Forrest Through the Trees

Mozilla Website SOPA/PIPA Efforts

2012-01-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

This morning my alarm went off at 4:30am so I could hop online to help launch Mozilla's anti-SOPA efforts.

Although the scenarios are of different degrees of significance, I couldn't help but think of a story I once heard about how Steven Garrity, a long-time contributor, launched the original Firefox download page live for the first time early one morning from bed over 8 years ago.

Once I finally made it into work it was a delight to see our main SOPA landing page on the cover of the New York Times amongst our peers at Wikipedia, Reddit, and more.

There are many other bits and pieces to our SOPA campaign, but here is a overview of what we did on our main web facing properties.

Site Blackout

We blacked out our main download landing pages by having them redirect to the SOPA landing page below (www.mozilla.org/sopa).

That means that everyone wanting to download Firefox today or anyone who came to our main website through the normal front doors saw this page instead. Those numbers are well into the multi-million. We make the "deep" content available since we want people to be able to get support, and upgrade their browser for security reasons.

A few details:

- We launched using redirects that would not harm our SEO efforts by following guidelines from posts like this people put together exactly for this reason.

-We also chose to keep a way for visitors to download Firefox - you can see it at the bottom of the screenshot above. This was a bit tricky since we didn't want to come across as "commercial" or trying to take advantage of this event to get more downloads but as Alex Fowler so aptly stated we give visitors the download option in order to: "...continue to support our mission, ensure users have access to support, as well as the ability to find and update to safer and securer versions of Firefox."

Start Page Blackout

Even more significantly we dramatically changed the look and feel of our default "Start" page, meaning, the page you see when you type "about:home" into your browser.

We made it black. We added relevant info. We put a censorship slash through the fox. Everyone on the English build of the browser should see this page today if this is their default homepage. Those numbers are in the tens of millions.

This launch with very Mozilla-esque - willing participants huddling together in chaos trying to throw something together to make a difference for the future of the web.

For example: here's the main etherpad we used to draft out our actions. Nothing short of mayhem!

We'll see what results from these efforts as the day unfolds.

In the mean-time it's been a very exciting day.

Different By Design

2012-01-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Firefox is a different type of browser. Mozilla is a different type of company. You can see that from our founding story, the way we work, our priorities, our non-profit status and more.

When it comes to marketing at Mozilla - which, hey remember how we're different? - we call "Engagement" not "Marketing," we think long and hard about how to communicate this difference.

After all, living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to spread the word about a product and our story is nothing but authentic.

These factors led to the launch of our recent brand campaign. Checkout this smattering of creative and notice its boldness, authenticity, and ability to set us apart from the crowd:

The Web Launch

When it comes to our main user-facing channel -- our website (one of the most viewed sites in the world) here's the creative we launched to get this message across:

And some localized versions... (finals are not this neon of a orange)

The "before" shot (Notice how we hint at, but don't really show our difference):

Here's What Happened

With the help of a simple survey we were able to measure the affect this new creative had on overall brand awareness. The shift was significant -- now the majority of all new Firefox users know Firefox is made by a non-profit.

Before we launched this campaign the opposite was true. We crossed well over the 50% threshold and increased awareness over 20% all without hurting download conversion rate.

Next Steps & Bottom Line

We will continue to do more of this and will roll-out this campaign worldwide. And for now, we know we're on the right track and that aligning our outer 'presentation-layer' with our inner values helps us communicate what matters most to us in a way that resonates with our users.

Mozilla IRC In Haiku Form

2011-12-29T17:43:00.000-08:00

Mozilla IRC channels become a desolate place during the holidays; much like the deserted school hallways during winter break. Since I'm working remotely this week I poked around my usual channels to see what folks were up to and came across some interesting exchanges that struck me as worth recording in haiku form.

In their own ways these give a little taste of the ridiculousness, the challenges, the fun, the poetry that can be made of the everyday exchanges within the annals of Mozilla IRC.

Enjoy.

I have been thinking

i have been thinking
of contributing but i've
no clue where to start
- #WebDev

about:memory

900 tabs! what's
about:memory look like
with that many tabs?
-#FX-Team

" ÷ <--- "

Bumped keyboard ends up
Making a division sign
It was Fligtar. heh.
-#AMO

New Year's Plans

have plans for new years?
Sadly not. I'll probably
be doing homework...
-#Spinzone

Stephen Donner

at the brainstorming
stage right now, but would love to
make this thing happen.
-#QA

I hope you enjoyed. Bonus: submit your own Haiku in the comments! 5-7-5 is all you need to know.

PS: There's a special haiku hiding-out in the stub-installer project we're working on scribed by the amazing, "Happiest Man Alive", Matej Novak, who I hope doesn't mind me posting it here:

Proudly non-profit
Free to innovate for you
And a better Web

Happy New Year!

