Back in the Bay

03/27, Monday (7:15pm): Returned to the Bay area from Denver, CO.

Been back in the Bay area for about a week (and what a week it's been). Now that the weekend is here, I actually have some time to update this thing. Nothing too interesting to report for now. But as promised, some pictures from Colorado and the WBC in San Diego:

Mm, topograpy: the Rocky Mountains taken from 30,000 ft.

Hotel room view.

75 mph? That means I can go 85, right?

A tip for anyone driving into downtown Dever: turn around and go somewhere else; there's nothing to do there.

I got a chance to hit the slopes with Bryce from the SketchUp office during the weekend portion of my trip to Colorado and for the most part, it was definitely worth lugging all of my gear there. One thing to note is that Boulder's elevation is already about 5,500 feet above Bay area sea-level, so add to that another 6,000 feet in the mountains, and I was nearly 11,000 feet above sea-level, which made the simple act of breathing more challenging:

11,000 ft. elevation +60 degree weather + over-layering + weight of gear + steep incline + hiking = not fun.

Mmm, back-mountain boarding. I must have taken this picture as I was taking a break from hiking, gasping desparately for air.

Ah, time to reap the rewards of my hard work...

Yea, so Korea lost the WBC. I think I've come to terms with that now. But to "Nippon Nation," with all due respect, your crowds are weak sauce compared to the "Dae Han Min Gook beast":

The kid double-fisting churros had like 8 of them that night, I kid you not.

Me and Jyn in the "Korea section"

What's a trip to San Diego without a visit to the zoo?

Ah, San Diego coast.

Some random pictures from random times and places, for my own personal edification and your viewing pleasure:

The only two pictures I have from the Google ski trip (from Christine).

(Ripped from Dolapo's blog) Googler t-shirt; mabe we should check his CV before making any rash judgements?

Defeated...

but not demoralized.


Returned from San Diego on Tuesday morning, tired and saddened from a 6-0 Korea loss in the World Baseball Classic. I'll get over it, but for now, I hate everything and everyone "Nippon" (just kidding!). Japan pitched a flawless game, which was why Korea couldn't really connect on anything. Korea will take it in 2009, when the next WBC is slated to take place. More San Diego/WBC pictures coming soon once I get back to the Bay area.

Flew out to Colorado on Tuesday (a few hours after I flew in from San Diego). I've been working with the SketchUp team here; a really great team. Boulder is a nice city as well, but not the most happening of places (as I write this from my hotel room). I'm looking forward to doing some snowboarding this weekend, perhaps at Breckenridge. I'll probably post some pictures from Colorado later as well.

After what seems like too many consecutive flights and hotel room stays, it'll be nice to return to my apartment, and also to ywy.

World Baseball Classic

Another week completed. Flying down to San Diego tomorrow morning to catch the semi-finals/finals of the World Baseball Classic. If you haven't been watching, Korea has been kicking some serious international ass. So far undefeated, they have a good chance of getting to the finals and winning it all:

Korea's Home and Away jerseys (must get both!).

I return from San Diego next Monday and then fly out to Boulder, Colorado on Tuesday night for work. Until then...

Adventures in MV and NY

Nearly two months without a post. Why? I guess I've been keeping myself occupied with work (or maybe vice-versa) and well, my life just isn't all that interesting. But I'll try to be more consistent about updating this.

I ended up heading to New York again two weekends ago (this time for a Local/Maps Product Summit), which gave me a chance to work in-person with the people I see via video-conference on a weekly basis. My parents also drove down from Boston for a day to have lunch and some coffee with me, which was nice. And what would a trip to New York have been without a a few (two) completely random run-ins with old friends from high school? Crazy.

Just in case you couldn't find the room, check the coordinates.

Ice Skating in Central Park, NY; Local/Maps team

The kid to my left is obviously much better than me...

Drinks with old friends from Boston (BC/BU) and DC (AU).
(Sal, Lin, V, TEK, MOH, mJ)
The girl with demon eyes in the background; really freaking me out...

The theme of every trip to NYC: Food, and lots of it.
(Some sushi place in NJ)

Usually, my weekends consist of either making it up to Lake Tahoe for some snowboarding or staying local and mountain biking around the Bay area. I do an average of 20-30 miles/weekend and I try to take pictures of anything interesting I see along the way. The following were taken atop the Amphitheatre hills:

A side-shot of the Googleplex.

Well, if it isn't our worthy adversary across the way, Microsoft.

Shoreline Links golf course (where I'll probably spend the other half of my weekends in the summer).

Specialized Enduro Comp 130; this thing will go through anything (NASA in the background).

These weather forecasts were from a few weeks ago so they're a bit dated, but I thought the stark contrast was funny. For my buddies on the east coast, can you say "time for relocation?"

Ouch. Bring out the gloves and mittens, 'cause it "Feels like" 1 degree in Boston.

Mid-Febuary weather in Norcal. Not too shabby.

Largely unrelated to the weather, I recently bought an AC Schnitzer strut tower bar, which is supposed to increase the overall rigidity of the front-end of a car. Although the E46 chassis is already pretty stiff from the factory, I thought I'd give it a shot. After installing it, I can feel a slight improvement in steering responsiveness (probably all psychological). At the very least, it looks cool...

AC Schnitzer STB installed.

Anyone want to do my taxes? I know all of you guys working in audit are just jumping up and down with excitement. Let me know where I should send my W-2s and 1098s!