MKNonline Blog

Oh lord, I’m 23. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about that. While my birthday was yesterday and therefore the most awesome day of the year, it was pretty typical of every day I’ve had this year: lots of work and lots of homework. No big celebration this year, not necessarily by choice. “Celebrate birthday” just happened to fall pretty low on my priority list of planning this week compared to other importantly amazing events (Screw birthday. I’m going to Europe in 6 days!) and not-so-amazing events (oh wait…I have a paper due tonight…and I’m sick…for the third birthday in a row). I thought the best way to recap my life is ranking my favorite birthdays thus far:

My 21st – The saying is true. On the 21st, you drink because you can. Every birthday after that, you drink because you have to. Or something like that. Either way, I got real drunk.

My 18th, 19th, 20th – Birthdays celebrated in college were awesome because friends were there. Even though they were usually in the middle of finals or after finals when no one could make attend. Ok, wait, maybe this shouldn’t be so highly ranked.

My birth – I would imagine I was one of those babies happy to leave the womb, since I like my private space.

My 16th – Old enough to drive, good enough for me. Certainly not close to Super Sweet 16 level. If only that show started airing back when, I could’ve probably pressured my parents into

My 1st birthday – Ranked in the middle because I don’t remember it. But since I was the only child at that time (see 2nd birthday), I was probably treated like a king.

5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th – At some point, I had a birthday at Scooters, the local arcade. This was pretty awesome, and I’m 75% certain it happened at some point here.

14th, 15th, 17th – The other High school years. Hm…From what I recall, I think my birthday was largely ignored by the Bristol Eastern population.

My 2nd birthday – My brother would be born 12 days later. Sorry, Dave!

My 3rd, 4th – I probably had to share this with kid bro. And knowing me, I was probably not happy about it.

11th, 12th, 13th – These were probably really sucky birthday years. It’s that age where I’m getting too old for people to figure out what I want in presents, if I even got presents at all at this point. Plus, I was all too aware that splitting a birthday with Jesus and my little brother was not what December 12th was intended for.

My 22nd – I was supposed to celebrate with all my friends at Mohegan Sun. Instead, I got mono.

Running is apparently a very meditative and cathartic activity. For the second year in a row, I “ran” 4.7 miles over Thanksgiving to see what I could learn about myself. Here’s my list:

1. I’m very slow moving. 9117th place out of 10412 runners. I’m afraid to think of how I’ll do at age 60.

2. Overly peppy people that are cheering from the sidelines help me run faster out of anger and avoidance of their lazy, fat, asses. I now feel bad for being overly peppy when I cheer runners at the Boston Marathon.

4. As each of these types of people beat me in a race, I die a little inside:

• People in ridiculous costumes
• People twice my age and above
• People who are drunk while running
• Children

5. The people listed above don’t enjoy being cursed at while on a race.

6. Running a race of which I barely have the physical capacity to run is challenging. Running most of that race uphill is soul-crushing.

7. I don’t ever want to die of thirst.

And now, some photographic documentation of said race:

My carbo-loaded meal of pasta, tuna, and greenbeans from the night before.

Artist’s tape to hold up my bib. Very ghetto.

The finish line that seemed to never get closer.

Statistically, nine out of 10 of these people beat me. Try to feel good about yourself after that.

At least we finished happy.

I tried to avoid it, but couldn’t think of anything else to blog about. Feeling a little sentimental today.

1) That children like this still exist in the world:

2) My family, still alive and well. Especially my dog, Kailey, the love of my life. Still, I’m going to hate living with them again.

3) The declining Euro…

4) That somehow, with my meager income, I’m able to afford a nice apartment, a TON of gadets and electronics (including my brand new Samsung NC10 netbook), and a vacation in Europe. Come to think of it, I may want to check those numbers again…Anyhow, as much as I complain about how I can’t afford the really nice joneses, I’m pretty fortunate. Time to take it to the next level and start giving as much as I’m receiving.

I try to keep my personal life out of blog posts because it’s generally boring and unexciting. I work…a lot…and then I go home and work some more…while watching television. And I wonder why no one reads my blog…

Months and years of this grind has caused me to yearn to travel more often. Last time I was out of the country (besides Canada, which should never count…) was high school, and that is now 6 years behind me. I’ve barely made it out of the east coast since then.

