Just the good ol' boys,
Never meanin' no harm,
Beats all you've ever saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was
born.

Straight'nin' the curve,
Flat'nin' the hills.
Someday the moutain might get 'em, but the law never will.

Makin' their way,
The only way they know how,
That's just a little bit more than the law will allow.

Just good ol' boys,
Wouldn't change if they could,
Fightin' the system like a true modern day Robin Hood.

Just thinking about it, I have to say how much I love Chinese roasted duck. Put some of that over some steamed rice, let the juices from the duck seep into the rice and you're set. I used to hate duck as a kid, but now I love the stuff. My mum said that when she was pregnant with me all she ate was duck and ramen. I love ramen but didn't grow an affinity for duck until much later in my life. In fact the only Chinese food I ate as a kid was barbequeued pork and rice. I eventually stepped out of my little asian food box and tried other stuff, like squid, snails, fish balls, intestines, tripe, and lots of other "weird" foods. I can't wait to go to Japan and try out all the different food. I really want to find some local food places that have authentic food. I love trying new stuff.

I had me some dim sum for lunch today with a couple of coworkers. I haven't had dim sum in quite a while, so I was really excited when I got to eat it today. I had my favorite dish, chicken feet plus a bunch of other dishes mostly seafood and pork. To finish off my coworker got these little steamed custard buns which are the best things on earth. I also found out that they have $5 duck! I might head to this place after work and pick up some duck...

Now you too can own your very own supercomputer!

10 GHz processor
2GB RAM
30000 GB HD

Click here for details.

So I just found this keyboard outside in the corridor:



I love the feel of this keyboard and will be taking it home tonight to make sweet lo...I mean type long a dissertation on the systemic degredation of blah blah blah. I like this keyboard. It's clicky.

I saw the saddest thing this morning. A duck was run over last night and this morning there were three ducks gathered around the carcass like they were mourning. They were just hanging about the street. So sad.

Well I'm only going to Japan for 5 weeks instead of 2 months. I can't wait! Whee!

I found out today that my best friend Jon might be moving from the bay area up to Washington. Shit.

I had a nice weekend. Friday night I headed to downtown SJ and met up with Sean and a couple of his friends to see a movie at Cinequest. Cinequest is a famous film festival that has received a lot of critical acclaim plays a lot of independent movies. We saw a movie called "Cruel but Necessary" which was directed by Saul Rubinek who also happened to be there along with a few of the stars from the movie. The movie was about a woman who after finds out her husband is cheating on her after watching a home video where he receives a call from his girlfriend. He forgot to turn off the video camera. The woman then becomes obsessed with chronicling everything and everyone in her life with a video camera. It was a very intersting movie, but I got some motion sickness because there were scenes where the camera was just moving about willy-nilly. After the film was over the directory along with the star/write answered questions from the audience. After leaving the theater we got some beer and then headed to an after-party. I met a filmmaker there and we ended up spending about 15 minutes talking about "The Simpsons." lol.

Saturday morning I did my taxes. I owed $70 Fed, but got refunded $74 state, not too shabby. I did some more reading for work for Japan and also picked up a couple of Japan related books. The first was a bilingual map of Osaka/Kyoto and the other was a travel dictionary. I then went to a local Japanese bookstore to peruse their collection but was overwhelmed with the amount of books they had inside. I'm going to do a little more research before I pick up another book.

Later that night I went down to Gilroy to see a guitar player named Laurence Juber. He's played with so many people it's crazy but most notable is Wings. He also recently won a Grammy for his interpretation of the Pink Panther music on guitar. What a treat it was to see such an awesome guitar player. It made me want to focus even more on my guitar playing. I also met an interesting fellow that night. He's an engineer over at Lockheed but he's probably the most interesting guy I've ever met. He's like the father from Big Fish but more so. All these famous people know him, he met Cesar Chavez before he became Cesar Chavez. He's world class pool player and fly fisherman. Amazing guy and cool too. I went to In-N-Out after the show and discovered where all the teenagers hang out in Gilroy. Pubescent sociology is pretty interesting.

Sunday I went for a run at a place called Alum Rock Park. This was a mentor lead run but I was the only one to show up apart from the mentor, which was cool because we ended up talking the entire run. I didn't do much of anything else on Sunday except vegetate. Oh I made chicken and 40 cloves. Nothing too interesting.

Well the weather here is beautiful once again. Hopefully I can get a game of basketball together with my coworkers.

So this is who I'll be seeing every morning in Japan:

First off, I have to mention how beautiful the weather has been for the last week. Mid 70s to low 80s. I couldn't ask for anything better.

This week has been a blur of sorts since I've been so busy. Monday I worked late, Tuesday I went to a chiropractor; I didn't realize they were so hokey. Wednesday I went out to dinner with Leonard, Sean, and a few other folks. Afterwards Sean, Leonard, and I went hit up O'Niel's for a Guinness. Thursday I had track training and then pizza afterwards. I'm not sure what I'm up to tonight, but I feel like doing something.

Looks like I'll be heading to Japan for almost 2 months instead of 1. One of my bosses is having a hard time trying to find people to go so my stay was extended. I'm still excited but living out of a hotel room for 2 months is going to be interesting.

I found out that there's a Gold's Gym in Kobe! I'm hoping to have my membership transferred over for the time that I am there so I can continue weight training.

Fundraising is going to be interesting. It looks like I'm going to have to go all out until I leave because I won't be able to do much of any fundraising while I'm in Japan. If you're reading this and would like to donate then please do so ASAP. I have a little less than a month before I leave.

I swear I'll finish the Vegas story.

Here comes the sun...

What's with all the typos in my posts? I should know better than that. Well I'm working late tonight...

I'll most likely be staying at a hotel near the Seishin-Chuou(top left) station.

I was looking at the schedule yesterday for the onsite support in Japan and noticed that I've been committed to 3 months there. Obviously I'm not going to do this as that stay would be way too long and I have a marathon to run in June. The thought of actually staying in Japan for 3 months and coming back just for the marathon fleeting floated through my mind but that would be a bit much for me. I also wouldn't be able to train as well as I could if I were here in California. I really wish I could do it though.

I guess I should talk about Vegas even though it was a couple of weeks ago. I was actually planning on going by myself and then meeting up with Leonard down there, but I convinced Sean and Scott to come along with me. This was all at the last minute. I was talking and emailing Sean and Scott Thursday seeing if they wanted to come and they finally decided Friday that they would. We drove down early Saturday afternoon right after a race I had Saturday morning. We made really good time because we left at around 1 and got to Vegas around 9, which included four stops including one in Gilroy. Yay Gilroy! We got In-N-Out there. The one thing that sucked though was Sean had to drive the entire way because neither Scott or I knew how to drive a stick shift. We paid for Sean's gas instead. I tried not to sleep on the way down there so I could keep Sean company on the drive.

Well we got there at around 9 and drive down the strip so Scott could see everything. While driving down the strip we noticed a camera crew driving in front of a stretch H2 while filming it. We either thought it was fro CSI or a promo video for a limo company. Anyway after that we headed down to the Hard Rock for some food and beer. I must mention at this point we did not have a hotel to stay in since we had planned to come into Vegas that night and go strong until the next day at which point we would book a hotel and then crash for a few hours. After the food, beer, and repeated cantations of "Vegas Baby" we got back in the car and parked it at the Bellagio. From there we walked around from casino to casion just trying to absorb all the atmosphere. The next few hours we drank a lot, smoked cigars, and walked around just as much as we drank. It was no surprise then that by 3am we were all really tired from the day. We all decide to head back to the car and grab a nap. At least I can say we "stayed" at the Bellagio.

More to come later.

I just realized I will get to eat real sushi. Oh this is going to be great.

Well it's official I'm headed to Japan next month for an entire month to provide onsite support for a satellite we just launched. I'll be there to answer customer questions regarding the operation of satellite electronics and attitude control subsystems. My speciality is actually attitude control, so I'll be brushing up on my satellite electronics knowledge over the next month. I'm super excited about this opportunity because I intend to parlay this trip into a transfer the software group. I currently test software but would like to work on the development side instead. I'm going to study my ass off so I'm an expert by the time I get over there. There's so much going through my mind right now but the overwhelming feeling is excitement. Yay!

more to come later.