April 30, 2003
Dave Neeleman - JetBlue - more iTunes
Heard Dave Neeleman, founder and CEO of Jet Blue Airways give a talk at Stanford's School of Engineering last night. I flew Jet Blue once, to NYC, and was impressed with the experience - all leather seats, spacious leg room, multi-channel TV in every seat, and all ticketless. So I was curious to see the force behind this company. What I didn't anticipate was how soft-spoken and understated he appeared. Here's a man who didn't take stock options when they were offered. Why? Because he already had 20% of the company, and that was enough. He donates his salary to a fund for helping employees who are facing catastrophic events in their lives. He spends at least 3 hours a week on his own airline flights, interviewing every passenger and helping out the crew members serving snacks and cleaning up after the flight. Talk about walking your talk. On top of all that he has nine children. His parting words of advice to the gathered couple hundred aspiring entreprenuers was to ask yourself, "if your company went away tomorrow, would anybody miss it? Would the customers miss your products or services? Would your employees miss working for your company?" Important questions. Good reminder that we all want our lives to have meaning. There's no reason that this fundamental desire should fly out the window with regards to work.
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Posted by elise at 11:29 PM
April 29, 2003
iTunes store arrives
Just paid for and downloaded my first album from Apple's new iTunes Store. For years I've been arguing that the main justification one has for copying (illegally) MP3s is that you're pissed that you so often pay 18 dollars or so for an entire album and then only end up liking a couple of songs. All of that overhead into manufacturing and distribution and the artist is lucky if she gets more than 50 cents back from your 18 bucks. So now I get to put my money where my mouth is, and that I am happy to do with this service. The quality is awesome. Also, usually to find new music I go to Amazon.com and play the Real Networks clips with crappy sound quality. The clips on iTunes are high quaility and stream very quickly. Bravo Apple!
Posted by elise at 3:13 PM
April 28, 2003
Dave Barry on Lord of the Rings
Dave Barry's hilarious take on Lord of the Rings.
Thank you Marc Escabosa.
Posted by elise at 5:52 PM
April 23, 2003
good to be Froogle
Google has launched a new product price comparison website - froogle.com.
Posted by elise at 4:42 PM
April 17, 2003
A year ago
A year ago this month, my housemate and dear friend for many years, Elisabeth Targ, MD, was diagnosed with brain cancer, a condition which rapidly progressed until it overtook her last summer. It was Easter weekend when the results came back from the MRI of the golf ball sized tumor on the right hemisphere of her brain. A year ago today she was recovering from her surgery to remove the tumor, was walking without pain, doing yoga every morning, beaming as much love as she could to all who came to visit. She was asking forgiveness of everyone, including me, whom she felt she had slighted or wronged. The enormity of what she was facing weighed down on all of those of us around her. Spring was here, the daffodils, tulips, and roses in the garden were all blooming. ET came into my rooom after a shower, and laid down naked on a towel, telling me about her future plans with her husband-to-be, our other housemate, Mark. I listened with as much love as I could, trying not to let my fear of the future jinx her chances for a miraculous recovery and the possiblity of the fulfilment of her dreams. She laughed about her nudity, telling me she didn't care anymore and hoped I didn't mind.
It's the small moments I remember.
Posted by elise at 12:12 AM
April 16, 2003
Wage Peace
Thank you poet Judyth Hill. (Poem often mistakenly attributed to Mary Oliver).
Posted by elise at 11:03 PM
April 14, 2003
The Vatican has better things to do
The Vatican recently (Feb 2003) released a tome condemning everything remotely connected with "New Age". Apparently some group of researchers in Rome has been studying the Age of Aquarius for several years and has chosen this time, when Catholics world-wide have had their faith in the church rocked by widespread sexual abuse scandals, to denounce all progressive thought. Included in the list of baddies are yoga, acupuncture, transpersonal psychology, holistic healing, meditation, EST, Esalen, the Findhorn gardens, and Jung, all determined to be fundamentally anti-Christian. Absurd really. Galileo all over again.
A woman once asked a Tibetan Lama, how do I know if my spiritual practice is working? He replied, "it is working if you are becoming a softer, more gentle, more compassionate human being. If not, it's not working." This I think is the essence of living a Christian life. Practices that help develop this outcome are what should be encouraged, not condemned by Catholic leadership.
Posted by elise at 5:59 PM
April 9, 2003
Film - Nowhere in Africa
Just saw Nowhere in Africa at the Castro (SF). Beautiful.
Posted by elise at 2:33 PM
April 8, 2003
Target will destroy Macy's
Went shopping last weekend for a microwave. Thought we found a great deal at Macy's - a perfectly fine Samsung which we bought for only $100. One hour later, found the exact same model at Target for $32 (on sale from $65). What is Macy's thinking? How can they expect to survive if their prices are three times that of their competitors?
Target also has perfectly acceptable standard feather down pillows for $10.
Target will destroy Macy's.
Posted by elise at 6:34 PM
April 7, 2003
1 Giant Leap
One of the benefits of being somewhat home-bound for a year has been to explore what's been happening in the music world lately. "Lately" meaning since I got out of college - 20 years ago. I learned while working for Warner Music Group that 80% of all CDs are sold to people between the ages of 14 and 24. (No wonder they are so worried about MP3 sharing. This is the same demographic who knows more than anyone how to share files on the net and who cares more about having access to new music than they do about copywrite laws.) Warner found that people generally keep listening to the same artists and same genre of music that they did in college. Once people start having babies it is just harder to keep up with the music scene.
Music is getting much harder to classify - when world, electronica, hip/hop all merge into one, waddaya call it? Check out 1 Giant Leap and see what I mean. Great music, and a great story.
Posted by elise at 10:24 PM