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Waltham, Massachusetts

This week I’m mostly in Waltham, Massachusetts. I find trips to this town most interesting and my sister-in-law Kara works at a facility directly next-door to the client that I work at when I’m here. It is shame that my brother and Kara aren’t here this week as I always have a good time visiting with them. However, they are on an eastern-Mediteranean cruise and I’m over-worked and wouldn’t have time to see them anyway.

I just heard from a physicist on the Colbert Report that if you are mass-less, you would travel at the speed of light. That is crazy. I think it is also crazy to think that we tend to believe that the speed of light is the fastest you can travel. I don’t know if physics holds that as a law, but I’d like to believe that the speed of light is not the ceiling of potential speed. What if you somehow have negative mass (which I’m not sure if that is even possible) then wouldn’t you be faster than the speed of light?  That begs the question, what is speed really? And totally unrelated, how many objects of what mass would have to fly against the earth’s rotation to cause it to slow by 1 second. And taking it a step further, does the Earth travel clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Anyway, since my first visit to MA back in the the winter of 2007 (an awesome trip for Extreme Beerfest of which I can barely speak of as it was so awesome), I’ve had a strong fascination with this state and Boston in particular. I’m not sure if it reminds me of Pennsylvania or if there is some other factor that has me feeling very at home up here. There have been various period in my life where I really thought about moving up to Boston. I do really enjoy Philadelphia (go Phillies!). However, there is just something about this area that makes me feel calm (unlike Washington DC which is a place you couldn’t pay me enough to work/live in).

Waltham itself seems like a really cool little town. Not too small. Not too big. A great brew pub. A great Tex-Mex chain. Lots of little shops and other ethnic foods. It inspired me to write my first TripAdvisor review. As follows:

Everytime I visit a new town, I look for spots that can serve a decent brew. I discovered Watch City Brewing Co. by accident about a month ago as I drove down Moody St. looking for Margaritas (The New England chain – very good by the way). I made a mental note to check it out on my next trip.

I had walked past the establishment the day before and saw 10pm listed on the doors for Monday-Wednesday. As I was getting out of work late, I rushed to the place on Wednesday hoping I’d be able to at least get a drink. It turned out the 10pm was for food and they would be open until 2am or so.

I ordered the daily special of Kobe beef meatloaf. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was sneaking an order in at the last moment (most appreciated) or that they give huge servings, but I got a ton of food. The chunk of meatloaf I got had to to be 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound. I stretch this my no means in saying that it was huge and quite tasty as well. I believe it had a pumpkin gravy of some sort. The veggies on the side appeared fresh and were cooked perfectly. The mashed potatoes looked like redskins and where massed skins on which I really like. All said and done, I couldn’t eat the entire plate and I am pretty good at eating. I’d definitely like to check out more of their food offerings.

The beer was above average for a brew pub. I tried 3 different offerings and I thought they were decently quaffable. The most interesting was the wit beer that was aged on 50 pounds of plums. Definitely recommended.

Next time I’m in Waltham I’m coming back.

I just ate an abnormal peanutbutter cracker. Have you ever eaten any processed food that you could clearly see got stuck in the machine or something happened that make it a bit off of the standard mold?

Anyway, I like Waltham. Let’s do a “what-if.” If my currently client said “Matt, you are awesome and we want you to work here” this is what would happen. I’d firstly, agree with them about how awesome I am. Secondly, I seriously consider the offer. However, at this point in my life, salary and decisions-which-increase-in-salary are the most important career decisions I see. Well, that isn’t entirely true. I need to get promoted this year and I will state it right here, right now, it will happen. September 1, 2010 I will be a “manager” or, there is not or.

Massachusetts rules!

Fibonacci Music

For various reasons the Fibonacci sequence has been on my mind as of late. If you don’t know what that is, Google it. But in short, it is an interesting sequence of numbers that I’ve sort of had a fascination with since I was like 5 years old and I saw an episode of Mathnet on the PBS program Sqaure One (TV show about math) that talked about the concept.

