BijanBlog

Wallstrip Blackberry Rematch

When I agreed to defend my Wallstrip Blackberry Champion title against Fred and other challengers I had no idea what the Wallstrip folks had in mind except that I was going to be using an iPhone and everyone else was on a Blackberry.

When Howard and Roger backed out of the rematch I had a hunch that this was going to be different :)
At the end of the day it was down to cheese puffs and 50 Cent.

Thanks to everyone at Wallstrip for letting me in on the fun again

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Wallstrip Blackberry Contest

Henry Blodget and Fred have a sneak peak of the Wallstrip Blackberry Rematch that took place this morning in NYC. This originally started off with Fred challenging me to a rematch of the first Blackberry dork-a-thon.

But I had no idea about the surprises that our friends at Wallstrip had in mind for us.

It was a lot of fun and I'm nervously waiting to see the actual show.

It wasn't pretty...

Photos from the Spark family summer party

We had a really fun Spark Capital summer party earlier this week at my partner Paul's house. It was nice get everyone out of a work environment and have a good time with family members.

Perfect weather, great food and plenty of games (basketball, pingpong, pool water volleyball). Few photos from the day.

Letterboxing

Yesterday we went Letterboxing with our friends, Luke & Reiko and their kids. We had never done this before but it was a ton of fun. (photos from the day here)

It turns out Letterboxing is a worldwide activity. Here's a quick description from wikipedia:

"Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook and a rubber stamp. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook — as proof of having found the box. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count"."

We love going on family hikes so this was a new type of hike. And the kids thought it was super cool. I'm sure we'll do it again. If you want to give it a try then goto Atlas Quest to learn how to get started.

Congrats Tim & the Zing team!

I had a strong hunch even before I saw Tim's first product that his new company Zing was going to be something special. Tim is a star and he assembled an extraordinary team with many of the technical rock stars we worked with at Moxi, WebTV Networks and Apple.

After I saw their 2nd product I knew some big company was going to need Tim's expertise & vision.

So I'm really not surprised that Dell wanted Zing all to themselves.

Congrats Tim. I'm very happy for you and the entire Zing family.

Roomate Reunion

  Little ones take over the hot tub 
  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

Lauren and I both went to BC. Same year too.

This weekend we met up with Lauren's roommates (katie, beth and gina), their husbands and all 11 of our respective kids

Special thanks to Gina and John who hosted this 3 day event at their house. The only thing better than the food and weather was the company. The kids/parents relay race in the pool was a riot and so was the family water polo match. Weekend was a blast.

I didn't take as many photos as I should have from the weekend. Katie did a better job and I hope she sends me hers soon :)

This made my day

  theplatform 
  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

The founding team at thePlatform sent me this awesome photo last week. It made my day.

I sent it out today to have it framed for my office.

And exactly 1 year ago today, Comcast acquired thePlatform. They were our first investment at Spark and it was a fun ride.

It's wonderful to see them continue their success with cool new products. They  are powering the high profile upcoming NBC/News Corp video service in addition to some other great wins.

I'm so happy for all of them. And this photo does a great job showing that they can kick butt in the marketplace and have a fun sense of humor along the way.

Happy Anniversary !

Weekend in NH

  Below the bridge 
  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

Every summer we go away with our friends, the Jorgensen family, for an extended weekend. Luke and Reiko are our friends from undergrad. Their 3 kids are adorable and about the same ages as our three kiddies. It's pretty cool to see our kids friendships develop with each other.

This weekend we went up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire (ok, green can be as beautiful as brown). The White Mountains are just a few hours north of Boston. Beautiful country.

Friday we explored and had lunch at Otter Rock along the Kangamangus. Saturday we went to Story Land. And today we went hiking at the Lost River Gorge. That was my favorite. Lots of great caves and cool waterfalls. This cave was the hardest and most fun.

Awesome fathers day weekend. Great getaway, great friends, great memories.

500 reasons to say thank you

There are a few web services that come a long every few months that grab you, take hold and won't let go.

One of those very web services is MyBlogLog. They are cool guys and I have enjoyed getting to know them since before the Yahoo acquisition. When I'm in SF and everyone's schedule lines up we have been grabbing coffee and keeping in touch. They are in my social network on Twitter as well so I always know when Eric is playing games, that Scott is now in Europe and Todd is hard at work.

