Being Electrocuted
October 30, 2008
I'm Back
It's been a few months since my last post. Sorry. I've been caught up in school, work, remodeling our kitchen, football season, parents visiting, and voting. There are some funny stories to tell, but I'll save them for their own posts.
Labels: Life
¶ 8:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
July 14, 2008
Wild Suburban Weekend
I spent most of last week in the city for a management conference. One night we had dinner inside AT&T Park, and another day took the out-of-towners on a boat cruise of San Francisco Bay. Needless to say, all this excitement meant I deserved a relaxing weekend back at home.
On Friday, I played poker with a knife-wielding maniac after going out to celebrate a teammate's last day at Google. Good luck in Chicago, Mark.
On Saturday, Brigitta and I finally stopped in and ate at Garden Fresh, the vegan Chinese food restaurant in Mountain View, this weekend. I liked it so much I decided to Yelp about it.
Sunday, We rode our bikes to the Farmers' Market. Here's a tip: Go before 10 to beat the crowd. ¶ 7:08 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
On Friday, I played poker with a knife-wielding maniac after going out to celebrate a teammate's last day at Google. Good luck in Chicago, Mark.
On Saturday, Brigitta and I finally stopped in and ate at Garden Fresh, the vegan Chinese food restaurant in Mountain View, this weekend. I liked it so much I decided to Yelp about it.
Sunday, We rode our bikes to the Farmers' Market. Here's a tip: Go before 10 to beat the crowd. ¶ 7:08 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
June 22, 2008
Beat the Heat
So, Brigitta broke the air conditioner while I was out of town a few weeks ago. This weekend it was a hundred degrees outside, and the in-laws are coming this week, so I was finally motivated to try and replace it. Long story short: through-the-wall air conditioners are pretty hard to find, and Sears is a very strange place. Here's the old one on its way out (the shopping cart went in the dumpster too). I squeezed this project in between writing two papers for school, and of course the weather cooled off the next day.
Next we went to the Farmer's Market on bikes. Brigitta got me a new bike seat because squirrels destroyed my old one. Speaking of animals, there's a bird nest in our tree We think it has eggs. Stink thinks she's gonna get a free meal. ¶ 9:31 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Next we went to the Farmer's Market on bikes. Brigitta got me a new bike seat because squirrels destroyed my old one. Speaking of animals, there's a bird nest in our tree We think it has eggs. Stink thinks she's gonna get a free meal. ¶ 9:31 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
June 16, 2008
New Bathrooms
I studied all weekend while Brigitta painted the bathrooms a gray-ish color. We had kind of a unique problem, with latex paint on top of oil-based paint, so I went with her to Lowes on Saturday to get the right primer and stuff. When I go to home improvement stores, I expect to be able to ask old, experienced, ex-contractor types for their opinion on complicated projects. Who I end up finding are kids who live at home with their parents and who don't seem like they've ever built anything. If brick and mortar stores can't provide the simple service of an educated employee in their area of expertise, I might just move completely online. Whatever that is, whippersnappers.
Anyway, the bathrooms look great. Complements to the chef, er contractor.
Anyway, the bathrooms look great. Complements to the chef, er contractor.
Labels: Life
¶ 7:11 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
April 30, 2008
Get an eyepatch
I skipped the Night Marchers show Monday night since I was pretty tired and wasn't that excited about going by myself. Besides, I had just gone up through the city on Saturday with a van-load of European tourists. In fact, I drove a 12 passenger Ford E350 for the entire trip through wine country. Check that off of life's to-do list.
Just got back tonight from the OSO Conference in San Jose. Highlights were Eric Schmidt, a blogger panel, Al Gore, and MC Hammer. You think I'm kidding. Pleasant surprises when I got home were tickets to the a recently added Flight of the Conchords show (Brigitta is on some pre-sale list) and Mario Kart Wii!
As for school, my first semester is coming to an end soon, and I've been finishing up my last few assignments and finalizing a paper on foreign direct investment in Poland. studying for finals will occupy my next two weeks. Also, the UF MBA program had a few more impressive rankings lately if you are into that sort of thing: Financial Times ranks it #1 in the US for Career Progress and The Economist says they have the #1 Distance Learning MBA.
Wear the funky funky eyepatch.
