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san diego bay, January 2012

2012-01-29T10:29:00.001-08:00

Above the clouds

2011-11-27T09:32:00.001-08:00

Liberty Station

2011-10-28T20:35:00.001-07:00

Calendars

2010-10-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

I really like the way these two organizations have integrated Google Calendar into their websites: Stone Brewery, KPBS.org

Everything has a name...

2010-10-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed hearing this Radiolab episode on NPR today.

Little Italy Farmer's Market

2010-05-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

We went to the Little Italy Farmer's Market with Chandelle this morning and all I've got to say is "wow." It's actually kind of impressive.

San Diego Zoo

2010-04-18T09:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went to the San Diego Zoo. We have a friend in town and she was interested in checking out the "world famous" zoo, so we figured we might as well go check it out. Nikos has never been there and I haven't been there in about 10 years. Actually, it's kind of funny - my only real memory about the zoo was the sticker shock I initially experienced when I went. I grew up going to the National Zoo in DC which was (as many things in DC are) completely free. My Great Aunt, who lived in Escondido, gave me a $20 bill and told me to go have fun at the zoo. I remember thinking "wow, that's awfully nice - I guess I'll buy myself lunch at the zoo." When I showed up the gates and found out that I had to buy a ticket to get into the zoo, I figured it couldn't be that expensive.

The cheapest ticket to get into the zoo at the time was $19.99. My mind was blown.

So going into this yesterday I knew we'd be dropping some cash just to see some monkeys doing obscene things. It now costs $37 to get into the zoo. Was it worth it? Yeah, actually - I think it was. The zoo is actually pretty big and we ended up spending about 5 hours there. My favorite exhibit has to be the koalas. They probably had about 15 of them, and they were all tucked away in trees sleeping.

Santa Barbara

2010-04-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Santa Barbara last weekend. I've never spent any real time there; always just driven through. Final thoughts: Great architecture, good food, nice views. The picture above was taken in the sunken gardens at the county courthouse. Yeah - can you believe that? That's the court house.

Belgian Tripel

2010-03-07T16:15:00.001-08:00

My first homebrewing effort, a Belgian Tripel, turned out very well. Currently fermenting: a Bavarian Hefeveizen.

san diego beer week

2009-11-14T09:45:00.000-08:00

It's a cool time to live in San Diego. Men's Health magazine recently ranked San Diego as the top craft brewery town in the U.S., with 33 active breweries (more than Portland). So now it's known for sand, surf and beer.

If you decide to visit, check out the San Diego Brewer's Guild map of local breweries.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

What we did today:

1. Saw baby elephants.

2. Saw a stampede of giraffes

3. Touched a Barasingha

4. Went to Stone Brewery

san juan capistrano

2009-10-24T21:26:00.001-07:00

I like San Juan Capistrano.

Dead Hand

2009-09-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

This month's Wired has a really good article on a Soviet doomsday device, engineered during the cold war. When you get a chance, check it out.

Montana Wedding

2009-09-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Spent last weekend in Whitefish, MT attending Kelly & Matt's wedding and just enjoying time with family. Also made a run to Glacier; reminds me of the Black Hills on steroids.

Peek device

2009-08-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

I really want one of these Peek devices but it dawns on me that I have absolutely no use for one.

zombie walk

2009-07-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight there was a zombie walk downtown.

BRAAAIINNNSSS!!!!!

Mammoth Lakes weekend

2009-07-08T20:28:00.001-07:00

So what's the strangest thing you might see in a small-town 4th of July parade? It's between Darth Vader, Chewbacca, a Storm trooper, a leopard (mascot) in a cherry picker, and an overweight Smokey the Bear.

Still, it was a beautiful weekend.

under the pier

2009-03-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

surfing and torrey pines

2009-02-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

Today is a classic San Diego day. It's February and still sunny and in the high 70s. Wake up as the sun is coming up to go surfing with a friend and the waves aren't anything special, but the water feels awesome and the water and sky are totally clear. Then get home, quickly change and spend the afternoon hiking around Torrey Pines with Nikos and a friend. Tonight we go and try a new wine bar in North Park. It's just been an awesome day.

February 2009

2009-02-22T19:46:00.001-08:00

We walked around La Jolla Shores this weekend. I don't think we've done that for a few months. It was really nice.

High Speed Rail for California!

2008-11-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

Californians did it! On election day (past Tuesday), Prop 1A passed, which included a bond measure to fund up to $10B towards the creation of a new high speed rail system which will go from San Diego to San Francisco, linking Los Angeles and other major CA cities in between.

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/

If the state can really make this work and get this operating and completed by 2030 I will be one happy camper.

Pacific Beach Raft Party

2008-09-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

It was a year ago today that an incident in Pacific Beach basically brought the issue of drinking on the beach to an end For years people were allowed to drink on the beach and as a result, P.B. was the place to be for the 4th of July, or Labor Day, or just about any other day. However, several months after the infamous Labor Day Riot the city voted on a booze ban and ever since, the beach has been a much quieter place. The SDSU students and the twenty somethings have to go to the bars on Garnet or a house party before heading down to the sand. A few people have protested the ban, but right now it looks like the ban will likely stay.

