Someone gave Joshua a zebra plant with some lucky Chinese coins in it.  As del.icio.us flourished, so did the plant.

When he left for CA, he left the plant with USV and it continued to grow.

That is, until we gave him back his lucky coins...  I really only wanted the plant and the lucky coins were meant for him.

I think its too late to ask for the coins back...

The other day, I went into Duane Reade to buy some deodorant.

There were two on the shelf of the brand I normally buy, in two different scents:

STORM FORCE and cool mountain misty flower breeze somethingorother fluffy cotton bunnies

Now, of course I bought STORM FORCE, because that's the way I want to smell...  like the FORCE of a STORM.  STORM FORCE-- Two words that imply power, but mean absolutely nothing when put together in that order. 

I need this.  I must have this.  I want to walk down the street with a team of roofers behind me replacing shingles on rooftops.  I don't want admirers... I want debris.  FEMA should call me every morning after I put it on to see if everything is ok.

STORM FORCE

STORM FORCE

Because most of all, that's the way women want their men smelling, right?

Hmm... wait... I need to rethink this.

Maybe STORM FORCE wasn't the right move there.

Perhaps I should have gone with the misty cool fluffy mountain bunnies.

The Felds celebrated an anniversary (congrats) and Brad writes...

"We spent a lot of time talking about how satisfied we are with our respective existences on this planet"

How many people can honestly say they feel that way?

Too funny...   thanks for the head's up, Dave.

Remember Rick Ankiel?  At 20 years old, he started Game 1 of the NLDS against the Braves in 2000.

He took a lead into the third, and then had a complete meltdown.  He threw five wild pitches, walked four and that was about all she wrote for his whole career.  Not only did he not have what it took to pitch in the playoffs, but his performance so shattered his confidence that he never succeeded again in the majors.

And conversely, look at Mariano Rivera and flash back to 1995.  (I know... he plays for the bad guys... I'm just trying to make a point here.)  Rivera was a starter when he first came up... made 10 starts actually...  and finished the year with a 5.51 ERA.  Nothing special by far.   But all it took was 5 1/3 innings of shutout relief in the first round of the playoffs against Seattle to see that this was a guy who thrived when the game was on the line in a clutch situation. 

Rivera had "it" and Ankiel didn't... and there was nothing up until those key series for each player that could have predicted their success.  There wasn't a scouting report out there that could have told you enough about their mental makeup to clue you into whether they would wilt or shine in a tough spot.

And even if there was, its still a matter of what happens on the field.  A lot of people show their character in different ways.  How about John Rocker?   Sure, he was mean, angry...etc... things you'd probably normally want in a closer...   but he turned out to be a complete head case.

So, while velocity and control might be key measures of effectiveness to a scout, a lot of the times what is really predictive of success has nothing to do with a person's natural talent.   That sometimes makes predicting success an exercise in character judgement more so than it does a job of looking at someone's historical track record.  Should scouts be conducting character reference interviews?  I wonder if they do at all. 

What about as you are building a company?   Particularly in venture, when you might be asking people to do things that no one has ever done before, a lot of times, you find yourself betting on character.  This is made so much more important because of the size of the staffs you are adding to.  If employee #5 is a bad hire, its a lot worse than a bad hire for #5000. 

So what are the keys to checking someone's character out and also the rightness of fit with an organization?  Certainly, you've got to sit them down and put them in front of as many people you know and trust as possible.  That was certainly a key for me when I got hired.  While Brad and Fred never bothered to check out my resume, because they saw my work first hand in my due diligence of their fund, they focused in on my references and the impressions I made on people in my office.  I'm quite sure that my interview with Kerri, because I was going to be sitting right next to her, was probably just as important as whatever I had put on my resume, had they seen it. 

I guess its a little bit like dating.  You just don't know exactly if you're going to be a match, and no profile, quiz, etc. is going to prove compatability for you...  sometimes you just have to take a chance on someone you get a good feeling from... someone you wouldn't mind facing a little bit of the unknown with.

Link: Gothamist: Critical Mass Clashes with Police Again.

New Yorkers, probably more than any other kind of people, are really good at making issues out of things that shouldn't be issues.  The combined mental and emotional effort that has gone in to these silly bike rides could be spent doing lots of other things that would make much greater impact on society.  How about helping kids to read, spending time with the elderly, or feeding the homeless.  If I was sick in a hospital bed, watching TV because I had no one to visit me, and I saw these people protesting their "right to bike in a big group", I'd be pissed.  And then, I'd probably cry.  So, next time one of these mass rides comes around, instead, why don't you think for a moment about how you can directly improve the life of one of your fellow human beings.  Spending more time with your family counts, too.  You should be ashamed of yourself if your best contribution to the good of society is causing traffic.

