Bruhaha

Spring Cleaning Updates

2009-04-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

I successfully downloaded and installed the customized software on my phone. Unfortunately, I am still not satisfied with the performance. The interface works great; it's just slow. So rather than continue my customizations within the slow platform, I will be attempting to switch operatings systems. Android just came out with an installation for some HTC phones and I am jumping on-board... as soon I leave myself a free weekend.

This weekend I decided to visit Madison and help send the trainees off with a bang. Except this time, I went up Thursday night, worked from "home" Friday. This allowed me to actually relax and fully enjoy this weekend. The boss was cool with it, even though I came up with the plan 30 min before I had to leave my house to catch a bus. I will definitely use this as my defacto action plan for trips from now on.

In other news, my boss is moving to Hawaii permanently. I'm thinking this is a good thing for the eventual Move.

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Since New Years, I have been reading Atlas Shrugged during my numerous trips going between home and work on the Chicago public transportation system. The book renewed my desires to be the producer. At first, this was ensuring that my time at work stayed productive. But after finishing the book, the train rides now became constant reminders of wasted time. So I picked up an older read, the dip, and felt productive again. Unfortunately, Seth Godin reminded me that I'm not focusing very well.

With Opening Day creeping ever so closely, I've created a Franchise roster of personal activities for the coming months:

A:
-run my second marathon
-learn Italian

AA:
-restore/customize old motorcycle
-move to Turkey
-create personal (TheBruni) merchandise branding

AAA:
-learn Turkish
-apply Web Analytics to work sites
-create web server in the cloud for running personal blog/site (yes, I could continue using blogger, but I need to learn to run my own servers someday)

MAJORS:
-customize my phone's TouchFlo 3D/manila interface
-create home computer that runs ONLY linux distros(which implies taking Windows out of my personal life)
-read Web Analytics
-play AA Sand Volleyball (this will happen)

The idea of promoting/demoting activities feels better than a simple task list. The roster spots also fit better as it reminds me that if I want to do one of the lower activities, I will have to move one of the Major activities down, instead of my usual reaction of simply adding.

Lent

2009-03-05T13:28:00.001-08:00

So I never really understand my underlying feelings of why Lent just made no sense to me. Then a co-worker explained how she and her husband gave up drinking for Lent. I exclaimed that that didn't make sense, especially with St Patty's Day coming up. She then retorted,"Well, Jesus, went 40 days without food." My cold-hearted reply, "Yeah. That didn't happen."

Seriously, the dude was a dude at this point in his life. Dude's don't live 40 days without food. End of story. End of tradition.

Different Wavelengths

2008-10-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, which means I go to Dominick's for lunch and get sushi. Today, one of the guys in the office offered to go for me. He was kind enough to pay for the food, but not aware enough of sushi etiquette to bring back chopsticks or soy sauce.
So now I sit eating my sushi with no soy sauce and a plastic fork. There had to be a first time sometime.

Chicago Marathon '08

2008-10-15T15:51:00.001-07:00

2008_Chicago_Marathon_Bruni_Conwell
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

The two with the medals are my sister, Michelle, and my brother-in-law, Scott. Both of them finished the Chicago Marathon this past weekend, in spite of the brutal temperatures. In our brief reunion, I got see the little guy in the picture, Braedan, who is now 3.

I also was able to gain further information on the lifestyle differences of my two older sisters. Melissa, the one in black, married Scott when she was 24 and had Braedan when she was 26. As I am now 24, the thought of going down this path is pretty scary. The eldest of the sisters, Michelle, on the otherhand, just moved back to the States after 2+ years abroad and a very recent excursion to Thailand, Spain, and Germany.

Although, I'm grateful for Mel having Braedan because the little guy is sweet, I'm still glad I'm not heading down this path, as there is no way in hell I could actually take care of him 24/7.

The Letdown

2008-10-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

While growing-up in small-town Wisconsin, Chicago was the Mecca of the Midwest. Everyone went there at least once in their lifetime and would always have a story about the great times and sights of the city. Sometimes, a few people would even have stories about that one time when they became lucky enough to live in the Metropolis.

Even while in Madison, Chicago seemed like the place to be. Madisonians consistently complained about the lack of nightlife in Madison while concurrently exhaulting the nightlife in Chicago, as if venturing into the city at night would transport you into a higher dimension of awesomeness.

Fast forward to the present, where I am that lucky being fortunate enough to be living in the epicenter of Midwestern greatness. And all I find around me is the same thing: burgers, beer, and [insert seasonal sport].

It's not that the city doesn't have variety or events always going on; it just seems that the same events or places or foods that any other Midwestern city has are just multiplied by 100. So if you have one Greek restaurant, Chicago has 100. Or if a small city has one festival, Chicago has 100. The root of the issue: More is better.