So this December, one week after my 23rd birthday, I’m taking whatever money I have left in my savings and going on a soul-invigorating trip to western Europe. Not the most original trip for a 20-something out of college, but it will do. Hopefully, this lights the fire to more adventurous and exciting locations in the future. I was supposed to travel alone, but I found two friends to tag along who share my basic tenants of travel: total independence, good food, careful but inevitably naive planning, and museums. Lots of museums.

This trip has invigorated my blogging a bit. Hopefully, you’ll see more posts, pictures, and thoughts on here as I take the travel opportunity for content and inspiration.

So, how stupid is it that I’m traveling in the worst economic crisis of modern times? Contrarian genius (“the euro has never been lower…”) or just impulsive idiot (“i can live off 5 euros a day, right?…”)?

I happened upon this link from Gadling and was inspired and touched by the message. Film director Mark Johnson recorded about 100 musicians from around the world as they performed “Stand by Me,” which resulted in an amazing and moving arrangement. There is a foundation behind this project, Playing For Change, that seeks to promote and connect music around the world by providing local musicians with the resources to do what they do best. They’ve built schools and music facilities in South Africa and Nepal and created a documentary making the film festival circuit right now.

Definitely the type of charity and group that I love supporting.

My ears have always had a thing for exotic instruments and sounds. One of the people that I always thought had the coolest job is Russ Landau, composer for Survivor and many other of Mark Burnett’s reality shows. I think the Survivor theme song is one of the best television themes ever. It is so fitting to the spirit of the show, and each season, Russ travels with the Survivor crew to these remote locations and interacts with the locals to gather new sounds and instrumentation of the local culture. He mixes those sounds with the same basic theme melody (an ancient Russian chant, I believe) to capture the location into the song. To confess, I look forward to the new theme song every season as much if not moreso than the rest of the premiere. Every Thursday, that song gets me pumped. Here’s the latest season’s theme (Gabon, Africa).

Oh boy, I should be taking a final and finishing my final project now, but yet again, I am overwhelmed with a sense of distraction that has caused me to blog.

Every summer, like clockwork, I get an incredible urge to upgrade my phone. I disregard the fact that my cell phone contracts don’t expire for another year (damn 2 year plan), and my mind is totally consumed as to what new piece of radioactive candy I want to buy next. This year’s craving was brought about by my Helio plan’s discount expiring at my 1 year anniversary. Although my Helio Ocean has brought about nothing but good times, my bill has left me thinking a switch may be better. I’ve narrowed it down to the new iPhone and the old Blackberry Curve 8330. Let me show you the rundown:

AT&T’s iPhone 3G

Why I want it
Apps! I love me some apps! Pandora radio…Twitter apps…GPS apps…apps are great fun for me. Equivalent of trading cards.
The fact that it’s also an iPod really helps. It’s rarely mentioned anymore these days, but it’s an iPod that’s also phone.

Why I’m against it
-Not a particularly strong texting device.
-I vowed I would never go back to AT&T, and yet, the devil company does so well to tempt me.

The deciding factor
It’s all in the potential. Do I buy it without turn-by-turn GPS and hope that it gets it? Most of the apps do suck right now, will it get better? It’s an important key feature I need in a phone at the moment (see last post).

Sprint’s Blackberry Curve

Why I want it
I’m really liking the money I’d be saving by switching to Sprint.
Turn-by-turn GPS is a good thing
Blackberries have a great reputation
Texting would be much easier

Why I’m against it
Not as great as apps as iPhone
It’s already a bit old and dated in my head.

The deciding factor
My internal debate is whether I would be settling, as the iPhone was my original goal. There is almost nothing wrong with this device, other than it’s not the iPhone. It’s probably even better. But I can’t justify it in my head yet.

So I took a short overnight trip up to Boston to visit friends who I haven’t seen in quite a while, but ended up having to cut my trip even shorter due to an unfortunate series of mishaps that nearly sent me to the grave. The culprit? Technology.

Michael Scott is right in so many ways when he blames technology for leading humans astray.

The story…It was a quiet morning in the BU campus where I had quickly stopped to see some friends who were crazy enough (i.e. sober enough) to grab a quick breakfast before I headed off to Central Square for a now ritualistic hip hop class and brunch combo with Leslie and the CS friends. Now, I’ve done the drive from BU to Central Square a handful of times, and it’s not exactly rocket science to get there, but with construction going on throughout the city streets, I figured I’d type in the address in my GPS to be safe.

