Brian in New York

Bye Bye Brooklyn

Well folks this will be my final post from New York. I decided to leave my job and that I would not look for another in NYC or even the North East. Even though I love New York City and the people I meet I'm not fond of the priorities and demeanor of how business is conducted here. I think this has a lot to do with why there is so little start-up activity here. The bigger reason though is that the cost of living is overwhelming, it causes you to either live a much reduced standard of living or not prepare at all for future financial security, or both.

So I've decided to relocate out west and have decided to settle in Utah. I've taken a position at an amazing start up called 3point5.com that is managed by some amazing people and is growing like crazy in a new space.

So I leave NYC on Tuesday after a year of living it up as much as possible. It's been a little like a breakup with a relationship that just didn't work out. It's pretty much me telling the city: "It just didn't work out baby! it's not you it's me". You start thinking about the good times and have to snap out of it and remember there were no so good times too. So here's my list:

What I'm going to miss:

• The Met Museum: I went over 30 times and to 6 events. I'm sad I'll miss the big Black Tie Gala in November. This is truly one of the best places in the world and a must for anyone going to New York. Beyond the permanent collection I was able to see a Rembrandt exhibit, a daVinci sketchbook, 
• Falling in love on the subway everyday... I'm not kidding
• Single people in their 20-30s just hanging out ready to meet one another
• The all night scene
• Amazing restaurants
• Amazing food, anything anytime anywhere.
• Central Park... my home away from home.
• Federal Hall and the step where Washington took the first Oath of Office
• Walking around Midtown
• Street festivals every weekend in the summer
• Bryant Park on a warm breezy day
• The Italians in my neighborhood
• The history of the place: 400 years all around you
• The concerts and concerts and concerts. 10-20 big names every night. Easy way to go broke.
• The parades and parties, rock'in it with a million people
• After work culture.
• Plus tons more.

What I'm not going to miss:

• The cost: housing, food, entertainment, everything. Just about 50-100% more than it should be
• The smoking: I think the non-smokers in the city will notice that I've left. Now there's only a dozen or so left.
• JFK Airport
• The service everywhere... I swear customers are treated poorly everywhere.
• Every errand taking way too much time 
• Wall Streeters... 

So overall a great experience that I'll be grateful I had for the rest of my life. Now I'm really looking forward to the next stage of my life in Utah. I plan on settling down for awhile and planting some roots. You're all welcome to visit (especially during the ski season)!

Well this is the end of this blog but you can read more from me at my new blog: www.brianinutah.com

RSS Feed Fixed

Sorry Everyone,

Looks like I was having some technical difficulties with the RSS feed for the blog. It probably happened when I turned off the publishing of the posts to the blog search engines. I stopped sharing with the world at large because I was getting New Yorkers finding the blog and making strange comments. Obviously this blog is not intended for New Yorkers :)

So everything should be working otherwise just setup your feed again with this url.

Dude, Where is that Guy

Hey readers, well back from the holidays and all other craziness related to starting the new year. My line of work January is usually crazy busy...

So here's the list of everything I've been up to:

1. Went back to California
2. Took a trip up to Sacramento
3. Got really sick (exposed to all those west coast germs :) )
4. Brother took me to an amazing hole in the wall sushi joint in los gatos
5. Saw a co-worker from my NYC office at restaurant where we had Christmas dinner (she was in CA visiting friends and fam as well)
6. Had a great Christmas with the family
7. My best friend traveled back with me to NYC and we took a whirlwind tour of NYC for 5 days, here's what we saw/did.
    - Battery Park
    - Wall Street
    - Trinity Cathedral
    - St. Pauls.
    - Rockefeller Center (w/ Christmas Tree, etc)
    - Top of the Rock
    - Statue of Liberty
    - Ellis Island
    - Times Square
    - Carnegie Hall, Empire State, Time Warner Building
    - Saw David Attell and Greg Fitzsimmons show at a Caroline's
    - Metropolitan Museum
    - The Guggenheim Museum
    - Central Park
    - Ghostbusters firehouse
    - Little Italy
    - China Town
    - Stuffed ourselves at Blue Ribbon Sushi (worth a flight from Cali for this alone)
    - Walked all over Manhattan, really all over
8. New Years hanging with friends at two really cool bars.

Overall good holidays. I'll start posting some pictures of some of this stuff soon.

See Ya!

 

Sorry No Posting

Sorry everybody. I know it's been a few days since I last posted. My laptop is on the fritz and I've been completely stressed out trying to find a way to get my photos and music off of it because it's been 4-5 months since I last backed up. I think I found a way this morning but it was pure luck if I didn't have another mac I would have been screwed! big time.

I'm pretty sure the reason my mac is having trouble is because my warranty just expired. I've had more problems with mac than any other computer I have ever had. Don't believe the commercials it's pure hype. Crashes all the time, eats up hard disk space like crazy, etc. While I'm not unhappy with my mac I don't see it as any better than a PC. However, after my iPhone issues and these issues, both of which the only solution was to start over, I'm pretty soured on the Apple. Attention Apple it's got to be good as well as look good.

rant off...

Hopefully up in running in the next day or two and can give you an update. Taking the train (a somewhat viable transportation method in the east) to Washington DC Wednesday for Thanksgiving to hangout with Friends.

Brian in New York: Well Not Quite Yet... the Backstory

Hello most of you know me, mainly because only friends and family are reading this at this point. But in case you happened across this, or someone who knows how poorly I write told you to read this for a good laugh about poor sentence structure and revolting grammar my name is Brian and I'm about to embark on a huge adventure.

Truthfully its one I've been dreaming about most of my adult life. I'm moving to New York City... even better I'm moving there with a job, which from what I've seen many people who aspire to move to NYC don't always have. Big Bonus.

So, I LOVE this city and because I plan to do and see as much as possible while I live there I thought I would start a blog to share. Also, frankly I need a place to dump thoughts and my perspectives so think this is 1 part journal, 1 part travelogue, and 1 part slaughtering of English in it's written form.

As I said I'm not in NYC yet but the moving van arrives Wednesday and then it's off we go. Next post I'll talk about my apartment hunt (a very unique experience) and my new neighborhood.