Cool toys!

I couldn't help myself.... I love Legos! This is offically licensed from Ferrari. I was suppose to be shopping for my nieces and nephew.

Politics can be a little rough

While American politicans might be a little stupid, self-absorbed, corrupt, etc. At least they are somewhat civilized.

The caption for this pic:

Members of South Korea's ruling party spray fire extinguishers at opposition members as they try to break into a committee room, in a row over new free trade laws with the US.

Up in the hills

I went for a hike up in Pacific Palisades, a bit north of Santa Monica. It was a relatively easy hike, like 4 miles without too much elevation change. It was still a pretty clear day.

Pretty clear day

Today was an unusually clear day. On my way to work this morning, I could see the cranes in Long Beach, the mountains to the east, and the mountains to the north, with hardly a hint of smog. I think a high pressure zone forced out all the smog and is also bringing the cooler weather. Winter is the only time the smog really clears out around here. Anyways, I took this picture nearing sunset looking west from my apartment.

Crazy concerts in Europe

I haven't been to one, yet, but they look CRAZY!!! I've been to a few stadium concerts here in the US and they're pretty crowded. But the shear number of people at the European venues is insane!

I bring this up because I just caught some of Linkin Parks "Road to Revolution" Tour at Milton Keynes in the UK. I think this is the same place where Prodigy had a concent and filmed some of their video there. It looks like two soccer fields full of people! In the LP concert, they had a pretty good mosh pit going. In the old Prodigy video, they had the two fields worth of people jumping; it looked like waves in the ocean, freakin amazing!

Here's a crappy screen shot I took from the LP concert.


Here's a link to the trailer for the DVD from the concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9jU0YadrmI

How to beat traffic in LA

There's a lot of things that suck about LA (getting stupid tickets), but this is not one of them.

Lots of gear

1. Running pants (so your skin doesn't stick to the leather pants
2. Leather pants
3. Leather jacket (zipps to pants, optional one piece suit instead of jacket/pants)
4. Back protector
5. Boots
6. Helmet
7. Gloves
8. Long sleeve shirt (so you don't stick to jacket)

Camera mount

So I bought little camera mount to attach to the bike and car for track days. I took a little video on the bike this morning on the way to work, but I still need to up load it.

Basically, this thing uses a big suction cup to stick to any surface. It is STRONG. No worries about this thing falling off.

Edit: here's the vid:

Kids and cars

Well, my 21 month old nephew loves cars... but he hasn't learned how to be 'delicate' with them yet.

The Ferrari F40 was a gift from a cousin in France 16 years ago. The Lambo Diablo I got on the same trip in a small town in Italy. Oh well.

Cops have nothing better to do?! Part II

So I took my car to the airport Tuesday morning and my roommate was going to drive it back home. I pull up to the passenger drop-off and as I get out of the car, a motorcycle cop pulls up behind me with the lights flashing. This is 6:15am by the way and the airport is pretty packed.

"Do you know that you do not have a front plate?". "Yes Officer, I bought the car used and it did not come with the front bracket" I replied. Driver's License, yada yada yada. While he's writing down my info, I start pulling out my lugguge from the trunk and put my backpack on.

I go back to talk to the cop and he asked how long I had the car, (2 years, sir), if I had the front plate (yes sir, got it when I registered the car), what year the car was (2005), if I had a flight to catch, which I did. So... he let me off with a warning with the statements that I should be able to get a bracket from the dealer as the car wasn't that old, and mounting it now would save me 3 hours of sitting in the courtroom for when I did get the ticket. If I had been the one not flying, he would've given me a ticket for sure!

Apparently, the cops were pulling over everyone as my roommate said three other cars were pulled over on his way out. It's the Thanksgiving holidays, 6 in the morning, and they're pulling people over for not having a front license plate?! Hmm.. how about a bunch of terrorists just killed over 100 people in Mumbai? Maybe they should pay more attention to preventing similar issues that could occur at LAX.

Uh... I think something is on fire

My roomie got this pic while he was on a hike over LA a couple weeks ago.

Cops/meter maids have nothing better to do?!

