My Blogs Crossed 70,000 Visits

And now for another milestone.  My blogs have garnered 70,000 visits so far. 

Don't I look happy?   :)

A New High

This Monday, November 24, my blogs hit a  new milestone - 1,240 visits.  Woohoo! 

Normally, between them, my blogs get around 500 visits/day, so this is a nice new rise.

This occasion calls for a random photo - how about one from Kosmix' 2007 holiday party.  Nagraj and Sailesh are flanking me.

New Milestone For My Blogs - 50,000 Visits

On Tuesday this week, my blogs passed 50,000 visits.  Sweet! 

The blogs, of course, are:

• The serious blog - all about Tech, Startups, Revenue
• The all-purpose, main blog
• Blog on cars - one of my passions
• Blog about Travel topics, including not just destinations, but also food, wine, etc.
• The older, retired Autos blog

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed 550 times. 

From Jodi's Blog - My Top 5 Tuna Steak Destinations

Jodi Olson, Kosmix's new head of Public Relations, likes to interview folks for their top 5 lists for her blog.  This week, she put up my list - and quite an arbitrary one it is!  I am very flattered.   Her blog is here, and I have also reproduced the post below. 

Vikram Singh's Top Five List of Cities to Eat Great Tuna Steak

Blogger and tuna steak connoisseur Vikram Singh is the author of Information Overload.
1. Poughkeepsie, New York: The Hilton in Poughkeepsie has a restaurant that serves really, really good Ahi tuna steaks. They pan-sear it, and the crust on the outside is made with seeds or something that’s just amazing. The portions are small—you’ll probably have to order two. I recommend following the meal with the house bread pudding. It goes really well with the tuna for some reason.
2. Boulder, Colorado: You can get great Ahi tuna steaks in Boulder. Order it rare there. Most places have really good wasabi- based sauces to go with the steak, and they don’t muck about with vegetables. St. Jillian’s Hotel in Boulder has a particularly good tuna steak—both for a starter and a main dish.
3. Chicago, Illinois: Ruth's Chris steakhouse in Chicago has the best Ahi tuna steaks compared to any other Ruth's Chris. I wouldn’t use any sauce because their fish has a lot of taste on its own, and they don’t make a good wasabi sauce.
4. Mountain View, CA: The Cantankerous Fish on Castro Street. This is the only salad entry in this whole selection. Their Ahi salad is really good, and they have a really good miso sauce with it. Here’s what you do: ask for two extra helpings of the miso sauce, so that you have three in total, and then ask for two separate helpings of the wasabi cream sauce, so you can try the steak two different ways. The dish comes with a lot of vegetables. Very tasty.
5. New York, New York: Most places in New York city that are mid- to upscale have really good Ahi. They cut it too thin and too small to be considered a steak—it’s more like slices of fish. Because of that, you have more surfaces exposed for taste, which makes up for the smaller portion size. I especially like the Ahi in Anthony Bourdain’s restaurants.

Virgin America - 2 Quibbles

Ok, so I do like Virgin America.  A lot.  Based on only 4 flights so far (between San Francisco SFO and New York JFK, and San Francisco SFO and Las Vegas' McCarran Airport - LAS)

But I have a couple of minor issues.  First of all, they've started charging $2 for headsets.  With all the great programming (and not to mention the original Doom video game!), this is idiotic.  Just add $2 to your tickets, and stop asking for handouts!   Some people will use their own earphones, some will read a book or do something else... and some, like me, will get just a little pissed off.

Second - no free food.  Pay for your food.  I guess I shouldn't even expect this any more, even on 6 hour flights.  But it does irk me just a little bit.... I expect more from Virgin America.

Flying with Virgin America's CFO

This morning, while on my nth flight this year back from New York, I found out I was sitting next to Bob Dana, Virgin America's CFO! 

What's quite interesting is that we were sitting in the economy class.  Granted I feel Virgin America's economy class is better than almost all other US airlines, this was still quite funny.  Turns out Virgin has their executives travel on economy.  They do get one perk - the exit row.  (apparently they fly business/ first when they are on Virgin Atlantic, which is good). 

I am impressed.  This was a 6 hour flight, and the CFO was sitting in the aisle seat in economy, typing on his laptop, with his Bose headset on his head in between friendly stops by the airline stewards and stewardesses.  And Bob's an ex investment banker.... so he is probably used to the good things in life.

Go Virgin!

Here's Bob in a presentation outlining Virgin America, including their mission statement.

Finally, some Page Rank for my Tech blog!

My Tech/ Startups related blog finally has some Page Rank.  It is at PR = 2 right now.  That should help me show up higher in Google searches.