Summize is cool

Again via Mike, Summize looks like a cool Twitter search engine. It's similar to TweetScan, but with the extra smart "positive attitude" and/or "negative attitude" filtering.

Movie review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

After Harold and Kumar 2, we decided to stick around and also take in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Yes, it was a busy night ;)

The movie was pretty good. I'm not a huge Indy fan, but nonetheless the LucasFilm marquee and the names in the credits (Steve Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, roughly in that order of impression) were exciting. The movie has some nice special effects and some funny lines.

There are also a bunch of cheesy moments I would have cut out, but apparently they're in line with the classic Indy motif and anyways I'm not a qualified film maker.

The scene with the ants was particularly cool, but I don't want to spoil the details in case you want to see it yourself.

Overall, I think this would be a good rental, but no need to rush to theatres unless you want the big screen Indy experience.

Movie review: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

After dinner at STIX last night, we were considering various options, when Alli remembered that the new Indiana Jones movie was opening. We decided to go see it, but by the time we got to the cinema the movie was sold out.

Looking at the list of movies reminded me I wanted to see Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which was starting in ten minutes, so we bought tickets and went in.

The movie was better than I expected: funnier, more creative. It was a worthy sequel to the original Harold and Kumar.

Of course it's brainless comedy, not intended for introspective thinking, but simple laughs. I do enjoy those movies a lot ;) Check it out. It's also worth a rental if you're looking to laugh.

Restaurant review: STIX

Last night Alli and I celebrated the 23rd of the month, as we do every month. This time we went out to dinner at STIX, a cute restaurant, bar, and lounge right next to 33. We happen to know (and like ;)) the owners of 33, and as it turned out, we also liked STIX.

The main concept around the food is that it's served on these special skewers, ones that infuse whatever is skewered on them with various proteins, essences, scents, and other chemicals. It might not sound interesting, but it works well. The food is delicious. There are some nice wines on the list to complement it, although we only ended up with one glass of wine because the cocktails were really cool.

I was looking forward to the raspberry sashimi cocktail. This is a gelatenized raspberry martini served in the form of 10 sashimi slices, with chopsticks and accompaniments like different sugars to dip it in. Wow. That was awesome. Best cocktail I've had in a long time, largely due to the ingenious presentation. You can check out the full cocktail menu at the bottom of this page.

Service was also great. The servers were attentive, polite, and professional.

Prices are very reasonable too. It's a good value.

The only thing that was strange was that the place looked about half empty, on a gorgeous Friday night. It seems like it should be fuller. Although now I kind of hope it stays a hidden gem, so we can bring friends there and not worry too much about reservations ;)

Highly recommended.

First time at Fenway this season

Last Tuesday I went to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play (and beat) the Kansas City Royals. My colleague and internet marketing expert, Mike, had an extra ticket that I was glad to utilize.

It was my first time at the ball park this season. I usually go a few times a year, sometimes more, sometimes less. Fenway is a magical place, and I love being there, but unless you have season tickets or belong to some other plan, it can be a pain (read: expensive) to get tickets. Yet another reason why everyone needs a colleague like Mike ;)

The game was good, although the weather was a bit chilly and it started drizzling toward the end. We won, that's the important thing ;)

Wine review: 2006 Jim Jim shiraz

I was at the wine store last week (it seems like I visit every week, though usually a different store to compare atmospheres), buying some bottles as gifts for friends. When I go into a wine shop, I'm like Alli in a shoe store. You can't leave without at least glancing at everything.

I noticed this cool label for Jim Jim ("the down-underdog"), an Australian shiraz from McLaren Vale, which is on my list of travel destinations. The label prominently features a hand-drawn dog, and so I was attracted to it right away. It was an impulse buy, and a good one.



A couple of nights ago, Alli made a hash of spicy sausage, fried potatoes, onion, and mushrooms. It was absolutely delicious, and I wanted to try the shiraz with it. It was a great match, just really nicely complementary.

The wine is surprisingly rich for its youth, goes really well with singed (pan-seared, grilled, lightly fried) food. It's easy to drink, not much acidity, but a very nice tail end, a long smooth finish.

