The Lex Files

From the Grab blog: Late night!

I get loopy late at night.

I’ve never been a late-night kinda guy. I’m pretty good at waking up in the morning. No, I’m too good at waking up in the morning.  If Charlie, or a car horn, or Lauren, or anything else happens to wake me up after, say, 6am, I’m up for the day.  Can’t fall back asleep.  It’s a blessing and a curse.

But at night, I get punchy.  Goofy.  Off.

It’s a late-night now, as Grab pushes out some new cool new features to the masses.  We’re upgrading the "I Wanna" system (You can have more than 10 wannas! Mark similar wannas as similar so we can consolidate entries like "meet new friends" and "make new friends"!)

Perhaps even more exciting, we’re releasing a brand spanking new feature: Grab Photo Albums!

But because of the internal changes those features require, some of our tech team was concerned about bringing down the site if we allowed users to continue to access it while we did the upgrade.  Hence, it was decided we should make these upgrades during off-peak hours, after 11pm PST.

So, now it’s after midnight, and I’m here waiting out the changes, so that if there are any bugs or disasters once the features go live, I can try to help fix them.  Or, more likely, make zany one-liners about the problems while my hair gets bigger and I fret about how to solve them.

See, normally, I hit the hay by 11, 11:30pm latest.  So starting this process around 11 (which really became closer to midnight) is already a big thing for me.

This post has no point.

I warned you.  Late night, I get loopy.

From the Grab blog: This is not an entry on my Grab Blog.

Nor is this a sentence within an entry on my Grab Blog.



And this is most certainly not a link to a paper that contains some kind a hint as to what the heck I’m talking about.





And this sentence contains no extraneous words philanthropy.

On iTunes rankings.

If you like iTunes or math, you might be interested in the statistics behind iTunes shuffling.

Wedding thoughts

I like weddings. Not a controversial statement, but certainly a very true and heartfelt one for me.

A friend of mine from childhood, Josh, got married yesterday. I’d been excited about going to the wedding for some time, even though it meant time off from work, a cross-country flight, and some extra expense. But most of my excitement had been about seeing some old friends and attending the weekend, rather than in being part of something so special and loving and affectionate.

I’m not a total sap. But seeing Josh and Sarah’s very palpable love (and nervousness and laughter and…) was - it’s obvious in retrospect - certainly the best part of the wedding.

From the Grab blog: Wedding thoughts

I like weddings. Not a controversial statement, but certainly a very true and heartfelt one for me.



A friend of mine from childhood, Josh, got married yesterday. I’d been excited about going to the wedding for some time, even though it meant time off from work, a cross-country flight, and some extra expense. But most of my excitement had been about seeing some old friends and attending the weekend, rather than in being part of something so special and loving and affectionate.



I’m not a total sap. But seeing Josh and Sarah’s very palpable love (and nervousness and laughter and…) was - it’s obvious in retrospect - certainly the best part of the wedding.

From the Grab blog: Lists Serene

Conrad did it. kxgen started it. So now, I share my lists!

I love the taste of crispy duck, Kentucky Fried Chicken (extra crispy), Caramello candy bars, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, Lauren’s peanut butter pie, teriyaki salmon, egg drop soup.

I love the smell of baking cookies, garlic, cinnamon, Lauren fresh from the shower.

I love the feel of kisses from Lauren, Charlie snuggled into me, holding hands with Lauren, stress balls

I love the sound of

Lauren laughing, Charlie barking because I’m home, silence, talented voiceover artists.

I love the sight of my wife, my dog, the beach, big bank deposits (in my account), my front door after a long vacation.

And you?

From the Grab blog: Busy

Man, have I been busy. Work here at Grab HQ has been crazy, traveling all over the place and toiling away on fun stuff. Plus Lauren and I have been all over as well.





Tomorrow, I leave super early for New Jersey, where I’ll be reunited with my lovely wife and also get to see her family.





This weekend, we’ll drive from Jersey to Connecticut for the wedding of my best friend from high school.





Then it’s back to LA, with a late-night Grab feature push scheduled for Monday evening (no hints!). And the chaos continues!

From the Grab blog: Phone post!

This is a post from my cell phone.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

The best-reviewed movie of 2005 is, yes, The 40-Year-Old Virgin starring Steve Carrell.

I’ve loved Steve Carrell since “The Dana Carvey Show,” and then of course “The Daily Show” made him a comedic star. And his supporting turns — notably as Brick in Anchorman and as a weatherman in “Bruce Almighty” made it apparent to comedy fans everywhere that Steve has the goods to carry a movie.

And man oh man does The 40-Year-Old Virgin prove the point. I mean, as Lauren pointed out to me at the theater, Ben Stiller could have played Steve’s roll. But I think we’re all a little sick of Ben’s penchant for making us feel uncomfortably awkward as we laugh at his follies. Steve made his character intelligent, and yes, even likable.

Which, in turn, made the movie friggin’ hilarious.

From the Grab blog: Ode to Charlie.

My doormat:



My dog:



Lauren’s camera phone is cool.