San Francisco, Executions, and Creola

On a whim, we headed out to San Francisco for the day. We started off at Sophie's Crepes in Japantown. When we arrived at around 11:30, it had not yet opened. This was strange, so we poked around Kunokuniya, the Japanese bookstore nearby, for a bit. Eventually, the crepe place opened its doors about half an hour later, and we munched on some of their goods.

I then had a craving for some seafood cocktails, so off we went to Fisherman's Wharf. After having some crab and shrimp cocktail from one of the many seafood stands, we checked out Musée Mécanique, which was this odd museum of old school coin-op machines. It was here that I ran into an old high school friend who just happened to be visiting the area... crazy randomness, really.

Anyway, the museum was pretty strange. One thing I noticed in particular was that there were three different coin-op machines that showed off executions; two were British, and one was French. I was curious enough to pay a quarter to watch the French Execution. Let's just say that it was not worth it at all. Here's a picture of the three execution machines, and a video of the French execution. I mean, seriously, couldn't they have extended the show a bit?




After the very short execution, we hit up a bar called Ireland's 32, and it was nice. Since it was mid-afternoon, the place was a bit empty, but the bartender was good and it seemed like it would be a pretty happening place during prime time.

Of course, we could not miss out on some O'Keeffe's, which I posted about in the past. That was a good time, just like the last time. We shot some pool, played Liar's Dice with the bartender, and had a few drinks. Definitely a place to check out if you're ever in the area. Too bad we live nowhere near.

We then tried to get some Korean food over at the well-known and respected Brothers restaurant, but when we got there the wait was too much for us to handle. So, we opted to go to a place I had been in the past out in San Carlos called CreoLa. The food was as good as I had remembered. I felt that my dish could have used a few additional garnishes to make it more pleasing to the eye, but as far as taste goes, there was no complaint. One thing though was that the kitchen was a bit slow, but at least the service was good.

I'll stop here, but before I close this out, here are some pictures from dinner.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Gulf Shrimp

Crab Cake

Blackened Redfish with Dijon Mustard

Pork Tenderloin

Peanut Butter Mousse and Lite Chocolate Mousse on a Vanilla Wafer Crust

Filipino Food

I went out for Filipino food a while back, and I never got around to putting up any quick post about it. Anyway, we went to Pinoy Lechon BBQ & Grill in Morgan Hill after reading good Yelp reviews. I personally like Filipino food, and I liked the two pork dishes we ordered, Lechon Kawali and Pork Sisig. The food's not the healthiest, but it was all very tasty and satisfied my desire to have something a bit greasy that afternoon.

If you ever have any craving for Filipino pork dishes and you're near Morgan Hill, I'd say give them a try. I'll definitely go back and try some of their other dishes. Also, the prices were very reasonable, so that's a plus.

Here are a couple pics.

Pork Sisig

Lechon Kawali

Dancing Blenny

Here's a short video I took of a Starry Blenny (Salarius ramosus) in JC's aquarium. It is also known as a Snowflake Blenny. It's a cool looking fish that blends in really well with the craggy looking rocks. You might not even notice him in the beginning. The video also shows what he's so good at... munching on algae and keeping it trimmed.

He even dances a bit to the music. Well, not really, it took me a while to get the music to match his initial movements the best I could, haha.

The Eternal Footman

Carnegie Mellon researchers put up a new site the other day called Death Risk Rankings. What they've got is an interesting, albeit morbid, tool that allows you to view the statistics of dying within a year from various causes. The tool gives you some customization flexibility so that you can view the data in various ways to get a better view of the death landscape.

You'll want to go over a few of the tutorial's quickly to get a better understanding of what the output tables are saying. And, for you math/logic types, they even have a tutorial written about Simpson's Paradox.

Anyway, for Californian males (non-White, non-Black) in my age group (30-39), the data shows 777 per million deaths within a year -- the top three causes are suicide (97), transportation-related accidents (82) and heart attacks (53). Move up two age groups to the 50-59 crowd and death stats show a quintupling with 4026 per million deaths.

As I said, it's all a bit morbid, but at least now we've got a tool to give us a better guess as to when our time will come (and how).

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

Celebrity Look-Alikes

I have recently begun watching the True Blood series (it's free on my HBO OnDemand). Anyway, in Season 2, they introduced this Daphne girl that I vaguely remembered from some episode of Law and Order. It was eating away at me a bit, so I dug around some on the internet.

Well, guess what? I found the person I was thinking of from that Law and Order episode, and I was shocked to see that it wasn't her. They are real look-alikes in my opinion. Neither is anyone actually famous, but the faces are probably recognizable.

The one on the left is Ashley Jones and the one on the right is Olivia d'Abo. Others might not agree, but to me, their resemblance to one another is uncanny.

Weekend Getaway: Napa Valley

The market's been rocking lately, and some of my larger positions jumped a good amount on Friday. So, the timing seemed right for a quick spur-of-the-moment trip. We decided on spending a couple days doing some wine tasting in Napa. It's a good choice since it's not too far away, and it's something that JC's never done before.

We booked a one bedroom suite at the Westin Verasa. Due to the last minute booking, there was only a $25 price difference between a normal room and the suite (there was some kind of 40% off special going on for suites). So, it seemed like a no-brainer to get the suite. Anyway, the hotel was really quite nice and there was even kitchenette with an infrared halogen stove. But, since we were only there for one night, we didn't get to try it out.

