musings / music / misc

life angeles

2009-01-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

coffee & work email; shouldn't i just be reading the paper?

how did i spend 45 minutes and get nothing on my tasklist crossed off?

out the door. late again to pick up jonathan.

the sun has broken through and i can see the mountains.

it's a good day.

gallinas vivas, beckons the sign on hoover. i'll pass.

spirited discussion about pricing and branding with jonathan.

glad to hear accounting is going well for him.

and that his spirit remains strong in spite of recent deaths around him.

sometimes i remember what he was like 5 years ago when we first met.

and i'm proud of him.

where does his hope, his relentless optimism stem from?

off to newsong. late again.

a reminder to love, a moment to reflect.

a few friendly faces.

off to alvarado.

gallinas vivas.

mom made chicken with the man doo guk, but far from viva.

the tv is playing sunday morning hoops & we're talking in spurts between bites.

"how's your foot??

"how's english class going? what are you learning?"

mom chuckles a little when she explains they are learning family member names.

way too easy for her, jane admonishes her to move up to the higher level class.

the pan chan is good, fresh and crunches when you take a bite.

jonathan is going to get his hair braided, it's pretty long and edging towards a mini-fro.

mom makes us coffee afterwards as the lakers and spurs pre-game starts.

out the door. jane with a bag of pan chan.

mom now focused on andrew bynum vs. tim duncan.

a discussion of aesop rock's mix in the car.

branding swapped for bpms and bassline.

berendo, marked by the salvi bakery and futbol gear shop.

study hard, stay safe, see you next week.

vermont is waking up and wearing its sunday colors, blaring its sunday bachata & ranchero music.

i'm keeping an eye out for pedestrians and swerving cars while chatting with dorian.

another billboard for the afro ninja anime.

we stumble upon an irony.

youth today like jonathan have more ability to advance than ever before, but

their environment is more dangerous than previous generations.

if you can survive, you can go far.

high stakes for young people that should be worried more about scoring a date than steering clear of the neighborhood thugs.

i'm glad my youth was spent in relative innocence.

i recall catching lightning bugs & playing freeze tag.

steering through the swamp on a dingy during a rainy season.

drawing fantasy battle scenes on paper with my best friend sam.

going to the gym at the Y-center downtown with my dad.

our mara salvatrucha were the older kids.

the only pain was related to embarrassment, nothing more.

off to see slumdog at the laemmle near our place.

jane arrived before me and grabbed our seats.

when she sees me, she hands the ticket to the attendant and whispers:

"see mike tyson over there?"

sure enough, there he is.

fat, tattoo-faced in khakis and a green-striped shirt buying a bag of popcorn.

jane's grabbed a seat for us near the back.

the movie is spectacular.

we wonder if mike tyson liked it.

jane and i joked that we would ask him, but it's not like he's jah rule or something.

old dave chappelle jokes age well, apparently.

off to the gym.

sub-7 minute miles are feeling good.

let's see what i can do in the next race.

jane cranks out nearly 5 miles.

this is from the girl who could not run a mile without stopping when we met.

i can claim no credit, her determination is her own.

we're out at 5pm when the gym is closing;

odd since it's called 24-hour fitness.

i roll up to the parking attendant to pay for my stay.

she's speaking with her friend in the booth.

and ignoring my while she speaks

"bitch was calling..."

really. this is why shopping online is so popular. service is so often abysmal.

i just want to leave the lot, why do i have to feel like i'm interrupting someone's conversation?

finally home and time to make dinner.

spinach salad, stir-fried veggies & blackened shrimp.

frozen yogurt with berries.

and the SAG awards.

red wine (should have bought the better stuff, ah well)

i'm watching tv with jane and plowing through email.

deleting digital clutter, looking up actor facts for jane & editing slides.

the dishes are done and jane is tucked in.

my quiet time with sandalwood incense is waiting.

and a glass of whiskey with rocks.

i check the lakers score, finish my work, collect my thoughts.

and place them where they won't be lost.

'nite.

best of '08

2009-01-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

constant rotation
elbow, "the seldom seen kid"
while people fawn over crappy indie music like the weepies and los campesinos, elbow quietly (at least in the US) delivered one of the most beautiful, compelling albums of the year. while vampire weekend is fun, elbow is fun, poignant, and lush. imo, the most complete works of the year from first to last track; there's only 2 songs on the album skip past in my ipod.

vampire weekend, "vampire weekend"
i found myself going back to this album again and again. there's something undeniably catchy about the brainy fluff punk of vw, the album expertly captured how i felt on my best days at university of michigan. it can be a little over the top and cheesy at times but it's fun enough to where you hardly notice. best tracks: m79, a-punk, oxford comma, blake's got a new face, mansard roof, bryn.

yoav, "charmed and strange"
never left my 4GB ipod through the year after receiving it from kcrw's cd club in the spring. big hit for everyone i gifted it to, and for good reason: the songs are passionate, unique with sparing production focused on masterfully employed guitar and percussion. if only he was touring in the US... best tracks: club thing, beautiful lie, there is nobody, live.

emilianna torrini, "me & armini"
i wish this had only been an EP: 1/2 of the songs are superb and the other 1/2 sound like she swallowed a handful of oxycotin and then alternated picking her her guitar and her teeth. this is why album sales can suffer but online music sales can soar. nonetheless, try listening to jungle drum and not singing along, or feeling a little boost afer big jumps. she's clearly having a good time. best tracks: me & armini, birds, big jumps, jungle drum.

jack johnson, "sleep through the static"
while i originally dismissed jack johnson as surf-folk music for hip department stores, '08 was the year i gave in and became a full-fledged fan. sleep through the static cemented this for me,a very nice album that is the natural continuation of his previous albums. best tracks: enemy, hope, if i had eyes, what you thought you need, adrift.

coldplay, "viva la vida" + "prospekt's march"
after a miserable 3rd album (xy), coldplay returns with a diverse, striking 4th album. the only real shame is that they clearly kowtowed to the label by not including the "bonus" EP of prospekt's march in the original album (artists typically only get paid for the 1st 12 tracks, guess how many viva la vida has?). anyways, the album feels cohesive yet manages to cover a lot of ground from anthems like viva la vida to the sharp opening instrumental (life in technicolor) and the bluegrass tinged strawberry swing (this track was my favorite and became the ringtone on my old nokia).

heavy playcount
- adele, 19
- gnarls barkely, the odd couple
- santogold, santogold
- rodrigo + gabriela, live in tokyo
- top ranking, santogold + diplo (compilation)
- tricky, knowle west boy
- juana molina, un dia
- thievery corporation, radio retaliation
- pacifika, asuncion

hmmmm... not quite but...
- ac/dc, black ice
- evil nine, they live!
- q-tip, the renaissance
- j-boogie's dubtronic science, soul vibrations
- aterciopelados, rio
- beck, whatever the hell his album with danger mouse was called
- monkey by damon albarn & some other guy

disappointing
- MIA, kala (middle eastern techno & grade school aussie rappers? really?)
- cold war kids, against privacy (title track is great, what happened to the rest?)
- lyrics born, everywhere at once (nowhere i wanted it to be)

thailand pics, part 1

2008-12-08T21:21:00.001-08:00

here's jane and i doing a cooking class with the chefs at the alila cha'am. we had a blast and the food (steamed butterfish, deep-fried sea bass and red curry prawn) all turned out fantastic. hats off to chef joel whittaker.

"attention in the produce aisle, someone left a basket of cockroaches next to the rutabagas..."

my triumphant, long-awaited ride on a horse. i had been bitten (fiercely) on the back by a sick horse when i was a "junior zookeeper" at the binder park zoo as a kid in battle creek. it was time for my vengeance on the species as a loaded my carcass onto a horse that was used to small thai-person frames. feel the fury!

chou hanging out in the under arm of an enormous lime-green buddha statue at a little modern art exhibit we visited while in bangkok.

i think this is from the ramayana. either way, it was part of a big old mural on the walls of the grand palace and appears to feature a panty raid conducted be a nasty looking group of monkies. and why shouldn't it?!

alila cha'am

2008-11-25T03:44:00.000-08:00

just a few quick notes as i take a break from my reading this evening here in thailand. i've lots of photos to share but nothing to upload the little buggers with. later eh?

been meaning to post my reading list, which i s'pose will replace my normal playlist this month. here's my holiday reading:

neverwhere by neil gaiman (already finished, well enjoyed)

the hobbitt by j.r.r. tolkein (can't wait for the movie!)

siddartha by herman hesse (profound, brief & beautiful)

life of pi by yann martel (spectacular vacation book)

and to be read still...

sons of haurrin (sp?), j.r.r. tolkein

anansi boys, neil gaiman

(i figured i would feed my inner fantasy dork after my religious ponderings)

the hotel here was designed by one of s.e. asia's top architects and is striking. i don't think my written description will do it justice so i'll just wait until i can post some pics. i'm not much for sleepy vacations of lazing about but for a first attempt, it seems to be working out fine :-) today we learned how to cook thai food at the hotel and are still digesting the resultant feast of fish, prawn curry, vegetables and various forms of rice both sticky and sweet.

alright, so i can't resist a short playlist:

the stops, mexican stand off and forget myself from elbow's leaders of the free world album

un dia, the new album by juana molina (dreamy folktech from argentina)

the renaissance, new album by q-tip (not bad, sponsored a strange dream i had last nite)

rodrigo and gabriela, live from tokyo (complete with chopped up nihongican!)

alright, back to the room. by this time jane must be wondering why it took me so long to to confirm tomorrow's trip to the cave & temple. shhhhh...

remembering the 4th of november, 2008

2008-11-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

jane and i got up at 5:45am, wanting to beat the lines at the local polling station. from early voting areas we'd heard of massive lines and wanting to avoid this we figured we would show up before the station opened at 7, aiming to arrive at 6:40. we walked across lincoln and down marine to the small park building, coffee mugs in hand, and were greeted by the prop 8 people, urging others to vote no on the ban on gay marriage. the line was not bad at all-- we were voters number 23 and 24. people quickly piled in behind us, including marcus wyatt, LA's native son, uber-house DJ.

i don't think i would say that the air was electric, but there was a definite sense of excitement running through the crowd and a nice feeling of community. venice isn't really a battleground community, even for prop 8. when we lean, we go wayyyyyy left until our feet are wet in the beach sand. anyways, we cast our vote after being registered by our neighbor, irene, and set about on our separate ways to work: jane to rosemead and me to culver city.

on the way in, i had a call with our localization team in dublin, ireland about quality concerns (we had issues with finnish translation in the main UI, embarrassing for the locals when showing the product to the finn media). while i'm sure this doesn't matter to anyone, the point of mentioning this is that the call was preceded by 10 minutes of discussion with the irish team about the elections. the 2 women from dublin mentioned that they were going to stay up to see the election results and were thinking it was going to be an obama blow-out win. i hedged: "i think it's going to be very close, down to the wire..."

this got me to thinking about all of my travels this year and the ppl i had spoken to about the elections along the way. the japanese media consultant, german cab driver, norwegian journalist and many, many others. they were all very clear about who they thought we should elect. i remember explaining this to jonathan once, how sometimes people transcend what they are and become symbols-- such that their individual capabilities are ultimately somewhat less important than what they represent: hope, change. this is of course a slippery position, as it can easily turn against you, but with enough substance behind the icon i cannot imagine a more potent leader.

once at work, just like any other day, i kept on eye on my igoogle home page, full of market updates, my gmail inbox, tech news & the latest featured youtube videos. i also popped up the CNN page to keep an eye on the latest happenings. i was expecting exit polls, but quickly remembered (with some prompting) the inaccuracies and woes of the primary season which condemned them to the sidelines. so while i refreshed the page frequently and anxiously waited along with the rest of the world, the day slipped by.

a couple states came in while i was still at work, attending a last meeting. it was split so far, but none of the battleground state results were in yet. i entered the meeting room late and quipped that chuck norris had just pulled ahead of ron paul. i checked out of the meeting a little early as it was trailing off into minutiae and headed home to meet up with jane. we'd decided that neither of us felt like cooking and wanted to be out in the community when the results came in. we walked down to one of our local hangouts in venice, hal's bar and grill, which is a little over a mile away. by the time we had left, it was starting to look good for obama-- they'd predicted that he would take pennsylvania and he had sealed up some important eastern seabord states while mccain racked up a number of wins in the south, such as kentucky.

hal's was packed with people gathered around the 2 tvs behind the bar. we eventually found a corner table in the small bar area where we could barely see the TV. if the sense of excitement was tangible at the polling station, it coursed through hal's in loud conversations & cheers every time a new state was announced for obama. of course there were boos for the states that slipped to mccain. again, venice is not what you would call a "swing" city :-) the man with the loud voice started calculating the possibilities, exclaiming how close obama was to victory. our african american waitress seemed unflappable, keeping a cool demeanor & focused on her job.

while we were wrapping up our wine and burgers, the election was called for obama. jubilant cheers erupted from across the bar and outside the restaurant. an african american woman in the bar, tears in her eyes, hugged our waitress and anyone else who seemed equally moved. jane and i exchanged broad smiles, put on our coats and headed home.

while on the way home, cars honked and cheered, independent of the ethnicity of the passengers. people walking by smiled knowingly, we did the same. when we passed the firehouse sushi restaurant, we caught mccain's concesssion speech. moments later, dorian called. we'd discussed the election for many months and he, as his facebook profile called out, was speechless.

at home we watched obama's acceptance speech-- flawless in words and delivery. he and his family looked every bit the part, their joy and confidence spilling over to the viewers and certainly the people assembled in grant park in chicago. i remember seeing oprah straining to get a view of the stage and thinking that our lakers tickets this coming weekend aren't so bad afterall if that's the best seat oprah can muster :-)

i wound down the evening by working on my concept checkpoint deck for the friday's presentation while listening to CNN and watching people's election commentary on facebook. the next day, the moment arrived when it all sunk in the most deeply for me. i was glancing through igoogle when i spotted this article from the LA times. as i read it, i remembered every person i met throughout the past 12 months across the globe who pinned their hopes on the americans electing obama. i think their hopes were never so much about obama the person, but about the ability of the people to have a voice against the establishment-- to affect real change when things were wrong, broken by greed and abuse of power. it was also about breaking with a past pock-marked with racism, an emphatic statement that everyone is equal and anything is possible.

what this means for me is that the next time i step onto foreign soil, i can do so with a little more confidence, knowing that we've done the best we can to begin to right the course of our country. i also hope it means that when we have children, i can point back to a historic moment i was a part of, and explain what happeneed when a new day broke for our country.

current playlist

2008-10-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Baligaga - Tricky - Knowle West Boy

Far Away - Tricky - Knowle West Boy

Numbers Game - Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation

195lbs - Nightmares on Wax - Thought so...

