Tomorrow is D-Day for my new company. One of my two partners is going to a meeting that will determine the final fate of our first license. We have sunk a lot of time, love and money into devoloping these first products, and hopefully they will give the thumbs-up to everything.
Talk about nerve racking though. I have 110% trust in this partner of mine and his abilities, but it feels awfully weird to have a meeting happening that will effect your life like this, and you aren’t even going to be there!
Wow, this is exciting. Apparently all of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s notes from their Watergate stories are going on display to the public for the first time to the public. (sans the identity of Deep Throat of course)
As some of you know, I did spend some time as a magazine writer. Now mind you, I have *no* dellusions that my pieces were nothing more than fluff, but I loved it. I always wanted to get into more serious journalism, but it just never came to be. I think though that anyone that has done any form of journalism has thought about what Woodward and Bernstein did.
I don’t know how many times I have watched All The Presidents Men, but it never gets old. The idea that reporters, not even out of their 20’s, could bring down the most important man in the free world is just mind boggling. The idea they did it with nothing more than typewriters….wow.
This exhibit should be a mandatory visit for all future journalists.
Still being sick (which is getting really old, really fast) has made me contemplate the nature of sleep. Dictionary.com defines sleep as:
A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming.
It just seems weird to me that the act of “sleeping”, or “lying still”, causes are body to do anything. The fact that sleep supposedly makes you heal faster. Why? Because I am lying still? Because I have cut off “outside stimuli”?
I mean I know it works, but why does it work? What is is about closing your eyes, and essentially shutting down your brain, makes your body go “Oh, this feels good and I shall now work on fixing your body for you.”
I almost forgot to mention this. Last week when I talked about the first episode of The Apprentice 3, I mentioned specifically the loud Street Smart member Brian. Well, big suprise, he got himself made into Project Manager for this weeks project and promptly demonstrated he had NO smarts and got himself fired.
The task was to renovate a hotel as much as possible in 2 days with $20,000, take care of incoming guests and the team with the highest satifcation score would win. Brian’s biggest mistake? He didn’t have a budget set yet and he tosses out $700 on a dumpster crew. Not bright. Next mistake…buying 14 brand new toilets when only a few needed replacing. Lack of leadership skills were also painfully obvious. All in all it was just a disaster of a task.
It’s funny, you never really think about someone until they are gone. Johnny Carson did such a good job of falling out of the public eye after he left The Tonight Show, that you just didn?t think about him that often. Sure you would hear a tidbit here or there, and every time I did, it would make me smile a little remembering all his shows, but it just wasn?t a constant thought.
When I first heard the news on Sunday I just got a general feeling of ?Ah, that?s too bad?, but the more I thought about it, the more I remembered about him. The more I remembered, the more I realized we truly had lost a comic great.
You think back to all the comedians who got their big break on his show (Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey, Rosanne, Ellen Degeneres to name just a few), and you realize that his influence has crept into your life in a number of little ways.
Every week night, at 11:30 PM EST, he was there, in some way, for 30 years. He became like the friend who just was always a channel click away. You didn?t think about him that much, but late at night you could look at the TV and go ?Oh, hi there Johnny.?
There?s really not a whole lot I can say that people far more talented than I have already said. I can say I am sorry there are millions of people alive today who never saw even one episode. I hope that someday his family will see fit to letting someone run the old shows. I understand they want to control his image, but it almost seems unfair that so many people should not know the joy and amusement he brought so many of us. There is a setout with some bits, and while it is not perfect, it is better than nothing.
And on a side note, every talk show host should be required to sit down and watch numerous episodes before they even speak one word on the air. Even on his worst nights, he was the greatest of them all.
*gah* I have to much to do today to write the actual entry I want to write. It has to do with the premiere of The Apprentice 3 last night, so I will save it for tomorrow. Suffice to say it has to do with the High School Grad Vs. College Grad angle.
In the meantime you can check out this news story that gave me a chuckle today. Seems an 84 year old man instructed his son to slam the NHL lockout in his obituary. Quite the amusing concept.
It’s been one of THOSE nights. Good news peppered with horrible bews. All of it relates to my new company, so none of it I can discuss sadly. The good news came out of someone famous’ birthday party last night that one of my partners went to. The bad news came from one of our first associates doing design work for us.
Man I wish I could spill my guts, but I just can’t. Suffice it to say that I want to walk outside right now and scream.
Most years I have a heck of a time getting into the Christmas spirit. It isn’t from a lack of wanting to, it just seems to not always come that easily. I think alot of times it has to do with my let down of the amount of build up for just one lone day. Maybe if it was multiple days I would get more into it, but when it is just one day it is difficult to get all gung-ho over it.
Something different happened this year though, and I am not sure what caused it. For some reason, instead of my normal apathy, I was struck by an overabundance of Christmas Spirit. Here it is, January 15th and I still have all my indoor Xmas decorations up. Not only that, but I am still turning the lights on every single night! Like I said, I have no idea what caused this, but I guess there could be worse things in the world!
Secondly, now I have a fresh problem. There have been WAY to many things to write about that I keep getting delayed while thinking about which items I should write about.
