Elevators

In SF I ride the elevator a lot more than I did when living in Arizona. I’m on the 23rd floor of my apartment building and on the 7th floor at my office, so I spend a lot of my day in an elevator. I have come to the realization that a lot of people don’t get how to enter and exit them. If I had a dollar for every time we stopped on a floor and nobody moved I’d be rich. I don’t get if people forget where they are going or they are just dumb. Often we get the the ground floor at my building and somebody is waiting with their nosed pressed to the door waiting to get in. Back Off! You have to let the people exit the elevator first before you start packing it in. I don’t get it. People either don’t have common sense or they just think they are in their own world and can do what they want. I love the people that get into the elevator and stand in the middle near the front, then they don’t move when new people enter forcing them to squeeze by them. It is just another fun part of my day in this crazy city…

Flyleaf

I’m always looking for new bands, only so many times I can listen to the same bands on repeat on the way to work. Anyone who knows me, knows I have odd taste. I love rock bands with female lead singers like Evanescence and Paramore. My latest sensation is Flyleaf. Their music is similar to the for mentioned, but is a breath of fresh air. Check them out, let me know what you think.

Sprouting

I just finished my third week at Sprout and it is going great. My boss, Carnet, is back in town for 3 days before he jets off to London so it has been good to spend time with him. Lorna, my other boss, is going out of town this week, so I’m pretty much the only one left to purchase or do anything involving money which is awesome. I’m flying to our Honolulu office on July 8^th and I’ll be there for 5 days. I am pretty excited. Working for a company that is based in Hawaii has it’s perks. Everything else at work is going great. The office is just about setup, I am just waiting for a few more things to come in and then I can finally be done with it. It looks awesome and I’ll post pictures once I get the Wii play area setup. Yes, that’s right we are going to have a game area. I love working for technology startups. We’ve got a lot of very cool stuff coming out soon so make sure you check out the website and my blog posting. I encourage everyone to try and build a Sprout for their Facebook, MySpace, Blog, or website in general. It really is the best widget/advertising tool out there, and I’m not just saying that. Where else can you generate a complex flash tool to use as a marketing piece for free? For those of you that don’t know how to code flash or don’t want to hire somebody, this is the best tool to use. Check out my facebook for my sprout that I made, it took less than 10minutes to do.

Carry-on vs checked bags…

We all have seen the news about airlines cutting costs and starting to charge for services. Well after flying this weekend, I think they are missing out on the biggest cash cow of all. Carry-On luggage shouldn’t be a given, it should be a luxury. Think of all the time that would be saved if everyone  didn’t carry-on their bag? Instead of charging $15 for an extra checked bag, why not  charge $15-$20 to carry on the bag? People that carry-on bags slow down security checks, boarding, and unloading. Why not make the ability to carry on a bag a luxury for those willing to pay for it? It certainly seems like a great way to offset the other dumb cost saving things. I don’t think getting rid of peanuts and drinks is really the answer, but hey I’ve never ran an airline. I’m just making the suggestion that if you want to start getting more money per trip, I think people will pay to have a carry-on luggage as a  luxury—I know I would.

Gmail and IMAP don’t like PALM

While I am loving my new job, the google mail server we use is a pain. First off, I liked my old pop3/smtp server. It was easy, reliable, and worked with my palm phone. Google’s imap doesn’t work with palm without the use of a 3rd party software. After trying a bunch, SnapperMail2 is really the only one that works decent. It is $60 to buy the full version. I am the only person at my company that doesn’t have an iphone or blackberry so this really is only affecting me. I am so against an iphone and don’t like how the blackberry isn’t touch screen. Oh the life of dumb email servers.

Saturday in SF…

Well I finished my first week of work at Sprout and I’m excited and tired. When I moved here I wanted to be busy during the week and work my butt off, then get to enjoy SF on the weekends. I finally feel like I will get to do that. I’m sitting here writing this with a cup of milk and double stuff Oreos for fuel, Ace on my lap, and Finding Nemo on TV. Life is Good.

Last night there were setting-up for this big Fiesta Filipina festival on Civic Center lawn and some of the surrounding streets. This morning when I went out it was a massive production. I’ve seen some big ones out there since I moved, but this was the biggest by far. I think Dani and I may check it out tomorrow, they have kettle corn so that’s all I need.

This afternoon I was out with Ace and all of a sudden an episode of Cops was unfolding. All I saw was a pickup truck going down McAllister and then in a matter of 5 seconds there were about 25 cops, 5 undercover agents, a few vans, and a team of investigators. They pulled the 2 guys out of the truck and handcuffed them and separated them. Then they swooped in and moved the truck and started searching it. It was crazy. Since the festival was blocking some roads, the cops flew up on the sidewalk to get there. They had the street and area shut down in a matter of 30 seconds. Now I know where all those sirens are leading too.

On my way home tonight I saw my first accident in the city, due to the road restrictions from the Festival. Hayes was so backed up because Polk was closed. Some guy wasn’t looking as he went through the light and smashed into the guy in front of him. It only took 3 months, but I finally saw an accident in the city.

Tomorrow I’m off to SFO to pickup Dani at 9am. More tomorrow.

crowdSPRING is pretty cool…

crowdSPRING is a pretty cool new tool. Here are the 3 easy steps:

1. Post a creative project
2. Watch the world participate
3. Choose the one you like

I think this is a great idea instead of having to post on craigslist to find a freelancer for jobs. If there can be an online community ready to work upon a project posted the quality of work will be higher and they will command a price that is better than random postings. I have concerns as to how it all works and why I wouldn’t just redesign artwork I saw for myself without paying. All in all it is a pretty cool idea, let’s keep it on the radar to see what happens.

Clear Registered Traveler

For those of you that fly a lot, Clear may be the answer for you. For $100 a year and a $28 enrollment fee you can avoid long lines at about 20 airports right now. Some of the big ones are on there, but not all of them. If you are somebody that travels a lot or even a few times a year the peace of mind of not having to wait in line certainly makes the $100 fee worth it. I certainly will be signing up soon.

www.sproutbuilder.com

www.sproutbuilder.com

This is where I am working now! Stay tuned this weekend to a full blog post about everything.

–Brett

Somebody text me when the nba finals are over and let me know who won

So I guess the NBA finals started tonight. I am a huge sports fan, and love the NBA. The excessive 2 month NBA playoff period is out of control though. I am hoping this doesn’t go 7 games as I’d like to not have to watch or hear about it. Once the Suns lost, I wasn’t too keen on turning on many games but I did occasionally. The problem with the NBA is there is no excitement. A first round upset which has no bearing on the final outcome is pointless. Since the Lakers and Celtics were both #1 seeds we could’ve skipped ahead 6 weeks and just played this series. The NBA lacks the excitement of the NCAA tournament and even other professional playoffs. This dragged out multi series format, going 7 games is tiring on the fans. I hope this ends fast as I can’t bear anymore highlights or commentary from Stephen A Smith. Bring on the DRAFT!