So.... I got my second fix-it ticket today. The first was for my car. I was downtown LA parked at a meter spot, 10-11pm. Meters shut off at 6pm so no biggy. When I get back out to my car, I have a ticket! What the heck?! It was a ticket for not have a front license plate! Seriously, do they have nothing better to do at 11pm (I guess there's nothing going on in South Central or Compton) then give me a ticket while parked? FYI, if you park long term at LAX with no front plate, you'll get a ticket there too!

So today, I went for a motorcycle ride on Angeles Crest Highway north of LA. Riding with one of my buddies who's new to motorcycles so we're just taking it easy. Plus, we'd been getting the 'cop warning signal' from the other bikers so we knew they were close by. Passed the first motorcycle cop, guy named Stout (I think). Anyways, everyone knows him and hates him. A couple miles later, we see the other motorcycle cop. I look down and I'm doing 47-49 in a 45, but motorcycle speedos are notorious for reading high. So my actual was probably 45-47. No biggy... so I thought. Next thing I know, I'm getting pulled over?!!?! What the heck?

And his reason for pulling me over? I don't have a red reflector on the back of my motorcycle. Sportbikes come with this huge plastic things/fenders on the rear which hold the license plate and have a red reflector on them. I bought my motorcycle used (from a dealer no less) and the previous owner had removed the big tail section/license plate thing. He just zip tied the license plate onto the rear of the bike. I actually bought and installed what is known as a fender eliminator kit. Anyways, stock fender is gone and the relector along with it.

If I get it fixed, and get it signed off that I have fixed it by a CHP officer, it's $10. I'm hoping its only $25 if I don't bother getting it signed off. It's really not worth the $15 to get it fixed, then spend the time to go to a CHP station to wait and get it signed off.

The fact that he pulled me over for not have a rear reflector is just retarded! His name is Morrin by the way and he probably already has one foot in hell. I mean, he has nothing better to do? It's not like 3 guys didn't just go blowing by us while I was standing on the side of the road, with no reflectors either. And it's not like LA isn't on fire all over the freakin place. When I got to the restaurant at the top, I told my story to some guys and another guy had Morrin pull him over for the same thing previously.

Oh well... on the way back down, one motorcycle cop was heading up and the other had someone pulled over. The convoy of ten bikes I was with went blowing by them, fockers!

Sweet shot

Shot of the observatory on top of Mt. Wilson. I always like to check it out:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/images/towercam.jpg

It's the first time I've seen it with the observatory open and lit up. You can see LA in the background which is pretty cool.

Milk and Xmas

No.... not quite milk and cookies for Santa. I made a trip to Sams after work to buy some things and they already had xmas stuff up and music going! It's not even thanksgiving yet!

I bought a gallon of milk for $2.60. It's about double that at the grocery store.

One of my worst fears

A prediction from The Dash at espn.com:

Every neighborhood is different

Like I tell anyone visiting LA, every neighborhood is different. A couple weeks ago, I went to the UT alumni spot to watch the game here in the South Bay area; that encompasses Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach. There were a couple other asians in the house, a couple black guys, but mostly white. When you're out at the beach around here, mostly white folks with a few asians.

This past weekend, I headed up to Santa Monica to watch the game. I'd say it was about an even split between whites and Indians for the UT fans! Quite a few other asians in the bar too. And when you go to the 3rd street promenade area in Santa Monica, it's all sorts of races, mixes, and languages.

Only separated by about 15 miles, but totally different. Of course, Compton is right next to the South Bay area and that's completey different too.

LA is big!

I took this shot from Griffith Observatory and this is only looking in one direction!

Cold?

I've been hearing something about cold weather in the mid-west. Something about being in the 30s. Well, here's my weather for the week:

Oktoberfest in Cali!

So the Alpine Village in Torrance throws Oktoberfest every year here. They had a german band and everything! Not quite the same as the original, but not bad at all!

What the heck...

did this bird eat?!?!?! Thank goodness it only hit the window and not the paint.

You know you're in LA (Part 2)...

When on your way to work in the morning, the three cars next to you are a Infiniti, Lexus, and Cadillac. Not only that, but everyone accelerates quickly off the line.

A high percentage of Toyotoa Prius drivers have a heavy right foot actually... counter intuitive considering they bought a vehicle designed to SAVE fuel and then they go wasting it. I can't help but snicker whenever I see one pulled over.