Anyway, I got this crazy idea. Take the melody of any popular song. Give each note a sequential number. Let’s say that song had 300 notes. Once you got to the end you’d loop back to the start and make note number one item 301 and keep circling through until you had about a billion numbers or so. You’d then run the Fibonacci sequence against those billion numbers and pull the notes that coorespond to the number of the sequence and then you’d play the note with the time time signature values associated with each. So, you’d take notes, 1 (E), 1(E), 2(G), 3(A), 5(B), 8(C#), 13(C#), 21(D), 34(A), 55(B), 89(E), 144(F), 233(E), 377(C#), 610(C), 987(B), 1597(A), 2584(E), 4181(Bb), 6765(E), etc and play whatever note it coorespond to with the appropiate time value (quarter note, whole note, half note, etc) and it would make some fascinating and especially mathematical music.

If you aren’t following this at all, I’d probably need to draw it on a whiteboard for you or something. It makes a lot of sense to me and I think it would be a totally fascinating experiment. Perhaps it would sound like noise or perhaps it would unlock secret messages hidden in music.  One of these days when I get some free time I’m going to take a basic song and calculate out the notes according to the sequence and see what I get. I’ll certainly share the results.

Now before you complain about how stupid it is, please tell me how you’ve expanded your mind recently.

A Wise Decision

The furniture in the living room is long gone. As I mentioned a couch from the basement made its way upstairs last weekend and it is a welcomed change. Strangely, there is something really nice about a sole love seat located in the dead center of a room that I really like. Perhaps it is the open crisp sound my keys make as I type away due to the lack of objects to disrupt their echo off the bare walls. Maybe it is just sitting a little closer to the 52″ LCD. I’ve grown to like clean lines and simplicity.

I really thought I needed new furniture. I’ve been to Raymore and Flanigan twice now and have both a living and bedroom picked out. The bedroom came into play simply because I thought if I’m going to spend a little to upgrade I may as well take the full plunge. It would be nice to have some brand new “adult” furnishings. I spent a good amount of time Wednesday night finding the perfect mattress. I walked out of the store ready to spend nearly $4000 with $1500 of that going to a new Stearns and Foster mattress. I’d sleep so well in the newly upgraded bedroom and I’m sure the new cocktail table would blend beautifully with the shade of the fabric on the couches in the living room.

I did take a plunge. I asked a woman for her advice. I knew full well what a dangerous request it can be for a woman’s honest opinion about something. I wanted the voice of reason.

I am going to purchase nothing at all.

I don’t need any of the objects listed below. Despite the fact that I am getting a bonus this year, I currently do not have $4000 to burn on furniture like it hardly matters. Derrick was nice enough to leave some old couches behind and they are actually quite comfortable and nice enough to put back up in the living room. I might get them professionally cleaned, but that is certainly a fraction of the price for new stuff. I could use a coffee/cocktail table and I would like to mount my TV on the wall but we’ll see what comes.

The real thing I need to be focused on is that I’m about to hit November which means the 3rd month I’m pretty much paying rent on my own (Derrick gave me a few bills for part of September). It isn’t that I can’t afford it, but more that it is a waste of my money. I won’t get started about how frustrated I am about my failure in getting a new roommate. I actually looked at posts on Craigslist tonight for people renting a room. I realized having a pet cat complicates my situation slightly. Also, I have too much stuff which could be rectified by a visit back home, but my parents probably don’t want me dumping my stuff off in their house even if only for the time being.

The plan is just to bank any extra money coming my way, appreciate what I’ve got, and find a way to save money (aka find a roommate). And you never know when something random and crazy will come up.

My landlord left a note on the mailbox tonight asking me to call him. It could be nothing, but for some reason I feel there is something to be said. More to come.

He just wanted the rent check a few days early.

Judging Burritos

This past week I went to a Chipotle for the first second time. I was very pleased with my burrito but it got me thinking about the whole concept of burrito restaurants and how there seem to be so many to choose from. You’ve got Chipotle, Moe’s, California Torrtila, Baja Fresh, Qdoba, Tijuana Flats, Taco Bell (they do make the 1/2 pound bean burrito) and countless local-single-operation spots to choose from.

The question is, what makes one place better than another? I haven’t been to all of these places on my list but I think I can come up with some key factors in judging a good burrito joint.

