Last night, I asked April a question. She answered in the affirmative 
I said yes! @jnassi http://flic.kr/p/a8bRAB—
April Kyle (@thisisnotapril) July 29, 2011
Category Archives: News
The End Of The Saga?
I’m almost afraid to post this, but we seem to have reached a conclusion to the saga of the washing machines that don’t do laundry. We had our new Kenmore Elite washing machine delivered and installed yesterday, and we’ve run a few successful loads of laundry through it.
My fellow Americans, our long laundry nightmare is over.
Let’s Try This Again
Six months ago, on January 1st, I started the “Post A Day” challenge on WordPress. For the month of January, I was in good shape, going 31 for 31. Unfortunately, it only took a couple of days into February for my streak to be snapped. By mid-February, the ol’ blog was pretty much gathering dust and cobwebs.
Today, I kick off another attempt at “Post A Day”. Wish me luck! I’ve been wanting to come back and start writing again, and there’s a nice symmetry about starting again six months to the day of the last attempt. Coincidentally, I was in Houston on January 1st and now here I am in Houston again for July 1st.
April and I are visiting her parents for the holiday weekend, and not coincidentally, my Boston Red Sox are in town to play her Houston Astros in an interleague series. We’ll be catching the first two games of the series (tonight and tomorrow) at Minute Maid Park, my first chance to see the 2011 edition of the Sox in person.
The roof had better be closed tonight!
Resolutions Update After January
As we roll into February, it’s a good time to look back on my New Year’s resolutions, see if they’re on track.
- Lose 20 pounds. Three so far, seventeen to go. Should get better when the weather gets warmer and I get on the bike. GOOD
Want to friend me on Goodreads?
- Write 1 blog post per day. Every day in January is covered, and now February 1st. They haven’t all been awesome, but I’ve been consistent. GOOD
- Read 40 books. Eight down, 32 to go. Ahead of pace, which is pissing April off, since she’s trying to read FIFTY books this year. GOOD
And most importantly, I haven’t been eaten by a velociraptor. Really, that’s the most important one.
She Has News
She’s the best part of my life, not just right now, but ever, and she wrote a blog post. READ THIS. Please
Yeah, it's like that.
You’re On Notice!
138 people wished me a happy birthday today*. If you are one of those 138 people who took the time to:
- Call me
- Text me
- Email me
- Skype me
- IM me
- Tweet @jnassi
- Facebook something at me
- Visit my office
- Take me out to lunch
- Send a snail mail birthday card
I thank you for the birthday wishes. I truly appreciate your friendship and your well-wishes, it means the world to me.
To the other 6893499862** of you in this world… you’re on notice! Be a better friend!
*Approximate count, I may have missed one or two here or there, or double-counted someone.
**Also approximate count, based on the Wikipedia page for World population.
My Facebook Effect
Facebook has had a profound effect on how we connect with the people around us. I don’t think I’m breaking any new ground when I say that. This week really brought this idea to the front of my thoughts for a few different reasons.
The Facebook Effect
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Computer History Museum titled Net@40: The Facebook Effect, Author David Kirkpatrick, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in Conversation with NPR’s Guy Raz. As luck would have it, Wednesday was the same day that Facebook reached the 500 million users milestone; needless to say, Zuckerberg had plenty to talk about on a day like that. The talk is going to be uploaded to the museum’s YouTube channel sometime soon.
I haven’t had a chance to read Kirkpatrick’s book, The Facebook Effect, although I’m planning on starting it this weekend, so I cannot in good conscience write anything about the book yet. To be fair, Zuckerberg said he hadn’t read Kirkpatrick’s book either, though he has read excerpts and respects Kirkpatrick as a journalist. I have read Ben Mezrich’s book, The Accidental Billionaires, which Zuckerberg considers “a work of fiction” – again, even though he hasn’t read the book. Not that I think he should read The Accidental Billionaires, mind you; it was one of the worst pieces of writing that I’ve read in recent memory.
Some points and quotes that I found thought-provoking during the talk, while skipping the inevitable privacy discussions that came up:
- For the 500 million “active” users, there are 1500 employees at the company with 400 of them being engineers. That’s a ratio of 1 engineer for every 1.25 million users. And my co-workers wonder why I grumble when they say we don’t have enough people to get everything accomplished…
- I put “active” in quotes because I don’t know what Facebook’s definition of an active user is. At my company, we have a distinct differentiation between active and total users – if someone hasn’t logged in more than a certain number of times in a 30 day span, we don’t consider them active.
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Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg is only 26 years old, and by the time he was first starting Facebook at Harvard, I was already wrapping up my 7th year in my full-time professional career – and unlike Zuckerberg, I finished college! As I understand it, Facebook’s valuation is around $27 billion, and Zuckerberg still owns about 25% of the company — by my math, he’s worth over $6 billion (on paper).
