bicoastalbri

Back to blogging

2006-12-25T18:58:00.000-05:00

Wow!

It's been a long long time since I have done any of this here blogging. Hope all is well in the respective worlds of my loyal (and numerous) fans.

A bunch of stuff has happened since my last entry. Here are the highlights:

Started the new job
Started the MBA program - one semester in the bag
Forgot to start training for the Marathon (though I did watch it whiz by)
Got a new (old) room-mate.

I won't go into boring details now about the above. And I didn't actually 'forget' per-say to train for the marathon. Instead I decided to gain like 20 pounds, and engage in some serious lying about. This was almost as productive.

Seriously though, the last few months have been pretty insanely busy. I usually end up spending my non-work and non-school time either at the bar with my b-school friends or with Alison. Though there was an unfortunate incident with a show called 'The Wire' that ate up a solid bit of time as well. There's a big problem in my mind about having a totally addictive personality and coming into a great show 4 seasons after it starts. I found myself gaining 'access' to a whole season's worth of 'the Wire' at a time. Sometimes I'd have 2 seasons' worth. How did I do this? Netflix? They must have them for rent. Or they might be floating around the internet somewhere. But of course I wouldn't admit to downloading them, cause that might be considered illegal. However I got them, lets just say that Alison wasn't the happiest about the fact that I would watch the show for 4-5 hours. Per night. But only on weeknights. On weekends, I was good for a serious 8-10.

In any case, I finally broke my addiction. In other words, I ran out of episodes to watch. Same thing.

The other piece of big news - the new roommate. Turns out that my brother's roommate from San Francisco (Eric aka EZ) moved to NYC and needed a place to stay. I had an extra room, and he needed one, so it was perfect. EZ has definitely made a positive addition to the household. We no longer have random crap from 17 ex-roommates. We now only have the random crap from the three of us. My only condition was that we keep the fabulous green wall.

Some might argue the merit of a house with a blindingly bright green neon wall. Not this kid. At least not after Alison made such a big deal about how mush she despised it. Now it is staying for ever and ever. That wall will remain through a nuclear attack, if I have anything to say in the matter.

We even celebrated the wall in an amazing 'green' party. We told people that the green was all about the fact that we switched the apartment to all green power. I know the truth. It's all wall, all the time.

That's probably enough rambling for now. Merry Christmas and happy New Years to you and all of yours.

Epic bike ride, whole lot of nothing

2006-07-19T16:26:00.000-04:00

I'm just kicking around the house, enjoying my last few days of idleness. On Monday I opted for a 2 hour nap, as opposed to my now standard 1 hour nap. Why, you might ask? Because I could. Naps rule.

Here's the great thing about my friend Siobhan. I say "let's" go for a hike / bike ride. Siobhan responds in the affirmative. And she does a bunch of research. And she agrees to drive. She came up with this bike ride in upstate-ish NY:

http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/r/east/quaker_ridge/index.htm

She even knew my slacker tendancies, and printed up a helpful set of directions for me.

I have to admit, that when I first read through the details, I wasn't so sure I'd be able to do it. 45 miles duration, with 3300' worth of climbing. But she goaded me into it. And I am glad she did. It was an epic journey, worthy of a tale-telling by Homer. Let's just say we battled hunger, sun, hills, bugs, sweat, half-inflated tires, mostly right (but sometimes wrong) maps, and various other scary things. Like the bar afterwards. It was full of people who didn't appreciate the non-smoking law that our gracious governor and "his thugs in Albany" had imposed on the public. Or at least that's what a sign proclaimed in the bar. But the food was good. And I *really* like my bike. It is wicked fast. Siobhan did an amazing job picking the ride. I couldn't believe that we were only an hour outside of NYC. Lush rolling green hills, itty-bity little towns. Mega buck mansions (makes me want to become a hedge-fund manager and move to the great state of CT - not really, but their houses were really really nice).

Oh, in other news. I officially started the road to my MBA today. I had to shell out $1000 to "hold my place in the class of 2006". I have a feeling that I'll be shelling out dough quite a lot in the next 2-3 years. In fact, Iif I want to "register", I will need to fork over another 5-10k in the next two weeks.

I start the new job on Monday. Until then, more naps, more messing about.

Reunions and 3 for 3

2006-07-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

So a month or so ago, I had 3 major things hanging over my head.

1. The job. As I mentioned before, this has been taken care of. New job accepted, check.

2. The marathon. I've applied to the NYC marathon twice now, and have been rejected twice. I think there are something like 35,000 slots and 80,000 applicants. It turns out that when you get rejected three times, you are guaranteed entry on the 4th. My plan was to secure a solid 3rd rejection, and run it next year.

So I applied with exactly 10 minutes left in the registration period.

And I got in. ooops. Now I have to start training or something...

3. B-skool. My loyal blog readers will also know that I applied for NYU's part time MBA program a while ago. This was another application that went right up to the wire in terms of deadlines.

If the title of this blog has not already indicated - I got in to that too. I have to register in the next couple of weeks for any classes that I'll take in the fall.

Triple yikes. Big change coming up for the squibbster...

In other news, had a great dinner with some SF folks last night. Johnie Ryan, Erik Pugner, The Rypinskis, Mohammed, and Nathan. I am still in SF now (for another 3 hours or so). In other other news, I had a reunion with the pacific ocean as well. I spent 4+ hours in Santa Cruz's ocean, attempting to surf. And "surf" I did. A shocking number of times. Long boards are totally the way to go for newbies like myself. Though I've been in the water a bunch of times on a boogie board, for whatever reason, I've not been confident enough to try the real thing since my trip to Costa Rica in 2001. I'm now eager to get another taste...

Endings and beginnings

2006-07-11T00:04:00.000-04:00

So the new job is now a reality. I've officially accepted the offer for the new gig. In fact, I've officially spent my last day at Tacit.

It felt a little weird. I was the first employee there. Now we (they - it always takes me a long time to transition from a "we" to a "they" in both my words and thoughts. I'm never quite sure why that is...) have like 30 people in 3 countries. It's nice to see them all growed up and stuff.

So I am excited about the new thing. I'm moving from the world of engineering over to the "dark" side. I'll be an account manager in the banking world. Totally new gig. Of course I have a little of the "WTF" am I doing creeping in as well, but that's par for the course with any big change. I definitely noticed significantly less "WTF" this time...

On another note, I am in San Francisco now. Staying w/ my little bro. I am going back to New York on Wed. Interestingly enough, I have a couple weeks off, and I am mostly looking forward to hanging out in my pad in NYC. I've been on the road a *lot* lately.

Highlights from the road:

- 4 days of insane off-road race car driving in Baja. How insane was it? My group *shredded* two tires and a dude broke his back driving. Not to worry though cause dude was old. Seriously, it was crazy crazy fun. A guy did fracture a vertebrae. And he was old. Not that there is anything wrong with being old.

- 5 days in Montreal for the Jazz fest.

- 1 day in NYC for fireworks (freaking AMAZING)

- 1 week in SF / Sacramento (to see the mom and the grand-pops) / Placerville (to see the grand-pops other side) / Fairfield (to see pops)

Also - Hotel Squibb has been in full effect for the past month. House guests in the last 3 weeks have included:

- Mohammed (from West-side)
- Ali (from West side)
- Stephane (former roomie, from Europe)
- Scott (recently former boss, staying in my place as I swing through the west side)

Anyway I mostly wanted to get another post out because Erik Pugner informed me yesterday that my last post was depressing. In all fairness, it was.

