Ponderings 8/19/12

1. Parents should start naming their kids with unique and new names. (Feel free to throw in numbers, and symbols) Your kids will thank you when they are signing up for gmail, twitter, and other social media accounts.

2. Wild animals must be very confused about humans. Some want to kill them, while others just want pictures of them. (Also animals must freak out the first few times they see cameras pointed at them)

3. After Usain Bolt claimed he was the greatest athlete of all time, I started thinking about the criteria that should be considered when trying to compare athletes.
A. Popularity of the sport worldwide
B. Number of people who play sport (What is the size of pool of all potential challengers)
C. Number of Countries where sport is played
D. Number of championships/medals (This needs to be weighted by the number of medals or championships available to an athlete. For example swimming has many more medals and titles than boxing)
E. Number of years being Number 1
F. Influence athlete has on sport (technique, rules, brand, popularity)
Based on the above, I think Bolt is in the discussion but doesn't have enough A, B, C, or E to be the greatest.

4. Cameras should add  a feature where as someone starts walking into your picture the camera starts beeping. This would either get the picture intruder to stop or to let the picture taker know he will need to wait.


5.If National Parks ever get cell phone service or WIFI get ready for some awesome apps to help you with all of the below.
A. Can I eat this Berry?
B. How many miles left in this hike?
C. Where is the trail?
D. Is there any other cell phone near me? Am I secluded enough to use wilderness as my bathroom?
E. Which hikes are people seeing cool wildlife on?
F. How far back is my slow hiking buddy? How far ahead is my super-fit hiking buddy?
G. What are some good hiking riddles?

6. Do you really trust the people sitting in the emergency aisle to be able to fulfill their responsibilities in an emergency?

Ponderings 8/5/12

1A. I have to keep reminding myself not to go to ESPN, Facebook, Twitter or any news site during the Olympics until after watching prime time coverage.
1B. I also really need to invent an Olympic Sport, so I can make it to the Olympics!
1C. Who knows where I can play handball?

2. The badminton fiasco in the Olympics happens in all sports. (Losing for draft position, playoff seed for favorable matchup, etc.) Why would a country want to have two of their teams play each other before the finals? However, throwing a match its absolutely not fair to the fans and the opposing team.
I think the moral of the story is to get the organizers to fix it before something like this can happen.
One way is to create a rule where countries cannot play each other until it cannot be avoided. Another way is to make the tournament double elimination so that the original elimination draw is not as important.

3. Email should let you easily rename attachments. In the meantime be careful about what you name your files when you are sending them.

4. Seeing so many American female Olympic Athletes be crazy about Justin Bieber, makes me feel very old.

5. Cell phones should have a feature where when you are getting a call you can press 1 button to text common replies like: "Driving, will be there soon", "On another call", "Busy, will hit you up in a bit".
Note: Apparently I need an Android phone as this comes native on them.

5B. Anytime you arrive in a new city, Facebook should have a feature : "Alert relevant friends I'm in town". Which is not just a status post, but actually a text to all of your friends in the area.

6. Could anyone understand Bane?

Ponderings 7/8/12

1. Phone alarms need to be aware of National Holidays. My phone should be smart enough to know that I am not trying to wake up at 6:30 am on July 4th.

2. How is Lance Armstrong still facing doping charges? The arbitration panel should dismiss the case and rule that all projected legal fees be donated to cancer research.

3. Unlike peanut butter which has tons of competitors, the chocolate hazelnut spread business is all Nutella. So much so, that many people don't know what is in Nutella. (Other than chocolate)

4. Meeting with people across timezones is now easy with all the conferencing tools. But the hardest part remains scheduling a meeting time, and having everyone on the same page regarding which timezone is being used. (Especially when quickly trying to reschedule a meeting) I am tempted to get everybody to use UTC.

5. Watching the US Olympic trials, has made me realize how many first time athletes make it to the Olympics. It also is bittersweet to realize your favorites from the previous Olympics are no longer there. Yet somehow by the end of the Olympics, I will know the majority of the athletes' names and have new favorites.

