Back at it!

I have once again decided to enjoy my own reality and this time head out yonder westard, previously unseen by me. I originally was going to title this post "On the Road Again", and copyright infringements aside, it just didn't really do me justice. I am more than just on the road although in the past week and one day since leaving Houston I have put around 1800 ($300 in gas) miles on my new car and perhaps 1.8 miles on my feet, so in essence I have traveled 1000 times more on the road than off. It's also the second time in one year that I have done this thing in my car. So perhaps I have just proved that I am indeed "On the Road Again"

I am just about to head off to an Arizona Diamondbacks game so I will leave you briefly the reason as to why am doing this adventure. Most everyone is at least somewhat puzzled as to why I am continually leaving home, although I have run into a few people who are completely hands down in favor of me doing his. Even a 64 year old man gave me his full blessing for this journey along with some encouragement to visit Perth, Australia. The best I can offer as a reason comes from a quote from a young man who did something similar to what I am doing, only about 16 years ago.

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."

In statistics we take a wide variety of samples before we draw conclusions and thus I feel it necessary to continually take samples of this world before I can truly feel content with settling down. My travels are just a small means of taking a small sample of what's "out there".

I am just ridiculously lucky to be able to travel in my own way.

NY to Toronto to Houston to Puerto Rico

My dad was kind enough to go to take us along with him to an annual employment lawyers conference. Yup, crazy as it sounds I am in Puerto Rico at this amazing hotel with mountains at my back and an ocean at my feet. This place is beyond a doubt the nicest place I have ever stayed and probably the most expensive. A beer is 8 bucks and fries are 14.


There is an entire 18 hole golf course carefully carved delicately into the forests that cover the grounds




Before this, I spent 24 hours of driving getting home from Toronto, Ontario. Toronto was spectacular. I met up with my long time friend Marina, who lived in Houston and Greek danced with me throughout high school before she moved up with her family to Toronto.

Texas Teddy turns 26

All public pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/greeksquared


Somehow I am 26 years old. I am sure my parents have had the same sentence cross their minds today. Seriously though, I never thought I would ever be this old. I actually remember in high school not being able to fathom any year beyond 1999. It just strikes me as odd that I am 26. I came to the Bronx this weekend to go out in the city for my birthday. My Aunt and Uncle fixed me a special Greek dinner and even got me a cake.

Before leaving upstate NY I visited the home of former president Franklin Roosevelt. His family has this massive 30 room, 3 floor house on about a 2 mile strip of land that overlooks the Hudson river. The president grew up there and would take many of his esteemed guests such as the King and Queen of England over for some Bar-b-qued hot dogs.

He is buried with his wife in this fantastic garden that has about 20 different kinds of roses that were all blooming.


A couple interesting facts about FDR. He had an affair for a good part of his marriage that his wife didn't know about until his death when the woman showed up at this funeral. Apparently FDR's daughter helped keep his secret from her mother. FDR is the only president to be physically disabled. He became paralyzed from the next down when he was 35 from infantile paralysis after a weekend vacationing on a small island off of Maine. It is extremely rare for someone of his age to get this type of paralysis. After becoming president he started the march of dimes foundation dedicated to his disease.

My family in Marlboro has been over the top ridiculously nice to me. My laundry has been done, folded and even put in a dresser. My bed made. Spontaneously taken to places around town. Given superb food every night. I actually got yelled at and called "a pain in the ass" for not taking as much food as I wanted out of the fridge.


I went out this weekend in the west village in the city with my cousin and his racous group of friends.


I was cleverly nicknamed Texas Teddy at some point during the night and it stuck for the rest of the weekend. The bars don't close until 4 a.m. here which would seem excessive except that we didn't leave the Bronx until 1:30 and stayed on the train for an hour and then spent another half hour carousing around once we got out. We didn't step into a bar until a little after 3.

Mohonk Mountain and West Point Academy

The past couple of days I went to see The United States Military Academy at West Point and hiked up and through Mohonk Mountain. The only thing I knew about West Point before visiting was that it is the home for Army football. I had no idea it was in New York. The idea of the Military Academy was first conceived in the late 18th century and was recognized as an educational institution in 1803. It is situated just along the Hudson river at a point where the river bows westward an extreme amount. It was strategically placed here to maximize its area around the Hudson and give it a superior edge against enemy forces that wanted to pass through the river. Unfortunately since 9/11, visitors who do not come through by bus tour are not permitted on campus. But, the museum was open.