Application and surprised to be surprised

2006-05-15T16:45:00.000-04:00

So my application is in. We'll see what happens.

In other news, here's a piece of advice:
Watch United 93, but don't do it if you are flying across country the next day.

I saw it last night (essay procrastination, take 1000). I am flying to SF today. That flight left EWR (Newark) for SFO. At least I am flying out of JFK instead...

So this was two sunday's in a row that I stumbled around the streets of NYC in a stupified daze. Looking back now, I am surprised at how surprised I was at my own reaction. It basically took me right back to the 9/11/2001. I don't know what else I expected. I think native New Yorkers are much quicker on that particular uptake than I was. Most people that I know who lived here when it happened refuse to see the movie. I can't imagine wanting to either, had I lived here then. As it was, the effect on me was pretty profound, and I lived 3,000 miles away at the time.

I also find it interesting that I was completely sucked into the movie, even though I of course knew exactly what was going to happen. All and all, I'd recommend it. But before you see it, ask yourself if you are ready to relive how you felt that day.

Thoughts on Haiku

2006-05-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. Two posts in one day! Procrastination in full effect, yo.

So one of the essays for NYU requires me to submit a "creative" description of myself. My strategy is to have a short essay, combined with a link to my travel blog, combined with a short selection of Haiku.

What do you guys think of the following? Do they sort of describe me?
( I just made them all up, so still a bit rough):

May evening, full moon.
Will you join me if I
wander again soon?

Blooming flowers make
him ponder his powers and
try something brand new.

As summer's heat fades
The older brother ensures
younger's rent gets paid.

Engineer longs for
whisperings of people
over his machines.

Sarcasm frequents
his expression. Though never
hurled out hurtfully.

A seal says hello
to spring's bright sun, as man
smiles with relief.

Cars buried in snow.
He walks to work enjoying
man and earth, conjoined.

NYC's last snow.
He dreams of the beach
in San Francisco.

Winter changes to Spring.
Children thrilled at outdoor play
Make him want to stay.

Essay Procrastination

2006-05-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

So I am sitting at the office, "working" on essays for the MBA application. If I get accepted, I am going to have to work on this severe ADD that I've built up...

So a quick anecdote, then back to the grindstone for me:

So knowing that I had an afternoon full of slaving away at the essay writing machine, I opted for the extra large coffee this morning at the bagel place, on the way into the office. The only problem with that choice is the after effect: the immediate need to "take care of business" as the (in)famous Chow would say.

No problem for me, cause business could be taken care of at the office. Matters became urgent, and the pace of stride increased. After what seemed an eternity, my destination was finally in sight. I got in, and was dismayed by what I saw: A notice proudly proclaiming that the water was turned off in the entire building today. Jesus.

So I head over to the Buck - Starbuck's, cause you can usually sneak in to the throne room without buying anything. The last thing I needed at that point was more caffeine. After waiting for at least 5 entire eternities, access was mine. Score. Score one throneroom with zero TP. No paper products of any sort. No paper towels (hand dryer), no newspapers (we are talking that kind of urgency now). Nothing. Of course the Buck didn't have any other thronerooms to visit. And without getting to graphic, the type of business I had to take care definitely required paper.
I then head over to ABP (Au Bon Pain). I get confronted with a larger-than-life "you must be a customer to use these premises, sorry for the inconvenience" sign. I loved the "sorry" bit. At least there were two doors to choose from this time. I think that both doors somehow knew that I had no intention of spending any money, cause all access was denied. Locked on all accounts.

At this point, I had to wonder what happens to a flushed toilet when the water is turned off. I decided it was high time to find out. Back to the office I went.

I didn't get to find out. Turns out that the sign lied. The water was on the whole time.

See what kind of stuff comes out when I am procrastinating?

Upcoming events

2006-05-08T20:08:00.000-04:00

So Sam is coming down tomorrow night to help celebrate Siobhan's recent graduation from Stern (MBA school). I think we are consuming massive quantities of meat in honor of her dad, who is apparently quite the carnivore. Of the Irish sort. Not that he eats Irish people - he is Irish people.

In any case, Congrats Siobhan!!

Speaking of Stern, it turns out that now I am applying to the part time program there for next Sept. I might hold off on it if I end up getting the new job, we'll see. I've basically decided that I can't continue putting my plans on hold while the verdict is still out.

Funny story: I've been waffling back and forth on this for a while now with the deadline rapidly approaching. I had started the recommender request with one of the gals I work with. Due to a slightly confusing UI, I thought the request for recommendation was in a "pending" state, meaning I had to do something to actually send it. Turns out that it was sent, and now the recommendation is done. Now all I have to do is find another recommender who is willing to bust out a recommendation this week (which was surprisingly easy), and bust out an application - probably won't be as easy...

Wish me luck.

Indulging in Self Pity

2006-05-07T23:12:00.000-04:00

I had my graduation "show" for my improv class today. It was a very interesting experience. Everyone in my class showed up with friends/family in toe. I say "interesting", because I ended up walking for 3 hours afterwards in a completely dazed state, not really knowing where I was going or what I was doing. I managed to walk through Times Square (an area that I hate more than anything in New York), and ended up halfway up Central Park. I guess this is about a 50-60 block walk. It sounds odd, but I literally felt an almost paralyzing crushing sensation.

How does "self pity" tie into the whole thing? Well, I actually didn't manage to get myself on stage for this show today. There are plenty of semi-logical reasons why this happened - there were 13 students / performers on my team. I never really felt the "moment" to jump in. Also the lighting was kinda odd - we delineated scenes by turning off the stage lights. Very bright stage lights that when turned off left me blinded. So I actually did jump out on several occasions, only to find that 2-3 of my team members had beaten me to the punch. I could never find my moment. After enough "moments" had passed, the show was over. Just like that. I was the only one on the team to NOT go on stage. And as much as I'd like to, I can't blame it on the lights, or anything else.

So I ended up feeling pretty shitty about the whole thing. I guess I've been in a bit of a funk for the past couple of weeks, and this really sent me into a downward spiral. The worst part was when I was walking in a daze towards some unknown destination, I decided that I needed to hang out with some friends. The real kicker was my inability to conjure the name of a friend in NYC that I felt like I could call on to cheer me up. This of course led right into the whole WTF am I doing in NYC thing. At some point when I crossed into Central Park, I was going to ditch it all and hit the road again. Though of course I knew that was a bit of a drastic response to a bad performance...

But it made feel better to think about it :)

I guess it comes down to this, I sort of feel like there are two types of people in the world. The Observers, who basically "observe" as life passes them by. And the Participants, who actively direct the course of what's going on in their world. I guess in the last few weeks, and today in particular I felt like I was solidly in the "observer" camp. My continuous challenge is to concously move into (and stay in) the more active side.

In some sappy way, today's outcome was probably better for me than
if I would have rocked the house. I tasted something nasty, something that I don't want to have again. After the show, one of my teammates complained about his 50%-75% success rating for 'good" scenes in the show. The only thing I could say was that it was a lot better than my 0% success rate.

