Two Dads are Better than None

Frankfurt
We flew into Frankfurt and stayed there a bit and were greeted with snow...finally, a white Christmas! Germany is such an efficient and cool country and even if you cannot speak the language well it is easy to get around. When I tried my German on them, they were nice enough to reply back in German. We stayed in a cool little hotel that was full on white in every room..very modern. We did some sightseeing and ate some wurst. If you think Mercedes are cool cars, remember that even their taxis are usually a Benz. Of course the dollar was crap, but it was interesting seeing how different parts of Europe are getting used to the Euro. Unfortunately I think that will hurt the dollar even more as the Euro becomes the world currency. While we extolled the virtues of European living, a bartender reminded us that their system sometimes rewards you too much for NOT working (ie getting paid little more than someone who is on the "dole") We stayed a block from the Westbanhof station and took the train to Vienna the next morning. The train ride was great and was just another reminder that the US needs to fully get on board with that. It is truly the most relaxing and beautiful way to travel, given the time and cost, and I would pick a train over an airplane any day.

Vienna
The ride to Vienna was about 7 hours and the German trains were nice, clean and fast. When we arrived in Vienna we chose to stay in a very central location just two blocks from the Stephansdom, the central cathedral there. We arrived on Christmas eve and were greeted with lights, old world charm and a Christmas mass in one of the most beautiful and oldest churches I have been in. It was undergoing renovations but they had literally photoshop-ed life size black and white picture of the church onto itself. We did a lot of sightseeing in Vienna and saw lots of palaces, art, cafes and some really cool historical stuff. We realized just how pricey it can be when a very nice bartender named Sasha presented us with a tab of 150 euros after a night of patying..ouch! We headed to the cafes for breakfast and planned our agendas the next day. So much to do and see, I would love to go back again and totally recommend Vienna if you have the chance.

Hungary
After a few days in Vienna we took a train to Budapest where we had rented an apartment for the week. The train ride was a lot different than coming into Vienna. The Hungarian railway was not quite as new or modern as the Germain rail. Still, the fare was cheap and for a bit extra you can upgrade to a private compartment where nice Hungarian girls sell you beer for 2 euros a can. You can certainly feel the different between new and old Europe as you head into Hungary. The houses, cars, business, language and even demeanor of the people seemed different. We arrived in Budapest and quickly converted some Euros into Forint to ride the subway. Budapest was COLD. We settled into a little apartment near the city center close to Deak station. A guy named Csaba that rented apartments gave us the lay of the land. When he greeted us carrying an electrical heater I got a bit worried. The apartment was clean but small and had NO HEAT!!! Luckily, the two space heaters worked fine else we would have checked into the hotel down the street. Greg was not as convinced, but I totally dug the gritty Hungarian culture. We were warned that young women might approach us and ask us if we knew where any bars were. Sure enough, on 2 occasions these very pretty young ladies asked us if we knew where any bars or pubs were. The way it works is they find tourists and take them to bars for over priced drinks. Boy did they peg the wrong marks! When they asked us for bars we suggested a place we knew of called "Action" bar, but they did not seem to be interested in drinks in our type of bars...wonder why? ;-)

Saw lots of churches, took a river cruise, explored the Pest side, had some really good food and even checked out one of their famous baths from warm springs that Budapest is famous for. I was not impressed. It was gross and smelled like sulfur. Budapest was quite affordable I thought and I had always wanted to go there. We rang in the new year at a big club with dancing and drinking until wee hours of the morning. We spent the day after recovering and using our GSM cellphone we got for cheap to wish friends and family a happy new year. I highly recommend doing this if you go..in fact I can give you a European cell phone if you want one.

All in all, we had a great time and our only regret is that we did not have more time and money to spend there...SIGH! Back to work~

There is a link below for the pics if you are interested. After going to India and Europe the past few months, I am confident in saying that our travels are over for awhile. Those loong flights are...how do you say in German..SCHEISS!

We are happy to be back safe and sound and highly recommend this trip if you have the chance. I am TOTALLY looking forward to starting back at Countrywide with my old team soon and Greg is already up to his eyes in work.

Here is wishing you and those you love much happiness, health, success in 2008!

Warm regards,

Brent & Greg

Frankfurt, Vienna & Budapest 1/3/08 8:30 PM

(Literature / Music / Painting)

I am kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my office smells of rich mahogany. I am also sarcastic. Truth be told, I would rather write short stories out of my garage everyday, like Raymond Carver. If I were a poet, I would be Thoreau. I have a penchant for Vonnegut, Camus and cheesy coming-of-age movies. If I were a musician I would sing sad folk songs mixed with anthem dance music. I drew and painted as a child. If I were an artist I would be a combination of Frank Lloyd Wright and MC Escher. Texture and depth excites me. I have failed at a million things but somehow I want to keep on trying. It is better to fail at a million things than be good at only one I think.


