She Said Yes

I figure I haven't updated things here in a while. Not sure how many folks miss me and my blog, but for the few (all 3 of you) here's an update.

The last few weeks have been a blur. They have been amazing and full of so much excitement. One day a while ago I met a girl. She was beautiful and had curly hair. I got the guts and I asked her out, she said yes. Well fast forward through 5 and a half years of lots of really good times to November 21. I got the guys and I asked her to marry me, she said yes. It was perfect. A wonderful surprise. I got on one knee. She stopped breathing and started crying. All the right people were there. I planned it to the T. I knew she would say yes, so I wasn't nervous. I'm so happy to have met this girl.

We don't have a date set yet. Busy making plans. Busy. It's a lot to take on. Get engaged. Have a birthday. Page will graduate school. All in less than 30 days. Wow.

More to come.

I've been keeping my eyes wide open

To what's around me. To a growing business to learn from. To mentors
who show me the ropes. To examples of great marriages. To friends in
need. To those in pain and suffering. To my family as broken as we all
may be.

To what's around me. I am thankful for those who serve our great
country and to those we have lost. I pray to have an ounce of the
bravery and courage of the men and women who daily sacrifice themselves.

To what's around me. He is everywhere and always around me. I just
have to keep my eyes wide open. Then I can see just what He wants me
to see.

One year away

It's been a year since I left everything in Riverside, my home for 20+ years, and moved to San Francisco. Leaving my friends, family, job of 3+ years and the city I knew inside and out, I packed my belongings (with the help of my friends) and drove 400 some miles to my new home in an unfamiliar city. With a new place comes new favorite food places, after trying many of them out of course! Finding your way around town, learning to use public transportation (there are many posts to write about this alone), making friends and adjusting to the weather. My house, is perfect for me and my belongings. My job, is awesome and full of challenges and new things everyday. My friends and family are supportive and encouraging. It feels really good to do everything on your own, meet your goals and succeed. Plenty more awesome plans in the works, new friends and adventures. Here's to another year!

Technology Rules

  So earlier this week my existing television set took a dump and stopped showing the right half of the screen. Alas, it was time to retire my old plasma screen. I was on a budget, I didn't want to spend over $700 out the door on a new tv. I ended up going economical with a new Vizio LCD. It's amazing the quality and features in this tv that cost about 30% of what my plasma retailed for. After a quick jaunt to Wal-Mart in the East Bay (since there are none in the city) I returned home with my new, slightly smaller, high definition tv. I set it up in about 15 minutes and haven't turned it off since. What better way to christen a new tv by watching amazing college football all day! In fact I also relocated my pc and have it connected to the screen, and I am writing this blog post from my couch with a wireless keyboard. Talk about being a geek.

I am amazed at how much technology can improve in such a short time. I have plans to try and start using the PC connected to the tv more frequently to stream other shows, play music and do some web surfing on. In fact, I may even drop the cable tv service and try to survive a la Boxee, Hulu, and other video sites. The biggest drawback is not having local news and sports. I've been watching so much sports it would be hard to give up.

What's on my DVR this Fall

So the popular Fall TV show season has begun and I cleared out my DVR of old shows, movies, and anything else of little value to make room for all the show's I'm recording on tv.

Current show's I'm recording (don't judge me!):
One Tree Hill
Grey's Anatomy
Flash Forward
Defying Gravity (ABC just pulled the plug, lame)
Trauma
House
The Office
The Big Bang Theory

What are your current favorite shows?

Picking seats is a science not an art

I am not talking about the seat picking involving uncomfortable
britches here. I'm talking about the seat you sit in. Whether it's in
a classroom, at the movies, on the bus or in a plane; you are
practicing the science of seat picking. Art is subjective and
requires emotion and feelings. Science is methodical and rational.
When picking your seating you are actually performing several
evaluations quickly in your mind before you settle down.

1) The seat environment
First you must determine the seating environment for you situation.
Are you in a classroom? If yes, you don't want to sit next to any
crazy looking people, not in a location that is too hot or too cold,
not too close to the front or too far back. If you are on a bus or
transit, you want to be close enough to the door relative to how close
or far your stop is. You definitlely want to avoid any dirty or sticky
looking seats. Watch out for transients, gangsters or crazy people.
If you are on a plane you have two options- some airlines have
assigned seating in which I suggest www.seatguru.com. If you fly
Southwest then you should check in online early and print your
boarding pass the day before. Note that as you board open seating
planes it's obvoius that you want a window or aisle, near or in a exit
row (leg room) and in the front (more comfortable and less noisy. Note
that drunk people can be removed from the flight during boarding if a
flight attendant is notified (ask me about my recent experience).

2) The type of seat
Next part of the process involves an evaluation of the seat itself.
What is the material and design of the chair. Is it a plain wood one?
Does it have armrests? Is it vinyl, fabric, leather or plastic?
Folding chairs, no matter how much padding, are rarely comfortable. In
a classroom setting, look out for left or right hand specific chairs.
Chances are there are only one or two seats for lefties so if you are
not left handed don't use it (we lefties hate that).

What are your tips and methods for picking seats? Any crazy stories?

My iPhone, a revolution in the history of cell phones

So as some of you know, I recently purchased an iPhone on September 8th. The actual purchase was simple and took no more than 15 minutes from the time I walked into the store to when I was out the door using the newly activated phone. The Apple employee who was helping me was also named Ryan, so I knew it was a sign that this was the phone for me. I wanted to give a review of the phone, my past phones compared and any disappointments I've had so far.

You're probably saying "get on to the good stuff, talk about the phone already". First I want to explain my particular "picky-ness" about cell phones, and all electronics for that matter. Fit and function are on the top of my list, so is the design and "fashion". It better look great and work great. Since getting my first phone (a Nextel flip phone) I've had quite a few. I've been on AT&T since about 2000 or 2001. First phone of my own was a Sony Ericsson T610. It was a sturdy candybar style phone that played music as well. I really liked that phone a lot. Sony Ericsson makes really great products. The phone had it's own operating system which was pretty easy to use. It also had a proprietary headphone/handsfree plug which was a negative. The next phone I grabbed was a Sony Ericsson W810i. This phone was also pretty awesome in the fact that it had a dedicated "walkman" mode to play music from an expandable memory card in the phone. At the time having 512mb of music on your phone was unheard of. This phone too had a proprietary headphone/handsfree plug which was a negative. I ended up trying out an unlocked Samsung SGH-T509. The phone was super light weight, thin and easy to carry in your pocket. It had some poor sound issues, but I think it was mostly due to poor signal in my house at the time (AT&T later added a tower just 100 yds away). It was a shame this phone didn't work well because I really liked the size/profile. I went back to the W810i for a while.  In February 2007 I got a Samsung Blackjack II. My brother had the Blackjack I and this seemed like a nice upgrade over the 1 since it had more memory, better screen and Windows Mobile 6 (instead of 5). This phone had a proprietary headphone/handsfree plug, but I bought some better aftermarket headphones for it since the OEM ones weren't very comfy. There was an expandable memory slot that took up to 2GB memory card which I loaded up with a few pictures and tons of music that played in Windows Media player. Making ringtones was simple to do with sound editing software. The internet sucked since it used Internet Explorer. I canceled my data plan after a couple months since the web experience was so bad. I used this phone for 2 years and it worked well. Windows Mobile allows for some cool stuff, but it too has it's own problems, its Windows.

First, I wanted to make sure I took care of the phone so it didn't get scratched or beat up so I put on a free ZAGG invisible shield that I won at a conference. The ZAGG invisible shield is nice, I like the screen protection, but I didn't like the part that covered the back of the phone. It didn't want to stick on the corners so I pulled that off. I picked up an Incase slider case in black (although mine didn't come w/ the stand) to help protect the rest of the phone. I already had some Skullcandy Inkd earphones in black/gray. I don't like the feel of the iPod/iPhone headphones. I have a Jawbone bluetooth headset so ear buds not having a microphone was okay with me. I really like the fit and comfort, and the sound quality as well. In-ear buds help also block out the sound, which is important since I take the subway to work and its pretty noisy.

