Aug 1st, 2002
Weekend in Marblehead
I just got back from Boston last night after attending my companies’ annual meeting. I arrived on Saturday evening and we spent all day Sunday eating lobsters and crabs at the company president’s house on the lake. His brother owns a yacht, which has a full-time crew. The reason I mention this is because the crew is composed of New Zealanders and they made something called a “Hungi” at the picnic. They dug a pit which was about 3′ deep and probably around 4′ in diameter, and filled it with wood which later burned down into coals. Earlier that day, they had welded two iron beams to a metal cannister and once the coals had simmered down a bit, they placed the contraption on top of the fire pit. They had wrapped several pounds of meat in cheesecloth, and they placed the meat, along with a copious amount of corn and potatos, inside of the metal canister. After four hours, the food was ready for consumption. The method facilitated a delicious transfer of odors and tastes between the various foodstuff that was contained within the canister.
The meetings themselves were amazing in that I managed to keep my focus for eight hours straight. The two and a half day meetings were full of debate and analysis, and they even included an open-forum on ethics. I gave a twenty-minute presentation on internet security, a monitoring system that I had helped to standardize, and several emerging on-line trends.
In my spare time, I managed to go running and kayaking. In the evenings, we sat out on the deck with cigars and a glass of wine and discussed family life. I kept getting inundated with advice not to marry until I was about thirty years old, which I already agree with 100%. I also got to really know the other people in my company on a more personal level and it made me a lot more enthusiastic about the work that I am doing.
Anyway, I’m back. On the plane, I more or less drew up how I want my new site to look, so it won’t be long until it is up and running.
