Mar.12.2005
The last few months have been a blur, almost all in a good way, though. To start with, in February I got an offer from Banc of America Securities for a summer internship in NYC. I'll be working there as a summer analyst in their debt markets sales and trading division. So, that means I'll be living it up for 10 weeks this summer in NYC.

This past week was our spring break. Like last year, I spent it in Cancun. This year turned out to be so awesome I don't have the words to describe it. Five friends and I had some truly unforgetable experiences at the beach, clubs, restaurants, and everything else there. We saw Fat Joe perform at a club and also went to a club event hosted by Girls Gone Wild. On our way back, we managed to have our flight delayed by two hours, causing us to have to spend the night in the Virginia back-country in a conference center and "resort." Even that turned out to be pretty fun, though, and the extra travel vouchers we got from United made it worth the stay.

Tonight I had dinner at Red Sky Lounge in downtown Philly - completely amazing dining experience. I think it was the best restaurant I've been to in Philly for at least the past few months.

Dec.20.2004
Geez, it's been AGES since my last post. But anyway, life as been busy and generally good in the last few months. I'll go over some of the highlights. Since, October, I've been on a couple trips to Atlantic City (both were quite fun), gotten a free LCD and iPod (I just so happened to fry my iPod though, so I'm going to exchange it for a new one), went to several awesome restaurants, got my first real g/f at Penn, had a lot of wild nights and great dancing, didn't do too hot on a few tests, played in an intramural volleyball league, and maybe learned a thing or two. I've met a lot of new people this semester, and looking back, that will probably be the best thing to come out of the last few months. Today we got the first snow of the year in Philly. I have two finals left on Wednesday, and then it's back to Pittsburgh for me. And speaking about Pittsburgh, how about the 13-1 Steelers this year; people are going nuts back home, with just cause this year. What do I want for Christmas this year? Well, if I could one thing, it would be a summer internship in NYC. Hopefully something good will come out of the psycho-intense period of interviewing coming my way in January-February. I hope everyone has a wonderful time over the holidays. Peace (and goodwill to all mankind).

Sep.24.2004
I thought I'd better make a quick update about what's going on. Today the Kerry campaign made a stop at Penn. And I attended the rally for the heck of it. Besides the acquired sunburn, it was pretty good. Not that I'll be voting for Kerry or anything, but the atmosphere was exciting nonetheless.

Classes are fairly difficult as always, but I have a nice amount of free time this semester, so that's all good.

Nothing that unusual has happened so far this semester....maybe that's a good thing, but then again, I could definitely go for a dose of drama in my life. We'll see what the next few weeks bring.

Aug.26.2004
Just when I think I'm updating with semi-decent frequency, I go and do this, geez. Summer is just about over now, for me. I'll be heading back to UPenn on September first. But before getting to that, I should recap about the last couple months.

On July 3rd, I turned 21! So, that instantly made life a bit more exciting, as should be the social scene of the upcoming school year. I went on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with a bunch of relatives in July. That was a lot of fun - tons of great food, Spanish chicas, and other fine things. I've been working at the bank 5-6 days a week, and I really shouldn't call it "the bank" because it's much more like a different bank of around 12 in the greater Pittsburgh area each day. But, except for the massive amount of time it occupies, I haven't minded working there much.

In the last few weeks, Akash and I have ordered parts and built ourselves steller new desktops. If you are into PC specs, some highlights on my system are: AMD 64 3500+, 1gb corsair xms pc3200, 74gb raptor hd (10k rpm), 120gb hd (7200rpm), geforce 6800 ultra (yeah, wanted to get a GT, but lack of supply forced me to settle for this), 17" LCD, and of course some spiffy blue/red cathode lights. I'll probably add a photo soon.

Akash and I have also been busy working on a project that I have hinted about. Since we are going to anounce it soon, I might as well let it slip...Spoono is going to start its own hosting company with a very solid and affordable hosting deal. We are hoping to fully launch the service in September.

Lastly, I'll be heading back to school next week into a very sweet 4 bedroom apartment with three other friends. I'm more excited about going back this year than I ever have been in the past.

That about does it for this edition of Brian's so-called life. Catch ya next time.

