Bite Me!

Went last week to my 'One on One' at the Apple Store and had a discussion with my teacher about my favorite website. Ted.com  Ted has a conference every year that I have so longed to attend but it's a bit costly and certainly the airline business doesn't pay enough for me to attend. One of the teacher's customers had just been to the conference and she told him about Bill Gate's talk. Both my teacher Josh and I agreed that although we both love Apple products, Bill Gates has set the world on fire. Anyway, at the TED conference, he actually let loose a jar of mosquitoes into the audience. He had showed a map of the countries where malaria is a major killer and they are all poor countries. He was just  trying to even the score and naturally the mosquitoes were malaria-free!  Too funny and such an example of guerrilla marketing. His foundation is fighting malaria and his talk is inspiring. I have mentioned him in an earlier post when he was a passenger on one of my flights. He is good buddies with Warren Buffet, another personal favorite of mine who has advised him in his philanthropy efforts. Gotta' love people trying to make a difference!

Shoes & Stem Cells

Now it may appear I'm on some sort of a shoe obsession but I don't usually notice shoes that much, unlike my pal Rebecca who claims that "Shoes make life more fun!" and has the shoes and experiences to prove it. That said, you can see that Rebecca must have influenced me because I seem to be taking more note of shoes these days!  The shoes pictured here belong to a scientist that completely changed my image of the scientific community. I was commuting to work on a 6am flight. Didn't have to work until that night but flying space available, didn't want to chance a later flight. Had no makeup on and flat shoes and as luck would have it, got seated in first class next to the owner of these incredibly stylish shoes. This picture which I asked him to send me, does not do them justice. The gentleman, Chris Airrless; is a brilliant Phd and the head of  CA Stem Cell .  He is also a flight instructor, and bears a slight resemblance to the motivational guru, James Ray. (James, you could take some fashion advice from Mr. Stem Cell.) He was so charming and said he thought me a female counterpart to Sir Richard Branson. Obviously, the man can "talk the talk" as far as women goes and what I admired even more about him was the high regard with which he spoke of his wife. (Ladies, you knew a man like this would be married!) His wife is a blogger and I suspect might have influenced him in his clothing selection. His shirt also did not fit the culture, I have come to picture of your typical scientist. The potential in Stem cells provide hope to those with ALS, SMA and cardiovascular disease. To top it off, an article about his company was published that day on the front page of my hometown newspaper, The Orange County Register. My close friend, Allison and I were journalism students in high school and have that newspaper on a pedestal in our hearts.  

Cowgirl Airplane Cupholder

Creative genius with huge style points given to this passenger for her water bottle holder!  Turbulence! Not a problem since you can stabilize the boots with your feet. For those of you with embarrassing foot odor ( you know who you are), I recommend some thick socks if you're going to give this a go. That was not the case for this beautiful Oklahoma cowgirl who had just visited California for the first time. Met her on a flight from San Diego to Dallas. She had obviously had a very special time with her sweetheart who sadly was being deployed to Iraq.