Enjoying New Year's Eve

Well, I made it safely back to California and am preparing on going out ... somewhere tonight to celebrate New Year's Eve. We really don't have a plan. Just playing it by ear, but I have no doubt I will enjoy myself tonight.

Have a lot of pictures to post to Picasa soon from my trip back home. Then I guess I should publish some goals and ideas I have for 2008. But that's for later this week.

If you are wondering about the picture above, it's a background I use for my PC every year around New Year's. I don't know, but I always looked at it as starting off the new year right.

Enjoy yourselves this evening and stay safe!

Note: As always, I claim no ownership of the image above. I downloaded it from Animewallpapers.com some time ago.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I think I sent out some of the sappiest holiday cards a couple of days ago. I guess my old age is making me sentimental or something, so to those of you who I sent cards out to then I can only hope any comments you make regarding the cards are gentle. And to those who aren't going to receive a card, well, it's mainly because I don't have an address for you.

So, I will be out-of-town for the next week. I will be back in Tampa, Florida, starting tomorrow and I will not return to California until December 29. It will be nice spending Christmas back home, and I'll have a nice, long week to spend time with family and friends. I don't have anything particular planned, but I'll have a camera so hopefully I'll take some nice pictures that I can post to Picasa later. Expect me to make one last post before the end of the year, probably on the subject of my goals and plans for 2008.

To everyone out there, I wish you a very Merry Christmas! And a Happy Holidays to those who don't celebrate this particular event!

I has smarts

While reading through a bunch of my RSS news feeds a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon this article in Wired's blog. It linked to a site where you can get a rating as to your blog's readability. Of course, I had to find out what mine would rate as.



Honestly, I do not know if I can take this test seriously since there is no indication on what criteria is used to determine this rating. But until this test is proven as pure quackery, I will go by it's rating. College Level! Woohoo!

Actually, upon further investigation I am putting little credence into this site. The code used to place the rating on your site includes adding a link to some cash advance site, which if you aren't well-versed in HTML you might miss. A little deceptive in my opinion. As you can see, I've removed that link from the HTML so it doesn't appear.

I'm In Despair!

Well, not really. I'm actually doing pretty good right now. But just thought I'd talk a little bit about getting older. Now, last week (12/05) I turned 30 years old and made some updates to my MySpace and Facebook pages saying that I "felt old". Now, that all was pretty much said in jest as most of my friends know I generally call myself the oldest one in our group even though I'm probably more in the middle of the pack in terms of age amongst us all. This all stems from something I was told years ago, probably around early high school. Someone had mentioned to me that I seemed more mature for my age (I think I was 15 or so) and ever since then I have played off it as if I'm the "old man". Always telling my friends, whether they were really older than me or younger by only a few months, that "when I was their age ..." or "In my day, we had nothing ... and we were thankful!". You know, the stereotypical old man sayings and it's always been in jest and everyone generally gets a good laugh out of it.

Honestly, I don't feel any anxiety about getting older. I've always told people that if anyone made any comments about me getting gray hairs now, I would just say it makes me look "distinguished". I don't know, I just don't feel any differently and care little that I was 29 a little over a week ago and am 30 now. Actually, the only time it bothers me is when one of my roommates complains about being 26 (he's a little bit ... vain I'll say), and I have to yell back "Shut the f@%& up! I'm 30! I'm the one approaching Death's embrace!" But really, I've just never cared. It's not like I'm going to stop playing video games, watching anime/cartoons, going on various trips (Japan next year!), or stop chasing after good-looking women; and instead decide I must get a job I can work at for 10-15 years, get married, settle down and start a family. Some people have told me, "hey, 30 is the new 20" or something like that. And that's not a bad way to look at things. But for me, 30 is just 30, a number. Doesn't mean anything other than I've been alive on this plane of existence for 30 years according to the Gregorian calendar.

I look forward to continuing on this journey we call life. I am going home for Christmas, and expect to have a great time seeing family and friends while I'm in Tampa for an entire week. And next year I am planning on a couple of vacations that I think will end up being pretty exciting. So turning 30 hasn't really meant too much, other than I can now joke about planning my mid-life crisis by dating some 20 year-old(s) (I'd say get a sports car too, but then again I have a BMW so that's already taken care of).

To paraphrase the dub for Street Fighter II: The Movie --
"Eric, what do you see in front of your fist?"
"My destiny."

Congratulations to Superman ... uh ... I mean, Tim Tebow

I would just like to congratulate the 2007 recipient of the Heisman Memorial Trophy, Tim Tebow. Being a UF alumni, I have watched pretty much every game he has played in and believe the award is well-deserved. Darren McFadden, the running back at Arkansas, is an incredible player, able to score touchdowns in any number of ways, but unfortunately I do not feel he had as good a season this year as Tim Tebow did for the Gators. Tim Tebow scored 51 touchdowns this year (29 passing/22 running) and before anyone says anything not everyone of his running touchdowns were 1-yard plunges across the goal line. For example, look at the 15+ touchdown run he had at the beginning of the FSU-UF game. Of course, I think most people would agree winning an award like this tends to put a target on your chest for your opponents. Most people probable think it looks like this:

But I think most of us UF alumni would agree the target looks more like this:

A Day for Great Justice!

I could use this time and space to pimp the fact that it is my birthday. Yup, I was born 30 years ago today. I could post about the fact that I guess I'm "old" now; how I'm at Death's doorstep; that I should move on from some of my less mature pursuits. But I have something of almost equal importance to alert y'all to.

December 5 is Annual Day of the Ninja! I can have no better honor than this, to share my birthday with a celebration of ninjas!

