New Photo Book: Apple Sweat
Just a thought from 8 August 2006 about Books, For Sale, Fray, Life, Photography, Travel.

What do you do when your trip to New York City just happens to coincide with the biggest heat wave since 1936? Make some photos, of course!

I took my favorite Lomo shots and put them together in a book I'm calling Apple Sweat: The 2006 Heat Wave from NYC Streets. Take a look!

The Powazek World Tour
Just a thought from 12 July 2006 about Blogging, Event, Geek, Powazek, Travel.

Today I embark on the very exciting 2006 Powazek World Tour. (Well, if you consider Portland and DC the world and two stops to be a tour, anyway.)

This Thursday and Friday I'll be participating in a private conference sponsored by - I swear I'm not making this up - the State Department. It's called the "Conference on Blogs and Democracy" and I'll be on a panel about "The Influence of the Blogosphere" and if I told you any more, I'd probably have to kill you.

But if I see Condoleezza, I promise to say hi for you.

Then, next Thursday and Friday, July 20 and 21, I'll be in Portland to participate in Webvisions 2006. It looks to be a great lineup this year and, unlike the first stop on the Powazek World Tour, this one you can actually attend. And you should!

I'll be speaking on a panel about Business Blogging (free preview: "Don't start a conversation if you're not prepared to have one.") and I'll be reprising my New Community talk (free preview: "You need your community more than they need you.")

Looks to be a good couple of weeks for nerddom.

10 Notes for the Paris hotel/casino in Las Vegas
Just a thought from 9 January 2006 about Life, Travel.

1. We really appreciated the attempted Parisian accent supplied by the counter staff, but for that real Paris feeling you should ask them to speak only French and act as if they're doing the guests a favor by being there at all. We recommend hiring out of Los Angeles.
2. The copious smoking among the guests of the hotel was a nice match with Paris, but your air purifiers are much too robust. Let the smoke really seep in. You should also consider just pumping it into the rooms.
3. The guests we observed were wearing the requisite amount of perfume and cologne, but were completely underdressed and overweight. To really get that Parisian feeling, please be more choosy in your clientele.
4. You should consider posting some backpackers around the edges of the casino, reeking of pot and asking for change. Bonus points for the "smelly backpacker" slot machine, in which, if you match three trash cans, you win a free dinner at another casino.
5. Teach the fuckers in the restaurants how to make a decent espresso. Seriously.
6. New riot-themed betting games would lend the casino a contemporary flair. Just a suggestion.
7. The hotel rooms were much too big. Try cutting each room in half and making both rooms share the one existing bathroom.
8. We know Vegas is a 24/7 kind of town, but for that real Paris feeling, consider shutting down the stores at odd hours. You wouldn't want the consumers to think the stores were there for them.
9. Sprinkle dog shit throughout the internal sidewalks. Don't worry, someone else will pick it up.
10. More escargot!

Vive la Paris!

What I Learned on My Summer Vacation
Just a thought from 1 October 2005 about Travel.

Heather and I just returned from a week-long road trip through Arizona. And it was awesome. Happiness is me, my wife, a pile of cameras, and a car on the open road. Here are a few things I learned along the way.

• Arizona is hot. Damn hot. Real hot. Hot like, when you turn on the cold water in the bathroom, it comes out hot because it's been baking in the pipes for a few dozen miles. Hot like, if you do the courtesy flush when you're on the pot, you can feel the heat from outside in the water, creating a little steamroom for your bum. Hot like, when you're from San Francisco, and you're walking around in Arizona, all you can think is, my God it's hot.
• The Salton Sea smells like rotting fish. But that's only because it's full of rotting fish.

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