Today, I was asked about the story behind my viking avatar: The avatar is years and years old. Peter Stern, a graphic designer friend of mine, put together a set of avatars for me for something (I forget what) and the viking is the one that resonated with me the most because of my Norwegian heritage, my physical stature and my general demeanor (those of you who know me have never asked why I choose a Viking avatar : ).
However, it was my mention of a real-life picture of me in a viking helmet that lead to the challenge — post that picture! So here you go. Enjoy. : )
I’ve done a bunch of stuff related to Solitaire on my blog for some reason. I guess I’m a fan, although mostly these days I focusing my listening in boring meetings with 2048 or Border Siege (the real reason I have an Android phone).
Still, the interest must still be there, because when I saw 10 SOLITAIRE Facts You Probably Didn’t Know scroll by on my Flipboard feed, I was curious. I didn’t find anything that surprised me (I am a bit of a Solitaire buff after all), but I certainly was surprised to see this image come up when I got to Solitaire Fact #1:
Apparently Solitaire is the #1 most popular app that runs on Windows and I was the source of that information. To be clear, this is something I heard when I worked at Microsoft and probably was happy to say (never let a good story be ruined by the facts), but I never seen stats to that effect. Caveat emptor, your mileage my vary, some assembly required and all that jazz.
BTW, for the curious, this is Matt Pietrek’s office from back in the day. The only computer in that shot that’s mine is the laptop. Since it doesn’t seem to be running Solitaire, I’m not sure why gameranx chose it, but I do remember liking that shirt…
Last year right after the 4th of July, one of my kind readers offered to let the me and the boys help set up and set off this year's 4th of July show in or around Portland. However, I can't find who offered. If that kind reader is still out there, can you drop me a line? I'm sure my 60-year-old father would like to help, too. Thanks!
My mom came to visit to celebrate my 40th birthday and her 60th birthday. She and the Sells Brothers and I spent yesterday afternoon wandering along the waterfront, checking out exotic animals, ditching lame cowboy comedians and eating elephant ears. And then, to put a point on the day, we launched ourselves 100 feet into the air on a giant bungle cord machine.
As part of this, my eldest son decided at the peak of our arch to spit in spite of my objections. You can see in the video us reacting to our falling at the same rate at his glob of saliva which is the clearest demonstration of Galileo’s gravity experiment from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa that I’ve ever seen.
Long-time readers may recall when I got an angry caller from a Vista user that had trouble configuring it the way they wanted it. They got to me because they were looking for “sales” using the automated voice attendant that matched my last name instead (“Sells”) and forwarded him to me in the middle of a 1:1 in my office. Not wanting to let a customer go away angry, I stopped what I was doing and did my best to try to help.
It happened again today, except for an angry middle-aged guy, I got a call from the sweetest 12-year-old girl you’d ever want to talk to. Her Word CD had gotten scratched and she needed a replacement so she could write a big paper due next week. I considered telling her that I wasn’t in sales or support or getting her number and calling her back (I was IM’ing with four other people at the time and I was late for a meeting), but she was so earnest that I just couldn’t turn her away.
Instead, I took her name, address and email, went to the MS store and purchased her a copy of Office 2007, which I then had sent to her place via 2-day shipping, all the time assuring her that it wouldn’t cost her a dime. I ended up using my own personal quota for discounted software and charging $60 to my MSAMEX, but I would’ve spent my own money (and still might if my boss reads this and rejects my expense report : ).
She was so grateful and it made my day to solve her problem. I love our customers and I hope the terrible robot on the main MS line keeps sending ’em my way.
nearly 40 years old; past his youth! But tonight with a smile, he swam non-stop for a mile. First time in his life - that’s the truth!
I swam a mile when I was 17 and again last summer, but never non-stop before. I know it doesn’t compare to real swimmers (it took me 45 minutes), but I’ve been swimming for less than a year. Plus i found two meaningful rhymes for “Duluth.“ I rock. : )
