slowsheep likes to sleep

New Zealand trip report

2012-01-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

I finally got unlazy and posted photos and wrote a very short trip report to our new zealand trip.

Trip report here.

Photos here

Wow, a post! Or yet another trip report.

2011-06-19T20:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Kekoa and I went backpacking in Yosemite from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to Rancheria Falls, it was definitely wet. If you want to read the rest of the trip report, click clicky here.

Conclusion: Tour of the Mostly-Swiss Alps

2010-08-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

I had fun, I had a lot of fun. Kekoa and I both had a lot of fun. Despite losing all my biking gear the first day, I'm glad I bought all new gear and got my butt on the saddle for the next three weeks. While writing the trip reports, I also realized how much I already want to go back.

There's something very different about bike touring compared to normal "visit a big city" traveling, I felt that I had a lot more freedom bike touring. I could get from point A to point B without help - unless I wanted help via public transportation. I felt a strong sense of independence associated with pedaling myself from place to place. I was on nobody's schedule but my own (or the group's). I also really enjoyed the fact that we could find a hotel and/or restaurant every few miles (at least in Switzerland, with the help of our maps), which meant we weren't going to starve or freeze to death :)

Everyone was also really nice, it might have been because we were traveling by bike. But every time I asked someone for help, they were very eager to help (with directions, finding a book store, and so on). The stays at every hotel, meal at every restaurant were also wonderful. I really enjoyed the breakfasts with lots of meat, cheese, and bread. The large and plentiful dinners. The ability to eat whatever I wanted. At Rosenlaui, they even started breakfast earlier for our group because we had a train to catch. Once again, German beer is really really yummy!

Compared to the US, the drivers were also much nicer. We got honked at a total of 4 times (not including Innsbruck, where we got honked at about 5 times in 2 miles there). Twice in Switzerland and twice in Italy. That's not bad for 2 weeks of riding. The drivers themselves were much more polite, I rarely felt unsafe with the cars around me. The same cannot be said for the roads around Northern California.

Switzerland was extremely beautiful, and the climbs were gorgeous. I now miss hearing cow bells during my bike rides. A lot of folks have asked me what my favorite part of the trip was - for me it was just the being there, biking, feeling like I could be anywhere I wanted, and experiencing every day. (God that sounds really cheesy, but it's pretty true!)

If I had to make a list...

Least favorites - Losing all my shit and having to pay really expensive German prices to replace it. Having a hard time finding things my size because almost everyone is taller with bigger hands. Crap weather the first week (if only we flew into Europe one week later...). The freezing cold descents the first week.

Favorite things - The climb and descent of St. Gottard and Sustens pass. The cool looking hairpins on Splugen pass. The stay at Rosenlaui. The food (lardo, pizza, pancetta), the beer, the wine! The sound of cow bells. The many waterfalls. Having someone to help block the wind.

Looking forward to going back!

Tour of the Mostly-Swiss Alps, Part IV

2010-08-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Time for the fourth and last part of our cycling trip report. This is the part where Kekoa and I tried to chase Piaw et al down, and it took until Rosenlaui.

Here's part IV of the trip report.

I still have a conclusion, maybe tips & tricks, and gear review to write! Hopefully those will be easier.

Tour of the Mostly-Swiss Alps, Part III

2010-08-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

Time for the third installment of our cycling trip report. This is the part where Kekoa and I took off for a few days to climb more - in super hot weather.

Here's part III of the trip report.

Tour of the Mostly-Swiss Alps, Part II

2010-08-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Time for the second installment of our cycling trip report. This is the trip report of the freezing climbs :) Which ends in super hot weather.

Here's part II of the trip report.

Tour of the Mostly-Swiss Alps, Part I

2010-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

In 2010, Kekoa and I, Piaw and Lisa, and Phil Sung bike toured in the alps. The original plan called for touring the German Speaking Alps, but due to weather constraints, we ended up touring mostly the Swiss Alps.

Here's part I of the trip report. This included how we attempted to outfoxed the weather from Munich to Innsbruck and then to Bludenz.

Funny things we saw in Europe

2010-07-29T22:15:00.001-07:00

Since I'm quite delinquent in writing my trip reports, I'm going to start with the funny signs and things we saw in Europe.

No Smoking Ashtray?

No peeing standing up?

Very Exotic Sauce

Dickmans??!?!

Nuts

Road rash fun

2010-05-19T19:40:00.001-07:00

What better blog post than to write about road rash.

