Browse Month: October 2007

quite a pair

My dad introduced me to this Japanese-made show. The premise of this video is a monkey and dog trained to deliver a package across town. The monkey is trained to remember the path (turning at certain intersections, crossing a small stream, etc.), keep the package in his doggie’s backpack, and deliver the package to a friend. The dog actually belongs to the monkey and they work together to accomplish their goal. It’s so cute that he holds the dog’s leash, puts the package back in the backpack when it falls out, and has to problem-solve his way through the route. You can see him trying to remember which way to turn and coaxing his dog across the water.

In other episodes, their assignments include buying a certain pair of shoes at a store down the street, take photos of animals at the zoo, picking up a certain type of cheese from the store, and going through a park and into a forest to gather a certain type of mushroom. The monkey has been trained to tie up the dog before going into a store and throwing away trash that he sees along the way. He even carries a bag that holds money and he knows to pay the lady at the counter with the money in his bag. This all sounds pretty silly but you just have to watch it to understand. That’s Japanese TV programming for ya.

And the weekend continues…

My weekend started on Thursday night and it’s still going.  On Friday we went to a Happy Hour/Fundraiser.  The drinks were cheap and I gave $5 to a good cause.  The bar reminded me of one of my brother’s art shows.  It’s a large gallery filled with art and photographs with a DJ spinning on the 1s and 2s.  I think this is what I prefer over the bar we went to on Thursday night.  I could actually see and hear my friends without straining your eyes or ears and I wasn’t disturbed by guys and girls trying too hard to impress one another.

Since Happy Hour started right after work, we didn’t get to eat dinner until late.  Instead of going home for a bowl of cereal or stopping by the McDonald’s on the way home, we ended up at the Food Court in Berkeley.  This weekend is also a little 10-year reunion for a bunch of my friends who went to Cal and they were in the mood for a stroll down memory lane.  So, we tagged along for a late night meal of Korean BBQ and hot donuts.  It was another late night but I got to sleep in this time.

I’m SO over it.

On Thursday night, we picked up Dayantha from SFO at 11pm and headed straight for a bar in the Marina.

When we arrived at the bar, I looked at my watch and it was just before midnight. I thought to myself, “Hm…this is going to be a late night and a rough morning at work.” But I endured and had an interesting time people watching. As I sat on one of the plush suede benches located in the center of the bar, it was clear that at least 75% (if not more) of the people there were at least 5 years younger than us. It was also interesting to watch the dynamics of the crowd. There were boys and girls of all sizes and varieties. Over to my left, I was a nerdtastic group of people bumping and grinding each other as if they had been repressed for years and finally had a place to express their sexual frustrations. Behind me on the dance floor was a group of cougars dancing with a bunch of random guys. Over to my right was a group of guys oozing with hair gel and cologne trying to pick up on any female in its path. Awesome. This is when I decide that I’m too old for this. It’s late, I’m not drinking, and Shua is asleep next to me on the bench. The best part of the evening, I think, was the late-night slice of pizza we had before heading home.

It’s raining!!

Oh man, this is awesome! This morning Pasqual told me that it was raining but I wasn’t so ready to believe him right away.  But now I’m sitting here at my workstation at the hospital staring out of the window watching the rain fall. It’s pouring! This gets me so giddy because that there’s probably snow falling in Tahoe and my sidewalks are getting washed. With last year being so dry and having only about 10 days of rain (if that) last year, this is so refreshing. It’ll just make walking the dog a little interesting. Bring it on!!

Pasqual has (finally) arrived!

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Much to Jes’ dismay, Pasqual, my new wabbit has arrived! After over a week of waiting and waiting, the UPS man rang my doorbell at 6:08 pm this evening. Woohoo! After setting him up and connecting him to our WiFi network, he was ready to go! He’s set to tell me the weather and time, read New York Times headlines to me, and entertain me with his daily Tai Chi routines. I’ve already sent a message to Francoise (Vyl’s wabbit and Pasqual’s girlfriend) and we’ve gotten a couple messages back. What fun! Acutally, anyone can send messages to Pasqual. Just go to the website (click the “wabbit” link above) and register. Once you have an account, you can use the email address that you registered to send him messages (search for pasqual). Thanks again to the Bangs for my new friend!

Later this evening, Jes returned from work and had my brand new digi in his bag!! Woohoo! It’s a double-present day! I’m still charging the battery so I haven’t tried it out yet. So far it feels nice in my hand with a nice rubbery black shell. It has a cool wide-angle Leica lens and a screen that’s much bigger than my old Canon. Oh Mr. Battery, hurry up and charge so I can play!

melting pot

cus983.gifEver thought Cerritos was too Asian? Think again. The Economist wrote an article about my beloved hometown and considers it a little slice of America. Hm…interesting.