Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Downshift into Christmas

Sitting here in a vacant office with nothing really notable worth starting and about to PTFO on the way to Beaumont for a little celebration with the Scrudatos. The diesel is returning to SoCal, and it is my only shot to see him before he returns to the land of corn and white women. From there, it is off to Grandma's for Christmas Eve and then to mom and dad's for Christmas. It's a celebration! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good afternoon. I'm OUT.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Photo Tag

PICTURE TAG!! (courtesy of Catherine Anne Ann Wilson Kruska)

The object of picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)


Halloween 2007: The Blues Brothers meet Cheech and Chong
(comment if you want/need an explanation of this caption)

and now I tag:

1. Toph

2. Magic Show

3. Crissy

4. Hirsh

Giddyup

Went to this place on Saturday night and found the answer. As most of you know, I have worked at the DJA for more than two years, so I am well familiar with the Moorpark Rd. offramp of the 101. However, as many times as I had seen the usually crowded bar on my way home, I never thought to go up there.

As Jordt and I contemplated what to do last night, we received a call from a friend of ours who was headed to Borderline. Once I realized that this was my opportunity to check out the mysterious place that I passed twice every weekday, I jumped on it.

Two words, folks. Country. Western. Jordt hated it, but with as much time as I spent in the midwest playing ball and just generally existing, I was accustomed to the music and actually enjoyed the experience. I did not line dance, but on the random hip hop songs they did trot out, I hit the floor a couple times.

Got cut in on once, and while I was over it, my buddies wanted to fight the guy. Defused that situation and ended up dancing with her again later. End of the night, the other guy went home empty handed, and I went home with a phone number. Advantage: me. Fuck his couch.

--
ADDENDUM: I did not even ask for said number. It was volunteered. Winner winner...

Thursday, December 18, 2008

New Blog Subscription

TechCrunch...despite the fact that they have demonstrated that they hate PR people. This is a great site for consumer electronics, and in fairness, they have a legit bitch with the chick that they deep fried today. Granted, sending out a Samsung monitor pitch to PhoneScoop...not a good plan in any context. Blaming the fact that it went to the entire CES press list...digging the whole deeper.

While it would smart for CES to segment their media list somehow, in the absence of them doing so, the onus falls on the PR person to pick out the pertinent targets and send pitches accordingly. The sheer magnitide of that show makes it unmanageable for everyone involved if every pitch goes to everybody. That is just asinine.

This also points directly to a fundamental question in media today: What is the role of the blogosphere? This is Web 2.0. Information communism. Viral marketing. Pick all the buzz words and descriptions you want, but how do PR people and bloggers coexist without wanting to kill each other? Blogs are different from dying "traditional" media, so how do pitches differ? It's easy to dogpile on bad pitches, and there are plenty of them, but what constitutes a good one? Interesting questions...interesting times. I would be fascinated to hear feedback from everyone on this.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Back in the Burb

Chillin at home with mom and dad while being festive and putting up the Christmas tree and working to educate pops on Web 2.0 (translation facebook). This guy, he is not, but he's working on it. Continuing education. If you read this and have not yet added him, drop him a line.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Feeling Blue...


The Blue Room...the straight up dirty retro cash only locale in the great city of Burbstank Burbank will host Jordt, Robinson and Legaspi of the west valley, Cheryl and possibly Sally of the 'bank and Kristin and possibly others of PRSA. Amazing social experiment about to ensue.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Craigslist is AMAZING

You have not lived until you've scrolled through this site and spent a good amount of time on the "Best of" section. Simply phenomenal. More on this later...


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Monday, December 8, 2008

The Fallout...

Keith Sinclair - owner of the building at 223 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. and hard core bruin fan

This bet will come back to bite my ass (probably twice and possibly three times) at basketball season, but this is worth it.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Xtine's Xmas Xtravaganza


No, it's not a Halloween party with me dressed up as Jim Tressel. It was a holiday party with an ugly a festive sweater requirement. Those are pics of my sisters* and me. This was a drunken debacle with a group of friends I haven't seen since school. It was good times, but the sweater vest is really what would be of interest to my readership. Major props due to Wingert for her festive onesie and Sam for dressing as a dreidel. Honorable mention to Consalvi for almost matching Christine. Also, what did people do at parties before Rock Band? Actually mingle? Unheard of...

