So, my computer battery is about to die but I just had to throw this little tidbit up. According to the NYT McCain just selected Alaska Governer Sarah Palin to be his VP candidate. Nice little shout out to the 49th state but let me say this - I ain't voting for him. Congrats though Sarah. You are fast becoming the AK version of Gavin Newsom.
If you claim to be from Alaska and don't have a picture of a salmon you caught you might as well be from frickin' Seattle.
Thursday over. Man, the week has been moving fairly quickly which I am definitely not complaining about. Long weekend coming up and only a couple more full weeks before I jump on a plane for Germany - or Bavaria as apparently some people consider it a different country than Germany. Headed into Munich and then spending the next two weeks traveling the German countryside. My dad put in a request for a cuckoo clock mainly to harass his clients but I am willing to take other orders as well. Apparently some of the towns we are going to go through are famous for their taxidermy of small rodent like animals and dressing them in lederhosen so there are options. It turns out - completely by chance - that I will be there for Oktoberfest. Uh, hello, this is going to be frickin' awesome. I wrote an essay in my college English class about how Oktoberfest really represents the best type of party because of the beer/meat/polka/lederhosen combination. I stand by this. I talked with Jan - visiting from Dublin - about Oktoberfest and he dryly remarked that it was great if you were into drunken American tourists.... Translation - its going to be awesome. Anyway, I am pretty pumped to be getting on a plane and not answering email for a little while. Got my 49ers tickets in the mail this afternoon. They look legitimate and it turns out the face value on the tickets was like $98 so I am feeling pretty good about the $35 including fees I paid for them. I mean, it is preseason but it should be a good time. This is reminding me that I need to search for some tickets for October when my brother is in town. Speaking of the 9ers, I got my Frank Gore t-shirt in the mail today and was reading his diary on the 49ers website. Lets just say, he's a better runner than writer. I wonder if the players actually write this junk. Ol' Frank probably has some agent crony who does this type of thing for him - shoot, I would. Actually, I heard Dan has a similar method for posting on his blog - he just transcribes them to his housekeeper Consuela. "Consuela - that picture of Kobe isn't an animated gif - I want it to be an animated gif!!" Started playing Assassin's Creed last night. Its pretty fun so far and the graphics are pretty cool. I can kind of tell that I won't make it through the entire game, like as soon as it starts getting hard I am going to end up losing interest. The movement animations are pretty awesome and I spent a good 45 seconds jumping in and out of the stacks of hay. So I think I mentioned that I got a new crackberry from work the other day. As a part of this new phone switch I have managed to lose all of the phone numbers that I entered into my old phone. So, old contacts from my sim card were cool, but any number I put into my phone after changing to the last Blackberry has gotten lost. This has already and will continue to lead to awesomely awkward moments where someone text messages me and I have to be like "uh, who the hell are you?" Sorry Burger. Go hard in the boat.
Things have been pretty ape. The shuttle has been a little wacky lately - they have been using smaller buses the last couple days - I blame Sara. Thanks for ruining my commute Sara. Work has been busy this week despite my manager being out of town and I have managed to not get a ton of sleep. Fantasy baseball is winding down and I am finishing the season pretty strong. In first place by 4.5 games in the last week of the season. Playoffs start next week. Trying to sweep that junk. Been watching Coup videos on the way home. If you aren't familiar with The Coup, don't feel bad, actually, scratch that - feel bad, real bad. The Coup is Filthy McNasty. Here is some evidence.
Classic joint. Real old school West Coast beat - Shalbs, I'm talking to you - and some punchy lyrics.
Bad ass beat, Boots kills this one and shit, the video is just sick.
The first YouTube comment says "this song makes me want to dance AND punch a cop in the face. love this shit.". Enough said.
Last one. Bouncy beat and relatively low budget but high impact animations.
See, now you know. Going to the 9ers game on Friday with Allan (Mountain) Du. Trying that nickname on for size. I tried it in China but it just confused everyone. Got some pretty decent tickets on Stub Hub - we will see how that works out. Been reading the Watchmen graphic novel on the bus and in the evenings before bed. I have to say, I am pretty obsessed with it. Its really well written and the art, while not particularly edgy, is sort of understated and awesome. OK, in the city. Grind hard.
It was a wacky week. One day at SES, one day at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Didn't finish enough work to feel like I accomplished enough to relax this weekend.
Left the office late tonight because of the Fantasy Football Draft. I am pretty pleased with my team but I am noticeably WR heavy. Its not my fault, the draft just crumbled like that. That said, I scored first pick this season - the second time in three seasons - and picked Adrien Peterson. We'll see. I could be in big trouble if Reggie Bush or Adrien Peterson go down. I need to stay on top of the free agents wire.
