Their first halloween and this is what they are wearing?

Not my favorite choice of costumes for the twins, but i guess they kinda look cute


Would've been a nice shot of the family if not for Sam...
I've never seen a real construction worker cry like this before (please, no village people jokes)

When Luke Attacks!

Matthew "Mick-On-A-Hey" Where are you?

Note: I didn't want to give the sexiest man alive any additional rationale for a swelled head, so i didn't google the right spelling of his name, so the phonetic version is listed above....

I have been a huge fan of Amazon's unbox since it launched...I really believe that this is a sound model for content distribution, and in my own discussions with folks at Amazon, I have basically begged them to show some patience in evaluating the success of the technology....So in short, i am a fan...

on saturday though, decided to try something different and forgo the the re-runs of Law and Order SVU for an Unbox download, "We are Marshall" starring Mr. Matthew Mick-on-a-Hey....Well it has been over 48 hours and I am still waiting....I will of course now contact Amazon support to find out what happened, and try get my 99 cents back, but I have now already been forced to watch Stabler and Bensen yet again track down NYC's slimiest pervs.

While I love the idea of Unbox, there are still challenges - the bandwidth issue primarily as i see it - that will prevent the wide-scale acceptance of this technology. Fiber to the desktop may help, but we're years away from that at grand scale...I am hopeful that Unbox doesn't go the way of "Urbanfetch" before that time.

Johnson and Johsnon / Completely Delusional

The side of a box of Q-Tips outlines 4 suggested uses for the product...
First Aid, Baby Care, Household and Electronics...Not a single mention of ear-cleaning...

As they suggest on the package, I visited their web site and there found another site for a variety of other uses - no mention of ear cleaning - they do mention that i can create a masterpiece or touch up other works of Art, but not a single mention of getting the nasty build up of wax out of your ears....

I think Johnson and Johnson is now up there on the list of most delusional companies - right up there with the folks from EZ Wider, who are out there pitching their product for use with tobacco.

My Spam Folder

Not sure why, but decided to go through my gmail spam folder to see what type of stuff was getting caught in there...

First of all, the amount is staggering, 3 or 4 spam emails an hour....

And in some cases, the inclusion of text link advertising is creating interesting juxtaposition...In the above picture, Forbes (and to lesser extent Apple), is associated with an email of questionable content...

In this example, ESPN has some prime time placement in this incredible email announcing some really aggressive pricing for viagra...(is 1.53 a pill a good price?)

Wonder how carefully marketers are keeping an eye on this...while the truth is that most people aren't reading this stuff, something tells me that ESPN and Forbes are still paying for it.

I made it to Playboy - My parents were so proud!!

Back in 1986 and 87, I attended Univ. of Miami in Florida...
While Miami was promoting its academic programs as being on the rise, it didn't stop Playboy Magazine from visiting the campus and naming it the # 1 party school in the country. What that meant for me, is that a photographer from Playboy attended one of our frat parties, and lo and behold, I ended up in the October 87' mag....

Social Networking Ad Inventory - Doody or Booty?

Lots of people are quick to get on the "Social Networking Inventory Sucks" Bandwagon, see one example from Jason Calacanis here, but i think you need to be careful about throwing in facebook to that same bucket....i recently added the mytracker app to facebook, which sucks up the songs i'm listening to on itunes and includes them in my profile so my friends can see what i am listening to....You can see a screen shot from my profile that indicates Ben Harper has been played 6 times, and is actually number 4 on my list of top plays....




When i logged in today to facebook, i was served a Ben Harper concert ad, which totally caught my eye, and had it not, for some unknown reason to me, rotated out without my refreshing the page, i would've actually clicked to find out more info.....

So when posed with the doody or booty question, I believe that there's a treasure trove of valuable inventory out there, and in between cows and sheep being thrown across the ether and college kids posting pix of their roommates puking, there too are real consumers waiting to be messaged to, and an opportunity for marketers to reach them.

Luke's First Music Vid

Luke had a pretty good time playing with the piano this past weekend....in addition to playing with the keys and knobs, he vomited on it about 3 times....TOTALLY reminiscent of pigpen from the grateful dead....

Star Man

Dave Starman, one of my friends from Rockaway is working for CSTV as their hockey color analyst ...you can check out one of his videos here..

a long time ago, dave and i actually played hockey on the same team, "the belle harbor bullets", you can see our team picture here...along with an article that appeared in our local paper in february 1981..

Babies on the Brain? (aka my dumbass move of the week)

Cleaned my dining room table with Baby Oxyclean last night....Think i may need a vacation, but in my defense the bottles do look pretty similar

Blog Action Day - I'm a work in progress....

