Well I’ve taken one more step towards adulthood/death. After 9 years of living in various dorm rooms and apartments I’m shopping for my first house. I have to say it’s not without a little trepidation either. In fact if it wasn’t for Obama’s First Time Homebuyer’s tax credit I probably wouldn’t even be putting myself through this. I don’t even care if this will send us into an inflation death spiral at least my mortgage will be $8000 less than you suckas!
My two biggest fears are:
1) I’m not exactly sold on St. Louis being my forever home. Hell 40% of me thinks I should just pack up and move to LA, or Italy, or Australia, or anything else. I’ve always viewed home ownership as cementing (i.e. trapping) yourself into one place for an extended period of time.
2) I don’t want to live in a shithole. In St. Louis you can get a very nice apartment for $900 a month in almost any neighborhood you want. I’ve lived in UCity, CWE, Clayton, and Maplewood. All because I wanted to. Buying a house is not the same. If I want a nice house I can afford I won’t be able to live in the “hip” neighborhoods or I can get a nice neighborhood and a POS house. Not a favorable situation.
The other big decision I need to make is Suburban or City. With a suburban house you get a bigger yard and less crime but also less activities in your neighborhood. With a city house you’ll have a slightly higher chance of being shot in the head on your way to your car in the morning but all the bars and restaurants are right there.
I think I’m leaning more city. St. Louis has some freaking sweet rehabs in the city. I mean imagine I lived here:
or here even:
The coolest place I’ve looked at is at the top of my price range but a completely rehabbed 3 story house. This sucker is 115 years old! I think that is really cool. Imagine living in a place that is older than every human on the face of the Earth (ok except for one).
I’m going out looking again this weekend (in 110° heat no less) and I’ll hopefully have a better idea of the neighborhood and type of house I want. Either that or I’m moving to Mexico to open a dive shop. I could go either way really.
June 26th, 2009
This weekend I was tasked with hosting a bachelor party for my friend Laef. Now I’ve attended many bachelor parties in my time with varying degrees of debauchery but I’ve never had to plan one myself. I can have fun doing anything but making sure somebody is doing something they enjoy is not something I’m used to (I’m selfish like that). Laef opted for a chilled out weekend at Lake Tahoe - a place I’d never been but was looking forward to.
The trip to Reno took about 6 hours. This was complicated by the fact that I was seated next to a giant who needed a seat belt extension just to fit into his seat. He was ON me all flight. Awful. By the time I got a rental, drove the hour to Tahoe, and checked into the cabin I was ready for a beer. In fact it’s safe to say I’ve never been more ready for a beer in my entire life.
The first night we stayed in the Cabin. Drinking, playing Wii, smoking cigars, and relaxing in the hot tub. It was great.
The next day was even better. After waking with a blistering headache I still managed to drink a few beers with my eggs (Blue Moon truly is a breakfast beer). We played some Hold ‘em, BBQ’d lunch, smoked more cigars, and hit the Tub again before getting ready to head out.
We hit the Montbleau casino in Stateline first. This was based on a recommendation by our cab driver (who was either a millionaire or a compulsive liar). We hit the sportsbook and for the first time in my life every bet I placed came in. I took the Lakers and the Under and also bet on the Padres to beat the Cubs which they did. My winnings went a long way since they had drink specials of $7 pitchers and $3 Jäger Bombs.
Later that night Mike was DEALT this hand (there’s a reason this picture is blurry):
which paid for dinner and a round of beers.
…Skipping over some things for privacy/survival reasons (there’s a reason there aren’t more pictures)…..
Then we played blackjack until 4am. We headed back to the cabin played a little Wii and tried to choke down some Jalapeno Poppers (which were Nast!) then crashed out. Because I was with a few dipshits we had to wake up at 7am and drive the hour to Reno to catch their flight. 2 hours of sleep was not good times. I spent an additional 3 hours in the airport waiting for my flight then spent 6 hours on a plane until I made it home safely to STL.
All in all a good weekend. Fun was had, beer was consumed, and Laef had a good time. Now I’ll be spending the next week drinking water and eating vegetables.
May 26th, 2009
On Saturday I hosted what will hopefully become an annual tradition - the STL BreweryFest. In the 5 years that I’ve been back in St. Louis I’d never taken the Anheuser-Busch tour. That had to end. After mapping out a plan to hit some of the microbreweries in the area (3 at least, 9 at most) we were set.
Layla and I woke up early and rode down to AB with the Oldangerouses to take in some Clydesdales, Beechwood Aging, and free samples. I was a little surprised to see that Stella Artois was on tap but I guess it’s all part of the InBev family now. I had an American Ale and a Shocktop. Both were delicious.
