July, 24, 2005 archives

disneywar by james b. stewart is a blow-by-blow account of michael eisner’s reign at disney, right up through last year, when roy e. disney and stanley gold’s fight with the board was getting under full steam.

it is an exhaustive account, and not very many of the players end up looking that good. the deception (and probably self-deception) at the higher levels of disney is just stunning. the machinations of who-reports-to-who, especially as abc enters the picture, represents a level of political intrigue way beyond anything i’ve seen.

next tuesday is “is california governable? a conversation with gray davis, pete wilson, george deukmejian, and jerry brown” at the dorothy chandler pavilion, the latest zócalo event.

i got an email inviting me to the “private vip reception” after the event. i don’t know if that’s anything special, or just the usual post-event reception that zócalo does. if it is special, someone has made a grave mistake: a vip reception is hardly some place for someone whose fashion choices don’t rise above which t-shirt to wear and just barely scrapes by with the social skills to order lunch.

(here’s a brilliant shirt: “what would macgyver do?”)

wedding crashers manages to be funny despite numerous flaws, and i think one major reason is because isla fisher steals every scene she is in. (and let’s just say that the cameo near the end of the film will be no big shock if you know the new gay mafia membership roster.)

the new hybrid map view on the google maps site totally rocks. google deserves every ounce of praise they get for yanking web maps out of the ad-plastered ghetto they had been consigned to before.

this morning at the gym, i noticed that the people on both sides of me when i was on the elliptical machine were reading the latest harry potter book. (i’m sure the girl on my left was, and am less certain about the guy on my right.)

i don’t understand how people can read while exercising. i can barely concentrate on music. my mind just tends to wander rather freely.

joel spolsky’s latest article on “hitting the high notes” is a good one, beating the drum on how a small team of really great programmers can do so much more than an army of mediocre ones.

throwing modesty aside, i think i’m on the productive/good/whatever side of the 10:1 ratio. it would be great if i weren’t totally sick of computers and programming and all this crap i am apparently quite good at.

i am reminded of my national merit scholarship essay, and what a crock it was then, and especially now. my life is bowling balls all the way down.