Holidays

So I hope everyone's holidays have been going well. I had a great time down in Florida with my family. Drank some great wine with Dad & Jo and even got a round of golf in with my mom, which was fun (we tied). I will have new pics of Baby Evan to post as soon as my pop emails them. He really is insanely cute. He does this shy little smile when I play with him.

For New Years I'll be up in New York hanging with some of my best friends and the lovely Kathryn and her friends. She's been stressing out. Her friends are all just a little too laid back to get NYE plans in order so it's fallen to her. She's not the logistical superfreak that I am so planning a new years night for 15 people is not her cup of tea. It's amazing how much pressure we put on ourselves to achieve the archetype, isn't it? New Year's eve is always supposed to be super fun and exciting - a thrill a minute. Valentines Day is always supposed to be tender and romantic. Christmas is the hardest. You have family that you don't see all year, but on Christmas everyone is supposed to be smiles and sunshine and family and carols and what not. All this effort to achieve our ideal version of a night almost always ends in cringing frustration or just plain old disappointment.

So why do we do it? Well, I think I do it because the ideal, no matter how unrealistic, is pretty darn awesome. Who doesn't want to sing songs and tell stories by the fire with a family that loves them? Who doesn't want to party like the world is going to end? Who doesn't want to share that moment with their special someone where their love is the only thing in the world that matters? I think the holidays are like gambling. The chances of it turning out right are very low, but we're all so wrapped up in the dream of what it COULD be like, that we keep playing. We roll the dice every holiday and hope that the club will be fun, that we'll be loved, that the turkey won't be dry, and that Santa will bring us all good cheer and tolerance. This year, let's all try to have a good time and just worry about breaking even.

Why can't life be more like The A-Team?

Remember how cool The A-Team was? I've found that real life, even when it reminds me of the A-team is just not the same. For example, remember when Hannibal would say "I love it when a plan comes together."?

Today, I was emailing with a colleague and he responded to my email saying:
"Many thanks for the quick determination on this issue. This outcome simplifies the funding transmittal process."

Somehow, it's just not the same. Also, I never get to drug my colleagues in order to get them on a plane.

Good Music

So, in juxtaposition to Sunday's concert, Tom, Pat and I saw We Are Scientists at Black Cat last night. There were no special effects, no wacky skits, just really good music. This was my first time seeing these guys and I have to say that (with one exception) their live show is even better than their CD. I love bands that are better live than produced. When I like a bands album but find that they stink live, I can never really appreciate the album in the same way.

So, what was the one exception? Their tempo was all over the place! The entire band was slowing down and then speeding back up (very noticeably) all night. Got on my nerves. That said, We Are Scientists is a great new band that you should check out. They're post-new wave rock if that means anything to you. They use a lot of squealing guitars and syncopated drumming.

What other new music am I listening to? Well, the albums I'm listening to most right now come from the following bands. Check them out if you get the chance.
Art Brut - British post-punk stuff
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - low-fi art rock
Morningwood - chick-led pop-rock
Flyleaf - chick-led hard rock
O.K. Go - Poppy-rocky fun stuff. You should definitely check out this band.
Tenacious D - the soundtrack to The Pick of Destiny is out

Hey, if you know a cool new band that I should listen to, post their name here. Also, if you're looking for a really cool way to find new music you like, visit www.pandora.com. Put in a couple bands you like and this website will create a streaming radio station with other bands you might like based on your preferences. You can also give positive and negative feedback on each song you hear to help the site refine its selections for you. Rock on.

GWAR!!!