So now the moment you've been waiting for. Life with an iPhone. It is life changing. I can be connected to whomever via whatever, whenever I want. Everything is in the palm of my hand. Internet, check, Email for personal and work, check. texting and chat, double true. I'm still getting new apps everyday. The phone is pretty easy to use, but I'm learning more shortcuts everyday. I wasn't a big fan of iTunes but I'm learning to live with it. It's also nice to have more than 2gb of music, as I was using a 1st generation iPod nano. I don't use Outlook (or a Mac) so some of the common ways to sync data like contacts and calendars required some workarounds/less common methods. I wanted to make some ringtones (other than the standard ones) which I had to find a work around for too. The biggest problem I have is getting all my old numbers from my old phone to the new one. In the past I've just swapped in my old SIM card chip and import the numbers then put the other SIM card back in. Apparently I haven't found a way to do this. I want to add a couple new sounds too for alarms or text alerts but haven't found a way to do this either. Currently we get bad service in our office downtown, but it's not just an "iPhone" problem as non iPhone users can't make or receive calls even though they have full bars too. I have to say I really like the phone. I don't want to put it down. This phone is history changing in my opinion. You see them everywhere, millions sold. Lots of apps and accessories. It has more computer power than what was in the lunar lander, all in the palm of your hand.

I will keep you updated on the things I find for the phone.

Slowly making the switch

To Google Chrome! What did you think I was going to say? I really am starting to like this web browser more and more. It's so lightweight when its running. I can have 10+ tabs open and it is using less than half the memory that Firefox would be using. Don't get me wrong, I still use FireFox regularly, especially for some of the great plugins/extensions that are available, but for daily web surfing, Chrome is my browser of choice.

Next you'll probably hear that I'm starting to use iTunes now, oh wait I am.

New iPhone

I am posting via email from my new iPhone.

My current "favorites things" list

Just thought I'd share some of my current favorite things in no particular order.

- Winter wonderland sushi roll
- Nightlife at academy of sciences
- Semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies and gourmet cupcakes
- Sneaky little post it notes
- More computer memory
- Cheap southwest flights
- The new saosin "in search of solid ground" album


What are your current favorite things?

I like food.

Who doesn't like food? Living here in the city has definitely encouraged me to try some new food, and be a little adventurous when going out. I just want everyone to know that I'm not eating take out everynight, or mac n cheese or top ramen. My mom taught me a few things in the kitchen and I always observed her cooking. My mom recently said "my little boy is all grown up" when she saw what I've been fixing to eat.

Here's a few Twitpics from the phone of what I've been eating lately. You can also checkout my Yelp profile to see where I've been eating at.

Home is where...

As you all know, I moved away from Southern California last October and up to the Bay Area. I took all my belongings and memories along with me. I recall reading a post by Pastor Dan Lance that pretty much sums up the whole transitional period of feelings, thoughts, language, and completely resetting your internal compass to call a new place "home". There are many nights where I long to visit Riverside. Nights when all I need is a hug from someone special, a belly shaking laugh fest with a sibling around the dinner table, or a deep conversation over coffee with a longtime childhood friend. But home is where the heart longs to be, where you wish to lay your head down to sleep, where you don't feel out of place or lost. When I visit Riverside now, I don't feel like it's my home. It's where I grew up. It's where my family is. It's where many of my friends still reside. It's just not my home anymore. I still have a key to the front door of the house even thought I don't have a room to sleep in anymore. I know how to get around Riverside just fine, although I'm still learning some new routes in the city. I come down to see friends and family frequently enough that I'm able to keep up on the newest bar, restaurant or attraction. Home shouldn't instill a sense of pressure or force any unneccessary responsibility on one's self. Home should welcome you with big wide open arms regardless of where you've been or how long you've been gone. Home is where you have your mail sent, where your favorite shows are recorded on your DVR, and where your bed is. That's where home is.

