spanishturtle

Welcome

2009-03-16T22:28:00.003-05:00

This blog is mostly defunct, though I may still throw something up here now and again. Feel free to subscribe: http://spanishturtle.com/blog/atom.xml.

I'm using a Twitter account these days: twitter.com/spanishturtle.

Also, be sure to check out some of my favorite sites:
The Daily Premise
The Blogulator
New Century Picnic

So what do I do with this now

2009-01-13T16:10:00.002-06:00

I've bought into Twitter, largely due to two things:
1) Enough people are using it now
2) I can post words & pictures from my phone

If Blogger would put out a thing that'd let me post words and pictures to my blog, I might still use this sometimes for longer stuff. I am astounded that they don't have an iPhone app from Blogger yet.

Ideally, what I want is this: an app that takes a picture from my phone, posts it to my blog, and lets me Twitter a link to it. So my blog would just be like a photo journal with the ocassional post, and my Twitter could feature links back to it for pictures (better than linking to another picture hosting site). Metzger - go ahead and build that.

Anyways, does anyone still read this? I can't imagine why you'd still be checking it, unless it's in your RSS aggregator. Leave me a reply if you do; just curious.

Oh, also, check out MariaandDave.com. Details about our wedding and stuff.

Freaking Brilliant

2008-11-19T16:35:00.000-06:00

http://www.swoopo.com/

This is an auction site, but with a twist. You buy bids for $1/bid, and have a stock of bids available in your account. Any time you click to bid on an item, it only increases the price by $0.15, but it also extends the time on the auction.

I’ve been watching an auction on a Playstation 3 for a few minutes now, and it has consistently sit between 5 second left and 2 minutes left, and I’ve watched the price go from around $95 to around $105. People keep bidding as the time gets down to 20 seconds or so (because you’re always willing to bid another 15 freaking cents on a PS3 for around 100 bucks), which then ups the time left by a few seconds.

So think about that – the current price on this PS3 is only $123.15, but since every auction starts at $0.15, and every bid only raises that by $0.15, the site has already made $821 on this auction! If it ended right now they’d make another $123.15 + the shipping fees they charge. They’re selling a PS3 for around $1,000, but making visitors think it’s an amazing deal because someone got it for $100.

I am stunned by how brilliant, and sort of evil, this is.

Blogging?? Must be something good.

2008-11-12T08:31:00.004-06:00

If there was ever something worth blogging about, it's this. At about 6:45pm Last Saturday, I asked Maria to marry me and she said yes. Pretty bragable, I know. We've both grown up a lot together over the past couple of years, going through some good times and some bad. And, though as those bad times were, I'm glad we had them because they've basically smelted us into one person. And we like that a lot. Don't worry, this won't deteriorate into a mush-fest; I just wanted to say that it feels really good to be so certain about making such a huge decision. Maria takes the cake.

If you own a 360, get this

2008-10-20T10:26:00.002-05:00

I downloaded this thing called Play On last night. You install it on your PC, and it allows you to stream video to your 360 from a bunch of online services including Hulu, Netflix, CBS, ESPN, and You Tube. The Hulu stuff is especially cool, as there are tons of shows available on there. The Netflix is also very cool, even though the 360 built-in streaming is right around the corner.

Anyways, if you have a 360, go check it out. One of the coolest things yet for the 360.

Marshall may actually be based on me

2008-10-06T21:33:00.003-05:00

In tonight's episode, Marshall let lose an amazing speech, which basically came straight out of my mouth. He was in New Jersey with his friends when he made a shocking admission. Big man small city, give it up!

Marshall: I hate New York!

I'm sorry but it's true. Okay, Today I was walking around Price Co. have you ever been there? It's huge. All the stores in New York are so cramped every time I turn around I knock something over. I'm like some huge monster that came out of the ocean to destroy bodegas.

Lilly: But Marshall, you love New York.

Marshall: Yeah, I do, except that I hate it.

I'm too big for New York! Okay, I'm always trying to fit into cramped little subway seats or duck under doorways that were built 150 years ago. Hey, guess what? people are bigger now - build bigger doorways, what the hell is the matter with you?

Barney: Small city big man, give it up

Marshall: And it's so loud. All the time. Yes, it's the city that never sleeps, well guess what? I like to sleep! I've been tired for eight years. Tired and scared with black and blue marks on my elbows from trying to fit through all these little tiny elf doorways.

New Jersey is great - it's got huge stores and lawns and you never have to carry a cup again. Not for the rest of your life. I'm not afraid to say it: I love New Jersey!

GChat with Pat

2008-10-03T16:55:00.001-05:00

Patrick: i wanna shoot a chill-ass lip dub tonight

Maria Published (again)

2008-10-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

Read and enjoy! http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/10/1parrott.html

GChat with Joe

2008-09-24T17:03:00.002-05:00

me: aw yeah
almost done working
then it's four days in glorious Minneapolis
drinking glorious beer
and playing glorious rock band
Josef: yeah i can't wait - i'm so fried this week
me: today was fuuuucking nuts
Josef: i have to do school work all night
and tomorrow is going to be horrid
meetings all day long
demo's
me: well when you get done we'll hit a bar
hard
Josef: and all i want to do is take my pants off
me: you should start wearing snap pants
Josef: yeah, thursday night downtown will be good
haha
i got my onesie today
me: whaaaaaaaaaat
the fuck are you talking about
Josef: so i walked down the hall in that for a few minutes
it's really damn comfortable
me: you seriously bought a onsey?
like pajamas?
Josef: oh, i thought i told you about that

Everybody Live It Up

2008-09-10T09:05:00.002-05:00

The Large Hadron Collider went live today. Nothing collided yet, but it's only a matter of time now...

Gchat with Maria (oh snap!)

2008-08-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

Maria: Is there something you wanted to tell me or were you just saying hi?
me: I was just saying hey
Maria: oh, that's nice
me: thought maybe I'd drop some knowledge on ya
Maria: don't you mean some acknowledge?

This could be great

2008-08-28T08:29:00.001-05:00

A Muppet movie.
Written by Jason Segel.
Possibly leading to a Muppet TV show.
Written by Jason Segel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2636106/Muppet-Show-to-return-to-TV-after-27-years.html

Bragable

2008-08-20T09:43:00.002-05:00

If I may be allowed a moment of "look how great I am", it turns out our little company is the 169th fastest growing company in America. http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/company-profile.html?id=200801690

Work

2008-08-12T12:49:00.001-05:00

The company I work for is doing really well these days, and still growing like crazy. We are apparently at about 160 employees now (up from 12 when I started in June, 2005). We're bursting at the seams again, despite having a huge office. We're getting half of the floor below us this fall, which should tide us over for three months. Earlier this year I thought the annual doubling of revenue & people may actually taper off, but it's clear now that this train isn't slowing down just yet. Pretty crazy stuff.

I'd like to get more involved in product management or development or something as time goes by - I feel like I have a good team of people who are capable of handling our online marketing, and I think this place offers the opportunity for me to stretch my nerdy entrepreneurial legs a bit. It'd be fun to create and launch something other than yet another lead gen website.

The new plasmas in the office are currently displaying a Google Earth mashup that displays the location of a small portion of the bankruptcy leads we place (where the consumer lives, that is). There appears to be an awful lot of bankruptcies along the Mississippi today. It's interesting to see the clusters that appear every day - always around the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland, and of course southern California and the north East Coast, but once in a while there will be a bunch in North Dakota or something. When that happens I wonder if they're related somehow.

Weekends

2008-08-12T12:46:00.000-05:00

Weekends have gotten full again. The next 7 in a row:

-Caps, Metz and Num visit
-Madison for Trapoli Square
-Madison for Kraft & Kate's weddding
-German Fest (& possibly Joe)
-Joe Visits (& possibly a Brookfield visit)
-Infra-Golf outting
-Minneapolis Visit

Then open again, extept a possuble NU football game Oct 11. Really awesome stuff all around, thankfully.

Reset - a Call to Arms

2008-08-11T12:27:00.002-05:00

The last two weekends have been deep breaths, and I feel like I'm finally caught up and back on a normal pace. It feels really good to be back on a regular schedule, regular work week, regular budget, etc. Maria and I have been doing a pretty good job of enjoying the new neighborhood by dining out, meeting people for drinks, even playing some tennis with Ben and Lindsay yesterday. We also checked out a lot of Olympics over the weekend (which was good practice for football, which sort of begins tonight). I'm looking forward to fall, and I want to make sure to do some stuff:

*Keep getting out of the house and seeing friends. Its so easy for Maria and I to get out of that routine and just shut ourselves in for days on end. I'm looking forward to going out for more football games this year, plus getting out of the house with Maria more often. And of course G1o's nights need to continue with regularity.

*I've said it many times in the past months, but I really need to get myself into shape. I dropped my morning stretching during crazy July, which was an easy way to feel better. I need to get back to it, but keep forgetting. On top of that, I have ambitions ranging from this 100 pushup challange thing to actually running a little bit (never going to happen). Probably best to start with some simple stuff and try to get into a routine, just to get underway. I have at least been doing a barely acceptable job of getting out to play basketball/tennis/whatever from time to time, so I need to keep that up and do more.

*I want to be more productive. I'm getting back down to some side projects, and I just want to start creating something again. Obviously a balance will have to be struck, if I'm going to follow through on these other goals, but a little less time watching TV and a little more time coding while watching TV should do the trick.

So I'm on call if anyone ever wants to grab a drink or go run around in the park for a while. I'm really looking forward to back-to-back Madison trips and German Fest in Lincoln Square in the coming weeks too. Its good to be back.

Vegas Adventures

2008-07-31T09:00:00.002-05:00

Vegas was everything they say it is. A town where the entire population exists solely to take your money and satisfy one of your vices in return. By the end of the third day I foudn it really unsettling how you couldn't trust anything anyone said - every person there has an agenda, and is running backdoor deals. The best example was the cab drivers - they have deals with clubs and bars and casinos where they get paid for dropping people there. Obviously they'll twist your arm pretty hard to get you to eat at the place that pays them $100/head. Even if you called a limo and had arranged a ride to bar x, they almost always started telling you how that place sucks and bar y is where the action is.

The other remarkably unsettling aspect of Vegas is how time doesn't matter. I'm sure the two hour difference threw me as well, but by the end of the weekend I was sleeping for just a few hours per day, staying up until sun rise and heading back out the next morning. Luckily I was with a group of very laid back guys who didn't mind spending a couple of hours watching Cribs to gather our wits back up before heading out into the maddness (and 110 degree heat) again.

But despite, and because of, all that, the trip was a blast. We hung out in lots of fancy casinos, got comped drinks, did some sight seeing, all of the usual bachelor party stuff. My favorite part was probably the gun range. I just shot a Glock, but other guys shot sniper rifles, 30-cal machine guns, MP-5s, etc. It was pretty amazing to stand next to a SAW and feel it as a guy blow through 200 rounds. It wiped away any impressions of gunfire I had from videogames real quick. Military-grade weapons are amazing loud and impactful.

It was also great getting to know some of the guys from Madison better. Most of the group of guys were friends with the bachelor from before I got up there, and I've seen many of them many times but never really got to know them. Good guys all around.

Now that I'm done with my string of crazy July weekends, and I must say it feels great to be home and settling back down. Maria and I even got to finally move in most of the way (all of our furniture is setup now). There are still a couple of lingering things (like, for some reason, half of our closet doors are missing), but it feels pretty great to have nothing going on this weekend.

I am taking the Twitter Challenge

2008-07-24T09:16:00.004-05:00

I've wanted to try to figure out Twitter for a while now, and what better time than a four day trip to Las Vegas? This weekend I will be getting myself all setup to Twitter from my phone, and hopefully recieve Twitters there as well (assuming I can get it setup - it doesn't seem to be working right now). If anyone out there uses Twitter, my username is spanishturtle, so add me, message me, whatever it is you do with this. Also, if you can offer any advice on how to get things setup, drop me an email. (Oh, and send me your twitter names so I can add you before I leave.)

