Family Christmas 2004

Here is a photo of my family and I taken on Christmas day. Yes, I am a few millimeters taller than my (older) brother.

The new glasses have been officially broken in with the proper beer. Doesn't that look beautiful?

Strong Storm

Last night I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of strong rain and wind. I looked out my window and it looked like a hurricane was passing over. My condo is surrounded by eucalyptus trees which fall over easy in strong wind, and they were swaying back and forth ready to fall. Then I looked out my front window and saw one of those trees lying across a nearby road, blocking two cars, and it looked like the tree had fallen on a parked car. There was also a driving rain coming down almost sideways. I tried to sleep but I was too worried that a tree was going to fall on my home. I finally did sleep, and when I woke up and looked out side it looked like a disaster area. When I drove to the gym, I saw trees laying on the ground everywhere, including one that landed on a condo near mine - so I wasn't being paranoid last night. I saw on the news that over 100 eucalyptus trees toppled over in my neighborhood. Now it is cloudy outside with a mild wind blowing - time to clean up the mess.

I am a Unit Leader (Spoken in a monotone voice)

Here is a slightly blurry picture of me on Christmas day holding one of four Stella Artois glasses and a Homer bottle opener. I asked for the glasses because ever since I ordered the beer at a bar in Key West, I liked that it came in a custom glass. Since I couldn't find where to buy the glass, I put it on my Christmas list hoping someone else would have better luck - which they did! Now I have four of these glasses to enjoy Stella Artois or any other beer in. The Homer can opener was an unexpected gift. When you open a bottle, you hear Homer say "Hmm, beer. Oh Yes...." It is funny at first but I'd imagine that after awhile at a party it would become annoying. So lets find out.

To the right is a photo of me the day after Christmas at Pizza Port holding a beer. I came here looking for my lost Christmas spirit, which I found at the bottom of this glass. Unfortunatly, Christmas is over, so I'll have to hold on to that spirit for one year.

What does these photos have to do with being a Unit Leader? Nothing. In fact, I am neither a leader nor a follower. I do what I want when I want, whatever that means.

Christmas Eve

Well, it's now Christmas Eve, and here I am sitting in front of my computer drinking a Guinness draught from a bottle - brilliant! I just went on my annual Christmas light viewing drive. I ventured up to a newer neighborhood where I saw not only beautiful light and decoration displays, but some very large expensive homes. Who can afford all these houses? What jobs are out there that pay enough so these people can buy $800,000 homes? It must be nice. I also ended up in an area where houses were still being rebuilt from last years big fire. That was depressing. So anyways, I say to the whole world, Merry Christmas!

Goodbye to Shopping Mall Traffic

I have finished my Christmas shopping. Traffic on the freeways was slow all day, and the parking lots were filling up fast. But I braved a trip to the North County Fair and lived to talk about it. All the gifts are wrapped and ready to be opened in two days. Now I'm free to do what I want on Christmas Eve. Oh joy!

Done With Work

I just finished my last day of work for 2004! What a nice feeling. I'm looking forwards to 11 days of sleeping, eating and relaxing. I have just one more Christmas gift to buy and I'm done with visiting shopping malls. Now if I can just figure out something fun to do New Years Eve. Last year I sat in front of my computer with my web camera turned on, broadcasting my image (every 15 seconds) to the whole world, knowing that not even a mouse was watching me.

Web Search Results

I have been impressed with how often people find my blog using various web search sites, such as Yahoo! Using Sitemeter, I can see how people find my blog. It will show what keywords people used in their search. Yesterday someone searched for "Love. Angle. Music. Baby" using Yahoo! Korea and spent three minutes reading my blog posts. My site was the second site listed in the search results. I like the idea that people all over the world locate my blog and find it informative enough to read. Other searches used to find my blog were: "TechTV Sucks" and "Knott's Scary Farm". Now I need to find a way to make money off my blog.

I'm Gonna Get Fat

Food, food, food. This is a weekend of eating food and attending parties. Thursday I ate lunch with the people I work with. This is the first time in the seven years I've worked on this project that we have had a group lunch at Christmas time. Even one retiree joined us. On Friday I partook in my company holiday potluck. There was enough food to feed everyone ten times over. I don't know what happened to the leftovers. This is the one time a year when I see people I used to work with. I haven't worked at the company office in nine years, and we have many employees, including me, working all over town. I spent over two hours eating and talking before I loosened my belt and headed back to work. Today I'm going to my friends annual Christmas party, where there will be lots of food, beer and shots of exotic drinks. If I survive tonight then Sunday it's off to my sister's house to watch the extended version of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. This movie viewing will include more beer and food. By the time I get to work on Monday, I'll be looking more like Santa, except I won't be wearing a red outfit, hopefully. Sounds like I'm finding my holiday spirit, but not took much spirit like that guy in the Jack In The Box commercial.

Have You Seen My Holiday Spirit?

Because I seem to have lost it a couple of years ago. This is the second year that I haven't put up Christmas decorations in my house because I just wasn't in the mood. I have all these Star Trek ornaments that light up and speak and they're just sitting in their boxes. Maybe I'm getting older and this is what happens as we age. They say Christmas is for kids, and I am no longer a kid, and there are no children in this house. So if you know where my holiday spirit is, please let me know.

Another Day of Christmas Shopping

Today I bought some Christmas gifts for someone other than myself. I got off to an early start, which for me is around noon, with a slight Stargazer Ale hangover (see previous post). At this rate I'll be done shopping before Christmas Eve. I even had enough leftover energy to go to the gym, where I was able to lift 170 lbs on the lateral pulldown - a personal best for me. I think the three strong cups of coffee I had with breakfast was still affecting me. Now I'm all set to watch football tomorrow after a brief morning shopping trek.

First Attempt at Christmas Shopping

My first day of Christmas shopping was a success. The day started with my Dad I and buying the family Christmas tree. We went to Target and ended up getting the first tree we looked at, so the whole experience took less than a half hour. Then I went to Costco and spend almost $200 on ... me. Nobody can accuse me of not pumping money into the economy. I bought myself some really nice gifts, including a case of Karl Strauss Stargazer IPA. This is the first time I've seen this beer for retail sale. I'm drinking one now, and it is quite good, but would be better if it were colder. Tomorrow I'll take my shopping list and buy gifts for someone other than me.

Christmas Wish List

Happy holidays! As I get set to buy my Christmas gifts this year, I think about what I would buy myself if I had oodles of money. The one present I will buy for myself this year is a new cell phone. Mine is five years old and is so large it doubles as a self-defense weapon. However, here is my non-realistic wish list:

• 50 to 60 inch LCOS high definition television
• 6.1 dolby digital sound system
• 3 GHz PC with high-end components and a LCD monitor
• 6 MP digital camera with video
• 2005 Ford Mustang

That's just the beginning - I could type for hours. No, I'm not materialistic, I just like expensive toys.

Interesting Quiz about Something

I found this quiz from someone's blog. I'm not sure what it is all about, but I liked the questions: What Flavour Am I? It said I taste of death. What does that mean? It doesn't sound good. What are your results and what is it about me and quizes?

The Screen Savers Ruined

Well G4Tech TV finally ruined my favorite technology show, The Screen Savers. TechTV was bought by G4 network last year, and there had been many changes since then. But last month they unexpectedly sacked most of the hosts. Their replacements pretty much suck, but that is not the worst part. They got rid of the studio audience! I had been planning to go see the show live since they moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The show seems empty without the cheering crowds, and the new hosts are neither funny nor knowledgeable about computers. The two only two cast members that were kept, Kevin and Sarah, are worth watching, but I can't believe they fired Yoshi and Dan.

Not a lot of people watch The Screen Savers, but those who do tend to be technically savvy - the type who hack computers. These are not people who you want to annoy, and annoyed they are. The Screen Savers web site was taken down by a so-called denial-of-service attack, and their on-line forums are full of comments by ex-viewers expressing how much they hate the new show. Time to find a new show to watch.

New Album Review

I recently bought several new albums by both old and new artists. I got the new albums from Scorpions, Dokken and Gwen Stefani.

Scorpions - Unbreakable

You can't go wrong with a Scorpions album. I don't know how old the members are, but they still know how to rock. No, this is not the soundtrack to the movie by the same name. Like all Scorpion records, there are power ballads mixed in with guitar-heavy tracks. I have no problem with formulas - if it works, don't break it. There is nothing worse than a band changing their sound to match the latest trend in music, like Metallica did. I liked all the songs on this album, but I can imagine any being huge radio hits like "Rock You Like a Hurricane". Not because the songs aren't good, but because there isn't an audience for this genre any more and there isn't a MTV to play their videos in heavy rotation. As we all know, MTV plays almost no videos, and very little music, but that is a topic for another blog post. So I'm doing my best to let the world know that the Scorpions are alive and rockin.

Gwen Stefani - Love. Angle. Music. Baby.

Yes, that is the title of her album, complete with periods (not commas) between the words. If you think No Doubt is one of the greatest new groups and you either love Gwen Stefani or want to be her, then you need to buy this album today. Now don't expect another No Doubt-like album, because this collection of songs is much different. Gwen Stefani's fans tend to be young, much younger than me, and this album is aimed at them. If you are older than 17 you might find some of the songs too poppy, but if you are like me, you'll just enjoy her singing and unique style. I will admit that the song Hollaback Girl is really annoying and I don't know why she recorded it. One of my favorite songs is Rich Girl, which is written to the tune of If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm one of those people who love Gwen Stefani - after all, she is closer to my age than she is to most of her fans.

Dokken - Hell to Pay

I am not ashamed to admit that I have every Dokken album, including the solo album from Don Dokken. I like his voice and all their earlier albums are made to be listened to very loudly. However, they should of stopped producing new material years ago. This album is boring and not very noteworthy. No song stood out as better than the rest, they all just blended together like a simmering pot of stew. Yeah, that's the best analogy I could think of. There are no bad songs, but maybe if there were, it would make the other songs seem better. I don't regret buying the record, but it will probably get filed away alphabetically with my other CDs soon, not to get played again for years.