When I was a sophomore, I lived in Hughes Hall.  It was the worst dorm you could get... a former classroom/office building, they stuffed four of us in two bunks in each room.  The walls and rugs were all various shades of brown.  Its only redeeming quality was that it was right smack in the middle of campus.  I had a dry erase board that a hung on the hallway door.  Everyday, I would put up a quote of the day, because we were close by the elevator in the first floor and we got tons of walkby traffic.  That is, until someone wrote "fuck you" on it.  I ignored it and kept posting...  until they took the dry erase board and threw it in the trash.  I retrieved it and continued to post, until they tore the board into pieces, even mangling the metal frame.  I pieced it back together, though, and hung it up again.  Then, finally it disappeared altogether. 

I put myself out there... I always have.  Sometimes people agree with you, sometimes not, but I've never understood the hate and the meanness.  Don't like the quotes?  Ignore them... but tearing my message board to pieces?  I just couldn't grasp that and it always troubled me that there existed that kind of meanness.

Tonight, someone posted on my blog in a way that upset me over something really important to me.  People say everything is free game when you put yourself out there like this, and while I believe that, the meanness still troubles me.  There's a missing post now that won't return and it was a post that meant a lot to me.  Thanks...   and thanks for busting up my dry erase board.

I snapped this in the morning...

You know what's awesome about snow?

No alternate side.

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So I got an iPod for Christmas, along with everyone else in the free world.  I was impressed with how quickly my 1200 song library downloaded, especially considering it was only USB 1.1.   

Anyway, I've been thinking about something ever since Fred started posting his Top 50 Albums postings.  I didn't have a lot to add, not because I don't listen to a lot of music... I listen to a ton...  but because I never listen to albums.  Even when I was younger, I was listening to the radio and taping songs off the radio onto tapes.  Many of the albums I bought were just to get a song or two and perhaps I discovered a third or fourth, but that was about it and I'd skip through the junk.  Sure there were a handful of whole albums that I liked:  most of Pink Floyd's albums, Tommy, Led Zepplin, but very little of the other genres that I listened to were worth getting a whole album over.  Techno.... I dunno.. that always seemed like a song by song genre to me, getting played on the radio and in clubs.  I never saw anyone actually purchase a techno or electronica album.   Seems like most of those artists are happy to distribute that freely, because what they really want are club gigs and radio play.   

Anyway, point being, I wonder if this is a generational thing.  When the downloading wave hit colleges, right smack in the middle of my college years, the focus was on getting songs.   Middle aged iPodders today like Larry at GM are more focused on albums because most of their digital music comes from their own CD collection, uploaded album by album.  I don't know anyone plus or minus at least three years from me whose digital music collection was mostly downloaded as a whole album.  In fact, that was suppossed to be one of the reasons for the music stealing phenomenon... that it was a backlash against being forced to consume music in album sized bites when there were so few albums with more than just one or two good songs. 

It really hit me when I put all my music on iPod and I realized how much of a mess it was.  Songs and artists were poorly labeled and not grouped into albums.  Clearly, the iPod is designed with Uploader Larry Aged 37 in mind more so than College Napsterboy Charlie Aged 25.  I think I have about two weeks worth of relabeling and cleanup to do.   We need to throw some playlists on this mother, because 1200 individual songs with no rhyme or reason just isn't going to cut it.  This morning, I listened to a selection from the "A"s, for no other reason than they came first.  The selections?   Apple of Sodom by Marilyn Manson, As Far As Heaven is Wide by Garbage, Astrocreep by Rob Zombie...   clearly the "A"s are a sketchy bunch.   

So this is it...  I sent the first copy out to an agent that had asked for it, and obviously if he wants to do something with it, he has first dibs.  However, if anyone else wants to take a look or pass it to someone they know who might be interested, feel free.  Just make sure they're interested because they'd like to work with me and not steal the idea.  :)

Literary Proposal for "Success Blogging" by Charlie O'Donnell

Download blog_book_outline.doc

So I didn't take a lot of family pics, because, to be honest, they looked just like the Thanksgiving pics.  Same people, same venue....  the only thing different was when my brother Scott and his family joined is around 7:30PM.  They were supposed to be in earlier, but they got stuck in traffic on the Belt Parkway.

