Pit stop at the Days Inn

It's 4am eastern standard time and I finally got sick of Adri's bitching and moaning so we stopped. I had at least another hour or more of driving but she's been complaining for at least 3 hours. I tried to trick her by changing the clocks in the car while she slept but she caught on. doh!

We covered about 550 miles in just under 8 hours; we were making great time! Many thanks to Keith and Jessie for letting us borrow their cooler and a high five to Michelle for letting us borrow her Garmin GPS thingy. Between these two essential travel items, it's made our trip enjoyable and on-track so far.

I'm still wired from the stress of driving so I'm taking advantage of the free wi-fi while I can. We will get about 5.5 hours of sleep and then head back on the road. Only another 150 miles or so to the in-laws.

Oh ya, for those uninformed about this road trip, we have embarked on a roadtrip that will span at least nine states and cover almost 2500 miles over the next 12 days. We will begin with xmas at the in-laws, then visit friends in Northern Virginia, Richmond and a business meeting in VA Beach, then to my Mom's in Greenville, NC, a quick stop in Raleigh at Phil's on our way to Charlotte to spend New Years Eve with Charlie and Ash-uh-lee, before we travel all the way back to Chicago.

To Mohawk or Not

I'm trying to kill about 20 minutes until I have to leave to start my afternoon errands; haircut, pickup dry cleaning, meet Ryan about some cold calling stuff for Liberty, go to my office to meet Terrence and a client, etc, etc. And I was thinking about doing a mohawk. Just a raw, buzzed up, hacked up and spikey mohawk. Nothing says "trust me to do your taxes" like a mohawk, right?

Well, here is my logic: I don't want to do tax returns. I want to do the market development activities; co-op advertising, joint marketing programs, charitable fundraising, press releases, interviews, media planning, waver training, B2B marketing and door knocking. Having the mohawk will certainly preclude me from staying in the office because I don't want to scare customers away... and if I am out in the field, dressed as lady liberty or uncle same, will anyone care that I have a mohawk? Probably not...

To mohawk or not
Crazy, Spikey. Liberty.
Taxes can be fun.

Startup Indiana - Rural Entrepreneurship Conference

Last week I was in Indiana for 3 days for Diabco work. On Wednesday, December 12th, we attended the first annual Startup Indiana conference at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. To start, we arrived nearly 2 hours before the welcome event began so that was a bummer - especially considering we drove an hour to get there. We listened to exciting advancements in the Indiana economy and bla, bla, bla. I wrote two haikus during the most boring parts:

Headwind of change
Bank and turn the ship around
Sail forward. Tailwind.

Rural business
Investing with confidence
Come quickly. Join us.

The interesting parts were when the entrepreneur experts shared their stories with the group. Wow! I have never seen so much passion among the members. The guy from Triton Energy was spitting with enthusiasm as he stormed around the room throwing out vials of biodiesel and the CEO of Lone Pine Farms choked back tears when he showed a slideshow of his father and four generations of his family working on their farm. Our presentation was professional and insightful but lacked the passion of these folks. Maybe it's because we still haven't achieved the success.

One thing I was reassured about is that many of these folks have been down and out, and plugging away for years, before they caught a break. Our little venture has endured a couple angel investor rounds and many setbacks but we keep on kicking. I keep telling myself that no story ever makes Entrepreneur magazine that wasn't "almost" a failure.

Our one-on-one pitch with the angel investor panel went well and we should hear something soon. Crossing our fingers as we head into the holiday season... wishing for a break!

Recent Haiku Revelations

I've mentioned the book Crypto-Nomicon in previous posts and this epic novel of 1100 pages is a monster. In fact, it's fascinating. One of the main characters injects random haiku poetry throughout the novel. Considering this and a recent inspiration, I've decided to apply myself to the art of counting syllables. A traditional haiku is three lines and is constructed of 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second and 5 on the third.

The following is a series of haikus about my visit to Pittsburgh:

Tunnel thru mountain
Front door of city opens
three rivers converge.

Little big city
The former steel capital
Now title Pittsburgh

Walk briskly downtown
Before the bridge, on the left
Dance without blushing.

Go out of the Gateway
Around the hilton downtown
And pass the Highmark.