6. Moments like Wimbledon's final make you realize how tough it is to get 2nd place. All sports, should ship the 2nd place trophies a year after the tournaments or end of seasons, when a player or team can be more appreciative of it.

Ponderings 6/24/12

1. Phones, should have an "emergency mode" feature. Your phone turns off as soon as your battery reduces to 15 minutes of remaining talk time. In an emergency, even though your phone is dead you know you have the backup up 15 minutes.

2. I would be curious to see soccer do something similar, to what cricket did with the Indian Premier League, to increase the moments of excitement in a shorter game. I would reduce the number of players on each side, make the goal slightly bigger, reduce the game length to 60 minutes, and not allow strikers to pass the midfield line (need to stay on the attacking side). Needs more, but think this would be a good start to a more interesting American league that caters to those who want to see more goals and action.

3. On a road trip, where your group has a several cars, it would be great if there were ways to enhance the group experience. Here are a couple ideas:
3A. Have the ability to have all cars be listening to the same music, with cars taking turns being the main DJ.
3B. On the same channel as the music, cars using a radio channel, to be able to easily radio between the cars.
3C. One of your GPS views, shows where all the cars are.

4A. China is building the world's largest tower in 90 days. I would hate to be the person who needs to check whether its safe to go into that building?

4B. Every few years, someone decides to build the world's largest tower. Why doesn't someone build a tower where in the future, they can continue to build right on top it anytime someone decides to build a taller tower?

5. After watching Lebron James amazing performance in the NBA Finals, I have decided I really need to read those Hunger Game books. Also, the NBA has enough material for all of their advertisements for "Reading is fundamental" next year.

Ponderings 6/17/12

1. This week, I rode a segway for the first time, and realized that someone needs to open a huge warehouse for segway sports: lacrosse, quidditch, football, and hockey. Universal Studios,  should really make the segway quidditch happen at the Harry Potter park.

2. With the increase in VOIP providers and overall  internet access worldwide, I wonder why long distance calls still cost so much.

3. The problem with days off between NBA playoff games, is that is allows the media to spend so much time overreacting to the previous game.

4. Father's day was a much smaller deal than Mother's day on Facebook. What gives? Father's need their shout outs too.

5. Keeping a OneNote list of the movies I want to watch and the books I want to read, has helped me stop forgetting all the recommendations that come up during conversations. Best part, is I can edit, and share lists from my phone.

6. I'm scared for the day, when more families start managing their tasks with an agile process including daily scrums.

Ponderings 6/10/12

1. I wish as I exited my apartment, my phone would yell reminders of things that I needed to be taking. (Ex. keys, jacket, receipt, mail, etc.)
1B. I also wish as I entered my apartment my phone would yell reminders of chores that I needed to be doing. (Ex. laundry, dishes)
1C. What I really need to do is move back in with my mom. (Mom, jump to number 2.) Only benefit of the app above, is that you can turn it on and off.

2. Boxing ratings had already being going down but after the Pacquiao vs. Bradley fight, the sport was killed. Ironically, the person who this hurts the most is Bradley, the person who the judges picked incorrectly as the winner.

2B. The reaction to the decision on social media was pretty incredible. I know there is a saying that "there is no such thing as bad press", but I am pretty sure this was a case where the saying doesn't fit.

3. I hate the Boston Celtics, but when Doc Rivers substituted the Big three out of Game 7, I realized how much I respected them. They remind me, of the old guys who play pickup basketball, and somehow manage to stay close in every game, hitting open jumpers, setting solid screens, always boxing out, and then end up winning if the younger players take bad shots or try to show off too much.


4. Last week, I decided to become more active on Quora. Here are some of the questions I have recently been thinking about:
A. Do taxi cab drivers enjoy small talk?/How often are they asked where they are from?
B. How quickly do skilled waiters make a call on how much tip they will be receiving from a table?/ Do good waiters optimize to spend more time on tables they know they will get better tip at?
C. How come Ping Pong or Air Hockey tables are rarely found at bars/lounges, but Pool tables and Dart Boards are?