Happy 4th of July

I like the 4th of July a lot. Great memories. Family, block parties, swimming, food, fireworks, birthday parties for my Pop-Pop. HA one time my sister ran through 2 sliding screen doors in a matter of seconds at our cabin trying to alert everyone that "the fireworks are starting, the fireworks are starting!" There was one year I spent the evening on Lake Arrowhead looking straight up at the fireworks exploding above. A couple years we went to a golf course and laid out on the fairway looking straight up at fireworks overhead.


Here's a great pic of a past Independence Day.


This year I'll be camping, at Laguna Seca Raceway and watching the US MotoGP races with one of the guys from work.

Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you have a fun and safe 4th of July. Happy Birthday Pop-Pop.

Traveling

Last week was a round trip from San Francisco to Atlanta. Next week it's San Francisco to Boston to Los Angeles and back to SF. I'll have a couple days in Riverside to visit with family.

I don't wear a belt anymore when I fly, one less thing to deal w/ through security. I now prefer aisle seats over windows. Seatguru.com is my friend. I can fit all my toiletries into a 1qt baggie. I search for flights with onboard wifi now. Being online at 35,000 feet is awesome. I have a wireless card in my laptop now, wherever I go I have internet. I make friends at airports while congregating around electrical outlets to charge my phone/laptop. I carry a 3 way splitter now.

What other tips or habits do you have while traveling?

May was an extremely fun month

I've been super busy the last couple of weeks, and the next few weeks should be just as busy. It's like I blink and a week goes by.

Work has still continued to be awesome, had more new accounts. We're working on lots of little projects that will soon make it easier to "sell" to potential clients. Looking forward to that. One of the guys took some vacation time, so the office has been a little quieter than normal. I'm heading to Atlanta for a conference full of retailers, do some sales with a booth. The third week of June I'll be going to Boston for Internet Retailer doing the same thing but on a larger more serious scale. Internet Retailer is the conference I spoke at in Chicago last year.

I wasn't feeling too great last time I posted. I ended up going back to Kaiser and got an antibiotic that took care of things in a few days. Now we have Anthem/Blue Cross PPO so I'm really happy that I can go wherever I want.

Next Sunday is back to the races! Autox returns at Candlestick and I've got the car ready. I put on the more aggressive brake pads on the front, it makes a huge difference in stopping power. I've been looking at picking up new brake rotors that should be a little more durable and perform better under harder conditions. An un foreseen mod was a new cat back exhaust system. I found a Mazdaspeed3 (the turbo version of my car) stock exhaust for sale in LA so I picked it up on my way home the other week. Larger diameter exhaust tubing w/ less restrictive mufflers sounds good, although its a bit louder than stock. I've seen dyno graphs which show 6-10hp/ftlb torque on cars that have the same setup. I hope to get a dyno at the next group meet and I'll report back on my actual results. I pulled the roof rack off for my trip to socal and picked up some great gains on my gas mileage and the inside of the car was much quieter. I had one tank of gas last me 360 milees which may have been a new record for me.

I also went to the Festival of Speed at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. WOW. I sat in awe of the cars passing by on the corkscrew turn. Rolex Grand Am cars, Koni Challenge cars and more. It was hot but not so bad in the shade. We saw Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamy) with his RX8 racecar.

I spent a week down south over Memorial Day weekend. It was really good to hang out w/ my family and BBQ, stop by Mazfest, be a part of my friend Curtis' wedding, and go to Palm Springs for some relaxation by the pool.

Holy moley its already May?!

May 1st came and went, like sometime last week... My how quickly time flies as you get older. When you're little (like under 12) a week passes like eternity. You always ask how much longer until _____ and the days counting down to Halloween, Christmas or your birthday take what fees like forever. 6 months ago I moved up to San Francisco. It feels like it was less than 6 weeks ago. Days pass quickly and I feel like I'm accomplishing much in the limited time I have each day. I've been inside pretty much since Friday, it's been raining pretty much everyday and I haven't felt super great.

