New on WadeArmstrong.com: Lazy Productivity -- Don't Get Ahead of Schedule
Jan 29, 2007 in Elsewhere
A friend cancelled our plans to grab a drink the other day. “I have too much to do,” she explained. “Behind on all your projects, huh?” I asked her, and that’s when I got a productivity-related shock: “I’m not behind, but I’m not ahead either, and I need to be ahead.” Yes, we’re all tightly-scheduled. No, being ahead in all your projects is not the answer. In fact, the first step to becoming more productive is to stop trying to get ahead of schedule.
Read on…The Sky I Was Born Under
Jan 28, 2007 in True Life Stories, Writing Practice
I am from Baltimore, a place where the blackness of the night is obscured and turned pink by the city lights. Some people bemoan our loss of the night stars — astronomers with the most justification — but this soft blanket of three quarters of a million people’s porch lights and bedside lamps and flickering tvs in the den is something that is particularly, authentically, of our era. It holds in the sirens and car engines and chattering neighbors that provide the background for our reality, reflects them back at us, confines and radiates the atmosphere of the city. Perhaps I love this sky because I was born under it, perhaps I love it because it enveloped me every night. But I do love it. Read on…
Dear Drew Barrymore,
Jan 23, 2007 in Dear So-And-So
I’m very excited to see that you’ll be in a movie this spring. I remember just a few years ago when I could look forward to a romantic comedy, or fun action flick, with you every summer. Those were good times, weren’t they? Those were the days when our love bloomed again. Read on…
Days
Jan 23, 2007 in Meta, Writing Practice
I’ve been writing this thing for three and a half years now. I started blogging because everything I wrote sounded like a business memo, and that just wasn’t a good way to make date plans; now, I can write things that are occasionally amusing. And have long run-on sentences and snarky footnotes.1 Yep, things are moving along. Read on…
Fuck.
Jan 21, 2007 in Spurts, True Life Stories
The Colts won the AFC Championship. They’re going to the Super Bowl.
The Colts are going to the Super Bowl.
This is fucking awful. Goddamn it. Read on…
Dems: Say Goodbye to the White House
Jan 20, 2007 in Ye Olde Politicks
Well, now Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are running for President in ‘08. That means that us lefties can say goodbye to the White House for probably the next 12-16 years. The decision of these two people to run in two years says awful things about the Democratic Party machinery and its long-term planning capability.1 Obama and Hillary2 can’t win in 2008, and, by overexposing them now, we’ll ensure that they can’t win later. It’s lose-lose and it will keep a Republican in the White House for eight years or more.
Read on…
Play Time
Jan 18, 2007 in Junior
Finally, in action, this blog’s namesake:… Read on…
Bugs Bunny Was Right!
Jan 16, 2007 in Otherwise Uncategorized
You probably think that what you see in cartoons is all fake. Until two nights ago, I would have agreed with you completely. Those scenes where Wile E. Coyote steps off the edge of a cliff and his body plummets to the bottom of the canyon while his face, maudlin, stares at you? Fake. The bits where the Animaniacs bounce off everything? Fake. The part where lab mice try to take over the world every night? OK, maybe not so fake. That should’ve been my hint; the cartoons… they’re all true. I know this because, two nights ago, I slipped on a banana peel. Read on…
New on WadeArmstrong.com: iPhonalysis
Jan 14, 2007 in Elsewhere
I’m a geek; therefore, I’m fascinated by the iPhone. It’s an interesting product, and it says a lot about Apple’s cell phone strategy and technology. Of course, I’ve got a lot to say about that myself.
Read on…Dear George W. Bush
Jan 11, 2007 in Ye Olde Politicks
Thanks for introducing the plan that’ll allow us to win the war in Iraq. I really appreciate that you’ve gotten to the heart of it and discovered that an increase of 16% in our forces is what we need to win. This simple solution really gives us victory without having to change what it is we’re doing at all, and that’s an approach that every American can appreciate. Read on…
New on WadeArmstrong.com: Never Give 100%
Jan 8, 2007 in Elsewhere
The New Year always brings new resolutions, and, armed with these resolutions, my friends — and probably yours — are working hard, getting projects done. Of course, having a project means one thing, as sure as death and taxes: being behind schedule. And a bunch of my friends are already behind schedule and stressed out about their new resolutions. That’s what happens when people plan their projects as if a person can give 100% at all times.
Read on…Pan's Labyrinth
Jan 7, 2007 in Reviews
Last night, I saw Pan’s Labyrinth with a friend. If you’ve caught the trailer, you may have gotten the impression that this movie is some sort of a magical story of another world. That is slightly correct, but in a very European, Terry Gilliam kind of way. Much of the story takes place in the real world, is violent (exceedingly, at times), and dark; the fantastical world is revealed only in a few short scenes. They promise “a journey that will make you believe,” but half the point is — can you believe? Is it really true? Read on…
New Year's Resolutions
Jan 2, 2007 in Otherwise Uncategorized
It’s an annual tradition, at this point, to make my New Year’s resolutions public and review how I did on the previous year (see: 2004, 2005, 2006). I’m all for tradition, so here goes the resolutions for 2007. Read on…
Dear Dick Clark,
Jan 1, 2007 in Dear So-And-So
Thanks for hosting another year’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve last night. I really appreciate you coming out and announcing the events of the evening, with the help of Ryan Seacrest, of course. And I really appreciate all of the execs who convinced you to come on TV again, despite the fact that your stroke gave you a massive speech impediment. And I’d like to thank you for that speech impediment, because imitating it was definitely a great way to get laughs from a very drunk crowd. Read on…
Business Projections for 2007
Jan 1, 2007 in Elsewhere
It’s a new year, which means it’s time to engage in the annual hobby of prognostication. What will be the big trends in business for 2007? As an entrepreneur, I’m most interested in trends that are immediately actionable, so, for instance, I’m not going to discuss changes that I think will be major but which won’t bear fruit for another two or three years.1 I’m also influenced by what I just saw people talking about in business school, so up-and-coming trends that make it into the ivory tower will be strongly represented below.
Read on…