sluggobear

Boba isn't really speaking to me anymore. He was pretty upset when I broke-up with him long, long ago, so our encounter today was a little chilly.

Heading back home to San Diego tonight!

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That's me on the left. I wore some red long johns that I've had around forever, and used some cardboard to make the thermometer.

That's Kirk on the right, as Nicole Ritchie. (He let me wear the wig for about a half-hour!)

(Photo by Mike Solano.)

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As with EVERY new version of Windows, it is neither as great nor as horrible as people have painted it.

The one thing I like most about Windows 7 is the new taskbar. The user experience is definitely a little nicer and smoother. Windows 7 also runs a little faster than Vista, and the annoying "User Account Control" prompts are much less annoying.

There are some other tweaks and enhancements, but otherwise there arent really any truly remarkable new features.

If you have an existing system with Windows installed, you are likely eligible for the upgrade price of $129. I think that's rather steep, personally. I don't believe the upgrade is worth $129 for most people.

So who should upgrade to Windows 7?

- Those who like to keep up with the latest and greatest software.
- Those who have $129 burning a hole in their pocket.
- Those who can get big discounts on Windows 7, such as students.

Who should NOT upgrade?

- If you're running just fine with XP or Vista, and you'd have to pay over $100 to get Windows 7, I don't think there's a compelling reason for you to drop all that cash on it.

Which version should you get? For personal use, most people only need Windows 7 Home Premium. (The more expensive "Professional" and "Ultimate" editions aren't going to have any useful features for most home users.)

I could go into much further detail, but regarding the question "Should I upgrade," that's it in a nutshell.

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A lot of people are up in arms about the new Facebook home page layout, but I actually think it was a smart business move. The new default view is intended partly to address the ever-growing problem of information overload. In an age where we're being bombarded with more e-mail, more tweets and more information 24/7, the abridged view is actually something we should embrace, especially for those of us who have a lot of Facebook friends. (It can be a challenge to keep-up!) So now, Facebook is able to intelligently select the most relevant recent updates and bubble them up to the top for easy consumption. The following articles explain this well:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Facebook-s-New-Homepage-Features-Only-the-Most-Relevant-Stories-125170.shtml

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_facebook_newsfeed_filters.php

As an aside, a Facebook friend of mine posted on his wall today: "Soon there will be another FB release and you'll all be wanting THIS layout back." So true. A lot of times we resist change, without even understanding why the change is being implemented. I'd like to commend whoever created the group "I AUTOMATICALLY HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK HOME PAGE."

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54155118564

A lot of people are asking: what's the difference between "News Feed" and "Live Feed?" Here's the deal: the News Feed is an abridged collection of recent updates... a sampling of the most interesting things that have happened recently. They are NOT in chronological order; Facebook is going to try to make an educated guess and show you the highlights that are most interesting and relevant to you. By contrast, the Live Feed is a complete list of all your friends' updates, simply displayed in reverse chronological order.

I'm a little disappointed to see that Facebook hasn't done a better job of explaining the difference. They could've added a little question mark icon, or a "What's the difference" link to their (actually quite useful) help page on the subject, which you can find here:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=408

It's important to note that the Live Feed defaults to show updates from up to 250 of your Facebook friends. If you are hell-bent on reading every update for all your friends, you may want to change this. To do this, switch to Live Feed, scroll to the bottom and click "Edit Options." Change the value in the "Number of Friends" section to the number you'd like to see; the maximum is 5,000.

I've seen a flurry of posts suggesting that people drag the "Status Updates" to the top of their Facebook navigation. I do NOT suggest doing this, because then you will ONLY see status updates. You won't see your friends' photos, videos, notes, or application updates.

By the way, I did some basic testing today, and it appears that once you switch to Live Feed, the setting is "sticky;" that is, it will stay that way the next time you logon. (I'd be interested to hear from people who have seen it behave otherwise.)

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Brian, Brian, Mike J and me swung downtown kinda last minute to see Zosia and her band "The Hugs" perform in an underground venue called The Bitter End. They are rockin' my brain!

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Tonight Magic Mountain had a free concert: an Oingo Boingo tribute band which featured two actual original members of the band: Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez and Sam Phipps. The band was actually really good, even if the sound mix wasn't great.

