Really?

Axed Southwest Rail Link Revived

Wind farms and climate change - WRCC.

So, I had this crazy thought. We are pushing heavily for alternate forms of energy generation, and wind energy seems like a no brain solution. There is plenty of it, the technology seems to work more than adequately and it is a plentiful resource... or is it.

Have we ever looked at the consequences of using wind to generate electricity. The concept is, wind, traveling with some value of kinetic energy passes by blades that begin to rotate as some of the kinetic energy of the wind is transfered to the blades. Simple physics says the kinetic energy of the wind is now lowered by the amount of energy it transfered to the blades... i.e. the wind is now moving slower. Now imagine if we have massive wind farms across large expanses of the globe. Across these areas the wind speed would have to drop significantly. Isn't this just another form of climate change? What if that wind was rapidly carrying moisture from an ocean to an inland plain, or if the wind was carrying pollen that enabled distant populations of a species to breed. What if we slow the wind down to such an extent all across the globe that we start to effect macroscopic climate cycles.

I am a very strong advocate of finding alternate means to generate electricity compared to the death cycle of fossil fuel burning, but isn't it interesting to think, no matter what we do we are still altering the earth in some way. I have no real fear that what I have suggested above is possible, but in the small chance that it is, I'd like this to be one of those 'I said that years ago' moments. I should probably name this phenomenon (and I am not a complete narcissist so the 'Devin Phenomenon' is out of the question). How does 'Wind Reduction Climate Change', or WRCC sound?

Chicago

Christine in Chicago

Chicago Skyline

The Bean

The Tsavo Lions

The Field Museum

The Willis (Sears) Tower

Nick and Naomi visit.

In true last minute Nick Cooper form, I received an email on Monday asking me to try and buy three tickets for the Treasure Island music festival on Sunday as he, Naomi and Naomi's sister Charlotte were going to be in town. Luckily, unlike Sydney, music shows don't sell out in San Francisco until the last couple of days, so I managed to get four tickets (Christine didn't want to come).
The festival itself was kind of cool. I didn't know most of the bands, and it was nice to hear some new music since there is no Triple J equivalent in the Bay Area. The two picks would have been Beruit and Grizzly Bear. The only real problem with the show was the fact that it was about 10 degrees Celcius and close to zero with windchill. Anyway, Nick and the girls enjoyed themselves which was the main thing. The following day Nick, Naomi and Charlotte joined us for a late drink on our rooftop, which left me with quite a hangover at work the next day. We managed to finished two bottles of the Chadonay I brought back from the St Francis winery the previous weekend. Actually, pretty much every day last week I went into work with a hangover... and I got a suprisingly large amount of work done!
On Tuesday Christine was feeling a bit sick so I invited Nick along to see the Stone Temple Pilots concert at Fox Theatre in Oakland. The show was damn good, although the lead singer seemed a little bit out of it and I think the set list was very similar to when I saw them in Berkeley a year ago. Still, an awesome performance.
On Wednesday night we met up with Nick's work buddy and we went to the new Belden Lane restaurant, Trademark, a modern American style cuisine with a hint of Italian influence. On Thursday we went to mine and Christine's favourite Italian place in North Beach, Ferenze by Night. At least I managed to get into bed before 1 am on that night.

10,000 visitors.

During some time in the recent past my ticker clocked past 10,000 visitors to my blog. While most of these would probably have just passing visitor, most of whom may never even have read my site, and a whole bunch of friends that have visited my blog multiple times, it is kinda wierd to think that such a large number of people have stopped on my page. Apparently there was even a time when I listed all the songs of the Hottest 100 that I even appeared very highly on one of Google's search pages. Maybe it will encourage me to say something interesting or relevant.

Mineral Kings hike, Sequoia National Park.

