Well it has been some time since the election results have sunk in. We have made history as a nation by electing our first African American President the other night. I felt that Senator McCain was very gracious in his conciliation speech. I was pleased that he was putting aside the petty partisian politics that could often creep into a loss and instead of trying to delay the inevitable, or try to wait it out, he concided. That shows a lot about the character about Senator McCain. While some people hated him, for his being a Republican, he was in the end gracious in accepting his loss. Unlike, Hillary Clinton or others before who have refused to see the writing on the wall and just bow out gracefully.

Now, as far as my personal feelings about the election, I have mixed feelings. I was never really strongly for or against any of the two candidates. Both brought a lot to the table, and some brought some baggage as well. I was a strong supporter of McCain in the beginning when it was likely that it was going to be a Clinton ticket. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Bill back in the early 1990s during his first term, but Hillary is no Bill Clinton. And to be honest, even Bill Clinton let me down during his first term. He promised change, hope, and renewal to what made America great, but in the end he back peddled on a lot of his promises deciding the fight was too hard. That being said, I wasn’t thrilled about his second term either.

I see a lot of parallels between between Clinton and Obama, they both preached the same things.  The question is whether Obama will be able to deliver on his campaign promises. Here is a summary of what he is promised the American people:

1. Middle Class Tax Cuts
2. Energy - Alternative Energy and some offshore oil drilling
3. Afghanistan - A refocus on pulling out of Iraq and moving troops to Afghanistan
4. Healthcare
5. Bipartisian - Inclusively getting all parties together

I think I will take a wait and see attitude. I hope that Obama doesn’t make the same mistakes Clinton did his first 100 days in office. Don’t try to change to much too soon. Listen to the moderates, and don’t go too far left.

Wow, a dramatic title…haha, I still have it in me to come up with something clever! Tonight was the night I had to remove my California license plates and replace them with my Virginia license plates. I had put off the inevitable for as long as possible, but my tags on my California plates expired today so I didn’t want to chance it driving to the client site on Wednesday. So sad, my last remnants of California living are no longer on my car. It was so much fun driving around town and having people look at my plates and think “oh he is from California, that explains it.” I would love to flash people “hang ten” hand signs from my car, with my shell necklace hanging from my review mirror…

Oh well, as my title says, all good things come to and end. The good news is I can keep my plates and put them up somewhere…maybe make a plaque for them. Since the damn Virginia DMV took away my California Drivers License when they issued me their Virginia Drivers License.

Anyone work those late nights? I am not talking about the typical work late night, but the one you work late trying to catch up on “life?” You know, the point in life when you realize, “crap I haven’t balanced my checkbook, or crap I haven’t paid my bills.” I have slowly started to realize those little projects haven’t been started, completed, or closed out.

How do I know this? Well looking in my living room I see a massive chaos of papers, boxes, books, etc. that have not found their perfect place. On my laptops, I see files, pictures, and projects that have not begun or been organized.

This all goes back to my previous blogs about getting on top of things and getting organized, and my inability to make headway in that. In the end, I think I need a few weekends to really make it happen to make it come together. Until then, I will sit here on my couch and stare at the mountains of everything in a bit of organized chaos.

I wrote this entry on July 23, the day before my birthday but held it for a while before I published it.  I think it was because I started the entry one way, revised, and revised until it is what it is now.  If you know me well, and a lot of people don’t really know me as well as they think they do, you will know that I am not a fan of big birthday celebrations. The two exceptions have been my 25th and my 30th.

The 25th was because my girlfriend at the time really wanted to put on a big birthday party for me, and it was a landmark as it was my quarter of a century birthday.  I remember it like it was yesterday, some good friends, a nice keg of Seirra Nevada and mellow night of just chilling and having a good time.

My 30th was because, well it was my 30th and to be honest there was a girl at the time I wanted to impress so a bunch of us got 2 VIP Booths at On Broadway and I think at final headcount there was about 50 people there throughout the night, some we got into the VIP Area, some we couldn’t.  I was flipping through the photos the other night and kind of laughed…those days of my hard partying and dance clubbing days are long gone.

Somewhere in my early 30s I started to become more concerned about work, professionalism, career, and education.  I was more concerned with how I looked, how I acted, who I befriended, who I could help, where I was,  where I was going, and where I had been.  Not to wax in religiousm, but it reminds me of a passage from the Bible 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Now as I get older, I started to wonder about what lies around the bend…and yet, I eagerly await it.

On Saturday I had to go to the DMV to get my new drivers license, title for my car, and registration for my car. When I pulled into the parking lot it was packed with cars and I started to think, “Hmm, maybe I should run in and get a number and then come back out and look for parking.” So I pulled into the next-door parking lot behind a gas station and mini-mall and walked over to the DMV. I got my number and went back out to go search for parking in the DMV parking lot.

