So I was going to post about how my coworkers are following me into the blogosphere, but decided that I needed to be in a different mood to post on that particular topic. I ran through a project today that I was not looking forward to and thought it turned out fairly well. I ended up spending the vast majority of my day on it which I didn't want to, but it turned out alright. Jesus, my blog is starting to sound like Sara's. OK, no more about work.
Things are going fairly well in the bay area. The weekend was fairly rainy but I was kind of ready for a weekend of hibernation so that worked out pretty well. The wifey and I watched The Queen and The Host, both were kind of so-so in my opinion. The Queen was kind of pumped up in my mind based on the comments I have heard from basically everyone. I thought the queen character was pretty awesome but didn't understand why no one liked her - just kidding. The Host was cool, kind of, it was kind of just ridiculous. For a Korean monster movie it was surprisingly mainstream. The hero's dyed blond hair and sagging sweatpants were pretty rad though. I went through my music collection and consolidated my external hard drives this weekend which was a big step. I need to swing by the music store and pick up the new (new being relative as I have been in China) SAS album. Speaking of the Strong Arm boys check out this youtube video of them talking with Talib Kweli about their favorite tv shows. Basically, its awesome and shows me that even rappers are watching Discovery channel. No dad, not Myth Busters....
Monday, February 25, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
They're Huge and They're Sting Crazy - Your Firearms are Useless Against Them
Its rainy in SF right now and I am on the shuttle. Not really looking forward to getting off the shuttle and trying to figure out my ride/walk home. Been in training all day. One more day of training tomorrow, its been good though. Learning a fair amount.
OK, so this is only like 3-4 weeks late but damn, it was worth the wait. Check out the baller wheels we hooked Marbin up with. Basically, it makes his Honda Fit the baddest car out there. I will blog later about my obsession with scrapers for now check out what a pair of clip on spinners will do to your ordinary Honda Fit.
Yup, your boy doing the install thing.
Gleamy! Check out the fake chrome!
Oooweee! Bladz.
Your boy and the finished product. I got to ride home in the car afterwards. The rims made it all the way back to SF on the 101. That was basically a win in my opinion.
Three of us were trying too hard. I will let you choose which three.
All in all a positive experience. Marbs was excited, his wife a little less so but I hear rumors she is warming up to the rims (hubcaps). It turned out that the spinners didn't actually spin. I was disappointed, for like a minute, and then I realized that it basically doesn't matter and that the Fit looks sick.
OK getting off the shuttle. The wifey has graciously offered to pick me up at Alamo square. Hope everyone celebrated President's Day the traditional way, by listening to the socialist/activist hip hop group Dead Prez.
Keep it grimey.
OK, so this is only like 3-4 weeks late but damn, it was worth the wait. Check out the baller wheels we hooked Marbin up with. Basically, it makes his Honda Fit the baddest car out there. I will blog later about my obsession with scrapers for now check out what a pair of clip on spinners will do to your ordinary Honda Fit.
Yup, your boy doing the install thing.
Gleamy! Check out the fake chrome!
Oooweee! Bladz.
Your boy and the finished product. I got to ride home in the car afterwards. The rims made it all the way back to SF on the 101. That was basically a win in my opinion.
Three of us were trying too hard. I will let you choose which three.All in all a positive experience. Marbs was excited, his wife a little less so but I hear rumors she is warming up to the rims (hubcaps). It turned out that the spinners didn't actually spin. I was disappointed, for like a minute, and then I realized that it basically doesn't matter and that the Fit looks sick.
OK getting off the shuttle. The wifey has graciously offered to pick me up at Alamo square. Hope everyone celebrated President's Day the traditional way, by listening to the socialist/activist hip hop group Dead Prez.
Keep it grimey.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Late 90's East Coast and Peach Fuzz
OK, quick one. Been YouTubing instead of working on the shuttle. So sue me, its Valentines day (or VD, or singles awareness day). So the fruits of my searching are primarily for the benefit of Albert so that he can update his Mobb Deep mixtape with some real classics. I am going to toss in the old school Wu joint for good measure.
Also, here is a photo of Albert from his attempt at a beard growing competition. He was looking quite burly. I drew a direct connection between him and my brother, both of them are facially folicly challenged.
Albert looking extra rugged. This might have been the same day as he was wearing his lumberjack shirt, if it was our cubicle was at a hyper masculine level. It would basically be like a cube full of the cast of Walker Texas Ranger and Albert would have been Chuck.
Yeah thats three videos, so what? Take a break and get in touch with your internal Starter cap rocker. Put your butter leather and your pointy ass rings on son!
Also, here is a photo of Albert from his attempt at a beard growing competition. He was looking quite burly. I drew a direct connection between him and my brother, both of them are facially folicly challenged.
Albert looking extra rugged. This might have been the same day as he was wearing his lumberjack shirt, if it was our cubicle was at a hyper masculine level. It would basically be like a cube full of the cast of Walker Texas Ranger and Albert would have been Chuck.Yeah thats three videos, so what? Take a break and get in touch with your internal Starter cap rocker. Put your butter leather and your pointy ass rings on son!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Steady Aromatic
Work is a little insane this week because of the time off last week and the various trips/trainings I have been doing. Funny how things seem so stable at the time you do these types of things and then things hit the fan the week after. Oh well, they were fun.
Shuttling to the South bay right now sifting through the various work emails I should handle and realizing that I would rather upload and post a few photos from Disneyland instead. So here goes.
Nick taking Goofy too seriously.
Koklynn getting a hug from Goofy after he accosted me twice. Seriously, dude, not cool.
The Disney employee with the camera was yelling "Don't touch his head! Don't touch his head!" It was rad.
Enough said.
Disney was a blast. At work now so going to wrap up. Keep it hood.
Shuttling to the South bay right now sifting through the various work emails I should handle and realizing that I would rather upload and post a few photos from Disneyland instead. So here goes.
Nick taking Goofy too seriously.
Koklynn getting a hug from Goofy after he accosted me twice. Seriously, dude, not cool.
The Disney employee with the camera was yelling "Don't touch his head! Don't touch his head!" It was rad.
Enough said.Disney was a blast. At work now so going to wrap up. Keep it hood.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Bay Areaaaaaa
On the shuttle to work. Got back to San Francisco yesterday from a trip to Anaheim earlier this week. Spent a few days at Disneyland which was basically hilarious. I will try to upload some photos of the revelry at some point. Which reminds me, I am basically three photo posts behind at this point so I need to get up on that. Between some training I had before the Dublin trip, Dublin and Anaheim I haven't had a normal work week in a while. Next week may be a little painful.
Sara is now officially on her leave from work but still hanging out in the Bay Area for a couple more weeks. She did offer to grace me with her presence at lunch before her departure so I will likely take her up on that.
OK getting closer to the office. Here is a photo of Albert and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride to keep people satiated for the time being.
Albert was like way better than me at this. About halfway through the ride I began playing defense by moving the cart away from the targets to throw Albert off. He still beat me by 77,000 points. At least I look cooler in the picture.
Sara is now officially on her leave from work but still hanging out in the Bay Area for a couple more weeks. She did offer to grace me with her presence at lunch before her departure so I will likely take her up on that.
OK getting closer to the office. Here is a photo of Albert and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride to keep people satiated for the time being.
Albert was like way better than me at this. About halfway through the ride I began playing defense by moving the cart away from the targets to throw Albert off. He still beat me by 77,000 points. At least I look cooler in the picture.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Just a Quick One...
I'm not feeling so hot (combination of too much beer, too little water, too little sleep and too much fried food) - good times. Dublin has been great fun though - see above for evidence. I went out to Howth with one of the managers from India and we took lots of photos and drank Irish coffee. I am about three photo sets behind in my posting but hey, it gives me fodder for future posts. Lord knows I am running out of stuff to post about. One thing I have noticed is that I have an annoying habit of adopting accents, maybe less accents than intonations, but its annoying none the less. In Ireland I have caught myself - and been caught by others - doing this far too often. When I am hanging out with the folks from India I kind of do the same thing but with less severity.
Oy.
Back off to the hotel. I had to stop into the office to make a phone call and check my mail. My hotel does not free wifi - lame. Going to grab a non-fried snack - maybe there is fruit. I am probably vitamin deficient at this point. OK, off to it.
Later.
Oy.
Back off to the hotel. I had to stop into the office to make a phone call and check my mail. My hotel does not free wifi - lame. Going to grab a non-fried snack - maybe there is fruit. I am probably vitamin deficient at this point. OK, off to it.
Later.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunny Dooblin
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Happy New Year
Its a day or so early but I imagine I may not make it back to the computer in the next day or two. Alaska has been great. I haven't had to work much at all although I have put off some things that need handling before I return to California.
We have gotten more snow which has been nice and the nephews went skating the other day at the lagoon near my mom's house which was hilarious to watch. My older nephew got cross-checked by a girl about 3 years older than him playing hockey and my younger nephew did his best not to crack his helmet open while walking across the ice on his skates.
No substantial plans for the New Years celebration at this point. I imagine we will have an adult beverage and keep it relatively quiet. The Anchorage nightlife scene has become extremely highschool oriented. I'm getting old and young people are getting obnoxious.
