Concerts, Museums, Picnics, Trains, and Decathlons ...

On Saturday the 27th of August I met up with Allison to check out the National Museum of the American Indian. Neither one of us had been there before, and it was definitely worth checking out. We saw a film in their distinctive theatre and saw the exhibits. They also had a cool cafeteria with distinctive food and drink. Definitely a good time. Pictures are here.

On Sunday the 11th of September Graecyn and I went out for a picnic on the Potomac over on the GW Parkway. It was a very pretty day and we had a good time, and of course, pictures are here.

On Sunday the 19th of September, Allison and I took advantage of one of the last really nice days of the season to go kayaking down by Georgetown's Washington Harbour. Afterward we had lunch at Sequoia and then made our way over to the Kennedy Center where we had excellent seats for a concert devoted to Mozart. We had an absolutely wonderful time.

On Sunday, October the 9th Allison and I met up once again to check out some science and culture on the National Mall. We saw Cornell's entry to the Solar Decathlon, and then had lunch over at John Harvard's (where there was some positively delicious seasonal beer). After that we made our way to the National Gallery of Art where there was a free showing of some old Mary Pickford silent films. Afterward we went to Zaytina for some Mediterranean tapas and called it a night.

On October 10th I saw Liz Phair once again at the 9:30 Club with Matt Pond PA opening. Matt Pond PA was fairly good, but nothing spectacular. Liz Phair seemed to have a lot less energy this time around, and just didn't seem as into it. The show was good, but didn't leave me as energized as her past shows.

On Saturday, October 15th Graecyn and I went to Medieval Times out by Arundel Mills. This was a complete blast -- the concept is that you're having dinner in a medieval castle (with no utensils) and there is a tournament going where knights on horseback joust, fight with swords, and generally kick some butt while you dine. Even though things were obviously choreographed, these guys really were hitting each other's shields and swords hard (sparks were flying -- literally). It was very entertaining, and the food was pretty good too. Some pictures can be seen here.

On Monday, October 17th I left work and made my way to Union Station where I took a train headed up to Philadelphia. It was my first time on Amtrak, and I have to say I was impressed. They even had a power point for my laptop. Along the way I met up with my Dad at BWI. We were headed to Philadelphia to see my brother Andy performing at the Theater of the Living Arts with his friend Devendra Banhart. Opening up for the band were Tarantula AD and Bunny Brains. We got on the guest list and had all-access passes to everywhere. Very cool. We went out to dinner with Andy at a restaurant nearby and then had the chance to see Andy performing with Devendra. The show was fantastic and we had a great time. After the show Dad and I made our way back to our hotel and got some shuteye. We woke up really early in the morning and took the train back to Washington. I got into work on-time that morning -- who says the trains don't run on-time! Photos of the evening can be found here.

Next up on October 31 (Halloween) I saw OK Go once again at the 9:30 Club. They were opening up for Rufus Wainwright. The show was great, as the other two shows I've been two with them have been. They played all the songs I wanted to hear and it was great fun. They ended up their set with their dance routine, this time for "A Million Ways". The crowd went wild. Next up was Rufus Wainwright, who was okay, but since I was feeling under the weather with the remnants of a nasty flu I left after a few songs to get some sleep. Pictures can be found here.

On Sunday, November 6th I had the good fortune of seeing the beautiful Jem in concert once again. Opening up for her was Josh Kelley who put on a good set that seemed well paired with Jem. When Jem came on stage it was apparent that the quietness and mild introversion that was apparent in her last show was gone. She was having a blast on stage, and that made its way out to the audience. She sounded incredible, looked beautiful, and captivated everyone in the audience. I was right in front (she even grabbed my hand during one of her last songs) and had a great time. It was obvious she had a good time, too. Lots of pictures of the show can be found here.

Finally, Last Thursday the 10th Graecyn and I made our way to the inaugural Cafe Scientifique at Bar Pillar on 14th Street. They had 4 science authors who talked about their books and fielded questions over drinks and food for 15 minute intervals. Graecyn and I ended up buying one of the books, and we look forward to reading it. It was definitely a fun time, and with any luck they'll be doing it again (their plan is to hold them semi-monthly).

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to be more timely in my updating of the site. And for a more real-time look, you can always check out my flickr photo-stream. Which tends to get pictures of my adventures even faster than I can write words about them. Until my next update I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Take care.

Flying, Baseball, Karaoke, Beaches, Boston, and an Island ...

Since our last get-together I've been very busy. On Saturday the 6th I headed over to Tipton Airport with my Dad to do a little flying. An organization he is involved with provides communications for public safety events. One of these was an air show, and the pilots, to show their gratitude, took members of the club for plane rides that afternoon. Now, as any regular reader of my news will know, I do a lot of flying -- but I had never been in the cockpit before. The view from the front is absolutely amazing. The plane I was in had 2 seats in the front and a bench in the back and was a propeller driven craft. We went from Tipton down to Annapolis and then turned around and headed home. The view was absolutely beautiful and I was able to take some pictures while in the air. You can check them out here.

Afterward, I made my way over to Dan's where I picked him up along with his younger brother Eric. We took the metro in to RFK Stadium and grabbed some tickets to the Nationals game against the Padres. We had a great time at the game and afterward we caught some nightlife downtown. You can see pictures from the game here.

On Monday night I headed over to the Warehouse Theatre where one of my favorite websites was having a "meetup". They even bought some of us (myself included) a beer. It was great getting a chance to meet them, and I even saw some people in the area that I hadn't seen in a long time. All-in-all a great time, and of course, pictures are on-line here.

On Wednesday, a friend I work with who is moving up to New York City had a get-together over at Fast Eddie's for their Karaoke Night. A lot of people from the office showed up, and I even made some new friends. I was accompanied in a rendition of the Digital Underground's Humpty Dance by a co-worker and generally had a good time. I have pictures, but to protect the innocent (and perhaps, the not-so-innocent), I won't be posting them ;-)

Friday afternoon I made my way to BWI in the afternoon for a flight to Boston. The flight was on AirTran, and they had satellite radio at every seat. The bonus here is that even when you are restricted in your use of electronics, the satellite radio keeps on going (interrupted only by crew announcements). This made the 1 hour flight go by rather quickly. I packed light so I would not have to wait at baggage claim -- so I went straight for the exits and met up with Randy. He took me to his place just outside Boston in Brookline and we chilled for a bit. That evening we went over to Milky Way Lounge and Lanes where we bowled some candle-pins over a couple cold ones and caught up. Afterward we made our way to a house party where we met a lot of cool people and talked well into the early hours of the morning.

The following day we headed out to a beach house that Randy's family owns out in Hull, MA. When we got out there, it was a perfect beach day -- crazy hot and sunny. We set up camp on the beach and then went into the surprisingly icy water. The water was numbingly cold, but it provided a nice contrast to the hot weather on land. While there we met up with a bunch of people Randy knew. Once it started getting around dinner time we made our way to the Red Parrot where we had some dinner with his friends overlooking the beach.

Sunday was a chill day since a big wave of thunderstorms came to town, so we just relaxed for a bit inside after lunch at Barefoot Bob's. Finally on Monday we went headed into Boston by ferry and we took in a bunch of the sights in a whirlwind tour of the city. After getting some chowder in a bread bowl by Faneuil Hall I hopped on the T for my flight home. This one was a 2 hours delayed, but since I'm getting to be a veteran air-traveler I talked to the gate agent and asked to be put standby on an earlier flight -- I ended up getting on that one only 10 minutes later than I was scheduled to leave on the original flight. Good times. You can check out pictures of my trip here.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, but yesterday (Saturday) Graecyn and I took our first trip to Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River (right by Rosslyn). I can't tell you how many times I passed it when I was driving on the George Washington Parkway, but this time we checked it out. It was absolutely beautiful -- at times it was hard to believe that less than a quarter mile away was downtown Washington. We walked the circuit around the island, and I took a lot of pictures. That about wraps it up for now, until next time take care.

Alternative rock, downtempo, symphonies, and photos ...

Since I last gave an update I've been to three different concerts and uploaded a whole lot of pictures to flickr. First up was a band that I grew up with as a young lad, Teenage Fanclub -- they played at the 9:30 Club on the 20th of July (I didn't get around to mentioning it last time). The Rosebuds opened up for them and it was a great show. Naturally they focused their attentions on their latest albums initially, however, they dug deep into the back catalog for some of their classic gems. Notable songs include "Everything Flows" off a Catholic Education, "Star Sign" and "The Concept" off Bandwagonesque, among others. The show was a lot of fun, and it was good to see a band that I had listened to so much as a youngster. Through the power and glory of flickr, you can check out the pictures here.

Next up was a more modern group ... DC area favorites Thievery Corporation on July 29. They sold out the 9:30 for three consecutive nights and played with no opening act. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with their music, it is very downtempo, relaxed, and has dancable beats. The Corporation centers around Rob Garza and Eric Hilton with an ever changing cast of collaborators. They had several vocalists ranging from bossa nova to hip hop and instrumentals from electric bass to sitar to bongos to synthesizers. Definitely a sight and sound to behold. They played a great set and sounded quite good -- and naturally the audience loved every minute of it. I took some pictures from the show, and you can give them a look here.

The next day (Saturday) I met up with Allison to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform at Wolf Trap. We decided to picnic on the park grounds there and picked up some red wine, cheese, tabouleh, pita, and hummus. The weather was very nice and we picked a table near a stream. After our relaxed picnic we made our way to the venue and got our seats -- I would have taken some pictures, but an usher stopped me before I had the chance -- alas, no pictures for you. The performance was rather unique -- they took a bunch of old musicals (most with Gene Kelly) with dance sequences and while the movies were playing on a screen overhead they proceeded to play the soundtrack. It was somewhat surreal, and at times, you forgot the NSO was there. It was definitely a fun evening.

That about gets you current -- as you can see I've been putting a lot of pictures on-line with my flickr account. I've been having a blast with it, and it is fun being able to share those pictures with you. I hope all is well and until next time, take care.

New look, new tech, new happenings ...

So for the first time in a while, I’m not apologizing for how long it has taken me to update here. In fact, I have been making quite a few changes and updates to the site in the last few days. The first thing you’ve probably noticed is that I have given the site a face- lift of sorts. The previous design was intensely minimalist, and I liked it, but it had a sterility to it that was not really representative of what I was trying to get across. The new design has added a bit of color to the previous setup through colorful headers and layout. The main page now has a picture feed from Flickr (more on that later) affording a more up-to-date visualization of the photos I take, updated continuously. For the news page, the overall layout remains very similar to the past -- headings remain underlined, stories remain indented. However, the typeface has been changed into a sans-serif font to project a crisper appearance on the screen and the background has been made a more pleasing gray. The site has also been designed with cross- platform support in mind, so it should render well in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. I would love to hear from you if you have anything you’d like to say about the new design, good or bad. As always, feel free to drop me a note on my feedback page.

As mentioned before, photos are starting to take an even more prominent role on my site. Anyone who knows me well will tell you I am a bit of a shutterbug. I carry my Pentax Optio S5i 5 Megapixel camera with me almost everywhere I go and have a rather massive collection of pictures. If you start counting when I broke the 2 megapixel barrier with my current camera’s predecessor (the Pentax Optio S4) I have well over 5 Gigabytes of photos I have taken on my various trips across the country and the globe. Naturally, I’d like to share a lot of them with you, but the process to create web galleries from the original (massive) images that don’t eat up all the disk space on my server is a bit onerous. Not anymore.

This past week I took the plunge and signed up for an account with Flickr, a photo hosting and sharing site. They have a lot of great features, but the standouts that made me sign-up can be summed up with by this: unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, ability to use your pictures offsite easily (i.e. here), ease of uploading, and relatively inexpensive. They have a free account that limits you to 20 Megabytes of photos being uploaded a month (with unlimited downloads and storage) -- but with my penchant for photography, that simply would not do. I signed up for their $24.95 a year plan which allows me to upload 2 Gigabytes a month (with unlimited downloads and storage) and thus far I have been very impressed. They make using your pictures off-site very easy (just look at the main page here) and also support extensive tagging and sharing options. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it so far. What this means for you guys is that I will be able to put more of my pictures up more quickly. I’ll be putting stuff up all the time, so if you want to check out my latest stuff, drop by my Flickr page where you can see my photostream (the pictures I’ve uploaded) as well as my sets - - kind of like photo albums. You can also search my tags, which allows you to find pictures based on the labels I have given them. And for you guys, it is all completely free. I hope you enjoy the new content, and feel free to give me any comments are suggestions you may have on my feedback page.

The next cool thing I have added to the site is some new technology from our friends over at Google. I was genuinely impressed when Google released Google Maps. They utilized Asynchronous Javascript and XML to create an application which looked and acted like it was something running on your local machine. The implementation was seamless. Next up, there were third party developers who hacked the interface a bit (like HousingMaps) to put geographical data onto these beautiful maps. Google, being the good neighbor it tends to be, saw this and released an API that allowed people to create their own hacks in a way that was officially sanctioned by Google. I have signed up for a key to their API and have been playing around with it. Since I was in Chicago recently, I decided to map out some of the places I visited while there, along with pictures. The result can be found here, and I look forward to getting your feedback about what you think of this new way of presenting photographs and information in a geographical context. I may even put together a more automated, data driven tool that will allow me to create more maps like this, more simply. At the very least, I think it is very, very cool.

So besides geeking out a bit, what else have I been up to? Well, I put some of the pictures from my Chicago trip on- line. I also tried to unwind a bit after all that travel. This past weekend I went with my mom to her firm’s company picnic, and while there we visited the adjacent Claude Moore Colonial Farm where we were treated to a place that seemed to be from two centuries in the past. Of course, I took pictures, and you can check them out here.

This week I’ll be meeting up with an old friend to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform and I’ll be checking out a sold-out Thievery Corporation concert at the 9:30. I also have some more travel in the works for the not-too- distant future, so I’ll try to keep you posted on that.

That about wraps it up for now, I hope you are having a fabulous summer and until next time, take care.

The windy city, airport woes, beach-front bliss, and concerts ...

It has been a long time since I last updated you on the happenings of my life -- so let’s get to it. As I write this I’m flying back to Washington from North Carolina where I made a brief stop to visit my mother and grandmother who were vacationing down in Oak Island. They had a beach-front cottage and the view from their deck was positively gorgeous. I was only able to spend one day there, but I had a good time hitting up the beach and relaxing.

Getting there was another story though -- I flew on US Air out of O’Hare with a connection in Charlotte -- but due to their towering ineptitude, the flight was severely delayed and I missed my connection. I ended up having to get a hotel in Charlotte, and even though the larger part of the delay was due to a US Air equipment malfunction, they would not pay for the hotel since it was on another flight (theirs) that was blocking the gate from which I as supposed to depart. The first flight the next morning was full, but luckily I was able to fly standby and I got one of the last seats on the plane.

So after hearing that ordeal, you’re probably wondering, why was I in Chicago? Good question. I flew in on the previous Sunday night for some work-related training in Oak Brook (about 20 miles outside of Chicago). The training itself went well, and was actually pretty well done. My days were tied up in training, but my evenings were my own. Naturally, I made the best of those nights. Sunday night I flew in and made my way to my hotel in Oak Brook. After settling in I went across the street to the Cheesecake Factory where I had a spicy cashew chicken that was positively delicious. After the late dinner I was ready to hit the sack, and I promptly crashed. On Monday night I went into the city with another person who was in my classes and visited the Sears tower. The view from the top is absolutely breathtaking -- on a clear day you can see five states -- the day I went was a little hazy, but no complaints from me -- you could see for miles and miles. The best way I can describe it is that it was like being in a plane, only you weren’t moving. After seeing the towering heights of the Sears Tower, we made our way across the Chicago river to Harry Caray’s steak house. We both had the massive 23 ounce Porterhouse steak. It was cooked to perfection and absolutely melted in the mouth -- positively superb. From there we took the L (The Elevated Railway -- like the Metro, but above ground) back to the Sears Tower and drove home.

The following evening I went back into the city, this time a bit North from where I was on Monday night. I went to Lincoln Park and visited the zoo there. From there I went to a place that a native Chicagoan recommended nearby called John Barleycorn. It was a nice bar and restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. I struck up some good conversation with the bartender and the bouncer and immediately felt at home. I watched some of the All Star Game until around 9 PM when I made my way out to another recommended venue. As I’m sure you know, Chicago is known for its blues scene. Being the music addict that I am, I had to check that out -- so I made my way to Kingston Mines, one of Chicago’s largest blues clubs. They had a couple of great acts on that night and I had a blast hearing the blues there. They were open (and serving) until 4 AM, but I had to leave a bit earlier than that to make sure I was in class bright-eyed the following morning. Wednesday evening was much more laid back, I stayed in Oak Brook for the most part and got some rest.

As for what happened in the time in-between the last update and Chicago, things were, for the most part, quiet. I saw a few concerts and had a great time. On Monday, July 2nd I saw Tussle and Eats Tapes at the Black Cat. Tussle, you may remember, is a group that my brother was involved with in the past. Andy is currently touring in Europe, so he wasn’t in the lineup for this tour, but it was great to see some of his band mates who I had met in my past trips to San Francisco. They played a great set on the backstage of the Black Cat. The opening act, Eats Tapes was quite cool as well, with an incredible amount of sound coming from 2 people huddled over their electronic equipment. If you are into electronic music they are worth checking out.

The next day I had yet another concert, this time at the 9:30 Club. The Eels were performing with a full string section, and naturally, I had no choice but to go see them. The “opening act” was a russian stop-motion animation short about building friendships between different animals. If this sounds bizarre, go back to my last Eels show review, he always has something non-conventional for the “opening act”. Next up was the Eels with the most chill and slow set I have ever heard them do. Completely laid back, very quiet, and the strings gave it a whole new interpretation. True to form, they gave four encores (yes, four) and went from rocking songs to soft ones. Finally, on the last one E came out in pajamas. Quite the spectacle, and a good show.

The next day was independence day, so we hit up the fireworks and the Folk-life festival on the Mall. Dinner was had at John Harvards (delicious) and Mom scored tickets to her roof once again, so we watched from there and had a spectacular view.

That about wraps it up for now, but there are some changes coming very soon to this site, so stay tuned for more information in the very near future. Until then take care.

Out of town guests and gala events ...

Since we last caught up, I've been taking it easy after the extensive travel. As promised last time, I put up pictures from my trips to Miami and Santa Barbara (the Santa Barbara gallery has a lot of beautiful shots of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden ... check it out). I've also been pulling out the grill and getting my barbecue on whenever possible. I've gotten a chance to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in a while. A couple weeks back I met up with Eric, Dave, Darien, and a few others over at Fast Eddie's in Fairfax to play some pool and catch up.

This past weekend Randy came back into town for some fun and excitement -- we hit up some of our old haunts, walked around the city, went kayaking on the Potomac, and generally had a good time.

On Saturday, my firm had a huge celebration -- so naturally I went. The party was absolutely gigantic -- they had to rent out one of the biggest spaces in the city to hold it all. It was definitely a good time, and it is always fun to interact with co-workers in a non-work situation.

Other than that, not too much to report -- I've got a little business travel lined up for next month and some fun stuff up my sleeve. So until next time, take care.

14,800 Miles, 4 Countries, 3 Time Zones, 2 Oceans, 1 Month ...

The Ed Cabic World Tour has just winded down -- if you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been writing much, well, I haven’t been around much. I spent just shy of 2 weeks in the British Isles hosteling with Dan in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. I did a weekend jaunt in Miami’s South Beach, and I went to a conference in Santa Barbara, California. All in all, I was a busy boy, and I had a blast.

For my trip to the British Isles, I kept an extensive journal of (almost) everything I saw and did while I was abroad. So I’ll keep the information about that trip brief here. I also took several hundred photos while abroad utilizing my digital camera, and the media reader for my iPod. I took a lot of time sorting through the images to find the best of the best, and I put those up here for your viewing pleasure.

Click here to read my trip journal and see my pictures from the British Isles

The weekend after I returned, I joined some friends and went down to Miami’s South Beach. We flew in on JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale and got ourselves a Lincoln Town car for our trip down to Miami. The car was quite plush, and I had the pleasure of driving it down to the beach. We stayed at the Crescent Hotel -- right across the street from the beach and had a well appointed suite that was quite comfortable with plush king size beds. While down there we hit up the beach which was inhabited by many extremely fit (and sometimes topless) bodies. The water was refreshing and reasonably warm and on Saturday the sun was out and the weather was beautiful.

Sunday was a bit more cloudy and cooler, but we were still able to get some beach time in, as well as some time spent walking through some of the posh boutiques that dotted the streets of South Beach. We had a late dinner with drinks and enjoyed the warm night air as the revelers started out their evenings, tempting the 5AM closing time that was their only limitation. We flew back to DC at the crack of dawn, and I was able to get into work on Monday morning with a smile and a tan.

On Wednesday morning I made my way to BWI for the long flight out to Santa Barbara by way of Denver. The trip went fairly well, and I used the time to sort, caption, and edit the photos from my British Isles trip on the iBook. When I got into Santa Barbara, I was amazed at how small the airport was -- we walked onto the tarmac through a gate and we were outside of the airport where they had the luggage setup on metal trays. From there I got my rental car, which was upgraded for free (they didn’t have what was reserved for me) to a Mustang Convertible. I took the top down and drove into the city to my home base at the Hotel Santa Barbara. The hotel was quite nice, and they had free WiFi -- needless to say I was pleased as punch. After getting settled I walked up and down State Street (the main drag) and checked out some of the shops and restaurants. I ducked into Fatburger for lunch (another of those chains we don’t have out in the DC area) and had a gigantic burger with fries that was quite filling. Afterward I checked-in to my conference and then went back to the hotel to relax. That evening they had a reception on the roof of where the conference was being held with some hors d’oeuvres and beer and wine. I met some cool people there and generally had a good time.

Thursday was mostly consumed by the conference itself, which wasn’t too bad, because the weather was rainy all day. That evening, things cleared up, and we went out on a large catamaran for dinner and a cruise around Santa Barbara’s coastline. The city is absolutely beautiful from the coast and we had fun on the boat. Afterward I joined a few of the people from the conference and we hit up some of the bars near our hotel and then I turned in for the night.

The last day of the conference was only a half-day, conveniently my flight was not until 8:20 in the evening, so I had from 1:00 until 6:30 or so to put the top down on my rented Ford Mustang, turn the music up, and enjoy the sun. I made my way down to the beach and put my hand in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean (the second ocean in one week) and then made my way up to the Santa Barbara Botanic garden. I had seen in some tour books that it was supposed to be a sight to behold, but none of that did the place justice. It was positively beautiful. The garden is situated in a canyon and has 5 miles of trails that you can hike along. The plants and flowers were remarkable -- all native to California, but incredible in the scope, from sage brush to giant redwoods. After hiking most of the major trails and snapping a ton of pictures, I made my way back to the highway to do some more exploring. I drove through the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara ... absolutely beautiful. Afterward I made a stop in Goleta to enjoy the goodness that only In-N-Out Burger can bring you. I had an incredibly fresh Double-Double with fresh cut fries and a soda and then it was back on the 101 for a little more sightseeing. After swinging by the ocean one last time I went back to the airport, dropped off the car, and checked-into the airport. I am so used to gigantic airports that I automatically give a 2-3 hour buffer for every flight I take ... but it turns out this was not necessary and I went upstairs to a bar and restaurant to kill some time over a frosty beverage. From there I flew into LAX on a turbo-prop and took the red eye back home (after a bit of a mechanical delay). I slept 4 hours on the flight, and then another 12 when I got home. And that gets you pretty current.

I may put up some of the pictures from Miami and Santa Barbara in the near future, but for now, enjoy the pictures along with my narrative from my trip to the British Islands. Until next time, take care.

More time with new toys and meeting up with old friends ...

It has been a while since we last caught up -- I’ve been doing well, working hard, and having a good time whenever possible. The iBook I mentioned in the last entry has been working like a champion. I take it with me all over the place and it is so light that I barely notice the thing in my backpack. It has also allowed be to do some pretty creative things with my pictures and movies, which has been a lot of fun. If you’re thinking about getting into the world of mac, I’d say go for it. In dozens of hours of operation, I have not had a single crash -- even while editing video, converting and ripping audio, and working in photoshop. Things just work, and work well ... and the battery never dies. Kinda nice.

There is also a beauty to the applications on the platform -- I recently purchased a program called Delicious Library which I have been using to catalog my extensive CD and book collections. It uses my iSight camera to scan in bar-codes and uses the Amazon API to get full information about the disc/book and even grabs the artwork so I can browse my collection by covers. It provides an easy way to create the inventory, but it also is a lot of fun.

Another discovery worth mentioning is a neat little program called Skype. It basically allows you to make free calls over the internet (that sound better than landline calls) and really cheap landline-terminated calls internationally and domestically for 2 Euro cents a minute (they’re based in Europe). I’ve been talking with my friend Dan (who is currently in France) recently over Skype via their landline-termination service, SkypeOut and after some issues getting the money into my Skype account, I have to say I’m pleased with the service. The connection quality is good, and the cost is along the lines of what you’d pay for a cheap phone card. And it is cross-platform, working on Windows XP, Mac OS X, Linux, and PocketPC.

Last weekend my good buddy Matt (of WVBR fame) was in town visiting his girlfriend Anna and we all got together and caught up. On Friday night we went to Harry’s downtown for a couple drinks and then on Sunday we met up for brunch at Filomena in Georgetown. Afterward I gave them a mini tour of the sights and we hit up the postal museum before I took them back to Anna’s place. It was good to see them again :-)

Other than playing with my new mac and catching up with friends, I’ve just been slogging through the wintry mess that has befallen our fair district. Spring needs to hurry up and get here already ... I’m looking forward to doing things outside again. I hope all has been well in your corner of the world and I’ll see you next time.

New places, new toys ...

The last time I checked in we were talking about the “Year in Review” -- since then a lot has happened this year. I decided recently that it was time to get my own laptop. I had been using one from work last year and appreciated the convenience that it brought into my life. One thing that was important to me was mobility -- I didn’t want to feel like I was lugging around a suitcase when I took it with me. I also was looking for a good value in terms of features and power.

Readers of this site are no doubt aware that I do a lot of digital photography and have a lot of music in my collection. Something else I see myself getting into is digital video -- and I would like to have a laptop that can accommodate that. As I started putting together machines from various PC manufacturers the cost would inevitably skyrocket -- want a big hard drive, pay through the nose -- want lots of memory, open up the wallet. Most machines I was looking at were around $2,000 -- and that’s before you put software on them. Frustrated, I looked at the other side of the computing spectrum, Macintosh. The scuttlebutt on these things is that they are overpriced and underpowered and that you can get a similar PC for far less. The more I looked into it, however, the less I saw this nasty rumor to be the truth. I took a trip to the Apple store in Tyson’s Corner to look at the offerings, and I found that they had a 12 inch iBook for $999. It came with the iLife suite (which has the photo management tool iPhoto, the music management tool iTunes, the video editing package iMovie, the DVD creation software iDVD, and the audio editing and music creation tool Garageband) which already made it a pretty good choice -- and it is around 4 pounds. The problem is the thing had no storage space on it ... 30 GB of disk and 256 MB of RAM. Paltry for the OS X platform -- so I had to make some upgrades. Unfortunately, they don’t swap in new hard drives at the store (they do memory, WiFi, and bluetooth though) so I had to order my machine from Apple’s site. I ended up putting an 80 GB disk with 768 MB of RAM and after waiting for the machine to ship from Shanghai, China, I finally got my hands on the thing.

First impressions? The thing runs like a champ and looks incredible. I played with some of the more resource-intensive applications like iMovie and they were up to the task without skipping a beat. The applications were quick and responsive ... and not to mention a hell of a lot of fun. Setting it up on my wireless network was a snap and network speeds were blazing, as you’d expect. Battery life is startlingly good ... I haven’t let it run down yet, but doing 2 hours of video editing (very processor intensive) didn’t even get me to the half way mark. Apple’s AIM client, iChat AV is very cool -- and it allows you to use a digital video camera to do video chats easily. I decided I should give it a shot, so I went out and got an iSight camera that clips onto my laptop’s screen and takes crisp video and high quality sound. Locally it looks beautiful, and my buddy Steve in Boston said that it looked quite good up there too :-) It even plays nice with windows computers -- I was able to print to my work printer through the network -- even duplex printing worked flawlessly.

I have subsequently added the iWork suite which adds Pages (a cool word processor) and Keynote (a slick presentation package). I’m actually word processing this entry in Pages while taking the Metro into work -- it is a very slick package that stands out because it has desktop publishing features built-in around slick templates that you can use. Text automatically wraps around images with alpha-channel transparency and looks very slick doing so. It is also compatible with Microsoft Word. Finally I added Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 -- and I have to say that went beyond my expectations. I’m used to working with the full version of Photoshop -- and I was afraid of what was going to be left out. I’m pleased to say that very little was -- there is support for layers, transparency, and a host of tools to automatically fix everything from red-eye to pimples (the “healing brush”). Very cool package.

What else have I been doing besides playing with my new toys? Pretty much just taking it easy at home and working hard at the office. This weekend I’ll be helping Graecyn move to her new apartment -- so I’ll be getting quite the workout there. Other than that I’ll be playing with the new toys and trying to have fun. Until next time, take care.

The year in pictures and the year in review ...

As I keep saying here, I have been very busy of late. As a result, I've been a little bit behind schedule in giving the year-end wrap-up that you've come to expect on the News -- I'm going to remedy that now. Today, I've been given a rare slice of unexpected time -- due to the inauguration downtown the office has been closed. A huge chunk of downtown from 20th NW to the Capitol and from Independence Avenue to the Convention Center is closed off to traffic, and word is that they won't even let you in the area without a ticket to the events or proof that you have legitimate work to do at an office in the area.

As a result, I'm sitting on the sofa typing this entry and reminiscing about the year gone by that was 2004. I rang in the New Year for 2004 in the Caribbean sea in-between Isla Roatan, Honduras and Georgetown, Grand Cayman and I rang it out at Buffalo Billiards in Washington, DC. Last year I went through the pictures I took in 2003 and put together a "Year in Pictures" -- this year is no different. Check out The Year in Pictures 2004 for a visual look back -- 73 of my favorite pictures from about 1,800 taken in 2004.

For those of you who prefer an outline of the year gone by, here's the recap. Just as I did last year, here is the year in events:

• 1/1 New Year's in the Caribbean Sea
• 1/1 Visit Georgetown, Grand Cayman
• 1/2 Visit Cozumel, Mexico
• 1/4 Return to Miami and fly home
• 1/19 Go to Tulsa, Ok. on Business
• 1/24 Spend a weekend in Vegas
• 1/25 Enjoy my first burger from In-N-Out in Vegas
• 1/26 In Tulsa for another week
• 2/1 Superbowl at Eric's place
• 3/2 Voted in MD Primaries
• 3/4 Frisky passes away
• 4/10 The site is redesigned
• 4/14 Meet Thom Monahan of the Pernice Brothers
• 4/24 Participate in the March for Women's Lives on the National Mall
• 6/8 See Diamondbacks vs. Orioles at Camden Yards (Randy Johnson pitches)
• 6/21 See O's vs Yankees at Camden Yards
• 6/27 Visit Ocracoke Island for a week
• 7/4 Fireworks on the National Mall with Jeff
• 9/25 Graecyn and I hit Va Beach
• 10/16 Cornell Homecoming
• 10/18 Three Month Anniversary Dinner at David Greggory with Graecyn
• 11/2 Voted in the Presidential Election
• 11/20 Head to Cozumel for 4 nights/5 days and do 6 dives
• 12/25 Christmas with Mom
• 12/31 New Year's Celebration at Buffalo Billiards

Now the Year in concerts -- a slight down-tick in number of bands, but an uptick in the number of shows: 54 bands in 28 concerts (last year was 60 bands and 25 concerts) which makes sense because I didn't go to any festivals in 2004. Here is the list:

1. 1/6 Ok Go, Army of Me, Spiraling at Black Cat
2. 2/19 Wheat, Hey Mercedes at the Black Cat
3. 2/22 Fountains of Wayne, Lenona Naess, Robbers on High Street at 9:30
4. 3/14 G. Love and Special Sauce, Loque at 9:30
5. 3/16 Three Days Grace, Apartment 26 at 9:30
6. 3/17 The Push Stars at 9:30
7. 4/1 The Crystal Method, DJ Hyper at 9:30
8. 4/3 Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Kweller at 9:30
9. 4/4 Liz Phair, Wheat, Rachael Yamagata at 9:30
10. 4/6 The Darkness at 9:30
11. 4/12 The Fall at Black Cat
12. 4/13 Something Corporate, Yellowcard, The Format at Nation
13. 4/14 The Pernice Brothers at Black Cat
14. 4/19 The Sounds, Division of Laura Lee at 9:30
15. 4/20 Stereolab at 9:30
16. 4/22 Pat McGee Band, Craig Honeycutt at 9:30
17. 4/27 Andrew W.K. at 9:30
18. 6/3 Tim O'Brien at Ram's Head
19. 6/15 Jem at Iota
20. 6/24 Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom at Iota
21. 6/25 Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom at Mission Space
22. 7/10 Eve 6, Old 97s Live on Penn
23. 7/12 Midtown, Lostprophets at 9:30
24. 7/24 They Might Be Giants, Fountains of Wayne, Getaway Car Live on Penn
25. 8/13 Bebel Gilberto at 9:30
26. 9/2 OK Go, We Are Scientists, Two if by Sea at MCCXXIII
27. 9/3 Liz Phair, The Cardigans, Charlotte Martin, Katy Rose at 9:30
28. 10/8 Vertical Horizon, Stroke 9 at 9:30

That about does it. I hope that you have a wonderful year in 2005 and look forward to hearing from you in the months ahead. Take care.

Holidays, presents, partying, influenza and a New Year ...

Hard to believe I'm fast approaching a quarter century of existence -- time flies in a dizzying blur sometimes and life has been moving very fast of late. The year 2004 will go down as one of my best -- a year where I grew professionally and personally and saw success in both arenas beyond what I could have imagined a year ago. I count myself as incredibly fortunate. With any luck 2005 should see me pushing forward even more, traveling the world, learning and continuing to grow in my professional endeavours, and reaching some pretty lofty personal goals ... one day at a time.

Since we last caught up we had the holiday season in all its craziness. Graecyn and I joined my Mother and Grandmother for the holiday exchanging gifts and celebrating the season. This year I gave Dad a brand new laptop computer, Mom got a digital camera and a flash card to go along with it, Graecyn got an electronic keyboard with lighted keys that teaches you how to play songs, and my grandmother got a rolling gardening seat and a kneeling pad for gardening (one of her favorite pastimes). Everyone seemed to love their gifts -- I got a bunch of great stuff myself -- from silk pajamas to classical music assortments to books. That evening my mother and grandmother made us a wonderful dinner and then we played a board game into the night.

Unfortunately, Graecyn and I got a killer flu that sidelined us for a while -- I'm better now, and she's still fighting her way through it after getting better for a while and then relapsing. I certainly miss the flu shots from previous years!

For New Year's Graecyn was visited by her friend Eddie from where she grew up and we showed him around the DC area in all of its tourist-friendly glory. We got a hotel room downtown for New Year's Eve and celebrated the coming of the new year down at Buffalo Billiards over champagne and far too many drinks. The following morning I drove us around town showing Eddie some of the sights around town.

Since then I have been busy at work, taking time to catch up with friends and make new ones at some happy hours after work. On Monday I joined Terry for a few drinks at RFD and Friday Terry and I went to Post Pub and then joined some co-workers at Lucky Bar eventually migrating to the Big Hunt. That just about gets you up to date. Tonight I'm going to catch up with a friend I haven't seen in a while downtown and catch a movie too. Other than that, not much planned -- but something good always happens :-)

Happy New Year and all the best, until next time take care.

Passports, coral reefs, photos, turkeys, parties, and presents (Part 2) ...

(This is continued from the previous post, so you'll want to start there).The next day I hit up the Santa Rosa wall and Tormentos. At the wall we were whisked away by the strong current down a huge wall of coral. We were around 100 feet down at our lowest point and from there if you look down there was nothing but the deep blue of the sea. We went through some of the coral formations and saw much in the way of sea life. Next up was Tormentos. This was a more shallow dive (around 65 feet) but the marine life and coral formations had the brightest colors I have seen yet on the trip. We saw many very large fish ... including ... a 6 foot shark! He was a Nurse shark, so no worries there, but he moved with a grace and beauty that was amazing. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. That night I had dinner at a place called La Choza, which supposedly has the most authentic Mexican food on the island. I had a Chile Relleno stuffed with cheese, and it was quite good. I also had a chicken soup that was delicious. I did some walking around town and picked up some churros from a street vendor in the Plaza del Sol and then made my way back to the hotel where I crashed.

On Tuesday I did my last two dives -- we went to Palancar Gardens and Cedral Pass. At Palancar Gardens I bottomed out at around 90 feet and there were a lot of coral formations to be seen. We swam though some of them and saw fish of every color and description. We also saw some lobster hanging out in the reefs and a sting ray of some variety. For some reason our dive boat lost track of us, so we had to hang out for about 10 minutes at the surface. Next up was Cedral Pass (or Paso del Cedral) where the formations were a bit more shallow and the current was quite swift. We saw a rather large crab and a lot of fish on the fast moving trip. On the way back our boat's engine died, but with in a few minutes another boat gave us a leisurely tow back to the docks. When I got back I had lunch at La Choza (where I had dinner the night before) and did some walking around the city. That night I had dinner once again by the Caribbean at the hotel watching the sunset over the water.

On Wednesday I packed up everything and went for a swim in the Caribbean -- afterward I had lunch at the cafe there and then headed out for Cozumel's airport via taxi. On the flight back I just relaxed and listened to my iPod while editing and captioning the photos from the trip (speaking of which, you can see them here). This caught the attention of two girls sitting next to me, and we made fast friends swapping dive stories and experiences -- and they liked the photos too. We touched-down in Charlotte and the trip through customs was fairly painless -- I had to go through airport security again once I got out of customs and re-check my baggage. From there it was back to BWI where Dad graciously picked me up. I then drove down to pick up Graecyn for yet another day of travel, Thanksgiving.

We headed up to Upstate New York to see family for Thanksgiving. The weather was miserable on the drive, but that made our arrival all the more positive. It was great seeing all the relatives, and the turkey was delicious. I got to see my cousins' children who are growing up so incredibly fast -- and I even hooked up the iPod Photo to their projection screen tv and shared some Cozumel photos. On Friday, we took Graecyn to Cornell to see where I went to school and gave her the grand tour -- we also dined at Ling Ling Garden, where I had some of the General Tso's Chicken I had been dreaming about, still delicious. On Saturday we went out to lunch with my Aunt at Applebee's and then headed home.

Since then life has been a bit more normal -- I had my office's holiday party which I took Graecyn to, very posh, lots of free food and alcohol. More recently, on Thursday I went with Mom to her office's party (I was her date) at the Mandarin Oriental (Washington's new 5 Star Hotel) and had a good time.

Other than that, things are the same as usual ... I've completed my holiday shopping, I did it all on-line this year. Dad got his gift early, I bought him a laptop, the others will have to wait. And no, I'm not telling what I got ahead of time.

I hope that you and yours have a splendid holiday and until next time pass the egg nog :-)

Passports, coral reefs, photos, turkeys, parties, and presents (Part 1) ...

It has been more than a month since my last update. I've been quite busy with things traversing through 2 countries, 4 states, and the District of Columbia. Some of you have even written to ask me to update via my feedback form -- so I'm updating with apologies for the delay.

Shortly after my last post I made some last minute plans to take a brief vacation jaunt before Thanksgiving. Graecyn didn't have any leave left (and I had ... and still have ... tons of leave left to take) so I had to fly this one solo. Using Expedia I found a deal I just could not pass up -- 4 nights and 5 days in Cozumel, Mexico (flight and hotel) for $830. I signed up ... and all I needed was a passport (not required, but highly recommended). The turn around was brisk (I needed it in 3 days) so I went to the passport office downtown and got it done ... I payed around $145 for the expedited service and I got it the next day after lunch.

