Loving You Whether, Whether, Times Are Good Or Bad Happy Or Sad

Been in Anchorage since Christmas Eve. Kia managed to get us on an earlier flight out of SF on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day and I have to say I am pretty damned glad for the extra 24 hours in Alaska. Its bitter cold out and there are a couple feet of snow on the ground at this point and its just about perfect for the holidays. Cold enough that if you go outside and do something you feel a true sense of accomplishment. Also cold enough that if you stay inside you feel absolutely no guilt about that decision. The house is great. Jason, Heather and the kids are about totally moved in and it feels like a real home. Now about the lighthouse wallpaper....
Anyway, its been a fun few days. Lots of time with the nephews and a night out with the friends who are up from out of state for the holidays. We are doing the fourth and final gift exchange event with my family this evening as my brother got in last night from the slope. Making eggs benedict for dinner, uh, yum.
Went for a snowshoe (I think this word can be used as a verb) yesterday afternoon and have some pictures of my beard crusted up with a mixture of snot and frozen breath. Look forward to that.
OK, it looks like I just washed Kia's Razr in the load I put in. Doh! It looks like someone may have just inherited my Christmas gift of a G1. On the other hand, we do have another Razr at home....
Happy New Year!

I Just Keep On Dune Methane

A week and a half since my last post is a long time. Tough noogies.
Work has been busy the last few weeks but a lot of fun.  I have been adjusting well - in my opinion - to Tokyo so far and have been having a blast.  Work is picking up a bit so there is lots to do and I am beginning to feel like the 5 months is going to go very fast.
That said, I'm not in Japan right now.  Some of you might be saying to yourselves, of course you're not in Japan, you're supposed to be in Alaska (thanks for taking the extra interest in my schedule).  To those people I would say, yes, yes I should be in Alaska and where am I actually?  Sitting on my couch in SF.  Now, lets be clear here, there are a ton worse places than sitting on my couch in San Francisco, I mean, I could be stuck in Seattle with no hotel rooms availble.  Quite frankly though, I would prefer to be in Anchorage at this point with my family.  My flight was canceled yesterday and the next available booking is on Christmas day.  Merry frickin' Christmas.  Now, not to get everyone too out of the Christmas spirit here but what really steams my ass about this situation is that apparently flights are going into and out of Seattle.  Yeah, its not like the airport is closed or anything.  Here is the big problem:

"The big problem, according to the airlines, has to do with the lack of de-icer. Alaska announced they may not have another shipment of deicer come in until today. The constant snowfall is another issue."
Source

Seriously?  De-icer?  This is Alaska airlines here people, you should have like emergency reserves of de-icer and be controlling how much of it goes into the market like OPEC.  Good gravy.  So Kia and I spent the day trying to get through on Alaska airlines number yesterday and by the time we got through all they had left was Christmas day.  Again, could be worse so I will try not to gripe too hard here.
Updated some photos on the ol' picasaweb thing.  I consolidated all of my Tokyo photos to one folder as the separated folders was becoming a bit annoying to navigate but now I need to caption some of the photos so I don't forget where they came from.
For those of you who made it home for the holidays, enjoy - jerks.  For those of you still in the bay area either by choice or not, hit me up, I am going to begin swilling some spiked egg nog with the quickness.
Barrumpabumpum.

Microphone Mixmasters, Make Money From Music

Wednesday down.  Work has been good and I am feeling pretty settled into life in Tokyo.  Just in time to get on a plane next Friday for the holidays back to Alaska.  I am pretty pumped for Christmas both because I get to visit with my family and because Kia and I get to stay in the house we just bought.  We closed on it a few days ago and my brother and his family should be moved in by now - I think.

Rahul has been in town this week which has been nice because it has meant that we have gone out almost every night.  We went to the arcade and udon last night and we went shopping and ate sushi tonight.  The sushi was awesome, udon too.

Need to do some shopping this weekend for holiday stuff.  We went to a store called Don Quixote or Donki for short this evening and it had some awesome stuff.  Maybe I will head back and look for some gifts.  

Anyway, things are good.  I have been learning about Japanese sports, video games and television shows - all the important stuff.  For those of you who watch this gameshow in the US it is apparently a take on a Japanese gameshow called Takeshi's Castle which has long since been off the air but we had fun at lunch today comparing notes on which events we all remembered from the show.

Lots of interesting things to report but maybe I shouldn't try to pack them all into one blog post.  I should pace myself.

FYI - this movie looks awesome:

I was showing the team some of the Japanese gameshow videos that Dave showed me back in Mountain View which are funny as hell.  I didn't show them this one, so a bonus for team members who follow my blog - credit goes to David.

The beginning is awesome but I lost some interest after the bad smell one.  If you watch any of them skip to 7:45 to watch the "old man biting tenderly".  Holy cow that's nuts.

I like the fact that some of them pretend to read inbetween. 

OK, getting late.  
Sayonara.

We Are Strong, No One Can Tell Us We're Wrong

Just got back from an evening of Pachinko and Japanese pancakes.  I have to say.  I am loving Tokyo at this point.  The team has been super awesome about showing me around.  In fact, last night we went to a videogame arcatde so between yesterday and today I feel like I have figured out some very quick ways to drop cash in Tokyo.  