Just got back tonight from the OSO Conference in San Jose. Highlights were Eric Schmidt, a blogger panel, Al Gore, and MC Hammer. You think I'm kidding. Pleasant surprises when I got home were tickets to the a recently added Flight of the Conchords show (Brigitta is on some pre-sale list) and Mario Kart Wii!
As for school, my first semester is coming to an end soon, and I've been finishing up my last few assignments and finalizing a paper on foreign direct investment in Poland. studying for finals will occupy my next two weeks. Also, the UF MBA program had a few more impressive rankings lately if you are into that sort of thing: Financial Times ranks it #1 in the US for Career Progress and The Economist says they have the #1 Distance Learning MBA.
Wear the funky funky eyepatch.
Labels: Funny, Google, Life, music, school
¶ 10:35 PM 3 Comments Links to this post
March 27, 2008
Posting from the iMac
Welcome to my first post from the new iMac. It's been pretty fun re-acclimating to everything I seem to have forgotten. There's a lot of cool new stuff like the webcam, Expose and Dashboard. It still seems Apple is pushing this .Mac (dot mac) thing, which is annoying (Remember when Microsoft tried to push .Net and no one understood what it was?). Anyway, we installed Microsoft Office and, of course, it tried to set Entourage as the default mail client, so I guess they are even. When I installed Google Desktop Search, Picasa and Firefox, no one tried to sell me anything.
As an update to my previous posts, I also installed iConcertCal and macFUSE to to get my concert gadget working from this machine. Haven't tested everything yet to see if it works as seamlessly. In fact, the iMac is sitting on our kitchen table instead of the office. I need to make time to transfer everything of the ancient Dell.
The lack of posting here is due to my busiest week of school so far. Please don't panic. ¶ 7:27 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
As an update to my previous posts, I also installed iConcertCal and macFUSE to to get my concert gadget working from this machine. Haven't tested everything yet to see if it works as seamlessly. In fact, the iMac is sitting on our kitchen table instead of the office. I need to make time to transfer everything of the ancient Dell.
The lack of posting here is due to my busiest week of school so far. Please don't panic. ¶ 7:27 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
March 21, 2008
Happy Birthday Brigitta!
Today is my wife's birthday. To celebrate, I'm throwing a little party tonight, and tomorrow night we are going camping in Big Basin. I got her an iMac, but she had to work for it this morning. Since Brigitta is a semi-professional easter egg hunter, her mother suggested that I hide her gift and leave clues around the house leading to it. Of course I did this, but not before giving her a pile of camping related stuff so she would think she was getting jipped on presents this year, including a hatchet, leatherman, camping grill, bug repellant, and can of propane. I think I'm funny.
¶ 7:34 AM 0 Comments
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Today is my wife's birthday. To celebrate, I'm throwing a little party tonight, and tomorrow night we are going camping in Big Basin. I got her an iMac, but she had to work for it this morning. Since Brigitta is a semi-professional easter egg hunter, her mother suggested that I hide her gift and leave clues around the house leading to it. Of course I did this, but not before giving her a pile of camping related stuff so she would think she was getting jipped on presents this year, including a hatchet, leatherman, camping grill, bug repellant, and can of propane. I think I'm funny.
¶ 7:34 AM 0 Comments
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March 16, 2008
End of an era
It's been over a year since I purchased the Yamaha Vino, and since we got the second car, she's been collecting dust. Also, my one-year motorcycle permit recently expired and California state law requires me to have a motorcycle license, even for a 50cc scooter. Since I don't really have time to take a motorcycle course, I can't really justify re-registering and re-insuring her. I hope she doesn't take it the wrong way.
We had a good run, but it's over now. I think I'll take her out for one last joyride. If you know anyone looking for a slightly banged-up scooter, send them here:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/mcy/608011568.html ¶ 10:15 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
We had a good run, but it's over now. I think I'll take her out for one last joyride. If you know anyone looking for a slightly banged-up scooter, send them here:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/mcy/608011568.html ¶ 10:15 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
March 9, 2008
It'll Never Happen to Me
This morning, Brigitta noticed a charge from yesterday for $9.87 on our online bank statement. The company name was 'www.photosmix.com', and the purchase was made with a debit card she rarely uses. A quick search, and she finds this thread at broadbandreports.com discussing a whole network of their sites and several other people with the mysterious $9.87. This appears to be similar to a known fraud technique...
