This is a kind of cross-post from the MindTouch blog. The original post is about MindTouch hiring. Read that if you’re looking for a job.    

Roy recently started shooting with a Panasonic Lumix GF-1. He’s using a 20mm pancake lens, which I believe is a no-name Zeiss. He recently wrote about the imminent move to new MindTouch offices and shot photos around our current office. Only Roy is more sentimental than me. Or is he? Tim O’Brien is a MindTouch sales representative. Indeed, Tim is the highest earning MindTouch sales representative. He was one of the very first sales hires and has been with the company for 1.5 years. In this photo Tim is on a call with a customer. This customer generates more than $4.5B in annual revenue. We have an exciting project underway.

Pete Erickson was a MindTouch contractor before we had any employees. The guy is brilliant. He was at Great Plains before the Microsoft acquisition. Microsoft recognized his talent and made him a crisis ‘firefighter’ of sorts. When I met him he was the CTO for a fiber to the home startup. It’s a joy to work with and to know Pete. Unfortunately, he still lives in Minnesota and I don’t get to see him much, but he is omnipresent at MindTouch.

Max Mass is another of the many brilliant members of MindTouch engineering. He started with MindTouch 3.5 years ago. It was only earlier this week that I realized it’s been that long. It seems like yesterday. I interviewed him over the phone from an airport, the Minneapolis airport if I recall correctly. I remember giggling during the interview while I addressed him by his full name: Maxim Mass. Say it aloud. Corey Ganser is the gentleman on the left and GuerricS is on the right. Corey has performed the following roles at MindTouch: office admin, trainer, sales and support manager; in that order. He has been a MindToucher since the first year of business. Corey is the reason our customers consistently rank MindTouch support 4.75 out of 5 every month, quarter and year. Guerric is responsible for a lot of the user interface at MindTouch. He’s a real engineer from Urbana-Champagne (he couldn’t get into UNC ;-).

The remaining photos weren’t shot by Roy, but I felt compelled to include more faces in my MindTouch blog post and I may as well keep them here.

Damien Howley is the technical lead for the professional services team at MindTouch. He’s been with us for three years and started as the webmaster. There were fewer than ten of us at MindTouch when Damien started.Sarah Carr is the marketing coordinator at MindTouch. She’s been with us for almost a year.

Roy Kim is a fellow UNC alum. He is also the first employee of MindTouch and our VP of Engineering and the photographer of most of these photos. Roy started college at 16 and graduated four years later with a degree in Economics and Chemistry while simultaneously launching a popular blogging/social site that has only suffered from his investment in MindTouch over the last five years.

The first four photos were shot with Roy’s Panasonic Lumix GF-1. Fantastic! Since this is a post about photography, kind of, I want to share a concept Ricky Montalvo shared over Twitter: FART. I know it’s a disgusting acronym. However, it’s a great system for shooting. Maybe we can rename it though.

The only sport I enjoy watching on television is NFL (American professional football). I don’t watch many games because I’m most interested in spending my weekends with my family. When I do watch games I always time-shift with my DVR. Here’s why:

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

via Football Games Have 11 Minutes of Action – WSJ.com.

Wow. This is unbelievable. By fast-forwarding I commonly cut a game down to about 45 minutes, but I had know idea actual playing time is only, on average, 11 minutes. No wonder these guys can be enormous and still effective.

My week was a bit too busy to fit in a full week of cycling. Overall I only managed to ride 55 miles. I broke a chain on Saturday. The wonderful folks at Bicycle Warehouse in Pacific Beach fixed it for me free of charge. The service here is fantastic and unpretentious, unlike Mission Hills Bike shop.

Today I rode 32 miles, but I intended this to be a 50 mile ride. I biked the south portion of San Diego bay along the Bay Shore Bike Trail down to National City, up the Sliver Strand and into Coronado. My chain was rubbing against the shifter, which might have caused the chain to break on Saturday. I took apart the component and rebuilt it at Silver Strand State Park. It was better, but still not quite right. I put another 8 miles in and determined I should call it quits until I get it fixed properly.

Cities all over San Diego County have public service campaigns targeting cyclists. Here is an ad paid for by the city of Chula Vista.

These campaigns are targeting the wrong demographic entirely. I commute to and from work 5 days a week by bike. I obey the law and take a traffic lane when there is no bike lane. It’s safer. It’s the law. As a result I am verbally accosted by motorists 3 times a week. Weekly I have motorists feint vehicles at me and lay on their horn. Where are the ads informing motorists to “Share the Road”?

I had a great time with most of the MindTouch product team today. We sailed in the San Diego harbor. It was a bit too windy and the swells were too big to sail in the ocean comfortably. But we did sail to the edge of the ocean and turn around. It’s important to know one’s limits and I know from experience where my limit is with respect to motion sickness.

I am blessed with brilliant and fun coworkers. See more photos.

Being with the team got Damien and me reminiscing. It caused me to think about the coworkers we’ve had that were less than successful at the company. There has been a common theme among these individuals. A lack of interpersonal chemistry. There have been times we’ve hired and overlooked a potential cultural mismatch in favor of a person’s work experience. To date I’m not aware of this ever working out. It is important to have diverse personalities, backgrounds and skills within a team, but the individuals must compliment and mold the culture not actively fight it in an attempt to eek out more control or clout for themselves.

This is a long song. I had no idea we only sing 1/4th of the original.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

– By Francis Scott Key 1814

Did you know Mr. Key merely set these words to a old popular drinking song?

I missed including this photo of Ashby in my Disneyland post.

I read there are over 80 marijuana dispensaries in San Diego County, but I had never noticed one until yesterday while returning from Ashby’s liberal arts class in Balboa Park. Hillcrest Compassion Center. There are more than 400 dispensaries in Los Angeles County.

Ashby had more of a 4th birthweek than a 4th birthday. We took her to Disneyland, but she also emphatically asked for a birthday party with her girlfriends from pre-school. We had a small gathering in Pioneer park for her on Thursday.

More photos.

Last week Tara and I took the kids to Disneyland for Ashby’s 4th birthday. We stayed two nights and thanks to a friend who works at Pixar we had our hotel for a fraction of the price. The whole trip was nothing short of magical for Ashby and the entire family.

I was amazed by the quality of service and professionalism at the park. I had not been to Disneyland since I was about 10 years old. It was the first time for everyone else. I’m excited to return.

Photo slideshow.