Not A Dollarshort

Road to Hana

We'll be in Maui next week for a conference and we're taking the weekend off to try to get a much needed vacation. I've booked a hotel in Hana. Unfortunately, every time I mention Hana people give me the look that translates into "you're crazy for doing that drive."

I need advice quickly. Is the road to Hana that bad?

Missing SXSW this year

We couldn't make South by Southwest this year because of the usual workload and our desire to not travel on one of our free weekends. The trip to Austin is usually fraught with some sort of travel mishap -- like missing planes or connections and after hearing about some of our friends and their delayed flights, we probably made a good decision to stay at home and rest.

In our place, we have three Six Aparters representing -- Anil, Mie Kennedy and our newest hire, Walt Dickinson. A lot has changed last year and it's terribly exciting to think that we're growing as a company and are in the double digits in terms of members of the team.

Anyway, hope this year's attendees have a good time and if you're there, be sure to check the Big Bag for a special TypePad discount for TypePad attendees.

Conservatory of Flowers

Here are some photos from the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco that I took this past weekend.

About the Conservatory of Flowers.

Eigo?

I told myself after our trip to Tokyo in January that if Six Apart decided to take funding, I would force myself to take a Japanese language class so that, the next time I was in Japan, I'd be able to wipe that "I'm so stupid that I don't understand your language" look off my face.

Ten months later, we're back in Japan and the only phrase I can speak (and poorly at that) is "nihongo-ga wakarimasen" which is, as you could probably guess, "I don't understand Japanese."

Remember that Chris Farley Saturday Night Live sketch where he's on a Japanese game show but can't speak Japanese? And as he misses question after question and is about to be electrocuted as penalty for losing he keeps on shouting "I don't speak Japanese!"

That's basically how I feel -- but probably a bit less eloquent than Farley's character.

The other day, while sitting in a room for about eight hours straight and surrounded by others discussing work stuff almost entirely in Japanese, I found myself trying to will myself to speak, or at least understand, Japanese. It's a safe bet to say that I wasn't too successful and, after all those hours of intense Japanese, I realized that I was basically the human equivalent of a golden retriever who relies on intonation to tell whether his owner is happy or mad or is posing a task/question. I would add, however, that I think that I have a better grasp on the nuances of tone. Like, when I guessed that someone was discussing internal company politics just from that "my hands are tied" sort of expression.

Most dogs wouldn't have a grasp on that.

I should add that while we're in Japan we're almost always accompanied by someone that speaks English fluently. So, much like a child, I've become dependent on someone else ordering food for me, giving directions in taxis or interacting with any sort of person in service. It is those times when I happen to be alone (and this counts for about 10 minutes of an entire week-long trip), that I find myself suddenly trying to will myself invisibility.

Trip to New York. Part II.

We'll be in New York again from the 31st to the 6th and are trying to find a reasonably priced hotel to stay at that has true high speed internet access -- in-room WayPort or WiFi and NOT WebTV. Any suggestions on pretty short notice? We're hoping to find something in the $150-$175 range.

Update: Nevermind, problem solved.

New York

I went to New York for the first time in my life and took all of three pictures of the city. The rest of the photos happen to be of dogs -- a friend's dog, dogs in Central Park, dogs walking down the street. Not exactly the sorts of photos that postcards are made of.

New York was amazing. It was exactly like we pictured it, yet much more. We ate extremely well and treated ourselves to one really great dinner at Tabla. While we spent most of our days in meetings and interviews, we felt that we made the most of our trip by not forcing ourselves to do anything touristy and instead focussing on experiencing the city as if we lived there (which of course meant eating out every night and working all day).

The biggest disappointment of the trip also serves to illustrate why New York is so wonderful. While walking down the street, we passed the Alliance Française and their window advertising a concert with Jane Birkin performing the works of Serge Gainsbourg for that night. Tauntingly splashed across the poster was a big red "Sold Out." Ben and I actually stopped in our tracks and tried to plot how we could get tickets to the show as well as get out of meetings for that night. When we realized -- or rather when the people we were with convinced us -- that the meetings were probably more important in the grand scheme of Six Apart, we were resigned to fantasize how great it would have been to attend.

This concert, a concert seemingly custom-planned for us on our trip, is why New York is so fabulous. So much to do for so many different types of people. We're definitely looking forward for our trip back.

A trip to the big city

Ben and I will be making our first trip to New York City in September (from the 12-23) and are looking for a temporary sublet. Since it's a business trip, this sublet must have broadband Internet access.

• Dates: September 12 - September 23
• Desired neighborhoods: Chelsea, Clinton, Gramercy, The Village, nothing too far north or south of 14th Street
• Desired rent: Less than $1300
• Required: Broadband Internet access (cable modem or DSL) included

This should be a private sublet -- believe me, you wouldn't want us for roommates.

Any leads are greatly appreciated.

Drink Water

I learned an important lesson during this trip. When flying cross-country, drinking a lot of water is a must. I only drank two cups of coffee, one ginger ale and a small cup of milk on the flight and I'm paying for it in Washington DC. Splitting headaches, dry mouth and lips and a general feeling of awfulness. Still, I have a $4 bottle of water in my room that I won't drink because I'm outraged by the price. So, I shouldn't complain too much.

Dehydration notwithstanding, it's been a pretty great trip. If you've ever met me in person, you'll know that I don't go anywhere or do anything without Ben. In the three years since we last worked at separate jobs, I can safely say that we, on average, spend no more than two hours away from each other a week. Yes, a week. So, this four day trip has been a huge change for me, one that I was incredibly fearful of facing. Other than accidentally oversleeping three hours (Ben's my alarm), it's been pretty painless^* and I'm glad I took the trip.

^*Of course, Anil's here with me and I've already called him Ben on about three different occasions. And, at dinner last night, having the second best dish of ice cream ever just wasn't the same. Anil calls that photo above "ice cream is so sad without you."