Given that I had a fairly fun (NOT AT ALL) crash about a week ago, I feel compelled to write about road rash and treating it. Let me say I got most of my information off of xton's very helpful post on the same subject. I just wanted to elebroate more on the bloodiness, of course. :)

First off, if you aren't up for cleaning the wounds yourself. Go to urgent care the first day. Not the second... I did a shitty job the first day cleaning my wounds. The next day, while the wounds were happily oozing black/brown dirt, I got freaked out thinking I might have broken something, and decided to go to urgent care. Needless to say, they took one look at my wounds, and decided to tear off all my expensive tegaderm, and re-scrub everything. OWWWW. The nice part about urgent care - they do put lidocaine on your wounds to numb it before they scrub. The bad - they only put it on the deep ones (too much lidocaine is apparently bad for you), and it's topical, so once the top of your wounds gets scrubbed off, it starts stinging pretty bad. If you are ball-sy enough to clean it yourself, drugstores also sell this 2% lidocaine solution that should help numb wounds, which I've heard helps.

Bandages

The whole new moist wound care stuff is really awesome. I was told to use Tegaderm and then some folks recommended Duoderm. After a bit of research - I realized Duoderm / Tegasorb (not tegaderm) / Hydrocolloid are all pretty much the same thing. All this stuff is a bit expensive (Tegaderm is $3.75 for a 4" x 4 3/4" patch at drugstore pricing and Hydrocolloids are $3 for a 3" x 3" patch at drugstore prices) with the hydrocolloids being a bit more expensive. I recommend buying what you need for the day and then buying in bulk from some online medical supply store, even with the expedited shipping it's still cheaper.

Personally I used Tegaderm for the first few days, until the wounds started oozing less and moved to a hydrocolloid bandage. One thing to note about Tegaderm: if you are oozing a lot (yellow ooze is OK), do clean/replace often, else your skin might get irritated and itch a lot and add insult to injury. The ooze also smells really bad, it kind of smells like someone sweaty who hasn't showered in while... The wound can also ooze a lot and the ooze can "spill" out and seep through the edges of the Tegaderm, so definitely bandage it in with gauze so it doesn't leak on your clothes. You can leave these on for a few days. Until either the wound looks healed or the ooze has taken over so you have to change it.

Hydrocolloids are a bit more expensive than Tegaderm, but they are a bit nicer. The nicest feature is that it absorbs the ooze, so it doesn't leak everywhere easily, and just grows larger... it sort of looks like a GIANT whitehead. It does eventually ooze tho, if the bandage cannot absorb anymore. You can leave these on for ~7 days.

Anyhow, the best part about both of these is the ability to shower with big wounds over your body, with no pain as it keeps the water out. For the more surface type wounds, it took about 1 week for the oozing to stop, for the larger wounds, it looks like it's going to take 2 weeks... Moist healing also lets you completely bypass the "scab forming itchy" stage, and having no scab to pick on is wonderful. I didn't feel any itching besides from the ooze irritation (ew). I do believe that the moist healing thing works faster tho. I had similar sized wounds on my leg and arm, on my leg I chose to let it scab over and on my arm I put a hydrocolloid bandage on. Result at 1.5 weeks: arm has new skin already, leg is still scabbed up and itchy.

Ice

After a while, it won't be the bloody wounds that hurt, but the stupid bruises from falling and your body hitting random parts of the road! Icing within the first 24 hours is KEY. This will save you a lot of pain down the road (and make healing a lot faster). ICE A LOT (I wish I iced more...)

Moist healing is awesome. No more crashing for cyn.

Review: Zero Days by The Real Life Adventure of Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly, and 10-year-old Scrambler on the Pacific Crest Trail

2010-04-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished Zero Days: The Real Life Adventure of Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly, and 10-year-old Scrambler on the Pacific Crest Trail in one day. This was a fun read! If you have done any backpacking at all, you'll find many parts of this book where you just can't help but laugh in agreement because you've felt the same thing before.

This book is about Nellie Bly, Captain Blight (Barbara Egbert and Gary Chambers) and their 10 year old daughter Scrambler (Mary) backpacking the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT). The PCT is a 2,650-mile hike from Mexico to Canada. According to the book, less than 100 people finish each year, and finishing with a 10 year old is just plain nuts. The book is organized by theme
"Togetherness", "Trail Angels and Demons", "Food and Water", ..., which I found made for better reading than I imagine a chronologically organized book of a family doing the PCT. I mean who wants to read "Day 1: We hiked X miles", "Day 2: We hiked Y miles", ... That said, each chapter touches some insight or experience about their journey. My favorite parts of the book were the parts were I TOTALLY knew what the author was referring to when she was talking about the happy/frustrating moments about backpacking (although I'm guessing her feelings were more intense than mine...), and it was also gave enough insight that one would know what to expect doing such a long thru-hike.

Personally, although the PCT sounds tempting, I think I'll try something shorter first. Most likely it'll be the John Muir Trail, or England's Coast to Coast first!

A bit weight weenie-ish...

2010-04-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

Warning: Very dorky post below.

I'm trying to find a pair of lightweight hiking/trekking/traveling pants, since every ounce ends up counting (I have to carry it), the lighter the better. Annoyed by the fact that most of the manufacturers don't actually post the weight of their pants on their websites, I took a scale into some stores today.

