Category Archives: bio

bio

Home Making

February 7, 2009 Deirdre Straughan 1 Comment

^ Memories, new and old: An embroidered silk hanging from the Central Cottage Industries Emporium, Delhi, which I bought during an epic shopping spree with Yuti, and the decorated tin trunk I bought in Mumbai from artist Rashmi Dogra while visiting Deepu, combined with an American mission-style dresser. The objects on the dresser include figurines bought at the Crafts Museum in Delhi, diyas, a piece of driftwood from Gouverneur Beach in St. Barth’s, and a photo (in a Kashmiri frame bought in Mussoorie) is of Rossella and friends in a Woodstock production of The Taming of the Shrew. On the wall to the right you can see the edge of an appliqued wall hanging I bought with Sara during a visit to Mumbai.

I’ve been residing in Colorado since last March, but during that time have been traveling so much that it’s taking a while to get settled. What I’ve done so far towards setting up my home reminds me of my college days: starting from scratch in a new place with limited personal space, trying to keep spending down, while surrounding myself with objects rich in memory. I’m enjoying the opportunity to decorate all of my space in my own way, instead of having to find niches among Enrico’s family heirlooms.

I’m living in a large suburban house with a Sun colleague, Kathleen, from whom I rent two bedrooms and a bath. We share most of the house and fixtures, which saved me an enormous amount on kitchen stuff and furniture. I didn’t even have to buy beds, thanks to Kathleen (who had a single bed waiting for me, made even, the day I arrived) and Dan and Karen, who gave me a king-sized futon (which Dan delivered and carried up the stairs, bless him – the thing must weigh 200 pounds).

My furniture investment so far has been minimal: a dresser, a desk, second-hand bookshelves, and, just recently, a chair to go with the desk. It’s a pity there’s no Ikea in Colorado, but there is American Furniture Warehouse.

The Shaker desk above came from a very nice furniture place (not AFW), but was on sale cheap, probably because the drawers stick. Furniture needs to be tempered for Colorado, or the dry air can cause such problems. The prints are from my beloved Elfquest, something I’d been meaning to buy for a long time.

I wasn’t using the desk much til this week, when I finally got around to getting a chair so that, if I’m stuck working at home because of snow, I can at least be comfortable. Yes, I use two computers at once. Often I do email etc. on one while the other is processing video.

This is in my “office” room, along with the single bed and:

The painting is from/by Ross. Sue and Jack should also recognize gifts from themselves in this photo!

The larger room, in addition to the dresser shown above, contains:

This painting by Rashmi Dogra illustrates icons of Indian life common 20 years ago. She was amused that I wanted this painting – none of her usual Mumbai clients were interested in this kind of nostalgia.

Above the bed I hung a length of ikat material bought at Dilli Haat. The window treatments are curtains from an American chain with torans from a SEWA store in Delhi.

I’ve been decorating with photographs, some of friends and family:

…some travel photos that I never got around to printing before…

Thanks to Donna and Sarah for the housewarming gifts (though they don’t even know each other, they picked the same picture frame, in different colors):

^ photos from Viterbo, taking during the Imaging in Italy tour I did a few years ago. I have so many great photos from that trip…

^ these are from our visit to Jaipur

^ another piece of Indian nostalgia, this time purchased on a trip to Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar (Thieves’ Market) with Deepu. The guy in the red shirt is Amitabh Bachchan, by now the grand old man of Indian cinema. Nowadays, such an ad would be for a luxury car, not a bicycle!

I’ve still got plenty of space to fill, but am in no hurry to do so. I don’t mind the relative emptiness, and I prefer to buy things over time, making each purchase significant, not just a way to fill space. (I only bought the dresser after several months, when the lack of drawers began to seriously annoy me.) But what I do have in here already helps it feel like home.

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Divorcing Italy

February 1, 2009 Deirdre Straughan 14 Comments

Rossella and I returned to Italy the week before Christmas, having been away since June 30th. That was the longest period I’d spent out of Italy in 18 years.

I was uneasy about this re-entry, expecting it to be traumatic. I thought I would be making a decision about whether I would ever willingly live in Italy again (not right away, but maybe, someday), and I didn’t expect that decision to be easy. But, in retrospect, I had probably made up my mind months – even years – before.

The immediate impact wasn’t good. I arrived exhausted (Rossella can sleep on planes; I am not so fortunate). We hadn’t even left the airport before Enrico was telling us about a typically Italian bureaucratic kerfuffle that had arisen just that morning and had him worried.

The weather was terrible most of the time I was in Europe: cold and gray, with unusual amounts of snow even for northern Italy. The humidity sank the cold into my very bones; I felt colder in Italy than I ever do in Colorado, where the absolute temperatures are often much lower.

As usual, we spent Christmas in Roseto degli Abruzzi, the small seaside resort where Enrico’s parents retired years ago. As usual, the town was dead and depressing in winter. As usual, Ross was agitating to leave almost as soon as the Christmas presents were opened, and I couldn’t blame her, especially when she learned that a friend’s mother had died.

We returned to Lecco, where I felt trapped by bad weather and my fear of driving in Italy (I may someday get used to this, if I could only have an automatic instead of a stickshift…). I realized that I had been feeling trapped for years.

Moving to Lecco was a good decision at the time. Milan’s pollution was killing me, Enrico’s job would be mostly in Lecco, and it was a good place for Ross to spend her teenage years – she had a lot more freedom there than we would have felt safe for her in Milan.

But Lecco is also a small, typically introverted Italian town. There’s not a lot to do there, we have hardly any local friends, and those tend to be busy with their jobs and extended families. We have given lots of dinner parties, but we rarely get invited back. With Ross gone, that leaves a lot of time when it’s just the two of us.

Lecco isn’t the only problem. By any measure, my career opportunities anywhere in Italy are scarce. I’m middle-aged, foreign, female, and opinionated, in a country where it is legal to specify “young and good-looking” in a want ad, and the current prime minister has appointed former showgirls of questionable qualifications to his cabinet, for very questionable reasons.

In “shocking but not surprising” news, a friend told me she recently saw a documentary on PBS which stated that female employment in Italy is at its lowest since WWII. I haven’t yet found any online corroboration for this, but do know that equal opportunities for women in Italy are nearly non-existent.

High-tech doesn’t do well in Italy, either. Although it’s a G8 country, Italy is only number 25 in an Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of IT competitiveness. In other words: not much original is going on there. Many large American/multinational high-tech firms (Cisco, HP, Sun, Microsoft) have offices in Italy, but those are primarily sales and support sites, not places where someone like me is likely to flourish. And they’re mostly in the suburbs of Milan, which would be at least a two-hour commute from Lecco, and put me right back into the pollution that was causing me so many health problems before.

All of these factors have been on my mind for some time. I’ve found lots of evidence to support my negative assessment of my chances in Italy. I freely admit to bias, but can anyone show me evidence to the contrary?

The upshot of it all is that I’m angry – very, very angry. And bitterly disappointed. If anyone should have done well in Italy, it was me. I speak the language fluently. I understand the culture. I gave one hell of a lot to Italy (including a horrendous amount of taxes on my American salaries), and got very little in return except years of frustration and underemployment. In the end, the only way to stay would have been to throw away 20+ years of work experience – work that I truly love – and do something that merely exploited my foreignness: teach English, run tours, write “Under the Lake Como Moon”, etc.

That I will not do.

So I’m divorcing Italy.

Not my Italian husband, mind. Living apart has been very hard on both of us but, for the time being, we’ve decided to try to stick it out.

But I’m definitely divorcing Italy. I’ll visit, as long as Enrico and friends and family are there, but I don’t expect to ever live there again (NB: I’ll be surprised if Ross does, either).

This decision comes with a raft of emotions, probably similar to those surrounding a divorce. Anger. Betrayal. “I gave you the best years of my life!” Sadness. Grief.

Italy has a lot going for it still, and, for some people, it’s their ideal place, even if they weren’t born there. I don’t deny that nor attempt to dissuade them. But, for me, it’s over. And that would be a painful revelation even without the complication of an Italian husband who still lives and works in Italy.

So if I’m not very enthusiastic (to put it mildly) about Italy these days, now you know why.

