Alan Shimel, the Chief Strategy Office at StillSecure, is podcasting up a storm.  Alan’s up to podcast #6 and giving my friend Scott Converse and his ClickCaster podcasting service a good workout.  If you are into security software, want to listen to a lively debate, get nostalgic for Long Island by hearing Alan’s accent, or even hear music from the CTO of StillSecure Mitchell Asley, tune in.  Seriously – great stuff Alan.

Do you remember the Banana Junior 6000?  Someone actually built one.  “Good Morning, Mr. President.  Shall we dust Moscow?” I wonder how many times it needs to restart itself to update the OS?  Thanks Will (via Dave) – you made my day.

Brian Kellner has started a blog called Grillin’ in the Storm.  The subtitle – thoughts on agile software product management – sets the tone.  I’ve known Brian for almost 20 years (we were fraternity brothers – I think I was his pledge trainer but I’ve gotten old enough that I can’t remember any more.)  He moved to Colorado about five years ago and has worked at several software companies (including – but not limited to – several that I have been an investor in) before ending up at NewsGator.

I’ve loved working with Brian – he has the rare ability to synthesize user needs into a language that developers can understand.  As an MIT grad, he can hold his own technically with basically anyone.  And – he can write (boy, can he write.) 

If you are involved in developing software for a living, I expect Brian will have plenty of things to say that you’ll find interesting.

I’ve been enjoying my 18 year-old friend Ben Casnocha’s blog about his travels around the world.  I’ve also recently begun reading my Alaska neighbor Jessica Schallock’s blog.  Jessica – like Ben – is a remarkably articulate teenager.  Unlike a lot of other mediums in which I’ve watched teenagers write (such as MySpace), I’ve been delighted to see the thoughtful essays that Ben and Jessica are posting.

Amy and I have been strong supporters of the expansion to the Denver Art Museum (the Hamilton Building.)  I think Daniel Libeskind has designed an awesome building, Lewis Sharp (the director of the Denver Art Museum) has shown incredible vision and leadership, the team at the Denver Art Museum has done an unbelievable job, and the extended Denver community is in for a real treat when it opens on October 7th.

I’ve been on the technology advisory board with Ron Cooper, the COO at Adelphia.  Bruce Wyman, (DAM’s director of new technologies) and Timothy Standring (DAM’s deputy director) hosted a private tour of the museum for me, Ron, Ron’s wife Beth, and my wife Amy last Friday as a “thank you” for our help and involvement.  While the project has a way to go before it’s finished, what we saw was amazing.

The building is remarkable.  There is an extensive web site talking about all aspects of it – following is my lame attempt at an interesting photo.

We saw a few galleries that had been installed.  The inside of the building is as innovative as the outside.  The exhibit space is tremendous, and the collections are really powerful.

Dinner afterwards at Barolo Grill was superb.  Thanks Bruce and Timothy for a great evening – I’m extremely excited about the coming new addition to the Denver arts and culture scene.

I’m looking for recommendations for headphones for running.  I’ve been using some from Sony for a while – they are ok, but I’m having some trouble with how the right one fits (I guess my ears are different sizes – how exciting.)

If you have any suggestions for sport headphones, can you leave comments here?

I’m two degrees of separation away from two people that died tragically yesterday.  I’ve been thinking about it on and off all day.  Both were friends of very close friends of mine.  One died in a plane crash – he was in the prime of life, a huge success, and apparently a very happy person.  He was flying his new plane with an instructor – they crashed and both died.  The other was a young mother who was out for a bike ride with her daughter.  A truck lost control and ran her over.  I’m not sure what happened to the daughter.

The cliche “every moment is precious” has rung true for me all day long.  I’m going to go hit the trail and enjoy a run in the mountains and then spend a nice quiet evening at home with Amy and Stephanie Plum.

Our good friend Mollie Fager (the executive director of The Dairy Center for the Arts) has a great rant up on the New West Network blog on “why opera rules” titled Opera: It’s Not for Wusses.  In my endless effort to avoid wussness, I’m a believer.

Ryan McIntyre pointed me at a car that gets 3.14k miles per gallon.  Now, if it only ran on pi.