Okay, life is a little nuts as I try to get back into the swing of things, so I'm just going to offer up some quick bite things I've been thinking about/reading. Hope that's cool.
- First off, a reminder about happy hour this Friday, have 10 hosts but would love more. Again, it's at 6pm until whenever at Sweet & Vicious, 5 Spring Street (off Elizebeth).
- I've been using Twitter more and more. Two observations: One, it's great for our office because it allows us all to keep up with what each other are up to and two, it is the perfect way to keep people informed of what you're up to while you're away. Twittering while in Israel saved me a lot of money in phone calls.
- There was a lot of instant coffee in Israel . . . that's gross.
- This is probably a full entry, but one of the fascinating things about my trip was thinking about the way required army service shapes Israeli society. At 18 every citizen joins the military. Unlike college, it's not a choice where you go or who you're with. This not only matures young people quite quickly, but it also forces them to learn to deal with people who are different from them. Whether we like to admit it or not, in America we tend to go to college with people like ourselves.
- Grant is almost always on a roll, but I've especially enjoyed his last few posts. Reinventing the conference, blogger and new media style and The World is Sorting are both serious insights into today's postmodern world.
- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. That is an actual sentence. (Thanks Charles.)
- Like everyone else, I've been playing a lot with Facebook lately. I don't have anything particularly insightful to add yet, but I'll work on it.
- Did you know you can wash a keyboard in the dishwasher?
- While I was sitting on the plane home from Israel someone asked me if he could trade seats with me. I had the aisle seat and next to me were two of his friends. When I asked him if he had an aisle seat he said no, he was in the middle. I wasn't willing to trade an aisle seat on an 11-hour flight for a middle seat. However, I might have been willing if he threw in like $30. That gave me the idea that during boarding flights should allow you to auction off your seat. If they used the little TV and you could put your seat up for a price it might be interesting. No idea if this would actually work, but it's a fun idea.
- I'm trying to write an article for a magazine right now and I'm realizing how hard it is after blogging for a while. Because I can't use hyperlinks to give people credit I just keep thinking that I'm pretending to have come up with other people's ideas. I don't like that. Blogging seems much more honest.
I think that's it for now.