Ride of my Life

Yo Yo. Im really liking Rachel alot. I’m so happy she came out to visit me and I really had a great time with her. She is alot of fun. She’s got personality, pizazz and spunk. She’s got the spirituality, testimony and faith. She’s got the looks. She’s got the virtue. She’s got the kindness, charity, and love. She’s got alot of great and amazing qualities that I love. The first thing she gives to me in the airport after a few kisses is a cute ceramic fish that she made for me….along with a sweet little scrapbook-type booklet she made for me….with pictures of us in it. How sweet is that? She’s a great person. She’s a great friend. She’s a great girlfriend. I’m excited to see what will happen in our future…..oooh la la….

[Time out] Okay…remember last blog entry how I said i’d be alot better in blogging. Well….I guess I lied. I didn’t do so well in updating my blog. I’m sorry. I apologize. I’ll do better. I’ll do better. I’ll do better.

[Time in] Well….it’s late Monday night and I just got back a few hours ago from the airport, dropping my girlfriend off to go back home, Arizona. She’s in Arizona for the summer with her family and was here to visit me for a couple days. She arrived late Thursday night and left today. Her visit was amazing. And since most things I do nowadays revolves around researching and brainstorming for our new business opportunity, I figure my girlfriend’s visit is definitely blog-worthy; for it’s indeed a nice change of pace.

I’ll talk about the progress of our business idea in just a second. But first I wanna talk about how much fun I had with my girlfriend this weekend.

To make a short story long: I’m in love.

Let’s recap her short visit: She missed her flight in Phoenix so she arrived in Newark later than I expected late Thursday night. I waited out in the main concourse for her to call me and tell me where she was. We met in baggage claim. Shoot…she was looking good. Very good. I hadn’t seen her in about a month. So that might have messed with my mind a little bit. But dang gina….seeing her made me realize again 1) how lucky I am and 2) what drew me to pursue her in the first place. She was looking good. Nuff said.

I showed her my new car. We drove home…stopped at Wendy’s…and I took her to the hotel she was staying at. We said our kisses goodbye…and went our separate ways. I worked Friday morning….met up with my business partners….introduced them to Rachel….chatted for awhile. Rachel and I went and ran some errands….shopped for some simple stuff she had forgotten from home…and some other stuff I needed. I got a portable Air Conditioner thingie. It was much needed. It’s very hot and humid here. It’s hard for me to sleep….so I got one (it was a pain installing it though….I pulled a Macguyver and made my own little insallation system). Hurrah! We also stopped at the Pet Store just for fun….played with kittens…etc. Then we made our way up to NYC.

We messed around a bit in NYC. Chilled at Times Square. Ate at some cute lil’ Italian place. Then at night we went and saw the Broadway Show, The Producers. I really liked it. It was pretty funny. Rachel had a good time too. Then we came back to Princeton and called it a night.

Saturday we slept in. I worked a little in the morning then we headed up to NYC again. We went to an exhibition called Bodies. It’s quite fascinating. A bunch of cadavers….where we could learn more about the different body systems, organs, etc…..from real people. Sounds freaky. But trust me…it’s cool. And it was fun. After that we spent some time wandering around South Port Village (I think it’s called) watching street performers and window shopping. We also went and looked at the World Trade Center location…that was interesting. Then we went and ate dinner inside the Marriot Marquis. After that we saw another Broadway Show, Drowsy Chaperone. Again….I really liked it. It was funny. I’m pretty much addicted to the Broadway Musicals by now. I love ‘em. They’re quite expensive…but very entertaining.

Sunday Rachel and I went to church. She got to meet the other church members in this area. It was fun. After church we ate. Then we took a nice nap and read a little together. Then we went and chilled with some other young church members…..and played a bunch of games with them. That was fun. After that, Rachel and I watched a Disney movie together, Aladdin. Hurrah for Disney!

Monday morning I worked some more…then we we had a good lunch at Panera. Then we went up to the airport….and unfortunately…..she missed her flight. It’s all good though…she was able to catch a later flight at 8:25pm. We were able to spend a few more hours together in the airport…..getting a good dinner and just chilling….talking. It was good. I’m kinda glad she missed her flight.

So there you have it. Rachel’s visit. It was great. She’s gonna be back in August….i’m counting down the days till I get to see her again. She’s special. She’s amazing. She’s awesome. I miss her so much already. I can’t stop thinking about her. Nuff said.

Yo Yo Yo….the research and development of our new idea is doing really, really well. We are making incredible progress. We have a team of around 12 people now. We’ve been getting new interns and we’ve found a couple more programmers as well. Most of our time right now is really in the research mode. Our ideas and direction we wanna take still is pretty rough. It’s still fun though.