My drill went like this: Pick out a few pairs of potential pants, take pants into dressing room. Try pants on, if I like the pants, also weigh them in the dressing room. Result so far: I could not find a pair of long pants lighter than half a pound.

That's how I spent a few hours of my Sunday afternoon... I'm almost ashamed to admit.

Pigeont Point Lighthouse overnight trip

2010-03-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Kekoa and I joined Piaw plus many others on an overnight trip cycling to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Trip report here.

Summary: Awesome trip, awesome hot tub :)

Bangkok thoughts...

2010-01-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

K and I spent a few days in Bangkok in the middle of our Hong Kong trip over Christmas/New Years last year. It feels weird using the term last year, since "last year" was just two weeks ago.

Food: The food was awesome, I had the best Hainanese chicken rice for 30 Bhat (which is less than a dollar), the thai food there was awesome, we had this awesome afternoon tea which included 10+ items that cost very little. I have lots of food recommendations if anyone ever wants them :)

Thai massage was awesome too, but that said, it's still expensive to fly that far for the food and good/cheap massages. The sites itself weren't too interesting, but old temples/religious monuments really don't do that much for me. The shopping was OK, it was cheaper by a little. Sadly, given the globalization of stores, it's really the same stores over and over again, which is a bit boring.

I guess looking back, I wouldn't fly all the way from North America to Bangkok for a trip, Bangkok itself isn't really worth it. Sure the food was wonderful, but the touristy sites itself weren't that interesting, and it was really too hot in Bangkok itself to do much besides eat, shop (indoors), do massage/spa related things. A lot of folks from Asia fly to Bangkok for a shopping/eating/spa trip, which is more worth it, since it's close by (2-3 hour flight).

Backpacking trip to Merced Lake

2009-11-29T19:13:00.001-08:00

This is a very late trip report from our backpacking trip in May to Merced Lake. We found this trip in this Sierra North: Backcountry Trips in California's Sierra Nevadabook.

This was definitely an awesome trip. If interested, check out the trip report and pictures here.

The Various Brands of Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-11-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

Since I've been sick for the last few days, I've had a lot of experience with the different brands of chicken noodle soup they sell at Safeway. Namely the Progresso Chicken Noodle soup, the Campbells Chunky Chicken Noodle soup, and the classic Campbells Chicken Noodle soup...

My favorite is the classic Campbells Chicken Noodle soup, as bland as chicken noodle soup normally is, this one has the most flavor, or probably salt for that matter. The noodles and chicken pieces were also slightly better textured than the other two. I'm not asking for too much since it is chicken out of a can, for sick people.

Least favorite is the Progresso one, there was a lot of really gross mushy vegetables, the texture was a bit off for the soup, and it tasted very blah. Totally not recommended.

The Chunky one is OK, I don't really like the twisty noodle this one and the Progresso one has, it just is a lot of noodle with minimal flavor.

I guess this is what happens when you get sick for a few days, you write reviews on chicken noodle soup...

Review: Alice Waters' - The Art of Simple Food & How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons

2009-10-21T20:35:00.001-07:00

K and I really like to cook and eat. Mostly I find the recipes that sound potentially yummy, and convince K that he really wants to make them. Our two favorite foodie books we've bought in the last year are probably The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution and How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table. Both are these books are *awesome* in their own way.

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution has great simple recipes. K and I belong to this CSA called Eat With The Seasons. This gives us good access to fresh produce grown in California. Alice Waters' book emphasizes using fresh ingredients and simple recipes that bring out the flavors. Everything we've made from here has been easy to make (we haven't screwed up any recipes yet) and yummy. The tomato bruschetta recipe takes 4 ingredients (tomatoes, basil, olive oil, salt), and is highly recommended. Another recipe I really like is the apple tart, which besides making the tart, calls for apples, butter and sugar. You can't really go wrong with that!

How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table describes the produce that's fresh each season, provides some history on said produce, and tells you how to choose the best fruit/vegetable out of the bunch. The "how to choose the best" is my favorite feature. I never knew how to tell when anything is ripe, now I just open the book and read a short paragraph. This book also has simple recipes like the Alice Waters' book, mostly focused on bringing out the flavors of the particular ingredient.

Anyhow, I really like both of these books. They are a bit different from the straight up recipe books, but are both good reads and reference books.

Emigrant Wilderness Backpacking Trip report

2009-09-15T21:06:00.001-07:00

Kekoa and I visited Emigrant Wilderness over Labor Day weekend. We started out at Crabtree Trail head, visited Chewing Gum Lake, Y Meadow Lake, Upper Wire Lake (and Middle Wire Lake and Lower Wire Lake), and even more lakes, but you'd have to read the trip report to find out :)

Trip report linked here!
It was fun trip!

Bike fit by Ari at Bespoke Cycles (Review)

2009-09-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

This post will not be interesting to anyone not interested in biking :-)

I've been road biking for about 2 years, and since the beginning - I've had a lot of neck/shoulder pain, and right knee pain on longer rides. After trying multiple things, reading about optimal bike fit (and since I'm considering purchasing a new custom built frame), I finally decided to get a bike fit by someone more knowledgeable.

