Asiankid's Weblog

Travel Plans For 2010?

2009-11-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

Cali
NYC
Portugal/Morocco (for New Years?)
Mexico City (before Anna moves to Africa)
Boston (before Nob moves to who knows where)
Baltimore (to see Andrea and Corinna...EFC reunion?)
Las Vegas
Williams (for 5th year reunion)
South Africa (for World Cup)
New Orleans (to see Aron)
Iceland (to harass PeePee)
China/Japan
Italy (w/ Dani?)

Houston/NYC

2009-10-03T17:50:00.001-05:00

Oct 5 -9: Houston, TX
Oct 10-12: NYC

Rainbow Birthday Jell-O

2009-08-13T18:23:00.003-05:00

My mom gave Haley a list of things that she could make me for my birthday. She chose rainbow jell-o. I'm excited.

The Decemberists @ Metro

2009-08-07T22:15:00.002-05:00

Anna is in town this weekend visiting her brother. She really likes the Decemberists so I snagged some last minute tickets to their pre-Lollapalooza show at Metro last night. Before the show, we hung out at her brother's place in River North. I guess we got our set times mixed up because by the time we made it to Metro, The Decemberists were just starting their encore. They did 2 encores so it was not a complete loss.

This will probably give you a headache

2009-08-05T00:05:00.000-05:00

Weird Music Video from Eric on Vimeo.

No idea why I recorded this. What was I on that night?

I Miss This #2

2009-08-04T23:20:00.004-05:00

I Miss This

2009-07-29T00:18:00.001-05:00

Where Have I Been?

2009-07-21T18:54:00.006-05:00

I've been busy, but here's a little of what I've been up to:

FIRST UNTEREKKIE OF 2009!

Check out my win and you can click my Tag to see my awsum contributions to Karen's blog. Really stellar stuff.

Stars Aligning

2009-06-15T21:19:00.003-05:00

Next week I will be on the road for work. First stop is Hartford for work training. Not looking forward to 8 hours a day of class time about insurance, but there is an added benefit. Since I'll be on the East Coast and had plans to spend the weekend in NYC, I got my boss to approve of me working from NYC after my class is over and now, instead of having to pay for my trip to NYC, work is footing the bill.

Add on to that the following:

-Kee Won got me a free ticket to the Sneaker Pimps show featuring Big Boi, Cam'ron, Clipse, The Cool Kids, Wale and DJ Clark Kent; Kee Won's working the concert

-Kee Won's job is footing the bill for his hotel and I'm crashing there

-Arnaub and Wen are coming in from Boston for the weekend for the concert; Korey and Margo are also coming to the concert

-Anna is coming back from Mexico for 3 days and it happens to be when I'm in NYC!

-Karen is coming back from DC for Maria's bday party!

-Phil is back in town for the summer and is having his housewarming when I'm back

-School ends for Dani that week so I know she'll be down for getting drunky

The only thing that would make this trip better is if the weather holds out.

Invasion of The Rubik Cubes

2009-06-15T19:34:00.002-05:00

TOP 10
by extermitent

Wow. Might try and go see this exhibition next week when I'm in NYC.

Las Vegas

2009-06-09T00:05:00.005-05:00

Some pics from Kee-Won and my trip to Las Vegas to visit Korey (Korey is oddly absent from all the pics):

Kee-Won and I @ 7:30 AM after our first night

Our hotel..the Excalibur. Ballin!

Lee Anne from Top Chef, Season 1, and me at the Top

Chef wrap party @ Blush

Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons and me @ Blush

(they really didn't want to take a picture with me)

The KS and MI crew that we kept running into at Mandalay Bay;

we gambled with them a number of times that night

Haley's Dance Recital

2009-06-08T21:01:00.001-05:00

Sad I couldn't be there in person for this:

Haley's Dance Recital from Eric on Vimeo.

Upcoming Travel Plans

2009-06-07T21:34:00.005-05:00

June 23-24: Hartford, CT

June 24-28: NYC

July 25-28: San Francisco

*edited

Spock Paper Scissors

2009-06-04T22:57:00.007-05:00

Passion Pit- The Reeling

2009-06-02T21:12:00.002-05:00

Blame It On The E-E-E-Economy

2009-05-20T22:48:00.001-05:00

Too funny. At the 1:07 mark, I swore it was really him. The guy had the speach/mannerisms down.

I Love Cali

2009-05-13T23:32:00.001-05:00

Heard this constantly when I turned on the radio in Cali last weekend.

Ya Boy- We Run L.A. ft. Dr. Hollywood

E-Mail Control

2009-05-13T23:22:00.002-05:00

I decided to try some new things at work to improve my productivity. One of those was to check my e-mail less often so I can focus more on my work instead of getting interrupted every 2 minutes. I called my tech guy to see how I could keep my Lotus Notes from checking for new e-mail every 2 minutes. His response...uhh...why would you want to do that? If you change the settings, I suggest you have it check for new messages at a max of every 15 minutes.

Sorry dude, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I played around with the settings and it looks like my work has blocked me access from changing it. My e-mail still refreshes every 2 mins.

I love this dude

2009-04-24T23:27:00.000-05:00

VIMBY - DJ A-Trak

James Jarvis- Nike Ad

2009-04-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

Onwards from akqa on Vimeo.

WMC In Pictures

2009-04-20T20:16:00.004-05:00

Simian Mobile Disco @ Ultra, Day 2

Me, Kee-Won, Nob, Chris and Melissa @ AM Only Party

MSTRKRFT @ Ultra

Me and DJ A-Trak @ Bacardi Party

Surkin- Next of Kin

NYC

2009-04-04T15:31:00.000-05:00

God I miss this city, especially the friends here. So glad I came back here this weekend, even if just for a day.

Miami Bound

2009-03-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

On the way to Miami for Ultra/Winter Music Conference. Hoping for a complete shitshow.

Tentative Travel Plans

2009-03-17T21:13:00.003-05:00

March 25-29: Miami
April 3-4: NYC
April 13-16: Minneapolis
May 1-3: Williamstown
May 8-11: Cali
May 15-17: NYC
End of May/Beginning of June: Las Vegas
June 6-7: Williamstown
July 24-27: San Francisco

Chicago

2009-03-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, I live in Chicago now.

2009-01-20T19:46:00.001-05:00

I Always Miss College In January

2009-01-11T14:26:00.003-05:00

Holiday Plans

2008-12-08T23:49:00.002-05:00

Only two more weeks...

Dec. 21-29: SoCal
Dec. 30-31: Cancun/Isla de Mujeres, Mexico
Jan. 1-2: Valladolid, Mexcio & Chichen Itza
Jan. 3-4: Coba & Tulum, Mexico
Jan. 4: Cancun, Mexico
Jan. 5- Back to NYC

WTF?

2008-11-05T11:21:00.003-05:00

Epic fail for my 3rd home.

Scroll down to Prop 8:

http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/props/59.htm

SF Gate Article

Wow.

2008-11-04T22:23:00.006-05:00

(picture taken by Caroline)

"Our stories are singular but our destinies are shared." - President-elect Obama

"If you're conservative and angry, get over yourself." - Fox News commentary after Obama's speech

So Heartless...

2008-10-18T18:22:00.003-05:00

4:26:53

2008-10-07T20:15:00.000-05:00

Sexy.

Olympics- Swimming

2008-08-11T22:40:00.005-05:00

This was incredible to watch last night, the Mens USA Swim Team winning the 4 x 100 relay race.

And this dude is just straight up ridiculous!

(C.) Breezy Summer Day

2008-08-03T15:37:00.002-05:00

Cookie Monster Attacks

2008-06-05T23:39:00.003-05:00

This is a video from Christmas '07. Jacob, aka Cookie Monster, goes in on his ice cream cone.

Back At It Again

2008-06-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

For the 4-5 people who actually check in here still, I think I'm going to start actively posting again. In the next week I'll post up a huge backlog of stuff, some interesting and just some for personal record. If you still check here, please leave a comment so I know.

SYSTEM ERROR SYSTEM ERROR

2008-06-04T15:00:00.003-05:00

The most frustrating things about work these days are our aging systems and our bureaucracy (I guess you could say that our bureaucracy is an aging system as well). I understand that I work in a more traditional industry that doesn't necessarily have a need or desire to be at the forefront of technological advances, but the day-to-day system failures I have to deal with are getting ridiculous. First off, Lotus Notes...is there a more annoying program? Ignoring the fact that I hate the program itself, whenever I load it, I always get an error which then causes Lotus Notes to shutdown and create an error report to "help my technical team assess the problem." Although it is only an inconvenience and not a critical failure, it causes my workday to start on a sour note. My tech people do not consider fixing this a priority.

The other main system that I use on a daily basis is a proprietary system that would have been considered cutting edge 10 years ago. Besides the fact that every move you make within the program tree (think moving from folder to sub-folder) just superimposes the new window on top of the old, creating a cluttered screen, it also likes to freeze up and kick me out of the system whenever it feels like. On a good day, I'll get booted out of the system a minimum of 5 times. Tech support says this will be fixed in the next version. We've been waiting for the next version since I started working here so I'm not holding my breath.

We are also upgrading our systems to get in synch with our parent company's systems. For simplicity, let's say that we are on System A and they are on System B. Our parent company is in the process of converting to System C. It would seem logical for us to also convert to System C, but what fun would that be? Instead, we are going to convert to System B and then 6 months after that, we'll try to convert to System C. My estimation is that by the time we get to System C, the parent will be on System E.