Droid Vs. FoxDroid Death Match

2011-10-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

The snippet channel allows the Engagement department to rapidly test concepts and questions that arise.

One such question was what sort of graphic we should be using to represent our Android Mobile product. Hypothesis: the existing brand equity of the Droid logo may do a better job attracting and converting qualified visitors than the generic mobile phone we've been using.

Here's a short recap of what we found - perhaps there are other community sites or companies out there that can apply these learnings as well:

Result:
The pure Droid graphic was the most successful at driving people to the Android store. It worked a full % point over the generic phone graphic, and .3 points above the FoxDroid graphic.

Learnings:

Clearly signaling platform from the graphic increases amount of qualified traffic at basically no harm to clicks
Cute FoxDroid received slightly more interest (2.5% more clicks), but slightly less qualified interest; cuteness = clicks and interest, but not always highest quality clicks
People are probably tired of the original mobile graphic - let's change that up

Test: Ran three different graphics below through the snippet channel and measured both clicks and conversion. In this case the "conversion event" was a click the the "Get Firefox for Android" button on /mobile.

Conversion Rates:
Android - 2.3%
FoxDroid - 2.0%
Default Phone - 1.3%

I was a tad surprised since I though the customized FoxDroid would resonate with users the most. Are you surprised? Why or why not?

Functionally Infused Snippet Goodness

2011-08-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you're an Aurora users there's a good chance that you'll open Firefox and be greeted with a Fox scampering across your homepage. We've recently put the Demo Gallery's "Runfield" game into a snippet (the small area under the search box), so Aurora users can enjoy the latest and greatest HTML5 goodness.

Have a look at what people have been saying!

Why We Implemented This Functionality
Implementing Runfield into the snippet space represents much more than the opportunity for Aurora users to play a game. This is the first time we've ever offered functionality through a snippet and marks the launch and first phase of a bigger project.

Stop Telling, Start Showing
The billions of monthly impressions this page receives offers a huge opportunity to use snippet to start showing, and stop simply telling, users what Firefox can do with the modern web.

There's More on the Way...
We're currently testing a functional Persona snippet that allows you to "try on" and then apply 3 of our most popular personas without having to leave the start page. We're also thinking about a restart-less add-on snippet, and have many more fun ideas in the works.

For Love & Data
The metrics team has done great work, showing how the more Firefox users who personalize their browsing experience with Personas and Add-ons the greater the chance they'll fall further in love with Firefox.

Moreover, their entire browsing experience will become more enriched and fulfilled due to the personal bond setting up your browser to feel just right provides.

It's Your Web
As the Mozilla Manifesto states, Mozilla believes the individual should have the "ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet." and this is a direct pipeline to do so.

Enjoy!

Have a idea for a start page snippet? Leave it in the comments below.

How to Increase Onsite Newsletter Signup Conversion

2011-06-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

You've heard it before, small optimizations can have huge impacts that increase conversion numbers. It's true! What follows is the story of one such optimization that my team at Mozilla recently released that increased our daily newsletter signup rate by 25%.

We Want to Date You
One question always on our minds is how to form lasting relationships with our website visitors. I'm sure many of you have the same question and fear people visiting your website once and moving onto the next sexy thing, never to come back again.

Dumped.

It's a busy inter-webs out there! It happens all the time!

We've recently launched a fantastic email program that allows a deeper connection between Mozilla and our users to be formed. Our web team has worked closely with Winston Bowden (@winstonbowden), our email program lead extraordinaire, to make sure site visitors have a chance to signup for our newly launched monthly newsletter. (sign up here)

Launchin' and Learnin'
When the first iteration of newsletter signup form launched it went like this: user clicks signup option in footer and gets linked to a landing page where they can fully register. Can you spot the inefficiency?

Above: "Get Monthly News" links to this main Newsletter signup page:

We decided to make this process easier by allowing inline signups. Stripping down the signup form and embedding only the bare-minimum fields within the site footer accomplishes this. It also helps the user experience in two ways: whittles down the signup process, and allows the site visitor to remain on the same page.

Here's what it looks like now:

Above: Email signup field is open by default within the footer of every page. Clicking the small tabbed button reveals the other data fields needed for complete signup, as seen below:

Hot or Not?
This slightly more advanced technical implementation did take some time out of our normal release cycle. But was it worth it? Sure was...

This small change increased the daily signup rate by 25%, or 1,000 incremental new subscribers every day. This will result in an additional 365,000 email subscribers a year!

The Bottom Line
Although next time we launch similar site functionality it should contain the most streamlined user flow from day one, it's never-the-less interesting to see just how big of an effect a small change like this can have.

Do you see other ways we can improve the user experience on Mozilla.com? I'm sure you can. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

Blogging 'bout Mozilla - A Kickoff Post

2011-05-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Wow. Okay. Here I go faithful "Forrest through the trees" readers. Hold onto your heads - I'm finally going to start blogging about my experiences here as part of Team Mozilla!