So what is person to do if they want to go have a few drinks while they're at the beach? Well, buy a raft, of course! It seems a group of hold-outs are still trying to keep the dream alive in PB, so to make up for the booze ban and the fact that the PB Block party is long gone, they've started PB Raft parties.

If you get a chance, read the "Details" box for the specifics of the laws and how they suggest not getting busted. It's very funny.

gumball 3000

2008-08-11T08:09:00.001-07:00

The Gumball 3000 was in town yesterday.

Top Gun bar burns down

2008-06-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

I took a cab back from the airport yesterday and on my way home we got stuck at a light about two blocks from my place. The cabbie and I look to the right and there was all sorts of smoke coming from Kansas City BBQ, aka - the joint in Top Gun where Tom Cruise and his buddies hang out. I got out of the cab and walked the rest of the way, but was able to snap off a picture and a quick video of the place going up in flames.

2008-06-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

They've got to work on their product names.

The Carriers at Sunset

2008-06-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Every day on my way to work I pass the harbor and yesterday I noticed the NIMITZ, WASHINGTON and STENNIS are all in town. So last night Nikos and I walked down the block and caught this at sunset.

muxtape

2008-05-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

I decided to make a muxtape this morning of some songs I've been listening to lately while working.

lots of stuff...

2008-04-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

the last few weeks have been incredibly busy...

Google to buy balloon company?

2008-02-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

The concept of using these balloons as temporary cell towers or geo-stationary satellites (sort of) is kind of cool.

San Juan Capistrano

2008-02-16T19:43:00.001-08:00

Today we had to go to Corona Del Mar so on our way back we decided to stop by San Juan Capistrano and walk around the mission. For those of you who somehow missed this cartoon when you were growing up, there used to be this MGM cartoon called "The First Swallow" which was a story about how the birds started migrating to the mission every year.

This is, in fact, a real place and yes - it is actually known for the annual return of the swallows which leave and then return every year on March 19th. The Mission, established in 1776, was the seventh of twenty-one missions established in California by the Church to try and indoctrinate the natives. It's really impressive because the stone church, which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1812, still stands (somewhat) partially in ruins. Walking around the park parts of it feels like you're touring the Alamo and then you turn a corner and feel like you're looking at some Roman ruins. If you're ever driving around the south end of Orange County and there's traffic on the 5, take one of the Capistrano exits and go get your learn on.

raveonettes... again

2008-02-02T07:40:00.001-08:00

The Raveonettes are coming to the Casbah again, February 29th. I really dig.

Oh, and again, they're Danish.

pancooken

2008-01-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

pancakes for dinner and breakfast.

point loma

2008-01-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

Point Loma pano.

different days

2008-01-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I have days at work where I sit down, start working on a file and before I know it, the day is almost over. Today I sat down and started working on a file and next thing I know, I look up and it's 2pm. Good day, but nothing terribly exciting. Then there's Nikos...
On Friday, Nikos got to spend the entire day at a gun range down near the border, shooting any number of guns including automatics (on fully auto). If she were a cop, I wouldn't think much of it, but she's not.

Vegas and VA

2007-12-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we saw Mike getting married in Vegas and this weekend puts us back in VA. In between we bought a car, did some last minute x-mas shopping and lots of packing and unpacking.

I don't think I'm getting anything for x-mas but at the same time, I sort of don't care. I've had such a good year and the last few months have been so good to me that I sort of feel like I couldn't ask for more. Nikos passed the bar, landed an incredible job, my bros got married and we got to spend a lot of time with family. I'm really excited about all the things we have planned over the next few months, so again - there's not much to really ask for.

seasons greetings

2007-12-09T19:04:00.001-08:00

I like the holiday In-n-Out bags; very festive with palm trees and sleighs. Speaking of, we actually saw the Palomar Mountain Range covered in snow today while we were driving back from North County.

the Amazon Kindle

2007-11-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Several companies have tried it in the past and they've all pretty much failed miserably. "What if we make a small digital device, the size of a book, with a black and white screen so that people can download e-books and carry around hundreds of books instead of just one?" It hasn't really taken off for many reasons and when Amazon announced their latest attempt, the Kindle, last week many critics had the same old response.

Nikos and I talked about it a bunch too and couldn't get past the $400 cost of entry. I mean, when you look at it - it sounds as though you're paying $400 for a device that is primarily just set up to make you buy $10 digital downloads and nothing more. So cost of entry is more like $400 plus at least $10-100 in downloads right off the bat (because why buy it and just put one digital book on it?).

But today my opinion started to change when I found out that Amazon really screwed something up when they marketed this thing. Here they are pitching this as an e-book reader that allows you to conveniently download and buy books directly from the Amazon website, using a built-in EV-DO wireless connection (provided, free of charge, by Sprint's 3G data network). What Amazon completely failed to mention is that this device also has a built in web browser and the data connection is ALWAYS ON! So in short - you're paying $400 up front for this e-reader with 24hr a day internet access, and best of all you're not going to be paying any sort of monthly fee for the service.

