Ultranormal

Author: Kevin Lawver

  • Embarrassing Confession

    While watching the latest Supernatural, I screamed after a “startling” horror trope and then after I got over the startle-factor and saw the content, I screamed AGAIN out of sheer FRIGHT. I very quickly decided it would be very smart to tuck my feet under my legs instead of letting them hang off the end of the recliner, where any old thing could grab them. Heh.\
    Seriously, watching this show in the dark, in the basement, on a large screen tv, all by myself is awesome and the only way to watch Supernatural. Wheeeeee.\
    Check out this quick preview of upcoming AWESOMENESS:

  • Ooooh, man

    I soooo owe Kevin a huge apology. He tried to get me into The Office, the US version and I just wasn’t having it. But then I actually started watching it and the show is amazing and so freakin’ funny. It took me a couple of episodes to get a feel for the rhythm and flow of the show, but now I am totally in love. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should.\
    In other news, my BFF’s birthday is tomorrow and I just mailed her present today, because that is how I roll. But shhhh, don’t tell her and ruin the surprise, even though the present is going to be very late. (She doesn’t read this blog, she is a slacker, because that is how she rolls.)\
    ETA– Oy vey! It isn’t my BFF’s bday that is tomorrow, it is my parents’ anniversary that is tomorrow (the same day TomKat are expected to get married). My BFF’s bday is actually next week. While I doubt the present will get there in time, I can totally blame the Thanksgiving holiday instead of my procrastination. Score!

  • Bye, Jason

    It’s not as if 99.999% of the world cares, but Jason Calacanis is leaving AOL, and I can’t say I’m upset in the least about it. He’s a voracious self-promoter and polarizing force. Everything he says has to be viewed through the “how does this make Jason look better” lens. He somehow became the “voice of AOL” in Silicon Valley, and that always bothered me. He hadn’t put in the time inside the company, and he took credit for a lot of new features and products here that he had absolutely nothing to do with.\
    For example, he responded to a comment on that same post with this:\
    bq. “…Blogsmith is the best piece of technology inside TW/AOL.”\
    Excuse me? It’s a blogging tool, and not even done yet. He doesn’t know about all the other technology at AOL or what we’ve done, and people believe that he somehow knows what he’s talking about. Jason was never the face or voice of anything but Jason Calacanis.\
    He was the wrong voice at the wrong time for AOL. We’ve still got a lot of work to regain standing in the technology world, in web development in particular, and that takes humility and earnest effort, not grand standing and self-promotion – the two things Jason’s best at.\
    Update: In response to Jason’s comment, I do have to give him credit for one very important thing. He did a great job of opening up the internal debate about the direction of the company and of products. It’s one of the good things about being controversial and polarizing is that you get people talking, which he certainly did, inside and outside the company. If that’s Jason’s legacy at AOL, that’s something to be proud of. Unfortunately, that legacy is tainted by what I felt (and a lot of people who will never say it publicly) was way too much self-promotion along the way.

  • Ode to a love… seat

    I am in the process of “redecorating” my living room. I use quotes because I am not really making that many changes. I found new curtains that will let me keep my existing sofa sectional, and I think we won’t need to entirely repaint, just touch up over Brian’s crayon scrawls. Basically that means I replaced the curtains, a desk, occasional tables, art, lamps, am adding a storage cabinet, and am swapping a loveseat for a side chair.\
    When we bought our townhouse, Kevin and I decided to make our living room and dining area nice and adult (no Target art like we had in college), without being too formal: beautiful taupe suede paint on the walls, cherry wood occasional tables, to-die-for drapes, colorful glass vases, an extra large dining table for guests. After 5 years of living with this though, I have accepted my laziness (I never used a cover for the table and the water spots were destroying the finish), lack of a social life (most of the chairs went unused and were cumbersome for the size of the area), the desire for the computer to be moved from the basement office to a more central location, and the need for more storage. (TMI alert- Kevin thinks I have a storage fetish. But you try living in a townhouse without a garage, two kids with more clothes than their parents, and a husband’s comic book collection.)\
    So, I gave up on “adult” and embraced the IKEA look. While my mom is probably cringing at the thought of the computer in the living room (and not even hiding in a cabinet!), I love the new look and feel. So much more relaxed, casual, and bright. But, it means I have to say goodbye to my beloved love seat. The love seat was given to me by some family friends and my MIL and I recovered it in gorgeous gold fabric. It’s so lovely, I hate to see it go. But I don’t have anywhere to put it. (It is up for grabs, if you can haul it away yourself. First one to claim it, can have it.) BTW, when the living room is finished, I will probably post pics! But this post is to say goodbye to my beautiful love seat. Sniff. According to my MIL, the fabric is silk with cotton over-embroidery. Oy, I may need a tissue. My MIL even hand-stitched the pleats down in the front AND back because I am kind of ‘detail-focused,’ sometimes. Later we realized couches that you buy in stores don’t even have that detail! Hmm, she may need a tissue too.\
    Isn’t it lovely?\
    Isn't it lovely?\
    ETA- she just emailed me, “I still wish I had a home for it. It is like giving away our first child. OK, not quite that serious.” But still painful!

