Superfly Blog

Working it out with posting to blogger from iPhone

2009-08-05T00:07:00.001-07:00

I hate the keyboard (still!) but damn this iPhone is a game changer. Let's see if this post actually makes it through 3 apps working in synchronicity

Everyday

2008-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Everyday I tend to lose myself in a thought, if only for moment. Sometimes I take a minute or two to tune out and think about something that interests me. An entirely selfish moment.

When you are traveling, every second of every day feels like that. The thrill of the non-routine, new things and new adventures.

Weng weng

2007-11-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

i love you weng weng

Cory breakin it down

2007-10-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

A clip of Cory breakin' it down for all of his fans on his 30th birthday...

click the pink play button in the lower left corner

Monogram Lake in North Cascades National Park

2007-08-31T16:20:00.001-07:00

Some pictures on ZoomIn of our recent backpacking trip to Monogram Lake in North Cascades National Park. The hike starts with about 6200 feet of straight-up switchbacks, making me almost regret lugging a bottle of wine. But we got a nice pay-off with the views...

Pre-launch build-up

2007-08-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

Zoomin.com is the 5th new business I've been a part of (3 of my own smaller companies, and Half.com), and one dynamic has remained consistent throughout: the Roller Coaster.

The Roller Coaster, described very well here by Marc Andreesen, is the grind of emotional highs and lows that you experience on a day-to-day basis in a startup. Some days you feel as though your company is destined for greatness or riches or both, and other days the anxieties about cash flow, competitors, and timelines make you feel like you're holding a 1st-Class ticket to nowhere. Zoomin.com is no different, to be honest, but when you have a solid team and a clear goal, the good days out-number the bad days.

Right now, we're close to Launch, and we're sweating the small stuff. My own mental ball of yarn is wound a little tighter, and finding a reasonable stopping point each day (work/life balance, of course) is getting more and more difficult. The stress and anxiety are finding me on the pillow, in the shower, and on my dinner plate. My wife is taking some R&R time right now, and I am not in the frame of mind to join her, even when I do step away from the laptop.

But it's a thrill.

I can't wait to see how we're received by my knowledgeable colleagues, the blogosphere of influencers and early adopters, fellow execs of other startups, the media, and most importantly, our customers. I can anticipate many of our early challenges, but nothing is as momentous as your launch day, and I'm eager to get there. Hope the anxiety levels let me get there in one piece.

Like my friend Josh Kopelman says, "you only launch once.".

Missus Wins Huge Modern-Looking Glass Award

2007-06-19T14:21:00.001-07:00

My missus won the Most Outstanding Student Award for her LLM program. She is awesome! Hyperachiever extraordinaire.

The award itself is neat-looking with girth to spare. After receiving said award, the missus snacked and chatted while I held it. She kept looking at me with concern, as if I might drop it.

As if. I was (and still am) mighty proud of my Scrappy the Law Dog.

new Fantasy baseball: RotoHog

2007-02-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're probably thinking: another fantasy sports website. Big deal.

This one is different. And I plan to play it.

The site is called RotoHog.com, and they have a few improvements to fantasy sports that got my juices flowing. If it's as good as I think it will be, I might abandon ESPN and Yahoo once and for all. No joke.

First, on RotoHog you can only create one team, but you can participate in an unlimited number of leagues. So I can use the same team to play against my co-workers, my college buddies, and in my neighbor's league as well. It's a level playing field because each team starts with the same budget and you buy players for your roster just like buying stocks on the stock market. I think the market has over-priced Jeter a bit, but I picked up Verlander for what I think is a steal. If you find a good deal on a player in the open market, you can sell another player off your roster at market price to free up some budget to grab a different player. Pretty sweet.

RotoHog uses a straight-forward points-based system like most other leagues; not rotisserie or head-to-head. Every team starts with the same budget and the same opportunity to buy and sell players at prices based on supply and demand, so you can join any league any time and it's still a fair competition. The kicker: every RotoHog team is also competing with the universe of other RotoHog teams for a $100,000 grand prize and the title of Greatest Fantasy Baseball Player in the World. Apparently you can win other prizes as well, but the upcoming baseball season is their beta season so I'll have to wait and see about those.