Link: tony morgan | one of the simply strategic guys: 10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader.

10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader

   
1. You're waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
   
2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.
   
3. You're content.
   
4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
   
5. You think you need to say something to be heard.
6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
   
7. It's been some time since you said, "I messed up."
   
8. You're driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
   
9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
 
10. No one is following you.

I'll add a few:

11) You can't/don't take the time to understand people who disagree with you.

12) You don't create other leaders.

13) You have to make every decision yourself.

I'm goofing around with my avatar, experimenting with text to speech and giving him a little more futuristic look.  I've got him saying the first paragraph of the Sunscreen Song, which came out the year I graduated high school.

This was on the radio last night...   The "Sunscreen Song" of 2004?

"Underwear Goes Inside the Pants"
Lazyboy

Why is marijuana not legal? Why is marijuana not legal?
It's a natural plant that grows in the dirt.
Do you know what's not natural?
80 year old dudes with hard-ons. That's not natural.
But we got pills for that.
We're dedicating all our medical resources to keeping the old guys erect,
but we're putting people in jail for something that grows in the dirt?

You know we have more prescription drugs now.
Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad.
I can't watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases.
Like: "Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?"
Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it.
Half the time I don't even know what the commercial is:
people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean.
I'm like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that?
That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy.

The schools now: It is all about self-esteem in the schools now.
Build the kids' self-esteem, make them feel good about themselves.
If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs?
What's going to happen to our porno industry?
These women don't just grown on trees.
It takes lots of drunk dads missing dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat on the internet for fifty bucks.
And if that disappears, where does that leave me on a Friday night with my new high speed connection?

Masterminds are another word that comes up all the time.
You keep hearing about these terrorists masterminds that get killed in the middle east.
Terrorists masterminds.
Mastermind is sort of a lofty way to describe what these guys do, don't you think?
They're not masterminds.
"OK, you take bomb, right? And you put in your backpack. And you get on bus and you blow yourself up. Alright?"
"Why do I have to blow myself up? Why can't I just:"
"Who's the fucking mastermind here? Me or you?"

Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic like it is polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.
"How'd you get through it grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle.
I'll sit at a drive thru.
I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter.
Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large.
You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There's room in the back. Take it!
Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little bit in your youth to motivate yourself to succeed in later life.
Do you think if Bill Gates got laid in high school, do you think there'd be a Microsoft?
Of course not.
You got to spend a long time in your own locker with your underwear shoved up your ass before you start to think,
"You'll see. I'm going to take of the world of computers! I'll show them."

We're in one of the richest countries in the world,
but the minimum wage is lower than it was thirty five years ago.
There are homeless people everywhere.
This homeless guy asked me for money the other day.
I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol.
And then I thought, that's what I'm going to use it on.
Why am I judging this poor bastard.
People love to judge homeless guys. Like if you give them money they're just going to waste it.
Well, he lives in a box, what do you want him to do? Save it up and buy a wall unit?
Take a little run to the store for a throw rug and a CD rack? He's homeless.
I walked behind this guy the other day.
A homeless guy asked him for money.
He looks right at the homeless guy and says why don't you go get a job you bum.
People always say that to homeless guys like it is so easy.
This homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants.
Outside his pants. I'm guessing his resume isn't all up to date.
I'm predicting some problems during the interview process.
I'm pretty sure even McDonalds has a "underwear goes inside the pants" policy.
Not that they enforce it really strictly, but technically I'm sure it is on the books.

Since I bought my place, the MR 16 halogen bulbs on my tracklight haven't worked right.

I turn them on, they light for light 5-10 minutes, then blowout.. .but they're not really blown out, because if I shut them off, and turn them on again later, they'll work.  Sometimes they'll just go back on by themselves.   I've bought new bulbs, replaced the little sliding arm things they plug into...  only put one track light at a time up... nothing seems to work.  I don't get it.

I'm working on a few bigger posts and today is busy at work, so all you get is some funny pics that I took in the city over the past week or so...

David Blaine was hanging out in a ball of water for some reason.

I don't even care enough to Google as to why.  Its so ridiculously stupid.

I really can't stand him.  When he stood in Bryant Park on that pole, I wanted to throw something to knock him off.

He just reminds me of those angsty kids that would do stupid stuff to get attention...   walking on ledges, stabbing knives in between their fingers...   Its just more of the tiresome cult of unworthy celebrity.  Cal Ripken, Jr. played in over 2600 straight games...  16 seasons.  No Injuries, no breaks.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Bubble Boy.

