Christmas day run

So I'm back in Gainesville, Florida for the holidays. One of my favorite things about G'ville is the University leaves it's facilities open because G'ville has a pretty intense athletic community. Back when I was in school here, I would always to go the track to do my running workouts, and sometimes the football stadium to run the stairs. I used this track for practice back in high school too, so many many many hours spent here.

So anyways, here's a picture from the parking lot at the track and a pretty nice 70F degree day. There were four other groups of people that showed up to the track, so I'm not the only nutcase :) Good thing I went running yesterday because it's only a high of 50F today!

Food intake

So my friend Tiffany was out here on the west coast for a conference, so I met up with her for dinner. It was a mexican joint, so I ordered a burrito that was pretty good sized. Tiffany didn't think I'd eat it all, but I said that it was nothing. It was about my typical lunch size which has now become my biggest meal of the day.

So the spaghetti is my lunch. The tortellini is my dinner, which is actually a tad more than I usually eat for dinner. It's hard to see, but the spaghetti is piled higher than the tortellini.

LA Friday mixed with rain

And you end up with this mess.... Friday afternoon traffic is bad enough; LA turns into a parking lot from about 3pm-8pm. But when you add in some rain... LA people do NOT know how to drive in the rain. I ended up driving down the 405 to Irvine around 7:30pm and hit a relatively light stretch of traffic for about 2 miles before hitting grid lock again. With all that openness, traffic was still only flowing around 60mph. I guess people are scared of the rain? As long as there's no standing water, you can still go faster, so I zipped by them at standard LA free flowing traffic rates... until I hit traffic again.

So here's the really stupid thing. LA drivers are scared to drive at normal speeds in the rain, YET, they STILL TAILGATE. Without fail, there are tons of rear-end accidents because people tailgate and can't stop in time with the wet roads. Oh yeah, all those diamonds on the map are reported accidents.

Working out in winter

So.... I don't get this. I know it's cold out, but when you're in the gym working out, especially cardio, you should be sweating your ass off. So why do people still have on sweat shirts and beanies? I think I'd die of heat exhaustion.

F*&@(@#@*&@ Cali DMV

So my driver's license expires at the end of the month on my bday (yup, after only 4.5 years). I'm heading home to Florida for the holidays, so I need to renew it before I leave. I have a bit over two weeks to do it, so no prob right?

I go to do it online, only to discover it'll take 4-6 weeks. WTF. Okay... well, I'll make an appointment; if you don't make an appointment to go to the DMV, you end up waiting in line for hours. In all of freakin LA county, with ~10 different DMVs I would be willing to go to, only ONE had an appointment before I leave and it's only the day before. Some of the DMV centers don't have any apointments available until next month! Argh..... guess I'll be at the DMV very very early in the morning next week.

LA + Rain = Wrecks

We got a pretty good rain on Sunday which resulted in lots of wet roads on Monday morning. Sure enough, there was an accident on my way to work. Sure enough, a car rear-ended another car. LA drivers like to follow closely. Apparently, they don't realize that when the road is wet, you can't stop as quickly. If it rains in LA, best to stay off the roads.

No Mercy Meter Maids - LA

I remembered there was a reason I don't go to downtown LA often. If you park on the street, you're at the mercy of the meter maids. In my case tonight, I got two tickets: no front plate ($25), and parking in an unloading zone ($50); the 'unloading zone' sign was on a small poll, and the spot had paint lines like it was a spot, and there was a meter at the rear of the spot. Yeah, there's a lot of 'unloading' going on at 9pm. Anyways, that was my fault for not being more observant I guess. And I refuse to put on the front plate. Oh well, that's my $75 donation for the year to LA city. Lesson: when parking downtown LA, park in a pay lot if you don't have a front plate.