Lunch at Max Erma
Fun times had in Station Square,
Tiki and Fatheads.

Old Skool Ghetto

I was in Pittsburgh last weekend to visit my oldest college buddy Brent. We met freshman year in the dorms, lived together in various places with a number of different roommates over the course of 6 years and became best friends. We reminisced about old stories, ridiculous acts we barely survived and the touching moments that forged the bond of our friendship. It was awesome!

In the spirit of sharing old memories, Brent managed to find these old photos of us, from our freshman year in the dorms. These are from the Fall of 1998. Get ready to laugh!

Yeahhh, that's definitely Olde English 40oz's of beer and thug hats! The next one is even better...

This was our freshman year crew from the O'Shaughnessy (a.k.a. O'shag) dormitory at the Virginia Tech campus. And yes, I am wearing a sweater vest. Wow!

Life at a Crossroads

Ever heard the saying about coming to a fork in the road? Taking the road less traveled or being stuck at a crossroads? Imagine being stuck in a spot with about a dozen different roads. That's just about where I am right now. So many choices, too little information and gut feelings I can't figure out how to read. The map blew out the window a few miles (years) back and the windows are blacked out, covered in snow and I'm blindfolded.... and driving about 90mph.

Yeah, it's something like that.

Back to the Grind

For many people, yesterday marked the return to work after a long weekend, or maybe even a full week of holiday vacation. Today was our torturous trip back to reality. It began at 5am EST... and we finally arrived in Chicago around noon CST. I drove Adri straight to work and came home to prepare for my next trip which will begin tomorrow at 4:30am CST. I absolutely must be on the road by 5:30am tomorrow to reach my destination on time.

Welcome back to the real world! /me trout slaps myself. This saying may be a little old, or a little too techie for some of you, but wow did that just bring me back to my old irc days.

Anywho, the blogging will resume. I've got a few funny stories and some interesting things I've learned and explored over the past week on Cape Cod that I'm eager to share... when my eyelids aren't drooping so low you question my ethnicity.

Winning Streak!

Well boys, today marks my second fantasy football win in a row! I think two wins constitutes a streak, right? It sure beats my 7 week LOSING streak! In a league of twenty guys, I've been constantly getting pounded by the seasoned fantasy players in this intense league. Going in to this week my record was 2-8, the worst in the league. Now, with my second win a row under my belt, my record improves to 3-8 - tied with four other teams for the leagues worst records!

Nobody on my team had a particularly stand-out day today but everyone decided to show up for work and put in a solid shift today. The real disappointment of the year has been Laurence Maroney. For the entire season, he is my second WORST scoring player. With all the hype around him I hang on to him and play him every week waiting for the break-out performance... but it never comes!

And why should it? With Tom Brady and the New England passing game, they can continue adding wins week in and week out without Maroney! Randy Moss is a beast and Brady is not afraid to throw to everyone. I just might get the courage to drop Maroney from my starting lineup next week as I go for my third win a row.

My playoff hopes are a long shot but I can definitely be a fun "spoiler" for all the wanks that take this league too darn seriously!

Motorola Q

How many people have cellphones that can take pictures, video, browse the internet, bluetooth, infrared, beam contacts and do a thousand other features they will never use?

I've had a pda phone for over a year now and only in the last month have I begun the realize how much easier this little sucker can make my life. It had so many features that it overwhelmed me.... so I did nothing with the mini-computer except make calls. Well, occasionally I would snap a picture message and I love to text message.

A recent problem I had was the growing discrepancy between my calendar reminders in my phone and on my computer. I'm slowly stepping away from the paper lists and piles of sticky notes (I said slowly!) and beginning to rely more on my devices for scheduling my days. The problem was that I could be on the road and set a reminder or appointment into my phone or I'd be at my computer and copy/paste an event into my outlook and neither device was synced with the other.

I set out on the daunting task to install the Motorola Q software on my laptop and it was surprisingly easy. Then I thought that this software must be cumbersome and annoying to navigate... or at least hog my memory (RAM). And again I was surprised; the software was super easy to use, doesn't require a lot of resources and automatically detects when I plug my device into the computer.

A simple connection via usb, the phone syncs my contacts and calendar in about 30 seconds, does a cute little beep and I'm done. Voila! It's that simple to synchronize my life... I mean, my devices.

