Entries from July 2008 ↓

• @scootergirl nice shot!! #
• Just finished my best game of golf ever. Awesome!! #
• i hate it when people use the word “derogate” incorrectly. #

• @popejephei the universe is a butterfly. three example: alfalfa, glaciers, a fern in the deep woods. #
• fantastic surprise this am: my son sleeping on his side, tiny foot sticking through the slats of his crib. It only lasted a moment. Awesome! #
• extensive blogging. and blog locating. #
• i guess it’s engagement. but now I need sleep. and maybe a glass of water or two. #
• Stray cat strut has been going through my head for two days. Two. Days. Damn. Must have had a stroke or something. #
• Mmm. Awake. Up; not quite at em. Irritating thing is that I’ve been up since 3a. Blech. #
• apparently I’m on @zeldman’s wave length (he’s ET, I’m CT); different labels same time. Now if only I could capture some of his web mojo…. #
• @joefromkenyon LOL. #
• Fact: the earlier I get up, the more likely I’ll miss the early train. I blame reddit, Dave Chapelle and Twitter. And Ted Stevens. #

• The branding on my macbook pro feels excessive and makes me nervous. #
• On my way to a client meeting. They’re providing potbelley. Awesome! #

• Watching a little The Truth About Cats & Dogs. I’m not used to Uma as a helpless starlet type. I only see her as she was in Kill Bill. #
• @shobyabdi good news! the “?” turned out to be filled with carpet steaming. Hooray! “How would you like your carpets today?” “Steamed, thx!” #
• Side note: when called a “yuppie” the 1st thing I think is that I no longer qualify for the “Y” portion of it. I barely qualify for the “U”. #
• Waiting for Metra, milwaukee west. Missed the early train. Some guy is on a loud cell call in the waiting area. A lot of “who?” “What?” #
• In the world of unpleasant discoveries, there is a special place for finding washed and dried gum in your pants pocket. #
• @scootergirl he missed a kigo but other than that i’d give him high marks. Refrigerator. #

• Early Sunday. Kid fed and back asleep. Choice of next thing: sleep (boring), exercise (boring), reddit (boring), livevideo (meh). Coffee??? #
• Distraction found someone streaming chapelle on LiveVideo. #
• Off to Fedex, recycling place, whole foods and ? Who knows what adventure awaits. I hear they’re having a great sale at bed bath & beyond. #

• whew! watched shanghai noon (again) AND segmented — or bifurcated, shall we say — my blog. Mmmmm. Bifurcation. Say it three times fast. #
• dog puked on carpet. whole family room now smells like dog puke. so it’s 4:45a and I’m rolling up a carpet to put it outside. blech. #
• ok carpet out (its roll up) and place is getting fresher but now it’s 5:30 and the chance of me going back to sleep is slim. Coffee, then? #
• ok it a morning of cleaning my desk and watching either justin.tv or livevideo.com. #
• the problem with anyone saying “hey — the sun’s coming up!” I just want to say “…like a big bald head…” #
• kid fed and down for nap. the diaper? even I was grossed out. #
• I’m excited to report that one of my 401k investment funds has lost a couple of thousand dollars since I last checked. Viva buy and hold! #

Lily & Fountain, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

The Lovely J moved a plant over this direction earlier this year. I hadn’t taken a look at it much until yesterday. Look how they’ve grown!

• Just realized: like many in south park before me, i rack disciprine! I also lack an umbrella, but that’s a different story. #
• Moleskine + Amusing art is totally cool. http://www.modofly.net/ #
• It’s a slow work day. so i’m work casting. http://www.justin.tv/chicagogaijin #
• dreading the firefox restart that will also restart pandora. is the plugin really worth it? #

I kicked off a new blog today: Zodeno.com.  It should prevent those of you with a minor interest in my non-salesforce.com related ramblings from having to put up with lengthy posts, and if you’re interest in the sfdc related stuff, Zodeno.com gives you a way to skip all that drivel about my tomato crop.

Enjoy!