The problem for me seems to be that I've already experience most of these foods, events, or places. Simply adding 100 times what I have already experienced, only makes it worse. The multiplicity makes my past and present experiences less thrilling and even less unique.

I'm hoping this is just a phase of accepting city life.

The Human Race

2008-09-01T10:16:00.001-07:00

Jeffrey Davis, Jr alerted me to a race this weekend that would end with a Fall Out Boy concert in Soldier Field. As I've never been to a professional football stadium, I thought this would be a sweet chance for me to get back in shape while also going ONTO Soldier field.

The race was a 10k; I haven't ran that far in over a year. In fact, I haven't ran a race in over two and half years. My last race was the Chicago Marathon. But I'm still young and fairly in-shape, so I knew I could finish just fine. I would just have to adjust my pace/ego and take it easier than I'm used to.

The pre-race started out well with JD and I getting secretly photographed by the Nike+ camera crew while stretching near the starting line. Hopefully we make the cut and get in the final booklet.

The race was split into different flights, with the first one having a cut-off time of 8 min/mile pace. As JD is currently dating a tri-athlete, whom also was running the race, he decided he wanted to start the race running at her pace (7 min/mile = not taking it easy). I was planning on running about 9 min/mile pace (which means starting in the second flight). I went with the fast group anyways. I kept up with JD for the first couple miles. Then JD decided he wanted to be SuperMan and tried pushing the pace. I promptly told him to go on without me; I was fine running my ~7-8 min/mile. Eventually I finished the race in 49'31" (7'51"/mile pace). Turned out JD finished in 48'00", as he died at about the 5 mile mark. I was pretty psyched about finishing WAY ahead of where I thought I would.

Then I stepped foot in Soldier Field...

Soldier Field/Fall Out Boy/Human Race
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

The jumbotron was playing all of the photo montages from all of the races from all over the world while Fall Out Boy rocked out on the only stage while the 15,000+ runners took congratulatory photos for completing the 10k.

I've got the itch for racing once again.

Catching Up

2008-07-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

Laundry 101 is closed due to 'changes in the market'.

Cleveland's is once again open... but now is called Plaka and made me feel under-dressed in basketball shorts and a T. The food and pricing stayed the same, but I am still reeling from the shake-up in style.

Malaysia-plan has been canceled; Chicago-plan has been accepted. I will begin my employment in the Windy City eight days from now working for a construction consulting company doing PHP programming. The office is two blocks from Union Station. This week I will be picking out an apartment and subsequently moving into it. As I've been straightforward with the company, they already know about the Turkey plan and are willing to go along with it.
The Turkey plan: to be in Turkey working remotely and getting paid in USD by summer '09.

you win some, you lose some

2008-07-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

Almost immediately after what I believe would be called nailing the interview, I had a run-in with either a sloppy painter or a really relaxed pigeon. The end result is a Monica Lewinsky sized blob on my suit coat and a smaller, Paris Hilton sized one on my pants. I tried washing them and nothing happens. At least I only have to wear the pair around for the rest of the day.

Getting some traction

2008-07-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

Job
The summer is rapidly moving towards its conclusion and I am not that much closer to solving the age old question of 'so ... What are you doing?'

I've been posting resumes and cover letters for the last couple weeks fairly regularly. Thus far it's been recruiting agencies calling, asking if I am interested in positions I was either not even close to being qualified for or way over qualified for.

This weekend I decided to re-work both my resume and cover letters a bit, and I suddenly started receiving phone calls from the jobs I was actually applying to. My first interview out of the revamped paperwork is tomorrow in downtown Chicago for a PHP Developer position. I'm hoping there's a chance that if I got the position, I could work remotely. But getting the position is a little more important for the next 6 months.

Volleyball
My volleyball skills have improved significantly. The one area of my game that has not improved is still my serve. In fact, I'd say it's gotten progressively more sporadic and mind-bogglingly messed up. But at least I can hit with the big guys now.

Running
My oldest sister decided to sign-up for the Chicago Marathon a couple weeks ago. My brother-in-law to my second oldest sister then decided to sign-up as well. I did not sign-up and am slowly wishing I had. Although I'm significantly heavier now than I was then (20 lbs), I'm sure if I started training again a lot of it would come off fairly quickly.

But I decided to stick with the volleyball and basketball routine I have going now. I'm in two volleyball leagues (Mon & Tues) and have been playing basketball on Thursdays with some pretty good players. Michael Flowers has even shown up quite a bit to show everyone how we are just fooling ourselves into thinking we're good at basketball.

troubleshooting

2008-06-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Why does everyone at work always say Foxfire when referring to Firefox? And then try to explain to us how we're supposed to solve their problem.

