Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge, Solvang

Solvang, CA is a funny place. Originally settled by Danish immigrants, it still feels like you wandered into a countryside nook of Denmark when you enter this California Wine Country town. Photo of Solvang, CA by 5000! via Flickr.

You'll find Danish diners offering pastries and bagels, Danish stores and hotels and houses and windmills and just about everything, even the names of all the people and the businesses, are straight out of a Danish telephone book. Solvang is located in the Santa Ynez Valley, just outside Santa Barbara, so it doesn't get too many people who want to stay here more than a day or so. The main attraction in Solvang is the Danish Village, which is more like a Denmark theme park.


Even so, there might be some visitors who don't want to put up in the tourist traps better known as Santa Barbara hotels. For such travelers, hotels in Solvang offer a peaceful enclave or getaway at relatively lower prices than you would pay for a hotel with comparable amenities and services in Santa Barbara. Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge, located at the corner of Mission Drive and Alisal Road, is one of these hotels, which looks like its been picked up out of the Danish countryside and placed in Solvang. The quaint exterior, with sqaure box windows facing out on to the street and the neatly paved pathways are nothing like any other hotel, anywhere in California.

The 48 guest rooms, including 18 suites with gas fireplaces, are well equipped with the usual amenities, including refrigirators, cable TV with HBO, in-room coffee, iron & ironing board and hairdryers. The lodge serves a complimentary breakfast in the lobby for its guests each morning, with an assortment of Danish pastries, bagels, fresh juice and hot coffee. There's also a heated swimming pool and a jacuzzi. The rooms are pretty neat and spacious and comfortable, if not very luxurious. Room rates start at $74 during weekdays and $99 during weekends.

Info: 1711 Mission Drive Solvang CA 93463; (800) 733-875; www.svendsgaardslodge.com

Little Sur Inn, Moonstone Beach, Cambria

The thousands of elephant seals jostling at the Elephant Seal Rookery at Piedras Blancas, 7 miles north of San Simeon, are a treat for the eyes and an amazing spectacle for any city slicker passing along the Pacific Coast Highway to or from LA or San Francisco. The coast here is also very well known for whale watching with schools of dolphins frolicking and cavorting just offshore. Moonstone Beach in Cambria, shrouded in a misty fog and the tang of the fresh and salty ocean wind, is one of the most beautiful and lonesome beaches in California, and it really tugs at your heart strings when you hear the cry of the sea otters. Photo credit - Marinebio.net

The area is also well known for landmarks like the Hearst Castle, Piedras Blancas Lighthouse and Nitt Witt Ridge. All this is in addition to the magnificient surfing, beach front resorts and ocean view diners lined up at Carmel, Big Sur, Monterey and all along Highway 101.

Ok, so now you get that a Pacific Coast Highway road trip to this area would make for a truly refreshing getaway from LA or San Francisco. What about lodging on this leg of your trip? If you want to explore in full the pleasures of San Simeon, Big Sur and Cambria, what you need to do is put up at the Little Sur Inn. It's minutes away from Hearst Castle, and centrally located for an extensive tour of everything in the area. Out of all the San Simeon and Cambria hotels, the best one I found - in terms of price, location and amenities & services provided - was the Little Sur Inn.

Guest rooms and suites at the Little Sur Inn are clean and spacious and equipped with a fireplace, cable television, movie channels and VCR with free videos available on request, refrigerator, bottled water, microwave, private bath and bath tub, shower with marble bathrooms, table with chairs, coffee maker, hairdryer, and iron & ironing board. Photo credit - TripAdvisor

The ocean view rooms additionally have a balcony or patio with a whirlpool jacuzzi tub. Room rates start at $175 plus taxes for a standard room with 2 queen beds and a capacity to accomodate 4 guests. That includes a continental breakfast with fruits and rolls and coffee/tea, and afternoon snacks with cheese and crackers. There's also a neat seafood joint right next door called the Sea Chest Restaurant & Oyster Bar.

If you divvy up the cost of the room as a group of 4, and subtract the cost of breakfast, that makes for heck of a cheap hotel in a central beachfront location with an ocean view and plenty of amenities and services provided. Can't really ask for more.

Info: 6190 Moonstone Beach Dr, Cambria, CA 93428; (805) 927-1329

Chaminade Santa Cruz Hotel

Built high on a mountain ridge, the Chaminade Santa Cruz resort hotel has a sweeping view of Monterey Bay on one hand and the backdrop of the Santa Cruz mountains on the other. There's plenty of upscale Santa Cruz hotels, but the Chaminade tops all that, and sets a very high bar for Santa Cruz luxury hospitality. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that even for a CA hotel reviewer pampered by five star hotels in LA, San Francisco and San Diego, the absolute decadence and opulence of the Chaminade is stunning. That could be because its so spacious and looks like one of those Spanish palaces you see in the movies, being lived in by a rich Columbian druglord or something like that. Be that as it may, fact remains that the Chaminade knows how to pamper guests.

Its more of a resort than a hotel, with the rooms spread out in multiple buildings all over the grounds, with a full service spa, extensive amenities and services for business travelers and conferences, including a 24 hour business center with 12,000 sq ft of meeting space, 12 meeting rooms, fully catered and hosted indoor and outdoor event organization and management services and a state-of-the-art presentation equipment. There's also an inviting fitness center with free weights, treadmills, rowing machines, yoga classes and a steam, sauna and whirlpool. Additional amenities and services for guests at the Chaminade include a concierge, an ATM machine, a gift shop, safe deposit boxes, dry cleaning services, heated swimming pool, two outdoor jacuzzis, four tennis courts, and additional space and arrangements for volleyball, badminton and croquest, long with hiking trails leading off the grounds.

The Chaminade was recently and extensively renovted at a cost of about $6 million, and all that money shows up in the 156 plush guest rooms and suites with contemporary Spanish decor and the solid granite bathrooms with Aveda bath products, the private patio with a view of Monterey Bay, in-room access to high speed internet, refirigirator, wet bar, a coffee maker, iron and a safe. And the bed and the pillows and cushions are something you can really, literally sink into and enjoy a feeling of being wrapped in a cocoon of luxury. Room rates start at $199 plus taxes, and a junior suite clocks in at $249 plus taxes.

Catering, room service and dining at the Chaminade are in the capable hands of the chefs at the highly regarded Sunset Restaurant and Linwood's Lounge. Sunset whips up one heck of a Sunday Brunch, with slow roasted prime rib, an omelette station and a choice selection of entrees. Usual meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner are available, and the Sunset's specialties are Texas barbeques and seafood cookouts. Linwood's is the perfect place to unwind after a full day of shopping, sightseeing and visiting the local attractions. In addition to an outdoor firepit and patio seating with a spectacular view of the Bay, Linwood's also has televisions, a sull service bar where you can kickback with some drinks and watch a game, or play some pool.

Info: 1 Chaminade Lane Santa Cruz CA 95065; (800) 283-6569; Images copyrights & courtesy Chaminade

Courtyard by Marriott Solana Beach

More than anything else, the reason I was at Marriott's Courtyard hotel in Solana Beach was that for once, I wanted to forego the clubs and restaurants and shopping malls and just spend a couple of days lazing on the beach. Plans, as per my luck, often go haywire, and this one did too - Cause the beaches are locked down after a shark attacked and killed someone. So what do I have left to do?

Poke around the hotel, taking note of the business center, the outdoor pool and whirlpool, the two spa tubs and the excellent fitness center with its treadmills and the bicycle and the weights, all of which were of absolutely no use to me. Drive up and down Highway 101, but it was Solana Beach I wanted to be in, not the hundreds of miles of beautiful sandy beaches up and down the coast (well, if you can't have it, then that's all you want, or something like that...), so in short order I was back at the Pavilion - the coffee shop in the Courtyard - mulling my options.