I Want You To... - Jem - Down to Earth

Ruthless City - Morgan Geist - Double Night Time

M79 - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Out To The Bay feat. Capitol A & Aima The Dreamer - J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science - Soul Vibrations

Against Privacy - Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyalty

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - The Beatles - Anthology

Move Your Think - Lotek Hi-Fi feat. Roots Manuva & Sandra Melody - Move Your Thing E.P.

Losing Keys (Katalyst Remix) - Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static: Remixed - EP

wreckarama

2008-10-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

jane's big car accident. amazing she is ok when you see the pics.

current playlist

2008-09-22T07:40:00.001-07:00

chemtrails - beck - modern guilt
i don't know - lily allen - i don't know single
hott 2 deff - lyrics born - everywhere at once
jesus and mary - martha wainwright - i know you're married but i have feelings too
indago (jez collin mix) - carmen rizzo feat. ladybug mecca - the lost art of the idle moment
think back - galatic feat. chali2na - from the corner to the block
hustle up - galatic - from the corner to the block
big jumps - emiliana torrini - me and armini
jungle drum - emiliana torrini - me and armini
thanks to you (dj cakeface remix) - copeland - dressed up and in line
so many ways - gelka - so many ways single
arcadia - apparat - walls
so special - bomb the bass - so special single

only in la

2008-09-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

rec'd this when i checked my email this evening:

From: Culver City Site Events
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:51 PM
Subject: From Facilities - Film Shoot- 22 Sept

Sony Pictures will be doing a location shoot in the warehouse lot across Slauson Ave (5933 Slauson Avenue) north of the 800-900 Buildings. Filming will commence on Monday Sept 22nd 7am-8pm. Filming will involve pyrotechnic work- shooting and explosive devices but in a contained area within the lot so it should not disturb occupants. Sony has permits in place and a fire safety officer will oversee the pyrotechnic work.

Thank you.

somehow i don't think this sort of thing happens in our springfield, oregon or orem, utah offices...

consecutive interpretation

2008-09-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

i thought i'd give a little insight into what really goes on in a speaker's mind while consecutive translation is underway and you're standing in front of the audience waiting for your next chance to speak.

"... and the streamlined UI provides the industry's best customer experience when combined with smart scheduling and silent mode."

(interpreter begins)

"kyoo wa, norton 2009..."

what's on the next slide anyways?
i see, more stuff on usability.
that's really sort of out of order, was that me or can i blame it on pr?
dammit, that's my slide. ah well...
time for a drink of water.
is that guy in the 3rd row asleep or just tired?
his neck just bounced off his chest, definitely sleeping.
i wonder if i could get away with checking my email on my phone...
... nope. turned it off and way too conspicuous.

(big pause by interpreter)

ok, here we go...

(interpreter starts back in)

phew. how did those 5 sentences turn into a full state of the union address in japanese?
is she getting it right? i think i just heard something about an eggplant.
maybe she said the UI is the color of an eggplant.
i hate eggplant, but it's not nearly as bad in japan as it is in the US.
it's smaller and less smushy.
maybe i could try some for dinner, tempura style.
what are we having for dinner anyways?
i need some sake.
that way, if the eggplant is bad, i can just kill it with a swig.

(small pause)

ok, that has to be it.

(restarts again)

unreal. she's definitely making stuff up.
time for another drink of water.
i'm 2/3 of the way done with my water. shoot.
let the race b/w my dry throat and my bladder begin!
check out that guy in the 5th row towards the back.
he's sort of like mr. fuji with donald trump's comb over. yikes.
how can his friends not tell him how bad his hair is?
it's sort of like have toilet paper stuck to the bottom of your shoe.
speaking of toilet paper, is anyone really going to think that manga toilet paper roll souvenirs are as clever as you think they are?

(dead silence)

ahem.

"now every year we conduct usability testing but this year..."

drought

2008-09-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

it's not that i've run out of things to say. far from it.only that the weight of responsibilities and concerns sometimes inhibit the words.the products have launched and i am on a plane back from tokyo.

more on this later.i could not force my fingers to do more work with a gun to my head. burnt 100% toasty right now.time for a break.

so here come all the suppressed syllables of recent weeks.

i finally remembered to get my haircut before doing media in japan. why? nearly every journalist totes around a camera and takes fotos of you to accompany their story. it's interesting doing media in japan; one of the better aspects is that the japanese are genuinely interested in talking about products and want to know about the people behind them. US tech media have to take their product news with a spoonful of sugar (usually fodder on the latest trends or something), otherwise they feel like they are being sold. anyways, i was asked if i ever had a security problem myself, how old i was/where i was born, what my favorite anime was and what omiyage i was bringing back. the journo was stoked when i proudly reported that i had 3 rolls of authentic manga toilet paper i was hustling back into the country for gifts :-)

so lilo is a lesbian. think disney is lining up a "herbie 2" for her? ahem. at least she chose mark ronson's sister. i wouldn't bet sarah palin's lipstick on the longevity of this relationship. now that's a debate i'd like to see; can we get lilo on the camera with sarah palin to discuss foreign policy, stem cell research and immigration? it's be more entertaining and as insightful as the rubbish we hear from the election coverage thus far. how can i have watched politics since the beginning of the year and still be so clueless on where the 2 candidates stand on critical issues? instead we get mccain in faux outrage over an analogy obama used which thousands of other people use every day. does he think just b/c it was part of the punchline of a palin's "tougher than nails" hockey mom joke that every mention of cosmetics is now somehow tied to his campaign?

i saw another black widow the other day in the garage. i decided to test the theory that they were far too fast to be simply stomped out of existence. squish. myth busted. turns out all of that flourocarbon induced torching was lots of fun, but unnecessary. i can't tell you how disappointing this was.

my laptop died. well, at least nearly. i was lucky enough to score an x300. having used a macbook air, i can tell you the x300 not nearly as sexy. it's a helluva a lot more biz ready though and i am now addicted to logging in with my finger via biometrics. after 1 week, logging in with a user/pass seems crude and clumsy. it's funny how unexpected conveniences can become compelling, necessary. good food for thought as we plan next year's releases.

after far too long an absence emiliana torrini is finally set to release a new album. the single she released, "me and armini", is a winner. jaunty reggae flavored beat with a few nice effects punctuated by her breathy vocals. just downloaded the full length from amazon, the rest of the camel from fat freddy's drop is hopefully next. until then, vampire weekend, yoav, pacifika, and apparat remain in heavy rotation.

someone tell me why we never hear people talking about keeping insanely smart people in the country when immigration control is brought up. andy grove i believe once said we should staple a green card to every diploma we hand out for an advanced degree. bravo. i've played hockey with a bunch of guys who were masters and phd students at UCLA for the better part of 9 years now. i've watched a few of them come and go due to the difficulty of getting through the convoluted, restrictive employment process we have established for non-citizens. one of them was an exceptionally good winger, so double bummer when he left :-) i shudder to think of how many brilliant ppl we have educated only to send them back home or someone else due to our inability to get out of our own way.

whole foods opened last week about a 5 minute walk from our place. we've already had breakfast, lunch, dinner and jane did a wine-tasting there this past week while i was in tokyo. the first time we walked in it was like the clouds parted, the sky rent open and god smiled upon us. we had always joked about the 5 dollar bananas they sell and all the other overpriced products but i'll be damned if we have not swallowed the lure hook, line and sinker. the placement of the store is interesting-- it's right b/w a 99 cent store and laundrymat! 2 weeks before it opened jane and i saw a homeless guy walking down the street while peeing himself. if he did that now, the whole foods security guards would take him down faster than valencia foreclosure, lest his presence soil the organic figs by mere proximity 40 feet from the produce aisle. if i have to choose b/w the homeless guy urinating on the sidewalk and overpriced fruit, ring me up another 5 dollar banana, carlos.

current playlist

2008-08-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

armini & me - emiliana torrini - armini & me
get it up (radioclit remix) - santogold feat. MIA & gorilla zoe - top ranking
l.e.s. artistes (XXXchange remix) - santogold - top ranking
office boy (architecture in helsinki mix) - bondo do role - marina gasolina
marina gasolina - bondo do role - marina gasolina
replica - beck - modern guilt
dusty boots - bookashade - the sun and the neon lights
holdon - apparat -walls
over and over - apparat -walls
club thing (RAC remix) - yoav - club thing e.p.
worthless - dido - cafe del mar volumen ocho
no memory of time - eva be feat. joe dukie - no memory of time e.p.
cool me down - black seeds - enter the dojo
bob marley sublime medley - jack johnson - bootleg
spanish harlem - aretha franklin - 30 greatest hits

{splat}

2008-07-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

this past tuesday morning while i was hopping on my bike to go to the gym, i noticed something in the corner of the garage by the door. it looked like a big black dot suspended b/w the floor and a box. strolling over i saw the image to the right: a huge spider had taken up residence in the garage. looking a little closer, it had an ominous red splotch on its belly. summoning all my discovery channel wisdom i quickly surmised this was the dreaded black widow i had always heard was pretty common here in socal.

i hate spiders. yes, i realize they play an essential role in the circle of life and all that crap, but they're hideous, they make a mess, and they bite. so when i saw my new little renter here to the right, the "live and let live" approach was simply not going to cut it. i went off to the gym and began formulating my plan to evict my new tenant, senorita arana mas fea.

i didn't have time tuesday morning to do anything, but i cast a nervous glance over to her web and saw that she was absent. i then noticed i'd left my car windows open. i looked around the car (paranoia, i know) and then nervously hopped in, vowing that something had to be done quickly.

tuesday evening was shot so wednesday morning i snapped the foto. after 2 snaps she was on to me and snuck into the box. game on, sister. i hatched my first plan at this point, which was to drop the phone book on her. a vestige of the pre-internet days, i figured it was as good a use as any for the tome and heavy enough to squish her nicely. i left for jury duty and work.

now that evening i was to catch up with my longtime pal chuck who lived in bursely hall with me my freshman year. he is a man of obscure knowledge and considerable skill-- everything from piloting a helicopter and building small aircraft to scuba and sky diving. while chuck and i were figuring out where to go for drinks and dinner, i asked him if he wanted to see a freakin' huge black widow. he immediately replied that he has a bunch of them at his place too, but complied and check it out with me.

chuck: "yeah, she's pretty big"
me: "sorta freaky huh?"
chuck: "want to get rid of her?"
me: "yes! what are you thinking?"
(at this point, i realized how silly my phone book plan sounded)
chuck: "do you have some WD-40 and a lighter?"
(cue the a-team music)
me: "i think so, let's check"
(grabbing lighter, looking for wd-40 can...)
me: "will this work? it says 'highly flammable'"?
(chuck tested it and it produced an impressive burst of flames)
chuck: "here we go..."

chuck dispensed a stream of industrial lubricant sponsored hell-fire at the super spider and she instinctively did the arachnid equivalent of a stop, drop and roll. he promptly stomped her with his boot and left a long squishy mark of spider guts on the garage floor. done deal.

maybe some day when global warming has claimed the polar bears and penguins which are somehow tied to black widow spiders in an intricate butterfly effect that would make national geographic proud i will mourn the loss of these poisonous little beasts. until then, i'm going to keep my car windows closed in the garage and a can of spray lubricant in the garage.

current playlist

2008-07-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

the camel - fat freddy's drop - the camel
strawberry swing - coldplay - viva la vida
lovers in tokyo - coldplay - viva la vida
libertad - pacifika - asuncion
starfish and coffee - prince - sign o' the times
charlotte - booka shade - the sun and the neon light
restless (fake blood remix) - UNKLE - restless E.P.
ocean - pearl jam - ten
mother nature - the orb - the dream
bryn - vampire weekend - vampire weekend
a punk - vampire weekend - vampire weekend
love revolution - bitter:sweet - drama
pro nails (bag raider's mix) - kid sister - pro nails remixes

happy things

2008-06-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

my new jawbone 2 headset. so loud that i have to turn the volume down to 50%-- this is fantastic. sleek black design and pretty darn comfy on my noggin. good bye logitech.

firefox 3. gmail is now so fast its scary. the ie8 beta does not impress, but it is beta after all.

legoland in carlsbad. first classy amusement park i've been too in a long time. not for anyone over 5-6 really, but well done.

yo venice. every neighborhood should have this, expertly done. informative and has the flavor of the community.

off to see shipwrecked at the geffen on friday and thievery+bebel on sunday at the bowl. is it friday yet? :)

taipei

2008-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I’m on my way back from Taipei today and have wrapped up my adventure in Asia that started 10 short days ago with an afternoon flight from LAX and a chance encounter with a dear friend at the airport. Before the events slip from my memory amongst the hurry of life at home, here’s a few snapshots from my time in Taiwan.

