Life in Folsom

Final Placement

2012-02-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like I'm officially done with my Rotation Engineer Program (REP). I'm now in the High Speed I/O group full time as a Design Engineer. Looks like I'll be doing some b*&@% work for a while in the labs. But there will still be fixes that need to be made, stuff to be redesigned, things to learn, etc... Plus, I think I'll be better at that than hardcore design stuff for a while. At least until I know the intricacies of the IP (Intellectual Property).

Now I just need to make sure I don't F*&$ up too badly.

In other news... it's a 3 day weekend!

Current Mood : Think I'm Getting Sick
Current Music : Animal Rights, Deadmau5

It Was a Good Day

2012-02-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting the immortal words of Ice Cube, "today was a good day".

Woke up, lounged around a while, and then went to Karen's Bakery for some brunch. Pretty good. I don't think I'd get the same dish I got next time we go. The Porchetta Breakfast Sandwich was still quality, but wasn't what I was looking for in a brunch meal.

Went to Raley's and picked up some groceries. Place was empty. Just how I like the grocery store. Got home and had the energy to pick up the place a little. Then sat around on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother episodes.

Jessica has a class she is taking on Tuesday night, so we decided to celebrate Valentines day today. I cooked up some fondue bourguignonne, cracked open a bottle of wine and lit some candles. Very good food, but the wine was kind of weird. It was this chocolate wine we got as a present. Then for dessert, some pieces of cake from Karen's that we bought earlier. To top it off, some snuggle (and Snuggie) time and a massage. I treat my lady right.

Current Mood : Might make more food.
Current Music : Predator, Ice Cube

Rant: Damn Kids!

2012-02-10T21:55:00.000-08:00

OK. I often act old and complain about the kids these days... well I'm right. Tonight I went to a movie with Jessica. We saw The Woman in Black. It was actually a pretty good movie. Except, Daniel Radcliffe is not allowed to be a father. He still looks like he is growing peach fuzz for a 5 o'clock shadow. Anyways, we had a horrible movie experience.

I actually had to tell the kids behind me to not "comment on every F*&%ing thing that happens in the movie". They shut up pretty quickly after that. I guess I'm intimidating. Seriously, if I have a kid who talks that much during a movie, I'm going to slap them the F*$% upside the head. Keep in mind this was after Jessica had to tell the kids next to us to shut the hell up and to quit walking in front of us to change seats 4 times while ending up in the same damn seats (30 minutes into the movie). What happened to watching a movie during a movie? For some reason if there are more than 4 teens in a theater they think they can be loud obnoxious pieces of shit without regard for others.

Current Mood : I was already in a bad mood today. This made me want to smash some skulls.
Current Music : Heartbreak, Childish Gambino

Mozart!

2012-02-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

Our newest kitty. Got my new camera, and this was the first picture I took.

Current Mood : Tired of the Week
Current Music : Lets Go To The Mall by Robin Sparkles

Picking This Up Again

2012-02-06T22:51:00.000-08:00

If you want your blog to be successful, you need to update on a regular basis. I don't seem to follow that rule at all.

Lots has happened since I last updated this thing.

I got married. Anyone who might read this, probably already knows that.
I got my PhD... for reals this time (already had defended, just needed to finish writing). Turned in the dissertation (finally) and rang the bell and everything.
I'm knee deep in my third rotation for my job. This time as a circuit designer for high speed I/O (think USB, SATA, PCIE, Gigabit Ethernet, etc...). Going to final place really really soon.
Got yet another cat from a local shelter. His name is Mozart, and he's awesome.

And now for the little things...

Digital camera died finally. Ordered a fancy new one. OK, not fancy. But still an upgrade seeing as how mine was 6-7 years old. Expect some pictures if I keep this up.
Bought some weights thinking I was going to work out and honor my new years resolution... I actually have been doing it a little. Getting stronger, but still fat.
Trying to plan some things to do before I turn 30. It will be an epic year... if I actually follow through with any of them.

Current Mood : Burnt Out
Current Music : Got Beat Up, Weston

2011-09-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Letting you all listen to some island flava. I've heard this song everyday that I've been in Hawaii and I can't get it out of my head.

Current Mood : Good. Going to a luau in a few minutes.
Current Music : Sunshine Girl, J Boog

Azn

2011-08-24T22:37:00.001-07:00

Last night I made a bunch of rice... and I didn't F&*# it up! I feel more Asian already!

Current Mood : Don't make me go to ~~school~~ work!
Current Music : Massive Attack, Collected

Superman

2011-08-04T01:50:00.000-07:00

Ooooh they started filming the new Superman movie... due out in 2 years. But I'm all excited for it already!

Written by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception) and David S Goyer (Dark City, The Dark Knight).
Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen)
Actors include Henry Cavill (The Tudors), Amy Adams (The Fighter), Russel Crowe (Gladiator), Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Christopher Meloni (SVU), and sadly, Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/

Eh. It deserved a blog post. Long day/night, and I didn't want to go to bed yet. Peace.

Current Mood : Accomplishing something...
Current Music : Sandstorm, by Darude

Post-age Post-haste

2011-07-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I haven't posted in a long time. Got busy/lazy.

Just got back from biking on the American River Bike Trail. Jessica and I managed to go for a total of ~18 miles (9 down, 9 back). I plan on working towards the goal of going the whole 30 mile down and back some day.

Lots of things have happened since the last time I posted... I think. Let's reiterate some of the big things:

4th of July was fun. Went to a rodeo in Folsom.
Spent 5 days in Hillsboro Oregon. Now I know my family reads this, don't be mad. I was there for work, and had my days planned out for me from 8AM - 9PM. No time for anything else.
Had an early bachelor party. Had a great time. Sorry can't talk any more about it. What happens there, stays there.
Going rafting this weekend for Dominick's bachelor party. Should be fun.
Started working out. Still fat.
Electronica is making a comeback in my music collection. Check out a sample of my newest go to artist, deadmau5.
Went to the beach at Folsom Lake. Rented a canoe and went paddling around for a few hours. Got sunburnt.
Plenty of good food spread out in between there somewhere. Last good place I went was The Purple Place Bar & Grill. Totally thought it was a gay bar at first. Great burgers and fries.
Saw Transformers : Dark of the Moon at the Sacramento Drive-In. Been a long time since I've been to one. This place was packed. I was quite surprised.
Went to a Sacramento River Cats game courtesy of work. Got free tix, BBQ, and $25 to spend on souvenirs.

I guess I can't think of any more fun stuff off the top of my head. Probably did something else in there somewhere.

Peace.

Current Mood : Sleepy Time
Current Music : Some Chords, deadmau5

A SoCal Vacation

2011-06-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Chilled in San Pedro, CA for Memorial Day weekend. Lets recap shall we?

Friday - Flew from Sacramento to LAX. Got the rental car, checked in the hotel, and went to the San Pedro Brewing Company for some food. Turned out to be horrible food, bitter beer, and just a big disappointment. Luckily we went to Medieval Times for dinner and a show and that turned out to be pretty cool and saved the day. However, our knight (the yellow one) died!

Oh yeah, we saw Randy's Donuts.

Saturday - Had some good Mexican breakfast at a local taqueria, then spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm. Went on a few rides, saw a few shows, had a good time. Bought some things to add to my cow collection. Finished the day at a local pizzeria. Good greasy food.

Jessica apparently died at Knott's Berry Farm. Here she is in her casket.

Hanging with my home boy.

Sunday - More great mexican at the Pacific Diner. Headed to Venice Beach to see many smoke shops, street performers, and shady characters. Apparently I could have gotten a medical marijuana prescription for $40. Had to buy a t-shirt. Muscle Beach "Venice" was kinda neat too. Saw some martial arts demonstrations, as well as crazy street acrobatics.

Checking out kids who could kick my ass at Muscle Beach.

All it takes is ice cream, and Venice Beach to make a happy Jessica.

The beach was too windy to really have a good time just chilling on the sand, so we packed it up and traveled to the La Brea Tarpits. Pretty smelly stuff. Then we checked out the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Saw some cool pieces by Rembrandt, Rodin, Picasso, Monet, Lichtenstein, and tons more.

At the La Brea Tar Pits with her Wooly Mammoth friend.

Excited for the Tim Burton exhibit.

Monday - Checked out the Beaches of San Pedro. Went to the wedding at Fort MacArthur

Tuesday - Drove to LAX. Flew to Sac. Glad to be home.

Final Thoughts

I was a little disappointed with service in general at most SoCal establishments. I think I may be too accustomed to the sweet service almost every place in Folsom gives.
Too many people, and hence, parking is crap.
I like the beach, but would probably pick some less ghetto beaches to be a beach bum at.
Momo withdrawal. I hope he gave Batcat a run for his money.
I still need to do another LA trip to see a few things in order for it to feel complete.