The trip consisted of two things really... food (what else is new) and wine tasting. I guess I'll start with the wine tasting.

We did our wine tasting at a handful of wineries starting with Folie à Deux. There we shared two different tasting flights and learned a bit about all the aromas and how to properly sniff the wines. It was here that we also first learned about the Vinturi Aerator, which is used to accelerate the process of 'breathing' wine -- there was a huge difference in taste between wine that was aerated compared to simple swishing. Quite a few of the wineries used the device, so it's probably pretty good at what it does.

Anyway, all the wines we tried tasted okay... some tasted better to us than others, but that's pretty much expected since it's really quite subjective, especially given that neither of us is a sophisticated wine drinker. We planned on buying a bottle from each place we visited, and so we got the first bottle for our collection.

We also did a tasting at the large Mondavi winery. I'd been there in the past, and just as before, I really liked their Fume Blanc. Their dessert wine was also quite nice.

The other wines that we tasted on our first day were from Peju Province, Louis M. Martini, and also Hill Family Estate.

One thing that we were able to taste while at the Peju winery was the differences in taste of wines that were aged for different lengths of time. They brought out a 'fresh' wine that had been aged only two or so years along with a nearly identical wine that had been aged a couple years longer, and there was a night and day difference in the taste. The wine that had been aged an additional two years was clearly the better tasting one. We picked up a bottle of the aged one, because I'm not patient enough to wait two years to experience the better tasting wine.

We ended up not buying anything from the Martini place only because those wines were more expensive, and we weren't sure we could justify the cost given our ability to appreciate them. At some point we did hear that the Ghost Block wine that was carried at the Martini location was excellent. We even saw that it was sometimes served at formal dinners at the White House. Maybe I'll drop by BevMo some time to see if they carry it so that I can see what's so awesome about it.

We did try a few wines at the Hill Family Estate shop in Yountville when we were out walking around waiting for our seats at a nearby restaurant. One of them we both liked, so we picked up a bottle.

Earlier this morning we tasted some of the sparkling wines at Domaine Chandon, and we also visited the Tuscan castle replica at Castello di Amorosa, which is a winery owned by the same guy that owns the famous V. Sattui winery. Although the castle is newly built (opened to the public in 2007), the building materials were mostly authentic to keep things truer to form. We took a tasting tour there that took us into the deeper levels of the castle and showed us their wine making and barrel aging processes. It was interesting and educational, but there was one annoying thing... there was this one lady in our tour group that kept asking the most inane questions and just wouldn't shut up. She was trying so incredibly hard to sound intelligent and sophisticated, but it was a gigantic failure.

Anyway, we had originally planned on having a nice picnic lunch at V. Sattui, but our plans changed and we ended up having a wonderful meal at étoile, a restaurant at the Domaine Chandon winery. So, I guess it's time to share with you food pics.

For lunch, we went with their Garden Heirloom Tomato Tasting Menu. After starting us off with some bread and sea salt sprinkled butter, they gave us an amuse—— oyster on the half shell topped with a tomato—— and some complimentary sparkling wine.



The first course that followed was absolutely fabulous. I really mean it. It was so incredibly good that I don't even know how to describe what my taste buds were feeling when I put the first forkful into my mouth. It was a tuna and hiramasa carpaccio topped with coriander flowers, heart of palm shavings, and tomatoes. They also poured some tomato water over all of it, and I just have to say, "Wow!" I think that I could eat that every day for a month without growing tired of it. The flavors were complex and it was just so creative. Kudos to the chef on this one.


The main course was a roasted beef tenderloin that was cooked to perfection. The dish came with short rib rillettes that tasted pretty good, but not something I'd seek out explicitly. There was also some marrow that was coined, which tasted just fine when it wasn't eaten in isolation. However, eating the marrow by itself wasn't really to my liking, and I generally enjoy the taste of marrow. Still, the dish was very good.


For dessert, they brought out a balsamic vinegar ice cream with caramelized tomatoes. Additionally, there were cocoa nibs and some cinnamon basil. This was very different. It's not like anything I've had before. It was delicious, but at the same time it was just weird (in a good way). You have to wonder how this sort of dessert gets created in the first place. Both the appetizer and the dessert were really creative with seriously different flavors that worked well together. Having eaten the three courses, I really felt like this might be what an 'Iron Chef style' meal would be like if tomatoes were the focus ingredient.


After dessert, they gave us shaved ice with wine as a palate cleanser. Nothing too special, but it was nice and did the trick.


I highly recommend this restaurant if you're ever in the area. The outdoor seating is really nice offers a nice view of the winery's grounds.

Last night, we ate at Ad Hoc, a Thomas Keller restaurant, which originally was a temporary establishment that grew so popular that they made it a permanent one. The one thing that you have to know about this place is that their menu changes daily, and there aren't any choices for you. Every single person gets the exact same prix fixe, except you do get to pick and choose your wines and beverages.

Also, it's probably a good idea to make reservations. We ended up waiting about an hour to be seated at the bar, because we didn't make any -- we really didn't want to force a schedule on ourselves.

Here was our night's menu.