For those of you who haven't eaten Japanese pancakes or okonomiyaki it is a magical food which both tastes delicious and I believe is the cure for the common cold.  Perhaps my Japanese comprehension needs some work though.

Pachinko and the Japanese arcade were pretty awesome too.  I managed to drop a fair amount of cash pretty quickly at pachinko meaning that I probably won't return anytime soon.  Hiroyuki from the team here is apparently quite the pachinko expert.  He did really well while the rest of us busted out within the first 15 minutes.  The pachinko parlor was intense though, extremely loud and smokey and filled with people who were taking the pachinko thing very seriously.  The arcade was actually quite similar in terms of the noise and visual stimulation.  It was awesome.  

Watching the Patriots/Steelers game on Japanese tv and it looks pretty damned cold in New England.  I think maybe I will try to watch all my NFL games in Japanese from now on. 

OK, so I was watching South Park online the other night and they had a scene where the town came together and sang "Love Is A Battlefield".  It reminded me of this clip (one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time):

Pete Rock is a freaky genius. Credit goes to Beniquez for showing me this clip something like two years ago now.
Oh and here is the original Pat Benatar video. This song is pretty bonkers. Yeah I said it.


Yeah, that video features a pretty intense dance off.  If you don't know, now you know.

OK bedtime. Keep it grimey

Ready To Rock 'Em Sock 'Em

Uploaded and sorted through the most recent photos.  You'll notice that all the photos were taken at dusk or night.  I really need to start getting my day started a little earlier on the weekends.  Living the dream, oh yes, living the dream.

OK, some photos.

From Yoyogi Park_Harajuku_08

From Yoyogi Park_Harajuku_08

From Yoyogi Park_Harajuku_08

From Yoyogi Park_Harajuku_08

Walking around Harajuku after the park.

From Imperial_Palace_08

From Imperial_Palace_08

From Imperial_Palace_08

From Imperial_Palace_08

From Imperial_Palace_08

Saw some cool stuff but more importantly got a little more comfortable being mobile in Tokyo.  The subway was cake and people have been really friendly everywhere I have gone so far.

OK, grind hard.

Hurry Onward Lemmiwinks Or You Will Soon Be Dead

So Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg.  Or, that's the story that he is sticking to so far.  The way my fantasy football season is going I am surprised he isn't on my team.  Nice move Plax.  

Went for a walk around the Imperial Palace today and had my first experience on the subway.  It was extremely painless.  It was also Sunday afternoon and my understanding is that this rush hour is the time you want to avoid the subway system.  The palace was cool but because I am a lazy bastard I didn't make it to the palace in time to check out the gardens which close at 3pm.  I got some photos though which I would be sharing if I hadn't managed to leave my mini USB cord at the office.  Tough for you I suppose.

Did some Japanese lessons this evening.  Progress has been relatively slow but I am able to pick up more each time.  The structure for the Rosetta Stone stuff is actually pretty good.  They have various methods to teach vocabulary and grammar.  There is a lot of repetition and the software actually recognizes the quality of the users speech.  I am halfway through the first unit and I am pretty far from actually speaking Japanese.  Slowly but surely.

OK, time to go to sleep.  The second week of work in Tokyo starts tomorrow.  

Grind hard.

When It Rains It Pours, The Barrage Hardcore

Watching a lot of Japanese television.  I just saw the retirement ceremony of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks baseball team manager Sadaharu Oh in which roughly half of the team cried.  While I am a firm believer that "there is no crying in baseball" I have to say, it was pretty moving.

Wikipedia had a pretty interesting tidbit about Mr. Oh:

"In 2001, American Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes, playing for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, hit 55 home runs with several games left, equalling Hawks' manager Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run record. The Buffaloes played the Oh-managed Fukuoka Hawks on a late weekend series in Fukuoka. Rhodes was intentionally walked during each at-bat. Hawks catcher Kenji Johjima could be seen grinning as he caught the intentional balls. Oh denied any involvement and Hawks battery coach Yoshiharu Wakana stated that the pitchers acted on his orders, saying, "It would be distasteful to see a foreign player break Oh's record." Rhodes completed the season with 55 home runs. League commissioner Hiromori Kawashima denounced the Hawks' behavior as "unsportsmanlike." Hawks pitcher Keizaburo Tanoue went on record saying that he wanted to throw strikes to Rhodes and felt bad about the situation."

Apparently, in his day, the guy could hit baseballs.

I have also been watching this show which is pretty damned hilarious.  They take comedians and challenge them to make 5 randomly selected audience members laugh.  The audience members try their hardest not to laugh and the comedians are all put in the same set/situation.  Even not knowing the language, that junk was funny.

Japanese tv is all about food.  Man its hard watching tv here if you are hungry.  That and ice skating, good gravy there is a lot of ice skating on tv.  

Went for a walk around Shibuya and Harajuku today.  It was pretty awesome.  The park at Harajuku is pretty amazing.  I need to spend more time there.  I am thinking I will try to hop the train tomorrow and go into central Tokyo, maybe check out the imperial palace.

