Actually, I have no idea why I’m referencing Billy Joel’s classic song, “New York State of Mind.”  I just seemed to fit.

I arrived in Hong Kong this morning after completely skipping Friday. It’s already Saturday here, for those of you that are timezone challenged.  I’m now 15 hours ahead of Vancouver.  But the best part is when I come home and I actually go back in time!

I’m in the city for some ICC meetings and I can’t help but be a bit excited.  As I was in the bus from the airport, we came over the suspension bridge into Kowloon and suddenly the mountain-sides exploded with high rises.  Then I looked to the right to Hong Kong side and saw the epic skyline from the picture above.  This isn’t my pic — I just found it on the interwebs. But funny enough, the weather today is almost identical to the photo.  It’s grey and low cloud, but muggy as hell.

Me and airplanes don’t really mix when it comes to sleep and I just did the Asia equivalent of the red-eye. The plane left Vancouver at 2 am on Friday and landed in Hong Kong at 6am on Saturday. So I still have a whole day to get through… and I’ve had maybe and hour and a half’s sleep in the last 36 hours.  I think I’m going to find some food and then take a nap.

Oh, and a note to Air Canada: Overall, flight AC 017 – Vancouver to Hong Kong on Friday, October 8, 2010 was great and I love flying the 777 as it’s very roomy.  But that food was horrific. I’m just puttin’ it on the record.

In all fairness, I do need to say that Air Canada totally gets it right with the Maple Leaf Lounge. THAT is the way to sit and wait for a flight and well worth the extra bucks I paid to get in since I’m not Elite status or anything.

Well, honestly, who would be.  Thank you, Province Newspaper!  My goodness, I love FailBlog.

These two people have a problem with photos being taken of them in rooms with bad lighting.

I leave for China on Friday. I’m super excited and I have no idea what to expect. I won’t have access to Facebook or Twitter while I’m there — thank you, Great Firewall of China — so this will probably be the best place for updates as I’m traveling for the next couple of weeks.

I almost look like I know what I’m talking about.  However, my friend Mike Nierychlo DOES know what he’s talking about.  Read his blog and you’ll become an expert on wine and impress all your friends at your next dinner gathering.

So, we tried Molson’s Old Style Pilsner (and here), Labatt’s Lucky Lager and Pabst Blue Ribbon (and here).  This whole thing started with me mentioning Lucky Lager on my Facebook page and Mike invited me to come on his show and talk about it.  But, in the end, I think I actually preferred the Old Style Pilsner.  It tastes good and the illustrations on the cans are pretty classic at the same time.

It’s been hard to miss the news of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano (Seriously? A Wikipedia entry already? Awesome.) in Iceland.  It seems like every news website has something about it.  The images on the internet are incredible — they’re beautiful and horrifying all at the same time.

Iceland is not the only country affected by the eruption, but the entire planet has felt the effects.  Air traffic through Europe has virtually been halted and would-be travelers have been advised to check the status of their flights.  I’m one of these would-be travelers.

On Tuesday, I’m supposed to fly to London via the world’s busiest airport and at this point I have no idea if my flight is going or not.  This is a real inconvenience to me.  The nerve of Iceland to have a volcano erupt just when I’m about to embark on a trip!  Some would say they hate Iceland.  Me, I feel a bit different.

I have a theory.  What if this wasn’t a natural event at all?  What if this was in actuality a grand scheme by a worldwide criminal organization — a terrorist group, if you will — that had secretly been building a subterranean lair that had access to the Earth’s core.  And what if that terrorist group did some sort of rejigging of the tectonic plates while sending explosives into the core that has how triggered this volcanic eruption!  The aim being, of course, to disrupt air travel the likes of which we haven’t seen since 9/11.  The ash from the volcano could easily bring a plane down and me with it. Truly a horrifying scenario.

If Dick Cheney was still the Vice President of the U.S.A., I have no doubt in my mind that he would have used his super-secret personal intelligence guys to make the link and then track these guys down… personally.  The volcano itself would have to have been an accomplice and have been branded a threat to national security.  Then the U.S. Army would have to go in, subdue the volcano, get it to stop erupting and restore the world order. Mission accomplished.

Yup, it’s worth thinking about.  That’s what I’ll be pondering as I check my flight status every day until I leave.