I don't really need to say much about the bureaucracy since everyone faces the same challenges at a large company; it comes with the territory. It slows down my work flow, creates useless extra work for me and in the end, pisses off my clients. I've just tried to deal with it. I've actually been lucky and been able to work through the bureaucracy to get some difficult deals done which has made me look good, but that may change soon. My biggest client has made a request that I think is a no-brainer. We do it and I'm guaranteed to keep the business for another year. My initial read, though, is that the higher ups won't buy into it and will make it very difficult for me to keep this client. Sometimes I forget if we are trying to actually make any money...

7 1/2 Weeks To Go

2008-06-04T13:47:00.004-05:00

I think I need to start organizing my life on a bigger scale...

Summertime Chi...Ahhh...

2008-06-03T13:38:00.004-05:00

Flights are booked. In Chi-town from July 3-6.

Maybe Yoko Isn't So Bad

2008-06-02T09:21:00.002-05:00

Dinner on Sunday was like admitting that the band had broken up...for real. I think it felt even weirder since we were eating at our old stomping grounds, which too had undergone a little bit of change. But change is good and we had a nice dinner. I hope things work out for them since she seems pretty happy and I like this new guy. Maybe it won't be so weird in time.

After dinner, we got one last drink at The Whiskey Ward. The place was pretty much empty besides us and a couple of regulars. We chatted up the bartender and questioned him about all the specials he had. One special, the Knockout Drop, sounded terrible. The shot was half Jose Cuervo and half Wild Turkey. According to the bartender, back in the day, knockout drops were shots that bartenders gave people to knock them out so they could be shanghaied to work on ships. Sounds great right? Well, we did a round with him and it actually wasn't half bad. None of the bite that you would get if you took a shot of Cuervo or Wild Turkey alone and just the nice little burn you get when you breath out after you take a shot of bourbon. I explained the shot to my coworkers this morning and suggested we use that as our new shot since our resident Tequila expert retired. No one thought that was a good idea.

Slow Day At The Office

2008-05-21T11:37:00.002-05:00

Check out the story behind this at Poplicks

And keep feeding you and feeding you...

2008-05-20T21:18:00.004-05:00

Too funny (NSFW)

Dani did not appreciate me playing this over and over again while she tried to fall asleep...

Good Morning

2008-04-15T22:45:00.002-05:00

I miss seeing this in the morning...

5 Weeks

2008-04-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

until i get to see my niece and nephew again. :(

It's My Party And I'll...

2008-03-13T09:03:00.002-05:00

I talked to Haley (my niece) for a good 15 minutes on Tuesday. That's a pretty big feat since she is 2 1/2. I understood maybe the first 30 seconds of our conversation because she was running around the house while we were talking and spitting out sentences at a ridiculous pace.

The best part was when my mom first gave her the phone. My mom said, "Haley, its Uncle Eric. You said you wanted to talk to him."

Haley grabs the phone and says, "Uncle Eric, I miss you; I want to give you a BIG hug!" (I almost died at this point)

Then she said, "Come to my party!" You see, in Haley's world, everyday is her birthday and of course what do you do on your birthday? You have a party!

1 Week

2008-01-19T19:01:00.000-05:00

1 week to go...getting a little anxious, but today's results were positive:

14.35 miles, 2:18:00, 9:36 pace.

Felt pretty good afterwards and only a little sore. I think that was a comfortable pace and would put me on course to finish under 4:15:00.

2 Weeks

2008-01-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

2 weeks to go until the big day...getting kind of nervous...

Work: Update

2008-01-10T22:35:00.000-05:00

Right after Thanksgiving, I was asked to go up to our Farmington office for a week to help them out since they were swamped with work for the year-end and we were pretty quiet in the NYC office. My week up there was really envigorating. I was extremely productive, something I hadn't felt in a long time. Some of it was probably due to having just come off of Thanksgiving vacation refreshed, but I think the change in scenery and work mentality contributed greatly to that.

After that initial week, I returned to NYC and still continued to do some work remotely for the Farmington office. Overall, it was a great experience and I seemed to impress my boss in Farmington as she gave me a very complimentary review.

On Monday, I found out that Greg, one of colleagues, had been presented with an interesting opportunity. Like me, he had also spent a week up in Farmington helping them out. I guess they continued to be overworked in Farmington; adding to that, they lost an underwriter at Christmas time so were severely understaffed. Greg was asked to start working for our Farmington office on a full-time basis. He would still be based in NYC (I don't think he would have accepted the offer if they asked him to move), but would now report to the Regional Vice President in Farmington.

My initial reaction was, why was Greg offered the position and not me? I was not even given the opportunity to contemplate the offer. It seemed like an interesting option: a chance to work in a new office, an office with a bigger book of business and territory, and the opportunity to do some traveling. If I had been offered it, I would have given it some serious thought, but I was not offered the opportunity.

Another thing that bothered me is that Greg and I have the exact same position in the company and in our office. We both started on the same day, were in the same training class, and for the majority of career, have been lumped together. I hate that I do this, but I always look at him from a competitors perspective. So when he got offered the new position, I quickly tried to determine if this was a promotion and had I just fallen behind in our "little race."

I'm a humble person, but if you asked me to be completely honest, I think I'm the better underwriter. We both come very different backgrounds and have different sets of values of work ethics, but I think I've put in the work in the last year to really develop myself from a career perspective so all of this was a little troubling, especially since we are about to have a yearly reviews where bonuses will be determined; I'm also getting ready to ask my boss for a sizable raise.

I'm not sure if my boss, John, sensed my uneasiness, but yesterday, he asked me into his office to talk. He said that he wanted to explain why Greg was offered the position and not me and just wanted to lay everything out on the table. Now he could just be gassing me, but he said that he was given the choice on who he should recommend to help out the Farmington office and when he thought about it, he saw me as being a more essential person in the future for the New York office and really didn't want to give me up. Wow...that really made me feel good. Again, he could just be BSing me (and if so, nice move John), but either way, it helped minimize some of my anxiety.

I'm now in an interesting position. We are now down to two underwriters in our NY office. I'm pretty sure, assuming that everything works out in his application process, that our senior underwriter, James, will be going to business school in the fall. He's already taken is GMATs and I think he's been interviewing at schools. That would leave just me as the sole underwriter. Also, John has expressed how much he wants me in the NYC office. So what's my next move? My review will happen in the next few weeks and I should be getting my bonus (hopefully) soon. I'm also pretty set on the pay raise that I want. If they say no, do I walk? I actually may have a pending job offer at another company in NYC. The next few weeks should be interesting.

Grandma

2007-12-03T16:07:00.000-05:00

Any prayers for my Grandmother's health are greatly appreciated.

Sad News

2007-11-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

I found out that a classmate of mine at Williams, Emily Driscoll, passed away in a car accident yesterday in Brooklyn. I didn't know Emily that well, though she was good friends with many of my close friends. She was an amazingly talented artist and always extremely kind. When she graduated, she received an arts fellowship which she used to start an art gallery in Red Hook called WORK.

Running With The Big Boys

2007-11-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

I ran a half-marathon today. It wasn't an official race, just a long run so I wasn't necessarily going for speed, just more for endurance and pace training. Overall, I was pretty happy with the results. I finished in 2:05:43 and had an average pace of 9:35. However, that's a far ways away from where I want to be; I need to cut 25 seconds off my pace. Is that possible?

The best part of today's run was that they were holding the Knickerbocker 60K in Central Park today. It is a very low key affair with a smaller number of people running. Nothing like the NYC Marathon two weekends ago. But just thinking about how long 60K is...that's like 1.5 marathons! I felt so demoralized as I ran by these guys. My legs were so sore from the half-marathon, I couldn't imagine what it felt like for these guys running 60K, but they just kept running, slow and steady.

NYC Marathon

2007-11-04T22:02:00.000-05:00

Today was the NYC Marathon. Last year, I was in the city for the marathon, but only watched it on TV. I could have walked over to 1st Ave. to watch, but I didn't think it would be that much fun just standing around waiting for runners. Watching it on TV, however, was pretty exciting and got me really interested in marathons.

The first-place male runner as he came by on 5th Ave.

This year I opted to watch the marathon live. I went over to Dani's apartment, which is actually a perfect location to watch the marathon. Her apartment is right along the route and her fire escape looks right down on the route.

The second-place male, coming right behind

It was actually a lot of fun to stand on the street and cheer on all the runners. There is some downtime while you wait for the first runners to come by, but once they start coming, it's just a steady stream of runners. It's a grab bag of people who run marathons, everything from professional runners to people running for charity to people just trying to achieve a personal goal.

A runner being taken away by ambulance

At one point, one of Dani's friends who was running the marathon ran by. Dani and some of her co-workers jumped into the race to support her and ran the next mile with her which was pretty cool.

Dani and her co-workers running in the marathon

Dani and I had actually signed up for the marathon, but did not get a spot in the lottery. Hopefully next year I'll actually win in the lottery and get a chance to run.

The aftermath

A little kid cleaning up the mess

Lost In Beirut

2007-10-12T20:02:00.001-05:00

I just found this song a day ago and I can't get it out of my head, especially the haunting horns.

Under The Weather

2007-10-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

Ughhh...I think I'm getting sick, maybe even strep throat. Not really sure how I got sick, though one of my co-workers has been pretty sick the last few days and his girlfriend also just got over bronchitis. I really can't afford to be sick right now.

