I simply need to stop flying during the workday or fly exclusively with flights that have Wifi.

Yesterday, I took an 11am (Israel time) or 4am (EDT) out of Tel Aviv and to New York. The flight is about 12 hours, so I didn't land until after 4pm (EDT).

When I landed, I had 322 emails in my inbox! Probably about a hundred I needed to reply to.

I also had 750 or so items in my RSS reader to go through.

It is so overwhelming.

The only nice'ish part of this 12 hour flight was that I watched 5.5 movies.

Image credit for ShutterStock for iPhone email.

Posted at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (5)

I received a nice letter in the mail from the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department telling me I was speeding. They even provided proof in the form of photographs.

Truth is, I was not driving that car the day they said the violation happened. I was home, in New York - not in Washington, DC, driving 62 in a 50. I know who was driving my car, but it was not me.

In any event, they did not issue me with a fine - instead they said this is a "warning" and next time, I will be given a fine if I speed.

They even have this whole web site portal to login, view the pictures and pay the fine (if applicable).

I never received one of these letters before, I hear it is illegal in some states for the police to use speed cameras - but I guess it is not illegal in Washington, D.C.

Heck, I've seen cops outside of their cars using speed guns and I've tweeted being pulled over in the past - so I guess this should go on the blog as well.

Posted at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Category: Motor Vehicle , Travels | Comments (4)

Orthodox Jews do not eat non-kosher food. Many also would not walk into a non-kosher restaurant because they don't want a kosher Jew to see them going into the non-kosher restaurant and think that it must be kosher since that Jew went in there.

So even to use the bathroom, many orthodox Jews wouldn't even walk into a non-kosher restaurant.

Which brings up the question, can a Jew who holds by not going into non-kosher restaurants, checkin on Foursquare to non-kosher restaurant?

As I travel on Amtrak back to New York from Washington DC, I am randomly looking for places to check into on Foursquare along the way. And I am specifically avoiding non-kosher restaurants or restaurants I do not know if they are kosher or not.

Jews, what would you do?

Non-Jews, you think I am crazy? Well, some Jews think I am crazy.

And many people think I am crazy just for using Foursquare in general. :)

Posted at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Food , Religion , Travels | Comments (9)

I am on my way to a client in D.C. This is the first time I am taking Amtrak anywhere, I heard it is the smart way to go from New York to Washington, D.C.

We made it to Trenton, New Jersey and stopped there. I've been sitting in Trenton for almost two hours. My scheduled arrival time is in about 20 minutes. At this point, it makes sense for me to turn around and go back. So why don't I?

I am literally on a bridge over the Delaware river in Trenton, NJ.

Posted at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

Friday I complained a 4sq special failed me but that all changed this Sunday.

I went to Modell's, because you got to go to Mos, and I used a $10 off $50.

The cashier had no clue what it was but the manager was right behind him and the manager plugged it in.

It was cool.

Like saving money while being geeky - who doesn't.

Posted at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Since I fly continental, an airline without in flight wifi, I have never experienced Internet while flying.

Now that continental and united merged, I am on a united flight and it has wifi.

Flying with Internet is amazing. I don't have to worry about landing and catching up with hundreds of emails while I find a cab.

This rocks!

Posted at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

I often take red eye flights when possible. My past experience is that email is just too much to fly 5-6 hours during the day. But now with Wifi on the flight, there is less of a reason to not fly during the day.

That be the case, I booked a flight for the Google Media Event happening on December 6th.

My flight leaves at 7am, which means I need to leave my house before 4am. I then take a red eye flight the same day back to New York. I will land 6am the following morning and then go directly to work. I'll probably stay up till 11am.

I figure, I'll be up for at least 44 hours between December 6th and December 7th.

I am asking for it.

Image credit: Lightspring / ShutterStock.

Posted at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I am a big foursquare user, I've written about it several times here.

But did you know you can move places found in foursquare by simply checking into the place?

There is a place about a mile or two from my house. I checked into it almost every single day for the past few months while I was a mile or two away. Eventually, foursquare changed the location of the place to be basically at my house.

I am not sure how that happened because the physical address is the same, but in terms of distance to my house, it is right there now.

It kind of makes you think of weird abstract reality perceptions on what is distance? Are things really far away or not? You know, stuff that people think about if they are a PhD or on some weird drugs.

Posted at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

I have reached my goal on Foursquare. I have unlocked the baker's dozen badge!

Baker's Dozen

A bakers dozen of bakery visits! You must really love the fresh-baked goodness of baguettes and beignets. Why not reward yourself by curling up with a nice croissant?

This is what life is all about.

Posted at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

As some of you know, I was in Madrid for a few days this week.

One of the worst parts, at least for me, of traveling internationally are the lines of people going through U.S. customs on the way back into the United States. There are times I've waited a couple hours to get through the lines. The problem is amplified when multiple international flights land at the same time and you are stuck waiting for the stroller to be taken off the plane and handed to you. It can be bad.

So before I went to Madrid, I enrolled and was approved for the Global Entry program.

How does it work? Well, you apply, they do a background check on you and within a few weeks they approve or deny you. I was approved but had to finalize the process by going to a Global Entry office to take a picture, do digital finger prints and sign a document. So I did that on the way out to Madrid at JFK. Yes, it takes only 10 minutes and you get the approval that day, so you can use it on the way back from your trip.

So I was approved and then went from Terminal 4 to Terminal 7 and left to Madrid.

You can't use it for customs outside of the U.S. (yes there are exceptions).

But on the way back, I departed the airplane at JFK, walked through the terminal and arrived at customs. I just went over to the kiosk, scanned my passport, took my picture and scanned by finger prints, then I checked off no, no, no, no and yes to the flight details and a receipt printed. I then walked to the exit, handed them the receipt and went to passenger pickup.

The process from walking off the plane and to the airport passenger pickup area in JFK, terminal 7, took me maybe 5 minutes.

I was in awe.

The global entry pass costs $100 every 5 years. Since I go internationally about twice a year, I feel it pays.

Posted at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

In January I was really upset to learn my Chase Continental Card had foreign transaction fees. I replaced my AMEX with the Chase Continental card due to their partnership ending and was hoping to find a card that replicated those perks to the max.

So when I went to Israel and noticed dozens of foreign transaction fees on my card, something that was 'foreign' to me because I have been spoiled with my American Express card, I was upset.

So I decided to give Chase some ideas on how to improve the benefits of the card, to put it more on the same level of the AMEX. But when I did that, Chase, Continental's partner, recommended I use British Airways credit card.

As you can imagine, I was even more upset now. So I forwarded this suggestion to Continental, who after a few weeks replied to me that they will send my email to the right people at Continental.

I guess it worked because I received an email from Chase today that there will no longer be foreign transaction fees! I am so happy, this was one of the biggest draw backs to the card for me - being that I put the SphinnCon conference costs on my credit card and getting charged 3% on top of those costs, well, that is just wild!

Chase emailed:

Designed from its inception to provide unparalleled travel benefits, your Presidential PlusSM Business Card has now been further enhanced.

As of February 15, 2011, you will no longer be charged foreign transaction fees. That means that you'll now save 3% on all international purchases made using your Presidential Plus Business Card.

This exciting new benefit is sure to make your international travel experience even more enjoyable. Best of all, you needn't do anything to take advantage of it – the change will automatically take effect on February 15, 2011.

I doubt they will give me any credit for my charges in January, but that is okay with me. They listened and did what is best for their Continental customers. Very happy!

Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (0)

On the way to work this morning, I witnessed a car drive into a deer. Well, I didn't see the actual hit, but I did see a car slam on its breaks and a deer fall to the ground in front of the car.

It was very upsetting.

It didn't look like the car was going full speed. So I hope the deer wasn't too badly hurt. The car didn't look to be in bad shape. And as you know, if you live in this area, hitting a deer can make some serious damage to your car and potentially kill the deer.

In fact, I know of cars completely totaled and the deer walking away from it.

But this car seemed to not have been damaged much, but the deer was on the floor shaken up.

It was very sad - I do hope the deer did come off okay.

I never hit a deer yet, but chances are, where I live, I am bound to hit one. I almost did once, but I reacted fast enough.

The ironic part is that I should have been at LGA airport at the time, but since they are having ice storms at the destination (Kansas City), I am here.

Posted at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

As you may have read, I replaced my AMEX with the Chase Continental card. The main reason I left AMEX was because their partnership with Continental Airlines expired and I couldn't use it to get into lounges in the future or use the miles towards airline tickets.

So I got myself the top of the line Continental Airlines Presidents Plus Card. I have access to the lounges, I accrue miles for money spent, heck I get a lot of miles with this card - so that is working out well.

But what are the major issues I have had with this card? Most have to do with international travel. I heard some reports of issues about this, so when I applied for the card I asked about this. The person at Chase said that this card is an airline card and designed specifically for international travel.

But that is not true! I had a few issues with international use of this card.

(1) Chase locked the card because they saw international spend. Heck, I told them I was traveling and they locked it anyway. It is upsetting to use the card and it be rejected without reason. It worked out eventually but I had to call and verify stuff I told them when I first opened up the card.

(2) Foreign Transaction Fees: With my American Express I don't think I ever had a fee for using my credit card overseas. But with my Continental Airlines credit card, a card designed specifically for international use, I had tons of fees for using my credit card overseas. I am not too upset but it just seems illogical.

Those are my main issues with this new credit card to-date.

Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (0)

As someone who travels a nice amount (not weekly but monthly) on airlines not having a level of "Elite Access" on your airline can seriously stink.

I've actually written about how Continental treats elite customers versus non elite customers differently. It was upsetting but it taught me to play the game and stick with an airline so you get some perks. So in mid-2008 I earned Elite Access with Continental and ever since then stuck with them to keep that status (yes, I am a pawn).

In August, when I saw I was running short on miles this year, I decided to book a trip that was not urgent but was useful, just to keep my status. For some reason, my math didn't add up and I didn't end up earning elite status. I saw the dreadful scale not pass the Silver line, showing me I was short. How short? 300 miles short!

The reason this happened was because I booked my longest flight completely on miles and thus did not earn miles for flying on miles. But I thought I would be able to take enough domestic flights to fly over the necessary 25,000 miles to earn Elite Status. Like I said, my math was off by 300 miles.

So what did I do? I called and begged. I emailed and begged. I even used my scary flight experience as a method of trying to get them to give me those miles.

Guess what? It worked!

Today a nice lady from Continental called with "good news." They told me they gave me the 300 miles so I can retain Silver Elite Status for 2011. I was very appreciative, so much so that I didn't bother to ask for more details on that scary flight.

Why is Silver so important? Well, I rarely get the upgrades but it does give you priority seating, boarding and baggage. Yes, the Continental Credit Card gives you priority boarding and baggage and access to the lounge, but it does not give you priority seating and getting bulk head seats with extra leg room is likely the most important aspect of the Elite Status.

Posted at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

SphinnCon Israel is 25 days away now and I'll be in Israel in less than 25 days. This will be the largest SphinnCon ever and I believe the largest search conference in Israel ever - so it is exciting.

But whenever I travel internationally, I get nervous about being connected - mostly data connected. Israel is a small country and reception is almost always solid. But whenever I go, it costs me hundreds of dollars to be connected for the ~10 days I am there.

In the past I end up:

(1) Renting a cell phone and paying minutes at a higher rate
(2) Buying a USB data card for my laptop
(3) Adding the AT&T international data plan to my iPhone

All these three things add up.

This year, I am going to try to change things up.

In January 2011 I plan on:

(1) Buying a SIM card from Orange Israel, which I did in the US from israelsims.com.

That is it. I will pop it in the Nexus S that I will get soon and use that for my phone calls and data connectivity via its mobile hotspot.

I can then use the Android hotspot on the Nexus S to give my MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad and other devices internet when I am Israel for the same fee. Plus, I can check my emails, feeds and stuff on the go on the Nexus S and also make calls.

This should save me a lot of money in the long run and I won't "rent" any of it.

Every year, when I go back, I can use the same device. So I can keep the same number and not worry about renting stuff.

Hope it all works out well.

Posted at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (5)

I fly a nice amount per year. I am accustomed to the normal and sometimes very significant drops caused by turbulence. But I never experienced what I am about to tell you in my hundreds of thousands of miles flown on a plane.

I was flying on a clear day, the skys were clear, the flight was smooth. Then all of a sudden the plane starts to speed up and head down, fast. It was like we were starting our descent, but like the pilot forgot to start earlier and was doing a much quicker descent. It didn't make much sense, but the flight attendant didn't seem to notice and nothing was announced, so I let it slide.

Soon after, the flight attendant received a call from the pilot. His face gave off the impression like he was all of a sudden nervous and anxious. He immediately went to his seat and buckled himself in. He then sat there for a bit and looked around.

He noticed two babies were on board and decided to go talk to them. He pretty quickly walked over to both mother's with their babies, individually and said something to them. I overheard what he said to the first.

He said, if the oxygen masks come down, you first and then the baby. He repeated, "you first and then the baby."

He then quickly went back to his seat, sat down, buckled in. 10 seconds later, he opened up a special compartment. It had his oxygen mask ready to go, so he prepped it.

We continued or descent for what felt like forever.

Thankfully, when we reach the clouds, the pilot began to level off. Soon after the flight attendant got another call from the pilot. I saw an immediate sign of relief on the flight attendant's face. He got back up and went to his business.

No one made any announcements, no one told us anything after we got off the flight.

We just flew at that altitude for the remainder of the flight. Heck, we even landed 15 minutes early.

When we landed, I saw fire trucks near the run way. Turned out, they were for us. They came on to the plane to question the pilot and then left after 2 minutes of questions.

Again, no idea what happened, no one told us. Not sure if I really want to know.

But from speaking to others, it seems like the best possible answer was the plane's air compressor went bad. So we had to quickly go down to an altitude with good oxygen levels so the people on the plane can breath. If not, the air masks would have come down to provide us with air we can breath.

Posted at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

A month ago, I applied for the Chase Continental Presidents Plus card.

I got the cards this week and already moved all my known spending to this card.

I will soon be free of American Express. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind AMEX, they have been good to me. But I am leaving AMEX only because they will soon have no deal with my preferred airline, Continental.

So switching to a credit card that gives me the only CC perks I use, i.e. buying airline tickets and getting airline perks, is the main reason.

The Chase Continental Presidents Plus card gives me all these perks and more.

I have not cancelled my AMEX yet, but I will before the renewal charge.

Goodbye AMEX, I will miss you.

Posted at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (0)

Past few weeks, I have been in a bunch of airports. Some of them had the new "Millimeter wave scanner" body scanners. If you have been reading the news this week, you would have noticed lots of complaints about them.

Well, I went through at least one in the past week or two and I wanted to share a picture of mine for all to enjoy.

The picture was provided by Gizmodo and I decided to admit it was mine because @Matt_Siltala requested to see my naked parts.

Hope you all are happy now.

FYI, I am kidding, this is not me but it could have been.

In any event, I don't see why this is such a big deal. These images barely show anything. There are some scanners that show a heck of a lot more.

Of course, there are many concerned with being exposed to more radiation. That is a fair fear.

Posted at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

Yesterday, I was on the way back from the BlueGlass Conference from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL). I happen to walk into the lounge and ask, are there any flights going back to Newark before the one I was on.

I was at the lounge, through security at about 2:20. The Continental rep said there is one going out at 2:30, a gate away from the lounge. She got me on the flight, but for a $50 fee. The flight had plenty of available seats, but according to Continental's Same-Day Change Policy, I had to be charged $50 or wait for the next flight, which happened to be very booked.

Think about it - I am at the airport, ready to board a plane that is not full. It doesn't cost them anything to put me on that flight. In fact, they can likely sell my seat on the next flight - but yet they have to charge me $50.