If you are not on Twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/spanishturtle. Check out this morning when I woke Joe up at 6am (California time) by inadvertently texting him.

If you do use this thing, please hit me with a lot of messages this weekend, as I'll probably just lose interest and forget about it otherwise. If it holds my attention you should get lots of stupid drunk messages. Enjoy.

Update: Thanks to Pat and Joe I am all setup. I've received more text messages in the last hour than I have in the last week. I'm going to have to do some adjusting.

Quick July Update

2008-07-22T08:37:00.002-05:00

I'm entering the home stretch of July insanity, with just my trip to Vegas left. New York was great, especially getting to see everyone who lives out there. The first couple of days were spent with Maria's family, surrounding her brother's wedding. The wedding was quite awesome; the first Jewish ceremony I've been to since I was like six. The dancing, the band, and the ceremony were all great, and felt very personal to the couple. I definitely think we can learn a thing or two about how to throw a wedding from these guys.

On our last full day there we went into the city and met Arun and Katie for lunch at a place with a Nelly-themed bathroom (the rapper). Always good to see those two. We spent the evening on a patio with Gabe, Anne and Theresa drinking cheap margaritas and catching up. In between we attended a taping of the Colbert Report (where Gabe works), and got to see the office and studio before the taping. It was pretty interesting; the whole thing seems very similar to putting on any other show, with Colbert very much on stage the whole time. It was nice to get to see him in the office afterward when he was calm and not running around quite so much - turns out he is a real person after all. Before the taping Maria and I walked right past him and I didn't even notice (she pointed it out to me later). Everybody else there was incredibly nice, and Madison is surprisingly well represented.

Indiana was also top notch; hanging out with everybody at Ted and Caroline's wedding was so much fun. They also had a very nice ceremony, followed by a great reception. This was another evening spent on a patio catching up with friends. I really enjoy Ted's group of friends (who I'd met at the bachelor party). Its too bad they're all so scattered. The day ended with us making grand plans to go out all night, but falling asleep instead. Oh, and I rode in a limo for the first time ever. (It was everything I'd imagined and more.)

Upon returning from Indiana, I cracked somewhat when we discovered that the painting and other repairs in the apartment still aren't done. (27 days and counting to paint four rooms.) I finally broke down and yelled at our landlord and actually got our August rent reduced, which is fortuitous timing with a Vegas weekend on the way, but I'm still annoyed. We've been promised (yet again) that everything will be completed today.

Friday morning I fly out one more time, destination Las Vegas. It should be an absolute blast, especially considering the group of guys going, and afterward I'll be home until back-to-back Madison visits at the end of August. Time to go out with style and then take a couple of weeks to recover. See y'all on the other side! Pow! Pow!

News from the Old Country

2008-07-03T12:23:00.002-05:00

I've always had this extremely positive image of northern Europe, and this has just reinforced it yet again. A drunk old man tried to row home from Denmark to Sweden (across a straight that's five miles wide). He fell asleep in the boat, and was woken up by the police the next morning. The boat he used was stolen, and the owner decided NOT to press charges! I'm picturing the owner the next day getting the news in a pub somewhere, slapping the old man on the back, buying him a beer and saying something along the lines of "Any man crazy enough to row home across the Oresund in the dead of night can borrow MY boat any time!" Then they would sing and laungh and watch soccer. Ah, I love you, you northern european bastards. Vikings, Saabs, fjords and now this? Someday I must go visit.

Requests

2008-07-02T08:13:00.002-05:00

If anyone still reads this, help me out with a couple of questions.

1) What am I supposed to use Twitter for? I keep hearing all these people that are nerdcool talk about how great it is, and they all update their shit all the time, and send tweets to each other and stuff. Can you set it up to alert you every time someone you follows twitters? Maybe that's what's cool about it. So you could be like "hey, I'm going to Gio's", and everyone who follows you would know without you needing to call them? I don't know, it seems very pointless to me - even more pointless than blogging or text twist. The one good use I have seen is on Joe's blog where he uses it for sort of 1-second temporary posts, which I think is sorta neat.