Fire and Snow

2007-08-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

Just been listening to this song a lot lately:

Snow Patrol- Set The Fire To The Third Bar ft. Martha Wainwright (download)

Goodbye Minnesota

2007-08-03T12:45:00.000-05:00

It's official. My parents have put our house up for sale. If all goes as planned, they should be in California by the end of the year.

Check out the listing and the virtual tour.

No More Fun And Games

2007-08-01T08:44:00.000-05:00

Gotta stop playing myself.

Mixing It Up

2007-07-23T15:31:00.003-05:00

After last night’s debacle, I was in no shape to go to work today. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to go to work; I was supposed to go on a fishing trip with some reinsurers. Okay…actually, I would rather go to work than spend the day, hungover, on a boat that is rocking back and forth, and smelling fish and the polluted waters of NYC. So, with little hesitation, I decided to skip both work and the fishing trip and just stay home. I agonized at first over whether or not I should go into the office, but I was still pissed from last night that I really didn’t care.

After some much needed rest, I met up with Lillian on the West Side to go rock climbing. Lillian and I have been talking about doing this for sometime and finally got our act together. We went to a climbing wall that is rune by the NYC Parks Department. It’s not the best climbing wall I’ve ever seen, but it was cheap and had enough climbs to keep things interesting.

The last time I went climbing was back in high school. It didn’t take very long for everything to come back to me. Soon I was scrambling up the walls. It was really exhilarating; I had forgotten how much fun it was. Both Lillian and I had a great time and are hoping to make this a regular thing.

After climbing, we wandered around the Upper West Side and found a dinner to grab a quick dinner. As we were eating, a bunch of Williams people (Julia Rosen, Sabrina Wirth, Adriel Cepeda, and Steve Mosley) passed by on the street. It was really good to see Steve since I haven’t seen him since graduation. Although the encounter was brief, it reminded me how small the city can be.

After dinner, I had some time to kill so Lillian let me finally see her apartment. I would tell you about it, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy about it. I’m not allowed to tell anyone about the apartment itself or where it is located. Why? Don’t ask.

Leaving Lil’s apartment, I headed over to the East Side to meet up with Korey and Margo at the 5^th Ave Apple Store. We were going to see Diplo spin at 12 AM, part of Apple’s Summer DJ Series. I was pretty excited since I’ve never seen Diplo live before and the idea of a dance party in the Apple Store, with it being underground and having a glass ceiling/cube above it, sounded like a cool idea.

At first, the music was pretty good and the crowd was bearable, but the three of us soon found that this really wasn’t our scene. It was too much hipster-ism for my taste and way too much high school kids/hip-flask drinking/stupid stunner shade crap. We decided to get out of there and find a bar.

After wandering around aimlessly in Midtown (there are really no good bars in Midtown at 1 AM), we found a decent Irish pub and planted our asses into some bar stools. We spent the rest of the night drinking beers and watching a classic boxing match on ESPN Classic. It was actually kind of fun.

More pics (courtesy of i guess i'm floating):

Mark Ronson @ The Highline Ballroom

2007-07-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to the Highline Ballroom (a place that is quickly becoming one of my favorite concert venues) to see Mark Ronson perform. The concert was also doubling as the record release party for his new album, Versions. The original plan was to go with Kerel, but last minute, Vero asked if I could get her a ticket. Unfortunately the concert had sold out, but the venue was going to release a few extra tickets at the door.

Since I get out of work really early in relation to everyone I know, I went down to the Highline early to wait in line to get Vero a ticket. Right before I headed downtown, it started to pour, like torrential downpour. Having some time to kill, I decided to go running at the Reservoir. This might not have been the brightest idea, but I love running in the rain. Once I got to the Reservoir, I started doubting my decision. There were a handful of people running still, but most had better sense to seek shelter. As I ran beside the Reservoir, lightning cracked across the sky at a very consistent rate. The winds were thrashing the water in the Reservoir and painfully pelting me with rain. Even with all that, it was still a fun time. Nothing feels better than feeling like you are fighting against Mother Nature...and winning.

Anyway, after I dried off, I went to the Highline and waited in line for an hour to get Vero a ticket. To kill some time before Kerel and Vero met up with me, I went to Pizza Bar for a drink. I had never been to Pizza Bar before and may never go back.

Although Kerel, Vero, and I arrived late to the Highline, our timing was actually perfect; the show was just about to start. I had never seen Mark Ronson DJ before or play live for that matter (this was actually his first time ever playing with his live band in the US).

Mark Ronson thoroughly impressed me. I think he sometime can be brushed off as a trust fund baby DJ, but the guy is talented and respected. I think that was supported by some of the celebrities I spotted in the crowd which included: Jay-Z, Eve, Q-Tip, Jimmy Fallon, and Danny Masterson.

Ronson performed the bulk of his Versions and brought on many of the guests that appear on the album including: Daniel Merriweather, Santo Gold, Wale, Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Kenna, Tawiah, and Tiggers. Sadly Robbie Williams, Lily Allen, and Amy Winehouse were nowhere to be found, but Ronson made up for it by bringing Saigon onstage. I'm a huge fan of Saigon and would not have expected him to show up, but it turns out that Saigon and Ronson are good friends. Saigon even joked that he goes over to Ronson's mother's house on Christmas morning for tea!

Another surprising performance came from Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. He was really energetic (and possibly drunk), stage diving and just really getting into the performance. He ended his set on stage with the crowd favorite, "California" (i.e. "The OC's" theme song).

Check out some reviews of the show:

NY Times

Variety

For more pictures of the show:

Caaaait's Flickr Page

Budgetary Constraints

2007-07-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

I consider myself financially responsible. I actually have a budget and try to stick to it. I have various investments, that as of late have been doing well, and I contribute to my 401(k) and maximize my company's match. I rarely ever have any kind of debt and pay off my credit card every month. However, the last few months seem to have been a different story.

Last night, I looked back on my spending for the last 6 months and came to a startling conclusion. I am spending way over my budget...almost $500 over budget! How did this happen? To figure that out, I had to do a line by line comparison of my spending.

I'm a pretty religious user of Quicken, so tracking my spending by categories and comparing to to my budget isn't too hard. I think some of that simplicity has actually made me a little complacent in terms of being more watchful of my spending. Also, up until the last few months, I had been spending below my budget and had been building a comfortable buffer. Adding to that, I've had some expenses over the last 6 months that aren't normal expenses for me (i.e. traveling for interviews, a major computer repair, tuition and books for NYU) which made me expenses look skewed.

My breakdown of my spending revealed some very interesting things. To preface, I break out my expenses into two main categories: mandatory and discretionary. Mandatory expenses include rent, utilities, my monthly subway pass, groceries, gym membership, and household items; everything else falls in the discretionary bucket. Also, to get a better idea of my spending, I excluded a bunch of atypical expenses, like the ones I mentioned above, as well as monies spent on concerts. The latter may seem strange since I go to a lot of concerts and thus should really be including them in my analysis, but for the most part, I subsidize my concert expenses with other revenues so that, if all goes well, the expenses zero out at the end of the day.

Looking at my expenses, I was happy to see that my mandatory expenses were in line with my budget. However, this shouldn't come as too much of a shock to me as most of those do not vary much month to month. The only thing that varies really is my groceries, but for the most part, those were in line with the budget. My discretionary expenses are where I'm getting killed.

My discretionary expenses are comprised mostly of expenses for: dining out, bar/alcohol money, entertainment (movies, books, music, etc.), clothing, and Netflix. The first four are the real killers. For clothing, I've been pretty good lately on not spending too much. I really don't need more clothes, but sadly a lot my clothes are too big for me now which has required me to update the closet. The bigger problems is shoes. I got a bunch of pairs of really crazy shoes in the last 6 months and that's what has made the biggest dent in my budget.

For bar/alcohol money, I was kind of surprised. I'm actually not spending too much on that anymore and am almost in line with my budget. The thing that surprised me the most, actually, was my dining out expenses; I've just been going crazy there spending, on average, almost 300% more than I had budgeted. One of the reasons for the high number is that I haven't been as diligent lately in terms of bringing my lunch to work with me. The other thing is that I've really been trying to take advantage of the great restaurants in the city, but obviously this is getting out of hand.

The other item in my discretionary expenses that surprised me is something I had never considered in my budget and that is gifts. Being in the city, I have the opportunity to be around so many of my friends which usually leads to me giving the gifts, like taking them out to dinner or drinks, either for their birthday or to celebrate something else. I have no problem with giving gifts and like being able to provide whenever possible, but I now realize that it's something that I need to budget for and also reign in a little.

So where does this all leave me? I don't know. I have to revisit my budget in the next week to tweak it and see where I can really save some money. I think I also need to look for more income sources as my current employment really isn't meeting my current needs.

Down Another Man

2007-07-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, one of our marketers resigned. It was a little unexpected and was probably the weirdest resignation I've ever seen.

Up until yesterday, this marketer had been on medical leave for about two weeks. I had been working on an account of his in his absence so I was happy to see him back so I could bring him up to speed and we could move forward on the account. However, when I met with him yesterday morning, he was very aloof and seemed strangely uninterested. I asked him to join me in my referral meeting with our boss (it's standard practice for the marketer to be present at a referral meeting), but he declined. Then, he didn't show up for our weekly staff meeting. Something was weird definitely going on.

