Am I a "blogger" now?

Midway through a wedding this weekend, my friend Andy Katz asked me if I'd like to contribute to his blog. Since I was full of Heineken and wedding revelry I found it quite easy to say "yes". I am a shameless egomaniac, and I love seeing my words in print.

I don't know much about writing a blog. I do know that a typical protocol is to post lots of links to other bloggers whose style you intend to blatantly emulate. I learned this from Penelope Trunk, an excellent blogger and author who is charging to the forefront of redefining the American workplace. She can be a little too Machiavellian for my taste, but her columns are a nice diversion from work and I always learn something new from her ideas. Definitely worth checking out.

And if you're interested in reading about the social and economic challenges of "sustainability," check out Triple Pundit. There's way too much information for a layperson but it is nice to know that someone is thinking deeply about this stuff.

Finally, this guy seems pretty popular, and he's apparently quite good at what he does, though I can't figure out exactly what that is.

So that's it. I guess I'm a blogger now. I'm going to go take my sun pills and come back in a couple days with a post that isn't quite as boring...

Welcome to the blogosphere

I know about blogs. I have a blog. I read blogs. I blog bloggers. I blogged a blog that blogs about blogs: "have you read my blog?" I thought I was all blogged out until I realized that the blogosphere is a big world and I have only scratched the surface. There is really a new lexicon that must be learned. You can't just read blogs. You need to know when to Digg. And sometimes you might deem a blog post to be delicious.

I have a lot to learn before I can even consider making a run at my first bloggie.

What hath Katzybites wrought?

So my old college baseball buddy Andy Katz invites to participate in a free-form, multidimensional, all-access, no-holds-barred Web forum called Andy Katz 360 ... and the best I can come up with for an initial post is to pass along the following geek tidbits I picked up at work:

The new IBM POWER6 processor, released last week, weighs less than one ounce, but is twice as powerful as the 1.5 ton supercomputer that bested Garry Kasparov in a famous chess match 10 years ago. The new chip has 750,000,000 transistors, and enough bandwidth to download the entire iTunes catalog in 60 seconds.

The global struggle of man versus machine is nigh. I think Shefty may be one of them...

I was having a brutal day...

...when I randomly thought of Cookie Monster.

Enjoy:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dhUFxaauNTE

I'm holding this door for humanity, not you...

I am still weighing what type of stuff is "blog worthy" and what type of stuff is simply self-indulgent, so forgive me if this falls squarely in the latter category (which it clearly does).

I'm a pathological door holder. It's not a nice, healthy thing. I'm practically obsessed with it. When I've spaced out or simply fail to see someone approaching a door I might have held, it feels like I've committed a great sin. I believe revolving doors were created by The Devil.

Because of this, I go out of my way to hold doors for as many people as possible: the elderly (of course), pregnant women (ditto), smoking hot women, short people, tall people, rude people (generally folks with bluetooth), smart-looking people, slack-jawed people, people carrying boxes, and even people wearing t-shirts that say things like "Thank God I Voted for Bush," or "From my Cold, Dead, Hands."

I'm not sure where I picked up this trait. To most it comes across as a simple, polite gesture. Some really don't care, and I'm pretty sure smoking hot women think I'm hitting on them (I would imagine men who date smoking hot women and/or men who date smoking hot men have the same concern, but I think they're better at hiding their disdain). A side note for smoking hot women and smoking hot men: get over yourself, I'm holding this door for humanity, not you...

I really shouldn't stereotype smoking hot men and women, because the truth is there are generally two different types of reactions when I hold doors for people, and there is no discernible predictor of where folks will fall. One reaction is a simple acknowledgement of my (admittedly less-than-altruistic) act and an immediate check to see if someone else would benefit from a door being held. The second group walks through the door, often avoiding eye contact. I do not like people in the second group.

Because I put so much weight in door-holding, I often find myself conflicted when the guy wearing the "Thank God I Voted for Bush" t-shirt turns out to be a committed door-holder and someone wearing a "Save Darfur" t-shirt turns out to be a cold-hearted and selfish dink. I would like to save Darfur (I'd also like to walk to Park Street Station without being bombarded by pamphlets and guilt, but that's whole 'nother bag of peaches), but I think God would be against a missile shield. I REALLY think He/She would hold the door for a pregnant woman.

Regardless of one's views on God's gender, The Devil, missile shields or Darfur, how hard is it to hold a door?

Wining Red Sox

Three members of the Boston Red Sox, Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield, each agreed to launch their own wine label with proceeds benefiting their charity of choice:

Manny Being Merlot- the CHARLEE program
Schilling's Chardonnay- Curt's Pitch for ALS
Caberknuckle- Pitching In For Kids

About 75% of all import proceeds go directly to the charity. Expected retail is $12-$13. Next time you're shopping for a bottle of vino, consider doing some good with your purchase.

Available at Fenway Park, local restaurants, and stores near you starting June 1, 2007.