The trip began with soup dumplings at a nearby restaurant with Alex, his girlfriend and family. It’s a telling fact of our global community that I can have one of my best friends for 16 years and never have met his parents! This was resolved over traditional Taiwanese pork dumplings whose soupy interior was piping hot and really tasty. Dinner that night was also local fare—I got to try the hot pot Alex had told me about for so long. It’s a sort of bouillabaisse served in a steel pot that was split to allow for 2 flavors of broth. One of the broths was fairly mellow but nice, the other was one of the most unique flavors I’ve tasted in a long time. It was spicy, but in a very herbal way that was both odd and yummy. If you ate too much of it without using the nearby vinegar and ginger dip, it actually numbed your tongue like an anesthetic. Into the broth we threw in a variety of vegetables, tofu, and meat.

Taipei 101 is really an impressive engineering feat—but not that interesting beyond the technical marvel of having such an enormously tall edifice on a volcanic island buffeted by strong winds and rocked by the occasional earthquake. The top level observation deck that was outdoors tested my fear of heights. Once again, I failed the test and exited after circling it nervously one time around. The “super big wind damper” was a highlight, it’s basically a giant steel ball hooked up to hydraulics used to keep the building from swaying too much.

The photo here is of a painting posted in a very visible location when you enter the hotel. Alex told me that it was placed there to ward off evil spirits. Specifically, he stated “they must have trouble with ghosts.” Hrm. I got more of an explanation when one of my colleagues informed me that the locals avoid the Grand Hyatt as it is believed to be haunted by the spirits of those that were killed in a prisoner of war camp that was previously at the same location. I’m open to the idea of ghosts and had a curious incident in my room where a light came on unexpectedly while I was in bed watching TV. I may very well have accidentally turned it on by bumping one of the controls I later found near the bed, but this would have been tricky to do. Interesting!

Here’s me riding the giant cat statue in conference room we used for the workshop we were hosting. Yeehawwwwwwwww super kitty! We took a team photo with all of us mounted on the feline after sneaking in around midnight and passing a very nervous looking hotel employee.

Earlier in the evening I had arranged with the help of a local to take the entire workshop team out for massages. After 9 days on the road and far too many evenings spent sitting in the bar, we needed something different and relaxing before the big event the next day. It ended up being a pretty unique experience, as all 6 of us (all men but 1) were ushered into the same room for our massages. Comedy ensued as the little old men pounded our buttocks throughout the session, even going so far as to rhythmically pound out a bongo beat on our collective behinds at one point.

The sun is coming up outside the window in my economy class seat now and I’m about to embark on one those strange time zone twisted days that last far too long. I’ve got a little more work to do before landing in San Francisco for a brief layover en route to LAX so I’ll hang up my blogger hat for now.

current playlist

2008-06-10T01:36:00.000-07:00

club thing - yoav - charmed and strange
beautiful lie - yoav - charmed and strange
prana - tom middleton - lifetracks
best for last - adele -19
the zone - j-live feat. chali 2na - then what happened
deep water - portishead - third
garoto (steve cobby solid doc rerub) - cusmos - g-stone online selection
sol - pacifika - asuncion
mercy - duffy - rockferry
you are not through - evil nine - you can be special too
viva la vida - coldplay - viva la vida
going strong - makeba mooncycle - nightmares on wax presents wax on records
il serpente - kraak and smaak - plastic people
shakatakadoodub - kruder and dorfmeister - shakatakadoodub single

asia + nostalgia

2008-06-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

mittedly, i've not been very pensive of late. work has kept me rushing from place to place and from one task to another. i wake up most days between 5 and 6, log into email and begin hammering away at a task list which obstinately stays at the same length. mind you this does not mean that i'm rejecting family or social obligations, only that the combined effort of keeping all the balls in the air means that my moments of clear, uinterrupted thought are scarce.

somewhat humorously, as i was writing this we hit some turbulence on the plane (tokyo->taipei) and the 40ish looking japanese woman to my right grabbed my arm in fright and held it. like i was saying, this isn't bad, just a little distracting to say the least. truth be told after all this time flying i still get freaked out by turbulence. this might be due to losing my old pal mark stoehl on flight back from china when i was 20. i could also just be a big sissy :-)

coming to asia for me means visiting dear, old friends and revisting a time in my life when i had just graduated from university. in spring of 96, i had locked up a job at deloitte & touche in los angeles and had nearly limitless excitement for what lied ahead: an unwritten future full of palm trees, beautiful west coast women & a career in high-tech at a time when the internet boom was just beginning to blossom. looking back, i can't imagine a time in my life of more optimism and enthusiasm.

with all of this ahead of me, i focused at the time on wrapping up a couple jobs to fill my college student coffers before taking off for a summer of travel to singapore, indonesia, malaysia, and japan. i was working as a freelance web developer for a shady cat out of chicago my sister had introduced me to as well as a programmer for a professor at umich who wanted to analyze search engine results. way before google become a titan, i wrote a delphi application that parsed search engine results from hotbot, alta vista, yahoo, etc. in order to analyze their relative effectiveness. i was also polishing a web server log analysis tool i'd originally started in borland paradox for producing usage metrics for the biz school. we were actually using this to justify why we needed a website and procure add'l investment for developing the site. oh man, have times changed...

while i'm tempted to write a chronology of my summer travels, i don't remember my time so much as an itinerary as a collection of vivid snapshots in my memory. more of a series of loose photos than a video, so to speak. i recall my first taste of durian at jeffrey's parents' apartment in singapore, walking through crowded markets and garishly colored indian temples next to high tech shopping malls filled with chinese and malay singaporeans. along with jeff and his friends, arthur, wee teck and his eventual wife yen wuah, we traveled to bintan to spend a sun burnt weekend playing on the beach in bintan, indonesia.

i spent the lion's share of my travel that summer in japan, traveling from tokyo to fukuoka and back. sitting at the train station at some remote japanese city, traveling down to fukuoka to see my pal victor, a shinkansen shot through like a rocket, blowing back even my short-cropped hair. going through japan on my own was a rush, not only was the freedom intoxicating but i had spent 2 years of intensive japanese lessons and it felt great to finally use some of what i'd learned. there are those that accuse me of being an asia-phile b/c of this and my marriage to a korean, but i undertook japanese purely as an intellectual challenge having already excelled in all the romance languages and feeling like this would be the ultimate linguistic mountain to climb. to be honest, while i have very fond memories of asia i will likely always consider latino culture closer to my heart.

i remember going to see fuji-san with alex roberts, his mother and a shinto priestess who was her neighbor who had befriended me. her driving was so terrible that we all arrived at the base of the mountain nauseous and simply glad that we were no longer in the car, jerking along to the palsy of her seemingly spastic foot on the brake. i still have the ceramic & stone tea glasses she gave me before i left japan and i hope i always do. they serve as a beautiful, occasional reminder for me of this time in my life when we bring them out for a picnic or special occasion.

i will never forget going to a festival around a lake in fukuoka with victor and his then girlfriend. we ate fried tako (can never remember the name!), watched fireworks and drank entirely too much beer en route to closing out the evening with the best late night ramen noodles i've ever eaten. victor drove a cheap scooter that somewhat impossibly bore both of our weight down narrow streets and tight corners. i haven't a clue what ever happened to victor; unlike jeffrey, alex roberts and chou, he has faded out of my life with no clear means of retrieving his acquaintance. i admit this with no sorrow, it's inevitable and has happened with even closer friends. the tides of time seem to polish certain friendships into further relief and beauty while it carries others away with the retreating water.

there is a small garden somewhere in kyoto that has left a mark on me i hope to carry to the end of my days. i don't think it is a major landmark and may not live on a tourist map at all, but i recall walking up a narrow, stone street with alex roberts and finding a small entry way into a pristine buddhist garden. it was experty manicured and verdant green, the result of meticulous care and thoughtful design. as we sat and meditated, the occasional "clop" of the wooden mechanism for scaring off the deer broke the silence. the japanese name for this completely escapes me, but it fills with water from a source above it and only when weighted down with sufficient water does it drop to another wooden stick whose sloped angle encourages the water to drop from the tube that had just been filled by falling, gurgling water. it's an oddly musical, beautiful sound set against a backdrop of almost uninterrupted silence.

i just looked up and realized i've killed an hour or so writing this and have filled a couple pages already :-) time to wrap it up. off to taipei to make some new memories with alex chou.

mid week funnies

2008-05-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

hysterical: gary kasparavo attacked by a flying RC phallus:
http://www.anorak.co.uk/politicians/184076.html

rec'd this in my inbox (junk) this morning:

Dear Sir,

I allow myself to get in touch with you regarding the MOHO project set up by students and professors from Stanford and two among the best universities in France (Centrale Paris Engineering School and ESSEC Business School).

the moho project? really?

director: sumthin' ain't workin' in this video dawg...
rap artist: we need moho up in here!

something clearly got lost in the translation. don't the students at the finest french universities keep up with pop culture? those french dubbed versions of 'boyz in the hood" aren't selling themselves...

lastly, haiku humor
****************************************************************
In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku Poetry messages. Haiku Poetry has strict construction rules: Each poem has only 17 Syllables - 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the Third. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning, and powerful insight through extreme brevity.

Here are some actual error messages from Japan. Aren't these better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation?"
-----------------------------------------
The web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
-----------------------------------------
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
--------------------------------------------
Program aborting
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
--------------------------------------------
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
--------------------------------------------
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
--------------------------------------------
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
--------------------------------------------
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
--------------------------------------------
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
--------------------------------------------
Three things are certain
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
--------------------------------------------
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
--------------------------------------------
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
--------------------------------------------
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
--------------------------------------------
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
--------------------------------------------

a day in la

2008-05-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

so many times the days sneak by and i wonder what i will think looking back many years from now. or, i ponder how wacky life in LA truly is and think i should write it down. so w/o further ado, here is my sunday in LA.

last nite ended at a restaurant called "nak won" on vermont in k-town. i didn't want to go really but jane wanted to and far be it from me to deny the soon-to-be bday girl from some late nite korean food. hodori was the goal, but nak won is next door and not a bad second place when you just want to eat and go. hodori's main attraction is the fact that they are open 24x7 and that the food is unoffensive & cheap. contrasted with nak won which is only cheap and open 24x7.

kimchee kal guk soo at 2am turns into a late morning so i piled out of bed late while jane slumbered off her hang-over (sort of). i was designated driver last nite and angling for a morning run. i cranked out a 6.5 miler including a few rounds of stairs and a fast mile on the samohi track. wrapped it up with some stretching and few rounds of wii boxing.

i made us lunch of bbq kabobs, corn and spinach salad. the multi-colored little potatoes from yesterdays farmer's mkt worked out in place of chicken. while kabobing, chatted with my old pal chuck who is a stunt man/actor who told me about his role in a forthcoming gi joe blockbuster. as interesting as it seems, i would not trade my predictable income for his occasional last minute stint on "lost" in hawaii yet not knowing when the mortgage money is going to run out.

we ate lunch while listening to the new tom middleton cd "lifetracks" i downloaded from emusic, quite legally i might add. this served as a break from the excellent yoav cd "charmed and strange" i've been binging on all weekend after getting it in the mail from kcrw on friday. check out "club thing" and "beautiful lie" from yoaz's new cd, if nothing else.

the afternoon was reading and resting on the deck upstairs along with some work. really hot today, something like 90s and hotter inland. we then headed off to "celebrity bingo" at my hair stylist's salon. he dresses in drag for these and goes by the name of "geneva deveraux", see the pic below. it started well beyond fashionably late (like an hour late) and we didn't win squat but we did hang out with faith evan's husband while faith belted out numbers and letters with richard... er, geneva. if you win, you shout out "bingo, bitch!" and then ppl throw their wadded up bingo cards at you.

i then dropped a tired jane off at home and headed over to "tengu" in sta monica for a quick drink with my longtime pal dimitry. him and his little group "zona" have a couple house singles out that are reasonably successful abroad and after an hour at his friend's bday party, we left and he played me their new tracks. it's well produced, catchy house stuff. not bad at all. i dropped him off so he could get back to his little model friend "antonio" (all looks, no brains) and i could get home to wind down.

back to school tomorrow. this is not a normal weekend, but not that unusual either. the oddball mix of people, culture and the arts in LA makes it one of my favorite places on the planet. i wouldn't trade life in lala land for any place else :-)

waiting for the email to load...