I've had the MyBlogLog reader roll on the right sidebar since I met them. I actually added it the day I turned my blog from a family only place into a work/family/& 'everything else in between' blog. And it's been one of the best ways I've gotten to know folks that visit my blog. I met Howard through MyBlogLog and consider him a friend (we had great sushi yesterday in NYC).

Today I logged into my profile on MyBlogLog and was thrilled to see that now there are over 500 kind souls that have joined my blog's community. All I can say is thanks.

Wii are family

We have had Xbox and PS2 for years.

Those machines only get a workout when my nephews come over. Usually Kevin destroys me or I get a break once in awhile and take him at Madden 200x.

Then we picked up the Nintendo Wii. And it's really so much fun. Last night the whole family played Wii sports (except for little James who is only 15 mos old). This thing is a really a riot. Watching Ellie play Wii Boxing is a hoot. Sophia was giving Lauren tennis tips. I wish I had taken some video. Next time.

Howard, Lindsay and howard's son are hilarious in this Wallstrip show covering Nintendo and the Wii. So funny.

 

Bowling

  me bowling 
  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

On Monday night this week I met up with one of my best friends Rob A.

We usually only get to hang out these days with our families and kids together. But this time we were like two old dorks just hanging out. Just like in undergrad (he was my roommate for 3 years).

We went bowling at a local place called Lucky Strike. Right next door to Fenway Park.

It was a lot of fun. Rob kicked my ass but I did get a few strikes and a few spares over three games. A spare is very satisfying. It sort of feels like making a 10 foot putt for par.

He took this photo of me with his cameraphone (when are they going to put a camera in the Blackberry).

Christmas Caroling

  Ellie and her buddies 
  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

We had a little party tonight at our house with Sophia & Ellie's friends and a few parents. I counted 10 kids.

They practiced a few tunes at our house than went caroling around the neighborhood.

Here's the video.

Holiday Party

  Originally uploaded by bsabet.

We had our office holiday party tonight. Dennis & Christine hosted at their beautiful home.

It was a lot of fun. The yankee swap got a little rowdy towards the end. Dennis picked up some nice ladies lotion and Todd ended up with a scrapbook kit :-)

Todd also found some great gag gifts for each of us which was a riot.

Few photos from the party here.

Santo's blog

My partner Santo just started blogging.

Before he started his blog he did a bunch of work evaluating the various blogging platforms and tools. I'm glad that he kicked off his blog with his take on the choices out there.

Take a look here.

10 years later

I'm in San Francisco this weekend. Steve and Bruce were kind to organize and host a WebTV 10 year reunion bash. The party was last night and it was so much fun to see everyone and be back in the city by the bay. Great turn out and nice remember that over 3 million people purchased webtv and still being supported by Microsoft. It was a great ride.

Red Sox

On Monday, reiko, luke, lauren and I saw the Red Sox at Fenway. We had great seats between home and first base. Great summer night and Red Sox won in the bottom of the 9th on a 3rd home-run by David Ortiz. It was pretty exciting. Pictures on our photo gallery here.

Two days in Chicago

I was in Chicago on Thursday and Friday this week for work. While I was there I was lucky enough to see our friend Ana and her adorable kids. It was short but sweet.

Thanks Stu and Daniela

Stu and Daniela gave James this great shirt. I love it.

BC 15 year reunion

This weekend was our BC 15th year reunion.

Rick and Katie and their girls couldn't make the event but they stopped by Saturday morning and it was great seeing them.

Ana and Jim came by before the evening festivities. It was so nice catching up with them and Sophia and Ellie couldn't get enough of Jim.

The actual reunion itself was really fun. We saw a bunch of friends we hadn't seen in a long long time.

Few photos from the weekend on our gallery here.

19 years later

I've known my friend Rob for nearly 20 years. Today Rob and Sue came over with their daughters Kaleigh and Meagan. Lauren took this picture of the two of us taking care of our little ones.

I think a lot has happened to us in the past few decades :-)

Great books solved

Yesterday, I posted a message wondering who gave us some great, really special books for the kids. We figured it out today. Thanks Lee & Jackie. As I mentioned earlier, the girls love them and they are going to ask Grandma and Grandpa to read them in different languages as well!

I should have known it was from you guys!

Congrats

My dear friends, Ollie & Jennifer, had a baby girl this morning. Congrats guys. She is beautiful and we can't wait to meet her in person!