Cancer Messed With the Wrong Dude. Drew Is Making It Pay.

In early June, I told you about how my friend Drew Olanoff had encountered some bad news. In what has no doubt been a life-altering experience, Drew was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and scheduled to undergo a series of chemotherapy treatments to take on the illness. At the time, I also told you about his unique strategy to fight back, using #BlameDrewsCancer, a Twitter hashtag and accompanying Web site, to organize the power of social media in his personal quest to give the Big C a big F.

Ten chemo treatments into the promised dozen, Drew is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The doctors have given him a very positive diagnosis, which doesn't mean he's completely put cancer in the rear view mirror, but he has turned the corner. Even when he is feeling the inevitable fatigue, aches, nausea and other side effects of his treatment, he is progressing closer to this specific finish line.

But even if he gets an all clear from the doctors, what cancer didn't realize was that he isn't going to be finished. In the last four months, the #BlameDrewsCancer phenomenon grew from a gimmick to a movement, one that even sported a 24-hour "blame-a-thon" in Philadelphia this September, and a tie-in with the Lance Armstrong-headed charity LIVESTRONG. Drew and the BlameDrewsCancer team have extended their efforts to aid a fellow cancer battler, Ethan Zohn, and have started #BlameEthansCancer. As Drew's personal battle ebbs, the movement will take on a new name - simply Blame Cancer, so you can continue blaming all of life's little problems on one big one that made the wrong choice by picking on the wrong guy.


Drew With the Twins in 2008 (L) and With Matthew Saturday (R)
As I've gotten to know Drew over the past year-plus, I am continually impressed by his "no prisoners" approach to getting tasks done, and his creativity. Where others would have whimpered and begged for sympathy, Drew fought back and did so with all the tools he had at his disposal.


Drew Sucking Thumbs With Sarah Saturday (L) and Sporting a Balloon Hat (R)
Just this last week, Drew made a stop in the Bay Area - armed with a new idea. Taking his idea to Twitter headquarters, and tipping Mashable on the story, Drew announced that he was going to extend the charitable impact his battle has had by auctioning off his valuable @Drew Twitter name to the highest bidder. He set the bar at $10,000 in donations to LIVESTRONG, hoping a celebrity like Drew Carey, Drew Barrymore, Drew Brees or another famous Drew, would make an offer.

On Friday, Drew stopped by our home. In the time since Drew and I became friends, our families have become friends as well. I visited him at his parents' home in New Jersey (to his surprise) earlier in the summer, and if you turn the calendar back to 2008, he was actually the first babysitter that Matthew and Sarah ever had. The twins took to him like he was one of the Grays, climbing all over him and playing with toys. (As you can see in the pics)

The next day brought a big bombshell. On Saturday, Drew Carey bid $25,000 for the @Drew name, and in a bigger commitment, promised to increase his bid to a massive $100,000 if he were to reach 100,000 followers on Twitter by Drew (Olanoff's) birthday this November 9th. And even though Carey started at only 13,000 followers at the time, he is nearing 50,000 in only a few days' time. It's incredible.


Drew Carey Digs Deep for LIVESTRONG
The story has blown up - beyond our corner of the blogosphere, and into the mainstream press. Take for example:

• CNN: Drew Carey may bid $100K on @drew Twitter name
• Huffington Post: Drew Carey Bids $100K For Twitter Name
• Perez Hilton: Drew Carey Tweets For A Good Cause

Many startups around the Web would kill for that kind of coverage, and Drew has made it happen through creativity and persistence - two major reasons I believe that Cancer is reeling from this attack. All through the last few months, I have been blaming Drew's Cancer for stuff. I have had people ask me who Drew is and what the story is about his cancer, for those who haven't been paying attention. I have seen friends of mine who don't know Drew blaming stuff on his cancer. And I don't care if it looks a little out of whack from the usual tech stream I try to provide. This is real life, and Drew is a real friend and a real inspiration to me. So let's help Drew Carey reach one hundred thousand followers, and push the heck out of the other Drews on Twitter to try and beat his proposal.

I #BlameDrewsCancer For Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Last year, when ReadBurner was saved from an early demise, I gained more than the return of a site I enjoyed and found useful. I also gained a good peer and friend, in Drew Olanoff, who along with Adam Ostrow and a small team of developers, have been working on expanding ReadBurner, and extending its product line, including BurnURL, which we have discussed before. For whatever reason, Drew almost immediately transformed from a virtual world acquaintance who I knew through podcasts and trading e-mails, to a real-world friend, someone who I know I can call practically any time, any day.

Drew is energetic. Drew is geeky and loves it. Drew is really funny and always has me laughing. Drew is sharp and has a great eye for what works and what doesn't. Drew has a sense of personal style that you can see in everything he touches, from his own blog, to his work at ReadBurner, and previously at Strands, or his new job at GOGII.

And Drew is selfless. He famously got a woman's Twitter account ID tattooed on his arm for charity. And he was the first to ever dare and babysit my twins when they were very small.

