n i g h t i n g a l e s h i r a z / blog
lots of masks.  in Venice.

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on the wisdom of 6:50am flights.

-- really, there is none.

but *apart* from that (i.e. - where "that" includes the fact that i went to bed at ONE a.m. last night and woke up at FOUR a.m. (which, if you consider Lisbon time is actually THREE am)), and *apart* from the fact that when i got to the hotel (exhausted) here in lovely Lisbon for this -- my first day at Gartner's Project and Portfolio Management Summit -- my room wasn't ready, and *apart* from the fact that when i then (reluctantly, and still exhausted) ventured off to kill time in the downtown-Lisbon Baixa district, i found out that my ATM card DOES NOT WORK outside of Italy and so i had exactly FORTY Euros between me and the plane home on Sunday night...  and apart from then spending FAR too much time bothering an unfortunate account officer at Deutsche Bank Lisbon (and his almost-as-unfortunate colleagues at Deutsche Bank Rome and Deutsche Bank Pisa), and being by this point so exhausted, frustrated, hungry and upset (did i say exhausted?) -- that i lost it in front of said unfortunate account officer at Deutsche Bank Lisbon (whose fault it absolutely wasn't, and who, poor soul had never asked for some English-and-Italian-speaking, blubberingly emotional girl to sit there and experience temporary destitution), and well, i'll stop here, because this is just a terrible post.

anyway, i love my bank.


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Corinthia Alfa Hotel, Lisboa]
[wednesday 30 november 2005 at 18:27:16] []

nooooo.

first, i blame Graham Holliday for sending me here.
second (or maybe the other way around, if you're going in the chronological order of this particular blogosphere-stream-of-consciousness), i blame Jeremy Wagstaff for sending me to Graham Holliday in the first place.
third (and finally, to the point), this is pure-and-gorgeous, dangerous-for-your-desktop fantasticness.

now you can blame all of us.


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma]
[lunedì 28 novembre 2005 ore 22:51:18] []

sticky-to-self: cheapo airlines.

...with thanks in no small part to the folks at VCN-Rome:
- www.whichbudget.com
- www.openjet.com
- www.skyscanner.net
- www.easyjet.com
- www.ryanair.com
- www.virgin.com
- www.blu-express.com
- www.volareweb.com
- www.adr.it (Rome's airport website -- *frightfully* useful for updated arrival and departure times.)

...and some others from my travel-favorites folder:
- www.it.lastminute.com
- www.kayak.com

i promise to try and keep this current.  and hey, maybe i'll even add context.  or something.  someday.


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma]
[mercoledì 16 novembre 2005 ore 11:18:09] []

wish i were here...

from where i stand (which is obviously not in Tunisia, much to my sadness today), the World Electronic Media Forum looks like an actually interesting, potent couple of days -- for my money, more so even then the larger, loftier-looking, more UN-ey (!) World Summit on the Information Society.  just from looking at each of the two web sites and their event-listings (worlds apart in approach, transparency and directness-of-content), i know which one *i'd* like to be at...


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma]
[martedì 15 novembre 2005 ore 11:23:25] []

i had to make a lofty prediction at some point, no?

i'm just sayin' ya know.  that soon.  THIS, or THIS, or even THIS (via feature-suckup-osmosis/"value-add", and via Yahoo!, of course), is going to end up buying THAT.

*my* gut says Amazon.


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma]
[giovedì 10 novembre 2005 ore 13:46:53] []

fun with job titles...

...(aka - what happens when you spend too much time on LinkedIn):

* "CHANGE AGENT".
(and it's more geeky cousin, the "DIGITAL CHANGE AGENT").
i can't decide whether this makes me think of an ingredient in a chemical reaction ("sorry, professor Scott -- i meant to finish the experiment today but we ran out of change agents..."); or a new, politically correct (and very James Bond) name for a department-store fitting-room attendant.

* "LECTURER".
all i can imagine is a crotchety old, "you-should-know-better" finger-wagger.  i chortle.

* "PROFESSIONAL" (as in "IT & CONSULTING PROFESSIONAL").
i noticed i was referring to *myself* like this somewhere recently.  and i thought, what?  you mean, as opposed to an "IT & Consulting AMATEUR"?  or maybe you mean you're not UNPROFESSIONAL.  that you don't cut off your co-workers in meetings.   that you spell-check corporate correspondence.  that you actually respond to emails...
ah.  sadly, i am beginning to see how this might not be a given, sometimes...

* "HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES".
as in "hi, i'm Tom, the new Head of Human Resources"...
no.  no please.  you mustn't.  you mustn't tempt us like that...

* "RAINMAKER, INCUBATOR/ACCELERATOR".
i know.  but i swear i'm not making it up.


[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma]
[giovedì 03 novembre 2005 ore 16:29:11] []