On Saturday the 20th I headed out to BWI at the crack of dawn to make sure I got there in time. It only took me about 30 minutes or so to make my way through the check-in counter and security. The first plane I took was a smaller jet that was headed to Philadelphia International Airport. The flight went well until we got to Philly, where we were held up on the runway for about 20 minutes after landing. I had a connection with less than an hour to spare, and once I finally disembarked I found out that it was on the other side of the airport (which had to be at least a mile away, maybe more). Luckily I was able to hitch a ride on one of the golf carts and I made it to the plane just as I was supposed to board. The plane to Cozumel was an Airbus A320 and the ride went well. I sat next to a couple which was very affectionate (let's just say I didn't know you could sit in someone's lap in Coach class ... but you learn something new every day), but they were nice and we talked about diving. Once we landed we walked off the plane onto the runway into a very small airport. I went through the customs station with my paperwork and got through easily. After that I got my baggage and went to the station where they check your declarations. The man asked me to click a button on a miniature stop light -- it turned green and said to pass. I guess if it had turned red I would have been inspected. After that I met the representative from Expedia who got me on a van to my hotel. I sat next to a nice guy who was also going to the same hotel and we exchanged stories. The ride lasted about 5-10 minutes and then we were at the hotel. Check-in was fairly painless and I had an extremely friendly bellhop who took me up to my room. I had a few questions about protocol and what to do while down in Cozumel, and he was quite helpful. Once I got to my room I immediately noticed the amazing view of the Caribbean Sea. I was on the 8th floor and the view was breathtaking. Even with the balcony window closed I could hear the waves gently crashing on the coral below. I definitely made the right decision to come back to Cozumel. I took a quick shower and then headed down to talk to the Expedia representative about scheduling my trip back to the airport on Wednesday. His name was Carlos and what was intended to be a 5 minute talk ended up lasting around an hour. We talked about the island, where to go, and a lot of logistics -- but then we talked about each other's cultures and what it is like to live in Cozumel. Most of the locals live on around $20 a day -- monthly rents on the island are around $250 for a single family residence. While the tourist sites are aimed at the American crowd, the essentials of life are much less expensive at the grocery store. When I told him how much rents are for one bedroom apartments in DC he seemed amazed at it. Live in paradise and pay less? Sign me up! He recommended a dive shop to go to for my diving that week, Black Shark, and I signed up with what ended up being a great deal -- 3 days of diving, $150. I'm definitely excited. Afterward I stopped into the gift shop and picked up a bathing suit and went for a dip in the Caribbean -- it was absolutely wonderful -- so warm, and you could see straight to the bottom. Afterward I had a great mexican dinner, right at the hotel. I sat on the lounge chair by the sea and watched the sun set over the water -- my waiter brought out the meal right to the beach, and much to my surprise, when I asked for 1 beer I got 2. After the second round and a meal I was expecting a big bill ... but it was only about 10 bucks American! In DC, the Negra Modelos alone would have cost me 20 bucks ... I decided it was time to hit up the city and explore, so since everyone was telling me how safe Cozumel was, I decided I'd walk the 1.5 miles or so. When I got into town I came upon the first pier and encountered a very large plaza surrounded by shopping. I went into a drug store and got a diet coke or "coke light" as they call it down here and got a bag of churros from a street vendor. After some more wandering I found an internet cafe where I was able to write back to family and my girlfriend -- and also IM some of my friends in the states. What shocked me was that this access only cost $1 US for an hour of access, absolutely incredible. After I had written and told everyone I was ok, I walked on to Punta Langosta where I had come on my cruise almost a year earlier. Carlos and Charlie's was still there and after peeking my head in I decided to head back to the hotel (being "hung over" or dehydrated is a bad idea if you're diving, which I was). I took a cab which was driven by a young kid with blaring techno dance music -- he took me from downtown to my hotel for $4 US and I went back to my room. From my perch 8 stories above the water I could see the lights from Cancun and hear the waves gently coming in. I decided to keep the balcony open (with the screen door closed) and slept like a baby.

The following morning I was picked up by a guy from Black Shark Scuba on a moped and took a high speed ride downtown. After signing my life away we were taken off to the marina and got on a very fast boat which was to take us out to the dive sites. The first was Columbia reef where we went the deepest I would go in all six of my dives -- 110 feet. It was absolutely amazing down there and as bright as day. We swam through some cave formations and through the reefs, it was incredible. After a break at a nearby beach we headed to La Francessa -- this dive was a bit more shallow (about 65 feet), but still beautiful. On both dives we saw sea turtles and of course, flora and fauna of every color of the rainbow. After the dives I had lunch at el Shrimp Bucket at Punta Langosta, where I had some water along with some coconut shrimp in a mango chutney sauce, quite tasty. That afternoon I went back to the hotel and had a full body massage for an hour and followed that up by having dinner at the hotel again while watching the sun set (nachos con queso followed by chicken enchilladas in green sauce, more than I could finish, washed down with Sol beer). Once again, I slept with the sound of the tide washing in ... (Continued in the next post).

New toys, new events, new me ...

How's that for an interesting tag line, eh? Well it has been a while since I wrote here, I've been a busy boy. Shortly after my last missive I joined some friends and made some new ones at the Cornell Club of Washington's Zinck's Night (for the non-Cornellians among you, basically a night where Cornellians get together to meet, greet, and drink, nationwide). I saw a lot of old friends -- some from WVBR, some from other organizations, and also some alums that I had seen at previous events. Definitely a good time. One of the people I met up with was Josh Novikoff from WVBR -- he's now working downtown and invited me to a soiree at his place shortly thereafter. I went, had a good time, and even made some new friends.

Other than that I've been taking it easy and going out a lot less (and using that time to spend some quality time with the girlfriend of course). I have gotten a new toy (as the tag line would have you think). As anyone who knows me well can tell you, I love gadgets and I love music. Anyone who sees my CD case is usually in awe of the shear amount of music I possess, and I'm usually among the first asked "what's that song that goes like [singing ensues]." I love music, almost too much. Anyhow, a music gadget would be the ideal thing for me, right? Well I had been waiting on that one for a while. As a stopgap measure I had been using a rather large flash card in my PDA to listen to music while I worked out -- but the dream of having my massive collection of CDs at my constant beck and call was still unrealized. My other passion is photography. I take way too many photos, and usually have my digital camera on me at all times, I have gigs and gigs and gigs of photos. It is kinda ridiculous, but hey, I like it. Too bad those pictures are tethered to my spacious hard drive at home ... Cue to a couple weeks ago ... Apple announces the iPod Photo -- 60 GB of storage, able to easily handle my hundreds of CDs, and every picture I'd care to carry along with me (for now at least). So I had to buy it, simply had to -- you understand I'm sure. And after an anxious week of waiting, it arrived on my doorstep. In the meantime I enlisted the help of Graecyn and my Dad to help me rip all of my CDs (something I had put off for quite some time). We had 4 computers ripping in unison and got most of it done (still have a few more in the back catalog). So, once my iPod Photo arrived, I was able to fill it with music and pictures.

In short, the iPod Photo is great. It has an incredible 60 GB of space, enough for 15,000 songs (more than I have in my collection ... for now). It has a vibrant color screen that displays song information and album art with ease, and the pictures part works well too. It also easily connects to a television to show slide shows, along with any playlist you want to have behind it. Very nifty gadget -- and it even plays Solitaire. Also, when you connect your iPod to the computer it can act as a hard drive -- and with USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 (it supports both) it is almost as fast as the hard disks in your computer. Battery life is good, Apple says 15 hours, I keep recharging it when I connect to my computer so I can't verify that, but if you use playlists exclusively (it caches stuff if you use it correctly to reduce hard disk accesses which drain the battery the most) that sounds about right. If you use the hard disk a lot (like when you're showing slide shows) think more in the 5 hour range (their number, and it sounds about right too). It comes in a convenient carrying case, I got the remote to go along with it (costs extra), and it is fabulous. It even has enough audio driving horsepower to make my studio headphones blast uncomfortably -- which is saying something, most players can't drive large phones that well. I'm very pleased. The only complaints are the lack of bi-directional synchronization (at least not without a third-party app or wading through their hidden directory structure). I use multiple computers, and I actually own the music I have on the thing, it would be nice if they let me sync that way. But with manual sync, it isn't that big of a deal. It would be nice if they supported gapless playback (they don't -- there is a small gap in between songs, even the "concept" albums that should have no breaks in-between songs). It would also be nice to be able to archive playlists on your home computer, which it isn't apparent that you can do easily. I suppose this is to ensure you aren't listing songs no longer on the iPod, but if you switch from manual to automatic sync, they're gone, so it would be nice to not have to recreate them. Those are minor gripes though, I'm a happy camper with this thing. Graecyn has jokingly dubbed it "the new love of [my] life".

So now that you've heard of the "new toy" and some "new events" -- what's this "new me" thing? Well Graecyn and I have gotten ourselves on the South Beach Diet. We're about a week in, and we've both lost just shy of 10 pounds. We are on the "strict" first phase of the diet, but aside from eschewing some of our favorites (beer, bread, other alcohol, and did I mention beer) we've been liking the program. We have stuck to it and will try to continue to do so -- with any luck we'll be in much better shape as a result. The diet doesn't leave me hungry, I just eat better, and less. You'd be surprised, if you eat the right stuff, you can be satiated with much less than you're used to. A good friend of mine is going for her RD, and she suggested this one to me. I'm glad she did.

Aside from that, not too much else to report. Just been reading, listening to music, and generally enjoying it all. Until next time take care.

Music and "coming home" ...

On Friday the 8th Graecyn and I hit up the 9:30 Club for a little concert action. As it turned out, she had never been to the club so she was in for a treat. We went to the early show which had Stroke 9 and Vertical Horizon playing for our listening enjoyment. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to MC at Slope Fest back at Cornell where Stroke 9 was playing and I got to introduce them. Once again they had a great set. They were promoting their forthcoming release and played all the old songs that made me a huge fan. Following up S9 was Vertical Horizon, who I had seen before too. Many summers ago I saw them at the 9:30 when "We Are" off Everything You Want was becoming a huge hit. Nolly, who used to be PD of WVBR and was working for WHFS at the time, was there and got me to meet the band afterwards. Definitely some cool guys. Anyhow, after that show I had become a big fan of theirs exploring their more acoustic back catalog and really appreciating what they had done. This night they played a lot of the hits, and also a lot of the stuff from their past. This was their home audience (they formed while they were in Georgetown) and the show was great.

The following weekend I made my way far above Cayuga's waters for Cornell's Homecoming. This was my first time back since I MCed the Dump and Run event over a year ago, and I took another Cornellian along for the ride that had sent an e-mail out looking for a way to get up there. Heather and I became fast friends and talked non-stop for both the ride up and the ride down. Once I was back in Ithaca, I met up with Matt Todaro and we hit up Ling Ling Garden for some of the delicious goodness that I had been missing all these months. After that we met up with Brian Lowe for a bit of frosty refreshment and lots of conversation. I ended up leaving his place around 4 in the morning and made it out to my Aunt's place in Horseheads shortly thereafter.

On Saturday I made my way back to the station were I met up with Matt and the gang and we headed over to campus to digitize some footage of the old 227 Linden building. We then made our way to the station (after picking up some stuff from the campus store) and went to the wine and cheese reception for alumni. I saw a lot of familiar faces and people I hadn't seen in years. I also met the new Dean of Students and we discussed digital music policy and the university's decision to use Napster for subscription audio-on-demand services. Since I had worked for a year as the general manager of the station, I knew a lot about the laws that are out there regarding this kind of stuff and we had a great talk. It is good to see that Cornell has an administrator who "gets it" -- he even took my number down so we could talk about some of my ideas further. After that we made our way down to Bistro Q for a homecoming dinner which was pretty good (and alcohol notwithstanding, free). After dining, Larry Epstien and I made our way to Rulloff's for a couple cold ones, and we were joined shortly thereafter by Chris Bianchi. After an hour or so we made our way back to where we were staying and got some sleep.

On Sunday I made my way back and enjoyed the brunch with some of the alumni that had been planned, followed by a board meeting. After that I took Matt to the airport, picked up Heather, and made my way back home (with apples and cider from the Cornell Orchards in tow). I have pictures of the event here.

Monday marked Graecyn and my three month anniversary, so we celebrated in style with a bling dinner at David Greggory. We started things off with a delicious assortment of deviled eggs, I had a paprika potato soup and she had a Caesar salad. We washed it down with a cocktail they called the DGini that was quite good. That was followed up by a porterhouse steak in fried onions for me and a strip steak with garlic mashed potatoes for her. I had a delicious Pinot Noir with my porterhouse. That was followed up by a dessert called a Smores in Greek's Clothing which had a sumptuous brownie layered with three sheets of phyllo dough and drenched in a creme anglaise. I also had a delicious 10 year tawny port to round off the evening and she had a mexican hot chocolate -- after which we made our way home, contented and happy.

That about gets you up to date, more as it happens right here. Until then take care.

Sun, fun, and declining temperatures ...

Since I've been spending a lot of time with Graecyn of late, there has been much in the way of movie watching. As I've mentioned before, I am a Netflix subscriber -- which greatly simplifies the process of selecting and renting movies. Graecyn doesn't have a TV (which is a good thing -- it is so nice to be able to talk and read together instead of watching mindless dreck on cable), so I've taken to bringing over my laptop as an impromptu dvd player, and that has worked pretty well. The only thing that was missing was the ability to not need to wait for the discs to get through the mail ... what if you could download the movies while still paying a fixed fee? Enter Starz Ticket. Basically you have all you can watch access to 150 movies on Starz each month (titles rotate on and off every week) and you download the movies over your broadband connection (only 600kbps and up need apply -- they won't let you sign up unless you've got a solid connection). So far I'm liking it. It would be great to have unlimited selection, but even with the 150 a month selection, I've been pleased ... and you don't even need to be connected to watch the movies -- I've even watched movies on my evening commute. Kinda neat.

What else have I been up to? Well, Graecyn and I hit up Virginia Beach on the 25th of September. The weather was phenomenal and we had a great time. It was quite crowded -- the Neptune festival was going on and they had some really cool sand sculptures on the beach. The water was a bit brisk initially, but was perfect once you got in for a while. Afterward we took our sandy selves to a cool pizza place near the beach where we had a barbecue chicken pizza and then made our way back home.

The following week brought a few nights eating out ... including a trip to Hops for some delicious microbrew and steak :-) Last weekend we took things easy and did a little shopping. On Sunday we also helped my Mom move some stuff around the house and had dinner with her before calling it a night.

This week has been pretty laid back, and this weekend promises to be much the same. Graecyn may be getting a TV, there will be more presidential debates, and more life will be lived. As always, I'll keep you posted.

Shows, trips, pictures, and other stuff ...

I've been busy again, so I apologize for the slowness of the update. On the 2nd I went to see a concert put on by Concerts for Change with OK Go, We Are Scientists, and Two if by Sea with my girlfriend. Locals Two if by Sea put on a pretty good show, and We are Scientists were really good. OK Go rocked the house as you'd expect. While not as good as the show I saw back in February, it was still a good one -- and of course, they ended the set with their legendary boy-band performance. Completely hilarious.

The following night I saw Liz Phair, The Cardigans, Katy Rose, and Charlotte Martin. Charlotte started out first, and was sad to see the end of the tour -- but also a bit hostile to the audience -- a big change from the last time I saw her opening for the Psychedelic Furs in August of 2003 (where she was quite shy and timid in an endearing way -- and where I also got to meet her). After Charlotte came Katy ... a very young artist. The music press seems to be in between calling her the heir apparent to Liz Phair and making comments about the triteness of the lyrics in her songs ... She put on a pretty decent show, but seemed very young and lacking of maturity (which admittedly makes sense). The crowd was into her set though, and I was entertained. The Cardigans came on next and were a band that showed their years of experience. They played almost all of their hits, with the notable exception of Lovefool. Evidently they almost never play Lovefool ... and since this was the last show of the tour, Liz Phair started out her set by commenting on that ... and covering it. Liz was incredible as always -- comfortable on stage, and much more sexually provocative than the last time I saw her in April. I was right out in the front and she was practically making love to the audience ... let's just say she had on blue underwear that night. The show was a lot of fun and at the end of the show she even autographed my ticket.

Labor Day weekend brought much in the way of relaxation and barbecue. A particular hit was my barbecue chicken -- steaks and bratwurst also were favorites :-)

Last Friday, Graecyn and I went to Tony and Joe's down at Washington Harbour and had a delicious meal outside under the night sky. I had Mahi Mahi which was quite good and finished off with some port for dessert. On Saturday, Graecyn and I drove down to the Shenandoah mountains on Skyline Drive and took in the beautiful scenery both in the car, and on foot doing a little hiking. It was gorgeous out and we had a blast ... you can check out some pictures here.

As for this week, I've been hanging out with Dan quite a bit ... he's leaving the country for several months to teach English in France next week. There's that excuse to visit Europe I've been looking for :-) I wish him all the best over there. This weekend I'll be joining dad for a corporate picnic down in Annapolis at a crab house (yum) and saying goodbye to Dan before he heads out. Other than that, not too much planned. I'll keep you posted.

So I've been a busy boy ...

It has been a significant amount of time since the last time I wrote here ... and I've been busy. Concerts, going out, and losing my single status ... it has been a good few weeks. On Friday the 9th I went out with some co-workers to send off a consultant who had been working at the office. Along the way I got to meet some cool new people, and we hit up Front Page for drinks, Sequoia for dinner and more drinks, and then to Mr. Smith's for a little more revelry. It was a very good time. The next day (Saturday) I made my way to Live on Penn where I saw Eve 6 and Old 97's on Pennsylvania Avenue downtown. While there I happened to run into Lisa and John, two VBR Alumni who I hadn't seen in quite some time. The show was great, I particularly enjoyed Eve 6's set. Afterward I was met by Chris and Jeff aned we went to the Brickskeller for a couple drinks before heading home.

The following Monday I met up with Randy and Becky and went to Adams Morgan where I read some of my poetry at an open mic night. I had been inspired by Randy reading in the past, and people were really into my stuff. I read both with and without backing music, and everyone seemed to love my voice (working in radio has its advantages I suppose). All in all I had a lot of fun. On Thursday (the 15th) I went to the 9:30 Club and saw Midtown and Lostprophets. Midtown was alright ... they didn't play the song I wanted to hear though. Lostprophets had their moments, but were just a little too loud for me that evening, so I did something that I almost never do ... leave early.

Also, since you and I last met up here, I had some fairly serious illness in the family (which is one of the main reasons I had not been updating). Thankfully, due to excellent treatment, a speedy recovery is underway and all should be back to normal in the near future :-) Thank you to everyone who was so supportive to me while that was happening.

On Friday, August 13th I saw Bebel Gilberto in concert, and even though she was an hour late, she put on an incredible show at the 9:30. For those of you unfamiliar with Bebel, she is a Bossa Nova singer, daughter of the legendary Joao Gilberto, and she has a sultry, seductive, and captivating voice that is usually set over post-modern production and downtempo beats. I went with a friend of mine, and it was definitely a good time. She had never heard of Bebel, but went on my recommendation ... and was not disappointed :-)

On the 17th of August Allison was back in town for a little bit on break from her graduate studies, so we decided to catch-up over dinner at Vidalia (a nice restaurant with elegant southern cuisine). Afterward we went to Rumors for a couple of drinks and then parted ways. It was great to see her again.

Finally, as noted above, I'm not single at the moment, which is a good thing :- ) I've been dating a wonderful girl for almost a month and a half now and we've been having a great time. We've gone out to more restaurants than I can possibly recount here, and we have done some barbecuing together as well. She also makes some of the best Jambalaya I have ever tasted :-) All in all life is pretty good of late. I've got some concerts on the horizon, as well as some other random excitement. I'll try to keep you posted a bit more regularly -- and if you'd like to catch-up in person give me a shout. Until next time, take care.

Bombs bursting in air, grilling, and watch hunting (Part 3 or 3) ...

This continues from the first two parts of this update (see the previous two entries first if you haven't already) ... After I got back from vacation I helped Mom bring her bags in and after a while made my way down into the District. I met up with my buddy Jeff and we went to the grounds of the Washington Monument to see the annual fireworks display. There had been inclement weather throughout the day, so there weren't as many people as you would have expected ... but their loss was our gain. The show was good, but I think shows from previous years may have been a little better. After the fireworks Jeff and I went to John Harvard's for some dinner and a few of their delicious microbrews. We caught up for a while and then both headed back on Metro to head home. I ended up crashing at Mom's place and the following day we did a little watch shoppping. You'll remember from part 2 of this series that my watch got destoyed while I was on vacation. So I was on the hunt for a new one. As it turns out, the watch I had before, a Timex Data Link, is no longer made in the version that I had. Now it is only available in a version with a clunky USB connector and a resin face (which is more easily scratched than a hip hop record). I decided it was time to look into a watch with a bit more refinement. We went over to look at some of the Seiko Kinetic timepieces available, and also at some of the other options out there. After doing a little browsing, I went back to Mom's empty-handed and we made some bratwurst for a delicious late lunch. After that I headed home and started to catch up with the mountain of correspondence that had piled up in my absence.

Tuesday was a very busy day at work and I had many meetings and lots of things to attend to that had come up while I was away. I met with Mom for lunch and that night I did some grilling at home and enjoyed a fairly low-key evening. Yesterday, I took a trek down to take a look at some more watches, specifically the Citizen Skyhawk Titanium Eco-Drive. This is a watch that never requires batteries, charging itself from the ambient light it is exposed to daily. My buddy Eric swears by his Eco-Drive, so I thought I'd look into a model that suited me. It is definitely a cool watch, with chronograph, international time, analog and digital time-keeping, and alarms. After seeing it with my own eyes I decided to take the plunge and ordered it on-line from Amazon for a savings of about $205 as compared to retail. As I write this, I have been informed that it has already been delivered ... quite the feat considering it was shipped from Canada! I'm looking forward to getting it all set up tonight.

Another interesting thing ... when I got back from vacation, along with the mountains of e-mail I had to wade through was a message sent from my feedback page from a girl in Chicago who had come upon my site and really liked it. Specifically, she liked the pictures and analyses of the concerts I had been to, and wondered if I had some unposted pictures of a concert I went to this Spring. Very cool. I was more than glad to share them with her and it is definitely cool that people like what I write about. It has always amazed me how many people visit this page (we're talking more than 100 hits a week) ... and a lot of repeat hits too. So if you're someone who visits here regularly or who likes the site, drop me a line. It would be cool to hear from you.

As for what's in store for this week ... a lot of possibilities but nothing concrete. I'll probably be going out tonight, tomorrow night, or Saturday (or some combination of those). If you'd like to join me let me know.

A quiet week down by the sea (Part 2 of 3) ...

Picking up from where part 1 left off (see the previous entry if you haven't read it) ... Sunday morning I headed down to Ocracoke Island. It was a rather lengthy drive that was made all the more bearable with the goodness of satellite radio. The majority of the drive is the same as the trek down to Virginia Beach ... with a right turn down to the Outer Banks. Once you get onto the Outer Banks, you are quickly put on a two lane (one for each direction) highway called NC 12. As it turns out Ocracoke Island does not have a bridge that goes to it -- you are entirely dependent on a ferry that takes off from the Southern portion of Hatteras Island every half hour or so for a 40 minute trek to Ocracoke. The majority of the island is uninhabited -- owned by the National Park Service as part of the Hatteras National Seashore. This is a welcome thing for the most part, as you get a much more beautiful and relaxing beach. Ocean City (both NJ and MD) are overly commercial almost ugly places with billboards screaming at you, flying advertisements, and non-stop concessions everywhere you turn. OC-NJ even has the gall to charge you just for sitting on the beach! Ocracoke isn't like this, it is just a quiet beautiful stretch of beach that has nothing commercial in sight. This makes for a more relaxing experience ... and the beach is surprisingly clean as well. Devoid of litter and of that scourge of the shores, jellyfish, the only thing you had to contend with was the occasional appearance of seaweed. Sometimes the wind was quite strong, but one day (Friday) the conditions were as close to perfect as could be expected, and I got a good amount of swimming and reading in. The inhabited part of the island is about 12 miles from the ferry, and we had a cottage that we rented for the occasion. All in all we spent about a week on the island and pretty much took things easy. It was a nice change of pace from my usually fast-paced life. My mother brought the puppy as well, who acted as a bit of an alarm clock (vast untapped energy source that he is) but all in all a good time.

On the island we went to quite a few dining establishments. The one with the best beer selection was a place called Howard's Pub. Their food was passable, but the beer is what made it worth the trip. Definitely an unexpected treasure in this small town that you can traverse on foot in about twenty minutes. On the marina was another place, called sMcNally's or "Smacks" as they call themselves. Their beer selection was much more limited, but the food more than made up for it. Their burgers were excellent -- I recommend "The Cowboy" which was a BBQ burger with a fried onion ring. All of the seating was on the docks of the marina and they played Sirius Satellite Radio in the background, which made me smile. The last night we were there we went to Captain Ben's which was a middle-of-the-road seafood place where I had some sea scallops. For more upscale diners we went to Cafe Atlantic which had a modern decor and some delicious food. I had a sushi-grade seared tuna cooked rare which was quite good along with a tasty Merlot. We also went to a place called the Pelican, which had beautiful outdoor seating under mimosa trees. While there I had a decent grilled Mahi Mahi and their house label microbrew, which was surprisingly good. We also went to a place called the Back Porch, which had upscale cuisine on a wooden porch (nope, not just a clever name) that was screened-in. I had a rather rich scallop dish accompanied by Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale, and finished it off with a toasted coconut ice-cream.

On Wednesday, we went to the Ocrafolk Opry, a local showcase of island talent. The entertainment wasn't bad at all, and my mother in particular was enjoying the music that was being performed. One of the vocalists, an eleventh grade student on the island, had a disarmingly deep, resonant, and soulful voice eerily reminiscent of Amy Lee of Evanescence ... if she wants to be in the music business as a career, she'll probably have good luck with it. Most of the remainder of our time was spent exploring the historical elements of the island on our bikes (which we rented). On the first full day we were on the island, my wristwatch broke, leaving me without a sense of time. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm someone who is constantly aware of time and heavily dependent on my watch. However, after a couple days it was somewhat refreshing to not know what time it was and to do things because I wanted to, not because they were on a schedule. I found myself going to bed earlier and waking up earlier too (sometimes the puppy helped with that). I'll definitely be getting a new watch soon, but it is interesting how a sense of time can really color one's existence. Sunday we took the long journey home, and after many hours and a few encounters with thunderstorms, we made it back.

This doesn't bring us up to date, only up until Sunday afternoon so look for another update soon -- part 3 in this series.

Much to update you on, first some rock and film (Part 1 of 3) ...

On Thursday (the 24th of June) I headed to Arlington after work to meet up with my Dad for dinner. Unfortunately, this was to take some time and effort -- there had been a fire on the Metro and they were single tracking the trains making them run only once every 20 minutes (once every 40 if you cared about which line you were taking ... I did, but I lucked out). The trains were already packed (this was happening at rush hour) so there were only a handful of spots available. Luckily, being a regular, I knew where the doors would end up, and I was one of the lucky few to get on the first train to Arlington. After what seemed like a cramped eternity, I made it to Courthouse Metro where I made my rendezvous with Dad. We were there to see my brother perform that night at Iota with his band Vetiver. Dad and I dined at the Clarendon Grill -- which has reasonably priced food, decent beer selection, and the added bonus of being about 2 blocks from Iota. Afterward we went to Iota and saw Andy and company unpacking their gear from their van. Vetiver was on first and they gave a fantastic performance ... and I'm not just saying that because Andy is my brother, they were great. The sound was great, and the interplay between Andy's vocal and guitar and the cello and violin made for an absolutely magical sound. The space was a bit more "rock and roll" than you'd expect for a quiet set like theirs, but it worked out remarkably well I thought. After Vetiver came Joanna Newsom, who is a virtuoso at the harp ... yes, the harp. I had never experienced first hand how beautiful that instrument can sound. Joanna's vocals were distinctive ... and I have to say, I think you either like them or hate them (I liked them). She had some beautifully crafted songs. The headliner of the set was one of my brother's best friends, Devendra Banhart. The buzz around Devendra has been incredible, and the music he puts out is pretty much unlike anything you've ever heard before. All of his songs are short and his voice lends an other-worldly tone to the songs that is distinctive and refreshing. After his set Vetiver and Joanna Newsom came back out on stage to perform together -- and what a full and beautiful sound it was. Afterward, I got a chance to talk with Andy for a bit, and he hooked me up with a t-shirt and a cd that I'll be listening to very soon.

Friday brought another day, and another venue for Vetiver and company. After work I made the trek down to Charles Street in downtown Baltimore to see them once again at the Mission Space. This space was much more the kind of venue you'd expect for a set of artists like Vetiver, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart. It was intimate, focused on the music and not on the selling of alcohol, and brightly lit. We grabbed some thai food before the show at a restaurant nearby and had a beer at an Irish pub next door. After hanging out in the green room for a bit the show started with another amazing set by Vetiver. The place was sold out well in advance and the crowd really seemed to enjoy the set. Next up was Joanna who had another beautiful set with her harp. Last up was Devendra, who really seemed to come into his own at this venue. Finally, all three groups got onto the small stage and performed together -- doing a rousing version of "Amour Fou" off Vetiver's album that was quite wonderful. After the show they were invited to Ottobar for a couple drinks and I joined them. Afterward we parted ways and I headed back home.

Saturday was a day filled with laundry, laundry, and yet more laundry. I was to go on a week-long vacation the following day to Ocracoke Island with my mother and grandmother, so I'd need clean clothes. That evening, I went out with a friend to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I think a reviewer at the Washington Post said it best (and I'm paraphrasing here), no matter what your political leanings ... it is hard to leave that movie without hating Bush. And so it was ... the movie very artfully put together through a mountain of archival footage to put forth Michael Moore's point of view ... but here was the brilliant part ... unlike his previous movies where he's right up there front and center, he stayed out of the movie for the most part. He let the footage speak for itself. In so doing, he made the film much more powerful. In fact, I think there will be many who see this film who will take it at face value -- not really examining it critically -- because they will feel that it is irrefutable fact. There has been a lot of debate on this one, and there will continue to be a lot of debate. As for my political leanings and thoughts, I will remain silent here, but I will say that from the standpoint of cinema, it was very well done. Ideologically, it is either extremely patriotic or traitorous ... where in that spectrum it lies is up to you.

I'll pause here and continue in the next entry where we left off as the length of the entry is such that it has to be split into multiple parts. Next up is my vacation ...

A very busy time indeed ...

It seems like ages since you and I caught up. What can I say, I've been busy. I don't even think it will be possible to recount the events of the last few weeks in their entirety, but alas, that's what I do here, so here goes something. On Tuesday the 8th Dan and I went down to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to see a little interleague play between the O's and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Randy Johnson was pitching, and his handiwork was a big part of the stunning defeat of the home team, 8-1. Afterward we hit up the Inner Harbor for a little drink and wings action. That Friday I met up with Eric at John Harvard's for some dinner and fresh microbrewed goodness. Afterward we met up with Will at the Front Page where we spent the rest of the evening. On Saturday, I ventured back into the city to meet up with Randy and Yoni downtown. We started out at Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe for a couple beers in the open air. Yoni had his cousin and a couple other friends along with him and after introductions, I found out that his friend's sister, Becky, goes to Cornell and was down here for the summer. After we settled our tab, Randy, Yoni, Yoni's cousin, and I went to Adams Morgan for a little more nightlife. We knew one of the bouncers at Fasika, so we went there ... and it was a decidedly urban experience. We danced for an hour or so and then made our way back downtown.

On the following Monday (that's the 14th for those of you keeping score at home) I met up for dinner at the Front Page with Becky. After getting our fill of food and drink we were picked up by Randy and we drove up to Adams Morgan for a little spoken word action. Randy was performing (he was quite good) and Becky and I took in the show. I missed the last train, so I walked Becky home and then hailed a cab. On Tuesday, I went to a concert at Iota with Terry. Jem was playing and she had an absolutely wonderful set. Her voice was every bit as sultry and sensual as her CD and she even played some covers from Stevie Wonder and Stone Roses. Somewhat surprisingly, she had a full backing band, complete with drums, guitar, and bass. A few of the songs even brought out a gigantic double bass to complement the sound. There were also many sequencers, as you would expect, and she even had her voice sampled, so she was doing harmonies and fill-ins with herself -- which was a bit odd, but it didn't take away from the experience. I had seen pictures of her before, but it was amazing how young she was. All in all a very good show. On Friday I went over to a friend's place and watched "24 Hour Party People" -- a movie about the rise of Joy Division and New Order and the scene that sprung up around them in Manchester. On Saturday I met up with Dan and his girlfriend and we went to Milford Mill, which is an old quarry near Baltimore that is filled with water and has zip-lines and ropes rides that allow you to swing into the water like Tarzan. We brought the grill along too and had some burgers and bratwurst. We had a blast and stayed until closing. Sunday, Becky and I went to the Cornell picnic that happens every Father's day and joined my dad along with hundreds of other alumni. President Lehman was there to speak and meet people, and we had a good time out on Austin Kiplinger's estate. After the picnic, Becky and I went back down to DC and had some dinner with her roommate followed by a trip to Tower Records and some ice cream. After chilling at Randy's place for a bit, we called it a night and I headed home.

Monday night I hung out with Randy and grabbed some take-out from Meiwah. We advanced another level on an Xbox game we've been battling, and then called it a night. Last night Becky joined me for a trip to Camden Yards once again. We were met at the park by Dan and his girlfriend. The O's were playing the New York Yankees ... and we got trounced 10-4. It was a great time though, and we eventually migrated to some great seats behind home plate. After dropping Dan and Sara in Annapolis, I drove Becky home to DC and I then went back up to Columbia, where I slept like a baby :-)

Tomorrow I'll be seeing my brother perform at Iota with his band Vetiver. Also on the bill will be Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. I can't wait to see Andy again and look forward to catching up after the show. He's also performing down in Baltimore on Friday at the Mission Space Gallery. On Saturday I've been invited to a movie, so I may go to that. On Sunday I'll be heading out on vacation for a week to the Outer Banks. Like I said ... I've been busy :-)

That about does it for now, until next time take care and have fun.

New music, new places ...

What a great week in review. After catching up with some friends earlier in the week (and enjoying the abbreviated week) I made my way to Annapolis on Thursday to visit Dan. We ended up going to a concert at the Ram's Head Tavern with Bluegrass artist Tim O'Brien. Normally, that's not up my alley when it comes to concert-going, but I have to say, I really enjoyed the show. Friday night I met up again for another date with the aforementioned incredibly cool girl -- this time we went to Saint-Ex for dinner, and then she introduced me to the Chi-Cha Lounge. The lounge was a very cool place with hip downtempo and chill electronica playing amidst a sea of couches. I had a great time.

Over the weekend, I pretty much took it easy -- got some reading in, watched some movies, and played a little xbox. I also cleaned out my car, which now looks delightfully clean. Last night I got back into the gym after a long work-induced hiatus and it felt good to get back into the routine. Afterward I joined Randy on Capitol Hill for dinner at La Brasserie for some French cusine. I had the French onion soup, a chicken and rosemary tart, bananas foster, and a delicious port to finish it off. This week a few tentative plans in the works, but not too much concrete. I'll let you know more as it happens.

Lots of work, followed by lots of fun ...

This past week was extremely busy at work ... I stayed until around 2 in the morning on Tuesday and past midnight on Wednesday. The good thing is that the project hit the major milestone and was a success. Very good stuff.

Naturally, I had some major steam to blow off after that kind of schedule. On Friday night I took Mom out to dinner at Saint-Ex where we caught up over some delectable dishes. Afterward I made my way to the 9:30 Club, where Andrew W.K. was playing. You'll recall from past entries, his shows are a spectacle to behold. This show was no different. The Locust opened up ... and they weren't much to write home about -- every song was the same, it was almost comical. They are the quintessential way to tick-off your parents ... so if you're an angsty teen ... buy this album. If not, well, I'd stay away. Andrew W.K. on the other hand, rocked. An amazing show with around 100 people from the audience on stage and all the associated madness. Quite a show.

On Saturday I met up once again with one of the coolest girls I have met in quite some time for dinner, drinks, and a movie. We went to Clarendon Grill for dinner, then hit up Common Grounds for some coffee and then went to the theatres for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The movie was excellent -- a definite mind trip that has you thinking throughout its entirety. It raises the idea of being able to wipe an ex from your memory and the implications of that decision. The movie is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining and leaves you in awe of its storytelling. It is near the end of its theatrical run, but if you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it. As for whether I'd choose to erase memories of past relationships -- I don't think so. Even though there is a lot of pain, I would not want to lose the good memories that accompany the bad. Adversity has a way of making us grow in ways that tend to better who we are (and make us avoid future adversity as a result). I'll keep my memories intact, thank you :-)

Today I did a little barbecue in addition to getting some relaxation on (so good). As for tomorrow, probably just taking it easy. This week, few plans yet, save another date on the horizon :-) I'll keep you posted -- have a wonderful holiday.

Rock and celebration ...

As foreshadowed in my previous news entry, I went into the city on Saturday and met up with some Cornell buddies for the evening. Eric and Jeff joined me for some food and drink at Saint-Ex and then we made our way to the 9:30 club where we were joined by Chris and Tory for the Pat McGee band live in concert. Craig Honeycutt opened up and did a fairly decent job -- nothing inspired, but not unwelcome. The crowd was talking consistently over his quiet set so it was hard to hear him clearly. It was obvious that the crowd was there for the Pat McGee band. Pat was in good form Saturday night -- this was the third time I have seen the band and they were the most comfortable I have seen them on stage. They did a huge set spanning over two hours and fifteen minutes and covered most of the hits. They also did a bunch of U2 covers and the crowd loved every moment of it. They started with Runaway -- the radio hit most people will remember from them, and ended with a 15 minute version of Rebecca (another of their hits and one of my favorite songs from them). All in all a good show. Afterward I was joined by Eric, Jeff, Chris, and Tory for some of the delectable goodness that is Ben's Chili Bowl -- I had a chili half-smoke and split some chili-cheese fries with Eric. Good times. Chris and I got one of the last trains out of the city around 2:30 and we all parted ways.

Sunday I helped Dad out with some yard work (we ripped up some moss that had grown in the front yard and laid down some new top soil and grass seed). It was quite hot outside and I very much looked forward to the point where we had to water the new seeds ... as I watered myself as well :-) Later on that evening I went over to Dan's place where his mom was holding a graduation party for him and Lisa. The place was packed with people -- I think around 60 were invited. Among the guests was my fifth grade teacher who I hadn't seen since I was in fifth grade! I told her what I've done with my life and she actually remembered me. Afterward, some of Lisa's friends invited Dan, Eric, and me to a backyard pool. We spent a couple hours splashing around and had a good time.

It looks like this weekend there is a good chance I'll be going out to see a movie. Other than that, not too much planned. I'll probably be working late a lot, but if you want to do something in the evening this week, give me a shout.

A mini-vacation in my home town ...

So this was a pretty incredible week. Monday through Friday I was in Herndon where I was getting some job-related training. For those of you that know the DC area, you know that getting to Herndon from Columbia in rush hour is a euphemism for a female dog (about two hours each way ... gulp). Luckily I have some awesome family and friends. Mom lives about an hour away (during rush hour ... 25 minutes otherwise) so I crashed with her Sunday night and Monday night. Tuesday through Friday I crashed at Eric's place -- he actually lives walking distance from where I needed to be. One of the most beautiful commutes I have ever had ... I could be out of the shower at 8:50 and be in class by 9:00.

On Tuesday night Eric and I went out with some of his co-workers to TGI Friday's. We had a blast -- Darien and Jeff I already knew, but his boss and another co-worker were really cool as well. I think we were there talking for about 6 hours -- very good times. Later on in the week Eric and I alternated ordering in and going out ... and enjoying the breathtaking goodness embodied by his 50" HDTV :-)

Friday was the last day of classes for my training, and that evening I had a date planned downtown. I had an absolutely wonderful evening -- we hit up The Front Page (and Chris hooked us up with free shots in addition to our drinks) and finished things off at Cosi for some iced coffee and tea. Not gonna jinx it by saying more, let's just say I had a great time :-)

Tonight I may go into the city and see a concert with some friends -- beyond that, nothing much planned. The project work is coming down to the last few days, so I'll probably be working late most of the week. I'll keep you posted.

Busy, busy, barbecue, busy ...

Yeah, so I've been pulling some late hours at work. The project is coming down to crunch time, so my life is not my own of late. During the week I have pretty much been working -- grabbing dinner downtown and such.

Last Friday Randy and I went to see Super Size Me after work. If you haven't heard about it, the film documents the author's experiment eating McDonald's food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If McDonald's didn't make it, he didn't eat it. He only super-sized when asked -- and didn't get diet anything ... but overall, he didn't go too overboard in his food choices. In the course of the month he descended from perfect health to dangerously ill, taking on almost 30 pounds and having liver function tests that frightened the doctors who were monitoring him. His cholesterol also skyrocketed from the mid hundreds to 220 or so -- the change in diet also caused him to have wild mood swings and what he believed was a form of depression. Basically, don't try this at home. As stark as all that sounds, the film was actually quite entertaining -- our protagonist has a great sense of humor. I crashed at Randy's place and went to work the next day (yes ... this is Saturday we're talking about). Saturday night I went out with Randy to the hatter and then headed to Mom's place to crash.

Sunday brought Mother's Day, and one thing my Mom loves is when I cook barbecue for her. So I cooked out on the grill not once, but twice. We had bratwurst and potato salad for lunch and my signature steaks for dinner -- juicy New York Strips ... positively delicious. I played with the puppy all the while ... who I am beginning to think is the world's largest source of untapped energy ... and enjoyed spending the day outside.

Since then not too much has happened ... I worked late on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday -- last night after staying an hour after at work I met up with Randy and tried something new. He has a friend who lives in his building who is studying Qigong, which is very similar to Tai Chi. He taught us some of the forms, and I have to say, it was quite relaxing. Definitely reduced my (very high) stress level last night. Afterward I decided to avail myself of the beautiful night and walked down by the Lincoln Memorial and then past the reflecting pool to the new World War II memorial. The Lincoln was packed with school kids, even though it was around 9 at night -- inside I reread the Gettysburg Address, definitely a beautiful speech. Kind of makes you wish we had leaders with powers of oration like that today. The World War II memorial was beautiful -- It just opened a few weeks ago, and it is quite a striking memorial -- I'll definitely have to stop back some day when it is light outside ... although seeing the memorials lit at night is absolutely beautiful. Sometimes working so hard all the time I can forget that I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world -- I definitely have to play tourist more often.

As for what's coming up in the not too distant future ... I might be helping a good friend celebrate his birthday tonight, I'll probably be working tomorrow, and Sunday is up in the air at the moment. Next week I'll be in training all week for technical things related to my project. I'll keep you posted.

Meeting new people and getting new toys ...

Things have been going well since we last caught up. Last week I met some new people and went out a fair amount. I actually met a girl who has almost identical interests in music to my own. Anyone who knows me well knows this is something that never happens. Anyhow, it looks like I'll have someone to go to some of the more obscure shows I delight in -- and have a cool new friend to boot. Quite good. I tried to avail myself of the beautiful weather last week (when it was around) and generally had a good time. I had dinner out on Wednesday with the aforementioned new friend, and got margaritas after work on Thursday with another new acquaintance. I went out on Friday hung out at the Front Page and after a long night made my way home.