June.22.2004
The last month has went by pretty fast, and I can't say I have all that much to show for it. But, summer has been nice and relaxing so far. Working as a teller is fairly easy, and you tend to meet some characters during the job, so I don't mind it. In less than two weeks I'm going to have the last birthday I'll ever need...I'll turn 21! Thrilling stuff, no doubt. The weekend after that I'm taking a trek to Cedar Point with a friend. World's tallest roller coaster, here I come :o). And the week of July 17, a bunch of relatives and I are going on a cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. I can't wait for that. At night, I've been working on a very cool future project of Spoono which we'll explain in the near future. That's the highlights for now. I hope you are all enjoying the summer and getting a better tan than I am.

May.14.2004
Today's my last of total vacation...next week a start work as bank teller for PNC, which is sure to be thrilling. I got my second semester grades a few days ago and it was pretty ugly as expected - got my first C at Penn. But really, there's more to life than that, I'm over it. I'd just like to mention that anyone who whines about how brutal our military and allies are to Iraqis disgusts me. These people should start their own colony on some remote island. Summer's nice, but as expected, I'm already missing people from Philly. It's also sad that some of my friends from home are away for the summer and won't be back until August. That will give my more time to work on Spoono, though, so there are some benefits. Another good thing to look forward to is I turn 21 in 7 weeks...exciting stuff.

May.8.2004
Yesterday I finished my last final..so my sophomore year of college has come to a close. So, it's back to Pittsburgh and my local habitat. On the way home I got some pretty awful news. My dog, Jingles, was put to sleep last week because she had cancer of the kidneys and some other complications. So, that was about as depressing as can be. She was 13 (which is 91 in doggie years, so she wasn't a young pup). At least she will live in the hearts and minds of Spoono viewers forever in the Photoshop Masking Tutorial. *Sighs*

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

    - Counting Crows

March.29.2004
Last week was particularly brutal...three midterms, none of which I did all that well on. But at least in 39 days the roughest semester of my college career will be over. This weekend I had some pretty cool first experiences: I went to a club called Transit for the first time and saw a hip hop dance group shake their collective groove thing...went to a new Mexican place that opened up down the street - good food, but not quite Cancun...had my first experience with dim sum - the Chinese foodfest that most often occurs on weekends where all kinds of different carts come around to your table and you get to choose any food you want from them. This upcoming week is going to be dedicated to letting Brian recover. It’s about time I start sleeping and going to the gym again. Another thought of note: warm weather and everything associated with it rocks.

March.12.2004
After Cancun, everything else in life seems boring. I had a totally amazing time over spring break. Everything about Cancun - the nightclubs, food, beaches, people, prices, and weather all rocked. Next year, if I go back, I'll make sure to stay at least a week because leaving is a very sad experience.

Feb.22.2004
My two and a half weeks of midterm madness is over, thankfully. It's kind of sad how low my propensity to do work has fallen, but whatever. I had a pretty full weekend so far...went to a Carnaval party at Coyote Ugly, went to a karaoke joint for the first time, and took a shopping trip to Chinatown and other places. Life is good and getting better.

Feb.15.2004
I had fun this weekend...went to a friend's birthday bash and a restaurant/club called Toto's for the first time for a pretty cool Valentine's Day party. The coming week should be one of my heaviest of the semester, workwise, but afterward there will be smooth sailing until spring break. Speaking of spring break, today 5 friends and I just booked an incredible 4 night trip to CANCUN! I'm psyched as hell...but now I really gotta start hitting the gym :o).

Feb.07.2004
Another jam packed week has come and gone. On the less exciting side of things, midterms and other intense work has started for me. On the more exciting side, I visited NYC today with a club and toured Citigroup's investment banking division. On the extreme exciting side, my roommate just won freaking $3000 (correction...$4000 total now a day later) playing baccarat online! So, there is definitely going to be some to-be-decided celebration at hand. Ah, gotta love weekends.

Jan.31.2004
I came home this weekend for a job interview on Friday. It seemed to go pretty well, but I'll find out about it in March. I was also hoping to get either some school work or Spoono work done, but that just didn't happen. Life is too short not to enjoy it, right. Well, I did end up enjoying another most excellent weekend.

