Mike Birbiglia at Pantages Theatre
Tammy and I went to Mike Birbiglia’s newest show at the Pantages and it was so great. We’ve seen him before and like previous times the entire show was strung together through one story diving off into various tangents. There were moments of incredible laughter intermixed with occasional touching and heartfelt points.
Giant wall of pizza boxes waiting to be filled at Hello Pizza.
Phantom Wallet for iOS
Love that Phantom Wallet is now available on iOS. Has integrated browser, support for staking accounts — just like the Chrome plugin. Can now use Solana services on the go!
Introduction to MrBeast
Tyler is a pretty big fan of a handful of “YouTubers”, and usually at the top of his list is MrBeast. I’ve been more pessimistic about MrBeast and frankly I’m not sure what to think of the whole YouTuber thing. Tyler decided since it was his birthday we would all get a proper introduction to MrBeast.
We started with Curiosity Beyond the Spotlight: MrBeast. I signed up for the free 1-week trial so we could watch the video. Overall, both Tammy and I left with a more positive view of MrBeast than when we started. Jimmy, MrBeast’s actual name, seems like a reasonable person trying to have a positive impact in the world.
We then watched three additional videos from different “channels” of his.
Unbelievable Street Magic! on MrBeast Reacts.
10 vs 1000 Player Manhunt! on MrBeast Gaming.
Hit The Target, Win $300,000 on MrBeast.
After it was all done, we were even inspired to make donations and become part of #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas!
I have to admit, we were actually a bit inspired by his random acts of kindness.
We had Tyler’s birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, Lion’s Tap! It was our first time dining inside there since the pandemic started. The burgers were extra good tonight. Tammy was really excited! 🍔
We escaped Video Game Mayhem at Trapped in 56m 59s! The room was setup for the adult version. We did this room in 2019 setup for kids and finished it in 53m. We didn’t remember much of the puzzles. Room 39!
We returned to Mess Hall Art Experiences to have some fun with paint! Tyler wanted to go as part of his birthday. We had a great time as always. Tyler got into the the messy part! I did an interpretation of the FC Bayern logo.
Totally agree with Paul Graham’s take on NFTs.
NFTs can be used for so many different things that you're inviting history to make a fool of you if you dismiss them. Even if I were sure that most current uses of NFTs were bogus, I'd never dare to say that all possible uses were.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) February 6, 2022
As I’ve said, they represent a truly new thing.
Neeva Premium with NFT
Neeva recently rolled out their premium search offering. I’ve been using it as a tester for months and it was a “no brainer” to me to sign up for a year. In addition to the features I would have expected, they also offered an NFT to early Premium subscribers. What a great idea! This gives me an NFT as a keepsake to highlight my early support for private search.
Today I received my New Beginning with Neeva NFT, and it is super fun. OpenSea says there are 101 owners so far. OpenSea chose to mint the NFT on Polygon.
Thanks Neeva!
Final prep for afternoon presentation to the amazing #TeamSPS sales team. ☕️🙌
Remembering Matthew Dornquast
I first met Matthew when he was CTO at Fallon. It must have been 1997. I don’t remember how we got introduced to each other. We both went to the University of Minnesota in Computer Science but Matthew was a few years ahead of me and we didn’t overlap there. I do remember meeting Matthew though. We were building BigCharts and Matthew and I immediately connected on our shared passion for technology and specifically the Internet and the rapidly evolving web. Matthew was very smart, passionate, focused. I remember him talking about moving on and doing something new, the thing that eventually became Code42. Not before I tried to persuade him to join our ragtag band at BigCharts. But it was very clear that he wanted to pursue something on his own.
We stayed in touch over the years and would regularly meetup to chat technology, the Internet, startups, etc. He returned my favor of gently trying to bring him into BigCharts when we had lunch downtown and he gauged my interest in joining them as they started to build out CrashPlan. I was an early user of the peer-to-peer version of CrashPlan and used it to for a neighbor and I to be each others offsite backup. As always, Matthew was passionate, excited, driven and always focused on the technology.
Matthew and I would regularly connect around our shared passions and joint focus on doing everything we could to make the Twin Cities technology community stronger. Matthew was always a dedicated supporter of Minnebar and Minnedemo. He cared deeply about the technology community around him, and always showed up to support and grow the talent around him. I will forever miss that about him.
Matthew and I never did get to do a project together. I have an incredible amount of respect for what he built. Through the consulting business of Code42 they bootstrapped a product that became the largest Series A investment in Minnesota history. In the middle Matthew made several bets in early stage companies by building the technology in return for some equity.
Unfortunately it has been a few years since we connected. After Matthew moved on from Code42 and moved to New York we didn’t have those serendipitous moments to connect. But by his tweets you can see that his passion for technology was present through all of his life. It is sad to see a mind as bright as his go so early in life.
Thank you Matthew for all you did for the technology community, and for building so many things that continue to provide value today. You will be missed.
Related
The Winter 2022 issue of Reading Things, our family newsletter on books and reading, is out now! 📚
In this issue: My Brigadista Year, We Are Not From Here, Minecraft: The Mountain, Caste, To Shake the Sleeping Self, and Four Thousand Weeks.
My Brigadista Year: This libro really struck home for me because of the overarching themes of family, love, teaching, and farming. Like, literally all of my favorite things. It is a grounding, heartwarming read. — Mazie
We Are Not From Here: It’s not a lighthearted read, but it is a devastatingly honest look at the journey many kids make trying to come to this country from Central America because of the impossibility of where they were born. — Tammy
Minecraft: The Mountain: Will Summer survive? Will Guy come back to the Nether to save Summer? Now come and read this adventure packed book and see what happens to them and their relationship. — Tyler
Caste: But perhaps there is also a fundamental framework, a super-structure, that was created with absolute intent and clarity, that is then justified and allowed to exist on the poison of racism. — Jamie
To Shake the Sleeping Self: I thought it was a great read; a travelogue of a 30 year old guy trying to find himself while on an epic bike journey that spanned two continents and a year and a half. — Tammy
Four Thousand Weeks: We have what we get. It disappears at the same linear rate for all of us. Four Thousand Weeks is filled with ways to contemplate that limited time and what we want to do with it. — Jamie
It is cool to see increased workouts showing a new baseline. I started working out with a trainer and have a more structured program.
I dig the new .day top-level domain. Not sure how I want to use it yet, but I decided to register thingelstad.day and weeklything.day. For now I’m redirecting thingelstad.day to my on this day page. 🤔
We are looking forward to our first Minnesota Aurora soccer game! ⚽️ — Thingelstad Family, Community Owners
