Saturday, January 14, 2012

Ted's year end early new year update, Pt. 1

in Rochester, NY, USA


Hey guys.  Apologies for starting a post and then not finishing it until several weeks later rendering it obselete—and ancient by internet standards—on arrival.  I've done this a few times, and I still have some stuff that I need to update from this summer.

First a digression: when I started this post, I'm was cruising above central Florida at around 39,000 feet and 445 knots, using free holiday wifi.  I continue to be impressed by how our lives keep progressing towards total, constant connection.  This would have been unheard of a few years ago.

Anyway the point of this post is to give an update on what I've been up to the past few days, weeks, and months.  Why was I on an airplane over Florida?  Well I was on my way to Minnesota from the Dominican Republic where my sister just had her wedding ceremony.  I've told some of you about this but this is probably news to some of you that I haven't talked to very recently, which is a sign that we need to catch up.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

400 & 300!

400 & 300. What do these numbers MEAN?

Well. Let's start with the number 400. It's our 400th post! Pretty crazy stuff. We've come along way and I am really proud of us keeping it up for so long!

And then there is the number 300. I'm less excited about this one. Can anyone guess why the number 300 is significant today? Could it be the name of my favorite movie? Could it be the number of times I checked my email in the last week? Or is it the number of calories in the meal I just had?

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Caribbean Winter

For those of you whom I haven't updated, I live in St. Thomas, USVI now. Sort of.

For the next 4+ months, I will be spending the majority of my time in the U.S. Virgin Islands, shuttling between my house, my office, and the beach in a rental car driving on the left side of the road. I will likely return stateside for a week or so every three weeks, but this could vary significantly based on workload, etc. While I still pay rent and have a car in Minneapolis, I now have a permanent place while I am down here (i.e. not a hotel).

This entire experience is cool for a number of reasons:

1) It's currently winter. In Minneapolis, this means it is likely a negative temperature with windchill. In St. Thomas, it means that it's 75-80 degrees and the swells are a bit better for surfing.

2) I'm meeting lots of people I would never have otherwise met. Everybody who lives down here has a cool story (bro), and a lot of people are down here living their dreams instead of slogging away in a job stateside that they'd rather not do. This means they are interesting.

3) I get the snorkel/surf/scuba dive. I just bought a surfboard!! Let's go surfing now!

4) The work I'm doing is really cool, I'm learning a ton, and making myself more valuable. You know when you're in a situation where you feel like you're just bettering yourself? Getting good experience that you know will make you more useful in a specific role in the future? That's how I feel about the work that I'm doing right now, and that feels good. I like self-improvement.

5) I can haz visitors. The place I'm living is a guesthouse of a larger house, with no kitchen, but there's plenty of floor space and a queen size bed, so I can fit in one or two bros who make the trek down. Plus, the double doors open to steps that lead directly down to a patio complete with infinity pool (see here - same bay/view, different pool).

So, even though we may continue to push off Brocation 1.0 (Cuzco, Peru, anyone?), a Long Caribbean Weekend is beckoning.