Category Archives: Personal

Johnny Mnemonic

Scary realization: more and more often, I’m finding I have no useful recollection of the details of conversations I’ve had in the recent past. You might have sat with me in a meeting last week, say, and we may have come to perfectly lucid agreements on what steps we’d take next to advance whatever project was at hand. But lately the chances are increasingly good that when you ask me about them next, those action items will have escaped me. I’ll probably recall that we spent some time in a meeting together, sure. And maybe even that we had arrived at some mutual understanding, too. But little else.

This is really inconvenient, not to mention frustrating. At first I thought this condition was a symptom of the sheer number of projects I deal with each day (lots), but more and more I worry it’s just a function of getting along in my years. Office life is making me old.

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Not by Southwest

Unfortunately, I have bad news for the many friends I was hoping to see at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin: I won’t be attending this year. Not that my three-year attendance streak was much to brag about, but I was really looking forward to showing up there for a fourth year. In spite of my criticisms about last year’s show, I still had a great time, learned a lot and left Austin wanting to come back.

However, I have pretty good reasons for why I had to cancel. First, I’m heading to San Francisco in mid-March for a business trip. At the end of my trip, I’m going to take my eleven year old nephew with me for a trip to Paris to see my dad. It’ll be his first trip abroad, which is exciting for him and exciting for me, too. We’ll be there for a week at the end of March, so if you have any recommendations on how to entertain a pre-teen in the City of Lights (or its environs), please let me know.

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New Year, New Notebook

Wasn’t it great how this year — and last year, I should say — Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both fell on Tuesdays? It made for a particularly quiet holiday season, at least at the office. And today, first day back at work, it’s a bit of a treat to remember that it’s just a three-day workweek — heck tomorrow’s Thursday, already.

All of that time off, both from work and, yes, from this blog, was exactly what I craved. I just needed the month of December, between my traveling and the holidays, to take it easy and spend time with Mister President. This morning when I got to the office, I felt more rested and recuperated than I thought I would, though there’s about a million things I’m already behind on for 2008.

Still, I’m feeling pretty positive about this year. Someone asked me in the elevator today if I thought the new year would be a good one, and somewhat unexpectedly, I said, “It’s going to be great!” I don’t know why I said that exactly, but it just sort of jumped out. And then I thought to myself, wow, it’s kind of frightening how much of an optimist I’ve become.

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From My Left Feet to the Left Bank

I’m a little burnt out on blogging, so forgive me folks for having been somewhat absent here over the past few weeks. Fear not; I fully intend to regain my mojo before too long. In the meantime, though, I’m trying to get through December’s litany of social distractions: the holiday season, for one, and just a little bit more travel before the calendar’s done, too.

If you’re also coping with the former, and if you’re in New York City, what better way to ease yourself through the December craziness than by spending it with a passel of your peers at AIGA New York’s Annual Holiday Party? Last year’s was a bit of a mob scene, but this year we’re upping the ante: dancing, a bigger, more spectacular venue, dancing, an auction of design goodies, dancing, and M.C. services provided live and in person by the inimitable John Hodgman — for real! The party is this coming Sunday night and tickets are a measly US$20.

The day after the party, I’m heading out to Paris again to visit my father for about a week. My goal is to visit him there twice a year, for at least as long as I can cobble together enough incredible shrinking dollars to pay for meals in Euros. Oof. I’m bringing a brand new, work-issued MacBook with me, so in theory I’ll be blogging a bit. It all depends on whether I find some cool stuff to do or not. If you know of anything, drop me a line. Otherwise, happy holidays!

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