Someone wrote this introduction for a talk I was giving. It should have started with the last bit. “She travel hacks her way around the world when she’s not unceremoniously telling start-ups why they will fail to scale.”
Elizabeth Houck is an innovative senior marketing professional in hardware and software Project Management, skunkworks R & D, go-to-market wizardry. Before entering technology in 1995, Ms. Houck worked in television and film with CBS, NBC, Warner Bros., Castle Rock, Viacom, Paramount, and Harpo Productions. Aging parents returned her to Silicon Valley where she worked on content streaming and cloud computing with Philips and Sun Microsystems. Ms. Houck is Principal of Blue Egg Partners and provides consulting services in cross-functional team leadership, process evolution and management, enabling her clients to bring new products and services to market on plan. Ms. Houck holds a BCS, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, UC Berkeley’s, Haas School of Business – Product Management Certification, member of the Project Management Institute and speaker on process management and travel hacking.
A second cousin is putting together a bit about the family.
Things I’m good at – Making messes
Things I’ve done – Traveled to 67 countries; goal of 100+
Have a thing for islands in the middle of nowhere including Easter Island, Cuba, Bali, Tasmania…
Danced with Gene Kelly (so memorable)
Been to the Oscars, Emmys, and Cannes FF
Worked on the precursors of Siri and Netflix
Landed my mom a credited role in a Carl Reiner film.
Worked with Rob Reiner et al, at Castle Rock in TV Development (we had a little show called Seinfeld and a bunch of no-go pilots)
Have been in 3 major earthquakes (9.2, 7.1, 5.9)
3 superbowls (one for fun, one for work, one I crashed!) 1 World Series (Giants lost)
Worked on a bunch of tv shows and a couple of films.Edited scripts for Harpo Productions (Oprah Winfrey)
Attended Midsummer Night’s Dream at Playboy Mansion West 2x
Got stranded in dead end tunnel in Belgium Metro
Lunched with Dick Clark at his home in Malibu, dined with Quincy Jones at his house in Bel Air
Worked with MacArthur Genius Award winner Dr. Stephen Schneider on a tv show about climate change (was with Steve in NOLA when he was notified of his win…)
Got clocked skiing at 63mph in 2020
Did one year in National Ski Patrol – both my knees and I survived.
Barely Survived building a house in Santa Fe
Dined at Rick’s Place in CasablancaElection
Poll Worker in 5 elections Volunteered over 1000 hours with various organizations
Decent cook – (my soufflés are legendary)
Have flown close to 2 million miles
Hiked the Powell trail Nanokweap in/out of Grand Canyon at Marble Canyon
Once checked-in for a flight to Narita only to find out my ticket was to Nagoya (blonde moment) but enjoyed the trip anyway! Enjoyed Fu No Yu – View Bath at the Airport
Summited Half Dome in 2010 was scheduled again in 2020 but pandemic…
Summited Mt. Fuji
Have given talks on travel hacking and did a month-long international trip on points!
Jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 10K ft.
Spent a summer river rafting
Survived a pandemic – so far
Really want to go to Antartica, Africa, and Argentina; have been to Andorra, Austria, Australia, Antigua…
One of the last projects I worked on in Hollywood was called “The Fire Next Time” Filmed in 1991 it took place in 2017 – around the “tipping point.”
Worked on this project from inception research to filming for the Executive Producer / Writer (who got fired 1/2 way thru filming, so I never appear in the credits.)
In the years of research I did with the likes of Dr. Stephen Schneider, NOAA, NCAR, and NASA, they all agreed on one thing – there are too many polluting people on earth. Fuck fosses fuels, fuck the people who have sacrificed the planet for money. We knew better and did nothing.
Speaking of morons, wtaf is Trump doing to solve this pandemic in the US? Not enough, not nearly enough. Speaking of Oxymorons, what is your favorite? Plastic Glasses? Jumbo Shrimp? Relative Stranger? Family Vacation?
I miss traveling, I kinda miss travel planning, I totally miss visiting new places. Can’t wait to travel again…
So, what do you think? Barbados for a year? Immigrate to Spain? Portugal?
Decades ago, living in Los Angeles, on my way to rehearsal of my first TV show, I ran into ‘Lloyd’ and his fiance Alice. I hadn’t seen them since college a few years before; we exchanged numbers. After the show aired I started getting obscene phone calls between midnight and 1AM. This went on for months. A trace was put on my phone after I filed a police report. The offending caller was arrested; the Police asked me if I knew Lloyd – my old classmate. Lloyd called me to tell me it wasn’t him – his ‘guest’ from Canada had been my caller. I immediately recognized his voice as that which tormented me for months. His trying to convince me it wasn’t him was witness tampering; a felony. Had my first full blown panic attack, ended up in emergency thinking I was having a stroke. He called me from the San Fernando Valley – from area code 818 to 213; every time he called it showed up on his phone bill.
He had no choice but to plead. Probation, fine, public service, and counseling. I got panic attacks. Today I found him on Facebook, blocked him.
The most important thing happening in the world is climate change. I knew this back in the late ’80’s, I know it now. The tipping point happened; expect climate acceleration. We will see climate migration and dissolution of communities, industries, livelyhoods. The Gaia Theory as interpreted by Elizabeth: The Earth will kill what is killing it.
We knew better, and we failed. Homo Sapiens will not outlast Neanderthal time on earth.
My love affair, and now breakup, with cookbooks is devastating. I am crying while purging my cookbooks –
literally the recipe of my life. Hard media vs. memories.
So my first beef with escape Lounge is that ‘escape’ is lower case, and Lounge is uppercase. You are not cool, escape Lounge; fire your marketing people now. right Now.
Second is that if you are going to promote top of the line beverages, don’t serve bottom of the barrel house brands and then upcharge for it when customers pay $45 bucks to get in.
Which brings me to lousy ‘pretty’ food and mediocre service.
But hey, good soft seating and staff warmed the screaming baby’s bottle.
I know there is a connection to AMEX Platinum lounges, but this is a disaster. Save your $45 bucks; go to an airport table-serve, sit-down restaurant, grab a corner table, food, drink, and wifi. Unless, you want to drink a lot of free cheap liquor.
The Good:
Convenient to Southwest Gates even though it’s in an adjacent terminal.