*Christine and I were declared brother and sister in PR classes at SC (because we would argue all the time). Sam is 'stine's little sister is the sorority and, thus, my sister.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Uninspiring Day of College Football

Florida pulled away even without Percy Harvin, and Mizzou is horrid, so we have to watch Chokelahoma piss away another title game. Without the benefit of Gable's fumble, fucla would not have scored. Oh well. At least we got the W, however boring it was.


On to a happier topic: party time. Headed to the new Casa de 'Stine for some holiday cheer. Ugly sweaters/inappropriate garb mandatory. Alcohol provided. Stupidity (and photographic evidence) to ensue. Love it!

Waaaaaaaaar Tiiiiiiiiiiiime...

Let's take it outside...




Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving Weekend Potpourri

Lots of interesting developments since turkey day...

Friday: The Over the Line Tourney
While this thing had a ton of potential going into it, much of it was unrealized at the end of it. Team Legaspi went a disappointing 2-1, losing to the eventual champion of the tourney. To be fair, the team was good, but we kind of gagged.

Team Lauer made it to the finals, but was unable to come away with the W either. To top it off, neither Wilson nor I got into the hall of fame. They are running a new capital campaign for new batting cages. This year's inductees: Jeff Suppan and Trevor Plouffe. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but having worked there and seen first hand how it works, I was not inclined to disagree with those who sensed an ulterior motive.

Per the norm, though, there was plenty of beer to take the sting out of a loss. Max Flaum made a cameo at the tourney, Delja made a cameo at the house for some jam time, and we all rushed the 'wick for some Bob show greatness.

Saturday: Family & Football
This was the day of the big family event hosted by my parents. Grandpa and grandma, aunts and uncles, cousins, significant others and (of course) my brother. Fortunately for everyone involved, dinner was over and done with by the time the SC game started, which brings me to the rant portion of this blog. The topic: college football (odd, right?).

As everyone knows now, the BCS standings heading into conference title games have Alabama at one, Oklahoma at two, Texas at three, Florida at four and USC at five. I, like seemingly everyone else in the country outside the state of Oklahoma, think this sucks. Texas got hosed. Plain and simple. What I don't get is why there isn't the giant national backlash against Oklahoma that there is against Ohio State. Let's run through a brief history...the last five years.

What was at one point in the season being talked about as "the greatest college football team ever" gets shelled by a plucky Kansas State team in the Big XII title game and still goes to the '04 Sugar Bowl. LSU embarrasses them on national TV.

(0-1, BCS: 0-1)

Undefeated headed into the '05 Orange Bowl against USC. Another national embarrassment. Actually, there were two national embarrassments that night, as at least Sooner fans could commiserate with someone.

(0-2, BCS: 0-2)

They get to lick their wounds away from the national microscope in the Holiday Bowl and stretch hard to beat a C- Oregon team from a largely weak Pac-10.

(1-2, BCS: 0-2)

Albeit in arguably the most entertaining game in recent memory, they get beat by a non-BCS team in the '07 Fiesta Bowl, further cementing their reputation as Chokelahoma.

(1-3, BCS: 0-3)

Cough another one up in the '08 Fiesta Bowl to a team that had just lost to Pittsburgh. (The Panthers...not the Steelers)

(1-4, BCS: 0-4)

As you can see, Chokelahoma has quite a history. Hopefully Mizzou can sack up and save us all the indignity of watching them suck on the biggest national stage again.

Speaking of crumbling under the weight of expectations, how about that Civil War Genocide game up in Corvallis? In one of the biggest home games in school history against your hated rival, you give up 65 points and 694 yards of offense.

Speaking of weight, Charlie should be out of a job in a week. Notre Dame is heinous. Plain and simple. I guess that's what you get for putting your trust in a fat man.

That takes care of half of our rivalry business. Now comes hater week. Tape up Tommy. Lynch your teddy bears. Refuse to wear blue...unless it's this. I've started a holy war in our building, and come a week from tomorrow, if this game goes the way it should, the owner (who is a hard core bruin fan) will be wearing cardinal and gold.



Thursday, November 27, 2008

Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day to everyone! Brief/small Crespi baseball reunion last night at (where else?) Pickwick's. OTL Hall of Famers Jordt and Clark were in the house, and prospect Wilson is back home. Per the tradition, the tourney (the best thing about the Thanksgiving weekend) is tomorrow. Subsequent to it will be the standard drunken gong show like every other year.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday, and if you happen to be in or from this state, sorry. But at least you're used to this. At least you're done watching this guy for a while.

