My day started out a mess with a really crappy email …but amazing what a difference a nice email can make in your inbox. I applied last week to attend TEDGlobal and got accepted! I’m thankful for the opportunity to have co-organized the recent TEDxShanghai event as I’m sure that had everything to do with it. I also wrote the equivelant of a novel in answering some of the questions on the application and listed a special someone as my reference that might have helped. I’d like to think it …

Going through my Flickr photos from last year and came across this awesome shot of me and my little sister from her wedding. Isn’t she beautiful? We look happy huh? You would never know that I used to beat her up and steal her candy. Not recently. More like when we were little. As you can see, we’re over that phase.
One person is missing from this photo though. My older sister Susie. It sucks. She lost a 2 year battle with depression and took her own life in 2004 – …

Every single time I’m in San Francisco — which lately is every other week — I have to stop by Katana-ya. If Chris is in town at the same time I am, we usually eat here for dinner. Otherwise, you’ll catch me here during lunch by myself at the sushi bar tweeting about how awesome the food is.
Warning, if you go for dinner be prepared to wait. This place is one of those secret noodle shops that everyone knows about. Part of the reason why it’s packed is because it’s …

Gadgets are usually purchased out of want, not need. Not this thing. I needed this because I got tired of having to decide between my mouse and my Flip cam …or my mouse and my Verizon USB wifi thingy. I depend on my mouse. I need my mouse. I’m unproductive on a trackpad. I got tired of having to use it whenever I had to plug something bulky into my Macbook that meant having to unplug my mouse.
Putting USB ports side by side is a design flaw imho.
Until Apple comes …

On our last night in Kauai, a few of us drove over to a town called Hanapepe. Super cute town. Wanted to share some photos from their Friday night art walk. This is definitely a place I want to come back to visit and spend more time in.
The drive to Hanapepe was about 20 minutes and pretty straight forward thanks to the rental car’s GPS.

Sheila and her son Tommy stopped by the Hanapepe Cafe & Bakery for dinner.

…while Chris made a bee line for the busy street food stand.

…where I …

Special thanks to 2009 Grammy nominated slack key guitar master Makana for the amazing special performance he gave at the Sheraton Waikiki’s Rum Fire to help kick off the So Much More Hawaii tour for our visiting bloggers in style.
All I got to say is, he is an extremely talented artist and amazing person who I absolutely adore.
Apparently, I’m not the only one as noted by National Geographic:
Makana, an acclaimed singer-songwriter from Oahu, whose name means “a gift given freely,” has been called by Esquire magazine the “greatest living player” …

Stepped off a 5 hour flight from Los Angeles yesterday, dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed to the Ezogiku Ramen right behind the Hyatt Regency for a quick lunch with Chris and my little man.
It’s a cute little hole in the wall looking ramen noodle place that’s easy to walk right by and miss if you’re not the type of person who travels to eat and seeks out little hole in the wall looking places to begin with.
My son was pretty hungry after refusing to eat the …

We flew into Honolulu this morning at 11:30am. By 2pm, Chris and I were sitting at the Hula Grill’s bar telling the manager there that Bruce sent us and told us to try the Mai Tai. So we did. Bruce is a friend of ours we met on our last trip out here in January. He and his wife Yaling run a travel agency that still believes in using real live people (what a revelation) to help folks book their next vacation to Hawaii. As with most of the folks …

My son is no stranger to airplanes. He’s flown to Shanghai, New York, Atlanta and this trip is actually his second time visiting Honolulu.  Despite all the previous travel, I still have an inner freak out session every time I fly with him. I can’t help it. The anxiety is no where near as bad as it used to be when he was a baby with crying and dirty diapers being at the top of my worry list while 30K feet in the air. These days, at 3.5 years old …

I came across this on PostSecret. So wrong in a hiliarious sort of way.