DAILY VIOLET

Making media while mobile is at the heart of who I am. It wasn’t always this simple, and I’m down to one phone. I used to have a minimum of two phones plus a point-and-shoot that did HD video - plus all the proprietary cords and chargers. This is the lightest I’ve ever been. Here’s what I have in my purse:

MacBook Air 11” Core Duo

Apple charger

Samsung Galazy S 4G, 5MP camera onboard (Sprint; I’m ready for a new phone though)

Samsung 4G LTE Verizon hotspot (Google I/O gift; 3 free months)

Kensington Pocket Battery for Smartphones (micro, mini and regular USB, 3.5 hours)

Kindle 3G

Kindle charger (also charges the phone, the Verizon hotspot and the Kensington battery)

Everything is small and light. If I’m going to try for good photos or video, I’ll bring my Lumix DMC LX5 (wide-angle, low-light processing, HD video) and an extra battery.

If you have tech travel down to a science, take a photo and show me. I really fetishize this!

They’ve asked me to autograph a cocktail napkin to frame and put in the Scandal Bar. Love this hotel. Staying here would make a great romantic/sexy travel article - especially timely, as they have a “Governor’s Suite.” The hotel is two blocks from the California state capitol. It’s definitely a writers’s and lover’s (and scandal-seeker’s) hotel.

(There are sex toys in the gift box! Two mini vibes, condoms, lube, restraints and other goodies!)

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

My heart still hurts, but I have 20 shiny new ones now. They cheer up my keyboards.

I don’t share most of my gifts or review requests because I won’t send traffic to companies just because they send me free stuff. That said, this fucking WINS. I don’t know them, but I want to now. They sent me ponies and princess crowns and a lovely card - AND a nice sex toy!

Dildooftheday.com - I think I love you!

Also, the person that came up with Dildo Of The Day - it seems to be a Groupon for sex toys - is brilliant.

Naturally, I clicked ‘translate’ to see what language Firefox thinks I speak now. It translated the page into Spanish. Translating the page back to what Firefox thinks is English was even more confusing.

I rate this experience: Two (2) Que Cats.

In all seriousness: I was really moved by what it took to write this post by my colleague, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. A lot of tech writers on different journalism discussion lists felt very much the same way. I hope my artwork doesn’t diminish Steven’s sentiment. I hope it does the opposite.

The Tech Press: We’re Not All Arrington Scum
—Practical Technology, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Michael Arrington continues to try to con everyone, including possibly himself, into thinking he does technology journalism. Normally, I ignore the scum of the technology press. Life is too short. Every field has its fakes, its liars and its prostitutes, but every now and again someone, such as Arrington, falls to the bottom and makes such a splash along the way, that I can’t ignore him. Arrington, for those of who don’t know him, is the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a tech “news” site now owned by AOL. TechCrunch and Arrington are famous gossip-mongers—the National Enquirer if you would—of technology journalism. That’s fine by me. I’m not interested in covering MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe supposed romance with Paris Hilton. More power to you if that’s what floats your boat. After all, there are more readers for that than the kind of things, such as Linux and networking, that I cover.

But, here’s the difference between yours truly, and everyone I know and respect in technology journalism and a Michael Arrington (…READ MORE)