Who said altitude was no obstacle. Well, who ever said it didn't bother telling me because altitude was definitely one big obstacle.
The trip was a fairly straight forward 26 miles (42 km) hike on well developed trails through the Sequoia National Park section of the High Sierras. We (Me and Erik and 3 of his buddies, Dave Cooperberg (ex Lam), Mark Kiehlbauch (ex Lam and now at Micron) and Mike Johannesmeyer (Erik's buddy from grad school and now working for Proctor and Gamble)) started off at the car park on the first morning at about 7000 feet. It was this first day that was the real killer, both for its length and the vertical meters covered. We climbed over Sawtooth Pass at about 11,700 feet up a scree face and after a bit of green spot hallucination and some dehydration, we dropped into a small valley and the vista of Lake Columbine on the other side. After circumnavigating half the lake and cresting a small saddle we dropped into another valley on the Lost Canyon Trail which we followed for another 4-5 miles. This was followed by yet another crest, a further 3 miles and a drop into our camp spot at the second and one of the larger of the Big Five Lakes.
The following day was a nice rest day with a short day hike over to the largest of the Big Five Lakes, a rather quick dip into some very cold mountain water and some rather fine Californian weed.
The next day we walked out of the Big Five Lakes area, past the Small Five Lakes and over another 11,000+ pass (which I assume was Blackrock pass since we were on Blackrock Pass Trail) and all the way down the other side of the valley to somewhere below 8,000 feet. The final day was a much easier walk out of the campground up to Timber Gap at around 9,500 feet and then straight down to the car.
From this experience I have decided I definitely need more time spent at altitude if I ever want to be a successful mountain climber. I also decided I will be doing a solo attempt of Mount Shasta this winter... I just have to find a way of telling Christine.

A couple of cool articles on the Global Financial Crisis

September 2008 - Countdown to Money Market Carnage

Four weeks that shook the globe

Transport

A few weeks ago while I was in Australia the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald decided he was Jack of the attempts of the inept NSW government to resolve the public transport mess that Sydney has and embarked on a crusade to stimulate debate in the public with the goal of creating a clear vision for what the future of public transport in Sydney should be.
I have decided to keep track of the opinions, reports and public views that are put forth as I have been hopeful for so long that someone would take the initiative and drive these changes. Let's hope this is the start of something big!

Independent Public Inquiry

Transport

When governments fail, the public must set the agenda

A Thirty Year Public Transport Plan For Sydney

Long-Term Strategic Plan for Rail Overview - 13 June 2001

Metropolitan Strategy

Holy metro, if only Sydney were Gotham City, without the jokers

Australia and Martin & Katies' Wedding.

It has been a while since I have written anything of worth where I actually expressed an opinion or wrote anything more then to describe a photo i just uploaded, so what better opportunity then after spending two weeks back home in Oz and having a great time as one of Marty's groomsmen.
The trip started off on a positive note. We had booked economy seats because we are still no stinking rich, and Christine checked us in online. Unbeknown to us, the seats Christine had checked us in to were actually premium economy. When we boarded the plane were were quited surprised and thought that Qantas economy had improved dramatically... until we looked past the curtain separator and noticed our seats were a marked improvement on what the other economy passenger had. It took a few seconds but it finally dawned on us (with a bit of explanation from the cute mum that was sitting in front of us) that we were one of the two lucky rows that book economy but can check into premium economy. I'll definitely be remembering that little secret from now on.
On arrival into Australia we were greeted with the news that Sydney was expecting a top of 29 degrees. Couldn't really ask for a better arrival then that. One thing I noticed a lot more then I expected was that everyone had accents. Australian accents, but they sounded like accents none the less. A weird sensation considering I had grown up in Australia and had a Aussie accent myself. It actually got to the point that I thought some people must have been putting it on and were giving me shit because I may have picked up a hint of a Seppo accent (which I hadn't I am glad to say... and which they weren't).

Lavena picked me up from the airport and we drove straight down to Wollongong to see the family and look around Wollongong. My family hadn't changed much at all, actually they hadn't changed at all, though Dexter was a bit bigger. Wollongong on the other hand seemed like a bit of a ghost town. I know it was a Sunday but the center of town was all boarded up and there were very few people in the streets. The only thing I could think of was that the council and developers were remodelling the area in anticipation of a big summer spending spree. With the change of season and the rising out of a financial crisis and a recession maybe it would be good planning. But in the interim it was a bleak remnant of it's previous self.




The following two weeks was a menagerie of catching up with old friends, feasting on long lost tastes and drinking too much beer.
That Sunday we managed to squeeze in a visit to Amy and Spindles' place and met Amy's new boyfriend Corey, Monday spent the day with the Family, Tuesday lunch was at Wollongong Uni with Elpho, Pav, Deano and Scuba and Tuesday night was Manjits with Flora, Terry and Christine. Wednesday night was the Australian Heritage Hotel with Austin, Rod, Dave, Annabel, Rob and Christine (for some reason I didn't get the pizza... big mistake!).