The next day I went with my cousins Alex and Jimmy up Mohonk Mountain. The Mountains in this area are actually small, small enough that the folks around here call them hills. The hike up Mohonk is completely different than that of the other hiking areas around here. There is actually very little hiking to be done. You are basically manuevering up a jungle gym made for adults. There are multiple enclosed rock areas that you have to squeeze into. Some areas are so tight that I was told someone actually gotten stuck. Many other obstacles require ladders and bridges to get across them. At the peak there is a gigantic almost medieval looking tower that overlooks the entire region.



To view the rest of my photos just go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/greeksquared

Upstate New York and back "home"?

Its hard to say that I had seen enough of the city but after three weeks I think it was time to move on. If I stayed any longer I might just have never left. Luckily for me I have some cousins about an hour and a half North in a small town called Marlboro. The town, probably not more than a few thousand, is situated just inside the Hudson river valley. I'm not sure if you call it upstate NY but its further upstate than NY city so that's what I'm calling it. I am staying on a house which was built more than 200 years ago. It used to be a bed and breakfast and one at one time was the brightest spot for town nightlife. There was a small dance hall in the backyard, a 2-3 acre backyard at that. From here, outdoor thrillseeking is not too far away. Lots of good hiking, kaykaing, bike riding, fishing, and camping await. Yesterday I went with my cousins Alex and Sofia to a "mountain" top to explore Lake Minewaska. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. Another. The lake was very tempting to take a swim. There were multiple areas where amatuer cliff divers could launch themselves safely into harmony. Hopefully I will be back with some swim trunks. There was also some life in the lake...a tadpole here and outside.. a hawk.

We left a little early because I had made plans to go to a previous home of mine in Ridgefield, CT, a small town of about 20,000 tucked just inside the Western border of Connecticut. I lived here in the summer of 2005 where I had an internship with Schlumberger. I stayed with an unbelievably great family. I don't think I've lived a better summer. I had an entire upstairs attic with a TV and bedroom all to myself. I had a really sweet house Mom whom prepared dinner almost every night of the week and would also take me to soccer games and even went hiking with me once. My summer Dad is an outdoor enthusiast who took me out in the water by boat a couple times (see also: fishing, hunting, and traveling through rockies with son for a week with no contact from civilization). My house brother is actually set to star in a nationally released motion picture this coming fall called Margot at the Wedding with Jack Black and Nicole Kidman. My house sister is a ginger haired beauty planning for college. So crazy, last time I was here she was just finishing freshman year.

When I came back, the whole experience from 2 years ago seemed to instantly come back and revive itself. A delicious dinner was prepared lots of catching up was eagerly done. I even ended up spending the night in my old room. It felt fantastic to be back.


Random observation and question...

As I was driving to the hiking area yesterday there were quite a few motorcycles on the road. The good weather probably helped. For a small period of time there happened to be one of the motorcyclists directly infront of me on the road. Every time that he passed an oncoming motorcyclist he would put his left hand out as if to signal that they were in some kind of bike cult or something and the other guy would do the same. Thoughts? (Thanks Alex)


Picture note: I am now using picasa.google.com to host all my pictures. This software by google even lets you digitally edit photos and seems to have many more features than photobucket.com which I was using previously. (Thanks Marion)

I can't seem to get the slideshows to work in my original post...why is there no pause button?? My blog entry about NY is below the slideshows.

Trade center slideshow

Zoo slideshow

Slideshow

Slideshows

Day 60ish: New York City

It’s been a while. Oh...about one third of one percent of my entire life just passed by between blog entries. For the past three weeks I have been staying with my Aunt and Uncle in the Bronx who have very generously let me camp in an upstairs room. My car is on the way to making a full recovery. Luckily enough, the mechanic in Phili found the problem immediately and fixed it for about 150 bucks. It drove fine the second I took it out of the mechanic’s shop but then the very next day my clutch was dying again and needed to be pumped vigorously by my foot to revive it. For the past few weeks I’ve had to continually pump the clutch to get it to work properly. If my left leg is much bigger when I get back then you all will know why.

I’ve been doing almost all my site seeing in the city. See when people say “the city”, they mean Manhattan Island.

World Trade Center area
This was one of the very first areas I went to. It still appears as though a nuke just vaporized the 16 acre lot yesterday. The entire area is completed surrounded by metal chain-link fences which have some opaque sheath attached so that you can’t really get a good glimpse of what actually is going on. There actually wasn’t a huge memorial as I thought there would be. There is a small section on the east side of the towers where the official memorial is. There is a metal overhang shelter type structure and a few posters and a list of the dead that hang on the wall. It’s basically just a few large posters and a list of all those who died hanging on the fence. The re-building of the area is still more than a year away and they are still focused on determining how to fix the foundation. You can go here for more information
http://www.projectrebirth.org/

Wall Street
I’ve always taken an interest in the stock market and headed to Wall Street which is just a few blocks east of the Trade Center memorial. You can’t go inside without knowing someone and came by after the market was closed and so probably didn’t get an accurate feel for the area. The street itself is very narrow and not very long.
Since I have been here I have also decided to go all out in a pursuit to land a job with a large investment firm or hedge fund. My good friend Paul that went to Rice with me just landed a job with a hedge fund and knows the recruiting process very well.


Jewish Heritage Museum
I think the Jewish culture was one of the few that I never came in contact with as a young kid and have become rather curious about their history and especially their success in America. The Jews only represent 2 percent of the American public but make up 10 percent of the US senate, 23% of the wealthiest Americans and 30% of elite college faculty (check here for more facts). This seems pretty remarkable if the numbers are correct. I came here right before it closed at the end of my day and was the sole person in here. The lighting was rather poor and since I was the only person in here I could hear background noises from some video exhibits. It was rather creepy and I did my best to be careful when going up stairs and looking around corners for the unexpected. Seriously, the museum area was secluded far from the lobby down a narrow corridor...

Here are a couple slideshows of some nightlife...yup there is beer pong in bars
here.

I also went to the Bronx zoo...another slideshow below

Ive done quite a bit more, but it'll have to wait

Day 33: Back in Phili with a new look

Yup, thats me. I decided to put my head hair in a race with my facial hair to see which grows the fastest.

Day 31: Back in DC

I was just in DC a couple weeks ago but didn't really post anything about it. It just so happens that my cousin's girlfriend moved to DC this last week and he was going to see her. So, with car still on the sidelines I hopped aboard with him and made it back here in the afternoon. I was put immediately to work rearranging some furniture, which I didn't mind. She had already let me stay at her place for a couple nights.

I had made plans to go out to this country western bar with two of my college fraternity brothers Chris and Ryan, pictured to the right. I actually befriended some UT longhorn people and cajoled one girl to give the Aggies Gig' em thumbs up while I did the opposite.

Day 29: Deep in the Forest of Valley Forge

Right now I reside near the very top of a "mountain" (anything with enough elevation to cause a broken leg if dropped from the peak is considered a mountain in Houston. Seriously, you can step on a water cooler and see the entire city) in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. This is where Washington moved his troops during the revolutionary war for the winter to get them ready to fight the British who had over taken Philadelphia, about 30 miles to the east.

I am staying with my cousin's Godparents who have been exceptionally welcoming. Every night (its been 3 now) they have fixed me breakfast lunch and dinner with dessert. In return I provided them with my exceptional raking ability as well as some useless gardening tips.

Tomorrow I think I am going to be heading back to DC with my cousin whom is seeing his girlfriend. Speaking of DC, it was cherry blossom season when I went last week and much of the city was covered by all these beautiful blossoms.

Below is my first attempt at one of those articles that I promised I would write.

BCS vs Playoffs: Why is there so much emphasis on one game?

I’ve never really understood the uproar in Division I College football about the need for a playoff system. It seems as though every sports pundit out there is overwhelmingly in favor of a playoff system. Yes, every other sporting league crowns their champion using a form of a playoff system, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a playoff is the optimal strategy for choosing a champion. A playoff doesn’t guarantee a “true” champion nor necessarily add excitement. In fact, a playoff in college football can detract from both areas.