Last Week Recap

Hmmm ... well, last week was an eventful one for me in a way. At the beginning of the week, I was feeling fairly ill as I had someone caught strep throat over the prior weekend. My case seemed to be pretty severe, as I could not keep anything down that Sunday. A good example of my experience would be this:

Luckily, I started feeling immediately better on Monday and managed to make it in to see a doctor early that morning. Was diagnosed and sent away with a prescription in about 30 minutes. My only concern that I expressed to the doctor was if I could still travel on Thursday back home to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. I was given the clearance, so I immediately picked up my medicine, then proceeded to sit at home and rest. Finally got through a huge backlog of magazines and anime DVDs that had been sitting in my room being neglected. Couldn't go to work at all for the week (I was already off Thursday and Friday since the office was closed observing the holiday), which kind of sucked since that hurts me in the pocketbook. But then again, I was off for a week.

On Thanksgiving, I got up early in the morning (03:30 PST) to head for the airport for my 06:00 flight. By that day, I was feeling back to normal so I wasn't too worried about being contagious. My flight out of San Jose Mineta International Airport was delayed about an hour, but I space out my connections enough so it didn't affect my travel plans. I made it in to Tampa at around 16:30 EST and was met by my father. Went home with him and had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. I spent Friday with family, and then met X, X's lady and Rotfiend for dinner and some time out in Ybor. Saturday, the group I always hung out with had a get together to celebrate a bunch of birthdays coming up. And then Sunday I spent a majority of my day flying back to the west coast.

I cannot say how great it was to make it home last week. I was really worried I would not be able to fly out when I got sick. Luckily, I was able to get medicine and rest so that everything turned out OK.

"What's Your Game?"

This almost makes me want to pick up World of Warcraft. Mr. T and William Shatner in a series of national television commercials promoting World of Warcraft! Night Elf Mohawk! Shatner is a conduit of the ancient forces of nature!

Beowulf

Saw Beowulf last night in "Digital 3-D". Haven't gone to a movie in 3-D in a loooooong time, and I am glad to report that, at least for me, this one didn't feel too gimicky. I.e., it didn't seem like they were using the 3-D tech to just have things jump out at you from the screen. Seemed more like they were using the technology to add more depth to the CGI models. Did I like it, though? Well, it did meet my only two criteria to enjoy a movie.

Boobs ...

& Fire (sorry, couldn't find any pictures of the dragon torching the landscape, so you'll have to deal with Angelina Jolie's breasts ;-p).

Note: Images sourced from various websites. I do not own them nor have real permission to post them.

Su-33 Miki

Haven't really played any of the Ace Combat series, except for a little of the demo for the new one, Ace Combat 6, on the Xbox 360. However, if I hadn't seen this at one of my game sights I would have never believed it. Even though I know both games are published by the same company. Ace Combat 6 + The iDOLM@STER =

These images were saved from the Famitsu website without permission.

Child's Play

I added a new banner to the site for the Child's Play charity. Ever since I first found out about this charity a couple of years ago, I have made sure to give towards it. Please go over to their site and see if there is anything you would like to donate.

Sweet Home Tampa

I will be out this coming weekend, back home in Tampa to attend the wedding of two good friends of mine. I expect my schedule will be pretty full as I shuffle around seeing friends and family over the couple of days that I will be in town. I am hoping to take a lot of pictures to post next week.

I have to say that it will be real nice to be back in Tampa, even if it is for only a few days. That's not to say living out in California is bad, but when you've lived in or around one area for as long as I did (almost 3 decades!) you find yourself missing the little things. It's hard to put into words; I guess that no matter where I end up living in the future, Tampa will always be home to me.

"Big Super Happy Fun Fun"

I have only played a little of the new Simpsons video game demo on my PS3, but I think I am defintely renting this now. See the following commercial.





Jeez, I have way too many games to check out.

Earthquake cherry has been popped

Moderate Quake Shakes S. F. Bay Area

So, just want to let everyone know that I am alright and did not suffer anything from the quake last night. Actually, I was in a Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale when it happened. It's funny because I was talking to X while looking at some A/V equipment when the ground started moving and the lights hanging from the ceiling started swaying. I was kind of in an entryway to a demo room, so I was in a pretty safe place and didn't worry. We kept talking throughout the event with me saying at one point, "I think we're having an earthquake over here...". X responds, "Really, that's awesome!". I'm like, "Yeah ... yeah, it is."

Now, in all seriousness, it's good to know this was not a big earthquake and that there were no serious damages or injuries to anyone around. But for someone who comes from an area prone to hurricanes and fierce storms, an earthquake is a different and interesting experience.

A Swamp Thing

I just wanted to spend a little time this week talking about a new experience I've been enjoying since moving out here to San Jose, CA.

As most of you know, I am a graduate of the University of Florida and I have been an active member of UF's Alumni Association since my graduation. While in Tampa, I was a member of the Tampa Gator Club. Unfortunately, I never did too many activities with the Tampa Gator Club simply because most of my friends in Tampa also attended UF and it was easier to gather with them to watch games than it was to go out to where the club was meeting. About the only thing I did with the Tampa Gator Club was participate in their Gator Rompin' Pub Crawl, which was a lot of fun.

