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The Twitter Diaries – July, 2008, part 2

September 2, 2008 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

continued from here

July 16: !@#$@# can’t do a CO driver’s test in a rented car. Can’t get a car loan without a CO driver’s license. WTF am I supposed to do?

I let my California driver’s license lapse a couple of years ago, because they kept trying to get me to do jury duty which obviously I couldn’t from Italy, and I thought it might get me into trouble to keep claiming to be resident in California. By then I had an Italian license and didn’t expect ever to need any other. So much for expectations.

When you move to Colorado, you’ve theoretically got 60 days to get a local driver’s license. I was not surprised to learn that, because my California license had lapsed and Colorado does not recognize the Italian license (even though it was a lot harder to get), I’d have to redo the written and road driver’s tests. This would be the fourth complete driving test I’d suffered through in my lifetime!

I had intended to start the process back in April, but was dumbfounded to be told that, for insurance reasons, I couldn’t take a driving test in a rented car. Several colleagues offered to lend their cars, but I was nervous about doing the test in a car I’d never driven before (I was still getting accustomed to driving again, period). The only solution I could think of was to wait til I actually bought a car of my own, then do the driver’s test.

As I neared a decision on a car to buy, I was told that it might be impossible to get financing on a car if I didn’t have a Colorado license…

okay, everything’s set, I’ll borrow Lynn’s car Friday. Which means I get to spend how many hours at the DMV tomorrow for the written test?

My boss Lynn offered the use of her car, a Toyota Camry that was at least a size I felt comfortable driving (I had nightmares of trying to parallel park an enormous SUV). But first I had to do the written test.

nets full of unflattering (to put it mildly) photos of Hillary, not so much of Obama. Does HE never look evil, dorky, etc.?

I was still seething over the treatment meted out to Hillary by the American media. While visiting my dad in hospital in the UK in June, I had explained my preference for Hillary thus: In the USA today, it wouldn’t be acceptable to make racist remarks about Obama, but it’s perfectly okay to make sexist statements about Hillary. Racism is politically incorrect, sexism goes unnoticed. That’s why I’d like to see Hillary as president. (That, and her experience.)

passed my written driver’s test, only one mistake. And the DMV wasn’t such a nightmare. Driving test tomorrow in Boulder.

Fortunately, the little local DMV office in Broomfield was not crowded, and I got it done in under an hour.

17: my first (and probably last) attempt at political satire

McCain is advertising on my site again. Guess where?

and the McCain ads appear to be earning me Google money. Hmm.

18: morning poem: prairie dogs irresistibly attracted to asphalt – raven sits on a fencepost – awaiting fresh roadkill

today’s schedule: meeting – drive test – meeting – test drives

After months of spending way too much money on renting cars, I was looking for a car to buy. Which was a lot more complicated than I anticipated.

my dad does not have cancer. Phew.

Those following me on Twitter back in June would have seen some angry and worried, but not clearly explained, tweets about cancer and smoking. Dad has had pneumonia seven or more times since December: cancer was an obvious possible cause. And, after 50 years of smoking, it would not have been surprising. I was sick with fear, but also angry about all those years I pleaded with him to quit, and he always said: “I’ll quit when my life is less stressful.” Well, your life will be a lot less stressful when you’re dead…

Cancer has now been ruled out, but they still don’t know what’s causing the pneumonia.

I am now a licensed Colorado driver. Now I just have to find a car…

The road test was easy, and parallel parking was not required (although, confusingly, there is still a diagram about it in the driver’s ed manual on the Colorado DMV website).

gin & lime: very nice way to end a hectic week

WS School parent’s banquet, with interesting speeches about why they sent their kids there

Still trying to edit all the video I have from Woodstock.

car salesman today thanked me for sharing my stories. Maybe I should be doing more of that

very good documentary/interview with Philip Pullman

One of my favorite authors.

19: Stories: Duchess, a Dog

Evan Handler has great music on his website

20: awake since 4 am, and don’t even have the excuse of jet lag

Another day, same old Berlusca, same old Italy (steadily worsening)

I wish the news from Italy would get better, but it never does.

21: adding the new crop of SAGE students to the Facebook group I run for Woodstock. They fly to India next week. It’s been a year already?

