Sorry, I think I forgot to set my alarm
Four months. That’s a hell of a long time for a site to go without a post. Good thing it’s only been three months and 28 days since I last updated this site. Whew. That was close. (And for those of you who have been checking this site periodically during the down time, yes I am still engaged and yes Ozzie is still really cute … and much bigger. I got several emails from people wondering if there was something wrong with their internet browsers — Dan, your site never seems to change. Mostly, though, they just wanted to know how Ozzie was doing.)
I don’t have a good excuse for the lack of recent activity on this space other than the truth: For a jobless man I’ve been exceptionally busy. Something had to get neglected. It ended up being this site. You can see the fruits of some of my labor over at Shanghaiist, which has grown dramatically since I last mentioned it here. We now get around 4,000 unique visitors a day, and numbers keep going up. An editor at one of Shanghai’s English-language magazines recently told me she considered Shanghaiist to be “a force” in the city. Although, to be fair, we were in a bar and it was loud — she could have easily said “a farce.”
Also, I have a pretty big feature on Shanghai coming out in the July/August issue of Budget Travel. That took up some time, not so much the writing part, but the research part. I had to recommend about 50 places/activities in around 2,500 words. The story is called “My Shanghai is Better than Yours” — their title, not mine — and I should be having a related “live” chat on MSNBC.com (Budget Travel is owned by Newsweek). I’ll keep you posted on the details.
Finally, I’ve been busy with another major project that I’m pretty excited about — unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to discuss it in detail right now. Give me a few weeks and I’ll tell you all about it.
In the meantime, why don’t you check out some of my photos that have piled up over the past quarter of a year. Here are some of my recent albums over at Flickr:
- Ozzie!: All Ozzie all the time. The cutest, coolest dog in the world (even if he has a weird foot fetish). He’s about 20 kg now — quite a change from little Puppy X. And now he’s wearing a lampshade around his neck — just got fixed this week, poor guy.
- A Shanghai Wedding: My friends Tony and Joyce got married in February at Shanghai’s grand (and unheated) St. Ignatius Cathedral. Tony is from Shanghai, Joyce is from Hong Kong, and they live in New York. This was my first wedding in China, and it was complete with scores of photographers (professional and non-professional), plenty of costume changes and lots and lots of bubbles. Congratulations, guys!
- Hawaii: My friend John once said, “You sure do seem to take a lot of vacations.” And I suppose it does seem that I travel more than the average unemployed guy. But it’s all a combination of smoke and mirrors and frequent flyer miles. And if my brother and his wife continue to have cute babies each year, I guess I’ll just keep having to go to Hawaii. Poor me.
- Lost Airplane: In Hawaii, we found the wreckage of the Oceanic Airlines (more info at Wikipedia) plane that was used on the TV show Lost (heard of it?). It is on the island of Oahu at Dillingham Airfield (more info here, here and here), which is near the beach house we stayed at in Mokuleia, on the northwest corner of the island — many of the beach scenes on the show are filmed there. If you are planning on hunting down the wreckage, it is pretty close to where you would go for a glider ride. More information about the history of the plane used in Lost can be found here.
- Moganshan: We went to Moganshan again this spring. Only difference this time it was a little colder … and I drove. More info on how you too can get a Chinese driver’s license at Shanghaiist.
- Shanghai Post Museum: I recently stumbled upon a nice new museum in one of Shanghai’s fantastic old buildings. Head to the park on the roof for some classic views. Read more about the place at Shanghaiist.
- Shanghaiist Happy Hours: Shanghaiist has started holding monthly Happy Hours at different locations thoughout the city. They’ve been a lot of fun, and are gaining in popularity. Back in April, we had 130 people show up. See some Happy Hour photos here, here and here. If you are in Shanghai, come to our yet-to-be-scheduled next Happy Hour!
There is more, actually. But it will have to wait. I am typing on a PC that likes to shut down without any notice. I have learned to “save” often. Why am I on a PC? Well, we bought it through Taobao after my iBook broke. Then, a few weeks later, Bliss’ iBook broke. I have managed to go through two iBooks in about a month. Goddam logic boards.
Bliss and I will be in Miami and Savannah — yes, another vacation — next month and I’ll be buying one of these.
That’s not the only new technology I’ll be using next month. Expect some major changes to this website. I know I’ve said that before … but it’s for real this time.
Enough about me — how have you guys been doing?
05.25.2006, 4:41 PM · Diary, Photos · Comments (3)