Ari at Bespoke Cycle was recommended by a few sources (and they also do custom Seven frames, a builder I'm considering), so I made an appt with them. The fit first started out by Ari and I just talking about my history, and things I'm concerned about, and also what I want from a bike in general.

First off, Ari spent a long time looking at my feet and doing cleat adjustments. Apparently I have somewhat of a hammer toe on my right foot. He also mentioned that my toes need a bit of stretching, as they have a tendency to curl up. Also, it turns out I have quite high arches, and that the insoles (superfeet green) I were using weren't even high enough to support them. He moved my cleats back quite a bit, to help relieve the pressure points on the balls of my feet.

After that, Ari had me stand up and tested my flexibility. He immediately pointed out that my leg length was not equal when standing still. Apparently my left leg has a tendency to collapse and become shorter and my right leg needs to hyper extend to compensate for this. This can apparently be the cause of my right knee pain!!! I have some options in front of me: shimming my shoes, seeing a sports doctor to get to the bottom of this, and trying better insoles. The good news is I have some hope in figuring this out once and for all. I've had right knee pain for the last few years, and have given up running because of it. I've had *two* other doctors look at this and have gotten an MRI, and they never mentioned this leg length discrepancy. Hopefully this means, if I can get this all figured out, that running will be in the cards again.

Now it's finally for time on the bike! The fitting uses this Retul fitting system and also a power measurement system that I can't remember the name of. I learned a few interesting things from this part.
- my saddle fore/aft was completely off, this moved ~1.5cm (forward)!!!
- my legs aren't working 50/50 efficiency when it comes to my pedal stroke (my "shorter" leg is actually working more)
- I hyper extend my ankles too much, and this actually leads to a loss of power as I'm trying to extend my ankles and then have to pull my heel back up
- my positioning isn't the best, I'm tilting my hips backwards too much and slouching way too much
- my frame is somewhere between 0.9 inches - 1.9 inches too big for me (and probably the main cause for my upper body pain)
- stiff aluminium frames aren't for me
- I need to stop scooting back on the saddle to get more extension in my legs, as this also screws with power output
- I need to do more stability exercises, and my VMO (inner knee) muscle is still quite weak
- I should do more core work :)

All in all, this was WAY worth the money spent. Ari spent about 3 hours with me, and also explained a bit of the options we could do if I decided to get a custom frame. I was really impressed by the fact that he seemed to take into account that one of my main concerned was *comfort* (as I've heard sometimes a lot of fit folks focus on maximum power and not comfort). I went for a ride yesterday in this new position, overall it'll take some getting used to. We'll see after a few rides how this all pans all!

The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle - Secrets, Stories, Solutions (Review)

2009-09-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

One of the last BANGs had a Rubik's cube puzzle in it. After that, I decided it would be cool to try and learn how to solve one. At the same BANG, someone mentioned that Wei-Hwa co-authored a book on this particular subject, so I decided to read said book.

For my purposes, The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle - Secrets, Stories, Solutions was great. It didn't take too much reading to figure out how to solve the cube following the steps in the book. There were lots of pictures with colors and the text was good enough to figure out which way you have to orient the cube while twisting it around. Note, I'm not very good at the whole "spatial" thing, so being able to stare at the pictures to figure out how to twist the darn thing was key. One gripe I do have - the authors decided to use some rare colors (pink, cyan, ...) such that the readers wouldn't get confused if their cube had similar colors. Unfortunately, there were still times where I got confused by the colors in the book. Some of the moves in the book are easy to remember, some of them, not so much. My goal is to be able to solve a cube without having to refer to the book in the future. We'll see how much work I'm willing to put into this :-)

The history part and the descriptions of the other cube-like-puzzles sections were pretty fun too, lots of pictures. I found a few things that I played with when I was a kid. Since the book also includes directions on how to solve a 4x4x4 cube... of course now I want to get my paws on one so I can attempt it.

Carson-Iceberg Wilderness Backpacking Trip - Heiser Lake / Bull Run Lake

2009-08-16T18:05:00.001-07:00

Backpacking trip report for our most recent trip to Carson-Iceberg Wilderness here. We found this trip in the Sierra North: Backcountry Trips in Californias Sierra Nevadabook (great book for backpacking trip ideas in the Northern Sierras). Anyhow, I highly recommend this trip for the beginner backpacker, a day hike, or a quick weekend getaway!

Review: Thermarest Neoair, Montbell Spiral Down Hugger, Invo8 Terroc 330's, Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus pack

2009-08-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to join the likes of these ultralight backpackers who have super light gear (and carry less than 20lbs) and hike in trail runners. So I dragged a bunch of friends out for a one night trip (report later) to try out the Thermarest NeoAirand Montbell Spiral Down Hugger 30F and Inov-8 Terroc 330and Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus backpack. Long story short, I liked everything I tried. It was nice backpacking with a pack weight of <15 lbs including water!

