Monday, June 29, 1998 -- Mountain View, California

Major sunburn.  Went to a festival yesterday on the San Jose State University campus called the Fleadh festival.  It's pronounced "flaw", because Guinness sponsored the festival, and I believe the name is Gaelic for 'festival'.  Yup.  So there were 20 bands playing all day until at least 11pm.  I left at about 10pm, as I was absolutely beat- jetlagged, tired, sun-dried.  I forgot my sunscreen and am now crispy.  But it was great.  John Lee Hooker played, which was quite unbelievable.

So I'm now I California.  I'm on a mission to acquire a couple things.  You know that digital camera I've been promising?  Well I think I'll finally bite the bullet and buy one.  Yes, at Fry's.  I hate that place.  Full of pasty nerds and rip-off prices.  The take their product returns and instead of sending them back to the manufacturer, they put them through a shrinkwrap machine and try to resell them to unwitting nerds who they think don't have the intelligence to discern broken, used product from new.  You think I've been burned there before?   Nah.   But they have better prices than FNAC.

This has been a good trip so far.  I've been in Paris/Europe for six months without coming back here, and have had time to absorb the differences.  It's a strong contrast, which I really hadn't noticed as much.  Silicon Valley has some quirks that I hadn't spent much time thinking about before.  More on that later.

Short entry tonite- we have some pictures back from La Croix Valmer (the little town we stayed in next to St. Tropez).  It was a blast.

So here's the hotel:	A look the other way leads to the beach:

So we worked hard, as you may imagine.  Yeah.

More shortly on my trip to California this week.  Oh- Marc Andreessen was in Paris this past Monday- he's travelling all through Europe promoting Netscape's new strategy.  He was in a great mood and boy, has he lost weight.

So it seems I'm posting this on a monthly basis.  Waay to long between entries.  Anyway, in Paris today.  In fact, I've been here all week.  It's been very nice, relaxing.  Had a lot of work to do, but at least I can get it done in my office.  I'm heading out today for St. Tropez, will stay there tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday.  I understand the weather is perfect there.  I've never been to the Cote D'Azur so it should be fun.  I'll be sure to take some photos with my IXUS and post them.  Next week is a bit of travel- Zurich, Frankfurt.  Then on Saturday (6/27) I fly to California for two weeks.  I'm really pumped, as it's been six months since I've been there. What will be great is that I'll be there over the 4th of July.

This Sunday (6/21) is Fete de la Musique in Paris.  This is where everyone in the entire city who can play an instrument goes out into the streets, parks, sidewalks, cafe's, etc. and plays.  Every bar, cafe, etc will have some kind of performer.  Some friends and I are going to hang out (likely) in Jardin de Luxembourg and watch the jazz.  I tell you, Paris is such a great place in the summertime.  The cafe's buzz, people are out, and especially right now, with the Coupe du Monde (World Cup) going on, there a tons of people from all over the world.  For the most part, aside from the occasional rowdiness (like with the Scot's last week), it has been very peaceful and harmonious.  It's great to see so many people from all over the world come in and have a super time.  One of the great things is that it doens't get dark until about 10pm, so working until 8 isn't that bad.  I love to eat late, and most of the restaurants will seat and serve you until at least 11pm or midnite.

I'm now planning my holiday this summer.  I'm doing a European-type vacation.  I'm taking the entire month of August off.  The first week I'll be in Paris, then on to Stockholm for the Water Festival, then to Ireland and Scotland for some hiking and exploring.  I realized recently that it's been over 2 years since I've taken a real vacation.  This will make up for it.  Fortunately, I wont' miss much at work, because the rest of Europe will be on holiday too.  Hopefully they'll be on the Costa del Sol and not in Stockholm.  My best friend Jim will be coming with me, which will make the tour so much better.  He lives in Minneapolis, so maybe the Water Festival won't do it for him, but I'm sure Ireland will.

Oh, by the way, the french is coming along ok- "ta pas dix bal?".

So here I am at the Al Bustan hotel in Dubai.  It's a fine place.  One of the famous Leading Hotels of the World.  This is just a marketing phrase.  So here's the hotel:   I have one of the rooms just left of the umbrella.  When I heard that none of the windows could be opened, I freaked on them and they gave me a cool room with patio doors overlooking the pool.  I wanted to go swimming tonite, but there was a big party with lots of people in suits, so I thought they wouldn't appreciate my wandering through with no shirt on dripping wet.  But tomorrow I'll go.  So I work all day tomorrow, then have a day off on Friday.  My flight is at 1am Friday night (or Saturday morning).  I'm looking forward to going home.  This has been a tough trip.