5. Recently, I decided to do a minor social experiment changing my phone background color and viewing people's reactions. An early observation has been, no one says anything when I use a background color that is traditionally socially acceptable for a male to like, but as soon as I changed my background to pink or purple,  many people would make comments.

5B. I also have been trying this experiment on the bus to see whether this affects who will sit next to me. Again, without any statistical proof (my sample size is about 20), young men and older men and women avoid sitting next to me when I use Pink and Purple, while with younger women I notice no difference when I change my background color.

5C. Yes, if you have seen me recently, I have been studying your behavior.  

Ponderings 6/3/12

1. Was anyone else confused when they saw a trailer for a new Spider Man movie with new actors and costumes?

2. It's not beneficial to anyone when people nod and pretend to understand something when they don't. I am starting to be trained to interpret a head nod as signifying the person does not understand.


3. Homeless people should conduct surveys on different products and receive some kind of reimbursement by companies based on the number of replies they receive.

4. My experiment with Twitter has been going strong so I have decided its time to experiment and become more active on Quora.

5. I love all the new video conferencing technologies, but there is still a current need for simple cell phone conference calls to have an easy app for voting and text messaging group.

6. I am waiting for the day of automated secretaries. A V1 secretary would be able to do the following:
A. Plan meetings including all email responses, and logistic reservations once you select the people you need to meet with.
B. Respond to another automated secretary trying to setup a meeting.
C. Notify and try to move meeting conflicts.
D. Send you an email every morning telling you how awesome you are.
E. Emailing a random contact each day, kicking off a catch up conversation.

7. In addition to showing me, the forecast details, weather apps should display an icon of what you should be wearing that day. (I.E. How thick of a jacket, short/pants, etc.)

Ponderings 5/20/12

1. "I'll have Another" celebratory tweets and facebook posts had to be confusing for everyone who doesn't follow horse racing. (In case you are not a fan, your friends were not all ordering another on Saturday at 3pm.)

2. I love human nature. This past week, I watched the Avengers and I had been warned there was a scene after the movie credits. Everyone who watched the scene enjoyed it, but the majority said it was probably not worth watching 5 minutes of credits. However, everyone who missed it and heard that they had missed it, was livid, some people went as far as re-watching the movie to see the scene.  

3. If you could get movie tickets 25% off, would you be willing to watch advertisements during your video? I don't think this would work for all genres, but for comedies that are only like 80-90 minutes, I wouldn't mind viewing ads during the movie.

4. I still don't understand why TV shows end in May. Why do they need a summer vacation?

5A. Facebook going IPO has increased everybody's stock market vocabulary.
5B.Wikipedia needs to do a better job of showing what articles are trending. (I have found some 3rd party solutions for this but nothing I have liked.)

6. Does anybody else get a little depressed when graduation day comes around and you realize you are another year out of undegrad? They need a new term for this condition. I vote for post-college nostalgia crisis.

Ponderings 5/12/12

1. If my mom's not on Facebook how am I supposed to wish her for mother's day?

2. I still have remains of mangos stuck in my teeth from the afternoon. (I already tried flossing twice)
2B. Blogger wants me to use British English and is complaining that I am spelling mangos wrong.

3. Most of us think we are celebrating Dieciseis de Septembre on Cinco de Mayo. But I guess Cinco de Mayo is a lot easier to say.

4. Walking past people helps remind you of responses to emails or other to-dos that you owe them. So now when I feel like I am forgetting something I walk past everyone. Great way to socialize while remembering your to-dos.

5. I am a big fan of public transportation, but I wonder if riding public transportation is more stressful than driving. Making it to the bus stop on time, waiting for the bus, dealing with unexpected stops, not being able to take a different route based on traffic maps, double checking your clock to see if you will make your transfer, double checking your clock to see if you will be on time to your destination, not knowing if there will be enough room on the bus vs. all the stresses of driving a car.

