Sitting in the car on the way back from a coworker's birthday lunch I was being told of all the many benefits my current job has to offer if I were to be employed full time. Three and a half weeks paid vacation, a weeks unpaid vacation, some of the best medical and dental coverage around. Sometimes it is really hard to make myself dig in, quit this job and move onto something more worth while. At the end of the day I know three and half weeks vacation only really amounts to $2500, nothing compared with what business school will cost me. Still the thought of lying on a beach whilst being paid is some how incredibly appealing.
However I have my resolve, I have already started my internship and know I am heading down the right path.

I am definitely not going to cave in and watch Prison Break tonight. Such rubbish, and yet easily to be drawn into I know.

I was shocked with the Emmy results last night- how on earth did 24 win anything- it is just really really bad television, and how it could win where there are pretty decent shows like Lost, House MD and of course the West Wing (which really should have won). Then there was the most ridiculous of all- Kiefer Sutherland after being denied best actor several years in a row suddenly won for his performance as Jack Bauer- yikes. What exactly did he do better this time?

I don't really understand why these awards exist at all, they are utterly meaningless. The only thing which made any sense was Alan Alda's win- very much deserved.

I went to my proposed internship tonight after work. Met a few more people in the company and looked at some projects I could get involved with. It all seems very positive. They are very aware of my needs and trying to work with them accordingly. I think there is probably a lot I can learn and get out of this opportunity- still taking things kind of slow seems like a good idea for now.

Watched the season 2 premier of Prison Break last night. Utterly awful. I will be happy to give this years season a miss.

Firstly- the last season ended with the prisoners in the dead of night, surrounded by helicopters and police and just totally about to be caught. How would they escape we all wondered. Well, it seems we will never find out as the writers obviously had no clue either. Next thing we see it is daylight and they are still running from the police, the helicopters, the cars etc. Totally ludicrous. They then manage to throw off their pursuers with the aid of running in front of a mile long train- the oldest cliche in a book.

This all followed by a ridiculous FBI agent who makes unbelievable leaps in logic to follow Schofield's every move. And of course a plot all too much a rip off of the Fugitive.

The only good thing I can say is that they killed off the moronic Veronica.

I went to look at the internship tonight. It seems really interesting , a great bunch of young people in an amazing startup with a great concept. Definitely something I could get my teeth into. they were however very reluctant for me to quit my job and join them. They are currently looking for investors, if this doesn't happen it is likely the company won't really get its feet off the ground.

Still it does seem like soemthing very exciting to be a part of, and I would definitely learn a lot and be able to push myself into new skill sets. If the company does get off the ground then who knows- maybe even a job down the line.

It is an interesting decision, I don't feel like I would have too much too loose even if they don't make it. Worst case scenario I go back and find another admin job. You neve rknow what doors will open for you until you get there.

To start out I am going to just go in there a couple of nights a week, without quitting my job. then I will be able to make an informed decision.

Pet Peeve of the week:

I really hate it so much when people send me a group e-mail that starts: "Sorry you guys for sending a group e-mail, I really hate group e-mails but its just the only way I can keep up, the only way I can write to everyone"

Of course it is, it is the same for everyone, that is the reason people send group e-mails! All that you do by starting this way is to make everyone who ever sent you a group e-mail feel really bad about it, whilst conveniencing yourself with this handy solution to keeping in touch.

Arrgh!

Still considering the internship possibility. One thing I keep coming back to is that this time in life must be for education, not quite at any cost, but almost that way. It will be so hard to learn later on in life. I am not learning much right now as an admin assistant. I mean I have discovered a world of mail merge and every other facet of Microsoft Office that will no doubt be useful in the future, but I think that I have almost reached a brick wall.
This internship I may not learn too much, but surely I will learn something, and possibly a lot. It will open new avenues of thought for me, stimulate new ideas, make me aware of a world of business perviously closed to me.
The lack of income shouldn't concern me too much, college can be $30,000 a year, and this wil be free....