So Abu Dhabi and Dubai are very modern cities with all the comforts.  TV is generally how I judge a place- do they have CNN (of course everyone does...), do they have movies, are they in English, do they have sitcoms (current or stale reruns).  France, by the way, runs 1 year old reruns of Seinfeld.  BUT, I did stay up until 3:30am last week to watch the final episode, which was broadcast about 10 minutes later than the one in the US.  We had the added benefit of NO COMMERCIALS.  Cool.

I've been in Saudi Arabia for 4 days now.  It's ungodly hot and they tell me it isn't even summer yet.  It's something like 38 degrees.  The heat and sun burn, and melt everything, especially in the car.  When we were waiting by the car today, one of my hosts looks at me and says "you could fry an egg on that car", pointing to a blue car near us.  He was serious.  So if you know what you typically go to Dhahran for, then you know where I was today, as there is only one thing here, but I can't say where I went- I guess it's a matter of security.  Let's suffice it to say that it accounts for 97% of the country's revenue.

So I've been in the "Kingdom",  finally.  What a culture shock.  This is truly a monarchy, where the king is absolute ruler.  The country is quite conservative, which I actually don't mind.  The people are really friendly adn courteous.  I've been hosted by a couple of the Netscape resellers in KSA, first in Riyadh, then Jeddah, and finally Dhahran.  Tonite I fly out to Bahrain/Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.  Photography in general is discouraged here, so I haven't taken many pictures.  I did take a couple, and if possible, I'll get them scanned and drop them here.

So I understand Dubai will have some great electronic gadgets.  This is what I love.  I want now to buy the Nokia 6110 mobile phone.  I have fallen in love with it.  Also, I'd like to get a digital camera, still.  Maybe I can find one there.

So what have I been doing here?  Mainly making speeches about Netscape.  At each city, we've been having a seminar where people can come and hear about that Netscape has been doing and what this stuff is all about- connectivity to the Internet, intranet software, etc.  You see, Saudi Arabia is one of only 2 countries left who have not yet hooked up to the Internet.  There is a tremendous amount of interest in it, however, and they have announced support for it.  Right now they're in the process of determining how access will occur- who will control the access.  There are many concerns over all the filth that gets distributed will not be downloaded here.  I certainly understand.  There is a LOT of junk on the Internet.

Working at home today.  Had a great weekend.  Yesterday was a holiday here in France- Paque they call it.  Basically Easter Sunday and Monday.  The streets were quiet yesterday and I was able to get some tremendous rest.  Not only that, but it's been a bit cold here lately, and yesterday it SNOWED!!!  The snow didn't stick, but was great to watch as it came down.

So I was in Amsterdam last week and finally bought a camera.  It's the Canon IXUS:   What a great gadget.  These things are sold out all over Europe.  I was wandering through the airport and I checked, as I have so many times in the past, to see if they had any of these things.  They happened to have just gotten a shipment in the previous day and were nearly sold out.  I bought it on the spot.  I was with a colleague and after she saw the camera she bought one too.  Too bad they don't take digital shots, too.  Well, I'm still looking for a digital camera and you can be sure I'll post the photos when I get them.

I'm in Hanover for CeBit.  Just arrived and am in the taxi to the convention center.  I've never been to CeBIT before, and I understand it's like 5 times the size of Comdex, which I've vowed never to attend again.  Unless I'm as rich as Bill Gates, in which case I'll fly my 727 there and buy a hotel to stay in.  Oh yeah, and take a helicopter to the convention center and buy a few restaurants to eat in.  Anyway, the traffic is getting bad as we're nearing the place.  Today is the first day, and I'm presenting IN THE BOOTH four times today.  Woo Hoo!  I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to trade shows.  I've been to over 100 of them and frankly, if I never went to one again, I wouldn't cry.

So the past few weeks I've been travelling tons.  Last week I was un UK and Germany, same this week, then I go to Spain next week.  I like Madrid, so will get to spend 2 days there.  It'll be nice and warm, and I think I'll be able to get outside during the daytime for a few moments.

