Catalina Coffee Company - The little things

This is one of my favorite coffee shops anywhere. They also have a pretty mean food menu. When they aren't slammed, they make cool little pictures in my mocha.


And of course, for the holidays:


As it was an absolutely beautiful December day, the cyclists were out in force:

Vons Grocery Store - Hunger Food Donation Bags

The Vons chain on grocery stores did a cool thing for the holidays. They pre-packed bags of groceries that people could buy for $10 which would be donated. There's nothing more important than a good meal, especially during the holidays, so it makes the donation process super easy.

Car Preparations for Autoshows

At the LA Autoshow, many of the cars undergo some prep. It involves removing shift knobs and any other small and easily removed knobs.

Holiday Decorations - Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach decorated the street lights this year. I think it's the first time in the five years I've been here.

Surfing in Palos Verdes

It was an absolutely beautiful day here in LA a few weeks ago. This shot is from the west side Palos Verdes looking northeast towards LA.


In this cove are a dozen surfers catching some waves. Who needs a beach?

Signs of fall/winter in LA

First thing in the morning.


Outside the office.


Up on the mountain; yes, it was cold.

Lotus Evora - Back Seat?

What do you think?

Pigeon flight speed

A pigeon can fly at least 60 mph. That's how fast I was going on my motorcycle while looking at a pigeon fly next to me. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a pigeon.

Square bowls, not so much

I needed some more dishes, so my sister gave me some of her extras including some square bowls. Well, they hold food but that's the only thing they're good for. You can't stack them properly in the dishwasher. Where you could normally stack four normal round bowls, you can only fit one square bowl. If you're eating soup out of it, the corners of the bowl make it nearly impossible to get all the soup out. I do not recommend square bowls.

New car in the neighborhood, parked on the street

So I see all kinds of nice cars parked on the street around here. Porsches, Aston Martins, Audi R8, etc. But this morning, I saw a new one and it's the first I've seen in person. Fisker Karma.

2011 Suburban, not quite centered

I had to drive the company Suburban on a trip this past week. I noticed the steering wheel and the driver's seat are not quite centered. The steering wheel seems to be roughly an inch to the right. I guess it's preset for the gangsta lean with the left hand on the top of the steering wheel.

Plastic Grocery Bags Suck!

I haven't used one in a few years because I've been using my cloth bags. This time though, I was buying some drinks to take to a party so I went ahead and used the plastic grocery bag. I forgot how crappy they where as it was about to tear with only 3 bottles in it. And of course, it stretched the handles which made them very thin which made them more painful to hold. Well, I ended up holding the bag from the bottle as I was afraid it'd tear and breaking a glass bottle would suck. Why do people still use these?

4-doors are lighter than 2-doors?

So I found something out interesting... my 2006 G35 sedan is lighter than the coupe version. I want to say the trend is the same with the BMW 3-series where the sedan is lighter than the coupe. My guess is the door of the coupe, which is much longer, also has to be made much stronger to absorb a side impact. A sedan has a b-pillar more in the middle to take the hit, so I'm guessing the doors of the sedan are much lighter. Also, coupes tend to have a much bigger rear windshield and glass is heavy!

Visa Black Card?

So I got this pre-approved application thing for a Visa Black card. Sure does look fancy. The credit card is made of carbon. The benefits?
1. Limited Membership
2. 24-hour Concierge Service
3. Exclusive Rewards Program
4. VIP Airport Lounge Access

I don't care about #1. #2, I just use the internet. #3, well, I really do not buy that much stuff. #4, that would be cool.

The downside? The $495 annual fee. Yikes!

Solution for sticky door locks

The door look to my apartment has been getting more difficult to use the past few days; it's been harder to put the key in and out. Solution? Motorcycle chain lube! It's designed to spray on and leave a protective lubricating film. It's now buttery smooth to put the key in.

Gummy bears made in..... China?

One of my co-workers bought a bag full of small bags of junk food for his kid's fundraiser. One of the bags was some brand of gummy bears. On the front of the bag, it mentioned they had vitamin C. Sweet.... sorta healthy. So after I polished off the bag, I decided to check out the back and the nutrition panel. At the bottom, 'Made in China'. REALLY??? I don't recall what brand they were, but it's somehow cheaper to make gummy bears in China and ship them across the ocean? At least the Cheetos were made in Plano, Texas.

UCLA Football? Not so much...

I grew up on SEC football where it's practically a religion. Apparently, football is not that big at UCLA. Indicator #1, we got tickets about ten rows up from the field in the corner of an end zone for $20 the week of the game. You won’t get any ticket for $20 anytime for a U. of Florida Gator game, much less the week of the game. Indicator #2, the game is at 730pm and we get to the Rose Bowl to tail gate at 1pm. The gates aren’t even open yet! Tailgating starts at 6pm on Friday for Gator games. Indicator #3, the crowd just isn’t into the game. I’m wearing a freakin Florida hat and I’m the one trying to get the crowd into the game! I was trying harder than the UCLA cheerleaders holding the cards that say ‘noise’ ‘cheer’ etc. Oh well.

Holy Depreciation!!!

I was watching The Car Show on Speed, and they have a segment where they look at cars that were high-end vehicles that are now dirt cheap. On the last episode, they looked at a 2006 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S which started life at $135k. Now what is it worth? About $35k. I did a quick search on Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds and they both say about $45k. Still, that’s a loss of $90k in 5 years. Take into account the ~10% sales tax, and the original owner has lost over $100k in 5 years! I could do a lot with $20k a year.

Airline TV Commericals

I just noticed airlines having tv commericals again. The one I've mostly noticed is from Korean Airlines. I guess it sorta worked as I recognized their uniforms when a group of Korean Airlines stewardesses when in the hotel lobby in Vegas.

Flying into Vegas from LAX

I guess it's like a spring break flight for adults. There were definitely some drunk folks on the plane.

Long cab line in Vegas

Getting around Vegas is often achieved by taking a taxi. Stepping out of one side of the baggage claim into the taxi line... well, it's like getting into line at an amusement park. There are 6 rows of about 100yards each to make it through. It was only about 4.5 rows long when I got into line. However, it was very efficient and I only had to wait about 20 minutes.

Seatbelt sensors on new planes

I was on a new Boeing 737 and apparently they come equipped with seatbelt sensors. So you know how some people like to unlatch their seatbelts before the plane pulls up to the jetway? The pilot comes on over the speaker and says there are 14 people, then 15 people not buckled in and to please fasten their seatbelts.

Parking on the street can be dangerous for you car's health

I've noticed this in a few different neighborhoods of LA. Namely, in neighborhoods with bars. Well, people still tend to drive while drunk even though they shouldn't. End result? Cars parked on the side of the street get hit by drunk drivers. I've seen some prety serious carnage. Poor cars were just parked minding their own business and then they got hit.

Good Ole Jumping Jacks

I was having a bit of a lazy day and wasn't going to go to the gym. It was a bit chilly outside and I hate running in the cold. So what to do? Jumping jacks! It must have been years since the last time I did any. Anyways.... the sad thing is that my calf muscles have been sore for 2 days. Granted, I did the jumping jacks 2 days after a leg workout, so I had that 2-day later soreness, but still.... they kicked my butt.

Always carry duct tape

So my bro-in-law Clint calls me up and his car has overheated on his way home from work. This left him stranded on the 405 north of me a bit, and about 50 miles away from home for him.

I make a run to the auto parts store to buy a funnel and coolant. Well, coolant is about $15 for a bottle. Forget that! I go to CVS and buy two packets of distilled bottled water for a total of $10. So I end up with about 3x to 4x the fluid for 2/3 the price!

I get up to Clint and we start putting water in the car. We keep on putting more water in.... hmm.... this is weird. Start looking around and the upper radiator hose is leaking. It has a tear about 1" long in it. Out comes the duct tape I leave in my car! We wrap the hose up the best we could. It was good enough for Clint to make the 50 mile drive home.

Don't trust strange irons!

So I was on a trip and need to iron my shirt. I tried using the iron in the room.... Unfortunately, it appears the iron had not been used in a very long time and also that water had been sitting in the water flow tubes. What resulted was a stream of nasty orange mud looking liquid substance coming out of the iron and making my shirt dirty.

Google Translate, still needs work

Google Translate is an app I downloaded on my phone and it's pretty amazing. Type in a word in one of a couple dozen language options, and it'll give you the translation in another. If you use the speaker function and are traslating from English into another language, you can speak in English and it'll spit out the word in one of a few other languages. However, I tried going from speaking French to get the English translation, and it didn't work so well. It just couldn't figure out what I was saying in French consistently.

What to do...... after twisting an ankle

So I twisted my ankle about 2.5 weeks ago playing ultimate frisbee. What's sad is that I didn't even really roll it that badly, but it's still not completely healed after this long. Must be part of this 'getting older' thing. Anyways, since I couldn't run or bike right after having done it, I needed to find something else to do for cardio. It turns out that you don't forget how to swim after 2 years of not being in the pool. I've always known what swimming is the best cardio workout for me, it just happens that my gym pool is only 2 lanes, so only 4-6 people can fit in it. I've gone at 6am and 11pm and the pool has been full. Well, I've gotten in two swims so far, but my ankle is healed enough to run again.

24 Hour Fitness, tracking visits

So I had to log in online to make a payment to renew my membership. I was going thru the membership section and there's a page where you can see the number of visits you've made. Pretty interesting....

No more cash $$$ at car dealers

I'm not quite sure how the conversation started, but it somehow ended up on asian gangs in So Cal. Then one of my buddies had mentioned he asked one of the car dealers down in the OC/Little Saigon area if people bought cars with cash. The dealer said they use to until around four years ago or so. Apparently, at that point, anytime a person bought a car in cash (the cold hard kind, not a check), it immediately alerted the IRS. Drug dealers don't really like having the IRS tracking them apparently.

X-Games BMX Park

These BMX guys are pulling off the most amazing trick out of all the sports. Just ridiculous! Find video of the BMX Park finals if you can and watch.

LAX traffic at 10:30pm on a weeknight

I picked up my roommate last night from LAX around 10pm. And... the conditions were the same as this:




It's extremely crowded because everyone can leave the east coast and mid-west in the late afternoon or early evening and still get into LA at a reasonable time. Remind me next time, grab people from the upper deck to avoid the traffic. It's much much faster. I think it took me about 30 minutes to make it around the lower deck with all the traffic.

Don't miss a spot

So it had been about 10 months since I last played some beach volleyball during the day. I use Coppertone Sport in the spray bottle. However, I still managed to miss a couple spots. I didn't get my left shoulder completely, so there's a one inch strip that got burnt. I didn't get my lower back, so another one inch strip that's burnt. And I didn't think to put any on my stomach as I've never had to before. But I guess I got really really pasty after ten months with no sun... and I was playing for about four hours. Ouch.

Aunt Jemima syrup cap

I just noticed a change when I went to use a new bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup. They use to have plastic wrap on the cap as the seal. Now, there's that seal you have to peal off the hole of the bottle, which is under the cap. So now you have to unscrew the cap to get to the seal. I guess it's a better seal than just the plastic shrink wrap they use to have.

Staying covered while welding

My co-worker needed help welding stuff at work; I was wearing a short sleeve shirt. I figured we were only doing 20 parts with about 10 seconds a part. Yeah... that was still enough to give my pasty arm a pretty good sunburn.

Four year service life

I've had my motorcycle gear for a little over four years now. The pads in the helmet are pretty worn out along with the chin strap. The boots have most of the rubber worn off the sole. The gloves have lost a lot of the decorative stuff on them. So I bought a new helmet, but still using the boots and gloves are they still provide the proper protection. I think I can get the boots resoled and as for the gloves, well, they still work. I don't want to buy new gear because the boots are well over $300 and the gloves are close to $200.

IMAX 3D

Movie in IMAX? Yeah, it's alright. Movie in 3D? Yeah, that's cool. Movie in IMAX 3D? Now THAT is pretty badass....

It should seem like a bad idea when...

So I'm leaving my favorite coffee shop and there are a couple guys in the small parking lot with an R/C helicopter. It appears to be the first time the one guy has ever tried to fly a R/C helicopter. Note, this is a small parking lot full of cars, surrounded by buildings on three sides, with the main street on the fourth side. So, said newbie tries to get the helicopter to take off. He takes off too fast so he tries to reduce the power at which point the helicopter almost hits a few cars. So, new pilot guy applies too much power in trying to not hit the cars. The helicopter launches towards the street with cars driving by. Fortunately, there are a couple really big palm trees in the way and the helicopter smashes into one at about 30mph or so and falls onto the sidewalk in a few pieces. The whole flight only lasted about five seconds.

Making coffee the old fashioned way

If you go to a Vietnamese restaurant and order coffee, sometimes you'll get it like this:



The coffee grounds are in the strainer and you pour boiling water in it. It takes a few minutes for it to 'brew'. I guess this was adopted from the French back in the day.

Dodger Stadium is really tall!

View from the top!

Distractions while cooking

They're bad. I over-cooked my chicken and now it's dry. I've burnt some veggies into a pan before and set off the fire alarm.

Always the same gym outfit

I find it interesting that I see some regulars at the gym always wearing the same type of clothes. Sure, they'll change colors, but it's the same stype. There's one girl that always has on full length, skin tight running style pants and always has a long sleeve shirt warped around her waist to cover her butt. There's an indian guy that always wears a wife beater, shorts, and knee high socks. Another European looking guy always with loose pants and a v-neck shirt. I see these same people 4-5 times a week and they're always wearing the same style clothes. And there are many other examples. I don't get it. I at least swap between shirts with sleeves and sleeveless. Ha!

More clearance needed

I was up at the Rock Store and checked out some of the bikes there. Apparently, the people who designed this aftermarket exhaust for this bike didn't take into account tire deflection. A bit of rubbing going on...

When you don't have a vise handy...

I used a stack of wheels and tires in my garage to hold the piece of aluminum I needed to drill out.

Underarmour wearing out

This is the shirt I generally wear when I go for motorcycle rides. It absorbs the sweat and keeps the leather jacket from sticking to my arms. Anyways, the fabric has lost a layer of material where it's been rubbed on by my gloves and jacket. Well, it lasted four years.

International cabbies, right in LA

There's a good variety of cab drivers here in LA. I often take a cab home from the airport if I get in late. This last guy was Armenian. The guy before was Chinese. I had an eastern European guy before that. I haven’t had a female driver yet though…

Good weather equals more motorcycle traffic

It didn't really dawn on me until I saw the huge highway signs saying to 'look twice' for motorcycles. When the weather gets nice, more people use motorcycles to commute. I've certainly been using it a lot more. A side benefit to overall traffic is that you can fit two motorcycles in the space of one car, so overall congestion is reduced.

Only in LA, I hope

I was driving up around Bel Air and saw a Prius parked on the side of the road. This Prius had some custom wheels on it which is a growing trend around LA. They have to make it sporty looking. What was more.... odd... was the couple; the guy was your stereotypical steroided out meat head. And the girl was a baked tan Jersey Shore wannabe. Things that make you go hmmm....

New helmet break-in

I got a new motorcycle helmet after having used my old one for 4 years. The thing with motorcycle helmet is that the foam padding breaks in. So, when it's new, it should be very very snug. Borderline painful. Once it breaks in, it'll just be snug. If you make the rookie mistake and buy it where it's just snug when new, then it'll become loose after it breaks in and can move around on your head. A loose helmet doesn't protect as well as a snug one.

MMmmm..... Kogi Korean BBQ Truck!

I finally got some food from the infamous Kogi truck! Well, it has expanded to five trucks now. It's Korean/Mexican fusion food and I had a burrito. Yummy!

In LA, there's filming everywhere

I had an event to attend downtown LA and I when I got down there, some of the streets were shut down for the filming of something. Last night, it looked like something was being filmed on the football field of a high school next to me. A few weeks ago, my favorite coffee shop was closed because Law and Order was being filmed there. I've seen a few other shops closed for filming before too. You just never know around here.

Splitting bills

Back in college in Texas and Florida when eating out, the waiter/waitress would generally ask if a group of us wanted to split out bills. Out here in LA though, they never ask. On top of that, they seemed annoyed if you ask them to.

Stationary bikes, making power!

A few eco-friendly gyms caught on to this idea. The average person probaby produces about 75-150watts while using a stationary bike. That's enough to power a couple light bulbs. Well, a few companies have created stationary bikes that act as generators and actually put electricity back into the grid. Might as well have your patrons help reduce your electric bill as they're making power anyways.

http://www.humandynamo.net/teamdynamo.html

Stationary bike power limit?

On the stationary bike, I generally use the random hill setting to keep it from being monotonous. The difficulty level goes from 1-20. I generally keep it around level 10, so when it's at the biggest hill in the program, it's about 220-240watts. The problem with level 10 is that at the lowest point in the hill program, it's like 50 watts, so I put the level to 20. The thing is, the bike can't handle level 20 on the big hill. From what I've noticed, the bike goes into a shutdown and reset mode anytime I've hit over 300 watts. Kinda lame if you ask me. A pro cyclist would break the bike; I think they average 300watts during a hard stage of the Tour de France. So that would be for around four or five hours. Those guys are animals.

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern

I just caught an episode where he went to Hong Kong. He went to this one restaurant where their speciality is snake soup. You can also get the snake bile mixed in with water or some alcohol; the bile is suppose to be really good for you if sick, or just give you an energy boost. It was crazy watching the owner of the place handle the snakes which are alive right up until they are cooked to be served. Really crazy watching the prep... The snake meat actually looks like typical white meat like chicken and the soup it's used in is apparently really good. Andrew really liked it and said it did taste like chicken.

Must stay disconnected!

So there's a problem with too many sources of information in that it's difficult to avoid sometimes. I didn't get around to watching the Formula 1 race until tonight, so I basically had to avoid almost every website out there. No Facebook because of someone possibly mentioning the results in a status update. No gmail because of status updates in the gchat window. No cnn.com, bbc news, espn, any automotive forums. The only safe thing to do was to stay offline.

Rear bumper = dirt collector

When it rains around here, I've noticed that all the dirt/rocks/sand gets kicked up from my rear tires and into the rear bumper. I know this because when I shut the trunk, I hear and see the dirt fall off the bumper and onto the ground. I think this car is the only one I've had do this.

South Park isn't quite the same...

So the old school South Park graphics were super basic. Now they're more advanced... I'm not quite sure how to explain it. I think before, everything was flat. Now the cartons have some depths to them. It's freakin me out!

No riding today

Argh.... foggy this morning. Like riding into a setting sun, riding in the fog is a bad idea.

Daylight savings = riding to work again!

I haven't been on the motorcycle for about a month now due to weather and the lack of daylight. Before spring forward, the sun was setting during my commute home which really affected visibility as I was heading straight into the sun. Well, you don't want to be on a motorcycle in this situation due to the increased probability of getting rear-ended. Well, now there's plenty of sunlight when I get off work, so I rode into work today!

Make it rain!

I'm only happy when it rains... in LA because it clears out all the smog for one beautiful day. If you look closely, downtown LA is in the background on the right and there's snow on the mountains.

They take away all the fun

This is on the pier in Manhattan Beach. Oh well, would've been fun.

A different breakfast burrito

I usually get one from my favorite joint in Hermosa Beach where you get to pick the ingredients; I go with ham, eggs, potato, cheese, and guacamole. Well, couple of my friends and I went for a bike ride up to Manhattan Beach and hit up a taco joint there. They also had a breakfast burrito, but it had egg, cheese, ham, hash browns and sausage. Not a bad mix either!

Not a poser!

In the world of motorcycle riders, you have a lot of posers. This guy, is NOT a poser. That's a limited edition, very very expensive ($75k) Ducati he's cranking thru a corner in the canyons of Malibu.

It's always the last one

A co-worker had the low tire pressure monitering system go off, so I offered to check it out because I always carry around a pressure gauge and air compressor. So what are the odds the tire that was low would be the last tire I checked? Statistically speaking, 1 in 4 right? Well, I must be good at beating the odds because it was the last one.

Another example, I was searching for a pic of me riding on this website. Out of the 23 pages with over 1500 pics..... guess where my pic was? Yup, sure enough, on the very last page. Go figure.

Asian markets

I hit up one of the big Viet markets while I was down in the OC. For some odd reason, asians have a tendency to leave their carts in the middle of isles blocking paths around, and walking 30 feet away from their carts. Just a bit inconsiderate...

The other thing, driving a car in the parking lot of an asian market is just dangerous. A co-worker of my sister who is Chinese, born in China, actually refuses to drive in Chinatown here because the last two times she went, she got hit!

So maybe there's a connection between driving skill (lack of) and carts in the grocery store? Absentmindedness perhaps?

Oh, of course the other thing about asian markets is the large variaty of odd foods. Ever seen a black chicken before? Still had the head too. And the bucket of pork blood. Lots of interesting things...

Same cardio equipment, different calibration

I think it's weird, but you hop on one stationary bike to another, same make, and their calibration is different. Level 9 on the random hill profile does not equal level 9 on the other. Why don't they just have the same program for all of them?

un-grey hair

I've pulled out a few strands that were grey, but had started turning black again.... weird eh?

LA = Diversity

Buell, Harley, Honda, Ducati, Moto Guzzi, Yamaha... and something different in the back that I can't make out.

Cars and Coffee - Ferrari Day

Cars and Coffee here in SoCal usually has a designated make of car show up each week to fill up the prime parking section of the lot. Auston Martins, Austin Healeys, Jags, Porsches, Minis, Fiats, Alfa Romeo... you get the idea. Well, last saturday was Ferrari day. There were some old-skool Ferraris there, including one that was apparently the 30th made or so. Then there was the more common stuff like the F458. The Enzo was pretty sick, but the second time I've seen one. The F50 was a first though.

Go-karting = pain

The seat of a kart is generally just a plastic shell. I generally end up with some bruising on my spine after racing karts due to the lack of any padding. I only notice the bruising if I lay down on something relatively hard though.

So many weight loss commercials

It seems like there isn't a commercial break without some weight loss commerical. Many other countries have the opposite problem and that's starvation.

New years resolution in action.... for now....

I get to the gym at 830pm and the place is slammed. Lots of new faces... I give them until MLK day before they drop out.