After contributing to the Mozilla engagement team on a contractor basis I was recently hired as a member of the Engagement Team (that's what we call "Marketing").

I get to focus on how to make the Mozilla.com website even better by leading and contributing to projects that involve website optimization, brand awareness, SEO, onsite marketing, and a whooooole lot more. In general I aim to help Mozilla.com live up the the clear potential it has as one of the top destinations on the internet.

To say that I'm ecstatic about the opportunity and possibilities is an understatement.

Our team recently went through a whirlwind of a time helping launch Firefox 4 for desktop and mobile. Now that I'm back on my feet (unlike this guy) after those two incredible product releases it’s high time I share a little more about what’s ahead.

This quarter we're focusing on projects that will help us communicate the Mozilla story in a clear and consistent way. When it comes to Mozilla.com that means letting visitors know we're a non-profit, making sure the website is as cutting edge as our browser, and tracking how effectively we're sharing our story with the world.

I'll be updating you, dear reader, along the way so that you too can learn from our progress, stumbles, and (hopefully mostly) slam dunks.

Talk to you soon!
Laura
lforrest at mozilla.com

How to create a non-profit holiday donation solicitation that works

2010-12-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

I'm an active volunteer for several non-profit organizations that fundraise, and like most of us, am otherwise bombarded by monthly solicitations from various alumni associations vying for some cash.

I just received a standout holiday direct mail piece from the Berkeley Student Cooperative that actually made me get out my checkbook. Here are the three things they did right:

1. Perfect Amount of Personalization: It's a cute well designed holiday card. All the co-op house names are on the front. There's not one but three hand-written notes from current members.

They didn't even use my name, or the house I lived in, but that doesn't matter - I'm still really impressed that three students spent the time to write little notes like "Much coop love." I can't even read two of the three messages but don't care since it's the thought that counts. One student drew a heart and colored it in with red crayon. These small touches make a big difference.

2. Seasonally Appropriate: It's a holiday card. It came at the perfect time of year; right before I've have spent all my disposable income on gifts and am beginning to feel holiday cheer, without the stress and holiday overload that will come in the next two weeks. They position their annual goals as "resolutions" instead of just "goals" or more dull "benchmarks" (more on that below).

3. Proved That My Money Will Go to Good Use: Here's where they knocked it out of the park. They could have left the left side of the card blank and gone on with their lives. Instead, they included two lists: "2010 Resolutions" with checked check boxes by each of the 5 goals, and then "2011 Resolutions" with unchecked boxes.

This tells me two things: they were able to accomplish a lot with their donations from this year, and they have a clear mission for next year. It's also cool to see that one of next year's resolutions is to raise money for a seismic retrofit of the house I lived in (see? more personalization).

Conclusion: The personalization of this card combined with their clear direction and transparent "resolutions" make for a great way to really get inside my head, and fill it only with positive thoughts and feelings about donating. Compare this to a generic form letter most other organizations send with a fake signature from the principle/president at the bottom and you can see why this card made me finally give.

A Good Thing: Andrew Warner Mixergy Interviews

2010-03-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

For the past six months I've enjoyed the in-depth interviews Andrew Warner conducts on his site Mixergy. The quality and depth of insights he garners from these people in one hour is terrific. It's the intimate metrics driven conversation you've always wanted to have with that person.

Personally I end up learning a lot I can apply directly to my work in the start up world and sort of feel like I met these people myself.

Here's what I mean about detail: when interviewing the Wufoo guys, I don't just learn that they got a humongous traffic boost when they were covered on Techcrunch, Warner goes deeper and I learn that traffic channel "...converted to paying customers at .25%" which is abysmal, hence don't count on Techcrunch coverage to seed your user base. See that difference?

I also really appreciate how Warner always asks the truth about acquisition prices and how well an interviewee made out even if it makes for an awkward moment.

Here's an easy way to start:

My Favorites
Paul Graham: I'm pleasantly surprised by Paul's jovial manner. Learn about the inside workings of Y-Combinator.
AirBNB: It's a great story and I love their hustle.
Wufoo guys: Give great metrics
Seth Godin: Andrew and him have a great repi
The Why Guy: I almost skipped this one but it's now a favorite. Offers a straightforward way to figure out what to do with your life.

Who I'd like to See on Mixergy
Jessica Livingstone (Update - DONE!)
Tavi the 13-year old fashion blogger

Things I'd Improve
Warner is sometimes too preoccupied by the audio-visual so when there's a snag he gets too distracted and it takes away from the interview. Edit those parts out or be cooler when that stuff happens. When you're fazed it gets passed to your audience. Also sometimes Warner is shy when asking certain questions. There's no need to be. Own it, boy!

I could spend days on his site. He even interviews a porn star.

So check out Mixergy.com. I've found the easiest way is to subscribe to this podcast through iTunes.