Then the marketer stopped by my desk to talk some more about the account and my referral meeting. I filled him in and then he said, "Well, good luck with that account." What?! I was taken aback. He was treating it like it was no longer his account. To be frank, I was only working on the account because it got assigned to me, but I sure as hell wasn't going to take over the account...it really wasn't that good of account. Then he told me, "Not sure if you heard, but I resigned this morning."

Wow...how was I supposed to respond? Congratulations? Thanks for dumping this and all your other crap accounts on me? What made it even weirder was that he went over to the underwriter sitting next me, informed him of his resignation, and then left the office...for good. He didn't even tell the rest of the people in the office...he just upped and left. One of our assistants was in shock and somewhat angry that he didn't even say goodbye. Our boss didn't even formally tell us about the resignation so there was this weird air around the office. It was really a strange event.

Because of the "mystery" behind it all, we all started to construct our own theories. Maybe he was fired and he just told us that he resigned. Maybe he just got so fed up with failure (he'd been here a year and hadn't written one piece of new business for us). My theory, as bad as it may be, was that he took the job just to take advantage of the health benefits. I'm not proud of the theory, but it totally makes sense. Either way, I'm not really sad to see him leave. He was a strange guy and never made the effort to get to know the people in the office or become a part of the "team."

However, as strange as his resignation was, I shouldn't be surprised at this point with people leaving the company.

So Many Concerts, Part Deux

2007-07-09T20:24:00.000-05:00

Some more concerts coming up in the next few months. If anyone is interested in going to any of these, let me know. I've got extra tickets.

~~Wednesday, July 11- Mark Ronson and Friends, Highline Ballroom, 8 PM~~
Thursday, July 19- Eve, Hard Rock Cafe (MTV Taping), 7 PM
Thursday, July 19- TI, Hard Rock Cafe (MTV Taping), 9:30 PM
Friday, July 20- DJ Tiesto and Blue Man Group, Hammerstein Ballroom, 11 PM
Sunday, July 22- Lil Wayne and Friends, Beacon Theatre, 7 PM
Monday, July 23- Ghostface Killah, Highline Ballroom, 11 PM
Tuesday, July 24- The White Stripes, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Friday, August 3- Beyonce and Robin Thicke, Continental Arena, 8 PM
Saturday, August 4- Beyonce and Robine Thicke, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Monday, August 6- Cold War Kids and Muse, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Tuesday, August 7- BB King, Etta James, and Al Green, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Monday, August 13- Justin Timberlake, Continental Airlines Arena, 8 PM (General Admission Tickets)
Wednesday, August 15- Justin Timberlake, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Thursday, August 16- Justin Timberlake, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Sunday, Black August Hip Hop Project, Aug. 26, Nokia Theatre
Tuesday, September 11- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Blender Theatre @ Gramercy
Wednesday, September 12- Amy Winehouse, Rumsey Playfield, 6 PM
Saturday, September 15- Girl Talk and Dan Deacon, Webster Hall, 8 PM
Wednesday, October 3- Bloc Party, WaMu Theatre @ MSG, 8 PM
Friday, October 5- The Roots w/ Big Daddy Kane and MC Lyte @ Nokia Theatre, 8 PM
Wednesday, October 10- Maroon 5 @ MSG, 8 PM

One Year Down

2007-07-03T23:10:00.000-05:00

Today marks my one year anniversary for living in New York. I honestly didn't think I'd be here this long, especially with all that I struggled with in terms of finding my apartment and dealing with my job/career.

Oh What A Week!

2007-07-02T08:24:00.001-05:00

This past week was one of the most fun times I’ve had in the city. It wasn’t because of some crazy party bender and it wasn’t because I was going to a bunch of huge events; it was because I got a chance to see so many of my friends in one weeks time and just catch up with all of them in a very relaxed way.

Sunday
On Sunday, I had brunch at Essex with one of my frosh, Devin. I haven’t seen Devin since November and I was disappointed that I was not able to make it back to Williams for graduation. However, it was good to see him and get the rundown of his senior year, how the rest of the entry was doing, and his future plans.

One thing that was kind of embarrassing was finding out that some of my freshman didn’t graduate this year. I’m not embarrassed that they didn’t graduate; I’m embarrassed because I sent them all a congratulations e-mail for graduation that basically said: sorry I can’t be there, but congratulations on graduating (I’m assuming you all graduated, right? hehehehe). Oh well, it was an innocent mistake. I do, however, feel a little bad because I think I may have contributed indirectly to my freshman not graduating. During my junior year (their freshman year), I don’t think I set a very good example in terms of completing my schoolwork and going to class. I think, to some small degree, that rubbed off on some of them. But I take solace in knowing that all of that is somewhat balanced out by the fact that my entry also produced their class’ valedictorian! Congrats Priyanka!

Another great thing about brunch was that we ran into Vero and Elena at Essex. That’s the thing I love the most about NYC: running into people you know in the most random places, in such a huge city!

Later that night, I went over to Korey and Margo’s new apartment in Brooklyn for a “family dinner.” I had not been over since they had finished renovating/fixing up the place and I was pleasantly surprised. They did a really nice job turning the place into a warm and inviting home, with nicely painted accent walls, tons of furniture, photos, new track lighting, etc. That atmosphere really helped make the “family dinner” feel like, well, a family dinner. They invited a bunch of people over, mostly Northwestern peoples who I’ve met over the years, and it was a fun time. Margo and Korey cooked a great meal which included cheese platters, fresh guacamole, potato salad, chicken satay, stuffed, vegan-friendly peppers, shrimp and crab cakes, cheesecake and a vegan-friendly chocolate cake. We ended the night by going to their roof which had a great view of downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan, similar to the view from Korey’s old place. The only sad thing about the night was seeing the kittens, Francoise (sp?) and Maxamillion, who were really drugged up and out of it since they had just been neutered earlier in the day.

Monday
Monday night was a throwback to my senior year. Evan and I went over to Dani’s apartment in Harlem to try and revive our old tradition of poker night. (Dave was supposed to come as well, but he pussied out because he was stressed about work; the NY Times so owns him right now.) Dani cooked us dinner which, as usual, was wonderful. Dinner included a refreshing salad, a pasta salad, lemon and zucchini chicken, and strawberry shortcake with homemade whip cream. One of the things I really miss about college is living with Dani. We had a lot of fun times at Susie Hopkins and cooking was a big part of that. Lately, I’ve been able to convince Dani to cook more food which has lead to me freezer being full over wonderful homemade pasta sauces. Now I just need to get her to make me some of her delicious Irish soda bread.

After dinner, we pulled out the cards and played poker. During senior year, we were pretty consistent in getting a poker game going almost every week. We had a great group of people who would come over to play. Sadly, a lot of them are not in NYC so we are working on trying to form a new group. Playing poker with 3 people just doesn’t cut it.

At first, I was killing everyone; Evan even had to buy back in really early. However, my luck soon changed and I was struggling just to stay in the game. Before we knew it, it was already 1 AM. We were all getting pretty tired, but how can you end a poker game without at least bankrupting one person? So on what turned out to be the final hand, I went all-in having two pair, aces and kings; I thought I had it. Dani went all-in with me too. But then Dani flips her cards over…4 aces. What a way to end the night.

Tuesday
Tuesday afternoon, I got a call at work; it was Sean, one of my frosh. Like Devin, the last time I had seen him was back at Homecoming in November. Sean was going to be in the city that night and wanted to grab dinner and drinks. Before dinner, he came by my apartment to get a quick tour (which doesn’t take long since I live in a studio). Then we went to Brother Jimmy’s to grab some beers and BBQ.

I was really happy to see Sean and catch up with him. Sean was definitely one of my favorite frosh and one that I spent a lot of time with, mostly because he lived right across the hall from me and because we were always so terrible at getting our work done and as such, we were always up until 4 AM in the common room together, frantically reading and writing.

The other connection that Sean and I share is that he was my only frosh to become a JA. I think he really enjoyed that experience, just as much as I did, and I’m glad he did it. He’s just such a laid back and likeable guy, and I’m sure his frosh appreciated that.

Wednesday
Wednesday was a brutally hot and humid day in NYC. It was so bad that we even had a power outage that hit Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. This shut down some of the subway lines making the running subways that much more packed with sweaty, smelly people. So what do you do on a gross, hot day? Go get a big, hot bowl of Ramen!

So, probably not the best idea in the world, but I had dinner plans to meet up with Crystal and we both really wanted to try Momofuku which is a noodle shop on the Lower East Side. It’s usually pretty packed so we figured that any chance to eat there without waiting in line was worth it. Turns out, most people are smarter than us and decided that hot soup on a day like this was not a good idea. We were able to grab a spot at the counter right away.

Dinner was good, but it was less about the food, and more about catching up with Crystal. I hadn’t seen Crystal in a long time, even though we’ve both lived in NYC for the last year. In the last few months, I’ve ran into her at some parties, but this was a great chance to really talk with her and hear how things were going.

Right now, most of my friends are in a very exciting place. Most of us are 2 or 3 years out of college and have been working. This is the prime time for changing jobs or going back to school. I’m sort of in a similar boat so it’s always nice to talk to other people to get their perspective and to hear how they are planning their careers/lives.

After dinner, I had some time to kill so I went to the Barnes and Nobles in Union Square. The scene was hilarious. I went to the third floor to grab a few magazine to read. The entire floor was packed with people sitting against the walls, reading magazines, and enjoying the free air conditioning. I settled into a nice spot and before I knew it, I had passed out. The heat was just that bad today.

