One of the rooms in my apartment just opened up, and I’m considering either finding a new roommate or making the room available as a share for people who visit SF often and would prefer to have a furnished room in SF that they can use a few days to a week a month for less than they’d spend on one night in a hotel room.
If that’s of interest, or if you know someone looking for an apartment, read on…
If you or an equally awesome friend is looking for an apartment in San Francisco (starting mid August to Sept 1), a room is about to open up in my apartment. It’s a three bedroom in San Francisco that I share with two other people, and one of them (Jenny) is starting grad school and moving into school housing.
In Duboce Triangle (seriously great, super walkable neighborhood with tree-lined streets, and lots of places to eat.) A quick walk to the Lower Haight or Castro. 2 blocks from Duboce Park (swell dog park — and the apt itself is dog-friendly.) Within 3 blocks, you’ll find burritos, burgers, vietnamese and chinese, bars, a gym, and a 24-hour Safeway (grocery store)
Washer and Dryer in unit.
Shared Kitchen + living room + bathroom
2 blocks from the Church St. MUNI (K,M,T) and N-Judah, J-Church, F-Market, and 22.
$550/month. (Yes this is the insane part. It’s rent controlled because my other roommate has been there for a while.)
p.s. If you’re interested in the share idea, drop me a line. I have one person interested so far, and it’d be around $100-200/month.
I’ve been blogging less over the past few months, but I’ve found myself gravitating to Twitter and Tumblr for quicker, more informal updates and finds.
This blog’s in need of an update, and it looks like I may eventually move it over to Tumblr entirely.
For the moment, though, I’ll keep up with all three. If you’re interested in what I’m up to, I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter and Tumblr!
I’m flying with my dad to Delhi, India tonight. It’s a 14 hour flight, and I’ll be back April 29th.
We’ll be joining my mom who made the trip a week ago, and I’ll be attending my cousin’s wedding, and generally trying to soak in India while working.
I’m curious to see how difficult it’ll be working from the other side of the world, and to see how much the country’s changed since I was there two years ago.
In preparation for my trip, I’ve…
Arranged to have Cable and DSL internet where I’ll be staying with my uncle in Noida. (Bringing my Airport Express to make it wireless)
Unlocked my iPhone (Thanks Eric!) and done some research into local SIM cards for voice + data (Thanks Abhishek!)
Packed a video camera, a point and shoot, and my Nikon D70.
Emailed a couple friends I made online meeting up while in Delhi. (If you’re in Delhi, I’d love to meet you! Email me.)
I’m ill-prepared for the 100 degree days I’ll see in the next couple weeks, but indescribably excited!!! India is a whole different world.
See you soon!
p.s. I hope to twitter while I’m there. If you’re curious to see what I’m up to, I’m superamit on twitter. Feel free to @superamit if you have questions or advice or anything.
I took a secular sabbath today, turning off my computer and phone, putting away my wallet, and refraining from doing anything that involved electricity, fire, or useful work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday (today).
Here’s how it went…
Friday
5:30p: Leave work and head to the Indian consulate to pick up my visa for a trip I’m taking next month.
Long line at the consulate. I’m worried I’m not going to get out before dark so I can take the Muni home.
Checking email on my iPhone, I see a blog comment from Noel on my secular sabbath post. I hastily go to approve it, notice a typo in the post, decide to fix it, and accidentally delete the post. Frack. I feel stupid for deleting it, but I can’t re-write it on the phone, and sabbath will have started by the time I get out of here.
5:50p: Thinking about writing this post while standing in line. Feel silly for ruining the experience by wanting to document it.
6:10p: Got my passport, leave the consulate. It’s getting dark so I reach to turn off my phone and notice I missed a call from my mom. I forgot to tell her I’m off the grid until Saturday night. Frack.
I can’t take the Muni, so I walk the 1.8 miles home in the dark.
Get home, realize I don’t have my keys. Must have left them at my office and no one’s home. My first instinct is to call my roommates, which I can’t do. I sit and wait for a while… maybe 30 minutes, I have no watch.
Rested, and tired of waiting, I walk the 1.8 miles back to the office to get my keys.
Grab my keys, talk to Paul and Phil for a bit. Watch the Heysan crew play Wii Golf. Looking for a non work-related activity, I borrow a pamphlet on SOMA from George. Think about drawing, but remember that I can’t create anything. There’s nothing I can do here that doesn’t use electricity or involve work.
Walk 1.8 miles home. It’s cold.
8:30p: Read for a while. Not sure what to do with myself. Go to bed.
