6 weeks until Christmas

Christmas has never been one of my favorite holidays. Maybe because it’s always so cold – except  in the Southern hemisphere – or that so many people are left alone and hungry. I think it’s the most depressing holiday there is, especially since I’m not a believer in the myth about Christ.

I’m more looking forward for Christmas to be over to that we can look forward to springtime.

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Really cheesy marketing messages

You can easily tell when a web company’s marketing department is built out and bloated: you are receiving cute notifications and reminders. They use lame metaphors and softer language to make the messaging more human. A popular practice is to pretend that the web service *is* human by using first person and sometimes even a name. And then of course the assurance that *everyone* is on the case to fix this a s a p and you as a consumer should not try to contact customer care (too costly). Just sit back and relax cause someone down in the dungeon is fixing the “glitch”.

Example 1: “Can’t talk now. System’s down. Sorry for the holdup. Looks like a temporary glitch in our network has part of Yahoo! mail down, so you’re briefly without service. Rest assured the alarms are blaring in the basement and our team is working frantically to get you up and running ASAP. Again, the snag is on our end — so there’s no need for you to do a thing.”

Below is probably the most lame activation email I’ve received during my +13 years in the internet industry. By trying to make it human and personal it feels fake and unreal. I’d rather just get a message from Joe-Blow, junior marketing manager, saying that there is a new release out that I should check out with a few new cool features. Or even better, just an email from one of the engineers letting the world know what they been working 24/7 on and why.

Example 2: “Spock.com misses you. I really thought we had something going when you signed up for the Spock Beta. Even though you moved on, I haven’t. I’ve been working on several new features hoping you might join Spock, including Picture and Tag Voting Wizard, News, and Spock Power.

Hopefully I’ll be good enough for you this time, but if not, I can take a hint. You won’t be hearing from me anymore. (Sigh.)”

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Led Zeppelin

The best and most successful band in the world, Led Zeppelin, is playing at the Dome in London on 11/26. I entered the ballot to get two tickets and if I do win I’m going. Even if that means that I’m just gonna be in the UK for 6 hrs and travel for 24 hrs. This is *the* concert if you weren’t old enough to be at Earl’s Court, Madison or any of the concerts during 1970-1976.

If I don’t win I’ll just watch “How the West Was Won”.

The Fried Rice

As easy as it seems to cook, it’s hard to find really good Fried Rice (a.k.a. “Flied Lice”). Here is my version:

1) Cook Jasmine rice for 20-minutes, then let cool off for 10.

2) Mix Dijon mustard, Hunan sauce and Soy sauce into a thick, spicy and dark brown sauce.

3) Fry eggs (one per person) just like you would making scrambled eggs.Chop and scrape. Chop and scrape.

4) Fry bacon, onions, hangersteak, sausages ot whatever you find in the fridge. Anything goes. This is a leftover dish.

5) Mix the rice with 1/2 of the sauce in a wok. Stir. Add the scrambled eggs. Stir.

6) Finally add all other ingredients. Stir.

Serve the Fried Rice directly from the wok with the rest of the sauce as a side for the guests that enjoys hotter food. This dish takes about 30-minutes all-in-all and is very inexpensive and super tasty. As long as the rice is properly steamed, the sauce hot and the eggs scrambled it’s hard to fail.

Nail on the Head

The most beautiful words: “We chose to invest in Dopplr because of the strong team and the simple execution of a great idea.” The essence of startups!

The Association of Realtors

About 10 months ago, the Association of Realtors paid $40MM for a campaign to convince retail buyers that it was the right time to buy or sell a house… as per my doubtful blog post from November 4, 2006.

Today they announced that the seasonally “adjusted index of pending home sales for July fell 16.1 percent from a year ago and 12.2 percent from the prior month”. Hmm, the reason is – according to their chief economist – due to that “mortgages have been falling through at the last moment”.

The real reason we see a drop in the real estate market is that we have reached a point where few are prepared to take the risk of owning a house versus renting. It’s now 40-60% more expensive to own than rent in the US, UK and Australia according to the Economist, the highest it’s ever been since 1989…

As we have seen over the past few weeks, the American Dream has become a nightmare for many folks that trusted mortgage brokers, lenders and real estate brokers. Well, every bubble got it’s own learnings. It’s unfortunate that people’s homes have to be at stake to get people to smarten up.

A Beautiful Life

Life is rather perfect right now: summer is here, another software development cycle is over and new plans are taking shape. I’ve almost been at Blurb for 11 months and it’s been quite an experience – a wild ride if you will.

Right after Yahoo! I needed time off and took it. But I also knew as soon as I left the employed world I needed to – eventually – find a new gig to pay the bills. That created both a certain stress and uncertainty. Most common known as fear which was fueled by the surrounding world’s pro-work opinions.

The real truth is that employment induces a false security thanks to the monthly cash-flow and the sense of belonging and perceived value creation. But it could end any day and it should end any day. Work is not a physical place but a state of mind and a purpose.

The whole world is created around monthly salaries: mortgages, consumption, vacations et cetera. It’s all based on the short-term return while we all know that it’s the long-term investment that has got the best ROI.

Once that revelation hit me I’ve felt liberated ever since. There is no need to adapt your consumption to your present cash-flow or to mortgage your salary for the next 30-years. True financial freedom is to wake up in the morning knowing that what you do has a purpose and the bills are getting paid.

That’s my state-of-mind right now: I live a very creative life w/o the pressure to consume but the desire and drive to live, explore and learn.

Total Confidence

I had one of these epiphanies the other day when I was reminded of how absolutely awesome life is in it’s simplicity. I felt in the zone more than anytime in my life. And this while taking a hot bath.