So Long 2006!

• Ah, the last hours of 2006 are unfolding quickly before me. What to do , what to do. It's my 1st New Year's Eve in San Francisco, and the options are plentiful. There's a party to attend, a Bollywood event, and a San Jose Dutch Family's New Year Celebration. Not to mention the countless parties and dinners I could fork over $100 bucks for.
  
• I thought this would be a good year for low key, as it seems I've already got a few vacations planned in the coming months (Dublin, Paris, and a week at Whistler to name a few). So the plan is to check out my favorite neigborhood bars with my boyfriend. The Palace Hotel right around the corner has a beautiful bar I want to visit, and the St. Regis has normal bar hours tonight so we'll hit that too.
  
• Any resolutions out there? I need to come up with some besides to go to Hawaii. However, some good advice was just passed on to me from Nora in Ireland, as it's now the stoke of midnight in downtown Dublin:

2007...life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, grab life by the balls and never regret anything that made you smile.

Cheers to 2007!

Yours truly and Maria in NYC

Presently Surprised!

- It's Christmas Day here in the 'Cuse. It's a warmish, green Christmas at that, and for a change the Canadian relatives have come to visit us this year. Santa was good this year, piling on the work attire presents and treats.
- The rents got a brand new Canon SD600 from Andy and myself. I think they were very suprised and thought the kids would never be generous enough to supply such a present. However we surprised them and brought them into the digital age. We'll see how the remedial training goes...
- I made out pretty well too. The big gift I got was a japanese model rice cooker from my brother Andy. As Andy says, "it will change your life." It even came with a separate gift of ...rice. Apparently we have rice 101 scheduled for tomorrow. This is a welcome change from last year. If not present wise, at the very least more emotionally acceptable. Last year, Andy and I decided not to give gifts to each other, in the spirit of saving our holiday budgets for the other family members. In reality, both of us were simply too cheap to give gifts, and we were both amusingly surprised how easily we both agreed to that.
Rice Cooker: here

Dec 12 - Atlas buys Accipiter

• Today Atlas announced its buyout of Accipiter for $30.3 M cash http://www.atlassolutions.com/news/releases/20061211
• This is not a surprise for Atlas, a buy side force to be reckoned with. However, how easy will it be to standardize counting across these systems, merge the two companies employee base, and continue to specialize offers across their client base will certainly pose challenges. I don't see it happening quickly or easily.
  

Dec 1

• Today is my one year anniversary as a San Franciscan! I'm very excited to still be loving it.
• The annual LA car show was this week. Lots of interesting write-ups in my favorite magazine, the Wall Street Journal. Do they really think a space-age boxy Honda will outsell other mini-vans? Soccermoms, to the moon!
• I realize I've been a bit of a delinquent lately on the blog. I will try to step it up.

Oct 30 - Public Enemy Encounter

• A funny thing happened on the way to NYC. On my AA flight from San Francisco, me and my fellow passengers brushed elbows with Chuck D and Flavor Flav. Although I didn't sit in 1st class with them, they were nice to pose for photos after we deboarded. Flav was the photogenic one, decked out in his attire. Chuck D let his colleague steal the limelight. Too bad everyone thinks Flav is famous for his reality TV show. When I saw these guys in concert in 2003, there were just as nice and personable.

Rach and Flav 2006 (note: not a Halloween costume but has upgraded the clock):














In concert London, UK 2003:














Chuck D belts out

Oct 10th - ode to Ernestine Bayer

• Not as timely as I could with this news, but last month one critical lady for the women's rowing movement passed away. Ernestine Bayer who lived just outside Boston, died at the age of 97. The following sentence sums up the determination she kept to put women's rowing on the map:

Bayer single-handedly changed the landscape of rowing when she introduced women to the sport. Her name is recognizable around the world for her achievement and advancement of competitive rowing.Even as she aged, she continued to be a fierce competitor. She competed until she suffered a stroke at the age of 92. To this day, she holds the Crash-B world record on the rowing ergometer for lightweight women over 90 years old.

