Link: CNN.com - Cell phones can now receive Amber Alerts - May 17, 2005.

No good reason not to sign up...    Go here to put your cell number in.

On Sunday, I went to my parents house to meet the new family dog.   You see, we had to put our dog, Puba, to sleep, after almost 15 years.  It was very upsetting for everyone and, at first, my parents said they weren't getting a new dog. 

That didn't last long.

So now they have Joy the dog.  I'm not such a fan of the name.  Check out this video clip of a conversation (You may need the latest version of Quicktime... its an Mpeg4 file.) between me and my mom regarding the name while we play with the dog.  Mom, at one point, suggests that we name the dog Cuba, after Cuba Gooding, Jr.  The thinking there being that the last dog was Puba, and I suppose there's some special significance to the "-uba" suffix.  Now, we don't really know much about this dog, because we've only had her since Friday, but, the few things we do know about her are that she's fuzzy, she's female, and her fur is white.  I like Cuba Gooding, Jr., and he was great in Men of Honor, but...   well, he just doesn't bear any resemblence whatsover to this dog.  Sorry, Cuba, we're probably not naming our dog after you.  :)

So the Downtown Boathouse is now open and in full swing.  Come see us if you're down by Pier 26 (right by the trapeeze school) on the weekends from 9ish to 5-ish.   We had a little spring cleaning to do when we first opened, but by noon, the public had found us and we had about 10 boats on the water at a time.  I'll only be there until about 1:30 today because I'm going to see "Sugar", which is apparently the name of my parent's new dog.  The rest of the pics can be seen here.

We have unconfirmed reports of a new dog in the O'Donnell household.  Apparently, my parents went to the pet store and broke down.  So they lasted all of a month and a half with an empty house.  Its another female bichon, and she's nameless.  My dad suggested that her personality be observed for a while to figure out a proper name for her.  I'll be putting up photos and probably a video as soon as I visit, which will probably be Sunday.  More as this story develops...

So the young man formally known as Jeff the Intern turned Jeff the Analyst turned Jeff the about to be Grad Student has started a little web business.  Its called Peculiar Poker.  He's been bugging me to send some traffic his way.  Frankly, I told him that he should start a poker blog to generate a buzz around his t-shirts, but, he'd rather mooch of my audience first.  So, if you like poker and your friends won't allow your fuzzy self to play barechested, maybe you should buy one of his t-shirts.

So yesterday, I broke 1000 hits for the first time, and I'm on track to probably do close to that again today.  I have 80 subscribers via my Feedburner feed (I can maybe name 6 of them) and lord knows how many on my Typepad feeds.

However, most of you are pretty quiet.  Most of the people who comment aren't into RSS, so I've got this population of people that I don't know who like to read.  Now, my guess is that most of my traffic comes from Fred's blog, so you're reading b/c you want to hear what's going on with Union Square Ventures or our portfolio companies.  That's fine, of course.  But I'm just sort of curious who some of you are, so if you'd like to introduce yourself for the first time via comments, to me and the rest of the crowd, feel free.  I'm particularly curious who CBT the Mac User is and whether or not there are people who know me who check this out, but don't actually tell me that they read. 

Link: 7Online.com: Big Collapse Sends Rubble Tumbling onto Henry Hudson Parkway.

I'm so excited.  This Saturday, at 9AM(ish), the Downtown Boathouse OPENS FOR BUSINESS!

And, of course, what's the weather supposed to do?

Rain. 

Anyway, hopefully, the weather will hold up, because I can't wait to get back to volunteering.  Basically, here's the deal.  On weekends, until mid-October, you can come to either of our two (soon to be three) locations at either Pier 26 or 72nd Street and just walk up, sign up, and get on the water...  FREE KAYAKING ON THE HUDSON. 

Although the website still has info on it, I've been told that our Pier 66a location won't be open.  However, we're opening up a new location at Pier 96 that should be ready soon enough.  On most days, I'll be down at Pier 26, but I'll also be helping Sandy run some Hoboken kayaking as well, too.  I'll try and post where I'll be on any given weekend day.  I know I'll be in Hoboken on 5/21 for sure.  Contact me for details and let me know if you're coming by.  Bloggers especially welcome!

Link: VentureBlog: Why Are Startups Like Peacocks?.

I can't add anything here.  This speaks for itself...  good article.

So I'm applying for my mortgage and I need my last three months of bank statements.  Now, I keep everything online and shred all of my paper records.  I figure, if I really need any information, I can logon to get it or request it over the phone.  So, I call up TD Waterhouse, where I have a checking account, and ask for copies of my last three bank statements.  No problem, except for the fact that they were going to charge me $10 a statement!   What a ripoff!!

