Went strolling through one of Menlo Park's many wine and art festivals downtown. Discovered an artist who really had a beautiful eye and hand for capturing scenes from Italy(mainly Tuscany). Definitely breathtaking imagery. At first glance, you feel like you are looking out the window of your villa onto a beautiful landscape of Tuscany life. She's from Laguna and you can find more information and a sample of work at her website.

The other day someone came to my site I guess after following my sig file. She wrote me back and said, cute site, but where's the whining? Well I wrote back, that at some point I'll start to whine. I guess today's the day.

Up until now I've been lurking on listservs and occassionally wandering through the IA/UE blogs out there. I've found the right mix of frustration and I'm ready to erupt with a ton of whining...

The web really doesn't hold my attention anymore. I'm sick and tired of all the variations of ads showing up on a site. I feel like my experiences have been hijacked. Then there are days that it's kind of exciting, like when CW has something cool at Elegant Hack or perusing the NY Times. I don't know what it is but I'm bored. I'm bored about my own experience on the web. I'm bored with what certain folks have to say on any of the lists. I'm bored with all the things that used to push me into late night frenzies trying to think through some new innovative thought(despite someone probably saying something on the topic already more succintly than what I would have).

So I've taken a few weeks to step back from all the things I'm doing and I figured out why I'm bored. I forgot to keep in touch with myself. I forgot to stay in touch with the things that got me excited about our profession. I got so sucked into trying to do something one way or another and forgot to step back and understand the big picture. I guess I forgot that I should just stop watching and start talking.

Now I'm into my sabbatical for a couple weeks and I'm starting to appreciate what IA means to me; I'm starting to see things I didn't see, and things are beginning to click.

Next steps for me or as they say in the business world, "my action items" for the coming weeks is to be more proactive about my learning, teaching, and helping folks grow to achive their goals. These are 3 things I'll probably continue to be passionate about for a very long time.

Another reason I'm probably more in touch with my thoughts...it's got to be the yoga.