the world is flat

i'm reading a really good book right now and i just wanted to share it with everyone. it's called the world is flat by thomas friedman. he also happens to be one of my favorite columnists in the new york times. i'm just about 2/3 into the book and i can't put it down. the subtitle of the book is: a brief history of the twenty-first century. basically, he goes into detail about 10 events that have 'flattened' the world. meaning, other countries now have many of the same opportunities and resources we have been taking for granted and how they are using them to improve their knowledge, businesses, and way of life. it has been really interesting to me to learn more about these events and different perspectives; ie. from successful business owners such as bill gates, jim barksdale (netscape), alan cohen (apache), linus torvalds (linux), and many others. i now know what shareware is (don't be too disappointed jason and dad), the difference between ftp, http, ssl, smtp, pop, and tcp/ip. the way he explains each of these lets those of us less geeky understand what the heck he's talking about!.
he also talks a lot about how other countries are seeing these opportunities and really taking advantage of them. inventing new products, ideas, improving on many of ours, etc. while these other countries are sprinting, we, as a whole, are in a comfortable jog. one of my favorite quotes of the book is: "when we got hit with 9/11, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to summon the nation to sacrifice, to address some of its pressing fiscal, energy, science, and education shortfalls - all the things we had let slide. but our president did not summon us to sacrifice. he summoned us to go shopping."
who knew i would be writing book reports for fun...anyway! i encourage everyone to check it out. it's really interesting and informative without feeling like you're reading a text book!

weekend with jen!

last weekend, jen came up for a few days and we had a blast! she came up on friday morning and we just hung out around the house until after lunch and then headed to the city. i was determined to get a green beer (it was st. patty's day after all) so our first stop was the west end. to my disappointment, there was no green beer in sight. thankfully, doc, the bartender, was prepared with green food coloring and made our beers green!
next, we headed downtown to check into our hotel. there were so many people wandering the streets it was almost impossible to get anywhere. finally, we arrived, showered, and went uptown to meet up with mike for dinner. we then headed back downtown, got dressed for the st. patty's day party, and were on our way! we had a great time, met some fun people, and called it a night pretty early. so that was friday!
saturday morning started with my insomnia, again, and i was up at 7:30. i managed to stay in bed until about 8:30, but i had to move after that. it was a really nice day out so i decided to take a walk and get some bagels for breakfast. i returned to the hotel at about 10:45 to find jen just waking up (i was jealous). we ate, showered, and were out and about again. we walked for ever down madison ave and 5th ave looking at all the shops and just hanging out. by 2, we were hungry again, shocker, so mike came down and met up with us again and had some lunch. there was more walking and shops, but by about 5, we were tired and decided to call it a weekend. we came back up by the house, had some great sushi, and went to bed pretty early.
sunday morning, we were out of the house at 7 because jen had to go home :( it was such a good weekend, i miss living close to jen!! but hopefully i can make it down to baltimore or virgina, very soon!!

you tell me

okay, you tell me...if it's 2:30 on a saturday afternoon, am i allowed to park in this area?