I love it!

. . .

MT moved into new offices; everybody was so dressed up that I decided to take some photos. Here are some more pictures of my coworkers:

Tim - he's such a goofball (but you'd never think it). Here he is, closing some deals (he's in sales)

Steve sharing his thoughts on the way to implement a new feature

President Sloan mulls the Afghanistan strategy. (RIGHT?!)

The dev area. Funny story - when we were moving last week, I told the devs that since we were becoming so professional, we should dress up real nice so we could talk trash to sales about professionalism in the office (devs have a reputation for being too casual). Little did I know that Rion (Dir of Sales) also asked his team to dress up the first day - so nobody got to make fun of each other today. But we all looked really sharp in the nice, new offices.

Here is Rion

Arne. Lover of Porsches (I'm starting to warm up to them as well!)

Guerric and I have done a bulk of the UI work on MT - the team's starting to grow (we added a remote dev recently). I hope to return to product and help out wherever I can in the UI side of things soon...

&

"That sounds like a problem well-suited for future Roy."

The stage for this performance is amazing - so simple yet so effective. 

In lieu of life-changing events (my life is far too blessed), I will mark the end of eras with material items.

Tonight, with the help of Craigslist, I unloaded the last of my fishtanks. At one point, I had 100 gallons of aquarium activity in my place (one 60-gallon and two 20-gallon tanks). I got rid of the 60-gallon to make space for my piano, and I unloaded the other 20-gallon shortly after that.

I had kept the last 20-gallon fish tank, but frankly I got sick of it. It didn't fit in well with my place, and I was too lazy to put in an effort to make it awesome again. (Even worse, I think I was paying about $10/month in my electricity bill to keep the lights on that thing on - halogen lights are expensive!)

The fish tank, and my misguided attempt to replace friends with fish is now over (jk).

Another end of an era: I finally got payment for the Canon Digital SLR I put up on eBay - so there goes that camera... In two days, I unload the two "big-ticket" items I bought in '08...

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, did an interview. In it, a most magical quote: (emphasis mine)

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

I've never regretted stopping when I did.

This is one life skill I've yet to acquire. Knowing when to walk away. It's the secret to almost every facet in my life - the trick in blackjack and gambling in general is knowing when to walk away. Staying two hands too late can be too hands too many. Holding onto Tabulas three months too many led to it being nearly worthless today - oh well.

I've had a tendency to cling onto the last shred of comfort in situations I should let have let go. And the longer you hang out, the harder it is to let go.

But like all things, one has to find balance. The opposite approach of cutting things off too early and never being attached stunts your growth.

Oh, happy medium, where are you?

Saw this in Marketo, our marketing automation system.

If only women thought of me like Marketo does - they should call Roy Kim cause he's ****HOT****.

Poking fun of things with the benefit of hindsight is fun. Here are some choice examples: 

October 17th, 2008: A Liberal Supermajority

If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.

Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s.

Of course, nobody realized the Democrats would be incredibly inept.

September 29th, 1999: Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

There's no way this backfires.

And one from the technical side of things:

(Undated): XFN: Introduction and Examples

XFN provides the basis for a world-wide distributed network of personal connections. Proprietary data-owning services like Friendster could be superceded by XFN crawling and searching sites —a sort of "Friendorati," as it were. The advantage of a Friendorati-style network is that it allows every individual to fully express themselves through personal weblogs and web sites, instead of to the limited degree permitted by a proprietary service's user interface.

It's a good thing Facebook isn't proprietary... err...

"He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings, and all beings in his own self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye." - Buddha

I've been going through some self-examination on where I stand in terms of morality lately.

A few weeks ago, I started looking for another home church in SD, but I've given up (once again). I can say that Korean churches are the most awful thing ever - they all seem encompassed by drama of some sort, which really detracts from what you're really there for.

