After a good mind meld with a co-manager at work, I figured I was going to take one later commuter train home. Turns out all trains were late due to downed trees on the tracks from the high winds. I'll arrive in Baltimore Penn Station 90 minutes late with a butt that has been on the train for two hours--twice normal. Wife, who's about to burst with baby any day now, is graciously picking me up. Hopefully, my massive headache will go away after some egyptian food. Riding on a commuter ferry boat on the Hudson River was much more fun than this train.

- mike lee - crawling along the northwest corridor

I can't remember if this has been posted anywhere, but the Stanford Technology Ventures Program Educator's Corner offers an in-depth 24 page a case study on Danger, Inc. written by one of their grad students and a professor. The history of the company is recounted along with a detailed discussion of their business strategy and overall market.

The description comes up on a search of the site, but via Google, I discovered that the 568k illustrated PDF can be downloaded directly.

Snag the file before the link is changed or taken down.

- mike lee -

Viv, I understand how you can feel melancholy. When you think about it, the pregnancy, birth and toddler times, special as they are, are a tiny portion out of a lifetime. Kids do grow up fast. I'm going to enjoy every minute (or every other) of this. My wife is OK with me moblogging the birth, and I will keep the photos tasteful. Thanks for the book recommendation and offer. It looks like a good one. I'm pretty sure a copy of it is on the way from a family member.

Rick, it was so great to see photos of the book display. After seeing your shots, we finally made it into a Borders to take a look. Eric at HBO checked out the display of America 24/7 photos at Bryant Park for me (show ends today), and alas my photo didn't make that cut or I would have made a trip up to NYC to see it.

- mike lee - washington, dc

We got in one more visit with my 101-year-old grandmother at the nursing home this morning. With the baby arrivng soon, it'll be a while before we return. Grandma needs to be reminded several times during our visit--in Chinese because she speaks no English--how much time is left until the baby is due.

Every 10 minutes, I hold up two fingers for the number of weeks. And each time she repeats the same reminders to my wife: don't eat pork, don't hammer nails, and eating sheep stomach is good for recovering from the birth.

Got it.

The one thing she can't process is the fact that we already know it's going to be a girl. Grandma can't conceive of how we could know, and waves off the topic saying boy or girl is good.

After one of her memory loops, Grandma had a more lucid moment and proclaimed, "hey, you're going to be a daddy now!"

Gulp.

We ended up deciding to go see Matrix Revolutions and forgot until just now that the total lunar eclipse will peak a little after 8pm while we're in the middle of the movie. There's a thin veil of high clouds, but otherwise, the view is pretty good.

Here in this photo, I use the reflected silhouette of my head to frame the bluish dot of the Moon as seen from the lobby of the theater. You might be able to tell that the Moon is about 40% in shadow.

OK, the previews are over and we are entering The Matrix...

- mike lee - baltimore

This afternoon's child care class was pretty informative. Once again, there were several doll babies and a mock breast to demonstrate various modes of feeding. Here is the face of a doll that shows a six-month-old baby's first grimacing reaction to solid food. To me, it's thinking WTF happened to my tasty, chemically-matched breastmilk? Instead, mommy and daddy are coming at me with this goop from a jar. The transition is inevitable, and leads the little one to the world of chocolate, french fries, and soft drinks.

- mike lee - baltimore

We were at the Carter's house this morning with a small group of family and friends for a baby shower. The warmth of well wishes and the yellow glow of sunlit fall leaves gave a magical aura to the gifts. Now we're on our way to a three-hour child care class.

- mike lee - baltimore

Noting this new innovation in fresh produce marketing at the Safeway...

- mike lee - baltimore

Some things I learned in my first week at my new job:

• MARC monthly passes also work on Baltimore busses, but not with the DC subway
• As a contractor, I have to use a temporary ID badge for 30 days
• The men's room needs a key which costs $1
• DHCP works
• I need Windows XP admin access to install ActiveSync for my PocketPC
• My staff uses a wipeoff calendar to mark future days off
• Business cards can be ordered on the intranet
• The differences between buildings A and B
• That I can start reading from 500 pages of policy and strategy documents

And Monday the infomation injection continues: I'm in an all-day manager's meeting where we'll hear about branding.

- mike lee - washington, dc

After driving all around an industrial park in Glen Burnie, MD (south of Baltimore), wife and I finally found the general receiving entrance to Eagle Global Logistics. Our EvenFlo baby stroller was on hold for pickup, and it was interesting to see it pulled from behind a massive pile of about 2000 Dell computers. We're back out in the heavy rain to hunt for food.

- mike lee -