nodoze@night

Iko Iko I-nay Jock-a-mo feen-o and-dan-day

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:59:00 +0000

Krista and I were driving Sunday, listening to the radio, when an old, catchy song named "Iko Iko" came on the radio. It was the original version of the song that I remember from my sisters. Then, the radio station skipped into two more versions of the song performed by two different bands, one of which was the Grateful Dead.

Of course, when I got home, I immediately looked up the song and bought the album, by the Dixie Cups, on iTunes. It happens to also have the "Going to the Chapel" song that I recall my sister Jessie listening to about 50x per day for a couple years (she was always a huge oldies fan, oddly enough, while Heather loved alternative and chick music like Indigo Girls, Cranberries, etc.)

It's a pretty cool story, as told on the Wikipedia entry about the song. For those of you too lazy to click, apparently the band just started singing the song and playing on coke bottles during a break, and meanwhile, they were being recorded by one of the studio engineers/producers. It was a song that the ladies in the group knew from their grandparents, and is a song with deep history in New Orleans (the song was originally written in the 50s by a man named James Crawford, entitled "jack-o-mo".

There's something about history, and something in particular to me about southern history, that feels like it has a lot of texture and depth. Krista and I noted this when we were in South Carolina over break and had the chance to spend a few hours in Savannah. For some reason, Wisconsin just doesn't seem to have the same feeling of deep history (probably because it wasn't even a state until 1848.

I then happened on this video, which intrigued me as a potential reggae remix of the song. But instead, it was the same "The Belle Stars" version from Rain Man, but with a couple girls dancing to it. I looked at the comments, which said "That skinny girl is way way better. So good that you dont even notice other one", so as they danced, I kept watching to see what they meant. And sure enough, the skinny girl has some SICK dance moves. I watched the whole thing.

And then, I closed it off with this incredibly awesome video where it shows an old school american grandstand dance event with "Iko Iko" by the Dixie Cups being played. In particular, I love the guy at about 1:02 who appears to be doing some sort of samurai dance:

Best video of my life

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:48:00 +0000

I watched this video over and over last night, and it never ceased to make me laugh. There's something about babies and puppies that makes them unstoppable together.

In particular, I love how Sofia tries to grab Mo's ear aggressively, and Jess fiendishly encourages her but doesn't quite let her get a strong grip. So funny. Thanks for uploading to youtube for me, heath!

Lulu meets Lulu (NK's rocking lamb) in Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:48:00 +0000

Last weekend we went to visit the Burns family in Phoenix for an extended weekend of relaxation, as I posted last night.

I'm waiting to get the more interesting photos up here on the blog, but in the meantime I'll post one from the incredibly kind and awesome party they threw for us last year after we got engaged. Here are Jen and Krista at that party:

To show our gratitude, Krista smashed one of their champagne glasses (it's become somewhat of a tradition, as we celebrated Valentine's Day with some Veuve in Phoenix; no smashed glasses of record, however, but officials are still tallying the damage. Lots of sliced wooden fruit).

For the record, here's how we celebrate things like engagements and Valentine's day without the Burns around:

They clearly up our class level quite a bit.

More photos to come! Thanks again for hosting us, and for bringing my jacket and sunglasses all the way from Phoenix to Palo Alto tomorrow AM, Adam!

Nick and Norah's Endless Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:23:00 +0000

After a long and splendidly relaxing weekend in Phoenix visiting Jen, Adam, and Nancy Kate Burns (including a hike by Camelback Mountain, pictured above), Krista and I are back in the Bay and feeling refreshed. We're catching up on emails, watching the Alaska CruiseWest DVD Krista signed up for (hip hip hooray!), and listening to Nick and Norah's Endless Playlist, which we watched Sunday night with the Burns (and everyone loved it). Here's the trailer:

To me, one of the signs of a truly good novel/movie/story is when not every detail is 1) made ultra obvious to the viewer (this doesn't work for mainstream products, I realize, but I like it nonetheless) 2) meaningful. The second point is important, because all too often I feel like a story I am being told is made of 100% relevant details that all add up to some meaning, when life itself isn't actually like that. One of the hardest things about life, I think, is sorting things that are meaningful to me personally from those that are not, when they all may be meaningful to other people simply because of different values, backgrounds, or beliefs. Of course, a story can't be TOO full of "meaningless" details that don't feed directly into the plot, or it will just be confusing.

