It’s no mystery that I enjoy paying homage at the altar of the three b’s: booze, blackjack and beautiful girls.  For this reason alone, Las Vegas has long been a temple in the desert for my vice driven ways. 
Believe it or not though, there are many other worthwhile pursuits in Sin City (and they’re probably [...]

Next Assignment
Pages: 53-100 / up to Chapter 10.
Due: Wednesday June 27th, Noon.
Part I
pages 1 - 52
Characters

Mari Asai
Eri Asai
Tetsuya Takahashi
Kaoru

Songs Listed

Page 20 - Five Spot After Dark, Benny Golson
Page 23 - The April Fools, Burt Bacharach
Page 30 - More, Martin Denny
Page 51 - My Ideal, Ben Webster

This is the first post for the Urban Monarch book [...]

One of my best friends lives on the 23rd floor of a highrise.  His balcony, though somewhat scary to venture out on, offers incredible views of both the city and the mountains beyond.  According to the Washington Post, traditional balconies like his may soon be a thing of the past.
Luckily, something even cooler may be [...]

Take the old soulful feel of Amy Winehouse, clean up the lyrics, and add a cup of sunshine and that’s the new 30 minute album from Koop, Koop Islands.  A departure from their sophmore album, Waltz With Koop, this album mixes electronics in much more subtlely and experiments in a lighter softer sound.  I’ve got [...]

Since the mojito was the hands down winner in our “Best Summer Cocktail” poll (and to avoid harassing your favorite bartender by ordering one), here’s the O.G. recipe for you to try at home.
Don’t forget your muddler.

The Fuego is a new men’s interest newsletter. If you like Urban Monarch, you’re probably going to like this as well. They specialize in succinct features that are both useful and to the point. Not quick enough for you? Each article features a 5-second summary for the obsessive scanners.

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be the boss and work twelve hours a day.
-Robert Frost
LIBERATION
The final phase in the 4HWW is liberation.  It focuses on four areas, all intended to help reduce (or eliminate) time physically spent in the office.  Creating a strong demand for your work by [...]

Reluctantly, I have returned from my last trip to New York.  After a brief three days in Manhattan, I’ve come to a few conclusions about the cost of living there.  I always had the impression that everything was more expensive in New York.  Not so…

I have a hard and fast rule against dating at work.  Now.  This enlightenment was the result of a one part torrid, two parts tragic affair that ended in my resigning from a company to distance myself from the situation.
How about you intrepid Urban Monarch romeos?
If you have any funny / disturbing tales of office romance [...]

 
On the Fight Club video game, at a reading/signing:

This is more in the series of amatuer urban contemporary.  J. Nash and J. Stalin bring you Cupcakin’ (definition).  A piece celebrating love by demonstrating date planning and proper girlfriend ettiquette…
Ohhh…
Friday we can bowl
Ohhh…
Saturday we can cruise around the O
Ohhh…
Sunday we can go to church
And when you need me to
I’ll pick you up after work
via [...]

Distractions.  Between porno, IM, email, wwtdd.com and about a thousand other cool sites vying for my attention, it can be hard to stay focused when writing.  This is one reason I’ve started paying more attention to personal productivity suggestions. Spurned on largely by Greg & Glenn’s prowess in this regard, I’m happy to report on [...]

Last weekend I was at a dinner party with the richest people I know.  We were chatting about working, salaries, and retirement when one of my friends scurried off to the den to produce a copy of The 4 Hour Work Week.  We discussed it for a while, talked about it’s apparent financial miscalculations, and [...]

I can remember going to a club called “Beyond” on Tuesday nights. They played hip-hop. Boy howdy, did that place like to suck. Still, it did have two great features. First, the drop dead gorgeous Natasha, a bartender/hostess whom I had a huge, dorky crush on for years (and by ‘for [...]

One day a waitress gave me her phone number.  We set up a tentative time to go have drinks.  I made a date with another girl for later that evening.  I still intended to meet her early for happy hour, but she was angered that I didn’t save the whole night for her and declined [...]

Sunshine and synthpop.  In my mind, it’s an ideal combination. Most mornings and late afternoons, I get to mix the two together as I soak up the sublime walk from the light rail station to my building.   Goldfrapp, Ladytron, some Junior Boys and even Depeche Mode have been acting as a perfect soundtrack for my [...]

I love fables. And the theatre. And gorgeous women. So it should come as no surprise that I adore this editorial from art and image director, Eric Dover. Pictured above is a selection from a recent editorial he directed for Vogue Novias (a Spanish Vogue publication).

Automation
Achieving more by doing less depends on team work. Probably not the ‘team’ you have in mind though. T4HWW suggests outsourcing as many menial tasks as you can. Much as our own Greg has handed over cooking and laundry duties to outside vendors, so can you. Beyond that though, most of [...]

Ever since Cash wrote about microwaving scrambled eggs for breakfast, I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting.  This morning, feeling like a change in my diet, I decided to see what other kinds of eggs I could cook in the microwave.  Enter, poached eggs.

ELIMINATION
The difference between actually BEING busy, and appearing busy is striking. In this section, Tim gives suggestions for proving you can do more work in less time (which is an excellent bargaining tool when it comes time to sell your boss on the case for telecommuting).
In fact, if you want to move up the [...]

I had a friend in high school who’s life’s aspiration was to make porn music.  We met in driver’s training and became friends due to our mutual interests in music.  He introduced me to several musical artists that still influence me today like Tom Waits and Danny Elfman.  I’m sorry Craig, I think Klaus Harmoney [...]