Here's the Bibb Lettuce salad. Apparently, the salad's ingredients were all fresh from the garden, and I must say that you can definitely taste the freshness. It was an excellent and refreshing start to our meal... just look at it.


The porterhouse steak was a shared dish and cooked very much to my liking. I know that JC prefers her meat a little less rare, but it was obvious that she loved it seeing as she ate all of her pieces without any complaint at all. The side of beans was also really fresh tasting having come straight out of their garden as well.


Following the main course, they gave us a plate with Cypress Grove Chevre's Truffle Tremor goat cheese. The plate also came with some mirabelle plums and Palladin bread (named after the late famous chef, Jean-Louis Palladin). We both like cheese a lot, and so it's no surprise that we both loved this cheese plate. I think it's also fair to say that we both felt the subtle sweetness of the plums worked quite well with the cheese. [On a completely different note, I bought this marble cheese slicer recently, and I must say that it's been a wonderful purchase so far.]


The dessert was a fairly simple tart. It was a sweet meringue that had been molded and cut into a bowl shape, which was filled with a layer of pastry cream and topped with fresh mixed berries and sauteed strawberries. It wasn't super special, but it was good.


We were both very pleased with our meal here, and again, I'd recommend it. But, as stated earlier, the menus change daily and you don't have a choice in what you get, so make sure to check the menu ahead of time.

Well, that's all I've got time for, so I'll end this with a pic of the wine we ended up picking up on our trip.


I think this will last us a while... we rarely have wine with our meals. Then again, maybe we should start having wine with our meals more often. I've never been much of a wine drinker, but I do think that wine is slowly growing on me, for better or worse.

Kill A Watt and Electricity Usage

Last month, our electricity bill skyrocketed due to greatly increased air conditioning usage. As you all know, the marginal cost of the electricity increases the more you use. Now that I think about it, it seems a bit strange because in almost any other case, it's the other way around; the more you buy the lower the unit cost. Anyway, I digress.

This is how PG&E prices power in our area (for a 32 day billing cycle):

Baseline Usage 387.20000 kWh @ $0.11531
101-130% of Baseline @ $0.13109
131-200% of Baseline @ $0.25974
201-300% of Baseline @ $0.37866
Over 300% of Baseline @ $0.44098

As you can see once you get over 200% of the rather low baseline, you really get hurt with rates that are 3-4x the initial baseline rate.

Well, we ran a few experiments where we didn't use any AC and checked the meters, and we learned that we were still consuming a lot of power. For example, we consumed 10 kWh overnight (11pm to 9am) with no AC running. This figure is roughly the 12.1 kWh designated as daily baseline usage. In other words, we were being pretty dumb about our energy use, and it probably wasn't limited just to stuff running passively.

I went out and picked up Kill A Watt, which was only $15 at Fry's Electronics. This little device is pretty neat. You pretty much plug stuff into it, and it tells you how much electricity is being consumed. It also keeps running track of kWh over time, which is useful for those devices/appliances that have variable power consumption.

Some interesting things that I noticed and don't really understand...

1) Our mini-fridge (aka the beer fridge) uses 0 when it isn't actively trying to cool down. During its cool-down phase, it draws 75 W. This phase only happened 4 times over a 2 hour period or so. A total of 0.06 kWh were used after 2 hours in the evening. It probably uses more during the day as it's hotter.

2) A cell phone charger without charging anything draws 3 W. Computer charger without a computer plugged in draws around 4-5 W. A sub-woofer that is not in use draws 13 W.

3) Computers (not laptops/notebooks) use a crapload when not in standby. My computer setup with an external hard drive, LCD monitor, cable modem, router, and speakers draws 200-250 during normal use. It is only when the hard drives really start going that the 250 peak is reached.

When in standby mode with the monitor going into energy saving mode, the power draw drops to under 30 W, if I turn off the external hard drive and the speakers.

4) Halogen lamps are evil. I always knew that they used up a lot of power, but I have always used one in the office because of how much light they produced. Not any more. The halogen lamp draws a whopping 300 W. We swapped it out for a different torchiere lamp that uses only 25 W. It's not as bright, but there's no way it makes sense for us to use the halogen, especially since the office is used a lot with JC working from home.

5) Fish tank filter draws 11 W, and the fish tank light uses 17 W. This means that if you keep your light on all day (which I used to do a lot, because I'd forget to shut it off at night), then over 5% of the daily baseline is being consumed by the fish tank. So, now I'm trying to remember to turn off the fish tank light at night, which is probably better for them anyway.

I've got a lot more stuff to test, but at least now I feel that I've gotten a better handle of what devices and appliances are costing us what.

And, in case it's not obvious, I really do recommend the Kill A Watt product. It really does work as advertised. My only complaint is that it's a bit large so sometimes you'll have to unplug other things in order to test something.

Lake Tahoe and a Big Bear

So, I was over in Tahoe over the weekend. It was all pretty standard until I (along with my sister and JC) encountered a ferocious sounding bear. Lucky for us, it wasn't like we were in the middle of the woods or anything. I was basically walking up and down a rather long stretch of stairs that led up to our condo mostly to prove a point about being able to do it. Anyway, I was walking rather slowly to conserve energy. All this time, both JC and my sister were complaining to me about how slow I was moving.

