Something's Missing...

If you checked my blog this morning, you would have seen 88 posts. But now, including this one, there are only 58. So where have the other 30 posts gone? No, I haven't deleted them. They've been moved to an exciting new blog.

Isa and I were talking the other night, and she reminded me what this blog was originally set up for: to tell the stories behind the pictures I take and put up on PerfectLittlePlanet.com. If you've read any of my posts in the past year or so, you'll know that I've strayed, posting about everything from Hannah Montana to Wicked the Musical.

In my last post, you learned that together, my wife and I are "Brisa." We decided to create a new blog about our life, called Everything Brisa. On it, we'll post about everything we like: food, travel, touristy things we do in New York, and random things that happen in our lives. I've moved all the posts about us from this blog to that one, comments and all. (Cool that you can do that, huh?)

Stay tuned to this blog, since I'll be updating at least once a week with back-dated travel blog posts with pictures that I never put up, like from my 2-week trip with friends through Italy, a 10-day solo trip through London and the Netherlands, and quite possibly some really old ones from Angkor Wat and my month-long trip through Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand. Older blogs should still come up in your feed or on Google Reader. Let me know if you don't see them and I'll just post them with today's date instead of back-dating them.

NYC Update!

Hey Everybody,

I'm just sitting here in my apartment trying to stay out of the slush and it occurred to me that I never told you about the final decisions regarding our Greece/Turkey trip in March. Well, you know how the news does the New York Minute? Well here's a New York Update in under a minute (as long as you can read faster than me).

We couldn't make Turkey and Greece work. Sad, huh? :*(

So we're going to Italy instead. :) I'm so excited. It will be 7 of us all together. Five from the original Europe trip (five years ago - oh my gosh has it really been that long?) and then two husbands. They're cool too, and we're all really tight, so it'll be a great trip. We'll be spending two weeks there, starting March 15 and going through to the 31st. We start in Milan and go up to Lake Como, then down through Cinque Terre to the Amalfi Coast (Positano, yay!) all the way down to Sicily and back up to Rome. I am so excited to get back to Italy I can't even tell you.

Also, there are several store openings in the works. I'll let you know about them as soon as I know for sure.

And that's all the time we have for today folks, tune in next week for more exciting adventures! :P

Juneau and then some

So remember back in April, I made a list of things that I was planning on? They all came true. I went to Utah, I had dinner with my aunt, I went to Sitka and made it ridiculously successful. Just thought I'd update you on that.

I'm probably not going to run the marathon though.

Last week they moved me up to Juneau to help run the store there. It's bigger and faster paced, with anywhere up to 6 big cruise ships in at any given time. I love it! The added ships, coupled with my trying to catch up on two months of sales, means I'm working about 14 to 18 hours a day. So if you're coming from YouTube and you're wondering why I haven't uploaded a video until now, there you go.

I still go back to Sitka every few weeks to check in and to see friends. Sitka still feels like home, much more than Juneau does, at least.

The season ends here at the end of September. I'll probably be back in Utah for a day or two, and then fly back to NYC. I plan to be in the City before October 5th.

Plans are in the works for Turkey and Greece in March/April next year. I'm stoked. :) That'll give me about 4 months (minus the christmas season) to get my book published (it's all done, I just have to mail it to my friend Savannah out in London for her review).

Life is very good. I'm extremely happy with how everything is playing out.

Leave a comment if you have any questions that weren't answered.

Busy Busy Busy

The store is open, cruise ships are coming, tourists are shopping. Life is good. We had a solid opening and I'm really impressed at how successful we've been thus far. I hope it keeps up.

But I'm not going to talk business on here. Just wanted to let you know that I'm super ridiculously busy and I haven't been able to explore much lately. But I will. When have you ever known me to go somewhere and not make time to get out there and have some crazy adventure, right?

For now, you can have this picture, which we took yesterday out at Indian River:

Try to Keep Up...

Here's the plan:

Wed, April 2 - Fly to Utah, hang out with friends (WOOHOO!!)

Thurs, April 3 - Training at Del Sol HQ, dinner with my aunt

Fri, April 4 - Fly to Sitka, Alaska

April through September - Design, Build, Merchandise, Employ, and Open a new store, and make it ridiculously successful.

Sun, October 4 - Run the St. George Marathon. Hey, why not?

:)

AK Here I Come!!

I know I quit to come back and live in New York, but my old company (Del Sol) just offered me a great opportunity. I'm going to be opening a new store in Sitka, Alaska. Apparently it's about 100 miles south of Juneau. It's a big island (over 4000 sq mi) but it's a small town (pop. 8000 from what I can tell). That's definitely gonna be a shock from living in NYC, but I think it'll be a fun experience.

I leave the beginning of April, so in just a few weeks. Don't you love how quickly my plans change?