But in May, my conversations with Drew changed tone. Drew had found a lump in his neck and throat area, and smartly thought to go to see a doctor. His symptoms pointed to his possibly having Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer. As his tests were being reviewed, I spoke to my dad, also an MD, and asked what he thought. In his matter of fact way, he ageed, saying, "Yup. Sounds like lymphoma."

Drew got the news not too long ago, that yes, he had been diagnosed with cancer. The big C... and would have to undergo chemotherapy. In fact, his first chemotherapy session was this last Monday. We've talked in the last few weeks on the phone about how he feels, what he expects, and how this will change him. But even as the disease tries to sap his physical strength, Drew's spirit is not being dampened. He is taking on this challenge like any other, and is looking to heighten awareness and deliver change.


You Can See What People Blame On Drew's Cancer Here
Today, in a heartfelt post, he revealed his battle with cancer, and started a new movement, to "Blame Drew's Cancer" for anything you want. Simply post a note to Twitter with the hashtag #blamedrewscancer and a dedicated site at http://www.blamedrewscancer.com will show whether you blame his cancer for your losing your keys to the downfall of your favorite sports team, or the economy at large. And with time, Drew will likely announce corporate partners who are going to work with him to kick cancer in a place that hurts.

I blame Drew's cancer for going after a guy who has been nothing but good news ever since he entered our family's life. Our kids love him and so do my wife and I. That's why we're asking you to also Blame Drew's Cancer... and show the big C who is boss.

Online Transparency Leads to New World of Group Dating

Guest Post By Micah Baldwin of Learn To Duck (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Like most everything, even dating has been changed by social media.

Before the explosion of the Internet, a man (or woman) had to find a woman (or man) that they were interested in spending more time with, then ask them out on a first date. The two of them would spend the time over dinner and maybe drinks learning about each other and figuring out whether there was enough interest to continue dating.

It was such a time-honored tradition, that books were written about the practice, and even movies were produced around the subject. Entire professions were created to help people overcome the difficulties of a first date.

Then the Internet came around.

Dating sites such as Match.com, eHarmony and others helped people get to know one other through online interaction prior to meeting. For many people, this was an amazing step forward. No longer were the first dates awkward. Now each party knew a lot about the other from all their interactions online. Pictures were exchanged; stories were shared; and likes and dislikes were enumerated. The first date became almost the triumphant conclusion of the online courtship.

Match.com (15 million users), eHarmony (17 million users) and PlentyofFish (30 million users) thrived in the pre-social network / pre-recession Internet. Even younger users (40% of Match.com, 40% of eHarmony and 35% of of PlentyofFish users are under 35 years old).

Enter social networks.

Now we have entered a world of "hyper-transparency." Most everyone between the ages of 25-35 has a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter and a million different social network profiles. Not to mention Google itself. With a simple name search so much information on an individual can be surfaced, that the awkwardness of first dates has returned. "What do they know about me? Did they see that picture from college?" often runs through people's minds. "How did you know that? Oh, you saw that blog post."

While many stories have been written about folks who have lost jobs or potential jobs (see: Cisco Fatty - www.ciscofatty.com) because of tweets or Facebook photos, how many relationships have been ruined by out-of-context tweets or photos?

As an example, the game "Shots in the Dark," where kids get together and drink shots in a darkened closet to ensure that no photos exist of their hijinks, has become common place in today's high schools and colleges.

As transparency becomes a required part of interaction, especially among people under the age of 35, paid dating sites such as Match.com and eHarmony are finding it difficult to hang on to their users, especially those under 35. Jupiter Research indicates that only about 10% of the online population uses paid dating sites, which is a decrease of 6% since 2006. Match.com's largest growing segment is users over 50, seeing a 300% increase since 2000.

Spark Networks, owner of sites such as JDate.com, has seen annual sales drop to $14mm from $15.8mm a year ago. Free sites such as OkCupid, which appeal to the under 35 crowd, have seen new user signups increase 60 percent since September, from 110,000 per month to 180,000 per month.

Younger Internet users demand greater transparency among their online (and offline) interactions. "As a recent grad, it's expected that I will know more about the people I hang out with, " said Grace Boyle, 23. "With all the social media tools available, why would I use something like Match.com?"

Now dating sites such as Ignighter, TeamDating and Mixtt have created the concept of "group dating," where groups meet each other eliminating the pressure of the first date. Now there is no focus on the one-on-one interaction of dating sites, but rather on finding compatibility among groups.

Ignighter, the largest among the group dating sites (They were a Techstars company and recently announced $1.2 million in funding), believes that the group dynamic removes the stigma of having to perform on the first date. On Ignighter small groups create profiles and match to other small groups based on geography and interest area. Mixtt, who launched at TechCrunch 50 in 2008, has a similar format to Ignighter, with the group profile and matching concept. (Mixtt has received no funding to date, and their last blog post was in October. http://mixtt.wordpress.com).

Jacqueline Malan, 25, remarked "It's much easier to go out with a group of friends, since it removes all the pressures of the first date. Of course, if there is someone interesting, we certainly can connect on Facebook and Twitter. Erica Prather, 24, added, "and if there isn't anyone interesting, it removes the awkwardness of the goodbye."

