Explicitly and without apology a marketing vehicle MaryMaryQuiteContrary

gotta be brief today, guys...

1. you must check out John Gage's weblog. you'll recall i had breakfast with him at sunnetwork shanghai. (i know my habit of name-dropping is seriously annoying but Gage is a techno-celeb and we agreed you'd indulge me if they were techno-celebs.) love that guy. i experienced what he's describing in his blog; i saw that happen first-hand.

2. i'm taking the day off tomorrow. but because i love you so, i will be getting on real quick to do Friday Free Stuff. so you just keep your dial turned here folks because i got some killer stuff in shanghai to give away. check back in with me tomorrow.

3. we've taken the first steps in my personal journey to javaone. i got myself on the list of employees who get badges. (and it wasn't easy... i had to get my boss to vouch for me; we call that escalation in the biz.). I've booked my hotel ($194/night + tax; the spending guidelines say $150 max for a hotel room in SF; i tried talking them down but they wouldn't budge; city is sold out because the apple developer conference is the same week; book today, guys if you're going to javaone).

4. we're starting a new feature here on the MaryMaryQuiteContrary blog called JavaOne Scoop. This is where I find out about stuff that will happen at JavaOne and I tell you about it. here's your first installment:

JavaOne Scoop

 Take the JavaOne Coding Challenge: Competitive Java technology coding under pressure. Three days of qualification rounds. Brilliant competitors. Thousands of spectators. Big prizes. Bragging rights.

so you'll recall, i'm working on becoming a java developer myself -- with the Sun Java Studio Creator product. i'm seriously thinking about entering. i have zero expectations of winning but everybody who enters (or at least the first 1,000) gets a free t-shirt and messenger bag. and you know how i love free stuff...

ok, ok... gotta go... super swamped and i was supposed to be brief... sorry.. i know i ramble... i'm working on it.

mary

p.s. i discovered one of you guys had something not-so-nice to say about me in your blog. that was not kind and i don't appreciate it. so if it's all the same to you, please just ignore me if you don't like me.  there's no need to get nasty and hurt my feelings.