changes

You have all noticed the new look of the page. But the other MAJOR improvement I want to mention is that you no longer need to log in to post comments. In fact, you can post anonymously. I think this should help with the quantity of comments because I know how much people are hesitant to say things, knowing others will know who it is.

day off

The bosses gave me a day off (and the rest of the company) so I want to give you a rundown of what I have done so far.

1) Went to sleep around 1130 (tried to stay up later but kept falling asleep so I gave in) and brought my heater and heated blanket to living room because I was going to sleep on the couch.

1a) Got really cold in the living room, my space heater at one point when i woke up read 49.

2) Woke up, finished watching Wall St.

3) and here we are, Im very hungry, but no food. Always the classic debate of when McDonalds breakfast ends.

Plans:

Gym

Bike Ride

UCLA Hoops @ 1:00

And throughout, reading. Trying to read alot these days, and I mean books.

party

Went to a party last night with a couple friends. Didn't know anyone else there, which always causes much apprehension. But hey, to go hang out with my friends, see some new people is always better than 11-13 games of fifa and falling asleep drooling on my couch. Rather than give a play by play I would like to describe the people I connected most with, and some details about them:

1) Girl 1 and Girl 2

Friends of the host. How? "Partying" My one friend and I (not the one who knew the host) inquired no less than four times as to how they knew anyone at the party. "Partying" Excuse me? "Yeah, we all party together, and thats how we met." (Trying to figure this out lasted alot longer, but I will spare you). So yes, they met the host by "partying."

2) Girl 3

We'll call her Rochester. Why? She goes to Rochester and is studying Mechanical Engineering. That was all she really had to say so where did the conversation go?...The Weather... I literally said "I heard its snowing alot on the East Coast, how about that?" Topics covered: California People and how they know nothing about weather, people driving too fast in the snow, what cities border Rochester, how she is only taking five years and also getting a masters, how much snow is the most snow shes seen, how her friends from school died in a car crash in snow, what she brought to the party, the upcoming rain storm. A good amount of things about the weather? YES! Me and my friend weren't interested in anything she was saying but she still managed to talk about nothing for near twenty minutes.

3) Guy 1

Piece of shit law student who wanted everyone to know, and couldn't talk enough about what he learned in his ~ 3 months in law school and how the constitution is a "living document" and what the Honorable Justice Scalia is bringing to the table regarding tort reform. Two of my best friends are in law school (like how I dropped dat?) and they don't sit around discussing the merits of the legislative precedent that No Child Left Behind has set and it means one of two things: 1) They're not as engrossed in the law school experience as this guy (and spend too much time actually learning material from class) or 2) They're not pieces of shit. My vote is 2. Fuck this guy.

4) Guy 2

Took a couple years off to find himself (a.k.a. didn't take care of business in High School and went to community college. A lot of people do it and there's nothing necessarily wrong with it, but lets call a spade a spade. Also gained alot of "incite into the managerial structure of a large corporation" and decided that thats why he wants to work for a smaller company. Working on his poli sci/history degree, plans on ->masters -> phd, but struggling to find out what he really LOVES so can't commit to either quite yet. Used the term "as a political scientist" multiple times, mentioned China "started" in 213 B.C. (commend him for using odd number to throw me off the b.s. trail), was angered that the university system in the United States could teach about politics in a historical vacuum ("How can you learn about Marx without appreciating Russia in the late 19th century?")....

{

(Real guy 1: short and sweet. Moved to Portland because he was bored. Now works as a "candy wrapper, yeah, I wrap caramel candies in this family's garage, while a man plays video games in the living room and smokes weed." When I asked him multiple times if he was serious, and informed him how ridiculous that sounded to an outsider, he thought it was normal enough. This guy said he's actually tried to find a full time job, but its all he can find. It's rough out there.}

>)

Back to Guy 2, he just got out of a relationship with his girlfriend because "we were doing alot of drugs and I was able to stop but she wasn't so I left her." Sucks for her. When I tell him I have a girlfriend (sorry ladies) and that I'm 31 (to a first approximation, completely unrealistic) he shakes my hand.

Identities assumed:

1) Up and coming venture capitalist with a startup liberal leaning news website. (Thanks Will)

2) 31 year old guy trying to find true meaning in life.

A solid time spent with my friends just generally socializing with great people.

Poll

One of the readers of his blog really has his life together. Most of you don't (that may hurt my viewership/money/fbookability) but he does. Please help by voting for a name. He said he will promise to name his son what we choose.

If you haven't recognized the global reach of this site, it should be very clear now. A child's life will be forever decided by what you (us, we) vote for.

traffic

I drove into work in less than 15 minutes today.

Yeah, it's been nuts, its really great.

I guess, but I saw on the 5 yesterday solid break lights.

Wonder what happened?

Well, all I know is that seemed like as soon as I got on the number two lane of the 110 going south that alot more people were going north than usual. Usually I stick with the number two lane and had been pretty successful with that method. Right around the 105 interchange a good amount of more people were exiting so I was able to maintain about 47-49 through that area, which is just great for me. And then finally just as I was rounding the 710 things really opened up and I was just cruising.

What's going on with gas prices though?

::In unison the whole lunch room:: Yeah!

glee

Someone down the hall (my direct supervisor) has been playing what I believe is a Glee cover of the song Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. It is not the original I can tell, because it is a man singing it. It's making me quite angry.

Also, he has on the two song repeat is C-Lo's "F You" by someone with a Justin Bieber type voice.

That is all.

lunch

Things that are fun to talk about at lunch: Vegas, a holiday, the weekend, the weather, someone coming back from vacation, extreme weather in other areas.

We touched on all these subjects today, some in combination.

1) A guy got back from vacation, in Vegas, at it rained alot.

2) Someone asked about my weekend, I replied, "was pretty good"

3) The guy who has shown an interest in me, told a pretty long story about his kid and christmas.

3b. Do adults even really care about stories about people's kids. Is this a discrete event that happens in life, or does it slowly, in a continuous fashion happen. That being said, no matter how much I laugh and smile and try to add things to these children stories, do people really think a 23 year old guy cares about them?

4) The guy from 1) was talking about his vegas experience...and what did I add? "Did you go to any buffets?" In my opinion, one of the best questions about vegas there are.

5) Snowed alot in New York eh?

Yeah, heard 20 inches in Central Park..

6) Snack bars in hotel rooms:

Crazy how they have censors and bill you automatically.

No, actually you get around a 60 second buffer.

When I stayed at the W, the snack bar there was weird, but maybe its just a New York thing, that they billed me immediately.

My comment: New York is pretty cool.

resteraunt review

This is the first in my series of resterant reviews:

Choppe Choppe

I entered feeling delighted by the lack of excesivities. The chairs were there, the tables were there, but at the same time they weren't there. The menu, organically composed on a chalk board described each of the offerings (that could be had in either sandwich , wrap, or salad form), but included just the ingredients that you needed to know, and nothing more. I went there twice in two days and got:

1) Pulled pork sandwhich that was slow cooked for 72 hours (I trust them on their word). The barbecue sauce was generously, but not demonstratively applied. Nestled in between two large honey flavored french rolls was also about 3 ounces of perfectly salted and pickled cole slaw.

2) Smoked turkey sandwich with pesto lemon au joure. The perfect amount of turkey. The perfect amount of lettuce. The perfect amount of flavor. Perfection of a turkey sandwich.

The latin looking man who appears to be the owner or manager or both greeted me with a very warm and laid back tone. Made it feel like all my requests were an utter pittance to him in his desire to please me (yes homo?). Both times I went in were great experiences.

The food comes fast (no homo?) and is neatly wrapped in butcher paper accompanied by a very small written description of what you ordered. Again, its there, but its like its not. A nice pellegrino soda? Glorious.

This place is great, and I will probably be going there again tonight (no joke).

Expect more food reviews in the near future.

cool night pt.2

1. Went to sandwich place

a. splurged and bought a drink instead of saving money and getting a water

b. splurged even more and went for the chips, really making this a whole "meal"

2. Went home and finished the rest of my cheesecake from last night.

3. Played ~ two hours of FIFA.

4. Fell asleep.

cool night

Went to the UCLA basketball game last night. Probably my favorite thing to do in college was to go to those games, and going back is always alot of fun. Saw my dad, brother, sister in law, brother's good friend Ryan, and also a friend that I will not name (to protect his/her identity ). UCLA won and it was just a great overall time.

Now after...

Me and Friend both had a very strong urge for something sweet - specifically not ice cream alone. So we figured, hey we're right here, we mine as well hit up Diddy Reese and once it was verbalized and confirmed by us both, the crave got real intense for that perfect ice cream sandwich. To tell you the truth, the cookies might have been the stronger contributing factor to the craving. But, to our dismay, there was quite a line after the game, and the rain was coming down, and we were sans umbrella. Discouraged, but not any less determined, we began to brainstorm on another avenue for satisfying the aforementioned craving for something sweet and delicious. We both simultaneously recalled a nice desert type place that was on Westwood, back towards our place. This place was only a disappointment. They only served frozen yogurt and shakes (although they looked pretty good), and that wasn't what we were looking for.

And there we were headed home in defeat, having already casted off the idea of going to McDonalds for the second time in the course of three hours to try their cookies. Providence had other plans. Juniors Deli and Bakery. Longer story short - cheescake slice for me? Check. Chocolate Chip Cookie with a dallop of extra chocolate right in the middle for the other person? Check.

And so we ventured home in success, ate our desert, played some fifa.

Two pals on a quest for some sweets on a Tuesday night? Is that so wrong?

A cool night.

friend at work

Another note. My friend at work was glad I was back today, came in this morning to shoot the shit (from the other side of the office). Also, at lunch he was telling a story to the whole office - but made sure to make sure I knew I was special by maintaining eye contact with me during the whole rendition.

Good to be back home...

the damn weather!!

A friend of a friend (We'll call him Dan to protect his identity) mentioned how funny it is to talk about the weather. Not just talking about the weather, but doing so because of nothing else really to talk about. The following are excerpts from lunch that highlight this point:

me (feeling an awkward silence at the table, but trying not to mention that it was raining outside): I heard (a topic for another day the use of the phrase "I heard") that is snowed nine feet in Mammoth this weekend.

(ensuing comments)

...feels like it rained nine feet here!...

...yeah, does anyone know how much exactly?...

...on the train ride the river was flowing higher...

...I heard three inches...

...I was in London once and it was raining alot so we ate at a sit-down pizza hut. Can you believe that?...

...back in the day all of the pizza huts are sit down...

...I went to a sit-down pizza hut last weekend with my kids...

...Oh I thought it was something unique, nevermind...

(me): ever been to a sit down mcdonalds? Where they have waiters and they take your order and bring it to you?

...no, do those exist?...

(me): no...

::LONG PAUSE OF SILENCE::

...car industry really turning around eh?...

...what do you mean?...

...seen alot of new cars on the road recently...

...yeah, but still struggling i'd say...

...jeff bridges doing car commercials now, anyone see that...

(me) he's all over the place right now, in two movies at the same time! man!...

...yeah..

...yeah...

...yeah...

(everyone)yeah...

...anyone seen the kings speech?....

(silence)...oh...my wife says its good....

...im not going to get a new car for a while...

...yeah, bills are out of control....

(I exit)

clarification

I would like to clarify a few things. There has been some confusion regarding the accuracy and potential falsehood of this blog. Less two (or three) particular posts, this really is my life. I am somewhat surprised that some of you who know me were not certain as to the legitimacy of a few of my purported excursions (see club, pacman, artshow, etc.).

In any case, I apologize for the confusion, I will seek to not replicate my mistakes, and I am truly appreciative of all you guys viewing my blog.

The only thing I would like to add is that I would appreciate more comments from you guys. I would like this to get some more feedback on what you think about the things I talk about, so that I know what is worth talking about or sharing, and what is not. (Falstad, you're really doing your part ).

I'm back yall

I would first and foremost like to apologize at the way this blog may or may not have fallen off recently. I will be sure to correct that. In addition, I will be putting together final thoughts on my vacation tonight, when I have a better environment to reflect.

But now, I am back on my grind. There is something interestingly fulfilling in getting back to things you are familiar with, no matter how boring they may seem (or actually are ). Back at the desk though, feels good. Looks like I never left, and I actually got a surprisingly warm welcome (further thought on this subject led me to believe that some posturing was planned by me as far as bonus season goes. It may be a strategic gain to be out of the office when these types of decision are close to being made, as people can more accurately see your value upon your return and to see a clear situation of how things run with you there, and with you gone ).

Point is, it just added another facet to me going on the vacation I did.

71 missed emails! (~10 that were sent specifically for me).

In any and all cases, its back. to . the. grind. baby.

I'm back yall... lets get it...

recent convo

A recent convo I had with a reader of the blog I will use the name "Ray T Hon" to hide his/her identity and gender:

Ray T Hon: Note: KFC in Georgia is a buffet. (This came almost a week to the date before the next set of messages)

Ray T Hon: Bro I am in heaven - (and received included picture)

Me: What the hell? Whats the catch? Theres no way...

Ray T Hon: No catch man, I'm tearin it up here!! Anything u want, all kinds of chicken and sides

Me: Utterly shocked. Disbelief. Dangerous. I need to read up onthis (sic). Never seen and buffet for that cheap, period.

Ray T Hon: And the thing is, I am the ONLY one is here!

This was the conclusion of our little text message back and forth. However, a phone conversation followed with a very thorough analysis of the pros and cons of this situation. Further analysis is necessary.

Overall, a very good conversation regarding a pretty amazing situation going on in the dirty.

my life

Just reading some quotes this evening, in beautiful B-More. And I couldn't find the one I was trying to find so I'll post another that hits a few notes:

What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.
That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion.
Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.

Who? Van Gogh? No - Me.

Have I read through this quote to analyze it? NO.! Not even once.

But I'm sure it summarizes my contributions to the artistic and financial communitie(s)((+y-s)?

Anyway the grown man vacation continues. Hit up D.C. today. Saw the sights. My main man took the day off and drove me and him to see what America is really about. I will write a summary of my experiences later. But more importantly I'm back in the hood. Lots of people going on vacation to B-More to see the sights. But I digress, read the quote, its me.

snow falls like we fall

Snow.

It falls. We fall.

In snow. We walk. It is us.

We are it. Snow is us. We are snow.

Birds on branches. Birds in snow. Snow on birds.

Bukake.

Frozen.

Running. Fleeing. Fury. Feathers.

Jumping. Living. Dwindling. Falling. Gliding. Snowflakes.

Warm coffee. Warm Coats. Warm hugs. Warm hearts. Warm thoughts.

diesel real old school people

While leaving the Frick this morning a question came to me. How did dudes back in the day get diesel? I find it hard to believe that there were gyms and what not. I figure all the different groups who have been slaves over human history got diesel because they were doing hard ass work. But man, in paintings and sculptures and what not they show some DIESEL ass dudes. Like P-Willis or anouther (that aint real british but I wish it was) diesel American Footballer.

What this boils down to is that I would love to get on the greek or roman workout plan so I could get super diesel like those dudes without the 'roids. I want Brett Boone forearms circa 2001. Alot of the dudes in the paintings are diesel like that. McGwire, etc. (I don't see any diesel black dudes in the art so don't know if those guys were diesel too, I imagine they were probably less straight diesel and more agile and stuff ). Were their diesel asian dudes back in the day? Maybe the asian people who were slaves were diesel (would like to see some of that art too).

Yup.

bmore

Daryl Strawberry. The internet. Algebra. Modern Family. The bikini. German Sheppards. Muhammed.

What is the common link. Yes. Baltimore here I come. Very excited. They say when one door closes the other opens.

(On a separate but equal not, the gratitude I would like to extend to my hosts in the Delmonico Building, their friends, and all of the people who were so gracious to me over the past week cannot be understated. I literally have met more people in the last week than I have in the last three years, without question. On top of that, they all were legit cooler and more fun to hang out with than the people I know back home. I will try to emphasize this point when I do return (who knows when that will be given my transient, free spirited nature) to LA. Possibly I can bring back some of this more adventurous way of life that I have experienced here, but given the curmudgeon level of a certain group of my friends back in LA, this seems unlikely. To all you NY kids who were so gracious in treating me with such honesty and friendship I owe you all. T-Stone, you the man (I am glad you decided and have much more going on than what I provided you when you visited me).)>)?

Look out Golden Gate City... here I come...

comments re: NY

1) A difference in East Coast vs. West Coast money (an introduction).

In California, having money is something that you tend to keep to yourself as much as possible. You would not be in a public area talking with your friend about "I am a little glad my parents divorced because to tell you the truth I never saw my dad anyway, and now, he really compensates for it by buying me alot of things. It's just a better system now ::te he te he::"

(Other non-related quote "I used to really be into school, but now I just like drinking. Alot. Really, I just love drinking and buying things!" Girls all over (if not all) share this attitude, and I am glad these ones next to me are unabashed in saying so.)

This just wouldn't happen in California. A byproduct of this is the "thrift store" epidemic. On the East Coast, its a badge of pride how much you have and nothing more or less. I actually appreciate this behaviour because it is honest. And I appreciate honesty. It brings me to part 2, (which in fact is a generalization of item 1, making 1 simply just a corollary of 2 [or 2 is the generalization of 1 across a larger set of possibilities]).

2) People in California are very damn progressive and sensitive towards other people. Because of this there is an epidemic of not telling people important things that happen in people's lives. Acceptance into some school. An interview at a prestigious place of employment. A new job. Going on a date with a new person. In general doing or having something of note happening to you. It has become the status quo to at all costs not mention this event for happening. I see two reasons for this. One, to attract more attention to it - knowing at some point someone will find out in a round about way and then not only do you win some acclaim for the achievement itself, but also for how extremely humble (or in my opinion extremely a piece of shit) that no one even knew it had happened, although it was nearly two years ago. (e.g. "What!? As a young child you were a world champion Mahjong player??!! I can't believe you haven't mentioned that!" another, "You've been working on your PhD at Harvard and you fly back every couple nights for the last three years and acted like you attended CSUN so that no one would be offended or feel less accomplished?!! Thanks for doing that for us!!" The longer you don't let people find out about these things the better (Indeed the data has shown acclaim for this behavior exhibits exponential growth).

Also in this set are events that are more melancholic - the passing of a member of the family, the rejection or negation of any of above mentioned events, or any other sort of tribulation that actually would feel good to mention to a friend. These behaviours follow a different set of rules, but are in someway related (although the data has NOT bourne a conclusion quite yet).

New York people don't exhibit this behaviour friends. They let people know the good (mostly) and the bad.

Point being, you don't have to spare me feeling inadequate or lesser of a person because you are doing something of note. I can handle it. Let a playa know.

goal in life

A new goal in life that has to come to me during this period I term "IDE". Introspection. Development. Emancipation. The goal? To not have to get up every day and go to work at a (relatively) regular time. Im sure this state of living is due to a myriad of factors that I am not aware of, but the end result is what I aspire to achieve. It would require me to be able to motivate myself to get things done, but I would like to believe if my well-being and ability to sustain my living standards (which, admittedly, are quite low) were dependent upon it, that I could make it happen.

This is not a plea to be able to get in a few more games of Fifa in the morning, or during the middle of the day (which would definitely be sick) - but more because the increase in quality of life that I am sure this state of work would bring.

Does this simply boil down to me working for myself? Possibly. But also, it could mean that I reach such a level at the office that I have the leverage to be able to substantially get things done on my own accord, and in my own location. I would emphasize that "working from home" is not tantamount to the condition I describe - but it is something very close. I think to fully bring the concept to life would involve a career in itself that functions not from 9-7 or what have you, but something less continuous (but equally if not more dense in achievement per quantity of time).

(The ability to hit the gym at a more frequent rate, and increased intensity is merely an amazing byproduct of this state of existence, but I would be utterly obtuse if I were to not mention this factor.)

tribeca coffee shops

I've been to a good amount. Had some pretty good convos with people regarding what makes a good coffee shop and it's not what you'd think. It's not the quality of the bean necessarily or the ph of the water used in the brew. It's not the humidity of the environment of the bean while it ages ( 2-3 months depending on the quality of soil used), nor is it about the way the end product is poured into the correct shaped glass. What is it about you ask? Let me tell you....

1) The number of macbooks being used

2) The amount of heterosexual man dates happening

3) The amount of people with multiple books out

I've noticed this blog has taken a cynical turn and I am not proud of it. And, not only is it irreverent, it is in fact mis-representative of my true feelings. I enjoy all these topics I have addressed over the past few days. If not, rational expectations says that I would not do them. But I do. What it really comes down to is that in a matter of days the most rewarding thing I am going to do is score a goal in the 80th minute with Gareth Bale against a kid in Seattle named brngbackdasonics69.

In other news, some pretty sick VBA skills were obtained today. Debugged my userform for an hour plus.

Vacation is in full swing. Have fun at your desks...

"Liberal Arts" Schools

There's a shit ton of them in these parts. And if you don't know about them you're a fool. If someone says they went to Raysbush, you don't want to be the asshole who says, "Where's/What's that?" Some of the rules of thumb I have already implemented:

1) Respond, "Raybush, Wow! Impressive"

2) The person will most likely respond something like "Eh, not really, it was okay." To which you respond, "No, that's a real great school, I've heard some great things about it."

3) If you've never heard of it, its a good school. (Guess this goes along with 1).

4) Immediately refrain from mentioning that you work in finance.

5) However, you may want to mention it because:

a) If she is a female, her whole life is essentially hanging on that she meets a guy who is actually going to make good money so that she can continue liberating africa

b) Maybe most importantly, her dad is a VP at Goldman, thus her ability to attend a 30.000,00 (US$) private school since the seventh grade. She has a soft spot for them. (If its a guy, living in Manhattan, he is either bankrolled by said VP, or is aspiring to be one himself.)

6) Mention the Claremont Schools. Even though most people who grew up quite near these schools didn't think much of them for most of our lives, you will get an excited response because these schools are something like the Harvard and MIT for those people whose parents already went to those schools and made it ($$$$$) in life, and now their kids will aspire for a more "holistic" sense of happiness. [I legit met a girl whose brother chose a school named Bowdoin {pronounced Bo-Din } over a school named Princeton. This girl is probably the nicest girl that I've met in NYC, but she was more confused that I was confused about the decision that her brother made.)

In conclusion, Liberal Arts Schools are cooler than I originally thought. Even after I thought they were already pretty sick.

Brooklyn collective brownstone holiday artisan holiday party in park slope

The title indeed says it all. Tonight my hosts took me to a nice, friendly holiday party in a basement studio in the park slope area of Brooklyn - put on by a young newly engaged couple. It was genuinely nice to get away from the hustle and bustle (and capitalist ideology) and get back to connect with real Americans - in touch with real american ideals.

America isn't about spending 2.400,00 (US$) on a 18 m^2 apartment in Gramercy Park. It's not about having a 20 minute train ride to your wall street job. It's not about going to the your local publicly traded organic food super chain...etc etc etc... you know the drill.

It's about spending 800,00 (per person) to live in a 72 m^2 old warehouse in Williamsburg with no separate bedrooms (so that you and your four friends are able to have space to create pottery, thoughts and creations in general). It's about having a zero minute commute because you admit that you don't have a real job and wear it as a badge of honor (but somehow manage to still wear the hippest thrift-esque (but we all know its brand new), and genuine organic free range wool boots [thanks dad! {for the rent too!}]).

I honestly think Brooklyn in uniquely cool, but that its any different than areas of Manhattan is a stretch. People live there for the same reason they live anywhere: to maximize the equation that is a function of space, price, and location.

But another major point is that I've been here for about four days and I already am heavily involved in many happenings across all the boroughs.

Grown man

Everyone went to a real nice place...im tryin to save money...

Grown man.

Get at me.

Ny food

To.die.for.

Turkey sandwhich with avacado? Yesir.

Free cup of tap water to save $ while getting alot of dirty looks for the request? Yesir.

Grown man vacation.

Look it up.

my new friends

My new family is more intellectual than my old. My old family was the worn down folk at the Bally's gym in the Culver City Shopping Center. My new family is the artists, poets, homeless people, and students that frequent the same coffee shop scene as I. What these people lack in brute strength, they make up for in appearing to be working hard on something always. It still remains, that as I look busy right now, furiously typing away at a coffee shop in Chelsea, they are in fact on gchat or the like (facebook? do these people use facebook?).

I hear the entrepreneurial spirit in this crowd. Witnessed a meeting regarding a new resteraunt that it appears is going to be openning. Have listened to many conversations regarding business plans and strategies. We have old, young and ageless. We have fans of the great novels of our generation, and fans of the lastest Marie Clare.

Alot of knowledge acccumulation going on, however, one question remains. What the hell are all these people just doing hanging out at a coffee shop and not somewhere actually doing something that makes money?

Are they all on vacation like I?

grown man vacation

I know what you all are thinking. "How does he have time to update the blog while he's absolutely tearing up the Big Apple?" Well, Im doing it for you guys - want to include you in as much as possible of what my life is really like. So I took a little break from all the action, dates, meetings, parties, events etc., and just reflect on where I've been and what I've done in only less than one day. Let me just say this, I needed this little rest. Needed to catch up on the scores and trade roumours. Needed to catch up on the news in LA. Needed to find out exactly why Urban Meyer is retiring. Needed to see why the Dems aren't backing the President's compromise.

Trust me that I don't feel bad taking a little rest and filling all you guys in, and acknowledging that not everyone has the same opportunities that I do.

Well, hope you guys all have a great evening...going to go hit the town and see what the night has in hold for me!

vacation things

Yes, I am on vacation all. If I am a little "off the grid," acknowledge that this is by design. I realize that I might not be doing the traditional vacation activities, but given where my priorities are in life, I am doing what I want to do. My vacation involves crashing on people's couches and all around probably bothering my friends that are busy trying to live their daily lives while I get my vacation on. Hopefully I will not overstay my welcome, or more generally, annoy my hosts.

Got up early today, and headed straight to the bookstore to get my read on.

As of now, on vacation, at a bookstore, drinking a coffee, and learning about things.

Sorry to all of you who are at your desk pushing pencils while I'm livin' the dream!

Mr. Barack Obama

Ran into the leader of the free world at LAX...

Majellown (sp?)

Lewis and Clark. Aristotle. Shakespeare. Amerigo Vespuchi. Majellown.

Whats the common thread? We all know these are the greatest explorers of our age. Not only did they find brand new countries and new kinds of food, but they found something more important.

THEMSELVES!

Thats what I will be doing on my trip...and so it begins!

He called

He called me at home. He asked me for my cell phone number so I gave it. Guess what happened?! The stoner lawyer who is bond counsel and is putting the deal together didn't realize that from December 8 to December 22 is only 14 days not 15!!!

Haahahahahaaa... For municipal offerings to be seperate bond issues for tax purposes they MUST 15 days apart or more!

What did he want me to do about this? Nothing. Just thought Id find it funny. And it is!

work relationship

I am developing a pretty unique relationship with someone I work with. I know everyone says you shouldn't do that, that its not someone you want to see all the time if something goes awry etc. However, this relationship just formed organically. Interestingly enough it has happened over the last five or six months and has just recently really solidified.

It all really started intensifying about three months ago when working with this person they felt comfortable enough to air out some of the way this person feels about some particular shortcomings in the office. We were able to look into eachothers' eyes, nod in agreement, I was able to add the customary "Yeah!" or "Really?.. Didn't know that, but I can see it now." On this particular project I did a pretty good job and gained the faith of this MD, and thus the relationship grew.

Relationships in the office are based on trust, secrecy, and ability. I immediately had the first, per his assumed ability to air things of a particularly sensitive nature to a guy as green as I, I displayed the second in connection with the first, and have since been able to display the last on ensuing projects that we have been working on together.

This most recent project has really, however, brought us to a unique point. The other reason that it has done so well is due to the "middle age factor". I will briefly describe what most social scientists simply call MAF. You once were young, you had fun, you dated alot of people probably, liked to party, worked a pretty good job, made some good money = able to do fun things and spend irresponsibly; generally you never saw yourself getting married. However, at some point one of two things happened.

1) Someone realized you made good money and convinced you to get married to them.

2) You convinced yourself you had to get married at some point, and eventually it was the worst of a set of possible evils, so you did it.

Now, this is not the case for all people, but for how I see it for this person that I am speaking of.

The MAF at some points results in you longing for your youth, or some connection with something a little more exciting, risky, or fun than all the prevailing MAF-esque factors that control your life. That's where I come in, I'm young, well groomed (although not as well as some), and above all, am not married and have something of an open-ended looking next 10 years of my life. The working together factor + the MAF factor + the way we know what each other are thinking + the way sometimes we catch a glimpse of each other's eye and blush (just kidding, well not really, but yeah kidding ::wink wink::) have really led to our relationship blossoming as the days fall, one after the other, the next before the last...

This all culminated in him coming into my office, standing at my door for ~ 2 minutes in silence, him laughing, me laughing in return, we both shake our heads in disgust for the way this deal has been proceeding (or lack thereof!!! hahahahaha), and he left without either of us having to say a word... but we both knew....

Busy!

So busy... today is my last day before my big Trip!!

Reports, meetings, conference calls, meeting with lawyers... running the gamut and all around scrambling to tie up all my loose ends...

Sorry no time for introspection today, please believe there will be plenty of that over the next 12 days or so!

New drink

Added a new drink.

Drinks

Things I have drank recently...

suggestions?

Also, I will be having a little free time it seems (some things just opened up), so if you guys have any suggestions of thing to do, I'm all ears, please let me know what you recommend in the comments section.

Thanks!

my trip

Hey yall,

Im going to be going on a trip to the east coast on Wednesday (NYC, B-More, and possibly the District), so let me know in the comments section if there is anything you want me to bring you as gifts or trinkets or anything from there.

I may or may not be available once I leave because I will be doing a good amount of thought, self finding, studying, researching, and over learning. I most likely will come back a different person, just to let you guys know.

Anyway, let me know in the comment section of anything you want me to bring back.

twins

I definitely should have came back last night. Honestly my intentions were such, but somehow (thanks Kev), I was convinced that I'd be alright flying back in this morning and going straight to work. Well, here I am. Feeling. Like. Death.

If you know me, you know how I do vegas so I'll spare you all the things you already know (tables, bottles, no-limit tables, wasting a G on UCLA over USC, etc.) So the hilights were:

Outspending Pacman Jones at Treasures and then ending up at his VIP lounge back on the strip discussing the merits of extending the Bush Era Tax Cuts and extending Unemployment Insurance. Come to find out hes a STRICT Keynesian and thinks:

1) The stimulus should have been in the1.5-2.3251341 trillion dollar range

2) Deficits need to be addressed now by addressing those acts that are least paniful (a la letting some tax cuts expire, just on income over 250k for those filing as individuals [note that this means even the mega rich will still get tax cuts, just on their income under 250k {notice how the media never mentions this, just that those making more than 250k will not get tax cuts when the really are} which is the money they mot likely will be making decisions "on the margins" with] and realize that this is not a "tax hike" as the republicans would like you to believe, under current law, they will be gone).

3) [O]nce a good girl's goin bad, she's gone forever...

4) Kobe > Lebron

and

5) "ay bay bay"

The only other hilight was that I sat next to a guy who turned out to me my twin brother (separated at birth apparently) on the flight home this morning. It was a very emotional event and we really did have that connection that we could finish (each others) sentences, and knew what we were thinking without saying anything. That shit was pretty tight fo real to meet dis cat. We embraced, shared a couple more moments together, kissed, and went our separate ways. We both knew that making any attempt to exchange contact information, or attempting to make future plans to become parts of eachothers lives was what we both didn't want (it even was unspoken to share eachothers' names!).

Was a pretty good weekend.

vegas

Headed out to Vegas in a few minutes... me and the boys are flying out of Burbank into vegas in about an hour and a half, and I probably wont remember much after that.

Slick Suit? Check.

4Gs in cash? Check.

Table Reservations at three different clubs (probably only make it to two!)? Check.

Suite at the Encore? Check.

My weekend > Yours? Check.

See you pencil pushers on Monday!

career change

Thinking about a career change. Had a pretty intense dream last night where I was attending a conference on either Astrophysics, or Astronauts (I am not clear which it was). So, I am contemplating which of those careers are better suited to me.

I'll keep you posted.

Boom

Two thousand page views. How about that...

(Google analytics tells me that a total of 26 unique visitors have visited).

dream

Had a dream last night that I was taking off my socks and I went to take my sock off my right foot, and there was one under that, then I took that one off, and there was one under that, then I took that one off and it was the last one. Then I went to take the sock off my left foot and there was one under that, after I took that one off, there was one under that, then I took that one off and there was one under that, and after I took that one off I finally had my socks off.

In conclusion, I had three socks on my right foot, and four on my left foot. Still trying to find the meaning of this...

Slow night

Pretty slow night last night to tell you the truth. After I got off work I grabbed a drink real quick with an old co-worker who was actually in town for the night on business (or so he said). It is always good catching back up with someone you essentially spent all of your waking day with. The guy is doing real well now though, actually working at a startup doing some pretty great marketing work (you'll see his work soon, trust me). After we finished our drink(s) we parted ways, who knows when and where our paths will cross again...

After that I headed over to Tom's house to meet up before the art show. He had just received a package from his cousin studying indigenous movements in Columbia, (a UPENN PHD student nonetheless) that included some coffee that was to-die-for. So we brewed some up while we waited for his girl to get ready to head out to Kai's event. As an aside, I must say theres nothing like a hot cup of joe on a cold night (and it doesn't hurt that this particular night was straight from Columbia!).

The arthouse was absolutely packed to the brim. I'm talking people from all parts of LA were there. Echo park was the place to be. That's not to say other parts weren't represented that night, as BH, WeHo, the whole westside and a good amount of old money (larchmont-esqe) were in the house. Kai's installation entitled "Life is Dead" was something i won't attempt to describe, but lets just say it made you think about everything you've ever done in your life. To say her weeks of hard work were completely rewarded, might be a little premature, but I saw quite alot of people from the art world showing interest (even Katy McAdams from the Village Voice was in the house).

I cut out of the show a little early, about 12:30 because there was some reading i wanted to do, and I wanted to run through some things on a programming project I have been working on. Other than that, like i said, a pretty slow night... hopefully today brings something of note.

better post than the last

That last post sucked, in order to make up for it I want to contribute this:

http://keboch.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/please-accept-this-spider-as-payment/

learning things

Some life lessons I think I want to share with you all. A very simple heuristic that may or may not help you out with your life.

Would you like to be real good at something(s)?

Want to know alot about alot of things and be good at alot of things?

You can't have both.

If you are trying to maximize F, where F is valuable skills, knowledge, ability, F only takes two arguments. Yes, you are maximizing over an unconstrained set of possible skills, knowledge, abilities, however F is only maximized when two of the arguments have coefficients that are greater than 0 (the set is constrained to values equal or greater than 0, having negative abilities is foolish no matter how bad of a chess player you are!). A rough reason why, is that F is not a linear function.

In summation, stop trying to be good at alot of things, and start being great at a couple things.

The Club

Went to the club (again, I know) last night. Was pretty epic to tell you the truth. All my crazy crew eventually showed up (thanks Zach for being late), and we did it how we pretty much always do it - shut The PLAce DOWN!!!! We rolled into the Paper Room about 1 AM (never got to a club before then, has anyone? lolerz) and were immediately brought to OUR TABLE!!!! Yeah I guess it's not a big deal to us anymore because Casandra always gets us VIP treatment no matter when or where our crew shows up, she knows everyone in the city.

Dillon started things off rather quickly with two shots of Patron (platinum) and we were feelin pretty on top of the world, looking down on the crowd dancing going nuts. Steph almost got in a brawl with a pretty diesel bouncer because he tried to grab her ass, but Big D-Lo stepped in and the bouncer quickly backed off (who wouldn't though right? I've been his friend for almost a year now and am still scared to sleep knowing he is in the same city as I!). About 15 minutes in Chaz bought two bottles of....ALIZE!!!!! Yup, we were on top of the world. On top of the almost 13 or 14 girls that we rolled into the place with, at this point we had about 30 very nice looking young ladies clawing at all of us.

One thing that does suck about this city is that clubs close at 2... so we only had about an hour to really get our party on (but we still managed to drop almost 3k as a group!). And to tell you the truth, I don't remember much past when me, P-Money, and three girls from Nebraska took a QUADRUPLE X BODY SHOT!!!

Don't know how I made it into work today, for real.... what a night.... (round 2 tonight guys!!?)