Now, I'm not big into quizzes...

...but this one had amazing results for me.

Regardless of whether you're interested in online dating, take the OkCupid personality test and let me know if it gives you the kind of results that make you curious who it might match you up with.

This was hands down the best results I ever got from one of these things ever... kind of scary, actually.

...but this time, its doormen.

I wouldn't have even known, except that Fresh Direct sent around a notice.

"As you may know, if an employment contract agreement is not reached, 28,000 doormen, elevator operators, porters, and other residential building employees have indicated that they will strike on Thursday, April 20, at 11:59 p.m.

We anticipate a strike could bring delivery complications for your FreshDirect order. As a result, we encourage customers in affected buildings to schedule deliveries for early in the week. In the event of a strike, we plan to reduce time-slot availability on Friday, April 21."

Wow... this could be almost as tragic as the taxi strike.   Remember that?  The streets were mostly clear of traffic.  Everyone took public transportation.  Oh... wait...   that wasn't so bad.

With this doorman strike, people might need to...um...  open their own doors!  Lord, they might even have to get packages sent to work!

Cry me a river.

Maybe we'll start opening doors for each other!  How nice would that be?

BTW...  Some woman kept the door at the gym open for me yesterday even though I was like a good 20 feet from the door.  Maybe she's practicing for when her doorman is gone.

Brad was telling us yesterday of a management training exercise he attended while at AT&T.  They took a bunch of suits rock climbing, and Brad being somewhat atheletic was doing pretty well getting up and down the rock face.

So the instructor told him to try doing it blindfolded.

You would think that would have made it a lot harder, but the reality was, climbing blindfolded made it even easier--because you didn't waste time trying to "overnavigate" your path by sight.  You just reached out for sure footing and pulled yourself up.  You didn't pick out a rock or a line up the face that "looked ok" which was probably misleading anyway. 

Making decisions about your next step is always going to involve some risk.  If you think you've calculated all the variables, you've probably overthought it and maybe to your own detriment.  Sometimes you just need to take the plunge sometimes, whether its getting creative (and a bit risky) with a marketing strategy, feature development, or your own career.   

Someone just sent me this:

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in
the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

There are a lot of things I don't know much about...    clothing, NASCAR, reality television.   Add art to that list.

But unlike the other three, I wouldn't mind knowing a little more.  Its interesting to me, even though I don't understand a lot of it.

So I pass on this link just because there's really cool stuff in this gallery run by a girl who had a small cup of coffee with our Zog softball team last year.  I can't vauch for its value, style, snob appeal or cultural significance, but nonetheless, here's Raandesk.

Douglas Warshaw sent me this list some time ago...  I was just cleaning my inbox and couldn't figure out what to do with it, and I think its really best suited out in the open, b/c its such a well thought out list.

From Doug:

Charlie ... was reading your blog ... and thought I'd send you the below.  It's a list I made up last year for a friend's son who was going off to college (hence, some of the notes specific regarding on what date a film should be ideally be seen :)

WINTER KILLS.
By the author of The Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor, a dark satire
on the Kennedy assassination ...probably the best movie you've never heard of.



   PRIMAL FEAR
Ed Norton's breakout role -- and he's surrounded by a great cast, including
the incomparable Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, John Mahoney, Adre
Braugher, Alfre Woodard and Richard Gere -- a terrific, underrated movie
(probably because its dumb-ass title has zero to do with the plot!).



   THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
Sean Connery and Michael Caine...about as good as a Kipling tale -- or a movie
for that matter -- can get.



 *THE LAST DETAIL
One of a line of truly great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s. The kind of flick that makes you realize how far from great today's

films are.  Jack Nicholson in one of his greatest roles.



  BONNIE & CLYDE
Changed American filmmaking, our sense of violence, our sense of celebrity -- and even effected American fashion. Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and young Gene Hackman (in his breakout role).



   NETWORK
Paddy Chayefsky's amazing black satire of the TV business -- that today seems less a satire than an on-the-mark prediction. Another of the great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s.



  THE HOSPITAL
The single blackest film I've ever seen. Another gem by Chayefsky.



  *CHINATOWN
Regarded by many as one of the very best scripts in the history of film. Roman Polanski at is best, and Jack Nicholson, again,  at the top of his game.



 *THE MALTESE FALCON
"A man can have many sons, but there's only one Maltese Falcon."
 The most perfectly cast film ever. (From a great Hammett novel.) Another John Huston gem.



 THE BIG SLEEP
What the Falcon is to Hammett, the Big Sleep is to Chandler. Bogart and Bacall, 'nuff said.



