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Today I was in the Apple Store in Westfield Valley Fair Mall. For some reason, there was a huge hold-up at the checkout. There were 3 checkout stations and all of them were occupied by people just standing there doing…I don’t know what. But sure as hell they weren’t leaving and the line to buy stuff was growing. And yours truly was last in line.
I was slowly getting pissed that all of the checkout stations were occupied by people standing there trying to accomplish god knows what and I wanted to pay for my thing and get the hell out.
A few minutes later, a bunch of the Apple Stores sales folks moved up with their little handheld checkout devices and saved the day. They checked all of us in line out within seconds and we were on our way.
I believe last Christmas, they introduced these little PDA checkout devices. Fearing a run for iPod Nanos and Videos for Christmas presents, they tried these devices out in hopes of solving bottlenecks at the main checkouts. Separate iPod only stations were setup to the side, and these devices could swipe your credit card, check it, you would sign on the touchscreen of the device, and then the receipt would be emailed to you. In the blink of an eye, you could jump past the regular checkout stations and get an iPod instantly!
I am glad they kept these devices. For those of us who are connected, they are awesome. No more slips of paper to lose (the receipts); they are emailed to me and I can file them as needed. And they are fast.
Just think if other retailers could build such integration with the Web while improving the speed of rushing people through checkout. I am reminded of going to Target who, despite having an incredible number of staggered, space-saving checkouts, has clearly the slowest checkout process I have ever seen. It is really painful. Target could learn a thing or two from the Apple Store for sure.

Today, I am sitting in a diner with a buddy of mine and we order orange juice and coffee to start.
I reach for my orange juice and somehow it slips out of my hand. Bang! It hits the table and tips over, spilling OJ all over the table and…splattering it all over my lap!
Gadzooks! I have an important meeting coming up in about an hour! Could I run home, change, and get out to the meeting on time?
But as I ponder all this in all of .35 seconds, I look down and notice that the OJ on my lap is beading up and not soaking in. I am already standing up (my kung-fu like reaction time causing me to stand up upon seeing the splashing OJ approaching me) so thankfully the bulk of the dripping OJ has been avoided. Unfortunately, there is still enough of it on me to be extremely embarassing!
Like I said, I notice that it’s beading up and not soaking in. I grab some napkins and wipe it off. Unbelievable. It hasn’t even soaked into the fabric and is sitting on top of it. The napkin just wipes off the fluid, and my pants are relatively dry with no embarassing wet spots.
What amazing fabric is this. These dress pants are from Banana Republic. They are grey, pinstriped dress pants made of wool and….obviously something else. OJ split onto them just beads right off.
What a life saver! I make it to my meeting looking like nothing has happened.
Is it the fabric? Did my last dry cleaner spray scotch guard on them? Who knows. Whatever it is, it is amazing that fluid didn’t stick to it at all.
Fabrics that wick sweat – flop sweat, smelly sweat, nervous sweat, sweat sweat; fabrics that don’t allow dirt and stains to stick. High tech fabrics are in and I am glad to see more of this come into the marketplace.

Yesterday I drove for the first time a Toyota Prius. I was very impressed by the gadget quality of the car and very much the vision of the future.
First, there is a display that tells you what propulsion system is operating at that time, electrical or gas engine. There are graphics depicting the flow of energy to the wheels at all times. One strange thing though, was the fact that on certain flat roads, the gas engine still kicked in. It would seem that the electrical engine should be used to conserve gas. One thing I’d like to see here is a computation of cost of gas added into the display. Then you could really see how much money you were spending to get somewhere, ie. instead of miles per gallon, maybe you’d see miles per dollar…?
Second, the 2006 Prius is truly MP3 player friendly. There is a headphone jack in the center armrest where you can plug your iPod in.
Third, all 2006 Prius’s have a video camera out the back, so you can see what is behind you as you back up into a parking space.
Fourth, the aerodynamics of this car are among the highest of all existing cars. It slips through the air better than 99% of cars out there, aiding in its high mileaage per gallon of gas.
Adding to the gadget quality is the fact that you press a Power button to turn on the car – no more turning the ignition key. It does definitely bring a toy-like quality to the car.
But looking at all this, one definitely sees a vision for the future in automobiles. Where do we see this with other manufacturers? All we get is the same damn car with some minor improvements here and there. Thank god for Toyota, for raising the bar in innovation. The world needs more leaders who show that staying non-visionary is synonymous with a slow death in the marketplace…