What does that mean? Well, if you've wanted something like an iPhone simply because you want to be able to check websites and/or your email while you're on the go, or sitting in an airport, you don't have to sign a 2-year contract w/AT&T. I'm not saying this thing is comparable to an iPhone, but there are a lot of people out there who would be willing to buy this thing simply knowing that they could have an always-on internet connection on what is essentially a stripped-down PC tablet. Why have the folks at Amazon completely failed to mention this?

Turkey Day & the baby cow

2007-11-23T19:27:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving dinner was in VA and generally awesome.

Today we walked over to Kidwell Farm, taking the dog on a walk, and while walking through the barn we came across this stall. The calf, appropriately named "Gravy," was born yesterday. These are some of its first steps; it was really cute.

Oh, and then we came across the recently pardoned turkey. You may or may not know, that there is a White House tradition of "pardoning" a turkey every year. After that happens, they send the turkey to this farm in Herndon, VA. So this is this year's presidential turkey; pretty ugly, eh?

UPDATE: Nikos passed!!!!

2007-11-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Take that, California Bar!

Finally...

2007-11-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

Virginia Tech came in 3rd place in the DARPA Urban Challenge this week.
I finally got a MacBook and I'm loving it. I'm still trying to figure out all the in's and out's of OS X but so far I'm really liking it.
We've got a problem with homeless people in San Diego. To be more specific - yesterday a homeless guy stabbed a random bystander after he asked him to move away from his car. That happened in my neighborhood.

Some fire pictures

2007-10-25T11:42:00.001-07:00

Before I flew out on Monday morning I snapped a few pictures. The first I took while I was at the airport, with the sun coming up. You can see the sky was basically orange. When we finally got in the air our plane flew out over the ocean and did a big left turn, coming back just North of the border near Chula Vista. In the pictures you can see some of the fires that were in and around the Potrero area. This was the "Harris Fire" that was being reported in the news.

The good news is that when I landed late last night, you couldn't really see many fires burning. From what I'm hearing on the news it sounds like there are still a few burning but they're not as out of control as they were before.

wind + fire = screwed.

2007-10-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

Wow; my city is on fire. Well, fortunately not downtown where I am located but parts of the city are really hurting. I'll be back in San Diego tonight and I'll try and upload some pictures when I get a chance. When I flew out on Monday I tried to snap a few photos of the Harris/Potrero fire from the air. As for now, we're fine; I love my city. In case you haven't seen the Google map above, click on the link to get a better picture of where everything is happening.

pies and fires

2007-10-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with one thing on my mind: pie. Nikos and I had talked about it for the last few weeks but never actually made the trip out to Julian. So when we woke up this morning without any real plans for the day, we jumped in the car and headed east.
We made it out to Julian in about an hour, had pie at Mom's and the Julian Pie Company, and then headed home. Julian is known for its apple orchards and apple pies, so we took the relatively safe route and tried a slice of the Apple Crisp at both places (Mom's was better). We also tried an Apple/Pumpkin slice that was kind of strange.

It was extremely windy and cold (about 55 degrees) in Julian and when we got back down to San Diego it was in the 70s, sunny and hot. We passed a few fire trucks that were flying down the back country roads on our return from Julian. When we got home we heard on the news that there were some enormous wild fires that had sparked up early in the morning and were burning just West of Julian. By the time the afternoon rolled around the smoke from the fires had drifted West to San Diego and the sky was quickly blanketed with a thick haze. Nikos took this picture just before sundown.

little italy festa

2007-10-15T20:43:00.001-07:00

Sunday we walked around our neighborhood and checked out the Little Italy Festa. It was a pretty good time. There were sidewalk drawings (done w/pastels, not chalk), lots of Italian-food vendors, and lots of bad stereotypes. I really like our neighborhood.

Miramar Air Show

2007-10-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Nikos and I went to the Miramar Air Show and it was awesome. I've been here for a few years and I've never actually been to the air show but after the Red Bull Air Run a few weeks ago, I decided we ought to go this year. I'm glad we did because it was everything I'd hoped it would be. We got to see a ton of cool stuff. Actually, I should clarify - we got to see, touch and even sit in a few planes. It was cool as hell. We got to see a Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) up close, along w/a Predator, an F-117 Nighthawk (stealth bomber), a bunch of F/A-18 hornets and some enormous planes (B-52, KC-130, C-17). I think the highlights for me were seeing a Harrier flying, seeing the JSF, and then watching the F-18's do all sorts of awesome maneuvers.

Oh, and what's better is that the whole time they're fly-overs they're playing Danzig, mixed with a bunch of uber-patriotic rock. It was like something out of Team America. At one point a bunch of marine helicopters (cobras) did these simulated "attacks" where they flew by really fast and then an explosive ordinance unit on the ground set off these huge explosions (to simulate rockets/bombs going off). It was actually very bizarre and kind of funny at the same time. It felt like a monster truck rally on steroids; it was meant to appeal to the most basic senses. Big explosions and rockets noise = a good time. That kind of thing.

