The Quote Fish

4 years ago I had a surfboard made by Manuel Caro under his Mandala label. I never have a "normal" custom board made but instead opt for very crazy artwork or designs and such. It suits my personality as the last thing I really want is a plain white board that looks like 95% of the boards you see in the water; that's not Bryan Mills. Hell, the only white colored board I have has bright red glass-on fins on it, so take that conformity!

This board I called the "Quote Fish" as it was adorned on the bottom with excepts of some very inspirational and meaningful quotes in my life.

I rode this board yesterday and had one of the best sessions I've had in a year. The conditions @ Middles (Trestles) and eventually Church's due to the drift were outstanding with little to no wind and perfectly peeling shoulder high+ waves on offer. I went with a good friend Shane and we were both stoked we got out of the house and gave it a shot as we were overly surprised with how good it was and how much fun we had. It was probably the best I'd surfed in a year and was a fitting end to a very exciting and rewarding week.

As I rode the board yesterday I was reminded of why I chose those quotes. There was just something special about the session and the waves and the way I was surfing; I was in a "zone" and I remembered that these inspirational quotes were under my feet the entire time for the first time in a long time.

It was more than just a surf session, it was a wake up call; a reminder that these quotes actually mean something to me. They are inspirational, yes, but more accurately they are a description of my life and a certain "fire" inside that I'd all but lost over the last couple years...but recently re-discovered. I am regaining the spirit and confidence I once had that that propelled me into these new experiences and challenges in life head on and when the dust settled, there I was: better in every way imaginable.

That one surf session with this board yesterday has really re-ignited the flame inside of me that was the inspiration for this quote on the board: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

That's me...I'm back. That's exactly where I am right now and I am STOKED...


Here are the quotes that are under my feet when I'm surfing this board and a description of my life, always...

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

-- Henry David Thoreau


"Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought"

-- Henry David Thoreau


"To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

-- T. E. Lawrence

I LOL'd myself when I first saw this...

What a Rolex means to me

I used to be gainfully employed in the mortgage industry, running my own shop. Now, not so much. I ran the company with a partner who moved up to Seattle a year after we started it so for all intents and purposes I ran the company all by myself for 8 years. When I started that company late in 2001 I had nothing. Furthermore, I abandoned everything I had to start it as I was in Kansas City and my partner was in Los Angeles. I thought nothing of it at the time because I had nothing to tie me down other than a lot of friends and love for Kansas and KC, both of which I miss(ed) dearly.

Flash forward to 2003. The mortgage company had been moderately successful, which is to say it was successful enough that it let me live the modest life I enjoyed though I was by no means "flourishing" and making a wild excess of money; far from it. That winter the business had dried up and I had gone months without a paycheck, which was nothing new as I was used to the feast/famine aspect of the mortgage indsutry. The difference was, this time the famine had lasted longer than I had expected and the prospects were few and far between. I was literally down to my last dime and had enough money in my account to pay off another month of expenses then I was looking to work at Best Buy to hopefully keep a roof over my head as the creditors one by one started asking for their money back and presumably I'd fail miserably at the money game.

I then started processing a loan that I picked up out of nowhere and closed it and got enough money to pay my expenses for like 2 more months. Then 3 loans came through over the course of 3 months, a couple more here and there and before I knew it I had the most successful year that I would ever have in the 9 years that I've done loans. I wrote the largest check I have ever written (still is the largest) to pay off almost all of the debt that I had racked up in just keeping myself afloat and felt this burden lifted from my shoulders as I was turning a new leaf. I went on a cruise with my family over Thanksgiving in 2004. While in St Thomas I abandoned logic/reason and bought myself a Rolex Submariner watch. It was a reward for such a great year, but more importantly it was a reminder of the effort and struggle that I went through to be in a position to buy it. I still look at that watch and think of what it means to me and what it symbolizes: hard work, success, failure, persistence.