In high school, I was the closest thing to being a religious fanatic, and I look back now at embarassment towards that time. My thinking was so judgemental and high-and-mighty (when I hadn't proved anything at all). Part of that rubbed off in college, when I started disliking the church when I saw the hypocrisy of people claiming to be good Christians, and being anything but in real life. I saw too many people trying to give off the external image of being a good Christian, while hiding a part of their life that I didn't feel was consistent with the teachings.

My church had a huge split my sophomore year of college, and I pretty much stopped going after that. Since then, I haven't seen much to re-encourage my faith in churches - my parents church had some drama, and the offshoot of the church I used to go to has gone through some massive drama lately, too.

I tried out two churches in the SD area, and tried to find a connection to the churches, but I couldn't. The messages weren't consistent with my thinking towards life anymore. I've grown far less interested in the salvation of my soul (far too esoteric).

It's really no surprise that by the my old standards, I've grown far more obsessed with worldly things. Focusing on success, career, and finding happiness in the material things of this world would have been frowned down upon by past Roy.

A short tangent: one important distinction I've distinguished over the past year has been the concept of "nice" and "good." I used to be obsessed with being a "nice" guy, but now I realize how misguided that was. Conceptually, I had confused with being "nice" with being "good", which I believe is a moral imperative for all humans. To me, goodness is about improving the lives of the people around you and not taking advantage of people, whether it's people you know or complete strangers. Goodness can manifest itself in "nice" actions, which is why I confused being "nice" with being "good."

But now, like religion, people wrap themselves with that "nice" moniker when they're just projecting an image of being nice. Trying to be nice is being interested in others' perceptions of you, while being good is done with the interest of self-satisfaction without caring what others think of it.

Trying to be a nice guy ended up with me being a passive-aggressive spineless person at the mercy of others feelings. It's almost worse in terms of personal growth, as you're layering in an additional layer to your personality that hides your true character. And for what end? I want to be good, and if people think I'm nice because of it, that's cool. But goodness is an internal imperative that tries to breed an unselfish attitude towards the world.

Back on topic. The pursuit of materialism and the worldly things is not without a downside: overfocusing on that aspect of life makes you overly selfish and shuts you off from making the world a better place.

To me, I'm tempering my worldly pursuits with an increased emphasis on trying to be good - this is the balance that I'll need to maintain in my life to stay grounded.

Random acts of kindness, acts of private generosity, discovering truth, and attempting to understand the plights (big & small) of those around you and acting to help are imperatives that drive my life.

. . .

So what about morality? What's stupid of me in the past was that I used to think that the personal actions of those around you defined their morality. I used to look down upon people who drank, smoked, did recreational drugs, gambled, chased women, and such.

I think the biggest shift in my thinking lately is that I no longer apply a moral filter to the actions of people around me. People choose the decisions they make, and it's none of my business to judge them based on those actions. As long as you're truthful and honest about who you are, and what you do doesn't hurt others, go wild! (Spoken like a true Libertarian, I suppose)

I can say that my compass of personal actions is quite a bit different than what I expected. We'll continue to see how much I change.

. . .

The one thing I will still be disapproving of are people who don't try to reach their potential, or try to improve themselves. We live in the greatest country in the world, at the pinnacle of humanity, with the resources and tools to make an impact in so many different ways.

Conan's quote from his final show is awesome:

"All I ask of you is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism- it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen."

Figure out what you want to do. Work hard at it. Be a good person. Make the world a better place. That's it.

My favorite quote comes from Barbara Hall, and has been something I want to abide more towards (it's so simple!):

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.

(Today I'm working on an important presentation, so obviously I'm writing long rambling posts)

One more passing thought:

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha

Tying in with the Barbara Hall quote in my last entry, another major shift in my thinking over the past two years is not focusing so much on the future.

I've seen two ways that focusing on the future leads to bad decision making in my life: (1) I have made bad decisions, thinking that the forward-thinking decision making would justify the compromise in my present-thinking state. It didn't happen. (2) It gets me thinking that I can control the future. I can't. Humans are pathetic by nature - I can't control the future, and any type of thinking that leads there seems is futile. That's not to say act like a jackass and stop planning for the future - I believe that if you act in goodness, it will have positive future ramifications, although you won't know what they are.

