It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

::HorsePigCow:: life uncommon: My so-called online life

Tara's got a great post on how our generation is truly living online more and more everyday...

Link: ::HorsePigCow:: life uncommon: My so-called online life.

What I'm saying is that things are going to get interesting as more and more people migrate online. I don't know if it will bring us closer together or further apart.

I do know that we can connect easier with people all over the world - enabling all sorts of opportunities. On the flipside, we are choosing to interact online more often than offline, so what does that do to intimacy?

What I find is that a lot of this online stuff fuels intimacy.  Just the other day, a placement agent called me about a deal.  He sent me pitch deck and when I replied with a thank you, he clicked on the blog link that I have in my e-mail footer.  He called me back ten minutes later to tell me all about how he used to be really into the canoeing and kayaking community back in the 70's in Philly.  All of the sudden, he became a multidimensional person to me... not just a phone call and an e-mail Powerpoint deck to be screened and triaged.

Yesterday, I got a pitch from a guy in Latin America who asked about my leg. No better way to get free sympathy than to blog about your various injuries.

When I blog, my friends are able to catch up on my life so that, the next time I actually do see them they know what's going on.  We don't waste time "catching up" with monologues, but just actually conversing and sharing real time together.  It invites people I'd never know to comment, exchange, and impact my thinking.  More people know that I'm dating someone now than anyone I've ever dated, because I blog about her.

That's intimacy, to me.   Its different than we've previously known it to be.  Call it Intimacy 2.0.  :)

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

"Why won't you talk to me?"

"In eighteenth century London or Paris, sociability did not depend on intimacy.  Strangers meeting in parks or on the streets might, without embarrassment, speak to each other.  They shared a common fund of public signs which enabled people to conduct a civilized conversation without feeling called upon to expose their innermost secrets  The romantic cult of sincerity and authenticity tore away the masks that people had worn in public and eroded the boundary between public and private life.  As the public world came to be seen as a mirror of the self, people lost the capacity for detachment and hence for playful encounter, which presupposes a certain distance from the self." - Christopher Lasch, Culture of Narcissism

When I was in high school, I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

I don't remember that much of it, but I do remember the importance of conversation...  Two of the guys in the book used to get together for these extreme "brain dump" sessions where they'd literally spend hours, even a full day or two, just talking about everything... Everything. 

The didn't let time constraints get in their way.  They just talked until they were done.

College was a little bit like that.  I was so fascinated by new people that I often ignored the clock for the tradeoff of some good topical exploration.

Blogs do that to some extent, but I feel like they're  somewhat self-reenforcing.  They're great for attracting likeminded people or at least people talking about the same topics as you, but they're  kind of bad for discovery. 

I don't think anyone's quite figured out that algorythym yet...  "people and things not like me at all that I would still find interesting."  How do you find something you've never sought after before, yet something you weren't consciously avoiding?  And, how do you do it in a limited way?  I could subscribe to a blog about metaphysics, but I'm really not that interested in it as a totally new pursuit. 

I'd read a post a week on it, though. 

That's why I loved those college dorm conversation.  Dorm life stuffs you in with people you might not have ever encountered otherwise.  Your friend group is random and accidental, and it takes you some time to gravitate towards more similar people.  I think that's good, to a large extent, to develop this kind of a network, but I also find myself pining for a little more of a mix...  People whose worlds are really interesting who introduce me to new stuff.

Dating never quite worked for this...  In theory, dating introduces you to a fascinating set of people with diverse interests, but the reality is that most people want to meet people just like them.  I never met an artist who found it really interesting to date a business guy.

Where was I?  Oh yeah... Conversation.  When is the last time you had a really interesting face to face chat with someone semi-random about a topic you usually don't talk about?

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

We're Men... in Tights

[16:25] lightbox5: believe me, there are no end of things you will go to the mattresses on
[16:25] lightbox5: clothes will, in the end, not be one of them
[16:25] Ceo21: See.. that's the problem
[16:26] Ceo21: at the end of the day
[16:26] Ceo21: I want to go to the mattress...
[16:26] Ceo21: literally
[16:26] lightbox5: right
[16:26] lightbox5: so wear the shirt

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Adrianna is blogging

Talk about transparancy...