I still prefer bus but I don't think its an option for everyone if any of the above cause you a lot of stress.

6. The Siri commercial with Samuel L. Jackson makes me think Apple should let you pick the personality and voice of Siri. I would rotate between: Samuel L. Jackson, Lil John, Morgan Freeman, and Dick Vitale.

6B. Strategically Apple should go with the Lil John voice so that anytime the voice software is not working or it cannot recognize what you said. Lil John can just respond with a "What?", and then once it finally understands it can respond with an "Ok".
Example:
Me: Please remind me about my meeting at 7?
Siri: What?
Me: Remind me about my meeting at 7?
Siri: What?
Me: Dude, remind me about my meeting at 7.
Siri: Ok!

7. You know you love arguing when you notice you take different sides on the same argument based on which side has less support.

8. More people in Seattle use umbrellas in the sun than in the rain.

Ponderings 4/29/12

1. I wonder when they are going to start teaching first graders to not only think twice before they speak but also to think twice before they tweet. At least when you say something you can sort of claim it was misunderstood, but once it is written there is not much you can do.

2. With YouTube's lyric videos and playlist functionality, I am not sure why anybody would buy Karaoke software. The only places that have an exception to my rule are the Korean Karaoke places and their awesome music videos.

3. What happened to all the passion, people had when sharing the Kony 2012 video? At least 30 of my friends were not only sharing but super enthusiastic about the video. But, I only think 1 of them is still involved with putting up fliers.
Is this because of the negative responses to the video?/Because it is super easy to share something without actually doing anything?/Because the co-founder had a mental breakdown?

3B. Also, why was the campaign for fliering launched several months after the initial video? Not only did this allow the chance for mental breakdowns but it definitely caused a major loss of momentum.

4. Don't make jokes about ACLs on a form of social media that your parents read. You will immediately get called or pinged to see if you are ok.

5A. Injuries, kill sports. (NBA Playoffs 2012) I used to be against all the new safety rules by leagues, but as athletes continue to get bigger, faster, stronger, we really need new rules. Even, with new rules there will always be freak accidents. Toughest part of watching sports is seeing someone's season end just because of a fluke injury.

5B. Coaches get questioned for decisions about playing starters at the end of games when they are winning big. But, when their entire job security relies on winning and winning now what choice do they have?

Ponderings 4/22/12

1.This week I returned to Macaroni Grill and Olive Garden after 5 years. (Probably not healthy to do both in a week, but it brought back a lot of memories.) I forgot how good their bread and bread sticks respectively were. I also remembered why I always used to share entrees there.  (More room for bread at a fraction of the cost.)

1B. Also the table cloth crayon idea needs to be repeated by all restaurants. At all awkward moments during dinner you can just draw or start a game of hangman. (This doesn't look as bad as disregarding the people you are eating with and playing draw something or words with friends on your phone.)  

2. Hopefully nobody remembers my ponderings because sometimes I think I repeat myself. I am also hoping that people are starting to think that ponderings is a real word.

3. A lot of us tend to automatically consider the things we read on the Internet as facts, but with a quick search you will find 20 articles all contradicting each other on someway. Read more than one before you form an opinion. One exception to this rule is this blog.

4. Its very easy for an observer or newcomer to devalue a tradition, but for those involved with the tradition for many years its very difficult to deal with a specific tradition ending.

5. Rather than staying with status quo, sports need to make active changes to solve 2 major problems. Tanking and Diving/Flopping.

5A. Tanking - The NBA is a perfect example of a sport where starters rest and teams tank in order to try to get higher draft picks. Instead of killing the game for fans, here is my solution.
In addition to the NBA playoffs, the NBA adds a single elimination tournament for all the teams who don't make the playoffs to fight for the 1st and 2nd draft picks. The teams with higher records get home court advantage so everybody has an incentive to keep playing. Now to make sure the rich don't always keep getting richer, the rest of the picks continue to use the lottery problem with the team with the worst record having the highest lottery chance for the 3rd pick.

