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We took Byrne out to lunch today across a bunch of product and marketing. He chose Garaje as his send off spot. It was actually the place I took both Byrne and Denis for their welcome to TokBox drinks.

I really like the food there, and they have a great cider which is the one alcoholic drink I really enjoy. The burger is… awesome. The fries are… amazing. But I’ve found the true masterpiece item… their fried chicken sandwich.

Now, let me not go so far as to say that this is a replacement for Chik-fil-a or Bojangles. It definitely has a category of its own though. And it’s definitely better than Popeyes or Wendy’s.

It’s a huge piece of chicken breast with cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. It’s delicious. I didn’t break my no fries resolution (which was hard when 5 baskets of fries showed up). But man oh man did I gobble up that sandwich. There needs to be more of a sauce. Maybe just a fat chunk of mayo on there or something, but other than it’s delicious!

Gregory Fischer (who came into my life through Micky’s dear friend Stephanie Grand Jacques) passed along one of these “chain letters” that makes the rounds on Facebook. I tend to ignore them, but I really liked the premise behind this one – List 9 books that touched me. I spent way too much time thinking about this, but so it goes. Here is my list. I won’t pass it on so as to prevent spreading the pain 🙂

1) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse – I read this in 4th grade. Hatice gave it to me, and to this day I remember it like I’m still reading it in real time. I don’t know whether it was the father/son relationship, or the introduction to a foreign culture, but I can’t seem to let this one go

2) The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques – We had a program in elementary school where you took quizzes on books, got points, and then went to parties. I had the 2nd highest total at school, and found these books because they were that sweet spot of high points, but not too long to read. LOVED them, and read each one through Brian Jacques passing a few years back.

3) The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks – Read this during college, and started to realize that computer science was not engineering. This book still tickles me in the back of my head as I think about how to create systems that scale. It’s all about consistency & transparency, and not at all about more.

4) The Pragrammatic Programmer by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt – When I was an engineer, this book shaped how I built software. I was never a good engineer, but I was definitely efficient when I actually focused and thought through the deliverable. Hat tip to Eishay Smith for this one

5) Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein – First book I read to Amelia. We read it in the NICU together, and Tim Bacon and I bonded about storytelling, getting out of the NICU, and getting back to normal. The poetry helped.

6) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I read this on our honeymoon, and it brought me back to reading fiction, and not just news, business books, etc.. I’d given up reading after English class 12th grade because the process of over analyzing book after book ruined the hobby for me

7) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – My favorite sci-fi book (or maybe I’d put Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson here).

8) The Giver by Lois Lowry – My first dystopian novel. I still don’t know why they would ask us to read this in 4th grade. The themes, the mood, everything about it is too much for a 9 year old’s world view. And yet I loved it.

That’s it. I couldn’t find #9

Good challenge. Great trip down memory lane.

I’m genuinely too tired (no one slept last night), and too busy (the list grows, it never shrinks) to be able to add anything as today’s blog post 🙁

On Tuesday, I was really excited about NC State’s chances in the NCAA tournament.

This is one of my favorite times of year. I used to watch a ton of basketball, and spend hours staring at my brackets as they turned more and more red. Even with all of the crap my family throws at each other, the NCAA tournament was the one thing that kept us together. And, last year or the year before, I finally won!

Not this year.

Not when those kids couldn’t hit a damn free throw to save their lives.

Not when I’m sitting on the West Coast without a single person giving a damn about the games. It’s so hard to get into it on your own. 5 people signed up for the office pool :-/

I swore I wasn’t going to let 18 year old kids bug me this much. College sports is an epic case of exploitation and obsession. But Tuesday left me feeling so damn good, and tonight I can’t even open ESPN to check the scores because I’m so damn depressed.

Oh well, there’s always next year 🙁

Big sports day today. One big win, and one big loss.

Game 1: Galatasary 0 – Chelsea 2

Galatasaray were not the story for this game. It was all about Didier Drogba returning to Stamford Bridge. And he played awfully. And the whole team was awful as well. It was a really shit game, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Why put up a second half like you did in Istanbul to play like this in London? Just give up early so we can enjoy a goal fest. It was really awful. I was ashamed to dress Luka in Galatasaray colors after the game. Until there’s a reason to change, he’s now a Besiktas kid.

Game 2: N.C. State 74 – Xavier 59

And then came the good game!

We just dominated. There was a period in the 2nd half where Xavier made a run, but we took care of business, and that was that. I think this team could do some really amazing things. I’ve picked them to go all the way in my family bracket. I’ve got an ’83 like feeling.

Go Pack!