In any event, it was awesome and I'm definitely going again next year. Here are a few more photos:
My friend Mike is flying one of these C-130's right now but he flies the gunship variant. This was a refueler.
This last photo is of an air team called the Patriots; it's basically made up of a bunch of ex-military pilots who fly L-39s.

halloween surprise

2007-10-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

The conversation went like this:

"We need to clean up our diet."
"..okay."
"No really - we've been eating a lot of bad stuff recently so let's shake on it. We're going to clean up our diets."
"...okay."

This, of course, was prompted by the fact that we were on our way to the gym and needed to make a trip to the grocery store soon. Before we could hit up the gym we had to stop by the Post Office because the day before we received a notice that there were 2 packages waiting for us. When the postal worker came back to the front desk with the packages we both scratched our heads. Someone had sent us two enormous boxes we weren't expecting.

I was so eager to figure out what was inside that I opened up the one box while we were still in the Post Office. Our eyes lit up when we realized that Nikos' Mom had sent us a ton of Halloween stuff. We threw the boxes in the trunk and headed to the gym. When we got home we unpacked the boxes and it was like Christmas... but earlier and with a Halloween theme.
And wouldn't you know it - one of the boxes was filled with the largest bag of chocolate candy I have ever seen. Seriously - I bet half of the weight of that box was high fructose corn syrup.

So I did what any person with a chocolate addiction would have done. I ate about 20 pieces of chocolate and told Nikos we needed to clean up our diets and stop eating so much junk food.

Saturday, 22 Sept

2007-09-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was really nice. Nikos and I woke up to clouds and we were crossing our fingers hoping it would rain. It had been all over the news this past week; word that we'd have this huge storm and could expect more rain than we've had in the last two years. When it finally came, it rained for about 10 mins and quickly moved out. We drank out coffee and took the time open the balcony door and take in the rain since we rarely get it out here.
Within an hour it was completely clear and sunny and we could already hear the planes and helicopters outside buzzing around, getting ready for the Red Bull Air Run. We drove over to Coronado and ended up grabbing some food before walking down to the bay. We weren't sure what to expect but I knew it was going to be cool when two Navy planes suddenly flew over for no reason other than to show off cool military stuff. When we got down to the water it was packed. We even passed a bunch of chairs that had been set up on a lawn for a wedding that had been planned. How random is that?

So what is the Red Bull Air Run? Well, it's basically a bunch of stunt pilots flying ultralight little prop planes through a bunch of uprights that are placed out on the harbor. They have to fly around this course/track as fast as they can and after a few qualifying rounds they get down to the best pilots.
In between the races, the Navy, AF and Marines would do fly-bys in everything from F-18 Hornets to a Soviet-era MIG. It was awesome.

After the races were over we started to walk away and when we turned around the wedding we had passed before the races was just starting. See the bride in the picture below?
With plenty of random gawkers watching on, the ceremony started and the officiant made a joke about the fact that they had just happened to plan a wedding the same day as the air races. As the maid of honor started to give a little speech about how she had known the bride since they were little kids, I kid you not - suddenly out of the corner of our eyes we see an F-14 come by doing some sort of slow, low level maneuver with its jets blaring away. It was so deafening and honestly, one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I mean, the wedding had to completely stop while this Navy pilot did his fly-by and on lookers ooh'd and ahh'd. It was awesome.

As we left the island, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam because someone's car died on the Coronado bridge, but at least I got a chance to catch this bumper sticker.
When we got home we sat down for about five mins before we headed out to P.B. to roll sushi with friends in P.B. All in all it was a really busy day and when we got home we passed out almost immediately. So today is a lazy day of sitting back and relaxing and just catching up on things around the house.

red bull air race

2007-09-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

This afternoon after I got home from work I heard the planes buzzing outside my back yard. This weekend is the Red Bull Air Race, being held on the San Diego harbor. Apparently they've launched at least one of these planes from the deck of the USS Midway, which is kind of interesting because it's the first time a plane has taken off from the deck of this carrier since it was decommissioned.

we need more maps

2007-09-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

"I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and The Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US or should help South Africa and should help The Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children." - Miss Teen USA South Carolina
I want the new iPod Touch.
Going to St. Pete tomorrow... yeah.
The Gimli Glider.

Portland and stuff

2007-08-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

Went to Portland last week and found it to be relatively uneventful. Stayed downtown, real close to Powell's. The city kind of bummed me out because I think there's a lot of really cool progressive stuff going on in that city (i.e. the biking trend for one), and there are a lot of really nice people, too. But at the same time we got really tired of the Indie hipster kids and the punker-than-thou thing got really old. The best comparison I could draw up was: what it must have been like to live in Seattle during the '90s and not be some grunge dude and instead just have been your average joe who worked in tele-sales or something like that.

In any event, interesting city but I'm glad to be home.

wedding in balboa

2007-08-12T12:32:00.001-07:00

We went to Travis & Stephanie's wedding in Balboa Park yesterday. It was really nice.

the $54M pants

2007-08-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

It's called karma.

this is england

2007-07-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

I'm really looking forward to seeing This is England.