On Saturday I took the plunge and bought a new toy. I hadn't bought a new game system since the original NES -- but playing with Randy got me to thinking I should pick up an X-Box. Very cool purchase -- I got the special edition version (it is green and comes with Halo) and also picked up GTA3 and Vice City. So far it has been a fun purchase. I also did some barbecue over the weekend.

Monday our project was taken out to lunch and I had a delicious strip steak (who says there is no such thing as a free lunch). Last night I hit up the gym for the first time in a while (with catered lunches most days due to the project, I can't really take my lunch hour to work out, and I've been going out a lot after work). It was amazing how good that felt to work out again. Good times. As for what's in store ... not sure. Might meet up with some friends, will probably do something special for Mother's Day, and beyond that I'm quite flexible. Until next time, take care.

Millions of people and many good times ...

Last time I was saying how I was going to break my streak of going out for every night for an extended period (in one way or another). The lure of the beautiful weather was too strong, and I decided to go for a walk on Wednesday night. I made my way up to the National Zoo. It was a fairly decent walk ... mostly uphill ... but absolutely incredible. Since I came from work, I got there after the buildings closed, but I was able to see some of the animals that are outside: a cheetah, an emu, some primates, a couple giraffes, and some elephants. It was absolutely beautiful out, and I hadn't been to the zoo since I was a kid. If you're in DC, definitely worth checking out. Afterward, I had a hunger to sate, so I kept walking up Connecticut Avenue to Cleveland Park where I ate under the setting sun at Yanni's Taverna where I had a some delicious beef souvlaki along with a Mythos beer. I followed it up with some Baklava (which was unfortunately quite soggy) and then made my way down to the metro and headed home.

On Thursday after work I met up with a friend I used to work with. He invited me to a soiree for alumni of a consulting firm he used to work with, so I joined him for some fine wine and hors d'oeuvres. Afterward, he and I went to Ozio for a couple drinks before parting ways. Since I was next door, I decided to stop by the Hatter and say hi to Chris, who was bartending that night. We caught up (I hadn't seen him in a while) and I even saw another Chris (from Cornell -- who went out with me a couple weeks back) who was there celebrating his girlfriend's birthday. The midnight hour was quickly approaching, so I hit up the metro and took the last train out of the city.

Friday there was a torrential downpour after work, so that put a damper on any plans on going out that night outside ... so I headed over to Randy's place and we got some Chinese delivery from Meiwah and started playing a new game on his Xbox, Time Shifters 2, which kept us occupied until late into the night. I crashed at Randy's place.

Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Front Page for some lunch and ate outside (it was beautiful once again) and saw the preparations for the March for Women's Lives in Dupont Circle complete with live music and excitement. That evening we hit up Saint-Ex for some drinks and food and ended up meeting a lot of people. We were dancing and socializing downstairs in "Gate 54" where they were spinning a lot of cool downtempo tracks. Afterward we went to Ben's Chili Bowl where I had a half smoke with chili (so good!) and we sat down with a bunch of college girls from North Carolina who were there for the march tomorrow (and had just gotten out of a house party). They were cool girls -- interesting conversation ensued and then Randy and I headed back to his place where I crashed once again -- it was a good night.

Sunday, Randy and I decided to check out the March for Women's Lives. It was quite a sight to behold -- estimates range from 500,000 people to 1.4 million from what I've seen, and the day of, CNN was reporting that it was the largest march in history -- and I was there. They had a lot of interesting speakers, and I was glad to show my support. There weren't all that many guys there ... maybe one in a hundred people ... by the end of the night I had been thanked many times over for showing my support. Certainly an interesting time. Afterward, Randy and I hit up John Harvard's for some dinner and drinks and after stopping by his place I headed home.

As for what's going on this week ... not sure yet. One thing I am sure of: it will be fun and you should join me.

Incredible weather brings incredible times ...

When last we did our little electronic rendezvous, I was headed down to DC for another evening of fun with friends. Eric, Jeff, Randy, and I went down to the Washington Harbour waterfront by Nick's Riverside Grill for a few drinks. The weather was near-perfect, and the place was packed. We talked with a few girls and then made our way over to the Madhatter by Taxi. More craziness ensued and we then took the walk up to the Front Page for yet more revelry. Afterward, we went to Randy's place, played a little Xbox, and then I drove Jeff and Eric home. By the time we got to Eric's place it was around 5 in the morning, so I crashed there once again.

The next morning after grabbing some lunch with Eric I made my way down the George Washington Parkway to visit my Mom and her new dog, Rascal. Mom and I took him out for a walk down the trail alongside the GW Parkway. He is a bundle of cuteness, and I have put some pictures up for your viewing pleasure. It was a positively beautiful day, and Rascal definitely turned heads. We walked a good distance, and on the way back he wasn't wanting to walk (he is only about 11 weeks old after all) -- so I carried him back to the car (which he seemed to love). Since goldens become 75-90 pounds, he better not get used to it! When we got back, my grandmother had made some delicious fried chicken which I enjoyed with a nice Sauvignon Blanc before making my way to Annapolis. Out in Annapolis I was joined at the Ram's Head Tavern by Eric, Jeff, A.J. and Dan for a couple brews and conversation. Good times.

On Monday I was thrilled to have yet another beautiful day. I decided to take the walk over to Saint-Ex where I had some dinner before yet another concert. As I enjoyed my dinner, I met two guys sitting next to me at the bar who are sales reps for Chimay in the area. We talked about our mutual love of beer, and they bought me a couple glasses of Chimay ... quite delicious. After dinner I made my way over to see the show at the 9:30. The Sounds were playing, and Division of Laura Lee opened up. Division was pretty good from what I saw ... but I didn't see much since I got in during the middle of their set. The Sounds were great. -- Maja Ivarsson was a rock goddess ... trashy, angry, loud, direct, and ready to rock. She seems ready to party just as hard as the boys and not afraid to be crazy on stage. They had a good set -- lots of Swedish eurotrash goodness with infectious hooks and guitar lines meshed with keyboards that make you want to move. Definitely good times.

Tuesday brought yet another concert, but this time I had company. I was joined by Terry and his buddy Steve. We first went to the Art Gallery for a beer, and then to Cafe Asia for edamame, miso soup, and of course sushi. After that we went to Saint-Ex for some of their Belgian beverage goodness and then on to the show. We saw Stereolab in all their glory. Their soft understated French and English vocals lilting in an almost Bossa Nova phrasing over danceable yet refined electronic beats is quite unique. They played a good set, and the vocal was crisp and clean. They didn't play everything ... but with a discography like theirs that would be hard to do. I missed "Ping Pong," but overall I enjoyed the show -- even if the 9:30 was uncharacteristically hot and stuffy.

So for those of you keeping track at home, that means I've been out the last 8 consecutive nights ... will I keep it up ... probably not. Tonight I might get a workout in or perhaps take a stroll through the district, but other than that I'll probably just take a break and relax. Later this week there may be more meeting up with friends, and I might even have a date if all goes well. Other than that, pretty much flying by the seat of my pants and enjoying this incredible weather. If you would like to meet up with me to enjoy the weather together, just drop me a line.

Spring Fever ...

I've been a busy boy this past week. On Tuesday night Terry and I went to the Madhatter where we decided to go see a show that was going on at the Black Cat. On the way there we stopped by Saint- Ex for a couple Belgian beers. They are the only bar I have been to that has Stella Artois, Delerium Tremens, and Chimay on tap. Needless to say, Terry and I were in beer heaven. We went from there to the club where we saw The Fall. It was a great show -- The Fall is an amazingly influential band that has managed to exist for over twenty years now. What they were doing back in the day can be seen in a lot of indie rock today. Mark E. Smith, the front man has rocked harder than most people that have lived to tell the tale. He's in his mid-forties now, and looks much older. He played the set seated, and presumably a little drunk, but he still rocked the house. Good show.

Wednesday, I went to yet another concert -- this time at Nation. After having one of the most thorough security examinations of my life (I've had girlfriends that didn't pat me down so vigorously ...) I went in to see Something Corporate, Yellowcard, and The Format. I had big hopes for The Format, their song "The First Single" is quite good, and the rest of the album isn't bad either. They had a decent set, but lacked the stage presence and ability to sing reliably in tune that the other acts did. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the set. Next up was Yellowcard. The EdNews faithful will remember that I saw them last year at the 9:30. Once again they rocked. These guys clearly love to rock, and love playing. Very tight set, and a very good time. Next up was Something Corporate, those piano rocking paragons of cute emo. The girls loved the cuteness of the band ... but they surprised me, they rocked. The lead singer did things to his piano that would make Steinway and Sons blush, jumping on it, attacking it, and rocking the crowd. The crowd loved these guys, and I have to say, I enjoyed the show too.

So two nights back to back in concerts ... yeah, that's going out a lot. But wait, there's more. On Thursday we had the first day of positively beautiful weather out there -- and I had yet another concert. Back in the Summer of 2001 I saw a band called the Pernice Brothers open up for the Posies. This was at the old Black Cat -- and it was an amazing set. The opening act made the crowd demand an encore ... which, unfortunately for the audience, they weren't allowed to do. I bought the CD that night and was an instant fan. Their perfect pop rocked, no doubt about it, and I loved the show. I even met a girl that night that I went on a date with -- so good memories. Fast forward to last Thursday. As it turns out, my brother is friends with Thom, the bassist for the band. Thom has been doing some mixing work for Andy's band Tussle. Andy knew I was a fan, so he had Thom put me on the guest list (yay free tickets). The show was incredible. Beforehand I went to Saint-Ex for dinner, and then saw the opening act, The Long Winters. They were actually really good. Reminded me of Harvey Danger attitude and pure pop sensibility. The Pernice Brothers were simply amazing -- so solid together and positively infectious. After the show I got to meet Thom and we talked about mixing with Pro Tools and music in general. He's a really cool guy, and said that the next time they're in town he'd put me on the list again. What a great night.

Then along comes Friday. I had sent out the call to a bunch of friends to go out that evening, and the weather cooperated. Randy and I went to the Washington Harbuor waterfront for some drinks, then I made my way to Arlington where I met up with Jeff and A.J. and we went to Reston to meet up with Eric and Darien. We had a late dinner at Clyde's and then went out to see Kill Bill Vol 2 -- ok movie, but not as good as one would have hoped. I crashed at Eric's place last night and after lunch this morning he took me back to the Metro and I went home.

Tonight I am probably going back into the city to meet up with Randy, Eric, and maybe Jeff for some revelry. Next week brings more concerts and hopefully continued amazing weather. If you want to meet up, definitely let me know.

A new look ...

It has always amazed me how many people visit this site. This page alone gets hundreds of hits a week from people around the globe. With all that attention, I decided to make the site a bit more attractive and standards compliant. Alas, here it is.

The first thing you'll notice is that I've taken a more minimalist approach. Instead of the collage of pictures from many years ago, I decided to streamline my approach and increase the amount of white space. I switched from a sans-serif (arial) font to Garamond and adjusted the line spacing to improve readability. Links are no longer underlined here (except on mouse- over) and have a slight gray background and lighter font to designate their link status. I believe this makes for a more readable text. Most of the textual modifications were done through cascading style sheets, and through their use, this site should be more easily viewed by alternative output devices (like braile readers and text browsers) since, for the most part, text is all in-line. Finally, I decided to drop the resume and links pages (if you want the resume, just ask) and add a "photos and essays" page with links to photo galleries and non-news writeups I have done in the past. I'll try to keep this updated as time marches on. Finally, I updated the biography, which was woefully out of date (almost 2 years old!).

As for what has been going on in my life ... On Thursday Randy and I went down to the National Geographic Society building where we saw a talk by wildlife cinematographer and primatologist Mireya Mayor about her life traveling the world. Very interesting. Last night I was out on a date, and this weekend I'm just taking it easy as my car is in the shop for some much needed repair work.

This coming week I have another concert coming up, and beyond that, who knows. I'll keep you posted.

Some nice weather, some time off, and much rock ...

The Thursday before last Terry and I went to the Madhatter for some burgers and drinks. The cheddar and bacon over there is hard to beat. A good time was had by all. On Friday the weather was absolutely beautiful. I decided that it had to be spent outside. I called up Randy and we decided to hit up the Washington Harbour for some drinks outside. He also invited along a friend of his who is a PhD candidate in psychology -- she and I chatted by the waterfront and got to know each other better -- we might even meet up for a bike ride when the warm weather returns. That night the weather could not have been nicer. I was in a polo and khakis (business casual) and I was comfortable even after midnight. The temperatures were in the 60s and 70s all day.

Saturday I slept in a bit late and started to round up my documentation for the impending tax season -- an astounding collection of paperwork! I also listened to a lot of music while organizing said documents and generally took it easy.

On Tuesday, after work I went out with a coworker who was having her last day. A bunch of us from the office joined in the happy hour and it was a blast. Wednesday I met up with Randy and had dinner over at his place -- I picked up some takeout Chinese food on the way and we had a good time.

Thursday I went to a concert at the 9:30 Club with The Crystal Method and DJ Hyper. It was everything you would have expected it to be. Many young people with glow sticks and club attire. I had started the evening at the Madhatter where I grabbed some dinner and some refreshment. By the time I made it to the show my appetite was sated and I was ready for some music. It was a fun show, very different from most of the rock shows I frequent. DJ Hyper was pretty good, and The Crystal Method was exactly as you'd expect them ... almost too exact really. With the sequencers doing so much of the work it makes me wonder how much they needed to be there at all. Regardless, I had a good time.

Friday I decided to take the night off, so I took it easy. On Saturday night I had another show ... This time Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Kweller, and Aveo. Aveo came on first and they were pretty good. Death Cab was next and put on a great show. They played all the songs I wanted to hear -- Ben Gibbard's intimate vocals were crisp and clear and I was right in front enjoying it all. "President of What" and "Title and Registration" were incredible, in fact the whole set was good. Unfortunately, Ben Kweller was an incredible disappointment. His set was nothing special, and bordered on bad in my opinion. There were a few high points, but mostly low ones. I left before the set concluded and made my way home.

On Sunday I did my taxes, and I can assure you, Uncle Sam has a lot to be happy about ... me, not so much! Luckily, it is done. That evening I went to the 9:30 once again, this time to see Liz Phair, Wheat, and Rachael Yamagata. Rachael came on first had had a jazz-styled smoky voice and a stripped down sound. She was incredibly honest on stage and most of her material was about loves gone wrong. She was pretty good. Next up was Wheat, who I had seen a few months ago at the Black Cat. They were great as always. They played all the songs I wanted to hear and I even got to talk to the lead singer after near the merch table. As it turns out they will probably be at Lollapalooza this year, sounds like a lot of cool bands will be there ... can't wait for more details. Last up was the incomparable Liz Phair. I've been a fan of hers since her debut on Exile in Guyville and I've been listening to her ever since. She has gotten a lot of criticism for her latest album -- working with the same producers as Avril Lavigne and such -- and it is a poppy record. But I actually enjoy both. I dig her grittier stuff too, but there's nothing wrong with a singable pop record either. She alternated between her old and new material with a little bit of concern when she played the first new song ... but the audience was into it, and the show went very well. She played almost every one of her hits, looked absolutely stunning, and sounded spectacular. Definitely a good time.

On Monday night I pulled out the next DVD on my Netflix queue and watched Run Lola Run ... definitely a cool film. Last night I was joined by Terry and Eric to go see the Darkness at the 9:30. We started off at the Art Gallery and made our way to Cafe Asia for some sushi. Then we took the cab over to the club and saw the spectacle that is the Darkness. What a show -- reminiscent of the excesses of the 80's hair bands with all the pomp and falsetto craziness of Queen, this was a crazy show. The club was absolutely packed. Their hit, "I believe in a thing called love" was very well received and well done, but most of the rest of the set was musically mediocre. However, the show itself was incredible. It was a fun, crazy, positively insane show -- and I'm glad I got the tickets for it.

As for what's up this week, not too much planned. Next week I have another concert, but until then I'll probably be doing something fun. If you'd like to join in this fun, let me know.

When it rains ...

So I haven't written in a long while. I've had a crazy last two weeks. The day after Frisky's passing I took my mother to the emergency room -- she would stay in the hospital for the better part of two weeks. I won't go into what happened, but my mother wasn't well. While she was in the hospital I stayed with my grandmother to help her in any way I could and visited Mom every night. Work also ramped up that week too -- a very stressful time. Mom is doing better now and hopefully on the road to a full recovery (knock on wood). Thanks to all of you who were so supportive during these stressful times.

In the past week I went to three concerts (I had bought the tickets about a month ago -- and they kick you out of the hospital fairly early as a visitor, so it was a good way to get my mind off things). On Sunday I saw G. Love and Special Sauce. Louque opened, and they were pretty good. A nice laid back vibe that fit in with G. Love. Then came G. Love, arguably one of the few great things to come out of Philly. He played a marathon two and a half hour set and the crowd absolutely loved him -- and with good reason. He was in great form and the sold out crowd ate up every song. He played almost every song you could imagine him playing, including some bawdy songs that got a dirty laugh from the audience. Definitely a good show.

Tuesday brought a concert with Three Days Grace and Apartment 26. Apartment 26 was a big let-down. I talked to my buddy Steve who had seen them a few years back when they were promoting their last album, and he was impressed with their show. Unfortunately, the magic was gone this night. Their radio single was the only song that even grabbed me slightly. The audience, mostly teenage kids with their "so iconoclastic we all look the same" attire, was incredibly sedate. Even if you didn't like it, the music was loud as hell (thank you musician's earplugs) and that much bass just makes you move. They were immovable objects. Three Days Grace came on next and gave me the rock show I was looking for. They were excellent -- putting on a fantastic show once again. They were tight musically and clearly loved being on stage. Our young audience was similarly unmoved ... I've never been to a show that loud without a mosh pit ... but I digress. I enjoyed the show.

Wednesday it was time to see some old friends on the stage ... The Push Stars. You'll recall I interviewed them on WVBR ... and met up with them again a few months ago. Now they are promoting their new album and touring with Great Big Sea (they opened for GBS -- but I didn't stay for the GBS set). They were great as always -- they played a good mix of old and new material to the somewhat surly St. Patrick's Day crowd. It was great to see them again, and after their set I decided to do something rather out of character for me ... head home early.

Thursday night I met up with Randy and went to a party hosted by a friend of his -- complete with a bunch of girls who work for Senator Clinton. Always fun meeting new people. On Friday Dan and I went to Clydes for a fantastic dinner and hung out and caught up over a couple beers. On Saturday we met up again in the evening and watched Chapelle's Show on DVD that he brought over. Sunday was fairly laid back, Dad and I went to a great Italian restaurant.

As for what's on tap ... I'll be working as always. Next week brings more concerts, and I usually find a way to meet up with friends. I'll also probably be visiting Mom ... and taking her new puppy for a walk. She got another golden retriever -- who is positively adorable. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. Until then, take care.

I lost a best friend today ...

Usually, I don't write about the sad things here. Unlike the "news" of the mass media, I strive to have my news be about the things that I want to remember -- the positive highlights. There have been a two times since I started writing here that I have deviated from that ideal. This will be the third.

Earlier today I went with my mother to the Vet's office. My dog of eleven years, Frisky, had bone cancer. Over the last few months his condition had been deteriorating. It had become increasingly difficult for him to walk, he looked with fear at stairs, and frequently would collapse if he tried to mount them. No longer was he able to be the exuberant dog of his youth -- each step was clearly painful for him, so he spent most of his time resting of late. It was time to do the humane thing. Around 1:30 this afternoon, Frisky was put to sleep while in my mother's arms, he was eleven years old.

I can still remember when we picked him up from the breeder's home in the late summer of 1992. Frisky was an energetic puppy, so full of love, so eager to explore the world he had been placed in. Frisky and I became fast friends -- we would run together and play for hours. He used to jump up on my chest I would be laying in bed and lick my face -- he was capable of so much love and love was all he asked in return. He was one of the most kind dogs I've ever known -- he never would hurt a soul and never did. When one of us was sick he was there to comfort us, when one of us cried, he was the first to snuggle next to us and kiss us to make everything feel alright. I only wish he could do that right now.

Frisky exemplified everything that could be great about a dog. He was kind, loyal, protective, loving, and could cheer you up no matter how low you felt. I know we did the right thing, but I'll miss the way his eyes lit up when I came in the door and how he made me feel like the most important person in the world. I know a lot of you might be saying "c'mon Ed, he was just a dog" -- and he was a dog, but he was also so much more. He was my willing companion since I was twelve years old, my good friend, my proof that goodness can exist in its most pure form. There will never be another Frisky -- but he will live forever in my thoughts. I'll remember the walks in Prince William Forest Park where he sat down in the middle of the stream to feel the cool water wash over him. I'll remember the barbecues where he was the first to get a taste of the steak or burgers I had prepared on the grill. I'll remember how he would softly bark and kick his leg in his sleep if he was dreaming. I'll remember the pure excitement he had when we'd go for a car ride or take a trip. I'll remember the way he loved me unconditionally, just as I loved him. I'll remember him, always.

Doing my civic duty ...

So I voted today. I'm not going to say for who, but I will say that it was different than in the past -- not necessarily for who, but for how I voted. You may have heard some of the controversy about electronic voting systems (mainly that they have been woefully insecure) -- well I used one of them today. Basically they are a giant touch screen and they give you a smart card they program with your party affiliation (this was a primary) and it displays the ballot. Pretty user friendly in all, easier than the awkward scantrons of the past (which weren't all that difficult either). As to the security of these things ... we'll have to see what happens in the coming months.

In other news, Cornell is migrating everyone who graduated prior to December off of their mail servers (and I'd be in that group). It is amazing how many of my Cornell friends have asked me what to do to keep getting their e-mail after their POP accounts expire. I'm always glad to help :-) Anyhow, I'll still have the same e-mail address, but it will now be forwarded to another of my e-mail accounts. One of the downsides of this is that the spam filtering Cornell provides is not part of this forwarding service. Alas, I am now implementing a spam filter of my own which should have around a 99% success rate. While I'm working out the bugs, some mail on my published accounts (i.e. the ones in directories and on public sites) may slip through the cracks. As always, use one of the unpublished ones, or IM me. If you don't know my IM names or unpublished accounts, there may be a reason ... but if you think you should be in the know, you can ask.

As for this week, it will be a busy one at work -- many late nights are likely. I also have a concert coming up as well, so that'll be good. Other than that, not much planned. I'll tell you more as it happens.

Work hard, play hard, rock hard ...

So it has been about a week. I was going to write earlier, but life has a way of keeping things busy. Last time I had a great evening at the Front Page on Friday night. On Saturday I went into work (as I had predicted) and worked until around midnight. Luckily, I was in DC, so I decided to hit up the Madhatter. Usually on Friday and Saturday nights the place is packed, and this night was no exception. An unfortunate side effect of this is that it usually takes forever to get a drink (getting the bartender's attention can be rather difficult). However, the night before, I had been introduced to a bartender who works at both the Front Page and the Madhatter, Chris. He immediately recognized me when I walked in, shook my hand, and I got some of the best service I've ever had at the place -- he also introduced me to the other bartenders -- nice guys. Anyhow, so now not only do I get a beer immediately, they put it on a tab (and don't even ask for a credit card until I tab out -- not too shabby). Randy was flying in that night from Aspen, so he met me at the Hatter and we worked the crowd for a bit. After a while we decided to make our way over to Rumors for a few more drinks and dancing. By the time the night was over, it was too late to hit the Metro, so I crashed at Randy's place on his incredibly comfortable couch and was out in an instant.

Sunday I went into work once again to get some stuff done, and I worked until around 7 in the evening. After work I made my way up to the 9:30 Club (I walked, it was a nice evening out). There I was to see Fountains of Wayne, Leona Naess, and Robbers on High Street. Robbers on High Street were excellent. Sometimes you wonder about the opening opening act ... but these guys were good. Their sound very much fit in with Fountains of Wayne, but with a bit more of an edge to them. Leona was okay, kinda mellow, a little uncomfortable on stage. Not bad, but I probably won't buy the CD. Fountains of Wayne were great. This is my fourth time seeing them, my third at the 9:30. They played most of the hits and played them well. The crowd was a mix of young pre-teens, teenage popsters, their parents, and the crowd in the mid- twenties to mid-thirties (where I lie) who have folowed these guys for years. The show sold out and it was a great time.

On Monday, Terry and I went to the Ascot Club for a little Indian buffet action. I worked late once again that evening. On Tuesday I actually went home on-time(ish) because I realized I hadn't been home except to sleep since the previous Wednesday! I took care of some laundry and relaxed for a bit. It was delicious. Wednesday and Thursday were busy days with late evenings too -- but Thursday morning I got some tickets that you can't get anymore. I got tickets to see The Darkness. Terry and Eric will be joining me, and it is going to be a fun show. How fun? Well, I bought the tickets as soon as they went on-sale on the site -- they were sold out in three minutes! Very much looking forward to it. On Friday I decided I wanted to call out the Cavalry -- it was time to get a lot of friends out to have a lot of fun. So bright and early in the morning I started firing off some e-mails. It was to pay off ... That evening I called up Yoni -- he invited me over to a soiree at the the university he attends down here for his graduate work. They had free beer of the good variety, so I posed as a student and had a great time. Afterward we went back to his pad for a beer and I got a call from Randy. We met up at Meiwah for some Chinese and then went over to the Front Page where Chris was tending bar again. After we were there for a while, I got a call from Eric -- he had rounded up a bunch of Cornell friends and they were entering the Madhatter. So Randy and I settled our tab and made our way down there. Eric, Chris, A.J., Jeff, and a few others were there and we had a blast. Also, while there, I saw Alyx (who I had met last week at Front Page). We must have talked for about an hour -- it was good to see her again. After much fun, I caught the last train out of DC ... and I mean, the very last. I got home around 4:30 in the morning. Pictures of the festivities and its participants can be found here.

Today, Dad and I went to the new Ram's Head Tavern in Savage Mill (you'll remember their original location in Annapolis). The food was good and the beer delicious, but I prefer the Naptown version. After that I went home and took a ten hour nap, catching up on some much needed sleep. As for what's coming up -- a lot of work in the near future, some good shows, and probably some fun (maybe even with you). I'll keep you posted.

Warmer weather makes you go out more ...

So I've been crazy busy of late. A deadline for my project at work is looming on the horizon, so I've been working late most nights. In fact, I'll likely be going into work at some point this weekend. However, that doesn't mean I'm not having fun too, when you work hard you've gotta play hard too.

Tuesday was a normal day -- not too much to report. Worked out at lunch, worked a little late, and started to get a little sniffle action going on. By the next day I would have a mild cold which peaked on Thursday. Still have some remnants, but overall I'm pretty well.

Wednesday was to be a very busy day. For lunch I met up with someone I hadn't seen in ages. This past summer at Finnegan there was an intern who is an EE/Biomedical Engineeing student at GWU. She is a really cool girl, and we hadn't seen too much of each other since she went back to school (right down the street). So we decided to catch up over lunch. We went to Au Bon Pain and she also introduced me to her sister who dined with us. It was good to see them -- we talked about their senior projects in EE and generally had a good time. After that it was back to work where I was to prepare for another outing later in the day. Wendy and I were to go out to Jaleo, an incredible tapas place downtown -- unfortunately I got a call right before I left that she had to stay a little later since the boss was keeping her later than expected. Since I had plenty of work, I stuck around and when she had gotten done with work I headed over to Arlington. In the interest of time we went to a place in Arlington called "Red Hot and Blue" which has pretty decent barbecue. We started off with some chili nachos and I had the Memphis dry ribs with some Sierra Nevada and finished it off with a hot pecan pie (delicious). Afterward, sated and happy, we parted ways and I headed back home.

Thursday, I was feeling like ... well not feeling very well. The cold had gone on full force and I wasn't liking it. I did go into work though, and started to feel better as the day progressed and drank a few liters of water and ate well. I had a ton of work to do, so once again, I stayed late. I decided that I needed to blow off some steam and do something fun. Enter the next concert in the series. Wheat and Hey Mercedes were playing at The Black Cat so for ten bucks, I figured I can't go wrong. I was right. Hey Mercedes opened -- I had seen then last August 13th opening for Sense Field. They were great -- you could tell the guys were excited to be there and they played a lot of great songs. Afterwards I talked to the lead singer in-between sets -- nice guy. Next was Wheat. I had heard a few of their songs on the indie channel of Sirius Satellite Radio and had dug their stuff. They were great -- very together musically, and the vocals came out crisp and clear. It was obvious these guys loved playing and sharing music with their fans. After the set I headed home and got some shuteye.

Friday was another busy day which saw me working late (seeing a trend here?). Afterward I decided to head up to the Front Page for a burger and beverage. While I was there I met a cool Irish guy who was sitting next to me, William. We became fast friends, and a few minutes later some of his (gorgeous) friends joined us. We talked for what must have been a couple hours over drinks and took some rather crazy pictures on my little camera ... which probably aren't going up here! Then I got a call on the cell from Yoni. He joined us in the fun and when we decided to leave the Front Page, he and I went back to his place and hung out for a bit. Then it was time for more fun on the town before we parted ways and I got the last train back home. I got in around 4 in the morning and promptly crashed.

As for what's coming up ... another concert tomorrow, probably doing a little work today, and then it is anyone's guess. I'll probably be working late most of the nights this week, but I've gotta eat ... so if you want to grab dinner in the city sometime this week drop me a line. Until then, take care.

Fun times, new arrivals, and time off ...

So the last time we talked I had just seen a great concert and helped Mom with some heavy lifting. When I returned to work I was quite busy, so for most of the evenings I worked rather late. When I didn't have meetings that ate into my lunch hour I went over to the gym and blew off some steam with a loud musical accompaniment and an elliptical machine. On Thursday I went out to lunch with some co-workers and had a delicious General Tso's Chicken with Dumplings (one of my favorite dishes ... although not as good as Ling Ling Garden up in Ithaca ... but I digress).

Finally on Friday it was time to get the party out. I went out with some co- workers for happy hour downstairs and had a great time chatting with them. Afterward it was around 9 and I decided I wasn't quite ready to go home, not yet. I called up the Cavalry ... and Randy was similarly ready to get some party on. I swung over to his pad and we set out to hit the infamous Madhatter. We met a lot of people, had a lot of fun, and generally had a blast. We had so much fun that -- glancing down at my watch -- I realized the last train out of the city was not too far off. I hustled to the Metro station and made it to the trains and transfer with time to spare. I got home around 4 in the morning and promptly crashed.

Saturday I slept in late (shocking, I know) and eagerly anticipated a call on my cell phone. Wendy (who I met while in the Caribbean) was on her way down to DC. She transferred here in her job. So since I naturally offered to help her with the move in any way that I could. She got in just before midnight and I met her at her new place and helped a with a little lifting. We decided to go to the Silver Diner for some food and got a chance to catch up a bit. Afterward I took her back to her place and bid her goodnight. I eneded up getting home around 3:30 or so in the morning.

Sunday I didn't do that much at all, just took the opportunity to relax, watch some movies, get some reading in, and listen to music. Which brings me to a song you should all listen to -- "The First Single" by The Format. The song is more infectious than ebola and is classic summer fare. Turn it up and roll down the windows. I made some pasta in a sundried tomato alfredo sauce (quite tasty) and savored it with a fresh Sierra Nevada Pale Ale -- and all was good.

Monday I woke up fairly early, but I didn't have to go to work -- thank you Presidents, thank you. I joined Dad at a Chinese buffet and then went clothes shopping, pickup up some new business casual attire ... it's what all the cool (corporate) kids are wearing ;-) And now I'm writing it all down for you -- listening to music and generally relaxing. Tomorrow I go back to work, next weekend I have my next concert, and schedules permitting, I might be meeting up with Wendy for dinner one of these nights. If you're in town and want to join me in some fun and excitement drop me a line. Until then, take care.

Getting healthier, getting rocked, having fun, and working hard (part two [continued from the previous entry]) ...

Friday I had to work rather late, but I made the best of it, swinging by the box offices of the 9:30 Club and the Black Cat where I picked up tickets to see a grand total of ten shows ... all before tax day! I had been lamenting earlier that this was the slow season for concerts -- and it was, until the last week or so when they started announcing a lot of cool shows. The Concert Series sprang back to life on Saturday night at the Black Cat.

El Gato Negro had three incredible bands last night: Ok Go, Army of Me, and Spiraling. I've gotta tell you, I really enjoyed all three of them. I came for Ok Go, and was not disappointed. First, let's talk about the opening acts. Spiraling started off the set, and they were really good. Fresh faced youngsters with a solid sound, melodic, enjoyable, and worthy of the audience's attention. Army of Me came on next, and caused quite a stir. Being DC natives, they had a strong contingent of fans present to make some noise. There was much cheering and dancing and a lot of shirt-wearing fans screaming at the top of their lungs. Although from DC, they had an almost British affectation, but it worked. They had some great songs and I thouroughly enjoyed the set. But the best was yet to come. First a little background. Ok Go's self titled album came out in 2002 and was noted for its semi-hit single "Get Over It" with some radio airplay and a few spins on MTV. The album is spectacular. I really started listening to it in a time when I was listening to a lot of dark, angry, depressing stuff. Ok Go is none of these things -- they are fun, exciting, melodic, and oh yes, they can rock your ass off. The Washington Post said in the Express Friday that Ok Go never found a hook they didn't like ... and that's probably true. Their music will stick with you ... you'll sing every word, even it it is nonsensical. They're just that good. So needless to say, I had high hopes for them at this concert, and those were met easily. They have a sense of humor on stage that brings you into the set in a way that most bands can't. They involved the audience, asking them to vote for what song would be played during a reunion bit with their old keyboardist (who incidentally works for the Black Cat) and they even brought people on stage ... let me explain how. You see, in-between songs they asked the audience to "raise your hands and shout if you're single". About half the crowd did, to which the lead singer commented "I thought we had cooler fans that that". After saying he was just kidding he said to do it again, and he picked a guy out of the crowd. After he got on the stage he asked him his sexual preference (he likes the ladies) and Damian (the lead singer) asked all the single women to raise their hands. He then was told to select one, who came up on stage, and they were to slow dance throughout one of the songs, but with the two required elements of a good slow dance according to Damian and the bassist, Tim, "proximity and hips" -- a couple times they stopped the music to get them to grind a bit more ... everyone had a fun time. They played all of their hits, and a good chunk of the album. They also played some tracks off their sophomore effort, out this Summer ... and I for one will be buying it, some good stuff. For the encore, they came out saying that they don't believe in encores ... that they try to put enough show in one and not make people beg for more ... but knowing that people want more, they said they would not sing. Instead they did a "boy band dance routine" to their song "C-C-C-Cinamon Lips" which was hilrious ... I even caught some of it on my camera through the miracle of movie mode. If you want a good laugh, click here (compressed for your convenience in Windows Media format). Great show. Nine more scheduled before tax day ... that will probably increase in number, should you want to join me in my rock odyssey, drop me a line.

Finally today I helped my Mom lift some heavy objects and move furniture around, and now I'm writing this update to you. This week promises to be a good one, as does each and every week :-) Until then, listen loud and have a fantastic time wherever you may be.

Getting healthier, getting rocked, having fun, and working hard (Part 1) ...

What have you been up to Ed? Funny you should ask as I've been a busy boy (in fact, it won't all fit in one entry, so I've split it up into two). On Wednesday night (the 28th) I made my way back home from Tulsa. My flight was cancelled, so I got re-routed on another, later flight. The first leg to Dallas Fort Worth was fairly uneventful. The flight back to BWI from DFW was actually quite interesting. The flight was packed with a bunch of guys from the Army in fatigues. I sat down next to a bunch of them, and since I had been sitting waiting for a flight for quite some time, I had taken to doing a little digital editing of pictures. I was doing things like compositing my face on the statue of liberty from NYNY in Vegas. The servicemen next to me got a kick out of that, and I showed them some of the pictures from the trip. The guy to my far right had a USB flash drive with him and put that in my laptop. As it turns out, he was one of the guys who found Saddam. He had pictures of where Saddam was living ... yes, he likes hot dogs and reads a lot of books. It was fascinating. The hole they found him in was incredibly small, barely able to fit a person in it. Very cool. I got in around 1 in the morning and promptly crashed.

The following morning I had a few doctor's appointments and took a personal day. On Friday I went into work as usual and decided to do something I had been putting off for way too long -- join a gym. In the last year I've become a much happier person, done a lot of great things, and am feeling better than I have in a long time. I decided it was time to get the exterior up to spec with the interior. The gym I joined is spectacular -- less than a block from where I work (so I can work out on my lunch hour or after work) and the facilities are great too. So far I've been working out every day (except this past Thursday and Friday ... we'll get to why in a bit) and I'm loving it. Basically, my plan is "Eat less, Exercise More" -- I know what you're saying, "Ed, something so complex ... it'll never catch on!". Even if I don't lose a single pound, I feel great when I work out, so I've already won.

On Sunday, I headed over to Eric's place -- he recently graduated with his M.Eng. from Cornell in December and is working in Northern Virginia these days. He has a sweet pad near Reston and just moved in not too long ago. A bunch of buddies in the DC area from Cornell were there ... Eric, Foster, A.J., and a few others to boot. We all enjoyed the game on Eric's new 50" projection screen (can you say sweet!) and caught up with each other. I'm so glad so many friends have moved into the area, good times :-)

On Monday and Tuesday I had some meetings that ran through lunch, so I worked out in the evening. Wednesday I had dinner plans, so I worked out for Lunch -- - and I've gotta tell you, it felt great. I had always been someone who worked out at night. The idea was that the workout would tire me and I wanted my day to not be impacted. Well, all my workout-loving friends were right, it actually energized me for the rest of the day. Not too shabby.

Wednesday night I met up with Randy who I hadn't seen in a while since we both had travel that kept us from hanging out -- we went to an Irish pub and had some burgers and beers and caught up on the events of the last few weeks.

Thursday I went out to happy hour with Terry and Eric along with Pete and a bunch of other friends. We started out at Tuscana and made our way down to Shelly's Back Room for some of those marvelous wings. I had an absolute blast.

More in the next entry ...

Viva Las Vegas, baby ...

So that was Vegas [pictures here]. I'm currently 32,000 or so feet in the air as I write this on my way back to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vegas is a fun town -- one that is open twenty-four-seven filled with excitement, elation, endless partying, most of the sins you can imagine, as well as broken dreams and lost fortunes. From the moment you get off your plane, you know you're somewhere different -- each waiting area is lined with slot machines. I arrived around 8:30 local time and had intended to hit the nightlife, however, I was feeling under the weather, so I decided to hit the sack instead and make an early morning of it.

My hotel was two blocks off the strip right in the middle of the action right across the street from the MGM Grand -- but then again, what isn't across from the MGM Grand -- it is amazingly huge. I got out of my room around 8 and made my way to the casinos. Believe it or not, there were quite a few people on the floor at the casinos. The square footage was dominated by slot machines, but there were still plenty of card games to be had. On the strip most of the blackjack tables had 10 or 25 dollar minimums with a 5 dollar table sprinkled here and there. The really cheap blackjack was downtown, more on that later. I toured most of the major casinos, and they are really a sight to see. The MGM Grand is amazing for its hugeness. New York New York (they don't use the comma for some reason) had an impressive facade with many of the buildings that make the skyline of NYC as well as scale models of landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. Paris has many elements from that city (imagine that) including a scale model of the Eiffel Tower which you can take an elevator to the top for a whopping 12 dollars (more than the actually Eiffel Tower mind you -- which is much bigger and which I went up many years ago ...). Aladdin has a middle east flair along with some good buffets (more on that in a bit). The Bellagio is the most classy and refined of the bunch with a renowned art collection and elegant appointments -- it is also home to an impressive water show out front where the fountains make for beautiful shows that put even Longwood Gardens to shame. Caesar's Palace is a palatial ode to decadence with all the flair of imperial Rome. Barbary Coast sticks out on the strip ... it's not as glitzy as its counterparts, but it advertises that, with some of the lowest minimums on the strip, but still not as low as downtown. Just off the strip is Rio, which is nice, but nothing overly special from what I saw.

After visiting Rio I decided to take a taxi down to the downtown area. There I saw the Freemont Street experience which has a few blocks of downtown Freemont Street covered with an electronic ceiling which can project a dazzling light show ... emphasis on the can because it wasn't doing such a show, even after sundown. Just a block and a half from the Freemont Street experience was an older casino called El Cortez -- significantly more run down than its strip counterparts, it had the lowest minimums of any casino I visited. A quick aside ... Those of you who know me well know I'm not a fan of gambling. I've taken advanced probability classes where we derived probability distributions until we could not take it anymore ... and then did it again. In those classes, the standard example was Las Vegas gambling. We would prove time and time again that the house always wins (after all, how do you think they can afford to build all these dazzling buildings. So, needless to say, if I'm gonna play some games, I want them to have close to even odds and I want to part with as little of my money as I possibly can. Naturally this means low minimum single deck blackjack, so for me, this meant the El Cortez. I had read a statistical analysis of blackjack with a set of tables that tell you the best hands to play when you have the dealer showing certain hands. Since there are a finite number of hands that are out there, this is fairly simple to calculate. Anyhow, long story short (too late) I played almost 4 hours and was only down $37 -- most of it lost in the first hour when I was getting the hang of it. Not too shabby.

