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Wasn’t sure what to title this post. Plus, I’ve painted myself into a weird corner with this blog, since it’s trafficked by different circles in my very limited social life. I tend not to “emote” here, as you never know who’s peering over my shoulder. Anyway…

Two people I know — people my age — have passed away in the past two days.

One guy I hadn’t seen since high school, but we did spend a lot of time together in chorus. Dave knew everybody, a credit to his vibrant and outgoing personality. To this day I grin ear-to-ear remembering this “angry cat” noise he could make, and how inappropriate and insanely hilarious it was when he did it in an auditorium full of people at State Chorus Competition. He also convinced me that monkeys are truly funny creatures. I never knew what became of him in the last 16 years, but from what I understand, he leaves behind two kids.

Last Sunday, July 13, Greg was in a motorbike accident. I think I last saw Greg September of 2006. I was a few semesters before Greg in our fraternity at UCF, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time around him, and I don’t have a lot of memories, unfortunately. He was a close friend to several close friends, though, and it’s heartbreaking to hear their pain. He leaves behind a wife, Jaime, a beautiful daughter, Kerri Ann, and an unborn child. Jaime has provided daily updates to friends and family; she has shown amazing strength in a situation that no person should have to live through. Her update for today:

This morning at 10:30am, I told the love of my life that it was okay to let go. And, for once in his life, he actually listened to me. I told him that we needed our own personal angel looking out for us. He did wait for us to get there and to spend time with him. And then he did wait for me to say it was okay. After he was gone, he had a smile on his face. He is in a much better place. He deserves to have a nice healthy body in heaven, then hell on earth. The chances of him being back to the Greg we all knew and loved were very slim.

It’s so very cliche for me to say, but it makes you realize how short and fragile life is. I’m thankful for the time I was able to spend with them. Rest in peace.

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Link: Brief Report: The Name “Monticello”

Twice within the same day I heard someone pronounce Jefferson’s Monticello as Monti-chello instead of Monti-sell-o. I may be going insane (and I feel like I make that disclaimer a lot), but I remember pronouncing it the ’sello’ way growing up. But yeah… if it’s pronounced like the Italians would say it, then the ‘c’ would have a ‘ch’ sound. Like cinque or tasty limoncello… or cinque limoncello, per favore.

How did you learn it? Cello or chello?

ps. I now have the following ‘30 Rock’ quote stuck in my head:
“It’s not Bi-anka like Sanka. It’s Bianca like Willy Wonka.” - Jack

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Someone, somewhere, has the following on their resume:

Achievements
Member, Funky Bunch.1991-1993

References
“Marky Mark” Wahlberg.

Filed under: Randomness, Uncategorized |

Last time we were in Manhattan, we visited these restaurants. Posted here so I’ll remember!

Spring Street Natural Restaurant. 62 Spring String (corner of Lafayette). http://www.springstreetnatural.com. The place was packed when we arrived (Friday around 8?), but by the grace of God we got a table for 10 almost immediately. Had a great experience here.

Bice. 7 East 54th St. http://www.bicenewyork.com. An excellent Italian restaurant. I had beef carpaccio appetizer and some sort of pasta for main. Dessert was a nice single malt. Service and food were tops here.

Gallo Nero. 404 W. 44th St. (btwn 9th & 10th Aves.). http://www.gallonerony.com. We were starved after our Circle Line trip around Manhattan and happened upon this place mid-afternoon. Small, intimate; this would be a nice date place for me and Sher some evening. Nice looking wine selection, and my clams fettucini was excellent. I took this picture there.

Iroha Restaurant. 152 W. 49th Street (btwn 6th & 7th Aves.). Kick-ass sushi place near where we usually stay. What more do I need to say?

Filed under: Travels |

Article: Orlando Sentinel: The party’s over at Pleasure Island: Disney to shut down 6 nightclubs

I have mixed feelings about this. During my time working at Walt Disney World, Pleasure Island on Thursday nights was predictably entertaining. The sentimentalist in me will miss PI.

However, there are many reasons this probably for the best. For one, it’s not the P.I. that I knew. The small stage at the center of P.I. is gone, and they don’t celebrate New Years’s Eve every night. When I went a few weeks ago, the clubs were, while not empty, definitely not up to late ’90’s standard. And, ultimately, the Disney execs are right: it doesn’t fit in with Downtown Disney as it stands today. As a pure business decision, it’s probably a good one to shutter and re-imagine P.I.

This represents a huge opportunity for someone else, however. There’s a shortage of decent entertainment choices in the LBV area for young and/or single people. When I lived there, we found ourselves having to trek to downtown Orlando, to various Ale Houses, to Hunter’s Creek, to I-Drive, or to Universal CityWalk for entertainment. And all of those were compromises. Perhaps some business-minded person will create an entertainment complex to satisfy all the bored Cast Members.

One last note. I’d hope that the Imagineering powers-that-be will consider keeping the Adventurers Club and Comedy Warehouse, and think about bringing back a jazz club.

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We had a small fire today at work in the bathroom. Some sort of electrical short caught a light on fire. Fortunately one of my guys was in there when it happened, so we was able to grab an extinguisher and swing in to action.

Still, the fire department was called as a precaution.

I made sure to grab the backup tapes before leaving the building.

Filed under: Pictures |

Brian in Venice

Originally uploaded by bbhart

This photo will always crack me up ’cause it looks like SUCH an obvious Photoshop job because of the lighting.

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I canceled Age of Conan today. It felt… I don’t know… clunky. The camera never seemed to pan right, my character would get hung up walking on planks (like on a dock), there were loading screens all over the place (even going in to the inn), some of the classes didn’t seem balanced (gl leveling your bear shaman), and so on.

I’ll keep the game installed for the time being. Maybe I’ll fire it up in 6 months and see what they’ve added or fixed. But for now, I’m done.

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As you may recall reading, I bought myself an iMac awhile ago. My intention was to use it as my full-time work PC, no matter how painful it would be initially, so that I could learn the ins and outs of OSX.

It’s been death by a thousand cuts.

* Mouse acceleration. It’s just f’d. Mouse feel sluggish or sticky. It takes more effort and concentration to position the pointer than I’d like. Google ‘osx mouse’ to see what I mean. This is the dealbreaker for me at this point. Argh.
* Home/End keys. They don’t go to the beginning or end of a line.
* No decent Exchange client. Thus, I need to run Outlook 2007 in a VM instead. Works pretty well, until I need to deal with attachments. Then it sucks.
* Switching between applications. Switching between windows in the same application. Between Ctrl/Tab, Option/Tab, and Command/Tab, I can’t keep them straight. I’d swear there aren’t any standards between applications.
* Showing the Applications folder is sloooow.
* Many other things.

I had such high hopes for OSX, but at this point it’s impacting my work, so if you need me, I’ll be booted into Windows.

Filed under: Technology |

Took the GMAT today. The score was right around what I expected, and I was able to add 50 points to what I scored in a practice exam by using a study guide. Still, I feel like I did much worse on the math part than expected. It was as if they took the concepts I have the hardest time with and strung them together for 37 questions. I finished with 10 seconds left, having to guess on the last three questions. Also, I spent two minutes on one question where I’m CONVINCED the right answer wasn’t there… I’m hoping that was one of the throw-away questions.

On the other hand, I felt confident with both essays, and I rocked the verbal stuff. I used up the full time allotment for each essay. The reading comprehension and sentence correction section was wrapped up with 30 minutes to spare. Easy.

Sigh. I called Sherri on the drive home and told her I thought I did good but not great. Obviously I’m unhappy with the math section… and that was where I spent 90%+ of my study time.

So it goes.

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