I know the "I tried and failed" feeling. I can accept that. I discovered today that I really don't like the "I shoulda/coulda/woulda" feeling.

In other news:

was in San Francisco last week. Saw friends and my brother, good times were had. It really didn't feel like home though. I don't even know where that is anymore. (I know, I know, rain clouds hanging over my head...)
Still no conclusive answer to the job changing question. I am becomming less and less excited as this drags out more and more.

On a brighter note: the weather today was stupid good. I broke my self out of self-pity mode long enough to go for a nice bike ride along the Hudson.

A realization

2006-04-18T22:43:00.000-04:00

So I just got back from a "make-up" improv class. I missed a class a while ago due to my trip out west. I thought that it was going to be a breeze, given that this was a "week 2" class, and I am already in "week 7 of my own". Wrong.

I actually came to a startling realization. I am not even close to being really good at this stuff. Not that I am being overly harsh on myself. I am just noticing the natural abilities of my classmates (even the relative "newbies" at week 2) to totally let go and "get into" a wide variety of characters. My characters usually are some variation of me. Except they yell at people a lot. And crazy shit happens to them all the time.

Like today:
I'm on a battle field. In Vietnam, of course. The stress is getting to me, and I decide to whip out my home-distilled gin, and mix it with the tonic water that I lovingly collected from the tops of the trees, one aching drop at a time. The lime I pull out of my ass. Literally. And of course this leads to a love interest with my scene mate, captain Willis. A girl. Naturally this lead to us having french-fries at McDonald's, conveniently located in the jungle, which means that Capitalism won afterall. Somehow.

Why do I mention all this? Because the point of the exercise was to build on an event that happened in real life. If it got crazy, that was fine, but we were specifically supposed to start with something from our actual history. The funny thing is that I had totally planned on doing a scene about someone just finishing the Boston Marathon. Without training. Like my buddy Sam did yesterday. Crazy bastard. I also thought that I would let my scene partner start it off if I didn't feel the magic. Instead, Captain Willis and I had our crazy drunken shootout with the VC next to an impossibly large set of Golden Arches. I specifically wanted to avoid crazy shit. Yet Crazy shit still found it's way in.

Ahh, habits are so hard to break. Every time I do a scene when I specifically tell myself not to do something, that's exactly what happens. The best part of the exercise was when the instructor politely asked if I had served time in Vietnam after the scene was over. Brian. The point was to build on something that actually happened. Uh, it did happen? Roger that sir. You bet your ass. Two tours worth. Before I was conceived? Absolutely. My dad had some of those pre-cognitive sperm or something. Anyone? ...Anyone...? Ok, I guess I'll sit down now.

All self-abuse aside, I am finding that I really enjoy doing this stuff. I am not discouraged by the fact that I sort of suck. I am excited about the fact that I want to get better.

I guess in a weird sort of way, I am starting to look at Improv as a metaphor for life. In Improv you create a set of characters and watch them interact with each other and the world that you and your scene partners create. The fun comes out of the unexpected things that happen to the characters and when the characters discover links to things that had already happened in their world. Also, as a "player", it doesn't really matter when you screw up. As long as you screw up with 100% conviction. I think the same is true for life.

Anyway. Enough philosophizing.

One last thing on the improv front. Charlie Todd was my instructor tonight. The odd thing was that I was listening to a segment of "This American Life" a few weeks ago about an improv group that does cool things in real-life settings. As I was listening, I was also signing up for my make-up class. When the segment got to Charlie's "Improv Everywhere" group, I happened to be scheduling my class with none other than the man himself. Small world.

My favorite "mission" is probably the 5-minute Starbucks time-loop. Check out some of their stuff. Goodness can be found there. At least a few minutes of distraction.

Another month, Another blog

2006-04-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Hey kids,

So it's been a while. I thought I was on a roll last time when I blogged twice in one week. One month later isn't so bad...

So what's happened since then? Not much, and a lot at the same time. Here's a quick run down for those that are trying to keep up with the daily happenings in my life:

Went to SF, launched a big site that I've been working pretty hard on for the past few months. The good news is that the site is up. The bad news is that the site is still having a lot of problems. At least my daily workload is significantly lighter now
My Brother came out to NYC for a weekend. The good news is that he decided that he has to live in New York at some point in his life. The girls impressed him, but he actually found himself even more attracted to the great buzz of energy that is New York. As another example, he met a random guy in the park by my house who turned out to be a kick-ass DJ that spun at a fairly large club.
My buddy from college - Nathan - came out to New York shortly after my brother left. Lots of craziness was had.
Shortly thereafter, I went to the Czech Republic for a week. I ran the Prague Half Marathon. Then run was *hard*. I had a serious problem finishing. But finish I did. I even managed to meet my time goal of just under 2 hours. That's a PR for me, so I am pretty happy about the time. After the run, I stayed on in Prague for most of the rest of the week. I decided that I really like that town. I got to see the Pug himself. Erik Pugner. From the San Francisco crew. Actually from the Sacramento crew, but who's counting. In addition, Aram (another member of team SF) showed up. The two of us did an impressive number on the national supply of beer. At $1 each, we just couldn't stop. The Czech version of Budweiser kicks the shit out of ours.
The day after I returned from Prague, I went down to Washington D.C. I was supposed to go and check out the cherry blossom festival. Unfortunately it had rained quite a bit in the last few days. They were still spectacular. Just spectacular factor 6. I was expecting factor 9. However, this was the first time that I had spent any serious non-tourist hours in the capital of this great land. I have to say that I approve. I hung out with my buddy Eric G, another San Franciscan. Truth be told, he is actually from LA originally, but no one is perfect, right?
In other news, the tiny little girl that I used to run with (the one that routinely kicked my ass) has now moved on. She is now teaching english in Japan. Fortunately, I've found another running partner in one of my co-workers. He is nowhere near as cute, but he certainly fits the bill as a running partner.
My first day back in New York found me booking my next trip. I'll be going to the Montreal Jazz festival this July 4th. It should be a great time! In fact, I still have spaces in the apartment that I booked, so let me know if you are interested.

I think that's about it for now. No new news on the job front. I am starting to get pissed, and am now exerting daily pressure. The most frustrating thing is that I had to talk to my current company when the whole thing started. My current company was totally cool about it. Supportive even. Now it's been almost 2 months, and my current company is like "are you staying or going"?

Hopefully I'll know soon.

Weekend warrier

2006-03-11T12:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, so maybe I am trying to ease my way back into blogging.

I just got back from a 9 mile run with the running gal from the serious club. Definitely the run of the year so far. The weather in NYC is PERFECT today. I absolutely love the sensation of a running after you get 4-5 miles in. You just feel like you are on cruise control. Tired I be, of this I am sure. *But* I feel fantastic right now. I am thinking that I should be OK for the 1/2 marathon coming up in a few weeks. True, my cross training has consisted of lifting pints (but it's OK cause I have been doing a lot of reps), and this is the first distance run I've done in a while. I certainly could not have done another 4+ miles today. But I've got a few more weeks, and I'll probably run slower in my race - again, today I was running with uber-runner gal.