Wine review: 2004 Stag's Leap petite syrah

A couple of weeks ago, Alli's semester at Simmons College came to an end. During the semester, I picked her up from her evening classes a lot, and many times we gave rides home to a couple of her classmates. They were nice enough to get us a gift bottle of wine at the end of the semester, and we drank it last week.

I really like Stag's Leap overall. Their wines are consistently good, and I've never had a bad one. This one was very good, though not amazing. It's just a little young. You can taste a bit of emerging complexity, without sacrificing up-front smoothness. Time would help.

I probably made a mistake opening it too soon. I think wine.com is right to identify it as a collectible bottle.

Nonetheless, a good recommended wine for the next few years.

Weekend in NYC

Last weekend Alli and I went down to New York City. There were two reasons for the trip. First, we wanted to visit and hang out with our friends Robyn and David. Second, we were happy to attend Art and Linda's wedding, which took place on Sunday in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The wedding was beautiful, emotional, and fun. The scenery was gorgeous, the company great, the food delicious. I really like weddings.

Hanging out with Robyn and David was also a blast. We had dinner at Blue Ribbon and enjoyed a local street fair on Sunday. Then we watched the Celtics beat the Cavs in Game 7 of the the NBA eastern conference semifinals.

The drives to and from New York were smooth. Little traffic, good roads, good music.

All in all, a great weekend.

POPSignal party tonight

Went to the POPSignal party tonight, and it was fun. Met some cool new people / companies, like slingpage and bountii. Saw friends from familiar places like TripAdvisor and Conduit Labs. Had a couple of free beers, enjoyed hanging out with fellow internet marketing gurus. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. Thanks POPSignal!

It's pretty cool how most people have heard about HubSpot, know what we do more or less, and are interested. Recruiting is becoming easier. Two days ago we literally had a guy just knock down our door and not leave until our awesome admin promised to give me his resume. Kudos for tenacity.

We also got TechCrunch'ed today, second time this year, regarding our recent venture funding round. This time the servers held up well, giving me some gratification over the architecture changes since the last TechCrunch event.

Combined feed for this blog and Twitter

Courtesy of Yahoo Pipes: http://pipes.yahoo.com/yoavshapira/combined

My 30th birthday wish

My 30th birthday is coming up: it's September 5th 2008, i.e. about 4 months from now. I'm not one for big birthday celebrations, preferring a dinner or a BBQ with some close friends.

For this birthday I have a wish, the reason for this blog post. I want someone to help me get a reservation at El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant. I'll pay for dinner, I'm not asking for that. Just help getting a reservation, as it's pretty tough.

The reservation can be on any day, any hour (dinner, not lunch), for at least 2 people (Alli and myself). If you want to join us, you're welcome, along with significant others if you wish. It doesn't have to be on my birthday or in September or even in 2008: really, any time is fine.

I'll gladly pay a convenience fee for your efforts if you help me out. And I'm very flexible: any time of the year is fine, any day of the week, just dinner time.

Here are contact details: e-mail:bulli@elbulli.com - Fax: +34 972 15 07 17 - Tel. +34 972 15 04 57. The restaurant is typically open from April through October each year, so maybe April 2009 is the earliest option, and again that would be fine.

Thanks, blogosphere ;)

Why I'm loving Twitter

It's simple: I can now vent short thoughts without going through mental motions of a full blog post. It's easy technically to post a blog entry, but mentally I always think they should be better thought out, maybe longer. Twitter lowers the bar, and makes it easy (actually, required) to stay short.

Does that mean the average quality of an entry on Twitter is lower than the average blog entry? Sure, but that's not a relevant question. Twitter isn't designed as a medium for research papers, long drawn-out essays, or very complex ideas. It doesn't compete with journal articles or even long blog posts.

For me, it's just a way to vent easily when I get a random thought. It's a little like bookmarking with annotations, and someone else provides an archive.

I don't care who (if anyone) follows me on Twitter, though it's nice to get comments. I just love having a place to vent quickly, easily, with low expectations.

