Saturday, 12-April-2025
One of the big events of the MBA is the Negotiating for Value module. A week-long event, off campus, where we’d learn the theory of negotiations, while getting to put that theory to practice with a whole pile of day-long lectures and practical negotiations.
It all started with a flight from Dublin, a lovely jaunt above the Irish Sea, over the UK, across the English Channel, and into Belgium…
Saturday, 03-Aug-2024
Holy crap it’s happening.
I woke up, grabbed my bags, called a cab, and… I was at Brussels Airport. Grabbed some food, walked onto the plane, and…
Well, my trip isn’t done yet. I see my “Grand Adventure” as continuing through the middle of August, when I’ll hopefully have a new apartment and be settling into a new life in Dublin… but this flight really was a turning point in the adventure.
I’d be exploring Dublin, no doubt about it, but I’d be exploring in a different light – I’ve been a tourist for three long and amazing months, and would not be switching roles into a “new resident”… someone exploring to find places to re-visit, versus someone exploring to see the highlights.
It was a lovely, and slightly overwhelming, flight to Ireland. I sat, appreciated the flight, and considered what my new life in Dublin would be looking like…
Ohh yeah, about the weird bathroom picture.
Seriously, just look at it. How nice is that bathroom? That’s a damn nice bathroom. Wish we had bathrooms that nice in the US…
Friday, 02-Aug-2024
After the lights and sounds, and the movement and exploration, of the Harry Potter experience… Gina and I both needed a big of decompression. We found it at a nearby development called Tour and Taxi.
I can’t quite think of the specific term for this kind of place… I’ve seen them all across the United States, mainly in techy areas – a new development, focused on the Google / Apple / Facebook / non-denominational-tech-startup ideal of an Arcology – a space to work, play, live, and eat. Somewhere that cool young tech professionals can live, without ever leaving and having to interact with the unwashed masses.
If you haven’t heard of arcologies, by the way, they’re a really cool idea that I adore considering – check it out when you have a moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology
Anyways, yeah it was a cool hipster place that I kind of hate, but also kind of love. I hate to love.
We ordered food via the touch-screen terminal (since interacting with humans is so gauche), found a cool swing-seat in the shade, and relaxed while waiting for the text that would tell us when our snacks and drinks were ready.
The place was still in the process of being filled, and was in this really cool mid-point of partial inhabitation. It was basically a massive aircraft hanger, intended for maybe a hundred vendors / restaurants and thousands of inhabitants… but for now had maybe half a dozen stores and maybe 50 people. The area that was populated was that perfect level of density where you felt comfortable, but now crowded – and looking out across the massively open and empty hangar had this weird sense of infinity and possibility.
…
I don’t quite know why I’m writing so much about this place. It was really interesting to me, and I’m super curious to go back in a few years to see whether it’ll be a bustling hub of humanity… or an abandoned landscape of empty shops.
Yeah.
It was neat. We had a drink, I checked out a bookshop, and then headed out into the sun.
