Sitting in the airport in Washington on the way back to Dallas.

Eating a horrible salad.

Tired... two flights down, two more flights to go.

Two speaking gigs down, one more to go.

No time for the gym so I'm trying to walk for 20-30 minutes inside the airport before getting ready for the loooooooong flight (four hours) to Dallas.

Wish I was at the Clinton Global Conference in New York with the Netscape team (or home).

Note: Cingular's built in EVDO in Sony laptops sucks. It's slow and hangs. Verizon EVDO is much, much better.

My role at AOL is to shake things up. Sometimes people think I go to far, sometimes people think I'm holding back--the truth is I'm doing neither.

I'm doing what I've always done: being honest and upfront with my opinions. The one thing I've learned from blogging--and running Weblogs, Inc. from nothing the sale to AOL in 18 months--is that blogging/life/business is all about AUTHENTICITY.

All of my posts are 100% authentic. Am I biased... yes, authentically so! Am I wrong sometimes--of course! Do I own up to my mistakes in an authentic fashion--you bet! I don't blog to give people a hard time and I don't blog to kiss up to people. I blog what I feel, and if you've ever spent time with me you know I'm blunt. I don't know where I picked this trait up, but it's all I know how to do and it's served me well in this life.

My new blog buddy at AOL, Shawn Christopher, laid into me last week for my style.

Today, after hearing Jeff Bewkes call bull---- in the WSJ, he's reconsidering. Shawn and I now have a relationship and we're engaged in a very honest dialog about how to make our company better. He's putting out ideas for me (and other AOLers) to respond to--the conversation is getting bigger and deeper. Only good things can come from that.

So, mission accomplished.

We all know the best way to solve problems is to shine a light on them.

I'm going to go underground for the next two weeks, so the posting will be light. No, AOL didn't get to me. I'm on a little analyst/press tour over the next two weeks that will take me to from Los Angeles to Mountain View, San Francisco, Dulles/DC, and my home sweet home New York. I'll keep you posted to my location, and if you're not on the press tour yet feel free to ping me.

Working on setting up a vacation for the summer and thinking about the South of France and/or South of Spain... perhaps Provence and Andalusia.

Anyone have thoughts?

I've created a group on Ma.nolia on South of France/Spain for tips/links:
http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/SouthofFrance
and
http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/SouthofSpain

Also tracking Gadling stories:
http://www.gadling.com/category/france/
http://www.gadling.com/tag/france/
http://www.gadling.com/tag/provence/
http://www.gadling.com/category/spain/
http://www.gadling.com/tag/spain/

The VP of Marketing left me a message yesterday after he found my post while "reading some blogs." He said he wants to make up for my horrible experience, and when I checked out today the hotel had charged me for only three of my five nights. That seems about right to me since it took them two days to fix the broken window in my room, a fiasco that resulted in a noisy and cold stay. The thermostat for the heaters in the hotel room don't actually work I as told by maintenance because the heating system doesn't turn on unless it's under 50 degrees out--it was 54/56 degrees this week. So, just cold enough to give me the head cold I now I have.

Anyway, I give them credit for reading blogs and for checking the last name on my blog against the registry at the Hudson Hotel. If you can get that right shouldn't you be able to fix a broken window and a heating system?

Someone should start a blog about customer service fiascos.... oh wait!

I've been staying at the Hudson Hotel in New York City since some of the other hotels I like are full. It's one of Ian Schrager's hip hotels.

This is the worst experience I've ever had in my life. My window was broken for two nights and wouldn't close and my heat has be broken as well. There is dirt and dust balls everywhere. Also, the room is tiny for the price--but whatever.

I had to ask four times over two days to get the window fixed, and the heat is still blowing bold air. The manager says it can't blow hot air because the boilers not on. Why isn't the boiler on? Because it's not cold enough he says. but it's 56 degress outside and these windows are super drafty,

When you call the front desk no one picks up for 30-40 rings. It took me five phone calls tonight to get a manager on the phone.

When I did he offered me a free drink. I told him thanks but no thanks and he got all upset with me and was like "what do you want?"

uhhh... here is what i would like fopr $450 a night:

1. a clean room.
2. a courteous staff.
3. a window that closes.
4. heat that works.
5. someone who picks up the phone.
6. a manage with enough of clue that if the five things above are not done you might want to offer the guest more than a cocktail.

Never again.... this place is a total dump.

PS - If you are unfortunate enough to stay here make sure that you stay on a low floor because the elevators are super slow and tiny. It takes over 10 minutes to wait for an elevator sometimes, and when you get in they are the dumb elevators that stop on every floor even though they are already filled beyond capacity.

I'm speaking at the excellent Personal Democracy Forum in NYC tomorrow. I highlt recommend attending if you're in town.

details:

http://www.personaldemocracy.com/conference/2006/program

NYC Open office hours are on!

I'll be showing off some of our latest hotness...

Location: 75 Rock in the 4th floor training center
Date/Time: 2pm on Tuesday, May 16th
Bagels: H&H
[ photo via the excellent C&Z! ]

RSVP in comment
Question to jason at calacanis dot com

Had a great trip to Dulles last week. Got to meet over 50 amazing folks. We shared a half dozen demos and discussed a lot of products and ideas. We've got an amazing culture here (despite what the NYT said today--I'll have a LOT more to say about that shortly.. just getting my thoughts together).

We agreed that what happens at open office hours stays at open office hours, so that's all I'll say about it.

Looking forward to meeting folks tomorrow in New York City!

New York City Office Hours Location, Date & Time:
Monday, May 1st, 12PM-2PM.
RSVP for New York Office Hours in the comments on this post.
Location: 4AO1-C (better known as the training room on the fourth floor) at 75 Rock.

Barcamp LA was great today... lots of cool folks in LA doing neat things. Can't wait for the next one... Toro had a great time too. :-)

Update: A video about BarCamp.

I'm heading off to barcamp... they pressed me to talk about something. Since I don't have anything we're building that I can talk about (you know, working for the man and all :-), I'm gonna do a 15 minute talk called "Calacanis call BS on..." in which I will call BS on 15 things. This should be fun. :-)

Note: If anyone has a ticket to eTech for a playa I'll be your BFF.

Heading over to BarCamp right now--details here.

Might swing down to eTech... we're sponsors, but seems we used up our tickets. Plus it's sold out... maybe I'll just lobby crash and have some dinner with folks. Anyone got an extra ticket?