Call me a sadist if you want to, but sometimes I love to see someone kicked while they're down. This Gizmodo article shows that the movie theatre industry has officially switched to "tread water" mode.

There is no way in hell that a movie theatre, even with the most diabolical audio and visual technology, is going to win out against my couch. I don't have to put up with traffic getting to the theatre, I won't have to find parking or worry about my car getting dinged in the parking lot by a hyper active kid getting out his mom's piss poor parking job with her goliath SUV. I won't have to pay 4x the going rate for Mr. Pibb and popcorn. I won't have to pretend not to notice that the guy sitting next to me is burping salamie and wearing five pentagram rings all on the same hand. Anyways, you get the point.

I feel regret passing!

I bought a phone and added a line to my already overloaded Cingular account because I wanted to have one mobile/PDA dedicated strictly to my job and one for friends and family. I bought the Samsung SGH-X497 which seems like a no-frills, but stable and sturdy phone. The phone was only 9.99 USD but also added an additional 9.99 USD to my monthly bill. About ten minutes after the transaction I started to feel a little remorse. However, now that I've been researching the RIM Blackberry 8700c, I feel much better about my purchase. It seems that the 8700c stands heads and shoulds above the Treo 650 that I've wrestled with for about a year now. One of the nicest features this new device will offer - the OS not locking up!?!.

So look for two clips on my belt next time you see me.

All this recent traveling has taken it's toll on me...I woke up today feeling horrible. However, Liz, Sophia and Roman all had doctors appointments today and Liz was feeling even worse than me with only a few days since her c-section. Unfortunately, as much as I absolutely hate calling into work, it was a necessity today. I could rationalize it because I didn't take any time off directly after Roman's birth. In fact, I got on a place only two days later for a trip to Dallas. Oh well, I hope I don't get dinged for it.

I'm really thinking about adding another line to my Cingular plan. Another phone line just for me. I could use my Treo 650 just for work and I could have this second line just for personal use. I guess this way I would feel more comfortable giving out my mobile number to clients and co-workers.

I guess I can talk to Rick about it tomorrow. About how I think I'm (we're) losing money because I'm completely inaccessible to my clients at certain times and how I would be willing to go the extra mile to bring in more money.

Since we're on the subject of money, I noticed something on my last couple of business trips. I really like being around other business men. I liked being on the concierge floor of the Marriott, eating power breakfasts with other men of commerce, watching CNN on a 62" plasma. I like barking out a few last orders to my assistant right before I'm about to board the plane. I like getting ready for a meeting that I flew across the state for, it makes it that much more important. I think I really need to go back to college and get my business degree! And I think it should be an absolutee priority.

Post Script: Elizabeth and I finally decided on a name for our son: Roman Avery Palumbo. I still wanted Xavier to be his middle name because I thought it sounded a bit more powerful. Avery sounds like a rich dough-boy who doesn't know how to go out and hustle for his dinner. However, I don't think we'll be having any more children any time soon!

Home Sweet Home

Phoenix and then Dallas. Both were great trips. I got a lot accomplished and had some fun, but now I'm home with my wife and *two* children and it feels pretty good. Poor Elizabeth has had a rough time while I was gone as noted by the frequent and sometimes ill-timed phone calls I recdeived while I was out of town just to let me know what was "pissing her off" at that precise moment.

We still have quite a bit to do before we can finally settle in with my little Roman, but it will all come together soon.

What's in a name?

In my previous post I announced the birth of my son, Roman. The only catch is that I don't know if his name is going to be Roman yet. Liz and I spent about eight months thinking and pondering about a girls name because that's what we were told we were going to have - a girl. A week before the c-section, we learned that reality is quite the opposite. We went back and forth all week, but could not agree on a boys name. Now, my son being approximately 3 days old, he still doesn't have an official name.

Maybe by tomorrow.

Palumbo 2.1 - Roman Xavier Palumbo

This St. Patrick's Day, while most of my friends were in some bar getting all sloshed, I was sitting in a bland hospital room with my wife and new baby boy, Roman.

Although I have many pictures of him so far, I haven't had a chance to post them all. I will do that as soon as possible. Probably when I pick up my 12" PowerBook from the hospital.

Moleskine and Monkey Boy

I learned about Moleskine notebooks by looking at the Whatsinyourbag Cluster on Flickr. People are ditching their Palms and such for the "hipster PDA". I thought I'd give it a try, but 10 USD seemed a lot of money to throw down a pocket notebook. So I went with the much cheaper Cahier to start out with. I also started carrying around my "arrow" pen. I call it my "arrow" pen becuase the pocket clip thingy is in the shape of an arrow. I bought the pen at Office Depot for $4.95 USD. It really came in handy last night when Liz, my family and I stated sorting through boy names for our new baby. That is correct, it turns out that the newest addition to the Palumbo family is going to be a little boy. Dr. Lett had told Liz and I that we would be having another girl, so all this time, practically the entire nine months, we've been speaking about "Isabella". But just yesterday, a mere 8 days before the scheduled c-section, Dr. Lett's final sonogram informs us that we are having an XY. As far as names go, I've picked Vincenzo (Enzo), Jude, Paul, and Luke. Liz likes Jonah. We're going to need to figure this out soon enough.

All Go Rythm

Could you explain to somebody what an algorithm is? I couldn't, so just in case I checked the all-knowing Wiki.

...a procedure (a finite set of well-defined instructions) for accomplishing some task which, given an initial state, will terminate in a defined end-state.

Algorithms are like recipes, but have steps that repeat (iterate) or require decisions (such as logic or comparison).

Law & Order Marathon x 2

Anybody who knows me knows that I love Law & Order and television marathons (since I'll never be able to run a real marathon, this is a close as I'll ever get). Put those two together and what do you get? A Law & Order marathon. And what could be better than that? Two networks running different flavors of Law & Order marathons.

That's right, USA ran a LAO:SVU marathon while TNT ran a an LAO:Original. I chose to watch the original shows and record the SVUs. I'll watch those later.

Baby Update: Liz, I and our doctor have decided on March 17th (aka St. Patrick's Day) to bring Isabella into the world. More on that later. Liz is really, really big