After a few hours at the tables I decided it was time to get some dinner, so I headed down to the Aladdin on the strip to go to the Spice Market buffet, which had been highly rated in all the things I had read. It was good, with crab, oysters, shrimp, and sushi on the seafood side, and the standard meat fare, with a leaning toward the middle eastern. The food was abundant and delicious, and set me back $22 bucks, not too bad for a meal out on the town. After dinner I decided to go on that roller coaster at New York New York -- a pursuit that set me back $12.50, but was worth it as it was a fun ride. The view from the coaster of the strip at twilight was wonderful and the hills were fun as well. After that I decided to check out Mandalay Bay and the Luxor by taking the tram over to them across from NYNY. They too were amazing castles to excess, Mandalay Bay with its golden windows and jungle theme and Luxor a black pyramid with a solitary beam of light emanating from its apex with a sphinx out front. After checking out some of their facilities and playing a little on the slots (I quintupled a dollar in Mandalay Bay before losing 3 of the 4 bucks in winning to game play on a nickel slot) I made my way back to NYNY to check out the nightlife.

They had Coyote Ugly there, themed after the bar from the movie. Initially after getting through the bouncer they asked for a $10 cover which I refused to pay (it was just one small overcrowded room) -- as I was leaving the bouncer grabbed me, stamped my hand and said "Free!". So I got in without paying cover. There were indeed women dancing on the bar, and I took in the sights, but it was too crowded and I was getting tired (I had been up since 6am) so I decided to leave there and check out 54 at the MGM, which didn't seem to have much going on from the outside, so I headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Sunday morning I woke up slowly and decided that all the talk I had been hearing from my California friends about In-N-Out burger was worth me checking it out. So for lunch I hiked down Tropicana to Industrial and went to an In-N- Out and ordered a Double-Double and fries ... and you know what? It is a good burger. They make the fries fresh in front of you (from fresh potatoes ... they have a dicer on the premises). And the burgers seem equally fresh. Good stuff, too bad it isn't out East. If you want variety, you're out of luck though -- only 4 things on the menu besides drinks: Double Double, Cheeseburger, Hamburger, and Fries. That's it. But that's all they need. The place was packed at 10:40 in the morning. After that I made my way back to the strip to do some more browsing at the casinos and ended my stay at NYNY's Times Square Bar with a few frosty beverages before I hailed a cab and went to the Las Vegas Airport.

My direct flight to Tulsa was uneventful. I met some nice folks returning home who were in awe of my tiny camera ... "you mean it fits in an Altoid's tin! [insert sound of wonderment here]". Since I've been back I've been working, I head home tomorrow.

In case you missed the (not so) subtle link above, the pictures from my trip to Las Vegas can be found here. Until next time, take care.

Seeing friends, having fun, and jet-setting across the country ...

It has been a while since I last put down an entry here, I've been a busy boy. The first week I was back I hung out with Dan a lot after work. We hit up Akbar, a nice Indian restaurant and Ellicott Mills Brewing Company, a nice brew pub close to home. We also went to see a movie, 21 Grams, which was well done, but a bit of a downer. That weekend I pretty much took it easy and got some relaxation on.

The following week I met up with Randy on Monday and took it easy most of the week ... until Thursday -- my birthday. I was pleasantly surprised at work when I was called to a meeting that actually wasn't happening -- everyone had gotten me a birthday cake and wished me a happy one -- I'm really lucky to work with such great people. After work we had a happy hour at Buffalo Billiards where I played some pool with my boss for a couple hours. However, I had to cut it a little short since a consultant I work with invited me to dinner at the Oceanaire. It was restaurant week in DC, so many of the high- end restaurants in DC had prix fixte dinners for $30.04. Michelle (the consultant) and I were joined by three of her single friends and we had an absolutely spectacular meal. I had the mahi mahi which was simply delicious. Michelle also told the restaurant that it was my birthday behind my back, so I was surprised with a baked Alaska (which was also delicious). I had a great time.

The following night I went out with another one of the consultants, Phil, to another restaurant that was participating in restaurant week -- the Caucus Room. The food was great there as well -- I started things off with a seafood appetizer and moved on to a tomato soup. Next was Beef Medallions paired with a Merlot which were both delicious followed by a coconut cake accompanied with a sumptuous Dow's Ten Year Tawny Port. Afterwards Phil and his girlfriend Jen joined me over at Ozio where we took in some of the nightlife.

On Saturday I prepared for my next business trip which was to begin the following week. After doing a ton of laundry I was prepared for the long trip which would last the better part of two weeks. On Sunday I headed down to DC to help my friend Yoni move into his new apartment downtown. He's living one block from his office, and two blocks from where he takes classes at night -- talk about convenient. We were joined in our moving effort by one of his co- workers and we made quick work of the move. Afterward we celebrated with some Chinese food over some ice cold Stella Artois. Mission accomplished, I headed home to continue in my trip preparations and get some sleep.

Monday I finished packing and headed over to the airport to fly down to Tulsa. The flight was an uneventful one, and I got into the hotel around midnight. On Tuesday I started working and got some suggestions for places to go for dinner. That evening I went to "In The Raw" -- a sushi place with fairly decent sushi. Being used to DC prices and quantities, I was surprised when my order was huge! Everything was delicious and I washed it down with a Sapporo. The following night I made my way over to "The Brook" which was recommended as a place with good American fare and a fairly happening crowd. Their portions were enormous (I had cheese fries and a blue cheese burger) and I was unable to finish it all, but I had a good time, going back to my hotel full and contented. Last night I stayed in the hotel since I was a little tired and dined at the bar. As it turns out, the bartender was a great guy, we ended up talking until closing time.

That leads me to today. Since I'm already halfway there I decided that instead of flying home for the weekend, I would apply that airfare to visit a place I have never been: Las Vegas. I'm excited about it -- I'm staying a couple blocks from the strip and looking forward to partying and exploring all that Vegas has to offer. I'll be sure to tell some stories here when I get back -- might even throw some pictures up here -- stay tuned.

That's about all for now, wish me luck out in Las Vegas. Take care.

Quite possibly the best vacation, ever ...

I just got back on Sunday night from one of the most incredible vacations I've ever experienced. I visited my friend Sara in Orlando hitting Walt Disney World along the way and then went on a 7 Day Cruise on the Carnival Paradise hitting up the ports of Belize City, Isla Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Before the trip I picked up a brand new digital camera, the world's smallest 4 megapixel camera, the Pentax Optio S4. I ended up taking about 400 pictures and a lot of them are just incredible. Of course I can't put them all up, but I selected some of the better ones and made some photo galleries for your perusal. You can check them out here. I broke them down by the locations visited. Below is my recounting of my trip, a lot of it was written while I was on the boat, some of it has been written since I got back. Put simply, I had an incredible time. I met a lot of cool people, did a lot of amazing things, and had the most fun I've had in recent memory. For the first time in ages I didn't have a single care on my mind. So without further adieu, this was my vacation ...

Click here for my Vacation Log

The Year In Review ...

2003 has been one hell of a year. I graduated from college, entered the "real world" to a great job, made a lot of new friends and got to know the old ones a lot better. I also grew a lot personally, and was able to overcome many obstacles thrown in my path. And let's not forget ... I had a lot of fun too. This week I spent a good deal of time reflecting on the last 12 months, going through pictures and this page and remembering the good times that were to be had in 2003. To sum things up I've come up with a few lists: The Year in Pictures, The Year in Concerts, The Year in Events, and for the Rhapsody users out there, a playlist with most of the bands I saw this year.

First, let's start with The Year in Pictures. This is a collection of pictures taken during 2003. Most of them have their contents mentioned directly on this page -- some are more indirect, but it is a fun 81 picture look back at 2003.

Now, the year in concerts. All in all I saw 60 different bands in 25 concerts, some bands I saw more than once. Here's the list:

1. 3/17 Better Than Ezra (9:30 Club)
2. 4/6 Ben Folds Live, Tegan and Sara (Bailey Hall)
3. 6/26 Jayhawks, The Thorns (9:30 Club)
4. 7/2 Pearl Jam, Buzzcocks (Nisaan Pavillion)
5. 7/8 Fountains of Wayne, Ben Lee (9:30 Club)
6. 7/24 Trapt, Smile Empty Soul, Three Days Grace, Agents of the Sun (9:30 Club)
7. 8/1 Lollapalooza: The Donnas, Boy Sets Fire, Jurassic 5, Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, Audioslave, Jane's Addiction (Nissan Pavillion)
8. 8/2 Eels, MC Honky (Theater of the Living Arts, Philly)
9. 8/13 Sense Field, Hey Mercedes, Damone, Soundtrak (9:30 Club)
10. 8/19 Psychedelic Furs, Charlotte Martin (9:30 Club)
11. 9/6 Live (Live on Penn)
12. 9/10 Andrew W.K., High on Fire, Vaux (9:30 Club)
13. 9/12 Dandy Warhols (9:30 Club)
14. 9/13 Fountains of Wayne (Camden Yards, Taste of Baltimore)
15. 9/13 Evanescence, Cold, Revis (Nation)
16. 10/2 Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals, Home (9:30 Club)
17. 10/9 The All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Ozomatli (9:30 Club)
18. 10/10 Hot Hot Heat, Ima Robot, French Kicks (9:30 Club)
19. 10/14 Michelle Branch, Pat McGee Band, Dakona (9:30 Club)
20. 10/20 The Mars Volta, Saul Williams (9:30 Club)
21. 10/31 Guster, Third Eye Blind (9:30 Club)
22. 11/6 The Push Stars (Jammin' Java)
23. 11/13 Sugarcult, Story of the Year, Jackson (Black Cat)
24. 12/5 Buzzcocks (9:30 Club)
25. 12/10 Yellowcard, Matchbook Romance, Acceptance, Maxeen (9:30 Club)

And the year in events ...

• 1/1 Polly Esther's New Years with Allison
• 2/29 Skits-O-Phrenics interview on WVBR
• 3/30 Jen Kicks My Butt in Pool, Much dancing ensues
• 4/1 I complete my tenure as WVBR's General Manager
• 4/27 I MC the March of Dimes WalkAmerica
• 4/27-5/2 I'm on the air 49 hours in one week
• 5/2 Slope Day (and through the magic of voice-tracking, I'm on the air)
• 5/6 WVBR Banquet -- a tearful farewell, a stunning date, a fun after- party
• 5/12 I finish my last assignment, ever Early Morning
• 5/15 I take my last final, ever
• 5/17-5/23 Senior Week brings much partying
• 5/28 I graduate with a BS-ECE from Cornell University
• 5/31-6/1 Visit Dan up outside Philly
• 6/3 I rejoin the working world
• 6/14 McGurk and Norah get Married in Ithaca!
• 6/23 Visit Dan again in Philly with Eric and some Phillies/Sox action
• 6/30 Chris and I go to Camden Yards for Orioles/Yankees
• 7/4 Fireworks in DC with Mom
• 7/12-7/13 Dan and I do Ithaca
• 7/16-7/20 I move the rest of my stuff out of Valentine Place (can you say UHaul?)
• 7/26 I take the plunge and get Sirius Satellite Radio
• 8/2-8/3 Dan and I do Philly again as only we can
• 8/11 Allison and I do Bethesda before she heads off to school
• 8/14 Blackout hits Northeast, but not DC
• 8/17 Alumni Ed meets with the CU Frosh to answer questions in DC
• 8/23 Back in Ithaca to MC "Dump and Run" for WVBR
• 9/14 The "Costanza Wallet" is retired
• 9/16 Mom's Birthday, we hit up Jaleo!
• 9/18 Hurricane Isabel makes a lot of yardwork
• 9/27-9/30 The EdMobile gets a doctor's visit
• 10/4 I Hike Old Rag with Dad and Cornell Club of Washington
• 10/16 Zinck's Night in DC
• 11/9 Dad's Birthday, we get Italian food
• 11/14-11/15 Big All-Night Celebration
• 11/23-11/25 Tulsa Business Trip
• 11/27 Thanksgiving in Horseheads

Wow, I did a lot of stuff! Finally, for those of you who have Rhapsody I have made a playlist with 47 of the 60 bands I saw this year. You can check it out here. For those of you who don't have it, here is a text version of the playlist:

1. "King Of New Orleans" - Better Than Ezra
2. "Monday Monday Monday" - Tegan And Sara
3. "One Down" - Ben Folds
4. "I Can't Remember" - The Thorns
5. "Save It For A Rainy Day" - The Jayhawks
6. "Ever Fallen In Love?" - The Buzzcocks
7. "Do The Evolution" - Pearl Jam
8. "Cigarettes Will Kill You" - Ben Lee
9. "Troubled Times" - Fountains Of Wayne
10. "I Hate Everything About You" - Three Days Grace
11. "Bottom Of A Bottle" - Smile Empty Soul
12. "Headstrong" - Trapt
13. "Take It Off" - The Donnas
14. "Quality Control" - Jurassic 5
15. "Go With The Flow" - Queens Of The Stone Age
16. "Nice To Know You" - Incubus
17. "Cochise" - Audioslave
18. "Just Because" - Jane's Addiction
19. "Flyswatter" - Eels
20. "The Object" - MC Honkey
21. "Frustrated Unnoticed" - Damone
22. "Weekend Starts On Wednesday" - Hey Mercedes
23. "I Refuse" - Sense Field
24. "In Parentheses" - Charlotte Martin
25. "Pretty In Pink" - The Psychedelic Furs
26. "Pain Lies On The Riverside" - Live
27. "Party Hard" - Andrew W.K.
28. "Bohemian Like You" - The Dandy Warhols
29. "Caught In The Rain" - Revis
30. "Stupid Girl" - Cold
31. "Venus And Serena" - Super Furry Animals
32. "AM180" - Grandaddy
33. "Super Bowl Sundae" - Ozomatli
34. "Out Of Control" - Hoobastank
35. "Dynomite" - Ima Robot
36. "Talk To Me, Dance With Me" - Hot Hot Heat
37. "Waiting" - Dakona
38. "Rebecca" - Pat McGee Band
39. "Breathe" - Michelle Branch
40. "Elohim (1972) Part 2 25:03 Mix" - Saul Williams
41. "Inertiatic ESP" - The Mars Volta
42. "Blinded (When I See You)" - Third Eye Blind
43. "Center Of Attention" - Guster
44. "Drunk Is Better Than Dead" - The Push Stars
45. "Until The Day I Die" - Story of the Year
46. "Your Stories, My Alibis" - Matchbook Romance
47. "Way Away" - Yellowcard

I know that 2004 will be even better. Thanks to my family and all of my friends for making this a great year. Still left this year is my vacation to the Caribbean. I'm very much looking forward to some rest and relaxation in the sun. Whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope you and yours have a wonderful and safe holiday season. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to catch up this holiday season or just say hello.

Partying, rocking, giving, and counting down ...

On Wednesday I made my way over to the 9:30 Club to see yet another concert ... something that prompted me to make an listing of concerts I've been to this year. It is incredible, and I'll put it up later on this week. Yellowcard was playing, and opening up for them were Matchbook Romance, Acceptance, and Maxeen. Maxeen was pretty decent from what I heard, Acceptance was a little less so, and Matchbook Romance was also fairly decent. The main attraction was Yellowcard. I had been listening to their album on Rhapsody recently (big radio hit: "Way Away") and there are a lot of great tracks on it. They were great live. The crowd, frighteningly young, seemed to know almost every lyric of every song. Yellowcard definitely rocked ... who knew that a violin could crank like that? My only complaint with the show was that they were actively provoking the crowd to mosh and slamdance ... at one point they even had roadies out in the audience to make a "circle pit" about 20 feet in diameter where they had the crowd running in a circle at full tilt -- great if you're a teenage angst filled boy, an annoyance if you just want to enjoy the music. Unfortunately, a lot of bands seem to be encouraging people to beat the crap out of each other while at their shows. Leaving a show bruised and bloodied isn't "cool" it is just plain stupid. Nonetheless, I had a good time at the show, albeit a bit further back than I would have been otherwise.

Thursday brought the firm's holiday party. It was a great time -- top shelf food ranging from sushi to crab cake to dumplings to oysters to prime rib and open bar with only the premium stuff. I had a great time and got to meet a lot of new people. Parties are a good thing.

Friday after work I decided to go to a watering hole I hadn't been to in a long while, the Brickskeller. I had a Young's Oatmeal Stout, Samuel Smith's India Ale, and a few other British ales recommended by the bartender with a burger. While there I met some people who were visiting from Baltimore and had a hotel for the night. I directed them to the best spots for nightlife around town and chatted with them for a while then headed home to get some sleep.

Saturday night I went with Dad to a holiday party down at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Sunday, Randy stopped by for a bit.

This week I'll be going to yet another holiday party, this time with Mom for her office -- it should be a lot of fun. Also might scare up some nightlife downtown one of these nights too. Later on this week, Mom will be getting her Christmas present early ... I bought her a brand new computer and she should be getting it this week. It is faster than mine! I'll be helping her set things up this weekend along with some other things.

Finally, I'm counting down the days until my vacation to the sunny Caribbean! I can't wait to get down there, and fear not, there will be lots of pictures and stories to tell. Before I leave though, there will be more from the EdNews. Later this week expect the Year in Review -- with a recap of every concert I saw this year along with some of the most memorable moments that made 2003 the crazy year it has been.

Until then, Happy Holidays!

Seeing loved ones and reveling in the rock ...

This week started out pretty tame, had some meetings after work on Monday and Wednesday. I also met up with Yoni for lunch on Wednesday -- we got some middle eastern food and caught up. Thursday night I grabbed some dinner over at the Madhatter and struck up a conversation with a guy who was over here on business from South Africa. Turns out, he was speaking in front of USAID about the food situation in Africa. We had a great time discussing world affairs, and I have to say it was refreshing to get a view of US politics from an outsider's perspective. I also learned a lot about the political and health situations over in Africa. I've said it before, and I'll say it again ... you meet the coolest people in the city.

Friday night I joined Terry and Eric over at Cafe Asia for some sushi before we headed over to the 9:30 Club for the Buzzcocks. Talk about a punk show ... all kinds of slam dancing and craziness. The amazing thing is that the buzzcocks are old ... I'd guess 40s-50s old ... yet they still rock the house. Had a lot more power than a lot of bands half their age. It was a late show, so we got out rather, well, late.

That night I headed over to Mom's place where I spent the weekend. Got my car inspected (everything is fine) and also got a chance to spend some quality time with my dog who hasn't been well lately. He was very excited to see me, and it was good to see him too. I was treated to the delicious food from my grandmother -- a ham baked in brown sugar and some turkey in gravy ... quite good. After that it was back home to prepare for the week ahead.

In other news, I put the finishing touches on the vacation ... in addition to visiting the islands, I'm visiting a friend of mine down in Florida and she and I are going to have a blast :-) Time is really flying, and I can't wait until I get down there on vacation. Speaking of time flying, talking to a bunch of my friends still at Cornell I found out that last Friday was the last day of classes for the semester -- it is hard to believe that time passed so quickly. I guess time flies when you're having fun free from the encumbrances of homework.

This week will be a busy one with a dinner meeting, a concert, and a company holiday party -- I might even go out one night ... I'm crazy like that. As the holidays approach take care of yourselves, be safe, and if you partake of the golden egg nog (the kind that warms you from the inside) make sure you stay away from the wheel. Happy holidays and if I haven't heard from you in a while, feel free to say hello.

A week of transit, and fun (and pictures) ...

So I'm back. In the last week I have literally travelled half way across the country and back. I had a blast in Tulsa. A lot of people had told me that there wasn't much to do there, and compared to DC, they are right. However, I was able to find some cool places to visit -- I found a bar that had a great selection of wines as well as beer and gigantic portions (I had a penne pasta in a gorgonzola cream sauce with ham -- I could not finish it for the life of me). The business part of the trip was fun too, I got to meet a lot of great people and got a lot of work done. The hotel was spectacular as well. I was on the 14th floor and had an amazing view of downtown. I even had broadband in my room -- so I was able to keep in contact with a lot of you while I was in Tulsa :-) I have some selected pictures from my trip to Tulsa here for you to check out, complete with pictures of my view at the hotel, and the view from 32,000 feet. I even have pictures of the Detroit Airport ... it was truly amazing. The A terminal had a tram that looked like the Disney Monorail that whisked you down the terminal (which was around 60 gates long!). There was also a cool underground passage between terminals (I came in at the C terminal) that looked very futuristic. There are pictures of all of that in that photo gallery. One thing I don't have pictures of is the Tulsa airport ... where they had a great idea that I availed myself of ... massage. For a reasonable fee, they had a person who gave you an in-chair massage. Talk about relaxing -- really calmed me down for the trip. Also, on the first leg, I sat next to a girl who was coming back home to Detroit for the holidays (She goes to Oral Roberts University) and we had a great conversation ... always makes the trip go faster.

When I got into BWI I quickly got my bags and headed home. Dan was in town for the holiday, so we hung out for a while and caught up over a few beers. The following morning I headed off to work and reported on what happened out in Tulsa. As was to be expected, the traffic volume going into the city was much reduced. After work I went over to a great bottle shop out by Laurel and picked up some wines for the next leg of my trip, a German Riesling, a Mondavi Pinot Noir, and a Nouveau Beaujolais -- all were a great hit at Thanksgiving, but we'll get to that. So I met up with Dad back home and we drove up to Horseheads, NY to visit my Aunt. There was some traffic on the way up, but it wasn't too bad once we got out of the big cities. We got in a little before midnight and promptly crashed. Thanksgiving day we went over to my cousin Joey's place where there was a big crowd assembled for the festivities. I also got a chance to meet two of my newest relatives: John and Mikayla, two of the most adorable babies you've ever seen. John is Sherry's son and Mikayla is Joey's daughter -- I have pictures of them here along with a bunch of other pictures my dad and I took over the holiday. Thanksgiving was delicious, and it was good to see family.

Friday, after getting a couple steals on flash memory for my myriad gadgets at Staples we headed down to Ithaca. I did the Friday afternoon shift at WVBR and had a blast. It was fun being on the air again and having callers. I also did the New Rock Release -- debuting some of the new stuff I got from the Push Stars when I saw them last in Vienna, it isn't out in stores yet, but it is definitely good. After the show I met up with Sherry, her husband Joe, Aunt Karen, and Dad for dinner at Maxie's Supper Club -- I had the cajun mixed grill, washing it down witn a Stella Artois and it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, they were out of the sweet potato fries, but the cajun fries made up for it.

Saturday, after playing with the baby for bit and helping my Aunt with some comptuer issues she had been having, Dad and I made our way back home. There's not too much planned for today -- just taking it easy after many thousands of miles of travel. We are fast entering the time of office parties, holiday feasts, and general good cheer, so I'll be all over that :-) Also, my vacation is right around the corner ... so I'm reading as much as I can about my upcoming journey into paradise. Until then, I hope you have a fantastic holiday season -- drop me a line if you're in town and we can share some holiday cheer.

The news from 32,000 feet ...

As I’m typing this I am in the air over Charlottesville, Virginia with a commanding view of the Blue Ridge mountains. I am en-route to Atlanta, Georgia where I will be making a connecting flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I’ll be until Tuesday on business. It has been a while since I have written here ... so naturally there is a good amount to catch you up on. Let’s begin.

Friday the 14th I grabbed Dan from Annapolis after work and met up with Terry and some other friends for a grand celebration. We started out the evening at Buffalo Billiards where we shot some pool over beer and appetizers. There were a lot of people from Finnegan there, and Terry’s girlfriend had some friends along too that she introduced us to – it was a great time. After we had enjoyed games and refreshment at Buffalo Billiards I was joined by Terry and Stacy (a friend of Terry’s girlfriend) upstairs where we hit up the Front Page. We had the requisite round of shots at midnight and chatted for a while. We had a hankering for some quality wings, so the three of us took a cab down to Shelly’s Back Room, home of some of the best wings in the district (In my humble opinion). After a enjoying our delicious repast over some of Shelly’s quality beer selection, we called it a night. Dan and I had gotten a hotel room downtown (and what a deal we got off Priceline). The rest of the weekend was spent recuperating from that night of partying among other things.

Most of last week I took things easy ... I came down with a cold and was chugging to O.J. to speed the healing process ... luckily it worked. The office was offering free flu shots on Thursday, so I took them up on it. Hopefully that will be the last time I’m sick this year (knocks on hard wood).

Friday I decided that I would go out and enjoy an absolutely beautiful night. I hit up the Madhatter since I had a craving for one of their delicious burgers. While I was there, my friend Randy gave me a call on the cell and when I told him that I was down at the Hatter, he decided to join me. From there we made our way to the Brickskellar where I had an absolutely delicious Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout – Randy had Lindeman’s Kreik. After that we hit up Topaz, one of these cooler than thou joints with blue lighting and drum and bass music pulsing in the background ... after finishing my $8.25 Tanqueray and Tonic (gulp) we headed up to Adams Morgan to continue with the evening of fun. We ended up in Hell ... the nightclub. It is actually called that. We took a brief break to grab one of the largest slices of pizza I’ve ever seen and then went back to Hell to meet some people. Around 2 I took a cab back to the office, grabbed my laptop, and headed home on Metro.

Saturday was pretty low-key and Sunday morning I headed to the mall and picked up a new pair of Rockport dress shoes that wear like sneakers. As I type this hurtling through the sky at 600 miles an hour my feet are luxuriating in comfort!

As for what’s in store, like I said, I’ll be in Tulsa until Tuesday evening. Wednesday after work I’ll be driving up to Horseheads to visit my Aunt Karen and Cousins Sherry and Joey for Thanksgiving. I’m very much looking forward to seeing them. Since I’m going to be continuously on the road, I’ll take this opportunity to wish you and yours a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Until next time, take care, and pass the turkey.

A lot to update you on, I've been busy ...

So it has been a while since I last wrote, and a lot has happened. The Summer weather has given way to more seasonal weather, but things are still quite good. Last Thursday (the 6th) I got a chance to take my new musician's earplugs for a test drive. The Push Stars made their way down to the DC area for a show down at Jammin' Java in Northern Virginia. The show was nothing short of spectacular -- they played everything I wanted to hear (even some of the songs I shouted out from the audience) and also some of their new material from their forthcoming album (they tell me to look for it around February of next year). They were great as always and with the new plugs, the sound was positively fantastic -- finally I can listen to live music at a safe and comfortable volume without sacrificing fidelity :-) After the show I went backstage and caught up with the band. You may remember back in 2001 I interviewed them when they were promoting "Opening Time" in Ithaca on WVBR. When they were there I even drove them down to the show at the Haunt, they are really nice guys. They remembered me and were excited to see me ... it was great catching up. And for those of you out there who are dying to know .... yes, Matchbox 20 (who they toured with this summer) are really nice guys.

Sunday brought my Dad's birthday, so I took him out to a restaurant in town for some great Italian food. Other than that the weekend was fairly relaxed. It also marked the time when I completely removed myself from long term debt -- no college bills, no credit card balances, nothing. It is definitely a good feeling -- I have a lot of friends in their thirties who still have their college loans, so I feel very fortunate.

Monday was the day I finally booked my vacation -- and it is going to be fantastic. I'm going to be in the Caribbean hitting up some of the most beautiful islands around for fun and sun and also visiting a friend of mine in Florida for a few days. I haven't had a "real" vacation in years, so I am very excited. I might even get some Scuba diving in :-) If you want more details or have some suggestions for my trip, feel free to give me a shout.

Tuesday I was scheduled to see the Alkaline Trio in concert at the 9:30, but I made a detour to grab some dinner at a local bar and ended up meeting some people and before I knew it the concert was over ... but I had a great time nonetheless :-) I would not have to wait too much longer to get back into the live music scene as last night I headed over to the Black Cat to see Sugarcult, Story of the Year, and Jackson. The buzz on Jackson is that the lead singer/guitarist of the band is also the guitarist for the Foo Fighters ... and girls think he's cute ... they were decent, but not inspired. Story of the Year had their one current radio hit ... their set was ok, but a lot of their songs tended more toward screaming than they should have. Finally was Sugarcult, the band I came for. Their big radio hit was "Stuck in America" which they led the set with. They were very high energy with a self deprecating air that was funny and very self aware ... the audience was very young -- and they made a crack about that saying "thanks for coming out tonight ... and thanks for to your parents for taking you". Overall, a fun show, and the plugs worked like a charm, once again. Also while there I met a couple girls who had come for Jackson. One I talked to for a while was a wine distributor who lives in Dupont -- as it turns out we had a lot of common musical interests. She had just seen the Eels up in NYC and was quite surprised when I informed her that the opening act, MC Honky, was most likely E from the Eels (you'll recall I saw the same tour this summer when it hit the TLA in Philly). You meet the coolest people at concerts.

That brings us to today. Tonight is a night for celebration. If you don't know why, don't worry about it. If you do, call me up and join in the fun. I've got a whole bunch of friends who are meeting up with me tonight and we'll probably be partying until closing time. I hit up Priceline and got a hotel downtown (a really nice one, for about half off!) so that some of us can crash in the city and not worry about driving back. It is going to be a great time, and if you can join in, even for just a little bit, give me a call on the cell and I'll fill you in on the details.

As for the future, I've got a business trip coming up soon and I'll be visiting family for Thanksgiving. As always I'll keep you posted with the latest, as it happens. Until then, take care.

Good times, great rock, incredible weather ...

Thursday the office sponsored a happy hour with free drinks and delicious hors d'oeuvres. I went and met some people and had a great time with my coworkers. Afterward a few of us went to Buffalo Billiards to play a few rounds of pool and continue in the spirit of happy hour. While there I saw a bunch of other friends too, an incredibly happy conincidence. After playing pool we hung out for a while and I got to talk to a really cool girl I had been introduced to not too long ago ... fun times.

Friday brought Halloween and more rock. Washington's 104 organized a benefit concert with all the proceeds going to the George Washington University Hospital Mobile Mammography Unit ... basically a lab on wheels which gives needed diagnostic services that a large segment of the population would otherwise be unable to afford it. Guster and Third Eye Blind both were there, and played for free to a sold out crowd raising around 27,000 dollars. There were a lot of people in costumes ... some naughty, some nice, all fun. The winner won a diamond encrusted bra, and everyone had fun. Guster was simply amazing. They had played Cornell a couple years ago, but I was unable to go since I had a prelim that evening ... something I have been bitter about for a while now. That bitterness was laid to rest Friday night as Guster played for an hour and a half hitting their best songs, old and new. The only song I missed was "Center of Attention" ... but they played so many other great songs, I can't really complain. Definitely one of the better shows I've seen.

Third Eye Blind was another story. They only played 7 songs, played them acoustic (which doesn't fit a lot of their stuff), and didn't do an encore ... not one song. When the house lights came on, the crowd booed loudly, but to no avail. The night was over. The only thing I can think of is that they are coming around Thanksgiving, maybe Steven Jenkins wanted people to come back so they deliberately made the show lackluster ... a band of that stature should not have done so poorly. However, Guster was so good that I left the concert with a smile on my face (and a Guster t-shirt in my hand).

This weekend was positively beautiful. It was hard to believe that it was now November. Temperatures were in the upper 70s, so I took the opportunity to go for a nice long walk on Saturday. I must have walked for 3 hours, going around a couple lakes, from one side of town to the other and back. It felt good, really good actually. Walks like that can really clear your mind and raise your spirits. On Sunday, the battery in my car konked out ... but if you remember from a little while ago, I got a jump starter ... so I wasn't stranded (funny how that worked out). I took the opportunity to go over and get a new battery, and now my car turns over the engine with glee ... just whispering the word "ignition" will make the car purr with delight. I went for another walk that afternoon and then took things easy. Today was just a normal day, once again with phenomenal weather ... I ate outside and enjoyed every ray of sunshine.

Not too much planned for this week ... might meet up with some friends, will probably put in the reservations for my vacation (wait until you hear what I've got in store!), and I've got some more excitement planned for next week that is in the works, I'll tell you more as it develops. Until then enjoy the summer weather while it lasts.

Happy hours, serene natural beauty, and maintaining the ability to rock ...

It has been an eventful week, many things to update you on, so let's start where we left off: Wednesday. Bright and early in the morning I had an appointment with an audiologist. As any frequent reader of this page knows, I go to a lot of concerts. This means I get exposed to an inhuman amount of loud noise. I use ear protection when I go (something I feel strongly about ... you should too). However, the disposable ear plugs you can get for fifty cents a pair attenuate the high end a lot more than the low. The result is a muffled sound that isn't quite right. It is better than going deaf, but leaves something to be desired. So when I went to the audiologist, I had my hearing tested and got fitted for Musician's Earplugs. My hearing is "nearly perfect" and shows "no signs of noise related loss" -- this is a good thing :- ) Looks like my vigilance paid off. I should get the plugs in another week or so -- they are fitted exactly for me (she pumped a material into my ear making impressions of my ear canal ... man did that feel weird). Being Musician's Earplugs, they will knock down all frequencies equally ... so music will sound the same, just softer. I'm looking forward to testing them out (and I've got some shows coming up soon ... so that won't be difficult).

Thursday I met up with Terry and Eric at the Art Gallery and Olga, Dave, and Doc met up with us there too. After having some great conversation over the special of the day (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale ... yes, I was in heaven) we made our way over to Cafe Asia -- the new one downtown near the Art Gallery. We had sushi (about $50 per person worth!) and it was absolutely delicious. I had a Kirin with our repast and had a thouroughly wonderful time.

Friday night I headed back home to grab some things and headed down to Virginia where I met up with Mom. She had been wanting to go to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah Mountains to see the changing colors of the leaves, so I decided to take her. Everything was absolutely beautiful, the weather was cool but comfortable, and we went down from the main entrance at Front Royal to Big Meadows (where we had a delicious dinner).

Sunday we went into DC for a housing expo that the city was putting on. I'm in the market for an apartment, so I talked with numerous landlords and tried to get a feel for what is out there. We even went to a property nearby and checked out a few apartments right down in the middle of everything. There are some great apartments out there, I've got a lot of options to evaluate.

Monday night (last night) Terry and I hit up the Madhatter for beers and burgers (the special was Foggy bottles ... quite delicious with their bacon and cheddar burger).

Tonight will probably be a lazy one ... maybe get into some planning done for my vacation (I'm thinking something tropical ... if you have any ideas let me know). More concerts are in the near future too ... until then, take care.

The concerts keep on coming ...

This past weekend I took things easy and caught up on some much needed rest. I also got a new pair of shoes for work and some matching socks ... looking quite stylish I must say :-) Also took Dad out for dinner at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company where they have great food and fresh beer brewed on the premises.

Last night I worked rather late and then I made my way to the 9:30 Club. The Mars Volta was playing, and opening up for them was Saul Williams. This was quite a surprise to me ... Saul is a poet. Surprisingly, the audience really liked his poetry (the crowd was the young, angry, ever-so-conformist-in-their- non-conformity set). The Mars Volta came on after, and while they certainly are virtuosos at their respective instruments, the set seemed to ramble on. Tighness is a virtue ... they could learn some lessons. However, the sound the created was impressive -- and overall a good time was had. I caught the last train out of D.C. on the Metro and while waiting for the train to arrive, I met a bunch of kids from the University of Maryland who had been at the show. As it turns out, they missed their transfer, so they would have been stranded out in Greenbelt since they could not get on the Red Line at Fort Totten. So I did my good deed for the week and gave them a ride home from Greenbelt -- nice kids, I'm glad to have met them.

That's about all for now -- some stuff is in the works for the weekend, I'll keep you posted.

Now that was a good time ...

Thursday after work I met up with Dad downtown and we had dinner down at the Madhatter in preparation for Zinck's Night. For those of you who don't know, Zinck's Night is an annual get-together of Cornell alumni from all across the country in pretty much every major city. Washington, D.C. is no exception, and we met up in McFadden's downtown. I had never been to McFadden's before ... I had walked by many times, but there was always a line outside, and so many other great bars are nearby ... Thursday, we got to the head of the line (since Cornell Club of Washington rented half the place out) and made our way to the downstairs bar. There must have been around 200 people there, the place was packed. Much to my surprise, I actually knew a lot of people there (and being voted one of the "Top 25 Most Influential Cornellians" my senior year didn't hurt the recognition either). There were a few people from my old fraternity there and it was fun to catch up with them. There were also a lot of WVBR alumni. I chatted with John Henrehan (of Fox 5 News fame) for a while about the station and current events he had been covering down in DC. Also Lee, a former sportsie (Class of '99 I think) was there and we hung out for a good chunk of the night. I also talked for a while to Candace, a former news director at the station, who is now working in Anacostia with an elementary school out there. She introduced me to some of her sorority sisters who were there too, and I ended up chatting for a long while with a girl named Lizzie who works at "The Hill", a newspaper published for legislators and their staff on Capitol Hill -- a really cool girl who I'm glad I met. My buddy Yoni came downtown and joined us later on in the evening and we chatted with some people he knew. I ended getting the last train out of DC and I had an incredible time. Always good to meet people and exchange phone numbers and such :-) Might be meeting up with some of the people there for future happy hours -- we'll see.

Yesterday was an extremely busy day, so I decided to go home at the normal time and get some rest. This weekend I'm probably just going to take it easy and relax ... next week brings some more concerts and some other fun things that are in the works. Until then, listen loud and have fun.

Michelle Branch may have saved my life ...

Hyperbolic? Perhaps ... but I'll get to that in a bit. First, a recap of the recent events. Friday night the concert series continued. Hot Hot Heat, French Kicks, and Ima Robot were at the 9:30 club. I came for Hot Hot Heat and Ima Robot. Ima Robot opened things up and they were just as eccentric on stage as their music would lead you to believe. They were good, but their single "Dynomite" was the highlight. When French Kicks came on, I took the opportunity to chill in the lounge area for a bit. I ended up being approached in conversation by a group of girls ... they looked young, but I didn't realize how young until one of them talked about taking her SATs the following day -- amazing how many young people (and not young as in my brand of young) are at concerts these days. Hot Hot Heat was pretty good too. They played all the singles that have been all over alt rock radio recently. Overall a good time.

Saturday I took it easy, and Sunday night I met up with Dan. We went to see Kill Bill at the theatre -- let's put it this way, don't bring your kids (should you happen to have them). There are more severed limbs and gore than most horror flicks, but that being said, the movie was actually well done. I can't say there was a great plot, but there was incredible style. The movie was a theme park ride from start to finish. Afterwards, we came back to my place and put on the new Outkast record, specifically Andre 3000's disc "The Love Below" ... one of the most diverse and original hip hop discs I have ever encountered -- even more so than Stankonia. Imagine elements of Barry White, Shawn Mullins, and Saturday Night Live, with a healthy dose of Funk ... and you've only scratched the surface.

Monday I didn't have off ... but that's ok, I got a lot of work done. Tuesday it was time to hve some more excitement with the concert series ... which leads me to explain my opening tagline ...

Last summer (the one in 2002, not a couple weeks ago) avid readers of this page will remember I was in a state of constant movement. Almost every weekend I would drive from the DC area to Ithaca and back ... I drove over 10,000 miles that summer. Anyhow, when I would head back on Sunday, inevitably I would leave late in the evening, starting my 5-6 hour journey when I was already exhausted. I usually got home between 2 and 5 in the morning ... which was rough, considering I was waking up for work at 6. Needless to say, I had trouble staying awake driving home at these late hours. This was before I had the joys of Sirius Satellite Radio ... so I was stuck with what was on the FM dial. For the majority of my trek, this meant 98.5 KRZ (a CHR station), 97.1 BHT (another CHR station), and 93.7 & 97.9 X (Active Rock Station on 2 frequencies). KRZ was the one that seemed to have music when others had commercials ... and while I'm not usually a CHR kinda guy, I needed music to be blasted at full volume, windows down, with cold air blasting in my face. Auditory stimulation was key. That summer there were several songs that KRZ was playing the hell out of (and hey, I heard the station for several hours every week). No Doubt's "Hella Good" was a good one, and a few songs from one artist in particular worked their way into my consciousness. I was resistant at first, but these songs eventually won me over with their overt catchiness and the way they just made you sing along with them (particularly good if you're trying to stay awake). Of course, I'm talking about Michelle Branch. If it weren't for me blasting those songs in the middle of the summer night, I may not have had the privilege of typing this missive to you right now ...

Great Ed! So how is this relevant to your week? Calm down! I'm getting there ... So on Tuesday I headed back to the 9:30 for another concert: Michelle Branch with the Pat McGee Band and Dakona (see, it all makes sense now, eh?). I got in half-way through Dakona's set since I was stuck waiting in line outside the club to get in. Since Michelle's audience is slanted young, the bouncers were rather dilligent in their carding duties. They also confiscated cameras (I guess Michelle didn't want to be photographed). In fact, while waiting in line I struck up a conversation with two girls in front of me. One is a senior at American University, the other just graduated and is working for an organization in Georgetown. We talked a lot about music, and I snapped a picture of them on their disposable camera ... I warned them that it might be taken at the door, and sure enough, it was. Hopefully they got it back. From what I heard of Dakona, they were pretty good. Fit in with the acts that night. The main reason I went to the show wasn't Dakona or Michelle Branch for that matter, but the Pat McGee band. I had seen them many years ago on the 4th of July at DC101's Backyard BBQ in midtown (I won free tickets). Their set was amazing. They played most of their hits, with the glaring exception of "Runaway" ... but their rendition of "Rebecca" made up for it. They also played some songs off their forthcoming CD, and they were really good ... unlucky you though ... you have to wait until February 3, 2004 to get the CD.

Finally, Michelle Branch came on the stage. She had to be helped on as she limped with her arm around one of her band mates. She played the set sitting down on a stool. She would later explain that she tore cartilage 3 days earlier while playing softball. It didn't affect her playing though ... she was in great form. She looked incredible too, her dark eyes looking out into the crowd bringing everyone in with a disarming direcness and beauty. She played all of her hits, and a lot of deeper cuts, doing a little over an hour set. Most of the music was live, but some of the harmonies were patched in by her sound crew (she was singing with herself). They had quite the impressive sound engineering setup back there ... making one wonder if they were making use of some vocal autotuners. Who knows. The show was good though, and the women were out in force. I would say that it was easily 10:1 female to male ratio out there. While inside I met a flirtatious thirtysomething who struck up a conversation with me and we talked about dozens of bands that had made the rounds at the old 9:30 and the new 9:30 as well. All in all, I had a great time at the show.

