Thoughts on the Game
Wanted to jot down some thoughts on the game while it’s still fresh in my mind.
- The Rose Bowl is old, run down, cramped but an absolutely unique and amazing venue. I am happy to have made it there for such a huge game. The atmosphere was electric.
- After Longhorns fans realized McCoy was out, we rallied around Garrett Gilbert. At the beginning of every offensive possession during the TV time outs, Longhorn fans would chant Garrett’s last name over and over until they lined up to play. One of the few times I felt we could will a player to greatness during the game and Garrett kept getting better and better through out the game.
- I absolutely love the way we competed during the 2nd half. I was actually optimistic during half time but the way we rallied was quite surprising. We were truly a 2nd half team this year.
- Those 10 minutes from when Shipley scored a touchdown to when we recovered the “onside” kick was one of the more magical moments in UT football that I’ve witnessed first hand. The come back in the Fiesta Bowl last year was special but I expected it to happen. This was special because we were riding into the unknown with a freshman quarterback leading us.
- I have no regrets about going to the game. It was worth it to cheer on our team and I was proud of the way we fought. The future looks bright, looking forward to next year. Hook ‘em!
Warranty
I’ve been dealing with a problem with my car the past few weeks. The remote was not able to lock the doors so I kept having to lock it manually. I was planning on bringing it into Sterling Acura but kept putting it off. I finally got a chance to bring it in today. They fixed it under warranty which is great. On the way out I asked the service rep when my warranty was up, she responded, “Oh in 5 miles.” Woow, driving home my warranty expired. If I had driven anywhere else today I probably would’ve had to pay for the repair out of pocket. I also drove to Dallas and back this weekend which put 300+ miles on my car. Glad I brought it in when I did.
Bike Commute
Used my GPS program on my iPhone to map out my bike commute to work this morning. Not bad compared to my old car commute from up north. Follow this link to view the full route in google maps.
Distance: 3.23 miles
Elapsed Time: 15:13.6
Avg Speed: 12.7 mph
Max Speed: 27.0 mph
Avg Pace: 04′ 43″ per mile
Min Altitude: 455 ft
Max Altitude: 575 ft
Busy Saturday
2nd busy Saturday in a row. Last week I moved into my new place. This week I had:
1. Vox Leadership Appreciation Lunch
2. Coed football game
3. Nick’s Birthday dinner at Aussie’s
4. Star Trek tonight at Galaxy 10
New Room
Over the weekend I moved into my new place in Mueller. The move was pretty painless thanks to Ochs and his truck. I had already moved all the small stuff over in the previous weeks so I just moved the bed, dresser, and desk over on Saturday. The new house is only 3 miles away from UT so now I wake up at 7:30 to get to work by 8:00. Gonna test out the bike route the next few days to see how long that will take.
Bagwell’s Crawfish Boil
I think we consumed around 200 pounds of crawfish today. It was not a good idea to wear a white shirt to a crawfish boil. Thanks again to the Bagwells for hosting this and for all the delicious crawfish!
Morning Commute
I downloaded a GPS mapping program for the iPhone called MotionX GPS. I tracked my commute from my house up North down to campus so I could compare it later on to the commute I’ll have at Mueller. Here are some stats from the commute:
Distance: 12.8 miles
Elapsed Time: 29:57.7
Avg Speed: 25.6 mph
Max Speed: 64.0 mph
Avg Pace: 02′ 21″ per mile
Min Altitude: 470 ft
Max Altitude: 728 ft
Start Time: 2009-04-07T12:34:40Z
Start Location:
Latitude: 30.432204º N
Longitude: 97.690687º W
End Time: 2009-04-07T13:04:37Z
End Location:
Latitude: 30.280581º N
Longitude: 97.736584º W
Toronto Culinary Escapades
Yvonne and I had a pretty food filled 5 days in Toronto, Canada. Here’s a list of the places and food we ate for lunch and dinner during our trip.
5/18 Dinner – Best Friends Chinese Restaurant: lobster, emerald chicken, clams
5/19 Lunch – Asian Legends: Xiao Long Bao, Beef Noodle Soup, Seafood Noodle Soup
5/19 Dinner – Korean BBQ: all you can eat Galbi, Bulgolgi, pork, calamari
5/20 Lunch – Maison Du Japon: all you can eat sushi
5/20 Snack – Go for Tea: Almond Milk Tea, Red Bean Bing
5/20 Dinner – Air Canada Centre: Poutine
5/21 Lunch – Dim Sum
5/21 Dinner – Emperor: Chinese Banquet
5/22 Breakfast – Dan Tat, Cocktail Bun, Pineapple Bun, Milk Tea
Air Canada
We made it into Toronto in style. I already thought it was great that we had a direct flight from Austin, but apparently Air Canada has a sweet in flight setup for each seat. Not only do you get a 10″ personal touchscreen TV but also a USB charging port for your phone! After the flight was at cruising altitude, we were also able to choose from a bunch of Movies or TV shows to watch on demand. We chose to watch Quantum of Solace. Overall, one of the better flying experiences I’ve had.
Mueller Room
I was messing around in Google SketchUp and decided to layout what my new room might look like. I don’t have the exact dimensions but I did some guestimations based on pictures I took of the room. I think I will finally move to a full sized bed after sleeping on a twin sized my whole life.