Headed to the Giants game tomorrow with Allan and the wifey. Looking forward to that. It will be my first game of the season. Hopefully I can hit up a couple more games before the end of the season. I still haven't gotten to see Lincecum pitch. Speaking of which he is currently blanking the Padres through five. That guy is a freaking beast (not that blanking the Padres is a real indicator of this, but still).
Thinking about going to the Guitar Center this weekend to check out keyboards. You know, the kind that is shaped like a guitar and you can rock out on. OK, not really, but if people have recommendations feel free to let me know. Something decent, medium sized with some bad ass Samba beats pre-programmed.
Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and watching more of season two of Weeds. Its a pretty decent show. Better than I expected. Kevin Nealon is insanely hilarious on the show, in my opinion he is funnier than he ever was on SNL.
OK, hopping off the shuttle. Stay out of trouble this weekend.
OK this post is going to be a little YouTube heavy, so what? Headed back to the city from Mountain View a little late this evening. We had our playoff game today and my team (aka the people who let me hang out with them after they win basketball games) won which puts us in the semi-finals. I am pretty pumped about it and we played a team we barely beat the first time around. So far in the playoffs we have just been playing teams we have already played so we kind of have their scouting report together. Next couple of games might be a little different. Anyway, it was fun and I scored a couple points. I am tipping the scales on my injuries/points ratio in my favor.... A quick video game update - I have given up on Bioshock. No, not because "harvesting" small children was disturbing (it was though) but rather because I fired the game up last night and it had lost my saved game somehow and moved me back like two levels. Two levels? That was like 3 hours of my life. I sent it back to Gamefly and I am hoping my hard drive just had a little hiccup - yeah right, how often does that happen. Its foggy as hell in the city. Here are some classic videos:
Fat Joe is ballin'!
One of my favorite Wu videos and songs of all time.
My favorite Killah Priest song. No video that I could find but the song is bonkers. I know I said this before but if you haven't checked out Heavy Mental do so immediately. Hopping off the bus. Dougherty just sent me an angry text message because I missed our annual photo booth session at the Google Dance. Sorry Dougherty, I will make it up to you at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on Thursday.
On the shuttle. Sitting next to Sara so she is getting a preview of the blog content. Spent the day at SES. It was the second time I have been on the first day of the conference with no intention of going any of the subsequent days. The first day of the conference is generally less well attended than other days and because the expo (schwag booths) aren't set up people generally aren't as apeshit excited about stuff. Anyway. Weekend was good. Watched a bunch of Sex In The City - yes, I have already admitted to liking this show. Also watched a bunch of Olympics over at Nate's house. Basically, I burned myself out on the Olympics watching the women's marathon. Fun was had none the less, and beer and burgers were consumed. Ordered the Watchmen graphic novel from Amazon and it arrived today along with a Japan travel book. Am I going to Japan? Maybe, I hope, but no plans as of yet. Amazon shipped me (and billed me for) two copies of the graphic novel though but a willing coworker took it off my hands, or will take it off my hands tomorrow when I collect his ten dollars. I'm pretty excited to read it though. I will update the blog with some kind of a review when I do. I've been playing Bioshock for the last few weeks and taking my time with it. Its a little scary for my tastes but its pretty bad ass. Graphics are really good and the story is pretty engaging. I think I am on the last level. OK, going to get off the shuttle. Grind hard.