I just had my first real conversation with the head of the start up company I may be interning at. He wanted to make sure to give me some disclaimers about working at a start-up company like his before we get anything started. His warnings were that a) there's not really money for the company to grow at the moment as they are currently seeking investors, b) there's very little delegation and no 'employees' so to speak since the company in its current form is only made up of a few people and c) I would probably be given very open-ended projects with little direction (which I think would be very good for my development). Now the plan is to come by and check the place out with some more face-to-face time.

I'm somewhat on the fence with this internship. On the one hand, it sounds like a fulfilling field as well as a lot of room for creativity and challenges. At the same time, however, it is a significant investment of time, energy and potential money (since I'm working for free instead of somewhere else) without any guarantee of what I will be able to get out of the experience, both in terms of learning and my resume. Hopefully this introductory meeting will help the decision-making process.

Well I have one new angle to peruse in the internship spectrum. I have been hoping for a while to get involved in a small business where I could make my mark and get the feel for what a young start up is like. I wasn't quite sure how to go about this, but fortunately I now have a contact in just what I have been looking for. It is a small company that works with both charities and local business for the mutual benefit of both. As a start-up I hope that interning there may well lead to me being given more responsibility than prehaps would occur at a larger organization,

Well I shouldn't get ahead of myself, but this does look promising

Okay,

Decided that interships are teh way to go- at least to figure out what on earth it is I want to do with my life. So- I have volunteer training at Project Wildlife this wednesday which should at least give me some idea if working with animals is really as appealing as it sounds, then I am looking around for an internship in a political office (most likely city council) another interst of mine. I've doen the cooking thing and definitely decided it wasn't forme, the only remaining area seems to be to get some experience in the business world, see if I like it and then gain enough experince t apply for my MBA.
It seems the economy is slowing and joblessness is on the rise, which makes it all the more important for me to pick the right career I think, and certainly to get the relevant experience ASAP.

New Business idea:

A bit of background-
when I would first go to my now wife's parent's house one thing I was a little surprised by were the strings and srings of pleated garlic hanging all over the kitchen, I hadn't really seen such things before. There were strings of onions also all pleated together by thier leaves. Aparantly every time the family would go abroad to Spain or Portugal they would pick up loads of these strings and bring them home as gifts for friends, and of course to decorate thier own kitchen. They would buy them from local markets, villagers having strung them together. Of course these strings never quite work for me and my wife, we get through the garlic and certainly the onions so fast that the strings never last too long. However they look nice and certainly add a rustic feel to a kitchen. So when I spied a few at our local farmers market this weekend I wandered over to get a look, thinking I might buy a string. Then I saw the price tag......... $22! and this was for the tiniest string, only about 10 heads of garlic. I couldn't believe they could get way with charging that much.

So simply idea-undercut these idiots. Maybe this business idea is not for me- but someone who has a piece of land- grow some garlic string it up and get selling!

So I started doing a bit of a search for internships today- just to see what is out there and my main conclusion- WetFeet.com sucks! Everyone had told me this is the ebst place to look for internships but it is just awful, so commercial and only comes up with those scammy internships they show you on craigslist where you work for "environmental groups" and basically stand on the street with a clip board.
Still google it seems is a much better tool for this than Wet Feet, and I found agood list of internships in the Bay Area which is where I may well be living.
gspp.berkeley.edu/career_resources/docs/intstats_2006.pdf

Maybe I can also try Craigslist up there as it seems to be a lot better than the one we have down here (Not that I am moaning San Diego Craigslist- you are great on the furniture side of things just not so hot with jobs and volunteer oppertunities.)

Still feeling very unsure of myself and the future- getting conflicting advice coming in from all over the place.

I have been talking to people who say you should not even bother applying for an MBA unless you have 5 years work experience- 3 years being the absolute minimum.

Other people have been telling me how useless a Masters Degree in Policy would be and how it isn't worth the money.

I just don't know- it seems like one of the best things that comes out of either of these is the contacts and the internships. So now I am starting to think if this really is the bet thing to come out can I not just do the internships without the high tuition costs and the seemingly almost useless piece of paper at the end? I am going to start looking around for internships and see if this would be a possibility- if it doesn't work out I can always apply the year after.