The second stop was Square One Brewery in Lafayette Square. I hadn’t been here before since I never hang out in that neighborhood. We were joined by my cousin, his friend, and a very hungover Matt Smith. Now the party could start. The beer was actually very good. The Oatmeal Stout and Irish Red in particular were good. Some of the other participants recommended the Spicy Blonde but it wasn’t for me. Square One is also a distillery and they make their own Agave. TJ suggested we do a shot but I didn’t want to take a midday nap so we passed.
After some debate we decided to skip Morgan Street, The Stable, and Mattingly and head to a new place near SLU - Buffalo Brewing (nevermind that their website is terrible). I know bartenders hate making samplers but that’s what we were there for! We ordered 6 for the table. Even Matt sacked up and had a few. The Buffalo Gold was the lightest beer I’ve ever had and the Imperial IPA tasted like gasoline (100 IBU!) but the Belgian Dubbel and Extra Stout were holy delicious.
Our final stop was a place that I am all too familiar with - Schlafly Bottleworks. Considering I can walk there from my house it’s pretty safe to say I spend a significant amount of time there. The No. 15 and Kolsch did not disappoint. TJ managed to dump an entire beer on his wife and somehow my cousin got into a shouting match with a hippie while I wasn’t looking. Considering we’d been going for about 8 hours that was almost expected.
Next time we’ll have to hit Alandale, Trailhead, and Ofallon. St. Louis truly is Beer City, USA!
Special thanks to Mrs. Oldani for getting herself knocked up so she could be our Designated Dave all day long.
April 15th, 2009
After staying out late last night talking about code and meeting tons of people I had no desire to talk to anyone. Matt and I pretty much kept to ourselves today. We saw a panel on Natural User Interfaces and apparently Minority Report is coming. After that we saw a pretty cool Silverlight demo. I have to say after seeing that, playing around with a Surface, and seeing what WPF can do I think Microsoft is up to some really cool things. About time.
We also took in some Stubbs BBQ which was freaking delicious. Then we walked roughly 50 miles on an abortive quest for some Dublin Dr. Pepper. It was quite unsuccessful. I think I’ve gained about 17 lbs after all the beer and food this week but I’ve worked off about 12 lbs walking around Austin.
It’s cool here and I’d love to come back.
March 17th, 2009
Well we survived another day. On Monday I saw panels on The Browser Wars, Entrepreneurship, Freelancing, and Idea Generation. We also swung by the Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator where startups demo their product and a panel lead by Guy Kawasaki pokes holes in their ideas. It could be a little brutal at times. I didn’t get to see all of them but Gigotron (a music discovery engine) and Ringlight (a file sharing service) both looked cool. We also got copious amounts of swag. I think I’m setup on Microsoft t-shirts for life.
Later we walked around the University of Texas campus and had a pint at the awesome Dog & Duck Pub. We went down to The Speakeasy to see Them Terribles. They were good. After trying to figure out why an army of scantily clad hot chicks showed up in a sea of nerds with ironic t-shirts on we found out that the band was shooting a video and had hired models. That explained a lot. But the band played a good show and I got to act like I was really into it as they lip synched their single 5 times. After that we went to The Geek Party at the Iron Works and did some networking. Matt managed to harass Dan Rubin for 30 minutes.
Our cab got poached on the way home so we ended up walking the 2 miles back to the hotel. All in all a good night.
March 17th, 2009
Well we’ve been in Austin for 2 days now and SXSW has been as exhausting as I expected it would. We got in Saturday and managed to check in and walk through the trade show (mega lame) before hitting the parties. We swung by the Mobile Social BBQ (they ran out of plates right before we got in line), Dorkbot (I can’t even describe how awesomely weird some of things I saw there were - this will get it’s own post), Live/Create (we sipped on the free vodka and waited for the band to play. After a seemingly endless setup time they never did. We booked outta there), The Bigg Digg Shindigg (way overcrowded and a little too cold to stand outside), Happy Cog’ake (very crowded and kinda lame), and then we went off the schedule and hit some (or all) of the bars on 6th street. Getting up today was not pleasant.
Today was more about the content. I managed to see panels on Gestural UI, CSS3, iPhone Development, and How to Fund a Startup. They were all pretty interesting although I didn’t necessarily “learn” anything in all of them. We also stopped by Screenburn which was totally awesome. We played some old school NES and drank some free Mountain Dew. We’re avoiding the parties tonight so tomorrow should be even better.
March 15th, 2009
On Saturday Matt and I are (finally) heading down to Austin, TX for the SXSW Interactive Festival . I’m trying to plan the week but so far I’ve found it all to be pretty overwhelming. With all the talks , trade show , Screenburn , and bookstore getting a plan together is becoming difficult. There’s just too much I want to do. Oh and did I mention the parties? Oh god the parties!