About a year ago, Rossella left for Woodstock. So much has changed in my life since then.

@sol lie or lay is correct, depending on the tense. This is a GMAT question:?!?

It’s scary that such basic grammar is on the “Graduate Management Admission Test“.

my first real furniture purchase in the US: a beautiful Shaker-style desk in dark “espresso dyed” hardwood, just the right size for my study

22: spent most of yesterday assessing the video situation. Learned we have over 150 hours, most shot by me, about 60 still need editing. Intern!

looking for recs on a decent quality, compact, lightweight lapel mic kit. Anyone?

I wish he were still alive… and influential…

buying a car is way too complicated

23: OMFG I live on Wisteria Lane.

The people around here are nice, but a little scary. I just don’t know what to say to the average American soccer mom.

just ordered iPhones for myself and Ross. Let the new adventure begin!

turtles have gone to their new home: http://www.lecornelle.it/ (unfortunately, typically annoying Italian flash site!)

I am easily irritated by poor usability.

24: lesson for the day: never take a heavy-duty antibiotic first thing in the morning on an empty stomach

I threw it up.

@ThinGuy Avalox, one of the new generation of kick-your-butt but don’t actually cure the infection antibiotics…

does anyone know how to do playlists with JW Media Player? Love the player, but the documentation sucks, and I’m not a programmer.

I can has car! Picking it up tomorrow. I feel so grown up…

It’s a Toyota Rav4 (ahem, a mini-SUV, I must confess…). Got a fantastic deal on a lease, on the very day that Chevrolet announced they would not be issuing further leases because they can’t predict the future value of their cars. I guess Toyota doesn’t have this problem.

possible food poisoning and a panicking offspring… what a fun evening!

25: interesting view in our back yard this morning:

photo by my housemate Kathleen

I was too sleepy to get out and figure out what the dogs were barking at. Wish I had!

I have a new car. It is red and very shiny. And fun!

the neighbors want to come and look at my car. I feel so… American.

@lskrocki yup, even got the plastic copy [of my driver’s license] in the mail today. Absolutely awful picture. My worst ever.

The Colorado DMV is famous for bad photos. They made me take my glasses off, so I look blind as well as stupid.

26: one of the great pop videos is back on YouTube

27: curtains (I refused to call them “window treatments”) are hung

28: my head has been CAT scanned. Something nasty going on in my sinuses. Which we already knew…

picked up my new iPhone this morning, haven’t had time to play with it yet (I do have to work sometimes, in between all this buying!)

twitting from my new iPhone!

29: also received yesterday a home-style phone (DECT) to use with Skype, no computer needed. Very cool.

@darios “tacchinare” ? questa parola mi e’ nuova – spiega!

A (younger) Italian acquaintance had to explain some young-people slang.

30: Enrico arrives tonight for a one-month visit. And I actually have time and brain space to be excited about it this time!

(short) video for all you Open Solaris geeks

brilliant

phishing scam claims I have won a “loyalty prize” from Poste Italiane. Not bloody likely

Hanging at the airport. Flight’s in but immigration is always unpredictable

Enrico took so long getting through immigration and customs that I was getting worried. Turns out they cross-examined him at length, but eventually decided he wasn’t a threat to national security. I don’t need the INS or Homeland Security to make my long-distance marriage any more difficult than it already is…

Ross

Si, e` da tanto che non scrivo

September 1, 2008 Ross Leave a comment

…certe cose mi piace viverle e basta 😉

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The Bi-Professional Couple: A Conundrum Close to the Bone

September 1, 2008 Deirdre Straughan 13 Comments

My life is lived in multiples.

I’ve read books, articles, and blogs about multicultural marriage, living, and child-raising. I have written about being a third-culture kid, raising a bilingual child, and living and trying to work in a foreign country.

But this is the big question, more difficult than any of the above: how can a marriage survive being made up of two people whose careers are equally important to each?

If you have ever been part of a two-career couple, you know how hard it can be to find jobs that make both of you happy in the same location, especially (but not only) when that location is far from home for one or both of you. When a couple expatriates for one member’s job, the “following” spouse may not even be allowed to work, depending on the working spouse’s visa in the foreign country.

When you follow a foreign spouse to settle in his or her country, there probably won’t be legal obstacles to your working (you may take on the citizenship of your spouse, or you can usually get a work visa), but there are many other hurdles: language, culture, job market, and your own feelings about who you are and what you want to do with your life.

When Enrico and I married in 1989, I gave up an interesting job just then getting off the ground (doing technical training in far-flung countries) in order to be with him in New Haven and give birth to our daughter. In retrospect, my “accidental” pregnancy was probably subconsciously designed to resolve our increasing conflict over my exotic (and from Enrico’s point of view, dangerous) travels: a baby was a reason we could both agree on for me to stay home.

And stay home I did: I was mostly a full-time mom for 18 months. I did not resent or regret this; indeed, one reason that I never had another child was that I would have wanted (and felt it fair) to do the same for any other child of mine, but, once I had got my career off the ground again, there was never a “right” time to take off 12-15 months.

Moving to Italy was, for many reasons, the obvious thing to do when we did it. Though Enrico, fresh out of a Yale PhD, could have landed a university position somewhere in the US, it would have been the usual long start to an American academic career: post-doc here, assistant position there, teach a lot, and pray for tenure.

The situation is very different in Italian universities: a ricercatore (researcher, the entry-level position) can stay in the same place as long as he or she desires, although (ideally) you eventually move up the ladder to become professore associato (associate professor) and then ordinario (full professor). Positions are few and promotion takes decades (and political savvy), but in the meantime you are guaranteed a stable, reasonably well-paid job in a single location. The teaching load is light, and Enrico can direct his own research as he pleases. Nice work if you can get it…

As for me, I didn’t have a strong desire to remain in the US, my putative homeland – I’d lived out of it as much as in it. I didn’t have a job to leave right then, nor was I established in any field. There was no strong reason for me not to move to Italy, and plenty in favor of doing so.

Enrico sought and won a university position in Italy, and to Milan we came.

I had no idea what work I might be able to do there (aside from the far-too-obvious: teach English), but I figured I’d figure something out, as I always had. In 26 years of being moved around the world mostly by others’ decisions, it had never occurred to me to express or even to have strong desires about the parameters of my own life. I simply responded as best I could to the situations in which I found myself.

It was mostly luck that I found a job in Milan; it took hard work and talent to develope that job into a career. But I was still in reactive mode: taking advantage of opportunities as they came my way, but not making any effort to create my own opportunities. It simply didn’t occur to me that I could.

The first proactive thing I did to influence my own future was the MBA (from the Open University, the world’s oldest distance-learning institution) that I began in 1999 and completed (with interruptions) in 2004. I had realized that I wanted a career in which I could really make a difference, and that an MBA was a basic requirement to thrive in the corporate world.

But it’s unlikely that I could have an important career in Italy. I work in high tech, and there’s not much original going on in high tech in Italy – not because there are no technical or entrepreneurial Italians, but because it’s so damned hard to do the American-style startup thing in Italy (which could be the topic of a long article in itself, but it would depress me too much to write it).

Many of the world’s large high-tech companies have Italian offices, but these usually concentrate on regional sales and support engineering. The things I’m good at are run mostly from US headquarters.

Twice during the Internet boom I tried to persuade Enrico that we should move to the US to let me pursue my career. The second time he agreed, reluctantly, to come with me for a year or two while I helped to launch Roxio, the software group being spun off from Adaptec in 2000-2001. For a number of reasons, that move was aborted, and I returned to Italy, beaten and frustrated, to the same distance-working situation in which I had previously felt so alienated and vulnerable. I quit after a few months, and would have been laid off soon thereafter in any case, as the bubble burst and the economic downturn began.

Fabrizio Caffarelli, my former boss at Incat Systems, is a rare example of a successful Italian high tech entrepreneur, and I was happy to join his new startup a few years later (as the consulting/tech writing gigs I’d had after leaving Roxio also dried up). I had high hopes for TVBLOB when it began, but four years in startup mode at a salary I could have equalled as a supermarket cashier… well, that got old, and personal circumstances conspired to force a change.

I began working for Sun Microsystems as a contractor in March of 2007; they hired me as a regular employee a year later, on the condition that I move to the US and work from an office.

