Sprawl Wall

Double Secret Probation

2008-02-20T16:13:00.000-08:00

Are there any competent phone or tv service providers?"Additionally, if you do not want to receive e-mail communications from us, you must provide us with the e-mail address we should not contact."http://www.wireless.att.com/privacy/customer-opt-out.jspWhat next... will guys be approaching ladies at the club with the line, "hey baby, what are your digits so i don't call you."

Thank You!

2007-12-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for reading this meandering, intermittent, (sometimes) punchy blog. I hope it has been as fun to read as it has been to compose. And a personal thank you to Will for responding with a timely solution to my last post upbraiding the Google Reader team. A great workaround courtesy of Will is to surf to a barebones Google page enabling sharing single items. Once you log in, you can

Google Reader

2007-12-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Google Reader Team,Please create functionality to allow the ability to share/star/archive a single URL without subscribing to an RSS feed. My problem: I randomly surf to a bodacious webpage worthy of a star or maybe even a share with friends... but the Google Reader forces me to subscribe to the RSS feed before I can take action. Arg!!! An analogy... I'm not going to listen to the entire

Past Time

2007-12-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

Bud, you just don't get it. After documenting Sen. Mitchell's distinguished track record, Selig underscores, "Senator Mitchell has made 20 recommendations, all of which I will embrace... Those recommendations that I can implement independently, I will do so immediately." Amen!But, a few sentences later, Selig states, "I am going to review each one of these [players] on a case by case basis"--

An Era Draws to a Close: Can the MLB Move Forward?

2007-12-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

It's the holidays. That means jingles... like Deck the Halls. Speaking of decking the halls, as of today, there are no MLB players from the past decade that are On Deck for the Hall of Fame. The Mitchell Report is now available... and there are names. All-stars and September call-ups. Mitchell, after weighing the pros and cons, opted to publish the list of names in recognition of the failed

Kevin was...

2007-12-13T01:53:00.001-08:00

Facebook just removed the word "is" from the status update! FREEDOM!!!No longer is my status incarcerated by two itsy-bitsy characters, the most meager of verbs... R.I.P. oh, except the early returns are that my 2/3rds of my facebook friends that have updated their status subsequent to the programming change have opted to maintain "is" in their status. Where's the adventure???This

Mother Nature is...

2007-12-13T00:08:00.001-08:00

Driving home tonight, I saw my first shooting star in a long time! (I thought I would try my hand at microblogging to see what all the fuss is about... for the uninitiated, including me as of yesterday, microblogging is a simple, condensed message initiating lightweight communication.)Is a shooting star Mother Nature's way of microblogging with us? crystal clear, succinct... like Mother

Captain Comeback --> Commander Chimera

2007-10-07T00:11:00.000-07:00

Fall Saturdays finally have meaning to Stanford grads. No longer will we use our Saturday afternoons to hike the dish, to go on scavenger hunts, or to toss a disc at the Oval. For disclosure... I was actually attending my first ever yoga class at kickoff. Why would I ever think to park my keyster on the couch to watch this game considering we lost by 38 points at home last week... after not

Mitzvahs --> Karma --> ???

2007-09-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

I love the wee hours of the morning... the quiet solitude lets my mind start to murmur. Recently, lots of these meandering thoughts have drifted towards the notion of mitzvah (Hebrew word for an "act of human kindness")… well, i’m thinking about good deeds up until the cacophony of the neighborhood construction workers knocks me into the stupor of the daylight.A bit of yogurt and a kick of

An Aisle Apart

2007-09-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

We all know it absolutely sucks to be stuck in the middle seat. we've done the math. 3 seats. 6 arms. 4 armrests. Of course, no one ever discusses a fair plan to divvy up the armrest. instead, the proper decorum is silent elbow jockeying... most passengers employ the same strategy as the settlers in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush: get there first and stakeout the armrest. But even the most

Going back to Cali

2007-09-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

Back in college, there was an epic story of a pledge that pulled off a “fake pass out” in order to sidestep the late night hazing. At the time I thought pretty weak… but after being stuck on a 12 hour flight shouldering the head of tourism for Croatia, I’m ready to reconsider. Why? I tried to talk to her… I thought a little conversational aikido might channel her loquaciousness towards some

Meanwhile back in Munich...

