Jason just sold Weblogs, Inc. for $20-35 million.  Nice job.  Two years... no office, a bunch of bloggers and AdSense.  In fact, that's more than a nice job.  That's hustle, because here's a company with no technological barriers whatsoever.  Anyone could have done this, but not everyone did. 

There's a great line in the Fountainhead where somebody asks Howard Roark, "... but who's going to let you?"   His answer?

"Who's going to stop me?"

That's been Jason's approach.  And this won't be the last thing he builds either, I'm sure.  What's cool is that he's a Brooklyn guy...   he's from Bay Ridge, where I live now, and he went to Fordham.  Now, I wouldn't be surprised if Fordham doesn't know he went to Fordham.

Do you think that having an alum sell a blogging company for up to $35 million would convince them that maybe they should have a blog?

Congratulations Jason!

That man has a cat on his head, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Now the cat IS the hat.

I voted for Al in '00... and boy, does he know how to capture a crowd... and then put them right to sleep.

Unfortunately, I missed his opening line. "My name is Al Gore, and I used to be the "Next President of the United States."

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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.

I sent my roommate from college a link about beer ratings that I found on del.icio.us. 

Where'd I find it?   The beer tag of course!

He doesn't know what RSS is and probably won't become a tagger.  However, he does like beer, so I'm making the beer tag into a Feedblitz e-mail that he can subscribe to.  That way, once a day, he'll get all the links that the community of del.icio.us users have tagged "beer".

Apparently, this is a beer loving crowd, because there are a lot of cool links on it.

Want to subscribe?  Just type your e-mail address here:

I'm the worst gifter ever.  I'm usually late and I never know what to get. 

How about a service where I plug all my gifting birthdays, anniversaries, etc from my cal, the vitals of the giftee and our relationship and it recommends like five gifts for me to choose from. 

I especially have this problem with my nieces in Tampa, mostly because I'm not really in touch with the tween and pre-tween scene.  Anyone have any ideas on gifts for a twelve year old and a nine year old? 

I think you could even run a service like this for free.  I think enough companies would pay for inclusion or ranking on a service where you wouldn't have to charge for the actual recommendations.  Perhaps you could even set it up so that anyone could offer up suggestions  and get paid when people actually purchase the item--recommend items and get paid.  Also, you could probably generate revenue from the metadata one could generate when people selected among recommended items and any kind of post-gift "Did they like it" rankings.  When you're shopping, they could even throw in a "how about something for you" gift or a "while you're shopping for your mom, get your wife some flowers" suggestion.

There have been a number of sites that have been successful playing into the way women shop, mostly because women do something like 70 percent of the non-electronics, non appliance shopping in this country.  This site would particularly play into the key aspect of the male shopper-we're idiots.  We don't have any idea what's good or what to get for anyone.  Plus, we're probably less price sensitive, because we shop less in general and we're willing to pay the idiot tax if we could significantly improve our chances of the gift we got actually being liked.

If this were free, I'd sign up now.  Even it wasn't, I'd still signup and probably pay about $5 an item if the recommendation was really good.

Oh, also, our Annual Meeting is coming up.  What's the best "lovely parting gift" you've ever given/recieved at one of these events?

More Movie Filming, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

This one is right across the street. The NYC film industry is booming!

I saw this the other day and I thought it was just hilarious.  Its amazing how a few carefully collected clips and a little change of soundtrack can do.  Definitely worth watching.

In all seriousness, though, The Shining is one of my favorite movies.  First of all, it makes me feel so conflicted.  On one hand, you have the perfectly deconstructed and torn down psychopath, Jack Nicholson, flipping out and trying to kill his family.

On the other hand, boy do I hate Shelley Duvall in this movie.  I mean, I seriously think if he did clip her with that ax, the audience probably would have cheered.  Can an actress be more irratating??  Watching her flounce around in an attempt to run was just painful.  Well, I suppose if it was Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack wouldn't have been too much of a match for her, so they had to pick an easier target.

Anyhoo, Jack's whole unwinding is done at such a perfect pace.  Its never unbelievable and it never drags on either.  Plus, I like the fact that the ghoul factor is pretty low.  Its scary, but the only thing you really need to be scared of is the woman in the tub.  Other than that, its all just mood and suspence.  Fantastic score, set off by the early Berlioz on the trek up the hill.  I loved the scenes where the charactors from the past appear, and I think maybe the scariest thing in the movie is when he turns up in the picture at the end.