On my way into Brooklyn, I got caught in some traffic on the FDR, so I got bored and snapped off a few pics from the car...

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Once my brother's family got in, I took a few pictures...

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Exhausted from four hours of begging at the table...

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Perhaps I should start my Christmas shopping now.

Link: Six Log: Recognition for our founders.

Contratulations to the Six Apart team that runs Typepad, the service both my blogs run on.  They just got selected as PC Magazine's People of the Year along with the Blogger founders.   I can't wait to bid for their public shares Dutch auction style in 2006.  :)   Have a great holiday.... its been very exciting to watch this success story unfold.  2004: Year of the Blog.

The carnage begins Thursday, January 13th, when my charity dodgeball team, Dodge This!, plays its first ZogSports dodgeball scrimmage. 

Come see us play!

Thursday, January 13, 2005    9:30PM
PS 191 (West 61st Street bet West End/Amsterdam)

Be there, or we'll throw a wrench at you.

Computer slowing up?  Pop ups got you down?   Download Ad Aware! I started out the other night on Liz's computer, which hadn't been virus protected in the four years she's had it.  After exposure to college dorm ethernet, internet in Japan, and now broadband at home, her computer had become a veritable hornet's next of spyware, malware, and just all sorts of nasty critters.  One sweep of Ad-Aware found over 500 items that shouldn't be there, like active spyware and popup programs in her memory and even worse all sorts of trash in her registry.  Now... clean as a whistle!   I did the same thing with my GM computer, which is supposed to be swept for all these things with expensive enterprise wide virus scans, etc...   250+ Items.  It also got rid of this annoying Internet Optimizer code that hijacked my IE error screen, so every time I went to an internet it couldn't find, I got sent to a "search" screen that was a popup nightmare.  This was especially annoying b/c, with a wireless connection, you tend to get knocked off sometimes and that error screen comes up a lot. 

But, the real test was on my home computer, which had a corrupt registry that was preventing me from loading Internet Explorer at all.  After a year of not being able to use IE...   BAM, it was up and running in no time and gone were the over 600 critters that shouldn't have been there.  This program is sweet, and you should get it.

I was a little overzealous with the plastic utensils at lunch today, causing my fork to break and slice my finger. 

Now we have to reset that sign:

General Motors Asset Management:  0  days without an onsite injury.

This isn't my car.  My car didn't have snow on it because I had just used it, so I scraped this into the car in front of me.  :)

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And now, a brief commercial break.  I just want to take some time to promote my career Q&A site for college students, Find My Path (www.findmypath.com).  Over the holidays, I'm really going to ramp up promotion now that I've got a little buildup of content to hit the ground running with.  I'll be mass mailing to lots of career counseling professionals and talking about it wherever I can. 

I would appreciate it if you could help spread the word.  College students have lots of career questions, and those that don't would benefit from hearing the questions being asked by their peers.  This is a great forum to get questions answered and I'm very proud of it.  Please pass this site on to teachers, students, anyone you can think of. 

Thanks,

Charlie

Last night was yet another Fordham Young Alumni Third Thursday Happy Hour.  This one was a benefit organized by the Young Alumni Committee (see left) for Toys for Tots.  We didn't get the same kind of turnout we did last year, but it was still a blast.  I think a lot of people don't show because they don't know who else might be coming, but for the people that went, we were at O'Flahertys from about 6:30 to midnight.  Some of us partied harder than others...   I think the highlight of the night was introducing Jillian to Kristin Naz.  They're both going to be in the same teaching in Hungary program next year, and they hit it off tremendously.  Its funny, because Amanda was upset that the turnout was less than expected, but I think that seeing just this one connection was worth everyone's participation for the entire night.  Its about the quality, not the quantity.  Plus, I was glad to see Kristin there, because I hadn't seen her in a while and her work schedule is usually pretty ridiculous.

