Where have I been?

I was surfing the web recently and saw a blog posting about where the poster had traveled. I thought it might be an interesting exercise to try to dredge up the memories of all the places I've visited over the years, however briefly.

U.S.

• Massachusetts (born here, been just about everywhere except Cape Cod past Hyannis and Nantucket.)
• Maine
• Vermont
• New York
• Rhode Island
• Connecticut
• New York
• Ohio
• Indiana (Tell City for a wedding)
• West Virginia
• Virginia
• Maryland
• Delaware
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Florida
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• Michigan (transfer at Detroit airport)
• Texas (transfer at DFW)
• California
• Nevada (Vegas, baby!)

Canada

• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edwards Island
• Quebec (Montreal, St Anne Des Plains)
• Ontario (Toronto, Range Lights at my friend Jamie's place)

Europe

• England (London)
• France (Paris, Lyon)
• Switzerland (Lucerne)
• Liechtenstein
• Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg)
• West Germany (when it existed) Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Rothenburg, Heidelburg, Oberammagau (sp)
• East Germany (when it existed ) Berlin
• Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice)

Soon to be added to the list:

Asia:

• Japan
• Thailand
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• China
• South Korea
• Taiwan (hopefully)

Obviously my current deficiencies are Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia and Africa.

Asia is soon to be resolved. Given that I now have friends from Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Chile, Zambia, and Nigeria through school I can hopefully take care of the rest of the deficiencies soon enough.

Places I want to visit:

• Alaska
• Hawaii
• Scotland
• Ireland
• The Czech Republic
• Spain
• southern Italy, Sicily, Pompeii, Capri
• Portugal
• Greece
• Turkey
• Egypt
• Zambia (safari baby)
• India
• Australia
• New Zealand

And surely many other places I haven't thought of yet.

Quick update

The job search continues, I should be meeting with Pam's boss next week to talk about working there this summer and I will have some projects to work on with the Admissions department at school. The more money I can make, the better as it will all be coming to Japan with me.

For this week I need to finish my financial aid forms with FAFSA and get my paperwork back to MEFA and get my loan situation all taken care of for next year. And find a job.

Test of mobile blogging

I'm sending this from my Treo to get an idea of how quickly the blog will update when I send something via phone. Not as fast as a full sized keyboard but not too bad.

Seems to have worked just fine. I might use this just to fire off snippets or ideas to make sure I don't forget them.

Summer plans

Well I got my final grades, I ended my first year with a 3.5 GPA. Not as high as I hoped, but considering the very heavy workload I imposed on myself this spring I'm pretty happy with it. I'm also far ahead of the curve in terms of credits. I've completed 11 of the 16 credits we require to graduate, so next fall I can focus on enjoying Japan and laying the groundwork for my job search, and next spring I can focus on finding the "perfect" job.

I've also been doing some more research on the pre-Japan trip. We are trying to figure out exactly what our timeline will be so we don't spend too much time floating down the Mekong River. Right now my thought is that we cross the river in northern Thailand and follow it to Luang Prabang, which will probably take a day or two. From there we might just fly down to Vientiane so we can spend more time sightseeing. Our next stop after that would likely be Angkor Wat in Cambodia. From there we can boat down to Phnom Penh and then fly to Saigon or Hanoi and spend the final week or so of our free time in Vietnam. Preferably on the beach somewhere.

I have several interviews pending for a summer internship and that is truly my main focus at the moment. Once that is taken care of one more very large load of stress will be lifted from my shoulders.

Now I'm off to start preparing some turkey meatloaf for dinner. This is done at my wife's request. Of course I have slightly modified the recipe, I'll bold the things I've changed.