I give up, and go back up to my room, which thankfully has everything you might need to help you forget a disaster of a weekend vacation. Complimentary high speed internet, cable TV with pay per view movies, refrigirator, microwave, coffee and tea maker, hair dryer, iron/ironing board, bottled water, ergonomic chair and workdesk. Having taken two baths in a couple of hours, coming and going, in the admittedly magnificient granite bath with spray jet bathtub and jacuzzi, I spent some time gazing out the patio, fiddled with the climate control settings, had a couple of beers, watched some CNN, got bored with a mind-numbing discussion about superdelegates and switched to ESPN, then fell asleep on the sofa bed.

When I get up, its already late in the evening, and time to take the half hour drive to San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter, and party away the sad memories of a day spent in absolute luxury at the Courtyard by Marriott Solana Beach doing absolutely nothing, with a closed beach in plain sight.... For which I had to pay $179 plus taxes. At least the parking was free. Solana Beach hotels - Great. Solana Beach sharks - Very bad. Can I file suit against the shark for spoiling my vacation?

Farmers Daughter Hotel, Beverly Hills

If you're in LA and wanna sleep in the warm embrace of the Farmers Daughter and eat with the local TART, then you want to go to 115 S Fairfax. Easy, does it...Farmers Daughter is the name of a hotel, and TART is the restuarant at said hotel. That said, what you first thought might as well be true, because the place isn't the kind of hotel you'd want to take your wife and kids to. They went through an extensive renovation, and its way better now than a few years back, when it was a cheap $40 motel for wannabe actresses working part-time and struggling to pay the bills. Now its a not-so-cheap $210 hotel for people who just don't know better. Photo credit: Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Its across the street from CBS Studios, with the Grove Shopping Center, third street boutiques, the farmers' market and Museum Row all within hailing distance. The surroundings are actually quite rundown, the hotel building looks like an apartment complex in a poor neighbourhood and this is definitely not the LA that a tourist wants to see, or stay in. More like a commercial District with lots of prosperity 'inside' the buildings, but the streets in the area around the hotel are not quite up to expectations. For the price they charge, you can book yourself a comfy room at lots of really decent and upscale Beverly Hills hotels. But lots of people visit CBS for shows and tapings and it is quite convinient for them to stay overnight at Farmers Daughter.

The garishly painted thin walled rooms at Farmers Daughter are as sodden as the hotel itself, with barren floors and bare minimum amenities like a DVD player with a few free DVDs and rain head shower in the bathroom, the pool is tiny and the valet mandatory, even though there's no real necessity. The only redeeming factors for this dumphole are the surprisingly friendly staff, the relatively new and clean beds, sheets and towels, and the numerous restaurants in Beverly Blvd's restaurant row where you can likely expect to get decent food. So, if you're dead tired, have some urgent business to conclude in the Fairfax area, which is likely to run late into the night, you might want to give the Farmers Daughter a test run, but that's just about it. Room rates start at $184 plus taxes.

Info: 115 S Fairfax, Los Angeles CA 90036; (800) 334-1658; www.farmersdaughterhotel.com

Omni Los Angeles Hotel

The Omni Los Angeles Hotel is downtown LA's cultural bunker in more ways than one. For starters, its located like a WWII machine-gun turret on top of South Olive Street's Bunker Hill. Secondly, said bunker is supposed to a strategic location, with a birds-eye view of the surroundings, and easy access to everything important in the neighbourhood - The box-like Omni has a pretty decent view of the entire area and is within walking distance to everything that has anything to do with art or culture in downtown Los Angeles (worth visiting, i.e.).

Speaking metaphorically, the Omni houses an inordinate number of art and theatre lovers at any given time, and these cultural stormtroopers fan out every evening to conquer the nearby enemy forts like the Museum of Contemporary Art, the L.A. Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Having laid these cultural camps to waste with their ponderous opinions and sissy sensibilities, our dashing stormtroopers then return to the Omni base camp late at night for rest and supplies.

Lastly, the Omni is just a short drive from LAX, in case the sissy army has to beat a hasty retreat out of LA because of some percieved slight (You have no idea how competitive the art world is). If all that was Greek to you, just ignore it. Sometimes I get these flights of metaphoritis, and if writing bad metaphors was a crime, I would probably be doing a long stretch as a serial offender. The only things worth any use in all that fancy prose are that the Omni Hotel is centrally located at Bunker Hill and a lot of theatre goers prefer to stay here. Lets move on to an investigation of why aforementioned sissies actually love this place, location notwithstanding.

Its a well known fact that these artsy types have oversized egos and love to be treated like they're God's own gift to the common rifraff, even if their own mothers have problems remembering their names. And the Omni slyly takes full advantage of this weakness, and bends over backwards to make their guests feel like royalty, with a lot of pampering and the staff scurrying about fulfilling your boneheaded demands which would make even your ever-so-loving mother come after you with a meat cleaver, had you perstered her in the same way that the staff at the Omni are subject to.

To boot, the Omni offers services and amenities and spacious well-equipped rooms and can be considered to the standard bearer of Los Angeles family hotels. And then some. The list of amenities include an outdoor heated swimming pool, full service spa, lounge, restaurant, fitness center, concierge, business center, 24 hour room servie and an on-call physician, laundry & dry cleaning services, complimentary car transport for any location within a 3 mile radius, and last, but not least - The Omni Kids Program. The restaurant mentioned above is named Noe, and its become quite a big hit, with an appealing mix of American cuisine tinged with an oriental flavor.

The 453 guest rooms and suites at the Omni are elegantly refined, airy, spacious and pleasing to the eye, designed to appeal to an upscale and urban mindset, with television with on-demand movies, wi-fi, floor to ceiling windows offering sweeping views of Bunker Hill or California Plaza Watercourt, coffee maker, stocked refreshment center, hair dryer, iron & ironing board, in-room refrigirator and a complimentary copy of the Los Angeles Times.

If you book a Club Room (slightly bigger than the other rooms), you also get access to the Club Lounge, a free continental breakfast, evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Room rates start at $269, with the Club Room clocking in at $309. A Business traveler room with special add-ons like a workdesk goes at $289 and a Junior suite which could double as family accomodation at $359.

Info: 251 South Olive Street Los Angeles CA 90012; (213) 617-3300

Arena Hotel San Jose

The Arena hotel in San Jose should be renamed the Milk and Cookies B,B&D, or something like that. The 'B,B&D' is for Bed, Breakfast & Dinner - Since that's what the Arena offers, with the food being complimentary. 'Milk and Cookies' because everything about this hotel is as sweet as apple pie, starting from the cherriness of the front desk to the 'you name it and we'll get it' attitude of their concierge, not to mention the complimentary amenities and friendly tips that the staff have for guests who need directions or some pointers about local attractions and dining facilities.

Point is, regardless of what else the Arena hotel offers, or does not, this kind of excellent service and customer friendly attitude is exactly what makes for a good hotel, and a good stay for guests. Personalized service is also what you cannot expect, and usually do not get, from the big San Jose family hotels with hundreds of rooms like a Hilton.

The Arena is conviniently located within walking distance of downtown San Jose and the HP Pavilion (http://www.hppsj.com/). Amenities provided include free wi-fi internet, laundry and same day dry cleaning, rolloaway beds and cribs on request, complimentary breakfast everyday and complimentary dinners from Monday to Thursday, and a business center with meeting areas.

The 89 guest rooms and suites at the Arena are well furnished and equipped with cable TV, refrigirator, microwave, coffee maker, iron & ironing board, hairdryer and a two person jacuzzi. Some rooms also have a full kitchenette. This is on top of the complimentary breakfast and dinner the hotel offers. Far as I can remember, I haven't seen any other hotel in California which offers free breakfast and dinner. Room rates start at around $99 per night and a suite goes for around $119. Your stay in San Jose is going to cost you between $100 to $120 a day, and that's with family. Which is not a bad deal, anyway you look at it.

