June 2007 Archives

For the second year in a row our office bowling team, the "RAS-matazzzz" saw victory at the annual Junior Achievement bowl-a-thon. It was also my personal best score at 116! Hey - no criticizing, I'm pretty proud! (For any non-KPMG readers, our team name is based on our department name - Risk Advisory Services or RAS).

I went to the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade again - this year sans Lindsay. Instead I went with my roommate Sara and one of the summer interns from Montana. No new pictures from this trip because it was pretty much all the same as last time. The difference this time is that I ventured i to the celebration at the Civic Center afterward. I'll just say that was the first and last time I'll be doing that. We all agreed that we'd had enough when we walked by a thoroughly oiled naked guy standing on a street corner grinning from ear to ear and well, "demonstrating his stamina." I'm not sure what this has to do with gay pride, but I know that I've seen enough!

As I write this, I am enjoying my favorite beverage - Big Sky Summer Honey - compliments of my former employer, Mike Miller. He was in the Bay Area again for an Adobe conference and this time he brought his wife Pon. Last year when Mike was here we went to a Giants game which was my first ever Baseball Game. This year we had the same amazing seats for Pon's first game. Again, Barry hit a home run - I almost missed it because I was on a beer run, but we did catch the end of it. He's getting closer to Hank Aaron's record so the hype is ever increasing. We had four tickets so I invited Jeff's friend Mike Silberman. We had a fun time, here are the pictures...

I spent this weekend volunteering at the Northern California Special Olympics for the second year in a row - you may remember last year's entry: I received a marriage proposal from a tennis athlete. Well, this year was no less eventful - we were stationed at the track and field venue and I almost died. Not that I'm being overly dramatic (I never am), but a kid named Daniel almost took me out.

My job was to stand at the staging area and greet the athletes when they checked in for the races. Then I had to keep them all in one place until it was their turn. They like to wander around so it is much easier said than done. I tried distracting them with a game of "Duck, Duck, Goose" which quickly turned violent so we had to play "Simon Says" instead. After I explained for the third time that "Simon says you're ugly" and "Simon says you smell bad" are not valid commands, I gave up on that one too. Eventually we just decided to focus on stretching to get ready for the race.

When their heat was called, I took the athletes to the staring line and wished them luck - temporarily handing over responsibility to another brave volunteer who had to settle arguments about lane assignments. Then I headed for the finish line where I was to (attempt to) gather everyone up before escorting them back to their coaches and parents. This was probably my favorite part of the job since I got to tell them when to stop running and congratulate them on finishing the race. This is also where I almost died.

One of my groups was males age 15-17, and one of the more outgoing guys in the group was Daniel. Daniel entertained my coworker Fabian and I with stories about how he can run faster than a speeding bullet. When he told us that sometimes he runs so fast that flames come out of his shoes, the other kids started getting scared so we had to change the subject. I should mention that Daniel was about a foot taller than the other boys in his group and had at least 6 inches on me. He was no bean-pole either, probably a good 175 lbs. of solid strength. At the end of his race, Daniel was extremely proud, and very excited. I was there at the finish line to congratulate him, which is where I made the mistake of offering my hand for a high-five. When I saw him transfer his weight backward (the way a pitcher winds up before throwing the ball) things started going in slow motion. I knew I was in grave danger, but couldn't move my hand for fear that he'd accidentally make contact with my face instead. I tried to jump backward as he made contact but it was too late, all that force drove through my open palm and nearly knocked me over. I lost my balance and almost fell on my ass in front of everyone, but luckily I didn't. Somehow, the news camera saw it coming and rather than warn me he leaned down to get a nice clear shot of my pained expression.

Arm throbbing, I stood up to see Daniel with a very worried look on his face. He knew he had been a little too enthusiastic and offered an apologetic, "I guess sometimes I just don't know my own strength." He looked like he might cry, so I tried my hardest to smile and say "that's okay, next time just be a little more careful." I politely excused myself and asked if I could be in charge of the girls' heats for the rest of the day.

Despite my brush with death, I returned today. I saw Daniel, and he remembered yesterday's events and showed me his new technique where he holds out his hand and I give him high-five. It was much gentler.