These last few months I’ve been trying to work on my next big thing. So somehow, I’ve begun raising money for my very own venture fund. How funny the world works. My venture fund is called Neuron Ventures.
Getting into my next big thing, after almost 9 years at Yahoo! and after taking about a year off to figure out my life, can bring up some very interesting thoughts.
You get into a routine, and now you need to break out of that. I think about new ways to juggle training and spending time with my daughter with the demands of managing a venture fund. I think about time for reflection and being, and not being on an accelerated treadmill everyday and how to make time for myself despite having others who demand my time. I also think about the future where I don’t want to grow old without anything to do; I like the fact that there is potentially something new I can hang my hat on. I do like learning and doing something I’ve never done before, and certainly creating a venture fund is definitely an educational experience.
There is also the social aspect; I believe I’ve been really fortunate to have met some fantastic people in the venture community who have shown support and have offered help. It’s nice to know that the poor reputation of venture capitalists is not reflected in the people I’ve encountered.
I’ll give it my best shot. If it doesn’t work out, then it’s back to finding something else….

I admit it. I’m a huge fan of Sex in the City and watched it religiously for years.
One of the earliest episodes was entitled “Models and Mortals” and poked fun at the men in NYC who are obsessed with dating only supermodels, who are in great abundance in NYC. Obsession with dating only supermodels – that statement alone says it all. One can only imagine the fantasy that these “modelizers” seek when the object of their fantasies walk in great numbers in this great city….!
Last night, I was reminded of this episode as I went to Megu, a super-hip Japanese restaurant towards the lower East Side of Manhattan, for a good friend’s birthday party.
I walk up to the counter and ask for where the party is. They tell me I’m the first one to arrive, so I go OK and prepare to walk to the bar to wait. I turn around and there is a long line of mature, wealthy-looking guys all dressed in dark suits of interesting designer cuts. On their arms were incredibly HOT supermodels! How could I tell? You could see by their Botox-enhanced pouty lips, the dripping gold accoutrements and their incredible height and ultra-thin bodies, driven to the clouds by their stiletto heels, that these were no ordinary women. They were SUPERMODELS.
I watch with ridiculous envy as they cling to their sugar daddies, whose obvious wealth attracts these women of fantasy. They prance in like when they march in on the runway, and their men raise their noses in arrogance to us normal guys – “I got the fantasy babe, you got nuthin’, loser” is the message they send and I hear it loud and clear. I step aside with my tail drooped down low in defeat and in deference to these alpha males, the pride of the pack, and let them pass.
And I wonder – the world has gotten so obsessed with externalities and how people look and are looked upon – is this where the world is going that we as a society care more about what’s on the outside than on the inside?
I also wonder about when I will go back to Megu to do more supermodel watching…

It was really tough this year writing Christmas cards. I got really busy
as Christmas approached (who doesn’t?) and I was hard pressed to find time
to write cards.

But still, I did it. I resisted reading, shopping, sleeping – and managed
to get all my cards done. I almost ditched the effort. I almost gave in
to despair and blew it off.

I’m glad I didn’t.

I got a few Christmas cards this year. Most had pictures of family and
their kids, or just their kids. It’s great to see how the kids have grown.
Inside, I found well wishes for good holiday cheer and a happy new year.

I think it’s great that people find the time to send cards. It shows that
they are thinking of you during the holiday season, a time when you’re
supposed to think of others.

However, ever since last year, I have taken a slightly different approach
to sending holiday cards than the sending of cards with only the holiday
wish in it. I chose to personalize each card with a special message to
that person or family based on my relationship to them this last year.

If you try this, you’ll find your mailing list will lessen considerably as
mine did. Over these last two years, I’ve only managed to really keep in
touch with a small close group of people. And I’m really thankful that I
was able to do so, given all my personal upheavals, my travels, and my busy
schedule.

And so to thank them, I have written a special, personalized message to
them in each card and have found the time to do so. I thank them for our
relationship and our continued friendship.

