donger need food.

Sunshine On My Mind

For all of you sloshing it around in the rain, a little taste of southern california goodness...

posted by VirtualErn @ 4:12 PM 6 comments

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Satisfy My Soul

I miss going to church.
And I especially enjoy visiting our family's parish, the one I grew up with -- fond memories of getting caught ditching CCD, the comeraderie of the confirmation retreat, getting dirty looks from the monsignor for cursing out loud in the parking lot during basketball practice. And I forget just how many filipinos attend this parish...brown people as far as the eyes can see. :)

The one thing that I really love about this church though is the music. Whether it's the youth choir or the soloists, I can always rely on beautiful song. And Saturday night's Christmas Eve mass was no exception, being treated to a choir, piano, violin, cantor, and a couple of old friends playing acoustic guitar and electric bass. (It was great saying hello to Tricia and Chris, it must've been at least 2, 3 years now since I saw them last.) Sitting there, on that well worn and creaking wooden pew, I bathed in the wonderful voices filling the 50 foot high concrete walls. And on occassion, grabbed the hymnal to join in the reverie. It uplifts my soul to the rafters, leaving a smile on my face as I slowly abandoned those troubles of modern life...resolving to let them wait for me outside in the cold & foggy winter air. Although there are many times when I find it difficult to reconcile differences between the homily and that world outside these halls, church has always been a sanctuary for my spirit, worn heavy from the burden and rigors or everyday life. I find solace in those quiet conversations with God, giving me peace if only for an hour.

Now the real trick is I just have to take some time visiting different churches back in the bay until I find one with decent music. There's some songs that I especially miss, not having heard for years now: On Eagle's' Wings, Lift Up Your Hands, One Bread One Body, Pan De Vida (to name a few). With luck, hopefully I'll find a house of worship that I enjoy attending and maybe start being an active member (I really need to learn how to sing though.)

In addition to the spiritual nourishment, this second visit home in as many months didn't fail to once again feed my big fat belly. Click on the photo for a description of the offerings that can only be described as "my Mom on a mission".

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:19 AM 0 comments

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What Kind of Car Geek Are You?

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...
Only my bored little fingers, still reeking of the Yoshida sauce and pork spare ribs from dinner.

So as I wait to get ready for the annual Christmas Eve mass at my childhood parish, I peruse the pages of this month's issue of Sport Compact Car. To the tune of Wake Me Up When September Ends, I started thinking...

What kind of car guy/girl are you?

Ambivolent

1. You'd rather go to the mall holding your boyfriend/girlfriend's shopping bags than go watch a car show. On TV.
   
2. Your dream car is that new minivan with power doors, power liftgate, DVD player, rear air-conditioning, and a 100K mile warranty. And you think an orange '71 Datsun 510 is an ugly car.
   
3. You think the only difference between 87, 89, 91, 93, and 100 octane gas is price. Whoa... they sell 100 octane?
   
4. You have never changed the oil in your car before.
5. You don't know where the hood release lever is.
   

Poser

1. You rev your automatic in neutral while accelerating to pretend that you have a manual.
2. On that same car, you put a 3" canister muffler with a 1" outlet on the stock exhaust.
3. You try to race on the street. Against WRXs. While driving your Mom's 4-cylinder Accord that was described in #1 & #2.
   
4. You dream about 19" spinners on that same car.
5. You think Fast And The Furious is the greatest car movie ever.

Wanna Be

1. You read all the car magazines that you can get your hands on. You read all the car forums on the internet. Every day.
2. You know what "rev-match" means.
3. You know what the difference is between a header and an exhaust manifold.
4. You can talk for hours about things car-related, never having actually done any of 'em.
5. You dream about installing a turbo in your car.
   

Aficionado

1. You've spun your $25K daily driver on the track.
2. You actually can rev-match your downshifts.
3. You've installed your own header. In your apartment complex.
   
4. You blow $500 a month on track days. But you don't race. ...Yet
   
5. You go absolutely insane when in the presence of a Top Fuel Dragster, an F1 car, a MotoGP bike, or an Indy Car. Or hell, when you see something like a Porsche 959, a McLaren F1, or a Ferrari 288GTO on the street.
   

