Monthly Archive for May, 2007

nothing to do with our adventure, but something that i read today on the nz forum that i found funny.

first some background.

• both aussies and kiwis often refer to brits as “poms.”
• the “ashes” refers to a cricket match played between england and australia every two years since 1882.

the discussion on the forum was on the meaning of the term “pom” and if it was an innocent nickname or a slur. the consensus was that it was just a bit of humour targeted at the old mother country.

the definition from urban dictionary was fantastic:
Pom:
Either comes from ‘prisoner of mother England’ or pomigranite – a reddish coloured fruit that native Australians (Aboriginals) thought had a similar colour to the skin of sunburnt Brits.
Not meant to be an insult (as some English think for some reason), merely a nickname for our less-tanned former rulers. Nicknaming everything is very Australian.

Pom: ‘Oi, convict, get your shit stars off our flag!’
Aussie: F*&k off pom, get your shit cricketers off our cricket ovals and give us our f*&king ashes – they’ve been ours since 1989!’

today we started making a list of everything we own trying to decide what we take with us on the plane, what is shipped to nz in the container, what we put in storage and we we sell / give away / throw away. since we don’t know when we’ll be back to boston our plan is to put the things that we want to keep but not ship to nz (childhood rocking horse, formal dining room furniture, etc.) in storage in saint louis. then if we later realized we really needed something left behind we could pick up during on of our visits or ask someone to ship it to us.

with a gigantic mcmansion, a 1700 sq ft basement and a cabin in vermont it should have been no surprise that we have accumulated quite a mountain of stuff.

our original plan was to take just our favourite things and buy whatever else we needed in nz once we knew where we were living. but the strong consensus on the nz immigration forum is to bring everything you can that’s not junk. the cost of replacing things is just to high. even though their electrical system is different (220 volts @ 50 hertz vs. 110 volts @ 60 hertz in the states) everyone was saying to buy a transformer to allow it to work in nz and bring it and the transformer with you.

the other (actually greater) challenge is what to do with all the “just fine” stuff that i don’t want to throw out but don’t want to bring with us and is not worth trying to ebay or craigslist. examples: 6 garden hoses, a big box of fatwood fire starter, a 3 year old printer,… we’ll try and garage sell as much as possible but i don’t know what i’ll do with what remains. normally this is the stuff you just throw in the moving truck and put back in the basement of you new place. i hate it but i see a garbage dumpster in my future.

spent the day today in nyc talking with the ceo of the auckland based start-up that i spoke with last week – company h. more on that but first a minute on my experience taking the train compared to the flights i’ve had in the past.

the plane:
- $229 + $25 parking
- 45 minutes drive to logan
- 1000 steps from car to plane
- airline staff with a tude
- tsa and the security lines
- ride in a cramped aluminum can
- almost certain delays
- $50 cab fare from the airport to midtown
- now repeat in reverse

now the train
- $185 + $12 parking
- 45 minutes drive to the train station
- gigantic parking garage that bills my parking to my fast lane transponder
- 100 steps from car to train
- walk onto the train in 5 minutes
- no tsa
- on time departure
- walk around on the train, get something at the cafe car
- arrive and walk out of penn station and be on 7th avenue in 5 minutes
- now repeat in reverse

i just don’t get why anyone would take the plane. the train service in the states is usually so crappy that you have to give it it’s due when it works well.

ok – back to my interview. i was a bit curious how i would connect with a 30ish ceo, but he is a great guy, absolutely knows his stuff and how to run his company, but doesn’t have an overblown ego. none of the gen y tude that i got plenty of from some of the orange team.

they have a global partnership with saatchi and saatchi which brings them a lot of business and also gives them office space any where s&s have an office. what a great arrangement for a startup. gives them instant credibility and saves a ton on money.

i also met with another member of company h team who is based in nyc. that conversation was surprisingly technical, but fortunately i think i was solid enough in most of the areas he asked about.

wrapping up the ceo said he thought there was a good match so i expect that this will go to offer. all good.

i had a good phone interview with an auckland based startup tonight – company h. they are looking for a senior project manager to manage some projects (duh) and help them mature their project process. i spoke with their hr consultant and their “operations manager” – their equivalent to a director of engineering.

the company is a self funded startup that is profitable, currently at 30 and expecting to grow to about 60 in the next year or so. they provide the mojo to enable mobile advertising campaigns for big companies like coke, toyota and the like. they usually get brought in by one of the big advertising agencies to work on part of a larger campaign. given that the budget for many of these campaigns is well into the millions i think this is a fantastic area to focus. just a tiny piece of that is still big money and you have someone else doing the work to establish the relationship with the target company. for a tiny company they have won an impressive list of advertising industry awards and have small offices in nyc, la and hong kong in addition to their nz base. the founders and the operations mgr are all around 30 so that raises an eyebrow, but hard to question their success.

wrapping up the ops mgr said that he thought there was a match and next step would be to connect with their ceo who is based in the states.