Hola!

That’s right, this guy was found atop Machu Pechu wearing Red Ledge!  Notice his HUGE smile because he is so high and dry amongst the rain soaked forests of the Peruvian Andes.  There’s only one man who is capable of bumping into such a rogue educated enthusiast in South America and that man is CMiller.  CM has been on a three year sabbatical, treking around the world spreading the good Red Ledge word and swine flu.  In all seriousness, the man takes some fantastic photogs and has crazy stories like the night he slept in a llama carcase.  You can find him on Facebook, he looks like this.  Ask him about his knife fight with a Chubracabra in the back alleys of a Bolivian night market.

CM

God speed CM, Red Ledge awaits your return.  Hey Andy speaking of travels, Red Ledge, and danger where is Sohail at?

RHaney says:

where did you put those files that the intern came up with?

TechServ says:

go to network place

TechServ says:

you will see her files

TechServ says:

let me check her file name

RHaney says:

where the hell is network place?

TechServ says:

in your network connection

RHaney says:

ok, i’ve hacked into the mainframe

RHaney says:

i need the codes so I can stop the missile launch

TechServ says:

what?

TechServ says:

holdon

RHaney says:

I need those launch codes damn it, we don’t have much time!

I’m not the biggest fan of starting off a written piece with a quote but the one above is so fitting I can’t help but lead with it. My name is Sohail Shahrasebi. I am 26 years old and I am about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. For the past 8 years I’ve worked my way through college and Wall Street. As a student at NYU, I lived blocks away from ground zero during the events of 9/11 and I worked as an intern at UBS on the Mortgage Backed Securities/Structured Products desk when those products were all the rage and banks and investors couldn’t gorge on enough of them. After graduating, I was an investment banking analyst and later a private equity associate, working during one of the frothiest M&A and credit bubbles in the world’s history.

While those experiences were amazing and eye opening, I’ve always felt there was a much bigger world out there that I was missing out on. Sure I’ve been to Europe, Asia and the Middle East - but I was never really there. I was always shuttling between my hotel room to get to a boardroom, dataroom or classroom. I was always in a room, sheltered from the people, culture and economies of the regions I was visiting. Well that’s about to change!

For the next half year I’m going to be out there in the big wide world, brushing off all the filter’s I have had in place for the past 8 years and learning from the world - Ansel Adams style. I’ll be updating this blog sporadically with posts, pictures and video.

I was going to post the details of my trip on this blog too, but the dictator of this blog Andy, thought it might be too long so I’ll probably have to post another blog with those details.

As this is my first post I want to thank Red Ledge for sponsoring my gear and trip. If it weren’t for the Company’s support I’m not sure I’d be able to take this step. Wish me luck!

So, Red Ledge is all about that stuff (thus us hanging around at the charity event) so we told him we’d hook him up with some gear and he could tell us all about his travels through pictures and as a guest blogger on our site.  You might have noticed him up on the top of our blog author list recently (Sohail the Nomad) so expect to see some exciting things coming from him in the days (possibly months depending on how often he gets held up in customs) to come. The team at Red Ledge is definitely excited about his travels and wishes him the best of luck and the safest of trips.

Godspeed Sohail, Godspeed.

 Hootie and the Blowfish released Cracked Rear View in 1994.  It was the highest-selling album of 1995, with 10.5 million shipments that year alone, eventually shipping 16 million copies to retailers by March 31st 1999. It is currently tied with several other albums, all certified 16x platinum, for the 15th best selling album of all time in the United States. (RIAA Top 100)

There are 12 songs on Cracked Rear View.  One of the songs is only instrumental.  That leaves 11 lyrical songs.  Of those 11 songs, 8 of them use some form of “cry” in the lyrics.  One more song, Drowning, does not use the term “cry” but rather “tears”.  So if we include Drowning with the other 8 songs, we have a total of 9 out of 11.  That’s roughly 82% of the album.