The hyper-transparency of today's social network remove the fear of not knowing most of a person's "dirty little secrets."

For the traditional dating sites, it will be imperative for them to allow users to interact outside of their walled gardens in ways that could potentially reduce the amount of time spent on the sites.

Since everything is out in the open, it increases the difficulty of the first date and the strangeness of matching to someone online and building a rapport that can end up being misleading. Group dating is clearly the 2.0 answer to online dating. By allowing people to see potential relationships interact in the real world and among their friends, there is additional insight into real personalities.

Online dating has to evolve into a collaborative, transparent activity, much like most online interactions have become, to make the fake phone call from a dying mother obsolete, and the drink in the face a relic of yesteryear.

Resources:

• Maneater: Singles turn to online dating as recession empties wallets, hearts
• Dating Sites Reviews: Current Online Dating and Dating Services Facts & Statistics
• AllFacebook: Facebook Demographic Statistics
• Match.com: 10 surprising statistics you’ll be glad to know, including the odds that you’ll find an amour at this age.

Read more by Micah Baldwin at LearnToDuck.com.

Social Media and Your Friends: Oil and Water?

By Phil Glockner of Scribkin (FriendFeed/Twitter)

I have to admit to being 'in the closet'. But my closet is huge. In fact, it may be bigger than my whole house!

How is that possible? Well, in real life, not many of my friends and associates know that I am addicted to social media and social networks. And therefore, there are many more of you here in my closet, with me, than there are people out there.

Oil and Water

So here is my dichotomy. I'm an introvert. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test pegs me as an ISTP: Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving. What this translates to, realistically, is me being an IT guy that has a small circle of friends and a moderate number of acquaintances that I am always forgetting to mail birthday cards to.

On the flip side, I am part of a large and exciting social network society via blogs like this one, FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, and the like. I definitely spend more time with my online friends, but less time actually building individual relationships.

And in fact, that is part of the problem.

In essence I have close friends who may not be that impressed or interested in social networks and social media. But, I also have a lot of acquaintances all over the country that I enjoy interacting with, but it's up in the air if any of them will become a good friend of mine.

Should They Mix?

Of course, the easiest path is to allow the oil and water to keep what they are doing, which is to say, not mixing. After all, is there any compelling reasons why they should meet? I think that may actually be the more interesting question. After much thought, I think (at least for me) that the answer is yes, there are compelling reasons. Let me lay them out for you.

Starting The Mixture

Literally and figuratively, there are solutions you can use to 'solve' these issues. You would most likely start with your immediate circle of friends. Think about why they would care about your interest in social networks. If they had an academic interest, they probably would have broached the subject with you already, asked you questions about it. If they haven't its probably because they either don't know or they have already decided they aren't interested.

However, nobody is ever uninterested in a better job, or more income. Use this as your way of ringing the front door. Ask your friends, have they ever gotten a better job through a job hunting service like Monster or HotJobs? Probably not. You usually have to have a perfect resume and superlative phone interview skills to even occasionally get a job that way. Differentiate social networks from job listing services.. one deals with job openings, the other with people who work at companies and businesses.

In the long run, social networks are actually better at landing a job, and its easy to say why: People get people hired. If you know someone, have a working relationship or a shared background with them, they feel confident recommending you for a job. A listing service only tells you what jobs a company has had trouble filling. It doesn't say anything about the people you are going to be working with, or how great the company is to work for.

In fact you can think of monster.com as a roadmap, giving you an indication of where a new job may be the most promising, but the real work should be done on LinkedIn, Facebook or Plaxo and other social networks. These services give you access to the people. The people on these services can answer questions, open doors, drop your name.

Apply Tweet .. I Mean Heat

Ok, so now you have your friends' interest. There's something in it for them. LinkedIn and Plaxo are sold.. but what about Twitter? Here's an easy way to present Twitter: It is the 21st century word-of-mouth. It's water cooler taken to a whole new level. Is it essential to building a brand or conducting business? No, in my opinion, no.. at least not yet. But the potential upside is great: It is a huge, globe-spanning even playing field where people can see how you work, and you can easily keep people up-to-date on any aspect of your work or personal life you feel is important to communicate.

Most likely your life isn't going to change by using Twitter or FriendFeed. If you are a realtor, you aren't going to be selling houses directly off these services. However, if you are looking for a realtor and you like two people (all else being equal), one who is nice and another one who is also plus gives great advice about house-hunting and hot properties on their Twitter, who are you going to choose? I know I'd pick the guy on Twitter.

Distill

At this point your friends have a personal interest, and they can see the potential for long-term interest. But if you want to bring home why using a social network all the time isn't necessarily a bad thing, you can present this argument:

Spending all day using FriendFeed and Twitter could be seen as a colossal waste of time. To most people, it makes about as much business sense as playing video games. However, I don't view social media (or even video games) that way. I see it as undergoing a constant process of self-education on powerful social tools that have a lot of potential to be very important to business and marketing in the future.

