Wedding Video

Blogger post successful...

So you all know how I like to check out new technology especially Internet start-ups, so I'm testing out a jott link from a service they use to called Jott where I can call in and record a jott and it will send the message either to a contact I have stored or to a link. The link I used for this was to call blogger which allowed me to record this blog and it transcribes the message entirely and post it to my blog account. Seems like a very interesting service. I'm looking forward to see if it works."


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Europe...really? Ok!

Many months ago my parents invited Katie and I to join them on their trip to Spain, in which the were going over Christmas to visit Kelsey. Katie tried to get the time off work but was unable to. I had no desire to leave my wife on our first Christmas so I opted out. End of story... or so I thought. December finally hits and it comes to my attention that my parents aren't actually going for Christmas, but rather on the 27th. Furthermore, Katie works 6 of the 9 days they are going. While I would have loved hanging out with Katie for an hour each day when she gets home from work before she sleeps, Europe was calling. My parents were gracious enough to let me use some of their frequent flier miles and next thing I knew I was along for the ride.

We didn't tell Kelsey I was coming (we hardly had time, I only found out 5 days ahead of time) and got to surprise her. It was great to see her new home in Madrid and her school, but particularly just to see her. It'd been 4 months since we'd seen each other, our longest to date.

Europe was great, but probably more than I feel like posting here. We did 2 days in Madrid, 3 in Rome (including New Year's), and 4 in Venice. Rome was great, so much to see that 3 days didn't do it justice. On the other hand while Venice was really cool, 4 days in a snowy/rainy Venice was plenty. I missed home (especially Katie) but it was a great trip. Most of all it got me really excited for the month Katie and I are planning this summer in Europe!

Happy New Year

As often occurs with the start of a new year I feel the desire to look back at the previous year and reflect.  It is almost overwhelming how many blessings God has given me in the past 12 months, certainly too many to list here.  Some of my favorites include:

• Marrying my best friend
• Finishing my first year at UCLA Anderson
• Getting to celebrate Brian and Jessica's wedding with them
• Honeymooning in Puerto Vallarta
• Interning at Highlands Consulting
• Traveling to Spain to visit Kelsey and spending New Year's with my family in Rome.

Obviously an abbreviated list, but they are the ones that most stand out right now.

I wish you all a wonderful 2008 filled with as much joy and I was blessed with in 2007.

UCLA Sports Weekend

I need to write a quick blog post before things go down hill. This is a big weekend for UCLA sports: the number 1 ranked Women's Soccer team plays the 3rd ranked University of Portland Friday in the quarter finals of the NCAA tournament, the football team plays USC Saturday for an outside shot at the Rose Bowl, and the number 1 ranked basketball team plays the 8th ranked Texas Longhorns on Sunday.

Last night Katie and I went to the Women's soccer game. The rain cleared just in time for kick-off and we enjoyed our Von's sandwiches and thermos of hot chocolate under the Drake Stadium lights. The team got off to a slow first half, falling behind 1-0 at the half. Luckily, the second half was all UCLA. Danesha Adams made a sick run where she took on the whole defense and scored. Another UCLA goal put them up one until Portland got a corner kick with 1:11 left in the game. We had a girl whiff a kick on the corner and Portland scored. We preceded to dominate the next two overtimes and score on a sweet corner kick in the 104th minute!

It was a great "double-overtime thriller" as my Dad would have called it. I figured I had to write this post now before things could go down hill. I have confidence that we'll hold our own against Texas on Sunday, I wish I could say the same for the game about to kick off.

Today's 'Training'

So this weekend I've enrolled in a valuation course called "Training The Street", taught by an ex-Wall Street investment banker that spans all weekend. It's been a great experience learning more about the process used in valuating a company either as a stand-alone entity or as part of a merger or acquisition. The material can be dry at times, but the instructor is pretty good so that helps. I particularly enjoy learning about where actual practice differs from academia's recommended approach and why.

On an unrelated note I'm learning more and more that I often let competition get the best of me. Traits that were virtues when I was an athlete are much more unattractive in a social setting and I have a hard time separating the two. I'll often get into a debate just to see if I can win, creating conflict rather than cohesion. Hopefully I can put myself in training to keep this competitiveness at bay when needed.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft just released a suite of applications that represent a broader range of their Windows Live strategy. Many of these programs attempt to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. The first of which I tried was the new Live Mail application which seems to be something in between Outlook and the Web 2.0 version of Hotmail. It actually seems pretty cool, but for now I'm a Gmail guy so I won't be using it much. The second program I tried is Window Live Writer. In fact, this post was composed on it. It appears to be Microsoft Word with stripped down features, but designed for your blog. One great feature is that it can import the format of your blog so that you can see what posts will look like. It's great so far, however most of this functionality is already in the new Office 2007, where you can choose in Word to create a new document or a new blog post. Either way its pretty cool. They also seem to have similar applications for photo uploads, instant messaging, a toolbar for your browser, and a new blog service called "Spaces". If you're interested in any of these things, or if you just want to reserve the email address sexycat69@live.com before John O'Neill can then head over to get.live.com.