Dec 10

• It turns out I have 16,000 Delta skymiles that expire on 12/31/08.  These days I rarely fly Delta, since any flights on the west coast usually fly via Salt Lake City.  I thought a great way to use these is to 'gift' them to my parents, who are skymile junkies.  However, it appears that to gift miles you have to buy them...wha?  This doesn't make sense to me, and I certainly don't want to pay $60 per 2000 miles when I have 8x more that are due to expire that I earned flying.  Since I don't need any new magazine subscriptions (the other option for miles due to expire), I wonder if the skymiles are going to the big fluffy clouds in the sky sooner than I'd like.  The WSJ reports that many mileage programs are cuting back and only about 35% of flyers are styaing loyal to their airlines in the current economy. Definitely not surprising.
• Back from LA, no longer sick! Check out the new Airbus 380 at LAX (pic on twitter)
• Almost finished painting the new pad, pics coming soon- hopefully next week.

Nov 23 - home snow home

• I came out of the 12 hour in-transit relatively unscathed.  No delays, and even got in slightly early on connection and to upstate NY.
• I'll be spending the rest of this week in central NY watching the snow-covered trees sway in my family's front yard.  Warning me to not bother to exercise out in the chilly air (no sweats!), but just stay inside in my thick socks.  My brother is also home, and this week we're planning a day trip to Ithaca and some excursions out for movies and beers.  I think I see Quantum Solace in my future soon.

Nov 19

• I'm not looking forward to spending 12 hours in transit from San Francsico to a chilly Syracuse on Saturday.  I'm even missing the 1st ever YouTube Live event November 22nd.  For anyone who's not spending 12 hours in transit, you can check out this free streamed event that will be happening all day with dozens of performances.  I see "mythbusters" as a confirmed guest - perhaps live stunts are also part of the program?
• My fellow Fordham alumni and friend Joe Kutchera got a shout out today for his new role at ContextWeb, heading up Spanish speaking contextual advertising.  Joe just returned to NYC after a stint in Mexico City.  Unfortunately, I can't speak Spanish with him when we catch up, but I'm excited to see he's back stateside and working on such exciting stuff.  It's great to see ContextWeb realize and seize this market opportunity as well, as 23 million spanish speaking web surfers are out there.

Nov 18

• Things aren't bright for online advertising's near term, according to Citi analyst Mark Mahaney. "October spending in display saw a sharp deceleration from September as advertisers continue to worry about the macro environment," he wrote. "Premium, guaranteed advertising, especially, has been highly impacted across all verticals."  Mark does note however that there are some sunny patches such as vertical ad networks.  After all there's only 300 or so of them out there.  I see some consolidations/filtering out in the next six to nine months, if not sooner.
• The real big headliner today is about Jerry Yang stepping down from Yahoo's top post.  This isn't suprising to me, and in fact I'm suprised it took this long. WSJ blog names several successors both inside and outside of Yahoo who could fill his shoes.  Among them Meg Whitman, Tim Armstrong from Google, Kevin Johnson of Microsoft (who was supposed to run Yahoo after acquisition) and Susan Decker Yahoo's current President.  I predict an annoucement before Thanksgiving.  The successor?  I think an outsider will be picked, someone who has a proven record of turning around companies with an operations or financial background.  Who that will be remains to be seen.

Nov 17

• The weekend was great.  A record high of 80 on Friday, and sunshine everywhere around San Francisco.  Unfortunately I am still cramming in apartment painting so I didn't take advantage to the weather unfortuanately.  I keep forgettig to snap progress photos - but here's one from earlier in the process. I'm glad to report this room is now 100% complete.  And full of all my boxes now...
• Have you seen Obama's fireside chats yet?  The press is comparing it to Roosevelt's fireside chats on national radio.  Due to air weekly during his transition period and with 3:34 running time, it seems like a good way to get out some quick thoughts.  If you go to search for it on Youtube however, it's not there.  My guess is the strategic placement of this on change.gov is also introducing him to his complete 'brand' and what he stands for and an opportunity to learn more about him from his site.  
• 
  

Nov 13

• I'm enjoying these photos about White House Perks.  There's some great links here to view Barack family and days in the senate. My favorite is Michelle Obama's expression while getting her finger pricked for an HIV test in Kenya. 

Nov 12

• Feeling lousy? Sneezing or coughing? Maybe you have or think you have the flu.  There's a bit of buzz about the new google.org Flu trends site.  My boyfriend heard about it on the radio yesterday.  It's on WSJ's personal homepage today.  I'm sure bloggers all over are talking it up.  It seems like a great joint effort headed by the CDC to predict epidemics.  Don't forget to check it out and get your flu shot if you see your area rapidly swarming with infestation.
• Now you can hear and see your gmail as well as read it.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122643926441518379.html?mod=djemTew
• Syracuse, NY is a mere 10 days away.  Home of the only upside down traffic light in the US. That's right, I'm heading home for the holidays.  Hopefully only by planes, and no trains or automobiles.  For any of you 'cusians, I'm planning to post an event on Facebook that week. Stay tuned for details. 

