You can feel the determination and the heart of this kid. For the full story check it out here.

Just talking to Norman how sweet it is to see Bay Area sports teams represent. I’ll admit that I’m not a die hard fan and haven’t watched ever Sharks game this season or felt the hurt the past 13 years when the Warriors didn’t make the playoffs… but hopefully this blog post will give me a little bit of credit…



“We Believe”

man… that is the perfect slogan…

Last year, someone had the great idea (Lu? Eiki? Lu and Eiki?) of renting a beach house in Stinson Beach for a weekend. We had such a good time that we decided to go again this past weekend to not only celebrate Lu and Eiki’s birthday, but to relax, enjoy the beach, and have a few drinks together. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but we made the best of it.

Here are some photos:
Paul’s photo album
Lauren’s camera shots

Looking forward to the beach house next year.

Here are some stupid ideas that may one day turn out to be not so stupid… probably by a long shot. Anyway, this is the kind of stuff that I have been thinking about recently because Laurie has been busy with work and class and Toby isn’t that great to talk to…

Idea 1: You might have heard me talk about this one before but I seriously think it will be a multi-million dollar drug industy some day. Something that prevents Asian glow. I have seen girls discreetly swallow a Pepcid AC prior to drinking. Plus, I turn red after half a sip of beer so I would a big consumer.

Idea 2: Netflix style magazine subscriptions. Sometimes, I only want to read a specific magazine for a particular month instead of subscribing for the entire year. I know you can buy them at the news stand, but the cover prices are ridiculous. There has got to be a better way to get only the issues you want, without having to buy each one individually.

Idea 3: Networked laundry machines. Who carries around $5 of quarters anyway? I know that there are machines that take cards, but why not just hook it all up to the internet and accept credit cards? Hell, I bet it sucks to empty out all those machines anyway and bring it to the bank to exchange all the quarters for cash. Everyone is a winner!

Idea 4: Similar to Idea 3, networked parking meters. Berkeley would be a great place to pilot this type of meter. Half the meters are already broken anyway… might as well replace them with technologically superior ones. Sad thing is that I think the city actually likes issuing all those parking tickets as a source of income…

Ok, I’ll stop now.

As promised in earlier posts, I have finally gotten around to uploading the pictures Laurie took on our first trip to New York. Also, here are Lijen’s New York pictures.

The last day in New York… it was bittersweet. I was pooped but we still had half an afternoon to enjoy the city one last time before heading to JFK for our flight. Warning: this is a long post and does not contain all fun NY activities like the previous posts.

– Headed south to grab lunch with Lijen at Momofuku Noodle Bar (Laurie was craving ramen). It took a lot longer than we expected because a building had collapsed causing the subway to shut down!! The 96th station was closed so we jumped on a bus to ride to 86th station to catch the subway there… we ended up waiting 20+ minutes for a train to come, not to mention that once it did, it was PACKED. I am not super comfortable with crowded areas, but luckily things eased up once we hit Grand Central Station. Anyway, the noodles were delicious. I got the Momofuku Ramen which also had this fatty pork that I am a big fan of.
– After eating myself silly with the huge bowl of ramen, we walked to Max Brenner where you might not believe… I denied taking a free sample because I was so full. Laurie picked up some white chocolate covered apples (with cinnamon) as presents and we were on our way. While Lijen headed to Starbucks to work, Lars and I headed back to the apartment to meet up with Matt who was picking us up with the car service he ordered… or so we thought…

This is where the afternoon craziness begins:

– From Max Brenner, we jumped in a cab (knowing we wouldn’t make it if we rode the subway) back to the apartment. It took FOREVER… but we got there. I got a phone call from Matt saying that the car service screwed up and that they wouldn’t be picking us up anymore. CRAP #1. It was almost 4PM at that point and our flight was at 5:55PM from JFK.
– No car service. What to do. We grabbed our luggage (which included Lijen’s luggage too) and ran to Madison Ave. praying we could catch a cab. Several taxis drove by shaking their hands because they probably saw our luggage and knew we were going to the airport. Bastards. Anyway, one cab driver named Malik was kind enough to give us a lift. After asking how much the ride would be, I realized I only had $42 but the ride to the airport was $45 and he only accepted cash. CRAP #2. Laurie jumped out of the taxi and ran to the BofA a block away while I directed Malik where to go to pick her up. Note: this was no easy task because of the number of cars….
– Lars grabbed some cash and we were on our way… in traffic… trying to get off the damn island of Manhattan. I started to realize that we probably wouldn’t make it to JFK. CRAP #3. I called JetBlue and luckily they had other flights that night going to Oakland… I felt a little better at that point.
– Malik saw the pain on my face and drove like a speed racer getting us to JFK at 5:15PM!! Yowza! I got in line while Laurie checked us in. While trying to push two full pieces of luggage, holding a guitar, and wearing a backpack… the handle on Lijen’s bag literally ripped off. CRAP #4. It was a challenge moving that thing after that…
– Checked in our luggage and ran to the security line. Some nice people let us jump in front of them. Luckily the line wasn’t super long. In record time, we had all of our stuff in those grey bins ready to jet through the metal detector… but… the person watching the monitor had to run someone’s stuff through the machine TWICE. CRAP #5. Lars got so annoyed that she even started swearing… loudly! haha..
– We walked through the metal detector and started waiting for our shoes and bags to go through the machine. The lady took her merry time… and then grabbed Laurie’s purse and said “I’m going to have to run this in the machine again.” CRAP #6. We were late for our flight, it was hot, and I swear… I thought Laurie was going to jump over the machine and strangle her.
– Finally, the lady realized that Laurie wasn’t carrying any weapons of mass destruction and we ran to the gate. WE MADE IT. As I sat down in my seat, I realized that this was all part of the New York experience.

Thanks to those that took the time to give us recommendations, show us around, and enjoy NY with. Special thanks to Grace, Norman, Elaine, and Steven for letting us crash at their pad. We had an AWESOME trip.