tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145435332024-09-12T19:12:36.149-07:00A log of where I am and what I'm doingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-4222508255055348732008-08-19T13:50:00.001-07:002008-08-19T13:59:58.085-07:00

Ok. I love the Acela service service on the Eastern seaboard. I generally think train travel could do with a major upgrade in the US. For example, between Chicago and Detroit, there is one track. In both directions. So if two trains need to pass each other while going in different directions, they need to do so at the stations only. Really. This means the train takes 6+ hrs and is not worth the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-5439962925734221322007-07-04T19:00:00.000-07:002007-07-04T19:59:43.303-07:00

Okay so first off, I've been around a lot over the last two months, and I haven't faithfully conveyed in picture or word what's been up. The short version is that I've been on a project in Geneva and flying back/forth a bunch and somewhere in there spending a day in Zurich and Sofia, Bulgaria. The reason for so little communication is that most of these places are pretty boring and Bulgaria is

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-62186523396445762312007-06-15T20:02:00.000-07:002007-07-04T20:06:54.383-07:00

Two friends agreed to combine their bachelor parties and a group of 20 or so of us rented an amazing house near Lake Tahoe for the weekend.The highlight was cruising around the clear deep blue lake in a speedboat amidst the mountains and enjoying the sun.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-63421098958373610042007-05-11T15:25:00.000-07:002007-05-12T00:32:10.053-07:00

I'm at the wedding of a good friend whose bachelor party took place in Miami a month ago. I was all set to attend until I realized I had the worst sinus infection known to man and a weekend of drinking and fishing would probably make me die. I had a bad feeling about it - I canceling on a bachelor party just seems to invite bad luck somehow.I was right. Apparently everyone showed up on Friday,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-87603892342757139042007-05-09T09:38:00.000-07:002007-05-09T09:49:05.760-07:00

Last night at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights, New York I saw The Arcade Fire in concert. In short, it was amazing - they put on a great show and are very pro-fans. During the encore, they played "Wake Up" after inviting all of the fans in the front onstage (including me and my pals). To quote my friend Matt, "It's always a good day when you end it up on stage dancing with a band.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-28021986036088371172007-05-08T11:41:00.000-07:002007-05-08T12:10:41.579-07:00

Okay, so after much bitching I finally have seen some celebrities in NY, although oddly, only on the subway. I kind of assumed they took cabs everywhere but apparently the subway is even convenient for them.First I saw Carson Kressley, aka The Queer Eye guy. This one was a weird sighting since it was all people trying to get to work by 9am and the train was packed. Dude was wearing so much pink

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-33439525701582409842007-05-08T11:35:00.001-07:002007-05-08T11:41:26.428-07:00

A certain someone I know likes to make this gourmet dessert I like to call "Cookie Soup". It's like having Oreo cookies with milk, only you just say fuck it and go the whole way. Be warned: this is only for serious sugarheads. The recipe is:- Several Oreo cookies- Bowl- Spoon- Milk (whole is best)Combine ingredients and let sit for 5 mins. Cookies will get soggy and you will get mushy Oreos and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-46915385349305688182007-05-08T11:29:00.000-07:002007-05-08T11:41:41.178-07:00

I went to Boston to give a recruiting presentation to the MIT kids (who are WAY dorkier than U-C types, by the way) and on the way I saw this bananas looking Frank Gehry-type of thing. Apparently its the Stata Center which houses all sorts of artificial intelligence, computer science, and philosophy folks.I'm not sure if this is the coming style of modern architecture, but it looks like a Tim

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-68056325675732914232007-02-16T06:58:00.000-08:002007-02-16T07:10:53.659-08:00

As a business traveler (sigh) I am constantly in cabs, largely to/from the following four places: My house, the office, the client, the airport. You tend to notice many things about cabs and their conductors after a while.For example, the cabs in Boston have much less footspace than the NY ones do. I think they put the big divider thing into normal cars instead of semi-modified ones as you see

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-25675101283809999862007-02-11T09:26:00.000-08:002007-02-11T09:49:19.604-08:00

I got a slice of pizza yesterday at Ben's Pizza. It was severely average. What was not severely average was the sequence of framed, hand-drawn murals hanging on the wall. My favorite was this one, titled "Awesome 80's" and if you click for the zoom, you'll see in the center bottom the artist's signature (and self-portrait) reading "With love from me to you, Rico Fonseca. May 3, 1985".It's pretty

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-76449022655673354862007-02-11T08:52:00.000-08:002007-02-08T11:36:42.122-08:00

There's a great place in Soho called Evolution which is essentially an art gallery filled with natural items including shells, butterflies, rocks, and skeletons. It's a pretty fascinating place and taps into the beautiful part of nature. I bought an interesting sucker which I've photographed here. I'm especially fond of the ingredients list.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-86772603387469703512007-02-03T12:50:00.000-08:002007-02-03T14:12:53.711-08:00

If you are the type who checks up on Wikipedia to learn more about random stuff (like me) I would suggest a visit to the Brick Testament. This is essentially Lego renditions of scenes from the Bible and is one of my main sources of religious information. I highly recommend it.My favorite section is "The Law", from which this photo was taken.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-71172988886703598382007-01-29T10:12:00.000-08:002007-01-29T11:03:21.873-08:00

Bank of Kaukauna wins again. God bless ye.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-58592094316322055162007-01-29T09:36:00.000-08:002007-01-29T10:05:57.476-08:00

This is a view of the Met Life building, which strangely sits smack in the middle of Park Avenue, perhaps indicating its real or percieved importance in the financial world. The road literally goes around the building, which has to be an urban planning nightmare.Often times in NYC, fog will roll in and obscure the tops of skyscrapers. It makes them seem infinitely tall and makes you realize how

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-45378004824596856342007-01-29T07:15:00.000-08:002007-01-29T07:16:53.175-08:00

My buddy is running a podcast with some pretty amazing one-ish hour sets of older soul and random/eclectic tunes along with some one-off great songs. I highly recommend it and I'll keep a sidebar of the tunes on the right for your convenience, you lazy bastard.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-29999942190297542252007-01-07T10:47:00.000-08:002007-01-07T10:47:33.708-08:00

So I went to the nerd reunion and it was pretty great. Everybody seems to be doing well and has good lives - careers, marriages, kids, etc. The one thing I wouldn't have predicted is the crash that it took for many people to get there. For this group, much more so than other people I know from school, it seems like many people seemed to have some sort of breakdown or very drastic reevaluation of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-34055012898587855252007-01-07T09:39:00.000-08:002007-04-08T10:11:56.996-07:00

You know when girls are best friends in NYC because they dress the same way when they go out and are super excited because they realize its ridiculous but don't care, which of course makes them superhot. When guys dress the same, it just instantly transports you to the moment when the item was purchased:"Dude, I love this hat with the feather in it. It's fucking sweet""Yeah, I've been thinking

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1166845723368376632006-12-22T19:30:00.000-08:002006-12-22T19:52:12.843-08:00

I am, to be frank, a nerd. That's okay, and I'm good with it. I actually have been for a long time. As a young man, I was for years in the Talented and Gifted program (TAG)in our local school system as a result of some test I took, from which I really only remember the freeform drawing section. As a result, from 4th-9th grades, I took classes with the sameish group of about 50 people so we all

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1166824928288031522006-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:002007-01-07T09:44:59.449-08:00

I joined friends over at Triple Crown, a place that usually features Ali Shaheed Muhammed of a Tribe Called Quest Thursdays on the tables. He is apparently elsewhere now, and it was evident from the complete deadness on this particular Thursday.That being said, the place is supercool and the music is solidly in the Native Tongues vibe. The bartender is a guy named John who offered us shots

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1164688425372349362006-11-27T20:22:00.000-08:002006-11-27T20:33:45.380-08:00

 So I went to the Harvard-Yale game tailgate at my special lady-friend's behest. I was told it was supposed to be a wild, fun time filled with smartypants getting wasted and being clever. Instead I found a truck with posterboard and marker denoting the *combined* tailgate of two whole Harvard College classes. That means of the, oh, I don't know, 2000 graduates of the most prestigious college

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1161531065213140472006-10-22T08:21:00.000-07:002006-10-22T08:34:34.806-07:00

I have, for some time, complained that I haven't seen more famous people in New York. I have to admit, I like seeing them and for some reason I get really excited around famous people for no good reason. The city is meant to be chock full of them but somehow they hang out everywhere but where I go. There is a sort of standard conversation which occurs among people who live here where you recant

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1161530257598121402006-10-22T08:09:00.000-07:002006-10-22T08:17:37.606-07:00

 Last weekend I was up in Boston and some friends and I drove out to the countryside to go apple picking. I have to say, it was hilariously fun. Also, since most of the easy apples had been picked, the job really amounted to a lot of tree-climbing, monkey impressions, and assorted apple-related humor. (William Tell, I'm a Mac, you're PC, etc) Eating apples which are freshly picked is a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1160351707176056612006-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:002007-01-14T09:57:49.003-08:00

There is a place in my neighborhood that serves half-assed cheap Italian food and last night this table of Asian folks asked me to take a picture with their camera. The guy on the left made this amazing toughguy face so I asked to take another with my own camera. Inbetween photos, he was happy and laughing. So weird.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1160019467042954562006-10-04T20:17:00.000-07:002006-10-04T20:37:47.163-07:00

Friends:My friend Chris has been on the ground with the Marines in Iraq for the past year. In general I'm pretty opposed to the war and am generally a raging liberal, but having a buddy running around dodging carbombs makes the position a lot more firm. Another friend at work was in the Army for many years and over drinks discussed the very moment he lost his faith in the administrations motives.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14543533.post-1157117647348996072006-09-01T06:20:00.000-07:002006-09-26T13:35:36.216-07:00

New York is an interesting place, to say the least. There is obviously a lot going on, not only fun stuff like the Lincoln Center Jazz Band playing in the courtyard outside your building, but clearly lots of work, as seen from all the poor analysts with their hands and faces pressed against the glass upstairs wishing they could go down and enjoy the music. Famously, New Yorkers walk really fast

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0