Actually, video games are a very good example to present this alternative point of view. The video game industry is bigger than Hollywood. It's not only not rare, but not even particularly uncommon to hear that someone who spent years immersed with video games getting a lucrative job in the industry as a writer, designer or producer. In other words, social media is not a 'waste of time.' Sure, if you view it as a learning course, it would definitely be self-paced. But the skills learned are ultimately beneficial.

Make It Personal

So, you have said your schtick. Your friends see you in a new light. At this point, you can't go back to treating them the way you did before, in the dark until you talk to them on the phone or in person. Now, you need to show them that you have mastered using these tools to improve or at least maintain your business relationships. Here are some things you can do to get them drawn in to the social media framework:

• Send them interesting news clippings via e-mail from Google Reader or BlogLines. Or use another tool that lets you e-mail web pages, like Diigo.
• Bookmark good Twitter or FriendFeed conversations and e-mail those with your thoughts.
• In person, always be thinking of ways you can point people to solutions using social media. Like the realtor suggestion above.
• Make sure you have a lifestream page. Try to pare down the nonessentials so that it just shows the highlights of your work during the day, and some linked pages where they can go to get more information.

There is one more step you can do to make this process personal: You can involve your social media friends into your life. Think of meetup ideas (for Twitter folks, use 'tweetup'): Sunday breakfast. Thursday evening coffee. Get local.. find twitterers in your city. Find or plan get-togethers with locals who are also social media savvy and compare notes. Bring a friend along.

The bottom line is that people are people. They like to be introduced to each other, usually, but they find it hard to make these connections themselves. Become a connector. Social media is all about making you the connector, and you will reap the benefits.

Read more by Phil Glockner at Scribkin.com.

Be a Real Friend to Your Social Networking "Friends"

Not every single contact you make online is somebody you would want to spend time with in real life. While you might be following thousands of people and making new "friends" on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed and all the other networks, you would likely hesitate before sending them an open invitation to your home. But I've personally seen many examples of people I've known online crossing the chasm and operating in the world once reserved for classmates, colleagues, fellow church members and family. What might have started out as a casual acquaintance, or connection through similar interests can easily transform to one where you can connect in a more personal way.

The debate of labeling such a contact a "friend" is not new. Mark Dykeman, in a post on Mashable, asked in September, Is a Social Media Friend Really a Friend?, asking, "Would you trust a social media friend with your money? Your home? Your significant other? Your children? Your life?"

The answer of course is not uniform. Each example listed above has a certain weight of importance, and implied risk. But even if you don't want to casually hand your keys and credit cards over to somebody you have been throwing sheep at on Facebook for two weeks doesn't mean you can't find real connections with people who will help you out.

A few examples:

1. Would you invite a friend you met online to "crash" at your place for a few nights instead of finding a hotel?
2. Would you refer a friend you met online to a job position you found, and introduce them as a trusted candidate?
3. Would you purchase a product and ship it to an online friend in another state without getting paid up front?
4. Would you pay the phone/Internet/electrical bill for an online friend who you knew was short on cash?
5. Would you split a hotel room with an online friend at a conference even if you'd never met?

I use these examples because they are all things I've either done or had done by friends of mine online.

For example, although I had looked high and low for a Nintendo Wii Fit throughout the Bay Area, and on Amazon.com, I had no success in finding one. (See my complaining on FriendFeed) But Jesse Stay, who has been a blogger here over the last two months, and someone I got to know on multiple social networks, let me know his mother has a knack for tracking down the evasive products. Sure enough, on Halloween day, a box came to my office, containing the Wii Fit, and displaying the address of Mrs. Stay, from Massachusetts. My wife and I are now amusing ourselves in acting like we're going to use the Fit to pursue something resembling an exercise program.

In the age of PayPal, pushing money around also has become easier, assuming you have it. If you watch people's comments on Twitter and other networks closely enough, you can sense stress, or, when there are gaps, know if something has impacted their usual schedule. Sometimes, it's a money issue, and reaching out via PayPal, or making a call to the utility that's getting in their way can give them the breathing room to keep going as they were before. I'm not suggesting you start playing charity and laying out thousands of dollars, but in the time where you can lend a helping hand, we've reached the point where online acquaintances are just as deserving as those offline. And if you ask them to pay you back is of course up to you.

Similarly, way back in 2001 a friend I knew from an Apple online stock board said he wanted to fly out to see the MacWorld Expo, but he didn't have a place to stay. Having never met him, I offered my apartment for three nights, and he and I took off to see Steve Jobs in person. I also shared a room at the recent BlogWorld Expo with someone I'd never met.

Why so trusting? A few things. First, I believe people are inherently good, and I've chosen to interact with good people online, who share ideas, are trustworthy and positive to be around. Robert Scoble says "you are defined by who you follow" and if I were following people online that I wouldn't be friends with in the real world, then that is my mistake. You also, thanks to the ease of publishing and dissemination of opinion, have the option of publicly embarrassing or outing an individual who has wronged you, so the incentive to do well and act within accepted guidelines is strong.