2008-05-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

a series of thought snippets while outlook chugs through its morning routine of slurping down my email.

i had dinner last nite with a couple friends, one of which is on the OC dating scene. he was with a woman for a while, but she had broken it off with him a couple days before *via text message*. ouch! she now refuses to take his calls. is this normal now? has texting infiltrated the rest of the relationship as well? for example, is there "text sex" like there is "phone sex"? hmmmm... glad i'm not on the dating scene.

jane and i saw iron man sunday evening and it was fantastic. best flick i've seen since juno last year. great acting, perfectly cast, lots of action, well-paced, etc.

... why do ppl still have office phones? i never use mine and it has a message that says "i don't check this, just call my cell". after 3 years, not a single person has abused this. the bigger issue is that i now get locked out every 4 months since i can't remember the stupid passcode. sigh...

... there is something in the UK that produces amazing female vocalists of late. yes, there is amy winehouse, but what about corrinne bailey-rae? and lily allen (not a great voice, but a big talent nonetheless)? i've been listening to duffy's "rockferry" which is an epic, wonderful single. adele seems great as well, i've nabbed 2 of her tracks from "19", "make you believe" and the funky "best for last". i see santogold is finally catching a little wind in her sails too.

alright, my email is locked and loaded and i'm already mid-way through digging my way out before the morning's exercise. happy tuesday!

current playlist

2008-05-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

beautiful (j-boogie remix) - karsh kale - beautiful e.p.
hunter - portishead - third
killing in the name of - rage against the machine - rage against the machine
the cowboy and his sub - jon kennedy - demons
paranoid android - sia - exit music (radiohead tribute)
the funky drummer - plump djs with a skillz - funk hits the fan e.p.
planetary (club mix) - booka shade - planetary e.p.
four sticks - led zeppelin - IV
china - tori amos - precious things
crooked - evil nine - you can be special too
rockferry - duffy - rockferry
sinead o'connor - john, i love you - universal mother
gothia limone (remix) - embee - send someone away e.p.

ftc workshop, 2 years later

2008-05-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since the last time I jotted down my thoughts in advance of an FTC workshop, but here I am again tapping away at the keyboard on my laptop on my way to Washington D.C. I’m doing last minute preparation for being on a panel tomorrow at FTC’s mobile marketplace workshop with another security professional from US CERT and an academic/engineer. While I’m normally guided by a slide deck, slides are verboeten on panels like this and the most important thing to be armed with is well-formed thoughts. So in the spirit of cementing the thoughts in my head after doing a few days of research and mulling things over, here’s my notes on the questions I’m expecting tomorrow.

fair warning: this ended up pretty techie...

Who are the stakeholders in the mobile security market?

The carriers – it’s their job to keep the networks clean and running smoothly. Since they often get paid by how much services you use, they have a high level of incentive to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

The handset manufacturers – they are responsible for making sure the hardware is designed with at least basic defenses in mind. For example, it would be great if they had onboard encryption, but they should at least make sure that the combination of the OS & hardware provide sufficient support for security related aspects of protocols such as GSM and UTMS.

The OS vendor – they have the same responsibility as the handset manufacturers to make sure all the basics are covered, but since they are also application providers (and service providers to phone applications) they have all the normal software security concerns (buffer overflows, dos conditions, etc.). Code re-use for windows exemplifies this, as the old IGMP DoS flaw was a direct carry over to Windows Mobile 5. Mobile OS have many years of security expertise to draw on from the PC space—in some areas the lessons seem to have been learned (code signing is standard), in other areas, they have not. There are also new issues here related to privacy & mobility, such as location tracking, which really are a bit different than the PC space (which assumes your device is not terribly mobile, probably not true anymore with laptop sales outpacing desktop sales, but I still carry my phone more places than my little thinkpad x60.

The user – given the movement of attacks to exploiting people, no matter how good a job the above players do, the user has to make the right decisions about what data to store on their phone (how sensitive?), how to protect it (use a password?), what to install on it (can I trust this file claiming to be a background or ringtone?), and what to connect it to (hotspot, Bluetooth device, etc.). The biggest risk here is loss or theft, phones are lost at 15 times the rate of a PC! Hence, the most important thing you can do is carefully consider how much sensitive data you store on your phone, password protect your phone, and use encryption when it is available. I use a password on my phone and store most of my sensitive data in other places, like on my lappie or in a file in gmail (not the best, but better than in a flat file in my phone).

Note that in systems that accommodate payment by phone, as you now see in Japan, you also have the merchants and more importantly the payment processor in the mix. Nothing really new here, just all the same security practices you would expect from players accustomed to handling credit cards and other payment instruments.

What is the future of malware & mobile phones? How is it different from PCs?

Mobile

Homogeneous OS: Windows

At least 4 different OS (RIM, Apple, Symbian, Windows Moile), 1 with the most market share is Symbian at 65% -- Linux is out there too, and what about Motorola’s OS?

Conclusion: threats cannot spread as easily since they cannot assume a single, dominant OS.

Hardware abstracted from the OS: Single threat will run on any Windows-supported hardware (AMD, Intel processors make no difference as long as long as it is the same bit rating)

Hardware and OS more tightly linked—at least differences across platform force application development challenges such that you cannot compile for Symbian and then expect it to run across all Symbian devices—has to be recompiled for the specific processor used on the phone if not the phone itself

Conclusion: not only can threats not assume a single OS, but even on that OS, threats cannot cross processor architectures (i.e.in 05, CommWarrior could not jump from a Nokia phone to a Sony Ericsson phone via BT or MMS, even though both used Symbian Series 60).

Incentive: $$$

Phones are not used for cash transactions in most places—yet. The data they store on average is more useful for spammers than anyone else.

Conclusion: there is less incentive for malware to afflict a mobile phone since the authors cannot directly monetize their theft.

Unauthorized installs quite easy along with exploits or fake alerts

Code-signing and platform issues (mentioned above) make this difficult, forcing attackers to resort to trickery and low volume attacks

Apple gates this by forcing everything through iTunes (all apps have to register and be sold via iTunes). Symbian forces applications to be signed by them.

MSFT has code-signing with Windows Mobile 6, unsigned apps will prompt the user once and will not have access to certain “dangerous” APIs.

J2ME could facilitate this, but would have to vulnerable and installed on the vast majority of devices—and you would have to have a static IP address or some vector of exploit, such as a popular browser like FireFox. J2ME attacks will force prompts for every dangerous action, so social engineering a la RedBrowser may be effective, but self-replicating malware is unlikely.

RIM uses same model as J2ME.

Conclusion: Unauthorized, silent installs are unlikely without physical theft of a phone itself due to the level of control the OS/device manufacturers exert over the handset.

No money trail for spamming

If someone is spamming via your phone, many users will receive an “out of whack” bill (SMS is not free for many), funny charges or have a monthly bill they are accustomed to receiving.

Conclusion: Not foolproof, but it’s harder to remain unnoticed on a phone when spamming.

Proximity unlimited—completely remote attacks are du rigueur

Remote attacks are possible today with repeaters and antennas, but there are still geographic limitations.

Conclusion: an attack like Slammer which spanned the globe in 15 minutes is highly unlikely. It hinged on auto-execution of code, poor centralized control, and no proximity limits.

ISPs serve as the transportation network—many of them and they sprang up quickly. Sharing relationship were new as they were not well acquainted with one another and intensely competitive.

This is how phishing “takedown” services proliferate, basically they are go-betweens across ISPs for brands asking for fraud sites to be taken down. If ISPs had better fraud detection services and coordination, phishing would not be the problem that it is. Not to mention the existence of rogue ISPs like the Russian Business Network.

Telcos are the transportation networks—while very competitive, they have longstanding relationships and are more likely to work together to solve resolve a large threat than an ISP.

What does the market for phone-based security services look like?

§ Easy data encryption and backup

§ Potentially includes privacy services

§ Identity protection

§ Safety services for file download & install, hotspot access, etc.

§ Parental controls (centralized, across devices)

What can consumers do to protect themselves?

1. Don’t store sensitive info on your phone.

Names and addresses are understandable, but don’t put your SSN and CC data on your phone. At least not unencrypyted.

2. Password protect your phone.

It’s irritating, but it will prevent most data theft if the phone is lost or stolen.

3. Back-up your phone data.

You never know when you will need it.

4. Set your device’s Bluetooth to undiscoverable.

Will prevent unsolicited requests and will not affected paired devices.

5. Don’t accept incoming BlueTooth requests unless you asked for it.

No good can come from it.

6. Review your monthly bill for any funny business.

Will help you identify fraudulent charges/spam impact.

7. Don’t install files from untrusted sources on your phone.

Might affect your phone performance, stability, or security.

Closing statement

§ Watch for transaction increases to drive more malware author incentive

§ Watch for IPv6 and dedicated IP addresses—promises for more issues and concern

§ Malware itself is not likely to target an OS platform, but rather the web which is quickly becoming the platform for all devices.

o Windows has been the target of choice b/c it is pervasive, the web is becoming this today given the proliferation of devices and increased functionality (i.e. web 2.0)

o Attackers in the future will aim for the web since it offers the biggest return, but even these attacks will be language specific (unless you can get at a global ad network)

§ Threats will therefore “merge” from the PC world to phones and other web-enabled devices where they will exhibit traits we are already seeing today

o More reliant on deception than technology exploits

o Service specific

o Language specific

And they will likely be non-persistent “flash” attacks.

So we won’t have to worry too much about self-replicating malware, but malware and spyware will be a worry, especially those that focus on install via deception (Trojans).

§ Nonetheless, we think the market is much broader than malware protection alone, it encompasses

o Easy data encryption and backup

o Potentially includes privacy services

o Identity protection

o Safety services for file download & install, hotspot access, etc.

o Parental controls (centralized, across devices)

santa monica classic

2008-05-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

after a couple months of training, this morning i completed our corporate challenge 10k run along with my fellow members of team fascinus. the results aren't up yet, but we probably placed 2nd to team nike who stacked the deck with a guy who as the olympic trials and ran something like a 35:50. since they sponsored the race, this is sort of like inviting all your pals over for poker and then cleaning them out in pai gow. you may have a little extra spending $$$, but you're going to get less xmas cards next year for sure. i can't complain too much as our team ringer scored me a really nice pair of nike air equalon 2s as well as some bonus shorts and a shirt.

oh yeah, i turned in a respectable time of 44:30, around 7:18 per mile. not bad, but i was hoping for something in the 43 range, which would have required more training or more likely a rocket pack :-)

edit: results are up now. i ended up with a 44:20 finish. it's only 10 seconds less, but i'll take it!

techetiquette

2008-05-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

late afternoon yesterday i cut out of work early (hey, i started at 6am) in order to take a cruise around the marina del rey harbor with my pal te'o. as we tooled around in his little boat, we were reflecting on how there really don't seem to be any rules or established "common sense" for using the massive amount of consumer technology now available. sensing an opp'ty to be both snarky and elitist, we seized the moment and i offer you this list of new rules for using today's tech, with a heavy focus on mobile phones.

1. use silent or vibrate mode on your mobile phone in the office
it's hard enough to focus on what your doing with IM, email and 2 phones (land line and a mobile) vying for your attention, you certainly don't need someone else's phone binging off every 30 minutes as my old office mate's used to do when he forgot to take it to meetings with him. i resolved the problem by threatening to flush it down the toilet.

2. don't put IM on your mobile phone
you can already text ppl from your phone to get that groovy sense of immediate gratification, why would you need IM? and you can use the web from your phone (at least ppl with a smartphone can), as well as email. do you really need IM on your mobile? i say give it up.

3. it's ok not to answer your phone
and i've yet to miss an important call.really. just b/c you can be accessible damn near anywhere, doesn't mean you should be. i can't tell you how many times i've walked into a public restroom and i can hear someone yapping away with their pal while sitting on the can. yuck. this is an extreme case, but i've become accustomed to leaving my phone at home on the weekend or shutting it off in the evening. it feels really good, try it.

4. don't invite ppl to join facebook groups
i think i have something like 18 group invitations pending, everything from joining the struggle vampires versus the zombies to the purdue women's lacrosse team. i'm over it. i've yet to figure out why i even need facebook groups.

5. don't call a bluetooth headset "a bluetooth"
this little gem came from a certain family member lately who will remain unnamed. bluetooth is a wireless protocol, not a device. it can connect your phone to your car, a keyboard to a computer, and the your digital picture frame to a phantom image of the virgin of guadalupe (ok, this one may take additional help from a psychic, but you get the idea). unless your willing to call a website "an HTTP", let's nip this one in the bud.

