My first video. Enjoy. Leave any feedback. Sorry for the cheap camera. If I follow through, I will upgrade.

Wei and I’ve been friend going to back to my years in undergrad.  He was a big influence on me getting involved in web dev.  We started by writing our blogs in ASP and Access DB (remember when that was cool?).  Over the years, Wei and I have come up a multitude of ideas for websites and the services we would offer.  Some of the ideas  include sitter (pets and kids) search site (http://www.sittercity.com/)  and teacher document share (http://teachers.yahoo.com).  As we grew older, we spent nights coming up with these ideas and the proceeded to develop a multitude of excuses (lack of staff,funding, hardware expense, etc…) why we could not get them up and running.  Eventually, someone implemented our ideas close enough to what we had in mind and we would abandon our idea.

Recently, Wei had idea for  another website.  Instead of just talking about like we used to, he researched the idea more and when he decided it was feasible to implement it, he quit his job and started working on it.  That’s how easyautosales.com came to be.  The site is a place where people can sell cars as well as buy new or used cars.  Based on his research, Wei decided his latest idea was good enough to compete with the likes of cars.com, carmax.com, vehix.com and even craigslist.  It’s hard to know whether or not Wei and his team are going to be successful but since their launch 2.5 months ago they managed to  have a million cars listed, have over 100,000 pages indexed in Google, achieve over 100,000 visits to the page and as he put it “spend a crap load of money with Amazon Web Services”.  If you’re bored enough, you can follow the trials and tribulations of Wei and his team over at http://comefortheride.com/.  Of course if you’re in the market for a car, you should include http://www.easyautosales.com as one the websites that you visit.

Congrats Wei, Way to go all out.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been working at the National Association of Home Builders as a Developer.  Tomorrow will mark my last day there.  For me, NAHB was the perfect second job out of school.  While there,  I had the opportunity to work with some great people and develop my technical skills as well as my interpersonal skills.  Everyone in my department took great pride in servicing our clients, which were the various departments, and working harmoniously with our vendors and vendors selected by our clients. Moreover, I moved closer to reaching an equilibrium between life and work or as the girlfriend would probably say “between work and more work.” I will truly miss working with the people at NAHB.

As of Monday, I will be employed with Be The Change, Inc. as Director of Web Technology.  Be The Change is a startup non profit focused on public service and was founded by Alan Khazei who also founded CityYear.  The Organization’s two key missions are:

Crafting a bold and innovative policy agenda that is rooted in the practical experience of social entrepreneurs and civic leaders and sets a pragmatic ten-year time horizon for major systemic change.

  and

Building a broad-based, web-fueled, citizens’ movement that will campaign for better public policies, promote active citizenship and citizen democracy, and give Americans who are frustrated with the status quo a place to channel their ideas and activism.

I was introduced to Be The Change, Inc. through a friend and I have been working with them as a “pro-bono consultant,” for a lack of better word since the summer.  I have an understanding of where the organization is, what it aims to become and how I can help. Needless to say I still have a lot learn about the organization and the rest of the team.  And as with any new endeavor, there will be challenges.  Regardless, I’m very excited for this opportunity and ready for my first week¹.

1. I will be slightly distracted on Tsunami Tuesday.  Are you registered to vote?

I’ve been following the primary on both side for what seems like forever now.  So when a friend who is involved for MD for for Obama group called me to ask to go volunteer for Obama in South Carolina I jumped on the chance.  We agreed to go down on MLK  weekend.   We left Friday after work, drove down to NC and spent the night at my friend’s uncle place near Raleigh, NC.   Saturday, we left around 2 pm and headed down to Columbia, SC.  We checked in the most ghetto hotel available. The TV didn’t work in the first room and we were moved to another.  Since we had not contacted the Obama campaign before going down, we did not know what they had planned for the evening.  We decided to watch some political shows.  After about 2 hours, we were bored and I suggested that we go party hop around all the Republican primary parties.  We started at Fred Thompson’s Headquarters then to his party.  Fred’s Party was really sad.  They were about 30 people there  and at least 10 of them were members of the Media.  My friend and I provided all the diversity for that party.  When we were  there we could Fred was going to drop-out  of the race.  As we were leaving, a Giuliani aide/volunteer was recruiting one of Thompson aide for Florida. 