5B. Diving/Flopping - Soccer and Basketball are being destroyed with diving and flopping respectively. Judgement calls are too hard for referees and reviewing each call would kill the game momentum.

Instead for the NBA, referees review flops at halftime and are allowed to add fouls for each flop. After a game, the league reviews flops and players get technical fouls which count towards future suspensions.
For soccer, you use the same concept and allow referees to give yellow cards for flagrant flops at halftime as well as after the game to count towards future suspensions.

Ponderings 4/15/12

1.Imagine if you could read 2x faster and remember 2x more of what you currently do. (If you sign up for a speed reading or memorization course after this post you owe me a referral fee)

2. Most people throw out toothpaste containers with at least another 15 uses of toothpaste left.  Learn  how to squeeze from the bottom and get that last ounce out. For those needing help try using a pen starting from the bottom of the container and rolling it to the top.


3.Group Shopping - There needs to be an easy way for apartment mates or a group of friends planning an event, to buy everything needed without worrying about whose paying. After the event, IOUs are settled automatically by previously provided bank accounts.

4. Seattle has got to be the worst city to get a car wash in.

5. I always get excited when I pay and realize that sales tax was already included, so I spend less than the calculated price in my head. But at the same time, I always get angry when I pay and realize I forget to account for sales tax.

6. I don't understand eating etiquette.
A. Why is it polite to leave the last bit of soup in your bowl?
B.  Why is it polite not to scavenge for the small remaining pieces of food in your plate?
C. Why do I have to eat with a fork and knife? (If I eat with my hands, I am saving you from washing extra dishes later)
D.  Why I am not allowed to use a napkin to blow my nose? (If I don't have a kleenex, do you really prefer me letting my nose drip?)
E. Why is it impolite to take food from a neighbor? (If the neighbor is cool with it, why do the others care?)

Ponderings 4/8/12

1. I started drinking coffee out of a straw, in a hope to impress my dentist. The only problem is that the only straws we have are the coffee stirrers.

2. As more and more cities are urbanized is it actually helping the quality of living of those who were previously rural if they are struggling to integrate with "urban life"?

3. Is it weird that people will go out of their way to help a lost dog but not a homeless person?

4. I am not sure why people always think I am weird when I tell them that I love trick or treating or easter egg hunting. What is better than free candy?

5.I love the dynamics that take place in a pickup basketball game full of players who have not played with each other.
A. For the first few plays people use athletic stereotypes to only pass to the people who they think will be good. People compare height, weight, race, and apparel. My favorite example of this is how much easier it is to get the ball when I am wearing a UNC shirt vs. when I am wearing a CMU shirt.
B. Someone who causes a turnover on defense earns a free shot on offense from his teammates.
C. For the first half of the game you have different people act as the point guard, but by the 2nd half of the game the player who has made several plays earns the respect of the guy taking the ball out and he is now the designated point guard.
D. If you miss your first couple shots you will need to make several defensive plays, shots, and passes before you start earning back the trust of your teammates. But if you make your first two shots, your next three don't matter. First impressions are everything.
E. If any players know each other before the game, they will only pass to each other until they figure out who else is a stud.
   

Ponderings 4/1/12

1. I want friends to think about writing the following blogs. Let me know if you are interested I would be willing to coauthor/advise.
               A. Bargaining 101 - Stories from the week on bargaining for better prices on everything. It would include tips and tricks and a overall tally of the money saved.
               B. Non Profit coolness -Researched, well written analysis on efforts being done by non-profits. (There are a ton of websites that do something but haven't found anything I love)
               C. Bro Deals - A blog that filters through all the online deals available and just posts deals that are interesting to you. People with similar interests come here instead of needing to go through every site.
               D.  Sports Debates - The problem with commenting on ESPN.com is that there is way too much noise and people you are arguing with that you don't know. Instead this blog, posts hot topic articles from different websites and lets you debate on these with a smaller circle of friends.
              E.  Challenges - People submit challenges and the blog chronicles day to day experiences on each challenge.