After a few minutes, they got a bit more excited and said I needed to pick up my pace and go up quickly since there was a bear. I assumed it was a joke, and I kept going up at my slow pace. That is until I saw a bear making a really mean sounding growl. The bear was seriously large... I'd guess it was at least 400lbs, but who knows for sure. That scared the crap out of me, and I bolted up the stairs. In doing so, I scared the bear off. I guess it assumed I was charging it since I was moving in its direction just upwards.

Well, I guess that's the most interesting part of the trip. We did rent a couple of Seadoos and rode around in the water some, which was a lot of fun. And, I suppose I did see some giant ants over at the nearby Fallen Leaf Lake. Here's a picture and a video of one of them.



Link to Video

XBox360 Back Online

Well, I'll be damned. The operation was successful... the X-Clamp fix worked. I spent about $15-20 or so to get everything I needed, and I have a good amount of random stuff left over. I did spend about 6-8 hours of my own time (mostly reading and going to get parts). Anyway, at this point the unit is completely working, and so now I'll just have to see if the fix sticks or not.

In any case, I'm pretty stoked. I was originally thinking it was maybe 3-to-1 against, but maybe I'm just a bad XBox360 repair handicapper. Anyway, I am going to have a celebratory beer now.

Edit:

Seeing as how my XBox is still working after over an hour of play, I figure I should put up the link to the repair instructions I followed. I did have to make some minor modifications (i.e. I did not follow the instructions 100%, but it was in areas where I used my best judgment given the parts I was able to find -- for example, I was unable to find 1mm thick nylon washers).

Llama's X-Clamp Fix

XBox 360 Dissection

Well, I learned today that the 3-year "Red Ring of Death" warranty on the XBox360 has expired. So, there wasn't any reason that I shouldn't at least try to fix the problem myself, if it was indeed repairable. I read up a bit on what the typical issues are that cause the problem, and it seems that it is almost always related to the the GPU. Either its overheating or there are some cold solder joints.

In any case, in order to fix the potential issues, you've got to open up the unit and do things to it. The fix that I am trying is the "X-Clamp" fix, where you end up replacing these X-clamp things that hold the heatsinks in place. Part way through the step-by-step repair instructions that I was reading, I realized that I needed some stuff that I didn't have. So, tomorrow I'm going to have to buy some washers, thermal paste, and thermal paste remover.

Here are a few pictures of the current state of my piece of crap XBox 360.

Red Ring of Death Revisited

Just over two years ago my XBox360 died the infamous Red Ring of Death.  Today, on a breezy Saturday night, it has suffered the same fate.  This is so lame.

The first time it happened, my system was conveniently a few months outside of the warranty window.  After paying for repairs, Microsoft extended its warranty due to the prevalence of the problem, and I was able to get a refund.

What's going to happen now?  I have no idea.  I guess I'm going to have to call up their support.  It will suck if I end up getting stuck with the bill.  This is ridiculous.  My old school Nintendo still functions as far as I know.  And, I think that our old Colecovision still works too.

Anyway, I am just ranting.

Last Few Days of Freedom

My extended vacation is coming to an end. Maybe I'll regale you with my recent experiences. This might be long, but hopefully it's not too boring.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned a difficult decision that I had to make. As many of you already know, my former company had gone bust and ceased its operations. So, for the first time in my life I was unemployed and on the dole.

I didn't sweat it much. My cash situation was totally fine, and the primary financial cost to was the opportunity cost of not actually pulling any salary. I figured I'd take some time off and look for a job in a non-aggressive manner, and there was always the strong possibility that whoever bought the defunct company's IP/assets would pick me up. Anyway, I got bored a month into the jobless life (pretty lame, huh?). I thought that I had better step up my job hunt efforts since the economy and the job market wasn't the best for the unemployed.

Pickings were slim for sure. I'd say that for software, it was nowhere as bad as they were in the post-dot.com crash. Fortunately, I got four interviews through my network and from my own career board postings. One thing that I found interesting was that between all these interviews, there was a good amount of variety. I guess I'll write about each one.

The first one was actually for a longer-term contract position, and this one I flunked. The main reason (in my opinion) was that they were really looking for someone with a specific skill set that I did not have. And, for contract work, you are not really going to have much opportunity learning anything new, since they need someone to produce right away. The interview itself was a bit different than most, as it was me getting bombarded by questions from 4 different interviewers all at once in a conference room. I have interviewed a lot in my life, and I don't think I've ever had this sort of group interview before.

Another interview was for a company in the same space as my former one. They knew a lot about me, and they had recently hired a couple people from my previous company. One of my contacts put me in touch with some of their executives. Though I never actively sought employment with them, I was invited to discuss potential projects and the like. An informal offer was made after we had a good conversation covering my experience and expertise and also what they had planned for their company going forward.

I wasn't too interested mainly because I felt that I needed to branch out and do something new. I've been in the same niche for almost 10 years, and I thought it was time to move on. We've still got our communications channel open, so there might yet be part-time contract work for me if there's mutual interest.

The toughest interview (the one where this question came up) I had was with a smaller office/group of a large parent company that was in a completely different, and much larger, industry. The parent is headquartered out of state, but they have a smaller research/engineering group locally. Anyway, the interview was broken up into two sessions on two different days and lasted a total of roughly 9 hours. It was highly technical and it was difficult by most measures. I came out of each day pretty exhausted and drained. Good thing that it was not for nothing. When I was told that they would be extending an offer, I was seriously excited.

