seen on the freeway.

on monday, 101 south. i really wish i could've taken a picture of this. a mental image will have to do. picture this:

a large black pickup truck, raised maybe 6 inches off the 22 inch rims, huge metal bars covering the front and rear bumpers and the lights, huge foglights installed in the front. i was driving an audi at the time and i think my head was about level with his footboard.

driver was a white male, mid twenties, buzz cut, sunglasses, yapping away on cell phone. typical.

license plate: UR TINY.

i'm fairly certain he was addressing his own penis.

home away from home.

stopped by the new and improved westfield shopping center in downtown SF, and i gotta say....wow. it reminds me of asia in a lot of ways - large, bright open concept mall, with a big proper food court and grocery downstairs. i'm happy to see stores like metropark, vans, lids, border's (a bookstore is always nice to have in a mall...a place to chill out), the french bakery upstairs (the name escapes me, but it's the same one on santana row next to straits cafe), straits cafe, out the door...

bloomingdale's men's also looks promising. i'm in full-on save $$$ mode right now so i didn't want to risk going in.

oh, and i'm looking forward to trying wichcraft someday. food network's been pimping tom collichio for ages.

it's nice to see that the higher-end stores are moving over to the new mall, and the rest is staying in the old mall - one of the things i always hated about the SF shopping center was the teenybopper appeal. walking in and out of the place was always a chore, with all of the fools loitering around outside.

so, taking all of that together, with all the rich indos running around with their gucci handbags, and the asian kids gangsta squatting outside the mall and smoking, it's just like being in taiwan or singapore.

ah, home.

content junkie.

hi, my name is b and i'm a content junkie.

it started off pretty harmlessly - the tv was used for 2 things: watching sports and an occasional dvd.

then came the tivo, which was great for buzzing through commercials for a couple of shows i was really into, like the simpsons.

but as i got older and busier (and my attention span shortened), i found myself drawn more and more to tv shows. little bite-sized pieces of content, perfectly consumed over a meal.

then came the plasma tv, in all its HD glory. and it's true what they say: once you've gone HD you can't go back. so the poor tivo was rendered useless in favor of on-demand HD programming from my wide network of friends. *ahem*

and now i have the best of all worlds: HD quality programming, commercial free, when i want it. and i'm hooked.

what's going to be the future of digital content distribution? when more and more people are getting their content the way i'm getting it now, and less are sitting and waiting for shows to start, something's going to have to change. the networks won't be able to rely on advertisers buying commercials that are just going to be cut out from the show...so i guess eventually we'll have to pay for everything. maybe they'll run a ticker across the bottom of the screen to stream ads constantly. maybe they'll offer subscription downloads - ad free version will be for-pay, but with ads will be free.

how strong is the desire to not only get content when you want it, but also where you want it? is there a market for a portable digital media player that can grab shows anytime and anywhere? we're starting to see that in slingbox, but that seems far too complicated and expensive to really become a widespread standard.

so, i don't know where this post is going, but it's some stuff i've been thinking about. i'm sure there's tons of business opportunities in this space, and who knows which will become viable, but one thing seems clear to me: in a few years, we're all going to be content junkies. whoever figures out a way to feed the addiction is going to be stinking rich.