Monday, September 22, 2008

Skins Win & FFL Progress


Gameday: Skins v. Cardinals
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

As suspected, the Skins-Cards game was back and forth and required a defensive stance in the final minutes to ensure victory after a botched 52 yard field goal. The victory puts the Skins at 2-1, and squarely in the hunt in the NFC East. Next up, Dallas... IN the Big D, which should serve as a pretty good test to see how for real the Skins really are. As everyone has seen these first three weeks, Dallas is good, very good. But, after losing to the Giants in the first week (which I attribute to the team still not being familiar with the offense and a rookie head coach), beating a 'decent' Saints team, and an overrated Cardinals team, we do not have a real measure of how good this Redskins team is.

Next week, we will know.

As far as my fantasy football teams go this season, the teams have taken two completely divergent paths. In the big money league, I will sit atop the standings at the end of this week at 3-0. In my 2nd league, I will sit in the basement at 0-3. Not sure how I ended up with such good/bad teams, but as long as I can finish in the money in one of them, I'll be happy. Stay tuned.

Full game day pics can be seen here.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Game Day: Redskins v. Cardinals

Three weeks into the season and I am at my first Skins game as a
season ticket holder. We couldn't have asked for a better football day
than today. The day dawned in the low 50s with a high of 80 expected.
Perfect fall football weather.

The tailgate fare was breakfast food provided by phillip and myself
that would have competed well against our traditional Penn state
tailgates. Egg and sausage casserole, bacon, eggs, sausage, and little
smokies. Doesn't get any better.

All we need now is a Skins win...

Friday, September 19, 2008

Mark Zuckerberg Speaks (continued)

Ted Leonsis posted this today about Zuckerberg's post on Facebook, and I agree with what Ted is saying...

I Doubt Mark Zuckerberg Wrote This Blog Post

I don't think Mark wrote this either.

Finally, Zuckerberg Speaks

To follow up on my post last Friday about the change to Facebook, it's nice to see Mark Zuckerberg finally weigh in.

Zuckerberg: 'Change can be difficult,' but the redesign stays

Basically, your options are to accept the change, or switch.  Only time will tell if enough users choose the later.  My thought is that like any drug, once hooked, it will be hard to stop, no matter how painful the experience is...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

On the Road

Wish we could have had a few more sunny days while we were here - I
know a direct contradiction from yesterday but as we pile into the car
to head home I will miss the sun.

I'll also miss the chaos that was four dogs and an eleven month old
and I'll miss laying in bed watching football while listening to the
waves outside. I'll miss David's constant smile as he crawled/walked
to everyone and I'll miss the relaxing moments with Lauren.

It was a true vacation and now it's time to head back home and hit it
hard again.

So... A dog, a wife, and a new job since the last time down here a
year ago. What will it be a year from now...

How Do Dogs Know?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Vacation


Sunrise
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

So, it's that time of year when we head down to Kitty Hawk to spend a few days with the family and get some beach and sun time. This year it's a tad more exciting with the addition of our little pup Match, and an eleven month old who is starting to take a few steps. Needless to say, it's been rather loud and crazy.

Follow along here.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Hey Facebookers... Quit Your Bitchin'

A million people have blogged about this already this week, but I'm still happy to weigh in myself. What am I talking about? The new Facebook. With your friend's Facebook status updates ever-present in your life, whether it be through your IM client, browser, iPhone, WAP, etc., you instantly know when there is either a major newsworthy event, or Facebook has done something to upset their users. In this case, the final roll out of the new Facebook has been one of those events that everyone has to voice their opinion on. And you know what? I don't really care what anyone thinks about the new Facebook, so please quit your bitchin' and stop spamming me with your whining. It's just something new to get used to, and this, like most things will pass, and in the long run you will find yourself better served.

Someone yesterday wrote a fairly objective post about how a significant site redesign always incites a reaction (the source escapes me for the moment), and Facebook is actually lucky that so many users are paying such close attention. The same thing happened when USA Today integrated their social elements throughout their website as a part of a significant redesign. As I cruised through the feedback, the large majority of it was NOT good. But did USA Today crumble, give in, and revert back? No, as any good publisher would do, they reviewed the comments, separated the emotional and passionate comments from the invaluable, objective feedback. As a former product guy, I'm sure they weighed this feedback with their business objectives and have slotted some items as future product changes, and others as "good ideas, but will require more justification to implement.