Best unintentional comedy moment:  Scatman Carrother's (the cook) apartment in Miami.  It looks like a scene from "The Ladies Man"...  huge sprawled out female nude painting behind the bed.  Totally 70's decor.  Look out Miami. 

Photo 661, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

I ran out of Cascade this morning, and so I used dishsoap.

I've never had a dishwasher before.

My parents never had a dishwasher when I was growing up. How was I supposed to know the outcome?

Well, let me tell you, my floor is really clean now. :/

And that "Cancel/Drain" button? Pure genius.

33 years old... total of 16 2/3 innings of total major league experience. 

Now he's 10-0.

Did anyone get the number of that turnip truck?  I'd like to see if any closers fell off of it for the Mets to use in 2006.

Reminds me of that line about how the Yanks could pick up a hooker on the West Side Highway and insert her at second base and she'd probably manage to hit .280.

They have no place competing this year and I hope the Sox beat the pants off of them this Series.

Ironic how they also wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Jason Giambi, right?  A year ago, he was  dead to them.  Now, he's the prodigal son.

This is a neat little tool to figure out how far you went, especially if you're a runner or biker.

Last night, my fall softball team, "Not Enough Friends to Have Our Own Team" (so named because we all signed up with Zog Sports as individuals) won 12-3, pushing our record to 3-0.  I biked back to my eh-hem... second home from 145th and Lenox Ave.

Here's the route.

Its funny, because the driving directions put it at 14.5 miles.  Turns out I only did 12.9.  I guess I wasn't going as fast as I thought.  Still, it took less than an hour, so it was a good clip. 

One thing I noticed along the way was how much new build there is along Lenox Avenue.  Its really clean and there are a lot of new buildings going up.  I was pleasently surprised by how far that area has come... its definately been a few years since I was up there last. 

Here's my daily commute to work in the morning.  The last little turnaround is because I bike to the gym, work out, shower, then go to work.  And no, I don't bike on the Brooklyn, Queens Expressway... the BQE is elevated along 3rd avenue there.  I bike under it. 

I hate the phone... for feedback anyway.   I write much more clearly and can organize my reaction to something  much better over e-mail.

What's bad is that this is a necessary part of my job.   I'm terrible at my conversations with entreprenuers over the phone.  They always want to get on the phone, and I understand that.  One, its more personal, and two, I can understand how, for some people, they can present better over the phone. 

Notice how I'm the one furthest from the edge... fear of heights., originally uploaded by ceonyc.

We took some pictures for our new website... check out the people of Union Square Ventures. (ok, so a lot of pics of me... but hey, its my Flickr account)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceonyc/sets/1033939/

Rob clipped this:

Link: BusinessPundit: Google's Marketing Challenge.

Google's no-frills, fast-loading site has been key to its growing popularity among Internet searchers, particularly as rivals vastly improve their own search technologies.

But it also poses a dilemma for Google: How can it draw attention to its many new products without cluttering the site and turning off its core constituency of searchers?

Actually... I don't think Google has a marketing challenge.  Frankly, I find Yahoo! to be marketing challenged.  Everything that Yahoo! does gets stuffed onto that front page, and, therefore, I discover absolutely nothing on it.  Its like when they tried to stuff their whole service onto the My Web 2.0 toolbar I downloaded... I couldn't even find the posting button.  When you try to stuff the channel, you succeed in getting absolutely nothing through.

Marketing today is more "sideways".  Few people come in and discover off the homepage anymore.  The Google homepage is a search tool...  its not how I get to Gmail and its not how I fould Google desktop.  When you've got lots and lots of features, you've got to seemlessly interconnect them, but in a particular way.  Here are the 5 things that I think are key to marketing a range of services like Google, Yahoo, etc.  (Are these lists getting repetitive?  I feel like I keep saying the same thing over and over again.  Blogosphere, are you getting this yet??)

