Some Days...

This is my 3rd week in Cleveland with only 2 weekend days to recover, so I spent a good bit of Sunday NOT looking forward to Monday. These travel weeks, I need 3 days with the family to reconnect, and if I don't get it, I feel very sad.

It would be different if I thought I was away providing some great value to the world, but in the past 2 weeks, things have just been strange and political at the client. At one point, a coworker said he'd not seen a place where people put turf protection over the well being of the company. There are some anecdotes I'll share only much much later. Much. But the bottom line is that there is a greater emphasis on how you say something and who you say it to than what you're saying... to a greater degree than I've seen at any other client ever. And that includes some of the places I worked for in the 90's.

Last week, I finally ended the project in Jersey, and I felt sad about that too: By the end, it was hard to manage because as a whole group they were terrible at followthrough on remote items, so if I wasn't there, I couldn't make things happen by email or phone - just didn't work. So there were frustrations... but I also thought the work was good, and they TRUSTED what I brought to the table. Plus, great food out there. I'll miss Masso's cheesesteak and La Posata's Gnocchi.

So what's next? Many more weeks here at this client, and I can only hope that my role morphs into more of a "problem solving" one rather than a "eggshell walking-upon" one. I have hope. Plus, I come home Thursday and my remaining scheduled trips are shorter, so I'll have my 3 days at home.

Allright - no more gloomy Gus. I just needed to get that off my chest! There are good things in life: Dollhouse ended very nicely - I watched the finale twice and knuckled away tears each time. It's still not a show I could recommend to a stranger - but over the two seasons (26 episodes), it started as a vapid dull show with an interesting premise, and morphed into a VERY compelling "express train to doomsday" show. And they let the characters develop beautifully and believably. I was very happy I decided to watch it (thanks to Terminator Sarah Connor for getting me to Tivo Friday Fox last year I guess!)

iPad: Boy that Reality Distortion Field that Steve Jobs emits does wonders. I would have bought five of them if they had a buy it now button last week. This week, I've been watching my activities, asking "If I had an iPad, what would be different about this moment?" I'll be tallying those thoughts and hope to make a measured and reasonable decision in 8 weeks when it actually comes available.

Kindle: I've been reading a good amount, and this weekend's spat with MacMillan was pretty unpleasant for me to watch - especially since one of the authors who was delisted was one of my favorites - John Scalzi. I love my device, but am no fan of monopolistic behaviors. Of course I'm not miffed enough to switch - I still love the convenience of Amazon, darn it.

And that's about it. I could work tonight, but I think I've done my time for the day. Time to relax.