The Couch Potato

You may/may not have noticed that things look a little different. I recently switched web hosts, abandoning Yahoo after numerous years in favor of a (much) cheaper alternative.

As a result, I had to basically restart my blog. All my posts made the move just fine, but all the little template tweaks did not. Probably just as well, as I’d spent way too many hours jiggering links in the sidebar. WordPress is pretty easy to adjust., but my code was probably a little less than clean.

Anyway, I’m sticking with the GG Bridge-themed skin for now. I kinda like the look and it’s just downright familiar. Don’t be surprised if you see other changes going on in the near future. I’m a professional tinker-er, so it’s just a matter of time.

Tags: blog, wordpress

Cyrus, Becky and I went down to the Mission district after work today to attend a book release party for our esteemed colleague. Mat Honan just published a rather comical book based on an equally comical website. Political comedy, in case you’re too lazy to click.

Mat’s one of those people we all wish we could be: smart, funny, capable of being self-supportive professionally while working on an entirely freelance basis. Gawd, I wish that were me.

Anyway, we headed down to the Dovre Club to buy a copy of the fine book and consume the two free drinks that came along with it. And free sushi to boot. What’s not to love?

Tags: becky, cyrus, obama

And I forgot to mention that we’re very sad - yet delighted - that our very good friends Cyrus and Becky will be leaving us soon. Becky just wrapped up her college stint and they’re off to France to teach English. The program they’re entering is through the French gov’t, so it’s legit. They’ll get paid enough to afford rent and food, plus they can go on strike whenever they damn well please.
Cyrus worked for a bit at Macworld, so we’re old colleagues. We’ve become pretty darn good friends since that time. And they just live a few blocks away from us in Rockridge, so we wind up seeing a lot of each other. They’re a great couple and it kinda makes us sad to know they’re leaving the country for a year or so. At least we know we’ll be invited to their wedding next spring/summer up in lovely Tilden Park.

They’re a great couple and we’re just happy they have such a great opportunity.

Tags: becky, cyrus, france

Yeah, work’s been keeping me busy lately (just like everyone else). The new job is pretty hectic due to the fact that everyone in the company wants my help on their project. Everyone. I’m not kidding. So I just listen to what they have to say, and in the end I just help wherever I can.

It’s made a little more hectic recently by Kayan Wong’s departure. She’s the project manager for the development and design teams, and today was her last at the company. On to bigger and better things. No sooner had she cleared out her desk than folks start requesting meetings with me to see how I can help them. Sorry gang, I’ve got a full plate already. You’ll just have to replace her.

Enough about work.

Ann’s been pretty excited because she has her big BlogHer convention going on this weekend. It’s a casual blogger gathering with female bloggers from all corners of the web. I teased her quite a bit, saying it would wind up resembling a reclusive cat woman jailbreak. But it sounds like it’s a much more diverse crowd than I anticipated. She’s enjoying herself and still has a couple days to go.

And in other news … if you’ve read Ann’s blog you know that her father and his wife recently moved to San Francisco. They’re officially up here full-time now, with an apartment over in the Fillmore district. It’s kinda weird given they haven’t lived in the same town together since Ann was 12 or so. But we get along great with both Mike and Hilda. No worries.

Now I have a lazy weekend planned, and I’ll pretty much be flying solo as Ann is off at her blogger shindig. July and August will probably be pretty low-key. Once September arrives, so will the busy social calendar.

We had a splendid weekend. Numerous social events and gorgeous weather made it one to remember.

It started on Saturday afternoon when we hit Miss Monica Tirado’s backyard BBQ. Delicious burgers, cold beer, and the usual cast of characters. Then the wife and I went home to get cleaned up before heading over to the city for dinner with Mike and Hilda. They were in town over the weekend and treated us to a lovely dining experience at Roy’s, which is an Asian fusion/Hawaiian restaurant. We ate like pigs and came home happy.

Then Sunday we drove down to Alameda for Phil and Lisa’s BBQ challenge—with a little soccer thrown in for good measure. Phil picked up ribs, brisket and sides from two competing BBQ joints (Everett & Jones and Great American BBQ), then it was up to the diners to deem one the winner. But really, the freeloaders were the winners, because it was all good. My fav was the GA brisket. Just right.

Jason and Lauren Snell also joined the fun with their two young’uns, Jamie and Julian. Yes, those kids are a couple darlings. Phil had the biggest game yet from the Euro 2008 tournament on his DVR: Germany v. Poland. We watched as the Germans rode roughshod over their poor, economically challenged neighbors to the east. In a hard bit of irony, it was one of Germany’s two Polish-born strikers who scored both goals.

But the most entertaining moment of the afternoon came from Julian Snell. He and Jamie had been cavorting pretty well, keeping themselves occupied and climbing around on the adults every once in a while. Then Julian goes over to the couch where Ann is sitting next to his mother. He tells Ann to ‘watch this’ and proceeds to drop the F-bomb.

WTF in extended form.

So, a somewhat-embarrassed and clearly upset Lauren proceeds to haul her little boy off to the bedroom for a little time in the penalty box. I think she dished out a little discipline on the way. After it was all over we had a good laugh. But when it happened, we were all a little too shocked to know exactly how we should react.

The Snells handled it well. But really, what can you do?

Tags: bbq, euro 2008, soccer

Came back from vacation and began my new role as Sr. Web Producer for Macworld, with expanding duties involving PC World. It will eventually become a bit of a departure from my original job as Online Managing Editor in that I’ll have less responsibility for daily editorial production and focus instead on project management. That’s good, because the print-to-web stuff is by far the most tedious item on my agenda.

