18 hours, 45 minutes.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening / morning.

So I looked at my ticket confirmation for the first time today - and it said that I'd be travelling for over 18 hours.

Sheesh.

Poking around on the Northwest site, I was able to find out what movies I'll be watching on my super long journey. Now you can know too!

Not that great of a selection. Hopefully they'll be better in December.

I'm happy to say that I'm finally packed, so that is a good thing.

-Kirk

Mental preparation.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

My vacation has officially started.

Monday I was at work for only half the day (I had an offsite meeting), and I was at the same meeting all day today.

If I hadn't gone in Monday, I would have been away from the office for a whole 2 weeks :)

So I think this may be the longest vacation I've had in the past 3 years.

Worst part is, I leave tomorrow, and I haven't fully packed yet. I've gotten some stuff together, but that's about it. I still have to go buy some stuff tonight, and then I'll be ready to pack then :)

Tomorrow!

So much for preparing early. (shrug)

Now I just have to get myself prepared for the long long time sitting on my arse.

-Kirk

I've decided that work is evil.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Yes, it's true - thanks to JDO for pointing it out. I turned 30 last Thursday.

Why doesn't that text go any smaller?

Today I hung out with Geneman for most of the afternoon / evening. We pretty much wore out our welcome at the Taco Bell, Starbucks and Benihana.

Good times.

On the iPod front, I was gifted a Shuffle from Steve and E. All I need now is the iPod regular and the empire will be complete :)

0 to 2 in 1 week!

Not too shabby.

-Kirk

W sounds like an F

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

Next time I travel internationally, I need to make a visit to Poland. I think I would enjoy it there... A lot.

We'll leave it at that.

On the technology front, I have finally joined the hip mp3 player movement - Thanks to my brother, I'm now the proud owner of my own engraved black iPod nano. It's chock full with 776 of my carefully selected and favorite tunes. This thing is crazy small, and the sound quality is excellent. My tunes sound pretty groovy on it. My only complaint is that it is a bitch to keep clean.

The second I took my pristine nano out of the protective "Do not steal music" sleeve, the iPod was like Pigpen.

Except it's always covered in fingerprints, instead of dirt.

To help keep my iPod clean I'm going to have to scrub up like a surgeon and wear rubber gloves before listening to music.

I gotta hand it to the fine people at Apple. The packaging for the nano was pretty neat. I especially appreciated the hermetically sealed accessories (usb cable and earbuds that I have yet to open - I had to use the usb cable). I think a high quality vacuum seal would have made the experience marginally better.

I could imagine the woosh I'd hear when slicing the package open.

Enough to make my ears pop.

So far, the nano is a definite win. I will love it when I make my trip to the homeland on Wednesday.

Yes, it's Wednesday. I can't believe it's coming up so fast.

The weather site says that it's 75 degrees F out there right now. So that should be nice. Although I'm not totally tired of the snow yet.

Soon.

So let's see, what else has been going on ...

K has gotten me hooked on Nip Tuck. She let me borrow her season 1 on DVD and I've been watching it off and on. I didn't think I'd enjoy the show, but it's become almost a guilty pleasure.

Although the plastic surgery scenes make me queasy. Not like I want to yack, but just a not so comfortable feeling.

But the people who edit the show do a good job with mixing together the right amounts of realism and television reality so it's not too bad. I must say, the best part of watching the series on DVD is that there's no commercials, and I don't have to wait until the next week for stuff to happen.

I want to watch all my shows this way.

-Kirk

Chicks rule.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I was watching parts of True Life on MTV - the one about Professional Gamers - I must say, seeing women that are into gaming is pretty hot.

Not that I'm much of a gamer, but still, it's the principle - No longer is the traditional gamer a stereotypical long haired, black concert t-shirt wearing guy in the basement. :)

-Kirk

A watched phone never rings.

Sucks.

-Kirk

Much ado about nothing.

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good weekend.

This weekend I went to go see Harry Potter and his Goblet of Fire. It was a pretty good movie - The special effects were pretty kickass. I think I'll need to see it again to get the fill story. Having not read the books, I felt like I was only getting part of the story.

And uhh, Harry Potter is definitely looking older now - Gone are his youthful looks from the first few movies. J.K. and co. better film the rest of the other movies quickly before it becomes Harry Potter goes to night (wizard) school while he works full-time at his day job.

Heh.

Today I actually mowed the lawn for the first time in over 5 years. My mom was becoming obsessed with getting one last cut in before the winter so I was trying to be the good son.

Condo living is definitely for me.

-Kirk

Mimicking behavior

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

You know you're into someone when you catch yourself doing things that they do.

The little things.

-Kirk

Bow down to the copywriter

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I'm always so impressed to see someone practice their craft.

Today at work, we needed to have some content written - We gave a jingle jangle to the copywriter at the interactive agency, and he was able to crank out some words for us in a matter of minutes.

And it sounded really good.

Something that would have taken me like an hour to wordsmith, he ripped off after 10 minutes of discussion (and finding out exactly what we wanted).

