Last summer, my friend Anna and I went for a drive...aimlessly.  We wound up heading in the direction of Greenwood Lake, which is where my grandmother (mom's mom) had a house for like 35 years.  That house used to be the center of all our family stuff over the summer, particularly when my brothers were younger.  Well, after my grandfather passed away, she sold the house--probably too quickly--and hasn't been up since.  Its been about 7 years or so.  I wound up taking pictures of the house and she got very upset, but in a good way.  She wanted to go up to see it and I promised I'd take her.

So, on Saturday, me and my 87 year old grandmother--my favorite person in the whole world--trekked up Route 17 and spent the afternoon in Greenwood Lake, NY.  We went back to the house, whose address has been changed to 22 Julie Lane (it used to just be on HR1) and stopped out front.  There wasn't anybody home, but either way, Nana felt a little embarrassed ringing the bell, so she just sat out front.  Its really well taken care of, which she was happy to see. 

What was kind of disappointing, and I wrote about this last year, was that the beach/dock area by our little community clubhouse was in total disarray.  It seems to have been abandoned.  The dock is falling into the water and the stairs, which were all broken up last year, have now totally disappeared.  All that's left are these rocks which seem to have slid onto the dock.  Its a real shame.

Afterwards,  we went to Le Bistro II.   This place needs some better advertising, because I had a hard time finding it on the web.  The food is pretty good and the portion sizes were even better.  I hope they do better business than when we were in there.  I'd definitely go back there again, and if you're in the Greenwood Lake, NY area, stop by.  Have the seafood Fra Diavlo plate with the clams and mussels.  The mussels were HUGE.  I've never seen mussels that big (except on myself, of course...  ba dump bump.)  Nana took me out for dinner.  I snapped off a few pics when she wasn't looking. 

It was a great day, but also a little sad.  Our family doesn't get together anymore the way we used to up at the Lake.  I'm debating getting all the cousins I don't see together for something.  I have about 25 cousins and second cousins that I have near zero interaction with.  I think a few of them are living in the city, too.  Perhaps I can get them on linkedin.com

Who is this lady?, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

So random...this is the third time I've seen this lady in the black dress and wacky black hat in the last two days.  Yesterday I saw her twice... Once on the street and then in the subway..and that was in the 30's.  Now I'm on 57th and 7th and she's back again.

A Woman's Body is a Beautiful Thing, but..., originally uploaded by ceonyc.

....this statue is ugly.

Link: ESPN.com - MLB - Soriano: Nationals have three weeks.

Hmm...   The Nationals have two secondbasemen, Soriano and Vidro.  The Mets have none.

They also have no starting pitching.

You know, when the Mets had like 7 starting pitchers, they could have traded Zambrano or Kris Benson to the Nationals for Jose Vidro or done something to try to get Soriano.

But now we have nothing to trade them but hard throwing bullpen scrubs and the Nats have a good bullpen.

I was having dinner with a friend of mine last night and she told me how a guy that she's dating has a scheduled appointment every Sunday afternoon to play one of these massively multiplayer online games with his college buddies.  They play every week, and they also meet in the game on Wednesdays to go over strategy.

I know that people really get into games, but this is different.

This is social.  Its enabling people to collaborate and place shift their entertainment in such a compelling way that they're making time for it on a weekly basis.

What other kinds of entertainment are you scheduling weekly?  How many TV shows do you still watch religiously compared to 5 years ago?  10 years ago?

This makes me want to go out, get an XBox, and call my brother in Tampa to get one, too, so we can to something together on a regular basis. 

That's a really big value proposition.  Really big.

Jerry Seinfeld has this great bit about cold medicines that he did on his Live on Broadway show. He picks on fast acting vs. long lasting ("Do I want to feel good now.. or later?") and  then he gets to "The Maximum."

Some people aren't satisfied with "extra", they want "maximum"! "Gimme the maximum strength ! Give the maximum allowable human dosage ! That's the kind of pain I'm in!

