My Favorite Part of the New House

Kitchen, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Yeah, it's the professional quality stove. I'm really excited about the griddle between the burners. I'm going to be making lots of pancakes now!

We Bought a House!

Front View, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Kate & I will close in about 3 weeks on a brick row home in Jersey City, NJ, right across the river from Manhattan. We're very excited about the new place. I'm really looking forward to having a permanent home and getting my stuff out of storage.

I moved in with Kate in her small condo at the beginning of June. At the time, I didn't have a job and she had just found out that she was going to be working from home. I'm now employed and also work at home, so we REALLY need the extra space. We'll both have our own offices on different floors in the new house, so we won't be working in the same room anymore. It's pretty hard when we both have conference calls each day to try and get any actual work done.

We'll also have a guest room, so any friends who want to visit NYC are welcome!

Honduras Vacation

DSC01916.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Kate & I took a week long trip to Honduras a few weeks ago. I'll post some pictures here on the blog. Isn't she hot?

View of the Beach

DSC01932.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

This is the view from the beach bar at the Mayan Princess resort on Roatan. It really doesn't get any better than this.

Our Second Hotel

DSC01931.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

This place was so nice that we decided to leave Las Rocas and move over to the Mayan Princess. Wonderful pool and great beach bar. Las Rocas was a nice place, but it was so hot, a freshwater pool was a MUST.

Typical Honduras View

DSC02007.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

This is pretty much what I saw every day: My feet in the foreground and the beach in the background.

The drink is out of frame, in the sand next to me...

Don't Let The Smile Fool You

DSC01993.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Kate was NOT a fan of scooter riding. She got more comfortable as the day went on, though.

Badass Scooter Driver

DSC01998.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Yeah, that's my hog in the background.

Beautiful

DSC01949.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Kate is jumping down on the dock towards the boat. The water was incredible.

Caribbean Sunrise

DSC01928.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

I loved the light in the mornings. This is a shot from our bungalow at the first place we stayed, Las Rocas.

How to make millions

This idea is so freaking simple, but apparently IMPOSSIBLE to implement. Anyway, here is my idea:

Start a cafe at the airport. "What?" you are asking yourself. "But Drew, there are lots of restaurants and cafes at airports!" Yes, indeed there are. But there are ZERO with an abundance of electrical outlets. Seriously, I walked through several at the Denver airport this morning with that "are there any laptop outlets in here?" look on my face. You've seen it before and you know it well.

I'd call my restaurant "Charge Your Shit Here While You Feast on Overpriced Food & Drink." Nobody would care about the prices as long as I have a minimum of 2 outlets per seat. They'll do anything to hang and charge their electronics. Also, I'd work with all the airlines to set up a paging system for flights, so a customer would just tell me what flight they're on, and I'd let them know as soon as it started boarding. Is this hard to do?

If you are a VC and reading this, just send the check directly to me and you'll be rich. Soon.

Best Job Offer Letter - EVER

So, most of you know that I'm looking for a job right now. Well, yesterday I finally posted my resume on Monster - something that I really didn't want to do, but there it is. Today I've received several spam-like emails that seem to indicate an interest in my qualifications. My favorite just came in below.

Now, if I wrote a cover letter like this, do you think they'd call me for an interview? Based upon that logic, I think I'll probably NOT accept their "job offer."

NOTE: This is a cut and paste from the email. I did not modify it in any way. Also, I can't seem to cut and paste the visible HTML markup that is in my original email. Blogger actually uses these tags to convert the text to bold, etc. Note that the original has lots of HTML code.

FINAL Caveat: Bandai is a great video game company. I'm not making fun of them, just the recruiter (you know, in case they do end up wanting someone with my skillset.) And without futher ado:

From: Letter
To: me


Hello [firstname],

NAMCO BANDAI Games' mission is to inspire people around the world and help them enjoy their time to the full. NAMCO BANDAI Games will unrelentingly seek out and take on new challenges as it aims to become the world's most admired videogame maker, capable of consistently supplying games that deliver happiness, fun and satisfaction.


We would like to present this job offer to you.The complete job description is at the top of the login screen via our link below.


Position:SENIOR PRODUCER
Salary: Competitive
Location: Santa Clara,CA
Package:Medical,Dental,401K

POSITION SUMMARY:

Manage all technical and scheduling components of external projects to produce top quality product on time and within budget.


The Hiring Manager has set a simple and quick online interview. This process allows you to represent yourself, giving you the opportunity to set yourself apart from everyone else. Please paste your resume at the end of the online interview.

Click or copy and paste to browser address bar.
On the login page choose "Invited by Pyramid" as the source:

http://tekapplicant.tekgriller.com/signup.asp?reqid=3495

http://tekapplicant.tekgriller.com/signup.asp?reqid=3495

Please click on "Job Description" button for more details about the job.

If this position does not look like a good fit for you, please feel free to pass this email along to anyone that may be a more suitable fit.



Best of Luck,

Pyramid Recruiter
Pyramid Screening Technology, Inc.
www.PyramidST.com
[today]

Not Stopping In Newark...

Random 001, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Yes, that's right. It's so bad in Newark that they actually have a help wanted billboard to try and stop the murder rate there. As you can see, I didn't STOP to take this picture, and I missed the far right edge a bit. The text of the billboard is:

HELP WANTED
Stop the Killings In Newark Now

Um, you know, I'd LOVE to apply for the job, but that's a bit outside my current education and experience, you see...

Working

DSC01813.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

This is how I used to feel when I was working. To think that some sculpture at the Louvre exactly captured this emotion is very coincidental.

Paris Acid Trip

DSC01809.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

This building was right next to our hotel. It was being renovated, and they wrapped it with this trippy cover, even integrating actual architectural elements, to make this wavy effect. Tres cool!

Damn Discount Airlines

DSC01808.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Vueling is a Barcelona-based airline. The great thing about them is the $50 I spent for a one way ticket to Paris from Barcelona. The BAD thing is how many seats they jam into the plane. As you can see, there's barely enough room for a big fat American guy.

Other fun stories from this flight: The pilots of the plane seemed to act like the Airbus was a fighter jet. They took lots of sharp turns and generally increased my fear of flying by a few degrees. Also, right as we were about to land in Paris, they suddenly aborted the landing, taking the engines to max and heading up at about a 50 degree angle (well, it felt that way to me). After prying my fingers off the seat in front of me, the captain announced that there was an airplane on the runway causing them to abort the landing.

Great - near misses. That's ALL I need!

I Love How She Looks at Me

DSC01864.JPG, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Yes, I mentioned that I'm in love. This is a picture of us from Paris, and the camera caught Kate looking at me that way. I love it when she does that. She always tries to do it when I'm not looking, but I catch her sometimes.

It makes my day, week, month, year...

My favorite butcher shop

My favorite butcher shop, originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch.

This is the place Andy, Amee and I ate and had lots of wine one night. Well, I think Andy ate there every night. It was delicious, of course. Barcelona was a blast.

Drew Scripps Surf 2-21-07

Drew Scripps Surf 2-21-07, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Great shot of my buddy (and surf instructor), Drew, getting a nice wave at Scripps Pier in San Diego this morning. Sometimes I wish I was sitting out in the lineup with him! Ok, I always wish that...

Sagrada Familia Facade

Sagrada Familia Facade, originally uploaded by Drewje.

Sagrada Familia is an incredible cathedral that's been under construction for about 120 years. It was redesigned by Gaudi when he took over the construction shortly after it begun.