• up early. tv on. listening to male enhancement infomercial. apparently I have …. something to work on. what’s that number???? #
• just finished a meeting. in the parking lot. after golf. connected by cell phone and wireless card. need coffee, so now going in to office. #

• Up early after being out late. Blech. And now I have to be off to work which should be busy as usual. #
• listening to Peaches from The Presidents of the USA. Damn its addictive. #
• Holy guacamole the train is an icebox. Awesome! #

Moved to Zodeno.com.

Chicago at night, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

Taken from Belmont Harbor.

• Cool Chicago spot: fine arts building, 410 s michigan, 4th floor, ste 433n ascend training has a courtyard. You can probably get in. Awesome #
• Cool chicago spot: the restrooms at devon seafood grill. Chicago & wabash, lower level. Very nice!! #
• still trying to arrange vacation housing. It’s getting closer. #
• My metra lotto winnings have fallen this week. I might have to buy a new pass. BTW A coworker reported 22 rides on a 10 ride pass. VeryNice #

TechCrunch has a post this morning on Justin.TV’s 1 millionth user.  Having just signed up, I can only assume it was me that pushed them over the edge.

In fairness, it wasn’t that hard.  Nonetheless, I’d like to thank The Critter who poses in my “not broadcasting” photo.  I’d like to thank the City of Chicago for being so beautiful when I took my header photo last February.  And, most of all, I’d like to thank the little people, notably Herve Villachaize, who gave me the confidence that I too had something to offer the TV viewing public.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh: one last question: 109 years of archived video???  Really?  No seriously: Really?

• @shobyabdi hey man can we talk some work stuff real fast before the movie starts? Somewhat urgent……………………………….JK #
• @shobyabdi the work remark was much funnier when i sent it one minute after you said “no phone calls” cause of the dark knight. slow sms. #
• trying to find a decent hotel in YORK, ME. Any ideas? #
• Quality movie weekend continues. Mall Rats. Wedding Singer. Coyote Ugly. #

• The only problem with being married to a vegetarian is that when I make a really good coq au vin for myself no one can vouch for its flavor. #
• @popejephei i think i’ll give golf advice to non-golfers. strikes me as the safest course. #
• Cooking! Vegetarian Risotto for tonight, cog au vin part deux for tomorrow night. I should open some wine for the drinking, too. #

• @shobyabdi thanks! I’m preparing a submission to Sundance. Should be fantastic. Don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t win. #
• iDenial, Episode 3: http://tinyurl.com/6xzztb #
• iDenial Live! http://tinyurl.com/5e5sty Share your story of life without an iPhone. #

I was reading about the Large Hadron Collider and ran across this sentence:

He added: “Our motto is: no short cuts?

And thought — really?  Cause if you look at the whole paragraph:

He added: “Our motto is: no short cuts? exchanging a single component which today is cold, is like bringing it back from the Moon. It takes about three to four weeks to warm it up. Then it takes one or two weeks to exchange. Then it needs three to six weeks to cool down again.

It would seem that short cuts would be out of the question.  Which the question mark suggests is not the case.

Pesky punctuation.

• Remember the first time you saw the first Matrix? Hell yeah. #
• i think i’ve turned into the worst kind of beginner golfer: the kind that likes to give advice to other beginning golfers. Blech. #
• Mmmm eating a little sour patch kids extreme. Soooo tasty. On the flip side, union station is hot! And not in a paris hilton kinda way. #

• Off to play golf. The drive through at the not to be closed starbucks is an excrutiating one car. One veeeery slow car. #

• wife gone, child asleep. I’m drinking, watching karate movies and coding. no good can come from any of this. #
• ok switched from karate to Starship Troopers, the DVD I bought a DVD player for. Is there anything I don’t like about this movie? Brilliant! #
• ok one problem with starship troopers: they have all this inter galactic travel and laser plasma weapons. but no email. what’s that about? #
• best line from starship troopers? the damn bugs whacked us johnny! awesome. #

• just finished bathing kid. remarkably cool. #

• i hate it when something is described as “shareware” when it is in fact “trialware”. #
• we already have about a dozen tomatoes on our five plants. awesome. #

Sky Full of Bacon 01: How Local Can You Go? from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

Early Tomatoes, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

I had no idea we’d have tomatoes this early. They’re just starting of course but I’m now very optimistic about what kind of yield we should get. Spread among the five plants we have about a dozen tomatoes so far. Can’t wait!

