Andy's Blog

Dog-in-lap, #2

We didn't get too many photos from our Christmas get-together, but I think that Sara got this one of Scout and I, watching a commercial on the Tee-Vee:

Scout likes the commercials because often-times, animals are used to sell products. Scout doesn't approve of this practice, so he has to charge the TV and bark at them.

Good dog, that Scout.

-Andy.

Dog-in-lap, #1

A few weeks ago, we had Mike's net.bachelor party at Chris and Tanya's house. I didn't take that many pictures (was too busy shooting my friends in the head in Urban Terror), but I did manage to snag one of Chris teaming up with Zoey in Quake III:

Take that, Internet -- another shot of irrepressible Zoey-infused cuteness!

-Andy.

My Mom and Uncle Mike at Bears camp

My Mom and Uncle Mike, at Bears camp in Bourbonnais, during the summer of 2004:

They are accompanied by the some of friends of Joanne and Mike, Matt.

-Andy.

Uncle Mike racing Kate

Of all of the pictures of Uncle Mike at the wake today, we liked the one of him racing Kate the best:

That has to be from 10+ years ago, but I still remember that 4th of July.

-Andy.

The perils of technology: cell phone head

There are many perils associated with technology that one must navigate in the modern world. The other day (while at Union City with Mike), Kevin highlighted one of the many heretofore unseen perils -- cell phone head:

Now, some bright spark need to develop some sort of "cell phone head un-impressioner". Hopefully in the form of an aerosol spray.

-Andy.

And or course, I can't have a trip back to Illinois without a picture of Scout

Here is Scout at his most unhappiest -- getting a bath:

I have posted a gallery of all of the photos from my trip. Right now, Stan is over and we are doing a three-way music swap between my PowerBook, Stan's laptop, and Sara's iBook. I am not sure who is making out like a bandit -- it's probably a toss-up between Sara and Stan. :)

-Andy.

The "lost" sake photo

Anjali was giving me the business because she thought I deleted this picture of her and Mark at Miyake's two weeks ago. As it turns out, I only deleted it after first loading it into iPhoto. Behold:

Just what the Internet needed.

-Andy.

California sunset from the 101

While driving to Foster City a few weekends ago, I was dangling my camera out the window of Kevin's hybrid. I managed a few photos of the south bay sunset, and I liked this one the best:

-Andy.

Rushabh, Mike, and Kevin posing for the camera

A certain dude was in town two weekends ago, and we all had brunch (well, basically lunch) at a neato place in Palo Alto. After it was all over, I managed this candid picture:

I wonder if it speaks to each person's individual personalities?

-Andy.

Kevin's latest science experiment

Chris and Tanya had a pumpkin carving part last Sunday (which I don't think that I ever got a chance to write about). At this event, Kevin carved a pumpkin. And of course, the stage was set for his latest "science experiment":

I don't know how he does it, but I continue to be amazed.

-Andy.

Pictures from my Wheaton trip

I finally put the pictures from my recent trip back home online:

This is the Wheaton Theater, now a protected historical landmark, apparently. I'm told that this means that they have to keep the outside the same, but can do whatever they want inside. That is, if they had any money...

-Andy.

dog nose

So, I am back from my extended weekend in Wheaton:

It was a pretty good trip, very relaxing. I actually had time to just sit around and do nothing, which can be a nice change of pace. Aside from seeing the aforementioned "Serenity", I also saw "Flightplan" and "Transporter 2". Flightplan was okay -- a reasonable suspense movie. And while Transporter 2 wasn't as good as the first one, it still provided some solid popcorn entertainment. Serenity, of course, ruled them all.

I also took a bunch of pictures of downtown Wheaton, as well as my parents house, and of course, Scout, that I will try and post soon. And while I haven't had a chance to post this yet, the Yosemite pictures are in fact online (although they are not annotated how I would like yet).

So much to do, so little time...

-Andy.

Tanya and Zoey

From last weekend.