The Future of This Blog

2010-01-22T06:26:00.001-08:00

Thinking of shifting the focus of this blog from a casual personal blog to a place where I share my thoughts on topics that dominate my mind like: technology, marketing, finance, and lifehacks. I'd like to have a place where I can flesh out my ideas on "paper" to share with the world.

What would that look like? Well, there would be more posts like this and less like this...see the difference?

Let me know your thoughts.

GTD Update

2010-01-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

Last time I wrote about my Process slacking. I can now report that I'm on a weekly schedule I stick to. I process mainly on Sunday nights. I've found that now this is scheduled: I enjoy doing it, it's easy, and I actually look forward to it--which helps exponentially in motivating me to sit down and get started.

I now need to focus on two more things before I can claim to completly implement the GTD process. The first is that as stated, I'm not in love with my task collection list "FusionDesk" since it doesn't come with deadline alerts (that's extra as part of the paid package). The only way I'll be reminded of a deadline is if I open up the app and scroll through each project category. This is more manual than desired, and overall does not provide the satisfaction of knowing my GTD system prevents anything from slipping through the cracks. The only real option here is me forking out the $$ for the paid version I guess....ugh.

Next I want to explore D. Allen's 5 Horizons of Focus which live in the very back of his book, thus I haven't gotten to them and didn't even know they existed until I started reading "Making it All Work" his latest book (don't laugh, Enna) which emphasizes their importance. I'm curious about them. This will help me fully implement GTD so I'll add this to my reading list within the next month.

Next up, more reports on my GTD implementation and a post on my New Years Resolutions which I'm still finalizing. For a great resolution blog post check out Andrew Hyde's post here.

GTD is my New Shiney Toy. GTD is my Landmark Forum.

2009-10-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

I've recently finished a brain dump and taken the first steps in converting my life over to the GTD system. GTD stands for "Getting Things Done" and is a productivity methodology based on Paul Allen's book of the same title. I've noticed that extremely productive people (my brother, and old boss, and Ramit Sethi a blogger I like) use the GTD system so I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to use this blog to track my progress since this will be a iterative process.
~
Now that I've had the system more or less in place for a month here are the challenges I'm dealing with that are holding me back from being in a "Mind like water" state.

Challenges:

I'm not in love with my GTD desktop task management system FusionDesk. The biggest reason is that I don't find myself wanting to open it up and add a task, which is contradictory to how I feel about the other system I'm using for GTD, Evernote. I don't like FusionDesk mainly because the free version does not contain reminder functionality, so, I feel like the tasks I put in it go into a black hole unless I dig through and discover them. That's bad. I think I need to shell out the $90 for a license since I prefer FusionDesk over all the other GTD systems I've tried (on a PC...).
I'm horrible at processing. I don't make time for it. I don't have a re-accuring time each week like I probably should to do this. Therefore things pile up in my inbox. This breaks the whole system. I need to set up one time each week to process. Maybe Sunday night? Sunday nights I'm always unpacking from the weekend...maybe Thursday mornings before work? 7am Thursday mornings? I'll try that, but that means I'll have to get up early each Thursday...see why this is hard?

Wins:

I continue to be really good at the "capture" phase--I have a notepad and inbox system set up and I generally know where to place the odds and ends that enter my mind and my life. I've got this part of it down.
I'm enjoying Evernote--I've created a notepad to keep all my odds and ends organized. It's also fun to use and share with other people. That's good.
Mastered the filing cabinet thang--I redid my files combining two separate systems I had going into one, and it feels accesible and comprehensive. I can easily add new paper to it. Big win there. I can see myself refining this further by archiving all the folders that won't grow (for example I have files for old jobs that can be stored somewhere else).
I feel more organized--Even though the system isn't firing on all cylinders, or whatever, I still feel the relief that came with my initial data dump. Mentally I've moved from around a "5" in feeling organized to a "7". I'd like to be at 10.

Next Steps

Figure out FusionDesk solution
Find a time to process 1x/week and stick to it...try a couple of different times and stick to the easiest
Archive "dead" folders, figure out a place they can go to die
Reassess in a month or so on this blog

My Learnings From iPhoneDevCamp 3

2009-08-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

I’m a staff volunteer here at iPhoneDevCamp 3 this weekend down at Yahoo! trying to learn about my side interest creating iPhone apps. To me, this is an interesting space to watch since it’s a fresh, booming, and alluring new space ripe with opportunity.

