Anthony's World

Latest Photographies

2009-01-25T13:32:00.001-08:00

Here's my latest set of amateur photography photos that I've touched up a little bit. These photos were taken at various locations: Seattle Center, the University of Washington, Dublin, and Prague. Click on the link for larger images and to download. :)

From Photography

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

2008-12-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T01:03:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-10-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

EuroBlog 2008 - Wrap-up

2008-09-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T23:30:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-10T16:57:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-05-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

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

Yak

2008-05-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

Stress = Force over Area

2008-04-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-01T23:27:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

Tragic Snowboarding: Live at Whistler 2008

2008-03-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some snapshots from footage taken at our recent Whistler/Blackcomb trip earlier this month.

Whistler 2008 Video Snapshots

Wilde Rover Trivia Nights

2008-03-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

After trying out a few different "trivia nights", it's pretty clear that the Wilde Rover one in Kirkland is the best. We started here and we haven't found a better place to go to enjoy food and drinks and test our knowledge. Killer Tofu!

Wilde Rover Trivia Night

stress relief part 2

2008-03-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

not sure if this qualifies, but i decided to not counter the counter-offer and look some more. thats a big stress relief. and then i worked 13.5 hours + .5 hour lunch (total 14 hours) to get some major milestones completed which took a lot of the work burden off of me, but i still have a huge pile of ish to get done by Monday.

im coming down with crystalitis. but i dont know, i may get healthy again and go to work. hehe. my plan is to go to Crystal tomorrow, Alpental on Saturday, and Stevens on Sunday. The only unsure one there is Crystal.... because its so freakin early and i am stressed out at work.

Yes. But Life goes on.

No Go for Launch

2008-03-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Of course, they didn't accept my initial offer on the home, but that was quite a nervous time and its out of my way now -- the fact that i submitted my first HUGE offer on a anything. My last one was a car, and this is a huge step up from that.

It's probably back to the drawing board for this stuff.

Jens Lekman - the perfect stress reliever

2008-03-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

It has been already a super stressful week for me and its only Tuesday. I've been overloaded in work, at work - today i was at work for 12 hours, been trying to manage somewhat of a social life, consulting on a few friends' personal issues, and at the same time going through my own, and finally... putting down an offer for a home.

Let me tell you, its not easier after you go through the 20+ pages of legal paper work and fax over that offer -- its only more STRESS! Not only am I awaiting the outcome of the proposed offer, but now I'm contemplating if I properly did my finances and expected expenses for the offer price. Ack! Total stress. total.... strain.

Arrrrrr...

But thankfully, I got to see a wonderfully entertaining and lively show tonight in the form of Jens Lekman, the indie pop singer/songwriter from Sweden. He has some amazing stage presence and has such a great voice. His music is just flat out fun, witty, and a blast to listen to. You can't help but sway to his music.

Tomorrow, back to the drawing board. Stress.

up against a wall

2008-03-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

im popping in the Children of Men (HD-DVD!) and getting ready for a pretty tragically sad and depressing film. Of course, I've seen it before, it was my hype movie of 2006, and although it wasn't as glamorous as I had originally hoped, it was a pretty deep and moving futuristic film that's not really that far fetched.

I was thinking the other day of some other sad and depressing films, and I could think of a few that quickly came to mind: Science of Sleep, Munich, Syriana, A Clockwork Orange. Three of those are fairly new, and the other is a classic.

What's the point of this post? I'm not really sure, I felt like blogging something so that was really it. I guess the whole point of this "lonely" post is that I've been in that sort of mood lately; though it's at a time when I am being more social than I have ever been since college. There's so many things going on in my life right now that it's really overwhelming. I'm glad I'm fairly laid back, and calm, otherwise I think I'd be going more crazy than I already am.

First Three Months of Music

2008-03-22T12:48:00.001-07:00

The first quarter of 2008 is already coming to an end! I decided to share with you 5 of my favorite records of the year thus far:

The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust

The danish duo, Raveonettes, return to the studio for another Jesus & Mary Chain-like record and this is just one fantastic noise-induced pop album. Crank up the stereo, and blast this catchy rock record to the max!

Juno - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Juno soundtrack is the perfect compliment to a great film. The music is very personal and full of simple yet powerful short songs. The final track features Michael Cera and Ellen Page singing the cover of the Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You" from the movie.

Mono in VCF - Mono in VCF

Tacoma, WA based band Mono in VCF puts a very cinematic epic sound to their music with feature very well arranged sounds that are dense and majestic and backed by vocals that are gorgeous.

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

Dance group Hot Chip return with another hip hop/soul induced rockin dance record that'll make you wanna dance dance dance! This is some fine electro-pop dance stuff.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

MGMT takes a bunch of genres and mashes it up into a very interesting and somewhat unique sound. They take the electropop of new wave, stuff it with some disco soul, and run it through some traditional indie rock and blast you with an extremely catchy, dancey output.

Ant Update

2008-03-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Not been posting lately but that's because I've been pretty busy lately. Been doing OT days at work alot lately, going out every night, and snowboarding the weekends. Whistler trip was awesome, and been doing alot of Stevens snowboarding lately, which has been great. I haven't used my Snoqualmie/Alpental pass in almost a month now, so I need to get back into the swing of things there.

Other than that, I guess I'm out of hibernation now, and am going out alot again. I've been going to shows, hanging out, it's been fun. I'm also really strongly considering buying a home now, might put an offer down on a place soon, and I just recently paid off my car loan with a big lump sum! yay.

Apparently I'm also going to be a Seahawks season ticket holder next year! Wooohoo! Thanks to Sean for allowing me to take over his package next season, but it'll be sad to see you move out of town.

Scott's only here for another week and half or so too. And Neil's in town this week but I haven't had a chance to see him yet... lots of stuff to do, and so little time to do it. I sort of hate being responsible.

Josh Brown can go suck a dick.

2008-03-03T22:05:00.000-08:00

Josh Brown: "It is important because this isn't necessarily about money. It's about winning. It's about winning plain and simple. When nobody believes in you and doesn't ask your opinion, when the businessman thinks he knows more about field-goal kicking than me, that's a problem."

Good job signing with a winning team... a team that won all of 3 games last season. 3-13, sounds like a winning combination to me!

Jerk off.