So one more year and I will be half way to fifty. Yikes I am getting old, 24 is probably time to start making some decisions. I feel like there is nothign I am sure about anymore, like I am undeciding things more than deciding.

I don't have a clue about career yet, which means I don't know what education path to get myself on.

I don't know where I want to live- I thought it was San Diego, but then now I think probably not, I thought it was California at least, but now I think I am not even sure about that, I'm not even sure if I want to live on the West Coast. I uess we are pretty sure we want to live in the US, but even then sometimes we change our minds.

I think we are pretty sure we want three kids- but if there was ever anything as unrealiable and almost unplannable as that.... and even if we do have three kids how can we afford them.

Hmm, I thought life would get less confusing as I got older, not more.

Today we decided to make a big lifestyle change in the pursuit of happiness.
Stop watching the shows we watch all the time, stop with any unhealthy food/ and other such habits, start conciously saving money. My wife wants to get rid of the TV altogether but I'm not sure about that yet.
On the proactive side, go out for more walks, go to the zoo more, go to the beach occasionally, go hiking, camping, snorkelling. All very idealistic probably but I think we should give it a shot. stop feeling so lazy and tired all the time and start to refuel our energy.

I celebrated my 1st wedding anniversary this weekend- an impressive feat I feel, we have at least beaten all the celebrities. In truth it all went by rather quickly, and it amazes me that peoples marriages could ever last less than a year. I guess those are the people who sit around not doing too much else, with tons of time to over analyze.

Anyway my wedding anniversary made me come up with a great new business idea- well it seems it has already partly been done- but I think I could do it better. For those of you (most likely guys) who don't know, each wedding anniversary corresponds to a different material. 1st year is paper, 25th silver etc. Now there are also "modern anniversaries"

Traditional / Modern
1 Paper/ Clocks
2 Cotton / China
3 Leather / Crystal, Glass
4 Linen / Appliances
5 Wood / Silverware
6 Iron / Wood
7 Wool / Desk Sets
8 Bronze / Linens, lace
9 Pottery / Leather
10 Tin / Diamond
11 Steel / Fashion Jewelry
12 Silk / Colored Gems
13 Lace / Textiles
14 Ivory / Gold Jewelry
15 Crystal / Watches
20 China / Platinum
25 Silver / Sterling Silver
30 Pearl / Diamond
35 Coral / Jade
40 Ruby / Ruby
45 Sapphire / Sapphire
50 Gold / Gold
55 Emerald / Emerald
60 Diamond / Diamond


Personally I think the modern ones are a bit dumb- (desk sets? clocks?) plus they have diamonds 3 times, when the only time a diamond might possibly be worth buying would be after 60 years of marriage.

Anyhow here is the idea, create a web business that not only provides great ideas for dealing with all these anniversary gift types, but also sells you some of the ideas. Now this About site almost does this, but I think it could be made much more fun, appealing, and commercial (non offensive commercial) surely just what any guy has been looking for.

My mom's thoughts:

seems like the thrust of response to this world cup has been sadness of defeat.
who would have that that uber-successful Beckham would evoke such
sympathy. But the photos of his response to the loss, his
resignation, even the photo of him returning to England with "wife and
child" were so sad. Joy, such as Ghana's at making it to the initial
rung of the finals matches, fades to the past.
Germany who handled loss with such dignity and acceptance, good words
to say for the Italians even, just took away from the fun of Italy
pulling through. Now I am unrealistically thinking maybe scores
shouldn't count unless unless at least 15 minutes are given to the
other team to respond pull something together) plus Italy also has
these game fixing allegations to deal with
Brasil, whom I truly hoped would win -- at least somebody from
another continent should be there at the end -- seemed to evoke the
least sadness -- I was stunned and in disbelief --I love the fun and
enjoyable skill show-off-ness that can be part of Brasil's play ---
but I did not feel the tragedy of defeat. Is that because of less
coverage and media sympathy/empathy for non-first world/European
countries? Or because the assumption that they will be there strong
again next world cup, so a loss is just a little blip.. Or maybe that
the game still has more elements of fun there?
is the world cup too big, with too much riding on these single games.
luck/serendipity can be such a large part of a too highly evaluated
prize. It needs to be more fun, more communal joy, less tragedy.

