Hefeweizen, high-speed Internet and the art of Bonsai

I bought a small bonsai plant a few months ago and it's currently withering away on my desk as I type this. For the first few weeks, it looked healthy and I was convinced that it was doing just fine when in actuality, it was dying a slow death in its pot. In a desperate fight to keep it alive, I tried watering it constantly, but to no avail. It just continued to turn brown. Despite this, it has retained some of its green color and still looks somewhat presentable, which is why it still sits on my desk. Yesterday, I tried gently touching the little green branches and much to my chagrin, the branches crumbled into little pieces and fell to the floor. So here I am with a plant that is unresponsive to water, brittle to the touch and probably dead. But I think I'll keep it around until all the green branches eventually turn brown and crumble to the floor. It's a damn shame because I was hoping that I could one day trim the branches like Mr. Miagi did in The Karate Kid.

I've definitely been drinking more beer since I got to California. More specifically, this beer. Up until now, Heineken was the beer of my choice, but ever since the day my lips met the cold refreshing taste of my first Hefeweizen, there was no turning back. I knew instantly, that this would be my brew. For my buddies in Boston, I recommend you try it if you haven't done so already. I've heard a few places have it on tap, Sunset Grille being one of them. Anyways, enough about beer.

OK, so I'll admit it. I'm one of those people that cringe in pain when forced to wait more than 10 seconds for a website to load. Call me impatient, label me a productivity-whore, but that's wasted time people. Do the math: let's say you wait an average of 10 seconds as opposed to 5 while viewing 100 pages a day. That's 16.7 minutes versus 8.3 minutes, nearly 8 more minutes a day which equates to 40 more minutes a week, resulting in 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, of wasted time (sorry, I was just reminded of this at work today when our network was lagging). It makes me wonder how we lived through dial-up modem connections.

In summation, God bless Hefeweizen, high-speed Internet and healthy bonsai trees.

The inevitable occurs

So I had decided to stop using Xanga, deeming it stupid and pointless. Here I am, only six months later writing my first entry on Blogger. I could justify my hypocritical actions by saying that I'm just using Blogger to support Google, but I'll admit that it's a useful tool to keep track of people that you haven't seen in awhile.

Here's some history for those of you who I haven't really spoken to in awhile (basically, a good chunk of my friends from back East) and also for anyone who bothers to read this (all three of you). It's been about three and a half months already, but I finally made the move to the Sunshine State, California. I'm living in NorCal (Silicon Valley) and was lucky enough to find employment within a cool, young, burgeoning company. On a side-note, I eat at IN-N-OUT in regular intervals now (usually at least once a week), and despite the ridicule of my roommate, I'm pretty proud of it. I usually get the #1, Double-Double (that's two meat patties) with carmelized onions and a thick strawberry shake and fresh potato fries. On occasion, I'll get two servings of fries. Isn't that disgusting? Other than that, nothing really interesting to report.

Answers to some frequently asked questions on my move to California:
- Am I glad I did it? (A) Definitely. I felt my cage getting smaller and smaller in Boston. I feel like living out here will definitely give me a chance to grow.
- Do I miss Boston? (A) Of course... well, certain things about it. I miss family and friends but I don't miss the monotony and the sub-zero temps.
- Are the women in California any different than the women in Boston? (A) I'll say this... the sea is vast out here, with many quality fish swimming about, but like parking spaces, all the good ones seem to be "restricted" or already taken.

Well, it's a Saturday night and I don't even want to go out. I enjoy the time that I have, to do absolutely nothing. This is what happens when you graduate and start working 40+ hours/week. I'm not complaining; I actually enjoy this type of lifestyle and my work. I'm just trying to justify staying in on a Saturday night. Failed? Probably.

Until next time...