Off for a walk with Kia's mom here shortly. Darjeeling Limited is playing at the local brewhouse theater so we are going to try and check that out at some point. I also want to see No Country for Old Men. These both beat Jay Chou movies... sorry Kun.
OK my mom is playing Kenny G or something I need to make her stop before I go ape-shit.
Later.
We have gotten more snow which has been nice and the nephews went skating the other day at the lagoon near my mom's house which was hilarious to watch. My older nephew got cross-checked by a girl about 3 years older than him playing hockey and my younger nephew did his best not to crack his helmet open while walking across the ice on his skates.
No substantial plans for the New Years celebration at this point. I imagine we will have an adult beverage and keep it relatively quiet. The Anchorage nightlife scene has become extremely highschool oriented. I'm getting old and young people are getting obnoxious.
Off for a walk with Kia's mom here shortly. Darjeeling Limited is playing at the local brewhouse theater so we are going to try and check that out at some point. I also want to see No Country for Old Men. These both beat Jay Chou movies... sorry Kun.
OK my mom is playing Kenny G or something I need to make her stop before I go ape-shit.
Later.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Cash Money Y'all
I played Monopoly with my nephew yesterday and built some high-rise hotels on Baltic/Mediterranean/Oriental/Vermont and Connecticut. Because my nephew is 6 he got the family rate on my luxury suites - $6 - Kia paid full price.... I lost.
Alaska is wintery. The snow is not so deep but it is cold and beautiful. Christmas is in full swing which basically means we are consuming large quantities of cookies and candy. We (Kia) finished most of the holiday shopping before we left so we were in good shape when we got here to just hang out.
At lunch the other day Sara expressed her concern that on my return to the states the blogging epic that is my blog would cease. Fear not. I will continue to write inane garbage on a semi-regular basis. I took some pictures here and will upload them shortly.
All-in-all things are good. Kia and I are sore from battling at Wii boxing and we are headed out for one of the many Christmas households we will participate in this year shortly.
I hope this post finds everyone well and you are all enjoying a bountiful Kwanzaa.
Alaska is wintery. The snow is not so deep but it is cold and beautiful. Christmas is in full swing which basically means we are consuming large quantities of cookies and candy. We (Kia) finished most of the holiday shopping before we left so we were in good shape when we got here to just hang out.
At lunch the other day Sara expressed her concern that on my return to the states the blogging epic that is my blog would cease. Fear not. I will continue to write inane garbage on a semi-regular basis. I took some pictures here and will upload them shortly.
All-in-all things are good. Kia and I are sore from battling at Wii boxing and we are headed out for one of the many Christmas households we will participate in this year shortly.
I hope this post finds everyone well and you are all enjoying a bountiful Kwanzaa.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Country Rooooad... Take Me Hooooome...
OK, getting in the taxi for the airport in like 15 min. Printed out my ticket and said my tenth goodbyes - there will likely be one more. I am pumped to get home and down on leaving. Mostly because of the friends I have made here. I guess its a good thing to know that you will miss people rather than be happy to be leaving them. I owe a great deal to the people I have met here and those folks who have made me feel at home in a country which is so different from my own.
Off to the airport. I am going to make some of the team drink some Beijing liquor on my way out. Bad management....
See some of you soon, and some of you a little later....
Off to the airport. I am going to make some of the team drink some Beijing liquor on my way out. Bad management....
See some of you soon, and some of you a little later....
Monday, December 10, 2007
I Can Be Sentimental AND Gangsta Right?
Here is the slideshow I pulled together for the team here in Beijing. It was too long to upload to youtube (10 min max) and the file was enormous. I used iMovie to make the slideshow because I was suckered in by coworkers who convinced me that it was the easiest way to build the movie. I think Windows MovieMaker would have probably been just as easy.
Only a couple more days here in Beijing. Very bittersweet. Excited to get home and spend time in AK over the holidays. Also going to miss a lot of things and people around here.
Lots to do before I leave. I may need to purchase another bag to haul home all of my crap. I also have to deal with my spectacular hotel and check out of that place (praise Jesus).
Enjoy the slideshow.
Only a couple more days here in Beijing. Very bittersweet. Excited to get home and spend time in AK over the holidays. Also going to miss a lot of things and people around here.
Lots to do before I leave. I may need to purchase another bag to haul home all of my crap. I also have to deal with my spectacular hotel and check out of that place (praise Jesus).
Enjoy the slideshow.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Analytics and Adwords
Boring topics maybe. I thought I would toss out some site stats. Kunan has been known to claim that the only person who reads my blog is my father (this may be true depending on your definition of "reads") but good ol' Google Analytics has a little different story to tell....