If they cut you, you'll bleed Amsoil 10W-30

1. You've spun your $50K daily driver on the street. While practicing on a freeway onramp. In the rain.
   
2. You can't remember how many motors you've blown.
3. You can drive 50 laps around a racetrack. Without using the clutch.
4. You've rebuilt a carburetor, a transmission, and a DOHC straight six.
   
5. You race everything... riding lawn mowers, office stools, matchbox cars, empty boxes, and people walking in the park on a Sunday.

Now if only Santa would stop by later tonight to hand deliver the keys to my very own fully-prepped and tuned race car. Oh please oh please oh please! I promise I'll be a good boy next year! :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 8:48 PM 0 comments

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Edit The Sad Parts

Sometimes all I really wanna feel is love,
Sometimes I'm angry that I feel so angry.
Sometimes my feelings get in the way
Of what I really feel I needed to say.

My toes tickle the accelerator through my old leather shoes just enough to maintain a reasonable distance behind the red late-model Pontiac forging through ahead of me. Fist on my chin, wind buffetting the canvas top, road irregularities jarring the stiff double-wishbone suspension, I peer out the window over the acres of farmland as my tiny Honda barrels down Highway 25 on this early December evening. Orderly telephone poles frame a lonely windmill lazily spinning away - in a blink, it disappears from view. The fog is unusually thick today, concealing the edges of the southern Gilroy valley. Without the mountains to frame my view, I imagine the valley floor to stretch to eternity...

Sure, it's cheaper to fly.
It takes less time.
And you don't arrive tired.
...But I still prefer driving.

I've ran this eight hour 540 mile San Francisco-to-San Diego-express countless times since I've made The Bay my new home and yet I still don't tire of it. [Heh...years ago I remember going for broke late one night and clocked an outrageous 6.25 hour E.T. Partly because I was desperately trying to stay awake, and partly because I wanted to see if I could do it.] Call it antisocial, call it loneliness. Call it whatever the heck you want to call it... I have this strange fascination with driving. I think it's because time in the car is an opportunity for my mind to relax as it churns away on some notion, set to the backdrop of an exceedingly eclectic choice in music.

You know, I wonder how different of a person I would be if I could take all those hours spent sitting on my ass in the car daydreaming, and used the time to do something constructive. Heck, how different would this world be if no one had to spend any time in the car commuting/driving?

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:30 AM 3 comments

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Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

...But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
No,
Cryin's not for me...


Sometimes I really love the rain.
I enjoy the randomly rhythmic beat as drops begin to fall on the ground, climaxing to the soft roar of a billion drops cutting through the air. Even that pungent smell biting at the hairs in your nose as the fresh rainwater bubbles to the surface all the grit and grime of weeks of crud ground into the black asphalt roadway. I look out on the rows of traffic, black arms of rubber wiper blades doing their duty, each with their own sense of time...and the whole world around me is coated in this murky fog of gray. Headlights cast a dull glimmer reflected in the wet road below. The world around me has essentially mellowed out.

But what I really enjoy the most about the rain is the cleansing. When there's a break (like this morning), I could see for an eternity in crystal clarity. All the murkiness, the foggy rooster tails of spray kicked up by speeding cars, the small pools of brownish muck collecting over clogged storm draims...gone. Instead, you have this beautifully clear simplicity, if only for a few hours until the next shower.


...Maybe that's really what I've been looking for all this time?

posted by VirtualErn @ 9:53 PM 4 comments

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The Moon and Antarctica

Oh, what an insanely busy day.

It started out innocently enough, with a wonderfully smooth, rain-free drive to work. My mind must really be floating off elsewhere, because it didn't occur to me until now that the holiday traffic patterns have kicked in. (duh). Door to door, I was able to make it into the office in just a scant under 30 minutes.

