jfin is here…

Ich war um meinen Kopfschmuck
Wirklich nicht zu beneiden
Also ging ich umgehend mal zum Haareschneiden
Vielleicht die Lockenpracht von Valderama
Del Haye’s Matte wär wahrscheinlich
Auch kein Drama
Doch mein Friseur meinte ich wäre der Checker
Mit der Frisur von Boris Becker

Ich hab die Beine von Briegel
Und die Arme von Pfaff
Hab den Charme von Günther Netzer
Und ne Braut in jedem Kaff
Hab das Gesicht von Hansi Müller
Bin kokett und auch schön
Doch da ist was das mich besorgt

… Ich will lieber wieder
Die Frisur von Björn Borg!!!!!!!!!

(more…)

Today was Memorial Day, which means everyone gets a day off. It’s also supposed to be a chance to honor and remember Americans who’ve fallen in combat - I guess kind of like the New Zealand / Australia ANZAC day - but I didn’t see any formal events planned for it.

Went hiking again, this time with a group of friends from church. Left at 8.30, drove out to Point Reyes (on on the coast north of San Francisco) then walked 6 miles in to a waterfall that drops straight off a cliff onto the beach. Very cool. Pleasant day, finished off with dinner at Chow in the city (Market & Church) before driving back to Sunnyvale. Photos.

At one point during the day found myself strolling nonchalantly through a patch or maybe several patches of poison oak. Sometimes I think this Kiwi she’ll-be-right attitude is not quite so helpful. Anyway, every little itch for the next few days will be carefully monitored.

Some interesting chats with different people .. it’s funny how you start to appreciate good company when all of a sudden you get less of it than you are used to.

Listening to : Johnny Cash - Best Of Johnny Cash

Went hiking today, in the Henry W. Coe State Park - 45 mins south of San Jose.

Got a little bored of the trail, as I sometimes do these days (Rob - you’re a bad influence), so decided I’d follow the river for a while longer and then cut straight up a hill to a ridge instead of following the track that sidled around and up. Was beautiful down in the river .. no trail, so rock-hopping and wading up the canyon. So many tadpoles swimming around! Decided it was about time to head up the hill and after 30 mins climbing, as also seems to be becoming habit, I managed to get myself into the middle of a rather large patch of scrub .. scrub, scrub as far as the eye could see. Took about an hour to get through probably less than 1km of bush. At one stage I was scrambling on my hands and feet for about 100 metres .. keeping low below most of the foliage was easier than trying to fight through it standing up. Felt great to finally make it up to the track on the ridge.

Got back to the car eventually after a 7 hour day covering 17 miles (about 28km).

A lot of the terrain and bush reminded me of Australia .. dry grass-covered rolling hills. ’twas very nice down in the river valleys though. Good to get out into the bush for a while… will have to go back, looks like there are some great camping spots. More photos here.

Listening to : José Gonzalez - Veneer

.. so here it is. Theoretically I shouldn’t be spending a huge amount of time in this particular building, because I should be out at clients being billiable, generating revenue, and creating eminence.

Won’t be doing a lot of that over the next few days, because it’s a long weekend… yeeeeaah! I should probably have planned a trip away somewhere, but couldn’t be bothered. Plenty of time here to travel, don’t want to go rushing these things.

I like Fridays.

…which means that I am compatible with it. It’s also one reason why I don’t mind leaving work a little later sometimes.
Took this photo while driving home up the 87 tonight.

The camera doesn’t quite do it justice though, looks a lot better in real life.

Check out this infinite zooming photomosaic. Hours of fun.

After 15 minutes driving around the streets of San Jose with an examiner from the DMV sitting besides me, I’m now legal to drive on both sides of the road. Yeeeah!

The examiner tells me that I didn’t look over my shoulder during a left-lane change at one point (I swear I did and she just wasn’t looking), and made poor use of a lane while going through a turn at another point. 2 driving errors out of an allowable 15 before they fail you. So I could have made another 13 ‘mistakes’ while driving - and also not known where my windshield wipers, headlights, or defroster controls were - and I would have still passed.

However, if the examiner had needed to intervene or I had struck an object or a curb, disobeyed a traffic sign or signal, travelled at excessive speed, performed a dangerous maneuver, or made use of auxillary equipment then it’s considered a ‘critical driving error’ and I would have failed immediately.

Apparently they are a bit more relaxed in some of the other states… scary thought.

1 - Went out to a client for the first time since I’ve been here after a few initial delays early in the week. Interesting work, good company, and a very successful pentest exercise.

2 - We got an email from work on Thursday explaining that, due to great financial results for the YTD, they are going to give us all an extra 4 days holiday to be used over summer (before September). What’s that quote from the Wedding Singer? “I’ve only been here for two months, and I’m reaping all the benefits.” Yeah, something like that anyway. :)

3 - The “small group” (home group) that I’ve hooked up with through church has been great .. very welcoming people with great attitudes and senses of humour, just what I need. Bible study, volleyball, prayer meeting, lunches, movies … allll good.

4 - Made it to the gym 3 times.. very impressive, considering my somewhat strong dislike of them. But seeing it’s the doorway next to the lab in the hallway at work, I have no excuses. 10 mins on bike to warm up, 30 on treadmill, weights, 10 mins on rowing machine, weights, 10 mins on bike to cool down. Enough variety to keep me semi-interested.

Listening to : Mat Kearney - Renaissance

Driving along Stephens Creek Boulevard today and passed a corner with a bunch of protestors standing with American flags and banners. Wish I had a camera, but the three signs that stuck out to me were:

Close our borders

Racism divides America

Bring our troops home

Quite different messages, but at a glance they all looked fairly friendly with each other - signwriting even looked the same. Interesting way of making yourself heard .. stand on a corner with anybody else who wants to make a point regarding an issue, whether they are related or not.

President Bush is at an all-time low approval rating, the conflict in Iraq is nowhere near resolved (and Iran looks like it may be a problem), immigration (especially the Mexico-America border) has become a headline issue, the economy seems to be faltering with a huge balance of payments deficit (US$225 billion in last quarter 2005), birdflu is somewhere out there on the horizon … America seems to be stuck with several problems that may not be easily solved by this or any president. And Europe and Asia are definitely becoming stronger. A fascinating time to be living here, that’s for sure.

Yesterday went out to “Big Basin” with flatmates .. strolled about 5 miles of mostly smooth dirt trail through some pretty amazing redwood forest. Somehow not quite up there with NZ missions. I was told at church today that there is definitely some more challenging terrain out there, so I look forward to discovering that.

Finally got around to buying a phone, so send me an email if you want to be able to harass me via txt. :) Seeing I have no credit history here, I was given the priviledge of providing them with a US$500 deposit, which I get back in a year as long as I behave. I love being a lower class citizen, I really do.