Nov 11

Swallows the World?

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/ad-share-shift-update-google-swallows-world

I think the title here is  a bit over the top.  So print and other traditional channels are losing.  Is this Google's fault?  Would this not be declining if it were only Yahoo, MSN, and AOL taking a bit out of traditional media?  My guess is yes.  In my eyes, online is merely playing catch up with it's traditional media sisters.  If online ad spending matched online eyeballs, this figure would be closer to the 30% of ad spending dollars. There's still some catching up to do.

• Hard to believe but does anyone out there remember the MySpace suicide story?  It's almost a year to the day (Nov. 15 2007).  Tradegy stuck again today when the state of Missouri did not bring any charges.  However the plot thickens with a new indictment - fraud for setting up a fake name account on MySpace.  Unfortunately the web's dark side, and dark people, stepped out of the shadows on this one.  It's just another reason to be smart on the Internet - check in with your online kids.   Educate your kids.   Be smart on the Internet.  Unfortunately, I don't think this type of harassment will go away anytime soon, and it's extremely difficult to prevent.  Educate and use judgement, always.

Nov 10

• • It's official.  Eric say's he's staying put at Google and nay to the US Tech Czar post.
  • WSJ published its top 40 women to watch in 2008.  Apparently a third of them work in the financial sector (#1 is head of have some work cut out for them) including Sheila Bair, "who has been thrust into the spotlight in her bank-rescue role as a hard-charging regulator at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp."  Good luck there, Sheila.
  
  
  • My new apartment is coming along nicely in the painting dept. thanks to Rachael & Doug DIY Painter Corp. We are halfway through.  Yesterday we finished painting these walls and removed the tape.  All that's left to do is paint the baseboards white, or 'silver feather'. Oh yes, and the other 2 bedrooms.  There's also a lovely shop-vac that's been idle in the bathroom since the contractors finished there.  Anyday now I hope its owners come by for it.  
    

Nov 6

• I haven't brought up any Internet Advertising news in a while.  I have come across plenty of insights, but haven't been blogging them.  It's time to start again!
• Mary Meeker strikes again and her NYTimes article sheds some light on what to expect in the near future for advertising and online channels.  I remember when stocks would rise and fall like window shades based on her reports and press quotes.   The mere title "Cheerful Gloom" reminds us there may be tough times ahead, but there's a silver lining at the end due to emerging platforms, and increased global traffic.

Nov 5

• Yes we did.  At least that's what my friend Leigh says (works on Obama's web site at bluestatedigital.com).  Last night Obama won in a landslide victory.  I thought it would be a much closer, slower race.  But at 8pm PST, we had a clear winner.  Just when I was sitting down to eat my pasta dinner.  We were going to pop open a bottle of bubbily, but realized we should dive into my chocolate cake and save the bubbily for when we can actually finish a bottle of champagne.

Nov 4 - Election Day!

• Enjoy your election day, free cup of coffee, free scoop of ice cream, and anything else that helps for the cause.
• Check out the real-time election tracker Google gadget below:

- I got a kick out of this on Truemors.com - the Google logo guy

- Vote Vote Vote!

Nov 3 - Rainy season is here

• It looks like the rainy season has hit the bay area.  It seems odd to have rain after, oh 10 months of no rain, but I know we need it. I just have to put up with soggyness for a bit.
• Everyone is gearing up for the election tomorrow.  It seems like many things are free.
• Free starbuck coffee, Free Ben & Jerry's.  Nice promotions for a good cause.  As an absentee voter, I don't know what I'll be able to snab.  
• After checking out the YouTube barackobama.com page, I went to the site and couldn't believe how well organized its volunteering section is.  I mean, within moments I had options to volunteer today or tomorrow to make calls to swing states on the candidates behalf.  Very web 2.0.  I think that is due to some tech savvy folks (wasn't there a facebook exec who left?) leaving their posts for the obama campaign.
• Remeber to cast your vote tomorrow in the US!  It's a priviledge for all of us.

Oct 14 - gearing up for new pad

• For those of you who followed my eipc 2-day bike ride and udpates, thanks for all your support. I was busy updating my MS page and neglected old Blue.
• Now that the ride is over and I blew my fundraising goal out of the water, I'm focusing this month on moving. I bought a condo here in San Francisco, and move in October 25th. Needless to say, lots of spare moments are spent rolling items in newspaper, packing boxes, and purging. Pics of the new pad coming soon.

Sep 2 - How I spent my Labor Day weekend

My latest bike route was a windy-windy 45 mile loop in North Lake tahoe on Saturday. Combined with the altitude, it definitely helped prepare me for the upcoming 2-day 150 MS ride (did I mention I'm fundraising?) Feel free to click the MS icon on the Right.