UC Berkeley class lectures

2007-07-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the lectures I've listened to so far this week:

History of Information (InfoSys 103)

Propaganda
The Post Office
Internet and Information Literacy
Open Source
Search, Storage & Retrieval

meraki mini

2007-07-20T20:31:00.001-07:00

I really like the idea of having free wifi access points out in public. This startup, Meraki, has created a WiFi repeater/router that they're trying to push to community groups looking to provide free wifi via mesh networking. There's actually a non-profit called SoCalFree.net based here in San Diego that's been using these things to set up free wifi access in some of the lower-income neighborhoods and housing projects. They place these repeaters on the rooftops of low-income apartment buildings, or on telephone poles, and build a mesh network utilizing one or more access points.

So I'm thinking about getting one of these things and tinkering around with it.

information=power

2007-07-20T13:21:00.001-07:00

Information is power. So I think it's interesting that as the internet continues to develop more and more people are eager to share information they have about anything. What's more - as time goes on it's obvious that people are eager to share without asking for compensation.

I mean, when you need access to information and you go to a website that specializes in something (i.e. legal stuff at Lexis Nexis) you're required to pay a fee in order to gain access to information. But over the last few years with the idea of the social web really catching on, people have become eager to share information they have for free. So more and more people make blogs, create websites that specialize in obscure stuff, and add entries to Wikipedia.

Lately, the thing that's really intrigued me about this freedom to information is the access that major institutions are granting to the public. NPR started posting all their shows as podcasts, available for free download - but I guess that's not a huge deal because NPR was free in the first place; you just had to turn on the radio. However, now there are major universities like UC Berkeley posting many of their class lectures (via podcast) directly to their websites.

So I can't take classes at Berkeley right now - ok, well I can listen to a good recording of every single lecture for Legal Studies 103 (Theories of Law and Society) that was given last semester. I may not be getting a diploma or class credit, but I love the idea that I can download all of these to my iPod and continually learn about this sort of stuff while I'm just walking or sitting around my apt.

happy hour

2007-07-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

took this at happy hour last night.

date night

2007-07-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last night Nikos and I went to an Argentinian restaurant up the street called Puerto la Boca.
The food was excellent and afterwards we took a walk down the street to grab coffee before catching Eagle vs. Shark over in Hillcrest. I enjoyed the movie more than Napolean Dynamite, the film that most critics are comparing it to. I'll admit, the pace of the film is hard to deal with at times, and as one critic put it, it is hard to care about characters who act like they have undergone frontal lobotomies. Still - it was a decent film and and overall, a really good date night.

This morning when we went to grab coffee we walked into the new Architectual Salvage store on Kettner (their original shop is on India).

the fourth

2007-07-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

I went to PB on the Fourth. Holler.

back home

2007-06-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back in San Diego. Man - I had the strangest flight home. I took JetBlue's new direct flight from Boston to SD and it was roughly 6 hrs 20 mins. The strange part was the route the pilot took. We flew east out of Boston, over the Atlantic, and then made a sharp left and headed Northwest, over upstate New York and then into CANADA!
At this point (below) I seriously began to think the pilots were going to fly us to Vancouver and then take a sharp left and head south, down the West Coast.
I swear to god, we flew over Canada for almost an hour before coming back through Wisconsin, heading over Minnesota and even the southeast corner of South Dakota! There's got to be some rhyme or reason to taking this route - I just don't know what it is. I'm not a pilot, but here's what I believe our route should have looked like (in yellow) vice the route we took (in red):

JetBlue Google Maps mashup

2007-06-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month JetBlue announced that they'd start using Google Maps for their flight tracking (they were using Mapquest). I snapped this picture after I boarded my flight to Boston earlier this week.

the tenth fan

2007-06-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

The other night while I was at the San Diego airport I noticed there were about a million Red Sox fans roaming the airport, waiting to go home. I was surprised that many fans showed up for the games this past week. However, I was even more surprised by something else...

I saw two more people wearing "Tenth Fan" shirts at the airport. The Padres 10th Fan shirt is somewhat of a mystery to Niki and I. Last June during the one Padres game against the Giants, they handed out free shirts at Petco Park that said "San Diego" on the front and on the back they said "Tenth Fan". The t-shirts were enormous and have since become the standard, all-purpose shirt you wear when you don't care if you look like a slob or a bumpkin.

That said - in retrospect, there must have been a million people at that single game because a year later, I still see people wearing the Tenth Fan shirt on a very regular basis.

So what does the "Tenth Fan" thing mean? I have no idea. Niki and I have debated it a number of times and are convinced that it was basically a bad play on the phrase "the tenth man." In fact, there's a whole forum post revolving around the Tenth Fan shirts on the SignOnSanDiego site. You can see a picture of said shirt, here.

@dulles

2007-06-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

I just got to Dulles and I'm waiting for my next flight. I snapped the above picture this morning as the sun was coming up. JetBlue is having a contest right now where they're trying to get passengers to take pictures while they're flying and in September they'll pick the 25 best pics and give free roundtrip tickets to the winners. All of the pictures I took blew, but luckily I have some other good ones from previous flights.

Yesterday Niki and I saw Knocked Up and it was awesome. The dialogue was great and definitely several steps above the previous Adam McKay films (i.e. Anchorman).

Random note: If you're ever looking for a good program to build webpages with, similar to Dreamweaver but completely free, try Aptana. I used it this past week to redo my homepage in CSS and I'm using it to design another site right now. I know - that's random, but seriously - it's probably the best free program I've used in a long time.

the raveonettes

2007-06-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I went and saw the Raveonettes play at the Casbah. For the most part it was just Sune and Sharin playing guitar without a bass player or drummer, but for a few songs they had the drummer from Midnight Movies stand in (see clip below). The Raveonettes are supposed to have new album coming out late Summer/early Fall and I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and in case you didn't know - they're Danish. Rock on.

mr toad's wild ride

2007-06-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

This is the most entertaining news article I've read all week. This guy in a wheelchair got his chair caught in a semi-truck's grill and got pushed down the road for 5 miles. The audio clip is great.

crazy horse

2007-06-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

Today my parents walked up to the top of the Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills. Once a year they open up the mountain for the annual Volksmarch and 10k people show up to hike a few miles to get up in Crazy Horse's face.

roof peel

2007-06-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

This picture and article in the NYTimes reminded me of why I hate renting U-hauls.

337 art project

2007-05-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

In Salt Lake City they're getting ready to tear down an old two-story building that was previously used as a school and an office building. But before they do that - they're turning it into an enormous community art project; a place for graffiti artists to converge. via, digg.

we're back

2007-05-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

So many random updates! Where to begin? Last Saturday I got back to SD after spending about a week and half hopping around the East Coast, going to see Bruce in Blacksburg, going to Nikos' graduation, going to Boston and helping Nikos pack up and move. Now we're back, here to stay and it's an awesome feeling. We haven't done much this week because I've been so busy with work and Nikos with classes that all we've done is run errands in our free time.

Here's what we did today:
* Walked to get coffee this morning at Caffe Italia
* Went to the Post Office to send out Ted's b-day package
* Drove around Mission Hills looking at old Craftsman homes
* Went to Balboa Park

... and then I went to Best Buy because I bought a three year warranty on my 4th generation iPod and it's actually dying (with only 6 months to go in the warranty!).

Tonight we're staying in . I'm listening to Savath & Savalas - Folk Song for a Cello.
I want to read "Beneath the Neon." I'm trying to finish this book.

bottles of water

2007-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

While we were in Blacksburg on Thursday, we stopped by a 7-Eleven to pick up some water. Bruce suggested we get different brands of water so that we could compare and see if there really was a difference.

Rock over London, rock on Chicago...

2007-05-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend I realized that the People Under the Stairs (PUTS) pay tribute to Wesley Willis in their song "Outrun." I'd never noticed it before, but at one point Thes One says, "Rock over London, rock on Chicago. GE, we bring good things to life. Diet Pepsi, uh-huh." I thought that was especially cool and just another reason why PUTS are certifiably awesome.

art walk & more

2007-04-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Ah, busy weekend. Saturday morning I woke up early and went to volunteer at this event my company holds annually. It's kind of like Habitat for Humanity, except this year we basically went to the YMCA in Normal Heights and did a bunch of stuff to fix it up and make it better for the kids who use it. After a morning of polyurethane-ing a bunch of playground equipment, I went over to Bub's in PB and took part in the charity event organized by the local VT Alumni Chapter. I bought one raffle ticket, didn't win jack - but had a good time hanging out with friends and eating tots.

Sunday I went surfing and it was weak, but that's probably good because I was feeling sore and I had other things planned. I got back to Little Italy and met up with Meredith to check out Art Walk. I was beginning to feel a bit worn out on street fairs after last week's trip to Normal Heights, but Art Walk was pretty good this year and there was actually some real art worth seeing. My night ended with a BBQ in La Jolla with friends and when I got back I threw together the video below. Last week I told myself I would try and start shooting more video with my digital camera but I didn't get much footage this week. Nevertheless, I realized I had more than a few clips I've taken over the last year including my recent trip to Vegas, so I decided to throw them together and post to Vimeo.

vegas and PB on Vimeo

my shoes

2007-04-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I decided I'd look into what it would cost to re-sole my shoes and whether or not it was worth it. I wear dress shoes all the time but I've never actually gone to the trouble of having them re-soled. In the past, when my shoes started to show their age I just went out and bought another pair. But I've realized that all of my shoes end up wearing funny - you can tell from the picture above that on my current shoes (left side) I apparently drag my heels when I walk. So a lot of my shoes have this really sharp angle on the back where they've been worn down over a relatively short period of time.

So I take this older pair of dress shoes in and find out it's $45 to get new heels and soles on the shoes and 3 days later, you've got the pair on the right. I'm still blown away at how good they look all around; I mean, they look brand new.

adams avenue

2007-04-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Friday it rained, here. That isn't normally the sort of thing worth writing about but it rained heavily (see, poured) and it only does that about once a year. The rain ended just in time for an awesome sunset and I took this...

Saturday I went to the Adams Avenue Street Fair and that was interesting. Although it did have some sort of tie to Earth Day and some local music festival, it occurred to me that nearly all of the street fairs I've been to in SD are exactly the same. They're like a farmer's market with live music, tents full of local artists selling all sorts of things, mixed in with "fair food" (i.e. funnel cakes, polish sausages, etc). The only thing that made this street fair stand out to me was that it was in Normal Heights and I normally, I wouldn't spend any time there.