So today is blog action day, an idea i guess that i support, but to be honest, i am not 100% sure i know what to write....i am not an "environmentalist" by any stretch....as an example, i recently got into an argument with someone from California who was trying to persuade me to only buy local produce....she obviously never tried to get a halfway decent strawberry in new york in november....i didn't win, or really try to win, that argument..

but i am a new parent, and i do tend to think every once in a while about the world my kids will live in - admittedly mostly with envy as to what technological advances will be made - but sometimes, about the enviornment ....While i am not comfortable in committing to any sort of zealot level antics, i will see what i can do to make sure i am leaving this planet in relatively similar, if not better shape, than if i hadn't been here at all...

so maybe for this "Blog Action Day" thing, i will just take a quick inventory of what I have done so far to make this world a better place

1. I have used twitter and facebook to keep in touch with people, which is a lot more convenient and environmentally friendly than sending letters through the mail, or using 2 tin cans and string
2. i allowed a family of raccoons to live in my attic for a portion of the year (you can email me though to find out how that story ended)
3. I have procrastinated decision (and am still procrastinating) buying a 2nd car, which has lead me to take a taxi to and from my house and the train station..often sharing the cab with other passengers - some of whom smell better than others...
4. I spent almost $700 in whole foods last month...that HAS to count for something
5. I looked up "Carbon Footprint" on wikipedia, so i can nod my head with a bit of certainty when I listen to Al Gore
6. I have not gone on my treadmill in like 2 years. i guess that saves on electricity, but not really sure if there'll be any Certified Emission Reduction (thanks wikipedia) as a result
7. I listened patiently to my mother in law when she told me that California is going to slide into the ocean (more problems for my strawberries in november conflict) after she saw it on the discovery channel
8. I've resisted the temptation to pursue a private pilot license, saving on tons of fuel that i no doubt would've burned through
9. When I played golf this summer at harbor links golf course, i complied with all the "environmentally protected" area signs...though i did make a handful of large contributions in terms of golf balls...not sure how that balances out in terms of CER
10. I always curse under my breath at smokers on the LIRR platform...more cause it makes me stink of cigarettes, but i HAVE to believe that if more people cursed at smokers on train platforms, some people would be less prone to pollute the air that way

So all in all, I am a work in progress, and while the idea of blog action day seems a bit contrived, a lot like Secretaries Day (no offense meant to anyone knocking em dead in that field, i used to be one, and a rather crappy one i might add), it did get me to reflect a bit on what I've done, and what more i can do to make the world an ok place for luke, madison and sam to live in.

Fixing a Hole....

What's raccoon remediation without a little bit of collateral damage?

One of the guys cleaning up the attic apparently stepped in the wrong place....

not to worry, its not like there is going to be a steady flow of contaminated insulation and raccoon feces falling through to our bedroom....oh, wait....

In the bottom photo, you can see the remediation job supervisor, looking at her team's handy work with sheer adoration and affection...love you too marjorie....

Attic Clean Up - Complete - Well, almost...

Wish the clean up company would've let me know before hand, but they were unable to complete the attic clean up in 1 day.....They'll be finishing up this morning, but because they couldn't finish, our house ended up looking like something out of E.T. , with ventilation pipes running through the house....

Let the raccoon clean up begin

the cleaning up of the mess caused by our uninvited upstairs raccoon neighbors has officially started.....how these guys escaped discovery's "dirty jobs" is beyond me....

I've got my own mask on as well, though not as heavy duty as these E.T. wannabees...

Supplies

A typical batch of supplies....should get us through a week or so.

October 2007 Video of Sam, Luke and Maddie

The Mets Collapse - Who is really responsible? a.k.a. Glavine's ride on the Mets vessel

I've been a mets fan since i was old enough to understand baseball...I spent time out on the field when i was 7, met Steve Henderson, Alex Trevino and a bunch of other players, and have always rooted for them, no matter what.

I watched the collapse these last couple of weeks, and have tried to read as much as possible about the potential reasons...While Willie deserves his share of the blame, after all, he is the leader of the team, and must take some responsibility, i blame someone else - not reyes, for disappearing, or the non-existent relief staff - to me, it is all about Glavine.

Glavine was never, and is not now, a real Met. He is an Atlanta Brave, and assume that when he goes to the Hall of Fame, it will be in a Braves uniform. He rode the Mets vessel, taking advantage of Omar Minaya's fine tuned offense, to victory # 300....And after that? Gave up. Gave up while on the mound, seemingly gave up in the clubhouse, where based on tv coverage, he couldn't be seen talking to any of the younger pitchers, providing the much needed leadership in the clubhouse....and post-300th win - checked out.

In so many categories, there is an obvious slip in performance after the game in Chi-town when he won 300...Innings pitched, ERA, Wins, Hits allowed...all dropped after that 300th win....

It is what we call in business "short timers disease"....Once an employee gives notice, you know that their productivity and their focus will wane...In my mind, this is exactly what happened, and while there's a long list of people who contributed, Glavine, and his blown opportunities to lead as well as to win, is my one throat to choke (proverbially that is, as he'd probably kick my ass).