Every year that passes, the more likely it is that certain folks pass on. It would seem that 2006 and 2007 have both been a little more tough than normal, not necessarily for me directly, but for the many folks around me.

Brian Lyons, the founder and creative spirit of Number Six Software up in DC, was killed in a motorcycle accident last night. I never had the pleasure of being close to Brian, but I did learn an awful lot from him. Brian taught a lot of the training courses N6 would host and was one of the authors of the UML 2 Toolkit -- a book that was indispensable to me for quite some time.

Brian had that creativity and energy that makes working in the technology world so much fun. He was always the highlight of company get togethers and meetings, both formal and informal. I'll always remember the last company meeting I attended. I'm still not sure what the heck he was talking about, but I do know I'll never be able to look at penguins again without at least smiling. The memory of Brian on a tear and Chad's perplexed facial expressions as we watched and tried to follow the metaphor holds a special place in my mind. It didn't matter what he was saying, he was just so much fun to listen to.

N6 gave me a chance right out of college. I've been programming my whole life but I graduated with a business degree and had never so much as even touched java. I learned a tremendous amount while working for Brian's company and there's no way I'd be where I am today without that experience. My thoughts and my prayers go out to his family and friends.

For any fellow former sixers, or for those otherwise interested, take a look at the great tribute posts going on over at the N6 blog.

UCF's own Daniel Tosh has a 1 hour special coming up on Comedy Central this Sunday.

Kat and I had the pleasure of seeing Dan up at the Improv in DC. His quick ranting/sarcastic style is one of my favorites. I got to talk to him briefly afterwards, kinda neat to talk UCF. He mentioned he used to live off of Dean road, which is where my brother and I lived, and later where Thomas, Drew and I lived..... It was like we were soul mates.

If you own a tivo, or even one of those blasted DVR's, set your sights on Comedy Central sunday night for "Completely Serious."

It's a few months old, but I'm just now catching it.

We finished up the apartment last night around 9pm or so. I think we're using every inch of space in the uHaul. My car is being trucked down seperately, and it's filled to the brim with books (I seem to be starting my own library...). It's strange, cause, my place was only 500 sq/ft. I just built upwards I guess and was able to fit a heck of a lot more in there than I had known. For some reason, I thought it'd only take a few hours to get out of there... 3 days later.

I'm in Savannah now, catching up on some work in a highway hotel lobby. The morning's drive is cake though, about 6 hours to Melbourne. I'll hang out there for a day and bust ass on various coding projects, then drive to Orlando the following morning. ETA Thursday.

Card board boxes are friggin' expensive. I've never bought them new before. I guess I just figured I had such a small place, I wouldn't need many. Wrong. This place is a wreck. I'm drowning in cardboard and bubble wrap as I try to orchestrate a quick like departure (my tenant moves in next friday). I'm rocking out though. I figure leaving D.C. justifies an overdose of Ian McKaye (get the irony? nevermind..). It's a fugazi / minor threat extravaganza over here.

Links:

• 50 Strategies to Make Yourself Work: Written for writers, but it applies to all of us (via Lifehacker)
• Google Doc's and Spreadsheets: Sure. I trust them with my e-mail. Am I ready to trust them with my spreadsheets? Not quite.
  
• vFlyer: Simple. Niche. Great execution.
  
• Lend Monkey: Media trading community.
• Interview with Chief Architect of StumbleUpon: I had never heard of StumbleUpon until they started sending Emurse a decent chunk of traffic. It's cool.

Thinking about it... I've been "on the road" for all but about ~1.5 weeks in the last ~4.5 months or so. Dang.

I'm finally back at my desk, for what looks to be at least a month. I had hoped to make it back down for UCF's homecoming against ECU, but it's no longer looking likely due to a conflicting engagement. I did, however, just add UCF season basketball tickets to my growing list of reasons to go back to Orlando. Football season only gets me there so much I guess ;)

So let's see... DC->Columbus->DC->Detroit->California->DC->New York->DC->Miami->Orlando->DC I think was the pattern. I might be missing something, but it doesn't matter.

It's good to be back.

E-mail forward I just received...

Q: Why doesn't Mark Foley like bookmarks?
A: He prefers his pages bent over.

Back in DC... For today... Then off again tomorrow morning for another month long excursion, this time, east coast style. We have a Weblogs, Inc./Blogsmith meeting in NYC next week, and then some things to attend to down in Orlando, Fl (go knights). It's great to be home though, if only for a couple of nights. In my head, my apartment was on fire and looted or something completely crazy like that. Not so much, everything was right where I left it. On the floor. Sweet.

