Cut from the Team - Top Records of the Last 7 Years

Here's the almost made it but not quite on the Top 100 Albums of the Last 7 Years. What started as a huge list of albums, I had to narrow down to just over 200. Then I had to make very, very tough decisions on cuts. These were the hundred or so albums that almost made the list.

Handsome Boy Modeling School	White People
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness	Fear is on our Side
Kanye West	Late Registration
Air	Talkie Walkie
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead	Worlds Apart
Apples in Stereo	New Magnetic Wonder
Arcade Fire	Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am
Asobi Seksu	Citrus
Autolux	Future Perfect
Bang Gang	Something Wrong
Battles	Mirrored
Besnard Lakes	Besnard Lakes are the Dark
Blonde Redhead	Misery is a Butterfly
Blood Brothers	Crimes
British Sea Power	The Decline of the British Sea Power
Buck 65	This Right Here is Buck 65
Calexico	Garden Ruin
Coheed & Cambria	Second Stage Turbine Blade
Cold War Kids	Up in Rags
Cut Chemist	Litmus Test
Danger Doom	The Mouse & The Mask
Delgados	Universal Audio
Depeche Mode	Playing the Angel
Digitalism	Idealism
Dinosaur Jr	Beyond
Drive by Truckers	Dirty South
Elliott Smith	From a Basement on the Hill
Emiliana Torrini	Fisherman's Woman
The Faint	Wet From Birth
Faithless	No Roots
Feist	The Reminder
Flaming Lips	At War with the Mystics
Franz Ferdinand	You Could Have it So much Better
Frou Frou	Details
Fujiya & Miyagi	Transparent Things
Futureheads	Futureheads
Ghostland Observatory	delete.delete.ilikemeat
Ghostland Observatory	Paparazzi Lighting
Girl Talk	Night Ripper
Gnarls Barkley	St. Elsewhere
Gorillaz	Demon Days
Gotan Project	Lunatico
Graham Coxon	Love Travels At Illegal Speeds
Headlights	Some Racing, Some Stopping
Helio Sequence	Young Effectuals
Hope of the States	The Lost Riots
Hot Chip	Made in the Dark
Idiot Pilot	Strange We Should Meet Here
Interpol	Antics
IQU	Sun Q
Iron & Wine	The Shepards Wife
Junior Senior	Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Keane	Hopes and Fears
Kenny Chesney	No Shirts No Shoes No Problem
The Killers	Hot Fuss
KJ Sawka	Synchronized Decompression
Love as Laughter	Laughter's Fifth
Low	The Great Destroyer
Lupe Fiasco	Food & Liquor
MIA	Kala
M83	Before the Dawn Heals Us
M83	Dead Cities
Mars Volta	De-Loused in the Comatorium
Maximo Park	A Certain Trigger
MGMT	Oracular Spectacular
Michelle Branch	Hotel Paper
Modest Mouse	We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Mogwai	Mr Beast
Mono in VCF	Mono in VCF
Muse	Black Holes and Relevations
My Morning Jacket	It Still Moves
My Morning Jacket	Z
N.E.R.D.	In Search Of…
New Pornographers	Twin Cinema
The Pale	Gravity Gets Things Done
Peter Bjorn and John	Falling Out
A Place to Bury Strangers	A Place to Bury Strangers
Polyphonic Spree	Together We're Heavy
Portishead	Third
The Rapture	Pieces of the People We Love
Rihanna	Good Girl Gone Bad
Rogue Wave	Out of th Shadow
The Roots	Game Theory
The Roots	The Tipping Point
Sage Francis	Personal Journal
Sarah Mclachlan	Afterglow
Secret Machines	Now Here is Nowhere
Sigur Ros	()
Snow Patrol	Songs for Polar Bears
Something Corporate	Leaving Through the Window
Sondre Lerche	Two Way Monologues
Sparta	Porcelain
Spoon	Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stars	Set Yourself on Fire
Starting Line	Say It If You Mean It
Streets	Original Pirate Material
Sufjan Stevens	Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens	Greetings from Michigan
System of a Down	Hypnotize
Taking Back Sunday	Tell All Your Friends
Thievery Corporation	The Richest Man in Babylon
Thievery Corporation	Radio Retaliation
Tool	10000 Days
TV on the Radio	Return to Cookie Mountain
VHS or Beta	Night on Fire

Anthony's Top Albums of 2008

I'm going to be honest, I am very out of touch with the latest and greatest music. Most of 2008 for me was listening to my favorite records of years past and catching up on music of the past couple of years more than listening to the newest thing out there. I think there's reason for that; I think that this year's crop of music is a bit lacking compared to other years. With that said, here's my short list of my favorite records of the year... only Top 10 this year... instead of my normal 25 to 50 records of the year.

#10  Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

solid indie rock album from John Darnielle and company. it's amazing that this band has so many albums... 

#9 The Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping

another good low key indie album... check it out!

#8 Portishead - Third

a bit disappointing for me as this was a very long anticipated third album from one of my most favorite groups... but it does show that even after an 11 year hiatus, they still can make high caliber music

#7 The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

this one really grew on me. another huge favorite band of mine, the notwist, come back with an anticipated return following a semi-disappointing 12 record which followed their masterpiece, Neon Golden. Anyway, this record is solid.

#6 Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

British dance group Hot Chip return with another fun dance album that'll get you "ready for the floor."

#5 Mono in VCF - Mono in VCF

Tacoma, WA band Mono in VCF's moniker sounds a lot like VHS or Beta but that's about the only thing they share musically. This band produces some extroardinarily epic music backed by Bond-like vocals from Kim Miller.

#4 Ladytron - Velocifero

One of my premiere indie electro-rock bands and while this isn't any step forward from their previous album, Witching Hour, being on the same level of quality isn't a bad thing.

#3 TV on the Radio - Dear Science

This NYC band continues to improve with every album. Their style has refined quite a bit and each one of their records has its own flavor. This one might be the most accessible of them all.

#2 The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust

This might be a questionable high ranking album for many, but I just love this Danish band's total self-admitted rip off of Jesus & Mary Chain / Sonic Youth / Velvet Underground. While they share so much of their success and musical direction to those great bands, they do have their own unique character and I just love the simple, poppy, yet melodramatic and engaging sound of each and every one of the songs on this album.

