At this point, it’s probably unrealistic for me to try to maintain this site as a real personal blog, considering how infrequently it’s updated. Instead, I’ve tried to make it a haven for photos, which should fill in for the many thousands of words that I’m missing. The big news that I never wrote about here is my engagement to Geraldine. You can see my video proposal (which didn’t happen on the SuperBowl as I had tried) and watch Geraldine’s response (which is especially awesome).

We’ve also done a lot of traveling over the last 3 months and those are documented in the photos section. That will continue to be updated, but the written blog may not be for a long time to come… we’ll see.

A quick note - We really will miss you Mr. Vonnegut. I was holding out hope for one last book, but perhaps it’s someone else’s time to take up his mantle.

I’ve finally gotten up some new photos onto the site from last year. These include the wonderful wedding Geraldine and I attended in Las Vegas for our friends Dan & Natalia, some shots from Halloween and Courtney’s birthday and some of our photos around Thanksgiving. I also published the collection of photos that we’ve had printed out and hope to hang in our hallway in the next few weeks (now all we need are some frames).

Things in my personal life are very good, though we did have a very tough time with my dad falling ill. He had high blood pressure combined with an overdose of Aspirin (for what he thought was dental pain) that spiked and became a stroke combined with intestinal bleeding that required a big surgery. He’s recovering now at home and will be for several weeks, but we’re hoping this can help to serve as a catalyst for him to change his excercise and diet habits. A ton of folks have been extremely kind and understanding about this, particularly as it affected our business so strongly (since my Mom and I work together).

I hope that next time, they’ll be fewer than 6 months between my posts.

I usually get about 20 minutes each workday while I’m eating lunch at my desk to surf and browse outside of my professional field. When I do get the chance, here’s what I read:

- BBC News
- Slate
- National Geographic News
- NY Times Technology
- Seattle’s “The Stranger” Blog (aka Slog)
- Wired News
- Reddit (just the headlines that grab me)

It’s not the most well-rounded group of reading I could find, but sometimes, a guy just needs a break from his profession. Even someone who loves their job their I do.

Geraldine and I are back in Seattle after yet another trip, this one to Montreal, ostensibly for business, though we managed to have a good time in spite of the breakneck speed with which the Quebecois business sector seems to move (perhaps it was just my specific client). There’s some great photos from the trip I just uploaded.

The problem is this damn apartment. Since we’re never home, we never get to spend any time working on it, so it basically looks the same as it did a day after we moved in - dissheveled, barely lived in, and half in boxes. I’m really looking forward to having some weeks at home to get this place in order. I figure $10,000 and 4 weeks should be enough… Now how to scrounge those up….???

I’m just back from 15 days traveling to, from and across Europe. Geraldine and I left Seattle together on a prop plane (we sat in the back and I hummed the Indiana Jones theme song to help her feel better about the tiny size) to Vancouver, then flew straight to London, where we spent 3 days with our friends Adam & Rachel, who just happened to be in Great Britain, too!

From London, Geraldine left to visit her Dad in Munich, while I moved slightly north, to Islington (technically still in London) for a business conference (you can read about that at SEOmoz). For some reason, I came down with a severe case of insomnia while in London - it took me until Thursday night (after having arrived on Sunday) to get a night’s sleep. As colleagues who saw me Wednesday can attest to - I was not in good shape. >> Read More

My grandparents were in town this past week - they live in New Jersey so we only see each other 4-5X a year. Sadly, I only got to spend time with them twice (despite the fact that it was a weeklong trip).

Geraldine has noted to me that she sometimes feels like it’s the beginning of our relationship again - we’re both so busy with work that in spite of living together, we only have 1-2 nights a week where we hang out. >> Read More

So Geraldine and I are finally moved into our new apartment, though everything is largely still in boxes and we’re leading, what can mostly be described as a sort of get-through-each-day half-life. Neither of us finishes work much before 7pm, and dinner consists of deli items from Whole Foods or leftovers from last night’s dinner out. We haven’t assembled furniture (with the exception of our bed and Geraldine’s dresser - thanks to Carlos & Chris), we haven’t put things away, we haven’t started decorating and we’re mostly living out of boxes and bags.

Why? You might ask…

>> Read More

Two weekends ago, a young man in his mid-twenties killed 8 kids and himself at a late house party on Capitol Hill (details). At first, the blame went directly to the “club scene” as many of the party-goers had attended a “rave” that night (including the gunman, who scored his invite via the rave). There were calls from the city’s newspapers and media to shut down the Seattle rave scene and require teenagers to get home before certain hours - the usual fear/paranoia crap that accompanies an incident like this. >> Read More

Via a story called “Child Bride“. Below is an image of a twelve year old Afghani girl’s back. The scars are the remnants of the abuse she suffered at the hands of a family she was sold to at the age of four, to be “wife” to a man of 30. The scars include knife wounds from times when the family would use her back as a cutting board for fruits and vegetables. >> Read More

When I have a few free hours in the evening, I’m really into sitting on the couch (hopefully next to Geraldine and friends) and completely losing myself in the tube. I’m planning to buy a nice big plasma once we’re all moved in to the new pad. Suggestions are appreciated, though both C|Net and Consumer Reports seem to like the Panasonics… >> Read More