The music is also quite good, so I'm going to add a couple of the songs that we like best to the blog thanks to lala.com. Enjoy!

"Very Loud" by "Shout Out Louds"

Very Loud - Shout Out Louds

"Our Swords" by Band of Horses

Our Swords - Band Of Horses

"Ottoman" by Vampire Weekend (I can't remember if this is on the Vampire Weekend album I got into a few months back or not; and Lala won't let me embed for copyright reasons, I'm sure, so here's
the link instead)

Jay-z at his best--the new age rat pack!

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Kid on Drugs

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Ok, this video is HILARIOUS. And we've all been there before, which I think is why we all enjoy it so very much.

The SuperBowl: a Recap of my Twitter Frenzy

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:05:00 +0000

My dear sister, Jessie, was in town yesterday to hang out with us en route to a few days in Oakland for work. We picked her up in the morning, then went to get brunch @ Copenhagen Cafe in Burlingame.

Then after a quick 2-14 mile hike (hard to say exactly how long it was), we returned home to watch the game after loading up on some snacks and drinks at Trader Joe's (including Anytizers; though I prefer the actual wings to the boneless "nuggets").

It took us about the first half to catchup on DVR (shameful, I know, but this is what you get when you watch the superbowl with your sister and fiance). I thought it would be a Steelers' runaway victory, so I early on started rooting for the Cardinals. But my efforts seemed for naught after the 100-yard pick-6 by the Steelers made it 17-7 at the half. Here's the TD in HD (this is pretty sweet, actually):

I'm not sure at which point I started twittering (and thus updating my facebook status, as I have linked both accounts for ease of use, despite acknowledging that they can and probably should be used for different purposes. I simply don't have the bandwidth for upkeep of both. See lack of posts to this blog in January for reference).

But once I started, I couldn't stop. And I had 3-4 responses from a distant acquaintance from college (who agreed on my point that the refs had made some questionably pro-Steelers calls), my Stanford friend's wife (and my friend of course), whose family is a die-hard Cards fan, and one of Krista's best friends from college (who asked if I could have possibly updated my status more during the game).

There were a few reasons I couldn't stop:

1. I was outraged at the horrible job the refs were doing, and finding no outlet with the two females I was watching the game with (I was mocked for saying the word "ticky-tacky"), I turned to twitter to broadcast my opinion in hopes of a more receptive audience (I found it btw, as noted above).
2. I wanted to connect with Adam and Jen Burns, but not be on the phone or IM with them constantly, to share my rooting for the Cards.
3. I felt like this SuperBowl was really a historical event for social media, and I wanted to be a part of it.

Sure enough, Charlene Li (formerly of Forrester, author of Groundswell, and social media expert) tweeted today a link to a new york times geographic map that is pretty awesome. I really like the "Go" map (I said "Wow" instead of "Go"; more neutral :) ).

Here are my tweets, in reverse order (check it out, timestamped and better organized, on my twitter page)

Also, I have to give Krista credit for catching Holmes' winning TD celebration was in honor of the Lebron (and KG and MJ) chalk ad. Someone from Nike get him on the phone!

# No way his feet are in. no way. about 21 hours ago from txt

# What a great game. about 21 hours ago from txt

# Wow now the cards have too much time almost. about 22 hours ago from txt

# YES arrington! about 22 hours ago from txt

# Love the lebron chalk celebration by holmes tho! Even if his right foot didn't come down (it didn't). about 23 hours ago from txt

# Wow big ben is a stud. We r going to OT folks. about 23 hours ago from txt

# I'm speechless. Perfect play. OT? about 23 hours ago from txt

# YES!! Wow. I think these refs have been pretty poor. So many calls that shoudln't be made. But a great game! about 23 hours ago from txt

# Yes, good personal foul call. Cards deserve that one. about 23 hours ago from txt

# @Smallwunder i know--i'm KILLING twitter tonight. gonna try for a blog post tonight. and isn't tweetdeck awesome? 10:33 PM Feb 1st from web in reply to Smallwunder

# Just checked twitter. The superbowl is the biggest day of social media to date-we have hit critical mass. So many 'omg's'! 7:26 PM Feb 1st from txt

# @Smallwunder great game. feel bad for burnsy (jen AND adam)....lot of fun though. 7:23 PM Feb 1st from TweetDeck in reply to Smallwunder