1. You can't make being connected to the whole thing your only value proposition. That's what AOL tried to do previously.  They focused on getting everyone to do everything on AOL.  You either downloaded this clunky software with too many boxes on the screen or you didn't use it at all.  All or nothing, Rob Deer style.  (Hey, look at that...  two Rob Deer references in one week.)
2. Know the narrow point of the wedge.  Google did this perfectly with Desktop.  Search my own computer?  Sure... I'll install that tool.  Upgrade the tool and get a cool sidebar?  Ok, I'll check that out.  However, if they just would have said, "Install our sidebar" I probably wouldn't have even tried.
3. Make it subtlely more valuable to be connected to more than one of your services. You can read your AdSense stats in the toolbar.  You can index Gmail with desktop.  It wouldn't kill me if I wasn't connecting these up, but its better to be on all of them.
4. Make your stuff so good that you can't help but tell other people how cool it is.  You have to try Gmail.  Oh yeah, and Desktop, too. (Don't worry, I'm not all Googled out... Gtalk, as I predicted, sucks, because no one's on it.)   What's more effective?  A person telling you to use something or it being on the Google frontpage?
5. Play well with others. So, I can see my Flickr photos in my Google sidebar if I want to.  It would be even cooler if it showed my Trillian Buddy List.  Because of RSS, I even use it as my for:ceonyc tag notifier now.  That makes me want to use it more.

So I'm walking through my RSS feed list and with the exception of danah, its rather male dominated (and white male, at that...well, I think so...  I'm really not sure in all cases, to be honest).   

Does anyone have a few recommendations to help me out with a more balanced perspective?  Female or minority entrepreneurs, academics, etc. in and around the technology services space, specifically around identity, personal information management, user interface, etc?

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? 

I know what you're going to say. The fourth one? Absolutely.

Growing up in the 80's, the movies were all about two guys--Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Rocky/Rambo vs. The Terminator/Commando/Conan. The amount of money these two grossed in the 80's is staggering. Right smack in the middle of it, in 1985, Stallone reigned supreme. He had two out of the top three biggest hits, bringing in $277 million with Rambo II and Rocky IV. When I think of "Sly" these are the movies that come to mind.

So why not the earlier ones? Why not the first one? It won best picture. Well, you have to understand that I got exposed to these movies all at the same time, not as they came out. So, to me, Rocky was the champ. Watching him lose in the first one, even though the first one was a great movie, was kind of disappointing. Great writing, yeah. Nice story... stairs, running, whatever... not my fav. Oh, and is Adrian more annoying when she's completely social inept in the first one or when she's the nagging wife later on?

So now there's two. He gets another shot at the title. Well, I didn't really like that he lost in the first one, but I don't really like the fact that he has to beat Apollo in this one. Apollo's not a bad guy. He's Rocky's bud later on... he teaches him how to beat Mr. T. They're on the same side. So, if you've seen the later ones, it kind of takes a little bit of steam out of the early rivalry. Still, its nice to see Rocky become the champ here.

As for three, well, this one is kind of a joke. Its the parade of the 80's icons... Hulk Hogan. Mr. T. BTW... I can't believe they kill Mick in this one! Bold move. Funniest moment from watching III for the first time at Brian's house was Brian saying, "Rocky's Jewish?" when they're at Mick's funeral and he's got a yarmulkah on. His brother Jimmy, who I think is one of the funniest people I've ever met, returned with, "Yeah, that's why they call him the Italian Stallion."

No, for my taste, its four. At the height of the cold war (at least as far as I knew, anyway), you've got USA vs. USSR. The Italian Stallion from Philly against Mother Russia. Its just so dramatic its totally ridiculous, but its perfect. Dolph Londgren has about three lines and they're all classic.

"If he dies, he dies"

"I must break you."

"You will lose."

His coach is great, too...

"Whatever he hits, he destroys."

Londgren is just so larger than life, towering over Rocky, that its unreal. But Rocky's trained hard. He's chopped wood.. a lot of it. He's run in snow and lifted carts full of people. Plus, he's been listening to Vince DiCola's "War" throughout the whole movie, even though it never works for the Mets at Shea when they're down late.

Plus, its got James Brown!

I just love everything about this movie. Drago is definitely in my top villains list (that's one I definitely have to do... I love bad guys). I think one of the only downsides is that its a reminder of how badly Bridgitte Nielson has aged.... that and the stupid robot scenes with Paulie. (Why does Paulie even need to exist anyway?)

So, you might disagree, but for a kid who grew up in the 80's, Rocky IV is where its at.

Rocky IV

Del.icio.us : movies

Elmo visits Gino's, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

This place is really getting too popular. (That's dad in front.)