Yup, they're done

Showing cord and steel belt is a bad thing. I guess you can say I got the most out of them.

You know you're in LA...

When the three cars in front of you are all Prius's

Slick roads

So I was in Vegas and there's a lot of newly paved blacktop. That stuff is slicker than ice!!! Probably a combo of being new with the heat forcing out the oils, and probably a good layer of dust on top. Either way, super slick.

Sleepy bird

I was staying at the Embassey Suites in Vegas and they had two swans in their pond. This one was sleeping. It was about 5:30am and when I first read the sign, I thought it said the swans were dangerous... I was very confused! And very sleepy still...

Yup.... that's what I did

www.phdcomics.com

Notice how in 2001, the unemployment rate crossed over to the high side. Yup, I went to grad school in 2002.

Neighborhoods in London

So I was flippin channels last night and 'Bend It Like Beckham' was on tv. I'd forgotten what a huge Indian and Pakistani population lives in England. First day I was in London, I went up to the Hyde Park area and was in a Lebanese neighborhood I think... Ate at this restaurant and hit up the internet cafe next door.

Roscoe's!

Chicken and waffles.... check it out when you're in LA!

Just another day at the track in So Cal

Going to a track day around LA is a little unique in that there are a higher percentage of 'badass' cars compared to track days in other parts of the country. This past weekend, I got to instruct a couple beginners at Autoclub Speedway (formally Cal Speedway, also known as Fontana, or Fontucky) running with the organization Speed Ventures.

On this particular day, there were a pair of Ford GTs, a half dozen Corvette Z06s, a bunch of Porshce 911 Turbos and GT3s, a ton of Evos, an Ariel Atom, a Formula Atlantic race car (I think), couple Ferrari F430s, a sprinkling of BMWs, and two brand new (one only had 1000 miles) Nissan GTRs. Pics can be seen at:

www.motorsportlens.com

People that dumb do exist

So my sister and her husband went to some travel seminar thing... basically, show up, fill out some surveys and get some cash. Anyways, while one of the main people was taking care of some stuff, one of the secretary girls, for lack of a better description, was tending to my sis and husband.

So the usual converstion of where you've been, where you lived, etc. My sister told this girl that they lived in England for a year. First off, this girl didn't know where in Europe that was. The real kicker... she asked if people spoke english there! My sister was like.... uh... ENGLish... came from ENGLand.

This was in freakin Irvine, CA where everyone is pretty well-off. Basically, upper middle class area. Well... she was blonde.... the state of the education system in the US is pretty bad!

In their proper habitat

So my buddy Vic was in town and we went on a cruise to the mountain roads. What do we run into? Aside from the usual sportbike crowd, two Lamborghini Gallardos (including the brand new LP560-4) and a Ferrari F430. The Ferrari was driven by some Chinese kid, he seriously couldn't have been older than 21, and he drove he's dad's car extremely slowly. It was insulting! Oh well, at least he wasn't cruising around Beverly Hills in it.

Car chases in Houston? No way!

For some reason.... car chases are either in Texas, Cali, or Georgia. That's just how it is. And for some reason, it makes it on the news on the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7599801.stm

Jon and Kate plus 8!

So I've been watching this show if I catch it while flipping channels. So Jon and Kate started off with twin girls and wanted a third kid. Instead, they ended up with 6 more! Talk about a mad house... if you thought trying to keep track of one kid was tough, try 8 at once!

They talked about how when the six were babies and they had to drive somewhere, they had to carry each one individually to the car. So one kid to the car, strap them in, back to the house to get the next kid. It'd take 15 minutes just to load up. Of course, they'd have to reverse the process when they got home.

There's a LOT of logistics to handling eight kids... There's some other show about a family of 17 kids! But only one set of twins. So the older kids could help watch the younger kids. But 6 babies at once... and two more only 3 years older. Wow...

What a little more than a quarter million can buy you..

In downtown San Francisco:




http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/24/BUTM12GQMI.DTL

Kites can be crazy...

So on the drive up PCH, I saw a guy kite surfing. Pretty badass! It can also be pretty dangerous if you decide to go kite surfing during a tropical storm:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/20/kite.surfer/index.html

Yeah... us Floridans can be a little crazy. After all, the best time to go surfing is when a huge storm is approaching. But with the addition of a kite, it can be a bit more interesting!