# they'll review this...not a fumble. one more hail mary still to go. 7:08 PM Feb 1st from TweetDeck

# @rentcentralpa absurd huh? 7:08 PM Feb 1st from TweetDeck in reply to rentcentralpa

# Wow. 6:48 PM Feb 1st from txt

# My sister is sitting next to me checking her iphone for my tweets/fbook updates. Lol. 6:46 PM Feb 1st from txt

# Love madden taking a stand: 'he should be thrown out for that'. Hate when announcers dont take a stand. 6:43 PM Feb 1st from txt

# Dockett is otherwordly right now.

# Shld've been a PI penalty on Pittsburgh on fitz's TD. Stupid refs. 6:27 PM Feb 1st from txt

# Loving the cards' no huddle game plan right now. Smart to treat this like there's only three minutes left. They're the anti-eagles. 6:24 PM Feb 1st from txt

# The refs have clearly been told to help pittsburgh as much as possible. The roughing qb and running into holder calls were absurd.

Jaydiohead

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Here's a great illustration of just how powerful user-generated-social-media is:

I was listening to the Grey Album (DJ DangerMouse's mashup of Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles Black Album from 2004, probably the best album made that year in music), and tweeted about it.

Then, since I've been looking to become more of a power user, I found a site to search for a grey album hashtag (#greyalbum perhaps), which is basically the way you tag things in twitter to group tweets on the same subject.

While I couldn't find anything on the greyalbum, one random tweet mentioning "jaydiohead" and saying how it was better than the grey album came up.

I did a google search for it and found a place to download it free online (the DJ's website, I think). It even has an embed tag, so I can let anyone download it straight from my blog!

http://www.mediafire.com/?4njfmnwz2yn

Pretty sick. I'm listening to it now. First song was good (not great). I'm optimistic, though, given how sick both Jay-Z and Radiohead are.

Finally, as Jay would say..."I'm BAAAAACK" from my post-holiday hiatus. I'm going to get back on the blogging trail again. I miss it as a place to put my thoughts.

Ecofont - digital green

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Krista showed me a pretty cool little innovation in the green space that surprised me for how clever it is: ecofont.

It's a font that has little holes punched in it that reduces ink usage by 20% (reportedly). Pretty cool little idea that could have a fairly significant effect at scale. Here's a photo of it:

Pretty awesome little idea that can have a pretty big impact on the world.

More Coffee: Devil's Tool, or Gateway to Heaven?

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:13:00 +0000

I wrote a little bit ago that I always looked forward to the "free" coffee at sunday church. Turns out there's a lot more history behind the mixing of coffee and church.

Apparently, coffee first comes on the historical scene sometime in the 9th century, popular first among Islamic monks and later through the entire Arab world due to its energizing effects.

In time, coffee began to spread throughout Europe as well; but because it had come from the Muslim world, priests pronounced it to be the drink of "infidels". In the late 1500s, Pope Clement VIII was urged by his trusted advisers to ban the drink throughout the church's domain as "the drink of the devil" because of its roots. Instead, as legend has it, he insisted on trying it.

He loved it so much that he said something to the effect of "This drink of Satan is so tasty that it shouldn't be his or the infidels alone; we'll make it our own by baptizing it and thereby fool Satan".

Within 50 years of this "baptism", coffee shops proliferated Europe. And eventually, Starbucks came into power in the US and returned coffee to the realm of the devil...just kidding (I love Starbucks).

More fun facts about coffee HERE.

Brett Favre, the Packers, and "Zero Defects Mentality",

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:38:00 +0000

In an agile development book assigned to me by Rob, a co-founder of mine and CTO of 750, there is a brief mention of the danger of a "Zero Defect Mentality" (ZDM) culture. Essentially, a ZDM culture cripples any organization (for bigger, entrenched companies, it will do so over time as it prevents innovation; in smaller companies or, as the book speaks of, Marine units, it will be total suicide) because it paralyzes every individual in that organization from making judgment calls for fear of being wrong.

"Demanding such a rigid standard produces timid leaders afraid to make tough decisions in crisis, unwilling to take the risks necessary for success in military operations," Perry said. "This zero defects mindset creates conditions that will lead inevitably to failure …." CLICK HERE for entire article.

In (my own) behavioral terms, the fear of making even one small mistake is greater than the reward of making a big impact.