6. bluetooth headset <> fashion accessory
i said it before but apparently i'm losing this battle: i don't care how groovy and matchy your headset is, chances are you look really silly wearing it in your ear when your not talking. i've started seeing this all the time now, it's nutty. ever tried having a conversation with someone who is wearing it in their ear? first, the ear blinks every 5 seconds which i find really distracting while trying to maintain eye contact. secondly, you are often left to wonder if they've just picked up their phone and are speaking to you or someone else. lastly, it just seems rude that i am right in front of you and having a conversation yet i can be instantly interrupted and trumped by anyone who dials you up on your mobile to see what your favorite pizza topping is.

7. don't text, email or otherwise type while driving
the only exception to this is when stuck in traffic. this one is an obvious no-no, but i will admit to having done it.

8. keep your VM greeting 2 sentences or less
you can't always zing past every VM greeting, so for the love of god, pls keep it brief. 2 sentences or less is perfect. i don't need to know how to send you a fax, know how much you really want me to have a wonderful day, or hear your favorite quote from charles dickens. the related request here is to keep your VM messages short. not nearly as offensive and sometimes you just have to ramble a little but always appreciated.

9. don't just use your phone # as your VM greeting
i know you may not like hearing your recorded voice (not many ppl do, including myself), but i often wonder if i called the right person when i don't have any sort of aural clue when leaving a message. if you don't want a custom greeting, how about just your name? or getting someone else to say it?

10. mute while typing on a conference call
this happens once a day: i'm on a conference call with a slew of people, and someone is multitasking by hammering away on their keyboard. nothing wrong with multitasking, i do it just as much as the next person, however, you have to consider the noise factor of what your doing. nothing seems to be quite as rampant or popular as pounding out emails, IMs or anything else that requires frequent typing while pretending to listen in to the guy from finance explain budgetary procedure #71. it's just too damn loud. mute if you're going to type. or fold clothes. or dust the wood in the room. or rip your old CDs. i do all of these and they make very little noise to the ppl on the call.

would my lower back still ache in 2058?

2008-04-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

i rolled out of bed about 30 minutes ago after my aching lower back reminded me that sleeping on my side is no longer the best idea any more. darks days when the fetal position doesn't get the job done! i suppose i could wedge a few properly positioned pillows at key locations and make it work, but why do that when i can simply roll-over on my back? and it's not normally that bad, it's just a little upset after 13.2 miles last sunday and pounding the pavement for 7 miles yesterday.

anyways, i finally gave in and plopped myself in front of my desktop computer to read personal email and do take a look at the news. an article called "the world in 2058" caught my eye. first off, it has a long section with vint cerf whom is one of my faves, sort of the jimmy choo of technology in janespeak. while i have to consider what the future will bring for security products and i spend a lot of brain cycles on it, i admittedly don't consider much beyond my field and if i'm still working on security products in 2058 i'd be sorely disappointed (i've promised myself this is my last job in the field i joined in 95/96).

so what did the big brains have to say?

we'll get to travel at the speed of light - i'm all for getting to places faster, but we haven't really even figured out how to safely travel by car at 70 mph yet. we were doing just fine until mobile phones came into the picture. now, every time someone weaves into a nearby lane or bumps the car in front of them, you see in their hands a phone or 'berry that was receiving more attention than their driving. now, imagine this at lightspeed! what the heck happens when you give into temptation and text your pal while traveling from NYC->TYO, only to bump into someone from Shanghai? i don't know the answer, but i'm betting you don't just bump off of them video game style and offer a polite apology.

we'll have nano devices inside us - i'm all for this. i'm thinking i could have a little gyrosleeping agent which recognized that my artificially enhanced six-pack abdomen had flipped over on its side to indulge in a little fetal position while catching a few z's. it would then smooth everything out, released some chemical or pushing some body buttons that would basically tell my lower back to piss off for a bit while i sleep how *i want to sleep*, not how it allows me to. oh yeah, and if i could get a nano device which would power up my anemic slapshot, count me in. how about one that travels to where the middle of my back itches when jane isn't around to help out? i can see my whole body as a freakin' 405 of little nano devices zipping around to cure ailments and shortcomings i simply shrug off today.

a few other interesting things were the mention that terrorism and climate change are pretty much in check by that time. not that we've "solved them" but that the planet doesn't yield under the weight of climate change and we adapt around it and terrorism is recognized as a police and not a military function. mind you, combating it means giving up fundamental privacy rights, which is mentioned as a "thorny" issue. uh yeah. banksy has done some brilliant art on privacy lately with his "one nation under cctv" graf. it also turns out that blue is the new green and we end up with a water shortage after we deal with all this sticky climate change stuff. hmmmmmm... desalination anyone?

after all of this, i'm left with a very simple longing for the future: can anyone make a really good rum raisin ice cream in 2058 that won't gird my nano-tricked out buttocks with a new layer of fat?

current playlist

2008-04-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

blind mary - gnarls barkely - odd couple
pong pang - booka shade - movements
alice (drop the lime heavy bass remix) - moby - alice e.p.
where is your god now? - adam freeland - hate e.p.
tocando o terror - dj dolores - 1 real
still take you home - arctic monkeys - whatever people say i am...
crown royal - jill scott - the real thing
the white flash (feat. thom yorke) - modeselektor - happy birthday!
tomahawk - jon kennedy - demons e.p.
f*ck was i (morgan page remix) - jenny owens - elevate
bad man - missy elliot - bad man single
nectarine - mike doughty band - golden delicious

hello april - musings

2008-04-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

ran into this little slice 'o graf on a wall while i was visiting the media in oslo during my last trip. remember the detroit graffiti i mentioned below? skulls, profanity & cheap vodka? well, you can forget about that in scandinavia my friend. starbuck thugs unite! the foreboding "rich kids on soya" posse are rolling into whoville. keep an eye on your splenda my friend...

i caught a snippet of the news this morning while grabbing my coffee from downstairs that mentioned barack obama went bowling last nite and they were going to announce his scores. this almost made me nostalgic for all the anna nicole smith nonsense. i think i might even be ready for a good brittany scandal at this point. i'm waiting for the hillary response to barack's bowling, think she'd be interested in joining me for lawn jarts?

since i've been home for the last month i've been on a non-stop music binge. i'm really enjoying the new jack johnson, gnarls barkely as well as the latest moby album. moby has finally returned to form and delivered his first decent album since "play". i'm still liking the new goldfrapp too, very much a return to the mellow grooves of felt mountain. i'm disappointed in mike doughty's latest though, "golden delicious"; the lyrics just aren't as interesting as i expect from him nor is the production quality there either.

back on the road next week in SF for the RSA conference. short trip, hope it doesn't mess up my now regular running schedule and my wii boxing progress :-)

democratic fatigue

2008-03-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's finally happened: I am tired of all the election coverage. I admittedly binged on the earlier primaries and was fully absorbed by the race to the party nominations. now? I'm simply tired of hearing about it. About what do you ask?

Obama's Lack of a Flag Lapel Pin
This is retarded. Why is he not patriotic for not wearing a flag pin? Is this standard politician uniform nonsense, doled out alongside stars and stripes boxers? Don't we have a better measure for patriotism than adorning oneself with a 10 dollar metal trinket? The guy obviously has a sense of style; maybe he just doesn't want that irritating hole left in his Italian suits that pins would certainly leave in his fancy lapel?

McCain's Insanity
I am not going to vote Republican, but I still really wanted to like John McCain. Unfortunately, he is nuts and I am prevented from doing this. When asked about how to solve the current economic woes in the U.S., he began by focusing on the importance of free markets. Ok John, I'm with you. I believe in free markets too. Then he attributed the current issues to legislative and regulatory impediments. What? Are you kidding me? What statutes and encumbrances inhibited the lenders from writing billions of dollars of really ill-advised debt? Isn't that what's at the heart of much of today's financial woes? I'm all for a smaller govt footprint, but excessive greed and myopia has dealt us a serious blow, let's own up to it and do whatever we can do to prevent it in the future. Reluctantly, I think this means correcting issues created by capitalistic excess in this case.

Obama's Preacher
Get over it. The guy's preacher has an abrasive, old school style of preaching that is at least confrontational if not openly racist and wrong-headed. Obama should know better, but who agrees with everything they hear at church? Or in any other group? A thinking, independent person will typically filter what data they take in and accept only what makes sense to them. Why would someone instantly attribute all the beliefs of the ppl who are listening to the one that is speaking? I can understand the temptation to do this, but we need to be smarter than this. We not only have the printing press, but YouTube as well. Let's give ourselves a bit more credit.

Hillary
I'm done with her little lies, awkward attempts at humor and most importantly establishment politicking. While I frankly think her policies, experience and budget objectives are more aligned with what I want than Obama's, I'm so turned off by her person that I'm afraid I can't vote for her. I just don't trust her.

Having said all of this, I can't believe the current breed of tyrants running the white house and any of today's flawed candidates will be an improvement over GW and Cheney. I was incensed this week to read Cheney's quote of "So?" in terse reaction to the american public's lack of support for the war in iraq. The white house spokesperson, in a failed attempt to recover, stated that the american ppl get the chance to vote every 4 years. WTF? So they can do whatever they want in the interim? No matter how bad the current crop of candidates seem, can it really get any worse than this? Warp speed captain, bring on November!

current playlist

2008-03-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

all i really want - viktoria mullova - through the looking glass
tick tick boom - the hives - the black and white album
bombs - faithless - to all new arrivals
silverlake pills - adam freeland - silverlake pills e.p.
bump bump - skeewiff feat. young mc - the jalapeno sound system
hong kong - gorillaz - help: a day in the life
twice - little dragon - little dragon
meant to be - dub specimen ltd feat. little tasha - oliver peoples 5 (compilation)
the longest road - morgan page - the longest road e.p.
mandarin girl - booka shade - movement
hope - jack johnson - sleep through the static
cologne cerrone houdini - goldfrapp - seventh tree

detroit city: a pictoral by whit

2008-03-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

whit clements, the goalie on my inline hockey team, is also from michigan and a pretty good amateur photographer. he snapped the shots below on a recent trip to the motor city. check 'em out.ketel one? belvedere? chopin? step aside my friends and take your fancy pants foreign names with you. this is mohawk town! mohawk vodka, that is. i'm betting mohawk has been in a helluva lot more brown bags than martinis.

sort of speaks for itself eh? remember how i mentioned the cute, fuzzy graffiti i saw in italy. yikes. this is our goodfellas to their pokemon.

sites like this are not that uncommon. urban decay in detroit is in advanced stages, it has every feeling of a city without hope.

old mills and abandoned industrial yards. sites like this have been mined for scrap metal which can be re-sold. i read a story a few months ago about people ganking air conditioners and phone lines so that they can be sold as scrap. detroit = desperation.

and on a lighter note :-)

outro feb, intro march

2008-03-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

it's been a while since my last "real" post. while i normally get a lot of these done on the road this past journey had too many cities in too little time: stockholm, oslo, copenhagen, milan. it was all i could do to keep my breath with the planes & hotel rooms. i'll post some pics after i get home and settled in, but in no particular order, here are my thoughts on the plane ride home:

all airports should have hardwood floors.
every airport in scandanavia does (that i saw) and it completely changes how you feel about the space, turning what could have been a bustling, stress-ridden thoroughfare into something not unlike an ikea living room display floor. they should hire the norwegians to extreme makeover the dirtbag airport that is LAX. just left charles de gaulle and even the french are kicking our butts with clean & stylish airports. the french! these are the people who thought red pants would make great camouflage in world war 1 and inaugurated consumption of snails.

faded empires don't suck.
this was an important one i contemplated while cruising around stockholm. i understand the swedes used to be a dominant society at several times in history. now they are relegated to bestowing upon us meatballs with lingon berries, disposable design furniture and the occasional pop or movie star (think abba, greta garbo, dolph lundgren, etc.). none of this is bad, but it's not exactly shaping the future of humanity. having said that, the swedes seemed genuinely happy with their lot in life even though their one-time glory is mostly recalled now in advanced college history courses and commerative shot glasses with really small font. relate this to where we are now in the US and i think we can take some comfort from the fact that other nations have quietly slipped into a background role on the world stage where they were once playing the star. and, following their adoption of a lesser role, people seem really ok with it. really. sooooooooooo... heed my call citizens of the u.s.a.: it is time to figure out what our new contribution to the world since the day will soon be upon us when we will hand the keys over to the chinese. i'm betting it will still be media and some form of hollywood that does not include kanye west-- i heard the man rap about klondike bars at the grammies. what the hell is that?

graffiti doesn't have to be gang-related or violent.
this one is sort of obvious, but i think i lost this sometime in LA. in fact, i think it relates directly back to jonathan who can explain which tagging relates back specifically to which gang did it and where they're from. for example, after spotting the "TMK" tagged onto our trash can a few months ago, jonathan sagely advised me that "too much krap" had staked a claim onto our trash bin. apparently they are a mexico-based gang that is on the rise in socal. i'm fine with them tagging our trash can, but if they are going to claim some portion of it, the least they could do is take it out for us every now and again. anyways, back to my point, which is as follows: graffiti in italy was downright cute and fluffy in some areas and artistic and fun in others. why does is almost all of our graffiti in LA so ugly and bleak? granted, we have some cool street murals like the "art of chase" and wyland stuff, but impromptu street art is not our flavor apparently. too much krap indeed...

