Proverbs for Paranoids

This quarter’s update

John November 15th, 2007

I’ve decided that I am bad at this public blogging thing.

In lieu of an actual post expressing opinions or interesting thoughts, here’s how I have been keeping myself busy this fall:

Throwing parties at the townhouse, the most recent of which was a cheep beer tasting competition (pictures up sometime), in which the 15 attendees confirmed that everybody should stop wasting their money on Heineken and Amstel Light. We also threw a Haloween party, where the five of us dressed up as a full house. I was the king of spades.
Hanging out in the mountains with cool people
Joining an a cappella group, comprising mostly ABCO people
Replacing the front brakes on my car
Breaking my hand while replacing the front brakes on my car
Paying someone else to replace the front axle on my car
Getting schooled in basketball by my 40 year old boss
Getting mocked by my boss ceaselessly for my taste in fashion
Dancing salsa and swing at every opportunity
Going to classical shows at the French embassy and drinking French wine afterwards
Watching people get hitched
Playing guitar while Beth & Vikram got hitched
Reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind and more Nero Wolfe novels
Getting heavily into Crossfit
Considering switching from vegetarianism to some stupid neologism more consistently resembling my own opinions, like “sustainabilism”
Pondering getting my eyes lasered
Playing a fair bit of golf
Trading a fair bit of stock

Been a great fall.

Sentences

John August 16th, 2007

It’s mid-August and I can’t wait until Fall. Heat and I don’t agree with each other.

I am capping off my fifth week as a private equity analyst. It is better than management consulting.

Since my vacation, I have been spending my free time (which I have, now) sailing, learning how to golf, complaining about my car not working, cooking, and reading Nero Wolfe novels. I have grand plans to fix my brakes myself, having successfully changed my own airfilter last weekend. These are obviously on vastly different levels of complexity, but I’m not worrying about it too much. It’ll be fun.

There are pictures of Paris and other things up on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/second.hand.tango.

Within a month or so I’m hoping to be living in the city. This will be an improvement in location, but I will miss my housemates dearly.

I turned 24 a couple of weeks ago and threw a party to celebrate. It was fun to have people show up at my house.

Life is good.

Goings on and goings to

John June 25th, 2007

Week before last, I quit my job at the consulting firm. Last week, I started a new job at a hedge fund/private equity group. It’s all kinds of awesome.
Tomorrow, I leave for Paris for a week. After returning, I head to La Crosse, WI and Portsmouth, RI to visit my sister and my grandmother, respectively. I’m back the 14th of July, and start work officially on the 16th.

Upon my return, I will be spending my free time:

Salsa dancing
Taking cooking classes
Getting my bike out of its cobwebs
Starting yoga classes again
Sailing
Rocking the shit out of some karaoke bars
Moving in to DC
Turning 24
Camping on the weekends

Life is good.

Some day, probably after these next three weeks, I will get some pictures up of:

Hiking the Shenandoah
My trip to the Dominican Republic
Various other trips to great falls, out in DC, and just house partying here at home.

Also, probably Paris.

Love and chocolate,

John

Note:

John May 29th, 2007

The new maroon 5 album is awesome.

Back from vacation. Stories and pictures to follow. 14 more days in this office, then off to new things.

In vino veritas

John May 16th, 2007

Lots of updates to the wine page.

Packing up for the DR. Also hung pictures on the walls tonight.

Heavy rotation music: Michael Buble. My god, can this man sing. This is inspiring me to get back to practicing my technique. I can’t get enough. His new album is fabulous. Also hot on the playlist: Withers’ Use Me, Thievery Corporation, The Gotan Project, and Rob Thomas’ solo stuff.

Dinner party friday, hopefully. Then beaches.

Books for DR

John May 15th, 2007

Purchased today:

Satanic Verses, Rushdie
The Fountainhead, Rand
Flight, Alexie
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by I forget whom
A People’s History of the United States, Zinn
White Noise, DeLillo

Also considering taking Against the Day, but I think it’s too long. I’m not quite prepared for something of that magnitude. This is beach reading, anyhow. Oh, and I’m borrowing Ender’s Shadow from a friend of mine, which should be excellent.

Employee of the month.

John May 12th, 2007

Today was awesome.

First: Sailing at belle haven (pictures), under supposedly 10 knot winds—unfortunately, they were fickle, and died about an hour into it. We ended up stranded and had to paddle back in. Good times all around, though. Next time, I am bringing a super soaker for various pirating activites. Sailing was followed by lunch at Southside with a fun but somewhat awkward server (”Who wants more beer? Nobody? What?”) Lunchtime conversation hovered mostly around work-related topics in a non-work way (i.e., complaining about it.)

Second: Continuing my efforts to be a real businessman, I bought a couple of used golf clubs (net dollars spent: thirty three) & went to a driving range for a while. Better this time! Though the balls still don’t go where I want them to, I’m making significant strides in my strikeout percentage.

Tonight: Jazz.

Right now: Beer bread and shitty movies (see header.)

Media and summer changes

John May 8th, 2007

Heavy rotation music:

Song of the Traveling Daughter, Abigail Washburn
The new maroon 5 (still)
Bela Fleck (still)

Reading:

The Captive Mind
The Rise and Fall of LTCM
Various bits by TS Eliot
The Financial Times, which Brian has recently subscribed to, and which I am currently liking better than The Economist. And way better than the journal, which tends to be a bit to conservative for me.

I have officially tendered my resignation at my current job. My last day is June 15th. After three weeks of vacation (when I hope to either cycle through Bordeaux, sail the greek islands, or maybe just park myself in some foreign country where I don’t know the language and write), I will be starting as an analyst at a small investment firm in DC. It’s currently unclear whether this will involve a new house or not; I am reluctant to leave the people I currently live with (who are awesome), but am eager to live in a real city.

In between now and then, I will be working to wind down my responsibilities here. In a week and a half, I leave for the Dominican to visit Galen, learn how to surf, and get a tan. I’m pondering signing up for a evening techniques course at L’Academie de Cuisine, a culinary school in Bethesda (and debating the difficulties of being a vegetarian in culinary school.) And, of course, there are all the old pursuits: jazz, karaoke, wine, rock climbing, sailing, and awesome people.

To misquote a fifth grader, Life reeks of potential. Spring in DC is wonderful.