I had been holding out for an over the air syncing solution but for now, the manual syncing for contacts and calendar is OK. I won't even begin to mess with email until I can get over the air syncing. The possibilities for uber-cool scheduling over the air is nice for when I have a secretary, but for now, I'm glad I finally decided to install the software. It only took a year... who knows what I might discover about this device in the next year before my contract is up!

Lesson: maybe you should make it a goal this week to try one new feature on your over-featured phone and post the results of your attempt right here!

Marriage Is About Compromises - right?

Adri and I made a deal last week. Each night this week we will each take turns reading something the other really has no interest in. Well, it's a little deeper than that but here's the scoup. I've agreed to read a chapter in His Needs, Her Needs by Willard Harley for every chapter she reads in Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

I think it's a fair compromise because it gives her an insight to my financial thinking - retirement, family planning, asset building, etc, and it gives me an opportunity to get an insight into the crazy mind of a woman through an unbiased third party. Really, it's a win-win for me; I can understand how to enhance our relationship and Adri can share in my financial plans for our family.

Random Bookmarks

As an avid reader, I find myself rarely using the same bookmark more than once. What's interesting, or strange, about this is the choices for my bookmarks. I typically just grab any random piece of paper within reach and stick it in the book and it stays until I'm done with it.

My current bookmark is a movie ticket from "We Own The Night" that happened to be on my nightstand when I needed to mark my spot. Other recent bookmarks include business cards, candy wrapper (Now and Later... mmm), sticky note, dollar bill and an express gift card.

Do you have a standard bookmark or do you use whatever is close by like me?

Partial Book Review - Crypto-Nomicon

My friend Jesse is a pretty smart guy. He's always reading these big titled books and whatnot so I figured that if I read a couple of the same books as him that maybe I could learn a thing or two... or at the very least have something else to talk with him about. Upon his suggestion, I've read End of Faith by Sam Harris and Ice Hunt by James Rollins.

The End of Faith is a nonfiction piece that attempts to dismantle the sanctity of religious faith and explains the roots of some of our worldly conflict (Israel-Palestinian, Shiite-Sunni, Muslim-therestoftheworld, etc). It's deep and the bibliography is almost as long as the actual text of the book. James Rollins is a fantastic fiction writer and a new favorite of mine. Brain-candy as I like to call it - easy, quick reads with suspense and no real factual basis.

This leads me to my next book, an epic of 1100+ pages titled Crypto-Nomicon by Neal Stephenson. I'm only a hundred something pages into it and I ran across a quote today that got me thinking. It's about the super smart main character, Lawrence Waterhouse, who is a genius cryptographer (Page 90):

"At about the same time, Waterhouse has made a realization about himself. He has found that he works best when he is not horny, which is to say in the day or so following ejaculation. So as a part of his duty to the United States he has begun to spend a lot of time in whorehouses."

This got me thinking - is there a real correlation between the cycles of when you are horny and your measurable productivity? I've never thought about it before but I think I'm going to conduct a self-study about the relationship between my relative level of horniness and my productivity - or at least my drive for productivity.

I tried to find some legitimate research online to support either position of this suggestion but the only thing I found were a bunch of porn sites. I guess it's up to me to develop this theory in more detail!

Blondes and Automobiles

The following is a transcription from a real live conversation that took place today, November 8, 2007 at approximately 2:13pm:

ME: Hello?
Adri: hey dave, I think I'm locked in my car...
ME: Huh?
Adri: I just had the battery replaced at autozone
ME: OK...
Adri: and I drove the car back to work, parked in the parking garage and now I can't get out
ME: Are you serious? Quit messing around
Adri: I really can't get out... what should I do?
ME: stick the key in, start the car, use the keyless entry button, roll down the window
Adri: nothing works
ME: put the car in ACC mode, does anything come on?
Adri: No. and I have to pee!
ME: call the autozone guy and tell him what's wrong... [me thinks: there's no way I'm driving all the way up there]
Adri: Will you google the number? oh wait, I have it on the receipt.
Adri: Dave, I really have to pee and I'm starting to freak out...
ME: I can't believe you are locked in your car. I guess the battery came loose and the alarm is triggered or something
Adri: I just called my boss and told him I'm stuck in the car and he's like "you're locked out?" and I had to tell him that I was LOCKED IN!
ME: did he believe you?
Adri: He said he would send a search party if he didn't hear from me in 20 minutes.
ME: Haha, it won't be hard to find you if you are actually locked IN your car!
Adri: OK, let me call autozone, I'll call you back.
ME: Good luck!