Recently, I had an amazing experience.  I gave my girlfriend a gift.  It wasn’t a new item nor was it completely unexpected – she had half-jokingly asked me to buy it for her.  But, she didn’t know if I was actually going to get it.  And she didn’t know that if I did get it, when I was going to give it to her.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to purchase it for her.  It wasn’t super expensive, but then it wasn’t the price of a cup of coffee either.  It was enough that I had to seriously consider the purchase and its impact on the thickness of my bankroll.

What the gift was isn’t important.  What is important is that it cost real money and that it was somewhat unexpected.

As I was driving to where my girlfriend was, I started second guessing myself.  After all, this was probably the most significant thing I had given her since we started dating.  I started wondering if perhaps I was overdoing things; that I was making a mistake.  Was it too much of a gift? Would she actually like it? What if she hated it? What if she hadn’t been serious when she asked me if I would get her one?

As I brought the gift out and handed it to her, I knew that all my fears were unfounded – the surprise was evident and she clearly loved it. Her eyes widened, her breathing shortened up and she was lost for words. Then she smiled the smile that she only gives to me, thanked me and gave me a quick kiss.  At that point, I suddenly realized the power of what I had done: I had removed all defenses from each of us by giving something without asking for something in return.  I was vulnerable in the giving. She was vulnerable in the surprise and the receiving.

She told me later that she couldn’t figure out what I could possibly be bringing her.  “But, what a lovely surprise,” she said over the phone, the smile coming in loud and clear.

I’ve given and received many gifts in my life. But, never has one been of such impact or significance to me. And never has one shown me so clearly how a gift is for both the one who receives as well as the one who gives.

It’s been over a year since I posted anything in this space.  A lot has happened and I’m not sure if I’m even able to go over it all and do it justice.

Here’s a brief synopsis…

An election. A failed business venture. A lazy summer.  A stressful summer. A hunt for work. A long hunt for work. A VERY long hunt for work! A girlfriend. A temporary job. And then, finally, a job I think I’ve always wanted.

So, a bit of a quiet year… yeah, right!

In all of it, I’ve wondered about faith and belief. I’ve had moments of incredible elation and far more times of utter despair.  I wondered what I was worth and then at other times I knew exactly what I was meant for. Up and down. Side to side. At times focused. At other times, I was like the dog in “Up” who could be– SQUIRREL!!

I’ll go into more soon.

I’m at Vancouver blogging conference, Northern Voice 2009.  I’ve been looking forward to this for some time as a chance to learn some new things as well as a chance to network with others who are passionate about social media and networking.

Just finished the keynote by Stewart Butterfield, one of the founders of Flickr.  It was a quick overview of his love of the internet and how much technology has changed people into participants and sharers of their experience at that moment.  You can read a live blogging recap by Miss604 here.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the day!

So I returned from Edmonton after visiting my brand new niece, Julie.  I’m not biased, but she is the cutest baby of all time.  You just take a look at this photo and tell me I’m wrong.  And if you DO say that I’m wrong (ie. you have girls of your own and feel you are obliged to disagree), I’ll probably just ignore you until you change your mind and say the right thing.

But, seriously, Julie is fantastic and I’m very much going to enjoy being Uncle Sam.

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In the course of an average day, I probably read about a million emails and blog posts and twitter feeds all with information about the interweb, mobile phones, dwarfs and marketing.  Ok, that number isn’t quite right — probably closer to two million.  Anyway, today I’m looking at one of my usual mobile marketing sites and they have one of those annoying banner ads.  You know the ones: “His IQ is 145!  Can you beat that? Take the quiz.” and they have a picture of Bill Gates or Stephen Hawking or Bono.

The one I saw today was especially disquieting because it confirmed what I’ve been wondering for a while: those celebrity IQ numbers are total bullshit.  “Her IQ is 120. Can you beat that?” coupled with a picture of Paris Hilton.  ‘Nuff said.

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We got this really crazy email at the Broadburst office today.  I can’t say who it was from.  I can’t even speak to the substance of the email.  But let’s just say that my grid was blown off its axis and I think our business will never be the same again.  At least, I hope so.  I know that’s cryptic, but that’s just going to be the way it is.