So, I came out to San Jose, CA, back in June and I decided that one of the first things I would do was to meet up with the people in the San Francisco Bay Area Gator Club. I didn't know too many people when I moved out here originally, so I felt that meeting with fellow Gators would give me a nice sense of familiarity. I have to say it's been a truly great experience! The SF Bay Area Gator Club meets in three different "Swamps" to watch Gator football. The "South Bay Swamp" at The Sports Page in Mountain View. The "SF Swamp" at Hooters in San Francisco. And the "East Bay Swamp" at Ricky's Sports Theatre and Grill in San Leandro. I attend the South Bay Swamp as it is the closest one to me and also boasts the largest attendance. Watching games there makes me feel like I'm back in the student section at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. We have a "Swamp Master", named Steve, who literally will not sit down throughout the entire game. He has a sound system set up so that he can play a bunch of our school fight songs and cheers, and we all participate just as if we were at Florida Field. I actually am ashamed to say that I had no idea UF's Fight Song ,"Orange & Blue", actually had lyrics until I started watching games at the South Bay Swamp. But I have met a great group of people there who all gather together to cheer on our Gators. It also doesn't hurt that The Sports Page is a really good bar as well, with a good selection of drinks and food. I'm think I'm going to take some pictures of the place for this weekend's game, Georgia - Florida. I expect to have lots of pictures of us celebrating all game long. And maybe I'll even get a picture of some "Gator Cake".

Time Management

Been having a little trouble managing my time lately. Nothing really bad has been happening to cause this. I just haven't used my time as wisely as I feel I should. That or I just have too many things I want to do. Either way, I need to prioritize a little bit. My exercise routine has been knocked off track and I really need to make that a priority. I wouldn't say I am an exercise freak, but I felt like I was getting myself in the best shape of my life when I was following my almost daily regimen at the Blitz in Tampa and now I just haven't been working out as hard as I feel I should.

Also, next on my priority should be my studying. I am still working on my Cisco certifications and have recently finished reading through the CCDA Exam Guide. I need to schedule my exam and go through the book again with my accompanying material so I can pass it. Then I need to start on CCNP, with the goal of having that certification by middle of next year at the latest. I also need to work on my foreign language studies. I started studying Japanese again, because I plan on going back to Tokyo next spring to visit a friend of mine who is out there teaching English. My goal is to be able to read the Hiragana and Katakana, and be able to speak well enough to get around without too much guidance. Once I feel comfortable with Japanese, I might start studying Spanish again (most likely that won't start until sometime later next year, hopefully).

One thing I want to keep doing but isn't a priority at all is gaming. Some of you will probably roll your eyes at this one, but I actually keep in contact with some of my friends this way. I've kept in touch with a couple of my old coworkers from back in Florida by constantly meeting them in Xbox Live. We've been playing a lot of Halo 3 multiplayer and Madden 08. I need to start playing more on my PS3, as I have some friends on the Playstation Network who I haven't talked to in a while. Maybe I should see if I can get them in a game of Warhawk ... Speaking of games, I haven't gotten through enough to put up any reviews as of yet. But I have some links below that might be of interest to some of you gamers out there.

Complete Guide to Team Fortress 2

Never played Timesplitters before, but it's got monkeys so it can't be bad.

PC Specs for Crysis.

Posts from the Level Up blog on Newsweek regarding the "Infantilization of video games".
Part I Part II

The Ambient Music list from Bioshock.

PS3 EyeToy in action using EyeCreate.

The Halo 3 service record for myself. Thought this was a neat idea of Bungie's and I hope more games have something like this in the future.

Otherwise, I hope everything is going well y'all out there. If you have a link to my Picasa site, I should have some new pictures posted either tonight or tomorrow. I forgot I hadn't posted some pictures I took when I visited the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco back in early September. I also went to the Metreon last Tuesday, October 9, for the release of the Star Wars-themed PSP. The 501st was there to enforce Imperial rule and we had a special appearance by Lord Vader. It was a fun night, and I gots me one.

Scrap heap

I had a post written up earlier this week, which I have now scrapped. It really was not pertinent anymore. I am doing fine, but watching the Gators suffer two straight losses is tough. I didn't really feel like posting what I had written earlier. So I'll just end this post with a couple of links.

Zero Punctuation: Halo 3
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2304-Zero-Punctuation-Halo-3

Rocket-Powered 21-Foot-Long X-Wing Model Actually Flies (Updated: Built-in R2-D2)
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/star-wars/rocketpowered-21foot-long-xwing-model-actually-flies-updated-new-pics-show-it-even-has-builtin-r2d2-305976.php

Hope y'all are doing well. I'm going to watch some DVDs and play some video games to forget about this loss.

Thoughts ... mainly about football ...

Hmmm ... not too much to report on so far since last time. I haven't gotten through the next list of games on my plate, and with Halo 3 coming out tomorrow (Note: this post was mostly written on 09/24/2007) it will most likely take me a while longer before I post another bit of game reviews. Guess I'll just post some random thoughts for now ...

... I'm really happy now that football season has started. I go out and join the San Fracisco Bay Area Gator Club every Saturday to watch the Florida Gators play. So far, we are 4-0 and #3/#4 in the nation (depending on which poll you look at: USA Today/AP). The Gators gave me a scare last week, but hopefully they'll play better this week against the Auburn Tigers. It's a revenge game too, as Auburn was the only team to defeat us last year on our way to winning the BCS National Championship, so I expect the Gators to put a whoopin' on the Tigers down in the Swamp.

... let me also give a quick congratulations to the USF Bulls, who are 3-0 and #18 in the nation in both polls. I lived in Tampa most of my life and have kept an eye on the USF football program since its inception. I am glad to see them doing so well so soon. -- Addendum: Good luck to USF tonight against WVU! I'll be watching tonight on ESPN2 HD.

