Work(ing Title)

Wednesday morning I get on a plane from Seattle, and with a brief stop at O’Hare, I arrive in London first thing Thursday morning. I’ll have until Saturday afternoon to bang around the island before hopping the Eurostar to Paris. I’ll then be in the city of lights with Eli for six days until we take the overnight train to Frankfurt and race the 4th dimension back to San Francisco on Sunday the sixth.

Keep a weather eye on my photostream as that will be the easiest way to keep abreast of my adventures. Any of you who have recommendations or requests for either of these cities, leave them in the comments and I’ll do what I can to play Santa.

Oh the puns! You try your best to leave them out, but no matter what they’ll always find a way into the conversation.

10 relaunched late last night with shiny new functionality and a glorious look. I have contributed the first in our 7 Day Software series, which looks at any bit of software that which after a week’s worth of use, is worth handing over some cold hard cash to claim it as your own.

Go poke around the site and see what you think, and as always bug-hunting is encouraged!

A Glorious Murcielago
Hosted on Zooomr

You’ve got to Love the absurdity of southern California. Cruising from Hollywood to Hermosa Beach this past Sunday, this pumpkin escobarsupercar rolls past in the carpool lane. I think it’s the air intake ‘ears’ behind the windows that open up at speed that I like the most.

So did I miss the meeting where Israel declared war on Lebanon? I didn’t catch the memo when this became a thing. I haven’t got a map to lead me to the place where something like this occurs. It’s one thing to occasionally volley missles into Palestinian territory; I’ve always considered that to be the full-scale version of throwing rocks at your neighbor who you can’t stand.

This is on the other hand is like walking across the street to your neighbor’s house with a knife in your teeth, slashing his tires, and kicking in the door. And lest we forget, when Hezbollah declares “war on every level” it’s like the neighbor you’ve picked a fight with happens to be an MMA fighting champion. These guys invented modern terrorism, so Israel is really humping a hornet’s nest on this one.

According to some quick web searching, Beirut is home to around 1.3m people whereas San Francisco is home to .75m. Beirut has 10 Starbucks for crying out loud. Do you know how many Starbucks there are in Tel Aviv? ZERO.

When’s the last time a country without a Starbucks attacked a country with a Starbucks?!

Work has been swallowing the lion share of my time over the past couple weeks. We’re working on a major update for 10 that should hit the street soon. It’s very exciting, as this new iteration of the site will feature more writing and video on my part (about time after my introduction).

When I haven’t been trying to tame the mechanical bull that is my job description, I’ve been trimming my waistline in the gym. Over time it has become clear to me that selfishness is a motivator like no other, and so the desire to fit into a one-piece leather jumpsuit has pushed quite effectively.

Speaking of motorbikes, Dusty and I will be departing directly from the Stanford mall next Sunday to experience the glory that is Moto GP. I’ll be packing a shiny new lens for my D50, so my pictures this time round stand to be significantly better than last years photos.

Yesterday Slate published a great article about the production of Miami Vice, which illuminates some of the absurd lengths Michael Mann goes to in order to entertain us. Any of you who are in the valley on August 6th drop a comment, because I’ll be fighting jetlag and anything else that stands in my way to see it as soon as I’m back from Europe.

Finally, the most unfortunately valuable woman in radio Terry Gross managed to get Thom Yorke on Fresh Air. It’s certainly worth a listen, as Thom’s public interviews are few and far between.