My legs hurt

Yesterday I got ambitious and decided to try "hill training" at The Dish (bad idea)

Still in pain I went to the Tuesday Night Pac West speed training at Stanford.

2 lap warm up
then the workout builds with sprints like this
1 lap - 2 laps - 3 laps - 4 laps - 4 laps - 3 laps - 2 laps - 1 lap

We get little rests in between sets but it's like 20 to 30 seconds really. Apparently I can sprint a mile at 8:30...HA! We'll see if I can walk tomorrow.

Now Accepting Sponsosrships

Leave it to the Americans to take anything...and make it corporate. I passed by a few Love Parade floats on Saturday afternoon while headed to Union Square with Forrest for a little shopping.

Looking up the history of the Love Parade, Wikipedia says:
The Love Parade has its roots in the spirit of a changing Europe. In 1989, it was first celebrated 4 months before the demolition of the Berlin Wall. It was started by the fresh Berlin Underground under the initiative of Matthias Roeingh aka "Dr. Motte". It was held as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through music.

If you read on, it does say that sponsors are allowed. Only if the sponsors are from a techno related field, such as clubs, labels or stores. As far as I am concerned...Scion does not fall into the category.

Another funny thing to see is the ageing candy raver. Many 30 and 40 somethings pulled up in their Honda Accords with their $1,000 Bugaboo strollers, checking in the mirror to make sure their glitter was expertly applied and their fur bra still in place.

I know I'm getting old when I heard the trucks and could only think one thing. "I wish they'd turn the sound down a bit."

Sunday at Angel Island

Jeezus look at the size of my head!!! It's enormous. It's amazing how we are smiling as we were slowing dying from the exhaust fumes coming from the ferry while waiting for it to leave Angel Island. I can only imagine what the previous "non-green" Ferries were like.

On Sunday Forrest and I headed out to Angel Island to go hiking/running and to take advantage of the fact that Forrest is now liberated from his all weekend work schedule. Overall it wasn't too complicated but we tried and failed on Saturday so it was amazing that we actually made it onto the island.

I was surprised to learn the rather interesting history of the island. It had served as a quarantine facility for smallpox and various other contagious diseases prior to medical advances... then it was an immigration processing facility - mainly for asian immigrants...but unlike Ellis Island, it kept some of its entrants for years before they allowed them into California. After all this, Angel Island served a stint for the military....

Regardless, it was a pretty place to hang out with some good trails - nice enough for a 3 hour hike.

Alcatraz & the city

View from another side of the island...looking into the city past Alcatraz. It was a little hazy on this side but still very sunny that day. Forrest had an idea of camping out on the island over fourth of July... would be an un-clusterfuck crowded view of the fireworks.

Immigration Station

Picture of the signage at the entrance of the island. We checked out the visitor center, albeit briefly primarily to satisfy my desire for a map. I think if I mention the word map one more time, Forrest will implode. It's not as though we would get "lost" on the island, the thing is only so big and eventually we would end up on the other side...from which we could figure out a way back to the dock.

I am hoping for a return trip soon because there is so much more of the island and all of its historic things that I didn't get to check out.

Cannons and Guns

This is a picture of one of the battery thingys (for lack of better terminology on my part) on the island. So the middle circle area was where the cannon/gun thing would sit while they shot at attackers coming in through the bay. Apparently this battery housed a state of the art gun thing that could retract - wow....uh yeah.

View from above the cove

Clear view across the bay to Tiburon. I couldn't believe what a sunny beautiful day it was in the city on Sunday.

The Love Parade

While on my way to Union Square with Forrest...more details to come.

Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Very entertaining movie. It's been awhile since Forrest and I have headed to the theaters to watch a movie.... I had heard a lot of good things about this flick from various different sources and I gotta say, it lived up to the hype.

The premise sounds a little, bland...oooo family roadtrip, how original. But the backstory on each character and their interactions with each other make this movie funny, sad and heartwarming in the end. The grandpa is my favorite character in this movie...I guess old people can either be crochety, sweet...or turn out like this guy.

Dreaming of a 9 to 5

On Friday I hired someone to help support my piece of online world domination. My domain consists of webinars, integrated media placements (advertising), email marketing, search engine marketing (giving google money) and product launch (as it pertains to marketing programs deliverables).

So I tend to be a workaholic anyways... and this job has no shortage of things to do... so needless to say, it's 2 bad habits converging into one massively long workday - followed up with a short stint at home catching up on email. I am averaging about 100 emails in and out per day - I can type REALLY fast now :)

So back to my new minion... I am hoping she can come on board and help me reach my lofty goal of working one less hour a day, each day. She starts mid October so we'll see.....