... regarding my favorite NFL teams, I remain steadfast in my support of the Chicago Bears and their quarterback (Addendum: sorry Rex, but it seems like others don't share my beliefs that you can work out of your problems; you've been benched). I'm not happy they are 1-2, but I am not giving up on them especially since their next three games are against division opponents so they can correct a lot of things with 3 straight wins. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are faring much better as they are 2-1 and showing a much improved offense this year with Jeff Garcia as QB. I think the Bucs have an excellent chance to make the playoffs this year, but the next two weeks will really show what this team can do. They have a divisional matchup against the Carolina Panthers this coming week, and then they play the Indianapolis Colts.

... unfortunately, the Bears record is not helping me in my annual bet that I have with Badstar and KS1. I owe Badstar $2 and KS1 $1 so far, and I only hope it doesn't get worse as the season progresses.

... oh, ESPN has some nice wallpapers on their site for all the NFL teams. They made two wallpapers for each team in the league. I'm happy to report that one of the two teams I root for has a very nice wallpaper that I downloaded. It's included below if you want to take a look.

... last topic regarding football. I am really liking the "Leave Nothing" commercials that Nike are running on TV. For those who have never seen them, you can view the full commercial here. Just click on "Media" and then "Leave Nothing Ads" and let the video play.

Game reviews

This post is probably going to be a little long, as I wanted to give my thoughts on some video games I have played recently. But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me start out with some current events.

First of all, I started work last week. I am working as a contractor to VeriSign, working on their product known as VeriSign® Intercarrier Multimedia Messaging Service (ICMMS). Everyone has been really great in helping me to get settled in, and I am lucky in that my commute to Santa Cruz is against the normal traffic flow. It is a 30-mile commute each way, so it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour for the total trip depending on traffic. I can only imagine how many hours it would take to make this commute if I happened to be going the opposite ways (i.e., Santa Cruz --> Silicon Valley) ... I will drive in to the area one of these weekends so I can take a few pictures of the downtown and beach areas. Once I do that I'll make sure to post them to my Picasa web site so y'all can view them.

I am going to make it to Las Vegas this year. I am heading out to Las Vegas on Friday evening, October 19, and I will be returning to San Jose on Sunday evening, October 21. Of course, if anyone of you also plan to be out there around that time then get in contact with me so we can hook up. I will be busy part of the time there, as my family and I are helping to celebrate my sister and brother-in-law's 10-year wedding anniversary.

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Now, on to my thoughts on gaming. Of course, everything I will be saying in the next few paragraphs is entirely my opinion. Many people may very well agree with me, while many others will probably think me a fool. On to the reviews.

1.) BIOSHOCK (Xbox360)
I really cannot say much more about this game that hasn't already been said. I rented it about a week ago, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The atmosphere, mood, story and effects (both visual and audio) are detailed and enjoyable. The difficulty is not too bad (I've seen some mention of people calling it too easy), especially for those not used to FPS games on consoles. I'm not going to claim this is the best game I have ever played, but it is one of the best I've played in a long while. I am very interested in learning as much as I can regarding the narrative that is unfolding in the game, and I fear that I simply will not finish the game before it is due later this week. Yes, I could re-rent it (again) but eventually I have to finish playing the games I own. So, I cannot say how replayable this game is. In the end, if you are a gamer I would definitely recommend that you play Bioshock.

2.) WARHAWK (Playstation 3)
I am a little biased when it comes to Warhawk. I was lucky enough to participate in the Warhawk beta, and I have loved it since day 1. For me, it has been the most addictive, online-multiplayer game that I have played since I was constantly fragging other players in Tribes. The gameplay is simple to grasp, which is not really a bad thing. For a lot of these types of games (i.e., Tribes, Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc.), I just want to log in and start fragging. I don't want to waste time figuring out how to switch weapons and how to drive a vehicle. I have found that the controls (both on foot and in vehicles) are tight and intuitive, so it is very easy to jump in to the game without much experience. There are multiple weapon types, vehicles, maps and game types to play which is nice if you get tired of playing deathmatches all the time. Oh, Warhawk is infinitely replayable. Another enjoyable game for me, so I would definitely recommend it to others.

3.) TOMB RAIDER LEGEND (Xbox360)
This game has been out for quite a while but I hadn't played it much at all until a month ago. I had played the original Tomb Raider back on the Playstation years ago, and had slowly lost interest in the franchise as each successive iteration of the game seemed to be worse than the last. I had heard that this game, Legend, would be much better so I purchased it after playing the demo that was released on Xbox Live. I have to say, a lot of what made Tomb Raider a fun game all those years ago has been rediscovered in Legend. There is a good amount of platforming, exploring, puzzle-solving and combat. I never felt like any one thing was overused or that any piece of the game was tacked on. There is some modest replayability (thanks to Xbox Achievements), as you can replay your missions on harder difficulties and against time (i.e., you have to beat a mission within a predetermined time leaving you little room for error). This game is probably not for everyone, but if you enjoyed the older Tomb Raider games then give Legend a try.

4.) MADDEN '08 (Xbox360)
What can you say about Madden? I like football, and this is one of the only football games left on the market. I got the Xbox 360 version over the PS3 simply because I have more friends who currently own Xbox360s. Ultimately, I play this game so I can compete against others online. If you are not into football (or don't have someone who can teach you the rules and how to play), then I would not recommend this.

5.) LAIR (Playstation 3)
I am currently renting this game, and have only played through the opening level. I have not read any reviews of this game, but have heard that it has been universally panned by many reviewers and other gamers. I can only speak for myself and my experience, but I haven't seen anything with my limited time playing the game that would make me think it was bad. Flying your dragon mount requires you to use the tilt-motion sense of the SIXAXIS controller, and I didn't have any problems with the flight controls at all. Graphics were incredible and I didn't notice any slowdown in the framerate, ghosting, or lag. I haven't had too much problem with combat and honestly had a fun time sinking a bunch of enemy ships. Again, maybe I just haven't played enough of the game to see why people don't like it, but from my initial impressions I have come away impressed. This is a long way from the last dragon flight simulator I played (i.e. the old SSI gold-box game, DragonStrike).


