My Life in Clip Art 08.03.10

August 4th, 2010

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The Final Week in Kingsport

August 2nd, 2010

My time in this town is drawing to a close. Sunday, I made my last drive from my house in Knoxville. I spent all of my weekends at home so I still don’t know much of this city besides work and elephant capital punishment.


I am looking forward to some vacation before school resumes. There is a great pull to spend more times with friends, sleep in, and catch up on the sell-the-house-to-do list.
I am proud of what I have learned and accomplished during the internship.
I am feeling good about my career path. A recruiter at work asked me if the internship made me feel like marketing was right for me. I answered yes and meant it. I feel like I have always been an asset to my employer, but I have never felt like I was in the right position. I am really optimistic about where I will go from here. My life, and potential have changed a lot in the past year and I feel confident in my capacity. My work, education, and interests are finally converging – what a great feeling.


Hopefully you aren’t feeling compelled to do this:
from xkcd.com – a really awesome site!

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My Life In Clip Art 07.21.10

July 21st, 2010

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Adult Lyrics, Adult Swim, and Finding Happiness

July 21st, 2010

Listening to music on a long commute, Dr Octagon has started me thinking. Kool Kieth’s alter-ego populates his world with space doodoo pistols, baboons with buffalo wings, his dangerous 208 year old uncle and the narrating halfsharkalligatorhalfman. The album’s interstitials rival Cartoon Network bumper images in random humor. Note the nurse’s musings between Real Raw and Blue Flowers

“Dr. Octagon please come to the office. Come now.
Oh fuck! Patient just died in room 105.
Cirrhosis of the eye.
Nurse, come in please. where are you?
Fuck it, he’s dead.
Oh shit there’s a horse in the hospital.”

Like SeaLab, Aqua Teen, Venture Bros, Arrested Development, 30 Rock and most of the things I enjoy from the small screen, this music revels in the random.

The album reminded me of how much I love that perfect balance of nerdy humor and genius samples, beats and scratching. Think Andre 3000, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Del. Father explains how important these fellas are in an Italianish Gabe and Max tone: “If it wasn’t for Prince Paul and Automator, I would be modeling in Albania or some Balkan country…still. Also, in my closet, shoes, so many shoes you can’t believe it. And next to it, a drawer with socks, full of socks, more than enough for each pair of shoes. Beauty is truly in the eye of the tiger.” When you aren’t laughing you are dancing and when you aren’t dancing you are wishing that when Michael Bey wanted to know how awesome an epic-space-robot-battle could be, he would just consult Dee-Ee-Elly. Then you notice how the magical touch of the Automator makes everything just right, keeping the silly from being soft.


I am in my car at least 7 or 8 hours a week now. And as inconvenient as I find the constant back-and-forth, I am thankful for this time to reconnect with music. The world consistently attempts to draw our attention with Jersey Shore marathons, chores that have piled up, friends pouring you oddly disgusting yet unrejectable shots, after-hours work/school crises and days lost to compulsive link clicking. And as important as indulging in those distractions are – isn’t that how we find new things to cherish? – it’s priceless to suddenly find yourself wrapped up in what truly brings you joy.

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Baddies

June 20th, 2010

The nerd has no choice but to become a super-villain.
The heroes just do not want to be around him – for all of the reasons that make him a nerd. Left alone to make his own way, the choices are to become a superhero, a leaping punching vigilante, or to confess other skills and run from the fighting. To let robots or goons (like the nerd in that no one wanted them but also anti-nerd, all muscle, headbutting, and car chases) do the battle scenes. The nerd couldn’t take a punch. Or throw one. Could only flee. And rational choice comes to equate to cowardice.
Would have been perfectly happy as a sidekick, hiding behind the brick wall of the hero’s cape, yet still indispensable. Ever important. Serving as another manifestation of the hero’s heroism. But that is not the way. That is the job of a dame.
And the nerd is forced, not from evil desire, but from necessity, to create his own order.

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Currently

June 3rd, 2010

I am a summer intern at Eastman in Kingsport, TN. My project includes 12 weeks of research and reporting on the potential leverage points for a new plastic in a new segment. Much more information than that and I would have to kill you.


You can, however, see information that is available for public consumption here:
tritan innovation lab
I desire those billiard balls on the concepts page!


I am impressed with Eastman’s business decision framework, resources made readily available, cross-disciplinary information sharing, and friendly environment. My team is awesome to work with and I am absorbing so much. This experience is a great complement to my work history and a welcome chance to apply the concepts I have been studying.