Things would go much smoother if everyone just acknowledged their inadequacies with computers by simply stating their problem, with no suggested "solutions" or "I think..." statements. If there are further questions that need to be answered, the IT staff will ask the relevant questions to get to and solve the problem.

Additional/non-relevant information just messes with the troubleshooter and makes them even crankier than normal.

Even if this is not true, at least it places us on guard.

2008-06-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

I get really scared when I continually receive email with opening lines similar to the above. Not from what I have never read below the line, but from the thought that I may be that overly paranoid and uniformed parent one day. (shudder)

Not in the cards

2008-06-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

I pretty much threw all of my chips into the IT Director position with AIESEC US. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, they will not be filling that position. Thus, I will not be moving to New York City. And I will no longer be a member of AIESEC US.

Now, I'm back at the job search thing. It's still weird explaining to people that I don't have a job... when I'm working full-time doing IT support and web design.

I really need to get the hell out of Dodge.

In my quest for a job, I convinced an old friend, Quentin Schiller, to travel to Malaysia with me this August. We previously took a road trip down to New Mexico. So even if Junior decides to do his own thing, I'm going to have increased pressure to follow through with the Southeast Asia plan.

2008-05-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

When it rains it pours and when it's dry it's a desert. It's currently raining in the desert.

I think I need twitter. Oh wait, it's down.

Day One of "the real world"

2008-05-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Graduation
Although I have not received my official diploma yet (it takes 12 weeks to process), I successfully walked across the stage, shook the Chancellor's hand, and finally ended my journey through college with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. I'm already feeling better and more upbeat, even if I'm still physically exhausted from the last couple weeks of school work.

Work
I do not have a job yet. Ironically, I helped Ray get my old job working there. He will be the third generation AIESECer to work as an IT help desk assistant at the School of Nursing. This is just another simple demonstration of the value of the AIESEC network. Luckily, Suzanne, my boss, was nice enough to ask the staff if anyone needed temporary help this summer. One did and now I have a job, for at least a month or so doing web/database programming.

Play
I am realistically believing that I will be able to start a full-time job by the beginning of September. To maximize my enjoyment in the mean-time, I initiated a 16-week volleyball team that will play at KEVA. I believe Molly is the only other person on the team that's also a nomad. All of the intermediate league spots were full, but the team really wanted to play. So we made the jump to the power league, where ex-college players can show-off their skills. Unfortunately, none of us are ex-college players. This will be an interesting season.

An End.. and an end...

2008-05-13T00:26:00.001-07:00

Sig Ep 2
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

I essentially finished my last class requirement today after completing my Energy Systems exam at 5PM: the End to my college experience.

When celebrating at Kyle's house, we heard a police car, an ambulance, then a firetruck (in that order). 5 minutes later, this is the picture of what we saw across the street. Sip Ep was burning and an eering guy screaming didn't help start the night cap.

I later took some photos of the burnt ashes of the house floating down state street. Quite a cap to the night, finals, and college.

Senior Design Final Assembly

2008-05-01T22:51:00.001-07:00

Senior Design Final Assembly
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

A brief, 35-page (without appendix or drawings) description of an entire semester's worth of planning the complete design, fabrication/manufacturing, and assembly of this "grand" device is now coming to its conclusion. Though the original concept was a lot grander, the end result wasn't too shabby. The design costs under $300 and weighs 30kg. The original goals were $500 and 15kg.

All together there are 90 parts, 10 sub-assemblies, and one tired old man.

I tried making a movie to be able to more thoroughly appreciate the pedal movement and the seat adjustment capabilities, but Solidworks and the CAE computers are not agreeing with me this evening.

**UPDATE:
I looked at the non-digital clock; it read 2. I thought I would meet the sun outside; I was wrong.

google adsense

2008-04-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

Google is getting interesting with their advertising bar on gmail. This was the first link that popped up this morning: Nude Bruni photo sells for $91,000 in auction.

Not sure if I'm more astounded that Reuters actually did a full story on this (including video) or that Google used my last name to figure out what to advertise. Or everyone got this link and I'm amazed that there's another famous Bruni in the world.

Coasting

2008-04-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

I am trying to deal with the ensuing end to my college experience and I'm not doing well. I have been having many of the same thoughts as expressed by Mix. And so I look elsewhere, perusing random job titles, descriptions and company visions. Disenchantment begins and I once again browse the Nomadlife postings. The Munchkin posts a different reality. I then stop doing and start dreaming.

In other words: too much dreaming and not enough applying.

**I also changed my creepy looking picture with an older, more creepy looking one.

Title of the Week

2008-03-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

That's Unnecessary

It was, will continue to be and will forever be

MY LIFE IS BACK

2008-03-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, the pictures of my life are back.