Looks like photosmix.com is currently down, but there are still plenty more sites with the same generic 'stock photo' template. They probably only keep them up until enough complaints roll in and things get suspicious. It doesn't look like GoDaddy has made any attempt to take down these domains, but if they are stealing credit cards, I'd guess they are using those to buy the domains as well. The newer sites seem to be registering with Domains by Proxy to protect their identities. What's a few extra bucks when it's not yours in the first place?
I may need to dedicate a little time to this caper tomorrow.
"This group is also using the same deflecting tactic as the globus group, by telling victims someone registered on the site with their car. More than likely any victim who bought that lie and got a credit will have been hit with a second charge the next month. Any subsequent second hit names and full info is vital in following the trail."Obviously, we canceled the card and reported the fraud to Bank of America and the FBI, but now I'm kind of obsessed with catching these bandits. I'm not sure how they got the card number, possibly by taking a picture of her debit card at an ATM or department store sometime over the last year. All you need is the number and expiration date to process a credit, I do it all the time when I order (cheese) pizza.
Looks like photosmix.com is currently down, but there are still plenty more sites with the same generic 'stock photo' template. They probably only keep them up until enough complaints roll in and things get suspicious. It doesn't look like GoDaddy has made any attempt to take down these domains, but if they are stealing credit cards, I'd guess they are using those to buy the domains as well. The newer sites seem to be registering with Domains by Proxy to protect their identities. What's a few extra bucks when it's not yours in the first place?
I may need to dedicate a little time to this caper tomorrow.
Labels: crime-fighting, Life
¶ 1:10 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
March 2, 2008
Neighborhood Watch
There has been an increase in crime in Mountain View lately. There was another murder last week, the second in the past month. Prior to that there has only been one murder in the city since 2005. The buzz from these types of crime spikes usually points fingers at a lack of police officers, though, from my experience calling the cops on naked old ladies swimming in my pool and unlicensed street vendors littering in my neighborhood, the Mountain View police respond in minutes, and usually in numbers of two or three.
Anyway, I am a firm believer in the Broken Windows Theory, though I think there is a major hesitation for many people to report petty crimes. Hopefully the new Bay Area Crime Stoppers tip line will encourage people to do their part to report the serious ones. If you live in Mountain View and don't care about anonymity, just put (650) 903-6395 on your speed dial and put your tax dollars to work.
Labels: Life
¶ 5:46 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
February 2, 2008
Blood and Guts
Happy Anniversary to Me and Brigitta!
Technically, our 2 year anniversary was January 28th, but I had to leave town on the 27th. Last Saturday, we celebrated early by going to the Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Body World exhibit, then we went to see There will be Blood. I recommend both. We gifted ourselves by framing the Alfons Mucha prints we got in Prague last year. ¶ 9:28 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Technically, our 2 year anniversary was January 28th, but I had to leave town on the 27th. Last Saturday, we celebrated early by going to the Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Body World exhibit, then we went to see There will be Blood. I recommend both. We gifted ourselves by framing the Alfons Mucha prints we got in Prague last year. ¶ 9:28 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
January 6, 2008
'My Neighbors Cat', 'Back to School', or 'HD Tivo Rulez'
I've been feeding my neighbor's cat Smuckers for past few days. It hates me. Hissing and scratching at me every time I walk in the door. I think she misses her owner. I was lucky to get through the experience alive. In other animal news, Lola got her staples out.
I'm starting the University of Florida MBA program this Friday, and will be gone for 10 days in Gainesville, FL for the orientation. It seems like there are a fews good shows to check out while I'm there, so that should be fun. Not to mention seeing some friends for the first time in a year. When I come back, Brigitta will already be gone to Paris and Milan for work for the next week, returning in time to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary before I am off to Dublin again the week after that. February should be somewhat back to normal.
Oh yeah, and HD Tivo rules. The pathetic thing was that we had to wait two weeks to have a technician come out and install the CableCards, which amounted to a guy coming in, inserting a card, calling a phone number and repeating two numbers to the person on the other end who flipped a switch. Voila, $15.99! You see, Comcast won't let you do the self install for CableCards, probably in some last ditch effort to squeeze a few extra nickels out of us or salvage what's left of a dying business model. When you upgrade to a TV or DVR that uses CableCards, the cable companies cannot charge more than $1.50 per card. This saves the on the box rental fees they usually make off of you, and gives you the ability to bypass the Comcast STB menu system. All Hail Tivo!
