It's been a rocky week at the salt mines, one in which our Chairman, Jon Miller, departs (I think he might have left half a cup of coffee and the radio playing softly, given the speed of the departure) and in which a dear friend and unofficial mentor, David Habib, decides to move on to his next challenge.

One's a shock and one's not, at least at first glance.

We all weren't born here nor did we grew up together, so other endings begat these relationships, these times of laughter, doubt, and victory. Yes, we've had some victories at AOL, both for the company, for our teams, and even personally - we had to, no one willfully stays long where things are always bad. It's the nature of our industry. The boom-bust cycles, crazy hours, layoffs, breath-taking expenditures of effort and capital, epic arrogance, and monuments to hubris carved into the face of the Wayback Machine; these all define us. When the history of the Internet boom is written (and I don't believe we're even close to done), the scale of it will be compared to the opening of the West during the 19th century or the explosive arrival of the oil economy in Texas in the 20th century.

What's to be said about Jon Miller? He was 127 layers of management above me, has a car service, bathes in oceans of doubloons like Scrooge McDuck, yet was nice. Miller seemed to operate with the best intentions (if not a bit timidly given the heap of trouble in which AOL found itself) and signed his company-wide emails "Warmly, Jon". He was a class act, but the stock is hung at $19/share, and I'm sure he has to take some of the blame.

For David, I'm not writing the obituary - no past tense. He's out and on to something else, somewhere ultimately more fortunate and advantaged for his presence. Middle manager, yes, but someone has to manage the dogfaces, right? The bitch of it is that we didn't suffer under a gladly-dismissed tyrant or wallow in the benign neglect of a disinterested corporate politico, so the before/after contrast will be marked.

We'll live. But that's gonna leave a mark.