Great college football matchups this weekend. Go Trojans, of course. But also...

go Noles, go Cowboys, go Bulldogs

I could go on, but I'm getting ahead of myself. After all, it is only Thursday...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

GigaOM Post on iphone Competitor

Microsoft Phone Is Like Lipstick on a Pig

While I agree with pretty much everything this writer has to say, I really hope she's wrong. As you all know (or should), I hate any and all things mac. Furthermore, I hate almost all people who are pro-mac. I am a PC bigot.

My biggest problem is that a vast majority of people who swear by macs, are technologically illiterate but think that they're very cutting-edge because they have a mac. It has made the personal computer, a useful tool when used properly, an accessory to morons. If you do not cut video or music or design graphics (and most of your pro-mac people do not), there is no reason to have a mac.

This sentiment carries over to all mac products (ipod, iphone...whatever). I am an AT&T subscriber (GSM > CDMA), and it irritates me to no end that the first thing they did when I switched was try to cram an iphone down my throat on the basis that it's their best selling phone. Guess what? I'm not a lemming. I'm not biting. Give me my Windows Mobile 6 handset with full data package. Thanks. And how many of those androgynous trendy emo scenester turds that you sold those phones to even know what a 3G network is? I need the advanced data services for work...not to look cool.

However, I love my job, as never before have I been even remotely this technologically literate. We're after a wireless content company as a new client prospect, and I'm pumped. I want this account.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Expectations are Resentments Under Construction

Rematches abound. Bowl game projections have Oregon State in a rematch of the early season beating they got from Penn State. I have confidence the Beavs show up and at least make it a game this time. In fact, I would take them to cover and would not be at all surprised if they won. However, they are facing the weight of expectations for the first time all season going into the Civil War matchup with the Ducks (and their heinous uniforms).

Speaking of Oregon State and BCS projections, let's talk about the Trojans and their situation. Miraculously, even with this guy at QB, they are projected to go to the Fiesta Bowl game and match up with the team that loses the Big 12 south sweepstakes. The two candidates, of course are Texas and Oklahoma. These two scenarios, of course, would constitute rematches of title games past, of which the boys in cardinal and gold went .500 with a nightmarish (albeit entertaining) loss to this guy and a good solid beating of this guy.

Either of those teams will be pissed that it got passed over for the national title game, while the Trojans will be in the rare position of just being happy to be there. I still have major questions about Dirty Sanchez's ability to lead a football program with the difficulty he has managing his own life. Of course, we could have him just do this all game and probably be ok, but for some inexplicable reason, we refuse.

Frustrating, but it could be worse. We could be rooting for a team led by this guy and QB'ed by an emu.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Datsun Update

I'm sitting here in the customer lounge (euphemism for waiting room) and have been in this same position for more than an hour. Why? Because the recall is my airbag system that apparently takes two and a half hours to fix. At least I got my Korean food from the UV, and they have college football on TV...even if it is the little 11.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Datsun Driving Black Magic Eeeeeeevil Motha...



In my possession right now, I have a postcard from these guys that says the following.

BULLETIN

Our records indicate that you may have an open
recall campaign on your vehicle.
Please come by at your earliest convenience
to have this important safety campaign
performed at no charge.

I have the following issues with this scenario.
  1. You don't KNOW if there is a recall or not?
  2. Is this something important, like my car might self destruct?
  3. If it is (or even if it's not), you're sending me a bootleg postcard in snail mail?
  4. I am supposed to come in at my earliest convenience?
So, basically, this is either (a.) not a big deal which they could catch on my next routine maintenance appointment or (b.) a big deal and they're lying to me. I'll find out tomorrow. And if you don't hear from me again, sue Nissan because my car self destructed with me in it. Someone should be able to cash in on this even if I can't.


The Set List

Grant and I will be turning back the clock with an instant classic for the jam session tonight.

<--Grant

<--Gabe

That is all.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Michelle "Mu Shu" Moshy

PF Chang's may not get my business again, though not necessarily through any fault of their own. (Other than the shitty excuse for "Chinese" food and horrendous prices, but that's a different deal.) I just got back from lunch with best friend: college version. No, we did not get hammered on this occasion...that photo is for illustrative purposes only but gives a good indication that some sort of chaos is to ensue.


