for about $1000

For about a grand at Ikea, you can buy:

• Mysinge couch in Indigo Brown ($400)
  
• Poang armchair with matching footrest in Natural White and Birch finish ($120)
  
• Mikael computer desk, with glass top and matching CPU stand in Birch finish ($100)
  
• Norden solid wood dining table, in Birch finish with 4 Herman chairs ($160)
  
• Bankesta coffee table with pull out side drawers in Birch finish ($100)
  
• Billy 7ft. tall bookcase in Birch finish ($80)
  
• Matching set of furniture so that my new apartment doen't look like I bought everything from disparate garage sales (priceless)

I can't believe I actually bought mactching furniture for my apartment for $1k. Now for the fun part: assembling everything with pictoral instructions that are ridiculously difficult to understand. Time to take out the power tools.

the great purge

Damn, I have too much crap. Here's a random sample of some of the stuff I need get rid of before I move places:

• 3 pairs of really worn shoes
  
• 6 old towels
  
• a box of books (how is it that I still have a copy of the1999 E&Y Guide to Federal Income Taxes)
  
• Ugly kitchen table & even ugiler set of chairs, old desk & task chair, entertainment center, coffee table in desparate need of a new coat of varnish, and an old brown Boy armchair that should have been thrown out a decade ago. (I declare the era of garage-sale mismatched furnithre over!)
  
• 15" LCD Monitor (I can probably get $150 for this)
  
• DSL Modem ($20 anyone?)
  
• Washer & Dryer set from the 1970's
  
• 10 Walmart photo frames
  
• Halogen Torch Lamp, cracked in 3 places
  
• Tons of old computer games (Wing Commander 2? I'm not even sure this will play on Windows XP!)
  
• 50+ CD cases
  
• Empty boxes for all of my gadgets (I'm such a pack rat)
  
• 3 bags of charcoal (no charcoal barbeques allowed where I'm going) and a half empty bottle of lighter fluid
  
• Tons of old magazines (I wonder how much a full set of PC World from 1997 is worth?)

happy 25th!

Happy birthday to my friend Mike, who, in addition to being a kick-ass software engineer, shares my appreciation for fine German automobiles and has an uncanny ability to recite the lyrics to popular rap & pop songs.

Plus, Mike is one of the few people in the world I trust to take photos of me, as he really understands how to compose and frame a photo so it is more than just a snapshot, such as the one he took of me when we summitted Half Dome together in October:

run log

Today's mileage: 2.1 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: ?
Course: 2 x Google Loop

run log

Today's mileage: 4.1 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: ?
Course: Treadmill

delicious dumplings

I hosted a dim sum dinner party at my place today, and I made shu-mai (steamed pork dumplings), among many other tasty dishes.

The key ingredient in the shu-mai pork mixture that gives it the right texture is, believe it or not, corn starch. You have to add the right amount--otherwise the dumplings taste like flavorless swedish meatballs (if you add too little) or bitter pork jello (if you add too much). If you add just the right amount of corn starchl, you'll get a juicy, tender dumpling that melts in your mouth and leaves little aftertaste.

exhausted!

Wow, this week was one of those weeks where, when every night when you get home, you collaspe in your bed in a dazed stupor. It's one of those weeks where you arrive at work every morning and the only thing that keeps you going is your half-hourly dose of Starbuck's double-shot espresso in a can--and you have to drink it out of a can becuase you're simply too tired to make your own espresso or to haul your ass to Starbucks down the street so you can order up a dozen. It's one of those weeks where you don't have time to do laundry or the dishes, where your trash can is overflowing with take-out food boxes because you don't have the energy to cook, and where your car is covered in bird shit because you don't have time to wash it off.

It's one of those weeks where I'm glad its over. Time for a really long nap!

cameras galore

A couple of people have asked me what digital cameras I use on a regular basis:

• Canon Powershot S400 - small, compact digital with a 4.0 megapixel CCD and a 3x zoom. I take this with me pretty much everywhere. Great for taking snapshots but not so good for more artistic shots where you need some manual control.
  
• Canon Powershot G2 - compact "prosumer" digital camera with a 4.0 megapixel CCD and a 3x zoom. This camera is about the size of a small paperback book and weighs as much as a Harry Potter novel. It's quite hefty but has a fold out LCD display and some great manual controls for artistic shots. My two gripes about this camera: it's slow to start up, and it has a very limited zoom (3x).
  
• Canon EOS-10D - digital SLR camera with a 6.3 megapixel CCD and the ability to attach any Canon EF-mount lens to it. This is by far my favorite camera. With the right lens, you can take some really awesome photos. It's quite heavy so you can't take it everywhere.
  
• Canon EOS-1Ds - expensive ($8,000!), professional digital camera with a 11 megapixel CCD and the ability to attach any Canon EF-mount lens to it. This camera is a behemoth; it's nearly 50% larger and heavier than the Canon EOS-10D. The photos that you can take with this camera are poster-quality and can easily be published in any magazine, but it's hard to use and the trying to access any of the more obscure features requires an hour with the user manual.
  
• Kodak CX4200 - cheap point-&-shoot digital camera with a 2.0 megapixel CCD and no zoom. I paid $99 for it at a Day-After-Thanksgiving-Sale at Best Buy and the photos from it are OK, but not crips and sharp like my other Canon cameras. I take this with me on the ski slopes, to the beach, or anywhere else I have a good chance of breaking a camera.

What's my favorite camera? It depends on what types of photos I want to shoot and where I'm shooting them. If I'm shooting my friend's wedding, I'll use the EOS-1Ds. If I'm trying to take quick snapshots, I'll use the S400. For most other things, I use the EOS-10D.

search google without your browser

The Google Deskbar shipped on Google Labs today! Yes this is a shameless plug, but I worked on it, so download it!

run log

Today's mileage: 4.0 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: ?
Course: Shorline Park Lake Loop

run log

Today's mileage: 4.2 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: ?
Course: Treadmill

run log

Today's mileage: 4.0 mi.
Total milage since 6/2/2003: ?
Course: Shoreline Park Lake Loop