Post-Thanksgiving Activities

Well, there's the obvious shopping. I found out something else on Monday night. Usually around 8pm, the gym start to thin out a bit. Not this Monday... I got there around 8:30 and the place was slammed. I guess everyone was working off Thanksgiving dinner. Speaking of, I had turkey with the usual stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. Since then, I've had turkey by itself, with rice, and with mac and cheese. I guess I'll make a turkey sandwich tomorrow. I think I only have enough turkey for another three meals or so.

Crazy soccer parents!

So I live next to a soccer field with many weekends filled with soccer matches. On weekday nights, there's often practices going on. Well... some of these parents and coaches need to calm down! They're just freakin kids! It's not boot camp! Last time I checked, kids are suppose to be playing sports to have fun.

Why the pins?

So I just got some new dress shirts. Why do they have a bazillion pins in them? And there's tons of extra packaging stuff, like the plastic collar support thing, and the cardboard middle that the shirt wraps around. I think they should just get rid of all that stuff. Sure, the shirt will get wrinkled, but I don't care about that. I'd rather pay less if they got rid of all the excess stuff.

Lots of travel = less gray hair?

So I was traveling all over the world the past month and half. Though I didn't get much sleep, I still seem to have reduced the number of gray hairs I usually get. Low stress is good.

Buying in bulk not always cheaper

So I was buying some OJ at the grocery store and had the option of the bigger or smaller bottle. I instinctively went to grab the bigger bottle thinking it'd be cheaper per oz, but I thought I should check the label. Turns out the smaller bottle was also cheaper per oz. Go figure. Of course, there was the milk that cost as much to buy a half gallon as a full gallon; so the half gallon was twice the price per oz.

Interesting airlines info

I caught a bit of a program that looked at the entire American Airlines operation. On a typical NYC to LA flight, after paying for fuel/airport fees/labor costs/etc., the average net revenue per flight is $200. Yup, $200 for the entire flight. One empty seat could mean a loss. However, I just paid $800 for my round trip flight home for xmas.... so they're making some money there!

fog free mirror!

An interesting surprise after getting out of the shower at my hotel. It seems the mirror has a built-in defogger. I didn't even know something like that existed beside for car side mirrors.

Tuxedo shoes are good for something

I had to bust on a tux as I was in my buddy Jeff's wedding. Been a while since I've put one on and forgot about the little shirt buttons and cuff links. Anyways, these tux shoes were actually kinda comfy and good for dancing. The slick bottom is good for sliding and spinning around on the dance floor, who knew?

Drinks in Argentina

So a cab driver recommended a 'Fernet con Cola' to me. It was sorta minty like jager... anyways, I liked it. And with your coffee, you can get all sorts of tasty alcholic stuff in them. Of course, there's the wine!

You can learn something from TV! Great leg workout!

So I learned this exercise from watching this commerical with J.R. Celski (US speed skater); I did a leg workout tonight at the gym which is why I mention it. The exercise where he's doing the one-legged squats on the ballon pad thing. It is VERY hard to do even on a flat surface. I do three sets of 7-8, and my legs are a little sore the next day; and that's on a flat surface at a faster pace. Doing it on the ballon pad thing makes it 10x harder; it really really challenges your balance and works all the smaller muscles. Doing it slow like J.R. makes it another 2X harder. You have to have a lot of strengh and balance to do it slow like that!

Spot the tourists!

I took this pic down in Buenos Aires.... only two guesses as to where they're from.

Lanes optional

I have to say, I love the driving style in Buenos Aires! They basically drive with common sense instead of strictly following the rules. There's not much in the way of staying in lanes.... the cars sort of just flow around and fill in the gaps. The cab drivers being the most aggressive, they'll squeeze in close between cars where you almost wouldn't think there was a gap. Everyone is very courtious in driving and allows all the shifting around without getting pissed off. It would never work here in the US!

Santa Ana winds

So instead of the wind coming off the ocean and blowing inland, the Santa Ana winds blow west from the desert. And it's freakin hot here in LA. And I don't have A/C because no housing near the ocean has A/C. It's hot.

Unintended community dontation

Around these parts, we have street sweeping. If you car is parked on the side of the street the day it is be swept, generally between the hours of 9am-12pm, you get a ticket. Well, I forgot to move my car one day and contributed $40 to the community. That's my donation for the year!

Another funny bone

It took 31 years for me to find it, but I found another funny bone. It's in the ankle. I hit it on one of the legs of my rolling chair at work and it sent a good shock through the nervous system.

Craziest people alive, Isle of Man TT competitors

The Isle of Man TT is a motorcycle race that takes place on the Isle of Man (appropriately named right?). I've known about the race for a while and this years race was recently on HD Theater (absolutely amazing watching this stuff in HD).

It uses ~37 miles of public roads that wind through the country side and through the small towns in the Isle. The AVERAGE speed of the fastest guys is 130mph hitting top speeds of up to 200mph! These guys ride on the ragged edge and it's no surprise death is not uncommon.

Check out this promo vid:

Workplace diversity

Old school BMW in the back, modern version of that BMW (one of the best bikes out there for long distance touring), a big cruiser, and my sportbike.

No knee steering with wood trim steering wheel

The wood trim is really slick. The only way to get any traction is with bare skin; any clothing will just slip. So for guys, that's pretty much never as even our shorts are long.

Cookin with the oven

I don't know why I don't use it more... I've only used it about 5 times in my life. But I used it twice today to heat up some leftovers. It's not like leaving food on a store where you have to watch it, just set it and come back at some point later. Hmm... I have chicken ready to go for tomorrow!

I'm shrinking!

Back in high school, I use to wear X-large t-shirts. Okay... so they were a bit baggy. Then I got to college and started wearing Large, which actually fit. Then about 3-5 years ago, I started having to get size Medium. Yesterday, I had to buy Small! I've been the same height and +/- 5 lbs for the last 14 years or so.... I hate how they adjust clothing sizes.

Power tools are great!

I had to cut through a lot of metal today, and used an electric angle grinder with a cutting wheel. Ah, having the proper power tool makes things so much easier! You really have to be careful when you first kick them on though; they have a lot of torque and can jerk itself out of your hands if you're not careful.

5-year life?

My 2005 Honda CBR 600RR motorcycle battery died over winter. Some of it was my fault for not going for a ride for 6 weeks or so. Well, out of the blue yesterday, my 2005 Honda S2000 car battery died. It cranked slow one time. Then the next time, it didn't crank at all.

I checked the water level in it, which was low; so I tried topping it off and putting a charger on it. It's better.... but definitely still toast. Time for a new one!

FYI, motorcycle batteries are $$$! Cost me $120 for the motorcycle battery. Hopefully the car one is cheaper.

Chicken Twins?

I bought a carton of jumbo eggs. I cracked open the first egg, and two yolks came out! Huh, interesting. Then I cracked open the next egg and two yolks came out. And the same with eggs three, four, and five! I guess this one chicken only had twins.

2+2(elves?)

This is the new Ferrari California. It's called a 2+2 for having two front seat and 2 'rear seats'. As for what human can fit back there, I'm not sure. I don't even think a baby seat will fit.

Always wear eye protection!

When working with heavy duty equipment, in a machine shop, on the car, on the bike, and apparently with the convertible top down. I let my bro-in-law drive the car to test out the new suspension setup, so I was riding passenger. Somehow, a bee made it around the windshield and smacked me right on the top edge of my sunglasses, hit my eyebrow, and then fell onto my seatbelt! A stinger to the eye would've hurt...

Stop?

So I'm watching the Tour de France and see a stop sign. And it actually says, "STOP" instead of "arret". Huh? I guess it's part of the french vocabulary now.

Elbow pads required

MotoGP guys are badass

How do they have the energy?

I'm watching the Germany/Argentina match and Klose scores his second goal in the 88th minute of the match. What does he do to celebrate? A no-handed front flip! It's freaking amazing the energy of these guys.

Specialized publications are $$$

I'm glad we got this at work. Granted, this one is a special edition, but if you look closely it cost $50 US! I did buy an edition of Racecar Engineering. Newstand price was $10.50 US....