Up in the hills of Palos Verdes

So... I finally busted out the mountain bike and hit up a trail. The trailhead is at the very top of this hill in PV. You get some pretty amazing views from up there. It's pretty high up as we're above some of the clouds. In the background is Santa Catalina island.

On the ride, I made the mistake of riding behind one of my buddies on the downhill section. I basically ate dust the entire way down; it had the consistency of flour and it coated all of me and the bike.

Drive PCH

You should do it at least once. Heading south from San Francisco is the prefered direction as you have a better view of the ocean and places to stop. But it's pretty good going north too :) Oh yeah, drive something fun because the roads are twisty!

Choose your language

Back in the day in Texas and Florida, I only recall spanish being the only other language option at an ATM machine. Well, here in Torrace, CA, the options are English, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese (not sure which), and an eastern European language (maybe Czech?).

I was just up in Mountain View, CA and was in the little downtown area. There were 3-4 Italian restuarants, 3 Viet, a couple Thai, and a Mexican. The oddest one was one of the Viet ones that was also an upscale bar. Anyways, I was eating at one of the Italian places and in the bathroom, the sign asking people to wash their hands was in english, spanish, viet, and chinese. Oddly enough, no italian.

Handball?

So while I was in France last year, they had some handball on tv. I was like... uh... seems like something I played back in middle school. Then I was watching the Olympic opening ceremony and noticed that handball is an Olympic sport! The thought of making it to the Olympics by playing handball started floating through my brain... and apparently, someone else thought of it already.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2221821_make-us-olympic-handball-team.html

Maybe if I train for the next 4 years....

Koi fish

So one of my buddys has this insane Koi fish pond he built in his amazing backyard; he's Japanese and built a Japanese style garden. He's got some really big fish in his pond but the thing that interested me was the fact that they reportedly can live up to 200 years! Apparently, pretty commonly in the 40-90 yr. range. How crazy is it to have a pet that outlives you?

Not so many discounts

Back in the day, I got a Shell Mastercard because it gives me back 5% on gas that I buy at Shell. Well, just the other day I was at a Shell and looked at the credit card application. Guess what... no more 5% discount! I guess when gas was $2.50-$3.00, it wasn't too bad, but they're probably losing a good chunk of cash now that gas is $4.50 out here.

Cali stop

I'd heard of the California stop (where you roll through the stop sign instead of coming to a complete stop) before I moved out here, but didn't really understand why people did it. Now that I've lived here for a little while, if you're in any sort of residental area then there's a stop sign every block or two. It gets really lame having to stop 4 times every 1/4 mile. So you end up just rolling through the stop signs....

Jersey

So I flew into Newark, NJ this past weekend to chill with some friends in the NYC. While flying over Jersey, I noticed they have a LOT of baseball fields. In the south, there's more 'open' fields; we use to always play football growing up in my neighborhood in Florida. I guess baseball is much more popular in the north compared to the south.

Oh yeah, while the 'C' Terminal at Newark is really nice, there's a severe lack of bathrooms for the number of people in the terminal.

The pic is of lower Manhatten from my buddy's apartment in Union City/Hoboken in Jersey.

New pad

You know it's a bacholer's pad when the first thing in the fridge is alcohol. Still organizing the place, but we have the pool table, dart board, and TV location set up.

Need a used car? Go to LA

You can find any car used in LA you could dream of. Ferrari? There's 53 currently listed on Craigslist. How about a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 converted to left hand drive? It's only $300k. Even for more 'normal' cars, like a Honda S2000, you have your choice of 50 completely unmolested, low-mileage examples. Try a search in Ohio and see how many pop up.

Tour de France!

So it's about stage 5 of the Tour de France. Those guys are animals.... In either stage 3 or 4, there was a guy on a break-away for about 4 hours. IIRC, he averaged 330 watts of power for that time period! That's about my peak! And in a sprint, the top guys do like 1500-1800 watts for 20-30 seconds. Freakin amazing.

Oh, today was an individual time trial. It's superstition that the guy who gets number '13' wears it upside down. Now you know...

Oil City?

So... I was at a bonfire in Huntington Beach, CA for the 4th of July. Huntington Beach is known as Surf City. Well, just a little bit off-shore are a number of oil platforms and big ole tankers. First time I've seen that!

June Gloom

So..... every morning in June around LA looks like this.... gloomy. Hence, 'june gloom'. Pretty much like how it rains every afternoon in August in Florida. Just one of those random weather patterns.

Another sign of the end of SUVs

I was looking for a car, and this one dealer had an inventory of the type of used vehicles on the lot. Check out this graph.

cali gas sucks

So, not only does gas here cost a lot, and it's only 91 octane instead of 93, it also has up to 10% ethanol. I'm pretty sure ethanol has a lower energy density than gas, so per gallon, we have less energy. So that translates into lower gas mileage. Sucks eh?

So many ways to communicate....

I was talking to my sister the other day and then my mom, and started thinking about how easy it is to communicate. Way back in the day, you had a messenger on horse back. Then the evolutions of: telegraph, mail, telephone, email, pager, cell phone, email mailing lists, forums, text messaging, and live video over a computer. The only thing that's left is being able to beam yourself somewhere like in Star Trek.

Speaking of apartments

Back in Texas and Florida, it was more often than not that a 'nice' apartment came with a fridge and washer and dryer. Not so out here in LA! More often than not, there's not a washer/dryer in the unit, and often not a fridge either.

Everyone does want to be an actor

So... I went with a friend to watch 'Wicked' up in Hollywood. It's an absolutely amazing show by the way, best I've seen. Anyways... we go to a restaurant afterwards and then a bar. My friend's friend who is a bartender at the restaurant is also an actress. Later, we talked to some random dude who was also an actor. My other friend's friend's boyfriend (confusing eh?) is also an actor.

Another thing about LA, it's a really laid back atmosphere in the night scene here. People are kickin it in jeans, some Chuck Ds, etc. Different scene than, say, Boston or NYC, where people tend to dress up more.

Rent is freakin $$$ in LA

Of course everyone knows this already, but still, $1600 for a 2bed/1 or 2 bath rents you a place with appliances 30 yrs old and one parking spot. And you probably have to provide your own fridge. And no in-unit laundry. Apartment hunting sucks.

Speaking of traffic

Why is it that the left lane is the slow lane? A lot of American drivers are retarded; driving in Europe is so much better.

Gas prices do seem to have an effect...

I went down to San Diego a couple weekends ago and I noticed that the average speed of traffic has slowed down. Go figure.

License plates

So... back in the day, Florida license plates said what county you were from. So it was kinda cool if you were in a different part of the state or country and saw someone from the same county.

In France, it was either the first two digits or last two digits (can't remember) of the license plate number which says what region the car is from.

MotoGP guys are amazing...

The picture says it all:

Google is definitely different

As everyone knows, Google does things a bit differently. Well, I applied online for a mechanical engineering position and after the typical resume and cover letter upload, I took a survey.

As almost all their engineers are EE/CS, the survey asked how well versed candidates were in various programming languages. Nothing out of the ordinary. The interesting parts of the survey asked for various coding competitions participated in and positions placed. SAT and GRE scores were asked for. Any type of leadership positions, number of people managed, ideal number of people to manage, languages spoken, and a few other behavioral questions.

Well, if you want the best, you have to ask more and better questions right? Seems to me that they have a pretty good filtering survey.

Tower cam again

Great image from the cam tonight!

I like checking it out every few days just to see...
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/images/towercam.jpg

New cars in camo!

So. Cal is a prime testing area for car makers, so it's not uncommon to see development vehicles running around with all sorts of body coverings, or nothing more than black tape over the emblem. A couple weeks ago on the way to San Diego, I spied a new Mercedes crossover wagon thingy.

Oh, there's often a caravan of cars with the test vehicle too. At least, that's how Toyota likes to roll. Saw some new Lexus crossover wagon thingy last week followed by a chase vehicle Camry. They all sport the Michigan Manufacters plate of course. I did see the Lexus IS-F about a year ago.... the guys driving it stopped off at Chiptole for lunch. As soon as they got out of the car, they had a full body cover that went all the way down to the ground to keep prying eyes (like mine) away.

Not to be mean... but...

