aplomb

I hope everyone had a great holiday, and got some quality time with the family, loved ones, and friends. I had a good time hanging out with family and of course it's almost 100% predictable -- ate a ton of good food, thereby ensuring that I remain "festively plump". At my father-in-law's house we had a massive helping of roasted prime rib plus some crab -- it was with some amazement that I survived the night without a massive coronary. I also went up to my dad's place to visit and we had some ribeye steak with a bottle of Cab. Good times.

At my dad's place one of the spots I always gravitate to is his big 55-gallon aquarium populated with a lively school of goldfish. I remember helping him take care of the various fish we had and cleaning the tank when I was younger. After all this time he still has it, and he has taken good care of it through the years. The fish he's got in there now are nothing fancy, just some cheap feeder fish that he bought a year or two ago, but they have grown big and provide endless entertainment to those easily amused (I count myself among them). One of the fish in his tank has a special place in my heart though, because he is "special". Fans of the Disney Pixar film Finding Nemo will recall that little Nemo has a "lucky fin". Well this fish has it even worse, because he's completely missing his tail fin. The poor little guy has to work twice as hard as the other fish to swim around and fight for his share of the food. But he seems to do it quite well with a certain sense of aplomb that earns my admiration.

Here's a short video I took of him for you to see the everyday hero in action.

Awww... don't it just melt your heart? Happy Holidays to everyone!

framework

What would you do with two weeks off from work if you didn't have anywhere to go? My plans to either visit my bro in San Diego or take a roadtrip to Las Vegas have fallen through, so I'm just hanging out in the Bay Area. Truth be told, it's been 4 days off so far and I haven't even left Fremont. I've hardly left the house. I made a run to Blockbuster and picked up some new movies to watch. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on Blu-Ray, and Transformers (sadly, not available on Blu-Ray). Other recent Blu-Ray viewings include Live Free or Die Hard and Layer Cake. And I just bought The Departed and Happy Feet in a buy 1 get one free deal from Amazon.com.

Lest you think I'm a complete couch potato (though that isn't too far from the truth), I've also been decorating around the house. Too many blank walls to stare at, something needed to be done. But no overpriced or boring store-bought art for me. I rounded up my best digital photos that I've taken over the years and sent them to print at Ritz Photo -- enlargements and prints are available for me to pickup at the local store in an hour. Then a few trips to Aaron Brothers for some picture frames. They've got a sweet 40% off coupon you can print from their website. After spending about $50 in prints and about $100 in frames, and some fun with laser levels and an electric stud finder, I have some very cool looking art hanging on the walls -- and I know I won't see it anywhere else because they're truly unique. To fully appreciate them, you'll just have to drop by and see them in person.

caribbean

Wow, how the time flies--it's already December and our trip to Miami and the Caribbean was two months ago. Things have been busy at work but now with the holidays approaching things have settled down some, and I'm on two weeks vacation. Time to wrap up the writeup of that previous trip, eh?

So after a week in swanky Miami we headed to the port and boarded the Liberty of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship.
For the moment it holds the honor of being the largest cruise ship in the world, along with its sister ship Freedom of the Seas. The Liberty has everything you'd wish for on a cruise ship: a shopping mall promenade, nightclubs, a casino, a skating rink, even a surfing pool. And multiple restaurants to dine at including a Johnny Rockets. But we spent most of our time in the breakfast and lunch buffet, and typically had dinner in the luxurious main dining room.

Our first port of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Old San Juan is just that--an old quaint colonial town with cobble-stone streets and plenty of shops to check out. Our time in San Juan was brief; we only had a few hours to walk around before sunset. But we did get to have dinner at the restaurant that was the birthplace of the Pina Colada.

Then it was a few more days at sea to reach our next destination, the island of St. Martin. St. Martin is a 21-square mile island shared by the Dutch and the French. The ship docked at Philipsburg on the Dutch side, but we signed up for an Excursion that took us across the island to Marigot on the French side for some shopping, and then had lunch and a few hours of beach time at Orient Beach, which was one of the nicest beaches I've ever been to. The sand was fine and soft under my feet, and the water was many incredible shades of blue. The only thing that put a damper on things was losing my sunglasses when I got pounded by a rogue wave.

A few more days at sea gave us ample time to explore the many things the ship had to offer. Eventually I had to succumb to temptation and try my hand at roulette in the Casino Royale. My strategy is to stick to mostly even bets like red and black, or occasionally doing one of the 1/3 bets. It seemed to work well for me, after a few hours I walked away with about $300 and my ego intact.

Last port of call on our Caribbean cruise was Labadee, a beach resort area on the island of Haiti. Note the welcome sign that seems clearly inspired by the recent success of the Pirates of the Caribbean films--that Labadee Luc guy sure looks a lot like Capt. Jack Sparrow. I'm not too convinced that Haiti is politically stable enough to be a recommended vacation spot, but Labadee is a resort in a remote region privately owned by the Royal Caribbean cruise line. Not much in the way of things to see or do beyond the beach, but that suited me just fine. A floating beach mat, some sunscreen, and I am set.

After that it was time to head back to Miami. A couple more days and nights at sea, which gave us ample opportunity to hit the buffet and order extra deserts after dinner. Oh man, a cruise is really not a good way to lose weight. Sure, they have healthy options on the menu, and a full gym and fitness center, but who's going to stick that regimen while on vacation? Someone with more willpower and commitment to fitness than me, that's for sure. I wish I could say I have come back home and diligently hit the elliptical machine every day, but that would be a big fat lie. As we head into the Christmas holiday the heavy and hearty meals just won't end, but at least I'm going to try to make some use of the elliptical every so often, if only to avoid a massive coronary at the dinner table when my father-in-law serves prime rib next week. I'm definitely planning to have seconds!

excellence

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving -- I certainly did (burp). I like turkey and every once in a while will have a turkey sandwich or something like that, but really it's this one time of the year that you really go all out and gorge yourself with plate after plate of the big bird. My father-in-law roasted a nice big turkey this year and there was plenty to go around, not to mention plenty to fill my refrigerator with afterwards.

Yesterday was Black Friday, the "first official day of the holiday shopping season" and as always the sales and doorbuster deals were the talk of the town... the news couldn't stop talking about it. I decided that I wasn't going to wait in line outside any stores this year, for a couple of reasons. The biggest one was that it was pretty dang cold outside at night, probably dropped below 50 degrees. And even on our way home from Thanksgiving dinner, we could see lines forming in front of places like Best Buy and Circuit City. I was thinking, if I was gonna try and get some good deals I wouldn't stay up all night waiting in line out front of one of these popular places. I'd just show up at a less popular place like Home Depot, where I could probably just show up maybe 15 minutes before opening and be like bam! when the doors opened I'd be among the first to get a really good deal on a riding tractor lawnmower, or some power tools. Maybe even score a free garden hose or something. I sure didn't see any news coverage from the local channels showing lines wrapped around the local Home Depot, so maybe that's the plan next year.

So instead I stayed home all day and didn't go out. Don't get me wrong, I don't boycott Black Friday. I just did all my shopping online. Well actually I just browsed online since I didn't actually buy anything. But I was pretty fervently combing the Best Buy and Amazon websites for deals though. Mostly trying to decide what Blu-Ray movies I should buy. I've been renting a lot of movies on Blockbuster and their selection of Blu-Ray movies is pretty good. So I'm setting a pretty high bar for movies that I would actually want to own. Quite simply, it has to be a movie or film that clearly demonstrates the awesomeness of the HD picture and audio. So far the only Blu-Ray films in my collection that really do that is the Planet Earth series from BBC, now available from Discovery Channel Store. This series is phenomenal, and I totally recommend it. But the visuals from PE far outshine the audio on this series, so I am in search of something that hits a home run on both counts.

I've found this site to be pretty helpful in evaluating what Blu-Rays are going to be contenders -- High Def Digest. Their reviews of Blu-Ray discs rates the movie itself, the video quality, and audio quality separately and you can sort the reviews based on these ratings. Not too many movies get the overall grade of five stars, but I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that one of them is Pixar's Ratatouille, which of course is completely digitally sourced. So I'll probably be adding that to my collection soon.

miami 2

Time to pick up where I left off with our trip to Miami. After two nights at the very stylish and luxurious Mandarin Oriental, we headed to South Beach to stay at the Angler's Resort, a newly restored Art Deco style boutique resort located in the heart of South Beach and only 2 blocks away from the beach. The location was ideal as our base of operations as we set out to explore all that South Beach has to offer: swanky nightclubs and bars, colorful art galleries, fine dining. Not to mention a jaw-dropping combination of fabulous beaches and beautiful people -- people watching is a major pastime in this town. There are scores of cafes along Ocean Ave where you can just sit for hours and watch the playas and hotties pass by, whether on foot or rolling in a Maserati.

I'd be lying if I said we didn't eat well in South Beach. We went to some pretty fantastic spots and ate some pretty expensive food. I'll just try to hit some of the highlights. The Blue Door in the Delano Hotel was very cool; it's a sophisticated and classy place owned by Madonna. I had the Kobe Beef Sliders with White Truffle Fries, and V. had the Cobb Salad. The food was so good, we went back there at the end of our trip and ordered the same meal again.

We also made reservations at Prime 112, one of the popular steakhouses in South Beach. V. had a large glass of ceviche and grilled sea bass, while I had a belly-busting 22-oz. ribeye steak and some massive stalks of asparagus. I swear the asparagus in Florida is HUGE. One thing's for sure though, fabulous eats don't come cheap -- even the sauces for the steak came separately at $2 - $5 each. But I guess you don't order a $48 steak and then skimp on the sauce, do you? No way man, I'm all in!

But perhaps the real highlight of our dining experiences in Miami had to be our visit to Joe's Stonecrabs. Joe's is one of the oldest restaurants in South Beach, and all the locals will say, you gotta try the stone crabs at Joe's. And so we did, and oh was it good. So sweet, so tender. V. also ordered a seafood cioppino that she couldn't stop talking about. And we topped it all off with some tasty Key Lime Pie that just hit the spot.

Good times, good grub. After two days in South Beach it was time to pack our bags and head for the Port of Miami to rendevous with the largest cruise ship in the world, the Liberty of the Seas. Stay tuned for the next installment, where we set sail for the Eastern Caribbean!

disconsolate

I am saddened by the passing of my dear friend and faithful fish Spencer. He was not doing well when we returned from our trip and continued to decline. I came home last night and he swam up to greet me for the last time but didn't seem to be eating at all. A few hours later he was belly up at the bottom of the bowl. I said farewell to him this morning and hope he is in a happy place. I miss you little guy and the house already seems a little emptier without you.

miami

Did you miss me? I've just returned from our two-week vacation to Miami and the Eastern Caribbean. We flew back into SFO last night and boy are my arms tired! (drumroll) It really was a long flight and I thought it would never end, but now I am glad to be back home. We of course took lots of pics and some of them even look ok. So in this installment I'll sum up our first week in Miami.

The first two days in Miami were spent in the northern area of Sunny Isles, and we stayed at the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort. Yep, owned by Donald Trump. I had to resist a strong urge to walk up to random staff and give them my best "You're fired!". Our first dinner in Miami was at the Noemi's Grill within the resort but it wasn't anything special, just a quiet dinner. We did get a nice suite upgrade to our room because V. told them it was our honeymoon, that usually gets us some nice perks. Our room was way up on the 25th floor and had a great view of the ocean and beach but it was pretty scary looking straight down.

There isn't really much going on in Sunny Isles but they have their own nicely groomed patch of beach and first class service from the pool and beach staff. I managed to botch the sunscreen application and got sunburned the first day on the beach. Nice going. We spent some time shopping at Aventura and Bal Harbor to pass the time. It was remarkable how hot and humid it was, I couldn't spend more than a few minutes outside without breaking into a sweat. But maybe that's just an indication of how out of shape I am. We did discover one gem of a restaurant near Bal Harbor, an Italian restaurant called Cafe Ragazzi. V. raved about the paella she had, and I was content with a glass of Peroni and a plate of spaghetti.

On day 3 we said so long to Trump's resort and moved to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Downtown Miami. The MOH is actually on its own little island called Key Brickell, situated in Biscayne Bay between Downtown and South Beach. Once again, our "honeymoon" gambit scored us a nice room overlooking the water and Downtown. On the suggestion of some coworkers we decided we would drive down to the Floria Keys to enjoy some seafood and take in the sights, so we asked the concierge to book us a rental car. I decided to splurge a little since my birthday was coming up so we rented a Cadillac SRX which was pretty pimp, not as gangsta as the Escalade but very comfy and entertaining to drive.

Our initial plan was to drive only midway through the Keys, have dinner somewhere and turn back, but our early progress was encouraging and I suggested that we make the drive all the way down to Key West -- the southernmost part of the United States. Might as well, right? A quick stop for lunch at a Wendy's of all places, and then it was a race to beat the clock -- trying to make it to Key West in time to see the sunset from its world-famous vista point. We made it, and I have the photos and souvenirs to prove it. After a fantastic sunset we had dinner at the A&B Lobster House and the requisite Key Lime Pie.


Then V. took the wheel of the Caddy for the long, dark drive back up to Miami. We thought we'd never make it but we did get back to the hotel around 1AM. Dead tired and ready to collapse into bed, we came back to our room and found the staff had decorated our honeymoon suite and bed with rose petals. Very nice!

The following day was my birthday, and we spent it at the Mandarin Oriental as a lazy day. We had lunch at the hotel's Cafe Sambal which served Asian fusion which of course V. enjoyed. We passed the afternoon just hanging around the pool, and got dandied up for dinner at Azul, the hotel's premier dinner spot. But first we hit up the M-Bar, which featured several hundred different martinis. Since we were at the Mandarin I ordered the Absolute Mandarin Martini, and V. had a Lychee Martini. Dinner at Azul was pretty nice, V. had a massive chilled seafood platter and I had some great clam chowder and a study in lamb.

After dinner I tried my hand at taking some night shots with my mini tripod. They didn't come out too well but this one looks ok in an impressionist sort of way.


Well that only covers the first 4 days, and I haven't even gotten to South Beach! I will have to cover that in the next installment.

upscale

Loyal readers may recall the saga involving my Koss home theater system. So I finally got tired of dealing with the finicky stereo unit and ordered a new Denon receiver. But as luck would have it, the launch date got pushed back by a few months (it was supposed to be available as of August 2007). But the wait is now over, my long-anticipated Denon AVR-2808 came in yesterday. Woot!

I of course spent a good chunk of the late evening and early morning setting it up and plugging stuff into it, which involved a fair amount of crawling behind the TV and the use of my super handy LED flashlight. Fortunately I had a few spare HDMI and optical cables ready to go, purchased from MonoPrice.com a few months ago in preparation for this glorious day. Thanks to the 2808's HDMI switching and scaling functions I was able to reduce the number of cables running around behind the TV. Now my cable box and my Playstations (2 and 3) can go to the receiver and from there one HDMI cable to the TV.

So the old Koss HTiB is out and the Denon is in, but the old Koss speakers are still in place. These are some pretty small 4 ohm speakers and I'm now convinced they're not going to cut it. In fact my very first impression after I powered up the system is that I need better speakers. I found that I had to crank the master volume pretty far up in order to get any decent sound from the speakers. The system is really designed for 6-8 ohm speakers. But the worst part is, the unpowered subwoofer that I have from the Koss system is not compatible with the 2808. It's set up for a self-powered subwoofer, so it only has a pre-amp output. So for the moment I have very little bass response, and my next upgrade is probably going to be a new powered subwoofer. But maybe a whole new set of speakers soon after that. Oh yeah, just what I needed, another expensive hobby. Stay tuned as I continue to pimp my home theater.

chronological

V. threw me a surprise birthday party over the weekend, a little early due to our Miami trip coming up. It was nice to see friends and family but I was a little shocked to see so many little kids running around the house. I'm sure V. had to practice unprecedented levels of self-control, as the place was practically a zoo for a while there. The birthday cake theme was -- predictably -- Cars! Ka-chow!

As an early birthday gift V. surprised me with a new watch. It's a Tag Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Tachymetre which is quite the mouthful. Basically the wristwatch equivalent of a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, or a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR -- the more words the better, you get the picture. Pretty sweet.

I also got a boatload of gift cards for Best Buy and some spending cash. I'm very tempted to go out and buy a X360 and Halo3 right now. But I'll probably refrain and think about it some more during my 2 week vacation in Miami and the Carribbean. I've already made a few other purchases lately, a NordicTrack elliptical workout machine and a Logitech GT Driving Force Pro steering wheel for the PS3. Maybe by the time I come back my new Denon receiver will have arrived and I can start thinking about speakers or other home theater upgrades.

If it seems like I have been doing a lot of conspicuous consuming lately, it's probably because I'm trying to forget how old I'm getting.

meatballs

Some of the work I do involves techy topics like open source and music players and DRM, so I sometimes come across some entertaining or interesting stuff. I started to read this but didn't finish, but want to go back to it at some point and read the rest. Pretty funny in some parts, especially the part where he says:

Sony is the oafish guy at the party who is parked in front of the meatballs tray eating directly from the dish.

mmm, meatballs sounds good right now.
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2007/09/iphone-ipod-contain-or-disengage.html

trinity

Wow, another year goes by and it's time to celebrate the third anniversary of our wedding. Where's that coupon for Black Angus that came in the mail? :D
Just kidding. This year V. and I are going to be enjoying a quiet dinner at home since it's a weekday. We've got dinners and lunches with the family this coming weekend and we have our much-anticipated vacation trip to Miami and the Caribbean coming up in 2 weeks (more on that soon) so we'll no doubt have plenty of nights out on the town.

Happy Anniversary Honey! Where's my gift this year?

impact

Colin McRae dies in helicopter crash

Colin's 2006 crowd-pleaser

Motorsports is an inherently dangerous activity, but it's always sad when a racer loses their life participating in that sport. It's somewhat ironic, however, when a racer meets their fate off the racetrack. Former World Rally Champion, and highly successful racer Colin McRae apparently crashed his helicopter not far from his home. Making it even more tragic is that his 5-year old son Johnny and 2 other passengers were also aboard and were also killed. No doubt a good portion of the motorsports community is saddened and affected by this loss, and my thoughts go out to McRae's family.

Colin's most memorable recent high-profile appearance was in the X-Games rally event. In the 2006 event he wowed the stadium crowd with an amazing flip and roll 2nd place finish that made news all over the world and pumped up viewer interest in the sport of rallying like no one else could. RIP, Colin.

See Colin's full run at the 2006 X-Games on YouTube

catapult

If you're at all into cars you no doubt recall the 2001 movie The Fast and the Furious, perhaps better known for catapulting Vin Diesel's popularity as an actor than for its technical accuracy. Hey, it's Hollywood, so we can overlook a few glaring inaccuracies as long as there's flashy eye candy and some cool stunts. But one thing that they keep bringing up in the movie, is the idea of a "ten-second car", a car with the ability to run the quarter-mile from a standing start in ten seconds or less. Well in the real world, such a car is pretty damn rare, and almost never an actual car that you would be able to drive on the street. We're talking specially prepared race cars, made of flimsy ultralight materials that would probably never even make it out of your driveway without scraping a piece of bodywork off, let alone something you'd consider driving to the grocery store.

But if you were indeed looking for such a ten-second car, and you were hoping to drive it down to the local Quick-Mart so you could impress the gaggle of 14-year old boys who hang out there, look no further. Witness the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, a 1183-horsepower car that rips the 0-60 run in 2.8 seconds and goes on to tag the quarter-mile in 9.9 seconds. And no, you don't even have to drop the $1.2M in coin that you had saved away for the Bugatti Veyron, which by the way takes 10.8 seconds to complete the quarter-mile. Oh, no, you can be the real-world Dom Toretto for $550,000.

I personally don't feel the need to travel the 1320 feet in ten seconds. If I'm looking for a stylish way to impress the 14-year olds, I would actually save about $450,000 and get a Porsche Cayman S Design Edition 1 instead. It's black, it's sexy, and it comes with a matching briefcase, watch and pocket knife. Sign me up.

Ok, for those of you who, like me, don't have the dough for a ten-second car yet, try the ten-second burger challenge instead. "I live my life one Quarter-Pounder(TM) at a time ... for those ten seconds or less, I'm free." - Ronald McDonald.

jukebox

I was spending some time on Yahoo! Music Videos, and came away from it pretty impressed at the great collection of music videos that you can pull up on there. Especially the availability of some of the older ones, some which I haven't seen in years. So I decided to make a list of some of my favorite music videos.

Michael Jackson, Beat It. This is probably on everyone's favorite video list. Well it should be. Only MJ has the massive pop appeal that can separate two rival gangs in a knife fight and make them break out in synchronized dance routines.

Kool & The Gang, Fresh. Wow this one is ancient, you can really tell it comes from the early days of music videos before a lot of money went into the production. But I loved the song, and was glad to find the video for it on here.

Sade, Smooth Operator. An oldie but goodie. Not really much of a plot but I really enjoyed the jazz club ambiance and Sade is still the bomb after all these years.

Wham!, Careless Whisper. Another old one, I remember watching this video over and over again on MTV. It was #1 for weeks on end. Classic love story about trust, betrayal, and regret. Where the heck is George Michael going in that big circular building at the end? Is he going to jump off? Or just mope around and look sad for a few more hours?

R.Kelly, Down Low. One of the finest R&B videos ever made if you ask me. Epic story line with gangster underpinnings, a hottie temptress who leads our man R. down the wrong path to betray his boss (none other than old-school R&B legend Ron Isley), and a heart-breaking tragic finale.

Maroon 5, She Will Be Loved. When this came out, I thought, wow, what a great story. A confused man torn between the girlfriend his own age, or the tragically neglected hottie mother. For some reason the part where Adam Levine sits in the old American car wearing the 70's era shades really speaks to me.

Kanye West, All Falls Down. I really enjoyed this video, I thought it was a neat concept, almost all of it from Kanye's point-of-view. When he climbs into the x-ray machine and rolls through I just bust out laughing.

Chemical Brothers, Get Yourself High. Oh man, this is one of the best videos ever. I couldn't stop watching this one and the tune was stuck in my head for days. Not to mention the kung-fu DJ FX are hilarious. When the guy busts out the big boombox under his shirt it's like, whoa! It doesn't get any better than this.

fodder

I had to take my Lexus IS350 back to the dealership for some more repairs covered under the warranty, and as it would take several days for them to finish the work they gave me another loaner. This time it's an RX350, their smaller SUV. It's pretty nice but not really my kind of ride, the high stance of the car makes me think the thing is going to tip over when I make a turn. The vertically challenged Miss V. seems to enjoy it however -- I know short people like to feel tall sometimes. I have the car until Monday night but I can't wait to get my IS back.

That's not really very blog-worthy in and of itself, so let's switch gears for a moment and talk about food. I love food, and it shows, har har. But sometimes food is more than just nourishment, sometimes it's entertainment! Here are various food photos I took with my phone camera.

I don't know what all the fuss was about when the movie and book for Jurassic Park came out, Asians have been growing dinosaur eggs for a long time now. And I'm not talking about the thousand-year-old eggs either, you can get them fresh.


I had one of these brownies while I was at trial. I don't know what's in them but all of sudden I felt a lot better. :)



Yeah! Let's get Crunky! Rapper Lil' Jon and his homies must like this candy bar.

apparatus

We've got a new gadget to play with -- an HP laptop with 17" screen. I bought it through the HP store online, as I get a discount there. The relevant specs:
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/4MB L2Cache)
- 17.0" WXGA+ Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1440x900)
- 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 511MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection
- 200GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (100GB x 2) running Windows Vista Home Premium.

It's pretty slick but I am still getting used to the new features that come with Vista. All in all though it's pretty similar to Windows XP with some enhancements.

It took me a few hours to get it set up and to uninstall some lame trial software that comes on it, and generally get it configured the way we like it. Still need to install some other applications but we're connected and got the basics running. Hooray for Firefox, woo woo! Stay tuned cuz with this much computer processing firepower we can probably create some pretty cool stuff -- I will probably use it do some video editing and multimedia stuff.

I feel kind of sorry for my old desktop PC which is starting to show its age and pales in comparison to the newcomer. Still it's no slouch, it's a P4 1.7GHz running WinXP. I am thinking of picking up a KVM switch from monoprice.com and being able to switch between the two PCs with one keyboard/monitor/mouse. And it can still serve as a media server, streaming music and videos wirelessly to my PS3 downstairs. So I'm not ready to retire the old machine just yet.

ersatz

So the time came for another oil change for the Lexus, and I made an appointment to drop it off in the morning. I also had a few issues with the driver's seat making creaking noises and with the brake pads making too much dust causing the front wheels to look constantly dirty, and there are actually documented TSBs (Technical Service Bulletins) from the manufacturer on these. You can look them up for your car on a site like Alldata or search the forums on a car enthusiast site like ClubLexus.com. Anyways I dropped it off and because it would take several hours to check those issues out as well as do the oil change, they gave me a loaner car.

I was hoping they'd give me a nice Lexus ES350 or an RX350 (the wifey has been wanting one of those) to play around with, but you can imagine my dismay when they said they were out of Lexus loaners that morning. Instead I found myself behind the wheel of ... a base-model Toyota Camry. A dark red one, to boot. Oh joy. And there was an added bonus: firing up the ignition, the most fantastic music blared out of the MP3 stereo system. Some kind of Pakistani pop-techno mix CD, left behind by the previous occupant. Spectacular. So I set off on my way to work, floating my way onto the highway and putting the pedal to the floor, listening to the 4-cylinder engine's wail as the automatic transmission vaguely hunted around between 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. The beats were bumping, sitars playing, vocalists moaning and chanting to the beat, it was good times. But it got even better, because whoever made the CD just couldn't make up their mind -- it went from Pakistani techno to Chris Daughtry to some hard core rap and hip hop all in the blink of an eye.

In some kind of morbid curiousity I had to keep listening, to see what was going to play next. At lunchtime my coworkers commended me on my music choice, to which I had to respond, I had no idea who it even was. It certainly wasn't music representative of the typical Lexus driver demographic, that's for sure. I got one of the Lexus music CDs they give out, it was all jazz and easy listening. No hip hop or techno there.

At the end of the day I took the Camry back to the dealer and traded it for my beloved IS350, freshly washed and gleaming in the dealer lot. But not before ejecting that crazy MP3 CD -- I'm not gonna miss that Camry at all, but I'm taking the beats with me.

racial

I saw this in the Asian supermarket while I was shopping and it kind of put me off ... for the uninitiated the word "gook" is a derogatory racial slur for Asians used in the Vietnam War and here it is, in some kind of Japanese cracker snack! Unbelievable!

And I'm also not sure how it is characterized as Salad, seeing as it looks a lot like Pocky which is cracker stick coated with chocolate. Maybe the orange flavor makes it a salad??? Anyways, that's messed up, man.

flavors

As I have professed in the past, I am a lover of chicken wings, and certainly am willing to go out of my way to find a good chicken wing. They actually opened up a Hooters near my house, but no I haven't been over there yet. However I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are several Wingstop restaurants in the Fremont area -- another option for wings, and not just buffalo-style wings either. If you're not into the bright orange wings they offer various wing flavors such as hickory smoked BBQ, teriyaki, lemon-pepper.

If you go to the website, football Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman proudly proclaims, "they're the best wings I've ever tasted!" Well I'm not sure I agree with Troy who may have been tackled a few too many times to have any credible sense of taste left. I kind of think he must have part ownership of the chain or something? Anyways the wings are good, but not the best I've had. I recommend the Original Hot and the Garlic Parmesan flavors, but their seasoned french fries are also very good. They're a lot closer to me than University Chicken but UC has bigger wings and tastier sauce. That's too bad because WS is on my way home from work and I can see myself going there a lot more often. To add to the convenience they even accept online orders at the once closest to me, and I can place my order at work with a few clicks and pick it up on the way home! Pretty cool. And when you sign up for the online account they sent me a coupon for a free order of fries for the next order, very nice.

In summary I don't think Wingstop provides as memorable a dining experience as a place like University Chicken or House of Chicken and Waffles, but as a convenient place to stop and get some wings when you've got that hankering, it's a good choice.

Also really quick I went and checked out another local burger joint, Mission Burger near Ohlone College. Very good charbroiled burger, a little better than Bob's Burgers and nearly as close to my place. I think I'm going to start hitting them up more often when I feel like a burger.

rehabilitation

I've had a week off from work and plenty of time to think about updating this blog, but of course I've been lazy and decided to spend that time doing other things, like recovering from the madness of trial, eating and playing video games. Spending a lot of time in virtual Miami as Tony Montana in Scarface: The World Is Yours. It's bloody, violent, chock-full of vulgarity, and it's great fun. What other game lets you zoom in and target the left or right testicle of your target before you blast him with your rifle? "Say hello to my lil' friend!"

Also spent time catching up on all the television I missed while I was away at trial. Watched recorded episodes of The Apprentice, Lost, and American Idol. Caught a few Formula 1 races as well. Young F1 rookie Lewis Hamilton is really making a name for himself, finishing in the top 3 in every race he's run so far -- setting a new record in Formula 1 racing. Poor Robert Kubica at BMW, who was a rookie last year and my pick as one to watch this season, has been overshadowed by this young British talent who is racing alongside reigning champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren and wowing everyone with his skill.

I decided as my gift to myself after the trial I would get a new exhaust for my Lexus IS350 -- after having performance exhausts on my other two cars the Lexus was really too quiet for me. I decided on the Tanabe Touring Medallion dual exhaust after hearing it in person on another car -- gives it a nice deep tone and growl without being too loud and obnoxious. It also saves some weight and adds some power over the stock exhaust system so I have some performance benefits as well.

I was going to record some video clips of the new and improved sound, but through the power of the internet, conveniently here is a video someone recorded of the exact same car with the exact same exhaust -- it's even the same color so this looks just like my car. Good stuff.

So now I'm back at work, back in the office -- and suddenly I have time to update my blog. Funny how things work out huh? Happy Friday.

crepuscular

It's finally over. But not really. After 3 long weeks of sleepless nights and a tense 8 days in court fueled primarily by coffee and Amp, the work is done and the jury rendered a verdict. To our surprise the jury ruled in plaintiff's favor -- suprising because we felt we had outgunned them in every way. But where we kind of won the battle was in damages -- instead of the $75 million the plaintiff was seeking, the jury awarded them only $6.5 million. The client was happy about that, considering they had a potential exposure of much more, but in the end as lawyers I think we have to consider this a loss. The real kicker is, there's another related litigation coming up in June, this time at the ITC in DC. Most likely I will be involved.

Cisco owes $6.5M

After the initial repeat visits to the Ale House, our opportunities to go out and enjoy a good meal dwindled to virtually nil as we worked day and night, but at least the catering we had brought in was not too bad at all. On the occasional night of "suboptimal" dining experience, there was always the late-night pizza call. Grotto's pizza was the midnight savior for us in our time of need.
My team and I are fairly bitter about the loss. Perhaps we were cocky enough to assume victory when it was not assured, but we really thought we were going to win this one. It was like repeated slaps to the face as the clerk read the jury's verdict. Infringement. Slap! Willful infringement. Slappity slap! Invalidity defenses denied. Boot to the head! Equitable defenses denied. Kick in the ass!

We went out to dinner with the client afterwards and although the mood was somewhat dejected, the client was still very appreciative. We sampled various tastes and treats at 821, an upscale downtown restaurant with a French-style tasting menu. The spinach and gnocchi salad was fantastic, and so was the lamb plate and the braised rib. My butt was sore after sitting and eating and drinking for over 3 hours however... it felt like I had just gone through a 5 hour flight in a cramped economy seat.

So today we finished packing up the warroom and sending off the truck with all our documents and supplies back to California. The bigwigs flew the coop almost immediately after verdict and left us holding the bags as usual. Tonight, our last night in Wilmington, I decided to take the team still in town out for a real treat, by taking a car to Philly and having dinner at the Saloon, an upscale Italian-American steakhouse. I know this place from going there about 2 years ago when I was last in Philly on business. The food there is fantastic and so was the waitress. She handed us a two-page menu and then rattled off specials of the day for a good 5 minutes. There were probably more items on the specials than the menu. You really have to pay attention as she talks about them, because they are truly the better choices and there's so much to choose from. I don't know why they don't just print out the daily menu instead but it does give an entertaining experience. Repeating my experience of 2 years ago, I ordered a Blue Hawaii only to be told that they didn't have Blue Curacao, and as a substitute was given a pink drink. My coworkers loved it and were promptly stunned when I ordered and devoured an entire porterhouse steak plus dessert, a sumptuous banana custard tart. Good stuff. But I think we all dozed off on the ride back from Philly to the hotel.

Tomorrow morning we rise at 5:30am and head to the airport for the trip home. It's been a long time coming, and all of us can't wait to get back. I haven't seen my honey V for nearly a month, and it's going to be good to be home.

installation

Greetings from Wilmington, Delaware. I flew into Philadelphia 7 days ago. Unfortunately I did not have time to stop in Philly for a cheesesteak, but that is still a goal of mine. I caught a cab from the airport straight to my hotel in Wilmington. The Hotel DuPont is probably the nicest hotel in Wilmington, and it's in the heart of the downtown area. Unfortunately there's not much else around, it is mostly office buildings and at night and weekends the place is totally dead. Working until about 1-2AM each night, walking the block and a half back to the hotel is eerily quiet and uneventful. I had expected it to be colder, but it has actually warmed up nicely since I arrived. Temps are in the 60s and even got into the 80s for a day or two. But now it is raining again.

I gotta talk about the food situation here. The first few nights we went to this place within walking distance from the hotel, and it was great. So good we kept coming back -- it's probably the best bar and grill type place in the area. It's called Washington St. Ale House, and they have some good grub. I recommend the Build Your Own Burger, their buffalo wings, and the crab cakes. My coworkers introduced me to a new beer, called Yuengling Ale. Mmmm good stuff. We also tried a fancy seafood restaurant called Deep Blue that's right across the street from the hotel. Very niiice. But once the whole team arrived it was time to get to work. We set up our warroom on the 16th floor of our local counsel's building, which is the Chase building. Home away from home. My hotel room is just where I sleep. All of our meals are being catered by a company called Movable Feasts, and it's actually pretty darn good. They keep the variety going and we've had everything from salads to steak to crab cakes.

But the real show stopper is the trial snack setup that we have here just outside our warroom -- a complete table covered with snacks and candy. Believe it or not, this is pretty much what we have at every trial we do. Some of my coworkers are super health conscious but this kind of spread is hard to resist. Mmmm gummi worms. You know what, when you work 16 hour days every day of the week for this long, you gotta spoil yourself a little bit.

The view outside our office is fairly bland, but we do get to watch the sunset each evening when the weather is clear and take in the beauty of it all for a brief moment before we turn back to our work. Tomorrow we begin jury selection and on Monday the trial begins. It's going to be a long weekend I know, a lot of work between now and verdict. That's it for now, stay tuned for another update when I can. Most nights I just walk back to my room and fall into bed almost immediately.

revelation

Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the most hotly anticipated video games coming out this year. Imagine an immersive city environment where you're free to roam and do as you please, now with ultra-realistic next-generation graphics. GTA IV will be released for both X360 and PS3 in October 2007. I'm a big GTA fan, and I can't wait to play this latest one on my PS3.

Yesterday Rockstar continued to build up the hype around this game, by giving the gaming world a glimpse of things to come, in the form of a short teaser trailer. The speculation is over, the next GTA is coming back home to Liberty City, which is a thinly veiled version of New York City. The trailer shows some cool digital renditions of various NYC landmarks, like the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Chrysler building, and Grand Central Terminal.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that it's Liberty City again. I've already roamed the streets and dominated the crime underworld twice in LC, with GTA III and GTA: Liberty City Stories. I was kind of hoping they'd take the franchise to another new and exciting city, perhaps somewhere international like Hong Kong or Germany.

What's interesting though, is that based on the trailer, you will be playing the role of a thickly accented immigrant -- everyone seems to think it's a Russian accent. This is a new take on the GTA plotlines, but Rockstar has always had a reputation for doing unconventional things and making them into a success. I'm sure I'm going to enjoy playing this one when it comes out.

View the GTA IV Trailer at Rockstar's site

folding

I used to fold paper airplanes and throw them from the 2nd story of my house to see how far they'd go, but this is way cooler. This weekend I'm using my PS3 to help find a cure for cancer.

Stanford University [ok as a Cal alumnus I feel somewhat obligated to call them Stanfurd, rhymes with turd huhuh] has been using home PCs and now PS3s in a distributed computing network called the Folding@Home Project. People who want to let their computers/PS3s help the Project simply download the Project application, and then let the program run in the background, effectively donating their idle computer processor time. The Project tackles the massive task of analyzing folding proteins -- due to the huge amount of calculations required it typically would require a supercomputer, but by dividing up the task into smaller work units and handing out assignments to individual machines -- homework, if you will -- the power of everyone's computers is combined in one of the largest distributed computing networks in the world. Good stuff.

But it gets even better. The PS3's Cell processor has been touted as one of the most advanced CPUs you can buy today, and Sony has teamed with Stanford University to take advantage of that. The CPU crunches away at its homework, and the RSX graphics chip displays the actual protein folding and geometry in realtime for you to see. And in the background, a world map slowly rotates and shows you, world-wide, all the other PS3s that are crunching away as well as little points of light. That rates a 10.0 on the geek scale for me.

It's nice to know that I can do something for medical research so easily, and it requires so little effort -- just leave the PS3 on and let it put the smack down on some misbehaving proteins. I almost feel guilty when I interrupt it to actually play a game -- almost. I still gotta play my games, sucka!

Folding@Home on the PS3

Gizmodo: PS3 Triples Folding At Home's Computing Power to Over 500 TFLOPS..PFLOPS in Spitting Range