#1 The Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark

Here's my surprise pick. A southern country rock gem from Georgia's Drive-By Truckers. This band has consistently produced good to great records, and they continue that with this album, which I think explores a bit more and has so many different sounds to it that it's comparable to a You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene type album, where no song sounds the same, and there's something for everyone. That is, of course, if you can tolerate the deep southern accents of the 3 vocalists on this record.

the sort of real #1 by technicality --- Radiohead - In Rainbows

This was released with no label on the interwebs in October of 2007, however Radiohead released the official CD-format of this album on January 1st of 2008. Whatever the case, this album is fantastic and another worthy record for the greatest band on Earth.

Music Television

All I have to say is... the best music tv channel is Palladia. There's a ton of great live concerts and all in High Def. It's crazy to think its also owned by MTV because... well... they actually play music!

That's all. Check out that channel if you have it. :D

Commentary on Black Friday

I'm pretty sure I sound-off on this every year for the past couple of years, but this year takes the cake. I've been looking through these black friday ads and wondering, where's the deals? How are any of these deals worth not sleeping and getting up super early, waiting in a massive long line, to save a few bucks?

Better yet, are these deals even worth it? Almost every deal I saw, I've seen the same selling price on various online retailers, including the massive Amazon.com. Amazon has their own Black Friday sales and they kick the butt out of any of the local retailers. So I ask you, why are people frantic about getting to the malls and shops early?

Exclusive deals? Return policies? What? I guarentee you can order 90% of the advertised specials on the store's website at Midnight Thursday night, or even as early as Thursday morning. I know this for a fact as I've done in the past and I did it this year. In fact, I can sleep in to my heart's content, wake up, roll over to grab my laptop, and press BUY NOW... and then roll back into bed and sleep some more. :D

This and you can avoid the crazies! The perfect, tragic, case... A Walmart employee in Long Island was trampled to death today because he manned the door at store opening. What the heck is wrong with this? Why? To save a few bucks on some crappy china-made products? This is Walmart, they dont sell anything that'll last you more than a few months. A $139 Blu-Ray player? Uhh go look online, you can find Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray players for $149-179 easily, and free shipping and no tax? What more do you want?

Cheap TVs for your family? Mad rush to the stores? Stupid. Just look at amazon.com's specials or their marketplace for the best deals.

What, you want cheap clothes and shoes? Ever heard of just buying the same thing on a website? Macy's has all their sales online. Foot Locker etc, same thing. Better yet, you can use microsoft's Live.com cash rewards program and get even more money savings on top of your Black Friday Deals.

And finally the kicker... Cyber Monday. Check it out, it's coming and the deals there are just as good.

Nutritional Labeling to Appear in King County Restaurants

Well, King County is going to be enforcing nutritional labels for menus at chain restaurants next year. Pretty interesting idea, which NYC apparently has already adopted. While I wouldn't mind reading a label on certain items I eat, I just can't see it affecting a significant percent of our population in general. They'll just eat what they eat.

I think people already do understand that McDonalds or Taco Bell, or even Claim Jumpers is absolutely horrific foods, but they eat it regularly anyway. I do see some benefits to show how really bad a Starbucks latte or mocha, or even worse, a frappucino is for you, and why you should stick with just americanos and espressos, but people still won't care. It's a good cause, I just think the benefits won't see action for a while.

The perfect example is the grocery store, where there's nutritional facts everywhere. People still line up the junk food aisles and buy to their heart's content. Im not denying that I do the same. But I have been a bit more wary of what I choose now at the supermarket, trying to eat a bit more healthy and whatnot.... anyway, pretty interesting change.

Nutritional sticker shock from restaurants

As of Jan. 1, most chains must post data

By REBEKAH DENN
P-I FOOD WRITER

Starting Jan. 1, customers at most chain restaurants in King County will get a full plate of information along with their food.

TO LEARN MORE

For full information, see goto.seattlepi.com/r1777. For more comments on the new labeling law and links to some restaurants that already have nutritional data online, visit Rebekah Denn's blog at blog.seattlepi.com/
devouringseattle.
- Local chains prepare their nutritional data

They'll be faced with the 1,000 calories (and 85 grams of fat) in their BLT Salads at The Old Spaghetti Factory and the 1,910 calories in the Jack Daniel's Ribs & Shrimp at T.G.I. Friday's. At Starbucks, they'll be able to judge not just whether they're in the mood for a tall latte or a mocha, but whether they want to take in the latte's 150 calories or the mocha's 270. At Taco Bell, they can decide if the benefits of ordering a 600-calorie Border Bowl are outweighed by the 2,120 milligrams of sodium it contains, nearly an entire day's recommended allowance.

The nutritional sticker shock will be prominently displayed at those and other eateries as part of trailblazing regulation passed by the King County Board of Health earlier this year -- and restaurants have been busy getting ready for the change. The law, which goes into effect on the first of the year, requires restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide to post calorie counts directly on, or in some cases next to, menus and also to prominently list the grams of saturated fat in each menu item, the milligrams of sodium and other markers of nutritional value.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387456_menulabeling12.html

Washington Ski & Ride License Plates

The Washington State Department of Licensing has new SKI & RIDE license plates out now! For more information, check out the DOL website: http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/spskiroad.html

Please Register and Vote.

2 days left to register for voting for the upcoming ballot.

Washington residents:
https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/secure/pages/Onlinevoterregistration.aspx

Amateur Photography

Here's some of my recent amateur photographies. :)

EuroBlog 2008 - Wrap-up

Going back to reality sucks. I spent today cleaning up, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and other household chores, including paying bills and grocery shopping. I rather be back in europe!

I stopped blogging half way through the trip and that's mostly cause I didn't have time or I was just being lazy. Anyway, we did go to Dublin, Ireland and that's a wonderful city. There, we spent the first day walking around the city trying to get lost and stumbled upon the Dublin Castle and the Jameson Distillery. While we didn't go on the tour, we did enjoy an Irish Coffee in the bar there. It was pretty one great tasting treat.

The next day we spent the majority of the day at the Dublin History Museum, called Dvblinia, and of course, the Guinness Store House museum. Let me tell ya, the Guinness tour is a total must-see. It's 7 stories that are full of interesting things from the brewing process to history of the beer, and so much more.


The next few days back in Prague were more of trying to be a normal Czech citizen than anything. I still went to do sight seeing but ended up mostly just hanging out with Scott, Cecilia, and their friends. Scott and I went to the home opener of HC Sparta hockey match and that was alot of fun. It's suprisingly cheap for beer and hot dogs. Really, really, really cheap.


Other than that, there was alot of walking and walking and walking.

