twodoebs

Oh NO!--I would rather pay $3/gallon than have the 55 M.P.H speed limit come back!

Unmentioned Energy Fix: A 55 M.P.H. Speed Limit

It's gonna be SO awesome for B'lyn for them to get another professional sports team (even if it IS an NBA team)!
Nets' Move to Brooklyn Is Truth in Advertising

Well, since this is my first batch of pictures on this ol' blog, there's kinda a ton of them all in a line, but so what? . . . it's fun!

The pictures that Kati took on her little CVS camera somehow didn't come out so well. All that distortion is NOT a function of the blog, it's more a function of the processing (so blame the Hoboken CVS, don't blame me!).

Kati, Gilles, and I skiing in lovely New Jersey. Doesn't G look great in his wife's clothes?

Ha! . . . ONE of the great things about my job is that this is a picture of me on my lunch break! 

Kati looks like a tool in this butterfly mask at the zoo. 

 

The same weekend that Kati and I went to the zoo, we went to Six Flags Great Adventure and rode roller coasters. 

This is Chris--he's one of the editors at work. The company that we work for had an afternoon where we all did volunteer work. Chris and I are out turning over a "sea side garden." What we were REALLY doing was stirring up the dirt in a parking lot for some crazy old lady.

That's me at the zoo! 

You can barely even see the polar bear in the background, but Kati makes tons of fun of me 'cause I say the polar bears remind me of Jenny . . . will someone PLEASE tell her that Jenny IS like a little polar bear? 

 

Stefanie and I on Easter Sunday. 

Me and Kati at Rock Center on Easter Sunday. 

 

Me at Jackson Hole. 

Me climbin' around in the sand. The beach in Sea Bright is actually artificial and it errodes, so this isn't a dune--it's actually where the waves have cut out a hole in the beach (to give you a sense of perspective, from where Kati took this picture, the waterline was probably right at her feet). 

Kati and Matt and Katie and Matt 

I might not get to see the beach in the winter, but Kati and I spent some fun time out there this WINTER! 

Yates! The hottub in Jackson Hole. 

My Big Sister ran a 5K race and I'm just so proud of her. I don't have ANY idea what motivated her to do such a thing ('cause she's hush-hush like that), but what matters is that she DID it. So good for you, Steffer--you deserve some props.

Well, this is the doebtown blog, Take Two . . . I tried to get the doebtown blog off the ground once before, but I used this other service called bloglines. I got into bloglines 'cause I wanted an online RSS reader. And to be fair, their online RSS reader IS pretty good. But after I tinkered around with it for a coupla days, I sent the bloglines coustomer service this message:

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I'm just curious, when someone reads my blog entries, is there no way for them to post a response? Isn't this a fairly standard practice on blogs? Please let me know if there is something I'm missing! Thanks!

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And here's the response that I got back from the Bloglines support:

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Hello:

Thank you for writing to Bloglines.At this time, Bloglines does not have the comments feature you are looking for. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you. We thank you for using Bloglines, and for the suggestion. We have made sure that it has been forwarded to the appropriate department.

Thank you again for writing, and enjoy using Bloglines!Regards,

M.M.

Bloglines Support

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So that's THAT (and that's if for Bloglines). I'll try my damnest to post all of the messages that I put up on the bloglines version here, but know that anything older than this posting originated over there, so something MAY be lost in translation.

Hooray! Today's weigh in for our office's weight loss competition revealed that I've lost ANOTHER two pounds. Ha ha!--two pounds per week is EXACTLY what Slim Fast says one should loose on their plan. So I've now lost eight pounds or 4.5% of my original body weight. I'm still only in fifth place (actually, tied for fifth) in the competition (out of a field of ten), but the leaders are showing signs of leveling off and I'm still going strong!

9:30 AM=Slim Fast Shake (Strawberry Cream)
11:15 AM=Pineapple Cup (DAMN I love pineapple!)
1:00 PM=Slim Fast Shake (Vanilla)
3:30 PM=Apple
4:00 PM=Diet Coke
6:00 PM=Celery Stick with peanut Butter
7:00 PM=Dinner
11:00 PM=Carrots

Monday=Healthy Choice (Beef)
Tuesday=Healthy Choice (Turkey)
Wednesday=Healthy Choice (Beef)
Thursday=CHINESE NIGHT!
Friday=Out-To-Dinner Night
Saturday=*Wild Card* (Ohhh . . . craaaazy!)
Sunday=Italian Night

Nancy broke her foot at karate last night. I was there and saw her go down.
While I may not be *crazy* about my job, I DO have a ton of respect for Nancy (if you're looking for insight into her personality, I recomend reading her journal). And I feel bad, 'cause I KNOW this'll make the training she's doing THAT much more difficult.