Once I woke up, I booked it downtown to meet Jessica. We were going to see “The Banquet” at IFC for the NY Asian Film Festival. As I was waiting in line to get into the theatre, someone came up to me and yelled my name. I turned around, and for a moment, I had no idea who this person was; then it hit me…it was Cindy Lin! I hadn’t seen Cindy in at least 4 years and then, of all places to run into her.

Cindy has been living in NYC for many years now. I knew that she lived her, but II just never got around to calling her. The funny thing is, I was going to the movie with Jessica, who also knows Cindy. Crazy Minnesota people meeting up in the West Village in NYC. Anyway, it was good to see Cindy and we all have plans to get together for dinner soon and also to get Kathy Chen to join us well. The more Minnesotans, the merrier!

Friday
On Friday night, I met up with Vero, Kerel, Victoria, and some other girls down in the East Village. We grabbed a few drinks at Swift, which was fun, but then Kerel and I split off and headed to the Highline Ballroom for the Pharoahe Monch concert. Opening for Pharoahe were The Cool Kids, Polyrhythm Addicts, and Black Milk.

Expecting the show to not start on time like pretty much every hip hop show I’ve been to, we got to the Highline a little before midnight. Unfortunately, they had already started and I missed The Cool Kids open, which I was pretty bummed about. However, we still got to see everyone else perform. The energy in the room was crazy. Pharoahe Monch is not a mainstream artist which means that if you’re going to pay to see him perform, you really want to see him perform. That’s probably the best part of going to underground/indie concerts.

Pharoahe had a live backing band which really made the difference. A lot of Pharoahe’s beats have a heavy rock influence so having a live band really suits the songs; plus the band was just having a great time with it. Pharoahe is also one of the most energetic performers I’ve seen and he quickly passes that on to the crowd. One highlight of the night was Styles P walking on stage to do his guest verse for “My Life.”

After the concert, it was close to 3 AM already, but Kerel and I still had to make it to late night so we hopped a cab downtown to Automatic Slims to meet up with Vero and everyone else. I love Automatic Slims. It’s a small bar with not a lot else around it, but it’s always good time with drinking and dancing. We stayed there for another hour or so, but then everyone started getting tired and we decided to call it a night….a very fun night.

Oh Snap!

2007-06-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

This sounds stupid, but I have never been able to snap my fingers. This week at work, I was pretty bored so I practiced snapping. And now...I can snap my fingers. I'm much better at snapping my left hand, but my right hand is coming along.

The Office Olympics

2007-06-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

I think we've hit the wall at work today. The boss is out of town for the next week and there is basically a skeleton staff here today. I was watching "The Office" last night and saw the episode with the Office Olympics. In that tradition, I started racing around the office in my chair which suddenly turned into our assistants actually doing a head-to-head race in chairs down the hallway...just as someone walks into the our office!

Family Dinner

2007-06-26T13:17:00.000-05:00

The last two nights, I've been lucky enough to enjoy some home-cooked meals. On Sunday, I went over to Korey and Margo's new place in Brooklyn for a "family dinner." I think Bifen referred to me as "Cousin Eric." True, I do hang out with Korey and Margo a lot. I guess I consider them my New York family.

Margo and Korey cooked an amazing meal which included a cheese platter, a great salad, potato salad, chicken satay, crab and shrimp cakes, stuffed peppers, cheesecake w/ freshly picked strawberries from Long Island, and a vegan chocolate cake which was surprisingly delicious. It was a really "homey" meal as it was the first time I had seen Margo and Korey's finished place and they really have done a great job at transforming their new place. The last time I was there I was helping them put up sheet rock.

Last night, I went over to Dani's apartment in Harlem for dinner and poker. It was just Dani, Evan, and me, but it was a lot of fun; it definitely reminded me of the fun times we had living together in Susie Hopkins back at Williams. I think it's been almost 2 years since the three of us had played poker together.

Dani, being the consummate hostess, made a refreshing green salad and a pasta salad. She also baked lemon chicken breasts and home-grown zucchini. To top it off, she also made strawberry short cake with fresh whip cream. Tasty!

Poker was great; I really miss our old poker nights in Susie H. At first, I was on a hot streak, but the tables soon turned and I ended the night all out of cash, losing in an all-in bet with Dani. I had kings over aces full house but was destroyed by Dani's 4 aces!

1st Half Marathon

2007-06-23T16:40:00.000-05:00

I was feeling pretty lazy since I really haven't done anything for the last few days due to my aforementioned hangover. So i went running this afternoon, planning to run a 10K, but instead I ran a half marathon. Up until today, the farthest I've ever run was 10K so I essentially doubled my longest distance. It was hard near the end, but really satisfying to complete. I even had a decent time. My goal was to be under 2 hours. My time was 1:55:41. Next goal is to get that under 1:50.

My Liver Needs A Vacation

2007-06-22T14:35:00.000-05:00

I'm hungover right now, in a bad way. I'm hungover from drinking two days ago. I felt pretty shitty yesterday, but I made it through work and overall, I had experienced worse hangovers in college. But this morning, I woke up and my stomach was still in knots. My head is still throbbing, all from a "work dinner" on Wednesday.

As part of our marketing efforts, my office takes out teams from various insurance brokers that we work with. I've attended a couple of these events in the past, and for the most part, they are pretty tame. Obviously the level of drinking depends on the group. However, about a year ago, there was an infamous "work dinner" (I did not attend). The result was numerous rounds of tequila shots, the senior guys in my office getting yelled at by their wives, and lots of hungover people the next day. Since then, I think some of the people in my office have been trying to recreate the event. As a result, Wednesday night's dinner was at a tequila bar/restaurant.

Things started out at a slow pace. Everyone ordered a round. One of my senior marketers, whose notorious for only drinking tequila, got me to start of by just drinking tequila, neat, with a splash of lime. This continued for a few rounds. Then he suggested shots. That was fine. Everyone did the first round. Then a second round of shots and another round of drinks was ordered. Now before going forward, I need to also let you know the drinking preferences of my boss, who I happened to be sitting right next to. He's a wine drinker and rarely drinks anything else. Tonight, because we were out with clients at a tequila bar, he acquiesced and had a round of shots and tequila drinks. However, every time people ordered another round, they ordered him a tequila drink, which he "kindly gave" to me and had me drink for him. So basically, for every one drink everyone else had, I had two. I was also drinking primarily shots or tequila, neat, with a splash of lime.

After a couple hours, everyone was pretty lit up and some people, including my boss, had to catch trains back to CT. As has always been the case, there is the expectation that the young guys in the office will take the other young guys out to continue drinking. To not do that would be kind of rude, especially when you are with clients. So we gathered our things and headed to a great rooftop bar nearby. Just as we were leaving the tequila bar, I ran into Molly Shannon from SNL and kindly, but drunkenly, introduced myself to her and complimented her on her work on SNL. Moron!

We started the night off early, like around 5:30. At this point, it was only a little after 8. To my best estimate, I had already had about 10 tequila drinks/shots, but I was doing alright. However, when we got to the next bar, one of the clients wanted to do Jag bombs. He had not drank a lot at the previous place and not being much of a tequila drinker himself, had drank mostly beer. Unfortunately, no one was quick to take him up on his offer for Jag bombs. Again, to leave him hanging like that would be kind of rude, as he is the client, so I said okay. I think that's where the night started to go downhill for me.

The rest of the night is very vague. I remember many more rounds of mostly Red Bull vodkas. I remember calling Evan up and having him meet us at the bar to drink on the company tab. I remember calling Dani once, though she says I called her like 15 times. I remember briefly talking to my dad on the phone. I remember some guy at the bar getting in my face, putting his hands on me and us almost getting into a fight (though Evan was able to separate us). I remember one of my co-workers standing at the bar and then 10 seconds later, seeing him fall in slow motion to the ground. Said co-worker decided it was time for him to leave, but "graciously" left me his corporate AmEx so I could continue to run up the alcohol bill. Probably not the best decision he's ever made. I remember going to Le' Express, a nice drunk hungry place where I usually end up at when I drink with Evan. And then I remember eventually getting home to bed.

Two days later and I'm still hurting.

One thing, however, kind of makes me laugh. Said co-worker who fell at the bar and gave me his AmEx...I saw him the next morning and he looked like shit. He basically blacked out and barely remembered the previous night. However, he does remember getting into a black cab to go home and not having cash on him to pay. He also, at some point, thought he was in Tribeca (we were nowhere near Tribeca all night). Turns out, what he thought was Tribeca was actually The Met. Somehow he ended up there and was wandering around drunkenly at night. How he actually got back to his apartment is still a mystery.

We have 3 more of these things planned for the next month. Until the next one, I think the liver needs some room to breath.

Running Goals

2007-06-16T10:36:00.000-05:00

I'm very happy. Last week, I ran a 10K in 57:30 mins. It was an okay time, but I was pretty pissed at myself. Today, I ran another 10K and cut my time by almost 5 minutes with a time of 52:43 mins. My next goal is to get my 10K time below 50 mins.

California Dreamin'

2007-06-11T11:01:00.000-05:00

I came into work this morning really missing Haley and Jacob so I though I'd post these picks from my last trip out to Cali a couple weeks ago.

Where Is Our Win?

2007-06-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

Spider-Man 3 took in $151 million in domestic gross box office receipts in its first weekend of release. Add to that the $231 million it had already earned in foreign markets and its worldwide take was already $382 million, which tops the movie's "official budget" of $258 million (though there are "unofficial reports" that the budget topped $300 million). Even adding in the estimated $140 million in marketing costs, and this film is already a given success. Hell, I had to buy my tickets a week in advanceso I could see it in IMAX! As of this week, Spider-Man 2 had taken in $320 million domestically and $526 million internationally for a total of $846 million worldwide!

