BrianDavidCrane.com

So let’s see…In the month of June, a lot transpired for me. I went to Houston for like the 6th time in a year because of a wedding. Originally, I committed to driving with my sister and some of her friends from TN to Houston. Her friends, though, bailed one by one and Lauren and I ended up flying standby (even though I didn’t really need to go at that point). I also took a trip down to Atlanta to see all of the Peachtree City boys with Mark. A bad chicken fajita led to a rough weekend. On the work front, I am managing a small private equity fund engaged in the purchase and sale of stock options. I don’t believe it will stay small for long! :)I am also organizing a trip to Argentina in the September. There is a website promoting the trip but it isn’t quite finished yet.I enrolled in a class to become a Realtor. The first 30 of my 90 hours have been completed. I really enjoyed the class and, even though I won’t be a typical Realtor, I think the information will prove to be valuable. Another arrow in the quiver, as Dustin might say.I am also project manager on another website called Your Paper Trail. More details on that as the project comes closer to fruition.On the social front, I was lucky enough to see the yearly firefly sightings with Heather. This was not the first or last time that I have seen her but it was the most memorable. We drove the ole Buick up to an abandoned lodge called Tremont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and built a campfire complete with hot dogs and Cheetos. The reason we went up there was to see the fireflies blinking in unison. It is pitch black and then…BOOM! They sort of begin to blink to your left and then spread across in front of your eyes to the right. They stop for two or three seconds and then repeat the same firing pattern. It is one of two places in the world where this happens on an annual basis for approximately a week. Very cool. I haven’t been writing much lately because I haven’t been very inspired to do so. This update (i.e. once or twice a month) will probably be the norm at least for the time being.As this is the update for June and it is now July, I think it is appropriate to say that I am now living in Dallas, TX for the next 5 weeks. It has already been a lot of fun. Texas continues to grow on me. On Saturday, a Nigerian friend of mine from Knoxville who now lives here in Dallas invited me to a Nigerian soccer match. It turned out to be more of a scrimmage amongst friends but I was the only dude not from Nigeria amongst the 40+ guys there (well, there was also one guy from El Salvador). They invited me back so I will be playing with them on Wednesdays and Saturdays.I had planned on doing a trip around the world starting in August. I even purchased a website to catalog the journey: 25at25.com. A number of good business opportunities here in the States coupled with a lack of purpose w/respect to the trip caused me to put it on ice. As I was traveling around Europe earlier this year, I felt it more than ever that I need a purpose to what I am doing. While traveling for a year would be great, not having a goal or something I am working towards would get very old very fast for me.In a similar vein, I am beginning to research the possibility of pursuing an MBA in Europe (specifically France). I’d like to learn French and the chance to study abroad excites me. We shall see…So that’s where I am at right now. I am currently living in Dallas. When I return to TN in early August, I will finish my Realtor licensing classes and begin working with several friends on some real estate projects. I will continue to manage the small private equity fund I mentioned and I will continue to work on several websites that are currently up in the air.As for reading material, I went through a George Orwell phase recently. I re-read 1984, read Down and Out in Paris and London, and started but didn’t finish Homage to Catalonia. What started the kick was a desire to read Homage to Catalonia when I was in Barcelona. I couldn’t find a copy of the book and instead started reading 1984 while I was in that beautiful city. Upon returning to the States, I finished 1984 and started DOPL because I still couldn’t find a copy of Homage to Catalonia. Two and a half books later and I was ready to move on.Right now, I have just started reading The Four Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, & Join the New Rich. The concept of the book is very interesting: It takes the ideas behind outsourcing presented in The World Is Flat and applies them on a personal level (i.e. individual outsourcing). I engage in some of that right now but there is always room for more. For example, I hired a Romanian website coder for $100 to build a website that would have taken me 10 to 15 days to build (assuming I had the skill set, which I don’t). I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy the book.So that’s all for right now. I will check back in periodically and hopefully post some good pictures sometime in the near future.

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