I've been in Dublin since Monday morning at 8:15am Dublin time (12:15am California time) and the trip has been a blast so far. I have consumed a fair amount of Guinness and spent a lot of time with my coworkers which as been good. We did some team building today and it turns out that I am basically an expert with a bow and arrow. I have progressed quite quickly and will soon be turning my energy towards the most fierce of prey - man. Anyway, Dublin is a cool town. It feels quite old in a good way. I am tacking a day on at the end to try to do something fun independently but that may just consist of wandering around and buying leprechaun t-shirts or something. I took a few photos today and will try to upload some of them soon although I realized that I don't have the proper cords with me to actually download them from my camera - doh.
In other news, Seth and his wife Jyothi had their baby - congrats! They decided against the name I suggested - Matilda - and went with Kaia. I argued at first but the name has grown on me, mainly because Seth told me that it means something awesome in Jamaican.
It was Jason's birthday on Sunday, happy birthday big man.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Oh ADN, why? Just why?
So being a good Alaskan I feed in the Anchorage Daily News into my iGoogle page but am extremely embarrassed about the way the online content is being handled by the paper.
Case in point.
A story about a robbery suspect who got chased down by some local do-gooders. Fine, no problem, a little hokie maybe but come on its Anchorage. I am on board up until the point where I scroll past the article and see the comments that people are leaving.
Now there is a chance that this is the "Ziggy" that worked as a carpenter on my mother-in-law's house, so no disrespect intended here but are we really at a point where our news outlets have to allow this type of commenting (oh, and I love the fact that I may actually know the guy named Ziggy mentioned in the article, Jesus)?
"Thank you to those involved that were willing to eliminate one more criminal in town."
- Eliminated? Was he "terminated"?
"I'm a lawyer: I'm going to sue you vigilantes for violating the civil rights of Mr. Douglas. We can't have lynch mobs running our society. All citizens have rights, etc. etc. etc."
- Lawyer dig? OK, but wait, don't citizens have rights? Sarcastic, ironic? I'm not sure.
"Good job you guys! Keys to the city are yours! If I was mayor, you'd already have them! Kudos!!!"
- If you were mayor I would be more embarrassed.
This one is actually pretty good:
"Just wanted to thank "Ziggy" Zeigler for being a great Alaskan!"
- Footnote: Anyone named Ziggy is actually considered a great Alaskan by default.
The real question is, why are people compelled so greatly to post inane garbage online? Wait, what? Nevermind.
Case in point.
A story about a robbery suspect who got chased down by some local do-gooders. Fine, no problem, a little hokie maybe but come on its Anchorage. I am on board up until the point where I scroll past the article and see the comments that people are leaving.
Now there is a chance that this is the "Ziggy" that worked as a carpenter on my mother-in-law's house, so no disrespect intended here but are we really at a point where our news outlets have to allow this type of commenting (oh, and I love the fact that I may actually know the guy named Ziggy mentioned in the article, Jesus)?
"Thank you to those involved that were willing to eliminate one more criminal in town."
- Eliminated? Was he "terminated"?
"I'm a lawyer: I'm going to sue you vigilantes for violating the civil rights of Mr. Douglas. We can't have lynch mobs running our society. All citizens have rights, etc. etc. etc."
- Lawyer dig? OK, but wait, don't citizens have rights? Sarcastic, ironic? I'm not sure.
"Good job you guys! Keys to the city are yours! If I was mayor, you'd already have them! Kudos!!!"
- If you were mayor I would be more embarrassed.
This one is actually pretty good:
"Just wanted to thank "Ziggy" Zeigler for being a great Alaskan!"
- Footnote: Anyone named Ziggy is actually considered a great Alaskan by default.
The real question is, why are people compelled so greatly to post inane garbage online? Wait, what? Nevermind.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
It Ain't Nothing to a Boss
Shuttling up to SF right now. Killed off my email early today and traffic is a little rough - oy. I have been in training the last two days and have one more day of training tomorrow. Its always interesting to see my personal progression in the trainings from highly skeptical to overly enthusiastic. I ended up being pretty geeked out by the end of today's training but the sessions were good enough that I didn't feel overly self-conscious about it. But yes, I might have been that guy, you know the guy, the overly enthusiastic guy, the guy who agrees about everything and is all about building on ideas. Yeah, I can be that guy. Kia won't believe me though.
Anyway, one more day of training tomorrow and then flying out to Dublin on Sunday. I let Dougherty talk me into doing the Sunday flight to Dublin which arrives at 8am Monday morning Dublin time. I am still not quite clear on how I managed to be talked into this. The Dublin trip should be cool though. I tacked on an extra day at the end to try and do something fun. We will see what type of energy I have at that point.
I saw Sara today at work, actually I saw her the day before yesterday too, neither time did I actually talk to her. This likely is because I am internally tormented by her imminent departure from Google (even if its temporary). For those of you who didn't follow my earlier advice to read Sara's blog, Sara is taking a leave from Google to write her period romance novel. I have requested a character based on myself in one of her future installments (she told me the other day that Salim requested a character called Salim "The Moor") the best name I have come up with is Matthew "The Unkempt" - I know, its weak. I wish her the best and am excited for her to pursue her interests but I am selfishly sad to see her go. The lack of our awesomely hilarious Iowa vs. Alaska lunches will be a big hole in my calendar for the next three months.
Listening to George Lopez on my ipod right now. If you don't know, George is legitimately funny, even his sitcom is funny and its on ABC. Watch his stand up special if you can - its on Netflix - and score one of his cds while you are at it. One of the middle-school teachers I did classroom support for in college used to play his cds to the kids, which in retrospect is probably highly inappropriate, and it was awesome.
OK in the city now. Stay on your grind.
Anyway, one more day of training tomorrow and then flying out to Dublin on Sunday. I let Dougherty talk me into doing the Sunday flight to Dublin which arrives at 8am Monday morning Dublin time. I am still not quite clear on how I managed to be talked into this. The Dublin trip should be cool though. I tacked on an extra day at the end to try and do something fun. We will see what type of energy I have at that point.
I saw Sara today at work, actually I saw her the day before yesterday too, neither time did I actually talk to her. This likely is because I am internally tormented by her imminent departure from Google (even if its temporary). For those of you who didn't follow my earlier advice to read Sara's blog, Sara is taking a leave from Google to write her period romance novel. I have requested a character based on myself in one of her future installments (she told me the other day that Salim requested a character called Salim "The Moor") the best name I have come up with is Matthew "The Unkempt" - I know, its weak. I wish her the best and am excited for her to pursue her interests but I am selfishly sad to see her go. The lack of our awesomely hilarious Iowa vs. Alaska lunches will be a big hole in my calendar for the next three months.
Listening to George Lopez on my ipod right now. If you don't know, George is legitimately funny, even his sitcom is funny and its on ABC. Watch his stand up special if you can - its on Netflix - and score one of his cds while you are at it. One of the middle-school teachers I did classroom support for in college used to play his cds to the kids, which in retrospect is probably highly inappropriate, and it was awesome.
OK in the city now. Stay on your grind.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Mmmmm Grimey
Haven't posted in a while. I am going to blame work and being sick as opposed to being lazy for that. Came down pretty hard with a head cold last week and spent the better part of the three day weekend whining about it. Feeling better now - sort of. Went to the Warriors game on Monday with Dan, Albert and RC which was pretty pathetic. When the highlight of the basketball game is me dropping a nacho chip in the plumber crack of the guy in front of me its a bad sign. Golden State lost, to Minnesota, they just couldn't stop the post game. Anyway.
My dad sent me this article which is about a person in Anchorage named Matthew Lewis who pissed off another guy ("exchanged terse comments that were perceived as disrespect," - written as only a cop could) with a gun in front of a Best Buy and proceeded to get shot at. It wasn't me.
Signed up for a Facebook account this week which was fun for about 20 minutes. It was cool to see Facebook connect me to people that it thought I knew based on friends I added with surprising accuracy. Now my Facebook account has been relegated to a way to poke Allan on a 24 hour cycle. At least its not MySpace.
