CV of Justin Lang

A HUGE amount of exciting things have happened in the past 6 months.  In Mid September, our daughter Evelyn was born, a few short weeks later, I announced my departure from PLSN. Then, as the new year rang in, I announced my new position at Director of Marketing for A.C.T Lighting.  Since then, it has been whirlwind.  New and exciting things happening on all fronts and challenges never experienced before.  It is hard to catch your breath sometime with everything that is going on.  I am kind of surprised I had a moment to log in and blog for a hot moment!

I am thrilled about what the new year has brought along with the advancements Evelyn is making.  I’ll get better at sharing her progress along with some of the other things I am working on outside of work. Time to finish Sunday strong and to prepare for another busy, yet fun week of work.

During the holidays, I purchased the Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. i had my doubts about the book. Why read it, I thought to myself.  I had a pretty good understanding of Steve Jobs history. I have always had a fascination with the guy and followed his thoughts and what other people said about it him. So what was the point. The book could not have been more eye opening.

Throughout the book, Isaacson made it clear that while it is all about Jobs, Jobs had no say in the content of the book. This was a bit surprising to me as Jobs has always wanted to be in control and lead a private life. The biography is literately putting Jobs life and history out there.

While Isaacson was mindful not to take sides and trash or bash anyone or Jobs, he artfully words the life and rise to power of Jobs. Starting with the beginning of his life being an adapted child, raised by a loving family and growing into the man everyone became obsessed and scared of.

I have always known that Jobs was a tough nut. By the way he closely guarded his personal life, fought tooth and nail for perfection in his work and of his employes. Despite his roughness towards the world, when thinking and analyzing his method of leadership, it makes sense. While brutally honest, he demanded the best from his staff by embracing or rejecting their ideas. Those rejected went back and made it stronger and more towards Job’s vision. Rather than hand holding them, he forced them to think out side of the box and make something great.

It is a shame that this bluntness followed him in his personal life with his family and children… to a point. The book did show a softer and more understanding personal side of Jobs. That was only in his later years when dealing with his cancer and illnesses.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and had a hard time putting it down. I enjoyed the look into his personal life as all we ever really saw was the brash and aggressive work side of Jobs. I recommend the book to anyone that has an interest not just in Steve Jobs, but the brands he created and developed, Apple, Next and Pixar. It’s an artful walk through the development of those companies and how a man so eager to achieve perfection made companies that will stand on their own well past him.

That’s right, Renee got me exactly what I wanted this year for Christmas, the Dodocase for OUR iPad! ;)  I love it, I really do!  It is everything I was hoping for in the case. So  simple, so elegant. It really reminds me of a moleskine case. I wrote about it on my technology blog, iSquint.net.  Take a look, I love it!

While on vacation over the fourth, my genius brother Jason decided it would be a great idea to pick up a Coors Lite Home Draft to consume.  Of course we had plenty of other beers on hand, but we just HAD to try the 1.5 gallon Home Draft.

Let me tell you, do not waste your time.  First, I have never been a big fan of Coors Lite and draft beer.  So I guess I was predisposed not to like it.  Was it worth it….hmmm, maybe, that is if you like foam.  It was great at giving you a bunch of foam when you poured and some beer. It did however cut down on empty cans and bottles, but it also cut down our 10 cent deposit on those the next day.  Catch 22 I guess.

If you like Coors Lite and want a portable party, the Home Draft might be just right for you.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it; and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.” A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

These are not my words, but they do express how I feel.  Take them as you may, but understand that my new look on life is not to leave a hole in the fence.

Photo By: William Couch

I can not believe it, people are actually calling the snow storm that the Eastern Seaboard had this past weekend a “Snowpocalypse“.  In this age of constant connections, social media and trend setting, is it really required of us to “create” a new word to describe something when the there is already a simple enough phrase to describe it? Why not call what happened what it really was, a snow storm.  It is that simple!

Of course it is the most snow that this area has seen in quite sometime, but honestly, does 21″ of snow require a name of Snowpocalypse?  It is just another way of showing that NOVA and the DC Metro area over react to any kind of foul weather. Want another expample?  On friday night, even before the snow storm began, A bunch of area school systems closed for Monday & Tuesday.  Yes, I do understand that safety should be the primary concern and roads may not be safe, but how can any one predict what those conditions will be like four days before hand?

Conclusion: Grow up DC, snow is nothing new and is easy to deal with when you react accordingly!

One day a few years ago I was watching food channel with Renee.  Why, I have no idea, BUT, some good did come out of it.  Who ever was on, I don’t remember who, came up with a neat idea for mini burgers for foot balls games.  Of course hear burgers i perked up but to late to get the recipe.  So I made one up!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground meat
• 1 tube of crescent rolls
• your favorite cheese n burgers

How hard can it be right?!

Prepare the meat for grilling like you normally do for burgers.  I use Worcestershire sauce and some sea salt and mix it into the raw meat and then make the paddies.  I normally get about 16 small paddies out of 1 pound of meat.

Next, grill the meat up like you normally would on the grill or frying pan.  Now you don’t need to cook them ALL the way through, may be still a little red inside even if you like them well done.

Once done on the grill, let the burgers rest and relax, perfect time for a new beer! After they are cooled down some, roll out the crescent roll dough flat and cut it up into 16 parts even.  May seem a little small, but no worries!

After that, grab one of the burgers, a piece of cheese cut to size of the mini burger, take one square of the crescent roll and wrapp it up!

I tent to wrap the entire mini burger so none of the cheese leaks out.  You may need to stretch the crescent roll dough some, if it breaks, just squeeze that part back together!

Once all the burgers are wrapped up, put them on to a greased cookie sheet and cook like the crescent roll directions say.

Little time consuming as we have to cook twice, but OH SO WORTH IT.  Make a bunch, through the left over into the fridge, they re-heat nicely in the microwave.  I tend to snack on them cold, they are just as great!

On this day of our national voting day and our “God Given” right, have you made it to your polling place?  This is so important that it can not be summerized in just one post and under 500 words so I won’t even try.  Just know that things are not working right now.  Can we as American’s afford 4 more years of the same?

I didn’t think so.

So regardless of your party offiliation or membership, get out there and exersise your right and show the world what makes the United States a wonderful place.

You are looking at 2,588 lego bricks that make up one the of the most perfect lego designs EVER!

Gizmodo had a contest to come up with a new case for a mac that has to be made out of lego bricks.  And here we have the winner.  The “designer” used the lego Digital Designer 2.0  to build this for the MacMod Challenge.

The mac features two computers.  One is a core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz and a Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66Ghz.

What is a little diappointing is that when you click through, you’ll see some more images of the case and setup.  On the exterior Apple logo hangs a little Lego Steve Jobs.  The sad part is that Steve is not included! :(  Click the image or here to read more about the lego case mod.

Why do I loves this so much????  It combinds two of my favorite things in the world.. Apple and Lego’s!!!  Now how can we fit Sex and Renee into this picture?!?!?

I have gotten hooked on the iPhone games like a $2 hooker on crack! I have always read that people are hoping that the iPhone will be the next protable gaming device like the PSP.

Well, after playing Cro-Mag Rally, I can really see that happening.  The games is AWESOME!!!!  While I have only master the desert stage on easy, I am still pretty proud of myself!

The neat part about this game is that in order to stear, you tuen the entire iPhone or iPod Touch like you would a stearing wheel.  If you have $2.00 buck, SHILL IT OUT!!!  The games is a great way to waste some time and actually have fun doing it!