This post is not meant to scare anyone from sharing online, but those instances were a reminder for me to truly believe what I put out there.  Before you send out that tweet where you *hate* a company, person, or something else, make sure that's what you want others to know about you, because you're going to be informing their opinion and this medium could be the only way they're informed about you.  If someone was pleasant the one time I met them, but they've been a jerk on Twitter for a full year, the latter will likely inform my opinion more than the former.  

There are sensationalized stories out there about how one viral tweet can ruin someone's life, but this idea is more focused on how sustained, non-viral tweets and posts shape perception.  They do.  Obviously, there's room for humor, hyperbole, etc., and I heartily embrace those techniques, but make sure others understand you're using them or don't make them a core of your persona unless you want them to be.

These interactions haven't really changed how I engage online, but it did make me take pause and note whether I was presenting my true self or my troll self.  It's worth doing every now and then.

To initiate the practice, I used the mobile app Calm and its beginner's 7 Days of Calm series.  You're challenged to do a guided meditation for 10 minutes per day, each with a different theme or lesson for the day.  I was pleasantly surprised that I immediately felt positive effects -- a certain lightness and...calm...washed over me after the very first day.  After that, I continued to feel positive effects and ripples throughout my daily activities, and I'm excited to see where they go from here.

Interestingly, perhaps the most refreshing part of meditation for me has been the total comfort and acceptance in making mistakes with the practice.  You're actually doing something that our minds, especially lately, are innately wired to be bad at: undivided concentration on nothing.  No one will be able to fully clear their mind on their first attempts, and it's stressed throughout the sessions that you're not to get frustrated at mistakes when your mind turns to other thoughts, daily checklists, etc.

In today's world where we're instantly saddled with regret after sending an email with a typo or immediately criticized on Twitter for an opinion, it's nice to do something where you're not only allowed to slip up, but fully expected to.

It's just the beginning, and I need to stick with it, but consider me a big fan so far.  I've already mentioned it to some friends and in perhaps today's truest test of belief given money to the app for an enhanced subscription.  Go forth, give meditation a shot, feel liberatingly comfortable in not being good at it, and practice to get better.  That's my plan at least.

2014 was a pretty jam packed year and was a unique experience in that it led me to both the highest of highs and toward the lowest of lows.

Starting with the high, I got to marry Sarada! 15 months of engagement and planning culminated in a really spectatular wedding where we got to celebrate our journey together, our future, and our families and friends.  I really couldn't have asked for a better day from the venue and guests to the perfect 75 degree weather.  It was a blast.  Sarada and I tried to soak in every moment while also keeping a focus on one another -- what a fitting way to kick off the rest of our lives together.

The low was losing my original best buddy in the whole wide world, my grandpa, in November.  Gramps was a pivotal influence in my life, and we had to say goodbye too soon.  However, I'll always treasure all he taught and gave to me.  Whether it was from a young age telling me to "never work for anyone else, Clay. Start your own thing." (a wish I've happily honored for the past nine years) or the way he taught me to treat others or stressing what a masterpiece of comedy Happy Gilmore is, I'll keep all of these things and more with me.  I am really focusing on trying to remember these things from our most treasured times together rather than the sad last days, but it can be hard to separate the latter from the former at times.  I hope to get better at it and remember him at his most vivacious, and I'm all ears if others have recommendations how to do that.  Hearing House of Cards mention Dunbar Armored cars, where he worked for more than 25 years and rose to be their chief of operations, simultaneously brought the joy of remembering what he built and the defeating sadness of not being able to text or talk to him about it.  I miss him and will alway miss him, but I hope to honor him just as much.

Those are two big, life-changing things to happen in a year, let alone within six months.  Now onto the rest of the highlights:

1. Traveling up to NYC with Sarada for a long weekend and a cool Brooklyn wedding.  It's always fun to see her back in her element in the city and have her show me around.  I also got to have some great times with some UNC friends a few days before she got to town.
2. Honeymooning in Belize!  We left a week after our wedding for Ambergris Caye, a small island off the coast of Belize.  We spent a week at the Victoria House and had an amazing time.  Biking into town, a sunset sail that turned into a squall, snorkeling with giant sea turtles and sharks, catching our limit fishing for snapper, and much more -- it's a trip that deserves its own post (and will hopefully get one someday).  It was a great honeymoon and a trip I would recommend to anyone.
3. Spending a week in San Francisco and wine country with Mike, the best man at my wedding, and a host of other friends.  I was out there for our friend's wedding and Mike was generous enough to take some time off work and spend a couple days in the Russian River valley in Sonoma with me, hitting up wineries, eating well, enjoying great conversation, and jamming to some lo-fi while driving along the coast.  Then, Mike put me up in his home for the rest of the week while I worked from SF during the day and caught up with friends in the evenings.  
4. A New Orleans bachelor party.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a real love for New Orleans.  The people, the music, the culture, the food, and the open container laws all just scream my name.  A group of 17 of my best friends in the world descended upon the city for French Quarter Fest and had an absolute blast.  I hope to get back soon, but if I don't, this was a good send off.
5. A number of other small trips for weddings, bachelor parties, and more.  Two that stand out are exploring both Austin and Asheville with Sarada, Joel, and Katie.  A long weekend trip is often exactly what's needed to recharge and get a sense for another place.
6. NMC continued to grow.  We hired two new teammembers, beat our growth goal, and did our best work to date.  It was a great year, and I am so thankful for the folks I get to work with.