Obviously, I think about things such as these a lot as an entrepreneur. Item one of our "culture credo", which lists out the principles that we as individuals and as a collective company work and live by, is: "We are a learning culture." Part of that is accepting that we will make mistakes. We had a great talk the other day at an all hands that sometimes we don't always seem to exhibit those behaviors, and that sometimes we seem to act as if we are deathly afraid of making mistakes. It was a great conversation to have amongst a group of new entrepreneurs, and I'm looking forward to continuing it down the road.

But I thought I'd also apply that concept to a more accessible domain: professional football. As most know, I'm a die-hard Packers fan. This year has been tough, with the Brett Favre saga, the trade, and then the 5-9 record and many "almost" games the Packers have lost this year.

Some fans and columnists have made the point that Favre's leadership is missing from the Packers, and that the Jets rise from a losing record last year to being on the verge of making the playoffs this year is due to Brett. While the stats might show otherwise--the Jets have a top running game and top defense, while Brett hasn't played all that great for a couple stretches of the season; meanwhile, Rodgers has top-10 quarterback stats, yet his team's defense and special teams seem to collapse in big moments--I wonder what effect Brett Favre has on motivating his team in light of the idea of zero defects.

Brett Favre is famous for boneheaded interceptions. But he seems to have an uncanny ability to shrug off mistakes, even if they cost the team a playoff game, a trip to the superbowl, or the superbowl itself. He always had fun, he always (seemed to) worked hard at his craft (those two go hand in hand, I believe), and he always gave it his best shot.

Goto 1:20 of this video for a classic Brett Favre throw into double coverage, just giving his receiver a chance, that Javon Walker caught for a TD

Sometimes that meant throwing up a jump ball for a receiver named Taco Wallace, who the Packers' previous GM all but called out as not having the talent to play in the NFL. Do you think Brett Favre, a hall of fame quarterback with some of the most talent a quarterback could ever have didn't know from practice exactly how talented Taco Wallace was? And yet he still threw the ball to him, still gave him the chance, still believed in him more than anyone else. Why?

Perhaps it's because he believed his talent was enough to compensate. Or perhaps it's because his search was for greatness--even at the play level--rather than perfection. Or maybe it's both of these, and more. But the bottom line is that every player on the Packers knew that Brett Favre had enough confidence in them to give them a chance to carry the team, and that they might be needed at any time. Think of the effect that has on a person's training, practice, preparation, and gametime attention to detail. Contrast it to how you felt when your boss micromanaged you on some job (it's happened to us all, and we've all done it too).

Effects such as those can't, by nature, show up in stats. But I think they are very, very real. And I think that might be the main reason the Packers are out of the playoffs and the Jets are in. That is, it is not despite Brett Favre's interceptions that the Jets are going to the playoffs, but because of them.

Recall: Brett Lorenzo Favre has the NFL all-time records for touchdown passes, yards, and completions. But he also has the NFL all-time records for pass attempts and interceptions.

Brett Favre is NOT perfect; he's great. And it's become apparent to me, as I study and analyze people who have achieved greatness in their lives, that perfection will never lead to greatness. We try to live that concept everyday at 750, as hard as it can be to be wrong. And I'm trying to live my life in the same way.

"You're sitting on a chair in the SKY!"

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:52:00 +0000

I just saw a hilarious video from Conan on Fred Wilson's blog HERE. It's all in response to a bad seat assignment he had flying from NY to SF. It's a good reminder to all of us during this hectic, traveling, holiday season:

8track - awesome online mix maker

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Checkout my first mix, randomly selected today as I multitasked:

This is pretty cool; easier to use than the yahoo tool I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Although I liked the always-there functionality of the side tab with that player.

Pretty solid mix, too. Eclectic, as every good mix should be1

A Walk Down Memory Lane: The Westmorland Saints become the Polar Caps

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:40:00 +0000

...and merge with the hated Flyers!

Growing up, I had two key aspects to my identity:

1) A student at Queen of Peace (this was made obvious in sports such as soccer and hockey, where I played with kids from public schools and other private schools in the area).
2) A Westmorland Saint (this was probably even more identifying--we had jackets, shirts, hats, and more. All my best friends were on the Saints. And some of my best memories were beating the Flyers in big games, state playoffs, and tournaments (the tournaments, out of town, were always the best).