This will be my first trip to Austin so I somehow want to incorporate a couple sidetrips into the week, like checking out UT and having a little Man vs. Food adventure to Juan in a Million and Big Top Candy Shop for some chocolate covered bacon. Not to mention Bar Camp Austin is going on this weekend as well and I might want to swing by there for a bit. It’d be like 2 conferences in one!
Obviously we can’t do everything but I’m following SXSW is Easy and SXSW Baby to make sure we hit the hot spots.
Matt insists on going low tech and bringing his Moleskin Notebook but I’ll be lugging along the Macbook, iPhone, and Canon PowerShot SD-1100 so I plan to be a blogging, tweeting fool all weekend. You can follow me on twitter or subscribe to my blog feed .
It’s going to be a fun but exhausting week!
March 12th, 2009
I’m writing this post from the Internet Channel on Wii. This is super cumbersome so I probably won`t be doing it again. Move along nothing to see here.
March 8th, 2009
Tonight is the beginning of an annual tradition. A weekend when I get together with my old college roommate and we head down to the Scottrade Center to cheer on our alma mater Missouri State at Arch Madness.
While this should be an occasion to catch up, watch some mediocre basketball, and talk about the good old days it always ends up a belligerent drunkfest in which we curse, booze, and quite possibly violate some minor civil ordinances. Generally we act like we’re 19 years old instead of in our mid to late 20’s. This year I’m going to try to avoid the Boone’s Farm and Keystone Light.
Here’s a couple pictures I dredged up from MVC Tournaments past:
March 5th, 2009
I got this idea for a post from Eric. Fittingly much of these can be found on Stuff White People Like but here is my list of goals/dreams for the next 5 years.
Travel
- Travel to Europe. I’ve been to every major US city (except Boston but fuck that place) but I’ve yet to go to Europe. All of my out of the country traveling has been to the Caribbean and Canada so I’ve yet to leave the continent. I plan to accomplish this goal soon maybe in the Fall.
- Hit all the major parties across the world. I’ve been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras but that one was easy. I’d like to go to Brazil for Carnivale and Germany for Oktoberfest.
- Attend a major sporting event overseas. I’m thinking the Olympics in London in 2012 or the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
- Go to Wacken Open Air in Germany. I like metal. Deal with it.
- Become an Expat. I’d love to live abroad for a year or two. Although I haven’t really been anywhere this seems like a great adventure. Living in a totally new place where you don’t speak the language or really know anyone appeals to me.
- Keep up the tradition of “mancations”. I’d like to continue the annual trip to Chicago with my friends. I’m thinking this will become harder as people start to get married and have children.
Edumacation
- Get my MBA. I’ve been putting this one off for a long time because I really think the MBA is valueless. But I do like school and learning things. Plus my GMAT results are about to expire and I’ve scored high enough to go to Stanford or something.
- Learn to Sail. I’ve had a lot of fun boating in the Gulf of Mexico in my life but never on a sailboat. I’d love to learn how to do this and maybe do some sailing through the caribbean.
- Learn a foreign language. I’m decent at speaking German but I need to sharpen my skills. I’m thinking French as my next language. In any case I’d like to go to a foreign country and not sound like a complete dumbass.
Adult Stuff
- Buy a House. I have the money I just haven’t had the desire. To me buying a house always seemed like you were forcing yourself to be stuck in one location. I like change. I’ve lived in 8 apartments in the past 9 years. Recently my desire to own a grill and play my Wii without fear of being evicted have convinced me that a house might be a good investment. That and the first time home buyer’s tax credit.
- Get Married. It may be toward the end of 5 years but shockingly this is a goal of mine.
- Own a dog. The goal here is to prove to myself that I can have a pet without killing it. Next step: children.
- Build some shit. My Dad finished our basement, built a deck, built a retaining wall, installed hardwood floors, remodeled the bathroom, and installed a satellite dish. For God’s sake I can barely hang a shelf! The desire to buy a house will probably force me to learn some of this stuff.
- Do some more charity work. While my experience has been semi-limited it’s always felt rewarding. Plus one on karma for this one.
- Do a better job investing. So far I’ve acted like a complete rube. All those cute little phrases you hear are true. “Buy on the rumor sell on the news.” Truer words have never been spoken.
Stuff I never want to do (no matter how old I get)
- Wear a sweater vest to work. It’s a proven fact wearing a sweater vest to work makes you age 15 years in a split second.
- Become the kind of person who has nothing else to talk about but my kids. So annoying.
- Stop being awesome. I’m a pretty fun dude. If you’ve met me you can’t deny it. I want to be a fun 30 something too. I don’t want to turn into some crotchety old man when I grow up.
What about you? I’m ready to hear about your goals too. I’ve never tagged anybody in a post but here goes: Layla, Allison, Matt, Melody, Simpson and Scott what are your 5 year goals?
February 18th, 2009
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