Thanksgiving Scooter

My brother has had a 1976 Vespa scooter for several years while he's lived here in Boston. It's a 4 speed 125cc scooter. He has recently rebuild the engine thus improving its performance immensely. As winter approaches, the scooter utility will be greatly reduced by the less pleasant weather, thus it is important to properly prepare the scooter for winter storage... which requires burning the remaining fuel in the fuel tank.

With Thanksgiving breakfast behind us, many of the gathered went for a walk. Instead Dave and I got out the scooter and started buzzing around town.

We caught up with those who were on a walk, and enticed them to join us for scooter rides. In this picture is Dave and his sister-in-law about to head out for a spin.

My favorite part of the scooter, is getting to wear the motorcycle helmets. They make you look tough.

Improvised Family Thanksgiving Picture

Happy Thanksgiving! Even though the family was separated by 1,000 miles, we were still able to get together for a family picture. Thanksgiving day was full of great food! Breakfast was great, lunch was fantastic, and dinner was exceptional. One of the best days of delicious I have ever experienced!

Sloan Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner number 1... check.

Sloan hosted the first thanksgiving dinner of the year with their usual style and flare. We met at the usual location in Walker Memorial (host to many of the C-functions) to sit down to a fantastic dinner. As with most events significant others and families were welcome! Despite having to run off to a marketing meeting, the dinner was a great break from the usual monday routine!

Calculus vs Real People?

I stumbled across this sign on campus the other day. It can be found along a road in between the Sloan School of Management and the "rest of campus". Guess which arrow is pointing in which direction.

A little Hockey

I believe that I've been promising hockey pictures for quite some time now. I once again apologize for forgetting my camera at the last LGO game. Since that game, I have joined another team. I am now on two teams:

Team 1: LGO Team - D League, most of us have NEVER played before, think Mighty Ducks

Team 2: Sloan Chiefs - C League, most of us have played before (but not me)

Let's just say that tonight's game was much more competitive than the last game that I played. I had some trouble keeping up, but it was so much fun. I've been told that hockey is addicting... at this point I would agree.

Next Game on Wednesday! Watch yourself!

35-34

Wow. I left the bar in at which I was watching the game in disgust after Manning's interception in the 4th quarter. I was one of two (frustrated) Colts fans at the venue and I was fed up with the cheering and jeering around me. When I arrived home, I discovered that "the Colts do better when I'm not watching". Continuing this theme I stayed in my room for the rest of the game, only coming out to check the scores and watch the final 13 seconds of Colts/Patriots Glory.

Today is a great day to live in Boston. For the Patriot fans out there... I would like to personally thank you. I give this victory to your coach Bill Belichick.

The Back of Ben Affleck's Head

I went for a run today, like many other days, but instead of sticking to my routes along the Charles River, I decided to run through Harvard Square and some of Harvard. It's a good change of scenery.

As I ran through Harvard Square, there was an abnormally large crowd around the subway entrance. As I got closer, I noticed security, thinking they had shut down the station for security reasons, I approached slowly. I then immediately noticed a movie camera and asked the group next to me what was going on. Apparently Ben Affleck was there working on a new movie. I looked up and saw Ben Affleck!!! Ok, it wasn't that exciting because I saw the back of his head as he walked into a building. And even if I saw his face, it wouldn't have been much more exciting. I was honestly more interest in the ridiculously large movie camera and dolly system that they had set up in the square.

Regardless, it was a unexpected fun twist to what I thought would be a typical run.

Colts Pictures

In my excitement for tonight's game and attempted avoidance of writing my term paper, I've decided to post some pictures from Colt's past! When I lived in Indianapolis, my dad and I had a great system. We each could get tickets from work for various sporting events including Colt's game. Tickets would typically be awarded two at a time. When I got tickets, I would take him. When he got tickets, he would take me. We both got to go to the games twice as often! It was a great system.

Here we (Dad and me) are at the opening day for the new Lucas Oil Stadium surrounded by the Colts Band:

Here is the first time the roof opened for the public:

And the corresponding window... apparently the 2nd largest window in the world:

And the GREATEST football halftime show - Little League vs Mascots!!! I believe this is St. Malachy of Brownsburg, Indiana's little league team. There something about 4 kids swarm tackling a guy in a taco suit that I find hilarious.

And here is the view from the Klipsch Suite:

If you look through the giant window, from my seat you can see part of the downtown skyline.

Big Game

Colts vs. Patriots. Sunday Night Football. 8:30 pm.

I'm a Colts fan living in Patriots Country. The displays of Patriot Pride whether it is through posters at bars, local TV promotions and new, or logo-ed clothing on the "locals" frequently make me feel quite ill. All I can hope and pray for is that in 24 hours, I have a huge grin on my face and a win on the record books.

Half Way Round the World

The internet amazes me sometimes. I typically have a strong appreciation for it, and then occasionally that appreciation flares up even more. Tonight's one of those flares and I apologize in advance.