Thursday was lunch with Simon, having Cesar's at Towradgi Beach and Dinner with Nick Cooper at some nice back ally pub in Newtown. Friday morning went climbing with Craig and his mate Mark at Thompsons Point which involved taking a big whipper on Mad Hatter and also a couple of pies at the Berry Bakehouse on the way home. In the evening was Harry's 54th birthday which started at the Towradgi Bowling Club and finished at his house. The problem with writing a blog entry about something that happened a few weeks ago is that you may forget important things like who was at a party you attended, but for posterity's sakes, in attendance was Harry (of course), Carolyn, Flora, Terry, Christine, Martin, Katie, Luke, Tanya, Daniel, Adam, Mel, Rita ... and definitely more that I have forgotten.





The following morning was spent eating the bacon and eggs I had won the night before in the meat raffle and that Martin had graciously prepared for me followed by a dive out near Pig Island with United Divers. That afternoon involved lunch at Fat Boys with Rod, then a BBQ with Rod's parents at their house in Corrimal.
The next day was another dive trip, this time to the much colder Bushrangers Bay and the Gutter with Simon and his Dad, Steve. That evening involved more beer and food with a BBQ at Elpho and Katies house.
Okay, that is week one over... week two wasn't much different. Monday night was dinner with Uncle Vasu and Auntie Vishi. On Tuesday Christine and I drove down to Canberra, she met up with Mel and Denise and I had lunch with Nat and that night we had dinner with Tim and Lucy at Gareth and Tes' place and spent the night at Tim and Lucys' house. Wednesday Christine and I had morning tea with Anusha and then I took off to visit my old lab (Rod, Cormac and the rest..) and that evening Christine and I met up with all the Canberra people (Tim, Lucy, Cormac, Tamara, James, Sarah, Nat, Iain, Peter, Angela and Rod) for a fine feast at Sammy's Kitchen.




The following day we drove back to Wollongong and spent that night drinking beer at the North Gong with Nick all the way from New York. Also to make showing was Pavle, Spindles, Talia, Elpho and Amy as well as a few of Nick's Friends.
The next morning I had morning coffee with Nick and his girlfriend Ally at the domestic terminal of Sydney airport followed by lunch with Rob and Tim at a pub in Sydney finally dinner with Nat and Bobby at Hoggs Breath cafe in Albion Park. And I haven't even gotten to the wedding yet!


So, the wedding started off at Flora's place with the boys doing there best to put on suits, tie ties, fold handkerchiefs and pin on roses. I also managed to get photographic evidence of Chris taking responsibility for the rings, which, to his credit, he managed to produce when requested during the ceremony.





The ceremony started at about 2 pm and went off without a hitch with some beautiful photos of the bride taken on my camera by Adam (thanks Adam!). It was a lovely ceremony, not over the top and lasted about an hour with a full mass. Christine forbade me from taking communion, something about not being confirmed or not being a catholic or something :)







After the ceremony the bridal party first went to Sandon Point for some photos with the MG and then on to Wollongong harbour for more photos. After a bit of a delayed entrance we finally sat down at the reception around 7 pm. The food was surprisingly tasty for a reception hall wedding, it was just a pity that I had stuffed myself with cheese balls and sausage rolls it the Green Room. You can tell from one of the Green Room shots that the boys were a bit fatigued and worse for wear by the time we were supposed to make our entrance, but we all managed to pull of our entrances with not hitches. After a typical long night of dancing (including Nut Bush), we finally made it back home, completely exhausted, by about midnight. I did manage to leave my camera in Elly and Grahams' car but luckily I realized before flying back to the US.







The following day we had lunch at Katie's parent's place and watched Katie and Marty begin to open there long list of presents. What was quite surprising was seeing Marty's excitement and receiving fine china and glassware! That evening was a final dinner with my parents and sister before flying home the next day.


Well, that was written like the story of My Day at the Beach. A bit of a detail dump, but then again if I started to go into too much detail I think this already overly long entry would have been unbearable. So I think I will leave it there.

Calgary, Lake Louise and Banff

Our hike around Lake Louise

Weekend ride in Marin.

Trujillo is a wanka, but then again so are some (too many) Australians.

Sol, your wake-up call is important: we've no good reason to be smug

An actual well written and level headed opinion piece from the Sydney Morning Herald. Maybe smh.com hasn't turned completely tabloid after all. And a few parting shots at the dickhead that was Trujillo is always a bonus.