I have some photos from today but I'm not in the mood to upload them right now.  Tough noogies for you.

OK, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Matthew

You Need To Watch The Way You Talkin' To Me Yo

Survived the trip to Tokyo.  Fairly painless really.  Flight was about 12 hours and I watched about four movies the best of which was Step Brothers.  I am pretty glad United decided not to edit it for content.  It would have been terrible if they cut the swear words.

I arrived in Tokyo Friday afternoon and was hurried onto an airport shuttle towards the hotel in the building the office is in.  I wandered around for a bit and then was met by (OK that was weird, someone just dialed me from downstairs and asked if I had a bible - the answer was no) the representative from the real estate people.  The lady was quite nice and threw me into a taxi with my bags for a 5 minute taxi ride to the apartment.  Anyway, long story short, I made it.  I found a grocery store bought some Suntory and ate some instant noodles.  

I spent the next couple of days settling in and getting familiar with the neighborhood.  Its been pretty interesting walking around seeing a mixture of small neighborhood shops and gigantic lcd screens at the Shibuya crossing.  The combination of grow shops, hippy stores with rasta hats and "rest" hotels in my neighborhood is awesome.  I need to start trying the restaurants around here.  There is literally a restaurant every third storefront. 

I took a few photos walking around.

From Shibuya_08

From Shibuya_08

From Shibuya_08

From Shibuya_08

From Shibuya_08

That was a lot of people.  

Started working on my Japanese language software and now I can tell the difference between "the boy is drinking milk" and "the girl is drinking milk".  I feel pretty good about that progress.

Today was a holiday from work, Labor Thanksgiving Day.  I got soaked walking around this afternoon.  My goretex coat is apparently no longer waterproof which I am a little steamed about.  I think it might have to go back to REI.

Oh, and if you haven't seen the new Kanye video - you're welcome.  The video is inspired by the movie American pop - which frankly I didn't like but the style is bonkers.  Kia said it better than I ever could have when she said "I like animated Kanye better than real Kanye".

Sayonara.

Guess Jeans, She Charged 35 Beans

Shuttling towards the city for the last time for a while.  Headed to Tokyo tomorrow morning at 11am.  Today was pretty kosher.  I didn't get to catch up with everyone completely as I had hoped.  Such is life.  

Printed some key information (flight stuff, phone numbers, a map or two) before I left work so I feel like I am armed with enough information that if I am reduced to pointing and grunting I should be able to fumble my way through the airport to apartment process.  

I am pretty ragged at this point.  I have been operating on 5ish hours of sleep the last week or two. I have gotten pretty used to getting up at 5:30am to make the 6:30am shuttle to Mountain View.  Its a little rough in the morning but the commute down is both fast and I don't have a tough time sleeping as the shuttle leaves early as nuts.  Getting in at 7:30am has been nice because I feel somehow more productive if I am in early and there are always Lucky Charms for me.

Going to Bar Tartine tonight with the wifey.  That restaurant is fast becoming one of my favorites.  I took my brother over there when he was in town a couple months ago and he was appropriately impressed.  

Saw the Quantum of Solace movie last night and it was pretty good.  James Bond shot some people and beat up a few more.  I like the casting of the recent movies and the lack of terrible puns has been a welcome change.  

This track came on my ipod as I hopped on the shuttle and I'll be damned if its not worth sharing:

Unnnh.  Grimey.

OK, some BI to handle this evening.  

挽くハード (grind hard)

Next Year You're Jamaican Eating Tofu Steaks

OK, going to be a quick entry.  Already in the city on the commute home and I am jumping off at Civic Center to meet Kia at the movies.  Going to go see the new Bond movie.  New Bond (Daniel Craig) is my favorite second Bond based on the last movie, but supposedly this one kind of stinks.  It might be back to Moore as my second favorite before the evening is over.  We will see. 

Work is winding down in Mountain View.  Reviews have been delivered and I have my last big presentation tomorrow.  I have scheduled time on my calendar to clear out my desk but I think the hour I have booked may not really cover the time needed to clean up that nightmarish mess.  Screw it.

Had a good weekend.  It was pretty relaxing but we spent a big chunk of Sunday running errands in order to get me ready to go this week.  I haven't packed a single thing but whatever.  Clothes and an Xbox and I will be good for about 3 years.  

Excitement is being weighed right now with some anxiety but that seems pretty healthy.  Had a pep-talk from Sara earlier which was encouraging.  

OK, grind hard.

Attach Dynamite To Opportunity, Blow Your Chance

Think your vote doesn't count?  Wrongo.  Well, wrongo if you live in a swing state or you happen to be registered in AK and voting for senator.  Apparently the latest tally of votes has Mark Begich leading Ted Stevens by, wait for it now, three votes.  Three votes!

http://www.adn.com/elections/story/586989.html

Good gravy.  

Almost back to my stop on the shuttle.  Laundry tonight and probably something quick for dinner.  Still trying to get my life in order before my trip next week.  The nervousness about the trip is wearing off and being replaced with excitement.  Neil said he would be disappointed if my ringtone wasn't the "I'm Turning Japanese" song.  Shit, who needs a ringtone when I can sing the song and do the flashdance running in place dance move?  

"I'm a maniac, maniaaaac on the floor!"

Form A Line, Jack Ya, Then Pawn The Shine

Tuesday.  Done. 

Getting on a plane for Japan on Thursday of next week.  What does that mean?  Mostly it means I am busy as shit trying to get my life together before I blow this popsicle stand.  Finished writing reviews for my team today, it always takes longer than I originally estimate.  Lots left to do both at work and not before I am actually ready to go.

I have been getting lots of advice from coworkers who have been to Japan before which has been really helpful.  Mostly they are giving me advice on what food to eat and mostly they just keep saying Ramen.  I'm cool with that.

Thinking about bringing my Xbox with me.  I don't think the PS3 would make the trip and it weighs about a ton and a half.  I am trying to scoop a few games to bring with me to Japan so if people have recommendations holla atcha frog.

I haven't blogged for like 5 days or something and they were an eventful few days.  Friday was the big Wurmcock (Wurm/Hitchcock) wedding.  The wedding itself was on Baker Beach in the afternoon.  It was a good thing they scheduled the wedding for the afternoon too because around 5pm the fog rolled in fast and the beach was about 15 degrees colder and a lot less photo-friendly.  Right after the wedding our alternator died on the way from the wedding to drop the dog off before the reception.  After the tow truck dropped us off and our buddy came and picked us up we made it to the reception which was - bonkers.  It was pretty damned fun, the DJ was very legitimate and I danced like a raver on ecstasy when the "Barbie Girl" song comes on.  It was the perfect combination, sweet wedding and serious party.

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering and spending a little time with Mike and Maria who were in town from Santa Fe and Jules who was down from Anchorage.  Easily three of my favorite people.

OK, made it up to the city.  Going to shut it down.

Grind hard.

*Update - So it turns out my last post was November 3rd and so if your main source of news is this blog I feel obligated to point out that Obama won.  His election made me proud to be from this country.  Or, you know, technically from part of Canada.

Night Can Never Come Soon Enough For Me

Yeah OK, so this post is mostly YouTube videos.  Don't like it, well go read some election news.  Speaking of the election, holy nuts, everybody is pretty whipped up about this one.  I have to admit, I am pretty excited to go vote tomorrow.  Old school, dropping the ballot in the box and getting my sticker.

Check out some music:

A little Raphael Saadiq:

He re-works that Dre beat pretty damned well.

Another Saadiq track:

The video to this one is pretty alright, but some dumb ass on YouTube disabled embedding - thanks Universal Music - asses.

While I am on the whole soul music thing, the new Al Green album is pretty legit (based on what I have heard on YouTube so far).  ?uestlove produced the bulk of the album and I am pretty impressed that he was able to get pretty close to Al's classic sound with the tracks I have heard.  

Get 'em Al.  

Someday I will do a post about my love for old school R&B and *some* funk but that day is not today.

Go vote.  Oh, and please, please don't deprive my home state of Alaska their much cherished Governor for the remainder of her FIRST term.  We need her to solve the moose eating bushes issue in Anchorage.  Is chicken-wire the answer?!  We need her help!  Wasilia needs its leader!

OK, grind hard.

Dance With The Mantis, Note The Slim Chances

*OK, this post was supposed to go out on Friday.  It didn't.  I edited it a little to make it slightly less annoying.

Happy Halloween. Hopped an earlier shuttle this afternoon but I'm not sure what I am up to this evening. The SF Castro Halloween event has gone away as of late because of stabbings and shootings. I mean if you aren't willing to take some risk of getting stabbed or shot why don't you just move to Mountain View. Had a few beers at the El Goog Halloween bash so the commute may get interesting about half way through. My costume was a last minute type of affair this year. Same as last year frankly. I went as a Mazda Miata owner - complete with double popped collar, white Livestrong bracelet and slimebag hair. No one had any idea what to make of me. Its my own damned fault I guess for making such an authentic douche bag. Failed costume ideas included Silent Bob, Bearded Woman and my personal favorite Walter from The Big Lebowski. My team came decked out big time though. Other people will post pictures I am sure.
I took the last three days off of work because Jason, Heather and the kids were in town. I have to admit, they ran me ragged the last few days. Between the touring, eating and wrestling with the nephews I am gassed. The week's events included Fisherman's Wharf, the Presidio, Monterey, a trip to San Leandro to visit the grandparents, a visit to Google, a 49ers game, shopping downtown, a visit to Tea and basically food consumption at every stage of those events. It was good having everyone in town and the apartment - while pushed to maximum capacity - held up OK with six occupants.
Bladder update - pain beginning.
This weekend is going to be made up of being lazy, laundry, restocking our fridge and a little football. I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 the last couple weeks and while it started pretty slow (this is the first one I have played) it has gotten better as of late.
Bladder update - traffic has slowed, aaarrrgh!
Been watching Gravediggaz videos in honor of Halloween. I didn't know that one of the members was from Stetsasonic - thank you Wikipedia. Just got off the freeway, time to figure out the bathroom thing.
Trick or treat.

*Update, the SF library has a lovely public restroom.

Capture Food With Lasso Loops

Shuttling north.  Wednesday down, two more to go.  Lots to do in the next couple of days to get my ducks in a row for Jason and Heather's visit - they get here Friday.  Looking forward to seeing those guys and taking some time off next week to show them around the city and the rest of the bay area.   Like I said, lots to do before then.

I have become mildly obsessed with Mario Kart for the Wii thanks to my coworkers and just spent the last 10 minutes learning about cheats and short cuts to give me a much needed advantage over my coworkers who are freakishly good at this game.  I was feeling good about beating my nephews soundly and repeatedly while I was in Anchorage but it turns out they weren't quite the experts that they said they were.  Lets just say they would get served at my work.

Pretty gassed at this point.  The 8am start this morning meant a 5:30am alarm which just ain't right.  If I didn't stay up til midnight last night reading my new book it probably wouldn't have been an issue.  But shit, what fun would that have been?

The first game of the World Series is on right now and apparently the Phillies are up 2-0.  I am rooting for the Rays in the series because I like BJ Upton (come to the Giants BJ) but also because I want to buy a Phillies hat but if they win the World Series I will look like a bandwagon idiot.  

Pretty cool hat though.   Go Rays.

Speaking of sports, the 49ers just fired Mike Nolan and are replacing him with Mike Singletary for what appears to be the rest of the season.  I have to say, I am not that impressed by the move.  I mean, the 9ers aren't playing good football, but Nolan is not necessarily the reason for this.  He was brought in to retool the team with Alex Smith and after the issues between the two of them I feel like Nolan deserved this year to see if an Alex Smith-less 49er team could peroform reasonably.  No one expects O'Sullivan to be a stand-out this year but if the team can finish strong and fortify in the off season Nolan's year will have been a success.  Oh well, I like Singletary, the jury is out on Martz still, if the offense doesn't average 25 points the rest of the season I am going to vote that they dump him and O'Sullivan.  Maybe they can go to Seattle and run a Starbucks together in the offseason.  Oh, and yes, if they bring Holmgren to San Francisco I am going to rock an Upper Playground logo shirt everyday for a week.  

Given the economic crisis I would like to encourage everyone to grind just a little harder than normal.

My Soliloquy May Be Hard For Some To Swallow But So Is Cod Liver Oil

Headed back to the city on a bit of a later shuttle than normal. Meeting ended at six. I am pretty pooped from two back to back 8am starts. An 8am meeting means that I have to get up at 5:30am to make the 6:30am shuttle which gets me in at 7:30am but ensures I am ontime for my 8am meeting. That's too early.
Listening to Ready to Die right now. I made a run through my music and put some older albums on my ipod, stuff I have been wanting to listen to for a while but was locked away in the depths of the external hard drive. Meant to put the ATLiens album on there but somehow I missed it. If you haven't listened to the ATLiens album lately, or ever, do so immediately. In my mind its one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. Concept is legit, production was crazy and Outkast was still at a point where they had something to prove. They took a departure from the first album and ran with that junk. Proof.





See, told you. Oh and if you don't allow embedding on videos you upload to YouTube you are dumb.
A few more videos from Outkast which weren't embeddable but are worth referencing.
Player's Ball
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Atliens
Elevators (Me & You)
Go to school on that.
Watched the presidential debate last night, or the replay at 9pm and couldn't stay up until the end. See my earlier comment on getting up at ungodly hours. I thought McCain came off pretty desperate in his taking shots at Obama. The terrorist thing to me is completely ludicrous and comes off as a pure scare tactic. I am pretty amazed that McCain has been willing to jump in line with the Republican party techniques of manipulation of the public through misinforming them so whole-heartedly. He is definitely not getting mavericky with it. The election is getting pretty ugly at this point though, the campaigns are taking pretty severe digs at each other.
Speaking of Sarah Palin, or more specifically Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, did I mention that when I was back in AK I was at a VP debate (re)watching party on the Saturday after the VP debate at my brother's house and we were actually playing a drinking game around the word "maverick" when Tina Fey made reference to doing the same in her sketch? Pure magic.
Grind hard.

I Was Told "Dust Yourself Off and Try Again"

Shuttling home.  Pretty tired at this point.  

This was the 5th weekend in a row that I didn't spend at home.  This is a bit of a record for me considering I am pretty much a homebody.  

Made an effort to go camping for the weekend which was thwarted by a park ranger doing his best sheriff of Malibu impression from The Big Lebowski.  That said, the weekend was still a blast and part of my feeling tired has to be attributed to the massive quantities of beer I consumed.

Speaking of Lebowski, I was looking for a clip of the sheriff of Malibu for my earlier comment when I came across this gem.

Pretty funny.  There were other attempts with like the Flintstones and He-Man but they mostly sucked.

Big next couple of weeks.  Reviews coming due at work, Jason, Heather and the kids headed to town the week after next.  The big Wurm/Hitchcock wedding and Mike and Maria headed to town for that big event.