I was extremely pleased with the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Air Mattress.On our last few trips I've been using a Z-lite (also by Thermarest), which just does not have enough padding for the side-sleeper. After long trips, my hips would end up being bruised from the hard ground. The NeoAir was happily thick, extremely comfortable, and I didn't feel any bumps on the ground. It also kept me warmer than the Z-lite by quite a margin, even though I was using my new sleeping bag that was rated 10F warmer. The durability does worry me, since the material feels sort of thin, so I did pack a Therm-a-Rest Fast & Light Repair Kit as recommended. The non-self inflating part wasn't a big deal, it took ~25 breaths to inflate the Medium sized one. In summary, I love this pad, for 13oz + 1oz (patch kit), it really can't be beat for the comfort. For the price, I do wish it at least came with a stuff sack and/or patch kit.

I also bought the Montbell Spiral Down Hugger 30F sleeping bag, which also turned out to be a good buy. The spiral down hugger is cut quite a bit narrower than my old Mountain Hardware bag. It was much easier to warm up and stay warm, as there's less air to warm up inside the bag. I have no complaints about the bag, the night we were out the temperature probably got down to 35F or so at night, and I stayed warm with long underwear (pants) and my NeoAir. In fact I started sweating in the middle of the night, so the long underwear wasn't necessary.

The Inov8 Terroc 330 Trail Running Shoealso worked really well. It was grippy, I had no traction problems. In fact I almost felt like I was wearing rock climbing shoes. The toebox is comfortable for my wide feet (granted I did buy a pair of men's shoes, and I went up a size compared to my usual men's shoe size). Only complaint here is that the lack of cushioning in this shoe. I would not carry more than 20lbs and try and wear these backpacking!

The Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus is also highly recommended. Grant (the owner, I presume) was extremely helpful over the phone. I explained that I was sort of a "smaller boned" person, and he told me ways to narrow the pack such that the straps were more comfortable. The pack carries 15lbs extremely well, it felt like nothing on my back. The back panel with the sit pad was comfortable enough. Coming from an Osprey pack with awesome ventilation, I didn't really notice my back feeling "hotter" than usual. Although when I took off my pack, it was definitely sweatier, compared to my Osprey. The width of the straps also didn't bother me. I really liked the large outside mesh pockets that allowed me to fit all the odds and ends in. A size small had plenty of room for me to carry sleeping pad/sleeping bag/BV-500 bear canister, a bit of clothes, plus some misc items inside the pack. This is going to be my backpacking pack from now on, unless I need to carry loads of 25lbs+.

This trip for trying out gear proved to be a great success. Especially since I liked every piece of gear I tried!

Sequoia National Park / Mineral King backpacking trip

2009-07-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, so it took me 6 months to write another blog post. Kekoa and I went on a backpacking trip in Sequoia National Park last week, and I decided to be organized and write up a trip report with all the pretty pictures he took.

We did a loop that started at Mineral King included Franklin Lakes, Franklin Pass, Little Five Lakes, Big Five Lakes, Black Rock Pass and Pinto Lake. If interested, check out the trip report and pictures here.

Broken thumb

2009-01-17T16:59:00.001-08:00

Apparently I broke my thumb snowboarding on 1/1/09, and of course I don't actually go to the doctor until two weeks after. Apparently this is a common injury amongst skiers (it's even called skier's thumb), and I'm just a retarded snowboarder. I'm guessing what happened was I somehow bent my thumb back falling, and the ligament actually pulled off a piece bone. Gross.

I did buy a thumb splint the day after the injury to hold the thumb in place, as I tried to tape it and it didn't work... and it hurt like hell.

The conclusion from the hand surgeon is - if I went to the doctor right after I broke it, they would have put my hand in a cast for 4 weeks!!!! BUT since I'm healing fine, and apparently I don't look hyperactive to the doctor, I can just wear my splint like a cast for the next four weeks...

Sad part is, I most likely also partially tore my UCL (Ulnar Collateral Ligament) - and I can't actually grab much with my thumb (it's hard to even button and unbotton jeans), and this can take up to three months to heal.

I also can't snowboard or bike or play pool for the next 4 weeks or so... arrrrgh! I guess it could be worse.

Basic Math?

2009-01-17T16:56:00.001-08:00

I'm just amazed by the math skillz of others...

So today I'm at the deli counter of whole foods order deli meats. I ask for "point two pounds" (0.2lbs) of this certain meat. The person behind the counter couldn't understand me, I thought the store was just loud, and repeated my order. Then they go, "Two pounds?". At this point I go, "can I have a fifth of a pound?" Which apparently makes sense, as the deli worker now goes, "oh, point TWENTY!"

