Intoxicated blogging?

There's drunk dialing, and even more recently, drunk emailing; all which are very dangerous forms of communication. Though I now sit here, well over a half a bottle of very fine Washington wine (Red Diamond cabernet sauvignon), no longer in its original sale location. Its found a much more warmer place to live. Don't worry, we're both very happy about it.

Anyways, back to my original point. Its now, with this "blogginess" stuff, very possible to drunk blog. The proverbial loudmouth in the bar that you all can walk home chuckling at, now another location in which to spout; though most likely his (or her) friends do not know what is transpiring and henceforth, cannot stop him (insert evil laugh).

Well, for those of your that have continue to read, simply for a trainwreck, I'm sorry to disappoint. As my very good friend Ted once said, "This mind cannot be stop by alcohol alone" (shortly before his jacket was lit on fire. Its a long story, ask me about it sometime).

Oh no; I am aware enough that this is supposed to be picture Monday. What harm could I bring to myself or others by simply posting pictures. Right?



Click on that bad boy. I used to have a great little system by swinging by my new house on Sundays when no one was there so I could get a peak at what they were doing. But NOOOOO, they had to lock the place up. Man, the nerve of some people to protect the property of someone they don't even know.

So, like any good perp, I cased the joint. Check out those rounded corners on that kitchen archway. Is it overly gay that I think that looks so good? I sure hope not, otherwise I might be single a long time.




Well, I continued to shoot pictures through the windows, look as suspicious as .. well.. a random person taking pictures through windows does (silly Tacoma police); I only managed one more decent shot:




Why only one more decent shot you ask? They weren't so silly afterall, I guess. (well, that and its really hard to get a decent shot through dirty windows. I have a couple great shots of my fingers, if you're ever interested).




Anyways, I know public indoxication is a crime, so I best not be going anywhere. Off to listen to spanish tapes.

La Actualización Castellano

I'm now 4hrs of CD's into Pimsluer's Spanish I (8 Lessons) and I am still very impressed with the series. I know I'm going to have to spend some extra time actually writing spanish (as its becoming increasingly difficult to visualize all the words). I think the best part is they are keeping it fairly humorous.

As I stated before, it all starts out with you trying to talk to another lady (who doesn't speak english, and you, of course, don't speak spanish). Somehow that quickly, as far as I can tell progresses to a serious relationship. The last 2 lessons consisted of this:

I want to eat something.

Great, lets go grab a beer at the restraunt.

I don't want to go to the restraunt.

Okay, fine, lets go to the hotel.

I don't want to go to the hotel.

Okay, fine, where do you want to go.

I don't know. I don't want to eat anything.

What? Nothing? I want to eat or drink something.

Fine. Lets go eat, but I don't have any money.

... Why do I feel like I have had this conversation before? And now, I can have it in multiple languages. Man, am I glad I spent money on this (seriously, I am glad, but this sure did make me laugh).

Its a tough market - they earned it. Right?

Exxon Mobil - 10.36 Billion 2nd quarter profit. 36% higher than last year. 2nd most profitable quarter for any company in history (Exxon Mobil has the #1 spot, 4th quarter, last year).

Royal Dutch Shell - 7.32 Billion profit. 40% Increase over last year

BP PLC - 7.3 Billion. 30% Increase over last year

ConocoPhillips - 5.18 Billion. 65% Increase over last year.

These are quarterly profits. Pure, cash in hand, profit.

MSNBC article link

But hey, its a tough market out there. Right? At this pace, Exxon Mobil will earn, in pure PROFIT close to Bill Gate's **NET** worth; in 1 year. Forbes 2005 Riches Person Index

Poor, poor media

So, a politician comes on The Colbert Report, a show on COMEDY CENTRAL, that follows the Daily Show and with some coaching from Steven Colbert, says some funny stuff that would, if he wasn't running in an uncontested election, might just lose him the election. It was funny and it showed he had a sense of humor.

Of course, the next morning, the morning shows (and news programs) wondered "why he would ever do that". Its just boggling. Here's Steven's rebuttle to the morning shows actually covering "The Colbert Report" as morning news.

A weekend away

I spent this weekend disconnected, up in the woods of Cle Elum, and I have to say it was nice to not have anything to do.

Well, I take that back, I had something I was supposed to do. My main job for heading up there this weekend was to get the DSL up and going, configure the server and web camera such that everyone could hop on and this winter see how much snow was piling up on the deck. Of course, the DSL modem had other ideas. It thought it would be much moer funny if first the password to access it locally was changed all together(and no ammount of Bryce guessing would crack it), then when I decided to hard-reset it to get the password back to default, it deleted all its routes and bridging information. (Basically that means it became a glorified nightlight). This is pretty much how every part of this project has gone (I think officially this project is over a year and a half now).

Lets get back to the fun stuff, eh?



Ahh, free jazz at the Suncadia resort. Now, mind you she couldn't hold the stage like a Charlie Parker(or any note for that matter), but hey, it was free. I think ultimately you have to go to shows like these, to be reminded when you see someone like a Parker, Maynard Ferguson, or Wynton Marsalis just how special they really are.

Free perspective. What more could you want out of your day?

Ultimately it was just a weekend of reading, enjoying the sun, dodging the eat, and driving on crazy roads.

Crazy roads you say? Wow. Yes. I was once told that I should take my car over Blewett pass. Now, I can't say I was horribly disapointed, but after cresting the pass and heading down the Wenatchee side, I still had that feeling that my body needed some extra G-forces to at least subside my crazy side for the rest of the day.

That's when I spotted it: Old Blewett Road. Hmm, that sounds promising.

It was my own personal road to Hana (It looked like that, but without the street sign). I've never had such a good time driving my car, specially seeing as I had troubleing breaking 40 mph on the road. So, if you ever find yourself in a rally insprired car, and a driver willing to take you on it (it is paved, though very rough at times), I recommend Old Blewett road with a wide eyed grin and a tone that lets you know I'm going back soon.



(oh, and nothing like a happy Subaru family) =)

The definitive guild on getting a hold of Bryce

Okay, I've been told from time to time that I'm hard to get a hold of. In fact, I've received voicemails to the like of, "Bryce, please call me so I know you're not hurt or dead. Thanks, Mom".

During the week, sending an email to my work account is one of the best ways to get me to read something. Now, notice I didn't say reply. If you email me, "Hey I just got a new puppy! Whoo hoo!". I might just think, wow that's cool, it'll be fun when I get to see it next. You might not get any reply at all.

Now, if you email me, "Hey my new puppy is showing signs of aggression, what should I do about that?". I can promise you'll get a reply within 10 minutes.

Okay. So, step 1) Email Bryce

Step 1a) Call Bryce

So, you don't want to email me. Call my cell phone. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I've done that Bryce. You don't answer your cell phone. >.< Okay, you've got me there. I'm a busy guy, and usually I'm doing something. I love you all to death, but I'm grown addicted to voice mail. Also, depending on what your voicemail says, you might fall into the grounds explained above and get neglected.

Now that we've figured out if you email me, or call me, its probable that I might just listen to your message and not return your call (or email); what do you do?

Be vague. I'm more apt to answer if you just leave a message, "Hey, Bryce. I really need to talk to you soon. Please call me.", than I am if you leave me a detailed message about a party that I don't really want to go to anyways.

Some of my friends have also found out, if you call my cell phone a 2nd time, I'll answer. Yes, I do understand that is a bit lame.

..and the last fail-safe methods.

Text messaging on my cell phone or call my work line during work hours.

I think the more unique attempts I've seen is calling whatever friend I'm room'n with and having them pass their phone to me. Dash cunning of you, but unfortunately (for you, not me), I'll be living alone shortly.

..and somehow posting a blog comment manages to grab my attention too. =) (shameless plug)

Yes, HE is in charge of the internet.....

Its been a long week

Well, I apologize for those that actually swing by here on more than a weekly basis for your dose of señor Kerker. Its been a bit of a crazy week; I made theperilouss cross into the realm of 26 years old without a problem.

My Spanish cd's finally arrived on Tuesday (happy birthday to me?). So far I'm through 3 lessons, and I have to say, its tough, but going pretty well. I really like the opening scenario the lessons take you through. You start by trying to start a conversation with another lady (¿perdón entiende inglés?). Of course she doesn't understand english (no, no señor. No entiende inglés).