Last week a few of the chuckleheads I work with and I decided to "pimp" Marbin's ride. I have some photos but need to download them. In the meantime you can check out Marb's baby blog (he begged me for a link from my blog).
My dad sent me this article which is about a person in Anchorage named Matthew Lewis who pissed off another guy ("exchanged terse comments that were perceived as disrespect," - written as only a cop could) with a gun in front of a Best Buy and proceeded to get shot at. It wasn't me.
Signed up for a Facebook account this week which was fun for about 20 minutes. It was cool to see Facebook connect me to people that it thought I knew based on friends I added with surprising accuracy. Now my Facebook account has been relegated to a way to poke Allan on a 24 hour cycle. At least its not MySpace.
Last week a few of the chuckleheads I work with and I decided to "pimp" Marbin's ride. I have some photos but need to download them. In the meantime you can check out Marb's baby blog (he begged me for a link from my blog).
Monday, January 14, 2008
Yeah I Am Posting Akon and Lil' Wayne - So What?
OK stop judging me for a minute and listen to the song.
Made a stop by Amoeba over the weekend and scooped up a few cds that I have been wanting. They were playing the Carnival II album - that the Akon song is from - while I was there and I couldn't help myself. Also got the new Ghostface, Hi-Tek and a Planet Asia album I was needing. Goooo Amoeba return policy.
Things are good. Busy at work, getting ready for a trip to Dublin in a week or so. Kia and I went to this new Nepalese restaurant on Sunday with Kevin and Erika and it was pretty good. My palate isn't sophisticated enough to distinguish between Indian and Nepalese food at this point except they served pickled daikon - Erika deftly described it as Nepalese sauerkraut. Wow, sauerkraut is tricky to spell. I guess I could have asked the two German speakers sitting across from me but their faces are a little intense at this point. Yikes.
On the way up to the city on the shuttle. We just passed Monster Park - formerly Candlestick Park, named after Monster Cables, not Monster Jobs as is commonly assumed - which means that I am about 10 minutes away from jumping off the shuttle at Alamo Square.
Hope things are well with everybody.
Word.
Made a stop by Amoeba over the weekend and scooped up a few cds that I have been wanting. They were playing the Carnival II album - that the Akon song is from - while I was there and I couldn't help myself. Also got the new Ghostface, Hi-Tek and a Planet Asia album I was needing. Goooo Amoeba return policy.
Things are good. Busy at work, getting ready for a trip to Dublin in a week or so. Kia and I went to this new Nepalese restaurant on Sunday with Kevin and Erika and it was pretty good. My palate isn't sophisticated enough to distinguish between Indian and Nepalese food at this point except they served pickled daikon - Erika deftly described it as Nepalese sauerkraut. Wow, sauerkraut is tricky to spell. I guess I could have asked the two German speakers sitting across from me but their faces are a little intense at this point. Yikes.
On the way up to the city on the shuttle. We just passed Monster Park - formerly Candlestick Park, named after Monster Cables, not Monster Jobs as is commonly assumed - which means that I am about 10 minutes away from jumping off the shuttle at Alamo Square.
Hope things are well with everybody.
Word.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Adventures in 101N
Whew, stuck in traffic on the 101 right now headed towards SF. So I could blog about my bus experience so far but it will be painfully boring (except for when I shot a goofy smile at Seth across the bus and the grumpy-faced guy in front of me thought it was meant for him).
Work is going alright. Its a little tough to get back into a 40 hour work week after two weeks off over the holidays. I have been doing my best to be as disruptive to my cube-mates as possible. I also hung up my Chiranjeevi poster today which was a major accomplishment. Who is Chiranjeevi you ask? Well, he is only the greatest Telugu action/singing/dancing star of all time.
(see below picture for evidence of this - please keep in mind that this picture was pre-stunna shades - so you can basically credit Chiranjeevi with the the bay area hyphy movement - and you thought it was E-40, pshh!)
Need to go to the music store this weekend and see what I have been missing for the last seven months. There should be new (to me) Blacksmith, Strong Arm Steady and Planet Asia albums. Its like Christmas all over again.