For those of you who don’t know, Macworld is actually owned by PC World. We share all resources - HR, tech development, design, biz dev, circulation, etc. … hell, we even share the same floor. But we maintain separate editorial and sales teams. Actually, we shared the circulation department up until last week, when the entire department was laid off and all seven jobs were outsourced. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

I managed the Macworld redesign in close cooperation with the shared development and design teams. They’re a bright bunch and did a great job for us. And Macworld being the smaller of the two publications, we served as a bit of a guinea pig for our new designer, Jason Brightman. We adopted a new, fairly simple information architecture and fired it off. We’re still tweaking it, but we’re confident it will work.

PC World went through a redesign a couple years ago and they’re still trying to get it ironed out. Now the management team wants to try the Macworld plan with PC World. The problem is that PCW has a much more detailed production process (some folks would use more colorful language). We’ll pretty much have to take a complete look at some processes, and see where we can gain some efficiency. Total management speak, I know.

So a new phase begins with my career in San Francisco and I’m pretty excited about it.

Tags: macworld, pc world, web producer

Today we’re going to see Newcastle take on Chelsea at St. James Park. Ann and I took the official stadium tour yesterday and it was fantastic. Our tour guide - Sue - claimed she bleeds black & white, and I certainly believe her.

The tour included the entire stadium. We saw every level. We started in a luxury box, proceeded up to the cheap seats, strolled through the very cool children’s zone and the banquet areas. Then we hit the director’s suites and headed down to the pitch. We concluded with the stroll through the locker room and media area. Pics are on my Flickr page.
We’re very lucky that it will be a meaningful game. Not so much for Newcastle, because they can’t really go anywhere in the standings since the season will end next weekend. But the Blues entered the weekend tied with Manchester Utd. atop the Premiere League. And Man U put the hurt on West Ham on Saturday, so Chelsea must win to stay in the race. I’m sure the local boys would love to knock those rich London jerks out of the running.

Overall, we’re having a great time in Newcastle. It’s got a lively bar scene and we’re having no trouble finding things to do. Should be a great day for football.

Tags: chelsea, football, newcastle, nufc

On Tuesday Ann and I had a great day packed with activity. First we met up with the old Macworld UK editor - David Fanning - who I’ve kept in touch with over the years. He now has his own PR outfit and works in a quaint office space near Borough Market.
He bought us a fine lunch and we enjoyed a pint at supposedly the oldest pub in England - the George Inn. It certainly looked like an ancient pub, with old sagging beams across the front. It’s now owned by the National Trust so at least it’s cared for properly. Dickens and Shakespeare are both known to have imbibed there.

After saying farewell to Mr. Fanning we jumped on the tube and made the quick hop over to the Tower of London. I’ve never been there before and I’m glad we made the stop. I always imagined it was just a big dungeon used to house torture chambers, but it’s actually a long-standing royal palace. Torture just happened there in the normal course of things.
Anyway, we jumped into a guided tour by one the costumed yeoman. He took the large group around pointing out the history and highlights. Well worth the price of admission. And of course, no trip to the Tower would be complete without a walk through the the hall containing the crown jewels. Pretty gaudy, I have to say.

Then we went off to the new offices of Macworld UK up near St. Pancras/King’s Cross station. Our good friends Mark, Karen and Rosie - all IDG employees in one form or another - wanted to take us for a drink. So we kindly accepted and headed off with those three and another IDGer, James.

We wound up staying at the Somerstown Coffee House most of the night and even enjoyed a delicious meal there. Karen is currently under medication, so she wasn’t able to tip a proper class with the group. But she’s already planning another outing for Friday, when she’ll be able to demonstrate her alcohol-fueled skills.

So after a long day, numerous pints of Bombardier and Strongbow, a couple meals and too many stories to count, Ann and I headed back to our hotel in the London County Hall for some well-deserved rest.

Today’s we’re planning an easy afternoon, then off to see Mama Mia at the Prince of Wales Theatre at 7 p.m. Wish me luck.

Tags: bowling, london, macworld uk, tower

Woke up at 3 a.m. on my first full day in London and couldn’t go back to sleep. I thought I’d done everything right, but to no avail. So be it.

That means I was out on the street as the sun came up here in Westminster. Our hotel is right across the river from parliament, and London is quite a bustling town on an early Monday morning. I strolled over toward Victoria Station and had a lovely tea and croissant. Then I tried out my snazzy London Travelcard on the return trip via Tube.
The weather has cleared and it’s actually sunny. Once Ann finally wakes up we’ll head off for a full English breakfast.

Tonight I’ll try to get back on my regular sleep schedule. Wish me luck!

Tags: england, london, united

As most of you know, Ann and I have been planning a lovely trip to the U.K. We’re taking off this Saturday. Can’t wait.

One of the highlights of that trip - for me, anyway - is the soccer game we’re planning to attend. (See previous couple posts). Plans have been customized to allow us to be in Newcastle at a specific time just so we can see the lads play Chelsea.
Well, today I visited my fav fan site - NUFC.com - only to find out that the game has been moved from Saturday to Monday. GUH!

We’re supposed to be flying to Dublin on Monday. Shit.

So today I dialed up ryanair.com and managed to change our flight booking from Monday to Tuesday. And I also have e-mails sent to our hotels in Newcastle (to extend one night) and Dublin (to trim one night off our visit).

I also managed to get a refund on our train tickets from Newcastle to Edinburgh - where our original flight to Dublin was supposed to depart. Now we’re leaving directly from Newcastle instead.

Hopefully these plans will hold firm. I also hope I haven’t screwed anything up.

Tags: chelsea, newcastle, nufc