Oh... I almost forgot to mention - the only other thing that made this fair stand out was the dancing jesus that wandered into my video.

Lastly, today I caught Grindhouse and it was awesome. If you get a chance, definitely catch it in the theater because it's not going to be as much fun when you catch it on dvd.

the last 2 weeks

2007-04-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Where to begin - ok, two weekends ago it was this:

I left work early to make the drive to Las Vegas and spend the weekend with Mike and Bethany at the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly convention. It was awesome. I've posted a few of the pictures from the weekend. After about 48 hours in Vegas I hit the road, came back home and put in another 40 hours until this past weekend. Friday night went to a small party in PB and then Saturday was the annual PB Stay Classy charity crawl!
I had a really good time and got to see a few cover bands. The only downside was that I got home around 10:30pm and never got back in touch with Brian, who returned to O.B. after the crawl only to find that Slightly Stoopid was playing a show at Winstons! So yeah.. I missed out on that. In any event, good times nonetheless.

I can't remember whether or not I've made plans for this weekend, but whatever the case - I hope it warms up and the winds die down. The surf was all blown out and not happening this past weekend.

On a final note: I'd just like to add that the media coverage of today's events at VT were sad. I find it sickening that the major media outlets still resort to the headlines like, "MASSACRE at Virginia Tech! Photos here.." and "SLAUGHTER in the classroom!"

Seriously - CNN and the like - do us all a favor and stop feeding us the sensationalist crap and start giving us providing us with real information like the who, what and when. If Paula Zahn tries to exploit some poor student's first hand account of nearly being killed, one more time, I'm gonna puke.

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

Status: mourning the loss of Kurt Vonnegut. He passed, tonight, 11 April 2007. He was 84.

Needed: The perfect mixtape...

2007-04-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend's been nice but I'm already looking forward to next weekend. I'm thinking about driving to Vegas Friday night to meet up with Mike and Bethany. If so, that will be a 4 hour drive through the desert and I'm thinking I'll need to find some new tunes and create the perfect "drive to Vegas" mixtape.

So I'm soliciting your input. If you were going to make the drive from San Diego to Vegas and you had to create a mixtape, what would you put on it? Feel free to list your jams in the comments.

in the news

2007-03-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

I thought this article was pretty funny: Village People cop arrested in San Diego. I love it when you read a bizarre article like this and the final quote pulls everything together nicely.

happy to be home

2007-03-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

I have been jumping back and forth between the coasts 3 weeks out of the last month. Last night when I got home I was so happy to sit on my own couch and lie down in my own bed.
Someone screwed up at the Marriott and this time while I was in Boston I got a 2 bed, 2 bath suite for $104 a night! Check out the pano of my living room:

Before I left I grabbed the new Arcade Fire album, and so far, I dig it. I like this track: Keep the Car Running
I flew back to Dulles on an Embraer 145, which was awesome. It has to be the smallest jet I've ever flown on. I really like the Embraer 190 that I normally take on JetBlue from Boston to Dulles, but this little one was very cool.
A 2 hour layover at Dulles gave me some time to grab dinner before heading back to SD. While I was walking back to my gate this little kid in front of me tugged at his dad's shirt and pointed up towards the ceiling. "Look dad, they have a kung-fu flag," he said. His dad laughed and told him it was a flag for South Korea. I thought it was very funny.
I'm so happy to be home. Daylights savings time goes into effect tonight and I think it's awesome. Tomorrow I'll wake up late; so what. I'll have an extra hour of sunlight to go surfing after work or just enjoy the weather.

st. pete

2007-02-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

Saint Petersburg is like a ghost town. I don't think I could ever live here.

peter bjorn and john

2007-02-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I've been rocking these two songs a lot in the past 24 hours - by peter bjorn and john:
Young Folks and
Let's Call it Off (Girl Talk remix)

the swap meet

2007-01-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

three reasons you go to the swap meet:
1. It only costs $1 to get in.
2. You can buy a Lucha Libre mask for $10

3. You can spot a dude wearing rad shorts, an elmer fud hat and a fanny pack.

bizarre weather

2007-01-15T22:55:00.000-08:00

It's cold. This morning it was 38 degrees outside when I woke up. That never happens.

Renewable Energy

2007-01-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

On of my favorite blogs, Autoblog Green, recently had an article about a dairy farm in Vermont that was using cow poop to generate electricity. It sounds crazy, but sure enough, I did some reading and the whole operation is not only feasible - it's actually quite efficient. If you're wondering how it all works - check out this diagram.

The long and short of it is that the methane in the cow poop can be burned in a natural gas engine that rotates a generator, that produces electricity. If you only have one cow you can produce enough energy to power two 100-watt light bulbs, 24 hours a day. If the dung wasn't processed, it would simply sit out in the field and the methane would rise into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming (methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO₂).