Tonight after work I decided that I wanted to see the Baseball game between the Sox and the Yankees (yes, uncharacteristic, but it was fun, so stop your incredulity). The Sox won and it was a good game to behold. I had a burger and some drinks at the Madhatter and cheered along with the other fans enjoying the game that night. Now I'm here, typing to you.

I have a lot of plans for the remainder of this week, but I've typed for a long while here, so I think I'll leave them for next time. Until then, get out, have fun, and take care.

Having this much fun is a full time job ...

So when last we did our little electronic rendezvous I gave you a little teaser saying that I had big plans for the weekend. Indeed I did, however, I have been so busy that I haven't had time to tell you about it, until now. On Saturday Dad and I met up with the Cornell Club of Washington for a hiking trip up Old Rag. Old Rag is one of the highest peaks in the Shenandoah measuring in at 3,268 feet in elevation. The hike from the parking area took us up a stamina testing 2,260 feet. I can say honestly and without reservation that this was the most difficult climb I have ever undertaken. When I say climb, I mean it too ... the second half of the ascent was not over trails of dirt but over, under, and between massive boulders and through narrow crevasses. The hike took around seven hours to complete and was very physically demanding. I've done a lot of hiking in my day, and I've got to say that I felt a feeling of accomplishment getting up the mountain like no other hike I've taken. It isn't an easy walk in the park, but it is worth it. The view on this crisp and slightly cloudy day was beautiful. As we made our ascent, trees gave way to boulders and the wind picked up. Jumping and climbing from rock to rock we made ascent. Needless to say, I felt it the next day, but it was worth the effort. I took some pictures of the journey, and you can take a look at them here.

Sunday I took the opportunity to rest and recuperate ... and it felt wonderful. Monday night I met up with Kristen for dinner at my favorite Thai place in DC. We had a great time and the meal was (of course) delicious. Tuesday night I decided to go out once again, this time to see a movie. I hit up the art house and saw "Thirteen" a well done film that is also quite disturbing. The content is raw ... and some scenes are not for the faint of heart, but it is a movie that makes you think.

Wednesday night the Summer Concert Series (fast becoming the Fall Concert Series) came back with a vengance. I did a little pregame at The Big Hunt grabbing a tasty burger and some refreshing beverage, and then made my way up to the 9:30. On the bill were The All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Ozomatli, and Diffuser. I missed Diffuser (had to grab dinner sometime!) so I can't tell you how that went. I got into the club right as Ozomatli was coming on. They were a rather large group ... a packed stage, but what a sound they made. Kinda out of place for the billing, but some good music. Their sound was diverse, with elements of rock, hip hop, and even a little marching band feel ... very cool. Next up was Hoobastank (who, for my money, should have been the headliner). Quite simply, they rocked. They played all the hits you wanted them to ... and also gave us a sneak peek at their forthcoming album (dropping December 9 ... so you'll have to wait on that one). The new tracks were good, not as inspired as "Crawling in the Dark", "Remember Me", and "Running Away" but I have a feeling they will grow on me ... It was a great show, and I already felt like my $20 was well paid for ... but as it always does, my life suddenly got a bit more interesting. You see, there were some gorgeous girls in absurdly tight t-shirts asking for your name to be entered in a drawing for autographed merchandise ... and who am I to say no to them? Of course, you can't win such things, can you? Well I did. I am the proud winner of a drum head (the thing the drummer hits with his sticks) that was autographed by all four bands. Very cool. So, drum head in hand, it was time for the final show ... The All-American Rejects. To be honest, after Hoobastank, it was a letdown. The audience was teeming with pre- pubescent girls who were all in love with the lead singer. It was quite a sight ... and probably the first time I've seen a twelve year old throw herself on a mosh pit and surf the crowd ... but I digress. The Rejects played songs that every young girl sang along with ... the problem was it was the same song. Basically, if you have heard their two singles, you get the point ... just the others aren't as catchy. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad, I was just hoping for something a bit more diverse. They too played some new stuff, and that was a bit different ... same vocal style, but more acoustic this time. After that it was back home with my drum head.

Today I decided that I should get my glasses fixed over lunch (a screw had come loose and the restraining nut had fallen out ... net effect, wobbly glasses). I went to a place that was recommended to me and they took them to fix the problem and clean them up with an ultrasound cleaner. Unfortunately, the ultrasound took the scratch coating right off the right lens ... in flakes. So while I was considering the cost of a new pair of glasses, the guy there asked me if I had a minute. I said yes, and about 10 minutes later he came out with my glasses ... fixed, and with a new lens. Total cost, nothing! When I need to go to an optical place in the future, these guys will be the first to get my business. Still smiling from my happy reversal of fortune, I made my way down to get some lunch and went by a record store in its last 3 days of existence. All CDs were a buck or less, so I picked up 10 CDs for $7.50 ... and all good ones too. After work I hit up happy hour at Tuscana and met some new people. Right now I'm typing it all up for you to read. There are more concerts and fun things on the horizon, and this weekend has a lot of possibilities, I'll keep you posted. Until then, take care and listen loud.

Having both work and fun can make for some busy times ...

This past weekend I took the opportunity to get some rest in and take care of some errands. Among those errands was some much needed maintenance of the EdMobile. I've been so busy over the last year or so that I've only had the time to get in the minimum when it came to maintenance for my car -- so this weekend I decided to change that. As it turned out, it was a good thing I went in since there was some leaking going on with the transmission fluid and oil, as well as some brake wear that needed fixing. All in all, I could have bought a new computer for what I spent getting the car back into fighting form, but it was worth it ... the EdMobile rides like it is 5 years younger. The repairs took two days (I got it back on Tuesday night), so I took the MARC train into work and enjoyed the ability to completely relax on the way into work. I'd do it everyday, but the problem is that the last train comes out of Union Station at 7:30 ... way too early if you ever want to hit up happy hour or have dinner downtown. So I usually take Metro or drive in instead.

Speaking of Metro, I got a guaranteed pass starting this month so I always have a place to park (sometimes the lot would fill up, forcing me to drive in). Good times ...

Since I got my car back Tuesday night, Monday and Tuesday nights were necessarily more laid back, but I got back into the swing of things Wednesday night when I went to Tuscana with Terry and Eric for a farewell happy hour for a person who is leaving the firm next week. A good time was had by all.

Last night the Summer Concert Series was revived as I went to a concert on a whim at the 9:30 seeing Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals, and Home. Grandaddy and Super Furry Animals had incredible light/projection shows going on behind their sets and the capacity crowd was certainly enjoying their laid back tunes and antics. Home was a lesser known band, but also quite good ... a little more rocking than the headliners, but a bit less in-tune. I had a couple Stella Artois for refreshment, and tried something new, Alexandria Amber Ale (brewed in Alexandria ... go figure!). It was delicious :-) A strong flavor with caramel overtones, very rich, and recommended. There are some incredible shows coming up in the near future, I'll probably be going to many of them.

Tonight is up for grabs, but this weekend I have some fun stuff planned -- I'll fill you in soon, but if all goes as planned it should be a blast. Speaking of the weekend, on Sunday I'll probably try to watch K Street on HBO - - the show is rather cool since it is shot in downtown DC ... I frequently see places I go for lunch, to grab coffee, or bars I've frequented. Every episode I see something nearby, maybe someday you'll see me on there :-)

Well that's enough from me for now. I hope that all is going well for you and yours and that you're availing yourself of this last dance of summer ... it is cooler now (I've been wearing a jacket the last few days) but I'm determined to enjoy it until the bitter end! Until next time, take care.

What a busy week ...

The weather since I last put finger to key has been phenomenal. On Saturday, Dad and I went for a nice long bike ride across town. We had lunch at Centennial Park and biked around the lake there before heading back home. We did some more chainsawing of the fallen tree limbs and took it easy.

At work I have been getting more and more busy, which is a good thing. A lot of meetings and such. Tuesday night I headed over to Naptown (Annapolis for those playing at home in far off lands) and visited Dan. We hit up the Ram's Head Tavern and had dinner and drinks outside on their patio. There was live music and incredible weather to boot ... and it was great hanging out with Dan. On Wednesday night I went out with with some coworkers for happy hour ... and the bartender treated us right. We ended up getting a few free rounds of various shots and mixed drinks. Tonight, the office had a happy hour of sorts where they bought the drinks and hors d'oeuvres and everyone mingled. It was nice to meet some new people.

Overall life has been pretty good of late. I'm really loving this beautiful weather ... I've been eating lunch and dinner alfresco as much as possible and walking to more places whenever I can. I hope the weather stays like this for a good long while.

That's about it for now. Until next time, go out and soak in some sun.

A 4 day weekend and power tools ...

On Thursday I had to take care of some business up in Pennsylvania bright and early in the morning ... so to beat the traffic I got up at four in the morning. As it turned out, there was little traffic to speak of, so I got there with plenty of time. Afterward I headed back south to do a half day at work, but alas it was not to be. Everything in DC was closed (including my office), courtesy of Hurricane Isabel. I made it home before the maelstrom reared its ugly head. Since I had gotten up so incredibly early, I took the opportunity to take a nap, which lasted until around midnight :-) When I woke up, I looked outside and saw gusting winds taking limbs and leaves down. So I baked bread. Random? Sure. Tasty? Definitely!

This morning I was informed that the office was closed once again bright and early in the morning, so Dad and I went to Home Depot and picked up a chainsaw and brought it home to chop up some of the sizeable limbs that had fallen. Luckily both the house and my car were spared from any serious destruction and within a few hours the yard was starting to look normal again. We hit up a packed Fuddrucker's for lunch, one of the few commercial areas in town with power (our house never lost power, save for a fraction of a second or so, which my UPS easily handled). Other than that, things were pretty laid back -- did some work from home and enjoyed another day off.

This weekend we are supposed to have some incredible weather, I'm looking forward to it and am trying to find some way to do something outside. If you're around and have some ideas, let me know. For those of you still in the path of the now tropical storm Isabel, be safe and take care.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today was my Mom's birthday, so after work I took her out to Jaleo in downtown D.C. We had some tapas, ranging from soft shell crab, to shrimp, to fried shark (yes, shark), and a delectable desert. I had a spanish beer with the meal and finished things off with a nice sherry. Quite delicious. Afterward we took a walk around downtown in the incredible weather. I'm lucky to have the best parents in the world, I've been lucky enough to be able to take both of them out this week :- ) I had heard a lot of great things about Jaleo, but had never been. Mom and I were both impressed with the place and its cuisine.

That's all for now, more as it happens. Have a great week.

Much like its namesake, you just can't keep the Ed Cabic Summer Concert Series down, it keeps coming back louder, stronger, and more powerful than ever ...

As I told you earlier, I had some big plans for this weekend. Those plans involved me, three venues, and five bands. Before we get into that, let's go back to Thursday. After work Terry, Eric, and I went down to the waterfront to enjoy the incredible weather and have some drinks as the sun set over the Potomac. Absolutely beautiful out there and a great time.

Friday evening brought band one and venue one for the weekend. I went to the 9:30 and saw the Dandy Warhols. The show started at 10 and lasted until about 1 ... but you probably noticed I said only the first band ... that's right, the Dandys did a 3 hour set, no opening act. Their set was as eclectic as they are ranging from their poppy alternative hits to psychedelic journeys into sound to songs verging on country. They played their radio hits early on, and the people who came for those songs thinned out early, but the set was a nice chill change of pace. While there I met a cool girl from Fredericksburg, we chatted for a while and joked about the people who didn't realize the Dandys had a catalog of more than "Bohemian Like You" and "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth". You meet can meet the coolest people at shows ... more on that later. Anyhow, after the show ended I made my way back home to get some sleep ... Saturday was to be a big day.

Saturday, I drove down to Baltimore with Dad for the Taste of Baltimore event that was happening down in Camden Yards. It was raining on and off for awhile, but luckily most of the food and beverage was under the stadium's cover. The big excitement (beyond the delicious edibles) was the live music. Specifically, Fountains of Wayne were performing. The rain stopped just in time for them, and the show was a heck of a lot of fun. It was a short set, other bands had to come on after, but it was a good cliff's notes version of their show. Of course, you'll remember I saw them earlier this summer at the 9:30, where I got the full treatment. You'd think two concerts in two days would be enough ... think again. After the Baltimore show I made my way to the District via Metro for yet another show (venue 3, bands 3, 4, and 5) at Nation. Headlining was Evanescence supported by Cold and Revis (Finger 11 was there too, but I missed their set). Revis was incredible. I already knew a bunch of their songs ("Caught in the Rain", "Spin", "Seven") and really have been digging the album, but live they really tore it up. Most of the people there had never heard of them, but by the end of the show, the crowd was deafening and Revis had a few thousand more fans. Cold also rocked ... they are the most accomplished of the three, and have been around for some time now. Their first single off their current album "Stupid Girl" is one of those anthemic songs that you can't help but sing along with. Their current single, "Suffocate" was also easily recognized by the crowd, with thousands of voices singing along in unison. Then came Evanescence. What a show. The entire album is solid, but the powerhouse that is Amy Lee's voice seems almost unearthly on CD. One wonders, can she really belt out a voice that is at once so beautiful and bone-shaking live? Oh yes, most definitely. They played almost every track off their current CD, and Amy looked incredible on stage with her black hair in rebellious unkempt pigtails and firm bare midriff under her black top. She was rock that night, no doubt about it. Everyone there knew every word, and belted it out at the top of their lungs. Amy clearly was happy on stage ... it was nice to see that the melancholy of her songs is not all consuming. I'd see any of the three bands again in a heartbeat -- I'm glad I went. I also met some really cool people there too ... some people next to me were visiting from Richmond and had gotten a hotel for the evening in Georgetown. There were two middle school science teachers (think Van Halen ;-) and their significant others. They hadn't heard about the opening acts and asked me about them, which opened up a whole world of conversation. They seemed impressed with my encyclopedic knowledge of the rock, and we quickly started talking about the bands. Evanescence was their favorite, and we became fast friends. As the night went on I gave them some info about nightlife in DC, how to get there, and what to do. After the show I made my way to midtown and hit up the Sign of the Whale for a little post-show revelry, then got back on Metro and headed home.

Sunday brought a time to catch up on some much needed errands. I picked up a brand new suit (and yes, I do look quite dapper in it). Also, I got a brand new wallet (and even did some housekeeping ... the "Costanza Wallet" is no longer) and a stylin' new belt. Later on in the evening, I took Dad out to dinner at Blob's Park, a German place with polka music and a wide selection of beers. I got myself Jager Schnitzel with a delicious Spaten Octoberfest (in season!). The place is a blast from the past -- a very different experience, but it was fun. That brings me to now, where I'm typing in the events of my weekend. This week is relatively unplanned, so you'll find out what I'm doing as I find out myself. Until then, listen loud.

More Cabic Summer Concert Series Excitement ...

Last night I saw one of the most high-energy concerts I have ever attended. Andrew W.K., High on Fire, and Vaux were performing at the 9:30 Club, so I picked up my ticket and made my way in. Vaux started things off, and they were pretty good -- I was surprised how well they seemed to fit in with A.W.K.'s style of music. After Vaux came High on Fire ... I was not as impressed. They certainly have skill with the guitar, however the Sepulturaesque vocal distracted from what could have been something really special. These guys seemed afraid of a vocal with a hint of melody ... so they didn't really have one. They should have been the first opening act -- Vaux would have led into A.W.K. better ... however, what was about to come needed no opening act.

As soon as Andrew W.K. came on stage, the previously sedate crowd went crazy. The packed floor of the 9:30 became an immense mosh pit filled with full force slam dancing. The show rocked -- in every sense of the word. Andrew W.K. loves his fans -- and they love him back. He said early on that he considers every person who was there his friend ... "even if we have never met, if you are a fan of this music, you're a friend of mine." From the first song until the close there were no fewer than 20 people on stage ... for the huge hits like Party Hard and She is Beautiful, it was pushing 50. At times it was hard to see where A.W.K. was on-stage. But he could be heard loud and clear. He was hugging fans, getting on their shoulders, and even crowd surfing at the end. He had fans singing along on the microphones, and was happy to take pictures with them during the show. A.W.K. is what a rock star should be. His love of his fans and the music was infectious ... as he announced half way through the concert "This isn't just a concert ... if it were concert you'd be there saying 'Isn't it cool how he can be up there doing that' ... No, this is our party." There was no encore ... it is as though Andrew would not distance himself from his friends like that. He closed out with "Party Hard" with the crowd at a fever pitch, and when it was clear that people wanted more, he did one last song, "I Get Wet". That was one of the best $15 tickets I have ever purchased.

Some big plans for this weekend, stay tuned for more as it happens. Until then, I'm loving this incredible weather, having a wonderful time with friends, and doing my best to have fun. Take care.

It may be past Labor Day, but the Ed Cabic Summer Concert Series rolls on ...

Wednesday, I went to a going away party for a coworker who is going to Brussels for a month to fill in at the office over there. We went down to Tuscana for a while, then some of us briefly went up Wisconsin Ave. Good times. Friday I went with Terry and Eric, joining Pete and a friend of his at Harry's where we enjoyed the incredible weather over some drinks and food (and of course, tons of free popcorn, the Harry's tradition). When I heard that the weather was going to be like that for the remainder of the weekend I promised myself that I would do something outside ... the question was what. I was contemplating a hike up Old Rag, but everyone was busy (after all, I had only given a day's notice). So I was talking to a Cornell buddy of mine down here in DC, who suggested we hit up the last Live on Penn of the year. For those of you who don't know, Live on Penn was a concert series down on Pennslyvania Avenue a couple blocks from the Capitol Building. They had some pretty impressive acts, ranging from Everclear, to Arrested Development, to They Might Be Giants (HFS was the main sponsor -- explains that mix for you). This week, the headliner was Live -- more about the show in a second. I met up with Yoni (my Cornell friend) down at the show and he and I went over to Austin for food. Austin has Tex/Mex food and was a couple blocks away. The food was pretty good and it was great to catch up with Yoni. After finishing our repast we made our way back to the concert. Live started off slow, playing some of their newer stuff that people didn't recognize ... the crowd got a little restless. I was making a few jokes to Yoni and there was a girl behind me who seemed to think I was hilarious evidently. Her friends tried to get her to talk to me, it was amusing ... they even pushed her into me a couple times, with her blushing like crazy. Found out she was from Philadelphia there with a few friends. Small world. Anyhow, back to the show. A few songs in they started playing the hits and the crowd was totally into it. Ed Kowalczyk barely had to sing with the lyrics being belted out by the sea of thousands of Washingtonians. They played most of the hits, with a few glaring omissions: "Pain Lies on the Riverside" and "Operation Spirit". I guess the irony of playing "Operation Spirit" at the same show as their current hit "Heaven" was not lost on them.

Afterward, Yoni and I went over to the afterparty at Air, but decided dancing to drum and bass music wasn't what we were really in for, so we went over by GWU where a friend of his has a new place and we regrouped from there. We walked a few blocks over to Madhatter where the place was absolutely overflowing with young people. We drank and danced into the night, then I headed back on Metro and crashed when I got home.

This week, not sure what I'll be doing ... there are a few concerts I might hit up, probably some room for other fun in there too. Until then, enjoy this glorious weather.

Some much needed rest and rediscovery of fun things ...

Last week was like most others -- I went out on Thursday night with Terry and Eric to Tuscana. But other than that, not too much to discuss here -- not to say that there aren't things to talk about, but you'll have to catch me offline to discuss them. This weekend I slept in, a lot. It was good to catch up on some sleep. I also did a little house cleaning, getting my little corner of the world in some better order. On Sunday the weather was absolutely incredible, so I took the opportunity to do something I hadn't done in a long while ... go for a bike ride. I had forgotten how much fun that can be. Dad and I went around Wilde Lake then around Kittamaquandi. There is nothing quite like the wind rushing through your hair as you glide across the countryside. It was a lot of fun ... even the uphill stretches! Today we grilled out on the BBQ and took a walk around the lake.

This weekend I have also watched quite a few movies. From Netflix I had rented "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and what a special effects bonanza that was -- definitely makes my surround sound system shine. I also had "Pump Up The Volume" from Netflix ... a great movie from my childhood that helped make me think that being on the radio was one of the coolest things you can do -- a realization that certainly helped shape my collegiate endeavours. Watching it brought back a lot of memories from long, long ago. Finally, today on Showtime I saw a movie that I had last seen first-run while I was in high school ... Kenneth Branagh's epic adaptation of Hamlet. Clocking in at a whopping 242 minutes, it is certainly a time commitment (and one of the few movies in recent production to feature an intermission), but worth it. It is remarkably faithful to the original text, save the time in which it is set. It reminded me of why I dug Shakespeare so much in the past -- the English language can truly be a thing of beauty.

As for this week, not too much planned -- maybe I'll get the bike out again. Also, weather permitting, I'll probably be enjoying these last remnants of Summer on the grill, cooking up some delicious delights. If you're down in DC or nearby, give me a shout -- there are a lot of fun things to do in this city, and you and I should be doing them. Until then, have a great week.

A good weekend for friends, rock, and being on the air ...

On Friday morning after doing a little work from home I made my way up to Ithaca for the weekend. When I got into Ithaca I went to the station where I was almost immediately put on the air since our computer systems had fallen victim to many of the viruses propagating on the internet in recent times. I didn't have a playlist, so I got to play a lot of random stuff in the first hour or so (then they were able to give me a playlist I was able to use). It was fun being on the air again. A bunch of us got some wings (over Ithaca of course) and we got the system back up and running. We also went to test out the remote setup we were going to be using the following day. After some trial and error, we got the test setup running around 5 in the morning, and then we all went home to sleep a few hours before the big remote.

Saturday morning brought "Dump and Run" -- a cool event where they sell items donated by students leaving the previous year at very low prices, giving the proceeds to charity. I was asked to MC the event (hence why I came up) and we broadcasted live from 11:30 until 5:30 or so. I was on the mic for the first half of the festivities both over the air and on our 500 Watt sound setup that blanketed the event with rock. All in all it was a great event for WVBR, giving us a lot of exposure with freshmen and also showing that we can do an amazing remote. The sound quality was great, and we were able to remotely control the facilities back at the station so it was as if we were actually there. I even saw one of the kids I had talked to the previous weekend at the alumni event :-) It was great seeing a lot of my friends I hadn't seen in a while. In the evening a bunch of us got together and caught up over a few beers talking into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday morning I joined Matt, Chris, and Janeen for brunch and then headed back to Columbia. This trip was my first huge test of Sirius ... and let me tell you it came through like a champion. I really wish I had had this last summer when I was making the same trip almost every weekend. The reception was virtually flawless and it was great to be able to hear the same stations without static or interruption (or commercials!). When I got home I met up with Dan and his brother and we watched a movie. After all that driving I promptly crashed.

As for what is going on this week, not too much planned. I'll keep you posted.

The Cabic Summer Concert Series is unstoppable!

This weekend was pretty low-key ... a lot of sleep was to be had, and it was good. On Sunday, I went to a get-together for Cornell Alumni where we sat down and spent the evening with some incoming freshmen. I had a great time ... the new kids seemed really enthusiastic and had a lot of questions, and I really wish that someone had taken the time to get me up to speed with what goes on at Cornell -- things to avoid, things you must do, the way things operate, etc. I also put in a soft plug for VBR, who knows, maybe one of our future DJs was there. I also met some alums from the area, a nice bunch of people, and even a few in my age range. Good times.

Monday night I met up with Dan and we watched Woody Allen's first movie ... basically a japanese bond clone dubbed with American voices saying things unrelated to the action ... not recommended.

Tuesday night, after hitting up John Harvard's for dinner with Terry I headed down to the 9:30 Club with Terry and Eric where we saw the Psychedelic Furs, and opening act Charlotte Martin. Charlotte was as talented as she was beautiful. I got a chance to talk with her after her set, evidently she has been playing piano since she was seven years old. She has quite a voice and quirky lyrics set against her electric piano backing. She even gave me a signed copy of her latest EP with a personal note :-) Next up were the Psychedelic Furs. They played all the hits that you know, and a lot of songs you probably don't. Overall, it was a great time. Unfortunately, when we came out of the club, Eric went to his car and it would not start ... someone had taken the battery, cables and all, from it. After pushing it to a safe place, I drove Terry and Eric home and then called it a night.

Last night I went to a going away party for someone who has worked at the firm for many years now. She is going back to school to study Library Science, and I wish her the best of luck. We went to Shelly's Back Room where we had some beers and shots and had a great time. Afterward, I drove Terry and Eric home and made my way home by way of DC -- unfortunately there was a backup on the BW Parkway. The accident was only blocking one of the two lanes, but the emergency services personnel blocked the other one :-( so traffic went at a crawl. Once I finally got past that mess I got home and went over to Dan's where we hung out for a little bit.

That brings me to today, where I'm about to head out for a goodbye lunch for an intern who was with us this summer. Other than that, not too much to report ... some fun stuff on the horizon, so I'll keep you posted. Until then, have a great weekend.

A good week for seeing people ...

This past weekend I took a much needed break and didn't do all that much at all. It was quite wonderful. I slept in, and also took the opportunity to get some practice in on my electric guitar. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm improving steadily -- increasing the repertoire of chords I can play ... just have to practice, practice, practice. It is quite a workout for the fingers, and you realize how much it taxes them when you take a shower ... quite the burn!

Monday night I met up with Allison. It had been a really long time since I had seen her (I think the last time we met up was when we had that amazing New Year's bash down in DC ... what an awesome time that was ...). She's leaving the DC area to persue graduate studies this week, so Monday was one of the last chances I had to see her for a while. We met up in Bethesda and hit up Cafe Deluxe. I had the shrimp and grits with cheese (quite tasty) and we had a marvelous time. After dinner we hit up Cosi, where we sat out on the street under the night sky and watched countless people pass by. We both had Mint Arctic Mochas (highly, highly recommended) which were quite delicious. I'm glad I got to see her before she leaves. :-)

Tuesday was pretty low-key, did some bbq at home after work. Wednesday, I hit up the legendary 9:30 Club once again for a quadruple header featuring Sense Field, Hey Mercedes, Damone, and Soundtrak. The show was a bargain at 10 bucks (yup food and drink cost more than the ticket!) and the bands were pretty good too. Soundtrak went on first, and these guys looked incredibly young -- but they can rock. Damone is out of Boston, a rare punk band that is fronted by a girl, and they rocked as well, an interesting sound and a fun show, even if their bassist was into making corny jokes. Hey Mercedes was really good. They were very tight musically, and put out quite a sound. Sense Field closed out the show and they were pretty good as well. They played their current radio single "I Refuse" as well as a lot of other tracks from their albums. The few people who were avid fans in the audience were singing every word along with the band ... but there were not too many people. In fact this was probably the least attended show I've ever been to at the 9:30 ... and I have been to a lot of shows there. I'd estimate the peak attendance was 100 people ... and I even got seating at the bar ... which is usually unheard of. This is probably due to lack of radio exposure ... I heard of Sense Field from their airplay on Octane and AltNation on Sirius Satellite Radio ... I love how it really exposes me to a lot of different bands ... good times.

Last night I went to Tuscana with Terry and Eric and enjoyed the fact that the power in DC was completely unaffected by the northeast blackout. Afterward, I headed home and crashed, eager to embrace the softness of my bed. One more thing about the blackout ... apparently WVBR was the only commercial radio station that stayed on the air (ICB was evidently on very low power -- Cornell's campus had power on and off yesterday and as of last night my friends in Collegetown were coming back on-line.

This weekend promises to be laid back like the one that preceeded it. There are a few things that might add some spice into the mix, but we'll have to see. Until we chat again, have a wonderful weekend and take care.

So I've been busy ...

It has been a while since I last put down the happenings in my life ... I'll try to fill you in on the highlights. On Monday Terry and I met up with Chris for some of those delicious wings at Shelly's Back Room along with some frosty beverages. Afterward I drove both home, showing off the musical beauty that Sirius brings to my vehicle :-) Tuesday night I met up with Chris once again, this time hitting up the Sign of the Whale on M Street. We had some burgers and beers and had an all around good time. Things went pretty much as they normally do the rest of the week, until Friday.

I came in and did a half day at work ... the other half was devoted to the rock. Nissan Pavillion was hosting Lollapalooza. It was a great show with a lot of great acts. I bought tickets the day of, and since I was going by myself, I got an incredible seat. I was 6 rows back from the pit and loving it. The first act I saw was The Donnas. They rocked and were clearly very happy to be there. They played their two hits which the crowd ate up, along with some of the other stuff from their catalog that was in the same formula. They were, as always, gorgeous, and having a great time on stage. I then made my way over to the second stage area where Boy Sets Fire was on stage ... they were pretty decent and had a lot of energy. Also in that area were merch tables and various different causes. I swung by the Sirius Satellite Radio table and told the guy that I had just picked up the system the previous weekend and was loving it ... so he hooked me up with the motherload of free stuff! I got 2 t-shirts, 2 keychains, a hat, and a model racecar (I'm told by a collector friend that it is worth $50+). Not too shabby. After grabbing another frosty beverage at the ridiculous prices at Nissan I made my way back to the main stage where I saw a great set by Jurassic 5 where they showed off their laid back flow and played their hit "What's Golden". After another jaunt off to the second stage where I saw a bit of the set by The Music (also pretty good) I went back to the main stage and saw Queens of the Stone Age. Put simply, they rocked. Josh Homme was hilarious, saying that "this is a love song" and then cranking into the loudest most angry song they could ... he also said some funny things I won't repeat here ... it was a good, loud show. After them I made my way out into the radio tent area and got a chance to meet one of my favorite DJs on DC101, Roche. He had actually heard of VBR and was a hell of a nice guy. After that I saw Incubus -- my second time seeing them actually. This show was far better than their performance at Cornell -- a lot more energy and a fun show. The best was yet to come ... Audioslave positively rocked the house. In addition to wowing the crowd with full out renditions of their hits, they covered Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding" and The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" (which they did better than the Stripes if you want my very opinionated opinion). They left the crowd begging for more, simply put, if you weren't on your feet screaming with every ounce of your being, you weren't alive. Finally, Jane's Addiction went on, and what a disappointment. After Perry's self congratulatory patting on the back (he is the founder of Lollapalooza) the set just wasn't on it. He wasn't singing, just screaming loudly and not making an attempt to stay faithful to the songs. His was the only band that had the "Lolla Girls" scantily clad, cavorting on stage during their set ... and there was a reason -- they needed to distract people from the performance. I actually left during their last song (as did many others) ... but overall, an incredible show. If Lollapalooza comes to your neck of the woods before it stops, go, you'll love it.

You would think that after a 9 hour concert, I'd call it a night, but no, I had other ideas. I met up with Chris down in DC where we hit up a bunch of bars ranging from the Front Page to the Sign of the Whale to the Big Hunt. Only after we had given DC what they had been demanding (namely us) did we finally call it a night.

Saturday morning I made my way up to the Philly area once again to see Dan. We went into the city and hit up South Street where we had refresment at Manny Brown's. Afterward we decided to hit up the Theatre of the Living Arts (or the TLA for short) for a show. The Eels were playing and MC Honky was opening up for them ... the interesting thing is that MC Honky is rumored to be E ... the frontman and creative force behind the Eels ... you decide. Anyhow, it was an awesome show. Triple encore, where the last encore involved them running back on stage after most people had left (I was out buying a t-shirt) and playing some more music. It was a great show, and while the TLA is no 9:30, it wasn't bad either. Good times. Sunday Dan and I made our way back into Philly to watch "Dirty Pretty Things" down at the Ritz in Philly ... and what a movie. I thought it was very well done and it had a lot of great twists and turns. After the movie I headed back home. Monday after work I made my way back up to Philly where I had some business to take care of Tuesday morning -- I made it back into DC around noon and worked late into the night. That evening when I got home I hooked up my new chromatic tuner I ordered into my guitar and started tuning it ... it had gotten quite out of tune over the years. I might try to learn how to play it a bit better in the coming months ... no guarantees, but you never know.

I know this seems like a rather long news entry, and it is, but I can tell you that we've only scratched the surface ... a lot of things to tell, but not here ... so if you want to hear some good tales, drop me a line. Until then, it is back into the swing of things. Oh, one more thing ... about Sirius. I'm a huge fan of it now. The quality is great and the signal really does go all over the place. Drop outs are few and far between, and having 60 commercial free music channels is fantastic ... the 40 talk channels (ranging from news to comedy to the discovery channel) aren't bad either. It was truly fantastic being able to listen to music all the way up to Philly, even through the radio frequency no-mans land that happens right around the MD/PA border. And while I'm down in DC, I can listen to music in the mornings, which is quite wonderful. Philly had repeaters down in the 676 corridor so overpasses weren't a problem, and down in DC the 66 corridor has repeaters too (from my own testing) so the huge overpasses there don't stop the rock. I'm really digging the Octane channel, and Alt Nation is pretty good too. Anyhow, that should be enough for now ... until next time crank up your stereo, roll down your windows, and drive off into the sunset.

Hard Rock ... New Toys ...

It has been an interesting week in review. Last Thursday I hit up a happy hour show at the 9:30 with Trapt, Smile Empty Soul, Three Days Grace, and Agents of the Sun. All four were pretty good, but Trapt and Smile Empty Soul put on particularly great sets. Three Days Grace has "(I Hate) Everything About You" on some radio stations, Smile Empty Soul's current hit is "Bottom of a Bottle" and Trapt is currently dominating active rock radio with "Headstrong" and some stations are playing "Still Frame". It was a weird show since it started at 4:30 ... Lil' Kim was on later on in the evening, so the club was doing double duty. It is one of the few shows I've been to where I left the show with sunlight out there. Since the night was still young, I met up with Chris. We hit up California Pizza Kitchen for some pizza goodness and liquid refreshment -- then I went home.

Friday after work I went to a bar with Terry for some wings ... Terry had been there the week before and was raving about them, and with good reason, they were quite tasty.

Saturday, I made the plunge and decided to get myself a satellite radio. Don't get me wrong, I like commercial radio (I was on it for 5 years), but sometimes you just want to hear music ... not idle chatter, not a barrage of advertisements, just good old fashioned rock. So after doing my homework and comparing the two competing options (XM and Sirius) I decided on Sirius. The main reason is that the programming seemed to be more in line with what I'd like. They have some great alternative stations and their news and talk options are from the news outlets I prefer. Also, their music streams are completely commercial free (XM has up to 6 minutes an hour on half of their music streams). Sirius also streams their stations on-line for subscribers, so I can listen anywhere (you can also check them out for 20 minutes at a time ... I recommend Octane, Alternative Nation, and Left of Center, three of the alternative offerings). The tech on Sirius also seems a bit cooler ... 3 satellites in eliptical orbits, giving higher orbital paths over the U.S. (and by extension, less chance of interference from buildings and trees). XM has two geostationary satellites which give a vantage point which is static, however at a lower angle on the horizon since they are hovering over the equator. Audio quality was also an issue ... Sirius uses a statistical model to dynamically allocate bandwidth to the channels that need it based on the complexity of the stream it is encoding, so audio should be higher quality on average as complexities on one stream get extra bandwidth when other streams have more easily encoded information. Making the decision was the easy part -- installing it was another. I opted to get the Kenwood Here2Anywhere plug and play unit. It allows me to have it in my car, and also to hook it up to my home stereo if I so choose. I installed the antenna, routed the cables and got it up and running quickly. Installing the modulator (so I could listen to it on my radio) was more of a challenge. I had to get some adapter cables to get the Ford antenna to connect to the Motorola connectors in and out. I also had to navigate the power systems in the car ... finding which power lines were ignition (i.e. turns off when the car is off) and which were on all the time. After doing that it worked, but had a whine that was caused by a ground loop with the alternator. I made the trek to Radio Shack and installed a ground loop isolator on the audio chain, and voila! it now works flawlessly. I feel for those without my technical background ... and see why a lot of people pay to get this stuff installed. However, I can now take pride in a job well done :-)

As for what's on tap for this week ... that's up in the air. I have some fun possibilities, I'll keep you posted. Until then, I'll be rocking out to 100 digital streams from three satellites in eliptical orbits around Earth.

A long weekend and some adventures ...

On Wednesday night I made my way up to Ithaca after a joining Terry and Eric at Tuscana for a short while. I made it in around 2 in the morning and took care of some business the when I woke up later that day. I met up with Matt for lunch and joined him and some of his coworkers at Bear Necessities for a burger. After stopping by the station to say hello and check some e-mail, I went down and reserved a U-Haul for the one way journey back home. I ended up getting a 17' Truck which towed my vehicle, but more on that later. That evening I grabbed some Ling Ling and ate it over at the Cornell Plantations, watching the sun sink over the hills as I ate in the gazebo over the pond. After that I met up with Rachel and some of her friends to hit up the bars. We started at Rulloff's and then made our way to the Bear Lodge. Afterward I walked one of Rachel's friends home and headed back to Rachel's place where we stayed up talking until around 4 in the morning.

Friday I had some more business to take care of in the morning. When all that was completed I grabbed lunch at Wings Over Ithaca and then did a radio shift from 3-7. I had a great time -- it was fun being back on the air again. That evening Matt and I went to Bistro Q where we ate outside on their deck. It was a beautiful night outside, and the food was good too (I had BBQ ribs with mashed sweet potatoes and pecans, delicious, along with some Sierra Nevada) . The deck was on the inlet and the view and atmosphere were fantastic. After dinner we headed back to Matt's place where we hung out with Anna until the wee hours of the morning. Saturday, Dad made his way up to Ithaca and we picked up the truck. Most of the day was spent packing up stuff from the apartment. It is remarkable how much stuff I actually have -- I never realized until I had to pack it all away. In packing there were a lot of memories that came through my hands. My two years there were nothing if not interesting. By the evening it became increasingly clear that this would be a two day affair, so we called it a night around nine. Afterward I met Eric and Chris at the Chapter House where we had some delicious brews and caught up. We then made our way over to Rulloff's and then to Bear Lodge. Afterward I stopped by Rachel's place and we watched some TV and talked some more, then it was off to bed for me ... another long day was coming in just a few hours.

Sunday morning Dad and I packed up the rest of the stuff into our huge U-Haul truck and by around 3 or so we started to make our way down to Columbia. This truck was a monster ... 17' of storage space, but actually 24' long. With my car in tow, it was as long as an 18 wheeler. Needless to say it was not very responsive and didn't handle all that well, but it is a truck. Hills were especially taxing for this Diesel beast, but eventually we made it home where we promptly retired, exhausted from the moving activities of the last two days.

Monday morning we unloaded the truck and I returned it, going into work. That evening I met up with Chris. We went to the Brickskeller where we sampled some brews. I had a Duvel, a Jamaican Red, and Young's Oatmeal Stout (all quite good) and Chris had a Peroni.

Last night I went to a picnic with Dad where there was a demonstration of a magnetic field antenna system which allowed for wideband observation of low frequency RF ... designed for some intelligence work from what I could tell. Fascinating stuff and very cool ... they wanted to show us "before it became classified". It is amazing what can be done. Afterward I watched "This is Spinal Tap" which I had gotten from Netflix last week (and had seen a long time ago). Watching it in the marvelous blue chair was quite wonderful.

As for tonight, what I do remains to be seen. The rest of the week is up for grabs too ... a bunch of possibilities, I'll let you know which ones I choose. Until then, have a great week.

A great extended weekend ...

On Thursday night after a brief excursion to Tuscana with Terry and Eric, I headed up to Villanova once again to meet up with Dan. It was to be the beginning of a three-day weekend. On Friday morning Dan and I made our way up to Ithaca. The scenery up the turnpike and 81 was beautiful, and the weather wasn't all that bad either. Shortly after arriving at the casa, my buddy Sriram noticed my car out front and stopped by to say hello. The three of us went down to the Commons for a brief lunch at Viva Taqueria. Afterward, Dan and I made the trek up to Fall Creek gorge where we got some quality gorging on. The water was brisk and the current was strong, but it was a fun time. Later on that evening we got some wings (over Ithaca of course) and then made our way over to Matt's place where we partied with his floormates.

Saturday morning Dan and I made our way over to Treman State Park where we hit up the swimming hole there -- the water was a frigid 62 degrees, but we still took the plunge off the diving board. We also got some sunbating in (and I'm much less pale as a result ... albeit a wee bit red, but it is turning to tan fast). After we got our fill of sun we went to the Ithaca Beer Company where we got a little sampling on. They had some new brews that were pretty decent and there was a photographer for the Ithaca tourism guide that goes out every year ... we were both photographed and will likely be in next year's guide sampling Ithaca's finest! After our brush with celebrity, we picked up some burgers, chicken, and bratwurst and picked up Matt for a BBQ down in Stewart Park. It was absolutely amazing out. Incredible weather, beautiful sunset, and a good time was had by all. The BBQ was great too ... quite delicious. After filling ourselves with BBQ, Dan and I headed to the Chapter house where we met with Eric and Will for a few brews. We then headed up briefly to Dunbars, which was not all that great, so we made our way up to Bear Lodge, meeting Erik along the way. We closed the night there and hit Mamma-T's afterward. Erik came back to my place with Dan and me and we chatted for a bit, then we hit the sack.

Sunday we got some subs from Jason's and ate them overlooking Cayuga's waters at Cornell. Then we made our way back to Villanova, moving our radio from WVBR to KGB-FM to KRZ, BHT, and 97.9X which kept us company a good portion of the way back. As we got closer in we switched to Y-100 and YSP using MMR only as a last resort. We made good time and ate dinner at a nice Thai restaurant down on the Main Line. After swinging by the grocery store, I made my way back homeward, getting home just before midnight.

Today was a busy day at work, but I got a lot done. This should be another interesting week, I'll tell you more as it happens.

