Derek's Gathering Place

Nirvana v. Foo Fighters cc: @startabuzz @theclj

Me: Apropos of nothing.... Starting to agree with @startabuzz. Foo Fighters will go down in history as a better rock band than Nirvana.

Me: But Nirvana was still the better pop band. Buzz: Nirvana's place in history is set because they were the first* grunge band, and because of Kurt Cobain's sad end.

Buzz: startabuzz: @DerekMassey And I say FIRST because they were the first *commercially successful* grunge band. Had KC lived, their luster would've faded.

Agree in part, dissent in part. (But generally agree with the court's ruling.)

I give Nirvana more credit than being the first commercially successful grunge band. Like Green Day, they took bubblegum-pop-super-catchy melodies and stripped them down. We remember hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Longview" for the first time, because we really liked the riffs but they were uncharacteristically raw. I see both as pop bands, not necessarily rock or punk bands. The more I see and listen to Foo Fighters, I'm just blown away by Dave Grohl's passion. Giving your time or money to this band means to not get cheated. They don't mail anything in. Compare and contrast to some the Nirvana Unplugged sessions. As brilliant as they were, I got the feeling Kurt Cobain had other places he wanted to be. Foo is not easy listening - you're challenged a bit. But that's a good thing. I'll never forget where I was when I first heard "Teen Spirit," but I'm pretty sure I won't need to rely on memory for Foo Fighters magic. They'll be around - and getting better - for a while...

@startabuzz on dictating

Melissa, great point on the difficulty with dictating. I'm hoping this is a learned skill, because I'm not very good at it right now. I think I also agree that dictating for blog posts, Creative writing, or memos that contains a lot of substance could prove challenging. What this is helped me with this morning is getting e-mails out.

Why archived email folders exist #redsox cc: @chrismaddox

This email conversation took place on July 31, 2008 – the day Manny Ramirez was traded to the Dodgers.  Good times!  J

[Editor’s Note: Email addresses were redacted to protect the innocent. And the guilty.]

When Ortiz’s average drops another 30 points and his homer production drops another 15, just remember we had this discussion.

This will go down as one of the worst trades in history.  I hope I’m proving wrong, but am not very optimistic. 

That is the Fitzsimmons "26 championships" argument. Don't be that guy!

From: Massey, Ryan
To: Massey, Derek (TRG); rraleigh; Massey, Michael (TRG); Fitzsimmons, Tim (TRG); jarrett.duncan
Sent: Thu Jul 31 18:13:07 2008
Subject: RE: Manny's a dodger

Facts are facts; Manny is a 2 time world champion, and one of the greatest hitters of all time.

Case closed.

Sorry, I will try to avoid letting facts and stats get in the way of your emotional man crush on Manny.

You can still be a member of his fanclub.

From: Massey, Ryan
To: Massey, Derek (TRG); Raleigh, Rob ; Massey, Michael (TRG); Fitzsimmons, Tim (TRG); DUNCAN JARRETT
Sent: Thu Jul 31 18:04:39 2008
Subject: RE: Manny's a dodger

Runs Created?

Ok Billy Beane – Jason Bay is no Manny Ramirez, nor will he ever be.  Ortiz will suffer at the plate due to this as well.

Let’s play the numbers game then:

Here are the runs created (weighting hitting and baserunning contributions) for Jason Bay and Manny Ramirez over the past 4 years:

               2005  2006  2007  2008
Manny Ramirez   134   112    77    69
    Jason Bay   136   105    76    75

This is just offense.  Add in:

-          better defense

-          7 years younger

-          10’s of millions of dollars cheaper

Plus we have Bay in 2009.  Manny was gone, unless we ponied up $20M or signed him to an extension.

Manny forced this, but given the situation the Sox were put in they did OK.

Blasphemy.  You cannot compare Nomar Garciapara-Hamm to Manny.

4 years ago the face of the franchise was traded to the Cubs.  That worked out OK for us.

Hell no.

Anyways……….this season is over.  I quit. 

When does football season start?

The large-nosed one is correct…this is not horrible considering Manny had a gun to their head.  Manny is only a marginally better hitter at this point in his career, but Bay and his average defense will save more runs than many Manny loses in the field.  Sox only play half their games at Fenway….in all other games Manny is a butcher in the field.  I am sad to say I have seen Manny in his final game as a Red Sock, but he brought this fiasco on himself when he demanded the Sox do something they were not legally or morally bound to do.

Here are Bays numbers:

Poor Baby

Lego Pizza Delivery Race Car

Or, put more succinctly, the awesome...

Business cards with character @sarahwv @therealclient @robhahn

Reading time tonight made me think of @RealtorMarney

The sister I never had... :)

My son has his own "Star Wars" bin. #jealous

I wanted this at 5. And again at 35.

M&T Block Stadium (under construction) #Ravens

Pro tip for dads out there: Give the kids a project between the couch and the TV - particularly one that is football-related. Watch football, yet still earn important #HusbandPoints. :)

On "Out of office" auto-replies cc: @professionalone @yvonnearnoldCRS @dianeguercio

First off, a confession.

I used to be an “out of office” guy.

To be fair, I did it more to set expectations for response time and direct the sender to people who can help immediately.  It was never to shut down and avoid, but to temper expectations.  In short, I was saying, “Look, I’m super-responsive with emails.  But right now I’m chillin’.  I’ll get back to, but not until the sun goes down.  If you need immediate help, go here.”  To me, that was better than not responding until the sun went down.

Still, it was about me.

It was giving me breathing room to not react right away, but what message did it convey to the sender (who in all likelihood is a client)?  In a perfect world (the one we are trying to achieve), that email goes somewhere to someone who can address it.  Maybe it’s an assistant, virtual assistant, or team member?  Regardless of the solution, it should be “behind the scenes” – it’s not great business practice to put the “Closed” sign up on the virtual door.

I’m not sure my reaction to “Out of office” replies is as intense as Mr. McClure’s, but after getting 13 yesterday, I’m a little less of a fan….