When I travel for work I can expense the cab ride to JFK, so I use a local car service. Normally, they are pretty reliable. But when I left my building at 7pm to catch the cab, it wasn't there. I phoned the service and asked them if it was on its way ( Read more... )

I am beginning to love business travel for the simplicity of hotel rooms.

I'm pleased with myself: despite having been back for only a brief amount of time, I've managed to accomplish several minor errands and tasks--some practical, some for enjoyment ( Read more... )

This week I've been working again, in Singapore at the global conference for Spatial Data Infrastructure.

After Bali, it is surreal.
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This has been my first real vacation in months. I'm sort of shocked by how much time I've spent just processing my life. I've been on a grueling schedule since June or so with travel, getting our major software release out, conference preparation, more travel. In the past two months I've had hardly any time to myself for reflection ( Read more... )

For some reason it's important that tourists wear flowers in their ear today. I've been given flowers three times--once when entering a restaurant, once when entering a palace-turned-performance space, and once angrily by a man in the performance space who discovered I had gotten rid of my other flowers. Now I have a red one in my right ear.
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I'm currently in Ryoshi, a Japanese restaurant that's playing smooth jazz. They aren't serving cocktails at the moment.

I've spent the better part of the past week in Ubud, the main tourist center in Bali, Indonesia's Hindu island.
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From first impressions, Indonesia seems like the chillest country I've ever been in.

"They're creatures of the abstract. They live off potential energy."

I am easily distracted by the abstract.

My concrete here and now are astonishing to me. The work I've done today, the encounters I'm preparing for, have all receded for the moment. I can try to reach for them without exerting myself, but they move away and I find myself ( Read more... )