It's the same story for Shrek 3 and Pirates Of The Caribbean 3. Shrek 3 took in $122 million domestically on its opening weekend and as of this week has earned $289 million worldwide. Shrek 3 was reportedly budgeted at around $160 million so it's already surpassed that and it really hasn't hit its stride yet in the international market. Pirates 3 took in $136 million domestically on its opening weekend and as of this week has earned $624 million worldwide. Its budget was reportedly around $150 million.

But I don't really care that much about any of these movies; I don't have a personal stake in it. But as I was looking at the numbers yesterday, I imagined what the atmosphere must be like in the offices of these studios, in the offices of the production company and everyone else involved. There must have been some intense celebration, champagne bottles popped, caviar being wheeled in, and for good measure, piles of money being rolled in (probably not the last thing), but there would definitely be some celebration. Why not? They won! And then I thought to myself, what do we consider a win in my office? When would we have cause for celebration? Sadly, nothing really came to mind.

At work, we don't have anything that I define as a "big win." Sure, we theoretically "win" accounts, but lately the market has been so shitty that we're more concerned with keeping our current book of business rather than getting new accounts. Even when we do manage to keep an account (which I did a few months back...it was a pretty big account), it still feels anti-climatic. Yes we went out to lunch to "celebrate," but it was a pretty weak lunch and then it was back to the same grind. We were basically "celebrating" the fact that we had kept things at status quo.

I need some wins at work. I need something to celebrate.

No More Pencils, No More Books (Again)

2007-05-23T15:22:00.000-05:00

I said it last February, but now I'll say it again: I'm done! No more studying for me, at least in regards to insurance. I completed my last ARM (Associate in Risk Management) test today and passed! So now I guess I should be an expert in insurance since I'm a CPCU (Certified Property-Casualty Underwriter) and an ARM. In reality, it really doesn't mean much except that I guess I could argue for a greater pay raise because I'm just that much more "educated" now.

The Return Of Jane Redux

2007-05-19T13:28:00.000-05:00

Some more songs from Maroon 5's forthcoming new CD, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long." I've heard the whole album and its pretty amazing. I don't "buy" a lot of music nowadays, but I'll definitely cop this.

Maroon 5- Goodnight Goodnight

Maroon 5- Nothing Lasts Forever

Kanye West- Heard 'Em Say ft. Adam Levine (of Maroon 5)

Run Timmy Run

2007-05-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

All states should be doing this:

Florida Governor Signs Law Requiring P.E. In Elementary Schools

Back To Charlie

2007-05-17T10:54:00.000-05:00

Crazy story about fanatical fans, cyber-stalking, and identity theft (via Idolator).

Linkin Park's Mysterious Cyber-Stalker (Wired)

Excerpt:

"I know where your kids are," she told them one day when she called. "I have complete control of your lives."

On why she stalked them:

Why did you do all this? Dimitrelos asked. In flat tones, Townsend told him that she was bored. Her job at Sandia took about half an hour a day, and she was looking to pass the time.

Happy Birthday Haley!

2007-05-08T23:08:00.000-05:00

See you this weekend to celebrate!!!

The Return Of Jane

2007-05-04T21:56:00.000-05:00

Maroon 5- Back At Your Door
(from their forthcoming sophomore album "It Won't Be Long Before Soon")

Leaving On A Jet Plane

2007-05-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

Upcoming Travel Plans:

May 12-15: California for Mother's Day, Haley's Birthday, and more interview
May 25-28: Minnesota
June 3: Williamstown for Graduation

Earth Intruders

2007-05-03T20:34:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see Bjork perform at Radio City Music Hall. Wow...the show was incredible; arguably one of the best concerts I've been to. I think the best part of the show was the variety of people who showed up. It was a spectrum of people, attesting to Bjork's cross appeal. I'm also not sure if I've ever been to concert where fans went as crazy; I guess I was just surprised by some people's "enthusiasm" given that when I think of Bjork, I think of more ambient, chiller music. But yeah, some of the girls next to us were rockin' the fuck out!

I'd write more, but I really wouldn't do it much justice. Sean Fennessey has a decent write up about the show.

(photos courtesy of some wonderful people on Flickr)

Ben Gibbard Concert

2007-05-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

Anybody want to go see Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie, The Postal Service) live in concert on Tuesday? I really want to go to this concert but don't want to go alone. If you want to go, let me know ASAP!!!

2007-05-03T11:43:00.000-05:00

A lot of happenings at the office lately, most shocking was the "defection" of about half of our executive team last week. That makes it about 3/4 of the executive team that has left the company since I started. The "defection" last week was somewhat unexpected, but where they went was not. Our former CEO who left the company just prior to me starting has just started a new insurance company. His non-compete clause ended in November.

I don't blame any of the people who left because I completely understand their motivation. Our company has become far more bureaucratic over the last year as we have become more integrated with our parent company. Also, the opportunity to work with our old CEO, who was quite a character, and at a start-up would be exciting for anyone. In total, we lost the following people in the last 2 years: CFO, COO, head actuary, chief tech. officer, head of HR, head of claims department, head of credit department, head of captive group (2 people actually!), my old boss, and a number of other non-management people.

Urban Appreciation

2007-05-02T11:23:00.000-05:00

A quote in a recent NY Times article hit home for me in regards to my relationship with NYC:

“If you live within London I think you can forget to appreciate what’s offered in the city,” said Ms. Gilmore, who graduated in 2003 with a degree in corporate communications from Richmond, the American International University in London. “But if you have to commute, you are still in awe of what the city has to offer. You have to make more of an effort to go into the city and to do things like go to a museum.”

Put A Smile On My Face

2007-04-30T23:34:00.000-05:00

Mark Ronson- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face ft. The Daptone Horns

Holla At A Scholar

2007-04-30T22:06:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, in January, I went back to school. I thought I had told most people about this, but I guess not. Sorry to Margo, Korey, and Lillian who felt a little slighted that I waited until a couple weeks ago to inform them. But that aside, I'm currently wrapping up my first semester at NYU. Since January, I've been enrolled in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (this isn't grad school people!) and taking 4 courses with classes 4 times a week. At times it has been pretty tiring trying to work full time and then go to classes afterwards, but it's also been nice to get back into an academic setting. I've enjoyed most of the classes and contrary to my undergrad experience, I actually went to the classes. I think I only missed a couple classes and that was due to being out of town or having commitments at work.

The classes I've been taking have been focused on construction and real estate development. I took one class on construction management, one on project management, one on basic core and shell construction, and one on managing small development projects. It has been really interesting learning something completely new. The content is less theoretical than what I would have studied at Williams which makes it easier to digest. I know however, that some of it is sinking in. When I pass construction projects in the city (and they are everywhere), I definitely look at them differently and starting asking myself questions about how the project is setup, why they made certain construction decisions, etc. I can also talk the talk a little which I realized when I was out in Cali a couple weeks ago. I was walking some job sites and new the lingo and was able to hold some intelligent conversations with the site managers.

I'm a little sad to see the classes end. I miss learning. I also don't know what I'm going to do with all the extra time. Idleness is a deadly thing. I'll also miss some of the random class experiences, like running into a friend of mine from Williams who was also taking classes or having Ivanka Trump sit in on one of my classes!

Big City, Small City

2007-04-30T10:15:00.000-05:00

I often get overwhelmed by the size of the city, but every now and then, there are moments that make the city seem so small. In the last week, I've run into people that I know in some of the most random places. Last weekend while I was hanging out on the Great Lawn in Central Park, I was throwing a frisbee around with friends and we accidentally threw it at a guy and it hits his back. Turns out, it was Alex, a high school buddy of one of my good friends from Williams. Who would have thought that we would run into each other in the city, let alone the mass that is the Great Lawn? And then, just on Friday, I was walking near Bryant Park and I hear my name being called. I turn around, and who should it be but Alex, again. (actually, I guess I run into Alex a lot in the city)

To top it off, on Saturday night I was down in the East Village, walking around with Lillian. We were about to call it a night, but walked by a small cafe and decided to get a drink outside. As we went inside to pay our bill, Lillian noticed someone and it turns out we ran into 3 people from Williams that we know. Small fuckin' world.

Wish I Were A Kid Again

2007-04-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

Spider-Man Week In NYC begins today! Best believe that I'm picking up my free comic book on Saturday. And I'm intrigued enough that I might swing by the Apollo to listen to some Spidey-inspired raps!

Morning Glory

2007-04-29T09:32:00.000-05:00

A couple of songs that have been on heavy rotation lately:

Freeway- Some Say Yes ft. Sleepy Brown (Produced By Chad West)

TI- Big Shit Poppin' (Produced By Mannie Fresh)

Get Lifted

2007-04-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

On Monday night, I got to see John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae perform at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden with Jessica. Absolutely amazing concert. Both performers really put on a good show and surprisingly, sounded very much like their CDs, which I find to be an irregularity these days with auto-tuning in studios. The other thing that struck me about this concert was the intimate atmosphere that was fostered. Given, the style of music lends itself to that, but it was nice to go to a concert where I wasn't completely deafened by the booming bass.