Sometimes, my roommate is a tough act to follow

This is from two nights ago:

From my surfings, this might be the highest Marble Madness score posted on the Internet. What's worse, is that Kevin is still playing, because that game wasn't perfect. We have learned quite a bit about Marble Madness, to the point that I think we have wrung all of its secrets free, like some sort of precious nectar. The game is nearly mastered at this point, and I'm hoping that we'll take the time to document what we have learned.

-Andy.

An ode to Marble Madness

Marble Madness is, quite possibly, the finest game ever created. Kevin and I have been playing this game with a near religious fervor, for the last two months. The shit-talking that goes on between us cannot be explained to others, who have not been touched by the greatness that is Marble Madness.

At first, Kevin and I were peers in this game, but in the last month, he has really eclipsed me in his craft at this game:

Having vanquished out all of my high scores long ago, he has now eliminated all of the sub 100,000 point scores.

The result of which, of course, is that I need to find more time in the day to play, so that my initials can re-join the high score list.

-Andy.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory Tour

To celebrate Mike and Sheila's return to the Bay Area from South Africa, we went on a tour of the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory:

I can't remember the name of the machine pictured, but it uses granite rollers on two axes, to grind the cacau (a.k.a. cocoa) bits into a fine goo. It was one of the many machines that we saw on the tour, which was super-awesome by the way. I went there not planning on buying any chocolate, and of course, I ended up buying three bars.

I dig the fact that the break out the cacau content of their chocolate, and that they make a really dark chocolate (82%). Apparently, I am somewhat in the minority for liking dark chocolate, but hey, I knows what I likes.

All of the pictures that I took are up. This tour is definitely recommended if you are up in the Berkeley, CA area.

-Andy.

Zoey, 13 weeks

Snapped another picture of Chris and Tanya's (well, mostly Tanya's) puppy Zoey on Saturday:

With the number of pictures that I'm taking, you would think that she is my dog. :)

-Andy.

Birthday dinner

I had my birthday dinner this evening, at a Chicago-style pizza place called Patxi's in downtown Palo Alto:

L-R: Kalpana, Pratima, me, Anjali, Kevin, Chris, and Tanya

The food was good (Chicago is still bringing the one true, however), and the company was excellent.

-Andy.

Today's stupid human trick

Today at work, we had a going away lunch for John (he announced this week that he is leaving EDS, his last day being Friday). The supplier-of-cake on our team (Beth), brought it some micro-cakes today, I guess as a combination of support for my birthday and John's going away.

Anyways, the cake that I selected was sortof like a tall cylinder. Finding the knife and fork method to be ineffective for this particular cake, I put my creative thinking hat on, and just went for it:

As an astonished Dung and Shreyas looked on, I was glad to be able to provide entertainment for my team. I am clearly not being paid enough for all of the contributions that I am making at the office. Or, I am quite possibly being paid too much. It could go either way, really.

-Andy.

Even I get grossed out sometimes...

I didn't think it was possible (nobody thought it was possible), but coffee is a hospitable environment for mold:

Let's give a big round of applause to my roommate Kevin, for making this all possible. :)

-Andy.

The Weekend of Moving

I had myself quite a bit of physical activity this weekend. And no, it wasn't because I was hiking. On Saturday afternoon, I helped Chris and Tanya move into their new house. It was quite hot, and they had a couple of heavy items, but on the whole, it wasn't too bad. And they bought me dinner for my trouble!

Then today, I drove into San Francisco and helped Stan move into his new temporary apartment. Thankfully, the weather in the city was a bit cooler. But amazingly, it was still quite sunny (normally, SF is all about the clouds and the fog). Stan didn't have too many heavy things, but his new place is up two flights of stairs. :( But, he bought me lunch for my trouble!

I took a fair number of pictures, this one is of a truck near Stan's friend Danielle's house:

(no, we didn't use this to move). The rest of the photos that I took are in this gallery. After all of the lifting, stair climbing, and sweating -- I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Sigh.

-Andy.

Introducing Zoey

I went over to Chris and Tanya's today after work, and spent some quality time with their new puppy:

Tanya decided on naming her Zoey, which seems like a pretty good name to me. Also, I finally got the breed straight — Zoey is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I took quite a few pictures of Zoey tonight, but didn't get many good ones. That is a situation that I'll have to rectify tomorrow when I help the three of them move into their new place...