When you make plans, understand they can and will be broken. None of us know which path we need to take for discovery and self-realization - there will be false starts and lots of circling around. But a focus on the present is what's important - take action today instead of constantly "planning" to do something about it.

The present is all that matters. Soak it in and enjoy it.

Kid Cudi - Day n' Nite

Day and night
I toss and turn, I keep stressing my mind
I look for peace but see I don't attain
What I need for keeps this silly game we play
Now look at this
Madness to magnet keeps attracting me
I try to run but see I'm not that fast
I think I'm first but surely finish last

Cause day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone, through the day and night
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night
Day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone some things will never change
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night

Hold the phone
The lonely stoner, mr. solo dolo
He's on the move can't seem to shake the shade
Within his dreams he see's the life he made
The pain is deep
A silent sleeper you won't hear a peep
The girl he wants don't seem to want him too
It seems the feelings that she had are through

Cause day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone, through the day and night
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night
Day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone some things will never change
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night

Slow-mo
When the temple slows up and creates that new
He seems alive though he is feeling blue
The sun is shining man he's super cool
The lonely nights
They fade away he slips into his white nike's
He smokes a clip and then he's on the way
To free his mind in search of

Cause day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone, through the day and night
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night
Day and night
The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone some things will never change
The lonely loner seems to free his mind at night

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In my effort to reconsider all things in life, I decided to take a look at my sign. (Emphasis mine)

Sagittarius 

Your element: Fire
Your ruling planets: Jupiter
Symbol: The Archer
Your stone: Turquoise
Life Pursuit: To live the good life
Vibration: Overly expressive - frequent burnouts
Sagittarian's Secret Desire: To make a difference in the world

Description:
Ruled by the benefic planet Jupiter, Sagittarians possess a natural exuberance, sense of adventure and love of life that makes them one of the most optimistic zodiac signs of all. Like their astrological symbol - the Archer - Sagittarians are renowned for aiming their sights towards whatever it is they find alluring - a love partner, dream job, vacation - and making it their own. They believe that anything is possible - and because of this belief system, Sagittarians are adept at seeking out their very own pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

But sometimes trying to tie down these free-spirited individuals is frustrating for those around them. Sagittarians are happiest on the move - exploring new cultures and ideas and many are attracted to occupations related to travel, the media, outdoor work and philosophical pursuits. In love, their catch-cry is "don't fence me in". But once they find a partner who understands their need to retain their own sense of self and identity, Sagittarians can be the most big-hearted, generous and fun-loving companions of all.

Freedom loving, optimistic and honest, Sagittarians are ruled by Jupiter, the planet of abundance and higher learning. The wisdom of Jupiter imbibes Sagittarians with an inherent need to develop their own unique philosophy of life. The Centaur is their astrological symbol, and it gives many insights into the Sagittarian personality. The higher-evolved Sagittarian learns to integrate the two ends of the Centaur (half-human, half-beast) in order for their arrow (another Sagittarian symbol) of higher aspirations to be more on the mark. Although they are intellectually and spiritually advanced, Sagittarians are notorious for their lack of tact. In relationships they demand independence, but when in love, it can't be denied that they are one of the most big-hearted signs of the zodiac.

Quite interesting. Do you think this is an accurate assessment of me?

Thanks to Pete for reminded me of the perfect Friday song:

Hope all you have a wonderful Valentine Day's weekend!

I have reluctantly joined the billions of housewives and hipsters with an iPhone. The Nokia clamshell I've had for years started fritzing out a few months ago. It'd randomly turn itself off in the middle of calls, and the problem only got worse.

Well, yesterday, it pretty much stopped working altogether. So after getting a delicious lunch at Taco Bell ($5 Volcano Box is a great deal!), I wandered over to AT&T to see my options.

Apparently selling straight-up cell phones is a losing business. I wanted to find a phone that had great battery life, great reception, and texting (I don't even care about the camera, really).

