Geek->Human Translation

• New Theme
• No more Tags List on the side bar(too long based on my habit of one-off tags)
• Still need an “About me” section for the sidebar – maybe make a seperate page
• Limit to 5 articles on main page – use the archives to go further back
• need some new images for the top bar maybe

I’m certainly not the first person to write on this (see Blog Herald) but between Dan Shanoff’s Super Bowl Twitterage and the extraordinary coverage of Super Tuesday by @vote2008, @supertuesday and others, I got to thinking.

I know, dangerous stuff that thinking. But for a culture like ours which is constantly on the go, having updates sent to your phone via twitter means you never have to miss something big. Heck I even get Red Sox in game updates from a twitterer by the name of redsoxcast who hand enters updates for about 85% of the Red Sox games plus news as it happens.

Why wouldn’t we think of Twitter as an instant push RSS for news? NPR already has a twitter service, as does CNN and surely more will follow.

As Twitter grows, will this be the way we get all of our important news? If so I’ll have to definitely pay for the unlimited text message plan.

Until recently, say the last year or so, I avoided the news like the plague. Hated it. Wouldn’t do it. The most “news” like item I’d watch was Sportscenter.

Well that’s changed a bit, especially during the political sploogefest of the last month or so culminating with today’s Super Tuesday.

Maybe its being a parent, or just finally growing up a bit, but I realize that this stuff actually is kinda important to me now, and so I should probably pay attention. I never even voted in anything until 4 years ago in the presidential election (haven’t done it since – I would have today if I was allowed but I registered Independent so AZ won’t let me).

I would have voted today for Senator Obama. I find his ideas inspiring and his speeches fantastic. Is he perfect? Absolutely not. But he’s certainly better than what we have now in office and I think a fresh face without the years of Washington bitterness is what this country needs.

Yes We Can

In the past you’d never have seen me speak my political view so strongly (unless I was criticizing Bush), but I’m growing up some now, and maybe that means my voice counts too.

In order of preference: Obama, McCain, move to Canada (Ron Paul left out because there’s no real chance there).

For Christmas I received the best gifts of all, books and gift cards for books. I picked up copies of Freakonomics, A New Kind of Christian, and The Kite Runner, plus $50 in gift cards I've yet to turn into books.

I'm probably a couple of years behind the Freakonomics phenomenon, but there's something to be said for reading post-hype. Unlike with a fiction book there's no spoiling the big surprise ending (one reason I've not read any of the Harry Potter books yet). I can certainly see where the reviews and energy level about this book came from as I'm about half way through it thus far. Its an engaging read, written in a conversational tone, that I've found difficult to put down (Damn you having to have a job). From my sales background, this book is great when viewed through the lens of incentives. The book's whole focus is how people react to incentives, which is what sales is all about.

The defining factor for a book for me is would I reread this book and would I pick up something else by the author based only on the fact that he wrote it. Freakonomics passes both tests thus far, although I think I would have been somewhat disappointed to have read this during the huge hype phase.

In unrelated news, I'm going to be tweaking the design of the site in the coming days/weeks (as spare time exists)

2004 was for the generations who never saw the Red Sox win it all.

2007 is for us.

Go Red Sox. World Champions 2007