Greg Hartnett

I am spending some time tonight working on something that I haven’t thought about in years - my résumé.

We recently hired a public relations firm out of LA (aren’t they all based in LA??) to help polish us up a little bit, and help both companies present more of a professional image. Evidently, it takes more to sell yourself and company than plopping yourself in front of your computer and working day and night. Go figure.

So it turns out that Jeanine wants us to put together a CV telling the world (or whoever she can get to listen) how smart and wonderful we are. Putting together a résumé is definitely not my cup of tea, so I turned to the Internet for a little help. A pretty thorough search on both Google and Yahoo produced lackluster results - unless you are looking for companies to do the work for you. One site that I did find helpful, CV Tips, had some nice layout ideas, as well as thoughts on content and overall presentation.

The silver lining here is that I am not putting this together in hopes of looking for a new gig. Those days (knock on wood) are behind me…

Once again, the US has completely eclipsed the rest of the world on military expenditures. We spent approximately $420.7 billion for the military in fiscal year 2005 ($401.7 billion for the Defense Department and $19.0 billion for the nuclear weapons functions of the Department of Energy). The Arms Control Center has more 2005 highlights.

How many vaccines could we have provided with the money we burned on this B-52??

Approximately $100 million up in smoke…

Though my musical tastes jump around a bit, I find myself getting really sucked into a particular artist for a period of time. Typically I dip into the familiar favorites: 12 months ago, it was Elton John. Six month ago, Neil Young. Currently, I can’t get enough of Bob Dylan.

Many of Dylan’s masterpieces ring particularly true today. For instance, Subterranean Homesick Blues:

Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D. A.
Look out kid
Don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don’t try “No Doz”
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin’ to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don’t steal, don’t lift
Twenty years of schoolin’
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don’t wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don’t wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don’t work
‘Cause the vandals took the handles

I read earlier today in Investor’s Business Daily (surprisingly in print edition) that Internet companies are coming back into vogue down on Sand Hill Road.

PricewaterhouseCoopers released the annual National Venture Capital Association’s MoneyTree Survey. According to the report, 161 Internet companies received first round VC money in 2005 - a rise of 68% from 2004. In total, 450 Internet companies got funding last year - up 7% from the year before. Though impressive, the investments pale in comparison to the money pumped into Internet companies back in 2000.

Additionally impressive, IBD reported that:

Online consumer spending has grown dramatically so far this year - especially if you exclude travel sales. Ecommerce consumer sales - excluding travel - jumped 33% in the first 20 days of 2006 vs. the same period of 2005.

A few months ago, I wrote a letter to my local representative regarding the Firearms Manufacturers Protection bill. In a nutshell, the bill gives firearm manufacturers a loophole in providing victims due process. Unfortunately, our pro-gun Congress was only too happy to pass the bill, and it sailed through by a vote of 283 to 144. The majority of the opinions of our legislators were similar to those of Congressman Joe Schwarz, the noble gentleman representing the state of Michigan, who fell back on the Second Amendment with:

The Second Amendment was not written as a mere exercise in constitutional thought. It had a practical purpose: first, to ensure that citizens would have the tools to protect their families and their homes and, second, to ensure that an ARMED militia could be called up to defend the country in emergencies.

Get real. Read the entire pathetic address he gave here

While travelling, I received a reply letter from Rep Carolyn McCarthy that read:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 800, the Firearms Manufacturers Protection bill. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

No industry in America has received the extreme and unnecessary leval of legal protection that the gun manfacturers can receive from this bill. The gun industry should be treated the same as all other industries. This legislation would shield gun manufacturers from being taken to court even if they sell guns to criminals, or produce guns that lack reasonable safety features and even discourage them from making their weapons safer. The balance of power would shift from the public if they, or their loved ones, were hurt or killed due to the negligence of the gun industry.

Since the tragic shooting on the Long Island Railroad, gun violence is close to my heart. For me, there is no other choice but to support “common sense” legislation that saves lives. Nothing I have proposed, or supported, prevents a law-abiding citizen to own a gun. I believe the desire to reduce the incidence of children’s gun violence and the ability of felons to get guns is one we all share.

Thanks again for writing. I encourage you to continue to contact me about issues important to you.

-Carolyn McCarthy
Member of Congress

I really didn’t take much away from this reply letter. I want some feedback on what the hell she is doing to protect me, and my kids from gun violence in NY, and throughout the US. So, I will accept her invitation of continued correspondence, and continue writing. I will ask her what she plans on doing to “save lives” and what type of legislative changes she has in the pipeline for future proposals. Maybe I’ll drop her my domain name, and invite her to share her opinions here. What a hoot…

Additional gun control resources:

GunCite
Brady Campaign
Open Society Institute - Gun Control in The United States (PDF)
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Violence Policy Center
Americans for Gun Safety
Firearms Law Center

Will Ferrell is absolutely fantastic. Comedic genius for sure. I like Will almost as much as I dislike GW. There is a spoof out there of Ferrell as Bush talking about global warming. While trying to dig that up, I stumbled across this video - originally located at MoveOn.org, it is now available to all.

When was the last time you had a good cry? Not just a little sob, but a full on boo-hooing??

When I was younger, I used to believe that crying was a sign of weakness. I can remember the first time I fell down and cut my hands and didn’t cry about it. I was about 8 years old, and I remember the pain shooting through my hands - yet I didn’t cry. I was so proud of myself - I saw it as a sign that I was growing up, and no longer needed to cry.

Of course as I grew, the notion that crying was not for boys was only reinforced. Luckily, I was raised by a wise mother who taught me that a true man is gentle and kind, and not afraid to show his emotions. She encouraged me to accept my feelings, and not try to bury them. She taught me that all people - men and women, young and old - need to cry. People who don’t embrace anguish, can’t truly understand joy.

So through the years, I have come to embrace the full spectrum of human emotion. I am no longer afraid to cry - I am proud to let my children see me cry. I am happy to show them that it is fine for a man to cry. I am passing along the wisdom that I was lucky enough to have received.

Just last week, I was going through my dresser, when I came across a letter from my deceased grandmother. It was a letter she had written to me shortly after I moved to California. I sat on my bed, reading the letter to my daughter, and the tears began to flow. My daughter looked at me, a bit confused, so I tried to stifle my tears. She then told me, “It’s ok daddy - you can cry”. So I did. I cried. Hard. And if felt great. My seven year old daughter hugged and comforted me. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

So, the next time you feel a little choked up, don’t fight it. Let it out. You’ll be happy you did.

I hop on a plane tonight to head back to New York. While my trip out west proved fruitful, unfortunately we did not find the “right” school for the kids. The ones we looked at either sucked, or were impractical. So back to the drawing board.

We did manage a couple of trip to the new house - I added a handful of pics to my Flickr account. Check them out here. I have a bunch more that I will add later.

As I get older, I find myself growing more and more appreciative of the little things in life.

For instance, I am sooo happy that Google finally added a “delete” button to Gmail - instead of having to scroll through their “more actions” drop down and choose delete from there. Now if they could only allow me to delete the entire contents of my Spam folder with one click.

I will be travelling for the next few days - scoping out schools for my kids in the Sacramento area. Sometime in July, I will be packing my up family, dog, and all our belongings, and will venture west. It has been a long time coming, and we finally decided to pull the trigger.

So we have a house (pics soon), and now we need to figure out where to send the kiddies to school. So, until next week, my posts here will be light, at best. I will be posting some pics shortly.

If you have some time to kill see the following entry from the Freeway Blogger - helps put things in perspective - Suicide Note.

Peace

This has to be the worst mountain bike crash I have ever seen. How far down could that possibly be? 50 feet??? Crazy bastard.

As a web professional, I spend a LOT of time surfing online. Many times during the course of the day, I come across a site whose design intrigues me. When so inclined, I spend some time pouring through the source to see what type of information I can glean.

To make life easier, I installed Xyle scope from the programmers at Cultured Code (Mac users only - $14.95). It makes poking under the hood lot easier, and shows applicable CSS styling for any element. To see associated code, you simply highlight the are of the page, and the corresponding code is clearly displayed. Very cool…

This should take away my foggy Friday morning blues… a few minutes of big air and rails - some pretty sick moves too.

Mt Shasta Ski Park, CA

Heavy rains overnight brought down all but one two of the signs I posted last weekend. Luckily, I still had a couple in the trunk of my car, so I got a little busy this morning on the way in to work. This sign is posted directly past the off-ramp from the Meadowbrook Pkwy. High traffic, relatively slow speed - perfect ingredients for lots of eyeballs. Additionally, I can see it from my office, so it should provide some inspiration for me throughout the day.

I plan on dedicating some time this weekend to creating new signs. I have a bunch of cardboard that I collected this week, and I have been scouting locations during my commute. My goal is to make an additional dozen or so, and post them throughout the course of next week. Stay tuned…

I could have sworn that I saw Technorati searching 24.9 million websites this morning (and yesterday) - I have been waiting for it to hit the 25 million mark. Currently, I see them searching 24.3

Did they adjust their database? If so, does this mark the first time they have done so?

On a side note, my vote for Mac Software of 2005 goes to Flying Meat for their FlySketch application - it floats above all other applications on your desktop and allows you to take screen captures, annotate, highlight, and markup your image. Good stuff…