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.
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.
In the words of a dear friend, ‘no one is the bad guy in the story of their own life.’ In the words of Santa Fe resident, George R. R. Martin, ‘no one is the villain in their own story.’ Aristotle said, ‘because of pleasure we do bad things and for fear of pain we avoid noble ones.’
Weelllll, looks like the second spraying will happen Monday…
Death to the Tussocks!! We shall prevail!
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;…. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man. As modest stillness and humility.”
(WS H5 A3S1)