Being a gamer is such hard work! Next time I do some reviews, I should be talking about MONSTER MADNESS (Xbox360), OVERLORD (Xbox360), RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN (Playstation 3), MOTORSTORM (Playstation 3), HEAVENLY SWORD (Playstation 3) and DIRGE OF CERBERUS (Playstation 2).

Employment ... finally

Well, after a lot of searching I am finally employed again. I start working on Tuesday for a division of VeriSign out in Santa Cruz. It is a bit of a commute (something like 30 miles each way), but I think it will be a very good opportunity for me. I will be working in System Support, but I can't really say anymore since I haven't started. I'm excited, though, and just happy to be working again. I hope to take some pictures of downtown Santa Cruz while I am working there. From what I briefly saw, it's going to be a nice place to work. And it doesn't hurt that I'll be near the beach and boardwalk.

So, I'm still playing a lot of games on all my systems. Madden '08 is taking up most of my time on my Xbox360, but I still manage to play some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. I will also be renting Bioshock soon. On my PS3, I am playing Warhawk. I've also tried out the demos for Heavenly Sword and Folklore, plus I downloaded Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on this system as well. Always looking for people to play, so look me up if you are online.

Almost forgot. The greatest time of the year has already started. Football season! Tomorrow I get to meet people from the San Francisco Bay Area Gator Club to watch the Gators open their season to become repeat National Champions. It will suck getting up early on a Saturday (the game kicks off at 09:30 PDT!), but I am a die-hard Gator fan so I'll be there for breakfast with the Gators. Then, this is the last week of NFL preseason, so next week the regular season begins. I can't wait to watch my Bears go back to the Superbowl, and you know I'll be cheering for the Buccaneers to do well also. Ah, the dark times are over.

Some quick links of interest I recently found on the Internets.

Real Men Love Big Trouble In Little China
- Great article that only speaks the truth!

CPDRC practices Michael Jackson's "Thriller"
- You have to watch it to believe it!

"At least there's violence and tits." -- Yahtzee, Zero punctuation!
- I've only seen a couple of this person's videos, but they are all awesome!

... and continues some more ...

So, not too much to report since last I posted. I have been continuing my job hunt out here in San Jose and things are still progressing. I had two very good interviews yesterday (Friday) and I expect to hear something positive on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Actually, I hope to hear something early next week otherwise I think I am going to pretty much go insane. I can't say it hasn't been nice relaxing at the house all this time but if I don't get a job soon ... I just can't sit here anymore.

Well, at least I have been getting in some time with my personal pursuits while I've been on the job hunt. I have been studying one of my Cisco books so that I can take and pass the CCDA exam. I am guessing another certification to place on my resume can't hurt. I've slowly been catching up on watching all my DVDs. And I have been playing some video games, especially online. I have both a PS3 and a Xbox360 and my network ID on both systems is "Dracos3442". So if any of you are up for a game, send me an invite or message. Currently I am playing a lot of Madden 08 on my Xbox360 and next week I will be purchasing Warhawk for my PS3.

Other than that, not much to report. My roommate and I did make a discovery when shopping at the local Costco recently. Evidently, they import glass bottles of Coca-Cola from Mexico. Why is this important, you ask? Just look below at the pictures and check out the ingredients.

Sugar, wondrous, glorious sugar!

... and continues ...

Now, I just wanted to expand on my last topic a little bit more. I don't want it to seem like I am discouraged or depressed out here. Far from it, but like I said hunting for jobs has gotten a little annoying at least in certain situations. For example, I have gotten a lot of calls from different IT staffing/professional-service type companies regarding jobs they are trying to fill for various different clients. These staffing firms have seen my resume from one of the various job websites (like Monster or Dice) and feel my skills are a good fit for such-and-such position for so-and-so company. I end up speaking with maybe two or three people from the staffing firm, everything looks good and they submit me for the position. Then I don't seem to hear anything. I try to call or e-mail my contacts at the staffing firm, just to try and find out if the position is filled or if I am still in the running, but it just seems that I cannot get a hold of anyone. And that is what annoys me most about this whole job hunt. I don't mind finding out I was rejected for a position because at least I know and can go on to other leads. Now, this doesn't happen with every staffing firm I have spoken to, and I continue to have very good relationships with those that keep me in the loop. But this is where most of my frustration lies.

However, I don't feel like this is the appropriate time to dwell on this subject. It is the weekend, professional football (my Bears and Bucs have both won their first preseason games) has started and college football is almost here, and I had a really good time out last night both at dinner and the later on at some bars in Palo Alto. Going to enjoy some gaming today before settling in to watch some more preseason football this afternoon.

... and the job hunt continues

Well, not much to report at this time. I had hoped to be working by now, but things just aren't working out to my liking. Granted, I am not the most patient person so my job hunt is really going about how one would normally expect. But I would rather be working, and not still looking for work.

I thought I had a position last week, but it turns out the company I interviewed with (and by all indications, I interviewed well) decided they were not going to hire a new position out here in San Jose. They had just implemented 24x7 operations in their New York office, so my guess is that they are spending their money in an effort to staff that area.

So that leaves me back to applying all over. Of course, I also have recruiters calling me all the time telling me good things, but lately even that doesn't seem to get beyond the initial contacts. Quite frankly, this is getting a little annoying.

