How do you measure a year?
In daylights? in sunsets? in midnights, in cups of coffee? How about love? Both Ken Kovash and the cast of RENT can tell you that a year is 525,600 minutes. But I measure my years as the time between each Ken Kovash Day.
As December 19 approaches each year, I start to get an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and purpose. Not because of anything I’ve achieved, but because I think of all that Ken has done over the last year. To give just a small glimpse into some of Ken’s doings since last KKD:
- Thursday, December 20, 2007: Ken wakes up, goes to work, and pioneers analytics.
- Friday, December 21, 2007: Ken wakes up, goes to work, and pioneers analytics.
- Saturday, December 22, 2007: Ken wakes up and pioneers analytics.
- … and at least 362 other accomplishments
I only wish I had such dedication — to think, even pioneering analytics on weekends! That’s why I was so happy to discover that the official Ken Kovash Day website added a new feature for this year’s KKD: a widget where you can express your desire to be like Ken Kovash. It even keeps track of how many people share your aspirations in real time!
I have to say, the Friends of Ken Kovash organization really stepped it up a notch for this year’s celebration of Ken Kovash. I encourage everyone to check out their Ken Stories section for this year and to submit your own if you have a particularly heart-warming Ken Story or revelation.
No other course; no other way. It’s Ken Kovash Day.
Categories: planet.mozilla.org | Tags: ken kovash | Comments (5)Gustav
As you may (not) know, I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home to swamps, pet alligators, Mardi Gras, cannibalization, Britney Spears, oil companies, and the rest of the world’s evil. And last week, the temporary home of a horrible guest, Hurricane Gustav. The media pretty much stopped reporting on it as soon as it hit (admittedly, there are more important things, like Sarah Palin), but half of Louisiana had no power for days. Baton Rouge was devastated and other areas of the state won’t get power for 4-6 weeks.
If you’ve ever been to Louisiana during the summer (or anytime, really), you know that it is extremely hot and humid and that when the power and air conditioning goes out, older people and others have a lot of trouble breathing. Fortunately I’m not one of them, and I got my power back 2 days ago, 8 days after the storm. Most traffic lights in town are still out and traffic is a nightmare, although the parish curfew ended this morning.
After a few days of being without power and getting very behind in work projects, I headed to Mountain View for a few days to be productive. Things are slowly getting back to normal. Classes started again on Monday because we can’t miss anymore — we’re already having to go on a few Saturdays to make up last week.
I gave a presentation on Web Analytics this morning. When I told the class that I’d be talking about Web Analytics, before I even mentioned Mozilla, someone immediately raised their hand and asked if I know the “analytics pioneer” Ken Kovash. I lied and said no, because frankly I’m tired of everyone asking me to get his autograph, strands of hair, chewing gum, etc. for them. You’ll have to wait in line like everyone else.
Categories: favloc, lsu, planet.mozilla.org, projects, rock your firefox | Tags: gustav, hurricanes, ken kovash, lsu, mozilla | Comment (1)The Numerator
During my 3 months in the Mozilla Mountain View office over the summer I saw a lot of interesting things and met a lot of new people. Of all those experiences, the thing I miss most is Ken Kovash, or “ko-ko” as he was known.
I had the honor of sitting next to Mr. Kovash for around 2 months. For the first week, there wasn’t even a divider between us. I watched as he dared request an IBM Thinkpad in the presence of so many Macs. But that’s just like Ken. Always the shining star; never one to conform. I watched as he removed the taped paper from under his optical mouse and asked if I placed it there. I watched as his chair would sometimes be missing when he came back to his desk. I often thought he played these pranks on himself. Because no one is deft enough to prank Ken Kovash.
Every morning when I got to my desk with cereal in hand, Ken would be there (sometimes) to say “Good morning, Justin.” It gave me the energy to get through the day, until around 5 when he would say “see you tomorrow”. I think he might have said a few other things during those months, I can’t quite remember now. I didn’t start writing them down until the last week.
I know that I am not the only one influenced by ko-ko. I can only hope that polvi, melissa, and others that sit around him have absorbed some of his knowledge while they can.
Categories: mozilla, planet.mozilla.org | Tags: ken kovash, mozilla | Comments (3)