NB: A year and a half later, I left Enrico as well.

bio

The Twitter Diaries: November, 2008 part 2

January 20, 2009 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

about to go offline for the rest of the day to make final party arrangements7:11 PM Nov 16th, 2008 from web

…and a good time was had by all 12:14 AM Nov 18th, 2008 from web

@c0t0d0s0 sorry I missed you [at CEC], too. It was a crazy week. Still is.8:11 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web in reply to c0t0d0s0

@thepartycow anything with bacon tastes good!11:25 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web in reply to thepartycow

running the stats to see who won the blogging contest.11:40 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web

<sigh> Italian university reforms – be sure to read the comments!11:55 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web

@c0t0d0s0 have to survive 2 more days of SC08 (didn’t do much on it today, another student party that we sponsored to attend tonight)11:56 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web in reply to c0t0d0s0

@c0t0d0s0 …and then I’m gonna make like a sheep herder and get the flock out of here!11:56 PM Nov 18th, 2008 from web in reply to c0t0d0s0

The Glamorous Life (revised and expanded)1:12 AM Nov 19th, 2008 from web

trying to remember when I last had a full day off, let alone a weekend. It’s all catching up with me now.4:47 PM Nov 19th, 2008 from web

Touring TACC, should get some cool tho very noisy footage6:29 PM Nov 20th, 2008 from twitterrific

Sc08 winding down. Everyone’s exhausted8:31 PM Nov 20th, 2008 from twitterrific

quoted in David Pogue’s column today, see if you can guess which one was me: 11:09 PM Nov 20th, 2008 from web

the long run of conferences is officially over. A meeting or two tomorrow, then off to St. Barthelmy on Saturday. Total collapse first4:02 AM Nov 21st, 2008 from web

need a cheap, funky venue for an OpenStorage Summit in SFO, Feb 23rd. Suggestions?5:31 PM Nov 21st, 2008 from web

biker babes and others on the SC08 show floor 8:48 PM Nov 22nd, 2008 from web

Austin airport waiting for a flight to jfk. Tomorrow on to st Barth’s!10:50 PM Nov 22nd, 2008 from twitterrific

On the way to overnight with a classmate in NYC. Ross wants to go out.4:10 AM Nov 23rd, 2008 from twitterrific

Another bat out of hell taxi ride in new york2:34 PM Nov 23rd, 2008 from twitterrific

woke at 6, slept again il 10, still utterly exhausted. Going to be hard to pull together numbers today.4:02 PM Nov 24th, 2008 from web
(I wasn’t entirely on vacation…)

…have to admit that being in a tropical paradise doesn’t help!4:08 PM Nov 24th, 2008 from web

@tgardner totally not watching Rachael Ray. Why, is she doing something we should actually care about?12:45 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web in reply to tgardner

Video stats completed & sent. Time to pour another shot of vanilla rum and go help cook Hindustani khanna1:19 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

@pizzocalabro thanks for the giggle – I needed that. Can’t figure out whether I want to see Twilight. Just read the book. Enh.3:59 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web in reply to pizzocalabro

@pizzocalabro thanks for the reminder- haven’t read Cleolinda in AGES.4:50 AM Nov 25th, 2008 from web in reply to pizzocalabro

listening to the cries of a lost goat kid, and the deeper, hoarse bleats of its distraught mother. They’ll find each other.2:42 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web

St. Barthelemy: The Return from web

@tgardner run too much with the beer dogs & you soon become a much bigger dog than you were. I wish I hadn’t learned to like beer!5:08 PM Nov 25th, 2008 from web in reply to tgardner

island wifi 4:08 PM Nov 26th, 2008 from web

the problem with having a huge international family is that there’s always something scary going on near someone you love (Mumbai, now)9:38 PM Nov 26th, 2008 from web

@missbhavens check out this one: http://www.beginningwithi.c…12:10 AM Nov 27th, 2008 from web in reply to missbhavens

this is India’s 9/11. Have any Americans even noticed? Hello, people! This matters!4:35 AM Nov 27th, 2008 from web

role call of friends in Mumbai okay so far, tho one of the police commissioners killed was the relative of a schoolmate.2:04 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web

@rosso thanks for the links on Mumbai – very helpful.2:22 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web in reply to rosso

an Indian friend is sad that her Australian friend can’t come visit now – he’s too high-profile.2:28 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web

But she also said “I don’t want to be walking around with someone who’s a target”.2:28 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web

Then she asked me: “So when are you coming back to India?” <wistful irony>2:29 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web

@trine email seems to be normal, but I couldn’t get thru to a Mumbai land line from Skype last night, nor watch any Indian news video sites3:49 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web in reply to trine

@pandemia se vuoi qualche appunto dall’esperienza Sun, fammi sapere5:08 PM Nov 27th, 2008 from web in reply to pandemia

today I’m 46 and my entire life is in question. Interesting times, I guess.3:31 PM Nov 28th, 2008 from web

@ThinGuy thanks. Not getting laid off would be a good start.3:41 PM Nov 28th, 2008 from web in reply to ThinGuy

