the future is now

Getting to Seoul Proper

2009-12-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

I touched down in Incheon Airport around 4pm on Sunday December the 27th. Walking out of the exit ramp and into a windowed corridor the first sight of South Korea for me was a snow covered tarmac littered with planes. Hello Seoul!

There wasn't any hassle getting through passport control. Having done a bit of research online before travelling here I was under the impression I'd need printed verification of an onward journey to be let in to the country as a visitor. Since I don't have a printer at home I had made it a point to stop at the Korean Air ticketing booth in Heathrow before flying to get a printout of my itinerary. It turns out I didn't need it, but better safe than sorry, eh?

After collecting my knapsack from the luggage belt I took a seat and turned on my iPhone. Again, research online told me that the Korean networks were CDMA, but that you should be able to roam on a 3G phone depending on your carrier. And…. Yes, it connected to KOR SK Telecom without an issue.

Quick aside: I did discover later that I'm not able to access data on the 3G network. I wouldn't have enabled roaming data very often on the phone but there is one specific type of scenario I've already encountered many times in which it would have been very useful. Trying to find a specific location when already on the road. Google Maps with GPS location data and the inbuilt compass. (Double aside: There aren't really addresses here. There are regions, broken up into districts, broken up into areas, comprised of streets. I take the subway everywhere in Seoul so directions to somewhere are usually something like "Take line X to station Y, exit #Z, walk about 5 minutes until you see a Starbucks and SK Telecom, turn left, go a couple blocks and it's on the right) It would be very useful for situations where all you have is a business name, a street name and maybe a subway exit, but no-one to give you directions in English.

So a quick phone call to my friend was placed to let her know I'd touched down safely, that my iPhone works so I wouldn't be renting a mobile phone, and that after hitting a currency exchange and figuring out where to catch the bus I'd be on my way (you can rent mobile phone's from Seoul's airport. Since my phone worked I didn't end up looking into pricing.)

You've got a few transportation options to get to Seoul from Incheon Airport - trains, taxis, KAL deluxe limo busses, and city limo busses (city limo are the cheapest of bus options at about 1400 Won for the trip I needed to make, and are really quite comfortable). Having looked online I knew that city limo bus 6030 stopped in Itaewon, which is where I was meeting my friend. We would be staying at the Seoul Motel for the first while, which is above a McDonalds in Itaewon according to my research. I purchased a ticket at the indoor bus ticket office (there are also outdoor kiosks near each exit), and proceeded outside to find the stop and wait for the bus. While waiting in line a friendly worker informed me in broken English that the wait for the bus to arrive may be around an hour because of the snow (the bus normally arrives on 15 minute intervals). Well, I'd already got my ticket, had no way to research a new route, and wasn't going to pay for a taxi to Seoul.

Well it turns out that they added an extra bus to the route so I luckily only waited about half an hour in the cold :). I was struggling to keep from dozing while on the bus (I don't sleep well on planes) so as to not miss my stop. At some point we returned to surface streets and the driver would occasionally call out something in Korean. ...but no English. I had no clue where I was nor any clue where I was really going. One of the times the driver called out one of the passengers responded in Korean. At this, the driver pulled over and let the person out. Oh boy… this worries me.

The next time the driver stopped the bus I walked up to the front. I crouched down and asked if he spoke English, to which he responded something in Korean. "I need to get off in Itaewon?" I stated. He stared at me blankly for a few seconds and then said, "Itaewon. Long, long way." He then said something loudly in Korean. At this both the driver and the entire bus of Korean passengers began to laugh uproariously. It was an interesting walk back to my seat, all I could do was smile at the passengers and laugh at myself.

After this I was much more intent on watching what we were driving by through my semi-fogged window. Hoping to glimpse a sign in English for Itaewon, or something. At some point in peering out the window I saw a big sign for the Capitol Hotel. Ok, that sounds familiar… ...yeah, that's a couple stops after where I thought I had to get off. I figured I'd stay on one more stop to see if the route I had written down from online was still accurate or not. I thought to myself that I could always catch a cab the short way back from one of these hotels if necessary. On the way to the next stop I continued to inspect the city through the snow. Wait, is that a McDonald's coming up on the right? Look above it. Oh please, oh please… YES! A glowing green sign for the Seoul Motel!

"Excuse me," I called to the driver, "is there any stops near here?" He looked at me in the rear view mirror, but had nothing to say. "Ok," I thought to myself, "I'll just keep close track of any twists and turns, how many streets we pass, and any landmark buildings." I got lucky in that the next stop, the Hamilton Hotel, was straight ahead only a couple short blocks away.

So a five minute walk later and there I was at the Seoul Motel, greeted by my waiting friend. The online reviews of the Seoul Motel were not glowing, but hey, it worked for me. The place was clean, and cost 45,000 Won per night. So there I was, finally in Seoul. Check in, drop the bags, quick shower, then let's hit the town!

Weather in Nice is Nice

2009-09-25T01:02:00.000-07:00

I flew into Nice on Wednesday for meetings all day Thursday. I've actually been staying in an area called Sophia Antipolis just south-west of Nice, which is like the Silicon Valley of France from what I understand. The weather has been wonderful, reminiscent of my University days in San Luis Obispo. Today is Friday, and thus should be a weekend day for me since I'm on a UAE work week. However, I do have a bit of work to do today, though hopefully it's just an hour or two.

At 2:30pm I've got a flight from Nice to Budapest, which marks the beginning of my holiday. I'm meeting a group of about 10 friends in Budapest and will be hanging out with them through the following Wednesday. Our journey begins in Budapest from today through Sunday, and then we take a train on Sunday from Budapest to Munich. The remainder of the holiday will, I'm sure, be a continuous episode of drunken debauchery. I hope I'm in control of my faculties enough to remember to take photos. Actually... depending on how out of control I am, perhaps it's better if I don't remember to take photos...

Oktoberfest Up and Coming

2009-09-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

I had flights booked from London long ago. I essentially am eating the cost of this (they weren't too expensive) as work is picking up the bill to get me to and from my destinations now that I'm in the UAE. So I finally booked those flights through our corporate booking tool. It felt good to see the confirmation email come through as I once again have everything including flights sorted.

Huge thanks to Dan O for taking care of booking the original flights and the hostels both in Budapest and Munich, and also to Jonno for doing the same for our train from Budapest to Munich. Since I had the motivation to finally book the new flight I suppose I should ride the motivation coat tails and transfer the money I owe to these guys for doing the footwork!

I have to say I'm really looking forward to this holiday!!!

Edit: Done and done. Fellas, the cash should be incoming...

Plans for my time out here, or planning my timing out of here

2009-09-11T00:57:00.000-07:00

I've been in the United Arab Emirates for going on a month now. All of that time has been spent in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I need to get out of here to other parts of the world while I'm here... Both to experience new things, but also to just get out of here for awhile.

I had a dream last night that I was back in Southern California hanging out. I was sitting there with a group of friends planning a road trip from San Diego up the coast to Seattle. I almost never dream about being back in the States. I think this was probably brought on by the fact that because of the weather, Ramadan, and the culture here I'm feeling a bit stuck. West Coast of the States is probably where I feel I have the most freedom to be who I am, do what I want, and go where I want because of familiarity, family, friends etc.. I think my mind was dealing with how I am currently feeling about the UAE by putting me in my comfort zone. So it is this message to me more than anything at this point that is saying that I need to find my way out of here, even if it's just for a weekend.

And the weekend it is. Unfortunately I haven't planned anything and to be honest I have work to do that will likely preclude me from a last minute trip anywhere. Plus there are events planned for the weekend locally that makes it that much easier to not do the hard work to try to get out of here just for the day (essentially).

At least I do have some travel plans coming up soon. There is a decent likelihood (probably around 60% right now) that I will be travelling to Nice, France a week from Sunday. It will be a business trip, but a trip nonetheless. I'm now really hoping that this does occur just so that I can get out of here sooner rather than later. If I don't end up on the business trip to Nice, I will likely still try to go somewhere next weekend as it is Eid Al Fitr here, which means a long weekend.

The weekend following that is also a long weekend for me as it is a holiday trip I have had planned for awhile now. I'm flying to Budapest on Friday, September 25th and meeting a group of around 10 friends there. We'll be staying in Budapest for the weekend and then taking the train first class to Munich for Oktoberfest. We're in Munich from Monday through Wednesday. Since the weekend is Friday/Saturday here in the UAE, that means when I fly back on Wednesday I'll have one day of work and then the weekend again. Not bad :).

I believe that my friend Sam will be back in the country by then. He has mentioned to me that we should rent a car and drive down to Muscat in Oman, which is purported to be amazing. If we could fit that into the first weekend of October, and if I make it to Nice, then that would be three weekends in a row (two of which would be long weekends) that I'd be out seeing new parts of the world. I think that sounds like just what my body is telling me I need right about now.

Happy Birthday Nik!

2009-09-05T02:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a celebration weekend for my friend Nik's 28th birthday. After work on Thursday I jumped in the car with Alex, Nik and Carl and headed up to Dubai. Thursday night we went to the Buddha Bar at the Grosvernor House Hotel for the first birthday celebratory meal of the weekend. Incredibly cool interior design and incredibly good food and drink. Started with a selection of sushi and sashimi and then made our way through various hot and cold appetizers. It was a bit like an Izakaya experience.

On the drink side of things japanese beer and much sake was had, followed by an unfortunate number of shots. My head was not well the following morning... The sake we had was wonderful - light, flowery and mildly tropically fruity. Though it had better be good at around £185 per 50cl bottle... Multiple of which were shared. The shots that followed wouldn't have been too bad, except for the fact that we ordered shots for everyone, and Nik doesn't drink. Somehow I decided it would be a good idea to drink his shots for him on top of my own... Tequila and Jager (as illustrated in the photo)...

Friday was a bit of a struggle for me in the morning. Luckily there wasn't a whole lot planned until early evening. I went to the Mall of the Emirates and wandered around doing a bit of shopping. Picked up a couple pairs of shorts, which is a win for me because I didn't bring any with me! While I was there, one of the stores I checked out was a department store called Harvey Nichols. It was some sort of high £ department store. ...and let me illustrate what I mean when I say high £. There was a jewel encrusted foosball table for sale, the price tag for which was somewhere on the order of £30,000. Uh huh, you read that right thirty thousand pounds for a foosball table. Needless to say, I didn't pick anything up there...

Alex and Nik picked me up at the mall some time around 5:30pm and we headed out to Autodrome for some Go Karting. We went Go Karting there last week as well, on the outdoor track. This round was done on the indoor track. Alex once again showed himself to be the top dog on top time. They also have laser tag at the Autodrome, which I'll have to go back for at some point :)

Following Karting was a meal at a restaurant called The Meat Company, which is located right on the water at the Souk Madinat. It's unfortunate, but for the most part the food sounded much better on the menu than it actually tasted. Nik ordered some calimari, I tried a piece and it was probably the best dish I had there. I ordered an appetizer of Boerewors for myself. This is a traditional South African sausage served with a fine grained polenta and a semi-spicy stewed tomato sauce/relish called chakalaka. Sounds good, right? Well it sounds better than it tastes. For main I had a Wagyu ribeye with steamed vegetables and sauted mushrooms, peri peri sauce on the side. While the ribeye was incredibly tender and had tremendously flavourful fats (expected of Wagyu), it was also the skinniest ribeye I had ever seen in my life. Dissapointing... I ordered the cheese plate for dessert, which came out with seriously over a pound of cheese. And it was more quantity than quality. eh, well, you win some and you lose some. I at least got to enjoy the company of 12 other Infusionites and significant others.

After the meal we headed to Bar Zar for a few pints. Then it was back to Alex and Jo's place to crash. Getting ready now and unfortunately have to hit the office for an hour or so before grabbing a taxi for my 1.5 hour ride back to Abu Dhabi. fun... :(

Night on the town in Dubai

2009-08-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

All the Infusion folks based in Dubai were getting together on Thursday night for drinks at a place called Barasti Bar. I'll add photos of the night when I have time. I had deep fried pork ribs to put something in my belly before getting through too many beers. Boy was that strange...

Don't know precisely how many beers I drank, but I can say it was a lot. Whenever I get to the state that I'm buying rounds of shots for everyone I know that it has been a good night. Unfortunately I missed last call when I went to get a round, so we actually missed out on the shots. Probably a good thing. Though they wouldn't give me shots, they were still willing to give me beer, so I bought one of their cylinder beer dispensers. I love these devices! If you've never had them before I'll give a quick description. It's a double cylinder, one inside the other. They fill the inside cylinder with ice and the outer cylinder with beer. So your beer stays cold for quite some time, even in the muggy Dubai heat. There's a nozzle at the bottom of the cylinder that you use to dispense your icy cold beer. I suppose it's a bit like a micro-keg or something. The first time I had them was when I was in Bangkok, Thailand a few years ago (pictured at right, 3 litres of icy cold goodness). There was this outside bar next to the mall that was serving Singha in these style dispensers. Then Wing Dome in Seattle started carrying them. This is the third place I've been to that has these dispensers. They're grrrrrrreat! The rest of the fellas had shisha, but I've already had shisha a few times over the last week so I held back on that.

I'm sure I'll definitely be returning to this bar when the weather starts to cool down. It's right on the water and is very open planned (e.g. there is not really a wall between the inside and outside) and comfortable. There are even chairs/couches and tables down in the sand by the water. The bar has multiple levels and each level has it's own bar, so you don't have far to walk to get another drink. Heck, they've got servers so technically you don't have to walk anywhere.

New country, new experiences

2009-08-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

Hello, anyone still out there? I figured it was time for another revival of this blog. This time the impetus is that I've moved to Abu Dhabi for a couple months for the project I'm now working on. The client I'm working for is Etihad Airlines. I figured that folks back home might appreciate my posting about the experience.

And an experience it has been thus far. Not all good either. Some of you will have heard this story, so apologies for the repeat. After a long tiring flight to Dubai (I can never sleep on planes), making it past passport check and gathering my luggage I'm on the way out of the airport. Someone from staff stops me and starts questioning me. Has me follow him into a 6X6 room, the door to which he locks as we enter. I was strip searched, pants off and all (and I mean in the Brit sense of the word). Every single item was taken out of my luggage and inspected. Uncomfortable as I was after that it wasn't enjoyable walking out of the airport into the outdoors and it feeling like I had just walked into a sauna. Not the most enjoyable welcome my first time in a new country.

Perhaps it didn't help that a had a huge ring through my septum. And to be fair, there was a driver waiting for me once I got outside, and I started out at a pretty nice hotel in Dubai.

Since then it's been looong days of work plus 1 hour commute each way from Dubai to the office. Barely had time to catch up with the world outside of the time spent on work. I was supposed to move to a new hotel in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday evening. However, somehow the client forgot to book my room (even though according to the Project Manager it was all taken care of). So having had to pack up all my luggage and haul it with me on-site Wednesday morning, I then had to bring it back and check back into my initial hotel for an aditional night. Which ended up being paid for on my credit card, and I really hate submitting expense reports...

Luckily the following day my new hotel room was actually sorted. So Thursday evening I took a taxi from Etihad offices to Le Meridien hotel in Abu Dhabi. Le Meridien is in the Corniche area of Abu Dhabi, and the hotel is right on the beach. The weekends in the United Arab Emirates are Friday/Saturday. However, I didn't get to do any exploration on Friday because I had to spend alot of time on work :(. I don't know that I'll do much exploration away from the hotel today either, we'll see. There're quite a few restaurant/bars and couple clubs connected to the hotel itself.

This brings up an interesting point that many of you may not know. You can only buy alcoholic beverages from hotels or businesses associated to hotels. You can buy alcohol for home consumption from liquor stores, but only if you have a liquour permit (which I don't have, not sure how difficult it is to get one). My understanding is that the permit still limits the amount you are allowed to spend per month, so you gotta ration the beers :P. Beyond this, I've heard rumours of little liquour oases in the middle of the dessert where you can purchase to your hearts delight, but then just hope you don't get pulled over heading from there back home...

So today is the first official day of Ramadan (the new moon was observed last night). This means that from sunrise to sunset there is no eating, drinking or smoking in public (actually pretty much nothing goes in the mouth, e.g. no chewing gum). This is a time of fast for the Muslims during Ramadan. This doesn't mean it's not possible for me to eat/drink during the day, note I said in public. Many restaurants, for instance the ones here at my hotel, will draw opaque drapes over all the windows and entrances and still be open for business during the day. Most businesses in general operate reduced business hours during Ramadan. I believe this is partly due to the fact that people don't have the energy to work full days when they are not eating or drinking.

I was delightfully surprised that there is a TimeOut Abu Dhabi, so I've started to pick through there to find things to do. Thorntree UAE unfortunately seems to mostly be focused on Dubai, and all the people I know out here are based in Dubai. Well, let's see how this adventure goes!

Blast From the Past

2008-12-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

So I went downstairs to grab a sandwich from the place at the bottom of my building tonight. I also live on top of a big pub called the Worlds End. Underneath the Worlds End is a club called the Underworld. Lots of bands come through there. As I walked by the front door of Underworld while grabbing my food, I stopped and looked at who was playing tonight.

Voodoo Glow Skulls.

Don't know if they're still the same members and playing the same music, but I (vividly) remember them being a hectic skate punk/ska band. They're from Riverside and I used to watch them play all the time in the early '90s (real early '90s). And now here they are in London like 15 years later playing just downstairs.

"Who do voodoo? We do. F*ck you!"

Crazy shit, didn't even know they were still around. :)

Round trip from London Booked

2008-12-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

So I finally booked my round trip between London and Southern California for the holidays. You would think that since it's less than two weeks away and in the middle of December that I would have been paying an arm and a leg for the flight. Turns out I got a decent deal. Non-stop, round trip from London Heathrow to LAX for around 430 quid. Not bad, not bad at all... So I'm going to be in the States from December 15th through January 8th.

Still haven't booked my flight to Seattle yet so don't have any hard dates nailed down, but I am planning to be there for New Years.

See you all soon! :)

It's alive!

2008-11-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

As seems to be the general case, it's been awhile... The end of the year is drawing nigh, and with it a well deserved respite from work. I'm taking off from the 12th of December through the 10th of January. Sweet relief.

I'm flying in to California sometime around the 12th (I'll have more details as soon as I book my actual flight :P), and I'm going to try and spend around a week up in Seattle around the New Year. Hopefully it won't be too hectic trying to catch up with everyone and I'll get some relaxing down time during the break.

I'll post again soon as I should have some interesting news on the work front, but I wan't to wait until all the discussions have taken place and things have solidified.

Just a Quick Post

2008-09-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Since it's been awhile, figured I'd drop a quick post. Been super busy lately, mostly with work. Things of note:
Dana visited for a weekend on her way to a class in Rome so had a good weekend hanging out with her and my new(ish) friend (and her old friend) Marques. Finally went to Tate Modern, enjoyed it. It was a good kick in the ass to get things in a bit of order around the flat.
Caught my first football (soccer :P) game in the UK. Arsenal vs. FC Twented. Arsenal kicked their ass.
Clif and Kelli are arriving for their vacation in 1 week. Time flies. Note to self: use this as another kick in the ass to get more things in order around the flat :). (e.g. try to get washer/dryer hooked up before they arrive...)

Back in Toronto

2008-07-26T08:19:00.001-07:00

So I returned to London from Prague on Wednesday night and then flew out for Toronto again on Friday afternoon. I'm currently sitting in the patio at the cafe at the Drake getting ready to enjoy my bloody caesar and egg and bacon brunch. I've actually got to spend some time working today since I didn't get much done at the airport yesterday while waiting for my flight, but I figured I'd spend the first bit of the day enjoying the weather and updating my blog.

So I'm here in Toronto for the next two weeks before flying back to London. If anyone has any suggestions of things to do here in my free time please post comments or send me a quick mail. The only thing I have planned so far is to try and catch Dark Knight in IMAX while I'm here.

...well, brunch just arrived so I'm going to cut this one short and hopefully post again later this weekend.

Wow, all I can say is wow...

2008-07-22T04:16:00.001-07:00

Well, not really. I suppose I can actually say quite a bit more than that. Let's start off with my opinion that the Tom Waits concerts were absolutely phenomenal. And that's an understatement. I don't think I could find the words to adequately describe how incredible the shows were. The only drawback is that, with encore, they were only around two hours each night. Short but sweet. Short but extremely sweet. Tom Waits is an incredible showman, musician and storyteller. Additionally, the members of his band were all awesome as well. Makes me want to quit my job and just follow him around for the remainder of his European tour. hmm.... ;)

So five nights in Prague and four of those nights were filled with great music. Jazz the first two nights at Blues Sklep followed by two nights of Tom Waits. Great food, cheap beer, beautiful weather....

Actually, speaking of the weather, the rain here is interesting. At least what I've experienced of it. It may be sunny and clear one minute and then boom, the sky turns black, thunder and lightning, the clouds open up and there's between 2 and 5 minutes of torrential downpour. Then it's clear again. Really a wonderful experience. I noticed most people would duck into awnings for the duration of the deluge, not me. I found it really refreshing to just wander down the middle of the empty streets and let the rain soak me. It actually made me really happy and for awhile I was laughing hysterically while meandering through the rain. People probably thought I was crazy. I'm sure they're at least half right.

Well, until next time... which will probably be some time late this weekend. I'm flying back to Toronto for two weeks for work and I'm sure there will be some interesting goings on there. Hopefully that will include The Dark Knight in IMAX.

The laptop has been drinking, not me...

2008-07-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

In Prague. Just got back to the hostel from a night out on the town. It's about 2am on Sunday... Really an early night if you compare to last night where I was out at a bar until about 4am . An intersting place it was. None of the workers or patrons were Czech. There were people from all sorts of other places around the world (Canada, States, Denmark, UK, various places in Africa).

So the real reason I'm posting is the place I hit tonight. Name of Blues Sklep. Initially a bunch of old guys playing jazz. Really well... Not only was the music great but the venue was great too. In the basement of a building in some old side alley. Exposed stone walls and arches (and shit...). The musicians were a bunch of old Czech guys, all of them were really good. A sax, a piano, an acoustic guitar, an upright bass and a set of drums.

After the first set they added a trombone and a chick singing. Even better times! Especially with 1/2 litre Czech beer for less than 30 koruna (that's just over $2US or a bit over a pound). Definitely think I'll be going back on Sunday.

Who Knew There's New News?

2008-06-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

I purchased my concert tickets to Tom Waits in Prague weeks ago, but hadn't yet gotten around to booking my flight and accomodations until today. Fly in late Friday and back late the following Wednesday. Man I'm really looking forward to that. It was a difficult decision to make between a hostel and a hotel. In the end I went for a private room at a hostel, though I believe it is a shared bathroom. Compromise between privacy and price.

This coming weekend I'm flying into Toronto for a week as part of the new project I'm working on. Most of the other people on the project with me are based out of Toronto, so we're having a week of ramp up and architecture/design discussions to get the project off to a good start. I'm hoping to actually have some free time this time around in Toronto and look forward to hanging out with Matt and Janella (?on spelling of her name).

Besides those two items, not a whole lot new going on. Second week living in Camden Town went fine. Still no furniture, but I am borrowing an inflatable mattress from a co-worker so at least I'm not sleeping on the floor anymore. I promise to have the place furnished before any of you drop in for a visit :). Speaking of visitation, I've found a great pub that I'll definitely be taking people to. It's named Quinns and its a bit out of the Camden Town core, so it's not too crowded. They have a decent selection of Belgian beer in bottles, and they only charge 3.30 pounds per bottle, which is what some of the other pubs in Camden Town charge for a pulled pint of ale. For those not in the know in regards to current conversion rates that's about $6.50 for my bottle of St. Bernardus Abt 12. Pretty close to what Rob charges at the Monk, right?

Speaking of Quinns, it's a beatiful Sunday afternoon, I think I deserve a St. Bernardus...

Moving This Weekend

2008-06-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

Finally moving to my own place. The next week is going to be a hellish week though. I get my keys Friday night and have to be fully moved in by next Wednesday because the lease is up then on my current place. Plus I'm supposed to go to a training on Saturday AND Sunday that runs from 9am to 6pm... Plus my current contract is up next Friday so I'm going to be really busy at work too. Not looking forward to the next week.

But on the bright side I'll finally be in my own place! :)

Updated "Miguel's London" (see link to the right) with the location of the flat.

I've made my decision

2008-06-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

I am indeed going to Prague to catch Tom Waits. Not for one show, but for both shows! I've already purchased my tickets; Monday July 21st and Tuesday July 22nd at the Kongresového centra Praha (bit pricey, but you only live once...). I plan to fly in on Saturday and hang out for the weekend before hitting the shows on Monday/Tuesday, then fly back to London on Wednesday. If anyone has recommendations on places to sleep/eat/visit in Prague they are much appreciated. Leave comments or send emails!

Enjoying Edinburgh

2008-06-02T03:32:00.000-07:00

I've been in Edinburgh, Scotland since Saturday morning. It's Monday morning now and I'm elated that I'm not at work! :P Was considering doing a day trip to the Highlands (maybe Loch Ness) with the parents, but decided to just do more wandering around the side streets of the city today. Beautiful architecture and roads in the city, both old city and new.

The old city is something around 870 years old (don't remember exactly). We're staying on the corner of St. Giles Street and Lawnmarket, essentially right on the Royal Mile. Right smack dab in city center, more old city than new. Lot's of "closes" and "wynds", which are the side streets we'll be exploring today. From what I understand, a close is essentially a dead end alley (usually small arch leading you between buildings) and a wynd is a non-dead end alley :). We're only like 1/8 of a mile from Edinburgh Castle. The photo to the right is of the castle from below the clif it's on. The small windows in the bottom are the windows out from the prison underneath the castle.

The new city is 200 something years old (you can tell I'm not really a history buff), and is a bunch of Georgian architecture and built more with a grid structure.

Went to a place called Sandy Bell's (or something) last night and drank a few pints of scotish ale while listening to people jamming traditional music. Couple fiddlers, couple guitarists, couple people on wind instruments and harmonicas and a dude on a traditional drum.

I'll try to post later with some more photos of the place because it's really amazing to see.

Mr. Waits in Europe - not quite PEHDTSCKJMBA

2008-05-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to figure out where I'm gonna go to catch Tom. I'm leaning towards Prague. Somewhere I won't have been by the time the shows roll around, and also somewhere I definitely want to go.

If anyone has any recommendations on places to stay or spots for food/drink in Prague, let me know.

EDIT: If anyone wants to meet me in Prague for the show that would be awesome! :) He's playing on Mon/Tues the 21st/22nd of July. I'm thinking I'll hit both shows :P. Tickets go on sale on Friday, 9am +1GMT...

Long Weekend

2008-05-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today is a bank holiday in the UK, known as "spring bank holiday". So much meaning in the name! :) My parents were here for the weekend and took off at about 4am for Ireland. Got to hang out with them for the weekend and do some touristy things, like take photos of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament from the London Eye. I'm glad that I now can take Monday off to relax a bit before having to go back to work.

I'll be travelling up to Edinburgh, Scotland to meet my parents this coming Saturday and we'll be hanging out there through the following Tuesday. Have to make sure to visit a distillery while I'm there :), compare with the visit I made to the old Jameson Distillery in Dublin with Chris and Bonnie.

Got a Mobile!

2008-05-24T05:25:00.001-07:00

Finally picked up a mobile phone. I've gone the last 4 months in the UK without a mobile phone. Really wasn't too bad, but it'll be nice to be able to get ahold of people (and be gotten ahold of) when not at home/office.

I can send/receive skype calls on my mobile, so any of you out there that are on skype and want to call me send me an email and I'll send you my skype name. Or you can search for me, I should be easy to find.

Road Trippin'

2008-05-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Went on a road trip the weekend following Dublin. Had lots of fun but then got lots of sick. Had a fever that turned in to a chest cold that is still with me today (over a week later). At least the road trip was fun. Went to Oxford, Swindon, Bath, Western-Super-Mare (small beach town), and finally Chippenham. All in the span of two days. ...and we didn't even start the trip until like 2pm on Saturday. No wonder I got sick...

Watch Out Dublin, Here I Come

2008-05-03T01:49:00.000-07:00

So I arrived in Dublin on the ferry at 6am this morning. Had to walk through some form of customs on the way in. I say "some form" because it wasn't much. One old fella that was asking people "what's your nationality." If you replied with an EU member nation (and he believed you) he waved you in, otherwise you had to step aside and wait for those folks to filter through (didn't take long). I was the first in line for non-EU nationals. He greeted me and apologized for the wait, which was by normal customs standards almost non-existent. As he was looking over my passport he noted, "a lot of those folks [referring to the EU nationals] are drunk enough that I could have turned them away" (remember it's 6am). He followed this up with "I guess Ireland's the only place that lets you in when you're drunk. Have a nice stay, thanks for your patience." ha!

I went directly to the B&B I'm staying at to drop my bags and then intended to grab some breakfast. On the walk to the B&B, though, everything seemed to be closed (it was near 7am by now). I asked the guy manning the counter at the place whether he could recommend somewhere close by that served good breakfast. He looked at me quizzically and said, "It's too early."

Ok, no breakfast yet. Let's go for a walk to the city centre and see if we stumble across something open on the way. Luckily there was a convenience store open that had a coffee stand inside, so I at least was able to have an Americano. I continued on to the city centre and made it a point to check the signs on places to find out when they open. Many of them opened at "10ish." That is exactly their words, no paraphrase :). Even the breakfast at my B&B isn't available until 8:30.

After not having gotten much sleep last night and with the intention of hitting the pubs tonight this will probably end up being a good thing tomorrow.

Busy Couple Weeks

2008-05-01T13:15:00.001-07:00

So I went to Amsterdam last weekend. Let's not talk about that one too much, it was a raucous time. There were twelve of us, mostly people from work. It was definitely fun, though I think I was still recovering from it until today. Just in time for my next trip...

Tomorrow at around 8pm I'm catching the train from London, Euston station to Holyhead in Wales. From there I take a three hour ferry ride into Dublin. I should be arriving in Dublin around 6am, just in time for a full Irish breakfast (and maybe a pint of Guinness :)). Yup, meeting up with Chris and Bonnie for a weekend in Dublin.

At the end of the month my parents are here, and I'll be joining them for some time in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have a feeling that I'm only going to be getting busier and busier as the summer draws nigh.

What's For Dinner?

2008-04-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

So I find myself eating kebabs alot nowadays. Kebab shops are so plentiful, they're not too expensive, and if you find a good shop are pretty damn good. I used to change up my kebab choice alot. Doner one day, shish another, kofte the next. Back and forth between chicken and lamb, maybe even a mixed to mix it up. For some reason over the last couple weeks I settled into a lamb shish kick and haven't pulled out of it yet. So tonight, once again, I am having a (tasty) lamb shish kebab with chips (fries for you North Americans).

Funny story: When I went to the kebab joint to pick up dinner last night, as I walked in the door the fella manning the grille said "hey Andy!" I didn't realize it for a second and just replied "hey!" Once it did occur to me what he had called me I had to wonder why. The first (and only) thing that came to mind was that with my paper boy hat and peacoat I reminded him of Andy Cap :).

Wishing I was in Seattle This Coming Weekend

2008-04-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

So I got an email from Sam at the Summit. They're having their first BBQ of the year on 4.20.08. Man I love the BBQs at the Summit and I think that it's great that Sam puts them on. Summit Pub: Good beer, good people... and at times FREE GOOD FOOD! What more can anyone ask for :)

If any of you make it to the BBQ tell Sam I said "what up", and eat some food and drink a beer for me :)

Flat Hunting

2008-04-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

I wrote a few posts in word while I was in Brussels with the intention of posting them when I got access to an internet connection. Unfortunately I never got around to it and now it just seems wrong to post them....

So I'm still working on finding a flat to let so I can move out of West Hampstead. Got a viewing tonight for a 1 bedroom place in Camden Town. Hopefully this one will go better than the last flat I viewed in Camden Town. The last flat was really small and dirty and they wanted 235 pounds per week. Definitely wasn't worth it.

Weekend after next I'm heading to Amsterdam with a bunch of the people from Infusion. Have my flight and a room booked at a hostel. I need to start planning more trips to places I haven't been yet. So far since I've been here I've spent all my time in London with the one trip to Brussels and now the trip to Amsterdam. I'd been to all these places before... Perhaps I'll head to Paris some time soon. It's only a 2 hour train ride on Eurostar. I am also planning on hanging out in Ireland with my parents in early June, plus perhaps hanging out in Ireland for a bit with Chris and Bonnie. Hopefully as we get closer to summer I'll be travelling more and more.

Little Did He Know

2008-03-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

12pm, Friday March 21st

A tattooed, tired man sits in a bar at the airport, waiting for his ride. He's wearing ratty old slacks and a t-shirt with a message that, if you understand it, is a good laugh (and one that's not worth explaining if you don't). In contrast, he's wearing a nice rabbit felt pork pie hat that is the height of fashion. Such the fashion that people around him don't get it and pass him strange glances. Or maybe those glares are due to the big bull ring looking steel piece in his nose...

Who knows really? Who cares.

He doesn't, he's content with immersing himself in the world of his small electronic device, in to which he is thumbing a message to the world. To be broadcast to all, but swallowed by the void. Immersing himself in that damned de-"vice"... and... and also his beer, of course. Of course. Yeah, of course. Well, to be fair, he is destined for Belgium after all.

Destined for Belgium. On a 12:30pm flight that was of course delayed 'till 1. "Or at least that's their story now," he thought, "the first delay is never the last..."

Last minute change of plans

2008-03-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Well, didn't have BBQ for dinner on Sunday. Decided instead to have sushi. Don't remember the name of the place, but I can say that it was a couple doors down from Spaghetti Western. I can also say that if you spend more than $15 dollars on sushi you get all you can drink house sake! Sounds like a deal! :) heh... The fish was very fresh. It was definitely good sushi.

My dinner plans aren't actually the change of plans I mentioned in the title. The change of plans was around my return to London. I was supposed to return on Thursday, but since my visa came through on Friday and other reasons having to do with work I moved the flight forward to a late Monday flight. Unfortunately no new stories about interesting food in NY...

So I'm back here in London now. I'll try to continue posting as often as I did while in NY. We'll see how it goes.

Catching up on food

2008-03-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

Edit: Added photos from Balthazar

Ok, so this is a catch up post for what I've been eating since Tuesday. Even lunch at work has proved to be relatively interesting and I've hit a different place every day so far. Tasty deli sandwiches, Indian buffets, and something great called a rolly. They take fresh dough, throw your choice of ingrediants on to it, roll the dough around it to make something that somewhat resembles a calzone, and then send it through the oven. I chose the philly steak version, which had steak, mushrooms, mozzarella and a tomato sauce. I added onions, lettuce and tabasco to give it a bit of a kick. It was DAMN good!

Wednesday night I hit up an Argentinean restaurant named Industria Argentina. One of the interior walls was covered with a huge collage/mural that almost looked paper mache'd on. It was snippets of things from Argentinean culture. One thing that caught my eye amongst the randomness was an advert for Nescafe. Reminded me of the time I spent in Chile where when you order coffee they bring you a cup of hot water and a small mound of Nescafe :). I had an '06 Catena Malbec there that was really good, and for the meal had something called Cochinilla Patagonico, a.k.a. suckling pig. It's a special that they only serve on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The meat was super tender and tasty. The saltiness of the pork was offset well by the mild sweetness of the sweet potato puree and the slight bitterness of the broccoli rabe further balanced the dish. For desert I had flan with butterscotch icecream and fresh whipped cream. It was awesome.

Most of you might not find my Thursday night dinner very interesting, but I had to do it. Hot wings. I haven't had hot wings since some time before I left Seattle (Wing Dome) and have been craving them for awhile. Hot wings aren't really something you find in London so this craving has gone unsatiated the entire time there. So I got some wings and beer with a side caeser at a place called Atomic Wings. They were decent, though not as good as Wing Dome, and I was a bit dissapointed by the spiciness. I got the wings with their Suicidal sauce, the hottest they have. I'd say it falls somewhere in between 4 Alarm and 5 Alarm at Wing Dome (they serve wings in bulk up to 6 alarm and you can buy 7 alarm wings one at a time). But hey, at least I got some wings.

Friday night was Belgian night at Petit Abeille, a little restaurant just a couple blocks from where I'm staying. I had the Moules Marinieres and of course some Belgian beers :). It was like being back in Belgium again!

Yesterday was another day of great food. Started out with brunch at Balthazar, a SOHO restaurant I stumbled across when doing a search for "the best breakfast in New York." Rachelle also mentioned that she though I should try it. Well, I've got to say that it was not only the best brunch I've had in New York, I think it was the best brunch I've ever had in my entire life. I wish I was able to actually get across with words how great the food actually was. I've actually got a couple photos in my phone of the food, I'll add them to the post later. I had a warm goat cheese and carmelized onion tart and the Balthazar salad. The tart was taller than I expected it to be, but that's not a bad thing. It was cooked to a perfect consistency and wasn't overly rich. I could probably have eaten two or three more of them! The salad had haricots verts (a thin long green bean), asparagus, fennel, ricotta, avocado and truffle vinaigrette over mixed greens. Really fresh and great flavor.

Dinner was family style Ethiopian at Queen of Sheba in mid-town with two New York Infusion guys and their girlfriends. Coincidentally the atmosphere reminded me very much of Queen Sheba in Seattle. We had Doro Wot, Quanta Firfir, Special Tibs, Awaze Tibs, Mizir Wot and of course lots of injeera to mop it all up with :). I'd rate it about the same quality as Queen Sheba in Seattle, though the spicy dishes were not as spicy (unfortunately).

Well, that brings me up to date. Perhaps I'll post again tonight and let you all know how the food is at the BBQ joint I plan on hitting tonight.

ye olde onion

2008-03-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

I was walking from the subway back to the corporate flat this evening and noticed among the other free papers at a local shop was... The Onion! This is the first time I've actually had a hard copy of the onion in my grubby little hands since I was working in Austin. Good stuff!

What does it take to get a cup of coffee around here?

2008-03-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

I went down to security at about 9:30am this morning to pick up my building access card for the NY offices. Decided to head outside to grab a coffee at starbucks instead of free brewed coffee at work. That is until I got outside and noticed that the Starbucks across the street had a line of at least 12 people. OUTSIDE THE SHOP!! Didn't even walk over to see how thick it was inside. So I took a quick pic of the spectacle and enjoyed the sunshine for a minute before heading back up.

It's probably extremely difficult to make anything out in the photo. My apologies, all I have is the camera phone on my old smartphone, and it takes pretty crappy pictures. That shop across the street is the Starbucks and even though it looks like the people all the way to the right may not be in line because of the gap, let me tell you, they are.

First Day in New York

2008-03-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been here for a day so far. Weather's definitely better here than it was when I left London :). London was extremely windy and rainy. Today was clear blue skies, albeit a bit chilly. So I'm going to try and do my best to take advantage of the food choices while I'm here and I'm going to try to relate my experiences as I go along. I asked for opinions of places to check out from the Infusion folks that live and work here. That in addition to a list that I've started with my own research gives me a large list to choose from.

Tonight I ate dinner at a place called Spaghetti Western. It's a couple blocks from the corporate flat I'm staying at here in Tribeca. The name on the sign caught my eye as I walked by it earlier today. I'm a fan of spaghetti westerns, in fact I just finished watching They Call Me Trinity (original name: Lo chiamavano Trinità) this past weekend in London. Ah, Terence Hill...

So the food at Spaghetti Western was ok. But the place itself was great. Tons of posters from actual (Italian) spaghetti westerns and photos all over the wall. Lot's of dark wood and some great blues playing. I'd definitely go back again, even though their beer selection is lacking.

Hey Rachelle, speaking of where I'm staying in Tribeca... You won't believe this but the corporate flat I'm staying at is right across the street from the little hotel we stayed at. When I arrived at 1am from the airport I looked at the grocer in front of the building and thought "damn that looks really familiar". Well as I was walking back to the place this evening I stopped and took a better look around and realized why it looked so familiar. It was the same one that was right in front of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Craziness.

Well folks, until next time...
"You may think he's a sleepy-type guy
always takes his time
soon I know you'll be changing your mind
when you've seen him use a gun, boy
when you've seen him use a gun..."

Going back to the States next week

2008-03-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not already tired of London. I'm finally getting my work visa taken care of. I'm still technically "here for training" right now. I've got my work permit and all, just not the visa itself yet. I've got an appointment in Manhattan on Monday to get my biometrics taken. Exactly what that entails I don't know (didn't do the research...). Perhaps just fingerprints, perhaps also a retina scan, perhaps they take my soul....

I'll actually be in New York for 10 days, as I'm the first Infusionite in London to go through this process for the States and we're not exactly sure what the trip will entail. Believe it or not the rest of the folks from North America are Canadian, and they've got the Canadian visa process down. When I'm not directly working on getting my visa I'll be working at the Barclays Capital offices in mid-town, got a desk waiting for me and everything.

I've already started doing some research to find some good places to catch some music (mostly been looking for blues and jazz so far), and food. If any of you out there have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I've got a weekend while I'm there as well, so any weekend suggestions are welcome too.

Well, it's 8pm here and I haven't eaten dinner yet so I'm gonna get going. After that I'm probably just going to watch some t.v. and crash early. I was sick this week and I want to make sure I'm completely rested and healthy come Monday with the whole trans-oceanic flight and all.

Rockin' Da Bass

2008-03-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

So after having returned the upright bass when I left Seattle I began to miss it. After moving here to London I realized how much space (that I don't have alot of) one would take up, as well as how difficult it would be to take it somewhere via the tube. Conclusion: No upright bass any time soon.

One of my roommates, Mike, plays music quite often. He's got a couple guitars and a bongo. I sat in on a jam with the bongo a couple times and talked about how I had been plucking around on the upright a bit and would have liked to have picked up a bass. He eventually talked me in to heading down to Tottenham Court Road to take a look at electric and acoustic bass guitars (ok, so it didn't take that much prodding). There's a narrow road right off of Tottenham Court Road by the Tottenham Court Rd. tube stop called Denmark Street that is just stock full of music shops.

I played around on a few electric guitar and electric upright basses. I was actually pretty excited about an electric upright I saw in one of the shops and almost bought it then and there... But the shop worker couldn't find a non-floor model in their store rooms (even though inventory said they should have had a few).

So a couple weeks pass and I head back out to Tottenham Court Road. Still no upright. Played around with a few more electric bass guitars, and the more and more I did so the more and more I was enjoying a specific model. One that was clearly out of the price range I had set for myself.

Ah screw it, you only live once.

I am now the new owner of a silver Fender jazz electric bass guitar (ok not soooo new, I've had it for a few weeks now).

First Post from London

2008-02-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm going to once again try and revive this thing... :)

I think that everyone that would be reading this knows for the most part where I am now and how I got here. But to provide a bit of continuity with the last post on the blog (as if that really mattered...) I'll fill in a bit. The "small decision" I spoke of was my choice to leave Microsoft. I felt like I needed a change. A big change. I didn't have plans for a new job, I was just taking time off.

In that time off I did some travelling, spent time with friends and family, started to learn to play the upright bass, made some beer with friends, caught a lot more live music, watched alot of movies, played alot of video games... Generally tried to relax and enjoy life.

Unfortunately that wasn't a lifestyle that I could afford forever and eventually it was time for me to start looking for a job again. I did some looking in various areas of the US, as well as in other countries. UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belgium...

There were a few opportunities that seemed relatively interesting. One that many people know I was pretty excited about was an opportunity to do Software Consulting in London with a company called Infusion Development. Well it turns out that I accepted a job with them and that's why I'm now in London :).

I've started a live maps collection with places that are relevant to me here in London, you can check it out here. The Infusion offices are in an area called Canary Wharf, which is where alot of financial services work is nowadays. I'm currently working on a project at Barclays Capital, which is also in Canary Wharf.

I've been here since mid-January and I'm currently staying in an area called West Hampstead, which is in the borough of Camden (also in the maps collection). The flat I am currently in is a corporate flat that I'm sharing with two other Infusion guys, both of whom are from Canada. My intention is to move into my own place soon though. I'm trying to find a place that'll have enough room to comfortable host visitors, but it's expensive here! :) My current thoughts are that I'd like to move to Camden Town. Many people here have referred to it as the "punk rock" area of London. I have been exploring other areas as well though. One thing I've noticed is that Camden town is pretty small compared to some of the other neighborhoods.

Wow, so it's been awhile...

2007-07-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been over 2.5 years since my last post to this blog. I feel like enough things are going on right now that reviving it will be a good thing to do to keep various interested parties updated on my life :). There's so much that has gone on in the last 2.5 years, there's no way that I'm going to recap it all here, but I will definitely be posting some entries about the last couple months.

I was going to start it all off with a "small" decision I made in the beginning of May, but since the 4th of July just happened I'll start things off with that and then travel back in time. I'll probably intersperse stuff about present day things with things from the past. Regarding the "small" decision I made in May (I'm sure most anyone that will be reading this will already know at least what that decision was), I will make a quick comment regarding my last blog posting 2.5 years ago. In the last post I asked "Why can't my whole life be a vacation". Well suffice it to say the last month and a half (or so) of my life have been a great big wonderful vacation :).

Oh yeah, one more thing before I jump into the 4th of July. It's probably too long ago for anyone to notice (or care), but the title of my blog was originally "i am the future". I have changed that to now read "the future is now".

Only 9.5 hours 'till I leave Seattle!

2004-12-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

That's right people I'm leaving at 4am. At least, that's the intention. :) But I'm usually pretty good about getting up in time for my road trips. I'm really looking forward to this drive. Some time on the open road will help to releive some of the stress I've placed on myself lately.

I'm definitely looking forward to this 1.5 weeks of vacation in general. :) Lakers game, magic mountain, visiting friends and family in san fran, san luis, san berdo... only thing that's missing is san diego. Unfortunately, only so much time to spend :)

< sigh >
yeah, I definitely feel lighter right now. :)
Why can't my whole life be a vacation :)

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!

2004-12-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

For anyone interested, my holidays will go as follows: I am making a road trip along with Rachelle down to California for the holidays. I am leaving this coming saturday, the 18th of december from Seattle. I'm going to try and make it all the way to San Francisco on Saturday. Hang out there for the night with my Uncle Gabe hopefully.

On Sunday, it's off to San Luis Obispo. Maybe the housemates will still be around and we can drink some beer and reminisce... Visit Theresa and Gary, hit Pismo, and then off to Southern California.

Most of the week before Christmas will be spent in Southern California. Rachelle and I are going to hit Magic Mountain one of the days, so if anyone wants to join us, write me and I'll give the scoop on what day as it gets closer. Maybe even use the Twicket for a $1 second day! (if they still give those things out :)

Celebrating christmas day with the fam in San Bernardino and probably going to AZ to have x-mas celebration with the Gasca side of the family. And then a long trek back to Seattle, because I've got to be back at work the Wednesday after Christmas!

Well, I've gotta go throw the laundry in the dryer, so I'll speak at you all later. :)

Absolutely nothing new to say

2004-11-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

I know there's been tons going on in my life, but to be honest, I've been tired and a little stressed lately. When it comes time to write a post to my blog, I just can't seem to mete it out.

I do have a friend from school coming up to the area next weekend. It'll be nice to see him, haven't seen him in a couple years. I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with all my friends. But you all know that.

I still don't really know what my plans are for the end of year holidays (other than getting away from work for a couple weeks). I've only been working since mid-August, but with the deadlines hitting me, I know I'll need the break.

Well the girlfriend just showed up, so I'm gonna use that as an excuse to leave the post for another time.

I'm still alive

2004-11-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

but have had absolutely no time to post. So what have I been up to since last I posted that's been keeping me so busy? Spending inordinate amounts of time with the mysterious "chica" that I mentioned once in a post, oh about a month ago. And I've been loving every bit of it. We've got quite a bit in common, yet we're also quite a bit different. It works out well. Oh yeah, she's Seattle born and bred, so she's my acting tour guide as well. :)

Also been pretty busy with work. Deadlines, deadlines...

I did end up making it up to Vancouver the first weekend I had my car. That was fun. Lot's of good food and drink. Although, if you are ever in Vancouver don't go to Grouse mountain! It was recommended to me by a co-worker and it was definitely not worth the $25 canadian to ride the Gondola up and down the mountain. At the top, there was no view becaue it was overcast. It was also quite cold. There were a couple caged bears and timber wolves, but other than that (and a tasty treat called a beaver tail) there was nothing at the top. To top it off, they were doing "annual maintenance" on the main gondola and the wait to go back down the mountain was like 3 hours long! But enough of my ranting. Overall, it was a great trip.

My friend Elfred also visited this weekend. Didn't spend a whole lot of time with him, but I'm sure I'll be seeing him somewhat frequently considering he's back together with his girlfriend who is also a 'softie. We were going to try to get together with our friend Ron, who just moved to Wa this weekend, while he was here but it didn't quite work out. Cest la vie (or however you spell it).

Well, I'm gonna get going. Just got my internet connection recently. DSL. Gonna get static IPs. Hopefully this site will soon be hosted from my apartment. We'll see.

P.S. Mike, if you read this. Your check is written and in an envelope. I just need to get a stamp to throw on it and send it off. Sorry about being so lazy.

Ok, so here's the skinny

2004-10-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

My new car is an '05 Scion tC. Now, before you all go "eeew, that ugly box on wheels" listen to what I have to say! My car is not the aforementioned "box on wheels" that seems to come to everyone's mind when they hear "Scion". I myself was of the opinion that that "box" was the only vehicle they produce. Well, we were both wrong! The tC is the new 2-door coupe they introduced in July.

Here's a link for a preview of my new "ride" to help tide you over until I get some pic's posted.
link

If you click on the Colors tab and choose white, you will see a good likeness of my car. :)

I'm waiting for the questions to start pouring in: "What?? an import "tuner" type car?" "Where's the '49 merc?" "What happened to the AWD Magnum with the hemi?"

You know what my response is?
"Labels, I don't need no stinking labels!"
:P

I got my new car!!!

2004-10-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

More to follow soon...

Has it really been two weeks?

2004-10-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

and it's not like the last blog entry was at all substantial or informative. Getting lazy again! Well, I've gotten to the point that I can't deal with not having a car. Horrible. A byproduct of the modern, fast paced lifestyle. I should have a car early this coming week. Hopefully.

So what's new in the life of Miguel? Hmm... I guess the last post with any updates was September 26th. So what's been going on in the past month? Not a whole lot worth mention, other than the fact that I met a chica last week who's quite nifty and fun to hang out with. But besides that, not much. I'm pretty boring aren't I?

Maybe I'll have an update later this week about exciting exploits in my new car. A road trip, that's what I need. hmm... Maybe next weekend I'll break the new car in with a good old fashioned road trip. Vancouver? Portland? I'll keep you updated (maybe I'm not that boring after all)

Random Blog

2004-10-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

Why do people think seem to think that the reason I don't like cats is because I'm allergic to them? I mean, I'm allergic to avocado, yet I eat avocado whenever I can. I love avocado regardless of the fact that I'm allergic to it. Though I am less allergic to avocado than to cats... In fact, I'm less allergic to avocado than I used to be... Maybe it's because I eat so much avocado... hmm.... Maybe I should start eating cat.

New Apartment Pictures

2004-09-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Well, they're up and there's a link to the right -->. The place was still a bit of a mess when the pictures were taken, but you all should know that's normal for me anyways. :) In the picture of the outside of the building, I'm on the second floor on the right. Oh, and yes, that is my nifty vespa you noticed in front of the building!

Well, I feel like crap right now, so I'm going to crash and try to sleep through it.

House Warming!

2004-09-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've been in the apartment for a couple weeks now, so what? I can still have a "house warming" event! Anyways, this is the first weekend that the place is furnished. So if any of you faithful readers want to drop by and help warm the place, you are more than welcome. That being said, I don't think I'll see any of you because I don't think any of my friends up here in the great Pacific Northwest read/know about my blog. And I don't think any of you will make a "quick trip" from California, or Florida, or Texas, or some random country (Sean and Julia, you out there?) just for the night! :)

I've got alot of work to do before the festivities tonight. Most of my stuff still needs to be unpacked, and then I'll have to clean up all the debris (or at least push it all into a corner).

I don't feel well.

2004-09-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

I didn't get much sleep last night. Well, at least tonight is my last night sleeping on a hardwood floor. Yep, the movers show up at 8-9am tomorrow with all my furniture. Yeah, I guess I didn't really mention it again in my blog, but it has taken much longer than a few days for the movers to get my stuff to me. 9 days of hardwood floor so far. Well, I crashed on my friends couch the other nice. heh, best night sleep I'd had in awhile. Of course it helped that I was somewhat inebriated when I fell asleep as well.

Well, my brain is only at half-mast right now, so I'm going to get going, finish my dinner and get some sleep.

Enough of my complaining. Good night all.

Fixed the link to spring break pictures...

2004-09-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

...and will hopefully have links up to more pictures soon

Such a small world, and is anything really a coincidence?

2004-09-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Once again, I join you from the depths of perkatory. I was looking for something in my jacket pockets the other day (I can't remember what it was I was initially looking for) and found something I wasn't looking for. I happened upon credit card receipts from perkatory. "So what's the big deal," you ask me. Well, it turns out that the receipts print out Planetary Espresso as the name of the business. Most of you probably don't know, don't remember, or just plain don't care (you can stop reading now) but Planetary Espresso is was the coffee place across the street from my old apartment on Olive Pl. The one that I went to every morning last summer.

So I asked one of the friendly baristas about the receipts. I was told that perkatory recently changed owners, and the new owners used to own a place called Planetary Espresso. Methinks this doesn't bode well for perkatory. You see, Planetary Espresso was originally owned by a guy named Kevin (while I went to it) but recently changed ownership shortly after I left Seattle. The new owners got rid of all the old employees, all the regulars stopped showing up, and the place eventually went under. <Toast>Here's to hoping the same thing doesn't happen here.</Toast> Maybe they've learned their lesson?

First Hill

2004-09-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

So it seems that my apartment is in First Hill, not Capitol Hill. Or maybe even the top of the Central District? Who knows where the borders of the neighborhoods exactly are. I've moved most of the stuff from my temp. housing to my apartment. One more trip and it will all be done. Then I need to contact the movers to get all my crap out of storage. Since it'll probably take a few days to get that arranged, I'll probably be sleeping on a hardwood floor for a few days. :)

I'm currently sitting in a coffee house a couple blocks from my apartment called perkatory enjoying a cappuccino and free wi-fi. I've taken advantage of the internet connectivity to use the King County Metro trip planner. So it turns out that I'll probably be able to get by without a car for awhile. I can catch a bus right outside my apartment, make one transfer and be at work in about 45 minutes. Good reading time! I can also take the bus from work to the doctors and back to Seattle (I've got 3 appointments this coming week for massage and chiropractic adjustment).

Hopefully I'll have all my furniture and have the apartment in some semblance of sanity by this coming weekend. I figure that's when I'll have my house-warming. It would do no good to not have places or room for people to plop themselves, now would it? So who's going to come in from out of town to help me warm my house? ;)

Long Labor Day Weekend

2004-09-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

So it's Sunday the 5th of September. Bumbershoot weekend in Seattle. This weekend was/is dedicated to finding an apartment and having fun! So far, I've been succesful at both goals!

I put a deposit on an apartment yesterday. It is a 1+ bedroom on 17th street in Capitol Hill. It's a decent sized place, which is nice (approx. 800 s.f.). Hard wood floors are being refinished this week, linoleum in kitchen is being replaced and it is being painted. I should be moving in next weekend, which is just in time. :) My temp housing assignment expires next Sunday @ 11am, so I need to be out of the place by then. This also means that I will probably be buying some kind of a car in the next week or so as well. Man, the money is already flying out of the bank account.

So, on to the fun! Friday night, I caught Death Cab for Cutie, the Presidents of the United States of America, and United State of Electronica at Bumbershoot. Yesterday, I saw the Black Keys, Pedro the Lion, part of Drive-By Truckers, part of Face to Face and some other bands I didn't know the name of. I was thoroughly dissapointed with both the black keys and drive-by truckers. Oh well. Today I plan on catching at least These Arms are Snakes and Cobra High. Tomorrow! Oh tomorrow! Toots and the Maytals, the Pixies, Built to Spill, the Killers, maybe Harvey Danger, who knows what else.

Well, I've got to go get started on having fun for the day. bye.

Coffee Messiah

2004-08-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

that's where I am right now. Back in ye olde neighborhood in Capitol Hill. I spent this weekend apartment shopping, sort of... I walked around the neighborhood yesterday and wrote down contact info for some places that looked interesting. I had planned on calling on them all today, but that didn't happen. I did send out some emails to building managers for ones that had email addresses though. We'll see. I have a couple weeks yet to find a place. However, the time is ticking away quite rapidly.

I went to a restaurant last night with a couple of friends. The name of the place is Marakesh and it is in Belltown, on 2nd street for anyone that knows anything about Seattle geography. It was awesome. We all sat on really low benches or cushions around a table that was about 1 foot off of the ground. There were no utensils, so we used our hands to eat everything. There were 5 courses to the meal. We started out with a tomato based soup with squash, next was bread with a couple different sauces. The third food item brought out was a pastry that tasted somewhat like baklava, but had chicken in it and was topped with powdered sugar. Very tasty! Next was the main course. Well actually 6 main courses that we all shared family style. There were lamb kabobs, some kind of plum chicken, game hen, a cous cous dish, and I can't remember what else. All of the dishes were good. Finally there was dessert, which was tea and a sweet meringue like dish. The server brought hot water and a wash basin to the table and poured the water over our hands both before the first course and then before dessert. He also poured rose water over our hands before dessert. We had 3 bottles of wine and a belly dancer to entertain us while we enjoyed our meal. All in all it was an excellent experience, one I definitely plan on doing again. Next time, we are going to get the whole lamb (which we would have done this time if you didn't need 3 days notice).

After the meal, we hit a couple of capitol hill bars and had a few brews. We wanted to make sure our stomachs were completely full! My friend Theresa was kind enough to allow me to crash at her place and avoid the drive home. The next morning Chris, Theresa and I hit the Broadway Grill for a greasy breakfast and a bloody mary. Man I love Seattle! Well, I'm going to get going so I can finish my coffee and vegan sandwich (which is surprisingly good!). Have a good night all.

So Here I Am

2004-08-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

...in Redmond, sitting at my desk, at work. I don't have internet connectivity at home currently, so I'm staying after work to take advantage of the free access. Won't spend too much time though, so it's going to be a short entry ;)

The arrival and move into my apartment went smoothly. They rented me a Pontiac Grand Am which is a nice roomy car, and the temp housing they put me up in is about 5-8 miles from work. Today is my second day of work. My first day consisted of NEO (New Employee Orientation) from 8:30am untill 2:30pm, meeting the team, setting up my office, getting some reading material, and leaving at about 4pm. Not too shabby! I'm sure it will prove to be the easiest day I will ever have at work here :).

I'm sharing an office with another new guy (he's been here about 2 months) who also happened to be an intern over the summer. In fact, I met him over the summer. It also turns out that Justin Wilcox, another Poly grad and friend of mine, is on the team as well. It really is a small world after all! Heh. Truthfully though, I should have remembered/realized that Justin was on the team (since he told me when I ran into him during one of my trips here for interviews), but we all know how Miguel's mind works sometimes (or doesn't work for that matter).

Well, I'm getting hungry so it's time for me to say goodbye.
goodbye.

Tiring week

2004-08-12T17:56:00.001-07:00

Wow, back in the states now. There's still so much I'd like to say about my experiences in Chile, but it will have to wait for another time (if ever). So I got back in the middle of the day on Monday.

The movers came yesterday, packed up all of my crap and are now on their way to Redmond. I myself will be on my way to Redmond at 6am tomorrow morning. BBQ with the fam last night, then off to Larry's for awhile, I'll be visiting with Wayne tonight, and finishing packing :). Speaking of which, I gots'ta get goin'.

Tiring week

2004-08-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

6 minute blog

2004-08-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

I've got 6 min until my time at the internet cafe expires, so a quick entry it will be. I have one more day before my Chile experience is at it's end and I must return to the real world :(. Well, it's been a great experience, and I can't wait to be able to take a vacation and travel again. lol

My parents left on Friday, so it's just been my sis and me. We went to her friend Peter's house for a party on Friday night and I drank too much for my own good. There weren't very many people that spoke English, so I only ended up talking to like 4-5 people. There were other foreign students living at the house, so there were alot of French people there. Pisco, beer and wine, mmmm... Speaking of drinks, they drink some odd things here. Fanschop is beer mixed with orange fanta, and they drink red wine with Coke. Strange.

Well, I'm gonna go so that there is enough time to post this page before I'm kicked off. Later

A Day Alone

2004-08-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day that my sister is attending classes for her new semester. My parents are going shopping at these little "artisan" shops in the city. I´d rather not be doing that, so this is my day to myself. I said to my family last night that it won´t be until today that we actually realize how much we´ve been depending on Rebecca.

I rode the metro to school with Rebecca. I´m currently sitting in a computer lab, catching up on emails (more relocation stuff mostly) and writing to my blog. It´s a familiar feeling, being in a computer lab like this. The drone from the fans in the machines and the buzz of quiet conversation surrounding me. It´s really no different from the labs at Cal Poly. It doesn´t matter that I can´t understand a word these people are speaking, I´m not listening. They just provide the background noise that allows me to sink my mind into my work, which at this moment is writing.

I´ll go grab some coffee as soon as I finish this entry and watch the people walk through the buildings here on campus. I´m also going to go do some shopping of my own today, if I can manage to find my way around this city without Rebecca. Beyond that and eating something, I don´t really have any plans for the day. Just relaxing. :)

Chile Segundo

2004-08-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

So, I´m in another internet cafe in Chile. Apparently, they are abundant here. (I guess they are in the states too, but I´ve never needed to use them) The one I am at is about 1/2-1 mile from my sisters place. She exchanges time on the computers here for time working with the owner on his english.

I´ve had tons of good food and drink since last I wrote. Much too much of it to comment on all of it. I´ll make it back to the food on a future post. For now, it´s about the other experiences.
We´ve pretty much been running around non-stop. We went to all three of the houses of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile. One of them had closed for the night, so we didn´t have a chance to ´tour´it. (All of his houses have been converted to museums per his request in his will) The houses were awesome in and of themselves. They also housed many interesting and amazing things. He was obsessed with ships, so there were women masthead figures from actual ships all over. Also rooms that were architected to seem as though you were actually on a ship. There was also original art from many famous artists. Among these was a painting of his third wife by Diego Rivera. My memory may be failing me (which it seems to do more and more so as the days go by), but I beleive that Diego and Frieda housed Neruda for awhile during the whole Allende, Pinochet "thing".

There´s so much more I´d like to write about the trips to the Neruda houses, but I only have so much time before this place closes. I should write when I have time when I get back, but of course I probably wont. Anyways, on to the next thing.

I went snowboarding in the Chilean Andes! Actually, there shouldn´t really be an exclamation point. I was pretty dissapointed with the conditions and the equiptment that I rented. However, the mountains were beautiful and I can imagine how incredible they must be after a good dump. (We went a couple days after just the second storm of the season) The trip up and back was pretty incredible though! haha It was filled with steep climbs and tons of switchbacks. You could look up or down the mountain and see 5 or 6 roads full of cars criss-crossing each section of the mountain. Pretty impressive both during the day and night.

We´ve also had the chance to visit a few museums. Pre-Columbian art, history of Santiago, and an exhibit from a Chilean artist by the last name Chavez (can´t remember the first). All pretty neat stuff, especially the art from Chavez. Look him up on the internet, because I don´t have enough time to describe his stuff in this post. In fact, I need to get going so I can try and sort some stuff out with the movers that will be moving me a couple days after I return!!!

In Chile

2004-07-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

So, I´m in Chile right now writing a post to my blog. I arrived in Santiago, Chile yesterday at about 7:30am. We took a bus to my sisters apartment and dropped all our stuff off. I walked around with Rebecca and ran a couple errands while my parents took a little nap. After that, we hit up my sis´ friends´family´s restaurant. Traditional Chilean food was not at all what I expected it to be. It was good though, and very cheap. The entree with a salad and a drink cost the equivalent of around $3.50 (not sure about this, my monetary conversion skills aren´t great. regardless of the exact price, it was very inexpensive). We walked around the city some, took another quick nap, ran a few more errands and then it was off to dinner. We ate at a Peruvian restaurant that was AWESOME! The food was excellent, as were the drinks. The national drink here is something called Pisco. It has a flavor reminiscent of a light tequila and it is made using grapes. We had pisco sours as an aperatif, and considering that I don´t like mixed drinks, they were pretty good. The Picante Camarones I had were reminiscent of a creamy mild orange Indian curry. The flan I had for dessert has got to be some of the best I´ve ever had in my life.

This morning we jumped on a bus that took two hours to get us to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a coastal city, the second largest city in Chile. The city´s layout reminds me a little of Seattle (as does the fog), the streets near the dock parallel the water and are surrounded on all sides by hills. The neighborhoods on the hills are littered with narrow, windy, cobbled roads. We are staying at a quaint bed and breakfast on Cerro Alegre, which means ¨Happy Hill¨. We had a traditional Chilean breakfast of goat cheese, bread and fruit (I also had brewed coffee which is very NON-Chilean. In fact, it seems that brewed coffee is quite rare). We had empanadas for lunch while we had a boat tour of Valparaiso, and a dinner at a good semi-expensive (for Chilean standards) dinner at a place on the hill that had a view of the harbor.

My sister and I are currently in an internet cafe in Valparaiso reserving a trip to the north of Chile that we will be making at the end of this week. I´m going to get going so that we can finish up and then go out and have a few drinks.
Have a good night all!

Well, that was fun...

2004-07-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Austin yesterday. The new EB labs are a lot roomier than they were when I was there, which is great for them since they have 6 teams over the summer instead of the 3 they had while I was there. Boy did I miss Texas BBQ alot! I got to hit Rudy's for some brisket and hot links, but I forgot to buy a bottle of their sauce while I was there. I also had some Stubb's BBQ before the They Might Be Giants show I caught while I was there.

I caught a few movies while I was there. I caught I Robot with Aaron, Elfred and one of Elfred's friends from UT. It was much better than I thought it was going to be. However, as I suspected, it has almost nothing to do with the Asimov book by the same name other than the three laws of robotics. According to the credits, the movie was "Suggested by Isaac Asimov's 'I Robot'". Right... I also hit The Drafthouse with Elfred to catch Fahrenheit 9/11. The Drafthouse is the best movie to hit movie theatres since the motion picture. They remove (or don't install) every other row of seats in the theatre. Instead of the seats, they install a bar. They have servers that help you throughout the film to beer, wine, food, etc... Great idea! The newer Drafthouses show the new films and blockbusters. The old Drafthouse shows art, indie, cult films etc...

Regarding 4th of July and also my travels

2004-07-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

So the fireworks display on the 4th was interesting. I was in my sister and brother-in-law's back yard, which is on a hill overlooking San Bernardino. This was the first time I've been in San Bernardino for the 4th in years. I expected seeing the usual big shows, which didn't happen. I'm not sure where the big shows were supposed to be at this year, but I missed them. However, I was not dissapointed since about 1/2 of San Bernardino had purchased an inordinate amount of illegal ordinance. And I'm not just talking about things like M-80s. I mean big ass, high flying, colored spark shooting, awe-inspiring fireworks. These were no bottle rockets. I had a 270 degree view of the show that blanketed all of San Bernardino. There was one house that was probably about 3/4 of a mile from us that seriously had to have lit off close to a hundred of them. I didn't hear a single siren all night either! It was kind of amazing.

So on to my travels. I said last post that I probably wouldn't be going anywhere other than Chile. Well I lied. Actually, I believed myself when I typed it, so technically it wasn't a lie... Right? Anyways, I just booked a flight to Austin for next week. Leave on Wednesday and return on Sunday. Should be a good time. I'm hoping to be able to hang out with the everyone from the Exreme Blue labs, as well as Aaron from Cal Poly (who is an EB co-op right now) and Elfred (who was an EB co-op with me last year). I've been thinking alot about the last year or so recently (I have enough time to), and I've realized that I like Austin alot more than I initially thought I did. Maybe I'm just remembering the good and forgetting the bad, although god knows I'll never forget _ALL_ the bad (but that's not a story I want to get into here). I guess I'll find out in a week.

Three weeks late and a dollar short.

2004-06-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't realise it's been so long since I last posted. Well, fyi, I did graduate :). Dyed my hair and chops pillarbox red for the graduation ceremony. My sister Jessica, mom, dad, g-ma and g-pa were in attendance. They got some pictures with a digital camera that I'll have to upload somewhere for any interested parties.

I tell you, the packing was a real pain in the ass. I still haven't really unpacked and setup my room here at the parents house for the summer. Slowly but surely. I did unpack the x-box though! Finally had some time to get around to playing some of my games for the first time.

Had a graduation party this past weekend (the weekend after I walked). It was nice, I got to see some relatives and friends and have some good food and drink. Plans for the rest of the summer? Still not sure if I'll do any travelling before Chile. Since time is ticking and I don't as yet have plans I probably won't be going anywhere else unfortunately. I am going to the Hootenanny on July 3rd with my buddy Rob though. That should be swell. The Cramps, the Rev., Big Sandy, Hellbound Hayride, aw heck, just check out the website.

Well, I'm gonna go crack a soda, grab a bite to eat, and plop my self in front of ye olde x-box. goodbye.

Well, the weekend is over and it's time to study for my final

2004-06-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Been studying most of the day for my only final, which is tomorrow at 10am. I have a book that I'm about 1/2 way through and a paper to write that is due at the final. The book is entitled "Reshaping World Politics: NGOs, the Internet, and Global Civil Society." It's an ok book, but a little dry to be reading the entire book in one day on minimal sleep. Oh well.

So I figure I'll start packing at a leisurely pace after my final Tomorrow. I've got the rest of the week, so I figure if I take a couple hours per day, I should be done by the weekend. I can't beleive it's over. I know quite a lot of people graduating this year too, and not just within my major. It seems like alot of people were going to graduate unemployed, but I know quite a few people who have just gotten and accepted offers in the last few weeks. Congrats!

Now THIS is a weekend

2004-06-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sigh... sitting here in the shade on our newly tiled front porch. It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I'm drinking a beer and posting to my blog. I'll be heading over to my friend Map's house soon for a bbq, then back home to celebrate the end of the quarter with roommates and friends at the house. I can't wait for this next week to go by so that I can move out of this town and move on. Hopefully I can get the Vespa on the road soon after I move down south. Truthfully though, I should just wait until I get up to Seattle. I really don't have the money to repair it if I'm going to try and do the travelling this summer, which I am of course going to try and do.

No more classes, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks!

2004-06-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, well, I have one more book to read, one more paper to write, and one more final to take. But the no more classes was true! :) I just had the final acceptance test for my senior project yesterday and turned in a draft of the complete paper. 89 pages not including the Appendices for code listings and data base document. I'd like to find out how many lines of code I wrote, I'll probably do a quick search online for a tool that counts lines of code. Let's see how close I can get with a guess. I'll say 3500 lines of code. I'm just talking about my part of the project, not the entire thing. We'll see.

The next week will be spent doing alot of packing and alot of beer drinking. lol WHOOHOO! It's over!

procrastination nation

2004-05-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

been putting off working on the paper for my senior project for long enough this weekend. I started working on it about an hour ago and am taking a "small" break to post to my blog.

So here's the most recent news concerning my vespa. I ordered a new front axle, and it finally arrived earlier this week. I took apart my front wheel assembly. I pulled out the old wheel bearings and axle. I cleaned out the housing, the bearings, and miscellaneous other parts, repacked them with new grease, and then tried to reassemble with the new axle. The new axle didn't fit!

I made it a point when I ordered the part to ask the vendor if I was ordering the correct part. I informed them of the year and model of my scooter, of the fact that it is now on 10 inch wheels instead of 8 inch and that their shop had done the restoration of it! The shop emailed me and said that "yes it is the correct part". Well, obviously it is not. I don't have the time to deal with the shop before graduation, so I'll have to put it off until I move down to my parents for my post-graduation break. I had really been looking forward to getting it back on the road.

This doesn't feel like a weekend.

2004-05-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

I was up until 2am working on my senior project. I crashed from 2-8:30am and then got up and got ready to go do my _required_ "habitat enhancement project". Yep, that's right, I decided to just suck it up and do it. So I met with my class and pulled hemlock and ivy in a creek bed from 10-12. That really sucked.

After I finished with that, I ran a few errands, got some lunch, and started working on my senior project again. And here I am at 10:30pm on Saturday night still working on it. I've taken a few small breaks, but I've been working on it pretty much all day.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with my partner to install code, configure devices, and do some integration testing. Does all of this sound like a weekend to you? The good thing is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My implementation for my senior project is due on Tuesday (thus the mad rush to finish) and my paper is due a week from Tuesday. After that, any minor changes that need to be made and a final in my Political Science class and I AM OUT OF HERE!

HOORAY FOR ME!

Oh, yeah, speaking of graduating and stuff, I just found out that if I had paid a little more attention to my transcript/records over the last couple quarters, I could have graduated with a 3.81 cumulative which would have been Magna Cum Laude. As it is, I am graduating with 3.61 (Cum Laude). It's all because of my first matriculated quarter at Poly in Fall of '94. I attended for one quarter (actually about 1/2 a quarter), failed all my classes, and subsequently dropped out of school for 4 years. So those F's from my first quarter drop my cumulative gpa by an entire 0.2 grade points. If I had realized this before this quarter started, I would have re-taken Calculus I and found something to replace the Biology class I took (I already replaced the comp sci class). As it is, I'm going to see if I can find some loop-hole that will allow me to graduate Magna Cum Laude. I'll try to keep the blog up to date on my pursuits.

Well, time to get back to the senior project. It's amazing how often I post to this thing when I really have more important things to do, and how infrequently when I have nothing better to do.

And so begins the long arduous journey that is...

2004-05-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

... this weekend. Woke up at about 9:00am this morning. Just got back from a quick errand to school (which incidentally included getting a large coffee). Will need to go back @ ~1pm to pick up a laptop. I'm taking a few minutes to check email and write this post, and then it's chug time for ye' olde senior project.

Watch, with my luck I'm going to finally receive the vespa part that I've been waiting for to fix my scoot today. That'll be distracting me all day long. No, I really can't let it distract me. I already have a CSC awards banquet I'm supposed to go to at 6:30pm today. Oh yeah, I also found out what a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is. It is manual labor! :P I'm supposed to be working in a creek bed tomorrow pulling weeds and stuff. I'm considering not doing it at all. We'll see.

Next stop, Graduation

2004-05-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

So I bought my cap and gown and paid for commencement fees today. $60 total. I'm graduating with honors, so they threw in yellow cords to boot. That reminded me that I need to order my cords from Golden Key, and my cords and stole from Upsilon Pi Epsilon (no, not a fraternity, a computer science honor society).

Today's free stuff was burgers and a movie at the local drive-in. Too far out of the way so I didn't make it. Tomorrow's is free hot dog's, and I think it's during UU hour, which means I won't get any because I have a Computer Science Department Student Fee Committee meeting I have to go to then. Oh well, at least I got free pancakes!

This is going to be a _VERY_ busy weekend for me. I have to have my implementation and testing for my senior project done by Tuesday. Then the paper is due a week later. Plus I've got a "Habitat Enhancement Project" for my Political Science class on Saturday as well as a paper to write. What exactly a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is I don't rightly know. I should look into it. Hopefully it's not manual labor :p.

Well, my roommate just finished making fried chicken and mashed potatoes, so it's about time for me to go. Till next time, alskjdf

10 minute break

2004-05-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've got about 10 before my bowling class starts, so I figured I could squeeze in a quick post. This week is designated as "A Week Of Leaving" (or AWOL) here at Poly, and is supposed to be like an inversion of WOW (Week of Welcome). What exactly WOW is will have to be saved for some other time. What it means to me is that I get free food! Today was a free pancake breakfast on Dexter Lawn. It also means I have to pay my commencement fees and order my cap and gown.

At one point I was planning on trying to grow a mohawk before graduation, but I ended up forgetting and chopping off my hair. I wanted to cut holes in the top of my graduation cap and pull bright red mohawk spikes through the holes. Now I'll just have to settle with red hair and chops. Oh well, cest la vie (? on sp). Well, off to bowling, gotta try and bring up my score. It's been declining steadily over the last couple of weeks.

A Blog/Week is better than A Blog/Month, no?

2004-05-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sitting here in the Cal Poly library listening to some cd's of Rebecca's. Mom found 'em lying around the house and asked if they were mine. I figured that she (Rebecca) wouldn't be using them any time soon ;) so I borrowed them and brought them up to SLO when I returned from my trip to SB. Speaking of my trip to SB, it was fun. Amtrak is definitely much better to ride than Greyhound, and as I mentioned earlier, also cheaper. Got to spend Saturday afternoon/evening with my mom & dad, grabbed dinner at Mongolian BBQ and caught Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Second time for me, first for the parents (watching Vol. 2 that is). Also got to have breakfast with mom & dad on Mother's day morning before dad & I took off for the Laker game.

The game was awesome. Lakers played like they should have been all series. Brought a digital camera and took some pictures. The camera has like a 2 second delay from when you press the button and when it actually captures the image, so it was difficult to get any good shots of people in the act of shooting. I got a few good ones though, and one really good one of Shaq dunking.

Got back to SLO at about 12 midnight and hoofed it home. It was a nice night and I enjoyed the walk. A short nights sleep and here I am hitting the proverbial books again. I've got a mid-term on Thursday to study for so I'm gonna get going, but I'll try to post more often than once a week, really!

Two Entries in One Day!!!

2004-05-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't realize how little I like writing anything more than snippets of stuff using my pda. I haven't used the different sip's (soft input method) available in pocketPC enough to decide which one I like the best. The transcriber is nice sometimes, but doesn't recognize my writing very well (most humans don't either). I mostly use the keyboard because of that. (the other two forms are similar to the block recognition on the palm os).

I think I might spend some time looking in to the things that can be done with web design to allow for different form factors (i.e. screen size/resolution/graphical capabilities). Mostly I'm talking about dealing with different mobile devices with limited screen real estate and resolution, not complete lack of graphical capabilities (yeah, yeah, I know, we've got to be nice to those lynx old-timers too;) We'll see if I can find the time. Staying pretty busy with the senior project still. Making good progress though.

I'll probably borrow a laptop from school again this weekend and take it home with me. I'm gonna head down to San Bernardino for the weekend. I'll be able to see my mom on mother's day weekend and I'll be able to catch the Laker game on Sunday with my dad. I'm gonna take amtrak this time instead of greyhound. I think I've had enough of greyhound for awhile. Greyhound's never been a good experience, and I've ridden it at least 10 or 15 times throughout the years since 1994. Sometimes the schedules of Amtrak won't accomodate though. Luckily they will this weekend. It's even cheaper to take Amtrak than it is to take Greyhound. I took Greyhound a couple weeks ago and it cost me over $100 round trip. I'm taking Amtrak and it's costing me just ~$61. Granted, it's dropping me in Riverside instead of San Bernardino, and I'm taking it from LA to SLO on Sunday instead of Riverside to SLO. However the difference in price to have gone from Riverside was just another $9. So I save ~$30, but have to get someone to pick me up and drop me off in Riverside. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile.

2004-05-04T01:12:00.000-07:00

so, this is my first post using my PocketPC. that being said, it will probably be ashort post, and rife with spelling errors.
I signed up for the beta of gmail today. Although 1--m still not too sure how I feel about an instance of their ad-sense rifling through my email content. I mean, it's obvious that it's a big privacy issue. It'S one thing togive my consent for my outgoing mail to be datamined (Not that I'm ok with that.-,). it's another thing entirely for them to mine my incoming mail.I mean, the people who write me didn't give their Consent
I'm still interested to give it a whirl. It's gOt some nifty features that I'm looking forward to checking out.
Well, I guess it's getting Kind of late (or early as the case May be)so I shoald get going and get Some shut-efl. Nighty-night allI!

Posted Some Pics from Mexico

2004-04-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

OK, so I finally got around to posting a few of the pictures taken during my Spring Break in Erendira, Mexico. The link can be found to the right under the "Link" heading (imagine that!), or you can just click here

The weekend is over

2004-04-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another Monday. Week two of the Spring quarter. Nine more to go after this one (including finals week). Held a shindig on Friday to celebrate my birthday (which I alluded to in my last post). Quite fun if I do say so myself. Some old friends from Stenner and CDM Tech. were able to make it which was great. First time I'd gotten to hang out with some of those people in years. Also a lot of new friends I've made while living in this new house this year made it.

Then on Saturday, there were two parties that I decided to grace with my presence. First, it was off to a Hurricane party at my roomie Chelsea's friends Liz's place. I stayed away from the hurricanes and had some Amber Bock. When people started leaving Liz's place, Mike and I went to my friend Nate's house. He was having a cocktail party with mandatory dress and all. An excuse to wear my zoot suit, how could I turn that down. Finally turned in sometime early Sunday morning. Needless to say, Friday and Saturday weren't very productive as far as school is concerned.

I got a decent amount of work done on Sunday and Today though. I'm thoroughly enjoying the reading for my PoliSci class so far. Hopefully it holds up throughout the quarter. I'm planning on heading down to Berdo for the Easter weekend to spend some time with the family. I'll have to borrow a laptop from school again so that I can work on the Senior Project over the weekend. Rebecca, wish you could be there. We'll be at Angelita's on Sunday, so give us a call SINCE NO ONE HAS YOUR NUMBER! ;)

Go me, it's my birthday,

2004-04-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

we're gonna party like it's my birthday,
get a keg because it's my birthday,
and i don't care because it's my birthday!

It's been awhile since my lazy ass posted

2004-04-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

I just got an email from my sister bugging me to post. It's exactly the motivation I needed. I think that not having an internet connection available while in Mexico broke me of my somewhat consistent habit of posting. Anywho, here I am.

So Mexico.... Well, it was great. I'll post some pictures soon and link to them. As far as the specifics go, I'm not sure where to start. So I'll just start typing and stop when I stop. People: Met some great people while we were down at the hostel. First was a trio of rowdy gentlemen from London, who incidentally ended up getting thrown out of the hostel at the end of their stay. Alex, Mark and Mark. Drank lotso beer with them, went to the beach and rented a jet ski from a local (a story in and of itself to be told at another time), had mucho fun. Had many a drunken discussion about cockney rhyming slang and other linguistic idiosyncracies found in England.

We also met a couple from England, Sean and Julia, who were alot of fun. When we met them they were on the first week of a year long journey around the world. They provided us with a url for the company that they purchased their tickets through. I still have as yet to check it out, but I plan to. Sounds like a good deal. They paid something like $1500 American and can fly to any number of places, a given numbe rof times, within a certain time period, or something... The two of them caught a ride into Ensenada early one morning and so, initially, we weren't able to give them a proper goodbye. However, the 7 of us (from SLO) were going to Ensenada ourselves that day. So I'm walking down the street by myself at about 4pm and I hear someone yell out "MIGUEL!!". I peer in the direction of the voice thinking someone is calling to me. I don't see any familiar faces, and at the same time realize that I am in Mexico and I'm not the only person named Miguel (I'm a GENIUS!). A minute later and I hear my name again. It's none other than Julia. It turns out that they were staying in a little hotel on the corner of the block that I happened to be waiting at. How random is that? So we all headed to Hussong's and had a few beers together, took a few pics and were able to give them a proper goodbye.

I also met a group of girls from Bellingham, WA. That gives me someone to visit when I move up to Seattle in August.

New Subject. Food: Yes. Good stuff. Went to the beach a few days while down in Mexico. Picked mussels and ate them raw. Yum. Also brought a cooler full of them back to the hostel and cooked them up. Had lobster, lots o' tacos, and way too much beer and tequila (that qualifies as food right?).

Ok, I'm tired of typing, so the post ends here. I'll see about getting those pictures up on the net. After all, a pictures worth a thousand words right?

Whoa, St. Patti's Day!

2004-03-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've forgotten like three times that today is St. Patricks day. That is unusual for me, since I am half irish and I am always looking for a reason to raise a pint of Guinness. Speaking of which, I think I'll go try to convince my roommate to go lift a few pints with me while the night is still young (got plenty of studying to do tomorrow).

Wednesday of Finals week

2004-03-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

So I just had my English final. "Shakespeare in Film" is the class. The final was 35 multiple choice on film terms, and specifics of the plays and films, and tragedies in general. The second half was two essays that each ended up being about 3-4 pages each. The class was definitely not as enjoyable as I had hoped.

Well I've got a Senior Project meeting today, and another final on Friday (Biology) and then I'm done for the quarter. We're leaving for mexico at around 7:30pm on Friday. ...um, did I mention I was going to Mexico during spring break? I can't remember and I don't feel like going back to look at an old post, so I'm going to assume the answer is no. So I'm spending most of Spring break in a small Mexican town with my roommates and some friends. The town is named Erendira and is about twice as far as Ensenada past the border, on the Pacific side of Baja. We're staying at a small hostel there in town from Saturday through Thursday. I'm sure it's going to be a blast. I've been there before, but it was only a weekend trip. This time it's close to a week long and there'll be between 4 and 8 of us.

I should work on my Senior Project some during the break so I might see about borrowing a laptop from Poly over the break. If I'm going to be working on it, what better place than on the beautiful Mexican coast sitting around with my friends, cold beer in hand?

Man, I can't beleive it's only like 3 months untill I graduate! I'm getting really excited about my summer travel plans and my move to Seattle to start my new job! I dropped by AAA yesterday and got my passport pictures taken and picked up an application for a passport. I'll drop off the application when I get back from Mexico and should definitely get it back in time for summer. 6 weeks right? I think that's the processing etc. time. I'll check and make sure. If not, then I can always rush it.

Well, I've got to get something to eat and do some work before my Senior Project meeting.

So untill next time kids, <insert pithy comment here>

Procrastination Nation

2004-03-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

It's a beautiful day here in sunny San Luis Obispo. Probably about 75 degrees or so. I'm sitting here at a coffee place having a tasty spinach salad and an iced chai. As soon as I finish with it, I think I'll have a pint of Guinness. One of the things I've missed from Austin is coffee places that also serve beer and/or alcohol, so it was nice when this placed opened about a month or so ago.

Oh yeah, I'm also working on completing my journal for my art class while I'm sitting here. Or that's at least what my intentions were when I came down here. I've been here for about an hour and have yet to start working on my journal. In fact writing this entry is just an excuse for me to procrastinate and put off doing my school work.

I definitely have senioritis. I can't wait for Spring break (less than a week away!), and I can't wait for the year to end. I'm definitely looking forward to going to Chile to visit Rebecca. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to make it to Puerto Rico to visit Elfred as well. Oh yeah, and then there's Europe with Sean. Whew! Hectic summer it will be.

Of course I'm looking forward to start working at the end of summer as well. I'm glad that they were willing to work with my start date so that I could do this travelling. It'll be nice to not be a starving student any more! It'll also be nice to get out of SLO and into Seattle. I can't wait. I'm glad that MS is hooking me up with a furnished apartment for a month so that I can take my time to find a place that I really want to live at.

OK, enough of putting off doing my journal. Back to work. ...or something like that

2004-03-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

So I finally decided to try this whole blog thing out. This is entry numero uno. Not much to say right now, just taking the time to set things up.