'08 is Great

2007 was a great year (Aruba and my book). It was even better than 2006 (Mexico and PHX). Which definitely beat out '05 (Utah and NYC). Which somehow managed to squeak by my amazing 2004 (Europe). Which was able to top my incredible 2003 (Cambodia/Thailand). And I'd venture to say that that beat my 2000-2002 (the mission). And '99? Graduation and Disneyworld. '98? That's when I got cancer.

It seems that cancer started the most wonderful snowball effect in my life. Every year gets progressively better than the previous. Not that '98 was a low point in my life at all. That was also a great year. It just makes me wonder: how good can it get? I have an idea that I haven't seen anything yet.

'08 is setting up to be (yet again) the best year of my life:

- I got an apartment in the Bronx. How cool is that?
- My book is done. Now I can work on getting it published. I wrote a book. Seriously, that's so cool to say.
- I have a vision for my website. I just have to make it a reality.
- I am LOVING youtube. I love the community and I love making videos and people are actually watching them. :) That makes me happy.
- I'm finally going to be somewhat "stable" (I have the apartment, hopefully I'll actually live there) so I can have an actual relationship. DOWN WITH FLINGS!!

Just thought I'd share. I am really excited about the future.

I hope your '08 is even greater than you imagined.

California

Yeah, I'm in California. I'm in Monterey, a little town about 2 hours south of San Francisco. My company sent me here to help out a store for a few weeks. I plan on being here until mid-January.

I hope to be able to visit some friends in Sacramento, but I'm working 10 and 12 hour days, so I don't know how possible that will be. I'll keep you guys updated.

I'm still working on a few videos from New York. I'm trying to decide if I should still post the video I took at the Macy's Day Parade. It's a little late now, but what do you think? Do you still want to see the floats and Santa Clause riding down Broadway? I also have a video from my day at FDNY's training academy on Randall's Island. That was cool, and I can't wait to put it together to show you all.

I'm just about to post a video project that I've been working on for about 3 months. As soon as I post it, I'll send out an email to the mailing list so you can watch it. It's a video with random info about me and it contains clips from 8 different countries. I thought it would be fun for you to see what places you recognize. It should be easier for you, since you know what countries I've been to recently.

I'll be back in NYC for New Year's (just for 3 days, then back to Cali). My older brother and I just got an apartment in the Bronx, about 2 blocks from Yankee Stadium. So now I am officially a resident of NYC. Feel free to come visit any time. :)

Euro Trip

Hey everybody. I'm just procrastinating. I'm supposed to be packing for my trip out to Europe (I have to be at the airport in 6 hours) so I decided to update my blog instead.

I'm extremely excited for the trip. I'll be by myself, so if anybody happens to be reading this and you're in the London area some time in the next week, shoot me an email at brian@perfectlittleplanet.com and we'll go do something.

If you're not in the London area, you can feel like you are every day by watching my daily vlog. I'm planning on making a video every night I'm out there of what I did during that day. If I post it at midnight there, it'll be about 6pm EST, so check it out each evening. The link for that page is youtube.com/perfectlittlelife. (Update: Click here to go to the London playlist)

I'll be back on November 13th, so if you're in New York or CT around then, let me know and we'll hang out then.

Talk to you all later.

Love, Brian

I know, it's been a while

So, a few things have happened in the last two months. Here's a list:

1. I'm no longer in Aruba. I finished my contract with Del Sol and I came back to America. I'm currently in Utah, but only for one more week. To see the constantly updated plans, go to perfectlittleplanet.com/plans. In the next two months, I'll be in 5 states and 4 countries.

2. I'm addicted to YouTube. I now have two channels, both of which you can get to from the links at the top of PerfectLittlePlanet.com. The first (youtube.com/perfectlittleplanet) contains videos I make while out on my adventures. The second (youtube.com/perfectlittlelife) has all the videos I make while just hanging out with family and friends. This will also have my vlogs whenever I start doing those.

3. I'm no longer using my pc. I bought a mac and I LOVE IT!! It comes in especially handy while making my videos and putting up pictures on the website. Everything is so streamlined... iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, and everything else works together so well it makes editing so easy.

4. PerfectLittlePlanet is now widescreen- and mac-friendly. Woohoo.

5. Lots of new pictures have been posted to the Aruba slideshow.

6. I shrunk all the original photographs used for my slideshows to stop people from downloading them. I'm in the process of changing the site over to a business. The slideshows still look the same, but now if you want a size suitable for your desktop wallpaper or something, you need to email me and ask for one. They're still free for now, but we're heading away from that direction.

7. The book is on the front burner and I'm just about half way done. I'll be in London at the end of October to put the finishing touches on it.

8. I finally got an iPod (it came with the new computer). I've reached a whole new level of happiness that I didn't think possible. Seriously, you guys have no idea how long I've wanted an iPod, but I could never justify spending the money to buy one.