 LA CONFIDENTIAL
Another great script. And, of course, Rolo Tomasi.



  WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
Billy Wilder meets Agatha Christie. This one gets lost in the shuffle of great old films, but a true gem.



 *THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Best script of the past 10 years.



 *THE GODFATHER (I & II)



 *GOODFELLAS
"Funny how?"
Forget Paul Hamm... The IOC should make Kevin Costner walk over to Scorsese's house and hand him the two Oscars Costner stole in 1990 (for Best Director & Best Picture, for that abomination, "Dances with Wolves").



 *RAGING BULL
Regarded by many as the best film of the 80s.



 *TAXI DRIVER



 *CUCKOOS NEST
Jack at his best, yet again. (The World Series scene is one of the greatest ever -- hell, the whole movie is one of the greatest ever.) And to think it only took a decade for Kirk Douglas to find a producer (his son) willing to make it.



  SERPICO
Based on a true story of the one honest cop in all of New York in the 1970s.
   Another of the truly great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s.



 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
I cry just thinking about it. (See it with a date, and show her your sensitive side.)



 *DINER
Tough to find a smarter, funnier, more enjoyable film. The sort of film you quote from once a week. The sort of film that has about a dozen GREAT scenes (including the greatest quiz ever.)

  The first of Levinson's Baltimore films.



  TIN MEN
The second of Levinson's Baltimore films.
  Not Diner, but pretty terrific.



  BREAKING AWAY
Another great script. And another great ensemble acting job (featuring Paul Dooley, one of my very favorite character actors: "Refund! Refund!") Another gem.



 *ANIMAL HOUSE
Simply the finest American film ever made. To be quoted from at least once a day.
  I dare you to find a funnier picture.



 *SPINAL TAP
Another film you'll quote from for the rest of your life.



  LOST IN AMERICA
Albert Brooks' best film. Funny and mean.



   FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
Ben Stiller, Tea Leone, George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore in a another cruely funny (David O'Russell) film.



  MY COUSIN VINNY
Another comic gem.



 *PULP FICTION
Right up there with The Usual Suspects, in terms of script, and great direction to boot.



 *TRAINSPOTTING
I LOVE this film -- its energy, its wit, its grit, its script, its
filmmaking, its humor.



  DRUGSTORE COWBOY
Another great drug film. Starring Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch (with one of the all-time laments: "You won't fuck me and I always have to drive.")



  *48-HOURS
Eddie Murphy's breakout film. And still his best.



  *3 KINGS
David O. Russell's brutally funny, smart, quirky film about US Soldiers in post-war Iraq on a quest to find a chunk of Sadam's hidden treasure.

  George Clooney & Ice Cube have never been better together!



  *PATTON
Huge.



  APOCOLYPSE NOW
My guess is you've seen it. And best not seen on a small screen. But I couldn't stop myself from typing it on this list. (Falls apart at the end,

but well worth the trip up the river.)



  BREAKER MORANT
Brilliant courtroom drama that takes place during the Boar War. Small picture, big issues.



  LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
One of the all-time great films. But best seen on a BIG screen.



  THE RIGHT STUFF
Perhaps APOLLO 13 is better ... but this is bigger ... and translates the remarkable reportage of Tom Wolfe to the big screen perfectly.



  ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN
Just a great movie. And every frame of it is true.



  NORTH DALLAS FORTY
One of the all-time sports films. Dark as hell. But funny as hell. And on the mark: This really is what pro sports was like in the 70s/80s. (From a

terrific novel by former Dallas Cowboy, Pete Gent.)



  *SLAP SHOT
THE FUNNIEST sports film ever made.



  *BULL DURHAM
Probably the most entertaining sports film ever made. And probably the best baseball film ever made. (And Costas agrees :)



  *CHARIOTS OF FIRE
The Olympics before NBC, Bob Costas, or even Roone Arlidge.
        "True story* of two Brits competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics: One a devout Scottish missionary who runs for God, the other a Jewish student at Cambridge who runs for fame and to escape prejudice."

 *(Actually, some of the facts are conveniently moved around :)
  Won the Gold medal for Best Picture in 1981 ...and unlike Paul Hamm's, no one argued about it.



  *COOL HAND LUKE
How many hard-boiled eggs can you eat? George Kennedy (later of Naked Gun side-kick "fame") gets the Oscar, but Paul Newman owns the film.



  THE HUSTLER
Man, Jackie Gleason was just a great film actor. And Paul Newman is just... Paul Newman.



  *THE COLOR OF MONEY
How many Scorsese films (and Paul Newman film) can I put on this list--and the guy's never one the Oscar!!!--dunno', but no way this sequel to "The Hustler" gets left off.



