I have reached new lows of blogging output. It has been months since I have posted with any regularity. This soon becomes self-fulfilling as the pressure mounts to ultimately cease this publishing embargo with something of profundity.
In parallel, during this same time, my home has become increasingly cluttered with clothes begging for pressing, and a slew of suitcases in various states of unpacking.
Coincidence? I think not.
Earlier this year, I took on a new role here at Google. As Head of Special Initiatives, my already adventuresome gig at the company has risen to new levels of non sequitur pursuits. I will still be building new stuff like Google WiFi and doing what I can to keep the enemies of innovation on their toes. Now though, in addition to that stuff, I have been walking the earth and shouting Google stories from the mountain tops.
Since January, I have been an unrelenting road warrior. Though I have customarily enjoyed business travel, 2006 has been something of a bumper crop. In fact, I got an email from USAir on March 1st letting me know I was approximately one flight to NY away from earning Gold Status for the year in their frequent flier program.
So where have I been? Well, Kottke popularized a list called the year in cities detailing each place in which he spent at least one night. So far, in 2006, mine shapes up like this:
Mancora, Peru
Lima, Peru
San Francisco, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
New Orleans, LA
Park City, UT
Squaw Valley, CA
Manhattan Beach, CA*
New York City, NY*
Manila, Philippines
Tokyo, Japan
Dublin, Ireland
Belfast, Ireland
Torino, Italy
Nassau, Bahamas
Beverly Hills, CA
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Aspen, CO
(*cities stayed in multiple times on nonconsecutive days)
It has been such a wild year. From getting a chance to pass through the Sundance Film Festival, to checking out the Grammys and even spending some time at the Winter Olympics, it has been one adventure after another. Along the way, I have participated in some great discussions, explored some disruptive deals, and given talks to some frightfully intriguing people.
Nevertheless, this really shouldn't be any excuse for not blogging. My sincere apologies. In the weeks ahead, I hope to kick back into gear and dump more of my thoughts onto these pages. In the meantime, I have a few tales and observations from these travels that might be worth sharing. Stay tuned . . . until then, I need to get started on this laundry . . .