it's floor happy face.
can we just standardize on what floor the lobby level is on? some places it is "ground", which i'm ok with. other places it is "1" and commonly in europe it is "0". which i can appreciate. it's all too confusing though; i think we should just replace all of it with a star or a happy face. this works for me. on another note, while explaining that we did not name the latest version of our backup and recovery s/w version 13 (went straight to 14 from version 12) for the same reason many buildings do not have 13 floors, a smug italian pr person commented to me (in front of about 20 italian journalists) that 13 was actually lucky in italy. go figure. i remarked that it was an ethopian guy who had made the decision (which it was), which i figure was about the best defense i had at the time.

english rules.
now you can't just go assuming everyone speaks english, especially cab drivers, but if you had to choose one language to carry you around the globe you'd be well served to through english in your knap sack. this is really the benefit of the work the british started so long ago, hollywood has more gently influenced and the internet is perpetuating. just try and find an internet protocol that you have to spell out in french, italian or any other language. really. so to the victors go the spoils: we can travel damn near anywhere and step 2 paces beyond everyone else's pointing and grunting when they don't speak the language b/c everyone has seen our movies, had at least a little high school english or visited an adult website on the internet. while the chinese will eat our lunch economically, i don't think they will have much luck replacing english as a form of clumsy esperanto worldwide. their character system was nearly designed to prevent literacy, the language is impossibly tonal and (apologies, but let's be honest), it's just plain ugly to the eardrums. so while we will no longer be able to afford to travel internationally with our already flaccid dollar bills, when the chinese or russian tourist offers to buy our house with cash, they will at least have to suffer the indignity of doing it in english.

soggy stockholm evening

2008-02-24T09:23:00.001-08:00

I have finally landed at the Prinsen restaurant for dinner after 5+ hours of touring Stockholm by foot. I did try the metro but was rebuffed by a strange ticket selling machine and a seriously glazed over look from the guy @ the counter. Ah well.

The shot below is of an open air ice-skating rink nearby the restaurant. It has an impressive, old statue in the middle. If you look closely you'll see a little girl in a red jacket checking out her skates on wobbly legs.

welcome to stockholm

2008-02-24T08:32:00.001-08:00

So the little guy below is pretty popular on the main drag with lotsa little ones hopping on his back while parents look around @ shopping options nearby.

Spent the day here 1st replacing the clothes in my luggage i was going to wear tomorrow. Ah well... After that chk'd out the old town (gamlan stad) as well as some other things, like the lift in Slussen. I love Scandanavian design so may of the shops make me wish i would have packed a 2nd bag (that wouldn't have been lost!)

mccain train

2008-02-06T10:35:00.001-08:00

Stopped outside my nyc hotel the evening b4 Johnny Mac's big super tuesday. Never saw him or his crew. It was was around 10:30 so I'm imagining he was already tucked into bed given that his age (hey I would be too).

mac, cheese & red wine

2008-02-02T10:10:00.001-08:00

Dinner @ the curpheys. Jack and Hanna having dnr while i work, mark makes dnr for us fellas and cara prepares for the 'fancy dress' party where she'll be amy winehouse.

london yesterday

2008-02-02T04:50:00.001-08:00

Dessert and drinks with mai @ roka in soho of london. Great company, lousy service, spectacular eats.

recharging

2008-02-02T01:37:00.001-08:00

Near Brighton with mark, cara and their little ones. Cozy cottage with a nice fireplace. Perfect respite after a long week traveling. Wish u were here babe!

a day in london

2008-01-31T11:00:00.001-08:00

Escaped the reading office to london for mtgs with the media and an evening with a colleague. This is more like it! Afternoon with Mai tomorrow before my weekend near Brighton with the Curpheys.

great thing about london: lunch of fantastic indian food with a very nice shiraz to wash it down.

have spent the last 24 hrs discussing politics with germans and the brits, lotsa fun! Many intl eyes on our US primaries.

love taking the tube here-- its super ez and the ppl are typically very civil to one another. I was given a day pass by a woman passing by who saw me fiddling with my clumsy fingers on the sterling. Apparently she was done with it; classy!

rhubard spritzer

2008-01-29T09:07:00.001-08:00

God bless the Germans- who else would have thought to liquefy rhubarb and turn it into a really tasty spritzeresque beverage? Back in the midwest we just ate it straight from the neighbor's garden (until we were caught) or turned it into a pie (not bad but no contest versus blueberry and other options. If we'd only known!
(btw, if u look really closely u can see the bottom of a very impressive bavarian beard)

current playlist

2008-01-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

courage (UFOs over bamako remix) - vieux farka toure, fabian alsutany - remixed: UFO over bamako
the girl you lost to cocaine (house mix) - sia - some people have real problems
lies - glan hansard & marketa - swell season
our day will come - waldeck - ballroom stories
that's that - cass mccombs - dropping the writ
physical fraction - trentemoller - the last resort
ada - the national - boxer
orion - rodrigo y gabriela - rodrigo y gabriela
l.e.s. artistes - santogold - i believe in santogold
hate on me - jill scott - the real thing
shimmer - booka shade - movements
after all the love - bent - intercept!
hot chick (feadz edit) - chicks on speed - fabric live 33: spank rock mix
price you pay - UNKLE - war stories

welcome to munich

2008-01-28T01:19:00.001-08:00

The foto sucks but you get the idea. Airport is clean and modern, pre-arranged taxi was on-time, customs was outrageously efficient. Nice!

nam & cindy's wedding @ calimigas ranch

2008-01-19T16:31:00.001-08:00

Shot of jane and the rest of the bridesmaids. Anyone know where i can get a martini around here?

walmart + cake = funny

2008-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

taken from a particularly funny email earlier this week passed along by jane
***
Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Customer: ' I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.'

Walmart Employee:'What you want on the cake ?'

Customer:'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you'.

mural by david choe @ giant robot biennial

2008-01-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

Spraypainted.@ the Giant Robot Biennial Exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, LaLa Land.

Look close and you can see the shuriken stuck in the piece. pretty cool.

arts & crafts

2008-01-05T09:56:00.000-08:00

my father grew up near a rock quarry in ohio. back in the day (50s), you could cruise through the rock quarry on off hours and, with a careful eye, spot fossils that had been unearthed during the dig. you would also occasionally score an arrowhead, iron pirite (fool's gold) or something else of interest. the younger version of my dad made a hobby of collecting the items of interest that he found along the way.

a little over a year ago he handed the fossils off to me at my request. i wasn't immediately sure what i was going to do with them, but after a while i settled on creating a sort of diorama with cactus, air plants, and driftwood. as the year progressed and house search became house sell, job search turned into new job, i had precious little time to make good on my initial plans to create the diorama. finally, with most of my holiday break home improvement projects complete, i found the perfect display case while walking through abbott kinney with jane. below is a lengthwise shot of the case and the resulting diorama we created.

in the center is an air plant i bought for 5 bucks from home depot. sort of pain since you have to remove it and soak the roots once each week, but well worth it for the splash of color it adds as well as the ability to swap it around. from this view you can also see the layers of rocks on the bottom (for drainage), soil (for planting the cactus), and the sand (for aesthetics).

the above shot shows some of the fossils in detail including a few trilobites, a pressed fern, and if you look closely you can see an arrowhead in the back. i've since repositioned it so that it can be seen more clearly.

and the other end of the diorama. i'm going to keep an eye out for a small piece of wood to weave into the piece, which i think will add some nice texture. otherwise, i'm quite happy with how it turned out.

i think the quarries of toledo, ohio today have been mostly turned into other things. there was one that served as a really excellent swimming hole when i was a kid. the water was cold and deep but it had a couple great diving boards, the tallest of which taught me at an early age that i have a genuine fear of heights that cannot be completely overcome but can be thrust aside on occasion to enjoy a daredevil moment.

oh yeah, dad is quite happy with the little piece, thinking it a suitable display for his old treasures or at least pleased at the effort that went into showcasing his childhood hobby.

the best hot buttered rum on the planet

2008-01-02T21:43:00.001-08:00

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... highly recommend this little bar in pirate's alley. lotsa tasty rum drinks and great ambiance.

caught this on the tail-end of the haunted history ghost tour which was also fabulous. our tour guide was a gent named "mirian" whose black hat and pock-marked face suitably matched the event and punctuated his expert story-telling.

would also recommend (though less so) the restaurant k-paul and the WWII museum nearby.

mobile cajun bbq!

2008-01-02T15:04:00.001-08:00

See on the streets of nawlins. Hmmmmmm...

welcome 2 the sugar bowl

2008-01-01T17:37:00.001-08:00

Yeah baby! Bring on dem dawgs!

oops... well... then again...

stuff that sucked and soared in 2007

2007-12-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

soared - tekkonkinkreet
beautiful, touching anime with a dark side. i think it came out in 2006, but we discovered it this year walking through the aisles of blockbuster. paprika was superb as well, but with more psychedelia and less heart.

soared - the shins "wincing the night away"
best album of 2007 in my book. it never left my playlist since doug introduced me to them right after the new album was released. having gone back and listened to their previous efforts this album was easily their best to-date. their live performance wasn't quite as good when we caught them at kcrw's evening becomes eclectic, but it wasn't nearly as bad as say, lily allen's performance was that evening.

sucked - windows mobile-based phones
maybe mobile 6 is better, but what an absolute piece of garbage 5 was. i could tolerate my palm treo 700w for all of 2 days and the Q i had was little better. symbian is a million times better.

soared - radiohead's "in rainbow"
versatile album that ranged from sophisticated breakbeats to gorgeous, wistful tracks like "reckoner" and "faust arp". oh yeah, and it was *free* to those who did not want to pay as radiohead tried to advance the music industry economic model (along with prince, saul williams and others this past year)

sucked - beowulf
not even pseudo-naked angelina jolie could save this stinker. the real 3-D was cool, but got old quick as you realized the plot was wafer thin.

soared - interface flor
need a cool rug but don't want to pay through the nose? interface flor let's you create yer own rugs by using their carpet tiles which cost about 10-18 bucks. i did 1/2 our garage and our dining room rug for around 400 bucks. just a decent 5x8 would have put us back about $700.

sucked - home warranties
who buys this stuff? this is the 3rd time i've had one that came with a home purchase and they make it impossible to actually make a claim. and then when you finally break through, it takes forever to get something authorized. pretty lousy business model when you're whole premise is to make it as difficult as possible to please your customers. the web-based submission form for my current provider doesn't even work. bleccch.

soared - cleveland browns
my brownies finally pulled off a solid, winning season going 10-6 while missing the playoffs by a whisker. for a team where very little was expected, what a pleasant surprise to see the boys in orange crank out a good season for once.

venice street art, take I

2007-12-31T08:46:00.001-08:00

the shot below was taken with my nokia e61i while out and about yesterday morning on a saturday walk with jane. thought i'd capture some of the very groovy street art in our neighborhood and play around with mobile blogging. this is a mural done by "chase" who has done a number of installments around the neighborhood (and well beyond). check out his site: http://theartofchase.com/

and the sign says...

2007-12-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

it's always a little too easy to take a shot at my jumbo-sized company. everyone knows that when an organization gets really big, dumb things happen on a pretty routine basis. the overwhelming mediocrity of most people drown out most of the best efforts of the well-intentioned, striving few and what you end up with is either just so-so. or occasionally, pretty damn funny if you keep an open mind.

i snapped the foto to the right during a meeting recently in the *finance* department level. while you might consider this a call-to-arms to embrace the culture of security required to create market-leading protection products, it might also mean...

a) "adopt the incarcerated way of life"-- ah yes! rock on prison-style finance team! i could of swore i saw the accounting team playing dominoes for cigarettes on my way to my next meeting.

b) "interweave thyself in harmonious union, like links of a joined chain" -- i don't recommend this at all. not only does it make company picnics uncomfortable, someone will poke an eye out before too long. and that's to say nothing of the HR implications of this ill-fated encouragement. i recommend the following strategy: "distance thyself with well-timed aloofness". not only will this free you from an possible social entanglement, people will assume you're smarter than what you are. this simple tactic has worked for *ages*, but can be instantly negated by things like fanny packs and wearing pants to short to cover up your leg hair.

c) "go ahead, chain yourself up. and when you're done, help your neighbor" -- this is sort of the obvious one. yikes. heard what they found in britney's secret room in her house? double yikes. even though she's kinda fat and tarnished, i'd still rather think of her in her naughty place than struggle with the thoughts of the finance department engaged in some act of sado-masochism. think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts...

alright now onto the just plain funny. we have this goofy checkpoint in our new office where you have to scan your badge before you walk up the stairs. there's no door, no barrier to get past, just an invisible "fence" of sorts that makes a low-pitch ambulance sound if you blow past it without paying your proper respects by swiping your badge. in order to better enforce this, they have stationed a security guard nearby during the day who scurries over to collar offending employees if they don't swipe. sooooooooooooo.... in light of all this silliness, someone broke it down vanilla-ice style on the poster board, calling out that you should not only stop, but also collaborate and listen before you pass the checkpoint. nice! in respects to the man who "flow(s) like a harpoon daily and nightly", i offer you the rest of the verse and salute the person who smacked the star on the sign.