Ted Stevens is a crook. It was widely accepted as a fact when I was growing up in Alaska and mutually beneficial agreements between industry and politicians have been a reality of the political landscape as long as I can remember - Dick Cheney anyone? I just sifted through this Anchorage Daily News article on how Stevens as a modern day crook was able to make illegal deals which unless he was being actively investigated would have been extremely easy to miss. This guy is running (still running!) for his seventh full term in the US Senate. He is hosed. His family is hosed - his son Ben was busted for accepting bribes a few years ago while he was in the State Senate. Well, his family is hosed and it isn't. Depending on how much money uncle Ted was able to sock away over the last 20-30 years of selling out his state and his loyalty. Good luck to the Stevenses. There was mention of lunch meetings in the article and it reminded me of when I used to work at a brew pub at one of the local hotels in Anchorage and Ted used to come in and eat with the hotel owner and various other big-wigs. He was always a dick and he called the waitresses "honey" and "sweety". That's the guy he was (and is) - the Don of Alaska. Shit, this guy should be thanking heaven that this isn't China where BYOB stands for "Buy Your Own Bullet". This one is just plain fun:
Week has been long and with little opportunity to blog. Yes, that is likely a welcome respite for most. Jeez jerks, nobody is making you read this junk. I had three 8am starts this week and one 7am start. Drove to work twice which I am estimating a gas cost of $75 on the full tank. Midweek the extra half hour of sleep that afforded me was worth it. The wifey and I have been watching Sex And The City for the second time through. I am willing to admit that I like the show. Its pretty funny and the fact (similarly to Weeds) its only a half hour long makes it much more accessible during the week. I haven't been watching the Olympics really mostly because NBC doesn't come in at my house. When are they going to start streaming network television? It has to be cheaper than broadcasting it. From what I can gather, China is doing well so far despite scandals around underage athletes. Underage athletes?! Really, that's the biggest gripe the media has about China and the Olympics? I would chalk that up as a win for China. Oh and lets just put this out there, who cares if that kid is 13? If she is good enough to compete, let her compete, I couldn't really care less. The Giants are playing fairly horribly and while this is not unexpected it remains disappointing. Maybe Zito will retire or something. Every Giants fan collectively wrung their hands this week when Lincecum got drilled with a line drive but news reports claim he is doing OK and should even make his next start. He flipping better, I am a half game out of the lead for my fantasy baseball league and my trade of Manny Ramirez for Brandon Webb got flipped on its head when Carlos Lee got injured. Damn, I should have held onto Manny. Speaking of whom, I hate the Dodgers, and most if not all of their players, but it is tough for me to hate Manny. Maybe this goes back to my complicated feelings for other power-hitting asshole baseball players who will remain unnamed. Alright, about to hop off the bus.
Week over. It had its high moments and it had its low moments and next week is shaping up to be quite a doozy. Olympics party tonight. I am getting more and more pumped for the Olympics. Its always pretty fun to watch though I am pretty concerned about my tv reception on NBC which is especially terrible. Maybe if the online thing works out I can use the PS3 to watch some of the events I am interested in. It probably requires some kind of advanced Flash player though which the Sony browser is not going to support. Stupid awesome PS3. So, going to Sara's tonight. I'm glad her party is in the city because my plan is to drink heavily and make fun of anyone who is not from the US because of our Olympics dominance. Boo ya! Then, of course, I am headed south on Sunday to watch the US vs. China basketball match which will be a demolition job. The next playoff game for the work league is on Thursday of next week and I need to work on the jumper prior to the game. Its going to be a pretty tough match. I think we might recruit Allan to put in some work for us though as we may be down a player or two this coming week. The wifey and I started watching Weeds this week. The show is pretty good. I like the fact that its only 25 minutes helps make it more accessible during the week. The bus driver has spent the vast majority of the commute giving a commentary on everything we have driven past. In most cases I would find this terribly annoying, but damn, you can't hate this guy. Its because he is both well-versed on many different subjects and because he has an Irish accent and lets be frank, you can't dislike anyone with a brogue unless you are a heartless bastard. He has been giving us his take on everything from the poverty in the city to the fantastic natural beauty as we drove along the 280. A couple of excerpts from my IMs with Chris:
"The missionaries had a profound influence on early California history"
"Of course it was a traumatic time for many of the Native Americans, many of them died"
Fan-frickin'-tastic. OK, about to hop off the shuttle. USA! USA!!
Headed back to the city. The weather has been typical of San Francisco summers the last few days in that as soon as you get to the airport headed north on the 101 the fog banks are pretty heavy the rest of the way to the city. Its probably pretty nice in the city during the day but as soon as the early evening rolls around it just clouds over. Whatever, I kind of prefer the cold anyway. The day was taken up with mostly a legal training for managers which was uncharacteristically entertaining. I had gone through a similar training a couple years ago and it was the same teacher, the same stories I have to admit, it was almost as good the second time around. Weekend is fast approaching. I was talking with Allan about watching the US vs. China basketball on Sunday down in Mountain View and while I thought that meant I would have to get up at 5:30 to be down in the South Bay by the 7:15am tip it turns out they are airing the game at 10am on NBC so I will just not listen to the radio/go online in the morning before heading down to watch. Speaking of the Olympics Friday is Sara's Olympics opening ceremony party which I have heard explained as an excuse for Sara to cook all of the food she likes prior to the Olympics so that have leftovers ready for the coming few days so that she can focus her energy 100% on watching gymnastics etc. I am pretty excited about the party and the fact that Sara is living in the city now and we can be proper friends. Watched Gone Baby Gone last night with the wifey. I am pretty sure I liked it more than she did. The story was pretty depressing and I am not a good job of managing the Netflix queue to ensure a good balance of happy-go-lucky movies and depressing movies. Its been heavily weighted towards the depressing dramas - which I tend to naturally gravitate towards. So between (or I should say instead of) clearing out my inbox on the commute home I have been watching George Lopez videos on Youtube. The best of which have been the sections of his HBO special which are chunked out. If you don't know about George Lopez, or you think you know about George Lopez from his tv show, you need to watch these. To me, this is one of the funniest guys out there. He has an uncanny ability to be both self-deprecating and cocky simultaneously. Plus, he is funny as shit. Here are the first couple.