@lucaconti @pandemia (non mi follow su nessuno dei 2, non posso messaggiarti). Cmq dipende dal giorno, non ricordo la data3:45 PM Nov 28th, 2008 from web in reply to lucaconti

battery meter on my Air doesn’t know where it is anymore6:18 PM Nov 28th, 2008 from web

oops 10:30 PM Nov 28th, 2008 from web

@ThinGuy no worse than the many times I’ve fallen off horses. Could use a good neck massage, but that’s about it. Happy birthday to me!1:19 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from web in reply to ThinGuy

Suketu Mehta says it for me 9:58 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from web

morning-after soreness from yesterday’s car misadventure. ow, ow, ow. Need a massage, maybe.11:22 AM Nov 29th, 2008 from web

@jscusc from where I’m sitting, the tropical trees and bushes look amazing without snow. ; )4:28 PM Nov 29th, 2008 from web in reply to jscusc

the evening ended with a house concert including http://tinyurl.com/6pru87 7:02 AM Nov 30th, 2008 from web

@pippawilson ma anche il vice-versa!3:56 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from web in reply to pippawilson

Obama and his cabinet, TCKs 6:41 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from web

contemplating: if I get RIFfed by Sun, could I get a job in India? China? Hmm.6:46 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from web

A friend writes: “A lot of the children at…the most elite and oldest school in Bombay have lost one or both parents” – truly India’s 9/117:13 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from twhirl

@c0t0d0s0 no particular reason, and thanks for the compliment, but surely that’s what we’re all thinking right now.7:20 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to c0t0d0s0

@jowyang re chai, make your own! recipes vary, but most involve boiling milk, water with tea, sugar + spices esp. cardamom11:35 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to jowyang

@pizzocalabro any kind you like, but plain black, not flavored. You’ll want to use a strainer for the spices, e.g. cinnamon stick and clove11:48 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from twhirl in reply to pizzocalabro

bio

Words of Wisdom from Irish Taxi Drivers

January 8, 2009 Deirdre Straughan 1 Comment

Taxi drivers the world over are usually gregarious and interested in people (it’s more or less a job requirement). I even met one, years ago in the US, who told me he was driving a taxi to gather stories for a novel he wanted to write.

I’ve just made a flying (in all senses of the word) visit to Dublin, which required four or five taxi rides between airport, hotel, and office, so I had ample opportunity to learn that Irish taxi drivers are more garrulous than most, and wise and funny with it.

The first one, who took me from the airport to the Sun offices the day I arrived, upon learning that this was my first visit to Ireland (yes, tick another “country beginning with I” off the list), told me:

“There are two things you should never do in Ireland: never touch another person’s beer at the pub – that’s sacrilege – and never call an Irishman an Englishman.”

He then reeled off a list of “stupid questions you should never ask,” attributing most of them to Texan tourists:

“That’s a beautiful castle, but why did they build it so close to the motorway?” (A real Texan probably said “highway”, not “motorway”.)
“Why is the grass so green here?” – Answer: “We paint it for the tourists.”
“When will I see a leprechaun?” – Answer: “After your 14th pint of Guinness.”

After giving someone else on the road a piece of his mind, this driver also explained to me that the Irish swear a lot.

“But it’s not necessarily bad. If someone tells you to fuck off, that’s bad. But if a man at the pub asks a woman ‘Do you want to fuck off with me?’, that’s a compliment.”

…

Of course everyone’s talking about the global economic crisis. Another driver told me: “The economists say it’ll be the worst off we’ve ever been. But that’s only relative. This was a very poor country 10-15 years ago.”

He grew up in a family of nine children, whose sheer number entitled the family to a “medical” card. This meant that, when their father’s weekly paycheck ran out on Thursday, the driver (the oldest boy in the family) would take his mother’s shopping trolley to the “stew house” where he was given a big pot of stew and one of rice to tide the family over until payday (Saturday). “I had two older sisters, but they were ashamed to be seen going to the stew house.”

