 in the morning, instead of the more traditional 5:00.

Everyone else in the house applauds this update to our schedule. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. Hallelujah.

We have a ton of stuff going on right now, so I apologize for the lack of linky goodness posting. I’m going to try to get back into a daily routine. We’ll see how long that lasts. Anyway, here we go.

I’m sure you guys can deal
My only power trip at work is that I ban sending bad news by email. If there’s the least chance the recipient will react badly to your message, you need to deliver it in person. Even worse are all the examples up at PassiveAggressiveNotes.com. All the posts are worth reading, but this one is expecially funny. I hate when the servers melt.

Awesome sed reference
If the word ‘sed’ means nothing to you, you can safely skip this.

Color palettes from art masterpieces
Really interesting examples of color palettes derived from art masterpieces. I still have my trusty Color Index book, but this is another good way of brainstorming color schemes.

It’s a renter’s market on Cape Cod this summer
Not really an issue for us, but interesting to see the dynamics around that market.

Holliston Triathlon
So, this is what was blocking Norfolk Street last weekend. A five-mile swim, followed by a fifteen-mile bike ride and five-mile run would be a good day’s exercise for anyone. One journalistic note, though: the article doesn’t say who actually won the race.

Passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, co-workers and strangers
Very funny pictures of passive-aggressive notes. My general rule of “never send bad news by email” goes double for little pieces of paper.

Tool Snob
Jay’s new site, detailing the latest and greatest in the toolshed. I have a feeling my $19.95 Home Depot power drill will not make the cut.

The right ride
Interactive maps showing safe bike rides in and around Boston. Play around with clicking on the pushpins to get hints about what you need to look out for. The Central Square notes are all spot-on.

Natick Mall beating
Egads.

Inside the monkeysphere
Why we are how we are. And why you yelled at that guy on the Mass Pike this morning.

7 reasons the 21st century is making you miserable
More from the writer of the monkeysphere. Very interesting stuff.

Knowing that life in launch mode is going to suck doesn’t make it any more pleasant to live through. I cannot wait for this project to launch.

I never really drank coffee before the baby arrived. Now, I’m up to five to seven cups each morning at work.

Welcome Ewan Thomas Bazar Brewer. Congratulations, Jay and Maya!

The baby woke up at 4am. I am not a fan of daylight-savings transition days.

I’m in launch mode at work, and we’ve got a ton going on outside of work. I will resume writing soon.

Maybe when I should be sleeping.

Maybe only in my dreams.

We’re still here, believe it or not. We’ve been straight out for the past three weeks, with a massive family-wide illness, a trip to New York and a vacation all bundled in.

Life returns to normal on Tuesday, and I will soon resume regular posting.

Jason Varitek now holds the Red Sox record for catching the most games in a Red Sox uniform, surpassing Hall-of-Famer Carlton Fisk.

Congratulations, Jason! You are the core of this championship team and, like Dave Roberts, you will never have to buy a drink in this town. More pictures of Jason Varitek.

So, I’m 34 today. Another year. Another set of adventures.

I’m not sure how 34 could possibly top 33 (or 32) (or 31, for that matter). I can’t wait to find out.

A. goes to back to her office Monday, and Sadie begins full-time daycare. We’re all figuring out how we’ll adjust our schedules to our new realities. Sadie will get to make all sorts of new friends and I’ll spend my evening drive down route 16 calculating the likelihood of a speeding ticket vs. the amount of the daycare’s late fees.

We’ll see how it goes.

This transition, among other things, has been killing my writing time, mostly explaining why it’s been awful quiet in my little corner of the web. I’ll try to get back on a more regular writing schedule soon.

We have a wonderful life right now, and it’s very well structured. If we didn’t have our routines and patterns down, we’d spin off into chaos. Still, at this point, I can’t imagine what my life was like four years ago, when I would come home after work and just hang out with friends, play on the web, maybe watch a little TV. I’d kill for that kind of unstructured time now, when my list of attractive side projects is longer than it’s ever been. Alas, youth is always wasted on the young.

Someone is definitely enjoying the return of spring.

I’m back out in San Diego for Adicio‘s annual user conference. It’s always good to see some of the other papers and learn more about the future of recruitment classifieds. I’m taking the red-eye back on Friday night, a flight I’m sure will be sheer bliss.

It’ll be hard for this trip to compete with the last time I was out here, though. In January, 2004, I came out here and was joined for the weekend by my sweetiepie.

We stayed at the Hotel del Coronado, walked the beach, ate at fine restaurants, went to the zoo. Saw a polar bear:

Three weeks later, we were engaged.

Yep, it’s unlikely this trip will live up to the last one.

I’m going to try to spend a little more time on the linky goodness. I’ve been a little lax in how I’ve been stashing my links and notes, and I want to get back to posting the interesting stuff every couple of days.

To make that happen, I’m just leaving an Emacs window open all day to my linky goodness file. I’m dropping items in as I think of them. We’ll see if this makes a difference in how well I can make this work.

So, here we go.

The art of the board meeting
I’ve been reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog for the past few weeks, and I find it consistently entertaining and informative. Here’s a posting about how to compose a board and run a meeting.

WeSmirch
Memeorandum creator Gabe Rivera applies his secret sauce to celebrity news.

Massachusetts home-buyers turning to auction
If you can’t sell it the normal way, try selling it at auction.

Realtor commission structures under siege
Bradley Inman takes a look. Very interesting comments. (Via the New York Times’ Real Estate blog, the Walk-Through)

Boston Baby doesn’t deliver
This is why we ended up skipping all the baby stores and going to Pottery Barn Kids for our crib and Babies ‘r Us for our glider. I’d love to support small businesses, but sometimes (especially when dealing with the baby) I long for a little ruthless corporate efficiency. P.S., we love our crib and glider. (via Universal Hub)

Philip Greenspun’s Tips for Startup Companies

Why the Edgerrin James deal is a disaster for everyone
“When Arizona inked Edgerrin James to a four-year, $30 million deal Sunday, it marked one of those rare and remarkable meteorological moments when clueless management, disenchanted player, greedy agent and pathetic, delusional franchise all conspire to create the perfect storm of dealmaking.”

How to rattle a college basketball player
Invent a love interest, then pass out the incriminating instant messages before a game. Inventive social engineering.

AskMe: Where’s a good place to get an apartment in Boston these days?
I lived in Central Square from 1998-2005, and it definitely got sketchier over the past couple of years. It’s still reasonably safe, but it’s a little creepy at night. Porter and Davis are less scary.

Interesting reminisces about Will McDonough

It’s almost time to head back to Fenway. Makes me nostalgic for one exciting night in Fenway’s Monster seats.

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.

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 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…