This is, however, the first time I’ve been in Germany around Christmastime. From what I can see, the Germans have single handedly been the source for all the commercialized aspects of Christmas that we enjoy in the States today. Huge monuments of St. Nicholas are being erected all throughout town, and, as you’d assume, many of them depict him drinking from a half liter of Berliner Pilsner. Ah yes, national pride, you’ve managed to surface through every orifice possible.

For those who subscribe to my out of office email messages, you may know by now that I’m in town for a research study. Imagine my dismay when it came time to order lunch at the facility, and they handed me a menu for an Italian restaurant. “Umm, I’ll have the spaghetti and bratwurst, ja?"

I made up for it last night with a big plate of goulash (a traditional Hungarian dish). And believe me, this is not your Labrador Mountain goulash. This goulash put at least 200 more hairs on my chest before making over half of them stand on end. Ready to eat your feelings, Berlin? Well, me too!

Alright, I think it’s about time I call it a night. Just got done downloading the Oprah… and Jesus podcast from church this past weekend; seems like a surefire way to get some nightmares, guaranteed.

And now friends, they’ve joined forces.

The best line by far is when George W admits he has declared the oval office a bummer free zone.

While spending the week out in New York city, I’ve put together a small list of the ways New York differs from Seattle.

Enjoy, and chime in if I missed anything.

1. Street crossing against the Don’t Walk sign is expected and encouraged. You do it with at least 2 dozen others, usually including 2-3 cops. If oncoming traffic gets too close, you usually slap one or two of the cars on the hood.
2. No New Yorker will ever smile at you as they pass by. And they definitely won’t say “hi”.
3. People go to symphonies on a week night, and the guys break out their best tweed blazers with elbow pads.
4. Free Wi-Fi is not something your local Laundromat owner has ever thought of, or even understands.
5. One drop of rain = thousands of umbrellas appear.
6. When ordering out for lunch, the number of restaurants you can choose from within a 1 mile radius is approximately 3,248.
7. The Apple Store is a tourist attraction, and no one has ever heard of a Zune.
8. Coffee is fuel, not arm candy.
9. Women in New York wear stilettos, a designer purse, a skirt, and no jacket in 20 degree weather. In Seattle, the ladies sport flip flops, a backpack (with Nalgene bottle), jeans (with stubble underneath), and a North Face fleece… in 45 degree weather.

Can you solve it? It’s actually not as hard as it seems.

My favorite part is how they have been periodically substituting in other signs that don’t have math problems at all. Instead, they tell me to “Take your workout to the next level by using Wii Fit”. Did they really not expect me to notice such blatant advertising?

P.S. – when you click to see the enlarged version, you’ll likely see the answer written upside down on the bottom left corner.

It’s kind of like shopping at K-Mart when you’re a kid.

A lot of kids were actually forced into shopping there, but it would be the last thing they would ever admit. Covering up those Wrangler jeans any way possible was a daily a ritual for me. Maybe if I just get a bigger waist size, they’ll sag a bit and won’t seem so high-watterish! Or, so I thought.

The worst (and best) thing that would ever happen, though, would be if you were discovered at a K-Mart by a classmate. It’d be the worst, of course, because you were definitely a K-Mart shopper. And the best, because now, you have a secret ally. And even if he’s the worst bully in school, he’ll never accuse you of shopping at K-Mart anymore – because, naturally, you both know he shops there too.

The political equivalent to that is happening, and I’m finding all sorts of “K-Mart shoppers” through digital means.

I’ve seen a bunch of posts on Twitter like the above, and it just makes me smile. Maybe because now I know, deep down, I have an ally.

I’m usually a shuffle guy, in fact I’m almost always a shuffle guy. It’s funny because I’m generally decisive. For some reason, though – I enjoy music when it’s random. After doing that for about 5 minutes, I found that I had skipped through about 50 tracks – and at that rate it might have been a little difficult to fit in some sleep. So I, for that afternoon, became an album guy.

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. It was Ben Folds Five’s third and final studio album. I’ve been thinking about that record a lot because they recently reunited to play it front to back (and I failed miserably at getting tickets). I have to say, on the whole, I never really liked Messner as much as the other Ben Folds Five albums. It did, though, have some of my favorite songs of theirs – like Don’t Change Your Plans and Army.

But for the first time, I got it. I understand why that album might actually be their best.

I had heard an interview with Ben a while back discussing this record. He had said it was originally written and recorded as all one song. There were long instrumentals that transitioned from one track to the next. When I listened all the way though, it became something that was much more than the sum of its parts. Songs like Mess and Hospital Song that never really did it for me, now became an intricate part of the album’s story.

That album was meant to be listened to, in order, from start to finish. Like a piece of classical music written with many movements, each piece building the previous. Its finish is even poetic and ironic (knowing their breakup was months away), with the last line of the last song Lullaby having the simple and and unapologetic words “let the moonlight take the lid off your dreams.”