Info: 817 The Alameda San Jose CA 95126; (408) 294-6500; www.pacifichotels.com/arena

Old Town Inn - San Diego CA

The newly renovated Old Town Inn, San Diego, sits plunk at the center of almost every major tourist attraction in San Diego - Across the street from the Trolley transit Station, within walking distance of the historic Old Town State Park with its restaurants and quaint shops and museums, slightly less than 3 miles from both the Seaworld Adventure Park and the San Diego Zoo, 15 minutes to the San Diego International Airport - You get the picture.

You can setup headquarters at the Old Town Inn and plan short sorties to all the major attractions over a fun-filled San Diego weekend getaway with the family, or even an extended vacation with visits to nearby attractions - And there's a huge amount in and around San Diego - like the Legoland theme park in Carlsbad and the magnificient beaches and attractions at La Jolla and and Mission Bay.

I mention family here not only because San Diego has a lot to offer the kiddies, but also because post-renovation, the Old Town Inn is the best of San Diego family hotels. Some of the family friendly amenities and services include free parking, a complimentary continental breakfast, a heated outdoor swimming pool, a barbeque area, arcade games, connecting rooms and extended stay options, cribs and rolloaway beds, fully equipped kitchennetes with microwaves, refrigirators, coffee makers and ice machines, iron with ironing board, guest laundry services and hairdryers.

Inspite of the semi-luxurious accomodations and amenities, a full suite with kitchenette able to accomodate an entire family of four would cost you only about $104 per night during weekdays and $114 on weekends. That comes to about $300 for a 2 night 3 day stay that includes free breakfast, in-room beverages, some add-ons as a family you might need, and something you might want to cook up at night. Throw in lunch for four people, two adults and two children, for 3 days, along with transportation and admission ticket costs to the attractions (you can get a Go San Diego Card which includes admission to all major parks) and that would come to another $500. So you can wrap up a complete 3 day San Diego family vacation for $800.

Info: 4444 Pacific Highway, San Diego, CA 92110; (800) 643-3025; http://www.oldtown-inn.com/

Magic Castle Hotel Los Angeles

No better place to explore the magic make believe world of Hollywood than the Magic Castle Hotel on Franklin Ave, at the base fo Hollywood Hills. Well, what more do you want than budget accomodation a short walk from the walk of fame, an in-hotel private members-only club frequented by stars, a short subway hop to Universal Studios and the Kodak Theatre and all the attractions of Hollywood Blvd at your doorstep?

It's no Hilton, but the hotel is newly refurbished, rooms are large, comfortable and airy with a good view of the hotel's swimming pool area and best of all, you get to keep your wallet, and your shirt on, when you checkout. More to the point, the rooms are highly utilitarian, with an apartment like feel, since the hotel was an apartment building before morphing into a lodging facility. Out of a total of 40 units, 30 of them are 1 or 2 bedroom suites, and come with fully equipped kitchenettes with microwaves and coffee makers.

In addition, the hotel offers grocery shopping services and a continental breakfast with fresh pastries from the Susina Bakery and coffee by Wolfgang Puck. Rooms and suites are furnished with all the usual amenities, including hairdryers, iron & ironing board, safe, wi-fi internet, coin operated laundromat, cable with HBO and a DVD player with free movie rentals.In short, it's a home away from home for groups and families out on a tour of Los Angeles and the nearby attractions. Then there's the outdoor heated swimming pool.

Room rates start at $139 for a double and in between $149 to $239 for a suite. A one-bedroom suite good enough for a full family of four, with a large living room area, seperate televisions and full kitchen clocks in at $214. Good enough for a glorious Los Angeles family vacation without going broke or into debt.

If you're looking to live like a star for a week and then live on food stamps for the rest of the year, go to the Westin Bonaventure or the Sofitel LA or any of the other upscale Los Angeles family hotels you'll find in West Hollywood and downtown LA. But if you want to make sure your family has a good time, see all the attractions, do some shopping and wining and dining, put up at decent lodgings with all the little comforts of home, and still come out of it with your annual budget intact, then you're looking at the Magic Castle Hotel & Suites.

Info: 7025 Franklin Avenue (Between La Brea & Highland) Hollywood CA 90028; (323) 851-0800; http://www.magiccastlehotel.com/

Argonaut Hotel San Francisco

One of the coolest hotels on Fisherman's Wharf, run by KimptonHotels in partnership with the Maritime National Historic Park, and located half a block from the Bay, the Argonaut (http://www.argonauthotel.com/) is the hotel to be in if you're on a tour of San Francisco with the family. Call it the perfect storm, but the Argonaut has everything going for it, if you look at it from a kid friendly angle. First there's the location which, at least for the Golden State, is second best after Anaheim.

Secondly, there's the Kimpton Kids program or bonus or whatever you prefer to call it, which makes each Kimpton hotel a welcome respite for Mom & Pop who're having difficulty remembering just why they wanted to have kids whose sole job seems to be to give parents plenty of experience in crisis management.

Kimpton Kids literally takes the kids off your hands, by providing adult supervision along with all sorts of diversions and attractions to keep the kids occupied, not to mention taking care of all the drudgery of raising children, like laundry and cleaning up the mess and cribs and strollers and stuff. Combine this with the terrific options to spend a day out in San Francisco - Shopping, dining, sight seeing, ocean cruises and simply experiencing the streets and markets - And you have all the makings of a splendid family vacation which will ooze the stress of urban living out of you like a wet sponge being squeezed.

The guest rooms have panaromic views of the Golgen Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. The decor, as befitting a Bay hotel, has a maritime streak running through the entire hotel including the 239 rooms and 13 suites, and the net effect is that the entire building looks like a giant cruise liner which has accidently run aground. The suites even have a telescope and a spa tub, and you can delude yourself into play-acting Captain Jack Sparrow.

The rooms are loaded with all the requisite modernity, including complimentary internet, coffee makers with complimentary Starbucks coffee (that's one thing you cannot escape from in this liberal oasis), Sony Wega flat screen television, on demand movies and a Nintendo for the kids, in roomspa services, gourmet treats in a stocked honor bar, hairdryer, iron & ironing board, complimentary newspaper, spa tubs with seperate and enclosed glass showers, and you have full Concierge services (they're really good, especially if you forgot to book tickets in advance), room service, laundry and valet and the hotel is pet friendly. Room rates start at $212 for a single room and onwards upto $1049 for a Specialty Bay View suite with two rooms and a jetted tub.

Dining options at the Argonaut, in addition to the excellent restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf, include the next door seafood restaurant, the Blue Mermaid Chowder House & Bar. The restaurant provides a resonably priced menu with attractive options for full family dining, along with a splendid outdoor patio seating so as to be able to enjoy the view.

Info: Argonaut Hotel :- 495 Jefferson Street at Hyde, San Francisco, CA 94109; Reservations: 866-415-0704; Hotel: 415-563-0800

Web links: San Francisco family hotels, restaurants, shopping, visitors, City Pass

Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa

As you roll to a stop in front of the brilliant blue waters of Monterey Bay, the fresh tang of the salty ocean wind hits your nostrils and your lungs fill with the freshness of the Pacific. The sound of waves breaking against the rocks below beckons you to waters edge where otters slip and slide in a messy tangle of squeaks and grunts, creating a contrast to the peace and harmony of the ocean stretching out into the horizon.

Behind you are the pleasures of Cannery Row and the wonders of the Monterey Bay Acquarium, three blocks from the hotel. Welcome to the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa, sitting on a ledge overlooking the Bay.

Once inside, the stately European architecture, the dated decor and the sheer spaciousness of the resort, dripping with luxury, make it obvious why the Monterey Plaza is regarded as one of the premier holiday destination hotels in the Golden State. One might think that with such an unmatchable location and tourist attractions nearby, the hotel would just focus on the rooms, and let the guests enjoy Cannery Row and the Bay and nearby beach towns.

But the Monterey Plaza seems to harbor no such charitable intentions, and aims to keep guests in-house as much as possible with a bevy of superlative services and amenities, including a fell featured Spa on the top floor with a sundeck and a birds-eye view of the Bay, a couple of award winning restaurants - 'The Duck Club Grill' & 'Scooter's Bistro on the Bay' - which dish out superlative cuisine, and other special events organized to keep the guests happy and busy.

