Rockin' the Suburbs

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One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.






Ipod: Mat Kearney - In the Middle

Willing to compromise?

Two revelations have just become apparent to me:

1) I haven't posted in a long, long time but that's fine. The people who read my blog already know what's happening in my life.

2) In order to find that perfect balance in my life that I'm so desperately seeking means I'll have to compromise. The question is when/if I will be willing to give it up.

I'll be MIA for a bit, galavanting around the world. Like I said, I love this side of life, but it comes with a price that I am now just realizing. Nonetheless, this time, I will make the effort to detail my adventures.

This weekend: Boston
Next weekend: Bahamas
Following weekend: NYC

Quick recap: Other than the aforementioned, life has been very good to me lately. I will elaborate on this later. I apologize for the cryptic entry. I just wanted to get back into the posting world.



Mat Kearney - Nothing Left to Lose

Time to ponder

I've become that person I loathe...the one who has become too busy to return emails, phone calls or even perform simple tasks, like wash the dishes when they pile up or take out the trash when the fruit flies begin to hover (and if you know me, even my anal retentiveness hasn't affected this). I don't really know what is, but my days are inundated with what seems like an endless list of things to do and the freedom to do what I want has been greatly limited. I think this is the busiest I've ever been in my life. And I've managed to handle it well (no ulcers so far). It's not a time management issue. It's just that there is not enough time.

Which got me thinking. I've done so much in the last two months, that I could've blogged almost every day about something. Now that I look back, I can barely remember some things that I wish I had a clearer recollection of. I suppose I blog to remember and reflect. I took a few minutes last night (or early this morning) around 4:30 am to read previous postings and I tried very hard to remember why I even bothered posting or what occurred at that instant that compelled me to post. I feel like introspection is a powerful tool, but documenting it really helps you sort out your thoughts. I will make a more concerted effort from now on.

In other news, the travel schedule has really been full lately and there is no sign of that changing:

10/6/06 - New Haven, CT
10/13/06 - Pennsylvania
10/19/06 - Boston, MA
10/20/06 - New York, NY
11/11/06 - Ann Arbor, MI
11/17/06 - Columbus, OH
11/21/06 - Raleigh, NC
11/27/06 - Ithaca, NY
12/05/06 - Raleigh, NC
12/15/06 - 12/18/06 - Baltimore, MD/Washington DC
12/27/06 - 1/5/07 - Barcelona, Madrid, and Andorra
1/5/07 - 1/7/07 - post WSC party at nob's house in Myrtle Beach
1/15/07 - 1/22/07 - NYC
1/23/07 - Back in Ithaca

The European trip on that list could be epic. Tickets have been booked. She will be there.

So far, I'm living up to my oath of being in a foreign city for new year's for every year until I'm 30 (or married, whichever happens first).




Ipod: Neverending White Lights ~ From What I Once Was

The sweetest sound

With 25 days, 22 hours and approximately 5 minutes until that beautiful moment when the first kickoff occurs, the blood is just racing through my veins as I can hardly stand the anticipation. Michigan football had a rather sour season last year and during college football season, the highs and lows of my life for that 5 month period of time ride on the success our trusty maize and blue. About 8 months ago, I felt that Michigan had reached the absolute depths of despair by reaching the nadir of college football after losing two consecutive rose bowls and making their first appearance outside the top 25 of the final polls since 1984. This is the also the first time in the past nine seasons that Michigan will enter the season outside the top 10 of the national polls.

Tragic, isn't it? However, I am not one to lose hope based on a bunch of statistics and a catastrophically bad year. There is one sweet sound, one that surpasses every other sound in college sports. It is the sound that keeps me grounded in my unwavering belief in the winningest team in college football (849 wins, 280 losses and 36 ties).

Hail to the Victors. The best college fight song.

"With a minute remaining and Michigan up by three, the Buckeyes are marching down the field and threatening to score when Leon Hall intercepts a Troy Smith pass and returns it for a touchdown, sealing the victory. At that point, the Michigan fighting band could play Livin' la Vida Loca and, as Morgan Freeman said in Shawshank Redemption, it would sound "so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. it would sound like the greatest piece of music you've ever heard."



Ipod: Markus Schulz - Global Trancemissions Ibiza Underground- July 27, 2006

Plans for next summer - technomadding

......an 8,000-mile charity race from London to Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia......

Race rules require participants to drive an underpowered, preferably ridiculous, vehicle that's completely unsuited for the trip.

The four Technomads will be squeezing into a silver, 1995 Renault 19 hatchback with about 120,000 kilometers (74,564 miles) on the odometer.


This article in CNN has me totally psyched. Anyone want to be part of a team for this adventure next summer? (I'm very serious). It would be the ultimate nomadic experience.

If we have interest, check it out here for more details...




Ipod: Jay-Z - Lucifer

Lonely at the top

First thing’s first. Johns Hopkins was voted again as the top hospital for the 16th straight year in a row. It’s good to be on top.

Observation: I believe that being on top can actually be disadvantageous towards productivity and can work against you and your company. Consider Johns Hopkins: after being 16 years on top, employees believe that they are performing to the best of their abilities, when that is in fact far from the truth. While rankings (especially the ones in the U.S. News and World Report) are filled with shades of grey and should be taken with a grain of salt, they are hard to take lightly. Once someone places a label on you as being the best, you naturally tend to believe that you are inherently performing without flaw. I’ve witnessed the ebbs and flows of motivation at AIESEC Michigan; when you’re on top, you feel like nothing can bring you down until that lack of drive comes back to hit you. The goal is to avoid the dry spell by having the perspicacity to generate the impetus to perform well not only when you’re not at the top, but all the time. Being on top is not a goal, it’s a mindset. As a leader of an organization, how can you generate motivation when people simply believe that they have nothing more to give?




Ipod: Gnarles Barkley - Crazy

Hope

Borrowed from this article:

Researchers report that drinking coffee cuts the risk of cirrhosis of the liver from alcohol -- by 22 percent per cup each day -- but they stopped short of saying doctors should prescribe coffee for that reason.

The report from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, California, was based on a look at data from 125,580 people.

"These data support the hypothesis that there is an ingredient in coffee that protects against cirrhosis, especially alcoholic cirrhosis," concluded the report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Incredible, considering I drink about 5 cups a day. This means that I can continue to drink exorbitantly while reversing the potentially detrimental effects it will have on my liver.

The only part of the article I disagree with:
"Even if coffee is protective, the primary approach to reduction of alcoholic cirrhosis is avoidance or cessation of heavy alcohol drinking," the researchers said.

Idiots.




Ipod: Cafe del Mar - Volumen 13