Anyway the run should give me energy to sustain myself through the next few days. I am flying to SF tonight. Lots of goodness to be had. I'm also launching a new site for one of my clients tomorrow. *That* is going to be an ordeal. We start launching at 2:30 AM EST tonight, and stop launching (assuming everything goes well) at 10:00 PM Monday. Keeping my fingers crossed :)

I forgot about the magic of RSS. I was shocked to see a couple of comments on my last posting - I was sort of thinking to just stealthily slide back into blogging without anyone noticing. Guess not.

Happy Saturday to all ya'll.

Something fantastic this way cometh

2006-03-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

Hi kids,

Yes, yes it has been a long time since my last blog. I know this. I was saving up my blogging energy for something really spectacular. I mean knock your socks off and put them back on again without even taking your shoes off good.

You ready?

Actually - I've got nothing. Sorry. It just happens to be Friday afternoon. I am wasting a bit of time (yes, I actually am at the office now. I will get fired for this if any of my employers happen to read this). That's ok though, getting fired can be exciting.

So what has happened in the last 3+ months? Everything and nothing at the same time. I have realized that my attention span has actually dipped below zero, and landed in negative territory. I now have so much ADD that I abandon a project shortly before I start it.

Witness my "painting project" I decided to paint my walls. My roommate and I agreed that we needed to "funkify" our house. So we decided to narrow our color selections to comic-book green and over-the-top orange. Both of us being indecisive, we opted to "test" them both on one wall. At the same time.

Now we have two equally sized largish patches of wall. One painted green, one painted orange. We actually decided that we liked the combo, and sort of jokingly decided to continue with the theme. The plan was to keep half the wall orange and half green. That was three weeks ago.

Now we've still got the "test" patches up. Still have the painting supplies scattered about.

But that's ok. That's how I roll.

In other news:

I decided not to apply for full time b-school, instead to apply for a new job. This is in the works, and I should know the results soon
I decided to run a half marathon. In Prague. On April 1st
I decided to move out on my own, only to cancel that plan and get a roommate.
I decided to join a "serious" running club - the New York Road Runners, and get my ass handed to me regularly. Every Tuesday night, to be specific
I decided to join a "not-so-serious" running club that meets on Sundays. The idea is really to run a bit, then drink a lot. It's called the Harrier Hash Hounds, and is a *lot* of fun
I decided to have my li'tle bro come out to NYC for his B-day. He'll be here for a few days next week. Should be a lot of fun
I decided to run regularly with a gal from the aforementioned "serious" running club. We run twice a week. I like to consider myself a liberated kind of dude. However, it still burns me when she kicks my ass in running. It is great to run with a stronger runner - it makes me run stronger too. I guess it just means that I have to let go of some of my cave-manness.
I've had 1,000,000 visitors in my apartment in the last few months. Sam, Eimear (now back in Ireland - so sad), Camille, Peggy, Abbie, Eric, just to name a few

That's it for now. Not that that's actually it. That's all I have time for at the moment.

xmas at mom's

2005-12-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

Ok - I am in offical procrastination mode. I've finally decided on applying to one b-school. Stanford it is. Why? Well, cause I am pretty sure that I want to settle down on the West Coast. I've given the East two gos now, and I just think it isn't for me long term.

So Stanford seems like a good choice. I know a bunch of people that have gone there, and have nothing but good things to say. Now I just have to finish the damn app. The good news is that I've been making a lot of progress. The bad news is that the questions are surprisingly hard.

Q1: What is most important to you, and why?

This seems like a question that any human should be able to rattle off easily. I mean, if you don't know what is the most iomportant thing to you, then you've got some problems, right? Well it turns out that I didn't know. I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and came up with an answer. An answer that I like reasonably well. Is it true? Sure? At least I've got a draft done...

Q2: Why do you want an MBA? (different words, but there it is)

This question is a bit easier for me, but this is the one that I am procrastinating from at the moment.

Anyhoo... I'll have soldi drafts done for both questions by tomorrow. Now all I have to do is convince all of my recommenders to finish up!

I've been in California for a week and a half now. Had the Tacit Knowledge (my employer) Chirstmas party. Another party in which Brian was *not* the sloppy drunk. That honor was reserved for another Tacit guy. I'm sensing a theme... It's a theme that I like :)

I also swung by my brother's pad and listened to some of his new music. Check out his website - he's got some cool stuff. I picked him up on the way to my Dad's xmas-eve dinner. Ever since back in the day dad gets xmas-eve, and mom gets xmas itself.

Oh - I did all of my xmas shopping with my buddy, Jaymz who has a new business called "Experience This". It's a really cool idea in which he sells experiences instead of objects. I bought my brother and dad a sailing lesson, and my mom a whale-watching cruise. Best of luck Jaymz!

Xmas itself was cool. We had a ton of little kids running around. They are the cutest bunch of 2nd cousins ever. Actually I don't know if they are really 2nd cousins. They are the offspring of my cousin. Does that make them 2nd cousins?

Anyway - happy new years everyone. I hope 2006 works out well for you. I have high hopes for me.

a day of firsts

2005-12-04T22:03:00.000-05:00

Today was a day of lots of firsts:

- New York was painted with a fresh coat of powder. My first snow fall as a new yorker. It was actually quite nice. Ask me again in a month, and I know that my attitude will change a lot. Now the snow is still white and pure.

- I went on my first apartment hunting missions today. Well, actually, yesterday, but who is counting? The best thing about apartment hunting in NYC: broker fees. That's right, you get to pay a broker 15% of the annual rent for the privilege of renting a place. I can't wait!

- I downloaded and began using picassa. Wow what a neat program for displaying and editing pictures. Watch out - if you have a lot of pictures, picassa makes it really easy to kill a day. It was fun though - I went through a bunch of stuff that I haven't bothered to look at in years.

- I captured my first mouse as a new yorker. Rather I should say the mouse captured himself. Or herself. To be honest I didn't scan too closely... In any case it turns out that gravity can sometimes be a bitch, even if you are a mouse. For you see, he/she/it climbed up on top of the conveniently located cans of soup to hop into a box of tasty fat free jalepeno crackers. They were fat free too, which is good cause mousy was watching his/her/its weight. Anything over 1.5 oz s is considered obese in the mouse world. So this mouse managed to get into the cracker box, but couldn't get out. Sucks to be him/her/it. The worst part of the whole thing is that the crackers were stale. Sorry to not be a better host mousy and provide you with a decent snack, but I am a busy guy... Sometimes my crackers go stale...

Quite the scene unfolded at the good ol' 197 (my address). Stephane wanted to love it. To save it. To adopt it. Needless to say, Stephane is a European. He did convince me to at least consider (for a few seconds) adopting mousy, and to spare him a violent death. Instead, mousy was banished to the nearby park. Stephane even made me provision our unwanted guest with bits of the very cracker the led to his capture and a slab of peanut butter, for the 'fat factor'. A bit of cruel irony, if you ask me.

To top it off, we equipped the little guy with a sock stuffed with cotton balls to serve as 'shelter from the cold'. Laurie (my other room-mate) and I carted him off to the park for a release ceremony. I had a speech put together, but our unwitting friend blew the whole thing by bolting away at the first hint of freedom. It turns out that mousy wasn't so interested in the luxury sock that Stephane made for him, instead wanting to bugger off as quickly as possible away from his captors. And the crackers, I suppose. I don't think I'd want to spend more than a few minutes hanging out in a tiny box with stale, fat-free, peanut-butter soaked jalepeno crackers either. But that's just me.