My fourth and final interview came by the way of a friend of mine. We had worked together in the past... maybe some 5 years ago or so. His company was a startup in a similar industry as my former company, but it worked on a different type of product/technology with a completely different target market. Not sure of a good analogy, but maybe something like motorcycles vs. cars or serious periodical vs. teen magazine would be close.

In any case, I had an afternoon of technical interviews in areas where I believe I'm an expert. Everything went very well, and an offer was extended within a few days. Their technology was incredibly cool, and I was quite impressed. I think most people would be as well. One strong selling point was that they had an actual product out there already. So, this wasn't going to be an early-stage startup experience where there was high risk of never getting out of the R&D stage.

Well, it came down to this...

a) Work for a large company, but within a smaller group that was somewhat insulated from the highly corporate environment. The work would be different in every way, and there'd be a reasonably steep learning curve no matter which projects I was put on. Everything would be new to me. Also, commute time would be about half an hour.

b) Work for a medium-sized startup where I know that I could be productive very quickly and possibly shine very early on. My previous experience and my current skill set was a near-perfect match for the position. And, I'd get to work with my friend (who referred me), which would be a nice bonus, not to mention that working on a really cool product that can actually 'wow' you is another benefit. This place was closer, so the commute would be more like 15-20 minutes, so each day I'd save myself about half an hour. Also, there's always the remote chance that you can jackpot if a startup makes it to the big time.

After negotiations, both offer packages were similar and very competitive. So, the decision was not hinged upon which one was better from a financial aspect. I was really torn. It's tough to change... at least for me.

Choice A gives me more breadth and allows me to pick up skills that would likely help me in the future if I wanted to do branch out futher into other industries. As with most new jobs, I would have the initial "Can I really do the work?" fears. And, what if it turns out that I hate this new stuff?

Choice B offers me new things to work on while giving me some additional breadth within my current industry. Additionally, it certainly would provide me with even more depth. It is the obvious safe choice. I would have no fears about being able to do great things and be a real producer. But, having nearly 10 years under my belt in the same industry, if I continued down this path I might be typecasted so to speak, if that hadn't already happened.

In the end, I went with Choice A. It's going to open up a whole world for me; the problems and challenges will all be new to me. Thinking back at what was going through my mind at the time... I figured that this was probably the best opportunity I've gotten outside of my current niche, so I had better take advantage of it. If worse comes to worst, I'd still be in high demand should I ever go back to my old industry. It's certainly not the easier path, but I am hoping that taking it will pay long-term dividends, both financial and erudite.

If you made it this far, I'm impressed. Re-reading what I've written, it sure looks like I rambled a fair bit.

Anyway, I start work on Monday, so my journey begins then. Enjoy the weekend.

Robozzle

Here's a new logic/puzzle game that I just started playing. The rules are pretty simple... you write a program that controls a robot with the goal of picking up all the stars. One neat thing about this game is that there are optimization, recursion, and other coding techniques that are incorporated into many of the puzzles.

Here's a link to the game: Robozzle.

You'll want to play the tutorials and a few of the easy rated puzzles first. I haven't yet attempted any puzzle rated more than 3/5 in difficulty. Here's one that I still can't figure out and it's killing me. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone can figure this one out and give me some help.

I'm clearly missing some fundamental concept/technique. The furthest I can get the robot is past the red square and make the first left turn after it. I just can't figure out how I can get the robot to make the subsequent blue corner turns afterward.

Help Me -- Puzzle 1043: Fermat's Spiral 3

Enjoy the game!

Burritozilla Challenge

In the spirit of continuing with the eating theme, I went over to Iguana's in San Jose and picked up their famed Burritozilla. It's an 18" burrito that weighs in at over 5lbs and will run you $18.75 (tax included).

It came in a large box and when I weighed everything, the scale gave a reading of 5.4lbs.


I gave away two small pieces of the burrito to JC. We estimated that her part was no more than half a pound, but we didn't bother weighing it.

I basically gave myself an hour to eat as much of this beast as I could though I would make sure to stop before I got to the point of being 'sick' full. Here's how it went.

Here's the Burritozilla in all of its glory.


Here's a pic I found on the web that puts into perspective its massiveness.


As expected, the first 15-20 minutes went very smoothly and I was making a good sized dent. Inevitably, my pace slowed considerably, and after half an hour a little more than half the burrito was gone. Here's the clean-cut half that still remained at the half-hour mark.


It was around here that I had to take mini-breaks before resuming this show of gluttony. I chipped away best I could and when the hour was over, here's what was left.


I rewrapped everything and shoved it back into the original box and re-weighed it. The final reading was 1.6lbs. So, I estimate that I put away around 3 1/4 lbs. I could probably keep on eating, but I was getting really close to feeling sick and the hour time limit I had given myself was reached anyhow.

Crazy to think that the professional eaters out there can finish something like this in a very short amount of time.

Here's a video of Joey Chestnut eating the Burritozilla in 3 minutes and 10 seconds. That's just amazing.


Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy your dinners, everyone.