Staircase Structural Integrity: 110%

Well, I wouldn't be the person I am if it weren't for the fact that I can laugh at myself. Two days ago, I think, I was up early in the morning checking e-mail and continuing my job hunt. I was downstairs and thought I had heard my phone, which had been left upstairs in my room. I trudged upwards, coffee in hand, to get it and return downstairs.

Now, let me take a moment to say a little something about the house I am living in. I moved out to San Jose mainly because my good friend Kal offered to let me rent a room in his house for very cheap. Originally, this house was a 3/2 one-story home. Kal and the other owner of the house decided a while back to totally rebuild it. I believe they were (are) planning on flipping the house to make a nice profit on it, but the whole process of it all has taken longer than I would guess they envisioned. The house as it stands is now a 6/5 two-story home, and although it is mainly finished there are things here and there that still need completion. Because of this, the stairs have a thin layer of plastic covering the carpeting. Obviously, this is to protect the color from staining as work is finished around the house.

So, let's get back to my situation. Having picked up my phone, I am now on my way downstairs with coffee in hand and sandals on my feet which are not giving me much grip. Then there's plastic on top of the carpet. Right foot slips, and I proceed to bounce on my ass down the top half of the stairs. Cursing the entire way down, of course. I managed to save about half of my coffee; unfortunately, I ended up wearing the other half. I ended up getting a good laugh out of it after the fact, and true to the title of this post the stairs maintained structural integrity throughout the ordeal. Ughh ... such is my glorious life ...

On another entirely different thought, I just want to vent a little on how retarded trash pickup is out here. Why do I have to buy stupid little stickers to place on extra trash bags that don't fit in my trash can?! And why do those stickers cost me $6.25 a piece?! I don't care how much stuff I can recycle and how I don't have to separate it, why can't I place extra bags out for trash pickup? I never had this type of nonsense in Florida, and it's not like I am going to place out something like 9 or 1o bags. This is just stupid. Backwards-ass state.

Updates, updates, updates ...

Hmm ... it seems I have been lax in my blogging duties. Well, time to catch everyone up again.

First off, I just want to mention that I saw something that quite frankly defies explanation and should not even exist. Mere words cannot describe my horror at what I have seen, so I will let one picture do more than the English language can ever express.

Ugh ... I feel the bile rising every time I think about such a horrible concoction.

On a better note, I forgot to mention a nice experience I had shortly after arriving here in California. I joined my roommate, Kal, his girlfriend and his brother, Dan, in meeting some friends of theirs for dinner out a little bit away from the city. I wish I could remember what the name of the restaurant is, but one neat thing about it was all the interesting articles they had hanging all over the interior walls. Now, this by itself is not special but, well, just take a look at an example:

It was a fun place and the food was good too.

So, what have I been doing this last month since arriving in San Jose? A lot, actually. For the first two weeks here I pretty much just took a vacation and didn't worry about getting a job. It helped that Dan was in town visiting his brother. I have known Kal, and by extension Dan (and all his other brothers), for a long time now but it wasn't until these last few weeks that I really got to hang out with Dan. And I am glad I did. Dan is an awesome person to hang out with. I have to say it has sucked without him here (he left last Sunday) because it means I actually have to work towards getting a job. But I know I will be seeing him again soon. He is going to be traveling to Tokyo, Japan, in September to teach English and I am determined to go out and visit him next spring (and X will probably join me; whether he knows it or not). So, while Dan was here we went out to Chinatown and Japantown in San Francisco. We went to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz twice. We went to Muir Woods National Monument. We also saw some architectural genius at the Winchester Mystery House. And then we went in to the city (both San Jose and San Francisco) to go out drinking at various times. And let's not forget all the sushi we ate (pretty much every other day).

Well, I am sure I am forgetting a lot of other things. I did end up going to the WWE Great American Bash pay-per-view at the last minute last Sunday. Had a great time and took some decent pictures. Actually, I have tried to take a lot of pictures while out here on the west coast. You can see them on my Picasa Web Album, along with older pictures from past vacations, if you are interested.

I think I will stop there for now. I've been making progress on my job hunt since Dan has left. I am looking for some definite results to happen next week.

One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall

On my last post I briefly talked about how I was waiting on most of my stuff from Florida to arrive. My car did end up getting here last Sunday, and I was happy to note that it got here in exactly the same condition as when it was picked up. I have already gotten it checked out by the local BMW dealer here, as well as gotten it a mini detail. On Tuesday I get to go to the DMV office to apply for my California driver's license and register my car here so I can get new tags.

My furniture arrived last Tuesday. The movers did a great job of transporting everything here with little to no damage on any of my things. I am pretty much set up in my room, and it is nice having all my clothes here (especially since I had packed all my cold-weather gear). I also have all my game systems, so at least I won't be bored during my job search. Right now, only my PS3 has network access. I have some work to do fixing the networking in the house so that I can get my Xbox360 connected.

So, I saw Transformers yesterday and I will just say that I really enjoyed it. I loved watching the Transformers cartoon when I was young, so when I first heard about a live-action movie I was really skeptical that it could be good. But I made sure to disassociate the movie from my memories of the cartoon and then I went in to the movie with an open mind. I ended up loving it, and it helps that they had the original voice of Optimus Prime reprising his role. I hope the movie does well enough to warrant a sequel.

Well, this coming week will just be me searching for a job. I have already applied to 3 positions at a company called Network Appliance, where my friend and roommate Kal works. I have also applied to 4 positions at Cisco, 1 position at Sony, and I have been contacted by a recruiter from a staffing agency about a 3-month contract position at Google. Hopefully one of these will pan out. I'll get an update out in at least a week.