- Presenting yourself differently in different contexts (personal vs. professional for instance) is, by definition, a lack of integrity. Or so claims Zuckerberg. I would argue that only someone without any real depth of character can display himself the exact same way in all contexts. There will always be aspects of myself that aren’t broadcasted to everyone in my life in the same way… not necessarily because I’m trying to hide something or misrepresent myself, but merely because the totality of ME is more than you’ll see in a casual encounter.
- Facebook is not an application; it’s not software as a service. In Zuckerberg’s view, Facebook is a community of users, creating and sharing content. The Facebook website and its associated properties and services are merely the platform to enable this community to reach their friends and families.
MY Facebook Effect
As a proof point of the power of Facebook to connect people to their friends and families, I’ll present my own personal case study from this week.
I recently started seeing someone, and she’s pretty awesome. For some reason, she actually thinks I’m not too bad myself. If you read my How Full Is Your Glass? post last month, maybe now you’ll understand where my positivity was coming from that day.
At the same time, I’ve always been rather quiet on the subject of my dating; usually because I’m NOT dating anyone, but my philosophy has always been to only bring it up to friends and family if I get past the 3rd date with someone. That way, I have a pretty good sense that it’s going somewhere and it’s worth even discussing.
Notice that in the time since I’ve joined Facebook that my relationship status has always been marked as Single? Yeah, me too.
So when we took the plunge to announce to our Facebook friends that we were “in a relationship”, the reach of the news is far broader than it could have ever been if we’d told people individually. At last count, I have 622 friends on Facebook, and April is even more popular, with 692 friends.
The activity in the stream showing the two profiles linking together “in a relationship” churned out a tidal wave of chatter. At last count, the relationship status change has produced 20 “likes” and 39 comments on April’s profile page. On mine, 41 “likes” and 16 comments.
People who like Jason Nassi's change in relationship status
But the coup de grace was that one of my friends created a group for People who like Jason Nassi’s change in relationship status. The group currently has 28 members. I don’t really know if I should give the group’s creator a bro-hug or a swift kick in the ass. But it’s all in good fun.
Here’s where the reach of Facebook comes in. A cursory glance through the people who’ve responded just on my profile’s page or in the group shows me family members, high school friends, friends who I haven’t seen in over a decade, friends and co-workers who I see on a daily basis, and even Twitter friends who I’ve never even met. I count at least 10 different states around the US, and at least two other countries outside of the US.
I could have broadcasted the news over Twitter or in this blog, but would I have reached the same people? Probably not.
So, thank you Facebook for helping me connect with my friends and family. And, lastly, if YOU want to be my friend on Facebook, just ask
A New Dawn, A New Day, A New Site
“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, and I’m feeling good.” – Feeling Good, performed by Michael Bublé.
Welcome to the new home of my writings and musings.
My old site, http://jasonnassi.com, is remaining in place for the time being, but will no longer be updated. At least, that’s the plan for the foreseeable future, until I change my mind again.
What kind of content should you expect to see on this new site? Well, I’m not really sure just yet. I’m aspiring to be more consistent with a writing schedule, and I’m looking to have a little more “meat” to my writing as well. My Twitter updates are my off-the-cuff ramblings, but the writings here on this site will be a bit more considered. Some of the themes that are rattling around in my head at the moment, though, include:
- Business and industry topics where I have a little experience and expertise that others might find useful
- Technology that I find interesting and worth discussing or sharing
- Popular culture musings
- Personal life updates
- Anything that springs to mind that needs more than 140 characters to properly explain my thoughts.
Three recent conversations with old friends spurred me on to shake off the writing rust.
First, Bill Childers wrote a piece on his blog about “Finding My Voice”, which reminded me about how little I’d been writing myself. Getting the creative juices flowing makes me feel better, and it will help with some of the writing I need to be doing for my day job.
Second, over lunch, Mike Etheridge convinced me that my personal brand on Twitter is nothing to sneeze at. Even though I’m somewhat aimless in my tweeting, I do have a presence there, people who LISTEN to what I blast out there, even when it’s nonsense.
Third, Mitch Lieberman twisted my arm yesterday to share my thoughts on a piece he wrote for CRM Outsiders. Before I knew it, my comment on his post was longer than what Mitch wrote in the first place… and I’d only scratched the surface of what I COULD have said.
The only thing that holds me back is my own inertia. It’s time to break the self-imposed chains. Thank you to Bill, Mike, and Mitch for encouraging me and helping to cultivate this spark within me.
And thank YOU, if you’re reading this. I hope you find something worth your time in my ruminations.
“The best is yet to come, and babe won’t it be fine; You think you’ve seen the sun, but you ain’t seen it shine.” – The Best Is Yet To Come, also performed by Michael Bublé.