April was a great month for work, a real high client acquisition rate. I had a great pace for closing leads into accounts. Some days were more hectic than others, it seemed like everyone liked to call or email on Friday afternoons, leaving me to rush and push replies out before I started my weekend. We're busy planning the next couple of month's roadmap, a trip to Internet Retailer in Boston this June and perhaps a conference in Atlanta as well. Every day we have new challenges and find new areas of opportunity to thrive as a company and delight our merchants.

Autocross is taking some time off, our next event isn't until June 7. We had events on April 19 and April 26. It was great to have my little brother come visit the last weekend in April, he enjoyed several rides in some Subaru's during autox at Candlestick on the 26th. That was probably my most enjoyable event, and I even came in second! The weather was PERFECT and the course was really fun and fast. New tires helped but were also tough to drive with. New tires have lots of tread so taller tread blocks "squirm" and aren't as easy to feel the road with. So in the time off I've been tinkering on the car. I have new, more aggressive brake pads to install. I changed the oil. I replaced my engine coolant. I also painted my brake calipers gooooollllldddd for a nice aestheic appeal. The rear sway bar definitely makes the car handle much better and I'm looking forward for more advice and driving tips as I keep learning each event.

I had a super fun time the other week, my amazing girlfriend flew up as a surprise for the day to take me to a Giants game. Giants happened to be playing the Dodgers (who are in first place) and she scored some awesome seats just 7 rows up from the visitors on deck circle. I never had some awesome seats and the night was a memorable experience even though Pagie's Boys in Blue lost. I'm looking forward to spending some time with her at the end of this month when I visit Riverside.

The last few days have been rough. I haven't felt well at all. I rarely get sick, but when I do it usually takes me out for a few days. I'm no doctor but I believe I had a nasty sinus infection. I was in such pain I had 4 sleepless nights in a row. I went to Kaiser urgent care, which isn't urgent care at all, and they said to tough it out and use a "nasal rinse kit". Nasal rinse kits are so much fun that I think everyone should try it at least 10 times in their life. You basically have a squirt bottle that shoots water up one nostril and it pours out the other. It's gallons of fun. Anyways I'm feeling better now (not that the rinse thingy helped much). I'm looking forward to having a PPO health plan soon and no more Kaiser.

I'm looking forward to Curtis' wedding, some vacation time, and warm weather later this month. In the mean time I have lots of work to keep me busy.

Fixed the blog

So I recently discovered (thanks to tip by Jeremy) that my comments were not working since I updated to my custom theme. I did a bit of searching on Google and finally found this http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-blogger-templates-broken-comments.html. Edited some of the html code and now it appears that the comments are working.

Work is great.

Work is great. Work lately has been exhausting. Exhausting in a very good way. My main role as business development manager is shared with some sales and some marketing activities as well. Lately, must be due to spring time, I've been doing pretty much all sales. When I started, we got a few leads a day, now were getting 5 times the number or more per day! I'm seeing big and small leads come our way and it's truly exciting. With each lead takes some time to review their site and do some recon, setup a sales demo, answer some questions, etc. I'm able to close a good number of these leads and we're laying out some improvements to the site to make it easier to convert users directly online. We are growing. We are adding new features. We are working effectively and efficiently as a team. It blows my mind that in a couple of days, I'll have been here for 6 months. I swear it still feels surreal, like just last week that I left. Time flies. I'm living on my own, far away from my family and the friends I've grown up all my life with. I'm making new friends here, and finding new exhilarating hobbies (autox). I'm learning new things at work everyday and getting better at it too. I couldn't have imagined enjoying what I do and the people I work with so much. This has been one of the best opportunities I've had and I'm enjoying every minute of it. It was a scary decision to make, but I'm glad I chose this path.

A beautiful weekend

What a perfect weekend weather-wise. On Saturday I went up to Santa Rosa to my buddy's house to work on my car. I drove the hour north with the windows down and radio off. It was so enjoyable, to escape the city. We worked on the car, test drove it, and bbq some good food.

Sunday was autocross day. It was 65 and sunny, I actually got a lil color on my nose and arms. I spent all day from the first run group until fun runs. The new parts I installed on the car made a significant improvement on the cars handling and I really had fun on the course.

Ended the day chillin with the local mazda gang at Starbucks. Always sure to have a good laugh when with the guys.

Autocross Round 4

Spent last Sunday at the McAfee Stadium doing autocross again! The weather was cold and just a little wet in the first round. By the time I ran at the very end of the day, everything was dry and the sun was out. Pretty windy though. I worked on the timing/computer for my work assignment instead of pickup up cones. That was fun and pretty easy, sure beats being on your feet out on the course.

The 10 Commandments of Public Transportation

Having begun taking public transportation on a regular basis now since I moved to SF, I've realized that there are no rules set in stone as how to behave on the bus, Muni trains or BART. Heck this even could include air transportation as well.

1. Thou shall not flatulate or burp. We all have to share the same air as you, and chances are that no one likes stinky air.
2. Thou shall relinquish your seat when an elderly person, woman with child or other person in need boards the vehicle.
3. Thou shall not eat food, particularly ethnic food.
4. Thou shall not listen to your music, especially if an annoying genre, too loudly even with headphones. When I can hear your music over the noise of the Muni and you are on the other end of the car, it is too loud.
5. Thou shall not spread your open newspaper in my face.
6. Thou shall not let your kid run around screaming.
7. Thou shall not take photos of other riders, unless permission is granted, especially flash photography.
8. Thou shall not stand in front of the payment gate/machine digging through your purse/wallet/pocket. Come prepared, have change in hand.
9. Thou shall not speak too loudly on a cell phone, especially if discussing inappropriate or sensitive matter.
10. Thou shall not wedge yourself in as the last person possible into the Muni car as the door tries to shut for the 3rd time. There is no space left, please wait for next train. We are not sardines.
    

Got my cookies

I ended up finding some cookies at a Starbucks located almost an hour from my house this weekend. I was out meeting someone to pick up some new car parts and we were going to stop and get a coffee to hold us over until lunch, when low and behold we saw the highly visible green, red, and yellow boxes of Girl Scout cookies! 1 box of thin mints and 1 box of the peanut butter paddies.

My Happy St. Patrick's Day

Yes I wore green. On my mom's side of the family is some Irish, I mean last name Bailey that has to be Irish. There were people everywhere today. More than usual on the streets, even at 8am. Lots of people wearing all shades of green. After work, plenty of people were packed into the bars and overflowing into the streets. I didn't feel like getting lost in the crowd on my own. So I headed home.

I managed to buy the last .57 lbs of corned beef from my local butcher, 2 carrots, 3 little potatoes and 1 small head of cabbage for $6.25. I got home and threw it all in a small pot and cooked it for a couple hours, voila! Dinner! It was decent tasting for my efforts, but I don't think the dish has much flavor to begin with.

Luck was with me too, as I signed up a Premium account today, woo!

Visit to the California Academy of Sciences

What an awesome place to visit! I'd say that I'm spoiled when it comes to visiting science museums, aquariums, zoo's etc. I was quite impressed with the Academy, as it is referred to by many. I purchased an annual membership for $99 which gets me in unlimited times with 1 guest each time. I can also get in 1 hour early on Sundays. I thought that was a pretty good deal considering it costs $25 per adult. I figure I can take friends who visit. Getting in an extra hour early makes a big difference, as you notice the crowds increase throughout the day. Live penguin exhibit, an impressive aquarium area, 75' diameter all digital planetarium, giant green house, plus interactive displays. There's even a restaurant that takes reservations along with a cafe. I was fascinated with the actual building itself, 3 stories that cover approximately 1 hectare (2.5 acres). The roof has real plants and grass on top that act as insulation to warm/cool the building. Check out all the pictures, plus some from Golden Gate Park at http://picasaweb.google.com/rdiddy.douglas/AcademyOfSciencesGoldenGatePark

My Second Autocross

Last Sunday I went to down to Marina, CA which is about 10 mins north of Monterey. I met up with my new Mazda friend Jeremiah, his roommate and their girlfriends on Saturday afternoon here in the city. We just cruised down Hwy 1 from Pacifica to Marina. It was an awesome drive. I had the sunroof open and from time to time I was blasting some great tunes. We stopped to see a lighthouse and take some pictures.

Sunday was autocross day. It was sure nice to wake up and be at the site, which was an unused area of airport tarmac, in 5 minutes and not have to make the 2 hour drive. The course layout looked fast. I ended up posting some fast times for a novice FWD car. Most of the fastest times were by cars with higher horsepower. Nonetheless I posted the fastest time between me and my friends in ST. I was still about 2 seconds off of the fastest STX cars. Because I was the only one in my class, I gathered another 200 pts in the series. You can keep track of my standings throughout the season by visiting http://sfr-solo2.org/solo2/Results/2009/Championship/stx.html




I'm working on getting some pictures from one of the guys, and some off my camera.

Cookie update...

I still haven't found any Girl Scout cookies. I used http://www.girlscoutsnorcal.org/pages/product_sales/booth_finder.html? as I posted in a comment to my previous cookie post. I showed up to the locations listed at the times specified and there were no scrumptious cookies to be found. I received some help from Twitter user @ktempesta. I've struck out all week. I even saw people walking on the sidewalks in the vicinity of supposed booth locations. I think they are hiding, making it more difficult to find, thus increasing your desire to pay any amount for cookies once you finally find them. I better find some cookies soon.

New look to the blog

I found a pretty cool template from http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/ and chose the San Francisco themed one. There was actually an error trying to get this installed but I was able to follow some help guide from another blogger account and get it to work. I was also able to add my recent Twitter comments to my blog by using the a widget which can be found at http://twitter.com/badges/blogger

Let me know what you think of the layout!

All I want are some cookies

Is it too much to ask for some cookies? Specifically some thin mints and peanut butter patties from the Girl Scouts. I know they are out there, it's that time of year. In fact someone brought in a box of cookies, and one day I saw a group of them at my local Safeway. Unfortunately they have not returned to the areas they can commonly be found, busy shopping centers, grocery stores, etc. I'm not sure if its any different here in SF than Riverside for the rules and regulations on which days girl scouts can sell their cookies, but I just want some. If you know where I can get some locally, preferably in the next 24 hours that would be great.

Rain in the Bay

Rain creates puddles, ruins your styled hair and makes everything slippery. Not things I like. I knew it would be colder, gloomier and all around foggy. I didn't quite realize that San Francisco and the Bay Area would get so much rain. On average, San Francisco is wetter than Riverside by 9.6 inches, and Riverside is warmer by 11 degrees. I never really used an umbrella and only had light rain jackets/windbreakers when I lived in Riverside. Now I want to spend a paycheck at The North Face or REI for good, warm, waterproof jackets and clothing. I went through a can of scotch guard water proofing spray to treat my shoes and jackets.

First Autocross Results

The results are in. My lap times were 59.473, 55.838, and 55.273 which was good enough to put me first in my class, STX novice. After two events, and only having competed in one, I am tied for first place between about 7 or 8 cars in class. I think I'll do my best to attend the rest of the events. Next one is Mar 7, in Marina, CA.

I do what I wanna do

Living on my own with no room mates nor friends/family nearby has led me to grow in new levels. I am comfortable going to sit down and eat by myself, I set the thermostat where I want it, and watch what I want on tv. No one shows up unexpected, or begs me to come over and assist them with things. There is the freedom to go do as much or as little as I want. I stick to a schedule though and use a calendar. For example today I unpacked a couple of boxes from the garage and cleaned up my workbench. Then I went to the grocery store and fixed my gourmet club sandwich. I spent over 30 mins preparing this delectable lunch. Why? Because I can. I do what I wanna do. Everyday.

My First Autocross

It was wet and rainy. As if there aren't enough anxiety causing factors for your first competitive driving event, let's add 2 continuous days of rain. I prepped the car the night before, checked the brakes, unloaded loose items, etc. Showed up early, to see a lake instead of a parking lot. But in the world of autox, the show must go on. I didn't get any pictures, as it was raining and I had stuff to do and was running around. Next time when the weather is better I'm sure I'll be able to get some. I was able to shave 4 seconds off my first run. Official times will be released soon.

Thank you Presidents

Thank you Mr. President... Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Washington that is for turning your birthdays into national holidays. Thank you for being important and allowing us this day to celebrate. I'm also thankful for those who are away from their families protecting and serving our country. It's nice to have a day off.

A.D.D. Moment - Banks should be open on this day so you can go visit your "President Friends" who's faces adorn our paper currency.

3 Reasons Why You Won't Be My Valentine

1. I'm in love with a beautiful girl named Page
2. She has been my Valentine 4 years in a row.
3. We have special shirts we wear on this day

Freaky Friday

I'm not sure what all the hype is about, Friday the 13th that is. I'm not that superstitious anymore really. Out of common sense I don't walk under ladders, avoid most cats that stray across my path and stepping on large cracks just isn't a good idea; you're bound to fall in a chasm, get bit or have something bonk you on the head. Back when I used to play baseball I was semi-superstitious. I used to make sure I had the same undershirt or socks on as the game before (if I did well) but it wasn't like Iwas OCD about it. I just had my preferred gear and liked their fitment. I'm not that afraid of scary Friday the 13th movies either. Sure I'll jump in my seat during a spooky scene but I'm not screaming my head off like the 13 year old girls in the front row of the movies. I do suggest being careful on full moons and Friday the 13th just due to the hype and elevated attention these times of year receive. I think there is a correlation between bad events and the amount of hysteria people become consumed with, not the "day" itself.

I like to drive

If you know me, you know know I like cars. Cars are awesome. Driving is awesome. Driving awesome cars is awesome squared.  As you read this I'll likely be driving. In fact I am driving as you read this. I scheduled it that way. Blogging while driving is probably a no-no. I mean you can't drive while on a cell phone or texting, but they never said I couldn't use a laptop with wireless card and post on the open road. Hopefully nothing occurs that would cause me to not be driving while you read this. I'm actually heading "home" to Riverside. Riverside will still be my "home" for the time being until I establish a home of my own. Back to driving. I always choose to drive when presented the option.  It's not that I don't trust my friend's driving capabilities, I just like driving that much. I drove so much in my first car that I broke the odometer. Poor Z baby. I purchased a car in May 07 and since have put on about 36,000 miles. Matter of fact, I'll be breaking 80,000 miles on this trip. This past summer I took a week long trip up the coast from LA to Seattle. I drove about 90% of the nearly 3000 mile route. Up Highway 101 and 1. It was epic. I saw the most amazing sights that will stick with me in my mind forever, or at least until I lose my mind. Each time I goto Riverside I drive about 450 miles each way. Since I moved up to San Francisco I've made 4 trips I think. If my times tables are still up to date, then that's like 3600 miles. Driving is time to be alone, to think about life, to solve complex work problems, to laugh, to rock out or practice your chartoon character voices. 

I have a few rules for driving I'd like to share:

1. Goto the bathroom before you leave.
2. Fill up and top off the gas tank every chance you get.
3. Keep track of your miles! I keep a little white notepad in the car. Total Miles/gallons required to fill tank = MPG. I like my MPG's and so should you.
4. Load up your favorite music playing device with new or forgotten tunes. I find it amazing how the mind recalls emotions and events associated with songs of yesteryear.
5. For trips of 3 hours or more- pack a snack!
6. Please don't put your sweaty lil toes on my dash or windsheild. 
7. Food is allowed (see #3) but don't spill.

Got any rules you'd like to share?

So if you see me driving, honk, wave or blow me a kiss. No middle fingers please. 

About this blog

Having recently been challenged by my peers to start my own blog, I'm going to give it a shot.

PositionMe, what's in a name? I hope to bring together a picture of the everyday experiences from work and personal life. It's about where I'm at and what's occupying me mentally from the space I'm physically occupying. It's about me. And some other people.