Recorded episode#3 of my Napoleon podcast with the totally fabulous J. David Markham today and it perked me up a bunch. It's exciting enough to talk about Napoleon for an hour, but it is 10x more exciting to talk about it with someone like David. He recently was awarded the President’s Choice Award for Napoleonic literature by the President of the International Napoleonic Society for his book "Napoleon & Dr Verling on St Helena" and is not only one of the world's leading Napoleonic historians and authors but also a great bloke to chat with.
For the last 15 or 20 years that I've been studying Napoleon it's been a pretty solitary exercise. Until I was introduced to David by the wonderful Staton Rabin there wasn't anyone I could share my passion with and now I'm geeking out with one of the top experts on the planet every couple of weeks. He's even invited me to speak at the International Napoleonic Society's annual conference in Seattle later this year!
I recently picked up a copy of David's recent book "Napoleon For Dummies" and it's a great easy-to-read overview of the period. I'm going to start reading it to Hunter & Taylor at bedtime. Don't laugh - I brought them back a toy Napoleon from Paris a couple of years ago, little plastic figurines about three inches high, and they still carry them around everywhere.
Anyway, also recorded a new show with Father Bob Maguire this afternoon. Just editing that now. Sitting down with Bob is always a highlight of my week as well. He fires me up. And I know I'm not alone. We are starting to get a small group of people putting up their hands offering to help out with this social capitalist project we've been cooking up. I can feel the momentum starting to build. As he would say "there isn't a moment to lose!".
That's what I love most about my life since quitting the J.O.B. - the cool people I get to chat with and hang out with. Okay Okay - not having a Boss - that rocks too. Not having to fill out TPS reports for Lumberg.
Did I mention I've been invited to attend the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC next month? Napoleonic conferences in Seattle, Bobby De Niro's film festival in NYC... ya know, it's a hard life. You'd hate it. Stay tied to those desks kids. It's a jungle out here.
No, everyone, stay at your desks - we want to have ALL the fun! In any case whens the Seattle gig Cam?
Posted by: Ewan Spence | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 01:04 AM
And you wonder why the press hate you!
Molly
PS. Good luck tomorrow morning.
AFL Podcast
Posted by: Phillip Molly Malone | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 02:15 AM
If you do end up in Seattle, I'll treat for coffee!
Posted by: Sean Kelly | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 03:21 AM
Travelling the world on other people's tabs... getting asked your opinion on things... speaking to interesting people on a daily basis... yeah, you know, you might just have something to make me jealous, Cam... if IT journo's weren't doing it already ;-)
Posted by: Rob Irwin | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 11:55 AM
oh yeah Rob, I'm sure you meet the cream of the crop writing for Computer Reseller News. All those crazy SAP architects. Wicked.
Posted by: Cameron Reilly | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 01:19 PM
*Cough* *Cough* *Splutter*
You got the title wrong but, anyway, you're right, I just don't know where I find the time to do boring stuff like that in between doing big research jobs on Xbox or pulling together features on ball-tearingly fast Core Duo notebooks or delving into things like Origami.
Truth be told, I haven't spoken to anyone like SAP since my PC Week days. You remember PC Week... I was your good mate Spencer!
Which raises a good point... look back on the last 10 years I've been doing this stuff compared to... what? 18 months that you've been getting around out of an office? I dunno... you might just have to accept that you're not the only bloke on a good wicket and that all these IT journos you have a habit of bumping into probably go on 5 times the junkets and to 10 times the IT conferences you do, each year! Don't worry... the more you do, the less you'll feel the need to rub it in your reader's faces.
[Which brings me to the only reason I'm saying any of this -- it's because of you baiting your readership with frequent, "I'm better than you" posts and I finally got ticked off with it! :)]
Posted by: Rob Irwin | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 08:53 PM
Actually Rob my lad, I think you'll find there's a heck of a difference between my life and a mere journalists. For one, I don't have a boss. I do what I please, when I please, with whom I please. Tell me you can do that - go on, please. There's more ways in which my situation is LIGHT YEARS different from yours... but I don't want to share all of those just yet - I don't want to depress you too much.
And these aren't "I'm better than you" posts (although perhaps I am, but that's another point entirely). These are "get off your lazy ass and come play with me" posts.
Posted by: Cameron Reilly | Friday, March 31, 2006 at 10:34 PM