Thanksgiving Engrish

I took this picture at a Japanese restaraunt on the top of the hill from my house. I found the Engrish appropriate given what happens to turkeys on Thanksgiving.

Pocket pets

Mullets in Monterey

Monkeying around

Caffeine

It was a late night at work and I wanted to know which free soft drinks in the fridge had the most caffeine. You'll see what I found. Here's a list of some popular drinks and the caffeine you'll find in them. I got this from this site.

12-ounce drinks in milligrams:
Red Bull (8.2 oz) 80.0
Jolt 71.2
Pepsi One 55.5
Mountain Dew 55.0
Mountain Dew Code Red 55.0
Diet Mountain Dew 55.0
Kick Citrus 54.0
Mellow Yellow 52.8
Surge 51.0
Tab 46.8
Diet Coke 45.6
Diet Coke with Lemon 45.6
Diet Coke with Lime 45.6
Diet Vanilla Coke 45.6
Shasta Cola 44.4
Shasta Cherry Cola 44.4
Shasta Diet Cola 44.4
RC Cola 43.0
Diet RC 43.0
Dr. Pepper 41.0
Diet Dr. Pepper 41.0
Diet Sunkist Orange 41.0
Mr. Pibb 40.0
Sugar-Free Mr. Pibb 40.0
Red Flash 40.0
Sunkist Orange 40.0
Slim-Fast Cappuccino Delight Shake 40.0
Ruby Red 39.0
Storm 38.0
Big Red 38.0
Pepsi-Cola 37.5
Pepsi Twist 37.5
Diet Pepsi 36.0
Wild Cherry Pepsi 38.0
Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi 36.0
Diet Pepsi Twist 36.0
Aspen 36.0
Coca-Cola Classic 34.0
Coke C2 34.0
Cherry Coke 34.0
Lemon Coke 34.0
Vanilla Coke 34.0
Diet Cherry Coke 34.0
Snapple Flavored Teas (Reg. or Diet) 31.5
Canada Dry Cola 30.0
A&W Creme Soda 29.0
Nestea Sweet Iced Tea 26.5
Nestea Unsweetened Iced Tea 26.0
Barq's Root Beer 23.0
A&W Diet Creme Soda 22.0
Slim-Fast Chocolate Flavors 20.0
Snapple Sweet Tea 12.0
Lipton Brisk, All Varieties 9
Canada Dry Diet Cola 1.2
Diet Rite Cola 0
Sprite 0
7-Up 0
Mug Root Beer 0
Diet Barq's Root Beer 0
Sundrop Orange 0
Minute Maid Orange 0
A&W Root Beer 0
Slice 0
Sierra Mist 0
Fresca 0

8-ounce drinks in milligrams:
Coffee, Drip 115-175
Coffee, Brewed 80-135
Coffee, Espresso (2 ounces) 100
Coffee, Instant 65-100
Tea, iced 47
Tea, brewed, imported brands (avg.) 60
Tea, brewed, U.S. brands (avg.) 40
Tea, instant 30
Tea, green 15
Hot cocoa 14
Coffee, Decaf, brewed 3-4
Coffee, Decaf, instant 2-3

Aflac

Blooming in Redwood City

Saturday Carnitas

Tarboosh

I'm just waiting for lunch at a restaurant in Redwood City and liked the custom engraved table. As always I'm keeping my phone posting messages short.

Mesa

Gotcha

We went to Half Moon bay on my last day of freedom before I started my new job. The weather was beautiful as I tried my killer toe crushing move seen here. I'm currently waiting in the Phoenix airport so I will keep this short and end it now.

Seven Up

As I mentioned previously, I left my job at Swan Labs last Friday without any real job plans and ended up at the end of my first day of unemployment with two job offers. I didn't really mean to get the job offers that quickly as I thought I might take a bit of time off first, but it's nice to be wanted and nice to know that you actually do have a job to go to eventually. I'm going to take a week off and start the following week at a company called Seven Networks.

Choosing between both of my offers was one of the most difficult job decisions I have ever made. The offer I didn't take was at a great and growing company with a great product and great team that is doing very well financially and is a place that I would have been virtually guaranteed to make a very significant amount of money in a very short period of time through options, etc. I chose not to join the company because what it does is very similar to what I've been doing for a while now and I really felt that it was time for a change. However, the money I'm most likely leaving behind could have been quite a nice boost to the bank account and probably covered a cash home purchase in this very overpriced Bay Area.

In the end I chose Seven and there is of course always the potential to make money there, but it is nowhere near as emminent and nowhere near as guaranteed. I probably changed my mind a dozen times over the course of the week and talked to quite a few folks at each of the companies trying to gain better insight into their companies and what working there would be like.

Swan Song

Well, after over 5.5 years with Pivia (Swan Labs for the past 4 months following the acquisition of Pivia in November) I have decided to leave to try something new. My last day at Swan was Friday February 25th. It was a difficult decision for me and I will definitely miss the people at Swan, but for me it was the right time to leave all of that behind and move on to something else.

I haven't looked very hard for jobs yet and I am planning on taking a week or so off before I look around much. I did already receive a good job offer from a pretty exciting company in the mobile phone space that I found through a recruiter which may force that process to speed up a bit. I wasn't really trying to get a job offer that quickly but at the same time it feels good to know that I have a job if I want one. They want me to accept the offer really soon, but I feel like I need to wait a tiny bit (1 to 2 weeks) and talk to a few other places before I settle, just for my own peace of mind. I feel like I owe that to myself at a minimum when choosing the place I'll be spending a large chunk life for possibly quite some time. Hopefully they will understand.

If anyone has an exciting job they think I might be interested in, feel free to send me a message at (obfuscated to avoid spamming) my first initial followed by my last name (no spaces or punctuation between them) at mail dot com.

Mirror Image

I'm currently at Red Robin waiting for lunch (a Banzai burger) and thought I'd post a picture I took in Nordstrom's in downtown Portland this past Christmas while we were out shopping. I know, Christmas has long since passed, but I really just did this to entertain myself while eating lunch and waiting for my burger to arrive. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to post here soon!

No hybrids in the California car pool lane today

Many car owners have purchased hybrids or were planning on purchasing them, not only for the great fuel efficiency, but to be able to drive solo in the car pool lanes in California. Looks like that may not be happening any time soon.

Here's an excerpt from a Newsday article:

SACRAMENTO -- Hybrid car owners anxious to cruise California's car pool lanes are in for a January disappointment. Their reward for getting 45 miles per gallon is caught up in Washington politics.

Though the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to open the lanes to single-occupant hybrid cars beginning Jan. 1 -- specifically the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic and Insight -- the U.S. government hasn't approved a waiver to allow it on federal highways in the state.

Backers of the law said it might be months before the fuel-efficient cars are allowed in the fast lane in California, if ever.

Tsunami Relief, Please Help

Here's a detailed list from CNN of organizations putting together aid and relief support for the 2004 tsunami tragedy in Asia. Please help in any way that you can!

• Amazon
• AmeriCares
• Action Against Hunger
• ADRA International
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.
• American Red Cross
• Association for India's Development
• CARE
• Catholic Relief Services
• Christian Children's Fund
• Church World Service
• Concern Worldwide
• Direct Relief International
• Doctors Without Borders
• Food for the Hungry, Inc.
• International Aid
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• International Medical Corps
• International Rescue Committee
• Islamic Relief Worldwide
• Lutheran World Relief
• MAP International
• Mercy Corps
• Network for Good
• Operation Blessing International
• Operation USA
• Oxfam America
• Plan USA
• Project Concern International
• Salvation Army
• Save the Children USA
• UNICEF
• U.N. World Food Programme
• USAID
• World Concern
• World Relief
• World Vision

A former co-worker of mine from San Jose was caught in the tsunami in Bankok. She was hurt but made it back to the U.S. in one piece. Here's a link to her blog where she discusses some of her experiences and thoughts on the situation.