Posts from — July 2002

Just a quick heads up to keep y'all in the loop. If everything goes well, Merrin & I will be migrating the Greymatter weblog over to the much more manageable Moveable Type. It's just so much easier to manage 3-4 weblogs that way. I think that will go down this weekend, so do not be shocked if you stop by. OK?

Also, HBO is the place to be tonight. Season Two of Hard Knocks begins tonight and it's training camp with America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys. So, set the TiVo for a Title Wishlist and let's roll, brotha!

One more thing, for those of you who didn't heed my warning a few weeks ago, you better get that TiVo set for "What I Like About You". Click here for details.

Federal Aviation Agency
800 Independence Avenue S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20591

Dear Sirs;

I have the solution for the prevention of hijackings, and at the same time getting our airline industry back on its feet.

Since men of the Muslim religion are not allowed to look at naked women, we should replace all of our female flight attendants with strippers.

Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing a naked woman, and of course, every businessman in this country would start flying again in hope of seeing a naked woman.

If this were implemented, I believe that we would have no more hijackings, and the airline industry would have record sales.

Now why didn't Bush think of this? Why do I still have to do everything
myself?

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

So it was back to work yesterday without the fuss & fun of having my parents in town with us. It was weird actually. I've been going so fast for two straight weeks. First there was the 6 days of convention and then, immidiately upon my return, my parents were in town for 10 days. My life has been such a blur up until now - it's a lot like driving on a city street after spending 5 hours on the interstate: everything seems to go in slow motion.

Thanks for being patient with my weblog while I was away. I shall reward you with some pictures and other fun stuff later today.

Last day @ NBTA and it has been a great week. Today's featured speaker was Rudy Guiliani. He followed yesterday's train wreck of a performance by VP Al Gore. (Barf!) The trade show has been fairly productive, but have gotten a lot more accomplished in networking sessions and through my pre-set appointments. I think that is definitely the way to go next year.

Flying home to be with my wife & family tomorrow morning. For some dumb reason I booked a flight that leaves before 8:00am. Why? I have no freaking idea. I mean, I hated 8:00 classes in college, so what makes me think I'll be able to make the flight?! Well, I'm going home to my wife - for one thing. And I'd take the 3:30am flight if I thought it would bring me home to her any sooner.

My parents are due into Ft. Worth tomorrow - so plans are being made for the big doings in Texas.

Y'all take care and know that I'll be home under the Lone Star tomorrow.

Well, day one of NBTA (Sunday) went off without a hitch with a great Starwood client function at the beautiful Log Haven Restaurant. I took a couple of photos, so I'll get those up once I'm back in Texas. (Look for one of me and a chimp!)

Everything is really HOT in Salt Lake City. It's been 107, 104, and 105 respectively. Luckily everything is air conditioned and the shuttle from the convention center to the hotel is running on five minute intervals. Seeing lots of clients and friends - and making plenty of new ones on both fronts (I hope!)

On a website note, I notice that the front page is totally FUBAR. No idea why. Looks like something the server restored a very old backup - or perhaps Merrin has been uploading files and FTP'd the wrong one. (If that's the case Merrin, let's try to get it fixed ASAP. Even if it's not, let's FTP the index.html from the KevinDonahue.com folder back to the WWW directory. OK? Because the server is not going to restore it on its own.)

More later, it's time to man the trade show booth.

OK, you've seen it by now - a video of an Inglewood police officer punching a 16-year old who had been handcuffed against a police car. Everyone is CA is outraged because "a white cop beat a black kid". At first, I was a little concerned, but I generally think the police act with force for good reason. Three cops had to receive medical attention after the incident, including the officer who hit the suspect.

Take a look at the cops in a photo from the video:

Notice the look of pain on the center officer? See how all the other officers are moving in on the suspect? Note the leftmost officer removing his baton? Why do you think that is? Three cops had to receive medical attention after the incident, including the officer who hit the suspect.

Well, in the police report filed before the video was released to the TV networks, the police officer in question admitted that he punched the kid once. Why? Because the suspect grabbed the officers testicles and began squeezing. From the LA Times:

The report then says Jackson "used his right hand and reached backward, grabbing Officer Morse in the crotch area. Officer Morse yelled at Jackson to let go. However, Jackson refused and began to squeeze Officer Morse by his testicles.

Sheriff's officials said "personal weapons" refers to officers' fists.

I'm here to tell ya - the kid is lucky that the officer responded so quickly that his first instinct was just to punch the kid. The police are authorized to "escalate the level of force encountered one degree in response". That's a nice way of saying if someone tries to attack a cop, they can use more force to subdue the attacker. The police officer (and his partners) would have been perfectly within their rights to mace the kid, kick him, whack the kid with a baton, or use a "tazer" on the kid.

So, what do you think now, America? Excessive force?

No. If you assault a cop, causing 3 to need medical attention, then after your handcuffed you squeeze a guy's privates, you deserve (at least) a punch in the mouth. The officer's actions were abrupt, violent, forceful, and –in this instance– completely warranted.

This past weekend I lamented my lack of understanding for our current "ozone warning" system. Well, like clockwork KevinDonahue.com has put out the call and the global media has responded. Turns out you can see the a Map of Current Ozone Levels for Dallas-Fort Worth. Still confused? Check the different warning levels here.

OK. I'm only 29, but I'll be damned if I don't feel 87 right now! No, I'm not wearing adult diapers or anything like that (at least not at the moment!), but I am so dang tired!

I don't know if because I tried to cram a four-day holiday weekend into the two days I actually had off or what. Thursday was fireworks with the girls (my wife and my mother-in-law), followed by Friday night's trip to Dallas for the Barry Manilow concert. Both were late nights.

Then, Saturday I — well — did nothing really. Followed by today's best impression of my life as a migrant worker: 7 hours of yard work in 100 degree heat. Let's not even talk about it being a "LEVEL ORANGE" ozone day. (I don't want to talk about it because I don't know what it means. Is yellow worse than orange? Is orange better or worse than red? If single cell animals are cracklin' like charcoal, is that still OK?)

So, all I can think of is taking a nap. But we're passed the "nap threshold". If I take a nap now I run the risk of #1: missing dinner () or #2: not being able to sleep tonight. So clearly, there will be no nap for me!

So, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I can't do all this in just one weekend! What made me think I could? I'm going to have to work all week just to get rested up. Oh, but wait - I have my week long trip to Salt Lake City for work coming up next weekend. Crud.

Here's a great little program from r2 studios in Australia. It's called "Hide Outlook" and it basically allows outlook to run in your system tray when minimized. This is a great thing if you run a lot of apps at once. There is also a version for Outlook Express.

God bless America

Yeah, I admit it. What's it to ya? Huh?!

Barry Manilow is in concert Friday night and we're there. I know most of the songs and my wife is in love with Barry, so -being a good husband - I've got 3 lawn seats for the big show. Why 3, you ask? Well, what kind of "good husband" leaves his mother-in-law at home on a Friday night?