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Seattle. America’s Worst Tailgate City

Otis Kimzey — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:20:18 +0000

A report from Tailgating.com came out listing all of the NFL cities and how good they are for tailgating. As no surprise to me Seattle was at the bottom of the list. Of course this does not take into account the Lake Washington tailgating that can be done for Husky games, that would definitely put us higher on the list, if only for how unique and scenic it is.

The raitings were based on going to Qwest, how late the parking lots open, how little parking and room there is for tailgating, and just the overall crowd experience. I will agree with this rating as I have been to many other places, including Corvallis, where the tailgating is much, much better, with far fewer and less rabid fans.

Tailgating Rankings

[Seattle P.I. Story]

T-shirt business?

Otis Kimzey — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:59:16 +0000

Does anyone have thoughts on the industry? Any money to be made for the ammount of work? Buy in bulk or create online? Anything else?

My friend Lach sells (?) a few shirts through Spreadshirt while I’m on the subject. I’m a big fan of the the Forks shirt he’s selling.

My name googles well.

Otis Kimzey — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:31:03 +0000

I wrote a post on May 9th titled "Your Nothing Unless Your Name Googles Well." It was a quote from an article written in the WSJ and it helped me get more motivated to keeping this site updated.

Not that this site is anything special but I did receive an email from an old friend who doesn’t appear to be using Facebook with this quote in it

"…had to do a google search for you. You are very easy to find!"

I guess that helps show two things. My name "googles well" and this site has helped make me easy to find when someone is looking for me.

Social Network Overload?

Otis Kimzey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:25:15 +0000

I was anti social network for a very long time. I finally gave into Facebook a few months ago after realizing they have their stuff together and it looks like they’re going to be around for a long time. They seem to have a plan for connecting people and information and not just throwing up a bunch of crap (ie MySpace, which I think will fade, but it will obviously take awhile to fade as it is HUGE). Today, as I was looking around for something to write about on this site, I kept coming across social networking news. First on Tech Crunch this morning we find out that both Google and Yahoo are working on creating their own social networks. Now it looks like Facebook is quickly approaching an IPO, proving that in fact, they are not for sale. Then Ning secures a HUGE round of funding (Raised $44 million at a $170 million pre-money valuation). Next, SideStep acquires TripUp, which is a travel social network…and to close off the evening Bay Partners launches a Facebook Apps Fund.

I’m not just trying to link to a bunch of sites, but that is five stories on social networks, four of which seem to be very significant (TripUp doesn’t seem like a major move). How are all of these social networks going to function? I think Facebook is great, but there is no way that I will get onto MySpace or any other social network unless it reaches a very large critical mass of my friends or colleagues. Ning, which provides a very easy to use tool for creating your own mini social networks is a great tool (I’ve used it and love it), but how much can a bunch of social networks of only a few hundred people be worth? $214M? I have a hard time believing that they really can bring in that much revenue on what they currently have (although with $44M I’m sure there will be some changes coming down the pipe). Yahoo, I don’t think they’ll be able to provide anything to draw a large group of new users and they’re current users only use them for email, finance, and fantasy sports.

Google could potentially launch a very appealing social network for businesses. By tying together, gmail, gchat, spreadsheets, docs and their new powerpoint killer, it seems they could provide an open network for conducting business across offices or even companies. Ping someone in the network through your hosted email in gmail and setup a live conference demo through gchat and the powerpoint killer program. It sounds very appealing to me and I hope they go down this road. I think it’s the only play left for social networks, because really, how many places do people like to write their favorite songs and activities.

Can all of these companies be worth this much money and become sustainable products? Competition is great, but I think it will come down to Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and if Google goes after the business crowd with their integrated online applications they could take alot of customers away from Facebook and LinkedIn. It will be a fun next 18 months.

[Sorry if I got carried away, but that was 4 big stories on the same subject in the same day]

Happy 4th of July

Otis Kimzey — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:30:05 +0000

I was able to catch two fireworks shows tonight. One over Elliot Bay and the other on Lake Union. One being put on by Ivar’s (a chowder house) the other by Washington Mutual. Any guesses on which one was better?

The Lake Union show put on by Washington Mutual was GREAT. I’ve lived in Seattle for almost 3 years now and this is the first time I have seen either of the local shows. It was great. Now, I can’t get to bed because Alki is a hot spot for people coming for the 4th and there are still fireworks as well as sirens going on around here.