Me, Samara, Trevor and Ryan shot some rounds of pool as well. 

And, better late than never, Kat Bride graced us with her presence after work.  I think this is an interesting shot...  perhaps its the combo of the colors and the art behind her...

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I'm listening to Anil from Six Apart and Jim Coudal on the Blogging for Business conference call among some others.  There are 163 people on the call at this moment.   The number of curious people on the sidelines is enormous (maybe good tailwind for my Learning Annex class on Blogging for Success... which is on March 16th, btw... details to come soon, but save the date!).

Its interesting to see businesses feel out exactly how they are going to use blogs...   since this medium originally developed around individuals and bubbled up as oppossed to trickling down from the big guys.

"... Blogs are an opportunity to demonstrate authority on a subject in a very personal way... blogs have personality." - Jim

Anil made a good point about blogs are transparency and how transparency helps build brand...

What really strikes me, as Anil is discussing it, is how positive a medium blogging is turning out to be.  Instances of positive commentary, trading links, creating interesting discussion, etc. seems to completely dwarf negative instances of commentary, personal criticism, content spamming, etc.   I think part of that comes from the fact that the medium tends to focus more on bringing like minded people together.  Chances are, if you're reading a blog, you're already interested in a topic and have a similar perspective as the writer. 

Content is definately king...   "Blogs without good content are like a guitar in the hands of someone who can't play."  - Jim

I got my RSS analogy into the meeting comments...  "If web content is pizza, then HTML is like sitting down to eat it in the pizzeria, and RSS is like getting a pie "to go".  "That's gold, Jerry...   GOLD!"

Thanks guys...     Great job.

I haven't posted in a few days, but no worries, I'm still here...

I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita right now...  its a book I learned about when I took a class at the School of Practical Philosophy last year.  I just started, but even the introduction is thought provoking.  The gita is one of the central texts in Hindu literature, and without going into lots of detail, which I'm sure to follow up with during the course of my reading, it offers up a unique insight into the religion and its teachings about philosophy.

Anyway, the introduction answers the question "What kind of yoga (teachings) does the Gita teach?" with the following:

jnana yoga - the yoga of knowledge   An aspirant uses his will and discrimination to disidentify himself from his body, mind, and senses until he knows he is nothing but the Self.

bhakti yoga - the yoga of devotion   The follower achieves the same goal by identifying himself completely with the Lord in love.  By and large, this is the path taken by most of the mystics of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

karma yoga - the yoga of selfless action   The aspirant dissolves his identification with body and mind by identifying with the whole of life, forgetting his finite self in the service of others.

raja yoga - the yoga of meditation   The follower of raga yoga disciplines his mind and senses until the mind-process is suspended in a healing stillness and he merges in the Self. 

So the question is, what kind of spiritual aspirant am I?  Do I seek the Self, which is really a conception of a higher power, through knowledge, devotion, service, or discipline? 

hmm...    I'll have to think about that.  The tough part is, its not necessarily as easy as "What kind of person are you?"  Its more like "When do you feel you are your truest inner self?" 

Link: CNN.com - Marine sacrifices finger to save wedding ring - Dec 12, 2004.

I can't believe this story...  this guy chooses losing a finger so they can save his wedding ring, and then the doctors go and LOSE THE RING!!

If I were him, I'd make sure I gave the doctor the finger after that.

When I was home for Christmas break in my freshman year at Fordham I remember reading a Time essay about this guy who kept these lists... books and books of all of these random lists.  They were just things he noticed, of no particular value individually, but strung together the lists were fascinating.  Words on the back of a truck on the highway.  Items in a garage sale.  Letters skywritten above.  It inspired me and I went out and bought a little notebook to jot down random records, snippets of my life.  At first, they were all over the place and like my blog, I had to feel out what I was doing with them.  But, also like my blog, every now and then you get a gem, I think, and I managed to say something interesting.