Unfortunately, this method does leave out a whole bunch of people, like
extended family whom I unfortunately don’t keep in close touch with. And
there are other friends whom I haven’t seen in a long while and they won’t
get a card from me either.

Perhaps it is good to send a mass mailing to everyone, in that people whom
you wouldn’t normally keep in touch with would also get to hear what you’re
up to.

But I chose to use my limited time to send a personalized message to those
who took the time over this last year to interact with me. Somehow I just
felt that this would be better and more full of value and care than if I
sent out a generically messaged card to everyone in my rolodex…?

A few weeks ago I had lunch with a colleague. We talked about our families and how there was one situation with a child who was going in a direction not too desirable. It ended up that what helped most was actually withholding help, after giving all types of help in the past.
I cannot help but think deeply on this concept, that sometimes you help more by actually not doing anything.
In our culture, we associate helping with the physical act of doing something. You buy a gift, you lend someone money, you hold a door open for an old lady. When disaster hits somewhere, like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, we immediately think of donating money, or going down there ourselves and helping with the effort.
There is nothing wrong with the above, as long as it’s an appropriate response of course.
But what I’m getting at, is that by helping we actually are focused so much on the act of doing something that we often forget that there is yet another powerful way of helping. And that, sometimes, is doing nothing. Don’t lend money. Don’t give a gift. Don’t do anything.
Sometimes it’s painful to not do anything. It could be a family member in need. Or even your child. You want to provide for them and in probably most cases doing something as help probably is the right thing to do.
But sometimes, it’s not. Because you could be reinforcing some behavior that doesn’t allow them to grow. Consider raising a child who always gets everything they want. They never feel hungry to work for something. They always think it’s there for them. Then they feel entitled. They think the world always has something for them. And they develop bad habits because they’ve never worked a day in their life, or known what it’s like to see a goal and know that they’ll have to work to get there. So they never get a job. They live exorbitant lifestyles. They know no commitment because they don’t have to commit; they get everything they want without working for it.
So we love them, our children. We want to provide for them as parents. But in raising my own child, I am acutely aware of what I do in my relationship with her. Because I see every step I take as a learning experience for her. So, I resist the temptation to buy everything they want. I don’t give them everything. They need to know limits and how the real value of what they do get. As they become adults, then they become more mature in their view of the world and how they give, and how they receive things from it.
This also applies to your parents, your aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, and sisters, friends, everybody. Sometimes these people we care for so much around us are getting too much help. And then finally when we realize that what we are doing isn’t helping and stop the physical act of giving as help, we stop doing and do nothing instead. Depending on the receiver of “nothing”, it’s sometimes really hard. They get defensive. They call you four letter words. They tell your friends that you suck. They don’t talk to you.
I can only say that sometimes when we help, we need to focus on the end result. And sometimes that end result may not include you in that relationship anymore, or at least for a long period of time. It can hurt, but if we focus on the end result, we can remember that the person now finally has a chance to grow beyond where they are now and take heart in that. But who knows, in the future your paths may cross again…

A little while ago I turned 40.
Somebody asked me, “Don’t you wish you were 20? Aren’t you freaking out?”
What a funny question for me.
I think that most people wish they were younger. Look at the popularity of Botox treatments and plastic surgery. Everybody strives to make themselves recapture some magic of youth.
What is this “magic of youth”?
The way you look? The way you feel? I must listen to teeny bopper bands and wear fashions from stores that make me look like a surfer dude, with baggy pants and ghetto sneakers?
I look at myself now and when I was 20. I am in much better health now, and have done things physically that I had no chance of doing when I was 20, like triathlons, ironmans and marathons. I have some advantage in genetics, so I could pass for 10 years younger if I wanted to. I have much more experience, emotional intelligence, better understanding and usage of my creativity. I communicate better and I have more skills. I have accomplished so much in my career that most people my age haven’t even gotten close.
Essentially, I am better now at 40 than I was at 20.
Do I wish I was 20?
Nope. Not me.

Well, it finally came to my site. I’m trying out the IP banning function but I am dubious that it will ensure long term prevention of tons of comments floating in. If that doesn’t seem to help, I’ll have to turn off comments on my blog.