Entries from April 2008 ↓

• Dear direct marketers: when you put "personal invitation enclosed" on the outside of an envelope, I translate that as "this is junkmail". #
• the thing that sucks about the 4a feeding: i’m pretty much guaranteed to still be awake at 5a, and if I’m awake at 5a I’m done sleeping. #
• also 5a is pretty much the time that a song will start going through my head and not leave. Today: tokyo police club’s your english is good #
• and as long as I’m posting: i love wordpress upgrades on dreamhost. #
• Diapers.com and amazon.com seem to bounce back and forth of pampers pricing. I’d prefer to stick with amazon but the lower price is imptnt. #
• @jeffargast the killer whales? The windows to ipod email syncher? #
• Awesome: won the free metra ride sweepstakes. I even helped the conductor wake the guy in front of me up so he could check his ticket. Fun! #

As I already tweeted, I’ve been promoted at work.  The new title is “Practice Director, Technical Services”.

What does this mean?  Most of the team that was reporting to my boss is now reporting to me.  I’m still reporting to my boss.

The team is really good — they have a great variety of skills, awesome attitudes and pretty much kick ass when it comes to pleasing customers.

I’m really excited about this, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot is going to change on a day to day basis.  I might start sitting in a director’s chair.

In other work news, I was talking to a marketing guy the other day and he was asking me about what makes the job fun.  A big part of it for me is that our industry didn’t exist 10 years ago.  It barely existed 5 years ago.  Many of the tools we use are just out in the last year.

Here’s an interesting article about this emerging industry and the venerable McKinsey’s assessment of it.  Nicholas Carr is hawking a book, sure, but he seems to know what he’s talking about.

• @scootergirl way to out me. That’s right: I’m on oprah. Actually they’re renaming the show "reid". Awesome right? #
• @shobyabdi lol shobeez? #
• My fave character in baby mama the movie? Steve martin as organic grocery ceo. #
• @popejephei you know you’re sick when you can’t even tweet. Christ on a crutch man go to the doctor. #
• Some seriously beautiful rays of sunshine are popping through the clouds over the wrigley building this am. Awesome. Makes me believe in gum #
• @popejephei ok if you’re giving last rites to someone other than yourself you can’t be that sick. Why all the complaining? #
• @jeffargast I’m jealous. If you see a bunch of orcas or other large marine mammals porpoising through the sound pls DO NOT tweet about it.:) #
• Doing video interviews for The Company. Making faces at the co-worker who’s talking now. He’s not laughing. #
• Heading for da train. Awesome. #
• Something must be wrong with me: I’m volunteerting the 10 pass to the metra conductor. #

I quote:

“Where do people find the time?” That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, “No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you’ve been masking for 50 years.”

From Gin, Television & Social Surplus Awesome. Posted while riding on Metra. Found via Reddit.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, my little Win 80’s Albums for Rhyming Poetry contest is about to end. Tomorrow.

Have you entered? No? REALLY?

C’mon: don’t let the boogers win.

Critter Update or Blame My Cousin, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

This picture of The Critter, cute as a button in his little outfit, is totally my cousin R’s fault. She sent outfit. For you purists out there who find the red Disney industrial complex socks disconcerting: those are my fault. she sent cashmere. And they’re awesome.

• Monday. Should be a good day. #
• A little wilco is a fine fine thing on a cool, spring morning. Sky blue sky, in case you’re wondering. #
• Bus ad: "Mike ditka resorts, orlando - tell em da coach sent ya" — seriously? I gotta ask that again: SERIOUSLY??? #
• Two awesome things at work: first, I’m promoted to practice director for tech svcs. Second…still a big secret. But completely awesome. #
• @scootergirl your evil empire begins. Insert evil sidekick laughter here. #
• @shobyabdi lol no you’re not getting promoted after 6 wks. I know, what gives, right? Call me crazy. #

• @popejephei I don’t accept patpal, but I do accept 3rd party pre-invasion checks. #
• @popejephei you don’t really want the gory details **before** you preach, do you? They’re not pretty. #
• @popejephei hey are Q and Allison on twitter? #
• @popejephei what is a "call to offering"? And by The Critter do you mean mine in specific or kids in general? #
• @jernst could be worse. Had a cabbie playing evangelical christian sermons at me once. That’s the surest way to no tip. Sorry about your dog #
• They’re sampling tilapia at costco$ seems wrong. #

A friend sat with the Critter tonight while J and I went for dinner and a movie (not in that order).  The dinner was Maya del Sol.  It was excellent.  The was our second trip and they didn’t disappoint.   I had halibut.  It was cooked perfectly, which is not always easy to find here on the third coast.

The movie was Baby Mama.  Not nearly as good.  It was OK, but if you’ve seen the commercial 2-3 times, you’ve seen most of the good parts.  I don’t want to spoil anything about it–the plot’s not bad–but I would think you could hold off on it until it comes out on DVD.

Ah, Zippy: you captured my mood clearly enough at the time that I photocopied this and faxed it to a friend 3000 miles away. He later moved another 3000 miles or so. I doubt it was in response to this fax, but you never know.

Post college was a challenge for me, as I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do. I worked at Mrs. Fields Cookes (still had the paystubs), an Austrian powder coating company, sold leather jackets, started Napkins By Reid (yes, as bad as it sounds), and worked on a wide variety of other business plans: Cafe Tomo–mini van based mobile espresso, World Wide Comics (also a non-starter, but it got me a free copy of Margot in Bad Town, which is still awesome) and an electronic BBS for the Washington State Japan America Society, corporate sponsored adventure travel. There were probably more. All within about 16 months.

Did I mention the bad, non-rhyming poetry? Hopefully that never surfaces.

Most of that stopped by the time I made it to Chicago in fall, 1992.

But the interesting thing is that I wasn’t even close to going through it all alone. The vast majority of the letters I had from friends at that time were similarly aimless.

A little aimlessness is probably good for the soul. We all seemed to find our way, more or less. I suppose it might come back (never say never, right?) but I’m pretty much hoping it was an “I’m 22 kind of thing”.

Oh, and to the 19 yo poetry major I spoke to the other day: I now remember the “midlife” crisis feeling you described. It won’t last. Something else will probably take it’s place in due time, but that’s another store.

OK, that’s it: enough with the indulgent nostalgia trip. I need to eat breakfast.