Figure out what will kill me, and then back it off a little bit".

I've been thinking lately about how to get the students I mentor to really dive head first into their interests.  Schools don't really teach students the degree to which they need to fully research and follow a topic enough to form opinions, discover opportunities, etc.  In other words...  how to throw gas on the fire in their bellies.   Here's a 12 step list that I think can be helpful to fill out and follow:

We'll use digital media as an example.

1. Define.  We're talking television, radio, music, movies, etc. and all of the screens and speakers it can wind up on.
2. Follow the money.  Creative people are paid to produce by publishers who pay distributors to send the content to consumers, who either pay directly for it or are subsidized by advertisers.  (Oversimplified and changing of course, but its a start...)
3. Stakeholders.  Who's involved?  Creatives, consumers, publishers, advertisers, distributors (channels, stations), big media, new media, investors, analysts, researchers, academics, the government.
4. Mainstream media.  Read the newspaper.  Watch the news.  Read books on this topic.  What's your digitial media reading list look like for MSM?
5. User generated content.  Read blogs: Paid Content, Rebuilding Media, etc.  Message boards, listservs.  Make a list of the places you can get insider and alternative info.
6. Participate.  Comment.  E-mail.  Share your thoughts with smart people and listen to them.  Go to conferences and speaking engagements.
7. Record. Keep a blog about following digital media, what you're learning and what you think about it.
8. Network.  Join LinkedIn.  Write a bio.  Invite people you know and search it.  Do some informational interviews and stay in touch with the people willing to share time with you.  Keep these people in a PDA, Outlook, wherever you keep contacts and a calendar to remind yourself how often you want to talk to people.
9. Visit.  Don't just sit at your computer.  Try to visit some companies in the space or other repositories of knowledge on the topic in person.
10. Associate.  Join a professional society or social networking group related to digital media.  (Like nextNY of course!)
11. Know the issues.  Look into DRM, privacy, the disaggregation and reaggregation of content.  New business models and Exploding TV.
12. Experience.  Seek out a job or project in this space.  Use Indeed!

Not how convertibles are supposed to be used, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Helping my friend move her mattress.

The other day, I noticed the following footer on someone's e-mail:

This email is: [ ] bloggable [ x ] ask first [ ] private

This is a smart move, especially since most bloggers seem to default to "everything is bloggable."  Will it stop someone who is absolutely determined to reblog an e-mail I send to them?  No. 

However, if it makes just one person think twice about feeding my butt to the Evil Meme God of Flame, its totally worth it.  Its on all my outgoing e-mail now.

I spent the past weekend in Vermont with Zog Sports--skiing mostly, but I did take a snowboarding lesson yestersday morning.  I didn't have much time to take any pictures or  videos.  Plus, my battery died out before my friend got a chance to get my mildly successful snowboard run down the bunny hill.  However, I was able to pull a still from the video of my attire:

I didn't yell, "Coooobraaa!" don't the hill, but I was tempted.

We skiied at Okemo and Killington.  I liked Okemo's trails much better.  It was quieter and I felt like the trails were better insulated from the winds.  Killington was like skiing in the artic.  Being at the top of the mountain with the winds sweeping up made me feel like I was on some ill fated expidition where I'd have to figure out which one of the Zoggers I'd have to eat first.

Okemo had great powder on Saturday and if you get a chance, do the Rum Run.  Its dinky on the map, but its longer than it appears and the scenery is really fantastic.  Its not a hard trail at all, but its probably one of the nicest winter scenes I've been in.

Snowboarding was alright, but I'm a skiier.  Legs need to be free, and so after my lesson, I switched and went right back to skiing.

It was a great trip and I'll definitely be going on the ZogSports ski trips in the future. Here's a pic of the Zoggers on the bus:

The Shake Shack has a countdown to opening clock that bloggers can post on their blogs.  This is brilliant marketing.  I've pasted mine on my sidebar.