With the lack of centralized metrics and monetization best practices in this space I’ve decided to post my small sample of my learnings here:

Game Apps (source: Tadow! guys)

Less than 25% of people who download an app ever use it and within a few months less than 1% of people continue to use it
1 in 10 gamers will play an app more than 25 times

Monetize Your App (all source from Sunil Verma at Mobclix)

Top 25 paid apps get 500-10,000 downloads a day
77% of all apps in the app store are paid (as opposed to free)
If your app doesn’t get into the top 25 in the first week it probably never will
Launch your app on Tuesday or Wednesday to seed user growth in order to increase chances you’ll get higher visibility over the weekend when app traffic is highest. Once your app has been approved Apple lets you choose launch date.
If paid, consider buying ads on free apps similar to help drive traffic to yours
Start your pricing high, then lower the price as needed
Consider a launch strategy targeting very specific locals—the iTunes store has 88 different locations. This will allow you to target long tail and emerging market locales.
To get to the coveted Top 25 the app must have a rating of 3.5 or above. Challenge: most users only take the time to rate apps if they have negative feedback.
It helps to have a paid and a light version, but you must provide adequate incentive to upgrade. Ex: a game who’s light version only gives access to first 3 of 10 levels. 50% of light users convert to paid, and you can monetize using ads on the free light version.

General

Lots of small iPhone development shops are springing up. Examples include: Dollar Apps, Small Society, Sugar Cube, and more.
A iPhone developer for hire costs anywhere around $75-$150 an hour depending on the project

From the business perspective I’d expect to see some market leaders emerge from within the presently fragmented small app creation shops and possibly some acquisitions in the marketing/ad-server/analytics space by the larger "business optimization solutions” (ie: the large web analytics vendors Omniture and Coremetrics).

Other impressions of the weekend: there’s a wide variety of attendees here and my general take is that most of them don’t have an app in the store. Lots have ideas, hustle, and are looking to learn more. And then there are the familiar looking uber geeky conference junkies I won't get into here, because they are such bizarre examples of humanity they deserve another post entirely.

In conclusion, the paint’s still wet, the possibilities exciting, and as legendary Andy Stone said in his keynote we are, “Ready for the NeXT (same old) big thing”

Century Ride Training--Part 2

2008-10-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did a 51 mile ride in West Marin. Low mileage, I know. As Kathlyn put it, the Century Gods were conspiring against us: she went on a ride Saturday, got a flat, and had to hitch a ride back to SF due to a lack of tire irons. I was loading my bike into my car and pulled a back muscle leaving me able to ride, but in a fair amount of pain overnight and today. I feel like an old lady.

The good news: I averaged a little over 12 mph during the ride and it was pretty much a breeze. This is significant because I did the same ride a month ago and averaged about 10 mph and was brutally tired by the end. Not so this time. This progress is a welcome sign I was relieved to experience. Moreover, it was a gorgeous day and a delight to escape into the bucolic countryside for several hours of solitude.

Next up: I need to figure out a smart tapering strategy (which means to par down the miles you ride 2 weeks before a race in order to perform optimally on race day) which may be tricky due to the lack of miles I've put in thus far...

Also next, I'll need to figure out a heart rate strategy; this will help pace me on race day. I'm not sure what the best approach is, so will have to peruse the internets.

Also, also next--more icing!

I like this workspace for a couple of reasons:

2008-10-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

...the way it's a clear seperate area within a bigger room, the smaller table on the side, the art that helps define the workspace, the desk size and color scheme.

Century Ride Training -- Part 1

2008-09-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Kathlyn and I started training for a century bike ride (a 100 mile supported ride) two months ago now, around mid August. We created a training schedule that gradually (at times...) ramps up the "long ride" we do each week during the weekend, when there's adequate time for such things.

I'm proud to report that yesterday we did our longest ride yet--61 miles--from San Francisco to Santa Cruz on a gray, overcast, chilly day. It took a whooping 7.5 hours leaving us at an average of 8 miles/hr. That's s-l-o-w! In our defense, Kath was nursing a cold and I wasn't pushing it due to a hamstring pull from 2 weeks ago that I was still feeling. It's not worth getting injured even more! Note: that time also includes our crab melt lunch, and two other longer breaks to stretch and stuff our faces with Cliff Bars.

If we were to do the Davis Century in that time it would take us 12.5 hours--waaaay too much time. We'll attempt to increase the speed next weekend in our West Marin 75 mile ride. Wish us luck!

~Santa Cruz Ride Summary~

Ride Highlights--the delicious lunch, watching good sets of waves come in outside of Santa Cruz, and meeting members of the band Blind Pilot who are biking, instruments towed behind them, to gigs down the entire coast of America. They were nice guys.

Ride Lowlights--Feeling like the cars were too close on Ominous Devil's Slide, the constant car traffic in general through the ride, the cold, and miles 50-60.

What I learned:

Stef is amazing (duh) she met us at the finish line in Santa Cruz with a cold beer, poweraid, and a cupcake from Miete Bakery for me and drove us back to San Francisco.

On cold mornings I should duc-tape the vents on my bike shoes shut so my feet don't go numb.

I should install my bike computer already, so I know how far we have to go and can pace better.

