Wednesday, April 30, 2003

I owe a copious update...consider this part 1:

On Friday Trev bones & I set out for our longest run of the training...18 big miles. We decided to do a lapped course, so we ran Pisatch twice. Before heading out we stashed drinks, gummi bears, and energy bars along the path. Trev trucked the distance and finished in 2:36 and I was "just" behind him at 3:46. 18 miles under the belt with no major negative side effects other than some soreness that is to be expected. One point of note, was my first 2 miles were painful because of my left shin...don't know exactly what happened, but it slowed me down pretty bad. My thinking is that I was running a bit diffrent because of a conversation I had with a friend about how her coach makes instructs them to run. Nevertheless...it was pretty amazing run!

Saturday was Open House at Cal Poly. One of my favorite events on the Central Coast. My buddy Ryan and I emceed the event and managed to get some laughs and fun out of the crowd. Plus, we exchanged shamless promotions on stage for free food from the zillion's of clubs out selling stuff to make some cash for their coffers. Fun & Filling (expecting a low blow from klayko on this). The Indian Students Association was a large presence this year with three acts on stage...and all were very, very good. I have an intresting relationship with my cultural heritage that is not always as deep as I would like it to be. I will save my thoughts on that for a future post.

Saturday afternoon I headed up to Seattle via the Santa Maria Airport (SMX). I had a heart breaking loss along the way...my In-N-Out burger managed to leak grease and weaken the structure of its to go bag. It ruined the stack of papers beneath the bag to my dismay. Worse, when I picked the bag up and made my way to the terminal the burger broke free and landed on the floor...it was a HUGE bummer. I have never hated on In-N-Out before, but they need to do something about their bags so that this doesn't happen to someone else. Okay, so maybe it isn't that big a deal, but it sure did suck.

Ending part 1 because I got a boot load of work to do today. In part 2 expect to hear about the seattle trip & other goodness...

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Thursday, April 24, 2003

My buddy (name with held for his own protection) pointed out how funny MSN search is...look at the results for google and cnn.

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Audioscrobbler.com & Synapses look like cool ways to generate suggestions on what to listen to next...nice when you have a huge digital music collection.

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TiVo's Home Media Option...looks like I may finally break down and buy a freaking tivo.

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Been getting ready for the seattle trip...really looking forward to seeing all the great friends I made up there. Plus, stomping around my old hood will be most excellent. Leaving seattle was a tough thing to do, and the friends up there certainly didn't make it any easier for me to leave.

My thesis is going aight. My advisor came over on monday night and I showed him my work. He wants me to start changing gears and focusing on writing the thesis, and spend less time on the implementation work. Fair enough...and I will probobly wrap up bubbablogger in the week after I get back from seattle. My friend Joe was nice enough to license me his FTP code and I intergrated it a few days back...so right now I just need to finish up some style sheet work and a couple of modifications I want to make and then it will be done. I am debaiting releasing it to the world, but probobly won't because a) I don't want to support it & b) it is not full featured enough to be intresting to most people.

Running has been going pretty good. I have developed a few pains that have me slightly worried. My right side hurts like a side stich, but deeper after running for a few miles. I try to breath and strech it out, but it doesn't work so I ususally just ignore it with mind over body thinking. Additionally, my mid section has a couple of sore spots, which doesn't make any sense to me...Legs are actually pretty good considering my milage base. I am starting to use my second pair of shoes (right now just walking around in them to break them in) which means that game day is getting close. A month and a week. Holy shit...this is going to be awesome. My pace gets better and better and tomorrow (not saturday) I am going to go for the longest run yet...18 miles yo. Who would have ever thunk it?

Been hanging out and doing the thing too. Went out on the town last night with Trevor, H-bomb (Heather), and A-bomb (Autumn). It was Heather's Birthday and she was pretty celbrated out by the end of the night. Pretty fun night...going out on a school night is just fun in general.

In blogging news...I can't believe how much has changed in the last 4 months. Winer's @ Harvard. Sixapart has funding. Blogger is Google. By the end of the year, AOL, Yahoo, and perhaps even MSN will have blogging intergrated into their product line ups. A hellofalot of people know what blogging is now, and even more are blogging themselves. Glad I got to play on the edge of the mainstream addoption...

posted @ 9:39 AM | archive_link | Comment

Three words that should be in a row: pink denim jacket.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Playing with the WMP9 music blogging plugin and W.blogger. W.blogger is pretty nice, but I wish it had a better ui for viewing previous posts. Actually, I think it needs a few ui changes...but I really do like rich client blog editors...

[Listening to: Busted Stuff - Dave Matthews Band - Busted Stuff (03:48)]

posted @ 9:19 PM | archive_link | Comment

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed how much the buying on the internet is like shopping in flea market or third world country bazaar (except you get stuff you **might** actually use as opposed to the shruken heads or cool lama wool rug). You can almost always pay less then a) what the msrp of any item is & b) what the retailer of your choice is asking for the product when you first arrive to their site. Example: go to dell, select something...then open up a new browser window and go to google...type "dell coupons". You will come up with almost 100,000 matches...but more importantly the first page or results will get you free shipping, 10% off, or $50 off of $500 (or sometimes all three). Try this with Staples, Amazon, Buy.com, BestBuy, or pretty much any other major e-retailer. Pair this technique up with mysimon or similar service and you can get prices that are amazingly low while still having the confidence in retailer you are purchasing it from. And if you want to get advanced...starting thinking about sales tax implications when selecting your merchant...

posted @ 8:57 AM | archive_link | Comment

Sunday, April 20, 2003

Travis and I had a good time this weekend. We geeked and talked about life stuff that we had not had a chance to do in quite a while. My favorite part of the visit was our run. We busted out a ~11-12 mile run and talked about everything and then some. It was the first time I had articulted some of the thoughts I have been having for a while and it was good to get travis's take on them. Plus we got to be boys and make stupid jokes and laugh at all the funny shit that has happened since our last talk. From the physical point of view, the run wasn't in record breaking time but it was good to get pushed by running with someone who is faster than me. Thanks for coming down Travis.

My friend Chelsea was in town on thursday night. Chelsea and I have a long standing friendship that has gone through some pretty big ups and downs but some how we have managed to remain pretty darn close. Her visit was full of laughs, fun and good food...we had dinner at Rosa's in Pismo Beach. The food at that place is pretty unreal. I had only been there one other time (for my friend klayko's graduation dinner), but I only have myself to blame for that. I had this steak that was rolled with garlic and mint and then simmered in a red sauce; knifes need not apply for that meal...it was increadibily fork tender. C-dawg had this artichoke pasta that was full of tasty goodness. After dinner, we caught a flick (pretty good, but had its cheesy ass moments) and played some darts downtown. A really good night out on the town.

So changing gears...

So it is funny what you learn from books. Not textbooks, but books about life, history, and the such. I just finished "what should I do with my life" and one of my biggest take aways was on becoming a parent. I have always been leary of the responsibility and of the impact it will have on my "freedom." But, the part of the book that spoke about becoming a parent, and what it meant to some of the people featured in the book was pretty amazing. Part of me doesn't want to be a spoiler, so I won't quote an except or paraphrase what I read. Nevertheless, I think my long standing relectuance to have children has been whitled down to near nothingness. Don't worry mom and dad, I am not talking about going out and doing this tomorrow, but rather when the time and situation is right, I will not balk at it. This is from the guy that 6 years ago swore that having kids was not part of my master plan.

Reading this book made me think of another book that I always found to have a suprising take away from. 7 habits of highly effective people. All the great points and rhetoric about how to become effective and happy were awesome, but I truly loved the author's little blurb on love. It is only a 1/2 page or so (bottom of page 79 of the soft copy version), but it makes a lot of sense to me.

Anyhow, need to get some serious shit done today and for the rest of this week as I am heading up to seattle on saturday. I can't wait to play in my old school hood with my buddies up there...this is going to be a long ass weekend!!!

posted @ 11:00 AM | archive_link | Comment

Saturday, April 19, 2003

Bingo...I've got rss! Now everyone leave me alone and stop asking for it...

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Trying another post, because voidstar is not creating any items in the rss feed (though the channel info is being created).

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Test link to see how voidstar's rssify script works on my blog. Cross your fingers...I might have a rss feed working.

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Friday, April 18, 2003

Travis pointed me to espn page 2 today...where I found this hiliarious article about the Boston Marathon.

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Thursday, April 17, 2003

My friend Seb is conducting a survey on blogging...please help him out! The results will be presented at blogtalk, the first big blogging confrence in Vienna. There are surveys for both bloggers and non-bloggers.

Update: I need to learn how to read. It is Lilia Efimova's survey and not sebs...but that shouldn't matter...take it now!

posted @ 10:59 AM | archive_link | Comment

Good article questioning the design of the new Nokia phone that has many salivating.

posted @ 10:51 AM | archive_link | Comment

My lungs felt like they were going to explode today. I don't know what the dealio is, but it was not cool. I still pushed myself hard and got in the high 9s for a 5 mile run this morning. My coach and assitant coach both got some viral thing and they described running with it like running with a half a lung...and that was what I felt like today...I really, really, really don't want to have gotten whatever they got.

Tomorrow my buddy travis is coming down so we can geek out together. He wants to know about blogs...and it will only get geekier from there. :) I am totally stoked about his visit! Hopefully the weather will be kick ass tomorrow so we can go enjoy the best thing on the central coast...the sun and the beach!

posted @ 9:48 AM | archive_link | Comment

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

I have been reading Po Bronson's new book entitled, "What should I do with my life?" (a fast company article about the book with excerpts). It is pretty intresting and is akin to a shrink refelecting about his personal career, the lessons he learned from his clients and how the two are related. I don't know that reading it will help anyone answer the question, but it certainly serves as a good start point for the discussion. Here is a quick excerpt:

"Lately, I've found myself talking about what I call the Brilliant Masses. The Brilliant Masses are composed of nothing less than the many great people of our generation, the bright, the talented, the intelligent, the resourceful, and the creative - far too many of whom are operating at quarter speed, unsure of their place in the world, contributing far too little to the productive engine of modern civilization, still feeling like observers, all feeling like they haven't come close to living up to their potential. The Brilliant Masses are mostly intellectually motivated, so if they cross over and get involved, their commitment is conditioned on being respected, and conditioned on a minimum of unnecessary idiocy, and conditioned on winning/succeeding. They like being cerebral. In their tribes, it's cool."

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Fuzzy Rappers. This is some pretty funny shit...you need quicktime, but watch this and feel free to laugh out loud. From davezilla.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Sweeeeeeeeet. From the leet internet surfing skills of my main man Ezar, the code monkey!

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Monday, April 14, 2003

Giants get another win tonight! I was scared during the top of the ninth, but they pulled it out beautifully. Damn, they are sizzling right now!

Hit up a short 3 mile run today, but for the first time I got into the 9s for my pace. High 9s, but the 9s nonetheless. It is really good to feel and see progress through training.

posted @ 10:45 PM | archive_link | Comment

In Searching the Web, Google Finds Riches. A nice little NYT peice on Google with some numbers on their revenue...

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Sunday, April 13, 2003

guywilliamwelch.com. Another one bites the dust...welcome to the blogging world.

Honestly, Guy is one of the smartest and wittiest people (almost said guys...) I know. He has a very grounded yet unique take on the world. Plus, his dry humor could give a brit a run for the money. Do I have high expectations for mr. welch? Yes. Will he deliver? Yes.

posted @ 10:30 PM | archive_link | Comment

BAM! Bottom of the 12th and the Giants sweep, let me say that again, SWEEP the dodgers.

posted @ 9:37 PM | archive_link | Comment

Blogging and Baseball...america's new favorite combo (up there with garlic and fries, jack and coke, and in and out).

posted @ 9:26 PM | archive_link | Comment

HOLY SHIT! Out at Third again...god it sucks to be a dodger fan tonight!

posted @ 9:21 PM | archive_link | Comment

I hate the ump tonight.

posted @ 9:12 PM | archive_link | Comment

So I can't spell, google still loves me.

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YES! I am watching the top of the 11th...2 on with no outs to start out...and NO DODGER RUNS!

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Yesterday's run was hardcore. For those of you who know San Luis Obispo we ran from Broad & South (meadow park) to the Avila Beach exit (San Luis Bay Dr.), out to the gated community, and then back town. The first 12 miles were solid at ~11 mintue mile pace that felt good. Then I started to feel the distance and by the time I got to 15.5 miles I slowed down to a walk. I was a bit bummed since the last 4 miles brought me up to just under 12 mintue miles. Plus my legs were just done at the end. I still have a month and a half to get the endurance down, but it was a bit of reality check about how long 26.2 miles is going to be. Regardless, I felt like a champ for doing 16 miles before noon on a Saturday.

After the run I took my coach's advice and tried out the fabled ice bath. I filled the tub with 75% of the ice from the freezer and started to water all the way to the right. FREAKING COLD is an understatment. But after sitting in it for about 10 mintues my legs felt much better and I am now a firm believer in the mythical power of the ice bath. My one additional piece of advice is to augment the ice bath with a nice hot water bath a few mintues later. Anyhow...

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. Watched 40 days and 40 nights which was pretty funny. Had a bit of a chick story hidden among the obvious guy humor movie it was packaged as. Also caught Blue Crush. I know, I know...but I had to see the surfing (riggggggggggggggght). One thing to say about the movie...I think living in Hawaii for a little while would be awesome. It is so beautiful that I can't believe it is real some times. Plus if I could find a Kate Bosworth I would be a happy man. Lol.

In other news, I got my taxes done and mailed this week. Over the last few years I have tried a bunch of approaches from tax software to H & R Block, but this year I did it by hand. Why you ask? A good friend's Dad started working at the IRS and he relayed to me that Tax software often screws up people's tax returns and that the individual is still liable for all mistakes. When I took it to H & R Block I was very unhappy with the quality and throughness of my return. So I took the time to read and learn the tax law and went ahead and filled out the forms. It was actually pretty straight forward and I couldn't believe how easy it was to actually do them by hand. I did have my Dad's CPA review them, but now that I have done it once by hand I am pretty confident about the whole process. If you have a full copy of Adobe Acrobat (not just the free reader) you can download all the forms from the IRS and easily fill them out and submit a clean typed copy (actually even if you have the free reader you can fill them out on the computer and print, but it is really nice to be able to save the digital copy). Something to consider if you have pretty straight forward tax situation.

Anyhow, back to the Giants game. GO GIANTS...sweep (kinda...yesterday's game got rained out) the Dodgers!!!

posted @ 6:42 PM | archive_link | Comment

Friday, April 11, 2003

Tomorrow I have a 16 mile run. That is going to be a doozy. I am carb loading a bit tonight (bread, and lots of it) and going to take it easy so I can nail the run. The cool part about it, is I used to run distance at about 15 mintues a mile. Now I am down to 11-12 mintues. So if I had to run 16 miles when I first started training it would have taken 4 hours...now it should take right around 3 hours to get it done this weekend. That is some cool progress in my opinion. Oh, and yesterday's run was almost a new record for me...it was 4 miles long and I did the first 2 right under 20 minutes, but on the back 2 I slowed down and finished the whole thing at 10:30 pace. I think I will be able to get runs less than 5 miles to under 10 minute miles soon. I am pretty excited about that because I have never broken 10 mintue miles in my life. Have a good weekend everybody!

posted @ 4:26 PM | archive_link | Comment

I shit primes for breakfast.

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Thursday, April 10, 2003

Getting air play is cool.

posted @ 3:26 PM | archive_link | Comment

Blah. Actually double that Blah, Blah. Thats all I got.

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Monday, April 07, 2003

So we had a little party this weekend. Totally bitching (except for the day after's hang over and clean up chores) with lots of great friends from the area and out of town coming to the event. Like the previous Big Bad Birthday Luaus we roasted a pig, made lots of jungle juice, and made sure people got lei-ed. The weather cooperated...sorta....it was nice and sunny, but a bit too windy to be called a nice day. Anyhow...as the saying goes...a picture is worth a thousand words...so go here to see 50,000 words or so about the party.

Oh, and best part about the party...we raised over $600 for TNT and the Society. Thanks to everyone that came out and helped celebrate our birthdays and support the cause!

posted @ 11:53 PM | archive_link | Comment

Gas Protection Thanks Garrett.

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Thursday, April 03, 2003

Get involved. I think I might wet my pants from laughing at this.

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Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Oh forgot to mention...knocked out a great 7 mile run today. Time was getting closer to breaking 11 mintue miles...and if I did that I would be SOOOOOO excited. Only bad part was some pretty nasty side stiches that slowed me down at the begining and the end. Need to talk to the coach about those...and probably need to start eating bananas. G'night.

posted @ 1:48 AM | archive_link | Comment

Got my second surprise of my b-day...a bunch of friends that live in SLO town were waiting for me at Firestone to celebrate the b-day during dinner. Not only did they surprise me with their presence, but they also caught me off guard with a ton of water guns that were used to soak me in assorted places. By the end of dinner I was completely soggy, but totally full of great food and good vibes from my friends. Plus Darnell, the man that keeps firestone running day in and day out, took a couple of special jabs at me over the mike to make sure everyone knew that 25 might as well be 30. Rat fink. :)

I also spoke with my Grandfather in India. He is 90 years old and still goes to work every day to make sure things get done. He has had an increadible life and never ever ceases to remind me about what is important. I am going to attempt to see him (and all of my relativies in india) this year after I finish up my master's thesis work and before I start my next challenge. Being born and raised in America but having the majority of my relatives in India has always been a challenge as I don't get to see or interact with them as much as any of us would like. Plus the cultural and language diffrences between the countries contributes to the challenge of communication. I wonder what (if I have any) my children's relationship with India will be like.

All in all it was a great birthday with many friends and family making time to call, write, or IM me happy birthday wishes. I felt really loved and can't believe how lucky I am to have so many good friends and family members in my life. I am truly blessed and need to make sure I never ever forget that. Thank you to everyone that shares sooo much with me.

posted @ 1:46 AM | archive_link | Comment