Day One: Charleston

Coast Restaurant
--very French Quarter feel,
except less smelly

I'm travelling to Charleston, SC for work and although I've only been here a few hours, I have to say the place is pretty darn cute. And there are a plethora of little local restaurants and shops within walking distance of my hotel. If I can successfully navigate a business trip so that I don't have to drive once while being there, it's a good thing. 


Hit a restaurant called Coast tonight that was just a block down the way. Seafood which is awesome. I had a lobster and crab gratin with blue cheese mashed potatoes and green beans (pictured). They helped make up for the calorie gap since I ate two Fiber One bars while travelling today. Calorie gap and belly successfully filled. Delicious. If I didn't already have dinner plans, I'd probably go back tomorrow night. YUM!!


 Hopefully I'll have a few more pictures to post tomorrow after the conference, but in the mean time, here's my weekly update:

Lobster and Crab gratin.
Was much better than it looks.
Bad lighting.

• Pages of fiction read: 33% of a 432 page book (World War Z) So, that's technically 143 pages. 
• Fiction read: World War Z by Max Brooks. Pretty good so far.
• Fiction listened to via audiobook: Six hours into The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larrson. Maybe I can do via audio what I couldn't do reading--finish it!
• Five pages written: Yup. Had 6 on the plane trip alone last week.
• Calorie tracking: Check.Crappy road, world series eating.
• Exercise: 225 minutes of exercise in the last week. 
• Friends and family: Yup. Called a friend to chat and tell her that I was missing her lots!
• Weight Loss:0 lb
• One revised section of novel per week:  Check! Have bridged the beginning to what I've previously written, so now it's just revise, revise, revise.I will get a rough draft done by my Birthday. I keep chanting that.

Pitch Perfect Advertising

I saw this video tonight watching the World Series. It's about a guy who decided he was going to win $1 million by learning to play a video game and win a content to pitch a simulated perfect game. It's a pretty long ad in TV terms-- about two minutes--and it aired during the world series, so I'm sure it cost a pretty penny, but I have to so that it was spot on. Google has been making some great ads lately. The one where the dad sets up a gmail account to email his daughter from birth? Brought tears to my eyes.

I don't know who's doing their advertising now (and if you google it, you get a bunch of results about "adwords"--coincidence? I think not), but the ads are well done. The question becomes: does google--whose consumer services are free to use--need to advertise? Are they losing market share or is this a tactical move to protect it?

Either way, I think they're good. Check out tonight's ad here--and GO CARDINALS!: