Justin's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Iona’

This weekend I drove Iona back to Cornell to continue her Mechanical Engineering Degree.

Here are a couple of examples of things she may be doing:

or

:: Justin ::

Before I head off to Albuquerque, Michele and I took a quick run up to Ithaca to see Iona playing with The Big Red Marching Band before, during, and after Cornell’s 2011 Homecoming football game against Bucknell.  As I left Lincoln, Nebraska on Friday, I tried to convince people I was off to see the real Big Red, but they weren’t having any of it!

I never cease to be awed by the beauty of the surroundings when I go to see Iona, and this was no different.  It was a beautiful day (though it did turn into a rather chilly night).

We watched the band play all over campus, Cornell won an exciting game, and we were able to hang out with Iona.  What more could you ask for?

Enjoy the video too (Iona and here friends had a great time going to see They Might be Giants last week, especially when they played this song!)

:: Justin ::

This is a follow-up to a post made by Labiba in the Customer Support Blog

One of the things we have struggled with forever is what to call the individuals that we have in our database.

On one hand we want to have realistic data which on the other we want to make it obvious that we are not using real people’s data.

Most often we seem to use Mary Active (who was born in one of my very first presentations, and for some some reason stuck arround unlike a few of her friends in that same scenario (I remember William Worker, but not any of the others).

Since then we have wondered what names to use until finally Iona came up with a solution: Use the census!

We now have the lists of most common first and last names and are merging them to create names.

So, expect to get to know the following folks:

This is quite a week travel for me. On Sunday Iona, Calum, and I headed up to Ithaca to move Iona into her new college home – a house full of saxophone players.

From there Calum and I headed out to Denver to join Anna for some meetings.

Now, we’re in Ohio to take a look at a couple of colleges for Calum.

I won’t be around quite as much for the next couple of days as we look at  colleges here and in Pittsburgh, so in the meantime, here’s some footage from Calum’s recent adventure with the European Youth Music Week in Germany (for those of you who don’t know him, he’s the trumpeter with all the hair).

All in all it’s making for a very exciting week, the only problem is that I seem to be inheriting Kara’s ability to make every f;light I get on run late!

:: Justin ::

Iona and I were able to escape Dhaka to spend the weekend in Sylhet in Northern Bangladesh.  It’s hard to describe how beautiful it was up there.

Here are just a few highlights:

We met some very cute lizards! Known as Tik-Tikki they are very quick and very noisy!

We got to experience highway driving which often means driving down a two lane road with two (or sometimes even three) vehicles coming straight towards you.

The milestones alternate between English and Bangla, so I am actually getting quite good with Bangla numbers.

Now I know why it is good to travel with your daughter!

We drove right up to the Indian border.

Amit spotted an elephant by the side of the road, and Iona took a ride (check that off the to-do list!)

We took a boat right up to the Indian border (those hills are in India). The scenery was absolutely stunning.

On the way we passed boats carrying sand. We had to slow down each time so our wake wouldn’t wash into them. I have never been in such a clean river. Not a hint of garbage anywhere.

We visited a Tea Garden, as idyllic and peaceful a place as you could ever want to be.

All in all a wonderul way to see a beautiful country, and even better to be able to do it with Iona.

The only downside was the drive back.  It was 250km.  It took four hours to cover the first 225km, then we hit Dhaka and it took 4 hours for the last 25!

:: Justin ::

A long time ago (2002 to be precise) in a galaxy far, far away (known to many as Torrington, Connecticut) I was working for Community Systems, Inc and we had Bring Your Child to Work Day with all sorts of exciting activities.  Calum was too young, so I just brought Iona:

Fast-forward to today, and here I am in our office in Dhaka, and here is Iona with a screen full of Java!

:: Justin ::

This really is shaping up to be rather an exciting summer in the Brockie subdivision of Therapville (or the Brockie galaxy of the Therapverse – it all depends on your viewpoint!)

Iona is already in Bangladesh, working at our office there (the photo above is her and Sazzad just before they left New York).  Hopefully you’ll see some photos and blog posts from her soom (once her body works out what time zone she is on).

I will be heading out to join Iona in a couple of weeks for some extreme brainstorming with a lot of focus on what we can do building on top of our new unified foundation.

Calum on the other hand is headed first to Edinburgh, Scotland to see my parents who will then put him on a plane to Amsterdam where he will meet up with a bunch of musicians from around Europe and jump on a train to Germany for the European Youth Music Week. 

Not to be out done, Michele will be heading off to Utah for a bunch of relaxation and hiking.

Siraya on the other hand will enjoy everyone being out of the house and has invited her favourite person in the world – her Auntie Nicole – to come and stay with her, so we are all bound to have a great time.

Amazingly, that’s not all!  We still have some college hunting trips with Calum and helping Iona move into a house full of dancing saxophones to get done before the summer is over.

Something tells me we’ll be ready for school to start again in the fall!

I’ll will, of course, still be in touch wherever I am so drop me an email at any time.

Watch for all the photos…

:: Justin ::

Yesterday it was time to go up to Cornell and pick up all Iona’s stuff (and quite a lot of it there was too!).  She doesn’t come home for another week as she if off on a residential leadership course.  Between getting kicked out of her room and leaving for the course we had time for exploring one of Ithaca’s many waterfalls.

:: Justin ::

On Saturday I spent a tremendous day following Iona around Manhattan.

The day started at Columbia.  I have looked down on their stadium many times driving over the Henry Hudson Bridge.  The view looking back is rather cool.  The Cornell University Big Red Marching Band (the only real marching band in the Ivy League – just in case you hadn’t heard) played their pre-game concert on the shores of the Hudson.

The game itself (the newly named “Empire State Bowl”) was great for 59 minutes and 20 seconds!  Much better though was the half-time show!

Then it was off to the city for the Sy Katz Parade where the afore mentioned band marches down 5th Avenue from St Patrick’s Cathedral to the Cornell Club on 44th Street which is closed so they can do a concert in the street.

All in all a tremendous day!

:: Justin ::

It never seems to be dull in the Brockie household (or worldwide family) these days.

Firstly I have to thank the truly amazing staff at Connecticut Childrens’ Medical Center.  We spent a week in their very good hands (and nights on their remarkably comfortable – though not very peaceful – couch/bed).  Siraya is home now and hopefully on the mend.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Dad seems to have discovered that canal jumping is not the sport for him!

There was though some fun mixed in with all this.  On Saturday, Calum and I drove up to Cornell to see Iona for the first time since college started and watch her perform in The Big Red Marching Band for Cornell’s homecoming football game against Yale.

Probably the less said about the football the better, but the band were tremendous and it was wonderful to catch up with Iona and meet some of her (very nice) new friends.

:: Justin ::