Oh, and shouts need to go out to Sara for putting me on to this youtube video. If you haven't checked out her blog do so immediately. Its much better written than mine but does focus on romance novels and ddr more than I am comfortable with, j/k.
OK, traffic has lightened up and we are hurtling towards the city. Laundry and Deadwood tonight. Those two things balance each other out. Maybe I will eat a burrito and tip the balance in my favor.
Later.
Work is going alright. Its a little tough to get back into a 40 hour work week after two weeks off over the holidays. I have been doing my best to be as disruptive to my cube-mates as possible. I also hung up my Chiranjeevi poster today which was a major accomplishment. Who is Chiranjeevi you ask? Well, he is only the greatest Telugu action/singing/dancing star of all time.
(see below picture for evidence of this - please keep in mind that this picture was pre-stunna shades - so you can basically credit Chiranjeevi with the the bay area hyphy movement - and you thought it was E-40, pshh!)
Need to go to the music store this weekend and see what I have been missing for the last seven months. There should be new (to me) Blacksmith, Strong Arm Steady and Planet Asia albums. Its like Christmas all over again.
Oh, and shouts need to go out to Sara for putting me on to this youtube video. If you haven't checked out her blog do so immediately. Its much better written than mine but does focus on romance novels and ddr more than I am comfortable with, j/k.
OK, traffic has lightened up and we are hurtling towards the city. Laundry and Deadwood tonight. Those two things balance each other out. Maybe I will eat a burrito and tip the balance in my favor.
Later.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Lupe Hit the Lotto, Snoopy Hit the Bottle
OK props go out to Albert for hooking up the new Lupe Fiasco album. Listening to it on the way back to SF on the shuttle, chatting with my boys Allan and Kun, updating the blog and feeling back in the swing.
Back at work today which was pretty cool. Its interesting how quickly you can fall back into things. Lots of good work to do though and some short term travel stuff coming up for me in the next month or so.
Hooked up the XBox 360 I got from Thomas for Christmas last night and it looks fantastic. Played the first level and a half of Gears of War and realized that its basically one of the sickest games ever. Now if only I could man up and play it on a harder level than "casual".
Wifey and I went to No Country for Old Men the day before we left Anchorage and it was awesome. If I was an obnoxious movie review guy I would call it "gritty" or "hard-hitting". Damn, I guess that makes me that guy. Anyway, some pretty cool performances, a pretty awesome story and a bad ass haircut on this guy.
OK getting to the city now. Man, the more stable wifi makes this commute much more manageable. Hope things are good with everyone.
Matthew
Back at work today which was pretty cool. Its interesting how quickly you can fall back into things. Lots of good work to do though and some short term travel stuff coming up for me in the next month or so.
Hooked up the XBox 360 I got from Thomas for Christmas last night and it looks fantastic. Played the first level and a half of Gears of War and realized that its basically one of the sickest games ever. Now if only I could man up and play it on a harder level than "casual".
Wifey and I went to No Country for Old Men the day before we left Anchorage and it was awesome. If I was an obnoxious movie review guy I would call it "gritty" or "hard-hitting". Damn, I guess that makes me that guy. Anyway, some pretty cool performances, a pretty awesome story and a bad ass haircut on this guy.
OK getting to the city now. Man, the more stable wifi makes this commute much more manageable. Hope things are good with everyone.
Matthew
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
...And I am a Gemini and My Favorite Food is Pizza
OK so this clip is old but I was watching Superbad for the second time realizing that Michael Cera is basically a genius and decided that this clip needed to go up on the blog.
Still in AK until Saturday. Things are kosher here. Watching my nephews for the next couple of days as their parents get back to work. Trying to readjust to the US still but finding myself swearing in Chinese. Oh well.
Enjoy the clip. If you have seen it before watch it again and stop acting so uppity. Jeez.
Later.
Still in AK until Saturday. Things are kosher here. Watching my nephews for the next couple of days as their parents get back to work. Trying to readjust to the US still but finding myself swearing in Chinese. Oh well.
Enjoy the clip. If you have seen it before watch it again and stop acting so uppity. Jeez.
Later.
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