9. Now that I'm back in the states, I don't use MySpace that often. Everyone I know is on Facebook though, so I have an account there and I go on every day or so, but I don't really understand it (all the applications and stuff).

10. I'm currently designing a logo and a theme song for PerfectLittlePlanet. I'm excited about both of those and I'll keep you posted as they progress.

That's all for now. Hope you're all having a wonderful day.

Love, Brian

New Stuff!!

Hello!

I added two new pictures to the Aruba slide show, including one of my new all-time favorite pictures. It's a sunset picture taken at Moomba Beach. Besides the colors being incredibly vibrant, I love the couple holding hands on the bottom left of the picture (you have to really look for them, it's subtle, but fantastic). I think they make the picture that much more romantic.

Also, I added a new video entitled "Lost Keys". It's a combination of the three part series I posted a few weeks ago. I just made it nicer and added some music (now that I know how to do that). :) So check it out because it's fun. (2011 update: Oof, not my best work. It's amazing how far I've come with editing and video making skills.)

I'm also going to add another video about the abandoned plane I explored today. It was very cool, and I thank Grant and Janae for pointing it out to me (although it sits just 20 feet from a road I travel at least twice a week, I had never seen it in 6 months of driving past it).

And if you haven't seen the Transformers movie yet, go right now. Turn off the computer and go. It's awesome.

YouTube, My Book, Aruba, and Friends

Hey, I've been busy. Here are some reasons why I haven't blogged in sooo long:

I've been making lots of cool videos. If you haven't checked it out recently, go over and check out my youtube account (www.youtube.com/perfectlittleplanet) and watch all the latest videos, especially this one (Aruba Hi-Winds 2007) because I'm so proud of it.

I'm writing my book. Remember, I want to finish it (if not completely then at least the majority of it) before I leave Aruba. If you have no idea what book I'm talking about, email me at brian@perfectlittleplanet.com and ask me about it.

I only have 6 weeks left in Aruba, so I'm trying to do so much because I know time is running out. :(

Lots of friends have been coming to visit. They know I'm only going to be here a few more weeks so they're all coming now before it gets too late.

But above all, I'm just lazy. :)

Much love, Brian

Perfect Little Planet Adventures

I created a new section on Perfect Little Planet which contains pictures and videos of adventures I have while out taking pictures or just having a good time. I just posted the first story which happened less than a week ago on the south point of the island. It is called Sunset Waves Attack. I am extremely happy that I am still alive to tell the story.

More adventures will be posted as I have more time in the future.

Brian

Yet another new camera

Remember that time I bought "the most durable digital camera in the world" and I managed to break it in 4 days? Good times.

I called Olympus tech support, which was a complete joke. My support guy was about as helpful as a 4 year old giving me algebra pointers. You know how the camera just came out 2 weeks ago? I think I was the first person to ever call in with a problem.

So I went to the store where I bought it and I toyed with the idea of yelling and screaming (as my friends put it, "You're American. You're supposed to be loud and obnoxious. Use that.") but I thought I'd have more success if I was nice to them. I smiled, showed off my broken Olympus Stylus 770 SW, and gave them the sad puppy dog eyes until they gave me a new camera and a new warranty card.

The camera takes great pictures. You can go check out the Aruba page to see some new pictures (that I took with this new camera). I put them at the beginning of the slide show for you. Enjoy.

Brian

New Camera and New York

Remember that time I bought a brand new Pentax Optio W20 in January to replace the one that broke after 3 months of usage? And then the new one that I bought stopped working in February?

So I went back to the store and they won't replace it. I have to send it in to Pentax to have them repair it. So instead of sending it in and waiting for them to send it back again, I just bought another new camera.

I bought the new Olympus Stylus 770 SW. It's been on the market for 2 weeks. It claims to be the most durable digital camera in the world. It's waterproof up to 10 meters (33 feet), shockproof up to 5 feet (if I drop it), freezeproof to 10 below Celsius (so I can take it snowboarding), and crushproof up to 220 pounds. I am extremely excited to have a new underwater camera that is not a Pentax, since I haven't had the best of luck with them. I'll try it out soon and let you know how it works.

Also, I put up a few pictures of New York City. It is by no means extensive. These are just a few random shots I took when I was home for Christmas. Enjoy.

I'm working on Mexico right now. They'll be up soon.

Brian

Update!!

I know it's been a while. I don't know what you know already, so here's everything I've got on the site up to date:

Europe

Aruba

Chicago

You can click on any of those cities to go directly to that slide show.
I also put up a list of FAQs that you may or may not find interesting.

I'm still working on the website construction itself to make it easier to navigate and easier for you to find pictures you want to see. If you have any ideas on what you think would make it better, let me know.

Brian