Italy

eerie | Comments (11)
September 30, 2008 11:23 AM

Briefly, as I rarely have any time to write these days (or even read about global market meltdowns), a summary of my trip to Italy: My favorite city was Florence, followed closely by Venice. Yes, I realize that Venice is sinking and a bit decrepit, but I found it exquisitely...[More]

More Irregular Updates

eerie | Comments (8)
August 17, 2008 03:56 PM

Sometimes I long for those days when my job was not challenging enough intellectually, leaving me with tons of spare time for mad side projects like Aqoul. Now, just bloody reading the documentation for this new blog software makes my eyes glaze over. It's like I've run out of processing...[More]

Aqoul 4.0

eerie | Comments (11)
June 7, 2008 08:55 PM

I believe we are now entering Aqoul's fourth redesign (ex Newsroom, which has been revised about five times). I found an amusing mockup from 2006 in the archives, and another entry with links to the Wayback machine. Clearly we've come a long way from that hokey default template. Aqoul is...[More]

Where is my throne of skulls?

eerie | Comments (7)
June 1, 2008 12:03 PM

As mentioned in an earlier note, I was offered a promotion in January, the day I returned from India. New office, new mandate, not fully staffed up. On Friday, they asked me if I wanted to run the office. In promotion terms, this isn't a step as much as a...[More]

There and back again

eerie | Comments (11)
May 11, 2008 01:14 AM

I have returned, just in time to clear the creeping weeds and undergrowth in the back. Not much to say, work has consumed much of my time, and the rest has been spent having inane conversations, staring blankly at my (recently purchased) 40" LCD flatscreen television, or attending social events...[More]

Rediscovering the Redesign

eerie - January 7, 2009 11:56 PM | Comments (12)
Filed Under: Site News

I was poking around today on my laptop and came across a number of half-finished mockups for Aqoul's new design. Here's one approach, very modern and clean. Might implement it if I ever get some free time...

By the way, Christmas with the Euro was wonderful. More details to follow.

Continuing On...

eerie - December 5, 2008 12:53 AM | Comments (10)
Filed Under: Personal

...with this Euro nonsense, it seems the man is an extremely long-range thinker. With Christmas at his ancestral home still a few weeks away, he's already asked if I might be available next spring to attend a wedding with him in a very nice Alpine locale. Not only that, but why not make the most of my visit by wandering Europe together for a couple of weeks? We can travel like backpackers, but he would like to end the tour at some lavish hotel where I can be spoiled to his liking.

I'm not against the idea, of course. I just find him...ruthlessly efficient when it comes to courtship. Hard to describe, but all of his plans are carefully crafted to accommodate my prickly sensibilities. Certainly I would refuse an all expenses paid vacation, but not a few days of decadence...

Anyway, not much else to report. Thought you might enjoy a small update.

The Domestic Euro

eerie - November 17, 2008 01:48 AM | Comments (16)
Filed Under: Personal

As mentioned in a previous entry, the Euro flew down to visit me for a long weekend. Thinking he might enjoy a glamorous night out, I surprised him with box seats to the opera. He enjoyed this immensely, but afterwards began to express a curious preference for "domestic" activities. Shopping for groceries with me, cooking breakfast for me, reading the newspaper to me in the morning while I lay in bed half-asleep (bloody exhausted, actually). And so on.

To be honest, I found his urge to do mundane things a bit confusing.

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Owls, Euros and The Dark Knight

eerie - October 17, 2008 11:32 PM | Comments (8)
Filed Under: Personal

Will skip past the usual whining about long workdays and dive right into mundane updates. I took a management fundamentals course this week, which consisted of some vaguely interesting theories about large organizations and then some (mostly hokey) quizzes to determine my temperament, communication style, etc. According to these various (no doubt highly scientific) tests, I'm an Owl, an INTJ and have above-average skills when compared to a large sample of North American managers.

Which is fine, except that don't really like being a manager in the strictest sense. Too much talking, too many meetings, too many long-winded voicemails.

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