[approximately 25 minutes pass]

ME: hello?
Adri: I'm so embarrassed!!
ME: What happened?
Adri: The autozone guy drove out here, knocked on the window and told me to unlock the window. I pushed all the buttons, banged the steering wheel and threw up my arms...
ME: ok...
Adri: He told me to manually move the unlock lever and not push the electronic button. I did and the car opened.
ME: HAHHAahhaHAHhahahHAhaaaahHAHHA... so you spent 25 minutes, locked inside your car in the parking lot of your work? hahahahaaaa!!!

I Am A Pepper Freak

I LOVE peppers. I love hot peppers, cherry peppers, crushed peppers, pepperoncini, pepperoni, mild peppers, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, chili peppers, bell peppers, sweet italian peppers, stuffed peppers, habanero peppers...

I think you get the idea. I LOVE peppers. I have peppers in every sandwich I ever eat from Subway, Jimmy Johns, a deli or wherever; I put peppers, hot pepper sauce or a pepper derivative on almost every meal I have. And, I often eat peppers just for a snack.

In fact, I stopped having Adrienne buy me the little jars of peppers at the grocery store because I am buying the HUGE restaurant size jugs of peppers from Sam's Club. This is my quirk; hear me roar... I AM A PEPPER FREAK!

This picture is exactly what I have in my refrigerator. Even though it says 1 gallon, it dwarfs my milk container.

Summer Semester 2007 Dean's List Letter

Dear David,

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is known as one of the most important leaders of our great country. Many would consider his life a legacy of success; however, this could not be further from the truth. According to several historical records, between 1831 and 1859, Lincoln lost 5 political bids and suffered a complete nervous breakdown. In 1860, after many failed attempts, he won the bid president of the United States. President Lincoln once said "If you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first four sharpening the axe". Through your continue academic growth and excellence, you've been preparing the way for your future ambitions, hence... sharpening your ax. Your superior academic achievement during the Summer 2007 semester proves that this is true.

Because of your dedication to your future and to your academic studies, we at DeVry University feel that you deserve to be recognized for your accomplishments. We know that achieving a term GPA of 3.5 or higher is not an easy task. This distinction makes you an academic leader among your classmates, so we are proud to recognize you on the DeVry University Dean's List. Congratulations! We hope that you continue to be successful throughout your academic and business career.

Sincerely,

Judy Kristin
Dean of Academic Affairs

Turkey Day Countdown

I'm so stoked to be in Massachusetts for an entire week this Thanksgiving. It will be the longest stretch on Cape Cod since I was in high school, almost 10 years ago. Speaking of which, we will be having our 10 year (9.5) year reunion the friday after Thanksgiving. Sandwich High School class of 1998 and 1997 will be having a joint reunion. Oh, and Adri's birthday is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, too. Fun times will be had!

T-minus 13 days, 20 hours until I land in Providence.

Halloween Grinch

I am officially the jerk of Halloween. I did not expect to be home during Trick or Treating hours so we didn't even get any candy. As it turns out, I ended up at the house. If it was anything like last year, we might get one doorbell ring. This year it was four doorbell rings but I didn't answer any of them because I didn't have any candy for the kids! I felt like such a jerk. I thought for a minute that maybe I could run out and get some candy but by the time I would get back it would probably be over. Then I thought, maybe I could trick the kids instead of treat them... open the door with a chainsaw or something and scare the crap out of them. As much fun as that sounded, kids these days wouldn't appreciate the horror humor of 'trick'.

Anyway, I guess that makes me the grinch of Halloween.

Domain Swap

You may have noticed that the blog now loads on www.davidrocci.com instead of davidrocci.blogspot.com - Blogger has a function to allow custom domain name usage at no additional cost and still allows you to utilize their tools. I hope this is the beginning to building up my custom site... a goal I've procrastinated for a long time. I have a lot of plans for expanding this domain; I'm looking into a new design, integrating some real estate MLS/IDX searching as well as some other fun stuff.

Great Time to be a Massachusetts Sports Fan

Moving from state to state has it's benefits. You shed the less desirable memories and retain the best. You share stories of triumph and leave behind the blemishes. This is one of the few benefits of frequent moving.

But, lately, it's been a chest puffing, pride enfusing moment to acknowledge my New England roots as a Massachusetts native. Our sports teams are kicking ass and taking names. The Red Sox just sweeped the Colorado Rockies in a World Series that was shockingly abrupt. After 80+ years with no world series title, the Boston Red Sox now hold two World Series Championship Titles in the last four years. Wow!

The New England Patriots (Foxboro, MA) are stomping on asses every week. Last week they destroyed the Miami Dolphins and this week they annihlated the Redskins (sorry Brent). Even the Boston Bruins kicked the crap out of the Chicago Blackhawks... and landed a few cheapshots while they were at it.

I doubt this series of goodwill towards New England sports will continue with the Boston Celtics but who knows... maybe they will have a break-out season, too.

All in all, I'm proud to originate from Massachusetts - even from my cushy suburban hometown of Sandwich. When it comes to game day, we are all from the same home state and we all cheer together!

Late Night Mutterings

desperation in my glance;
hoping for acknowledgement;
feel the pain from my stare.
prescribe an antidote.
long for the connection;
to cure the pain.
confused by emotions,
frazzled by feelings;
come take it all away.
free my soul from agony;
i cant stand the pain.
you think you know me,
but all you want is selfish.
understanding me;
is part of us,
but the disconnect is too far,
too far to bridge the gap.
love and compassion,
is about giving it freely.
sharing in pleasures,
and the sufferings.
i wish you could see,
the suffering.

Confessions from Sunset Ridge MX

This past weekend was fun... well, mostly fun. I spent saturday traveling with my supportive wife to the middle of nowhere, Illinois - a little town called Walnut. Actually, Walnut is so small, the closest hotel was 17 miles away in Princeton... which is still about 2 hours west of our suburban locale. The track is called Sunset Ridge MX and they were only track within driving distance that still had any races left for this season.

We made it out there around noon so I could sample the track I would be racing on Sunday. I explored in my first 3 laps, then got another good 5 under my belt. In my last set of timed practice, I was pushing my 6th lap in an effort to increase my stamina for the upcoming race. I let off the throttle just a dab too much over a huge double. I cased (landed too short) and endoed (nose first) the landing and went flying off the bike. Another head crash, smashed up elbow and such a deep tissue bruise on my hip/thigh that the bruise is only just now starting to surface. Damn that hurt, maybe I should stop pushing so hard?

After two ibuprofen, as many beers and some pizza, the pain wasn't so bad. But the truth is, I was already questioning if I should race on Sunday. As anyone that plays sports will attest, confidence, or lack thereof, will make or break your performance. And so went a weekend race down the tubes.

I woke at 6am on Sunday, wondering if the Red Sox pulled off another win against the Rockies and wincing in pain as I rolled to get up. I almost tripped over my dirtbike on the way to the bathroom and wondered if I would make it through the day. Oh yea, I brought the suzuki into the hotel room so nobody would steal it off my trailer. :) Thanks to the unsuspecting foreigner at the Econo-Lodge (classy joint) for allowing me to bring it in. I'm pretty sure he thought I meant a pedal bike.

ME: I called and asked for a ground floor room with exterior access.
GUY: We have ground floor. No exterior access.
ME: I can't leave my bike on the trailer. Can I bring it in?
GUY: OK sir... I guess. Please pay for room now.
ME: Great, I'll go wheel it in now.



C class started practice at 8:30am and we were the first class on the track. It's freezing cold, the track is freshly groomed, wet and deep loamy dirt; nothing like the actual track conditions during a race. Not only was it a waste of three freezing cold, mud splattered, partly visible and torturous laps, I slid out on the final turn before the finish line, flopped over the handle bars and knocked the wind out of myself.