Wine Maturity

2008-10-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I bought some 2005 Montrose since I like Montrose and 2005 is supposed to be the vintage of the century... blah blah

Today I go and read a bit more about the wine... I quote the review " If you are over the age of fifty, this backward, powerful wine will probably be more enjoyable to your descendants. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2040+"... 2040... am I going to be alive then?

On a less morbid thought, K & I are back from Munich and moved into our new place. I'll try and post pictures at some point soon !

Desolation Wilderness trip

2008-09-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted anything in a while. Apparently my last post was when we went to Yosemite. Well - K & I went to Desolation Wilderness (by South Lake Tahoe) area over Labor day weekend backpacking. It was different from our Yosemite trip. The first night was extremely crowded (Dicks Lake), I think we saw at least 10 tents the first night. The next day we did a day hike to Gilmore Lake. It was extremely cold the second night. There was ice on our tent the next morning... I was wishing I had some crazy warm down jacket whilst we were cooking dinner.

Rest of the pictures on my flickr here

Yosemite backpacking trip

2008-08-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

So Kekoa and I went on a backpacking trip in Yosemite last week, we started near Bridalveil campgrounds (not falls), and ended up in the valley.. This was the first time we planned a trip ourselves and went without anyone else who knew (better) what they were doing. So the planning was slightly stressful, but, we are back, and didn't run into any bears or hurt ourselves. Some pictures Kekoa took on my flickr.

It was refreshing to be far away from civilization for 4 days, the first 1.5-2 days we saw no one, which was surprisingly nice.

Update on mail fraud

2008-07-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Back story here, if you didn't hear what happened. I finally checked my mail in SF and figured out how they activated the card. The other piece of mail missing from my mail box is a pay check stub from work. I look at my other pay check stubs, it actually contains the last 4 digits of my social security.... *sigh*

Mail Fraud?

2008-07-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

My old debit/ATM card expired, and I only found out when I went to the bank and said.. "uhh I can't get money out of the ATM, I think my card expired...". The lovely folks said "oh, your card expired, we mailed you a replacement card a long time ago, I guess you didn't receive it? Let me mail you a new one!" That was last week.

Yesterday I receive a call from the WaMu fraud department saying there are charges made on my debit card that were suspicious... I start freaking out, as I haven't received the card!! I call the number, they list about $1000 of charges made on my card, and of course I now can login online to see that someone has been using my debit card. Wonderful, right? So how did they activate it?

My theories about this: I did a quick search online, according to the internet, to activate it over the phone, you only need a security code (from the back of the card) and the card number, they verify you via caller ID and your bank account. When I called from my cell phone to say "shut this card down", the automated system even had the wrong phone number then, so I guess that system doesn't work...

The fraud claims department at WaMu claims that they mail you 2 pieces of mail, one piece of mail with the PIN to activate the card and another piece of mail with the card itself. So I'm guessing someone has been intercepting my mail. Last night I started thinking - I've also not received the old card (originally mailed debit/atm card), and also an AMEX that was supposedly mailed a while ago... Which makes me think it's my mail man. Said mail man also knows that I check my mail only once/twice a week. I guess I should probably also call the US Postal Service and point some fingers, huh? :/

So what happens now? There's been about $1000 charged on my card, the fraud claims department says I can file a claim with them to get the money back once the charges go thru (right now they are still pending). I think from now on, I'm only going to go with a bank that allows me to ONLY get an ATM card, and not a debit/ATM card. Since they can't even get their activation shit together. :(

The need to pee

2008-06-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

Every time before I go on a bike ride, I have this ridiculous desire to pee say.. 2-3 times in the 5-10 minutes it takes for me to get ready. And I usually do go to the bathroom around 2-3 times before I actually leave the apartment. I think just the fact that I know it will be a pain in the arse to go in the next few hours, makes me just super nervous and want to pee again and again. Yet every time I do this, I feel a little ridiculous...

ridiculous prices of the 2007 Bordeaux futures

2008-06-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

The 2007 Bordeaux futures are so ridiculous expensive, the wine seller I've been getting price quotes from are including a disclaimer in their price lists:

"Obviously we wish these wines were less expensive, and the strong Euro cannot be blamed on the Châteaux's pricing policy, but we feel obliged to point out there are other wines that offer considerably better value for money. We cannot condone the price for the 2007, but we feel we have to make an offer of some of the world's great wines."

Pretty sad, they are pretty much unaffordable at this point. The prices are just insane. Especially since the 2007 vintage is nothing to write home about.

Review: Bay Area Women's Cycling Clinic

2008-06-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

I signed up for this Bay Area Women's Cycling clinic last weekend (schedule here), and I'll say it was a bit of fun, and a good workout.

It definitely made me try a lot of things outside my comfort zone, like being comfortable in a pack, taking corners tighter, trying to ride no hands, and just building confidence.

The first day was more useful in terms of building skills, I felt more confident about certain aspects of being on a bike after the first day (the first day was a bit of bike handling, cornering, pack riding, being around people, pacelines). The first day I think ~50 people showed up (this included some people in racing teams...)

