No Excuses...

I have been away for a while and when I mean away, away from my blogging site. I am not going to apologize because I wouldn’t want you to feel as though I am making any excuses as to why I haven’t posted any blogs recently. But now is the time to take action, not only in blogging but in everything. Life is too short and thinking that there can never be anytime more important than the present…well you may just want to step out of the way. Because its on!

Day & Night

Day & Night originally uploaded by C Me Fli

It has bee quite some time since I have blogged, but I have been extremely busy! Given that, I wanted to come back to all of you with a little something. If you have been watching my blog you should see that on the right hand side I have at least been updating interesting reading section of the blog. The articles are interesting everyone...

Other than the new job in analytics (BI...those who know what I am talking about leave a post), I have taken up 2 hobbies. Hobby #1 is photography (hence the photo above). I will be blogging my photos or at least the ones I think are interesting...leave comments of your thoughts. Hobby #2 is Portuguese! I plan by the end of this year to be conversationally fluent in Portuguese! Lofty goals, but a goal none the less! Anyway, let the new year rain in people...its 2008 baby!

The reason I like this picture, is in the title Day & Night...if you look on the left side of the photo, it looks like morning, but on the right side it looks like night! But the photo was taken around 1am in the morning and in the same place, Que Legal!

Let's Go Mets 2 Boston

Another chapter has changed in my life…I recently left my previous job to join an innovative team that is extremely forward thinking and supportive of career growth. If you haven’t notice, I just don’t have the time to update this blog, but I am making a commitment to all of you who read it that I will try my best to at least make a post once a month…I won’t go into details right now about my new job, but soon enough! My previous job taught me a lot about management, negotiations, unions and the automotive industry which is just a microcosm of the business world. I will never forget that experience and I am sure I will call upon the knowledge I gained in that position for many years to come.

But in the spirit of this blog and my new leaf, I will take this time to speak about two events that occurred in my life recently. In chronological order of course…I went to a Mets game in flushing queens! I know what you are saying to yourself, “Who cares?” For those of you who know me, baseball is not my forte but my brother scored some sweet tickets and I like to try things. I have always been a Mets fan, purely on the basis of where I grew up.

“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”
- George Jean Nathan

Why can’t this also apply to sports teams in a sport you may not know very well? Love for a particular sports team has to have emerged from some catalytic event. Not to imply that this was one of those moments, but it has certainly fortified my enthusiasm for the team! About a week prior to this occurrence, I went to a Yankees game. The Yankees are a championship dynasty (26) and they deserve all the accolades they get. But the stadium (I sat in the bleachers) definitely needs a facelift. You cannot bring anything into the main stadium, only the bleachers. Everything is so expensive, given in miniature, water-downed fashion. Though they lost the game, I just did not see the excitement in the loyal fans which could have also been attributed to the blazing SUN! In contrast, I had a much better time at the Mets game. I was able to bring my laptop in the stadium, no problem. The stadium is so large (I remember going once before when I was younger and tickets only cost $2 for the UPPER UPPER DECK) with many more options of where to spend your money. Granted it is expensive here as well, but at least you can get a foot long dog for the same price you pay for a mini dog at the Yankees stadium. Only enhanced by the fact that the Mets won! The Mets are also building a new stadium, so being able to enjoy this stadium before they tear it down is also memorable. This must have been my sign because I will pay more attention to what the Mets do from now on…

The 2^nd event is my recent trip to Boston. I have been to Boston a few times, but I never stayed downtown. I usually visited a friend of mine at Stonehill College in Easton. This time I had the opportunity to visit a friend of mine @ HBS (Thanks Chris) as well as walk around a little. Boston is actually a nice place to visit. For those of you who enjoy history, culture and the small town feel in a bigger city, I can imagine this being a favorite place to frequently visit.

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As you notice from the pictures below, the weather was gorgeous. Winter time is probably not the best time to visit. Chris reminded me that since warm weather comes only for a short time, people here appreciate it that much more! I would certainly agree with that assessment. I plan on visiting again sometime soon, so be sure to be on the lookout for the updated gallery. I will probably not repost the slideshow, but mention the updated Boston Gallery on my page.

As a final mention, I took the Acela Express up to Boston, which is a fabulous ride. You can get there faster by plane, but with the security time and the inconsistency of the airline industry taking the train is a nice change of pace. Check it out!