Over one year ago, the hard drive to my computer crashed on New Year's Eve. Being the computer geek I am, I tried desperately to make it work again, at least temporarily to retrieve all my files. My hard drive had and still has extreme index errors. My surest option was to spend the $300+ to send it a professional place that has the equipment and time to read all of the ones and zeros. I didn't and still don't have $300 to spend on retrieving files.

So for the last year I have been continuously scanning and debugging the hard drive.

TODAY, it finally worked long enough for me to extract my photos, including those from my traineeship to Japan. I'm tempted to post all of my photos that I missed.

And all of the photos from the good ol' days when I had a fro. Man I miss my hair...

Engineering Fountain

2008-03-05T15:00:00.001-08:00

Engineering Fountain
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

It was about 28F outside. Water freezes at 32F.

I'm hoping the fountain was running for one of two reasons:

1. An engineering professor wanted to show their students how water around or just below 32F when compressed enough will turn back into water and will flow through a small tube fairly well. Then, once this pressurized water hits the atmospheric pressure, it will freeze again.

2. Some kid from L&S (maybe Physics) was really pissed that the Engineering Departments continue to receive exorbitant amounts of money "to build shit" and wanted to take out their anger on a symbol that exemplifies both the excess and the questionable operation of the College of Engineering.

Austin? Austin, Massachusetts?

2008-03-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

Though there will be no mini-bus or the city of Ithaca involved, I will be heading down to the the Lone Star state with J unior for the last half of spring break. I REALLY wanted to see the Brewers at spring training in Arizona, but the lack of money and a willing driver made me switch dreams.

After reading a post by someone, I am twirling around the idea of just using twitter to post. Most of my thoughts are very short-winded anyways. And it wouldn't be as intimidating or time consuming as writing an entire post with clear thought delineation.

Hell of a Bite

2008-02-25T20:11:00.001-08:00

Hell of a Bite
Originally uploaded by mjbruni

When I awoke this morning, there was a slight itching feeling in the middle of my forearm and a small red spot to go with it. By the time I came home tonight, the red mark was the size of a mini-football.
I think I will be seeing a doctor tomorrow... just to be sure it won't keep expanding (and make sure it won't kill me).

What begins in fear usually ends in folly

2008-02-22T10:46:00.000-08:00

I explained to my mom that upon graduation I will be making a journey to Malaysia for a reunion of sorts with my old roommates, whom she has known for the last 5 years. In fact, this roommate has been working in Malaysia for the last 7ish months. This is her forwarding of an email she received as her reply to me wanting to go to Malaysia:

Hi Nancy- (my mom)

I have not been to Malaysia - not a whole lot of garment manufacturing there. Do have to say that I have heard, while beautiful, not entirely a safe place to travel to.

It doesn't matter who sent this, as I've never heard my mom mention this person to me. Ever. Which means this person obviously means a lot to my mom. And because of such a strong connection with this anonymous person, my mom must have decided this person's opinion on a country they've never visited mattered way more than a person whom she has known for five plus years and is actually LIVING in Malaysia.

I'm not posting this to say my mom is stupid; she's not. It's just that sometimes I get overwhelmed by her non-stop, instantaneous fear of the world (world being anywhere not named Random Lake).

And this conversation reminds me of a previous conversation:
Me - Mom, I'm going to Venezuela for 10 days for an AIESEC conference.
Mom - You can't go to Venezuela. I heard it's very dangerous there and with the war and everything, you really shouldn't be traveling outside the US.
Me - Mom, it's not near Iraq.
Mom - Are you sure?
Me - Yes, Mom. Venezuela is not near Iraq. AIESEC wouldn't host a conference in a place that is not safe.
Mom - Well, ok then. But be careful.
The day before I leave: NEWS BULLETIN: Riots in the downtown streets of Caracas(the capital of Venezuela) after Chavez declared himself the winner of an election in which 99% of the people voted for him. The CIA issues a strong warning against traveling to Venezuela in the immediate future.
Mom - Have fun and be sure to take a lot of pictures!
Me - Will do. (And then I hopped on the plane and created many a story; none involving riots)

Now in the second case, my mom could have had a very valid reason/fear for not wanting me to travel to Venezuela. After all, being caught in a riot isn't very fun. But her fear was from the overarching fear-of-the-world being broadcast over the television and in the newspapers. This fear is rooted in no fact, only more fear. And this is the kind of fear I'd like to see diminished, especially when it's being passed on by an anonymous informant of an anonymous informant who has no direct knowledge of what they're talking about. I also tend to block out these nonsensical fears, which sometimes makes me miss the real ones.

I believe this reply made me more upset than usual after reading Mix's post about the insane assumptions being made about Barack Obama and Islam.