I was ready to go. I had initially loved Sun’s willingness to let me, and many other employees, work from home. I still believe that this works very well for many people, especially those who have kids at home: workplace flexibility is a huge help in achieving the much-prized “work-life balance.”

But the year I had spent as a mostly long-distance contractor reminded me of all the problems I had experienced before, as a very long-distance employee of Adaptec. It’s hard to schedule meetings when you’re eight or nine time zones away from most of your colleagues; you end up having them late at night in Europe – not my best time of day, I’m a morning person. And when you can be neither seen nor heard by your colleagues… well, out of sight, out of mind, out of the decision-making loop – and, eventually, out of a job.

Conclusion: if I want a challenging job, I need to be in the US (or, at least, not in Italy). So here I am, with a job that I enjoy very much both for its current realities and its future possibilities.

But my life here so far is mostly about my job. So much for work-life balance (said she ruefully). It appears that I can have work or have a life, but not both. At any rate, I can’t have a regular home life with my husband, because his job is there, and mine is here, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to make the two meet.

And I don’t have an answer to that one.

Update, 2014: Enrico and I never did find a solution. We separated in 2009 and are now divorced.

Update, 2017: I have since found someone with whom I happily share both the personal and professional sides of me.

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The Twitter Diaries: August, 2008, part 2

September 1, 2008 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

15: trying to start Girl Geek Dinners in CO Front Range. Don’t know when I’ll actually be around to attend…

On the road again. I suspect I live to travel

Made a surprise trip to California to help out at an all-hands meeting (Solaris Software) in Sun’s Menlo Park (MPK) office. Met with colleagues about two different media hosting sites.

Having indian food. Happy independence day, India!

Flew to Albuquerque to meet Enrico, who had given a seminar at the UNM math department. We ate dinner, then drove to Las Vegas, NM, to visit Sharon and Steve and Robin.

16: Heading back from Santa fe to las vegas nm. Nice day but tiring. Hot springs tonight?

Ooh, yes, we did. There are natural hot springs on the campus of the United World College, open to the public because they are ancient sacred sites. And very, very wonderful on a chilly, rainy night. Or any other night…

17: Just saw a pronghorn antelope running along near the highway!

northeastern New Mexico, August 2008. No, we didn’t really get this close.

Home on the range indeed!

home. tired.

lots of free-roaming wildlife in this part of the world is a constant amazement and joy

I’ve rarely, if ever, seen any wildlife in Europe larger than a marmot, though Enrico sometimes sees chamois and mountain goats way up in the Alps. I’ve seen them more often on my plate. All the animals in the Old World have been hunted so hard and so long that they’re barely clinging to existence, and certainly don’t let you get close. Except the wild boars – got plenty of those, and they are tasty. (And very dangerous, if met in the wild.)

18: finally getting a new video done. I’ve spent so much time lately talking ABOUT video that I haven’t had time to actually DO it.

@davest compressing the video of your OSDEVCON Prague talk now. Umm… can you live without previewing it?

this weekend’s trip: Pecos Pueblo & Santa Fe

doing household chores while also compressing and uploading video (Sun stuff)

Sometimes the computer just needs to be left alone to do its thing.

19: @davest As I recall, you did. Including some nice photos of Prague. Going up today.

Dave Stewart strikes again

The video.

Sunday’s visit to Capulin Volcano

combing through stats (more, again, forever…) – trying to answer the question: just how many hours of video have I done for Sun (so far)?

Many. Many many.

cafeteria has a special on San Pellegrino. Nostalgic? No. But it tastes good.

my brain hurts, trying to figure out what all I need to have a working set of 2 lavalier wireless mics

about time. A much younger drinking age (16) works pretty well in Italy

I wish more college presidents (and other people) would get behind the Amethyst Intiative. A drinking age of 21 is stupid and counter-productive. If kids learn to drink responsibly at home when young, they won’t (usually) binge drink themselves to death and/or drink and drive. And it’s simply ridiculous to allow them to sign up to go get killed in Iraq at 18, then tell them they can’t drink. I wonder how the military handles that.

okay, this 6figure stuff is beginning to look like spam…

@jeffreytaylor then don’t fight it – just go to sleep! I never sleep better than when I have eastbound jetlag. So I indulge myself.

