Author: Mike P. Lewis

TripIt is Really Useful & Virgin America is the best

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I’ve been traveling a lot lately and i’m always looking for the best fare (or Virgin America, my new favorite airline).  Because of this, my flights are all over the place.  My trip to Minnesota for Christmas has me leaving from BWI on Southwest, changing to American in Chicago and then coming home on the cheap airline Sun Country into Dulles.   The itinerary is a mess.  Luckily, i discovered the website TripIt.  All you need to do is forward your confirmation emails to the email address plan@tripit.com and the website will parse out the dates, confirmation numbers, flight numbers, frequent flier codes, etc. for you and keep your itinerary nice and neat.  Now, instead of combing my inbox for that exact flight time, i just go to TripIt and it’s all there.

I recommend it for anyone who’s traveling and needs to keep track of their itin.

As a side note, you should also go out of your way to travel on Virgin America.  It’s an amazing airline.  They have the following things going for them:

  • Big TV screens on the back of the seat (bigger than JetBlue)
  • On demand ordering.  You punch in on the screen what you want and they will bring it to you immediately.  You can eat whenever you want
  • It’s totally empty. I’ve flown on them 3 time and had the entire row to myself each time.  It reminds me of the early days of Independence Air.
  • You can IM any one else on the plane.  Just type in a seat number and you can chat.  I’ve never done this but it’s a good idea (or really sketchy – not sure yet which one)
  • As you travel, instead of a lame map of your distance, it maps it to a Google Map where you can zoom in and see exactly what you’re flying over
  • Very nice seats and cool colors
  • Coming soon: Power Outlets! and Internet!

The Strike goes on..

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I found (from VSL) some really funny short videos have been made by the writers and directors that are out of commission due to the strike.

One episode has a room full of actors (Martin Sheen, Demi Moore, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, etc.) try to audition for a movie when the script is completely blank.  I really like episode 16 where Patricia Clarkson and Amy Ryan are literally acting out ads from the phone book.  

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There’s also an episode 18 where a guy picks up a phone to check on movie times and gets this recording…

Hello and welcome to Moviefone

  • For Dancing With The Stars, The Movie” Press 1
  • For America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Movie” Press 2
  • etc.

They’re pretty good.  Check ’em out

Levels of Blogging – where have my blogging friends gone?

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Over the past year, I have seen some of my friends (Toby, Kathryn, Sarah, Drew) drop off the blogging scene. Some of them have switched blogs, but some have just switched the way they share information. With the growth of other online tools, it’s becoming much easier to express yourself (sharing ideas, links, and messages) in ways that are easier than blogging.

Because of this trend, this post by Fred Wilson and image really stuck a chord in me:

You can see how facebook and MySpace and the ease of use there is going to take people away from glogging. I know a few of my friends have been casualties.

Personally, i like blogging still as it allows me to fully explain my thoughts and ideas whereas the other mechanisms are smaller chunks and just single thoughts. I do them too. But with facebook there is no nuance. Of course, not everyone has the time to explain themselves – at least that’s the number 1 excuse. To which i’ll reply, if you have time to debate a topic for hours – which all of you do – then you have time to stick it on your blog. Get off your ass

Heroes is Pretty Good

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The writing is bad, the characters are more and more unrealistic, but i still love to watch every week. Last night’s episode was decent but not great.

This weekend i read that the creator Tim Kring thought the show is going downhill at the beginning of the season. But, like a Man, he’s able to fess up and admit his mistakes in this article in Entertainment Weekly where he lists out what he sees as the problems. They are:

THE PACE IS TOO SLOW ”We assumed the audience wanted season 1 — a buildup of intrigue about these characters and the discovery of their powers. We taught [them] to expect a certain kind of storytelling. They wanted adrenaline. We made a mistake.”

THE WORLD-SAVING STAKES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED SOONER The premonition of nuclear apocalypse created a larger context that unified every story line last season. Kring now sees that Volume 2 (the first 11 episodes of season 2) would have been better served if Peter’s vision of viral Armageddon had appeared in the season premiere rather than episode 7. ”We took too long to get to the big-picture story,” he says.

THE ROOKIES DIDN’T GREET THEMSELVES PROPERLY New Heroes Monica (Dana Davis), Maya (Dania Ramirez), and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) ”shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show. The way we introduced Elle (Kristen Bell) — by weaving her in via Peter’s story line — is a more logical way to bring new characters into the show.” (That said, Kring says a few newbies won’t make it beyond this second volume, which wraps Dec. 3.)