(Me / Self / Identity)

I am proud to be both Gay and part Native American. I was raised by my beautiful single mother and a little sister in the suburbs of Dallas Texas. She did good considering the odds with me :-) ... I was a bit of hellion filled with wanderlust, and I still am at times. After finishing UT in Austin I wanted to see the world, so I did...25 countries so far and counting. I spent 6 years traveling and working in Asia (mostly Japan) and got my Masters degree in Tokyo. I speak Japanese and German and have taught at a university and a few colleges around the globe. Professionally I have worked for mostly Fortune 500 companies and lived in Tokyo, New York and Texas. I could really give a rat's ass what you or society in general think about me or my "lifestyle". I am rock solid and have the battle scars to prove it.

Professionally I work in IT and have worked at all kinds of companies all over the place; big Japanese companies and American ones, small start-ups and government jobs too. I have worked as a busboy, a nanny, a waiter, a camp counselor, a college professor and as a consultant/trainer. The weirdest job I have ever had was working in a Karaoke bar in Japan.

I have survived growing up in Texas, crappy father figures, an earthquake, motorcycles in foreign lands, daytrading, layoffs, becoming a proud and out gay man and 9/11. The fact that I am gay is probably the least interesting thing about me and if you don't think so, you and I would probable have very little in common.

I love to travel and explore new ideas.

(Religion / Spirituality)

I was raised Christian but tend to favor a more Buddhist/Meditative approach to spirituality. I simply refuse to belive that there is only one true God and only one group has the key. My preferred temple of worship is in the middle of the forest surrounded by trees and water, but I can appreciate any sacred sanctuary.

(People That Matter)

My partner, my family, my close friends. I have a dog named Rudy that I love dearly too. I care about the world and people’s feelings, sometime too much, sometimes not enough. I am an open book and have nothing to hide. I always try to put people first and I love a lively debate, a philosophical dicsussion and connecting with others.

When I have passed through this life I know I will not be remembered for the things I accomplished but for the people I touched. I pick the people I choose to spend my time with carefully. I have a strong disdain for the vapid self touting windbags. If the things, ideas and people we add to our lives do not add value then they likely take it away.

(Habits / Vices)

I like cigars and struggle with being a non-smoker. I occassionally like to gamble and drinking some is not neccessarily a bad thing if done in moderation. Travel can be an addiction too. I also like all kinds of food, a good wine, and an even better beer. I love to be outdoors with the sun shining on my face. I have an intense interest in other languages, cultures, religions and people who are different. Eating cookies and drinking milk will always make you feel better, no matter what. Music is the canvas you live your life against and should be embraced.

(Interests / Hobbies / Idiosyncrasies)

I don’t care much at all for sports and could care less who won what. I digg foreign films and could watch movies for days, especially character driven stories I can connect to. I love to paint with watercolors and write short stories when I feel cathartic. Teachers are grossly underpaid and unappreciated in our culture, as are artists, writers and people who work with their hands.

Random interests include modern architecture, Dadaism, asian art, gadgets, Japanese cars, Six Feet Under, self help books, 80s music, flowers, motorcycles, Napolean Dynamite, Sherman Alexie, J-Pop, Chess, Wired, Out, Birds of Paradise, Cruise Ships, Parodies, Blogging, the Human Rights Campaign, Astrology, Astronomy, Fibonacci and Candlestick charting, Ayn Rand, Existentialsim, Medical Tourism, decorating, Dali, jogging, DJ/House music, Star Trek, The Family Guy, Shogi, Bashing the Religious Right, Mysoginist Literature, Craigslist, Ebay, Techcruch, Yahoo Finance, Apple anything, Google, Adoption, anything New York, Mensa, Teaching speaking and cooking Japanese, Buddhism, iTunes, Maps, Fasting, Lonely Planet, Tatami Mats and good coffee.

Imagine you are sitting in an interview wondering whether you should have gone to UT or A&M.

To date, UT is the only campus in the state calling for some relief from the law, now that 71 percent of its freshmen are in the top 10 percent of their class.

A&M doesn't feel as much pressure yet; this year, fewer than half of its freshmen are in the top tenth.

At UT, Rather than turn away more students who were outside the top 10 percent, UT changed course and let more students in again.

Some parents complain that not all top-ranked students belong at UT, that they rose in the ranks by taking easy classes.


"I think it's generally acknowledged that the University of Texas is the breeding ground for much of the state's leadership," Mr. Lavergne said. "Who should have access to that future capital? What is the capital worth if everyone, or nearly everyone, was admitted based on one thing?"