Niners Opening Day

I'd like to start off with a great big THANK YOU to Alan for mentioning the availability of tickets!!! Forrest and I cruised down to the parental Chong's residence Sunday morning to pick up tickets and enjoyed the afternoon at Candlestick/3Com/Monster park to watch the Niners play the Rams. Good Seats...great day for football.

Halftime Show

Navy Seals were on hand as part of the halftime show entertainment. They parachuted down to the field...some had these fog machine things while others had flags, etc. This game also had an Air Force fly by at the beginning and a mixed group of armed services singing of the National Anthem with flag show. Literally the Niners opening day was a gigantic commercial for the armed forces.

Directionally Challenged

Mapped out a 6 mile run doing a 1/2 lap on Campus Drive at Stanford from my office. What was supposed to be roughly an hour long run turned into a 1 hour 40 minute nightmare as I made a wrong turn and ran 3 more miles that I was supposed to. I ended up spending a good deal of time cruisin Foothill Expressway while simultaneously freezing my ass off in my racing tank and shorts. I am currently zipped up in a fleece sleeping bag trying to raise my body temperature.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge

My company participated in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge yesterday...and yours truly was a registered racer. It was the coldest flippin day in the city. We met up at Chrissy Field and the fog was so thick that it literally left like it was raining...and the golden gate bridge was no where to be found....not visible one bit.

So after standing around and freezing for an hour, we lined up and started running after all the corporate blah blah blahing was over. I must say I was proud of my time...overall 33 min 11 seconds for 3.5 miles. I ran my fastest miles ever ranging from 9 min - 9:30 minutes per mile...the first mile took about 11 minutes because it took a few minutes to get to the starting line.

Forrest ran it too and got some crazy Kenyan worthy time of 5 minutes or something... I kid I kid. Really I believe his time was 21 minutes for 3.5 miles. He is the whitest Kenyan I have ever seen.

VMbiker chicks

Don't freak out. That's just my leg. As part of the Corporate Challenge, we put on these temporary tattoos that were made for some alliance partner event. Theese little guys got a lot of attention and were super cute too.

All Boarded Up on the Inside

So that's a view of my cave room...with a newly installed cabinet in the corner by the closet. Don't ask - but that used to be where the lone window was. If there is a fire, I will have to claw my way out of here.

A wonderful idea

Dunno if you can see that but it says "Village Harvest" a wonderful concept to get fresh fruit into the hands of people that may not be able to afford these perishable items while also helping bay area residents. This organization started when one woman was showing a group of children how to preseve fruits by making jams and jellies. They went and harvested some fruit and went through the process. Local residents took note of these children harvesting fruit from neighboring yards and asked that they harvest their yards too.

There are many many homes in the bay area with fruit trees. Most times, the fruit rots on the trees as one tree produces too much fruit for one family to eat. Other times the residents are physically unable due to age or injury to keep harvesting their trees.

That's where village harvest comes in. You call them up and next thing you know...people arrive at your house ready to pick fruit and deliver to select drop off locations so disadvantaged bay area residents can have get their share of fresh produce. This group has a larger mission to share the history of fruit preservation and to create sustainable living in urban areas. Regardless of any reason, I just think it's cool.

Where am I going?

Recently I was faced with some challenges at work, organizational challenges. My company acquired a smaller ISV company and their employees were very quickly integrated into our folds. In my opinion, when there is an acquisition the faster you mesh the two people structures the better....it's like ripping off a band-aid versus slowly tearing it off. As part of this I received a new manager and a re-org. I am in full support of the organizational model they are trying to migrate to because it works and it has worked at many large companies. The goal is to scale quickly and easily.

Unfortunately this new manager and I had a negative encounter pre-acquisition and I think it tainted the waters post acquisition and going to work was equivalent to banging my head against the wall repeatedly every day. After months of this shit and my fighting and politicking I think it has been resolved -

But I during this process I learned a few things about myself

1. I am very career goal oriented..I have super clear ideas of what I want to be doing now, 6 months from now to years out from now...kind of scary
2. I can be a demanding bitch at work
   
3. I am decimating my personal life with work
4. I am completely directionless outside of work
5. I am a more than slightly bitter person

So #1 and #2 are not too bad as I believe I am only as demanding as I can also deliver. I don't expect more from people than I am willing to do...I just expect the same level of dedication and quality.

#3 - I just spend WAY too much time in the office. Partially that's because I want to spend the least amount of time at home (parent's home) as possible. Nonethelss = LAME

#4 - Whereas I have clear goals and detailed roadmaps for the office, the life I lead the minute I leave is pretty fluid. Se fluid in fact I can barely plan activities for that day without borderline retardation. Really I haven't spent any time nurturing personal hobbies or ambitions. I used to have hobbies...they're all sitting in flippin boxes in my parents' garage. I'm too scared to make any claims on other life goals, as they rely on the participation of other people...and that's too much of a variable.