The 290 guest rooms and suites, with a view of either the Bay or Cannery Row throough large draped windows, aren't so bad either. As with the structure of the building, the rooms and furnishings are awash in a distinctly 19th-century Biedermeier style, with ceiling fans and large marble baths. In-room amenities include a writing desk, coffee maker, iron & ironing board, a wet bar & stocked mini-bar & a refrigerator, and television with on command video systems. Additional itens, such as cribs and rollaway beds are available upon request. Room rates start at $240. $20 extra for a rollaway bed. Cribs are free. Children 17 and under are allowed to stay free if sharing a room with adults.

The hotel also offers specials 'Family Getaway Package' for $515 per night, which covers everything required for a full family Monterey vacation, including deluxe accommodations for two adults and two children in a suite with connecting rooms, passes for the full family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium good for two consecutive days, Breakfast in the Duck Club Grill and lunch or dinner in Schooner's Bistro, complimentary in room family movie, and waiver of the nightly $25 resort fee charged to other guests, which includes 24-hour valet parking, wireless internet access, and use of the spa facilities for guests 18 and older. Simply put, you pay for the hotel, and everything else gets taken care of. It doesn't get better than this, if you're looking for a family hotel in Monterey.

Info: 400 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940; (831) 646-1700 or (800) 334-3999

$80M Clement Monterey Hotel Coming Soon To Monterey

Brian Miller, GlobeSt.com, writes about the first new hotel to open in Monterey in 20 years - The 208 room Clement Monterey hotel will open in May across from the Monterey Bay Acquarium, at an estimated cost of $80M. Located 120 miles south of San Francisco, the hotel is rising on a historic waterfront site once occupied by the Del Mar Canning Co. The street address of the project is 750 Cannery Row. The 208 rooms include 19 suites and 189 guest rooms, most with views of Monterey Bay. All rooms have a king-size bed or two double beds, marble and granite bathrooms with soaking tubs and walk-in showers, flat-screen televisions and high-speed Internet access. Other amenities include a restaurant and bar, a full-service spa and a Kids Club.

In related news, a runaway tour bus crashed into the Monterey Bay Acquarium. The 40-foot Coach USA bus rolled downhill on David Avenue, about a block and a half away from the aquarium. Along the way it knocked down several street signs and hit the front end of a car. The bus also sideswiped an office building before ramming into the aquarium.

And stealing attention from the much ballyhoed whales and bigger fish in Monterey Bay are tiny sardines. Melissa Schilling, Santa Cruz Sentinel, has a detailed article on the re-emergence of the sardines and the benefits for both humans and the environment. Studies by researchers with the Seafood Watch of the Monterey Bay Aquarium suggest it's the topical temperatures of the water itself that dictates whether the giant herds of silver swimmers stay or swim on. Eating sardines is good for you and good for the environment -- because they simply hurdle into local shops as fresh as can be. There's no long, overnight plane ride like fish from Hawaii [mahi mahi], Chile [Chilean seabass] or Alaska [salmon]. Instead, sardines hit fresh fish counters, such as those of The Fish Lady, caught just that morning.

Pepper Tree Inn Palm Springs

The two pepper trees originally planted by Dr. Pepper at the Pepper Tree Inn, Palm Springs are no longer there, and have been replaced by new trees. Same as the Inn, which has been completely renovated and has morphed away from its original 1920 style into a Spanish colonial boutique hotel with intimate and peronsal care for the guests in each of the hotel's 32 rooms.

The Pepper Tree Inn sits sandwiched between the uptown Gallery District and downtown Palm Springs, so guests at the Inn get the best of both worlds, with antique shops, art galleries and boutiques of the uptown side competing with the trendy restaurants, Spa's and designer brand boutiques of the downtown area.

The new version of the Inn is a highly stylised and artistic rendition, with the two stained glass leaf gates at the entrance, worth a whopping $25,000 each, setting the tone for the inside. Hand painted intricate designs and shades on the walls give each room a distinct identity and the rooms themselves are divided into a range of types and sizes, with varying amenities such as jacuzzis, fireplaces and patios, along with a view of the poolside area on one side and the imposing San Jacinto mountains on the other. The shaded glow of the lighting, the solid furnishings, the ceiling fan and the artistically painted walls combine to create a certain rustic charm which you won't find in a chain hotel or big spa resorts dotting the Palm Springs area.

Best to schedule visits during weekdays, since weekends cost upwards of $30 extra over the weekday price. A standard two bedroom suite for a family of four would cost around $329 on weekdays and $359 on weekends. If you're planning for a full week, the hotel offers half a day free on a 4 day booking and 1 full day free on a 5 day booking.

For hotel offers all the usual amenities in-room, including flat screen LCD television, coffee maker, iron/ironing board and a refrigirator, all of which are tastefully tucked into the wodden structure, thus enhancing the apparent size of the rooms. There's a dining area where you can polish off muffins, cereal, fresh juice and coffee for breakfast before you set out for an exploration of Palm Springs. Half a block on either side of the Inn lie the Palm Canyon theatre and Koffi, which serves some really mind-blowing coffee, sandwiches and pastries.

Info: 622 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs CA 92262; (760) 318-9850

Web Links: Palm Springs family hotels, attractions, golf courses, spas, shopping, restaurants

Governors Inn Hotel Sacramento CA

Old Town Sacramento is probably one of the most under-rated tourist areas in the US, inspite of having a truckload of historical landmark buildings and a breathtaking natural beauty along the banks of the Sacramento river and the marshes of the Delta. This is because Sacramento is often treated like the poor cousin in a family of rich brats, struggling to divert attention from the world famous attractions of the SoCal coast, the natural splendour and wealth of the Wine Country and the vastness of Palm Springs and the desert parks.

But being the Black Sheep in California's tourist wars has its advantages. For one, less tourists mean lower prices for hotels, restaurants and services for visitors. Secondly, the staff you'll encounter in Sacramento hotels are infinitely more friendly and attentive than their overworked counterparts on the Pacific Coast. What this all means is that Sacramento, with all its history and old town attractions, virginal natural beauty unspoilt by chain resorts and high-rise condos and hordes of garbage dumping tourists, relatively cheap hotels and friendly staff, is perfect for a family vacation.

And perfect among family hotels in Sacramento is the aptly named Governors Inn Hotel, straddling the center between the State Capitol and Sacramento International Airport, minutes away from downtown Sacramento, Railroad Museum, historic Old Town and the upscale Westfield Downtown Plaza.

The hotel offers budget accomodation for the entire family with a lot of freebies thrown in - Complimentary airport & train shuttle service, complimentary breakfast, complimentary parking, complimentary high speed internet, complimentary phone calls...The hotel also offers use of a fitness center, meeting rooms with a business center equipped with audio/video equipment, outdoor swimming pool and spa, room service, housekeeping and same day laundry services. All this in addition to 'service with a smile' - A genuine smile. There's a lot more, but I think that gives you a fair idea of the value that you can get in Sacramento, for much less than what you would pay at a similar size hotel in LA or San Francisco or San Diego.

A stay here is sure to slow down your pace and maximize the benefits of a relaxing holiday poking around the historic landmarks and quaint pleasures of the Old Town and the Delta, topped off with a liberal helping of old world hospitality and tasty California cuisine.

Governor's Inn offers 133 beautifully decorated and furnished spacious rooms and suites, comfortable, oozing old world charm with a leafy view of Sacramento's windy tree-lined streets. The rooms are fully furnished and equipped with all the modern conviniences and gadgets that you might need - Coffee maker, internet access, Cable TV with free HBO, CNN and ESPN, in-room movies, hair dryer, iron/ironing board and a complimentary bowl of fresh fruits. For a family, the hotel offers a two room suitewith a seperate living room and a King size bed, a sofa bed, work desk, two television, microwave and refrigirator. All guests are offered complimentary breakfast and an afternoon managers' reception with tea, along with a free copy of the Sacramento Bee. A single room costs $93 and a double $103, per night.