Now you get to watch all our little domestic issues play out in real time, because Adrianna is blogging.

She wrote this because we have this issue about her trying to buy clothes for me.  I'm sure there are a lot of cavemen in my court.  I just don't really care too much about clothing.  I just want to be comfortable.  I hate the idea of buying brand for brand's sake or following what's "in".  She says she just thinks I'd look better in certain things. 

"I'm just a caveman.  Your world of pastels and flat front pants frightens and confuses me."

In the meantime, she helped me with some of the apartment stuff and will continue to do so... so its not like I'm totally closed minded, right?  Anyone agree?

Should I let her dress me for success or draw a line in the sand that my no-style style is personal and shouldn't be messed with?

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Help Charlie Pick a New Winter Coat, via del.icio.us

A certain someone has convinced me that I need some more outside input into my fashion choices... perhaps a bit more flexibility.

She made a convincing argument.

So, I'm opening up the selection process to all of you, starting with my winter coat.  I will buy and wear a winter coat solely selected by my blog audience.

Here's the deal:

  1. To submit a coat for group voting, tag it in del.icio.us with the "coatidol" tag.  (No quotes, obviously.)  Only coats tagged in del.icio.us qualify, so if you want to be a part of this, learn how to use del.icio.us by clicking here.
  2. Submissions will end in one week on Tuesday, October 25th at 5PM.
  3. At that point, we will do a two day vote ending on Thursday, October 27th at 5PM.  Every coat and its picture will be displayed for voting and voting will be anonymous.
  4. No coat over $350 will be considered.
  5. Remember, this is a winter coat...  so ideally it would keep me warm.
  6. You're free to select any colors, but I think its obvious what colors I like.  (See my living room, my car, my blog)
  7. The community will police itself.  Tagged coats will appear at del.icio.us/tag/coatidol as soon as people start tagging.  If you see a coat that's an obvious attempt at getting me to wear something stupid, just tag it coatidolsucks.  No coat tagged coatidolsucks by anyone will be considered.
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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

The 'Stang

Its here.

It arrived Friday.

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Its a fantastic to drive...  it definitely has a Mustang "feel".   The front end is a monster and you definitely feel like you've got to corral the 300 horsies in front of you.   I put the top down as soon as I could... even drove around Friday night with it down.  (With the heat on full blast for Adrianna, mind you.)

Weekend car highlights:

I pull up to a light on Flatbush Avenue and two guys in a delivery truck pull up next to me, peering over at my car.  I've got the top down.  One guy beeps the horn and goes, "Yo, dat shit is tight."   

That's good, right?  :)

Then, last night after softball, I went to go get my car and a little kid about nine had his jacket on the trunk.  I said to his group, "Hey, who's jacket is this, I don't want to drive away with it."  He goes, "Hey man, this your car?  This is a cool car, man."     Stay in school kid.  Stay in school.

And the best part is, the chicks love it:

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If you haven't noticed, yet, the car is also why I have that new little widget on my sidebar.  Peer produced reporting for gas prices...   Web 2.0 is going to save me some money at the pump.

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Interior Decorating

So now that the couches are in and the walls are painted, it was time for detailing.  Like, for example, my bare gray walls.  I called in an expert...   Adrianna and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to look for framed pictures, mirrors, etc.  I had a bunch of postcards of Pike Floyd album covers that I wanted to put up as well, but how to put them up and where to put them? 

We found a few items that we liked and started brainstorming right in the store:

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Here's the final product:

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Auto Insurance Recommendation

Maybe they're specifically targeting 26 year old Mustang drivers with tattoos, but AIG Auto just quoted me a rate that's about 35% of what I got from Esurance and Progressive.   

Check them out.

Esurance wanted to insure me for a price that was about 30% of the value of the damn car.

If you haven't picked up on this yet... I got a surprise call from the Ford dealer yesterday... my car is in.  :)

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Subway Thumbing

I wonder if anybody notices.

I watched a couple on the train last night...  Youngish... Like 18 or 19.  The guy had his back towards me on one of those corner seats.  He was leaning in, pitching cheap jokes, one liners... Anything to see this girl laugh and smile.  I noticed them.  I notice a lot of people.  Chances are someone's noticing me, right now, thumbing away on my Treo with this dumb leather flap hanging off the back...protecting my phone from myself.  I'm on the subway...not biking because I got a flat yesterday.  Its early for me to leave the city.  I'm going home to do some cooking and some repackaging.  I ordered a whole bunch of chicken and fish that needs to get separated and frozen into meal sized defrostable portions.  Over the weekend I made a peanut sauce for my salmon.  I'm pretty sure that was the wrong fish for it but I like to experiment.

The last year has been a whirlwind of change for me.  One year ago, I was working on my failed Stanford MBA application.  Ask me to flash forward then and I thought I might have been in California.

I haven't been to California in almost a year and now and now it seems like thousands of miles away now.

You know what I mean.

Who I spend my time with is vastly different now, too.  I don't know if changes, through purposeful reevaluation, beget more change, or whether its that they are so disruptive that they tend to unintentially affect other parts of your life.   

I'm feeling a bit small today.  Summer's coming to an end.  Life is settling and going to be quite busy for the next month.  Two more weeks of kayaking. 

This shirt has a faint stain on the front, but I keep forgetting to throw it out. 

I think I need to order some books... And finish my office at home.  That's key.  I need a place to retreat to in order to pound out some bigness.

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Crossroads Dispatches: There Is No Spoon, Only Questions

Link: Crossroads Dispatches: There Is No Spoon, Only Questions.

Do you no-holds-barred really want to know anything? Or are you seeking evidence that you're already right?

Evelyn is the Rob Deer of my blog reading.  She tends to write too much for me to consume regularly, and so, admittedly, I skip past a lot.  However, every so often, she bangs out a real gem that I find inspiring and thought provoking.  Not only does this make me want to watch the Matrix again, but I might buy the book she references, too.  So what do you really know? 

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Life 2.0 - Ten Steps for Success

In the last few months, I've seen so many instances of philosophies and strategies that we espouse for entreprenuers and businesses actually apply to my real life.  I think its one of the drivers of the whole "Web 2.0" phenomenon that what's happening how is that we're making the web match how we actually want to live, versus living on the web and changing our habits to do so the first time around.

Therefore, I'm going to reapply my recent list for life...  so be happy, healthy, live long and prosper...

1. Solve small problems.  Instead of trying to do everything at once, divide your issues into smaller ones and get them out of the way.  Keep your solutions simple.

2. Surround yourself with a "responsive and chatty audience"--people who challenge you, give you feedback, and tell it to you straight.

3.  Do something new and different.  Now.  Tomorrow.  Every day.

4.  Distribute.  Distribute.  Distribute.  Get out there and reach people with similar interests, pursue your interests.. i.e. get deeply intertwined in the world around you as opposed to waiting for the world to get deeply intertwined in you.

5.  "Don't hold users against their will."  Don't hold on to relationships with people who clearly aren't excited about being in your life.  All you can do is be the best person you can, if they still don't want in, let them go.

6.  Be mindnumbingly simple.  Don't over complicate your life.

7.  Get people hooked on free--give back to the community by volunteering your time, knowledge, etc and demonstrate your value not by asking for big compensation, but by not asking for any at all for a lot of the things you do.

8. Don't waste any money on marketing... i.e. Don't go tooting your own horn.  If people want to sing your praises, fine, but keep the singing of your own praises to a minimum.

9.  Don't overfund.  Money isn't everything.  Too much of it will also cloud your head.  Just do what you find interesting and don't worry about the money--live within your means.

10.  No one sucks.  Strive to find the unique beauty and interestingness in everyone you meet.  Everyone has something to teach you.


And if this doesn't work for you... try the Sunscreen Song.

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Ward Dingmann & Housein Housein: Men of Action (or, "I got my furniture!")

