Today's Run

I'm calling it first: iTunes + Pandora = music perfection!

I just discovered Pandora this morning when reading TechCrunch, but I'm already wondering why it took this long to show up. Pandora is an idea so simple, and yet so amazing, it is incredible that it took this long to come out.

To try and explain it would be a disservice to Pandora. What each of you need to do is go over to Pandora and enter in a song or artist you like, than just continue working while Pandora operates in the background. After you realize you've been listening to great music you've never heard before, stop, go here and pay these genius' the reward they are due.

I know it may sound like I'm paid to plug their service, but honestly, not since the iPod has a product changed the way I listen to music so dramatically.

New Blog

I know that posts have been off lately, and that they have been mainly limited to work related items, but I have good news. I'm happy to anounce a new blog: Insurance Resource. What I want the blog to become is a two-way conversation on trends in the employee benefits industy. I will continue posting peronal items about Tascha and I to this site, so continue to check back or subscribe. With the new blog I'll be able to better focus on personal happenings here, and work related items.

See you over at Insurance Resource

Aetna publishes prices of doctors for members to use.

Aetna has announced that they are going to post doctor's charges for common services in a pilot program in Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana. This is great news, with this tool consumers will be able to better estimate their costs and weigh the benefit before stepping foot in the doctor's office.

I'm not saying that people should shy away from much needed medical care because of rates, but if you have two doctor's with the same competence level consumers should be able to go online and see which one is more price competitive. As an example, Ford and GM both make great trucks, some consumers will choose only on brand (the doctor's reputation and hospital are his brand), while others will weigh price and features. At least now Consumers will have the same power when making health care decisions that they have when buying a truck!

New York Law creates online list of drug prices

PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Law creates online list of drug prices

Great news on the consumers front! If we could only require insurer's to disclose what they pay for services we'd really be on to something.

Wired News on changing the way Journalism is taught

Wired has a great article on the changing face of news channels, old hat to most of us but still well written and points out something I've been saying for awhile, Newspapers aren't loosing readers they are just seeing them move online.

Found through Corante New York, a great site I somehow missed.

Read

Headlines don't matter anymore!

With the adoption of RSS readers picking up steam, titles no longer matter. When you are a webmaster running a newspaper website, your job is to capture as many eyeballs as possible, so you need catchy headlines, and lots of them. With RSS, the people that want to read your stuff have subscribed to your feed, there is no longer a need to draw these people in, now your job is to provide the service(content) that the reader originally subscribed for. That means you need to display the whole article in your feed! We use RSS readers to minimize the number of websites we visit, if I wanted to recieve your headlines I'd sign up for your email newsletter. If you have to insert advertising into the feed to make some money, so be it, just don't try and lure me to your website when I subscribed to your feed so that I wouldn't have to visit your site as often!

Some things don't need any snide comments...

...click the photo to see why.

Back from Lake Chelan

We're back from Lake Chelan and our retreat at Wapato Point. What a great time, it felt so good to reconnect with old (and get to know new) friends. The weather was amazing and I can't think of a better place to spend a weekend.

This is the view from the beach near the house we rented, check out that water!

Weekend in Lake Chelan

I'm off for our annual retreat, this year to Lake Chelan rather than Port Townsend. It's supposed to be almost 80 on Saturday so I'm not to upset about the change in locale. As you can see from the webcam, things are looking ok!

Wedding Update

We are working hard on the "two month stuff" that should've been done a while ago. We got the proof of our wedding invitations yesterday. The printing is being done by a great printer down in Oregon, Dominick's Quick Print. They sent us some great proof's as well as a strip with some variations on the colors we picked, which was great as we ended up choosing a slightly different color tone for the green background. Below is a screenshot of our invites.




You can also check out our wedding site for some more info. I'm working on getting some more info up there today so check back often.

New Business Cards!

Well, Thanks to the recommendation of many friends Insurance Resource Group now has some great new business cards! Overnightprints.com did a great job, these people shipped our order the same day we uploaded the design!

Access to the wireless network

To "leonotebook" all you need to do is ask, maybe we'll let you on the wireless network. But stealing signal is really not cool!

Touching base with the family...

I just realized that I haven't done a great job of using this blog for what I originally started it for...a way to keep family & friends up-to-date with my current experiences. So here is a start: Tascha and I are still working hard on the wedding. Things are coming along great, we spent most of last Saturday getting our wedding bands ordered. Mine is a really great Titanium ring that we think will be the right mix of "trendiness and classic style" and Tascha's we are having custom made from a good friend's dad who owns a jewelery design business in Bellevue. We were a little worried about the cost and complexety of having her ring custom made but David was great and really took care to explain the process and cost as well as time restrictions in order to make us feel better. We left feeling great about the whole process (except for the part with Tascha having to leave her ring there, we trust them not to loose it but Tascha misses it on her finger!).

Tascha has been substitute teaching dance classes for some of her friends who are busy preparing for CDT this week. It's been good for her to get some hours as the Nanny thing has been a little slow lately. My work has been going well, as most of you know I closed a fairly substantial case last month and things are looking good for a couple more this month.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Bubble 2.0?

Fred Wilson is talking about the bubble, not the last one...this one. Doing employee benefits for startups I can say this is something you just learn to live with. Many of the companies I am working with currently will be growing like crazy over the next couple of years. I think there is at least more scrutiny of the companies that are getting started. Read his post and let me know what you think.


Source: A VC: Bubble 2.0

This is sick

This from the party that says we should have less government interference in our lives (or deaths). I hate this crap.

Taking the leap

I have always dreamt of taking a year off to be a bike messenger, I don't know if it's the riding or the sex appeal of it that draws me but I would love to do it sometime. This person did just that, he quit a job as a code jockey in order to pursue being a curier. I am truly inspired!

A Coder in Courierland

How to strike back at junk mailers

I love stuff like this!

David Brooks does it again...

While politically we may not see eye-to-eye, his social commentary is spot on. Read this piece and pick up one of his books.

Online sources in research papers

There is a great post over on Fred Wilson's blog about his daughter running into some problems with using online sources for her papers. I love this part:

So The Gotham Gal told the school principal that she thought the "no Internet only bibliographies policy" was wrong. He came back with a very thoughtful response. He said the "instant gratification" (my words not his) of internet research was leading to "cut and paste" (again my words not his) reports and the reason he wants kids to use offline resources is that it forces them to take time and think and construct real reports.

Now that's a great point. He's right about that. I see it in Jessica's work to be honest. It's good, but it does feel a little manufactured.

I even saw that in some of my own work as using online sources became more acceptable at Seattle Pacific. I had to make a conscious effort to use offline materials in order to shore up the quality.


A VC: Internet Only Bibliography?