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[ Last updated, June 2005 ]
In chronological order...
- Thousand Oaks, California (which is in between Los Angeles
and Santa Barbara)
- Kids' Unlimited Pre-school
- My creativity unleashed at an early age, I apparently nicknamed
one teacher "the
vaccuum cleaner." I'm assuming this is NOT because she sucked.
I think I just like the way "vaccuum cleaner" sounded.
- Aspen
Elementary
- Got sent to the corner for politely telling teacher that spiders
are arachnids, not insects. Scientist-dad got very upset.
- Became addicted to computers, starting with the Radio Shack
TRS-80 ("Trash 80"), and moving on to the Tandy Color
Computer and the Apple II+. I learned to load and save programs
to cassette tape (no hard drives back then, or even floppy drives!),
and procrastinate regular homework by devising and programming
clever word and TRON-like games.
- Got first taste of how brilliantly manipulative women can be.
Susan, the resident 6th grade hottie, batted her eyelashes
and successfully got me to let her cut in front of me in the
handball
line.
- Redwood Junior High School
- Almost got beat up many times. Geeks may be popular in San
Francisco nowadays, but they sure weren't back then!
- Got in trouble for a practical joke involving hacking the software
code of the school's student disciplinary points system, giving
all teachers negative points. Sadly, they didn't have much of
a sense of humor.
- Thousand Oaks High School
- Almost got beat up many times, particularly by the football
team, who -- true to the stereotype of being collectively
dumber than a large rock -- mistook a compliment I penned in
the student
paper for an insult.
- Started my own singing telegrams company for charity, called
"The Birthday Brigade." Sang to literally thousands of students,
teachers, and amazingly-won-over administrators, mostly with goofy
arrangements of songs I wrote ("Muppets Birthday," "Mr. Rogers'
Birthday," "Mexican Hat Dance Birthday" and so on). We also sang
the Star Spangled Banner at various school sporting events :).
- Was voted "Most Studious"... which to this day
I'm not sure was meant seriously or sarcastically,
since I rarely
studied, and -- by senior year -- was spending far
more time in extra-curricular activities than in the classroom.
- Evanston, Illinois (for Northwestern University)
- Majored in Political Science and Communications
- Was awarded 2nd place in a dorm polka competition.
- Experienced first snowfall (silly California boy!)
- Participated extensively in music performance and composition
- Received a "D-" in Band (Wind Ensemble) Arranging,
largely in retaliation
for missing the required finals-review session. During that time,
I was dancing
30 hours straight
for charity.
- The above disgrace was countered nicely
by my "A" in
Arranging for Jazz Bands,
in which my "Time Consuming Piece
Without a Title" was
warmly praised by the
talented jazz instructor.
- Had I spent less time playing in and writing for
music ensembles, I
might have received a more 'harmonious' GPA overall at Northwestern.
But I would
have had a lot less fun and really learned a lot less.
- Took first-ever
dance class ("Jazz Dance") and
was occasionally summoned
to the front of the class to demonstrate moves. I'm now
convinced that I was being
used/abused for comic relief. But I was young and foolish then.
- Was bribed to join the men's crew (rowing) team. See above
statement about being young and foolish.
- Thousand Oaks
- Spent a year in between undergrad and grad deciding what to do with
my life. My wanderings included temp'ing, serving as a legal secretary
for a (truly) corrupt lawyer, trying my hand at orchestra conducting,
and beating up my body via masters swim team workouts. Law school,
comparatively, was a piece of cake.
- Bloomington, Indiana (for Indiana University School
of Law and IU Kelley School of Business)
- Hung out with lots of wonderfully fascinating and fun undergrads,
who helped keep me sane. Many of my fellow law students dismissed my
socializing as 'a waste of time,' while my business students amusingly
and rightfully admired my 'networking.' You can guess which group of
folks was more fun to have beers with :)
- Insanely volunteered to take many extra intensive research-and-writing
seminars. Wrote a (IMHO) groundbreaking paper on "Defamation on the
Internet" that -- had I published back then -- would have likely earned
me a
bit of
fame
and acclaim. Stupid Adam! :(
- Created my first Web site ("Adam's SmileZone"), and played with my
first Web server via my dorm connection and O'Reilly's "Web Site" server
software.
- Continued to be active in extra-curricular activities... participating
in student government, accompanying singers, assistant-music-directing "Little
Shop of Horrors" and so on.
- Learned that -- while Indiana on the whole is rather scary -- Bloomington
is an amazing cultural oasis! I saw tons of wonderful performances
(musicals, choir festivals, etc.) for free or very little money, and
also ate inexpensively at a fabulous mix of ethnic restaurants. Ah,
how I miss those days!
- Learned to drive in the snow. Eeek!
- Mannheim, Germany
(first for an internship during last summer at IU, then full-time afterwards)
- Headed off to Germany to serve as a consultant for a German IT Consulting
firm... speaking not a word of German, and having never ventured to
Europe before.
- Got really, really drunk after stupidly (but innocently) commenting
on my alcohol tolerance. My body was NOT tolerant enough to protect
me against the ravages of a hangover endured while sitting backwards
on a bullet-train in a smoking section at 7am after a finished-at-4am
orientation "Welcome to Deutschland!" party.
- Learned that trying to be polite by asking, "Hallo! Sprechen sie
English?" is a really bad idea, because store clerks will admire your
accent and insist that you complete the transaction 100% in German.
This is especially problematic when trying to open a checking account.
- Was fascinated by the differences between gender relations in Europe
and in the U.S., both socially and in the workplace. This actually
merits a substantial write-up when I have more time.
- Couldn't believe just how many gorgeous and (otherwise) brilliant
folks smoke in
Germany. Ack!
- Learned that the German trains, for the most part, really do run
on time... and this highlights what a total joke public transit is
in most of America :(.
- Wasn't able to find a dang grilled chicken sandwich in the entire
200,000 person town of Mannheim. It was similarly difficult to find
a chocolate chip cookie or muffin or doughnut or decent salsa, despite
how much my German friends professed to loving these things when they
were
in
America.
Clearly, entrepreneurialism in the area of international cuisine has
not yet caught on much in Germany.
- Boston
- Spent just three short months in Boston, helping the German company
set up a subsidiary.
- Slipped and fell on ice in front of my house and had a disgusting
rump-bruise for about 3 months!
- LOVED the compactness and richness of Boston! What an exciting, vibrant,
and colorful city!
- San Francisco
- Worked with the relatively hip high-tech PR firm Niehaus Ryan Wong,
which unfortunately stagnated a bit and was unable to thrive during
the dot.com downturn. My entire department was laid off, and later
the whole company went bankrupt.
- Got involved with swing dancing, taught by the venderable Paul and
Sharon, and became rather addicted to Lindy Hop.
- Traveled to Europe once or twice every year, especially
around Christmas time to see close friends in Germany. Okay, and to
bring home a suitcase full of decent chocolate, too!
- Decided to make a go of living off of my Web site revenues, plus
miscellaneous online marketing contract jobs.
- Added AdWords / Overture consulting into my mix, helping a variety
of small and large businesses with their online advertising campaigns.
- After a year of being a happy and oft-feedback-giving user of Plaxo,
actually got invited to work for the company as a consultant.
- Got the "dream gig" of working on a music community... with Virgin Digital.
- Discovered Waltzing and started getting hooked.