I just found, while searching for youtube videos of the westmorland saints, that my team was merged with the HATED rival flyers in 2004. They are now called the Polar Caps.

Really? The Polar Caps? Pretty brutal name.

I had heard a while ago that the teams had become far less competitive, as their districts had remained the same size while other districts such as verona had grown in population, but I can't believe that my childhood identity could be dissolved in such a way.

Note: once I can get some pictures from my mom digitized, I'll put one up here. I think the one with Brad Winchester, Jonathan Greer, and Kurt Muchow from 8th grade will be the most popular one given how small I am in that photo.

Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoe at George W. Bush in Baghdad

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:15:00 +0000

This is pretty hilarious (but also pretty sad, in a much larger context):

Of course, everyone is probably blogging/writing about this using the famous Austin Powers quote: "Seriously, who throws a shoe?"

Here's to a president who doesn't incite shoe-throwing.

A Shoutout to Brad

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:12:00 +0000

props to my buddy brad for his second (first was with oil vs. blues, I have just found out) 2-goal career game...and helping keep the team in the game against the NHL's best team this year!

Fun to hang with him Friday night in Burlingame.

Link here to the espn article.

I'll put up highlight videos once I can find something to embed, but for now, they're on the Blues websites. Top shelf!

UPDATE: Here's the video. The goal at the end of the 1st (power play) which is incorrectly attributed to someone else by the announcer, and then the 2nd goal in the 2nd period on a 3-2 are both his:

One of my favorite videos of all time

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:30:00 +0000

I remember finding this 2-3 years ago when it was first launched; I think it's a startup in NYC, but I'm not completely sure. It's incredibly funny. I desperately want our company to do one...someday.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Captain N: The Game Master

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:26:00 +0000

Tonight, as I ate dinner, I pulled up Netflix to see what movies I might be able to watch instantly on my laptop.

As I browsed the movies and shows Netflix recommended, I saw some cartoon/nintendo looking video that seemed intriguing. I clicked it. After shutting firefox down once, the video eventually opened, and I was instantly tossed down memory lane in a sudden and surprising manner. Here's a hint:

The show was The Game Master, and it was during the heydey of Nintendo. Aggregating various heroes and villains from NES games, it was a show I LOVED just as much as I loved playing the various 30-40 games I had. I also loved reading Nintendo Power, and getting new accessories (such as the power pad; I never had the power glove, but after watching "The Wizard" over and over again, "I love[d] the power glove...it's so bad"). LOL. I'd sit in our basement playing games, or go play sports, or read. That was pretty much all I did. C-Chicken will probably be disgusted at me, but that's just what I wanted to do!

How cool was this scene? Actually, this was my first exposure to "California", and even now I still remember associating the giant dinosaur with California, to the point where I will look for it as we drive along highways out here. UPDATE: I found a blog post referencing this park...check it out!

And this finale was probably the most impactful movie ending I ever saw (embed disabled):

I played a LOT of video games as a kid, and I loved it. I still think our games were the best, because there was no precedent whatsoever--all these games were SO advanced for their time. And now kids would laugh at how simple they are, with current games closer to movies than anything else.

A Nintendo Power that I read and re-read over and over and over...

Getting back to The Game Master, here's the first episode, at least part of it, on Youtube:

Here's the wikipedia article for the game for further reading.

Ahh, childhood.

Walk Down Memory Lane: Idioteque by Radiohead

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:13:00 +0000

One of my favorite songs that I listened to nonstop during my Fulbright Research time in Spain.

More to write in a few--but wanted to get the song from LaLa, and this is the only way!

A response to Dave Haase's recent blog post

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:22:00 +0000

In light of Dave Haase's most recent blog post (for which I am honored greatly), I thought I'd write a quick blog response.

For those of you who don't know Dave, he's a good friend from business school who has been living in China for the last three months. Here's a photo that will help you get to know his personality rather quickly (that's Ashley, his wife, on the right):

Now, it's been pretty hard for our household (especially Krista, as Dave's post points out, but for me as well) to have Dave so many time zones away. Here's the top 5 downsides to having Dave in China:

5. Shaun Patterson's zingers, delivered in that classic Irish* brogue of his, just aren't as funny when they're delivered at someone other than Dave Haase. With Dave out of the country, the percent of jokes at dave's expense relative to all other jokes by Patterson has dropped to an all-time low of 50%.
4. I have no one to borrow hair "product" from any more (Harris, DK, Houghton...the only exception is Parker, and he won't share with me).
3. I haven't even heard a single mention of "the finishing move" since he left.
2. Murph cries to sleep every night, and has resorted to dressing a body pillow up like Dave in order to console himself (Chandler, you should REALLY get this under control).
1. iPhone sales are down 10% since Dave has no reason to take his out of the house (and thus risk losing it) at all. Have y'all SEEN what the economy's done since the man left?

(Click the image to expand it)

There have also been some bonuses to having Dave so very, very far away, locked behind the great firewall of china.

5. Less revving of his dad's porsche's engine in my driveway/outside my apartment (in our new house, we get enough of that already).
4. I win all warfish games because he's not able to conspire against me with Houghton, Gambrel, Burns, or Bolden. Seriously, he's probably pretty mad about this.
3. Tech support calls to the Keintz/Smaby household have dropped SIGNIFICANTLY.
2. I haven't gotten in trouble with Krista much at all recently.
1. I get more time to talk with Murphy b/c he can only iChat with Dave so many hours in any given day.

But seriously, I've missed Dave around these parts since he took off. And right before Dave took off, I sang him a favorite song of mine to help remind him to stay in touch, and to express just how much he means to me. We happened to tape it and put it up on YouTube as well--and I am just tonight sharing it on this blog post with the rest of the world (skip to 3:25 for the point at which Dave actually broke down into tears):

*Note: I know that Shaun is Scottish. But it's fun to pretend like I think he's Irish just to bug him. Try it out sometime.

Awesome music player for any website by Yahoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:10:00 +0000

I found this awesome music player on a random music blog I just subscribed to called Metaphor.

Basically, the player sits hidden on a tab on the left side of the page, and pops open when you click on it. You can easily link all music on your site to the player using the instructions on the mediaplayer site.

I'd love to set it up, but I haven't setup any place to put my own mp3s. I'm also a little leery of copyright issues in doing so...but I LOVED this music widget in concept. Nice work, Yahoo!

Lebron's "Chalk" Ad, the Power of Ritual, and Free Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:45:00 +0000

I saw this great new Nike ad by Lebron James, where they draw from his pre-game ritual of throwing the scorer's chalk into the air to show other people bringing that ritual into their daily lives (after being influenced by Lebron, of course, and his Nike shoes). It's pretty sick, and the song (Candyman by Cornership, from their 2003 album "When I Was Born for the 7th Time", which also has "Brimful of Asha" on it, probably their most famous hit) is tasty delicious. Check it out HERE. And here's the video:

I have thought a lot about the power of ritual in starting a company and as I've continued to define and redefine the way I want to live my life. It has become particularly interesting to me through the lens of religion, as Krista and I have begun to form the habit of Sunday morning church service at a fairly progressive Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park (called the Cafe, it has a rock band and is not IN a church). Having been forced-fed religion from 1st-12th grade (1-8 at Our Lady Queen of Peace and 9-12 at Edgewood High School), I took what I liked to call a "break" from religion for the majority of college (despite attending a Jesuit school in Boston College) and thereafter. BTW, Chris Farley was a graduate of Edgewood--and my friend Steph McCoy lived in his neighborhood and has some funny stories about him.

In fact, it wasn't the abstract concept of a "God" that ended up getting me through the doors of the Cafe service. It was coffee and the fact that we had a lot of our closest couple friends who attended regularly. After the service, we'd wander Menlo Park and typically go get a breakfast and good conversation from Cafe Borrone (I call it Bor-ron, Dave King calls it Ba-ro-ney (like baloney)...who knows?). Krista would go more often than I would--I would sometimes exercise my right NOT to go, possibly just to prove that I didn't HAVE to go, as I used to HAVE to go to religion class and church at school. There's another lesson on the power of having a choice in there, but I'll leave it be for tonight.

As we graduated from Stanford, many of our churchgoing friends moved away (not all though! We still get to go with the Houghtons and the Kings every now and again, to my delight; today we were reserving seats for the Houghtons, who were running late for the service due to a last-minute-baby-schedule-adjustment, and I kept eagerly looking at the door when people would come in, hoping they wouldn't cancel entirely), and we moved a half hour north to Burlingame. But after getting settled in, we began to go back to Menlo early Sunday, and re-established our routine.

