Gran Finis

It's all over. I'm officially graduated from Stanford's MBA program. It's been a crazy, full, fast, amazing, stressful two years that I wouldn't trade for the world.

It's interesting to think back to when we first got out here. The emotional rollercoaster went a little like this:

1. Joy - At getting into school after working so hard
2. Worry/Stress - At deciding where to go (Krista remembers this time not so fondly, I am sure :) )
3. Excitement - At the promise of a new place, a cross-country adventure, a new home, new friends...
4. Insecurity - At being at a school with so many talented, driven people. At trying to find out what I really wanted to do, and how to best do it
5. Focus - At working all free hours to get to where I wanted to get, but also to try to enjoy the MBA life with friends and Krista as much as possible
6. Uncertainty - At working last summer with Rob, unpaid, on our own thing and learning
7. Excitement (II) - At having our company start to take off
8. Stress - At working full time while full time at school
9. Sorrow/Relief - At school ending, friends departing one-by-one, and having more time to sleep after doing a full-full day of work in San Francisco
10. Joy - At proposing to Krista and having her say Yes!
11. Repeat Stress/Excitement as normal part of being in a startup

What a crazy couple of years. Definitely 10 years worth of living in them. I think I lived them well, and thank everyone who joined me in the journey along the way.

awesome article on how to leverage technology to its fullest

I read a great article about teenagers using Google Earth to find neighborhood pools to crash for pool parties. The linke is .http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

How cool is this? Leave it to teenagers to find an innovative use for a great technology such as Google Earth. Human creativity never ceases to amaze me :)

NYC

I'm hanging out in NYC today, having spent my Sunday traveling from the Bay to Hoboken via JFK. In a few minutes I'll be heading over to the IAB User-Generated Content & Social Media conference, where I'll be part of a panel entitled "App-Vertising".

Should be fun--I'll try to post a followup after the panel, although the day will be a pretty hectic one!

http://www.iab.net/events_training/ugc2008/agenda

Followup to Bday Post

As a followup to my birthday post, I'd like to point out that I erroneously neglected to include the great cards and phone calls I got from my family. It was simply case of me taking their kind thoughts for granted, nothing more, nothing less. I had expected those types of things from my family (they HAVE to like me, right?), whereas I had not expected the surprise party at all.

The same goes for my many other friends who texted or called or Facebook messaged me--thanks!

But apologies all the same--and much love to Heather, Jessie, Mom & Dad for the cards, calls, and presents!