Barry Eisler is one of my favorite mental floss writers. Barry writes thrillers about a bad-ass named John Rain. Rain is half-Japanese, half American assassin who specializes in making his kills look like natural causes. Oh – and he’s good with the women.
His books, in order, are Rain Fall, Hard Rain, Rain Storm, Killing Rain, and (in June) The Last Assassin, Now, Barry has a blog called The Heart of The Matter. I no longer will have to wait a year to read the next batch of his prose.
I’m running the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17th. I’m much too slow a runner to qualify, so my friend Nick Grouf and his fiance Shana Eddy gave me a charity number for my 40th birthday. I’m running for The Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center, a remarkable home away from home for children and adults with disabilities that offers parents time off from the emotional and physical care needed by their children.
Amy and I are heading to Boston on Tuesday. I like to spend a week or so in the city where I’m running a marathon to get acclimated. We lived in Boston for 12 years, so we’ll see some friends, I’ll spend some time at MIT with Eric von Hippel on some open source / democratizing innovation stuff, meet with some colleagues, and have a few nice meals. As my friend Ilana, who is also running the marathon (for the American Liver Foundation) says – I’ll work to get my “marathon head” in the right place. Today was my last real run – before I headed out all I could think about was “my knee hurts, I feel fat, should I listen to music during the marathon, will the weather be good, …” By the end of my run I felt great and knew I was ready.
If you are in Boston watching the marathon, look for me – I’ll be the slow guy near the back of the pack wearing number 20778 (my goal is to finish while not coming in last.) If you are interested in supporting me, please cheer me on and/or make an online donation to The Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center.
A few weeks ago, I got a note from Kunal Anand that he was doing a project to create a visualization of my del.icio.us tags and their intersections. I gave Kunal my del.icio.us info and he sent me the following picture yesterday.
I asked him what it meant (besides being pretty) and this is what he said.
It looks like I’ve got a decent amount of intersections.
This morning, I noticed on Will Herman’s blog that on Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06 (at least in the US). I plan to be awake to see it. After three people sent me the same fact today (thanks!) I decided my obsession with numbers is starting to infect the universe (or maybe it’s the other way around.)
Adam Rubenstein – who writes a blog called Colorado Life Science Deal Flow – has started a guest blogger series to encourage some of his friends and collegues to dip their toes into the blogpond. His first guest is Harry Ross – a partner at Aweida Venture Partners which is just up the road from my office. Harry – c’mon in – the water is usually pretty warm (although it’s occassionally a little too hot.)
As I settle in for an hour wait before my plane at the San Jose Airport (the United Terminal really needs a paint job and a good vacuuming), I’ve been pondering the complete lack of electrical outlets. I can open up my laptop and immediately connect to the Internet (via my Verizon EVDO card – bypassing the nonsense of dealing with airport paid-WiFi). However, I’ve got to scrounge around find an electrical outlet.
Of course, I could just run off my batteries, but since I’m on a two hour flight to Denver, I’d rather make sure I have a full charge. Am I the only person that thinks it’s odd to be sitting in an airport full of an incredible amount of infrastructure, yet not be able to get electric juice?
I did find one – I’m the guy hunched over in the very corner next to the wall near the door at Gate C3B.
Following is an email I sent to Seth mid-afternoon.
I’ve heard this three times today. It’s got to be the current cliche. Gross.
I was referring to the phrase “technology companies are bought not sold.” This unquestionably belongs on Fred Wilson’s VC Cliche of the Week post. While Fred didn’t have a cliche post on it, he did have a post in early 2004 that linked to Ed Sim talking about it.
Now – there’s nothing wrong with the statement – it’s very relevant and often true. However, it’s starting to feel like an “honestly, to tell you the truth” type thing (whenever someone says this I immediately become suspicious.) When someone is trying to make a point, the tired old cliche that is being thrown around like a worn out tennis ball that my dogs have been chewing on doesn’t really do it for me.
Ah – snarkiness off. Time for bed.
Slate has an outstanding article on a great Powerade ad you won’t find on TV. The ad itself is worth looking at, but the story is even more interesting. Thanks to Matt Branaugh – the Business Editor at the Boulder Daily Camera (who is rapidly getting blogging religion) for pointing it out to me.
Sarah Arnquist just wrote an article for Gelf Magazine titled “Could a treadmill / desk mashup be the solution to America’s obesity problem?” She apparently stumbled up my Treadputer post and interviewed me for the article. Even though she quoted me as saying “As a venture capitalist, Feld sees a definite market for ‘treadputers,’” please don’t send me a business plan for one of these contraptions. However, if you can figure out how to make a portable one that I can travel with, give me a call, as I sure wished I had one with me today.