I hope the little guy/gal/whatever pulls through. I guess I am a softy at heart too. Maybe I should move to Europe.

turkey day I and II

2005-11-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

Somehow this post sat idle in my "draft" list for a bunch of days now. I don't know how that happened... I guess it was user error...

Turkey day II has already commenced. The first incarnation occurred yesterday at my Dad's place. As usual my dad stuffed us with tons of really good food. Our thanksgiving feast even included a heaping serving of irony. As my dad was trying to convince us to eat our portion of pie, we watched an episode of CSI Las Vegas, in which some crazy character literally ate himself to death. Not the most pleasant post-meal viewing, I'll tell you that much.

We were lucky enough to share our table with the lovely Angela - Eimear's ex-roommate. She is in the good ole Sactown (Sacramento), on assignment with the Americorps. I took her along on the turkey day feast, and attempted to teach her the finer points of Football. She was a good listener, but I still think she is a little fuzzy on the difference between "touch-back", "touch-down", "fourth-down", and "field-goal". I told her that we make football so complicated just to prevent new people from getting into the game and spoiling it for the rest of us.

In a random coincidence, Angela happened to be volunteering at the "Run to feed the hungry" race in sactown. Running this race has become a bit of a tradition for me.

This race made me realize something. I am getting old. That's right kiddos. I'm past 30 now, and my body let me know this as I struggled through the run. The good news is that only the last 5 miles of the race were tough. The bad news is that it was only a 6 mile race. Today my body is sore in the "very" sense of the word. I guess that's what happens when your fitness routine involves curling pints of beer, and pressing pieces of pizza, instead of bars of steal...

Speaking of the big 3.0. I had an absolutely amazing time on my birthday. I got to tell Angela all about the party that she missed in her own house. We even had certain people (who shall remain nameless for now) making out in Angela's old room. The party was in Boston. The Fisher that is Nathan flew out from California for the event. The entire Boston crew (with the notable exception of Yoav) was also there. Much alcohol was had by all, though I managed to circumvent certain craziness by dumping 95% of the birthday boy shots given to me down the sink instead of down my throat. I was determined to not be the party drunk. Since I was negligent in my birthday boy duties, Sam was forced to step up to the plate and claim this honor for me. Thanks Sam - you took one for the team!

I decided to opt out of the China town bus for the ride home, and took the train instead. At 7 times the cost of the china town bus, I don't know if I'd do it all the time. The view out the window of the train when traveling through New England in the fall is at least 7 times nicer than the same form the bus, and was well worth the expense at least once.

What else? NYC apartment hunt v2.0 begins in earnest soon. Both of my roommates are abandoning me. One needs to "get married", and the other has "visa and job problems". I think it is actually a conspiracy to make me to "work".

Seriously though - I do have a big decision to make. A.) find two new roommates and take over the lease of my place or B.) venture out on my own and find my own place. I am definitely leaning towards B - I've been living with other people for like 6 years now. I like people and all, but I am tired of them in my house :)

Anyhoo - hope Thanksgiving was good for you. Peace and all that good stuff to you and yours.

How did I EVER think this was a good idea?

2005-11-10T22:03:00.000-05:00

Can you believe this ?

back to bloggin

2005-11-10T21:59:00.000-05:00

After some time off, I guess I am back.

Thanks to the readers who gave me a little prodin' in the behind. Wait. That didn't sound right.

So what's happened in my writing abstinence?

Hmm. I got promoted. I'm now a "senior consultant". Work has been super crazy for the last stretch, so it's nice to have some recognition for hard work. Plus the extra dough is nice too.

I also submitted my first writing sample for the "booth" for my writing class. I have to say it was an odd experience. Both the writing and the criticism. The writing was surprisingly hard. I found it really tough to create a non-autobiographical character that didn't fit into all of the cheesy stereotypes. I compromised by surrounding my character with a bunch of cheesy stereotype friends. The submission itself was odd because all of the people in my class discussed my work while I had to sit quietly. I wasn't allowed to talk at all. The interesting thing was their interpretations of my characters were very different than my own. I guess that's the deal with writing.

What else? I lost my phone. So if you happen to call me, and I answer with a suspicious "oh - hey.. you. Uh how's it going and stuff?" Its probably because I haven't restored your number yet, and have no idea who you are. Every time I lose a phone, I swear I lose a dozen friends. You think I'd learn by now I'd learn and write the numbers down. But that is SO 1982. People tell me to "synch" the phone to a computer. That is SO 1992. This 2005 kid's strategy is just to fill up the new phone with new friends.

Kidding. Of course. But seriously - I did lose a whole lot of #'s. I'll gradually get them all back.

Oh and party plans are in full effect.

Balance

2005-10-25T09:35:00.000-04:00

And now for a lighter entry. One based in facts...

Fact: Went to dinner with Siobahn and Steve on Friday night. Good times were had. Much Gin was consumed.

Drunken dials went out. Here's the thing about my buddy Nathan. He's the kind of guy who will follow through on random things that I throw at him. For example, when I left a very drunk (but surprisingly articulate) invitation on his voice mail, asking him to fly out to Boston for my 30th birthday celebration. He started booking tickets.

Now I guess I had better go ahead and have a party :)

Sam also got several drunken dials from the lot of us. I think Friday will forever more be known as the triple D. Drunk Dial Day.

What else happened? Went on a fantastic run with Siobahn on Sunday. First run in a long time.

What else? Ilana, you get mad props for being the 2nd commenter. Sam, you get slightly less mad (what's a "little less than mad"? Slightly crazy props? Can I say that?) for being the third commenter.

Anyway - gotta get to work. Just wanted to put up another entry in a hurry.

One more weekend in the past tense

2005-10-24T22:54:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: I just came back from my writing class. What does this mean? Maybe a bit more embellishing than strictly necessary. Also, this entry is really a pseudo journal entry. What does this mean? The content is a bit more personal in nature than my average blog.

So another weekend has faded from present to past. My roommate Stephane and I were comparing notes about our weekends yesterday. It seems he was disturbed to find that many of his friends that he hadn't spoken with in a while had suddenly married, changed careers, or popped out kids. Perhaps "disturbed" is too strong of a word. I think he was really commenting on how quickly things change.

My ex-girlfriend (from several years ago) and I had been playing phone tag for like 2 months now. We are still quite good friends. The both of us will send and receive "drunk dials" from the other. We spend the first 20 minutes or so catching up on the trivialities of our day-to-day lives.
"So how's Andrew?" I eventually ask her about her boyfriend.

"We're getting married" she innocently answers.

I had the oddest sensation. I instantly felt like I was in a crowd watching two monumental teams battle it out. One team (hers) had made a move. I was on the edge of my seat - in eager anticipation of how my team would respond.

Seriously - what was the reaction?

Happy? Sad?

Freaking out?

The play-by-play announcer knew how to work the crowd, apparently. "What the F?! This is HUGE!" the announcer called out to the crowd in my mind.

There was definitely a time when I would have undergone some serious freakage upon hearing this news. This would have been about the time that I was trying to convince this same girl to marry me. But that was a long, long, time ago.