McNuggets Challenge Results

This is an update to yesterday's post, Beginner Food Challenge: McNuggets.

Now that the challenge is over, I describe the experience. Let me just say one thing... this was not a challenge, it was too easy. I knocked off more than 20 of the McNuggets in the first 5 minutes. Then, I polished off the remaining ones in another 12 for a final time of 17 minutes.

I think that 60 or maybe 80 in an hour would be where the challenge would be considered difficult for a total amateur with a decent appetite (e.g. Me).

The things I noticed during that could add a lot of difficulty if it were for more McNuggets were the chewing (your jaw does start to get tired) and the pure monotony of taste. Mixing sauces can only get you so far. In the end, you're getting the exact same chicken nugget taste over and over again.

I guess that's it... this time I am able to get away with shooting my mouth off.

Anyway, here are some pictures and a video to showcase this rather un-newsworthy achievement.





Here's the video below: YouTube Video

Beginner Food Challenge: McNuggets

Tomorrow, I will attempt to finish 40 Chicken McNuggets in an hour.  Compared to what true eaters can do, this is weaksauce, but it's a start.  I have a little money on the line, but it's more of a pride thing.

It's not too bad on paper... in terms of calories, we're looking at 1840 total, but I guess one really bad point is the 4000 mg of sodium.  Nothing dangerous, but it can't be good for you.

I've obviously not prepared in advance for any of this, but I think it should be doable.  We'll see.  This all started with me talking out of my ass, so now it's time for me to put up or shut up.

Some pics/video likely to follow.

One last thing.  To put into perspective how weak this challenge is, the world record for 5 minutes is 80 chicken nuggets.

Update: Results Here

Scumbag Story Time: Lenny Dykstra

Not sure how many of you have been keeping up with the Lenny Dykstra (former baseball player) and his recent woes, but it's fascinating in an accident on the freeway sort of way. He's a serious nutjob and a very shady guy if all that I've read about him is even remotely true. Anyway, if this might entertain you check all of this out.

Two articles that really highlight his really screwed up nature and his current state of financial affairs.

GQ Story
ESPN Story

Cool Stuff

Just saw these recently, and I thought they were cool enough to share.

Here's a really neat infinite photo mosaic thingy.

And, here are a few videos from Ukraine's Got Talent showcasing Kseniya Simonova's talent, Sand Animation.

Decision Time

Well, I have to make a decision this week that will likely be regarded as an important one when I look back on it years from now. It won't be life-changing, but it will surely dictate my professional life going forward, so I definitely have to think things through.

It's definitely nice to have choices with the economy and job market as bad as they are currently. I can't say I'm a fan of making big decisions, but I'm in a good spot. I don't think any choice will result in a bad outcome, but it is all relative.

I guess this post is sorely lacking in details, but I figure I'll have more to say after I make up my mind and sign on the dotted line.

Quick Update on P90X

We're more than 30 days into the P90X program, and for the most part we've been doing it diligently. There were a couple days here and there where we had to shift around the workout days vs the rest days and we missed maybe 3 sessions altogether.

The good news is that there's been improvement in my muscles, most noticeably my biceps. We've been taking pictures each week (none to share yet), and looking at them it seems that there's been a decent amount of fat loss and muscles are overall getting more toned.

The workouts still suck... we hate them, but we love them (haha, that's a joke for anyone that has been doing the P90X). I'm definitely getting more flexible, but there's no way I can actually do all of the exercises. Many are still out of reach for me, but I do whatever 'easy' versions that try to work the same muscles, etc.

Wild Animals

The other day, JC caught some sort of field mouse in the garage. We kept it around for a few days feeding it apple bits and crackers. We finally let it go today. Hopefully, it doesn't return.


We also have been spotting wild boars around the area lately, and we finally got a decent shot of two of them. Looks like a mother and baby.


So, I looked up whether or not hunting them was legal or not, and it turns out that it is legal provided you've got a hunting license ($41.20) and a wild pig tag ($19.70). Also, it's perfectly legal to hunt them on your own property or on public land... I am not exactly sure what counts as public land. Is a county park considered public land? Because, I've definitely seen them in a nearby park.

I've never been hunting before, but it might be an interesting experience to take one down and then bring it over to a butcher or something to obtain useful meat. You'd probably get a ton of pork and bacon from just one of these guys.

Also, it turns out there's some odd rules (in my opinion) on what sorts of weapons you're allowed to use. From the official guidebook from the California Dept. of Fish and Game...

The following methods can be used for hunting wild pigs:

1) rifles and handguns using centerfire cartridges with soft point or expanding bullets;

2) muzzleloading rifles of at least 0.40 caliber;

3) shotguns capable of holding no more than three shells and firing single slugs; and

4) archery equipment and crossbows.

Spears, knives and other methods not specified in Sections 353 and 354 of the hunting regulations are not allowed for hunting wild pigs in California.

I guess I don't quite get why you're not allowed to spear them or use knives, yet you're allowed to shoot them with a gun or utilize archery. Seems strange to me, but maybe there are good reasons for these rules. Then again, I have no idea why anyone would want to try to take on a wild pig with only a knife if they had other alternatives.

Hands-Free Motorcycling

This video is about a year old, but it's just nuts. That is one crazy dude.