Save the breaks for the later half of the ride when the body needs it the most.

Until next week...

Longboarding Down Tunnel Road, Berkeley, CA

2008-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Check out this video on longboarding in Claremont (right outside of Berkeley). Reminds me of the good old days when the Upset girls would skate down Old Tunnel Rd. I don't think we were going quite as fast, but the stoke was sure there.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

200 on Twitter

2008-07-28T13:29:00.001-07:00

I love that a community account I created is quickly growing on Twitter. This feeds from a longer story of how I found myself explaining to my fellow Surfrider volunteers what this "Twitter" thing was, and why it would be useful to help us communicate the latest news on the Cosco-Busan oil spill.

Soon after, @biz was nice enough to add a mention of it into a Twitter newsletter.

It's only grown from there.

All-in-all I'm happy to report my first Twitter follower goal was met today.

Proof of my Tartine Addiction

2008-06-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

Love This Kitchen

2008-05-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

I dig this kitchen; especially since the sitting area is so cozy and melds into a sort of dining room-ish sitting area that can be used equally well for a dinner party, breakfast nook, or loungey reading area.

Recession Thoughts

2008-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

I love how active Warren Buffett is being in the past couple of months, meaning, he's now finding "deals" in the market that he's said were non-existent before this recent market shift.

He's a great example of how to make money when the market is low. I love watching clever people like this get ahead while everyone else is freaking out.

Of course, being the richest man in the world gives him blatant advantages. I have no idea how the average individual can profit these days besides holding steady. Any ideas? Still, pay attention to the individuals, companies, and banks who are being aggressive right now.

Some favorite quotes:

"We're choosing not to participate in the recession" -the manager of a bargain home appliances dealer on her current sale, as seen on KRON's "Bay Area Bargains"
"It will not be short and shallow" -Warren Buffett on the pending recession http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080428/buffett_recession.html

Buffett Acquisition:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/28gum-web.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

My favorite experts are both saying the recession will be worse than thought:

Ben Stein
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/business/27every.html?scp=1&sq=ben+stein&st=nyt

Buffett (again)
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080428/buffett_recession.html

Hari Today, Gone Tomorrow

2008-04-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

As part of my New Year’s Resolution to “Spend More” with hopes of making life easier, I hired a personal assistant this January from Ask Sunday. I’ve found it easier to call my assistants (it’s a rotating queue, you don’t have a 1:1 assignment) “Hari” instead of “My personal Ask Sunday assistant”. Trust me, it’s more fun, and you can say things to your friends like “I’ll have Hari buy the concert tickets” and not sound completely pretentious (just a little racist).

Three months in I decided to stop my service. The subscription rate at $30 a month for 30 tasks is reasonable, but I found myself not using all 30 making the 15 tasks I did use suddenly worth $2 instead of $1. Moreover, the ultimate factor in my decision came down to the quality of the service. Having Hari at my disposal was awesome; the second I started I felt an overwhelming sense of freedom, I could get someone else to do all the tasks someone sitting in front of a computer and a phone in India can manage. See examples here.

Here’s a sample of my personal requests:

1. I recently flew on ATA airlines 12/20/07. I am currently not a member of their frequent flier club. I would like to become one. Can you find out: 1. If the flight I took on 12/20/07 will count towards my miles if I join their frequent flier club sometime this week? Then, can you sign me up as a member, regardless of the answer?

2. I'd like to file business in the state of California, USA, as a "LLC" and I'd like to know the following: How much does it cost to do this? How long does the whole process take, from start to finish? What next steps should I take?

3. Organize my Delicious links

4. Buy concert tickets (did this about 4 times)

5. Finding out the recommended dishes at a restaurant I was eating at for the first time (yelp, google reviews)

6. Airfare Research

7. Tahoe Snow Shoe research

8. Book a hotel

9. Hoga Camera research

10. Ordering books on Amazon

Ultimately, Hari was awesome on some of these requests, but struck out on many of them. Pretty soon the strikes were becoming a buzz kill, and it got to the point where the effort I had to put into explaining a task didn’t make it out worth it. The amazing high that came from knowing I had a reliable 24-hour assistant died down once this became clearer, diminishing the service’s value to me.

The main downfall was their lack of a higher level understanding of the ultimate goals of my requests. They would often find out the minimal amount of information, then stop there, or be completely off. For example, the clear description I gave to have them organize my delicious links (there was more detail in the actual request) were pretty much ignored and an easier non-sensible organization was implemented. If they were thrown any ounce of a curve-ball they got thrown off: my credit card on record was different from the one I requested them to use, strike. They sometimes didn’t use the specific password I requested when creating new accounts, strike. They e-mailed only me when I wanted them to e-mail other people with the results as well, strike. On two different occasions they conference me into calls I had them make when the people on the other line didn’t understand their request.