A pretty big year!  I'm excited for the year to come; since we're already two months in I can say that it's on pace to be a good one.  At a New Year's dinner with friends, one asked me if I had to place a "theme" on the coming year, what would it be?  I thought about it for a little and felt like Routine would be a good thing to focus on.  More reliably getting up early, regularly catching up with friends and co-workers, carving out time to read books, writing more consistently (ironic, I know), and more.  Each of these are things that I do off and on when I have time, but building them into a consistent routine will pay dividends and help me be more comfortably productive...at least, I think it will!  So, that's where the year's focus is.

Hopefully you'll be seeing more writing here soon and cheers to 2015 and 29!

One reason for these questions is the rapid growth in smart phones.  58% of Americans have a smartphone and it is very quickly becoming the primary way they interact with important online services.  However, while the goal of being in front of your audience is a key driver of mobile adoption, so is the extreme targeting allowed by these ads.  Below is a personal example that drove this point home to me.

On July 4th, I went to Whole Foods to gather some party supplies for people coming over to celebrate and watch some fireworks.  I did not check-in using any service, however, that didn't mean my phone didn't know where I was with its GPS system.  While still in the store, I got a Push alert to my phone and email to my inbox, advertising $10 off $50 spent at the store.  Alas, I didn't claim the deal, because I didn't check my phone while shopping.

Catching someone in the moment or at least mindset has long been the goal of advertisers and mobile is letting them do that like never before.  Imagine walking by a lunch restaurant and getting a Push alert that you can get free fries with a burger -- that would convince me to buy there.  We're still in the early stages of this transition, but it's going to progress rapidly.

Also, as consumers, it's important to understand that these type of ads coming directly into our life are the price we pay for all of these free services and for giving up personal information.  Some may find that creepy, and it certainly can be.  Advertisers will have to walk a thin line of not getting too personal, but I'm all for more Whole Foods savings when I'm in the store.

I'm not here to argue that these techniques have not worked for some people (Foursquare's SXSW unveiling was certainly a success), but a truly underrated startup marketing technique is the consistent email newsletter.  I'm not just talking about email newsletter strategies for services firms, but also for social startups like Tumblr, Quora, Twitter, etc or product startups like Chubbies, Warby Parker, etc.  It may not be the sexiest startup marketing tactic, but it works.

Many have called email the original social network, and that's because of its effectiveness of tying together large groups of people and how it lends itself to passing around content, and that's why it's so effective for marketing.  Email remains the stickiest app of all: we're all on it, checking often, and are likely to click through on compelling content. 

If you closely watch any successful social startup, they always seem to eventually start incorporating more and more email newsletters into their marketing.  Twitter sends you the best tweets from your network in a given week, Tumblr sends weekly emails with the best posts from around the network, and it seems LinkedIn's online strategy is solely becoming emailing (spamming) posts from thought leaders.  

As an example from my life, email is probably the only way I interact with several startups like Quora; I'm sent content every week, and if I'm intrigued, I'll click through and read it -- by using an email newsletter, Quora converts me from someone who would never use the network to someone who racks up 3-5 pageviews per week.  In addition to the immediate boost of getting me there, it also keeps the network top of mind and makes me more likely to randomly check it in the future or advocate it to others.  Without that newsletter, I would've forgot about Quora years ago rather than being a weekly reader, casual upvoter, and very occasional contributor.

Many startups think their startup may not be the best fit for a newsletter or they don't have the time to write one, but I'd challenge you to think through your options, and you can do it with an easy manual process of just inserting the best content into an email template. Some advice I recently gave to the founder of a website that lets you create and curate lists was to send out the most interesting lists each week to the network - for now, it didn't even need to be based on interest, just choose a nice variety.  If you're a social-management tool like Buffer, blast out new features and also the most shared content.  If you're a messaging app, let users know if other friends signed up this week and update them on new capabilities in the app.  

You're working hard on your company each week and users are interacting with your site or product each week; leverage the work going in on both sides by incorporating it into an email.  It can be once a week or once per month, but I'm sure that any frequency will drive people back to the app. The big social networks and product companies have demonstrated they value email newsletters, and it's smart for startups to start prioritizing them, too. 

However, after thinking about Buffalo's initiative some more, I think it's a really good idea.  And that's coming from personal experience.

My partners and I launched NMC while still in college, and the motivating factor for the company was the Carolina Challenge, a business plan competition sponsored by UNC.  We were lucky enough to win that competition and take home the $12,500 prize (essentially $1 million to a college student).  I think I can safely say that without the Carolina Challenge, NMC wouldn't exist; however, interestingly, I do think it would exist even if we hadn't won the competition.  

That's the beauty of business plan competitions -- they dangle a carrot in front of you that encourages you to do a lot of the hard work up front.  We had to spend a lot of time thinking about what we wanted to do, writing our business plan (which quickly got pitched out the window after a few months in business), validating that to judges, and making connections in the local business community as we traversed the competition.  All of those things had to happen before we won or lost, and I distinctly remember all of us agreeing to act on our idea regardless of the final outcome, because of all the work we had already put in and the value we saw in it.