Rumors of the street had it that Mike Huckabee’s (a.k.a ”The Huck”) party had good cookies and brownies, so we decided to head there next.  The Huckaparty was much more happening then Fred’s.  The Huckabus was huge, although the C-SPAN bus held its own.  We barely missed the Huck’s speech but managed to get a few pictures as he exited stage right.  Since McCain was in Charleston and the rest of Republicans were to lazy to compete in SC, that was all she wrote for that night.  We got some food and headed to the ghetto hotel only to find 10 cops in the hallway.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to run some errands only find out that county law does not allow for sale of general goods before 1:30 PM on Sunday.  No lie.  We headed to Obama’s headquarters.  As soon as we walked in a gentleman said that we would be volunteering at an event where the senator was to speak.   GREAT!  At the event we were assigned to be Press volunteers or Press chaperone and bouncers as I called it.   We help set up, we regulated rowdy photographers with the help of secret service, but mostly we took pictures and help ADA individuals.

On Monday, We woke up bright and early to march in the freezing cold and listen to Clinton, Edwards and Obama speak as well as some less than impressive NAACP leaders.  At the end of Clinton’s  speech we bolted out of there.  The trip felt a bit rushed, I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, maybe till the primary.  Unfortunately work and other obligations called. I would def do it again. Although, I think I would have to be at least sympathetic to majority of the the candidate’s views.  It’s just too much work for someone whose idea you disagree with. 

1.  Maintain a GPA above a 3.5 - I’m enjoying my classes in my MBA program.  I’ve learned a great deal and hopefully I will continue to do so.  With Law school as a possibility after my MBA, I need to maintain the highest possible GPA to help me get in the best law schools.  It’s true that my LSAT score will probably be a bigger factor than my GPA, but It doesn’t hurt to keep it high.

2.  Read 6 books (outside the classroom) and write about them on here  - This is important to me. I’ve found that I enjoy reading and it’s relaxing.  The girl, as it turns out, has superb taste in books.  I love borrowing the books that’s she’s read.  Moreover, It’s refreshing not to be reading on a computer screen.  Between twitter, coding, blogging, and typing papers, I’m constantly in front of PC.   A change of scenery for my eyes can’t be that bad.

3.  Reconnect with 5 or more family members back home - I want to continue to build on the progress that I made last year.  I was able to reconnect with some family members and actually talk to them on a regular basis.  This has still not brought any closure to some unfinished business that I left but its good to know how every one is doing what they are up to.

4.  Record all financial data for the entire year - I’m always good for this till about June or July.  Around then, I usually go some big spending spree and get lazy about recording it.  Next thing I know it’s been three months.  My goal is to keep up with this all year.  I think it will be beneficial to financial planning and all that good jazz.

5.  Bring in 10K to 15K through freelancing - This is an interesting goal.  I’ve recently partnered with a friend under the b•seen communication & media umbrella.  She does the graphics (print and web) and I do the programming.  We are mostly looking for small to medium size projects.  If you know anyone who needs some work done, contact me.

6.  Open an IRA or Home buying fund - By all measurements, I’ve been pretty good about the 401k thing.  Now it’s time to expand.  The end goal is to buy an overpriced condo either now or when I retire.  Regardless, the to get there, I need open an investment account outside the work place and contribute to it on a regular basis.  This is what happens when you read too many PF blogs.

7.  Go to 12 museums - I’ve come to the realization that while a live in a city with a million museums, I can only recall going to two.  Since they are open 364 days of the year (according to my sources, they close on Christmas), there is no reason why I can’t go once a month.  Clearly, the gff will be in charge of making this happen (She doesn’t know that yet).  Mostly because I don’t even know what museums are around… I KNOW…very pathetic.

8.  Learn Ruby on Rails - It’s the new hotness.  I only do hot things. 

9.  Be a better boyfriend/Better Work life balance - This is going to be a tough one.  By all accounts, I’m workaholic who barely sleeps or eats. Between school, work, freelancing, and other engagements, my relationship and friends sometimes takes a backseat.  This is clearly unfair the lady friend and my crew.  Moreover, while it would be great to be big time, it really would not be good to lose any more hair due to stress.   So we need to work on remedying this.  If it means cutting back on some commitments so be it. 

10. Get Management Position in IT or Public Policy - By the end of the year, I will be about 60 percent done with my program.  With under my belt and my work experience, I feel like I’m ready to test the waters with management.  With all these theories going on in my head now, I feel that it’s time to apply them to the real world.   While exploring that I will also be looking to get into public policy since I’m addicted to all things politics.  My only dilemma there is that I have to narrow down my interests.  The world can only be fixed one issue at time.

At the end of every year, I like to go back and look at the goals set for myself at the beginning of the year and see how I did. In 2007 I set 10 goals for myself and I think I can do pretty well.

