Snapped this shot this afternoon flying back from SF to LA. The world never ceases to amaze.

Heading up to SF tomorrow morning at 6:30am for a morning pitch and then it’s right back to LA. I love San Francisco and I love the fog. It’s pretty much my home town. I wish I could stay long enough to see my folks, eat some tacos and freeze my ass off in August. This postcard is from the fabulous Legends of America site.

Birthday boy, John Moshay, on his way to Moto Club di Santa monice

Coffee with Edward Boatman founder of The Noun Project (great iPhone case)

Checking out Media Temple - host of June LosAngeles/CreativeMornings

The rollercoaster at the Santa Monica Pier

The ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier

Silverlake at dusk

Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon

A rainy (no, really) morning in Portland, Oregon

Venice Beach Skatepark

Getting ready for boxing class at Strong Sports

If you’re using instagram look for me – jonsetzen. If you’re not, well, you really should be.

I spent the better part of Memorial Day Weekend at this beautiful Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara. I can’t recommend it enough — beautiful views, nice pools, good food, comfortable beds, golf carts to drive your ass around and at night there are more stars around than I’ve seen in years. Nice work Bacara.

I spent a few days in Chicago last week as a few of us from Something Massive were out there for work. I hadn’t been to Chicago in about seven years and, to keep with my former experiences in Chicago, I was there in the middle of Winter. We left 78º weather in LA and arrived into a light snowstorm and a balmy 24º. It was nice being back in a city. Los Angeles, while a massive metropolis, just doesn’t feel like a city in a way that NYC or Chicago does. I think it’s actually one of the things I’ve started to really like about LA. Regardless, it was nice to be back on a subway and taking cabs, being smack in the middle of downtown. We stayed at the ridiculously amazing Elysian Hotel. It’s probably one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at (I don’t get out much) complete with excellent restaurants and a swanky bar. HIghly recommended. We had a great meal at a place called Publican which is famous (in my memory anyway) for putting fried eggs on top of french fries. All in all, a fun and productive few days. I got my taste of Winter I had been missing and was so happy to leave my old, ratty parka in a the Clothes for the Homeless bin in our clients’ lobby. No need for that sort of coverage out here in Los Angeles.

Chris Gonya and Chris Gibbin

I spent about 24 hours in Vegas last week with my boss (and good friend) Chris Gibbin. We drove out for CES 2011. The show was a nightmare – the complete personification of the Windows Operating system. Badly organized, unclear, lots of unnecessary bullshit, gadgets that didn’t really work or look that cool and crowded. Vegas itself was a lot of fun. I got to see my old pal Chris Gonya who recently relocated to Vegas with his wife. Gibbin and I had an amazing meal at Mix which is one of the more insane looking restaurants I have ever been too. We spent some time at The Cosmopolitan which I guess is new casino. Best Coast happened to be playing a weird sort of lounge act show at a sports bar in the middle of that casino. It was really quite amazing. The drive home was long. I’d fly next time, however, getting to drive through the desert is a fun experience.

I just got back from a few days in Denver. We were there for work and didn’t get to see a ton of the city, but I snapped a few pics with the instagram app. Denver seems decent. I liked that fresh mountain air and it was nice to see the leaves changing. I was super impressed with their Denver Bike Sharing program which has little bike depots all over town. We also had an amazing meal at Cholon highlighted by one of the best whiskey cocktails around – The Old Saigon. Highly recommended if you happen to be in Denver.

We’re (Something Massive) working on an amazing new cycling-related project so I was lucky enough to go to Interbike in Vegas this past week. We pretty much closed it down on Wednesday night as we were prepping for a press conference, graphics presentation on Thursday. There was no shortage of inspiring design at the convention, but at the top of the list was this beautiful and simple video by the folks from Ergon. Check it out below:

ERGON Urban Cycling from ergon on Vimeo.

I just got back from spending an amazing week in Buenos Aires with John and Misti from the Something Massive LA office. I’d put Buenos Aires in the top 5 of places I have ever visited.  You can see another 50 photos or so on my Flickr page. I took all of these with my lovely little Panasonic Lumix – the only digital camera I’ve ever kept for more than a year.

photo by Michael Penn for the NY Times

I love the 36 Hours In… series from the New York Times. It may be my favorite thing about the paper and the galleries of images that accompany them are equally as brilliant. Case in point, the image above makes me want to head up North to Alaska. Read the whole story here.