Here's the rest of the KJR Radio interview transcript:
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/seahawks/2008/03/03/brown_once_i_hi/

Last Post: Follow-Up

2008-03-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

My friend brought up this topic at lunch today, kinda coincidentally, about Snoqualmie. He thinks I'm crazy because I think the Snoqualmie area is cool. I bet alot of people do, but then again, alot of people haven't gone to the 2nd chair of Alpental, or even knew there were more lifts on the other side of the trees of Central Express, or even do any sort of tree lines, powder stuff, or know what Hyak is (because its the farthest east on the freeway):

Here are my fav mts I've been to:
1. Insert Whistler/Blackcomb here as 1/2 following this weekend
2.
3. Mt Baker
4. Meadows
5. Alpental
6. Silver Fir (Ski Acres)
7. Mill Valley (Steven's)
8. Steven's (front side)
9. Squaw Valley
10. Hyak
11. Central/Ski Acres
12. Incline/Diamond Peak
13. West

need to visit Crystal!

Here are my fav lifts of the NW that I can remember the names of (which are going to be composed of stuff from Snoqualmie and Stevens):

1. Edelweiss (Chair 2) at Alpental
2. Silver Fir at Central
3. Jupiter at Stevens
4. Southern Cross at Stevens
5. Keechelus at Hyak
6. Armstrong Express at Alpental
7. Central Express at Central
8. Tye Mill at Stevens
9. Skyline at Stevens
10. Triple 60 at Central
11. Hogsback at Stevens
12. Wild Side at West
13. Pacific Crest at West

Snoqualmie vs... everything else.

2008-03-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

I feel like ranting a little bit today, and I havent been posting any blog entries lately so this is just another reason to do so. This weekend was joyous for the Pacific Northwest. There were snow showers on Friday and 8" of fresh snow accumulated on our various Cascade mountains. It's the first new powder in a few weeks now, and it was beautiful. I was able to make two days worth of snowboarding; Saturday to Steven's Pass, and Sunday to Snoqualmie's Central Summit, formerly known as Ski Acres. Now that's where I want this post to begin - that's my segway.

I always hear people gripe on the words skiing or snowboarding and Snoqualmie! "Snoqualmie sucks." What are they referring to? Snoqualmie is actually, now, made up of 4 different mountain locations: West, Central, East, and Alpental. They all have very different feels to them.

West is your beginner mountain, which is just hills essentially with very little unique terrain except for the diamond heavy Wild Side, which is hidden to the far left.

Central is your all-around mountain with beginner hills on your far right, triple 60 which is a mix of everything, Central Express which is your intermediate with lots of nice hits for boarders and a big snow park, and then you have your hidden gem, Silver Fir, which is basically a whole thing of its own. That's your Steven's Pass, shrunken down, and removed of all the stupid stuff. It's got all sorts of terrain: traverses, moguls, big steep faces, lots of trees, winding corridors, and tons of spots for all sorts of fun. And there's the big traverse to the other mountain; Mt Hyak.

Hyak, also known as East, is barely used, never a line, and has some awesome terrain, if you like powder, trees, and that sort of stuff. It's also got nordic skiing for you cross-country skiers.

And then there's Alpental. People may go there and say... "dang this place is small." That's probably because they stayed on the lower mountain and yes, that's true, it is small. Only 3 lifts. But there's another chair, at the top of Armstrong Express, which takes you to the summit, and theres just tons and tons of stuff to do up there, in every which way you want to go.

So what's my infomercial for?

Because.... sometimes when I ask people if they wanna go snowboarding with me, they ask where, and i say Snoqualmie. They'll reply, I dont like that place. Boo! Maybe they went there a long time ago, and went to Summit West, which used to be called "Snoqualmie Summit" and never went to Central, which used to be unaffiliated and called "Ski Acres", or Silver Fir, or East, which as mentioned before, was called "Mt Hyak" or gone to Chair 2 at Alpental. Actually even Armstrong / Debbie's Gold is a good run.

I went to Stevens yesterday, and I've gone there many times; The back side is nice and all, and the place as whole is a lot bigger than any of the individual mountains of Snoqualmie, but is it really better than Silver Fir or Alpental? I dont know if I agree. I can see skiers liking Stevens more, but for snowboarding, I think Central takes the cake. I havent gone to Baker in a couple years and I really did like that place, it's awesome and its only weakness is its distance from Seattle and its crazy drive up. I havent had a chance to go to Crystal yet but I hear good things and want to someday soon.

Anyway, just keep in mind that Snoqualmie isnt just West. There's alot of lesser known gems in the area. I'm not going to go out and say that Snoqualmie is the best, or anything like that, I want to say that you shouldn't pass up a good snow day because you think it's "snoqualmie" and its small.

Stuff White People Like

2008-02-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a hilariously good blog.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

good find from Griffin.

Lake Tahoe Photos

2008-02-14T20:40:00.001-08:00

North Lake Tahoe

too much stuff... here's a quick rundown

2008-02-05T22:42:00.000-08:00

yea. too many things going on lately and no time to post. here's just a quick run down of stuff going on in my life.

-went to california a couple weeks ago. going to Tahoe and then Bay Area again this upcoming weekend and next week! snowboarding at Squaw and Diamond Peak! weeee
-Jim Mora will be the succeeding head coach for Mike Holmgren! woweee, who's going to take over when Ty gets canned at UW?
-ive been snowboarding more than ever this season. 11 snow days so far, and more to come.
-whistler trip is planning out! maybe two of them!
-i now have real estate agent (through BECU), finally... time to be serious, especially with home loan interest rates and home selling prices at long time lows
-big annual bonus at boeing this year! 15 paid days!!
-tet / new years is in a couple days, and mardi gras is today. i spent it doing work and home loan stuff.
-i beat mass effect. finally. great game.
-my friend is free.
-i am a loser at life?
-too much work and no time to do any of it.
-giants beat the patriots. thank goodness.
-sonics look terrible.
-mariners... whats up?
-i got a car rack + snowboard/ski carrier... awesomeness. adds 20 hp to my car! w00t. (yea....)
-i applied to UW Grad school for master's in MSE - this is actually a big deal. hope i get in.
-i no longer have Halo 3. its gone, traded back in... ya finally.
-thats enough now. think more later. too much.

Bern Baker Helmet

2008-01-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

I bought a helmet for snowboarding the other day.... and there it is. It's a Bern Baker in black matte. It's got a built-in visor design and sorta resembles a military helmet. I wanted to get green, but since my size is hard to find, and so is that color, I ended up with black, with the 8-Tracks Audio add-on.

I guess I also bought a Yakima car rack and the FatCat 6 ski/snowboard accessory. That should come in the mail soon.... and I'm sorta looking for a new jacket. This snow sports activity is a very very expensive hobby.

25 Most Baffling Toys from Around the World

2008-01-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.cracked.com/article_15670_25-most-baffling-toys-from-around-world.html

this is hilarious - digg it!

Snow Fun

2008-01-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

I've been going snowboarding at a greater pace than previous years. I've had 6 powder days already and hopefully 2 more by this time next week, which already is more than I went last season.

It's definitely helping out too. I've improved dramatically over the past 2 times up and also have gained more confidence in myself on more challenging runs.

On New Year's Eve, I went up with Ted, Don, and some others to Alpental and worked on some simple stuff that I needed improvement on, then built some confidence going on Chair 2 to International and Snake Dance. Then Ted ended up pushing me pretty hard (for me anyway) on the last run at Ingrid's Inspiration and I was mostly able to keep up with him, even landing a few lips and whatnot on the way, which usually i botch up :)

On Friday, I went to Steven's with my cousins and sister, and my cousin Alex (aka Babe) left my sister and Lan on some beginner tracks and went to the backside on Tyme Mill, which I never had done before at Stevens. That was a whole lot of fun, with tons of powder. I think I really improved and refined my abilities a bit there. It was so much fun! yay.

I need to go buy a helmet though, really should have gotten one of those a while ago, but I think I really need one now. Any sort of fall.... it could be bad news.

Jan 1, 2008 and Beyond!

2008-01-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

I wrapped up the 2007 year and kicked off 2008 at sort of a random house party in Issaquah on the shores of Lake Sammamish lats night. It was a pretty fun time.... but regardless, here's a list of my new year's goals and resolutions.

1. Become a first-time home buyer.
I've set this goal for 2 years now and haven't gone through on it. People ask "what's up?" and all I can say is that there's no rush. And there really isn't. This is a huge life and financial choice that I don't want to do it with regrets. That said, with the market the way it is, I hope I'll be concluding this goal in the next few months.

2. Apply and begin Graduate School.
This has also been on my list but I've been really busy at work, and have been afraid of the outcome if I have to balance all of it out. I've got all the pre-requisites to go to start applying, its the matter of actually bucking down and doing it.

3. Community Service.
I want to get more involved than I already am. My friends and I have been developing some plans for educational improvements within our respective professional societies, and I'd like to continue to work and finally implement these. I'd also like to continue mentorship work for kids and whatnot. I dont think this has ever been on my list of personal goals, but this year I'd like to put it on and take it into action.

4. Healthier Lifestyle.
I've made some great strides to eat better, and eat more diversely. I was not a big seafood eater, or actually never ate seafood, until recently. Now I can eat it just fine, amongst other things I always took a pass on. I've also been striving to try to eat healthier and am going to continue to do this into the next year.

5. Cook more foods.
Learn to cook foods butter. I can cook some things, but I am always interested in trying new things. Plus I like throwing spices into foods. :)

6. Self-Confidence and that sorta thing.
Always need to improve on this item in certain situations.

7. Stop spending money on random gadgets, gizmos, and techie stuff.
This will be very challenging... in fact, I'll probably fail miserably.

8. Improve on snowboarding.
I finally am a season pass holder this year and so I should have no excuse but to get better. I have steadily improved, I think, over the past 3 weeks the few times I've gone up, so this isn't that unrealistic of a goal.

9. Finally watch the Seahawks hold up a Super Bowl trophy
this is the year.... this is the year....
i hope.

10. Travel the world some more.
I went to alot of neat places in 2007, and want to do more in 2008.
France, Spain, UK, Prague, Amsterdam (again) - are my main goals. I also want to visit Australia, Iceland, Hong Kong, Vietnam (again), and Whistler. :)

11. F ind A Girl
so back in college, a few of us had a make-believe 'secret society' called FIND A GIRL. Sure, we've had graduated fine citizens and many that left the club and rejoined it soon-after. This year, I will strive to graduate the club.. hahaha. (much sarcasm involved here, but there's a little truth to every joke)

Another look back on 2007

2008-01-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

My 2007 Goals & Resolutions:

1. My biggest goal this year - buy real estate!
I'm not sure whether this will be a house or a condo at this point but I am setting myself up to hopefully make a purchase in the summer or early fall time this year. This will be big, and expensive. ;)

This didn't work out, as the market price grew and grew and interest grew and grew until summer, and then it stabilized a bit, and now its dropping. Hopefully I'll be more prospective in the very near term.

2. Get promoted at work
I'm currently an entry level (1) engineer at Boeing and I think I've set myself up to earn a "level upgrade" to Level 2. This would supposedly give me a bit more responsibility (though I think I already do above level 2 work), and of course, a significant pay raise, on top of the "good" one I hopefully will get in February... ;)

I got promoted and a very nice raise in March actually... :)

3. Continuing Education
I want to take at least one or two classes this year and start applying to graduate school. I may even consider taking the GMAT for business school, even though I already did pretty decent on the GRE this past summer.

Well, I didnt do any of these things. But here's to next year!

4. Believing in myself and Taking Chances
I am not always consistent on this. There's things where I am real certain about and there's many more, important, things that I play it safe, or just let it be. I need to be more self-confident, and self-motivated on these issues and adjust myself to make myself more well-rounded in these aspects.

Still need work on this one.

5. Seeing the Seahawks win a Super Bowl
This isn't totally my goal, but it's a dream of mine.

stupid bears.

6. Health and Wellness
I want to better myself in this aspect in all ways.

yea better.

7. Expression of the mind, body, and... this sounds like a book title or catch phrase.
This goes hand and hand with Number FOUR, but I have alot of stuff on my chest that just needs to be let out. Hopefully some of that will this year.

sure.

8. Meeting people is NOT easy
whatever Radiohead may say, it isn't easy, especially when you're spending 50+ hours of your week in an office space, and then much of the rest of the time in your home. I want to branch out and network socially, and professionally, but more socially. Opportunities are out there and I want to be able to reach them.

I met alot of good people this year, and continue to... good good.

9. Visit Scott in Japan
I want to visit him and I want to see the country, or shall I say megatropolis that is Tokyo. I also want to go backpacking in Europe, but I'll take one or the other.

Go to wander around Germany and Amsterdam (and luxembourg right before this original post), and I did end up visiting Scott in Japan right before he moved back home, so this was way better than expected.

10. Go to Whistler
Another trip I've been wanting to go on... this season!! hopefully...

Failed... I went to Mt Hood a couple weeks ago though.

2007 Year in Review

2007-12-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty good year to say the least for me personally. I think I've learned and gained alot of insight on many things this year and had a chance to travel the world and experience many new things. I guess I'll try to highlight some of the items from the past year on here...

Although this took place in 2006, it happened approximately a year ago, where I was in Luxembourg and got to hang out in a wonderful city and tasted many amazing glasses of wine, foods, and experience some amazing historical sites from the kingdom and the Battle of the Bulge.

After some fun snowboarding trips in the early months of the year and a job promotion at work (!!!), I was able to make another trip to Europe - this time going to the wonderful town of Freiburg, which is located a couple hours south of Frankfort. After a week of German life, I was able to make a weekend getaway to Amsterdam, which was quite a change of pace from the quiet life of a small German city. Amsterdam is the biggest melting pot of a city I have ever been in, bigger than Vegas. The city is also rich with culture and beauty. I walked around for countless hours in my short time there and really need a good solid week to really take in the sights. But I was able to visit the Anne Frank house, which is about as depressing of a place as can be, stroll down the Red Light District, and walk around the various squares of the city.

In the spring, I witnessed my little kid sister graduate from high school and later in the fall see her go to the same college I had graduated from earlier (University of Washington). The spring and summer were full of spending alot of time with friends, bbq-ing, and just hanging out. It also saw the coming of my xbox 360 gaming console which took up alot of my time throughout the year.

The summer also saw a surprisingly successful softball season for my rag-tag team, The Sea-Men. After two seasons where we won a total of 3 games combined, we finished with a solid season where we went deep into the play-offs. We still have a lot to work on, but hopefully we'll have another good ride next summer.

By the end of summer, I was celebrating my 25th Birthday, enjoying time at Bumbershoot, and then going on a trip to the Baltimore-DC area in a span of 3-4 weeks. While in DC, I met up with my buddy Neil and we hung out and had adventures in the area, including finding one of the most awesome sports bars on the planet, and escaping from a very scary area in Baltimore. :) Following that excursion, I made my way up to Conneticut for a short work trip before heading back home.

The end of September and early parts of October were all about planning my next trip and watching Football. Football football football. But by the end of October, I was on my way to Japan to visit Scott and to spend time in the massive that is Tokyo. A week there is definitely not enough time, but I did get to see quite a bit - including the hustle and bustle of the tokyo train system, the crazy overly-dense districts of the city, and the quieter suburbs of Scott's area (Tsukuba). I also got to go to the Tokyo Motor Show and see tons and tons of futuristic and upcoming cars, visit my favorite coffee shop from Seattle in Tokyo (Zoka) and run around a city that is brighter and sometimes loonier than Las Vegas. I also met a bunch of great people from all over the world - Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and people from other parts of the US of A, and experience HALLOWEEN in Japan. :)

Alas, that was my last bit of culture shock for the year, as November was filled with relaxing, more football, and hanging out... and GUITAR HERO III! December was much the same, until I took a few days off of work and went to Mt Hood (in Oregon) with a group of friends to hang out, get away from the city, and to snowboard!!! And so the season begins, and I can't wait to go more, as this year is the first year I am a season pass holder (at Snoqualmie/Alpental)....

What will the new year bring? Who knows, but I'm hoping for a good one of memories. Perhaps a Seahawk super bowl ring, a successful UW Husky football season, and a good start for the Seattle MLS team? I'm hoping to travel more and more - as I am trying to line up more visits to Europe and maybe parts of Asia along the way. Perhaps more exciting personal growth and maturity - I am planning on buying a house this year, and I'm sure it'll happen as the time looks about right. That'll be a completely new chapter in my life which I am very much looking forward to. I guess only time will tell how all these possible events will transpire....

and now my lists?

favorite record of the year - Blonde Redhead - 23, but you already knew that from below
favorite song of the year - Shout Out Louds - Impossible or Sigur Ros - Hjomalind
film of the year - the very widely unknown CONTROL or Bourne Ultimatum
dvd release of the year - Twin Peaks Gold Box Edition
hi-def dvd release of the year - BBC Planet Earth on HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray)
video game of the year - Bio Shock for xbox 360 and PC
website of the year - iGoogle, amazon.com
live show of the year - Andrew Bird at Bumbershoot, surprisingly. LCD Soundsystem at Showbox is a close 2nd.
trend of the year - iPhones, google talk, facebook (though i've been a member for a few years), music-based video games (GH2, GH3, and Rock Band), high def, and buying houses/condos :)
gadget of the year - touch-based cell phones - iphone, prada phone, HTC Touch/Touch Duo/Touch Cruise, etc.

ok i'm done with this list thing for now.

Top 25 Records of 2007

2007-12-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

I Present.... The Top 25 Albums of 2007!
(now completed!)

-- Sunday 12/09 --

#25 :: Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
#24 :: Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
#23 :: Explosions in the Sky - All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone
#22 :: Apostle of Hustle - The National Anthem of Nowhere
#21 :: The Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War

The first batch of five records to make my countdown features triumphant returns from Spoon and Dinosaur Jr, two bands that make up a portion of the Toronto collective Broken Social Scene, and my personal favorite post-rock band Explosions in the Sky (pictured above).

Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga easily marks their most exciting and overall best record, while Dinosaur Jr's newest release shows that they still got it going on. Explosions in the Sky's latest record is a bit of a disappointment but they have quite a catalog to live up to. The two BSS-related bands, Apostle of Hustle and Stars had solid, though only steady albums; nothing revolutionary or anything that hadn't been seen in the past, but still very listenable and enjoyable albums.

Other albums that did not make the Top list, either because of pure ranking or because lack of listens to grant a ranking include: Kanye West's Graduation, Iron & Wine's Shepards Dog, Kevin Drew's ...Spirit If, The Hives' Black & White Album, Stars of the Lid's beautiful blissful record And Their Refinement of the Decline, and Bjork's Volta.

On a side note, the most disappointing records of the year? Tough to say what's most , but here's a list of some downers: Smashing Pumpkins' first record in forever... Zeitgeist, Interpol's Our Love to Admire (Turn on the Bright Lights may never be topped), Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City, and the Ken Thomas produced, iLiKeTRaiNs' Elegiest to Lessons Learnt.

-- Monday 12/10 --

#20 :: Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham - l'avventura
#19 :: Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
#18 :: Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
#17 :: Battles - Mirrored
#16 :: The Editors - An End has a Start

Battles, pictured above, lead the way with the #17 album of the year. Their brand of fast-paced, high energy and obscure music finesses the line between organic rock, prog-rock, and electronic dance. Luna-frontman Dean Wareham joined forces with singer Britta Phillips for a indie pop gem called l'avventura. The Editors' came back with a sophomore effort to their fantastic debut, The Back Room, with similarly sounding An End Has a Start. Finally, two Seattle bands round out the first wave of Top 20 records with Issac Brock-led Modest Mouse and their most radio-friendly and accessible record to date, We were Dead before the Ship Even Sank, and the second album from rising indie rock stars Band of Horses, and their much improved Cease to Begin record.

-- Tuesday 12/11 --

#15 :: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
#14 :: The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
#13 :: !!! - Myth Takes
#12 :: The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
#11 :: Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Following the massive acclaim and tribulation of their debut record, the Arcade Fire came back with a solid Neon Bible record. While it doesn't always have the high energy and emotion of the first record, it's still quite a release that only adds to their growing track record. Following their footsteps, actually ahead of them in this year's ranking, is fellow Montreal rockers, The Besnard Lakes. This husband and wife duo put together a moody, yet dreamy atmospheric rock record.

The fanatical dance-punk band, !!! (pronounced chk chk chk; pictured above), may have just broken the door loose after getting pushed up with so many other bands of the same sound. Their latest record, Myth Takes, is a stepping stone towards defining the band and it sounds wonderful; get ready to dance dance dance.

Two indie pop gems with a lot of catchiness round out the 12th and 11th spots on this year's countdown with Portland's Shins putting together another pop masterpiece, and Austin's Okkervil River and their latest lo-fi record, The Stage Names.

-- Wednesday 12/10 --

#10 :: Digitalism - Idealism
#09 :: Jens Lekman - Night Falls over Kortedala
#08 :: Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
#07 :: Feist - The Reminder

The Top 10 records of 2007 kick-off with German duo Digitalism and their fantastic electronica-garage dance record, Idealism, which fuses the dancey culture of electronic music with some subtle garage band features. Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman blends chamber music with indie pop in a retro-sounding record with catchy hooks and tons of variety in his new album, Night Falls over Kortedala.

Elephant 6 darlings Apples in Stereo (pictured) return with a power pop New Magnetic Wonder. It's glossy, cheesy, and wonderously catchy. It's magic. Finally, at the seven spot is Broken Social Scene singstress Leslie Feist and her break-through album, The Reminder, which is most notable for having the "ipod nano song" and the "verizon chocolate song," with her hit song, "1, 2, 3, 4" and "My Moon My Man", respectively. While those songs are solid, they are not the best of the best in this record which really displays her vocal capability and her song writing ability.

-- Thursday 12/11 --

#06 :: Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
#05 :: LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
#04 :: Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block

Finally, we're nearing the home stretch! Well what can I say... the #6 album of 2007 comes from one of the most pleasantly surprising live shows I saw this year. Singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has had made many successful pieces of music, but his latest record, Armchair Apocrypha, puts everything together into a fantastic album. He also plays practically every instrument, including his famous violin and whistle. Yes, I did say whistle. Add that to his Jeff Buckley-style voice and you have some great music.

LCD Soundsystem put together their most complete work to date with the every so dancey Sound of Silver. While it's not a double disc bohemeth like their debut full-length, this one packs alot of punch in a smaller package. Songs like North American and All My Friends will keep you moving and bobbing all night long.

Finishing up at the #4 spot, with a very tough decision to drop a notch is Writer's Block by swedish pop band Peter Bjorn and John. This is anything from any sort of writer's block, as it does creative addition by subtraction. That is, every song is stripped to its core and played out with simplicity, while retaining all the catchy hooks, fun and great singing. Young Folks is an instant classic, while Up Against the Wall may instantly remind you of classic New Order or Joy Division with its pulsating and steady drum beat, killer bass riffs, and timely guitar. This is PB&J's best album to date, and one of my personal favorites of the year. Plus, they are extremely entertaining live! (actually all three of these bands listed in this block of records are fantastic live!)

Also note: PB&J's Writer's Block was actually released in europe in 2006. It made its North American debut in the Spring of 2007, so I was debating on whether or not to put it here or not. I ended up putting it on here, mostly because it was "new" to me and to many in 2007. But it's also a perfect lead into...

-- Friday 12/12 --

#03 :: The Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
#02 :: Radiohead - In Rainbows
#01 :: Blonde Redhead - 23

And then there were 3...
Last year, we saw a remaster of The Cure's Head on a Door make their ways to the shelves. Well let's say you remix the album, and perhaps strip its lyrics, and replace them with new ones, but keep the common theme... well you'd get something like Swedish group, The Shout Out Louds, and their newest album Our Ill Wills. Like the album title implies, its quite a depressing gloomer, but its sparkled with glossy upbeat melodies and beats that are so very reminiscent of Robert Smith and the Cure's 80's hey day. "Tonight I Have to Leave It" is the Shout Out Loud's rendition of "In Between Days" while "Normandie" shares a strikingly similar beat to "Close to Me." This latest SOL's record is a nice trip down new wave memory lane, with other standouts "Impossible" with its fun upbeat drums and well rather depressing lyrics, and the much different "Hard Rain" which is more like a Kevin Shields/Jesus and Mary Chain type song than a new waver. It's also interesting to note that Bjorn of PB&J (#4 on the list) produced this record.

Radiohead made a bold move this year with not only their first full-length album since Hail to the Thief 4 years ago, but decided to sell it on their own on their website. Better yet, they didn't have a fixed price; you pay what you want for it, and it was available for download at this interesting price option. A CD/LP package was also available for approximately $80USD (however, a CD-only option will now be available and mass distributed on Jan 1, 2008). That aside, Radiohead has yet again put together a fantastic work of art. In Rainbows takes the best of singer Thom Yorke's solo debut Eraser from last year, and blends it with sounds from their earlier work and put together a very nice organic/electronic sound that's got to be their most accessible record since The Bends. All the while, this album feels more like a soulful vocal-based album, than the previous texture heavy noise we've become more accustomed too. Thom Yorke sings beautifully throughout.... Yes. Radiohead wins again.

FINALLY.... the number one record of the year....

Two italian guys and a japanese girl. NYC's Blonde Redhead have put together not only their best overall record, but the best of 2007. Their previous albums, including 2004's Misery is a Butterfly, had a tragically epic melancholy to it that was outstanding yet emotionally distraught. All of that has been erased with 23, as Blonde Redhead are moving into the realm of dream pop, putting a slight electronic feel to it, and making sounds danceble and dramatically more uplifting. This is not to say that their sounds don't retain anything of the past; every song remains epic sweeping ballad-like rock anthems. The title track is an impressive rocking opening song which has a killer drum beat, swirling guitars, and vocals from Kazu Makino are off the charts. Amaedo Pace continues to sing in a few songs, including "Spring and by Summer Fall," which has so much texture and feel that you can imagine yourself floating on air and tumbling down to earth as the song progresses. "Silently" is a majestic pop song that has got to be the most simple and most accessible Blonde Redhead song to date. Good things can definitely come in simple packages. (actually the packaging on this CD is anything but simple...)

So there you have it... the Top 25 records of the year!!

I do want to note that there were two honorable EPs that were not added to the countdown since they were not really full albums. These were Sigur Ros' Hvarf-Heim double disc EP, and The Flight of the Conchords' The Distant Future. The former is a beautiful collection of rarities and live tracks, while the latter is actually a television show on HBO - two dudes from New Zealand who put together extremely catchy and comedic songs. :)

Also for those picky about the addition of Peter Bjorn and John to the list. If you don't like it, take them out, shift every prior album up a notch, and insert Field Music's Tones of Town into that 25 slot.

Thanks!

2007-12-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well I ordered a HD-DVD player the other day and it came pretty quickly... and its brilliant! I got the Toshiba HD-A3 player, and it came with 300 and Bourne Identity in the box, followed by 3 additional DVDs free from Amazon -- Top Gun, Face Off, and A Clockwork Orange -- and then 5 more free in the mail, which I haven't picked out yet. I also purchased BBC's Planet Earth documentary on HD and it's really the only HD content I've seen on the player so far... and its visually stunning.

Now I'm watching Flight of the Conchords (on DVD, not HD DVD) and its cracking me up big time. I've only seen a little bit of the show on YouTube, but now I can experience it all. I seem to like non-US television more lately... well US television has hit a pretty big wall since the late 90's so it's nice to have a refreshing alternate.... like this show, The Office, Ali G, Extras, etc.

Unplugged. Out of Control. Depressing. Gloomy.

2007-11-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

... These are the words to describe what I've been listening to and what I've been watching. No, I'm not sad. I'm not depressed, not really. It's the Holiday time of year and I can't wait to hang out with my relatives and eat eat eat...

but over the past couple of days, I've enjoyed the dark, gloomy side of life watching some rather depressing films of music icons; anti-heroes.

The first of which is the newly released Anton Corjbin film, "Control." The film was named after Joy Division's song, "She's Lost Control" which is terrifyingly what happened with Ian Curtis's life, the main character of the film, and lead singer and song writer for the influential post-punk band, Joy Division. For those who don't know of them, following Curtis' suicide in 1980, the three remaining members dissolved their band name, and started anew under the title of "New Order." Now, I'm sure you have heard of them....

Joy Division was the guiding light for the post-punk rock scene of the late 70s and early 80s, and the easily the main influences of today's popular alternative music from bands like Interpol, British Sea Power, The Hives, Franz Ferdinand, and the Killers, who cover Joy Division's "Shadowplay" for the film's soundtrack...

but the film isn't all about the band. It's about the life and dreams.... and depression of Curtis. On the outside, he's got a rising rock star career, a legion of devoted listeners, and even has been on John Peel's BBC radio... but on the opposite side is a normal Manchester kid who's battling epilepsy, suffering through a falling apart marriage and an affair, and all the guilt that it brings...

It's an interesting story, and Corjbin films it in film noir style which makes it even more captivating. There's plenty of good music, and Sam Riley not only looks like Ian Curtis but plays the role very well. He even sings... :)

http://www.controlthemovie.com/

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis

Then there's the other DVD I recently purchased.... Nirvana's landmark MTV Unplugged performance in New York on November 18, 1993. Everyone's heard this performance before, I'm sure, but it was finally released on DVD this Tuesday. It features the set in its entirety and unedited.

It's freakin' brilliant. It's also painful, depressing, and heart wrenching to watch. I don't think I've been moved by any concert DVD this way. The Muse Hullabaloo DVD definitely made me excited and ecstatic, and the Flaming Lips DVD made me smile, but Nirvana's live performance just makes me want to weep.

The performance is uncanny. The side of Nirvana seen here, and mostly Kurt Cobain, is so raw and so powerful, but in a completely different way then their normal electric guitar, punk, grunge sound... we're talking unplugged, acoustic here. And its fantastic.

Yada yada, i'm sure this has been read about, heard of, and whatnot so many times, but I just have to say how great this set is.

And yea, during the performance of "Pennyroyal Tea" where Kurt decides at the last second to do it solo.... it made me almost shed a tear. Maybe I did. It was that powerful.

Kurt Cobain

2007-11-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

Sigur Ros - Heima / Hvarf

2007-11-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

While the first ever Sigur Ros official DVD isn't out til later this month in the United States, their new EP/Live record Hvarf/Heima is out and it's fantastic. It is worth every penny you pay for, and I recommend everyone to buy it now!

The Heima DVD, which means "at home" is slated for release in 2 weeks and looks like its packed with visual and aural pleasures that'll be incredible. It's already received critical acclaim at various film festivals, and I just can't wait to get my hands on it. The best thing is that most stores will carry this DVD, including Best Buy and Circuit City.

Please also check out Screaming Masterpiece, which is another great documentary on Iceland's amazing music culture.

yay new xbox 360

2007-11-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yay Best Buy processed my warranty request in-store and now I have a new xbox 360! Yay, i can play video games some more now. So NERDY! I ended up paying a little bit more and upgraded to the 360 Elite edition, which comes with hdmi port and cable, and a bigger 120gb hard drive. It also is in limited edition black color. yaa... i guess this will go well with my limited edition red Nintendo DS. :)

new blog probably in the near future

2007-11-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

As my web host switches to an all new adminstration interface, i will probably be switching over/back to WordPress. I had used Word Press for about a month before switching back to Blogger. I guess the last time I used WP i was trying to figure out the multi-user version of it and that was pretty complex and buggy. So I'll probably re-start with a single user version. Maybe by year's end.

Here's my feeble attempt on Xbox Recovery

2007-11-10T10:57:00.001-08:00

So here I go... about to head down to best buy and see if this Product Replacement Plan actually works, even though its under someone else's name...

Two things to be upset about

2007-11-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

And they both involve local markets... Seattle Sonics and Microsoft

1. "I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad." - David Stern, NBA Commissioner

I think Mr Stern has been smoking too much crack lately because he's gotta be crazy to believe that Seattle is not a good market for the NBA. It can't be worse than Oklahoma City, or New Orleans, or Charlotte for that matter. Charlotte has failed twice in the past 5 years too....

This whole Sonics relocation thing is getting more and more absurd by the day. Clay Bennett seems to be a PR nightmare as he doesn't seem to care about anything people offer him, the Seattle city council keeps saying the wrong things as well, and then the NBA itself just flat out bluntly sides with the owner. This that this that this that. ARgh.

I just wished Mr Bennett would take a chill pill on his $500 million arena demand and listen to whats on the table. First, Key Arena doesnt really need to go away, perhaps a smaller scale remodel could work. Its nicely located in the heart of Seattle and has been a fine site for 40 years now. Second, why do we need to spend $500 million on a basketball arena?? Think about it, Qwest Field was $360m and Safeco was just over $500m (because it had cost overruns AND it is a TRANSFORMING stadium for crying outloud - well it has a movable roof, but its sorta the same thing)

Finally, he needs to formally meet the other arena proposal teams, namely the Muckleshoot tribe. He also needs to hear out what the potential investor/buyers have to say... I'm sick of this ignore everything and demand it all attitude.

ARgh.

2. MY XBOX 360 DOES NOT WORK.

It's been working fine for a while now, but today, while playing my brand new game, Call of Duty 4, the color started fading in and out and was totally discolored with random tints of random colors.... Now, the video is completely gone, though sound and controls still work. I can hear the system running!

Yea, but the video is out. I tried VGA (my typical setting), Component, and standard AV settings against my TV and nothing works. It all had the discoloration and now are all blank screens. My original xbox console works fine, DVD player works, and regular TV works fine... so its not the TV and its not the cables... its the hardware. The GPU must be shot. Man....

And of course, the 360 is out of 1 year warranty, and even though Microsoft now has a 3 year warranty, it only covers if the xbox is completely inoperable, by way of red rings of death. Mine's probably 90% there, but it still has sound and something obviously works; i just cant see what I'm doing... so I'm not covered.

Luckily (maybe), the console has a Best Buy warranty attached to it. But... of course there's a BUT... i purchased the 360 on ebay so the warranty's title is under the guy who originally bought the 360 and it was never changed over (mostly due to my laziness). I hope the Best Buy store doesnt care for this and just processes this through... cause I'll be annoyed and sad if it doesnt.

ARGH!

lucid imagination

2007-11-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight I watched Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep which is one crazy imaginative ride in the most literal of ways. The premise of the film is about Stephane, a guy who dreams and dreams and dreams, and "inverts his dreams with reality" as his mom says. He meets his neighbor, ironically named Stephany... and the lucid dreams continue like no other. He's in a constant battle between what he dreams and what's actually happening in the real world, all the while trying to hook up with his neighbor, who shares some of his out of this world creativity and cookyness.

The movie shares alot of similar traits to Gondry's big hit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but the surrealism is about it. The movie hits on different ideas and all of which is outstanding. I don't know what to feel in the movie, as it seems like it's fun and imaginative, and comedic at times, but it has such an awfully sad and melancholy mood to it through out. You feel so sorry for Stephane and for me, I can almost relate to so much of what he's going through all the time. It's one of those movies that make you sit back and think about your own life, I guess. Maybe it's cause I'm alot like him, one who dreams about wonders, thinks of things I want to build but sometimes may never really do it, and just wants to play play play and then can never figure out what to say at the right moment or any moment for that matter.... ya.

Tokyo Photo Gallery

2007-11-03T10:52:00.001-07:00

Japan [10-2007]

Tokyo Motor Show 2007 Gallery

2007-11-03T10:51:00.001-07:00

Tokyo Motor Show 2007

The Long Way Home

2007-10-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's just about boarding time here at Narita airport for my 8.5 hour trip home to Seattle. I already have a world of stuff to do after I arrive, besides the typical airport stuff. Looks like I have to review some presentations for a meeting at 11:45am to the Boeing enterprise, and also make some time to meet up with the rest of my work group for a special luncheon, as my lead engineer is coming back after taking paternity leave for his new baby. Yay!

And then, maybe I'll get some rest. I am so beat right now after the long week of walking and exploring, followed by a close-out Halloween party that went to the wee hours of the night, and as you can see from the pictures below, it was quite an interesting time...

More to post later when I return.

2007-10-31T22:22:00.002-07:00

The finale

2007-10-31T22:22:00.001-07:00

Panda (Ryoko) vs Spider vampire (Ting)

2007-10-31T22:21:00.001-07:00

Halloween rap by a skeleton (Alex) and a panda bear (Ryoko)

2007-10-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

I felt like I was at a Flaming Lips concert

2007-10-31T01:52:00.001-07:00

Support Pimpin'

2007-10-31T01:51:00.000-07:00

Tsukuba divin

2007-10-31T01:50:00.000-07:00

Japan Day 6: Zoka and Walking Around

2007-10-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

Today I went to Zoka.... in Tokyo! It's amazing that I am 4476 miles from home, and I was able to enjoy a cup of coffee from my favorite local coffee shop. I mean, there are Tully's and Starbucks everywhere here as well, which still blows my mind, but those are corporatized... Zoka on the other hand exists in Seattle, Seattle, Seattle, and umm Tokyo. Globalization baby.

It was also ironic that I had my mp3 player set on random and it happened to have Nirvana playing as we walked into Zoka. :)

Anyway, the day was mostly dedicated to walking around Akihabara, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. We went to a part in Shibuya at night, walked around, and also met another australian guy Scott used to work with.

I guess unrelated to Tokyo, but ironic or crazy... we were watching the Monday Night Football game this morning on the internet live, and it was a great game that went to OT after Jason Elam of the Broncos kicked a last second tying field goal... I was saying Brett Favre was good, but not a very "good" QB (i.e. he may not be the best teacher or example for being a QB since he does alot of very poor things), and then he starts off OT with a beautiful bomb down the sidelines for the game winning TD in OT.... yea. I got showed up there...

2007-10-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

a seattle delight in downtown Tokyo

2007-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Japan Day 5: Tokyo Motor Show 2007

2007-10-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Today was spent mostly at the Tokyo Motor Show which involved alot of walking, checking out neat cars, and more and more walking. The train ride there was long, and required many transfers, but we finally got there and the convention center area was very nice.

The show itself featured cars from all the major motor companies from US, Europe, and Asia. I'll post the whole lot of photos I took of the show, including videos, when I get back to the states. But my favorite cars I saw today were probably the Nissan Pivo 2, which of course, is the talking robot monkey concept car which swivels 360 degrees, Mercedes C63 which is a freakin nice looking sports car, and this awesome little Daihatsu van called Mud Master-C, which was a concept hybrid van.

The Lexus hybrids were freakin incredible looking, though only at conceptual stage right now. They look ready for prime time though... :)

Toyota had a driveable chair, which is pretty much a really fancy wheel chair. And Honda had a dancing 4' robot which accompanied its goofy bubble concept car.

Anyway more pics and vids later.

2007-10-28T18:09:00.001-07:00

Japan Day 4: Tsukuba

2007-10-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

The 4th day here was pretty laid back. We hung out in Scott's home town of Tsukuba for the whole day with a bunch of his former co-worker/friends from various places - some were American, some Japanese, some Australian, New Zealand, and some Scottish. We mostly hung out at the park nearby, had a picnic and played soccer.

We followed by going to a cake store nearby that was about as fantastical as I have ever seen. You go in there and you breathe sugar. And the places has massive lines, it's like seeing the Krispy Kremes the other night in Shinjuku where there was a line going outside the store and across a long bridge, in the middle of a rain/wind storm.

I had a cheese cake and it was actually really really good, and it was individually wrapped with multiple layers of plastic and paper, as is most things here.

We followed the rest of the night with some hanging out, walking to the grocery store and had a spaghetti and wine party. Then we did the stereotypical japanese thing... Karoke!

That was a pretty fun time actually. The first song Scott and I did was Lithium from Nirvana, and man, my throat hurt after that. Ha! Especially since we followed up a song later with The Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star.

There was some pretty memorable moments in our singing fest, with a room of 9 of us. :)

Anyway, today is a day of cars, cars and more cars. Hopefully some awesome exotic prototypes and what not. I want to see the robot monkey GPS car...

Japan Day 4

2007-10-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

The weather is much nicer this morning. Sunny, clear skies... much different than the crazy rainy wind storm of yesterday. It's bbq day in the park, followed by who knows what else... more later I guess.

Tokyo Day 3

2007-10-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

The third day here was a mess. It wasn't quite a typhoon but 20mph+ winds and tons of rain fall hit us. It was a constant struggle to battle the wet, windy conditions and our feet, socks, shoes, clothes were all soaked. Kevin, who we had struggled to find earlier, lost his umbrella, getting it completely destroyed by the winds. He ended up buying a new one.

Anyway, the day started out with Scott and I making our rounds to the train station to meet up with Kevin, one of my co-workers at Boeing, in Shinjuku station. It actually wasn't too bad because Kevin wasn't new to Japan train stations, being in Nagoya for a while. He did first go to Tokyo Station first, but made his way to Shinjuku to find us.

On the other hand, Alex's friend Barney didn't... Alex and Ting are Scott's australian neighbors and they met us in Shinjuku and we were waiting for their friend Barney there. He was to meet us there during his short layover at Tokyo. Problem was, he went to the wrong train station, and we didn't have voice communication with him. They were stuck text messaging each other, but we didn't realize that they were probably at the wrong station for a while, after we had circled around the busiest train station in the city. Ha!

Anyway, the group of us spent much of the day trying to find dry weather and in the big department stores. When I say big, I mean HUGE. 14 stories of shoppingness. Also the train station is a maze to figure out...

Later on, we went to this mysterious bar called... well Mysterious. Actually the full title was Neo-Tokyo Fooding Bar: Mysterious. It's a pretty neat place. No shoes allowed, and you walk around in an asteroid-like atmosphere to simulate SPACE. Then you walk up into individual pods for your group and eat and drink in that confined cage. The female servers are dressed in interesting enticing space suits with moon boots and whatnot. It's a pretty cool experience.

The rest of the night was travel back to Tsukuba followed by taco fiesta and The Office marathon with 7 people at Scott's tiny pad.

And here's a couple photo's from yesterday:

A Temple in Akihabara

One of the gigantor buildings with built-in LCD
(its featured in Lost in Translation)
It also houses the most incredibly sized Starbucks ever.

A view from the street level of Shibuya District

2007-10-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

An Audi Dealership in Shibuya

2007-10-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Japan Day 2

2007-10-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

I just got home from the Shibuya district in Japan. The train ride to there from where Scott lives is like 1.5 hours. Anyway, lots of walking, lots of shopping, and lots of lights, sounds, and colors -- just like you see in on TV.

There was no hockey around, but lots of asian people. It's really weird to see Denny's, TGI Fridays, AMPMs and 711s everywhere... and Starbucks, McDonalds, and what not. I have more pictures but will add them a little later.

Tomorrow, we're going to try to meet up with Kevin, and hang out in the Shinjoku district. Sunday is bbq party day, and Monday is car show. Not sure what else is in store, but it's at a point where we're not sure where we could end up sleeping cause Scott and his friends are all out of jobs and soon to be evicted because their company just shut down. Their president quit today.

Arrived

2007-10-25T05:43:00.001-07:00

I have arrived and now I am at Scott's place in japan as seen below.
There are A bunch of people here in his tiny apt.

Funny thing- I ran into a guy I met in college in the check in line
and the again in the security line and then again on the plane sitting
next to me. Weird.

Sent from my iPhone

2007-10-25T05:38:00.001-07:00

2007-10-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

2007-10-25T05:36:00.000-07:00

Japan day 1

2007-10-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Its 14:35 PST right now and I am on the airbus a330 awaiting take-off
from Seattle. Currently on my iPhone goofing off. The Nwa terminal at
the airport is under construction but I gotta go now.

Sent from my iPhone

In Rainbows

2007-10-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! We have a new Radiohead record! yay! and its pay whatever you'd like to pay! Coming in digital download copies or a box set including 2 LPs and 2 CDs, you have the option of paying whatever you want for the download, and 40 pounds for the box set, which also includes digital copies.

The album is called "In Rainbows," and it is fantastic! One of the more enjoyable listens of the year, and one of the more accessible Radiohead records in 10 years (OK Computer).

Please download and pay whatever. I paid 6 US Dollars. I never pay for mp3s, but this is worth it. "15 Steps" the opening song, is brilliant. So are Body Snatchers, Nude, Reckoner and Weird Fishes.

Washington DC Trip - Sept 2007

2007-10-01T21:35:00.001-07:00

Washington DC