So let's congratulate Vermont for thinking outside the box on this one. If you want more info, the Central Vermont Public Service group has an extensive page with information on their "Cow Power" service offering.

ufo vs. trampoline

2007-01-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

While Niki, Brett and I were walking around Target last week, we came across this trampoline in the toy aisle. The kid on the box looks like he's being sucked up by a UFO.

another day another airport

2006-12-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

I'm not here.

I wasn't here last week.

By the time you read this, I'll probably be back in VA - visiting family, seeing a show, doing the whole Christmas thing and counting down till the ball drops.

If you need to get a hold of me you're best off calling my cell phone or shooting me an email.

Good update, eh?

the css payoff

2006-12-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

I finally had the patience to sit down and slowly walk myself through basic CSS. I've been meaning to convert my website to use css for a while now and basically gave up (a number of times) when running into simple questions that seemed to have no easily attainable answer.

In any event, I finally converted the site and modified things ever so slightly. Yay, for CSS. Yay, for learning.

solar decathlon

2006-11-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Oh, did I tell you? I bought a beach cruiser last week. I'd wanted one for a few months and finally bought one when they went on salel; a $99 steal.
I really like some of the designs these universities came up with for the last Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Dept of Energy. While I'm not crazy about any of the little houses, I really like the fact that they're all energy efficient and run off solar. And living in SoCal, the idea of having a solar powered home isn't completely unrealistic. There are more pics of the houses up on Flickr. The next competition is scheduled for Fall 2007.
I landed another trip to Boston in a few weeks, which means another quick fly by D.C. before Xmas and more time with Nikos and la familia.

election day

2006-11-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

Where to begin? Well, today I voted. That was nice and surprisingly quick and painless. I'd like to send a quick "thank you" out to whoever it was that petitioned the county to require that all of the Diebold machines in San Diego be retrofitted with a little printer that actually prints out a copy of your ballot as you vote.

Daylight Savings Time has been a mixed blessing; damn you DST for making it dark when I leave the office. But thank you, DST, for.... crap. I guess either way you look at it, DST stinks.

The air here the last few days has been really dry/clear and it's made for some awesome sunsets. If you haven't had a chance, check out the Flickr group: San Diego Sunsets. Yep... I actually live here.

In other news, I heard that Santee has a drive-in theater and after reading this guy's review, I'm dying to check it out; even if they don't have the dancing snacks. Apparently it's been around since 1958 and it still shows current movies.

Tonight I'm staying in to watch the election results and edit some video. So far, my team is winning, so I got that going for me... which is nice.

credit cards

2006-10-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

A great article on credit cards and security; the touchscreen signatures are brilliant.

the national

2006-10-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to the Little Italy Precious Festa and checked out the street-art and Italian sports cars. I posted a few pictures here.
Tonight I'm going to see The National at the Casbah. Yay, for cheap shows and good times!
Tomorrow I'm doing a red eye to VA and when I wake up I'll be spending the next 4 days with Nikos!!!! Let the good times begin :)

jose gonzalez

2006-10-05T00:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight I saw Jose Gonzalez at the Casbah. I wasn't sure I was going to go but then I listened to this NPR recording when I woke up this morning and decided I ought to go just in case he did the cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division.

he didn't... but it was still an awesome show.

laura veirs

2006-10-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

I like this version of Magnetized by Laura Veirs; a live recording done by French choir students.

end of summer

2006-09-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall. Still perfect beach weather and the summer crowds are gone.
I'm really enjoying Lamb by Christopher Moore.
I saw Phoenix this past Tuesday at the Belly-Up.
Next show: DJ Shadow at HOB or The National at the Casbah

something smells

2006-09-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

I think this article is incredibly funny. My favorite part: “I just thought it was bums.”

Honestly, when I read articles like this I often wonder whether or not the writer takes him/herself seriously.

american hardcore

2006-09-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

Last night after I got home I pulled out Start Today by Gorilla Biscuits and listened to the album straight through. I probably haven't done that since I was 15.

oh... and then I found out there's a new film coming out this month called: AMERICAN HARDCORE.

SoCo tomorrow

2006-09-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Big plans for the weekend: surfing, reading and seeing SPANK ROCK at the free SoCo concert going on in Gaslamp on Sunday. Getting ready to have my face rocked off.
I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again: KEXP, 90.3FM in Seattle has the best archive of live studio performances.
I really like this version of you Your Ex-Lover is Dead by the Stars.
I also like this acoustic version of Sleepwalking by the Raveonettes. Random fact: they're Danish.

weekend trip

2006-08-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Friday, after work, Nikos and I packed the car and hauled it up the 5 to spend the weekend (and a few days) up in the Bay Area. It was awesome; we could definitely see ourselves living there at some point.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

sausalito bandito

2006-08-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Nikos and I are in Sausalito. Pictures to come!

flaming lips bizarro day

2006-07-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Nikos and I went up to Del Mar right after work so that we could catch a few races and more importantly, see The Flaming Lips for the cost of entry ($6!). There were a ton of people there and the show was pretty good; Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite introduced the band - that was kind of random.

More random: while we're standing there waiting for the band to come on Nikos turns around and randomly bumps into this girl Meg, who she grew up with and who went to college with us.