Estimated time for working on cars =

However long you think it'll take, give yourself 3x that long. It's the rule of working on cars,; because no matter how simple something seems to be, something will make it extremely difficult and frustrating and much cursing like a sailor ensures.

What does a Lamborghini have in common with cheap European cars?

Automatic folding mirrors. Because the streets in the towns of Europe are so narrow, you have to fold them or risk having them knocked off. Granted, this is my gym parking lot....

How to create a traffic jam at midnight

Take the 405, which is anywhere from 5-8 lanes wide, merge in the 22 with another two lanes of traffic, and neck it all down to ONE lane of traffic going north! Yeah, that happened last night and I was stuck for 15-20 minutes.

Lexus owners don't change their own oil?

I guess that's what Lexus assumes. I went to change the oil on my mom's Lexus and opened the owners manual to locate the oil fitler and drain plug. Well.... there was info on how to check the oil, what oil to use, and how to reset the maintaince indicator. It doesn't actually tell you where the filter and drain plug are though however.

The drain plug was easy enough to find. The oil filter? Not so much. I crawled around under the car for a good 10 minutes with a flashlight before I finally found the filter; I had to remove the front undertray first to get to it.

Trusty floor pump

My $20 air compressor (I used it for pumping up my car tires) from Target finally broke after 10 years. Actually, it was just the switch that broke. But I figured it was time to upgrade to something more heavy duty. But before the new air compressor came in, I needed to put air in my car tires. My roommate has a good ole bicycle floor pump, so I used that. It was surprising fast; faster than my old little air compressor in fact by a significant margin. Granted, it was a higher quality/performance pump, but still pretty darn impressive how fast it was.

Beach sand paper

It's surprisingly easy (or not so surprising) to lose some skin on the beach. It usually involves someone's heel making contact with someone's leg/shin with some sand thrown in between, i.e. beach volleyball and football. Makes for a good combination to rub skin away.

How to check if your wheel is round

In the aftermath of running over this nasty stretch of road, I visibly bent one wheel. I had to figure out a way to check the roundness of the others.

Well, using a jackstand as a gage, I spun the wheel with it still on the car (jacked up in the air of course). Sure enough, the other wheel that was on the right side of the car, and went through the nasty stuff, had a very slight bend.

Junk in the trunk

I just realized, I carry a lot of stuff in the trunk of my car. Most I rarely use, but in those emergency cases.... I'm damn glad I have them:

Jumper cables
Mini tool set
air compressor
breaker bar
steel tube- serves as another breaker bar I can slide over wrenches when I need more leverage
tire pressure gauge
couple small towels/rags

It's rare I need to use the stuff. I could leave most of it in the garage like the tools and air compressor. But every once in a while..... I've jumped a few cars. Helped a couple people change tires (breaker bars came in handy). Added some air to a few peoples tires.

Resolve carpet cleaner, it'll knock your socks off!

Well, it'll take the color off at least. I was using the Resolve stuff in the carpet shampoo machine and I had my black socks on. As I was working across the room, I noticed a black spot on the carpet that hadn't been there before. What the heck? I just went over that spot! Turns out that the Resolve was causing the black of my socks to bleed out/stain/whatever you call it. Next time, I guess I'll do it barefoot, or wear white socks.

Can't be stopped in football on the beach

So I've been playing in a flag football beach league. One thing I've noticed, there's really no stopping anyone on short pass plays assuming people make the catch. All it takes is for the receiver to make one move/cut, and the defender can't stay with them because of the sand. At least that's my excuse :)

$2.99 or.... $2.99?

Half gallon of milk or a full gallon of milk? They both cost $2.99. Hmmm.....

That's gonna hurt....

Stupid torn up roads. 15260 block of Mulholland Drive, just east of the 405. My steering wheel is now about 10 degrees to the left to go straight.

Crowded gym stinks

Literally. I went to the gym right after work, which I usually don't do because it's too crowded. So it stinks because it difficult to get on the equipment you want. And it stinks because, well, it's crowded with sweaty people. Though, some people definitely smell worse than others...

Note to self: when hiking in warm weather

Bring a spare shirt and a towel to sit on in the car. I completely soaked through my shirt and the shorts weren't in much better shape. Don't exactly want to get the car seats soaked in sweat.

Still snowing....

I guess I won't go for that motorcycle ride in the Angeles National Forest this weekend.

Hybrids are made for going slow

Well, I suppose that would be a logical conclusion. Been driving the 'rents hybrid around, and like all hybrids, it has low rolling resistance tires to maximize gas mileage. Low resistance is like a nice way of saying low grip. These things squeal so easily, and the car will slide through a turn so easily, it's ridiculous. Definitely have to drive slow through the turns. Even worse in the wet.

Cooking with gas

Oh, gas stove top range, how I've missed cooking with you. Electic range sucks!

Power Mirror Tricks

Cars in Europe have auto-folding mirrors; if you don't fold them, they'll get knocked off because the streets are so narrow. SUVs here have mirrors that angle down when you're in reverse so you can see the ground. Very handy. And I drove a car with an auto-dimming rear view mirror. That was interesting...

7.2 quake from ~200 miles away

It feels like you're drunk.

Moving aids

So I just moved again.... 4th time in 4 years. I have found that my garbage cans, luggage, laundry basket, and duffle bag are quite usful for moving around lots of objects.

Another day of bad traffic

Amazing how a few car accidents can really clog up traffic. Glad I don't have to deal with it!

Benefits of short hair

So I grew out my hair for a while (for me at least), but just cut it off again. So now I can use less shampoo, less conditioner, no hair gel at all, and no time required to do anything to it. One interesting thing... I can spot grey hairs a lot easier now.

Runyon Canyon is not a gym

There's an interesting mix of people that show up to Runyon for a hike. Large number of people with the dogs, some people just going for a casual stroll, and a few people out for a serious workout.

However, you're still not allowed to use everything for your workout, like the metal gates.

LA Local News

So what makes the news here? Apparently, Ben Stiller hit his head on something after sitting up too fast. And Jesse James cheated on Sandra Bullock. Yup, that's the type of stuff that makes it on the local nightly news here.

Craigslist = spam and scams

So I posted a couple ads on Craiglist. It seems there are automatically generated emails generated to spam you and try to scam you out of money.

They start with:

_ _
Hi,

Is the artilce still for sale???

If you reply, they send you another email with a stupid story and ask for your full name, address and telephone number. Hmmm.... yeah, that seems like good info to send out.

Lexus has the worst GPS ever

274 miles in 5 hours? Who drives that slow? Hmmm.... well, I guess it is a Lexus. This GPS is not intuitive to use at all. It was easier using the GPS in my Citroen rental car in France with the language in french! Oh, and the GPS couldn't pinpoint an address. And it doesn't label all the streets. A $300 Garmin or TomTom is infinitely better.

So simple.... yet

So brilliant!!! No can opener required :)

2-wheel parking benefits in San Francisco

Exhibit #1: Cheap parking. Motorcycles/scooters have parking meter spots that are cheap. This particular one is only $0.40 per hour, and you can park there for 10 hours!




Exhibit #2: Primo parking locations. Nearly front door!

Close Encounters

Going in for a landing into LAX.... right next to another plane. Yeah yeah... the picture is blurry.... the other plane is the blurry lights above the huge mass of blurry lights that represent the ground.

Hard to find travel size...

So... why is it so difficult to find travel size items? Specifically, liquids that are limited in size. I guess CVS has them, maybe Target, but shouldn't my grocery store? Nope, they sure don't. It's annoying. Really... I need contact solution in 3oz or smaller right? Smallest at the grocery store is 4oz. Argh.

Music where?

I was walking in the parking lot of Whole Foods in Irvine, and they had music playing in the parking lot.... Yup, sure enough, on top of the light poles are speakers. Well, at least it was good music; U2 was on. Irvine is an 'interesting' place...

