At some point I was sick of having to fix navigation links, and at the same time I wouldn’t have wanted to have to navigate manually through my site. Things started getting even worse as I put my pictures online – it was a major pain to get the hierarchy in order, and I finally decided to resort to a tool to manage at least that part.
Continue readingIt is the year of the Lord 2002, and corporate executives are being accused of fraudolent behavior left and right. And if it is not outright greed that pushes men and women over the edge, it seems that there is a whole world of incompetence that has pushed to the top and has been wreaking havoc over the past years.
Every day, it seems, another multi-billion conglomerate implodes in a conflagration that will leave entire cities without jobs, causing pain and suffering to large populations, but seemingly not harming those who caused the problem.
Continue readingWho wasn’t smart enough to know that Internet startups had to disappear sooner or later? We all thought the situation had gotten completely out of control, and we somehow wished the pull of gravity would get those highly egomanic startup captains of venture crashing to the same place from which they had soared.
No doubt a lot of the rise and fall of the dot.com era was inherently due to fundamental economic factors that hindsight so easily knows about. There must be a generation of Americans that thinking back smugly affirms: “I told you so!” For you and me that unlike them didn’t know it was happening, their 401k is down just where yours and mine is.
Continue readingAs long as the Internet economy was happily bubbling ahead, the Peter Principle reigned supreme: Peter joined a startup and got promoted quickly. Invariably, he would land in a position where he not only started failing, but dragged the entire startup down with his incompetence. Which of course didn’t quite matter, since the Peter Principle was (and is) democratic and made everybody else look just as stupid as Peter himself.
Continue reading](/2005/01/the-curse-of-the-competent/)
Ok, there is another task, and there is this one guy that is really, really good: never makes a fuss about getting more stuff piled on, never needs any check-in, always delivers above satisfation. This guy (or more frequently, gal) will end up doing a disproportionate amount of the work for no extra charge and no advantage… S(he) is hit by the Curse of the Competent!
Continue readingsitting on a starry night
high above my windows
watching all those stars
quietly go round.
now how often did i sit on the hill
on the green or grassy buena vista
looking up the tired and trite signs
of centuries of yore.
beam me up, antares!
my guiding light of dusk
and wrestle with my loved one
for the privilege of blood.
beat me up, polaris!
you fixest of the suns
and cure me from my gaze
straight into his eyes.
oh, how i love this wondrous city,
atlantis on the rocks;
one third is ocean spray,
uncommon sense another,
the rest, the hottest fruits.
look, how it hurt to live its winter season,
the aches, the pains, the treasons and betrayals;
and yet, awake, gone are those worries;
would i drown in the sea of sun
that cascades through the window.
that little twig seemed dead ten days ago
robbed by the chill of any little life
it might have thought it might have had
lonely, bitter, dry, unhappy
that’s what it seemed to me.
| 1. | the main purpose of life is the achievement of happiness. |
|---|---|
| 1.1 | it takes two to be happy. |
| 1.2 | happy is made of smiles, of laughs, of play, of fun; |
| 1.2.1 | of tender kisses under the november moon and sweaty nights under the august sun; |
| 1.2.2 | of frosty fingers under cuddly winter blankets and of hunting butterflies in the skies of spring. |
| 1.3 | there is no such thing as a sad day. |
| 1.3.1 | the sad moments are when love and friendship grow; |
| 1.3.2 | the sudden burst of tears is as important as the sudden bout with laughter |
| 2. | i am myself. |
| 2.1 | grew up in europe, between castles and design furniture. |
| 2.1.1 | rome is the most wondersome city. |
| 2.2 | know a lot of things i cannot use, and still seek those i need. |
| 2.3 | intelligence and wit and humor and creativity. |
| 2.3.1 | i cannot live without sharing the things we have learned; without learning. |
| 2.4 | experiencing, moving, seeking, desiring. |
| 2.4.1 | i cannot live without doing – be it riding my bike, hiking up the mountains, traveling to distant places or what you have. |
| 2.5 | i am and i am not. |
| 2.5.1 | the day you think you have figured me out, i am all different again. |
| 2.5.1.1 | this is true for everything except for the continuity of my affection and love |
| 2.5.1.2 | it is true for sex, too. |
| 2.6 | will you like me? |
| 2.6.1 | italian looks, athletic build, quite hairy and masculine. you choose. |
| 3. | are you the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky? |
| 3.1 | to me, you will be all. |
| 3.1.1 | no matter what role you will have in my life, no matter what role i will have in yours. |
| 3.2 | be all to yourself. |
| 3.2.1 | there should be no thing you wouldn’t want to explore. |
| 3.2.2 | i want to be able to do everything with you. |
| 3.3 | demand much; give much. |
| 3.3.1 | don’t forget life is short. |
| 3.3.2 | don’t forget life is short. |
| 3.4 | how will you look like? |
| 3.4.1 | do i really have no fetish? |
| 3.4.2 | whatever you look like, i will find you attractive if your heart is open. |
| 3.4.2.1 | as long as you can chase me around the hills of Tuscany on your bike, that is… |
| 4. | a day together is a day of joy. |
| 4.1 | waking up and listening to the silent presence of my man next to me makes me shudder with joy. |
| 4.2 | feeling his skin under my fingers sends thunderbolts through my spine. |
| 4.3 | throwing bread crumbs over the table and not worrying about the coffee spills; |
| 4.3.1 | there is no life without spills. |
| 4.4 | the beach, the bike ride, the trip to the hot spring. |
| 4.5 | visiting home, visiting friends, finding new friends together. |
| 4.6 | working for a living. |
| 4.7 | love is marvelous, friendship irreplaceable. |
| 4.7.1 | the blinking light of the answering machine can be joy. |
| 4.7.2 | there are lots of things you can do in an elevator that is stuck; |
| 4.7.2.1 | we shouldn’t think of sitting on the floor and wait. |
| 5. | i am a fool. |
| 5.1 | worse, i am a romantic fool. |
| 5.2 | and i love it. |
life by water
the fog crawls over the mountain
like the chilling glove of the sea
it captures, it raptures my heart
chained in the land of the free
cold are the streets, the avenues dark
then the sand, then the waves and japan
somewhere behind them the sun sets
land of the rising sun – another koan.
there is no space, no time by the sea
the smell in the air, the sound of the halcyon wave
seagulls screaming a sad song of lore
immobile they stare at their star
A collection of short poems intended to encompass twelve total. These trifles were born out of a creative spurt after I left the startup world and started enjoying the City by the Bay again.
The collection is incomplete, and currently encompasses only four poems:
