Current Affairs

FEMA’s apparently saying Katrina may be the worst natural disaster the country has ever experienced, and from what I’ve seen and heard in the media, I believe it. What is there to say but that I’m so sorry this is happening?

My brother lived in New Orleans for two years after college, and, growing up in Houston, I had the opportunity to visit quite a bit over the years. When my Scottish husband and I took our first big cross-country trip after buying our car, we made sure to stop into the Big Easy — I had to show off what I consider to be one of America’s great cities. Now I have to wonder how much of it will be left. And, of course, the loss of life and property looks to be immense. It’s stating the obvious, but it will be a long time before things get back to anything resembling normal for a whole lot of people.

Kudos to the folks at the Times Picayune (which, I believe, include two members of my journalism school class) for keeping the world informed, despite the difficulty of doing so.

It’s a bit off topic from my ordinary posts, but my pal Tom Watson, in his inimitable way, has issued something of a challenge to bloggers, including myself. The story of Mukhtaran Bibi — who has been taken into police custody in Pakistan for speaking out against serious abuses — is well deserving of widespread attention. I urge you to check out Tom’s post and do whatever you can to help — including spread the word.

Like the Googlers, I took part (along with my invaluable support person, my husband, and a couple of friends) in the Bay to Breakers event this weekend. For me, the 12K wasn’t a run. It was an amble — and seeing as I’m 7+ months pregnant, I’m pretty darn proud I finished at that leisurely pace. Feet throbbed, back hurt… but I made it to the end and beyond. (Whose idea was it to put the MUNI shuttles a 1.5 mile walk from the finish line?)

Talk about a cultural experience. I couldn’t help but think that the more countercultural aspects of the event — lots of nudity or partial nudity, plenty of open containers on city streets — would never have flown in New York. I guess it’s still Free Love-ville around here, or at least that aspect of the culture raises its head now and then. It was great, though. Because I was toward the back of the very substantial pack, I got to witness some of the more, shall we say “colorful” elements. I didn’t catch the Google folks, but I did witness some interesting moments.

One of the more “dot-com” experiences occurred when we stumbled past the finish line. A race official stood on a platform with a bullhorn, telling people how to reach the shuttles, the concert, t-shirt pick-up and the like. His spiel on the t-shirts went something like this, “If you registered for the race, you can pick-up your t-shirts at the polo fields, but you’ll need your bib number. If you didn’t register, you can probably get a t-shirt on Craigslist in a couple of days. Heck, they’re probably already available on Craigslist.” How’s that for an endorsement?

So… rumor has it that our own Gary Stein has received a challenge from Forrester’s Charlene Li. Does it involve analysis maybe? Blogging maybe? Nope.

What I’m hearing is that Charlene’s thrown down the gauntlet to Gary, challenging him to a swim across the San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz (and back?). Gary’s big on cycling, and apparently Charlene is training for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. As if the online advertising/marketing world isn’t exciting enough, we’re getting swimming races thrown into the mix. Gotta like that.

Overwhelming. Yes, that’s the main word that comes to mind here at Ad:Tech. As a reported 6,500 people mill about the Marriott (God forbid you are staying at this hotel and not involved with the show in some capacity.), I’ve heard reports of one exhibitor serving beer on tap out of their booth. And the folks next to them upped the ante by offering minibar-sized bottles of vodka. All this before noon. (Hey, it’s after 5 somewhere!) I can only imagine what the scene will be like next year, when this event is scheduled to be held in the Moscone Center. Most likely, the extra space will lower the intensity a tad.

We’ve transitioned from what I described as “intense house-hunting mode” to intense house-buying mode. In this SF Bay Area marketplace, we were amazed to find that our first offer on a house was accepted — after a bit of back and forth. (Hopefully this doesn’t mean that we were suckered into paying too much!)

So, I’ll spare you from my musings about inspections, woefully inadequate electrical systems (aka not ready for TiVo or WiFi), mortgage loans, and gardening in the Albany, CA microclimate. Things on this blog might be quieter even than usual.

Looking forward to meeting with and seeing folks at Ad:Tech next week. Apologies to anyone who has reached out that I haven’t been able to get back with. Things have been crazy with conferences and travel (not to mention house buying in my off-hours). Still, it looks like there’s plenty going on so I’m sure I’ll run into a lot of people. I plan to be there all 3 days.