Of course, not every friend is equal. Just because almost 2,600 people have chosen to follow my account on Twitter doesn't mean that I am going to give them cash and a place to stay. But for those who I have had many interactions with over time in multiple networks, and traded e-mail or phone calls with, I know I am building relationships that have a potential to transition to real world. That's why I know at some point, I am going to take my wife out and let Drew Olanoff babysit my twins, why I bet my kids will be having playdates with Milan Scoble and Thomas Buchheit, and why I've tried to help find new careers for many people whose blogs I read and whose work I follow. These investments I'm making now are going to be paying off, and I encourage you to take a look at your own online "friends" and see if you too can be a real-world friend to them.

Starts With B, Ends With N: Six Letters.

If confronted with this empty space in your crossword puzzle, there are undoubtedly a wide array of solutions. But two featured prominently for me yesterday: Boston and Brogan. On the East Coast for a business trip, I notified my Twitter stalkers followers I was flying out Tuesday, and I got a somewhat in jest reply from social networking maven Chris Brogan and Boston area native, who wrote, "What's the plan?"

After connecting with him via e-mail and phone, I got the opportunity to bring Chris and a few friends to last night's Boston Celtics game, where they beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers by the score of 92-87, in a game that didn't seem all that close.

Though there was a game on, I got the opportunity to learn a lot about what makes Chris tick, what applications and Web services he's most jazzed about, and, continuing on this week's theme, evangelizing FriendFeed, which he joined last night. It was a pleasure getting to know Chris, sharing stories, and personally connecting with someone I already respected online. I believe when these opportunities present themselves, we should take advantage of them, so I appreciate Chris' taking time out of his busy schedule on short notice.

This open offer doesn't just stand for Chris. If you're out of town and visiting the Bay Area, or you find out I'll be in your area, please do contact me and let's see what we can do!

As Google Relents, Spokeo Holds Tight to Auto-Friending

While Google Reader noisily backed off yesterday, stemming the tide of privacy complaints, other services, like Spokeo, are not changing their policies of automatically linking friends' data from one service to another.

In a post called, "Why we don’t require friend requests", Harrison, an occasional commenter on this blog, says that while some are uncomfortable with the idea their activities on one site will be shared with friends on another site, the service is simply utilizing public content, and as you don't need to ask permission to subscribe to somebody's RSS feed reader, you shouldn't have to ask permission to view their public Flickr photos, view their public Amazon Wish List, or view their public ratings of songs on Pandora, for example.

(See earlier coverage: Spokeo Upgrades RSS and Friend Tracker, Invites Available and PlugandPlay Expo Highlight: Spokeo)

New services like Spokeo thrive on transparency. If I have a friend on MySpace or Friendster, Spokeo will crawl popular services and find if I can get updates from their blogs or other activity. This can be done without the knowledge of the person being crawled, which is why I've heard other people refer to the company as "Spook-eo", remarking how spooky it is they can dredge up things you thought you had hidden away.

But Harrison brings up another great point, saying "We don't want to bother your friends."

I've complained ad nauseum about the stupid requests we get every day from applications my friends install on Facebook, or the countless e-mails from services I won't use, like Plaxo and Shelfari. If Spokeo sent out an e-mail to each friend to ask for permission to access each service, it'd be a nightmare.

It all comes back to the same issue, essentially, which we covered yesterday. If you have activity on the Web which is tied back to a single e-mail address or identity, it is public. That can range from posts on message boards years ago, to Google Reader shared items, to your del.icio.us bookmarks. There's no question I've probably said some silly things out there in the past I'd like erased, but we will live by transparency and die by it. I'm glad Spokeo isn't wussing out and changing its policy.

This "Hack" Has Two Meanings

In our tech-centered Web world, a hack is usually a bad thing - bringing up images of shadowed evil-doers aiming to break into computers or networks, looking to gain access to things not theirs, or instead, a hack is sometimes seen as a quick and dirty version or update to software - and not a good one at that. But in the world of media and reporting, a hack can instead mean "one who works hard at boring tasks" or "a mediocre and disdained writer" (Source: thefreedictionary.com).

My old editor in chief from days at the Daily Cal in Berkeley, Ryan Tate, has started up a new blog called "The Hack", self-described as "a journalist with delusions of computer science." While the blog's just getting off the ground, Ryan's already posted a few stories of note, including a get rich quick scheme building off my idea of converting .PST files to GMail-compatible mailboxes, a new killer feature for RSS feeds, and 7 suggestions to improve Google Docs.

While he and I overlapped terms at the Daily Cal, from 1996 to 1998, Ryan and I tag-teamed on some of the earliest editions of the newspaper's Web site, saw the paper and its reporters (including the two of us) repeatedly recognized in state-wide competitions, and occasionally clashed politically, as two aggressive, opinionated people working closely together will do. Now that time has healed those wounds, we're both vocally rooting each other on from the sidelines, and I hope this self-proclaimed "hack" keeps his blog on course.

Check it out at http://thehack.webmasher.com/.

Simpsons Movie: Woohoo! D'oh! Woohoo!

Saturday was a day I'd yearned for in excess of a decade and a half. After years and years of speculation and hope, I finally had the chance to enter a movie theater and see The Simpsons Movie. Nearly 90 minutes of The Simpsons in all their yellow, dysfunctional glory, without commercial breaks and much, much larger than ever before. I also was lucky enough to see the show with some of my closest friends and my wife.

