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When I worked at The Worst Job I Ever Had, they contributed to a technology purchase in lieu of getting me a laptop bag or Franklin Planner -- a Palm T|X.

I had a Palm III way back when, and then later, a Handspring Visor (which was tres cool!). I loved that Visor.

So when I had the opportunity to upgrade it to a Palm with wifi capability and a color screen that would allow me to watch videos streamed from SD cards, I jumped at the chance. I even purchased a better file manager and the Fitaly keyboard. It was very nice, albeit a bit buggy with the Blazer browser and such. VersaMail worked pretty well, though. I held on to it, using it off and on for a couple of years. Recently, I have been in an "off" section of time, though I have been watching Justice League episodes on it.

This last Sunday was my birthday. My wife snuck out a few days before and bought me a frivolous gift that I mentioned that I wanted (okay, I gushed about it like a little girl). In any case, I was surprised Sunday morning with a bag containing a bright, shiny, new iPod Touch 2.0, 16GB.

This is an interesting read.

Imagine a company that:

• Lets you vote on the CEO's performance – and lets you, not your boss, determine your work projects.

• Uses e-mail discussion lists to make critical decisions, practicing full transparency so everyone is kept in the loop.

• Rotates all leadership roles on a regular basis.

Read the article....

Found via The Chief Happiness Officer.

So the wife asks if I want to go to Buffalo for the weekend to attend a party.

What kind of party? I asked.

A Schlepping Party, she says.

What's Schlepping? I asked.

Well, it's part of the big Graduation Party they're having for my brother Matt, who's graduating high school.

Well, says I, I'll miss Gaming Sunday™, but since it's a one-time thing, I'll go.

Well, we all know what schlepping is, now don't we?

At my new job, there are a variety of tasks that fall to me.

As I mentioned before, one of the first things I had to do was to locate a facility for our office. Well, we finally got the keys to the place today. It was a stressful task, and now all the stress over finding a place will be traded in for all the stress over furnishing the place. Yeegads.

Which brings me to the first item: My wife and I drove to Holland, MI to get some office furniture. We ended up bringing home six, $700 chairs ... for which we paid only $99 each. Rock!

Side Note: On the way back, we stopped at My Buddy Ronn's new apartment in Grand Rapids. He's got some pretty nice digs -- roomy place, view of a huge pond, and handy bike paths -- all for less than I paid 15 years ago in Ypsilanti for a smaller pad. Rock!

I'm working my new job, and I'm loving it. But the things I have to juggle are causing me a bit of tension.

We're moving into an office/light industrial park from a home-based business and this means we have to get everything: desks, chairs, dividers, phones, networking, backup power, toilet brush, alarm systems, insurance, pencils, garbage cans, barcode scanner, portable AC units, and -- of course -- a coffee machine. Can't live without that.

To top it off, we'll need to build an enclosure for the network gear and even run some plumbing if we want anything resembling a kitchen sink. But before we do all that, we have to have a lawyer read the lease, the building has to be cleaned, and we have to turn over the security deposit and first month's rent. Did I mention I had to find the building in the first place?

Yeegads. This is a lot of things to keep running at the same time, to try to schedule convergence of them all at move-in time. And on top of this, I need to be as frugal as I possibly can. This is a startup, after all.