Feb 21, 2003

Why are these men screaming?

James Hong, of HotorNot fame came by for lunch at work the other day. He took a few pictures. They will probably keep me from running for public office one day. Damn.

posted by Jason at at 4:25 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 20, 2003

Possible new Blogger marketing campaign?

We have been getting an innordinate amount of email and suggestions about Blogger as of late. Maybe it's the New York Times article, maybe it's the BBC article, or the Reuters or AP articles. Hard to say. Either way we are getting all sorts of ideas and some of them may have legs such as this one submitted to Blogger support.

Hello Pyra Labs! I have an idea for you that I think you will enjoy. Did you ever see the freakishly amusing Ren & Stimpy cartoons on nickelodeon back in the day? Well, if you have, I ask for you to recall the spot on the show that showcased a toy for sale called 'Log, from Blam-O' If you know what I'm talking about, this idea will make you pee your pants, at least it made my friends pee their pants. So, here goes..

This could work as a TV commercial for when the time to advertise during the Super Bowl comes (yah right).. How about co-opting the old Ren and Stimpy log song for Blogger?

**Blog Song**

What rolls down stairs and stimulates hairs
then makes fun of your neighbor's dog
It's great for a snack and fits on your back,
It's Blog Blog Blog.

Bloooooog
Bloooooooog

It's not meant to be under-stood,
It's Blooog
Blooooooog
It's better than bad, it's good!
*************************

Tell me what you think..

Please go easy on this idea in the comments section. If you have no idea what the above gentleman is talking about here is a link to the original Log theme song in AU format or WAV format.

Apologies to Ren and Stimpy for the graphic blandishment above.

posted by Jason at at 4:58 PM | 1 Comments Links to this post

Feb 15, 2003

Months of hard work wrapped up in one little article

Well, looks like someone scooped us on our own story. Nice work Dan. More on this soon.

update: Some folks have speculated that from my post above that Dan Gillmor knew before I did. I was the Director of Business Development at Pyra/Blogger, I would be the worst biz dev guy ever if I didn't know I was helping sell our company. A funny scenario to imagine though.

posted by Jason at at 9:34 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 12, 2003

The Rundown

Ian welcomes the end of small talk and the rise of the 'rundown':

(She)..defines small talk as 'the conversation we're supposed to be having' and the rundown as 'the conversation we want to have.' She played a portion of a recorded rundown conversation in which she asked a ticket-taker at the movies what he had had for breakfast. From there she leapt to asking him if he was in love with his significant other, and how many virgins he had slept with. In about 60 seconds, this woman (she) came away with more information about a complete stranger than I know about many of my closest friends. It was inspiring.

The rundown might seem a bit nosy however, small talk, in most cases, is a poor excuse for 'adding humanity' to speaking with the phone company or a bank employee. Small talk, in essence, is a buffer from showing true emotion or stating your real feelings. I wonder what the balance between being polite and courteous and cutting to the chase will be?

posted by Jason at at 4:14 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 10, 2003

This perfect image for Fridays post

Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon giving the Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live February 8, 2003

Looks like SNL had the same idea. Plus they had a little dance to go along with it. I had no such dance. Happy Orange Alert!

posted by Jason at at 9:36 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 7, 2003

You know how some mornings

...you wake up and bite into your freshly purchased lemon bar and find... a hair. Well, I do. Yuck! Of course it's not nearly as bad as waking up to a raised threat level alert due to 'risks against soft targets'. Yay! I will now panic more specifically due to the heightened alert level.

Happy Orange Level Alert Day! Don't know what to do in our heightened alert level? You might want to read FEMA's 'Are you ready?' guide. FEMA has lovingly prepared a guide in Word format (only 483k), a guide in PDF format (over 10MB separated into 27 easy to download sections), and zero versions in easy to read HTML, to help prepare you and yours for Armageddon.

posted by Jason at at 11:46 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 6, 2003

Ah Rio...

This time last year, Ev and I took a covert trip to Rio to visit Globo.com to discuss what would eventually become Blogger.com.br. I've been meaning to put these pictures up for a while and exactly a year to the date, here they are. By all accounts, Blogger Brazil is a huge success. With all this talk of large media companies getting into the blogging business, let it be remembered that Globo were our pioneering partners.

posted by Jason at at 4:55 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post

Feb 1, 2003

'Do we really have to come back?'

I remember hearing the first launch of the Columbia in 1981 on the radio in my second grade classroom. It helped propel my own dreams of being a spaceman for years and years. I remember being in my first day of a new junior high when the Challenger exploded, the principal announced it over the loudspeakers. It seems that today is another day I'll never forget, holding my son in my arms while watching the devastating news on TV today about the seven astronauts who's time in space will never end.

From a Washington Post article written in advance of Columbia's re-entry:

Some of Columbia's crew members didn't want their time in space to end.

'Do we really have to come back?' astronaut David Brown jokingly asked Mission Control before the ride home.

posted by Jason at at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post