Stolen Copper Downspout, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

The extension to this downspout was literally ripped off our house by some miscreant last week. Very irritating.

• @lixoarte hey there this is your test message. #
• @jernst “still awake”? c’mon man it’s 6:30a time to wake up. woo hoo! it’s a new day! anything is possible! yay! #

• @scootergirl you get the pizza and beer because you’re the only one who can really be trusted with it. take it as a compliment. #
• critter asleep (yay!). was going to have “curse of the golden flower” on in the bg, but opted for high fidelity. cusack’s last good movie. #
• not sick of iPhone related news? Really? Then visit this: http://tinyurl.com/5wg8d8 and learn about iPhone, salesforce.com and expenses mgmt #
• Closing old blog. Finally. I’m not bothering to re-direct to specific pages. Well the Honest Cow O Matic is coming with me. #
• Downside: awake at 4a. Upside: old blog shutdown complete. OMG MAYBE I SHOULD GET AN IPHONE? Coffee consumed. Cheerioes? Maybe yogurt. #
• “Tainted love” The chicago sun times is using the soft cell song title as a front page headline. Ftw? Meh, but mildly amusing. #
• Metra lotto wins agan. Yay. #
• In line for an iphone, i can’t help but wonder: where does this rank on the completely idiotic scale? 0-10. Probably a 6. Maybe more. #
• @scootergirl i am embarassed to admit that the camera has made an appearance. I toyed for awhile with before and after interviews. So…11? #
• @scootergirl lighting guy? Sound guy? What do you think this is, low budget porn? No way i could afford that. Sorry to hear about the ills. #
• So like 25% of my company is in line for an iphone. Hilarious. #
• At&t store on chicago in chicago out of 16gb Black iphones. Two people dropped out of line. Suckas. #
• Sold out. At&t could have told me that 2 hrs ago but refused due to policy. What sucks about an iphone is that i also have to accept att. Yk #
• some dipshit stole our copper gutter last night. completely ridiculous. I didn’t notice when I walked out this am. oh well. #
• Long day. Not as productive as i would like what with the iSink and all but SOW completed interview done deisgn doc finalizd & old blog down #

Three new Twitter follows today. Why?  Is my iAngst* that interesting?

No. Twitter spam.  And I just spent most of this train ride learning more about it.

The followers were pimping some site that re-directed to something called PerfSpot (to whom I will not link) which I have no idea what it is but it hardly seems perf to me.

*Trademark & patent & other rights pending.

** Whoops.  Apparently all the iFunnies are taken.

Up early, i decided I’d go for an iPhone. It was not to be. Having seen the line at the Apple store on Michigan Ave., I trucked on over to AT&T. The line was much shorter, but they wouldn’t tell us their stock level and they in fact ran out before I got one. Very irritating. So irritating in fact I bothered to write about it somewhere where people might actually read it.

Video rant coming soon. (Sorry, ScooterGirl.)

If you go to that link you’ll notice the interview with the developer. I was in front of him. In addition to the sales tax idea (which is basically a mash up between the iPhone’s GPS and a Sabrix transaction tax engine — and if you look at that link you’ll note it ends in “campaign=70160000000Cg9P”; that’s a salesforce.com campaign ID if I ever saw one — nice!).

The developer’s other idea was tracking the residual value of non-durable consumer goods as part of an individual’s net worth. For example, if you could use Craigslist to convert a blender to $20, shouldn’t that be part of your net worth? Hmmmmm.