And this is brent speaking...what makes a college like a stock? Do you want to see your investment go up over time...

After a long flight there and back we made it home. Greg was there for three weeks and enjoyed being spoiled in the hotel and working the night shift. Very much a country of ironic and colorful proportion, India was a place I always wanted to visit during my stint in Asia, but never made it to. You see quite a bit of poverty and so much growth, the city is literally sprouting out in smog and shanty towns. I only got one week there and felt guilty retiring into my nice western digs when I saw the common folks.

The average US buck is about $1500 per year here in Mumbai (but everyone still uses the term Bombay a lot). If you work in one of the ever growing BPOs in the north, you are likely young, educated and paid around 5K a year. With 18 million people, there was so much to see, we only saw a bit.

The food was excellent, although we paid US prices and then some at the hotel. Luckily, we did not get sick, but we were particular about WHERE we ate rather than what we ate. Outside the compounds of the hotel wall, things are cheap. For about $10 you can take a car with AC across town. For $5 you get in a small colorful Tutu taxi. For $3 you can take an auto-rickshaw. Spend a week here and you will LOVE your commute.

We did a bit of shopping and picked up a few souvenirs, mostly Hindu Gods. I don't think I would have gone were it not for the ability to stay in a nice place. You really see your life in a different perspective after spending time there.

Enjoy the pics

Bombay

The problem with blogs is that they never get updated. We are TOO busy to care people..don't you get it? Greg and I are in busy travel mode. He is in India for a few weeks and I just came back from Tulsa. It seems he and I are going career crazy now..I have taken a new gig and left CFC..It was fun working at the same conpany as my spouse, but I have bigger fosh to fry. The only regrets you have in life are the chances you never take...right? We shall see.

So I am unwinding with a merlot on the balconey and betting we will not get many T or T-ers..what do you bet?

Anyway, things have been odd, the least of which is being without my other half. He keeps me grounded and I miss him, but I will be going to India to visit him in about 10 days!

More later, but suffice to say that sometimes life slows down and sometimes it speeds up. Word.

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1.I hate MySpace and the cheesy extension of cliques onto the net...puuulleeze
2. Is it just me or do the people on their lists of "who's cool" all appear to be dicks?
3. I hate the way it pops up songs...it is bad enough I have to read your dribble but listen to your music too?
4. Emo kids whine on and on.
5. Interface, speed and the designs that are used look like scat..no wait, that's a compliment
6. I cannot read your whining on a background like that
7. It's always trying to hook me up with 14 y/o losers who IM me: "WAZZUP!!??!~%^"
8. It signs me out when i try to search.
9. Best described by the odd words "preteen" "social" "anxiety" and "church".
10. Spams the crap out of you with stupid bands i'd like to slap

Oh dear God how i hate MySpace.

There are three basic principles behind any well-designed product: truth, humanity, and simplicity. To see these three in action, look at one of the icons of the 20th century -- the VW Beetle. My dad had one of the first models -- a yellow 1952 Bug. In college, I had a red 1968 model. It was one of the few cars in which I've really experienced the feeling of driving. The driver's seat was like a real chair and totally ergonomic. The car was high, comfortable, practical, and even though I could never go very fast, I felt like I was flying.

From a design standpoint, it was an incredibly simple and honest creation. Basically, the Beetle combined three semicircles: two arcs for the fenders and one large arc for the body -- pure, simple, and beautifully proportioned. And it's so human, even down to its weaknesses -- such as the heater, which never seemed to work in the old models. But we still loved the car. What makes good design? Design is not beautification. It's a thought process -- a nonlinear, spatial way of thinking in which connections are made between seemingly unrelated things. Designers are creative visual thinkers who learn to see the world differently.

Think about the Beetle: How many objects -- and cars for that matter -- make people coo?

Sohrab Vossoughi (sohrab_vossoughi@ziba.com) founded ZIBA Design Inc., a product-development firm, in 1984. Some of Ziba's clients include Nike, FedEx, McDonald's, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Hyundai, Coleman, and Rubbermaid. The first VW beetles were built in 1938 with a 985cc engine. They were named KDF-wagens -- kraft durch Freude or "power through joy."

As Hurricanes approach..

door dam,,$845..doordam.com

wippsystems.com, save on coverage for small businesses, 20-30$/ft

This NY Times story has massive implications..

Things to think about:
My security vs Greg's security

Possible Opps
What about all the people whose ARMs are adjusting? What will their pain points be?
What about immigrant money and opportunities there?
Pooling people together to buy the same business? Prosper.com?
Dry cleaning delivery biz.. would I even spend my money on that?
Think you might see a bigger shift of housing price decline with higher monthly/less disopable?
Might crush many homebuilders and their labor pool.