20: packing to go to Austin tonight! Happy to see my kid and lots of good friends, old and new. Woodstock Curry Club dinner Friday.

(part of) what I do for a living

We’ve open-sourced our software, now we have to open-source the knowledge so that others can contribute to it.

oh deary me, now I have to be in San Francisco Sept 3rd. MPK gang, prepare to be descended upon (again)

“The military knows that 18-year-olds… are mature enough to fight but not ready to handle alcohol” ?!?!?

I don’t have to underline how stupid a statement this is, do I?

21: in Austin, got to sleep at 2:00 am and had to get to campus by 8:30. Very sleepy now.

child abuse: taking a 5 year old to “The Dark Knight,” and laughing when she cries and says “I want to go home!”

Yes, this actually happened in Austin. The kid was terrified throughout the movie, except for a brief time when she was merely confused: “Doesn’t she love the Batman anymore, Mommy?” A handicapped child, at that; some sort of bone condition (I’m guessing) meant she walked, spraddle-legged, with a little rolling walker. Why isn’t there a required test for parenting? Far more people have been permanently damaged (or killed) by bad parenting than by bad driving.

22: hate being awake and hungry in the middle of the night

stirred up a pot of lentils/beans for tonight’s Woodstock dinner, now to try to get Ross up to decide on courses… on not much sleep

college seems a lot more complicated than I remember it being. And I didn’t even have any parental advice.

When I was in college, my parents were in Thailand and then Indonesia. Any parental help I needed would have taken a month round-trip by very slow airmail.

23: curry club dinner went great, tonight Ross is making Italian, & my college roommate (plus mom) are coming into town. Nostalgia week!

We had a WOSA (Woodstock Old Students Association) dinner, with guests ranging from the classes of ’42 to ’08. A good time was had by all, not least due to the warm welcome of Spankyville and Julia and Dani.

24: tired, tired, tired. Must find time to do something for myself instead of always being “on” for others.

25: Ross is signed up for her college courses, now I just have to pay the bill!

about to go check out party venues in Austin. yes, I have a hard job…

26: tuition paid. Thanks to Ross studying Hindi, far less painful than it might have been.

She’s not officially in the Hindi-Urdu Flagship program this year – turns out first-year Hindi at Woodstock was not sufficient preparation for second-year Hindi at UT. But they want to keep her, so she’s still getting the tuition waiver as long as she keeps studying Hindi (and gets an A- or better). The plan is that she’ll start the four-year program next year. Which means she can take a lighter course load and give herself time and brain space to adjust to life in yet another country – her third this year.

27: chili cheese dog at the airport last night wasn’t a good idea

@mentalmosaic a good chili dog is soul food

…when you don’t get food poisoning from it…

going to SFO to film next Weds, could be in MPK Thursday. Anyone I should meet with?

why is it that an anonymous female in the news is a “mom” before she’s a “woman”? You never see “Dad pinned in truck” or “Dad murdered”

long day btw work and coaching daughter thru first day of college. I’m trying to be hands-off Mom, but it ain’t working

I’m really not a helicopter parent (though parental involvement was expected and encouraged in Italian schools), but Ross seems to want me to hover. I will not stoop to giving her a wakeup call every morning.

28: making the content happen. Or at least making travel arrangements to go make it happen…

the tech world is way too small. One of the speakers at LISA I knew in my previous life at Roxio.

Yes, I will be going to the Large Installation System Administration Conference. No, I will not understand a word of it. Well, maybe one or two.

event planning has its perks: just scammed a free dinner for my daughter and a guest at a nice restaurant in Austin

She didn’t like it. Possibly part of the phenomenon that “you don’t value what you get for free,” the place had looked pretty nice to me.

scheduling shooting for several events, designing t-shirts, chking off AIs from meetings, creating a new dashboard to track it all…

Denver traffic looks like a mess, and I have to get my husband to the airport. Thank god for the toll road.

conversation with my daughter:

good god, a politician talking sense. Is that actually possible?

The way to reduce abortion is to reduce unwanted pregnancies. I don’t think I’ve heard a politician actually state this piece of plain common sense before (though, admittedly, I avoid listening to politicians as much as possible).