Luckily I have this sizable commute to spend up on blogging inanely and keeping all of you up to date on all of the intricate details of each one of those.

OK, commute was pretty speedy, about to hop off the shuttle.  
Grind hard.

Young Carter, Go Farther, Go Further, Go Harder

Wednesday down two more days before the weekend and the man trip camping trip. Looking forward to just sitting around and doing nothing other than smashing beer cans into my head after pouring their contents into my gut.

Lots of craziness the last few days. Spent last weekend in AK visiting the fam and looking at a house that the wifey and I decided to buy. Here are the reactions that I have gotten from the various people I have mentioned this to over the last few days:

"Are you fucking crazy, man?"

This was in reference to the economic issues facing the world right now. The answer to this question is a hearty maybe.

"Alaska, huh? So, you moving home?"

Yes Alaska. No, we are not moving home in the near future but someday we hope to live in the house we purchased. For the time being my brother and his family will be living there.

"Was the house cool?"

Uh duh.

"Sarah Palin has really gotten to you, huh?"

Sarah Palin did not factor into the decision but yes, she has really gotten to me, mostly in the sense that she is a magically talented woman.

Evidence. (Credit goes to M,P,S)

The only way that could have been better is if it were this:

Kia's trip to Korea is unfortunately being canceled because she has a monster ear infection. If you want details you can check with her but needless to say she is in no shape to hop a 12 hour plane ride to Seoul in the next two days. This is disappointing obviously but there will be other opportunities to visit what Albert describes as a wonderland of fantastic awesomeness.

Watched the second half of the presidential debate last night and felt like McCain was really drilling home more rhetoric than substantial points. I continue to be concerned by the fact that this technique has worked repeatedly by presidential candidates over the last few elections and it has somehow become unreasonable to call bullshit on people in debates. I guess this is one of the (many) reasons that I wouldn't make a good candidate.

Me (in a debate): "Well, in response to your point, YAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!! BULLSHIT, BUUUUULLLLLLSHIIIIIIIT!"

OK, computer is about to die.

Grind hard.

Handle Hammers With Elegance

Sitting in the lobby at YouTube right now watching the screens flash by some sampling of video content.  Without audio, it makes absolutely no sense.

Meeting DP up here in San Bruno so he can give me a ride to SFO which is within shouting distance of where I am sitting.  Headed up to AK to handle some BI over the weekend.  Back early Monday after a red-eye.  Good times.  Looking forward to being home even if its just briefly.

Not particularly looking forward to the five hours of flying that is required to get me there and the five that it will cost to get me back on Sunday night.  Its interesting though that after flying across the ocean the five hours up to AK does tend to clip by fairly quickly.  One complaint I do have about the AK flight is that it doesn't generally have good entertainment options.  British Airways had some pretty legitimate movie screens in the headrests on the SF to London flight.  I ended up watching like 5 movies on the way back because I was trying to stay up.  The Forgetting Sarah Marshall movie, or whatever its called, was the best one.  I was pretty surprised by this because the movie looked absolutely horrible from the previews.  Watched Ironman again and was happy that it was watchable again within a couple months of first seeing it.  Watched Kung-Fu Panda too which was pretty legit but unfortunately represents Jack Black's continued decent into mainstream movies without edge.  Get that paper though Jack.  Speaking of Kung-Fu Panda, when I was in China one of the nicknames I managed to pick up was "panda" mainly due to my dead on panda impression and good nature but also perhaps due to my rotund physique - jerks.  When Kung-Fu Panda came out people basically though this was the most awesome thing ever.

Dan's here, grind hard.

I Gotta Handle My B I and I Do

Shuttling to Mountain View right now. Brain is operating at about 50% capacity mostly due to the extended vacation but probably also due to the time change. Stayed up for like 26 hours yesterday in order to deal with the jet lag thing. So far this has worked well but I was basically a vegetable last night. We will see how I am doing this evening but I was able to get up at 6:30am this morning and slept through the evening pretty well.
Overall the vacation went well. Got to see about a ton of stuff in Bavaria and Austria. A lot of it would have been pretty difficult to swing in the time given if Kia's grandparents weren't there to shepard us around. I have about a billion photos which I will try to boil down to a reasonable amount before posting. Photo management is one of my least favorite things. This trip gave me an additional appreciation for a few things.
German beer - pilsners mostly - which I wasn't a huge fan of going in but I am going to chalk this up to the bottling and importing process messing with the taste of German beers in America.
German dislike for other Germans. There were some pretty clear lines drawn prior to and during my trip around the incompatibility of southern and northern Germans but was further emphasized during my trip.
WWII scars on the country. For some stupid reason I assumed this was going to be much less apparent but anytime WWII, Hitler, Nazis, etc. came up it was a pretty damned sore subject. Lots of my jokes over the last two weeks ended with a "too soon?" - just kidding.
Its going to be an interesting week at work to say the least. Short one, so just a few days to ease back into the swing. This is good. I need to get my head back in the game a bit.
Speaking of the game, I took some brutal fantasy beatings during my trip to Germany. Dave brutalized me in the Fantasy Baseball finals and I lost two weeks in a row in my Fantasy Football league. Party's over, I'm back bitches.

