Snow in Springtime

I'm a big fan of snow, generally - I think it's pretty and tragically Japanese and all that. But in spring, in Seattle? I'm not sure what to think of this...

Regardless, my third week of business planning is well underway, and goddamn this isn't as easy as they say...ok, never mind, I guess nobody said it would be easy. I haven't even lifted a finger to start up the big business plan project, and I'm already tired. I've plowed most of the way through my first official business book, and have just started trudging through my second - a more concise workbook of sorts. I've got budgeting, market research, financial planning, executive summaries, promotional ideas, taxes and sales tactics coming out my ears. I can confidently say that I have the utmost respect for everyone who has ever attempted this, even if they failed repeatedly (maybe especially so). 'Cause some of this stuff is a real bitch. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm trying to squeeze all of this into a three hour stretch every day after my regular 9 to 10 hour work-day, but I know that's no excuse.

Next month I'm looking at some trips to the local chamber of commerce, a couple of business schools (hopefully), and my first dive into the wide, somewhat phony world of networking. I hope all of the real business people don't suck the soul out of me before I'm done with all of this...

Starting up the start-up engine

I've been sorely neglecting this blog since - well, it seems since we got back from Germany, which has been quite a while now. Things of many varieties have been keeping me busy, mostly in good ways. I can't remember how many times I've written a post stating something about how "I'm really going to make an effort to start blogging again", so I'll just skip that bullshit this time around and get straight to it.

As some of you may know, I've been harboring a deep-seeded interest in starting my own business for as long as I can remember. My New Year's Resolution (yeah, I try to do those kind of things) this year was to make some serious forward momentum in that direction, so a couple of weeks ago I started hitting the books. I'll be taking some online classes over the course of the next few months, reading some pretty intimidating books (already cracked into the first 750-pager), and generally doing everything I can to get the ball rolling.

So that's that. One of the things I've read over and over again is to (A) Never pass up the opportunity to ask for advice, and that (B) Advice can be found in places you wouldn't initially think. So...

If any of you out there have any advice, even the slightest bit of information you may have overheard, I'm all ears. If you have anyone in your family, or know any friends (or acquaintances or classmates or people you met on the bus or whatever) that have ever started a business (even if it failed miserably), I'd love to talk to them, email them, or contact them in whatever way possible. At this stage, any information at all is pure gold to me.

Thanks in advance!

There's nothing like a change of plans

I think it might be the best part of vacationing ;-)

Planned Trip:

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Actual Trip:

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At Last...Pictures!

430 photos and videos...knock yourself out.

Germany/Austria 2007

And if you're too lazy, here's an embedded slideshow.

The end?

I always like to think that there's really no end to a good vacation - just a long layover in between where you have to work for a while. That doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to a wonderful place, and this time was no exception. It's Monday today - we arrived last night around 9PM after a long day of plane rides, bad food and a long layover in Jersey where we managed to catch part of a football game. The culture shock of returning to America was thrown in our faces twofold this time around, as we both had to muster up the strength to get into the office by 7AM this morning and deal with mounds of backlogged work.

But the memories are still fresh - just past the horizon, seemingly. Intermittently throughout the day, I found myself sitting back, turning to look out my window, and letting out a deep, whimsical sigh. It's hard to imagine we could have done so much in just two weeks. It's hard to imagine that just three days ago we were sitting in the shade of chestnut trees, eating pretzels and drinking liter-sized mugs of beer without a care in the world. It's hard to imagine that less than a week ago we were drifting, dazzled, down the most beautiful river in the world.

But the hardest part of all comes a bit later - where do we go next? :-)

Berlin, Part Zwei

Coming back to Berlin on Friday night gave us a chance to spend a whole extra day walking around and just soaking up the city. Since we're staying in the old East Berlin this time around, we set off in the morning on a casual stroll through that neighborhood. It's a very intriguing mixture of past and present, with almost every street containing bold, new apartments and storefronts intermingled with still un-restored, bombed-out remains of a painful history. All the while, a seemingly endless stream of graffiti lines the first floor of the wall-to-wall buildings - some beautiful works of art, others hastily sprayed political statements. The people, as in any place, bear little mind to these surroundings (as they see them every day), but for us it wove together a striking and beautiful cityscape with more visible history than anywhere I've ever lived.

Later on that afternoon, on our way to dinner, Skick noticed that a few streets were blocked off, and a helicopter was hovering a ways away above the city. Curious, we decided to take a detour and find out what was happening. It was a good 8 blocks away before we started seeing rows and rows of police vans converging on an area just around the corner. When we turned the bend, we were engulfed in the thumping bass and loud chants of a political protest. We decided to follow it for a while, and made our way through hordes of college students waving flags, throngs of riot-police standing at attention, and more than a few clusters of recently pepper-sprayed kids recovering on the sidelines. The protest wasn't out of hand at all (just a few small pockets of over-zealous participants, as per any such event), and was very interesting to watch. It was also quite fitting to see since Berlin, saturated in political strife for years, has been a center of such demonstrations throughout many generations. We watched the protesters drum off into the distance, and headed on our way.

Leipzig

On the train ride from Munchen back to Berlin, we passed through Leipzig, one of the cities with the most remaining visible signs of WWII. Although we didn't get off and walk around, the sights from the train were truly powerful. Nearly half the city looked exactly as it had following allied carpet bombings, leaving behind an enormous carcass of a once prosperous industrial city. Entire city blocks stood in grim reminder of the war - half-standing factories with broken windows, charred walls and crumbling smokestacks. All I can really say, which does the sight no justice, is that war really, really sucks.