Sometimes is seen a strange spot in the skyA human being who was given to fly

On Monday, my friend Jon and I got a free plane ride around the valley. The guy who gave us the ride was at our beer tasting party last Wednesday. What goes around, comes around... nice.

I apologize for the picture quality, I was working with a borrowed, unfamiliar camera, and the weather/light conditions were shitty.


^^ That is Ben, our friendly pilot.



The plane was cool.



The cloud ceiling, unfortunately, was 6000 feet, so we didn't get the spectacular views. We had XM radio piped in those noise-cancelling headphones. Nice touch.


^^That is the Gallatin River.

The whole experience made me want to take some flying lessons from Ben. The idea of me taking flying lessons makes people who know me somewhat nervous. It sure does seem like a lot of fun, though.


We flew over Jon's house.







These Words & Pictures don't do the Experience justice... which is exactly why we have Experiences. Otherwise, we would never leave the house, get out and live life. We would just sit, hunched over our computers, eating Doritos and reading blogs.

My camera came yesterday, and I have a mind to get out and use it.

It's all part of my rock & roll fantasy

We have a guest blog from The Eck, to whom we wish a very Happy Birthday...



This is a call…

To all Gen X’ers. No, not those Gen X’ers identified by Newsweek, Time, et al. in the early 1990’s. I’m talking about the Gen X’ers and Microserfs of Douglas Coupland.

I read two articles recently. The first was about the brain drain that Google (here’s the sign that something has made it big, Google was not flagged in spell check) may soon be facing as some of their employees get ready to cash in their stock options. Apparently many employees are approaching an anniversary date at which they can sell their options for full value. The article said that for these employees each day they work is worth something like $3000 in stock options. That’s just for their options. Google management has gone so far as to identify these employees and put a person in charge of making sure they are happy to make efforts to coddle them in order to keep them from cashing in and leaving. How lucky I am to not be facing the difficulties of retiring young and rich.

I picked up another article, this one in Details or GQ or something. Its focus was on Gen X movers and shakers (i.e. rich, powerful, Gen X’ers). Most of them were in some sort of business field many of them running tangentially to the entertainment or technology field. I.E. Record Producers, CEO of technology companies, etc. After reading this article I was mostly left with questions as I compared myself to these people. Questions like; “Are these people more driven than me?” “Were they just luckier than me?” “Do I have a better/more stable family life than them?” “Are any of them wishing they had a different career?” “Is the grass always greener?”

Reflecting on these two articles, on the eve of my 35th birthday, it’s becoming ever clearer that I won’t be retiring rich or young, like my peers at Google. In order to appease myself though I’ve compiled my list of my Top 5 dream jobs that I actually believe I’m qualified for (consequently I was forced to eliminate star NBA player and Guitar God) and decided to submit them to the wonders of modern technology via The Dude’s blog (btw, btw is not red flagged by spell check but blog is flagged by spell check go figure).

Without further ado, the Top 5.

1. Starbucks location scout – preferably for European or Central American regions, but hey I’m not going to get picky; it wouldn’t even have to be Starbucks (just in case anyone from Pete’s or Caribou is reading this).
2. Organic coffee certifier/quality control – Can you tell I have an affinity for coffee, a little cream, no sugar.
3. The Dude that decides what music gets added into movies/TV Shows. – Not sure what this person’s title is but it wouldn’t matter to me. For the best recent example of PERFECT music editing check out the Zach Braff movie, The Last Kiss. Average movie but there is a critical scene with Remy Zero playing in the background. It’s worth watching the whole movie just to see this one piece of perfection.
4. CFO of an International Tour Company – One of my passions being travel.
5. Headhunter of Athletic Director and College Coaches – Have any of you read about these guys. Check out Andy Katz on ESPN.com or Gary Parrish on CBSSportsline.com this is a new business. Whoever thought of it is a genius. Basic requirements of job know who’s a good coach/AD, keep mouth shut. I can do that.

So if any of you dear readers out there have any pull within any of these industries feel free to put me in contact with any potential employers.

If you can’t do that then at least post your dream jobs. Maybe we’ll link some people that can just trade.

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Thanks, Eck. I'm gonna stick with the unrealistic dream of snowboard film location scout and guitar god.