Info: 210 Richards Boulevard Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 448-7224

Castle Inn & Suites Hotel Anaheim California

What the Castle Inn & Suites Hotel, Anaheim, CA, offers for the ultimate in family vacations is location. And you couldn't ask for a better location - Slam-bang across the street from Disneyland® Resort and minutes from Downtown Disney® District Disneyland® Resort.

That's a lotta Disney's in one sentence, and its all waiting for you, when you take a look out of your Castle Inn & Suites hotel room window.

You really can't ask for much more than this, but they do offer you more - Accomodation for the full family in spacious rooms with queen size double beds starting at $112 for a three night stay for a family of four, including two adults and two kids.

It works out to about $40 for an entire family per night - And you're sleeping with a view of the Disneyland® Resort. If you want to splurge, you could go for a double room family suite, which will set you back $152 for the same terms - 2 adults, 2 children, 3 nights. The family suite has two rooms, one with a single king bed, and one with two queen beds. Both rooms have television, and the room with the King Bed additionally has a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. One bathroom combined for both rooms. This is the most reasonable you can expect in terms of cheap family hotels in Anaheim, CA.

Of course, there are a few downsides to this reasonableness. For starters, there are very few add-ons or luxury amneties or services. What you see is what you get. Secondly, it may look like a fairy tale palace from the outside, but the reality inside is well...a bit different. Let's just say the hotel is a bit rundown and hasn't had a makeover since probably before Mickey was born. Meaning that you're not about to smell the fresh paint or work out exactly what color the room was when it was first painted. Like I said, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Still, the hotel does offer a heated pool, whirlpool and a children’s wading pool, a gift shop, valet laundry and coin-operated laundry facilities, complimentary morning coffee and faxing services. Bottom line - The Castle Inn & Suites hotel offers cheap accomodation for the full family in front of the Disneyland® Resort and that's just about all there is to say about it.

Info: 1734 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim, California 92802; (714) 774-8111

Handlery Union Square Hotel San Francisco

The Handlery Union Square Hotel calls itself a family hotel with a European flair. In fact, The Handlery, located at Union Square, San Francisco, between Mason and Powell St., has had its fair share of European travelers, even before it morphed into an EU friendly upscale boutique hotel with a 2002 makeover. Whether or not the English and the French and the Germans like it, the Handlery certainly is way more Mom and Kid friendly, in comparison with other family friendly hotels in San Francisco.

For starters, the hotel is situated slam bang across Macy's (for which the hotel offers discount coupons), with the Westfield San Francisco Centre, the largest shopping center on the West Coast, located minutes away, not to mention the cable car at the corner, and as such the hotel provides an ideal base for quick shopping expeditions for Moms at some of the world's finest brand name shops without having to stray too far from the kids. Also, the hotel frees up parents from daily drudgery, with same day laundry and dry cleaning services, maid service and full room service to take care of everything from in-room dining to cleaning up after a horde of precocious teenagers.

To help parents make a quick getaway without being missed, and to keep the kids occupied, the hotel provides babysitting services via the Concierge and a heated outdoor swimming pool, and a friendly multi-lingual staff well trained to provide service with a smile to customers of all ages, from frisky tiny tots to cranky grandparents. In addition if you are in San Francisco on a business trip, the hotel offers you an oppurtunity to combine a family vacation with your business, with a state-of-the-art business center, a fitness center, gift shop, an ATM and an upscale dining restaurant located next door, ideal for business lunches.

The rooms offer plenty of space, comfort and entertainment for the entire family, with two double beds, cable tv, on demand movies and video games, mini refrigirators, wi-fi internet, coffee and tea makers, hair dryers, iron/ironing board, and individual climate control settings. Rooms in the Club Section offer a few sweet extra specials for the family, including balconies with a view of the city, and overlooking the pool (all the easier to scream at kids who don't want to get out of the pool), complimentary newspaper, electric shoe polishers and a seperate vanity area with a lighted make-up mirror.

But the best is yet to come. For a standard room with two double beds and room for a family of 4, including two adults and two children, the hotel charges a nightly rate of $189 plus tax. If you go for the family getaway package special, the rate drops even further to $179, which includes one complimentary kids funpak, two complimentary ice cream sundaes at the Daily Grill Restaurant and Bar nextdoor, complimentary valet parking with 24 hour in and out privileges, two complimentary cable car passes available from the concierge, Pier 39 Funpak and Macy's Discount Coupons. If you want more than one room, the hotel offers family friendly accomodation with connecting doors between rooms.

Info: 351 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102; (800) 843-4343

California Family Travel Guide

That's what this blog is going to be about from now on - A California family travel guide. I'll be writing about all the places I visit in California, from the SoCal coast to the Sierra Nevada and Palm Springs. I'll be writing reviews of family friendly hotels in San Francisco, as a start. We'll take it from there and see where it goes.

I'll also be writing restaurant reviews and descriptions of the local attractions in each place I visit. And in between maybe some travel tips and suggestions to make your travels safe, comfortable and easy. In short, as of now, this is a travel blog.

My latest scribblings

Been busy lately, writing and researching. Not much time left over to water the plants here on blogspot. A small list of latest literary outpourings :
Update: Getting Into College, or you can go straight to the horse's mouth and find out everything bout college admissions or land up at the student zone for college & university guides. The Student Zone is an international student community and lifestyle site which features advice, university & college guides, competitions, graduate and gap year information.. And if you stumble upon any more college videos, add them to the list, or post in comments. You can find more helpful links in the online education program directory. Or here:
Distance Learning Courses - Open College Courses in complementary health therapy. Study at home for an approved & recognised OC Diploma award.
http://www.opencollege.info/
Or here: Online Universities - Search for the best online college and earn your degree online in your required subject.
End-Of-Update ( Yeah - I do know a bit about coding...)
College Admissions Explained
The Works of Ayn Rand
The Best President of U.S.Of A.
What is the internet?
Define spammer, hubber and a great hubber.
What are the best websites for news?
Internal Linking Unplugged
Protecting Your Identity from Google
Global Warming Solutions
Iraq Strategy
Drive heavy traffic to your website without spending a fortune
Rep Ron Paul (TX) - Domestic Policy
Adding Search to Your Website
Online Business Tips
How Google Adsense works
Diet Free Weight Loss
What internet browser you prefer to use?
Will Al Gore run for president in 2008?
How To Write A Hub
Book Writing and Publishing Help
Widgets 101
10 Most Useful Sites on The Internet
To see all hubs, visit my hubpages.com profile.

Feast or famine? Half the week I don't have time to focus, with multiple clients emailing and harassing me for getting the work done faster. Then they all dissappear and I'm left twiddling my thumbs and watching reality television and reading the News until the next attack. Memo to my clients - If you're co-ordinating attacks on me, could you please come in one at a time, so I can keep youall happy?

Spence Diamonds Guide to Jewelry and Allergies

I was doing some market research for a client, and I'm simply amazed by the specialization in each sector. I mean, when you talk about selling to women, it's a fine art. And totally different from selling to men. Men want something which works. When you're selling to men, the main aim is to seem genuine, in other words something which is not a con job. All my writing has been targeted for men, including most of the work I do for clients. This one job is slightly different. It's got to do with diamonds and jewelry. So I thought I'd get to know the market, and existing written matter, before I jumped in myself.

There's this one site, DiamondArticles.com, which is just what its name says - Everything about diamonds. There's even an article from Spence Diamonds about how rashes on your skin caused by jewelry are mostly related to nickel allergy.
"The bad news first: Once you’ve become sensitive to nickel, you’re likely to stay that way for the rest of your life. The good news is that over time, you may become less sensitive to nickel allergy."

