Attentio Blog

After starting blogging here, I now post all blog entries about Attentio on www.attentio.com/blog and the more personal stuff on www.simonmcdermott.com.

I enjoy this much more now and while I know MSN spaces lacks some cool factor the Attentio Blog was well made by Casper and I connect to very interesting folks in the industry.

Natoo

Natoo my second sister, has put together two songs and is going to send me one. I am presently listening to Sigur Ros, just lovely (not the wrist slitting first one) but the next...

Off to La Plagne in old Mercedes, hoping it holds out through -20 celsius. Its funny, we can force the window closed but then we can't open it, until it slips down again. It is going to be fun at the peage opening the door everytime. We'll have to bring blankets because the heating is very tempermental... Good news is that the engine is perfect working order :)

32 in 2 days time and a rugby final in 2 weeks. Need to keep fit and seem ultra keen to make sure I am on the team, skiing and tan will make it look like I am ultra fit (I am so shallow). I was meant to go running with David but Raffaella was meeting friends, so it was cancelled and I ate pastries instead. The real athlete!

Tired

I was out last night with ex. colleagues from Intel. It was nice to see them, and interesting that 80-90% of the people I knew are still there. I guess it's the type of company where people are happy to stay. I got some good contacts too in Intel's Digital Home division.

Last drink was single malt (Lagavullin), very nice but probably not needed! I had short walk home, which was punctuated by lovely snowfall and an Italian truck driver asking for directions.

Work was challenging, but got some stuff done. Working on some cool data on the SuperBowl, looks like www.godaddy.com really got great 'online buzz' simply because their second ad wasn't aired. No such thing as bad publicity...

February so far...

Sorry blog for being poor at posting regularly...

It has been a really good month. The company www.attentio.com has sold 2 new contracts to big successful companies and that represents good progress and hopefully decent references for others...

I was in Rome for Ireland/Italy match and managed to miss anything cultural during my 2 day rugby trip. The real low point was my Brother David puking as the taxi wizzed by the Coloseum, a beautiful family moment. Met some great people there, a Northern Irish couple whose son played for Cooke and a couple of great girls from Glasgow, Jesus they knew how to have a good time!

Otherwise the rugby team www.brusselsbarbarians.com have had 2 close losses. We are playing very well and just got pipped by last year's champions. The ING final is in 4 weeks, I am worried I mightn't get on the team because I will be skiing in March (and therefore missing matches)... Nearly 32 now, so running out of chances for televised glory.

Blabbing that I have met Josh Lewsey, my colleague Casper told me he was in the army which I didn't know, but then I met him once and we just discussed rugby (We were playing squash in Queen's Club with Nicholas TerVerst, very posh...).

Otherwise weather is snowy but not sticking, Helle had session with Rachael and Oz is good.

Attentio

I am involved with a business called Attentio (www.attentio.com). We look at buzz and chatter that originates through the world wide web and other digital media and show our clients the impact of marketing events on levels of interest generated by consumer generated media (blogs, chat groups, discussion forums etc.). It is quite an exciting area because for the first time, you can really follow word-of-mouth as it grows and diminishes!!!

The rugby club (www.brusselsbarbarians.com ) I play for has our put our details on their site beside a rather fetching picture of the club chairman stripping in front of a group of pensioners (the image is fabricated...), delightful!

Checking out costs for trip to Bali in August/September, it seems that package holiday is the way to go... There are flights on offer for circa €1000 per person, but chartered trips for that price including 2 weeks hotel accomodation + meals! I need to check when high season is for Bali. We were last there May timeframe and this was definitely a lo-season. What a beautiful place.

S.

Dell really sucks

I am fed up with Dell Belgium. I ordered a laptop for my mother in mid-December and it has still not arrived. No one has come back to us to explain the problem and when we call them they say it is because of a free printer offer (i.e. they do not have enough of them to go around).

Dear Dell,

If that baloney is true, then send the laptop first and then the printer later...

If this is too expensive give an instant rebate if the order is outside 10 working days...

Treat your customers properly.

S.

Heresies by John Gray

Nearly finished collection of essays by John Gray, WOW... This stuff is rocket fuel... His views on what it is to be an atheist (just neo-Christian, liberal humanism) or his views on torture are just what he says, heretical! Doesn't hold out much hope for Blair in the future, but then it does look like his time is running out.

My personal favourite was using the term 'religious impulse'; that religion is hard wired into mankind. Secular thinkers often forget that religion has been with humankind since the beginning, to try and suppress this impulse creates the same tension as when the Victorians tried to do the same with the 'sexual impulse'. The need does not disappear it only returns in disturbing and macabre forms!

Now I am on last essay and after will read Joseph Conrad (The Secret Agent features in Gray's essays). Also bought one of Conrad's sea faring novels. It seems when he was writing he was known for this, rather than being a leading influence for the Modernist movement...