Even now, I continue to tell myself that I go in the morning for the "free coffee" (even though Krista tends to give money as we leave and I get my 2nd cup). I still haven't really opened up as much to the "God" part of it internally, but I've become really interested in the symbols and stories and rituals that the Church uses to convey messages that stick. It's also a great time for me to (try to) disconnect from my day to day startup worries, which all too often follow me all the way through the weekend, and to get a much bigger perspective of the issues I am personally dealing with.

That's the power of ritual, as THIS LINK points out so well: ritual gives structure to chaos. Whether it's a Friday all-hands meeting or Sunday morning church, it can help you when you're feeling a little lost at sea.

Final note: this post was intended as a post more about the power of ritual, but it turned into a bit of a spiritual expose. Oops. At least I know I'll get a Laurie Bolden post out of it! :)

Also, I want to point out that I am SO GRATEFUL for my educational and spiritual upbringing--I loved Queen of Peace and Edgewood, and would never change a thing about those experiences. I owe a TON to my parents and teachers and sisters for those great experiences.

Great Music: Some Badass Guitar by Rodrigo y Gabriela

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:11:00 +0000

Serendipitously, a talented duo named Rodrigo y Gabriela that I was first exposed to at the Outside Lands Festival months ago (highly endorsed by my friend Shayna), came on tonight as I did random online reading. So I thought I'd share a couple videos about them, since they are so very badass.

Here's probably my favorite song of theirs, Tamacun:

Another great song, Diablo Rojo:

Also, I'd like to note that the videos do NOT do their live performance justice. If you were to, say, watch them perform in the late afternoon in the middle of a beautiful park in 70 degree weather with a HUGE speaker system, it would be very different than listening to them with the tinny apple headphones or laptop speakers you're currently using. :) They do this really cool camerawork where the camera shoots along the neck of the guitar so that you can see the speed at which their hands move; it's hard to describe, but incredible to watch...so what are you waiting for? See if they're playing near you anytime soon by checking out their website.

Travel for Thanksgiving...and Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:52:00 +0000

It's 11:52 pm on Thanksgiving Eve (why don't they ever call it Thanksgiving Eve, btw?), and Krista and I are doing various errands on our computers as we get ready to call it a night.

We're in Naples, FL, with Gary and Nancy. I had to work yesterday and most of today, even though I had hoped not to, so the vacation has really only just begun (and we leave on Friday!) At least the last 8 hours has been nice and restful; Gary made "Ducat's Bucket", a favorite childhood dish of Krista's, which is a special mussel and clam dish. And then we watched the original Father of the Bride, which was almost exactly the same as the one with Steve Martin that we all know. Involved in planning weddings as I am, I

I was just reading some random Thanksgiving day facts, as well, and I learned that the average American consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. Wow. I'm aiming for 5,000.

Here's a great little video I just found that will hopefully make at least one person laugh:

Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks to all my friends and family for everything.

Just Like College Again (for a day)

noreply@blogger.com (Brett Keintz) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:04:00 +0000

This weekend a couple of close friends, Mr. Jonathan Bolden and Mr. and Mrs. Timothy and Chandler Murphy, happened to be in town. Today felt like college again, as we had lunch with a bunch of friends from school in downtown Burlingame (like lower dining hall at BC), then JB and I went on a quest to borrow a replacement cellphone (from a generous Sarvesh Regmi, another friend from Stanford).

After that quick errand, we came back to our house and watched some football while we chatted, browsed stuff online, and had a beer. Soon thereafter, Krista and Jenny King came back from their own errand, and we just hung out for another hour until Dave King and Chris Harris stopped by. We watched a little more football, then walked over to Barracuda's in downtown Burlingame to meet Scott Crumrine for some sushi.

It's pretty rare these days that 1) we have friends just hanging out at our place, unplanned and unexpected (but very welcome) 2) we hang out with just 1 person in a couple rather than in precise couples and 3) we have no specific agenda and can just relax. In other words, I feel like we've gotten to the point where even our social life has become planned, rather than just going with the flow as we used to be able to do in college with 100 of your closest friends living within one mile of you.

Maybe it can't return to that type of social life, but I sure wish it could. I can just imagine living in a little gated community of all my closest friends, by a cool downtown area. It would be pretty sweet if we could make that happen.