Jawbone

Been a while my friends and I know that you have missed me…don’t fret! In my return, I am going to take a moment to recommend a piece of technology I have found to be extremely useful and live up to its hype. Lets paint the picture, you are walking down 5^th Ave in midtown…you have just finished a strenuous hour of shopping and you want to talk with your friend on the phone about all the great things you just purchased. You hop on your Bluetooth headset because you have a caramel frappuccino in one hand and your bags in the other. But as you begin to tell her about your new Hermès bag, she says “What was that, I cannot hear you…too much background noise, I’ll talk to you later!” And you begin to think to yourself, how rude! Here you are, trying to take time out of your busy day to share and she has the nerve to excuse herself based on ambient noise. Well, let me tell you…take away all excuses with the Aliph Jawbone.

My girlfriend recently purchased the Blackberry 8830 (best phone ever for Verizon…the new 8820 with wifi and out-of-the-box built in GPS will be the sicker one to own) for me, for my birthday, and it is such a good phone that it picks up “EVERYTHING” in the background. It loves ambient noise…great speaker phone, but the ambient noise is a problem. A friend of mine has spoken to me with it when he is on the train and I consistently hear the conversations of the people around him more than him. I needed to find a solution because I was not about to give up the best phone I have had in my life, just because of rudeness from friends. After research through reviews, the Jawbone is as advertised. Yes, I knew about it before the iPhone (great marketing, because wireless companies sell Bluetooth headsets in packages with the phone, but why not sell the best Bluetooth to confuse the buyer they are getting the best phone too).

I have had strangers in the street ask me about the headset and I always tell them, of all the Bluetooth headsets, it is the best one I have owned. Now, let me not mislead you into believing that this removes all the noise around you…we have not gotten there yet! But it does do noise cancellation (something I think no other headset company claimed their product could do and actually did). I have been in noisy cars, walking in the street and people still say they can hear me. I must say that they sound low, not as loud as I would like, but I think that is the 8830 not the headset. Either way if you are looking for a headset that lends no excuses to others hanging-up, other than pure disgust out of jealously…now you can add to their envy with your new noise cancelling Aliph Jawbone!

I purchased mine from here in silver: click! They come in black and red as well…any questions, you know where to reach me. Try my web bottom “Call Me” to the right and speak with me directly. They way of the future…I will speak on this web button in a later post but for now enjoy the video from Aliph below that explains exactly what happens!

*This video was not edited by me. The video above is to be treated as a link within my blog.

Cooking & Football

I enjoy great food! One of the things I love about travel is experiencing the local cuisine as well as culture. Through food we can learn so much of any given culture. I know for Trinidad & Tobago, our food is delicious. And if you speak with anyone from Trinidad, it is definitely one of our most heralded pastimes. One person who shares my view is Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. This guy from NYC is someone we should all pay attention to. His show is about travel and food, what is wrong with that life!

The photos below are from cooking classes my girlfriend and I have taken at Williams-Sonoma. The first set of pictures (as they cycle through) were from our first class, where we learned about different meats, preparation procedures, knifes, pan materials and much more. Most people wonder if we are doing the cooking…NO! They hire an executive chef to come in and cook the meals. While he is cooking the meal, we ask questions (pertinent to the current dish or not), joke around, eat (sample sizes) and drink (non-alcoholic of course). It’s a relaxed atmosphere, to the point where in the most recent class we took, the chef kept saying “You guys are so quiet”, inciting more conversation. And after the class is over (usually the class is held in the store after store hours, so space is limited and I would suggest contacting your local William-Sonoma for details) you get a chance to get a 10% discount on any items purchased that evening. There is a cost associated with this lovely evening (nothing free in this world) and it differs by location.

The second set of photos are from the 4^th of July class, where we learned how to make friend chicken, corn on the cob (surprisingly different than typical methods), stuffed burgers (click for recipe) and strawberry shortcake. It was so good! The recipes are online at Williams-Sonoma website. I made the stuffed burgers for the gathering on 4^th of July (posted on July 9^th, 2007) and everyone enjoyed it. Take a look at the pictures for yourself.

Isn’t your mouth just watering…

The video below is in celebration of the USA vs. Brazil victory (2 – 1) U-20 World Cup match that helped USA advance out of the group, while knocking out Brazil. Brazil, my 2^nd home, I am sorry but USA definitely put on a great match. The future is looking bright for American Soccer. They have come such a long way since knocking Trinidad out of its first world cup hopes in Italy in the 90’s (I saw that match in Trinidad, in the stands and it was heartbreaking for my country). Enjoy the highlights…ADU did his thing, especially at mark 6:47!

*This video was not edited by me. The video above is to be treated as a link within my blog.