He’s getting really good at the half-smile. He does it all the time now. When we fail to entertain and amuse, he does the courtesy half-smile. Cuz he loves us.
August 2010
27
Aug
2010
This kid gets cuter and cuter every day. Yesterday afternoon we ran all over town trying to jump through hoops so he could get a passport (expedited). We might be taking this guy on a little adventure very soon…
His hair looks super blonde in the passport photos. He’s not really that blonde though. Crazy stuff.
23
Aug
2010
San Diego
Beach
San Diego was great. So relaxing and refreshing. I love the ocean and I love riding waves. I normally just do boogie boarding but this time we rented some surf boards and gave it a try. It’s exhausting and it’s tough. I wanna get better because someday i’d love to travel all over the world to find the best waves (like in Endless Summer). I would be fine with being a beach bum and letting my kids grow long, nappy, greasy beach hair. I haven’t shared these plans with Rachel yet. I’ll think of a good way to tell her.
Sam-Bam
The thing I liked most about San Diego is I feel like I got to spend a lot of time with my son. I feel like he’s starting to know me more. He’s interacting with me more. He’s smiling and laughing with me. It’s so wonderful to see and it just makes my heart melt every time he giggles and laughs with me. He looks up to me and loves me. I’m starting to feel it more and more each day. I was able to really feel it start to grow while in San Diego. I loved, loved, loved spending the time with him and this was by far the best part of the trip.
I’m still messing with the hipstamatic app. Pics below.
17
Aug
2010
The dudes just hanging out in San Diego. Look at Sam. Such a cool cat with the hater blockers (shades) on.
16
Aug
2010
The Samster
I love this kid. So much. I’m so excited to spend time with him this week while we’re on vacation here in San Diego.
At home it’s usually me coming home from work (and these last few months have been crazy busy) and then it’s him going to bed. We don’t get much time to hang out. And he’s usually grumpy, fighting bedtime.
He brings so much happiness to me. I can’t stop thinking about this post I wrote on my flight to China, and what it means to me on a day to day level. I’m trying to put together a solid personal game plan. A plan to never forget or lose these feelings. And a plan that’ll leverage these special feelings and turn them into actionable tasks to help me grow, reach goals and be better. Like I mention in the post, it’s time to elevate my game in all aspects of life.
15
Aug
2010
Hipstamatic
I downloaded an iPhone app called Hipstamatic and was messing with it. The only thing that I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t save the original image (unadulterated). Instead it automatically saves the image with the hipstamatic effects. Kind of a bummer. But still fun to mess with.
Rachel and Sam below in both pics. We’re currently in San Diego.
13
Aug
2010
I’ve never had vanity plates in my life. However, when we moved out to CA we received these as a gift from Anne Dwane, our CEO. They were an awesome gift and we are proud to finally get them on our car. We hadn’t had to register our car here until recently so that’s why they are just now getting up. Thanks Anne!
8
Aug
2010
FC Barcelona in Beijing
After a marathon day working in the office, Al and I headed over to the Bird’s Nest to watch some football. It was a “friendly” match between FC Barcelona and Beijing Guan (China club champs). We were entertained by the worlds best footballer, Lionel Messi aka La Pulga.
As soon as I heard Barcelona was in town earlier this week I jumped at the opportunity to attend. I absolutely love to watch high quality football. Last summer in Europe I had the opportunity to watch two Real Madrid matches. So much fun.
Barcelona won 3-0 tonight. Two of the goals came in the first 15 minutes. We thought for sure we’d be in for a high-scoring game. But for whatever reason, Barcelona cooled off until the ’89 with a pretty Ibrahimovic goal.
I was just a little bummed that Barca didn’t bring their “A” team. So many of their superstars were absent: Dani Alves, Pique, Bojan, Puyol, Xavi, David Villa, Iniesta. This Barca team is such a star-studded squad — many from the Spanish national team (World Cup Champions). It would have been a real treat to see them all play. I’m guessing they’re still on holiday.
But still…overall I had a wonderful experience tonight. I got to watch Messi (Yes, THE Messi), Ibrahimovic, Abidal and Milito. What a great way to end such a wonderful week. I’m sure i’ll be back soon enough to visit our team here in Beijing. We catch a flight back to SF tomorrow. It’s late and I wanna go to bed. Peace.
The Bird’s Nest
The pitch.
Barcelona jerseys in the subway. Yes, that’s a vuvuzuela. They have somehow caught on in China. It was annoying (yet fun) to hear them live. Most of the Chinese didn’t know how to properly use them though so the buzzing was off and on (unlike Johannesburg). :)
7
Aug
2010
Out and About
I was on my feet pretty much the entire day today. This is what happened…
Lisa (a zincher) took us around today. She is so, so awesome. We did a lot of walking and she was a trooper. I really appreciate her taking the day to help us not get lost in Beijing.
We kicked things off with the Forbidden City. What seems to be calm and quiet in this picture is…a lie. It was mad chaos inside. Sooooo many people.
After the Forbidden City we went to a shopping district (forgot the name). I needed to get something for my wife and son. I can’t say I was super successful…but I made a few purchases as fall-back for if that was the last chance i’d get. We also had lunch in the area and I had no idea what 80% of the food was. That’s always frightening.
We also saw a dude do the Rubiks cube blindfolded. Nuts. Basically he memorizes the layout of the cube first, then gets blindfolded…then does it. I got video of it but was too lazy to upload it.
After shopping/lunch, we hopped in the subway and headed to a College Fair. A group of American Universities were there showcasing themselves. We had a booth there so I went over to help. It was great talking to the Chinese high school students. So many of them were already on Zinch and they love it. I get the sense that it means much, much more to a Chinese student. So much more is at stake. It’s cool to hear the difference it’s making for them.
By far the best part was watching our crew in action. Loved it. I’ve mainly been getting to know product/tech. But today I saw marketing in action. Wow.
The materials, language, buttons, shirts, country and people are all different. But the hustle is the same. They preached it pure. The more I get to know the team, the more impressed I am. They did a flawless job today. Props to Tiffany/Chris/Team. The people are what make Zinch so great.
Not everyone from Zinch who attended is in the pic/vid below. Here are a few.
After the college fair, our small entourage headed out for dinner. It somehow grew to include groupies from the fair. It was funny.
Dim Sum was delicious.
Then we went to some sort of show at a local university where study abroad students (from Harvard/Yale) were performing skits and talents. They were here during the summer learning Chinese so all the performances were in Chinese. It was fun but I couldn’t understand a word of it.
That was the day. Today was a little bit of a breather from work…but still exhausting. Tomorrow we’ll be back in the office with the team.
7
Aug
2010
Capitalism
I saw these little advertisements throughout the Forbidden City. For such an historical landmark of a Communist nation to have this…well, it’s fascinating. I wonder what the CPM is. With the amount of people going through there each day, i’m guessing Amex is getting a pretty good rate. :)