It was nice to hear (and sing along with) some of my favorite songs again live. There was a modest-sized but very enthusiastic crowd. And it was fun to be with Dave Cobb, who's an old Boingo fan... he sang along too!

The lead singer of the band actually sings for a Boingo tribute band on a regular basis, and he's pretty darn good. (He even has the flaming red hair.)

When I was a teenager, I had a big crush on Oingo Boingo's sax player, Sam Phipps, who went by the name "Sluggo." For a long time.

Anyways, between him and the comic-strip character from "Nancy and Sluggo," I was inspired to create my first online screen name: Sluggo, Jr.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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I'd forgotten about one last video left from Mexico that I hadn't published yet.

Revelers had brought cans of shaving cream to The Zocalo for the big Independence Day celebration, and Chris got the brunt of it...

No, actually, he got all of it. (Dan, Temo and I escaped unscathed!)

The square was absolutely packed, and at times we could barely move!

The video ends with a few shots of the huge display of fireworks and lasers we saw.

(YouTube, 1min 30sec, work-safe)

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Visiting my folks for the weekend, and my (5 younger) sisters are coming, too. Should be a nice time!

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Dear friends and family:

As you know, I'm looking for work. I'm trying to be a little creative in my job hunt, so I am offering friends and family a "reverse referral" reward. If you can get me in the door at your company, and I accept a position there, I will personally pay you $500.

Here's what I'm looking for:

·         Full-time or contract work. (Not part-time.)

·         Something in the San Diego area (Business travel and telecommute are also OK.)

·         My specialty is advanced support and engineering of Microsoft Windows-based desktop for business. Suitable job descriptions will typically include the words "Desktop Engineer" or "Desktop Support III" (not I or II; I'm an experienced engineer, and I'm not looking for anything entry-level.) I am a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) but not yet a full MCSE. I have some experience managing staff and doing IT project management. Positions are a better match if they say "desktop" or "client." I'm not a strong match if the company is looking for heavy network or server engineering, and I also am not a developer.

How you can help me:

·         You can deliver my resume to your manager, a hiring manager, or your HR department.

·         You can direct me to a website where I can view open positions for your company.

·         You can give me a personal reference if I apply or get an interview.

I'll admit this is an experiment. It may fall flat on its face, but I thought I'd try.

Oh yeah. It has to be a company that YOU work for. (Not "I heard company X is hiring...")

Here's a link to my resume and LinkedIn profile for your reference:

http://drop.io/MikeYadaResume

http://www.linkedin.com/in/MichaelYada

E-mail me if you have any questions or want to help me with some leads!

--Mike

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I'm finally catching-up on writing about my last few days in Mexico.

On Day 7, we went to Chapultepec Park. It's huge! (Slightly larger than San Diego's Balboa Park, according to Wikipedia.) Our mission was to enter "La Feria" amusement park to ride the famous "Montaña Rusa" wooden roller coaster, which was built in 1964.

La Feria is also home to a few other coasters, a walk-through haunted house, a freefall ride, bumper cars and other amusements. There was hardly anyone in the park, so we walked right onto everything.

First stop: we rode "Cascabel," a steel shuttle loop just like the old "Tidal Wave" coaster at Great America in Santa Clara, California. Way fun! We also took a ride on "Ratón Loco," which literally translates to "Crazy Mouse." It was definitely the "spinniest" spinny coaster I've been on, ever. WOAH, it was out of control!

Throughout the day, we kept looking at Montaña Rusa; we never saw it running. We figured it might just be opening late, so we kept moving. The freefall ride was rather tame, but afforded a nice view of the city. The haunted house was kick-ass. (Chris remembered it from when he visited Mexico as a kid, though they've most certainly updated some of the scenes and effects since then.)

By the time we'd seen the entire park, Montaña Rusa still wasn't running, and I began to worry. We'd seen mechanics near the tracks, and the loading platform was absolutely empty. We wandered into the queue to see what would happen; an employee stopped us and said "we don't run the ride unless we have at least 20 riders in the train." WOAH! It seemed as if there weren't even 20 people in the entire park! But this was an important ride for me, so we decided to wait and see if any more riders showed-up.

Nothing.

So we got creative.

I walked-out to the midway and approached absolutely anyone that walked-by, even if they didn't look like the roller-coaster-riding type. In god-awful Spanish I tried to explain that we needed at least 20 riders, and would they be willing to help us out? (Dan commented that the scenario felt very "Amazing Race-like...") Within a few minutes, we'd managed to scrounge-up 12 riders. (I can't take all the credit... some of them seemed interested in riding anyhow.) But we still needed more. I kept at it... and I even bought a ride ticket for an otherwise-not-so-sure bystander! Within about 10 minutes we managed to reach 20 riders... so we filled the train and got our ride! Woot!

By the way... over the summer I rode 13 roller coasters, giving me a total of 228 in my lifetime repertoire, yay!

So after a few other afternoon side-trips we began to head home. We shuffled into the subway so we could get back to the apartment. It was very hot and humid in the train. I think each of us found a stray empty seat, so we sat.

And sat...

And sat.

After perhaps 20 minutes, we decided to get out of the subway and take a taxi home. Once we were in a taxi, we learned why the subway hadn't moved: there had been a shooting in another station.

If you've been following my travel journal, you already know about the shooting. Here's a more recent news story about the incident:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112987536

There's also a wrenching video of the episode, caught on security camera:

(If we'd arrived just 20 minutes earlier, we would've been on a train that entered into the same station where the shooting took place.)

Apparently this guy acted alone, responding to a policewoman who caught him making graffiti.

We headed home to relax, change, shower, then get ready for a concert: we were to see jazz trumpeter Erik Truffaz perform live with Murcof, a talented (and woofy) electronica artist from Tijuana. It was quite the pairing, and we really enjoyed the show:

For our last full day in Mexico, we ventured out to Teotihuacan, about 25 miles from Mexico City. What a treat! Tlaloc (the Aztec god of rain) must've been in a generous mood that day, because we had absolutely gorgeous weather for the trip. There we saw a number of archeological sites, including the mighty Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. They were gigantic... bigger than I expected! And yep, we climbed them:

So, that was my trip. The return flight home was super easy and comfortable; we hit no traffic between LAX and San Diego, and I have many memories and photos (and stories!) that will last a lifetime.

I'd like to send a special shout-out to my travel buddies for the Mexico leg of my "world tour:" Chris, Dan and Temo... I really enjoyed the adventures with them!

I'll probably add one more wrap-up post here, just to catch-up on some loose-ends and share some tips I learned from my summer travels... (sometimes you learn the hard way!)

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Visiting the Museum of Anthropology, I couldn't help but think of that scene from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. ("Yes, there are thousands of ways to prepare corn..."

There were some neat artifacts, displays and exhibits.

There was an interesting video exhibit as well. Apparently they'd asked young children to draw pictures of Mexico. Then the drawings were computer-animated and incorporated into a montage. Here's a clip:

During the week we also visited Museo de Dolores Olmedo, Casa Luis Barragan and Trotsky's home.

There have been very few foreign tourists throughout our visit.

I had two years of Spanish in high school, and that helped quite a bit.

Traffic inside the city can suck. People honk A LOT. There are traffic cops all over. Buses have dedicated lanes on the larger streets.

Particularly interesting was the "Metrobus," which is like a cross between a subway and a bus. It's above-ground, with dedicated lanes, and an elevated loading platform; you enter through turnstiles, similar to a subway. This facilitates quick passenger loading, making for an efficient and (comparably) inexpensive method of transport. Neat! Here's what it looks like:

 

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(Still catching up from a few days ago...)

Tuesday night we had a very special dinner to celebrate Chris' 40th birthday.

Chris made arrangements to eat at Pujol, a wonderful restaurant in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. The food and the service were top notch... not to mention the company: Temo, Dan and Chris.

The evening started-off with a unique appetizer, with the chef's compliments; I don't remember the exact name of it, but I'll call it a glass taco. Basically it was a clear, hollow tube (probably plastic), filled with the fillings you might find in a taco: meat, cheese, guacamole, etc.; you inhaled the whole thing through the tube. Neat idea! This was immediately followed by a shot glass, containing something they called a "liquid quesadilla:" a multi-layered drink (liqueur?) that tasted, well, just like its namesake.

For my starter, I chose a black bean soup, and it was absolutely amazing... perhaps the best I've ever tasted. The presentation was dramatic and fun... at first they placed the bowl in front of me, with only a few sprinkled bits of cheese. Then another waiter immediately proceeded to pour piping-hot soup into the bowl. Awesome.