Full story is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14853224/from/ET/

Sep 15

• Checking out some SF hot spots tonight:
• Dragon Bar - on broadway and Kearny
• Bambhudda Lounge - the funky hotel bar that is a bit LA, a bit Soho Grand, and all San Francisco where I get to idolize the DJ. One can only aspire...
  

Sep 14

• Exciting times are upon us! I have to say I'm enjoying reading up on everyone's pastimes in other blogs. Several of my co-workers run at least one of many blogs (sorry I do work in technology), and it is a great way to see the world through someone else's voice for a change.
• One thing I've recently caught on to in San Francisco is the really bad TV I'm offered on basic cable. I don't watch a lot of TV as it is, but when I do, I find it's split between the following:
• K-RON (or as I like to say "kron")
• Cable 36 - Tyra Banks - more on this below
• National Geographic Channel
• CNN/HNN
• Comedy Central

At this point I hope you're asking yourself why I have decided to tune into Tyra Banks. Since the show is on every other hour here in San Francisco, how can I not watch it? If you must know, she does have some pretty edgy and controversial topics that, as a talk show host, push the envelope. This week for example, there was an interesting segment on racism (which race has it worst via focus groups), and Internet porn predators (they exposed some sicko on her show who decided it was ok to be perverse in front of a self-proclaimed 14 year old girl - gross). I'm glad Tyra moved on from the catwalk to raise the Jerry-Springer bar.

Maybe one of these days I'll have to get TiVo.

Sep 6 - Falling Forward

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks here in SF. In between a few trips to LA and excursions around SF for work, I spent Labor Day with some good friends who visited from Seattle - fellow NY transplants Aaron and Joanne Kaufman.  We headed to Arnold, CA for the long weekend.  Arnold is about 3 hours due east of San Francisco, smack in the middle of a mining and logger paradise.  At least it was 100 years ago, anyway.  We even got to check out the Logger Jamboree. It was a first for all of us.  On Monday, we were treated to a single-engine plane ride back in The Red Baron.  Conditions were perfect.  We skimmed over the flat California piedmont, the Navy "mothball fleet", the Golden Gate, and even my downtown apartment building.  We didn't see any traffic until we were right outside SF airport.  Compared to the giant landing jets, we were a mere spec of the size.  It was my first weekend away in quite a while.  A welcome, refreshing break.

Otherwise, I am looking forward to my Central Europe trip which is rapidly approaching.  Two weeks from tomorrow I check out for the Berlin marathon.  Training is going well.  I have one more 20 miler to do this weekend, and then it's kick back time more or less.  I've also got to dust off that dirndl, as the uniform will be required once again in Bavaria.  We haven't made too much movement on the Croatia front, but it's still in the gameplan, and hopefully will come together shortly as some NY friends are planning that leg.

Aug 23

• Sunday is San Francisco's Cable Car Chase race.  This race covers the rolling hills of downtown San Francisco across 5.67 miles of cable car tracks.  I am sure to be huffing and puffing my way along: http://www.anacablecarchase.com/2006/
• Labor Day is fast approaching and I'm hoping to escape to a new nearby discovery.  Suggestions, anyone?

Aug 22

• It's here! Salesforce.com has entered the online advertising arena with a Google Adwords partnership.

http://businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060822_483926.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

I wouldn't be surprised if it expands to Yahoo! or DART Search which seems likely in the future and if this is successful.

August 13

• My inaugural triathlon last month went off without a hitch, except for the flat tire I got 40 minutes into my 1200' M bike ascent up Donner Pass. As I was walking my flat bike back down the mountain, escaping the careening bike traffic, I ended up getting picked up by the race organizer who was kind enough to scrape me and another flat-tire biker. He was a very nice guy, and saved me a at least 2 miles of walking down a switch-back mountain pass. I waited for my friend and then we ran the remaining 6.5 miles together. Since she had done the full 2 hour bike ride, she was just a bit more tired than I.

Will I do it again? Not sure if a full olympic distance is in order, but I did end up buying my rented wet suit, so I'm sure it will be used at some point.