There are 110 or so teams in Division 1 College football and if there were a playoff only one team would be able to win the championship. The system in place right now allows for multiple champions while a playoff, of course does not. Does anyone else think it completely sucks that there can only be one champion out of all 110 teams? Our society and media coverage seem to be focused on crowing champions and basically making kings out of our superstars (Can I be the next Andre Ware). Why can’t multiple teams have the chance to call themselves champions? Is it really that horrible that there is not a single champion? The top division in high school football in the state of Texas crowns two champions every year. Nobody seems to complain about this.

Football is a game of very high variance and incredible randomness in each and every game. Many games are decided by a couple very fluky plays. Take for instance, last year’s SEC championship game that matched up the eventual champion Florida vs. Arkansas. The game was pretty even except for one huge, terrible mistake on special teams by one of the return men for Arkansas. He called for a fair catch while backing up in his own end zone, something most junior high players don’t do. He fumbled and Florida pounced on it for an easy seven points. If the return guy has a heart attack and falls dead instead of trying to catch the punt then Arkansas might win. The point I am trying to make is that no one game should determine a champion. Also, we put way too much emphasis on championship games. Games can go either way with one person having an enormous impact. Why must we always award this randomness to one team? It really is OK to have multiple champions.

Was UT really so much more deserving of the title two years ago over USC? They were just one play away from being “losers”. I wonder how Vince Young would have been perceived if he was brought down just before the goal line on UT’s final possession that won them the game. Would he have still come out early to the NFL and still have been picked at the same spot? I remember so many people calling in on talk shows right after the game saying how little of an impact Reggie Bush had on the game. He only had almost 200 total yards and a touchdown for that game. Actually, if he doesn’t try his ‘And one’ street ball going full speed lateral in the second quarter then USC probably wins.

A playoff will one day produce a winner with two or even three losses. There has never been a champion with 2 losses in the history of college football. I can’t imagine all the hysteria that will ensue when a three loss team takes down the national title. Not that I believe this to be a bad thing but I’m sure most everyone else will.

Basically, I don’t see too much wrong with the system in place. There will never be a way to crown a true champion so why not let there be many.

Road Trip Potpouri

Here are a couple videos of me. The first one is me at a golf range letting off some steam after finding out what happened to my car.

The second is me singing in my car to the song "Simple Man". Ive never heard myself sing on camera and I always thought I was bad. It turns out I was wrong and I am just worse.

Day 27: My car is near busto in Phili

And so as it was foretold many moons ago by its predecesors, that one day the blue Saturn SL with no power steering will eventually run no mo on the road and go busto. It was a beautiful brilliant Friday afternoon and I had just picked up my brother from the airport. The weather had finally turned around as it was about 75 degees outside without a hint of the horrid constant drizzle I had in DC just a couple days ago. We headed into the old town immediately after I picked him up to go see where the forefathers of this country laid the framework for us today. The streets of downtown Phili are ridiculously tiny, so much so that they don't even have those little cross walk lights. Phili is pretty much the birthplace of our country. Independence hall is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. The liberty bell was directly across the street so we decided to go by there as well. Apparently it has cracked about 3 or 4 times getting recasted every time.

On the way back from downtown my brother noticed a strange smell inside my car and since I am no stranger to odd smells I ignored it and kept on going. Less than five minutes later I was on the shoulder unable to get out of first gear. My clutch had completely shut down and was loose like it had fallen asleep. I made it to metered parking area where I could keep it for the night. I actually leave the car here for the next couple days because we had planned to go Altantic City the next morning.

AC was similar to Tunica (the last place I went to gamble) in that there seems to be extreme poverty except for the mammoth casinos that dot the boardwalk. All three of us went immediately to play poker at the Trump Taj Mahal. There was actually only 2 spots available at the table and since we all wanted to play together I offered 25 bucks for the first person to leave. I instantly got action on my proposition, payed the man in chips and was instantly down for my session. We ended up degenerating it up until about 5 a.m. My cousin claimed to put down 15 whiskey cokes in the 12 or so straight hours that we were there. Since it was so late and the cheapest hotel in town was 250 dollars we decided to pay 5 dollars to sleep in the parking lot in our car.

We came back Sunday afternoon where I had to wait 4 hours for AAA to come get me. It is now at a local mechanic shop where I will get the verdic tomorrow morning.