Emurse is still doing phenomenal. We're talking to a bunch of different folks both in the search world and in the recruiting world (and we'd like to hear from you, if we haven't yet touched base somehow). We're working on rolling out the premium accounts soon (we're perfectionists...). We have an affiliate program coming together that we'll formalize and announce soon. We have three new templates coming online and a completely new share tab complete with all of the neato features our amazing user community has sent in. We finished a cobranding structure for various requested partnerships the other day as well (contact us if you'd like to get in on it)

All in all, things are on the up. I know we've been quiet on the blog this past week, but, well.. it's for good reasons ;) Stay tuned and we'll get this stuff out as soon as our numb little fingers will let us.

First though, I'm going to enjoy a quality nights rest in my own bed before getting on a plane tomorrow and doing it all again.

Kathryn's on the other side of the country for the summer and most of the folks I roll with here in DC are always in and out of town (as am I).. So the other night, I decided to take myself out to the movies. A self-date if you will (masterdating?).

I cruised down to E Street Cinema to take in Al Gore's new flick "An Inconvenient Truth," per the recent Ryan Block challenge. For those of you who don't know me all that well, I am a registered republican. I tend to be of the moderate variety. In my case, I tend to be against the government getting involved in social affairs (ala libertarian), and very much small government (or atleast, handle it at the state level before the federal level). Of the two mainstream parties, take your pick. Yeah I know, it's difficult these days.

Anyway, the point is that I'm not some gung-ho raging democrat. I tried to watch the movie as cynically as I possibly could, looking for, if nothing else, more ways to tease Al Gore. Which is cool, because he invented teasing, so he's okay with it (cheap, cheap humor..).

I was pleasantly surprised. The film is wonderful, and Al Gore came across as a very likable human being. He presents a strong argument with hefty amounts of supporting evidence. I haven't had much time to try to search out competing materials, but it's just one of those things where, you can't really deny the sheer amount of research that concludes our effect on global warming. Even if it turns out to not be so immediate, there's little harm in curbing our own personal decisions. Walk instead of drive, use less air conditioning, don't turn on all 5 computers at once. Things everyone of us can do now.

I encourage you to try and see this movie. It's not a partisan issue, it's not an economic issue, it's simply something that we need to be aware of and willing to act on. Al Gore's totally serial, and now so am I. So much so, that Ryan get's to keep the ticket price he offered to pay me for seeing it, and even a thank you for the recommendation.

If your a true geek, that'll spark the rest.

I'm back in DC, finally. At least for a couple days. I really just need to clear my head out a bit. I think I might go wonder around the monuments some and reset.

I did find this comic this morning, and it reminded me of bored.cc, which also reminded me to let certain folks know that I now have access to the domain again. I went ahead and renewed it for 2 more years. I'm not sure what we'll do with it. I know a lot of people want me to put it all back online, but frankly, theres just cooler shit out there now. Maybe some sort of hybrid new age approach, who knows.

Anyway.. It was great to get some sleep last night.

There's really nothing DC related here, it's just a clever way to note that I'm back in town for a few days before turning around and heading to New York. I got my knee pads packed and an extra bottle of ketchup, Code Jam 6 here I come.

Links

• Add this to my Amazon Wish list - Here's the kicker though.. With Kathryn and I riding shotgun, it doesn't look like I can attach Gavin's silly little side car very easily.
• Best entrepreneurs wear jeans - See, I told you my fancy boy jeans were an investment. Too bad I work from home, and don't have to wear pants. (ahem)
  
• Digg is a marketing beast - 37 Signal's getting real. A real digg on.
• A cross between tetris and bingo?! - I no longer fear growing old.

So, Kathryn's off to Orange County for the next six months, and I'm off to Orlando for the next two weeks. I look forward to sleeping on Gavin's futon and listening to his roommate make uncomfortably obscene noises in his bedroom... We have a lot of work-work to do, but undoubtedly we'll end up prototyping something rad, or hopefully finish one of our other endeavors. Who knows.

More Links for That Ass

• Awesome guide to Ebay on CollegeV2. This blog is basically tips and tricks for getting through college. Great idea, great site, great post.
• Wii! I don't care what they named it, I'm still buying one.
• LastCall is a free SMS information service for the DC metro area, provided by DCist.com
• My AIM Page is up. AIMPages.com is up and live for use. It's buggy as shit, really slow, and written in JSP. The idea and the presentation however, is awesome. Great initial release.