Pixar broke off talks with Disney. Now we're going to see if Pixar really needed Disney or the other way around in the coming years. They still have 2 movies left with Disney. The Incredibles and Cars. Toy Story 3 is being released by Disney cause they held the copyrights to all of the Disney/Pixar films. Ouch. Read more here.
Two days ago was Deborah's last day working for us. She's leaving OIS for greener pastures. I'm confident that Deborah is going to do great in her new position. We're all going to miss her. The person that OIS put in her place is this Austrian who was born in the same town as our dear governor, Arnie. I'm told that he can do a great Arnold impersonation. Look for a review next week when he comes in to work for us.
Since, it Deborah's last day, Richard, Nancy, and I went to a place that Richard recommended Henry's Hunan. Now I must confess, when Richard told me what I thought, I was like,"That place with the dingy exterior?" I went along though cause I've learned long ago not to judge a book by its cover (Kabana). When we went inside (it's the one on New Montgomery, just blocks from work), I was immediatly struck by the number of people inside. Lots of people incl a good number of asian people (instant indicator of what kind of asian food within). We ordered Chicken Salad, Stewed Beef, Chicken with Broccoli, and Noodles with Ground Beef. It was ALL good!!! Even the chicken salad was good, REALLY good. I couldn't believe my tastebuds. Nancy regaled us with stories of some awesome restaurants she had recently been to as we all hungrily munched on the food. One note, the stewed beef is on a plate and not in a clay pot as its usually done. A little smaller than usual but really good nonetheless. The taste was impeccable. The only sad point was when we said goodbye to Deborah. I'm sure we'll meet up for lunch or something in the future cause she'll still be in the city every so often.
One of my co-workers got her wallet stolen yesterday. Within hours the thieves had racked up hundreds of dollars of BART tickets and all kinds of other things. Most troubling was the fact, that they also had her Social Security Card! That piece of info combined with a driver's license number greases the way to identity theft. A word of warning, Don't Carry Your Social Security Card Around!!!
Some guy at the bus terminal was being wished Happy Birthday when one of their party exclaimed that it was his "big 1-9". What exactly happens when you're 19? Makes me feel old though...I'm 24!!! This year, I'll be 25! Crazy stuff.
Did you know Lost in Translation is in many ways similar to Last Samurai? It's true. Beyond the obvious fact that both are set in Japan, globalization is a key theme between these two movies. While one is an action flick and the other an indie-type drama, these movies both deal with how a country comes to terms with outsiders along with the culture/ideas that they bring with them.
Did you know that there are handheld devices that turn seawater or brackish water into drinkable water? PUR's survivor water maker does just that. Only the thing different between them is how much water you can made in a hour and how long the filter lasts. All lifeboats should be equipped with them. I wonder if they are. Smaller models are like $500 with the faster version going for $1000.
Oh man, has it already been a week since I last updated? Bad bad Andy.
Have you heard the "Howard Scream"? Howard Dean made this primal scream during his concession speech in Iowa. It's being referred to as the "I Have A Scream" speech.
So in the end it cost me $170 to get my car('97 Camry XLE) fixed. It was something called the vacuum switching valve apparently. Initially I was pretty peeved at the price of the valve($70) but I checked it out online and saw that some got charged $350 for the same job!!! So I guess I should be glad. I also found out that this problem happens to a lot of the Camrys my year. Here's a diagram of where it is that I found.
This guy had the same problem as I did!!! Thankfully the sound is completely gone now.
I do not know why the Ukranian FreeBSD User Group takes off their clothes for their meetings. Don't get all excited either, the FreeBSD group doesn't have many female members plus their not as weird as the guys in that group. An example of the weird things that google shows you when you look for the word "meeting".
The 828 sony camera is supremely awesome. It's support of both Memorystick as well as Microdrive makes it one-of-a-kind among Sony products. Well, the Clie NX did have both slots but the CF slot there was intended strictly for network adapters (3rd party drivers now exploit it for CF media). It looks like it can kick my 707 Sony Camera around the block. Boo hoo...
