Wow, this is still up...

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to access this blog again(almost 4 years later).
At issue was that I created the account using an 06 email address that I created to be disposable, I'm hosting this site on my server, and Google had bought out blogger.

Cade had a wonderful link. I should try to visit these labrynths.
http://sanfrancisco.about.com/od/artsentertainment/tp/bayarealabyrinths.htm

Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondent's Dinner

PART 1
PART 2

For those of you who can't watch the videos, here is the complete transcript:

and an article

After Dark Catch of the day

Tonight after midnight, someone posted an Airport Extreme card, Apple Pro Mouse, and Apple Pro Keyboard for $60. I bit being the techie that I am. The odd part was that this craigslister had to pay rent and needed to deal tonight. So, about 12:30AM I had to drive to 18th and Santiago and then call from the corner. I felt as if it were very much akin to a drug deal except with Apple goods.

Ticket Stubbed: Four Tet

At Christina's invitation, I went to a concert at the Independent. Finding parking took 20-30 minutes but I got lucky or lucky enough to not get towed by my oversized car invading two driveways. Four Tet was coo though I really only meshed with the first song. I would have liked more words from the musician to make it more personable than the feeling you're watching this guy practice in his room at home these awesome mixing skills.

I liked Jamie Lidell's opening performance, and it may be because it was so vocally infused.

Sunday Kayaking

I believe I've invited everyone I know to go on a fun kayaking trip Sunday. During September, it's only $10/hour in Alameda(Oakland).

Sausalito Art Festival

Shu and I went to the festival yesterday and saw the most wonderful works. If I have a mission in life to obtain three pieces of art, I would obtain a piece from:

Theodore Gall - http://www.tgall.com/
Michael Gard - http://www.michaelgard.com/
Thomas Barbey - http://thomasbarbey.com/

TV Show crossovers

It's fun to see acting cameos of your favorite TV shows intertwined. I loved watching Deadwood. I'm now watching Six Feet Under from start to finish and am on Season 2. Season 2 episode 7 had Mrs. Garrett from Deadwood as a jewish rabbi(and still a very attractive one). The episode right after had Al Swearengen's henchman, Dan Dority, as a biker. In real life, I think Six Feet season 2 was being filmed in 2002. Deadwood started in 2004. Both are HBO, so this finding isn't as scandalous as it could have been had Showtime filmed one of these shows.

Once in the family....

Cocoa Day 1

I'm taking a 5 day vacation from work to take a Cocoa class over in Cupertino. It's kind of fun and yet tense to get one of my projects done ASAP. During lunch, I had fun playing v-ball. I hope all workers there know of the b-ball and v-ball that one can seek during lunch's escape.

They fix Macs and fight off robbers

'We Fix Macs' holdup ends in shooting

Knowing myself, I'd probably have fought the guy too. But maybe I would have used something called iMac electrostatic discharge.

Matching passions

I read on the daily skaters email from the California Outdoor Rollerskating Association's group emails that there is a guy who is about to finish skating all 831 miles of Oakland streets and he works for Apple.

Oakland: Spinmeister charts new course

With some research, it seems as though he works on Quicktime. I'm tempted to skate up there without his knowledge to be a random stranger who also likes skating and Apple but that might take some inside information on his whereabouts in the 831 possible miles of coverage. Once he finishes, maybe we can get a group together a little closer to SF or Cupertino. I met an Appleite on the Stanford Wednesday night skates, so we'd have at least 3.

Enough?

There's a point where a person should realize they have too many computers.
6 computers later. ..

Discipline of the senses

How to become an early riser
How to become an early riser part II

Getting to know me. My sister sent one of those surveys around, and here are my answers(edited for general public viewing).
1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:20AM. 8:30AM. then 8:45AM. My cellular phone is my alarm and it has snooze. I left home at 8:59 and clocked in at work at 9:09. Thus, after finding the blog listed above, it's best if I just wake up at 8:20AM every morning. I can always web surf for time filler. The strategy of using one time for everyday might be better than trying the sleeptracker watch that had been popular of late.

2. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Star Wars Episode III on May 7th. 12 days before it was released to the public.