The Ed Cabic Summer Concert Series rolls on ...

I had a great evening ... started out with a little pre-game with Terry and Eric at John Harvard's, then I made my way over to the 9:30 for an amazing show. Ben Lee opened up the show with disarming honesty -- it was just him and a backing guitarist -- no drums, no bass, but what a sound they made. Ben played a bunch of his hit songs, with a brief break for some cell phone calls he had while on stage (evidently one was his shrink). Of course he played "Cigarettes Will Kill You" (his college radio hit for the clueless among you) and he closed out the set with a song that he called a friend on his phone to play ... his comfort with the audience made the whole set feel like you were hanging out in his basement. During a slow song he invited a couple to dance on stage, he loved his audience, and the audience loved him back ... definitely a fun show -- and that was only the opening act.

Between the two acts, I met a girl who is going to be a senior in communication at Miami of Ohio -- she works at a radio station there -- needless to say with my broadcasting background, we had an interesting chat over some frosty beverages. Then came Fountains of Wayne. I had seen them a few years back at the 9:30 -- this time they were a bit older, but still in great fighting form. They played all their hits ... "Denise", "Radiation Vibe", "Leave the Biker", "Red Dragon Tattoo" ... and a bunch of their new stuff too. Adam Schlesinger's wit shined through and the band was tight as hell. The songs were perfectly executed, Adam's voice was in fine shape, and the capacity crowd was loving every second of it. The thing that amazed me about the crowd was the diversity in ages ... there were pre-teens with their parents in the front rocking out, high schoolers wishing they didn't have the non-drinking stamps and trying to feel cool, twenty-somethings (like me) who had been listening to fountains and lee for a long time, and thirty-somethings that had been following the band just as long ... it was truly an "all ages" show. There was a double encore, and Adam heard my scream for "Troubled Times" and played it -- great song. It was a great show, and I'm glad I went (pictures may be posted at a later date).

The Ed Cabic Summer Concert Series has many more shows left :-) There are a ton of acts coming to the area, and I'm planning on seeing a lot of them. I'll keep you posted. For now, I should get some sleep. Until next time, listen loud.

Happy Birthday America ...

Thursday evening I got my party on a bit early, hitting up the Art Gallery with Eric, Sunny, and company. Afterward we made our way over to the Clarendon Grill for a bunch of appetizers (delicious) that became dinner along with some dollar drafts ... a good price for some Sierra :-) After that I headed home.

Friday morning I made my way down to Mom's place and we went into DC. It was a hot one out there ... positively sweltering. We checked out the Folklife Festival on the Mall and hit up John Harvard's for some dinner and delicious beer made right on the premises. We then headed up to the roof of her office for the second straight year and saw the spectacular DC fireworks. I have some pictures, when I get a chance I might toss some up here. Afterward we cooled off with some cold drinks at Harry's before heading back.

Saturday I broke out the portable gas grill and Mom, Nana, Frisky, and I went to Prince William Park for a little family BBQ. I made some steaks and burgers and everything was delicious. Afterward I went for a swim with Mom and got more into Neuromancer (which is a great book btw). Sunday was another lazy day by the pool ... and I got a little crispy (I guess they weren't lying about that UV index warning). But the burn is already subsiding (phew!). Tonight I finished Neuromancer (that book went by super-fast). It was the book that introduced the concepts of "cyberspace" and "the matrix" nearly two decades ago. A good read. I'm glad to finally have time to get into a book again.

This week, who knows? I certainly don't. Have some DVDs waiting from Netflix, might go out, might even solve the world peace issue ... more later.

A fun week so far ...

Friday night was crazy ... Went to Tuscana with Terry and Eric, then went with Eric to Arlington where we met up with some friends of his for drinks, then had dinner at a great sushi place nearby. I then headed back into the district and met up with Chris -- we headed over to the bottom line which had a few people there, so we went over to Madhatter which was absolutely packed with people, wall to wall. We then headed up to Buffalo Billiards where we shot some pool until closing time.

This past weekend was restful -- I slept in a lot and caught up on some much needed Zs. Monday I met up with Chris after work and we made our way down to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the O's-Yankee's Game. It was a fun time, and unlike the Vet up in Philly, the beer selection at Camden is quite nice, albeit equally expensive. The Yanks won, but it was a fun game -- always amazing how many Yankee's fans make the trek down when they play in Baltimore. Afterward we went for quesadillas and beer at Baltimore's home of owl conservation ;-) (which is much better than DC's one btw). It was packed, even on a Monday night, and a nice refuge from the sweltering heat that we endured to watch the game.

Last night I went to Nissan Pavilion with Terry and Eric for the Pearl Jam and Buzzcocks show. The Buzzcocks rocked hard, unfortunately most of the crowd was too young or inexperienced with punk to appreciate it. Pearl Jam rocked. They played a ton of hits (with the notable exception of Alive). It was a near capacity crowd and everyone was singing along with Vedder. He, true to form, was drinking while on stage, and his words became progressively less distinct -- but he still rocked. It was obvious that these guys love to play, and I enjoyed being there too :-) Nissan Pavillion took overpriced beer to a new level ... they said it could not be done, but they actually had a plastic cup of beer for eleven dollars! Luckily, there was a microbrew from Virginia that they had for six bucks a pop, and it was quite good. Afterward we went to International House of Pancakes for a late night meal. I ended up back home around 3, and promptly crashed. Tonight when I got home I went straight to bed, was exhausted from the previous night -- hence why I'm up so early now writing this.

I have pictures from the game and the concert ... you might see them posted here in the near future, along with a bunch of pictures from the past few months, stay tuned. I'm still deciding what to do for the fourth, probably something fun. I'll keep you posted. Until next time, enjoy the fireworks and have a great extended weekend.

What a fun show ...

Last night I saw the Jayhawks and The Thorns (who are the combination of Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, and Pete Droge) at the 9:30 club. I had seen Matthew Sweet many years ago down at Bohager's down in Baltimore -- opening up for him was a band from Austin, TX that no one had ever heard of before promoting their debut album "Make Your Mamma Proud". I actually bought the album from the lead singer of the band (nice guy) ... that band was Fastball who later blew up on their next album, "All The Pain Money Can Buy" with hits like The Way and Fire Escape. Just goes to show ... sometimes it is worth seeing the opening act! But I digress. Matthew was on it last night, and the melodic timbre between Matthew's, Shawn's, and Pete's voices was amazing live. Of course, just as it does on the single out on radio now, Matthew's voice shines through with hits bright clarity. Even though I only knew one of the songs they played, I thoroughly enjoyed the set.

Next up was the Jayhawks. I've been a fan of these guys for years -- their album "Tomorrow the Green Grass" ranks among my favorites. Their sensibility when it comes to constructing and executing a song is quite amazing ... Gary Louris has a voice that stays with you for a long time -- crisp and emotive with a country sensibility that isn't overly country (this band is one of the few forays into that genre you'll see me take). Their songs are tales of love gone right and wrong that everyone can relate to backed by musicianship and quality production that bring it all home. They were great last night. The Jayhawks are career musicians who bring to the stage a confidence and strength of presence that brings you in. I was close to the stage and it felt like the almost capacity crowd was a huge group of friends enjoying hearing music together. It was a good time. They played a bunch of their newer stuff -- but ended up with a few track from "Tomorrow ..." Blue was part of the double- encore, and before that was a beautiful rendition of I'll Run Away -- great show.

Before I made it to the 9:30, I had some drinks with Terry and Eric after work at Tuscana, and then met up with Chris for some food and beverage at the Madhatter (I had the rockfish, quite good) -- it was the second time this week we met up there. On Tuesday night he and I met up for burgers and drinks at the Madhatter and then made our way over to the Big Hunt.

Probably going out again tonight with Terry and Eric ... not sure where yet, but I'm sure it will be a fun time. Also, next week I have another concert in store for certain ... possibly two, more as it happens. Until then, have a great weekend and feel free to give me a shout.

A fun weekend in Philly ...

This past weekend I went up to visit Dan. I also brought up his younger brother Eric. There was some serious traffic going on Friday evening as we went up 95, but we made it in around 10 and headed on over to Chester County for a little libation at John Harvard's where we had some of their delicious brews made right on the premises. Saturday we made our way into the city for a little baseball action. The Phillies were doing a little interleague play with the Boston Red Sox. The game was definitely worth the money, 14 innings and a lot of nail biting action ... I'm not a huge baseball fan and I had a great time! The meal for the game was a Philly Cheese Steak (oddly enough, the first time I've had one in Philly). Afterward we made our way down to South Street where we grabbed dinner at a place that had coal fired pizza ... quite good, and I washed it down with some draught Sierra Nevada, quite delicious. After touring the strip for a bit, we made our way back to Dan's place where we played a game of poker ... I cleaned house :-) We reprised the goodness of the Summerfest once again, ever the perfect complement to poker. Sunday we made our way back to John Harvard's for some lunch and tasty beverages. Finally we made our way over to King of Prussia to hit up the Best Buy where Dan got GTA3, which we played once we got back to his place. Then came the trip home, which took significantly less time than the trip up had taken.

Tonight I hit up the Art Gallery Grille with Terry and Eric, where we sat outside and enjoyed this incredible weather. We also dined outside for lunch at an Indian place, I hope this weather holds up for a while. Today I got Insomnia and Sex, Lies, and Videotape in the mail from Netflix, so I might watch one of those tonight. Right now I'm typing this on the Metro while listening to Linkin' Park on the MP3 ... this is my kind of commute :-)

This week I have some administrivia to take care of ... other than that I'll be working and trying to have some fun ... you should join me!

A busy week with some fun sprinkled in ...

Since I last wrote I have had a busy week. A lot of stuff going on, some old, some new. Last night I went out with Mom to John Harvard's downtown -- their house brewed Pale Ale was quite good as was my dinner. Tuesday night I met up with some buddies from work to the Bottom Line for a couple drinks. Afterward I met up with Chris for dinner and drinks at a place into owl conservation ... or something like that ;-) It was good to catch up and partake of some tasty food. This week also marked my first week as a subscriber of Netflix. It is rather cool ... basically, you pay $20/month for all you can rent DVDs ... you have a queue of what you want, they send you out 3 at a time (they pay the shipping), and when you're done, you mail it back (again free) and they mail you the next one on your queue. They have distribution centers all around the country ... in fact the closest one to me is a one day mailing away, so the speed is pretty snappy. So far it has been pretty good ... watched Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian" and the new Harry Potter, working on the BBC's Father Ted now. I've got a gigantic queue now, so I'm looking forward to seeing all those movies I've been putting off :-)

This weekend I've got some tentative fun lined up and next week I'll probably be getting out a bit more. If you'd like to join me, let me know. More later.

A long trip, but worth it ...

On Thursday night Dan was down from PA and we hung out over some drinks and watched "The 25th Hour" on the new DVD player I picked up. It was an ok movie, but nothing special. On Friday, I made my way back up to Ithaca to attend McGurk's wedding. Friday night I met up with Matt and hung out with the rest of his floor -- we had a good time and it was great getting a chance to see him again. The following morning I made my way to Sage Chapel all spiffed up in my suit. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Norah (the bride) was stunning, and Mike looked sharp too. The remarks made were fitting and really made the event special, and I feel lucky to have shared in the moment with Mike and Norah. In a classic McGurk moment, during the recessional the organist played "In a gada da vida" -- McGurk rocks. Afterward we made our way down to Taughonnack Park where they had rented out the North Point Pavillion. It had started raining as we drove down there, but suddenly, as soon as we pulled up in sight of the park the sun came out and everything remained clear for the rest of the day. The event was catered by Dinosaur BBQ -- some of the best BBQ I have had in ages, completely delicious and falling off the bone. On tap was Bass along with the other standard bar fare ... needless to say I had a great time. It was good seeing Gurzo again and catching up ... also got a chance to hang out with a bunch of McGurk's friends ... it was a wonderful time.

This morning I headed out from Ithaca bright and early to make my back down to DC for the annual Cornell Picnic out in Potomac. I've been going to it for as long as I can remember, and it was a good chance to meet some alumni ... including some people from the class of 2003.

This week is pretty unplanned, I'll probably be doing someting fun, and I'll probably fill you in as it happens. I'll be working my magic at work and making the web a better place for mankind ... If you're nearby and you'd like to engage in some random fun together, give me a shout. Until next time, Happy Father's day ... I know I've got the best one on the planet, I'm glad I got to share the day with him.

I've been busy ...

Finally getting things in order at my place now, things are looking good. As for last week I went out with some friends from work to the Art Gallery Grille for some drinks after work, then we made our way to the Bottom Line for some more drinks and revelry. I got a chance to meet Terry's girlfriend and the three of us went to Star of Siam for some late night thai food. Over the weekend I went to visit Mom and got some much needed sleep.

A lot of fun in store for the rest of this week and the weekend, I'll tell you more later.

What a great weekend ...

I went up to visit Dan outside Philadelphia this weekend. He has a job this summer with a defense contractor and is staying up on the campus of Villanova University. I made the trek up there on Saturday afternoon and we headed down to Philadelphia to enjoy some of the nightlife down on South Street. Aftterward we bought a case of Sierra Nevada Summerfest (thanks to the archane liquor laws in PA) and got a movie "Roger Dodger". The beer was excellent as was the movie. Sunday we saw the Italian Job -- a fun escapist flick -- later we went back into the city and saw a Phillies game where we got in free (a good story on how we did that, but I'll leave that one to tell in person). The home team won against the Expos in a rather close game. I then headed back home making fairly decent time.

Today brought my first day back at work. It was good to see all my friends at work again. Tonight I saw "Finding Nemo" with Lisa -- the animation was amazing, and the story wasn't bad either. A fun movie. As for the plans for this week, it is pretty much wide open. I've got a bunch of people I have to meet up with ... so I'll be doing that most likely. I'll also continue settling in and getting back into the routine.

Until next time, I'll be the one rocking out on the Metro.

"Got my paper and I was free ..."

I now have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University. I am done with school. I graduated this weekend, getting my degree on Saturday and making it official at Commencement on Sunday. Mom, Dad, my Grandmother, and my Aunt Karen all came up to see me and we had a great time. On Saturday we hit up the Boatyard Grill for lunch and went to Taughannock Falls afterward. In the evenings, Eric and I did much celebrating and generally had a good time. Friday night brought the last of the EdCasts, I miss DJing already, but I had a good time on Friday. That evening Mom and I went to the Sushi place up by Pyramid Mall ... the food was decent but the service was lacking. Thursday night brought the College Ave. block party -- what a huge party that was. A whole bunch of us pre-partied at Foster's place and then we made our way up College Ave. It was swarming with people and I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time. The cops shut everything down around 2:30, so Eric, Stephanie, and I headed back to my place for some drinks and movies.

Since we've been going in reverse chronological order so far, I'll go forward to give a little extra added value. Monday and Tuesday were big packing days for me. Still have some more trips to make, but most of the essential stuff has been moved ... I'm heading up there in a couple of weeks for a wedding anyhow. I hung out with Chirag on Monday night and we had a good time catching up. The ride down was fairly uneventful, lots of KRZ, BHT, and 97-9X. I've been spending the last couple days getting myself more moved in, it'll take a while, but things are slowly taking shape. I'm back on the internet and on IM occasionally. I start work Monday and from there, who knows.

I'll keep you posted.

Oh the partying ... yes, the partying ...

Wow, it has been a fun last few days. Sunday brought another great Rock n Roll Extravaganza. In attendance were Sean (briefly), Rachel (briefly), Brad, Brian, McGurk, and of course myself. We played all kinds of great rock, and you missed it, you missed out. On Monday I decided to take a nice long walk after I got up. I walked all the way to Cayuga Heights and back from my apartment. It was an absolutely amazing day, perfect weather. That night I met up with Eric, Will, Miranda, and so many others and we all had some pizza while watching Spiderman on TV. Later still most of us headed over to Foster's place where we drank and had an awesome time. Once 1:20 rolled around, we made our way up the hill to see "Old School" on the slope. I brought my beach blanket and a bunch of us saw the movie under the incredible night sky (completely devoid of clouds and absolutely beautiful).

Tuesday I headed over to WVBR to take care of some stuff I had been meaning to do for a while. I also got a hair cut and a delicious ten year tawny port which was enjoyed thouroughly. It was raining outside, but I was determined not to let that "rain" on my parade. I made my way up around 11:30 to the Eddy Street block party, but it was going kinda slow. I went up to Dino's where I saw a bunch of my friends from ECE. We hung out and closed the place, then made our way down to Eddy street. It had picked up somewhat and I happened upon a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in ages place. At Jen's place on Eddy there was much drinking and catching up. I had a really good time.

Today I slept in quite late, it was delicious. I will be going into the station today to help a new trainee with her aircheck. After that, who knows. Whatever I do, it will likely involve drinking, partying, and celebrating the upcoming graduation :-)

If you're in town and you want to hang out, get in contact with me. We should have fun together. Until then, take care.

What a great start to Senior Week ...

Yeah, so I've been having fun. Friday night I met up with Matt and Brad of WVBR. We watched some movies and listened to some music over some frosty beverages. Afterward I hit up Dino's and met up with Rachel, afterward we hung out at her place and caught up. Saturday morning I had brunch with Abby -- ahh the deliciousness of CTB and the greatness of the best company around :-) For dinner I met up with Eric, Chris, Jeff, and a bunch of the guys from Last Call (around 10 people in total) -- we barbecued in Stewart Park where we had a ton of burgers and dogs. Afterward we headed over to Chris's place where we pre- partied for the Senior Carnival. When we got up the hill I saw a lot of people I knew, and we played a round of laser tag in a green inflatable alien ... who won? Do you even need to ask! My team of course! After much chatting with friends I got home around 4 this morning and crashed.

Today is a big day, I'll be training high school kids how to use Pro Tools at WVBR to make all kinds of audio magic. Tonight at 6 I'm the guest on This Sunday where I'll be interviewed for 45 minutes about my experiences at WVBR, should be fun. I'll probably be on the Extravaganza tonight giving you some music I think is cool, and if I'm lucky, I might convince Abby to bring some music in too :-)

This week should be a lot of fun ... not much planned, but so much possibility and excitement abound, you should check back in. And, if you're in Ithaca, you should contact me! We should get a drink, lunch, dinner, or something like that. Let's have fun!

Done ...

Today's oral final in Microelectricalmechanical Systems marked the end of my college pursuits. No longer must I study, do homework, take exams, or do any of the other stuff that has filled the last two decades of my life. It feels good. This afternoon I celebrated with Sriram, Vishal, Diksha, and her friend Rachel. We had lunch outside at Simeons (before it got cloudy) and we had a few beers to celebrate the completion of our academic careers. Tonight I was walking through Collegetown about to stop by to get some bubble tea when I saw Abby drive in ... we got some bubble tea together and took it back to her place where we watched a classic episode of Seinfeld. Later tonight I'll probably meet up with some friends and celebrate some more. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting up with Abby for brunch and then rocking Ithaca from 3-7 after training a new jok who will be on-air over the Summer. Other than that, my time is completely my own, so if you'd like to grab a drink, get some food, or just catch up, let me know. I'd love to hear from you :-)

That's all for now ... I'll be the one dancing in the streets!

Two Down, One to Go ...

Food Science 150 and History of Rock have formally come to a close. I tore through both exams with lightning speed and I think I did quite well, especially on the rock. I also took a cooking class, which was quite excellent, that finished the last week of classes. Overall it has been an interesting semester with a lot of classes I've wanted to take for a long time. A good way to end things.

This afternoon Abby and I grabbed lunch and spent the afternoon together. She looked incredible as always and made me grin like an idiot all afternoon :-) Tomorrow brings my last final ... ever. Also tomorrow night is the first full lunar eclipse in 3 years. Schedules and weather permitting, Abby and I might go up a place with a good view and watch it. We'll see. Then comes a great week of spending time with all my friends and going out all the time! Senior Week! If you'd like to join in the revelry give me a shout. Until then, it's off to hit the books for the last time.

Almost done ...

Yesterday was a long day in the lab. We are almost done with the last assignment I will ever have to complete, in fact, it should be done tonight if all goes well. I took a break at lunch time to grab something to eat and was walking in a daze in Collegetown when all the sudden I was kissed by a beautiful girl ... when I snapped out of my daze I was pleasantly surprised to see it was Abby :-) We ate outside of Rulloff's, I had the tacos and she and I shared a delicious tiramasu. I'm glad we bumped into each other!

Friday night was a lot of fun too ... we had another VBR party and I ended up partying until around 4 in the morning! Good times ...

Today, I'll be finishing up my paper and studying for some finals (I have 3 of them this week). Other than that just enjoying my time and looking for fun things to do. Until next time, take care.

Fun times ...

I had a productive day. We made some significant headway in the paper, I am pleased with it so far. Also this evening I brought a bottle of Hermann Weimer Semi-Dry Riesling over to Abby's place and we shared it while watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was a cute romantic comedy, but the company took the cake :-)

Tomorrow I'll be on the air from 3-7, listen for the new intro to the New Rock Release. Also tomorrow night I'll probably make an appearance at another VBR party. It should be a great time as always. Speaking of parties, I know a lot of you checked out the pictures from the VBR banquet. I added a link to Mark's page where he has some of his pics from the night -- if you follow the link from the previous entry, you should be able to link through.

This weekend will bring the conclusion of the last paper I ever have to write at Cornell and also a bit of studying for my finals -- I'll probably also get some fun in there too :-) Until then, take care and give me a shout if you want to do something fun!

I am deeply honored ...

On Tuesday we had the WVBR Banquet down at Turback's. Abby was my date, and she looked positively stunning as always. We had a great turn out (I think the last count was 41 people) and a good time was had by all. The meal was delicious and the company was fantastic. I was deeply touched by the speech that Matt made about me, I received a standing ovation from the staff and got choked up ... I am so lucky to have worked with such a wonderful staff, their kind words mean a lot to me. Abby and I had a great time at the banquet. But the fun didn't stop there. There was also an afterparty at my place, and somehow, we were able to fit a ton of people in my apartment. There was a lot of silliness from both the banquet and the party that we caught on our digital cameras ... you can check out some of the fun here.

Earlier in the day I met up with Abby and we got some smoothies from smoothie hut and enjoyed them in the stone bench near the falls in Cascadilla creek. Afterward we spent some time together at her place watching TV and relaxing. Wednesday was pretty laid back. My keyboard died, so I got a replacement. I also caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while who was doing a shift at the station. Then at 6, I attended my last BOD meeting for WVBR.

Today I have a lab meeting where we hopefully will crank through the last assignment I have remaining here outside of finals. Friday I'll be on the air as usual, and will likely be at a WVBR Party in the evening. Abby and I will probably do something fun in the next few days, and I will probably study in there too for my finals. If you feel like doing something fun, let me know.

What a beautiful day ...

Yesterday was positively gorgeous. Warm weather perfect for walking everywhere. I slept in a bit and then headed over to the station where I worked on a new intro for the New Rock Release. It is with our voice guy, and it is funny and edgy. Feel free to take a listen and let me know what you think. Then as the evening came around I met up with Rachel from WVBR who was just turning 21 at midnight and we went out and celebrated at the Palms. I had a fun time and got to meet some of her friends while enjoying the mellow goodness of Harp Lager. Today is another low- key day. I am getting excited for tomorrow. It will be good to see the WVBR kids at the banquet, and being accompanied by one of the most beautiful girls I know is always a plus :-) It is hard to believe that I'm almost out of here.

That's about all for now, more later.

That was a lot of fun ...

So I haven't written in awhile. Mostly because I have been crazy busy and having a really good time. A lot of stuff happened, so I'll try to get into it. One warning, with the lack of sleep, dates might be a little off (I slept about 5 hours last week). But fear not, I'm rested and ready, so let's get started.

The shifts were a lot of fun. All told I was on the air in one way or another for 49 hours. I had a lot of people who recognized me on the air, got a lot of positive feedback (you'd be surprised how many people have told me I should DJ professionally), and I had a really good time doing it. It was a lot of work mind you, but everything went off without a hitch, and no one who heard the voicetracked portions was the wiser. I even had a person who works at VBR call in while I was "on the air". She and I were later chatting and she got a busy signal a bunch of times and was remarking that I "must have had a lot of callers" since she could not get in. I fessed up the truth, that I wasn't actually there and the phone was off the hook, and she was kinda amazed :-)

When I wasn't on the air I was in class, programming more music, or hanging with Abby. I had the singluar distiction of taking a prelim while I was on the air, that may be a first. On Wednesday Abby wasn't feeling well so I brought her up a smoothie and we hung out for a bit. Those Big Reds from Smoothie Hut are too good! Wednesday was one of my sleepless nights at the station, but energized by the smoothie, I was unstoppable. In fact, I would be up Thursday night too programming music. It was one of the longest multi-day all nighters I've pulled, but for some reason I stayed remarkably coherent. Crazy.

Friday brought Slope Day. This year it would have been a total bust if I hadn't spent it with some awesome friends. They changed everything this year. They made it into a catered event and the ID tent was woefully understaffed. Beligerent drunks were pushing and shoving to get drink tickets and get identified. I think Cornell did this intentionally. By having such an inefficient system, they could slow consumption of alcohol, and by egging on the kids, they give themselves reasons to never have it again. Luckily, I was able to get through the thicket of unruly kids and get my tickets (being 6 foot 2 has its advantages). Before I got there I was met by Matt, Kevin, and Chris (back up from DC) who came over to my place to pre-party. We watched some TV, had some beers, and then made our way up to the slope. Once up there we fought through the lines for ID, I was the only one who actually got tickets. Once on the slope we saw a lot of kids from VBR and ended up hanging out with John and Joslin. Once we had our fill of Slope Day, we headed back to my place and watched some TV for awhile. We then decided to go to the station briefly and then to Maxies Supper Club where we had an incredible meal (in attendence was Matt, Chris, John, Joslin, and of course, myself). I had the shrimp and grits that I love so much along with the sweet potato fries. I accompanied that with a Bitburger Pils and had a nice 10 year old port for desert. After our sumptuous repast we returned to my place where we watched "The Sweetest Thing" off my Digital Video Recorder. After taking everyone home, I promptly passed out -- 3 days of wakefulness had come to a close. The next day (Saturday) I woke up and did some much needed laundry. When I got back home I contacted Matt and decided that it was a perfect day for a BBQ. We rounded up Sean and his girlfriend and Dan to join us down in Stewart Park where we used my grill to make some of my world famous steaks. They were, as always, delicious, and we had a really good time. Afterward Matt, Dan, and I headed back to the station where we were doing some preliminary work for renovations that we'll be working on this summer. After that I headed back home and got in contact with Erik, who came over and shared a bottle of port that he had gotten me at a deep discount (he works for the liquor store) while we caught up and had a great time. We stayed up chatting until 6 in the morning!

In the future, there is a WVBR Banquet on Tuesday down at Turbacks, I'll be there, and the beautiful Abby will be my stunning date :-) There should be an afterparty ... and it is looking like it might be at my place. We'll see. Other than that, my week is pretty empty. Abby and I might go hiking once the parks open up ... she even told me she wants to teach me how to horseback ride, so I might be learning that! I'll probably be breaking out the grill too. I'm going to try to have as much fun as I can, see as many friends as I can, and generally enjoy these last few moments in Ithaca. If you want to meet up, hit the bars, hang out, bbq, or pretty much anything you can think of, let me know.

The sun is about to rise ...

I'm here at the station, where I have been all night. Have been working on playlists for air, laying down voice tracks and setting up the breaks. I go on air in just a few minutes. I'll be live from 6-8:30 this morning and on the air electronically from 8:30-3. Today I'm going to try to finish up the last lab I have left to do, ever. Also, I have a presentation that I'm making at 4:30. This evening I'll likely lay down the rest of the tracks for the week. I will be live for the remaining two mornings (6-10) and voicetracked for the midday (10-3). On Friday, I will also have my normal cast (3-7), I'll be voicetracked as I'll be on Libe Slope for Slope Day. On Friday I will be "on the air" for 13 consecutive hours. All in all, I will have been on-air 49 hours this week -- and I didn't miss a single class :-)

As I'm sure you can guess, I'm going to try to get some sleep whenever possible, other than that, not too much planned. More later ... enjoy the rock.

Is this surreal or what ...

So I did the morning show this morning, but I had to attend a class at 9 ... so I voicetracked the remainder of the show, and also the midday which I was covering too ... so I've been listening as I'm on campus to make sure everything goes alright. What is eerie about it is, I'm listening to me, on the air, but not really on the air. Kinda crazy. It is truly amazing, there is no way that you'd know I wasn't there right now. Technology is a beautiful thing. I'll be on the air tomorrow morning, in person, from 6-10 and possibly electronically from 10-3. In fact, that is how it will be all week. Friday I'll be on even longer as I'll be voicetracking the EdCast and New Rock Release -- 13 consecutive hours on the air ... wow.

The weather is amazing outside, completely incredible. It is supposed to be in the seventies today, and I believe it. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous this week, and if it keeps up, I might break out the barbecue ... I can taste the steaks now :-)

Academically, things are winding down (as you'd expect the last week of classes). I still have a lab and a group research paper left, as well as a paper for another class that shouldn't be too bad. After this week, things should be smooth sailing and I should have more time on my hands (knocks on hard wood). Between voicetracking another 24 hours of rock and work for classes, this week will be a bit light on sleep. However, I plan on getting some fun in there somehow ... if you have some good ideas let me know. Until next time, I look forward to waking you up in the morning on WVBR.

Wow, I got busy fast ...

My last week of classes starts Monday and I've got a lot of stuff to do between now and Slope Day. Some papers, projects, and other such excitement on the academic side, and a hell of a lot of WVBR. Jeff Mix is on vacation next week, so I'll be filling in each and every morning. Our midday jok has not been well recently either, so I will also be voice tracking the midday shifts (just in case he can't make it). If all goes as planned, you won't be able to tell that I recorded those parts beforehand. I'll also be voice tracking the Friday EdCast (since I'll be on the slope). All told, my voice will be on the air between 24 and 49 hours this week.

Speaking of WVBR, Brian and I went up last night and replaced the exciter (it looks like they actually fixed it for real this time). We also replaced an equalizer, bringing Real Rock Radio back into the stereo domain.

I've also been trying to see Abby whenever our schedules sync up, we caught up for dinner earlier this week (I brought over Ling Ling, and it was delicious). We might go barbecuing tomorrow if the weather permits, we'll see. Also tomorrow, in the morning I'll be MCing the March of Dimes Walk America. I'll be down on the Commons from around 10-Noon playing music and spreading merriment and mirth. There is also a Guild meeting around 2:30 that I'll be attending, then it is off to sleep for me, as I'll be getting up at 4:30 in the morning! Tonight will be another night in the lab, likely followed by laying down some tracks for the Monday midday. Be sure to tune in next week, I'll be on a lot.

Sometimes life can be rather good ...

Things have been going my way recently and I've been in a rather good mood. On Wednesday I had my shift and a group meeting preceeded by free lunch at Phillips ... but then Thursday turned out to be the start of what has been a remarkably good last few days. Everything was kicked off by some good news I was given ... I celebrated with some champagne and visited Abby who joined me in the celebration :-) She made a delicious hypnotic martini and we watched 8 Mile until the wee hours of the morning -- we had an awesome time together. Friday brought another EdCast where I was feeling great -- I had a lot of fun callers and had a blast doing my shift. Afterward I met up with Matt and Dan at RPU where Dan bonused me in for dinner (thanks Dan). Afterwards we went back to the station where we did a little work and I also played a bit on Pro Tools (you can make some really cool stuff on that program). After leaving the station, my buddies Sriram and Chirag came over to revel in beer, wings, and premium television. It was a fun time. This morning I woke up early so I could teach Emily how to use Pro Tools ... we made a fun answering machine message for her and I showed her how to make audio magic.

This afternoon I've been cleaning up my apartment, a little Spring cleaning I suppose -- things are starting to look a lot better. Later tonight Abby and I might go out for drinks and/or dancing if we get caught up on work. Tomorrow I'm visiting my Aunt Karen and Cousin Joey to join their families for Easter. Tomorrow night I'll be on the Rock and Roll Extravaganza from 11-2 spinning some cool stuff (still have to work on what I want to bring). Other than that, not much planned ... if the weather stays nice I'll probably do some barbecuing and visit some parks around town. I also have some friends who want to meet up for drinks, so I'll try to get that in there too. If you have an idea for what I should do, let me know.

What a beautiful day ...

On my way back from the post office (dropping off the aforementioned taxes), I picked up lunch and brought it to Stewart Park. It was absolutely gorgeous out there ... blue skies, beautiful water, and seagulls swimming about. It is good to finally see the start of Spring (and hopefully those rumors of cold weather later this week don't have any truth to them). It was in the upper 80s this afternoon and there were a lot of people sunbathing and playing sports outside. It is one of those days that makes you glad to be alive. Get out from behind your computer and go outside, it is incredible out!

There are few certain things in life ...

It's April 15, and since I'm writing this, I can't be dead, so it must be taxes. I finished mine up today -- 2002 was my best year to date fiscally, and Uncle Sam certainly takes his share. Since I last put finger to key a lot of things have been happening. I went up to the transmitter site at the station with Brian to fix some audio equalization issues. Also I've been double shifting at the station recently, so you can get twice the Ed in your week. I'll be on this Wednesday and Friday at the normal time.

This weekend I took some time to relax a bit. On Friday, Erik joined me at my place for some movies and beer -- we had a blast and stayed up quite late. Saturday I slept in late and pretty much laid low -- in the evening I joined Matt at the station and worked on a advertising kit for student sales. I went all out on the production of this and am quite proud of it ... it is one of the most technically demanding pieces I have done. You can take a listen here. Let me know what you think of it. Sunday brought some meetings at the station and some work on my taxes. Monday brought some warmer weather -- I stopped by the Cornell Dairy Bar and picked up some ice cream in the afternoon to help combat the heat of the sun. Today has brought much of the same -- the high today is supposed to be around 80 and it is absolutely gorgeous. Looks like it is time to break out the grill :-) If you would like to go barbecuing with me, let me know.

As for what is on tap this week, I have a couple meetings at the station this evening, a shift on Wednesday from 3-7, working on a project Thursday, a shift on Friday, and random fun on the weekend. In fact, I'll probably be on the Extravaganza next week filling in for McGurk 11-2 on Sunday night ... So look for some cool music from my archives. If you have any suggestions, give me a buzz. Until next time, I'll be out enjoying the weather.

Good times, great rock ...

So a lot has happened in the last few days. On Friday I went to that bar tab and had a great time. I hung out with Abby most of the evening and saw a friend from one of my classes, Eric stopped by too. After partying well into the evening, I headed over to Eric's place where we reveled in wings with a requisite serving of beer while watching Signs ... spooky flick.

Saturday was a low-key day where I slept in quite a bit after the long evening out and basked in the pale blue glow of the television ... I would need my strength, for the rock was coming on Sunday, and it would not take no for an answer.

I was wise enough to get my tickets for Ben Folds Live early ... they sold out rapidly with good reason. I had seen Ben many years before down at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. I remember it was an amazing set with Jude opening (who I got to meet outside in-between sets, nice guy). This was back when Ben Folds was a part of Ben Folds Five (which actually was 3 guys ... he's got a sense of humor). The show then was incredible and laden with energy. The show on Sunday would be much the same -- only in Bailey Hall on the Cornell Campus. Tegan and Sara were opening for Ben Folds this time -- less inspired than Jude was those many years ago. They are a Canadian sister combo with a quirky vocal style and a confessional stage presence. Certainly not bad, but I wouldn't buy the CD. After their set, Ben came onto the stage to a standing ovation. This was an audience who clearly knew almost every song he had ever written. Ben was more relaxed than he had been down in DC. Clearly in the years and albums that seperated the performances he had become more comfortable in his skin and more confident in his musicianship.

He started immediately into a song and the audience got into it from that first moment. A couple songs in he started talking to the audience ... not in the forced and uncomfortable way that Tegan and Sara had earlier, but in a way that made you feel like this is a guy you'd want to hang out with. He told the audience the story of how his publishing company essentially held his royalties hostage until he would write 4.6 songs that his contract required. For a long time he refused to listen to them, he didn't want to write songs that he was not happy with. However, one day he decided to just write something and "crap" the songs out. The resultant songs were not ones that were recorded, save one, which he refused to mention because he didn't want to taint the audience's view of it (if you want my guess, it would be Rockin' The Suburbs). He played some of those unrecorded songs which had the rapier wit that is characteristic of so many of Folds' songs. One that sticks out in my mind is one that had the chorus "one down, 3.6 to go", called One Down (on the Ben Folds Live CD). The clichés were present throughtout, and everyone in the audience was laughing. We were also treated to a song that he claims he tried to have his publishing company shop out to boy bands ... you can guess how that one went!

The show continued with a mixture of the ballads that made him famous and the quirky hits that everyone loves. Folds was able to make an incredible sound with just a piano and his vocal chords, but frequently, he got the audience involved to sing choruses and provide vocal flavoring. He played for almost two hours, there were some notable omissions in the set list. Among these were Brick, Song For The Dumped, and Rockin' The Suburbs. The crowd loudly demanded an encore, and we were treated with his rendition of Tiny Dancer. Finally we were left with Underground, which the devout in the audience belted out with reckless abandon. If you haven't seen Ben Folds Live, you should, it is a hell of a ride.

This week is a lot of the same old stuff for me ... labs, papers, and being on the air. I'll keep you posted. Until then, turn up that music.

An interesting week so far ...

On Tuesday we had the WVBR Annual Meeting, which was my last as General Manager and President of WVBR. I passed control of the corporation into the capable hands of Matt. As I mentioned earlier, I have been honored to serve as WVBR's GM/President for the last year and I'll miss being at the helm, but it was a great time while I was there. I will be continuing as Chief Engineer and as a DJ until I graduate. In fact, today I filled in for the Wednesday shift and had a blast. Also this evening, I went up with Brian to the WVBR transmitter site (very muddy up there tonight) and we made a few modifications to get us sounding wonderful again. Afterwards I came back to the studios where my friend Natalie was doing her shift. Natalie moved back to Washington (state) last year and she came back to visit for the last week. I had actually seen her one night at Appel Commons where I was having dinner with a class I am taking ... small world. We caught up and talked about music and a lot of other random things ... it was good to see her again :-)

This Friday I have another EdCast with a fresh New Rock Release. I also have been invited by Abby to her sorority's bar tab/mixer that night, so I might drop by and meet some new people. Other than that, not too much planned ... so if you want to do something fun, let me know.

What a great night, what a busy week! ...

Last night was incredible. After having one of my best shifts in memory (lots of callers and I was in a great mood), I met up with Jen. We went to Plum Tree and got a huge sushi and sashimi plate for two along with some sake bombs. Everything was delicious. Afterwards she and I got some bubble tea and headed to Dino's where she showed her prowess at the dart board over a Lindeman's Kreik that we shared. After Dino's we headed down to the Chariot where we played some pool and I saw a bunch of friends of mine. Once we finished our round of pool it was off to Republica where Jen and I danced the night away. It was an amazing time.

Earlier in the week I filled in for the Wednesday midday and took care of a lot of WVBR business. The week was filled with a lot of work, but luckily I got through it :-)

This week will bring a prelim and a problem set ... should keep me on my toes. I'm also going to be meeting up with an old friend I haven't seen in a while -- will be good to catch up over a few beers. This week will also bring the end of my tenure as President and General Manager at WVBR. I will be staying on as the Chief Engineer at the station and continue to bring the rock to the people of Ithaca. Being GM has been one of the most incredible learning experiences ... I have learned so much from running the corporation in the last year. Members of the Board said to me that I left the place better than I found it, and that's exactly what I hoped to do. I may be leaving Ithaca in a month and a half, but I know I can always look back at my time at WVBR with pride and a sense of achievement. I love WVBR, and I feel honored to have been able to share five years of my life with some of the most incredible, fun, dynamic, and interesting people I have ever met. Thank you to everyone, words are simply incapable of saying how I feel.

Until next time, take care.

A lot to update you on ...

The rest of break was a blast. As it turned out I went out 6 consecutive days. What a great time. On Tuesday I met up again with Chris and we got dinner at California Pizza Kitchen then headed up to Adams Morgan to the Madam's Organ for some drinks. After that we made a brief stop at the Big Hunt and then to another place where we hung out until the wee hours of the morning.

Wednesday, I met up with Dan down in Annapolis. We went to a coffee and wine bar where we grabbed some dinner (I had the rosemary chicken with cheddar which was quite good). Afterward we hit up the Ram's Head Tavern as usual and had a few incredibly delicious Copperhead Ales while catching up on things. Nothing quite like an ice cold beer fresh from the tap (they make their ales on the premises).

Thursday, after work I hit up happy hour at Tuscana after work. We stayed a good while there chatting about a lot of stuff over beers. I enjoyed Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (one of my favorites) and Foggy Bottom Ale.

Friday, I was invited to a bar tab down at DC Coast that a vendor for the firm was having. I joined Terry and Eric after finishing up my projects at work and had a few beers and met a lot of new people. It was a fun time. Afterward I grabed a bite to eat and went back to Columbia.

Saturday I had a leisurely day with Dad. We walked around the lake, got lunch at the Panda Buffet (one of the best stocked Chinese buffets I have seen), and then off to Best Buy where I picked up the new album from Evanescence. So far it has been great -- densely layered and dark with Amy Lee's incredibly haunting vocals. The best way I can describe it is as Linkin Park meets Velocity Girl. Sunday I headed back to Ithaca where I co-hosted the Extravaganza with McGurk. Monday I had classes and meetings solid through the day. I also ordered myself a pair of headphones (my old ones were nowhere to be found). I just got them in the mail this morning (next day air was not much more expensive) and the soundtrack to my scenery is now back in its full reasonant glory (from 100mW of power handling capacity to 1000mW ... feel the rock!). Today I have classes, meetings, and labs all day and tomorrow will be a WVBR filled day (it is amazing how much has come up in my last week as GM).

