ch0c0tac0

My dad has finally discovered YouTube and the computer.  He's not computer savvy at all but enjoys watching small clips here and there.    It gave my sister and I grounds for a little competition.

My sister's idea of cool video is to make my dad watch Jake Brown, a skateboarder during the X-games that fell 40 feet and was able to get up and walk.  When she first showed me it, I was like, "uhhh.... why did you show me this".

I decided to show my dad instead, a video of the 12 Girls band (they're a 12 Chinese woman band that plays traditional Chinese instruments like the pipa and guiqin. )  They played contemporary and traditional music. In addition, I showed him the Fearless video by Jay Chou that had bits of Jet Li doing Kung Fu in them. 

I looked at my sister funny when she told me she showed my dad the Jake Brown video.  How is that supposed to trump my super awesome video picks? 

Well, I know I haven't updated in a long while.

I've been doing my own thing, going to the gym 4-5 times a week.  I've recently discovered a Pilates class that I do in conjunction with Turbo Kickbox.  Right now, I'm doing the cardio, stretching and strength regimen.

Lately I've been hiking around the bay area, and watching shows.  I've seen AvenueQ and Jersey Boys and I'm supposed to watch Mamma Mia later this month.   I've also seemed to have organized quite a good group to go to the El Cerrito Speakeasy Theater with me on 2 for 1 Wednesdays.

Anyhow, Nick is moving away from the West Coast to DC. I plan to fly down this weekend to see him off.  It'll be great seeing some old Enigma faces while I'm there and partying with them.  Maybe I'll even squeeze some Korean bbq in while I'm at it.

I finally went skydiving and saw what all the hoopla is about.  It was exhilirating and awesome -  I want to do it again.  Strangely enough, the idea of jumping out of a plane didn't scare me. I was pretty calm during the entire time.  I chose the option to pull my own cord - which consists of the instructor putting your altimeter in front of your face, you grabbing the cord on his hip (it was a tandem jump) and pulling when you reached 5500ft.   We did a 13k ft jump which gives you about a minute of free fall. 


Here's a picture or two.



And me waving to the camera. 




There was a bunch of veteran skydivers at the skydiving site and they were practicing their formations.  I felt like I stepped into another world of adrenaline skydiving junkies with a bunch of jargon all over the place.  

"I took that t-zone manuever over the pitch and then in the horizon we..."  or as a joke "he said he could follow me by the dust trail I left.  That's when I knew i had to clean my equipment...."

Skydiving language!  It's probably becoming a new dialect in the English language. 

My sister's friend is a vet's aide.  She's currently babysitting a new stray cat mother and her kittens.  Strangely enough, the stray cat is the NICEST CAT EVERRR.   She likes getting pet and has no problems letting us human play with her newborn kittens and she's super soft.  Anyhow, her kittens have now learned to walk (but not balance) and run around in their bumbling ways. 

But the coolest thing is that the kittens are discovered licking with their soft tongues.  They think everything should be licked, including me!  Soooo cute!  And if they look up, they fall over because they're so unbalanced. And their paws are super duper soft. Awwwwww.  Run on top of me, super cute kittens!

Awwww.  K, back to work now. 

I have booked my tickets to Chicago for a weekend at the end of June.  Sweet, I get to stuff myself with Chicago deep dish pizza.  CCHIIICCAGGGOOO

Trauma Center for the DS is awesome.   It's a really hard game, frustrating, and extremely addictive.


Also:
I might plan to visit Chicago.  Never been there, want to see what it's like.  Chicago!!!!

And I'm contemplating which city I should visit in Europe...
London
Rome
Seville
Madrid
Dublin.....

I must be old fashioned -

Doesn't it seem excessive to give your 7 year old an iPod Nano?  I mean, it's a $250 little toy that can be easily be lost!  Uh hello?  Teaching consumerism at such a young age....

I must be old fashioned

This is a picture from a Ferry to Bainbridge Island.  Man, I thought i already wrote a description earlier that would show, but I guess I have to redo it again. 

---Anyhow, this picture is from my Seattle trip a few weeks back.  South of Pike's Market, there are some ferries to a few islands in the Pudget Sound (Definition of sound is an inlet filled with a bunch of small islands) - this one being to Bainbridge island.  There are quite a few people who use the Ferry to commute into Seattle with their cars.  It's funny, I go to Seattle, this vibrant city, and Bainbridge is the quiet little island.  I almost felt like I was in a small New England community and all it took was a 40 minute ferry ride! 

I thought the background looked fake but the lighting backgound was pretty cool with the clouds and bridge.




Seattle does stop raining once in a while. However, I told Stefan that I would PhotoShop rain into the picture.  I would proliferate and maintain Seattle's raininess for all times...muahahhahaha

Stefan:  *points to his arm to a scratch*
Stefan: "Look at that, shark bite"
Me: I bet you fought the shark off by headbutting it
Stefan:  And by kicking it in the groin
Me: ooOoOo

I have come back tanner and with insect bites from Kauai.  It was awesome. 

We went on a helicopter tour with no doors over the island - saw the majestic cliffs of the Na Pali coast, the beautiful beaches of Ke'e, Poipu, Lyndgate, Tunnel and many others - and so much lush greenery! And waterfalls and birds!

Anyhow, not looking forward to going back to work - and already thinking about another trip - maybe to Yosemite. 

Anyhow, a bunch of girlfriends are planning a Napa wine tasting and I have a tentative board game party in the near future.
Big travel plans : Australia,  New Zealand, or South America, Costa Rica - or Western Europe! 

I will be going on vacation to Kauai for a week with the boyfriend.  Laters!

Cheesy as the book may be, it gave me a lot to think about in terms of my own happiness.

Balance, work, life, social, mental, physical.

Tuesdays with Morrie -- what is it that makes our life rich?  A journey of a lifetime.

Family first, I say.

We are nothing if we don't have our family and friends.

Today is a Good Friday and most people are gone today from my office.  It's quiet.

Good:  I finished my taxes and I got my calendar organized.  I'm going to dim sum, working out, and getting my hair done this weekend - along with other chores like buying gifts and such.  I like the feeling of being on top of my things.

My friends were talking about doing Bay to Breakers and I'm contemplating if I should go to.


Update:  It feels good to relax, and to reconnect with family. 

Coworkers talked about Yosemite.

Dammit, now I want to go to Yosemite for the weekend.  Will need to plan that trip for sometime in May.

Awesome Yosemite...

Also, I want to plan a Napa day trip.

Tired.

Went to Portland - plane was delayed leaving.

However, had a blast at Gamestorm with Stefan.  Of course, it's hard not to when you're gaming with a fun German.   It's funny, every time I go to a gaming event with him, the topic is usually his German-ness and how they culturally have different views on gaming. 

Reiner Knizia was there too and was play testing many of his games.

I was geeked out this weekend.

Over the weekend, I went to visit Seattle. 

Seattle you say? Why Seattle?  Well, why the hell not.  Basically, it's a place I never really visited before, Stefan brought up it might be a cool place to listen to some live music and it's North of us.
I really don't need to be coerced into random travel.

Anyhow, I went to something called the Underground tour and learned that Seattle was originally Marshland. This meant that it's a really watery area. Because of the high tides, most of Original Seattle would get drenched with water - and then there was this sewage problem

***This is for you, Nick, your fair city****

So basically, the pipes would get clogged with feces going down the pipes and water going up the pipes, which equated to
EXPLODING TOILETS!!!!!!

And I also learned that their Mayor by the name of Yesler, bankrupted the town 3 times, stole from the treasury and cheated anyone and everyone he could find.   Also, the only paved road went from his home to city hall.  He also died at the age of 80 and had a 25 year old wife.

And modern Seattle actually had to be raised because of the water and sewage problems, so everything is built on top of "Original seattle".  In a way, it reminds me of Futurama without the mutants. (or maybe THERE ARE MUTANTS!  dun dun dun)

--------------------------------------

I had to go to the SciFi Museum in Seattle in typical fashion.  It was surprisingly very small but I found a fair number of possible book titles to read. 

Pike's Place market was loads of fun - it's this great open air market filled with so many stalls.  I love looking at all the fresh food and flowers. 

And funny enough, we found a great German restaurant called Fierabrand.  Good beer, great Spaetzle. 

I had a girl's weekend trip for St Patrick's Day.

I went to Lake Tahoe this weekend with five other girls and it was lots of fun.  Too bad this is probably going to be the end of the ski season for Lake Tahoe  (it's getting too warm).    I went with Laura, Tina, Ayana, Beth and Diane to Boreal where we skiied, joked around and basically had a blast in the wintery scenery. 

The cabin was gorgeous even though it had this funny fish and game theme to it (luckily, all the antler and game furniture were all fake).  I loved the plush couches and the heavy dark wood furniture. 

Though I always enjoy skiing, i was disappointed with Boreal.  The runs were too easy and few and the snow was getting too slushy from the warm weather.

Later, we went to Reno for St Patrick's day.  Many of us had the intent of partying it up, but the reality of the day of skiing caught up with us quickly.  It became more of a relaxing night, getting a few drinks and just chatting in a nice lounge.

It was an awesome weekend. 

Next up: Seattle!   I need to look up concerts. 

I'm going to watch Stephen Hawking tonight - LIVE- at UC Berkeley.

Let the geekfest start.

Also, i found a new band - The Submarines. 

EDIT:
I don't know where the SFgate got their review for the Stephen Hawking talk.  They said it was something of being along the lines of "a magical talk about the cosmos".  I thought the talk (and some other my other coworkers) was too watered down for layman terms and short.  A lot of thoughts were not followed up on and it was really nothing new.  Instead of going over some more technical or interesting topics, where it would become this magical talk, it was disappointing. 

Even though I did watch one of the smartest scientist of our time, I thought he would go into some crazy topics.  Sad.

I hiked 13 miles in Muir Woods today.  I got there around 10:45, left around 6pm.   It was hard, it was very strenuous, but good.  My legs are fine surprisingly.

I have never climbed that many hills and steps.

Muir Woods is one gorgeous place filled with so much diverse and varied terrain.  We have lush forests, to open plains, dry redwoods, to riverbed regions, all within a few miles of each other. 

We took the following route:
Ben Johnson
Stapleveldt
Pantoll
Steep Ravine
Dipsea
Alpine to a really dangerous unmarked route (will not be doing that again!)
TCC
Bootjack

and back

All in all, it's around 12-13 miles where a good amount was pretty much climbing up steep hills...
It felt good to accomplish such a hike, and to know that I could rely on my body to keep going and to trust my legs/feet.  It's a good feeling.  Tired though. must sleep.