We're progessing from there, but I have high hopes for CD 52 (the last lesson). I also got a couple extra books to learn some extra spanish words, unfortunately I keep calling myself a girl from america (Norteamericana). So until I figure out that I'm a man (Norteamericano), I think I'll leave those books closed.

My birthday went very nicely. Dinner at the olive garden (thank you 'rents), gift card to home depot (thank you miah & amy), starbucks gift card (thank you angie and tow), flowers and ballon (thank you Amber & Katrina), a very nice ladder (thank you 'rents, again), a check from grandpa (woot), and a surprise barbeque on Friday - setup by Miah and Amy. Its been a good week.

Well, then there was the framewalk for my house on Friday. You know, that house that's taken forever to get past the red tape, the 4 different start dates, and who knows how many finish dates I'll get? Well I show up on Friday, and my real estate agent is covered for the Quandrant staff because they are at a company wide meeting, honoring Salishan (my neighborhood) for how smooth, quick and flawless everything has been going. Yes, company including all the general contractors. You see where this is going.

So there was no one there to actually do the frame walk with me (besides the trusty parents, who managed to help catch some key issues).

Things could have gone worse, that's for sure. I have a rescheduled house walk for Monday at 3pm - so we'll see if the issues that we found on Friday are easily resolved. Maybe if I work it right they'll be really sorry about missing my appointment they'll give me something for free =) I like free.


...and lastly. A competition. Which dog could figure their way out of a box. First up, my croommateroomate Neia. She fawn pug that has been known to forget to breath.




VS.

Mona. Who has been known to walk off docks and sick like a... well.. a dog that doesn't know how to swim.

Fiscal expenditure = commitment

You would probably assume by the title most likely I'm talking about my house, or maybe a needy girlfriend (I'll give you one guess which one is more expensive). Though I'm actually talking about just one of the steps I'm taking to make some huge changes in my life.

About four months ago I took the GMAT. A test that gives you a basic placement of those looking to receive an MBA. As with most tests, I did just fine. And by just fine, I mean, pretty darn good. Initially I expected to get my MBA from UW, a school that has already excepted me, though with some extremely generous support from the 'rents, I have decided to look a bit further.

I've decided to look in Europe.

So that was step #1. Next was trying to pick a school. IMD, London School of Business, IESE, INSEAD, St. Gallen, etc. Honestly I was a bit lost. I wasn't aware that the top end school (across the world) all have a specialization they aim for. Its not just "we rock at mba's", its "we're the leader at cultural aware managers", or "we're the only school to offer 2nd year courses in multiple languages". Luckily I had Walt Renfree (my mom's cousin) to help. He's a graduate of IMD, and has colleagues from just about all the rest of them.

This is when I made the first roadblock discovery. I'm unilingual. Or as some would say, American. That immediately dropped me out of IMD (average of 3-4 languages per student), and INSEAD (bilingual required for admission). Frustated? Yeah, I was a bit. The irony was Walts response, "I totally forgot about the language requirement." hmm. So dream dead?

No. Time for some fiscal expenditure. Time for a commitment.

1) Pimsleur Spanish I 1
2) Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use
3) One Thousand and One Most Useful Spanish Words

Yes. I'm going to (re)learn espanol. I'm tired of being that typical american, and I really was ticked off when I saw specifically holding me back from doing something.

All said and done, the damage is ~$210 bucks. The Pimsleur course is a 52 CD, 3 part set, so I still have a good $400 bucks to plop down, but lets just get me through these first set of CD's.

So the goal is still there. A high end business school in Europe for my MBA. Right now IESE in Barcelona is top on my list, followed by IMD and INSEAD (though as it stands right now, both of those are not "available" to me).

Hopefully soon you'll see some blogs in both english and elementary level spanish. One can hope.

A week with Buddy.

A Pictorial tour of housesitting buddy - with comments of course!

Feel free to comment at the bottom of the pictures - or come back here and comment too. The more comments the better!


Yeah, yet another place to store my photos - though I think I like this place better than flickr, simply because its google and they will own the world here shortly. Just a prediction. =)

Next blog: Bryce's life changing decision(s). Stay tuned.