You all know how i hate August, so no surprise that i’ve been under the radar for a few weeks as we’re building our tech prototypes. I’m knackered, run off my feet and have a list of complainees to get back to and explain myself. Although i’m pretty chirpy as what we’ve got is looking downright amazing and its going to push a lot of people’s hair back when they play with it. Quite a powerful beast, but beautiful if you handle it gently, like an expensive sports car. We should be done before IBC in September (in Amsterdam, hehe), also around the time our business plans get released to investors and banking types. Up until then its an enjoyable millstone round the neck which is adding to the usual barrage of both my existing company, the new venture and all the projects i’m helping people with.

As impolite as it is, this one blog post to everyone is the quickest way for me to reach a lot of you rather than an email auto-responder. Wish i could send individual messages, but i don’t have the mental bandwidth. I overslept this morning as my brain just shut itself down.

So this weekend i’m going to be in Newcastle, home of cold weather and strange hairy people who you can’t understand even though you know they’re speaking English. Just waiting on hotel details from Heather an i’m all set. Its going to be an intense 48hrs of madness as i’ve managed to cram in as many meetings as i can whilst i’m there (if i even make it at this rate, or don’t get blown up on the way). Seeing 11 people in total, but don’t tell our chairman Paul as i’ll be in the shit big time. I promised him i’d take 2 days holiday. Which it is, kind of.

Last time they had running water, colour TV and cutlery, so i’m looking forward to discovering new and wonderful things their society has adopted recently, like electricity and toothpaste. If you’re nearby, give me a call on the mobile and drop by for a coffee as its a rare departure from my city-and-Surrey existence. I have an hour or two to fill up and weeks of pent-up energy just waiting to be dispensed so will be in full colour mode. Would be nice to meet a few new people on my travels.

On a more sombre note, my brief but enjoyable time on MySpace is slowly coming to an end. Don’t get wrong as its addictive and i love it, but i can’t keep up with everything that goes on. There’s also an overriding necessity for me to be a lot more careful about what i put in the public domain for people to find as a few recent experiences have reminded me to very careful about who and what has doorways into my personal life. I’ve had some serious lectures from some very seriously powerful people about slowing down, focusing more and generally walking down the path i’m on with more sincerity, Same goes for MSN, email and the other productivity-draining toys. Too much circulation makes the price goes down.

So if you’ve missed me, wondered where i’ve been and whether i’m still alive, are annoyed i haven’t got back to you, want to know when i’ll be around, the simple answer is to take a ticket and get in line Most of you know the secret ways of getting hold of me, so shake your rattle and i’ll find a few minutes when i can. Email server is currently fucked, so i can send but not receive. People have been shouted at.

Alex

P.S:

Lise - so sorry as know you’ve got big things going on right now. I feel crap about not being able to speak recently. I’ll put some time in to call you if you can tell me when you’re not working. Really looking forward to you coming over in Jan, believe it or not.

Melanie - you fiend. See you on Sat as i said originally. Will call you when i touch down so we can get lunch at MalMaison or somewhere. Paul is booked in for Sunday, with David and Heather.

Amy - i’m going to take great pleasure in ripping up the room in the debate tomorrow. If we win (and we will), you get to take me out to dinner Marce and i will be there for 6ish after our meeting at ITV, and i’m going to try and see if i can get Ruth from Warner to join us too.

Bethster - can you let me know when you’re back from Israel as i want to see you before i head up north. I’ve been going mad here. No really - we’re talking stomping around. I need your calming influence more than ever

Shaun - you are gay. Call me when you get back from the NAMBLA convention (hehehehe) as i need to talk to you about a few things. Need to arrange a weekend in Brighton for meetings and downtime. And we need amigo tripod time. If we have to drag Jase from Karen’s arms kicking and screaming we will fucking do it.

Suz - email has been crap all day but rest assured i shall be providing a new topic and we can talk about the ACT thing in Edinburgh as i want to go to it before i go to IBC.

Nads - so lovely to speak to you last night. That blog i mentioned is going up tomorrow when i finish it. Taking some time off the coding to feed that very emaciated soul of mine so it will see the light of day before we get to Starbucks on Friday