Mystery Beer

We hit up Trader Joe's today, and they had this mystery beer bag available. Undoubtedly, the beers were going to be leftovers from packs that got partly messed up. Anyway, we thought it was likely we'd get a good deal, so we went for it... 8 beers for $4.99.

Here's the mystery bag.


And, here are its contents.


So, we've got 2 cans of Murphy's, a bottle of Guiness, a San Miguel Dark, and 4 different varieties from the Trader Joe's Brewing Co. (Joseph Brau's). All in all, it seems that the mystery bag was a good value.

Spago

This past weekend was pretty busy for me. Headed down to SoCal to attend a wedding and also to enjoy a fancy dinner with the family to celebrate my dad's retirement. We were originally going to check out Mastro's steakhouse, but my sister and her husband had just gone there recently. So, we decided on Spago, which none of us had ever been despite it being a classic LA institution of fine dining.

The meal was very good. But, I'm not sure if it was on par with other two-star Michelins that I've had the privilege of trying in the past. Definitely a one-star, but it's really hard to say for sure since I'm really not that much of a foodie despite having lots of food pictures.

I liked my dishes (Tagliatelle as a first course and Salmon as the main course) a lot, and I did get to try bits of most others' dishes. JC's duck was excellent. Those that tried it felt it was probably the best prepared duck ever. My dad ordered, after some familial pressure, the Kobe (100% Wagyu) New York steak and he loved it. My sister and her husband shared the Côte de Boeuf for Two, and it too was very good. Though, they both claimed to have had better at other places. Also, JC and I felt the desserts at Le Cirque (in Las Vegas) were much better.

All in all, everyone was very happy with the meal. It was a nice dinner complemented with good conversation. Anyway, I'm a bit too lazy to write more since I did just spend a lot of time getting the photos ready. So, without further ado, I present the pictures of food.

Starting off with the First Courses...

Tagliatelle with Porcini Mushrooms

Endive and Vegetable Salad

Gnocchi with a Meat Sauce
(not sure exactly, but it sure was good)

Crab Cake

Hamachi and Tuna Sashimi

Risotto with Asparagus and Crab

And now, the Main Courses...

Pan-Roasted Liberty Duck

Red Snapper - Hong Kong Style

Alaskan White Salmon

Kobe Beef - 100% Wagyu New York Steak

Côte de Bœuf (half)

Alaskan Halibut

Finally, the desserts...

Souffle Pancake with Crème Fraîche

Raspberry Souffle

I guess that's all. The meal was expensive, and depending on how you look at it, perhaps it was a bit overpriced. Some felt that more should have been expected, but to be fair, the portions were generous and nothing was 'off.' Plus, there's the added cost due to 'brand recognition' that can't be helped.

Habana Cuba

JC and I went out for some Cuban food last night at Habana Cuba. We took advantage of the Dine About Town deals for San Jose. The promotional period ends in a few days, so if you're thinking about trying a new place on that list, hurry up.

I've been there once before, and I had a good experience. However, I recall the Mojito not being all that good, and this time was no different. The food was good just as it was during my previous experience.

There was some seriously good value to be had due to the promotional pricing. We shared two appetizers, a Yucca Fries plus Tostones combination and Papas Rellenas with more Yucca Fries. We each got a choice of either soup or salad; both of us opted for the chicken soup which was really good including a chunk of chicken with bone intact. Then there were our main dishes followed by desserts. I had the Cuban-spiced pork dish, and she had the stewed shredded steak dish (Ropa Vieja). Dessert for me was a cinnamon-spiced rice pudding, and for her it was a Tres Leches sponge cake. All this for $20 a person. We were both incredibly stuffed after finishing everything, so they surely didn't skimp on portions.

Anyway, if anyone wants to try some Cuban food, I would recommend that they give Habana Cuba a look. I've had two good experiences there so far... just skip the Mojito.

A Neat Problem

Recently, I went in for a series of technical interviews in search of a new position. As is typical in an interview for the types of jobs I seek, I was given a few reasoning/logic/brain teaser types of problems. One of them really stumped me, and it was only after being pushed in the right direction that I was able to see the correct approach and arrive at an answer.

Here it is for all of your entertainment.

A man arrives at the train station after work at 5pm daily. His wife always leaves the house earlier to pick him up and she arrives at 5pm sharp every day. After pick up, they head straight home. The commute time each way is always the same, so they get home at the same time each and every day. To be clear, both one-way trips (to and from) take the same amount of time.

One day the man catches the earlier train and arrives at the train station at 4pm. His wife does not know this, and so she is on her normal schedule. The man (at 4pm) decides to start walking home to save his wife some time. The wife sees him on the road on her way to the station. She picks him up and they turn around and head home. They arrive home 10 minutes earlier than their normal arrival time.

For how long did the man walk for?

P90X - Week 1 Update

Okay, so today marked the end of the first week of the P90X program. It was brutal. After the first two days, I was beaten down so badly that I could not even stand up straight for most of the next day. And to think that despite my poor condition, I had to do more exercise plus the crazy 'Ab Ripper X' workout.

Well, that wasn't really going to happen. I could not physically lift my legs up, so I was forced to skip the Ab workout. I was able to do the regular workout though, so that was good.