Moving apartments sucks!!!

What more can I say. A whole three-day weekned blown on moving to a new apartment. And the apartment was even in the same building. The great thing though is that we will be saving $700 a month. Hopefully this means I will be getting my new mountain bike sooner!

Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction at Shoreline Amphitheatre Mountain View, 22 July 2009.

For starters, I can't believe that Nine Inch Nails were the support act. I'm not sure what the promoters were thinking but they screwed up royally here... and it looks like the reviewers and blogsphere feel the same way.
Not only were NIN the better show, much of it was in the light so we missed out on a great light show that would have been a perfect accompaniment to their music. Trent Reznor has a great personality on stage and really seemed to appreciate the crowds enthusiasium (an appreciation Jane's Addicition seemed to lack).

Nine Inch Nails setlist:

Home
1,000,000
Terrible Lie
Discipline
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
Metal (Gary Numan cover)
The Becoming
Burn
Gave Up
The Fragile
The Way Out Is Through
Wish
Echoplex
Survivalism
The Day The World Went Away
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

Encore:
Hurt


Jane's Addiction on the other hand were almost completely shithouse. I say almost because Dave Navarro is an amazing guitarist. The lead singer, Perry Farrell, was a complete dickhead. When he wasn't talking about freaks and having his dick sucked he was repeating 'San Francisco' as often as possible to try and get a rise out of the crowd. After a while I think even the most ardent fan got tired of that. The music was passable but that didn't stop me leaving a bit early. I guess the music wasn't bad enough for me to walk out, but I had to rush back across the bay so I could catch the train home. At the very least the music wasn't good enough to keep me from leaving early.

Jane's Addicition setlist

Three Days
Whores
Ain't No Right
Pigs In Zen
Then She Did...
Mountain Song
Had A Dad
Been Caught Stealing
Ted, Just Admit It...
Ocean Size

Encore:
Summertime Rolls
Stop!
Jane Says

I also wasn't particularly impressed with the venue. The sound wasn't great and it was hard to get a good vantage point on the grassy hill of the amphitheatre without being right up the back. We will be seeing Coldplay here in July so hopefully this will be a better show for the venue. Maybe they will also allow our lawn chairs this time and everyone on the grass will be seated so we can actually see the show. I'm sure the sound would also be much better closer to the tent section over the amphitheatre as the sound must get dispersed quite rapidly in the open air.

Kings of Leon - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium San Francisco, 21 My 2009

I would have to say that the Kings of Leon have been the pick of the concerts so far this summer (I am also writing this after seeing NIN and Jane's last weekend). However, this isn't saying a great deal, which indicates I haven't seen a concert that has blown me away yet... had Foo Fighters toured this summer then this would probably be a different story. NIN were awesome but Jane's Addicition really retracted much from that concert experience, and the fact that NIN played have in the daylight and the venue wasn't particularly accommodating to those at the back of the grass area, the KoL concert might just win out.
I'm in no way saying the KoL where in anyway bad. They were quite entertaining, there music was tight and well played and the sound was pretty good. They weren't much into 'rocking' out on stage though. For the most part a bit of foot tapping was the most we got out of the lead singer and guitarists.
The venue was pretty cool. Much like a slightly larger version of the Hordon in Sydney but with a slightly larger and more elevated seated section surrounding the square floor area.

I also found this cool website that catalougs concert setlists. It is user based so it only has a set list if someone has bothered to go onto the site and add the setlist. It seems pretty extensive though. It is called setlist.fm. It probably has exisited for quite a while and I'm just behind the times, but it is pretty useful either way. They also seem to have video links on each of the songs although I have checked these out to know what that means yet.

Anyway, the Kings of Leon setlist was:

Be Somebody
Crawl
My Party
Taper Jean Girl
Molly's Chambers
Fans
Milk
Four Kicks
Charmer
Sex on Fire
The Bucket
Arizona
Notion
On Call
Cold Desert
Use Somebody
Slow Night So Long

Encore:
Closer
Knocked Up
Manhattan
"Devil Song"
Black Thumbnail

Star Trek in IMAX.

Awesome! It had a lot to live up to in my mind being a big Star Trek fan, but it succeeded. I was a bit dubious by the whole alternate time line thing but the more I think about it the more I like it, especially since it will mean they will be making more movies. Apparently the cast has signed up to two more sequels.
The preview for Transformers II also looked amazing (as did Megan Fox). Another entertaining block buster to look forward to!