I only had the use of 3/4 of my seat on the airplane because of the overly large woman in the seat next to me. We couldn't even put the armrest down. Considering that American Airlines is now charging $15 for the first checked baggage due to fuel costs, I think I should've gotten a discount for only using 3/4 of my seat. Plus, I weigh probably half of what the woman next to me weighed. So I’m saving the airline a lot in fuel costs! It should get passed on to me, me thinks…

Scary what's on YouTube!

So I was searching for a video clip of my favorite motorcycle racer, Nicky Hayden, doing a demonstration lap of a MotoGP motorcycle at Indianapolis. In the search results are videos of Hayden Panettiere (actress from Heros, various movies) signing autographs. Okay... how creepy is that! Can you imagine having video of something as uneventful as signing autographs, taken by some random person, posted up on the 'net?

Don't get that feeling anymore

So one of my roomies has a scale that sends a current through your body to measure body fat percentage. I remember the first time I used it, I could feel the current going through my feet. Now, I don't feel a thing. I find it a little odd, but oh well.

Cops in LA can't drive in the rain either!

So everyone jokes about how LA drivers absolutely suck driving in the rain. No joke, if it's even just a drizzle, it's best to stay off the road. People have no concept of rain = slick road; especially when it hasn't rained in months and there's oil all over the road. So everyone speeds like usual and when it comes time to get on the brakes hard (people like to speed up to red lights and slam on the brakes for some reason, even in a Prius), they can't stop and rear-end someone. Happened to two guys at work already and almost happened to me yesterday.

Back to the subject of the title. I'm on a road that goes up a hill and there's a cop in the next lane over a few cars ahead. It's wet out and we're accelerating from a stop, and the rear of the cop car is fishtailing all over the place! Uh... wet roads means you can't accelerate as hard either. Freakin idoit.

Changing of the wardrobe

I was cleaning out my closet to find stuff to donate to goodwill and it got me thinking about how the type of clothes I wear has changed. Back in college, it was nothing but shorts, jeans, and free t-shirts. And some slightly nice stuff to go out in.

Now it's work clothes, workout clothes (Nike drifit, underarmour i.e. NOT free t-shirts), and going-out clothes. I still wear my Adidas all the time though :)

I did feel a shake!

So this one was an earthquake for real! Felt a shake in the middle of the night, which my three roommates all slept through. But one of my buddies informed me the next day that it was a 3.0 a few miles away. I swear I felt one about a year ago... but it was never verified.

3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica

It's an interesting place.... lots of shopping, places to eat, families walking around. It's also a place to pimp out your kid as a street performer apparently. And being Cali, there's some unique stuff like the Abercrombie model dude paid to just stand at the entrance of the store with his shirt off. It was amusing actually, a lot of tourists walking by and laughing.... kinda felt bad for the guy.

Then there were three ladies dressed up in these big white dresses promoting the movie, "27 Dresses"; the street kids performning had way more talent.

Huh... guess it makes sense

I went out with a couple guys to the Hermosa Pier area to play some pool and hit up a few bars. For some reason, I never noticed what a huge sausage fest it is around here. Makes complete sense though as everyone our age around here works for Raytheon, Northrup, or Boeing. I.E., a whole bunch of engineers around here.

Hey, whatever you want to eat...

So my company is an international company and we have offices in Europe, India and China. While I was working in France, we also had a group of guys from China working there, along with a bunch of Indian guys.

Those that know me know that I eat about everything. I LOVE Italian food, viet food (of course!), Japanese, some Korean BBQ, good ole midwest BBQ, Thai... Well, there's some selection of places to eat in the town we were staying in, but the guys from China would ONLY eat Chinese food.

I brought this up with some of the guys I work with, and when one of them was at a corporate meeting in Czech Republic, the guys from China would only eat Chinese food too. And when we had some guys from China in our office here in Cali, they only ate at the Chinese restaurants.

Just thought it was a bit odd…. The guys from India eat pretty much everything like I do. I haven’t made it to China yet, but I’m probably guessing outside of the metropolis areas, they probably don’t have much variety in food. Guess I need to go find out!

There is this one lady at work from the Midwest, and when she goes down to our plant in Mexico for any number of days, she brings her own stock of food (burgers, fries, sodas). Apparently she doesn’t like Mexican food and is perfectly content eating her ‘mid-west’ food.

Hey, whatever makes you happy to eat!

Redbull Air Races!

A couple of guys and I headed down to San Diego today to catch the races. All I can say is, badass!!! Before the races, they had some Naval demonstrations including some F18 fly-bys, Coast Guard Search and Resuce, and some other random things.




Oh, and the Coast Guard don't play around!


Yeah, back to the races, these guys are nuts! Pulling over 9Gs!


And here's a crappy vid due to Google's crappy video compression. They're going into that first turn at ~230mph and pulling 9Gs!.

People are a little different up here...

Was hanging out in this part of LA called Atwater. Very artsy. Went into some furniture store and there were these sweet chairs... for $3500. No thanks. Oh yeah, EVERYONE uses Macs around here.

How much was that?

So I was chillin with my sister and her family along main street in Santa Monica. There are a bunch of little boutique shops around so we go in a few. Checkin out some clothes in this one store, and it has a t-shift for $66, a button-up for $150, and a zip-up hoodie (was pretty sweet) for $275! Uh... yeah...

Walking down and check out another store. I completely plain, nothing special at all, black t-shirt for $71!

Learned a new term

So.... with asians, there's the term FOB, or fresh off the boat. I learned a new one today for US born Indians, ABCD; american born confused desi. It's a term all the India born guys use for the US born guys.

Electric go-karts?

So there's a chain of kart tracks around So. Cal. called K1.

The good:
indoor and air conditioned
don't smell like gas after driving
they actually have some torque so if you get a bit sideways, they have some power to pull you out

The bad:
relatively low speed
because they're low speed, the tracks are small and tight
because the tracks are small and tight, they don't like you racing 'wheel-to-wheel' and bumping each other

Basically, they want people to try to get the fastest time possible, but not race each other. As soon as a car comes up on a 'slower' car, they wave the blue passing flag, even if the slower car is just barely slower.

My friends and I thought it was lame, so on our last session, the 7 of us did a rolling start lined up in two lines next to each other like in a real race. Needless to say, there was a LOT of bumping an pushing into the barriers the first two laps.

Sittin on Dubs

It's a bit odd to me.... but the upper middle class and weathly folks around here try to be cool... Basically, I see some of your stereotypical well-to-do white families rollin on 26" chrome on their Suburbans. Seriously, you see the soccer mom behind the wheel and wonder what's going on.

At least they're not riding on spinners like back in the dirty south.

Crazy plants!

According to my sister, these are called 'birds of paradise'; she saw them in Hawaii. These particular ones were at the Griffith Observatory. And there's some right outside my apartment too! They look like they can bite your finger off.

Just another day at the track.

I went up to Buttonwillow with my bro-in-law Clint to rag out the car a bit. This track day was put on by Speed Ventures (http://www.speedventures.com/) and on this particular day, they had a Lotus Challenge. So there were ~20 Lotuses (Loti?) there.



And being So Cal, there were a dozen+ Honda S2000's with many of them gutted out and wearing some very sticky rubber. Also, being So Cal, you have some high-end cars such as a BMW M5, and a couple of GT3s. Oh, and being So Cal, you get some of the import holy grail cars like the R34 Skyline.

So, first time on this track in the car (did it a month back on the motorcycle), and managed a 2:15. That's probably about 15 seconds faster than I did on the motorcycle as I was able to push much harder without fear of killing myself. It got over 90F which was causing issues with my brakes. The whole point of doing a trackday in April was to avoid the heat as the track is out in the desert. Lucky me, the heat wave hit exactly on the weekend; it was over 10 degrees cooler the next day. So basically, my brake pads which are a 'aggressive street/light track duty' pad, had an issue called material/pad transfer. Basically, some of the pad material bonds to the brake rotor which causes a poor surface and the brake pedal to pulsate.

I ran in the advance group which has open passing anywhere; in the lower groups, passing is only in designated areas and also only with a 'point-by' where the lead car signals the following car to pass them. The Long Beach Grand Prix is coming up and Speed World Challenge is a support race. So there was a fully raced prepped Porsche 911 (sponsered by K&N and driven by Paul Brown) and Viper out on the track with me running ~1:52-1:54. Needless to say, those cars came up from behind VERY quickly.

Oh yeah, I only went off-roading once :)