Last Friday, I was pissed.   I waited around all day for a bedroom set from Levitz via Furniture.com that never arrived.

So I blogged about it.

But I didn't just blog about it.  I went to LinkedIn and found the guy at Levitz all the way up the chain of command that this delivery screwup led up to... the Senior Vice President of Logistics.  I called him out:

"You know who the buck stops with?  Ward Dingmann, SVP of Logistics at Levitz.  If you leave your image to the guy at the warehouse, forget your company.  So, maybe Ward will Google himself or someone who know him.  He's on LinkedIn, but I'm not connected to him.  So, if anyone knows Ward, let him know there's a pissed off blogger who is without a bedroom set."

Then... I got a comment, for someone at Levitz corporate:

"I read your blog about the problems encountered with your delivery. If you will provide me the delivery document number, your e-mail address, or the phone number you used when you placed the order, I will get the information to Ward so he can personally look into the situation."

Then, at 5:08PM on Tuesday, I hit the jackpot.  One business day later:

Mr. O’Donnell

I wanted to personally apologize for the problems with your recent delivery attempt.  Definitely appreciate any feedback (good or bad), and always attempt to improve our service. 

While it is certainly no excuse in your case, we are in over 3,000 homes nationwide each day and try to perform all deliveries timely and to the satisfaction of our customers.  I’m sorry that it did not happen in this case.

I can assure you we have already looked into the specifics of your delivery, and identified what might have happened.  I have asked our VP of East Coast Warehousing to call you (on Wednesday) once he has all of the facts around what happened, and more importantly, can make a commitment on our attempt to correct and re-deliver.

In the meantime, please to do hesitate to call me directly with any other concerns or comments.  Thanks again for your patience, and we hope you give us an opportunity do earn your trust again.

Sincerely,

Ward

And, like clockwork, Mr. Housein, head of East Coast Warehousing, called me up first thing Wednesday morning.  He was apologetic and didn't pull any punches...  saying they "screwed up" and explained to me in detail, exactly what happened.  Basically, the stuff got barcoded or scanned wrong, and the person who did it didn't doublecheck when it got mixed up and came up cancelled.  That's why there was no follow through, no notification... b/c someone just took a "cancelled" scan and accepted it without doublechecking and following through. 

They do 1200 orders a day out of that place.  It happens.  One slipped through and it happened to be mine.  So when we rescheduled for Saturday and I asked if he could get it to me earlier rather than later, he said, "We'll get it to you first...   we've got to do this one right."

PLUS, I have a later order pending that's supposed to come the first week of October... a couch.  He said that he was getting a shipment in on Friday, and if the couch came in, he'd put it on the truck and get me my couch (a month ahead of schedule) and the bedroom set at the same time.  He even gave me his cell number in case I needed to get in touch with him!

When I asked him about the time that I lost in waiting around and what they were going to do about that, he said he was going to talk with customer service and "do the right thing to make you happy."

So there it is.  After blogging about it on Friday, I get a response the next business day and I hear exactly what the plan to solve the problem is the day after.  I got a total admission of failure by high level people in the company and full transparency into what happened. 

So today was the rescheduled delivery.  8:30AM, the doorbell rings and the furniture is here--both my bedroom set and my couch.  The delivery guys were courtious and quick.  On top of that, after they left, I got a phonecall from the warehouse doublechecking to make sure my stuff arrived.

I have to say, I'm pretty wowed by this whole chain of events and the level of personal care taken by executive level people in the company to make good on a warehouse mixup.  Basically, the won a lost customer back, and hopefully even got a few new ones because of this post.  You should really check out their stuff at furniture.com.  It was reasonably priced and it really looks beautiful now that its here, one week late for the bedroom set and over three weeks early for the couch. In the end a good result made possible by some very dedicated Levitz employees.   Nice job Ward and Housein!

Photo 529 Photo 524 Photo 535

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How Long Will I Live? - Life Expectancy Calculator

Link: How Long Will I Live? - Life Expectancy Calculator.