Also, I'm looking into having a BBQ/hiking trip for the station in the near future, now that warm weather has made at least an occasional appearance. I'll keep you posted on that. Also, if you want to go hiking or do something fun, give me a shout.

What a great start to break ...

When I last wrote, I was headed down to the DC Metro area. After the long and familiar drive, I met up with Dan and we watched Jackie Brown and caught up over some beers. The next day I drove Dan back to school in Annapolis where we hit up the Outback -- I had a delicious filet mignon with blue cheese accompanied with a Killian's Irish Red and a Bloomin' Onion. Dan got the Mahi Mahi, both were excellent. Afterward we went back to his place and hung out for a bit, then I was back to home to get some shuteye.

Monday brought my first day back at work for the week. I caught up with my friends there and we went to one of my favorite Thai places for lunch, having the legendary Gai Siam (it is spicy and life-changing). Around 5 we headed down the cafeteria downstairs where there was a firm party for St. Patrick's Day. I got to meet some new people and chat with my friends over some Bass and Harp on the house. After work, Terry and I hit up Tuscana and had drinks after work. For dinner I met up with my friend Chris from Cornell. He's down here for Cornell in Washington this semester working at the Fed. I hadn't seen him in a while so it was fun to catch up. We went to the Madhatter on M street and had some burgers and beer (I had Bass, Chris had Bud). We had a good time and I dropped him back at the Cornell Center around 9:45 to make my way to the 9:30 club where I was going to see Better Than Ezra.

The show was incredible. They played most of their hits to a sold out crowd. Everyone sang along with every song, there was an incredible amount of energy at the show. BTE also played some new stuff off their forthcoming album -- they are returning to their more ballad driven songs while not making it overly sleepy. Their new stuff sheds some of the modernism that we saw with the single Extraordinary, but provides a level of density and texture that is new. One of the new songs had the audience singing the backing chorus while Kevin Grriffin's vocals wove through deftly. Not often you hear singing in the round in rock, but it worked well. As Kevin said "You are witnessing the birth of the next phase of Better Than Ezra tonight". The band was, as always, playful and just as excited to be there as the audience was. The show reminded me why the best place in the world to see live music is the 9:30 Club and why life without live music just might not be worth living. There is nothing like the feeling of euphoria that you get when you are totally into a show ... singing the lyrics at the top of your lungs, dancing in step with the music, feeling the bass rattle your frame, with the guitar screaming into the depths of your soul, and the heat of the crowd making you sweat.

So you're probably thinking I had a good time last night ... I did.

For the remainder of the week, things are up in the air. Might hang out with Chris again, on Wednesday I'll probably be heading to Annapolis to have some fun with Dan, and I'll probably hit up happy hour some time with Terry and Eric later on in the week. I'll keep you posted as it happens.

What a beautiful day ...

Here in Ithaca is almost sixty degrees. A welcome change from the bitter cold of the recent past. In times past I would have taken the day to hit up Buttermilk or Treman and see the water falling down the gorges as it melts from the rapidly disappearing snow banks. Alas, time is short, and things are different ... today I will be making my back to the Washington, DC area to see friends and family for Spring break. I'll also be working down at the law firm, and I can't wait to see all my friends there.

The past week was busy. I had a prelim on Thursday, and Murphy's law was in full effect the night before as I had a fever and felt rather sick. I think the test went well nonetheless and after taking it, I was essentially done. Thursday night I met up with some friends at the bars (not one to let the sickness get me down) and had fun. Friday brought another EdCast -- and something rather interesting ... I had a listener e-mail me to tell me that she thought I had a sexy voice and inquiring about my relationship status. Talk about being flattered! I'm glad that people like my show :-)

Friday night I met up with Mike and Norah at a party where we watched the Ring over some beers ... spooky film! After that, my buddy Chirag came over to my place and we watched some goodness off the DVR (just started subscribing to HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and The Movie Channel so I've got movies galore these days) and caught up with each other. We hung out until the wee hours of the morning -- it was a fun time.

Today, I'm heading home ... almost done packing so I should be heading home soon. The week ahead should be fun ... I'll be hanging out with Dan, meeting up with my friend Chris who is down in DC for Cornell in Washington, probably will hit up bars with friends from work, and might even meet up with some other friends in the area ... I'm working, but I am going to try to play too :-)

If you're going to be in the DC area and want to do something fun, give me a shout. Until then, enjoy the coming of Spring!

As promised here are some pictures from the WVBR party last weekend.

More news later ...

What an incredibly long day ...

Today brought the WVBR Elections. Things went smoothly and my successor as GM was named along with all the other elected positions. I will remain in office until next month and then Matt will take over. I'll still be active though, and am going to continue on as Chief Engineer until graduation. I was at the station today from 2-11 PM. Long day.

Last night we had a WVBR Party. It was a big success, a lot of people came out and it was a really fun time. We partied into the wee hours of the morning ... Matt and I left the party around 4 in the morning and grabbed some pizza at Mamma T's. Friday night I had my shift and did some engineering work to make sure the sports game could go on the air.

This week I have a prelim and a lab report due. Then next weekend I head home for Spring Break. I'll probably work through it, more on that later as I find out more.

I also made a promo for the WVBR Leprechaun promotion tonight (you can link to it from my imaging page). I might even throw up some pictures from the WVBR party in a bit ... stay tuned.

Talk about an amazing time ...

I went to the Skits show with Jen last night and I was busting out laughing the entire show. Monica had some of her classic sketches (Montron and the Super Fighting Force and the one where a Skits kid dies on-stage and she has to carry him the whole time) ... it an all around great show. Afterward I met up with Alan who was back from NYC for the weekend and we went to a Whistling Shrimp after-party. When 2:30 rolled around we all headed up to the Skits after party and generally had a blast. I had an amazing time and rolled in to my place a little after 5:00 AM! Needless to say I slept in today.

I also put up some new pics from last night here. That's about all for now. Until next time, have a wonderful weekend.

For your viewing pleasure ...

For various reasons I have not gotten around to putting up some of the pictures I have been taking. Until now ... I picked some fun pics from the last few months ... some stuff from Halloween, a party last fall, New Year's Eve, friends down in DC, and even a pic of the Skits kids who came over yesterday to be on the air. You can find them here.

Enjoy ...

Wow, what a night ...

So the last time I checked in I was up late doing some homework looking forward to having a good weekend ... and it is off to a great start. Yesterday on the EdCast I had a guest appearance by some of the Skits-O-Phrenics. It was a lot of fun. Ankur and Monica took the mic and a good time was had by all. As I was getting ready to leave my shift, I talked with my friend Eric and we decided to get some dinner at Maxie's supper club. We were joined by four of his friends from the sorority Chi Omega. Dinner was excellent (I had the shrimp and grits again ... so good) as was the company. I also selected a Hermann Weimer Semi- Dry Riesling for our table ... we shared some sweet potato fries and cajun fries too. I finished up dinner with a nice glass of port -- a delicious ten year old tawny. Afterward we went to one of the girl's apartments and had a couple drinks. Then I got a call from Monica and headed back home to hang out with her (we hadn't had a chance to hang out in a couple years). We had a great time catching up and watching some random TV over some beers. After all that fun, I slept soundly :-)

Tonight, I'm probably going to see the Skits performance with Jen (the Skits were nice enough to hook me up on the guest list!). Also might meet up with Alan, who is also in town.

On another note ... just saw the world premiere of Linkin' Park's new video off their forthcoming album Meteora, "Somewhere I Belong" -- it rocks. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album ... I'll be paying close attention to the new arrivals at WVBR in the next week :-)

This week will bring me some exams, homework, and other academic excitement ... but if you have an idea for something fun, give me a shout, fun is good :-)

More news as it happens ... stay tuned.

Hello again ...

It has been a lazy week for the most part ... of course, I still have assignments ... hence the absurdly late timestamp on this entry ... but I figured I'd give an update before I retired for the evening, so here goes ...

Last Friday night Erik came over and hung out at my place, bringing with him a delicious assortment of frosty beverages. It was a great time. Saturday was a nice day off, and Sunday morning brought an equipment failure at WVBR, which I fixed bright and early in the morning. Later, I went to a bunch of meetings at the station and then went home to watch the Grammys (late ... but with the DVR I was able to skip the commercials and the acts I didn't like!). Tuesday was a big WVBR day, I came in during the afternoon and took care of a lot of paperwork and correspondence. Wednesday, I had my morning class cancelled ... so as soon as I saw that e-mail I was back to sleep for more nappable enjoyment. I worked the rest of the day on a project due today -- and I'm done :-) Friday I have a problem set due and the EdCast, complete with another New Rock Release. Also, Monica is coming up to visit this weekend from NYC and she'll be stopping by my shift with some friends from the comedy group she used to be a part of to say hello on the air (we might even have some goodies to give away on-air). If all goes well, we'll be hanging out Friday night ... it will be good to see her again. We haven't had the chance to hang out in a couple years, so it will be nice to change that. Also rumor has it that Alan might be in town as well, so if I'm lucky our paths might cross too :-)

Other than that, not too much planned -- probably just some random relaxation and fun. If you've got ideas on what I should be doing, give me a yell. Until then have a good one.

It's been a while ...

I've been busy these last few weeks, so I haven't had a chance to write. Since we last caught up, I had a couple presentations in two classes which went well. I also had a prelim, a lab, and a problem set. I've also been trying to get some fun in there as well. I made two people in Ithaca very happy on Valentine's Day, giving away $200 in jewelery and a big box of chocolate -- it is always fun to get swamped with calls when I'm on the air. That night I went over to Matt's place where we met with Kevin and a friend of his and rang in Valentine's Day over some beers and conversation. Saturday was a big day to catch up on some reading for my classes. Sunday brought a Cornell Radio Guild meeting, a promotions meeting, and a sales meeting. Afterward I met up with Jen and we watched SNL over a bottle of wine (recorded on my DVR ... so much better without commercials). On Tuesday I had a prelim (which I think I rocked ... we'll see). On Wednesday, I had a very social day. I met up with Abby for lunch. I had not seen her in ages, so we caught up and even got a little studying in together. That night I met up with Eric, we hit up Friendly's for dinner and caught up with each other. Then that night I met up with Erik from WVBR as I was stopping by the station. We decided to meet up later that evening at the Chapter House to catch up over a few beers. All in all it was a great day. Yesterday brought a Board of Directors meeting and a lab writeup after until the wee hours of the morning.

Today I'll be on the air at the normal time (3-7) bringing you what my Program Director tells me is an incredible New Rock Release. Beyond that not too much else planned. There are some things going on this weekend I might go to, also may meet up with some friends ... all in all it should be a spontaneous weekend.

Next weekend I have some friends who graduated a few years ago coming to visit. It will be good to see them and hang out. Speaking of hanging out, if you have an idea for random fun, let me know. Until then, have a great weekend.

A busy week sprinkled with fun and toys ...

Wednesday afternoon I met up with Mark from WVBR and we had lunch at Bistro Q. I had the fetuccini shrimp (quite tasty) along with their great spicy fries. That night, I went to Franco's with Jen and Abby where I had some great ravioli. Thursday night I trained what must have been 20 or so people how to do promotions and production at WVBR. We came up with a Valentine's Day promo during the first meeting, and then made the production for it -- I've added it to my imaging page ... I think it is a pretty funny promo. Friday brought the raw excitement of the EdCast, followed by a visit later on in the evening to the Chapter House (where Eric and I caught up over a few beers). Afterward we got some pizza and watched the Bourne Identity on DVD. This afternoon I swung by the mall with Matt to pick up the grand prize for next week's promotion and have been reading for MEMS ever since.

Tomorrow brings a ton of meetings, but they should be fun and informative. This coming week I should be getting my new 256MB Secure Digital card for my PDA. With it, I will never be without music again :-) Other than that, not too much planned -- more later.

A very WVBR week indeed ...

Hello again. This week has been a busy one ... I've been at the station a lot. On Sunday I did the first WVBR Promotions Department training session ... we've got some enthusiastic new people with some really fun ideas, I'm excited for this semester in promotions. Yesterday morning I was woken up by a phone call that the transmitter was off the air. Brian and I went up to the transmitter site and thought it was fixed, but then shortly thereafter it died again (we went back and fixed it again ... seems to be working for the time being). Turns out the loaner exciter that we were given has some issues ... but luckily the fixed exciter came in the mail yesterday too ... Brian and I are going to try to have the installation happen during an engineering training session (which should be a lot of fun). While I was at the station, our DJ Trainer called in sick (hope he's feeling better today) and asked me to fill in for DJ Training last night (which I did). Reminded me of when I used to do those sessions ... was a fun time. Basically spent all day at the station with the exception of a break for one class and a great lunch with Jen.

Tonight I'm going to try to catch up on some reading and get a crack at my homework for my ECE class. Tomorrow night I'm going to be doing a training double-header at WVBR, doing another promotions session and also a session on production (where I show people how to make commercials, imaging, and other cool sound effects). It should be a fun time.

Friday gives you another EdCast ... complete with your New Rock Release. I'm going to try to get some random fun in this weekend too.

Until next time, take care.

Back in Ithaca again ...

It has been a long two weeks. My Mom came up to help me clean up my apartment (it is spotless I might add ... thanks Mom). I also got into some courses I really wanted to take -- it is going to be a fun semester. I've been going out with friends a lot, grabbing dinner and trying to have some good old fashioned fun.

Last week also saw the Spring WVBR Training Drive -- we were very successful thanks to the hard work of a lot of the people at the station. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of new faces at the station.

I also picked up some of the gadgets I had been wanting ... got a WiFi card for my Dell Axim, now I can check my e-mail all over campus in the palm of my hand. Also picked up a DVR from the cable company ... lets me record 2 shows while watching another, and pause and rewind live television -- very cool. Finally, ordered a keyboard for the Axim (coming soon) which will allow me to take notes electronically in class.

This week I'll be doing the whole academic thing and begin training new kids at the station for various different positions. If you'd like to grab dinner or a drink ... give me a shout.

A year older ...

The cold is still here ... but I'm choosing to ignore it for the most part. On Monday night I went out to visit Mom. Tuesday after work, Terry, Eric, and I went to Eric's place to watch a movie with some slow cooked chili. Eric has a great speaker system ... so when there were explosions on screen we were treated to plenty of bass.

Yesterday marked my twenty-third birthday. It was a busy day ... I had physical in the morning, worked in the afternoon, and had a dentist appointment in the early evening. Later in the evening Dad and I went to Clydes in Columbia to celebrate. It was a good time. After that, I went down to Annapolis to meet up with Dan. We headed on over to the Ram's Head Tavern and got some wings and beer. When all the revelry that was to be shared came to close I headed home.

I'll be working today and tomorrow ... on Saturday I'm heading back up to frigid Ithaca where classes start on Monday.

Until next time, stay warm and take care.

Still hoarse ... but still having fun ...

I still have some symptoms from this cold -- been coughing a good deal in the morning. As a result I sound like I'm doing movie trailers when I talk normally. I am getting a bit better though, so that's good. Last night I went out with my friend Terry after work. First we met up with his friend Steve at the Black Rooster in midtown. We hung out there for a while, and then Terry and I made our way to the Big Hunt around Dupont Circle. We were there for a while. I met a guy who has a girlfriend who goes to Cornell -- small world. But wait, it gets smaller. Shortly after meeting him, Josh, the sports director at WVBR, walked in the door. Turns out he was in town. What are the odds of seeing someone who goes to Cornell at a bar in DC? Evidently, better than I thought. After Terry and I parted ways around 1 or so I headed over to another bar and had a good time. I eventually ended up home around 4 this morning. What a night.

What's going on this weekend? Not sure yet. Might meet up with Dan, might just relax, I dunno. I'll keep you posted. Next week I'll be working, having my 23rd birthday, and trying to get some fun in there too. Until next time, have a fun weekend.

Recovering and working ...

For those of you who haven't seen or heard me, I've been sick these last few days. While the coughing oddly makes my voice a bit more "radio" like ... it is a rather annoying cold, mostly a pain in the mornings -- I think I'm slowly recovering ... each morning is getting better than the one before it, and I've been pounding the O.J. and getting a little more rest than usual. However, in true Ed style, I'm not letting it get in the way of my fun ... last night I went out with some friends to the Brickskellar down in DC. I sampled a 1994 Thomas Hardy, an Anchor Steam, a little bit of Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, a sip of Framboise Lambic, and also a refreshing German pilsner. Good times. Other than that I've been taking it easy letting my immune system battle the cold. I have no idea what I'll be up to the rest of this week. There has been some talk about going out on Friday with friends, but nothing set in stone yet. Next Wednesday marks my twenty-third birthday, it is amazing how time flies.

One more week after this one and I'm back above Cayuga's Waters. Should be an interesting semester -- I'm taking some fun courses and hopefully my workload will be such that I can go out and enjoy myself. Until next time have a good week.

Sometimes I even surprise myself ...

Grades are now available from Cornell and I have some great news -- I had the best semester I've ever had. I got my first A+ (in my Entrepreneurship class) and the rest of my grades were great. I was kinda surprised when I got the results back ... the end of last semester was rather tumultuous ... but I did it. Thanks to all the people who were incredible friends to me last semester -- you kept me grounded and made sure that I kept to my academics. I have to thank a few people by name ... Eric, Jen, Matt, and Abby, you rock! Thanks so much. Now hopefully I can keep it up for my last semester :-)

Since I last checked in I had dinner with Kristen at work, recovered from the craziness of New Year's Eve, spent time with Dan, and listened to a lot of music (right now I'm hooked on the new Exies single).

This weekend I'll probably be taking it easy. I hope you have a good weekend out there ... until next time, take care.

Wow, what a New Year's Eve ...

I met up with Allison for the New Year's festivities and we hit up Polly Esther's downtown in DC. They had a deal where you can have all you can drink of top shelf stuff, 3 floors of party, hors d'oeuvres, and a whole lot of fun for a set price. We had a chauffeur take us into and out of the city, so we didn't have to worry about how we were getting home. Allison and I danced the night away and had so much fun. It was one of the most fun New Year's eve celebrations I have been to -- I'm still recovering from all of that revelry!

This past weekend, my brother Andy came to visit. It was good to see him. We went around to some music stores (he's in the market for a new guitar) and also some record stores to find some music. Other than that, I've been doing a lot of work.

This week is almost totally unplanned ... will probably hang out with Dan back in Columbia, maybe go out a bit, whatever happens, you'll get the highlights. I hope that all of you had a great start to the New Year. This year is certainly going to be an interesting one for me ... a lot of changes coming up. I think this is going to be a good year. I'm looking forward to it.

Wow, that was fast ...

As I mentioned last time, I ordered a Dell Axim last Friday ... I was expecting it to arrive sometime in early January ... much to my surprise, it showed up on Christmas Eve! The tracking number hadn't even posted to Dell's site yet ... impressive. I didn't get a chance to test drive it until Christmas in the evening -- but this thing is cool. I already have it playing various MP3s, it can even play video, and of course the display is in stunning color. It comes with a bunch Word and Excel preloaded ... and they work well. I'll be loading it up with some more goodies this weekend -- playing solitaire and minesweeper will never be the same :-) I might even get a 802.11b card and a keyboard for it as well.

Dan spent Christmas with me at my Mom's place ... we had a good time. Mom got me a brand new suede coat and matching hat and gloves, a fogless mirror for the shower, and a few other things. Fun times.

Tomorrow I'm picking up my brother Andy who is visiting from San Francisco. Plans for New Year's Eve are not solidified yet ... might hit up a bash with a friend ... I'll keep you posted. Still working out the details of the Florida trip too ... I'll have more as that develops.

Until next time, here's wishing you and yours the happiest new year around.

"We partied like rock stars" ...

Wow, what a week in review. I told you about hitting up the Chapter House after finals on Sunday ... little did I know that it would commence 5 consecutive days of going out and having fun. What an incredible week.

Monday I headed home from Ithaca to Columbia. I left rather late in the day, so I got in around midnight. After I got stuff out of my car, I met up with Dan and we got some liquid refreshment and proceeded to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and talk until the wee hours of the morning. Tuesday, I woke up early and got into work. That night I met up with my friend Terry (who I work with, but had "use it or lose it" vacation, so he came in around 6 to hang out) after work at Tuscana. We caught up over a couple beers. Then I went home, met up with Dan, and hit up the Last Chance in Columbia. You're probably thinking ... wow, two bars in one night ... but it gets better. Wednesday I met up with Mom. Her office was having a huge holiday party ... open bar with the good stuff, amazing appetizers (everything from sushi to scallops wrapped in bacon), and a great buffet for the main course. The best part: absolutely free.

Thursday was to be the big night. After work Eric (a friend from work), Dan (who had come down to visit in DC), and I hit up Tuscana before the staff dinner at Bobby Van's. We went to the dinner, and what a dinner it was. I had lobster with crab and shrimp for an appetizer, filet mignon for the main course, and so many other wonderful things. Afterward, Eric, Terry, and I rejoined Dan and grabbed a cab up to Adams Morgan where we met up with Pete (also from work). We made our way over to Asylum and hung out for a while having a few drinks. As the night progressed we made our way over to the Madam's Organ for a few more. Then we went to another place for some more fun. Four bars, one top notch dinner ... what a night.

Friday night I headed to Mom's place and gave my system a rest. This weekend we took care of some of that last minute shopping and got to spend some time together. This morning I headed out from her place to work -- something happened that never does, ever. The second worst traffic in the country was non-existent ... a speed limit ride into work. Good times.

As for what is in store ... on Friday I ordered a Dell Axim PDA, a very cool little device I should be getting in a couple weeks. I'll be spending Christmas with Mom and my friend Dan might be joining us. Other than that, just working and trying to get as much fun into the schedule as I can. Want to do something in DC or around town? Call me.

I know that there are a lot of people I won't be able to tell in person, so if you're one of them, this applies to you: Happy Holidays! I wish you and yours all the best in the coming year.

It's over ...

Yesterday, around 8:00 PM (about an hour before it was due) I handed in my ECE 445 final. It took the better part of the 33 hours I was given to do it (evidently only 3 people turned it in early) ... and it marked the end of my semester. I am done, and it is a wonderful feeling.

Last night I went out with a bunch of friends from ECE to the Chapter House ... on the list of what I was having ... Harpoon Winter Warmer, Stella Artois, and a really hoppy India Pale Ale (the name of which currentlly escapes me) last night. We had a great time playing foosball, darts, occasionally answering some of the trivia questions (it was trivia night), munching on the sea of free popcorn, and meeting some new people. I even got recognized for my name in connection with my work on the radio station ... I'm famous! ;-) It was good to get out ... we were there from about 9:45 or so until closing -- what a great night.

Today I'm packing for home, I'll be driving out this afternoon and going into work tomorrow morning. It will be good to see family ... this is the first time I've been home since August. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with some friends who are in the area. If I can swing it ... I might even try to do a random trip ... Southwest had Ft. Lauderdale for $166 roundtrip ... I'll keep you posted -- and if you're interested in joining me ... keep me posted :-).

Until next time, I'll be making the all too familiar trek home ... where I know all the stops by heart and radio goes by names like KRZ, BHT, and 97.9X. If you're in the DC area, give me a shout -- let's do something fun. Until next time, happy holidays.

One down, one to go ...

This afternoon I had my wines final. I think I did alright -- a bunch of random trivia, but I'm good at that, so it works out. Studied last night with Abby ... I think after going over all that material as extensively as we did we are both wine experts!

Tuesday we had the WVBR Holiday Dinner. A lot of people showed up (26 was the figure I heard last). We had some good food from the folks at Bistro Q and had a good chance to see almost everyone before they leave for the holidays. I took some pictures that you can check out here. I had the pulled pork, along with the Anchor Steam Christmas Ale for this year (highly recommended).

It has been a crazy semester ... a lot of change. It comes to a close for me on Sunday (when my ECE 445 final is due). I'm 25 pounds lighter than I was a month ago, I'm one semester closer to the "real world", and I've got a lot more change between now and graduation. This is definitely a story that has yet to be written.

This winter break should be interesting. I'm going to try to do something fun (and hopefully that something fun will be somewhere warm). I'll probably also be working -- and of course it will be good to see my family again. I'll be in the Washington DC area for most of the break, so if you're in town, drop me a line.

For now, I've got to get some studying in ... until next time, take care.

A week to go ...

The last few days have been an example in contrasts, from fun and lazy all the way to hectic and busy and back again. Friday night I went over to Jen's place for a wild party, I had a really good time and met some cool people in the process. I'd tell you more ... but you really had to be there. Saturday was a lazy day where I took things easy. Sunday saw a very dramatic ramp-up in activity. I had the Cornell Radio Guild meeting to preside over, and a problem set to work on (due today). The problem set gave me some ... err ... problems -- kept me in the lab most of the day. So I got up early this morning to get a head start on the work, made some headway, and then had lunch with my friends Matt and Janeen. The only kicker was, I had forgotten that I was scheduled to fill in for a radio shift until about an hour and a half before I had to be there. So I rushed through the rest of the problem set, handed it in, and made my way to the station. The citizens of Ithaca got their rock, and I got my work done (yay!).

Tonight I met up with my friend Abby and we went to Maxie's Supper Club and had a wonderful meal -- I got the Shrimp and Grits (trust me, really great stuff), some of the best sweet potato fries on the planet, and washed it down with some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. We even finished up with ginger cake ... great meal.

I now have two finals remaining: Wines and Computer Networks & Telecom. Hopefully I will destroy both of them! I'll be back on the air this Friday (3- 7), so tune in and give me a request. Until later, have a great week.

So evidently I'm influential ...

The Cornell Daily Sun had their ranking of the "Top 25 Most Influential Cornellians" in today's edition, and I am one of them. I remember thinking when I was a freshman long ago that it would be cool to be on the list ... it is kinda cool that I got voted on it. Kinda took me by surprise ... maybe I can influence Cornell into giving me free tuition ... probably not ... but it is certainly an honor to be on the list, thanks to all who voted.

Otherwise life is pretty much the same ... I had a business presentation for my NBA 300 class that went very well this evening. Earlier today I sent off the exciter that Brian and I swapped out for the station on Tuesday night after the BOD meeting. That BOD meeting went very well I might add. Tuesday morning I had a final for ECE 572 - the professor kept up with his tradition of giving challenging exams that make you think.

As for what the future holds ... tomorrow I have my shift from 3-7. Later in the evening I'll be heading over to Jen's ... she's having a 21st birthday party for some of her roommates, should be a lot of fun. This weekend I'll be working on my last problem set (due Monday). Sunday there will be a Cornell Radio Guild meeting. Tuesday there will be a WVBR dinner at Bistro Q, the last time we were there the food was excellent, so I'm looking forward to it. Only 2 more exams remain for me (Wines and Computer Networks & Telecom) and then the semester is over for me. Crazy times - a lot to see and do.

Until next time, take care.

Thanksgiving is a good thing ...

It was great seeing my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. There was a great feast on the big day at my cousin Joey's place with tons of delicious food. My appetite was still rather diminished, but I enjoyed a lot of turkey and stuffing goodness ... not to mention some incredible sweet potatoes. That evening I had a particularly good game of Trivial Pursuit ... let's just say my team did really, really well. I guess the random facts in my head do have some use!

Friday Dad and I saw the new James Bond movie. It was in the classic Bond format ... very fun to watch, pure entertainment. Sure, it is not Shakespeare, but who cares, it rocks. Friday evening I spent some time with family and helped my Cousin and Aunt with some computer problems they were having. This morning, Dad came to Ithaca with me and helped me clean up the apartment (it had been largely ignored over the last month and needed a substantial cleaning). We also got lunch at Ling Ling Garden (my favorite Chinese place in Ithaca) and talked for a bit. I'm really glad he stopped by. Dad headed out from my place in the afternoon to go back home to Columbia.

Today, tomorrow, and Monday I'll be studying for my ECE 572 final on Tuesday. Tuesday night I have a Board of Directors meeting. Friday I have my shift, and the last day of classes. The following Tuesday is a WVBR dinner ... should be fun. Not much else is planned yet, but as you've probably gathered by reading this page, I do random stuff -- so check back later for more news.

Break, finally ...

Last night I finished up the work I had to do before the Thanksgiving festivities. In true ECE style, I had to stay up for a full 2 days to get everything done, but I didn't miss my deadlines! When I finished work around 11 last night, the ECE labs were full -- as soon as I got out of Phillips, I noticed that Collegetown was deserted. Sure, there were a few people around, but things were eerily silent. Seems like everyone else got out of here. I'll be doing that tomorrow. Today I have a radio shift from 3-7 and I'll probably be hanging out with a friend tonight who's getting a flight home tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to partaking in the goodness of the gangly bird. I'm bringing some wine to the event (when you take a class on wines, they expect you to use the knowledge). It will be nice to have some down time with family. I might even see the new Bond flick with Dad at some point.

Academically, the work is winding down. I just turned in the last project and problem set for 572 yesterday, the final is next Tuesday. I have my business presentation for NBA 300 coming up the same week. Next week is the last week of classes, finals come shortly thereafter. What a long strange month it has been.

If I don't get a chance to tell you in person, allow me to send you and yours warmest Thanksgiving wishes -- and pass the turkey :-) See you next time ...

It is good to get out again ...

Friday night I went out with some friends to a rooms party. I saw a lot of people I knew and had a really good time. Also been hanging out with friends randomly ... even saw the Powerpuff Girls movie over beer and pizza ... it was actually pretty good. I got my 445 prelim back this week too ... and I did well :-) Currently I'm in the lab working on the N-Queens problem for ECE 572 ... basically given a chess board of arbitrary size (N) find the optimal placement of the greatest number of queens that can be put onto the board while not allowing any of them to attack the other. For large N it is rather computationally complex -- I'm coding it for Message Passing and Shared Memory machines ... I'll be in the lab for a while.

Next week I'm going to visit my Aunt Karen and Cousins Sherry and Joe for Thanksgiving. Dad is coming up to, it should be a good time. The last day of classes is Wednesday ... I can just taste the turkey now :-)

I'm not sure when I'll be doing my airshift ... but it will probably be Wednesday (since most people will be gone, and conveniently, I won't). As always, your mileage may vary. More news later.

Did I mention I have awesome friends? ...

Tonight there was a Counting Crows concert in Barton Hall. Since I had some other things going on, I didn't snag tickets early ... and the thing sold out. I thought I was not going to be able to see the concert ... until ... one amazing friend by the name of Jen called me up and got me on the guest list. She is so awesome! Totally turned around my day (it had started off kinda badly). I went to the concert, shouted out some of the lyrics, and had a really good time.

The Counting Crows only fell into the "if 3 minutes is good, 10 must be better" trap a couple times ... overall they rocked -- they played all the hits, had a really cool set behind them, and everyone seemed to be enjoying it (myself included). Uncle Kracker opened, he was alright, and the crowd enjoyed his one hit. It was good to get out again and have some fun with several thousand people. Thanks Jen, you totally rock!

I am now in the lab working on the 572 problem set. More news as it happens, later.

A lot of news ... not very much of it suitable for this page...

This has been my worst month in memory. The reasons for this I don't want to put down in such a public forum ... and that is why I haven't been posting my news for some time now. On the evening of October 26th my relationship with Bernadette, which would have reached the one year mark yesterday, came to an end. As any reader of this page should know, this has not been an easy thing for me -- I obviously cared a great deal for her. As in so many things in life, the cliché seems to hold true: "All good things must come to an end". I used to think that sad love songs were hyperbolic, that no one ever could experience that kind of pain. I could not have been more wrong -- those songs don't tell half the story.

One good thing that I have learned out of all this is that I have some really incredible friends and parents ... people who are so incredibly supportive and selfless. I am truly lucky to have them in my life. My Mom and Dad have been there for me throughout all of this. My friend Jen has been awesome ... we went out to bars all dressed up for Halloween (she was Trinity from the Matrix, I wore an improvised costume) and just last weekend we did a little wine touring around Cayuga Lake. Eric, Matt, Abby, Josh, Dan, my Aunt Karen, and so many others have been there too, and I really appreciate it.

This week I have a prelim on Wednesday, a problem set on Tuesday, and a long- term project to work on throughout. The EdCast is, as always, on Friday. If you want to grab lunch or dinner sometime, give me a call, or just a note on IM, I'd like to hear from you.

I don't know where the road goes from here ... but a little more than year ago I was feeling pretty terrible ... and then I had a great surprise. Hopefully I've got a few more left.

Garlic, Science, Wine, and Rock ...

This past weekend Bernadette and I decided to hit up the Garlic Festival down at the Farmer's Market ... I had heard about it for years but had never gone ... while I was expecting to awash in a sea of garlic, it was pretty much like a normal day at the Farmer's market, but with random samples that made Bernadette less likely to kiss me after I enjoyed them! After checking out the festival we went over to the Sciencenter ... kind of like a MD Science Center or Franklin Institute here in Ithaca. It is geared toward kids, and we enjoyed racing rubber ducks, playing with magnets, hearing ourselves in the delay tube, and making body prints on a phosphorescent wall. Yay Science!

This weekend also marked the first WVBR party of the semester (Friday), and a fun time was had by all ... I even fell down a hill after spinning around blindfolded to hit a pinata ... yep, I go to an Ivy League school ... Saturday brought Jen Weston's party, Bernadette and I had a great time there ... I won at a round of beer pong, mixed a few drinks, and had fun catching up with Jen. Bernadette and I even got a little dancing on too.

Then Monday came around ... and I realized "Oh expletive deleted! That homework I thought would be easy isn't at all and it is due tomorrow!". So I pulled an all nighter ... it's what happens when you try to have fun as an EE ... oh well.

In far happier news, I signed up for something completely cool this week. Listen.com has a product out called Rhapsody which has an incredible amount of music from the big 5 record labels ... full CDs, in CD quality, unlimited streaming, and a really fun way to hear all kinds of music (now hearing their influences is as easy as clicking a link ... and you can listen to the entire albums). I'm hooked ... and it's only $9.95 a month ... looks like getting the music I want the way I want is here. I'm very pleased.

Rhapsody might be helpful next semester ... because if all goes well, I'll be enrolled in the History of Rock ... very psyched about that.

The EdCast is on this Friday, comme d'habitude. You can revel in its goodness on the air or on the web. This weekend Bernadette and I might do a little bowling, weather permitting, we might do a little birdwatching again at Sapsucker Woods.

As for the present, I will be going to wines within the next hour ... hopefully tasting something wonderful ... tonight there will be problem set excitement and coding fun.

For more news as it happens (insert snazzy news music here) keep it locked to EdNews.

Fun weekend, too bad it ended ...

Dan came up this past weekend for the fall break and we had a great time. Friday night we went to the Cornell Cinema and saw "Nine Queens" -- an interesting film with some twists near the end. On Saturday we hit up Shortstop, then made our way to Buttermilk Falls where we hiked all the trails. That evening we hit up Rulloffs and had a few drinks. Sunday we got Shortstop again (because it is just that good) and went to some used book stores downtown (I picked up a collection of Woody Allen's prose, a book by Robert Mondavi, and a Linux reference ... odd assortment, I know).

On Monday, Bernadette and I went up to Syracuse to attempt to get some clothes and shoes -- finding nothing to our liking, we came home empty handed ... but on Tuesday were able to find what we were looking for back in sunny Ithaca. We also went to Cornell Orchards and Sapsucker Woods (where we looked at birds with my binoculars [thanks go to Mom for getting them for me]).

Today was kind of a slow day, just two classes ... and in Wines we didn't even try any wines today ... just had a long sermon on the evils of drink. Evidently you're not supposed to drink and drive ... glad they cleared that one up! I understand some of the kids there might need to hear that kind of stuff ... but for 2 hours? I got the point in the first 5 minutes.</rant>

Other than that, life is a bunch of the same old, same old ... there will be a WVBR party this week, should be fun. The EdCast is, as always, Friday 3-7 ... see you there.

Wow I'm busy ...

So I have a presentation in about an hour (NBA 300) ... then tomorrow morning I have a prelim (ECE 572) ... then that night I have another prelim (Wines) ... and the following night I have another prelim (ECE 445). This weekend was devoted primarily to 445 ... he had us make a compression algorithm based on Huffman encoding ... all fine and good, except that most of the class didn't know how to do it ... so he's letting us drop it (he only told us that after I put in the time I could on it). It was a cool project, but far too lengthy for a homework assignment. Speaking of lengthy ... he announced that there will be a 40 hour final ... that's four with a zero after it. According to him, it will be easier that way ... yeah.</rant>

So you can see from the above missive that I will be studying ... and studying ... and studying. However, there is a small reprieve in sight after the last of the prelims (done Wednesday at 9:30 PM) and I might get together with some friends to celebrate the end of the barrage most of us are currently suffering.

In other news, Bernadette and I stopped by the Apple Harvest festival this weekend, there were a lot of merchants (and people) who were celebrating the crop o'apples -- was a nice break from the lab excitement. This "easy" semester has turned out to be anything but ... however, grades appear to be pretty good so far, so the hard work is paying off.

This coming weekend marks fall break, and I'll be staying up here to get some work done ... or if they don't assign any (crosses fingers), to get some sleep done. Bernadette and I might even go apple picking or something else fun. By the way ... Bernadette has been absolutely incredible recently. She has been an almost constant companion at the lab (where she has been working on the numerous papers she has been assigned). Having her working nearby makes any project seem a whole lot more pleasant (and I think we both get more done that way anyhow). I really do have the best girlfriend in the world :-)

That's the news for now ... more after the prelims come to a close.

So it has been a while ...

Things have been really ramping up ... Monday night marked my first all-nighter of the semester. The previous two evenings were marked with about 4 hours of sleep each ... you have to love ECE life. I can say that I had some interesting things to work on, but the number of problems on the set for 445 was rather ridiculous. 572 would not have been so bad if only there were not so many people with jobs timing out flooding the machine queue ... alright, I'll stop bitching.

I have a lot of back news to cover ... so forgive me if I miss something. On the 15th Bernadette and I celebrated 10 months together by hitting up Taste of Thai down on the commons. I've done a lot of reading and problem set excitement in the time since. I also ran a jok training session, an exec meeting, and an engineering training session too. Additionally, much to the delight of the citizens of Ithaca, I double shifted last week, lettting them start and end their week with the mellifluous tones of the one and only Ed Cabic. Yesterday and Tuesday I went to Cornell's Career Fair ... a lot of top tier companies, some of whom actually wanted to talk to me ... I guess the search for a paying job in the "real world" has officially begun. All in all, I've been a busy kid!

This weekend Dad is coming up to Ithaca for Cornell's Homecoming so I'll be hanging out with him for a good part of the weekend. Next week I have two problem sets and a programming assignment to boot. These labs are starting to feel like home once again.

In other news, Wines is going well ... it is a nice change of pace to drink (err... appreciate) wine for credit. It really is cool since it gives me a chance to try wines that I would have to spend a fortune to try (and might not even like). I'm actually finding some good stuff, so it is a good class.

NBA 300 (my Entrepreneurship class) is rather interesting as well. I have a good group of people that I'm working on a business plan with ... I can't say much more than that because we're working on an actual business one of the members started (and I'm under a non-disclosure agreement). It has been a fun class that shows some real applications of ideas.

ECE 445 (Networks/Telecom) has not really been anything like the description that the course book said ... the new prof has really changed things. It is a lot more mathematically and theoretically challenging, but ultimately very interesting. The workload is very high, but the some of the assignments have shown graphical applications, which has been a good motivator (and a lot of work). For a networks/telecom class, we do a lot of image processing!

ECE 572 (Parallel Computer Architecture) has been really interesting. The thing that kept me up Monday night was a program that did dot products using 1,2, and 4 microprocessor configurations ... kinda cool. The first one was on SMP configurations ... the next project is on Message Passing machines ... fun stuff.

Another class that is rather good is my massage class -- that's right, I get to have the most beautiful girl in the world for a massage partner and you don't! We are learning techniques ranging from polarity to Swedish to shiatsu. It is a great way to reduce stress and force myself to unwind ... at least once a week. Speaking of which, I must go and enjoy that class. Until next time, have a good week.

Things have been busy ...

It has been a while since I last put finger to key here. I've been busy getting my schedule straigtened out (and I'm taking some fun stuff) and doing various things for WVBR. Also, Bernadette and I have been enjoying the nice weather in Ithaca recently to do some stuff outdoors.

My schedule is finally finished ... last semester I did not get my PIN for CoursEnroll in on time, which could have spelled disaster. Fear not gentle reader, I got all the courses I wanted. They are:

• ECE 445 - Computer Networks and Telecom
• ECE 572 - Parallel Computer Architecture
• NBA 300 - Entrepreneurship and Private Equity
• HADM 430 - Introduction to Wines
• PED 312 - Introduction to Massage

Computer Networks and Telecom is looking like it will give me many late nights hunched over a problem set. The rest seem like they will be a lot of fun. IN ECE 572 we get to learn how Parallel Computers work (this is how most supercomputers and future desktops are/will be set up) and how to program them. In NBA 300 we get into groups and make a business plan for a startup ... it seems like it is going to be a good time. Introduction to Wines is legendary ... I didn't think I'd actually get in, but lucky me, I got in along with all the other people on the wait list. This is a class where you actually get to taste the wines that are being discussed. If you see me walking home after 4:30 on Wednesdays with a big grin on my face, you'll know why. Finally, Bernadette and I are taking Intro to Massage together -- the course looks awesome. I took Shiatsu Massage freshman year (with the same instructor) and it was a great time -- I learned skills that I use to this day.

Yesterday I went up to install W288AS (the WVBR 105.5 translator). Things worked for a little bit, however, it konked out about an hour after I left. I'll be going back up there soon to take a look at it. My suspicion is that a damaged feed cable from the receive antenna is causing the input signal to be attenuated causing the translator to think that the transmitter has ceased operation (which makes it shut down). We'll see.

