summation

As my final entry for 2006, it seems fitting to look back on the year and reflect on all the significant moments and achievements. It's definitely been a year to remember for me. A year full of scenic beauty, and carnivorous intake, and marked by moments of joy and some pain.

We saw the coming and going of two puppies, Chanel No. 1 and Chanel No. 2. The emotional impact of their brief stays in our home has not quite faded. In the end we decided raising a puppy was not for us, but we have found some more simplistic companionship in our betta fish Spencer.

2006 saw the arrival of my fabulous silver steed, the Lexus IS350. It also seemed to mark a period of conspicuous technological consumption, as I moved to upgrade my life in other aspects of technology, such as a new mobile phone. On my list of cool gadgets though the biggest coup has to be my honey V getting her hands on a Playstation 3 before Christmas.

In my moments of leisure I had the opportunity to have some fun on the road and at the track. My vacations also embraced a disturbingly indulgent pattern of stuffing myself silly.

For our family, the most significant event of 2006 would be the addition of a new member -- little baby N. His arrival brings smiles and happiness to all who surround him.

All in all, it was a very good year. Would I change anything? Not a damn thing. But I have a feeling 2007 will be even better.

Happy New Year everyone!

reprieve

When we bought our big 50-inch Panasonic HDTV about 2-3 years ago, we took advantage of a great deal at Best Buy -- free delivery, and a free home theater system (worth $150) came with the TV. That home theater system was made by Koss Electronics, which I guess was a subsidiary or side-venture of Koss Corporation. Koss is best known for their headphones, which I believe have a pretty good reputation. Unfortunately when they got into the home theater and stereo business it appears their products were not nearly as good, and eventually Koss Electronics went out of business. Um, that can't be good.

So for the first 2 years or so, the Koss KS5192 system that we got was working just fine... it played DVDs, was easy to setup, and the 6.1 speakers sounded pretty darn good with Dolby surround and DTS movies. It wasn't until this past year that we started noticing some weirdness. The DVD player would freeze in the middle of a movie for just a split second, even with brand new DVDs. That was annoying. Then I wanted to connect my PS2 or my Comcast cable box to the receiver to get surround sound using the optical input. The sound came through, but there was a noticeable delay in the audio that made it worthless -- the sound would come half a second after someone spoke in the video, or sound effects were delayed in a game. OK, annoying but I'll let it go. The last straw was when the Koss player started making loud grinding noises whenever you turned it on ... sounds like the cooling fan is vibrating or hitting something. Well what do you expect for a system they were selling for $150? At least I got it for free...

I starting looking at new receivers. I figured the Koss speakers are actually not that bad, maybe if I just get a dedicated DVD player and a new receiver I can still use the speakers, and the problem is solved. I was looking at the A/V receivers by Denon, because I have a connection that can get me virtually half-off of retail price. The AVR-2807 is really attractive, with all kinds of great features like HDMI switching, but it's not cheap. And I wasn't sure I needed such high-end audio hardware for my peasant ears. So i kicked it around in my head, but never made a decision to buy.

Then the PS3 came into my home entertainment system and with it came HDMI outputs, Blu-Ray playback and hopefully someday soon the possibility of functioning as an upscaling DVD player. With all the issues, the Koss just wasn't cutting it. Time to upgrade! Well before I dropped some mad cheddar for the 2807 I thought I would give the Koss one last chance. I went online to see if others were having the same issues and see if there were any fixes.

After a little searching I came across several online discussions about the KS5192 and its little brother KS4192. Most of them complained about the same audio delay and grinding fan issues, and most people said they ended up buying better receivers. They also reported that customer service from Koss was a joke, seeing as how the remaining Koss company was trying to distance itself from the Koss Electronics demise. I was about to give up and get the Denon but then I came across a thread that mentioned some kind of firmware upgrade that could fix the audio delay problem. The website for Koss Electronics was no more, but thankfully some other users had archived the upgrade files. It was a little risky -- some people reported it fixed their problems, while others reported it rendered their player completely useless. No pain no gain, so I downloaded the files, burned them to a CD and followed the upgrade instructions. Amazingly it worked like a charm -- now the audio syncs up to the video just fine, and I can play games on my PS3 in full glorious surround sound.

As for the video skipping or freezing, I put in a lens cleaner disc and let it run for a few minutes. That may have helped as the movie I played after that worked fine. So it looks like I may have bought myself a little time with the Koss system, until the fans disintegrate and the whole system fries.

prolific

Yeah, it's a quiet day at work so the internet is my friend... I thought, hey what's up with Chow Yun-Fat these days? Plenty it seems...

Chow Yun-Fat stars as the Chinese Emperor in a new epic Chinese movie that's out now in select theaters, The Curse of the Yellow Flower. The movie also co-stars Gong Li and Jay Chou. The movie is directed by Zhang Yimou, who also directed Hero and House of Flying Daggers so you know there'll be plenty of people flying around and crazy swordfights.

In March 2007, a videogame titled John Woo Presents Stranglehold will release for the Playstation 3. It's a third-person shooter that brings back the Inspector Tequila character from the 1992 Woo classic Hard-Boiled, in a battle against the mob. The characters will be computer rendered but the voice will be done by Chow Yun-Fat. Being a huge Woo and Chow fan I most likely will have to pick that up.

And we all probably knew that a 3rd Pirates of the Carribean was in the works, but how many of you knew that Chow Yun-Fat was cast in it? I guess the characters sail to the edge of the world, and run into him. He plays "Captain Sao Feng", and photos from the set show him sporting a shiny bald dome and a mean-looking Fu Manchu moustache. Hey now I know who I can be for Halloween 2007...

departure

James Brown
1933 - 2006

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown died on Christmas morning at the age of 73. JB was one of my favorite soul/R&B artists while I was in high school and college. His music had a huge impact on the world of music and the R&B, soul, and rap of today. He will be missed dearly.

R.I.P., JB. I will be listening to your CDs all this week.

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/12176089

christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope Santa left everyone something nice under their tree. Hopefully you were good little boys and girls so you deserve what you got under the tree. As you know I am such a good boy that even though I didn't set up a Christmas tree this year I got a nice Sony Playstation3 dropped down my chimney.


Sony also dropped a great gift on all the PS3 owners this weekend -- the Gran Turismo HD Concept demo was released on the 23rd and it's completely free!
As you can see from these screenshots, the graphics are pretty amazing. The cars look photorealistic, and in high-definition 720p or 1080i the game is fantastic!

And I got some really cool gifts from my family as well. I have a wireless mouse and keyboard set to use with the PS3; I got a 600-chip poker set in a killer aluminum carrying case (them chips are heavy man!); a nifty little device that helps me look up cocktails. So I'm totally set for this holiday season, I've got gaming, gambling, and drinking. All I need is a crew of tough guys and I can open my own casino.

But let's not forget that Christmas is not all about presents and cool gadgets. More importantly it's about spending time with your family and loved ones, and celebrating the Christmas spirit together. In my family that usually involves obscene amounts of food, but still, family comes first. Followed closely behind by lots and lots of prime rib, and lobster ... oh man I'm still stuffed from last night.

Season's Greetings!

-p.

playtime

I dropped off my Lexus at the body shop yesterday to get the scratch repaired, and I am driving the Spyder to work this week. What a nice opportunity to reacquaint myself with the 5-speed manual transmission, and the satisfaction of revving and snarling my way around every street corner, exhaust and engine singing together behind me. Sure, a brand new Porsche Cayman would be nice, but this will do just fine for now.

The weather has been actually pretty nice this past few days, no rain for a while. But man is it cold outside at night. I don't know if I have the courage to put the top down for a drive. Maybe a short one. V. just bought me a new hat to keep my big dome warm, so maybe with that and a heavy jacket I can tough it.


Still haven't received my games for the PS3 yet. To my chagrin however, the Best Buy gift card arrived separately today. Well I have been downloading a bunch of demos from the Playstation Store, and so far they are impressive. Of course the first demos I downloaded were racing games. MotorStorm is pretty awesome. It has quickly become the best-selling game for PS3 in Japan. The graphics are amazing but what is really cool is you can turn on the motion sensing for the SixAxis controller, and tilt it to turn like a steering wheel. Formula One Championship Edition is also fantastic. The sights and sounds of racing were so realistic I thought I was actually watching an F1 race on TV.

For more arcade-style action I checked out Blast Factor and Cash Guns Chaos DLX. Both are fast-pased arcade shooters where the goal is basically blow everything away around you. They're both fun at least for a little while but I don't think I will buy either one of them -- just playing the demo gives you a taste and you can imagine how the rest of the game would play out: just more of the same.


And last but not least I checked out a sports game, the demo for NBA 07. Along with the Formula 1 game this is probably the most challenging game to learn I have seen so far. There's a bunch of buttons for offense and defense, and special moves you can make while dunking, etc. Visually the game is very nice in hi-def but to me the players' skins seem a little too shiny -- it's like they're all sweaty even before the tip-off. The demo only has a quick game mode where each quarter is 2 minutes. I got slaughtered my first game, I didn't even score by the end of the first half. I'm getting better with my defense though, but I still can't land a 3-point shot to save my life. Maybe it's because I'm trying to use Shaq to shoot them...

ignition

Well the wait for my PS3 is over ... I came home today and Santa left me a big present by the fireplace! Actually his lovely and beautiful elf helper V. helped out by casing the local Best Buys and today they had a shipment come in... she hustled down there and grabbed one of the last boxes.

I was surprised at how heavy the box is, that PS3 console is actually pretty dman heavy. I unpacked everything, hooked it up to our 50" widescreen using my old PS2 component video cables and powered it up. Almost immediately it needed a firmware upgrade and wouldn't let me connect to the web until that was done. But that only took maybe 10 minutes and then I was surfing the web, emailing my friends and family, and generally having a grand time. Well as grand a time as one can have when you don't have any PS3 games to play! Ooops. Well I am working on that part, BestBuy.com actually has a special promotion right now where if you buy 2 PS3 games, you get a $20 gift card back and free shipping which is pretty cool. I hope they ship the games quickly, I ordered Resistance: Fall of Man and Need For Speed: Carbon.

In the meantime, I have the included Blu-Ray disc of Talledega Nights to enjoy, and I signed up on the Playstation Network so I can download free demos from the Playstation Store. I'm downloading the demo for Formula 1 Champtionship as I write this, hopefully it is worth the wait! It's a shame I can't call in sick tomorrow, cuz my coworkers are all taking the day off and I'm the only one left on duty!

foodquest

Well as they say, 'tis the season to be jolly, and nobody ever got jolly by going on a diet. I had a week off from work and no travel plans, so JT and I decided to spend it touring the bay area and visiting some of the best food places we know to eat the things we crave. It was a whirlwind tour of good eating and good times, for sure! If you are looking for some good indulgent food, try one of these places:

• Home of Chicken & Waffles in Oakland
• Arinell's Pizza in Berkeley
• University Chicken in Santa Clara
• Marvin Gardens in Belmont
• Barbara's Fishtrap in Half Moon Bay
• El Farolito Tacqueria in San Francisco
• Heidi's Pies in San Mateo
• Cafe Durant in Berkeley

There's nothing like the taste of fried chicken and waffles for breakfast -- they just taste right together at the Home of Chicken & Waffles. I couldn't believe the amount of butter they serve with the waffles and grits though. That's Southern style cookin' for ya!


The thin-crust pizza from Arinell's is one of the best NY-style pizza in the Bay -- Vito's is the other top contender.





JT takes on the Global Thermo Nuclear chicken wings from Chicken University. At the lower levels of hotness the wings are fantastic, but at Global level they are just downright painful. Your mouth and lips go numb for at least 20 minutes, and you'll be paying the price for hours if you know what I mean...

The fried calamari at Barbara's Fishtrap. They're pretty good, although I have to say I like the garlicky calamari at the Flying Fish Grill even more.




The banana creme pie and the blueberry sour cream pie from Heidi's Pies are very tasty but they don't come cheap -- they're like $10 each.






The strawberry and banana crepes at Cafe Durant. Good food, generous portions, and low prices make this a favorite college student hang-out near the Berkeley campus.




We did end our fantastic culinary tour with some disappointment though ... we made the journey up to Woodland so JT could try the triple-prime burger at Ruby Tuesday's but when we got there the restaurant was closed that day for repairs. Unbelievable! In search of a memorable burger experience we went to Red Robin instead but the meal was only decent. I did score an extra free milkshake when they brought out the wrong order ... we left completely stuffed for sure. At the end of the week I am up 8 lbs. so it is time to reacquaint myself with the treadmill...

traction

As frequent readers no doubt already know, I am a bit of a car guy. I like driving and I like cars, and so it was a natural progression to eventually find myself going to the racetrack, both as a spectator and as a particpant. I was discussing some of my track exploits with friends and thought, gosh there have been some great moments for me out there. So I thought I'd make a list and tell those stories. So here are my Top 10 most memorable moments at the racetrack.

10. Lincon Continental. A few years back I heard there was a track day at Sears Point (now known as Infineon Raceway at Sears Point). I didn’t sign up for the event but I decided to go and just catch rides off people for free. I arrived mid-day and heard that somebody had crashed and rolled their car earlier in the morning. They say that Sears Point eats cars with all of its concrete barriers, rolling hills, and challenging corners. But when I heard what kind of car it was, that really caught my attention. Apparently a guy had decided to rent a Lincoln Continental from Hertz or Avis or what have you, and take the car out onto the track! From what I gathered it was someone who was fairly experienced, and he was actually doing OK out there on track until he somehow lost focus, got distracted, whatever it was, and he ended up going down a hill and rolling the Lincoln a few times. The guy was OK, but the car was clearly a total loss. It would be a pretty tough story to tell the rental car agency, don’t you think? I think some of the other people at the track advised the guy to just outright buy the car from the agency and not get insurance involved since it was a racetrack activity that is in direct violation of most insurance policies anyways.

9. Toyota Formula 1 at Laguna Seca. Formula 1 only comes to the United States once a year, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Earlier this year I caught a rare chance to see Toyota’s F1 race car at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca. Hearing that fantastic V8 motor screaming around the track and watching Zonta break the all-time lap record for the track was one of my most memorable motorsports spectator moments. More on my visit to the Historics in my previous post “Pilgrimage”.

8. Airplane crash. This one isn’t really a great moment, but it was pretty memorable. We had just finished a session on track, and I pulled into the paddock and parked. The next group went out on track, but within a few minutes they announced a red and black flag, which meant that the session had stopped and all cars were coming back in. Apparently a small plane from the nearby airport had crashed into the field near the far side of the race track. I went over to a higher vantage point and using the zoom lens on my camcorder was able to see the bits of wreckage that used to be a plane and the ambulances and paramedics that had arrived on scene. I didn’t see the pilot of the plane but it looked like the paramedics had reached him and were working on him. Suddenly there was a flurry of activity as all the paramedics gathered around and did their thing. Then through my camera lens I saw several of them turn away and some of them dispersed back to their ambulances, looking grim. It looked like they thought they had stabilized the guy, and then they lost him. Pretty sad, and although we resumed the track sessions later on we all finished the day with heavy hearts.

7. Grilled cheese. At one of the track events we attended, there was no lunch served at the track and I was facing an inconvenient drive back into the nearby town to buy some food. My buddy H graciously offered me some of his cheese and bread which he had brought from home wrapped in foil. We were sitting there in front of our MR2s which were cooling off from the previous session on-track, and I was inspired. We tossed the foil packets on top of our motors, and in a few minutes we were enjoying the finest grilled cheese sandwiches you could ever want.

6. Spinning at turn 3. My first ever track day at Thunderhill, I was driving my MR2 Spyder in a High Performance Driving School put on by the SCCA. My instructor was saying something to me, I was busy trying to understand what he was saying, and not paying attention to where we were going. I missed my braking point, got on the brakes way too late, and as we started to slow down I had to start turning into the corner, which I did while still on the brakes. Huge mistake, and we spun off into the dirt in a rather unglamorous fashion. It was here that I learned by firsthand experience, the first commandment of driving a mid-engine car. Thou shalt not lift, nor brake in mid-corner. Always be even on the gas or slightly accelerating through the turn.

5. Making an instructor scream. This one was a great moment in my most recent outing to Thunderhill. “No no no, you’re going too fast!” The full story is covered in my previous post, "opportunistic".


4. First time driving down the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. I’ll never forget my first time driving at the world-famous Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey. I had practiced driving the track in virtual form many many times on my PS2 because the track is in Gran Turismo 3 and 4, but to state the obvious, there’s virtual reality, and then there’s the real world. Simulations can prepare you by helping you learn the general layout of a track, but there are some things that just can’t be simulated, and being there in person was a completely different experience. Take the Corkscrew, for instance, also known as Turn 8/8A. This is the “signature” turn for the Laguna Seca circuit: the distinctive hard left turn, a dramatic drop in elevation, and immediate right turn into a high speed downhill ramp. I had practiced taking this turn countless times on the PS2 and thought I knew my way through the turn. So my first lap in my MR2 Spyder, I drive up the hill towards the Corkscrew, I brake hard to slow down, and turn in. And almost at that same moment, realize that I have not turned in enough. I also realize that the drop is pretty damn steep. I am headed straight for the dirt on the wrong side of the famous red-and-white curbing along the inside of the Corkscrew. Thankfully I am going fairly slowly and I make a quick correction to steer back towards the center of the road. I finish the lap and the session safely, and learn a valuable lesson: video games are no substitute for the real deal.

3. Spinout in a NSX. There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and I'm not sure which side of the line you are on when you voluntarily climb into a racecar and let someone else drive you around the track. I rarely ask others for rides, but when someone shows up with an awesome car and is giving rides, how can you resist? My racing buddy H. and I are at Thunderhill for a track day and this guy G. shows up with a completely stripped down and modified Acura NSX. It almost resembled a JGTC car with carbon-fiber diffusers and bodywork, minus the huge wing. H. catches a ride with him and comes back breathless, saying "You gotta ride with this guy, it was awesome." So the next session I jump in his car and we roar off onto the track. G. is a very experienced driver, and that combined with the potential of his very capable machine made it an awe-inspiring experience. Before long we found ourselves in the proximity of a very fast 996 turbo, and G. made it his goal to see if he could catch up with it and maybe even pass it. We were making some progress and starting to close in on it, but at one of the highest speed turns on track, turn 8, G. loses control and we go spinning at probably 80mph. Now most cars, when they spin they go off track and into the dirt or grass. Mid-engine cars like the NSX and MR2 however, tend to spin more like a top, i.e. spin in place. So we stop spinning and we are still on the track, albeit facing the way we came. I was looking out the windshield in total dread, expecting to see another car coming down that high speed stretch of turn 8 right into us. But fortunately there were no cars closely following us at the time, so we turned back around and continued on. I was pretty freaked out after that, but G. was just giggling in a high-pitched way. "Did you see that Porsche? I almost caught him!" This guy was a piece of work. Afterwards I thanked him for what was probably the scariest ride of my life.

2. Pelican Racing Beater Battle. My buddy H got into racing and motorsports right around the same time I did, and for a time we both owned the same sportscar -- the MR2 Spyder. We both tired of parking-lots-and-traffic-cones autocross fairly quickly, and became attracted to road racing at real racetracks like Laguna Seca and Thunderhill. You got much more bang for your buck in roadracing, you paid more but you got much more time behind the wheel of your car. But it's far riskier than autocross, with the possibility of a crash, rollover or other unsavory outcomes. We both realized it was a little foolhardy to track our relatively new MR2 Spyders when they were also functioning as our daily drivers. So we both sought out more inexpensive vehicles (“beaters”) to prepare for track duty. Something that wouldn't sting our pocketbooks too badly if we flipped it end over end, or crunched a bumper or fender into a concrete barrier. We ended up taking fairly diverse approaches to the same problem.

I had definitely caught the mid-engine bug after buying my MR2 Spyder. I was convinced that the mid-engine layout was the way to go if you wanted superior cornering and handling characteristics. As one of the most inexpensive mid-engine cars you can buy on the used car market, and also their reputation of bullet-proof reliability, the obvious choice for me was the older model SW20 MR2 Turbo.

H on the other hand had always been a bit of a Nissan enthusiast. With all the drifting craze that was blooming in the motorsports scene, he sought one of the very popular cars that was ideal for drifting and superb on-the-limit control, the front-engined, rear-wheel-drive S13 240SX. Not content with the weak 4-cylinder engine that comes with the typical American 240SX, he sought out and bought one that had a Japanese-spec turbocharged motor transplanted under the hood.

And so the Beater Battle was begun. MR2 vs. 240SX. It was a fairly even match, in terms of weight and power. It wasn’t long before we both signed up for a track day at Thunderhill and started to get our cars ready for the rigors and stresses of the racetrack. I remember both of us working into the darkness the night before our track day. Early the next morning at an ungodly hour, we drove our cars up to Thunderhill. It had rained overnight and the roads were wet and slick, yet we were flying on the highway at over 80mph to make it to the track on time. We needn’t have worried, we got there with plenty of time to spare.

By the time we arrived it had stopped raining but the track was still very wet. We both drove out for our first session with some trepidation, as neither of us were very experienced at cornering in the wet at speed. I took it very easy and followed H around the track. As the session went on we started to pick up the pace, and the gap between us opened up a bit. H was building up his confidence, but I was still taking it easy. I came around a nearly blind corner and heard the skittering sound of rubber scrubbing the road as I watched the 240SX spin slowly off into the grass. No harm to the car but I’m sure his confidence was a bit shaken. A few laps later it happened to me. A little too much throttle coming off a turn, or maybe too quick on the steering, and with a shuddering moan my tires let go and I rotated off track into the grass. I found myself staring stupidly at one of the safety workers who waved me back on the track when it was safe to do so.

After the session we were both seriously questioning our driving abilities in the wet. Was it even worth going back out there, and risk getting into even more trouble? Fortunately it had not rained all morning and the sun was coming out , so we at least had the hope that the track would start drying off. And so we ventured out again.

Our perseverance paid off. The track did start to dry, and gradually we picked up speed in our sessions. By the afternoon the track was nearly all dry and we were tearing it up like nobody’s business. We took turns following and passing one another and pushed our cars as far as we could comfortably go, and it was a blast because our cars were so evenly matched. I had higher corner speeds in my MR2, but he had better speed on the straightaways. I remember that track day as one of my most fun track outings.

1. Sneaking my Lexus into a BMW-only track day... for free. What’s better than a track day on someone else’s dime? Read the full story here in my previous post, "opportunistic".

desecration

"What's more chicken s*** than f***in with another man's automobile? I mean, don't f*** with another man's vehicle."
- Vincent Vega, Pulp Fiction

Some PunkAssBeotch (TM)* keyed my Lexus last week. I only discovered it this weekend looking at my car in the garage. But I can pretty much guess when it happened. We went out for dinner on Thursday night and that was the only time I parked the car outside in public recently besides at work. So somebody probably keyed it while we were inside having dinner.

They left one long scratch across the passenger side of the car, spanning across the two doors. I am hoping that the scratch isn't so deep that it requires a repaint across the doors and the adjacent panels, maybe it can just be buffed out by the body shop. But you can feel the scratch with your finger so it is pretty deep. Lame. I'm not as pissed as I thought I would be, but it's still pretty annoying.

Fortunately my comprehensive deductible is $0 so I won't have to pay anything out of pocket to fix it, but I still have to take it in to a body shop to get it fixed and be without the car for a few days I'm sure. I have a real good shop I've used several times now, and referred to my friends as well. It's Superior Body Shop in San Carlos and they are also the preferred vendor for several insurance companies. We'll see how much the estimate comes out to be.

* PAB is my personally trademarked expression. All rights reserved.

countdown

It's coming this Friday, Nov 17. The new PS3. That's Sony Playstation 3 for those of you who live under a rock.

For those of you who scoff and shrug it off as a mere videogame console system, I say "au contraire mo' frere" (yes I'm sure I completely butchered the French expression). It is more than a mere videogame console. It is a whole new way of life. Wi-fi connectivity, multimedia capability with 60 GB hard drive, Blu-ray and DVD player with high-definition HDMI interface -- I intend to make this the centerpiece of my home entertainment system. No joke.

I want one. But it sounds like my chances of getting one on launch date are slim. They originally planned to ship 400,000 units to the U.S. for launch day. Now estimates are saying they may only have half that number available for launch. The few stores that sold preorders were sold out within hours. And now even preorders aren't guaranteed a PS3 on launch day.

The best shot at getting one is going to be at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Toys R Us. Toys R Us is selling them on their website at midnight Friday morning so maybe that's my first opportunity. You can only imagine how many people will be flooding that site at once. But who knows, maybe most people can't wait for it to be shipped and would rather wait in line at a store to get one. You can be sure people will be camping outside of stores Thursday night. I'm not that hard-core, I guess I can wait a few days and see what the 2nd shipment looks like.

PSXextreme's guide to buying a PS3:
http://www.psxextreme.com/feature/116.html

Check out these diagrams indicating how Best Buy plans to queue up customers for the PS3 and the soon-to-follow Nintendo Wii buying craze:
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-screenshots/108.html

avuncular

We're now officially Uncle P. and Auntie V.!

V.'s sister gave birth to baby N. on Thursday, Nov. 2 @ 5:54AM. Baby N. weighed 8.6 lbs at birth and I can say this without much bias since I have no blood relation to him, but he is one cute-lookin' baby. Many newborns are downright hard on the eyes with all kinds of wrinkly skin, strange birthmarks and weird features, they look like they fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Not this fella. The photo here is blurred to protect the identities of the innocent, but take my word for it, he's a handsome young pup. Congrats to proud new parents C. & V.

cabo

We're baaaack! Here are a few photos from our trip to Los Cabos.

The distinctive Arch at Land's End, the southernmost tip of Cabo San Lucas.







A fabulous view of the Sea of Cortes from our suite at the Casa Del Mar Resort.







Fine dining at El Tapanco restaurant in Casa Del Mar -- this is the tampiqueno dish which includes tacquitos, steak, enchiladas and a quesadilla.






The moths in Los Cabos are huge -- this one was about the size of a small bird! V. thought they were bats at first.








A sample platter displaying all the fresh seafood offered at Lorenzillo's on the Cabo San Lucas Marina. Very enticing but man that platter must be expensive.






We ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail at Lorenzillo's, which set us back $46. Pricey but wow the shrimps were huge and they came in a pineapple bowl with a tasty sauce.






Here's the gorgeous Cabo sunset as viewed from the beach at Casa Del Mar. Almost every evening we went out to the beach to watch the sun creep slowly behind the hills. What a relaxing way to end each day.





For our last night at the Casa Del Mar we enjoyed dinner at the Mesquite Grill on the beach. This chef cooks your choice of meats or seafood on a mesquite wood burning grille which gives it extra flavor and you dine by candlelight only footsteps away from the water. Fantastico!





The Casa Del Mar Resort sits right by the beach overlooking the Sea of Cortes. Its location midway down the Corridor between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo makes it easy to visit either town, if you have a car. We took the resort's shuttle almost every day to downtown Cabo San Lucas.




Tropical storm Paul (downgraded from a hurricane) passed by one night bringing high winds and thunderstorms. Believe it or not, this photo was taken at 1AM! The lightning flashes illuminated the beach as if it were daytime.





At our second hotel, El Presidente Inter-Continental, the food wasn't as good as El Tapanco at Casa Del Mar, but the presentation of their dishes was nice. Here is their take on the tampiqueno dish.






We told people everywhere that we were on our honeymoon -- people are nicer to you and sometimes you get extra perks. The maids at El Presidente made these swans out of bath towels and even dressed them up with a hat and veil.





The Arch at sunset, taken from aboard the Cabo Rey cruise ship. As a reward for attending a timeshare presentation, we got a free sunset and dinner cruise aboard the Cabo Rey. I also got a free bottle of tequila but I think the cruise was a more memorable experience.

daydream

It would be a pretty shallow thing to say, what you drive defines who you are. But I'm sure plenty of car manufacturers and ad agencies would push this as far as they could. What if it were true? I sat down and thought about the top 10 cars that I would love to own, if I had the money and the garage space. Join me on my little daydream as we stroll into my dream garage... (click on name for more info and more photos)

Aston Martin DB9 - Few cars exude style and speed like an Aston Martin. No wonder James Bond chooses this as his ride in the new Casino Royale film.



Audi R8 - One of the newest supercars to leap from the drawingboard to the street, the new Audi R8 is a stunning work of modern style and technology.



Bentley Continental GT/GTC - sometimes you have to roll in style, and there's few better ways to do so than in a Bentley.




BMW M5 - the most practical 500hp 4-door sportscar out there. Because sometimes you have to bring some friends or family along right?



Corvette Z06 - What would a dream car garage be without some American muscle? Well I am not a huge fan of most American cars, but the Z06 represents proudly for the red white and blue.


Ferrari 250GT Spider - No dream car collection should be without a classic Ferrari, and the 250GT has a classic beauty to its lines.



Ferrari F430 A dream garage also needs a modern Ferrari - this one is faster than a Lamborghini Gallardo, and looks to be a classic in the making.



Porsche 911 GT3 RS - the classic Porsche 911 in race-ready trim. This would be the car I would take to the track and race with.




Porsche Cayman S - Sleek lines and curves make this new Porsche even more beautiful than the 911, and the mid-engine platform promises superior handling.




Toyota MR2 Turbo - This one may seem a bit strange amongst the others, but it's been one of my dream cars since high school and I owned one for about 2 years. I hope to someday own another, and this would be my project car to tune and tweak for fun.

Runner-Up: Ariel Atom - the ultimate minimalist track day car -- even more so than the Lotus Elise. But a little too minimalist to make the list -- I do like some comfort in my cars.

You'll notice I have no trucks, minivans or SUV's in my dream garage because I have no use for them. 'Nuff said.

In case you want to go browse a massive collection of supercar photos and wallpapers, and do a little daydreaming of your own, go check out Serious Wheels.

excursion

We're now only a week away from our next big vacation trip, and I have to say I am a bit excited about it -- after considering travel to places like Tahiti, Bora Bora and Hawaii, we decided on Los Cabos in Baja California. A major draw for me was the much shorter travel time so we can spend less time in transit and more time on the beach. It's only about 4 hours total air time to sunny San Jose Del Cabo airport. And let's not forget my love of Mexican food. To go way back in time, I have wanted to visit Mexico (and no, trips to Tijuana do not count) ever since I read all about their beaches in the 1989 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Besides the usual fabulous supermodels in swimwear, the 25th anniversary issue also was chock full of information about Mexico's beaches, and I probably spent more time reading about them than staring at Kathy Ireland's photos. OK maybe not, but I did read through their 100 things to know about Mexico pretty carefully.

Anyways fast forward to 2006 and I managed to talk V. into planning our next vacation in Mexico. Beautiful beaches, abundant seafood, plush resorts -- what's not to like? We'll be in Los Cabos for 1 week and we each picked a hotel.
For the first 4 days we'll stay at my choice, the Casa Del Mar resort -- we'll enjoy a Luxury Suite with ocean views and be pampered at what was picked as one of the top 10 Mexican Beach Resorts by the Travel Channel. It's a fairly small resort with only 56 suites and we're sure to enjoy the quiet and private setting by the beach.

After that, we'll spend 3 more days in Cabo staying at V.'s pick, the Presidente Inter-continental Los Cabos Resort. It's a larger resort -- featuring 400 rooms and 6 restaurants. It's also an "all-inclusive" resort which means all food and drinks are included in the cost. With 24-hour room service, I may never leave the place. I have some reservations about the quality of the food and amenities at these all-inclusive places, but I guess we'll have to see.

Anyways there should be lots to see and do in Los Cabos such as snorkeling, boating, kayaking, horseback riding, cactus-petting. OK I made up that last one. Stay tuned for photos from our trip.