Is it stupid and juvenile to go see a speed metal band dressed up in rubber demon costumes where they execute people on stage and spray the crowd with fake blood (and other bodily fluids)? Judging by the rest of the audience at last nights GWAR show, I would have to call that a resounding yes. Indeed, I felt no shame at having paid $20 to listen to songs about hell while watching Satan battling a 15 foot T-rex or even being narrowly missed by the spray from Hitler’s recently exposed carotid artery. These things in no way indicated that I was wasting time or money. After all – it was a show! What told me I was being silly, was the evidence all around me – a mass of awkwardly drunk teens and be-mulletted rednecks that seemed to equivocate the coming of GWAR with the only true release in their otherwise meaningless lives. The demon rockers were funny. The crowd was the only thing evoking fear or disgust. Oh well – I guess I’ll see ‘em again next year! Oh, and for you GWAR fans out there – no, they did not play Fistful of Teeth (major disappointment) but they did play a particularly brutal version of Meat Sandwich.

today's highlight

I just got off the most hilarious phone call. This old English dude named John Fallon called me looking to track down a colleague of mine. He just kept going on and on about how he got my number and who he was looking for and why it was important. Even after I gave him the number he was seeking, he just wanted to chat on and on about the background of his project. Apparently, he’s promoting burning alcohol in small turbine generators and he heard that NREL has just such a generator sitting around in Golden, Colorado. He is trying to link DOE, NREL, and some utility in a town with a silly name to do a pilot. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about his project, but he had this amazing way of speaking that just kept me entranced. I was literally on the phone with this guy for 20 minutes. He said things like “of course, of course, all is forgiven,” “I suppose that depends on whose ox is being gored you see,” and “like the gentleman said in eight B.C., we’re all organized until we’re reorganized, you understand.” Oh and he would talk really fast except when he would say people’s names, a which point he would say them really really slowly like “so of course I asked the man his name and he told me D A N F O G E L and after speaking with him he directed me to J A C K D E M P S Y who sent me to your man C A L V I N F E R K who I rang at the number I’d been given which has clearly led me do you, you see.” The man was wasting my time but he was so enchanting that I consider his call the highlight of my day. How strange.

Death by Meeting

So, given my first three days on the job and my outlook for the rest of this week it seems that I will be averaging between three and four hours of meetings each day. This is insane! See, our group is currently dealing with a LOT of different projects for DOE and our philosophy is that incorporating more brainpower into the planning process for each project will make it more successful. The result is that I am going to lots of meetings and accomplishing very little in the way of work.

I used to work with a guy who said that companies should eliminate all chairs from conference rooms and that would make meetings shorter. I think that would just make everyone resent their coworkers that much more for making them stand around. Personally, I think we should develop a computer program that calculates the per-minute salary of everyone attending a meeting and then displays a running tally of meeting cost on an electronic banner in each conference room.

Meanwhile, I just pushed back for the first time and informed my boss that I will NOT be going to DOE's staff update meeting tomorrow. I don't need more information - I need time to put what information I've been able to assimilate to good use. Once I've produced a some value, then maybe I'll consider heaping more meetings onto my plate. For now, I'm gonna keep my head down and try to eek out some productivity. Wish me luck.

Life at NREL

So, I'm closing in on the end of my second day here at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. So far everyone here has been really fantastic about welcoming me and making time to answer all of my questions. This job is going to be different from everything I've done before. In the past my job has always been about getting an assignment and determining the best way to get it done. Now I'm going to be focusing more on determining what the assignments should be and ensure that those doing the work are doing it well. Nuts. Oh well, it'll be fine.

Meanwhile, my friend Jihan has invited me to be her date to the SENTECH holiday party. That'll be fun. If anyone tries to give me any sht^t about having left I'll just ignore it. I'm going to have fun with Jihan, Bryan, Phil, Shawn, Bill, Tyrone, Jo & everyone else that I like there - not to talk business. It's sad enough that so many cool folks have left.

So long, BA!

So, we'll head out to the airport in a couple hours. This morning we went to a beautiful and historic area of the city called Boca. It's also the most dangerous and if you go anywhere outside a four square block area for tourists you pretty much have a 100% chance of getting robbed or much worse. It was cool though. After that we did some shopping down in this neat pedestrian district that looks just like downtown Shanghai.

