I’m finally writing a new blog post

May 13, 2010 – 12:14 am

Just kidding!

If you’re reading this in Google Reader, you just earned 1 ReaderAdvantage point

April 1, 2010 – 8:17 pm

The secret is out. The “Mike L.” featured on Google Reader’s ReaderAdvantage™ Program landing page is actually Mike Leotta. As in the MikeLeotta.com Mike Leotta. As in me.

Why is my testimonial featured on this page? And what am I doing squatting in shallow water with ducks? I’m afraid I can’t offer an explanation for the latter but I can for the former: because it was my idea. Well, I actually had proposed the idea for Gmail, but they ended up going in a different direction (which I also had to help out with). So the Reader folks snagged it and modified it slightly.

I’m also responsible for a large portion of the stupid “fine print” at the bottom, which I wrote up very very late at night when I obviously think about Sasquatch more than usual.

Props to the Google Reader team for turning my stupid idea into something fun!

Oh, and don’t forget about that disclaimer link that’s always on the bottom of this site.

3 Comments / Posted in: pointless, Tech, wtf

Oreo^® brand sandwich cookies

February 17, 2010 – 9:36 am

Why is it that recipes on product packages always say something like “1 package of Oreo^® brand sandwich cookies” or “4 tablespoons Peter Pan^® brand peanut butter”?

Do they think I’m going to buy a package of Oreos just for the recipe, throw them out and then buy the store brand “Chocolate cream sandwich cookies” to make the recipe?

4 Comments / Posted in: pointless

Ending my two month blogging hiatus

November 22, 2009 – 3:45 pm

Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Things have been pretty crazy the past couple of months, but now that I’ve settled back in on my native coast I can fill you in on what’s happened recently:

I drove back to New York. New York City, that is.

When I moved to California from New York three years ago I did the drive in four days. I did the reverse drive in about five days. I also logged the entire trip in Google Latitude thanks to the new location history app. Here are 450 data points from my drive. I’m not sure how that single St. Louis plot got there. I may have drifted off the road into a vortex or something.

View Larger Map

I also took some crappy, and relatively boring pictures along the way with my iPhone, geo-tagged for your viewing pleasure.

I moved to Brooklyn. Greenpoint, that is.

Greenpoint is a fun little Polish neighborhood located in the north part of Brooklyn. I love it so far. It’s a lot cleaner and quieter than Williamsburg, but is only a 10 minute subway ride away for when I get brave enough to face the hipsters. I’m also 15 minutes away from Manhattan, and less than 30 minutes away from work.

There’s also a lot of great food, coffee shops, and stores around. My street looks like this.

I’m working in Manhattan. Chelsea, that is.

It’s great. I sold my car and commute on the subway. My building looks like this. The Google office in NYC is definitely a lot smaller than the Mountain View office, but it’s still very exciting and there a lot of fun things going on all the time. Plus, it’s in NYC. California doesn’t have a NYC.

I’m hoping to get back into blogging once again now that I finally have internets in my apartment. There’s a lot of stuff going on around here. I should have made this move a long time ago.

4 Comments / Posted in: life, travel

NYC house hunting trip failure… sort of.

September 7, 2009 – 11:09 pm

This past weekend I took a trip to NYC with the ambitious goal of locking down a place to live for when I move out there in October. I knew that finding a place to live in just three days wouldn’t be an easy task, but I’ve done it before, so why couldn’t I do it again?

Unfortunately, Craigslist and I weren’t in sync this past weekend.

In short, I didn’t find a place to live. However, I’m pretty sure I decided on a neighborhood. Before taking the trip, I was pretty much set on Brooklyn, but wasn’t sure between Williamsburg and Park Slope. After wandering aimlessly in both for several hours, I’m almost certain that Park Slope is where I want to end up, if I can afford it. Williamsburg definitely had a cool vibe, but Park Slope just felt like the better fit for me.

So I wouldn’t consider my house hunting trip a complete failure; I now know where to focus my search.

Random pictures, go!