It’s strange, because it’s taken me 8 years of listening to it to get to this point. And now, I can’t seem to take that album off repeat.

I was even able to snap a photo-- notice the black slab face-down on the table. iPhone 3G - out in the wild, loud and proud.

...an artistic, non-political, clothing-optional bike ride ensemble celebrating the spirit of the Summer Solstice, and who, by tradition, usher in the beginning of the free-spirited Summer Solstice Parade & Pageant, which is an event produced by the Fremont Arts Council in the Fremont district of Seattle. The cyclists are commonly referred to as the naked cyclists or naked bikers by those outside the group.

And they've just come down my street.

On the other hand, in some ways I feel like I've been doing this forever. I often feel that it's hard to remember what life was like before coming to the 'soft. Even though I've adorned myself with the blue badge for a relatively short 36 months, it has become so engrained into my life that I'm having trouble separating Derek pre-Microsoft from Derek @ Microsoft.

What's a blue badge you may ask? From the Microsoft Lexicon:

Blue Badge (or Blue Card): (sometimes, slightly derogatorily, blue badger, or just plain blue) Synonym for full-time Microsoft employees, the Brahmins of the deeply ingrained Microsoft caste system, whose card keys have a blue background rather than the orange used for contractors (see Orange Badge) and green for vendors. Derivative terms include "turn blue," meaning to earn full-time status.

Starting my fourth year at the company comes with the added bonus of starting my fourth year of living in Seattle. I moved out to the west coast on June 17, 2005, and so far haven't looked back. Although, like everything, it's been an adjustment- I really can't think of any time where I second-guessed my decision. I'm not sure I ever went through the home sickness or feelings of loneliness that some bi-coastal career nomads experience.

Maybe that's just Microsoft doing a good job making sure I've been staying busy-- but I'm sure it's more than that. Being surrounded by a group of great friends, an amazing girlfriend, and inviting & friendly social circles at work and church has made all the difference.

Either way, here's to three years. I wish I could take a peek at what the next three years will hold. If they are any more interesting to these last three, I'm not sure I'll be able to contain myself.

Lately I've been dabbling in the world of Macintosh. I got a MacBook Pro and have been trying it out. Why you may ask? Well, I'll retort with the irrevocable words of Jack Donaghy...

"The Italians have an expression, Lemon. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And although they've never won a war or mass produced a decent car, they are correct in this one instance".

Using the Mac has been an enlightening experience. I've experienced the good (iPhoto, Dashboard, Expose), and the bad (Entourage '08, iChat, Safari). More about this later.

Along the way, I've also gotten back online with some of my favorite web services: namely Flickr. I've now set up a photostream here, where I'll be posting all the photos I've been capturing.

In the spirit of all this photo talk, I'll post one of the photos I've taken just recently from a trip to New York City with Emily.

It was her first time, and we needed to, at all costs, expose her to the cannolis.

You can tell right away that I had the crazy eyes of ice cream fandom. Don't worry, I wasn't double wielding two cones - one was for Cougar.

The other thing we love about Kirkland, besides the fact it has its own set of cougars, is the "take it to make it" flags. That's right people. When you want to cross the street, there are yellow flags that you take in order to make the journey safely. For all you east coasters that are falling out of your chairs laughing, the yellow flag is one of the most respected symbols here, second only to a dry-clean only tag on your favorite sweater.

Cougar loves the flags.

Anywho, the 2,075 square foot house can be yours for a mere $2.5 million. Considering the location and notoriety of that house, it may not be a bad deal.

Microsoft recruiters should have just set up shop.

After stopping in to visit Emily and assess the post-mortem lunch situation that had transpired from 8,000 hungry participants looking for more "brain food", I headed back to Seattle.

I keep forgetting how nice this place is in the summer months. Such a difference.

I guess I better start figuring out how I'm going to furnish this place. Never really thought about that before, mostly because every time I saw it up until now... it didn't even have walls.

I'm just scraping the surface as I've only made it to chapter 3, but so far I've found some really interesting nuggets of knowledge. It is amazing how accurate some of our first blush reactions to something are. It seems that popular wisdom has us suppressing these natural capabilities. So many times at work I think that something isn't exactly as it should be, whether it's a product feature or a decision that is being made. But I find myself suppressing those thoughts, instead looking to back any such "irrational thinking" with hard data.

3 months and $20,000 from my marketing budget later, I often find myself with the same answer I had arrived at in that first moment. I'm sure it can be hit or miss, but I appreciate how the book is pointing out that sometimes when people garner a wealth of expertise in a subject, they actually become much better equipped for a snap judgement. It essentially becomes a "safe bet" for those individuals.

Being able to quickly size up a situation, in this case, is something that should be cherished, not necessarily disparaged. We'll see if there's a "but" coming... there usually always is.