We have a couple new interns that I first met eating breakfast at Zorba’s a week or two ago. While I was eating my breakfast…minding my business…..I saw some young kids kinda next to me. They looked like high school students so I started up a conversation with them to see if they knew any computer programmers (cuz we’re always looking to expand our programming team….and if we can find high school kids that’d be great). They said they knew of a couple. They gave me a few names…and they asked me why. I told them about the business we we’re trying to start and they got super interested. They loved the idea. To make a short story long: they are now some of our interns. They’re great. They’re being super helpful in the office.

We recently met with Y.S. Chi…a very successful businessman and trustee of Princeton. He gave us some amazing feedback and advice on some things. It was great. Here’s some quick info on him: Y.S. Chi. He was awesome! He’s also helping us get in touch with other influential people like Tim O’Reilly (the web 2.0 guru) of Silicon Valley, Eric Schmidt of Google, and John Katzmen of Princeton Review.

We also met with Harold Shapiro who is a former President of Princeton Unversity. He gave us great feedback, advice, and suggestions with respect to our strategy. He’s very down-to-earth and humble. He was a great guy to speak with. It was funny to see on one part of his bookshelf all the books that he has written. Amazing. He’s very intelligent. An impressive meeting we had with him. Here’s some quick info on him: Harold Shapiro

It’s looking like i’ll definitely be taking this upcoming year off from school.

I’ll catch you gangstas next time. Peace out.

-Mickey Lee Hagen

Okay..okay…okay….it’s time I step it up and be better at updating my blog. I’ve been horrible. This summer’s been busy. But that’s no excuse for any blogger. Especially for the co-captain of the varsity blogging team at Princeton. I can’t let myself get lazy. The visitors, the regulars, the fellow bloggers….well….they get upset when they get here and find NOTHING. I need to show more committment and dedication to the sport we all appreciate: blogging. So i’ve made mid-year resolution (yes…it’s that time…half way point in the year) to update my blog in the summer time at least two to three times a week. And that’s the minimum. Word. Let’s get this party started…I promise that from here on out i’ll be better in updating the blog, no matter how busy I may be.

First things first. I’m currently back in Princeton, NJ. I’ve been here now for a couple weeks. For those who haven’t heard…a couple buddies and I are in the process of starting up a web-based company that will completely revolutionize the way aspects of the college admissions and recruiting process. We’ve been making a lot of progress. We took a few weeks off in early June to all go home and visit family & friends…and girlfriends. We’re all back at Princeton now putting in long….long…very long days of work to make sure we can be ready to launch the product/site by September.

We’re a bunch of people used to success. And we expect nothing less in this venture. Sucess is a choice. Success is a habit. We’re putting in 16-hour days, working hard to make all this a reality. We’re certainly paying the price and at the same time working very smart.

A few blogs back I had mentioned the possibility of perhaps taking this upcoming year of school off. It’s looking more and more like a reality. We’re really picking up speed with our idea and I think it’ll be necessary to leave school for a year. I certainly won’t drop out. I know how important school is. It’ll only be a year off, getting an education elsewhere and gaining some valuable work experience. So i’m excited.

THE BOSTON ADVENTURE>>>
A couple weeks ago there was a conference up in Cambridge, MA. It was called the Harvard Summer Institute of College Admissions. We weren’t invited. And we weren’t allowed in. But it was an adventure. Hundreds of high school counselors and hundreds of college admissions officers were there in attendance. So we decided to head on up there to sneak in and learn all we could. It worked out. We rented a car and drove 4-5 hours to Boston…and we snuck in. We didn’t have nametags or anything. We looked kinda young. But regardless….we were able to attend the lectures and seminars and learn, learn, and learn. We stayed separated while in there so if one of us got caught, two of us could remain. The Dean of Admissions from Princeton was there…she recognized us…but other than that we basically stayed under the radar. The conference was an entire week.

At night we had nowhere to stay. We each have Harvard friends, but none of them are there in the summer. We asked random people if we could sleep on their floor in the dorms…most people thought we were crazy (and we are)…but finally we found some people willing. We went in to find that the conditions weren’t favorable at all. It was very hot and humid in the rooms and there were no fans. They did have a few extra mattresses…that’s a bonus….but that’s all they had. No pillows. No sheets. No fan. No nothing. It wasn’t a very great option…but at that point it was our best. We decided to try elsewhere…and if we didn’t find anything we’d be back at those Harvard dorms.