This is mu shu chicken, which is what we ordered but not at all what it looked like. Our waitress wrapped it to look more like this, which is not a big deal...until they fall apart.

SCENE: table at PF Chang's Thousand Oaks...in the dark (more on that in a second)

Michelle takes bite, contents of mu shu burrito wrap thing spill all over onto plate

Michelle looks at Dale with angry face (angry face is key), and says,

"OK...my burrito just shat on my plate."

Dale attempts to keep eating but is unable to as he laughs and spits food all over the place.

END SCENE

This is 100% true, and it just happened. Why were we sitting in the dark? Well...the great "city" of Thousand Oaks has difficulty keeping the power on. Good to know it's not just on the block on which my office is located.

Anyway, this presented a giant dilemma for our mu shu deficient waitress, as it is/was apparently her policy to confiscate drinks as soon as customers had taken more than one sip out of them and bring new ones. Well, with no power, the soft drink machine was obviously not functioning, so she freaked out and apologized like 15 times when our drinks were halfway finished.

I really am not bitching at PF Chang's for the power outage or even the drink policy, as the service was actually quite good. But anything known as a "China Bistro" is a serious red flag. Bistro is a French word that indicates "
a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting." So, then, this is a French word in the name of a Chinese restaurant that is heinously overpriced for the food you get. Oh yeah, and the place is giant. So I don't know who this PF Chang character is, but he's a liar. And if you're going to go by your initials, please have better initials than PF. Honestly.

(And before any of you post that I'm a dumbass for going there if I'm just going to complain, I had a giftcard, so save it.)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

¡Libertád!

I have officially absolved my life of the space. Gotta say...it's quite liberating. Also liberating is the fact that I am sitting here watching North Carolina and Kentucky play basketball.

#1 Kentucky fan aside, Kentucky basketball has gone the way of Michigan football. Lots of history, but the best days appear to be behind as the program is under a massive rebuilding effort.

And while we're on the topic of liberty, someone please free this man from the shackles imposed upon him by Dave & Buster's in Ontario.
Look at this man! He needs a beer. Come on, Dave & Busters! Do the right thing, ONE TIME!


Monday, November 17, 2008

NCAA Basketball

ESPN is running 24 straight hours of NCAA basketball coverage. This will be bad for my sleeping habits. And gamecast will get a lot of time on my second monitor at work. Good prep for March. But now I have to get back to learning about synchronous Ethernet at the edge of carrier networks :(

Continuing Crusade Against Myspace

subj: done with this site...

i'm done with this site...if y'all want to catch up with me, hit me on facebook, e-mail me at dale.legaspi@gmail.com, or of you just want to cyberstalk, i'm making it easy with http://thedlfromdl.blogspot.com.
i would imagine anyone who would read this already has my phone number, but if not, drop me an e-mail and i'll make sure i get it to you.


take care,

DL

--
This is the bulletin I posted today on myspace. My timeframe for eliminating myself from that Web 2.0 low rent district is still TBD, but everyone has been put on notice. I have already received my e-mail with the steps to finish 86ing my profile, so I will probably give it a couple days so that people can read my bulletin and collect my info if they feel so inclined. But now, for all intents and purposes...I gone. Good thing I took time out of working to write this. Synchronous Ethernet can wait.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Things that are Overrated

This also promises to be a series. Today's topic: the NFL. Yes, yesterday was a "pedestrian" day of college football. I realized today, though, that even in the shadow of that soft NCAA effort, the NFL is still nowhere near as much fun as college football. Zero movement in the BCS standings for the top nine teams...kind of like the yards accumulated by NFL offenses. Booooooooriiiiiiiing. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz...wake me up when it's Saturday again.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

College Football Saturday

On a Saturday which features what has been described by pretty much everyone as a fairly pedestrian slate of college football games, Oregon State and Cal are doing pretty much nothing to debunk the national perception that no one in the Pac plays defense. South Carolina is doing nothing to refute that this college football season is nothing more than a coronation of Florida, and Michigan has (once again) proven that they are the worst Michigan team in the school's history. Ho hum.

ADDENDUM: USC offense looking shitty. Again. When are people going to figure out that Mark Sanchez is not that good? Bigger problem: defense is joining them in looking shitty.