@ThinGuy yes, but that’s also true of all the rest of them, in all parties. At least he’s got mostly the right ideas.

and, like me, he’s a TCK

29: twidiots: people who follow you in hopes of reaching n followers, openly state that, & provide no earthly reason why you should give a damn

just ordered a Tivo, so I can keep up with the few shows I care about during my busy fall travels

seems like Americans spend an awful lot of time fundraising (schools, teams, charities…). Boh.

I feel overwhelmed by the constant tugs on my heartstrings and wallet by colleagues, businesses, celebrities, etc. Everyone’s got their pet cause, usually as a result of some personal or near-personal experience. In a sandwich shop, I saw a sign (complete with adorable picture “taken by her teacher who saw her just a few hours before”, asking for donations to cover funeral expenses for a little girl, niece of one of the employees, who had been killed by a car. I guess it was a way for the other employees to show sympathy to their colleague, but it seemed strange to ask customers.

You don’t see much of this in Europe (outside the many donation tins in shops in the UK), I’m not sure why.

corp travel site lists Bangalore as being in “India – Hindustan”. Who the hell designed this thing? An ancient exponent of the Raj?

@timbray <sigh> Here come more Mom headlines…

Re. Sarah Palin.

30: it’s a holiday weekend, time to do the all-American thing: shopping! (for stuff I actually do need… still setting up home)

I bought a dresser from American Furniture Warehouse, the closest Colorado gets to Ikea. It was a nice change to have the piece arrive already put together, delivered to the spot in my home where I wanted it, for about $350 total.

oh, great, if I want to watch convention reruns I have to install yet more software. From Microsoft.

31: @tehduh Probably low. But the evangelical right take such interest in everyone else’s sex lives, well, hoist with their own petard…

Re. whether the speculation in the Daily Kos about Palin’s latest child was “low”.

the Republicans can’t afford to blow it with Gustav. We’re too close to an election this time.

very hungry, but I have mopped myself out of the kitchen and have to wait for the floor to dry

…my Tweets are more often about mundane things like mopping than about politics. This is true of most Twitters I follow, for that matter.

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The Twitter Diaries: August, 2008

September 1, 2008 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

Rocky Mountain National Park, August 2008

1: having a very irritating day. I shouldn’t be pre-menstrual right now, but sure could kill somebody.

will have to get a Tivo. Can’t bear the political ads, and they will mess up my fall viewing

worked out my frustrations at the gym. Last song to come up on my shuffle: “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.” in other words: margarita time!

can the news media think of nothing better to do than recall the anniversaries of everything that ever happened?

Facebook follies: I really don’t want to know that someone I know has joined [a Facebook group called] “Funky Dildo”

2: Ross rec’d her iPhone yesterday. First intimidated then: “It’s got GPS! Cool!”

3: hmm, surprise trip to California this week. Okay, all those folks who wanted to talk to me (or know I want to talk to you…), I’m on my way!

4: is Technorati even working anymore? My score hasn’t budged in months

barely cracked a sweat, but my knees are very unhappy about this afternoon’s workout… must be doing something wrong

5: how can my iPhone be at 20% battery when it was charging all night?

feel like someone tied my spine in knots. Have to figure out how to identify the right mattress for me.

@penelopetrunk no point in having followers if you’re not saying anything to them. 4 tweets a day is not too many

ethnocentric, much?

I linked to an article on ANSA (the Italian news service, rough equivalent to AP, which translates a handful of articles into English) that’s no longer available, about the Pope opining that the Chinese will not be civilized until they… well, become Catholic was the gist of the original Italian article.

had a massage, back feels much better, but now I don’t feel like working. Ordered a memory foam mattress to see if that helps.

6: for the first time, a lost-laptop security breach affects me directly. But, according to the company, it’s not TOO bad…

I had done the first step of enrollment in Clear months ago, then was stymied by lack of a US driver’s license. A laptop full of their customer information, including mine, was lost at San Francisco airport, but later recovered, apparently without any critical files having been opened. Still, Clear shut down enrollment until they could put better encryption in place – on the very day I was heading out on a trip and had been planning to do the in-person enrollment at Denver airport.