#5 Bitter Betty. August marked the 2 year anniversary of my return to casa de Kang. It has been a most painful transition and something I am still not comfortable with. It's like an organ transplant that I am trying desperately to reject...haha. I am tired of the word "soon" in relation to moving out, to making plans, to getting paid back, to flippin everything. "Soon" in my mind is too vague - so much so that it makes it virtually impossible to have life goals.

It grates on me that my personal life is literally 180 degrees from my professional life. The huge gap makes life difficult and me angy... ha!

So after all that I have decided to put a stake in the ground and start making some life goals... Goals to work toward for this year - and others to help guide my actions in the following years. Let's see how this works.

Comedic Value - David Alan Grier

Friday night Forrest and I went to Cobb's to see David Alan Grier formerly of "In Living Color." Dude is still funny, if not surprisingly a lot older than I thought he was going to be.

Funnier still was the first comedian to open for the evening...a local dude by the name of Shane Wang (I think)... He is chinese and had a funny racial comment...

"When I was young I wanted to be white, to do all the things that white guys did...you know,
Like listen to black music....date asian chicks....get tattoos of chinese characters..."

another bit about how his roomate would comment on a young lady he'd bring back to the pad to romance...

"Shane, she's OK...but you could really do better"
"Thanks, I really appreciate that - but, better isn't trying to do me"
"Better is trying to do Best. So I'm alright with just doing OK"

Book Review: How Full is Your Bucket?

I hate this stupid book and wish holes in this dude's bucket. I wish to fill his bucket full of shit. I wonder if that counts as bucket dipping??? Even though I am "technically" filling his bucket. HMMMM maybe I should ask the author after I take his stupid tests on his website.

The overall premise is a nice idea but if you didn't know that saying nice things to people made them feel better, then you're an idiot. You may not even be human. I am doing some serious bucket dipping right now but it's to be expected. Some things are past common sense...they are just known, right?

Maybe not. Maybe that's why this guy had to study psychology to know this. OMG - I'm getting too heated to even write more about this stupid book. It could have been so much better - I am literally stupider for having read it.

Traveling Banana

I know what that looks like to you...but it's not. It's a banana in a sandwich bag...you know, not the Ziploc kind but the ones that fold over. Forrest packed it in the bag, to put in the bin, to take up to Sea Ranch with us for the weekend. ROR - I couldn't stop giggling at the sight of this lone banana in a baggie. He even put a little hole in the corner of the bag so the banana stem could stick out of it.

Analog Gaming

Apparently I can't navigate a joystick and 2 button controller as well as I would like to think I can. That's my high score #2....I meant to put BKK but only managed BKA. I tried playing Asteroid and literally the game is a black screen with white lines and dots...I can't believe I lost to that analog shit.

Spent Friday hanging with Sam in Santa Cruz. Had every intention of working on my tan while lounging around the beaches of Capitola - only to have my dreams squashed by the menacing marine layer. ARG! Alas, we mozied to meth central (Santa Cruz Boardwalk) and spent the afternoon playing video games in the arcade until it was warm enough to lay on the beach for about 30 minutes before we got hungry and went home. Really, food was the driving force of the day.

Back to the video games. Holy crap! The arcade games are all rigged so I would be pouring my tokens into them every 3 seconds. I swear Pac Man was moving at warp speed and some of the ghosts didn't change when I ate my energy power up thingy. I tried a shooting game and I apparently lack hand-eye coordination and would be better off trying to punch myself in the face. I would probably miss then too....yowza

Donkey Kang

What the hell game is this? The throw back games section at the Boardwalk arcade. Noteic how Sam's head is almost as big as the screen....haha

Dinner at Cafe Bastille

Ahoy matey! It's the return of the butt pirates! Gotta leave it up to Corley and Jason to always pose for the cameras.

Last week was the BMC User Conference in San Francisco. I stopped by on Wednesday night to have dinner with the usual suspects and to wish my former minion, Trisha, a heartfelt congratulations for landing a cush new job at a marketing agengy in the peninsula. I almost teared up because I was so proud...then I realized that crying is for pussies and that my tear ducts excrete sand. MWHA HA HA

But I digress... We started off with cocktail hour at Harry Denton's Starlight Room and then hiked it a few blocks to Cafe Bastille for dinner where we proceeded to eat everything on the menu. How I didn't just blow the F up while I was working there, I'll never know....because we just ALWAYS ate out and there was always a ton of booze.

One thing is for sure...Belden Place restaurants are ideal for appetizers not main courses.