Someone getting cheap space at an incubator doesn't necessarily have to go through all those steps, and it makes them less likely to be fully bought in when times get tough (and they will).

And how did that investment from the community turn out?  NMC is now 8 years old, employing a dozen people in the area, helping the local tax base, and contributing to the community in many ways (including fun windows).  We're not Google or Facebook, but I'd say it worked out well for that relatively small investment, and we've also tried to pay it back to UNC by helping with the competition and speaking to entrepreneurship classes on campus.

There are definitely plenty of ways to spur entrepreneurship in an area and many are cheaper than $5 million, but I really respect what Buffalo is doing and it seems to be outside the box of what most communities are trying (incubators, pitch days, etc.).  It wouldn't surprise me if one of the biggest successes to ultimately come out of the process is someone who doesn't win the grand prize.  I'm excited to see where this goes!

And your reward for reading this whole post is getting to see what we looked like when we won that competition 8 short years ago (get a haircut, bro)...

I recently saw that Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and Automattic fame has written at least a short post on each of his birthdays for the past dozen years.  That's really cool and a good idea.  First, it makes you sit down, even if just briefly, and think about the past year.  But more importantly, it provides a nice written history on the year that you can look back for as long as this Internet thing hangs on (definitely going to regret that joke when I look back, next year).

Even in its immediate aftermath, it's clear that 2013 and the age of 27 will be one of the most significant of my life.  It's crazy to know that right away, but there's no doubt about it that even when I'm 64, I'll look back on this year as a momentous one.  I could write for hours and hours on the year, but I'd rather just list the highlights and keep the memories:

1. Got engaged to a pretty cool girl.  It only seems fitting that the first of these posts features her, and I couldn't be more excited for the coming years.
2. Ran a marathon.  It was with said girl from #1, and it was a very difficult and rewarding experience.
3. Took a vacation to Costa Rica.  Again, same girl tagged along.  Somewhat of a trend.  This was an awesome trip that we took before Sarada started her first year of graduate school.  We had a great time and highly recommend the country to anyone.  Check out the blog post for details.
4. Went on a spur of the moment hiking trip on the Tour du Mont Blanc with one of my best buddies.  He was changing jobs and gave me one hell of a pep talk to come over to Europe for this hike on just 3 weeks notice.  Totally worth it. One week, 3 countries, and endless great memories.
5. Bought a new car.  Went with high-mileage and used, again. The Schossow-special, haha.  We'll see how it works out, but I'm loving it so far.
6. Started decorating our new home.  We love our condo in downtown Chapel Hill and this was the year that we started decorating it to make it ours and start slowly parting with old, hand-me-down furniture.  It has been a fun process and one I've enjoyed much more than I anticipated.  My bank account...not so much.
7. Added two new team members to NMC.  It was a fun year at the company, and we grew by a couple!

There were awesome trips, lots of friends' weddings, and plenty more in between all of these things, but I think 7 big life events is plenty for one year!

I'm really excited for the next year.  I've got a bachelor party, wedding, and honeymoon, which is crazy and great.  Sarada will be moving back from grad school, which will be awesome.  I feel like NMC is really strongly positioned for the next year, and I'm excited to work very hard to help it continue growing.  I definitely want to write more and stay tuned for updates on the year, here.  Also, I've thrown up a Tumblr: http://clayschossow.tumblr.com that I'm really enjoying so far -- it's a great bridge between Twitter and this blog.

Thanks to everyone and here's to 2014!

Fortune: Speaking of cars, you've talked about a shared economy where people will share cars. They won't own cars. You see a little bit of that today, but is that really the way the world's going?

Andreessen: So this is when I get really excited. This is another example of the impact of information transparency on markets. We are 90 years or so into cars. And we drive our cars around. And we own our cars. And then when we're not in our cars they sit parked. So the average car is utilized maybe two hours out of the day. It sits idle for 90% of the time. The typical occupancy rate in the U.S. is about 1.2 passengers per car ride. And so even when the car is in motion, three-quarters of the seats are unfilled.

And so you start to run this interesting kind of thought experiment, which is what if access to cars was just automatic? What if, whenever you needed a car, there it was? And what if other people who needed that same ride at that same time could just participate in that same ride? What if you could perfectly match supply and demand for transportation?

Taken a step further, what if you could bring delivery into it? Two people were going to drive between towns, and there was also a package that needed to go. Let's also put that in there so we can fill a seat with a package. Just run the thought experiment and say, "What if we could fully allocate all the cars, and then what if we could have the cars on the road all the time?"

And of course the answer is a whole bunch of things fall out of it. You'd need far fewer cars. The number of cars on the road would plummet by 75% to 90%. You'd instantly solve problems like congestion. You'd instantly solve a huge part of the emissions problem. And you'd cause a huge reduction in the need for gas. And then you'd have this interesting other side effect where you wouldn't need parking lots, at least not anywhere near the extent that you do now. And so you could turn a lot of parking lots into parks.

However, the most interesting about the books may not be in what they share but in how they differ.  One is free and the other is not.