Mt Shasta - Our first (and hopefully last) failed attempt.

The weekend did not start well. As I was driving the Bronco from Fremont to San Francisco, to first pick up Andrei and then head to Shasta, the car suddenly stalled and wouldn't start. What made it worse was the fact that I was driving in the fast lane of Hwy 101 and I couldn't start the car to move it over to the shoulder. I ended up calling 911 (and was on hold for 2 minutes... what's the deal with that. What if it had been a life threatening situation... crazy country. Anyway...) but before the CHP could arrive a truck driver pulled up and blocked traffic and we managed to get the car over to the shoulder. I eventually got it towed by AAA to a mechanic and it only cost about $90 to fix. Apparently my fuel filter wasn't connected correctly and was missing a clip and it fell off so I wasn't getting any fuel to the cylinders.
By the time I got all that sorted out and Andrei came and picked me up from the mechanic, it was too late to bother driving to Shasta so we decided to leave at about 4 am the next morning.


We arrived at Mt Shasta town at about 9:30 and checked out one of the outdoor stores for a weather and avalanche update before heading out on the trail at about 11:30 am (~6900 feet). The walk in was initially fairly easy as the snow wasn't too slushy (we didn't have snow shoes) but as it started to get a bit steeper and the sun began to melt more of the snow our walking rate dropped off rapidly.





After talking to a few people who mentioned that the common camping point at Helen Lake was really crowded (10,400 feet) we decided to camp on a rise just below Helen Lake at ~9,500 feet. We reached camp at about 3:30 pm and after setting up, cooking dinner and melting lots of snow for water the following day we go to bed at about 9:30 pm to get up for a 3am start the next day. I didn't get to sleep for an hour which was bad as I desperately needed the sleep after a lack of sleep the night before and a long day planned for tomorrow.






We woke up at 2:30 am the next day and thought we would be one of the first groups to set out. When we looked towards Red Banks we saw a snake trail of headlamps all the way up the face and even on top of Red Banks on the way to the summit. We left our camp at 9,500 feet at five minutes past three and headed up what we thought was a slight rise to Helen Lake at 10,400 feet. After a long slow trudge we reached the foot of the Lake in about one and a half hours. The Lake itself was completely frozen and snowed over, which, had Andrei not mentioned it earlier, would have thrown me completely as I thought it was a thawed mountain tarn that contained drinkable water. Adrei's suggestion of two bottles of fuel to assist in melting ice for drinking water was more then valid!!!
By the time we reach the Lake we already had one rather large rock wizz past us... literally wizz as that is all I knew of it. It was still quite dark and I definitely didn't see it. Scared the carp out of me though.
After a short stop we started the long steep haul up to Red Banks. This is apparently the hardest and steepest section and the most prone to rock and ice falls. I was actually feeling really good at this point. I had gotten over my morning grogginess and had fallen into a nice rhythm about 20 paces behind Andrei (better then the 50 paces behind I was coming up towards Lake Helen).
The most amazing thing about climbing on ice and snow and at altitude is the slow pace. Andrei and I were by no means moving slowly compared to other groups on the mountain as we passed a number of people on our way. However, (and maybe you can tell this from the photos of Red Banks) the top of this section and even the rise up to Helen Lake wasn't that far as the crow flies yet it still took us a great deal of time. Had this been in the Australia bush, even through thick undergrowth, we would have reached the top in less than two hours, as it was we hadn't even reached the top after three and a half hours.


As we made our way up the steep wall up to Red Banks we must have had a close to a dozen rocks and balls of ice fly down at us. The worst one by far was two large rocks that came tumbling down from Red Banks that, had I not side stepped and ducked my head, would have hit me square in the face.
We made it up to about 11,500 feet before the altitude started to take its toll. It was more severe on me then it was on Andrei although we both still seemed relatively fine. However, after ascending another 400 feet I started to feel quite dizzy. Sitting down for five minutes helped lower down, but even now this didn't seem to quell the head spins. I actually closed my eyes twice and almost fell asleep. It was at this point I decided that if I pushed any further I would likely tumble off the mountain. Putting safety first we decided to turn around. This was exceedingly disappointing as I am quite sure that it was fatigue more then anything else that compounded the effect of the altitude that made me feel queasy and light headed. This meant that had we planned it a little better and the Bronco had not failed on me at a critical moment we would have probably made the summit. It also meant I would have to come back next season and try again.