I'm going to describe this phenomenon I'd like to call The French Fry Impulsive Gravitation Effect. As I walked up to a Mcdonald's recently to get a McChicken, cheap and not as fattening as other burgers, I resolved to not get any fries, not even the non-salty kind. However I made the awful mistake of looking to the side where you can see the fry boxes all standing waiting to be devoured. Instantly, my mind was reminded of fry goodness and I started to have this internal struggle to resist the temptation. Thankfully I was able to escape the pull of the fries but I was lucky.
I won a $10 gift certificate to this Italian place in the Galleria! Usually I never drop in my business card in jars but a month ago I did it there on impulse. Reminds me of the time I won $1000 from that online place back in '98. Except not as unbelievable. They have good pastas and pizzas at pretty reasonable prices.
So I was able to successfully kill a speeding ticket. I complained about the ticket cause highway speeds were fluctuating too often and if anything I wasn't going the speed he said I was. Apparently, the cop had only visually estimated my speed and said that it should be accurate based on years of experience. What got him was when he couldn't tell which stretch of road he pulled me over on.
Rented League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from Elephant Pharmacy for free. Pretty much all the special effects were done in the old traditional way that meant that the colors weren't as good as digital. This means huge sets and monster suits. Overall I liked it but I didn't buy it. What was weird was the anti- drug ad stuck in the features becuase I guess they wanted to discourage the thought that taking drugs would turn you into a strongman like Mr. Hyde.
The Iditarod Sled Dog Race Tour starts on March 6 in Anchorage!!! I think that if I'm going to Alaska for sure, then I should go when Alaska's biggest event is happening right? There are also some other places I was looking into such as Skwentna, the Finger Lakes, Hope, Kenai Fjords National Park, Homer and Kenai Peninsula.I've always had problems with this one. Which side is port and which side is starboard? PILSIR: Port is left, starboard is right. OR 4 letters in port, 4 letters in left. Also on a boat, the red navigation light is always on the port side while the green navigation light is always on the starboard side.
My hard drive came! It's just DOWNING everything I throw at it. It's so quiet too. Happy Happy Happy.
My co-worker Maxine said that I should go down to E3 with them when we do the show. I was like "OK!". She said that I MAY be getting a free room, free pass, and if I do make it down there...an invitation to go to the Sony party! :-D SWEET!
Eric, Fred and I went to Hot Pot recently. I had like 3-4 plates of vegetables! I love Hot Pot veggies. I remarked to Eric that if all veggies tasted that good, I could turn vegetarian. Haha. Afterwards, we stopped by 99 ranch, where Fred got a whole armful of Pokky, YanYan and some other things. At my apartment, we played Mario Kart (Eric is crazy good at it since he had lots of practice during the holidays) and a little Mario Party 5. I also played Dynasty Warriors 4 with Fred...Lu Bu and Zhao Yun. Long range heavy-hitters.
I watched the Korean movie, "Please Teach Me English". I like Korean movies. Although they can get kinda frustrating with the dream sequences. I also saw "Volcano High", which MTV re-distributed in English with some famous rap stars dubbing. Thankfully I saw it in Korean. I also saw "Dark Water" which is a freaky film by the director of "Ringu". Eghh...next time I see a red sidebag I'm going to freak. Esp if its carried by a little girl in a raincoat. On a side note, I noticed that instead of writing "Exit" for the staircase out fo the Korean subway, they use the words "Way Out". Interesting.
The crown jewel at the local Circuit City is this HUGE tv I think from Sony. It has like a 60" screen. I'm going to have to get the specs on it. Crazy size with crazy color and reliability. Something like $8000? Of course I'm sure it's nothing like the XBR that sells for $20,000. Crazy.
The bathroom for the Underground Market has a NASTY smell. That place needs to be aired out and rivers need to be diverted to flow through there. I kept trying to hold my breath. Thank God I did not have to use a stall.
My parents left on their cruise two days ago along Baja I believe. Lucky. I want to go on a cruise! In anycase, I've got to start planning this Alaska/Yucatan thing or else I won't be able to go.
I love the Strawberry Tsunami at Jamba Juice. It is so tasty. I usu went with the Raspberry or Cranberry whatchammacallit but the ST is defin the way to go. It still tastes good when it's not cold. A lot of the other ones get really nasty.
This woman on the elevator said,"God Bless You Guys" to about 3 of us in the elevator when she stepped out. Really surprised me cause that doesn't happen often.
I'm buying a large hard drive to store stuff instead of getting a dvd burner for now. Getting the Samsung SP1604N which got good reviews for being quiet and reliable. It's not the biggest drive but it'll do for now. 160GB and 7,200 rpm...nice. Going to start my massive One Piece download drive. 40 episodes worth. Wheeeee!!!
I'm getting close to revealing the new look for the company that I work for. The old look really sucked donkey balls (pardon me but it does). The new look is tres slick.
There having a Steel Battalion promo in Japan where you can win a huge SB cabinet or play with a few famous people. You gotta have a ton of space (something Japanese people usu don't have a lot of) for the cabinet cause it's monstrous.
I talked to an old friend Mark yesterday. Recommended this game for the PS2 called The Adventures of Cookie and Cream. I looked online and ooo it looks like fun. Maybe it's time to drop my dreams of getting a PSX and just getting a PS2. A new 15 minute demo for Splinter Cell 2 came out. It's the awesome train scene. Very cool. Mark also recommended quite a few other titles that I'll have to check out.
So Cingular is thinking about buying AT&T Wireless. That could tip the scales against Verizon if it happens.
KB Toys is filing for bankruptcy. Aw man, first F.A.O. and now this. Could Toy's R Us be far behind?
On Friday, I mainly went barhopping with the 2 Lauras and 2 of Laura M's friends. I ate some Fish and Chips for dinner and had a SD. I know, weak but I can't handle much alcohol. That reminds me of the time I went to the karaoke with those Japanese girls and all of them ordered SDs. Hehehe. Ah good times. I was so proud of listening to one of the songs and being like," Is that Shimatani Hitomi?" :-D We went to Raleighs and then Kips (where it was really dead) and then to Blake's (where I had my Fish and Chips) and then to Beckett's (where I said we should go). Beckett's had a live band that night. LM got propositioned to be in a threesome plus by Australian guys who wanted to ditch their dates (geez! Slimeballs!). Tipsy people are so funny.
On Saturday, I started my Jamba Juice diet. It was kinda like an inpulse thing. I figure that if I'm cutting back on my lunches and replacing it with something healthy, it can do good things right? I even got a Jamba Card so I got a free drink. As I was leaving the shopping center, these guys also offered to fix the dent on the side of my car!!! It now looks perfect again. This was also the day that I went to Alcatraz for the first time. Just like the Rock which I coincidentally saw on FX a few days before that. I would be like,"Hey thats where Connery says goodbye to Cage!" and Chris would be like,"Hey this part is exactly like Tony Hawk!". Hahaha, I love how designers take the time to really get the details down right. Chris said that even the pavement was right on. No shower room in Rainbow Six 3 flashbacks though. For some reason, that room is not part of the tour. Maybe it was because it was a night tour. Anyways, Lori and I had to rush to catch the ship to Alcatraz but as it turned out we had time to spare. In my rush to get out of the East Bay, i forgot my digital camera!!! Well I had my Clie so I still got pics but man... I really felt naked the whole time. It didn't feel right at all. I'm going to have to go back just so I can take pictures without going on the stupid tour. The jailhouse stuff was interesting cause you got to see where people broke out (I've also seen the Clint Eastwood movie about escaping Alcatraz). After that tour, we went on a side-tour called something like "Mysteries of Alcatraz". Best part was when she talked about how a guy hacked at his jugular vein with a pencil sharpener for 8 hours. Worst was when she kept on being melodramatic and saying how everyone was being pushed to the "BRINK OF INSANITY". Plus she made mysteries out of anything, like how people were all brought to this one room after they died, and I was like,"Well duh...it's the fricken morgue!". I'd watch the jail door closing next time. Honda made a tape so I need to remember to dub it to miniDV before he goes back to Japan. I related my nighttime-brain-illusion (I am uncomfortable about calling visions with guys in them dreams...) about Adam, my ex-roommate to the people on the boat. In it, he called me up and said that he was coming back to the US. Then it zoomed to him knocking on my door with a huge mountain of stuff behind him and him going,"So...where do I put all this?"Ahhhhhh!!! Hehehehe It was a funny story anyways. Hi Adam! So when are you coming back for Jackson's weddin'? It was weird cause I related to them about how a friend of mine has testicular cancer and that turned to breast cancer in men. Which went back to how Adam gave himself a breast exam way back when. Hahahaha ah.....good times. My photo-taking skills are unparalleled.
So my "Check Engine" light came on. I took it in for service today. $95 + $5 Bart = $100. They better find the problem and fix it. I had just gotten the oil changed a month ago too. I just don't want any bad news. It has been feeling a little sluggish so I did my usual and put in motor oil and power steering which made it feel a lot better but I have a feeling that it's transmission fluid or something like that. Ach...
I've been watching more One Piece lately and I still have like 35 episodes left before I catch up with Japan so it's not going too soon before I have to look for another anime to leech. The Naruto Double Episode was ok. I can't believe I'm probably going to have wait another two weeks for the next installment. Chapter 200 was also kind of a disappointment. The first One Piece movie wasn't spectacular. Did you know that the seiyuu for Inuyasha is the same one for Captain Usopp? Geez, that's disturbing.
Mmm...quite a few things to write about...here are my notes. I'll expound on them tomorrow. You might have noticed that I turned the animated gifs into their own links. Some computers were having problems keeping up so the framerates were crappy.
alcatraz naked without my camera 808 sony camera honda edokko crazy "brink of insanity" woman hacking at jugular vein with razor 8 hours raleighs kips blakes becketts drinking with gals who can outdrink me Hard drive space instead of burner woman god bless you guys today from elevator denny's hot pot toyota check engine guy's fixed dent on side in a few hours turtle wax jamba juice diet jamba card mcdonalds's pull of the fry dynasty warriors 4...cao cao weak tv at circuit city extreme lcd tv
I made fish last night. Here's a memorial to the fish. Yum Yum.
I even made a small animation. Dithered and Lossy to make it web optimized. Better quality video on computer. Hehe
This guy is the most amazing guitar player I've seen.
Dang, this is kind of nasty. Tongues crawling gives me the shivers.
Didn't go to Macworld last week. Looked at pictures from online places and pretty much saw what there was to see. I really hope to go to this year's E3 though.
Another major show was CES where a lot of cool electronics were announed. One of the biggest for me was the announcement of a 2GB Memorystick. SanDisk Memory Stick PRO cards are expected to be available in February 2004 with capacities that range from 256MB to 2GB and suggested list prices from $100 to $1,000.
If you haven't seen the Badger Badger Badger music video (if you can call it that). Take a look. For some reason it grows on you after a while. Turn it off after 10 min. else your brain turns into mush. Thanks to Eric for first showing this to me and then Leah for reminding me of it.
Where has your money been? This is a cool website that tracks money through serial numbers!!! It's called Where's George?
I told Chris about the golf clubs at Costco and he said that he had asked around about them already and said that people recommended them. Good deal if they're good clubs.
Make snowflakes!!! This is a really cool flash app. Check it out!!! Here's 2 that I made. Snowflake #1 and Snowflake #2.
This is a funny parody about Apple gamers. Poor people. Based on the Apple Switch commercials.
Did you know that people have been going to the Merry Widow Mine in Basin, Montana for years now because they believe that the radioactive radon gas that the mine emits is good for arthritis and rheumatism? Old dogs who can't seem to run much suddenly get their life back after a trip to the mine. This was chronicled in National Geographic so it's no kooky story.
I don't know why girls look good in Eskimo boots. But they do. Go figure.
I downloaded Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King which was huge (3GB). When it was finally done...what do you know? It's in German. No subs, all german. It was alright quality (best camera job I've seen) but I erased it anyways. I was going to get the DVD anyways but I wanted the divx to tide me over. Oh well.
Steel Battalion is coming soon!!! There's going to be a super kit with the controller as well as Tekki 1 and 2.
Oh boy.
The Ikea Winter Sale came and went. Lih-Chern went and said that only a few things were marked off a lot so my enthusiasm went down a bit.
Went up to Tahoe and stayed at a friend's cabin for a 2 days. Didn't do any skiing or snowboarding but hung around Alpine Meadows (cabin was only 3 min from Alpine) and built a snowman. Did the Xbox thing with some DDR thrown in for good measure. Had New Zealand Rack of Lamb with Dijon mustard herb crust and roasted garlic port sauce at this place in Tahoe City called Jake's. Pretty pricey but I had practically starved myself before that so it came out ok.
Next time, there will be snowboarding for sure. Chris wanted to go to that Reno place I mentioned with the All-you-can-eat lobster. Maybe we could roll that all in. I asked how much the cabin rented out for and was told $1000 for the weekend. The cabin was really big though. Pretty much a house with a loft, jacuzzi, and lots of bedrooms. Totally worth the cleanup we had to do so we could stay for free.
The downside of the trip is that now I have a slight cough. I've been drinking tons of water and pei pa koa. Love that stuff.
So that woman lied about losing the lottery ticket. Erghh...something about how the numbers were so coincidental it caused her to make a mistake. Yeah, a mistake that could land you in JAIL!!! FOR ME TO POOP ON!!! How did she know what time the ticket was purchased though?
This is one of the funniest animated gifs I've seen in a long time. Enjoy!!!
Rain sometimes sucks. Especially when the entire area around your car is flooded almost 2 inches deep.
I really like the roast duck/wonton soup with fun at the Chinese place near work. It's GRRRREAT.
When I go to McDonalds, I always ask for my fries to not have salt on them. That way I feel that its healthier.
At Korean places, I used to ask for more of a dish. It actually is acceptable in SoCal but not anywhere else including Korea. Had some late night soon do boo awhile back.
Went to Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek with the 2 Lauras where I got a full rack and tasted some of their specialty brews. The Snow Cap is really sick. I heard that the apricot is good though. At Pyramid, they had this automatic motion activated towel dispenser that was so cool I fiddled with it for a while.
Watched the last half of the Rurouni Kenshin DVDs cause Lih-Chern borrowed them from Nick. Need DVD burner to copy!!!
Went to Fillipos, this Italian place on College St. It's pretty cheap especially if you go during lunch time. After lunchtime and you might as well go to Pasta Pomodoro. PP has bigger dishes (I had a Frutti De Mare again) but Fillipo's Sauteed Potatoes are to die for.
Rented Chicago and Road to Perdition. I really can't believe Chicago won Best Picture. It's good but it's not THAT good.
Look at this Shinto Priest as he purifies computers of viruses...
Went to Finch's cafe in Milpitas/Fremont with Chris, Lih-Chern and Leah. This was recommended to me by my Aunt Jackie. Dang was she right on. So good. It's like all Taiwanese breakfast/appetizer food. Jook. Cow Tongue. Jelly Fish. Soy Bean Soup. Chinese Donuts. Stewed Pork.
Afterwards, we went to the Glow-In-The-Dark miniature golf course at the Great Mall. :-D That was a lot of fun. Me and Chris tied up with 1 under for the course. I had a huge lead which I blew a couple times but it was great fun anyway.
I get my fruit at the Elephant Pharmacy. They have so many free fruit samples. I had oranges, tangelos, pears, apples...hehehe
Ikea is having its winter sale (up to 50% off) which is causing huge traffic jams around my area on the weekends. I'm just going to go during the weekdays to see if I need anything. Right now, I think its plates.
It seems like Xbox 2 will NOT be backwards compatible!!!! What the heck? It seems MS went with IBM for the processor of the next Xbox which throws out Intel's x86 architecture out of the running. IBM's PowerPC architecture isn't compatible with x86 instructions so it seems like there's going to be a problem. Will IBM come up with something that'll work with x86 instructions or maybe try just emulating a x86 environment? I'm thinking that it'd be too slow for something like that to happen. Just great. Now I'm going to have 2 huge machines near the TV. AARGH!!!
Had Sushi House's Moriawase for dinner. Hmm...low fat. Saw Castaway and Average Joe 2 on TV. Wilson was a great character. Phuc on Average Joe 2 made the second round! He's not going to last though cause they totally gave away who was going to be in the final 5 when showing the previews.
McDonald's has these new prizes called Disney Princesses which are the Happy Meal toys for girls. I noticed that Mulan isn't one of them. Then again, she really isn't a princess huh?
Had a Subway sandwich today for lunch. I don't think I can have them for every meal. These things are expensive anyway.
MacWorld is this week. I'm going with my boss on Thursday probably. Jobs just announced the iPod mini which are really small and really expensive. 4GB for $250. Not sure it was worth it. I think everyone did the math in the their heads because there was muted applause from the audience during the announcement. Everyone wanted a smaller capacity, cheap iPod ~$100 range. The capacity at that size is impressive though. A few companies coming out with high-cap 1" drives.
Man, I'd hate to be this woman. Geez...how do you lose a lottery ticket like that? 162 million. I believe she's telling the truth but I wonder how this is going to turn out. If she doesn't get it, it'd be hard to live the rest of your life thinking about all the dough.
Want a laugh? Look at these freaks...actually they're not freaks but this clip sure is funny.
When you retire and then live beyond the age of expected death (I think it's 85) for your 401(k), does that mean you'll have to start working at the local McDonalds? Or do Death Squads come and break down your door?
Naruto Character Ranking...
|
1. Naruto 2. Kakashi 3. Sasuke 4. Shikamaru 5. Iruka 6. Neji 7. Rock Lee 8. Gaara 9. Itachi 10. Sakura |
11. Jiraiya 12. Hinata 13. Tsunade 14. Haku 15. Temari 16. Hayate 17. Kiba 18. Gai 19. Genma 20. The 4th Hokage |
21. Chouji 22. Orochimaru 23. Ino 24. Akamaru 25. Shino 26. Asuma/Kabuto 28. Zabuza 29. TenTen 30. Anko |
No surprise who number 1 is. What is surprising is Iruka and Shikamaru's high ranking. So is the appearance of Itachi as No. 9. He was like in 1 chapter. In the future, a Sasuke vs Itachi battle should push up both.
To save loading time, I've turned the Q4 2003 Gallery off... If you'd like to load that in, use the buttons below.
Q4 2003 in Review Gallery
I haven't been putting up a lot of the pictures that I wanted to so here we go...captions on mouseover. Actually the last two pics are from 2001 but I pulled it from miniDV tape in Q4 2003.
Happy New Year!!! 2004!!! Lots of things to report.
I forgot to mention that I had caught something on the plane flight from Orange County and so was a little sick on Monday. Also the flight to Oakland was delayed for a while. I hung around and looked at the people walking around. Eric said that his flight would be on the same day but he actually was flying out on Monday. hahaha. I've completely forgotten about flights I was supposed to be on so no ribbing there. Thankfully, I wasn't hungry at all since I had brunch at Koto.
Anyhoo, on Wednesday, as I was taking the bus back to the East Bay, I saw this aircraft carrier really close to the Bay Bridge on the SF side. I hurriedly got my camera out and started taking pics. Since the bridge would get in the way every once in a while, I had to take a lot to get good ones. After I got home, I took a close look and noticed the 41 on the superstructure and the flight deck. This is the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that saw action in WW2 and in Desert Storm. Apparently, I caught this ship on its way to a museum in San Diego. It had been docked in Oakland for a while (initially in Washington where it was stripped) and now its getting tugged all the way to San Diego. Here is a link and another link. Good thing I got to leave early AND I got to the bus on time cause if I had missed it I would have definitely not seen it.
For New Year's dinner, just had some cajun catfish. Went to Coinstar (Albertson's not Safeway, which only has a broken CoinMaster? machine) and got like $28 from coins.
Went into SF to a friend (Leah->Laura->Kristin)'s house. When I parked, I saw this little kid (probably 3, around my cousin Ray's age) running past. Then I saw this old woman running behind. The old woman tried to drag the kid but she wasn't strong enough and the kid was screaming and struggling. At the same time, this Muni bus stopped and the driver came out to see what was going on (making sure I wasn't kidnapping the kid probably) and tried to cheer the kid up by giving him a dollar. After the bus driver left, the kid started running off again and boy could he run. He had only socks on which made me incredibly afraid that his socks would start coming off and then he'd fall and knock his head on the ground. So imagine this...little cute kid running down California St. screaming for his Mommy and this Asian guy running behind. It wasn't hard to catch up but every once in a while he'd look back, see me and start running even faster which made me not want to get too close. What freaked me out was, when I thought I could sneak up and catch him unawares, he saw me and actually started running into the STREET!!! Well California St. isn't exactly the loneliest street in SF. I mean, it's not Market or Van Ness but it's not a residential st you know. Luckily there just weren't that many cars there (everyone was at the Ferry Building probably) and so the kid wasn't in immediate danger. I screamed at the kid to stop which made him pause just long enough for me to pick him up off the street. After that I carried him until I dropped him off at home. He calmed down a little bit but he was like crying the entire time. Thankfully he wasn't struggling or else it would have been much harder to carry him back home. His grandma told me that his parents had left for a party and the kid had just freaked. Man...I see my cousin Ray and this kid here and I know that kids will want at least one parent nearby at all times. Scary stuff. At least no way was hurt.
So I made the hike to the friend's place (everywhere in SF is a hike really...I remember the long hikes to House of Prime Rib from Union Square way back in the day...). After Gin/Tonic and chips, we all headed to the Ferry Building for the fireworks. Went in 2 cars, so we pretty much got separated from the other group at that point. Parked at Embarcadero with 10 min to spare. Rushed up the grassy knoll near the Ferry Building just in time to take pictures and wait for the clock to hit 12 and for the fireworks to begin. It was really stop and go for a while where we thought it had ended but then the most spectacular fireworks started going up. It was like 10 fireworks after 10 fireworks. So many simultaneous colors. Ah it was great. We saw so many kinds too. Smiley faces were crowd pleasers.
Afterwards, it started to rain and then we saw so many things. A guy fell on his back at an intersection, slippery manhole covers you know? Girls going into the guy restroom cause their line was long. A girl puking into a trashcan and later passing out cause of drinking. Girls in slinky dresses trying not to get wet (impossible since it started coming down harder as the night went on). Guy carrying a champagne bottle and drinking it straight. Overcrowded Carl's Jr where people were obviously breaking their New Years resolutions minutes into the new year.
Went to the Cosmopolitan Cafe to meet up with people and then went back to Kristin's Aunt's apartment in SF. That place was so cool. There was this cat named Kitty who would slash at you if you petted her and slash at you if you didn't. A pool in the back. The cat went crazy looking at the rain hitting the pool. It also liked laying in this big bowl in the kitchen. All the girls were interesting and Steve, Laura's ex was cool. We all ended up talking till 4 in the morning (I was the first to call it quits) and then just crashed on the floor with blankets/sleeping bags. It was like a sleepover. Laura was the funniest that night saying weird things and accidentally pouring red wine over the carpet and the couch. Oh man...hahaha.
Got like 5 hours of sleep and we all went to brunch at this little French cafe. I got some Corned Beef Hash and a fruit plate. I'm ok about Corned Beef Hash. It's ok but I'd only eat it for breakfast. So this brings us to Thursday (New Year's Day). Didn't watch the Rose Bowl Parade nor the Rose Bowl Game. Chris and Eric (Chris' bro) came over and we headed off to Tomales Bay to the oyster farms. Unfortunately, they were closed but we had good food anyways at this store/cafe near there. Had oysters raw/bbq'd/Rockefeller. Rockefeller is like quiche but with oyster. These oysters were REALLY sweet which made it really good. I think this is the same place that Simon went to a long time ago. Eric regaled us with tales of his Tomales Bay Kayak Camping trip and showed me the proper way to shuck an oyster. Apparently, I've been doing it the wrong way. His way is supposed to take only 30 seconds which is a whole lot better than what I can shuck.
Came back to my place and saw 4 raccoons near the apartment. Watched 2 of them fight. I looked down to get my camera and missed one of them doing 4 half cartwheels. That's what everyone said. Suck Suck Suck. Went in and watched TV. Had Zataran's Rice with Salmon. Hmm...The onions/brocolli in the rice were extremely yummy.
In other news...Lou Dobbs, a guy on CNN, has this series called "Exporting America" where he talks about outsourcing to foreign countries. Apparently he's putting together a list of companies that do this. Here's the excel spreadsheet of companies that Lou verified as being oursourcing. You may find a few surprising names in there.