The BI profile hit the web last week and was immediately free of charge for all 20,000+ words.  The Fast Company had an excerpt on their site, but for the full story, it needed to be purchased on Amazon for $1.99 or through a $5.99/month subscription to Byliner, the publishing partner of the story.  BI is only making money from the story through impressions on the ads served next to it while Fast Company is taking the approach of charging for the work.

The numbers are just coming in, but BI claimed more than 900,000 pageviews within a couple days of releasing the story.  A quick look at the social sharing stats shows that the free BI article has been tweeted more than 4,000 times and shared on Facebook more than 15,000 times.  Those are some impressive stats and in addition to converting to ad dollars should also help to strengthen the BI brand to someone who is capable of creating meaningful, longform journalism.  A reputation they don't really have at the moment (although they do rock at slideshows...).  

The Fast Company e-book has only been out for today, but the shares on the article are only at 300 and 200 for Twitter and Facebook, respectively, well off the pace to catch the BI post.  Additionally, the Amazon link hasn't had many shares, but perhaps that will change as people actually read it.

This post isn't to pass judgment on which approach is better, and quite frankly I'm not sure.  It will be interesting to see if BI tries this approach again in the future and to see how the Fast Company piece does in the Amazon market.  Either way, it's exciting to see different publications experimenting like this to try and find new, interesting approaches to content and generating revenue from their work.

Even if you're not a gamer, I highly encourage you to check these two out, as they're simultaneously entertaining and interesting looks into a unique industry; additionally, each covers broader themes that apply to the world far outside gaming.  One is a profile on the creators of Dwarf Fortress in Gamastura and the other is the documentary film Indie Game (it's on Netflix streaming).  A little bit more about both below, but you should definitely go read/see the full pieces.

The first was a profile on the creators of the game Dwarf Fortress.  I was unfamiliar with the game until I read this profile.  The game is notoriously one of the most difficult games to learn for new visitors, as it offers no tutorials on the nearly infinite actions you can take in the game and really lacks in graphics.

The lack of tutorials are considered a feature, though, by the game's founders, the brothers Zach and Tarn Adams.  By not investing valuable time in building out tutorials or designing graphics, it has allowed them to dive deeper into building their fictional world.  This quote pretty perfectly sums up the brothers' view on features:

"A lot of the updates don't matter either -- I mean, I spent a month on beekeeping, but you're not confronted with beekeeping, and you don't need to learn how to do it, but if you want to make wax crafts and honey, then it's an avenue you can explore."

An interesting perspective for sure.  They're focused on building a game and world they love rather than something that just suits new players.  Additionally, the brothers are quite clear in the article that they view this game as their lives' work.  The main focus of the profile is them thinking about how they're going to develop the game over the next 20 years.  They have already decided that building this game is what they'll be working on for the coming decades, and they've already spent the better part of the last decade on it.

The game's only revenue is through donations, bringing in a total of 250k over the past 5 years (25k/brother/year).  They're willing to forego financially greener pastures (one of them holds a PhD in Math from Stanford) to be able to continue focusing on the game, and throughout the article they're more concerned with physical aging getting in the way of game development than financial constraints.

To see anyone, especially nowadays, be taking such a long view of a single project is really unique, and I think it makes for a really interesting story and profile.  Be sure to go check it out.

The second was the film Indie Game.  Indie Game had popped up on my Netflix for the past couple months, and I had read some nice reviews, but it was really the Dwarf Fortress article that motivated me to finally watch it.  

Indie Game is a look at the entire indie video game industry, but it really focuses on two games, Fex and Super Meat Boy.  I don't want to ruin anything, so I'm not going to go into the plot or any of the twists and turns, but just know that the movie is well worth the watch.  Not only is it a really well done documentary, but it nails some of the same themes of the Dwarf Fortress article, looking at the passion these developers have for their games, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.  The movie streams on Netflix with an account and can also be bought on the movie's website.

It seems my effort to not play games to avoid wasting time in addiction took an ironic turn this weekend when I spent a significant amount of time devoted to learning about games.  That's the way it goes, I guess.  Definitely check these out.

I told him I would help out and agreed that Chrome was a great choice for him, but I wanted to know why he all of a sudden cared what browser he used and how he chose Chrome.  The answer was simple: Gmail.

My grandparents had recently upgraded to AT&T U-Verse and changed to Gmail in the process, because their old email addresses had been linked to their previous Internet Service Provider.  Gmail would be easy to use, is the fastest growing email service, and they wouldn't have to worry about space.  It was an easy recommendation and both the installation guy and I pushed it to them.  Similar transitions have been happening around the world since Gmail was released in 2004, building the service to more than 400 million active users as of June, 2012.

Gmail originally just seemed like a novel email concept, allowing people to have unlimited space and an intuitive web-based email client, and something Google was doing to make the web a better place for people (especially us nerds).  Then, it became an important part of Google's ad business as they (controversially) started to serve ads into your inbox.  Now, second to Google search, it is likely the main way people interact with the Google brand and its services.  So, in their quest to dominate the web experience and your web existence, Google is using Gmail as a beachhead to get users to use their other web tools.

Trying send a big attachment?  Load it up through Google Drive.  Want the best and fastest email experience?  Upgrade your browser to Chrome.  Curious about the contact you're emailing with?  Check them out on Google Plus (well, maybe that one hasn't worked yet...).  