Mistake 1: I followed the GPS.

Now, no one will ever know why my GPS decided to lead me astray today. Maybe it finally stood up against my constant neediness for faster, better directions. Maybe its old age finally caught up with it. Maybe I simply entered in the address wrong. But my generally unreliable GPS unit today decided to play a fun game of leading me out of Boston into parts unknown. Clearly, I knew something was wrong the second I drove into the interstate on-ramp, but as any GPS owner knows, once you’re lost, the GPS is all you got.

My GPS took my blind loyalty and trust so well, it “blue screen of death” on me out in the middle of Concord, MA, or so I think. Now I’m lost, and I’m late to hip hop.

Mistake 2: I didn’t charge my phone.

Now I love my Helio phone. It’s cool, it’s unique, no one else has it, but with that comes many a problems, the least of which is a lack of a car charger readily available at local electronic stores. With Leslie my only navigator and my inability to follow any of her simple directions, my phone decided to join GPS in its fun little game and just die.

For those keeping score, I’m now stranded in a TJ Maxx plaza somewhere close to Alewife but not quite sure where with no GPS and no phone with GPS.

Leslie, Angel of All Angels, saved me 45 minutes later by finding me alone, confused, dirty, and devastated by my electronic betrayal in front of TJ Maxxx. Homeless kids in Uganda got nothing on how pathetic I looked.

Oh, but technology was not done messing with my day. I’m going to skip the additional getting lost to brunch and the massive failure that was parking in Boston, but we finally find a metered after much turbulence. The meter decided to only exchange quarters to minutes for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Those last 15 minutes cost us 2 dollars in eaten quarters before we just gave up.

Brunch goes off with no major occurrences, but boy did my GPS hate me today. Because back at my car, the deceased corpse of my GPS device magically smashed through my driver’s side window and ran away with a group of hoodlums.

So my Boston day ends tragically earlier than expected, with the shattered glass all over my car and a giant rock sitting on my passenger seat with that “You suck at life” look to it. I liken the shattered glass to my day today.

So a police report, insurance claim, multiple vacuums later (one vacuum ran out of batteries and died while I was vacuuming to top that cake with delicious ironic icing), and a very breezy 2 hour drive home, and I’m exhausted. We’ll forget this trip ever happened and do it over when I can get my robots under control. Hopefully, my next GPS will be a kinder and more merciful sentient being. And I will learn to not so heavily rely on technology to keep me alive.

Microsoft Money tells me I have $3.23 in my checkings, which is a little disconcerting.

Maybe it was this tv I got myself for Christmas. Worth every single 1080p pixel. It’s mounted on my wall above my laptop and monitor screens, giving me no reason to move from my desk ever. Now, I can have Rock of Love lull me into a peaceful slumber as well. I’ll take a picture when I’m less lazy.

I’m pretty financially conservative (cheapskate sounds too derogatory), but I have a weakness for all things that sucks electricity or are shiny. Presenting my list of future buys (it’s good to plan out your splurges when you’re on a strict savings plan):

I need a new MP3/video/everything player. I like a Zune for its excellent Podcast capabilities and Radio feature. Come on iPod, just add a damn radio! The iPod Touch is just too overpriced and too 2007.

HD TiVo, because my standard TiVo box on an HD TV, well, it just don’t make sense.

XBOX 360/ Playstation 3/Wii – Not just one, not two, all three. I will have all three. Why? Because I can’t decide on which one to get. Might as well get them all. Hey, it’s my blog, I’ll dream as big as I’d like.

If you’re viewing my blog directly, you may be wondering what happened to my blog design/layout.

Chill, this is intentional.

I stripped the blog of the previous “theme” in order to create my own. I know, I’ve been saying that forever. This time, by stripping my blog of all the pretty, I hope that viewing the ugly will motivate me to work on a new design. A great way to get started on my blogging resolution.

Just because my blog looks horrendous (or maybe better, in your opinion) doesn’t mean it won’t be updated. As long as life and the internet continues to throw me stories, I’ll be updating.

Beckee comes to town for the …

Back Bay Ball!