After the Deluge

Well, it is almost 1 AM on the 12th of March, time for the second entry to this wonderful new communications tool. Ivan has left; i saw him off at the train station earlier today. I was sad to see him go. We don't have face to face time much anymore since I moved to DE. Of course we were drunk most of our waking hours, but hey, that is what mini-vacations are for! We did get a bit of work done, too. The logo for M19 Media is complete, and we went ahead and laid out the letterhead, envelopes and business cards. They will be simple, modern and tres chic. It will be a logo that will be hip 10 years from now. I am so excited. The only down-side is that I have to redesign the web site to match the "feel" of the logo. One thing that I have to add that I said (slurred?) to Ivan last night when this logo was really gelling: I was so glad that it was a joint effort. Given Ivan's experience in design, I have tended to defer to him in most matters, simply accepting his word as Gospel. This time, I felt that I have done enough work to speak intelligently and bring something to the table. It was a great collaboration and my respect for him has only grown. Check out futurejunkie to see what he has to say about his trip.I will be taking this design downstate for the Writer's At the Beach Conference this weekend in Rehoboth Beach. Having designed the website pro bono, I have a comped room at the Sands and hope that this will be just the "coming out" party that i need to create a self-sustaining enterprise. I know going in that I have one web design contract in hand, but I would consider it a real success if I could come home with three more. There will be many authors there, so I imagine an appeal to their sense of vanity should help matters along. Justin will be my escort to the cocktail reception and I don't think that I could ask for a better cheerleader. It will be fun and hopefully profitable.As is my custom, I am watching the Sunday shows late at night because I am usually not around to see them live. Thanks to the trusty DVR for giving me control over my TV habits! Anyway the story is (and has been pretty well downplayed by the Admin) is that we sat down with Iraq's neighbors to enlist their help in solving the Iraq (Shia/Sunni) problem. Many will rightly assert that once we have opened that Pandora's Box, there will be no going back and bringing them into the calculus would make things worse. Syria would link any help that they give to us to concessions from Israel, Iran would get us to back off their nuclear program for any assistance they would provide in getting us out of this quagmire. Well, I say let's get the people that are the true stakeholders in the outcome of this war to step up to the plate. we're no longer the honest broker, and bringing the Shia and Sunnis together in Iraq will be impossible if we cannot bring the wider Shia/Sunni conflict to some sort of detente. Ted Koppel mentioned that the threat of a regional religious war that could go on for generations is a real possibility, and I am sure that the Arab nations in the region would like to prevent that from happening if only to mitigate Israel benefiting from the carnage.Gamers: The latest version of President Forever is available. This has a primaries module so you can slug it out for the nomination. Lots of fun. They have worked out the bugs from earlier versions, so it is now a joy to play. I will be posting results of games that I play as they could be exciting predictors of the actual 2008 presidential Race. Game 1: I played Al Gore and lost the nomination in a squeaker to Hillary. It would have been a Gore sweep, but I misread the primary schedules and lost some tight races in pivotal states. Guliani was the GOP front runner.Chris was here earlier for dinner. I cooked up some NY Strips to beat the band (the red wine, garlic, salt, pepper, and EVO marinade made the difference)! We watched a little TV and snuggled on the white couch. God, I love kissing that boy. Alas, he could not stay the night as he has pressing stuff to do in the morning. I can't think of a better launch pad than here, but okay...I will take this one slowly.I have a feeling that Monday will kick off a hellish week of deadlines and neglected projects that are now emergencies. Are you out there Chuck? I am talking about you! I will try to keep my entries up to date, but since there are exactly ZERO people reading this, this may not remain a priority should the shit hit the fan.Nite!