Skillz with a Z.

-Kirk

Like being in the howevermany acre woods.

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good evening.

Today we had one of those crazy windy days. The leaves were being blown about, swirling around on the lawn, windows were whistling, house was creaking, etc. It's what I picture when I hear storybooks talk about blustery days.

I wasn't outside for very long, but it was still nice out. I'm still bracing myself for the crazy cold that will be winter.

Today I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me on the answering machine at the city home...

-Kirk

Oops! I did it again...

Umm, I may have done something to my VPN client. It no longer works.

I need to stop messing around with my work laptop.

-Kirk

Up all night

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

It's been quite the day. Last night I slept about 2.5 hours. The 30 minute nap before 4:30 a.m. and then I had a shortie nap from 7 to 9.

Whoo ha. It's been a while since I've pulled an all nighter like that.

I was pretty ragged during the 4:30 conference call - I'm sure my reaction time was a little slow. Plus my voice sounded all late nighty since I hadn't been talking to anyone.

On the throttle scale, I was definitely not on the rabbit. I was probably one notch above the turtle.

For the record, I was much better at the 9 o'clock. :)

So it's been a while since I've been that sleep deprived. I had a lingering headache all day, and once in a while I'd feel dizzy.

I knew it was bad when I'd start to doze off the minute I sat down.

(normally it takes a little longer)

So anyway, the conversion went well. There were a few sweaty moments here and there, but all in all, life is good.

I went to sleep at 7 p.m. tonight cause I was too dizzy to watch tv.

Now I'm up again.

Hopefully life can return back to normal soon.

-Kirk

Crazy. But that's how it goes...

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

It's 3 a.m. After a short 30 minute nap, I'm still up.

It's been a long time in the making, but today it's finally set free - The new website for work...

Ever since New York last week, work has been nonstop - if it's not one thing, then it's another. It's been rather nutty.

I was glad to have Veteran's Day off on Friday. It was nice to take it easy and be lazy. I actually got something done too - I shopped for new glasses. I'm being high maintenance and am asking the place to special order me some frames.

Hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

I realized today that Taiwan is less than 3 weeks away...

-Kirk

Rebirth of Spice.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Friday I got my video fill on VH1's Top 20 video Countdown.

Is it just me, or do the Pussycat Dolls kind of remind you of the Spice Girls? On their video for Stickwitu, it had a definite Spice Girls video feel to it - Like maybe for their song 2 Become 1.

It's like the Pussycat Dolls are the modernized hip hop version of the poppy Spice Girls.

For the PCD video of Don't Cha, all you needed was some stuff breaking and it would have been the SG's video for Say You'll be There.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of both groups. Just one of those things I guess...

-Kirk

NY ramblings

Hi all,

It's me again. Just a few thoughts about my trip to NY...

New York City is amazing. I went back for the second time this year and it was a totally different experience. I did very little touristy stuff (besides walking around on the last day) and never stepped foot underground (to ride the subway). I didn't shop much either. this time's trip was a little bit more confined to a smaller area. We were all over the place last time.

But like last time, I could feel myself feeling tense just walking around the city. Just seeing people hurriedly walk around made me feel like I should hurry and get to my destination soon as well. It didn't help that we had to get back to catch a plane, so that probably to added to the whole experience as well.

Of course, we were out during the morning rush hour, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

But as much as I love the city, I don't think I could live there. Although there is some allure about walking to work, and seeing cool events on the way (like the filming of a TV show). Or, knowing that your city serves as a backdrop for quite a few movies. Ahh well, I think I'll be lost in suburbia forever.

Plus I don't think I could ever afford to live in the city.

What else...

It seems like all social functions nowadays need to involve a lot of drinking. Has it always been that way? Is it just me, or does it seem like there's more emphasis on it? College doesn't count - I'm talking about the "real world." Maybe it's just one of those things I've become more sensitive to. (shrug)

Perhaps I should buy stock in alcohol distributors...

Speaking of drinking, the posh NYC scene seems to have an artesian water fetish. At the W, I got to try Norwegian artesian water - Voss. I mostly enjoyed the shampoo bottle-esque packaging - Very different. And at the penthouse bar, I got to try Fiji Natural Artesian Water. Unlike wine, I was able to detect small dfferences in taste, but I coudln't tell you exactly what the difference was. So I'm definitely not a water connoisseur. Yet.

Ahh well. that's all for now...

-Kirk

Ny Recap (business Remix)

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening and are having a good weekend. I'm glad there's still Sunday left.

So it's felt like I haven't written in a while so I'm not sure where to start.

Last Sunday I actually started writing my presentation. Unfortunately the words did not come to me, so I ended up doing everything but work on my presentation.

Monday (as usual) I was doing work stuff during the day so I didn't get to work on it either.

(anxiety building)

Monday night I worked on the presentation while handing out candy to kids (it was Halloween). I worked utnil 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, taking a break to pack.