2) In a few months here I'm going to be seriously looking for a replacement for the Saab. What should I look at? I want something a bit smaller, better made, and with some kick. I keep coming back to the GTI/C30 and thinking I'd rather not go with a hatchback (and the GTI has suspect build quality), then looking at a BMW 3-series and deciding its too expensive and not really all that small. A 1-series would be cool, but they're too expensive, a Z4 or some other 2-seater would be cool now, but in the winter they would suck, a new XWD Saab 9-3 would be awesome, but again, too expensive. I've basically talked myself out of every car available.

And so it began with a squawk

2008-07-01T10:04:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Maria and I moved to our new place. Its very nice, and I'm pretty much all around happy with the move. The only small complaints are 1: our landlord is proving very slow to take care of the maintenance / repair issues he has promised to complete, and 2: there is a family of birds living in our wall. The second one is the more immediate issue, as we basically have baby birds in our closet screaming every 20 minutes from 8am - 10pm (at least they sleep, I guess). Thankfully, we've been told that things will actually start happening today (though we've heard that a couple of times now). Until walls are actually painted and floors are fixed and windows are re-framed we're still living out of boxes quite a bit, but the neighborhood is great, the space is awesome, and the air conditioning does its job well. I'm also looking forward to my first Hayden pop-in sometime this week.

The move was the first float in the July-long parade of weekends which now proceeds with the 4th of July Sports Day, New Jersey / NYC, Bloomington, IN, and Vegas. It is rather daunting to be looking at so many expensive and busy weekends, but I'm also really looking forward to all of it. I am also looking forward to buying lunch without feeling like I'm breaking the bank sometime in August.

GChat with Joe and pat

2008-06-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

Josef: man i'm tired
i'm seriously debating going to sleep under my desk
ever since i got back i've been tired, even with 8 hours of sleep
Patrick: back from europe?
Josef: yeah, well vegas
but europe too
i think it's cause i'm not drinking coffee all the time
deuce and an espresso
theme of the trip
me: what's a deuce and an espresso?
Josef: when you're backpacking and walking around a lot
not many public bathrooms
so we would go to coffee shops anytime someone had to deuce
me: ah
Josef: i even pooped in the ladies bathroom once
me: that's my Pfeiffer
Josef: they were screaming at me in portugese as i went in
me: HAHAHA
Patrick: hahahahahahah

You could be the moustache guy

2008-06-17T09:13:00.004-05:00

It is time for Moustaches

Let's all just get on board with the fact that moustaches are cool. Remember when Arun threw on a moustache for a couple of days? That looked great. Unforunately, SOME people claimed it made him look stupid, and chased Arun off of being the moustache guy. Then Joe (pictured above with his rocking 'stache) grew one on his Europe trip. I admit that Joe's moustache is still a little thin there, but all it needs is time. Unfortunately, upon returning home, he gave up the quest. So, once again, the offical title of moustache guy is wide open.

Over the last couple of years, I have become far too attached to my beard to give it up. But I know there are those among you with the facial hair necessary, but you keep it neatly trimmed so as to look young and innocent. I'm telling you guys, there are at least two or three of you thinking about going for the moustache guy crown & scepter, but the first guy there gets the glory. You don't want to be the guy that copied Arun after he showed up a Christmas with that amazing handle bar.

Somebody make this happen - I want moustaches! Where's Metzger?

Life experience #43 checked off

2008-06-12T15:17:00.002-05:00

It always hurts when you find out TV and movies have been lying to you for your entire life. I just learned that again today when I experienced what is always portrayed as a crazy event in pop colture - I got stuck in an elevator. And it was totally boring.

I was in there with a girl from the office next door. We stood there and talked about shit for about a half hour, then the elvator shook around a bit, then the doors opened. Then I got Subway. Yawn.

No one gave birth, no one had sex, no monsters attacked us, and the elevator didn't fall hardly any distance at all. There wasn't even any life saving emergency surgery. Totally lame. Suddenly I wonder if it'd even be all that great to sneak into a school's office at night. My whole world is upside down.