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terrific weekend

June 1st, 2010

Got to Knoxville around 8pm Friday and met up with Sonja for dinner at Patrick Sullivan’s. Quickly followed with Sierra Nevadas and some patio conversation at Backroom. Then back to my place for scotch on the patio – nice to meet you Derrick.


Slept until 2pm Saturday (a perfectly respectable 8 hours). A day packed with errands and heroic accomplishment of the mudane. Went to Aaron’s in the evening for billiard’s (boo – I’m terrible), Rook (thanks to grandpa I should put this on my resume), and general silliness.


Sunday – to Concord Marina for a trip on Michael’s boat to catch up with Aaron, Al, Leslie and some new folks. Feeling left out, I jumped in the lake with everyone else – praying the vintage dress recovers. Afterward: truly delicious food including my submissions of crab claws, feta-n-spinach stuffed mushrooms, brie with asian pear, honey, and cracked pepper, and seared tuna (pseudo-recipe at bottom). Additionally – tho not by my hand – tomato salad, potatoes, and bbq chicken and corn from the grill. A feast. More cards, the camel walk, and lots of laughter. Having a face that ached from laughing all night made sleeping on a couch with no pillow and a tiny blanket seem like my kinda problem. Up the next morning to cook breakfast and watch movies (a strange film fest of Super Troopers, Up, and District 9). A perfect lazy-with-friends follow up to all the action. Finally, one last cookout before we had to declare the holiday weekend over.


I was a bit sad to drive off to return to the cubicle on Tuesday. But at least genius totally surprised me and picked Perfect Day to ease the trip.


In a skillet: shake some soy sauce, use a garlic press to crush a few cloves, rip a handful of cilantro, squeeze most of a lime, and crack a bit of pepper. Add a big hunk of sushi-grade tuna and press the mixture into both sides. (If you don’t take precautions here, your hands will smell like garlic for a few days – even the stainless steel trick was no cure for me.) Store it in the fridge to soak up the goodness while everything else cooks. Ready? Take the tuna outta the pan so that you can get the skillet hot hot – then cook the fish quickly – seared outside, rare inside. Cut the tuna thin and layer on a plate with avocado slices. You can slice the lime and throw that on the side of the dish too. I hadn’t tried this before but it turned out great and I will be enjoying it again soon. It’s all about the cilantro and avocado, so if you are one of those who thinks cilantro tastes like detergent, read the article below so you feel better and skip this dish.

soapy spice

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Summer Draws Near

April 18th, 2010

At this time in 2009, I was about to start auditing courses (Statistics, Accounting, and Economics) in order to prepare for returning to school. It seems like ages – I have been pursuing my MBA for about a year. In a month, I will begin my marketing internship with Eastman in Kingsport. It’s impossible to write about a year in graduate school in one post; I should have made entries as I went along. But I am not ashamed of saying I was a bit busy. The first half of this adventure was covered up in late night desktop modeling, making great new friends, learning the 4 P’s, the-Chile-trip-that-never-was and the-insane-Lima-trip-that-replaced-it, my term as president of our NAWMBA chapter, national conference at Walt Disney in CA, my first consulting gig at East Tennessee Foundation, one million PowerPoints, having been assigned a great team every single time, social media for Martina McBride, red carpet……


I have had so many great experiences this year and I can’t wait to see what else is in store. It will be difficult to leave Knoxville in May, but I am excited to see what is in store. I am still not sure what my project assignment is. I have a lot to learn this summer, not only about marketing, but where I want to be in 2011 as well.

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I didn’t know you had a rock-n-roll record until I saw your picture on another guy’s jacket

April 4th, 2010

Having siblings a decade older than me means I got exposed to Purple Rain, Ratt, Nightmare on Elm Street,The Lost Boys, etc… at a very impressionable age. Maybe it is a problem that I knew about Camp Crystal Lake in kindergarten but tonight I heard Great White and Twisted Sister and got a bit nostalgic for my childhood. And I am okay with that.

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Dispatches: Ice Bears

March 27th, 2010

pregame at downtown grill and brewery.
at 5:51

sheer madness after the second period. everyone was on the ice takin it all off and throwin down.
at 9:22pm



why are we skating 4 on 3? because that is the total number of players on each team not in the penalty box.
at 9:49pm

and the game ends with 10 minutes to go: fayetteville only has 2 players left. final score: ice bears victory 9-4
at 10:06pm

postgame at downtown grill and brewery.
at 10:30pm

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