Yesterday we went to two polo matches. Polo is friggin awesome! I am going to learn the rules and start going to some matches in DC and Northern VA. Last night we decided to make it a last hurrah by going out for a nice dinner and then to this dutch bar (kind of like Brickskeller) with a great outdoor roof deck. We drank beers and talked about life until almost 4am (bars in Argentina stay open pretty much all night) . When the waitress brought us our check she put it down and told Jon in Spanish "Now, this isn't a joke - this is actually your bill." It was....a large number. We were all extremely intoxicated though so I suppose we got our money's worth.

Now I'm heading home. I've loved this trip, but I am ready to go home. I miss Kate and my liver is about to go on strike. I can't wait to show you all pictures of what is an absolutely amazing city.

Places to see, things to do

Most people I meet seem to focus on the first part of that phrase and make it their ambition to see the world. I think that's important, but really enjoy the second part as well. It is my lifelong ambition to do everything at least once. I've found that every time I experience another activity on my wish list it's always worth the time and effort. Biking across France, flying an ultralight, skydiving, scubadiving - they've all been amazing experiences.

This morning I accomplished another thing on my wish list - I galloped on a horse. We were at the Estancia (dude ranch) and I got my horse (Tostada) up to a full gallop several times before we had to pack it in. It really was much smoother riding at a gallop than it was at a trot. Besides riding we had a great time there. Lots of beef for lunch - though surprisingly, a vegetarian dinner. We also had a ping pong contest (seems that I excel at ping pong - who knew?), a drag race with broken down cruiser bikes, and saw the prettiest sunset I think I've ever seen.

The Estancia was a definate highlight of the trip. Tomorrow we're going to try to go see a polo match. And now that I've galloped a horse I'm that much more excited about sinking my teeth into hang gliding, surfing, and rock climing. Who's with me?

Argentinian Dude Ranch

I'm starting to get a good feel for Jon's neighborhood. Today we walked around a bit and went to this modern art museum. It was VERY modern. I tend to like modern art, but I don't know that listenning to a guy say "Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee" is really art to me. There was some good stuff though. We had a nice lunch at the museum. In fact, I haven't had a bad meal yet. Of course, I ordered us a bottle of wine with lunch because, after all, that's the definition of vacation. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Estancia - an Argentinian resort type place with horses and lots of activities. Should be fun.

Having a wonderful time

Hi there folks,

We're having an absolute blast here in Buenos Aires. This is a gorgeous city. It feels like Paris in many ways, but it is definately distinctive. It's also gigantic. Cabs and the metro line are easy to use and very cheap. We've visited an antique row much like London's Portabello Road - full of merchants and street performers. We've walked around some of the city's most famous monuments, we've been to the Japanese gardens, and also done some shopping. We've also been eating a considerable amount of meat and consuming lots and lots of red wine. This morning we went to the gym and then lounged by the pool. That's the nice thing about taking this much time here - we don't feel rushed.

We're Here!

Well, we made it to Buenos Aires! Bryan and I did anyway. Philly John's flight was cancelled so we hope he'll be here tomorrow. The flight was long but totally fine. We watched Taledega Nights and now Bryan and I keep telling each other "I get up in the morning and piss pure excellence." We had a car waiting for us and when we got to Jon & Yulia's place she had a platter full of empanadas waiting for us. I'm completely stuffed. The apartment is spectacular! They've got three and a half bathrooms, living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen, a master bedroom, two guest rooms and an office/music room. And all this on the 24th floor of a doorman building. The view from the wrap-around balcony is spectacular. Now we're just chilling and waiting for Jon to get back from work.

My personal hitch is that American Airlines seems to have lost my luggage. Hopefully it'll show up tomorrow. If it doesn't, Yulia promised to take me to Eve St. Laurent so I can buy some pretty dresses. I don't care, I'll enjoy myself no matter what. However, my digical camera card reader is in my lost bag so you'll need to wait on pictures.

