Keith's Amusing Musings » Event

Yo Gabba Gabba in Seattle

Keith — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:47:54 +0000

Team Smith partied with DJ Lance Rock and the entire Yo Gabba Gabba gang at the Seattle Paramount Theater back on November 12th. We all had a blast with quality fun and great music enjoyable by all ages.

I was impressed with how well produced and coordinated everything seemed and the variety of topics and audience participation activities. Accordingly, I highly recommend Yo Gabba Gabba Live to any family lucky enough to have the YGG come to town for a visit.

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Owen Year One: His first year in pictures

Keith — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:50:26 +0000

Owen turned a year old today. Here is a Deep Zoom photo montage capturing his life from the moment he entered the world through his birthday party on Saturday. I used his full body shot from the Owen at 52 weeks post for the source image.

Use your mouse wheel or click the images in the navigation pane to explore the mosaic of 1,403 unique photos.

Click the picture below to install Microsoft Silverlight.

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Owen Does the Monster Mash

Keith — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:17:02 +0000

Happy Halloween! To commemorate Owen’s first Halloween, his uncle Damien created this hilarious, Monster Mash video starring Team Smith.

Owen is in his 31st week and today is October 31st. Coincidence? Hmm…

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Great Moments in Alpha History: May 1995 Northeastern University Stepshow Competition

Keith — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:31:32 +0000

You are about to witness something special. Something rare, magnificent and hilarious. This is how I chose to give thanks on this special day. Alas, I am getting ahead of myself and need to set the stage.

As you may recall, I’m an Alpha man. My two line brothers and I pledged Rho Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. in spring 1995. (On an historical note, Rho Nu—which encompasses MIT, Harvard and Tufts—will celebrate its 20th anniversary next September.) I was digging through some old VHS tapes, from the brief period during my college days when I had a camcorder, and came across several gems. In addition to footage of family, I also had hours of tape from the Million Man March and a tape of my first stepshow…the topic of this post.

Rho Nu inducts its new members in the spring. The tradition is the newest members join with the “older” chapter bros and their fellow counterparts from Sigma chapter—which covers the Boston side of the Charles River—to compete against other fraternities in the area in the annual Northeastern University Stepshow competition. At stake are trophies, a year’s worth of bragging rights and a hockey rink full of women who like a good stepshow and love to see young men work up a sweat.

Sidebar:
I suggest you take a moment to read the bottom of my Alpha turns 100 post which includes a brief summary of stepshows and their significance to Black Greek letter organizations.

To recap, after pledging during the long, bitter New England winter, a new member practices a couple more months with his fellow fraternity brothers to represent the fraternity at the competition and (hopefully) avoid completely humiliating himself in front of the Greater Boston community (which may include his future wife). It just so happens TB was the camerawoman for my first stepshow so there is a modest correlation between stepshows and long-lasting love, right?

Without further ado, I present a Keith’s Amusing Musings exclusive, 16-minute video of the Alpha step team from the May 1995 competition. We won first place, of course. So, go ahead and crank up the sound, sit back and feast your eyes on the “Peabo Bryson circa 1993” inspired suits, forceful rhythms and intricate formations only Alphas could pull off.

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Gearing up for the November election

Keith — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:00:00 +0000

I received my absentee ballot this weekend and have never been more excited to cast my vote. Regardless who is elected there will be a “first” in the next administration. But this has been a long, expensive, nasty election so, frankly, I cannot wait for it to be over. You already know where I stand and I refuse to waste electrons castigating or defending either candidate or his policies. We are beyond words and now it is time to act.

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MIX 08 is a Wrap

Keith — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:30:32 +0000

It has been an eventful and, by all accounts, successful week for Team Microsoft here in Las Vegas.

The UX Summit went more smoothly than the previous three—several participants commented my involvement helped considerably. MIX was an amazing experience for customers, partners, trade press, industry analysts and employees alike. We stepped up and delivered a compelling story that has resulted in some very favorable reporting on top tech news sites and blogs.

My team pulled off the Expression 2 MIX communications plan, which we have been working on since January with our internal PR team and our agency account executives at Waggener Edstrom. You would be amazed how much work goes into a press release, press kit, and an executive blog post (penned by yours truly). I am especially proud of that last item since Soma is a newly-minted Senior Vice President at Microsoft and he keeps a tight rein on what gets published on his blog.

