Shanti’s Dispatches

I finally found a place to stay out here. My friend Paul would probably kill me if I stayed at his place any longer. Though he does have satellite TV, which is nice. I have three apartment-mates at my new place, and the rent is only $600 / mo. That’s just a little more than I was paying out in LA. The room size is about 10×10 feet, with a little closet. The new roomies seem like cool Columbia U. grads that found jobs and decided to stick around the big city.

Meanwhile I have a nightly ritual of trolling the Craigslist Internet Engineering and software/QA/DBA/etc jobs sections. Some of these companies just have some ridiculous minimum requirements. Like 5 years of C# experience — hey, morons, C# hasn’t even been around that long!! But I did manage to get an interview for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

After the cheap but misdirected flight from St. Louis, to Dallas, to NYC-JFK, I turned on my phone and had a voicemail waiting. It was from a recruiter in NY who possibly wants me to come interview somewhere in Manhattan. Little did he know I had just arrived in the state, so I wouldn’t have to come fly out for the interview or anything!

Took a cab into Midtown where Paul lives (at $45, a third of my one-way plane ticket all the way from St. Louis to NYC). Met Rose (Paul’s new girlfriend). We went to a Middle Eastern place in the East Village, Moustache. It has a goofy name and goofy waiters, but the food is good.

Next we went to a series of bars to celebrate one of Paul’s buddies B-days. The first was Niagra in the E. Village, where I experienced my first NYC celebrity sighting. This dude walked by us, followed by a skinny blonde chick, and I said to myself - that guy looks like a rockstar.

Sebastian Bach - lead singer for Skid Row, who apparently likes to party at Niagra in the E. Village.

Next we went to the dimly lit La Linia a few blocks away. It seems like there are just tons of tiny to mid-size bars here, as opposed to the uber-bars/clubs back in LA and St. Louis.

More updates to come…

This link brought me back to my Jr. high school days. I found a 314 are code BBS List.

Sure enough, there my baby was:
Ill Communication, Judgement Day BBS, Vortex

Apparently my BBS went by three different names during its illustrious career.

My handles were Grandmaster and Prophet during that time.

Other info:
314-645-1893
SAINT LOUIS, MO
(1994-1995)

Those were the days.

I’ve been trading emails with old classmates lately from the great John Burroughs School class of 1998.

Here’s a roundup of what people are doing:

Johnny O’Neal - working in NYC for some huge HR consulting company. engaged to be married to Beverly (met at northwestern) sometime in the next few months. (wedding to take place in the lovely Palos Verdes, just down the road from where I used to live out in Los Angeles)

Anna Goralnik - living and working out in LA. throws great themed parties like “Redneck”-theme and “Sex in the City”-theme (that I miss). easily talks her way out of it when cops come to bust them up.

Joe Leonard - was out in LA for a while, filming a commercial for Arnold’s campaign. now back in NYC working for the Criterion collection.

Andrew Volpe - touring the country in a van & promoting their debut album with his band — Ludo.

Jason Chen - finishing up a thesis at Oxford, following 4 tough years at the Naval Academy. headed back to the US shortly to study nuclear engineering, or something.

Craig Albrecht - investment banking in NYC. he also has a really hot girlfriend that he brought to the reunion. (i.banking + hot NYC girlfriend. looks like he won the race guys
David Rasch & Libby Bucholz - married and are now living in one of the Carolinas, I forget which.

David Handelman - graduated Hahvahd (a la Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting) with a CS degree and now works in Manhattan.

Anna Schmidt - briefly talked at the reunion. killed herself for a while pursuing a dance career during the day and working nights in NYC. now has some kind of cushy day office job. you go girl
Jennifer Russ - freelance writing/editing here in St. Louis.

if you know of anymore, comment away!

To any St. Louis readers, there is a Ludo concert this Thursday (Apr. 22nd) at The Phoenix Super Bar. Located at 3924 Lemay Ferry Rd.

They will also be at Washington University at Hig Fest in front of Hurd Dorm at 4pm on Friday, April 23.

Trump better watch out. I’ve got a one-way plane ticket to NYC this Saturday, and hopefully I won’t be coming back home to St. Louis until I’ve found an apartment, job, hot trophy foreign model girlfriend, and all the other various trappings of a successful New York City life.

In all reality, I’ve got a few couches to crash on until I find a month-to-month sublet (furnished) on the big island somewhere. Then the clock starts ticking. I only have enough cash in my main bank account to last me about two months in NYC without external employment. My swiss bank account funds are tied up at present earning guaranteed 20% interested in a Nigerian Astronaut program, run by one very nice Bakare Tunde.

Anyway, I’ll need to get a job in New York to proceed with said master plan. If you know anyone who is hiring or who might be able to help out a midwestern boy who’s moving to the big city, please let me know: shantibraford (at) yahoo.com.
My Resume - PDF format
My Resume - Word 2000 format

Just found an old high-school buddy’s blog:
David’s stuff

David and Libby (from JBS class of ‘98) were slated to be married last I heard… not sure of the current status, but they have probably tied the knot by now. Congrats if so!

Personally, I’m staying as far away from the wedding chapel as possible. When it does happen, there will be a strong pre-nup on the table before any serious plans are drawn up, that’s for sure! (Unless, of course, she makes more money than I do…

145674 - How Long Does it Take to Set Up Pregnancy and Child Care

In case you were wondering how long it takes to setup Microsoft’s new Pregnancy and Child Care package.