So best wishes to Nancy and I hope you heal quickly!

I long resisted the concept of blogging. Even when bloggers broke the story in the 2004 election that the documents indicting President Bush's military service record were certain forgeries, even when "Time" magazine considered making bloggers the People Of The Year for 2004, even when I KNEW it would be a neat idea . . . I consciously stayed away from the idea.
Here's why: when I ORIGINALLY thought of getting into a blog, I thought it would be SO cool to be able to say "my life's an open book" and really mean it--to be able to give someone the URL to my blog and let them go and READ the open book that IS my life.

But then reality set in and I realized that that could NEVER be the case. First of all--and this was ESPECIALLY true back when I was working with Fritzy--my profession dictates certain rules of confidentiality and I thought it would be too difficult to maintain a TRULY tell all blog and just ignore everything that was going on in my professional life. Secondly, there ARE--unfortunately--things that I wanna keep secret.

So why the change? Well, I gotta tell you, my signing up with bloglines.com was MORE motivated by the RSS features of this site than by the blogging. And I gotta be honest, I don't know if this is the place to be doing everything I want it to do. Can it replace, for example, the now defunct oPhoto for sharing all my wonderful pictures?--I'm not sure. It it a substitute for the stuff I write about on quitnet.com?--I doubt it.

But here's my pledge. #1: I'll be honest. I might not say EVERYTHING there is to say, but I'll try hard to write what is in my head and what's in my heart without regard to who might read it and I will NOT lie!. #2: I'll not identify anybody with their last name. #3: Where work is concerned, I'll REALLY steer clear of doing anything that'll get me disbarred, fired, or killed.

Here's an excerpt from today's "Mossberg's Mailbox" as published in "The Wall Street Journal" (the link is located here, but I'm not so sure that that'll stay online forever, so I've cut-and-pasted this response for posterity. Take a read, then I'll comment on it "on the flip side."

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Q: I am wondering if you ever get paid by companies, in cash or kind, for any reviews or recommendations of their products that you make in your articles. I ask this because I have recently read that a number of reviewers in the media charge money for favorable opinions or mention of technology products.

A: No, I don't. I neither seek, nor accept, money, or anything else of value, from the companies whose products I cover. I return any products I am lent for review, except for items of minor value which companies don't want back. In the case of these items, I either discard them or give them away in return for donations to charity.

I also don't accept trips, speaking fees or "editorial discounts" from companies whose products I cover. If I want a product I review for my own use, I buy it, at retail. And I don't own a single share of stock in any of the companies whose products I cover. Also, I never coordinate my reviews with our advertising sales department, and don't solicit or sell ads. On many occasions, I have written negative reviews of products from companies that advertise prominently in this newspaper, and positive reviews of companies that don't advertise.

While I can't speak for other reviewers at other publications, I believe that generally similar policies are followed by major reviewers in the best known print publications. It's unfortunate that a few so-called reviewers, mainly on television, do charge companies for mentions, and thus raise doubts in the public's mind about technology reviews in general.

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The truth about it, of course, is that the reviewer is speaking of a widely publicized incident concerning the "Today" show's reviewers (back story is available in a reprint from an article in "The Wall Street Journal" here). This adds to the ongoing struggle I've been having with the "Today" show in the last couple of weeks. Not only have they been raked in the "New York Times" recently, but now it turns out that they're just as unscrupulous as I had once feared they may have been.

Paula's already also expressed concern, also citing co-host Matt Lauer's marital troubles, and I KNOW Sweet Kati'll say, but I wonder how others feel. Is "Good Morning America" the morning show of the future?
BUT, Walt Mossberg renews my hope in fair and balanced technology reports. For me, he is to the new millennium what Norm Abram was to the '90s!

Without saying TOO much, there's good news on the Reality TV front. I had a conversation with Mia today, who said that they had not picked anybody yet. She said that she had been out of the office all week and hadn't even read the message I sent on Monday.

She DID say, however, that they probably wouldn't send a camera crew to my big court battle next week--that, if anything, they would just send someone to observe me (which I took as a GOOD thing . . . at least she didn't say, "eh, we're not really interested in Municipal Court") . . . but just wait 'till she gets to thinkin' of how good it could be--there'll be a camera there, yet!