The following list of articles include quotes attributed to me from a subset of press interviews and analyst briefings at MIX:

eWeek: Keith introduces Microsoft Expression 2, Expression Professional Subscription and Expression Community site
ComputerWorld: Microsoft-Novell patent agreement for Moonlight
ZDNet UK: Keith posits on scenarios and pitfalls of a more interactive Web
Technaute/La chronique de Nelson: Keith discusses Web designer/developer workflow (English translation)

All in all, I could not feel more pleased with the results of this week. It is onward and upward from here as we head into fiscal year 2009 planning, the MIX Essentials events happening around the world, Tech-Ed US and PDC this fall.Similar Posts

Playing to Wynn

Keith — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:13:26 +0000

I have a few minutes to check in before my next activity. I was up at 5 AM yesterday and didn’t turn in until 2 AM today. This is going to be a long week. The UX Summit went from 8 AM to 6:30 PM and we dined as a group in the private dining room of the upscale Daniel Boulud restaurant inside the Wynn hotel. There were 50 of us and, as co-host, I made the rounds throughout the evening and was in the last group to leave. The four-course dinner didn’t wrap up until 11 PM(!) but the evening still didn’t end.

A smaller group of us walked back to the Venetian and watched a colleague play roulette for about 30 minutes. We then went to the V Bar (also in the Venetian) and talked over drinks. I finally called it a night and headed to my room just after 1 AM to prepare for Day 2.

Day 1 of the Summit was great based on attendee participation and feedback. My presentation went smoothly and I successfully rolled out the marketing strategy for the duration of the fiscal year and ahead into FY2009. We started on time, ended on time and kept everyone engaged, which is an accomplishment for such a long day holed up in a hotel conference room.

Today I was up at 6 AM and we just wrapped up again at 6:30 PM. I am double-booked for dinner tonight with the Summit attendees dinner and an invitation-only event with key partners & press from Japan. (You may recall they love me over in Tokyo after Remix last fall…Keith-san Ichiban is back!)

Day 2 of the Summit was another long haul but it’s done and the event was a resounding success. Tomorrow is the big event, MIX, and I have a day/evening full of press briefings and press events following the 3-hour keynote. I’d better get some sleep. Perhaps after watching the presidential primary coverage while the results from Ohio and Texas are analyzed.Similar Posts

MIXing it up in Las Vegas

Keith — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:55:38 +0000

Wow, have things been busy!

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know it is that time of the year again. The 3rd annual Microsoft MIX conference kicks off this week (Wednesday) at the same location, the Venetian in Las Vegas. I arrived in Vegas just before 11 PM tonight in preparation for the User Experience (UX) Summit I am co-hosting on Monday and Tuesday prior to MIX. This week is going to be packed. As with previous events, there are some major announcements planned for MIX and lots to discuss with our fellow UX Summit attendees.

This is the fourth UX Summit which, twice a year, brings together roughly 60 Microsoft employees from around the world to plan strategy and tactics for advancing Microsoft’s platform and tools products for the Web, Windows and devices. Attendees include Microsoft Expression product managers, designer audience marketing managers and user experience evangelists for the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, India, Korea, Japan, China, etc. I have been involved with MIX since the inaugural show (ahh, the early days) and I have participated in every UX Summit (including the one last fall in Madrid). However, this is my first time officially co-hosting the event with one of my colleagues in the Developer & Platform Evangelism group. It is one of the new duties I have since completing a massive re-org within my parent organization which began before Thanksgiving and was officially rolled out in mid-January.

My friends and family always ask exactly what it is I do at Microsoft. It is now actually quite simple to articulate: I lead the team of product managers for Microsoft’s designer audience and tools. Our responsibilities include inbound/outbound marketing of Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of tools for professional designers, and designer audience marketing. If you are a designer or developer using or considering Microsoft products to create Web or Windows applications, chances are high you have already come across our work. If not, click here or here or here to visit the marketing and community sites created and managed by my team. We have been very busy, indeed.

I will capture this week’s activities on my blog as time permits. I need to get some sleep since we’ll be going from 7 AM to ~11 PM tomorrow. I won’t be getting much sleep between now and when I return to Seattle on Friday. The good news is TB is coming down on Wednesday night so we can celebrate her birthday together in Vegas.Similar Posts

Barack for President: Caucusing in Washington

Keith — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:35:42 +0000

I am a precinct delegate for Barack Obama! I was one of two Obama delegates assigned/elected during our caucus this afternoon. TB was elected as an alternate. Clinton received the remaining two delegates from our four-delegate precinct. I’ll get to that after the break.

