You can see the movie - The Recess Ends - at the Victorian Theater in SF this week. It’s free, since Austin and his brother are paying the rental costs out of their own pockets. Doors open at 7 and the movie starts at 8 p.m.

For more infomation, check out their website

I am constantly reminded of my previous occupation - Stanford Hospital is directly below the downwind / base turn for many of the aircraft heading to SFO. I’ve never seen so many 747’s in one day before. I’m still marveled at their ability to seemingly float, as if they’re hardly even moving at all.

The transition from unemployment to working is turning out to be much harder than I expected. I didn’t think a job could kick my ass as much as the one at the Jet Center did. Apparently, I was wrong. Here’s to losing weight and getting back in shape at Stanford! I’ll keep you posted. My uniform is due to arrive next week.

At last, this week the pilots explained the mystery: They were looking at their laptops and just got so wrapped up, they forget about that whole landing thing. No harm, no foul.

Now, let’s not judge them too harshly. Because let’s face it, we’ve all been there. If not in our planes, then at least while driving our cars.

Distraction by technology while traveling is becoming a plague on our busy, modern day lives. I’m not just referring to gabbing on your cellphone or texting while driving. That’s kids stuff. I’m talking about the large scale distractions that cause us all to do our share of bone headed moves.

In solidarity with the beleaguered crew of Flight 188, I wanted to share my woeful tales of techno distraction in the hope that we, as a society, can collectively learn some important lessons and make the world a safer place.My first inkling that I had a problem came earlier this year while commuting home to Oakland from San Jose. Traffic was heavy, so as usual, I pulled out my iPhone and cranked up YouTube.

Well, I just couldn’t help myself. I pulled up the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video and watched it. Over and over again. You know, the one where the British baby chomps down on his brother’s finger, causing his older sibling to howl in his best Queen’s English:

“Ouuuuch! Charlie! That really hurt Charlie.”

Oh, those Brits. It’s sidesplittingly hilarious. I could watch that lovable, bald -headed rapscallion chew on his brother’s digit all day. No wonder the 56-second clip has been viewed 129,535,963 times since being posted in May 2007, making it the second most viewed video in YouTube’s history.
Well, sure enough, after watching it about 200 times, I looked up from the iPhone and realized I was I pulling into Sacramento. D’oh!

Talk about egg on my face. Not only had I overshot Oakland by 80 miles, but I was in the state’s capital after dark, surrounded by people who seemed oddly serene but only wanted to talk about old trains.

A few months later, we left for a family trip to Lake Tahoe. We piled into the car and headed up I-80. After about 30 minutes or so, we pulled out the portable DVD player and put it on the dashboard. I pulled out the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended Edition) and popped the first disc into the DVD player and put the car on cruise control.

I tell you, I’ve watched the whole trilogy about seven dozen times now, and I just get lost in it every time. And sure enough, about 12 hours later, as Frodo (spoiler alert!) was boarding the ship for the Grey Havens and I was once again getting all choked up (It’s such a weeper!), I looked up and saw a sign that said, “Welcome to Dodge City, Ks.”

What the…! Boy, was I embarrassed. Instead of enjoying a nice weekend hiking around Lake Tahoe, we spent three days eating fried baloney sandwiches while staring at creepy, life-size figurines of Calamity Jane and Wyatt Earp at the Gunfighters Wax Museum.

The latest mishap came this summer en route to Yosemite. After passing through Pleasanton, I once again hit the cruise control (which never seems to lead to any good) and plugged in the Xbox 360. My wife popped in Guitar Hero: Metallica, and we grabbed our guitar controllers.

Well, one moment we’re wailing away down Hwy 120, and the next thing I know, we’re in Albuquerque shopping for turquoise jewelry.

Fortunately, no one was hurt through all my little escapades. You’ll be happy to know I’ve disabled the cruise control, which I hope will cut down some of my worst abuses. I’ve also opted not to install the high-definition plasma screen in the car, nor the cable television, nor the high-speed Internet.

I’d like to say it’s because I’ve reformed my distracted ways. But really, it’s just because Comcast couldn’t find a cable long enough to make it practical.

When he starts his new job on Monday moving and tracking supplies throughout Stanford University’s medical school, hospitals and clinics, the 25-year-old San Jose resident will be
the first of the three Pink Slip 2.0 participants followed by the Mercury News the past year to have escaped the jaws of joblessness.

And all it took, besides those never-ending days, was two reams of resume paper, lots of cold-calling, numerous dead-ends, and way too many sleepless nights.

“”I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Rowberry said Tuesday. “”After nine-and-a-half months of looking, I’m a little dazed. It’s like, is this really happening?”

When he starts his $17-an-hour swing shift, Rowberry leaves behind millions of fellow jobless Americans, many of them considered “”long-term unemployed” after being out of work
for more than six months. He also leaves behind software-test engineer Roopa Govindarajan and bookkeeper Elise Sandusky, the other two still-jobless participants in the newspaper’s series.

“”That’s awesome,” said Sandusky, when told about Rowberry’s news. “”Hopefully it’s a sign that things are turning for all three of us.”