A year or two ago, this was not an issue. It happened to me a lot. Continental often have several flights going out a day to their hub, Newark. So options are always there. Normally, I'd arrive at the airport and see a delayed flight being boarded. I'd ask to be put on that flight and they would put me on it without question and without a fee.

Now, they charge - no matter what. Except if you are a Platinum Elite status. Here are the fees for the various levels:

In my opinion, if I am standing there, ready to go and their are plenty of seats available - charging me $50 is borderline theft.

In the end, I decided this time to pay for it. It meant seeing my kid before she went to sleep or missing her. $50 for that was worth it.

But I think there should be a policy named, "At Gate Change Policy," that is free if seats are available.

Posted at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I travel pretty often. So I was very into having an American Express Platinum card for the travel perks. Especially for the access to the Continental Presidents Club lounges and points to mile transfer.

As I told you in the past, I was planning on leaving AMEX for Continental Card because American Express and Continental are discontinuing their deal. So next year, AMEX won't get me into the lounges nor will I be able to transfer my points to Continental for airline miles.

I pretty much exclusively use Continental. The week after I blogged it, AMEX called me, sent me two letters and emailed me at least once. They basically are telling all their customers about the new benefits and we shouldn't leave AMEX due to the Continental non-deal.

Well, I am. I applied for the Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card for Business and will slowly move my spending over to that. My AMEX renewal fee expires sometime in February 2011 but I want to see how this card works out prior to me dropping my AMEX Platinum card. So I am overlapping for a few months on purpose.

Are you a Continental flyer? What are you doing?

Posted at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (6)

Last night, 38 days after first ordering them, my new license plates arrived. Yea, they are ugly but I likethem. Honestly, it was a surprise, because when I called to find out the status, I was told it would take a total of 8 weeks. It came after 5 weeks and 4 days. Yea, 1 week and 4 days longer than originally expected, but still 3 weeks and 3 days earlier than later expected.

Here are two pictures.... Well, why do people blur out plates? I mean, these are personalized, and I already told you they were coming:

I think they look good on my car - I suspect most won't agree.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

I was driving back to the office today and I was driving behind a hearse, you know, a car that drives a coffin from one location (often a church) to the cemetery. It felt awkward.

There was no body in the back, at least, it didn't appear to be so. I don't think it was being used for a transport. :) There would have been cars with lights on, and a long line of cars. It was still a bit awkward.

I see Wikipedia has a picture of a motorcycle hearse. Interesting...

Posted at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

I have been very eager for my new custom New York license plates to arrive. I ordered the plates, RustyCar over 4 weeks ago and they are still not here.

The order confirmation email reads:

Allow two weeks to receive your registration receipt and window sticker by mail. Your new plates will be mailed separately; please allow 4 weeks for delivery. You will also receive instructions on what to do with your old plates and registration.

My registration sticker came within two weeks. But four weeks later, still no plates. I finally called the New York DMV's custom plate office and they told me, the plates were first finished on June 29th but they likely won't arrive for at least another 4 weeks.

She explained that they are mailed 3rd class. So they sit in a bucket and wait for someone to get around to picking them up. Typically, it takes about 4 weeks from when they are placed in the bucket, often longer.

Maybe the NY DMV should update their email confirmations to say something like:

Your new plates will be mailed separately; please allow several months for delivery as we have no idea if and when you will get your plates.

Or maybe this is just typical DMV stuff.

Posted at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

My brother-in-law spotted this license plate on the road.

Not cool. Not cool!

Plus, to make matters worse, I still have not received my new RustyCar plates.

Posted at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I am not a complainer. If the food is bad, I normally won't return it. If the room is a bit dirty, I won't ask for a new one. If I don't get something I thought was included, I normally let it slide.

But I decided to complain that my upgraded first class flight from Seattle to New York didn't have a kosher meal. I sent a nice email saying I confirmed kosher before the flight and it wasn't there. I was honest, I said I wasn't even sure if I'd eat the meal, since it was a red eye flight. But I took the 5 minutes to fill out the complaint form online and finally got a response. It read in part:

Nevertheless, I am unsure why you would not have received your kosher meal. I regret any inconvenience. I am requesting an Electronic Travel Certificate (ETC) be issued to you. The ETC can be used as a form of payment for future travel on Continental Airlines. The ETC will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue and may be used online at www.continental.com. The travel certificate will have a PIN code and promotion code number. You will need these to redeem the travel certificate.

I have no idea how much the voucher will be. I mean, the kosher first class airline food isn't that expensive.

But it is nice to get something for filling out a form. So sometimes it pays to complain.

I do like Continental - they are my favorite airline.

Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I often neglect my personal blog when I travel to SEO conferences. I wanted to share my view from the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle while I am at SMX Advanced...

I highly recommend this hotel and of course, the conference, when you are in Seattle.

Posted at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

Continental, I have flown a lot of miles with you and all of those miles were Internet (WiFi) free. I want Internet when I fly for over 3 hours - is that so much to ask? I'll pay for it. I'd pay a lot for it.

In December you announced that you would be offering inflight Internet on some domestic flights by the second quarter 2010. Well, the second quarter of 2010 is about 30 days away and I have heard nothing about the inflight Internet coming anytime soon.

You said the service would be provided by Gogo Inflight Internet service. But if you look at the partner airlines page on the Gogo website, you see all your competitors but not you.

I know you hope to close your merger with United by fourth quarter of 2010 but that won't happen. And I know United is listed as a partner with Gogo - so really hope you don't wait for then.

Can we please get some sort of update on when Gogo is realistically coming to Continental flights? I suspect my flight to SMX Advanced next week will not have Internet onboard. But it would rock if it did.

Posted at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

This is not a political post, I don't talk politics here (;-)).

Every year there is a parade for Israel, which celebrates the anniversary of Israel's Independence. Many countries have a parade for their independence in NYC, and Israel is no different. I believe Salute to Israel runs the event, by the way.

Personally, I have not been to this parade in a long time. But yesterday I went with the family.

I don't see how they run parades in NYC. The parade goes from 57th Street and Fifth Avenue and goes up north on Fifth Avenue to 74th Street. It is between 11am and 4pm, which means those streets and the streets around them are closed off pretty much all day Sunday.

I drove in - a mistake. It took my 40 minutes to get to NYC and then an hour to get from NYC to where I needed to get to to park. Every parking spot was taken and every parking garage was full. I had to drive to 86th and Park to get a spot. That is just under a mile away from the end of the parade, or a 16 minute walk.

Leaving wasn't any better. Took us forever to get out of the city.

I guess it is nice to have a parade in the largest city in the world - but it would have been a lot easier to do it in a place that was less dense. :)

Anyway, you can see some news articles on the parade at Google News.

Next year, if I go, maybe we will take a bus.

Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Last time I was on a plane was a couple weeks ago and it was a Continental Airlines flight. I try to stick with Continental due to the points system, I also like their service and Newark is their hub and Newark isn't too far from me.

So when I heard the news of the United / Continental Merger, I wasn't surprised (due to rumors being out there for weeks) but I did want to know if the employeeswere indeed looking forward to the benefits of the merger:

Improved long-term career opportunities and enhanced stability by being part of a larger, financially stronger and more geographically diverse carrier.

I actually flew the morning when the official news came out, so as you can imagine, the employees were talking about it to each other. I could tell they were not happy. Eventually, a few of us in the front row were able to ask one of the flight attendants questions.

In short, they are not happy for a few reason:

(1) The unknown of any merger
(2) Will there be layoffs
(3) United has less pay and less benefits compared to Continental
(4) They love the company and are sad to see the name go
(5) Again, the unknown

I would be concerned also but the service that flight was excellent.

Posted at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I tweeted this, but heck, sitting waiting for my flight, so I broke out Photoshop to illustrate how I think Airlines should add Foursquare check ins to their flight status pages. I would love to know right on the flight status page, who else is in the airport that are my friends on Foursquare.

Wonder which airline will do it first.

Posted at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I am in Florida now at the #ssss event and been trying to check in all morning on Foursquare, but I keep getting their fail whale sign:

What's up @foursquare?

Posted at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

When I was in Israel, I planned most my stay with the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel. I actually have stayed there a lot and it is a very nice hotel. The reasons I personally like this hotel is likely different from others. For me, it is between the Sheraton hotel (which just changed names) and the Inbal. The Inbal wins for a couple reasons, but most important to me is that my laptop fits in the in-room safe. At the Sheraton, my laptop will not fit in the safe.

Okay, enough about that. When I was there, I was asked if I can meet with a few of the people from the hotel. One was sick and couldn't make it but I did meet with others from the marketing team. We sat in the lobby and talked shop.

Here is a picture of the Online Marketing Manager of the hotel, Pinny after our meeting:

So you are probably asking, why didn't we have the Inbal as the venue for SphinnCon Israel?

(1) Inbal was booked for those two weeks
(2) JCT already said okay
(3) I am sure the Inbal is pricey, but who knows, maybe they will give us SEOs a nice break for next year.

In any event, I highly recommend the Inbal hotel for it's location, accommodations, hospitality and the size of their in-room safes. ;-)

Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

For the past two weeks or so, I was on "vacation." My wife, daughter and I went to Israel. We were there for a family Bar Mitzvah.

Since I was coming in, I decided to run the SphinnCon Israel conference one of the days. I then also decided to hold some meetings with clients I have in Israel. And while I was at it, I scheduled some meetings and get togethers about SEO related topics.

The first week we arrived was a bit hectic. Two of the first 4 days, I spent in the hotel working. One day catching up from the flight and the second day doing the billing for the company. That wasn't the end of it. Every day, I spent about 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the middle of the day and 2 hours at night working on my laptop from the hotel. Of course, during this time, I had my iPhone and spent way too much time when I was out of the hotel responding to emails and mobile IMs.

I just don't manage vacation and business well.

Thankfully, I have a very understanding and patient wife. But as time goes on, I need to be able to manage this better.

I honestly think I was a bit more relaxed this time. Less nervous about being away. I did not get sick like I sometimes do and I think I was able to unplug at times, when I really did not want to. Overall, I probably spent 65% working and 35% not working, not including sleeping, on this vacation.

At the same time, I was not able to get together with many people who emailed me to meet up while in Israel. This includes both family, friends and business colleagues. So I am sorry if I did not get to spend time with you. Most of the business colleagues I saw at the conference, so that was nice. But there are some really good friends I did not see while I was there.

Anyway, it's something for me to work on.

Posted at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

About to get on a plane back to NY, but I wanted to quickly share the write up on the Jerusalem Post (a very large Israeli paper) on the SphinnCon event that took place Sunday.

You can read it over here and here is a picture of it in my hand:

Posted at 2:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Today I want to the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood named Geula and purchased some religious wear. One of the things we bought was a new kippah, a brown velvet one . I decided to have them sew on the name RustyBrick, but in Hebrew, on the Kippah.

Here is a picture:

Don't I already have a RustyBrick Kippah? Yes, I do, but that one was Suede.

Posted at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Category: RustyBrick , Shopping , Travels | Comments (6)

I am in Israel now and I was at a cafe last night where I saw this funny bathroom sign. I thought I'd share it with everyone. Here it is:

Posted at 4:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

My Dad sent me an article from JPost named Tefillin causes bomb scare on US flight (FYI, my dad uses the email this to a friend feature). The story is interesting.

A 17 year old boy took out his Tefillin on a flight, in order to pray the morning Jewish services. The thing was, he wasn't flying to a destination that has many Jews. Typically, when you fly at certain times (Jewish holidays) and to certain places (places with lots of Jews) you are bound to see a Jewish person putting on Tefillin in the morning to pray.

You would see this all the time if you flew to Israel or into New York or Los Angeles. In this case, he was flying out from New York but to Louisville, Kentucky. I don't think there is that big of a Jewish population in Louisville. Wikipedia says:

There is a Jewish population of around 8,500 in the city served by five synagogues. Most Jewish families emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century; around 800 Soviet Jews have moved to Louisville since 1991.[56] Jewish immigrants founded Jewish Hospital, which was once the center of the city's Jewish district. Jewish Hospital recently merged with the Catholic healthcare system CARITAS. On one corner near Bowman field are located the one orthodox temple, Shalom Towers, the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Family and Vocational Service.

So not huge, at all.

I am honestly surprised this doesn't come up more often. Whenever I go through security with my Tefillin, I wonder if someone will question me. They are strange black boxes with paper in them. Just seems weird, I would think.

This boy took a 7:30am flight and the flight duration was 90 minutes. I am not sure why he could not have prayed before or after the flight. I guess the 90 minute flight is a good time to do that, but still.

Read more at JPost.com.

Posted at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting , Religion , Travels | Comments (3)

A couple weeks ago, Will Hanke asked me if I would like to speak at a St. Louis based conference named Market St. Louis. I looked up the conference date and information and noticed a bunch of my colleagues in the SEM industry participate in this event. I also noticed it was on April 1st, the day after Passover.

I called my wife and asked if she would like to stay by her parents for the first days of Passover. That would be the only way I could have participated in this event. She said sure, so I told Will I can be part of the event.

As it turns out, I am keynoting. That means, I am the first speaker and it will be a question and answer type of format with the conference head.

So if you are in the mid-west (Chicago, St. Louis, etc.) come out and participate in Market St. Louis!

I typically don't speak at conferences for many reasons. But more recently, I have been speaking here and there - as long as it doesn't require me to prepare a powerpoint presentation. I am also heading up SphinnCon Israel, which would likely require me to prepare a presentation, but that is kind of "my" conference - so - well, you know.

Posted at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

My hatred to Chicago airports began back in December 2005. I was leaving SES Chicago, a conference, in a major snow storm. I headed to Midway (MDW) airport to catch my flight back to New York. The airport was a zoo, we sat there for hours, hoping to board and leave Chicago. It never happened. Soon after we were told to prepare for boarding (after waiting several hours in the airport), a Southwest Airline flight ran off the runway, onto the street and killed a six year old boy.

I saw the plane run off the runway. I did not know at the time that it hit any cars or anything. I didn't find out until the next day. What I did find out that the plane didn't just look like it was on the street (it was far away), but it was indeed off the street. It basically could not stop after it landed and skidded off the runway. Soon after, they closed the airport - all flights were cancelled.

Here is a picture:

I had two options:

(1) Stay for the weekend

(2) Try my luck by going to O'Hare (ORD) to see if I can get on a completely booked flight and the only flight going back to New York via that airline that night (Friday morning).

I decided to take my chances, go on standby and take a shuttle from Midway to O'Hare. The shuttle ride took hours. The streets were a mess, it felt like an eternity.

When I got to the airport at about 2am, there was only one security gate opened. It was at the furthest terminal from the gate I had to go to. I went through security, which was meant for maintenance folks and then used the back walkways to go to the terminal I had to go to. I started walking through the empty airport to find a ton of people sitting and sleeping outside of a gate, the gate of the flight I was on standby for. I came up to the person behind the counter and she asked, "Are you Barry Schwartz." I said "yes." She said, you made it - you are booked on this flight.

So a few hours after that, we boarded the packed flight and made our way to New York. When we arrived in New York, the snow caught up with us. I remember driving home in the snow, this was after being awake for 30 hours or so. Wasn't fun.

That is why Chicago scares me.

Last night, the first snow storm hit Chicago. Flights north were being cancelled or delayed. I was with my wife and kid. We decided to go to the airport and see what was available. Luckily, they booked us on an earlier, but delayed flight. That flight actually ended up taking off earlier than our booked flight. It worked out. We got home, on time and safely.

