A team from Lego visited our offices today and gave a talk about the changing face of children's play. During the talk, we heard about the customer-designed Lego train set that was released today. And one was raffled off to a lucky co-worker. We also got a peek at some early sketches of the just-announced Lego MMOG, which is slated to be launched in October 2008. If you're a fan of the company and its products, you might like this 20-minute video interview of the CEO of Lego.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer and founder of Pandora, stopped into our offices to give one of his "town hall" talks. Our company has licensed his online radio product.

Tim is passionate about sharing his and his company's devotion to the art and culture of making music, and he shares that with Pandora users in frequent--and increasingly popular--town hall presentations all over the U.S. He blogs about it too. These trips also double as music scouting and business development.

Here are some links to more info:

A writeup on one of Tim’s town halls.

A photo of

Pandora Town Hall at MIT.

12-minute audio interview with Tim.

Pandora’s own new music podcast.

- mike lee - washington, d.c.

The fam and I met up with Regan for brunch today at Mosaic Cuisine & Cafe in Rockville. It was like we've known each other forever, but in a virtual way, we have. And no surprise we had so much in common to talk about.

Before I got home to load HN on my desktop computer, Regan had already posted, and even Aaron's Hiptop Nation Meet Map was updated. Now I feel old!

The other pix are of us commemorating the rendezvous, Cici enjoying her new toy and mommy showing off hers: a Raon Vega UMPC with Mimoco flash drive.

We headed back home after our waffle sandwiches and nutella crepes so I could prepare for a photo shot. Regan went onward in search of Sug 2.0. We wished her luck on that.

- mike lee -

Heading out to brunch on this chilly, sunny Sunday morning.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

I'm enjoying my free 12 oz. cup of coffee at the Starbucks across the street from my office.

- mike lee - washington, dc

I got an e-mail out of the blue from an art director at St. Martins Press who was inquiring about this photo taken on a foggy night of Charles Street in Baltimore. He's offering me $1000 for non-exclusive use on the cover of a mystery novel. And tonight, I found the original on an archive CD. Yeah!

- mike lee - wheaton, md

I sat up and looked around me to find that the bedding behind my neck and shoulders was wet. It was a big tabloid-sized wet spot that extended to my pillow case too. Cianna was next to me proclaiming, "I wet the bed!" My clock radio displayed 6:05 am. Cianna was sleeping next to me in our king bed since she's been clingy since mommy is out of town. I checked her diaper only to find that it wasn't soaked. Then I noticed the empty 8 oz. bottle of water by Cianna's teddy bear. She had asked for a drink in the middle of the night and I forgot to ask her to put the bottle back on the nightstand. She or I must have rolled over it in our sleep. Or maybe my daughter knew exactly what kind of wet she was talking about when she rousted me. Maybe we didn't roll over the now-empty water bottle. Maybe my daughter got me real good. Real good...

- mike lee - wheaton, md

Grandma said this is Cianna's nicest LEGO model to date. Hmmm, she might be ready for my Mindstorms NXT soon!

- mike lee - langley park, md

Today's light dusting of snow had me turning away from the grind of management to look out my office window for the first time in weeks.

In gentle contrast, the last photo is of my daughter at daycare showing off a colorful little cutout collage of a human figure she made today. If only managing the roles people play at the workplace could be this fun and easy.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Tasting spring in the park behind our house.

- mike lee - wheaton, md