And yes, I admit, in some of my requests I could have been more detailed, and didn’t include handy phrases like “If X, find other alternatives” and “If it costs $X more dollars to buy, go ahead, no need to contact me” but writing a small novel for every request ultimately defeats the purpose. For a good overview of details your personal assistant should know go here. (Having rotating assistants through a service like Ask Sunday doesn’t really loan itself to that deep 1:1 assistant bonding.)

Overall it was a fun experiment I’d encourage others to try. Along with the initial buzz: “I am a free women, I float on air, no longer weighed down by life’s mundane chores” and the rush of productivity it inspires: “I can be two places at once—I can order symphony tickets from bed, get directions at 2am from my car, have someone else jump any hurdle for me” it lead to bigger considerations like confronting the social responsibility of off-shoring my dirty work to India, the unexpected personal dynamics of having an assistant and the reaction of telling others you have one (worth a blog post alone), and most of all, what this freedom actually frees me up to accomplish.

I just sent my last request to dear Hari, it read: “cancel my Ask Sunday subscription”. Within minutes I received a confirmation e-mail; the deed was done. I felt a pang of sadness and loss. I’ll miss you, Hari.

Goodbye Muffin Tops

2008-04-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

New Year's Resolution Update:

After a 7 day combo detox-cleanse-juice-fast (veggie juice mostly) I dropped approx 6% of my body weight going from about 127 to 119, which is pretty damn dramatic loss of 8 pounds total.

Although I harbor no illusions that I'll keep 100% of that off, I do hope to keep about 4 of those 8 pounds off until 10/1, when I'll do my next fast before Winter, 1/2 a year away.

I aim to do this by:
-drinking more juice and water
-cutting down my carb obsession now that the cleanse has broken my addiction some
-eating smaller portions now that my stomach is smaller and I crave food less
-eating as healthy as possible, and mainly veggies over other foods when given the choice

I hope to get a BMI taken soon so I can monitor muscle development, as I plan to be more active this Summer.

For more cleansing details, see the blog my fellow participants and I wrote during that trying time here! It was an amazing experience.

Top TEDs

2008-03-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here they are. I realized there’s a ton I haven’t listened to, so take this as the “best of” mainly from 2004-2006.

1. Rick Warren: probably my all time favorite http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/71

2. Tony Robins: doing his thing. Also one of my favorites. Intense. Very funny moment with Al Gore http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/96

3. Larry Brilliant: amazing story. He now heads google.org http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58

4. Malcom Gladwell: awesome coffee example on how consumers don’t always know what they want. Great marketing insights http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/20

5. Franz Lanting: Really cool narrative on the evolution of life on earth. A little far-out but leaves you with a great understanding of natural history. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/40

6. Chris Anderson explains technology trends. It’s fun to see how he’s spot-on in some of the predictions he makes here in 2004. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/72

7. Jeff Bezos: I really like his electric industry metaphor http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/105

8. Barry Schwartz: insightful findings about choice that apply a lot to marketing http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-01-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

Its dawned on me a reason I may be so "resolute" about my resolutions is because of my January Birthday--I start a new year, and a new age, in the same month.

That's fine with me; the extra motivation only helps me reach my yearly goals.

Fun Fact: I was born 3 years, 3 hours, and 33 minutes after my Brother. Weird, huh?

I'm back from Vegas after a weekend of celebrating. I managed to win my air fair back on the Craps tables!

2008 Goals—A kickoff

2008-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

It’s been shown that the more eyes watching, the more likely you are to reach your personal goals. In that spirit, I’m listing my set of 2008 goals here. I’m tracking my progress via thorough measurement and will be updating you on how things go.

After listing out my 8 goals I realized most beg for explanation. I’ve added a description of each so you understand what’s going on in Laura’s head.

My 8 for '08

1. Get rid of Muffin Tops—Yes, I’ve got them. They peaked their evil little heads out in Maui . The main suspect here is too much beer and not enough activity. The resolution is to put a work-out schedule in place, and cut down on beer intake. Measurement: No Muffin Tops by summer

2. Open up Other Revenue Channels—this basically means I want to make incremental money in creative ways. I’ll be trying and reporting-out on results from the following channels: day trading, odd jobs, using my real-estate license, & selling stuff I don’t need.

4. Spend More Money—I’m already good at being frugal. I’d like to strike more of a balance and not waste as much mental power and physical energy being consumed with the minutia being frugal sometimes entails. Depending 100% on frugality as a means to wealth building is also not very sustainable, a waste of time, and really boring. Instead I want to decide what’s important to me, and what’s not, and spend my time and energy respectively. See this post on conscientious spending.

Also, after reading “The Four Hour Work-Week” I’m motivated to spend money to be more efficient, and get more out of my life and time. One example of how to do this is to hire a Virtual Admin , which I’ve already done, and will post on the results of here.

5. Save More Money—Even while I’m doing #4 I want to save more money this year (as a result of #3, and of my own natural living below my means) in order to reach a specific net worth.