We ordered a bottle of white and a bottle of red wine for the table. I ordered some dishes a la carte, while the boys chose to go with the chef's tasting menu. Several dishes later, they presented a little birthday cake for Chris:

(Photo by Marmot)

It was quite the memorable occasion, and I'm thankful to Chris & Dan for inviting me.

¡Felicidades a ti, Cristobal!

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 Chris booked us this amazing apartment, right in the middle of town. Literally steps away from everything:

Here's the view from the balcony:

 
The apartment includes continental breakfast, has WiFi, a full kitchen, comfy couches and a garden terrace. It's been a great place for us to retire after outings and sightseeing, etc.
 
It has rained on-and-off since we got here, but so far it hasn't messed-up any of our plans. One night we did venture out in the heavy rain to find some dinner... here's Chris:

Some of my American friends have asked "why Mexico City?" Well for one thing, this is where Chris wanted to go for his birthday. But a lot of people don't know that Ciudad de México is a very important cultural, historical and economic center; it's one of the largest cities in the world; and it is simply a fascinating place.
 
I don't think Mexico City looks the way most Americans might imagine it. It's not like Tijuana, for one. And, it feels relatively safe. (Well, perhaps as safe as traveling in New York City, for example.) Don't get me wrong... I watch for pickpockets, and we lock our doors at night. Nothing so different from *any* big city.
 
Many of my own assumptions were incorrect, too. I expected to see a lot of buildings made of plain cement ("chunky" looking, as Dan put it.) But the city actually has lots of interesting architecture, both old and new.
 
While riding around in cabs, both Dan and I remarked that many of the residential streets wouldn't look out-of-place in Los Angeles. (Some neighborhoods were nicer than others, obviously.)
 
And there is art everywhere. Museums, murals, graffiti, sculpture, architecture, you name it.
 
Independence Day is a big deal here, and I think the hyper-patriotism here actually exceeds that of the U.S. around the 4th of July. There are Mexican flags everywhere!
 
We've managed to find some really great restaurants. Dining-out is relatively inexpensive, though I must admit I expected food prices to be even cheaper, for whatever reason.
 
A ride on the subway is super cheap at just 2 pesos, or about 15 cents. It's pretty efficient; we've never had to wait more than 5 minutes at the platform for a train.
 
My hair is getting shaggy.
 
The cellular phone signal here has been a solid 5 bars, just about everywhere... the roaming provider bounces between Telcel and Movistar.
 
They use the $ symbol for pesos here, so I keep giggling when I see price tags, or ads that hawk Big Macs for $35!
 
More soon.

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 So here's my travel posse: Temo, Dan and Chris. We are having a great time here in Ciudad de México.

For Day 2, we decided to hit Six Flags México. The park originally opened in 1979, and was bought by Six Flags a few years ago. Their collection of rides includes 5 roller coasters; this is Superman: The Ultimate Escape.

It's the tallest coaster in Mexico, and it was a lot of fun, with a killer first drop, surprising turns and lots of air-time.
 
The park wasn't crowded at all. I was able to enter using my Six Flags season pass, and the boys got in for about 260 pesos, or $20 USD. Not a bad deal!
 
Chris and I braved the freefall tower, shown here, and were treated to an absolutely stunning view of the city at the top. (This city is freakin' HUGE!)

Other highlights included "Uncle Chueco's Cabin," a house built at an extreme angle so as to facilitate some neat illusions (and audience participation), and "Van Helsing Experience: Live," a walk-through haunted castle. (Expletives left my mouth several times!)
 
A fun day, for sure!

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So we landed in Mexico City. It was a super-easy and comfortable flight, courtesy of Mexicana Airlines. The nonstop flight went from LAX to Mexico City in about three and a half hours.

Our first destination was the apartment that Chris had hooked-up for us. What an amazing find! Comfy, roomy, an awesome view of the city, WiFi... and best of all, THE perfect location. We're just a couple blocks away from The Zócalo (formally known as Constitution Plaza), and right in the middle of everything.

Our timing is perfect... just in time for the big Independence Day celebration, which shares the same date as Chris' birthday. Even though we arrived a few days prior to Independence Day, the people are absolutely abuzz and ready to celebrate. Lots of flags, souvenirs and light displays everywhere. Such a neat vibe.

