No – I’m not talking about being excellent at rugby; I’m referring to one of the Agile software development approaches. Scrum is becoming extremely popular among developers that are adopting Agile approaches. One of my portfolio companies – Rally Software – has started teaching Certified ScrumMaster classes and recently had a glowing review in Software Development Magazine. The article summarizes things well. Although the ScrumMaster training class is put on by an agile software tools vendor, it is definitely not a thinly disguised sales pitch. The Rally tools weren’t mentioned until a class member asked about them. All in all, if you’re looking to quickly become a Certified ScrumMaster (a resume enhancer for sure), this hands-on class will get you going from 0 to 60 in two days flat.

We fund plenty of things that are ahead of their time. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose. DoDots – a company started by John and George Kembal – was one of these that – unfortunately – turned into dust. But – a fun Internet bubble quote came out of it that even Timothy Leary would like – “Anything you can do on the Web, you can do on a Dot.” Plus, it was a hell of a lot easier to spell than Konfabulator. Oh well.

We did a brainjam at our office today with about 30 people. Five minute overviews of what you are up to (plenty of real time demos) and then active discussion. It was a fun and intellectually vigorous day – plenty of stuff you’d expect along with a couple of bizarrely intriguing things. Near then end of the brainjam, Jim Turner tossed up the site for his “business blogging conference cruise.” I hate boats so I won’t be joining him, but if you like cruising and blogging take a look.

Matt McCall – a partner at Portage Venture Partners in Chicago – has started a blog called VC Confidential. I’ve gotten to know Matt through my investment in FeedBurner – we both sit on the board and Matt and his partner Ed Chandler were the first investors in FeedBurner. If you are interested in VC bloggers, subscribe to Matt’s blog.

Once a year, the Feld men over 5 feet tall (me, my brother Daniel, my dad, my uncle Charlie, and my cousins Jon and Kenny) go away for the weekend and play. This year we went to Phoenix for spring training and I disconnected from email for the weekend. After a full day of meetings yesterday (classic VC Monday) and an evening of 24 (two full hours of Jack trying to save the world, more presidential screw ups, and a serious body count), I find myself finally caught up on email. In my inbox was a guest blog from Ross (my IT guy) ranting on about DRM and the Apple iTunes Movie Store. I love a good flame so I thought I’d share it with you. Here goes (lightly edited by me.)

Scott Maxwell – a partner at Insight Venture Partners – demonstrates his prowness with Ajax.

My fraternity brother Colin Angle – the CEO of iRobot (I was his pledge trainer – that’s my claim to fame) was on Cramer’s Mad Money yesterday. He did well – Cramer was subdued but happy. It was fun to watch a Roomba cleaning Cramer’s studio floor with some toy bulls on top of it. The new I Love Robots commercial is out (maybe it’s been out for a while and I just don’t watch enough TV.) It’s cute – my favorite quote from the commercial is “the Roomba is more intelligent than some people I know.” As the proud owner of three classic Roomba’s, one Scheduler Roomba, and a one Scooba I can comfortably say that I (and my dogs) love robots.

Amy gave me my March 1 gift today. We try to go out to dinner on the first day of the month and celebrate life (hence – “life dinner”) and often exchange gifts. The gifts I’ve received over the years range from the farcical (e.g. a remote control fart machine) to magnificent (e.g. beautiful pieces of art.) I won big with my gift today. Whenever we visit New York, we usually swing by Alaska on Madison and pick up some pieces for our Alaskan / Canadian Inuit and Yupik art collection. When we were in New York in November for the New York Marathon, Amy bought a bunch of stuff which she recently got around to unpacking. My gift – four extraordinary “Greenland Gremlins” – were sitting on my desk this morning.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know Ben Casnocha over the past few years. I think he’s a remarkable guy, I’ve learned a lot with him, and I always have fun interacting with him. Ben turned 18 years old today. Happy birthday Ben! The other day, I (along with some of Ben’s other friends) received the following request. On Wednesday I turn 18 years old. I’m writing to ask for a birthday present. Don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you anything. If you can spare a minute, answer the following question. I’m going to post some on my blog — which will be fun — so if you want to be anonymous let me know. Feel free to answer this on your own blog, if you have one and want to. When you were about 18, what did you do that you most regret and/or what did you *not* do that you most regret? A word, sentence, or paragraph will do. Gold stars for those who answer in haiku.