Waiting ...

So, I have been here (San Jose, CA) going on five days now and I feel like I really haven't accomplished much. Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do right now since none of my things are here from Florida yet. My car is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow sometime and my furniture and clothes are scheduled to be delivered sometime around the middle of next week. A lot of the things I was planning on doing are dependent on my having a car, so at least I will be getting that taken care of tomorrow.

I am still adjusting to life out here. The weather is making things easier, as it usually is about in the mid-80's during the day and gets down to the 60's during the evenings. Once my car comes in, I can then start learning where everything is.

I hope to have more exciting things to report in the near future. Might also have some pictures up soon, too.

Part of this was written on Monday, June 25.

So, I am currently half-way to San Jose, CA, on a plane probably somewhere between 35,000 - 40,000 feet above the ground. The flight out of Tampa to Houston was pretty good. It was raining in Houston which caused some turbulence during landing but nothing that bad in my opinion. The flight to San Jose has gone pretty smooth as well.

Over the last five days or so, I have been trying to spend time with my family and many of my close friends. I know I will be seeing them again, but still I am moving away so it won't be as easy as calling them up and meeting them out for dinner. Last Thursday I met JerseyStrangler and his gf Jill at Samurai Blue, a local sushi restaurant. We had a nice dinner there for an hour and just talked and had a good time. The next evening, my parents treated me to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. My dad loves the food there, so it was partially a night for him as well. The food was exquisite as always, and my parents and I enjoyed the evening. Saturday was relatively quiet. I saw Rotfiend, who is joining X as a new tenant in my house in Tampa. He moved his furniture in to the house while I had been doing some last minute cleaning. The real story happened on Sunday.

Yesterday, I gathered with many of my close friends as they threw me a going-away party. In total, I think there were eleven of us there plus three children. So fourteen total, and we spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out, catching up, cooking out (mmmmm … hamburgers … ); just really enjoying the company of friends. I tried my best to split my time amongst everyone, but I am not sure how well I did. I also tried my best to keep my emotions in check. No one there would have said anything (well, I'm sure I would have gotten some good ribbing from KS-1 and Badstar), but it was a really emotional decision for me to leave my home and friends. I may not see any of them for months, and that really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I am going to miss each and every one of them. So it was hard to keep myself in check last night. Some people might wonder why I bothered, but I come from the old-school, "Men don't cry", way of thinking. In fact the last time I admit to crying was on 09/11/2001. Now, if I say it was hard to keep everything in check at the party, it was tenfold worse last night and this morning when I left my parents. I love my parents dearly, and hope to make them proud with all that I do. It was very difficult for me to leave them. Even now, at times when I think about them and all they have done for me it chokes me up a bit. They have and continue to give me such wonderful support.

Wow ... I think I need to move on to a happier topic for myself. At the party Sunday night, I got a wonderful gift that all my friends contributed in. It was a photo album containing pictures of us all at various times ranging from high school to a couple of weeks ago. It was wonderfully done, and I am very proud to have been given it as a gift. My parents also gave me something right before I left. It is a family heirloom in my eyes. A little bag that was given to him by his mother (my grandmother) that is supposed to bring you good luck and fortune. I will definitely make sure to keep both of these presents with me, always.

Birthday Celebration and Father's Day

Two weekends ago, I traveled up to Columbus, OH, with my parents to visit my sister and her family. My niece was turning six years old so we traveled up to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. Despite being the home base for Ohio State University, Columbus is a gorgeous place and around this time of year the temperature is wonderful, especially for those of us used to the heat and humidity in Florida. The trip was short but sweet. The entire family spent three, good-quality days together and both my niece and nephew really enjoyed seeing their uncle and grandparents. Their uncle and grandparents enjoyed seeing them as well. I always look forward to these trips because it is rare for all of us to be together, especially now that I am moving out.

One unrelated note regarding the trip though. Parked out in front of the hotel we were staying at was a Ford GT. I am not that knowledgeable about cars, but I do admire performance machines when I see them and the Ford GT is no slouch in my eyes. I wasn't too keen with the way it was painted, but in talking to people with more knowledge than I it seems that the car was painted to look like the GTs of old. That's all well and good, but I just didn't like the paint job at all. Even if it was orange & blue (being a UF grad I bleed those colors, but not in these tints)!

California knows how to party

... or at least that is what I am told. But in a few days I am going to find out if that is true or not. On Monday, June 25th, I will be flying out of Tampa and relocating to San Jose, California.

Kinda big news for me, actually. I have spoken to close friends about my desire to work out in Silicon Valley for a long time now, but I always thought I would have to assure myself of a job before moving out to that area of the country. Everyone likes to scare you about how expensive California is, and how difficult it can be to get IT work out there. I had been applying to jobs from home in Tampa, but never really got any solid leads other than the ones that a friend of mine could set up for me. But then I would just screw it up in the interview by being honest. Anyway, although I was doing well in my current job about a year ago I began to feel like my skills and my very being had grown stagnant. And to be honest, I just was not interested in opportunities here in Florida. I had almost gotten a job out in California back about seven years ago, right when I was fresh out of college, but I ended up staying and working for a company in Florida. I think that all this time I have had a little voice in the back of my mind whispering about what could have been. So, I guess you could say wanderlust hit me.

So, I decided I wanted to move out to California, job or no job. But then I needed to make sure I had a place to live. I'll be damned if I make a move like this and still have to worry about finding a job and a residence when I get there. So, I started talking to an old friend of mine who has been living out in San Jose the last eight years. He has tried to convince me to move out there a few times, so I figured I would call him up and see if he knew of anyone who was looking for a roommate around summertime. Our conversation ended with him offering me a place to live in his house at an incredible rate. I took him up on his offer and basically told him to hold the room for me, I am on my way.