“Now I own a four-bedroom villa in Torquay, as well as the house I live in here [in Dublin]. If I have to sell the villa because of the crisis, how badly off am I, really? I hate to say it, but maybe this crisis will teach people to tighten their belts. We’ve all become too greedy.”

bio

The Twitter Diaries: November, 2008, part 1

November 29, 2008 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

Barcelona: Casa Battlo 7:10 AM Nov 1st from web

John Cleese nails it: http://tinyurl.com/18r (thanks Indecision!). I never knew what “berk” exactly meant til now… 9:31 AM Nov 1st from web

once again, as so often, filming stuff I do not understand (nor ever will). At least this hotel has decent free wifi 12:07 PM Nov 1st from web

The term “patriotism” makes me heave. Let’s all just be proud and supportive citizens of our one and only PLANET, okay? 9:13 PM Nov 1st from web

@stephenfry that begs to be a Cole Porter lyric 6:34 AM Nov 2nd from web in reply to stephenfry

@webmink can’t say Esquire is wrong [in their Obama endorsement article], sadly. I would like to be proud to be American. Kinda hard right now. 6:40 AM Nov 2nd from web in reply to webmink

Qwitter is a very instructive tool. I am amazed by the tweets which apparently inspire people to unfollow me. Maybe there’s no correlation? 1:32 PM Nov 2nd from web

@tgardner that would be incredibly good news [Ryanair plans cheap tran-sAtlantic flights by late 2009] for me and my transAtlantic family. We can already get from London to Bergamo cheap 2:43 PM Nov 2nd from web in reply to tgardner

just queued up the iGoogle weather widget with all the places I’m going to be in the next 3.5 weeks. Fortunately, all warmer than here 3:11 PM Nov 2nd from web

beautiful: http://tinyurl.com/5eej54 3:16 PM Nov 2nd from web

@missbhavens …and it’s not even the eve yet. Camomile tea. Or, better, scotch 4:11 PM Nov 2nd from web in reply to missbhavens – this was about pre-election jitters

I hope someone, somewhere, has good video of Rickman and Duncan in “Private Lives” in 2002. Saw it on stage in London. Magic. 7:17 PM Nov 2nd from web

@ThinGuy take them [the kids] with you. If they’re annoying enough, someone will bump you to the head of the line. ; ) 8:13 AM Nov 3rd from web in reply to ThinGuy

upcoming travel: San Diego (FAST) Sat-Mon, Las Vegas (CEC) Tues-Weds, MPK (Forum) Thurs, Austin (HPC Consortium/SC08) Friday on 10:44 AM Nov 3rd from web

Stewart and Colbert advertising on my site. I love it! 10:56 AM Nov 3rd from web

photos of Barcellona’s Parc Guell 10:58 AM Nov 3rd from web

Heidi Klum as Kali http://tinyurl.com/6k8tr3 11:38 AM Nov 3rd from web

@missbhavens really, truly LOL! thanks, needed that. FYI, daughter full steam ahead on nursing – wish her luck in chemistry 101~! 2:36 PM Nov 3rd from web in reply to missbhavens

@AmberSafa it’s a lot cheaper [anger management] if you take it out on unused clay flowerpots – they shatter very nicely 2:37 PM Nov 3rd from web in reply to Amberlita

here’s Waldo! http://www.fotolog.com/ross… 2:45 PM Nov 3rd from web

another night of poor sleep. I hope tonight I’m awake for better reasons. 6:24 AM Nov 4th from web

vloggers: here’s a chance to make money off the footage you know you’re going to shoot today anyway http://www.the44thpresident… 7:35 AM Nov 4th from web

@ThinGuy re. gym, very true, but not everyone has time time or money for it. Even eating well is expensive. 7:52 AM Nov 4th from web in reply to ThinGuy – a conversation about how the unfit would cost us all money with socialized medicine

@koberoi was thinking of publishing a guide to pronouncing Indian names so people stop calling you Cool Dip 8:57 AM Nov 4th from web in reply to koberoi

@italylogue got a request from a documentarist for footage from everywhere in the world, sent it out here to vlogger buds 10:52 AM Nov 4th from web in reply to italylogue

@seancarlos you can kiss my hubby for me there, er, no, maybe he wouldn’t like that… 10:52 AM Nov 4th from web in reply to seancarlos – Enrico attended an election night party at the US Consulate in Milan, along with many of my Democrats Abroad friends. I later learned that he was there til 6 am (local time) and several Milanese bigwigs made appearances including, surprisingly, Umberto Bossi of the racist, xenophobic Lega Nord. Maybe he was hoping McCain would win.