The trip down was relatively uneventful and drooped in feelings of disappointment. We didn't even bother to stay the next night and walked out that morning. The funny thing was that when we got back to the car it was 11 am which meant all of 24 hours had past since we arrived the previous day. We joked about somehow fitting two days in the space of 24 hours. No doubt this was why we were so fatigued. Better planning is definitely in order next time... and no mechanical failures! The most exciting part of the return trip down the mountain was the glacading on our arses down the melting snow. You can pick up some amazing speed coming down the mountain that way and at one stage my I could actually feel severe heat from the friction on the snow. Stopping at high speeds is also interesting as if you don't slow down and stop before hitting the deep foot holes in the valley it can hurt quite significantly!

I will definitely be returning to Shasta next season to complete this climb. I am left with too much disappointment of not making the summit this time, and the desire to complete is to great. I am even thinking of doing a solo attempt just to add a little bit more exhilaration... not that Andrei wasn't a great climbing companion! He is considering skiing in next time anyway which is something I wouldn't mind trying. But unfortunately my skill level is no where near that of the master telemarker that Andrei is.
Hopefully next time I tell this Shasta story it won't involve opening that 'can of soft' that requires a decent before reaching the summit...

The crowded camping spot at Lake Helen. Apparently people don't realise that even though it is a designated camp spot, people are free to camp anywhere they want.

Cold War Kids at the Fillmore San Francisco, May 7 2009

Cold War Kids were a rather spritely band we checked out the other night at the Fillmore. I'd never seen them before but I quite liked their music, especially their debut album 'Robbers and Cowards'. They sing that song about promising their wife and children that they would never touch another drink, which gave me the impression that it was some middle aged singer/song writer going thorugh a mid life crisis. They were actually a fairly young band and grew up in Orange County, which, according to one blog I read, is more senonomous would producing 'botox bohemouths' rather then anything with an artistic endevour.
Anyway, there is another cool blog called Music Induced Euphoria that writes a much better review then I ever could... although the author seems to be a bit of a biased fan.

Set List:
Mexican Dog
Something is not Right
I've Seen Enough
Relief
Hang Me Up
Dreams
On the Night
Robbers
Every Man I Fall For
Coffee Spoon
Against Privacy
Valleys
Sermons
Hospital Beds

Now on to Kings of Leon, Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction in a couple of weeks and then Coldplay in a couple of months.

Mt Diablo via Mitchell Canyon.

In an effort to train for our upcoming hike up Mt Shasta, Andrei and I decided to scale Mt Diablo, a 3500 foot peak in the East Bay just south of Clayton. Despite the wet and bitter cold, the walk wasn't too dificult and the single track on the way down via Bald Ridge and both Eagle and Twin Peaks was very nice. Mt Diablo apparently has the largest viewing shed outside of Kilamijaro in Africa, but sadly, due to the low cloud, all we could see was a complete white out.
After a 6:30 am start (it was supposed to be 6 am but I overslept) we got on the trail head at 7:50 am. After a shorter then planned 3 hours we hit the summit, and in true American style there was a massive parking lot and a well established visitors center housing the actual summit rock, the original highest point of Mt Diablo. On the way down we decided to take an alternate route via the eastern ridge that we observed on the way up Mitchell Canyon. This proved to be the highlight of the walk (not including the Australian licorice that Andrei brought along), especially the ridge between Eagle Peak and Twin Peaks. After that it was pretty much straight downhill to a parkinglot with a bus load of kids that seemed to have misplaced there bus, and our waiting ZipCar.

Soundgarden and Audioslave are the only two things that saved Chris Cornell from what could have been a pretty mundane concert.

Chris Cornell @ The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center, May 1, 2009

Went to see Chris Cornell the other night. Initially I was quite excited to see him live considering I'm a big fan of both Soundgarden and Audioslave, however after hearing his new album 'Scream', I wasn't really expecting much. Apparently Justin Timberlake produced the new album and it just sounded like recycled pop crap with badly placed beats and odd sound effects. Thankfully he ended up playing quite a few songs from his long back catalog rather then too much of the new stuff.
The Grand Ballrom where he played was quite a nice venue. It had an upper section like City Live back in Sydney (only one level though) and had a nicde old school feel with hangging chandeleers much like the Fillmore. I probably should take my camera to some of these gigs so I can start capturing images of some of these cool Bay Area venues.

