Could I Teach About Twitter

Wednesday night, I went to a company business meeting where the keynote speaker was from he Netherlands. Okay, most of the keynote speakers are from the Netherlands, so it was really no surprise. I was excited for this particular topic as we were going to be talking about social computing and its impact on business and the world. It is a topic that I am very interested in, since I have two Blogs, am on Facebook, twitter, pownce and am constantly looking at Digg. This presentation was going to be in my wheelhouse. The presentation was given by the Director of ViNT, a research shop in the Netherlands. It was a great presentation, discussing the ways that the mass media is on the way out the door, and instead we now have "Me Media" It was fascinating. I got a chance to talk to the presenter at the bar afterwords and I think I impressed him.

While people were coming into the lecture hall I leaned over to a friend of mine and asked if one of the attendees was one of our old professors. Sure enough it was. I went over to say hello and see how things had been. It was an interesting conversation which basically ended with him asking me to submit a resume and such to come back and teach at UMBC. It was a really cool moment and I was flattered. While I was at the bar for some post meeting cocktails I had some great discussions with the presenter and some of my other colleagues about the idea of "Me Media" and how people can still be productive when they are constantly getting bombarded with information from the gazillion different bits that they get every day. I think I could teach this. I would love to teach this... we will see if this works. I will be sending my resume this weekend.

I <3 Wine

For the longest time I have been a beer and cocktail drinker. It is good times. Since moving in with Ben and Jess I have begun to become exposed to the deliciousness of wine. It is nice to have as a cocktail or with dinner, though I am not at all sure that I have really become accustomed to the taste of anything that is all that dry. Luckily some of that began to change this past Wednesday.

I am part of the Chapter of Young Alumni Steering Committee at UMBC. On March 28th we will be holding our third annual Wine Tasting at Geppis Entertainment Museum. This place looks so cool and the $15 dollar ticket is only five dollars more than you would pay to just visit the museum alone. But the best part is that you also get food, wine and can participate in a silent Auction.

The C-YA Steering Committee were able to select the wines we will have at the tasting this past Wednesday. From the initial twelve we ended up with six different types of wine, three white and three red. I actually liked all of the ones that were chosen. We also got to sample the food. The food is really good and will include Crab Cakes, Tequila Chicken and lots of other things served on a stick.

Oh yeah, there will be one other thing at this event. A Silent Auction that will benefit the UMBC Alumni Scholarship fund and the Esperanza Endowment. Check out some of these items.

It looks like it is a going to be a great night. If you are at all interested get your tickets early. We have a limited number and this is normally a pretty popular event. It is just $15, there will be wine and food, amazing things to look at and bid on and lots of cool people to reconnect with. Order your ticket today!

I Waited Eight Years for This!

Saturday night, February 23rd, 2008.

This date is going to hold a special place in my heart for a pretty long time. It was on this date that my Alma Mater, UMBC, won its first ever America East regular season title. It was an amazing game overall and I cannot be prouder. I have been a pretty big fan of Retriever Basketball since I was a freshman in 1999 and Saturday was the high point of watching quite a few games at RAC arena.

Could this really happen? Could the team from a school in Catonsville really make it to the dance? No matter what UMBC will, at worst, compete in this years NIT. I really am having a hard time expressing my excitement and pride. I am very hopeful that UMBC could be the next George Mason, but I will take just being able to put on my dancing shoes.

UMBCUnderground has some great coverage of the game and what this means for the Retrievers

Go Big Dawgs.

Marital Bliss at it's Best

So two weeks ago I jumped into the Brid (Hybrid that is) and headed to Canton, Ohio for the nuptials of Erin Hundley and Kyle T. Carter (the T is clearly obligatory). I was super excited for this event for many reasons. First and foremost I have never meet two more perfectly matched, awesome, people in my life. Second, it was a great excuse to see all of my UMBC co-workers. I miss these people so much, and they mean so much to me. It was really nice to get a chance to hang out and have a blast. Finally, the wedding was in Canton, Ohio... do you know what else is in Canton, Ohio? No, not the headquarters of Goodyear (that is in Akron, Ohio).

The Football Hall of Fame.

I got the chance to visit the Hall with Kyle and his friend Jay on Friday morning, but there will be a post about that later. This is Kyle and Erin's Time.