The Yoga day was very important for me. It effectively fixed me. I was no longer Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame after that hour, and I was feeling a hell of a lot more limber. That Yoga thing took me from being at 10% to maybe 80%, which was good.

The next day consisted of doing a lot of pull-ups and squats. Well, you can only do so many pull-ups, so you have to cheat a bit (which is what they recommend) by using a leg on a chair to help give you additional support. This was fine, but man, I was so beat afterwards. The guys on the video did about 120 or more pull-ups throughout their session. It was pretty sick.

The final day (today) consisted of some Kenpo cardio kickboxing. It was pretty fun, but it really sucks when your calves and leg muscles are completely wasted from the exercises from earlier in the week.

I hate P90X. I really do. All I know is that it better be worth it afterward, because it sucks. Massive amounts of exercise is not normal. It's really not. Anyway, that's it.

Exercise Time

So, JC's been bugging me about trying this 90-day workout program called P90X. While I do go to the gym semi-regularly, I'm pretty bad about keeping up with trying to be more fit. A program with a rigorous set schedule didn't sound like it'd be too good for me, because chances are I'd break schedule then convince myself that it likely wouldn't work since I didn't follow the rules so to speak.

Well, over the weekend, we hung out with her cousin and her cousin's husband who were vacationing here in the Bay Area. And, the husband had just completed the program at their home and he lost 25 pounds and went from being able to do a mere 3 pull-ups to over 20. That's impressive.

I don't need to lose weight at all. What I do need, however, is to bulk up some. I can do 6 to 8 pull-ups on a good day, and I can't bench worth crap. If this thing can take a guy from 3 to 20, maybe it can get me up there too.

Anyway, today was Day 1 of the program. JC and I pretty much got our asses kicked, which was to be expected given all that we heard about it. There's no way anyone is going to be able to keep up with even half of the exercises on their first try, unless of course they're already in great shape. In any case, I'm super ridiculous sore right now, and I have no idea how Days 2 through 90 will go. I hope it's worth it.

We did take some pictures of ourselves so that if we do end up completing the training program successfully, we'll have some good before and after pictures. Maybe I'll finally get rid of the beer gut.

There are also tons of 'transformation' videos on YouTube.

Ghetto DIY Air Circulation

It's starting to get really hot here in San Jose, and we're pretty much forced to make use of the AC. The problem, however, is that when we turn on the AC in the upper two floors, the ground floor gets freezing cold. It will be 75 on the 3rd floor, 71 on the 2nd floor, and it'll be a chilly 66 downstairs. It's just not efficient, and if everyone is split up, it's never the case that everyone is comfortable.

Turns out this is a common problem. Some houses had designers that did it right... the people that drew up the plans for my place obviously didn't.

Anyway, to help this matter, we built something super ghetto to pump the cold air from downstairs all the way to the top. It's seriously ugly, but so far it's working out some. It's not perfect, but it's definitely helping. Here are some pictures of our set-up.

We start here on the bottom floor...


Then, we snake up two sets of stairs.


And, finally, the air makes its way out at the top where it is the hottest.

Movies

So, I watched two more movies to continue the Best Picture Quest. I saw Gandhi, which was the winner from 1982, and remaining in the Indian domain, I watched this year's winner, Slumdog Millionaire, too.

Gandhi was long. It told a good story, but it wasn't ever really all that exciting and though I was never bored by the film, it didn't really keep me that interested. It's a good film though in that it tells the story of his life, and if you, like me, didn't know that much about him and what he did, it was definitely informational.

Slumdog Millionaire was really well done, I thought. The movie basically gives you a glimpse of a really rough life for the protagonist that gave him the necessary life experiences to win the grand prize of a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show. The film did really well with balancing out a love story and all the various struggles of a homeless and exploited child. I recommend this one for pretty much everyone.

Outside of my quest, JC and I went to the movies and saw the new Star Trek movie. I thought it was really good, and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't consider myself a Star Trek fan, but I am quite familiar with the old series. I thought the Spock character who was played by that Sylar guy in Heroes was excellent. And, as a bonus, you get to learn Uhura's first name. So, if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. There's no real prerequisite for this one, as they pretty much explain everything and provide all the background necessary to enjoy it.

KFC vs El Pollo Loco

Well, I did go and redeem my free Grilled Chicken Meal from KFC today, and I was pleased with it. I liked it, and I'd probably order it again. However, I think I still prefer El Pollo Loco for the grilled chicken. I was looking up what others thought about it, and then I came across this advertisement from El Pollo Loco, which I found highly entertaining only because of how poorly the KFC corporate guys did with pretending to be someone else. El Pollo Loco makes a really good point about "Highway 5." Ha ha. Enjoy.

Free Chicken Meal

So, the Oprah is buying everyone a chicken meal from KFC. If you're not opposed to that, follow this link and print out your free coupon: Unthink KFC. It's good until 5/19/09 with the exception of Mother's Day. Get your free grub on.

Lucky C-Note

I'm not superstitious at all, but lots of Asians are. Anyway, most of you know probably know that the Chinese people love the number 8. I recently got a hundred dollar bill from the card room with a serial number ending in five 8's. Pretty cool... probably should hang on to that one in case I ever play Liar's Poker for hundreds. Ha ha.


It's actually legal to post a picture of money... I looked up the rules.