Can you remember the last time the wind was knocked out of you? It felt like a 300 pound gorilla sucker punched me in the gut. I gasped for air and wondered if it would reach my lungs before I blacked out. I crawled off the track, moaning a deep, guttural groan as I tried to avoid getting hit by any bikes behind me. Panic swallowed me as I ripped off my goggles and helmet and struggled for breath. It was almost as painful and challenging to exhale as it was to inhale. I could hear people talking to me but couldn't make out the sounds. I was sure my groans were freaking people out. It seemed like forever passed but I finally caught my breath. Phew... maybe I should call it quits already?

I was in the first practice class that started at 8:30am but I didn't have my first race until another 1.5 hours of practice and 13 other races ahead of me. The ibuprofen was still working, the pain seemed manageable and it was showtime. I wandered to the starting gate to wait my turn to be called. Begin butterfly swarming.

The gate finally drops and I'm off to a decent start. The track is beat up with lots of deep ruts but at least it is dry. I make the second turn and my mouth feels completely parched. Not just thirsty but actually parched; lips feel ready to crack and breathing seems to scrape through my mouth and into my lungs. My quads are burning over the first set of whoops and I'm only on the first damn lap. Halfway through I feel completely exhausted. Yesterday I was pushing 6 laps and today I feel whipped and I haven't completed one.

Then, it gets even better. On the final lap after I've completely given up hope of actually competing in this moto and just trying to finish, I get caught with my front tire in one rut and my rear in another and pancake down to the ground AGAIN. I angrily pick myself back up to finish 8th out of 13.

The pain and exhaustion compounded to a point I'm ashamed to admit. The fear, anxiety and lack of confidence combined for a terrible performance and at least another week worth of nursing injuries. Maybe I started racing too soon... maybe I just need more practice... I thought I had conquered some milestones with motocross racing but this last weekend chopped me down a couple notches.

New Nutraceutical Supplement Provides Simplified Approach to Diabetes Management Programs

Diabco Life Sciences, the company I work for is in the news again. Check out this story for additional information about Type 2 Diabetes Diets, treatments, information and natural insulin resistance. Diabatrol offers a simple, natural and supplemental approach to diabetes management and diabetes treatment.

From the PRNewsWire article:

The new product Diabatrol, a performance-proven nutraceutical supplement produced by Diabco Life Sciences in Carmel, Indiana, works by helping to reduce oxidative stress and insulin resistance, two key concerns for Type II diabetics and pre-diabetics. Not a prescription pharmaceutical, Diabatrol is a nutritionally balanced, gluten-free, low glycemic, hypoallergenic neutraceutical that contains more than 80 antioxidants from whole grain derivatives. Consuming Diabatrol is a simple act of opening a small pouch containing the water soluble product, mixing it with a favorite beverage, and consuming it twice a day.

The desired result for patients ismore balanced overall nutrition and a convenient, simplified approach tomanaging a blood glucose metabolism and helping reduce the complications associated with the daily routines of diabetes management. A typical diabetes patient often takes several medications each day, including two or three different pills to control blood sugar levels, one or two to lower cholesterol, two or more to reduce blood pressure and a daily aspirin to prevent blood clots.

http://www.healthydiabetic.com

Sandwich High School 9.5-year Reunion

It looks like I'm officially getting old. I thought I had at least another 8-10 months until our 10 year reunion since it's not officially 10 years until June 2008! But, the powers that be have decided to combine the class of 97 and the class of 98 into one big happy reunion. And, they will be holding it on Friday, November 23rd.

I feel bad for all those people that planned weight loss or gym trips or artificial enhancements to 'wow' their former classmaters because the timing of the announcement is pretty short-sighted... and leaves a very narrow window for body image improvements. Of course, not everyone is concerned about body image but I'd be willing to bet $1000 that every single female in the class of 97 and 98 from Sandwich High School had a passing thought about what can be accomplished in the next 41 days.

Where: Aqua Grille, 14 Gallo Road, Sandwich, MA 02563
When: November 23, 7PM-12AM
How much: $30 per ticket in advance (purchased by November 15) or $35 at the door
Ticket includes light appetizers and drink ticketsTickets can be purchase online at Sandwich High School reunion.

I'm looking forward to the event. I hope the notice wasn't too short for old friends to make accommodations to make it.

Davey Does Dallas

I was trying to think of something funny for the subject that had a ring with Texas or Dallas and here is my thought process: debbie does dallas...oh! davey does dallas... wait a sec, isn't that a title of a porn movie? hmmm, and davey does dallas sounds like gay porn. Maybe I should change the title... ?