I've grown up with the internet. I remember in 5th grade when I went to my first website on my dad's work computer. I thought... wow, is that it? It was just a product page for Nike or something of the like. Nothing to exciting or fun... maybe a little overrated. Then as I grew older, I found more and more uses such as email and the Dr. Pepper homepage (I love Dr. Pepper) and I appreciated it more. I found instant messenger where I used to spend hours talking to friends after hanging out with them all evening on a friday or saturday night.

With high school came high speed internet and it really started to take off. I could do research for classwork, download music, and websites became more interactive. Then I went to college. Much of my classwork required the internet and at this point and I sat back in amazement thinking how this used to be done with paper. I then got a laptop and was introduced to the world of wireless. Wow... what freedom!

Now, here I am back in college. I can sit here with my cell phone where I use the wifi connection to check emails and surf the internet without pulling out a computer (no, I don't have an iphone but I hear that those work too).

Tonight I had one of those experiences that made me sit back in amazement. It's 1:37am in Boston and I "ran into" my previous-coworkers/friends online. We started up a gmail chat and flipped on the cameras for a video call... and suddenly I was swept away into a room I knew so well. The room happen to be a conference room at a contract manufacturer located in Xiamen, China. I had spent many hours in that room working on several projects for Klipsch during my time there. There on the screen was the familiar room with 5 friendly faces to greet me... Tom, Mark, Don, Bin, and Jerry - the team that I used to work with. They were half way around the work, some 8000 miles away and 12 hours ahead (roughly 1:30pm their time) yet it felt like we were in the same room. It was great to see them and hear about their latest adventures in China! Oh the internet!!!!

I guess I have time for one more story.... my Grandma on my mom's side, who lives in Indiana, has recently adopted the internet into her home (Hi Grandma!!!). She was a little reluctant at first, but with some coaxing and the help of my other Grandma who has been online for a while, she "gave in" and she loves it! It's nice to be able to communicate with her via email and show her the great things that the internet can offer. But the awe of the internet comes from how I can teach her how to work her computer in Indiana from here in Boston. I can log into her computer and take control of it from any internet connection (www.logmein.com, its great if you haven't tried it). With a simple phone call, I can then talk her through what I'm trying to show her. It's like we're in the same room! When she needs help or if the computer is acting funny, she lets me know, I log in and fix it. It's great! Once again... oh the internet!!!!

Latin Si Function

Not much time before class so here's a quick post from the Latin Si Function last weekend.

We walked into Walker Memorial to see these great decorations! We then enjoyed many different latin foods and drinks before the entertainment began.

Here's Joe completely off the mark when swinging for the Pinata. His swing got uncomfortably close to the video projectors.

Latin dancing!

Mexican dancing!

And my favorite... the REGEATONE Dancers!

MIT Energy Conference

The MIT Energy Conference is schedule for March 5th and 6th 2009. This year's focus is Opportunities, Pathways, and Solutions. It will be a two day event with energy related events such as panels, key note speakers, and workshops.

At this point, I am working on the Marketing Committee in the online marketing subcommittee to help organize the event. Check out the website and if you are interested in joining us you can get your ticket on January 10th.

Fall Ball

The Sloan Fall Ball 2009 was on Friday in downtown Boston. Every got dressed up for an evening of dinner, dancing, and friends. Basically, prom for MBA's. While this sounds fun by itself, add the incredible venue and you have an almost perfect evening.

We were on the 33rd floor of the 60 State Street building, in a two story ballroom looking out over the city! You can see the Marriott Clocktower in the view out the window. This building has also been feature in my North End Blog and when my cousin came to town. However this time, instead up looking up at it, we were looking down!!!

The dance floor was busy and beautiful all night

With a gorgeous view in the background.

First Hockey

Epic fail on my part. I forgot to take my camera to the first LGO Hockey Game of the season. Although, in retrospect, I'm not sure that a camera was really necessary. For anyone who ever saw the movie "The Mighty Ducks", you can imagine exactly what we looked like. Out of 20 people on the team, approximately 2 had played ice hockey before, 1/4 have experience in roller hockey, and about half had ice skated before.

Our line changes were confusing. Our puck handling skills did not exist. While chasing a puck I fell down and slid into the goal (picture that scene in the Mighty Ducks... that was me). The other team had more points than we did shots on goal. Needless to say, we were not good... but we had a ton of fun and can't wait to get destroyed by our opponents again.

BRING IT!

Halloween Picture

Here's a picture of me with Manuel on Halloween. I'm not sure who is scarier.

Culmination

Tonight is the culmination of excitement before the first LGO '11 hockey game tomorrow. Jerseys are in, nick names have been awarded, rules have been explained to those of us new to the sport, and on ice ice-skating practice has occurred. The only thing left to complete is the email war within the team.

I am convinced that anytime there is a distribution where the people involved know each other fairly well, and someone can hit "reply all" with a pertinent joke... it happens. I'm definitely not complaining about this, and in fact, I endorse the email inbox propagation. I'm have noticed that this happened in undergrad, at work, between friends, and now within our LGO class and hockey. There seems to be almost no boundaries... which is great. I'll share with you the latest attachment that I received:

Watch out MIT Hockey players! It's gonna be a throw down tomorrow night!

Halloween pictures to come... I'm still looking for the perfect picture!