Visiting Las Vegas

I’m a live-in-the-woods and visit-the-city kind of guy, and visited Las Vegas twice this year. Vegas has never been a real draw for me – I only gamble with my time, not money; I don’t drink all that much; I don’t smoke; I don’t eat a lot – Vegas couldn’t compete with NYC, SF, or […]

On Holiday Travel

Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot, and the author of Salon.com’s weekly Ask the Pilot air travel column (and book of the same name). He’s written an excellent essay for the NY Times on The Airport Security Follies. Gift Hub takes it a step further, pointing out that this is not actually security screening, […]

Firewalk’d

On Friday night, I, along with nearly 4,000 other people, walked barefoot over 12 feet of hot burning coals. At least 1,200 degrees. About eight or ten steps. Barefoot. It’s quite an experience. You can imagine the legal disclaimer (edited for brevity): In consideration of my participation in the seminar I agree to release and […]

Tulsa Oklahoma

Kathryn and I went to Tulsa for a few days to visit her parents. Other than picking up the flu en route it was a great trip. Here are some links to photos of our activities. Last of the Breed Concert featuring Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price. Great show. True country. The show […]

[Local] Good Thai Food In Concord NH

Siam Orchid served us well last night. Flavorful, aromatic, and fresh ingredients. 158 North Main Street. 603-228-3633. It’s on the same street as the courthouse. If you take the Louden Road exit on 93, turn left to head downtown, then turn left at the first traffic light – it’s on the left. I think if […]

Best Seminar Chair, 2006

I sat in these chairs 32 hours last week. I would not want to work full-time in this chair, but it is, by far, the best seminar or workshop chair I have ever experienced. Very comfortable. They deserve an award for designing a chair that fits the body, and Ford deserves an award for purchasing […]

Social Capital

I’m at a SoL meeting with about 60 people. About 20 of them are in my consulting convergence group, and we’re meeting as a sub-group frequently throughout the four days. The schedule is fairly grueling for white-collar types, mostly 8 AM to 8 or 9 PM every day. Tonight was the ‘open’ night, where we […]

Detroit, Motor City

Arrived at Detroit airport yesterday and called the hotel. “How do I get to you?” “Okay, you take the south exit of the airport, get onto route blah, go 8.8 miles and take exit blahblah,….” I interrupted: “I’m not renting a car. Is there any public transportation?” “Oh. Well, I think there are cabs somewhere […]

More Philling Photos

Executive summary: Wednesday July 12 at the Champlain Valley Expo near Burlington, VT. Live music mid-week and the guilty irresponsible feeling that comes with. Pouring rain all day and night. Dancing in the mud. Crowded covered grandstand. Happy happy people. The Benevento/Russo Duo opened the show at 4:00. This was the scene during the middle […]

Concert Etiquette

Overheard at SPAC: Why do you carry a lighter to rock concerts? You don’t smoke. —Sometimes people ask for a light. But smokey rooms suck. Why would you help smokers by offering them a light? —Because if, at a rock concert, someone asks for a lighter, the chances are good that you’ll have the option […]

Fire Dance With Me

The CCMA party was held at The Compound in Atlanta. Weird place. Had fun. The tent had fans, but acted like a greenhouse, so it was pretty hot in there. The indoor area had A/C, but they left the doors open so it wasn’t that cool. Really loud; hard to talk. Kind of a weird […]

Never a Still Moment

To give you a flavor of the multi-media nature of modern baseball, here is a short video clip of the national anthem from the game last night. Notice the thin horizontal video screens over the third-base line (and presumably over the first-base line where we were sitting). The effect of these was to have motion […]

Home of the Braves

Thanks to my friends at CDS, I was able to enjoy The National Pastime tonight: The Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals at Turner Stadium in Atlanta. I uploaded 15 photos to Flickr. There’s so much to say, and it’s so late to say it. Even though we were outdoors, watching a live event, it […]

Walking in Atlanta

Flight from Boston landed early. Forgot to make reservations for the hotel shuttle, so rather than take a taxi I headed for the Marta subway. Helpful employee guided me to the stop I wanted, even calling a secret cell phone number to verify my destination and best stop. Arrived at the stop and asked another […]

The Most Thankless Job in Tech Support

Tried to use the web without paying the $10 extortion tonight. No go; way slow. So I went to the upgrade screen and authorized the billing. But nothing changed—still super-super-slow, as billg would say. So I called the tech support line, cringing all the way. Can you imagine a worse job in tech support than […]

Royal Sonesta Boston

Unlike the Hotel Marlowe across the street, the Royal Sonesta is not a particularly engaging hotel. It’s essentially generic, if upscale. Yes, I’m sitting in an Aeron chair, but it’s one of the cheap models that is only somewhat adjustable. And, as usual, working at a desk that is too high for typing. Confidential to […]

Fun While Flying

Chris Pirillo mimes the airplane safety instructions. Hilarious. [via Scripting News]

An Awkward Third Bridge Steak

Idle Words (“brevity is for the weak”) brings us Argentina On Two Steaks A Day: The classic begginer’s mistake in Argentina is to neglect the first steak of the day. You will be tempted to just peck at it or even skip it altogether, rationalizing that you need to save yourself for the much larger […]

N-Dimensional Web 2.0

Many people are trying to define “Web 2.0” – what it is, what it means, how to build Web 2.0 apps, what makes a company a Web 2.0 company, etc. All of those efforts fall short, because Web 2.0 is n-dimensional. Web 2.0 is “reflecting more complex multivariable situations.1” Today I learned of a new […]

Beautiful Photos

Of China. Amazing.