Once, I accidently washed one of these books in a pair of shorts in the laundry.  When I first discovered what I had done, I nearly cried.  Some of the pages were washed out, but most of the writing survived.  That let me to start scanning these pages so they wouldn't be lost.  But that was a while ago and it was a clumsy process and I couldn't quite figure out what I was going to do with these scanned pages, so I stopped.  Now, I think my blog is actually a very appropriate place for them.  So, beginning today, whenever I get a chance, I'm going to scan a few pages from my "little books" and post them.  I'll start with the ones I already had done.

I guess, in a sense, these were like little blogs, but I just wasn't tapped into the medium to promote it at the time.  Also, some of the stuff was a bit too personal for posting.  You can tell if you read my blog that I have a definate line when it comes to posting very personal things, but I think what's written in these little books has passed the statute of limitations, since they're about seven years old. 

I'll pick out my own personal highlights.  The rest might not always make sense or seem silly.  I love the little pool diagram.  The most meaningful, though, is my post about Patti.  Patti was my high school girlfriend for two years, and we broke up in August right before I went to Fordham (I was a year older).  I literally recorded the very moment that I could bear to hear about her with other guys and be reasonable about it... five months later.  Now, granted that was just hearing about it... I didn't have to see it, but that was a big thing for me.  I have no recollection at all who Mike Melia is, but apparently, I thought she was dating him.  That was a big step in the healing process there... red letter day. 

So my computer decided to mysteriously restart in the middle of my previous attempt at this post....  very frustrating.  I'll try not to make any sudden movements this time around.   I think the worst thing you can do when you're retyping something like this is to attempt to recreate what you just did.  It will never come out flowing as nice as it did the first time, because you're bound to leave out one clause  that sets the whole paragraph off.  Better to just start all over again.

So, last night I went to the Union Square Ventures "Holiday" party.  It was really interesting to be surrounded by so many people tied to the New York venture scene.  The tone of the conversations was very different than those I've had in California.  People in New York are much more directly focused on the deal at hand.  There's definitively less smalltalk and people always have a deal on their mind.  Conversations tend to stray a lot more on the West Coast.

I have this bad habit of asking people where they're from at these things and expecting a certain type of answer.  At GP meetings or ILPA, you're always "from" somewhere... representing an institution like Case Western or the Alaska State Pension Fund.  Last night, my, "So where are you from?" questions got answers like, "Westchester"...  or...  "I know Brad."  Not everyone there was so "institutional."  No one seemed to care where I was from either, which is nice, because anytime I go to the Private Equity Analyst conference, whenever I answer General Motors, I might as well paint a big bullseye on my face.  "Hey everyone... look... its a big LP that puts out lots of money.  Get him!!" 

The funny thing at this party was that I'm sure that a good number of the people there were probably writing blogs that I read.  I got into a conversation with Matt, the CEO of Return Path, who is a really personable guy, and I couldn't remember whether or not I read his blog.  Turns out that I did... he writes OnlyOnce.  It was also great to meet the GothamGal (Fred's Wife) although she chose to show up as her alter ego, Joanne, so there was no cape involved.  I think that anytime a significant number of people in a room are invited by Fred, they should be required to wear, "Hello, My blog is..." nametags, so we can match the person to the postings.  I'm sure they do that kind of thing at BloggerCon.

I support the interesting.  I also support the thoughtful, and those who challenge others as much as they challenge themselves.  I couldn't really care less what color, shape, gender, sexual persuasion, etc., etc., etc. that they come in.  Therefore, I'm tracking back and linking to this post.  I could have just left a comment, but I feel like if you're really going to be supportive of someone, you'll publicly identify with someone.  So, this post is my really boring straight guy attempt at support for this really fascinating woman.

Link: woot_detail.

You know... when I was young, we had to pedal our own Big Wheels!   No motor!  I had to pedal six miles uphill down my street and then six miles uphill back...  and we didn't have wheels either...   just two frisbees and a brick.