...
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Then I flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo - I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle.

current playlist

2007-12-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

the dominatrix sleeps tonight - dominatrix - fabric live 33, spank rock
3 strange days (extended version) - school of fish - school of fish
indian ocean - west indian girl - 4th and wall
girl/boy song - aphex twin - richard d. james album
banged and blown through - saul williams - niggy tardust
got you (where i want you) - the flys - 25 cents
tea leaf dancers - flying lotus - reset
star 6 & 7 8 9 - the orb - adventures beyond the ultraworld
glad i ate her (original mix) - cass and slide - white label
reckoner - radiohead - in rainbow
ridiculous wobble - bassnector/nibu - underground communications
hey son - the black seeds - kiwi dub collection (private compilation)

venice xmas run

2007-12-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

the venice xmas run is hands-down one of my favorite holiday traditions. i started running it when i first moved to california, prompted by my new pal big jason at deloitte & touche. i can't remember what i ran it in (something in the 50s?), but this is what got me started with running in LA, and soon beyond.

when i moved back to the westside a few years ago, we resurrected the tradition by inviting a few folks over for mimosas afterwards. it's been gathering steam over the last couple years and we had 10+ people join us this past saturday at the new casa. i finished a little over 46 mins, not bad for a guy recovering from a cold.

a few shots of the runners below.
happy holidays!

sprinting to xmas

2007-12-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

just got back from wednesday evening hockey. we lost but i poked in a goal and notched an assist, not a bad evening o' stress elimination and exercise.

i've bumped into a few things that are pretty funny lately. if you've never read the register, it's worth checking out. here's your chance: they tormented MSN's santa bot and got it to crack under the pressure, talking about oral sex and calling the person a dirty bastard.

this one was surfaced by digg once again and is priceless; it's 5 of the worst high school senior pictures that ever graced a blog.

on a more serious note, i ran into this quote lately which i think is really poignant:

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
John le Carre (1931 - )
"The Chancellor Who Agreed To Play Spy", The New York Times, May 8, 1974

i'm sure everyone has felt like this at some point, but was unable to find the exact words to articulate the alien feelings upon re-entry to their normal existence. i get this sentiment on the tail-end of a long, intl biz trip at times.

i wanted to share 2 fantastic ways of wasting time online. the first is to spend hours playing around with interface flor designs. hands-down, you can make the coolest and cheapest rugs using interface flor. below is a shot of a couple designs i was playing with. i ended up buying a green version of the orange one of the left for under our dining room table and am very happy with how it turned out (and spent under $250 on it!)

interface flor
the next is my newest addiction: the puma mongolian shoe bbq. you can design your own special flavor of pumas by selecting different colors and materials, all for about $130 bucks (not cheap). it beats the pants off the nike version of the same concept which is less flexible and intuitive.

i've been practicing on especially boring conference calls and when i have a coupla extra minutes. i've polished my skills over the last couple weeks and i think i've gotten pretty good :-) check out my latest creation below, which i'm thinking of ordering for xmas .

random thanksgiving musings

2007-11-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

saw this recently via digg, which has become my geek news source of choice: http://www.local6.com/news/14578641/detail.html

it's a mysterious blue cloud that "haunted" a gas station for about 30 mins or so. pretty interesting and i've no clue what it is (or if the story is real). the most interesting aspect of this IMO is how the digg crowd reacted. they made fun of the story and stated that it had to be an insect or something else readily explainable. now i can see how claims that this is an angel or a ghost could be easily questioned, but does everything have to be so readily dismissed by the dogma of science? is it ok if just a few things are genuinely unexplainable and strange?

our world is a wacky, mystical place. there's still many things we do not understand. i worry that the forthcoming generation (and my own) have abandoned this sense of wonder for the scientific arrogance that moves quickly to discredit something that challenges our understanding of the world and our lives. i do, however, applaud the comments regarding smurf farts and the vengeful spirit of global warming coming forth to haunt the SUV owners :-)

anyways, i've been a little lame on posts but figured on this thanksgiving eve i would catch up a little. been heads-down with work amongst the uber-political work environment. our design checkpoint is done so the worst is over but i never cease to be surprised by the fragile egos and poltitical motivations of the people of power in a big company like mine. since i have no further motivation of advancing in the company, i can afford to sit back and laugh a little but it's truly sad. sooner or later, it's back to start-up land for me.

jane and i just passed our first anniversary. i'll spare the planet my cliche'd thoughts on marriage. i don't think it's really *that* much work as people say but it is different than before, as i quickly learned earlier this year. it suits me fine and gets better each day with time and effort. 'nuff said, we're happy.

i will confess i've been spending a fair bit of time on facebook, which sort of feels like i'm cheating on my blog. they really nailed the social aspect of it though and i have to say i completely understand why it is successful. very cool stuff.

time for bed as i get ready to cook my first turkey: cletus, the 20lb wonderbird. wish me luck!

current playlist

2007-11-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

sunday bloody sunday - saul williams - niggy tardust

ring road - underworld - oblivion with bells

lindsay lohan's revenge - pase rock feat. santo gold - ep single

deborah - beck - midnight vultures

middle distance runner - seawolf - leaves in the river

arp faust - radiohead - in rainbow
milk crisis - go! team - proof of youth
massage situation - flying lotus - reset

forever begins - common - finding forever

crimeware book

2007-10-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

finally! worked on this early this year and after much ado, the book is up on Amazon and soon to be available. i am a contributing author, having penned the section on the business of crimeware. i drew on my experience over the past few years dealing with spyware and adware disputes, as well as malware investigative research we've conducted. should be accessible to even the less technical folks out there.

Link to Amazon entry for the book

autumn

2007-10-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

just returned from a short trip to vancouver, which is easily one of the most beautiful cities on the face of the planet. there's few places in the world that have their combination of mountains, ocean, cleanliness, cool people, and metropolitan amenities.

anyways, thought i'd make good on my musings tagline and yet again ramble on my latest learnings and mental wanderings. first off, i've already learned a great deal about the retail industry but still have a long ways to go. it's pretty interesting and completely different than the corporate sales stuff i've grown accustomed to over the past 12 years. about the only thing i can say definitively right now is that my longstanding concern that i was getting screwed paying retail prices is absolutely confirmed. i've also learned the number of middlemen that get a cut of the action. note to self: order those new shoes from zappos.com.

we officially sold my old condo last friday. i dropped off my keys and the garage door openers in the early evening as the sun was beginning its dip into the pacific. i'll fully admit i was a little misty-eyed to the leave the place (the final, amazing sunset just punctuated my sentiments, pic to the right). it was the home of the last phase of my bachelorhood, my 30th b-day, many games of dominos, rooftop bbqs, and countless good times. if my old place in huntington was emblematic of my wild, partying days then 2222 was symbolic of an intense time of personal growth and maturity. neither better nor worse, just different. i will miss the place dearly, though our new digs are coming along just fine and already feels like a home. time moves on, all things change.

on the music side, the new radiohead album is in heavy rotation on my ipod. for the life of my i cannot understand what thom yorke is saying but i'm sure it's some weighty statement on the dissasociation of humanity through technology. it could be about gerbils, really doesn't matter, it sounds fantastic. additional faves right now are UNKLE "War Stories" and Underworld "Oblivion With Bells", both of which will be faves for the year. UNKLE's new album is their best in as long a time as i can remember. james lavelle finally learned to rock, god bless ya. underworld has yet to regain the brilliance of beaucoup fish but the album is stellar nonetheless (check out crocodile, the best mamgu ever, and ring road).

random travel thoughts

2007-10-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

so i'm in DC today after a short trip from fort lauderdale. missed the beach entirely, which is a real shame but c'est la vie. the one thing i did learn at the convention in fort lauderdale is the difference b/w the crappy enterprise-oriented tradeshows i had been going to and consumer-style tradeshows. i was quickly taught how to barter with software for lots of other goods, everything from dvds to games and music. big win! i'd show up with an armful of norton internet security and i would receive the happy greeting of "you looking to trade?" why yes my friend, i am. it turned out so well that the resulting booty from my bartering forced me to have a small box shipped back with all the goodies. woohoo!!! i'm liking this new job already :-)

what the hell has happened to people's mobile manners? had a cabbie in fort lauderdale that was *texting* while driving me to the hotel. today in d.c., had a female bartender that couldn't be bothered to take my order since she was chatting away on her side kick for 5 mins while i prompted with ever louder "excuse me's". wtf???!!!

if you ever get to D.C., don't miss Georgia Brown's or Zaytinya. very different restaurants but both out of this world food.

one my pet peeves of travel is the airport change-up. that is, when you finish with a formal meeting and only have the trip home on front of you and you want to swap out the suit you're in for the jeans, t-shirt and sneakers you packed for a relaxing trip home. this means an extended stay in a bathroom stall, almost all of which have very convenient and hygenic auto-flush features. the problem is if i'm changing, i'm setting off the auto-flush about 13 times before i can get out of the bathroom. the scenario goes something like this...

dave: open suitcase, shuffling off dress pants and shirt while reaching for jeans and t-shirt
flush #1
dave: oh here we go... (packing dress clothes, reaching for sneakers)
flush #2
dave: sigh. putting on jeans and tshirt.
flush #3
dave: i can nearly visualize the temperature in the arctic rising and some poor penguin passing out from heat exhaustion. clothes on, putting on sneakers, tying shoes...
flush #4
dave: i can hear the ice in greenland cracking at the pressure i'm putting on the
fresh water supply. whales have changed their migratory patterns and PETA
representatives are protesting outside our home for the impact i've had on baby
seal habitats

... I'll spare you the rest of the details, but by the time I'm done the
robot-toilet has flushed no less than 12 times and i've visualized myself
kick-boxing with al gore while eco-armageddon takes place around us. makes me
want to go and recycle something, or get a massage.

overheard in fort lauderdale

2007-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

police officer to crowd of people in front of jamba juice at 10pm (!?):
"if you are not patrons, leave the area"

person in the crowd:
"what did he say? sumthin' 'bout patriots?"

another person in the crowd:
"he's trying to figger out what country we're from."

hey, i think i figured it out. check please. tomorrow: off to washington DC.

current playlist

2007-10-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

subterranean homesick alien - radiohead - ok computer
elementary lover - matthew dear - asa breed
pogo - digitalism - idealism
don't you evah - spoon - ga ga ga ga
seconds - fat freddy's drop - midnight marauders vls
shoot to thrill - acdc - back in black
crocodile - underworld - oblivion with bells
d.a.n.c.e. - justice - cross
you'll find a way (switch & sinden remix) - santogold - single
luz azul - aterciopelados - oye
stairway to heaven - rodrigo y gabriela - rodrigo y gabriela

... and huge kudos to radiohead for offering their new album solely online *for what their fans want to pay*. brilliant! it may or may not work, but a very brave gesture nonetheless. that noise you heard earlier in the week was the record label executives falling off their chairs. via this type of exploration, there's hope that we'll arrive at a reasonable model for paying artist for their work without the burden of money-leeching middle-men spoiling the music industry. onward!

early autumn musings

2007-09-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

so we've moved into our new home here in santa monica and are in escrow on my old bachelor pad just a mile up the road. phew! it's all been pretty maddening given the crappy market and prolonged move (took about 2.5 months) but we've finally arrived to our "big people" home with free-standing walls (no more condos!) and 600 extra square feet. i don't know how it happened but every inch of the new space we have seems to be inhabited by clothes or shoes jane had squirreled away previously. ah well...

the pic to the right was taken on my way to the airport in des moines, iowa. definitely *not* the 105 or sepulveda! i was there for my very last threat landscape presentation, which was cathartic. i've given the presentation 20+ times and have all my jokes, cues, etc lined up to the point that it is an act of some sorts. as of the 17th of this month i officially joined the consumer team at symantec and have been plunged headlong into the wacky world of creating software for families, grandmas and those little dogs that people stuff into purses. so far, so good. i've had a chance to muse a bit while transitioning and ask myself what i've learned in my nearly 12 years of working post-college. the big lesson i've learned can be summed up by the following quote: "One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say" - Will Durant. being a chatty fellow and having more than my fair share of opinions, i've learned over time that the best thing i can do if i'm not certain of my take on a subject is just to shut-up. not very deep, but really useful. it never ceases to amaze me how many people speak when they should simply be listening.

the shot to the right this time was from the korean festival jane and i went to with her mom a weekend or 2 ago. the festival was in k-town, but close enough to latino neighborhoods to draw them in as well. pretty entertaining to see all the koreans and a strong contingent of mexicans who showed up for the festivities as well, not wanting to miss out on a party. pretty fun :-) oh yeah, the foto: a shot of the beauty pageant that was going on while we were though. pretty goofy given the tuxes, near bridal gowns and the fact that they were surrounded by dirt floors, cell phone company promotions and bemused mexicans wondering what the hell the 2 for $5 duk-bo-gi they bought *really* was.