This kind of league solves some problems I've had with online fantasy sports, in general.
1) I hate managing 4 different teams - it's a pain in the neck to keep track of all of them;
2) I hate those so-called Best Fantasy Player awards because they are bogus - just because you play in a weak league, got the #1 draft pick, made a phony trade with your brother-in-law, and predictably racked up insane points does not make you the Best, regardless of what ESPN thinks;
3) I hate the tunnel-vision that results from only watching the stats of my players and whatever scrubs are floating on the waiver wire. With this system I can evaluate the performance and corresponding price of every player and acquire them if the price is right. Now I will have an interest in the whole league, not just the players on my team.

So I like it and I think that RotoHog is worth a shot. I issue this challenge to every other roto geek and baseball beat writer out there: let's form a public league on RotoHog and see who really knows baseball.

Testing SupCast, Snapvine, GCast, SayNow, Pinger

2007-01-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

First, SupCast:

Here's a link to my pheed on Pheeder

Then SnapVine:

Get Your Own Voice Player

Manage

Now GCast:

Subscribe Free Add to my Page

And this is SayNow:

Finding Half.com

2007-01-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

I recently placed an ad on Google Adwords for the search query "Hlaf.com" and link to Half.com, a marketplace to buy and sell new and used books, CDs, movies, video games, and more.

I am a Half.com affiliate, and I earn a very small percentage on any purchase made by Half.com users who click on my ad on the misspelled term.

But determining if I was making any money on the little dalliance was a long process because not all of the purchases on which I would earn a percentage are made immediately after the customer clicks on my ad. In fact, I need to wait a full 30 days (the amount of time my affiliate cookie is valid) to see how much value has accumulated to a click. This required my to run my ad for a couple weeks, turn it off, wait a month, then compare my commissions to my cost. It's worth it, but just barely, and I have to turn my ads off and on occasionally to monitor my break-even on the endeavor.

I'm working on a solution to this problem.

Three cheers for Fremont Networks

2006-12-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

This post serves to provide a resoundingly positive recommendation for Fremont Networks.

Scott Fox, the proprietor, recently helped clean up a VPN mess for one of my companies. A previous consultant left us with a non-functional VPN after many hours of tinkering and frustration. Scott came in and did some smart troubleshooting to solve our problems and rectify our network. He was assiduous, patient, and did not waste time. He was reasonable in billing and responsive to our needs. Three cheers for Fremont Networks.

Snowboarding and Murphy's Law

2006-12-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

I rode in Tahoe in the winters of 2001, 2002, and 2003. I found a crew of fun dudes with whom we rented a house in Truckee. We were in Tahoe almost every weekend so long as the resorts were open or there was snow on the ground.

Then, in 2004, we moved back to Seattle. Winter 2004-2005 was the lowest snowfall in the Pacific NW in the last 1000 years. Many Northwest ski resorts were open for less than 3 weeks, if that. Thanks to Murphy's Law, Tahoe got a season-long pummeling that only happens once in a generation, and my Tahoe buddies gorged themselves. Fortunately, I had a job that brought me to Utah each week, so I still eeked out 20+ days of solid riding and great snow.

Last year, I was on the World Tour and out of the country from January until September. The snow season in the Pacific Northwest got started early in 2005, and I got to ride some great conditions twice at Mount Baker before leaving the country. After I left, the Pacific Northwest got pummeled with a deluge of snow that only happens once in a generation. My friend Travis made sure to keep me updated on the stupifying amount of snow that Mt. Baker and other local resorts had received. I cussed him repeated from Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. My consolation was that I was surfing and hiking and frolicking abroad in a dream-fulfilling manner.

This year, it might be time for Mr. Murphy to compensate me. It's piling up nicely here in the NW, and Tahoe and Utah conditions are really behind pace. Naturally, I had to cancel a planned trip to Utah recently due to lack of snow.

