Stephen's Blog

tokyo, taipei pics

2009-04-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

random b/w shots in sf

2009-01-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

joshua tree, LA, death valley pics

2009-01-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

plano sunsets

2009-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

nikkormat

2009-01-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

over the holidays dad showed me his first nikon from the 1970s

original lens

i spent an afternoon playing with his old lens and close-up filters. despite being older than me, they mount on my camera. it was a little tricky since i'm not use to shooting 100% manual. some sample pics

i'm hoping to post some of our joshua tree and death valley pictures soon.

happy holidays!

2008-12-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

mom is getting pretty handy with a computer. she made this and emailed it to her friends

australia pictures - part 3

2008-10-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

we rode on the world's longest gondola cableway (skyrail over kuranda rainforest)

then hiked through the world's oldest rainforest (daintree)

and had a rare run-in with the world's most dangerous bird (a cassowary). our guide was freaked out. after reading the wikipedia entry now i know why..."A cassowary's three-toed feet have sharp claws; the dagger-like middle claw is 5 inches long. This claw is particularly dangerous since the Cassowary can use it to kill an enemy, disemboweling it with a single kick. They can run up to 32 mph through the dense forest. They can jump up to 5 feet and they are good swimmers."

mangrove trees at cape tribulation

frog on our river boat

australia pictures - part 2

2008-09-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

walk from coogee to bondi beach

waverley cemetary at sunset

somewhere along the manly scenic walkway

on the way out to the great barrier reef

along the way several whales came right up to our boat

out at sea

dive map

grace ready to go

right before an early morning dive

some guy on our boat

australia pictures - part 1

2008-09-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

part 1 - pictures from sydney

sydney tower

queen victoria building

sydney opera house

grace getting ready to eat a whole mud crab

view of sydney from the ferry

taronga zoo

grey gibbon

views of sydney from the zoo

sleeping koala

shy koala

finally awake

nyc

2008-09-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

we were in nyc back in july for grace's high school friend's wedding. some random pics

sunset over the hudson

grace with cupcakes at magnolia bakery. yes, they're the ones to blame for all that cupcake hype

view of manhatten from our offices

i was pretty excited we got to catch the murakami exhibit at the brooklyn museum

me + a speckled hen ale, waiting for dinner at the spotted pig

i've been waiting to try this place for a while and the food did not disappoint. crispy pig's ear and ricotta gnudi below. i also suggest the chicken liver toast, roquefort burger and shoestring fries

phillippe starck's elevator walls at the hudson hotel. coming to your town soon in plastic form at the local pinkberry knock-off

tux'd up for the wedding

in other news, grace and i finished our move down to stanford. being back on campus is a mixed bag of weird, comforting and cramped (grad student apt = tiny). i'll post some pics of our new place once it's looking more respectable.

back from australia...

2008-08-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

...with some good news to share

eastern europe pictures - vienna

2008-08-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

David's Napoleon on the St. Bernard Pass, Belvedere Palace

imperial apartments, Hofburg Palace

the Hofburg's thought this was a unicorn horn and added it as a prized position in their treasury. turned out to be a narwhale tusk...

glazed tile roof of st. stephen's cathedral

lunch break at trzesniewski

there really are 57 varities of heinz...

Schönbrunn Palace

(fat) pandas feeding at the vienna zoo

spanish fans at the eurocup quarterfinal match

our view. great seats! italy lost in pk's

busy day

2008-08-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

eastern europe pictures - budapest

2008-07-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

parliament building

hungarian state opera house

market

st stephen's basilica

terror museum

random shot

statue detail, hero's square

momento park - collection of old communist statues

eastern europe pictures - prague

2008-07-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

earlier this year i really lucked out and got my hands on some eurocup quarterfinal tickets. since i was heading to vienna to watch the games, my mom, sister and i met up beforehand and traveled around eastern europe (dad stayed at home to watch our dog since he's too old for kennels)

we spent a week in prague and budapest before finishing up in vienna. prague pictures:

mom and my sister karen

uncle simon and aunt xiaorui drove from geneva to meet up with us. outside karlštejn castle

view from charles bridge

dial of the astronomical clock

old jewish cemetary

st vitus cathedral

subway

goulash

mom getting ready to eat a roast pig leg. yes she finished the whole thing =)

london

2008-07-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

i was in london about a month ago before meeting up with my mom and sister in eastern europe for a short vacation. work took up most the time but i did have a couple chances to take some pics:

first thing i did was get my norman foster fill: great british museum atrium...

...and 30 st mary axe aka swiss re tower aka the gherkin

westminister

big ben

paddington station

prague, budapest and vienna pictures to come

japan pictures - part 3

2008-06-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

just got back from eastern europe and while going through photos realized i had not finished posting my japan pics. part 3 - pictures from osaka, himeji, nara

osaka train station

umeda sky building

weird statues on dotonbori street

hemiji castle

todai-ji temple, nara (largest wooden building in the world)

robatayaki. one of the best meals we had in japan

yebisu + toro makes stephen happy

japan pictures - part 2

2008-05-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

part 2 - pictures from kyoto

cherry blossom-lined philosopher's walk

japanese garden at ginkakuji temple

moss display and pond at ginkakuji

golden pavillion (kinkakuji)

ryoan-ji

we stayed at a great ryokan (traditional japanese inn)...

...with really good food. this was breakfast (!!)

walking around at night. kiyomizu temple

maruyama park

view of kyoto from kyomizu

beggar at shannenzaka slope

bamboo forrest

next up: osaka, himeji and nara

pretty freakin sweet

2008-05-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

japan pictures - part 1

2008-05-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

part 1 - pictures from tokyo, fuji and hakone...

night and daytime views of shibuya from our hotel room

noh theatre inside our hotel

we really lucked out and timed our trip perfectly with the cherry blossom bloom. sakura and picnickers at shinjuku-gyoen park

during bloom, the japanese throw big parties under cherry blossom trees. parties by lantern light at ueno park

with lots of food

on the second day of the trip, we took a bus to the fuji five lakes region. views of mt fuji via cable car

on day four, we took a day trip to hakone because grace wanted to visit an onsen (traditional japanese spa). we ended up finding a ridiculously nice one

our private bath

some more random food pics...

first meal in japan always has to be ramen

grace and i quickly discovered mochi cream, boutiques in tokyo that sell really tasty ice cream filled mochi.

house noodles at chen kenichi's restaurant. high on my list of best noodle experiences

we waited two hours at one of the more famous restaurants at tsukiji for a sushi breakfast

best aji ever?

chankonabe dinner with fu. chankonabe is a tradtional stew for sumo wrestlers, similar to hotpot

up next: kyoto and osaka pictures

new feature. check it out!

2008-04-29T10:49:00.001-07:00

stanford!

2008-04-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

several years of uncertainty and stress were finally resolved a week ago with the best possible outcome - grace got into stanford business school!!! after getting the good news, we promptly went to japan to celebrate.

just got back today. will post pictures soon. time to get ready to go back to stanford =)

pinnacles

2008-02-18T21:16:00.000-08:00

last weekend we did some hiking at pinnacles. here are some pics

close-up shot of some lichen

my new favorite beer

2008-02-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

so far i've only found two places in SF which serve hitachino nest. keep an eye out for it!

mendocino

2008-01-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

grace and i took a quick trip to mendocino on saturday

View Larger Map

view from our hotel

point arena

the shins

2008-01-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

i've recently been on a shins kick. check out the below and join me =)

food

2008-01-01T14:13:00.000-08:00

i hope everyone had a great holiday! as you'll see from the pictures i spent the last two weeks mostly eating and resting

dumplings galore at home in TX

no austin trip is complete without shiner and rudys

experiments in cooking 1 - champagne and brie soup

experiments in cooking 2 - curried vinaigrette crab and haricot vert salad

experiments in cooking 3 - beef tenderloin a la ficelle

happy 4 years!

2007-12-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

i surprised grace with a dinner at chez panisse and tickets to the iron and wine concert at the paramount to celebrate our 4 year anniversary

grace closely examining the dessert menu

the art-deco stylings of the paramount

npr has a great recording of iron and wine's d.c. concert here

tokyo

2007-11-13T23:13:00.000-08:00

earlier this month i spent a week working in tokyo. man i love japan...must find more excuses to travel there for business. some pics

view of shibuya from my hotel room

a couple friends happened to be in tokyo at the same time. dinner with fu and jess

green tea donuts = good way to start the day

dinner at gonpachi. this restaurant was tarantino's inspiration for the crazy88 fight scene in kill bill

cheese ramen at tsukumo. yes that's grated parm cheese on normal ramen. trust me - it's freakin good. i didn't have time to try ice cream ramen though...

teppanyaki (think benihana's but without the show) is a really tasty way to eat kobe beef. but the real genius of this place is that they use pieces of toast instead of plates. why? your toast sucks up all of your excess kobe beef juice and you end the meal with a buttery, meat-juiced piece of toasty-goodness

view of the imperial palace

fu and i spent an afternoon geeking out in akihabra. electronics, video games and anime as far as the eye could see. including...

...a store packed with original transformer toys...

...and a crazy gundam videogame where you sit in a life-sized mecha cockpit. the arcade we went to had 6 of these networked together. we tried playing but our performance must have looked pretty shameful given the japanese-only instructions

random sign in akihabra i wish i could see lit up

obligatory pic of the shibuya scramble

time magazine

2007-11-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

time magazine named Google Maps Street View one of the best inventions of 2007. in the print version you can just barely see me in the picture. i kinda look like i'm frowning...that's because the photographer made me stare directly into the sun for about 20 minutes straight.

ghetto b/w scan

tokyo wingman

2007-11-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

i've done my fair share of playing wingman. of course tonight it meant going to some obscure part of tokyo and paying $50 cover to attend a party celebrating the launch of a book about jumping cats. i shit you not.

that cat on the cover looks pissed. well anything to help a bro with the ladies...

all the finance people can attest that the junior investment banker line in that commercial is pure genius.

surfing in pacifica

2007-10-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

vacation pics - morocco

2007-10-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

djemaa el fna (the main square in marrakesh). a chaotic mix of food stalls, peddlers, snake charmers, story-tellers...

...and ingenious games like coke-fishing. the square was a fitting intro to africa and definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.

ben youssef medrassa, marrakesh

marrakesh museum

koutoubia mosque at sunrise, marrakesh

driving through the atlas mountains on the way to the sahara

on the way we drove through the "valley of a thousand kasbahs" with literally hundreds of small towns scattered across the mountain-sides. this one was in lawrence of arabia and the gladiator

this sign says "52 days to Timbuktu". pretty crazy.

we spent a couple nights in the sahara around some huge sand dunes

try to spot the person on top of the dune. that's right...it's that tall.

grace and i sporting our berber desert headgear

our rides

trekking through the sahara

our "tent"

sahara at sunrise

detail of sand

my favorite pic of the trip

in rainbows

2007-10-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

in case you have not heard, radiohead's new album goes on sale tomorrow. buy the download here. yes, you get to name the price. yes, it's very ok computer-esk. and yes, nude aka big ideas will be one of the best songs on the album:

vacation pics - rome

2007-10-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

pantheon

ceiling, vatican museum

stairs, vatican museum

sistine chapel

st peter's basilica

grace celebrates successful birthday shopping on the via condotti

trevi fountain

i'll try posting morocco pics later this week

vacation pics - amalfi coast

2007-10-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

views of mt. vesuvius from naples...

we ate at the pizzeria which invented margarita pizza. 130 years old, same menu of only 2 pizzas and still bringing in the crowds

galleria umberto, naples

ceiling of the duomo, naples

pompeii

positano

view from ravello

rome and morocco pics to come!

grace gets mad

2007-10-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

when i say things like "there's too much creme fraiche in my homemade ice cream at work today". i guess that's legitimate.

we're back!

2007-09-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

just wanted to let everyone know we're back from vacation. we had an incredible time and will post pictures soon!

here's a preview...b/w of the sahara at sunrise

erica in sf

2007-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

i want a keepon robot

2007-08-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

counting down

2007-08-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

only a couple weeks till vacation. yesterday's fortune cookie was quite fortuitous.

weekend pics

2007-07-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

google summer picnic...

...which had a ferris wheel!

dave's wedding at grace cathedral. swanky.

amsterdam & brussels

2007-07-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

just got back from a week in europe. on the way back, swung through austin and got to hang with tiem, kunal and cheng. some pics of amsterdam...

rijksmuseum

boating through the canals

some pics of brussels...

grand'place

new apartment!

2007-07-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

now i just need some furniture...

google maps on the simpsons!

2007-04-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

colorado

2007-04-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

i spent the last couple days working from our boulder office. during the weekend grace and i drove around rocky mountain national park and passed the hotel where they filmed the shining. i thought it would be cool seeing the hotel in person but it ended up not being pretty lame.

vacation

2007-03-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

work has been pretty busy so recently i've had an urge to plan another vacation. grace and i decided on a visit to the amalfi coast and morocco. bought tickets today but we won't be going till september. can't wait! (we're already making our packing lists)

we'll definitely be including positano and a sahara camel trek in the trip

istanbul (not constantinople)

2007-02-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

just got back from a week in europe. most of the time was spent in zurich but i also got the chance to make a brief visit to istanbul. some pics

blue mosque

entrance

inside the blue mosque. incredible detailing

hagia sophia

inside the grand bazaar. been around since the 1400's. largest indoor market in the world with something like 4000 shops. we got lost...a lot

we stumbled across a shop in the bazaar selling incredible illustrations from antique turkish books. i bought a print that is supposedly from the 1700s. here's an example

topkapi palace. entranceway to a room housing mohammed's relics

sunset on the bosphorus

i was only there for two days. a longer trip is definitely in order. speaking of istanbul does anyone remember the muppet babies episode where they sing the TMBG song?? i could only find a video of the tiny toons version

the unholy union that is my laptop

2007-01-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

i like my macbook. a lot. but i quickly realized there are a couple windows programs i can't walk away from...picasa for my photos and excel. sure there's excel for mac but as a former investment banker i cannot exist in a world devoid of my precious windows excel shortcuts

so i've been dabbling with bootcamp and parallels. both have worked quite well. here are some screenshots of the unholy OS union running on my laptop

XP starting up in parallels

XP running in its own window

two task bars, safari and IE all on the same desktop. OS X and XP in peaceful coexistence.

sequoia

2007-01-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

grace and i spent the weekend at sequoia national park. it took a while to drive down from sf but was well worth it.

we lucked out on timing. fresh powder just the night before

the sign said this is the largest tree in the world

grace trying on her snowshoes

with the snowshoes we were able to hike pretty deep into the woods

morning frost on the car

view on the drive back down

macbook

2006-12-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

i got myself an early christmas gift today

going to try installing XP on it after the holidays

specs:
2.33GHz Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics w/ 256MB SDRAM

wii wanted!

2006-12-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

anyone want to trade? =)

panda ramen?

2006-12-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

a very exciting discovery my dad brought back from taiwan

teddy bear remote

2006-10-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

i really want to make this

rome

2006-10-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

i was in germany and italy this past week on business. most days were back to back meetings but highlights include running into oliver kahn in munich and a free afternoon in rome on the last day of the trip

obligatory coliseum and st peters pics

gelato. yum!

the johnsons in sf

2006-10-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

karen and brian were in CA on vacation for the last couple weeks on vacation. they spent a couple days in SF and we did a lot of yummy eating to celebrate their visit and karen's bday. yay!

here's karen after opening the relaxkuma laundry bear i got her in japan

SF was kinda cold and cloudy while they were in town. luckily we got some great weather in big sur over the weekend

we saw a super fat squirrel along the 17 mile drive. he was eating a blue peanut m&m and then proceeded to eat one of our snackimals. as you can see from the picture, all of those snacks from tourists have led to his bigger-than-karen's-head-size

new toy

2006-09-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

finally cracked and got a DS. so far i've been playing a lot of ff iv and advanced wars. can't wait till ff 3 comes out.

vancouver

2006-09-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

finally had a chance to visit vancouver. grace and i spent a day in the city and one in whistler during labor day weekend. vancouver is actually a lot like SF...walkable downtown, good food and lots of naturey things to do. my kind of town =)

grace at the chinatown gate

chinese garden in the middle of downtown

darth vader bear?

random sculpture

biking at stanley park

driving to whistler on the incredible sea-to-sky highway

whistler peak (you get there by taking a 30min gondola and a separate open chair lift that was kinda scary)

hiking along the peak

last meal before leaving. the two of us finished this entire crab AND had some dim sum!

LA pics

2006-08-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

we were in LA over the weekend for one of grace's friend's weddings. it was some pics...

getting ramen with tom and davie (seems like everyone's in LA now!)

stuffed-animal fun at giant robot

post-it note art?

tom hits the jackpot in eco to-fu slots

the wedding was at a ranch in simi valley

on sunday we had some time to kill before our flight. so how do you kill a half-day in LA? disneyland of course! (on the tram)

looking very serious on the new(ish) buzz lightyear ride (check out grace's shooting form)

on the recently "updated" space mountain. everyone else looks much calmer than we do...

japan pics

2006-08-18T00:16:00.000-07:00

after seeing death cab at the greek last friday i decided kunal was right. they're just not that great live. songs with gibbarb at piano were spot on but they consistently strayed to sped-up renditions with some instrumental lines completely taken out. boo to that. oh well - here are some japan pics:

on the plane from hong kong

business class is one thing but getting slippers takes it to a whole new level

first day in tokyo at akasaka temple

this was my first time at a japanese temple. grace showed me the ropes. step 1: fan incense smoke towards you

step 2: purification at the fountain by rinsing your hands

step 3: pay to get a fortune, shake box to get...

...a wooden stick

step 4: match number on stick with drawer to get your fortune (i'm looking pretty serious here. i think i was worried about my draw)

i got "the best fortune". who's gem has no flaw!

finally fold and tie your fortune

old kabuto theatre

sony showroom!

many floors of electronics bliss. grace was quite patient with me here

ebook in action (of course here we're defining "in action" as "cute-dog-using-paws to-hold-up-error-screen")

one big highlight of the trip was going to tsukji fish market. a significant portion of the world's fish is auctioned here and shipped worldwide. i think our guidebook said ~$30mm of fish sold daily. this is a small temple outside the market where fisherman pray before entering

inside the market. absolute total chaos

grace and i stumbled across a stand that apparently had an excellent catch of tuna. there was a line of buyers from fancy hotels and restaurants waiting for cuts from this fish

some more very expensive tuna

outside the market there are streets of stands selling everything from produce to sushi knives. this is also where you go to score the freshest sushi...

...our sushi breakfast

we somehow made friends with the japanese man sitting next to us despite the fact he spoke no english. during breakfast he kept on saying "chutoro" while proudly waving a piece of paper around. we finally figured out the paper was a receipt for a chutoro section he had gotten from an auction. he had the chef serve it up and he gave us 4 pieces! here's a pic of us celebrating after eating the tastiest toro i've ever had

meiji shrine. quite exciting for me since i really dig meiji architecture

japanese couple getting married at the shrine that day

prayer tablets

i kept on seeing funny dog outfits in tokyo. here are a few

threw away a good amout of yen trying to win one of these guys

nightime in shinjuku

btw - if you've read this far you probably already noticed i embedded a link blog on the left hand column. so if you *really* feel like wasting some time you can read some of the recent articles i've bookmarked.

news + hong kong pics

2006-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

only been back from vacation for a couple weeks now but i told grace today it's time to start planning for our next trip. her first response was russia. taking the trans-siberia railway would be pretty cool.

hong kong pics are below but first wanted to share some news. i've recently transitioned to a new role at work - product manager of google maps. so far it's been lots of fun! pics:

my first view of hong kong

dim sum with grace's grandma and uncle

on top of the peak

too bad it was a cloudy day

big panda stuffed animals = exciting

4am kick-offs didnt stop me from missing any world cup games

professional videogame playing on tv. somewhat boring but i found the commentary pretty amusing...imagine phrases like "xTremePwnage strikes VortarTheElder with rank5 blast wave" being said in excited broken english.

we took a day-trip to macau. this is the main square of the old town

ruins of st paul

macau casinos are huge. this is only half of one of three floors at the sands

drinks at the bar in the peninsula hotel

buddha at lantau island. it's the biggest buddha in the world. well technically it's the largest seated, outdoor and bronze buddha in the world. qualifications aside, it's damn big.

view of lantau from the buddha

i've wanted to visit hong kong for its architecture since elementary school. finally got to see two of my favorite buildings in person - i.m. pei's bank of china and

rudolph's lippo center. *much* better picture of lippo here

view of tsing ma bridge on the way to the airport

that's it for now. i'll post japan (and lots of food) pictures soon.

cityscape

2006-07-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

this was my first view of hong kong's skyline after arriving thursday night. not too shabby. next stops - macau, japan & nyc

radiohead

2006-06-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

caught the radiohead show at the greek theatre the other night. they played a great set - a surprisingly good amount from OK computer and a lot of new songs, one of which might be their best ever. still hunting for a playlist online so that i can find out the song's name.

[update - song i was trying to find the name of is nude. listen to it here. and here's a good rundown of new songs they've been playing live]

stuffed pizza at zachary's = pre-concert fuel

waiting...

thom and crew on-stage

random pics from this weekend

2006-06-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

picnic at crissy field

fun with bread at boudin

one of the more impressive things i've recently seen

2006-06-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

happy anniversary!

2006-06-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

celebrating a 2 and 1/2 year anniversary may sound cheesy to you...but it's a darn good excuse for a fancy dinner.

bay to breakers

2006-05-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

this morning john, brandon and i cheered on grace, maxime and jenny run bay to breakers

for the non-san-franciscan-readers bay to breakers is an annual race in sf full of crazy traditions like costumes, tortila throwing and nude runners.

jenny and grace at the top of the hill

the full house picture

maxime and grace at the finish line

*best* costume at the race - katamari damacy

$45k necklace

2006-05-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

last weekend grace and i went to the bong su restaurant grand opening. some jewelry store was displaying mikimoto necklaces at the party. here's a pic of grace wearing a $45k necklace. the salesguy mentioned something about it having 10 karats of diamonds.

sweden

2006-04-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

a couple weeks ago i was in stockholm for a quick business trip. it was a nice visit but the big disappointment of the trip was that i didnt have a chance to check out the ice bar. the whole bar is basically in one big frigerator and everything (including the cups) are made of ice. we happened to be in town the one week out of the year the bar is closed (for a yearly ice switch-out). oh well...one reason to go back for another visit. some pics:

walking around old town

parliament building

typical stockhom scenery (the town is actually a series of small islands connected by bridges)

an "american food store." jello and lays chips a-plenty

the vasa (a very old and very large boat that has been fully restored. locals were quite insistent that we go see it)

flying back, somewhere over greenland

dallas

2006-04-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

everyone (me, grace, karen, brian) went back to texas last weekend to surprise mom for her birthday. it was great having everyone at home and mom was definitely surprised!

everyone cooked dinner for mom on saturday. as you can tell it was impossible to keep mom out of the kitchen

hunter - waiting for dinner

playing contract rummy after eating

karen wearing the panda hat i got her in china

grace got introduced to my must-do when back in plano

china

2006-04-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

this was my first trip to china. probably not unlike other first-time visitors i left the country with mixed feelings of awe, confusion, excitement and hesitation. the experience was incredibly enriching, both personally and professionally. i'm looking forward to returning soon.

next trip (in a month of way too much traveling): sweden next week for business and then straight to new mexico to visit erica and meet up with the high school gang.

here are some china pics. some co-workers where quite shutter-happy and possess much better cameras than i so i'll post some of those pics as soon as i get them.

view from my hotel room. you could see the forbidden city and tiananmen square which were short walks away

local municipal workers doing their morning exercises

tai miao (imperial ancestral hall right next to the forbidden city)

tai miao shrine

view of tiananmen from tiananmen gate

me and mao at tiananmen gate

somewhere between my hotel and the forbidden city

welcome sign at peking university

base of one of the great wall entrances

climbing the wall (it was steep!)

view of other great wall section

Vik and Nancy in SF

2006-04-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

vik and nancy were in SF last weekend. it was great seeing them again. next time you're talking to vik ask him about his tech forensics job. he has some pretty interesting stories.

leaving for china in a couple hours. first time in the mainland...i'm pretty excited! will post pics but probably not until i come back.

costanoa

2006-03-20T21:43:00.000-08:00

grace and i spent the weekend at costanoa. it's near pescardero - a small town off of highway 1, between half moon bay and santa cruz.

on the way there we passed by pigeon point lighthouse:

we also did a 10 mile hike from costanoa into big basin. it was fun but i don't remember the last time i walked so far...

boulder

2006-03-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

i was in boulder earlier this week to help celebrate a recent announcement. i also got to hangout with mac which was great since i hadn't seen him in a while. mac took me to a teahouse that was originally hand-carved by boulder's sister city in tajikistan (who knew?). random but quite cool.

mobile utility

2006-03-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

i traded-in my old blackberry at work for the new 8700c. it uses cingular's high-speed EDGE network. with EDGE i was able to download & install google local for mobile, run the app and find a restaurant all within a couple minutes...pretty impressive. mobile web browsing is also more than bearable. high speed data + email + calendar + easy contact sync + great mobile apps like google local & google talk = some real mobile utility (finally). i'm considering changing it into my primary phone...but a part of me doesn't want to be THAT connected to work 24/7. instead i'll probably get a new phone when helio launches this spring.

españa food

2006-02-19T21:01:00.000-08:00

grace and i like to eat a lot when we travel. we also like to take lots of pictures. the results from our trip to barcelona (i'd caution against looking at these pictures with an empty stomach):

cod croquettes

paella

bocadillos

snack-size sandwiches

more paella

porcupine cakes

caig - pre-dinner tasting

caig - chef tasting

caig - course #1 (seared tuna)

caig - course #2 (trout)

caig - course #3 (yes that's all foie gras)

caig - course #4 (suckling pig)

w/ frisee salad

caig - course #5 (dessert #1)

caig - course #6 (dessert #2!!!)

caig - after dinner sweets

traditional catalan breakfast: hot chocolate and churros

at the market

assorted tapas

basque-style steak

some basque dish

españa

2006-02-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

grace and i were in barcelona for valentine's. we had a wonderful time in one of my favorite european cities. some pics:

magic fountain at mountjuic

iglesia de santa maria del mar cathedral

intermission during a symphony performance at the palau de la musica catalana

stain glass ceiling of the palau de la musica catalana

sagrada familia

looking down one of the sagrada familia towers

stairwell down the tower

parc guell

grace and the parc guell serpent

bench detail

dinner at gaig

roof of la pedrera

shark tunnel at the barcelona aquarium

casa batillo at night

switzerland

2006-01-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

i was in switzerland for the last couple days. first to visit my uncle in geneva, then for business in zurich and lucerne. pics:

view of mt blanc from my uncle's apartment

blausee lake

a random fish farm in the mountains

lucerne

zurich

congrats!

2006-01-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

it just so happens that several people i know recently received some great news...huge congradulations to everyone's (b/med-)school & job offers!!!

last business trip of the year

2005-12-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

this will probably be my last trip to germany for a good amount of time. that is unless i manage to score some worldcup tickets... random pics below:

sunset from the plane. somewhere over eastern europe

munich opera house

my fav tavern in bavaria

christmas market in the townsquare. gluehwein (warm mulled wine) served in abundance.

evidence for grace that i DO eat fruit during business trips

2005-12-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

2 pictures from this weekend...of 2 dinners...which were part of a celebration of 2 wonderful years

happy thanksgiving!

2005-11-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

mom, dad, hunter and i spent thanksgiving at karen and brian's new home in austin.

the spread...

plate 1 (of 5)...

hunter

back in münchen

2005-11-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

back in munich. just wanted to post this pic of allianz arena which we drove past while on the autobahn. many of the larger world cup games will be here next year.

this arena is actually home to several football teams. so they devised a pretty cool way to light the stadium different colors depending on who's playing.

highlight of the trip: riding in my german lawyer's new M6. he was taking corners so fast i lost my breath a couple times!

LA

2005-11-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

grace and i were in LA this weekend. fri night was dinner with tom at campanile. it was really good seeing him.

on saturday the three of us headed over to din tai fung for an epic morning of dumpling eating.

din tai fung is a famous dumping house in taipei. for some reason the only other one is in a random strip mall in arcadia. the three of us ate over 60 dumplines. warning: many pictures of dumplings ahead

first bite. ridiculously tasty.

pork dumpling (look at the juice level!)

dumplings in soup

shrimp and pork

red bean dessert dumplings!

in case you didn't know the best way to eat dumplings...(if you haven't tried step #4 i highly suggest it!)

afterwards we headed over to huntington to walk-off the food. japanese garden:

sat/sun grace and i were in the OC. sunset at laguna beach:

view from the ritz

japanese breakfast at the ritz

huntington beach

hammer time

2005-11-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

a little while ago i moblogged an obscure picture claiming some of us at work had lunch with mc hammer. just wanted to follow-up with this.

yes hammer doesnt seem to like veggies. jini's looking pretty bored. i think this was when hammer started getting all techie on us...

grace and i are headed to LA this weekend. then the rest of november looks like munich for work -> dallas for thanksgiving -> paris for work. should have lots of pics to post for the next couple weeks.

wifi @ 30,000 feet

2005-10-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

right now i'm blogging from an airplane using boeing's in-flight wifi on a lufthansa flight back to sf. surprisingly the connection is pretty darn good - i'm having a pretty productive work day. pretty amazing!

münchen

2005-10-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

back in munich this week for business. just wanted to share a couple pictures.

town hall

glockenspiel

city market

teddybear museum

hotel atrium

and what's a trip to germany without a meal of suckling pig, sausage, potato dumplings and apple kraut? (pic taken at spatenhaus, my new favorite restaurant in munich)

vacation pics!

2005-09-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

back from vacation. a truly incredible trip - lived up to all of its (extremely high) expectations. starting this post with the intention of sharing just a few pictures but i'm thinking it's actually going to be quite a lot. here's a trip play-by-play:

finally on the plane. economy plus is so key for international flights. unfortunately we were near screaming babies on every flight of the trip. lesson: must buy noise canceling headphones before next crossing of the atlantic

arrive in athens. sneaky surprise by a friend leads to having a personal driver in athens for the next two days! mr. friendly driver takes us straight to the temple of poseidon in time for sunset

day 2 in athens. having mr. friendly driver leads to the most efficient and convenient site-seeing experience ever. obligatory parthenon picture

one of many yummy meals. yes we actually took a picture of every meal we had on the trip... this was at a cafe in the plaka (old town) of athens

after athens, we flew to santorini. confession: visiting this island was actually the main reason i wanted to go to greece. i won't even try expressing in words how amazing this island is. hopefully the pictures will be enough to convince you to go to

we stayed in the village of oia which is somewhat less crowded than the main town of fira. this is the view of the caldera we had from our hotel terrace!

here are 3 (of the many) striking things about santorini

1) the blue and white architecture

2) the cliff-side houses

3) the sunsets

one afternoon we boated to and hiked the dorment volcano

we also saw big fish at the harbor. quite exciting. (this was actually a staged picture. there was a discovery channel crew filming a travel special and this fisherman was chopping fish for their cameras)

after santorini we took a ferry to naxos. the island's tall mountains and sprawling valleys make it quite visually different from its neighbors. it was also less touristy and full of friendly locals and traditional greek villages.

picture of naxos town

we rented a car and spent the day exploring the island, driving through many villages like filoti (pic below). i wish i had a picture of the indescript map we had - grace did some darn impressive navigating

one of the many churches we drove past. they seemed to occupy almost every mountain peak on the island

grace helps show the size of the kouros (one of two very large marble statues on the island left unfinished)

sunset, apollo's arch and naxos town as backdrops

after naxos we took another ferry to mykonos - last stop of the trip. we were pretty tired at this point so we decided bum on the beach a lot and, in general, try to do as little as possible.

another great hotel terrace - go starwood points go

our last greek sunset

vacay in t-minus 1

2005-09-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

grace and i are leaving for greece in 1 day! the plan: athens and then island hopping in the cyclades for ten days. it's been a busy weekend of errands...now one more day of work is all that's remaining. i probably won't be mobloging on the trip but i'll post pics when i get back.

excluding the usual (business travel, going home during the holidays, etc.) it's actually been over 3 years since i've taken such a long trip. that was spain with pac, hooey, jen, cone and brian. here's a pic of us eating churros at mijas in the costa del sol:

itunes + cingular = dancing bears?

2005-09-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

see it in 4 easy steps
1) go to makemedance.com
2) click on the make me dance link (or just click on the bear)
3) select the yellow bear
4) drag a song onto the cell phone (i prefer "bhangra fever")

scary.

projekt30

2005-09-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

my brother-in-law's in an exhibition run by projekt30. check out his work here.

some changes

2005-09-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

hey everyone - as you can see there's been some changes to my blog, most of which are cosmetic...let me know what you think!

i've also started a mobile blog for my random cameraphone pics. from now on you'll see thumbnails of my recent moblog posts on the left column of this blog.

2005-09-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

1) look
2) give

tanmay's wedding

2005-08-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

tanmay's wedding was last weekend in houston. great times with friends i don't nearly see enough of. here are some pics. for more also check out cheng's excellent site.

maggie drove cheng, jimmy and i from dallas to houston

DQ break during the drive. maggie celebrates after finding a lone fry in her popcorn chicken

drinks the night before. no surprises - maggie's red

table setting

tanmay's procession

plano crew

altar

the bride

some of us didn't make it through the entire ceremony

chairman yu

the rev - exercising the powers bestowed by the wonderous world wide web

it's official!

jeff, maggie, josh, erica, me

josh, kunal, jeff

kunal scores digits, promptly celebrates by BREAKING-IT-DOWN

pictures do no justice. luckily there's video! can i get a tunak-tunak-tun in the hiz-house?

the next day we rocked fung's kitchen with clement

i like pandas

2005-08-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

i just ordered this t-shirt. it has a panda on it:

and karen's gotten me to addicted to the panda cam

grace's bday (more pics)

2005-08-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

wait! we also ate at

with grace's sister maxime and her boyfriend john

grace's bday

2005-08-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

it was grace's bday weekend. here's what we did.

brunch at boulettes larder...

...with yummy hot chocolate...

...and beignets.

hiking at muir woods

martini's at top of the mark

dinner at zuni cafe

yumm

polo in sonoma

2005-08-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

grace and i went to watch one of her co-workers play polo in sonoma yesterday. first polo match for both of us. what a crazy-hard sport.

left: pro player from argentina, right: grace's co-worker lowell

grace feeding cookies to lowell's horse

biking the bridge

2005-07-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

dr hu, grace and i biked from sf to sausalito today. pics:

action shot

davie in sausalito

ferry back to sf

paris

2005-06-23T01:49:00.000-07:00

paris makes 4 trips to europe in the last 3 months but who am i to complain. currently delayed and blogging from the UA lounge at charles de gaulle. pics from the past couple days

obligatory eiffel tower pic

walked to the louvre...

...just to find out:

notre dame

my hotel was right next to the arc de triomphe

seine at night. currently there's lots of paris-olympic-bid-support neon lighting all over the place