My job has sent me to Amsterdam for the week, and when I went to the Continental Airlines website to check in for my flight the other day, I was presented with the option to buy carbon offset credits – powered by an organization called Sustainable Travel International.

The whole idea of carbon offsetting is met with some harsh criticism. Skeptics argue that it’s just a way to help people feel better about themselves without having to change their consuming, polluting lifestyles…

But there’s no reason why purchasing carbon offsets can’t be just one part of a person’s overall change in lifestyle, instead of an alternative to change. And the truth is the money spent on carbon offsets does make its way into projects like wind farms and reforestation initiatives.

It might be better to avoid air travel altogether, but of course it’s unrealistic. I’m happy that the airline industry is promoting not only awareness of the issue in general, but a quantification of my own individual contribution. And I’m happy that they point me to one way of mitigating at least some of the damage.

It won’t save the world, but it’s better than nothing.

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been working in LA. My hotel, the LAX Plaza, is across the street from our office, and our office is across the street from the client. So I walk to work, walk to client meetings. I can’t get over how bizarre that feels in LA. Of course I still rent a car, because after work, the Culver City area is just a strip mall ghetto.

They’re renovating the LAX Plaza one-room-at-a-time, so our office manager in LA told me I had to ask for a “new” room. She also told me not to eat in the hotel restaurant or hang out in the hotel bar.

The place is a far cry from some of the places I’ve been lucky to stay in over the past year, so I’ve put together the following list of things the LAX Plaza does not give me for $99 a night…

10. Elevators that tell you what floor they’re on
9. Cable television (except, alternately, CNN or Discovery)
8. Internet access
7. An alarm clock
6. A “Do Not Disturb” card for the door
5. A mini bar
4. Bath slash shower gel
3. Pillows that don’t smell like “head”
2. A blanket without cigarette holes in it
1. That clean feeling

And one old, relevant Top Ten list from the Late Show:

Top Ten Things You Don’t Want To Hear From A Guy In A Hotel

10. “The desk clerk is nuts, so whatever room number she gives you, add three.”
9. “I wrote you a note about halfway through your roll of toilet paper.”
8. “Meet me in the whirlpool in twenty minutes.”
7. “If you want a bellhop, press ’1′ on your phone; If you want a hooker, press ’2.’”
6. “Ring this bell again, I’ll burn your luggage.”
5. “Hey, could you go over to the Ramada and swipe us some towels?”
4. “You know, every room has a hair dryer — How’s that for ritzy?”
3. “Are you the bastard that took my gin out of the minibar?”
2. “Wanna see the pictures I took of you sleeping?”
1. “Do you mind sharing your room with a monkey?”

Next time I’m staying here. It’s hardly luxury, but it’s next door.

A month ago, my mom packed up all her worldly possessions and headed west. After several decades in the Philadelphia area, she’s migrated to Silver City, New Mexico. In her own words, here’s the tale of her road trip…

Luke and I had a great trip together coming out. Luke knows the way well; he’s traveled Route 40 about four times in the last two years. We pulled out of my driveway at about 4 pm on Saturday afternoon 11/6, made our Trader Joe’s stop to get our road snacks (especially turkey jerkey) and then headed for the turnpike.
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For some reason we can’t remember, we decided to fly Singapore Airlines out of LAX instead of SFO, which meant we had to create our own connecting flight on the front end. It meant we could fly from the US to Singapore nonstop, but it also added a few hours to the overall journey.

A quick poll of the team suggests this route was the client’s recommendation. We followed it without questioning it, and Tracy and I vowed to take this as a lesson learned. We want to bring imagination and brave new thinking to this project, and we won’t do that if we just blindly follow the recommendations of others.

Tracy: Before (looking fabulous)	Tracy: After (looking only slightly less fabulous)