Wednesday 27 February 2008

Interview: Roger & Molly: Webstock New Zealand

I like this interview! It runs a bit long but Roger made me feel so welcome it just came out as a spontaneous chat.

Anyone willing to do text transcript, holler. I’d like to make one available!

Thank you, Roger, for a great interview.

Enjoy, comment, bitch etc. below:

Filed under:   professional, humor, standards, software, web design and development, travel, food and drink, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, innovation, whatwg, community
Posted by:   Molly | 8:12 am | Comments (39)

Monday 18 February 2008

Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History

Guess I’m going down in those history books, because I am scandalous!

What fun! I love the fact that Matt (the fellow whose shirt I unbuttoned the top two buttons of) used to “smuggle” my books into class. In the sixth form, no less! Oh, the irony.

Filed under:   humor, blogging, pop culture, web design and development, travel, blog slut, food and drink, society, conferences
Posted by:   Molly | 7:25 pm | Comments (19)

Friday 8 February 2008

Melbourne, Australia

If it isn’t on your “places to see before you die” list, put it on.

I might never leave.

Coolest most awesome, broad minded, multicultural city I’ve ever been in.

I love Melbourne. What an amazing, unique town.

Filed under:   blogging, travel, food and drink, creativity, community
Posted by:   Molly | 9:15 am | Comments (34)

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Come Spend an Evening with Me!

What? Why, it’s “An evening with Molly Holzschlag” in Melbourne, Australia. An informal, question and answer forum, the goal is to have a great discussion about all things Web. Standards, practices, oh, and yeah, I’m sure IE8 will be of interest. The event was organized and is being brought to you free by the wonderful folks at WIPA (Web Industry Professionals Association) and Web Standards Group.

Date:	Wednesday 6 February
Time:	6.30pm for 7pm start
City:	Melbourne
Venue:	Loop Bar, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne 3000 VIC
Cost:	FREE

The conversation will likely take up an hour or so, with plenty of time for drinks, socializing and networking after. I’m very excited to be seeing old friends, and meeting new! Please come by if you’re near the area, and make sure to come say hello to me.

Filed under:   professional, standards, web design and development, travel, food and drink, w3c, announcement, microsoft, community
Posted by:   Molly | 5:26 am | Comments (21)

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Travelblog: The Missing Day

As I write this I’m sitting on Tumon Bay, Tamuning, Guam, in Micronesia. Tumon Bay is an important ecological environment, most especially due to the coral reefs that are, as just about everywhere, being destroyed all too quickly.

I started my journey on what was my Monday, with a short flight to Houston. There, I met up with the always effervescent Erica O’Grady and wonderfully witty Kelsey Ruger, who joined me along with a fellow traveler just met named Bruce. We drank good wine, talked about social networking, bringing more women to the stage, and the advantages of theater training for speakers, in this case with Kelsey focusing on stand-up comedy to help build his presentation skills. My guess is he’ll find that web design wasn’t his calling after all .

After that it was an early flight the next morning to Honolulu, where I made a brief “lei-over” (I know, I amuse myself far too much, but someone has to!). Flying over Oahu I got a clear shot of the inside of Diamond Head:

After a refreshing bit of delicious pineapple, it was back on the plane for another 8 hour leg, this time flying into Micronesia, specifically Guam, for one day here. Guam’s always been a bit elusive to me because I know so many U.S. military folks who have been stationed here over the years. Guam is the westernmost U.S. territory and is far more beautiful than I’d imagined.

Here are some photos I took during my traditional walk at dawn. This is the sun rising over Tumon Bay:

Also along my walk I came upon some strange creatures. What kinds of pods are these? I surely don’t know:

And a pretty but perhaps not so strange creature, too! This is Fuji, and he had a lot to tell me. But he must have been speaking the local language of Chamorro, because while he was clearly befriending me, I had no idea what he was going on about:

Finally, there is nothing quite so wonderful as coming along those spots on the planet where there is nothing but peace. Here’s the hidden cove I found:

Sitting there overlooking the gorgeous day come to bear made me not only happy to be alive, but gave me much-needed respite from the trials and tribulations of a very busy and often challenging life. Somehow, I started this adventure on Monday. And now it’s Thursday. There’s definitely a day in there I lost, but I’m reassured it’ll be given back to me upon my return.

Onward to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!

Filed under:   photos, travel, food and drink, society
Posted by:   Molly | 10:07 pm | Comments (21)

Tuesday 22 January 2008

TravelBlog 2008: Australia and New Zealand

I’m in Houston and in a few hours will board a plane that will take me to Guam, then on to Cairns and points in Australia and New Zealand.