What I find interesting throughout this whole process is where Facebook stands on these changes and what their users are saying. I am a big proponent of interacting with your users and not only listening to what they are saying, but talking back. Having a conversation with your users. For large publishers, this is no small task and it may require additional resources to sort through the feedback, or it may require the business owners to spend a little more time with their product, but in the end it not only gets to the root of the problem, it reinforces the brand-user relationship. So where IS Facebook on this whole change? From what I have observed thus far, invisible, not that this won't change.

I write this because I find how strongly people have reacted to this change, and how public the dissent has been to the change funny. But as anyone knows, the people who like the change will more than likely keep quiet because they are happy and can go about their business. It's only the relative "handful" of users that have been upset. "Relative" meaning that only a few hundred thousand out of the multi-millions of users have joined the various groups to protest (this figure I also read somewhere but can't remember where).

I ask all of you to accept the change, know that Facebook IS taking note in some way, and understand that progress cannot come without some short term cost. The minor inconvenience that you are suffering from at this time IS that cost... deal with it and find somewhere more product to direct your energy - perhaps by offering actual constructive feedback. Now THAT'S a new idea.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Match's First Haircut


Match's First Haircut
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

Took Match the groomers today and above is the result of her first haircut. For the rest of her haircut shots, as well as pictures of all the latest going-ons, visit my Flickr site.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Coffee Shop Morning


Morning Coffee
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

Despite the humidity, it's a beautiful morning to start the day at the coffee shop. There is a nice breeze, and the low clouds are keeping it in the mid 70s.

Can't help but be productive and get a head start before the craziness and distractions of the office.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Another Run

I'm not sure if it's the GPS watch or what, but I've had more urges to go for runs in the past few weeks than I've had in the past few years. It certainly helps that my knees are doing OK as I mentioned in my last running post, but I look forward to running up some stats with the watch.

Today's run can be found here.

Of course, I would have gone to the gym this morning if our puppy had not kept us up all night long. Lauren and I decided to move Match to our bedroom last night (in her crate of course) and see if she would sleep better. What did we learn? We actually sleep WORSE when she's in the room and it has NO impact on how she sleeps. I don't think I ever knew how restless she was until last night

Hopefully tonight will be better...

Lazy Bird


Blue Heron & Dead Fish
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

Lauren and I took advantage of the beautiful weather that followed Hanna by getting out and walking parts of the Billy Goat trail that we had not walked before yesterday morning - Section C. While on our walk along the tow path of the C&O canal we caught this lazy blue heron eating a dead fish that must have gotten caught up in the heavy rains on Saturday.

You can kind of make out the dead fish directly below the heron. The fish was actually pretty big... couldn't tell what it was though I assume it was a bass.

Jim Henson Exhibit

We went to the Jim Henson exhibit on Saturday at the Smithsonian to do something fun while it rained. While a relatively short exhibit, it was still very cool to see Henson's sketches, original characters, commercials, shorts, etc. Seeing the different characters brought to life brought back a lot of memories of Kermit, the Fraggles, the Muppet Show, the Muppet Movie, and of course Sesame Street. Did you know Oscar the Grouch was originally orange??

I think the coolest part of the exhibit was reading this quote, which reminds me so much of how my approach to things...

"I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked out for me."

I've been accused many times of being too optimistic, too forgiving, and too willing to move on, but you know, when I look at my life and how things have worked out for me, I really can't complain. I've never been happier.

Thanks for affirming that for me Jim.

Check out the exhibit while it's in town (through October 5, 2008 - my birthday, incidentally).

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Day After


Old Town in the Morning
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

After the beating that the Skins took last night, I needed something to clear my mind and refocus for the day. This morning's run did the trick. I used to hate getting up early and exercising, and had even more trouble doing it outside so early, but I'm slowly getting into running before work.

My run this morning was the first time I'd surpassed 5 miles since my knees started acting up a year or so ago. Surprisingly, they didn't bother me at all, though as you can see from the chart, I was a bit slower this morning than I had been on my previous run.

Oh well, the point was to get some exercise, energize for the day, and spend some time outside before Hannah moves into the area this weekend.