-Andy.

Puppy!

Tanya (and Chris) bought a new puppy today:

They haven't chosen a name yet, and I cannot remember what breed Tanya said that the dog is (Irish something). But she (the puppy) is super-cute. Still not acclimated at all to her new environment, but I'm sure that will change soon. I forgot to bring my "good" camera, so the Internet will have to make due with the quality of the camera in my phone (for now).

-Andy.

Group picture from the wedding

Me, Justin, Sarah, and Chris:

Steve and Ginger

Steve and his new wife Ginger, cutting the cake:

Those damn Erie boys...

While Sarah, Justin, Chris and myself were the only representatives of Steve's friends from CWRU, there was quite a strong high school contingent. Steve's friends from high school are pretty great -- really funny, spontaneous, and tight-knit. Luckily, we got to sit at their table (table 27 out of 9 total tables). Sometimes we took part in the antics, other times, we just captured them:

L-R: John, Tom, Rob, and Ryan. Horizontal: Steve

-Andy.

Chris doin' schomthin' schtoopid

A picture of Chris, from when we were on a mission for snacks while hanging out at Sarah and Justin's hotel after the wedding:

Wacky fun.

-Andy.

Goodbye Sheila (for the summer)

Sheila managed to snag an internship and some funding for the summer, but the "rub" is that the job is in South Africa. She is leaving on Tuesday, so we had a "goodbye" dinner for her yesterday:

(L-R: Mike, Sheila, Mariko, Will, Koji, and me)

Food & friends were pretty-A-Ok, and it sounds like she is going to have a blast in South Africa.

-Andy.

Bay to Breakers

I ran "Bay to Breakers" today for the first time today, with Mike. Here's a shot that gives a sense of the crowd during the run:

The race is 7.5 miles long, starting near the bay and ending at the ocean. I surprised myself by jogging pretty-much the entire thing. The beginning of the race is so crowded that it is impossible to run, so I probably didn't get going until about 15 minutes after the race started. Still, Mike and I finished in 1 hour 33 minutes, which seems pretty good to me. I expected to be able to run like 3 miles and then poop out, but instead I was able to jog the entire race.

Dang, I'm so awesome.

I managed to take some pictures of the race, mostly before and after the running. Some highlights: Spear & tortilla, Mike finds a tortilla with a message, the starting line, sharks, dogs as babies, Mike (afterwards), and me (afterwards).

-Andy.

Self Portrait (in transit)

I took this picture last Sunday while Mike drove Kevin and I to dinner in Berkeley, CA. I was fooling around with the camera on the way, and this photo actually came out pretty decent (by my standards, anyway).

-Andy.

My coworker buys a Porsche

The big hubbub at work today was that my coworker, Dung Ngo, bought a new car over the weekend:

Yes, that isn't just "any" car. It is a 1997 Porsche 993 Carrera. Dung is something of a Porsche aficionado, and spent 6 months searching for this car online. He was quite particular about the car that he wanted -- 1997 or older (to get the air cooled engine), low mileage, and in good condition. Well, he finally found one that met his criteria last week, so on Friday, he flew down to Texas in order to buy it. He then proceeded to drive 2000 miles in 2 days, driving back to the Bay Area.

Dung is so totally my hero. And the car is totally awesome. I posted all of the pictures that I took in this gallery.

-Andy.

Mission Peak - Group

The group from today's hike to the top of Mission Peak:

From L-R: Elizabeth, Mike, Will, Mariko, and me.

The hike was pretty good. With all of the rain that we have gotten this year, everything was green (in a few months, the land will be arid). Also, we hiked up a different way -- up the side, which is much different from the western-facing trail that I normally take. I think I liked it better -- there were more trees then on the western trail. Shade is good.

Mission Peak - East Bay

A shot of the east bay:

Fooling around with macro mode

Stan was fooling around with my camera today, trying to show me how to better utilize the macro mode. He took this picture of the remote to my DVD player, that I kindof liked:

Top of the lift

A mountain view, from the top of one of the ski lifts at Sierra-at-Tahoe:

I posted all of the pictures that I took last weekend in this gallery.