One of my best buds, Jesse, has a place just outside of Dallas where he recently began working as a Quantitative Analytics Manager for some fancy pants financial institution. He travels frequently from our home town (suburbs of Boston) to Dallas and we finally decided to connect in Texas since I've never been to the state coined with the phrase, “Everything is Big in Texas.”

I cashed in a voucher from American Airlines and flew for free - my favorite price. The visit was generally fun and catching up and re-telling stories we've each told each other a dozen times is still amusing. In our cultural exploration of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area we discovered some truisms about the Dallas Cowboys - they ought to be called the Dallas Cougars... for their agility, prowess and cunning. These 'cougars' are ogled and admired even as the franchise begins to age; crowds cheered and sang jubilantly as they scored. Even considering this AA-game performance, the Patriots are better!

...it was almost as fun as watching the alma mater play college football… or the Minnesota Twins in St. Paul/Minneapolis.

Not to mention the fact that our New England Patriots rocked the crap out of Miami and the Boston Red Sox won the American League division to secure another trip to the World Series. It’s been a fantastic season to proudly lay claim to our Massachusetts roots – we have a lot to be proud of.

All in all, it was a perfect guy’s weekend of beer and sports and reconnecting with a great old friend. I look forward to visiting again soon.

Motorola Q

How many people have cellphones that can take pictures, video, browse the internet, bluetooth, infrared, beam contacts and do a thousand other features they will never use?

I've had a pda phone for over a year now and only in the last month have I begun the realize how much easier this little sucker can make my life. It had so many features that it overwhelmed my to inaction.... so I did nothing with the mini-computer except make calls. Well, occasionally I would snap a picture message and I love to text message.

A recent problem I had was the growing discrepancy between my calendar reminders in my phone and on my computer. I'm slowly stepping away from the paper lists and piles of sticky notes (I said slowly!) and beginning to rely more on my devices for scheduling my days. The problem was that I could be on the road and set a reminder or appointment into my phone or I'd be at my computer and copy/paste an event into my outlook and neither device was synced with the other.

I set out on the daunting task to install the Motorola Q software on my laptop and it was surprisingly easy. Then I thought that this software must be cumbersome and annoying to navigate... or at least hog my memory (RAM). And again I was surprised; the software was super easy to use, doesn't require a lot of resources and automatically detects when I plug my device into the computer.

A simple connection via usb, the phone syncs my contacts and calendar in about 30 seconds, does a cute little beep and I'm done. Voila! It's that simple to synchronize my life... I mean, my devices.

I had been holding out for an over the air syncing solution but for now, the manual syncing for contacts and calendar is OK. I won't even begin to mess with email until I can get over the air syncing. The possibilities for uber-cool scheduling over the air is nice for when I have a secretary but for now, I'm glad I finally decided to install the software. It only took a year... who knows what I might discover about this device in the next year before my contract is up!

Lesson: maybe you should make it a goal this week to try one new feature on your over-featured phone! Feel free to post your results as a comment to this blog.

First Motocross Podium Finish

As mentioned earlier in the week, I placed 3rd in the last race of the year at JolietMX. I'm extremely proud of how much I've learned in the past 13 months of riding and this plaque represents many hard crashes and overcoming a lot of fear.

New Race Results

My first race experience a couple weeks ago was not so successful, however, this past Sunday I mustered up the courage to race again and took home a 3rd Place Plaque! This race consisted of two motos which were reduced from five laps down to four because of the number of riders at the track and the time constraints of allowing every class to race.

I raced in the 250-C class again and I'm very happy I stepped up to challenge myself in this class. There were 9 riders again and I took home 3rd overall. I managed to stay on the bike and not crash at all. I've eased up on the wholeshot (this is when all the bikes line up at the gate and everyone races to the first corner after the gate drops) and aimed to keep a steady pace in lieu of burning out after two laps.

I almost thought I would not be able to participate in the last race of the season because I crashed really hard in practice after the last race and bent the bolts on the bar clamps that hold the handlebars onto the bike. After two hard crashes and three days trying to get the bike fixed, the guys over at DGY finally helped me get it repaired on Friday afternoon.