Unfortunately, two of the three Continental reps were really not nice. The ticketing one asked if we want to be booked on the earlier flight, I said - sure. But I asked if we can be seated together and she said sure. When I went through security, I noticed she put my wife (with baby on her lap) in the back of the plane and me in the front. I walked to a Continental desk and the woman told me she couldn't do anything. She said there were only middle seats. I said, well - that is fine, is there a middle seat by my seat or her seat? She gave me a nasty look and said - um... I said, please just see what you can do. I then tried the elite access hint and she looked. She told us there was nothing in the front, only in the back. I said, that is fine. I got the tickets and I looked and she ended up putting my wife near me, in the seat she said was not available.

I am sorry, but that makes me mad.

Anyway, flying to/from Chicago is not fun. Chicago itself is a really nice and charming place.

Posted at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

On my flight back from Vegas last week, I did something I never did before, I forgot something on the plane. I left my Bose earphones on the plane, in the seat pocket in front of me.

I remember placing them there when the flight attendants asked us to turn off our devices. I actually thought to myself, I better put it in my bag but I didn't want to bother people by getting out of my seat. At 5am in the morning and not sleeping, I actually forgot it.

I arrived at my office at about 6:15am, right from the airport and did not notice that I forgot the earphones until I dropped off my bags at my house at about 9am.

When I got back to my office at about 9:20am that day (yes, I live like 10 minutes away from my office) I reported the lost item online. On Sunday, they called me in my office to tell me they found the item.

I was a bit shocked. Even though I have my business card in the bose earphone case, I thought there was no way I was getting these back. I was wrong! I am told they will ship it to me, of course, I will pay - it was my mistake.

These are expensive headphones and I had them for years. Would have hated to buy new ones, since these work just fine.

Thanks Continental!

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

The OGIO RustyBrick laptop bags are a huge hit. Everyone loves them and we often get requests to send people more. We are actually almost completely out, so may have to reorder one day (they aren't cheap). But the bags are rock solid, comfortable and last a really long time.

So I was looking into getting travel carry-ons for this years gift. Of course, my first stop was OGIO and I decided the Layover would be a good fit. Only issue, it is really expensive. I decided to order a real sample, with our logo on it. I got that bag today but it came broken.

One of the "two-stage Pullman handle" was cracked and the actual bar that went through the bag, was snapped in half. I am not sure if it was a manufactures error or something that happened in transit. Let me show you pictures:

My first instinct was, can I replace this handle bar without having to have the whole bag reordered? I opened the bag and noticed you can unzip the back to see the bars in the back. I then noticed that one of those metal bars was cracked in half!

Crazy! Seriously, is this a bad quality bag or a fluke? Should I order these or not?

Here are pictures of the bag itself:

The brown plaid, in my opinion, goes well with the RB logo:

The wheels look solid:

Lots of internal space and storage compartments:

So what do you think?

Posted at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Category: RustyBrick , Travels | Comments (2)

I was checking my seats on my flight for the PubCon conference in Vegas in a few weeks and noticed that I was no longer in the first row in economy. Having the first row, on long flights, is nice - to say the least. When I booked early, I was able to grab the first row on the way to and from Vegas.

Now, when I look, I have the same seat number, but on the way to Vegas, it looked like they put in two more rows in front of my row. On the way back, the plane is still the same, so I still have the front row coming back (which is a red eye, so it is nice).

Here is the before and after...

Before:

After:

When I called Continental to ask, they said they didn't add new rows, but they changed the plane on me. They then told me that the front row is reserved for handicap. I decided then not to complain and thanked the person for the information. Thankfully, I am not handicap - so sitting in a normal row is just fine for me. If I remember, I'll try to call a day before the flight to see if those seats have been taken. Just too bad they changed planes on me.

I am told this is fairly common.

Posted at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

For the first time in my life, I have used airline miles and credit card points to book a free flight somewhere.

Flights to Israel are not cheap. They are also not too comfortable, cause of the size of the airplane (lots of people) and length of the flight (12 hours). So using miles on these types of flights, often make sense, when you have them.

I had more than enough miles and points to book this flight, for my wife and I (including baby), for free to Israel.

In fact, because of the different types of reward travel offered by Continental, I was able to book Business class. Continental has two reward types, SaverPass Rewards and EasyPass Rewards. SaverPass requires less miles to book. These are then broken out by class type, economy and business. The flights I was looking at had no economy at the SaverPass mile class, but they did have business class. The SaverPass business class miles required was 10,000 miles more than the economy of SaverPass. In my opinion, an extra 10,000 miles to fly business class internationally makes sense.

I was just surprised they let a baby in business class.

I've flown BusinessFirst class with Continental once before, as a free upgrade. It was more comfortable and the food was a bit better, but I really don't need it for most flights. International, I think pays in this case.

Posted at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

For this years Rosh Hashanah holiday we went to the in-laws (my in-laws) via aircraft. That means, we had to fly with a baby, since I am now a dad. No, I couldn't leave her behind - nor did I want to. :)

So, I am a bit nervous about how the flight will go. You know, no one wants to sit next to a crying baby on a flight, be it 30 minutes or 30 hours. I am sure most of you have all been on a flight with a crying baby. The next flight you go on with a baby - you give the parents 'that look.' You know, the "ugh, you are on my flight" look. I am sure I have given that look to others, even though it likely was not intentional.

It was my time, my time to get the look. And yes, I felt like I got the look. I am pretty sure I really did get the look from some people. Giving the look and getting the look, um... looks different. It looks like, a little smile and then as they turn their head, they roll their eyes up slightly. Yea, I saw a couple of those on the departing and arriving flights.

But in the end, we showed them. My little girl was an angel. She, with the aid of her mother, feel asleep on take off, and slept throughout the two hour +or- flight. Not just on the way there, but on the way back.

In fact, we even got compliments from other passengers on the plane. Not only did she complement how cute she was. She is cute. But how they didn't even notice a baby was on the flight, since she didn't make a peep 99% of the way.

So next time you see a baby on a flight - hold off on giving "the look" until it is actually warranted!

Posted at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (6)

One of the worst parts of going to conferences is the lack of kosher places to eat. It is not an issue in New York or Chicago (places can be far to get to in Chicago). But it is an issue in places like San Jose and Seattle, and so on.

Last night, right before the last session ended, I get an email from a Jewish guy named Eli I know who lives in this area. He said, did you know about the new kosher place that is in Mountain View. He sent me the details of the place via email. We (Steve) ended up meeting Eli and his wife there.

The place is named The Kitchen Restaurant and it is a really nice place. The service, food and atmosphere was excellent.

Now when people want me to go out for dinner with them, I can say - yes, but it has to be at the Kitchen Restaurant. It was about a $50 cab ride each way. The prices of the food were not too expensive, relative to NY. I will 100% come back here when I go to SMX West, maybe you will join me.

Oh, the picture is from my Kosher iPhone app, which did have the place there, with several positive reviews. You can read the reviews without the app at Shamash.org.

Posted at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (1)

Yesterday, as many of you know, I flew first class for the first time. It was a really nice flight, we took off on time, landed on time, quick to the gate, quick to exit (non-of that was due to 1st class). But the space, leg room, food, bathroom, and comfort of first class is nice.

Anyway, I was actually surprised to see that they upgraded the kosher meal to a "first class" version of the kosher meal.

It started with an appetizer:

Then the main and dessert courses came together:

The "normal" first class meals had choices of steak and other selections. They also had an awesome looking ice cream dessert, really looked great.

I am not thinking, "I can't go back to coach." Honestly, right now, I am thinking that I won't have an issue with the seat I have on the way back. But I am be a big talker now, I'll let you know when I land on Friday, how it is. Or who knows, maybe I'll get upgraded again (wishful thinking).

Posted at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (5)

On Friday, I was checking my flight times for my trip to California for the conference tomorrow. I saw a little "upgrade" link, so I clicked it. Next thing I know, I was upgraded to first class.

This was the first time I was upgraded to first class on a Continental flight. I've flown "business class" without paying before, when I was 16 or so, on the way back from Israel, on El Al. I don't consider that first class, since it was just the seat, not the service.

This will be my first time in real first class (although I did not pay for it), on a real flight. I am not sure what to expect, but I am looking forward to it.

If you see me on the flight, don't give me a weird look. But do ask me if you want to share a cab from the airport to the hotel. :)

See you in San Jose soon!

Posted at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

For the first time in my life, I actually booked tickets for a flight for the wrong day. I am actually not to blame, because the SES site does say Monday through Thursday, but I didn't realize that Monday is a training session day and not really part of the conference.

Since I booked the flight a few days ago, I was hoping pushing the day forward would not cost me too much. I dialed the main line to Continental Airlines and spoke to four people, with hold times of about 7 minutes (on average) before speaking to each person. Each person said, we can't change your flight without a change fee, plus your fair is going to be much higher. I said, I then asked if they can do something, so I was transferred twice before speaking with someone who was basically yelling at me for the mistake.

I won't say her name, because I forgot it and I don't want her to get fired. But she was like, "Why are you asking me about this?" I said, I don't know, I was transferred here by the other person. She asks me again, "why would you speak to me about this, I can't help you!" I kept saying, I didn't ask to speak to her, but they transferred me to her. She just kept on going, making me feel stupid that (1) I was speaking with her and (2) I booked the wrong flight. Okay, I was stupid for #2, but still.

I then apologized to this customer service person. I told her, I am sorry if I am making your day turn out bad. I added that I really didn't mean to be transferred to someone who cannot help me. I just want to find out if I can do something about my mistake. She basically grunted and asked again for my confirmation number, so I gave it to her. Then the shocker....

She said, "Your elite access," I said yes, I know. She then began apologizing to me for the trouble and said she would transfer me to the "elite desk." She then apologized three more times and transferred me. Wow!

The elite desk answered right away, made the flight change for free, with a slight cost for the flight difference. And I was all set within minutes after being transferred to the "elite desk."

I was shocked to see how Continental treats their "average" customer, compared to those that have "elite" access (i.e. fly more than 25,000 miles a year with them). I know you treat your better customers better, but to virtually yell and belittle the "average" customer and then treat your best customers like gold, seems way off to me. There has to be a better balance between the two.

And if you are off to SES San Jose, double check the agenda and make sure you are flying in and out the correct days.

Posted at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Business , Travels | Comments (4)

This Saturday night, I booked three flights on Continental. The prices seemed right, so I booked them all. I should have booked via Orbitz, but I had travel certificates due to my last flight booking gamble, which paid for two of the three flights. So I believe I had to book on Continental.com to use them.

I am booked to fly to California, San Francisco for SES San Jose. Tickets for that were really high, the price went down, so I jumped on it. I am only staying through Wednesday night this time.

I am also booked to go to the in-laws in St Louis for an upcoming holiday. That will be my first time flying with our baby, so it should be interesting. I actually had to use the special booking form to add an infant as a traveler, that was neat. Tickets for that flight seemed relatively cheap, so I got em.

I also booked my flight for PubCon Vegas. The price was about $320 with tax, which I think is a pretty good price for New York to Vegas on Continental.

With those three flights, I should have secured Elite Access with Continental for 2010. One thing I noticed having Elite Access in 2009, was that typically, 50% of the flight has the same level of access that you do. So I don't feel too elite. ;-)

I am also expected to be at SMX East in October, but I don't need to fly anywhere to attend this conference.

Oh, bad choice of picture?

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Last night, I left work a bit early cause I had a late night conference call and I wanted to be home a bit earlier so I can be ready for it. Oh boy - did I pay for leaving work at 5:30ish. On the way home, I got a pulled over by a cop for going, as he put it on the ticket, 44 in a 30 speed zone. My fault for not seeing the cop, my fault for being the last car in the line of cars going 44.

The funny part of getting this ticket was that after the cop took my license, insurance and registration and went back into his car to issue me a speeding ticket, I decided to tweet it. I wrote:

Err. Cop pulled me over. http://twitpic.com/8bdyt

Then I began getting responses of support and encouragement. Some people thought I may have been in trouble. Was it a drug bust? Did I rob a bank? Did I leave comment spam on Matt's blog? No, no, no! I just got a speeding ticket.

The officer was actually nice. He told me to plead not guilty, see him in court and work out a deal. I said thank you and he said, have a good night.

How many people have tweeted that they got a ticket and snapped a picture of the cop as they write the ticket? Not many.

Posted at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (6)

The standard Bluetooth Icon that most people can recognize is:

Apple has a slight variation on it, but it is about that same. The B look:

So why does my navigation system show a totally weird Bluetooth icon? You see, it has a three blue circles on top of a BT. Weird!

BTW, I love the bluetooth connection feature in the nav. I use it all the time. I hear the next iPhone will support bluetooth stream of the iPod, which would be nice as well for driving.

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Travels | Comments (0)

I am back in America, been back since Sunday morning. But let me tell you about the flight. We took El Al back, and we flew into JFK. The 12 hour flight was pretty good. Well, I sat next to this guy who kept putting his arm rest up, so that he can venture into my seat area. I am not a small guy, but the guy next to me, made me look small. In any event, we got very close on the trip. :)

So when we landed in JFK, about an hour late, the first thing I wanted to do was get up and get off the plane. But we sat/stood there for 45 minutes waiting for JFK's people to get the jet way to attach to the plane. After 45 minutes of trying and failing, they decided to move us to a new gate. We all had to sit back down, stow our luggage and faster our seat belts. Then they towed us back and then into a new gate. Thankfully, the jet way worked fine on that gate, and we exited the plane in an orderly fashion.

This is the second time, in the past few months, that the jetway had issues. The first time, it took them 10 minutes to get it working. It finally worked. But this time, 45 minutes later, they gave up.

Anyway, it is good to be back in New York - I am feel under the weather right now, I hope this passes soon.

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

The past week or so, I was put up in the Cinema Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel. I honestly was looking forward to the hotel, simply because I heard many good reviews. In fact, people were very positive about it and shared great stories. I, on the other hand, felt the hotel was not at all what I imagined. I was honestly, very disappointed with it and I would likely never go there again.

For me, the most important attributes to a hotel room is the bed and the shower. I use to care about internet speed, but now I bring a wireless card with me, so I don't care about that.

The rooms are pretty small, which is fine. But I cannot stand bathrooms that are so small that when you try to turn around, you hit the sink or the toilet. Nothing like taking a shower, stepping out and then touching a toilet with your leg. Here is a picture of the toilet, right next to the shower. Do note that the sink is right at the end of the picture, there is not much room to move back and forth:

They had this glass swinging door that is in place of a shower curtain. I assume they use the glass door to make the bathroom look more spacious, but it really didn't help. The door is awkward and makes you feel like you are getting the bathroom soaking wet. Here is a picture:

Also, they don't give you much in terms of bathroom accessories. For example, I wanted to shower when we got to the hotel and I looked for soaps and shampoos. I couldn't find any, so I called downstairs and they told me the liquid dispenser is an all in one combo, for soap and shampoo. Here is a picture of two dispensers, and guess what, the one in the shower did not work:

To make things worse, I needed tissues to take with me the next day. So they give you a pack of ten for the room. I figured if I take the tissue travel pack, they would give me a box or a new pack the next day. I arrive back in the room and there is none. So I call and ask for more tissues and an hour later, they bring up a single ten pack. I was sick that night, so I blew through the tissues in no time. I decided to buy my own bag of tissues at a nearby convenient store. That lasted me the week, but it was annoying.

Another annoying thing that was missing was that there were no alarm clocks in the room. In fact, there was no clock at all. There was also a very limited number of AC sockets to plug my stuff into. Finally, I heard the internet was almost unusable (which wasn't an issue for me, cause I bring my own Internet).

The worst part of the hotel is that the hotel was not kosher certified. How can the Israeli Consulate send 4 observant Jewish people to a Jewish country and send them to a hotel that was not certified kosher. The hotel said they were kosher, but they had no certification. So, if you are observant, and you want a kosher hotel - don't go here. In fact, there are few "Mahadrin" places to eat in Tel Aviv, but the hotel itself was not even Rababnut kosher.