1. Start a Grad degree program or Take the LSATs - I accomplished this goal. I enrolled at UMUC’s MBA program. So far the program has been very interesting and I’ve learned a lot.
2. Volunteer 100 hours - This goal is a bit hard to quantify. The girl and I volunteered at WAMU’s spring fundraiser early in the year. Since then I’ve done tons for pro-bono work for Future Leaders for America and new start up non-profit named “Be The Change” headed by the founder of City Year.
3. Read 6 books - I only partially accomplished this goal. I read To Kill a Mocking Bird, Kite Runner, Between Worlds The Making of an American Life and currently finishing All the President’s Men. I also read multiple books for class, but those don’t count towards this goal. Unfortunately, I did not read any books in French
4. Increase my Net worth by 25% - I don’t know that my net worth increased by 25% since I did not do a good job keeping track on my finances this year. However, my school loans and car loan significantly decreased.
5. Visit 5 new places/Visit friends in other cities - I went to San Diego,CA, Woodstock, NY and Nashua, NH. I also went camping but I did sleep in the car. Nothing exciting but a good break from the city.
6. Reconnect with my family abroad - Thanks to Skype, I made great progress on this goal. That’s being said, there is still a lot left to do.
7. Create 2 Commercials Websites/Freelance More - I did some freelancing this year. However, most of it related to the pro-bono work that I mentioned in goal # 2.
8. Be better a friend - You win some, you lose some. Made new friends and lost touch with some old friends, but overall I feel good about the friends that I’ve made and the one’s I have been able to keep in touch with.
9. Not to buy a bigger TV - Yeap, we still own a 27″ TV. But at least it’s HD.
10. Monthly update on my goals on [my blog] - I completely failed at this. No more comments needed.

Overall I feel good about the way 2007 went down. Things weren’t always easy or pleasant, but I feel that I held my own and I’ve grown stronger and wiser for it.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I went up to New Hampshire to celebrate the holiday with the gf and her family. Needless to say it was freezing. Beside that, I had very pleasant experience. It was def to refreshing to be out of the city and not check my email on a hourly basis even if I have a blackberry. The holiday was full of cooking, eating and conversation. The highlight of the trip was by far learning how to play chess. Despite my abysmal record of 2 and 15, I still think I’m hot issh for learning how to play.

Being in NH for the last couple of days, made me realized that I’ve spread myself too thin and I lost focus on what I want to do and what’s important. I enjoy being busy and having a lot to do and being constantly on the go. However, I’ve come to the realization that it’s not really leading me anywhere fast. So I will take the remainder of the year to close up and a couple of outstanding projects and focus most, if not all, my energy on my schooling and breaking in the public policy field while staying financially afloat.  Web Dev has been great and I learned a lot from many people. In reality, I will not be completely out of Web Dev for while. Since entry level jobs in public policy don’t pay much, I will probably continue to do work on freelance basis. That being said, short of starting my own company, I’ve lost the interest to do it full time for an extended period of time. I enjoy being a geek on my own time much more than in an office. It’s time to commit more time and energy to my other passion, politics. Wish me luck.

This past weekend I got a chance to a attend a Jewish service for the first time.  Although I have a number of Jewish friends and I’ve dated several Jewish girls (I can hear you saying it DK4), I’ve never attended to a Jewish service.  Over the weekend, the gff’s grandfather celebrated his 83rd birthday and decided to have a second Barmitzvah.  I was invited along and decided to go.  For starters, Upstate NY is beautiful in the fall.  I could have spent all weekend walking around and taking pictures. If you haven’t done  Upstate NY in the fall, I highly recommend it before it becomes beach front property.  The service itself was nothing like I’ve experienced.   It is hard to put into words what made it so different.  I’ve been to church where there is descent amount of singing and I’ve attended church in Latin so the Hebrew didn’t really get to me even though it was a bit a difficult to read and sing along. I think the atmosphere is really what made an impact on me.   Everyone seemed genuinely happy and not just relieved and putting up a front, which is a feeling I often get when I attend church. The relative lack of curiosity about me and my background, though I stood out, was very refreshing.  Two parts of the service that stood out the most were when the gff’s granfather mentioned me as part of the family in his remarks, tough I’ve yet to be receive a ring from a certain someone, and when he read a story he had written about the death of his mother when he was 14.  It was a very touching piece.  It brought a tear to my eye — there goes all my manliness.  All in all, it was good a experience and I would do it all again. I’m not sure it’s for everyone but I do encourage visiting a place of worship outside your religion. However I’ve been warned not all synagogue are as "liberal" as the one we attended.  Next stop: a Mosque.

And if you were wondering, I wore a yamaka too.