Here's some other random tidbits from the trip:

• Coffee Heaven - enjoying a cup of coffee in another country is pretty much the same universally. There are people sitting around on their laptops on wifi, people reading books, and people just conversing with one another. It's a beautiful thing.
• Prague itself - for a city that was under communist control just under 20 years ago, it's quite amazing how far they've come and quickly they've been able to adapt out of it.
• Food - In both Dublin and Prague, food is heavy! Lots of meat and potatoes and bread. Carbs crazy! It's like thanksgiving at each meal!
• Beer - I think I went to the beer capitals of the world. Dublin of course for Guinness, Smithwicks, and the like, but Czech/Prague is also home of the original Pilsner Urquell, which actually is in Pilsen, nearby.... and beer in Prague is dirt cheap! Cheaper than water!
• Airport security - Heathrow security sucks, but not sure if its worse than Sea-Tac. On the other hand, Prague and Dublin's airports were reasonably quick and painless.
• Disneyland - Prague looks like Disneyland... or should I say... Disneyland looks like Prague. Just take a look for yourself.
• They like their sports. I only made it to one hockey game and while the game crowd was fairly tame, they went pretty crazy after the victory, especially on the subway train. I have video / audio clips of the crazyness.
• Prague has some of the most technically amazing shopping malls I've ever seen. The Palladium, which has 200+ shops in Old Towne Center area, is a visually stunning and ultra-modern piece of work. While it looks pretty normal on the outside, the inside is just eye-pleasing. The top floor restaurant level is super-swank, and the mall in general has a very modern decor to it.
• Our hostel in Dublin had no hot water. That sucked.
• KFC is very popular in Prague. On the other hand, Burger Kings were everywhere in Dublin.

More photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen or on my facebook.

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 2 / 3

I think this is Day 2... or Day 3. Whatever the case, I'm now on my 2nd night here in Prague after a very long journey which took me to Heathrow and a 30 minute delay. The first night here was just relaxing at Scott's place outside the old town area, while today was spent walking, somewhat aimlessly, around with Scott and Cecilia. We had lunch at a pizza place that was really good and just walked and walked thereafter.

The city is beautiful, though very well covered in graffiti, which is a bit unfortunate. It rained off and on all day, somewhat like Seattle. :) Anyway, I posted over 320 photos on picasa... so check'em out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1 - Part II

I never thought I'd be so happy to board an 8 hour flight, but I am! I have been sitting at Denver Airport for what seems like forever. I tried to do everything extra slow, and I still manage to have way too much free time. I sat around on the internet, then tried to extend my lunch longer with a couple beers and read the rest of photography book I bought and then walked around aimlessly.

By the time the ticket counter opened, I walked myself out of the concourse and took the tram to the main terminal to get the tickets (even though I could have just gotten them at the gate) and then thought I'd have a good time wasting wait at the security gate, except the line was practically empty, so I was back into the concourse a lot sooner than I had thought. So I proceeded to walk around again, and then back on the web, and then umm well repeat that over and over.

Now I'm less than 1 hour from take-off, so I'll be active for about 10 minutes and then followed by absolutely nothing for another 8 hours. Yay!

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1

Day 1 - Travel Day (feelin' like the movie, The Terminal)

I left home just after 5AM PST to Sea-Tac Intl Airport and took my Alaska 737-900 flight to Denver. And now.... I sit. I arrived just after 11AM MST and my flight out of here to Heathrow isn't until 8PM MST! Yea, that's right, I have a 9 hour lay-over.

I really was considering leaving the airport and going into the city, but... the airport isnt that close to the city and I really need to conserve money for europe. Speaking of money, I have over 150 euros in hand from previous trips, and the countries I'll be visiting don't use Euro, even though they're part of the EU. Argh, I still have to deal with the hassle of converting cash. I guess if I make it to Vienna, I can spend my euro there.

So... I am just sitting here now. I should arrive in Prague, if all goes well (unlikely given I'm going through Heathrow), at 7:10PM Czech time, which I believe is a total of 26 hours of travel time. Yuck!

I brought 5 books with me to read on this trip over, of all different sorts. Unfortunately I'm half way done with 2 of them -- Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer, Canon EOS Rebel XSi Digital Field Guide by Charlotte Lowrie, The Boat by Nam Le, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and Prague Day by Day.

The one good thing so far is that Denver's airport has free wifi, and plenty of desk stations to plug-in at. They even have built-in USB chargers. Very nice addition.

So from this point on, I won't be writing about my trip - it'll be about... stuff.

Seahawks start Sunday. Go Hawks!

ok that's really about the only important thing to mention.



That and here's my first attempt of being amateur photographer:


http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen/UnivOfWashington

First Impressions

First impressions. I never really thought much of them, but I am beginning to realize that they do mean alot. Maybe I never thought about it that hard, but they are pretty important. I'm not going to spew out a million things about the importance of all of it is, but I do want to give a first impression on a few things:

Google Chrome - the new web browser from Google has been out for about 10 hours now and it's almost won me over. It's a very simple, clean cut browser that uses minimal system memory, and runs ultra smooth and fast. This is not to say it doesn't have its fair share of start-up kinks. There are some bugs in it, but like all Google products, it's in beta! :)

Rick Nieuheisal - he's always been a solid college football coach, and he showed yet another reason why last night with a very exciting victory for his new UCLA Bruins team, as they defeated Tennessee in overtime. Talk about a turnaround second half!  He did a great job at UW and its unfortunate things happened the way they were, but he basically marks the last good to great UW teams we've had... 

Radiohead - not much of a first impression musically, but first impression of their live sonic force. i saw them over a week ago at White River Amplitheater and i have nothing but thumbs up on their performance. they did nothing to make me think any less of them, but only made me appreciate their music more. plus - they're the only band i've seen live that actually made me "move/sway" to the music naturally. no forced movements, or thought induced head bobbing - it was all instinctual and it was great!

Anyway, just a few first impressions I thought I'd share. It's these little things that keep us afloat, and sometimes I wish I could turn back time and undo some of my own first or second or even third impressions I've had on others. Although I try not to have regrets, there are certain things, people, events, etc. that still sit in the bleakest corner of my mind not wanting to leave.

Get rid of Ty

Bob Condotta's Seattle Times Husky Blog says it all. The Huskies stunk it up.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/huskyfootball/2008/08/30/oregon_postgame.html

I may not agree fully with his grades, I think he rated UW too highly, I agree that our team stinks. :)

While I wasn't expecting a win, and probably wishful thinking it'd be a squeaker, I wasn't expecting one of the most ridiculously embarrassing games I've ever seen from UW. What happened to the days when UW was a powerhouse? I grew up watching UW battle it out for the National Title and Pac-10 Title every year. Even throughout my college time, we were still going to Bowl games and having competitive teams.

Not all the recruiting has been on Ty's shoulders, but alot of it has, and the coaching definitely has. And it sucks. The only benefit of the doubt is that the UW team is very, very, very young, but the O-line is a group of veterans, and they looked like pre-school kids out there last night. The receivers, as has been the case the past couple of seasons, can't catch anything thrown at them, nor can they run routes, and just seem to give up.

The running game looked horrid, and that, as far as I can tell, is because they have about 1 nano-second to get the ball and find a hole. Jake "Purple Jesus" Locker had absolutely no time in the pocket and all of our team's offense was based on his scrambling and improv and a bunch of lucky pass interference calls. In the passes he did throw, they looked... well inaccurate and poorly executed as usual. He could the be the UW savior, but he's got alot of work to do. He just can't seem to throw a ball over 10 yards with any sort of accuracy. He relies too much on his legs, and I guess, if I had that sort of O-Line I probably would too.

The defense looked superbly overmatched. This isn't as good of a Duck team as last year's but they sure played like it. Their offense was all over the place and any sort of misdirection play would trick the UW team in an instant. Oregon probably could have just ran the ball all day and scored 5 or 6 TDs if they wanted.... Sigh.

Not very happy. Ty needs to go. (btw, the playcalling was just terrible on offense)

Random thoughts on a wet August night

I'm about to join the SLR club! I am pretty excited for getting an actual camera. I decided on getting the Canon XSi Rebel EOS 450D and am only hoping it'll come sooner rather than later, since I'm heading to Prague/Europe on Sept 5th. It'd be awesome to be able to use it there...




I am pretty assured that the Seahawk QB situation is fine. Charlie Frye is more than enough for a 3rd string QB and his performance against the Chargers today was solid. He had a nice, very nice, pass to Nate Burleson for a TD on the very first drive, and then seemed poised the rest of the game and making some dead plays into something with his feet. It looks like he's starting to get the hang of the system and pehaps Holmgren is working miracles with him here too.


There's a 9 year old kid who pitches, or should I say pitched, on a little league team, that recently got BANNED from the league. In fact his whole team was ordered to disband... why? because he was TOO GOOD. His pitch was clocking at 40mph, which for an 8-10 year old is pretty fast. He was basically unhittable, and intimidating the other kids to the point where they forfeited his last game! Anyway, I find the league to be quite lame for having to kick a kid out because he was just skilled. Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3553475


Obama and Joe Biden? Interesting combination.


I recently discovered, through the help of a post from Terry Tan, that Microsoft's new search engine, Live.com, has a function to save you money! They have a rebate program where you can get up to 25% off paypal purchases on ebay and also that much on affiliate online stores, which happen to be very many stores that I purchase on. I used the 10% off paypal promo on the camera purchase so hopefully i'll get that rebate in 8 weeks since it's quite a bit of money. Anyway, it links to your Live account and you can also stack existing coupons or promos to it! http://search.live.com/cashback is the link to the store rebates. To get the paypal one, just go to live.com and search for what you want to buy and look for the cash rebate icon in the ads section. You may have to try a few different things to get it to show... or just refresh..


I am so ready for snowboarding. I keep getting emails for 2009 snowboards and I am craving the snow, and really really want to pick up a banana board this year... like the Lib-Tech Banana 152 or BTX Narrow 151 or perhaps the GNU Rider's Choice BTX, but i really shouldn't spend the money... ugh. Anyway, K2 looks like they'll be coming out with the Gyrator which is another rocker style board. These things look like they'll rock for powder days and then good for getting some extra pop on anything you want to try to hit. Sounds pretty exciting!

...and if the weather is anything like last year, I'll be a happy camper! This year I'll have season passes to both Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie/Alpental so I'll be trying to beat out the 32 times I went last season. Also trying to get to Mt Hood and Whistler again, but I better start saving... another trip to Tahoe would be nice too. :)

who wants to go this year??? :)



oh speaking of which, last week I got my first issue of FREQUENCY: The Snowboarder's Journal, also abbreviated as TSJ. It's a very art/photography influenced snowboard quarterly publication out of Bellingham that I highly recommend! There's a bunch of fantastic photos that are taken all over the world of mountains, snow, sights and scenes. Some of the biggest and most exciting hits are all captured. There's plenty of reading material too, but the art is what makes this thing very nice and its printed on fancy glossy paper so it's a perfect complement to your coffee table. :)

HelloFoto

A couple years ago, I was all primed to get into doing photography more, but I didn't have the cash to buy a SLR (single lens reflex) camera (they were so expensive back then) so I settled on a Canon S2 IS, which happened to be a really good camera for the price. As much as I wanted to get into it, I never really did, but since buying a home and looking for decor for my walls, I've gotten a little spark into trying to get my own imagery up on the walls.

So I got my S2 out again - I had already gotten a new pocket-sized point and shoot SD750 camera -- and got a conversion adapter for it with a wide angle conversion lens and a 58mm macro lens, as well as polarizers and UV filters... and then... within hours of all of this, my camera dies. Literally dead. Won't turn on. At first the lens which focuses from 15 to 300+ mm got stuck. Not sure if the gears are misaligned or what, but its a well known issue with certain Canon's and this happened to fall into that negative category. The second issue was when I was cleaning my lens earlier today, the "squirt" bottle that holds the cleaning fluid sprayed out way too much and some of it got into the lower lenses and aperture area and my pictures are now foggy/hazy. Well that is, if I could actually take pictures.

Ugh.

So now here's the dilemna. I was gearing up for my upcoming vacation to Prague/Dublin and a high quality camera is an essential. Now that the current gadget is down for the count, what do I do? I've always wanted an SLR and now the prices have dropped to almost reachable amounts. It's also the time when new models are coming out and older ones being clearanced away. Yea, the Canon XS and XSi's are out now, priced at a very attractive $700 including lens and now featuring SD/SDHC card slots... but you can also find the XT/XTi for nearly half that price. Granted, I would have to buy a new compact flash II card and those run pretty steep...

or i could find myself a used S2 for $150, or S3 for $225 or a new S5 for $399 or so?

or do I just live with the Canon SD750 for a while? Of course that's the obvious budget conscious choice... but i'm a gadget freak and I somehow find myself wasting money on this junk... sacrificing other things for it. :|

anyway, so what else can go wrong?

within the past 5 days:
-sunroof shatters on car
-brand new laptop stops charging battery and needs a replacement motherboard
-toilet clogged up
-gas stove gets honked up
-camera sees its grave, just days/hours after i buy a bundle of accessories
-on top of that, it took 3 hours to get home last night for a 2.25 hour radiohead set. of course, it was totally worth it.

Hours until Radiohead...

I've been waiting a few years to see Radiohead and its only a few more hours til game time. Pretty estatic to see'em!! So with that, I'm going to list my favorite albums in order, i think.

The Bends
OK Computer
Kid A
In Rainbows
Amnesiac
Hail to the Thief
Pablo Honey

...and my favorite tracks, though maybe not in order:

Fake Plastic Trees
How to Disappear Completely
Packt Like Sardines
Airbag
The Bends
The National Anthem
Nude
Paranoid Android
Reckoner
2 + 2 = 5
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Pearly

Ok i'm not going to list this, every song is pretty much awesome. Oh, and they do a pretty awesome job covering New Order/Joy Division on their track, Ceremony, which I think is one of the best songs ever.

Trying something new via facebook

I am trying something new here... seeing how well Facebook's RSS feed takes my blog posts and converts it into a facebook note. Hopefully this works. Anyway, there should eventually be a link at the bottom that links to the real blog.

Ant

Resurfaced

I go through these spurts where I post and post and then nothing. Well this time I have an excuse. I was moving into my new house, and had no internet for awhile! I did get it over a week ago now, but have been busy doing other things to really post on this.

But so here goes:

1. the new house is great! its alot of fun furnishing the place and getting it ready. but.. what sucks? bills, the actual cost of furniture, and the over-sized lawn. I am so glad I bought a self-propelled mower, otherwise, i'd be super super sore after mowing the yard.

2. i also don't have a recycle and yard waste container yet. its on back order? how hard is it for a waste company to get bins?? it's been a month now!

3. the sonics leaving is a crime. its absolutely ridiculous. i am outraged, but it paves way for the Seattle Sounders FC!

4. and i have season tickets to the sounders... (and the seahawk!!!)

5. its funny how things could be going so well and then a few moments later come tumbling down. that's about how i feel right now on many fronts.

6. my bi-yearly stock bonus kind of sucks compared to the first one i got 2 years ago.

7. trying to plan a trip to "somewhere" in europe... the whole Munich Oktoberfest idea is basically out now that we can't find a hostel or any sort of cheap hotel to stay at. it also coincides with my UW Grad school orientation sessions.

8. my little cousin is all grown up now and she's moving to India so soon for work! so happy for her and sad she'll be leaving since we started hanging out just in the past year or so since she turned the infamous 21.

9. softball team, the sea-men, got 2nd place in our league! we got an actually large trophy!

10. i love my man-cave.

11. if you have sigur ros / benaroya hall tickets and want to donate to a good cause, please send them to me. i will use them :) -- i am so upset i didnt have internet access during the week it went on sale and it sold out in a hurry! :(

12. i bought a new laptop - dell xps m1330 in red... comes soon. its one of many new toys and furnishings i have.

13. bbq at my place on august 9th. come!

14. more to be continued in a future post....


so anyway, i have had an up and down past few weeks. while the whole ride of purchasing a home and spending time with friends and other great people was wonderful, the past couple of weeks have been hectic, crazy, and a bit lonesome. i dont know, things were high and now they're a little bit lower. for instance, i am so busy at work planning for this and that, i am still working up until i started this post. of course, i took a break to hang out at trivia night, but i ditched out early to go home and work?! ugh. then there's the whole growing up factor. the responsibilities are actually a welcome challenge, but i do sometimes feel like i am held back from other opportunities because of owning a mortgage and being enslaved to the man. i mean, just in the past couple of weeks, my friend left the company to start a new job which is so awesome for him. its a riskier move but it has so much potential. i just dont know if i could do a move like that right now. sigh.

it'll also be harder to travel and stuff, but i am still planning on a couple of trips in the very near future; europe being one, and then maybe a domestic location somewhere. NYC? Chicago? who knows.

and then there's the other stuff which has been in the back of my mind alot lately. what did i do wrong? what happened? ahhh sigh.

i gotta get up in a few hours and for some crazy reason, i have 3 or 4 meetings before 830am. whats wrong here?

Sounders FC Uni's

A little bit out-dated now but I didn't post on it when it first was revealed. Above is a sketch of the new Seattle Sounders FC uniforms! I'm pretty stoked about professional soccer coming to Seattle! I just hope we can sign one or two of the big names that have been rumored to come here. Henry anyone?

The Beginning...

What an eventful last week. I must say, I have really kept myself busy. Buying a home is a crazy chore. I can't wait to settle all the paper work and get on with it, and face the inevitable ownage by the man. It seems like the last couple of weeks, if I'm not at work, or dealing with work at home, I'm either dealing with the house stuff, playing tennis, softball, going out with some friends at bbq the park, or the bar, or spending time with a very cool person wherever. I'm constantly keeping myself busy... It's totally a good thing. I really do enjoy the summer time feel of being active. It's nice.

Today I went trail riding on my bike at St Edwards with Dean, Joe, and Travis. It's the first time I've really done that sort of thing, and it was alot of fun, minus the up hill climbs. It's a beginning for a lot of things for me right now, and I'm trying to soak it all in and enjoy it while it lasts.

Ant buys a home

I just accepted for a new home! It's located in Brier/Lynnwood, which is pretty close to home. I'm pretty excited, scared, relieved and stressed, all at the same time. It's a HUGE responsibility I just put on myself, but it's also an interesting and welcoming challenge. Now I have to deal with a ton of paper work, phone calls, finances, and more and more paper work. And then comes the furnishings....

Ladytron's Velocifero and their live show

Last night we went to see Ladytron at the Showbox and it was one terrific show. They had lots of lightning effects and played a really good mix of new and old songs. It really helped that their new album is fantastic, as that made up the bulk of their show. They did play some old tracks though, like Seventeen, Blue Jeans, and Play Girl to name a few.

Anyway, I wanted to spend the entry discussing their new record, set to release on June 3rd. It's a must buy! I started listening to it last weekend, and it was the soundtrack of my trip. I couldn't put it down; it was irresistible. From the opening Black Cat and its fresh beat to the closing few songs, Tomorrow, and Versus, the album flat out is a winner. From their original 604 record, which was a collection of synth sounds and funky beats, to their more refined Light & Magic, and to their guitar-heavier and all encompassing step forward on Witching Hour, you can see the band progress to really define their sound. This is next step, and it's called Velocifero.

They've refined their style even more and still have fresh music to put to the table despite using their winning formula of the past. Both Mira Arroyo and Helen Marnie share vocal duties on this record, and Mira even doing some solo tracks in english, which is a rarity (most of her previous songs are in Hungarian - side note, I just read that she has a Oxford PhD in Molecular Genetics?! wow).

I could go on and on but here's my fav. tracks from the record:
Tomorrow, They Gave You a Heart They Gave You a Name, I'm Not Scared, Runaway

And here's an old video, Evil, from their stellar Light & Magic record.

Atlantic City: Day 2

I'm staying at Harrah's, and from the hotel, I can see the Atlantic City Wind Farm, which is a set 5 new wind blades which power some of the city. It's a pretty neat sight, but one of the few and rare sights. This city is a bunch of senior citizens!! Ahhh!

Today was an OKAY day. After working a 10 hour day at the FAA Tech Center, I was able to get some time to rest and relax, hang out, and TRY to go get dinner with some co-workers. Oh the horror, as Vu would say... we go to my car to find that the car won't start! The battery died, for some reason! argh. We ended up eating at the hotel cafe which was decent, and then went around the casino for a bit, lost a few bucks, and then went to deal with the car.

After getting the car restored, I took a drive around town, but was literally too scared to get ouf o the car. hahaha. This place is not only senior citizen, but totally NOT Vegas or even Reno like. The hotels are totally spread apart, even on the main strip, and between each hotel is totally ghetto and run down homes, store fronts, and abandon buildings. It's a very interesting mix of rich and poor. Those streets in Monopoly don't really fit the "property value" in the game. I drove down Pennsylvania and it was totally like going down a dark alley way. I haven't had a chance to go down the Boardwalk yet, but if I get out of work early tomorrow, I'll try to hit that up. Go outside before it gets too late!

Ladytron

I forgot to mention: albums of the plane ride...

The Knife - Silent Shout
This is such a great album which I recently discovered thanks to recommendation from Genevieve. It was the perfect record for a plane ride, and it sounded great while riding down Upper International at Alpental on Saturday.

Ladytron - Velocifero
The new record from the UK electro-rock group is fantastic! I like it more and more with every listen. They're playing a show at the Showbox this coming Saturday night and I think I'm going to go see them!

Atlantic City: Day 1

I'm not overly excited for this trip, but I held out some hope. I had about 1 hour of sleep and got to the airport around 4:15AM. That basically sucked and I was surprised at how busy Sea-Tac was at that time. After a long, grueling plane ride to Houston and then connecting flight to Philly, I had to get a rental car and drive about 1.5 hours to Atlantic City and find my hotel, Harrah's Casino & Resort.


After finding out that my hotel wasn't booked, I was able to swing a suite for less than the regular price of a normal room! I ended up meeting with the other two Boeing guys who took a different flight and had dinner and we walked around the casino floor and tried to play some slots, failed, and walked around more.

You know that movie Swingers? Of course you do. Well you know when they say about how they like to keep it old skool around here? This is Atlantic City they're talking about, not old town Vegas. Finding someone even near my age group was a rarity. There were some but even the mid-40s Boeing guys I was with felt young in this crowd of senior citizens. Crazy.

I'm hoping my cold/cough go away and I get to enjoy this trip a little bit more. I'm hoping to at least stroll the Boardwalk, check out a show or something, and relax a bit between my work. I could use a break.

Trek 6000

Well I just purchased a new bike, and after reading up on components and recommendations, I bought the 2008 Trek 6000 bike with disc brakes. I noticed that the front derailleur is actually upgraded to the SRAM X7 instead of the default X5, which is a good upgrade. :) Anyway, I've spent some money on accessories too, and hopefully will get more acquainted with riding a bike again in short time.

softball spring 2008 kicks off

The Sea-Men softball 2008 spring league kicked off today with a loss. boohoo. Our team looks improved from what I can tell, so it'll be an exciting year, despite the initial loss. I went 2-2 batting today, with a single to left and then a triple on a fly ball that apparently landed near second base on the OTHER field?! I didn't know I could do that. haha.

I should have scored on that, probably. Oh well. I need to start jogging more to get back into running shape.

Here's some other things to do:
1. Buy a bicycle - could be very imminent.
2. Buy a bike rack for car
3. Jog, tennis, softball, other outdoor activities
4. Buy a tent
5. Buy new hiking shoes, and equipment
6. BUY A HOUSE
7. lose my social life.

Other than that, everything around me is moving like a high speed roller coaster, with ups and downs and ups and downs, traveling so fast it's hard to catch up and figure out what's all really going on. It's crazy! Everything is gone mad! Maybe myself included?! nah.

wow, this is a doozy.

what an interesting morning...
indeed, the world has turned.

Yak

I should be upset, yet I should also be very happy. I don't even know where to begin, and I really don't want to be caught up in the middle of a feud, but sometimes things are the way they are because that's just the way it is, or its the way it all turned out, and you're going to just have to deal with it, either if its the consequence or the result of; hopefully there's not fall out but it's just what it is. You have to commit to something, whether that be support or total dismemberment. It's a tough choice, and one that deserves alot of thought, but make it happen, and don't do anything stupid.

Cinco de Mayo @ Alpental

Cinco de Mayo at Alpental with Adria, Bjorn, Dickerson, Teague, and about 6 or so others that Bjorn and those guys know who met us up. It was a sunny day, clear sky morning but the lines were horrendous. Only managed one run before we went to tail gating, drinking corona's and bbqin up some foods for a couple hours. Tried to go back around 2pm and the lines were still long but cleared up finally around 3ish. All in all, did 2 runs on chair 2, down international to sessel and then a run into snake dance, followed by a inspiration/debbie's run and a cascade traverse, which was alot more fun than i last remembered.

Waxing makes a big difference, i waxed my board with the quick flourowax stuff and it worked wonders. Too bad this may be the last snow day for me this seasaon.


...And here's some tail gating pictures:

Alpental Cinco de Mayo

Alpental $5 Day / Last Ski Day

I'll be going up Monday with Bjorn, Chris, and Adria, amongst others. Go and look for us!

In celebration of yet another Cinco de Mayo celebrated on Alpental's slopes, we'll be selling $5 lift tickets on Monday, May 5th, 2008 (our last scheduled day of operations). Not a good enough reason to come up on a Monday? 100% of ticket sales will be donated to Outdoors for All. Help us in supporting this great cause and get in your last turns of the season!

Also, don't forget to join us all weekend for our other Cinco de Mayo weekend events including an opportunity to win an 08-09 Big S Pass!

Iron Man and other things

I went to see Iron Man last night with the dudes at Cinerama... the movie is great! I was pretty surprised how well Jon Favreau directed the film and it was the right balance of comedy and action, yet still had plenty of character development and somewhat of a plot. The high tech-ness of everything was awesome, as well as the special surprise at the end. (stay to watch the credits)

Communication is key, and when there isn't any, its rather annoying. Arr.

The Seahawks kicked of training camp and things sound promising! I can't wait to be at the games this year, it's going to be a great season!

And finally, I'm still awaiting to get my GTAIV copy. It doesn't ship until May 5th.

insomniac

I am really having trouble sleeping tonight. I tried to go to bed 2.5 hours ago and right now I feel wide awake. My mind is swirling; maybe it's the caffeine intake for the day, maybe its everything that's in my consciousness right now. Whatever it is, I need it out of here... and fast. It's going to be the sucks tomorrow morning with my multitudes of meetings.

I'm going to write some stuff down here, maybe it'll make me tired, staring at this computer screen.

Current most enjoying records:
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver / because it's a good sunny day record
Jesus & Mary Chain - Darklands / great stellar album from the mid 80s
The Knife - Silent Shout / recommended to me, approved by me
Voyager One - Afterhours in the Afterlife / buzzing guitars, noise, ambience, drums, happy.

I like lists apparently, as you can tell. Scott told me my blog is way too organized. Perhaps it is. I'm trying to organize my life, maybe too much. I got a million things I worry about, which I have put on myself. I don't exactly need these responsibilities at this moment in my life, but at the same time, I love the challenge and the new experiences. It might suck for a while, but it could also be endearing and rewarding. Only time will tell.

Recent Photos

Here's some recent galleries I posted on Picasa, but didn't link from the blog.

April 25/26, 2008 Night Life

Silver Fir Snow Day - April 19, 2008

Final Weekend Snow Days

Stevens Pass - April 06, 2008

Alpental - April 08, 2008

Friday Night Madness

Stress = Force over Area

Area = Anthony: small, nimble, lightweight, compact

Force = work + OT, job relocation worries, anxiety, first-time home buyer + all the finances that go with that, friends coming and going, relationships, crushes, love, and lust, social life, and commitments.

Stress = Force / Area

Anthony = Stressed.

wait... that doesnt work right.

Snow Days Countdown

Here's a list of the day by day snow report for a most amazing 2007-08 snowboarding season for me.... the season isn't over yet either. My goal is to reach 30 by season's end, apparently being May 5th most likely!

Day 30: Snoqualmie Central 04/19

Went up to Silver Fir for some runs for the extended season and it was snowing! 9" of new snow over night!!! It was weird; like being in a thermal cycle chamber (for you nerds) where every run we got completely different weather conditions. One run would be snowing, the next would be sunny and HOT, then you'd be cold and windy.... very odd. It kept going back and forth all day. But I had alot of fun and going "extreme" or as extreme as you can on Silver Fir/Central Express. Anyway, went with Dean and met up with Laura and later Nate. Fun times; and possibly my last of the year? (doubtful)

Day 29: Stevens Pass 04/13

Final day at Stevens for the season, and it was a nice sunny bluebird. I went with my cousin Alex as usual, and we were going to go with our other cousin Loan but she canceled at literally the last second (like 745am). Today was even slower than Saturday's adventure at Central. The slush was thick and deep. We stayed mostly on groomers again, but found at least one or two good hits and jumped off the top of some rocks on the backside. It was fun.

Day 28: Snoqualmie Central 04/12

Parked at Silver Fir and did runs all over Central with Dean and met up with Kevin. Sarah was there but didnt see her at the mountain, but met her and Kevin up afterwards for dinner. It was beautiful blue bird day though it was all slush. very slow day. we did the little park stuff on the left of Holiday, and that was a little bit of fun. Otherwise, mostly did groomers. This was also the last day for Silver Fir/Central for the season. Sad. :(

Day 27: Stevens Pass 04/06

Went with Alex. It was a little rough, but you can find powder if you look for it. We did, and there was still some great untracked goods out there if you went a bit out of the groomers on the back side. Lots of goodness at the bottom of the bowl. We found some good hits and some new stuff we hadnt seen before. It was a tiring, yet fun day.

Day 26: Alpental 04/05

Went with Dean and Kevin and met up with Laura. Lots of Chair 2 action. Did a run in the bowl and did not like the dust on hard ice feel. Went to the International side and it was great! Did some various runs all over the map and entered into back country a bit in the Elevator gate after Snake Dance. Lots of fun and lots of cool pictures.

Day 25: Steven's Pass 03/30

The third day of three beautiful powder spring days for this weekend. Went with Alex, Jennifer, Brian, and Pete. Kevin, John, Roldan, and Tara were suppose to meet us but couldn't ever get a hold of them. They probably were doing 7th Heaven runs, I'd assume. I stuck with my cousin Alex for most of the day and we went practically everywhere in the Mill Valley backside. Found as much powder as we could through the tree/wooded areas, traversed a little bit, and hit the drops that we were doing last week. Didn't do too much on the front side except for the warmup on Hogsback down International and a final run on Skyline where I was practically dead after 3 days of powder. My legs are going to hate me tomorrow morning, I already know it. I also got a a season pass to Stevens. Dual membership baby.

Day 24: Alpental 03/29

We only managed 4 runs but they were awesome. Dean and I went and did Chair 2 at Alpental with 1 run down International to Felsen, followed by 1 run in the Eidenweis bowl by way of Shluct. That run was fantabulously powder city, as people had not been doing the bowl or something...

Then around 1 or so, Snake Dance opened up and we did two runs down International and into Snake Dance for some of the best terrain I've done all year. It was much better today in that area than the last time I went in January. On the last run, we managed to go into parts of Elevator... oops. Oh well, tons of fun!

we also ran into Bjorn and Teague between the Snake Dance runs. Yay. They looked beat just like we did. :)

Day 23: Crystal Mountain 03/28

First time ever at Crystal and it was glorious. powder heaven! Tons of new stuff on the ground and it was dumping more. I went with Kevin and 3 of his co-workers on our hooky day. Pretty good soft goods.

Day 22: Stevens Pass 03/21

Awesome powder day. My cousin, Alex, and I went with Jennifer and Eric. Alex and I did alot of the tree lines near International on the Hogsback chair and then we went over to the backside and did lots of Jupiter lift runs cutting to the left at the bottom of the first hill, where there were some awesome ledge drops to play on. I was pretty nervous doing it the first time but after landing in a field of pow, it was so much more fun - we kept doing this a few times, later a group made a jump there hah! We proceeded to the tree lines before the cat track on each run... fun times. We also did more hogsback tree stuff and did a single skyline skybowl run and a tye bowl cross over back to the main area.

Day 21: Stevens Pass 03/16

went to stevens with Jennifer, Adria, and Tommy... we did some backside, and hogsback runs for most of the day. lots of fresh snow and lots of fun. yay.

Day 20: Whistler 03/09

Second snow day of the trip was foggy and snowing and occasionally windy, but it cleared up in the afternoon for some great post-snow snowboarding. Mmmm love this resort.

Day 19: Blackcomb 03/08

4cm of new snow and sunny skies plus my first time at whistler. it was great. its like heaven. went on this trip with my cousins vu and alex (babe) and dean

Day 18: Snoqualmie Central Summit 03/02

Went today with Jennifer. Triple 60 was shut down so we moved quickly through Holiday and Gallery and took Jennifer to Central Express for some Alpine and Golden Nugget runs (she's a beginner for the most part). The snow was great, the sun was shining, and just perfect conditions to do stuff in. Did my usual salvo of hits on Alpine and Golden Nugget, and landed basically all of them. Feeling way more confident in myself with those things. After mapping out the entire area with Kevin and Jake over the many times we've done Central, there's so many areas that are pretty awesome in the mountain. Need to do a bit more exploring on Silver Fir runs though, but that area is full of great stuff. Central (ski acres) is pretty underrated I think, because its clumped with the term "Snoqualmie" which used to be exclusive the West summit, which basically sucks. People need to see the other good stuff in the snoqualmie area like Silver Fir, Hyak, and the awesome Alpental Chair 2.

Day 17: Steven's Pass 03/01

Went to Stevens with Scott. It was his first time going in a few years! There was 6" of new POW and more during the day to replenish the goods. It sorta sucked for scott though, cause he couldnt see nor had goggles. My fault really. Anyway, riding on fresh pow was awesome especially after 3+ weeks of no new snow.

Day 16: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/26

Night skiing with Mike C and Dan C and a whole cast of other people, i probably forgot everyone's name but lets met think: dimay, joe, faye, bruce, ahh shoot i forget there was a bunch of people. :)

conditions were alright, actually pretty good for what the weather's been like. did a bunch of express runs, mostly golden nugget, and also tried out central park stuff. was pretty much a fun time.

Day 15: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/23

Did a bunch of Triple 60 and Express runs at Central. Mostly did Golden Nuggets and the various faces off of Triple 60. Went with Dean, Jake, Kevin, Kate, Patricia, and met up with Laura at the mountain. The snow melted creating some a soft surface but it hardened up around 4pm or so and it was only a couple more runs before we gave up.

Day 14: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/16

Went on a bunch of Silver Fir and Central Express runs with Kevin, Nate, and Lan. Not very crowded surprisingly, and snow was still pretty decent despiite lack of snow and some rain fall. Stayed to do a couple night runs but it was very hard compact by then.

Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!

Day 13: Diamond Peak @ Incline Village - Lake Tahoe 02/10

Day 2 of Tahoe took us to Diamond Peak at Incline Village. Some of the most amazing and gorgeous views are here. The summit gives you the most breath-taking view of the Lake and the valley its in. So awesome, and it feels like you're skiing/snowboarding right into the lake. It was hot this weekend, reaching up to 51 degrees!

Day 12: Squaw Valley USA - Lake Tahoe 02/09

Went to tahoe with Neil. Day 1 was at Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Did runs all over the mountain, mostly on my own as Neil hurt his foot early on with some smaller than fit rental boots. Beautiful scenery, so-so runs.

Day 11: Snoqualmie Summit Central 02/03

did silver fir and central express runs and did a couple of triple 60s on super bowl sunday. First time the place was fully open since the huge 6+ feet of snow in the past few days. The roads were completely bare, DOT did a great job. Only hang up was that the Avalance Control, done by helicopters (!!!) at Alpental took way too long and shut down I90 til 330 or 4pm. So I ended up missing half of the super bowl, but I got back to watch the most exciting parts... great game!

Day 10: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/28

night-time snowboarding with Dean, Svet and Josey. Mostly stayed on Central Express goofing off on lips and jumps with Josey, and then did some Triple 60 stuff with Dean.

Day 09: Snoqualmie Summit Central 01/26

Went with Jake, Dean and Kate - met up with Laura.

Did some triple 60s and silver fir runs... and some bunny slope stuff with the newb kate

Day 08: Snoqualmie Summit Central & Mt Hyak 01/19

went with Jake and Kristina. The traverse was long to Hyak, but the way back was so much easier. Silver Fir is awesome. Lots of neat trails and stuff. Too bad the lift took FOREVER to get up. Mt Hyak (East Summit) was awesome too. Both places had nice powder spots, and Hyak had some really good tree-lines to go through and around. No lines here. Yes!

Day 07: Snoqualmie Summit West 01/16

Wild Side Wednesdays @ West - went with Bjorn, Kevin, Nate, and Laura for night ski action.

Day 06: Alpental 01/10

Night skiing with Catherine, Sarah, Kevin... met up with one of our managers and program managers

Day 05: Stevens Pass 01/05

2nd time up for Lan and Kristina... Alex (babe) and I went to the backside for the majority of the day... tons of good stuff back there.

Day 04: Alpental 12/31

NYE at Alpental - went with Ted, Marko, Don, and a couple others. First time I went up to Chair 2 and International in 5 years... it was great!

Day 03: Alpental 12/27

Went to Alpental with a bunch of people: Kevin, Roldan, John, Dean, Prof. Flinn, and Pete from work. Actually all of us work at Boeing... anyway, fun times!

Day 02: Stevens Pass 12/22

Took my sister Kristina and cousin Lan up for the first time ever! Also went with cousins Alex and Vu, and friend Deaniac!

Day 01: Meadows @ Mt Hood 12/17

Awesome day to kick-off the year. Went to Mt Hood with a bunch of friends. Half the people went to Meadows... it was good times.

working late; not sleeping enough

yea and yea. let me tell you how much it sucks to work 7:30am to 8:30pm a couple times a week.... it sucks. i've been doing it the past 2 or 3 weeks now. hopefully it'll end.

Good Bye Scott

Good luck and best of times in Prague! Hopefully I'll get to see you at least once in the next year!

Mill Valley: Falling off Hills

Take the Jupiter or Tye Mill chair on the backside of Stevens (aka Mill Valley) and go straight down the initial hill of Gemini. Then proceed to the left at the bottom into a small cat track and then go straight towards the first hill at the bottom of Corona Bowl. Then hit that, and go straight up (with a small hike) to the next hill, and hit that again, and then go down into some powder-ful tree lines. W3rd.

Mill Valley Video Snapshots - 03/30/2008