[allow me to detour a bit...I think this whole traffic pattern thing is specific to the bay area. In all my years living and driving in America's Finest City, I have never noticed a falloff in traffic during the holiday season (or maybe it's been so long that I've forgotten already?). But up here in the bay, there is a very noticeable change in traffic patterns... Supposedly it's because kids are out of school. And people are on vacation. Whatever it is, I think it's great.]

So anyways, fatigued with only about 5 hours of sleep I grinded through a 9AM interview (oh the price of management). I'm grateful that he is a relatively strong candidate. What really frustrated me, however, was that I had blocked out about 5 hours of time to crank through a bunch of tasks that needed to be done. But constant interruptions throughout the day conspired to derail my hopes. (And I won't even get into the mass scramble of managers running around trying to ship out four simultaneous product updates to address a security exploit...grrr) I guess it didn't help that I was juggling IM & e-mail conversations or spending 30 minutes talking to one of my former employees about clothes and sales -- haha...she had a reaction that went something like this: (hands to eyes with a big grin) "you're making mommy cry, I'm so proud of you...these are tears of joy!" She says my green sweatshirt was a bit too much. And my officemate agreed. They both say that green (well, more specifically, that bright green that I bought) doesn't really work well with asians. Then they started calling out all these more appropriate funky shades of green that I've never heard of before - like hunter(?) green...what da hell is that? I really need a shopping buddy to help me pick out colors.

Oh no... This is turning into a beveblog.
Must.
Stop.

:)

And so, finally, the day is over -- just got off a conference call with the folks in India. Happy to say that I was able to accomplish some of the big things I needed to do. But now I just have to figure out how to motivate my fat ass to get on to the gym. Damnit, it's so tempting to go home and finish that leftover piece of prime rib...Oh, I know how -- 36" waist, size L shirts. Eye on the prize.

And by the way, I've been on a major Modest Mouse trip. Exactly what I need at this point in my life.

posted by VirtualErn @ 6:47 PM 7 comments

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Rear Engine Fun

Here's a link to the Porsche 911 destruction video. You gotta love that British humor.

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

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Laziness Prevails

And by the way...if you have the means, get yourself an electric knife.

They are so choice.

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:42 AM 0 comments

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U.S.D.A. Prime

I just want to say thank you to those of you who were able to make it out to Bridgepointe for my feast. Regretfully, I wasn't able to revel in a toast to everyone for another year filled with good memories and good friends (the champagne is still in the fridge!) but I am eternally grateful for my adopted family.

Regardless of all the stress related to supplying a new apartment and preparing a 4 course meal for 16 people, I'm hopeful that everyone was able to enjoy a pleasant evening in the company of good friends. The wine didn't hurt either!

You probably can't tell, but I'm really drunk right now :)

Here's to another year filled with good tidings, loving friends, and memories to last a lifetime.
Thanks, UPSer for peelin' potatoes. Thanks Shalamar for the wonderfully sublime '95 Tapestry Reserve. Thanks OJ & Tin for keeping me company with comforting conversation past your bedtime on this rainy Sunday night...and thanks all for making the bay area feel so much like home.

This was such a fun evening, I can't wait 'til the next one. Hmmm...salmon roe? cheese/wine pairings? Turducken?

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:52 AM 4 comments

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Top Gear...

...is the greatest. show. ever.

Who else would want to see why a Ford Mondeo is better than a Citroen 2CV when facing a 747?

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:05 AM 3 comments

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Kumain Ka?

Eons ago, in a land far, far away...I was privileged to be a part of the maestro's little college project where a bunch of Filipinos got to prance around on stage performing their renditions of traditional folk dance interspersed with some politically inspired "skits". In one of the annual events, I was responsible for the script together with one of my long time friends -- we worked together on writing a play. The writing was a tremendous amount of fun...but what made it all rewarding was seeing this thing take on a life of its own as it progressed from inception as a spark in our tiny little brains to the laughter of a theater filled with 500+ whoopin and hollerin' brown people (there were some white people there, I think). One thing that stuck out in my mind was how a simple line: "Did you eat yet?" just ended up carrying the show. We had stuck it in there as just a little gag...a tribute, if you will, to one of the few ways our parents' can communicate their endearing love for us. The actors just totally ran with it, making it a point to say it everytime their (fictional) son/daughter would enter the room. It was a hit.

Why do I bring this up? Well, I'm walking around PW earlier this evening shopping for ingredients for Sunday's dinner, and I am reminded about just how much food we have in this country. I know it's a whole marketing thing -- people won't buy stuff if they see empty shelves; blah, blah, blah -- but still, if you think about it, this is just ONE supermarket. With enough food to feed what must be ten thousand people. For a month. This hedonistic excessiveness culmniated for me in our group outing earlier in the week to The Cheesecake Factory (for a new hire welcome lunch). Something is just plain wrong about that place. I was especially disheartened to see the look on my employee's face when they brought out her eggplant sandwich -- it was so much food, she basically lost her appetite completely. I mean the portion sizes aren't just large, they're borderline vulgar. The meatloaf sandwich looked to be a full two pounds of beef. My salad was piled about six inches high on a 15" plate. One of my employees mentioned that the reason there is so much food is that they can charge higher prices if the portion sizes are larger. And the food is so cheap that they actually make money this way. Yay, capitalism.

And then coming home tonight, even after eating my sandwich, I realize I'm still hungry... I've worked so hard for the past five or so months, and it's still not enough to combat the decades of training...of growing up in a household where you were sternly told to "finish your food!". Backed by harrowing accounts of "people starving all over the world" in conjunction with childhood tales of having to water down the sinigang to serve a family of twelve (however fictional they may have been) ...And so you finished your food.

[I must come clean however, that's not entirely true...me and my brothers loved to eat. Especially since my Mom loved to cook, and not entirely healthily either...deep fried empanadas, butter instead of margarine, real milk, pork adobo without draining the fat...you get the idea. Ahhh, memories. :) ]

So I struggle with what little willpower remains to keep from falling off that horse..."eye on the prize" as they say. The next phase of the renovation will entail even further denials of that which I love best...in an effort to get rid of this gelatinous gut, get myself healthy, and be in good enough shape to race (for real) in 2007. The past several months have been downright awesome, with me feeling worlds better physically and mentally. And all thanks to great support from a good friend. But I must continue the pursuit, and redefine and clarify my goals. And I know it's not going to be easy. I was OK somewhat with cutting down my portion size, but my love for food runs deep...if you tell me I'm going to have to give up that well-marbled USDA prime New York Strip, or Mollie Stone's Tomato Bisque, there's gonna be some trouble. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 9:34 PM 4 comments

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Blue Sky Yonder

Today was such an absolutely gorgeous day. Rolling down the window, I felt the mild sting of the crisp winter air, a gentle reminder that southern california was half a thousand miles away. The wisps of clouds overhead peered through the open sun roof, as my head warmed to the morning sun...

Since my calendar was clear this morning, I decided on a whim to see if I could avoid the weekend shopping madness, heading into the city on a weekday morning. I wanted to return a shirt that I had bought... It was rather disappointing, really; I guess the sheer excitement that I had dropped another shirt size (to a large) had distracted me from looking closely at the mirror in the fitting room -- else I would've noticed that the fit wasn't quite there yet. Another few weeks, perhaps?

Despite the unbelievable traffic on 3rd St. (15 minutes bumper to bumper from Folsom to Market!), I found the SF shopping district to be pleasantly uncrowded. No hassle return at the Gap, with a minimal line. I really enjoy winter in the city, especially on days like this. Frigid souls bundled up in layers of hip: scarves, leather, turtlenecks, parkas, wool. Dark colors abound, brief puffs of condensation emanate from huffing breaths.

I need to get myself a place in the city. Eight years ago, eating some sandwich from a deli on Leavenworth while on break from a Cisco router training class, I proudly proclaimed to myself (and my former boss sitting with me): "I'm going to live here". Alas, I still haven't. Maybe I'll just eschew this whole homebuying-invest-in-your-future-nonsense and go satisfy my short term need to be surrounded by people, cars and noise... hey, the paramount sf has a corner 1 bedroom available for a measly (gulp) $2700/month. Hm... I could live without cable. Food. Heat. Internet. hahaha, right. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 11:10 PM 3 comments

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I Want a Motorcycle

Just so I can look cool. Like my younger brother...

Ignore the Raider colors. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 8:44 AM 3 comments

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Red Turtles, Yoshi, and Mushrooms

It's 1991. Your eyes are red, you're sleepy, tired, and your thumb hurts like hell. The sound of coins are ringing in your head. There's a [insert homework assigment here] due tomorrow, and yet you keep on going...



I can't believe I'm actually playing old video games. I really need to get out more. :)


Speaking of mushrooms...I honestly think that the evil soup woman at Mollie Stone's spikes her product with crack cocaine. I really do. I had the mushroom bisque for lunch today and it was damned good, especially on a crispy cold day like today.

posted by VirtualErn @ 7:55 PM 7 comments

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Baby Wants Rabbit

[You're really old if you remember which Bugs Bunny cartoon that came from - hint: Bogey & Bacall]

Thank you LaraG for a pleasant evening hanging out on Friday. Excellent food, stimulating conversation, and good music make for a lovely punctuation mark on a week littered with failed attempts at retaining fellow employees. -- I really needed the night out. Although I'm happy for them making the tough decisions, prioritizing happiness and well-being over work commitments, a part of me is wrestling with the sadness of seeing co-workers -- friends -- move on to something new. The meal definitely helped: rabbit (my first time -- tastes like chicken!), foie gras, salmon gravlax, steak tartare, and the finisher -- a creme brulee trio. Who would've thought that champagne is a better pair with creme brulee than a sweet dessert wine? Well knowing is half the battle. ...Yum.

Next Friday, it's a birthday celebration with a fellow manager at (what looks like) a cool Italian restaurant. Gonna be fun!

Other things to note...

1. Bye bye Bacardi Coke...I found my new drink.
2. My drinking habit is getting really expensive.
   
3. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast, Modest Mouse - Building Nothing out of Something and James Blunt - Back to Bedlam (thanks DoubleR!) are some decent albums.
   
4. I need to ride the BART to the city more...with a camera.

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:15 AM 13 comments

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Free Love

Highway 101 through the peninsula rolls underneath the one and a half tons of Japanese steel as I carefully pilot my way back home from Sunnyvale and three pints of the Firehouse seasonal November Ale (which wasn't quite bad, actually). An hour of post-bar-conversation at the Reyes' family residence seems to have done the trick, quelling my slightly inebriated state, but I'm still eager to engage the cruise control...toggle the rocker switch on the instrument panel to "on", press the cold hard plastic lower "set" button on the leather wrapped steering wheel, and note the bright green "cruise" indicator in fancy Serif font light the reflection of my instrument panel in the windshield. Slide the temperature indicator 2 clicks to the right, keeping my naked fingers and brown Puma-Roma-shod-feet nice and toasty. As the hypnotic rhythm guitar and bass line from Modest Mouse's (rather excellent) Building Nothing Out Of Something rages out of the iRiver, my vision is distracted by the bright green billboard just across from the Liberate building: Free Love. Hrmph. Must be some sort of computer business ad. Is there any other kind in Silicon Valley?

Free Love. Is there ever such a thing?

I think about how unbelievably impossible it is for two people in this world to find each other. There's a billion different personalities out there, yet for some reason, love just seems to "happen". There are couples I know -- some married, some not -- that just "work". I don't think they notice (or possibly care), but they just exude this amazing sense of love for one another that is so enjoyable and inspiring to see. From the way their voice changes, or that glimmer in their eye when they see their soulmate. It brings hope to the rest of us out there who are still thrashing about...lost -- searching for some thing that we think is what we want or some Norman Rockwellian image of life that we have painted for ourselves, holding the world to some unattainable standard. Maybe what we seek is right there beneath our noses... Maybe it's right in front of us, staring into our tragically blinded beady eyes, waiting for the moment when we make that final realization.

Or maybe it's just fate.

[This stretch of the highway points straight as an arrow for a mile or so (with the occasional bend), but undulates vertically with a frequency that -- if your shocks are really worn -- your tires will eventually lift off the surface when driven at just the right speed. So you push forth, letting the car work its way through. Not paying any mind to the magic that your suspension and tires are working as they cope with the wavy interstate]

I used to have a theory about fate -- that no matter how much you think you have control over your life, it's all part of some master plan. Each and every step you take, every decision you make, the people that you meet, no matter how seemingly autonomous or random, really was meant to have happened. I know it sounds crazy, but I always found comfort knowing that no matter what happened in my life, it was meant to be, and that there is a method to the madness. I just don't see it yet. And somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that and started to get bogged down in the grit...those tiny little pebbles that find their way into your shoe and manage to irritate and annoy you.

I am grateful for being able to really let go of it all -- and in the process enjoy every single minute of my life. Whether it be making a perfectly rev-matched fifth to third downshift under braking or talking about life, women and football over a decent beer with my good friend of twenty years. I'm grateful for it all. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:33 AM 0 comments

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Name That Tune

So seeing a commentor post a list of favorites (thanks Anne!), I thought I'd seek some sage advice from those of you playing along at home to help me complete this list:

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
Barracuda - Heart
Heartbreaker - Pat Benetar
Hollywood Nights - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what type of CD I'm trying to build. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 11:14 AM 0 comments

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Smile! Smile! I Want to See You Smile

(It's totally link day today.)

If you're not on GVOD's feed, you're missing out on some wacky stuff.

Like this... The perfect capper for today, where oddly enough, I found myself in quite a cheery mood, so totally relaxed and in good cheer. Maybe it's the holidays. Maybe it's taking the S2K out after weeks sitting in the garage. Or maybe it's just me taking heed of oj_rokk's advice to stop worrying and taking life too seriously, knowing that no matter what, the grass will always be greener.

Nah, it's the car. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 9:33 PM 2 comments

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The Music Genome Project

Almar forwarded me a link to Pandora. What a great concept.

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:56 PM 5 comments

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Wish I Lived in the UK...

Or knew someone from there, because I so want these.

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:45 AM 2 comments

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Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

I wish I was Superman.

And no, it's not for some noble cause like saving lives, preventing mass destruction, or inspiring young children to be better people. It's purely selfish.

Sure, there's the whole X-ray vision man-of-steel thing, but what I really want is to be able to fly really fast around the world and spin it backwards so that I can go back and change the past. I know that they all say you should never regret (and for the most part it's very good advice). But for some reason, there's some days -- like when you're home in bed trying to ward off the onset of the first cold of the season -- when you just can't seem to relax because your mind has found itself reliving moments long since gone. Like:

• Not saying the right thing at the right time - the worst part is driving home an hour later and the perfect line/remark/comeback appears in your head, but the opportunity to use it is lost...forever.
  
• Saying the wrong thing at the right time - and realizing 37 milliseconds later that you shouldn't have said that. And you're dying inside because all you want to do is reach out and grab those words out of thin air and pull them back and throw them on the floor, and stomp on them with your heavy leather shoes until they're pulverized into a million little pieces -- but you can't.
  
• Letting my stupid insecure mind convince myself to miss out on social situations
• Not buying that black-on-black '93 Sentra SE-R 10 years ago because of some lame torque excuse; not buying that '90 Turbo Z 7 years ago because of some lame insurance/maintenance excuse; not buying a house before I left San Diego when 2500 square feet in a good school district cost you a paltry $238K because I convinced myself I wasn't ready (I realize now that I was); blowing all my money on useless toys that depreciate faster than a reality TV show from MTV...and on and on and on.
  

Well maybe I just need to learn to live with regret -- and embrace it -- it will always be there, just natural fallout from being a fallible human. The funny thing is, I end up in regret because my mind gets so worried about the future, processing all the possible consequences and outcomes. But that's just plain silly.

Goal #3 on life's to do list: carpe diem.

Goal #276 on life's to do list: be Superman. :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:27 AM 6 comments

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Oceanic Flight 815

And I thought that the folks on Galactica were jacked. Sheez...
I finally completed the first season of Lost (5 discs) and I think I'm paying the price, with a possible head cold on the way. Going out on Saturday night (although quite fun!) probably didn't help matters much. It was great being able to catch up with old friends and get to know new ones.

Hopefully these early cold symptoms won't turn into anything major -- there's much too much to do in the coming weeks. Better hit the sack and preempt a possible PTO expense.

I'll say one thing, though...I should've tried harder to find a place in the city. I gave up much too easy, and I'm regretting (oh there goes that word again) the decision to find the easy way out with a comfortable managed complex on the peninsula. I mean, I moved up here for a reason, and here I am living in a community that is so typical Southern California!

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:09 AM 6 comments

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Kim Yoon-jin

What a hottie. I wonder if her movies are any good.

I'm so grateful for Lost, filling the void left by BSG.
And just when I was going to complain about that annoyingly cheesy melodramatic music + slo-mo crap, they go and fix it. Yay.

One thing that bothers me about the show...how does everyone keep their hair conditioned and cut and styled every day on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere? :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:28 AM 1 comments

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Junkie

OK...so I am officially addicted. Thank you JJ Abrams, thank you Netflix...You jerks. :)

It's quarter to one on a school night, and I'm actually contemplating plodding through disc 5.
Well, at least this isn't as bad as the last time I watched a TV series on DVD.

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:47 AM 4 comments

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The Perfect Sandwich

So it all makes sense now. It's all about balance. Take for example, this rather unassuming Turkey Club...

You would never suspect that the best turkey club sandwich that I have ever had would come from a modest non-descript deli on a hidden street corner off of El Camino Real in Palo Alto. For 2 years now, the Driftwood Deli's turkey club sandwich (on sliced sourdough, untoasted, with swiss) has been my defacto go-to sandwich of choice, when all else fails to inspire an appetite. And so I finally figured out why this is so...balance. The flavors aren't competing for each other, vying for the knockout title. No, they all work together. Not too much mayo, just enough so that you can barely taste it. Bacon cooked to a crisp but not so salty to mask the mild turkey. The lettuce...a simple light green -- without any crunchiness (that's what the bacon is for). And then the tomato...fresh and soft, but not too thick or crunchy. And the piece-de-resistance...two slices of the softest, freshest sourdough. Mmmmm...mmmm... What's amazing is that without fault, the sandwich is always spot on. Consistent to a T. No matter how many times I go there. I think it's because the people that make the sandwiches are the same 2 ladies, day in, day out. Whereas those Mollie Stone sandwiches reek of high-turnover and in-your-face volume: 2 inch high slabs of salami. 1/2 inch thick cuts of tomato. Rough, dry bread. Blech.

And so goes everything else in life. Last night I paid a visit to see Jalen for the first time (mommy didn't want her picture taken so here's one with the proud father). It's so amazing holding her in my arms -- tiny little featherweight bundle of joy, processing the world for the first time. Anyways...the happy parents and I got to talking about balance (strangely enough), and that constant struggle in trying to achieve the right balance between career and family. It really is what everything comes down to -- how successful you are in achieving that balance in life, whether it be juggling your various hobbies & activities or choosing between time with your family or a job with that puts you on the fast track. How's that for a barometer of success: how well you maintain those priorities in life, whether it be your dream job at your dream company, or making a commitment to raise your daughters to be future positive contributors to the human race.

So that's my downfall...not focusing on achieving balance. For years, I let my career rule my life, making it a priority over things...like social activities. Exercise. Travel. Hobbies. The sad thing is, I see it in my employees. I see a younger version of myself, full of spunk, ambition and dedication. Putting in long hours and reveling in those little victories when code compiles, when products ship. But making huge sacrificies. I already know of at least two people that I worked with who have just about completely burned out. Is this how it's supposed to be?

Maybe I should buy 'em a turkey club sandwich.

posted by VirtualErn @ 8:48 PM 4 comments

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