It's a smart model and seems to be working great (it's a primary reason I'll use Drive to store big files).  Google chose a specific web services niche, email, executed extremely well and has now used that strong position to push farther into web services.  It lets them gather your data, target advertisers ads, and continue to make gobs of money.  And it lets my grandpa have a better web experience.

However, I was pleased to see the New York Times detail a small study that explains the science behind this feeling and that it's fairly common.  For others who also have wondered why they're not hungry after a run, I've put the relevant part of the article below; the study is comparing the post-workout appetites of runners and walkers.  It's pretty interesting!

The walkers turned out to be hungry, consuming about 50 calories more than they had burned during their hourlong treadmill stroll.

The runners, on the other hand, picked at their food, taking in almost 200 calories less than they had burned while running.

The runners also proved after exercise to have significantly higher blood levels of a hormone called peptide YY, which has been shown to suppress appetite. The walkers did not have increased peptide YY levels; their appetites remained hearty.

So, this study shows that running triggers a hormone known to suppress appetite.  Maybe the body is in a kind of lock-down mode due to the running and trying to focus on the task at hand or it is afraid of getting disturbed and hurting performance if it ingests food?  A scientist I am not, but I can certainly imagine some reasons this would happen while your body is under the stress of quickly burning energy.

I encourage you to read the full post on The Times' Well Blog, as it looks at why runners seem to remain thinner throughout their lives compared to walkers who burn a similar amount of calories in their exercise routines.  For me, it was cool to discover that I'm not alone and there is a scientific reason for having less appetite after a run.  

I was excited for the new app.  During my recent trip to Costa Rica, I had been surprised to discover that there was no official iPad app for Google Talk/Chat, forcing me to download a third-party app, Talk Lite, to g chat with co-workers while I was abroad.  While the app performed adequately for short bursts of use to catch up with colleagues, it lacked features like multi-tasking support or good notifications that would be necessary to consistently use it to communicate with others.  So, on the release-day, I downloaded the new Hangouts with a sense of irony that this was the very app I needed just three days prior.  

At first, Hangouts seemed great.  I installed it as an app for Chrome.  It pinned conversations to the task bar on my Windows computer, letting me chat with people even when I did not have Gmail visible.  The new design seemed nice and fun.  And of course, it boasted the cross-device support I desired, which would allow me to seamlessly carry conversations over to my iPhone or iPad.  Those new features were all great, but after playing with the service for about a week, it seems that Google (mistakenly?) took several steps backward, in both large and small areas, which ultimately make the product weaker than the original.

Voice calls.  The big elephant in the room was that the new Hangouts lost the ability to do voice calls from G Chat from your computer.  Considering that the phone icon was one of just two prominently available icons on the version of G Chat before Google Hangouts, it seems like a pretty big oversight to leave it out and like one that must have been intentional.  I use my cell phone for 99% of my calls, but I know others who rely on being able to conduct voice calls from G Chat over their computer.  Also, it has been a savior to me during times when my phone has died or been broken (I have a long history of iPhone accidents), and I need to hop on a call with a client.  Losing this feature already made the new Hangouts less valuable to me, but there was more...

A useless copy and paste layout.  I frequently used the copy and paste function on the old g chat.  Whether it was to share conversations among colleagues about a specific project, remind someone of a past conversation we had about something, or share silly conversations I had with friends.  G chats were easily searchable in email history and a lot of my communication with co-workers and friends was done through the service.  The original g chat had the perfect layout for copy and paste: [Chatter's Name]:[What they said].  The new service inexplicably tries to model the conversation with a text message design, which lacks who sent the message and focuses more on the time it was sent, leading to hard-to-decipher pastes where you're trying to solve a puzzle of who said what.  Not being able to easily share g chats or decipher past conversations hurts the motivation to have conversations through the medium rather than email (which is already naturally cross-device ready). (Update: It appears this may have been fixed when looking at past Hangouts, now, but still is an issue during a live one).

Messages being sent while I'm away not getting emailed to me.  This bug seems like it could be related to a setting I have, but I haven't been able to solve it.  In the old g chat, if you weren't signed in and someone sent you a chat, that message would get emailed to you.  It was a nice way to make sure you didn't miss something if you abruptly signed off or if someone mistakenly thought you were online.  It prevented things from getting lost.  Since I've had Hangouts, I've found several messages in the History of a conversation that I never received.  For example, I was chatting with a co-worker and quickly signed off to run and do something else.  Two days later, I initiated a different g chat with that co-worker and saw they had sent me a message right after I signed off the other day, and I never was sent a notification.  In this case, it happened to be a question that the co-worker must have thought I was ignoring.  I've had this happen in several other instances.  I'm not sure if it's due to there being a delay between my signout of Gmail and Hangouts (I make sure both are signed out) or if Hangouts is assuming I'm using it another device (it is not installed on any others).  No matter the reason, it has caused me to miss chats, which again defeats the purpose of chat vs. email.

