Big Brother
I remember opening the gift Jason gave me for my 18th birthday. As is a popular custom among brothers, he gave me some movies and CDs. I was stoked about the movies (both volumes of the
Ace Ventura series, I believe), but not so much about the albums. I returned two of them to the store (R.I.P.
Fremont Hub Tower Records—you are missed):
No Knife's
Fire in the City of Automatons and
Fountains of Wayne's
Utopia Parkway.
Five years later, both bands are among my favorites, and the one CD I did keep (remember Len?) is collecting dust on the shelf.
It's not the first time I've regretted not siding with Jason musically. Both Taylor and I ripped on him for liking Cake's first album, but when the second came out I wish I'd been on the ground floor. I never even bothered to listen to his Posies CDs until he had left the house, at which point I fell in love. I always thought Depeche Mode's electronic sound was lame, and now I'm trying to figure out if my band can pull off any of its songs. And Duran Duran...let's not even talk about it.
To be fair, I should trust my judgment a little bit, because I never came around on the "trip-hop" or techno (with the exception of Chemical Brothers) Jason was into during the mid-'90s, nor will I ever share his appreciation for Coldplay.
But next time he gives me an album I don't immediately like, maybe I'll stick it in the cellar and let it age before I swap it for American Hi-Fi's next record or something.
Third time's a harm
Hi. I'm
Grant Shellen, Jason's (and
Taylor's) younger brother and shellen.com Vice President of Footwear and Haircare Products.
This is my third attempt to post here, due to browser-related complications (I suspect there is some kind of voodoo curse on my work computer), so my initial post will be substantially shorter than I intended. This is a shame, since the original one was hilarious, touching on everything from a story about the time I stole Jason's "Return of the Jedi" hat in preschool to Jason's habit of beating interns. On second thought, maybe it's better this way.
Barring any future technical problems, I'll be "filling in the gaps" here at shellen.com since it's much easier for Jason to just upload cameraphone shots of his son, transportation-related signs, discarded gum, etc. than to actually sit down at a computer and type a few words. Plus, as a writer, I'm using this as a shameless opportunity to increase my name recognition. Enjoy!
Um, Hello?
My official stance on the
recent discoveries that Picasa has an IM client is of
shocked disapproval since shellen dot com readers have known
since May 12th that
Hello is a bitchin' IM/P2P application that can also post your photos to your blog.
I'm all over the place
Posting here has been light even though I've been posting like mad to some test blogs I've set up. I'm in NYC in the Google booth at the Digital Life show. If you are interested in seeing demos of any or all of Google's products we have a great booth that was designed in conjunction with the folks at Lego. If you are in the area come on by - I think it's $15 at the door and there are all sorts of freebies and giveaways all through the weekend till Sunday.
It's been a busy few weeks, last week was the Web 2.0 show which was a lot of fun even though most of my conversations opened with a discussion of why Ev is leaving and what he's going to do...and he was there! C'mon folks - go to the source. Despite Ev's early search engine retirement, I should mention that I'm happily dedicated to Blogger for some time. I'm not leaving anytime soon unless there is a secret coup in the works. If there is I wouldn't rule out Stone as a conspirator - he's been maniacally cackling a bit too often these days.
The week before Web 2.0, I spoke in South Lake Tahoe on a panel about blogging at Gnomedex. The conversation quickly turned to podcasting, video blogging and disintermediation of old media. The folks at ITConversations have a streaming and downloadable versions. You even get to hear me call Scoble an 'alpha geek', I'm sorry Robert - it's true. ;)
I should also mention that I just asked my brother Grant to do a bit of guest blogging since I feel like I'm on the bi-monthly plan. This is the first guest blogger for shellen dot com and I expect you to give him at least the same amount of harassment that I've come to expect of my dear readers.
En Why Sea 4 me
I'll be in Manhattan soon. I know I always give last minute notices like this but sometimes that works for other folks that fly by the seat of their pants. If we should be meeting, eating or drinking a hot and/or cold beverage together for any reason please drop me an email.
Next Ev
Ev in a moment of inspiration during our first week at Google. - February 2003
On Christmas Day in 2001, I received a text message on my phone from one of our more dedicated users saying that Blogger was down. Then a voicemail message from a friend of Pyra Labs saying the same. I was about 75 miles from home in Santa Cruz enjoying a nice dinner and no real way to check email or the web. Unfortunately, one or two of the Blogger servers were in bad shape. Evan had taken off on Christmas Eve for a quick visit with family in Iowa and Nebraska.
It wasn't fun to call Ev on Christmas Day, but he was a trooper and found a Kinko's with web access and started to put everything back in shape remotely. It wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to Blogger, Pyra or even Ev but it was just the sort of thing that happened regularly enough that it might make one want to throw in the towel. But he didn't and Ev was able to hang in there until he felt like Blogger could go on without him and with resources and people to keep it going strong. A lot happened in between the highs and lows of Pyra and Blogger but all said - it's been a pleasure having him as a boss, a co-worker and friend. Congratulations on the end of the beginning and here is to whatever is next. I expect great things.
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