Most of the concerts I typically go to are hip hop concerts so my expectations of concerts are different. If I go to a hip hop show, I expect to have no hearing at the end of the show; I expect to be standing and jumping around the whole time; I expect that the performance will not start on time; I expect that the actually recreation of the sound qualtiy experienced on the performer's CD will be pretty hit or miss. The concert on Monday defied these expectations.

As I said, the concert had a more intimate atmosphere. I have seen John Legend perform before, but that was as a special guest for a Kanye West show. He was good, but it was a completely different vibe. On Monday, John Legend really blew me away with his performance and stage presence. He did some of the standard concert tricks like inviting a woman on stage to dance with him (note to all performers: bringing up a middle-aged mother to dance with you always makes the crowd go wild), going into the crowd to sing, and calculatingly discarding pieces of clothing throughout the performance. But beyond those typical conceits, he really moved the crowd. I give much credit to his background as a church choir singer and gospel stylings because at times, it did feel like a worship service, in terms of the vibe. But overall, the performance worked because John Legend is straight-up talented and you don't need a lot of bells and whistles to put on a good show if you've got talent.

Corinne Bailey Rae also impressed me. Her music is more low key than Legend's, but she can definitely sing. Her voice is very warm and controlled and her accent doesn't grate on you, but rather complements her well. Though her songs are slower paced, it allows you to focus more on her lyrics which are beautifully detailed. She did most of the songs from her debut album, a couple of new ones which were quite good, and then a couple of covers, including a surprising take on Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You." She also came back for John Legend's set and they sang a duet.

To see the updated list of other concerts that I plan on seeing in the next few months, click here. As always, I'm looking for people to go with me so if you are interested, let me know. I always have extra tickets.

Oh What A Weekend

2007-04-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was probably one of the best I've had since moving to New York. The weather was gorgeous, with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 70's and 80's. I spent most of the weekend outdoors, enjoying the sun and just hanging out with people.

On Friday, after a grueling 8-hour stint sitting at a law office as a favor for one of my counterparts in CT, I got out of work and went for a run in Central Park. I haven't run in the park since January when we had a freak day of 70 degree weather, so it was nice to be able to get back out there. I saw some of the usual suspects at the Reservoir where I usually run, including the old man who always walks around the park with his Olympic gold medal around his neck. One of these days I'm going to have to stop and hear his story.

After running, I had dinner with Korey and Margo down in the Village and then we met up with Arnaub, who was visiting for the weekend. We ended up at a taco stand/bar called the Cosmic Cantina. At first, I was a little hesitant because the place just seemed so ridiculous and kitschy. The front of the place is a taco/burrito stand, with the back being a run down bar with graffiti on the walls that is lit by black lights. The place is also known for selling beer in gallons. However, the party quickly picked up and we eventually got the whole place to play drinking games. I pretty much dominated at quarters and was able to avoid absolutely drunkenness and another subway incident so score one for me!

On Saturday, I got up early and ran again in the Park. After getting brunch with Korey, Margo, and Arnaub, we headed back to Central Park to lay out on the Great Lawn and play frisbee and football. The Park was amazing Saturday. It was packed with people and a lot of characters which included the crew of Jewish-Israeli nationals that we played football with, Sasha, the 11-year-old Parisian who was one of the funniest kids I've ever met, the yuppies who threatened to break our frisbee in half, and the softball players who started picking fights with everyone and their mother. They almost got into it with the yuppies which would have made my day.

On Sunday, Kyle and I finally made it down to the Shake Shack where we completely devoured our double shack burgers and shakes. The weather was so nice that we walked all the way back up to the UES, cutting through the Park and the zoo and getting a glimpse of the Greek Day Parade. It was one of the most relaxing weekends I've had, but I was so tired afterwards and completely exhausted from so much sun. Hopefully the weather is just as nice next weekend.

Currently Listening To...

2007-04-19T20:54:00.000-05:00

I've been in a very pop/r&b mood lately. Here are two songs I keep playing.

Ne-Yo- "Because Of You"

Rhianna- Hate That I Love You ft. Ne-Yo

To Three Boroughs And Back

2007-04-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

Last night was a mess. The plan last night was pretty simple: go to two birthday parties. I made it to the first one, which I originally only intended to stay at for an hour, but the place forced us to pay $40 for the open bar so some other friends and I decided that we'd pony up the money and just make sure we drank our money's worth real quick. That should have been a sign that the night was just going to get worse.

The party was at an upscale lounge. It started off slow, but it was actually pretty fun. A lot of people I hadn't seen in a while were there and the alcohol was flowing. I should have known that I was getting pretty drunk because before I knew it, I was dancing up a storm with a bunch of people I didn't know. There was also a little drunken incident (no details shall be given) which ended with Elena giving me a couple of punches to the side of the head.

Looking at the time, I knew I was late for my other party, Dani's birthday party. I already had a little argument earlier with her about me going to another party before going to hers so I really had to make it to her party. I grabbed a cab and headed down to Soho. That's when things started to get fuzzy. I remember getting out of the cab, but I don't remember if I paid the cabbie. Then I remember booting. After that, I stumbled around for a while. I knew I was close to the bar where the party was at, but I just couldn't get my bearings together.

Then it got really fuzzy and I woke up on the subway in Brooklyn. So I jumped on another train, headed back to Manhattan. More fuzziness and I wake up and ask the girl sitting next to me, "Are we in Manhattan?" "No," she replied, "We're in Queens." Queens?! I was so pissed, so I jumped on another train headed back to Manhattan. Finally I got back to Manhattan and just decided to catch a cab home. It was now close to 4 AM. I think I spent about 2.5 hours on the subway going to 3 different boroughs and I never made it to Dani's birthday. I'm such an idiot.

So Many Concerts

2007-04-04T23:56:00.000-05:00

I've been extremely lucky lately and have had the chance to go to some great concerts. A couple weeks ago, I saw The Roots and Lupe Fiasco perform at Nokia Theatre. This past weekend I saw Bloc Party perform at the United Theatre Palace (a very cool venue, even if it is all the way up in Washington Heights). And in the next few months, there are a slew of other concerts that I might see. I have multiple tickets to all of the ones listed below, so if anyone is interested in going, let me know cause I always need someone to go with! If I don't find someone to go with, I'll just end up selling the tickets.

~~Friday, April 13- Guster, Beacon Theatre, 8PM~~ sold
~~Wednesday, April 18- Norah Jones, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 8 PM~~ sold
~~Wednesday, April 18- Ratatat, Webster Hall, 8 PM (General Admission Tickets)~~
~~Friday, April 20- Hot Chip, Webster Hall, 7 PM~~
~~Monday, April 23- John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 8 PM~~
~~Monday, May 2- Bjork, Radio City Music Hall, 8 PM~~
~~Tuesday, May 8- Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service), Townhall, 8 PM~~ sold
~~Thursday, May 10- Air, Radio City Music Hall, 8 PM (General Admission Tickets)~~
~~Monday, May 14- LCD Soundsystem, Webster Hall, 8 PM (General Admission Tickets)~~ sold (I will be in Cali!)
~~Tuesday, May 22- Beanie Sigel w/ Live Band, Knitting Factory, 8:30 PM~~ show canceled
Thursday, June 7- Nelly Furtado, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
~~Tuesday, June 12- Lily Allen, Roseland Ballroom, 8 PM~~ sold
~~Thursday June 14- Jill Scott, Robin Thicke, and Chaka Khan, Radio City Music Hall, 8 PM~~ sold
~~Friday, June 15- Mika, Nokia Theatre, 8 PM~~ sold
Friday, June 29- Pharoahe Monch w/ Black Milk and The Cool Kids, 11:30 PM
Tuesday, July 24- The White Stripes, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Friday, August 3- Beyonce and Robin Thicke, Continental Arena, 8 PM
Saturday, August 4- Beyonce and Robine Thicke, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Monday, August 6- Cold War Kids and Muse, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Tuesday, August 7- BB King, Etta James, and Al Green, Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Monday, August 13- Justin Timberlake, Continental Airlines Arena, 8 PM (General Admission Tickets)
Wednesday, August 15- Justin Timberlake, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
Thursday, August 16- Justin Timberlake, Madison Square Garden, 8 PM
~~Wednesday, August 22- Kelly Clarkson, Continental Arena, 8 PM~~ show canceled

Thank You Justin Timberlake

2007-04-02T12:51:00.000-05:00

for paying for my plane ticket to Cali. I had tickets to his last show at Continental Arena in NJ, but instead of going, I sold them off and made a nice little profit that paid for my ticket to SoCal this week. Well worth it since now I'm sitting in the sun relaxing!

Found Money

2007-03-07T14:37:00.000-05:00

So the other day, my parents call me up and tells me that I need to close an old custodial account that he opened for me years ago. Originally they thought that there was a decent amount of money in the account. Turns out, there's $79 in it. Not sure what the account was supposed to be for, but now it can buy me a meal in NYC.

Then today, my dad sends me an e-mail:

Hi Eric,

I just got a phone call from the police department of University of Minnesota.
You had a wallet lost in 2001 and still there.
The person called, her name is Leanne and her phone number is 612-626-****.

Wow. I vaguely remember losing my wallet at the U of M back in high school when I used to go there for class, but that was so long ago that I'd completely forgotten about it. I had already canceled all the credit cards, got a new license, etc. But lo and behold, 6 years later, there is still money in the wallet and Leanne, as nice as she is, wanted to make sure I got it. And it's not like there was $5 in the wallet. There was $57. That's another dinner for me!

Thinking back, I rarely carry $57 in my wallet nowadays, partly because I rely more on my credit cards, but still, I was ballin' back in high school!