[Stage Direction: Cheesy fade to the past]

A younger, confident but road-weary Brian strides into a girl's tiny apartment in Los Angeles. He is armed with a shiny bouquet of flowers, a smile, and a shiny plan for the future. The two would move in together. In another year they'd get engaged. 1.5 - 2.5 years after that (couldn't make it too soon, you had to be sure) they'd be married. Instead, two bewildering hours later, the same Brian found himself tossed out in the parking lot. In the rain. He wondered how the carefully scripted conversation had gone so dreadfully far from target. Sure, he had broken her heart. But that was in the past, and should have been fixable. He brought flowers! He had a PLAN. He had a counter argument for every conceivable argument that she could possibly throw his way! This was logic, and she was an engineer.

Yet here he was smile-less, plan-less, and girl-less. In the rain.

As he tried to sort out what to do next, he laughed at the irony of this made-for-TV moment. The rain really was the topper. How often does it rain in LA in the summer anyway?! But this made-for-TV moment didn't have a commercial break for the hero to magically find the easy answers that would somehow make that Hollywood ending possible. Trust me - our hero looked for those easy answers.

At least that's how I remember it.

But that girl and that Brian are in the past. This Brian was quite surprised to see an unexpected emotion surface just after the news was delivered. No freakage. Instead he found Happiness. Honest Happiness. For her. Not the kind of pointed, spear-like happiness that you can hurl at someone with the aim of causing substantially more hurt than happy.

It sounds trite, and I know that my readers certainly weren't expecting to read an emotional outburst from me, but I was honestly excited for her. I think the crowd inside my head was disappointed however. Tantrums make better entertainment than boring self analysis.

I realized another thing - in the back of my mind I was still grasping onto the slim possibility of reconciliation. Eventually. Here's the funny part - I never actually believed it would happen. We had made several attempts since that infamous LA in the rain incident. Without exception, each of these attempts had ended with us pointedly not speaking for many months at a time. We clearly were not going to work as a couple ever again.

Now for the funniest part of all - I never even fully realized that I still held onto this impossible notion. In fact, I only became aware of it as I watched it disappear. I thought about it after we hung up. In some sense, I guess I was sad to see it go.

How could I simultaneously be very happy for her, but sad to lose this reconciliation fantasy?

Maybe that's just it. I had to say goodbye to a fantasy. An impossible fantasy that I didn't even know I had.

Sheesh. Humans are weird sometimes. Or at least this one is.

In any case - best of luck to her and her fiancee. Also thanks to her for providing me some ammunition for self reflection. She'd freak out if she knew that I discussed her in a blog. Let's keep it our little secret, OK?

Sorry for the melancholy. I did tell you that I just got out of a writing class, right? You're the one who read this entry anyway :)

Hard Drive upgrade in one hour or less? You bettcha!

2005-10-21T20:41:00.000-04:00

So I'd never imagine that this was possible! Up until 5 minutes ago, I was operating under a chronic lack of hard drive space. It often came down to a simple choice: 1. Delete a CD's worth of music or 2. Come up with an excuse as to why I can't download some sort of large log file that contains the answers to why a website went down.

No more. I now have a comfortable 60 GB free. And it was amazingly painless. Stick new drive in an external USB container, boot off of a special CD, and the software automagically copies all the data from the old drive to the new. All I had to due then was pop out the old drive (which on a Dell laptop is ridiculously easy) and pop in the new. The whole process took seriously less than an hour. 40 mins of which was unattended time while the program copied my goods over to the new drive.

I'm sure that many companies have this sort of thing these days, but if you are in the market, Hitachi is 'da bomb! I have upgraded hard drives at least a million times before, and it has always involved what seems like months of pain and suffering.

I guess this now means more refusing to download those massive VM Ware Vm's that my company tends to like using :(

I might even have to do some "work" now.

But not tonight. Tonight I am heading out with Siobahn and Steve for some dinner. I haven't seen them in a while, so I think I might even pop over to the store and pick up some Bombay Sapphire Gin. I know it's Steve's drink of choice, and I almost never get to act as the host...

"Later" - I might meet up with my buddy Sal from work. This is one thing I love about New York. Dinner plans for 9:00. Hang out, then make plans for "later". Later means I'll probably see Sal around 1:30 AM.

Oh - one other piece of news. I got my first non-spammer comment today on the blog. Somehow Yoav, Sam's fellow SDM'er found my blog and commented on it. . Yoav was kind enough to serve as my ambassador when I visited MIT. Thanks again Yoav - I really enjoyed that class. And in response to your comment - I'd like to see you again too :)

I am curious to see how he found out about the blog - but I guess that's the internet for you.

Happy Friday everyone!

The weekend approacheth

2005-10-20T21:27:00.000-04:00

Ok guys, I just passed the 3-month mark. 3 months as a New Yorker. Time has really flown by. After contemplating returning to Boston for a party this weekend, I decided that I really need to hunker down and crank on some MBA applications. I am realizing that I haven't made any progress for several weeks. I sort of lost interest with the whole affair a while ago. Going to Boston this last weekend left me feeling charged for a while about the application, but that quickly faded as I transitioned back into the normal work week.

Speaking of the work week - it has been a crazy one! I was in the office late again tonight. The good news is that I think I might have turned a bad thing (web site crashing very hard) into a good thing (improved relationship with the client). I think. A lot depends on whether I'll be able to figure out a way to make the website stop crashing (which I think I have).

My roommate just reminded me that I am still also in need of a subject for my writing that I will have to submit in a couple short weeks. I am looking for inspiration to smack me upside the head while I walk to work.

Oh, and the internet is working again at the office. Yay!

Another Crazy day

2005-10-18T20:00:00.000-04:00

Web sites crashing, projects slipping, networks not working, oh my! The internet still doesn't work at work. It got bad enough that I saw some of the other people in the office grooming each other and throwing feces at passers-by. I mean seriously, who can live without the internet?

Not this kid. No sir. I discovered quickly on that the internet actually does work for our "host" company on the floor. Good thing we have an open office with exposed network ports. And I have a laptop. I also got wrangled into going over to the client site again today. Too bad I didn't shave. Or bathe. Kidding about the bathing part. Though maybe I didn't wash all of the body parts today...

On another note, I am now commited to having some "writing" to share with my writing class by Halloween. It can apparently be anything. Which is good, cause right now I have nothing.

Oh, and I am stuck at work today until like 11:00 PM. Sucks to be me. Something about some pesky client who wants their "build" of new code "deployed". New "features" and what not. I say that their site looks pretty darn nice as is, and doesn't need me to stick around till all hours of the night deploying stuff. But no one asked me.

And - I *really* like Boston. I have a lot of warm memories from the weekend. Plus I met a gal there that I'd like to see more of.

Another Manic Monday

2005-10-17T23:08:00.000-04:00

So I'm back in New York after a relatively uneventful ride in the China Town Bus. Here's the dealio with the China Town bus: $15 one way for the comfort thrill ride of your life. Apparently the buses only catch fire every once in a while. And the report I heard about a bus breaking down on the side of the rode with "no replacement bus planned, the passengers can make their own way home, but are welcome to a refund" were probably exaggerated. I actually felt bad for the teenage kid dealing with the tickets. For starters, a woman was convinced that she didn't have to pay for her younger kid. The kid wouldn't let her on the bus. She wouldn't pull her other kid of the bus. She eventually berated him into giving a refund. But she wanted it then. Right then! After a brief conversation into the walkie talkie, a nice gal armed with $3o appeared. The woman stalked off, trying to get sympathy from the crowd. We just wanted on the bus, man. So all was good until the bus "broke down", and we shuffled off the bus into a line to wait for another bus. We were standing "too close" to the road for the likes of the kid, who demanded that we all move in doors. The lot of us quickly went about following his demands. We did this by ignoring him. He threw up his hands in disgust as we shuffled on to what I swear was the same bus, which was magically fixed. I had the next 4.5 hours to hear about the drunken adventures of a college kid (a loud talker) and his crazy times the previous night. Good thing he had a bunch of friends to call...

In any case, I am very glad that I went to Boston. Saturday night was spent with some new folks. We went to see a blue grass band called the Avett Brothers. It was an amazing time. For a lot of reasons.

Sunday was spent sleeping in, enjoying some sunlight, and having brunch with some of the Bostoinans. Eimear, Sam, Blanche, and Alberto - not a Bostonian, but close enough. I then picked up a copy of Freakonomics - a really good read. I actually started it at Sam's place, and finished it on the bus ride down. The author(s) have a lot of thought provoking things to say. Perhaps the most controversial of these is the claim that legalizing abortion in the 70's reduced the crime rate in the late 80's and 90's. The argument at first feels disgusting, but ends up making more sense. I need to think about it some more before I can decide if I believe it or not.

So anyway - I am back. Today was crazy. I had three projects going on for the New York client, and one for the SF client. All required a lot of work. We had no internet at the NY office. It's shocking how little you can get done in today's workplace without the internet. I mean seriously, what can you do?

Another thing about today - I started the writing class. I have been excited about it for a long time. I got a lot out of the class tonight, but left with an certain feeling of emptiness. I think it was my stomach. I hadn't eaten all day. Next time I'll make sure to eat beforehand.

Oh- one more thing. Google freakin rocks man. Picture this: It's 6:30 PM, half an hour before my class. Me, being the, ultra prepared well in advance type, had no idea where my class was supposed to be held. Good thing I didn't bother checking this until well after all people who could potentially help me had gone home for the night.

Check out the difference between:

the current version of the course schedule
and the older version cached on google.

Thanks to google, and to the NYC subway system I made it on time.

Back in Bean Town

2005-10-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

Wow - a *lot* has happened since my last posting. Almost too much to describe. Perhaps I'll do so in another venue. In any case, I'm sitting at my friend Sam's place in good ole' Cambridge, Mass. I really do like this town. Even if the weather is crap. I came up to see the gang - this gal Blanche had a birthday party, so I had the reasonable expectation that I'd see everyone gathered together. In short it was awesome to see the gang again. I love hanging out with these guys.

I also took the opportunity to visit some MBA programs. I took a look at HBS, and MIT. To be honest, I have no idea if I am even faintly qualified to attend either. But both seemed nice. The HBS campus was simply amazing. MIT had its own advantages. I attended a lecture at each, bith using the "Case Method" to impart knowledge. I had never really understood what exactly the "Case Method" meant, and to be honest I was a bit skeptical.

I found that I actually really enjoyed both lectures. You can basically summarize the "Case Method" as this:

1. Find an assorted mix of bright people from various backgrounds.

2. Make them read a "Case" as homework

3. Arrange them all in the same room. Preferably a nice-looking, expensive room with wood-paneled walls.

3. Stir in a professor, skilled in the art of listening and of directing the flow of conversation.

4. Repeat as necessary for two year.

Voila - a mere $80,000 later you have an MBA.

sarcasm aside - I actually found both lectures surprisingly stimulating. In fact, I started gaining some excitement again about the whole prospect of pursuing an MBA.

Each "Case" provides an in-depth study of a particular event in a particular company. Both cases that I heard were very personal.

The HBS class studied a case about a woman's meteoric rise, cataclysmic fall, and subsequent rise at Apple Computer. At first I was dubious about the value that the Professor was adding. I mean to be honest, it seemed like 90 people were in a room, just BS'ing about what they had read. After 10-20 minutes of the lecture, I realized that the Prof was subtly and skillfully manipulating the direction of conversation in a manor that he deemed appropriate. One baffling quality about the lecture - whenever a student would make an especially insightful remark, his/her classmates would erupt into spontaneous cheering and whooping.

I was shocked to find that all of the HBS students that I met were very down-to-earth. I was actually sort of sad to have to bid farewell to the picture that I had in my mind of the typical Harvard Student.

My vision of The typical Harvard Student: A crusty intellectual type clothed head-to-toe in tweed, smoking a pipe (even the women), while arguing the finer points of ancient Greek grammar with someone named Charles Piedmont jr, III. Furthermore, I expected the HBS people to be the sort of cut-throat competitive type that would borrow your pencil in the middle of an exam, then stab you in the back with it. I know, I know - if the typical Harvard guy was always covered head-to-toe in tweed, smoking a pipe, and muttering about in Greek, they probably wouldn't really be able to sneak up on you and stab you in the back with your own pencil. Such a site would be hard to miss. But it's my stereotype, so I'll keep it.

Anyway, needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) - the stereotypes all proved completely false. I met some really cool people. No tweed. Lots of amazing classrooms, but no pipe smoking. And no Greek. Sadly. I also never once feared (or saw the fear in anyone else's eyes) for getting stabbed in the back with a pencil. Perhaps this was on account of the thick rain jackets that everyone wore. The rain was coming down in buckets.

Seriously - the folks that I met were all extremely friendly. Several had interesting things to say.

I was attempting to quantify the differences about the HBS class and the MIT class to Sam. I'd say that the MIT students were in general older. Definitely more about the facts. At Harvard, I got the sense that the folks were more about the people. About the relationships, the politics. Of course, this is skewed by the classes I attended. Still - at MIT, the whole place seemed to reek of numbers. We didn't actually do any quantitative analysis of the case in either class, but it was certainly a definite underpinning to everything that was said at MIT.

I think you can sum up the differences between the two most effectively by noticing that almost all of the students in the MIT class either were or had been engineers. At HBS, 66% of the students come from a "traditional" background (i.e. banking, finance, consulting, etc). The other one third was everyone else. Doctors, engineers, pilots, gardeners, golfers, etc. If I went to HBS, my engineering background would put me solidly in the minority.

Also - tons of really cute girls at HBS. Not so much at MIT. Though there was one really cute girl that I met there. More on that later.

So enough about the B-school stuff. This blog entry is hopelessly long enough already.

One more thing - Blanche's party was really fun. I am always amazed at the aggressiveness of the Boston gals. Here are random comments that I received at various points in the evening:

"That's because you are such a 'hottie'" (the 'you' in this case referring to me)

Made in reference to a comment that I made about my thinking that life wasn't so bad for the average Bostonian male (meaning that there are tons of good looking, smart gals about). She refuted my belief, implying that life wasn't bad for me on account of my stellar good looks. I like my ego stroked just as much as the next guy. As soon as she said that, I considered her in an entirely different light...

"Where did you run off to, I am not through with you yet"

Made in passing, by one gal, while I was talking to another. I was a little surprised a the audacity of this remark as well. She even said it with a seductive look in her eyes.

"Tell me something scary about yourself"

Comment made as I was carrying three beers from the nexus of all parties in all corners of the universe - the kitchen - back to my grouping of my friends. This was an such an odd comment, at such an odd time, that I was literally taken aback. What does one say that is scary about one's self (obviously meant to be a conversational starter. She demanded an answer with a all encompassing look, and flirtatious hand-on-my shoulder placements)

So if you're counting, this is three ego-boosting events, by three different gals, in one night.

I should admit that I was quite drunk during the time that these various comments where made, which could mean that I have applied a certain liberal interpretation to them.

But that's fine by me.

The party was a huge success in my book - I even got to drunk dial a couple of friends. Sorry Chris and Siobahn! You know me well enough now to not be surprised!

Not all blue all the time

2005-07-23T10:33:00.000-04:00

So I *just* got back from a fantastic run, and feel great. I wanted to let all of my faithful readers (a total of zero at this point) now that I am not a constant whiner...

So the run. I don't know exactly how far it was. But along the East River from 6th st up to about 40th st and back. Today is easily the nicest day I have seen so far in New York! No oppressing humidity. Not too hot. A really nice day to be outside.

Too bad I have to spend the whole day at the office today, but I won't let even that get me down. I have got the major endorphine rush going on right now. Off to take a shower, then to work.

Week 1 in NYC is done

2005-07-23T01:17:00.000-04:00

So this blog is still in "silent" mode. Haven't told anyone about it yet.

Anyway, I just finished week one. So far it has been an interesting time. Definitely feeling a bit of the "WTF am I doing". But I fully expected this to happen. You can't expect to move to some crazy place for free, right. It takes a little time to build a new life. Work has been a bit tough. But the interesting thing is that I expressed my frustrations and 2 partners in my firm called to check on me. They sort of need me now, and know my history of deciding that work sucks, then quitting the next day.

So total tangent time - what if I could market and sell a productized version of "your life?" You fill out a profile and say the kinds of things you are in to. You move to a new town, you're sad to leave your old life behind. But, BLAMO! You call me, and get resources, links, leads on meeting people. You could have a transporta-life. Just add water.

I think it is late, and I am not making any sense. But that's ok. Does one really need to make sense at 1:39 AM?

Seriously, the place in New York is way over the top. I am living in the East Village. There is stuff happening every second of every day. I think I can eat food from every continent (including Antartica, oddly enough) by walking a mere few blocks away from my house.

I think once I start meeting some folks, it'll be all good. Speaking of meeting folks, I decided to dab my toe into the online dating market tonight. I filled out the profile, and even "winked" at a couple of girls. I don't really know what to make of the online dating thing to be honest. I mean who "winks" at people? If I saw a cute girl in the bar, and I winked at her, she would probably think I was a lunatic. Or had something wrong with my eye.

If you ask me, electronic "winking" says one of two things about the "winker".

1. I am too cheap to sign up for the service, so I can't actually email you. Instead, I'll "wink" at you, and hope that you email me. (I totally fall into this category - I am still not convinced on the value proposition of the online thing)

2. You, winkee, and potential matchee, are interesting to me (the winker), but not quite interesting enough to devote the time and energy required to write a real email. (I fall into this category too - I looked at a bunch of gals that looked nice, but in the end, I feel like I am browsing for a camera, not for a girl. I mean these gals sound interesting, but how much can you find out about a person in a little blurb?).

Then again - how is it different from picking up a girl at the bar? I tend to do that a lot. When I am drunk. Maybe that is the key - I should browse for gals online when I am drunk?

It may sound like I am anti-online dating. I have been forever. But - I need to get the ole' social network thing going. It has worked for a lot of my friends, so I figure why not. I'll give it a go.

In any case - feel free to checkout my profile. Drop me a line if you have suggestions on how I can reel in the gals better! I think you need to be a member of match.com to actually see the whole thing. The interesting thing to note is that I used a picture from my travels. I had to crop out the cute girl that I had my arm around. I figured my perspective match might not like to see the other gal. Looking through the gals' pictures, I see many people do the same thing...

I guess the profile is working. I got 2 "winks" in the time it has taken me to type this entry. The funny thing is that I sort of used the profile as an alternate for the blog. Now that it is up there, I am sort of losing interest. I guess I just wanted to do some writing.

I used the same name for both. Maybe I should have been more clever.

Scratch the winks. I got 2 genuine emails.

First posting on new blog

2005-07-04T02:23:00.000-04:00

So this is my first posting on my brand new blog system. Taking it for a test drive, if you will.

So what does one say when starting on a new blogging journey? I haven't done much blogging since my travel blog. So first off - the name of the blogger. "bicoastalbri". What can I say? My name is Brian, and I am about to move across this land that we call the US of A. I'm in San Francisco now, but will be in New York city in about 2 weeks (actually 12 days now).

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this. I am excited for sure. NYC is a place that I have always said that I want to live. I say "said" because now that I am in the final stages, I am having for lack of better words "cold feet". I know I'll have a good time out there. The only thing is that I have found that I freakin love the city of San Francisco. I know that I'll miss this place. My family is close to here, and most of friends are as well. There is something to be said for crossing the Golden Gate bridge (preferably on foot) on a sunny day, and seeing an entire armada of sail boats out in the SF bay. I spent a few melancholy moments, listening to my favorite radio program ("This American Life"), sitting on top of the access road into Pt. Bonita. On a clear day from this vantage point, you get the money shot of the Golden Gate bridge framing the beautiful city by the bay. On this anti-clear day, I got the money shot of the impenetrable cloud bank rolling through the famous channel. It was actually a very enjoyable way to spend a post run (I had gone for a hill run, and was still all sweaty) hour. Sitting in the erie vertigo-inspiring fog, listening to the amazing stories on the radio. I don't know how easy it will be for me to get out of the city for a hill run once I make the big move...

The good news is that I do have a whole East Coast Crew that I met on a prior venture out East, to a little bean town called Boston. I had a ton of fun, and met some really great people. Some of which are in NYC now. The bad news is that the bars don't really close down in NYC. I fear for my liver. I won't lie - I like to get my drink on. At least here in the West Coast, they usually toss my ass out at 2:00 AM, and I somehow manage to get home. Not really the case in NYC. I don't think that place ever really closes down. I suppose I'll have to learn a little bit of that whatchama-call-it, self-control. Regardless of what happens, of this much I can be sure. My life in the next year will probably be interesting (at least to me)

So that's it ya'll. Faced with the big move, conflicting emotions about lots of stuff (I'll leave the "stuff" for another entry)... Thus I begin my foray into blogging.

Oh yeah, cool stuff that happened this weekend:

Went to the Stern Grove Festival today. We saw the San Francisco Symphany.
Went for a nice 6-mile run today with my buddy Mohammed. Haven't seen that guy in a while. It was great to hang out with him. This is the longest run that I have done in a long time, and it felt good.
While out for drinks last night, my buddy (and boss) Scott accidentally ordered 2 shots that cost $45 each. He was a bit surprised to say the least. oops.