So I'm home waiting for furniture to arrive from Levitz (aka Furniture.com).   They called yesterday with an automatic service to confirm delivery between 8AM and 12PM.

lalalalala...    waiting around...  *twiddles thumbs*

12:00 PM.

12:10 PM.

12:20 PM.

12:30 PM.

Time to call Customer Service.

They have no idea, but they e-mail the warehouse (why not just call?) to ask where the order is. 

The trucking company calls me back and says that the warehouse postponed the order.  Mind you, the furniture is in the warehouse, so I have no idea why they would do that.  Call Levitz back.

Levitz keeps me on hold for 25 minutes (I can't believe I held on that long, but I had nothing else to do).   Basically, for no apparent reason, someone along the chain--the warehouse, the trucking company, etc. decided I didn't really need my furniture today.  It just didn't go on the truck.  No rationale.   They offered me $100 gift certificate.  I just want my furniture.  I told them to just put the furniture on the truck.  No, trucks were out.  Well, when they come back, put my stuff on a truck.  Can't do that.  Yes you can.  You're just not willing to.  Customer lost.

With the company teetering on the edge of yet another bankruptcy, you'd think they would try and do a little better job on the customer service.   Screw the $100...  the right thing to do is to find the guy responsible, put him and his team on a truck, but my bedroom set on that truck, and get me my stuff.  Whoever eats the overtime, Levitz, the trucking company, whoever... I don't really care.  And, I shouldn't have to. 

Plus, everyone up and down that chain should be intent on fixing the problem.  Don't give me, "We'll reschedule."  It should be, "We'll get you that furniture today if the customer service guy on the other end of the phone has to march down to the warehouse himself and get it to you tied to his Jetta."

That's the kind of attitude that wins customers, creates word of mouth, buzz, etc.

You know what Jamba does when they screw up your order?  Even if they just give you the wrong size...  without hesitation, not only do they give you the thing you didn't order, they start all over again and get you your order.  Twice I've gone there and gotten my usual original AND a 16 b/c they accidently gave me the smaller size.  That creates such a positive experience for me.... makes me want to come back.

Bottom line, if they can't get me my furniture today, they're going to take off all the delivery charges and give me $100 off for my troubles.

Who to blame, though?

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.

I couldn't think of a good title for this post, so I just wrote what I was thinking.

Last night, we probably peaked at about 60 or 70 people... (I counted 45 off the top of my head that I actually match a name to a face, and that's pretty good for me).  The bar was packed, people were mixing it up, and a bunch of people came back to me and said they're going to be following up and maybe collaborating with some of the people they met.  Faaantastic!

Darren beat me to the first post and I'm glad he had a good time.  He echoed something that I've been feeling, too... that there is a definite digital buzz in New York City.  I can't wait to see everyone again, and I'm sorry I didn't get to spend as much time with each person as I would have liked.  I felt like all I kept doing last night was walking away from people to meet more people. 

One thing that is different from some of the other digital parties I've seen.  Seems that New Yorkers are more interested in actually talking to each other than taking pictures of each other.  That's probably a good thing. 

I did manage to get a few pictures, though.  I don't know if anyone else did, but I'll be tagging mine nextNY, obviously.  Oh, and as per usual, if you want to chat with people about this blog post, you can click the "live chat" next to the screaming man icon at the end of this post.

Here's my fav:

If you're bald, and you work in tech or new media in NYC, nextNY is obviously the party for you.

Link: Kaz is well prepared for new challenge this spring -- Newsday.com.

Kaz Matsui is painfully aware of his tenuous situation on the Mets. As the Japanese infielder said yesterday, "I read the papers."

Hopefully, he reads blogs, too.  Kaz, you stink.  You're not worth the $7 million we're paying you.  I'd trade you for a bucket of baseballs and a foam hand if I could.

NYSC Swag, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Blog for free stuff... Get free stuff.



Amazing.



Hmm... If only Jamba Juice read my blog.

I showed up at the gym yesterday morning and realized, in the locker room, that I didn't bring gym shorts. 

Working out in the morning really makes my whole day, because, for as much as I don't like to get up early, I like the way it makes me feel.

So I decided I'd bite the bullet and buy a pair of New York Sports Club shorts.  I figured I'd get ripped off, but I really wanted to work out and I'd probably need another pair of shorts eventually.

When I went up to the counter and asked how much the cheapest shorts were, the women at the desk made a face. 

"$22.50."

Even they knew it was a ripoff, but I was stuck.  Then, one of the women told her colleague that I could use her employee discount code, because I was so nice to them.  It rang up $16.50...   not so bad. 

There are two lessons here. 

One of them is just to be nice to all the people who work behind counters. 

The other is that, sometimes, gauging your customers when they're most desperate isn't a good strategy.

Had I actually been charged the $22.50, I would have felt totally ripped off.  Not only that, but I've been a NYSC member for almost 5 years now, and I've never gotten a free anything.  Not even a damn t-shirt.

Those NYSC shorts are an advertisement for them... they should be paying me to run around in them.  (Or at least subsidizing them...)

Creating this kind of anamosity in your customer base--a customer base that pays you about $80 a month--just doesn't seem like good business.

Instead, by giving me her employee discount, that woman at the front desk totally made my day and made me feel good about NYSC.  Wasn't that worth the $6 for the company?

In fact, if they really wanted to create a more customer centric strategy with their swag, they should have t-shirt giveaway days with the location of your NYSC club printed on the back.  New York City is full of attractive people... we're in pretty good shape, because we're out there walking, biking, hurrying around.  Put some free t-shirts on these people and let everyone know where to find them. 

I'd be happy to wear a NYSC t-shirt that said 23rd and Park on the back...   not that I'd drum up any new business, but I'm pretty sure there are a couple of people who work out at that club that could. 

I've mentioned this in parts in other posts, but I want to make a point of saying it here on its own:

There isn't a place on the face of the earth that is more well positioned to be a center of innovation over the next twenty years than New York. 

That's because the most interesting things we're going to see going forward aren't about tech.  Its not about faster chips or bigger pipes.  Its about content and communication, and providing an enabling service layer to finally put to use all the tech we've put in the ground, on our desks, and in the sky over the last few years.

And, to a large extent, that's just as much about creating new business models than it is building anything.  Its getting NBC comfortable with distributing ad supported SNL clips, and targeting those ads so well that I actually want to get them.  Its about being always on only with the people I want to be always on with--and helping me discover those people as well.

It used to be that if you wanted to discover the latest technology, you'd go to a cutting edge university research lab and see something being sodered together on a bench.  Now, you've got just as much of a chance of finding the latest tech in the university dorm room...  and once you enable that kind of entrepreneurial freedom, you start to shake up the way things were done before.

A lot of companies I see now seems to have a need for a business development person in New York City... or one that's willing to spend at least half their time here.  Even Amazon is getting into the media business apparently.  I think the people holding the keys to the kingdom are here in the Big Apple.

Of course, we don't have a perfect storm yet.  There's a bit of a "funding gap"...  we could use some more individual angels interested in doing pre-revenue, pre-business model deals in the new media space.  And, its hard to get cheap space to start a company.  But what we do have, besides a critical mass of media, are some of the most creative university students, more lawyers than you can shake a stick it, and a growing base of repeat entreprenuers and a venture community who has been around the block once or twice now.  I think of this town like a venture powderkeg just waiting to go off.

Or, am I wrong, and is it the case that always is and always was?

Got something to say?  Chat about it!

Right now, you can click the "live chat" link at the bottom of this post (next to the screaming Wall guy) and go into a chatroom specifically designed for this post.  So quit lurking and see who else is reading this post, because I don't have all the answers for sure.

And when you're done chatting, drop me a line and tell me what you think of the whole concept.

I'll probably jump in around 8:30AM/9ish.

Messing with Parsons grad exhibits, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Interactive art+text messages+Charlie= bubble #5

Whole Foods is a goldmine, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

And all I have is one stinkin foccaccia...