That was about 8 months ago. Things went slower than I anticipated, and quite frankly slower than I wanted. But a move like this takes time, and I also decided that I was not going to sell my house and instead I would rent it out. I already had one tenant, X, who has lived here for the last four years. So I figured I would get one more renter. To make a long story short, the older brother of the person I know out in San Jose lives here in Tampa and needed a place to stay. So, I offered to rent out my bedroom to him (I actually have been friends with the entire family for quite some time, so this worked out real well.) and he accepted. I gave two weeks notice to my employer back about three weeks ago and my last day at work was last Thursday. I will miss everyone there, and although I intend to keep in touch I doubt I'll have any days at work that I had with the group of people I just left.

This week is moving week. My car was picked up by auto transport yesterday and the estimated time it will be delivered to me in San Jose is around June 28. The furniture I am taking from my house is being picked up today. That will leave me with some cleaning to do towards the end of this week, a bunch of good-byes, and then a plane ride out to San Jose next Monday.

For those few friends of mine who actually read this little blog, I will try my best to update it a lot more than I ever did in the past. My goal is to let it become your window into my world out there in California. Anyone still reading this, if you notice me slacking send me a swift kick in the ass to write an update.

No reward is worth this ... oh, wait ... after seeing those pictures, hell yes it is!

So I totally missed all the festivities happening on G4 yesterday regarding the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. I am a fan of the movies, might even be a geek for them, but wasn't too caught up in the whole hoopla. However, after seeing the pictures of Attack of the Show's Olivia Munn dressed up as Princess Leia I am now going to have to find a way to DVR the replay. Christ! She is damn fine! Link to the pictures on Attack of the Show's site is following now:

Attack of the Blog: Olivia Munn as Princess Leia

I've only recently started watching Attack of the Show regularly. I had watched its precursor, The Screen Savers, back before G4 bought TechTV. After G4 purchased it and then changed the format of the show I stopped watching as I wasn't too interested in where it was going. I don't know why, but about a month ago I decided to give Attack of the Show another shot and now I am really liking it.

In other news, I have started putting some of my pictures back online from some of my past vacations. If you go to the following site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dracos3442

you will see pictures from my trip to California in 2003. I will be adding pictures from my trip to Japan in 2005, and then pictures from my last two trips to Las Vegas. So keep an eye on that site as I will be updating it with more and more content.

Hope everyone is doing well. As always, I am working on some personal projects that I hope to reveal very soon. My best to you all.

Dwarf Cage Fighting follow-up

Now, some may not have believed me when I mentioned that I was going to an Irish bar here in town to see dwarf cage-fighting. But here is the pictured advertisement, right off the bar's website (image used without permission; if contacted, I will remove it without question).

I made it to the James Joyce about 19:30 that evening. The bar was still getting patrons as it had just opened. Met X, who had arrived a few minutes before me. A friend and coworker of mine, Ed, made it a little while later but well before the events started. I could go on about how it was, but I figure I'll let pictures speak for me. I apologize if the quality is not too good, but this is the best I can do with my cellphone.

The cage.

The combatants.

He seems pretty happy oil-wrestling Ms. Ireland.

Updates

I hope to have some updates real soon. I have some personal projects I am finishing up, and I want to make sure everything is working the way I want before I post anything about them. Hopefully, I will have some fun stories to tell about my excursion later tonight. Myself and some of my friends from work are going out to the James Joyce Irish Pub in Ybor City. Evidently, tonight they are having a cage-fighting match ...






... a Dwarf Cage Fighting Match!

Whoa ... time to write something, I guess

Well, I guess I haven't been around in a while. That wasn't done on purpose. Just haven't thought of what I could post here. I know I have said in the past I would update my blog regularly to keep my friends (because, really, those are the only people who look at this space) informed on what I have been doing or how life is going. Guess I am not doing too good a job at that. Well, time to try to fix that bit of laziness ...

So, it's February 17th and I haven't posted anything since briefly noting that the University of Florida won the BCS National Championship. I can't really say anything has changed too much. I have been keeping up with my exercise routine, even getting challenged to diet for 6 weeks and doing well with that. I haven't lost much weight, only going down from 176 lbs. to 171 lbs. at last check up. But body fat % is down again. Over Christmas I had put some fat back on (I mean, who wouldn't with all the great food and parties) so I was up to about 20.2%. But at last check up I was down to 17.8% and I have been increasing my cardio workouts to try and lose more.

Life at home has been well, too. My parents are doing well, already planning their vacations for the entire year. I am already booked on one vacation, set to join them out in Las Vegas around October 18th of this year. My sister and her family are doing well where they live out in Columbus, OH. I need to call her to see how everyone is, and also to say "Hi" to my niece and nephew.

Everyone of my friends are doing well, also. There was a new edition to one family, as KS-1 and his wife had their second child. The baby is eating and pooping, as babies are want to do. Of course, he isn't sleeping longer than 2 hours at any one time so the parents are having a great time not getting any rest.

I'll try to have another update shortly. I really want to get my web server back up so I can repost all my pictures from various vacations. If I can get that done soon, I will post the link to it. Hope y'all are doing well!

YES!!!

University of Florida Gators
2006 BCS National Champions

18:15 - My predictions for the BCS National Championship

Real quick, I just want to post my prediction for th BCS National Championship. The Ohio State Buckeyes are an incredible team, full of power, speed and playmakers on both sides of the football. But there is no way I can go against my alma mater, The University of Florida Gators.

UF 28 - OSU 24