Book It...to Pizza Hut

2007-03-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

Critics denounce Pizza Hut reading program

Since 1985, that's been the gist of Pizza Hut's Book It, an incentive program used by 50,000 schools nationwide to reward young readers with free pizzas. The program is now under attack by child-development experts who say it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters.
Book It, which reaches about 22 million children a year, "epitomizes everything that's wrong with corporate-sponsored programs in school," said Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
"In the name of education, it promotes junk food consumption to a captive audience ... and undermines parents by positioning family visits to Pizza Hut as an integral component of raising literate children," Linn said.

This is kind of sad. I was actually just talking about this with someone the other day. I remember the Book It! program. I read so many books through this program in elementary school, especially during the summertime. I don't remember it being that easy either. I think you had to read a good number of books, especially as you got older. So unless they are giving a pizza for every book you read, I highly doubt that this is the reason why kids today are overweight. At least with this program they won't be stupid.

Update: others agree with me. You can also buy BookIt! t-shirts.

GHD Resolutions #1 and #2: Why? (Part II)

2007-02-24T23:29:00.000-05:00

In Part I, I talked about the initial changes I've made to my diet: six meals a day, no soda, no caffeine and more fruits and vegetables.

Some other changes I've made, which have been really beneficial, are: drinking more water, cooking more, adding more lean proteins to my diet, and portion control. I'll talk about all of these below and a little more on the changes I mentioned in the previous post.

When I stopped drinking soda and coffee (i.e. no caffeine), it was a hard transition, especially the no caffeine. In high school, I used to work at Starbucks, so I got massive amounts of coffee for free and quickly became a caffeine junkie. I used to also work the morning shift, which meant that I had to get up at 5 AM to open up the store. This quickly turned into me taking 5 shots of espresso every morning. Although that helped me get through the morning rush, I quickly developed a mini ulcer and had the constant taste of coffee/espresso on me. College didn’t help the problem. I constantly procrastinated which always led to me pulling all-nighters and me binging on coffee and soda to stay awake.

However, in the last year, I’ve weaned myself off of caffeine. I started by cutting out coffee from my daily routine (people still think I’m crazy at work for not starting the day with a cup of coffee). I substituted with diet sodas and tea. I soon cut out the diet sodas as well and even tea. I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer need caffeine to function and I don’t really miss it. Cutting it out of my diet has made me sacrifice those nice energy surges that it brought, but also helped to end those constant energy up and downs throughout the day. Also, by cutting out caffeine as well as soda, I’ve been able to supplement that with a much higher intake of good old water.

There’s honestly nothing better than a nice cold cup of water when you are thirsty. Back in high school when I used to play soccer, my teammates and I used to carry around jugs of water throughout the school day and drink them to hydrate us for our games later in the day. However, when I wasn’t in season, I quickly turned back to sodas and fruit juices for my hydration needs. For the most part, unless I was playing a sport, I wasn’t drinking water.

In college, one of the guys I worked with mentioned to me that a lot of people confuse hunger with dehydration. After a little bit of reading, I agreed with his conclusion. (If you don’t think its true, the next time you get a craving, try and have a glass of water first to see if that helps.) I also read somewhere that a nice cold glass of water first thing in the morning can help kick start your metabolism. Whether that is true (I’m inclined to think it is), it has helped me with waking up in the mornings as gulping down a cold glass of water first thing in the morning is kind of hard for me so it forces me to wake up a little.

Besides the glass of water to start the day, I drink water constantly throughout the day. The only other liquid I consistently drink is skim milk. Soda and juice are pretty much nonexistent now in my diet and that staple of college, beer, has also been put in moderation. The added intake of water has really helped me feel better throughout the day.

Another major change has been cooking more often. When I lived in CT, I cooked quite often, but in NYC, its become more of a necessity for me since I just can't afford to eat out all the time anymore. An added bonus is that I actually like cooking.

Most days I prepare my own lunch and dinner. I don't try to make it too make it to complicated, but every now and then, I do make some fancier things. Since I'm cooking for myself, I have more control on what is going into my meals. I've tried to infuse more fresh vegetables in my meal as well as leaner meats (chicken, turkey) and eat fish at least once or twice a week. Probably the most important advantage of cooking for myself is being able to control portion size. I've learned that I get full on less. I'm not too full and then feel groggy or get food coma afterwards. It's still taking some getting used to and is a continuous learning process, but overall, it's made things in my life much better.

GHD Resolutions #1 and #2: Why? (Part I)

2007-02-22T23:00:00.000-05:00

GHD Resolutions #1 and #2 are fitness and enjoy the outdoors. I grouped them together because for me, they are interdependent and I think that by achieving one, the other will come easily.

To really talk about my resolutions, I need to be brutally honest; otherwise, I’m not really going to be able to analyze the reasoning behind them and create an adequate framework for success. That’s also one of the reasons why I’m posting these and my progress on my blog; making your goals and progress public helps keep you accountable.

Let’s start with my fitness goal:

I’m fat. To be more accurate, I’m overweight. Saying that isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. If I would have had to say that 6 months ago, I would have had to say I was obese (basing this on BMI) (http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/). So to begin with, I’m already in a better place.

My fitness goal extends beyond exercise. Although exercise is a huge part of my overall plan, that is not enough. When I refer to fitness, I’m talking about an overall lifestyle change which includes diet.

As with exercise, I’ve already begun a process of changing my diet. Let me preface by saying that I’m not on a diet, in the traditional sense. Instead, I’m trying to be more aware of what I eat, what benefits/damage foods cause me, and basically incorporating that information into a balanced and healthful diet. Some basic changes I’ve already made over the last few months include: cutting sodas (pop for all the Midwesterners) out completely, limiting caffeine (I rarely drink coffee; maybe some tea occasionally), injection of fresh fruits and vegetables into my diet, reduction in intake of processed foods, etc.

All of these changes have happened over time; it would have been too hard to do these all at once, and I still struggle with some of them. I think the worst thing is not what I eat, but habits that I have formed over time related to eating. The worst habit I have/had is the way I approach meals and snacking. Before I really started to change things, I ate two meals a day (skipped breakfast most of the time) and snacked a lot in between, especially late a night. While the food that I was eating weren’t great, I learned that the scheduling of my meals and snacks was even worse.

Now I try to stick to a six meal plan. I eat breakfast every day (except on weekends when I tend to sleep in), have a hearty lunch, a lighter dinner, and then 3 snacks interspersed in between. For the most part, I think I’ve been good at incorporating this into my daily routine and I’ve seen some tremendous changes the biggest of which is that I get less cravings for food; this was always the killer for me.

Next post I'll talk more about my diet changes and exercise.

To see my original GHD Resolutions post, click here.

You take your girl and multiply her by four, now a whole lot of woman needs a whole lot more

2007-02-21T11:47:00.000-05:00

This song makes me happy right now:

Mika- Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) via Sound Gymnastics

I Think I See My Shadow

2007-02-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

The traditional time for New Year’s resolutions has long past. Initially, I had intended to make some resolutions this year as I’ve never really done it in the past. One reason I never made resolutions was that it felt like too much over-thinking and not enough doing. I think I had that impression because the typical way to make resolutions is just to make a list, but not really create any actionable plan to go along with it. That’s why resolutions tend to die off after a month or two.

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of articles and blogs about productivity, planning, goal setting, etc. I think that has helped me gain a better understand the importance of creating frameworks and systems for achieving your goals. With that in mind, and after stumbling upon this great blog entry about Groundhog Day Resolutions, I decided that this was a good time to really think about some resolutions/goals that I want to achieve this year and also create an actionable plane.

The thing that I like most about David’s Groundhog Day Resolutions is the timing of it. He’s right; the New Year is really busy and hectic and is not the easiest time to think clearly about resolutions. I couldn’t believe that it was already February! You need some time to distance yourself from the holidays and get back into your normal mode to really reevaluate yourself and your goals.

The other thing I like about his plan is that he sets up benchmarks to help check his progress. Again, I think this makes perfect sense and goes against what typically happens with New Year’s resolutions. I think when most people make New Year’s resolutions, the first thing they do is think about the resolutions they made the year before and evaluate the success of those. Quite honestly, I think this is the first time most people actually evaluate the success of their resolutions, partly because they forgot the ones they made months ago. One year is too long to wait to evaluate your progress so David’s monthly check is more practical.

Ok, so now to the fun part: what are my GHD resolutions?

I have some pretty broad resolutions/goals that I want to accomplish this year and I think that I’m being overly ambitious with them all, but I think it’s probably better to set more goals and fail at some of them than to set just enough goals to achieve unquestionable success.

So here’s my list of resolutions/goals, in no particular order (sorta):

Fitness
Enjoy the outdoors
Discover what I love to do
Financial independence and competence
Be content with less
Create/start a business
Expand knowledge base
Become a better public speaker
Create and strengthen connections within my current network
Expand my network (size and diversity)
Time management and conception
Watch less TV
Read more
Write more
Become a better cook
Be a better brother, son, uncle, etc.
Create a piece of art
Learn an instrument
Explore religion/philosophy
Travel

Though this list is not in order of importance, I tried to group some of the resolutions/goals together as some of them are interrelated. For example, #1 and 2 are health oriented, #3-8 are career/finance oriented, and so forth.

Now that I have a list, I need to create a plan for each of them. In future posts, I’m going to outline my plans for achieving these resolutions/goals and go into more detail into why I think they are important. Wish me luck.