I guess I’ll start with links to albums in chronological order, just to document things. I have such a backlog of stuff that I can’t really write it all out in detail. Instead, we’ll skip straight to the pics, and brief blurbs.

Pete and I took our motorcycles down to the beach one random day for lunch. We ate, walked around looking at girls in bikini’s then we turned around for Easter Dinner.

I went to Ward’s wedding and met up with a whole bunch of RIT and Cisco folks. It was incredible to have everyone together again. There was a lot of bittersweet talk about how this was the first and maybe last large reunion of so many RIT grads in one place.

There was camping and Jeeping after that.

Brendan and I took a random Thursday after that and went up to Richmond, VA to see Flogging Molly and Big D and the Kid’s table. They added ridiculously hot dancers. I was immediately in love. We also met up with Esther and her friend that night. It made for a long night. I eventually wound up riding my motorcycle at home from the Cisco parking lot at 3AM. Heated grips are AMAZING!

The next night we went out for Sasha’s birthday party. Raleigh was in full blown skirt season. It was excellent.

The first week of May is a Blur. Brendan’s friend Daniel had a grad party

I saw Steve’s band Idiom play at The Berkely. We met a cute Brunette that worked at an Animal Hospital

Aric had a house warming party where it was decided that everyone loved this girl

We also ran into another short Brunette who had opinions on whether or not Earth should be keeping a backup planet in the works for disaster recovery. Awesome.

Shapess, Andy and I had a random day out at Uwharrie. I had time to dial in the scope on my 22, AND spent some time shooting Shapess’ AK-47. Too much fun there.

On May 12th Kenneth, Pete, and I drove down to Charlotte to see Say Anything and Angels and Airwaves. Say Anything put on a good show but the set was too short unfortunately. It was nice to know that the girls belt out the lyrics to “Every Man Has a Molly” even louder than the guys.

You god damned kids had best be gracious with the Merch money you spend.
Cause for you I won’t ever have rough sex with Molly Connolly again.

I met a beautiful girl with so many awesome traits it’s hard to believe she actually exists.
1. Bartender
2. Graduated Culinary School
3. Loves the music scene
4. Gorgeous
5. Incredibly friendly / nice
6. Brunette
7. Tiny
8. Likes jeeps and motorcycles, knows how to replace a radiator.

Doubtful that said girl will actually get in touch with me – but it was a good night regardless. Another weeknight of getting home around 3AM. Energy drinks are my savior.

Just last night I went to a Skinny Tie Party at Justin Tiexera’s place.

I proceeded to introduce myself to a girl so forcefully that she immediately notified me she was someone elses wife. I need to do a better job looking for rings.
I also met another beautiful brunette who can bust out the quadratic equation at the drop of a ‘hat’. Math teachers for the win. There was Rock Band. People rocked out to Coheed and Cambria, and I sang my heart out to NIN – The Hand That Feeds. I don’t even need the scrolling words to sing this one:

And finally – today I went on an awesome motorcycle ride out to Wilson NC with my motorcycle gang. We hit up Parker’s BBQ and it was delicious. There was some really beautiful back country and great roads between here and Wilson if you avoid the highway.

After riding around NC I went over to Andy’s house and helped him tinker on his new front axle. We removed the diff cover and took out the locker, getting it ready for the new axle. We also greased up his lower control arms, and I drilled some holes for his new bump stops.

I am now VERY tired just thinking about all of that.

The future holds a trip to DC to see the air and space museum, and hopefully a trip out to the mountains with my Mom to check out the roads there.

In other non fun related matters, I’ve REALLY got to recertify my CCIE

I like Music.

I like Motorcycles.

Bands go on tour during the summer months.

Motorcycles are awesome to ride in the summer months.

Action Plan:

Take time off during the summer months and plot a course across the country that involves stops in different cities where bands are playing. Do it all on a motorcycle. I’m envisioning maybe a week or two, or if we stick to the southeast maybe just odd weekends here or there.

Who’s with me? Anyone want to ride on the back of my bike (boobs required)?

Recently had this song stuck in my head. It seemed relevant to me.

The White Stripes – We’re Going To Be Friends

fall is here, hear the yell
back to school, ring the bell
brand new shoes, walking blues
climb the fence, book and pens
i can tell that we are gonna be friends

walk with me, suzy lee
through the park, by the tree
we will rest upon the ground
and look at all the bugs we’ve found
then safely walk to school
without a sound

well here we are, no one else
we walked to school all by ourselves
there’s dirt on our uniforms
from chasing all the ants and worms
we clean up and now it’s time to learn

numbers, letters, learn to spell
nouns, and books, and show and tell
at playtime we will throw the ball
back to class, through the hall
teacher marks our height against the wall

and we don’t notice any time pass
we don’t notice anything
we sit side by side in every class
teacher thinks that i sound funny
but she likes the way you sing

tonight i’ll dream while i’m in bed
when sill thoughts go through my head
about the bugs and alphabet
and when i wake tomorrow i’ll bet
that you and i will walk together again
cause i can tell that we
are going to be friends

I’ve been stuck on this one problem at work the entire time which is a huge drain on me mentally. I’ve stopped going to the gym and just come home to relax instead.

Here’s a run down on some of the things I’ve been up to, in as close to chronological order as I can muster.

I posted all of the pictures from Networkers in San Francisco. Pete and I were there for the 4th of July weekend. We met beautiful girls, drank intoxicating beverages, and also learned ridiculous amounts about new technology. It was great to go as a CCIE and get extra special treatment. Here are some pictures of Networkers 2009.

Here’s Kenneth and I explaining something to an unruly and uncooperative Cisco Partner:

Kenneth Pete and I

After I got back from Networkers I’m sure I did something worth writing about. I can’t remember what it might have been.

Just two weeks back or so I decided it was finally time to install my CB Radio in the Jeep. I mounted the radio in the cubby to the left of the steering wheel. It’s a pretty slick looking job, and allowed me to listen to the truckers on my way back and forth to the mountains.

Andy, Wes, Rebecca, and I went out to Hurricane Creek. Mile marker 8 on I-40. Just 8 miles from the Tennesee, North Carolina Border. This was one of the most beautiful and scenic trails I’ve taken the Jeep on yet. It was also the longest trail. We clocked in something like 10 or 15 miles of trail. Very cool.

Hurricane Creek Trail

We also managed to get some great YouTube videos of our Jeeping.

Here’s a video of me going over some big ass logs. This was fun. Listen to the V8 working.

It was a two day trip and you can look at all the pictures and videos in the previous links.

After getting back from Jeeping on Sunday night, I worked on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday night Brendan says to me:

Colleen is coming into town and Bringing her friend Kristan. I’m thinking of getting a Condo on the beach for the rest of the week and working from there.

I was undecided until we went out to dinner with Colleen and Kristan on Monday night. On Tuesday Brendan asked me again and I basically said.. “Fuck it, lets go.” Very unlike me to do something spontaneously like that. I need proper motivation. Which I suppose I had

On Tuesday I left work and went straight to Brendan’s house after throwing some things together quickly. I packed in a rush, so forgot to bring swim trunks. Luckily Wings was open til midnight, and had cheap shorts.

Tuesday night was just dinner at Tower 7 and shopping. Notice that we started with the essentials for a beach trip: Corona and Limes.

Shopping!

Wednesday Brendan and I worked from the place, and took our lunch break on the beach. Lots of fun!

Wednesday night was dinner at Dock Street Oyster Bar, followed by a Ghost Tour of Wilmington, follow by Rum Runners.

Dock Street Oyster Bar

Kristan at Rum Runners

Thursday night was Pizza, Rum, and Spades. Brendan taught us how to play spades which was actually a lot of fun. By the time  we finished spades it was 1AM, Colleen had passed out, and Brendan was stumbling around. So, obviously, the next step was to go to the bar. Which Brendan and I did. This is what that resulted in at 1:30AM:

Late Night 40

Friday Brendan and I recovered by laying on the beach, walking around, and swimming. We took a walk on the pier with the girls, had a good brunch, and then headed to the Aquarium.