@rosso okay, YOU can kiss my hubby for me 11:20 AM Nov 4th from web in reply to rosso

a colleague is whistling “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow…” 11:56 AM Nov 4th from web – this started an epidemic among my Tweeps (Twitter followers)

@jeffreytaylor I was listening to Hairspray, which seemed appropriate 12:06 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

@dfugate myself, I was listening to Hairspray. 12:33 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to dfugate

love working at a multinational. Office neighbor is wandering the halls speaking on his bluetooth headset about “supairclass” (he’s French) 12:36 PM Nov 4th from web

@jeffreytaylor another good one: http://www.fivethirtyeight…. 4:02 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

@DavidHowell absolutely, I will be weeping like a baby either way. 4:40 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to DavidHowell

@jeffreytaylor Dole going is a win for us atheists. Sort of. 4:41 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

@DavidHowell you saw this, right? http://www.beginningwithi.c… 4:49 PM Nov 4th from web in reply to DavidHowell

exhausted, relieved, in tears of joy. I can has sleep now? 10:25 PM Nov 4th from web

@comay amen to that! 8:02 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to comay

no delete in Twitter right now – I hope they bring it back, that could be dangerous 8:32 AM Nov 5th from web [they did]

@SaraD Everyone seems to forget that he’s only half black. Hmm… Constantly referring to him as black, is that racist? 8:33 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to SaraD

@c_bright I didn’t do much [for the Obama campaign], but was happy to contribute what I could 8:47 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to c_bright

gonna listen to the Sun annual meeting http://www.sun.com/aboutsun… 9:35 AM Nov 5th from web

@FakeSarahPalin thanks, you were great. (and I mean the fake one, not the real one) 9:37 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to FakeSarahPalin

really sad about Prop 8, though. 9:39 AM Nov 5th from web

@giovanni who’s stopping conservatives from speaking? I, for one, am willing to listen. 10:13 AM Nov 5th from web – he responded that they were censoring themselves

@giovanni I’m surprised. They haven’t done so up to now. 10:42 AM Nov 5th from web in reply to giovanni

first time I’ve ever listened to a shareholder meeting. Have the feeling nothing important gets done here. 10:45 AM Nov 5th from web

a multinational, bilingual girl votes for a multi-everything guy: http://www.fotolog.com/ross… 11:13 AM Nov 5th from web

nailing down party details, processing video and uploading it to be transcribed, trying to remember where I left my head 1:52 PM Nov 5th from web

one of my favorite restaurants in the world just sent their December menu. Hungry! 7:14 AM Nov 6th from web

Berlusca strikes again: “Obama is young, handsome, and tanned”. http://tinyurl.com/6a3acq 8:35 AM Nov 6th from web

Berlusca also wants to “offer advice, as an old man to a young one [Obama]”. My advice would be to stay the hell away from this buffoon 8:42 AM Nov 6th from web

@dons_light not yet. May show up on http://www.ansa.it/site/not… or http://www.corriere.it/ (English) 8:46 AM Nov 6th from web in reply to dons_light

@tgardner one reason I never got around to getting Italian citizenship: I would have been legally obliged to vote there 11:00 AM Nov 6th from web in reply to tgardner

for those who wanted to read Berlusca’s words in English: http://tinyurl.com/67lza5 11:05 AM Nov 6th from web

babysitting a video camera, anxiously awaiting a hot lunch (these floor-to-ceiling windows are damn cold!) 11:08 AM Nov 6th from web

moving my highly popular Italian slang pages to WordPress. Lots of tedious link fixing 3:14 PM Nov 6th from web

@darios at least we Americans will soon be able to stop apologizing for our president 3:19 PM Nov 6th from web in reply to darios

@tgardner see you there! I’ll be the one running around with a video camera 8:39 AM Nov 7th from web in reply to tgardner

travelling tomorrow. Looking forward to the San Diego Zoo on Sunday – need a break from the people, talking to the animals will be perfect 10:25 AM Nov 7th from web

@Halcyon cable boxes are actually pretty dumb (because cheap) and don’t have the circuitry for things like USB 1:35 PM Nov 7th from web in reply to Halcyon

@zephoria yeah, kinda makes me want to go work in Washington 1:38 PM Nov 7th from web – speaking about change.gov

any recommendations on a good FTP client for Mac? finding Filezilla too flakey 1:39 PM Nov 7th from web

thanks for the recs, everybody – Cyberduck is great! 1:59 PM Nov 7th from web

@jeffreytaylor thanks for that link [to Obama campaign backstage photos] – very cool. But I wanna see Barack and Michelle kiss! 3:02 PM Nov 7th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

Waiting to get food at Denver intl 10:12 AM Nov 8th from twitterrific

@jowyang just met somebody who based a whole business on that 3:06 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to jowyang

