The end of the year has swished by...
...and i didn't wrote anything so quick...because i wasn't sure that this year was better than the last. Now, I'm sure.
- completed Oxfam
- gotten to visit 1 new place (Laos)
- been to some old places (Thai/Cambodge/NZ/Oz)
- done some int'l biz travel
- taken an attitude of work first, exercise second, life third, and relegated money to irrelevance.
- lost a handsome pile of cash on the Japanese and Icelandic Equity market
- pretty much decided never to be in business
- celebrated my thirtieth with a first - a rooftop partay
- moved to central tokyo
- built The Litespeed
- build bridges with two people I never imagined building bridges with - independently. I detonated C-4 under one, and left the other a little too rickety to pass.

This year, I hope to go to a new country, put work back into second place, and build some solid bridges....time will tell.
- posted by Daniel @ Monday, December 31, 2007 0 comments

 
I wear a suit; I wear a hoodie
and I'm starting to forget which I feel more comfortable in. The only thing I am sure I like doing is laughing - and I guess I'll work out where that happens best soon enough. Spent the last two days up in Hakuba sliding down the mountains on a board, in awe of how the simplest things keep me happy. Thoroughly sore now, but really need to go get some endorphins from the palace. Right after this.

My mother made a big mistake, and i'm trying to work out how tell her. She insisted on No Presents for Christmas in some form of hippy overblown protest against the capitalism of it all. I can see now, how she is utterly wrong, and I'm not going to let her get away with it again. The one thing that keeps people together over the span of the globe are the few rituals that we have - religion is dead, long live consumerism. Spoke to my younger sister today, and Christmas is gone - there was no excitement or interest. And I'd like to believe that sending someone a gift is a reason behind it. So next year, gifts for all.

Boss was over this week: I've got to stop the gossip. Because now, it's no longer gossip, it's information to keep me in the loop. Now i've got to remember that...
- posted by Daniel @ Monday, December 24, 2007 0 comments

 
But my dreams they aren't as empty But my dreams they aren't as empty, as my conscience seems to be
Not sure why i'm thinking of this track, but I am. I went to the IBD party today. At my faceless bank, there are 3 parties. front office, back office, ibd. I went to the front office last year. lavish, but there was enough weirdness for Matt to say that it was gayer than the gay party we just came from. The IBD party featured cross dressers as well.
I used to know someone who was close to me, that said that they would have never been so close to me, if I was in banking. I doubted it, and never understood why {Girls dont like boys, Girls like cars and money}. But today, discovery was mine. The room was full of men in business suits almost as deafeningly dull as themselves, who ended up, passionless, in a job they fulfilled. The job couldn't possibly fulfill them. I see people in my department, as geeky as it sounds, get overexcited about the things that happen and the tech that they do. But not for a moment, can I imagine these guys (and they were all guys) get excited about anything. And I had 3 hours worth of free booze to contemplate that very thing.

Today I am glad to be in technology.
- posted by Daniel @ Friday, December 14, 2007 0 comments

 
Your city is tha bomb if your city makin' pay
Tupac said it first. Remek said it this weekend. A visit from The 'goosh late on a Thursday which dragged me through streets of Tokyo greased up on many a pint.
We hit Andy's izakaya on Thursday - I was overblown with nervousness made worse by having to answer calls all evening from the MQ friends. Back to my apartment, and the taximan tries to sting remek for an extra 2000 - surely a first in tokyo. Continued on to all the places with the lowest forms of life in Roppongi until 4am, and took a cab over to Tsukiji to watch the fish get sold to the highest bidder. The hugest tastiest breakfast in our bellies, and wander home to black out.

Friday was the Asakusa circuit. Still more calls from work. Rem forced me to stop, take the call, then walk on. Big difference. It's been a while since I've hung out with someone from the old days, and I realise now how important it is. Remek has his shoes stapled to the ground - it's just that sometimes he takes his boots off for a closer look at the sky. The balance is what it's all about - and learning how to weigh those scales.

Out in Shibs for the night, Shige does his thing, Remek tries to play a blind eye and fails. In the games of the world we live in, where nobody knows exactly what they want, the only winners are the the fast players. Keeping your eye on the ball is easy. Being on the ball is easy. The cheetah decides, bursts into a sprint, and gets the job done. I want it.

Saturday was spent trying to quench the hangover and get some last minute shopping done. We couldn't even manage to have a big last night... Skipped Eden's birthday party, and went to Roppongi instead. Royce came out later, and we hung out some artsy bar with a set of golf clubs.

I let "the phase" go on Sunday. The phonecall didn't do it, but the text afterwards did. The reply came a little later, and it felt appropriately superficial. To the death - instinct is never wrong.

Spent the evening with Balaji and Vince - two people who live on different planets at different ends of the solar system. Yet they got on; because there is something so much simpler in the way that the world turns than we could ever try to explain in words.

- posted by Daniel @ Sunday, December 02, 2007 0 comments