I thought it might be interesting now the world cup is over to post some thoughts from my friends and family as to how it all went.

Here for a start are my wife's thoughts:

It was really quite a disappointing world cup. Not so much because chosen teams didn't get through (although that didn't help), but there was just a lack of excitement, very few goals scored, very denfensive football being played and far far too much coming down to chance alone. I didn't think any of the teams in the semi finals deserved to win the world cup. I guess we had been hyping it up after having so much fun last world cup and this was a little disappointing.
I think our situation didn't help things either- last world cup we were in England on a break from school, watched all the games live (usually along with Ben, Harriet, my dad and my uncle Stephen). This year we often watched in the evensong after the games had been played (which for me somehow is not so much fun), almost always by ourselves, and were deprived of the excitement of a surrounding Nation. Even at Little Italy on Sunday we found many of the people were just there to party, or be belligerent rather than actually watch the game.
I think I am changing a lot too- I don't think sport deserves the emotional energy and substantial time I used to give it. When I was 16 years old I was the most fanatic football fan. Going to all the Cambridge United games I could, watching every Premiership match on the TV, the European matches, everything. I knew every player, every back story- I loved it so much.
However after a few years- mainly after taking a break from it all in Brazil, I realized that it was not worth my time and energy. The leagues I especially found to be so transient. There was no real loyalty- players who had been at a club for years would suddenly start to play for their arch rivals, provided they were paid enough. In the end the league came down to how much money a club had and which players they could buy. Interesting for some perhaps, but increasingly not my thing.
This being the case I still loved international soccer as this was where the loyalty still existed, this is where people really played with passion for their country, selflessly wanting to win for their fans and their nation. Such a sense of camaraderie.
I think this is till the case, but there was too much bitter disappointment in this World Cup- only Ghana and Italy came out winners. Last time around Northern Ireland did tremendously well, so did South Korea, and Brazil of course. England didn't go too far, but we beat our deadly rivals Argentina and the country was in carnival mode. Somehow there seemed less of those minor successes this world cup. I hope I will enjoy it more next year and it is not just that I have grown apart and started to find this a trivial affair.

Had a great day today,

Went down to Little Italy to watch the world cup final. I hadn't actually realized what a huge Italian population San Diego had, they outnumbered the French 100 to 1. A huge screen had been set up in the street, so that all could watch, literally thousands of people were there.

of course along with the good atmosphere you get the bad also. Some guy- who had evidently been drinking since 8am in the morning, was sitting on a chair, and yelling at the 100 or so chairless people in front of him to move out his way as they were blocking his view. This was about the most obnoxious thing I could imagine, and his yelling continued for much of the first half, spoiling the game a little and certainly suggesting that perhaps he wasn't all that interested in watching anyhow.

I was initially supporting Franc- Zidane being my main reason, wanting him to have a good exit out. I have to say I was a little swayed by the huge crowd around me, and my thought of the scenes of celebration- but nothing did more to complete my shift in allegiance than the head but. How sad that it should end like this for him. We expect such things from the youngsters, hot and fiery tempers from the likes of Rooney, Christiano Ronaldo, and the 98 Beckham, that is just part of the world cup. But we do expect these older ones, Figo and Zidanne, the greats of this decade, to set an example, to be sportsmen, It was a shame and left us all with a bad taste in the mouth.

This has been sadly quite a disappointing world cup.

EIN number arrived- already, yay.

I'm actually amazed how quickly it came, I am definitely not used to government doing things at any sort of resaonable pace. My wife's visa, permanent resident card, and work permit have all taken extortionate long to come throuhg- i'm talking years- and yet this one little number came in a matter of days. I guess it shows what this capitalist country values- businesses. And of course not only that, but the government is of course very encouraging of you paying them all the taxes you can.