Flash forward to today. I find myself in a very similar place as I was in 2003, struggling to get this trading endeavor off the ground and gain the confidence and experience to trade successfully and be consistently profitable after my mortgage business went tits up. The differences is, this time I love what I do and I want to be doing it not just for the monetary gains but for all the other things it gives me that cannot be measured with dollars and cents. This is a scary business. If you perform poorly at your job you might get yelled at, miss a sale or maybe not even have any consequences. Me, if I perform badly at my job I lose my money. There's no salary, no 401(k), no benefits plan, nothing to lean on. I wouldn't want it any other way but to everyone on the outside they see what I do as complete and utter lunacy, and I can't blame them.

I've always been a risk taker and my ability to just go out and "do it" has been severely tested while trading and I need to be reminded of that cavalier attitude that I've had my entire adult life. I left Redmond in 1995 and started a new life @ KU. I left Kansas in 2001 to start a new company and new life in LA. I abandoned mortgages to start trading my own account a year ago. I have a history of being able to take those chances and those leaps and I just have to keep reminding myself that although what I'm doing is extremely difficult and very unrewarding from a monetary standpoint in the beginning, in the end it all works out so long as I keep doing what I do best: persist. I don't know many people that could do what I've done and taken the chances that I have over the last 15 years or so and that's a very sobering but exhilarating feeling for me and the spark that I need to keep that flame lit deep inside, especially when you operate in a business that I do where regular failure is necessary for ultimate success.

My days of searching and discovery of who I am and what I want to do are over. This is the person I want to be and the professional life I want to live and I don't want to keep re-inventing myself and rising like a phoenix from the ashes, I just want to keep pushing myself to be the best, doing what I love. So after a good pep talk with a dear friend today, I'll be keeping that watch on the desk in front of me at all times as a reminder that I've not only been here before but by working hard, experiencing successes and failures--and most of all persisting--I have no fear and no doubt that I will succeed at what I do...

YouTube Tuesday: Last Train to Awesometown

My obsession with Parry Gripp continues, as should your obsession with Parry's quirky and incredibly catchy tunes.

Today, I give you a song that should be a part of your morning routine to get you amped for the day. Whether you're tackling traffic and hatin' co-workers or getting ready for the big game you'll surely be inspired by 5 different kinds of nachos..whaaa????

Just watch...

Foodspotting

I've been remiss in posting about this and figured it was time to do so...

I joined the beta version of this site a few months back and they've really been upping their game and making improvements and enhancements to both the website and iPhone application and I think everyone should sign up. Here's how it works...

You go to a restaurant or some public place serving food, take a photo of the specific dish you got, upload the photo to the site, write a little review (if you'd like) and then others can search for that specific dish (let's say, spicy tuna roll) or set a location (say, Huntington Beach, CA) and search for a food type (like sushi) or restaurant (like Tuna Town) or just search for all foods near them. Then when you find what you're looking for you can see an actual photo of the food and hopefully get an honest review of it and the restaurant. Users can also "NOM" a food, indicating it's one of their favorite foods and that they recommend it to other users and you can NOM other foods you've had though did not post an actual spotting of that food. You start with 10 NOM's and earn the ability to NOM more foods as you post more foods; it's pretty fun.

iPhone users have the added convenience of being able to upload photos and reviews directly from their phone, NOM foods and basically do everything the website allows but with the added convenience of being mobile; it's really slick. Restaurant information is available as well as tying into Google Maps in order to help you contact and find the place a food was spotted as well as see push pins on a map of all places near you that where food has been spotted.

It's super fun to see some of the foods that are posted from all over the world and get inspired to try something new or try a restaurant you'd heard of but never knew anyone that had tried it. If this picks up in popularity (if volume of food spottings and reviews is any indicator, it already has) then it has the ability to be an incredibly useful guide as you could go to a restaurant and see photos of dozens of dishes they have to offer and read unbiased reviews, all before the waiter even drops off a menu.

So, add something to the community and make discovering great food a super fun and simple process!

Sign up for free to become a Foodspotter...

www.foodspotting.com

iPhone application (opens a link in iTunes)

YouTube Tuesday: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.....