Apparently New Year's Eve isn't such a big deal here. In a way, Independence Day is their equivalent, as far as big public celebrations go. I expect to see people packed like sardines (a la Times Square) at The Zócalo on Tuesday night. At 11pm on Tuesday, Mexico's president will appear on a balcony above The Zócalo to honor the event. From Wikipedia:

Since the late 19th century, Hidalgo y Costilla’s "cry of independence" has become emblematic of Mexican independence. Each year on the night of September 15, the President of Mexico re-enacts the event by ringing the bells of the National Palace in Mexico City. He repeats a cry of patriotism based upon the "Grito de Dolores" from the balcony of the palace to the assembled crowd. This event draws up to half-million spectators.

Check-out the video to see what The Zócalo looks like a few days ahead of the big event.

And so my visit to Mexico begins... yay!

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My European odyssey has come to an end. What an amazing trip! Thought I'd catch-up on a few random tidbits from the voyage.

When I was visiting a small town in The Netherlands, they had this thing called a "treintaxi." Basically it let you use a taxi to anywhere in the town for a flat, reasonable price, as long as you were traveling to or from the train station. You buy a ticket from the public transport company and show it to the taxi driver. Pretty neat.

I had a semester of German in college, and I studied a bit before my trip. So it wasn't difficult to get around Germany. By contrast, I don't know any Dutch; I really had no idea what people were saying at all whilst in The Netherlands.

The train system is amazing. The fastest train I rode was traveling at about 299km/h, or about 185mph. (There are even faster trains than that.) I can't wait for the (theoretical) high-speed train system to be built in California.

I thought I'd be staying in hostels while traveling, but I ended-up staying in hotels for most of the trip. Here's the thing about hostels... they're cheap if you share a bedroom with others. If you want your own bedroom, they end-up being like $50 a night, even if you share a bathroom. But with sites like Hotwire and Priceline's "name your own price," I was able to find 3 and 4 star hotels for just a few bucks more.

The exception for this trip was Basel, Switzerland. Hotels were expensive, and Hotwire doesn't serve the city. I found a shared apartment for relatively cheap. It was a good-sized apartment with three private (and lockable) bedrooms; you share the kitchen, bathroom and living room with others. It had a great view of the Rheine River. And gnats. Well maybe they weren't gnats. But they were nasty, and there were lots of them.

The weather was amazingly cooperative for my trip. With the exception of some rain at Neuschwanstein, I had absolutely no complaints!

Speaking of which, I put together a little video of my road trip to Neuschwanstein Castle and the Alpine Coaster. Did you see it? Check it out here:

http://tinyurl.com/p86fu3

Apparently there's some kind of legal issue where they can't call it "Gmail" in Germany. They have to call it "Google Mail."

Note to self: it's not possible for me to put my head down on the pillow for "just a few minutes." I just zonk.

There are a lot of destinations that I didn't get to see. There just wasn't enough time, or logistics made it difficult. I'll most certainly be back.

Munich was my favorite city, followed closely by Berlin and Amsterdam.

Summer nights make me happy.

I've uploaded some "deleted scenes." Check 'em out here, if you're interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sluggobear/archives/date-posted/2009/09/11/

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For my last day in Germany, I decided to check-out Europa Park. With 7 or 8 roller-coasters and lots of quirky dark rides, it didn't disappoint .

The park is divided into themed areas, representing countries in Europe, including Germany, Russia, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland and more. Perhaps for good measure, there's also a kids' land, an adventure land, and a (!) chocolate land.

For my first ride, I hit the "Euro-Mir" coaster. What a wacky ride! It starts-off in a darkened silo, with a rather trippy lift system: a giant cylinder rotates in the silo, with the track spiralling upwards around it. Your train latches onto this giant cylinder, which pushes you progressively higher and higher. It's a long lift hill, punctuated by a few lighting effects and techno music. After the long haul upward, you emerge into the light of day. The first few maneuvers are slow and spinny orbits around the outside of several silver-mirrored towers. At certain points the cars are allowed to spin individually, and at other times they are locked into forward or backward position. Really weird.

The two most enjoyable coasters were Silver Star (a giant steelie with lots of airtime) and Blue Fire, which added a component I've never seen before: a live display of your own pulse on your handlebar! Pretty nifty!

There was a neat laser show, which was displayed in a rotating theater (a la Carousel of Progress and America Sings.)

Check-out the video for more.

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