Notice the format of the article. First there's an explanation that allergies are for real, and selecting the right kind of jewelry does not necessarily mean that it should be costlier than your neighbour's newest purchase. They go on to explain how contact with nickel affects your skin, and then deliver the punch line. That's the line which I quoted above - Good news and bad news. Bad news is that nickel allergy is not curable. Good news is that nickel allergy can be contained,and you can still enjoy the finest jewelry, provided you choose the ones which won't hurt your skin. And the good folks at Spence Diamonds know just what you need. So step right in and check it out today.

Any woman with a nickel allergy problem, after reading this article, will immediately pick up the phone and call the Spence Diamonds showroom, or head over to it. And I now know just how I'm supposed to write copy for selling jewelry to women.

Hubba Hubba

How would you like to be a hubber? Then you can post how to guides like Generate Static HTML Pages From A Database or Table Tricks for SEO. Course, you still need to have used or done the things you want to write a guide for. I mean, if you haven't used it, and don't plan on using it, what's the difference between static or dynamic pages and toilet paper? Ok, so one's a page and the other's a paper, but that's not the point, huh? If you don't know what to do with dymanic pages, you might as well flush 'em too.

Wanna write interesting guides? You can make a ton of money, and take pride in your creations and the depth of your wisdom. Just the small matter of learning how to do these things, but I'm sure you can get over that.

There's an ad on Craigslist where a publisher wants you to write How To guides. You write, they sell, everyone makes money - If you can write 'em.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/wrg/362865573.html

Hope you know how to flip your house.

Understand Your Credit Card

I've been doing some freelance writing for a client on debt management. Needless to say, I had to do a heck of a lot of research, just to understand all the terminology, leave alone offering expert opinions. The bewildering array of terms include debt snowballs, credit scores, APR, Prime rates, etc.

My point here is that it's necessary to understand everything about credit and credit scores, especially if you're working from home, freelance, without the backup of a formal organisation to take care of you. In the course of my research, I bumped into a very interesting credit card site, CreditorWeb.com. I spent a lot of time browsing through credit card forums and informational sites, but very few had precise and concise data to offer. But the folks at CreditorWeb seem to have developed a few really great tools, such as the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator'. This nifty tool will list the amount you save by transferring your credit balance from your current card.You enter your current card details, and it spits out a list of cards, detailing the exact amount you save for each card.

What this really means is that you don't need to pore through the small print for every card. Transferring your credit balance to a new card which saves you money is a commonly suggested method of reducing your debt. But to know exactly how much you save, and for which card, is something which a lot of us don't do, if only because arriving at the figures is a time consuming and burdensome chore. With the 'Balance Transfer Savings Calculator from CreditWeb, it's not so anymore. Checkout out this tool and other useful tools for WAHMs, such as the Credit Card Processing Comparison Tool, which compares merchant account / credit card processing plans to find the best deal for accepting credit card payments online.

Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting

Esther Schindler has a mega epic on telecommuting in CIO.com.
"Telecommuters also need to adopt techniques for working at home, both to keep their sanity and to move their career along."

True that. But I think I lost my sanity a couple of decades before I became a freelancer. Anyway...It's a pretty good read, though I ddn't make it past Step 1. Why people break up articles into multiple pages, I will never know. For one, you lose a lot of visitors ( like me ), who have no interest in further clicking. Second, you waste a heck of a lot of bandwidth, and time, reloading the subsequent pages ( seven in this case ). Why not just make it one big page. Scrolling down is easier than clicking and clicking and clicking..... How many people read all seven steps? I'm guessing very few. How many more would have scrolled down and read the entire article if it was one big page? Uh....Not many, I guess. Bulleting points and quotes and facts is all fine, but where's the humor? Without humor, a web page is a dead pond, just so much more junk. Note to Esther Schindler - Get a sense of humor. It's on sale for $9.95 on eBay. Discount sale!

In other news, The Palladium Times has an article advising telecommuters to get a postage meter??
Update : If the link doesn't work, it's probably cause they're hiding the page, being ashamed of peddling a postage meter. And here's the proof. Don't ask why I was searching for postage meters....

In other peddling, citizen journalism aggregator Groundreport.com is touting their $1000 contest for best freelance news report - which went to Desi Zavatta Musolino, from Italy, who posted a news story about a naked tourist who crawled into a fountain.

The How To Boomlet

How to write a how to about writing how to's? Don't ask. Cause I won't tell. cause I don't know. Either you got it or you don't. The reason I bring up this subject is because, as a freelance writer, I've been asked to write 'How To's' by multiple clients - Three of them, to be precise.

Goes without saying that to generate a decent amount of revenue, I'd need to write 3 how to's a day. Problem is, what the heck do I write about? I mean, there's only so much you're an expert on, and can tell other people how to do that. After that, it comes down to the fact that you learn on the job. I have, in the last couple of days, pontificated on how to toilet train your cat and how to build traffic to your website. I'm racking my brains to come up with more how to's every single day.

How To sites, like Koonji, HubPages and Spongefish ( coming soon ), are looking to cash in on the increased trend of searching online for a solution to every problem - Be it debt management, buying a house or finding the nearest and cheapest barbershop. There's only one small problem - There's an information overload, and most of it is crap. I mean, heck, I don't even have a cat, and I wrote a how to on how to toilet train my fictional cat. I say this with no shame, because I did my research, and what I wrote indeed works. But, how many others can say the same? I have no clue, and I figure that sooner or later, folks are going to realize that they're being taken for a how to ride. Meantime, though, I intend to make hay - And how.

Journalism Meltdown

Take a look at this. Journalists are twisting themselves into knots about whether or not it's acceptable to allow email interviews to replace the conventional face to face or telephone interviews.

Situation is so bad that they're doing email interviews about whether or not email interviews are acceptable. "But in the digital age, some executives and commentators are saying they will respond only by e-mail, which allows them to post the entire exchange if they feel they have been misrepresented, truncated or otherwise disrespected. And some go further, saying, You want to know what I think? Read my blog.....My interviews with Rosen, who writes the Pressthink blog, were conducted by e-mail." - Media Notes, Howard Kurtz

One thing they're missing. It's all navel gazing. It's journalists and bloggers, talking about journalists and bloggers. In short, it's all within the media. Who gives a rat's ass whether the media interview themselves by email, phone, in person or by pegion courier? If Tony Snow or Karl Rove refused to do an in person interview, asking instead for an email interview, that would be news. Note to the MSM - Please stop, before you prove yourself to be the asses people think you are.

A Woman in Charge - Carl Bernstein

As the whole world probably knows, there's two books out on the life and times of Hillary Clinton. One of them is Carl Bernstein's 'A Woman in Charge'. It's been considered conventional wisdom that these books are 'hit jobs', on Senator Clinton, out just in time to co-incide with the '08 campaign building up. But I read today an excerpt from the book. So here's the deal, from the horse's mouth.

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A Woman In Charge, by Carl Bernstein

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"A sitting first lady of the United States was going to the state of New York where she had never lived and run for the Senate — while she was in the White House. And pull[ed] it off. Every political consultant in the world would say, Preposterous, it’s goofy. Where did that come from? And she did it.

Yet her credentials—as his wife, as a lawyer, and as a political strategist uniquely positioned to salvage the Clinton epoch—were unimpeachable."

Uh...doesn't seem anywhere close to a hit job. If anything, it only adds to the Hillary aura, as a fortress of determination, ambition and importantly, success. That's the key here. Bernstein repeatedly hammers home the point that Hillary got things done, and she had the backbone to do it and stand stiff against headwinds. If anything, it'll help earn a few votes and some poll points. Admitted, this is just an excerpt, and there are others which are not so flattering, but all said and done, no hit job this. I wouldn't be surprised if Carl Bernstein ends up writing President Hillary Clinton's memoirs.

Or, and this seems more likely, failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's memoirs. On a related note, what do you think she's going to do if she loses? Where does the Clinton saga go from there? Will they do a Bill & Melinda Gates kindof thing, or will she try to emulate Teddy kennedy and become a revered figure in the Senate? Or is there another twist to the plot left? Something tells me the next twist in the plot will come from Bill, not Hillary. Keep tuned, or read the friggin book.

