Bill Watt’s Blog

Looking for a little inspiration in the middle of the weekend so I’m watching Jerry Maguire on the Roku.

Oy… just heard the line where Dorothy (Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire) talks about being the oldest 26 year old in America. 26? I can’t believe I’m this far on the other side of 26.

So many people have written much longer and better posts than I have the will to do. Suffice it to say that I love the iPhone with the exception of the battery life and the keyboard being worse than what I had on the Blackberry.

This post idea was suggested by a friend…

So, a few years ago I went to a career management seminar sponsored by eBay. This was one of their “make sure all the resources know we care” initiatives. At one point the facilitator asked, “What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?” So I raised my hand and said, “I’m not sure this is actually good advice but I’ve been told that the best way to be is to keep my head down, work hard, and everything will take care of itself.”

The facilitator shook his head and said, “No, that might actually be the worst advice ever. I hope you didn’t listen to that advice.”

In early July I was sitting there watching TV with Alice and I have to tell you… I don’t think I’m watching live TV again. Good lord… as if the commercials weren’t painful enough the whole Bachelorette show is now one commercial mixed with little pregnant pauses and uncomfortable situations.

What do I want in a TV show (a short list anyway):

• fun or at least something with a story
• watch it when I want
• sometimes I want to take it with me (for the train or when I know I need to fill some time)

What don’t I want:

• dramas or silly reality like the Bachelorette (older Real World seasons were better than this last round in Hollywood)
• shows where commercials are 75% of the show content (pick any number of examples from Idol to any special episode of a normal show)
• awkward and manufactured setups that show the worst parts of the people featured
• Pseudo-celebrities manufactured involving vapid nouveau riche socialites who want their faces on TV (just look at the new Bravo show Date my Ex or Real Housewives of NYC (my previous post on a new show idea)

Ok… just a quick note to let the world know how vindicated I feel! Alice is on her “sabbatical” and every day I come home or time I call she is in the middle of using the AppleTV, the Roku. the xBox 360 to watch HD DVD’s, or using her iPod touch at the gym. I’ll continue to be excited about this right up to the day when she’s playing Warcraft.

Reviews and observations later today

Oh boy… I love new toys and the iPhone ranks right up there on things I look forward to buying.

Why am I transitioning:

• I’ve had an iPod touch since they came out and I like the interface.
• The enhancements they’ve made (sync to corp email and 3g speed enhancement) make the timing feel about right.
• I’m going to get it setup so I can use it as a connection for my laptop to the internet so I can work while on the train or when I travel.

Why ditch the blackberry that I have loved for about 9 years?

• Interface hasn’t changed much and we’re in an innovation world
• Things like always connected email as the norm. Even as blackberry continues to be the best at that… there is so much more going on. I find myself looking up Twitter posts, going for directions, and all kinds of stuff that are easy on the web and annoying (yet possible) on hte blackberry.
• My job has changed from eBay and FairMarket where I was primary contact and needed to type long responses. At Current there is a team that handles the support and I just dabble with answering escalations. As I learn more I’ll do more but we don’t have much in the way of off hours support that I can be helpful in answering. (Alice likes the change where the pager is not going off at 2AM)
• AT&T was already charging me the same price to have a Blackberry so it will be a lateral cost move to get the iPhone.
• One last thing that was outside the control of RIM - my company has done a miserable job getting the blackberry to work with Exchange (frankly, all of our email functions blow) so working with the iPhone can’t be worse. Seriously.

I’ll let you know when I get it and if it improves my life. But mark my words… they better not come out with a 32GB model 1 month after I buy the 16GB model. Grrr.

Yes, I’m about a week behind in writing. It has been a busy week.

As is my tradition, my gift to myself was a dinner with a bunch of friends. It is always comforting to know I have more friends than the room available and yet sad that I can’t invite everyone I wanted to invite. So, on Saturday we gathered at Twist and had a great time catching up with old friends, introducing some new friends to the group, and generally ate too much. It was fun mingling FairMarket, eBay,  and Current friends.

It was also nice to see the benefits of a Web 2.0 / global social networking world where the birthday wishes came in from all corners of the Earth.  One more way technology is making the world a bit smaller and way more fun.

Anyway- thanks to everyone who could make it, sorry to everyone who I couldn’t invite, thanks to everyone who wished we me a happy birthday, and thanks to the folks who shared their favorite things with me, and a special thanks to Amanda who baked my favorite cookies.

Mom and Dad visited CA from the 18th the the 25th and we had a great time hanging out. Here are a few of the places we ate (since I know several people only read / enjoy my blog when I focus on lighter topics like food):

• Olio - first night in CA and the 4 of us met to catch up. Here is Olio on OpenTable.
• Thursday night I had dinner with some folks from our UK office and didn’t get to see Mom and Dad.
• Crimson - Friday night we tried to go to Cafe Marcella but it has apparently been sold and closed. We ended up going to Crimson and having a really good meal an, surprisingly, good service. Here is Crimson on OpenTable.
• Korean BBQ - Saturday lunch was at one of my favorite places, Omogari Korean BBQ in San Jose’s Japan Town. Mom and Dad were kind enough to let me take them someplace new. Mom tried to get the hang of chopsticks but I’m not the best teacher she could have asked for
• Saturday night - trying to remember what we did for dinner. Hmmm….
• Sunday night we went to the Outback.
• A Bellagio - Always a favorite in our family… we ate here on Monday night after Alice got back from Chicago. A Bellagio on OpenTable.
• Twist Bistro - Tuesday night and our last dinner together. Twist on OpenTable.

It was a good week and awesome to see the folks. I need to get home more often and visit with the whole family.