TURKEY MEATLOAF RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lb ground turkey

2 TBSP butter or vegetable oil (olive oil)

1 cup onion (shallots) finely chopped

1 cup mushrooms,thinly sliced (optional, nice change, canned OK, 1 small can)

(I'm using dried shitakes here after rehydrating them and chopping them up finely)

1/4 cup chicken broth or water

3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs (seasoned breadcrumbs)

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

1 TBSP tomato paste

1 1/2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

3/4 tsp Salt (less salt,I'm trying to cut down)

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/2 tsp oregano or thyme

1 egg

1/2 cup Ketchup, optional (Heinz Chili Sauce kicked up with some cayenne for a little zing)


PREHEAT oven to 350 deg. F.
LIGHTLY grease a pan or glass baking dish.
IN a skillet heat butter or oil.
ADD chopped onions and sliced mushrooms.
SAUTÉ over medium low heat till soft, stirring occasionally about 10 min.
MEANWHILE combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.
FORM meat mixture into a 5X8 inch loaf and place into pan or on sheet.
SPREAD ketchup over top of loaf.
COVER lightly with tin foil.

BAKE for 30 minutes.

REDUCE oven to 325 deg. F. , UNCOVER and bake for a further 25 - 30 minutes.

Seems pretty easy, I'll let you know!

Llamas and wild turkeys

These are things you might not expect to see in an urban area like Boston. I certainly never expect to see them.

Yet see them I did, and luckily I have the photos to prove it.

My wife works on the Newton/Needham line. This is inside of I-95 and probably one of the more densely populated areas of the United States. However, in this particular office park there is plenty of wooded area and open space, and apparently some wild turkeys have made it their home. Pam had mentioned this to me, so I brought my camera with me while dropping her off at work.

Apparently the toms (the male birds) see their own reflection in the windows of her office building and can't tell it's another bird, so they get all fired up and start flaring their feathers and fun stuff like that. Here he is:Later in the day I decided to visit Gore Place, a preserved Federal-era mansion about a half a mile from my house. They were having a plant sale and were offering many heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables and herbs. I picked up some tomatoes, pineapple sage and thyme and noticed that they had some sheep grazing in the field. I wandered up to take some pictures of the field and spotted the llama on the far side. He might be an alpaca, I'm not sure. But either
way here he is:
And here is a picture of the mansion:

I have taken to carrying the new camera around with me so I can get used to using it and learning how to control it. I really have no idea about shutter speeds, aperture control and that sort of thing, so experimenting (after reading up on some things) is the best way to go.

I'll see what kind of critters I can add to my list tomorrow. I saw a dead possum on the road but decided live possum would be more appealing.

The camera has arrived...

And is very nice indeed. I'll be posting some shots I took around the house with it. However, it's been so gloomy up in these parts that outdoor photography has been impossible.

I will say this, don't do business with WaWaDigital or One Click Digital. Both are front companies out of Brooklyn that make you call them after the order to "confirm" your credit card details. They then try to upsell you overpriced items. When I ordered at WaWa and refused the items I was told the item was out of stock and the person I was speaking with hung up.

When I called One Click I'd done some research on what other places were pricing the camera for as well as the accessories. So they sold me the camera for a lower price and I agreed to get an extra battery. They overcharged me for it, but adding the prices together I still made out pretty well. I have a feeling I'm in the minority in that regard with these slimeballs.

About five days after ordering the camera I got a call from a Western Union agent in West Virginia who stated that someone was trying to run my credit card on a wire transfer. They had my name, address and the card number.

Obviously, I'm not in West Virginia and the WU agent held on the line while I called my bank and cancelled the card. In hindsight I should have asked her if the person had a Brooklyn accent. I'd be willing to bet they did.

So I'm happy with the camera and would recommend it to anyone, but would NEVER order from these people again and would advise that you don't either.

The grades are rolling in....

and so far are a little bit better than I expected. Right now I have a 3.7 with two more classes to go. Unfortunately I think they are going to bring down the average a bit, but given the heavy classload I took this semester I can live with that. We are required to take 16 credits to graduate, by the end of this semester I have 11.

That load was by choice. I did not want a heavy classload in Japan or in the spring of 2007 when I return. I want to be able to take the classes I want and spend a large portion of my energy landing a job if I do not already have one. If by chance I do have a job, then the party starts early!