As any good diehard will tell you, The Simpsons Movie wasn't perfect. There's no way that a single film can meet all the built-up hopes and expectations we had. There's no way that 87 minutes can provide the show's fans enough time to see all the minor characters we wanted. And for every laugh we had during the film, and there were many, we could find issues we would have improved were we running the show.

The show itself was divided into three parts. Simplified for spoiler avoidance, you had: Crisis, Escape and Resolution. The escape had the Simpsons headed to Alaska, away from Springfield, where all the fun is. The escapade to the great white north took the Simpson family out of their element, away from the hilarity of people who were greatly neglected in the film, like Apu, Patty and Selma, Groundskeeper Willy, and even usually non-funny folks like Principal Skinner, Gil the salesman, and the acne-ridden teenager whose voice is constantly breaking.

What I loved about the movie was that it started immediately and kept going at a quick pace. Without the usual buildup you see, even in the 30-minute weeklies, with delayed on-screen credits, the movie jumped into its element immediately, and one scene led to another. I loved the fact Bart and Homer continued their efforts to be the worst father-son combo of all time, and that the writers could take liberties with the content that aren't available on network television.

What I didn't like about the movie was the introduction of new characters, as in a series so rich as The Simpsons, there's really no need to add more to the mix and introduce their background. This also squeezed out some of the much-desired peripheral people. I also didn't like the utter non-believability of some parts. As dumb as that may sound, The Simpsons are largely funny because their antics could theoretically happen, as they reflect a certain element of our society. When they cross from potential reality to obvious supernatural, I'm annoyed. And the worst part? It was done all too soon. If Pirates of the Carribean and Dances with Wolves can touch the 3 hour mark, The Simpsons on the big screen deserved much more than just under 90 minutes. By the time the credits rolled, I wasn't ready to leave. Maggie's call for a sequel didn't fulfill my needs.

I didn't mind the story elements. Lisa is obviously a preachy environmentalist. Homer is clearly a misguided would-be do-gooder with negative results. The Flanders are still goody two-shoes. There were tips and nods to previous episodes for us die-hards. And trust me, I laughed - not as much as I did during the South Park movie a few years ago, but enough that I was happy I went.

Also - on the way home, Kristine and I stopped by the Kwik-E-Mart in Mountain View, in reality a converted 7-Eleven franchisee. While that was wonderfully amusing, it only struck home how we actually never saw the inside of the Kwik-E-Mart in the film. Seemed like a lost opportunity.

All in all, a great day. Great friends. Good fun. The completion of a much-anticipated dream, but one that left me wanting more. I may never be satisfied.

YouTube Debut of Ash Steffy: New Tenant

One of my best friends from high school, Ash Steffy, attended UCLA, pursued post-graduate study at the Art Center in Pasadena, and continues to follow his dreams as an aspiring film director in Hollywood. After much prodding by me, his much-anticipated short film debut has hit YouTube, in the form of "New Tenant", which covers a working stiff's efforts to pursue a 9 to 5 living, only to see one morning go hilariously awry. I hope you like it. Be sure to share with those you know would also enjoy it.

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZg0ErXRMTE

An All-Star Experience, Plus 37 Bucks

After leaving the office this evening, I didn't head straight home. Instead, I drove to my father-in-law's, where we continued a growing tradition of taking in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and enjoying a little wager between the two of us on a number of mundane elements in the game itself, such as who would hit the first double, whether the first pitch of the game was a ball or strike, and of course, which team, American or National, would emerge victorious.

Though he and I are separated by fifty years, both Ed and I share a passion for sports and competition. While I may be content to take in the events for what they are, he enjoys a side bet as much as the actual contest, placing $5 in each category, just like we do each year for the Super Bowl, or even when we play cards, where we can sometimes be seen taking on Hearts or Cribbage for a nickel a point. This evening, I drove to his place, dropped off my laptop bag, avoiding the Web and office demands for a few hours, we made our selections, and let the drama unfold on the TV screen before us.

As Ichiro Suzuki hit the first inside the park home run in All-Star game history, as the hits racked up, and the American League pushed toward victory, I sat, pen in hand, marking which of us had won each category, seeing whether the total hits broke 12 1/2, or if all runs plus hits plus errors in the game would exceed 21 1/2. Though it was just the two of us playing in a friendly wager, you' have thought you'd entered the sports book in Vegas, for how seriously we took each at-bat.

When all was said and done, the American League had won, 5-4, their 10th straight victory in the annual series, much to my delight. My father-in-law was pleased I'd spent the evening with him, and I was happy to see that for once, I had won the bet. After too many events that have seen me paying him for the privilege of competing, today, we emptied out his wallet to the tune of $37. Can you think of another friend who pays better than this one does?

Going Into a Food Coma

Dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse is an undertaking, one that requires planning, pace and time. Tonight, in celebration of a friend's birthday, my wife and I headed to San Francisco to pad our waistlines and empty our wallets. Both were accomplished.