I have no idea what any of this means.  Maybe it’s like the Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz thing but instead it’s to couple with Fievel Goes West, the disappointing sequel to the cinematic masterpiece, American Tail.  Take this useless information and whatever unfounded conclusions that you may draw from it, keep in mind are absolutely correct and should be defended militantly if ever challenged. 

Keep an eye out for more frivolity packed information in the future.

Seems our industry is reaching more and more for any real innovation these days. I’m almost pretty certain that most of these ideas featured in this skit have come up before in product development meetings, and I’m also pretty sure that I’ve seen some of these features in the market already. Though the whole double hood thing is pretty revolutionary and sweet.

Deciding to use my power to help me re-live my youth (to this day I still can’t say “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego” without singing it, and if you know what I’m talking about then obviously you were as nerdy as I was), Red Ledge has decided to sponsor a soon to be world traveler in his quest to travel the already explored and take lots of pictures for our blog explore the unexplored.

In the coming days you will be introduced to this world traveler and become more acquainted in his quest and his unquenchable thirst for world knowledge. This explorer (who may or may not have been found yet) will become a guest blogger on our site and will enrich us with his travels so that those of us who are stuck behind a desk, reading blogs trying to pass the time, can live vicariously through him.

Hopefully we’ll get some good pictures and entries as a result of this, and holding true to the Carmen Sandiego way, we’ll also be posting up useful (and useless) facts about wherever his travels may bring him. So stay tuned as we reveal Red Ledge’s World Traveler.

I for one have been there….had a great time..discovered a lot…when do you get to see things like this….(yes i took this)

Andy, Chris, and Haney will be travelling to Ecuador but are really nervous about their travels.

Will they have the same experience down there as I have?

Pictured here is an Ecuadorian guard…..guarding the northern border of Ecuador where it hits Colombia considering just earlier this year they broke off ties with Colombia.  Ahh this northern Border…where a U.S. citizen back in 2001 was kindnapped and held for ransom by Colombia.

Now According the US Department of State (travel.state.gov)

The U.S. Embassy in Quito advises caution when traveling to the northern border region of Ecuador, to include areas in the provinces of Sucumbios, Orellana and Carchi and northern Esmeraldas.  U.S. government personnel are under limitations with respect to traveling alone and over-nighting in these areas due to the spread of organized crime, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking, and incursions by various Colombian terrorist organizations.  Since 1998, at least ten U.S. citizens have been kidnapped near Ecuador’s border with Colombia.

• Most beaches lack consistently staffed lifeguard stations.

• U.S. citizens should carry identification at all times, including proof of U.S. citizenship.

• Crime is a serious problem in Ecuador, and visitors should be alert and cautious.

• Hundreds of Americans are robbed every year in Ecuador.

• Travelers should avoid wearing expensive-looking jewelry and watches.

• Always be aware of your surroundings, and try to not travel alone.

• In Quito, travelers should be particularly alert on the crowded streets of south Quito, at the Panecillo, in Old Quito, and in the areas of El Tejar, Parroquia San Sebastian, Avenida Cristobal Colon, and Gonzalez Suarez.

• In Guayaquil, take extra caution in the downtown area at night, in the street market area of La Bahia, at the Christ Statue (Sagrado Corazon de Jesus) on Cerro del Carmen, in the airport area, and in the southern part of the city.

• Criminals sometimes use incapacitating drugs such as scopolamine on unsuspecting tourists in order to rob them.

See guys…there is nothing to worry about!

P.S.  Don’t forget your twenty bucks you need to get out of the country!

Before dinner, in the lobby of our Hotel.

And yes that is correct, I’m doing the whole “Hey look how important I am on my blackberry, yet I still have time to point to the Typhoon level 8 warning sign and show everyone how awesome of a job the hotel is boarding up the windows.”

After seeing this one might want to reconsider going out for dinner on a night like this considering Hong Kong is located right on the water. We considered staying in, but 3 seconds later we decided how often do you get to go out on a Typhoon night.

Though Hong Kong is pretty small and it’s subway system pretty efficient there are still some places where you can’t simply hide from the elements.