Jan.28.2004
I've done so much in the first two weeks of this semester that feels like it has been two months. Last weekend was especially great. One of my closest friends visited an I really had an amazing time - great food, clubbing, and almost everything else you could put into a perfect weekend.

Jan.22.2004
Whewww, I missed posting about a lot in the last month, so I'll recap. My Las Vegas trip was pretty awesome. I ended up breaking even overall, but had some luck/skill playing Texas Hold'em and at the craps table while I was there. The Bellagio was beautiful in every way possible. After that, I had some good times with my ol' high school buddies and Akash and I were able to launch Spoonloads. Then a week and a half ago, I came back to Philly and a hellish schedule of classes. Things are going pretty well though at the moment. Last weekend, I went on a ski trip up in the Poconos. Lots of good times were had by all...I impressed myself by only falling once (and that wasn't even on a hill :o). I've been attending all kinds of finacial services company presentations the last few weeks. Unfortunately, it seems like almost all of them are seeking juniors only for summer internships. I'll see what shakes out though. The stock market has been rocking lately, and I'm loving it. Today I witnessed my first ever Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown...lions, drums, and fire-crackers, oh my. It was really quite cool. That's it for now...time for some much overdue sleep.

Dec.24.2003
It feels good to be home and even better to not have any classes to think about. Last night on a whim, my family decided it's about time we take a trip to Las Vegas, so I'm in for a thilling jont to the Bellaggio from Dec 29-31...am I excited...very. So as if Christmas wasn't already cool enough, things just got a little better. I also managed to see the new LOTR and Last Samuri lately...both we're quality movies, I thought. Well, I gotta go do a little last minute present wrapping, so to anyone who reads this in time, Merry Christmas!

Dec.18.2003
Well, just one final left and I'll be going back home. Right now I feel kind of low and really empty in about every way possible. Hopefully the holidays will be able to help out the situation. I think seeing people leave and/or leaving yourself is one of the worst feelings in the world.

Oct.28.2003
Whew, due to a rough case of midtermitis, I haven't posted about quite a bit. Let's start with 3 weeks ago, during what Upenn calls fall break, or what could more appropriately be referred to as a Monday and Tuesday off. On Friday, after class, my roommate Aaron and I were sitting around thinking about what were going to do on the long weekend. Then, about 25 minutes and a hotel reservation later, we were on our way to Atlantic City. Let me just say it was amazing. Having never been to Vegas, AC had the most resort/casino real estate together I have ever seen. The resort we stayed at, the Tropicana, was spectacular is just about every way. Some highlights of the trip included when I won 1000 nickels on a slot machine and Aaron gave a fast punch in the air of jubilation. In the middle of this jubilation, a middle aged woman, who also happened to be looking on as I was playing, had the misfortune of positioning her face in the direct path of Aaron's fist. After a couple minutes of recovery, the woman was able to safely walk away. Some other highlights were some stellar blackjack and craps play by myself, and the $60 buy-in Texas-Hold'em poker tournament Aaron and I played in - Aaron surviving a good bit longer than I did. The $2000 some first prize made our dorm room games seem a little, well, small.

Then, after we returned from 24 hours of paradise, Aaron, I, and another friend, Jeff, hopped on yet another train to NYC, another place I had never been, but certainly should have. We saw all the sites, like times square, ground zero, Wall Steet, Chinatown, etc, stopped by a more than a little questionable night club, and basically lived it up. NYC is definitely a hip place. I definitely wouldn't mind getting an internship or future job there. We'll see about that.

Back at Penn, the days are growing darker, tests are becoming more frequent, and fun is becoming less abundant. However, not all is bad. So far, I enjoy my finance and accounting classes for the most part. They may end up being my concentrations of choice, unless I go with operations and info managment in place of accounting. We'll see though, still have quite a bit of time to deside. Today the Wharton Investment Club's stock simulation started. I'm looking forward to tearing that up and hopefully bringing home the PS2 first prize and priceless glory that comes with it. That's about it for now. It's nice knowing that Thanksgiving break is just around the corner. Hopefully then, Akash and I will have time to get some major Spoono work done.