Ruth's Chris aims not to skimp on quality, atmosphere or portions. A typical meal consists of a 24 ounce steak for more than $40, plenty of side dishes, salad, bread and all the soda, water or wine you can drink, depending on preference. And if you miss dessert, that's a mistake. While grabbing cheesecake or ice cream can set you back another $10, it's absolutely essential.

I first visited a Ruth's Chris in Manhattan, and while I expected the West Coast restaurant to be lower in stature, tonight's dinner was just as filling. I'm sure I'll be avoiding the scales for at least a week, and I just might go easier on the ballpark food the next time we are in Oakland. Maybe.

For the five of us, even without alcohol, our bill, following dinner, sides, and dessert, came to almost $450. The tip added $100 more. But when it comes to a good steak, you shouldn't compromise. Expect to eat well, have a great time, don't be rushed, and enjoy the experience. I expect we just might be back on some near future occasion, ready to focus on the food.

Amateur Bloggers: Friends Give It A Try

Well below the upper crust of bloggers and outside the walled gardens of MySpace and Facebook, there are millions of smaller bloggers who use their blogs not to break news, or count RSS feeds, but instead, to chronicle their lives and offer amusing anecdotes.

While my Web intake is dominated by those discussing technology, politics and sports, there are a few friends who I've enjoyed seeing crop up. Some, I knew offline well before they went online. A pair here are keeping the personal home page alive whom I've never met but feel I know well.

Today, we share half a dozen in no particular order...

Tony Chung at http://www.geekwhat.com/
Main Topics: Music, Apple, Movies and What to do After College?
Can't Miss Post: 12:59AM, Reflection on College

Jonathan Crawford at http://web.mac.com/crawfordblog
Main Topics: Life In Israel, Baby Number Two on the Way
Can't Miss Post: Israeli Independence Day

Nicole Johnson at http://s490.blogspot.com/
Main Topics: East Bay Living, Camping, and Bad Nutrional Tips
Can't Miss Post: Stupid Hippie Company

Jeff Narduzzi at http://jeffanddarcy.blogspot.com/
Main Topics: Sports, Travel, Movies and Friends
Can't Miss Post: Bosco Heads to Santa Rosa for the Long Weekend

Farrah Walker at http://farrahspot.blogspot.com/
Main Topics: Men, Dating, Media and Celebrity
Can't Miss Post: Speaking of Betrayals

Bonnie Wren at http://bonniewren.com/
Main Topics: Games, Family, and Her Bulldog
Can't Miss Post: When Sitting Goes Wrong

My hat off to each of the above for sharing their lives with us and staying interesting enough to keep watching. More to come soon.

Our Dog, Molly, Seems to be Doing Much Better

A little over a week ago, we had a mini-crisis here at home, when it looked like our 17-year-old beagle had undergone a major hit to her equilibrium. We were very concerned it would be something she wouldn't recover from, and could signal the beginning of the end for a dog who has stuck around for more than her fair share of time. But after a few vet visits, a battery of pills and ear drops, she's walking straight, sleeping through the night and keeping food down, so it looks as if the worst is over.


Molly relaxing this evening on the loveseat.
(Ignore the red-eye from the camera flash)
The veterinarian crew accurately surmised Molly was the victim of canine vestibular disease, further complicated by a pair of ear infections, and later, an irritated colon, which had emerged after she was unable to keep down her dinner too many times. Interestingly, instead of fancy animal-only drugs, Molly was prescribed more run of the mill prescriptions, including Benadryl, to calm her down, and Pepcid AC, to help her stomach problems.

As we've undergone this battle, it's been amazing to see how my first post on the subject reached far further than I had expected. Kent Newsome of Newsome.org noted the story, and remembered his family's loss of an 18-year old cat in 2003. But even more amazingly, Molly's story touched the hearts of beagle owners throughout the US, and likely abroad, when her story reached a BeagleWorld e-mail list, powered by Yahoo! Groups, sending many dog-lovers to our site.

One reader wrote, "The story about Molly is so sad." Another, "17 years though, going on 18....wow. I cried when I read it." and "It's funny as they turn to be seniors, they all look alike with their white faces and soulful eyes."

I didn't mean to send complete strangers to tears with our story. And those who were made sad by our first message should be relieved to know we're near a full turn-around for this beagle that just simply won't give up.

Molly the Beagle Sticking Around, But Remains Dizzy

Our 17-plus year-old beagle didn't think it was time to check out after all. Though all the symptoms we saw yesterday left us concerned she had possibly suffered a debilitating, possibly terminal, stroke, seizure or cranial bleed, a visit to the vet determined she has an inner ear problem that, with medication, can be solved in a week or so.

Neurological tests showed that Molly has "Canine idiopathic vestibular disease", often known as "old dog vestibular disease", for obvious reasons, though she might get ticked if she found out you thought she was in her declining years. Our veterinarian kept Molly on site through the day, reporting she was "doing very well", was cooperative and quiet, arguably the best patient they had.

Quick Googling on Canine idiopathic vestibular disease turned up some promising data, which says we can expect improvement in 72 hours, and full normalcy within 7-14 days.