SUNDAY ADDENDUM: At least special teams sacked up and kept us in it until the offense could get it together.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Abbreviated Week Recap

After having my life dominated by the fact that these guys and these guys will be at this show and this show respectively, I am ready for the weekend. Major internal shuffling at ALU and at a notable partner of Fulcrum, seven ITS analyst meetings, a handful of SC08 media/analyst calls, a partner release, a product release and an interoperability demo release later, these clients are ready to crank it up at the show next week. Wish I was joining them, but that's the breaks in this economy. Cut from the travel squad. Countless other client projects, 10 commutes, two softball games and one marketing event later, it's Friday. Fender time. Off to tune up and crank the volume.


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Things that are Underrated (Edition: 1)

As I'm sitting here wasting minutes/hours of my life, I had the brilliant (translation: stupid) idea of starting this new series of topics as a means of kickstarting my blogging activities again. Many of these underrated things will come from the abstract recesses of my brain and will only serve to further drive home to my readership the point that I am, in fact, out of my mind. I would, however, be open to suggestions. Post them as comments, e-mail me...whatever.

So, without further ado, there are three underrated things for this blog:
- Thermos beverage containers
- Cruise control
- Shoe polish

Thermos
Seriously, this brand makes amazing stuff. They have all sorts of products that control the temperature of food and beverages. Specific to this aside, though, is the beverage containers--specifically, the TherMax® double wall vacuum-insulated compact beverage bottle. As I looked at my bank account and saw it continue to dwindle, the first running expense that has been cut has been the morning coffee run at 7-11 in Thousand Oaks (Sorry Hearth...miss you, buddy).

My roommate has one of these fancy, space-age Thermos bottles that holds pretty much an entire pot of coffee. So, then, not only have I saved some cash by making coffee at home, I've found a way to get three times as much caffeine, and since jittery and with a racing pulse is the way I operate the best, I've been extra productive at work--a great development considering the rigors of Q4 at a PR agency. That's a different story.

This practice may or may not be taking years off my life, but I figure if I am going to fry my internal organs, I might as well take care of more than one at a time. My liver already hates me. Why not add my heart and my kidneys? Thank you, Thermos. You are driving me toward my grave.

Cruise Control
While the price of crude and, thus, the price of gas have fallen recently, they are still astronomical. This is a problem when I spend a good portion of my week commuting to and from work. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending upon how you look at it) for me, I spend ungodly amounts of time in my office and don't leave until the really nasty traffic is done. Thus, have pretty much free reign of at least a large portion of the 101.

Trying to keep my foot consistently on my gas pedal is a pain because 1. I am lazy and 2. it is impossible to keep a consistent speed. Combine these two, and I am all over the place with respect to the speed I drive when I am tired after a long day at work. Thus, I will find myself slowing down and then hitting the gas to speed back up and burning up inordinate amounts of gas in the process. The solution: cruise control. Implementing this policy has enabled me to go more than 400 miles on a tank of gas, when I was only getting between 360 and 375 if I was really efficient. Cruise control...how I have come to love thee.

Shoe Polish
I can trace this one back to my days of playing ball at SC and the policy of shining my spikes before games. In high school I used to clean them before big games, but I never got into the habit of polishing until college. From there, it carried over to summer ball in Duluth and then on into real life away from the game.

The reality, though, is that shining my shoes has less to do with appearance and more to do with my state of mind. Look like the man; play like the man. It has become a ritual in advance of a big client pitch or a marketing event of some sort. PR is the business of managing perception and establishing a brand....where better to start than my own? Details are important. Shoes are a detail. For me, they will be a detail that sparkles.

So there you have it...the first installment of things that are underrated. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. Rather, it is installment one of what should become a series.

Myspace Sucks

Myspace sucks. In fact, the reason this blog even exists is that extreme suckitude of that aforementioned bastard child of Web 2.0. More than once I have attempted to post my thoughts in the blog section of that godforsaken site and been denied because their servers are overloaded with the useless surveys, photos, videos and other musings of sexually frustrated teenagers and the child molesters looking for them. I've had it. Time for the blog function to stand on its own merit. I present to you, "The DL from DL."

Over time, I will be exercising my social media skills and hopefully entertaining you all in the process. Transferring blogs over from the 'space will be part of this, but for tonight, I'll leave it at this welcome blog and the one I couldn't post tonight. I love feedback. Props, constructive criticism, blatant and non-constructive criticism...whatever. Bring it!

Later, y'all.