In final news, the company — or some photos we placed on Flickr, anyway — were featured on Office Snapshots. Note the beer, pizza and Galaga. I freaking love Galaga. I remember playing Galaga in a laundromat in Idaho Falls, plugging in quarter after quarter. And I have it for the XBox. Mmmmm.

• @popejephei it’s on vacation. in the hamptons. with rich people. #
• Cooking dinner. Watching stomp the yard. Planning viscious dance attack. Yeah that’s right: someone will soon be getting served. Mwa hahaha #
• Oh man you gots to watch stomp the yard. Damn. That’s just good on demand hbo in HD. Bonus:the formulaic plot feels comfortably predictable. #
• @popejephei it did teach me valuable lessons about not giving up, about following my dreams, about respecting others and most of all myself. #
• i should really be getting ready for work. #

It’s official: I’m booked for Dreamforce 2008. Maybe this year I’ll be able to get the somewhat coveted “blogger” credentials that my boss sported last year.

If you’re going to be there, look me up. Definitely like to meet other SFDC bloggers.

And I could use your help. Go here to suggest a band. Please suggest Modest Mouse. It would make my day if they made it.

I’ll post more details about the who the what and the when as the date gets closer.

See you at Moscone.

So maybe you’re one of the people who combine iPhone usage with a salesforce.com subscription and the need to track travel expenses.  You’ll want to check out Expense2GO.  (Link fodder: iPhone salesforce.com travel expenses.)  It’s by Model Metrics, my employer.  A few of my co-workers have been busy spinning this together for the last little bit.  Nice work.

No, I don’t sport an iPhone.

Yet.

Here are more details. Here are even more details. And here are even yet more details.  And finally if you still want more here’s still more details.

• dealing with insurance quotes. blech. #
• the critter went to sleep on his own today. he protested a little bit and it took the better part of an hour, but he still did it. ataboy! #
• As i use the bank of america atm near union station in chicago i can’t help but wonder: how many people have sneezed on this number pad? #
• the critter is crying. we’re trying to do the gradual extinction sleep thing and he’s already over tired. poor kid. he’ll get it. #

• just catching up on a little of last year’s christmas blockbuster national treasure 2. #
• Metra lotto +1 #

• now attempting to backup the other mac. the one with a lot of video on it. seems slow over wireless so I’m now connected. mmmm. #
• At oakbrook mall. Mmmm. Consumption! (Not the tuberculosis kind). #

• catching up on some email. feeding the kid. probably going for a walk. later: charing meat. #

• urgent update: just burned some instant oatmeal. weekend bbq may not be a good idea. #
• Critter sleeping. Tomatoes now protected by anti-varmit fence. Also watered. I’m exercised. Dogs are walked. Mac backing up. Now what? #

• @popejephei i have no idea what the zen-like misunderstanding comment goes with. pimnk skull and cross bones? deodorant? metra lotto? hmmmm #
• Good news! According to future twitterer Libby @scootergirl and i are 11 minutes from paradise. Which sounds way dirtier than it is. #

• Finishing a partner dinner. Mmmmm. #
• catching up on a couple of long overdue non-work totally for fun emails. #
• personal milestone achieved: i knew about the top link on reddit before it was the top link on reddit. hooray. #
• Nothing says girly like a pink skull and cross bones iron on says girly. #
• Won the metra lotto!! #

Chicago’s Sales Tax rate is 10.25% as of today.  It’s not great, and I’m not in any way excited about it, but it’s got me to wondering: what is Chicago’s real sales tax rate?  There are a bunch of exceptions and then there’s all of the Amazon, Zappos and other online shopping expenditures that don’t collect sales tax.

So if you take:

Total Sales Tax Collection

and divide it by

Total Potentially Taxable Purchases

Then you get what our real sales tax rate is.

But the problem is that with all these complexities and exceptions and ins and outs, no one has any idea what the true effective rate is.  Which means we can’t really have much of a true conversation about sales tax.

It’s frustrating.

And the extremely cynical part of me wonders if that’s not the idea.

And that’s a real problem.