3. What is your favorite TV show? Dead Like Me(but it was Cancelled after 2 seasons). Carnivale(limbo after 2 seasons). Veronica Mars(limbo after 1 season). Deadwood(limbo after 2 seasons). Lost

4. What do you usually have for breakfast? Amy's non-dairy organic burrito. I eat them everyday for breakfast.

5. What is your middle name? Han-Kew = 'Asks permission of the heavens' I googled it and there doesn't seem to be someone else with the exact same name with a dash.

6. Favorite cuisine? Sushi

7. What foods do you dislike? Sweet addicting delectables that are raw fat and sugar. Think oreos, twinkies and fried pigskins.

8. What is your favorite chip flavor? Sweet potato

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Coldplay, X and Y

10. What kind of car do you drive? Dark green 1994 Infiniti J30T

11. Favorite sandwich? Grilled steak on lettuce and tomato and hot ketchup with no cheese, salt or pepper

12. What characteristic do you despise? self-deprecation

13. Favorite item of clothes? Orange sweaters; leather

14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Hot island with clear water

15. What color is your bathroom? Pistachio

16. Favorite brand of clothing? Rollerblade

17. Where would you retire to? Austin

18. What was your most memorable birthday? Thomas, my college roommie threw a surprise party for me by inviting my friends from my instant messaging list.

19. Favorite sport to watch? Spurs basketball

20. Furthest place you are sending this? Texas(directly)

22. Person you expect to send it back first? My sister

23. Goal you have for yourself? Invent something amazing and revolutionary

24. When is your birthday? I'd answer but I believe there are too many internet websites that use the answer as a password revealer.

25. When is your anniversary? I thought of 25 years as my mid-life. I guess 50 would be the next.

26. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning if you count after 2AM. Hah.

27. What is your shoe size? Don't let strangers know your shoe size. Wear cloggers instead. Well, I guess you could always answer some funny foot size number like 42 instead of your real size.

28. Pets? 1 fig leaf plant and many house spiders(though I recently 409'd many because they were rabbitting out of control). I've recently craved for a large, short haired dog.

29. Any new and exciting news you would like to share? I'm still trying to keep that stuff in my blog.

30. What did you want to be when you were little? Marine Biologist. Paleontologist. But I still don't know how to swim and fossil digging is asking to be sun burned and unwealthy.

31. What are you today? Tired of work and agitated people. Full of futo maki from a sushi compensated late lunch.

32. What is your favorite candy? Choco-Tacos

33. What is your favorite flower? Sunflowers

34. What is the date on the calendar you are looking forward to? June 25th, my friend Mandy(I was a bridesman at her wedding) and her husband stay with me for 2-3 days.

35. What is your favorite beer? Sapporo

36. The one thing in your life that you're proudest of? My dreams are the only things that make me feel different from anyone else.

They're far from true, in fact past due, but time can not tell me I've awoken.


-B.

Finding Lost

Ok, now I can give up daily tidbits in favor of more fun stuff.
Question: How would one create a force field?
Besides the purposes of war, I think it'd be great if electrical force fields were used to counter natural disasters.

Subquestion: A flood is coming towards your house and you want to use technology(not sandbags) to save it. What would you invent?
If you had a force field, you could just put it up in walls and have the water go by.
Or, you could develop a circular or egg shaped dome to helicoper drop over the house with bottom lining that when soaked, gains weight. Thus, forces of water would go around the dome cover whereas walls might go inward(though they're easier to helicoper drop). You'd have to hope the dome would fit just right and would still fit if you had close neighboring houses.

Now, if there were a hurricane, what would happen if you had a mile-wide/mile-high forcefield that blocked it. Would mother nature really have a hissy fit? What would the weather implications be then? Would it be worth saving a floridian city?


Watching: I'm on episode 10 of Lost now.

Odd Fruit

Today, at work, I worked with a person who brought in an iMac that had been shot with a bullet. The person said it was an accident and said it was a sad story, so I couldn't ask for details. But darned if it were the oddest thing you'd imagine happening to an iMac G5. It was shot from an angle so it was still lodged in between the LCD and the hard drive(which I heard was dented) but the unit otherwise turned on fine.

And in world news, don't leave your iPods where cows can eat them.

Watched movie: Constantine. I love Peter Storm and Tilda Swinson's acting in this movie. I'm highly amused by the comic relief both bring into the picture.

