JohnA lifeBlog

So I received an e-mail from one of my least favorite credit card companies tonight. They were all excited to share with me their new website innovations. The problem? Why in the FUCK did they choose to customize my sample image with my real-world transactions on a totally insecure server?

Look, I know that I have no privacy thanks to “9/11″. And who can forget the services provided by Seisent that make me simply a demographic.

Alas, pay no attention. Please continue to fly mini-American flags, max out your credit cards, and pay attention to the Homeland Alert System® which has NEVER actually been at level green or blue.

The first earthquake I have experienced since I moved out here!

If you combine that with the thunderstorm we had last night, I feel like Armageddon is upon us!

Oh, and we have names for the girls!  I’ll post more later.

So, I adopted 2 adorable kittens on Friday, and need your help. They need names! Here are their pictures. First, this is my cuddler:

Second, this is my explorer:

So, any thoughts? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Today I donated $50 to the Chris Dodd for President campaign.  As you can tell from my sidebar graphic, Chris Dodd is not who I support for President.  However, while making that contribution, I wrote this in the comments field:

I am not a Democrat, but this donation is my way of saying thank you for your firm and public commitment to prevent the Telecom Immunity Bill from coming to a vote in the Senate.

For those who don’t know, Senate Democrats have given the president and the major telecom companies a free ride in regards to the warrant-less spying conducted on our very own citizenship.  The president says it was in response to 9/11, but sadly, this spying began 6 months prior to the 9/11 attacks.

So far, only Chris Dodd has publicly promised to do whatever he can to prevent this bill from passing.  And that makes him worthy of my hard-earned money.

So, I was invited to the super-cool you’re not good enough beta for GrandCentral. I set it up today, and I am completely amazed.

This is the killer service that Google bought for a song. It is, by far, the most amazing unified communication platform I’ve encountered.

For a unique perspective, here’s some history. Me and some of my best friends tried to launch a Unified Contact Center startup in 1999. The problem then was that there was no such thing as VoIP… our ideas were best served cold using Dialogic cards.

True, we’re all doing fine now, but I can’t help but think what would have happened if VoIP would have been mainstream when we wanted to connect everyone regardless of platform, location, or bandwidth.

Oh, and in case you choose to ignore the HUGE FREAKING BANNER AD TO MY RIGHT, my new GrandCentral phone number is the super-easy-to-remember 404-492-9992.  From this point forward, this is the only new phone number I will provide.  Google, once again, you have knocked it out of the park.

How do you measure, measure 30 years?

Sadly, no matter what metric is used, it feels like I haven’t really accomplished a whole lot.  Everyone else has house payments, videos of their kid’s first birthday, and PTA meetings.

Me?  I have a home theater.  And a 1995 Buick Century.

Happy 30th, John.

I turn 30 on Thursday.

Lame.