It’s currently 6pm on March 27th. I’m not exactly sure how many days ago I left Austin, TX and the 2011 South by Southwest Festival. I am sitting in the 35th floor of a Chicago high-rise and drinking water. A cliche for sitting in a Chicago high-rise anywhere above floors 27-30 (depending on the location of the building in correlation to the nearest Yolk breakfast spot) would most definitely be that the sitter would be armed with much more than water. In a way, I am.

This specific glass of water is from the tap just a few feet behind me. Two people (a doorman, Rob—also a maintenance man whose name I didn’t catch) that work in this building have informed me that the pipes and water pump interfaces have been changed and retrofitted with new technology that will make the building operate more efficiently. As a direct cause, the water has been injected with some kind of particle composition that gives it the distinct smell of sulfur and particle board. This specific glass of water shares the same fate. I won’t comment on the taste.

I’ve treated this blog poorly.

Around 10 or more times a year, I give guest lectures in the college world (mostly in journalism courses) where I talk about the internet and business. I talk about ideas, how to execute them, and why you would even want to do something like that. One of my main talking points, no matter what the aspiration of the questioner/listener…you must push product.