Nailed my first buck

2006-12-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

I went hunting right before Thanksgiving with my Dad and a few of his buddies, and I nailed my first buck. It had a decent rack, too, as you can see, which is going on my wall.

It was comical. First day of deer hunting season in Nebraska, and we're standing in the dark before the sun rose, very cold. It only took 45 minutes or so, in broken light, to see a buck, stupid on hormones, chasing a doe. She tear off and run away, and he'd chase. We could see them gallivanting around, but they were too far away to shot. So we watched.

After 15 minutes of horseplay (which also allowed the light to improve) they scurried closer to us. About 80-90 yards away, straight in front of us, unobscured. Dad starts whispering the instructions: aim above the shoulder... okay draw your rifle.... okay, take 'eem! Pow! Whiff. No bullet-impact shudder from the buck, but he doesn't run either. Just stands there. I crank the lever on the 30-30 Winchester and re-aim. Dad repeats: right above the shoulder... okay, git 'eem! Pow! Whiff. Missed again. This time, the buck kind shuffles a bit and actually takes a few steps towards us, and then turns again to present his broad-side again for a third shot. Now I am starting to get nervous, and I can hear my throat beating with my heart as I take aim. I did not want the story of my big buck to be The One That Got Away. Dad abbreviates his pre-shot comments this time: Smoke 'eem! Pow! Whiff. The buck does not shudder like he'd been hit, and after a half-second pause, both of them take off for the nearest brush. We watched the doe run out of site, but it seemed that maybe the buck had stopped. We couldn't tell for sure. We didn't want to abandon our obviously primo place to inspect the brush to see if he was there - maybe he'd come out or we'd wait to see if any other deer showed up. When it was time to go, if he hadn't shown himself again, we'd meander over there to see if maybe he was bleeding out in the brush. I'm seething, convinced I'd missed all 3 clean attempts.

30 minutes later, my Dad's buddy comes down the row and asked "What happened? I saw them two, and I heard ya blastin'..." I start to tell my sad tale, but he interrupts. "No, you got 'eem. The first shot was a whiff. The second shot, I heard a 'TING', and I think you hit the irrigation rig behind him (in the distance). The third shot, I heard a thud." I'm stoked. I am now prepared to sprint over to the brush to find my bleeding buck. Sure enough, he was laid out in waist high brush, out of our site, bleeding like a sonuvagun, dead as a door nail. I hit him right above the shoulder. I think my Dad was as jacked up as I was. But it took him 3 times to say the magic words: smoke 'eem.

Thanks Pops.

Dali the Dog does tricks

2006-11-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Just monkeying around... check out this video of our dog Dali showing off her repertoire of tricks:

Working on a cool "hold the treat on the nose" trick, but that's gonna take some time.

Trying to cancel Rhapsody subscription with Real Networks

2006-11-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

1) I called the number in the Help section to cancel.
2) After a short wait, I gave my email address 3 times to the rep who took my call.
3) I said I wanted to cancel, and he asked why? I told the rep I wasn't using it as much as I'd like, and wanted to cancel.
4) He asked me if I listened online or used a mobile player, and I told him I listened mostly at my PC.
5) Then tried to sell me another subscription product, with a droning 30-second schpiel.
6) I told him no, I'd rather just cancel my Rhapsody subscription and be done with it.
7) He asked what kinds of activities I did when I'm online.
8) I said "what the hell does it matter if I just want to cancel Rhapsody?"
9) Sensing that he'd annoyed me enough, he stopped trolling for a games subscription and expeditiously cancelled my subscription.

A phone call that could have taken 60 seconds lasted over 5 minutes. Consider me annoyed, but it's a big improvement over the 15-minute cancellation fiasco I endured last year when I experimented the first time around.

Favorite movies

2006-10-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

My top movies. If you don't like them, bite me.

Ferris Bueller - "Pardon my french, but you're an ASSHOLE!"

Gladiator - "On my signal, unleash Hell."

Caddyshack - "Hey Smails, my dinghy's bigger than your whole boat!"

Braveheart - "FREEDOM!!!!!"

Blues Brothers - "We got both types [of music], country and western."