Sep.18.2003
A lot as happened in the last few months that I have rather shamefully forgot to post about, so I'll just mention some highlights. I went on my first cruise ever with 9 other relatives. It was a blast. I'd go on another one in an instant. Some high school friends and I went on leg two of the baseball adventure. This time we took a road trip and saw baseball games in Baltimore and Philly. I spent a lot of very late nights working on Spoono, and happily we got version 4 finished right as Akasha and I went back to college. Penn has been great so far this year. The high-rise I'm living in got renovated last year and now it is pretty much the hottest place to live on campus. It's chic as ever now. My new room on the 17th floor is great. Now we have huge windows and a nice view of the main drag of the campus and part of downtown Philly. Classes are generally better this semester (as least so far it looks that way), since I'm able to start taking classes that I am actually interested in. At the moment, we are just starting to feel the effects of Hurricane Isabel, so it's somewhat exciting. Hopefully, when I go to the gym later tonight I'll get to experience what a real storm feels like.

May.25.03
Summer is here, and it's fantastic. I came two weeks ago today. At the moment, my week days are being spent interning at the South Hills (of Pittsburgh) Merrill Lynch office and my nights cranking out Spoono work or something even more fun. I like it so far at Merrill, though I don't think I could ever be a retail stock broker. At least I'm learning a lot there. I played golf with Akash yesterday, and it was the first time I've golfed in about two years. To my surprise, my skills were as sharp as ever. I think I've actually improved in my long absence from the game. Now I guess I'm going to have to go more often.

Apr.28.03
College without class is glorious. I've had time to do a lot lately, but one of the most unusual things happened right here in my room. Last night my roommate Aaron and I were up until 4 AM (for God knows why) standing up 150 coins on our warped kitchen table. Dimes and quarters are hard as hell, yet we prevailed in no less than 3 hours of determined effort, including one complete toppling. I added a photo to the pic of the moment.

Apr.24.03
I'm all better! And what is even cooler than that is the fact that tomorrow is my last day or regular class. How exciting. Yesterday I experienced one of those why-the-hell-did-I-forget-my-camera moments. Maria Bartiromo, the CNBC news ancor (aka the Money Honey) came to our campus to speak. Naturally, a friend and I sat in the front row a mere 8 feet from her while she was speaking. I must say, she definitely lived up to all my expectations. If only I had brought my camera, I could have gotten my picture taken with her. Oh well, there are worse tragedies in life.

Today was also rather eventful. I managed to have my Penn Card eaten by an ATM today in a similar to fashion to the way my debit card was swallowed last Thursday and in effect not unlike the way my credit card was accidentially deactivated today. Suffice it to say, it is a complex story. I am now guarding the remaining 4 cards in my wallet with the utmost caution. I can tell you this much, ATMs and like machines of the world, the only way you'll be getting my driver's license is prying it from my COLD, LIFELESS HANDS! Things will most likely be corrected tomorrow, so no need to worry.

Apr.13.03
Spring is here technically, though you might not be able tell judging from Philadelphia's weather. At the moment, I can't help but be a little depressed. I've had a pretty brutal illness for 8 days now, and I can't seem to get rid of the cough and stuffed-like-no-other nose it has left me with. Everything in life seems to be in limbo for the moment from schoolwork to the economic outlook to the warfront to my health to personal relationships to my future to the future of Spoono, for goodness sake. I'm just tired. I can't wait to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Feb.17.03
We are in the middle of getting the biggest snow storm Philadelphia has had in ten years. Live is glorious! College is closed for the day, and celebration is at hand. In the next few weeks, I'm going to have a wicked load of work, but not today!

This is not some paradise. It’s just where we live.

    - Our Lady Peace

Jan.9.03
Only two more days left before I head back to school. I've really been enjoying winter break, although I'll be happy to see all my Penn chums again. I would like to take some new photos and upload them here, but sillly me left the battery charger and the PC connecting wire to my digital camera at in my dorm room. Oh well. Some other news of note...I went skiiing for the first time last week, and it rocked. Next time, I'll have to give snowboarding a try.

Dec.22.02
I'm home!!!! The last few weeks were intense to the core, but at the same time, quite thrilling. It feels great to be done with my classes. For the most part, I did pretty well. Now I'm off until January 13th. It's like summer in the middle of winter. Life is beautiful.

