I'm writing this in an airport bar in La Guardia airport waiting to fly to Denver. There's no free evil internet so I can sit around reading or writing instead of browsing, updating status or twittering. I know I can be writing sections of the thesis, but this is a perfect way for creative procrastination.

The beginning of the year was characterised by a long wait to go to the US for a business trip which is only materializing itself now, in the beginning of March. In the mean time, I struggled with the increased work load at work after two colleagues left. I was also battling the problem of entity resolution on my research project, which took much more time than it should have.

My aerial carbon footprint has worsened, especially now that the new boss threw me the title of 'senior technical project manager', which basically just means that now I'm doing all presentations, travel and follow ups. I also attended a conference on customer loyalty (Loyalty09) in Vienna. It was very interesting and potentially helpful to my final thesis.

In January I visited the Miss and discovered her proneness to gaming addiction. This amused me and excited me far beyond her expectations. The underlying reason was my current addiction to backgammon. I got totally obsessed with the game, and I'm now trying to take it to new levels and participate in competitions. I'm fully conscious that in a busy time this is not ideal, but a man has to enjoy himself without work too.

February flew like a humming bird in the early morning, loads of wing beats with little distance covered. I know I was working and I had a fantastic weekend in mid February (not to mention the V word), but that's about it. Work, study, travel and backgammon. There was also a funeral of my mums aunty, which had my flying to Malta in what was probably the busiest week this year. Ah, yesterday I saw Anathema live in Dublin! Kicked ASS!