More costumes here [makezine]

[hint: she’s related to halloween in a way]

UPDATE: It’s Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (without all that nasty black makeup)

since my treo 650 bit the dust, it’s time to search for that next, great smartphone. the nokia e61 is a good choice for many reasons.

1. quad-band gsm
2. stable symbian os (less apps, but more stable)
3. built in bluetooth & wifi (imagine skype calls for free)
4. mini-sd memory card slot
5. pop/smtp/imap and blackberry connectors

flew into lax on sunday night and had dinner and a beer with tri and chetty. i’m glad to be heading down there and hang out a little more, especially on the company’s dime. i think at first i’ll be down there a couple times a month, but we’ll see what happens. if i can squeeze them into a single day trip, then it’s manageable. i might have an overnighter every once in a while. there might be a trip to paris for me (and a trip to south carolina for les), so that will be interesting to handle that since neither of has traveled for work in probably a couple years. we’ll probably lean on the local family network for support during those trips.

it also was my first flight since we have the new traveling rules in place about liquids and gels. i had to toss my hair gel and a bottle of face lotion since they were over 3 oz in size. total replacement cost was probably about $30 or so. what a waste. other than that, it was rather uneventful.

kind of a boring trip, eh?

someone please watch it with me!

my wonderful (and single) sister turned 27 this weekend.

but why the buttaface pose? maybe she was in the middle of one of her ridiculously loud man-burps? they are both completely disgusting and mildly stimulating all at once. picture the noise of a herd of feral pigs in heat and multiply that by 4.2×10¹⁵

the last day of work was on thursday and i was able to duck out of there pretty quick without anyone knowing – much better because i don’t like all the attention.

i had my lasik done on friday morning and then slept the rest of friday and into saturday. the procedure was uneventful except for the wonderful smell of that laser burning away part of my eyeball. i woke up saturday with a headache, but after dropping some pillz, i felt much better. my vision is now much improved, especially night vision! many thanks to my wife and parents for this wonderful gift. the early test said my vision is 20/15 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye. the doctor didn’t mention anything about my brown eye.

went out on saturday night for feli’s birthday at hukilau and some other places downtown. the food was good and i’m anxious to go back again to try all the different dishes, but not at once because i would get full pretty quick. had some drinks in downtown and after last call, i had to escort my sister to safety from the throngs of men who struck out and now were cackling, making kissing noises and honking their car horns at her (and me, i suppose). i can’t ever see that as an effective pick-up method, but if you know me, you’ve heard me go on about that before. i wondered if they may have been honking at her because she was walking the streets of sj barefoot?
so i slept for a few hours and then went out to troy & gina’s wedding up in napa. surprisingly, i wasn’t all that tired and i think it was because i slept for about 18 hours the night before. had a full four-course meal with wine pairings at the reception and so i collapsed once i hit the bed that night.

drove back this morning and wound down the weekend with an excellent enchilada casserole for the birthday family dinner. went home and filled out a couple thousand forms for my first day of work tomorrow.
whew!

and i have to train the australia folks at 3pm!

good – my fantasy football team scored more than 100pts
bad – my fantasy football team lost

good – the raiders lost again, making them the only winless team in the whole nfl
bad – the niners lost like crazy to the chargers. lt went off for 4 td’s.

(this reminds me of when the raiders played the bucs in the super bowl)

good: alyssa is doing well in her spanish class
bad: alyssa is not doing so well in her english class

good: i am moving to a new job with more pay and more responsibility
bad:  i have to leave my old job and it’s cushy work schedule and compartively high salary

good: i get my last check from ipass at my new, higher pay rate
bad: it’s already spoken for by the billmaster

any takers?

happy friday from manteca!

i get the results of my memory testing today at 10am

and

i officially re-became a system administrator today. somehow, my wife fears i will suddenly turn into a creature like this:

i was feeling adventurous and had the haircut lady give me a mohawk. this will be most handy when i am searching for new jobs, if those new jobs are related to working in a massage parlor in san francisco.

any comments on the new do? some of the guys at work think it’s a little too metro.

i’ve been running and playing basketball the last week or so, trying to whip my body into some semblance of shape. having the tummy is a nice way to prop up marcos but i think it sends the wrong message – gaining weight for utility purposes.

this may be the only way i can get into shape and keep up with the digital world:

i’m back at work after a nice week off hanging out and taking mid-day naps.