Truckee-Tahoe loop

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Aug 18th - Tri for fun

On Saturday I finished a fun-tri that in Pleasanton, CA (east bay). At the nice early hour of 7am, Jess and I showed up with 9 minutes prior to the start. Luckily in wave 4 we had a bit more extra time. It was a fun tri, so no official times were taken, but I did still get marked up with my number (why?) and timed myself, for a finish time of around 1:13. 8:10 swim, 33 min bike, and 30 minute run, plus a few minutes here and there in the transition area. I had a great race, deciding to hang back in the swim til the fasties took off, and had a great bike and run ride.
Here's a map of the bike ride portion:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/ride/united-states/ca/pleasanton/760441701070

or just check out this map:

This coming weekend I need to switch into running gear - I am a last minute sub for hood to coast - the longest and biggest running relay race in the country, from Mt. Hood OR to the coast near portland!

I took a picture but it was blinded my my inappropriate flash from my cell phone - so sorry no pics :|

Happy training,
Rachael

Aug 12th - Olympic games rowing blog

• My good ole coach and friend Glenn Merry blogs from Beijing as part of US Rowing on how the opening ceremonies went, and all the rain at the rowing venue. Very entertaining and some good video and pics of the custom $100 made-in-china tailored suit. Good job Glenn. Good luck!
  

Aug 4

• This was a very active weekend. On Saturday I decided to test my cycling legs and try a 'metric century.' It sounds much harder than saying "100k" It was a very scenic and fun ride around Marin. I didn't have room to take the camera, so no pics, but there were about 1000 folks joining us, along with seasoned biking friends. I managed to survive and felt tired, but really happy and challenged after the day. I have a bit of work ahead of me, as you may know I've registered for a 150, 2 day Waves to Wine bike ride for MS in September in the bay area. On a side note, I am really loving my new bike! Thank you BMC and Endurance for pointing it out to me!
  

• Sunday was a day of rest, but one on the high seas of the SF Bay. I gathered up a gaggle of friends to join me on a day sail from Sausalito to Jack London Square and Angel Island. We had all kinds of conditions. We left at noon, so it was windier than usual due to the later time of departure. Winds were about 24 knots at their pick on the way out, so we flew over to Oakland in no time, thanks to tailwind and current. When we got to Alameda, we made a necessary and well-needed pit-stop at one of my favorite bars, Heinold's First and Last Chance. Founded in 1883, this place is still standing. Barely. Literally, it's where sailors who were headed into the Great Pacific had their 'First and Last Chance' to grab a drink before heading out. the bar is dark, dank, musty, slanted from the 1906 earthquake, and filled with memorabilia from the last 130 years. Like McSoreley's for sailors. The Bloody Mary's are reportedly top notch here, as reported by my fellow sailors. (I prefer the Moosedrool bottles). Thanks to captain Max for another great day on the bay! (I didn't take any pics here either but maybe I'll borrow a few from my friend Amy who managed to take some great shots).

July 14

• Happy Bastille Day tout le monde. Celebrate your inner Frenchieness with some pommes frites or freedom fries. As you wish.
• I'm off today to Vancouver for 2 days, then I'm off to Boston on a red-eye Thursday to almost start my week off next week.
  

July 10

• Today I joined mapmyrun.com - apparently you can post your workout route like this one I did today. It was a bike ride on the new bike, not a run :). After wolfing down lunch in Sausalito around mile 34, my legs were S H O T.
• Mapmyrun.com is a free, very web 2.0 cool. Search for friends, rate routes, map a new run/bike/walk/dog walk/kayak/canoe, and have your own training log. Best of all, you can see how many calories you burned. Today: 1500 calories on the 42 mile loop! I'd heard about it from friends and decided to check it out. Give it a whirl
  
  It took about 4.5 hours, including lunch.
  

July 8

• I think I have a new favorite pastime in San Francisco. I bought a road bike about 2 weeks ago from EndurancePTC...a cycling training center based in San Francisco and Marin. Now that I've ridden the bike 3 times (going strong I know) I am really liking it. Today I went to check out one of their ecycling classes. These are indoor 90 minute sessions, where you bring your own bike and hook it up to a computer indoors, and ride like the wind to crazy music. (I loved the music, not sure if the older gents enjoyed Prodigy or Foo Fighters as much as I did). I am happy to say I survived the class, and I'm totally hooked. Maybe it was watching the Tour de France live on the 8ft projector screen behind our instructor. It reminds me a lot of rowing on the erg - you're just a little more haunched over on the bike.
  
• Speaking of bikes, this weekend is the Donner Lake Triathlon I'm doing. I feel ready after jamming in so much last weekend. This ride today helped also. Now it's just relax, and try not to injure myself crossing the street or the like before Sunday. I'll be camping up at Donner Lake Memorial State Park, along with Jessica who's doing it again with me (we attempted 2 years ago together), and a relay team consisting of my bf and 2 friends. We'll also have 3 cheerleaders/waterboys camping with us, including recent NYC transplant Maria, who moved here last week!
  

