All joking aside, I must admit that even in my most sincerely awkward of moments could I ever imagine creating a situation as beautiful as the following two videos. This one is both incredible, yet quickly and familiarly uncomfortable:

Huge thanks to Lee for taking a few moments to share videos with me. Much appreciated, sir.

On a random note, I have spent the last few nights reliving the last Brand New tour that I saw in Salt Lake City… Manchester Orchestra + Kevin Devine + Brand New. I mean, how can you not dwell on a tour of that magnitude? Absolutely fantastic.

Anyway, here is my parting gift:

DRIVIN’ WITH MY KNEES! I’M DRIVIN’ WITH MY KNEES!

I do love Brand New. and Manchester Orchestra’s new album. Go buy it now.

Oh yeah, yesterday was also my birthday. So, I am now 22 years old. Cue confetti!

This year, my birthday was significantly more laid-back than last year. As of this time last year, I was recovering from a long night with friends crawling bars in Albuquerque. I also had to buy a new phone because I dropped mine into a toilet that I decided was a good place to pass out; definitely memorable, but not something I’d like to relive. This year, I decided that I wanted good sushi, some good sake, and some wine. I got exactly that, plus I caught up on two episodes of Lost. Overall, it was a very relaxing, enjoyable, calm birthday.

On a final note, I just realized today that my blog is the first search result for “Ryan Abreu” on Google. Very interesting. I really need to keep this blog in top form if it is going to come up every time that someone Googles my name. That means no more late-night drunk posting. That means more meaningful content. That means more posts!

So watch out, internet. I may just follow the footsteps of my friend Joshua Arnold and start shaping my online identity. Does that mean I need to completely redesign my blog? Does that mean I need to start geeking out in my posts? What do you think? How does someone reshape their online identity when it’s clear that their personal site is no longer so personal?

“I’ve got knives in my eyes.”
- Brendan Frye, “Brick“

Also, as a not-so-quick aside, I’d like to point out how much I loathe IE CSS hacks. I am also completely disgusted at Microsoft’s decision to give Internet Explorer 8 a “compatibility mode” so that people can continue to view websites the way IE7 rendered them. Super job at trying to push web standards, guys. There is also a recent CoDe Magazine that is entirely dedicated to IE8, and one of the big articles tries to explain their reasons behind making that decision. Honestly, If I had a birdcage, I would line it with that article.

One last thing - IE Developer Toolbar sucks!

That is all.

I am well aware that this may not mean anything to anyone that may read this blog, but I have something special to announce. I have waited at least a month to say this, but I am very excited to announce that in less than 2 weeks, I will be making a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! I was lucky enough to receive a free ticket to MIX, a Microsoft conference that has a strong focus on the correlation between current internet technologies and design. The talks are presented by very high-profile speakers in the industry, and I actually follow a lot of these guys on twitter, or I subscribe to their blogs on Google Reader.

The code that I write is lagely inspired by the things that these people write! I know it’s super nerdy but c’mon!

I am not only excited to make my first trip to the real Vegas, but I am really looking forward to the chance to network with some of these bigwigs in the industry. I can’t believe that this opportunity just fell in my lap out of nowhere. At the same time, however, I am extremely humbled at the fact that I will be representing my company (along with my CEO and boss) at such a huge technology event. I have even considered entering in a Rock Band competition.

Besides the fact that I haven’t worked with very many web-based technologies as of late, I still believe that I have an interest in where a lot of the current trends are going. For example, I have been doing Silverlight 2 work on and off, as well as giving talks at SoCal Code Camps and participating in Silverlight labs in Irvine. Most of the talks that I am planning on attending are either Silverlight 3 or Expression Blend related, and I have been advocating on the behalf of Silverlight almost nonstop since it was released a few months ago.

It’s time to switch to the dark side, Actionscript Nazis!

Wow… haha. But seriously, all joking aside, I think that this year’s MIX Conference will be extremely rewarding and I’m very lucky to be given the chance to attend such an event so early on in my career.  To make this blog post that much more boring, here are some of the sessions that I am planning on attending:

• What’s New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Integrating Microsoft Expression Blend with Adobe Creative Suite
• How’d they do it?  Real App.  Real Code.  Two Weeks.  Nothing but .NET (Scott Hanselman!!!)
• From Concept to Production: Microsoft Expression Blend
• User Experience Design Patterns for Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Deep Zoom++ : Build Dynamic Deep Zoom application with Open Source
• Touch and Gesture Computing, What You Haven’t Heard (Joseph Fletcher!!!)

I’d like to add that almost all my former classmates from school do web-based work with their companies, while I have done hardly any web-based work so far at all.

So… yeah, it’ll be nice to rub it in their faces when I get to meet a lot of these famous Microsoft people face-to-face.

Haaaaah, it’ll be great.

I am kind of questioning what to do with this blog… If I should keep it more personal or technical or some weird mix of the two. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Also, I wrote this post from my iPod Touch using the Wordpress app. It’s actually really nice and I hope that this will make me post a little more often.

1. Graduating Magna Cum Laude from Neumont University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
2. Moving to Carlsbad, California and working for an amazing company doing work that I love.
3. Voting for my first presidential candidate.
4. Turning 21.
5. Adapting a more active lifestyle.

In packing for my Christmas vacation (I actually am supposed to be leaving to the airport in 5 hours…), I was both ecstatic and apprehensive looking forward at the coming 10 days with my family and friends, neither of whom I have seen in a while. I was ecstatic because I am always excited to be around friends, especially now that I am living on my own without any real friends of my own. I was ecstatic because Christmas with my family is always such a big thing, and I can’t imagine spending it anywhere else, really.

However, I was apprehensitve mostly because I remembered how often I get excited to go home only to be disappointed. Vegas has a weird way of doing that to me. There isn’t much to do, and even though friends are in town, without a car it’s hard to see anyone. Even if you do get to spend time with friends, it always somehow feels short-lived. Also, it’s always weird to transition from living on your own without any restrictions to suddenly sleeping in your old room on a bunk bed. I still haven’t gotten used to that.

Regardless, this Christmas break is well-deserved and I am looking forward to the chance to relax and spend some time away from work. I’m even looking forward to freezing my ass off. There’s one thing I am not looking forward to, however, and that is the anxiety that I’ve set my expectations too high. I don’t care if this Christmas break is life-changing. No, I just want to feel like I’m back home - a little closer to the way things used to be with the friends and family that shares that same goal with me.

Wait, why am I excited to go to Utah? This will be the second time that I’ve visited since I moved to California. I guess that I’m just really excited to see my old college friends. I really wish that some of them lived closer. I’ve found that, for the 4th (!!!) time in my life, I have to start over and make new friends in an unfamiliar place. You would think that I’d be good at it by now. Think again.

I totally suck at making friends! I am just not good at it at all. When I think about it, I’ve really only been spending my time at 3 places: home, work, and the gym. I just don’t have time for anything else during the week, and on the weekends, I don’t have anyone to go out with so I usually just stay at home or go for a long bike ride. So, I guess I can see why I’m not meeting any new people.

Gone are the days when I sit in a coffee shop and wait for magic to happen, for people to appear out of thin air and strike up a conversation. I guess I’ll have to think of some new ways to meet people.

Anyway, I’m very excited to spend the weekend with old friends.

I believe in him. Even if I may be considered a “fan boy” by some, I don’t care! I support him and I believe that he will be an historical president that will unite this country over the course of the next four years. I am of the belief that there are candidates out there that can ignite the feelings of our voters. I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that Barack Obama will serve this country to the best of his ability just as John McCain or John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Ron Paul would have. I believe, as Barack Obama does, that this is not a red or blue or indifferent America… nor is this a liberal or conservative or moderate America… nor is this an idealogical or agnostic America… this is the United States of America.

And fuck me if I’m wrong, but I am a firm believer in this America.

I believe that our children will ask us about this moment. They will ask us what we were doing in this moment in our country’s history. Were we celebrating? Were we mourning? Were we full of excitement? Were we filled with hopelessness? Or, were we hopeful?

I will feel that we felt truly United. Our first black president… an underdog candidate… was elected to the highest office that the American political system can acknowledge… Barack Obama was elected, by majority and by the college, to be the 44th President of these United States of America, and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

It’s been a long time coming, and I’ve seen all the signs, but I can still remember (Fresh in my mind) the moments when I told myself “I’ll never end up like this.” I used to depend on my friends to give me a sense of realism; I used to depend on them to keep my feet firmly on the ground. Although, relatively, my feet were perhaps far from where I thought the ground was. Now, I only rely upon myself to steer myself in the direction that I feel is where the warmest light is eminating from. It’s a sad thought, but a realistic one.

I’m on a path that I feel is righteous, and I’m sure some will disagree with me on this. I can feel the negativity and I can feel the dissent coming from (almost) all directions. However, I know that I am only here for myself at this point, so I know that I have to keep the faith that the beat that I am following is the one that leads to the encore. I have had many dreams, and all of them end with me on the winning end.

My newest goal is to make some new friends. Although, the memories of the last two years have kept me up at night - the fact that it took me almost two years to make new friends in Utah. There are times when I am equally glad and remorseful that I chose the path that I chose. I know that it’s led me to the greatest place that I could be right now, but at the same time I realize that I spend the majority of my time by myself.

Really, I think tonight is the culmination of a lot of dissenting feelings that have built up over a period of time, but in the end I am positive that I’ll be fine. I have nothing to complain about… except for the election. I will be so relieved when it is over… this fucking circus that the majority of America has largely ignored since the primaries began. Others will choose to accept their own self-serving reasons why they’ve made up their minds, but I refuse to accept that I am selfish enough to let the rest of the country suffer while I am sitting here in my ideal situation, reaping the benefits. I believe in giving my parents the tax break that they deserve - I believe that this country should be led by a person that is actually inspiring and brilliant in his own right. I don’t believe that slimeball political strategies should be rewarded with the most important elected office in this country. I believe in Barack Obama, and whoever disagrees with that… I don’t give a fuck.

Goodnight. Tomorrow is a new day and a new set of opportunities that I used to dream of so dearly. I’m starting to think that at this point, I’m much luckier than I could have ever imagined. I’m going to try to not take it for granted. Wish me luck.