Conan the Barbarian - "What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."

Stripes - Bill Murray carries an otherwise shamelessly stupid movie.

Rambo, First Blood - "He's a finely trained killing machine."

Star Wars trilogy - There is no toppping "Luke. I am your father..."

Tombstone - "I'm your huckleberry."

Golden Child - "I want the kniiiife. Pleeeease."

Add your suggestions if you wish.

Coming back

2006-10-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

The only thing that makes it easier to be back in self-serving, materialistic ol' USA is re-connecting with family and old friends. Those personal relationships are the only thing I missed when I was away, and I promised myself that I would not let those relationships fall into a state of neglect because I was too busy attending to things that do not ultimately matter to me.

I have been calling my siblings more often. I have re-connected with some friends. I convinced my grandparents to come for a visit. My dad and I are going on a roadtrip soon. I hope this is not a short-term fad, because I realize now what I was missing when I let myself get wrapped up in job stress and daily to-do lists.

We learned an old Maori phrase when we were in New Zealand. "What's the most important thing in life? People, people, people."

Get Your Own Voice Player Manage

Why I Quit Drinking

2006-10-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

After 8 months of world travel, and far too many libations along the way, I decided to quit drinking. And smoking. Not for good, but for a year (sept 10 '07). This ban is self-imposed, and it has a few important exceptions, but I intend for it to stick.

The exceptions are worth noting, but mentioning them makes me feel like a wild-eyed Mormon preacher trying to rationalize his impending polygamy. Nonetheless, they are acceptable in my book, and since this is entirely self-imposed, that's all that counts. Here goes:

1) If one of my unmarried siblings (gawd forbid) or close friends gets married (Jose is only one drunken binge away from knocking up a stripper), I will drink. I would regret it if I did not.

2) New Years Eve. If I want to. Consider it a free pass for the King of all drinking holidays. Plus, I cannot let my wife continue to hold my title as Most Debaucherous New Years Eve Schmidt in the Household any longer. Time to up the proverbial ante.

3) St. Paddy's Day. I will simply take the opportunity to remind Mr. Guinness and Mr. Jameson who is boss.

4) Any type of "Welcome Home ME" party. To be fair, I already cashed in this chip with a drunken binge in NYC last week with The Fensters and my man Gordon. It was supossed to include Jose and Fernie, but they dissed me after I already had 3 in me, so this pass was under-utilized. Very disappointing.

5) If the Cowboys make the NFL Playoffs. This is simply reality. If they make it back to respectability, I shall drink like a fish for each game. If they make it to the Super Bowl, I'll be effing catatonic by kickoff.

I am doing this for the following reasons:
- I drank too much on the trip, and the joy of getting a buzz now takes more effort
- The buzz, when it arrives, is no longer a novelty. It's expected.
- I want to rededicate myself to getting in killer shape. Even the slightest sluggishness from substance from the night before is enough to make me pass on working out. Not the kind of effect I need.
- I want to give myself a little test, just to make sure I possess the required resolve. I pampered myself quite a bit with good booze for 8 months... wouldn't want to spoil myself.

So far, very easy. Haven't had any overwhelming cravings.

Dallas Cowboys fan club in Seattle

2006-10-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

It's time to start one. I have seen the Eagles fans congregate in SF, the Steelers fans in NJ, and the Dolphins fans in Philly. They get together and take over a bar every Sunday for gameday and have a helluva time. It's time for us Cowboys fans to represent in Seattle.

If you stumble across this blog, and you're a Cowboys fan in the Puget Sound, post a comment on this blog with your contact info. I'll get something rolling.

Good Cowboys links:
CowboysPlus.com
T.O.'s site
Mike VanderSlice's site

Back on the chain gang

2006-10-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to put some money BACK into the account for the first time in several months, so I jumped on an short-term project immediately upon my return. I'm participating in the production of a new reality TV show called Hottest Mom in America.

Essentially, I'm paid as a professional MILF hunter. That's right, I find hot moms, and convince them to show up for our audition. It's a tough job, but some lucky SOB has got to do it.