The second day felt more "hard core" for me, around ~30 people signed up, and most of them were the folks in team kits or were signed up to do the death ride this year. We did hill climbing drills (standing on hills, sag climbing, finding your rhythm, ...), and we climbed this hill off of page mill like 7-8 times. After that we went up on page mill (~8 mins of it) for a "real climb"... Then after the climbing we did a mock race. The interesting about this is I realized that I really don't have the desire to beat out other people to get to the front. I just, enjoy riding for the sake of being outside and such.

The best part of the second day was the session talking about exercises that stretch and strength - I learned a bit about which of my muscles were weak, tight, and also some ways to maybe improve on it. I'm looking forward to mixing up my workout routine.

That said, I thought the clinic was extremely useful and also really well organized. Everyone was extremely helpful and cheerful. Nicole has way more energy than anyone I've met. I was impressed by how the organizers managed to block traffic and let the whole group through. There was also lots of swag - I got pink water bottles! Lastly, it was just fun being around a group of upbeat women for the weekend.

Cubee crafts

2008-06-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

I think these cubee crafts toys are pretty awesome. Especially when I'm feeling crafty and lazy. You can print out these "patterns" for toys and print them out and make 'em.

I should make myself a domo-kun and a kirby...

referer or referrer?

2008-06-04T19:06:00.001-07:00

So I'm doing something for work that requires dealing with HTTP referers. Given that I can't spell, I had to go look up which was the correct spelling.

Apparently, referrer is the right spelling, just in not when we are talking about HTTP. I quote wikipedia:

"Referer is a common misspelling of the word referrer. It is so common, in fact, that it made it into the official specification of HTTP – the communication protocol of the World Wide Web – and has therefore become the standard industry spelling when discussing HTTP referers."

Also, if you do a google search on referer and referrer, you get about the same # of hits - ~20 million.

How wonderful, right?

I feel dorky.

donating money to a good cause?

2008-06-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been getting a lot of "donate money for my Tour de Cure/Team In Training" thing... in the last few years I've been getting more and more of these types of emails. I used to say, fine, it's for a good cause.

Now I just wonder if it's worth it. Yesterday I had a conversation with piaw about it too - he seemed to think that most of the money is probably gone into the overhead of planning such an event instead of the charity itself... which I wouldn't doubt. My mom does a bit of charity work for some Hong Kong charities, and she's also indicated to me that a lot of money you donate goes to 9-course meals the higher ups of the charities enjoy.

I guess it also feels weird to hit your friends up for money. I feel guilty for not donating, but I just don't really want to anymore... Piaw also said it feels icky for cycling to be used this way, and I agree. So I guess this year my policy is - I'm just not going to donate any money for these events. Not because I am being cheap or don't love my friends. Just - I don't feel like it's as worthy of a cause anymore.

Edit: so I was talking to a friend earlier, who's riding the TdC this weekend, and he pointed me to this. Which essentially says that the American Diabetes Association isn't all that efficient. And just read about the privacy policy, it apparently sells your info unless you opt-out.

Weird "new" slang

2008-06-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've been hearing these new terms lately, maybe I'm getting old.

- "Push Present" - apparently this is a present you give your wife/gf after she gives birth to your baby. I mean, the concept makes sense, I guess. The term is just... weird

- "Myspace angles" - pictures at angles which really flatter people and they post said picture on myspace. Funny post about this here. I guess I just find this term, funny.

Slanted Door @ Ferry Building

2008-05-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

So last night was K's birthday, and I decided to take him out to Slanted Door @ the ferry building to celebrate. I'm usually skeptical of expensive Asian food, but I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised.

The veggie spring rolls were really good, it had a different mix of textures just made everything yummy. I also really liked the rib eye (more than the shaking beef), although everyone online seems to like the shaking beef more. The sauce it came with just tied everything together..

The drinks from the bar were pretty good too, yum (we had like 3 of them...). What I especially liked was the dessert wine baring with the dessert we had. It was like this chocolate brownie with a sweet red dessert wine (Clos de Paulilles Banyuls)... that was just very yummy. I will admit tho that K said he liked dessert the least. I just really enjoyed the pairing.

Yum. I'd go back. I just wish it wasn't so hard to get reservations... I guess you could always eat at the bar.

Riding bikes & HRMs

2008-05-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't been on the bike for say... 3-4 weeks, and I was threatening to K that I was going to sell my bike since I felt too slow for him. Then we go on a ride, and I remember once again it's pretty fun... And I wish my bike fit me better :P

Gaaah. I wish bikes just *fit* me - it's so much work to find a bike that fits.

Speaking of which - my brother sent me his old Polar F6 HRM - sadly the thing doesn't work anymore. This actually kind of pisses me off - the HRM is say, 3 years old. The batteries only last ~1.5 years, and they also say you have to take it (or mail) to a special Polar dealer to replace the battery. Of course I try to do it myself, and now the screen is just broken. So the real question is: Do Polar HRMs only last < 3 years, or did I screw something up when I tried to replace it? Anyhow, I still think it is ridiculous that for a $100 HRM you need to spend $15 to replace the battery on the damn watch every 1.5 years or so.