Sell a Book in 3 minutes

You got 3 minutes. Make your pitch. If you manage to con an editor, you're a published author. If not, you're one of the 15 million wannabe book writers in the United States. The Scotsman has chronicled the sad state of the chroniclers.

"If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes. That's what hundreds of aspiring authors were doing this week at a New York trade fair, and the odds were against them."

Hire a pro and bring him along to the fair to make the pitch. Better yet, hire a famous and published author. It's all about the art of selling. You can't write? Get a ghost writer. Your entire life is a series of non-events? Not a problem. Make it up. You can always go on Oprah and fess up to spinning a yarn or two. It's all about buzz and celebrity.

In other wannabe writer news, Listenandbeheard has an informal gathering of writers, where you're supposed to read out your scribblings and participate in burying anyone who has the nerve to read out aforementioned scribblings. Ten to one, they'll end up debating publisher rejection horror stories.

Literary Inferno

In a new twist to the information wars, Tom Wayne, Kansas, Mo., voices his protest in support of the writtem word by means of..Burning books. Article in StateNews.com has the fiery details, "Recently, when he attempted to clear out some of his collection he found he could not even give the books away. Wayne's collection contains everything from popular titles to obscure books, such as a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910.

Libraries and other used bookstores turned him down, saying they were too full. In his irritation, Wayne decided to get rid of his books by burning them.

Wayne said he burned books as a protest of society's lack of patronage for the written word."

Now this is one idea which may just catch fire. This is just begging for a discussion on the importance of books and the benefits of reading, but let's book ( no pun intended....well, maybe ) that for another day, when my writing talents are capable of producing a few more sparks ( intended ).

In other news, Solomon Rothman, writing for WebProNews.com, explains the importance, and joy, of blogging to build a community.

And, in news even closer to home, I just found out that Google has a Supplemental Index. And this blog happens to be one of the many proud participants in aforementioned project. Best way to break out? Start praying. And all this after I write a fawning super epic about the value and importance of Google to the economy and the world. Talk about gratefulness.

Telecommuting for Newbies

Having hammered a lot on telecommuting during the infancy of this blog, and then left it alone, to focus on loftier issues absolutely unrelated to freelancers and freelancing, I'm feeling the urge to re-visit the advantages of working from home.

What you get - No commuting hassles, gas bill savings, more time at home, freedom and independence. What you lose - Face time with the boss and colleagues ( invaluable for career growth ), lack of awareness of workplace changes and problems, loss of discipline ( debatable ). That just about sums it up.

Notice one factor. The pluses are all tangible and immediate, meaning you're getting the benefits today. The minuses, on the other hand all refer to problems which might crop up sometime in the future. Put another way, a telecommuter gets his cake, eats it, and might face the scary proposition of starving tomorrow. The office-goer, on the other hand, just gets to look at his cake, and appreciate that the chef is working on the cake and it's going to be bigger and better tomorrow.

The best way, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. You get to telecommute whenever possible, and report to the office whenever necessary. But this is easier said than done. There are 45 million Americans telecommuting today, and federal and state governments are scrambling to come up with legislation and rules for taking care of the arising issues. Connecticut was one of the early states to jump onboard, and remains today the trailblazer for facilitating telecommuting with it's statewide initiative Telecommutect.

In the end, though, it's going to upto your boss and you to hash out the deal. For example, you could be allowed to telecommute on Fridays and Mondays, leading to an extended weekend at home, with the office work to be done on the remaining days. There's no law which can govern such arrangements, and the undesired side-effects arising from such arrangements.

Also to be noted is whether both your boss and you trust you to have the discipline to get the work done. Second, are you so invaluable to your company, that you can afford to sit at home and be secure that no young whipper-snapper who virtually lives in the office is angling for your job, back at the office? If you can answer both questions in the affirmative, then do the right thing and help your country, save the gas bill and enjoy working at home.

Google Shrugged

• 1996 - Larry Page and Sergey Brin working on building a search technology project at Stanford University.
• 1998 - Yahoo! founder David Filo refuses to set up a company for them, and advises them to start their own search engine company, while Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim hands them $100,000 in initial funding.
• 2001 - Google's corporate journey begins with the start of profitability and the hiring of Dr. Eric Schmidt as CEO. For all intents and purposes, Eric Schmidt remains, to date, the face of Google on Wall Street.
• 2004 - Google files with the SEC for an initial public offering ( IPO ), more commonly known as going public.
• 2005 - With billions pouring in from the IPO, Google starts making strategic acquisitions including the acquisition of Urchin ( now Google Analytics ) and a $1 billion investment in AOL.
• 2006 - Even more acquisitions, including Youtube and tie-ups with eBay and MySpace.
• 2007 - Featured acquisitions include Adscape, Trendalyzer and Double-Click.

Source : Google Corporate Information

And this landscape is dotted with the acquisition and launch or re-launch of new products and services such as Google News, Google Earth, Blogger and Gmail. Today, Google has over 12,000 employees worldwide, annual revenues exceeding $10 billion and a market capitalization of around $143.5 billion.

While you digest all this information, consider the impact of Google on things, both online and offline. Silicon Valley is trembling in it's collective pants, because if some bright new spark from Standford comes along with a brilliant idea, the odds are that Google will either eat up the startup or throw it into the internet dustbin by starting a similar service. Additionally, the best and the brightest minds, from across the nation and the world, are migrating to Google, leaving everyone else to fight over the second tier of talent pool. This was, traditionally, the role occupied by Microsoft. Add to this the fight over the free flow of information with book publishers and Hollywood, the oozing of ad revenue out of newspaper publishing houses and into the waiting arms of Google's Advertising division, and last but not least, civil rights organizations worried about the privacy implications of Google's vast data vaults.

And all this, while the rest of the economy, both online and offline, tanked spectacularly. The net result is that Google had the field all to themselves, and they made the most of it. What we have here, in essence, is an island of stability, growth and innovation, surrounded on all sides by struggling monoliths and has-been's moving steadily into oblivion. This reminds me of Ayn Rand's epic - Atlas Shrugged. With so much stacked on the backs of the Google empire, what happens if Google shrugs?

It's a long story, and worth examining. If only to correct a few misconceptions about Google's outsized shoes, it's influence and it's intentions.

The best indicator of Google's influence and intentions came in early 2006, when it was disclosed that the Justice department had demanded access to the databases of the major search engines. I have nothing much to say about the merits of the data request. Make note of two factors here. Firstly, that Google was the only one who refused, and was willing to go to court. Second, had it not been for this bit of backbone from Google, no one would have known about the whole thing. Which doesn't mean that you can sleep easy after handing over all your information to Google - But it is indicative of how responsible the company is, and more importantly, that Google is capable of standing upto, and facing down, powerful forces.

There is a lot of truth to the fear in Silicon Valley that Google is a big bully now, and all startups need to stay as far away as possible, to avoid being squashed. Question is, is Google filling the void, or is it just raking in the ad revenue? Their myriad research projects and idea incubators, where Google employees are given wide latitude, suggest that it's not all about money, and the next big thing just might hatch out of Google labs. There's room for debate here, but it's early days yet.

Then there's the ad revenue being sucked out of print publishers and into Google's ad services. The simple fact is that most print publishers are hopelessly out of date, as far as online news is concerned. If they have nimble websites, which appeal to users more than online portals and blogs, they could tranfer their revenue from print to the web, keeping it inhouse, instead of losing ad revenue to other online sources. As for the book publishers and Hollywood whining aout copyrights, it's a losing battle for them, as the recent Digg DVD DRM episode showed. Information on the internet cannot be hidden behind a lock and key, and the sooner they realise that, the better.

If you put together Google's ( attempted ) free wireless project for San Francisco with the net neutrality debate, you realise that Google is light years ahead, in terms of predicting the future, planning for it, and nudging others in the right direction.