• Now that triathlon season is over for me (until at least 2007), Berlin marathon training has begun. I'm up to 16 mile long runs, so I hope to be ready in 6 weeks!
• My week vacation in Lake Placid/Adirondacks was very refreshing. One of my favorite photos is below, taken at Dippikill Pond. I admit it is somewhat digitally altered, but a great shot!
  

July 17 again

• I have to promote the new yahoo home page debut! About the poage - http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/17/new-yahoo-home-page-goes-live-today/ I'm a big yahoo fan, looks good so far. I'll test it out this week.
• Or you can just check it out here: http://www.yahoo.com/preview
  

July 17

• I survived the Triathlon - got a flat tire so I didn't even get to experience the full effect of the race.  All in all we had fun and had a great time swimming a mile above sea level, climbing a mountain pass, and running at high noon :)
• A good article concerning the Middle East: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1822143,00.html

Ides of July - Triathlon eve

• 24 hours and counting until the 1st triathlon occurs. Jessica, aka rowing partner in crime turned whats this tri stuff all about partner in crime is picking me up momentarily. Let's do a quick gear check shall we?
• bike
• tent, sleeping bag, pillow
• rented wetsuit (I hope it works - haven't had a chance to 'test')
• suitcase for next week (yes, going straight from race to the airport for my next journey - work in Colorado!)
• bag for this weekend w/ clothes (pre, during, post race).
• lots of gu and powerbars
• It's quite the gear-intensive sport - maybe I'll find some more local races so I won't have to lug everything around so much next time. At least Jessica is bringing an SUV and not the 2 seater TT - we wouldn't stand a chance.

• Weather is looking good - high 80's and sunny. In that weekend bag is ozzie sunblock, guaranteed to keep my ghostly.

07-07-06

- Who can argue with a 2 day week, it sure feels nice.
- I had to get blood drawn today for routine Dr. visit tests.  One of my reasons was I don't even know my own blood type.  I find that in this day and age, not knowing one's blood type is a little scary

- one week left until Donner Lake!  Taper mode has begun.

July Happy 4th

As promised, here are photos of the gay pride parade! There's about 30 or so. I didn't snap any of me in my relay freaks shirt, although I did get comments that it was a cool shirt and some folks even took my photo. I will have to tell shirt designer Dawn that it was highly regarded in the gay pride parade.

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QbNGTls2ZND0

Happy 4th of July to everyone. I have stayed local for this four day holiday and am enjoying the city's cool climate after so many years of sweltering mid-summer celebrations. If only I had some sparklers...

Oktoberfest reprise

Posting that photo made me all too nostalgic for Oktoberfest.

Here's some better photos, you'll get the idea!

June 24 - training, oktoberfest and pride

• OK so SF lifestlyle has kicked into high gear. I'm busy training for the Donner Lake Triathalon July 16th. It's an olympic distance so that means 1 mile swim, 40k bike, 6.5 mile run. Yes, I am a bit nuts but my rowing partner in crime has also agreed to do it so at least we can suffer together. Donner Lake is out near Tahoe, so at the very least while we're gasping for air up at 1000m high (or more, I have no idea what the altitude is) everything will look pretty (especially with the extra endorphins kicking into high gear). For the record, I am training for it. My goal is to finish, but as my first one, I don't have sights set higher than that.

• Reason #2 lifestyle has kicked into high gear: As soon as the aforementioned event is over, I get to start my Marathon Training for Berlin. September 24th I'll be heading over to the x-walled city for one of the top 5 marathons in the world. Once over there, me and some other fellow compardres from my NYC running club are going to kick back and enjoy our well deserved beers at Oktoberfest. That's right, year #2 and going strong for me. If I'm lucky a side trip to Italy is also in the plans. That will be one fantastic vacation.
  

• Reason #3 lifestyle has kicked into high gear, but not necessarily that relevant to me: Gay Pride is coming to town. This weekend marks all sorts of festivities like "dykes on bikes" music, and floats of all kinds. As I biked up Market St this morning, the 300 ft neon pink triangle that has been temporarily affixed to Twin Peaks above the Castro is all you need to see to know what this is all about. I'll be there with my rainbow relay freaks shirt on, the only rainbow colored thing I own. It needs a good excuse to come out of the closet. Hah no pun intended!
  