I'm starting the University of Florida MBA program this Friday, and will be gone for 10 days in Gainesville, FL for the orientation. It seems like there are a fews good shows to check out while I'm there, so that should be fun. Not to mention seeing some friends for the first time in a year. When I come back, Brigitta will already be gone to Paris and Milan for work for the next week, returning in time to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary before I am off to Dublin again the week after that. February should be somewhat back to normal.
Oh yeah, and HD Tivo rules. The pathetic thing was that we had to wait two weeks to have a technician come out and install the CableCards, which amounted to a guy coming in, inserting a card, calling a phone number and repeating two numbers to the person on the other end who flipped a switch. Voila, $15.99! You see, Comcast won't let you do the self install for CableCards, probably in some last ditch effort to squeeze a few extra nickels out of us or salvage what's left of a dying business model. When you upgrade to a TV or DVR that uses CableCards, the cable companies cannot charge more than $1.50 per card. This saves the on the box rental fees they usually make off of you, and gives you the ability to bypass the Comcast STB menu system. All Hail Tivo!
Labels: Life
¶ 8:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
December 26, 2007
Merry Crimbo
After a lot of traveling, we decided to stay home alone for the celebration of consumerism this year. We got pretty festive with a two-foot tree and some multi-colored lights in our bushes. For Christmas eve, we loosely follow a Lithuanian tradition of eating seafood, so we went out to The Fish Market in Palo Alto. It was really good, I think I'll be back. I don't really like seafood other than shrimp and crab, but I am strangely drawn to seafood restaurants. Maybe it is some weird nostalgia thing that makes me think of Florida or reminds me of when I used to work in seafood restaurants on the beach. Who knows.
Christmas Morning, 8 AM - Lola and Levi unwrap their new dog toys (the dogs always get presents), play for about 30 seconds until Levi decides both toys are actually his. Lola disagrees, a fight breaks out. Two minutes later, I'm in the car on my way to the vet with Lola, who has a huge gash on her forehead. After 3 staples (Dr. Sharon Zweiter was awesome), I bring her home with a giant cone around her neck and a bottle of amoxicillin. 11 AM - We finally open gifts from each other and the rest of the family. Highlights were Guitar Hero III for Wii from my brother, much needed semi-professional clothes from Brigitta, and a Wusthof knife set from my parents. With gift certificates and cash, we bought a TivoHD box, finally! CableCards are scheduled for a Jan 5th install. I'll give a full history of Tivo and Comcast, and me after that. Oh, and I need someone to invite me to a New Years Eve party. ¶ 1:06 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Christmas Morning, 8 AM - Lola and Levi unwrap their new dog toys (the dogs always get presents), play for about 30 seconds until Levi decides both toys are actually his. Lola disagrees, a fight breaks out. Two minutes later, I'm in the car on my way to the vet with Lola, who has a huge gash on her forehead. After 3 staples (Dr. Sharon Zweiter was awesome), I bring her home with a giant cone around her neck and a bottle of amoxicillin. 11 AM - We finally open gifts from each other and the rest of the family. Highlights were Guitar Hero III for Wii from my brother, much needed semi-professional clothes from Brigitta, and a Wusthof knife set from my parents. With gift certificates and cash, we bought a TivoHD box, finally! CableCards are scheduled for a Jan 5th install. I'll give a full history of Tivo and Comcast, and me after that. Oh, and I need someone to invite me to a New Years Eve party. ¶ 1:06 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
December 9, 2007
The Cliffs of Insanity
Finally a hotel with free WiFi! Brigitta and I are in Galway, Ireland at the moment, just back from a Day trip out to the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, well almost...We were supposed to go to the Cliffs of Moher (Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride) but the winds were so strong that they closed the cliffs to visitors for the first time this year. The rest of the trip was fun, though rainy, cold, and windy.
It's been three months since I've written anything on here, and since then I've been studying for the GMAT, traveling a lot and occupying the rest of my time kicking ass at Fantasy Football. I took the GMAT in September and scored a 640 plus a 5.5 out of 6 on the essay section (which I hear no one actually looks at). I finished up my application to UF's distance MBA program and sent it in. We'll see what happens. After that, Brigitta and I went on our first European Vacation together to Berlin, Munich and Prague. It was seriously awesome, and here's our #1 tip: Visit Prague now before the Czech Republic converts to the Euro and it becomes insanely expensive. Next, for Thanksgiving, we went to north Georgia to visit my parents and brother in their new permanent home in the mountains. My dad is recently retired and now spends his time working on the house, making it seem more rustic and less modern. We flew into ATL and rented a car to drive the 2.5 hours up to Dillard, GA. Highlight of the trip...I got to drink sweet tea for the first time in years! One week after getting home from that trip, I left for Dublin, Ireland for a two week work trip. I'm halfway through now, and Brigitta came out for a week in the middle, so here we are on a weekend trip to Galway.