Current Mood : Exhausted
Current Music : Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson

Live, from the Biltmore

2011-05-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Once again I am posting from the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara. I'm up early because I am still trying to get normal work done even though all my time is allocated to REP work. Fun times. For a huge lack of sleep, I'm doing pretty good. Had tapas and sangria last night at Cascal. Very good food. I highly recommend it. Still, I can't wait to get home.

Current Mood : Blogging!
Current Music : Pepper, can't remember the name of the song.

I posted! Your Turn!

2011-05-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

Jessica says I never post. This is pretty true. So here is a post.

I'm up late. My work schedule has successfully shifted a few hours. So this is OK I guess. I feel like I'm in grad school again. I'm actually doing a lot of what I did in grad school, except I'm expected to do it in 1/10th of the time it took me before. The fact that it is hard as hell to find the right information doesn't help. I miss the wiki of my old lab. People actually contributed to that (well, maybe not anymore, but still). My old rotation had a OneNote where all the information was kept. That was nice. Except once again, after I left, I don't think anyone is going to update it.

I think I know why there is a lack of documentation. No one here seems to value it. I've been trying to document what I do. It takes too much time to do properly. Instead, my time has focused on documenting other peoples work, so that I can do my own. I'm not sure if that is a good expenditure of time...

In other Mackenzie entertainment news... I saw Thor. You should too. Anthony Hopkins was in it. I had no idea.

Current Mood : Cars have become interesting.
Current Music : Initial D Theme Music...

Crosspost?

2011-04-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

So I read Jessica's blog just now. After talking on the phone with my dad the other day, I found out that all the other relatives seem to think Jessica died or something after not blogging for a long time.

She mentioned that we got her a new bike. I was excited since this meant we could go on rides using the trail system here in Folsom. Now I'm going to beat her to the punch and put up a picture of the bike before she does! Muahahhahahah! Actually, the picture is from the Manufacturer's website. Enjoy! I'm glad I convinced her to get a hybrid bike instead of a cruiser. Much better for the hills and streets in Folsom.

Current Mood : Fight the sleep!
Current Music : Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin

New Job

2011-04-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Started my new rotation this past week. Slow start. Keep having to do stuff dealing with the old one. Still have tons of other crap to do. Probably going to go on a bike ride today for a workout. I like the nicer weather, but I can't wait until it gets hot and kills all the plant sex.

Current Mood : Fat
Current Music : Random 80's tunes. I guess RIck Springfield currently.

I'm Metal?

2011-03-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm Metal. Or at least, more than most (the hair is getting long again). Saw a show last night which I won free tickets to from work. Got to sit in the "Rockstar Suite" at the Power Balance Pavillion (previously the Arco Arena). Let's go through the music shall we?

The opening band (or at least the one playing when I got there)...

Next was a band which I really don't usually care for, but was pretty awesome live...

Disturbed. Good music. I was pleasantly surprised that the singer was pretty great live.

Final act. Korn. Brings me back to Jr High (I'm older than you take me for).

Current Mood : Exhausted.
Current Music : A Star-Crossed Wasteland, In This Moment

Grand Canyon Trip 2011

2011-03-08T23:18:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my mates (Brian, Mike) and I went to the Grand Canyon for adventure! What follows is a retelling of our journey into the abyss...

Day 0/1: The Rim
I arrived at the Robles residence with the other Asian. We decided that waiting around for morning was (in the words of Vo) for "pansies", and drove all night in shifts to get to the South Rim around noon. Snow was a plenty, and it was so cold, that we couldn't even get the fire going the following morning. I mean, we had a friggin' snowman built on our campsite. As night fell, coyotes were heard echoing across the empty campground as we froze our asses off in our tents.

Snow? Excellent!

Steak!

Snowman?

Day 2: The Descent

Everyone thought I was crazy for going to the Grand Canyon in March. "Isn't it freezing?" they would say. Well, on the rim it was, but after braving the ice and snow, we reached lower elevations where the midday sun cooked us to a warm 80 degrees. Descending 4780 feet, traveling 7.1 miles, and carrying 30 lb. packs on the South Kaibab Trail was totally worth it. We were pumped to do this, and I'm surprised we made it happen.

Ready to tear the canyon up!

Vo on icy ground.

On the edge.

Great view.

River crossing.

Once at the bottom, we forded the mighty Colorado River and set up camp at Bright Angel Campground. We were not so crazy anymore, as pretty much all the campsites were taken up by like-minded souls. The steak, cucumbers, and Gatorade flowed that night! Waking up in the middle of the night, sweating, was quite a difference from the ass freezing experienced the previous night.

The mighty Colorado!

Setting up, or was it taking down camp?

Got to use my tent!

Day 3: The Ascent
On the third day, we woke up early, packed up camp, and headed out to our next destination, Indian Garden Campground via the Bright Angel Trail.

View from a bridge.

A much needed rest.

Still higher to go.

Although we arrived easily enough at the campground, we did not like the look of the approaching storm. With an 80% chance of rain/snow, we decided it would be better to push on towards the rim instead of risking a very wet and cold hike the next day. After several hours of rest, we made it up to the top just after dark. The 9 uphill miles, blazing sun, chilling winds, and lack of cellphone reception could not stop us! The looks we got while getting on the shuttle after dark, carrying huge packs, and shivering, made my day. Once again, it was established that resting for the night was for "pansies", and we set off for home.

The squirrels be crazy at Indian Garden.

A great Robles picture.

Quite a distance.

Crossing the ice again.

Day 4: The Rest
Getting to the Bay Area proved no small feat, as we were once again forced to drive in shifts. In-N-Out Burger was my personal savior. After dropping the Robles and the Vo off at their respective residences, I continued my voyage towards Sacramento. Arriving in Folsom at noon, I sat upon my ass, and had a great time falling asleep on the couch watching That 70's Show.

I have to give a shout out to REI which happened to be the place where I bought most of my gear. I haven't been disappointed with anything I've bought from there so far, and can't recommend it enough. It may be pricey, but it is great quality.

Current Mood : Overwhelmed
Current Music : Theme song from That 70's Show (I'm too lazy to look it up).

Bobcat!

2011-02-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

So my parents found a couple of bobcat's strolling around the front yard yesterday. I don't remember ever seeing these around my house growing up. But then again, I'd probably mistake them for a huge cat. My dad took a picture. Here it is:

Pretty impressive, no?

Current Mood : I could do more?
Current Music : Ending theme music to Spartacus (showtime series).

Chandler, AZ

2011-02-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Work has been grueling lately. 13+ hour days everyday. Learning a lot, while also somehow not doing anything at the same time. I'm amazed.

Had a beer with the guys to end the night. Helped a lot.

Oh! I ate snake the other night!

Current Mood : Glad to be back at my hotel before midnight.
Current Music : Is there such a thing? I forget.

You are killing me.

2011-02-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

Today was long. Worked the full day. Came home. Fixed Jucy Lucy's (as seen on Man vs. Food). Worked out. Then worked from home to get some things done before tomorrow. Now I'm relaxing since I haven't done it all day. It is far too late. I should really go to bed. But I feel like music.

Have a video or two.

Yeah. In my head it is the 90s again. Deal with it.

Current Mood : Glad I don't have to go to work early tomorrow.
Current Music : Hybrid Moments by the Misfits

Being Sick

2011-02-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

I've been sick on and off for the past few weeks... I blame Vegas, but I really have been trying to do too much and have probably not taken care of myself as well as I should have. Recently I developed a bad sounding cough. What did I do about it? I bought cough drops. I've been sucking on them like they were candy. What does the warning say on it? "Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect."

Current Mood : Not happy.
Current Music : The sounds of gladiators fighting.

New Year Kickoff

2011-01-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

So Jessica and I decided upon a date and a venue for our wedding in the early fall/late summer. She bought a wedding dress, and apparently we have an appointment with a DJ. It seems things are going faster than I thought. I guess we need to send out some save the date stuff.

So I was in the Pheonix/Chandler area of Arizona and Las Vegas for 8 days last week. Was lots of fun. Don't want to do it again though. I ended up getting sick for a week and have just gotten over it. I suppose that is what I get for going out drinking 7 of the 8 nights, and not having more than 5 hours sleep any single day. I took a few pictures with my phone, but I think I'm probably too lazy to post them right now. One highlight was seeing a great Suns/Nets game with good seats and a bunch of friends.

In other news... I had the desire to play some video games, so I bought Dead Space during the Steam sale. Scariest game I've ever played. A little buggy though. I intentionally play these types of games with the hardest difficulty so I don't get bored, but 70% of the way through it dropped me to medium difficulty. Definitely is less scary when you don't have to conserve ammo.

Oh yeah, I've also been listening to a lot of 90's electronica recently. Maybe I've been going to too many clubs...

Current Mood : Exhausted
Current Music : Sandstorm by Darude

Happy New Years!

2011-01-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

One more year of updating this blog. To my loyal readers (Jessica, probably my family) thanks! To everyone else... who are you and why do you read this?

My new years day has so far been spent playing Donkey Kong Country Returns while hungover. Jessica and I did go have a good breakfast though at the Waffle Barn. Service sucked (although it was crowded), but the food was good.

Current Mood : Hungover
Current Music : Scream, Dracula, Scream! by Rocket From The Crypt

The Search Continues

2010-12-30T00:26:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm scouring the far reaches of the internet for the elusive creature, good music. I found a few more contenders. But nothing solid yet. I may have to stretch back to things which came out before 2010, or (gasp!) check out pop music. My, have I become so old? Well, if I can't find good music, I'll go with angry music. So here is a youtube video of a "diamond in the rough."

Current Mood : Annoyed
Current Music : Majesty Shredding, by Superchunk

All is Quiet on the Intel Front

2010-12-28T22:54:00.001-08:00

So this week has been extremely quiet at work. Almost everyone is on vacation, except me. I actually enjoy it. I have had a chance to get to all the things that I wanted to have time to do before, but never did.

Once again another year is almost up. I have started to download a massive amount of albums in order to obtain new music. I haven't been keeping up too much these days. I have no idea what "the kids" are listening to nowadays. Most stuff is crap anyways, so I don't think I'm missing too much. My favorite genres are also out of style so there aren't any amazing new bands I've heard yet.

Christmas was good. Got some good stuff. Saw the families. Relaxed and got fat.

Speaking of fat, Jessica bought the Wii EA Sports Active 2. I'm currently on the 9 week workout plan. It is pretty cool and hard. I think I may actually be in shape after it is all done.

Current Mood : I think I can sleep in...
Current Music : Daft Punk - Tron OST

Start of a Wonderful Vacation

2010-11-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

So I'm using up some vacation days this week so that I can get all of Thanksgiving week off. So far the vacation is good.

Friday: Had a movie night with Jessica with some pie and wine that I got from a GPTW (Great Place To Work) event at Intel. Watched The Fourth Kind. Was kinda neat. But I wouldn't bother recommending it. Jessica thought it was scary. But she is all into alien stuff.

Saturday: Went to the Harvest Festival in Sacramento. Didn't buy any crafts. Bought a bunch of food things though. Went to Fry's and picked up a new USB hard drive for backups. Went to a friend's going away party in Davis. Then ended the night with some snuggle time at home. A good day.

Sunday: Went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (saw Harry Potter) at the Folsom theater. Went jogging, then tried out some new cooking creations. Another good day.

Hopefully the rest of my vacation is as good.

Current Mood : Current Music :

Sleep

2010-11-13T01:15:00.000-08:00

I can't fall asleep... correction. I don't want to fall asleep. I don't know why, but I never like going to sleep. I love sleeping, but I just don't like going to bed. I'm in Santa Cruz right now, and I am super tired, but alas, I am on the internet.

In other news, it looks like I'll be spending some time in Arizona in a few weeks for work. Then right back to Santa Clara for more work.

Current Mood : I shall never succumb to sleep!

Current Music : Crash, by The Primitives

Healthy Body Sick Mind, You're Working Overtime

2010-11-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

Things are picking up quick at work. I feel like I have a lot to do now. Both my projects are starting to ramp up, and I still have REP obligations. Even with all that, I had a good day at work. For some reason, I feel like I accomplished stuff. It probably wasn't enough. But it made my day.

I think the reason I felt good after work was because I accidentally slept in late. Usually I wake up super early because Jessica gets up, and I never get quality sleep after that. But today Jessica had off, so she slept in.

In other news, I haven't really listened to music in a long time. I'll get a good chance to tomorrow though when I drive to Santa Clara for an REP event. So I'm working on getting my MP3 player loaded up.

Current Mood : Skankin.
Current Music : Operation Ivy

Halloweenies

2010-11-10T23:48:00.000-08:00

For Halloween Jessica and I went to her coworker's son's party. It was actually pretty bumpin. I also feel like I got some more street cred because it was in West Sacramento.

I dressed up as a zombie/internet sensation, and Jessica dressed as a trippin Alice in Wonderland, because it matched her wig. Check out the picture.

I like turtles!

Current Mood : Again?
Current Music : I think I have too many posts all at once...

Family Man

2010-11-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

So I started my "family" last week. After 8 long years, Jessica and I are finally engaged! I realized I forgot to blog about this monumental occasion. But yeah. If you want more info, I'm going to have to refer you to Jessica's blog post on the subject.

She's having lots of fun showing off her ring to peeps. I'm happy that we are starting the next steps. Momo is still crazy. People keep asking me when the wedding is. I have no clue. I figure on something like late summer next year. Now I just need to finish the millions of other things I haven't done all this time.

Current Mood : Sleepy Time
Current Music : Momo's bell.

Updated Title and New Look

2010-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Yeah. I updated the title finally. Trying to get more stuff updated soon. But I'm lazy. You know this.

Oh yeah, I'm also trying out a new look to keep this thing "Fresh".

Current Mood : Case of the Mondays.
Current Music : Dexter Theme Song

Camping 2010

2010-11-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

Figured I'd post pictures of the camping trip I went on. Brian and Robles were with me so they ended up being the subject of most of my pictures. Anyways, here are my favorite ones:

Our Lovely Campsite

Brian making FIRE!

Large Wood

Steak!

Starting Out on the Hike

Part of the Way Up

The First Twin Lake

The Second Twin Lake

Peaceful Bridge

Current Mood : Happy
Current Music : Hot 103.5, so sad it used to be "The Bomb"

Case of the Mondays

2010-09-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

I finally started work. Just finished my first week. Everyone seems pretty cool so far. It was a very slack first week. It feels weird because I'm not sure what I'm actually supposed to do yet. I have a good idea. But no solid objectives yet. At least my managers are all really cool.

The cafeteria is good, and the free coffee is saving my life.

To sum up, so far I enjoy real work. It is about time.

It has also been brought to my attention that the title of my blog is no longer accurate. I will have to contemplate a new name for my blog...

Current Mood : It is Friday!
Current Music : Little Boxes song from Weeds

Restoring Truthiness

2010-09-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a big lurker on a website called Reddit. I've been addicted to it ever since I first checked it out. What is kind of nice about the site, is that it does have a sense of community, and occasionally, does some real good for the world (Haiti donations, for example).

Well this time, the community started a campaign to give money to teachers through donorschoose.org. This campaign also doubles as something to put pressure on Stephen Colbert to hold a rally parodying Glenn Beck's rally.

I felt that these were both good causes. So I gave some dough.

Restore Truthiness on the web!

Current Mood : Looking forward to camping.
Current Music : I wish.

Stepford People

2010-09-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

So Jessica already had a post on her blog about people in Folsom being scary Stepford Wives nice. I'm just confirming it. I took my car in a few days ago to get a mass air fuel flow sensor thingy replaced. The people were nice, and got it back to me in the same day. Today I received a handwritten card with a free carwash coupon from them in the mail. Also, while looking at some Glade plugin type smelly stuff, a woman offered us her experience with the different brands. The people at Costco were also really nice and chipper.

Scary stuff.

Checked out the lake finally. It is nice and warm. Surprised I didn't see more people at it, but I guess that is because we just went to a recreation area which was kinda rocky, and not the more sandy places further away.

OK, back to work.

Current Mood : Current Music :

Arrghh

2010-08-24T02:04:00.000-07:00

So I have a new show. Weeds. Not bad so far.

Current Mood : Current Music :

Finally things are going my way.

2010-08-17T02:33:00.001-07:00

I finally think things are going my way. Simulations are finally working, so I may actually be able to get out of here on time. Hence the 2:30AM blog post to wind down from doing work.

In other news, went to Karaoke at some dive bar in West Sacramento on Saturday. The highlight was Mike Hoxhard singing. Ended up talking to random bar people. The next day was not fun.

Momo seems to think I'm some sort of rival. If I put him up on my bed, he thinks he has conquered my land or something and gives me some aggressive postures. Nothing to Jessica. Just me. I'll try and get some video of him up here soon, so you can see what I mean.

Current Mood : Looking forward.
Current Music : Random Reggae on KDVS.

Crazy Week

2010-07-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

So last week was pretty crazy for me. I had my orientation for my new job in the Rotational Engineering Program (REP), met up with some high school peeps, went to my 10 year high school reunion, and finished another chapter in my thesis.

Monday: Went to Lab for a while, made my Pecha Kucha presentation, and drove down to Santa Clara and was put up at the Biltmore Hotel.

Tuesday: Had my first day of orientation. Met the other 23 people in my program and had plenty of team building activities. Went out for Chinese with the group. Ended up being a driver for the week since I was one of the few with cars. Good for me though because this forced me to be social.

Wednesday: Gave my Pecha Kucha, heard some pretty cool talks by bigwigs at Intel, and went for Indian with my fellow REPers.

Thursday: More talks, team building, orientation, and pictures in front of the Intel sign. Got plenty of schwag throughout the week including 2 shirts, a backpack, mouse/mousepad, notebook/pen and water bottle.

Friday: Did some community service at Sacred Heart and wrapped up orientation. Went out for drinks with the Santa Clara REP and Oregon REPs who were leaving later in the evening. Called up the Robles and continued the party at their place.

Saturday: Picked up Jessica and Robles, and went to our Harbor High School Reunion. It was pretty sad. Only 35 or so of 270 people came. Talked to some people I haven't talked to in years. Nothing has changed.

Sunday: Recovered from the week. Tried to do some school work, but couldn't concentrate.

Current Mood : Lazy
Current Music : Batman theme song as sung by a Pug.

Kitteh!

2010-07-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I have a new family member. Momo the kitty-cat. It means peach in Japanese. We have my grandma to thank for that one. Anyways, Jessica's sister Sara has a cat which had kittens and we adopted one on Friday. At first we thought that Momo was a girl, but after going to the vet today, we found out that it is in fact a boy. Who knew? I didn't see much junk.

Without further ado here are some pictures.

Sleepytime!

Curious kitty.

Action cat.

What do you want?

Yeah that last photo is scary. He did not like traveling in the carrier when we picked him up. But the rest of the time he is awesome. Very playful and affectionate. I didn't think I'd bond with a cat since I'm a dog person. But Momo is just like me. We even have the same sleep schedule.

For more pics, you can check out Jessica's Facebook account. I just picked a sampling of what I thought were good photos.

Current Mood : I wish it was Caturday.
Current Music : Nada.

Diamonds

2010-07-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

I was surfing the web, and found that this quote summarizes my opinion of diamonds.

The second I learned how to make diamonds with chemical vapor deposition and HTHP (high temperature high pressure) was the second I no longer believed they were special. - Sad_Scientist

We are able to make diamonds in the lab that are more perfect than real diamonds. The only way to tell these diamonds apart from the real thing is to do spectroscopy in IR, UV, or X-ray wavelengths. I don't think anyone carries around a portable spectroscopy machine.

Hell, the silicon that we use in everyday electronics is >99.9999% pure, crystalline, and pretty much defect free.

Current Mood : The world is conspiring against me!
Current Music : Trusty Chords by Hot Water Music

Who wants to socialize?

2010-07-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a pretty repetitive task for my research right now. Editing a bunch of schematics to accommodate a transistor model I made. Probably should automate the task, but I'm pretty sure it would take longer for me to do that. But I have some good tunes, and plenty of coffee. So I'm pretty much set.

In other news, I'm going to be in Santa Clara for a few days in a few weeks. Apparently I have to prepare a 3-5 minute presentation on "Who I Am" which is supposed to be for some sort of team building exercise. Sounds like something I hate. I've never liked the whole "introduce yourself and tell us about yourself" kind of thing. I like to get to know people in a natural interaction sort of fashion. The forced interactions always stress me out.

I'm also going to my 10 year high school reunion the following weekend. Should be interesting at the very least. At least the Redheads are going so I can have the option of being anti-social if I need a breather.

Current Mood : Meh
Current Music : Perfect Fit by AFI from Very Proud of Ya (the songs on this old album get better the older it gets)

Good News Everyone

2010-06-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

It looks like Jessica beat me to the punch.

Anyways, I took a job offer from Intel. I'll be working in Folsom come September. It's good news since I thought they wanted me to start in mid-July. This means that I have time to finish up my dissertation.

On the weekend Jessica and I drove up to explore the area. Pretty cool. Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do (a few lakes, tons of trails). I might have to get into boating or something to take advantage of the lake. I also noticed that they have no wiki similar to www.daviswiki.org, so I plan on creating one because the other websites for the city suck.

For those that might actually care, I'll be working on DDR memories and PCI Express, specifically validation and testing automation. Not exactly what my research is on. But then I never expected to work on anything close to my research. What matters is that the job sounds interesting, the people were cool, and this will give me good career opportunities.

Current Mood : Good
Current Music : The tick tock of my wall clocks.

Karate Chop

2010-06-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Jessica karate chopped my leg this morning when she got up. In order to allow more space in our bedroom, we have our bed up against a wall. So she has to climb over me in the morning. Well apparently she fell and beat me up in the process. Luckily I was only half awake. So I woke up scared for my life, and then fell back to sleep quickly.

Current Mood : Bleh
Current Music : I need some new music...

Good Mood

2010-06-22T23:06:00.000-07:00

I'm in a good mood. Got some good things figured out today. Not nearly as much work as I should have gotten done, but it helped. I may also have good news to report on the job front in a day or two. So I'll keep the blogosphere (do I hate this term?) posted.

In the meantime, enjoy some good Japanese Metal.

Current Mood : Good

Current Music : Circle Our Empire by The Rudiments,

Pizza

2010-06-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

I love pizza. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that. I've recently taken to eating my pizza with a generous portion of hot sauce drizzled on top. I think it brings me damn close to heaven. I used to always put a bunch of peppers on top. But there is something about the liquid hot sauce that can't be beat. Woodstock's does this for their "Firebird" pizza, which happens to be my favorite at that establishment.

I just wanted to let the world know my recent hot sauce discovery.

Current Mood : Feelin better.
Current Music : Now! by The Pepper Pots

Nothing Helps Like...

2010-06-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing helps a bad mood like "New Noise" by Refused. Check it.

Current Mood : Agghghghhh
Current Music : See above...

It's Hard Being a People Person

2010-06-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

So my job search is sorta in full effect now. I had an interview a while back on the phone which ended up being sorta crappy. I did a 2 hour interview on Wednesday with another company in Santa Clara which went well, and it looks like I have another interview lined up next Friday in Folsom.

I'll be really glad when it is over and I've landed a job. I am not used to having to dress nice and talk to people on the phone. I'm a much more laid back and face-to-face kind of guy. But it would be nice to have a choice of offers. I haven't been able to focus on my research because of studying for job interviews and all my TA stuff at the end of this quarter.

Sigh.

Current Mood : Tired.
Current Music : Maximum the Hormone

Yay Hi-Def

2010-05-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

I bought myself a Blu-ray drive for my HTPC and also Avatar on Blu-ray (so that I could witness the awesomeness of my setup) from Newegg last week. It came two days ago and I put it all together yesterday. Good stuff. I saw blue people in all the glory that the creators intended.

I also added Blu-ray discs to my Netflix queue. So I have now officially joined the hi-def community.

Current Mood : Work work...
Current Music : World of Goo themes

Tea

2010-05-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

I have been a little scatter-brained today. I was just pouring myself some iced-tea, and for some reason I had gotten the honey out (which I usually do for hot-tea). "No problem," I thought, "I'll just make some chai as well since I am going to be up late. So I reach for the coffee pot to make some hot water, and BAM! I drop the damn thing. It shatters. Glass everywhere. I was barefoot, and stepped out of the kitchen, I look at my foot, glass is in my toe. I pull it out. No blood, I'm good. I put on my sandals, sweep up the mess, and then realize I've been bleeding on my sandals and the floor. $@!&@#.

Now I can't make tea.

Current Mood : Mad
Current Music : Spider scurrying noises from Penumbra

Shameless Plug

2010-04-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today my blog post is going to be a shameless plug for my peeps.

Plug #1

Jessica's chorus group, the Sacramento Women's Chorus is putting on a performance this Saturday April 24th @ 7PM. I don't really know many details, but if anyone wants to come, give a call or email.

Plug #2

My parents have converted the studio they were renting out, and the Vegas condo to something along the lines of a bed and breakfast with taxi service. So check out the websites.

www.ScottsGuestHouse.com for Santa Cruz

www.MarisLasVegasGetaway.com for the Las Vegas condo

Jessica and I stayed at the Santa Cruz location as a trial run. The place is nice! If I had the money, I'd stay at a place like that.

Anyways, back to eating some awesome Chuy's!

Current Mood : Hungry
Current Music : Little Miss Can't Be Wrong by the Spin Doctors

2010-04-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

Wish I had some money. I'm fairly broke right now. Spent way too much in the past couple weeks. So I need to tone it down for a while.

I found some really cool posters on Zazzle. This dude Steve Thomas makes really cool art. I especially like the whole arcade game series stuff. How can you beat Frogger, Tron, Joust, and Donkey Kong made into propaganda posters? If I had some extra money, I would totally buy the set.

Current Mood : Tired
Current Music : Radio

My Name

2010-04-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a book from Amazon.com. It seemed funny because I didn't remember ordering anything. I order stuff online all the time, so maybe I ordered stuff a while back and just forgot. I opened it up to see a Poly Sci book. Now I didn't like my Political Science class when I took one 8-9 years ago. I sure as hell wasn't going to buy a book now. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was actually addressed to one Scott Mackenzie who also works at UCD. Somehow his department got a hold of it, and shipped it off to me, totally bypassing him.

These types of things happen to me all the time because people don't seem to think that Mackenzie is a first name, especially for a guy. There are times that I thought it would be cool if I could name my kid Mackenzie also, but things like this make me not wish to impart such easily avoided hassles onto the next generation.

Current Mood : I have to go all the way to the other side of campus!
Current Music : Some orchestra music from Mario Galaxy

New Quarter, Hopefully last.

2010-04-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

So it's the start of a new quarter in Davis. I'll be walking in the graduation ceremony, but probably not technically graduating until sometime during the summer. It has been pretty stressful for me. I still have loads of research to finish, and I have been trying to apply to a few jobs every once in a while as well. No bites so far. I think I may have to do an internship since I don't have any industry experience. Luckily engineers get paid good money for internships, just not as much as a real job.

I'm a TA this quarter for the first time in several years. I was nervous that the students would ask me hard questions. So I prepared a lot to get myself back up to speed. After the first lab session, I now realize I know loads more than any of these undergrads and could actually teach the class if I wanted. Hell, if I don't get a job, maybe I'll lecture for a bit.

Current Mood : Ha! I updated my blog Jessica!
Current Music : Sadly, none.

Tech Industry

2010-03-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

There is one thing that I don't like about Technology, it moves fast. Every year a group publishes the ITRS (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors), and I do a lot of my research based on the data they provide. Well last fall, I did a lot of modeling of some things based on the latest data they had from 2008. Now I want to use that same data for some other things I'm working on, and I check back and they now have numbers from 2009. Sadly, the numbers aren't the same, and I have to re-input all these parameters into my modeling simulations. But I guess I'll have to deal with it.

Just a complaint about having to do more work.

Current Mood : Bowling soon!
Current Music : None

Bleh

2010-03-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

I'm having trouble sleeping again. It is 3:38AM and I feel more awake than I did at midnight. Jessica was sick for the past week, and only today went in to work. I had been taking care of her and now I think I she may have passed it on to me. I stayed home today to just rest so that I may avoid the 7 day spell she had. I don't think it worked.

Current Mood : Bleh
Current Music : Ticking of a clock

Sex in Film

2010-03-02T00:26:00.000-08:00

Recently Jessica and I have been watching a documentary series called Indie Sex which details the censorship of sex in cinema. Piquing our interest, we decided to watch one which was mentioned called Caligula.

Apparently Caligula is one of the only movies Roger Ebert has ever walked out on. Lots of people panned the movie due to the sexual acts depicted on screen. I'll admit, I was surprised at the topics, given the films origins in the 70's. However, I guess I saw the USA edited version on Netflix. At first I thought it was just an excuse to make a big budget sex film. But after the first half hour, I realized there was a story in there with some real quality actors like Peter O'Toole, Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren. The story probably could have been quite good too, had it been better actualized. Supposedly the movie was very historically accurate as far as events are concerned, and I'm glad they didn't beat around the bush when it came time for all the crazy stuff the Romans did.

Overall, probably only worth it for film buffs interested in the development of movies. The actual movie was fairly bad, but probably not as bad as critics thought. Prudish types should stay away. Eh, just some random thoughts.

Current Mood : Hungry
Current Music : None

Where was I?

2010-02-23T02:03:00.001-08:00

My god the 80's were awesome. That is all.

Current Mood : Sleep Deprived
Current Music : Always by Erasure

SF and Beyond

2010-02-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hi blog. It's me. I know you've missed me. I was out of town in San Francisco for 4 days last week attending the International Solid State Circuits Conference. It was mostly good. I think the more I know about the various subjects, the more interest I have in attending the hours upon hours of talks. It was supposed to be a networking opportunity for me, but the only people I ended up networking with were people who were affiliated with UC Davis in some way in the past. I spent way too much money on food, but at least I met up with some old friends and labmates, some people have kids now... crazy! Hopefully I'll get a job in the bay and we can make the whole meeting up for lunch a regular thing.

Since I've been back, I've been trying desperately to finish this journal article I'm working on. I'm not so sure it's going to get finished on time anymore, but I'll just submit it to something else I guess. Anyways, I'm out. Bye Blog.

Current Mood : I woke up early for nothing
Current Music : The Conduit's Theme Song

Shopping Evil

2010-02-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

I've been taking advantage of this deal they have on www.gohastings.com. You buy two used DVDs/Books/Games, and the third is only $1. I've done this deal twice now. Paid about $85 total, and got 6 games for it ($14 a game). Did I need 6 games? I haven't even finished the ones I got during the holidays. Not to mention the few I bought off of Steam for a few dollars each. But seeing as how these are in great condition, and normally new ones cost around $30-$50, I can't resist. It's nice now that I have a catalog of things I can play when I get bored, but still. This is money I should probably be spending on more important things.

Current Mood : Good
Current Music : Mario Party Theme

Relaxing

2010-01-28T01:32:00.000-08:00

I've been stressing out lately because I've been pretty busy. I always seem to have to be somewhere, and haven't gotten much sleep. Luckily tomorrow I don't have to be anywhere. I plan on doing some laundry, cooking some good food, and working on my research. That means tonight I stayed up late playing video games.

Thought I'd give a free plug to the game I'm currently playing, No More Heroes for the Wii. It is one of the few "mature" games on the Wii, and it is pretty awesome. There are many hilarious parts, sexual innuendos, gory decapitations, cinematic sequences, and random old school arcade mini-games. I don't think I've seen a game with more "style".

Current Mood : Better
Current Music : Mothership by Kid Beyond

Geekdom

2010-01-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

Spent yesterday in San Francisco with a bunch of people. Brian came up and introduced me to a bunch of his WoW friends, and then we went to see Jonathan Coulton in concert at the Great American Music Hall. The opening acts were Paul and Storm and Kid Beyond. It was quite a geek fest. I came to realize that this was more like a comedy show than a concert, despite things being musically oriented. There was lots of banter onstage between all 3 acts, and the vast majority of people were seated during the show at the same kind of tables they use in comedy clubs.

Afterwards everyone went to Original Mel's in Vacaville. So I got back around at 3:30AM last night. Needless to say, I have been sleeping all day.

Current Mood : Tired
Current Music : JoCo

Whooo TV!

2010-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

So the new TV I ordered came in. The picture quality is great and I'm amazed at how great regular DVDs look. It's just the right size for the apartment too, but big enough that even if I moved to a bigger place, it would be right at home. I think the best thing about it is that I can now read the text on my media center PC, so browsing Netflix, Sidereel, Hulu, and other multimedia sites are a breeze. The Wii looks even better, and I can take advantage of the games which utilize a wide screen format.

Now all I need is a Blu-ray player. But that will have to wait for some money accumulation.

Current Mood : Fry's?
Current Music : Computer fans blowing...

Jobby Job

2010-01-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure I said in a previous post, I'm starting my job search since it is now January. Tuesday I updated my resume, and yesterday I went to a career fair on campus. Sadly, I'm so specialized that it usually requires a more elaborate process to hire me, if a company wants to hire PhDs at all. I did manage to talk to four companies which were enthusiastic about my qualifications. The Intel lady even said I should expect a callback. Though I do hope I hear back from Sony, as the guy said I would be working on new Playstation gadgets if I was hired.

Anyways, my goal is to accomplish something new each day for my job search. If you read this blog, you may expect to hear from me.

Current Mood : Caramel Macchiato
Current Music : A damn Backstreet Boys song playing in the coffee shop.

Sunday Nights

2010-01-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

I never like Sundays. I always have something I have to try and finish for Monday. And I usually waste the whole day anyways. Take today for example. I woke up late, had some pancakes, and then went to school for 4 hours attempting to get something done which I think would have been easy had I just started over on it. But I kept trying to make what I had, work. So nothing got done.

I then went back home, had some food, and played some video games I bought off of Steam (I absolutely love that service) for a few bucks. Then I watched Delicatessen with Jessica. It was actually a French film I liked, and was directed by Jean-Pierer_Jeunet. Way better than City of Lost Children and Alien Resurrection, but not quite as good as Amelie. Now that I've seen almost all of a French director's films, I feel like a film critic.

Current Mood : Bah!
Current Music : Some weird musical saw and cello thing that is stuck in my head.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Once again it is a new year. Lots of stuff has happened since I last posted. For most of it, I refer you to Jessica's Blog since she and I are pretty inseparable. The only differences being that I went to Santa Cruz a week earlier before Christmas and pretty much just hung out with family and friends until she got there. I also went back to Santa Cruz on the 1st to go to a friend's BBQ and another friend's B-day party.

Other than day to day stuff, I made the purchase of a nice 40" Samsung LCD. I'm very excited. It should be here next week. I may finally be able to read the text on my media center.

Now that it is January. I have to start getting my act together and look for jobs, as my adviser thinks I'll be graduating in June.

Current Mood : Too Early
Current Music : Nada

Music Revival

2009-12-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is creeping up on me. Although I don't really care for the holidays, I do like this time of year for another reason. This is the time when everyone comes out with their best of year lists. In terms of music, I always compare what I've been listening to with other people. I found a good blog post of all sorts of top songs/albums/artists of the decade here. So far it has introduced me to Riverboat Gamblers which I like. I also was very happy to find out that The Impossibles had a brief reunion which I was unaware of and put out an album which is pretty good.

Oh yeah, the concert in Oakland (Live 105's Not So Silent Night) was pretty good. Sadly we were late and missed Metric, but Vampire Weekend was good. 30 Seconds to Mars was actually very entertaining and AFI always lives up to my expectations. Damn Muse kept saying "Thank you San Francisco" when we were in a completely different city... damn rock stars.

Current Mood : Good
Current Music : The Impossibles, Return

Potato "Cannon"

2009-11-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

So I'm watching Myth Busters on Thanksgiving after my parents have gone to bed, and I see they did an episode on the glories of Duct Tape. That in itself is awesome. But it gets better. They did a bit on "Potato Cannon's" made of duct tape. What is funny is that I see they built a regular cannon very similar to one my friends built in high school. When Myth Busters shot it, they got behind a Plexiglas type of safety window. I feel disappointed in the badassness of the crew. When certain peoples took our potato gun out in high school, potatoes were shot into the ocean while holding the gun with bare hands and no safety goggles. Plus, a visible flame a few feet high would come out the end of the gun.

Oh yeah, the gun from high school was black too. Can't beat black.

Current Mood : Full
Current Music : Fireplace sounds...

Books

2009-11-15T00:41:00.000-08:00

Jessica is always trying to get me to read. Sometimes she asks me what books I want. Of course, since I still have books she bought me a while ago I haven't read, I'm loathe to actually put much thought into it. Well, I just listened to a reading of a letter by David Cross to Larry the Cable Guy (the linky), and realized/read/remembered that he has a book out. I've always found him to be intelligently funny. I suppose there are lots of comedian's books which I may find funny. Anyways, since Jessica reads this, if I need more books, I probably need things that make me laugh.

Current Mood : Blah
Current Music : In Flames, Colony

Updates Updates Updates...

2009-11-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

So its been a while since I posted. I'll summarize.

Visited Santa Cruz, caught up with the family. Met my Japanese grandfather for the first time. He seems pretty cool. Kept confusing me and my brother though.

Played some Bocce Ball with the peeps.

Saw Paranormal Activity. Twas a lot better than I thought. I would have cut the last minute of the movie to make it great.

Checked out the Country Club next door and used the gym. Going to have to go back and play Tennis and Billiards.

Bought some concert tickets to see AFI, Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars, Vampire Weekend, and Metric on December 11th. Should be awesome.

Went to the Melting Pot last night with Jessica for our anniversary. It was pretty good. I like how everything was dipped in either chocolate, or cheese, or deep fried.

Watched Year One. I was prepared for the worst. Not a great movie. But OK. Could have been better, but funny enough to Netflix it.

Current Mood : Feeling Fat
Current Music : Vampire Weekend, Self-titled

Pigs Fly

2009-10-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've been recently reading a lot of articles about swine flu. I admit I have an interest in pandemics and these sorts of things. So even though I think the media totally goes overboard with it, I eat it up. Really, with all this talk of vaccination, it would make you think that you should get up right now and march down to the clinic. But really the precautions that people should do normally would probably suffice if people just did them. For example, if you work at a high traffic job and interact with lots of people, you could be a carrier easily for tons of diseases. Getting vaccinated just makes sense. If you exhibit symptoms such as a fever and coughing, stay home. Just like any other disease.

But the real kicker? People need to wash their damn hands. I can't tell you how many people I see that use the public restroom, specifically, the SECOND FLOOR OF KEMPER HALL at UC DAVIS, and don't wash their hands after going to either the stall, or the urinal. You know who you are.

Current Mood : Tea time.
Current Music : Women of Reggae compilation

Good Weekend

2009-10-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Had a good weekend. But I'm not looking forward to the week. Friday I crashed big time. I had been getting around 5 hours sleep for most of the week, so I fell asleep on the couch at 5PM and didn't get up until 9PM. It was awesome.

Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market and got some good pita bread and fruit. Later, Jessica and I went to Fremont to see some friends. We had dinner at Claim Jumper and then went to an awesome haunted house thing. It was called The Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure. It was the most elaborate (and award winning) haunted house I've seen. Usually these things are kind of half-assed, and never really scare anyone. This actually gave a jump or two. Of course, Jessica and the other women were screaming the whole time. It made things fun. There was a room where they completely fogged it up so you couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of you. Then they put in fake doors so you couldn't get out while a scary guy chased you around. It was like a horror movie when Jessica couldn't open a door, with the slasher/bad guy right behind us.

Sunday I saw Zombieland. From the previews I wasn't sure it was going to be any good. But everyone kept saying it was great, and great it was. It was pretty funny. I'm glad it didn't take itself seriously, and that it didn't try too hard for obvious laughs.

Current Mood : Don't make me go to school!
Current Music : None.

Non-News

2009-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I was reading my daily news, and I found a post which I think sort of sums up how I feel about the news. I agree with her completely on this subject.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/a-funny-thing-happened-on_b_323120.html

For those which don't care to read the article, it says that people who report the "news" aren't doing a good job, because they saturate the airwaves with things which should not be receiving the same level of attention as important issues which may impact people. This particular instance of "balloon boy" really seems horrible, especially when it came out that the whole damn thing was for some media whoring. I know Americans are dumb and don't care about real issues, but that is why they really need to hear about them. To a degree, several people I know are like this, so I take the time to inform them of what I consider to be important things happening in the world from time to time.

Current Mood : I can't find my code!
Current Music : none

Blog

2009-10-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

As you may see, I've started playing with some of the stuff on this here blog. The links section is getting updated, I'm probably going to switch templates, and maybe make some graphics just to jazz up this thing. Anyways, I'd heard complaints that I don't update often enough. Which I thought was funny when looking through my friend's blog links that they were all from 2006.

Current Mood : Content.
Current Music : Over by High and Mighty Color

Apples

2009-10-11T14:13:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Jessica and I made the trek over to Placerville and checked out Apple Hill. I had some apple beer, apple donuts, apple butter, apple pie, and apple cider milkshake. Needless to say, along with a kinda crappy hamburger, I was stuffed. The area was nice, however there were way too many people at the farm. They have a nice shuttle service which takes you around to all the different places. That was definitely the way to go. I think if we ever go again, we'll go to some of the smaller places instead.

Current Mood : School ughhh
Current Music : AFI, Veronica Sawyer Smokes

Eh.

2009-10-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

The school year has started back up again. I'm attempting to once again carpool with Jessica in the mornings, since I can't stand biking when there are a million people on campus. I've been feeling tired all day because of getting up early. Today I realized I did something pretty stupid on my PhD project. Ideally, I would do part of it all over again, but I think I can justify what I did and just go with the flow. On the bright side, finding this out solved another problem I've been having.

Made some awesome pasta today. The awesome part? Bacon.

To wrap up my day, I acquired Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2, and got a PS2 emulator working for the media center. Played the game for an hour or two. For some reason, it calls to me. Probably because I loved Donald Duck as a kid.

Current Mood : Lazy
Current Music : The new AFI album.

The Weekend

2009-10-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend was good. Did a lot of cooking and trying out of new recipes. Yesterday I made steaks with a blue cheese sauce and Friday I made herb crusted chicken. Saturday Jessica and I went to the first annual California Beer and Wine Festival. It was pretty fun. Had lots of different beers. If I were with big drinkers I could easily see everyone getting piss ass drunk since they had unlimited tastings. However I don't think I'd bother going back. Yuba City is kinda a dull place with the exception of a few bars and restaurants.

Now I'm in lab on Monday morning. I am really in need of coffee, which I just poured ;)

Current Mood : Coffee Cravings
Current Music : In Flames, Colony

River Rafting Pictures

2009-10-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

OK, here is a sampling of some of the better river rafting pictures.

Before the day's trek.

Satan's Cesspool

Taking on Satan's Cesspool.

And another pic...

The aftermath!

Paddling around Hospital Bar.

Action Shot #1

Action Shot #2

These actually look pretty cool. I'm glad that we bought pictures, despite the fact they were horribly expensive.

Current Mood : Feeling a bit better
Current Music : Tom Sawyer by Rush

Back from Hotlanta

2009-10-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm back in California. I think I've gotten dehydrated and maybe a little sick from traveling and not sleeping well. Overall, I think the trip went well. At my review I talked to a few professors from various schools as well as a guy from Intel. But I think that most of the people there don't really care about the research I work on.

It was interesting to see the breakdown of what schools get IFC FCRP funding. Overwhelmingly it goes to Georgia Tech, Stanford and University at Albany-SUNY. Makes me wonder where all the professors at Davis get there funding from.

Sadly I didn't have time to really go anywhere fun. The art museum was closed when I got there, so I kinda walked around the area and explored. I also checked out Piedmont Park and thought that was cool.

Well I think I'm going to take it easy today and try and rest. Then its back to the grind.

Current Mood : Headache
Current Music : Edna's Goldfish, Veronica Sawyer

The A-T-L

2009-09-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm in Atlanta. My laptop still has the old California time on it, and it says 5:54AM. It feels like an ungodly hour to me, but its actually only about 9:00AM here. I found out there is far too much country music on TV in the mornings here. Soon I will go downstairs to eat some awesome hotel breakfast. Then I plan on checking out an art museum before my annual review starts up at noon.

Current Mood : Sleepy
Current Music : Some country western girl on morning TV

Flying is Boring

2009-09-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

I'm currently bringing you this post from the terminal inside the Sacramento International Airport.

Its pretty boring, although I think this is the most people I've ever seen here. Jessica dropped me off before she went to work this morning. My flight leaves at 9:15, boarding begins at 8:45. So I still have a half hour to kill.

I think this might be the first time I've traveled by plane alone. I don't really recall any other time. It is really boring without having other people to talk to. At least I brought the laptop to go online with. I hope I don't have anyone sitting next to me on the flight.

Well, that's all for now. I have an hour to kill in Phoenix, so maybe I'll blog again there.

Current Mood : Sleepy Time
Current Music : Airport Music Station

Yard Sales

2009-09-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

Just got back from helping out at Jessica's Sacramento Women's Chorus yard sale. It was hot in Sacramento. Over 100 degrees hot. Apparently they made a crapload of money. I had no idea that you could make that much at a yard sale. Anyways, it was actually kind of fun seeing the other people's miscellaneous junk that they were getting rid of. I always liked these kind of things. I suppose I just like to find treasures in piles of junk.

After the sale, we went to eat at Ink Eats and Drinks. It was excellent. And I found out they are open until 4AM on the weekends. So if I'm ever in the area and drunk at a bar, I'm going there for food afterward.

Current Mood : Too much sun
Current Music : Smashmouth on the radio

Late Night

2009-09-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

So once again, I'm up late. I've somehow not managed to get much in terms of work done this week. However I have done a lot of administrative stuff I've been needing to take care of, so at least something has been accomplished.

I'm kinda happy. I think I managed to get out of giving a presentation in Atlanta. I still have to go, but I might not have to speak. Regardless of this fact, I'm still making backup slides. EDIT: I realize some people might actually care about who funds me. Its the Interconnect Focus Center

Now for something completely different. I thought our laptop wireless card was dead. But it turns out, due to some stupid bug, there were some logging services that needed to be turned on for it to connect to things. Go figure.

Current Mood : Scared of bugs
Current Music : Scandal, Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal (J-Rock/Pop)

A Post-Quals World

2009-09-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

So I finished my qualifying exam 45 minutes ago. The thing took 2 hours. Probably about right. I had some tough questions and comments. But I got through it. They only made me wait like 4 minutes outside, so there must not have been much discussion on whether I should pass or not. I'm so glad its over. My adviser told me to take a couple of days off. I fully plan on doing that.

Now there is only one more stressful thing for me to do right now, which is give a presentation in Atlanta in a few weeks.

I plan on going home and vegging out in front of the TV for a while. But first I want to attend a talk at 3PM from some VP at Samsung.

Current Mood : Relieved
Current Music : Pounding Head.

Moved!

2009-09-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm now moved in to my new apartment. There are still boxes everywhere, but all the furniture is where its supposed to be, the kitchen is unpacked, and the bedroom is complete. So its livable. Sadly, the internet and phone will not be hooked up until Friday, so the lab is my friend.

Life is still hectic, and probably will be until October. I need a real vacation. Going back to SC didn't count because I didn't even hang out with peeps. The time was spent finishing my qual proposal. Bleh!

Current Mood : Ugghghhh
Current Music : nada

Exhausted

2009-08-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted.

Friday, I did a lot of packing and getting ready to move, then went to a post-quals get together and had a few brewskies.

Saturday, I got up early, and went with Jessica, and 2 friends to the South Fork of the American River, where we went river rafting. It was lots of fun. Some rapids were quite crazy, while most of the time it was pretty chill. We ordered some pictures from the photo agency so I'll post those up when I get them. Jessica fell in the river. It was hilarious since we were nowhere near any rapids. We also played a trust game where you interlock oars while standing on the sides of the raft. Jessica got back at me for making fun of her by letting me fall in.

Sunday Jessica's parents and a friend came over and we moved stuff all day to the storage unit.

Today I'm trying to get some more school stuff done and then clean the apartment so I can get out of Davis for the rest of the week.

Current Mood : Sleepy time...
Current Music : None, my speakers are all packed away.

Roller Derby

2009-08-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

Just got back from seeing the Sac City Rollers: Capital Punishers, take on the L.A. Derby Dolls. This was the first time I've seen live Roller Derby. It was actually a lot of fun.

Sadly, Sacramento lost, but I got to see women on roller skates, go around in circles, and beat each other up. How cool is that? I think part of what attracts me to it is the very punk attitude, rockabilly attire, 70s vibe, and constant music. There was also a dancing hot dog guy, the Cal Aggie Band-uh and beer. Oh, I bought some buttons for my guitar there. Awesome.

Current Mood : Good
Current Music : The sweet sound of silence.

Insomnia

2009-08-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm currently on my laptop, at the San Francisco Airport Westin hotel, at 3AM. I can't sleep. Or maybe I just don't want to. I attribute this to a combination of factors:

Today (I guess it's yesterday by now) I just gave my first conference talk. I think it went well.

I had some wine and horrendous amounts of meat at the conference banquet, which makes my body ache.

I realized that I have very little time to finish my qualifying exam proposal. So this weekend will be shot.

To make matters worse, it's my birthday. I'm now old. Late 20s.

So I'm celebrating by "partying," aka, refusing to go to sleep.

Current Mood : Insomnia-ish
Current Music : Tank Girl on HBO with the sound off.

Damn That Jeremy Baker!

2009-08-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a crapload (slightly less than 1 F*&%Load) of calls the past couple days from all sorts of people trying to reach a Jeremy Baker. They have been waking me up in the morning. It's like having an alarm clock. I've checked my phone number, and its still the same as its been for years. So this dumbsh*t must have given everyone he knows the wrong number.

Now I know a family by the last name of Baker in Santa Cruz. I even know a Jeremiah, which could be Jeremy that everyone is talking about. However, I'm getting really tired of all the people calling. I know its someone calling for him, because they all show up as "Unavailable" on my cell.

I think I might have to pull a prank on the next one that calls. Maybe an Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboard will do the trick...

Current Mood : Annoyed
Current Music : Rootsman Skank, Akila Barret

Hype that shouldn't be hype

2009-08-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to bring attention to a marketing gimmick that confuses people with bad math. It is about the Chevy Volt, which I've been hearing about forever.

Here is a link to the article:

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/08/the_chevy_volt_gets_230_mpg_on.php

Anyways, the jist is this. They claim 230 mpg, but its not that simple since this number is a combination of running off the battery and running off gasoline. Without telling people under just what conditions they are driving, a valid number could be anywhere from 50 to infinite.

50 is still good. But I just think the public should be aware of how these things are calculated, as is stated in the article above.

Current Mood : Stressed
Current Music : Rockin' Steady, Desmond Dekker

Summer Reading

2009-08-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today Jessica bought me some books for an early birthday present. I believe she did this to encourage me to read more, as I haven't read regularly since high school. All I read now are scientific journal papers which are very boring. I'm quite pleased with her purchases. I got A Brief History of Time, The Physics of Star Trek, and On The Origin of Species. All quite nerdy classics. I'm 50 pages into the Stephen Hawking book so far, and it is very interesting and well written. I've heard most of this stuff at one point or the other, but he puts it all into perspective nicely.

Actually this comes at a good time, as I'll be traveling to Atlanta again at the end of September, and hopefully I'll save one of them to read during my flight.

Current Mood : Fun
Current Music : A Slice of English Toast, Ranking Ann

Camping : Ice House Reservoir

2009-08-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went camping with the peeps from SC and Jessica. Originally there were supposed to be up to 10 of us, but several people wussed out. They missed out on a good trip. We left on Thursday, and came back on Sunday. What follows are some of the better pictures I took.

Starting the Day

Picture of the Campsite #1

Picture of the Campsite #2

Of course, no camping trip would be complete without lots of beer, and since we were at a lake, some things to just float around on in the lake.

Double Fisting

Pumping up the Floaty

View From the Beach #1

View From the Beach #2

We only had 4 camp chairs, so Robles had to be manly and carve one out of a stump. Later this seat ended up in the fire.

Carving a Seat

We spent almost all the time there at the beach. I ended up getting a little sunburned. Swimming, drinking, and general good times were had.

Dominick with his Umbrella

Robles on a Rock

David on a Rock

For a dog who likes water, Cosmo didn't like swimming. Quite a paradox.

Cosmo Getting in the Water

Dominick Drinking on his Floaty

Me Drinking on Jessica's Floaty

Robles and Jessica Falling Asleep on Floaties

Whoa, whats going on here?

Rub a dub dub

Although we had a beach right at our campsite, the best beaches required hiking a little ways to get to them. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the best one. I also regret not getting out the camera when some weird adventure race group invaded our beach. There were probably 30 people all dressed up and painted bright colors. One group of British people were particularly funny when they expressed that "The English have decided not to compete, and stay here and drink." Figures.

The Beach

After days at the beach, we were all pretty tired. I got pretty good sleep.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Current Mood : Thirsty
Current Music : The Morwells, Baby why did you leave me to cry?

Soccer Pics

2009-08-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

So I might have mentioned somewhere on my blog that I went to see a soccer game. Well, here are some pictures of it.

Jessica and I Enjoying a Beer

Jessica and Melanie Enjoying a Beer

Soccer action shot!

The Scary Mascot

Current Mood : Good
Current Music : Alborosie - Mr. President

Telemarketer Scams / Phishing

2009-07-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

The other day I had a telemarketer who was looking for Mrs. Scott call me. Apparently they can't figure out if I'm a guy or not. Some Indian dude said that he was from the windows security something or other, and that my computer was badly infected. He asked if I knew that. And that was when I hung up on him.

Now, I'm not paranoid when it comes to computer stuff. I make purchases online all the time and I download all sorts of music, movies, and programs from dubious sources. But I'm also cautious. I use an anti-virus program, firewall, 2 types of adware/spyware blockers, and always surf the web with Firefox with noscript, adblock, and the AVG safe search. Last time I scanned my computer for any type of virus/malware, I came up with nothing. Also the fact that I know a little about computers (hence the degrees) probably means I know what is safe to do online.

So when some random dude who got my number from who knows where said I was badly infected, I was kinda insulted. In hindsight I wish I would have stayed on the line and tried to see what kind of bullshit he was trying to pull.

Current Mood : Lazy
Current Music : Alton & Hortense Ellis at Studio 1

Fox News

2009-07-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

I never used to watch news programs, and I had no desire to have opinions on politics. As I get older I find that I do enjoy reading and watching the news.

What irritates me to no end though, is the spread of misinformation. I'll admit that just about every media outlet is guilty of this at some point. But some seem to make it a point to treat people as uneducated sheep, incapable of coming to their own conclusions, and basically attack any viewpoint other than their own while refusing to engage in any informative discussion. In my opinion, Fox News does this.

I'm not going to get into a deep discussion of why I came to this conclusion. I'll let the reader decide for themselves. Anyways, I came across this website which lists the sponsors of Fox News. Check it out.

FoxNewsBoycott.com

Current Mood : Deaf Mute
Current Music : Easy Star All Stars, Lonely Hearts Dub Band

B-Ball

2009-07-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went with Jessica to see her chorus group perform the national anthem at the Sacramento Monarchs women's basketball game. I ended up having to sit around a long time because they did sound checks really early. But I did get to see the half-time show close up while they were rehearsing, and I did sit on the comfy players seats on the court, much, much nicer than audience seats. So after they sung the anthem, we stuck around and watched the game.

And the best part? I didn't have to pay for parking or a ticket.

Current Mood : Blah
Current Music : Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant

Facebook

2009-07-10T00:00:00.001-07:00

I've never really been into the social networking thing. I was there when Friendster came out, then there was Myspace, Facebook took off, and Linkedin became the "in" thing. Hell, I've even got an Orkut account. Do I update any of these? No. Should I? I'm not sure. Will more trendiness take its place? I've always felt like these were popularity contests, and I've never been part of the "popular" crowd.

Recently I've gotten some emails about people who I don't ever remember even talking to, requesting to be my friend. The internet is weird.

However, recently I've been feeling left out due to my unwillingness to spend hours updating my facebook status. I mean, my f*&%ing picture is a cutout of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes because I was too lazy to find a good photo of myself. Am I really going to spend hours tagging pictures of people? Yeah I know I spend a lot of time doing this stupid blog...

I don't really know why I'm writing this. Just reflecting on stuff. Well I gotta keep this short since I wouldn't want to read sh*t from other people that is this long. Lates.

Current Mood : Beer Thirty?
Current Music : Pandora

Hot Day #2

2009-06-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

I really couldn't bring myself to go to lab on Sunday. It was another scorcher, and I felt lazy all day. I think I just ended up getting fat. Jessica and I went to see Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen in the afternoon.

Now, I liked it. But that is mostly because it is really easy to appease me if you have large shiny robots, of which this movie has a whole ton more than the first one. However, there are plot holes, horrible lines, 2 really really dumb borderline racist stereotype robots, and just bad storyline in this movie. So I really can't recommend this movie, unless you think tons of CGI robots and explosions will entertain you for 2.5 hours. I also think they tried to have too many robots in this one without developing any of them. For example, they had Arcee (the girl autobot motorcycle(s)) in this movie with maybe a line or two. Jessica didn't even notice there was a girl robot. Devastator (the crazy 5 robots combine to a huge one) was hardly a problem and was seemingly killed in a single hit. So sad.

The rest of my Sunday was spent playing Titan Quest and catching up on miscellaneous anime.

Current Mood : Work work...
Current Music : Typing...,

It's Hot in Davis

2009-06-27T18:27:00.001-07:00

It's summer in Davis again. 100 degrees or something like that, so me, Jessica, and some peeps went to see The Hangover at the movie theater. It was quite hilarious. I highly recommend seeing it. However, I'm not sure how it would hold up upon a repeated viewing, as I think a lot of the fun comes from finding out what happened during the previous night.

After the movie, we ended up getting pizza and beer, and stopped off at Armadillo Music. I bought 2 CDs, a Duran Duran tribute album, and "Nasty Little Thoughts" by Stroke 9. $5, not bad. Anyways, its hot and I don't really have the energy to do much else today.

Current Mood : Headache... yeah its a mood.
Current Music : Save a Prayer, Duran Duran (performed by Eve's Plum)

Summer of "Finishing stuff I've started..."

2009-06-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Summer is here! I'm determined to make this an active summer. Academics wise, I'll be speaking in SF at ISLPED, taking my qualifying exam, and hopefully even be submitting a journal paper. However, the more fun things I hope to finish are some projects that have been sitting on my desk for a couple years now. I bought all the stuff to make 4 guitar pedals a while ago (probably even blogged about it), only 1 of them works, and it is noisy. I WILL FINISH THESE! Second, my project guitar which I sort of gave up on a while ago after fucking up the paint while sanding it, WILL BE FINISHED! I now have hope for these projects after I rebuilt my bicycle in these past couple months. The thing was totally in pieces, re-greased, upgraded, put back together, and rides beautifully now.

Plus, me and the girlfriend have some plans for something to do almost every weekend this summeer. For example, next weekend, we be going to a River Cat's game.

Current Mood : Optimistic
Current Music : "Domination" by Pantera

Ow my back...

2009-05-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

So on Thursday, I hurt my back while installing a new crankset on my bike. I have been gimpy for 3 days so far. At least I can walk around now. Right after it happened I had to crawl around on the floor to the kitchen to get a soda.

In other news, I'm going to SFO to pick up Jessica today. Hopefully she won't be too scary from the time difference. I think if shes up to it we'll go see the new Terminator movie tomorrow.

Current Mood : Pissed at my back
Current Music : Wing

No news

2009-04-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

No news today. Just bored and trying to keep from working. Picnic Day is tomorrow, which is the only day all year where it is actually cool to be in Davis. I've been so many times now. I don't think there is anything I want to see that I haven't already seen. Battle of the Bands is always fun though.

Lates.

Current Mood : Lazy
Current Music : Nada