The wedding was great, and my UMBC peeps partied it up from Friday night until Sunday morning. This included a stop at a Brew-Thru. Turns out in Ohio you can drive you car into a building , ask the person who comes to the window for Beer, Cigarettes and Beef Jerky and they will bring it right to you. Even hand it to you through the window. It is kinda AMAZING.

As there were no fridges in the hotel room, we did run into a small problem of trying to keep the beer cold over the course of the weekend. My personal ingenuity and the availability of an ice machine and a sink made for the best, continuously chilled, Miller Lite, we have ever had.

Needless to say the ceremony and reception we a ton of fun, and very Kyle and Erin. There were lots of touching moments, but the whole idea was that they wanted to enjoy the night with the people they cared about. I really did like the bottles of wine as table cards and the table names as places that were important to them in their lives. I actually got pointed out by the Matron of Honor as "The Other Guy" during her toast.

So I don't yet have a ton of pictures from that night (my battery died) but I thought this one was a pretty good representation of how much fun we all had. If that is not one of the best looking groups of people, I don't know what is :-) (Sorry Kyle... Somehow we missed you in this picture)

It Has Been a Long Time and a Great Weekend

Sorry for the lack of posts folks. I have been pretty busy and a little uninspired. I think I get this way when some monotony kicks in. Well this weekend definitely took care of the monotony.

This weekend was UMBC Homecoming. Now I know what you are thinking... and yes UMBC is an actual university with an actual homecoming. I did not get a chance to attend the events on Thursday which included a bonfire and a Bar-B-Que. Thanks to David for the picture. It looks very cool.

As a funny story, a community member did not know what was going on, saw the fire, and called the fire department, saying that there was a two story house on fire. Sweet!!

Friday was scheduled to have Fireworks, and Ice Cream (Fire and Ice). Due to the threat of lightning the fireworks were cancelled but the Ice Cream was moved to the talent show. Having been in attendance at the first homecoming talent show, I was a little apprehensive to attend this one. Unless UMBC students are playing Chess, you wonder about their talent (an obvious exaggeration). I was pleasantly surprised with the show. There was alot of diversity to the talent, and most people were really good. There was one group that said that they drove an hour to get five minutes with the audience.... I want those five minutes back. Seriously the Guitarist and Saxophone combo was pretty amazing, even with their CD skipping out. I was also impressed with some of the bands and of course the UMBC Mama's Boys. There wasn't a great deal of Alumni presence, but Elan and I were happy to hold down the fort for the old folks.

After the show we headed to Double T. As usual this was a interesting meal, particularly when a ton of people, who we had not seen in forever, showed up at like 1 am. Oh, and what may be the greatest combination ever was found. Challah French Toast with Chocolate Ice Cream.... Yum.

Saturday was pretty cool as well, we decided to not head to the crab feast because of the $30 price tag, but we hung out on campus anyway. We did head to the friends of OSL reception, which while not heavily attended, was nice to see some people who I had not seen for a while. After that it was over to the RAC for Jim Gaffigan.

Yes... He is that pale. Actually he was incredibly funny. I know this because I was laughing so hard I began to sweat. That's right... laughing sweat. Any comedian that can talk about Bacon and Hot Pockets and still make me laugh is good in my book.

That night we went back to my place for beer and Wii (is there anything better?). Sunday was Brunch at Gecko's which was fantastic as always.

There were some strange things that occurred. First was the sheer amount of people that asked "What are you doing here?"... Really... It's Homecoming... The worst was when a pretty high up administrator from one of the most important offices on campus asked why we were there. I am not even kidding. I will give her that she was pretty tired after a long day. Also exciting/strange was the game of suicide we played in between the Comedian and Wii. You never realize how truly out of practice you are until you try to play a game of your youth. I used to play suicide every day at recess.. today is Monday, two days after suicide 2007, and my arm is killing me.

It was a good weekend over all. I did one other exciting thing, but I will save that for another post. Bye.

Baseball... and I Feel Like a Dope

Last night I want to the O's game vs the Seattle Mariners. As part of the Chapter of Young Alumni Steering Committee I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to sit in the Comcast Private Suite. It was very cool, and by that I mean air conditioned. Game time temperature was 101, which is really really hot. There were Misting Tent(s) and free ice being given out at the stadium, but I was in the poshness of the suite.

I picked up Jordan and Erica in Dundalk and we went to the game. I had never tried to come to the stadium from the north and this caused some issues. We took 395 to Russel street and everything was going great until we got to the lot and had no permit. The lady was like, bear to the left and head to the lot at the end of the street. Okay, no problem. I drove down the street and when I clearly was supposed to go right Jordan and Erica both said the woman had said to make a hard left. I took their advice and ended up in the bowels of Raven's Stadium. We could actually see the field and if I wasn't afraid of the going to jail, could have driven my Hybrid right onto it, done a quick touchdown dance, and headed out. It was a little crazy.

We did make it to the right parking lot and headed to the stadium, it was then then we saw it... The sea of white uniforms. The Mid Ship Persons from the Academy were going o be in attendance at the game, which was good, but there were taking up alot of space getting into the place,which was not. The fact that they had to march into the stadium, as opposed to walking, is a little crazy, but to each their own.

We took our flashy tickets to the "hidden" escalator and up to the suite level. It was very cool seeing all of the big company names that were on the little signs by the door. We were in the Comcast box, which was on the third base side, even with home plate. After some schmoozing with the Alumni people, it was time for the game. As he normally does Ichiro lead off with a hit. From there it was a pretty good game. Not the pitching duel that most expected, but entertaining. We did some hanging out with some of the other C-YA people, having at the free food and beer, and watching the out of town scoreboard to see the Phillies Win (YAY), We headed out. Here is a picture of Jordan and I dying in the heat.





Yeah... I am dying more than Jordan. We ended up staying in the Box for the most part after the fourth inning.

As for being the dope. I was scheduled to attend a training this morning. Well, actually I was going to observe others being trained. All was going well, I left on time to get downtown. Found the building with little problem, parked and then asked the desk where the training was... It was at campus.. IN OWINGS MILLS.... Dope

Leadership Update

I thought I would add to my list of ways Leadership is like Pornography. Here is the running list:

LEADERSHIP IS LIKE PORNOGRAPHY:

• Sometimes it blows up in your face
• Not alot of Asian men
• Constantly reusing household items
• Its better with two women
• There can be alot of give and take
• Everybody watches, but few actually participate
• Sometimes it is a pain in the ass (Geoff)
• You play lots of games with sticks and balls
• It can put you in sticky situations
• Sometimes it's messy and takes lots of clean-up (Geoff)
• Sometimes is Sucks (7/30)
• Sometimes it Blows (7/30)

Keep them coming people!!!

Leadership is like Pornogrphy

So I have not had a ton to write about recently, though I did, last night, check out a new place to live in Catonsville. So that will be the fourth place I have lived in the past yearish... which is a little bit crazy. But since I have not had all that much to talk about I thought I would tell a story of one of the funniest things I have ever heard.

When I was in school I was pretty involved with stuff, which allowed me to go to things like student leadership award ceremonies. The free food was great, but one singular moment made every golf claps for someone who I never heard of, win some meaningless award, worth it.

A certain Vice President at UMBC was giving a quick keynote to a group of the highest quality student leaders on campus. He introduced himself, said how proud he was about the individuals in the room and then started to talk about what a funny thing leadership is. To emphasize his point he said he was reminded of a supreme court opinion where the justice said that "He couldn't define it, but he knew it when he saw it". The VP followed this with the explanation that the Justice was talking about Pornography... "and LEADERSHIP IS LIKE PORNOGRAPHY, I know it when I see it"

WHAT ?!?

At this point every eye in the room scoured the faces of the others that heard this statement, looking for an idea of how to react to what was just said. The overall consensus was just sit and be stunned.

Fast forward to the next day and many of us had gotten over our initial shock over the statement of the year and moved onto ways to make fun of the most ridiculous thing most of us had heard in ... well.... forever. Our method was of course to determine all of the ways that leadership was like pornography. Here is a sample of what we had come up with

LEADERSHIP IS LIKE PORNOGRAPHY:

• Sometimes it blows up in your face
• Not alot of Asian men
• Constantly reusing household items
• Its better with two women
• There can be alot of give and take
• Everybody watches, but few actually participate

We had a list of about 30 of these, I wish I could find that list.

Leave comments if you can think of more.