Slàinte
PS - Tim Tebow won the Heisman, in case you were wondering.
It's been three months since I've written anything on here, and since then I've been studying for the GMAT, traveling a lot and occupying the rest of my time kicking ass at Fantasy Football. I took the GMAT in September and scored a 640 plus a 5.5 out of 6 on the essay section (which I hear no one actually looks at). I finished up my application to UF's distance MBA program and sent it in. We'll see what happens. After that, Brigitta and I went on our first European Vacation together to Berlin, Munich and Prague. It was seriously awesome, and here's our #1 tip: Visit Prague now before the Czech Republic converts to the Euro and it becomes insanely expensive. Next, for Thanksgiving, we went to north Georgia to visit my parents and brother in their new permanent home in the mountains. My dad is recently retired and now spends his time working on the house, making it seem more rustic and less modern. We flew into ATL and rented a car to drive the 2.5 hours up to Dillard, GA. Highlight of the trip...I got to drink sweet tea for the first time in years! One week after getting home from that trip, I left for Dublin, Ireland for a two week work trip. I'm halfway through now, and Brigitta came out for a week in the middle, so here we are on a weekend trip to Galway.
Slàinte
PS - Tim Tebow won the Heisman, in case you were wondering.
Labels: family, Google, Life, Travel
¶ 12:45 PM 1 Comments Links to this post
August 27, 2007
What happens in Vegas can't be as fun as this
My wife went to Las Vegas for three days for "work". I am home dealing with two hyperactive dogs and one itchy cat. Michael Vick is on TV talking about being an idiot. When our dogs are being bad, we now tell them we're going to send them to Bad Newz Kennels. If you're bored, watch this video I made of our failed attempt to fight our animals for money:
Labels: Life
¶ 8:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
August 26, 2007
HOA Website
Between working and studying for the GMAT (Sept 22!), I've been slowly putting together a website for my Homeowners Association at www.mountvernoncourthoa.com. I'm using Joomla, the open source content management system and it's been going pretty smoothly. I'm slightly aesthetically challenged, so don't laugh. I'm hoping this earns me some serious cred around my block :). Most of the real content is behind the user login which is only available to other owners in our complex. I have noticed that Google indexed several of the calendar pages individually. I need to setup my robots.txt file to prevent that. I've also been helping Brigitta setup an unofficial work blog for her at www.smallgiftbigstyle.com. The idea is to promote the high end Sanrio stuff at Momoberry, or whatever. Like I know anything about Hello Kitty.
¶ 5:20 PM 0 Comments
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August 16, 2007
I'm like famous
Yesterday at work, I helped co-author a blog post about some new tools and features for webmasters. I'll also be attending the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose next week. Should be fun.
In my personal life, we've been planning for our vacation to Berlin, Prague, and Munich in October. Before you ask, we are not going for Octoberfest. All the real Germans I know told me to avoid it if I don't want to spend my vacation with a bunch of drunk tourists. Something I know a little bit about growing up in Panama City, Florida. Anyway, we saved a few hundred buck by going the week after.
I have a funny story about calling the cops on a little old lady, but I'll save that for another time. ¶ 7:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
In my personal life, we've been planning for our vacation to Berlin, Prague, and Munich in October. Before you ask, we are not going for Octoberfest. All the real Germans I know told me to avoid it if I don't want to spend my vacation with a bunch of drunk tourists. Something I know a little bit about growing up in Panama City, Florida. Anyway, we saved a few hundred buck by going the week after.
I have a funny story about calling the cops on a little old lady, but I'll save that for another time. ¶ 7:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
June 9, 2007
That's a crying shame.
My old blog was boring, and a coworker recently started his own while he is in China, and I was motivated. So to briefly explain the name of this blog, you should look here. Yes, I stole a line from a movie. I will use this place to talk about home improvements I'm working on, review concerts or albums I like or dislike, cool new technology, and maybe life in general with a wife and three pets. Ok, we are going to eat breakfast and then I am going to BFD.
Labels: Life
¶ 11:51 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
