Wednesday, December 27, 2006

[trip] Xmas in San Diego

When: Sat Dec 23rd - Mon Dec 25th
Stayed at: The Bristol Hotel

- Plane spotting
- Mano e mano video poker
- What do you mean, you don't serve alcohol in the casino?
- Palm reader, energy worker, and storyteller
- Mushy Peas
- Vibrating room
- This room has no dark shade?
- Pad Thai, W's Polish Sausage and Fries, Pizza, 7-Eleven Hot Dog
- Yule log, A Christmas Story, and How the Grinch stole Christmas
- Lucky pooping on the floor

Sunday, December 17, 2006

[outing] Brunch at Fig Tree's Cafe

Who: Marie, Renzo, Jeremy, Paul, Joanna, Jason
Where: Fig Tree's Cafe, Venice

- What's that giant thing that just went across the room?
- You just took the only leaf this cactus will ever have!
- Let's order another of that giant puffy thing
- Let's call Jessica (again)!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Friday, December 15, 2006

[outing] Battlestar Galactica Screening

What: Battlestar Galactica Mid-Season Finale Theatre Pre-Screening
Where: Westside Pavillion Landmark Theater
Who: Ben, Dana, Dana's friends

- "You are all invited to come watch battlestar galactica at our house"
- "You'll be sorry that you said that!"
- "Will we see one of the final fives before the end of this season?"

Sunday, December 10, 2006

[outing] Holiday parties

'Tis the season to be partying.

Saturday December 9: Laura and Josh's Holiday Party
- Laura the Santa
- The Viagra cup
- Toe Socks
- The grape paper towel holder and votive holders
- "Ganta"
- "What happens when someone die?"
- "How does that mouse changes color???" (Targus Mini Kaleidoscope Optical Retractable Mouse: ...This fun, sleek mini mouse features a patented color-radiating design that cycles through seven colors as you use it..)

Thursday December 7: Business.com Holiday Party at Duke's
- Festive casual and Mike's Santa tie
- Pre-party at Shelby's
- Richard's amazing breakdance
- Mike's tutorial on tap dance
- Tequila and vodka ... on ice, please
- Three helpings of prime rib (me)
- Three helpings of ice cream cake (pierre)
- Fried wontons with crab and cheese fillings
- Is that guy doing magic?
- Sharon stepped on Pierre
- wii
- 2-side orders of bacon at Swingers

Tuesday December 5: James' Birthday Party at Tokyo Delves
- Buzz killing mystery sushi game
- Learning to do the sprinkler

Friday December 1: Yahoo Holiday Party at The Highlands Hollywood - Tri-tip beef
- Tequila in champagne glasses
- Blackjack and poker
- Pinball


Friday, December 08, 2006

[log] TenFold and the Universal Soldier

I have always felt very lucky that I joined TenFold right out of college. Sure, not everything came up roses, but I worked for a great manager, made life-long friends, and learned a heck lot.

TenFold's foundation product is a rapid software development platform called "Universal Application" -- It's the application that can be turned into any database-driven business app! The core product team meticulously abstracted, layered, and structured the code, so that any app could be run a any OS, any database, and multiple tiering configurations. An impressive vision, really.

But the more interesting vision, was that TenFold required everyone to be a "Universal Soldier" (Though, no, they never used that term). New hire bootcamp started with the TenFold Writing class -- Everyone must write well and write consistently. Everyone. And when you hired college grads who had no preconceived notion of this-is-not-my-job, anything was possible.

When I started I was a developer. What I didn't know, was that in other "traditional" software development organizations, there are many other titles like QA, Technical Writers, Product Manager, Project Manager, Release Manager, User Support, Trainer, UI Designer, Analyst, DBA, etc -- We were just a team full of developers. Since I didn't know, I thought that must be just how things were everywhere. And why not? We had to figure out how to do everything and I loved it.

Today I work in a traditional organization. We have people with all different titles and we have a great team. But I continue to promote the Universal Soldier philosophy. These days, I explain it as "growing Revenue per Employee" -- If we could to do more business with the talents we have, we will be able to give everyone a fatter bonus check, and look better on our financial report ...

... Ah ha! A win-win proposition.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

[log] Culver City Redevelopment Project

http://www.culvercity.org/citygov/redevelop/proj_sepulveda.asp

Friday, December 01, 2006

[log] Free Hosted Wikis

Keeping a list of free hosted wikis so I don't forget:

* http://www.pbwiki.com -- Nice. Very nice. Text and wysiwyg editors. Free one is ad supported.

* http://www.wikidot.com -- Twiki syntax. Text editor. Nicest default template. Integrated Forums. Integrated Comments. Customized menue. Currently first choice.

* http://www.wikispaces.com -- Wysiwyg and text editor with MediaWiki syntax. Can import blog and download entire wiki. Integrated site stats. Has AdSense ads.

* http://www.wetpaint.com -- Wysiwg editor. Integrated comment functionality. Can map to any domain.