Amazingly, this calulator corroborates what the Death Clock told me, even though its a lot more detailed, within reason.  Both put me well into my 85th year. 

The interesting analysis with this one is that it lets you analyze your heath risks and tells you where you could improve your expectancy.  So, for example, if I never wanted to have sex again, I could extend my life 1.67 years.

Umm....   riiiiiight.  I don't see that as such a great tradeoff, especially considering where the years are being tacked on.  Two more years of bingo and tapioca?  No thanks. 



   
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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Weekend Biking Photos

Over the weekend, I did a lot of biking.  On Friday, I went up the west side to the George Washington Bridge and then had a little waterfront picnic.  I snapped off a few sunset pictures, too.  The sunset cloud cover over the Hudson in the city produces some really great skies and I've been having a ball taking pictures of them. 

Photo 433 Photo 439

The moss on these rocks seemed to glow in the sun.

Photo 437

I also biked in Prospect Park in Brooklyn on Saturday.  This picture is from the lake.

Photo 441

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

How do you like them apples?

Instead of buying ten apples, I accidently bought ten "family packs" of six apples each.

If anyone wants any apples, I have some... well... a lot of them.

You're welcome to come over and make some apple pie, apple cobbler, apple preserves, or apple sauce.

I'll be bringing some apples into work, too.

Perhaps Kerri will cut up some apples to go in her cereal.

Apple.

Apple.

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

King of the Nap

When I was a freshman at Fordham, I had, three days a week, an 8:30AM class and a 12:30PM class.  The 8:30 was 50 minutes long, which gave me a solid 2 1/2 hour window of time  until my next class.

What unfolded was the careful and intricate development of something that I would later term, "the Nap."

That idea would be improved upon and get replaced by "The Power Nap". 

You knew it was truly a Power Nap if there was drool on the pillow when I woke up.  I would walk in from the 8:30, drop my bookbag, take my shoes off and just fall onto the bed.  This would lead to a debate between me and my roommate Kevin as to why I wouldn't take clothes off and/or get under the covers.  Of course, that's the difference between a nap and actual sleeping, but we would debate the semantics of sleeping for some time. 

The Power Nap was a freshman year institution.  I felt so refreshed by it, but schedules changed, I'd have three roommates in sophomore year and the Power Nap fell by the wayside.  But, for a semester, like clockwork, I was King of the Nap and it was wonderful.

I bring this up, because I just played softball on Brian's team (which is why I wasn't at the boathouse) and I was tired from the sun and yesterday's long day.  I found myself with the inclination to return to the nap, proceeded to follow up on this inclination.  Clothes on.  Above the covers.  Drool on the pillow.  Like the eldar Ted Williams at the All-Star game, the Power Nap has reemerged to come out and see the fans one more time.

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

The Second Kryptonite Bike Scandal

So, I now have direct evidence that a Kryptonite lock is so crappy, that thieves will cut it in broad daylight at 5PM in the afternoon on 20th and Broadway, right across the street from a busy restaurant.

I might as well have locked it up with tinker toys and some bendy straws.  At least the thief would have hesitated for a moment out of sheer confusion. 

Yes, my bike got stolen.  So, you can add that to the list of things I've had stolen in the past two and a half months...     digital camera, wallet, and now, bike.

The funny thing is that I kinda wanted a new one and didn't want to go through the hassle of selling it.  I should start looking on Craigslist right now for my bike,  no?  Where else would thieves sell it?   

While Googling "bike lojack" I found the following idea on a comment page.  Pure humor and not such a bad idea:

Link: Halfbakery: Bike LoJack.

How about if the bike is pedalled away without entering the secret code (rear brakes twice, backpedal one revolution, then front brakes once) a spike shoots up out of the seat. Wouldn't have to go very far at all to retrieve your bike then...

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It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell It's My Life Charlie O'Donnell

Chelsea Grey


Photo 356, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

I have a vision...   warm grey tone with lots of framed colorful art.  Black leather couch and loveseat.  Green plants.  Thoughts?  Any ideas on what to do about the border?  I don't think I like it white... same goes for the window.

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