Well, goes to show them...  I'm emptying that account when I put down my down payment.  Haven't they noticed they haven't been getting my direct deposit anymore?  Did they think I lost my job?  Sorry TD Waterhouse, I'm blowing this popsicle stand.

Any friend of Judith Light is a friend of mine.  Come on, you know you watch Lifetime.  Admit it.  Plus, being able to trackback someone you just saw on VH1 makes the world seem just a bit smaller, no?

BTW...  VH1 really has the formula down pat no?   Its just the same show over and over again... celebrity clip, voiceover and aside from hilarious celebrity commentator.  Whether its "I love the 80's" or "Worst career moves ever" its gold, Jerry, GOLD!

The USV guys and I had lunch with a great company that, probably more so than a lot of other companies, because of the relationship between its founders, exemplifies a startup's growth from something emotional to more of a business.  OK, so not to say that businesses can't be emotional, they are, and I know the founders and management team are very emotionally invested in this company.  However, there comes a point in every company's life where the founder has to let go--at least enough to allow other people to get in there and help create something bigger than the founders themselves.  I don't envy founders that face this, because I know I was never able to do this well myself, to the detriment of the things I had created.

When I was at Fordham, I started a monthly business newspaper: The CBA Business Journal.  While I had lots of writers and a couple of people helping me on layout, it was mostly me putting it all together.  There were so many little things that were just easier for me to do that the incremental effort it required of me to show someone else how to do it.  Most of the time, it was never going to get done exactly how I wanted it to get done anyway, so I just wound up doing most things myself.

The problem was, not only did I not scale, but there was no continuity without me.  Nothing got done if I was busy with a test.  I never figured out how to build a machine that ran on its own power.  When I graduated, it died, not because there wasn't anyone around willing or capable of picking it up, but because I never made the personal and psychological sacrifices necessary to ensure it would last well beyond my time at Fordham.  I never imagined The CBA Business Journal without me.  That was a problem.  The question is how do you do that?  This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the creation of a business from my perspective.

I think it would be interesting to hear from entrepreneurs how they psychologically, especially in their first venture, start letting go of the reins for the greater good of the business and start imagining the business without themselves.  When you do you realize you need a CEO?  When do you decide to leave a business?  This, I imagine,  is especially hard for people whose personalities are intertwined with the business and the community around that business.  So, if anyone has run a startup and accomplished the passing of the torch effectively or otherwise, I'd love to hear from you via comments and trackbacks.

I wasn't going to post this one so soon, because its so new, but I watched it tonight and couldn't resist. 

I'm not a particularly good traveler, so when I think of what it would be like to stay in Japan, I picture myself as out of place as Bill Murray.  In fact, if you had to cast anyone as an out of place character, from the less than scientific Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters to the perpetually stuck Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray would be your guy.  Its almost as if the casting agent says, "I don't want someone to actually do any acting.  I just want the whole movie to happen to this guy, and we'll just watch it happening to him." 

And that's what Lost in Translation does... it happens to Bill Murray.  He doesn't ask for it.  He doesn't try to meet Scarlett Johansson.  He doesn't really even want to be on talk shows or have his name up in lights.  But yet, its not like he has a clear idea of what else he wants to be doing either.  I think I'd like my life to happen to me a little more once in a while... instead of me needing to push and nudge and make things happen.  Why doesn't Scarlett Johansson just randomly show up in my life, you know?  Maybe she blogs and uses Technorati or PubSub to find herself...  you never know. 

Anyway, the soundtrack of this movie is perfect, but I'm not sure it would stand alone just to be listened to.  Its more of a score and fits perfectly with the movie.  There are some great music scenes, like Murray's karaoke rendition of "More Than This".  In fact, the whole movie is just very well put together.  I'm glad Sofia Coppola can write and direct, because she sure as hell can't act her way out of a paper cup.  (As far as I remember, there were only two Godfather movies, right?)

Like a lot of the movies that will be on my list, though, nothing much happens in this movie.  There's really no plot.  Its just a few days in the lives of two mismatched, but perfectly matched, Americans in Japan.  Nothing really changes in their lives at the end, or does everything change?  What does he whisper in her ear at the end?  On one hand, the idealistic part of me hopes he doesn't cheapen the whole experience by telling her to look him up in the states or something, but, on the other hand, I sure wouldn't mind Giovanni Riobisi's character get kicked to the curb in a hurry.  Anyone care to comment on what they think he said?