Here I am "stuck in old Lodi again." It's the Wine and Roses Hotel and Restaurant in Lodi, California. $265/night, it's a steal. OK, not really. But it is lovely, impeccably landscaped and manicured. Huge well-appointed bedroom. A little cool at 8 am on a Saturday morning.
     I am sitting in a spacious courtyard, half in the sun and half in shadows. I was waiting for the restaurant to open, and thought I'd jot down a few lines. Well, first getting Windows on my MacBook Air to wake from sleep is worse than getting a teenager up for school after a late night.
     Then, the local WiFi network wouldn't work. And then it's 8 o'clock and the restaurant is open and I could be having my coffee right now. But, hey wouldn't you rather blog than drink coffee first thing in the morning? I know I would :)
     Nah, I think I'll go for the coffee. Maybe more later on. <BREAK> OK, now I have coffee in hand. Whew! Very good coffee. Not great, but I'll settle for very good at this point.
     OK, weird thing. When I posted this the first time, it cut off part of the last sentence. I will have to keep an eye out for this in the future.
     Anyway, came up here yesterday for a wedding. Maybe 150 or 200 people. Wine, food (so-so) and dancing. Great fun watching the kids and teenagers dancing. Also got out on the floor just a bit.
     Memorial Day. Honestly, generally just a long weekend off from work, usually with some type of family obligation. I don't have any dead soldiers in my family to honor, and am against war and soldiering on principle, though I did serve honorably in the U.S.M.C, and I realize that the arguments for the necessity of war and patriotism are complex and passionate. Certainly enlightened pacifists, activists, patriots and militarists can use this day to reflect on the ways that we can promote peace in our own lives, those around us and as far as we can possibly reach. Which today is pretty far.
     

[Repost from Seth Godin] The best thing is to not try to write things that will go viral.

The best thing is to write for just one person. Make an impact on just one person. Even better, make it so they can't sleep that night unless they choose to make a difference for just one other person by sharing your message with them.

The rest will take care of itself.

Can't remember the last time I was at the beach. Months and months ago. So, here I am in San Francisco at the beach. Not a great spot, the water is quite far away, and the fog is heavy.
But, there is sun and ocean air. And nothing that has to be done for the next two hours. Not even a computer to distract me - except for my iPhone, on which I am writing this post. Which is going to be short, since this app doesn't change the keyboard to landscape mode, and I'm not that good a typist on the iPhone anyway.
Besides, I should just enjoy the beach, right?

     Just ordered our First Proofs of our next book, The Second Book of Truth! For those who might not know what that means, this is the actual printed copy of the book that we "proof," i.e. go over with a fine-toothed comb looking for errors. Hard to believe it's been about 2 years since our last book! And we've been writing and working on this book for mostly all of that time.
     Looking forward to getting the books, planning the Launch Party and starting to focus seriously on marketing and sales. 
     BTW, we will be having a book launch at the San Mateo County Fair. More info to come on that.