@lbridenne76 sadly, don’t have the new Mac yet. The laptop referred to wasn’t mine, but one in the news lost at SFO. But they found it again

@gapingvoid I had a blast @ Sun’s IEC in Bangalore – young people, lots of creative energy. We made great movies (not edited yet…)

Well-known online marketing guru Hugh MacLeod tweets about his work for Dell and remarks that he should visit India and China. I may be missing an opportunity. I know a great deal about online marketing, and even more about India.

sitting in Denver airport, flight over an hour late due to weather. I will be way tired to drive from SFO to my hotel near Menlo Park…

And had a misadventure with a rearview mirror on the way.

7: not nearly enough sleep last night, so the Usabiity Bitch is back

My head is such a swirl of languages & cultures even I’m getting confused

My Italian is still fluent, but sometimes when I imagine a conversation in Italian, a phrase in Hindi pops in there.

8: my surprise visit to MPK has been productive, but damn I’m tired… my brain hurts

going to see Dolly Parton on Sunday. Either something’s weird, or I got stunningly good tickets at a reasonable price

9: the local ice cream truck tune is The Union Maid.

…though I’m probably the only person in the neighborhood who recognizes it. That’s what happens when you grow up with lefty liberal proto-Communist hippy parents. ; )

10: surely it’s illegal to run power tools in a quiet suburban neighborhood at 8 am on SUNDAY??

Dolly Parton fun, didn’t expect to see half of Denver’s gay population there, but, upon reflection, not surprising. She’s always been camp.

interestingly, her encore song about Jesus went over like a lead balloon

11: my daughter is 19 today.

Ross does meet some interesting people…

this week’s flight: DEN-ABQ to meet Enrico who’ll be doing a seminar at the university there, then on to Las Vegas NM…

I need something that automatically resets time zones on all my calendars etc. based on my GPS location

@IgorMinar what does it matter? the US public is far more concerned about Edwards’ sex life!

12: awake and irritable in the deeps of the night. Be relieved if you don’t have to deal with me tomorrow. Watch out if you do!

an already complex life may become still more complicated

briefly saw a WS classmate who is also a Sun colleague. So easy to talk to someone you’ve known for 30 years, thru much craziness and change

strange church name:

Broomfield, CO: Somehow, I can’t help thinking of a moth-eaten quilt

just watched The Princess Bride for the 1st time in years. Still an all-time favorite, though the book is better. Must re-read now.

13: banging my head against the wall is, not surprisingly, causing headaches. Probably not just mine.

Office politics. Still no fun, but I think I’m getting better at it.

July 16: !@#$@# can’t do a CO driver’s test in a rented car. Can’t get a car loan without a CO driver’s license. WTF am I supposed to do?

okay, everything’s set, I’ll borrow Lynn’s car Friday. Which means I get to spend how many hours at the DMV tomorrow for the written test?

nets full of unflattering (to put it mildly) photos of Hillary, not so much of Obama. Does HE never look evil, dorky, etc.?

passed my written driver’s test, only one mistake. And the DMV wasn’t such a nightmare. Driving test tomorrow in Boulder.

17: my first (and probably last) attempt at political satire

McCain is advertising on my site again. Guess where?

and the McCain ads appear to be earning me Google money. Hmm.

18: morning poem: prairie dogs irresistibly attracted to asphalt – raven sits on a fencepost – awaiting fresh roadkill

today’s schedule: meeting – drive test – meeting – test drives

my dad does not have cancer. Phew.

I am now a licensed Colorado driver. Now I just have to find a car…

gin & lime: very nice way to end a hectic week

WS School parent’s banquet, with interesting speeches about why they sent their kids there

car salesman today thanked me for sharing my stories. Maybe I should be doing more of that

19: Stories: Duchess, a Dog

Evan Handler has great music on his website

20: awake since 4 am, and don’t even have the excuse of jet lag

Another day, same old Berlusca, same old Italy (steadily worsening)

21: adding the new crop of SAGE students to the Facebook group I run for Woodstock. They fly to India next week. It’s been a year already?

@sol lie or lay is correct, depending on the tense. This is a GMAT question:?!?

my first real furniture purchase in the US: a beautiful Shaker-style desk in dark “espresso dyed” hardwood, just the right size for my study

22: spent most of yesterday assessing the video situation. Learned we have over 150 hours, most shot by me, about 60 still need editing. Intern!

looking for recs on a decent quality, compact, lightweight lapel mic kit. Anyone?