Other 6am Car Nuts

These are a couple other car crazy people at 6am on a Saturday driving to Cars&Coffee in Irvine, CA. The car that's closer is a Ferrari F360. The car in front is a little race car from the 1950s and was the feature in an article in Road&Track recently.

Here's a link to pics of the amazing cars that showed up. Favorite? Ford RS200.

10.02.13 Cars&Coffee

5 cent convertible roof tear fix

The electical tape isn't pretty, but it keeps the rain out!

Austin food tour

Viet food, check. Dim sum, check. BBQ, check. Cajun and southern, bonus! And some gelato :)

Low Sunday night LAX traffic?

Usually, Sunday night traffic for passenger pick-up at LAX is a freakin madhouse zoo. But when I got picked up tonight, it wasn't bad at all.... Very strange.... Then I got home and realized the Grammy's were on, at the Staples center here in LA. There has to be 50,000 people in there or something with all of the most famous people in the world. LA revolves around the entertainment industry. And there are actors/actresses everywhere, like the girl that sat behind me on my flight that has a small role on the show 'House'.

Fabbing up some custom stuff

A few months back, I installed some new speakers in the car. Well, to do the job, I need some spacers to go between the speakers and the door panel. Since designing stuff IS my job, I designed some and made some prototypes. They worked pretty well... to be perfect, they need to be another couple millimeters thicker, but I made them work.

We got snow!

With the five days straight of rain we got, along came with it a bunch of snow!

Eh? What are those chunks falling from the sky?

Yeah... that's hail on my front door floormat. In LA. Weird.

Real Rain in LA!!!

Finally, some REAL rain! This was a good ole Texas of Florida thunderstorm style rain! This was the view outside my office window. Roads aren't so good here for drainage; they haven't really figured that out here. The right side lane was half flooded fairly quickly.


The roof drain

Fatty food = clogs

No, not your arteries. Well, probably those too. But anyways, I had some 80/20 ground beef I was cooking up, and I dumped all the fatty junk down the kitchen sink. I made the mistake of not running some really hot water for a bit after it. Fast foward a few hours later when I'm doing dishes, and the sink is backing up! Opps... good thing for Liquid Plumber! That stuff worked like champ, FYI.

Rainy season

So this is pretty much the only time of year we get rain here in LA. Hopefully it brings some snow too! The snow that was on Mt. Baldy has mostly melted.

Cardio machine lies!

When I do my warmup, I generally either hop on the treadmill for a half mile, or do this 7 minute warmup on the stationary bike. Treadmill says I do 57 calories, and I'm generally 50-53 calories on the bike. The bike is probably the most accurate measurement as it's pretty easy to measure power output. Treadmill... not sure how it comes up with the calorie number.

Anyway, yesterday, all the treadmills and bikes were taken (made the mistake of going at 530pm). There was one elliptical machine thing left. It only had the legs though, no arm swinging. That thing also said I did just over 50 calories in 4 minutes, which is how fast I do my half mile warmup on the threadmill.

There's no way in HELL that I burned the same amount of calories in the same time on that elliptical thing as I did on the treadmill! I wasn't breathing nearly as hard compared to coming off the treadmill, and my legs didn't feel as tired compared to the bike. Lies I tell you!

Asian Karaoke

I'm apparently too white as I don't know what a proper asian karaoke bar is like. I'm use to the typical big open room with everyone in it. Well, I went to a Korean one last night and everyone has these small, separate rooms that you can fit 6-10 people in. It's pretty cool as you only embarass yourself in front of your friends instead of a big crowd of strangers.

Hmmm.... (ATM) upgrades

So there are some new ATM machines installed at my bank. The weird thing is, you put in your card and pull it out instead of the machining sucking in your car until the end of the transaction.

And now instead of five language options, there are nine!

Don't do stupid s***

This is what happens when you ride stupid on the street. This is a popular turn a little bit west of The Rock Store on Mulholland Drive in Malibu.