6. Live More—this means sleeping less. I’d like to keep a consistent 10PM- 6AM sleep hours—8 hours a night, then see if I can cut this down to 7.

7. Eat Whole Foods—After reading Michael Pollan’s insightful Omnivores Dilemma I’d like to take more effort to eat better quality food. This means less processed corn, more whole foods.

8. Start Something—a non-profit, an online-business, a cleaning service. Something. I want to try and fail and learn a lot and invest in myself.

Headline of the Year (so far)

2008-01-16T15:46:00.001-08:00

As found on the Gizmodo blog today:

Hawaii Was Great, Except When My Cousin Then My Brother Fell Off A Waterfall

2008-01-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here's the first of the pictures. You gotta see it to believe it.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/laura/main/the_hike?

Rules For The New Year

2008-01-03T19:58:00.001-08:00

Countdown

2007-12-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

18 days 'till Hawaii. It's raining in SF.

A Good Thing—Craig'sList Tool I’m In Love With

2007-11-29T09:09:00.001-08:00

Yes, I’m into the genre of blogs and books on optimizing productivity aka: “Productivity Porn”. I recently came across a cool tip I’d like to share with you. I think I’ve either been hiding under a rock, or I’m one of the millions of people who haven’t noticed the tiny little “RSS” link now at the bottom of every search done on Craig’s List. I finally noticed, and started using it the other day, and WOW, it’s a powerful little tool!

It’s a simple site enhancement to the wonderfully basic Craig’s List, until you start thinking about how to use it. What I’ve done is tied multiple searches to my Bloglines feed to be monitored daily.

Example: I’m looking to buy a cheap computer chair. I don’t want to get in my car, drive to Target, and buy a new chair for $50 + tax + gas + assembly, hell no. A basic black computer chair is one of those commodity items people moving out end up wanting to unload quickly for twenty bucks. So I set up a search on “computer chair” under Furniture for Sale in SF. Now I can sit back, wait for the results to come in, and monitor the prospects from a place I hang out anyways--my bloglines feed. This is a perfect example of the information I want from the web coming to me instead of me seeking it out again and again manually.

My computer chair is a simple example, but let’s think about more significant uses. Say you’re looking to move to a certain appealing block in San Francisco, say, “The Great Highway”. You can simple set a search under apartments for ALL mentions of that block and be amongst the first to hop on a vacancy. Want to eventually buy a house in a certain neighborhood, say, Noe Valley? Simply add that search to your RSS feed and monitor that market and wait for a under market offering like the stealth cheetah you are. Looking to buy a rarely re-sold high-end piece of furniture? Go ahead, store a search for that “Eames Lounge Chair” for under $500 you’ve been lusting over, sit back, wait for that Pac Heights housewife to list hers at a price break, and let the results come to you.

Feeds I've Set:

DS Light (by Nintendo so I can play that Brain Age game)

Liberty Hill (neighborhood I'd like to eventually live in)

Computer Chair

Sapien Bookcase (a DWR bookcase I'm lusting over)

Ikea Besta (a bookshelf I want--second-hand ikea is a good 1/2 off)

Twitter Update

2007-11-20T11:28:00.001-08:00

Good News--Today my SF Surfrider Twitter feed reached 100 followers. Hooray!

Follow the Oil Spill on Twitter

2007-11-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

As you know, 58K gallons of oil spilled into the Bay yesterday creating a crisis for our beaches. As part of the SF Surfrider Foundation, I created this Twitter feed to help people keep abreast of the situation and to help answer questions like:

-will be beach be affected?
-can I go surfing?
-how can I help?

To answer those questions follow here:
http://twitter.com/SFSurfrider

Its Harvest Time--Let's Go 'a Grape Stompin'!

2007-10-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

What can be better than stomping Syrah grapes with your bare feet on a Saturday afternoon? Riddle me that! I can’t think of anything to do during the weekend; that’s why I rounded up Stef and Dan (above) to help me stomp them grappers. I volunteer at my favorite East Bay winery “A Donkey and Goat” run by my former Gallery co-worker and moonlighter extraordinaire, Jared and his wife, Tracy. It’s a blast.

Besides the quality of their wine and the pure fun involved I’ve gotta say this is a brilliant way to tap into quality free labor. Besides dealing with our ton of ignorant “All-I-really-drink-is-Crane-Lake” wine questions with ease and grace, they manage to rally the troupes and endure the harvest even after the precious novelty wears off their volunteers (that happens around hour #3).

I highly suggest you try to the volunteer list and consume as much of their awesome wine as possible!

Stomp it:

http://www.adonkeyandgoat.com/contact.htm (write to Tracey)

Drink it:
http://www.adonkeyandgoat.com/index.htm

Look for my hand sorted Sryah hitting the markets sometime in 2009.