June 30

Some fun sites for today I've recently discovered:
Don't eat the gummy bear soap!
http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/

If dog's had party fouls they'd be something like this http://faildogs.com

June 26 - Humpack Whale Spotting in Monterrey Bay last week

Photo by Amy Campbell








2 Weekends ago some friends and I rented a 46 Ft Beneteau sailboat in Santa Cruz. We had a GPS with us so we mapped out our farthest point. What was a big surprise were all the Humpack whales we saw. The calm bay allowed us not only to hear the whales surface, but we smelled their lovely breaths and saw a few even breech. It was surreal and spectacular.
Out on a rented 46" Beneteau, we wound up seeing close to 100 whales.
Our coordinates:
36.8676,-122.0618 - Google Maps

My Photos (no whales but plenty of group shots):

2008-06 Monterey Sail

June 24- RIP Steve

Over the weekend a friend was hit and killed on Route 1 just North of Ano Nuevo State Park, in San Mateo County. I hadn't seen him for 6 years, but I always wanted to get in touch with him since we'd both moved to San Francisco. Steve and I went to the same college at different times, and majored in something completely different than what we managed to pull off in our professional lives (he english, me geography).

Needless to say I'm a bit shaken up over all of it. Steve is the 2nd person I know who was killed unsuspectingly by a drunk driver. Ironically, another friend named Steve was killed back in 1998 in my hometown driving home at 9am from a meeting on a rural road, by a drunk driver. He was 26 years old. My friend was 30. Way too soon to leave us.

I keep thinking about Steve's voice. I sat within earshot of him and always heard him on the phone speaking to customers. His voice was so calming and soothing. If I were a disgruntled angry customer, I'm sure I would feel better in some way after speaking to him. It sounds so hokey, but his voice was calming to me. Steve, you will be sorely missed.

• http://stevewolkoff.wordpress.com/

June 18

A fellow x-NYC'er is packing up and heading west to San Francisco. Another San Francisco recruit! I put my friend Maria on a plane today after a 2 day visit. She is returning in July to take up residency in our wonderful city. Here's a pic of us from a while back at Fordham homecoming 2006 - her undergrad my grad alma mater. Did I mention she's single? Takers? Takers?

• 
• Tomorrow I'm off to Seattle for a few days. Work and then catching up with some good friends who are married and also Starbuckers (what do you call someone who works for Starbucks who isn't a barista?).
  

June 6th

• I love maps. I love maps with useful things like homicides in San Francisco. Useful in the house hunting process!
  
• I'm feeling very sporty today. I'm off to my sprint triathlon tomorrow, then volunteering at Escape from Alcatraz triathlon along the bike route in Golden Gate Park on Sunday. Feeling very sporty since I got fit for my new bike today
  

June 5

Blog This:Google’s turf expands 42.2 acres | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com\
Only 5.2m in rent - what a steal!

June 4 - Obama in the house

• I admit I voted for Hillary in the primary. I, like many other voters, became Obama supports over the last few months. It's been a wild primary, and I'm glad to see it winding down at least on the primary side. Go Obama go!
• This weekend is my first (sprint) triathlon in almost 2 years. I have 3 lined up this summer. I feel ready and am excited to finally swim in the bay. Anyone near McNears Beach at San Pablo Bay on Saturday eve, feel free to stop by.
• I Sex and The City'd it up last night, at the Westfield theater with almost 10 other lady friends. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but it was a fun watch, although a bit on the lengthy side. Sort of like a mega-episode of 2.5 hours. I laughed a lot, and even had a few flashbacks to my NYC days. Particularly the one where I didn't know which way Manhattan was on a dark, rainy, late night out on the Manhattan bridge, in a cab. After the movie got out all I wanted to do was drink a tasty cosmo and call my NY girlfriends that I always miss.
  

May 28th

• I played around with http://www.gapminder.org today which is a great site that displays visuals across data points in a ver simple, easy to understand manner. Check out some of the example graphs and play them forward as they map across time. My favorite is the population boom. Note to self: be a 'better visualizer' for idea mapping and explanation - lets see what happens.
• For anyone in SF or LA, NYC, Chi-town or Honolulu - if you like cheap or free drinks, you must bookmark myopenbar.com or sign up for mobile text alerts. I read about it on a good NYT article about scruffing it in the big apple. Many of these "tips" certainly rang true for me. Although I never paid more than $350 for rent before moving into Manhattan from the starter boroughs, I had my fair share of flasks and scrappy dinners. In fact my house had a name for them, "gruel" - a tasty rice, beans and chicken dish that seemed to last all week and packed a good lunch/dinner/snack.
  

May 27th

• Memorial Day weekend came and went, as usual, too fast. I stayed local and had my 1st group golf lesson at Presidio Golf Club in San Francisco. My instructor Morgan was great and basically broke down my entire 'golfitude' to re-assemble it into 3 components: grip, posture, and alignment. Very helpful. I think this will help me lots since the last formal golf lessons I had were when I lived in NYC.
• This article on Twitter was a good one. I agree and like this business model, although it is going in the wrong direction to keep everything free, according to Chris Anderson. I read this article and it made a lot of sense to me as part of the online industry. Then I read this rebuttle on freeconomics, which had many good arguments as well. I predict things will meet in the middle to appease both sides, but I lean towards Anderson based on his examples and theory.
  