Ninety-Nine Luft Bahloons

Autobahning it again. Something about blogging at high speeds I guess. The blackberry trackball has lost its click functionality which is annoying but doesn't entirely make the phone non-functional. Good thing too Google Maps has been keeping us on track this whoe damn time.
Just drove out of Salzburg where we will be returning to tomorrow to take the Sound of Music tour - Rick Steves says its quite delightful. We have arrived in Priem am Chiemsee which is a little town on a lake about a half hour outside of Salzburg where I believe we intend to stay. Hallstatt was quite picturesque and nice to walk around in. For some reason there were about a billion Japanese tourists in Hallstatt which was a welcome change of pace in the cultural homogenity which is the Bavarian/Austrian countryside.
At dinner last night Kia's grandparents accidentally ordered a souffle for dessert which was as big as my head. It was awesome and they ate every last bite.
The fall weather, note I am blaming the weather and not the beer consumption, has given me a bit of a headcold but I am going to Jaigermeister my way through it. Birthday on Friday and we should be headed toward Munich and Oktoberfest for the weekend. Grind hard.

The Hills Are Alive...

OK, that was a little weak with the lyrics, but shit, I am in the middle of Bavaria and the closest thing to modern music I have heard was Forever Young this morning at breakfast.
I am flying down the autobahn in the backseat of a rented Peugot station wagon on my way to Hallstatt, which is actually in Austria, not Bavaria. The trip has been a lot of fun. We have seen a ton of stuff (3 castles, 2 lakes, 3 grand churches, 1 Hitler house, about 20 mountain villages and, at last count, 2,952,652 cows). Beer with lunch is quickly becoming my new favorite habit. Going to bed early and spending an hour eating breakfast are competing for second. I believe the wifey and I are the youngest people in most of the places we have gone which both makes me feel awesomely with-it and surprisingly spry. Well, we are off the autobahn and I am missing all the scenery.
Smell ya later.

You Tie My Hands, What Am I Supposed To Do?

On the shuttle. Now only most observant readers would realize that I shouldn't be on the shuttle right now but instead getting ready for a day of work in the SF office because of my flight in the early evening tonight to Munich. So why, pray tell, am I on the bus this fine morning? Well, I needed something to do with the car during my vacation so I drove it south, parked it at work and hopped the early morning shuttle from Mountain View to San Francisco. So I have spent the last two hours on the 101. Oh well.
Working from The City today and I have m day planned out already. Need to maximize my efforts to ensure that I get everything done that I have planned. Its going to be a bit tight.
In Fantasy news, I have made it to the finals of my baseball league. Finals in fantasy baseball, like most fantasy sports suffers from the fact that the playoffs are really at the end of the regular season, where many teams are benching their star players in anticipation of the playoffs. I'm hoping my teams are playing for playoff spots, most of them are out of contention though. Zoinks. Football was less successful this week. Carson Palmer is fast becoming a liability on my roster. Peterson had another bonkers game though.
Getting off the shuttle at Embarcadero. I may try to update the blog during my vacation, but it will be limited at best.
Grind hard.

Jump In the '64, Get Out, Cock the Hammer, Then Kick Down The Door

Man, had to post this little tidbit. (credit goes to Josi via the wifey for pointing me at this one *Updated with the actual Comedy Central video)



Uh, y'all got sizzerved. Oh, and Sarah (Palin this time, but happy birthday Wampler) if you have a kooshy cabinet position open for me, let me know girl. A to the motha fucking K homeboyyyyy.

I Call These Rappers Baby Seals 'Cause They Club You To Death

Another late night in Mountain View tonight.  Tomorrow will be a bit late too because of some video conferencing with another office.  Today I was late because, frankly, I am going on vacation next week and I have a shit ton of work to do before I leave.  'Twill be a magical vacation though.  I'm considering smashing my blackberry before I leave in order to ensure that I am not tempted to check my email.  I am going to end up checking it anyway though.  Isn't T-Mobile from Germany or something?

Man, the late night commute is something else though.  Flying towards the city.  About to get off the freeway and I left Mountain View roughly 35 minutes ago.  For those of you not from and/or currently residing in the bay area, this is completely insane.

Ended up winning my fantasy football matchup this week.  Adrian Peterson came through for me even if Carson Palmer was a big fat dud.

It turns out that I am going to miss the basketball final in our Google league.  My prediction on this is that it has abolutely no bearing on the outcome of the game though I will be a little sad to miss the victory lap that I imagine Nate taking around the the court doing his characteristic old man shuffle jog.  My coaching advice - pass David the ball in the paint and play Dougherty aka "The Human Highlight Reel" at least half the game because, damn, that is just some fine basketballing.  

Tomorrow is Sara's birthday, happy early birthday Sara!  On a related note, I was thinking that I may have to edit all of my blog entries about my friend Sara and change her name from "Sara" to "Sara, not Palin", but I am going to assume that my readers are advanced to pick up on the subtle presence of the silent 'h' on one of their names....

OK, grind hard.