Best of all, Rowberry’s getting a raise - he made about $13-an-hour in his former position.

Rowberry’s good fortune comes after months of wandering the same wilderness that his fellow pink-slippers have endured. Sandusky has sent out more than 2,000 resumes, most of them
online, without landing anything. Govindarajan, laid-off in January as a software test engineer, has been similarly frustrated by the bleak job market, although she said Tuesday that she has an interview scheduled for later this week. She’s hoping Rowberry’s good fortune
will rub off on her.

“”I’m so happy for Kris,” she said. “”This is a little ray of hope in a gloomy atmosphere. The fact that he’s found a job helps me become a little more hopeful.”

As part of the Pink Slip 2.0 series in print and online, we’ll check in with Rowberry once he’s settled in at his new job. And we’ll continue to follow Govindarajan and Sandusky in their job hunts for the rest of the year.

Rowberry said he’ll be working Monday through Friday out of Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital as part of the so-called “”patient equipment management systems” team,
which moves, cleans and inventories equipment around the campus.

Pam Miller-Smith, the call-center manager at Stanford University Medical Center who interviewed and lobbied for Rowberry, said that pending a background check, the new employee is set to go.

“”Kris first interviewed with me for more of a behind-the-scenes position, but he had such a great personality I didn’t want him locked up in the call center,” said Miller-Smith. “”We
thought he should be on the front lines, dealing with nurses and patients. He’ll be a great addition to our team.”

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, posted her slides online.

Re the job front, no major updates or job offers yet!!

I am still keeping my ears and eyes open, but no major opportunities identified yet!!

I started my Open UNiversity Classes at Santa Clara Univ 2 weeks back. This course is technically very challenging and I am boggled down with weekly assignments etc.

The pace is so hectic, but i like it so far !!!

Regarding family front, 4 times a week, i bike to my son’s school which is 4 miles up and down to drop his lunch. I also spent some quality time with him and it is just so refreshing to me not to mention the amount of exercise my body is now getting which was a long overdue.

I immediatley follow my bike ride with a 1 mile walk to pick up my little one from his pre school.

2 Advantages :
1. I am getting tons of exercise and I am very happy about it. 2. I am going green and oh boy, that feels awesome

That’s it from me!!

And this just in from Kris….

As the job search continues for me, as well as countless others in the Valley, I decided to take a chance and jump over the hill to the “Access2Employment” Job Fair held at Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz. (Cocoanut Grove is the Grand Ballroom above the arcade at the Boardwalk) As a self proclaimed amusement park nerd, historical places like it are always a thrill to visit.

Unfortunately, the rest of the historical ‘walk was closed, so no rides for me today (I purchased a season pass before I was laid off) but there’s always the wharf for some fresh seafood lunch.

Fast forward a few hours of me sitting in the car listening to some satellite radio (the best investment I ever made in my car) and the doors finally swung open to the fair.

It was an interesting dichotomy of people at this event. Of course, being held in Santa Cruz, I shouldn’t have been so surprised, right? Dress ranged from the high end (Myself in full suit, tie and polished shoes) to the downright shocking (for a job fair) of cutoff jeans and ripped t-shirts.

What I didn’t find inside was a massive range of options or opportunities.

I did manage to touch base with the Santa Cruz Seaside Company (“Only casual part-time available right now”) It helped the conversation to throw out a few names that anyone with the company would know – in my case, it turns out I actually know quite a few people who worked for or are currently working for them.

In fact, most “employers” weren’t even advertising open positions. Rather, they were advertising the “possibility” of positions to come in the “near future.”

“What?!?”

Maybe I’m old fashioned…but if you’re at a “job fair” you should be exhibiting to hire, not to just be seen.

Also at the event was free resume “critiques.” About a minute in, I came to the following conclusion:

No one has the answer to get you a job. No one.

Every “expert” has a different idea, a different take – just like the people you’re trying to score interviews with. In my case, I took the advice of about 5 people, (three experts, one family member and a professor) combined them together and, “presto!” there’s my resume.

The “critique” shredded mine to pieces.

But, I took it in stride. There may be some valid points in there and they’ll certainly be factored in with all the others. Eventually, I’m hoping to have a bulletproof resume. As soon as you touch it, potential employers will simply extend an offer of employment, right then and there!

But not to end on a sour note –

The S. C. Seaside Company has by far, the best business cards in the industry – bar none. Hopefully I’ll finally get some of my own soon, too.
Kris R.

— On Tue, 10/6/09, May, Pat wrote:

> From: May, Pat
> Subject: greetings
> To: “Kristopher Rowberry” , “Elise Sandusky”
> , “Roopa Iyer”
> Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 9:42 AM
>
> Message
>
>
>
> Hi there,
> I’m
> just checking in to see how the job hunts are going? Any
> bites, nibbles? Let me
> know if there’s any new developments for each of you,
> and if so we can follow up
> on the phone.
> Take
> care,
> Pat
>

In a column running this weekend about Google Wave, I mention that I read a lot of posts and watched a lot of videos to get started. I thought I’d post them here for others who are just diving in. And if you have other links to good “how-tos” or perspectives on why GW is great or not, post them in the comments below.

