Archive for the 'friends' Category

Looking ahead to 2008

Lefty December 9th, 2007

I’ve been a bit neglectful of posting here over the last month, as I’ve been focused on getting a huge project out the door at work. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about the upcoming year and all the big decisions that need to be made. There are a lot of things happening next year, and all of them are going to require some thinking:

1. In February the aforementioned project will launch, so I’ll need to figure out what to do afterwards. I can stay the course, or I can more seriously pursue the online video project that most of my posts lately have been hinting at. We’re also going to take a vacation in March and I need to decide where to go. The contenders right now are: snowboarding in upstate NY or VT, snowboarding and visiting friends in Portland, visiting the state of Michoacan in Mexico, or perhaps just finding a nice tropical beach to surf in Costa Rica.

2. I’ll be graduating from Stern, most likely in the August. The program has been taking up pretty much all my free time over the last two years, and finishing will be a real transition point. It will free up a lot of time and mental energy for me, and I think also open some opportunities to go in different directions.

3. Related to both the above, I need to decide where to live. I’ve been back in NYC for 13 years now (after spending my childhood here), and the pace can take a toll. My wife and I have been talking a lot lately about moving out to the Pacific Northwest, and now that my school obligations are wrapping up, we’ll have the opportunity to do so. But leaving NYC won’t be an easy decision - I’ve got a lifetime of friends, relationships, family, and experiences here. At the same time, the call of life in a more manageable city, and the adventure of new surroundings, is very strong.

Mix Masters Italian Ices

Lefty March 24th, 2007

ices

For everyone down in Austin, TX, check out my old pal Jerm Pollet’s new venture: Mix Masters Italian Ices. Their delicious chocolate and lemon italian ices are now available at Homeslice Pizza at 1415 South Congress . From Jerm:

“Our ices are 100% natural fruit and gourmet chocolate. Dairy-free and totally delicious. So, next time you’re in the 78704, treat yourself right, with a slice and an ice. Tell ‘em Jerm Pollet sent ya.”

I can’t wait to see how they compare to the spumoni at L&B Spumoni Gardens and the ices at Uncle Louie G’s.

Random Personal News

Lefty March 12th, 2007

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written on here, since I’ve been super swamped with school and work. Here’s a post that qualifies as “random personal news” if there ever was one:

- Materialite, my team’s entry into the Stern business plan contest, just got passed through to the next round. We’ve just got three other teams to beat out now in order to win the $100,000 first prize.

- I had a great poker night at Michael Malice’s on Friday. I was the third to get knocked out (out of six players), but the company, Chex mix, and Modelo Especial were a big hit. I also walked out the door with a brand new copy of the Batman: Year One graphic novel, courtesy of Scott.

- Guitar Hero 2 rules. My love for karaoke now has a serious rival.

- Emily, Champ, and I are heading up to the Catskills this weekend (specifically Roxbury, NY in Delaware County). I’ll post some Flickr shots of our planned snowtubing outing when I return. (link to Googlemap)

- We finally hooked up our Netflix subscription a few weeks back. I was skeptical about signing up for a long time, but now I’m totally sold on the service. They make it so much easier to watch and rent films. Movies rented so far: Dog Day Afternoon, Grey Gardens, The Departed, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Up next I have about 30 Japanese samurai movies, starting with Shogun Assassin!

- My ice hockey team, the Tanya Hardings, upset the #2 team in the league in our first round playoff game by a score of 3-2. Semi-finals, here we come. (I was also fortunate enough to score a goal in the game, the credit for which I give entirely to my hard-nosed, never-say-die teammates.)

- Gotham Girls Roller Derby finally got a new practice space - it’s a big warehouse in Astoria. I haven’t been up there yet, but I hear it’s looking pretty good. The plan is for the season to start up again in the spring sometime.

- No SXSW this year for me. My entrepreneurial finance class was on Sunday, and I really didn’t want to skip it (since it’s the best class I’ve taken yet at Stern.) I’m hoping to hear some good stories of A-Town adventures upon people’s return to NYC.

That’s about it for now. I’ll write something more tech/entrepreneurship/nyc related next time, I promise.

Where to read about the future robot army

Lefty February 24th, 2007

irobot

I just heard that an old high school buddy of mine has launched Danger Room, Wired’s new blog about defense technology. It’s only been up for a week or so, but there are already posts about warrior monkeys, telepathic bureaucrats, and videos of stuff exploding. I love it.