In the interest of market segmentation (and I witnessed this firsthand) - the only people who buy non-smart phones are old people who claim they don't want the "bells and whistles." (And weirdos like me). SOOO, all the non-smartphones were pretty ridiculously big or ridiculous crappy with their Java apps. And the COST! They were $80 or so with a two-year commitment. WTF?! Might as well dump $120 more to get an infinitely better phone.

So I played with a Samsung, a Blackberry, and an iPhone. Guess which one won... yeah.

So while I've long been the technology exec with an aversion to smartphones for fear of intruding too much on my personal life, I have to reluctantly give up this title. The first thing I did when I got my phone? Hooked up our MT calendering and email systems.

Le sigh.

Some observations (which are about two-years late):

• My "leaving the apartment" behavior of grabbing my iPod, my phone & my wallet is now down to just grabbing my iPhone and my wallet. It makes me feel naked everytime I leave.
  
• Battery life is acceptable.
  
• 3G is not that bad - I was chilling at the beach last night and was able to download a Twitter client (my iPhone keeps deleting random apps every time I sync - wtf user error?) and post within a couple of minutes.
  
• The funnest part of the phone? Adding profile pictures for all my contacts - I ended up loading most of my photos on the phone so I could set pictures.
  
• I don't think I've used Safari yet - amazing how location-centric I've become on the web; everything I need is on FB, the Calendaring/Mail app, Wikipedia, and Yelp.
  
• I installed Remote, so I could be super lazy and control my music from my bed, which is two long steps from my computer. Lulz.
  

Commitments:

• I will NOT install any games on the iPhone.
• I will NOT check it compulsively in meetings. 
• I will NOT "install a couple of apps" when I'm bored in public.
  
• I will NOT check my work stuff if I find myself having "nothing to do."

The commitments begin tomorrow.

I actually used the (legitimate) excuse: "Sorry I'm late, I couldn't find my car."

I walked right past it on the 2nd floor of the garage, then subsequently went to the 5th, 6th, and 3rd floors before realizing it was parked by the entrance.

/absentminded

And if I were, I'd be replacing it with just-as-embarassing content.

For example, I decided to snapshot the top songs I've listened to in iTunes:

Wow, I *really* like pop music...

Homeowners to banks ... to sovereign nations? The future really scares me.

Also, ugh. I certainly agree with the majority, although I doubt the GOP are going to be able to put up a worthy candidate. But Barack winning the re-election (which is more than likely) isn't a bad thing, if the Republicans control enough of Congress. A balanced legislature/executive branch didn't do too much to harm Clinton...

Do you think Haddaway ever figured out what is love?

Whoa. Too excited to NOT post this: Windows Phone 7 Interface: (emphasis mine)

Microsoft's approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself.

Out of the box, this information is organized into areas called hubs, which follow the user's areas of interest. Accessible through live tiles in the home screen, the Me (the user), people, pictures and video, music, and games—plus the omnipresent search—hubs give views into several data sources, connecting and presenting them into an interweaved panoramic stream. These hubs dig heavily into many databases, both locally and into the cloud.

YES YES YES YES YES. GOD, YES! While I am very impressed with what Apple pulled off, I want to accomplish something far more with MindTouch. A platform which lends itself to the creation of different applications, all centered around the same data. The model that Apple used, where each app itself performs a specific function, is not going to work well when you need to be productive. If anything, the fact that Apple apps are not productive is a positive thing - most people just want to kill time (and look important at the same time).

If intranets are either people-centric or project centric, it would be a wise move for the underlying platform to provide expansive coverage on both ends, and then allow VARs to take those pieces and remodel them for their specific use cases.

A single system, for me, that would allow me to manage internal documentation (with a formal review process around them), tap into sales/marketing metrics to help inform product direction, while keeping an eye on the user activity streams of my direct reports would be incredibly empowering. And the possibilities around applications are endless - you could plug and play any type of solution that involves data mashups.

The hardest part is "guiding" partners to build the tools the way you want them - they have to buy-in on the fact that the overhead of development and the UI will be worth it.

