A Blog by Chris

This trip was a grind. I didn’t do anything interesting at all. I spent most of the time by myself driving across the eastern part of the state. You see, I was solo that week, and I had to be in Muskogee, then Oklahoma City, then Tulsa.

But work was good. I’m pretty sure I sold some software, so I guess it was worth me going out there…

This one is from the Oklahoma City Marriott.

(What an amazing view, right?)

And here’s from the Marriott in Tulsa.

All I can say is, “Finally!!!” It’s about time someone distilled this whole complex financial crisis to a cartoon I can understand. (Rated R for Language. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

All joking aside, I can’t believe how many layers of screw-ups it took to get to where we are now. And how much unabashed greed. Obviously Wall Street is greedy. Hell, it’s a job requirement. But when everyone, from the credit rating agencies, to the mortgage brokers, to the investment bankers, to the investors, to the home buyers themselves are so uncontrollably greedy you have to wonder, when does it cross the line and become plain foolishness and stupidity. And where are all the people who are supposed to be paying attention to this and stopping it from happening in the first place? I guess they were all too busy giving the crappy mortgage backed bonds AAA ratings.

Oh well, this whole thing makes my head hurt. I’m going to go get another cup of coffee…

Lacey’s friend Bridget got a Time Machine for her birthday and traveled to the future with a VCR. Here’s what she came back with.

John McCain is going to bomb that poor man’s goats.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m way behind on my blog. I’ve only had this thing for a few months so this is a bad sign. But it’s actually worse; I’m changing positions at work so I won’t be traveling near as much anymore. This is actually good news for my marriage and personal life, but not so good for my stupid website experiment. I suppose I have a decision to make and I’m not sure if I’ll actually blog about something else, or just let this thing wither and die. We’ll have to wait and see.

Until then, I’ve got a few more photos in the pipeline just waiting to burst out of my camera and on to the Interweb.

Why look, here’s one now:

This was from the Doubletree by the airport in Atlanta. I was there for a quick trade-show last month (yeah, yeah, I should have posted this thing a long time ago, I know). There’s not much to say about the hotel (except that Doubletree cookies are awesomely delicious in that fake plastic food kind of way) or the show, but you can see the restaurant where I had some great ribs one night.

Michon’s is kind of cool. It’s on the second floor and as you climb the stairs you have to be careful to keep yourself from tripping over the oak logs that they store on the steps and walkway. But by the time you get to the door you can smell the smoke and spices wafting in the air. Right next to the front door and just inside the building they have big windows into the kitchen so you can see the cooks in there smoking the meat. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing. They also double as a jazz/dance club, but I didn’t stay late enough for the music. If I ever go back, I’ll have to try the smoked chicken wings.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for watching (reading) and be sure to stay tuned for another exciting episode of “Room With A View”. If you’re lucky, you might not even have to wait a whole month for it this time.

Every once in a while Youtube just comes through with the goodness.

I actually really like that guitar solo…

Last night in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention, John McCain gave a speech to thousands of people and millions of TV viewers. The night before, Sarah Palin did the same. They told us why we should vote for McCain. Last week the scene was Denver at the Democratic National Convention where Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and others told us why Obama was the best choice for America.

Of course, I don’t have the slightest idea what any of them actually said.

I didn’t watch a single speech. I haven’t watched a political speech since my Speech 1A class at BC where we got to see lots of tape of Regan and JFK. That was 1999. The only reason I know who any of these people are is from newspaper headlines (I don’t read the articles). I also sometimes turn on NPR on my way home from work. It’s a 10 minute drive and I mostly zone out, but I do manage to pick up names. Sometimes.

I couldn’t tell you where either of the candidates stand on a single issue. I’m not sure what the big issues even are. Iraq obviously, and the economy, there’s something about offshore oil drilling, foreign relations (I suspect those are all really the same issue). Then there are the old standards like health care, education, the environment. They might be talking about gun control and abortion too – I don’t really know.

And that, my friends and countrymen, is why I’m a bad American.

It’s not just that I don’t know about the issues or candidates, it’s that I don’t care about them. Sometimes I try to care, but it just ends up making me angry. I never know who to believe about anything. Every time one side makes a stand about something, the other side is right there telling you why it’s all bullshit. Both sides usually sound believable to me, which makes me think that both sides are usually lying.

I just don’t have the energy to decipher everybody’s lies calculated political statements. In the end, maybe I’m too much of a cynic to care about politics. But what gets me is that deep down I suspect it’s apathetic people like me who are going to be the downfall of our country.

What to do…what to do… Oh well, can’t think about it too much. I’ve got a life to live.

I forgot to post this for some reason… Maybe because the photo is so terrible.

I actually had a great time in Myrtle Beach swimming in the Atlantic, but the hotel view wasn’t much… 1st floor rooms aren’t too great for views.

The next week’s room was also a 1st floor and looked exactly the same. I forgot to take the photo though, so this photo will just have to serve double time.

This will be my last “Room With A View” post for a little while. I’m not traveling for a few more weeks at least, which is nice for me and my family, but not so nice for my website.

I was only here for one night. Just for a layover, but I decided to stay downtown and have a little fun before flying on to Myrtle Beach for week 2. I convinced one of the salespeople (and her boyfriend) from our local reseller to join me. So we three went to Bourbon Street. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

But I didn’t forget to take the window photo:

I actually had windows on two walls in this room. The hotel used to be an office building so all the rooms were old offices. But the view wasn’t as good from the second window…

This is pretty much spot on. I remember suggesting to Oliver that we stop by Vegas while I was visiting him in Phoenix – you know, because we were going to be so close.

Found via Buzz Feed

PS. Don’t click that link or the graph unless you are prepared to spend way too much time online…

Bay St. Louis, Ms

This was week one of a three week trip in the South and it was a doozy…

I’m finding that our local business partners absolutely love getting the “California guy” drunk. The first night I stayed out wayyyy too late, and of course, my cell phone died, and of course, I was not checking my cell phone so I didn’t notice, and of course, Lacey called me about a 10 times, and of course, I didn’t find out until I got back into my hotel room and plugged in my phone, and of course, Lacey was not happy at all (understatement!!!) when I finally did call her, and of course, I spent over an hour in the middle of the night apologizing for not checking my phone, and of course, it didn’t happen again.

I was actually there for a conference, but I spent most of my time goofing off and having fun. Well, not entirely, I guess. I did give three presentations and they all went very well. But for the three hours that I wasn’t doing my job, I was playing.

Besides that first night, here’s a list of the fun things I did in Mississippi:

• Ate dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It was totally amazing. I had some kind of sampler plate with filet, stuffed roast chicken and crab cakes. The crab cakes were underwhelming (not bad, just not great). The filet was awesome. The roast chicken was maybe the best chicken I’ve ever had. I actually felt kind of bad that I liked the chicken so much more than the filet since I was eating at a fancy steakhouse and all.
• Ate dinner at Emeril’s Gulf Port Fish House. If I thought the chicken at Ruth’s Chris was good, I was in for a treat. At Emeril’s I had smoked duck. It was almost a religious experience. I basically spent the entire dinner with my eyes rolled back in my head and duck fat dripping off my chin. I had to remind myself to breathe while I was eating because the food was so good I couldn’t be bothered to stop chewing and take a breath.
• Played golf at the Arnold Palmer designed Bridges Golf Club. I ran into a problem here. You see, I didn’t actually bring my clubs so I had to borrow some from one of the people there at the conference. Now, my clubs are old, old, old. They were old 10 years ago when I got them, but it didn’t matter then because I just needed something to learn how to play with (thanks Papa!!!). But the clubs I borrowed were not old. They were some really nice TaylorMades. I was worried that I was not going to play well with someone else’s clubs. I was wrong. I have never hit a golf ball so well so consistently. The problem I ran into is that now I have to find $500 (at least) to buy a new set of irons. I’m already shopping around.
• Drove along Hwy 90 to Ocean Springs. This was not as much fun, but it was very interesting. Hurricane Katrina, it turns out, didn’t actually hit New Orleans directly. It hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Now, New Orleans sustained more damage, but that was because of the flooding as a result of the levys bursting. The Gulf Coast got the wind damage. I couldn’t believe how much devastation there still is along the coast there. I was in one place and felt like I was in the middle of nowhere because there were no buildings or trees or structures or anything around. There was only a road. As I was driving along I saw, in an empty field, a bank vault with the door rusted out and swinging. I couldn’t tell, but I was in what used to be a busy intersection of a small town. There was nothing left except this steel and concrete room and empty roads.

But I know you guys aren’t here for my stories. You just want to see pictures. Fine. Here’s the view from my hotel room:

See that building there in the photo? That used to be over a mile away in another little bay. But Katrina blew it over here. How did this happen you ask? You see, gambling is legal in Mississippi. Sort of. It’s only legal on the coast. Actually, the story goes, it used to only be legal on boats that would take you out into the water to gamble. Then they let the boats stay docked (because of dangerous weather conditions I think) and allow gambling. Then, once the boats were allowed to dock, they decided to let the casino owners build permanent structures as long as they were out over the water. (The building in the photo was one of these. It became a boat when the wind blew it off the foundation and it floated to its current home.) Then they changed the laws again, and allowed the casinos to build on land as long as they were directly on the coast. Now, since Katrina, the casinos are lobbying the state to allow them to build further inland so they might not sustain as much damage in the next hurricane.

Here another view about 45 degrees to the right:

You can see hole 7 (I think) of the golf course from here.

So that was my week on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I kind of can’t wait till next year.