Bloggin'......

Leadership, reviewed

I am a bit of political science junkie, or at least I like to listen to a good speech from time to time. I was watching the tele, again recently, and came across a real interesting interview. It was an interview with the four previous governors of California, Jerry Brown, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and Gray Davis, on the governability of California. I think a person can have all the contempt in the world for any one of those people for their own political beliefs, but the thing I find most fascinating is listening to someone speak who had so much influence in their time, and be able to speak about it so candidly.

Each Governor had their difficulties in office, but most inspiring in each case is that in retrospect, they were fallable and they were nothing more than anyone of us. Well almost... You can catch the interview on video here or visit the website at http://californiaconnected.org.

The planning process

Once again, I'm in the planning process of another trip and this time it's to Japan. I went to Japan last year, and that was simply an adventure. The language barrier was probably the most difficult, but I made it safely. There wasn't much of a love story there, just a a wacky way around the country, which is what I am partly expecting this trip to be.

This time, I will be going to two different cities, Yamagata and Matsumoto city. I'm still in the process of trying to find them on the map, but I hear, at some point of the trip I'll only be 30 minutes from Nagano, where they had the 1998 WInter Olympics. Packing lightly will probably be my highest priority, so we'll see how close I actually put my ski boots with the rest of my luggage.

Saying something with Love

I don't exactly know if someone read my mind, but I'll admit, I can teach a person to snowboard in one day! = ) I found this little gem while I was out shopping over the weekend with a friend, on of all days, Valentines day. Would I have found this on my own? I don't know. But, what I do know, I now have everyone's birthday present down for the rest of the year.

How cool is that? Happy Valentines Day (belated)! =p

Rain Hike!

So, Nelson calls over the weekend and asks, "hey, are you up for some hike'n?" Well, that only means the weather turned good enough (or bad enough) to go rain hiking. It was something we had "invented" last year, where we simply go hiking in the rain. This hike was much more tame than last year's, which was during a torrential downpour. The rain during this outing was light but just steady enough to keep us wet. The usual question I always get is "why", and I can only answer "why not?"

We went to hike the trails of Castlerock State Park, in the mountains above Saratoga. When we got there, the rain was a slight drizzle, but we suited up and marched on out into the wilderness. The hike wasn't too bad. We hike the trails to the campgrounds, and beyond, towards the Saratoga Gap Trail, and tried to make a loop out of it. The rain was slow, but we came out ok. We hiked about 7 or 8 miles round trip and just saw the sights, as we crested from one side of the mountain to the other.

We couldn't see much in terms of views, since there was a heavy fog covering the valley in between the mountains. But being able to watch the fog race up and over the mountains and ridges is truly an amazing feat. It was however difficult to capture in a picture. =p

Poker Night

Wednesdays and Thursdays have turned into our weekly alternating poker nights. Unfortunately, I have turned incredibly streaky in my play. I either win really big or nothing at all. Though, we don't play for much, it's nice to just hang out every now and then. OK, I admit I've been losing a lot.

Colorado Happenings

Looking through my pictures, I forgot about a picture I captured while in Colorado. I was packing at the moment, when I saw out the corner of my eye, a little squirrel climbing around the tree outside my hotel room. It was a quick little sucker, but I think he realized there was nothing there and I'm not necessarily a "giving" person. Until the next time I return.

All hail, Vail!

My Vail report: I was asked if this resort was better than whistler. It is not, only because Whistler holds a special place in my heart. However, Vail is not something you don't pay attention to. There is so much terrain, it is nearly impossible to cover the entire park, but I came close. Vail is famous for it's bowls, and it did not disappoint, especially one in particular, the teacup. do not let the name fool you, I was scared, but a euphoria would come over me as I came down the slope, just hoping not to crash. It's like that feeling when all of a sudden, everything in the world makes "sense" to you. On my skiis, I felt like I was just holding on for dear life, pitching left and right to blow through turns and weave past slow-ass snowboarders. =P

There are enough runs to give a great variety. There were blue trails I consider great trails to wind down your tired legs on. They seemed like miles of weaving switchbacks, that were carefully cut to provide that perfect line for turning. Very nice. Sadly, as with any good story, there has to be a climax, a bad guy, a sort of warning to heed. Vail is crazy crowded. I was waiting in so many lines, it was worst than sitting in traffic on the freeway. Much, much worst than Heavenly, or any place I can remember. However, the crowds started to thin out after 2PM. I do remember after sking into one bowl, there were were only two lifts to get out, and one broke down. The lines were so huge, it backed up to and over the bridge that lead into the lift area. It was horrendous, and nothing I could do, compounded with the fact only a morron could cut a slope into the lineup area of the lift, where I had to rest on my poles for the entire time to prevent from creaping forward into people on my skiis.

The conditions were pretty ideal, I flew into Denver right in the middle of a small snow storm which dusted the snow cap just prior to my arrival. It was packed powder where I was, although the freshness was a bit bumpy. One warning is the altitude starts at 8000 ft and climbs to over 11000 ft, where the air is much thinner. I had a few headaches and my ears actually popped a few times as I descended back down.

But in all, Vail is where you go to be seen. Either bring on some good skiing, or at the very least look nice lounging there. hahah =P

Late night fix

Well, imagine when you have a good day, you all of a sudden realize somthing that just brings you back earth. I left the power cable to the power supply of my laptop in the conference room of the company I was visiting. How crappy is that. So, at 10PM at night I ran to Safeway and tried to figure out how I was going to power my laptop. I finally came up with an idea, and jerry-rigged the following fix. Happy trails......

Lunch?

Well, I'm home now, but what a recap to catch up on. On friday of my trip, I only held a short applications training course for new users, and only needed to finish a final calibration procedure to wrap up my business trip. For lunch, I decided to try something different. I have to admit, I am a stickler for a good pancakes and sausage and found a little breakfast place open for lunch. However, I can't really recommend the place. I had the blueberry pancakes, which looked very tasty, but had a wildly different texture, when I bit into them. There was cornmeal in the mix! It really gave the pancakes an odd taste, if you are used to traditional pancakes. It must me a southwestern type of thing! I did think the house decorations were kind of interesting.

I did make up for it at dinner, as I found a great little mexican restuarant down the road called 3 Margaritas. And of course, how could you not make up for the day, by having their signature drink. =p

Brand new day

Yesterday faired much better, as the weather really let up. It stopped snowing, and the temperature felt warmer, albeit still pretty cold. I got out of work early last night, and headed to downtown Longmont. It's a pretty cozy town. I had dinner at Left Hand Tap House, and there's gotta be something about blonde women. They are seemingly so much more engaging. Well, I'll leave it at that, but dinner was a mozarella pizza with fresh tomatoes and artichoke hearts. It was a very interesting and refreshing pizza, especially since having the big 'ol steak I had the night before. Lunch was a big Hickory burger at Shorty's Bar-S grill also in Longmont.

Well, the sun is out, and I better get going to work. Last day! (for working, at least). Cheers!

Computer Upgrade II

Well, so my computer upgrade is slowly is coming along, and again, these were pictures I needed to catch up on in this weblog. It's in slow proportions, I know, but I am very selective when it comes to my toys. =p Anyways, the most recent upgrade was something I did just last week, I changed the powersupply. No one really ever upgrades their powersupply, but Fry's had a sale on 430Watt power supplies, and I felt my current power supply was under to much load in my computer. The pictures are a million words, so I won't talk anymore about a stupid powersupply and why I need one. It's my powersupply.

Just in case anyone was curious, I modified the computer chasis to fit five extra hard drives and two CD-roms, with still four empty drive bays.

Happy Chinese New Year! (belated)

Ok, so Chinese New Year was a while ago, and I'm only now catching up with some of my pictures. Happy Chinese New Year, by the way! So, anyway, it's always been tradition my entire family gets together for chinese new year, which was close to about 40 people. I ran the barbeque in the green house while the rest of the kids in the family ransacked my room. Sigh. Happy New Year!

Day 1 (!)

Well, aside from trying to catch a 6AM flight to Denver today, everything else today was just.... as bad? I always seem to have some intrepidation about going to a new city and the fact that I usually travel by myself is even more daunting. I got lost twice along the way, and compound the fact it is snowing and I was forty miles from my destination, things could have been bad.

But you know what, dinner fixed me right up. I skipped breakfast and lunch, today, so I was extremely cranky. However, I ended up at the Whetstone Steakhouse here in Longmont, and I have to admit, it pretty much cheered me up. It helped the waitress was so cheery, too, nothing seemed like it could get her down (She was pretty, too *wink*). I had a great crab cake appetizer, a "Pesto-injected" NY steak, a glass of Cavit Pinot Grigio (Italy) (very nice), and a glass of Kenwood "Yulupa" Merlot (California) (it was on the house).

Not that I forgot, I am here for work, and it is going good. I eventually found my destination. Tomorrow, I begin working with the engineering teams and hopefully I can hit the slopes by Saturday!

Beginning of the end...

Well, it's the start of another trip, and already it is not looking good. I appreciate the extra security at airports, but it is starting to be more annoying than anything else. I got to the airport, with what I thought was plenty of time, but apparently the airport security has instituted sharp cutoff times for check in. I missed it by FIVE minutes! How cruddy is that? The ticketing counter would not take my bags, and I could practically see my gate. The plane did not take off for another half hour at this point. Crud!

Well, I've been rebooked on the 8:12AM flight to Denver, and instead of being one hour early to my detination, I will be one hour late..... sigh!

I did secretly pack my ski boots, though. Not much of a secret, though since everyone in the office asked if I was gonna go skiing at all on my trip. Being coy is thus difficult. Next report, I will have more.

Happily, I am finally making use of my new wireless card in the airport. Though, begrudgingly.