Funny thing, my car was gone. I was staring at where I parked it in complete disbelief. First reaction was that my car got stolen, but then I realized no it got towed. How could my car get towed in less than 5 minutes? I was amazed that they could tow me so quickly. I literally walked 50 feet to the DMV building and got my ticket, gauged the wait time, and walked back out in under 5 minutes.

I walked to the front of the gas station and sure enough there was another tow truck hoisting a car up. I walked up to the tow driver and I asked him if he towed my car. He informed me that it was probably towed and they have 4 tow trucks working the parking lot. I mentioned I had only been gone 5 minutes and I can’t believe they towed it so fast, he hinted they pretty much are waiting for you to leave the car and they load it up. I watch him hoist the car up in a minute. He was nice enough to drive me to the lot where my car was towed to, which happened to be near my apartment complex. It cost me $100 (that is the max they can charge apparently) to get my car back and I was back at the DMV in 20 minutes.

Ironically, I had to wait another hour before the DMV called me up to the counter. Heh.

…the more they stay the same.  I was riding the Metro earlier today and I had a flashback to riding the Underground in the UK.  I get on the Metro and everyone, I mean EVERYONE is crammed into the doorway area.  Nobody moves to allow you on, and seems to glare at you if you make the attempt to board.

Normally, I would just back down and wait for the next Metro.  However, today was different. First, I looked at the middle of the train and it was as I had seen in London, almost empty.  So basically, everyone was crowding the doorway to avoid having to move into the middle of the train.  At this, I knew what I had to do.

I took a deep breath and said, “Excuse me, can you please move into the middle of the train to allow us to get on?”  Grudgingly they started to sift into the middle of the train, which allowed more than 10 of us to get on at my door.  Sure I got dirty looks, but come on…why cram yourself into the doorway when there is plenty of room in the middle of the train!

The only thing I can think is people have a fear of getting trapped in the middle of the train.  I guess the fear is that they think nobody will let them get off, so they crowd the doors to be near the exit.  Hey if that is you, that is fine, but make way for the rest of us who are brave enough to go into the empty middle of the train.

So I am riding the elevator tonight on my way home, and I eavesdropped on four girls on the elevator with me. The conversation was a bit humorous, here is the transcript:

Girl #1 “Where do you work?”
Girl #2 “I work at a HR consulting firm in New York City.”
Girl #3 “Really? Which one.”
Girl #2 “Company X.”
Girl #1 “That is great, how long have you worked there?”
*Elevator doors open*
Girl #2 “One year.”
Girl #3 “Wow that is like a long time!!!”
Girl #1 “Yeah you must be really senior there!”

At this point I burst out laughing and thank god they were getting off, because they realized I was eavesdropping. They all looked a bit sheepish at me, when they realized how silly they sounded. But then again, I guess for the twenty-something young professional a year is a really long, long time. But for me that is a joke, how can you gain any worthwhile experience if you continiously jump from job to job every 6 months to a year? At some point the job hoping will catch up with them, and recruiters will just pass them by as a risk.

I have started to realize that there is ZERO incentive for Big Pharma to come up with a cure for the common cold. I know, I know, there are over 100+ different types of rhinovirus (which many different strains), which create a variety of different possibilities. However, if you look at the numbers in the US, they conservatively estimate that the Cold Care drug market is about $2.9 billion annually. However, I would gladly pay $100 for a Cold Vaccination that would immunize me from over 50% of the typical Cold Viruses. But I doubt Big Pharma will willingly give up a $10 billion worldwide market.

I did read an interesting fact that once you get a particular strain you are pretty much immune from that strain for life. So why can’t we just synthesize the antibodies to make a vaccination? Maybe it is time to talk to some of my Bioscientist friends…

Why does Valentine’s Day always seem like a huge deal to people. I love when people have Black Valentine’s Day, you know the Anti-Valentine’s Day. That is awesome!

I sometimes think that the amount of energy and effort people put into this Hallmark Holiday is ridiculous. But you know, maybe that is because I don’t currently have a date. Maybe if things were different, I wouldn’t be so negative about the day…Nyah! Bah Humbug!

So this year I decided to try to customize the gifts I gave to people, at least a little.  I can’t believe how hard it is to shop for people.  Sometimes, I wish everyone had a “WishList” of things they want to make shopping easier.  In fact, I am going to create my own wishlist and post it here sometime.  I think someone was telling me recently you can do that with Amazon.com, pretty cool idea (for both the recipient and Amazon.com).

Well the malls have been crazy, people are literally clambering over each other to get the latest items.  It is really funny, how Christmas turns people into maniacs.  I watched people zipping in and out of parking lots at crazy speeds, cutting each other off to grab a parking spot, and parking half-ass where they take up 2 spots because they are too lazy (or in a hurry) to park properly.

You would think that Christmas has the opposite effect on people, where they are a little more courteous during the Holiday Season.   Nope.  Ok, gotta head to the mall after work…wish me luck.