TB and I caucused with fellow precinct members today here in Washington. Democratic delegates in our state are decided by caucus, not the presidential primary (which happens February 19th). Accordingly, in order to make our delegate preferences known, we had to participate in the first of 3 levels of statewide caucuses: the Precinct Caucus.

We reside in Kirkland and our neighborhood falls within a precinct assigned to Rose Hill Elementary School. That was great for us since we live just a few blocks away. We arrived about 15 minutes before the official 1:30 PM kick-off. Washington is a blue state and this election has some high-profile democratic nominees with very motivated supporters. The entire parking lot and surrounding area was packed with cars. Midway down a side street a block down from the school, we located a spot suitable for the trusty 626. TB and I walked back to the school and became part of the vast human machine known as the democratic process. What ensued over the next two hours was an experiment in semi-controlled pandemonium and it felt great.

Our precinct had 24 in-person voters and one person who indicated their preference but had to leave prior to the actual caucusing. One random guy was handed the packet to lead the delegate selection process for our precinct but he seemed frazzled and unconfident. After the first round of voting when everyone had the chance to indicate their preference, the tally was 12 for Obama, 8 for Clinton, 2 for Edwards and 3 Undecided. The 24 of us then engaged in a lively, cordial dialogue regarding the three candidates Obama, Clinton and Edwards. After a few one-minute speeches, we did another round of voting and the result was 13 for Obama, 9 for Clinton, 2 for Edwards and 1 Undecided—Obama and Clinton split two of the Undecided votes.

Those Edwards supporters believed wholeheartedly they were doing a great service keeping their candidate in play. I find such behavior destructive and distracting. When the candidate you support quits, for whatever reason, you should throw in the towel too. Why support a runner if he is no longer running? If it is about showing support for his ideals and platform, why not cast your vote for Bill Clinton, JFK or FDR? They are about as likely to be elected President in 2008 as Edwards.

The bad news for the Edwards faithful was we only had 4 delegates allocated to our precinct and the split was 2.08 for Obama, 1.44 for Clinton and 0.32 for Edwards. Of course, you can only assign whole delegates to a candidate so the process resulted in 2 for Obama, 2 for Clinton and 0 for Edwards. Did that persuade them to change their vote? No.

We Obama supporters were hoping to sway those two Edwards supporters and the Undecided voter but they wouldn’t budge. We needed all 3 to shift the delegate allocation to 3 Obama, 1 Clinton. I even made a speech regarding the important role charisma, vision and oratorical skills played in inspiring and mobilizing our nation throughout its history from the Declaration of Independence, Emancipation, Women’s Suffrage, World War II, Civil Rights and even the War on Terror. None of the leaders during those times brought about change based on their experience. Many had no experience to rely on to tackle the challenges they faced. What they had was the audacity of hope and a desire for change.

Of course my actual speech was not as eloquent or constructed as what I just wrote but it was effective enough to get me elected as one of Obama’s delegates. TB is my alternate. I also just learned one of my best friends is also an Obama delegate for his precinct. We will be attending the Legislative District Caucuses on Saturday, April 5, to take things to the next level.Similar Posts

Super Bowl XLII: Giants 17, Patriots 14…19 and Oh No!

Keith — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:01:16 +0000

It pains me immensely to admit Eli Manning’s clutch quarterbacking during the New York Giants’ game-winning drive of Super Bowl XLII easily eclipses Tony Romo’s clutch play against the Detroit Lions in the regular season. However, I must admit I found it completely exhilarating and enthralling watching the 4^th quarter of what was supposed to be an historic NFL season turn historically tragic—if you’re a New England Patriots fan, that is. The other 3/4^ths of the game were terrible.

It’s sad that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick could be remembered more for this single loss than their impressive assortment of wins and accolades.

Two things dawned on me at game’s end:

The ’72 Miami Dolphins were somewhere engaged in jubilant celebration, and
Randy Moss would one day look back at the game tape and feel like a complete jackass for his premature celebration following what was supposed to be the clenching, go-ahead touchdown, culminating in his first championship ring. Oops!

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