Set List:
Part Of Me
Time
You Know My Name
Can’t Change Me
Burden In My Hand
Set It Off
Preaching
Hunger Strike
Outshined
Show Me How To Live
Lite My Way
Ground Zero
Never Far Away
Be Yourself
Billy Jean
Rusty Cage
Sunshower
Chris' solo songs
Cochise
Watchout
Scream
Spoonman
---encore---
Follow My Way
Black Hole Sun

Flora, Carolyn and the Napa Valley.

The three lovely ladies finally returned from their Sex and the City laden trip to the Big Apple with shopping bags in tow. It was nice to have my dinner cooked for me again when I got home from work and the cupboards stocked with groceries. After another week of work we went out for a nice dinner on Friday night at our local CPK where too much wine was definitely drunk (just ask Flora!).
The following day we hired a ZipCar and headed for the Napa Valley. We had our customary stop at the winery/fine food emporium with the large blue chairs out the front where we stopped for lunch. They were having some Tomato festival, selling Tomato seedlings by the hundreds and as a result we stuck around a bit longer and actually walked around the gardens for the first time. There was a wedding being set up which was a bit coincidental considering I had just seen Peter the weekend previous and heard he was getting married in Napa. We also ducked into one of the Wineries (there were three or four) for the first time a this place since they were having a two-for-one offer in celebration of the Tomato.
We then moved on to one of our other staples, Domaine Carneros, which is owned by the Tattinger company, the famous Champagne maker. To make it even more authentic we had a 'very' French lady describe the wine samplings to us and tell us samplings of her life story. As tempting as it was to buy the creamy $80 bottle of 'champagne' we ended up buying a bottle of the cheaper 'champagne' to drink at home later.
An early dinner was to follow at a place called Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. I had fairly high hopes for this place considering some of the reviews on the web but sadly it did not deliver. The food, while good, was nothing compared to the previous weekend, and not as good as I was hoping for a Napa Valley (St Helena) restaurant.
The next day we hiked the Coastal Track from the Golden Gate Bridge to Lands End in an effort to burn off all the food and wine we had consumed in the previous 48 hours. Some of the houses along that walk were amazing, with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and backyards that drop off into the Pacific Ocean.

Short training ride up Twin Peaks.

Flora, Carolyn, Peter, Lucy, The Slanted Door and Mission Peak.

Our two Australian visitors arrived on Monday and, after a couple of nice evenings in San Francisco, they took Christine off to New York. This gave me a very welcome relaxing weekend to myself... which I proceeded to fill with tasks I've been meaning to do for a while. Spent most of Friday night cleaning the apartment and watching rugby, took Charlie to puppy school on Saturday morning and decided to ride up Twin Peaks afterwards. This was followed by taking Charlie on a long walk in the hope that this would quieten her down when the other Aussie visitor I had coming over Saturday night. Most of Sunday was spent scaling Mission Peak in Fremont... the mountain/hill I look at every day from work and always say I am going to climb one day. It was a bit of a trudge since it was one of the first days of the summer that it got over 30C and the entire walk was completely exposed. The fact that I offered to carry Travis' baby up the hill coupled with the hangover I had from the night before definitely did not help the situation.
So, getting to the night before, an old but close friend of mine, Peter Galbraith was visiting from Dubai. He was one of the Chilis crew (and original member if I remember correctly). I find it amazing that I have remained strong friends (although distant these days) with the group of people I worked with there. Anyway, he was visiting from Dubai with his fiancee Lucy to plan their wedding in Napa and stopped in for drinks before we headed out to dinner. Now my anticipation that Charlie would be worn out from her puppy school class and long walk was sadly misplaced. She was a menace and not only ran around everywhere biting anything she could find, she also weed and pooed all over the carpet!
Dinner was planned for The Slanted Door in the Ferry Building and I would have to rate the food as one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Definitely one of the best in SF. It was supposed to be a Vietnamese restaurant but I don't remember there being too much Vietnamese about it... I had sunk quite a few beers and a martini prior to eating so my judgement could have been quite clouded. We all shared out meals and we started with a dozen fresh oysters, mussels, fresh spring rolls and fillets of yellow tail. For the main we all had the lamb rib steak. It was without doubt one of the best lamb dishes I have ever eaten... and my judgement was definitely not impaired during that assessment.
Later that evening, after a quick foray out to the Marina, we ended up with a few pints at the good old Irish Bank. All in all a good night, which no doubt had an impact on the way I felt the following day as I trudged up Mission Peak in the thirty degree plus heat!