Besides Journey's "Separate Ways" is there a song, video and band that you'd put in the music time capsule as the entry for 80's hair band more fitting than The Final Countdown by Europe? I didn't think so. Here's what The Final Countdown has got in this awesomely, awesome video:

• BIG hair
• BIG outfits
• Androgynous lead singer
• The "goofy" band member, in this case the drummer with his oh-so-silly running shorts and bandanna
• Synthesizers
• Makeup
• High school A/V Club quality video effects
• Empowering lyrics and chord progressions
• Pyrotechnics
• 50+ piece drum kit
• Extremely confusing "story" to the video
• Gratuitous live concert footage
• Aerial band shots on the roof, taken from a helicopter
• Groupies
• EPIC guitar solo, with accompanying "lead guitar face"
• Band members holding gold albums for the press

If you find a better entry for the 80's hair band video to put in the time capsule, bring it...until then, it's The Final Countdown...

Holy sh*t I went to the greatest basketball school EVER

I'm done mourning KU's untimely loss. I'm moving on and after some choice comments from the ever classy MU fans and other people who just love to hate on KU at every misstep, I needed something to pick me up; remind me of how good great KU really is. So, I started digging around...

Here are some facts taken from the Wikipedia entry for KU Men's Basketball. If there was ever any doubt that KU is THE blue-blooded, undisputed alpha dog of NCAA Men's college basketball, just read this and if you're still not convinced then you're an idiot. In no particular order of importance with some pretty unbelievable facts highlighted for your convenience...

• Kansas leads Division I in all-time in conference titles with 53 in 103 years of conference play
• In the last two decades (ending with the 2009-2010 season), no team won more games than the Jayhawks, who won 571 games
• KU has the longest current streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances with 21

 sidenote: The NCAA Tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was the brainchild of coach Phog Allen (you're welcome, college basketball fans)

• Since the NCAA began seeding the tournament in 1979, KU has never been lower than an 8 seed (their average seed is a 3) and since that time KU has only missed the tournament 5 times
• Second-longest current streak of winning seasons, at 27
• First among Division I schools in winning seasons, conference championships and first-team All Americans
• Second in wins with 2003
• First in NCAA history with 91 winning seasons.
• KU has had the fewest head coaches (eight) of any program that has been around 100 or more years (the other "blue bloods" with 100+ year history: KY has had 22, UCLA 12 and UNC 18)
• They have reached the Final Four under more head coaches (six) than any other program in the nation
• Every head coach at Kansas since the inception of the NCAA Tournament has led the program to the Final Four
• Kansas has had four head coaches inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, more than any other program in the nation.
• Current longest home court wining streak @ 59
• 30 McDonald's All Americans
• 14 Academic All Americans
• 6 National Player of the Year honors
• 13 Final Four appearances
• 5 National Championships

Oh and it bears mention that KU is a magnet for college basketball coaching legends. Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp (2 of the greatest, coaches of all time) played @ KU under Phog Allen along with Dutch Lonborg, and Ralph Miller, all of whom have been inducted as coaches to the National Basketball Hall of Fame. In that regard, I guess Kentucky and UNC owe KU a pretty giant THANK YOU (they are, after all, the #1 and #3 winningest programs in NCAA history due mostly to the efforts of Rupp and Smith, respectively). How's this for small world: John Wooden helped build Memorial Stadium in 1929 after being recruited by Phog Allen to play @ KU. Oh and Larry Brown is the only coach to have won a championship in both the NCAA and NBA.

There you have it. Super stoked to be a Jayhawk it never ceases to amaze me at the excellence and tradition of Kansas Basketball.

Love for KU, as forged by playing in Basketball Band

There are 4 things that I truly love in this world:

Katie
My Family
Brisbane
The University of Kansas, most notably KU Basketball

I don't expect anybody to ever understand the last one on that list. There's a bond that was forged back in 1995 that continues as strong--if not stronger--to this day.