Day 23: Philadelphia

I am alive and fully functioning, except for possibly my liver which has gone through a few rough outings the past week. I just drove in to Philadelphia yesterday and staying with my cousin Chris whom I just saw in Birmingham a couple weeks ago. I have full albums of pictures that will hopefully be updated soon as well as some candid video of myself singing in the car. Its truly amazing how someone, a human no less, can produce such a spectacular cacophony of sound whilst trying so hard to sing proper.

One other random road trip moment: On my way to Memphis from Ft. Worth I heard this R&B song by a group of chicks (possibly Beyonce). The main chorus in the song goes something like "Run away girl, Run away girl ..." Since I am 25 I am hard of hearing and believe I say "what?" during conversation more than most 80 year old men, I thought the song was saying "Winnebago, Winnebago" . I thought what a perfect song for my road trip. I then started listening to the other words of the song and finally put it together that they were not indeed singing about a motor home.

Go ahead and say "Run away girl" fast and see what happens. Dont babies turn their r's into w's.

One more thing. There is a website called googlefight.com where you can match up two phrases to see which one has more hits (yes you can do it yourself but its more fun this way and there is a little video of two stick figures fighting it out). Well tonight I think we are going to use it to play a drinking game or to make degen prop bets. Out.

Day 13: Heading to Atlanta

I am just about to head out to Atlanta for the evening to see my Dad's youngest brother John. I have been very blessed to have an immediate family that has placed so much emphasis on staying close together..think my Big Fat Greek Wedding. We are always traveling to visit our close relatives and they are always traveling to see us. I feel very fortunate to have so many relatives that are "close" by and to have actually visited with them my entire life. Much of the family thinks I look a LOT like my uncle. Atlanta is very much a foreign place to me. I have only passed through it a couple times before. Unfortunately I don't have long to stay because I have to be in Washington D.C by Thursday afternoon.

Thanks to my Aunt I was given a huge load of some famous southern Barbequed pork. Fantastic

Day 12: Birmingham, Al

I think I made Dr. Atkins proud these last couple days with the endless intake of meat that has nearly exceeded the challenge I proposed for my stomach following the end of lent. I have tried to disregard any food that wasn’t eaten lamb, steak, or chili hot dogs the last couple days. I still crave more.

Yesterday was very peaceful and relaxing much like the other 12 days have been. This road trip by definition can do little other than put my mind at rest. The only things even remotely close to resembling stress were the two phone interviews I had this afternoon. Both were with two insurance firms that needed to fill associate actuarial positions. I have no clue as to whether I would enjoy this line of work, only that I seem to be well qualified and that it would have my yiayia (grandma) be able to brag endlessly to all her friends about me. She’s in the other room as I write doing this right now. This job searching seems to be one main reason why I decided to go on this road trip. I don’t believe I am ready to grow up. Who is by the way? Does anyone actually grow up? I think I will be using this expression when I’m 70. I still played video games all weekend long and still cursed my horrendously bad golf shots wanting to turn a club into a walking stick for a midget on Saturday no different than I did 10 years ago. I still found myself wanting to beat the hell out of my brother when he was being beyond annoyingly difficult.

My mom bought me this little device used to locate a lost set of keys by ringing loudly whenever it hears a whistle (a la Jennifer Anniston’s (Shes half greek) key ring in “Along came Polly”). This silly thing doesn’t even have an off button. So once you find it, the sound never goes off. I actually thought it was a one-time use device and about to test swing the hammer in my toolset (another present from mom) until I unfortunately had the brilliant idea of taking the batteries out and putting it back in (kin of a fire alarm??). This wasn’t even in the 2 lines of instructions. Was this a joke to the user? Did the inventor of this wretched device never grow up either? I suppose if I had it my way I would just never grow up. Staying at 25 seems swell to me. Staying on the road trip indefinitely also seems optimal.

My family had left in the morning and then my cousin Chris this evening back to Philadelphia. Afterword I went with my uncle to his work place at City hall. He showed me his office where he was won about 20 distinguished awards for producing an exemplary budget scheme every year for the city. From here we went to one of the highest points in Birmingham to eat dollar hot dogs. B-ham is basically in a valley enclosed by small rolling hills. The diner we stopped at overlooked the western edge of the city which was richly laden by the newly emerged Spring greenery. extra

We also stopped at an adult book shop that used to be the proud building that housed my Papou's (grandpa) restaurant the Gold Star about 30 years ago.