Lost functionality within chat window.  Compared with the other issues, these are small, but things you'd still imagine Google would've fixed before shipping the product.  The first one that popped out at me is that you can't right click on a link.  I have no idea why that is.  For some URLs that are g chatted to me, I'll right click to quickly copy the link if I want to share it or if it is a file link that I need.  That function now doesn't work.  Also, in the old g chat, you were able to bold words by encompassing them with *'s.  *Bold* would show up as Bold in the g chat window after being sent.  That's no longer the case, so it appears there is no way to bold something within a message.

The lost features make for a weaker product and make me want to go back to the old Google Talk.  Luckily, you're able to revert back to the previous version to regain these features.  The Verge has written up how to do that and also is documenting Google's progress at adding some features back in.

Overall, it seems like a lost opportunity to launch this product when it was missing key elements, and with people reverting back to the old system, Google is going to be tasked with selling Hangouts all over again sometime in the future.  Poor execution leads to future headaches.

Sarada and I just spent a week in Costa Rica, and I thought it'd be nice to look back at the planning and how it turned out.  We had an absolutely awesome time and would recommend the country to anyone, but we didn't start the planning process with Costa Rica on our radar. 

We knew we wanted to do a bigger trip, but not something too crazy or expensive.  We originally discussed a few domestic options (wine country or extended trip to NYC and the northeast were the leading contenders), and we had left room for an international option, but didn't really know what we could do or would want to do.  So, one night I played around with Kayak Explorer and plugged in a budget around what it would take to get out to wine country.  There were some Carribean options that didn't really interest me (I wanted more than just a beach vacation), some Mexican ones that didn't seem too exciting, and one or two in Central America.  

Pretty quickly, I started to look into Costa Rica -- I had heard good things about the country and had known several friends who had either taken trips there or honeymoons.  I knew the trips ranged from typical beach vacations to intense rainforest hiking, and I liked that we could have both options.  After doing a little research and chatting with friends, we were sold.  We knew we would be traveling during the first week of the Green Season, which had its benefits (cheaper and less crowded) but also its negatives (chance of getting afternoons washed out with storms); we decided it was early enough in the Season that we'd risk it and take a chance. Costa Rica would let us have a mix of hiking in nature, laying out in the beach, and exploring a developing country all at a reasonable price and with a relatively quick flight.  

Now, it was time to figure out what we would do when we got there.

Beach and Mountains Planning

Figuring out an itinerary ended up being a lot easier than I anticipated.  Since much of Costa Rica is still developing, there are really pretty defined areas that travelers stick to -- especially those that speak as little Spanish as we did ("uno mas Cerveza" was about the extent of my capabilities).  Using recommendation sites and chatting with friends, we were able to discover that a common path from San Jose airport was to drive up into the mountains, straight over to the beach, or to combine those.  

Since we would be there for 7 nights, we decided to combine the two and start by going north into the mountains and then west to the beaches on the Pacific side.  We decided that since we live just a few hours from the beach and would be there the week before, we would spend 4 nights in the mountains and do 3 at the beach.  This approach seemed like the best way to take advantage of the most unique Costa Rican aspects (rain forests, volcanoes, monkeys!).  

We realized that the place we wanted to go in the mountains was Arenal Volcano and its surrounding town of La Fortuna.  First, it's an active volcano, which is awesome.  Second, it was right in the forest, which would let us take advantage of hiking and zip lining.  Finally, there were a multitude of cool lodging options.  

Deciding on a beach was a little harder.  People always talk about Tamarindo; so, that was the first spot we looked into.  While it looked like a fun town, there weren't many truly beach front properties, it seemed a little over developed and touristy, and it put more emphasis on nightlife than beach life.  There are dozens of beaches on the Pacific side of the country, though, allowing us to start looking to try and find one that was the best fit.  After narrowing it down to a few and torturing ourselves by reading every possible negative TripAdvisor review, we ended up deciding on Playa Flamingo.  While I thought the name was a little silly, it boasted one of the prettier and more private beaches, had a decent size town nearby, and featured hotels that were right on the beach.

When deciding on which hotels to stay at, we relied heavily on TripAdvisor.  I had never used the service too much, but it proved to be really helpful.  From letting us look at hotels in certain price ranges to seeing pictures of the grounds to reading reviews from people who stayed there, it was an invaluable way to really get a feel for each property.  The one downside was that every property seemed to have at least one extremely negative review, which always leaves you scared that you might be the next one.  However, upon closer inspection, you could typically sense that review was left by an unpleasant person who had no plans on actually enjoying their stay.  For example, several negative reviews would focus on seeing bugs or breakdown in communication with staff, seeming to miss the point that they were in the jungle of Costa Rica.  Lonely Planet was also a good source of recommendations.

After a lot of TripAdvisor work, we made our decision.  At Arenal, we would stay at Arenal Springs Resort.  At the beach, we'd stay at Flamingo Beach Resort.  Each location was locally managed and owned, accustomed to American travelers, sat on very cool grounds, had its own restaurant, and seemed to just be a nice fit for what we wanted.  To get to these locations, we rented a car from Poas Rent a Car, which was another Costa Rican owned company and could offer us a car for the dates we'd be there (the other Costa Rican company we looked at couldn't).