Spend $ on lakehouse??
Cash needs to be put to work. In and out of something in less than a year..
Will people sell more things?

Oh brother I can't, I can't get through
I’ve been trying hard to meet you 'cause I don’t know what to do
Oh brother I can't believe it's true
I’m so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you
Oh I wanna talk to you

You can take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or a write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done

Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle, you can't find your missing piece?
Tell me how do you feel?


Well I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak
And they're talking it to me

So you take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or a write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done
Or do something that's never been done

So you don't know where you're going and you wanna talk
And you feel like you're going where you've been before
You tell anyone who'll listen but you feel ignored
Nothing's really making any sense at all, let's talk
Let's talk, let's talk, let's talk.

http://www.lazydork.com/movies/movies.htm

http://www.newbabynews.net/hospitals/stf33/public/stf33birthannouncement.pl?babyID=h33-440

www.cherrytaps.com

http://www.frazzlesnazzle.com/top-10-gi-joe-videos/


my favorite site in the world is now:

www.uniquedaily.com

Pace expresses regret over gay remark

It is amazing what you can do with "find/replace". Anybody else find this funny?


WASHINGTON – An office worker in Dallas named Brent Jones expresses regret Tuesday that he called the US Military “immoral”, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and miltary advocacy groups.

In a newspaper interview Monday, office worker Brent Jones, chairman of his neighborhood HOA, had likened military acts to gang-style murder and said the military should not condone murder by allowing soldiers to openly murder Iraqis in the armed forces.

In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about good murder vs. bad murder— and "less on my personal view of the US military and their right to murder people worldwide."

He did not offer an apology, something that had been demanded by military rights groups.

"Brent Jones’ comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 265,000 troops serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Service members Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.

The group, which has represented some of the thousands from the military, demanded an apology.

Jones’ friends said earlier that the he was expressing his personal opinion and did not intend to apologize. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.

Rep. Martin Meehan, who has introduced legislation to repeal the current policy, criticized Jones’ comments.

"Brent's statements aren't in line with the majority of human beings," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "He needs to recognize that support for changing it (the policy) is strong and growing" and that the military is "killing good people to enforce a costly policy of 'good murder vs. bad murder.'"

In an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune, Jones was asked about the "don't talks, just shoot" policy that allows the military to kill whomever they want, whenever they want, so long as it is done in the name of freedom.

Jones said he supports the policy, which became law in 1994 and prohibits soldiers from asking questions before killing someone.

"I believe that murdering individuals is immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts," Jones said in the audio recording of the interview posted on the Tribune's Web site. "I do not believe that the United States is well served by a saying through our policies that it's OK to murder others in any way."

Jones, a native of Dallas TX, and a 1992 graduate of the University of Texas, said he based his views on his upbringing.

"As an individual, I would not want acceptance that murder under the guise of ‘we-know-what-is-best-for-you’ to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that murder in any major US city gets you life in jail, but murder in a foreign country gets you the Purple Heart. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," he said, according to the audio and a transcript released by his staff.

The newspaper said Jones did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 3,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been killed in Iraqi since the US invaded.

Louis Vizcaino, spokesman for the killing rights group Inhuman Rights Campaign, said Jones's comments were "insulting and offensive to the men and women ... who are serving in the military honorably, albeit as murderers."

"Right now there are men and women that are in the battle lines, that are in the trenches, they're serving their country," Vizcaino said. "Their ability to murder has nothing to do with their morals and capability to serve in the U.S. military."

"Don't talk, just shoot" was passed by Congress in 1993 after a firestorm of debate in which the irony of the fact that Americans get medals for killing overseas but get death sentences for killing in their backyards was exposed. Advocates argued that allowing soldiers to openly kill in the United States would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermines just how cool it is that they can commit sanctioned murder while on foreign soil.

John Shalikashvili, the retired Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman when the policy was adopted, said in January that he has changed his mind on the issue since seeing the bloodshed in Iraq.

"These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that murder is only OK when sanctioned by the government," Shalikashvili wrote in a newspaper opinion piece.

Have you looked out on the internet and seen just how many people are spewing their lives, interests, thoughts and just plain freakishness around for all of us to see? ( I do realize the irony of me doing this, believe me ) It's mind blowing how much stuff is out there, from all over the world. Think about it for a second, the entire world all linked up togther and sharing a common brain called the Internet! Look on Youtube, Myspace, Craigslist and anything Google related and you will be amazed just how much is out there. Think about how much time we spend in front of a PC and you will agree.

I want to try to get outside more and you should too :-)

Boob job $6,000, Make up $60, forgetting to tuck your nuts, priceless