I just twittered this idea but I want to push it further:

Monitor twitter for tweets about being sick. Cross that info with the user’s geo info. Collect all this information. Then build a sick map of the world about where people are feeling sick. Show hot spots, trends, etc. I’ll add it to the list.

Maybe I’ll have insomnia one night and hammer it out.

I just got back from Los Angeles last night. The weekend went very well with lots of networking and interviews getting done, I also did a lot of networking and it was funny, as soon as I asked someone their email address and they began saying “firstname.lastname” I knew it was at gmail.com.

On the flight I was pondering just why it is that everyone has the mature email address at gmail. I mean, 99% of the time that’s the way it is. Then I realized why: It came about when Generation Y was entering the work force.

Hotmail and Yahoo may be as old as the Internet, but that means we all have emails like “masterblaster1968@hotmail.com” (my apologies to whoever has that email address.) They were the geek names, the identities we used online when the idea was anonymity. The Internet has grown and matured and now it is used to build your real name for school and employers.

Yahoo, a few years ago allowed their users to change their name, which is when I got a mature yahoo email address as well, but I never use it. Why? I was already established in Gmail.

Gmail simply hit the nail on the head when many of us didn’t realize the board was loose. The right interface, great storage, and the better features were all factors in a major coup for a market many considered to be a solved system.

Now sadly the Gmail interface is falling behind. We rely on tools like Gina Trapani’s Better Gmail firefox plugin, and other such apps to increase it’s usefulness. Rumor is that Google is working on an upgrade but we haven’t seen it yet. Now we’re hearing things of a company called zenbe.com (I’m working on a review of it actually) and Xobni for Outlook.

So, is Gmail the king? No, it will be dethroned. But it was a major stepping stone for the realm of email, moving us past limited space into lifetimes of email, from folders and into tagging, and more!

I’m about to leave for the airport, make my way to Atlanta and then go to Hollywood! To keep track of my escapades and adventure, follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/trickjarrett

photo credit: donielle

Also, if there were any doubt how sweet and awesome my grandmother is, she’s convinced this trip is going to be my big break and that I’ll never come back from the west coast. I’ve done my best to calm her down, but just between you and me - if I do make it big without trying, I ain’t going to give it up. I’ll have to bring K and grand mom out to LA!

Alright, I’m leaving now.

I could write about the chaos yesterday and having all the sites down for over a day but that was enough stress that I will just let it wash away. Suffice it to say that things went horribly wrong and those put in charge of fixing it were inept.

So I choose to instead turn to a highlight of my week. My contacts! I’m on day three of wearing them, the goal being that tomorrow will be a full day of them (including an airplane trip!) Today should be around 8 hours of wearing them, maybe more if I can keep going. It’s quite exciting for me.

I had always been extremely sensitive to eye drops and so I figured that it meant I couldn’t wear contacts because my eyes were too sensitive. But my glasses have always been an annoyance, I’m tired of wearing them, I want to look cooler and be cooler and since I host a video podcast I want to look cooler for it too. Having to wear glasses will also seriously hamper my Hollywood career, which my grandmother is convinced will be kicked off by my trip out there next week.

Who knows, maybe I’ll go make my name in Bollywood!

For a long time, I didn’t think I could wear contacts. Ever. My eyes are super sensitive to eye drops and so I just thought I would never get to wear contacts and I had come to peace with always wearing glasses.

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to try anyways, so I setup an eye appointment. I had to find out where my eye insurance was taken, and it turns out that it’s accepted at… Wal-Mart. Yeah, I had to go to the Wal-Mart Vision Center. To be fair though, it is a real eye doctor and he’s attached to the mega mart. Unfortunately though, his employees are… on par with other Wal-Mart employees. Sit back and listen as I tell you the tale.

The appointment went well, they had to order my contacts so I left and waited for them to call me when the contacts arrived. I had been told it would take a week at most for them to get in. Well, after two weeks I called the eye doctor and had to be put through the ringer as they tried to figure out what had happened.

Eventually the girl came back and asked, “Did you want to get frames?”

*facesmack*

“No, I wanted contacts. You guys were ordering them for me.”

“Oh, okay, well let me go look into it.”

A few minutes later she come back and said “Well we had ordered your contacts, but I’m not taking any chances so I’ve ordered another pair for you.” What I heard was “We messed up and we’re scrambling now.” So another week passed before finally getting called and heading down to pick up the contacts.

Now, you’re supposed to be given a walk through on how to put in and wear your contacts but when I arrived the guy there gave me my contacts and sent me on my way. I was already confused but we tried to put the contacts in and had issues. Namely that I couldn’t get them in and when I tried for the second time I dropped it and, like contacts do, it disappeared.

So the next day, after three weeks of delays, I call the eye doctor and request a replacement for my lost contact.

That was two weeks ago. Today I called them and inquired about my contacts. Lo-and-behold my contacts had arrived but no one had called.

After work I head down there and get there around 6:45pm and they’re all sitting around in the display area. I explain what’s going on and the Doc is visibly upset that I was sent out last time without a walk through about the contacts. They lead me into the back room and sit me down to watch a DVD about putting on my contacts.

As I’m watching this DVD though one of the women comes back and says “Well we’re supposed to leave at 7 and do you mind coming back for an appointment?”

In my mind I’m saying: HELL NO. NO NO NO. F*CK NO.

I actually said, “Well, I work 9-6 this week and I leave for the weekend on Friday so…”

She turns and heads off saying that she’ll work it out. I settle back down to watch the amazing Oscar winning DVD about wearing contacts.

After the DVD finishes another woman comes back to work me through with the contacts, first she puts the contacts in my eyes, then I get the opportunity to do it. I put them in and take them out, then pack up ready to leave. Well no, as it turns out, they want me to wear them for three hours tonight. So I’m wearing them now and here is a pic of just how I look without my glasses.