Actually Being There

We arrived on a Tuesday morning in San Jose and were driving to the mountains right after that.  Instantly, we were excited by how nice everyone was, which is something we had read ahead of the trip.  We were also happy we were not spending any nights in San Jose when the car rental employee told us, "Just a small tip. Don't stay out in San Jose past 7...very dangerous."  The drive to Arenal was great.  The country was very mountainous and gorgeous.  While the main highways were pretty well maintained, there are not many main highways, making the our car's four wheel drive come in handy.  I would definitely recommend it to others.

Aside from our lodging and car, we entered the country with a few specific plans and just wanted to let the rest develop on its own.  We booked a couple of activities before arriving: we were going ziplining with SkyTrek in the mountains, getting a massage at the Arenal hotel, and taking surfing lessons from Point Break Surfing at Playa Grande.  We thought this was a good base to start from and then had a list of options from there (hike to La Fortuna waterfall, hike in a rainforest, spend time at the beach, etc.).

After three hours of driving, we reached La Fortuna and Arenal.  It was awesome to see the volcano as we got closer.  Ahead of the trip, we were told we'd be lucky if we ever clearly saw the volcano peak, especially in green season; inexplicably, we were able to have a clear view each day there, including on the drive up.  We felt very fortunate!  While La Fortuna is a popular tourist town, being at the base of the volcano, it was still very small and poor.  We ventured out to some of the restaurants recommended by our favorite bartender, Manuel, and walked around the town, but our focus in Arenal was enjoying nature and the hot springs at our hotel.

While in the mountains, we hiked to the La Fortuna waterfall, which is a very steep but well-kempt trail; swimming in the waterfall and subsequently laying out to dry was a great way to start our vacation.  We also hiked a few miles into the rainforest in El Silencio Reserva.  We went early in the morning to try and see some monkeys, and while we didn't see them (we heard them, though!), we were the only people on the trails, letting us see a lot of wildlife (including a snake...).  For our next hiking stop, Arenal National Park, we hired a guide ($40 for 2 hours) at the park entrance to teach us the history of the volcano and take us to some cool spots on a 3.5 mile hike.  While our guide's English was not very good, he was great at finding animals (green basilisk, three toed sloth, wild pigs, wild turkey, and more) that we probably couldn't have spotted on our own.  The highlight of our mountains adventures was probably ziplining -- we used a company, Skytrek, that our hotel and others had recommended based on their great views and speed, and it turned out to be a great recommendation.  We were zipping through the canopies at 45 mph -- it was a really awesome feeling.

Around the town, we had fun eating at a couple of local spots for Costa Rican and Mexican fare.  The hotel also had a good restaurant and a swim up sushi bar, which was delicious.  One of our favorite activities was hanging out with the bartender, Manuel, at night for a couple of drinks and to talk about life in Costa Rica.  The Arenal hotel also featured several natural hot springs that were warmed by the volcano; temperatures ranged from 94 degrees fahrenheit to 104, and it was very relaxing to spend time soaking in them.  

The mountains were everything we had hoped for, and we were sad when it came time to leave, but we were excited to get to the beach to relax.

The four hour drive to Playa Flamingo was a little less enjoyable than our original drive.  The first hour was great as we got to wind around Lake Arenal and take in some awesome views, but the next three hours were much less scenic.  Similar to the first drive, while there were some rough patches, single lane bridges, and steep hills, the drive was overall uneventful and not dangerous.

We had reserved a surfing lesson for the second day at the beach, but otherwise just really wanted to relax while there.  Beaches in Costa Rica were different than we were accustomed to on the east coast and reminded me more of a Northern California beach.  They were generally smaller, surrounded by mountains/cliffs, and had some brush toward the top of them.  They were still very beautiful and peaceful, and the fact that there were so many beaches in such a small area made it easy to find a quiet place for yourself.  The days on the beach were spent reading (I reread Great Gatsby and read The Yellow Birds, which was great), having some drinks, and eating fresh seafood.  Our hotel also had a pool right before the beach, but it really confused me that some people would lay out at the pool when the ocean was right next to them.

The only activity we took on was surfing, and we had a blast.  Point Break had been the top activity in the area on TripAdvisor, and they lived up to the reputation.  Luckily, the other people who were supposed to be surfing with us canceled at the last minute, allowing us to get a personal lesson, which was awesome.  If you're wondering, Sarada was the much better surfer.  The beach hotel was a little bit of a different feel than the mountain hotel.  It seemed to have more of a party atmosphere, which we expected but was amplified by the fact that there were 40 people in town for a wedding.  The facilities were really great, but it was a contrast from our late night one-on-one discussions with the bartender at Arenal.  When surfing, we had asked the photographer for local restaurants, and she gave us the names of two (Septimo Cielo and Mar y Sol), and both turned out to be awesome.  

We had to wake up early on our last day to make the 4 hour drive back to the airport, and we left wishing that we had another day or half-day at the beach.  I'm not sure if we would've traded it for a day in the mountains, but it would've been nice to extend the trip at least 12 hours to just get a little more sun and relaxing...but, what vacation wouldn't you say that about?!  

Overall, the travel between cities went flawlessly, the country was beautiful, the hotels were very accommodating, the people were amazing, and we felt very safe.  It was a wonderful trip, and I couldn't be happier that we chose it over the other options.  While there are plenty of other places I want to explore, I would certainly go back to Costa Rica in the future and would even do the same route, as there were definitely more activities that could be taken advantage of in each location.

