I'm back home briefly after business trips to Boston, San Diego, Dallas and Austin (twice).  October was a crazy month, with little time for blogging or blog reading.

Here are a few things that caught my attention during my travels.

San Diego is a beautiful town.  I was there just before the fire became an issue.  I'm certain I couldn't afford to live out there, but it is pretty.  I had dinner at Osetra.  It was OK, but not as good as its reputation.  The hostess told me she was the highest paid hostess in San Diego.  So there you go.  I spoke at a conference at the W Hotel.  That place is about 3 notches too hip for me.

I read somewhere that Google is trying to get some phone company to agree to put Google bloatware on its phones.  I don't want that crap on my phones any more than I want it on my computer.  Note to Google:  it's pretty easy for people to install stuff they decide they want.  You don't really have to force it on them.  Or do you?

Congrats to Mike and family!  I am sorry I was off the grid for the big event.

I think Deadstring Brothers is one of the best bands working today.  Hear Ya has the scoop on their new record, and an MP3 to sample.

Some asshole spammed my comments repeatedly while I was off the grid.  You know who I hate more than asshole spammers?  The stupid  f***kers who buy enough stuff from spammers to keep the system from self-imploding.  Spam has already made email worthless.  Are blog comments next?

Steve Rubel says in one post pretty much everything I believe, and have been writing for a long time, about Web 2.0.  It's been very obvious for a very long time that almost everything related to the internet is about money.  Which is why so much of it bores me to tears.  Dwight has a great take on it.

Sympathies to Karl Martino.  I still grieve for my mom, and it's been over 9 years.  It gets easier, but it's never going to be OK.

Raina got an iPhone.  It is beyond cool.  If it could pull my corporate email, I'd pay to get out of my Verizon contract and buy one this second.

I'm finally getting around to reading the last two Hyperion books.  The first one is one of my all-time favorite books.  The second one is just as good.  So far Endymion is not doing it for me, but it's early.

I saw Knocked Up.  Hilarious movie.  Highly recommended.