Saturday
I keep waking up in the early A.M. very worried that we have a publisher deadline for the Photojojo book on Monday that I’ve totally forgotten about. It’s gonna take all-nighters to make it if I’m right, but I can’t check my calendar, and couldn’t work on it anyway. It’s hard to let it go and go back to bed.
8:58a: Wake up without an alarm. Still wondering about that deadline.
Read The Fountainhead for a few hours. Eat granola bars.
My mind wanders back to work frequently, so I borrow a trick I read online and write the idea/to-do/whatever on a scrap of paper and toss it on my desk to worry about after Sabbath. It helps.
1:30p: I shower and head to the park. It’s a lovely feeling to leave the house with just a few books and a key. No phone, no ID, no wallet.
Spend a couple hours in Duboce Park, watching dogs being happy, reading The Fountainhead and The Works
3:30p: Come home, not sure what to do. Finish The Fountainhead. Try to think about what’s making me happy in my life right now, and what isn’t. What I should be doing more of.
Fall asleep.
6:20p: Wake up. Sabbath is over. I check my email, Twitter, and Flickr. Read some responses from folks interested in how it went. Do a quick errand, head to the gym, then to the office. Call my mom on the way.
Summary: I spent a lot of time reading and wasn’t sure what else to do. Friday was hard and I felt itchy about email and wanted to work, but Saturday I mostly just felt calm. I thought a lot, but not the focused soul-searching kind of thinking I expected. I think I was afraid to.
I did have to force myself to stop thinking about work. I liked reading all day, but I was counting down the hours towards the end.
Being disconnected for 24 hours isn’t that long, but during those hours I felt like I was missing a lot. Logging on afterward, it didn’t feel like I missed anything important.
For next time: Prepare food ahead of time. Remember my key. Spend more time unstructured, just thinking and taking notes.
I had a conversation with my old friend (and former Daily Jolt Co-Founder/ current MoveOn Campaign Director) Noah T. Winer this past weekend that made me think more about the value of regular rest and reflection.
I told him how it was really hard for me not to think about the projects I’m working on almost all of the time, and Noah talked about the calm and energy he got from taking a day off every week to disconnect, relax, meditate, and think.
Shortly after our conversation, I came across an NYT article about Secular Sabbath, and decided to try it. The concept of a day of rest exists in many religions, and logically I bet there’s a healthy reason for it.
So today I’m leaving work a little early so that I can run an errand and make it home before sun down. Then I’ll turn off my phone and my computer, and won’t buy anything, use anything that requires electricity or fire, or do anything that could be termed “useful work†until sundown on Saturday.
I may visit friends… though I’m not sure how I’ll do that without being able to arrange it in advance or use Google Maps. :) I’ll probably read and go enjoy the outside.
In researching Sabbath, I was surprised to learn Blue laws are still in effect in many parts of the United States, barring all sorts of things–liquor sales, commerce, hunting…–on Sundays as a state-instituted day of rest. I think that’s dumb. Also, Paramus, NJ, which has the zip code with the highest retail sales in the country, also has some of the most strict laws against commercial activity on Sundays. Go figure.
I’ve long wanted to see Steve Jobs deliver one of his fabled keynote addresses and experience his Reality Distortion Field first-hand. Today’s the day!
If you’re in town for MacWorld drop me a line… especially if you’re standing in the long line for they keynote this morning.
My pal Jesse and I want to cook more often, so we’re starting a casual cooking club. Once a week (or so) we’ll get together and make some food. Nothing fancy, location varies, you can come help.
In you’re in SF and want to come over and cook (or host a casual cooking night), let me know!
Jelly Atlanta organizer Kristyn Shayon hooked up some great press for Jelly in the hugely popular Daily Candy newsletter a couple days ago! Nice work, Kristyn! :)
Jelly also got some ink in this week’s Hatch That where Ross Hill asked me some questions about Jelly and Photojojo.
JoshSpear.com, the the trend-spotting blog, published an interview with me today. It feels vain to link to it, but what the hell. I say some silly things. Thanks Carmen, Heather, and Josh!
His latest project is Photojojo. If you like photography, you will like Photojojo.
Before Photojojo, he was a founder of The Daily Jolt, an online community on 100 college campuses, helped create a non-profit called ChangeThis with Seth Godin, and brought the technology un-conference BarCamp to NYC. He also started a weekly casual coworking session called Jelly.
And he's consulted for companies such as Pearson, Apple, and Creative Good and co-authored The Big Moo, a WSJ best-seller, with Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Peters, and others.
Heather just posted a super-nice interview with me on Photojojo, Jelly, and marketing to 
JoshSpear.com, the the trend-spotting blog, 