  GOING PLACES ("Les Valseuses")
A great date film -- but has to be the right girl -- and its subtitled, so see it on a big screen if you can. But you probably can't, which is why I'm putting it on this list (whereas I've left off a lot of other great films like "The 400 Blows," which you'll be able to catch on campus).

  Aimless criminals, and aimless sex. But blisteringly funny. Starring a very young Gerard Depardieu -- and featuring the legendary Jeanne Moreau, of "Jules and Jim" fame -- and a very young Isabelle Huppert.



  AMERICAN GRAFFITI
George Lucas's breakout film about his home town. No special effects -- just a great young cast: Harrison Ford, Richard Dryfuss, Ron Howard! ...and a brief but memorable appearance by the then unknown Suzanne Summers.



  SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
Lost all the hoopla over John Travolta, and disco fever, and the Bee Gees, is the fact that this is a great (small) authentic film.



  * THE GRADUATE
My guess is they'll show it Freshman week. If they don't, save it for a date. (Just don't make it a date with one of your friend's mothers.)



  MORGAN: A Suitable Case for Treatment
One to watch on a date...or with a group in the mood to see a very offbeat film...that's one of the best of the British comedies of the mid-60s.

  I love this film.
  And Vanessa Redgrave, despite her politics, just may be the most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. And in this film, she certainly makes you understand why, "Morgan is sad today."




  * CASABLANCA
You must remember this... Maybe the ultimate date film. (Ideally the third date.)  Hell, maybe the ultimate film.



  *THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
  For a long time this remarkable film of war veterans coming home after WWII held the record for most Oscars, and deservedly so.

  I cry just thinking about it. (Another one to see with a date, to show her your sensitive side.)



  * IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
One of Capra's classics. And another great date film.
   (Don't get fooled into thinking this is some “Miracle on 34th Street” Christmas Holiday see-it-on-TV film. This is one remarkable movie. And Jimmy Stewart gives one of the great performances ever caught on celluloid. It's why Tom Hanks--only at his

best---gets compared to Jimmy Stewart.)



  THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
Maybe the greatest (and. smartest) "screw-ball" comedy ever made:  Katherine
Hepburn, jimmy Stewart and cary grant. And, yes, she is "yar."
  Another date flick.



 * DESIGN FOR LIVING
Gary Cooper and  Fredric March both living -- and sleeping with! -- Miriam
Hopkins.  (With the magical Edward Everett Horton--the voice of Bullwinkle's
"Fractured Fairy Tales"--as the cuckolded husband.)
  This film almost single-handedly brought about the Hayes/Hollywood
Production Code, which took the sex out of American movies for about three
decades!
  (My favorite shot is when Hopkins falls back on the couch, and the sex--in
the form of dust--just rises all around her.)
  You won't believe someone made this film 70 years ago. It's brilliant, and maybe Lubitch's best -- and that's saying something.

  Another great date film.




OKAY... i can't help myself... here are the films that you MUST see when they play on campus... all but the last four are great date films :)

* GRANDE ILLUSION (anybody who really knows film has this in their top 10 -- Renoir's greatest)

RULES OF THE GAME (another gem by Renoir)

400 BLOWS  (possibly Truffaut's greatest)

CITY LIGHTS (Chaplin's greatest)

* MY LIFE AS A DOG

NINOTCHKA (another Lubitch masterpiece -- it'll make you realize what all the fuss about Garbo was about)

* CITIZEN KANE (basically the mount Olympus of films)

KIND HEARTS & CORONETS

ANNIE HALL

BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID

HEAVEN CAN WAIT

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (one of the 20 most influential films of all times)

HAROLD & MAUDE ("offbeat" doesn't do it justice)

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

RISKY BUSINESS

* Clockwork Orange

* Dr. Strangelove

M*A*S*H

Henry V (both Olivier's and Branagh's versions)

----also
   The Blue Angel
   Destry Rides Again
   Goodbye Mr. Chips
   The Hunchback of Notre Dame
   Brassed Off
   The Commitments
   Notorious
           (Gary Grant, Ingred Bergman and Claude Raines in my favorite Hitchcock film)
   From Russia with Love
   Five Easy Pieces
   Easy Rider

Flashing victims with cameraphones, take two.

Perhaps it was just a wardrobe malfunction.

From an article about how routine cell phone pings helped put a murder at the scene of a crime:

"Most people don't realize this. And criminals don't think to turn their phone off when they're about to commit a crime."  - Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University

Thanks Peter.  Now everytime I hear someone turn off their cellphone, I need to start running. 

Great.