The rooms also have switches for air conditioning, but they didn't seem to work. Both Tamar and I tried turning on the cold air, but it just blew warm air, even though the switch was on the cold position. I think Tamar got sick from the A/C, which then got several others of us sick.

Here are some more pictures of my hotel room via a slideshow:

I would honestly never go to this hotel again. It wasn't "horrible," but it wasn't what I expected. There is history with this hotel and being an old movie theatre, but art and history doesn't make up for comfort.

Posted at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Today I went to a smallish (less than 20 people) SEM meet up we pulled together in two day notice, which Compucall hosted. I wrote up details about the event with What Israeli SEMs Want at Search Engine Land. And Olivier wrote up his notes from the event at the Compucall blog named Barry Schwartz from RustyBrick visits Compucall.

This time, Gilad didn't have to travel to Jerusalem to meet me. Branko was unable to make it, but I did meet him a couple months ago, so hopefully he won't miss me too much.

Here are some pictures (I have more but didn't upload mine):

Barry Schwartz (me), Ophir Cohen (middle) & Olivier Amar (right)

Gilad Sasson (left), Mayer Reich (middle), Me

Itai Levitan

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

Yesterday, some of us went up north. We first went to visit the MIT of Israel named the Technion. In that trip, we met with Dr. Alon Wolf from the Biorobotics and Biomechanics lab. Dr Wolf built many things, including robotic snakes. The snake can be used in many cases, including war and also for medical purposes. I found a video that shows the large robot snake in action:

Pretty cool. They are also active in building what is called "An Adaptive Virtual Biofeedback System for Rehabilitation." It is truly amazing stuff, and you can see videos and read about this over here.

Then we met with two different professors in the field of waste management. One specialized in using bacteria as a way to remove bad elements from water. His techniques are being used to save millions of dollars in Israel and other parts of the world. I also met with one that used more of a chemical approach to cleaning water. That professor used high voltage and sound waves to do it and it is pretty big in Vegas, I am told. Honestly, those two meetings were way above my head and I am not a big bio, plant, water person.

We then met with Professor Yoram Baram who has a patent on Closed-Loop Augmented Reality Apparatus. Let me explain. Certain disorders, such as Cerebral Palsy cause people to not be able to walk normally. He built a device (glasses and ear phones) that gives these patient cues (diamond boxes) to aid them in walking. It is actually pretty cool, because you see the incredible improvement, immediately, as the person puts on this device. There are videos and more documents on how this works over here.

The Technion is a pretty incredible place.

After the Technion, we went to a Druze village in the Carmel. According to Wikipedia, they are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam. I have never been in a Druze village before and it was fairly interesting. The family we visited was incredibly hospitable. As we sat there and talked to our guide, his family walked in, began serving us fruits, drinks and their strong coffee. In addition, his wife, daughter and son came in - as did his sister-in-law, I believe. The Druze in Israel, typically serve in the Israeli army - the guy we met was an officer in the army. It was interesting to see their way of life.

Then we came back, and I saw a car get towed in Israel, which I found interesting as well.

Posted at 5:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

In America, for a car to get towed, they need to bring a tow truck, then spend 20 minutes hooking up the car and then tow the car away. It is a big process and you rarely see it. In Israel, it is common and done incredibly efficiently.

In short, they have this special truck that just pulls up along the car. Then it presses a button and two metal lifts shoot out from under the truck and go under the car. It then lifts the car up into the air and puts the car on the tow truck. It is that quick.

Last night, while eating pizza (yes, in Israel and I eat pizza) with Tamar and her husband, we notice a tow truck doing just that. Here is a picture:

As the car is being lifted in the air, three or four girls come running out of the store yelling. The girls are pleading, in Hebrew, with the tow truck operator (maybe a cop) to give them a second chance. After a minute or so of talking, he puts the car back down and one of the girls give the guy a kiss on the cheek. I guess the pleading and maybe flirting paid off.

I hear that having your car towed is very costly and very inconvenient. The only benefit Americans have is that it is not easy for a car to be towed, relative to how it is done in Israel.

Posted at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Motor Vehicle , Travels | Comments (1)

Today was an interesting day, to say the least. We went to two places today. First the Weizmann Institute, a university designed for only those who have degrees beyond under-grad in the areas of Biology, Chemistry, etc. Second we went to the Hiriya Garbage Dump Recycling Plant, which is being turned into a big park. So it was a pretty diverse day.

At the Weizmann Institute we meet extremely brilliant professors who specialize in topics such as nano-technology, sustainable energies and plant sciences. Most of the professors were way over my head, but I did gain some insight into the challenges they find for finding (searching) for information. I even wrote a piece at Search Engine Land named BioNumbers - Specialty Biology Answer Search Engine. Check out the engine at BioNumbers, hosted now at Harvard.

In fact, at least two of the professors we met when to Harvard. One built a onion like molecule that is the strongest thing on earth (stronger than a diamond) but also bends in all ways (very flexible) as a lubricant. It can last forever and can be used to be put in new cars so that no oil changes are ever needed. His issue, is producing the stuff fast enough for those that demand it. Another professor does research on sustainable energy (a popular Google topic these days) and he personally wants to educate the public about the myths and inaccuracies out there on the issues. We also met a professor who studies how plants works, specifically photosynthesis and carbon fixation. He was also the one that built BioNumbers. We then went to the labs and saw some cool machines that did a bulk of the work.

To dumb things down a bit, we then went to a closed down garbage dump that is turning into a park. There is a good article on this place at the New York Times named Recycling in Israel, Not Just Trash, but the Whole Dump. Several cities around the area bring their waste to this dump daily, and it is then shipped out to the south. In fact, they closed it down because the mountain would get in the flight path of the big Israel Airport and geese might have been an issue. The tourist part of the place was the education on recycling and creating less waste. They hold tours there often to educate, mostly children, on the topic. Plus they are building a park on top of the garbage that was already there (sounds weird to me, but it works). Honestly, the place doesn't smell too good.

I'll have videos of all of this in a couple weeks.

Posted at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

In continuation of my Blogger Delegation trip to Israel, I had some time this morning, after scheduling a few blog posts this morning at the search blog. So I used the Quick Capture feature on YouTube to make a boring video summary of what we did and where we will be going. Hope it doesn't put you to sleep:

In other news, I am glad to see the market rise yesterday. :)

Posted at 3:08 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Today is Jerusalem day and we first went to the old city. We drove up to Hebrew University to get a nice view of the old city. Then we went to David's Tomb, some of us were not able to go in. Specifically, Jewish people who are Kohanim are not allowed to go to grave sites. I am not a kohen, but just wanted to inform you about that little fact.

After that, we walked to the Cardo, which is inside the old city. I lived in that area for several months before College, as a year of study abroad. We walked through the old city, making our way through the "rova" and onto the kotel (Western Wall). The above picture is a picture of Loren Feldman (I link to his Wikipedia entry as a joke here) at the wall, I believe his first time there. Today was Monday and Mondays and Thursdays there are many Bar Mitzvahs at the wall, so we all took some video of that in action (to be posted later).

We then went through the Christian quarter shops, and they took us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I did not go into the Church, but some did. In any event, after the Church we walked to Jaffa Gate to meet our driver.

From there we went to eat lunch and now I am at Yad Vashem, one of the most famous holocaust museums. Since I have been here a few times and blogged about it already, I decided to catch up on some work and write a blog post about today.

Like I said, I am taking videos and will likely post a single video when I get back home.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

As many of you know, this week, I am in Israel, on an invited Blogger Delegation to Israel with other New York bloggers. We took a midnight flight out Saturday night, and arrived 10:30ish AM (EST), which is about 4:30pm here in Israel. The 10+ hour flight was a bit cramped but El Al gave us access to their lounge and the flight was as expected.

I was the only blogger to take my whole week in a carry on and a laptop bag. Sometimes I can really impress myself with my packing skills. ;-) But the other blogger's luggage came out fairly quickly and we existed the baggage claim to look for our driver. We couldn't spot him too quickly, so Loren and his wife, Michelle grabbed a cab, while we did more investigation work. He was actually standing waiting for us, but we missed him. A picture of our driver is the photo I selected for this post.

Then Tamar, Brian, Ely Jeanine, not David (cause he comes in tomorrow) got on the mini bus and went to the hotel. The hotel is named Hotel Cinema, it is kind of an artsy place with a lot of "cinema" artifacts around (old movie cameras). The hotel is fine, I am just not the artsy type - so I don't appreciate it when I see it.

After a much needed shower and change of clothes, we all went outside to go to a place to eat by the peer. There, we met Orli, a well-known social media woman from Israel. She was extremely nice and it was nice meeting her and learning about what she does. The dinner was mostly breads, pastas, fish, etc, plus the desserts were good. The view was also nice and I am sure some of the other bloggers will post some pictures.

Then we got back to the hotel at 9:45 local time and I came up here to do this quick post. Might not look quick, but I can barely keep my eyes open and I type really fast. So it was quick.

Tomorrow is devoted to Jerusalem and I have a feeling it should be an enjoyable day. I know Jerusalem fairly well, specifically the old and new city, so maybe I will learn something new from our tour guide.

Stay tuned for my week of "Blogging Israel." I am still sad I am missing SES NY but I have a feeling it will be worth missing the conference.

Posted at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

My wife called me when I was at a meeting to let me know I received a package from El Al. We are flying El Al for the Blogger delegation to Israel, El Al is Israel's main airline. Since I am a nice husband, I gave her my permission to open the package (eagerly awaits nasty comment from wife). I am now home, need to run out in a second, but here are some pictures...

It came in an El Al tote bag:

Open the tote and tons of schwag came out:

El Al Schwag included:
- El Al tote bag
- El Al blowup neck pillow
- El Al small case holder
- Cute El Al stuffed animal plane
- El Al deck of cards
- El Al paper clip
- El Al flash light key chain
- El Al note pad
- El Al bag tag
- El Al pen/highlighter
- El Al money clip

It also came with a nice letter from the El Al office. It shared our seat numbers, so we can say hi to the other bloggers. FYI, it turns out there are more bloggers than I thought, two more. It also said that they gave us access to the lounges at both airports. I am so happy about that, it means I can use my laptop and be almost guaranteed a power plug.

The trip is off to a very good start.

Thank you Israel and El Al!

Posted at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

IsRealli blog wrote about the Blogger Delegation to Israel, so I guess it really is official. We (bloggers) should be arriving this Sunday, to spend a week in Israel, blogging about our experiences.

Honestly, I don't know much about what to expect. I know my flight information and the Tel Aviv hotel we are staying at, but that is about it for now. Tomorrow afternoon, we are told we will learn more about our schedules and plans. Many of us will meet at the Israeli Consulate in NY to meet the trip organizers and learn more about the trip.

I do know the other "bloggers" who are going to be on the trip. They include:

• Loren Feldman
• Tamar Weinberg
• Brian Weinberg
• Ely Rosenstock
• David Shankbone

Looking forward to spending time with everyone in Israel.

Posted at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Travels | Comments (0)

When I went to Israel a couple months ago, I was ecstatic to to have an international data plan for my iPhone. It really let me enjoy my time in Israel, knowing that I can be connected all the time, where ever I went.

But it is not enough to be connected to the Internet on just my iPhone. A couple months ago, I used the hotel's internet, which was pretty expensive (I think $15 per day) to connect my laptop. Then with the international plan at about $10 a day also, it added up.

I will be heading back to Israel via a Blogger Delegation via the NY Israeli Consulate. This time, I can take advantage of renting a wireless data card.

I received an email from TravelCell.com a few weeks after I returned from Israel that they know how internet cards PDF available for Israel at an unlimited data rate. So I just signed up for the weekly plan, which includes a free cell phone rental (minutes are extra but free incoming).

Will the internet card be too slow? I am not sure. I did some speed tests in Israel over my iPhone and it was actually faster then my brothers Israel internet. So I hope it isn't too bad.

I will report back my experience.

The only downside right now is that they charge your credit card for $500 as a security deposit. You got that, they do not just "authorize" the card for the deposit, they actually charge you $500. Then when you return it, they promise to refund the $500. Outside of that, so far so good.

And I have learned to activate my AT&T international plan on the way to the airport, as to not pay for days that I am not overseas.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Travels , iPhone | Comments (1)

Yesterday, I received an email from the Israeli Consulate in New York inviting me to join a team of bloggers going to Israel, they call it a Blogger delegation to Israel. Basically, they want several bloggers to go, experience Israel and write about it. How cool!

Back in May of last year, I heard from someone at the Israel Ministry of Tourism via Facebook (go figure) that they wanted to put something like this together. I was then told that they handed off the project to the Israeli Consulate in New York. I don't know if you noticed, but the Israeli Consulate in New York has been extremely active blogging at Isrealli.org and reaching out on their Twitter account at @israelconsulate.

I am not sure how many other countries are using social media and have planned trips like this for bloggers to learn about a country and blog about it. But it shows you how times are changing and how social media, blogging and this type of outreach has major value.

The Consulate General of Israel in New York, along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be covering pretty much all the expenses and working out our itineraries. I don't know what other bloggers are going, outside of Tamar, who deserves a big thank you for doing most of the leg work with the consulate. But it should be a lot of fun and an invaluable experience.

So, in a few weeks, I am off to Israel for several days to get a real guided tour. I know I go to Israel about once per year, but when I go, it is more about visiting family and doing work, as opposed to getting to meet people in Israel and discuss topics.

I would love to actually use some of the time to meet up with Israel tech companies in the search field while I am there. So we will see if that happens. This past Sunday, I did a write up of My Friendly Meet Up With Google Israel and I hope to do more of these. So we will see.

Obviously, I want to thank the Israeli Consulate, the Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Affairs, Tamar, and my readers for putting me in a position to be able to do this. I can't express how much I appreciate it. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my pregnant wife for letting me leave her several days to be a part of this important trip.

This is a true honor.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (7)

Here are pictures from the sessions at SMX West 2009.

Hope to get back to blogging here on a normal schedule next week.

Also, check out our live blogging coverage at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

So I shared some pictures of the Google Tel Aviv office, but I wanted to point out one specific picture.

Jewish law requires you to put a Mezuzah on the top portion of the right doorpost of all doorways in and outside your home or office. Here is a picture of Google's Mezuzah.

Funny how they colored it Google colors. :)

Posted at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (0)

As some of you know, I spoke at a small event in Jerusalem. It is a bit funny, cause I saw a few familiar faces - I would mention some names, but I don't want to call anyone out and forget some people. But I do want to mention one person. I get an email from RustyBrick's first real employee - Hillel Coren. He tells me he is in Israel now and he saw I was speaking at these events, that he happens to go to. So he asked to meet up 30 minutes before. So we did. It was nice catching up with him - he worked for us for a long time, before moving to Manhattan and finding a new job. But he was a big part of what RB is today, so it was great seeing him.

Outside of Hillel and the people I met, I got some very interesting questions. Want to thank Charlie for organizing the event and Presentense for hosting it. I was able to wing the quiz they gave me on SEO :) and it was a lot of fun. Just never really talked that long, about two hours straight. So I had a thing of ice cream when I got back to the hotel - best ice cream I ever had. In any event, here are pictures of the event from Facebook.

Posted at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (2)

I had the opportunity to meet many SEOs while in Israel this trip. I met with RankAbove, I met with 30+ folks at the Jerusalem Web Professionals group and today I met with some of my favorite Israeli SEOs, Gilad Sasson and Branko Rihtman (aka neyne / SEO Scientist).

Gilad came all the way from Tel Aviv, which is a long way relative to Israel. Branko came from the other side of Jerusalem to meet with me. Roi, who runs Tens Technology and who Branko works for, couldn't make the lunch meeting - cause he just had a new kid. And Mayer from RankAbove I also missed due to having a kid. Mazol Tov Roi and Mayer!

Big thank you to my wife who has put up with me on this trip. She came with me to some of these meetings and almost passed out from boredom several times. Thank you wife!

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (5)

A month or so ago, we signed a deal (well, there were no signatures), to re-create the image and coding of Yad Eliezer's web site. I had the privilege with meeting with the family who runs the American operations and initiatives in my New York office. They described all the things they do for Israel, including and I am sure I am missing things... Thousand and thousands of food baskets for the hungry and for soldiers, weddings, big brother and sister programs, dental programs, baby formula, bar mitzvah programs and so much more. You can learn a bit about their programs over here (keep in mind, the site will change in the next few months, after we finish it).

The people who manage the American side of things really made an impression on me. It is a father, son and mother operation. The family is well off financially and they do not take a penny for the work they do for the organization. The father and son devote a huge amount of their time and money for the organization, but the mothers spends her days and nights (full time and overtime) working for the organization. She is up often at 3am (and I thought I got up early) and works late into the night.

I have seen many organizations and this organization just seemed different to me. They are by far the largest of its kind in Israel. They are most well known for their food programs, but because of their outreach in food, it extends to other programs, that have a nice natural fit.

As you can see, I am leaving out names - just in case. So the mother asked me if I would like to see how the operation works in Israel. So we coordinated a meet up at the Yad Eliezer Israel office, where I meet a bunch of people from the team. They were extremely delighted and excited to get their new web site. But besides for that, they took my wife and myself on a tour of the operations.

They first showed us a video they just released, showing how they sent 8,000 care packages to the Israeli soldiers during the Gaza war. They were able to get tons and tons of donations and tons and tons of volunteers in no time, to put together this huge operation. It was truly special and made a huge difference in the moral of these soldiers.

After the video and him showing us the dental clinic they run up north for families that cannot afford basic dental care, he took us for the tour. I believe we first visited the packaging facility, where in 2008, they packed about 8,000 packages each month for families in need of food and babies in need of baby formula. I even met a kid I know from where I live, who is donating his time while spending a year learning in Israel. Small world. It seemed like there were about 20 people there working, and I was told only one was on payroll.

Here is a picture of a portion of the packaging area, where the volunteers took 10 minutes out to watch that new video I mentioned above. I hope they post the video to YouTube, so I can share it with you all, but here is one picture:

Then he took us to the caterer, who prepares the food for the weddings they run at cost (and often cover 100%) for poor families. Weddings are a huge deal for Jewish families, huge - so they want offer a Adopt a Jewish Wedding program, so that even poor families can have a nice wedding. So we first went to the caterer who makes a total profit of several US dollars per event (not per plate). They have at least two weddings each night (two each night!) and often more. They were prepping chickens, soup, kugel, and a lot more. Everything was very clean and very impressive looking.

We then went to the two new wedding halls Yad Eliezer owns. They were extremely nice, as nice as most normal weddings in the US. They own two halls and they are constantly used, every night for a weddings. They also are able to get other halls at very reduced costs when they have more than two weddings taking place in a single night. Again, I was very shocked to see such care.

He only showed us a portion of what they do. But the small portion I saw in the couple hours I spent with them was unbelievable. What is even more unbelievable is that most of this is all done for free through their huge volunteer base. I am often skeptical about charities, that is why it is always nice to see an organization that is fully dedicated to what they do, from their hearts and not from their wallets.

Again, I feel privileged to be able to do their web site and even more privileged to have witnessed first hand, just a small portion of what they do, to better the world.

Posted at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (0)

I'll do a larger write up on the Google Tel Aviv office later, but I wanted to share pictures of the office with everyone. I was actually surprised by how "Googlish" the office was in Tel Aviv. Here is a slideshow:

Posted at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

Yesterday, I asked you to guess what this is a picture of and Charlie Kalech got it right. It is what is called a בור בטחון which means a place to dispose of bombs. Here is a picture, again:

This one sits about 10 feet from the grave site of Rachel, more on that over here. In short, it is a very holy site. If you find a bomb, you put it in this box and it should take care of most home made bombs. I was shocked to learn what it was. I personally thought it was a charity box, but I couldn't find a slot to put money in. So when I asked, I was told it was a place to put a bomb, if you find one. Being American, it just felt to weird to see one of these things. I was then told, they are all over Israel and even at the Kotel (western wall). When I went to the Kotel yesterday, I noticed one, you can see it for yourself in this picture in the center and the far bottom, at the end of the fence, right behind the middle man in the black coat.

Who would think you would need such a box? But when you see the security needed to protect such sites, I guess I should not be shocked. Rachel's Tomb is surrounded by a fortress to protect it, and those that come to pray there. I took a picture of one of the many look out towers, which encompasses the whole site:

Again, I was in disbelief when I saw all of this. This is normal life here. I cannot fathom it.

Posted at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

Here is a picture at one of the holy sites I visited. Now, I had no idea what it was until I was told. Let me give you context. It is positioned indoors, about 10 feet from a holy grave site. Take a guess and comment on what you think it is...

I'll come on later (via a new post) to let you know.

Okay, contest is over: Answer is... It Is a Place to Dispose of Bombs (בור בטחון) read more...

Posted at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (11)

I wrote this in my weekly recap, but just in case you missed it... I am in Israel now and I am going to a Jerusalem Web Professionals meetup this Wednesday night at 8pm. If you want to meet up with us, that would be cool. :)

I believe you need to register at either JWP and/or at Facebook. The cost is NIS 40, which is about $10 US.

The location is at PresenTense Offices, 64 Emek Refa'im. For more info, see here and I hope to see you there...

Posted at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I am in Israel now and I have had time to really test out my iPhone using local ISP speeds but why not post the speed results I get on my iPhone in Israel.

Here is a speed test result set from the Speed Test app for the iPhone:

The first 3G result set is the 3G speeds I am getting in Israel. Max 471 down and 181 up. The WiFi result, directly under that is my brother's wifi connection, which is slower than the 3G at a max of 440 (average of 138) down and 53 up. You can see, I ran it twice and the speed is more like 140 down, which is much less than the 3G network here. The next 3G result is from New York area, which is about the same as in Israel.

Here is a later subset of results that shows speeds much higher. In some locations in the US, the 3G network got as fast as 1120 down. But my FiOS connection is super fast showing 5764 down and 3049 up, which is slower then my previous report of 12664 down and 3149 up.

Posted at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels , iPhone | Comments (2)

The picture here is me, getting my last Internet puff before taking off, on a past flight.

Being without Internet on a flight longer than an hour drives me nuts. I am the type of guy who would pay a hundred bucks, easily, for Internet on flights over two hours. For my flight that is coming up now, it is over 10 hours to Israel and 12+ hours on the way back.

I don't think my flight offers inflight Internet, in fact - I am 99.999% confident they do not. So, minutes before take off, I will be franticly using my iPhone, getting every last minute of US internet I can get, before take off.

Then, when I land, the first thing I do, is turn on my iPhone and start downloading the hundreds of emails. I am not looking forward to that process, after a ten hour flight on a business day. But you do what you can do.

I do hope that the in seat power works to keep my devices charged fully. I do plan on watching a movie on my computer or iPhone, so we will see.

Here is to safe travels!

Posted at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

I just signed up for the Data Global Add-Ons for Smartphones, PDAs and iPhone from AT&T for my iPhone. Yes, I was very excited to learn that this was expanded to Israel recently. Today, I ordered the most expensive option, because I need to assume I will use what I use here in the states, on a high day for my trip to Israel.

Normally, I am on WiFi networks here. But on Sunday's I notice my usage on the data network spikes. So I picked the highest usage, which is about 6MB and went based on that. I signed up today, which gives me 80MB of usage until I get back to the states. Here is a picture of my data usage bar in my account for this international plan:

I will use the data plan probably 10 days, maybe less. Also, 4 of those days, I will be around wifi networks, most of the day. So I should have plenty of data to not go over the plan. If I do, I get hit with a fee of $.005/KB - which can get bad, quickly with the iPhone.

Now my only concern is battery life...

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels , iPhone | Comments (0)

Booking flights, to me, has always been like gambling. I watch the ticket prices for my search criteria for a few weeks, I use tools like Farecast to help, but ultimately, when I hit that "buy now" button, I feel like it is a gamble.

I often try not to look at the price of the flight after booking it. But Saturday night, I decided to take a sneak peak at the current price for my trip to Israel. I was shocked to learn that I paid almost twice as much.

Flights from New York to Israel typically run over $1,000 - typically $1,200 or so. When I looked Saturday night, the price was around $650 before taxes. I was shocked.

After I got over the initial feeling of being cheated, cause I know this is how airline prices work. I decided to then call and see what can be done. They offered that I can do a ticket change, for $250 per ticket, and then get a voucher back for flying next time, for the difference. So in short, I did it, and it cost me about $500 (two tickets) to get some money back.

At the end, I will come out $350 or so ahead. But I still feel cheated - although I know I should not feel this way. You rarely ever see tickets to Israel from New York this cheap. So if you want to fly this week, check out Continental Airlines.

Posted at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

This week, I go to Israel for about a week or so. So you might see less activity on this blog for the next week.

It is about a year since I was in Israel, that was for my Nephew's Bar Mitzvah and for SphinnCon Israel, amongst other things.

This time, I hope to do some planning for an SMX Israel event later on this year. I also hope to meet a few clients, SEO companies (not many) and visit the Google Tel Aviv office, if time allows. I do plan on spending at least two shabboses in Beitar with my older brother, sister-in-law and nieces. Last years trip was very nice, we did a lot and it worked out very well.

I am not a big vacationer. I always plan time to work, a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night. Last year, I remember stressing throughout the day in order to be able to find an open wifi network via my iPhone, to see if I am missing anything at work. My obsession gets better throughout vacation, I think. The issue is, and I am sure most of you can relate, is the constant feeling of having to dig out of the hole from going on vacation. So every day, the hole gets bigger. You dig as much as you can in the morning and at night, but then the hole gets bigger. Then you get back to your office and you have to dig out more.

Last year, I closed down the data services on my iPhone so I would not get hit with a huge bill. But this year, I am able to sign up for an international data plan for my iPhone. My only concern is that I will go over the max usage (it is not unlimited). My other concern is battery life, so we will see. It was somewhat of an issue in Boston this year, but I survived.

In any event, this year, like last year, I plan on having a work schedule. It includes:

• Client meetings
• SMX prepping
• RustyBrick billing and invoicing
• RustyBrick emails
• Daily RSS search news checking (so SELand can continue on)
• Daily search forum research
• Daily blogging at SERoundtable

When I come back, that day, which is a Sunday, I will have to spend most the day in the office. I think that day is payroll and invoicing clients day - so it is a jammed packed work day, outside of just catching up and digging out.

In summary, I am looking forward to the Israel trip but not looking forward to the big dig, on a daily basis. I guess it can be worse, I can be totally offline and have to dig out without knowing what to dig out of. I am use to being offline completely during work weeks, and I have some of those days coming up.

I don't think I am any different then most of you who read this blog. So I guess you can share in the anxiety.

Posted at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

Mike McDonald and crew did a very short video with me in Vegas.

In short, I talk about the guy who blends things. :)

Posted at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

So, how do I look before and after a full day of live blogging?

Andy Beal candidly snapped a picture of myself with Steve Boymel before the kick off of a morning keynote at PubCon. See how I look lucid, somewhat energetic. I am multi-tasking, talking on the phone, pretending to listen to someone, while likely scanning RSS feeds or replying to an email?

Notice the guy taking a picture of Andy, while he takes a picture of us.

The next picture is from Marty Weintraub, it was taken either before or after the last session of the day. Look at how I am trying to look awake and lucid - but I am not.

So that is how I look like before and after live blogging, if you have never seen me do that.

How about speaking? Lee Odden captured me on one of the panels (not sure how he did it when he was on this panel with me, cloaker!). Here it is:

Yes, it is true, my eyes turn white when I speak. Not sure why, no doctor has figured it out yet.

Posted at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

Sitting at the PubCon keynote with George Wright of Blendtec, the Will it Blend guy.

My question is... Will he actually blend something here, live - instead of showing us videos of him blending stuff.

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

I always wondered why there weren't more plugs and outlets by airport terminals? I guess it was to leave room for sponsors to pick that up. Yesterday, I was at Newark, terminal C112, and I saw one of these Samsung Charing Stations:

It seems to have been installed at Newark in late August:

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced the installation of 50 charging stations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). The charging stations have been installed throughout Terminals A, B and C.

I think it is a great branding move. You see banner ads all over airports, but for people with dead cell phones, this is a memorable piece, at least for now.

These charging stations are at other airports also including 54 stations at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), 51 stations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 12 stations at LaGuardia Airport (LGA), 18 stations at Orlando International Airport (MCO) and 22 stations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), along with eight Samsung Mobile Travel Centers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and others.

Posted at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I am off to Vegas later today, to the PubCon conference. If you see me, say hi! Don't worry if I look busy, I talk fast. ;-)

I will be on a panel, named Five Bloggers and a Microphone - What's The Worst That Can Happen?

It takes place Wednesday, November 12th between 4:10 - 5:30pm (PST). So, you know where to find me.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Posted at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Remember that parking ticket I got? The one where I was not in that location at that time?

You thought I was lying, didn't you!? Well, I wasn't!

I received a letter from the Adjudication Division of New York City saying they were wrong and I was right. Well, they didn't say they were wrong, they said that I do not owe any money to them for that ticket.

This letter is written in response to your correspondence regarding the parking summons (or summonses) listed below.

Any summons listed below has been satisfied. Our records reflect that you owe nothing with respect to them. In the even that you have other parking tickets, which are not listed below, you may still be liable for them.

Please keep this letter for your records. If you receive any payment demands within the next 30 days for the summon(es) listed below, you may disregard such notices.

Very truly yours,

The New York City Department of Finance
Adjudication Division

Then they listed the summons number and that I owe nothing.

For some reason, I don't think this is the end I hear about this ticket.

Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

Sorry for lack of bloggin here. Been busy at:

Posted at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Monday, I received a warm letter from the New York City Department of Finance. The letter said I was late in paying a parking ticket that I received on August 7th.

I scratched my head... I don't remember getting a parking ticket in the past year or so. So I then opened my calendar to see if I had any meetings in NYC. I did not. I then checked my email for the same thing and I did not have any meetings in NYC that day. I then asked my wife, but she never drives to the city herself.

The location as 73rd 1st Avenue. I pulled up Google Maps Street Views to see if it might remind me of anything:

View Larger Map

Nope, I don't think I ever parked that far down on the east side.

So I decided to call NYC yesterday. They said, I need to write them a letter telling them that I was not there. They also informed me that I can download the ticket over here, so I did that.

The plate number the cop wrote down was illegible. The second letter looks like a B, S or and R. The car the cop wrote was for a blue jeep, I do not own a blue jeep.

So I wrote them a letter, mailed in my car registrations and told them I was not there.

I heard some horror stories about people getting these claims and it leading to NY suspending their licenses. Hope that doesn't happen to me.

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

Sunday, I spent most of the day, 8-hours to be exact, driving back and forth to Baltimore, Maryland. It took about 3.5 hours each way. We stopped once, each way, for a bathroom break and I got gas (cause it was cheap in NJ). I am stubborn, so I did not use the bathrooms and any break. Not cause they may be unclean, but because I do not like to stop for breaks - I like to go direct. I dislike stop overs. Why did I stop? Well, I had passengers.

Here is the trip overview (not exact addresses):

View Larger Map

We did drive over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which I found to be nice:

View Larger Map

There was this crazy truck driver swiveling back and forth into lanes, on the way home. It was kind of crazy. Looked like he was driving a race car with a load on the back, the load was waving back and forth, trying to catch up with the car. :) Guess what... I did not see a "How am I driving" sticker on the truck. :)

View Larger Map

Not, that is not the truck. :)

Why so many embedded Google Maps Street Views? Cause I am obsessed with Tamar's finding on night vs day Google street views. Move one block over and it gets dark!

Oh, why did I drive to Baltimore? For a friends wedding.

Posted at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

This week, in the mornings, I have been swarmed by school buses. I was able to take this picture while stopped at a light, of a school bus in front of me and also behind me (look in the rear view mirror):

They just slow me down and it is upsetting. But I guess education is important. :)

I don't have the school bus issue on the way home. But in the mornings I do. In the past, I did not have this issue either. I use to get into the office at 6:30 am or so. But now, I am not getting in, until 7:00 am, which means, I hit the school bus traffic.

Since we are on the topic of my schedule. It turns out that I am not waking up later. Instead, I get up earlier, work in bed for about an hour before I leave the house at 6:20ish to go to morning prayer services. I then leave from there to work. The schedule is working out nicely, so far.

Oh, the red dot under my rear view mirror, is my red bull. I'll blog about that bull later, but it has no relation to the Red Bull car I saw a while back.

Posted at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

So now that you know what activities we did in Boston, I wanted to share the places we ate. Boston was selected as the destination not only cause it is a fun place and it is not too far, but also because they have kosher places to eat.

The majority of kosher places in Boston is about a 5 to 10 minute drive from Boston Commons, in Brookline. I had my car, so driving there was a breeze. In fact, driving anywhere in Boston took no time (everything feels like it is within 10 minutes, where as in NY everything is an hour).

Before we went to the hotel, we stopped off at Rami's Felafel, which is on Harvard St, like the rest of the places but a little further up. It was really good food. I got a burger in a pita bread, it was tasty. My wife got a shawarma and she loved it. The best thing about the place is that the people working their took pride in their food. So, I recommend it, if your nearby.

That night, we decided to try out Taam China. I called before hand and they said they had no room. But we decided to see anyway. They had room, and they sat us down and we ate. Maybe I am spoiled living in New York, but the food was not all that great. Again, maybe I am just use to better chinese food or maybe it was a bad night there. We did have the chocolate cake, which was really good - I think because the other food wasn't all that good.

After that, we went to Kupel's Bakery, which is a block over, to get food for breakfast. The people in the bakery were very very nice. The food was good also.

The next day, we ate at the kosher pizza store named Cafe Eilat. The pizza was okay, the people were also nice. It was a pizza store, and I would recommend it. I think the pizza store was diagonal to Kupel's, if you need assistance in finding it.

That night we went to the deli, named Rubin's Kosher Deli, it is suppose to be a New York Deli and it kind of looked like an old fashion NY deli. The food was pretty good, I got a chicken thing that night. The only issue was that it was packed. But the food and service was not bad. We actually decided to go back there for breakfast the following day, before leaving, because they had a breakfast menu. It was pretty empty when we got there, but the breakfast food was also very good. We packed up deli sandwiches on ice for the ride home and those were also good.

So that was our Boston Kosher dining experience. Hopefully this will help someone looking for places to eat while in Boston.

Posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Food , Travels | Comments (1)

So what else did we do on our trip to Boston? Well, I told you about the big CITGO sign, going to Cheers and walking up Bunker Hill Monument, but we did have time to do a few more things in our two day trip.

We jumped on Frog Pond Lily, to check out the Duck Boat Tours. The tour guides are interesting in a weird way. The guy we had, wore a rubber ducky around his waist, and had elmo arm floaters. There were others who were dressed a lot weirder, but they were all enjoyable to listen to. And yea, they made us quake.

Speaking of ducks, we stayed right by Boston Commons and here is a duck from the park:

We also ventured to the USS Constitution, which was closed on Monday, but we were able to go into the museum there and play with the canons:

I don't have pictures of the science museum, but we did go there. We saw an IMAX showing of Sea Monsters, I love IMAX. :)

I think is all or most of what we did in Boston. We do actually plan on coming back for these short, two day (Sunday/Monday) vacations. We would like to do some whale watching (I hear they are interesting to look at) and check out Sam Adams (we go way back) and a few more things we did not have time to do this trip.

Posted at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

The hotel we stayed at was just two-minutes from the famous Cheers bar. Yea, the one from the popular TV show that was on the air for 11 seasons. So, the first day we arrived, we decided to check the original Cheers Beacon Hill out.

Here is me at the stairs down to Cheers:

When we walked in, it looked nothing like the real cheers. But it was a bar, outfitted with tons of promotional stuff for the TV show. Three floors of bars and t-shirts, mugs, hats, etc.

I personally hate buying stuff at these places, cause I know I can buy the same thing, online, for half the price. But we bought things anyway. Hence, they knew my name from my credit card...

Posted at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

The most surprising part of the trip, which is over 200 miles one way, probably a total of 500 miles driven the whole trip, was that I did not get one ticket.

I did not get a speeding ticket, I did not get a parking ticket, I did not get a ticket for J-walking.

Before leaving, I warned my wife, that I would be lucky if I did not get at least one speeding ticket. The roads were wide open, mostly straight, conducive to going very fast, without noticing.

I did see several cars pulled over by police cars. I was, fortunately, not one of them. I did use a radar detector the whole way there and back, so that might have helped. I wasn't going 100mph, but I was not always going the exact speed limit.

I was lucky.

Posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Motor Vehicle , Travels | Comments (1)

I am back from vacation and there are a few things I would like to share with you about that vacation. Let me start with one of the trips we took that I will really never forget.

My wife and I went to check out the USS Constitution. It was closed Monday, so we scoped out the museum there and stuff. After that, we decided to take the five minute walk up to the Bunker Hill Monument. When we got there, we walked inside to see a sign that says, "warning..." something about 294 stairs to the top. My wife and I looked at each other and said, sure, why not.

We start the climb, up these narrow steps... First 50 stairs down, then 100, then 150, then 200. It is at 200, where we both started feeling it. By 250, I felt like I was going to explode, I was breathing extremely heavy, legs were a bit wobbly, my head was hurting and I was dripping sweat. We keep going, because the people we passed at about 150, were starting to catch up to us and these stairs are incredibly narrow. Plus, we were about 10 years younger then they were...

We finally made it to the top, to not really see much but a nice view. I was hoping for a vending machine or oxygen tank, but got only the view. The breeze was good, and it cooled us off. We took several minutes to catch our breath. Notice, the picture above, that is me, at the top, a few minutes after catching my breath.

Then we decided to go back down. I went first, because it is a bit scary going down. I was literally dripping sweat on the way down. I looked like a basketball player at the foul line, at the end of a long grueling game. Im surprised my wife didn't slip from it.

Our legs, the whole way down, were shaking. Once we got to the bottom, which felt a lot longer then going up, it was a relief. But walking around the rest of the day, was incredibly weird. It felt that my legs would give way at any moment. Just from walking, and especially walking down any stairs on that day.

In any event, this is proof I climbed Bunker Hill and I survived.

Posted at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I have been getting a lot of emails, asking if I am at SES San Jose. I am not there.

I am sitting this one out.

No specific reason, just need to take a break.

I will see you at SMX East and PubCon Vegas and maybe SES Chicago.

Posted at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

I might be going to Boston in the near future, depending on a few things.

In any event, if I am able to get away... I want to take my wife to Boston, for a quick vacation.

Here is what I know about:

• Duck Tour Boats
• Boston Common
• Boston Museum of Fine Art
• The Freedom Trail

If you know Boston, what would you recommend?

Posted at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (7)

Last night I booked the flight to PubCon in Vegas. Yes, way early, but the price via EWR to LAS on Continental wasn't bad - so I jumped at it. I made the mistake of not booking early enough for SES San Jose, and unfortunately, Tamar and I won't be going to that. So I was eager to get my flight booked for PubCon in November.

I am sure I will regret not going to SES San Jose... Just like when I bailed on PubCon last year, I totally regretted it. The last time I live blogged a PubCon was almost two-years ago. That PubCon was a lot of fun, since Yahoo invited me to Hugh Hefner's Vegas Suit in Palms Hotel and it was very all laid back.

So, in short, bailing on SES San Jose. Hitting SMX East and PubCon Vegas.

Not forget, SMX East is in October (right near Yom Kippur), good thing I am in NY.

Posted at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

This morning, on the way to work, there was a flock of ducks in the middle of one of the side roads I drive on. There must have been 20 or so of these ducks.

As I drove up, some got a bit startled, but when they noticed that I slowed down, they decided to proceed. They weren't all crossing the road, they were traveling westward on the street. So after a few seconds, I decided to honk my horn.

That worked. It took several honks, but it got them off the street.

I don't think I have ever seen so many ducks, period. Them being on the street is also not all that normal.

If I was some type of crazy nut, maybe I would have run them over. Reminded me of a movie I saw on a serial killer. Then I got sad when I thought about that.

Posted at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I have complained time and time again in my travel section about taking red eye flights. I have always vowed to avoid them. Well, for the first time in a west coast to east coast flight, I took a mid-day flight out of the west to go east.

I conned myself into believing that since my flight was leaving at 11:30ish PST, that it was already late afternoon in New York and I wouldn't be swamped with emails after the 5 hour flight. Oh boy was I wrong. I landed in Newark and the first thing I did was download email on my iPhone. I was hit with hundreds of emails! I don't get hundreds of real emails over night.

So, from now on, I am going to be taking the red eyes. At least until they get Internet access on these planes. If they had internet access, I would be able to fly 24/6, I won't care when, as long as it is not on a Saturday.

Why does it bother me so much to have hundreds of emails that I need to review, respond to and file away? As some of you know, I have email OCD and it really really impacts me.

Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I'm actually sitting on the plane thinking up a totally worthless blog post that I can write on my iPhone. The time in Seattle is 4:05 as I begin this post.

I figured I would discuss my trip down the continental blue carpet. Before doing so, I want to tell you that I wanted to create this whole stupid skit that I thought would be 'stupid funny' to do well on YouTube.

The idea was for me to video myself as I experience the blue carpet. Start off by approaching the carpet carefully. Being very careful as I step on the carpet for the first time, as one would do when going in to a cold pool of water. Then I would learn to trust the carpet more as the carpet trusted me more. Yea, the girly music would start playing in the background.

Then to be really funny, I might begin to lay down on the carpet as if it was a bed, ie totally trusting the blue carpet.

Now if this story board was placed on storybids.com, would continental airlines buy into it?

That was my plan but by the time I ended up at the blue carpet, the carpet was in use. So my plan failed.

This post is now done. It is now 4:13 and I typed it all on my iPhone. Not bad. (added after, the point was to see how fast I can type a blog entry on my phone).

Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

I am finally there. I am elite! I have elite status on Continental Airlines. This year, I promised I would stick with one airline in order to gain enough miles to give me some type of perk. My flight to Seattle a couple days ago earned me the 326 + miles I needed to obtain the 25,000+ miles to gain the silver Elite status.

What does Elite Status look like. Here is a screen shot of my account at continental.com:

It also changes at least one thing on some other pages. I now see I am automatically added to the upgrade list. I know I won't see those upgrades, because they go to platinum and then gold members before silver ones, like me. But at least it is there:

My complimentary upgrade feature is automatically on.

Why am I writing all of this? Because I wanted this type of information when I was researching it and no one blogged it. So maybe this will help someone in the future looking for this information.

In any event, tomorrow I get to board the plane on the blue carpet. I think my life is now complete.

Posted at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (6)

I've talked about my mobile gear in the past. Last night, I took some of my mobile stuff out and put it in the bathroom. I then thought, this makes for a blog post. So here it is:

Meet my mobile hair brush, mobile tooth brush, mobile tooth paste and mobile scope. I have other mobile items, but they didn't make it into this photo.

The mobile hair brush is a bit hard to use. It really doesn't do a good job brushing my hair. But it is mobile and I really don't care if my hair doesn't look pretty.

Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

The only time I check bags is when I am wife my wife. Every other time I go to the airport, it is wife a carry on.

Sometimes we use what is called the curbside check in. Basically, you pay an extra fee to check your bags and get your tickets outside of the airport, on the curb.

What I find funny is that often the curbside check in lines are longer then the lines inside. Imagine this:

CURB IS OVER HERE
------------------\\//--
WALL HERE----ENTER--
------------------\\//--
NORMAL CHECK IN HERE

So, basically, if you understand my ASCII illustration, you will notice that many checkin counters are on the other side of the wall, like two more feet in, passed the curbside checkin area.

Not only do you not have to wait on a line outside, you can also checkin without paying an extra fee.

Am I missing something? What is the benefits of the curbside check in, in today's day and age?

Oh, the picture above is when I was checking in at the curb and I saw Jesse Jackson at LGA about two years ago.

Posted at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

This afternoon I had to drive up-state a bit, up to Newburgh, NY for a meeting. I actually met with a company that makes things out of steel. Yea, it was an interesting place. That is for another blog entry.

On my way home, the sky opened up and it felt like someone threw a pool of water on top of my car, pretty much for the last 15 miles of my trip. You know that feeling, it is basically impossible to see the car in front of you - all you see is water and more water...

Of course, all the cars slowed down. I noticed many cars pulled over to the side of the highway. But everyone else pretty much had their hazards on, so you can see them and kept going at a steady 30MPH.

I can't remember the last time I drove in rain like that. It was literally impossible to see in front of you at times. I actually drove by looking at the yellow line on my left, to make sure I was in my lane. And then when I saw some sort of thing flashing in front of me (the car in front of me had his hazards on), I slowed down to not hit that car.

The rain stopped now, but it was bad. Glad I typically have a 10 minute commute to work. :)

Posted at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels , Weather | Comments (1)

Okay, I feel like I am wasting time. At least I got my laptop. But there is only so much you can do in a car. Anyway... I did a small video in iMovie while in the car. But I really would love to work on the video recap for the week now, but I just don't want to freak out my driver... Here is my quick video:

Hollywood, here I come!

Posted at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Travels | Comments (1)

That was quick! I arrived at 10:30ish, presented at 11ish, finished at 12ish and left at 12:15ish. Now, in the car, I caught up on feeds. Wrote a YSM story at SEL and reviewed Tamar's posts at SER.

Replied to some more emails, reviews SER's tax day theme (it rocks) and IMing with a few people. So I decided to then take some pictures of myself blogging in the car...

Black & White:

Color:

Regarding Jim's thing... I can't speak much about it. I honestly came in, did my presentation and left. I have no idea if my presentation was good or not. The questions were good. My slides rocked cause of Apple Keynote. The content, well, I have no idea. :)

Posted at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Travels | Comments (2)

I am sitting in the back of this car, typing away on my computer, writing this blog post, as I am being driven from Suffern, NY - two hours to Troy, NY to speak at Link Ninja's thing for Jim.

My battery has a little over two hours left, so by the time I get there, I should be all dead. I do have a spare, fully charged for the two hour trip back. I also plan on presenting on this machine, using Keynote. So it will be charging during my one hour presentation.

I need to talk for one hour? No idea if my presentation is even that long. I have almost a 100 slides on Universal Search and how to take advantage of it. But I talk fast. Anyway, it should be fun. A lot of other SEMs that I am friendly with will be there.

I love being able to work while commuting, this is the only way to travel!

Posted at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Travels | Comments (1)

I can't wait for the day where you can use your mobile device on an airplane, with the airplane's door closed.

In fact, I would be totally cool with airlines banning the use of the phones on the plane, as long as we can use our data connections. :)

The amount of time I waste on a plane, stinks. So it is cool to see Europe clears mobiles on aircraft:

Mobile phone calls will be allowed on planes flying in European airspace under new European Commission rules.

The decision means that mobiles could be used once a plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more.

The graphic above shows how the transmission would be bounced off a satellite, down to a local cell tower. The 3G network won't work yet, but it may follow soon.

