Well, one down, one to go... Perhaps bad use of frames may be totally purged from two of my favorite sites.

Alexis is working on a blog, but true to his nature, he's building the infrastructure himself, and he's doing it in Flash. Reminds me a bit of the old maxim, "If the only tool you have is a hammer..." He's a clever guy, though, so I'll be interested how far he can bend Flash to his will. Still, seems like making people have a Flash plug-in to read a journal is kind of like making a person wear a special helmut to watch a movie. "But I don't have to wear a helmet for other movies..."

Donna and Alexis were kind enough to have me over for dinner again. They saw the pillar of smoke rising from my maudlin entry the other day, and decided to do a mercy intervention. So that's two homecooked meals that I've had in less than seven days. My stomach is quite confused by all this. Dinner conversation is always entertaining as hell, though, sometimes I can never tell if Alexis is enjoying the discussion or is one step away from slugging me in the jaw. Perhaps it's simply a cultural difference between the way he expresses himself (he's French) and the way I'm used to reading people (I'm an ugly American, as you probably guessed.) There's never a "light" disagreement with Alexis. It's always a dig in your heels, ain't gonna budge type of discussion. I'm just not entirely used to that model, but in the end, it's fine.

The two of them are so different, it's striking. Or rather, they are so different, one would think it would lead to them to striking each other. But, it sure seems to work quite well.

My dialog with the folks at Alchera, or more precisely, with Gyges, continues in a very encouraging way. I think they "get it." Of course, that's probably just my ego enjoying that they listen to me a bit. The very, very scary thing for me is the possibility they are making something much more compelling, and better designed than Clan Lord. They are also addressing my one, biggest long standing gripe with Clan Lord, and I applaud them for it. When they are done testing it, it has the potential to dramatically change both Clan Lord and Alchera. Unfortunately, I think Alchera will end up better for it, and Clan Lord worse. So, I'm soon to visit Alchera to see first-hand their fine work. If I'm not back in a week, send me some Berlitz German tapes.

A package was waiting for me when I got home from dinner. It was a little present, all wrapped up, from Amazon. At first, I thought it was a book that Alexis had been telling me about, but it turned out to be from Nori, which made it a great surprise. She said she was going to send me "an assignment," and she had mentioned the book last time I saw her, but somehow I didn't make the connection. I'm glad I had finished the Water Method Man the night before. I didn't turn my light out until after 2AM, on chapter six and loving it. And of course, knowing Nori, when she says this is an assignment, I'm sure there will be a quiz.

So far the poll is encouraging. Looks like I won't make another blog after all. Hopefully you won't all regret your decision when you find out what a sick little freak I really am.

posted 11:36 AM | link |