You see, every year I was @ KU I was in the Men's Basketball Band. I played at every home basketball game and traveled with the band to the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournaments each year. I was spoiled. I came to expect that we would go to The Dance and with the exception of maybe 1 year KU was one of the 3-4 teams that the experts had picked to make a run to the Final Four. We never made the Final Four. In fact, in all but 1 year, KU was bounced in the round of 8 or earlier. So, you might say that the entire basketball experience was a disappointment but it was anything but. I'm a big "enjoy the journey, not the destination" sort of guy and the journey was filled with some pretty incredible moments that solidified my love for the University and the tradition of KU Basketball.

After a stinging loss to Rhode Island, their band had just finished playing some song and were celebrating wildly and we began to play our Alma Mater. About 3/4 through the song Rhode Island's band began playing some song (you're supposed to alternate playing songs); a shitty arrangement of an even shittier 70's or 80's uptempo tune, like Celebrate by Kool and the Gang. When we had finished and began packing our stuff I stormed to the other side of the court and got in the director's face and said "you're a f*cking no class asshole and you, your band and your University can go to hell..." He barked back at me and didn't think it was such a big deal to interrupt us during our alma mater and said I was out of line and their interruption showed no disrespect, which pretty much proved my point. After a generous middle finger and a few more pleasantries exchanged with him and other Rhode Island band folk I went back to mourn the loss and disappointment.

After that same loss I was standing with the rest of the band in the tunnel underneath the stands and Roy Williams exited the press room, tears flowing (as had become a common fixture of Roy Williams in the NCAA Tournament) and he walked towards us and shook our hands and as he shook my hand he looked me straight in the eyes with extreme sorrow and said "I'm sorry I let you down..." Jesus. Here's this guy who I looked up to as one of the greatest college coaches ever and he's sorry he let me down? Ugh...that was heavy.

Several years later when Roy bailed on KU to leave for UNC days after our loss in the national championship game to Syracuse, I wrote him a letter and told him that this time I was sorry he let me down. That's the kind of love and passion I have for Kansas Basketball...

In some way--large or small--I felt like a part of the tradition of the excellence that is KU Basketball and the University. I played a role in making the basketball experience a memorable one for each and every one of those players, coaches and fans. Allen Fieldhouse is a sort of place of worship for me. There were some incredible memories in that building, some tears of joy and sorrow and a lot of love shared by the rest of the people that were a part of that tradition both on and off the court, especially the countless friendships forged through playing in bball band.

When KU won the National Championship in 2008 I cried my brains out. Why? Because I was a part of that tradition. I helped make KU what it was in 2008 (however minuscule my impact may have been) and all my love and devotion to KU that had gone unfulfilled with a National Championship while I was there had finally come to fruition. I'd love to win that thing every year but even just winning it that 1 time was unbelievably special.

For all those reasons and hundreds more to list, I take anything KU very personally. Their loss in the 2nd round this past weekend was extremely difficult to handle. They were so good. They were hands down the best team @ KU in the past 15 years I've been a Jayhawk and head and shoulders better than any other team in the NCAA. Are they any worse of a team now? No way. The NCAA Tournament proves that the "best" team rarely wins. I'm extremely disappointed with their effort and that's what hurts. Had they played like they did in all but maybe 2 or 3 games this year there's not a team in the NCAA that can touch them. Sadly, they were out-hustled and outplayed by a team with nothing to lose and an incredible amount of luck on their side, which scrappy teams like UNI need to win games and I applaud them for their efforts; they deserved to win. It wasn't KU's day, plain and simple, and it came at the most inopportune time.

So, for all the KU haters out there... Ya know what: you're right that KU totally screwed the pooch; have your fun. But realize in the process that you're proving you're no different than Rhode Island's band: classless. Oh don't get me wrong, I loathe MU but I save that for when we meet. I'll talk all the shit I can when KU/MU meet or we play some other rival but any other time I'll keep my mouth shut, save for the funny harmless little joke here and there...but no hate. Hell, every year during the NCAA's I root for ALL Big 12 teams and their success until we meet (including MU); then I'm ready to kick your ass. We're all on the same team (Big 12) and what's the point in rooting for some other team's demise if you're not playing them?

I guess maybe I hold KU to a higher standard; one that's respectful of rivals, that doesn't engage in pointless mockery and hate for the purpose of being...well, hateful. KU always has and always will be the good guy and the good guy knows when his opponent is defeated and let's them stew in their misery, alone. I root FOR KU not against MU or some other team; that's a big distinction of school pride that I think is lost on many people out there and that's too bad. There's a finite amount of energy out there, so why waste it on all the negativity?

In the end, I'm proud to be a Jayhawk; to be part of a tradition of excellence that's enviable enough that rivals and jealous folks feel it necessary to point out at every misstep that you failed, whilst ignoring their own traditions of mediocrity, jealousy and hate. It was a really fun season to watch with an extremely disappointing ending but that's how it goes sometimes. I'm excited for next year and every year of KU Basketball, no matter the expectations or outcome, because KU Basketball is more than just X's and O's...it's all about LOVE.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK

Tradezilla Part 4: It's ALIVE

 Hi. My name is Tradezilla and I'll be your bad-ass trading machine today.

With Tradezilla assembled and a quick double check of all the connections and power hookups all set it was go time: will it start?

I plug it into the wall and have the side of the case off to monitor what goes down as I flip the switch. I partly wondered if this was a good idea as stuff might come flying off or electric currents may arc wildly from a shorted wire like a Tesla machine.

Much to my excitement (and maybe even disappointment) it started up without issue. Part of me was hoping for a big old problem I'd have to spend hours fixing, but I got nothing. Actually it did pop up the black/white screen informing me that there was a problem with the CMOS settings. Pressing F1 took me to the BIOS and I made an adjustment to the system clock, saved the changes and exited.

It rebooted, again, and this time gave me the POST beep indicating that the MoBo was working properly and the monitor went black and simply said:

"Please insert operating system into boot drive."

That's it. That's it? I insert the Windows 7 disk, and about 10 minutes later I'm in Internet Explorer testing out my Internet connection, which worked without any problems?

There has to be something wrong, right? Nope. The whole process was strikingly simply and effortless. Maybe I got lucky, maybe I'm good; whatever it is I just built a computer in a couple hours and had it fully operational within 15 minutes of pressing the power button. The last XP install I did took 3-4x longer and I'm not sure if this quick install is due to Windows 7 or the hardware I'm using...probably a combo of both.

What's even better about this build is what I got and what it cost. Tradezilla cost me $718.15 including tax/shipping and bear in mind that I used my dual video card and an extra HDD from my old Dell.

I went to Dell and built a Core i7-920 with 6GB of RAM and the cheapest HDD and video card I could find and it came out to $1,133.14 with tax and shipping. Granted, this machine does include a 500GB HDD so there's some value there but at the same time it includes a basic single-output video card which is a step down.

Total savings: $414.99

What Tradezilla is missing vs. the aforementioned Dell:

 - 1-year warranty with Dell
 - Anti-virus software that cannot be removed
 - Various bloatware installed by Dell to run certain background programs and such
 - Proprietary motherboard and PSU, not easily/cheaply replaceable

Would I recommend building a computer to others? Absolutely! Are you kidding me? Look at how much money was saved and what I'm missing by building my own. Bear in mind that I DO have warranties for all the individual components of similar length as what Dell was offering but the difficulty comes in diagnosing the problems and getting the appropriate manufacturer to provide service. If you're a simple home user with no technical knowledge and call a friend or relative to diagnose error messages and such then this route isn't for you. You DO need to have some technical wherewithal and ability to do simple troubleshooting and such as you build and install stuff but that's it; no engineering degree required. It's a fun, very rewarding process and I'll be building all my PC's from now on.

Down the line I'll discuss the improvements in performance and such versus the old Dell but suffice it to say: Tradezilla is a total effing BEAST :)