An opinion piece that probably won't get the exposure it deserves in the US.

Where's the outrage over America's gun culture?

California Academy of Science and Thirsty Bear.

Another weekend in California, another two beautiful spring days. Before Dom left he bought both Christine and me tickets to the Californian Academy of Science. Thanks Dom, I really owe you for that.
Although it was small compared to the NY Museum of Natural History or the British Museum of Natural History, it was still an interesteing and enjoyable museum. It was also exceedingly busy, as it has apparently been since it opened late last year. We didn't get to see the planeterium due to the long line up but we did get into the rainforrest exhibit. These were the two main exhibits that formed the two large domes in the centre of the museum. The aquarium below the museum was also quite impressive and we did meet the albino aligator who had his foot bitten by his cell mate recently and was only put back out on display two weeks previous.

That evening we decided to head out to the Thirsty Bear. a bar and tapas restaurant that I've been wanting to try for a while. I've never been a big fan of spanish tapas cuisine but this wasn't bad. The selection of micro-brewed beers (the brewery was on site) was very impressive though and will definitley require future visits.

My first tremblor in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Last Monday I felt my first earthquake while in the US. Surprising it took over a year for that to happen considering where I live and all. It was a 4.3 and occured just south of San Jose. I was sitting at my desk and things started to shake for about 10 seconds or so. Did feel like it lasted that long but it was good to finally feel one. Been looking forward to my first tremblor since I arrived. Apparently the week after I interviewed at Lam there was a 5.4 that I missed. I also slept through a couple of 3.0s but that doesn't really count.
Here is the USGSs information on the event.
And a couple of photos on its location:

Bhutan exhibition at the Asian Art Museum on a beautiful California day.

Couldn't get a much better spring weekend in Northern California. Beautiful warm sunshine, blue skies, a pleasant afternoon breeze and some great Italian food up at North Beach, who cold ask for more. Also threw in a bit of culture with a visit to the Asian Art Museum that had a special exhibition showcasing some of Bhutan's historical art. I haven't seen so many Buddhas in my life. There will also be a Samurai Warriors exhibition starting there in June that I am really looking forward to. Also bought myself a new bike to replace the good old Silver Serpent that finally bit the dust. I snapped the frame last October and had to retire her. The one I bought is just a commuter bike because I couldn't afford the one I wanted... that will come soon enough though.

These are a couple of photos from outside the Art Museum.



This is my new bike.


Sadly this appears to be the only photo I have of the Silver Serpent. Can't believe I had it for 11 years and I only have the one photo. Crazy!

Charlie's measurements at 14 weeks.

Tail to shoulder - 13 in
Shoulder to nose - 10 in
Ear to ear - 4.5 in
Eyes to nose - 2.5 in
Rear hips - 13 in
Chest - 15 in

More of Charlie.

According to Christine's last measurements... attempted measurements as it is almost impossible to have Charlie sit still when you want her to, she is 3 in longer then she was when we got her. Not bad for something that poos out twice as much as she eats!

Charlie the wonder dog.

Yesterday we got our long awaited puppy. She is a beautiful red and white Corgi named Charlie. We drove up to Grass Valley just the the west of Lake Tahoe and picked her up from a breeder/vet, Peggy Roberts. I realised why Corgis are classified as herding dogs. Charlie's father was like a solid brick and about 3 or 4 times the size of Christine's previous Corgi back in Australia. Since Charlie is a girl I'm pretty sure she will remain quite small though. I'd much prefer her to remain small and cute anyway. I'll get myself a big ugly dog when I get a big backyard!
Here are some photos of Charlie.






Christine wanted me to keep some stats on Charlie so she can see how she grows:
Tail to shoulder - 13 in
Shoulder to nose - 10 in
Ear to ear - 3.5 in
Eyes to nose - 2 in
Rear hips - 13 in
Chest - 13.5 in
Weight - 5 kg

And to satisfy Boris' demands:
% body fat - 112.7
Drool volume/day - 2.6 L
Expelled gas volume/day - above measurable limits
Jump height when frightened - Doesn't frighten
Stepped on scream volume - 45 dB