Though the path was trecharous, we eventually made it to dinner, and after dinner my friend told me about a place of legend in Hong Kong. A place where boys become men, and men become drunk, and women become scared of the drunk men who were once boys. A place where this transition takes places only on treacherous nights like these.

And that place my friends, is Typhoon. Apparently they serve free shots when a Typhoon hits level 8, talk about sytematically trying to weed out the riff-raff of society.

Well that’s where it ended. A little night cap here and a little night cap there and before you knew it we were on a plane the next day flying over the typhoon to Taiwan and back to from Taiwan to the US.

So on a final note I’d like to bid my friends Typhoon Sinlaku and Hagupit farewell, you will be missed, we had good times, almost became BFFs if you had not tried to make out with me and whispher sweet nothings in my year.

Not bad though, all in all 3 typhoons/hurricanes in 2 weeks for the Red Ledge staff. Looks like a record we’ll have to try to beat next year.

2008

Red Ledge 3:

Spinning Swirly Things: 0

2009

TBD

Being at an airport and watching the crew dump thousands and thousands of gallons into the planes I started thinking about everyone going “GREEN” and how they are all avoiding this “UNGREEN-NESS”. I make this type of trip maybe 3-4 times a year, our product development director (Haney) makes the trip about the same number of times, and that’s pretty much it, we’re a pretty small company so hopefully we’re not making too big of a dent.

“How little of a dent is it really?” I thought myself, so I looked it up.

Figuring between Haney and myself, our Asia trips a year equate to roughly 144,000 miles traveled. This is what our carbon footprint is (assuming 0 for everything else except air travel). So how little was our dent actually?

“MUCH LARGER THAN AVERAGE” apparently. In just our air travel to Asia, we exceed the national average of by about 4 times. This is 4 times what the average person’s carbon footprint is calculating ALL travel and ALL other carbon creating activities. Guess it’s a bigger dent than expected. I can’t even begin to imagine the dent that bigger companies with entire sourcing departments pumps out. Talk about some ridiculous Carbon tonnage.

But what can we, at Red Ledge, and as an industry do? I guess first off is we can reduce the amount we travel, but given the scope of the industry now and how much product is being made overseas, I don’t really see the travel dying down excessively, especially seeing how global the world economy is today.

So unless they come out with some sort of hybrid airplane or electric airplane, I doubt we can solve this problem this way.

Fear not though, the ingenious people who brought you the carbon footprint calculator also (conveniently) suggests that we can buy off our carbon sins with so called Indulgences RECs (Renewable Energy Credits). Basically we give them money and they invest it into wind power or harvesting methane from poop.

Sweet deal I thought, nothing beats throwing money at a problem to make it go away. Credit card in hand, I was ready to save the planet. Then I saw some fine print about the terms of the REC:

Hmm. So when the project is done, it will take 20 years for 1 ton of our carbon usage to be offset. So for the 30 tons we used for traveling to Asia this year and with only this share of the wind turbine, it would take…let’s see:

30 tons x 20 years = 600 years. Fantastic.

So for 10 years of Red Ledge operations (assuming 2 travelers), our Carbon tonnage should be wiped clean by the year 8009 (assuming our wind turbine doesn’t break down or need additional maintenance and improvements). Nice. In addition to my wind turbine I’m also going to start telling women that I’ve taken my 30 tons of carbon and put it in a nice little spot in the ground and eventually after a couple years, they can go and collect a diamond.

Well, I guess if Indulgences RECs aren’t the answer, I’ll just have to figure out some other way to get around the world for now.

 Somehow he lost site of that goal; I suspect his gym partner Haney had something to do with this upset.  They started off strong from what I gather, protein shakes and 6am workouts.  Tales of Haney helping Andy squat 250lb, things looked promising, goals obtainable.  Unfortunately, that picture has long been removed and the locker room stories are all distant echos.  What we have to live with now is acceptance of who we are meant to be…I give you Andy at his finest.