And now I want a nice purty HRM (that's maybe not Polar) so I can figure out what heart rate is when I'm working out. Now to convince myself it's worth spending the money.

HK airport

2008-04-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that eating 焗豬扒飯 at 大家樂 (cheap plate rice place in Hong Kong) in the HK airport actually cures a little bit of homesick-ness. I love baked pork chop rice.

Last day traveling

2008-04-28T05:08:00.001-07:00

So tonight is my last night in Taiwan, after my almost 2 week business trips of going to Korean (Seoul)/Taiwan (Taipei), I'm pretty glad to be going home.

Random thoughts:
- "fatty beef cakes" (I have no idea how to type the chinese) is super yummy - yummier than in Cali.
- People are amazingly polite and orderly (like they line up for the MRT and don't jaywalk) in Taipei
- Kalbi and Tong Kalbi are both yummy
- My stomach does not like eating too much meat
- I like the other remote Google offices almost more than Mountain View
- Business travel is actually pretty lonely if you aren't traveling with anyone.

Seoul/Korea:
It was fun having friends from work in Seoul. The first night we all went out to have Bul Tak (which translates to fire chicken), and it was super SUPER spicy. We ignored all the warnings from the hotel concierge and the resturant person about "very spicy"... One person in our group starting tearing up it was so spicy, it looked like he was crying the whole night :)

I managed to make it to the DMZ one of those days - it was pretty interesting... We got to walk down to this tunnel the North Koreans supposedly dug to attempt to infiltrate South Korea, when the tunnel was found it they coated coal on the sides of the tunnel so it would look like they were mining coal. We also got to go to this observation deck and go see the 500 lbs flag North Korea put up so their flag would be bigger than the South Korea flag in the DMZ.

One awesome thing was that most of those days we had someone who was local take us around. One day she took us to this street called Garosu-gil, and it had the CUTEST stuff I've ever seen. I'll take a picture of this sheep I got when I get back to the US.

Traffic in Seoul is RIDICULOUS. I mean, it's the worst out of any asian city I have ever visited (this includes various parts of China). People run red lights, the drivers are insane, and there are so many cars so traffic is always congested. It took us 1.5 hours to go less than 10km on a rainy day. RIDICULOUS.

Food (meat) was awesome in Seoul.

Taiwan/Taipei:
I was pretty glad my parents were here with me over the long weekend, we went to the National Palace Museum and saw the meat shaped stone (which seriously looked like a fatty piece of meat), and the jade cabbage (bak choy) - which were pretty impressive. I guess it is the two more famous pieces at the museum :P Also shopped and bought A LOT of books from eslite. I like chinese books.

I surprisingly managed to return something at eslite that usually doesn't like you do return/exchanges with my broken mandarin (my language handicap which was probably why I could exchange it...)

I gave the same talk I gave in Seoul in Tapei today, I just made to make it twice as long... It didn't go so bad, talking for almost an hour is pretty tiring tho. I hope my talk was well received and that people learned a bunch of stuff from it. I managed to only have one person in my audience use his laptop, which IMHO is pretty good.

My dad also found this restaurant in Taipei that served only Tuna, like 10 different dishes on different parts of the fish... It was really good. We also went to AoBa which served Taiwanese food, it was yummy, but I think expensive for Taiwan.

Ok, I think I rambled long enough... All in all, I got to tour two asian cities I've never been to, which was pretty awesome. Although next time I think I need a partner in crime, as traveling alone is pretty lonely (especially in airports).

I can buy nalgene bottles again (soon)

2008-04-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

This makes me super happy. I'm getting increasing afraid of BPA (bisphenol A) and I was wondering if I would have to never use Nalgene bottles again.

Man, I'm going to have to replace the 5x Nalgene bottles I have. Hard plastics are now scary, no more polycarbonate for me.

Core work outs

2008-04-20T00:13:00.001-07:00

So I'm trying to remember all the core workouts I've found online... so here goes:

Some of these are from the Fit chick blog.

- Pull ups with assisted pull up machine
- Pushup Row (this one is killer for me right now) [push ups on weights, then lift weight to chest]
- Pike [push up position but with legs on stability ball, then pull ball in]
- Bird dog [opposite leg/arm lifts]
- Swiss ball mountain climber
- Should probably work those inner/outer thighs
- Ball bridge hamstring curl <- I want to try this one
- Plank (30 secs right now)
- Lower back extensions on the magical machine

Ok, that's it for now, I'll probably have more later. Must make core stronger.

Trying out blogger

2007-11-19T21:50:00.001-08:00

I'm getting increasing frustrated by movable type - plus the fact that there is so many personal things on my "private" blog I can never link it to anyone. So I guess I'll give blogger a whirl.