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Tue - February 19, 2008A Year in 6 months?There's a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a
grey, misty, slightly obscured light. But I believe it is
there...
I am leaving Cork Friday morning. I get to go home and see J&J get married in Marlin, TX. After a week in San Francisco, I have one more (short) visit to Cork the first week of March. And then... No. More. Travel. (Booked, at least) I accepted a job offer that will, in the short term, at least, cut down on my travel significantly. And, in the new role, I really don't see any more of the crazy schedules like I have been on since August. Any trips I make, I foresee being in the one week range, instead of the six-week range. Since I only have three more days until I check out of my apartment, I have an enormous sense of anticipation and gratitude. I had a moment on Nov 29, when one of my main projects went live in the last stage for that quarter, when I looked back on what the project team had accomplished in the time that I was here. It was significant. And I am having one of these moments now, too, because in December and January, I led another project through kickoff to go live, and it went REALLY well. Last week and this week, I am walking another team through the initial detail workshop sessions for a 6-month project cycle, and the workshops are really productive. I am thinking about how much I love project management, and how much I am going to miss this work. And I can't help but wonder if I will be as good in a new operational role as I am in project management. It will be a learning curve. Posted at 08:18 AM Read More Sun - November 25, 2007GrazieI ran home to Austin for a few days, and came
back to Ireland with Ms Pope and Sören to celebrate Thanksgiving here. It
was disconcerting to take them around County Cork after spending so many months
here by myself (not to mention the multitude of trips I have had here in the
past eight years).
I'm not sure what Ms Pope's favorite part was, but Sören discovered a fairy glade in Blarney: 
One of Sören's classmates, when he heard Tuesday that she would be going to Ireland and was planning on seeing the Blarney Castle, intentionally misunderstood her and was laughing hysterically that she would visit the "Barney Castle." She just put on a patented Pope look of disdain and turned her shoulder... Posted at 11:36 AM Read More Sun - November 4, 2007Worst in my lifeThe last haircut I got was at Chez Eye-reek,
outside, on a sidewalk outside a cabin at Lake Brownwood. And it was great,
really great. But that was September 29. I had gotten to the point where I
needed another. I had an appointment with Eye-reek at Bô (informal
appointment, be it what it may) for this past week, the week I was intending to
be back in Austin. Now I am not going back until maybe Nov 14 and there are a
ton of executives from California coming in to Ireland this week for product
launches Friday. I needed a haircut!
I went downtown yesterday, intending to stop in a bookstore (Don't! Let! Me! Buy! Another! Book!), go to the Quay Co-op, and find a salon where a suitably skilled stylist will see the hidden magic behind my shaggy appearance, give me a knowing and appreciative nod, and set to work with the insouciant confidence of Edward Scissorhands. Immediately after dropping off my car, I was surprised to see one of the trainers from work and a couple of her German students. She had just completed training the Germans on the product we're launching in Germany Friday, and all three of them were in that happy state of exhausted and excited. Gillian heard what I needed and immediately suggested a salon for me (and OMG now that I am writing this, I can not even remember the name -- I even looked through my receipts from yesterday but I didn't keep the receipt since I am not expensing the haircut... Damn!). So, I went to the salon to take an initial walk-by assessment, and it looked acceptably professional. I made an appointment for a little later in the afternoon. What a mistake. I awoke this morning looking like I had been kidnapped and had my hair abused by a drunken half-blind sadistic leprechaun. Posted at 07:29 PM Read More Tue - October 30, 2007PragueBlagueA lot of people have asked me what Prague was
like, how I liked it. This was my first trip there, and I have to admit, my
expectations were high. I had wanted to go there for years, and books like The Corrections just helped pique my curiosity.
But Prague suffered from comparison because I had been in Barcelona the week before, and let's face it,
Barcelona when it's warm and sunny can outshine Prague when it's cold and
rainy...
I had stayed at the Hotel Elite, which was certainly nice enough for my purposes. I would give it two stars, and probably wouldn't stay there again on my next trip, but it was not a bad experience. I went down for the included breakfast on Sunday morning, but there wasn't a table to be had. I went back up to my room thinking I would grab my book and go get a leisurely breakfast elsewhere, but on a whim, checked the guest room policies. It was already 10:10 and I was supposed to check out by 10! Oops. I threw all my stuff back in the suitcase and ran downstairs. They checked me out and had no problem with me leaving my suitcase and computer bag in a locked room while I went to explore the town. I can't remember the name of the café where I ate breakfast, but I had a delicious French breakfast with pastries, butter, jellies, and a café au lait. I had a map that seemed to serve its purpose, and set off for the Národní Muzeum: 
This museum was one of my favorites of its type, heavy on geology and fossils and taxidermy. That's not because its collections were so stupendously comprehensive, but because almost all of the commentary and information was in Czech, not English. Ordinarily when I am in a Field Museum of Natural History, I feel this compulsion to stop and read EVERY placard so I can be as well-educated as possible on the topic of Plains Indians' footwear, or whatever. Here, I was free of that compulsion. I could just run through an exhibit, and slow down only when I saw something really amazing. When you have a flight home at 8:30 pm and an entire city to see, that kind of freedom is exhilarating! 
