Bricks flew out of the most notorious of body cavities for traders on Wall Street today as the Dow recovered from a 440-point plummet to close down 45 (see story). Experts say that rollercoaster days like these mark the bottom of the market–I hope so. Although I am in no rush. The money I have left over from the dot-bomb is in a money market account and it’ll stay there until I see proof of a new bull market.

“Adventure, excitement? A Jedi craves not these things.”
– Silent Bob, Mallrats

I just realized that I only like to travel on vacation, but not for work. Today marks my second week in Temecula for work and it made me think of the days when traveling for work was fun (the first 50,000 miles or so). The days when the restaurants, hotels, and room service were way better than anything you could ever have at home.

But like everything else you cross a threshold in your life when the things in your home are better than at most hotels. Now that I just want to be home with the ones I love watching Tivo.

I started having some problems with my blogging software,Blogger, yesterday. So today I started using blogging software by Movable Type. The new software inlcludes a lot of nifty features, including the ability for visitors to join a notification list and also to enter their personal comments on my nuggets–enjoy.

Santiago and I played four games of basketball last night–well you could almost call it basketball. It was a pretty pathetic display since we are both not in really good shape right now. It was like an elementary school game–the gameplay not the energy. So today, even after that lame performance, I felt like I had gotten hit with a baseball bat. It is clear that the fourth and final game last night was completely unnecessary. But, nonetheless victory is sweet as I took the set 3 games to 1.

I was making travel reservations a couple of minutes ago and had a dot-com flashback. A dot-com flashback is much like suffering from a post traumatic stress disorder episode that some war veterans get–the cold sweats, elevated heart rate, disorientation, etc. If you worked at iMind you know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, I was remembering the madness. The fact that we had a dedicated travel staff person for a company of just over 60 people. However, in true iMind fashion, our travel person, Bobbi DiStefano (aka Bobbi Baffoonery), did not actually know how to make travel reservations. It was a crap shoot as to whether you would actually make it back from the trade shows. One day that motherf***er left me stranded in Palm Springs because the return flight was booked from the same airport as the departing flight. Bitch!

It’s good to know that those days are over and that I can now make travel reservations while maintaining my sanity. Bobbi, where ever you are, I am sure you are still a lamer.

But Temecula is hotter. I was very pleased to see some cloud cover this morning, which meant that the temperature was a cool 74F instead of 82F when I woke up.

Swingline Buckles Under Pressure
Have you ever seen the movie Office Space?

This movie barely made it’s money back at the box office but is a cult classic among programmers and IT folks everywhere. It is a hilarious film that you should see if you haven’t already. Anyway, in the movie there is a red stapler wielded by one of the office workers. After years of emails, phone calls, and letters, the Swingline is finally selling the red stapler depicted in the movie. See the WSJ article for more details–and see the movie.

My friend, Mark Asher, gave me grief for not updating the blog, but I’ve been REALLY busy at work. Anyway, here are a couple of entries to make up for lost time.

Blogger Meet in Eight Days
Just found out that there is an International Blog MEETUP Day scheduled for Thursday, July 18th. I am probably going to be in Temecula at the time but may check it out locally–they are out here too!

Dead at 25 (Rant)
What would cause a successful 25-year-old programming phenom to take his own life?

It may have to do with the fact that many kids, of all nationalities, but specifically Asian kids, are sheltered by their parents so much that they don’t develop social skills. As their lives become more stressful (i.e. jobs, bills, etc.) they are also pressured, by these same parents that stunted their social growth, to marry. They are pressured to learn social skills at a time in their lives when most people’s social groups and skills are well developed. It’s like sending someone to learn to swim in the high seas instead of a swimming pool.

The bottom line, parents should teach and enforce social behavior in kids at an early age or, at minimum, not stunt their children’s social development.

“Relationships don’t kill people–people with no relationships kill themselves.”

Melissa got a ticket today while parked in a legal spot. There were about four neighbors that came to the car’s defense and demanded to know why her car was being ticketed. The DPT guy said that he “didn’t want to ticket the car” but his supervisor said there was a complaint and it had to be ticketed. I believe that if people can get tickets within a legal spot it may offset the balance of peace within the city. We’ll see what happens in court–bastards!

Saw The Bourne Identity yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. The fact that an assassin is running from his employer, in this case the CIA, is nothing new. The twist to the story is that the guy doesn’t remember who he is. Matt Damon makes us believe that he truly doesn’t know what’s going on and that’s what gives the movie its most entertaining elements. As in every action film, there is a love interest that materializes out of thin air–but it’s an action movie–what did you expect. All in all it’s definitely worth seeing–four out of five stars.

This was the first 4th of July since 9/11. We took a nap in the afternoon and decided not to go see the fireworks downtown to avoid the big crowds and any possible extra explosions that may accompany the show, if you knwo what I mean. We stayed home, had fondue, and watched the fireworks on TV. Despite all of the hype on TV, we didn’t feel compelled to go out and celebrate this 4th of July in public, perhaps next year will be different. I’ll feel better once they find all of the other Al Qaeda members, or at least make it a little harder for them to enroll in flight school.

After watching E-Dreams a few weeks back, I thought I’d check out Startup.com. As interesting as this story was, it lacked the energy of E-Dream’s Kozmo.com story. Surprisingly, after govWorks filed for bankruptcy, the guys from Startup.com started another company to help dot-com’s deal with bankruptcy. That’s one smart way to make some money out of the dot-com bust.

“But, I have the Internet for daily news. I don’t need a TV.”

Maybe if you keep saying it over and over again you’ll believe it yourself. The truth is the Internet will not replace the TV anytime soon. After 9/11 for example, people flocked to TV to get the information about the event in graphic and shocking detail. It’s funny how the people that don’t have TV’s think that they don’t need it. But the truth is that deep down inside, when they are alone, and there is no one else around–they yearn for TV. This becomes painfully obvious when they visit their friends’ homes and feel the warmth of the remote on their frail and longing hands. They are so thrilled with the channels, the images, the sound that they sometimes drool and, inevitably, drop the remote.

Our society uses images and sound to communicate, and until there is another alternative, the TV is where it’s at.

I just read this article on a big explosion that happened on the Sun. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful day, really.