Tuesday morning I had my coworkers review the stupid presentation and was busy revising and getting the oh shit screenshots ready (just in case the VPN connection failed on me). My plan was to leave during lunch, but I ended up working through it and leaving at the last minute for home to pick up my luggage and head off to the airport.

The flight was groovy. We got there with no issues. D, my travelling buddy was the best - she travels with a seemingly neverending supply of treats. I didn't really say much on the plane, cause I was busy going over my presentation.

We get into the cab, tell the driver where we need to go, and he asks the mllion dollar question, something to the effect of, "How would you like to go?" I was thoroughly confused.

Apparently there's a billion ways to get to the hotel from La Guardia - you just have to do this delicate balance how much time you want to spend in the cab, with how many tolls you want to pay, what is going on in the city (apparently Prince Charles and his lady friend were in town), and of course the daily traffic patterns.

We had absolutely no idea so we were pretty much at the mercy of the cab driver. He offered the bridge or the tunnel. I went for the bridge (I thought it would be more scenic). He started telling some other stuff, so we just told him to get us there as quickly as possible (and we trusted his judgement). As a precaution, I even took the time to write down his medallion number and his driver's license number. I guess we did ok :)

Geneman was a welcome friendly face to NY, meeting us at our hotel, in full high-powered exec gear. He hung out with us while we checked in, and joined us for dinner.

(begin "as close as I'll ever get to living like a rockstar" lifestyle)

So the 3 of us (D, Geneman, and me) ended up hooking up with our salesguy and a bunch of other people for dinner at Luna Piena. I highly recommend the linguini with baby clams, a.k.a Linguine alle Vongole. The food and company was great, the wine was freeflowing, and the dessert was just too good to pass up.

After dinner we had drinks at the W New York - The toitiest hotel I've ever had drinks in. We were in this very posh and trendy bar area on the 2nd floor. I'm talking nice plush couches, fur/furry pillows (I think it was faux, not sure), very swanky decor, and a lot of wheatgrass.

I don't know what the connection with the wheatgrass was, but it made for some good conversation.

Plus there were these random magazines and books scattered all over the place. Oh yeah, and we played "executive" tic tac toe. There was this nice wooden block that served as a playing surface, and then there were these metal X and O game pieces.

Toity to the extreme.

Unfortunately I had to be a party pooper and get back to my room to practice the good old presentation. Which hadn't been timed, so I have no idea how long I was going to ramble on. Plus I was too tense to be really social.

Bedtime was at 2 a.m.

Poor Geneman probably didn't make it home until then as well - he should be prepared by now for my visits...

Anyway, at 6:30 a.m. I got up to get ready, and run through everything one last time.

Overall the presentation went ok - it wasn't my best performance, but oh well, what could I do, right?

What's done is done.

Fast forward to after the meeting...

So that night, we hooked up with Geneman again and we had a crazy dinner at Bobby Van's Steakhouse. We got this appetizer that was seriously my version of food heaven. The server brought out this huge tray of ice - on it there was lobster, shrimp, oysters, crab meat. And that was just the appetizer!

We defined surf and turf that night.

After we finished the appetizer, I was ready to go. But there was still dinner...

I normally don't eat red meat. Apparently I had to make up for lost time. The porterhouse steak we ordered was huge.

And, for the first time, I got to try what a 100 dollar bottle of wine tasted like.

Like crap.

The whole gourmet wine thing is lost on me. I could try the $2000.00 bottle of wine (it's on the wine list), and not be able to tell the difference between it and the wine from a box.

After dinner, we went to this bar thing on the top floor of a hotel that starts with a "G" (I don't remember exactly what it was called) and chilled up there for a bit. The view from the top was gorgeous. Most of the outdoor area was all closed off (since it was fall) but we were still able to look outside and catch a great view of the NY and NJ skyline.

And for the last stop (for us at least) we went to this dance club down the street. I think it was called "Roots" or something like that. It was selected after visiting 2 or 3 other club/bars that weren't up to our hosts spec.

So we danced to some really really loud pounding music - Unfortunately I wasn't up on the club scene so I hadn't heard any of the music before. Although there was a rather interesting remix of a early Michael Jackson song - I think it was either Rock with You or Don't Stop till you get Enough.

The entire time I'm out, I just keep on thinking to myself how the whole situation is kind of surreal. I'm out having expensive dinners, at the bar, and at a nightclub? In New York City? On a Wednesday night?

So wacky.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end - We ended up cutting out at 1 ish - The rest of the crowd was headed somewhere else...

Now I can say I've actually been to a New York City club. And a bar.

Anyway, the next morning D and I met up at 8 a.m. to make the most of our 2 hours (before going to the airport) and explored the city. We saw a few tourist attractions, and had two celebrity spottings - Carlos Santana and Diane Sawyer. They were filming Good Morninng America in Times Square. Santana actually performed 3 songs so we hung around to listen.

Not a bad way to end the day in NYC...

To top the trip off, I got to fly first class back home :)

-Kirk