I wish he were still alive… and influential…

buying a car is way too complicated

23: OMFG I live on Wisteria Lane.

just ordered iPhones for myself and Ross. Let the new adventure begin!

turtles have gone to their new home: http://www.lecornelle.it/ (unfortunately, typically annoying Italian flash site!)

I am easily irritated by poor usability.

24: lesson for the day: never take a heavy-duty antibiotic first thing in the morning on an empty stomach

@ThinGuy Avalox, one of the new generation of kick-your-butt but don’t actually cure the infection antibiotics…

does anyone know how to do playlists with JW Media Player? Love the player, but the documentation sucks, and I’m not a programmer.

I can has car! Picking it up tomorrow. I feel so grown up…

possible food poisoning and a panicking offspring… what a fun evening!

25: interesting view in our back yard this morning:

I have a new car. It is red and very shiny. And fun!

the neighbors want to come and look at my car. I feel so… American.

@lskrocki yup, even got the plastic copy [of my driver’s license] in the mail today. Absolutely awful picture. My worst ever.

26: one of the great pop videos is back on YouTube

27: curtains (I refused to call them “window treatments”) are hung

28: my head has been CAT scanned. Something nasty going on in my sinuses. Which we already knew…

picked up my new iPhone this morning, haven’t had time to play with it yet (I do have to work sometimes, in between all this buying!)

twitting from my new iPhone!

29: also received yesterday a home-style phone (DECT) to use with Skype, no computer needed. Very cool.

@darios “tacchinare” ? questa parola mi e’ nuova – spiega!

30: Enrico arrives tonight for a one-month visit. And I actually have time and brain space to be excited about it this time!

(short) video for all you Open Solaris geeks

phishing scam claims I have won a “loyalty prize” from Poste Italiane. Not bloody likely

Hanging at the airport. Flight’s in but immigration is always unpredictable

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15: trying to start Girl Geek Dinners in CO Front Range. Don’t know when I’ll actually be around to attend…

On the road again. I suspect I live to travel

Having indian food. Happy independence day, India!

16: Heading back from Santa fe to las vegas nm. Nice day but tiring. Hot springs tonight?

17: Just saw a pronghorn antelope running along near the highway!

Home on the range indeed!

home. tired.

lots of free-roaming wildlife in this part of the world is a constant amazement and joy

18: finally getting a new video done. I’ve spent so much time lately talking ABOUT video that I haven’t had time to actually DO it.

@davest compressing the video of your OSDEVCON Prague talk now. Umm… can you live without previewing it?

this weekend’s trip: Pecos Pueblo & Santa Fe

doing household chores while also compressing and uploading video (Sun stuff)

19: @davest As I recall, you did. Including some nice photos of Prague. Going up today.

Sunday’s visit to Capulin Volcano

combing through stats (more, again, forever…) – trying to answer the question: just how many hours of video have I done for Sun (so far)?

cafeteria has a special on San Pellegrino. Nostalgic? No. But it tastes good.

my brain hurts, trying to figure out what all I need to have a working set of 2 lavalier wireless mics

about time. A much younger drinking age (16) works pretty well in Italy

okay, this 6figure stuff is beginning to look like spam…

@jeffreytaylor then don’t fight it – just go to sleep! I never sleep better than when I have eastbound jetlag. So I indulge myself.

20: packing to go to Austin tonight! Happy to see my kid and lots of good friends, old and new. Woodstock Curry Club dinner Friday.

(part of) what I do for a living

oh deary me, now I have to be in San Francisco Sept 3rd. MPK gang, prepare to be descended upon (again)

“The military knows that 18-year-olds… are mature enough to fight but not ready to handle alcohol” ?!?!?

21: in Austin, got to sleep at 2:00 am and had to get to campus by 8:30. Very sleepy now.

child abuse: taking a 5 year old to “The Dark Knight,” and laughing when she cries and says “I want to go home!”

22: hate being awake and hungry in the middle of the night

stirred up a pot of lentils/beans for tonight’s Woodstock dinner, now to try to get Ross up to decide on courses… on not much sleep

long day btw work and coaching daughter thru first day of college. I’m trying to be hands-off Mom, but it ain’t working