You Rhyme Depressin', You Haven't Learned Your Lesson - The Issue I'm Stressin'

Monday down, four more days to go. Then one more day next week, then 14 days of vacation. Boo ya.
Work was OK today but I was there longer than I wanted to be. Headed back on the later shuttle this evening which is on track to put me back home only marginally later than the 5:30pm shuttle. Man, 101 traffic is painfully bad if you are on the road at 6pm. I keep talking about adjusting my schedule to account for this, but I probably never will.
Following the Minnesota/Green Bay game on the Yahoo! ticker right now and Adrian Peterson just scored on a 3 yard touchdown run. I picked Adrian first in our work fantasy draft this year which was a bit of a risk but so far I am feeling pretty good about that. Tom Brady (picked second) is potentially out for the season with a knee injury. I am playing against the guy who got a bargain on LT picking third this week and with Adrian Peterson already scoring me 17 pts this game, I am feeling pretty good about my chances - I was up 8 pts going into the evening where I have AP playing and he has Selvin Young and Minnesota defense.
Speaking of fantasy sports, I need to set my pitchers in my baseball league playoffs this week. OK done. Lincecum pitching against AZ tonight. Timmaaaay.
So, another "tribute" (read: mock-tastic) post along the lines of Sophia's affront to Alaskan sensibilities - Palin would be appalled - was posted by a coworker.   OK, you have jokes, not bad.

Caught up on a bunch of Sex and the City this weekend, the wifey and I are almost all the way through the series and I have to say the production value and the sriting of the show has gotten much better as it has progressed.  

OK hopping off the shuttle.  If you haven't checked out Mock, Paper, Scissors yet, do so, its pretty funny.

Make that money but don't let that money make you.

I Bust With An Exuberant Lust For Life

Hurtling towards the city and its roughly 8:30pm. That puts my work hours committed today up to roughly 12. Boo ya.
So the topic of discussion at work the last few days - at least with me - has been Sarah Palin. Here are a few stats on Sarah.
From Wikipedia:

"Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission."

"As of the 2000 census, (Wasilla's) population was 5,469, but the 2005 estimate gave a population of 8,471"

"In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest (playing the flute),^[7][8] then finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant,^[9] at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award.^[6] Palin attended Hawaii Pacific College — now known as Hawaii Pacific University — in Honolulu for a semester in 1982, majoring in Business Administration. She transferred in 1983 to North Idaho College.^[10] In 1987,^[11] Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science.^[12][13]"

Children's names: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig

Number of votes she received in 1999 Mayoral race in Wasilla: 909 (73.6%)

And of course:
"Governor Palin announced on September 1, 2008, that her daughter Bristol was five months pregnant and intended to keep the baby and marry the father of her child, 17-year-old Levi Johnston.^[134][135] Bristol Palin is a senior at Wasilla High School.^[136] According to Wasilla High School Principal Dwight Probasco, Levi Johnston plays on the school's hockey team but does not attend the school. Johnston is home-schooled through the Mat-Su Correspondence Study School in Wasilla, Alaska.^[137]"

Seriously, do I have to explain why this person is a bad idea to be anywhere near the president's seat let alone one tossed blood clot (in a dude who looks like he is about to pop half the time) away from the presidency of America? Give her a job in the cabinet. Let her be press secretary, something with lots of air time.
I think Mrs. Palin actually took longer in college than I did. Joe Bidden will tear her to shreds if they do a VP debate but (according to my mother) this actually worked to Sarah's advantage in the Governer's race in AK because voters thought that she was getting "picked on" when the other candidates tried to get her to state a position.

OK, whew, rant over. Good luck Sarah.
Weekend was good. Relaxed a lot, watched Tropic Thunder, which was pretty funny, but not awesome. Finished the Watchmen which was awesome. The ending was good, I was pretty worried about how they were going to end it, and they did a good job. I hope they do a good job in the movie version of capturing the cultural climate in which it was set (80s Cold War). I heard that Alan Moore (the author) walked off the set and told the producers to take his name off the movie. Yikes.
Hopping off the bus.

I Roll Backwood Trees With That Emerald Green

Uh-oh, serious face.

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.

I Said A Banana Nutriment Man

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.

I'm Pro-Zapatista, Pro-Cuba, Viva! Pro-La Raza Saying Fuck La Migra

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.

My Choice Is What I Choose To Do And If Its Causin' No Harm It Shouldn't Bother You

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.

Domino Effect, Arts and Crafts, Paragraphs Contain Cyanide

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.

Everything I Hear On The Radio Is Hillbilly Hood

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.

Got The Respect Without Dropping A Check

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:

(Photo credit goes to http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/ - which I just found out is an awesome site)

"Seriously Spidey, you can't be in favor of term limits!"

Monster Truck, Punk, Elephant Gun Poke, Jawbreaker Humanoid, Vicegrip, Choke

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.

...As He Utter The Calm Flow, "Don't Talk About My Mom's Yo"

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!!

The Heat Be In It, You Need A Key To Get In It

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.

I'm About As Swift As Lightning Greased, And I'm Cold Like Sub-Zero - Feel The Deep Freeze

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.

Reflecting Off The Church Pews, Givin' You The Good News

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.