Blogger's Dinner

This evening, Ethan invited me to schmooze with the big boys of Mac dev. at a blogger's dinner hosted by scifihifi.com at the Thirsty Bear on Howard. The food, beer and company were all great in taste and fulfilment. John C. gave me great advice on how to get into QA spotlights by burning in some good experience with Obj. C, Perl and Applescript. It's important to make my own software and especially important to make my own automated testing software(If I could make it autonomous and self-replicating, all the better). I've also been clued in that if I want to not fully relinquish my rights to software I develop while working for the big A, I need to have my nuclear projects past infancy and teething.

V. Mars

After work, my whole goal was to finish the last 5 episodes of Veronica Mars. I amazed peeps that I could do this from 8PM-2AM. It was well worth it except that the TiVo cut off the last finale episode so I was left at the cliffhanger scene when our lovely protagonist is locked inside a burning freezer. Not a good way to end a long night's viewing. I'm a person who loves to finish things as quickly as possible. The downside is I don't like to start things unless I'm certain that I can see the finish. All the tv and movie viewing means that I can somehow make time for extracurricular pursuits such as the programming projects I wish to pursue.

Rough odds that someone reading this would have watched Veronica Mars: 1:30

Soothing Saturdays

With the day off, there was nothing to do but watch more Veronica Mars episodes. The first few episodes had Paris Hilton, which I can forgive. Compadre Anthony informed me that she(Kristen Bell) was also in our favorite show, Deadwood. Much respect bestowed. For the totally low possibility that you've seen some of the shows, you've got to love the two-three times she uses a southern drawl that makes you wonder if it was from her training in Deadwood. In episodes 8 and 11, you might even get to see Tina Majorino aka Deb from Napoleon Dynamite(or girl from Waterworld). Anthony said he's seen the whole season 1(22 hour episodes) in 4 days. I think I'm on my 3rd and may tie depending on if I do anything with regards to life tomorrow.

Fridays

Like clockwork, I skated with the posse of the midnight rollers. It was fun as usual but more entertaining because I met Barri whom I previously met in NY about 2 years ago. She was a marathon skater and we reminisced with Paul(of Brooklyn) about the people and fun we had in NYC. She mentioned that NY has the Big Apple Roll the last weekend of July and I should try to attempt to be there. Fly 1500 miles to skate about 50. Why not?

Beauty and the Geek

Today was a relaxing day off. I mainly stayed home and watched movies - Star Wars Episodes IV-VI, Veronica Mars, and a very amusing tv series called Beauty and the Geek.

If you haven't heard about Beauty and the Geek yet, it's on the UPN on Wed/Thurs and plays on the usual reality show rules of 7 couples kick off 1 couple a week until 1 remains. But as implied by the title, the contestants are not so bright but beautiful women and very bright men that could use social awakenings.

I relate with the guys in the social department but get to laugh at them just a little bit for fulfilling some of the stereotypes that we tend to associate with geeks.

I believe that working 3 years in face-to-face retail customer service has increased my comfort with talking to people, particularly beautiful women. It's by no means how they describe the NYC Soho Bars with "Single women are having their rescue fantasies fueled by the suprisingly chatty, sociable Mac daddies"(NY Post) because I'm almost all about business and efficiency. I consider that my strength and weakness. I care too much about my work to leave it at a 40-hour week. I also don't joke around as much as one should heathily do in a workplace from time to time. But the singular thought that working this job might one day help me to transfer and make quality software that is mark of the company, compels me. Matt(in Austin) asked me today if this job is working for me and I answered that I will only know if I get the transfer or bust.

Stanford's Wednesday night skates

Tonight, I skated the Stanford Wednesday night skate. The excitement was escalated because I was running late and had never been to the Stanford campus and my printer was out of ink so I had to use memory and a few jotted details to find the group. Though, I had thought they started at 7:30 when they started at 8PM. It was relaxing and I met a more people tonight than I've met total on Friday night skates. The crowd was younger and nicer. I met a cute Laura from Holland, 2 Mikes, a Scott, Alberto, Mark, and I remet Paul because I had skated with him in NY on Tuesday night skates before. The skate through campus and slightly out of campus was fun and only a bit of a workout. My thick thighs can still keep me up at the front sprint wise but I need to learn correct form going downhill. I look forward to skating with the group more often but I might make some changes to the 45 minute commute there.