Here are some pictures from the VERY short trip to Peoria in August of 2009. My Aunt’s Janet and Minne were visiting my Mom so I managed to find a reasonable airfare out of Vegas and got home from Friday to Sunday. We went to the Peoria Zoo (as you can see). I also got to see my friends Ginger, Ami, and Todd (all separately). Aunt Janet made a superb lemon meringue pie; Aunt Minnie a pumpkin pie and my favorite dish, macaroni salad, to which I added the requisite baked beans.

It was short, but packed with good memories. The full photo album is here.

-Eric Small, nostalgic for more pie

Just a memory of a long ago lost dance buddy. Took me a brain strain to remember the name but I did. And now wondering what he’s up to. That quick search on the Internet came up empty. Anyone know of a Mr. Todd F. Bailey from central Indiana? Gay, and back in the late 90s, early 00’s was quite coupled with a guy who’s name I don’t remember at all, though both were hella hot and hella nice. He was at the time in real estate, and they together were frequent Crobar GLEEClub patrons.

Yours in nostalgic wondering, Eric Small

So the news is true. Another stage in my life has come to an end and the next begins.

As of Monday, I have two weeks left in my tenure with Citysearch. It has been 3-1/2 years – a lifetime in Internet time – and 4 title changes, all very exciting in their moment. I’ve seen 4 re-designs and innumerable product improvements, both from the technical side and the business side. And made more friends and developed more professional relationships than is probably fair for one person. But everything comes to an end eventually, and my time at Citysearch is due.

For the record, I am very proud of my accomplishments at Citysearch. I’m proud too of my more firey moments. My professional demeanor has changed and grown. And I can truly say my passion for my work is firmly intact. I leave not because I see a dearth of opportunity. Citysearch, with good execution, a step up in collaboration, and some focus on its other problems, can achieve. Local, as an industry, will be explosive in its growth in the months and years to come.

I simply grew weary. I picked my battles. I won some. And I lost some.

I produced. Got much done. And wished for much more.

And I innovated. And celebrated those achievements. And planned out many more.

But in the end, Local, as a problem, became a repetitive one – at least for me. That which was “new”, was no longer for me. I had seen all the major variations of the Profile Page. I had completed a social network integration. I had described the ideal user experience and simplest registration system. And so it was time to move on.

In comes GOOD. It’s a start-up. And it’s new! New people, a new place, and new challenges. Certainly I will apply all that I know and have learned, probably in some novel and unexpected ways. And that frankly thrills me.

For those wondering, I will be taking on the role of VP of Product Engineering.

With that, GOOD is a return to my roots. As leader of their technical efforts, I will again truly be able to apply my technical skills in tandem with my business skills. I, of course, won’t be able to help but to guide and advise on Product and Social Media issues. And with my background, I think I’ll do pretty darn good at it all. Call me “Ready!”

Lastly, I get to BUILD! I’ll be joining a really great group of people, doing a great thing, while building a great company, and within that, a great technical team. The challenges will be many, and the coolest is that I not only get to nurture a team, but in effect, create one from scratch. I know all of you reading will support me when I need to reach out for advice too. That’s what you do, and I’m honored by that.

So…that’s the story. As I close one chapter and start the next, I expect many of you will continue to be characters in my continuing story, and I in yours. Stay tuned!

Yours in transition, Eric Small

Do you like re-reading books you’ve read before? I do. Sometimes it’s just nice to lay back and re-experience a good story you’ve read a number of times before. I just finished these two favorites from my pretty large Star Trek collection. The first is about the Enterprise being whisked across the universe through an invisible “gate” … then having issues when they can’t get back. There’s war and philosophy – exactly like good science fiction should have.

The second is a follow-up to the first, but this time, the Enterprise is investigating the gates to once again save the Federation. And once again, they get stuck far, far, FAR from home. And there’s once more a mysterious enemy that threatens the mission.

Together these two kept me busy for about a week. And I’m sure I’ll read them again in times to come. They bring me back to my youth, whilst also taking me away to the future. You can’t beat that!