I picked Molly up around 5:30, paid the bill, in the $200+ range, and took her home in time for her to get dinner, and a new treat, Benadryl, which has already got her extremely relaxed, catching a nap on our loveseat, covered in an Oakland A's blanket. Kristine and I will also team up to administer ear medicine for the next two weeks to help nurse Molly back to health.

After yesterday's scare, we know this dog isn't going to be around forever, but she looks like she'll stick this out and wait until the next crisis.

Our 17-Year-Old Beagle Is Slowing Down

My wife has had our beagle, Molly, in her life more than twice as long as she has had me, after picking up the then 5-year-old hound more than 12 years ago from the pound. Know that line about "love me, love my dog"? Well, it's true. That the dog and I hit it off right away and that Molly was sure about me, likely even before Kristine was, made our dating life and eventual proposal that much more likely to work out, and it did.

But in the five or so years I've known Molly, she's gone from a 12-year-old dog who chased me around the house to the point of her tongue hanging out, and sitting on her hind legs to beg for scraps from the table, to a much more docile hound who sleeps a likely 20 hours a day, is losing her eyesight and hearing, and needs to use a short set of stairs to climb to our bed. And you can forget about sitting on her hind legs or jumping for anything. Those times are long gone.

While much of her aging process, all the way into her 18th year, has been gradual, tonight I came home to see a remarkable change, one that could, sadly, be spelling out the beginning of the end. Something had happened to Molly that has impacted her equilibrium in a serious way, making her disoriented, and frankly, messy, as she can't make her way out to the balcony when necessary... Her eyes are repeatedly twitching, and her head and neck roll back and forth when she sits. Instead of walking straight, with her familiar limp, she meanders about and seems unable to get her bearing.

The good news is she doesn't look to be in pain in any way. Like any good scent-oriented beagle, she hasn't turned down food, though it took her a few tries to get through her dinner. She sniffed her way to a Milk bone dog biscuit I had held in front of her, but her approach was almost drunken in nature. She looks to my wife and me for attention and still wants to jump onto our couch and be next to us.

Since my wife and I were married, we have put some good money into this dog, to remove a toe one year that had become infected, to fix various moles and tumors, and to keep her in strong shape. Others are continually amazed at Molly's heartiness at 17, as it seems she is indestructible, but today, it looks like the wheels are getting wobbly and just might fall off. If they do, and when they do, it will be devastating, leaving our house just that much more empty. We know the end will some day come, but until today, we thought we had more time.


Other Molly-related posts:
Molly the Beagle Sleeping on The Job
Are the Beagle and the Roomba Conspiring?

Baseball Themed Belated Birthday Bash

With most families seeing April 8 as Easter Sunday this year, and my work-related travels taking me to San Diego this most recent week, today is the day my wife and I set aside to invite friends to our home for an Oakland A's themed birthday extravaganza. Now, with a few dozen expected to arrive in just over an hour, our house is decked out with all things baseball, the colors green and gold most heavily featured, of course.

We have the A's vs. the Rangers playing on both TVs, in the living room and bedroom, a baseball themed birthday cake, green and gold napkins and plates, ballpark food, including polish dogs, peanuts, jelly beans and Skittles (green and yellow hand selected). We have all matter of A's paraphernalia out, from team blankets to pot holders and bobbleheads. Should be a fun time.

I don't typically make a lot of noise around holidays and birthdays, especially my own, but the friends are arriving from all over. From the East Bay and the Peninsula, to lifelong pals driving up from the Los Angeles area, just for the event. As I told nearby neighbors, you will know the party is a success by what time the cops are called. But I was kidding. Or was I? You'll have to wait and see.

In Chico for Friends' 30th Birthday Bash

It's hard to believe I'm rapidly approaching the age of 30. It wasn't that long ago that being 30 represented the onset of being a mature adult leaning more toward middle age than being a kid. Now that we're only two months away, the date being April 8th to be precise, from changing my first digit from a 2 to a 3, we're changing our tune. 30 isn't that old. While turning 30 may be too old to start off a career in major league baseball, and while I won't set any records for young entrepreneurialship, there's plenty more to do, and I think we've done alright so far.

That said, I get to see my two best friends from high school reach 30 tomorrow, in what will be a dry run for me. My friends, who I've been close to for half our lives, since bonding together in 9th grade geekiness, are twins who are just 7 minutes apart. They turned 1 together, 10 together, 20 together, and now, 30. Today, my wife and I drove up 200+ miles or so through Northern California, to Chico, where we had gone to high school, and where their family and many friends still live. While the three of us have gone on to our own jobs and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles area, some feel much more comfortable in the smaller, slower, Chico - and could be here forever.

Living in fast-paced Silicon Valley might make me look down on the small town routine, but in an odd twist, the hotel we're staying at actually has free highest-speed wireless access (a must for me), meaning I have better Web speeds here, for free, than I did for $14.95 a night in New York last week. Odd how that is. We'll take it and won't complain. In minutes, though, we'll shut the lid on the laptop and join the real world, one of hugs and handshakes and hellos, with pizza and diet Coke galore. That'll be worth today's drive, as you can't replace a lifetime friendship with anonymous hits on a blog.