Groove on the Rubble

I’ve been using dvdcvll@yahoo.com because all acceptable variations of my name were claimed long before I realized that a funny email address wouldn’t be funny after college.

Now, friends, I’m happy to report I’ve got my dream address. It’s new. It’s easy. It’s me. It’s dcovell@ymail.com. Today we’re launching ymail.com and rocketmail.com to the world. Get your new e-ddress and ditch that crappy Hotmail or Gmail one.

You can get a lot of stuff in a box (NSFW), but a king-sized mattress? You can if you get a mattress from Keetsa, as I just did. I bought a super-high quality foam mattress (think Tempur-Pedic) for a fraction of what they’d typically cost.

It’s either an innovative business model or a really clever marketing effort…or both. I like a good value, I like eco-conscious products, and I love a good night’s sleep. Tonight is the first night to test the latter. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, if you’re curious, you can check out the bed unboxing on my Flickr site.

My friend Clint performed this song with legendary, old-school New Orleans jazz men Preservation Hall Jazz Band and shot this video for it in 2005–before Hurricane Katrina. 

He said “I want the world to see something coming out of New Orleans that is positive, fun and happy. THIS is why me and my friends came back home after the storm. For the good times.” 

One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said, “It’s an education project, not a laptop project.” I encourage you to read about the project. Its goals are ambitious and its path has been long and sometimes bumpy, but they’ve reached a big milestone: they’re now manufacturing inexpensive, durable, connectable, efficient laptops to help educate children in the developing world. Color me inspired.

To support and raise awareness about their work, they’ve got a special giving program just in time for the holidays called “give one, get one.” It’s simple: spend $399 (~$425 after tax and shipping) and they send one laptop to a child in the developing world on your behalf and send you another one for you to give to a child in need in your life. I can’t wait to give one of my very own! Bonus: $200 is tax deductible.

Help kids learn, feel good about yourself AND get a tax break. Merry Christmas, indeed.

Susie and I waded thru the copious photos we took and posted our favorites to my Flickr site. Damn, we had some times. I’ll post some stories here soon enough.

While in India, I read Freedom at Midnight. It’s the complete story of the Indian independence movement in the late 1940s. The casual writing style of the authors combined with the dramatic events they retell makes it almost feel like a fictional work.The book masterfully captures the history, diversity and tragedy of the Indian condition–from it’s zany maharaja to it’s inspirational soul, Mahatma Gandhi. Administering a country so diverse, vast and populous must be one of the proudest achievements of British empire. Giving India her independence has to be THE proudest achievement.

Susie and I arrived safely in Bangkok last week and were treated (by Susie’s parents) to two nights at the lovely Plaza Athenee. Massages there were the perfect way to recover from our jet lag.

The next day we set out to explore the city a bit. We were just a few steps from the BTS SkyTrain, so we gladly hopped on and rode it down to the river to catch a ferry to see some sights. The river is muddy and wide like the mighty Mississippi, so it might be confused if it weren’t for the pagoda style buildings and high-rising temples along its shores.

We made landfall with three missions: check out the Royal Palace, get some food, and find a hand-made bowl traditional bowl that monks use for making daily offerings.

Mission 1: Accomplished.

The Royal Palace is quite a complex to behold. It used to be the residence of the king, but now it is only used for tourists and the occasional ceremonial event. It houses several temples–including Wat Phra Keo, the home of the Emerald Buddha. The architecture, reliefs, statues and accouterments all make the place worth checking out (tho’ admittedly it is a little pricey to enter). You’ll see what I mean when I post some photos. That’ll have to wait until I have access to some bandwidth.

Mission 2: Accomplished.

We ate at a Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant called Hemlock. Good Thai in an intimate, family-feeling place. Good prices. Lots of white people. I guess you can always count on that when LP makes the reservations.

Mission 3: Accomplished.

We had set out to find a tourist-supported place where locals practice a traditional art of hand crafting steel bowls that monks use for daily offerings. It’s no longer operating. But, we did manage to find the monk supply super center in a little back street. It was a total score.

We finished the night with a local whiskey that was not so good and set off frighteningly early the next morning for Siem Reap in Cambodia.

This is awesome.

My friends at Waterfall Mobile launched a service called Futuretxt and I’ve found it incredibly useful…and have used it A LOT as a result. So much so, in fact, that I feel like I’ve shirked my responsibility to tell people about it.

It’s a really easy way to schedule a message to be sent to any cell phone at any time in the future. Here are 3 of my recent Futuretxts to give you an idea of the variety of things I used to forget on a daily basis:

1. “Eat sausage and cheese” was sent to me 8 minutes ago to remind me to eat the sausages and cheese (freshly made in Fort Bragg) that Susie sent me to work with yesterday. I put them in the refrigerator yesterday evening and didn’t want to forget (again) to eat them. Mmm, sausage.
2. “Bring contracts to work” was sent to me a few days back at about the time I arrive home from my office so I would not forget (again) to put them in my bag for transport to the office fax machine.
3. “Take beer out of car” was sent to Susie at the moment she pulled into the garage of her apartment. Those cans of beer had been sloshing around in the back of her car for a week and we kept forgetting to take them upstairs. Now they’re chilling.

Post-its are SO a long time ago.