31 January 2008

Yattaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... completing the first month of A Year of Thanks posts. OMG. Writing once a day is pretty grueling coming up with new things to be thankful for.

Hiro, "Yattaaaaaaa!!!!"

30 January 2008

Meet me at the Total Experience in one halfa-hour.

Today I'm thankful for ...

... Rudy Ray Moore. OMFG super-LOLs in mah buckit. We watched Dolemite last night and he is the best. Anyone who can take a bullet straight to the heart but still be standing and swearing is THE MAN. Dolemite is pure hilarity, and I can't believe they made a sequel: The Human Tornado.

We followed this by Coffy, which was just as camp but had better filmography.

29 January 2008

Not ... dead ... yet

Today I'm thankful for ...

... my Macbook not completely dying on me. It's hobbling along. Ever since yesterday it stopped being able to sleep and so now I'm either forced to do a shutdown or hold down the power button to force it off. It's super-annoying and I don't know why it's happening but at least I'm still able to do work during the day---we're in heavy development right now and I need to get things done by Friday.

28 January 2008

Blame it on the ... oh wait, what?

Today I'm thankful for ...

... no rain. I completely reverse my previous stance that rain was good. I'm not going up to the snow for a couple of weeks and I would prefer to stay as dry as possible. I know that is a lot of wishful thinking and it's rather selfish, but hey, I'm freezing right now in my apartment! Cold -or- rain: I can only deal with one at a time.

27 January 2008

Do you remember when . . .

Today I'm thankful for ...

... my Dad sharing his stories. There's a lot of interesting stuff about my Dad which he keeps totally private. I'm not sure why. I suspect a good number of people would love to talk about things in their lives, places they've been, people they've met. No, not my Dad. It has taken a good portion of my life for me to figure out just his general timeline. I will one day try to write all of this down...

26 January 2008

Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes

Today I'm thankful for ...

... my knees. They held up today! We went out to Alpine Meadows and I attempted to push myself a little beyond what I had previously done. Yes, I actually made it down a black diamond. Holy crap it was hard. Granted, I did not fly down it but rather gingerly swooped across it. But I did go up to the summit multiple times.

25 January 2008

I do -not- want fries with that

Today I'm thankful for ...

... non-chain restaurants. About a block away from where I work is an excellent little establishment with tasty cocktails and a daily changing menu. They use only the best ingredients and it shows. Their hamburgers are among the absolute best in the city if not the world (I would posit), and they cook even simple fish and chicken to perfection. My friend had the chicken over beets and I was jealous!

24 January 2008

Blame it on the rain!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... water pouring from the sky. Which hopefully will turn into lots of white powdery stuff a few hundred miles away! -crosses fingers-

23 January 2008

History is written by the victors

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to edit the posting times. Often I get home late and I just simply can't post officially before the day ends. There are times I'm not even around computers---gasp! So being able to set the post date is important to me.

22 January 2008

Hi there

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting to see old friends once in a while. It's tough with me living up in the City and still having a bunch of friends in the South Bay. Especially with us all having jobs all over the place it's hard to find times to get together anymore. But once in a while even meeting up for dinner is such a good thing.

21 January 2008

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being close to public transportation. When it works it works beautifully. I'm near several major transit lines running in all directions throughout the City so I pretty much can get to work, to downtown, to the ocean, to the park, to the markets ... all on a combination of buses and trains. They're mostly convenient and mostly regular on schedule. The only time I'm bothered by it is when it's rainy and/or there are stinky people.

Like today.

I sat next to a very stinky gentleman and I swear his stank is now soaked into my wool coat. Which sucks. I just cleaned it! I'm 99.9% sure it isn't me because I know I don't smell like that. It's too sweet and musky smelling...

20 January 2008

I wuv u guys

Today I'm thankful for ...

... some great personalities at work. This seems to be repetition of some previous posts, but it's not. On Friday we had an off-site and one of the exercises we did was to give acknowledgments but there was only time to pick one person. That's not really fair because the people are so varied and each contribute in their own ways. It's actually amazing to be around so many smart people. So I finally got around to writing a little thank-you to each person over email.

19 January 2008

Arrrrrrr!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... my roommate having to go to Office Depot. No, really. Because he needed to go there I ended up walking around and picking up some 4x6" cards which I needed for a card game I've been making: Pirate Scrabble. (I probably would not have bothered to go out if it wasn't for my roommate's request.) I still don't know if it's going to work but we've determined that tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be the first test run of the game. So, somewhere close to noon we'll be convening at a friend's house to play strategy and word games!

18 January 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... kicking everyone's ass in go-karting today! Well, almost everyone. One colleague bested me by an average of 0.5 seconds faster. But I got 2nd place overall on today's speedway. If I could only have been a smidge more quick through the turns I might gotten away with it.
    Being just a couple of inches off the floor is really quite a weird feeling. Everything feels so much faster. And it was difficult. I mean, getting into those tight spaces to get past someone was a real challenge. I kept waiting for someone to swing just a little too wide and then I could wedge myself in.

17 January 2008

'Ten hut!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being given the opportunity to drive change in an organization. Granted, it's not total control, but that's perfect because I don't want to be in charge of everything. I just want to have a hand on the corporate steering wheel and help to shape the future of the products which I hope will have a lasting impact on people's lives. A tall order? Am I nervous? Sure. But if you're always afraid to take little leaps of faith then you'll never know if you can really do something well...

16 January 2008

Have your people talk to my people...we'll do lunch...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... MeetUp.com. It turns out to be a great way to find groups of just about any interest. Sometimes the meetings are a bit lacking since not everyone shows up that said they were. I meet new people all of the time through it!

15 January 2008

Moist and fluffy

Today I'm thankful for ...

... cupcakes. The girlfriend of one of my roommates made awesome cupcakes.

I was deep into some work when there was a rapping, a rapping at my chamber door.
He said there were a few cupcakes left ... but not forever more.

So I stole into the kitchen, the darkness vanquished with a flip
Of the kitchen lightswitch,
And there on the counter in a tray under foil
Were icing-topped cupcakes, a product of the girlfriend's toil

I reached into the tray
And placed upon my plate
A light dessert treat
Of sugar and sweet
And back to my bedroom I closed the door

Sitting on my bed teeth sunk deep into the cake
I was impressed with the fluffiness that she did make
It was a perfect little break
A tiny snack cake
Mmm mmm oh sugar I adore

14 January 2008

Blam blam blam-blam-blam-blam blam blam

Today I'm thankful for ...

... avoiding getting shot. As I was walking up to the house I heard a rapid succession of bursts. At first I thought it might be a car backfiring. But there were too many bangs---and there was no reason it would be fireworks. I hid in the shadows and called 911. After a bit I walked out and quickly into my apartment.
    When I got to the top of the stairs one of my roommates asked if I had heard the shots too. He heard a car screech away. I looked out the windows and the police cars had just arrived and cordoned off an entire city block as a crime scene.

Scary.

13 January 2008

It's laundry day

Today I'm thankful for ...

... the fact my parents live within manageable driving distance. And that they don't mind me coming over to do my laundry.
    Seriously, I don't get to see them enough and we do hang out and talk. They're getting on in years and just being able to see that they're OK is really nice. I'm not saying that just because Mom is still always trying to overfeed me ("you look too thin!") and Dad usually has some magazine that he wants me to read.

12 January 2008

Much fun to be had

Today I'm thankful for ...

... hardly falling at all while snowboarding! Yay! While I did eat powder a few times, I generally managed to cruise down that mountain at a fairly fast clip! I'm really starting to have a lot of fun snowboarding now that I'm getting much more used to how the board feels and how to train my reflexes.
     I woke up at 3:00a so I could meet friends for a 4:30a ski bus pickup. Oy, that's way too early. And the driver drove in such a jerky manner that at least one passenger got ill. But we did make it there about 8:30a and with lift tickets in hand we zipped onto the slopes. A friend, S, I haven't seen in quite a while showed me some of her favorite runs and also the sequence of lifts to get to the back side. The snow was fantastic on the back side and in the upper altitudes. I can now actually say I've been to the top of Kirkwood!

... my knee not giving out. Today's experiment was rather dangerous, IMO. I had twisted my knee a bit back in the middle of December while boarding. Since then it has felt a bit weak, a bit funny. I really ought to have it looked at. But I went up today nonetheless and it felt as solid as ever.

... strangers that become fast friends. This trip was a little different from other trips since no one in this group knew each other before today, except for knowing me. The original trip organizer had to bow out of the trip and I had invited a couple other friends. Through some luck of coordination all 4 of us were able to get to the ski bus and trade phone numbers. Things went off pretty much without a hitch and we all had a great time. I hope everyone keeps in contact!

11 January 2008

We're riding in a wonderland of snow

Today I'm thankful for ...

... going up to the snow tomorrow. Even though I have to be up in another 3 hours, it's all worthwhile. I should have been asleep 3 hours ago but after taking a drink with some colleagues I really didn't feel like eating immediately, so a late dinner really postponed things. However, I'm off to sleep now and hopefully I'll be up and chipper enough to board the ski bus and get a few hours of sleep. I'm so used to sleep deprivation this is fairly routine. It's sad, but it is routine.

Now, for someone who really was sleep deprived (after running for 5 days straight!), read Cliff Young's story!

10 January 2008

I'M iN UR c0D3 !!11!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having friends who are also fellow nerds. Over a very nice dinner a friend and I got to talking about XMLRPC and web application stacks. Seems fine conversation to me. :) It's nice to have people to bounce ideas off of, who are smart and resourceful in their own right.

09 January 2008

It was all a blur

Today I'm thankful for ...

... cool new photography methods. A colleague recently brought up this thing some people have been doing: camera tossing. It is exactly that. While forcing a small camera (e.g. a point-and-shoot) to do a long exposure you toss and spin it. The results are quite spectacular. http://cameratoss.blogspot.com/

... friends who love photography. It turns out that a lot of people love taking pictures and are really good at it! I acquired my Canon Rebel when a friend sold it off because she was upgrading her camera. I joined a photography group on Meetup.com and have had a lot of fun going out to interesting places and doing photography shootouts.

08 January 2008

It's the little things

Today I'm thankful for ...

... managers that buy their employees dinner. It's a little thing but a very nice thing. We're working really hard and every little bit helps. It's also nice when the bosses help give us a lift home.

07 January 2008

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall ...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... trivia nights at pubs. I went to one for the first time tonight with one friend and ended up meeting a bunch of very cool people! (It helped that we won too. :P) I'm horrible at trivia but I still got a few right. The guys got most of the alcohol-related questions right ... figures.

06 January 2008

Sleeping in my own bed

Today I'm thankful for ...

... arriving home safe and sound. Whew! After 4 days of driving many many many miles I am happy to report I am back in my own bed. As much as I love living out of suitcases (... not!), I really wanted to just park the car and crawl into my own bed. After dropping C off at her home I headed back to SF and spent like 10 minutes unloading my car. It is amazing how much stuff you can really pack into a small space if you're good at "luggage Tetris". Well, everything is now unpacked and I got a quick shower. Now I'm just about to finish off Eat, Pray, Love and nod off to sleep. I think it's going to be a long week!!!

(But the temperature here is like 20 degrees colder than Southern California. Ick.)

LA far far away
Relieved from long drive, b-but
San Fran's F-FREEZING!!!

05 January 2008

... and many moooooooooore!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... happy cheery birthday people. One of the instigators of this MINI road trip had her birthday today. We had great Vietnamese food at Brodard Chateau in Garden Grove---of course the brought the birthday girl out a little dessert with a candle in it. And then we went back to the hotel and played games all night while sipping down wine!

04 January 2008

Exits are: N, W, S, E

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having a great navigator, and minus that a iPhone with Google Maps. I don't know Los Angeles very well. Its maze of twisting freeways and endless traffic jams are enough to make any non-LA resident cross-eyed. Well, thanks to having a copilot who went to college in LA, we were able to get around quite well. Granted, one of the other cars got a GPS system installed, but it's still nice to know one's way around.

Later that evening I had to leave on my own to see another friend. I was able to look up his address and find out exactly how to get there on the iPhone's Google Maps. Plus, the traffic jams show up with a tap on the corner of the screen. Ugh, LA has way to much red.

03 January 2008

Watching the scenery fly by

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having a great-handling little car. 6 of us are taking a little road trip to Southern California in our MINIs and we've decided to take PCH! There's nothing like 3 peppy little cars zooming down the stunning California coastline. Oh, and we've made it a point to stop for ice cream and frozen yogurt as much as possible. (May we recommend McConnell's Ice Cream in Solvang?

02 January 2008

Hi ho hi ho, it's off to work we go...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having an awesome job. The hours are long at work and quite frustrating at times, but this is by far the most unique job I've had. I mean, a company that works out of a large studio apartment? A company where the employees cook organic, healthy food for lunch? A company that has a wall of pianos and synthesizers and drum machines to give us musically-inclined folk a chance to unwind a little during the day? A company that has really smart, talented people? Hm, is this a dream?

01 January 2008

Happy New Year!

I have to admit, I'm cheating. It is actually January 6 when I'm writing this post, but I only just thought of this idea right now! (I'm backdating this post.)

I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" book about her journey of one year to find balance in her life. I'm near the end right now and she's talking about praying and expressing gratitude. So it occurs to me that I'm really thankful for many things. For the absolutely awesome people in my life, for having a fantastic job, for being able to travel, etc. But I somehow seem to always be too busy to really pause and give some sincere thought about how lucky I am in many respects. And while I'm listening to the BBC and hearing all about how disasters are happening all over our little blue planet, I wonder how can I add a little tiny bit of sunshine to this dreary landscape?

So, the idea is simple: find at least one thing each day I'm thankful for and write it down.

I'm sure quite a few people have done this, but this is my attempt. (Oh, who knows if I can remember to do this for 365 days?!) Anyways, let's do this thing!!!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having wonderful friends, especially on New Years. To all the people I've known, you rock. We've had a year of great memories and I can't wait to have even more adventures in 2008! And to the people that I just met, you also rock. I hope to get to know you better!

... being in good health. I think I only got sick 1x this year, so my immune system certainly held up to all the coughing people on the Muni busses. (Knock on wood.)