it seems every time i update this (ok, maybe just the sixth time in seven years) i start to get sentimental and introspective. i think i feel like i owe it to all this meta-humanity, or whatever, to be really honest and true and deep. maybe it just reminds me of what i was doing around the time i built this page seven and a half years ago, sitting in a buddy's apartment in Helsinki.

so, hey, i'm good - maybe even great! i'm working for Melodis, mostly on their web site/product midomi, and have ditched the pulse-pounding Thunderdome of freelance work for the comforting routine of full-time employment. Melodis makes speech analysis technology that, for now, lets you search for music by singing it. i fit in as the user interface and graphic designer (it's true, just ask my business card), and spend most of my time improving the web site and designing new features. on bad days i'm slaving over cross-browser testing for IE6; on good days i'm working on a cell phone app or something and not even touching the web site. i like my coworkers and i'm confident in the business; lunch is free and someone brings his dog.

i'm renting a house in the quiet, dotcom-harboring city of Sunnyvale, also the location of Melodis. yes, it's a vast and demoralizing twelve miles from hometown San José, but it's also a brisk twelve minute bike ride to work. and it's no fuckin' garage, for damn sure.

i'm vaguely batting around the notion of getting a car again. i actually have a cell phone again, after seven years of not giving a shit. i'm studying to get my amateur "ham" radio license after a lifetime of curiosity. i volunteer monthly to be a range safety officer at a 200 yard event around here. i really want to get a better, nay, fully-functional digital camera, but no one makes anything that's just right. my romantic life is both comfortable and confusing.

but yeah, things are good. hope things are for you, too.

- emilio