Adri got some great footage of me passing a guy in mid-air over a huge stadium jump. I passed another guy through the whoops because I finally learned how to double them instead of dinking over them one by one. The video footage is on our digital video camera. Thanks to Tom we finally have a firewire cable to hook it up to the computer but the only computer with the firewire port has 250MB of RAM and video editing is not such a great idea on that computer.

I will post a pic of the plaque soon and hopefully upgrade the RAM in our PC with the firewire connection to get some video action going on.

World's Longest Paint Job

We started painting our two-story foyer and the wall leading up the stairs and into the loft back in May. Needless to say, getting paint up to the peaks of the two-story foyer is pretty difficult so we stopped painting. We intended to get some scaffolding or hire someone to finish the paint job.

After the second coat of paint in the areas I could reach I noticed the colors were drying in two different shades of 'Country Club'. I gave it a couple more days thinking it may still be wet but the color differences were still obvious. I checked the codes of paint mixtures on the top of the cans and everything matches. A few more days go by and I still cannot figure it out... finally, I realize the bright chap at Home Depot mixed one of the four gallons of paint with the wrong base!

So now the whole painting attempt has officially turned into a fiasco. Two colors, half-painted up to the ceiling... what a mess! This lead us to a terrific solution: ignore it for almost 5 full months. When people came over we laughed and joked and everyone got used to the two-tone color and only half the foyer being painted. We got a few quotes to paint but there is no way we were paying $1000+ to have a couple walls paint.

This last weekend we finally picked up the paint brushes, rollers and this time we armed ourselves with a ladder (thank you Andy and Panita)! For anyone who cannot appreciate the height of a two story foyer, check out the picture attached to this post. I'm 6'2" and standing on an 12 foot tall ladder holding a 5 foot long extension pole with a paint roller attached to the end. It's a tedious and dangerous task to paint like that.

Needless to say, 2 gallons of primer (to cover the original attempt) and almost 4 full gallons (2 coats) of a fresh new color, the paint job is finally complete! If I ever see a paint roller again, it will be too soon. I HATE painting.

Here is a preview of the previous half-finished paint job:

Applying the first coat after the primer:

Recipe Fun with 100 Calorie Snack Packs

OK, so everyone has noticed that every snack making company out there has 100-calorie packs now, right? You can get Orville Redenbacher popcorn, yogurt, oreos and whatever else in cute, convenient, to-go size pouches and monitor your calorie intake all at the same time.

This concept is a worthwhile venture in that it allows people to snack but prevents them overeating. The problem is that 100-calories worth of oreo's or chips ahoy cookies is only like 20 thin wafers worth of cookies.

So I've created a solution to this problem. I tried it yesterday and it works perfectly. All you have to do is dip each chips ahoy cookie wafer from the 100-calorie pack into Jiff Extra Crunchy peanut butter! And Voila! You've created a much more filling snack and at the same time, increased your calorie intake from 100 to about 860. haha!

Jiff Extra Crunchy peanut butter is 190 calories for every 2 Tbsp. 2Tbsp covers about 5 of these little cookie wafers and there are about 20 per bag. Do the math and you've turned a healthy concept into a fat generating fiasco.

Rocci Genealogy Tree

I made an offer today to Lenny Rocci to purchase rocci.com from him. The guy has owned the domain since 2000 and it doesn't expire until 2011! His site is permanently under construction and I offered to turn it into a Rocci genealogy tree where members of our family, from all over the world, can attempt to trace our roots. I have no idea if I am related to this Lenny Rocci or not... but wouldn't it be kind of cool to find out?

A quick google search shows Riva Rocci is a Belgium rock band and Rosanna Rocci is a German pop singer. It seems our Italian roots have grown all over the world. And there was an internist and pediatrician named Scipione Riva-Rocci that lived from 1863 until 1937. In a strange twist, my brother is James Rocci and there is also a James Rocci that is the President and CEO of Rocci Insurance Agency in Louisville, Ohio. David Rocci has a realtor website but it's pretty amateur right now.

I was also thinking that in addition to the family tree we could also create subpages for each family that registered with the site and they could have their own blogs and photo albums and whatnot. Hopefully this Lenny guy will transfer the domain to me so we can finally put it to some good use!