This is just such a visually appealing site, I had to post it...
Link: Welcome to Avalon Chrystie Place.
I guess when you rent one bedrooms for $3000, you can afford a nice website.
These people are probably too "fru-fru" for a blog.
All in Random Stuff
So, I'm taking a 4 day vacation on the West Coast... Originally, this trip was loosely based around a Stanford visit, but then I just realized that I needed a bit of a break and I had good enough friends out here to welcome me with open arms and open apartments. :) So, for now I'm in Walnut Creek.... just chillin', maxin' and relaxin'. I won't lie... I did do a little bit of work this afternoon for a client presentation, but for the most part, its the first non-family related vacation I've had in a while (visited the bro in Tampa twice this summer.) Its funny, because as I was telling Charles (my boss) that I was going to be gone the rest week, he's like, "shit." I'm like, "Dude... look at the calendar... look at the last time I took time off." So, here I am. I'm here, and I'm resting comfortably. Its a nice way to clear ones mind especially as big decisions may be looming.
Pics will be coming, too, of course. Tomorrow, I plan to head over to a Ford dealership I saw that had a Mustang on the lot. :)
Oh, and by the way, did anyone catch Jack Cafferty ripping on Yassar Arafat this morning on CNN headline news?? I won't repeat what he said, but he basically flipped out on how terrible a guy this once and finished with, "Good riddence." Solidad O'Brien was speechless. Interesting stuff... Apparently billions of dollars in donations to his cause are unaccounted for? I didn't know this... I need to go check that out.
Link: A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania - Photography by Kathleen Connally.
Fantastic photos on this site... Apparently, this 41 year old mom takes all these pictures within 10 miles of her house. Thanks to Jeff the Intern for the recommendation.
Link: woot_detail.
I love Woot! They sell one item per day... well, lots of the same item each day. The best part? Their descriptions. Like this one for a remote control car:
Three halves of a foot long, this wee remote control Mitsubishi Lancer Evo has two speeds, coil spring shocks, realistic rubber tires, a pistol grip remote control, and a low center of gravity to reduce rollovers. (You know what? Next time some jackass from our hometown tells us we’ve gotten a little porky since high school, we’re totally going to say we’re lowering our center of gravity to increase stability.) |
Link: CNN.com - World's oldest man dies in New York - Nov 20, 2004.
*Hale retired 50 years ago as a railroad postal worker and beekeeper
*watched his lifelong favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, win the World Series again after 86 years.
*At age 95, Hale flew to Japan to visit a grandson who was in the Navy. While en route back to the United States, he stopped in Hawaii and even gave boogie-boarding a try.
*At 103, Hale was still living on his own and shoveling the snow off his rooftop.
*Guinness record-holder for the oldest driver. At age 108, he still found slow drivers annoying
*Hale outlived his wife, who died in 1979 (69 years of marriage)
Now that's a life.
Fred Hale. 113. I may just have to live that long to see the Mets win another championship.
After meeting the guys from Vimeo, I've started playing around with my phone's video feature. What I really need to do is to get my PowerShot fixed and get the video working on that. I'm sure I'll eat up all my allowable bandwidth on this, but its a video clip of me waiting to arrive at 86th and Lex on the 4 train after a Fordham basketball game last night. They lost, and I'll post more about that later, but for now, here's the clip. (Jeff the Analyst has informed me that you need the latest version of Quicktime (6.5) to view it.)
I'm sitting right here...
Its a Starbucks not to far from the Bay. I stopped here because there's a photo op right around here that I think I'm going to get some cool pics of in a few minutes. Plus, I was hungry, so I had a rasberry almond scone and a green tea. :)
So, my friend Carrie loves me enough to open her apartment to me for me to stay, but doesn't love me enough to take any time off for me, so I'm playing by myself today. It should be interesting, because, to be honest, I don't usually do too much by myself... ever. I could never sit in a restaurant or movie theater by myself. I'm just a feedback guy and I like bouncing ideas off of other people while I'm experiencing things.
So here are some other pics that I took...
I'm waiting for the train to the rental car. I got a convertible... and of course, its raining and only about 55.
I know I'm not a good photographer. I'll admit it now. But, I'm a good driver, which allows me to take pictures like this safely. :)
New York does't have land formations like this... I just think the landscape here is fascinating. I know, its boring stuff, but for me, its different.
Oh, and I took these pictures on Tuesday... I thought maybe you'd be curious what my work environment looks like. I think it goes a long way to explaining why I needed a little vacation. Not my Fordham banner, name
tags from various conferences and annual meetings I've been to, and my thank you letters. Each time I get a thank you letter for a student for the various mentoring activities I do or for running the internship program, I post it up on my desk. I think I also have a little note up there from Bob Hellman and Nancy Katz from McCown DeLeeuw. They're good people. The chair behind me is where Jeff the Intern sits, but he only works Mondays and Tuesdays.
And finally, here are some Walnut Creek pictures from this morning on my way out... its really quite quaint. I can't figure California out... its like the town council voted one day and decided to put up a state. Nothing here just "happened" like New York... it was decided upon and planned and it all looks like it fits together nicely. New York, which is visually more interesting, developed and grew and overgrew and now we're all living in Jenga. More to come... I'm going to lunch later with Valarie from CM Capital in Palo Alto.
Apparently, they don't sell Newsday on the Upper East Side. I may have to trek to Penn Station to get it. If anyone knows a place on the UES that has copies, please let me know. My mom said that I'm like the whole front page of the money and career section, but I haven't seen it yet. So frustrating!