Welcome to AOL I have accepted a job at AOL. I will be working in the Community divlet, managing the design team that creates the community products - groups, chat, message boards etc. This is a chance for me to get back into creating tools for people and AOL is certainly tha place to do it. I have gotten emails from my friends congratulating me and the friends at Microsoft jokingly call me a traitor. Of course when I went to WebTV - owned by Microsoft - all my friends not at Microsoft called me a traitor going to the darkside. Either way it will be interesting to be back at a large corporation where you have to make impressions in small ways. To me it is about the work and making tools and places that make a difference in the way people interact.

The ironic part to all of this, is that I had an AOL account many years ago - so long ago that I had "emalone" as a screen name with out any numbers. Once I became more saavy with my ISP and stopped doing work for AOL (which paid for my account) I cancelled my account and have only had my emdezine account since. Now I will be getting an AOL account again and will probably have to pick a number for a screen name. In the road to individual freedom and the empowerment that the online world has given to people - we are all ultimately reduced to being numbers.

Just finished up three weeks of consulting work at NBCi redesigning their Search area. Let's hope it actually launches. It was interesting work and a good transition from the chaos that was AltaVista. I commuted on the train for several days each week and had time to catch up on some heavy duty reading. I will be able to fix a few things around the house that decided to break after I got laid off.

I am so out of shape. I started working out again after a layoff of over a year and a half. I used to workout regularly, with a trainer and then began the TNT program and stopped working with the trainer. Then after I did my marathon I took a break. Little did I know it would result in a year and a half off. I can trace the excuses to my house, working in the garden, swimming in the pool etc. I am getting my cardio back quickly since I swam all summer, but the weights.... I have had to start from the beginning. I used to be so strong - now I am a wimp. I also switched gym locations since I moved and that held me back for awhile. It is amazing how rooted in our own comfort level we become.

New Writings
I have begun a new column on the site DesignWritings and that will be the main spot for observations about my professional world. Musing will become solely focussed on my personal realm.

I would like to know how people like Steven Heller and Peter Merholz have all the time to do all the things they do? Steven is Senior Art Director or some higher position of the New York TImes (maybe of the book section). He writes a book a minute and articles for many of the design mags. He put together the conference I just came back from and he teaches at School of Visual Arts. Peter seems to write prolifically, speaks at all sorts of conferences and works too. Where does this energy come from. Do these guys read non-work related books? Go to concerts or out to movies? I am looking for some of that energy as I move into doing consulting and more work on the Dr. Leslie Project (becoming a book).

I have discovered the major time sucker. Commuting. I am travelling from San Jose to San Fran this week for a consulting gig. Many hours in the car and I am even doing a portion on BART. I hope I find a position closer to home.