The show has already received substantial press coverage:
Wall Street Journal
Fox News
Miami Herald
Dallas Morning News
... and many more, plus lots of TV segments as well.

I have soooo many stories about searching for Hot Moms, I might write a book about it...

Lessons from 8-months of world travel

2006-10-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

1) Darwinism is in full effect. The big gorilla will eat what he can, at others expense, all the time. No matter what. Only love and occasionally religion can deter the power of Darwinism. The rich get richer, the Haves will keep having, and the meaty asses will get meatier - this is the prevailing and natural order of things. This especially includes politics and the US position of dominance in the world. And if it wasn't Americans in the top spot, exploiting their position of advantage, some other country would be doing the same thing, in their own unique way.

2) Africans with no money have a way of making you feel like a real schmuck. Because they are so happy about life! Even with so little. No steaks, no cars, no power, no cell phone, no free medical care, and so on. You feel guilty as a muthafucker complaining about anything in YOUR life after spending a few minutes around these folks. But make no mistake, they'd love to have what you've got... and they wouldn't likely give it away to another country as charity if they had it.

3) Islam is nothing like the hate-twinged faith that is represented in the Western media. These people have a reason to hate America, and the fact that we keep luring them towards "normalized relations" with "peace through prosperity" and lots of bombs only pisses them off even more. But they don't hold it against us individually. Except, man, do they hate Bush.

4) I will never trust my government again. They rock us to sleep with Budweiser and apple pie TV and prosperous lives with jobs and TVs. Meanwhile, we are too fat and happy and passive to squeal about squandered tax dollars, international bullying, and war profiteering by our dirty elected officials. It all makes me ill, but asking an entire country to awake from a pampered slumber to be something more honest and virtuous is a very tough task.

5) Never travel for 8 months with your wife unless you have ample time planned for you to be apart from each other. We had fun, no doubt. But being velcro-ed to your wife for every waking moment for that long is just not natural. The friction is unavoidable and often intense, no matter how much you'd both like to avoid it. That said...

6) People are the most important thing in life. Not money. Not religion. People, people, people. Bring good people closer to you with love and generosity and honesty and understanding. Money will happen with hard work, but never let it pollute a heartfelt connection with good people.

7) Ireland-poured Guiness and Augustiner Viessbier are locked in an epic battle for the best beer on the planet. The war continues...

8) I drank way too much whilst on this trip. Anxious to get back in shape.

An anecdote about Philadelphia Eagles fans...

2005-11-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

When I was a freshman at Penn, and still rather naive, I wore my Dallas Cowboys winter coat around campus. The students were diverse enough than most didn't care, but the service workers around campus, the low income hourly wage workers that shoveled sidewalks and trimmed hedges, well, they were your typically hard-core knuckle-dragging Birds fans. I would often hear the occasional "cowboys suck" or simply "fuck dallas" from them. Whatever.

Then there was a game where Emmitt ran for over 200 yards and really buried the Birds. Larry Allen and Mark Tuinea were absolutely mauling the Eagles D-line all night. The next day, as I was walking down the street, minding my own business, I got nailed by a cup of cold coffee thrown from a plumbing company service van that was cruising by, along with a shout of "fucking cowboys" and "bandwagon!". That was rude awakening to the barbaric nature of Philly fans. I came from Nebraska, where our rivalry with Oklahoma is very heated and hateful, but this was something new. And the time that the Eagles missed that chippie extra point to squander the game? Well, I got a snowball in the back from some HVAC guys working outside one of the dorms. It was rude awakening to the barbaric nature of Philly fans. I came from Nebraska, where our rivalry with Oklahoma is very heated and hateful, but this was something new.

I concluded, right or wrong, that there was probably no other circumstance where a sports affiliation would get you accosted like that... only in Philly, the City of Brotherly Shove.

I concluded, right or wrong, that there was probably no other circumstance where a sports affiliation would get you accosted like that... only in Philly, the City of Brotherly Shove.

Glad I'm not wearing my jacket around Philly now, after that clutch 21-20 Cowboys victory on Monday night...