One and done....

Only corporate finance remains and my first year of school is over. After noontime tomorrow the full-time pursuit becomes finding a summer job and making some money in the meantime.

I will likely be working in Admissions until I do find a job and am going to try to wrangle some more hours when I do just for the extra income. Pretty much every dime I make this summer is coming to Japan with me, so the more I make the easier I will have it over there.

Other than that I plan to focus all my academic efforts into learning Japanese and taking a few photography classes. That and do a bit more sleeping.

The camera...and other stuff

I realize that I mentioned that the new camera was on the way but never mentioned what it was.

I decided to go with the Panasonic Lumix FZ30 after talking to some friends and doing a lot of reading on the net. The Kodak was eliminated mainly on the basis of some very iffy reviews about the quality of the camera and some apparent fears that Kodak may have rushed it to market.

The FZ30 is a great camera. 8MP, 12x optical zoom, image stabilization (optical, not digital.) It takes SD cards (which as mentioned before is a prerequisite for me) and pictures can be taken in JPEG, TIFF, or RAW format (though apparently Adobe still needs to update Photoshop CS to handle the RAW files from the FZ30.) And I still need to learn how to use Photoshop.

I also ended up getting an long-life battery and some lens covers. My best man, Luis, said that both items are essential. The lens covers both protect the lens and cut down on various types of glare that can cause issues with pictures. Once I get them I'll try to take some with/without test shots to see if we can clearly see the difference.

Now the plan is to look for some books and classes on how to take good pictures and make full use of the camera. It is something I've always wanted to do, and now is as good a time as any.

I probably spent a little more money than I intended, but I'm going to begin working in Admissions again until I find a summer internship so that will help make up the difference. Much thanks to Holly on that. She has been very understanding of my workload this semester and I look forward to doing whatever I can to help out this summer and in Tokyo during the MBA Fair there. Hopefully my Japanese will be good enough by that time to really make a difference in the impression Brandeis makes on the potential MBAs.

I applied today for an internship with the Asian Development Bank in Manila. One of the friends I've made this semester has definitely made me take a look at some of the things I could be doing this summer and expanded my views. Working at ADB would be an opportunity to really do something meaningful this summer that could potentially affect the lives of millions of people for the better. The position I applied for involves researching the current and potential uses of biodiesel in both the Philippines and Indonesia and offering suggestions for easing its entry into those markets.

And as a side benefit I'd get to be in Manila in the summer. (yes, that's sarcasm.)

First year coming to an end...

This extremely hectic semester is coming to an end. We wrapped up our Operations Management take-home (a team-based effort) yesterday at about 2pm, much earlier than we anticipated. It was challenging but with four people working on it we were able to quickly finish the easier problems and then focus on the tough ones.

We also finished up our presentation for Global Marketing, which involved introducing a Whole Foods brand of organic rice into China. Of the three of us presenting, two did very well and the third was quite expectedly a disaster. He is a very smart guy but utterly lacking in social skills (including the ability to speak in public.) He then topped it off by interrupting the last presenter of our group in the middle of her piece to inject an utterly irrelevant piece of information. Several other students in the class expressed their condolences, as it were. Since we get to fill out a peer review form regarding the group, I'm not terribly worried about how it affected our overall grade.

All that remains is our Marketing paper and finals in accounting and corporate finance and the first year is over. I am still looking for my summer internship. I have a few sticks in the fire now and also have a few "fall-back" jobs that would be very interesting, so I'm not terribly worried about it right now. Of course I might be singing a different tune in a few weeks.

All told the first year has been fantastic. I feel like I've vastly improved my quantitative skills, which was one of my main reasons for returning to school. I have made a ton of great new friends from all over the planet. I get to spend next fall in Asia and am planning a trip for the end of the summer that should land me in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam before getting to Japan. And of course there are the planned excursions to Shanghai, Seoul, and Beijing for during the semester.

My new digital camera should be arriving within the week, though I'm still someone skeptical of the company I ordered it from. We shall see.