HIRO WAS IN JAPAN WAY TOO LONG Hiro’s (Masi Oka) time-bending adventure in 17th-century Japan — where he mentored samurai hero Takezo Kensei (David Anders) — finally came to an end on Nov. 5. But Kring says it ”should have [lasted] three episodes. We didn’t give the audience enough story to justify the time we allotted it.”

YOUNG LOVE STINKS Kring regrets sticking Claire (Hayden Panettiere) with a super-dud boyfriend and forcing Hiro to moon over a cutesy princess. ”I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV,” he admits. ”In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.”

All sounds good and dandy, but i’d also add: less Sylar and MORE Kristen Bell.  Also, who’s with me that it was Noah who did the shooting of Nathan last night?

Quote for today

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I got from this blog (KMR’s):

 “You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”

-J. Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (1895-1986)

The Week is a Great Magazine

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I get way too many magazines sent to my place, but one that i read every week is The Week.   It’s a great mix of all news and i recommend it for anyone.  There was also a great little article in the New York Times about how it got started and why it is different than most publishers.   Read it here.  Some exerpts from the article:

“The Week is going to be a huge global brand. Cross my heart and hope to die, I have already been offered hundreds of millions of dollars for it,” Mr. Dennis (the founder) said this month.  Mr. Dennis recently sold the American version of Maxim, a juggernaut that was showing the strains of increasing competition. Given that he was pulling back in the United States, why not just add The Week to the sale?

“I will throw The Week onto no pile until it becomes a half a billion or billion-dollar franchise,” he said. “The Week is my baby.”

He also believes he can get a toehold in the newsweekly market because, he says, the established players Time, Newsweek and U. S. News & World Report have lost touch with the news.

“‘Golfing for Cats With Jesus Who Has Cancer’ is not something that people need to know about,” he said. The Week is all news, all the time, with editors who comb publications and republish annotated accounts from a disparate group of sources. Not only does it have the editorial reach of the Web, but it has the same significant cost benefits because most of the data and reporting are borrowed.

Amen.  It’s great.  You should get it

Running in Kenya

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There’s a Sports Illustrated article this past week about running in Kenya profiling Alberto Salazar.

As big as we are, we have fewer people to draw on. In Kenya there are probably a million schoolboys 10 to 17 years old who run 10 to 12 miles a day. . . The average Kenyan 18-year-old has run 15,000 to 18,000 more miles in his life than the average American–and a lot of that’s at altitude. They’re motivated because running is a way out. Plus they don’t have a lot of other sports for kids to be drawn into. Numbers are what this is all about. In Kenya there are maybe 100 runners who have hit 2:11 in the marathon–and in the U.S. maybe five. . .

With those figures, coaches in Kenya can train their athletes to the outer limits of endurance–up to 150 miles a week–without worrying that their pool of talent will be meaningfully depleted. Even if four out of every five runners break down, the fifth will convert that training into performance…

Interesting that the US has an obesity problem and Kenya is putting out ~1 million people running 10-12 miles a day.  How many US kids do you know who at age 18 has run 15,000-18,000 miles?

Chris Rock on Music

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I read the new Rolling Stone over the weekand Chris Rock has some good lines….

Chris Rock: Music kind of sucks. Nobody’s into being a musician. Everybody’s getting their mogul on. You’ve been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you’d spend getting great songs together, you’re busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder’s songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin’ clothing company and a cologne line?

RollingStone: Plenty of rappers say, “I’m not a rapper, I’m a businessman.”

Chris Rock: That’s why rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it’s just not at its best moment. Sammy the Bull would have made a shitty album. And I don’t really have a desire to hear Warren Buffett’s album – or the new CD by Paul Allen. That’s what everybody’s aspiring to be.

We live in a weird time. No one knows who’s smart – we just know who makes money. ”Hey, somebody invented Viagra! We don’t know their name, but we know Pfizer, because they make the money.” That guy made a pill that keeps your dick hard, and nobody knows who the fuck he is. The pharmaceutical companies are like fuckin’ record companies. There’s literally the Bo Diddley of medicine walking around, not getting his royalties. He signed all his fucking pill publishing away.

(”Rolling Stone”, Issue 1039, November 15, 2007, page 157)