Saturday, December 27, 2003

Xmas Fun

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...I was treated well this Xmas season. But of course, I always treat my friends well. :) Spent time with my g/f's family, lunch and dinner, but also had an early dinner at my aunt's place. It was fun watching my little cuzins opening up their gifts. :)
This morning, I spent all morning with my g/f in my arms in bed, just cuddling (and utter stuff too hehe). Very sweet. "I wish this moment would last forever." It lasted 5 hours, almost as long.
I also saved dinner this evening. My friend Miriam invited me and my g/f over for a post holiday dinner, but forget the pasta sauce, so at the last minute I had to bring the sauce along to allow her to make her main dish. lol (I'm going to get shit for this...hehehe).

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Hit and Run

Well, I was out having fun with Jenn and some other friends last night in downtown San Jose. We started off at this one classy rest'rant called Paolo's, hanging out and have some good laughs. Their was up to seven of us; two guys and 5 girls. We then headed on down to Toons on Santa Clara street. It's kinda a dive-bar of clubs in San Jose. Played some pool for a little while, but pretty soon everyone was on the dance floor just having a fun time til about midnight (this is a school night for most of us).

When we got out to my car parked on the street, I noticed someone had side swiped my car, screwing up my left fender, mirror, door and other parts. The mirror was just gone. I was bothered by this, but hey, it's done, so just hafta to deal with it. No sense bottling it up or exploding out my stress. Just best to just let it go and not lose any hair over the incident. Despite someone screwing up my car, I still feel the evening was great time.

Friday, December 19, 2003

New English

To use a term recently coined, I'm living in my very own gadget porn, and it just keeps getting better. lol

This Post goes under the "WHAA????" file

Some scientific group just published a study that suggests silver cars are safer than cars of any other color. "Silver cars were about 50 percent less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than white cars," WHAT? There are so many problems with finding I don't even want to cover them. Then they go on the say that increasing the number of silver cars on the road would passively reduce injury from car crashes. Umm, hmm.
Ok, first of all I don't understand the results of this study. Silver cars pop up out of nowhere on you. You can't see them well on a cloudy day, dawn, or dust. I have one friend who drove a silver car tell me that he started leaving his headlights on all the time because he was cut off or almost hit so often because people just didn't see him. Maybe owners of silver cars are involved in more accidents, but have a lower injury rate cuz their cars are always in the shop (not on the road) for repairs from low speed accidents. lol
Secondly, to state a conclusion suggesting car color will save lives based on a study that is already using questionable science is just stupid. More creditable and serious work needs to be done on this hypothesis before action can be recommended on the data.
FCSuper mumbles, "Silver cars, whatever!"

Trouble tonight

Well, tonight's gathering turned out to be both a bit low key and fun. Mostly just drank at the nice rest'rant after Miriam's office Xmas happy hour party. Thangs started off pretty well, til everyone moved outside. The fun started with one of the heater gas lamps caught fire. It was like the fire was on fire, smokin up the place and looking pretty dangerous. We finally got smart enough to turn it off and try to use the other one, cep the other one wasn't working all that well.

Then, some of the girls started talking about starting up a phone sex hot line. I volunteered my sexy voice to the line too. Things proceeded quite rapidly and down hill after that. The tone went from PG13 to Mature in a matter of minutes. One of the women there had been drinking for 7 hours straight. She was not only drunk but highly horny and willing. Wearing a tiny red tank top that already showed her ample D cup cleavage and 2 sizes too small jeans she was the center of attention and she made it a point to keep it that way. She quickly got EVERYONE'S attention when she decided to flash her tits and her ass to the many senior citizens that were coming out of the NUTCRACKER play.

At that moment we all thought there would've been an indecent exposure complaint. But that wasn't the last time her bosom and her bum were exposed in the space of an hour. We saw it at least 6 times in a row, EACH! All in all it was an interesting night...mmmm D Cups!

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Big night, first in awhile.

Well, looks like I'm going to be out a bit late this evening with Miriam and company. I'm not too sure on where we are going to end up. We'll see!!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Technophile mood

My blog here tends to have moods. Sometimes, I'm telling stories. Other times, I'm ranting. At times, I recount events in my day. I even go into detail about my plans or recent decisions. Then there's the mood where I become a technophile. (Of course, two thangs I rarely talk about is the weather and this blog itself).

Currently, my blog is expressing its technophile mood. ...and here we go again!

The Canon Power Shot SD100 is a great little digital camera! Its very small footprint makes it easy to carry, handle and use. The detail of its photos is great! Navigation thru photos in memory is simple. One thang I hate about digital cameras is that most are just too complex. This one is very simple. The LCD screen on the Canon Power Shot SD100 is very clear and bright. Its voice recording is also clear. I love the fact it uses the SD card memory card to store its photos. This happens to be the same memory card used by my Treo 600 and my HP photograph 4x6 printer! So my camera, Treo 600 and printer can all exchange information within seconds! …and they can all do this without a computer! Overall, this is an enjoyable product to use.

Thank you Miriam

Thursday, December 11, 2003

One week review of palmOne’s Handspring Treo 600

This review is slanted because I’m comparing my experience with the Treo 300 to the new Treo 600. I liked the Treo 300 for what it is, a PDA with an embedded phone. However, I love the Treo 600 for what it is, a phone with an embedded PDA.
The Treo 600 is intuitive. Its functions are easy to access and use.
-The new 5-way navigation adds to that easy of use. It is so useful; I’m amazed it wasn’t included on the Treo 300.
-The screen is backlit so well that you can view it in direct sunlight.
-The appearance of its size is more phone-like. It even has a thinner and shorter profile than many flip phones.
-Battery life is much improved. Normal usage without recharging during the day hasn’t drained the battery to the halfway mark. Normal usage is a few phone calls totalling an hour or so talk time, internet access thru out the day, playing games when bored, text messaging, taking pictures to play around, IMing etc.
-New Palm OS 5.2 is more stable.
-Internet access is twice as fast as dial-up.
-New keypad layout needs about a day to get used to, but once you are used to it, it works well.
-The device is highly customizable without the need for third party software.
-It can communicate in every from of electronic communication type available: Voice; SMS (full functionality requires TreoSMS600 on SprintPCS version); AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ IM chat (with VeriChat); fully fuctional Internet; IR beaming of course; and can even send Faxes (using free Adobe Acrobat software). Additionally, Blue Tooth and Wi-Fi SD cards will likely be compatible with the Treo 600 shorty to add even more avenues to the internet in addition to PCS.
Ok, ok, I’m getting tired of listing thangs about the Treo 600. Just take my word for it, the list of qualities and thangs this device can do is at least 5 times longer than what I’ve included here. It’s a great, intuitive, flexible, and powerful tool that eliminates the need to carry around multiple devices, all in a relatively small package.

Essential Software for your Treo 600

To get the most out of your Treo 600, these additional software packages are necessary.

Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS : Enables your device to view PDF files. The package also has a program that allows you to print from several programs to a fax machine, among other things.

pTunes or Pocket Tunes: Plays MP3 files from SD Cards. You can install various skins to change its look too.

QuickOffice : Open, view and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel native formats.

Snappermail : POP3 email software that handles file attachments. This software package also includes a program for handling and creating ZIP files.

TreoSMS600 : For SprintPCS Treo 600 only, this allows full SMS functionality. Why does Sprint not allow this without third party software right now? I dunno. But given the fact that SprintPCS's CDMA network has twice the speed of GSM networks of the other carriers, I don't mind too much.

VeriChat : Enables you to chat on AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ instant messaging all at once. It also allows you to keep these IM sessions open on standby 24/7.

Update on another cool program:

Skinner 2.0: Let's you change your dialpad and favorites screens with different skins.


Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Trouble with CDs and online music alike!

The people who are geared to selling music CDs just do not seem to understand that consumers' buying habits are changing rapidly.   Additionally, it is pretty obvious that CDs are way over priced. Too many customers have seen DVD movies (which have millions of dollars in production costs) selling for less than the average mundane CD (which often have production costs less than $100,000). How long do recording companies think they could hold their prices so high?!

The prices for music online are just as ridiculous! One dollar per song is just too much! At that price, the average albums would cost $8 to $15. There's no manufacturing cost to justify this price! This is just as high as the CDs!!! wtf??

The whole recording industry is lost right now. Here's my advice:

  • Music CD's in the store should sell for $4.99 to $6.99, depending on the artist, quality, and number of songs on the CD. CDs will eventually be replaced anyway with online music anyway.
  • Online music should sell for 15 to 50 cents per song, again depending on the artist and quality.

That's it.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Little cars are for old people

These little cars that car makers are selling right now, like the Toyota Matrix or the Scion XA are being bought more by older persons than by the kids they are trying to market too. I think the industry continues to push these cars on the wrong population. Just thought that needed to be said, is all...done with that. :)

Monday, December 08, 2003

49ers kick Cardinal ass

What a great game to watch in person! I'm glad this is the game I took my dad to see. Damn, it was fun to be a fan! 50 to 14. At some points, you'd almost forget that the Cardinals were on the field! Ouch! LOL Woohoo!0

Sunday, November 30, 2003

49ers Game and this Turkey Day

I'm taking my dad and my g/f to a 49er's game at Candlestick againt the Cardinals on the 7th. This is the first time either of them will be at a football game, let alone a 49ers game. This is going to be fun. We have good seats in the lower reserve. this is under the overhang, so we don't get wet in case of rain. I'm working on getting prepaid parking pass too, to make the endeavor even more enjoyable by not having to worry so much about parking and getting in some good tailgating. :)
This Turkey Day was interesting. I met my g/f's parents on Thurdays. That worked out pretty good. But then I took my g/f to my parents place for Friday and Sat. Well, my mom likes my g/f now. Damn, poor thang, she got her ear talked off by my mom. lol

Bad Santa

Bad Santa is a great movie. Gross, funny, good twist ending (though traditional), lots of laughs that don't depend too much on sight gags, and enduring. To paraphrase once critic, once you watch this movie, you'll never believe in Santa Claus again. lol

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

This is in response to the act of holding U.S. Citizens and "enemy combatants"

There is no need to hold U.S. citizens as enemy combatants since we are already held to a higher standard. There are laws already in place that hold U.S. citizens who act against America accountable for their subversion. If federal officials really believe that a U.S. citizen is aiding our enemies, they need to use our legal system properly by filing charges against these people. Our federal system needs to stop being afraid of its own shadow, and take a stand. It is cowardice on the part of federal officials to attempt to treat U.S. citizens in ways that are clear violation of the constitution. Treating any U.S. citizen as though they are not a citizen threatens the rights of every American, and this new practice needs to stop. Grow some balls and take those who have worked with our enemies to trial! Keeping them detained as "enemy combatants" is a threat to our way of life.

Friday, November 14, 2003

Ramble

Today, I thought I'd just ramble here in my blog. The goal is to really say nufin at all for as long as I can while still making some sense. So ... well, I think I may have reached the end of this attempt. lol

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Steel Tariffs are bad

Ok, note to President Bush: Please eliminate the tariffs of imported steel. How are we supposed to have a free market economy when we are putting up walls like this? Get rid of them. They only serve to threaten to take the economy down in the same way tariffs ended up causing the deepening of the Great Depression in 1930's.

Friday, November 07, 2003

More Movies Matrix Revolutions

Matrix Revolutions is a good movie and a great science fiction story. The point of the story isn’t the battles. The point is questioning the purpose of life itself, dealing with spiritual and religious issues. There’s a lot of subtext to the story. There is s a lot of battles and special effects too. It’s almost a sensory over load in two completely different ways. The movie does have some weak points which detract from it at times, like when it takes itself too seriously a couple times, and when it was intentionally corny a some other times. Over all, it is a good story with a very satisfying end to the Matrix trilogy.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

More more Movies

Pieces of April is good movie. It feels odd saying this, but it is a Thanksgiving holiday movie. But it's not a traditional Hollywood or made-for-TV type story. It's funny, quirky, intelligent. It's also sentimental, but without one ounce of sappiness. I know, that's hard to imagine, but this movie pulls it off. It's not a great movie, but it will end up in my DVD collection.

Kill Bill vol. 1. Well, this is a violent, stylistic, clever, and inventive movie. It plays out like a modern live action comic book. It is enjoyable. It is extreme. I'm going to reserve further judgment till I see Vol 2, due out sometime early next year.

Friday, October 31, 2003

Season's First Rain

I woke up early at my friend's place today, and hadn't been home since the previous morning for various reasons. I left around 5:30am. The instant I walked outside, I felt the cold morning. It has been a long time since the last cool morning because our area had a very hot summer that ended abruptly just yesterday. As I walked to my car, the season's first rain started. A few tiny sprinkles landed on me.
On the drive home, the rain picked up a little bit. The wind shield was fairly dirty from a long road trip two days ago. The wiper fluid isn't persistent enough to really get off much of the built up road grim, so the rain was allowing me to really clean my wind shield with my wipers.
When I got home and stepped out of my car, the aroma of the seasons's first rain hit me. I filled my lungs with the sweet, rain fresh, crisp morning air. It's been too long since the last of such experiences.
I really enjoyed the long hot summer. I appreciate it more because it is going to allow me to enjoy the relief of a shout cool fall.

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Dear Lord!

I just realized how busy I am this week. Some how I have to find time to move funds around for the purchasing payment on the rental property I'm buying, get my car's oil changed, be at work for important clients, go sign the paper work to finalize the purchase of the rental property (4 hour drive to and from), go out with friends friday and Sat evenings, and Sail in sailboat races up north outta town on Sat and Sunday during the day. Dang it, I just realized I need a hair cut to look good for the client and the weekend. arg This will likely be my last entry till next Tuesday.

Monday, October 20, 2003

49er's Vs. Bucs

Ok, I was casually checking out the 49er/Buc game in the fourth quarter this weekend. First thought in my mind when I saw the score of 21 to 7 was, "Eh, big deal." Most of my life, the Bucs have sucked ass. I know they are now a great team, but my instinctive feeling is still that they suck. Also, I don't pay much attention to football til about the 8th game in the season. So, here I was, for a good half minute thinking the 49ers where beating a lame team, so the game didn't matter much. Then it hit me. This is Gruden's Bucs! Last year's Super Bowl champions! Damn, what the hell was wrong with them? So, they had a bad day. Now the 49er's are all confident again. It won't last, of course. They aren't a first or second tier team right now. You can prolly call them King of the Third Tier Teams. lol If they make it to a Super Bowl in the next few years, they'd prolly lose it. So, let them build up into a better team, then get back to the Super Bowl as healthy as possible. 49ers are the only team to win 5 Super Bowls without losing a Super Bowl. Ok, this entry is done cuz I'm starting to ramble.

Friday, October 10, 2003

Trouble with Democracy

The trouble with Democracy is that an idiot's vote counts that same as a smart person's. LOL Just kidding.

Reggie Jackson Tried to Steal my Cab!

So, did I ever tell you about the time I met Reggie Jackson? This was back in the mid-1990's. He tried to steal my cab late one night at the Monterey Peninsula Airport. I had gotten in on a red-eye flight. I'm tired as hell. After getting my luggage, I walked outside to wait for a cab. Others from our flight did the same. After waiting about 15 minutes, I figured sumfin was up, so I went to call one of the cab companies to come on down. Within 30 seconds, three cabs show up. Apparently, the airport had a rule against cabs waiting for passengers, so they waited to be dispatched from a just a block away. Anyways, I let some elderly couples take the cabs. This left me stranded. I had to wait for the cabs to return, so I sat and waited. While I'm waiting, another flight gets in. Reggie Jackson comes out of the airport building and sits down a ways over from me. Finally a cab returns, and what does that Reggie try to do? He tries to steal it from me. He saw me waiting with my luggage, but he still walks right up to the cab and prepares to load up. I walked right up to him and looked him square in the eye with a rather unpleasant look on my face and just said with attitude, "Is that your cab?!" Well, he matches my look for half a second, then tries to play it off with something like, "Oh, this one's yours?" I'm like, "Yeah." LOL So, the cabbie recognizes him too and gets all excited. I load up my luggage and get in. The cabbie tries to get Reggie's attention to ride with us to, and I'm like, "Alright, fine, ask if he wants to share." Reggie goes to sit back down. At this point, I know he's not coming in this cab, so I tell the cab to just go. I didn't have all that far to travel, so riding with him woulda been pointless, even on better terms. Who knows, maybe the cabbie got back in time to give him a ride before another cab showed up. Whatever. I wasn't going to let anyone steal my cab that night.

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Well, the recall election is today

I've done voted via absentee last week. My mind hasn't changed, either. I'm still not happy about having to vote over the recall, but oh well. I think the law should allow counter-petitioning (or would that be counter petition or counterpetition?) during the petition collection process. Actually, that's not a bad idea. That would mean that any petition would need to collect a more reasonable number of signatures instead of letting a very small percentage of the population trigger something like a recall.

Some week off this has been

I had intended on doing nufin for a couple of weeks in the evenings, to just relax and veg. This is cuz last month I was soo busy. Well, it's not shaping up that way. I've gone out Friday, Sunday, last night and today, plus tomorrow and Friday again. I'm having a good time, so I'm not goin to stop the spontanious flow of activity. I'll just need to make sure I take it easy this weekend cuz I'm goin to need to catch up on sleep.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Microsoft's Settlement Refund...umm, wow

This is turning about to be one strange turn-of-the-century. First, we start getting tax refund checks in the middle of the year without filing taxes yet. Now, Microsoft is throwing money at us too.

Basically, you get a settlement for any eligible Microsoft purchases you made during 1995 thru 2001. No proof of purchase is necessary if the total reimbursement is does not exceed $100. Microsoft even had two of my purchases already listed. The really really scary part about all this is that somehow, they knew to send the reimbursement form to my current work address. I've been working at the same company all along, mind you, but we've moved a couple of times since then. Well, it's a refund that I'm sure I deserve. :) Anyone else wanna give me some money? LOL

Updated Post, August 14, 2006

Updated Post, September 15, 2016
Microsoft Settlement Refund...umm, wow Part 2

Monday, September 29, 2003

My Vote

Besides the recall vote, there's two other items on the California 2003 special election: proposition 53 and Proposition 54. I've stated before that I'm a political centralist. So here I am, faced with two highly political propositions. What's a centralist to do?
My viewpoint on Proposition 53 is that the last thing we need is more planned state government spending that takes money out of the budget. This proposition is giving our elected leaders no room to move when balancing the budget. I was very surprised to find that the Republican party of California is supporting this thing. Aren't these guys supposed to be against wild government spending? When I read the pros and cons, it just left a bad taste in my mouth to think this was even on the ballot. Yuk.
My viewpoint on Proposition 54 is that it is about time this issue is being addressed. I classify my race as American. Ethically, that is what I am. It would be nuts to break down my family lines to choose just one of my origin races as my own. The truth is that I represent none of these origin races, or maybe I represent all of them. I am walking proof of the stupidity of claiming ethnicity. Right now, I can legally claim status as a Philipino American. Look at my picture at the top left of this Blog. Do I remotely look Philipino? In a color blind society, it wouldn't even matter. I am tired of being asked about my ethnicity by the government. I want this practice stopped. I read in the cons that this proposition will hinder health care collection of data. Well, it doesn't. Even if there is some loophole where this might occur, it would be fixed by the legislature next year anyway, so this is a moot point.

Economy starting to look to 1930's

Our country is running out of Economic Options. The policies of our government are running our economy the ground. Thangs are starting to look like the beginning of the Great Depression. I don't think we will have one, but we are being pushed in that direction more than we should because of some of the policies the current administration is perusing. This story by the USAToday says it well.

It is a myth that the U.S. has a Free Market Economy. We've never really have had a pure Free Market Economy. I'll rant more about this some other time though.

Sunday, September 28, 2003

End of the Sailboating twilight Series

...And we lost Friday evening. We had a good start in the race, and were in the lead. Then another boat ran into us. No damage to the Spitfire, but it cost us 30 seconds. Our best competitor in the series caught up with us because of this incident with another boat. We did finish the race first, but with handicapping time, we still got second place by 19 seconds. That incident with the other boat cost us the race, and the series. Arg. Second place. Oh well. We finished the series with one 3rd place, three 2nd places and one first place finish. We got the winning gun three times but lost two of those races because our main competitor finished quickly enough behind us to over take us with handicapping.
It came down to the wire, so it was a fun series. Next time, first will be ours! :)

Friday, September 26, 2003

Rest needed

This is one busy week. This whole month has been busy, with the camping, Napa Valley trip, sailing, etc. Almost every non-working, non-sleeping period of time has been spent doing something or being with one friend or another in one way or another. It’s been great, but I’m going need a break. I’m just going to hibernate this weekend, I think. Maybe go for a drive somewhere. No wait, that’s doing something LOL.

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Review of Chateau Hotel, Napa, CA

El Sh*t-toe is the term I overheard another guess use to describe the Chateau Hotel. It fits. The hotel looks good at first glance when you arrive, but in fact it is not well maintained. The rooms are old, outdated and not maintained. The dresser had one handle missing. The bathrooms were extremely simple. The beds mattresses squeaked loudly. The pillows were worn out. The bedspreads looked as though they had been in the room since the hotel was first built, decades ago. The A/C unit was horribly inadequate, and again looked to be as old as the hotel, yet added on as an after thought years later. The hot tub was a mess and its jets did not work in any useful manner. The carpets are dirty and old. The hallways where not cooled. The vending machines where out of stock for three days straight on the weekend during a busy season. The T.V. was small, appeared to be decades old, and buzzed very loudly every time a bright light was in the background of the T.V. show. The T.V. only had local channels and HBO, with no movie selections. The hotel is farther from Napa’s downtown area than suggested in the hotel’s description. On the plus side, they had a working ice machine. Oh, the staff was courteous, but seemed fully aware of the hotels issues.
Even at my discounted rate, the hotel is way way over priced. However, you couldn’t lower the price far enough to convince me to stay there again. In Napa Valley, I’ve spent much less on a room and received better, newer rooms and more services.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Napa Valley

Man, it was beautiful there this weekend. The weather was hot and clear. The only downside was the hotel. More like a glorified motel. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Went to V.Sottui, Berenger, Copola, etc. Don't ask me to spell them right. LOL They are all on highway 29. Also, had a great lunch on Saturday at Fumé. Came back with prolly more wine than needed for the year to come. LOL

Monday, September 22, 2003

"Continue on 29"

::Driving on the highway up to Napa Valley from the Bay Area::
Miriam is driving her hot red Mustang, and I'm navigating. After we get past the bridge over the delta waterway on highway 80, our Mapquest instructions tell us to take the highway 37 exit, but we know we need to be on highway 29. She's not trusting my navigating skills (based on experience and the Mapquest map) so decides to hit the earlier 29 exit. She cuts across the whole freeway and just manages to get on the exit by the graces of a fellow traveller who waved us in. Now, 29 goes thru a city called Vallejo. It's been said that Vallejo is the armpit of California. On the plus side, we are on highway 29, so the route is easy to follow. Umm, well, not quite. As anyone who knows 29 in Vallejo, there is one confusing 5-way intersection. She hits that intersection and instinctively goes the wrong way. I forgot about the intersection, so wasn't able to direct her in the correct direction in time. We are forced to make a mid-street u-turn. We get back to that intersection, only to find it does not allow us to turn in the direction we need to go. So, we go straight thru again, and make another u-turn. Finally, we can turn the right way. After all of this, she asks, "Which way now?" I innocently look at my map for reference (though we are not following the route laid out). I reply, "Just continue on 29".

Some time passes, and we finally get thru the city streets. The intersection with highway 37 is ahead. Hmmm, we really shoulda gone that way. Oh well. She asks, "Is this the right way?" Again, I innocently look at my map. We are now following the path on the map again. The directions read, Continue on 29 so, I say, "Continue on 29".

Some more time passes. We are driving down 29. Now she asks again, "Is this the right way?" At this point, it is starting to be a running gag to me. I slyly look at the map, smiling, and just read what it says, "Continue on 29".

No more than 15 minutes later, "Matt, what's the next road we take?" she asks. "Let me look at the map. Oh right, it says 'Continue on 29'!" LOL She finally gets it. So finally, we get to the hotel. It was just off of highway 29.

The next day, we head up 29 to hit up some of the wineries. "Continue on 29" as again uttered several times, but mostly in jest. All of the wineries we were interested in are on highway 29, of course.

New KFC Popcorn Chicken (fwd)

Mmmm The new KFC Popcorn chicken is great. Damn really improved. I was
so surprized I'm entering this blog in from the road. It's like a
little slice of heaven. Mmmm


--- end forwarded text

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Napa Getaway

Miriam and I are going for the weekend to Napa Valley to just relax. Take the wine train, sit by the pool, and just all around do nufin...after hitting up a bunch of wineries along highway 29.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Monday, September 15, 2003

Weekend Camping

Went camping this weekend with some friends. We didn't have a plan other than to drive to the coast and find a place. We lucked out and found something north of Santa Cruz. It was more a resort with a campground attached. The camp sites were even powered with AC outlets! Very nice. It almost didn't fill like roughing it. The beach there was great. The weather was perfect. While the inland was scorching, we were on the beach in the sun and temp in the low 80's with a gentle cooling breeze. Of course the water was chilly! Turned out to be a great weekend.

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Friday, September 12, 2003

Phone Bill

Ok, I've got my house phone bill rate down to under $5.85 on a measured rate plan. I dumped my long distance completely. So with taxes and other services, my total home phone bill is going to be prolly under $12.00 total.

Monday, September 08, 2003

Mvys

I saw Jason Vs Freddy (or is that Freddy Vs Jason) last week. Pretty good slasher. I don't watch many, but this one is worth the time. Entertaining. Not good enough to show up in my DVD collection though.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend. Good movie. It was enjoyable to watch. It knows it's an action/adventure movie, and it revels in it. I do recommend this film. It will go into my DVD collection.

I saw Johnny English this weekend as well. It is funny, but not really hilarious, which a movie like this needs to be. Not a waste of my time, but it is definitely not going to show up in my DVD collection.

If you haven't notices already, my criteria for judging movies is whether or not is will end up in my DVD collection. This is a slightly higher bar than "thumbs up" or "hot or not". It means even a marginally good movie will not get a passing mark. It needs to actually be a good movie to end up in my DVD collection. Doesn't have to be really good. It just needs to have redeeming qualities if it is marginal.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Meteor

Last night, in the north (from Campbell, CA) I saw this bright greenish white glowing ball streaking down from the sky. At first, I thought it was fireworks or a burning plane. It was staying bright too long to be fireworks. It was moving down too fast and glowing to consistently to be a burning plane. It was so bright, I was able to clearly see it thru the city light pollution near the horizon. The glow suddenly faded as it approached the ground. The only thang I can figure is that it was a meteor that made it pretty far into the atmosphere. I've seen plenty of shooting stars, but never seen a meteor this close before. It was over so quick.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

eBay Auctions

Ok, I've done something I haven't done in years, I'm actually selling on eBay! See the new link on the right. It's the icon "My Auctions eBay". Or click that link here too. :)

Updating the week

It looks like I'm done ranting for now. LOL So, here's a layout of my bus-i-ness instead, just for me. Monday, hung out with a friend in the day, and another friend in the evening. Tuesday, had pizza with Miriam and tried not to pay too much attention to reality TV she was watching, but damn that shit is so lame and it bugs me to see ... ok... umm... next topic. Weds, hung out Dave in the evening. (Please note, I never refer to work as busy time...it is just lost time, period). Tonight, I'm going to the movies with a friend. Tomorrow, Miriam and I are going to see Ronie up in the Delta. There's personal reasons for this. I bailed out on a sailboat race for this nite to go see her. Prolly going to play mini-golf just for the hell of it. On Sat, I'm going to catch a couple of matinee movies by myself, then meet up with another friend in the evening for drinks. It also looks like I'm covering the booth at the Campbell Farmers Market on Sunday, then going to take it easy for a breather that evening. My weeks have pretty much been like this for a few months now. blah blah blah...now I remember why I don't post these kinds of post very much. Just doing this to remind myself of what I'm doing. :)

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Long Weekend?

Is this really a long weekend? It's almost over, kinda. Sunday. I was out Friday having fun, and hit up SF Zoo on Sat. Today, I'm taking it easy before going to a club in downtown San Jose, if you can believe it. Going to hit up the Tapestry and Talent Fair tomorrow.

Friday, August 29, 2003

Yesterday evening...

I went out yesterday. Had a lovely afternoon outdoors over at Viva Sol, a rest'rant on El Camino in Mt. View. Later, at my friend's place, I felt a headache coming on, so I asked where the pain relievers were. This lead me to take a generic Tylenol PM. uhh. Well anyway, my friend was in the mode for hanging out at a place in Downtown Mt. View. We where there most of the night until the PM part of the Tylenol started kicking in around 11. So it ended up being an early night. Damn, that's the last time I don't pay attention to the bottle and take PM anything. I'm still feeling it. yuk.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

eBay

I’m an eBay user. I love the service, and use it frequently. I have one piece of advice. If you are looking for VHSs, DVDs, CDs etc, make sure you look at all sources and compare. Examples: Half.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. I’ve been looking for a hard to find DVD recently. It had been hitting over $30 everytime it appeared on eBay. So, I checked Half.com and found it for under $16, with less shipping charges. The best part of this is that eBay owns Half.com, so ordering was easy.
So, when looking for bargains or hard to find items, it always helps to shop around. Often eBay will be the place where I end up, but not always.

Monday, August 25, 2003

Survival of the...science

As with other sciences, evolution is now in practical use within modern technology. This is due, in part, to the invention of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and other genetic analysis tools. These tools allow for more efficient studies of genetics. PCR opens the door into how all species relate to each other. Exploration of this interconnectivity allows much quicker identification and treatment of old and new diseases. The use of applications based on biological studies of evolution is benefiting our society. It will soon become part of our daily lives. Denial of evolution is the equivalent to saying that the Earth is a flat, or that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects.
 
There are examples of evolution’s survival of the fittest principle within our own species. There are traits in the human species that are fighting for dominance.
 
One trait in the Western Culture is lactose persistence. 75% or so of our population (Western Culture) can properly digest lactose (from milk) our entire lives.1(1) This is a newer trait that has become dominant because of the long history of our use of milk in our daily diet. In other cultures, at least 75% of the population becomes lactose intolerant after the age of weaning. These are cultures that historically did not have access to milk on a daily basis, and so carry the older trait which naturally causes the weaning of a child. This older trait used to be necessary for survival, but now is unimportant.
 
Where lactose persistence is succeeding, there is another trait that is failing in the tropics. There is a genetic adaptation which allows an individual to be more resistant to malaria. But if a man and woman (who carry this trait) procreate, their children may have sickle cell anemia.2(2)  This is an example of a genetic trait that benefits the individual, but not the species. If left alone, the trait will likely die out eventually. Or maybe it will lead to further adaptation that does not cause sickle cell anemia.
 
More rapid examples come to us in the form of viruses and bacteria. These species evolve yearly. Understanding of their origins (made possible by PCR through biological studies of evolution) allows us to combat them more effectively. This will eventually develop into technologies that will be apart of our daily lives, like flying in an airplane or satellite TV.