2007-09-05T05:03:00.000-07:00

“In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus, eins, zwei, g’suffa!”Our Sunday evening reminded me of a few college memories: a) rugby… or at least the post-game celebrations where whoever scored a tri had to “shoot the boot”—meaning fill up the size 15 muddy rugby cleats and drink a full beer out of them. The rest of the team would be singing drinking songs, including the cheeky ballad “I used to work in

Come N See: Chiemsee

2007-09-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

We journeyed to a quaint, bucolic town for the wedding weekend. The Bavarian countryside is dotted with a number of these miniscule towns separated by rows of cornfields, small tree groves and rolling hills. A bunch of threadlike roads twist through the undulating terrain which provide for some enchanting panoramas… that is, until a BMW (or audi) screeches around the blind corner right in the

Munich

2007-08-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Actually, I should refer to this convivial and serene city as München—everyone else in Europe does. And we did do some serious münchin’, and gobbling and gnoshing. We started at the Viktualienmarkt… slamming down some snausages with a healthy dose of sweet mustard… and I don’t even like mustard. And we couldn’t pass up on the pretzels which were so big that we probably could’ve untied them to

Praha

2007-08-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

When someone tells you to “Get Lost,” they are actually saying in a brisk way “hey, you should go to Prague. You’re really going to enjoy it!” The city was constructed long before there was a “civil engineering” major as there appears to be no rationale to the random spray of the streets. The cobblestone roads don’t make for the best running trail and the towering walls lining the street limit

Buda + Pest

2007-08-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

Guess what… I’m now a coffee drinker! Quite an accomplishment since I’ve been flouting coffee since my early teenage years. I could never get over that chalky taste… even with a full pack of swissmiss hot chocolate floated on top. I somehow made it through college, professional career, and MBA without drinking a full cup of coffee (instead, relying on mountain dew, sleeping in on Saturdays and

Kobenhavn

2007-08-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

We reached Copenhagen, the chin cleft of Scandinavia. Lonely Planet finally took a back seat to a personalized concierge service... Brad (aka Neo or Kevin Richardson) hooked us up with the brothers Kjendlie, 3 transplants from Norway now all making Copenhagen their home. These guys rolled out the red carpet for us… which was a heck of a lot better than our walk through the red light district to

Norway + Sweden = Crazy Delicious

2007-08-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

OsloI had a slight leg up on my fellow travelers before reaching Norway. You see, back in 7th grade, our Spanish teacher was a lover of all languages; so, if a student visited a foreign country, their assignment would be to return to class and teach us three words. My friend and classmate Jon-Erik, for the uninitiated, he’s half Norwegian and his well-earned middle name is Viking, returned to

Stockholmies

2007-08-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posts… I’d like to hide behind a nonstop travel schedule but the ulterior motive was probably the embarrassment from having to confess to wasting a half day of travel due to a malicious hangover. But it seemed like most of the Swedes were also feeling the effects from the previous night as the city was eerily quiet on what should’ve been a cheery Saturday morning. The

Heaven in Helsinki

2007-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Finns love their summers! Even almost two months past the summer solstice, the daylight stretches well past 10pm here as the sun hangs on the horizon. Maximizing our time and the sun and hopefully warding off the impending jetlag, we noshed at an outdoor table bordering the plaza at the central train station. The conversation pauses were long and comfortable as Scandinavia lends itself to

International travel rocks!

2007-08-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

I’m kinda new to this international jetsetting thing. The closest I’ve come to these types of trips is playing “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” computer game. But once you get over the cost of the ticket, the flight can be quite pleasant, almost regal. The meals come with METAL utensils… and you’re treated to unlimited FREE drinks. For me, the highlight was getting a block of Tillamook

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama

2007-08-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! (ok, no more palindromes… well, one more since “racecar” is my favorite, sorry mom & dad & bob—no offense)…I thought I would put my MBA to good use by doing some pro bono work for cousin Dave and his ever-expanding hostel empire in Panama. Even the best of plans sometimes go awry! I guess the MBA taught me a lot, but most importantly, “signing bonus” and “equity.” And the environs proved to

Yelp

2007-06-21T23:31:00.001-07:00

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