Journal : OpenRoadWorks

I have a moment to catch my breath in the back room of Wendy's grandparents' apartment nestled on the campus of Wuhan University. Sitting underneath an air conditioner that spits out misty coolness into the room in which I am sitting, I am trying to avoid the 40 degrees Celsius (roughly 108 degrees Farenheit) heat and stifling humidity that clings to everything that finds itself outside. The body becomes infused with sweat and stickiness after days of this condition and acquires a slight immunity to the resulting discomfort upon a few days of acclimation; there are not blast furnaces of central air conditioners firing up billows of cool air into buildings. What one finds in various buildings and residences are relatively lightweight units dotting walls around various rooms where foot traffic is most dense, neatly dispersing cool air as necessary with a lilting hum of efficiency; I sit in such an environment collecting a few thoughts. What I have discovered in my brief time in C...

Finally, I am heading to China. Of all the countries that I had recently been able to visit (thus crossing off my "to-do" list) - India, Korea, Russia - I had still not visited the country with the biggest myths of them all. Until now. After meeting my girlfriend 1.5 years ago, I figured at some point that I would make it back to her homeland. Wendy was born in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China and lived there for the first 7 years of her life; now, we are going back to visit her family, the majority of whom stayed behind to witness firsthand the economic miracle that the country has experienced ever since the Open Door Policy of the 1970's turned the economy towards quasi-capitalism. It will be my first experience of this country whose breathless media reports shroud it in industry and mystery. Studying last year at IMD, I was constantly reminded of the economic growth that the Asia Pacific region had been experiencing firsthand over the last decade - and in particula...

I should have known that at some point I would be "found" online. Over the past few months, friends far and wide have showed up again through the miracle of the internet, finding various tidbits online of my comings and goings over the last couple of years. Granted, I have not been all that diligent in getting back to everyone - I'll blame my own work ethic in too many hours at the offic and dealing with the loss of personal time and the gain of a wonderful girlfriend - but I have appreciated the discovery of each person along the way. In this brave new world (I seem to hear this more often these days - would Mssr. Huxley be smug in his grave?), we can run only so far as our access to the internet allows. Perhaps the future will bring us closer together - going forward, it seems that we will all be connected.

I suppose that I am somewhat lonely in the US. Sitting on my couch and watching the climactic finish to the Germany-Poland match with my girlfriend, I had a strange tingling sensation at the nape of my neck - and no, it was not the touch of my girlfriend. It was the harrowing experience of watching two shots go off the cross-bar in the final minutes, punctuated by an offsides call against the Germans who were desperate for a goal to break the 0-0 tie. After 90+ minutes of action, finally a strike broke through from substitute Oliver Neuville, whose well-footed sliding kick made all the difference in the World Cup for Germany. Captivated by the action in Germany's first round victory, I was engulfed a world so far away from where I was sitting, far away from my day-to-day life outside of Washington DC. Not so long ago, I was close to the action, living in the middle of Europe and engaged in the global discussions that surrounded what the rest of the world was talking about. Now, I a...

As I work in wireless and spend my days exploring the potential of new applications and services for a virtual mobile world, I am learning to stay up on new developments in technology. One of these areas is the concept of "always-connected" applications that give you the ability to be in touch with others from almost anywhere on any device. Case in point: I am testing the posting of blog entries from my email application. I will have no idea if this makes it to the pervasive OpenRoadworks blog or not, but presumably it will end up there with more conventional posts. Also, in the process, I should be receiving the same posting to my mobile phone where I can read anything that I post moving forward wherever I might be with my phone. Imagine that - always being connected to everyone and everything (including yourself, for that matter) wherever you might be. Imagine life with these new tools - imagine technology.

Tonight, the muggy air of the DC outskirts where I live is charged with the clean scent of nitrogen trails from the lightning bolts that earlier sparked through the sky. As the night blossoms into an envelope of hanging humidity, I tread lightly from my apartment to the common rubbish bin; my steps bring struggle as suck in this air. In that moment, I am transported in mind to thinking about my loved ones who are far away from here as well as friends that are even further scattered across the globe. Here am I, wonting to reach out again to a life that I once lived and once struggled through in making sense of the kaleidoscope of experiences rushing past me. Now, I am domesticated and contented with the knowledge that I have what I want and know what I need. Yet something tells me that this is a temporal experience, a fitting segue between the life I used to lead and the life that lays ahead. Just like this humid envelope engulfs my senses, I am also choked by the lethargy of this ...