Heading for downtown San diego in hopes sunshine and food will make me feel better 3:07 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific

Wow I could take a tram almost to Mexico 3:10 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific

@KermitRocks Guess it folded he works for sun now. Had domains like ringtones.com, cycled traffic between them. pornies do the same I bet 3:13 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to KermitRocks

@jowyang talk to my friend @seancarlos about that. He helped me build great seo 3:15 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to jowyang

@jowyang …based on real content I hasten to add 3:15 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to jowyang

@KermitRocks the black hat stuff prob doesn’t work anymore anyway. But building relationships and content takes a lot of time 4:37 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to KermitRocks

Gets dark very early in sandiego this time of year 4:39 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific

Time to go hang with the geeks of LISA 4:42 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific

@ThinGuy I will be there [Las Vegas] tues to thurs for cec. Meet up? 4:43 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to ThinGuy

@KermitRocks yup. Glad I started my site in 2001 4:44 PM Nov 8th from twitterrific in reply to KermitRocks

enjoying a windy cool day at the San diego zoo 11:52 AM Nov 9th from twitterrific

just back from a lovely day at the San Diego Zoo. Nice to not think about technology for a few hours 3:55 PM Nov 9th from web

Hmm. Qwitter says @pandemia has unfollowed me. Luca, what’s up with that? 3:59 PM Nov 9th from web (he split his follows between English and Italian speakers)

yeesh is there anyone at Sun NOT working this weekend? 4:20 PM Nov 9th from web

Sun has a powerful army of bloggers. If we can only get at least some of them marching in the same direction. ; ) 5:40 PM Nov 9th from web

oh dear. the OpenOffice spell checker doesn’t know what to make of “www.opensolaris.org”, suggests “irresponsibleness” 5:54 PM Nov 9th from web

Iâ€™ve Been to the Zoo, Zoo, Zooâ€¦ 6:34 PM Nov 9th from web

@lskrocki yes, indeed, but if we can get all these lovely different voices to sing in chorus now and then… 6:35 PM Nov 9th from web in reply to lskrocki

…and we’re off! http://tinyurl.com/6l3k3u 9:35 PM Nov 9th from web (this was what I’d been trying to get Sun bloggers to blog about. And they did.)

@timbray nah, the Amber Road stories all hit at the same time. Embargo ended at 12:01 eastern. 9:47 PM Nov 9th from web in reply to timbray

filming an all-day ZFS workshop at LISA, while aggregating blog posts about the Sun Storage 7000 launch http://blogs.sun.com/storage/ 11:06 AM Nov 10th from web

@jeffreytaylor ouch! good severance package, I hope? 1:37 PM Nov 10th (his partner got laid off)

thanks @rosso – http://notspeakinginmyname…. a very cool statement of what real Italians think (not corrupt, wealthy, stupid politicians) 1:55 PM Nov 10th from web

@mmcallen aww, sorry to hear it. But keep trying. 2:03 PM Nov 10th (a cool overseas job opportunity dried up)

geek humor: http://tinyurl.com/62dljm (I’m a geek – I love it!) 2:06 PM Nov 10th from web

finally got 50 UT students coming to our SC08 party in Austin. Woulda been embarrassing not to have them – the t-shirts are burnt orange! 3:13 PM Nov 10th from web

it’s the Bryan and Mike show! http://tinyurl.com/yr72th 3:42 PM Nov 10th from web

very cool to see so many Sun folks in the chat channel on http://tinyurl.com/yr72th , answering questions 3:51 PM Nov 10th from web

nice to see my bud Ben Rockwood up there, but I prefer him in a kilt 4:11 PM Nov 10th from web

short night, long day – want beer! (and food) 5:09 PM Nov 10th from web

in the laptop lounge, catching up before travel. LISA has the best wifi of any conference I’ve ever been to. Must be that sponsor 7:23 AM Nov 11th from web

San Diego airport has free wifi. Cool. 9:38 AM Nov 11th from web

@davest and Denver, and Las Vegas last time I looked. Definitely a huge plus in any airport. 10:07 AM Nov 11th from web in reply to davest

an Italian man with a really bad haircut is travelling on this flight to Las Vegas 10:55 AM Nov 11th from web

@tgardner glad to hear it [good weather in Las Vegas], about to get on a plane to come there 10:58 AM Nov 11th from web in reply to tgardner

Awaiting bag at las vegas. Remembering why I hate this place. No, it’s not the baggage 12:47 PM Nov 11th from twitterrific – It’s the noise and fakeness.