June 2 - In Inconvenient Truth Premiers

• You may have heard about the new Al Gore movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.
• Ebert has given it 2 thumbs up and explains why here: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060601/REVIEWS/60517002
• Tonight is opening night at Embarcadero Theatre. Hope you can make it!
• In other news, today marks my six month anniversary in SF.
  

May 31

• The last day of May has come. Today's WSJ has already started the hurricane season hype (along with everyone else) and are predicting this year to be equally high risk and the northeast US should brace itself. Call me crazy, but I don't remember really having to deal with hurricane reporting until at least late summer. Is all this hype really necessary to rile up everyone again? Maybe it is a wake up call. Speaking of which, I suppose Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, which opens on Friday June 2nd at the Embaracdero Theatre in San Francisco, is good timing.
• It's no page 6, but the NY Post (and many other sources) are rumoring MSN to buy ebay? Hmm, that would be a big ripple.
  

May 26 - Memorial Day weekend

• I have a record breaking 3 bbq's to attend over the weekend. Lots of braised meats! One is in Mills' Valley, one in Golden Gate Park, and another at Fort Mason for YHI. It should be a fun weekend, and the forecast is sun and more sun.
• My favorite neighborhood bar, 21st ammendment, has a summery wheat beer called Watermelon Wheat. Last night I was there briefly and I must say, it's very tasty.
• The SF Carnival parade & festival is happening this weekend in the mission. I am closeby so I hope to check it out on a non-bbq day.
  

May 25 - Great reason to love SF

Where else can you literally run into a migrating pack/school/herd of sea lions and their fiesty pups? This time of year they are on their migration track and during mating season. I jog down to see these friendly rolly-polly's down at Fisherman's Wharf and they are so cute. Always a top moment of the day. They even have their own webcam (left hand margin).

A bit more on these beautiful lions

These guys are so popular!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

May 21 - Bay To Breakers

• Today was the infamous Bay to Breakers 12k in San Francisco. Luckily, I live a few blocks from the starting line so I rolled out of bed and proceeded to my mark. No amount of good night sleep could prepare me for the way to many naked men I saw (waaaay too many- I think the ratio of naked men to women was about 20:1) and yes they DID race in ruff tough and in the buff. It was a fun race, and made my flight from Boston just to be part of the mayhem worthwhile. Some photos from the event are here courtesy of the SF Chronicle.
  

May 10

• Greetings from NYC. I’m here this week for work.  It's good to be back, but do I feel weird staying in a hotel.  Not to mention that for a good few years, I'd only go to this hotel because it was my gym! (it's a gym and hotel - oh yes and there's a few bars too!)
• I have lots of people to greet and meet - nothing planned of course but I can't believe how it creeps up on you.  This week is packed with dinners, lunches, and breakfast, all fit inbetween the busy work schedule.
• Being back in NYC, I was reminded that besides the people, the best thing about Manhattan is Central Park.  In spring it's green oasis are warmly welcomed in the midst of the concrete jungle.

April 27 - fun with siblings in SF

• This weekend brother Andy is in town and we're doing it up in SF. I've convinced him to be my accomplice at ad-tech (he can pretend he'll actually sserve ads in his software, or at least entertain the idea), co-ordinate the office happy hour while I am in Oakland at a prospect meeting, and enjoy an eventful product launch party from my employer.
• We checked out Fluid, a hip-happening club 2 doors down the road from my apartment. Great interior design, but we hit it in a lull.
  

April 18 - Earthquake Central

• At 5:12am today, the 100 year anniversary of the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake occurred. All over the city, people are remembering the devastation and fires that wiped nearly 3000 people out of existence and went down as one of the greatest natural disasters after the ice age. With degrees of geography and geology under my belt (yes, earth science rocks, er you know what I mean), I can't help but be in awe of the significance of this event.