2. You buy a TV for $1500 and a Couch for $300. After a couple years you sell both. You sell the TV for $750 and the Couch for $250. It is crazy how fast technology depreciates.

3. "What goes up must come down" - Tebowmania - no longer a Starting QB, LinSanity- out for the season.

4. I thought the Wrestling fad was over 5 years ago but I am getting a lot of Wrestle Mania noise on Twitter and Facebook. 

5. April's Fool Day on a Sunday makes things very challenging but here were some of the highlights of what I saw done well this year:
          A. Signing up a friend to a matrimony site.
          B. Ordering Pizzas too your friend who is currently obsessing about their Diet for their planned tropical vacation.
         C. Using scheduled emails to make yourself look like you are working 24 hours a day for 7 days.

Ponderings 3/25/12

1. I always like to believe nothing is impossible, but there are some things I haven't been able to learn after countless hours of trying:
A. Spinning a basketball on my fingers
B. Getting my fingers to to hit each other when waving my hand. (The Ali G "respect" move)
C. Correctly spinning a pen like all those cool kids in school.
D. The 2 finger whistle. (Aka. The Coach whistle)

2. There is a natural competition to be the first person to share something on Facebook or Twitter. Someone needs to create a game around this to make it an official competition. This would be the perfect app/game to get folks even more addicted to being online and being the first person to post news and would allow you to keep score.

3. Golf has been trying and trying to find a new athlete to showcase but they couldn't. The good news: Tiger Woods wins and golf is back!

4. I hate emails about airplane sales. Each one gives me false hope to search for cheap flights. But when I look for flights on the dates I want , I realize it is the exact same thing as going to the website.

5. Why don't Thai food restaurants have chopsticks?

6. My twitter experimenting is going strong and so far I love following these 5 accounts:
A. Sportscenter - Don't need to follow anyone else in sports since they retweet everything.
B. Aziz Anzari - Super active and super funny.
C. Shaq - The athlete everybody has to follow.
D. TechCrunch - Following them is better than going to their website.
E.  Nasa Astronauts - Just cool to see what they do.

Ponderings 3/18/12

1. Get a competitive person who knows nothing about college basketball to fill out a bracket and you can instantly watch the addictive effects of March Madness.
2. Facebook and Twitter need a feature to be able to flag posts to view them later. (I know there are some 3rd party tools that can kind of do this but it should be native)
3. ESPN has slowly been putting more and more content under ESPN Insider. I may have to start looking for alternatives.
4. Every club should only allow river dancing on St. Patty's day.
5. Someone should create a taxi meter app. The app keeps track of the time, miles driven, and uses the City's rate your are in. Not only would this be useful to make sure you don't get ripped off by cabs but it also would show you the approximate gas cost of the drive. Finally this would be great if you wanted to start a cab business on the side or start charging your friends for all those rides.

Ponderings 3/11/12

1.  Oreos are the best cookies to have with milk. To celebrate their 100th birthday, I decided to splurge on a big pack of Oreos. The best part about Oreos is figuring out your own personal dipping style. I do the "half dip" to get half the cookie soggy with the other half being crunchy.

2. I wish we could bring the idea of a conference championship with a guaranteed bid into professional sports. I would love to see teams have to play in a tournament just to get into the playoffs. This would allow for teams to always care about becoming better because there is always a small chance they can make it.
NBA & NHL - Top 6 seeds in each conference determined by record. Bottom 2 spots determine in a single elimination tournament.

3. I used to think having a fat wallet was a good thing until I realized it is full of junk and no money.

4. How did we decide on the style that shirts primarily use buttons and jackets primarily use zippers?

5. I wish there were more 24 hour indoor or well lit outdoor basketball courts. What I am supposed to do when I want to shoot around late at night?

6 . I don't know why Taco Bell introduced the Dorito taco before Dorito Nachos. Regardless they had me at Dorito. Go try the taco now!

Favorite Links from the week: (New section, each week I will showcase a couple of my favorite links)
-http://www.kanyezone.com/
-http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1096388-march-madness-by-the-numbers

Ponderings 3/4/12

1. We should all complain about having to work an extra day during a leap year.
1B. Every TV sitcom has a character whose birthday is on February 29th. I guess if your show has not been around for 4 years you should take advantage of the free plot line.

2. It would be awesome if cell phones had an app for when you are lost. From the app, you could click a button to get help from a friend. Your selected friend would be able to see what your camera is seeing as well as your GPS location to help you out. Even with map and GPS apps there are many times where this is needed.
2B. This would also make it easier to find your "slow" friends on a night out.

3. I am waiting for 100% iron/wrinkle free formal clothing. (This needs to be discovered before I get a job that requires me to wear formal clothing.)

4. More Djs/Clubs need to hook into a system where people can text song requests to the DJ.

5. Taking a cloth bag to a grocery store is a great way too limit how many things you buy.
Note: If you miscalculate then you lose all of your credibility as an environmentalist.

6. I have decided to try to embrace the hash tag culture and try out Twitter actively for a month. #getyopopcornready, #marchmadness, #playbyplay, #notsurewhenwestartedcallingthisahashtag, #farewellnumbersign.  

Ponderings 2/19/12

1. I am always confused what to do when  you are walking with someone and there are 2 doors top open right after each other. If the person opens the door for me am I supposed to return the favor on the 2nd door?
My style is to continue walking and hold the door after I walk through rather than open the door for people.

2. Chewing nuts or chips with head phones on quickly makes you learn how to chew quietly.

3. Do you really trust the people sitting in the emergency row of an airplane to get those doors open for you?

4. There is no better way to bond with people than a good old fashioned retreat. I think more companies should steal the science camp idea from elementary school and implement a mandatory week long camp. I also really want to go to science camp again.

5. I find it weird that most of us still use business cards. There should just be a cross platform mobile app which instantly shares contact details sending an email to both parties so you remember the contact you just added.

6. I hate holidays that not every company celebrates. 

Ponderings 2/12/12

1. There needs to be an easy to install and cheap system for your house so that a cell phone app can be able to automatically check the following.
     A. Lights are off
     B. Garage is closed
     C. Doors are locked
     D. Appliances are off (Stove, Iron, etc. )
This would really help lower the number of times people return back to a house to triple check that something was turned off.

2A. While cleaning my desk at home, I  realized that some of my former essentials no longer need prime desk real estate. My stapler, ruler, eraser, calculator, and Chinese finger traps have all been bumped to a drawer.

2B. While cleaning my desk I wanted to plug in the Vacuum Cleaner, and it took 10 minutes to untangle and figure out which wire corresponded to my desk lamp.

2C. Moral of the story: Never clean your desk.

3. After every NFL season, it is always shocking how much extra time I have on Sundays.

4. Jeremy Lin needs a signature move so people can start "Linning".

5. ESPN started HoopIdea for people to think about ideas to improve  the NBA game. Here are my suggestions:

• Expand the sidelines to increase the spacing and pace of the game. 
• Decrease the shot clock to 20. 
• Introduce the 4 point shot from behind half court. 
• Reinstate the 5 second call so players keep passing and trying to move the ball and cannot stall. 
• The last team to score each quarter gets ball to start the next quarter. 

My favorite suggestion from ESPN was the ability to decline free throws when you are fouled. So you always have the option to take the ball out. I think it would need some additional rules in the final minutes but it is intriguing and would stop teams from being able to intentionally foul.  

Ponderings 2/5/12

1.  I love watching the announcers struggle saying Metta World Peace. They want to say Ron Artest so bad, so pause, and then finally say World Peace.
1B. I was waiting for Metta World Peace to show up at the end of the Superbowl halftime show.

