My Dad gave me my WestPac book that I had left at his house long long ago... It was my my first "cruise", and what a time it was... Here are the places we visited on the first one (1986):

• Depart San Diego California 17 March (St. Paddy's day!)
• Pearl Harbor Hawaii 24-26 March
• Subic Bay Phillipines 10-17 April
• Singapore 21-26 April
• Bahrain 26-28 May
• Damman Saudia Arabia 23-25 June
• Abu Dhabi UAE 2-6 July
• Sri Lanka 13 July
• Phuket Thailand 16-19 July
• Singapore 20-22 July
• Jakarta Indonesia 24-26 July
• Townsville Australia 4-8 August
• Brisbane Australia 10-15 August
• Suva Fiji 19-21 August
• Pago Pago, American Samoa 23-34 August
• Pearl Harbor Hawaii 30 August- 3 Sep
• Arrive San Diego, California, USA

What a trip! Going through this book and seeing the faces of shipmates that I served with almost 20 years ago brings back lots of great memories! I never got the "book" from my second cruise as my time was up while I was in the gulf, so they flew me to Bahrain, from there to Spain -> Virginia and back to Cali where the whole thing started.

I used to be a Vonage customer. I'm on the phone quite a bit, and a flat-rate bill was very enticing to me. The service was pretty good, but then a tree grew its leaves a little too high and the wireless connection between me and my ISP (Ojai.net) got a little flakey. Right at that time the evil entity known as SBC came out with $50 flat rate pricing. I am convinced that this was driven by Vonage, and for that I thank them. Then Vonage announces $35mm in funding, the next day I hear SBC advertising a $20 flat-rate all you can eat local and long distance. Coincidence? I think not. Of course the new number portability rules help as well.

Unrelated: A hawk just swooped down and nailed a dove and is now eating it in our backyard... feathers are everywhere. Perhaps it's his Thanksgiving feast.

I have a nice cup of green tea steeping, while I am steeping myself in CSS/ECMAScript/DHTML. I hope to have some cool widgets working soon.

Down to $250 at Amazon

How long before it's free, or you get money back, like the $75 you'll pocket if you buy a Nokia 3650 with a service plan?

My guess is March or April.

What a great idea. A guy from MarketingWonk has produced a Tsotchke Report. I think every trade show should have a "Tsotchke Report". Combined with email notifications, you could get some moblog swarming effect going on.

If I were a vendor, I'd be sure to keep the Tsotchke reporter up to speed on my "offering" and drive more traffic to my booth.

I'm wondering if Tsotchke is the right spelling... I just call it shwag