Amazing Weekend

Well, I can't say I didn't make the most of my three day weekend. On Friday Kate and I took a picnic to Great Falls and went hiking. We on the Billy Goat Trail, just walking and talking when I notice this old couple sitting on the rocks over by the cliff that drops down to the Potomac. I thought it was sweet until I realized that they were both completely topless! There they were, 70ish and stripped to the waist. We moved on rather quickly.

Friday night, I had a few friends over for a dinner party thing. I wanted Kate to meet more of my friends. It was a lot of fun. What was most interesting was hearing how she remembered certain people. Tom was the 'hipster'. George was the 'funny one'. George is definitely hilarious. Luckily he was keeping his comments to an R rating that evening.

Saturday I went to Chicago to meet up with Dad & Jo to visit my grandfather for his 89th birthday. Now, my grandfather is prone to self aggrandizing and telling the same stories over and over again - he is not unique in this as this is what grandpas tend to do as I understand it. He is an extremely interesting fellow though. I feel like he has seen so many different things in his life - more than most 89 year olds. Beyond just his vast laundry list of careers (military officer, traveling salesman, art gallery dealer, jewelry merchant, etc) he has spent time with such a cavalcade of people over the years. It amazes me that a guy with such set beliefs about the world and how it should be run has still managed to approach people and places without bias or prejudgement and enjoy each new experience for what it is. This, I think, is one of many of the lessons I've learned from him - Know thyself, but don't let that get in the way of knowing everything else.

[I have more pics from this weekend forthcoming.]

My heros

I, like most of you, am friggin ecstatic over our huge wins in the House and even the SENATE! Not only can we now stop the carnage that this administration has wrought on progressive issues in America, we can put forward a proactive vision of how the Democratic party can make this country a better place. I understand that we have needed to play the Iraq and scandal cards in the past 6 months, but I hope that the Dem leadership will stop playing the blame game and give us a series of progressive bills (which Bush will veto) that can serve as our political agenda for the next Presidential election.

I specifically wanted to doff my hat to two people who, in my mind, exemplify the best in American political involvement. First, my girlfriend Kate took a week of unpaid leave from her job to help run a MoveOn.org call center in NY. Kate spent a series of 18 hour work days training and managing phone bank volunteers and making get out the vote calls herself. Kate's seemingly inexhaustible well of energy and enthusiasm matched with her innate ability to make everyone around her smile makes Kate a real superhero in my mind - working for truth, justice, and a better American way.

I would also like to recognize one Mister Jim McBride. Jim's tireless efforts on behalf of Jim Webb included everything from calling potential voters to organizing major fund raising events. I don't know how many votes Jim's campaigning and fundraising earned Senator Webb, but I would not at all be surprised if that number topped 7300 votes. In my mind, Jim McBride won the Senate for the Democratic party.

Why I'm Blogging

Hi y'all,

Welcome to my blog. I decided to do this for a couple reasons. I found myself sending out random thoughts and fun life updates to various people but never sure if I was being annoying. This way, anyone who's interested in what's up with me can check in from time to time to find out for themselves. My thanks to Lauren. It was my periodic visits to her cool blog that made me decide to throw my own together. Also, thanks to my pop who just sent me the supercool camera I'll be using to take the pics you'll see posted. Thanks for visiting!

- Brian

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was without the typical drunken meandering and bad booty dancing. Instead, I hung out with friends at Toledo Lounge and Kate and I attended a really kick-ass Halloween party on Logan Circle.

I dressed as Floyd Landis, this year's Tour de France winner who was stripped of his title for use of artificial steroids. My super-awesome girlfriend Kate went as a kangeroo - please note that I sewed up the ears for this costume (props to Toby Sklaroo, my 7th grade home ec teacher). The Pai-Master-General dressed up as Carl Buttman, Parts Manager at Gene Buttman Ford, Ypsilanti, OH (Open Saturdays!)

Meanwhile, the newest addition to my family, one Evan Marshall, rocked out in his frog costume. Here's a picture of Evan saying "Frank" (inside joke)