The rest are on Youtube, just click in and they should be linked in the related videos section. Seriously, take 15 minutes and watch. OK about to get off the shuttle. Get that guac.
Extra grindy this week so far. Hump day down and only two more days to go before el weekendo. I was talking with Allan today about the impending USA vs. China basketball match which he said was scheduled for 7:30am PST on Sunday - feel free to verify this on your own - and I demanded that he have me over to drink beer on Sunday morning and watch the US and A demolish the home team. This will be the first time since Kobe got that butterfly tattoo that I will be rooting for him. God, I really do love this country.
Seriously, are those butterflies on that crown? That mess is whack. Dougherty needs to start wearing tank-tops like Hiro at the company picnic and show Kobe what tattoos are all about. Speaking of the company picnic, someone please remind me to post my pictures from the picnic. Two 8am starts and one 6am start so far this week. I am going to feel slothful coming in at 8:30 tomorrow. The wifey gave me a hard time today about queuing up Afro Samurai on Netflix but nerdy or not, I have to say, I am pretty excited about it. Basically, the RZA (who does the soundtrack) is a media genius and the fact that he is homeboys with Jim Jarmusch (whom the RZA partnered with on the movie Ghost Dog - check it out if you haven't already) pushes it over the edge. Trailer:
Bridge traffic is slowing us down bigtime close to the city which gave me plenty of time to find that trailer and watch it a couple times. Keep it grimey.
Monday. Done. Started earlier than I normally like to on Mondays but its going to be starting even earlier as I have a 6am start. Zoinks. That means up at 4:30am and in the car by 5am to get down to Mountain View in time. It was a pretty packed weekend. Friday was the company picnic and Kia came down. It was pretty fun, pretty similar to last year really except quite a few more people. I caught one or two people breaking the "bring your spouse and your kids" rule - yeah nbui I saw you running around with that troop of neighbor kids - busted. Anyway, it was pretty fun even if the lines for everything were way too long. Saturday Kia and I spent the day with Allan in SF touring around. Allan spent a chunk of the morning doing some shopping at Union Square and I went and met him as he was winding down the shopping and Kia and I effectively pressured him into enjoying the weather at the beach. We started at Chrissy Field but despite being absolutely beautiful out it was far too windy to sit there so we followed the coast around to Baker Beach which was more crowded but also much less windy and almost equally as beautiful. So we sat there for a while mostly telling Kia stories about all of the stupid things that I did while I was in Beijing - it took a while, I did a lot of stupid things. Then we went to go see the Batman movie. Yeah, I saw it before, but I was glad to see it again, it was pretty bad ass even the second time around. Kia seemed to enjoy it and Allan surprised everyone by saying that it was his first Batman movie. First Batman movie?! That's downright un-American. Sunday Kia and I got up a little late, ate, and hopped in the car around 2pm headed for Antioch to visit with some of Kia's long lost relatives (and some who weren't lost at all). Her paternal grandfather, aunt, two great-aunts (I think) and second-cousin all drove out from Texas to come to Kia's great-uncle's 75th birthday party. There were a number of other second/aunt/cousin/uncle/nephew/great/in-law types at the event and I must say, they were pretty damned entertaining. I already knew that the Texas branch of Kia's dad's family was pretty much an absolute riot but now I know that the California bunch are right up there. I got grilled about El Goog, pressured into trying to help with the A/V problems they were having with the slideshow. I failed miserably but I made an honest go at it. It was fun. Actually this is the second time I have gone to visit long lost relatives in California in the last few years. The other time was my mom's relatives (aunts and great aunts etc.) in Sacramento - no, not Roseville Koko. Funniest quote of the evening: "You're uglier than I was at 75" - Kia's grandfather recording a video message to his little brother whose birthday it was. That guy was a riot. It was a hell of a weekend but I am pretty wiped at this point. Oh, and last week I broke some glass at work and somebody said: "Broken glass everywhere" And subsequently attributed that line to MA$E. Go to school youngsters. Grind hard.
Uh-oh, serious face.