1) Meat quality – Do they actually offer decent steak? Is the chicken free of fatty funky pieces? Is the ground beef fairly lean? Is the meat overly dry? If they have fish is it too fishy?

2) Meat flavoring – Is the meat seasoned? Are there multiple seasoning options per meat type?

3) Filler options – How many different types of beans are offered (black and pinto seem to be standard)? Are there multiple types of rice? Do they have some unique filler type?

4) Filler quality – Is the rice seasoned? Is the seasoning actually an enhancement? Are the beans overly dry? Are the beans overly drippy?

5) Topping options – Do they have good guacamole? Does it cost extra? Cilantro? Red onions? Fried onions and green peppers like a fajita? Tomatoes? Hot peppers? Hot sauces available?

6) Salsa options – Do they have a fresh homemade salsa? Do they have varieties of heat for their salsas (mild, medium, hot)? How many different options are there to choose from? Do they have anything more exotic like corn and black bean or mango banana salsa?

7) Salsa quality - Is the salsa good enough that you’d pay money just for it alone? Is the hot actually hot? Is the fresh actually fresh? Does the fresh have fresh cilantro in it?

8] Cheese quality – Is it finely shreaded so that it actually has a chance of melting? Is it white or orange (white is more authentic Mexican if you are strictly talking color)? Is is some processed crap or actually cheese? Is there a melted queso option? Is it actually good?

9) Burrito construction – I thought about including burrito size but pretty much every place has large burritos. Is the proportion of meat to filler good? Is the wrap too dry and flaky? Did they steam the wrap? Does anything drip out of the bottom? Is it rolled too squarely and thusly making it overly wide and messy? Are the contents layered such that you get a little bit of everything in every bite?

10) Vegeterian options – Despite the fact that I think vegeterianism is annoying, I think it is a huge plus if a place offers a tofu burrito and makes an effort to keep stray meat from falling into the filler so that it can remain meat-free.

I don’t have a favorite place for burritos but I am hungry for one right now. If you have a favorite spot please let me know why.

Nobel Peace What?

So, if you manage to not start any new wars you get a shiny medal? Call me ignorant, but I’m not actually really sure why Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize. I browsed a few news articles today and I don’t recall anyone writing the specific reason why he won.

The thing is, I support Obama and all and I’m happy for any positive recognition he gets. However, I want to be fair and I just don’t really think he did anything particularly active to promote peace. I heard snippets of “real people” do really amazing things that were passed up. It almost feels like the academy wanted to jump on the Obama-wagon. I hate to tell them the wagon is a little stuck in the mud as of late. America isn’t really going anywhere groundbreaking at the moment.

In all honesty, being the president of the most influential country on earth with an unfortunate history of fighting people to promote “democracy” and “human rights” and avoid any additional confrontations is actually quite an accomplishment. I will give him some credit for that. Russia is lonely and wants its countries back. North Korea is screaming for attention with its silly bottle rockets. Iran likes to mock us by holding fake democratic elections just to see how we’ll react. You can’t forget the Pakistan/Afghanistan (I get them mixed up) which I still don’t totally understand but I think the Taliban still owes us a thank you card for all the guns we got them back in the day. Also, last time I checked we still ahve 4.3 million troops in Iraq holding it together with duct tape.

Perhaps this award was just a preemptive attempt to get Obama on truly making some peaceful strides in the world. Perhaps they just wanted to give him a little surprise just to remind him they he has the power to fix the mess we stirred up in the last 8 years. There is no doubt he has the potential to change our war-monger image to a textbook definition of peacemake through legitimate action.

Weekend = Fabulous

I’ve noticed that one of my most commonly used adjectives as of late is “super.” Erin happens to be a fan of “fabulous.” I prefer her word when describing the last 3 days.

I was down in San Juan again last week for work. Being that we would have one additional week of work down here I figured it would make a lot of sense to take advantage of the opportunity and stay through the weekend into the next week. This was both to enjoy a weekend in PR and used the travel perks of the job to cover my hotel costs (price to fly home and back again approximately the same as staying in a hotel for the weekend). It was also time to cash in some of the Amex points I’ve accumulated over the last few years. Erin was going to come down to visit me.

She arrived Thursday night and until she left Sunday afternoon it was a fury of good times.