Now I have time to relax, catch up with friends, and finally work on Spoono. On a side note, I must say Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is incredible. I highly recommend seeing it.

Oct.29.02
Last Friday Vice-President Cheney visited Penn to speak at a private dedication cerimony for the ridiculously massive new Huntsman Hall, which houses almost all of the business classes. Needless to say, there was quite a protest on the surrounding streets. On my way to class I happened to find myself right in the middle of all the action. I really wish I would have had my camera with me to take some photos. I am against basically everything the protesters were yelling about, but that's another story. The apparent week of celebrities visiting our campus continues tomorrow when Rudy Guiliani comes to visit. In addition to the formal speech he will be giving (which I couldn't get tickets for), he and Chris Matthews are going to be filming an episode of Hardball on campus. I'll be there in the audience - should be exciting. The workload thrust upon me right now, is possibly the greatest I've ever had since I've been going to school. There's no need to worry though. I will overcome...hopefully in a living state.

Sep.20.02
College is spectacular. It really is. I've met tons of great people and had blast so far. I didn't expect that it would drain so much of my time away from working on Spoono and other such things I used to do, but maybe things will change when I get fully adjusted. Philadelphia rocks. There is so much to do at all hours of day and night. My room is very very cool. We have the largest quad room of the group of people I hang out with, so most activities usually starts or ends at our pad. It's definitely a prime place to chill. Classes are a good bit more difficult than those I had in high school, but I think I should be able to survive. It has been a very late and adverturous night...I believe my bed is calling me.

Aug.23.02
In a few hours I will leave for the journey known as the rest of my life. I am truly excited about the all the new opportunies, people, and places that will be presented to me, but I cannot help but feel saddened with I think about eveything that I must leave behind. As I depart, I will leave you with this:

In My Life

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends
I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
there is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

    - The Beatles

Aug.22.02
Well tonight I had what will probably be my last horra in Pittburgh, a party at my friend's sister's house. Nothing all that unusual happened, just all around good times. The place said sister lives in is rather exciting. She lives on the so called "free block" located right by Carnegie Mellon where you pay no rent at all, just for utilities. It's quite the hopping place, anyway. Yesterday all the new CMU students arrived. So as we were cruising around, it was funny to see the lost and terrified freshman (mostly Asian I might add at CMU) walking aimlessly around the area in packs of ten. The thought of me being like them in a few days was downright terrifying. Heh, but I know I won't end up like that. In fact, now I'll know to take any measures necessary to make sure I'm not :o).

Aug.19.02
Ah, my first blog post. The last week of my life hasn't been all that interesting. It was mostly spent working on things such as this very web page you are reading. However, two weeks ago I was different. I had a completely amazing time on a Canadian road trip adverture with three of my friends. We drove to Montreal, Toronto, and back. Destinations on the way included to baseball games, a swanky casino (were my friend Matt and I successfully drained the Montreal economy like it was our job), Niagra Falls, etc, etc. I liked both cities, but i must say we did have our share of near-death experiences. In Montreal these experiences mainly consisted of run-ins with the rudest and downright wrathful drivers I've ever seen (they're French, what do you expect I guess :o), and some hardcore punk crowds. In Toronto, we wondered if maybe, we just picked the wrong hotel, but in the four blocks we walked to get to our hotel at 1:30 in the morning, I thought I was in the middle of a Snoop Dogg video. You looked left and there were pimps and whores in flamboyant style, to the right there were ganstas flashing signs out the windows of limosines, and on the streets were people such as a guy passed out with black leather pants, no shirt, and a needle in his hand. We were ialready a little isjointed ourselves that night, so we observed everything with good spirits. I have a couple pictures from the trip in the uploaded here, and you'll find others shots of the cities in the Photo Downloads section. (Unforunately I didn't get to take any of the Toronto streets at night for fear that I would get a cap busted in my skull).

Today I packed a good bit of stuff up for my upcoming dramatic move to the University of Pennsylvania (it's in Philadelphia). I leave on August 24, so T-minus five days and counting. I can't wait. I'm going to be living in a quad apartment with three other guys I can't wait to meet. So, I'm pretty sure good times will be a coming in my life.