May 22nd

• 2009 looks to be a banner year in search - lookout microsoft. The graphs nicely illustrate how Google is such a large threat online, surpassing revenue share but from the office side a wide gap still remains.
• A great article on managing Google calendar, or Gcal. I'd use it anyday in place of evite, good idea.
  

May 14th

• I want to leverage these new Google Maps features in my soon to start real estate search. I'm a big fan of Zillow and Trulia. I'm sure Zillow will add in street view as Trulia has.
  
• I have been summoned for San Francsico Jury Duty at criminal court. I was all set to show up and not even postponed, but today I realized it conflicts with training. See you in October Judge!
• Today and tomorrow are supposed to be record highs in downtown San Francisco. We're talking above the 80' mark, a big fit 90 degrees. I wasn't going to believe it but today I walked to work with no jacket under a warm sun and no wind. Perhaps this is one of the times weatherman are 50% correct.
  

May 9th

• As a Twitterer this article made lots of sense to me
• TGIF! I'm looking forward to going road bike shopping this weekend. I need something a tad faster than my 21 speed 10 year old Novara mountain bike. The time has come.
  

May 7

• I've been busy these past weeks. Very busy. Busy enough my Tweets have decreased to just a few per week ( I try to do at least 2 a day during the week.) Why the increased busybee factor?
• Work! I haven't changed jobs, but my company was acquired so I've been ramping up on new systems, new PC, new phone, new building. The little things add up, but it's all moving along at a good pace, and definitely under control much more than a few weeks ago when the move happened.
• Leisure. Well, more like fitness ramp up time. I'm getting off my duff and have a fitness program for some upcoming spint triathlons this summer, and some half marathons. I'm getting my a%% in gear and it's definitely about time! I seem to enjoy the Jan-April months as my down mode. It's practically cyclical and guaranteed as I've noticed this trend the last few years. At least I know it's not permanent.
  
• This morning I went running with my rowing NYC friend Jess. She actually rowed yesterday am with our old club back east. I am impressed that she can muster up the energy and time to go to rowing practice while on a 24 hour trip to NYC. I'm not sure my back could take it these days, but heck I'd take a spin too. Next NYC visit they can put up with a retiree like me.
• This weekend I'm attending KFOG Kaboom - fireworks timed to music
• Before fireworks I'm going to a 'support merlot' party that starts at the late late hour of 2pm. Only in CA!
  

April 27

• I spent yesterday sailing around the bay on the annual opening day on the bay. We had a tight crew with 11 of us packed on a 38' boat, but we got cozy and settled in for some great sailing, in the order of pleasant, cold, windy, really windy, calm, windy, hot and caribbean like (thank you Angel Island windshadow), and back to windy. Ah, sailing on the bay, there's nothing like it!
• Apparently Americans enjoy being web voyeurs, as stated here. On a global scale it appears we have our boob tube mentality and prefer to sit back and watch. I agree with that statement, but at least the blue bobsled offers up some spice right? (crickets).
• I'm heading to San Jose for 2 days this week for work. I don't usually get to San Jose, so I'm staying over downtown to avoid 101 commuting.
  

Aprill 22

• Guess the world's #1 brand?
• While we're on the subject, read about chef life working for the #1 brand
  

April 14 - back from last Tahoe

• While most SF'ers were out tuning up their golf game or bike, I spent the weekend skiing at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe. Never mind the fact that it was closer to 70 than 17. Snow was still available for the most part. I can't remember the last time I skied without my ski jacket. Too bad I'd forgotten my shades.
  

It's always sad to say goodbye to skiing. 2007 was a good year for me - Colorado, Whistler, 2 trips to Tahoe chalked up to some great ski stories, various conditions, and some diverse terrain. Farewell winter, hello foggy spring.

Aloha! Off to Hawaii today

April 1st

• For those who haven't heard, San Francisco is the only US city scheduled for an Olympic torch drive-by. On April 9th, Olympic torch will be carried along San Francisco's waterfront and briefly pass through the Marina District. The event will start at 1 p.m. and it will take the torch about an hour and a half to traverse the approximately 6-mile route, according to Giselle Barry, the spokeswoman for Newsom.
• Lots of controversy surrounds this torch trip based on the violence in Tibet and a number of other various issues against China and what it supports (Dafur funding).
  
• It's too bad the Olympics must be centered around political strife. The Olympics are a celebration of best in class sports. Let's try to focus on the athletes, the honor to bear the torch, and the upcoming 2008 world's best athletes.
  

March 31 - sick but recouping

• I spent the weekend trying to get better from a bad headcold. I think half of San Francisco has this headcold. I gathered with fellow sickies sat eve at an engagement party (I could barely stand up after an hour) and on Sunday it would've taken all my energy to go through with a golf lesson I had at 5:30pm. Fortunately my golf pro called to say he had a bad cold and couldn't make the lesson. I'm on the mend today but have the hack cough that is never pleasant. Hoping I'm better by the end of the week.
• Glam gets rid of house ads -for the small pubs they service on their network. If I helped build Glam and this was the email I recieved, I am not sure how I'd take the news. Glam does offer a host of alternatives stated in this update.
  

March 21 - Twitter coordination for SF protests

• On March 19 the fifth anniversary of the US occupation of Iraq passed, and anti-war protesters in San Francisco used Twitter to coordinate their movements. The twitter log notes everything from who's arrested to where die-ins were happening (Not sure what that means). All this happened 1 block from where I live. SF is a very political and activitist oriented city. It's good to see they are leveraging technology on the activist front too.
  

March 20 - Is it Equinox time yet?

• I know where I live it's the same temperature 10 of 12 months, but I crave the Vernal Equinox. I'm a huge equinox / solstice fan. Maybe it's the earth science affinity I have, or that I need excuses to gather friends and hold a party every 3 months. It's symbolic for me that time is marching on. What is different from last year? What is new this season? What are my priorities now? It's a good benchmark and check in no matter what you're thinking about - parties to planning.
  
• This equinox I can't help but think about all the positive things happening to me. Sure I have my downers, but the postives outweigh the downers. As it should be. Perspective, along with equinoxes, help keep us all in check and focus on priorties, the good things in life, and what we're doing about it.

St Patricks Day - More clickers Emily and John s

Must be the luck o the Irish! I was walking down the street, minding my own beeswax, when I heard an insistent knocking on the glass of "Murphy's Pub". Annoying drunks! Actually, when I heard my name shouted from the doorway, I realized I actually know the drunks. Turns out my co-workers were festing it up on an Irish pub crawl. I joined them for two rounds and headed on my route to Pacific Heights as planned before the diversion. Thanks for finding me guys and letting me celebrate this year. I almost missed it.

Tommy O'Schroeder hounded me down on the street, now looking like a shrewd leprechaun.

March 14

• I'm heading up to Truckee today for some skiing with friends. I've never been to North Lake Tahoe to ski, only Heavenly on the south shore. I'm BARTing it up to Concord and meeting the bf to drive from there. The plan is to hit Alpine Meadows. If you're up there let me know.
  

March 13 - AOL buys Bebo - congrats bebo.

• Brother Dan is still here and doing well. Today we are checking out some around town sites in the evening.
  
• The Weather Channel is rolling out targeted mobile ads. It's good to see a relevant use for mobile ads - it's raining in Charlotte? Run to Walmart for your umbrella special! Or maybe it's Lipton who wants to offer you chicken soup to warm you up. I'll test this out later today.
• Viva la france! France plans to develop it's own Google rival. This sounds very minitel-esque. The French pride themselves on their technology, fast trains, and engineering feats. Let's hope they can pull of something that can match up! I would love to see what they come up with.
• AOL bought social UK teen community network bebo.com for $850 million. Bebo, which was advised on the deal by Allen & Co, has struggled in the US, but is the third most popular social networking site in the UK after Facebook and MySpace, where it is visited by 4.1 million, mostly younger people a month. I met the founder of Bebo last year along with their adserving team. I felt so old, but good for them for becoming part of the AOL family. How they will fare as AOL continues to sort out internally is still up for debate.
  

March 11

• My brother Dan is in town this week from Ithaca, New York. He and his girlfriend waived goodbye to snowdrifts and grey skies in exchange for the warm welcomed sunshine. Both Dan and Ann Marie are newly minted phD's and professors in music. They're a great match and we had a 'music appreciation' session last night. We busted out the turntables for Jackson Browne, Neil Diamond, and the grand finale, West Side Story (the original broadway soundtrack). Music geek heaven. What's even more appreciative is that I had all of these on vinyl. Whenever Dan's around, the turntables are never far behind.
• Tonight we continue the music appreciation at Yoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco.
• Google offers insight on it's DoubleClick acquisition that officially closed today
  

March 6 - facebook favorites

• Every time I see this "friend" profile from my facebook contacts, I crack up. Our boy is quite an aspiring celebrity among the facebook advertising crew.
  
• DSM even has 9 friends - more than some of my real friends. Must be his charming good looks.
  
  

• Amazon selling wine - makes for some easy reading. Is the Kindle stain proof?
  

March 5 - Need a map

This is a great idea -but how bout some updated tags other than the blah tote bag?
MAPTOTE

The Napa Party Bus

• A full on 50 seat party bus - dancing in the aisles was prerequisite.
  

• So was falling into each other at stop signs.

March 1st - Napa wine touring for a leap year birthday

• My coworker Kelly takes in the sights and glory at Frazier Winery in Napa - our picnic spot.
  

Feb 28 - Seoul Searching

Seoul Searching
my rowing buddy Gus (or Angus depending on when you met him) has a blog about living in Soeul, Korea and what expat life is like there. I made a joke once to him about finding his "Seoul mate" but it looks like he's just Seoul searching for now.

Feb 27 - Black & White 2008 Ball is here

- I got am email invite for the once every two years San Francisco 2008 Black and White Ball put on by the San Francisco Symphony. I've heard this is a terrific event, and it's only once every two years! From what I know it's black tie, lasts all evening with dining and entertainment, and meandering through the multiple venues at city hall (opera house, symphony hall, etc).
It all sounds amazing - until the $325 price tag appears, per ticket! Jeesh, do I really love Seal that much? I'm not that much of a socialite, so forking up that much is a bit of a stretch for a party. I doubt I can convince my boyfriend to pay that much and go. He's even less of a socialite than I am. There's also a $200 concert/limited ticket available, but that seems like selling short. I will have to sit on this one a bit and see if I am compelled to go. Two years ago the price looks to be $150 per ticket. I know inflation is strong these days, but 100%+ increase in ticket pricing, if that is true?
Yelp has reviews on it - which are good to know about. It sounds like it's best to attend with friends...any takers?
If anyone has gone before or cares to comment - please let me know what you think!

Feb 24

So many good Internet news headlines today - or maybe I had more time to read them today.

- LinkedIn goes mobile - m.linkedin.com - finally!
- Buzz.yahoo.com - launches. I'm a Digg fan, but I did spend 20 minutes surfing around fabsugar.com learning about who's who in rehab.
- Yahoo's Advertiser-Publisher exchange platform launches. This is APEX for short -but that acronym is already too heavily used - by Asian stocks, to salesforce.com lingo already. What other name can they come up with?

Happy Chinese new year

This past Saturday marked the welcome wagons for the Year of the Rat in the Southwest Airlines 2008 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade.

As you can see there was plenty of corporate sponsorship. There was a direct correlation between "cool" floats from the big companies, the airlines, the banks, and the more local, less monetarily endowed entries - like the local Chinese clubs and schools.

Lots of rain poured down, but spirits were high and the firecrackers still scared lots of small kids and animals.

Feb 21st

• Last night was the 1st of 2 lunar eclipses of 2008. I wasn't feeling motivated to see it but after 5 people twittered about it, I went up to the rooftop to take a peek. I've seen eclipses before, but each one is pretty cool. Especially for earth science geeks like myself.

• I'm recovering from my trip to Whistler, BC last week. I only skied 5 days, but it was fantastic. Snow every day and then day 5 was a bluebird day! My favorite part is ski esprit - a 3 or 5 day lesson/guide for all abilities. Let the guide do all the work and give you tips I say! You also get the add-in bonus of built in apres-ski buddies for the mandatory post-ski wind down (aka Canadian beer, Jager Bombs, Vin Chaud). Whistler is the 2010 home of the Winter Olympics - so it's only getting bigger and better. I can't wait for the 3rd annual trip in 2009

Best store oatmeal

Mine didn't look this good

but it was delicious. Hearty and fit for a cold winter day. We don't have this bakery in San Francisco so I'm living it up here with my oatmeal.

Feb 4 - Super Tuesday Eve

• http://www.electoralcompass.com/ - worth your time and effort. This is a great site for anyone who votes in our Super Tuesday primary or beyond. What a great site and who knew the transcripts matched or opposed your exact thoughts.
• Heading to Chicago today for a few days. Should I pack my winter coat?
• San Francisco Golden Gate Club has a lot to offer - besides the picture window views overlooking the Bay and the bridge - I would defintely return. They defintely need a more descriptive and eye-catching served web site. This place has potential -otherwise it wouldn't be the old officers club. Who can do it justice?

I was wondering when this would belly up

Bad business ideas

It gets worse!

What happens when you leave your cube

This is actually someone's desk I walked by today. Shrink wrapped somewhat professionally.

Santa Monica office proof

Hi from Seattle pike place market - Jan 4

I had to fly to Seattle today. Luckily I took off from the San Francisco moonsoon rains and wound up in a party cloudy, pleasant Seattle for the day. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed 2 hours to return home due to the weather, so I wandered around Pike's Place downtown and meandered past Qwest stadium down over to "Hooverville". This is a lively local's bar with peanut shells covering the floor. I met up with my Seattle friend for a drink and a hello. Not a bad way to make the best out of my delayed flight.

More top 10's - Jan 6

I am still getting top 10's out of my system : a few more noteables:

• A medley posted by Guy Kawasaki
• I also like Ari Paparo's predictions - well said.

Who else out there has a top 10 list? Feel free to share.

As for 2008 predictions, I found the following trend predictions from the Center of Media Research accurate and insightful into what 2008 should shape up to be in the dear to my heart "Geek Culture":

The research identified four key driving trends;

• Immersive Living is the rise of lifestyles which blur the reality of being on and offline. Entertainment will no longer be segmented; people can access and create it wherever they are.

I couldn't agree more. This is something that I see everyday with my tech culture colleagues.

• Geek Culture marks a shift as consumers become hungry for more sophisticated entertainment... the boundaries between being commercial and creative will blur.
• A social force in Asia called G Tech, the feminization of technology currently underway, suggests that entertainment will be more collaborative, democratic, emotional and customized.

Now that I know there's a name for the "feminization of technology" - I will be sure to use it. G Tech doesn't exactly translate though....how about just 'socialization of technology' or something along those lines?

• Localism, locally-minded sprit emerging in entertainment consumption, will become a key theme whereby Consumers will take pride in seeking out the local and home-grown.

It sounds like we're all trying to get a little more community oriented in the ever expanding cybersphere. Seeing my local community of twitter friends, facebook friends and neighbors in San Francisco I have to say it feels a little more local and less like the billions of web pages and visits that exist in a day.

Happy 2008 and my top 10 Geekout Things to do of 2007 - Jan 2nd

Thankfully, I no longer write hand-written checks. If I did, I probably would have had to cross out "2007" fifty times already and fudge my 7 into an 8 with some crafty penmanship. I find it hard to believe we're 8 years into this decade. I am still coming to grips with it, but I imagine by May 1st or so it will sink in that indeed time marches on and continues to tick and tock onward with or without my acknowledgement.

Since everyone loves top 10 lists, and they typically surface this time of year, I am jumping on the top ten bandwagon and chiming in with my top 10 list. I thought I'd share the top ten Internet happenings that made 2007 an enchanting year.

Honorable Mention: Giddy about all this virtual real estate
Do you really need to visit a realtor anymore? Zillow.com, local realty blogs, facebook realestate ads, ebay property bids, and 360 views make real estate hunting or competitive shopping an open book. So many great tools for the real estate shoppers in all of us. If only the housing market was doing as well.

10. Making and publishing slide shows for THE most laziest of web browsers.
Thanks to Slide and Rockyou.com, you the viewer can remain a mouse potato and not even bother to scroll down a page, or click a mouse to see all my photos in one neat wrapped up little package. Too bad my non-Internet friends didn't really understand the concept of a 'birthday slide show' and hence never bothered to check out the slides. Maybe in 2008.

9. Widgetized content
The world is going the way of the widget. Now a widget is not only a fictitious business-school term for a make-believe, nondescript manufacturing term. I was quite happy thinking they only existed in the ACME assembly line and outputting at 100% capacity. It's taken on a whole new (2) dimensional persona for anything you can mush together in an embedded object. Just check out the yelp, traffic, or other random widget on this blog and others. Wigetmania has taken 2007 by storm, and I'm sure will be along well into and beyond 2008.

8. Slingbox, Tivo and VOIP, ohmy!
2007 marked my 1st Slingbox, DVR device (not a tivo but that rhymed better), and the mass presence of VoIP in my everyday communications. I'm video conferencing over skype with family. I'm watching Robot Chicken without the poor resolution from youtube pirates and at a decent hour. Oh, and I'm doing all this on my laptop.

7. Consolidation of the online ad market
The pie just got a whole lot bigger. In 2007, Internet advertising finally got a seat at the adults table. This year earmarked online adserving viewed as a critical component for technology platforms that no major online presence can't be without. If only they all would close...

6. Rachael is Facebook makes me feel important!
What would I do without Scrabulous? Or making people zombies with no intentions other than to annoy my friends and waste time? Now not only can I stalk my friends, I can share with them every single divulged detail no one likely really needs to know. Ah, pure minutia for the masses. Seriously, I enjoy the newsfeed as much as the next facebookee.

5. Twittering (see box on right margin of this page for my own pathetic examples)
For the inner geek in you, there's twitter. If you really want to feel like nobody is listening, or you're a fly on the wall, or you have worthless things to share, just type in a twit over IM, SMS, or web and you have a twitter. Imagine if all the unstable people in the world knew about this form of communication, how much better they may feel. I know when I twitter, I'm yelling into a Grand Canyon-like void, with the exception of some random folks who for some reason follow me. It's fun to think you have all these friends!

4. iPhone - non US need not apply!
I don't own an iphone, but my brother and many friends do. It does have great mac integration. I don't own a mac, and my blackberry is doing just fine. I do hope it becomes open to other carriers beyond AT&T so my international friends won't need to ask me for US bought iphones that they can 'crack' in their own country.

3. Flash memory - perfect for capturing embarrassing moments
My camera now acts like a camcorder due to my $40 flash card I got from Santa. Who needs the flip cam now? I take some terrible movies, but maybe with my bigger memory, I'll be more motivated to take incriminating videos.

2. Meebo around blocked sites
I love Meebo. I don't use it much since my company trusts my discretion at what I view on the web at work. But for those less fortunate, or for school kids who may be lucky enough to find it, Meebo is your IM life perserver. It's under the radar enough that you can use your IM on Meebo/AOL/Y!/MSN as a thin client, and your boss will hardly know. I also think its a great business model and they have their heads on straight.

1: The common sense to unplug now and then
My number one highlight, an an ironic twist, is really the absence of technology. I spent last week unplugged from everything except my non-Internet savvy octogenarian grandmothers. Sure I flocked to the keyboard once I had access back in the comfort of my own home. It's absence made me aware of just how virtually connected I am. It's absence reminds me how connected I can stay with folks, soak up random or important info, and how dependent I can be on technology. I am a big believer in work-life balance and having both the plugged and the unplugged worlds exist in tandem. Don't forget to take a breather to unplug - try not twitting on weekends - and remember what life was like way before 2007 - when we had to rely on our people skills and penmanship to maintain connectivity.

Happy 2008 to all!

Rachael