– Geeked out in Sci-Fi, Eric Small

The photos have been loaded! The night was fantastic and our “seats” were spectacular. Rusty and I were happy campers for sure! Little did I realize that I had bought us floor tickets in the VIP area. There were no seats but it was just a standing area near one of the “3 ring” platforms. The photo shown here illustrates just how close we got to The Queen — she’s running out at the end of the show about 6 feet away from us — and I’m amazed how this picture turned out.

My favorites parts were the opening with Perez Hilton and the deep, dark, leathery scene about mid-show where Brit is hoisted up by two arm-entwined, mostly naked guys, all three blindfolded. Fantastic!

Click the photo above to see the full album, or click here.

Here’s some of the really good ones though…

Yours in Britney Bliss, Eric Small

So I haven’t seen a ton of concerts in my life. This Friday will be my 4th major diva and I’m actually getting really excited. Previous divas included Madonna (#1), Olivia Newton-John (#2, but really #1 in my heart), Cher (#3) at the Hollywood Bowl. And now Britney, the reining Queen of Pop, gets to be my #4. The show is this Friday, April 17th at the Staples Center! Woooooooooo!

Along for the ride is my roommate and good buddy, Rusty – a true Britney fanatic. I’ll share pictures of the Britney Wall of Fame another time.

Another concert-going gay bitch, Eric Small

The ongoing series of photo archive commentary

Among the many proud jobs I’ve had the pleasure of working on, was the original (read, first) cubs.com web site. Back in 1996, when the corporate Web was just being birthed still, I was at the Tribune Media Services company within the grander Tribune Company. I had a cubical in the historical Tribune building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, facing out over Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. It was beautiful, truly. As one of the first hires working on web sites, I was picked to work on the new Cubs.com site. It didn’t hurt that I had successfully created an automated sports scores publishing mechanism, which we ultimately integrated on the live copy of the Wrigley Field scoreboard you see above. I worked with my friend Valerie Nozick as the primary on the content side, me being on the technical side. And we did it in the matter of a couple months.

It was a proud time and set me firmly on a course of success in the Internet industry. And like it or not, I have been a Cubs fan ever since (shhhhh) ;-)

See more of the screen captures here: Cubs.com photo album

- A Proud Internet web site papa, Eric Small

As planned, my friend Brad and I made the trip to Catalina Island (Avalon). We arrived on the 8:50 express ferry and immediately set out on a walk through town, to the Casino, then up into the hills. I don’t know how many times we remarked how it felt so European, so very very far away from the rat race of Los Angeles. As we walked, and then grabbed a nice lunch on the boardwalk at Catalina Cantina, the sun worked its way out and with it the temperature moderated to a perfect ocean-side warmth.

We next proceeded to get a couple of bikes and a permit to go into the interior and started on our way up into the hills again. Brad is a daily bicyclist in the city, so he managed up (in high gear of course) without ever breaking a sweat. I think I was pushing the bike before we rounded the first hill LOL! I’m out of shape for sure. But he was patient and we both were persistent and eventually we did finally make it to the top. Two+ hours later! And yes, I am hurting today.

The clouds rolled in just as we reached the top so we turned around for the much quicker ride back down. The buffalo will have to wait for next time! We rounded out the day walking and talking and waiting for the ferry back at 6:45pm. It was an exhausting, beautiful, and memorable day. You all should go if you get the chance. It reminded me a lot of Como, Italy but a lot closer.

All the pictures can be found here.

Still exhausted but still happy, Eric Small

An old favorite. Something of a Pick Me Up tune, and a bit of a theme song the last couple months as we worked to wrap up the project at work for our 3/11 launch date.

East Bound and Down from YouTube

Your Sing-Along buddy, Eric Small

A friend started a new direct-to-consumer eco-friendly clothing line. Why eco-friendly clothing? Cuz the garment industry is the 2nd largest polluter behind the oil-related polluters. Check it out: http://4rth.com/

-Eric Small, your eco-conscious man-of-the-day