So we continued our trek around Boston looking for a place to sleep at night. It was quite adventurous. One of our dudes is a member of a frat….so we decided to see if any of the local colleges had the same frat…so we could bunk in with the “brothers.” We had heard that Harvard didn’t have it. So we made our way over to BC. We found the streets with the frat houses. We knocked. We asked. We investigated. And to our surprise, they did have a frat house…but they had recently moved out and no one knows where they went. Bummer. On that same street we started knocking on random doors to see if they had a place for us to stay. Some sorority girls almost let us in but decided against it in the end. They were lacrosse players…nice people with lots of cats. Another friendly bunch was a Christian group. You would think that they would be the good samaritan type and feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give shelter to the homeless. But they didn’t. They’re house was full with some summer camp for high schoolers. And I believed them.

In the end we decided to go to some outdoor stores to see if we could find a cheap tent. We found one. We found sleeping bags. We found all the accessories. Of course, we weren’t about to buy that stuff forever. We asked what the return policy was and indeed if “we didn’t like the equipment” we could return it in 30 days. So that became our best plan. Buy the camping equipment…find a place to sleep in a park or in someone’s backyard…and at the end of the week return it……thus costing us nothing.

We looked at some other options too. Some hostels in the area looked nice. X-Box and pools. We passed on those. One of our dude’s girlfriend’s grandmother lived in the area. His girlfriend called her up to see if that could work. Denied. I was gonna try the Mormon connection and call some local church members…but I decided not to….cuz I’m 100% certain they would have let us in but it would have been inappropriate to ask with such little notice in advance….and I wouldn’t have felt good about it.

Anyway…to make a long story short. We finally found a roof to sleep under. One of our team member’s mom’s buddy’s family. They lived about an hour and a half away from Boston….but it worked. They had a humble home out in the middle of the boondocks. I had no bars (no reception) in my cell. I use T-Mobile. They say they cover everywhere. They were wrong. The family was super nice. They have a young teenage daughter and young boy. The mother is Chinese. The house smelt like China. It brought back all the memories of me visiting China and the people there. She had all the little trinkets, scents, scrolls, tapestries, etc. It was an adventure. I ended up sleeping on the floor in the greenhouse area. It worked. I had a fan. And all the plants around me helped me breathe. But in the morning I woke up super early due to the sunlight. It was fun though. We had to wake up extremely early so we could make it to the conference on time. We only spent a couple days there cuz after awhile this got old…all the driving back and forth…so we stayed at Day’s Inn for a couple of the days as well. It was fun. They had free USA Today’s fluffy pillows.

4 days into the conference we got kicked out. They caught onto us. And one of the admissions officers at Harvard said it was “over the top” that we were there. Perhaps she was right. We didn’t wanna burn any bridges at that point so we listened humbly and left. We made the drive back to Princeton. It was quite the adventurous little trip to Boston. The conference was great and indeed we learned ALOT about what tools are currently out there and what’s needed in this field.

Ummmm…yeah. That’s pretty much everything about the our “idea.” Now let me speak briefly about a few other updates.

I finally got a car. Wahooh. It’s a Toyota 4Runner. Here’s a picture of it. It’ll be very useful for business when we start traveling to do more marketing and sales.

My girlfriend is still as beautiful as ever. Here are a few pictures of us together. Right now we’re in the “long distance” mode. It really stinks. But hopefully it won’t last too long. She’s coming out to visit in a few weeks. I would go out to visit her more but the business needs me here for awhile.

I’m SOOOOO depressed cuz of Brasil’s loss to France in the World Cup. I cannot belive it. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Brazil didn’t even show up to play. I’m so sad. I couldn’t do anything the rest of the day. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. It was a disaster. So what did I do? Well….I spent the rest of the day eating, eating and eating. Then I came home to my dorm and tried to work alittle. I couldn’t. So I went to the common room to watch TV. There was a movie on NBC so I watched it. The Bridget Jones Diary. What a stupid movie. But because I was so depressed….I was down to record breaking low-levels. After the movie I watched Car Racing. Yup…I was definitely down to record breaking levels. I was duped. I was done. I was sad. My beloved Brasil lost. It kills me. And it kills my brackets.

Rachel’s family is doing a Pool with the World Cup Brackets. I was in the lead. But with Brasil losing…i’m pretty much out of it. This is how my brackets looked like. There are currently four teams remaining. Italy. Germany. France. Portugal. I was doing so well with the rest of my selections. Here were my picks.

Well folks…that’s basically all I have to say. Hopefully you feel updated on things. My family is doing well. I’m doing pretty well. The start-up is doing well. Everything seems to be doing pretty well.

I’ll update the blog more now that i’m back at Princeton and my girlfriend isn’t here to distract me as much. I’ll catch you gangstas later. Peace.

-Mickey

p.s. I just have one more thing to say…