There are two concise reasons this trip is important to me:

1). 2008 marks the 20th (yes, that’s TWENTIETH) year online (bbs’s anyone?)
2). I turn 45 on the 25. It’s a rite of passage, I think.

For one month I’m going to explore Australia and New Zealand. I will post photos and ideas and inspiration.

I am also working hard, my current project: massive HTML and CSS testing for MS.

I’m very excited.

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, travel, food and drink, society, w3c, browsers, microsoft, ajax, rails, accessibility, javascript, whatwg, The Daily Molly, community
Posted by:   Molly | 12:01 am | Comments (40)

Friday 19 October 2007

Double Dare: Your Last Meal on Earth

So I posted this to Twitter:

Twitter Poll: If you had to decide your final meal on earth, what would it be?

Which emerged from this post:

you know, if I ever get the death penalty for offing some bad ex boyfriend, my last meal will be exactly that. (Rib Eye bloody, plus taters and veg)

Then a lovely fellow emailed me from Ask500people:

Hey Molly, Just saw your tweet, would you like us to run your question on Ask500People.com? We could gather 100 votes for it.

And snarkily, after eating a really good steak and “hopped” up on Pike Pale and red meat, I responded:

So you’re saying if we ask 500 people we’ll only get 100 responses?

Double dare you to make more than 100 posts about what is your perfect last meal on earth.

GO!

Filed under:   humor, blogging, food and drink, creativity, community
Posted by:   Molly | 7:20 pm | Comments (76)

Thursday 12 July 2007

MaxJet: The Little Airline That Could?

So MaxJet is a little airline with a big promise: All business class from major US destinations to London Stansted. For the price give or take 200 quid of economy class on other carriers.

The first time I flew MaxJet I left from Las Vegas and everything was great! Service exceptional, on time flight, on time arrival to Stansted, everything promised - delivered, and delivered well.

So I booked them again, this time leaving Stansted to JFK and switching over to another carrier to get home. MaxJet is a small carrier, not too many planes. They had a little tune up problem. That meant a full day delay.

So this is what they provided:

• Immediate room and meals with free wifi accommodations at the SAS Radisson Stansted with a very generous dinner voucher
• Breakfast - Full English (oh, I do like that)
• Paid limousine service to Heathrow (if you know where Stansted is you know this isn’t a minor journey!)
• Upper Class tickets on Virgin (flat sleeper seats, etc.) plus connections to home

Okay, cool, that was fine with me! I was already impressed! Then, today, I get an email from MaxJet telling me that between now and next year I can come to London at their upper class service, round trip, for free.

I can work with this. I really can. Apparently, if I fail, I just end up upper on Virgin. This works for me.

Thanks MaxJet

Filed under:   travel, food and drink, society
Posted by:   Molly | 6:32 pm | Comments (33)

Sunday 25 March 2007

New Photos: From Austin to Seattle to Boston

I’ve finally caught up with publishing photos to date. Got some from SXSW, my visit to Seattle and Microsoft, and a few early shots from here at An Event Apart.

This snap is in Bellevue, Washington, on a foggy morning. I love its mystery.

If you’re in Boston and/or attending AEA, shout it out!

Filed under:   photos, travel, food and drink, sxsw, conferences, microsoft, aea
Posted by:   Molly | 7:44 pm | Comments (60)

Saturday 3 June 2006

Eating Meat

What we place in our mouths, savor, chew or even spit out is closely tied to pleasure, family, culture and memory. We are in no small way exactly what we eat.

What do you eat? Today, I’m mostly interested in drawing from the experiences of carnivores versus vegetarians. I have so many people in my life who are firmly carnivorous, and others that are equally intent upon their vegetarian or even vegan diets.

Personally, I have never felt well without some form of flesh protein in my diet, be it fish, meat, or eggs. Eating meat is important for me. At the very minimum, fish in my diet regularly and red meat once a month at low tide.

So how about you? Do you file your canines every night so you can rip apart a good bit of flesh or do you stick to the lighter side of edible life?

Filed under:   food and drink, society
Posted by:   Molly | 2:46 pm | Comments (84)

Wednesday 29 March 2006

fotos finally

I’ve finally uploaded some photos to flickr with the following sets:

• Geeks with Guns. Pre-SXSW adventures.
• SXSW Interactive. Photos from SXSW, which still has me reeling.
• Home. Some nature and related photos in Tucson, Arizona.
• MIX06 Las Vegas and Boulder City Nevada. Visit to Las Vegas and to my folks, as well as the Hoover Dam.

I can’t believe how few photos I actually took, much less posted.

Filed under:   photos, travel, food and drink, sxsw, sxswi2006, sxsw2006
Posted by:   Molly | 2:26 pm | Comments (35)

Monday 26 December 2005

She Cooks a Fine Pig She Does

WHAT DOES A JEWISH GIRL COOK FOR CHRISTMAS? Why, roast pig, of course.

Now I’m sure that many of my dead ancestors are rolling over in their graves, and quite possibly a few live relations have fallen into their plots and rolled over a few times as well. But yes indeedy that’s what I did: I cooked a fine pig.

Christmas is a holiday I spend by proxy. It’s not a holiday I seek out, because being raised with a strong Jewish heritage if not actual faith, Christmas wasn’t something on my family’s to-do list. Growing up Jewish in a nation dominated by Christians was at some times painful - consider South Park’s Kyle and his heartfelt “A Lonely Jew on Christmas” for a taste of what I mean.

I spent this Christmas in Tucson with friends for whom Christmas is important. So I went and cooked a big hunk of pig. Normally a pork shoulder roast weighing some eight pounds isn’t my first choice at the butcher shop, as my heritage might indicate. I was on orders from a friend who is the king of pig cookery, and entrusted me to do the pig work.

I bought the pig, I marinated the pig, and when the time came, I cooked the pig.

If you come from or empathize with a Jewish-American background, you do realize why my entire ancestral line is rolling over in those graves and moaning - in pain - because of this. However, when the pig, and the mashed potatoes and the fresh brussel sprouts with black pepper were served and consumed, all was happy, including the Jewish girl who cooked, and then ate, the pig.

Christmas is a holiday I spend by proxy. This year, I spent it learning that even a Jewish girl from Brooklyn could cook a pig so perfectly that gentiles cry.

What did you cook, eat, do, receive, think about or not do for Christmas?

Next year, I’m gonna cook a whole pig, I swear. With an apple in its mouth.

Just to say I did.

Filed under:   humor, food and drink
Posted by:   Molly | 8:17 pm | Comments (54)

Saturday 26 November 2005

Geek Dinner Thanksgiving

Jeremy Carroll, Molly E. Holzschlag, and Ian Forrester

For the first time in my entire 42 years, I spent Thanksgiving, typically my favorite US holiday, outside of the US.

So maybe it was pizza, nachos, cheesy fries and little sausages instead of a turkey feast, but I can’t imagine a better way to give thanks than to celebrate friendship, fun, and the Web at a London Geek Dinner.

I am so very honoured (note British spelling) and had a wonderful evening. There’s a Flickr photo pool and even a podcast snippet, available for play at The Angel Blog, of the event.

In a year that’s taken me around the world about four times, I have to say it’s a truly wonderful feeling to know that I have an amazing extended family. No matter my personal struggles of late, one thing is abundantly clear: I have been blessed very, very richly with a tribe of friends and colleagues of the utmost intelligence, kindness and beauty.

For that gift, I am deeply thankful. So here’s a toast (with my morning tea) to all of you, my beloved tribe.

Filed under:   professional, faith(less), standards, photos, travel, food and drink
Posted by:   Molly | 12:02 am | Comments (38)

Sunday 13 November 2005

Wake Up London!

I’M HERE IN LONDON after a long flight. It’s 10:14 a.m. and I can’t get into my room until 1:30. None of my friends are awake, or if they are, they’re not online. No pubs are open. I paid a fortune for wifi and a warm corner where I could get some coffee.

You know, it’s been one shitty stretch. As happy as I am to be here, this is no warm welcome. And the coffee sucks. I shoulda ordered tea.

Filed under:   travel, food and drink
Posted by:   Molly | 3:04 am | Comments (61)

Thursday 20 October 2005

Geek Dinner: London

IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE IN LONDON on 24 November 2005, come join me and as many geeks as the location can bear for an evening of socializing. I’m being honored with a Geek Dinner! If you’re unfamiliar with Geek Dinners, they are get togethers with well-known geeks and blogger types such as Robert Scoble and Tim O’Reilly in which we get to eat, drink and make merry with like-minded friends.

Well, okay, not everyone’s like-minded, but that’s part of the fun, too. Thanks to the ever-energetic Ian Forrester for putting this together! It is recommended that you comment on the Geek Dinner announcement thread in order to be registered..

I look forward to seeing you there!

Filed under:   professional, standards, web design and development, travel, food and drink
Posted by:   Molly | 4:10 am | Comments (37)