Trip in Review
Trip was a great success. Got some good boarding in. A huge storm system dumped a bunch of powder onto Tahoe the whole weekend so we go some really nice runs in. Some trails were almost untouched when we went through them. No serious injuries to report either. I’m just really sore from top to bottom.
Tonight we decided to hit up Reno which was about and hour away. We had a nice steak dinner at the Harrah’s Steak House. After that, we played some blackjack and everyone ended up. Now, time to get some rest and catch our flight out from SFO.
I-80 Conditions
After our flight lands in SFO, we’re planning on driving straight into Tahoe. The problem is that it’s been dumping snow on I-80.
[IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & THE SIERRA NEVADA]
CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM 1 MI EAST OF BAXTER (PLACER CO) TO TRUCKEE
Hopefully we’ll be able to make it into Tahoe with no problems.
Aquarelle
Yvonne and I went for an early Valentines dinner to Aquarelle last night. Overall, the food was really good, although, nothing life changing. I had the Mussels, Chilean Sea Bass, and coffee Creme Brulee. Out of the three, I enjoyed the Mussels the most. I also had no shame whipping out my $25 gift certificate that I bought on restaurant.com for $2.
Video Tagging
People have gotten used to the idea of tagging photos with keywords in order to easily search for them. But most people don’t know that you can actually add keywords to videos with iMovie 08 and 09. I’ve been doing it for a while and it’s actually a very cool feature. In the past, I’ve put up statistics on how many photos I have or a person. I thought it’d be interesting to do the same thing except with how many minutes of video I have. It’s all calculated in iMovie09 after you keyword your videos.
1. Isaiah Atkins – 23:57
2. Enoch Lai – 14:51
3. Peter Tam – 5:48
4. Kev Chen – 4:36
5. Harmon Li – 3:36
6. Gideon Tsang – 3:34
7. Sam Lee 3:19
Apparently I have a lot of footage of Vox staff due to Ping Pong videos.
Fiesta Bound
Pete and I will be heading to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl to watch the Horns play the Buckeyes. We’ve been trying to find things to do there but with no luck. I think we may hit up a casino but if you have any suggestions, let me know!
United Hemispheres Contest
A few months ago, I was flying back from SFO on United reading their in flight magazine. I saw a page where they had a travel photo contest and I decided to submit my NYC photo that I took in 2007. I was pretty surprised to hear back today that my photo was one of the finalists in the competition. Unfortunately I did not win the free round trip airfare to Hawaii that the 1st place winner got. My photo is the #10 image in the link below.
http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/travel-photo-contest/travel-photo-contest-runners_up.php
Accident
Two weeks ago I got rear-ended by a Ford F250 going east on 39th street. His insurance company took full liability of the damages so I brought my car into Rebreu Body and Frame to get it fixed up. I got it back yesterday and it looks like they did a really good job. Only consequence of this accident is that I’m really paranoid about other cars when I drive now.
Looking Forward
4 years ago I watched Barack Obama give a speech at the DNC…
2 years ago I took this picture of him and listened to him speak in Austin…
1/2 a year ago I voted for him in the Democratic primaries…
1 week ago I voted for him in the Presidential election…
Today I’m hoping to watch him be elected as the next President of the United States
Newlyweds
Anna asked me to be the unofficial photographer for her wedding so I managed to snap some 200+ photos. It was an outdoor California wedding overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view would have been more spectacular if not for the Gap Fire smoke that’s been filling SoCal. Still turned out to be a beautiful ceremony. Congrats to Thomas and Anna.
Austin Symphony Outdoor
What other city can you go to a free outdoor symphony while sitting on a picnic blanket and eat P.Terry’s burgers and fries?
Hockey filled Day
Went out to play some hockey today with ACC people. We ended up playing for a good 2 hours which turned out to be a lot of fun. After a short nap, I’ve been spending the rest of the night watching the Stars vs. Sharks in Game 6. Right now we’re waiting for OT to start.
Flickr Stats
I keep a pretty close eye on my website and flickr stats. Yesterday there was a pretty crazy jump in views on my flickr. It will probably come crashing down today.
Public Transportation
I’ve been using CapMetro’s Park & Ride at Tech Ridge for about 2 years now. I’ve probably saved a couple thousand miles on my car and a hundreds of gallons of gas. One development that I’ve been pretty excited about is the new light rail that’s being deployed in Austin this Fall. One of the stops up north is about a mile away from my house which opens up new possibilities for me to commute into work. I’ve actually been thinking about getting a bike so I can bike to the Howard station, then take the light rail into the MLK station, and take the express bus into campus. The great thing about light rail is that the commute time isn’t contingent on traffic like the bus that I ride to work. Also they’re planning on having wifi on every Light Rail. If you’re interested in finding out more about it, visit the CapMetro site and take a look at the maps and the pictures.
Kanye West Concert
Yvonne and I had been wanting to go to this concert in Austin, but we weren’t able to score tickets for it. I remembered today that we’re both heading up to Chicago to visit my sister so I decided to see if by chance, Kanye was performing up there the same weekend. Lo and behold he’s playing 2 shows that weekend at the United Center! So this afternoon I scored two tickets on eBay to go watch Kanye and Lupe on Friday, May 23rd.