2. There needs to be an easy way to book flights with friends. When a friend is booking, they should see landing times that match their other friends and get suggestions for ideal itineraries. A well designed site could easily replace the hurdle of 50 emails to organize an entire group itinerary. It also could allow one person to book the correct flights but allow each individual to pay.

3. I don't trust hand sanitizer. I don't think it kills 99.99% of the germs.

4. I hate burning my tongue but I love having hot beverages and food. They should make cheap coffee stirrer thermometers so you can easily check the temperature of your hot food or beverage.

5. I always wonder if it is really worth spending the money for a Superbowl commercial? This year it is $3.5 million for a 30 second slot.  The only ads that should feel ok about the 3.5 millions are:
A. M&Ms - brown M&M
B. Sketchers - Dog Sprinting.
C. E-trade- Speed Dating
D. Oikos yogurt - Head butting.
E. CareerBuilder - Monkeys.

6. It is really hard to watch a game when either team doing well makes you feel bad.  

Ponderings 1/29/12

Ponderings 1/29/12

1. With the ease of saving phone numbers on cell phones, most of us don't memorize phone numbers anymore. As a result if you ever lose your phone you don't know how to contact people. Everybody should pick a "Fav 5", their 5 most called contacts, and memorize those numbers.

1B. Don't reveal this "Fav 5" to others.

2.  I wish there was a way of keeping the onion inside of the onion ring after you take the first bite.

3. Dominos charging extra for dipping sauce with their cheesy bread is unacceptable.

4. Now that the probowl is before the superbowl, seeing your favorite players play is disappointing and frustrating.
4B. Watching the probowl also makes me extremely jealous of the weather in Hawaii.


5. ESPN needs a new feature called "Hide game". The feature would allow you to hide a game or match so you would be able to browse ESPN without worrying about seeing the outcome of a game you couldn't watch live.

6. It is usually not a smart idea to tell movie directors that your favorite movies are the Rush Hour and Home Alone series. Unless they think you are joking.

Ponderings 1/23/12

1. Why are addresses on houses and stores so small? Every time you are driving to a new place you need to confirm the address is correct and when you look to see the address you can never see it.

2. Halfway through my subscription for ESPN magazine I started getting issues warning me that my subscription was going to end soon. Then ESPN started sending magazines saying "This is your last issue". Now I have no clue when my subscription actually ends.

3. I really want to star in one of those "Shit people say videos" but every type of person I talk too already has a video. Let me know if you have ideas.

4. It is a little embarrassing to know that the following articles were read by most of my friends on Washington Post Social Reader. This is also why I don't share what I read.
A. "Why are smart people usually ugly"
B. "Shilpa's Dress causes international stir"


5. Watching your favorite teams play sports is incredibly draining. After the 49er playoff games these last 2 weeks I have been completely exhausted after the end of the games.
5B. To increase home field noise and fan participation stadiums should be allowed to put speakers around the stadium that are hooked up to local bars.
   

Ponderings 1/15/12

1. You know it is going to be a long international flight when the person sitting in the aisle seat has ear plugs and a eye cover (eye mask) on.

2. I don't understand why the US cannot build Metro systems like other countries.

3. Airports should introduce a bar code system for baggage so that when people exit the airport they make sure they are taking their own bags.

4. Apparently most airlines don't do anything special for passengers on New Years.

5. Don't try to rent costumes from a costume store in India.

6. With so many back to back games in the NBA this season, many teams are giving up and resting the starters if they get down early in the games. I would have preferred less games that were more competitive.

7. It is not a good idea to keep your phone off for 3 days when people expect you to have your phone on.

8. When you are sick it would be great if there was something you could put on your tongue to get your normal taste buds back.

9. Celebrating New Years at a place with many clocks that are all at different times is very confusing and frustrating.

10.  The problem with the NFL playoffs is that I can't sleep or get anything done in anticipation for the next 49er game.