Aquarium - Sea Turtle

Saturday was a Brewery Tour, followed by Better Than Ezra in the rain. They put on a great  show, and standing around in the rain wasn’t so bad.

Brewery Tour

Here’s Kristan drying off a bit after the rain:

Kristan Drying Off

Here we are on Sunday. Work starts  up again in the morning, but I am heading out of town again on Wednesday to go to Florida until next Tuesday. Lots of beach time for me.

So that’s my update for the past month. Lots of working, lots of playing. Hanging out with beautiful girls at the beach.

If I missed anything in my stories, just add it into the comments.

I was listening to Say Anything – I Want To Know Your Plans

Which as you can see is a stirring love song about a man professing his love for a girl. This man pours out his soul saying that this girl is his primary motivation for life, the universe, and everything.

Say Anything Version: I Want To Know Your Plans

Burns Version: I Want To See Your Boobs

I think Dad would approve. I should go visit that guy sometime.

I’ll be driving the Z into work and hear a song I like on SiriusXM. Lucky for me I get the artist and song name displayed. I get into work and hit up the you tubes to listen to the song again. And again. And sometimes again.

Here are two of my recent favorites:

Manchester Orchestra – I’ve Got Friends

(Embedding was disabled for that video)

The Limousines – Very Busy People

Man I love music.

I spent a few hours at work the other day with Say Anything video’s running in the background. This one in particular is a favorite:

Say Anything – Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
(embedding disabled again)

But really I like any of the Say Anything songs. Acoustic, Electric, Live, It’s all great.

My first real memory of this obsession gaining hold is in Silver Creek, NY.

I was in 2nd grade and got a very cheap blue portable cassette player. I remember walking around outside and around in school listening to my favorite (and only) tape: Scorpions – Crazy World

I will always remember the whistling from Winds of Change, and that Send Me An Angel was featured in the school dance part of the movie Rad Which I watched incessantly. This virtually forced my mom to buy me a BMX bike.

Another transformational event was soon to come. Radio:

I had just gotten my own room, and was maybe 8 to 10 years old. I received what was to be one of the greatest gifts. A two cassette AM/FM boom box with dual recording, and equalizer, and super fast dub mode to copy tapes quickly. Not only that, but it had line input. This didn’t come into play until years later though. More on that soon.

I was holed up in my room, and I would listen to any radio station that would come in. I tuned the dial (because it was a tunable thumb wheel type dial) and would stumble upon Canadian stations (just over the lake), and Buffalo stations. My favorite was 103.3 The Foxx. They played rock, and classic rock.

I remember vividly a sudden change in the 90s. They switched the format to this new fangled grunge, alternative. They changed the name to 103.3 The Edge. For a solid 24 hours they played nothing but the song It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, by R.E.M. No joke. 24 hours of that song. I can’t forget that.

Then I started listening more and more, and another exciting thing happened. I received a CD Player and Bush – Sixteen Stone.  I took the CD player with me virtually everywhere, and hooked it up to my boom box with Line In. I would even take my CDs and rip them into tapes just so I had that extra copy.

I would spend hours and hours listening to albums over and over until I knew all of the songs, and all of the words.

When High School came around this continued even more. I bought an entire grunge collection from some kid who was converting to hip hop. I thought he was crazy, but he sold at deep discounts. My CD collection increased 5 fold. More new music to listen to!

It’s been down hill ever since. College was just insane for the amount of new music I downloaded, and now that I actually have some money I’ve started buying more. The combination of the Internet, and Satellite radio for my car is almost too much to handle. There is so much to listen to that I miss the simplicity I once had.

I miss finding one album, and playing it for weeks on repeat, and then shuffle.

Maybe it’s time to cleanse my iPod and simplify the playlist to just one or two artists at a time.

I had to post this. It was driving me crazy thinking about what song was playing on 103.3 The Edge when they switched formats back in the 90s. Now my brain is satisfied. I can sleep again.

These are the things that keep me awake at night. Now you know.