I have always been fascinated by Malachite, and I found this interesting: "It is also an excellent protection stone during flying and other travel. Using this stone, one can counteract self-destructive romantic tendencies and help encourage true, pure love." Wow. Who can't use that, eh? 
This is just a perfect example of why it's fun to be in a museum like this with no English explanations for what you're seeing. You can make up any description you want. "The ancient Slavs used toothpicks like this after eating flaky strudel." 
This just spooked me out... More after the jump... Posted at 08:22 AM Read More Mon - October 29, 2007Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in PragueIn an earlier post, I had talked about how much I wanted to
see Glen Hansard perform while I was in Europe...
But the Prague performance with Marketa Irglova appeared to be sold
out.
I talked with a colleague about my dilemma, and she advised me she had been seeing the Frames play since she was 15 years old and if I had a chance to see him perform in an intimate environment, I had to do it. He was incredible. On Noëlle's advice, I found an email address on the Frames' website and sent a begging email: "Hello! My name is popemark. I usually live in Austin, TX. There is a radio station in Austin, KGSR, that played a song from Once and I fell in love with it!! I bought The Swell Season off of iTunes Store and can not stop listening to it! So, here's my dilemma. I am working in Ireland this fall. I am scheduled to fly home to Texas 27 October, so will miss the Frames playing in Dublin. But I will be back in Ireland in November when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova will play Stubb's. I really really really want to see Glen and Marketa play! I can make it to Prague this weekend, but the concert is sold out. Is there any any any way I can get tickets to this event? (I have also talked to colleagues here at [company name] who have seen Glen and Marketa play and attest to the beauty of the event.) Please let me know if there's any hope! Thank you, popemark" 
Response after the jump... Posted at 08:23 AM Read More Mon - October 15, 2007City of tileI spent the last four days in Barcelona, soaking
in the sun and food and general Mediterranean atmosphere. Sure, I was working,
too (Thursday and Friday, at least), but it didn't feel like it. This town is
gorgeous, and I can't wait for an opportunity to
return...
I can't count the number of times that Ms Pope and I have been in a gorgeous, exotic or cosmopolitan city and have fantasized about living there for a period of time. The first occurrence of this was on our very first holiday/date, to Mexico City for Day of the Dead 1994. For us, any time we are vacationing in a beautiful locale, part of the trip (at least) is spent dreaming about what it might be like to live there... I did this again in Barcelona. The Gothic Quarter, especially, is so beautiful and enchanting, that I saw myself sitting on a balcony, with Snickers on my lap (the dogs didn't join me in my fantasy), drinking a cafe crema... 
 Posted at 08:41 AM Read More Mon - October 8, 2007Mizen HeadI left town (Cork City) yesterday to go on a
scenic drive before the real fall or winter weather hits. I headed out to see
the signal house at Mizen Head, which is described as the most
southwesterly point on Ireland.
The coast was absolutely beautiful! And I enjoyed playing Dashboard Confessional and Glen Hansard on the drive... 
Several weeks ago, I had purchased an Ordnance Survey of Ireland Road Atlas that is just plain awesome. As I drove past Toormore, it got a little harder to tell where I was going, but I never really got lost. I would get "turned around," but could stop and trace the road I was on. The roads got extremely narrow once I was past Goleen, but they were still posted to follow the path to get to Mizen Head itself. 
The old lighthouse keepers' quarters are open to ticket holders, so you can see how they lived. I purchased a ticket, but I got there so close to 5:00 that I will have to use it on a future trip. Ms Pope and Sören are planning on coming to visit over Thanksgiving, so I can hopefully bring them out when they are here and we can actually go through the "museum" together.  Posted at 08:19 AM Read More Sun - October 7, 2007He will burn in hellI bought tickets to see Mozart's Don
Giovanni on a whim yesterday, at the Cork Opera House. I didn't
realize that Soren Kierkegaard considered it the most perfect
opera ever produced (the things you find out from wikipedia when
you just want to get a link for a blog entry), but was interested in doing
something besides finding local music in a Cork pub or reading in the
apartment.
I had attended a performance at Cork Opera House before - Van Morrison, probably around 2001 or 2002... But I did not remember the details of the design inside. I have to admit, I was not expecting something like the Opera House in Tokyo Opera City or Walt Disney Concert Hall... But I was surprised by how much it resembled a high school auditorium. The stage design did not help matters much, relying heavily on spare low-budget pieces. But Sandra Oman as Donna Elvira and Majella Cullagh as Donna Anna were both very impressive. And in my morose state of mind, dwelling on the nature of sin and transgression was actually somewhat pleasant! Especially since Leporello does such an able job of presenting an inspiration that this foible-laden spectator could possibly live up to... Posted at 10:21 PM Read More |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Feb 19, 2008 08:18 AM |
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