Posted at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Via the AP, Appeals Court Rejects Airline Law.

The New York law set out to protect airline passengers was thrown out today by a federal appeals court. The law requires airlines to provide food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers in a plane delayed on the ground for more than three hours.

Why was it rejected? Simply because it was conflicting with a federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.

The court did like the law but said that it had to be done at the federal level, not the state level. The court said:

If New York's view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel.

I still think each airline has their own terms of service. Many airlines have their own "bill of rights." Here is Contiental's as a PDF document.

Posted at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

I just checked my year-to-date miles and I noticed I am 326 miles away from warning elite status with Continental Airlines. I have been devoted to flying only Continental this year, to ensure I gain some status with them - as opposed to just flying the cheapest airline and spreading out my miles.

The main advantage, for me at least, with elite status is being able to secure an overhead compartment before they are all gone. Typically, when they board elite status members, about half the plane qualifies. So by the time I get on the flight, there are often not enough spaces above my seat for my bag. Sometimes I can move things around to get my bag up there but...

(1) I hate doing that, it makes me feel sneaky
(2) If there is no room, they got to put it under

I typically only fly with just a carry on, so when I time things, I plan on not waiting for baggage.

Anyway, next flight, I am pretty much guaranteed elite status. So now I can be like the other half of the passengers, at least from my next flight throughout 2009.

Posted at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

As many of you know, this week is the SES NY conference. Since it is fairly local, I drive in each day.

What do I get out of driving in? A deep appreciation for not having a commute each day and every day. Hundreds and hundreds of people from my town drive, train or bus in to NYC each day. It kills three or more hours a day for them. Yesterday it took me almost 2 hours to get into the city. On the way home, I had to play games and take riverside drive, as opposed to the west side highway, to make it to the GW Bridge, only to hit major slow downs on the Palisades.

Typically, getting to the bridge is fine - but once you get into NYC, it can take 30 minutes to go one block.

Anyway, I am fortunate to own a business and live within ten minutes from the office. Does it mean I wake up any later? Nah, still up and out by 6am but if I didn't work as close, maybe it would be 5am?

I am off to the last day of SES shortly, hope the traffic isn't horrible - it should be late enough now to not be too bad.

Posted at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

I admit it, I am seriously not looking forward to SES NY. Why? Cause I hate SEW, SES, Incisive Media! There I said it. Nah, I am just kidding. I have no hate towards them - they are a nice group of people, especially those working at SEW and trying to replace Danny and my role (you devils!). Nah, seriously, I am kidding - we love each other, just ask Kevin, Kevin and Kevin.

Why am I really not looking forward to it?

(1) No sleep
(2) The commute stinks (easily 2 hours of angry traffic each way)
(3) Covering sessions that I heard 30 times before is painful
(4) Not being at work is stressful
(5) Being mean when people ask to go out for dinner and saying you can't cause you need to get up at 5 to get to work done before the conference starts, is upsetting.
(6) Walking and driving in the city is uncomfortable, to say the least

Honestly, I feel this way even about going to other conferences - minus the commute. At least I can easily find kosher food at the NY conferences.

Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

Here is a picture of the schwag Yahoo gave us:

Yea, a laptop sleeve and a Yahoo notepad with a pen. The sleeve has the Apple power button on it. Expecting more?

Yahoo Search Marketing totally rocked them, but I guess budgets are now getting tighter at Yahoo. :)

Still was nice to go and see things and meet people.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

If I am sick of writing about my flights to and from places, then you must be sick of listening to them. But I do like documenting this stuff, so I am going to write it anyway, but not give it a picture.

My flight was delayed about three hours last night. So last night, when I arrived at SJC (San Jose Airport), I was informed Continental can put me on a shuttle to SFO (San Francisco Airport) and book me on a flight that was 30 minutes later then my original flight but on time. So with a bit of hesitation I took that option.

Why the hesitation? I wanted to work and that meant I had to get to SFO (45 - 1 hour away), and some of that time would be wasted. In any event, it worked out well.

I got to the gate and noticed a bunch of girls with Australia shirts and jackets. It turned out they were cheerleaders. I was pretty far from where they were, so I couldn't get a good look - but their accents were pretty cool.

I found a fellow iPhoner who was hogging all the power outlets, he gave one up so I can work. I was about to go to the lounge but I rather sit in one spot then move around - so it worked out. I then scheduled some posts for SER, did SEL research, did email and so on.

We board and I learn that the aussi cheerleaders are sitting not too far from me on the plane. Pros and Cons:

Pros: No Comment
Cons: Will they do cheers on the flight and be all yappy on the flight?

In any event, as I got closer I saw that they were basically kids - probably high school. And they were not so yappy on the flight, so it worked out okay. The one thing was when we were landing, I think one of the girls was having a nervous break down and crying... Her friend kept saying, you need to breath. Despite her nervous break down, we did manage to land safely and I jetted to my car.

I got to the office about as scheduled, at 7:45am.

I did get some ZZZs on the plane.

Seems like a slow news day, minus the AOL news. Gives me time to catch up on RB.

Posted at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

Right now I am sitting in the Hotel Valencia Santana Row waiting for the west coast to catch up to the east coast. The hotel is very nice and comfortable, not a huge hotel - which is really actually nice.

In any event, there is this basket of junk food on my right. I drank the $4 bottle of water, but the rest I did not touch. If you add up all the food in that basket, I bet it comes out to just about a $100 (yea, a snickers is $3, the cheapest thing in the basket). Here is a picture:

Yes, typical of all hotels - but today I had time to blog about it.

I actually got two free diet cokes, valued at $4.08 each, this morning. I was thirsty and ran out of water. So I went to the restaurant downstairs and asked for diet coke, two of them. She said, its $4.08 each, I said, fine. She came back with two cups of diet coke and said, "this time, its free." I said, "thank you so much." Ha, I showed them. :)

Well, they did get me for the $4 water and the $20 parking fee. Got to love hotels.

But I do highly like this place, for some more pictures of my room, see Flickr.

Posted at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Yesterday, I said thought I would be getting little sleep but that turned out to be a lie.

I got to the airport at 3:15. On the way to the airport I checked for other flights leaving the airport via the same airline to the same destination. I saw a 3:45pm flight out and then mine. When I got inside the terminal and past security, it was probably about 3:35 or so. I checked the departing flights sign and found the 3:45pm flight's gate. I ran over there and asked the lady if I can get on the earlier flight. She said, "if you are willing to take a middle seat." I said, of course. So I got on and we took off.

So I landed at 7ish (10ish EST), finally got the rental car at 7:45ish (10:45ish EST) and got to the hotel at 8:30 (11:30 EST). Checked in, did email, feeds, work, etc. Then showered and prepped for bed. Got into bed maybe at 9:30 (12:30 EST), looked at the room for an hour or so and fell asleep at maybe 10:30 (1:30 EST).

I kept on waking up, like every hour. Not sure why, I normally sleep well in hotels. By 4am (7 EST) I couldn't take it anymore and I just got up. Did morning routine and blogged away.

Now it is 7:30 (10:30 EST) and I got 1.5 hours to spare before heading to Yahoo.

At least I know there are no earlier flights tonight and I have a feeling I won't sleep much tonight on the red eye back.

Posted at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

As you know, I am going to Yahoo Search but I think I might be nuts for how I plan on doing it. Here is my schedule, if everything goes according to plan:

• Got up at 5:30am (EST) today and in office at 6:10am
• Leave office about 2ish to go to airport
• Get through security and on Internet at about 4ish
• Try to do blog research for tomorrow while waiting to board
• Take off at about 6pm
• Land in SFO at 9:30pm (12:30 midnight EST)
• Pick up rental car at SFO at 10pm (1am EST)
• Arrive with rental car at hotel 11pm (2am EST)
• Check email at hotel and prep for sleep by 11:30pm (2:30am EST)
• Set alarm clock to wake at 3:30am (6:30 EST)
• Work on RB, SER, SEL and so on until 9:30am (12:30 EST)
• Go to Yahoo
• Censored
• Leave Yahoo at about 7pm (10pm EST)
• Arrive at SJC (closer airport) at 7:30pm (10:30 EST)
• Get to gate by 8:30pm (11:30 EST)
• Try to do blog research for tomorrow while waiting to board
• Take off sometime after 9pm (12 midnight EST)
• Land in NY at 6am ish EST (if on time)
• Get out of airport by 6:30am
• Get to office at 7:30am

Now, if I can sleep on the flight from SJC to NY, then I will be okay. Chances are, I won't be able to sleep. So I figure I will be sleeping about four hours between 5am this morning and 11pm Thursday night.

I did something like this once before, when I went to SES Sweden in 2004.

But when all is said and done, I should have reached my "Elite Status" with Continental airlines - making it all worth while.

Posted at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (4)

I have a meeting with a crew of people (who exactly, I am not sure) at Yahoo Search tomorrow. It is some sort of "advisory meeting" and I am delighted I was able to make it this time and even more delighted to have been invited to join.

I am not sure if I can blog about me even going, since I really can't blog about what we talk about - but I am blogging that I am attending the meeting. Under NDA, like all of these things, I will only be able to blog about things in that meeting that I have permission to write about. So until then, I won't be saying much more.

I have been at Yahoo advisory meetings in the past. The first formal one was when they launched Panama, the new Yahoo Search Marketing platform in October 2006. At that meeting, Yahoo Search Marketing hooked me up with some excellent Yahoo schwag. I wonder what type, if any, schwag they will have at this even.

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

This plane never even made it down. Watch the plane try to land but it is being blown around too much to touch down. It manages to climb right after it tries touching down. Reportedly it landed at a different airport later.

German airline Lufthansa has said its pilots had averted a crash at Hamburg airport after winds of more than 150 mph caused a plane with 130 passengers on board, to veer dangerously on landing.

"Just before landing, the plane was hit by a very strong gust of wind that led to the left wing touching the ground very briefly," said Juergen Raps, Lufthansa executive vice president of operations.

The left wing grazed the runway for a moment, but the pilot was able to stabilise the aircraft and take off again in what a spokesman called an " absolutely professional manoeuvre."

More news on this at Google News.

Posted at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I created a YouTube video with iMovie using pictures from SMX West provided by Li Evans, Matt McGee, SEOmoz and Jim Hedger. Here is the video. I am getting better and making them...

Thank you guys!

Update: This is now working again.

If there are any mistakes, please let me know below and I will do a big update of the video. If you want more pictures added, please send me the Flickr URL below and I will try to add them. I know I did not cover everything...

Posted at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

I think I got an hour or maybe even two on the flight back from San Jose to New York last night. Yes, I am writing this while on the plane. I rarely sleep on planes but I am extremely happy with the hour or so.

So my plan for today:

- Land safely at 5:50am
- Get to my car (I hope it is there in one piece) at 6:20am
- 45 minute drive home (need to stay awake while driving)
- Say hi to wife at 7am
- Pray 7:15am
- Emails
- Get to office by 8am
- Work forum threads and blog at SER as quickly as possible
- RSSes and stuff for SEL and blog
- Catch up on RB work
- Etc. Etc.
- Leave work at about 4 or 5
- Get Ready for Shabbos
- Go to synagogue
- Come home and eat
- Go to sleep by 8:30pm
- Wake up at 8:30am

Right now it is 5:10am (EST), I hope we start our way downwards soon...

Live now

Before posting this... I landed on time, and actually got to the office at 7:30am, so ahead of schedule.

Posted at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Jeffrey Rohrs are I have a thing about meeting up in transit between the hotel and convention center. Last night, before the Google Grove we met up and he told me he wanted to have a chat with the Virtual Concierge at the Hyatt. I was like, "what?"

We walk up to a desk and this woman named Anna is looking at us through a wide plasma screen. Jeffrey says hello and she responds, we hear her through the speakers on the desk. We then begin asking her questions. I can't remember the order of the questions but they are assorted from:

• Are you real? Yes, she is.
• Where are you based? Just 80 miles away.
• How did you come up with the idea? She hated the commute and she convinced her bosses that this is a good idea
• When did she start doing this? About 7 years ago
• What are the most common questions she gets? The ones above
• Do you get sick of these questions? Never
• Are your kids ever with you on the screen? Yes
• Did you get a lot of press? Yes see here
• Do you use search engines as an aid? Of course, she loves them (had to ask)

In fact, she even convinced Yahoo Maps (I believe it was Yahoo) to make a change to how they handle an aspect of there mapping software. She was written up in the Guinness World Records for being the first to ever do this. She invented the idea and was the first.

She has a blog at Virtual Anna at WordPress and really enjoys technology. About 7 years ago she didn't even have a computer, and now she embraces it every day.

She printed out a sheet for me so I can contact her later but I suspect she might see this post at my personal blog. I probably will email her to ask her in detail, how she uses search engines for her job and what improvements she has seen and would like to see in the future.

Great meeting you Virtual Anna!

Posted at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

Got a several minutes before I need to go to the conference. Figured I take some pictures of the view I have from my room in the Santa Clara Hyatt. They gave me this corner room, all the way at the end of the hall. It has a balcony - I believe it was the first time I had one of these in a hotel room. Here are pictures:

To my left is Great America:

Panning right, the Hilton is across the street:

Citrix:

To the right of Citrix:

As I continue moving right, I believe this is Yahoo's offices (I may be wrong):

The convention center?

Below me:

Alright, I'll probably head down now...

Posted at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (2)

It seems like whenever I fly to a search conference, the same people time and time again are on the same flight with me. Jonathan Mendez, Steve, Kevin Lee but he is missing on this flight.

Yes, Jon is sitting in first class - he flies a ton for his new job, so he deserves it. The others, well - they are sitting in rows 9 and 10, right next to me. Kevin, well - typically he is on the same flight with us but not this time. Maybe he isn't going to show for this conference or maybe he now has a private jet? :)

I find it funny how the same crew is always on the same flights from New York to the hot search conference. I guess it makes sense flying from New York to San Jose but there are plenty of other flights that go direct from here. In addition, we fly together to Chicago, Vegas, Seattle and the list goes on.

I guess the odds aren't that great but still funny - or maybe it is not funny and I am just incredibly bored and would write just about anything to keep me occupied?

Time to put down the pen...

Posted at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Tell me this, why is the Continental Presidents Club always incredibly packed? Specifically the club in Newark airport?

They have two here, in Newark airport.

Each one is maxed out...

So the same thing happens over and over again. You get in, you walk around the room in a circle for two or three cycles until you find a seat with a plug. When you sit down, you see the same people doing laps around the club, doing the same thing you did. It feels like looking for a parking spot in NYC.

Anyway. Flight is, of course, delayed. But I am in the lounge now, blogging away.

Posted at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (3)

People ask me why I typically don't attend the after hours parties at conferences. There are a few reasons:

(1) I am a boring person. :)
(2) I'm fairly quiet and like places that aren't noisy.
(3) I am so tired at the end of the day.

Let's look at the upcoming SMX that I am leaving for tonight. I will be landing, with Tamar, at midnight EST time. By the time we get to our rooms, it will likely be well after midnight. I'll do work as soon as I get to the room and finally go to sleep maybe midnight PST time. I will then get up at 5am PST due to lag and cause I have to do work. What will I be doing? Everything I do every day, pretty much but with less help. Danny and Chris are running the conference. Tamar is exclusive to conference coverage only at conferences. But I like to do it all.

• I'll do emails when I get up
• I'll do forum research
• I'll blog forum topics at SER
• I'll do RSS and seo research
• I'll blog at SEL
• I'll probably then pray, shower, eat
• More of the above and deal with RB stuff
• With minutes to spare, Ill run down to the convention center and then do live blogging
• While live blogging, Ill do the above items throughout the day
• Meet with companies and friends in the industry
• Stop off in exhibit hall to say hi to friends
• Keep this up throughout the day
• Go back to room to do recaps of the day's news, coverage and stuff
• More RB work
• Eat frozen kosher dinner meal cold
• Quick run to a party and say hi and then leave soon after
• Head back to hotel room for more work
• Shower, rest and sleep
• Back up at 5am PST repeat from top

Most people are tired during conferences but I am often too tired for the parties. So I need to apologize in advance if I can't make a party or a dinner invitation.

