Wired Gauge of the Economy

Don't judge this by its cover - judge it by its spine.

Back in the day - the last days of the last boom economy, we're talking mid 2000 or so, Wired magazines were FAT as all get out. Everyone was making money hand over fist, start-ups and venture money abounded - it was a great time, baby. I subscribed to Wired (still do) and the line of Wireds on my bookshelf - and their ever growing girth, was a reliable gauge of the economy. Though I didn't pay heed at the time, if I was savvy I would have seen the virtual Nostradamus on my shelf. As the economy fell through 2001 and went to rock bottom (or what we considered was rock bottom at the time - silly humans) the Wired magazines got progressively thinner.

I'm sorry to report that the Wired pictured above is the thinnest Wired I have ever seen. Looking at it from the outside I can't imagine that there is much in the way of advertising in this puppy. I'm almost loath to crack it, as even though I'm sure the contents will be as entertaining and informative as always, every turn of page sans ad will remind me of the state we are in. Let's hope that thicker Wireds are on the way - that we have reached the bottom of the trough.

Piece of advice, save your Wireds and put them on your shelf, in a few years you will have a graph of the economy, your bookshelf will be a predictor of economic prosperity and depression - heed the Wired oracle.

What's NEW You Say?

I've turned 43.

I've survived the holidays and the new year.

I made some homemade ravioli (see results evidenced above.)

I've been spending time on Facebook - apparantly I DO have friends, in bite-sized doses (yummy.)

My wife, knowing that this would be just my speed, bought me a "Book Of Ages" that tells who did what at what age - so I can look at people my age and older and realize that I still have a lot I can accomplish - or I can look at people younger and mourn my lack of accomplishment. (I always like the Tom Lehrer gag "When Motzart was my age he had been dead 8 years.")

I have been hosting regular movie nights - where I invite a few guys over and we cook and drink and watch a two hour movie in three hours (what with all the pauses for comments and asides and all.) These are particularly fun because we eat food related to the movie - the first film was Godfather, and we had my famous sausage and pepper sandwiches, the second film was The Quiet Man, and we had Irish Stew and Guinness. (Stew provided by one of the guests, the owner of Celtic Crossing, THE Irish Pub in Memphis TN.)


My wife and daughters make themselves scarce as apparently we are quite obnoxious, though I don't see what she's talking about.

OH - And someone sent me an email telling me what a self absorbed bastard I am (The quote was, referring to my political test below "Not Centrist, But Self Centered Egotist.")

Well, I'll have you know that I am an egoIST not and egoTIST my fine feathered friend.

Now off with you - the rest of you can stay. Come over and see a movie (still deciding on the next theme.)

Google is Watching Sposto Interactive

This image of Kutztown PA was the first image taken by Google's new satellite as a prelude of their planned takeover of Sposto Interactive. They must want our extranet, or to raid the fountainhead of talent that springs forth in this place we call "The Silicon Silo."

Sposto Interactive facilities are a few blocks north of here - most likely the center target of picture 2.

Apparantly the Google folks think SI is more important than Redmond, more important than Sunnyvale. Eat your heart out Googleheads - come and get a job at a real company.

Treehouse Party

I've often said that Memphis has the very best houses in the US (it's true, they don't call it "The City Of Good Abode" for nothing) but it goes much further.



Friends of ours invited us over for a party - in a tree house.

That's me and Caroline on the left. I love it here.

Damned good abode.

Sposto Intern Site

We get interns at Sposto Interactive - sometimes I run across their sites about their experience there. This one was fun - thanks David, nice work.

I Am Become "Billy Pilgrim"

I have become unstuck in time. I blame it, like everything, on the media.

Here's my logic, follow along. I'm driving down the road, and I have my XM sattilite radio running, and I'm jumping through the channels, listening to standards, listening to music from the 40s, listening to music from the 90s, the 80s the 70s - And it is ALL relevant to me in some way. I turn to a themed station and the Police "Don't Stand So Close To Me" that came out the year BEFORE I graduated from high school is playing. I listen, and am transported back to the year one of my favorite teachers was the subject of lurid rumors that mimicked the song.

I've become unstuck in time.

I'm watching Casablanca at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis - folks of ALL AGES are there - and enjoying the hell out of it, I'm about Bogey's age in tha film now, so I relate to it far better. (Maybe I should find a cause and run some guns or something - no damned romance.) Anyhow, the whole film is absolutely contemporary.

Nothing changes.

I can no longer remember what decade it is. (I know intellectually what decade it is, I can do the Deja-Vu check and KNOW that I've never been here, at this time, with this MacBook Pro, in this yellow shirt, and this black jacket, in this airport - I'm in Charlotte again.) I look through a magazine while sitting here waiting for my plane. Esquire - it goes through the decades, the styles change, but the patterns all come back around, to the point where the 2000s seem to rehash every decade before into a singularity style mashup.

Sure it's an IPhone Now, and a 8mm camera then. Hat, no hat, one button, two button, red button, blue button. I've become unstuck in time. My 30s and early 40s are a blur. My children have grown overnight, I've passed the point where my father is over twice my age - I'm catching up.

Maybe Kurt Vonnegut was embroiled in Mid Life Crisis when he wrote Slaughterhouse 5. He would have been in his late 40s - dreaming of another time, a HORRIBLE time in his life, and getting it out on paper, through the lens of a science fiction plot line.

My novel will be "Searching For Tralfamador". Or maybe just Vallerie Perrine.