HellaFrank

If Twitter has taught me anything over the past couple of years, it’s that most things can be said in 140 characters. And if they can’t, they can be said in just a little more than that (like, 140 words). It’s a great exercise in brevity.

So, HellaFrank is back, and this time, it’s to complete un-Twitterable thoughts and ideas that just don’t fit into 140 characters.

HellaFrank blogposts will be short and to the point. Much like this post.

I’m really excited about this resurrection of HellaFrank, and being in business school has given me endless things to think and write about. I hope you get as much out of it as I do.

HellaFrank is doing some construction and will be back soon with some brand new style…

If you are reading this, you are a loyal HellaFrank reader and I thank you for that. The Giants won the Super Bowl yesterday and NY was a pretty crazy place to be for a couple hours… well, crazier than usual, I should say.

The real reason for this post is to say that I am going to do some thinking about what I want to write about on this blog. Something more specific, interesting and inspiring to me (and you!). Now that I have been in New York for almost 5 months, talking about my move here is no longer really relevant. I thought about just writing about New York in general, but while I freakin’ love this place, that’s not a topic that will motivate me to write. Maybe my trip to Cabo with the family in a couple weeks will give me some time to think… Or not. Suggestions and ideas are definitely welcome, so leave a comment if you have one.

In the meantime, check back every now and then to see if I’ve suddenly been inspired by something, otherwise, this is HellaFrank signing off temporarily. Yes, I’ll repeat — TEMPORARILY!!!!!!

I went to downtown New York for the first time last week for a meeting and could not stop thinking that I felt like I was in a movie set. It all seemed very surreal for some reason. No cars, old buildings and churches, small winding narrow streets, some of them cobblestones, the New York Stock Exchange and the actual “Wall Street.” These pictures don’t do it justice, but you get the point.

Quite a few people have asked me about the name of this blog, HellaFrank. What does it mean? Are you trying to be funny? Why would you call it something like that? Some questions, obviously kinder in tone and intention than others.

To be honest, one of the LaunchSquad partners, Brett Weiner (biggest URL squatter I know, the guy has got to own at least 50), came up with the name a few days before I left — there were many others considered, Frankishly coming in a close second, but HellaFrank won because I liked it and more importantly, the URL was still available.

The word Hella has been in my vocabulary for a very long time — I’m thinking middle school at least. At one point it may have been a word used by a large part of the country, but it’s mainly known as a Northern California term. Urban Dictionary actually says that the word Hella originated in Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. Now, I’m not claiming to be from “the HP,” in fact I think I’ve only ever been through it to get to Candlestick Park (GreenAmy worked there!), but it originated in San Francisco and has stuck to this day.

Southern Californians make fun of it, but seriously, they use the word “bra” (like, “bro”) to address their friends (i.e. “Hey bra’ the waves were EPIC today”), so give me a freakin’ break. I miss San Diego less and less everyday.

In any case, it’s probably a word I won’t use here in New York, but I thought it was a nice way of representing a little Nor-Cal in my bi-coastal blog’s name. And besides my newly engaged sister who did 5 years of marketing for Apple had this to say about it:

“I LOVE the name. I’d try to steal it, but guess I won’t be a Frank much longer.”

I’ll take that as a nice stamp of approval… Sister knows best.

This is not what a typical HellaFrank blogpost will look like, but I had to write something about it…

The people at GoDaddy are marketing geniuses… I’m sure everyone remembers their super bowl ads and all of the controversy they created. Well, the genius doesn’t stop there. When I set up the domain name hellafrank.com, I needed to figure out how to forward that URL to this blog. I went on their site to look for the customer support number (open 24/7, by the way) and found this screen:

The website tells you exactly how long the wait-time is. This is probably sooo easy to do, but definitely the first time I’ve ever seen it. Simply genius.

Welcome to HellaFrank! I’m going to document my move to New York from San Francisco and everything thereafter on this blog. Pictures, videos and other fun stuff to keep family, friends and anyone else who’s interested up to date on what’s going on in the Big Apple… Comments are welcome and encouraged, and if you ever come and visit, you may just get a post on HellaFrank!