We’ve been dating now for nearly 7 months now and time has certainly flown by. I can’t say I’m completely surprised by this, but it has been just getting more and more interesting each time I see her. While sipping cappuccinos after dinner on Saturday night she shared an interesting observation about me. She said that early on she sensed I was looking for a companion in terms of why I was trying to meet females. She was completely right.

I really wanted to make this a good opportunity for us both to take a break from “normal life” as well as give a gesture of gratitude to Erin for being support/understanding of my job situation over the last few months (plus taking care of Allagash while I’m away). Highlights.

• Spending a weekend with an awesome girl at the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at.
• Having motivation for getting out of work on Friday a decent time (while I worked she hit one of the local spas for a pedicure).
• Awesome pools and hot tubs.
• Old San Juan for dinner Friday night at a tourist trap / “authentic Puerto Rican food” followed by drinks at a dive bar and music at a bar that was playing beats you couldn’t dance to.
• Beach time Saturday morning.
• Coronas (with questionable lime slices) and lounge chairs under a large umbrella watching the rain.
• Dinner at Ummo (Argentinian grill) with great wine and 7 different types of meat but more importantly, excellent conversation.
• Swimming in a beach-side pool at night watching the moon rise.
• Church services in Spanish at the Cathedral de Juan Baptista. The only phrase I caught was “para nosotros”= For our…
• A nice lunch at the only brew pub in Puerto Rico which was celebrating Oktoberfest (one of the better Oktoberfest-style beers I’ve ever had).
• Quality time.

The worst part of this weekend is that I’ve just spent several days with an awesome woman and now I must go through withdrawl for a few days. Yeah, go ahead and throw up.

A Temporary Loss in Interest

As Mike pointed out in the last post, writing isn’t always easy. Now the reality is that I’ve got a slew of topics as a lot has been going on in my life lately. Maybe it is topic overload. There are so many things I could be sharing that I can’t focus on just one. In attempt to spark my own focus, I’ll keep it simple and dump some random thoughts.

• Reading wiki entries on random topics. I’d say about every other day I google something random looking for a wiki entry.

• I’m curious how annoying my personality is when I’m especially happy. Erin pointed out to me that when I’m especially happy it is very clear just how happy I am and I get quite goofy (I believe she appreciated this about me – I hope). However, happy people can be incredibly annoying. I wonder if my happiness has ever annoyed anyone. I enjoy being dorky/goofy and I think that really is a key portion of my personality and thusly, quite important to express.

• To date, since working for my current employer I’ve stayed at 18 different Marriott hotel properties. Somewhat surprisingly, I got upgraded to gold status this week a few stays earlier than the posted number (50 nights per year). To a traveler, hotel/airline/car rental status are one of the few things there are to look forward as a payoff for the constant travel.

• In my master bathroom I will have both a standalone shower and a nice whirlpool bathtub. That likely won’t be my first home. I hope that with my first home I don’t get too caught up in the mindset of “Oh, I can just do that work myself.” When I move in, I’ll be interested in enhancements, but not re-doing major components.
• Carr’s Table Water Crackers are boring. Perhaps that is intention so that whatever you are eating them with become the focus and not the cracker. The cracker merely provides a platform.
• There are days when I wish I had a small car. I’ve been driving a Toyota Corolla for the last week and I enjoy driving it (though there is obviously nothing exciting about a Corolla). There are days when I really like my current car too. I just hope my current car can hang on for a few more years so that I don’t need to do anything other than ponder about cars.

3 Reasons

Last week I was in Germany and Switzerland (and Austria for about 10 minutes) and it was a cool adventure. I plan on posting pictures and writing about it all, but that will need to wait for future posts.

For now I want to write about my awesome girlfriend Erin. More specifically, there are 3 reasons in mind at the moment as to why she is awesome.

1) She has been feeding my cat for me while I’ve been traveling.

2) Yesterday, she brought dinner over and dessert.

3) Both her dinner (vegetable lasagna) and her desert (apple pie) was really good. Just to clarify how serious I am about this, I wouldn’t have written anything if it didn’t really impress me.

She is coming to visit me down in San Juan later this week and I look forward to that. It will be nice to spent some time with her just relaxing.