If I Could Do It Again

As I said, we had an amazing trip, but if I were doing it again, I would consider doing a few things differently.  

First, I would consider flying into Liberia rather than San Jose.  I'm not sure why I didn't look into Liberia in the beginning (maybe it was more expensive at the time or I was hesitant about a small airport?), but if you're going to be going to a Pacific beach, it may be the better location than Liberia.  We would've shaved 2-3 hours of driving (~20%) off our trip if we had flown into Liberia.  With that being said, we would've sacrificed a very pretty drive back into San Jose.  Looking into it now, it seems that Liberia flights are typically the same price or cheaper as San Jose, so it could also be a great way to save money.

Next, at the beach I would have explored the surrounding town more.  The two restaurants we went to were great and better bar options than our hotel, and I wish we had known that sooner.  Also, while we did love the beach hotel, it was a little bit more of a party than we were looking for on this vacation (on other trips, it would be too little of a party, ha).  However, that was probably partly due to the 40 person wedding, and it was also not bad and wasn't worth trading the ability to walk up to the beach.  

Don't drink the water at places other than your hotel.

I would absolutely stay at Arenal Springs Resort, again.  It was amazing.  Definitely be sure to go into town, though, and have some meals there.

Finally, I think I would be willing to go at the beginning of Green Season again, but not much later into it.  While we certainly got lucky with only having ~6 hours of rain on the trip, I think that early in the season, it's rare you're going to be hit with too many storms.  I could obviously be wrong, and it's called Green Season for a reason, but the cheaper prices for rooms, flights, tours, and the lack of crowds is a nice bonus.

This post ended up being about 5x longer than I anticipated, but it was a blast to recap.  It's an amazing trip, and I highly recommend it to folks looking for a vacation with some adventure and uniqueness.

For convenience, I've placed a list of links from the trip below (these are scattered throughout the post, too):

• Arenal Springs Resort (highly recommend)
• Flamingo Resort (recommend for the grounds and location, but I'd eat most meals in town and you should be prepared for some All-Inclusive partiers.)
• Poas Rent a Car (highly recommend, but Vamos also seemed like a great option, too)
• Skytrek Ziplining (highly recommend)
• El Silencio Reserva (highly recommend if you want to go on your own jungle hike)
• Arenal National Park (recommend, but this is less jungle and more volcano)
• Point Break Surfing (highly recommend)
• Septimo Cielo (highly recommend for some Italian seafood)
• Mar y Sol (highly recommend for a sunset cocktail and fresh seafood)
• La Choza de Laurel (highly delicious Costa Rican food in Fortuna)

The FAA began furloughing air traffic controllers last week, and the effect was almost immediate.  There were flight delays across the country, and airlines were blunt with passengers, letting them know that the delays could've been avoided if there was no sequester.  Almost immediately, the media pounced on the topic and it became a popular topic at dinner tables, cocktail parties, and (of course) social media.

For the previous months, there were frequent stories about how the sequester had not yet affected daily American life and even claims from Republicans that the cuts were overhyped.  However, the effects had been very real for those who couldn't find government jobs, were closed out of national parks, or had been furloughed - the majority of Americans just didn't experience them firsthand, therefore, they didn't have a negative opinion or any opinion of the sequester.  

It was a classic example of the urban planning theory Not In My Backyard (NIMBY), which states that while residents may be in support of the idea of development in their neighborhood, they don't want it affecting their home; a person may think a city needs a new office building to attract jobs, but they don't want it obstructing the view from their own home.  People (Republicans and Democrats alike) generally supported the idea America needs to curb its spending, and we're 100% behind that effort as long as it's not in our backyard.  With at least 48% of Americans traveling by Air each year, there were few backyards that wouldn't have first hand experience with these cuts.

So, faced with dozens of flight delays, countless  angry people/voters, and a brewing media storm, Congress acted quickly.  Before going on recess, they worked to pass a bill to shift money around in the coffers to bring back air traffic controllers and stop the bleeding.  While this very public blemish was quickly concealed with bi-partisan support, it only happened because of the highly visible nature and the people (wealthy voters) it was affecting.  It's easy to see how flight delays not only caused a hassle, but also hurt the economy: business people would miss meetings, tourists wouldn't be spending money in their destination, and people would be more tired and grumpy.  

However, it's shortsighted to think those side effects only result from the FAA furloughs.  There are millions of other dollars being cut, thousands of lives being less publicly affected, and likely a lot of lost economic output as a result.  The FAA furloughs offer us a helpful looking glass through which we should look and understand the ripples across our economy from the sequestration.  I'm not saying that the spending cuts are all bad, but I am saying there are plenty more smaller scale examples where the sequestration is causing headaches and lost productivity.  We would all be served well if our Congress could continue to work in a bi-partisan matter to solve more of those issues, especially right after our GDP growth fell short of what we expected, let alone what we hoped for.

NIMBYism can be a dangerous thing as it pushes problems out of sight and onto those who can't fight for themselves.  At this critical juncture in the American recovery, Congress needs to be sure to understand the wide ranging results of their actions, not just when there's an uproar.