This past weekend Bernadette and I went gorging down in Fall Creek gorge. The water was cool, but not overly cold and we had a good time. We also did some barbecuing down in Stewart Park (this has become somewhat of a weekend tradition since we've returned) having hot dogs and hamburgers (last weekend it was my famous steaks).

This week I have my first of many problem sets due, WVBR fun and excitement (catch me Friday afternoons), and anything else that comes my way. This weekend there will be a WVBR picnic/barbecue in Stewart Park either on Saturday or Sunday where I'll be grilling up the goodness for the WVBR staff.

A wonderful time for seaside relaxation ...

On Thursday night I went up to visit Bernadette up in West Chester. After chatting a lot that evening we retired in preparation for a big hot day on Friday. That morning we headed out to Longwood Gardens where we braved the heat to see some very pretty floral displays ranging from the tropical to the desert dwelling to water lillies. The fountains were not running because of the drought situation in Pa., but everything was beautiful. I took a bunch of pictures ... they might make their way on here at some point. Friday night we decided to hit up the movie theatre and see "Austin Powers: Goldmember". It wasn't Shakespeare ... and it had a lot of base jokes ... but it was lighthearted fun. But I will warn you, when I'm with most beautiful girl in the world, it is hard to not like whatever it is seeing on screen :-)

Saturday morning we made the trek out to Ocean City, NJ where we got breakfast at the Culinary Garden (I had a great Italian Omelette). After changing into my swimsuit, we hit the beach and set up camp under the fishing pier. I had some awesome folding chairs (thanks Mom!) that Bernadette and I got to recline in while at the beach. We relaxed in the warm weather (nicely balanced by a cool breeze off the water each day) and did a little swimming too.

Bernadette's parents rented a really cool 3 bedroom apartment with all the ammenities. They graciously let me use one of the bedrooms and made me feel right at home. Bernadette's Mom whipped up some great meals for us while we were there in the kitchen, and the first day we hit up a cool chinese restaurant too.

In the evenings, Bernadette and I hit up the boardwalk and walked up and down the boards. A fun place to visit was Shriver's on the boardwalk where we treated ourselves to great fudges like mint chocolate chip and rum raisin and even a few gummy bears. The stuff was great ... evidently they make it there and have done so for the last 104 years! We also got some praline pecans from Morrow's Nut house and even got some Frozen Custard (which is awesome by the way) from Kohr Bros. Don't worry though ... we walked and swam enough to work it off ;-)

While there we also hit up some amusement park rides. First we visited Gillian's Wonderland Pier where we snagged a ride on their Giant Wheel, where you could see everything from way up high (you could even see Atlantic City from up there!). Another night, Bernadette and I hit up Playland's Castaway Cove where we rode the Double Shot, which was a lot of fun ... it hurled us up several stories extremely quickly ... then brought us back down in a hurry ... it was fun :-)

Originally, I was going to just stay for the weekend, but I was having so much fun that I decided to stick around Monday too. We got some more sun and fun in, and walked some more on the boardwalk too. I had a great time hanging out with Bernadette and her family, I'm glad they invited me :-)

I headed back down to D.C. Tuesday morning (got up at 5:30!) and made it in for a full day of work. Bernadette and her family will be spending the rest of the week up there ... I'm sure Bernadette will have stories to tell in her news when she gets back.

Last night I hung out with Dan. He's going back to school today. I have little planned for this week besides working. Friday night, Dan might come back to Columbia for the evening, and on Saturday I'll be joining Dad for a company picnic out on the Eastern Shore. That night, if plans remain the same, I'll head up to Bernadette's place and take her up to Ithaca.

Nine incredible months ...

Nine months ago today, Bernadette and I started going out. In that time I have had the good fortune to get to know and love one of the most beautiful, remarkable, intelligent, funny, sweet, driven, caring, understanding, and wonderful women alive. Words just don't do her justice -- simply put, she's the best. I cherish every moment we share ... I'm truly a lucky man. I can't wait for the times we'll share in the future.

Luckily, I won't have to wait too long ... because I'm going up to visit her tonight :-) Tomorrow we might hit up Longwood Gardens, weather permititng. Or, we might do something else entirely ... we'll see. This weekend, we will be going to Ocean City, NJ with her parents where they will be vacationing for the week. They graciously invited me to join them, so I'll be there for the weekend. Next week marks my last week in the DC area. I don't have too much planned ... luckily I won't have to do the big move again (everything is up in my apartment). I will head back up there next weekend on Saturday or Sunday (I might be taking Bernadette back too).

Other than that, not too much planned ... keep it here for updates.

A relaxing Sunday, a work-filled Saturday ...

Friday night, Dad and I went to the Columbia Town Center Lakefront and saw part of the "Lord of the Rings" movie that was being projected there on a screen outside. The weather was nice that evening, and excluding the mosquito bites, it was a fun time.

Since I missed work on Friday due to a doctor's appointment, I decided to come in on Saturday to get some work done. It was definitely different than it is during the week. I was able to park outside the building, and the pace was certainly less hectic than usual. For a while, I think I was the only person on my floor. I got a lot of work done and took a couple breaks to walk around in the nice weather that was happening outside. That evening I headed out to see my Mom and grandmother down in Virginia. My grandmother whipped up her famous fried chicken, and I enjoyed it thouroughly. Mom surprised me by getting me a new folding recliner (the one I had before broke in Virginia Beach). She got me two this time ... I have a feeling Bernadette and I are going to love that :-)

Sunday, Mom and I relaxed most of the day after running some errands (I had to buy some new clothes). I made up some steaks on my portable grill and we had more fried chicken for dinner after a lengthy nap. I headed into DC this morning bright and early. I don't know what's up for this week, but I've been invited to come up and visit Bernadette and her family at the Jersey shore this coming weekend, so I might do that. Other than that, I don't know what's up yet ... so keep it here for more news as it happens.

What an awesome break that was ...

Tuesday afternoon, I had lunch at the Hotel Washington overlooking much of the city of Washington (a couple blocks from the White House). The weather, as mentioned in my previous post, was incredible. I just could not bear to stay inside. I decided that afternoon that I was going to take the afternoon off and visit Bernadette. After calling her up, I did. We had a great time. When I got up there, I was treated to another of her mother's culinary delights. We went to a local resevoir in search of waterfoul (we had bread, but they weren't interested) and just enjoyed the weather outside. I found out that Wednesday was going to be much the same ... so I decided to take the whole day off.

That morning, Bernadette and I went to Chanticleer Garden, a really beautiful estate near where Bernadette lives. There are incredibly manicured gardens at Chanticleer, and places to just sit and enjoy the natural beauty. I would have never thought I would have loved a garden so much ... but I did. Bernadette's mom made us some awesome wraps, so we picniced on the grounds and enjoyed the perfect weather and beautiful surroundings. For the rest of the day we pretty much just hung out and enjoyed a lazy day off. That night we saw "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" before retiring for bed. I woke up early in the morning and made my way back to DC to save the world again through the power of database driven web development.

What's in store for me? I really don't know. I have been in a random mood of late ... so you never know what might happen. Tonight, I might do a quick workout and then head home for some good eats (rumor has it that Dad has some steaks waiting :-). Later, I'm probably going to hang out a bit with Dan. After that is uncertain. Until next time, enjoy that weather!

What a beautiful day and a great concert ...

I woke up this morning to absolutely incredible weather, it was in the seventies ... It is nice to have a day where it does not feel like you're breating air from someone's armpit ... needless to say, I'm pleased.

Last night was good too. Dad and I met up in Washington to see the Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, and Seven Mary Three at the 9:30 Club. It was part of the New World Disorder Tour. We got in a little late after having dinner at Harry's downtown ... so we only got the tail end of the Seven Mary Three set ... what I saw was nothing spectacular, they played "Cumbersome" as their last song, got the crowd into it. Next up were the Spin Doctors ... they have three songs you know ("Pocket Full of Kryptonite", "Two Princes", and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong") and everything else is quite different. They delved into long versions of unknown songs ... and for the people who knew them, it was great. I was not one of them. The only really great thing I can say about them was that Chris Barron (the lead singer) asked people to stop moshing -- usually bands ignore it and people end up getting hurt. It also keeps people who don't want to be hit as some idiot falls on them from getting close to the show. I wish that other bands would do the same. However, this could not save their set ... I was left to nurse my Harpoon IPA until the Gin Blossoms came on.

Man did they deliver. The Gin Blossoms put on a hell of a great show. Almost every song that ever was released by them was played that night ... when they first came on Robin (the lead singer) said "We're not going to mess around here ... we know it's late on a Monday night". He did not lie. The set was solid, the band was tight, and they clearly loved the audience. Robin grabbed a camera from an audience member and snapped close up shots of himself and the rest of the band as an instrumental part of the song was happening. He crowd- surfed ... a lot. He even ordered a couple shots of Jagermeister from the stage. He clearly was having a good time, and so was everyone else. For the encore they did a set of covers and were on their way.

For the rest of the week, I don't know what I'm doing ... but I hope it will be fun.

I am feeling the burn now ...

Mom and I went to Virginia Beach this weekend. It was a fun time -- I did a lot of swimming and relaxing. I even caught a few good waves doing a little body surfing :-) I also finished those two books I got a long time ago ... I'm happy about it -- I didn't devote any time specifically for reading ... just did so on the Metro and in spare moments (which have been few and far between this summer). Both books were good.

On Saturday, we started things off getting a breakfast buffet and took our stuff down to the beach afterward (around 22nd street where our hotel was located). We set up camp with a rented umbrella and proceeded to get some sun and swimming on. That evening, we went to an all you can eat seafood place ... a good idea in principle, but I don't think seafood was really meant to be eaten in mass quantities ... so afterward we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep in preparation for another day at the beach (and let our stomachs deal with our earlier silliness).

Sunday we went to another (better) breakfast buffet and drove down to 9th street (where there is a municipal parking garage ... we had to check out of the hotel). We set up camp around 8th street and this time, we brought an umbrella of our own (they cost less to buy than they do to rent). We spent the better part of the day by the ocean and then brought our stuff back to the car. We had dinner later at Mahi Mah's, which was a nice restaurant with some outdoor seating. I had a boatload of sushi and sashimi (and took advantage of some of the happy hour specials ... it was nice to not be the designated driver for once :-). After that we headed back home a little redder and a little more relaxed.

This week, I don't know what I'll be doing. I'll be working, hopefully working out, and I'll try to find a way to visit Bernadette if possible :-) Until then, I'll be hard to miss (I'm the guy who is red!).

What a stressful week ...

This week everything seemed to be coming at me simulataneously. Just a very rough week as weeks go ... so I am glad to see it come to a close. Much to my surprise this afternoon my Mom gave me a call and told me that we will be going to Virginia Beach this weekend. It should be a blast ... fun, sun, a few days without work, responsibilities, or worries. I'm very much looking forward to it. Of course, as things would happen, I neglected to bring my digital camera this morning (I didn't know we were going to the beach!) so the pictures taken will be of the film variety. It should be a lot of fun :-)

Dad and Aunt Karen got back safely from San Francisco on Wednesday, and I picked up Dan from Annapolis Wednesday too ... he's back in Columbia for the summer :-)

That's the news for now ... For more news as it happens, keep tuned to Cabic.com!

That was just what I needed!

I had a great weekend with Bernadette. On Friday, as planned, I slept while she was at work (after grabbing breakfast with her at Collegetown Bagels down by her office). It is just what the doctor ordered -- I needed a day to crash, and I got that on Friday. Once she got off from work I drove down to the Commons to pick her up at her office and we swung by Harvest Deli where we got some smoothies and I got a sandwich (her boss had taken her out to lunch). That evening we went to Thai Cuisine for the first time since we went there on our first date long ago. The food was, as usual, quite excellent -- and the atmosphere was good too. It was nice to have a nice leisurely dinner with the most beautiful girl on the planet -- just an awesome time.

Saturday we went about the business of packing things up and tying up some loose ends before departing for sunny West Chester, PA. Lunch was provided by the culinary wizards at Ling Ling Garden (for my money the best chinese place in Ithaca -- even if it is a hole in the wall) and we were on our way. We made it in to West Chester in the evening and were treated to Steaks and home made cheesecake courtesy of Bernadette's parents (quite delicious I might add). After chatting out with her parents in their garden, we hit the sack in preparation for Sunday.

Sunday we decided that we would go to Chaddsford Winery which had a surprising array of wines to taste. A six dollar glass got us a sampling of nine different varieties ... needless to say, by the ninth, everythying started tasting good :-) We picked up a bottle of their Spring Wine to accompany a picnic lunch we had packed for the occasion. While enjoying our repast we were treated to some live music. Afterward we walked around the grounds for a bit and watched some Canada Geese lounging by a pond in the summer sun. Next, we made our way to Marsh Creek State Park where we went canoeing on the large lake there. It was really pretty out ... and hot! We went from one side of the lake to the other and kept an eye out for some of the avian wildlife. Afterward, we got some ice cold bottled water (very necessary) and some ice cream to cool us off. That night we made our way back to Bernadette's place where we were treated to some absolutely delicious chicken and fresh strawberry shortcake (Bernadette's parents spoil me with great food every time I visit!). Bernadette and I hung out for the better part of the evening before snagging some nachos from 7-11. After that, I made my way back home to Columbia where my return was eagerly anticipated by the cats (who had the run of the place for the three days I was away).

This week I'll be doing the work thing ... working out at night too. Not much planned, but you never know what will happen ... until next time, have a good week.

Man am I glad this week is over ...

It was a rough one ... had the bill from Cornell come in without reflecting financial aid (ouch) and had to deal with that (all taken care of now). At work I had a few fires that I had to put out ... kept me here until late at night a couple days. It was an incredibly long week. You might be saying to yourself ... why is he speaking in the past tense ... it is only Thursday after all! Well friends, I'm taking tomorrow off. That's right, I'm gonna make a three day weekend out of it. Tonight, after work, I will head on up to sunny Ithaca, New York to visit Bernadette. She has one more day of work left (and I will sleep through the whole thing -- I'm very much looking forward to getting an extra day's worth of sleep). This weekend I will be taking her back to West Chester, PA where she will spend the remainder of the summer with her parents. While down there for the weekend, we might stop by the Brandywine River and do some canoeing ... or we might do something else cool. Whatever it is, you'll hear about it. I am looking forward to having some off time -- things have been a little too stressful for my taste of late. It is hard to believe that in under a month I will be back at Cornell.

While my week was incredibly stressful, it was not without its high points. Last night I went out with some friends from work to grab a few drinks and celebrate Eric's birthday. It was a fun time. Also, Tuesday night, both Terry and I had to stay late to work, so he and I went to Stoney's and got some burgers and beer -- a nice way to end a long day.

I also helped Bernadette finish up her website ... so now she has a biography, a page of sites she likes, her news (run by the same engine running this news page), and a short listing of her writings. The front page to the site is here -- check it out. It will be good to see her, and it will be nice to not have to do that drive again until I go back to school (knocks on wood). That's about it from here, have a good weekend.

A nice lazy weekend.

I went back up to Ithaca this weekend to see Bernadette and I got in at a reasonable hour for once. I surprised her with some of the delicious goodness from Ling Ling Garden as she was busy rocking Ithaca on WVBR. I also brought her a dozen roses (red and pink) and we hung out during her shift. Treasurer Matt came in and I chatted with him, and then Bernadette and I went back to the apartment and reveled in the pale blue glow of digital cable.

Saturday, I slept until around noon (all the driving makes me sleepy) and spent the day talking and relaxing ... a nice change of pace. That evening we went to Shortstop and got some subs and soft serve and decided to hit up the cinema for Men In Black II ... not Shakespeare, but not too terrible ... nice entertainment. Following that we hiked up to Hungerford Hill and brought a couple folding chairs and refreshments -- we gazed for a while at the stars and the lights of Ithaca before heading back home and calling it a night.

Sunday, I was woken up by the phone ... seems there was a technical issue at WVBR that didn't exist (the CD player merely needed to have the play button pressed) -- so instead of getting the sleep my body wanted, I had to help with that issue ... ruined my morning. I didn't even tell anyone at the station I would be in Ithaca this weekend ... it seems like it is impossible to get a weekend off ... oh well.

Later that day Bernadette and I got some food to go to Stewart Park and go picnicing -- we ate out by Cayuga Lake and ran through the sprinklers a few times (even hit up the carousel). We had fun. Later we drove out by Taughannock Falls and saw the overlook ... some pics might be posted later. Next we drove out to Horseheads to pick up my Aunt Karen. We drove back to Ithaca where she treated us to an awesome dinner at Maxie's Supper Club. After sating our hunger, we headed back to my apartment, and then Aunt Karen and I headed back to Columbia.

Another great weekend, another news entry ...

I went up to Ithaca once again this past weekend to visit the most beautiful girl in the world. I left out Friday night and met up with her after her shift at WVBR. When we arrived at the apartment I was greeted with one of my favorite things ... Baklava! Bernadette made it for me earlier in the day and made me totally happy (yup, the thing about the way to a man's heart is through his stomach isn't too far off). After gorging myself on the gooey goodness, I crashed (all the driving makes for a tired Ed).

Saturday, we headed to Jason's Deli (home of some quite excellent subs) and made ourselves some Colliders (kinda like a Dairy Queen Blizzard made by you). We took the goodness to the Cornell Planations where we picniced in a quiet area surrounded by shady trees. Next, we proceeded to WVBR for the Board of Directors meeting. The meeting went well, and at the end we broke out the bubbly to celebrate the building sale finally being completed. Afterward we went with Aaron, Chris, and Matt to BK for a little dinner excitement (the meeting went on late) and chatted about many random things.

But wait ... the night was far from over. Bernadette and I headed over to The Haunt where we experienced the 80's Dance Party from WVBR DJ (and great club DJ) DJ Nicky Wood. Bernadette and I got some dancing in and did a little people watching while we were at it. Fun times. Afterward, we went to Wegmans for a little Ice Cream run (for baklava a la mode of course ... man is that good). While there I decided I'd give Captain Morgan Gold a try ... hey it was on sale. The stuff is horrid ... I talked to a bartender in Annapolis about it and I think he had a great description of it: "If ginger ale could go bad, it would be like that".

On Sunday we stopped by the new Tops in Ithaca (by Wegmans) and picked up some New York Strip Steaks and Spiced Sweet Potato Chips (highly recommended by the way) and made our way up to the upper part of Buttermilk falls (the part no one seems to know about). We barbecued by a waterfall fed by Lake Treman, on my portable grill (man I love that thing). I made my legendary steaks (using my own special recipe) and we enjoyed the nice weather and quiet atmosphere. We did a little hiking around Lake Treman and then went back to the apartment to relax for a bit. Then we hit up Shortstop and got some great subs and hit up their new Soft Serve place (they actually have mint chocolate chip soft serve!). All very good. Shortly thereafter I headed back to Columbia.

Yesterday marked eight months that Bernadette and I have been together ... or put another way, eight months of me being the happiest and luckiest man on the planet. She is incredible.

Also, yesterday I grabbed lunch with my friend Yoni (from Cornell, now in the "real world"). We grabbed some Thai with some friends of his and had a good time. Last night I did quite a bit of working out as well ... I am starting to see some serious results ... increased muscle mass and such ... working out is good.

This week I will be working as usual with occasional randomness placed in for excitement. On Friday, I will be back in Ithaca to do some hiking with Bernadette and bring my Aunt (who lives nearby) down to Columbia for her upcoming trip with Dad to San Francisco.

What a fantastic weekend ...

Everything started on Thursday (the 4th) morning when I met up with Bernadette and her parents at the Maryland House rest stop on I-95. I had woken up earlier than I needed to (because of a power outage the night before, I set my battery operated clock alarm to give me some buffer time) so I got a nice full breakfast at Big Boy and sat down to read some of the book I have been working on. Around 9:30 in the morning the beautiful Bernadette stirred me from my book and we were quickly on our way. We proceeded to Woodbridge, Virginia, home of outlet shopping, and the best mom on the planet (mine of course) where we grabbed some lunch. My grandmother cooked up some superb fried chicken with all the fixings. It was delicious. Afterward we started our trek into downtown Washington, D.C. to where mom works.

Upon arriving in D.C. we made our way to a couple of the Smithsonian museums for a little cultural enrichment. First we hit up the Natural History museum, where Bernadette was treated to a large collection of birds that we had seen in our last outing. There are many of them there and the collection is quite impressive. Next we went outside in the now oppressive heat and perused the offerings at the Folklife festival. This year they were highligting the Silk Road ... I am sure it would have been great, but I think that all parties involved were in agreement ... in the height of a D.C. Summer afternoon like this one, inside in air-conditioned comfort was the place to be.

Taking this to heart we made our way to the American History museum where we saw the restoration being done on the Star Spangled Banner, the Information Age exhibit (one of my favorites), and the commercial oasis that is housed beneath the exhibits where, for a fee, you can take home a piece of the Smithsonian ... we did not. Instead, we chose to hit up the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had some ice cold drinks and some delicious appetizers and meals. I had the chicken fajitas, which I recommend, along with various frosty beverages which made me mind the heat a little less with each passing sip. After we had refreshed ourselves at the Hard Rock, we headed over to the nearby Barnes and Noble to kill the remaining half hour until we could get onto the roof at 1111 Pennslyvania Avenue.

When 8:00 came around, up we went to one of the most breathtaking views of Washington, D.C. I have seen. You could see everything from there ... the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Potomac ... suffice it to say, it was pretty. The breeze from up there was rather pleasant and as the sun set on the urban landscape, the excitement grew. At 9:10 we saw the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air ... it was one hell of a fireworks show lasting about 20 minutes, and we saw it from one of the best viewpoints in the area.

Anyone who has visited the district on the 4th knows that leaving right after the fireworks is something best left to the realm of naive tourists ... because with the traffic, you won't go anywhere. Knowing this, we went to Harry's, downstairs from where mom works. We enjoyed some drinks and popcorn on the sidewalk cafe, watching people scurrying to their cars or hustling off to Metro. After the chaos subsided a bit we made our way home and prepared for the next day.

Friday, Bernadette and I headed down early in the morning to Virginia Beach. We parked down off Ninth street and made our way to the shore. Before we could go for a swim, we had a serious hunger to tame ... which we did at an outdoor restaurant with pretty good food. After finishing our meal we went out to the beach where we went swimming and sunning for most of the afternoon. The water was rather nice and the waves were moderate. I had lugged my boogie board with me and attempted to tame the waves ... a few times I was even successful. After swimming for a while we fell asleep in the late afternoon sun and woke up in the early evening. We changed back into street attire, got a flurry from a ice cream shop, and made our way to the amusement park that we had seen off in the distance. We hit up a log flume, a looping coaster like thing, and then what was essentially a bouncing centrifuge ... fun times :-) We then proceeded to check out the surroundings and saw that nearby on 16th street there was a steel drum band that was playing for free. We headed out to Subway and grabbed some dinner that we ate while listening to the music (after a brief interruption as someone got carted off the beach in an ambulance). For dessert we went to Dairy Queen and got a mud pie blizzard ... which was incredibly good. We then went out to the pier and looked out on the water and back at the Virginia Beach skyline. After picking up a visor for mom at the gift shop, we headed back to Woodbridge. Just as we were leaving, a fireworks display started over the water (2 displays in 2 days! ... we were happy).

On Saturday we had breakfast with Mom, then headed out to Columbia to have lunch with Dad. Afterward, I showed Bernadette the Howard County Library, and we took a detour at Lake Kittamaqundi and walked around some of the paths there. There was a lot of wildlife out that night, from Canada Geese to Ducks to Rabbits ... nice night for a walk too. Afterward we made our way back to Ithaca, where we got in late at night.

Sunday we went barbecuing at Treman State Park, feasting on chicken and burgers ... quite delicious. Afterward we hit up the swimming hole down there ... and man was it cold! They said the temperature was in the low sixties ... and it certainly felt it. It was fun though, and we swam around and jumped off the diving board too. We also basked in the shade of a tree and got some relaxing in. After packing up we headed over to Subway once again and then to Purity for some excellent ice cream (may I humbly suggest the chocolate bittersweet and mocha chip ... quite excellent). After grocery shopping and chatting for a while, I was on my way. I made it back to the D.C. area in the wee hours of the morning.

This week is very much up in the air ... so I will fill you in as it happens.

Fun weekend ...

This weekend I went down to Woodbridge, Virginia to visit my Mom. On Saturday we went hiking at Prince William Forest Park where we hiked just shy of five miles. We took a trail that went down by a creek that fed a lake and continued after a dam. It was a beautiful hike. It was also a sweltering hike. It was a hot and humid day that was exacerbated by the humidity that was given off by the forest area. Made me glad I brought plenty of water. The following day we cleaned up my car (which was a mess after all the driving of the last month) and got it into tip- top shape (thanks Mom!). Afterward we celebrated by going to Silver Diner where we had a lot of really good food ... cheese fries, southwestern egg and chicken quesedilla, and a root beer float (all that exercising for naught!). It was a fun time.

The only bad thing of the weekend was the fact that I was seen as a delicious morsel by two lone-star ticks ... I caught them early so I should be ok ... but I'll be watching for the possibility of nastiness.

This week is going to rock. Of course, I'll be working ... but then on Thursday Bernadette is going to be joining me for the Independence Day festivities in DC, where there will be the The Smithsonian Folklife Festival with the "Silk Road" theme this year. And, of course, the biggest, baddest, craziest fireworks anywhere in the land (Ed is hoping for the big loud ones ...). The following day we might go to Virginia Beach for fun and sun. There are even rumors of a trip to either Busch Gardens, Williamsburg or Paramount's Kings Dominion. But these are unsubstantiated rumors ... you'll have to check in later to see if they happen ;-) After that I'll be going back up to Ithaca to bring Bernadette back up and we might get some good old-fashioned barbecueing in ... I can taste it now. Needless to say, a good week ahead.

Damn it's hot ...

I must say, I'm not a fan of the steamier parts of the Washington D.C. Summers. In the last few days temperatures have been in the nineties with heat indicies approaching the century mark. Ed is not pleased. This weekend is supposed to provide some relief from the heat after the forecasted showers that are supposed to be coming soon. Let's hope that they do the trick.

In completely unrelated news, yesterday, I checked out two books from the Howard County Library to satisfy the annual need for summer reading. The first is "Bowling Alone, The Collapse and Revival of American Community" by Robert D. Putnam. It was recommended to me by John Henrehan at the Cornell Picnic (see June 18 news) and thus far has been a rather interesting look into social capital in American Culture. Next in the queue is "Database Nation, The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century" by Simpson Garfinkel. From the first chapter, it looks like it will be a good read on the recent decline of privacy and its implications. Should keep me busy :-)

This week, as always, I'm doing my best to hit the gym as often as possible. This weekend, I'm planning on doing some hiking with Mom around where she lives and maybe even getting a little barbecuing in too. My plans for the Fourth of July are still up in the air ... I'll be spending it with Mom and if I'm lucky, Bernadette might be able to join us to see the fireworks in D.C. More on that as it develops.

Until next time, I'll be the guy with the books on Metro.

I had a great weekend ...

I went up to Ithaca to visit Bernadette over the weekend, giving the new tire a run for its money. On Saturday, we hit up Buttermilk Falls State Park. We went swimming there, beating the rather hot temperatures in the cold water from the foot of the falls. We even did a little diving too. Afterward we took out my new mini gas grill and cooked up some Barbecue chicken (which was rather tasty I might add). It was a small amount of chicken ... and decided that we needed a little bit more to be sated, so we headed down to the Wegmans and picked up some slices of our childhood ... cheese filled hot dogs and the constituent components for smores ... yes, smores! Armed with our newly acquired goodness, we went to Stewart Park to watch the sun set over Cayuga Lake and cook up some hot dogs. After we finished the dogs, we took off the grill plate and roasted some marshmallows into a gooey lump of goodness deserving of placement, along with chocolate, between two slabs of graham cracker. It was a beautiful night (if only the bugs hadn't agreed!).

The following day we went to the Ithaca Farmer's Market for the first time and picked up some hard cider from Bellwether Hard Cider (after sampling it of course, very good stuff) and a smoothie from the Ithaca Smoothie Queen (which was delicious, I might add). After looking out on the inlet from their docks, we headed over to Purity Ice Cream where I indulged in their amazing mint chocolate chip ice cream, and Bernadette tried the delicious orange sherbert. An awesome way to beat the heat. After that, we went out to Moosewood Restaurant where it was a Greek themed night and we both got a shrimp dish that was rather good. For desert we picked up Almond Baklava and Almond Amaretto ice cream (both delicious). After that, we headed to the Wegmans one more time to pick up some groceries for Bernadette and ran into Kenli Mattus who was up visiting a friend on a break from his touring schedule ... small world. After that, I headed back home, getting in around 4:00 this morning.

Nothing planned this week, so I will keep you posted as it happens.

Today I did something I never thought I would do ...

I paid for a web site. That's right ... I got a membership for a couple months at Kuro5hin, a technology and culture site I enjoy visiting when I have a good chunk of time to do so. The commentary, for the most part, is intelligent and engaging -- it is a true internet community. It was in danger of going out of business -- and I felt that it was too good to go dark. So I showed my support with a two month subscription totalling $8. Sure, not a lot, but it adds up (when I put in my bucks, they were already over 30k). So now I'll do my best to chime in a little more on some of their discussions and put in my $0.02 where I see fit. If I write something good, I might even post a link up here.

Other than that, things have been pretty much the same. On Tuesday night I got myself a new tire for the car (the one it replaced was on its last legs). I've also been looking into building myself an audio mixer. Basically, I want to be able to mix about 4 sources together with a reasonable amount of fidelity. I've been doing a little research, and I might use the National LM1036 Dual DC Operated Tone/Volume/Balance Circuit as the workhorse of each of the faders -- the closest and cheapest new pre-fab one from Radio Shack costs about $140, and it does not even have the cool features I can put into it ... I'm estimating that my cost would be around $30-$50. If I get the time, I just might do it.

In other news, I set up a version of EdNews (The application that generates the news you're reading) for Bernadette here which is now linked from her web site. Look for some updates up there in the near future ... she has some new articles that should be coming on-line soon.

I hope that each of you has a good solstice ... it is always nice to have long and beautiful days to enjoy. I am a big fan of still seeing the sun when I leave the Gym around 8:30 some nights. I'm also looking forward to the long days this weekend for some of that excellent hiking I plan on getting in.

I'm getting to know the rest stops on I-81 by heart ...

This weekend I did a lot of driving. How much driving you ask? 1,300 miles of driving ... about the same amount of driving that I would be doing if I drove from my home in Columbia, Maryland to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My trip was not to the state with the panhandle ... but to Ithaca, NY. I picked Bernadette up on Saturday and brought her to the DC area for the Cornell Club of Washington picnic on Sunday (where we had a great time swimming and enjoying the pleasant weather). While there we met John Henrehan of Fox 5 News (who is a Cornell, and a WVBR alumnus). He gave us some tips on the media biz and gave us some stories of how WVBR used to be ... a really nice guy. Sunday night we headed back to Ithaca by way of her home outside Philly to wish her Dad a happy Father's day. On Monday morning she showed me where she works and I headed back down to the DC area once again. About 26 hours in the road in all ... and when I got home, I slept like a baby.

It was a really fun time -- and it was good to see Bernadette again. Next weekend I'm going to try to get back up there and get some more hiking in -- I bought a couple books about hikes in the Finger Lakes region and Bernadette has been building a list of hikes we should do ... I can't wait!

Until then, I'll be working, getting some maintenance done on the car (you probably guessed that one), and preparing for one hell of an awesome weekend coming up.

Time to get something off my chest ...

I take Metro in the mornings as a way to get into work. I chose Metro as a central part of my commuting strategy for several reasons:

1. Lower cost than driving and parking in DC
2. More flexible than Commuter rail
3. Usually less aggravating than driving ...

Notice the qualifier there ... usually. You see, there are some idiots who just have to get on a train, even when they physically cannot. As they push and shove so they can get in, the doors attempt to close with the characteristic Metro chime and voice saying "Doors Closing". Even with this gentle reminder, these misguided miscreants push on. The doors are forced open again and a more forceful "Please stand clear of the doors, thank you" comes on the intercom. They persist ... after all, they are the most important people in the world. The cycle continues ... just an annoyance you say, eventually they will give up or get in ...

If only it were so simple.

You see, Metro's trains aren't designed to handle this ... if the door isn't working, the train thinks "I'm Malfunctioning". If it can't fix this problem (in this case close the door), the train shuts down and must be unloaded of all passengers -- the safest thing it can do. Now the platform is filled with 2 or 3 train loads of people ... and the line must be cleared ... their attempt to save themselves 3 minutes (the frequency of trains in Rush Hour) just cost everyone (themselves included) 10 minutes or more of delay.

I have this to say: if you ride transit, you have no more rights than anyone else. All of us have to get to work. All of us have important lives. However, when you get on public transit, you join a group. For once, think of the results of selfish actions -- you'll find that being a pushy commuter has more negative results than positive ones.

</rant>

In other news, I'm joining a gym this evening -- it is in the building where I work and seems to be rather cool. Some of the exercise machines have DVD/CD players -- should make for some great exercising. With any luck, look for a more svelte and sexy Ed in the near future.

Until next time, I'll be watching you, on the Metro.

Who said talking in front of people is scary ...

I had a good time this weekend relaxing, picnicing, hiking, and MCing the Ithaca Festival. You can see some of the pictures I took of all this fun here. The weekend as a whole was pretty laid back and Bernadette and I went to Treman on Saturday to picnic. On Sunday we co-MC'd the Ithaca Festival introducing the MacGilicuddies and L'il Anne & Hot Cayenne. The driving schedule was a bit harsh (got back to Columbia around 3 AM) but worth it :-)

I'm going to be laying low this week and visiting Mom this weekend. Other than that, not too much to report.

As promised, you can check out the pictures from the Watkins Glen and Stewart Park Trips this past weekend here. Enjoy!

What an amazing weekend ...

This weekend had to be one of the better ones in memory. Friday night I went up to Bernadette's place to bring her back to Ithaca for her summer job, Saturday we relaxed in Ithaca, Sunday we went to Watkins Glen state park and saw Spider-Man, and Monday we went picnicing in Stewart Park.

Sunday and Monday were the big days of excitement, so I'll tell you more about them. On Sunday morning we watched Cornell's graduation on TV (better view than a few stories up on the crescent). Was cool to see many of my friends graduating ... it will be me in one more year. After that we made the trek out to Watkins Glen State Park. It was surprisingly close, and a nice ride through some beautiful country. Once we got there we hiked up the gorge trail passing by several waterfalls and going up just shy of 1,000 steps (982 I think). The scenery was absolutely beautiful, and the gorge had its own "microclimate" due to the large amounts of water that get sprayed up from the falls -- everything was cool and moist. We then went down the Indian Trail and went back up the South Rim trail, crossing a bridge to make the circuit back down to the car (in all, around 6 miles of hiking). As you'd expect, I took a ton of pictures, and I will try to get some of them up on-line for your perusal in the near future. For now, picture beautiful scenery in the background and a stunning Bernadette in the foreground :-)

Saturday night we went to Horseheads (which was not too far away) and went to the Outback Steakhouse (you've got to love those 22oz. beer glasses and the ever so tasty Bloomin' Onions ...). The food was great, and afterward we took our stuffed selves over to the movie theatre and saw Spider-Man, which was a fun film. One side note though: something is wrong with the world when small popcorn costs 4 bucks and a medium soda costs 3 and change, but I digress.

Monday, we went down to Shortstop and picked up some subs. On a beautiful day like that, there is only one thing that you can do ... go to Stewart Park of course. We picniced by Cayuga Lake and walked around the grounds (we even hit up the merry-go-round). After that, we ran some errands and went home where I cooked up some fajitas before I headed back to Columbia. All in all, one awesome weekend.

I'll be up in Ithaca again in 4 days for the Ithaca Festival, should be a lot of fun.

I sure do drive a lot ...

This week was pretty good I must say. On Tuesday I saw Dan at his new pad in Annapolis. We went to this great Mexican place, enjoying spicy fare and cold refreshment. Wednesday I had dinner with my Mom downtown at the Old Post Office and yesterday (Thursday) I had dinner with Dan's sister who will be doing research this summer down on Solomon's Island in Southern Maryland.

Tonight I'll be heading up to Bernadette's place to take her back up to Ithaca for her summer job. This weekend we will probably get some hiking in (still need to get those hiking boots!) and might swing by Cornell's graduation ceremony (where Danny Glover will be sending the kids off into the real world as Detective Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon). I'll also swing by the station to see what's new and sign off on anything that needs to be signed off on. Should be a fun time -- I can't wait for the weekend to start.

I'll be going up next weekend for the Festival too ... Mobil, eat your heart out.

To everyone at Cornell who is graduating, good luck and keep in touch.

That was a short vacation ...

I'm back to work this week ... and soaking in the sunny (if a tad chilly) Washington weather (don't worry, it'll be hot and humid soon enough). This weekend I helped Bernadette move in to my place for the summer (she's working in Ithaca with a non-profit). I dropped her off at home outside Philly where she is celebrating her parents' 25th wedding anniversary (being together 25 years is pretty awesome if you ask me). As for me, I'm back to doing what it is I do best ... saving the world from evil (or to the less creative news reader, web development).

I was just thinking ... this is the first long stretch of time where my nights are completely and unequivocally my own. I am not taking any summer classes -- so it looks like I can enjoy this one. If I'm lucky, I might even crash a few concerts. If you're in DC, drop me a line and we can hang out. I'll be stopping by Ithaca to go hiking and swimming with Bernadette too.

In other news ... If my promotions director at WVBR worked out the details, I'll be MCing one of the stages at the Ithaca Festival this year (as I did in 1999). I'll post more details as I get them, but it all happens May 30 - June 2 (I'll likely be MCing during the weekend).

On the to-do list: get some hiking boots (Bernadette and I like to hike), work on the staff website for WVBR, and get some sleep in there somewhere.

This is going to be a good summer.

Another long night last night ... but I decided that sleep was a bit more important since I have that CS project due tomorrow as well. I am officially done at 4 PM tomorrow (the deadline for the CS project).

The CS Project

The plan is to make a grocery list program that will remember your food staples (and not bother asking you whether you want them), prompt for things you might need, and allow you to add new items. If I have time I might even add a meal planner, so you could choose "Baklava" and it would automatically add phyllo dough, walnuts, honey, and the rest. Should be kinda cool.

One nerdy dream I've had is to create a bar code scanner that you'd attach to the fridge to track inventory. When you check something out, the program knows that you're out of butter, and adds it to your list ... or if you have the butter but want the recipe, it would not have you buy it again ... if I get some spare time, I just might do it (with at Atmel AVR chip, it would not be too hard to do actually -- it would likely employ a wireless connection to the computer with the inventory database running in the background).

Anyhow ... at least I'll be able to be home tonight working on the project. No more lab until August -- which is a good thing.

Tomorrow marks six months that Bernadette and I have been together -- every day I'm with her I find a million more reasons why she is the most incredible and wonderful woman I know. Yesterday, while I was in the lab all day, she worked in the lab with me while she was studying for exams to keep me company. Let me tell you, it is hard to feel bad about being in lab for a dozen or so hours straight when you spend that time sitting next to a stunningly gorgeous girl :- ) I'm the luckiest guy on the planet to have someone who is as wonderful as her.

Well, enough of me being sappy, I must get back to putting the finishing touches on this lab report for 574 so I can get started on the CS project -- 24 hours and I'm done.

I saw the sun rise again.

Last night my 474 group and I finished our project report, ending that two semester course. It was good to get that done, and we cranked out those 22 pages surprisingly fast. Bernadette and I went to Plum Tree last night too -- I had a boatload of sushi (I kid you not ... the sushi came on a boat). It was a nice break from the monotony of programming and debugging.

Eric and I worked on the Asynchronous Microprocessor until just before 6 AM today -- in the last few minutes I got the decoder I was working on to simulate properly with its production rules. As I write this, I am working on the layout to accompany those rules. It is due tomorrow. In addition to making layout for this huge beast, I have to help write up our project report, which will be around 20 pages or so. It is going to be a busy day.

Once I'm done with this project, it is off to work on my CS 213 final project (which should be much easier). That one is due Wednesday ... then I'm done

If I had to state an immutable a law of nature, I think it would be this: "Work will expand to the time alloted". I'm sure someone has said the same thing before me, and it will continue to be said long after I am gone. It is, without a doubt, the truth. These 40 pages of lab reports I have due ... no one in either of the two groups I am in (myself included unfortunately) has started them -- this is a problem of course, since they are both due on Tuesday ... so until then I am in the lab typing away thinking of better times.

Hello again. It has been a while since I last wrote an entry here, and I've been saying that a lot in my most recent entries. Part of the reason for that is that the editorial process was a bit of a pain, requiring me to be at a machine that allowed me to save and edit the HTML document and then FTP it back out (my constantly on-campus lifestyle makes that not as easy to do) ... I have decided to change this.

My news page is now data driven. I can update the information from the web which means that the news can be put up with much less effort. With this modification I am no longer putting week ranges, but just the time that an entry was posted ... so you might see postings more or less often, depending on how much I feel like posting. The old entries can still be found here in their traditional static form.

Enough of that ... here's the news. The last week was a lot of fun. Bernadette and I went to Treman State Park and Buttermilk Falls State Park last weekend hiking about 10 miles total. Yesterday (Friday) saw my first and only final during finals week. Now all I have left to complete are two lab reports for 574 and 474 totaling 40 pages, and a CS 213 final project. After that I am done!

I head back to Columbia for the summer next weekend and plan on going back to work the following week. It will be nice to not have homework until the end of August.