Brochureware is the new duct tape

Last week I was in a meeting with another happy HubSpot customer, and he was telling us about an unrelated business idea. We were talking about how he did his research, and it occurred to me that when you do a Google search for any meaningful business keyword, if the top few sites you see are brochureware, that's a business opportunity right there.

When I was at MIT, in Product Design and Development (PDD) class, someone quoted another source saying every time you see duct tape, it's a product opportunity. It means someone is adopting or modifying or fixing an existing product, and if you could figure that out and do the improvement for them, you might have a market.

I think brochureware is the new duct tape.

If you see brochureware sites dominating a business category, it probably means that line of business has not modernized in a long time, and is not taking advantage of the internet.

Wine review: Menage a Trois

Last night with dinner we had a bottle of Menage a Trois, a red California (Napa) blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet. It was pretty good: nice aroma, a bit of a tannic punch, but went down nicely. The vineyard is called Folie a Deux, and it seems like a nice place to visit.

Movie review: Miami Vice

Unlike American Gangster, this movie I didn't much like. It was just OK, kind of boring, even given my low expectations. Somewhat generic story, and lacking a lot of the fun from the original TV series. I didn't expect good dialog or acting, but I was hoping for some nicer special effects and scenery. Oh well ;)

Movie review: American Gangster

I wanted to see American Gangster in theatres, but never got around to it. Come to think of it, in the past year I've probably only seen 10-20% of the movies I wanted to see. I'm not quite sure where the time went, but between learning about inbound marketing and trying to keep a busy social calendar, there have not been many movies.

Anyways, American Gangster was awesome. I really liked it. I like both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, but I think the script and direction would have made lesser actors look good. The story is tight, even in the Unrated Extended Edition we watched. Some scenes, like rescuing the junkie cop from the projects, are unforgettable.

Easily worth a rental. I don't buy movies anymore, but if I did this one would make the cut.

What do I pay for online?

A couple of nights ago at dinner with some internet marketing experts, I was asked what online products or services I pay for. I came up with two right away, Flickr Pro and WordPress with its domain hosting and extra services (for Alli). After that, it was a struggle. I do pay for Mozy online backup, $5 per month, so that counts.

But besides that I couldn't think of any. A service really has to be awesome, and I don't use that word lightly. It has to be fun and easy to use, but with advanced functionality, enough to satisfy the geek in me.

Plus so much stuff is coming out as free, you kind of get used to it. When people charge even $20, you start questioning it. Chris Andersen of Wired did a great job exploring this issue.

Natan Parsons, RIP

Today I went to the funeral of Natan Parsons, a close family friend and my first professional boss. It was my first funeral as an adult, and it was really sad.

Natan was an amazing guy. One of the sharpest I've met, he was also really good at going from a theoretical solution to a practical one in the real world (see his many patents, for example). A lot of people think they're smart when drawing system architecture diagrams on a white board, and that the implementation is trivial. Natan was even smart because he knew the devil was often in the details, and the details were hard, and yet he nailed them.

Natan was a model and an inspiration for me. May he rest in peace.

Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu melech haolam, dayan ha'emet.

Trying Twitter some more

Twitter's growing on me. I'm going to add a badge here.

Passed 1000 posts, didn't notice until now ;)

This is post 1,011, which I just noticed by accident ;)

I like that I've held to my original principles and goals when starting this blog 3+ years ago: write for myself, don't try to be smart or impress anyone (not sure I'd succeed anyways ;)), provide a creative outlet for me. That's it, very simple.

Game 7 today, PeerGuardian, notes on the week

I'm hosting a couple of people today to watch the Celtics game 7 against the Hawks. Last time I hosted people the results were unspeakable (the Superbowl ;( ), so hopefully this time things will be better. I have faith.

Via Jon: PeerGuardian looks awesome, but no Vista version yet. I'd switch back to XP without argument.

It was a good, but busy week. We have so many great inbound marketing ideas at HubSpot, and now I feel like we have a solid process for figuring out what to do. I can take it from there, which feels good. There's no such thing as a perfect process, especially when you want to stay agile, but I think we have a decent balance for now.

Also, as I am reminded every Sunday morning: if you don't subscribe to PostSecret, you're missing out on a chunk of raw humanity. Do yourself a favor.