• In my own personal commemoration I stopped into the California Historical Society and checked out Jack London's photo exhibits last night. About 75 photos mount the walls and tell the tale of the Earthquake and its ruins. His journals and newspaper articles make a good accompianment. I liked his journal entries the most out of all the visual elements. I think his writings are better than his photos, but it's good to know he was talented at both. He wasn't a bad looking guy either, as he was 30 when his photos were taken. He died at 40 so these were some good years of his life as he sailed the pacific and enjoyed his riches made from his writings. He was one of my favorite American authors in high school, and I remember reading Call of the Wild and White Fang several times over I liked the stories so much. In fact, every day on my walk to work I pass his birthplace, marked as a historical site on 3rd Street.
  
• No wonder my parents freaked out last week about earthquakes. Grim forecasts ahead!
• Earthquake activity map in real time!
  

April 14

• Google beta's its new calendar sharing and managing tool.
  

April 12 - The rents visit SF

• My parents have been in SF since Friday night. We kicked things off Friday at 111 Minna where they caught my SF DJ debut! (Thanks Gabriel for all those beers!). I DJ'd the private party room for my workmate's birthday bash. I must say, not too shabby for my first public SF DJ appearance!
• Luckily we struck while the weather was good and Saturday checked out the morning markets at the Ferry Terminal building. IMHO, this is the best thing to do whether or not you have guests in town to bring. We're talking farm fresh veggies (note: there are no peppers since they're out of season), flowers, fresh baked goods, meats, potatoes, cheeses, the works. Best tip: look for the free samples of the fried asparagus guys in the back lot...delicioso!
• The rest of the weekend was spent taking cable cars (not trolleys!) wondering around Ghiradrdelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, and the seafront. We also drove to Sausalito and Tiburon and had a great lunch at the famous local joint Sam's cafe in Tiburon. It was raining so we skipped the house Mai Tai's I've been mandated to try, but opted for some great grub including the "best fish and chips I've had in three years" quoted by my Mom, and some spicy Huevos Rancheros that was very satiating.
• Other cool stuff we did: saw the Spelling Bee musical, visited Napa valley, and checked out the SF Moma.
  

April 6 - Krazy Kangaruhah from Austria

• This is my anonymous friend expressing herself at the apres-ski venue "Krazy Kangaruh" in St. Anton, Austria. Mamma mia!

April 5 - splashin in SF

• I don't really understand why everyone thinks there is so much rain here. Put this rain in any other part of the country, and it's "spring showers."
  
• I'm preparing for the parental unit to visit next week. Our our list: SF Giants v. Houston, Napa Valley including a cakebread winery tour, A musical about spelling bee's, a group dinner at Gordon Birsch's brewery, and either Sausalito or Alcatraz. We're talking tourist central. I've already been warned I must buy an Iron for the visit.
  
• I was able to travel down to Los Angeles this week. This was my 1st time since I was there about 6 years ago. A quick trip, but I managed to eat at chic dining spot Ivy and enjoy what Beverly Hills had to offer.
• Today I was reading about Microsoft's new "Ad Lab" to discover the next big things in online advertising. I can only imagine what a roomful of statisticians and online ads will produce. Let me guess, behavioral targeting, contextual ads, and interactive video (just a hunch).
  

I miss Rachael!

Ok this is a little distrubing...I highly doubt it's me!

• http://imissrachael.com/

March 24 - rachael.pbwiki.com is born

• Cool collaborative site www.pbwiki.com - as in Peanut Butter wiki for creating universal collaborative sandwiches! There's an enhanced version for $50 / year, and you can make them public or private spaces. From the DMA email newsletter: "PBwiki was started by David Weekly, a Stanford Computer Science graduate, at an all-night programming party he hosts at his house called 'SuperHappyDevHouse.' David has done research for MIT, Harvard Physics, Stanford Graphics, Casio US R&D, and others, and is now fulltime as CEO of the company that runs PBwiki. His personal Web site is: david.weekly.org/
• Rachael.pbwiki.com is born!!! Nothing posted yet, but hopefully soon some cool stuff!
  

• Last night I enjoyed my favorite SF microbrewery, 21st amendement on 2nd st and South Park St. My office headed over there for a farewell party. Even a blog with photos were posted, a pretty industrious effort for a party.

The author (left) enjoys commraderie at officemate's farewell party (Robert, center).

March 20 - SF tourist for a weekend

• I had a great long weekend showing my NYC girlfriends why I moved out here. Kathleen, Sue and I kicked things off at the SF MOMA where I signed up for membership (anyone else who comes out to see me should know we can attend for free now). There's a great photographic exhibit on the 1906 Great SF earthquake. I learned a lot about how the city basically had to build itself up from scratch after a fire raged from east to west coast and desecrated anything in its sight. It's an amazing exhibit, especially considering the film based camera had just been invented 10 years earlier by Mr. Kodak.
  
• We had a full day of St. Patrick's day festivities at the Royal Exchange, and then headed to North Beach for the O'Reilly's block party. Lots of green hair and irish fanfare to go around. I will post photos soon.
  
• On Saturday we had the perfect day and recommend this for anyone with out of town guests who is blessed with good weather. We shopped the Saturday markets at the Ferry Terminal for a bit, ate some kickin' sausage rolls, bought some veggies, and headed to Sausalito around noon on the ferry. After we walked around for a bit, Kathleen took it upon herself to see how much houses were (ouch!) but the good news was that there were places in Sausalito that were under half a million dollars. Now we are talking...We spent the afternoon eating a leisurely lunch at The Spinnaker - a must see for anyone who appreciates gorgeous views as sailboats and kayakers float by with San Franciscon skyline as the backdrop. After a few bottles of Moon Valley Sauvingnon Blanc which hailed from nearby Napa, we headed back to the mainland.
• Our last day again had amazing weather, and was spent hiking up and down the hills of San Francisco checking out Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill panoramic views, the oldest single family home left after the 1906 earthquake near California St and Larkin (sorry, forgot the name). We opted to not tour the house but one can for $8. Overall we had a great trip!

March 11 - upstate NY roots

• This doesn't happen everyday. My alma mater's basketball team University at Albany has made history - they are going to the big dance!
• Last night I met up with a fellow Syracusian in San Francisco. We went to a great venue down in the Marina/Giradelli Square - Ana Manadara is a great Vietnamese restaurant and bar with comfy chairs and a jazz lounge that balconies over the dining area. Great atmosphere and relaxing ambiance.

March 6 - Home sweet home.

• Dear God, please not let me ever fly again for 26 hours straight, when only going from the US to Europe. Today I'm back from the epic journey overseas. If you count when I left San Francisco to head to NY, I've been gone 3 weeks. It's good to be home even if it is torrential downpouring upon arrival. I will post photos of skiing in St. Anton Austria, along with a few Dublin pictures from the brother / sister journey likely next week! Also worth noting - I've earned a new appreciation for sea level where there is at least some moisture in the air and you don't dry out like beef jerky.
  

Feb 20 - Live from Dublin

• Day 2 in Dublin - Andy and I are here exploring all this great town has to offer. I think Andy is enjoying checking out his roots here. Everyone looks like us as we say.
  
• Nora my hostess with the mostess is doing a terrific job of helping out in every way. We're with here in Phibsborough, just north of Parnell Square on the canal. Yesterday we were in Wicklow to check out Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock) for ruins and walks in the woods. Greetings to everyone from the motherland!
• We are also enjoying quoting back and forth various lines from Arrested Development trying to tackle a few items we just never got (why was it too quick even for the narrorator?!) We were both stumped by that. We'll see if I get him hooked on Lost, I may succeed just yet. Other than those two shows I'm not really a TV junkie at all.
  

Feb 10

• One of my WSJ favorite Walt Mossberg columnists is stirring up some discussion about legisltion on cookies as told by MediaPost Online's minute today. His angle is mostly for spyware companies, but a blanket legislation for this is not necessary. This implies that all cookies are placed on user browsers without consent or behind the back of a user, which is not true for all companies.
• Tonight is the big match up US v. Japan for men's soccer. 8pm kick off time 1 block from work! I can't wait to watch my first footie pro match.
  

Feb 9

• Interesting study about online puchasing for the college demographic published in imedia connection. Definitely slide quoteworthy.
• I have a volunteer streak running strong this week. Trolling SF craigslist.org (not a good habit to get into. I must have way too much time on my hands hence the call for volunteering outlets. I came across opportunities to have a valentine to visit with littlebrothers.org which really sounds great. I also will be volunteering with Hostelling International leading local tours and ...pub crawls. That just sounds plain awful. What better way to learn about the city and meet fellow travel enthousiasts? I have an interview tonight and it does not require a resume, thankfully. If I did have a 'travel resume, it wouldn't be half bad.
  

Feb 7

• Today is the big day for surfing enthousiasts far and wide - a local challenge has reached its prime in cult status - the Maverick surf competition outside of Half Moon Bay took place today. A few years ago someone discovered and kept this spot hidden from the world while he glided on his board across fifty foot waves. Today, 30,000 spectators showed up to watch. Video footage complements of KTVU TV station.
• I just evelvated my taqueria knowledge 100% - my first experience was at a local favorite aptly titled Mexico Au Parc - on South Park and 2nd St. A delicous green chicken molé was devoured down with 5 kinds of salsa, corn totillas, rice and beans, and thirst-quenching guacamole. The author is not as coy as she appears however; I didn't discover this myself as I consulted the handy-dandy ever-San Francisco friendly Burritoeater.com: a must to conquer the cities taqueria a la cartes.
• From my favorite magazine Wired, a new spin on Advertising
  

Feb 3

• There's a new local Internet blog-gossip site that launched yesterday: Valleywag - apparently the hot topics are about the local taxes of Larry Ellison and Google's queen of search. Interesting in themselves, so we'll see what else pops up soon.
• I checked out SF AMA - $225 annual membership! Maybe my company can fork that over.
• Is it a bar? Is it a gallery? Is it a hybrid of sorts? Last night, I found a great place to have a drink and enjoy local art - 111 Minna Gallery. From the outside, it looks like a swanky private gallery party. From the inside, you realize it's a great bar where there's always something to talk about. Besides, anywhere I can get "Big Daddy" beer, is thumbs up in my book.

NYC Marathon Reprise

• A bit out of chronological order. Some of you were wondering how the Marathon went this year. Here is the proof that it I indeed finish.
  

Crossing the NYC Marathon finish line 2005

Feb 2 - Groundhogs nil

• Very interesting articles in the WSJ today in Personal Technology. Walt Mossberg tells us aboutRollyo: Roll Your Own Search Engine- personalizing search amongst engines and shareable, as well as PubSub, which I'm not so keen about. Try it out for what you find interesting.
  
• For some reason I'm very akin to this "holiday" even though winter is meaningless in this part of the country - CNN.com - Punxsutawney Phil predicts ... - Feb 2, 2006 forecasts 6 more weeks of winter...bah humbug.
• I purchased a string of SF Giants tickets for 2006. I am proud to say I will be seeing the NY Mets and Oakland A's in action. For you out of town guests lurking to visit - let me know when you are coming, and hopefully it's a home game.
• While purchasing tickets for SF Giants, I became sidetracked and managed to also buy a ticket for a "friendly" USA Men's Soccer match as they gear up for the World Cup - ussoccer v. Japan. Even though I didn't score tickets for Germany, hopefully my friends Scott and Laura will richly indulge me in their escapades while cruising around the Nordic sea and dropping themselves off in Berlin for a game.
  

Feb 1 - Groundhog eve new beginnings

• I'm cheating a bit - it's the eve of Groundhog's eve. I'm rededicating the blue bobsled to a few new noteworthy causes:
• Discovery of San Franccisco and local findings of muse
• Happening in the Internet space - aka what I do when I don't blog
• This new course will hopefully steer me in some good writing direction.
  
• Stay tuned for more info on SF discoveries and Internet happenings.