Since the beginning of my blog:
Oh yeah, and for those of you who don't know, I have purchased some AdWords ads on a few different keywords so if you forget the web address (really you should have my blog bookmarked) you can do a quick search like this and find some hilariously clever advertisements. Do yourself a favor and refresh the search results page to check out the ad variations.
Work is kind of ape right now. Only four more work days before I get on a plane. I have to do things like pack, check out of my apartment, clean my desk, blah blah blah. It almost just seems easier to stay. Then again.... Getting pumped to get back to AK for the holidays and see folks. I made a photo slideshow for my departure to play for the team. I will share it if I can ever get it to fully upload. My video compression skills are lacking.
Word 'em up.
Since the beginning of my blog:
- I have had 1,420 pageviews.
- Visitors have averaged 1.48 pages per visit.
- Average time per visit is 2:16
- I have had 958 visits.
- I have had 234 absolute unique visitors (probably based on IP).
- 88.83% of my visitors visited using FireFox.
- 83% of my visits have come directly to my site (not via another site)
- 6% have come through my AdWords ads
- 2% have come from Sara's blog
- Top referring queries from Google ("matt lewis", "harry potter sucks", "http://matthewlewis.blogspot.com", '"its the wysz son"')
- Referrals have also come from Matt D.'s blog - who knew he had a blog? - and Nate's.
- Top day for visits was Oct. 31st 2007 - I got 18 that day.
Oh yeah, and for those of you who don't know, I have purchased some AdWords ads on a few different keywords so if you forget the web address (really you should have my blog bookmarked) you can do a quick search like this and find some hilariously clever advertisements. Do yourself a favor and refresh the search results page to check out the ad variations.
Work is kind of ape right now. Only four more work days before I get on a plane. I have to do things like pack, check out of my apartment, clean my desk, blah blah blah. It almost just seems easier to stay. Then again.... Getting pumped to get back to AK for the holidays and see folks. I made a photo slideshow for my departure to play for the team. I will share it if I can ever get it to fully upload. My video compression skills are lacking.
Word 'em up.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Last One, I Swear
Good weekend in Beijing. Went out for Malaysian food on Friday to a little hutong (local) neighborhood. Food and company were good. Saturday was spent doing some shopping at some local malls. It was kind of cool going to the malls where there were no tourists. I realized though that things are just more expensive here in Beijing. Clothes, anything that even resembles a name brand, are roughly 20-30% more expensive than in the states and people will buy anything with a recognizable logo. Name brands are practically a national past time. Case in point on this is the prevalence of Playboy merchandise. On everyone. Grandmas, wearing Playboy shoes. Oh, and when did Pepsi start selling sneakers?
Whew, OK, photos of Tibet. The first couple are of pilgrims walking their route around the Jokhang. The outfits were totally awesome and the hair decorations on the women were pretty amazing.
This was the day we went to the Potala palace. It was the former residence of the Dalai Lama and there are a number of tombs of former Dalai Lamas there.
More pilgrims and decorations.
Some parting shots.
Thats it. I have more photos of Tibet but they will end up in the picasaweb album at some point not here. Sorry, I got a little obsessive with posting these.
Sunday (today) was pretty good too. I had to get up early for a basketball game. We played another company here in Beijing and won a squeaker. After flipping the lead for the majority of the fourth quarter we were up by one point with a few seconds to go. The other team fouled on the inbound and sent Allan to the line. He hit one of two and they couldn't get the ball inbounds and a shot off quick enough to contest the win. It was pretty exciting.
Going to bed early. I am putting off some work I have to do but hey, what are they going to do, deport me?
Whew, OK, photos of Tibet. The first couple are of pilgrims walking their route around the Jokhang. The outfits were totally awesome and the hair decorations on the women were pretty amazing.
This was the day we went to the Potala palace. It was the former residence of the Dalai Lama and there are a number of tombs of former Dalai Lamas there.
More pilgrims and decorations.
Some parting shots.
Thats it. I have more photos of Tibet but they will end up in the picasaweb album at some point not here. Sorry, I got a little obsessive with posting these.
Sunday (today) was pretty good too. I had to get up early for a basketball game. We played another company here in Beijing and won a squeaker. After flipping the lead for the majority of the fourth quarter we were up by one point with a few seconds to go. The other team fouled on the inbound and sent Allan to the line. He hit one of two and they couldn't get the ball inbounds and a shot off quick enough to contest the win. It was pretty exciting.
Going to bed early. I am putting off some work I have to do but hey, what are they going to do, deport me?
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