run log

Today's mileage: 1.5 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 119.9 mi. (SL: 13.6 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Workout Course

bases loaded

The SF Giants played the LA Dogers today and it was the last game of the 2003 season. The Giants routed the Dodgers, 10 to 3.

This was the first time I had ever watched a baseball game from the luxury boxes at Pac Bell Park. I must say that the luxury boxes are the way to go when it comes to baseball games; the food is much better and the beer is cold and plentiful.


SF Giants vs LA Dodgets, as seen from the luxury boxes at Pac Bell Park

panda cam

My brother sent me a link to the San Diego Zoo Panda Cam, which has a live camera feed that shows a mother panda with her newly born cub. The pandas are simply way too cute to describe using words alone.

run log

Today's mileage: 1.5 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 118.4 mi. (SL: 12.1 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Workout Course

run log

Today's mileage: 2.5 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 116.9 mi. (SL: 10.6 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Time Trials

car wash

So my boss made a bet with the head of corporate marketing at work. Never mind what the bet was (it's not important), but he lost. So today was the day that the head of corporate marketing decided to collect on the bet.

Let's just say that the bet involved a car wash, a huge Hummer limo caked in mud, an arsenal of water guns, and a ton of water balloons. And lots of people got wet as a result.

kick ass

Wow, my ice hockey team won the championship game in the beginners league tonight (18 to 9; yes it's a high scoring game). This was quite unexpected, considering we had lost most the games during the first half of the season, and we entered the playoffs as the underdogs (4th place team).

biking

Took my mountain bike out today to the Sawyer Camp Trail in San Mateo, CA. The trail was scenic but the ride was quite easy and very short--only 12 miles round trip.

I need to take my bike out more often; I've only ridden it for about 105 miles total (including today's ride) since I got it in April. More trails await!

reflections

One of my favorite photos, taken yesterday during our surf adventure. The picture is of my friend Mike, but if you look hard enough, you can find me as well.

wipe out

Ugh. I went surfing this morning with Josh and Mike, and the conditions were horrible. The waves were huge and I wiped out more times than I could count.

But I took some great pictures, and I guess that's what matters.


Mike trying to catch a wave.


Mike and Josh (probably talking about how bad the conditions were).

mystery ingredients

We had a pseudo-Iron Chef competition at Draegers today. Several colleagues and I formed a team to "compete" against four other teams (of my co-workers) to prepare a meal using ingredients from our "mystery bag."


My iron chef team. And the meal we prepared.

Each team had different ingredients in their mystery bag. One team, for example, had salad-related ingredients. Another team had dessert-related ingredients. We had the most ridiculous ingredients in our bag: squash, califlower, broccoli, and a slab of bacon! We were unsure what to create with the food in our bag.


Jason Shellen, Blogger program manager, holding up a slab of bacon from our mystery bag.

Well, we found another team who had a couple pounds of ground sausage, so we traded them half of our bacon for half of their sausage. I then came up with the idea for making bacon wrapped sausage, (which we appropriately called "Clogger Logs"), and garnished it with roasted squash. Our creativity won us the award for "best dish".


Brian having a bit too much fun with the rum from his mystery bag.

After we finished cooking, we ate our creations for lunch. Among some of my favorite dishes prepared by the other teams: sesame gralic prawns, beef tenderloin skewers, a vegetable medley risotto, and tiramisu!

texas hold-em

I held my first poker night ever at my place tonight. $20 buy in, $1 max raise (we were playing for peanuts considering that none of us have ever played with real money before). Texas Hold-Em all night long. It was awesome. It was a night for beer, cookies, poker chips, and irrational betting (hey, we're all beginners!) And best of all, I was ahead $16 by the end of the night when we decided to call it quits.


Brian, Tim, Josh, Petey, and Nelson playing hold-em at my place

We're definately doing this again!

friendster

I've been on Friendster (some sort of online dating site) since early August. I have 305,754 people in my "personal network."

Funny, I don't know 300,000 people; yet all of these people are in my network. Upon further exploration, I noticed that George W. Bush, Stanford University, Batman, and Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Ladin are in my network as well. Figures.

On that note, I went to a panel on Social Networks today. The panel event was sold out; we didn't purchase tickets ahead of time so we almost didn't get in except for the good graces of a couple of people at my company who pulled strings to get us in.

The guy (Jon Abrams) who founded Friendster was on the panel, and despite not saying anything interesting the whole night, it because clear that his business model is to undercut match.com and provide an alternative online dating site (though with a twist) that he can charge for.

Well, I haven't found a date yet off Friendster, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

hockey playoffs

Holy crap, we won our first playoff game today in our 3-on-3 summer ice hockey league. My company sponsored a beginner ice hockey team (which I naively joined without every playing hockey before, or even knowing how to ice skate). We were ranked fourth (out of 6 teams) in our league, so we didn't expect to do well in the playoffs considering we were playing the first place team. But in a 11 to 10 point upset, we won.

We're playing for the league championship next Monday, so it should be a great game.

weekend mayhem

There's nothing like spending a Saturday night at work trying to cause mayhem with the Green Machine. Apparently, the machine has caused not one but TWO holes in one of the walls of the building where my office is.


Brian demoing how to ride the Green Machine


Tim's wipe out

yaba hunt

My team and I walked over 5 miles in San Francisco today solving puzzles in the 5th annual YABA Treasure Hunt. Over 300 people were part of the hunt and we all raced around city to try to be the first one to finish. (We didn't make it back to the end before the hunt officially ended, but we did get to explore some cool locations).


Searching for a hidden word on a poster at Tower Records

Parts of the hunt took us to the top of Russian Hill, to Fisherman's Wharf, up the Lombard Street Steps, and through Ghirardelli Square. I always enjoy visiting these sites, and its especially interesting when there are a hundred other people at the site with you trying to figure out the solution to the puzzle you're solving. (Often the clues require you to find obscure plaques and other objects at the site).


Solving a word puzzle written on the wall at the Lombard St. Steps

monterey madness

I took the day off today and hung out in Monterey, CA. It's been a while since I've been able to do something this relaxing on a weekday.

I snapped a bunch of photos with my camera at the aquarium.


cuddly sea otters


shark attack!

We then went on a 24 mile bike ride (round trip from Monterey) on the 17-mile drive.


taking a break by the 200-yr-old Lone Cypress

This was by far the most scenic and gorgeous bike ride I've done to date. I think I'll be going back relatively soon.

double double

At work tonight, our cafe served some mouth-watering lamb chops, braised in some delicious red wine reduction sauce. I'm lucky enough to work at a place where we're fed two gourmet meals every work day for free. My usual routine is to head down to the cafe and grab a free, delicious meal there, but today was different.

Well in some weird, sick, and twisted manner, several co-workers and I decided today to forego the lamp chops and instead went to In-N-Out Burger for dinner. We each had a $2.55 Double-Double burger which tasted really good. Why we gave up a free dinner of gourmet lamb chops for a greasy fast food burger is beyond explanation.

p-series prototype

The Segway corporation shipped me a prototype of their new p-series segway today. The p-series is due to ship in a couple of months, and is apparently about 30% smaller than the i-series segways you can buy off of Amazon.com today.


Bostock testing out our new p-series segway

The p-series weighs 69 pounds (as opposed to the ~90 pound weight of the i-series segways), has a top speed of 10 mph (the i-series goes 12 mph), and can go 9-14 mi. on a single charge (same as the i-series).

I'm a big fan of the smaller size, though the ride is a bit more rough than the bigger segway (the tire pressure is twice as much as the i-series so it has less of a suspension). The p-series is also a lot easier to maneuver indoors around doors and other obstacles, and it turns a lot tighter than the i-series. One of my friends who saw the i-series and the p-series next to each other joked that Segway had created a "his" and "her" model.

run log

Today's mileage: 1.5 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 114.4 mi. (SL: 8.1 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Workout Course
Calories Burned: 768

the big 25

Happy birthday to my friend Julie Jalapour! Like me, she turns 25 this year.

fighting your traffic ticket

The California Vehicle Code specifies that you can contest your traffic tickets through a trial by written declaration (CVC 40902). The way this works is that you first plead "Not Guilty," pay your bail (or fine) and request a trial by written declaration, send in a written statement of facts as to why you think you should be found "not guilty," and wait for the judge (or some other "administrative official") to rule on your case. The cop that wrote you the ticket has to also submit a written statement of facts (some never do, it's a huge hassle for them to do so).

That said, this is my favorite way to fight traffic tickets. I've successfully fought a traffic citation a year ago where I allegedly ran a red light through a trial by written declaration. The judge found me not guilty and I got a check back for the $271 in bail I sent in earlier.

I've also successfully helped several people fight their traffic tickets this way--for speeding, running red lights--you name it. I recently helped a friend prepare his defense in his written declaration trial for getting a speeding ticket and he won his case. This is the fourth case that I've helped to win (including mine!) so i'm on a roll.

on top of the world

One of my favorite photos, from my ill-fated hike up Half Dome in Yosemite in September of 2002, where I nearly got struck by lightning.

b&h photo

My favorite online camera store is B&H Photo, perhaps the world's largest purveyor of cameras, film, flashes, and everything else photo or video related. I've always been able to find anything I've needed for my photo needs, from flash diffusers to all the different types of slide film you could ever want. Not only do they have an incredible selection of items, but they ship quickly and their prices are actually really competitive. (And if you're not in NY State, you don't have to pay sales tax!)

The thing about B&H photo is that it's run by a group of ultra-orthodox jews in Brooklyn. This leads to some interesting business practices; for example, the store is closed on every Saturday (since it's the Sabbath) and on the entire week of Passover--their website even shuts down then.

Nonetheless, the store has gotten rave reviews, and I've purchased over several thousand dollars of equipment from them (often at prices much less than I've found anywhere else).

run log

Today's mileage: 1.0 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 112.9 mi. (SL: 6.6 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Obstacle Course
Calories Burned: 890

smile!

I just bought a Canon Speedlite 420EX flash for my collection of SLR cameras. I've never really done much serious flash photography before so I spent the day learning about the nuances of how photo flashes work and how to properly take photos with a flash.

Most of the pictures I've taken with a flash tend to be snapshots. The light from a camera flash tends to be very harsh and sharp; the shadows are very defined and they tend to make you look old and pale. In other words, photos that I've taken where I had to use a camera flash really suck.

There are apparently two important things to remember about taking aesthetically pleasing photos with a flash:

First, it's important to diffuse the light. You can do this by reflecting the light off of a white ceiling or wall (if you're indoors) or by covering the flash with a diffuser unit (works greats outdoors). The upside is that you get photos that look more natural; the downside is that diffusing the light with these techniques tends to cut down on the range of the flash.

The second thing thing to remember is to properly meter the shot so that the background doesn't look to dark. (You do this by measuring the exposure time without the flash and then taking the photo with the flash in "auto-fill-flash" mode. The downside to this is that you typically need a tripod for these types of shots as they have a long exposure time) This is particularly important if you're taking a shot of a group of friends, for example, with the effiel tower lit up behind them at night. If you don't properly expose the shot and you use a flash, your friends will look nice and bright but you won't see the tower in the background.

Anyhow, I found a great site that discusses many other techniques you can employ to take great photos using a flash.

run log

Today's mileage: 2.5mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 111.9 mi. (SL: 5.6 mi.)
Course: Bootcamp Time Trials (8:45 min/1.2 mi)
Calories Burned: 1046

lazy labor day

Today was a day for being lazy, for not having to go to work, for sleeping twelve hours, for getting up at 9 am and realizing that you could sleep another three hours and that no one would care. It was a day for reading a good book, for playing Max Payne on my xBox, for playing ice hockey (yes we had a game!), and for not really doing anything but the things I enjoy.

run log

Today's mileage: 3.1 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: 109.4 mi. (SL: 3.1 mi.)
Course: Los Altos Rd-Main St-San Antonio Rd Loop