Nuff said. The point here is that change is a reality of life. The old way, with Microsoft and General Motors, is on it's way out. Google is the today. And there'll be someone else tomorrow. I'm thankful to Google, for being a responsible and not-so-evil today. For your sake, and mine, let's hope that we don't collectively cause Google to shrug, at least until the next Google comes along.

Reference Links:-

Explore Google - Listing of Google Apps, Services and Products
The anatomy of a large scale hypertextual web search engine
IPO / The boy wonders not all googly-eyed ... well, not yet
Google Inc. SEC filings - Yahoo! Finance

The Penguins Are Coming!

This is no joke. I firmly believe that once an idea takes hold, it's going to flourish, no matter what. This particular mess started with Penguin books launching their colloborative book project "A Million Penguins." More on this bunch of penguins later, but today I stumbled onto another similar project in the works - A Writers Year. Guess what? Both projects are based in the United Kingdom.

While it would give me infinite pleasure to recount the magnificient online projects unrolled by the British ( Operation Clark County comes to mind ), it would be unfair to declare the penguin and similar episodes a disaster at this early stage. I mean, just the fact that thousands ( if not a million ) people, have co-written the book, will generate a lot of buzz. And in today's buzz-oriented world, the one with the most buzz hogs the NYT best seller list. Point is, what's the future after the novelty wears off? If there's a hundred similar projects going on, and a dozen new collaborative books out every month, who's going to interested? End of the day, the books will sell based on the content. So, it might be fair to analyze if a wiki-book will be better than a book by a single author, all other factors being the same.

The obvious advantages -
Abundance of talent and ideas, and the best will remain, while run-of-the-mill passages will be stricken out by informed writers.
Speed - If enough people are working on it, and they get the hang of it, an army of writers could churn out a book in a mtter of days. They could flood the market with their books, and hope for the best.
Money - Pretty soon, someone is going to start making money out of this, and then it'll be time for all the would-be penguins to jump in and demand their slice of the igloo.
The Blog effect - Today, it's difficult to differentiate between readers and writers of blogs, and generally speaking, they're one and the same. It's likely that the penguin thing is going to end up the same, with readers, book buyers and writers all ending up hopelessly mixed.

Anyway, let's hope the book world is not invaded by an army of penguins, and for once, the well-meaning British didn't screw up the works.

Book Review - The Assault On Reason - Al Gore

The Assault On Reason, by Al Gore

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For the record, I haven't read the book - Yet. What I have read are a series of reviews of the book and the possible, but not-likely, Presidential bid of former VP Al Gore. So, without further ado, I'll give you the links to the reviews, and selected quotes from the reviews. Followed, of course, by own critical analysis of the situation and the book.

WashingtonPost - E.J. Dionne - Free to be Al Gore
Gore's book, "The Assault on Reason," to be released today, is about "the strangeness of our public discourse" as mediated through television. He thinks the Internet may revive the art of reasoned argument that has been lost in our obsessions with "Britney and KFed, and Lindsay and Paris and Nicole."

New York times - Michiko Kakutani - The Assault On Reason
As for his conviction that the Internet can help re-establish “an open communications environment in which the conversation of democracy can flourish,” it plays down the more troubling aspects of the Web, like its promotion of rumor and misinformation alongside real information, and its tendency to fuel polarizing, partisan warfare.

Boston Globe - Jim Sleeper - Gore's 'Assault' makes his case for an open market of ideas
He notes that Internet openness is reviving the mental stimulation of reading and writing, and its interactivity is reviving Revolutionary-era pamphleteering, generating new "committees of correspondence" and strengthening a "meritocracy of ideas" instead of letting conglomerates corner the "marketplace of ideas."

You can read the growing list of reviews here.

Everyone has something to see and say in the book. The anti-war, anti-Bush crowd are hailing it as truth to power. MSM critics are hailing it as a kick in the butt for the media's performance in the past 6 years. Political junkies see it as Gore's return to politics. Me, I see it as one more Gore prophecy - The importance of the internet in politics. As for Gore, this is one smart cookie. He's got just about everyone, except for President Bush, eating out of his hands. That said, there's one thing neither Gore nor his army of supporters can change - He's not in the White House, and he's never going to be.

The Sound of Quality

I've been doing some research for a client the last couple of days. I sent him a file, with my findings yesterday night. I come back in the morning, and I see a reply from him. See for yourself - "I am sending another $50 to you via paypal. Based on the quality of research you're providing me, I would be more than happy to pay more than the contractual amount..."

And this after he paid me $50 yesterday. I tell you true, what makes me jump like Tom Cruise is not the fact that he sent the money. It's the fact that he sent it wiithout my having to ask, plus he's willing to pay even more now for further research than the amount agreed on.

End Note : Quality matters. I broke my head for a couple of days over a subject I knew squat about, and kept banging until I came up with stuff that provides value for money. I could have sent sub-standard work, and kept what he owed me. But I didn't. And that proves two things:-
1. That talent, hard work and perfection gets rewarded, even in this sick internet world of instant gratification and overnight hustlers.
2. I'm good.

ByGosch

Take on editor Ann Gosch, who runs ByGosch editorial services in the News Tribune.

"I didn’t even know enough about the subject to know what questions to ask to learn about it," she said.

At that moment, Ann Gosch the freelance writer thought maybe she should become Ann Gosch the freelance editor.

See Editors vs. Writers

"Besides, everyone who puts words on paper can use an editr, right?"

Guess this is one writer who sorely needs an editr ( so do I ).

In other news, if you have great voice and nothing much else, you might want to read "If They Mention Voice-Over Work, It's Just All Talk" by Howard Leff in the LA Times

And Sean Stubblefield, writing for the Student Operated Press, has this to say:-

"And, unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of people seeking freelance writers don’t really comprehend the intricacies of being a writer...or how gifted a writer you may be, a real writer can’t be expected to instantly churn out meaningful or useable material on command. A freelance writer can’t make a living with these kinds of jobs."

Sean, find a new career or grow up. The reason people hire writers is because they don't know squat about writing or writers. Nuff said.

Bosses are for suckers

James Braly, writing for Marketplace, CA has a really, really interesting take on freelancing vs. a traditional job. He says that, um...the risk lies not in freelancing, but in sticking to an office job. He has a point. Judge for yourself from the quotes or read the full article. It's worth a read.

"Risky?" asks the tycoon's wife, her disdainful eyes strangely incongruous above her lovely, placid cheeks. Evidently the plastic surgeon cut her facial muscles. "How is a job risky?"

"Someone with a boss," I say, "must answer to that one person, who could end their career, destroy their lifestyle, on a whim. Tomorrow."

Absolutely true. But it takes an extraordinary amount of self-confidence ( or stupidity ) to implement this logic.

On a side note, it's little references like the part about the placid cheeks and plastic surgeons that make an article interesting. Fact, figures and analysis is just fine. But what makes an article really interesting is the little herbs and spices the writer throws in.

A peek inside the pages of a writer's mind

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How I Write : The Secret Lives of Authors - Edited by Dan Crowe

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The Chicago Sun Times has a book review for 'How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors'.

"Most writers are infinitely nosy about how other writers go about their business -- how they summon their muse and descend into their inner sanctum. Transitioning from this world of barking dogs and blasting car stereos to a terrain of precise words and intriguing plots is perhaps the most difficult process of writing"

Navel gazing by any other name - Writers writing about how they write and how they seek inspiration is welcome. But looking at the kind of teddy bear they need to hold in order to write is stretching things a bit too far. I mean, well...

Lionel Shriver keeps a lamb curio she named "Clippity" on her bookcase to remind her "to eschew fancy-schmancy character names." Next to Clippity is a tiny, cloaked shaman statue that looks like a Ku Klux Klan member. This, she says, is for penitence -- "for every time I craft a crap sentence."

Maybe it would work better if she added a new cloaked shaman statue every time she churns out crap. An overflowing bookcase full of tiny cloaked shamans would be a magnificient inspiration to write beautiful prose.