I'm in the Netscape sales office in Munich.  I'm with a colleague from the States and we flew into Munich from London late last night.  Got here about 11:30pm.  Headed straght for the hotel.  Went right to sleep and now in the office.  I heard this morning that the firefighters are on strike in Paris, which means, logically, that both airports are nearly closed.  We have some important meetings in Paris tomorrow and now I've got to scramble to find a guaranteed way to get there.  I'm not looking forward to doing a all-nighter on the train, but that may be what we'll have to do.  I really don't get all the strikes going on in France.  So far, in the last 6 months, there have been firefighters, truckers, metro employees and pilot strikes.  It's no wonder they have this reputation.

So I was looking at possibly buying a camera in duty-free last night at Heathrow.  They have these really cool gadgets with the new Kodak film system.  I haven't yet decided, but I think I'll go for it.  This doesn't solve how to get digital pictures, but it will give me something more portable than what I currently have.

I'm on the flight to London this afternoon.  Flying into the London City Airport rather than Heathrow.  I'm heading to an evening presentation for Anderson Consulting.  I'm traveling  most days this week.  Today and tomorrow I'm in London, Wednesday in Munich and Thursday back to Paris, then Thu evening back to London.  It's fun, but kills the personal life.  I don't mind much at this point, but if it goes on for much longer I'll bet I'll get sick of it.  Anyway, I'm still in the 'honeymoon' phase with travel in Europe.  There are so many new things to explore.  I've got to update my wardrobe, especially my suits, so I'm going to be looking for some stuff while here.

At the office today.  Yesterday was a day trip to Frankfurt.  I gave a talk on electronic commerce to a group hosted by GE.  It was a very impressive venue.  Maybe about 150 people were there.  It was fun.  Unfortunately it was entirely in German, so I didn't understand a thing.  I gave my talk in English.  Wouldn't it be funny if no one even understood me...

So anyway, I was at the Frankfurt airport and some guy selling digital cameras snapped a picture of me and I thought it would be great to post it here:

Thursday, February 12, 6:55 pm -- Airspace over Europe

I'm now on the airplane home.  Stockholm was fun.  I got to the hotel, went right to sleep, woke up, ran to the press briefing.  Did a 30 minute presentation to the press, then had an hour to review and prepare for the afternoon presentation.  That one was great, too- about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  So I'm heading home- early in fact- I thought I was taking the 7:45pm flight and was able to make the 6pm flight.  Glad to get home and rest.  I have a big day tomorrow.  I'm going to the US Embassy to get a second passport.  I'm going to the middle east soon and I understand it's good to have the Israeli visa in a separate location than the Arab country visas.  So I'm just doing this as a precaution.  I'm supposed to go to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in a few weeks and frankly I'm a bit nervous about all the US hubub with Iran.  I sure hope the issues can be resolved peaceably.

Enough politics.  So this weekend I'll be hanging out at home.  I have tons of stuff to do- US and French taxes, French homework, work work, etc.  But I also want to do some clothes shopping, and also buy some gardens supplies- I want to set up some balcony flower boxes.  I plan to get some climbing plants that will make the front windows much more charming.

So right now I'm in a taxi in Stockholm writing this.  Yes, that is literally how much time I have.  I'm heading into Stockholm tonight for a presentation to the press and analysts tomorrow.  We (euro marketing) have been on a european tour the past two weeks to evangelize the latest announcements from Netscape as well as address many other things we've been doing- free client, takeover rumors, etc.  No, I can't comment.

So I've done tons of travel- too bad what I mostly see is airport, taxi, hotel, restaurant, hotel, taxi, airport.

But occasionally I get to do cool stuff and since I love to eat anyway I get to have some fine authentic cuisine.  Unless it's on the airplane.  Then, well, you know.  As long as I'm on the subject, I think Air France has some ok airline food.  I would say United is next.  Now remember I mostly travel on business, therefore it's business class.  Accordingly for my (or my company's) extra thousand bucks I get my drink in a real glass rather than a plastic cup, and I get steak au poivre or salmon filet rather than beef or chicken.

Well I'm getting car sick and am nearly at the hotel.  Stockholm has an interesting situation at the airport- first the currency exchange closes early- like 9pm.  So tell me, where the hell do visitors get money for taxi's?   Which brings me to my second point- there is this really funky thing with airport taxi's- you have to negotiate your fare at the airport.  God, do I pity the unknowing tourists here.  So what the hell is the french franc exchange rate for kronor anyway???

Come to think of it, my nephew's birthday is this coming Sunday.  Have I had a chance to get him a present yet?  No.  I really need a personal secretary.  Nah.  So I think I'll get him something cool from Stockholm.  He'll be glad it was belated.  By the way, he's 12, I believe.

So here I am at my hotel.  It cost 345 kronor.