Rounding third...

Heading for the triple

Posted
from Watertown, MA
 

Watched the USS Constitution sail through Boston Harbor today

Posted
from Boston, MA
 

Why I am no longer selling my iPad

Posted
from Newtonville, MA
 

K-Swiss's daring Kenny Powers ad campaign

Wow. K-Swiss is going all the way on the Kenny Powers ad campaign.
Check out the billboard my brother spotted in Times Square.

I should state for the record that I am a huge Kenny Powers fan. I
have the entire Eastbound and Down season one on my computer, to watch
on flights. But even I will concede that Eastbound an Down is probably
the most offensive show on TV (I know, it's not TV, it's HBO). The
show is filled with expletives, nudity, drug use, and lots of other
hilarious(ly inappropriate) things.

So why is K-Swiss going all-in on Kenny Powers? Maybe it's because
they've got nothing to lose. As a brand, K-Swiss is irrelevant. It's a
nonstarter. I never think of K-Swiss when I think of sneaker brands.
So it's a swing for the fences. And it's viral as hell - as my
brother's sending me this picture from his phone attests. There are
Kenny Powers videos on YouTube that have also made the rounds of my
friends' e-mail chains, so I know the campaign is getting traction in
it's desired demographic.

Still, I wonder if they really thought this one through. I'm not sure
Eastbound had the greatest ratings, so how many people walking through
Times Square have any idea who that is on the billboard? And of fans
of E&D, like myself, how many of us are going to buy K-Swiss because
of Kenny Powers? I'm guessing not many.

At worst, this campaign blows up in their face because soccer moms and
Bible belt customers are offended by the obscenity and association
with Kenny Powers. At best? Still seems like a dumb idea for the
brand.

Posted
from New York, NY
 

Awesome night for a ballgame at Fenway

Posted
from Boston, MA
 

My healthy way to play Madden

I figured out a nifty way to play Madden without feeling like I'm a waste of humanity playing video games all day. With a hat tip to Bill Simmons, who plays Madden while on a treadmill, I have instituted three rules for myself while playing it (and all PS3 games, although currently Madden is my only one):

  1. All sitting must be on an exercise ball (don't laugh, it strengthens my core).
  2. When not sitting on exercise ball, I must stand. Bonus points for walking back and forth. On a sidenote, standing while playing a football video makes it feel more like I'm the coach pacing the sidelines. When I'm alone in the house, I have no hesitation yelling at my players and berating them. I may even swear like Rex Ryan.
  3. Bang out 25 pushups and a 30-second plank at halftime of every game.

So it's a tricky little lifehack to get me to exercise. Or at least burn a few more calories while I'm indulging in something that's traditionally derided as slothful.

Posted
 

Facebook Places and Foursquare

I've been using Foursquare for about a year or so now. I'm not really sure why - I guess it's just fun to check in to places and earn badges, mayorships, etc. Not many of my real friends are on Foursquare, with a few exceptions, so it was more of a -- OK, I'll say it -- narcissistic exercise in broadcasting my location to the world. Although I do enjoy having a record of my travels through my entire life, and I've used it to accomplish certain goals - like, for example, keeping track of how many times I visit the gym.

Now that Facebook has launched Places, though, I'm not sure I'll use it the same way as I use Foursquare. On Foursquare, I check-in with wanton abandon. I check-in when I stop for gas. When I run into the grocery store. When I drop into Starbucks for a coffee. My check-ins don't go anywhere -- I don't push them to Twitter or Facebook -- so the only people I'm bugging are my Foursquare contacts, most of whom do the same thing and have opted-in to the whole "over-sharing" concept.

With Facebook Places, however, all of my check-ins are automatically pushed to my Wall. This is different. This means when I check-in several times throughout a day, my friends' Facebook Walls are all of a sudden cluttered with my crap. In fact, I just did my first Facebook check-in this morning, and within an hour, I received comments on the check-in post from my eighth-grade English teacher, and a few friends in other cities. These people don't use Places, and they probably don't care to see my check-ins every once in a while. But there's no way they would put up with my checking-in at the same frequency I do on Foursquare.

It will be interesting to see what happens here. Will I only check-in to cool places on Facebook? Will I continue to check-in to both services whenever I go anywhere?

Do you use either service? Do you use them differently? Do you think both are the dumbest things in the world? Give me a holler in the comments.

Posted
 

An attempt at a picture of a scratched iPad

Here is an attempt to show the minor scratch (less than one inch) in the bottom left of the iPad. This is only really visible if you look closely, and doesn't affect the use of the iPad at all.

This post is really only of interest to you if you are interested in purchasing my iPad, which is for sale on eBay here.

Posted
 

Why I'm selling my iPad

Apologies to Vivek Wahda for stealing his post. And apologies to Semil Shah for not listening to him, when he tried to talk me in to keeping it. But after a few months of ownership, my iPad just isn't doing it for me anymore. I've put it on eBay.

I can come up with a list of thousand reasons why. I found it awkward to hold on the bus. It didn't replace anything in my bag. The new Kindle came out that's much lighter and cheaper, and since the main app I was using on the iPad was the Kindle, there was no reason for me to carry around a giant iPod Touch.

But the real reason why? I got a new gadget that's way cooler than the iPad. Here it is:

iphone-4-facetime.jpg

Yeah, the iPhone 4. It does everything that the iPad does, but it fits in my pocket. And it makes calls. And it multitasks. And it has folders. And Face Time.

So, sorry, Steve Jobs. You've out-innovated yourself. The iPhone 4 has eliminated my need for an iPad. So to eBay I go.

PS - The saddest person to see the iPad go is my 19-month old son, Jack, who loves watching Toy Story on the iPad. But I'm sure we can figure something out for him. Like, I don't know, not watching so much TV?

Posted
 

Education by the numbers

Pretty cool infographic from Microsoft.

Posted