Long Line at the Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Definitely not a secret anymore.

I had a meeting today that made me think of the changing role of college career development offices.  Twenty years ago, before the internet, the career office was the one and only place you could go for connections to jobs.... save for the random cousin you had that your mom guilted into helping you.  I'm sure every single student made it their business to walk through the doors of that career office...otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to find employment.

Today, things are different.  I know plenty of students who never even set foot in a career office, and its not because they're lazy.  In fact, quite the opposite.  They're using a host of online tools available to them to connect to the right positions in a much more effective way than resume dropping.

Consider this:

Let's say I'm a student interested in a market internship.  I go to Indeed, because Indeed has nearly every job listing there is on the net... from Monster, Careerbuilder, etc... down to individual jobs posted on corporate websites.  I type in "Marketing internship" in "New York, NY."

The first job that comes up is this one:

Internship - Fall - International Marketing
            ESPN - US-NY-New York
             Internship - Fall - International Marketing US-NY-New York RESPONSIBILITIES ... of consumer promotions in coordination with Marketing departmental staff
                 From                 New York Times - 2 Days 21 Hours  ago

Hmm... well, that's pretty good.   I could drop a resume, but that's very impersonal and that's what everyone is going to do.

Instead, I'll see if I'm connected to that job somehow on LinkedIn.

I do a search for people who work for ESPN in the NYC Area.  I find Sharon Otterman.  She's the Vice President of Integrated Media & Market Planning.  Since the job is working with the Marketing departmental staff, seems there's a good chance that she's either the right person to talk to or knows who that is.

Now we're getting somewhere.

But wait, what will I even talk to her about if I connect?  I don't really know too much about sports marketing.  Perhaps there's a blogger who works for ESPN.

Type in "ESPN Blogger" in Google:

Get this guy.  Ok, so the post is old and now it appears that he now works for Foxsports Interactive Media, but still, he probably knows a lot about the industry.  And look!  Down at the bottom left, he's got his e-mail address right there.  I could ask for an informational interview and talk to him about sports marketing... get his advice, insites, etc.

What about other sports marketing blogs?

I google for "sports marketing blog" and get this one.  This is a branding blog with a whole category of interesting stories about sports marketing.

What about del.icio.us?  Does del.icio.us have any good links on ESPN?

Well, most of the people tagging ESPN seem to be tagging the site itself as a bookmark, but look down at the bottom, its a link to a recent story in Wired:

Wired 13.09: ESPN Thinks Outside the Box

The article is all about ESPN taking advantage of technology to be a ubiquitous sports presence on cell phones, the computer, tv, radio, etc.  Interesting stuff.  Certainly I should talk about some of this stuff when they ask me on the interview why I want to work for ESPN.  Its definitely coverletter material as well.  Nice job, del.icio.us community.  I would have never found that just Googling "espn". 

So, now I'll contact the Reemer guy for some insights by e-mail.  I'll read the sports marketing posts and the Wired article.  Then I'll use LinkedIn to connect to the interactive marketing woman regarding the job that was posted in the New York Times that Indeed found for me.

So, tell me, if I'm a student, what, then, do I use the the college career office for?  Resume help?  Interview help?  Perhaps...  but then that makes career planning more like an academic department than anything else, doesn' t it?  It seems that, instead of actually doing the placing and connecting, they just need to do a lot of teaching.

So why don't they just get out of the "placement" end of their task entirely? Teach them how to use LinkedIn, how to use Indeed, how to blog professionally and read other relevent blogs and then let 'em free on the world, guns blazing.  No more job fairs that don't get all the students or all the companies.  No more maintaining a seperate job board specific to the school.  The web connects better than a single office ever could... why would anyone try to compete with that?  Its interesting that a lot of career offices are looking for ways to keep the students coming to their centralized web presence first, instead of focusing on getting them to create their own web presence via blogs and to comb the web for opportunities via vertical search, tags, RSS, social networks, etc. 

The answer I hear a lot is that students don't know how to use these and they're too technical.  Is that really a good answer if they work?  Where are the courses on managing your online identity and using it to your benefit?  Why aren't students flocking to linkedin?  Why doesn't every career office in the country say, "Hey, to heck with this Monster thing, we get all those jobs on Indeed plus all the rest"?   Ideas?