A new watch

I’ve decided that at age 30, a Casio Databank calculator watch just doesn’t look very, uh, classy in certain situations. Plus, now that I have a cell phone, one of my original reasons for having a Databank, to store phone numbers, isn’t as useful as it used to be. So I bought an analog watch (one of those nifty types that recharge when you swing your arm). But it’ll take a while to get used to it. This is the first time I haven’t had a digital watch since elementary school — I’m not used to reading an analog clock on my wrist.

Turboman lives!

The developer tools group in Borland, which is in the process of being spun off, is resurrecting the Turbo line of programming tools. They will include a free edition and a professional edition that will cost less than $500. (Currently Borland’s cheapest professional tools cost over $1000.) They’re even bringing back their old mascot, Turboman. I’m glad to see them going back to their roots, and I’m rooting for them. Way back in middle school, Turbo Pascal 3.0 was my first exposure to structured programming and a real IDE and compiler, and I’ve been a fan of Borland ever since.

ZeroOne

Last week San Jose hosted a huge digital art conference and exhibition called ZeroOne, held in association with the International Symposium of Electronic Art. I went on Tuesday with Francis and Simona to check out an art piece created by their friends called Acclair, a provocative piece on the intersection of profiling, security, and advertising. We also got to see massive images get projected onto San Jose City Hall the result was quite spectacular. I also wanted to see the Survival Research Labs show on Friday, but it was long sold out.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen people from San Francisco come to San Jose to see art. I hope it’s not the last.

Vancouver

I went on a short trip to Vancouver last week to visit relatives and friends. Thoughts:

  • Vancouver is kinda like a smaller version of the Bay Area (city on peninsula surrounded by water, anti-road sentiment, elevated rail transit, etc), except with taller mountains and taller buildings.
  • The weather was perfect. I carried around a sweater and never needed it, even at night.
  • The road construction on the Sea-to-Sky Highway is coming along nicely.
  • The Richmond Night Market is a cross between a flea market and a night market in Taipei. It is gigantic. The food stalls looked tasty — too bad I was too full from dinner. The next time I’m up there, I’ll just go there for dinner.
  • It’s definitely nicer visiting in August than in December (unless you want to go skiing).

What a difference a week makes

This weekend we’re back to normal summer weather in the Bay Area: beautiful sunny days, cool nights. Last weekend we were in the middle of the worst heat wave to hit California. In 14 summers in the Bay Area, this was the first time I ever felt the need for an air conditioner. Our house didn’t even have a fan, and all of the stores sold out! The days were hot, but it was the nights that really got to me. I half-seriously thought about going to work to sleep. I never looked so forward to going to work as I did on Monday.

Floyd Landis wins!

Woohoo! Another American wins le Tour! In my last posting, I assumed everyone knew what Floyd Landis accomplished last week, but I’ll spell it out here.

Another inspiring example of never giving up, while you still have a chance.

Not only that, Landis has a condition called avascular necrosis in his hip (we’re talking bone-on-bone) and will have hip replacement surgery within a few months. Most people with his condition can barely walk.

Tour de France

I’ve been watching the Tour de France all month. (Its timing works perfectly with my schedule: wake up, watch the last 30 mins while eating breakfast, then go to work.) Can you believe Floyd Landis? From washed up yesterday to a stunning comeback today. I’m really pulling for him to win — it would propel his achievement from an extraordinary single-day race to a legendary tour win.

Done uploading photos

I’m finally done uploading all of my photos to Flickr. And I’ve fixed all of the photos in this blog to point to those photos. Whew, I’m beat!

If you want to look through them, you could start at the beginning and browse through all 1,565 photos (and counting), but I suggest looking through my sets and tags. I especially recommend filtering my photos through people — friends from:

Cars; Willow Glen

I saw Cars over the weekend with Jon. Cars, of course, is based on a true story: the life, death, and rebirth of Route 66. It was astonishingly accurate in its renditions of roads, road signs, and maps. Pixar definitely had some roadgeeks advising them. In addition, Pixar got the author of one of the most celebrated books on Route 66, Michael Wallis, to be the voice of the Sheriff, which explains how the movie could tell the story of Route 66 and roadside America was so well. It also explains some of the dewy-eyed nostalgia in the film, but that’s okay. Cars is a family film, not a PBS documentary.

Afterwards, we went to Willow Glen for dinner. Aqui is a “fast casual” Cal-Mex restaurant [photo]. It’s definitely got the “Cal” part going; I’ve never been to a Mexican place that serves tortilla chips with black beans, hummus, and polenta. Their Pork Ranchero Tamales and Cuban Pork Enchiladas were also tasty. And since they don’t have waiters, none of their dishes are above $11. For dessert, we couldn’t resist our third visit to the Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt Company [photo].