I'm excited for next year's games, and hope we get to be part of the Track and Field event again. I learned two important things at this year's games:

1. Be careful around kids who are bigger than you.
2. There are some things can instantly take any regular guy from a 5 to an 8: a guitar, a badge, a military uniform, a puppy, to name a few. Well, add "Special Olympics Coach" to the list. If the coach from San Jose is reading this, please get in touch :)

I finally got the photos from my spectacular Memorial Day weekend in San Diego with two of my dearest friends, Brad and Kristin, and now I'm posting this entry from my new computer! As a belated graduation gift from my father and his wife, I got a MacBook. For years I've struggled to stay loyal to the Windows platform, and it's tough to resist the new Vista operating system...but at the end of the day I decided to take the plunge. I'm happy with it so far - I love the "no frills" operating system, it's cute, and damn it's trendy. I'm not crazy about the keys being so far spaced apart, but I guess I'll learn to love it. The key thing is that this is NOT a work computer. In fact, I can't even check my work e-mail from it - this is going to be quite a breakthrough in my work-life balance. I will be able to come home at the end of the day and leave my work computer off - there will be no temptation to log in and see what is waiting for me tomorrow!

Back to the topic at hand, though - my great weekend in San Diego. I had been in Denver, CO on business for the two weeks before and after Memorial Day - wishing my body didn't take so long to adjust to the altitude. For a little break, I flew into San Diego where I was greeted by my best high school friend and my best college friend. It was late so Kristin and I called it a night early and headed back to her adorable house in Pacific Beach. Saturday was wonderfully relaxing, we just sat around catching up and talking. Sunday night we went to a bar called "Thrusters" which turned into quite a night. Kristin yelled at a middle aged man (who was trying to hit on her) for stealing her seat and trying to hit on a married woman, Brad almost stole a bike without a seat, and we wound up eating gross Denny's food at 3am. Sunday we made a quick trip through the San Diego zoo and then it was back to work for me.

I need to tell anyone who reads this blog (all 3 of you) about two things that you absolutely must do as soon as possible. I mean, drop everything and go out and do these things. Ok, obviously I’m exaggerating, but if you get around to it, these are worth doing:

1. 
   
   Read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I just finished this book over the weekend and it is currently in a 5-way tie for my favorite book ever!
   
   
   Others tied for this coveted spot (in no particular order)are:
   • Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
   • The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
   • The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
   • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
   
   With honorable mentions for Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Anne Burns, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.
   
   
   If you are familiar with the books on my list, you can see that I am a fan of those with strong character development, where the plot does not distract the reader from getting to know the characters and noticing the subtleties of relationships. In my opinion, quality writing takes far more artistic talent than interesting storytelling. I think Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons) is a terrible writer – his style is incredibly underdeveloped and therefore so are his characters. Both were excellent stories and I had a hard time putting down both books as I read. But after finishing two of his books in a row, I decided to never read another Dan Brown book again if I can help it. He’s a bad writer, but a good story teller.
   
   
   I feel the same way about Jon Krakauer. He wrote Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Again, terrible writing about interesting stories. After reading half of Under the Banner of Heaven I was very put off by his skewed journalism style. He tries to make the book come across as an unbiased look at the Mormon religion, but the sensationalism and one-sided accounts of already over-dramatized events deter from that. He lost credibility with me permanently, so he’s gone the way of Dan Brown in terms of my reading list.
   
   
   Sorry about the little side note about what I don’t like – the important thing is this book, The Kite Runner. This is one of the first books I’ve come across in a long time that has such powerful character development as well as a gripping plot. I found myself smiling subconsciously during parts, and later in the story fighting back tears and hoping the guy on the plane next to me wasn’t paying attention.
   
   
   If you have read this book, let’s talk about it. If you haven’t, read it right away and then let’s talk about it. Khaled Hosseini has just released another book about Afghanistan, and I plan to buy it as soon as it comes out in Paperback.

2. 
   
   Watch The Namesake. This movie is based on the book of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri. After having seen the moving I am only sad that I didn’t read the book. Of course, it is too late now and I won’t fully appreciate the book having seen the film version. I went with a group of friends to see this movie, and almost all of us left the theater crying – but happy. It is an emotional story about family and tradition, and even if you can’t relate to it you will love it.
   
   
   It stars Kal Penn, who you may know as “Taj” from the Van Wilder movies, "Kumar" from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. In contrast to these silly comedic roles, his dramatic performance in this movie shows his range as an actor and I hope to see him in more movies in the future.