@ThinGuy sounds good. I like vegas better when I manage to find real natives 3:53 PM Nov 11th from twitterrific in reply to ThinGuy

awake and working in Las Vegas at 6:30 am. Yeah, sure, my job is sooooo glamorous. 6:42 AM Nov 12th from web

too many steps to United online checkin. Stop giving me “special” offers, I’m in a hurry! 7:36 AM Nov 12th from web

@ThinGuy sorry I missed it, ended up too tired. I’m filming the HPC track this morning/aft, speaking at BoF this evening. drink in between? 9:40 AM Nov 12th from web in reply to ThinGuy

filming a great deal of detail on High-Performance Computing. Sun: we do cool stuff. 10:10 AM Nov 12th from web

anyone at CEC, come to the blogging BoF this evening 8-9. I suspect the fur is going to fly. ; ) [It did.] 1:28 PM Nov 12th from web

my friends in marketing owe me a drink. Or three. 2:09 PM Nov 12th from web – I took a lot of crap over the contest to get people blogging.

@alexiaco mi ricordi che dovrei aggiungere SOLA al mio dizionario di slang italiano. Come lo traduresti esattamente? 3:39 PM Nov 12th from web in reply to alexiaco

@caseymckinnon the delete function [in Twitter] has been coming and going for days 3:40 PM Nov 12th from web in reply to caseymckinnon

finally seeing the new GUI. wow. so much for the theory that Sun sucks at GUIs. 4:25 PM Nov 12th from web

@davest hospital? Okay now ? 5:58 PM Nov 12th from twitterrific in reply to davest

Mildly depressed today. Lack of sleep not helping. Why do we have so little faith in each other? Just makes life sadder 8:22 AM Nov 13th from twitterrific

@jeffreytaylor cause change in Italy?I wish him luck. India will be a lot easier 8:24 AM Nov 13th from twitterrific in reply to jeffreytaylor

@jeffreytaylor subscribers to what? I’m missing context on who this guy is 9:24 AM Nov 13th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

“It takes a while…” 9:44 AM Nov 13th from web

if the phone in this flex office is ringing for me, I’ll be seriously creeped out 10:59 AM Nov 13th from web

about to moderate chat for my boss’ talk on Managing Scalable Storage Environments with Solaris http://www.ustream.tv/sun 1:58 PM Nov 13th from web

@ThinGuy @smaragdis the way this week is going, I’m lucky so far I’ve only lost my beloved pashmina scarf 2:27 PM Nov 13th from web in reply to ThinGuy

France’s response to Berlusconi idiocy: http://worldmeets.us/journa… 2:29 PM Nov 13th from web

argh! no one ask anymore questions – they turn the camera on me! [while I was moderating the UStream chat] 2:33 PM Nov 13th from web

wow, the camera really does add pounds. what I see on Ustream is not what I see in front of me 2:37 PM Nov 13th from web

@lbridenne76 looked more like 20 pounds to me! But women tend to be more sensitive about that 3:13 PM Nov 13th from web in reply to lbridenne76

spam email from “mr nice”. somehow not convincing 4:17 PM Nov 13th from web

Lynn finishing up her talk, then we’ll go to SFO to catch the last plane for this week – then I get to stay on the ground for 7 whole days! 9:23 AM Nov 14th from web

@Halcyon beautiful! http://flickr.com/photos/ha… 9:26 AM Nov 14th from web in reply to Halcyon

Ross cooked a great Italian dinner for 8 Sun colleagues last night. Everyone a bit edgy though mostly optimistic [about reorg news]. Change is needed. 6:51 AM Nov 15th from web

“…international diplomacy would change if more public figures actually said what was on their minds.” http://tinyurl.com/579ot9 6:54 AM Nov 15th from web

filming Andy Bechtolsheim. No, I’m not going to give you any details. NDA. 6:57 AM Nov 16th from web

@jeffreytaylor cool! see you on my next trip to the area [San Francisco] then, in Feb 6:59 AM Nov 16th from web in reply to jeffreytaylor

oh, well, if you want details [on Andy Bechtolsheim’s talk], follow @sunhpc 7:00 AM Nov 16th from web

what?!? surely there’s a tech fix waiting to happen here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008… 7:10 AM Nov 16th from web

my “glamorous” job 8:16 AM Nov 16th from web

Countries Beginning with I

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia