Samuel Smith Brewery

This is my new favorite website. I've just purchased:

1x Medium Samuel Smith tshirt.




2 Samuel Smith lager glass's



1 Samuel Smith Premium Bar Kit, with ice bucket, 4 glass's, bar sign, 100 coasters, bottle opener, and bar towel.

Just two more weeks

And I'll be on a plane to New Zealand for most of March...

5 years ago today...

5 years ago today I landed in LA from New Zealand. My life was so different back then, and I had no idea when I moved here, that 5 years later I'd still be in Boston. I think I thought it was going to be a 2 or 3 year working holiday and then move back and buy a house. I had no idea that I'd enjoy my new job so much and not want to leave...

Vote for Ralph in 2008

http://www.digthewig08.com/

Foos (again) and The Bravery

I went to a Foo Fighters show in Worcester (about 40 minutes West of Boston) on Monday night, they always put on a great show for me. I found myself realizing that I've seen these guys quite a few times now. It's not really surprising, considering they are my favorite band, but I compiled a list anyway:

2003-Jan-16 - Auckland, New Zealand (Galatos)
2003-Jan-17 - Auckland, New Zealand (Big Day Out)
2003-Jul-05 - Boston, MA (Pavilion)
2005-Oct-15 - Worcester, MA (DCU Center)
2006-Aug-22 - Boston, MA (Acoustic Tour at the Wang)
2008-Feb-18 - Worcester, MA (DCU Center)

I also saw The Bravery last night in the small Paradise rock bar (it's small because it's probably less than 1000 people). I can't recommend these guys enough, I'd describe them as 80's sync pop mixed with Bowie and The Killers.

The greatest challenges of this century...

The US National Academy of Engineering had a convention this week here in Boston…they listed the following as the greatest challenges (and possibly business opportunities) of this century. I thought it was interesting, especially the first one considering my comments last week...

CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY
1. Make solar energy affordable
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Reverse engineer the brain
7. Prevent nuclear terror
8. Secure cyberspace
9. Enhance virtual reality
10. Improve urban infrastructure
11. Advance health informatics
12. Engineer better medicines
13. Advance personalised learning
14. Explore natural frontiers

More details can be found here on the engineering challenges website.

Money

I've been learning a lot about money over the past few months. My whole adult life, I've always owed vast amounts to money to my student loan, but the week before I turned 30, I finally paid it off. There were celebrations and the people were happy.

Suddenly I find myself in a situation I'm not familiar with... what should I do with this money for the next 18-24 months? Obviously I'd like to buy a house or some sort of residence, but I need to save a deposit first, and it makes sense to put some of this money in different places (and out of my checking/saving accounts 0.0002% interest rate). I'm still young and it makes sense for me to diversify a little, put some money in a high risk area like stocks, and the other money in lower risk places like 6-12 month term deposits... but what stock would I invest in??

My plan, (I need to do a little more research), is to put a bit of money into Solar Power. I feel like it's an emerging technology, and it will only be a matter of time before Wal-Mart/Home Depot/the Warehouse/Mitre 10/[enter your local hardware store here] will begin selling panels for 'normal' people to subsidize their energy usage. I can visualize them selling a pack for $100, and it would be a bit like Lego - you can plug as many as you like together, stick them on your roof and they'll plug right into your house. I feel like there is so much potential for this sector... and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is...

Loon

I'm skiing at Loon mountain in New Hampshire today. It's about an hour and bit North of Boston. I've always liked skiing, but I ski pretty differently from when I was a kid. When I was younger I'd arrive at the mountain at 8am and ski until it shut at 4:30. I'm older now, a little more fragile, and I think, wiser. Now I'll start at 9am, and take a long lunch, ski for a couple hours in the afternoon and call it a day by 3. It's much safer that way, we all know you hurt yourself on the last run of the day, so by stopping an hour earlier... I never have that last run... :)

It's time to try something new

I've converted this to a "Blog". The old stuff is still here.

I'm hoping this new blog format will allow me to post more regularly...

People can now comment on my posts and I can have guest posters. I don't know why I waited so long to do this...