-Andy.

How you know that Kevin is home

That blue cable is how you know that Kevin is in residence. It brings Internet to his Thinkpad, because he is unable to get the WiFi to work.

-Andy.

Tilden Park

Mike and I went on a hike yesterday in Tilden Park, up near Berkeley:

When I took this picture, I thought that it was Tilden lake, but afterwards, Mike and I looked at the map, and now we suspect that this isn't the lake.

-Andy.

precious

An art photo of Mike and his Linux server, as mounted in his apartment up in Berkeley:

Milestone

I took this photo on the way to work last Monday:

My car turns 8 in May. As you can tell, I don't drive it all that much, although, I have been putting the miles on since I have been in California...

Getting a little better at night photography

I still don't know how to use my camera, like at all, but Stan showed me a few things about it, and I'm getting better. I finally pulled off what I think is a decent night time picture of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco:

The photo is still a little blurry, but way better than what I have been taking to date. The secret of this shot was that I balanced the camera on something solid -- like a makeshift tripod, so that it remained steady during the long exposure time.

I was out doing the tourist-like thing with Anjali and her friend Eva yesterday. We hit Tennessee Valley, the aforementioned palace, North Beach, and Ghiradelli. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday afternoon/evening. The weather even held as well -- we got rained on during our final trek from Ghiradelli to the car, but that was it.

-Andy.

Stan's Birthday

So, Stan recently turned 26, and so to celebrate, we all went down to S.F. last weekend and treated him to dinner:

The restaurant was an Indian joint called Rasoi. It was pretty good, which is starting to freak me out a little bit. I was really not about the whole Indian food thing when I moved out to California. Now I've been here almost two years, and while I won't say that I actually like Indian food -- it certainly isn't as terrible as it once seemed. And in fact, in the span of the last month, I've had Indian a total of 3 times. Amazing! The California virus lives on. When are we going to have a cure for that?

-Andy.

Posted Pictures

I have finally put up some pictures from my recent travels:

• My trip to Germany, working for EDS
• The side-trip that I took to London, to visit Fredrik
• Pictures from Nitin's wedding reception

That is all.

-Andy.

"Trink Coke"

I took this photo at a brew pup, where the extended EDS team all went for dinner on Wednesday night. It was quite a large affair (at least 27 EDSers), and we all ran up quite a bill. Of course, because I don't drink (not even in Germany), I only had two cokes. So, I'm still a cheap date.

-Andy.

Just like "The Terminal"

The opening credits for "The Terminal" are done in the style of olde-timey analog information board. I didn't think that these were still used, but lo and behold, Frankfort airport has a gigantic one. And I must say, it is really neat when the letters change.

-Andy.

The National Theatre at night

I managed to get a pretty decent (for me anyway) picture of the National Theatre in London at night:

-Andy.

Me and Fredrik near Paddington Station

See, Fredrik and I really did visit London!

-Andy.

An Authentic English Breakfast

So, I decided to make my London experience "complete" by ordering an authentic English breakfast:

It looks extremely unappetizing. I mean, I like all of those ingredients individually, but all together?!?! It was a bit of a challenge getting my stomach to accept this meal...

-Andy.

Outside of the EDS office in Rüsselsheim

The EDS site in Rüsselsheim is quite large. They have four buildings, three of which are seven stories each. And there are a number of EDS flags flying outside of each:

Also notable in this picture is the snow. It has been cold here in Rüsselsheim, but not snowy. Then last Thursday, we got about an inch (or so) of snow. This sleepy little industrial town actually looks quite nice with a dusting of snow.

-Andy.

A hike in the rain

So, for various reasons (which I won't go into here), Kevin, Mike, and I drove down to Three Rivers, CA in order to visit with Elizabeth yesterday. And also to rescue Sheila from SoCal (yes, that is one of the reasons which I wasn't going to go into. And I'm not going to go into it. This is just mentioning it). Anyways, Mike couldn't go all the way down there and not do something. Never-mind the fact that it was raining, and the weatherman didn't say that it was going to stop.

There didn't seem to be any deterring him on this idea of doing something outside, and I was a little sleep-deprived from Kevin keeping me up the night before -- so I didn't put up too much of a fight.

So, we went hiking in Sequoia National Forest. In the rain:

It actually wasn't that bad -- most of the way up the mountain, there was only a light rain. Of course, on the way back, the rain got heavier. But I wasn't 100% drenched by the time I made it back to the car. Of course, all of the water made parts of the trail pretty slippery. But, it's not like I value my body or anything.

The plan was to start the hike at the Potwisha camp site, where the elevation is low enough that it doesn't snow. The plan was to hike up to a neat waterfall that is connected to the Marble Fork. But, we got started a little bit late, which meant that we didn't go all of the way to the waterfall. We did get pretty close, however (even though my photos don't really capture that fact).

Speaking of which, I've uploaded the limited set of photos that I took (hey, it was raining!) at this gallery.

-Andy.

Apple Store Chicago

While waiting for our table at Due's, Sara and I walked over to the Apple store on Michigan avenue (we had a 50/50 chance of finding it -- I guess you can say that I got lucky). Sara tried to get me to buy an iPod mini, but I didn't crack (I am pretty close, though -- if new ones come out this month, that could seal my fate). I also almost bought some portable speakers that seemed pretty cool: The JBL "On Tour" Speaker System. These things looked pretty cool, and don't rely on an iPod dock connector, so they'll work with anything that has an audio output jack (like my PowerBook and MiniDisc player, for instance). Pretty tempting, especially since I'm going to Germany soon.

-Andy.

Wrigley Field

I took this picture while Sara and I were walking around in Wrigleyville, waiting for Kevin to materialize and the Fall Out Boy show to start. They don't make 'em like this anymore...

-Andy.

Pizzera Uno

I took this picture on our way into the restaurant. We got there a little after 4 PM on a Tuesday, and we still had to wait over an hour for our table. Amazing.

-Andy.

Sheetal's Wedding

I drove down to Peoria, Il on December 26th for Sheetal's wedding, which was really just an excuse to do a UIUC reunion with the undergrad-type folks:

The wedding experience was pretty fun. This was the first Indian wedding that I have ever been to. The ceremony itself was quite long, but relaxed. People come and go freely, have conversations, etc. There was even food. I'm told that the reception was somewhat atypical -- more of an Indian/American hybrid. There was a live band, which played some more traditional songs as well as some Bollywood favorites. There were also some dance performances, as well as an open dance floor at the end.

Anyways, I spent the night in Peoria (shared a hotel with Kevin and Rushabh, because I was promised a lot of Urban Terror [which didn't materialize, due to no fault of my own, thankyouverymuch]), and went back to Chicago via Champaign, so that I could visit with Chee Wai and Keith.

-Andy.

Snow in Chicago

I am home in Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and yesterday it snowed out in the western suburbs. A lot:

According to Tom Skilling, this is on only the 10th "white thanksgiving" on record (since they started keeping records). I got to do some good snow shoveling, but I didn't have the proper equipment (read: boots) in order to make a snowman or anything like that (but the snow was good and wet -- good for packing).

So far, I am definitely getting a good "welcome back" from Chicago.

-Andy.

L'Awesomea partie deux

So, after much shopping, soul searching, deliberation, and personal growth, Kevin finally decided on a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, which he purchased on Saturday:

Actually buying the thing was about as much of an ordeal as I expected - we spent about 3.5 hours at the dealership actually buying the thing. And of course, the one that he wanted had to come from a different Bay Area dealership, so we had to come back 4 hours later to actually pick it up. But, this meant that they didn't have time to detail it, so Kevin had to drive back there the next day for that. But, the free detailing was worth it -- the car looks pretty sharp. I have posted all of the pictures that I took in the gallery.

-Andy.

The Awesoma RIP: Windshield

It is truly the end of an era: Kevin's 1996 Nissan Altima decided to make love with a pole making the exchange from 880S to 101S, on his way to work. I've posted two photos here (my silly iPhoto-to-blog integration made them two separate posts). Here is the windshield:

The picture that follows is more interesting.

-Andy.

The Awesoma RIP: The Body

When I went with Kevin to the towing place in order to clean all of his valuables out of his car, I managed to take a couple of photos of the damage. This was the most extensive damage that I saw:

The car was really hemmed in at the lot, so I wasn't able to get an wide shots. Also, Kevin claims that the car was rendered undrivable due the rear axle being damaged, but I wasn't able to get a look. Anyways, in a short but solumn ceremony, we cleaned out all of the important bits from the car, and said goodbye.

The accident happened on a rainy Thursday morning, on Kevin's way into work. So, we spent some time car shopping on Thursday night, and I skipped out of work a little after noon on Friday (those bastards owe me), and we did a lot of car shopping on Friday. Finally, on this fine Saturday afternoon, it looks like Kevin is pulling the trigger, and welcoming a new love into his life...

-Andy.

Death Cab For Cutie Fall 2004 poster

This is the poster that I bought at last night's Death Cab concert. I could probably do a better job at capturing it in my digital camera (I think more light would be good), but this is decent enough.

-Andy.

Death Cab For Cutie Fall 2004 poster

This is the poster that I bought at last night's Death Cab concert. I could probably do a better job at capturing it in my digital camera (I think more light would be good), but this is decent enough.

-Andy.

Stumph Invasion

We had a whole lotta Stumphs in the Bay Area this weekend. Anjali, Stan, Pratima and I joined Kevin, his dad, and his sister Meg for dim sum at the Hong Kong Flour Lounge in Milbrae. It was pretty cool.

-Andy.

The coast

This is another picture from when we hiked to the coast a few weeks ago. I will give it up for California in one respect -- it doesn have some serious natural beauty going on.

-Andy.

Tennessee Valley Hike, afterwards

I know that Anjali has already posted this picture on her page, but I wanted to post it on my blog, consarnit. Kevin, Anjali, Stan, me and Pratima (from L-R) all went on a hike on the Tennessee Valley trailhead all the way back on the 11th. It was a pretty fun day, with plenty of Stanjali action. The reason why I'm not posting about this hike until now, however, is because iPhoto ate itself when I tried to upload the pictures from the hike, and I'm just getting around to fixing it now. But fix it I did, so I can get back to posting pictures on my blog again.

-Andy.

Norway is like, the most beautiful country ever

I believe that this was photo was taken from the Flam Railway, which was an incredible train ride through some really beautiful country. Norway is great like that.

-Andy.

Monica's family boat

Chee Wai's girlfriend, Hong Eng, recently sent me a few photos from our trip to Norway. I am still experimenting with this iPhoto/blog integration, so I thought that I would post one. This is a shot of Monica's (Fredrik's girlfriend) family boat. It is a pretty cool boat, and Monica's father and uncle used it to give us a tour of the Lofoten Islands and Rost. It was all really swell of them, and one of the highlights of the trip.

-Andy.

A building on the University of Washington campus

Postcard

Sara and I got a postcard from Mike today, that he sent from Japan. Click on each image for a larger version:

That Mike. He's a pretty swell friend.

-Andy.

I'm still a sucker for that cameraphone

I have found myself snapping a few pictures via my Sony-Ericsson T610 camera during my ongoing Chicago trip. Here are two from last Tuesday, my first day in town:

The first is a shot of part of the skyline, taken while driving northbound on Lake Shore Drive (no, i wasn't doing the driving this time). The second is from a random intersection that I was crossing on the way back from the restaurant.

And I snapped two more while walking Scout before the wake last Wednesday:

Popejoy? I'm sure that the guy (or gal) is a serious candidate, but aren't we scraping the bottom of the name barrel just a bit for our politicians these days? The second park photo is a shot of the pond, with some ducks swimming around in it. Notice all of that snow? It wasn't there on the Tuesday of my arrival, and it was gone by the subsequent Thursday. Welcome to the wacky Chicago near-spring.

-Andy.

Stolen image

Since there was no photo today, I decided to do something illicit, and snap one of Kev, who is asleep in the chair across from me:

I don't know if it is discernable, but he is clutching his IBM-supplied laptop. Cute.

-Andy.