And this is why the Microsoft model (if it's true) is so exciting (and provides a big relief, as I feel like I've been the only one really formulating thinking along this line) - if we take a data centric approach to application building, it's easier to guide developers away from thinking of their applications as single silos of user interactions, but forces them to take a more holistic view of developing on the platform within their realm of specialty.

Can't believe I had never seen it before. My favorite scene:

(During last week's dance practice, my instructor put on this song, which led me to download the full track, which led me to watch the movie...)

OneRepublic - All the Right Moves

All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They got all the right moves in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down

Let's paint the picture of the perfect place
They got it better than what anyone's told you
There'll be the king of hearts and you're the queen of spades
And we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers
I know we got it good, but they got it made
And the grass is getting greener each day
I know things are looking up, but soon they'll take us down
Before anybody's knowing our name

They got all the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They got all the right moves in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down

Said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
Said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down

Do you think I'm special, do you think I'm nice?
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?
Between the noise you hear and the sound you like
Are we just sinking in the ocean of faces?
It can't be possible, the rain can fall
Only when it's over our heads
The sun is shining everyday but it's far away
Over the world they said, they got

They got all the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They got all the right moves in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down

Said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
Said everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down

It don't matter what you see
I know I could never be
Someone that'll look like you
It don't matter what you say
I know I could never face
Someone that can sound like you

All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They got all the right moves in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down

Yeah, we're going down

I'll be honest. I have a lot to be nervous about tomorrow - working on a small part of a big deal, a presentation which should be the culmination of a few weeks worth of effort on the product side ... but the thing I'm most worried about?

My dance lesson.

My instructor and I have finalized a routine (an Open Bronze Tango), and this week is the really the first week where I have to be able to run (and LEAD) the whole routine.

I been working nearly the whole weekend on MT stuff - it's been nice to take breaks and crank up the Roxanne tango from Moulin Rouge to practice the routine. (Although I wish my place were bigger - I keep running into my couch and walls.)

The routine, as it stands:

• Shadow left turn
• Back fans
• Shadow right foot lunge
• Check promenade to shadow ronde
• Side-by-side rocks
• Shadow switches
• Hammerlock kicks
• Shadow kick-ball-change and twist

I been debating in my mind in doubling up on lessons during the week - these lessons do wonders in stress reduction.

I highly recommend, once again, taking ballroom dance lessons to everybody.

cleaning can be so therapeutic

Went to Laguna Beach last week to try to get away from work. (I didn't succeed - spent more time on the phone than I wanted to...)

But I had a wonderful time meeting up with some friends and enjoying Laguna Beach - I think it's my new weekend getaway (only an hour away!)

From the patio of Hotel Laguna:

We ate at Watermarc Restaurant, which was pretty good:

I had a wonderful day today - although I originally was dreading the infamous "MindTouch Documentation Portal Cleanup" project, I ended up really enjoying the day.

The MindTouch engineering team (Steve, Guerric, Max, Michael, Damien, Corey, Arne, Kalid and myself) all showed up to really focus on this one task that had been a long time coming - reorganizing all 20,000 pages+ on MCP to a new hierarchy to help discovery. While our problem in 2008 was a lack of documentation, our problem in 2009 quickly evolved to having tons of documentation that was not organized and was of questionable quality.

Why was today so great? I couldn't remember the last day I had spent a whole day focused on a single task. It was such a wonderful change of pace to be told what to do (great job by Guerric in really driving this project forward) and not to have to worry about every possible thing that could go wrong.

We followed up the eight hour session working on the ESX machine reorganizing all the content (virtualization is amazing) with celebratory drinks at Karl Strauss and dinner at South Beach Bar and Grill in OB.

While there is tons of work left on the documentation portal, the initial pass is a great (long overdue) pass at cleaning up the content to help discover how to better utilize MindTouch. I expect us to continue to iterate over the documentation work with product releases around better documentation... (woot).

Tomorrow is my day of leisure! I will NOT work on anything MT-related! :) (I don't think I've had a MT-free weekend in 2010 yet).