What Is Brian Up To...

Maybe The Last Post Ever

I'm not retiring WTGW but it is becoming more and more evident to me and probably you as well that blogging is no longer a preferred method of communication for me. I've been spending my time online in other places and the "effort" required to type some words here is becoming more and more of a challenge with school and everything else going on in our lives.

So I'm going to retire the traditional posts that have been happening here on whatsthegoodword.com for over three years now and I'm going to introduce something a bit different. I've been using a site called FriendFeed a lot lately and they have a utility that allows you to feed in your FriendFeed activity, which is what I'm going to do. What would I be if I didn't declare my ultimate geekhood one last time here, right? Basically Friendfeed takes all of my activity from around the web from sites like Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Rhapsody and more and consolidates it into one place to create sort of a microblog. So while the information won't be as detailed as the posts I provide today it is updated more frequently and more digestible.

Anyway, I'll be giving it a shot and we'll see how it goes. You'll still be able to come to WTGW and get a feel for what the Fitzgeralds are up to in DC, after all that was the original purpose of this site and I hope I've never lost sight of that.

Philly Recap

So last weekend we were in Philly to meet up with Jay and Joanne and while it was absolutely freezing it was a really good time. I wasn't sure what to expect because I've only been to Philly for work I hadn't really explored Philly since I was a kid and there with my family but I was pleasantly surprised. It was however freezing the weekend we were there which made it a bit uncomfortable at times.

We went out to eat Friday night and went to Monk's for some drinks after. Apparently it is one of the top 10 places in the country that you have to have a beer. On Saturday we went around and saw all the sights, we hit up the Rocky statue, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and more. It was nice to get a refresher on some of the history that makes up our great country, especially when the inauguration was just a few days away. For lunch we of course got some cheesesteaks that were delicious. I wouldn't say that they are better than a good cheesesteak from one of my favorite joints up in Boston but DC is anemic when it comes to quality food so it was a welcomed delight. Saturday night we went out for some more dinner and drinks and rapped things up pretty early so we could get on the road early on Sunday and beat the inauguration traffic that was headed to DC.

We have a few pictures from the weekend, nothing special but another place to cross of the list - http://picasaweb.google.com/brianpfitzgerald.

This weekend Mandy and Dan came down for the weekend and we had an awesome time. Friday night we went out in our neighborhood, had some dinner, a few too many drinks, played some darts and then came home and stayed up til 1AM playing Cranium and drinking scotch...ouch. Saturday AM was a bit rough but we stepped up and headed downtown to get some lunch and walk around the mall/Capitol area. We went to the Air and Space Museum and walked around for a bit.

We got back here in the afternoon and proceeded to watch 4 or 5 movies - 300, Heartbreak Kid, Transformers, Traffic and something else. All movies I had seen before but it was that kind of day, good times.

New Coldplay Video

I thought that the music video pretty much died when MTV stopped showing videos and relied on Bromance, The Hills and Shot of Love to get by but apparently artists still do make videos. The one from Coldplay is not only a badass song but a pretty creative video too.

Naples Pictures

Forgot to include the link to our Naples pictures when I gave the recap - http://picasaweb.google.com/brianpfitzgerald

We got back from Philly this weekend, I would share more but I'm at work right now. I do have some stories and pictures to share so I'll plan on doing that later on. Today was a floating holiday so I decided to come in. Tomorrow there probably won't be much getting done either as our office is closed because of the inauguration. I'm planning on coming in though.

There's A Lot To Do In Philly

We are headed to Philly tonight for the weekend, to hang with Jay and Joanne. We haven't seen them since the summer so a rendezvous is long overdue. It will also be nice to get out of DC and the extra 1-2 MILLION people that are going to be here over the next 4-5 days. Yes, you read that right. I might have some commentary on that later, depends on how big of an inconvenience it creates for me.

I've only been to Philly for work a few times so this will be our first time going for sightseeing and just hanging around. I've been told Pat's is the place for cheesesteaks, or maybe Jim's is better, can't remember. But because they won the world series and because the Eagles are still alive in the NFL playoffs I'm assuming that the city overall will be pretty friendly and welcoming. Overall though, DC hates Philly. I've learned that from many of my DC native friends. I don't really have an opinion either way...yet.

Babson Lacrosse And Tina Fey

As most of you that went to Babson already know the other night at the Golden Globes, which I was not watching, Tina Fey won an award and during her commentary afterwards she mentioned some "haters" from the Internet. One of the "haters" was "BabsonLacrosse" a username from some message board or forum. Minutes later I started getting phone calls and text messages and people on Facebook were commenting about what issue did Tina Fey have with "BabsonLacrosse"? Since Sunday it has been a topic of chatter all week among my Babson community. As a person who actually played lacrosse at Babson, I'm even more intrigued.

Well this morning I found a video on Facebook/Youtube from the president of Babson college to Tina Fey...

I have to say as someone who works in the Internet industry that I was very happy and excited to see this use of the Internet and online communities to reach out to Tina Fey and invite her to speak at Babson. For Babson's benefit I really hope that she hears the message and accepts or at least comments about it.

To become a fan of Tina on Facebook go here - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Tina-Fey/26664746070