  • Oh, Happy Day

    • John McCain is running! Yippeee! That should make Kevin a very happy man, unless he has become too jaded.
    • Supernatural is on tonight! (Thursdays on The CW at 9 EST)
    • After one whole day, the kitchen floor is still clean.
    • It’s Thursday, which means it is almost Friday, which means it is almost the weekend.
    • Sneak peek of the next Veronica Mars.
    • My king-sized blanket is still cuddly and soft.
    • All the preschoolers in Alabama survived the devastation of their building being destroyed by a storm.
    • Max got his report card yesterday and is doing very well in school.\
      What are you happy about today?

  • AIM Pages

    We launched a metric ton of new stuff for AIM Pages yesterday morning (started at 2AM and finishing up around 10:30 with tweaks and mad dashes throughout and after). The changes are definitely noticable. If you go to aimcreate.com, you’ll no longer see the super sexy drag and drop editing interface, although it’s still available. The “wizard”, as I like to call it, is a ummm… wizard. So, if you’re not into the drag and droppyness of the other interface, you can fill out this big form, hit Save Changes and voila, you’ve got an AIM Page like mine (well, not like mine exactly, because yours should be like your page and be about you: if it was about me too, that would be creepy).\
    We had no time to completely rebuild the product, faced innumerable technical problems, questions and challenges, and yet we still launched on time. The product included more than twenty-seven individual pieces of software to install, groups on three continents, in four time zones and more moving pieces than I want to remember (although I have to, because I was the tech lead for this round). So, if you were wondering why I haven’t slept in six weeks (five eighty hour weeks in a row, y’all), seemed kind of stressed out and irritable, now you know!\
    It continues to amaze me that we’ve launched this product all based around a microformat, and that it works so well. There are still challenges, but everything around the microformat has been relatively smooth and stable. We even have a cool web service built around it that anyone can use to mash up their own page or other pages. More cool stuff is afoot, so keep your eyes peeled.\
    It’s launched, it’s cool, there are still some issues that we’re working on, but it’s out there and I can get some sleep now.\
    Oh yeah, and this year has been so crazy that I’ve only taken three vacation days so far this year. Yes, three. Since I’ve been at AOL so long, that means I have several weeks of vacation time to use up by the end of the year. Yeah, I won’t be at work much in December.

  • Top Coder

    Top Coder 2006 sponsored by AOL\
    AOL is sponsoring the Top Coder Collegiate Challenge this year as part of the new Developer Network. I’ve been involved in the discussion about the network since the beginning, and it’s gratifying to see it finally bearing fruit. There is still a ton of work to do to make it into something we can all be proud of, but the seed is there, and it’s off to a good start.\
    So, if you’re into watching geeks under pressure (if you live with me, you’ve seen this already this month with AIM Pages), you can watch the live cast this Friday at 4:30EST over on the Developer Network.

  • Three cheers for Kevin

    I have the best husband ever. I would love to tell you all of the reasons why he is so wonderful, but then you might get jealous and want him for yourself. But you can’t have him. So then it would just seem like I am gloating. And gloating is rude. So, I will keep all of the reasons to myself. Just know that he is awesome and I am very appreciative of him.\
    In completely unrelated news, (heh), Kevin and I have this weird dynamic where one of us will want something- a bigass diamond ring, a really expensive car, to repaint the living room, etc- and after talking about it for awhile & the other person finally agrees, the person who originally wanted the thing changes his or her mind, realizing that spending the money isn’t the best decision.

  • Small pleasures

    The past few days have been filled with many small pleasures:

    • Free lunch! I love Baja Fresh taquitos!
    • Kevin and I finally put up the new curtains I bought 3 months ago!
    • Taking the time to toast the bread for my turkey sandwich, because I am worth it!
    • My new king-sized blanket. So soft and cuddly!
    • Tivoed football games!
    • Getting rid of clutter!\
      What is the best thing you experienced this past week or so?

  • Levels of Knowledge

    I’ve been having a lot of fun with the various levels of knowledge lists. I’m a: