some guy in lebanon

You are browsing the archives of Status.

“Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.”

That is the opening line of the first number of a play I saw when I was 14 years old.

Incidentally, I was on my first trip to New York City, my first trip “solo” (visiting my God Mother), my first Broadway play, and it was the first time I knew how many minutes partitioned a year.

A lot has happened since then…

My silence on this blog is deafening… that has been with a certain intent. I don’t see any reason to put TWI or myself at risk by blogging extensively about my work or travels, but I figured a brief update wouldn’t hurt.

As some of you might know, I am now living in Frankfurt, Germany, where I am managing a project to deploy ERP software across our supply chain.

As I sit here today writing this, I am in a little town in Switzerland called Zug, which is near Zurich, where our corporate headquarters is located. Our office overlooks Lake Zurich and the train station, and the office, the town, and the surrounding area is a vision of Swiss efficiency (I only reset my watch, and assume that it is correct, when I come to Switzerland).

I drove here from Frankfurt yesterday – a fun trip south which is mostly across the German autobahn… that provides the gut-crunching possibility of “speed-limit-less” travel.

Today I sign off officially from ‘Some Guy in Lebanon,’ as I start work with TWI as IT Project Manager.

I will be traveling extensively across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East for the next year – if you live in Frankfurt, Zurich, Istanbul, Dubai, Kuwait, or Kyrgyzstan, I would love to hear from you, as I will bouncing around that part of the world extensively. For those of you who are wondering, yes, the plan is to be back in Beirut by the fall.

The last six months have been a wild ride – Last time I posted it was October 6th and I think I was in either Jordan or Charlotte. It was with some consideration that I decided to discontinue this blog, but it was clear that blogging shouldn’t be a priority now that I have to direct all my attention to a new and difficult job. I will be sure to keep personal notes, however, and I am more than willing to share where I am and how things are going, if you’re interested.

Another UPDATE – jeez…. Anyways, exciting news – not much to report just yet but I will deliver soon, God Willing. So that everyone can see that I still have a head (it has not been dislocated from my body by shrapnal, swords, or a taxi), and to see the awesome hat I have currently [...]

Because media must be revolutionized!

Possible correction to the note below: Lebanese military personnel have arrested members of the Hamas in Lebanon organization, suggesting that the Lebanese government does not believe the PFLP was responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel. To put everyone at ease, it seems that World War 3 will not be happening this morning in Southern [...]

Make it a good year…

Merry Christmas friends and family! Missing you all as I sit here with Nick, Catherine, Andrew, Fidelius and Meg. All my love, Will

A new story about intellectual property law is pending, and will run in tomorrow’s paper!

Checking out and going home – Hoping for a better day tomorrow but at the very least I got my story done…

Is it just me, or am I almost out of money and lacking any type of guarantee that the Daily Star is going to make a move to make me, you know, solvent? Holding the line here in Beirut… but it’s feeling a little like the Alamo…

Writing two stories for the paper right now, one on Intellectual Property Law and Enforcement in Lebanon, and the other on Open Source Technology in the Levant

The wanderer is at the feast of Saint John, with its tents, archery contests and country food. Suddenly, a clown begins to mimic his gestures. People laugh, and the wanderer laughs, as well, and invites the clown to have coffee with him. “Commit to life!” says the clown. “If you are alive, you have to [...]

Thank God it’s the weekend – Here’s hoping things will pick up next week!

Bleh! I am so not in the mood to be doing this intern crap – Why am I the only person who can get a PDF document to convert to text? And why does that process have to take sooooo long?