Saturday, April 01, 2006
NYC
Another VIP lounge... this time in New York City... I'm not certain which airport this is, though it looks like probably JFK.
My flights today (and tomorrow) are LA to New York to Casablanca to Marrakesh. I'm going for another EO University. I realized at the end of my LA-NYC flight that I'd been sitting behind one of my EO friends the whole way. He's an EO member from San Diego that I know from past EOU's. He's also some sort of turbo-platinum frequent flyer on Continental Airlines, so now I'm in the VIP lounge as his guest. Comfort, quiet, electrical outlets, showers, massaging chairs, TVs, WiFi, whatever we glorified monkeys need.
One of my Pop's tenets: "It's expensive being poor." JT's corollary: "It's cheap being rich." I trust my readers to connect all those dots. The above quote is a clickable hyperlink to a transcript of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits... for your enjoyment and edification.
I am carrying four computers on my person, running 4 different operating systems... A Windows laptop (for business), a Mac laptop (for creative work), a Treo 650 phone that runs the PalmOS, and an iPod. If you didn't think an iPod qualified as a computer, consider that it has a hard drive, a lighted color screen, an operating system, a file management system, audio output, and 3000 times the data storage that I had on the computer I used to start my business in the late 80s. (Thanks, Mom.) My new Mac is a music-composition platform... It can emulate a couple of thousand instruments, with rhythm loops, multi-tracking, digital editing, etc. There's a 5-octave keyboard in one of my bags, and a microphone. I hope that all arrives in one piece. It's basically a fully-operational recording studio that any major record company or band would've paid 3 million dollars for in 1990. The future is here.
My time in Morocco will be pretty well choreographed, thanks to EO, a tour company, and most of all my trusty assistant Amy, who's done a lot of work on planning and arranging while I coasted along in genuinely blissful ignorance of the details. Casablanca, Marrakech, Fez, Mansour, Eddahbi, Essauouira (don't ask me to pronounce that). I'll be with EO types most of this time... all business geeks... but all bright and doing interesting things, and I can always find a black sheep or two to talk to or wander off with.
Meanwhile, I've been working on a business acquisition that suddenly came up as a seize-it-or-lose-it opportunity within the last couple of weeks. That will be an exciting thing to announce if it goes through... but it has meant doing a crash program of analysis, communication, negotiation, troop-rallying, and strategizing. With all the major projects we're already busy with, it's a little crazy, but also energizing and interesting, the sort of challenge I like to jump into sometimes... and then leave my dutiful, hard-working, already-fully-employed staff to back me up handling the details, logistics, nuts and bolts... It is symbiotic for all of us, and fun for all I think, but it does make a lot of work for them, and I very much appreciate their willingness to take it on.
...
This will be my first visit to Africa. Maybe I'll post again from there.
My flights today (and tomorrow) are LA to New York to Casablanca to Marrakesh. I'm going for another EO University. I realized at the end of my LA-NYC flight that I'd been sitting behind one of my EO friends the whole way. He's an EO member from San Diego that I know from past EOU's. He's also some sort of turbo-platinum frequent flyer on Continental Airlines, so now I'm in the VIP lounge as his guest. Comfort, quiet, electrical outlets, showers, massaging chairs, TVs, WiFi, whatever we glorified monkeys need.
Eddie Murphy Voiceover: Slowly, I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other for free.
One of my Pop's tenets: "It's expensive being poor." JT's corollary: "It's cheap being rich." I trust my readers to connect all those dots. The above quote is a clickable hyperlink to a transcript of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits... for your enjoyment and edification.
I am carrying four computers on my person, running 4 different operating systems... A Windows laptop (for business), a Mac laptop (for creative work), a Treo 650 phone that runs the PalmOS, and an iPod. If you didn't think an iPod qualified as a computer, consider that it has a hard drive, a lighted color screen, an operating system, a file management system, audio output, and 3000 times the data storage that I had on the computer I used to start my business in the late 80s. (Thanks, Mom.) My new Mac is a music-composition platform... It can emulate a couple of thousand instruments, with rhythm loops, multi-tracking, digital editing, etc. There's a 5-octave keyboard in one of my bags, and a microphone. I hope that all arrives in one piece. It's basically a fully-operational recording studio that any major record company or band would've paid 3 million dollars for in 1990. The future is here.
My time in Morocco will be pretty well choreographed, thanks to EO, a tour company, and most of all my trusty assistant Amy, who's done a lot of work on planning and arranging while I coasted along in genuinely blissful ignorance of the details. Casablanca, Marrakech, Fez, Mansour, Eddahbi, Essauouira (don't ask me to pronounce that). I'll be with EO types most of this time... all business geeks... but all bright and doing interesting things, and I can always find a black sheep or two to talk to or wander off with.
Meanwhile, I've been working on a business acquisition that suddenly came up as a seize-it-or-lose-it opportunity within the last couple of weeks. That will be an exciting thing to announce if it goes through... but it has meant doing a crash program of analysis, communication, negotiation, troop-rallying, and strategizing. With all the major projects we're already busy with, it's a little crazy, but also energizing and interesting, the sort of challenge I like to jump into sometimes... and then leave my dutiful, hard-working, already-fully-employed staff to back me up handling the details, logistics, nuts and bolts... It is symbiotic for all of us, and fun for all I think, but it does make a lot of work for them, and I very much appreciate their willingness to take it on.
...
This will be my first visit to Africa. Maybe I'll post again from there.