One thing I am not looking forward to is doing all of this on Thursday and then taking a 10pm PST flight back to NY. Getting off the plane at 5am (EST) on Friday, driving my car back to the office, and working a full day.

At least I can sleep 12 hours Friday night to catch up.

I should add... I know a lot of other people continue their day jobs and other responsibilities while on conferences. I am not the only one and some of those people even manage to party all night.

Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

Late this afternoon I am off to SMX West. I go via Newark, Continental direct to San Jose Airport. It is about 10 minute ride from the airport to the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, aka the conference hotel. The hotel is right next to the Santa Clara Convention Center, where the conference will take place.

I am very excited for the event - it is the first big SMX ever. My team and volunteers will be covering the conference in great detail, see our SMX West coverage schedule and keep watching the SMX West 2008 archives for updates starting tomorrow. Keep in mind, we will be on PST time, so the updates will begin happening later in the day.

One thing I am not looking forward to is the flight back. I always say, I will never do the red eye again, but I always end up doing that. After the red eye, I go directly to work and work a full day. Maybe this time I will wise up and take some Tylenol PM.

Hope to see you all at SMX!

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

To continue my story and probably end the blog posts on my Israel Trip, I thought I end with the story of the missing bag.

As I finish unloading my parents stuff into their house and begin loading my bags into my car to drive back home, I notice a big purple suitcase is missing. I ask my father if he took it inside. Nope, not at his house. I frantically look through the cars to make sure its not there and it is gone.

I then relax myself and think. I remember now. I carefully took the bag off the cart to first load the larger bags into the car. As I began loading the larger bags, a car pulled up and blocked my view of the big purple bag. I thought I loaded everything, but I forgot the big purple bag at the curb.

I then pull out my baggage claim tickets, isolate the bag claim number for the missing bag and call a couple numbers. No one is helpful. One person said, we don't check the curb. You have to go back and see if it is there - note, I am about one hour from the airport now and I have been traveling for like 20 hours at this point. I asked, can you patch me into the baggage claim desk at Newark Airport Terminal C. They said no. So I call the Newark Airport Police who give me the number for that area. I call but no answer, it says on the machine - Leave a message with the details and we may get back to you, we are very very busy - good luck (or something like that).

At that point, I figure my only choice is to drive back to the terminal and check if I can find the bag. My wife is sick, so I can't have her come back with me. Yes, I wanted a second person to wait by the car just in case I have to go into the terminal. Time was of the essence here, anyone could have picked it up and taken it home with them. So I drop off my bags at home and then pick up my mother - who was also 20 hours traveling but offered to come with (mothers are the best).

We jet to Newark, as we get closer I get more antsy... We finally pull up and I look at the location of where I placed the bag. It is NOT there!!!!

I then tell my mom to wait by the car and I run into the terminal and head towards the baggage claim. There is one attendant there. She is helping another customer and one more is in front of me. She sees by my eyes that I am a bit nervous and asks if she can help me. I said, I left a big purple bag here, did you see it?

Guess what she says???

Why would you leave your bag here?

I was thinking to myself... Are you crazy, I left it for fun, to make your job harder. But I responded, it was an accident, I did not mean to and I am sorry.

She said, yes we have it. A cop brought it in earlier. I big sigh of relief come across me.

She brings out the bag and I bring it back to the car and call the wife.

Finally, we head back home.

Thank you mom.

Note: that was the first time I ever left a bag anywhere, let alone the airport curb. Lessons learned...

Posted at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I wrote about the Flight to Israel on Continental, so I figured I write about the flight back.

We leave about an hour or so after shabbos is over. We get to the airport on time. The security in Ben Gurion Airport is incredible. About 5 different people ask you a bunch of questions along the way. The check your bags a few times with you and then ask you more questions. They are constantly checking you to make sure things are safe. Guess what, it is all done incredibly quickly and it felt much quicker than being at a New York airport's security line.

After getting through security, we set up shop temporarily in the center circle. My wife and mother go shopping, duty free, while my dad and I go on the free and fast wifi. A guy behind me asks how I connected. He had a Mac and was unable to connect. I explained that you need to agree to the terms of service but the agreement page does not work in Apple Safari, so you need to use Firefox. Once you agree in Firefox, you can use Safari again. He sadly only had Safari on his Mac.

At that time, I look around me to see if we have any people who look like they might be sniffing my Internet traffic. Like I would really know anyway. I then finish up my emails and RSS feeds and close my laptop. The 'girls' come back and we are greeted by friends who are flying back on El Al. They said they have access to the King David Lounge and asked us if we want to go. I said sure, but we also had access to the Dan Lounge, because I flew Continental and had an AMEX card. But we decided to go with them to the King David Lounge. Let me tell you, it blew me away. It was incredibly clean but the best part was the food was kosher. I grabbed some tuna, bread, cookies, drinks and had a meal. It rocked! I wonder if the Dan was that nice, maybe next time I'll check that out.

Note, Ben Gurion Airport is pretty new. I was actually in the airport the last night before they switched over to the new airport. It was November 1, 2004, almost November 2, 2004, when I had my flight back to New York after SES Sweden 2004, where I decided to go to Sweden via Denmark, then back to Denmark to London to Israel. Then on the way home (a few days later), I was the last flight out of the old terminal in Ben Gurion Airport. So the lounges are all pretty new and awesome, so is the airport. So it is hard to compare the Continental lounges to brand new lounges anyway. Learn more about the airport at Wikipedia.

We boarded our continental flight and I noticed we were on a really new plane. The TVs and seats and everything looked shiny - looked pretty new. Unfortunately, the air conditioning did not work until we took off and there was a slight delay on take off. So it was very hot and uncomfortable until we took off. But once in the air, it was smooth sailing. The TVs had on demand shows, so you can start a TV show, movie or whatever when you want, and even pause it if you need some shut eye. That is how airplane TVs should work.

We landed and my brother Ronnie picked us up. He drove us home at about 5 or 6am in the morning. Nice brother. It was Sunday morning.

When he dropped off my parents, it was there I noticed we were missing a bag. Missing a bag!!! To be continued....

Posted at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (1)

I skipped Friday from Thursday, because nothing really significant happened Friday day. Now, although Avi was officially Bar Mitzvah'ed on Thursday, Shabbos (Friday night and Saturday) was a continuation of that celebration.

The plan was for many of us to meet at the kotel and pray Shabbos night services there. Many of us took taxi's prior to Shabbos beginning and got there early to prepare for services. When we arrived, we secured a place to pray in about the same location as on Thursday. As more people came, we decided to start. If I remember correctly, Avi lead services for both afternoon and evening services.

The thing is, soon after we started two new groups formed in front and behind us. The ones behind us were a Carlebach group, extremely loud. Then in front of us was a "mission" from the US. Great cause, they basically take a group of children who are ill, to Israel for a week or so, to experience it. So that group, although very nice, was a bit loud, as you can imagine. It was almost impossible to hear Avi lead us, but we managed.

After services, we walked back to the area of our hotels. It was about 20 - 30 minutes to walk, but it was a bit hilly. My sister and brother-in-law reserved the OU Center in Jerusalem for the shabbos meals. They had a caterer and more at this place, and it turned out very nice. They hosted meals for Friday night, Saturday day and Saturday night. Shabbos morning, we held services at the OU Center, where Avi read the whole Parsha Trumah, as opposed to just the first Aliyah, which is done during the weekday. He read perfectly and he wasn't nervous. When I did that, I was extremely nervous. Yes, he was only in front of 30 or so close friends and family, while I was in front of hundreds who were looking for me to make mistakes - but still, impressive for a 13 year-old.

My wife wasn't feeling well, so after the meal, we went back to our hotel and tried to sleep a bit. Then came back to the OU center for the third-meal. After that, we were pretty much done with Israel. It was time to go back to the airport to catch our flight to Newark. More on that later...

Posted at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Religion , Travels | Comments (1)

So after the kotel tours we prayed afternoon services at the kotel and then headed back to our respective lodges. The picture at the top right is of me and the Bar Mitzvah boy before leaving the kotel to head back and then go to Yad Vashem. As soon as we get back, we quickly change and I meet family and friends to bus over to Yad Vashem.

Yad Vashem is a holocaust museum. You can learn all about it at their web site or at Wikipedia. I'll tell you about our tour.

My sister scheduled a private tour when the museum was basically empty at night. It was a special tour for bar mitzvah kids. In short, they pair up a bar mitzvah kid with a kid who perished in the holocaust. The tour guide, who was excellent, tries to take us through the museum through the events of that child. It was a really educational and special tour and I am very glad I went.

Here is a picture of me facing the back door of the museum and looking in. Notice, it is like a triangle.

It was a long day that day, but a great way to end off. We started with Avi's Bar Mitzvah, then did the Kotel Tours and finished the day with this important tour.

Posted at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (2)

In the afternoon of Avi's Bar Mitzvah, many of us went on the Western Wall Tunnel Tours. Our tour guide was really great - he really got the children involved and also educated us all, big time.

Basically, this is a tour of the western wall of the outside of the Jewish Temple or בית המקדש. Much of the protecting walls were covered up by thousands of years of dirt and building homes and stuff on top of them. When Israel became a state, Israel began to dig up part of the western wall, which is what we call the Kotel. The Kotel is just a small piece of the whole Western Wall - but much of it is covered up by homes. So they made these tunnels to let us walk, safely, along the wall, under the streets and homes that are above it.

What is so important about this wall? Well, it is the closest point to where we can go, to the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit). In fact, when we walked through the tunnel, there was one point where you can stand directly in front (picture) - a few hundred feet (maybe less, not sure) from the center of that point. We saw a Chosen (about to be married man) come to say a prayer there before his big day. It is the closest point, by most authorities, a religious Jew can get to the point of the Kadosh Hakadashim (Holy of Holies) - so it is spiritually important and significant.

Also, one of the largest stones in the world is part of that wall. It is a length of 13.6 meters and an estimated width of between 3.5 and 4.5 meters; estimates place its weight at 570 tons.

The thousands and thousands of history in those walls and tunnels is just amazing. I am glad I went on this tour - I learned a lot. If you ever do go to Israel, I highly recommend it - amazing amount of history there. You can also learn a lot about it at Wikipedia...

The cool and action packed part was when we left the tunnel. We leave through the Muslim Quarter and we are escorted by two Israeli soldiers that are armed with automatic rifles. The tour guide told us it is just for show, but seriously, why would you do that for show. :) Anyway, it was exciting to say the least.

Next comes Yad Vashem...

Posted at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , Travels | Comments (2)

The other day I posted pictures of SphinnCon Israel. I finally had time to upload a two part video of my introduction to the first ever SphinnCon. I had to break up the 17 minute video into two parts, so YouTube would accept it. My Dad took the video, he was in the front row.

As you can see, in the beginning, I was a bit choppy but things went smoothly afterwards. I personally had a great time with it:

Part One: 8 minutes and 51 seconds

Part Two: 8 minutes and 10 seconds

Posted at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , Travels | Comments (0)

Thursday was Avi, my oldest nephew, Bar Mitzvah - the day he became of age to be counted as a man in the Jewish world.

We all met at the Kotel, Western Wall, in the morning. I had to hunt down a representative that would secure a table for us to use during morning services. I finally found the guy, he brought me a table amongst the masses of people (keep in mind it was a new month and a Thursday, so lot's going on at the Kotel that day). He told me to stand and guard the table until more people came. But then they needed me for pictures, so we got someone to take my place while I did some pictures. Then we all went to the Kotel, by the table, for morning services. We got a position near the men and women dividing wall (mechitza (spelling)), so the women can see what was going on.

Avi's brother, second oldest son, Jeremy lead the introductory part of the morning services. Then two of my brother-in-law's friends did the rest of the services. The picture above is of Avi reading the Torah. I was honored with one of the alyiahs. He did a great job!

During all of this, we had a very loud group behind us. It was this Carlebach group behind us, and as some of you know, they can get loud. But we survived and finished up services. After services we all either walked or took a taxi to the event hall for the party.

When I got to the event hall, I helped my sister set up her computer to the projector. The first problem we had was that there was only one outlet and we had two things to plug in. So they got us a plug that expanded into two. Then when I tried out the outlet, I noticed the power wasn't working. So I asked them for an extension cord so we can try an outlet that was further away. They didn't have an extension cord, so they built one on the spot for me. When that was built, I was a bit afraid to plug the devices into it, cause it can fry the computer and projector. I took my chances and it worked out perfectly.

The party was very nice, the food was good, the music was good, the speeches were nice as well. The dessert was also very good. And yes, there was dancing and more pictures. I was very impressed on how well everything went.

That was the Bar Mitzvah, after the Bar Mitzvah - we did a few other things to extend the event. More to come on that in later posts.

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (0)

After a long day of standing at SphinnCon Israel on Tuesday, I was fairly tired that night. In any event, I knew I wanted to document the day and upload pictures on my extremely slow Internet connection in Israel. So when I woke up, I began my morning stuff, email, RSS, forum research. Then when I was done, I began blogging the conference at both the Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Land (Danny then told me, he would have blogged it at Search Engine Land).

I told my wife to go shopping while I blogged away the AM. She found a Michal Negrin store nearby and bought some jewelry. She then met me back at the hotel and I finished up my blog stories for the morning. A little after 1PM, we left to do more shopping in Geula. Yes, I am a great husband for going shopping even though it makes me ill to shop. I don't think we bought anything that day, I may be wrong - it is all turning into a fog right now for me. But we did stop at a tile place. My wife has been really wanting us to get a backsplash for ournew house but I have been trying to push off that decision.

In any event, she found two styles she liked here in Israel. Note, she hasn't been able to find anything in America yet - but she found two styles she liked in Israel. The one above, is one that I think we both like and will work well in our kitchen. Thing is, I guess it would have to be shipped from Israel and we would have to convert the measurements somehow - all doable. Not that we are going to do this anytime soon. The above backsplash looks a lot like Israeli stone, which is why we like it.

After the backsplash bit, we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. Skipping some parts....

We go together to some restaurant that tells us they have no room for the four of us. My sister-in-law does her smooth talking and gets us in. We eat well. It turns out the waiter was a taxi driver that took my brother somewhere, so they chatted a bit about that. In any event, the food was good and the convo was good. Although, I prefer not to talk and be distracted when I have food in front of me ;-).

After that, I think the day was over - we had to rest up for the big day tomorrow. My nephew's bar mitzvah.

Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Food , Shopping , Travels | Comments (1)

To continue the tale... Tuesday was all about work. My wife went to Haifa to see her friend for the day, while I did SphinnCon Israel. See SphinnCon Israel 2008 Recap for a long overview of what happened. Below are my pictures from the event:

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels | Comments (0)

To continue my documentation of my Israel trip... Monday morning, my wife visited her friends in Bet Shemesh, a city in Israel's Jerusalem District, home, as of 2006 to 68,400 people. While she visited her friend, I was allowed to do some work that morning.

Then after work, I met my nephews, brother, brother-in-law and father in Mesharim where they did a tour of places like the Mir Yeshiva and other historic places in Mesharim. From there, we took one taxi and my brother's car back to his home in Beitar Illit, where my wife met me. All the kids got together and my nephews saw their cousins home for the first time. It was cool.

My wife and I left around dinner time to meet friends. We ate at a place not far from our hotel, while the rest of the family ate in Beitar.

The picture above is of the Rosh (head) Yeshiva of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel.

Posted at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (1)