Here are my links:

Official Google Wave blog gives the backstory.

Lifehacker had easily the best overview and guide to getting started.

Mashable also has a good guide.

The L.A. Times got a sneak peak and took some hand holding to get started.

Businessweek asked if GW will replace email.

Tim O’Reilly explains why GW really is awesome.

Scott Yates argues that Google Wave is not simple, and that’s the point.

Ulitzer was an unabashed GW fanboy.

TechCrunch says GW is the dawn of passive-aggressive communication.

New Scientist explores how GW could rewire our brains.

NPR said getting an invite to GW is the new “golden ticket.”

Farhood Manjoo of Slate also found it overcomplicated.

Robert Scoble says GW has crashed on the beach overhype.

And Scoble says the email metaphor is unproductive.

Can the Wave be used to diagnose patients?

Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist; Reid Hoffman, Chairman and co-Founder of LinkedIn; Roger McNamee, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners; Chris Beard, Chief Innovation Officer of Mozilla; Krishna Bharat, Principal Scientist and creator of Google News; and Sue Gardner, Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation, among many others.

Tim Leberecht, frog design’s vice president of marketing and communications, sets the stage with this post today:

“The Think In will explore five main topics that are significant to NPR’s ecosystem and its future: social media and connection to the audience, the organization’s national network of more than 800 stations, the potential of its open API, expansion of platforms, and its diversified revenue model. After an NPR overview and an opening session, participants will break out into small groups to develop concepts that NPR can incorporate into its organizational roadmap.”

It’s a relatively small group of only about 60 or so folks. But the good news is that you can follow along either through this Web site set up by NPR for the event or on Twitter by following #nprthink.

And if you have any thoughts of your own about the future of NPR, please share them below and I’ll bring them along with me to the event.

On Tuesday, the central legal case that sought to assign blame for that era’s excess fizzled to an end. A handful of large banks put their second-most recent scandal behind them when they agreed to settle claims of rigging the IPO market for $586 million. They’re still trying to put last year’s little financial hiccup behind them.

That nine-figure sum only sounds like a lot of money because you probably work for a living. (That is, if you’re among the fortune 90 percent in Silicon Valley.) In fact, the legal firm that brought the class action suit against 309 start-ups and 55 underwriters at one point were asking for $12.5 billion.

The settlement provides a muddled, un-satisfying conclusion to an era. We wanted clarity. We wanted answers. We wanted someone to blame. Instead, we have fog. And the people we wanted to tar as the bad guys, turns out they were just scapegoats. Maybe. Or maybe not. Either way, take hear that the unfairly accused seem to have bounced back.

Just look at Meg Whitman. At one point, the former eBay CEO was held up for public scorn when a Congressional committee tagged her for pocketing $1.7 million from a practice known as “spinning” IPOs. Now she’s running for governor. (Though that’s going about as well as her acquisition of Skype).

And remember Frank Quattrone? At one point, we thought the Credit Suisse First Boston banker was our signature scoundrel who would help define that era. But after two attempts to prosecute him for allegedly interfering in a federal investigation of his firm, he agreed to a “deferred prosecution agreement” that kept him out of jail. He’s since started a new firm called Qatalyst Partners that’s supposedly advising Brocade on its plans to sell itself.

And then there was JDS Uniphase, the fiber-optics firm that spent billions of dollars buying rivals only to see their empire collapse in 2001, resulting in more than 20,000 layoffs and then-record write downs of the acquisitions. The company faced a massive class action lawsuit from the state of Connecticut that it fought in court and won. Despite not turning a profit in years, the company continues to limp along.

In the end, the only people who spent time in the pokey were the group of lawyers who filed the IPO lawsuit.  Turns out, several of the partners of the firm Milberg Weiss were guilty of taking kickbacks in unrelated cases. Go ahead. Laugh. Appreciate the irony.

We can’t say that no blame was assigned. Back in 2003, 10 investment banks agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

And, of course, Silicon Valley continues to suffer for its sins. That era’s excess created a windfall that led to a glut of venture capital funds that can’t be sustained and now face a slow, painful consolidation.

But otherwise, lessons elude us. It was an era, in the end, that lacked clearly defined villains.

It was just one of those things. Human nature and all. What are you going to do?

Write the epilogue. And move on to the next book.

This happened exactly one month before I moved to Silicon Valley from North Carolina. As I recall, the movie got lukewarm reviews, and I never saw it. Or even really thought about it, for that matter.

But recently, it’s popped up on my radar in rather random fashion. One of the keywords I track on Twitter is “silicon valley.” And at least a couple times each day, someone makes a reference to the movie:

I can’t really detect any particular reason or event that seems to have put it in this mini-spotlight. What struck me is that often the tweet-reviews are strongly positive. So I’ve decided I need to go back and watch this thing to see what all the fuss is about.

So, I’ve put it on my Netflix list and will view it some time in the next couple of weeks and post my thoughts here. Apparently, I could watch it on YouTube, where someone has posted it in 10-minute chunks. But that seems way too annoying.

But in the meantime, if you’ve seen it, post your recollections of it below. Did you love it? Hate it? Or have you completely forgotten it?