if the picture looks a little better than normal it's b/c i've had a new phone for about 3 weeks now: the nokia e61i. it has its moments, but overall it is the best smart phone i've had. wayyyy better than the anemic moto Q i was more than happy to ditch. the only thing i will miss is bubble breaker! bb was the best cell-phone game ever. small price to pay for a reliable phone with a good camera that works almost exactly how you think it should.

summer close

2007-09-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

well, the air is getting a little crisper here in los angeles and summer seems to be winding down. in my mind, we pretty much officially put it to bed with the underworld performance at the bowl this past sunday which marks the end of the year's world music series.

paul oakenfold kicked it off with carmen rizzo and bored the bowl with played-out trance anthems. poor paul never quite could make the cut beyond his early success breaking other people's reasonably good records to pilled out ravers. growing his hair out didn't get him any closer to the next level either, now not only does he sound tired, but he looks like one of those cavemen from the geico commercials. arrogant bastard also shamelessly promo'd his record-label "perfecto music" in the video visuals. when his logo wasn't spinning around like so much bad powerpoint, it was emblazoned on a hot asian chick who in a purple bodysuit with the perfecto label on her chest. subtle...

underworld started slow with tracks from their forthcoming album "oblivion with bells". note to underworld: if you haven't done a new album in 3 years, you might want to warm us up a little with some old stuff. the new stuff was somewhere between the old breaky beats and the newer atmospheric electronica they've showed off on efforts like the breaking and entering soundtrack. regardless, they returned to form in the second half with rez cowgirl, 100 days off, bornslippy and king of snake. freakin' fantastic stuff. karl hyde is still a great performer and they always put on a solid visual show. they did "jumbo" as an encore, which was a strange choice that was a little anti-climactic. regardless, one of the best bowl performances i've seen in a while and rivaled a strong performance by groove armada earlier in the summer.

vacaciones

2007-09-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

hola de playa del carmen! the internet connection finally got up and running here the other day, it was one of many minor casualties of hurricane dean. while he was little more than a tropical storm here, the mexicans say that "dean nos despeino un poco" (messed up our hair a little).

jane and i did a whale shark snokeling trip-- after a few hundred dives and not seeing a freakin' whale shark i figured the mountain was definitely not coming to muhammad this time. so i strapped on a snorkel and let the mexicanos hunt down the world's biggest fish for us. while we only saw 3 of them (other days they've seen loads, b/w 10-20 or 60-70 even), i'd definitely recommend it if you grew up watching jacques cousteau shows like i did. pretty damn cool. the picture here is definitely not one we took, but you'll get the idea. the one downside of doing a whale shark trip rather than naturally encountering them is that you get 3 boats of about 70 ppl circling 1-2 poor whalesharks, hopping into the water and swimming in their face until the whale shark reaches peak irritation and dives down well beyond a snorkeler's reach. i'm pretty sure jacques would frown on this, but i'm older now and realizing that his is french i naturally think less of his opinion than previously ;-)

if you make it down to "playa", make sure you grab dinner at yaxche and that you spend an afternoon down in tulum at the ruins and the impeccable beach club, ana y jose. ana y jose is a very cool little hotel with a beach club that costs about 8 bucks per person. cheap drinks, good food, nice tunes, shaded loungers, and miles of white sandy beach. tip o' the sombrero to dean for the great recommendations on both places.

another of the highlights was the cenote diving at the cenote dive center. cenotes are a fancy spanish word for "cave filled with water". i drove down to tulum (this time solito) to dive a couple cenotes for the afternoon. we did the "calaveras" & "grand cenote", both which were impressive. calaveras was cool due to the presence of a halocline, a layer of fresh water sitting on top of the salt water below it. i'd never seen a halocline before so diving it was really interesting. it basically makes a oily, hazy mess of the water in front of you when you transition b/w layers of water. given that you're trying to follow someone about 7 feet on front of you in a dark cave, the effect, while interesting, is also a little unnerving.

the grand cenote was more accessible and had a lot more people there (both snorkeler's and divers) in contrast to the calaveras where we hiked a little ways into a mosquito-infested jungle before jumping into a hole 10 feet below us. there's a reason for this: it's a lot more impressive. the grand cenote is a cavernous system with towering stalactites and stalagmites you swim around. as you cruise through the passages, you occassionally get a glimpse of the emerald green water near the open air. the affect is indescribably cool. the best part was coming back at the end and looking at the 3 ladders dangling in the water, which under the brilliant green water and surrounded by the cave seemed like something out of a fairy tale (or, being a bit dorkier than most, the game "myst"). i was more than happy to climb out of the rabbit hole, however, as for the last 10 minutes i couldn't stop thinking " sweet lord what would happen if there was an earthquake and we were stuck in here?"

alright, time for a little more chilean wine and neil gaiman's "fragile things". hasta pronto,
--dave
btw, thanks to whoever took the pics!

current playlist

2007-08-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

m.i.a. - boyz - kala
how we operate - gomez - live session, kcrw
don dinero - aterciopelados - oye
una hoja una raiz - aterciopelados - red hot and latin redux
a million babies - owusu & hannibal - living with...
medusa - ulirch schnauss - goodbye
young pilgrams - the shins - chutes too narrow
das spiegel - chemical brothers - we are the night
que bom - mocean worker - cinco de mowo
peacock tail - boards of canada - campfire headphase
twilight - UNKLE feat. 3d - war stories

jacked bank account, illustrated

2007-08-18T10:00:00.001-07:00

i've worked in security for a very longggggggggg time. it's often hard to explain to people the impact of online threats. i've found that statistics don't mean much to people in this area other than biznesses trying to justify corp expenditures. the only things that have really driven consumer purchases in info security have been massive worms which crippled computers and then spyware & adware which also had a direct, visible impact. well, both of those have gone away to be replaced by silent crimeware which steals data. so what happens when your bank account gets jacked by the baddies in belarus? the photo here was taken from our online fraud community monitoring tool and is still available online from a photo sharing site. the thief was either bragging or showing off the wares for purchase.
my basic advice? keep your system & apps (esp. internet explorer) up-to-date, use security s/w, and anything that looks to good to be true most certainly is trying to pull one over on you. if you need sec s/w, ping me.

socal livin' snippets

2007-08-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

i felt my first real earthquake last week here in socal. it was a 4.6 shaker centered out of chatsworth. of all irony, my earthquake policy on our condo had just run out a couple days beforehand. while it messed with my head a little (i was doing some late evening work when it hit) and woke jane up out of bed, nothing seemed to be much affected. after a few days of mulling it over, i'm thinking of cancelling the policy on the new place :-) tectonic plates, is that all you got baby?!

this shot is from the window looking out the back of our new place. you'd think we were moving to backwoods alabama, eh? instead, this is lovely santa monica. 2 houses down is a beautiful new 2 unit condo with modern stylings and the like. right behind us? sanford and sons. on the left of the new casa? pit bull in the all-dirt backyard with an F150. choloville, amigo. all of this for the price of stifling mortgage that would make my midwestern family blush, if not faint. i'm not one to keep up with the joneses, but i don't necessarily want to raise kids in front of a methlab either. if anyone knows the patron saint of gentrification, let me know and i'll offer up an old testament style burnt sacrifice in hopes of neighbor displacement.

on a lighter note, jane and i went to see reggae night VI at the bowl this past sunday. wailing souls were playing along with sly and robbie as well as burning spear. wailing souls were boring and burning spear was unimpressive. sly and robbie didn't disappoint, especially their numbers with cherine anderson (taxi gang). where the hell was horace andy though?

ah well, the event of the evening were the colorful characters sitting in front of us. the lady in yellow highlighted an, uh, interesting new trend: bluetooth headset as fashion piece. while she didn't get a call during the show (how could you with the noise and bad reception?) the little red motorola headset was in her ear the whole time. i looked around the bowl and sure enough, saw a handful of other people doing the same. am i missing something here? bluetooth headset = fannypack. even if it matches your shirt and finger nail polish.

uneasy street

2007-08-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

well, i've been pretty lame about blogging lately but i have really good excuses. first off, i'm in the midst of taking on a new job. won't be in it officially until mid-sept but i'm starting to ramp up now. big learnings ahead! should be fun. next up is our new house which closed a couple of weeks ago. while this would normally be really exciting, we've been on the market for about 2 months now with our condo with no offers. yikes!

anyways, enough with the excuses. i thought i'd share a view of what i see when i drive into the rampart district of LA (west of downtown) to pick up my pal jonathan on sundays. most ppl don't know this but the rampart district has the 2nd highest population density in the US, next to manhattan. and it isn't due to the high rises, it's largely attributable to the masses of latino immigrants crowding their familes into tiny apartments.

elcome to uneasy street. this is a shot looking down the alleyway into a nearby park that is infamous for aggressive street people and thugs. tagging and gang violence is normal here. since i've known jonathan, 3 of his acquaintances and pals have been shot and killed. for someone under 18, that's insane.
this was laying on the side of the street in front of me while i waited for jonathan. anyone else find dolls a little creepy? especially when their heads are poking out of abandoned suitcases? they were gone from the suitcase when i returned that evening. apparently someone found them more interesting than disturbing.
iraq or LA? this is the entrance to the apt bldg next door.
i hope our politicians, mission workers and other global do-gooders realize that we have serious needs here at home. time to focus on cleaning our own house for a change?

"they tried to make me go to rehab..."

2007-07-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

it must have been about 6am today when i was awoke out of my early morning slumber to a sound that reminded me of flying lawnmowers. needless to say i did what any sensible person would do: i rolled over and dreamed about the winged gardeners and airplane-like leaf blowers that would obviously accompany the airborne lawnmowers. judging from jane's tossing back and forth, she was doing the same.

after fully waking up and taking a look out the window, there were 4 helicopters hovering over santa monica near the police station. jane's reasonable explanation was a search and rescue at the nearby beach. closer inspection though showed that the helicopters belonged to the news stations rather than the police or coast guard. so what was going down near the civic center?

turns out it was lindsay lohan, fresh outta 45 day rehab, chasing her personal assistant in her car. apparently, her assistant had quit and was running away from her. lindsay was so distraught by this she decided to give chase and convince her assistant to stay in his/her post. this is the type of thinking that only makes sense when you're high:

ok, my assistant just left me. not good. this would mean i'm picking up my own starbucks for at least a few days while i replace her. i can deal with this, dammit, i'm lindsay lohan. what will really convince my assistant they should stay with me is if i chase her across town in my car. let's see... car keys? check. handbag? check. gram of coke? hmmmm... i really shouldn't but it *is* easier than getting my own coffee for a little pick-me-up. check!

so here's our lovely starlet following her little chase through town. not a bad shot considering some of the mugshots i've seen of other handcuffed stars (remember mel gibson's?) unless there is some grave travesty of justice, lindsay will end up in jail somewhere in LA for at least a short period of time, a la paris hilton. should be good celeb gossip and stupid news fodder for months to come. since i don't watch tv, i'm really fine with this if people find this interesting. the only thing i ask is just keep the helicopters somewhere else so that i can go back to dreaming about extinguishing california wildfires with vats of tapioca pudding and an army of horse-sized gophers.

getty & the bowl

2007-07-21T12:59:00.001-07:00

summer in los angeles bring back with it some of the finest things in life. namely...

- green corn tamales at el cholo
- evening bike rides on the sta monica strand
- strawberries and (later) persimmons at the farmer's mkt on main street (sun) and 3rd street (sat)
- free summer concerts at the getty
- free summer concerts in marina del rey, overlooking the harbor
- and lastly, the always fantastic world music series at the hollywood bowl (not even close to free, but completely worth it)

the shot above is of the getty, all lit up, while los amigos invisibles tear it down during their evening performance on opening nite. not bad at all.

nonetheless, the shot to the upper left was of the far better performance by brazil's dj dolores who killed it on the lower stage with his band 'alparelgahem". if you look closely, you can see him playing on the decks while smoking a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. maybe a smattering of unnecessary cool, but forgiveable given how great their performance was. all the better, they played during sunset, so you could see the sun descend over the ocean while taking in the brazilectro.

the other shots here were from the equally memorable opening of the series we subscribed to this year at the 'bowl. the show featured cafe tacuba with groove armada as the opener. i'd bet this is one of the few times GA has opened for anyone, but given the latino population in LA it makes sense.

GA put on a great show, trotting out a fairly full band and several vocalists including MAD (SuperStylin', Lightsonic) and Skush. there was another performer as well but that was after 2 bottles of vino and i'll be damned if i can remember who it was. they balanced between old faves like "chicago" and "my friend" as well as some of the better stuff from soundboy rock. they didn't play "out of control (song for mutya)" which is arguably the best track from their latest album.

to the right is long lost pal danny, who out of some stroke of luck sat down across from us. great seeing you my man.

current playlist

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

burst generator - chemical brothers - we are the night
carbon kid - alpinestars (feat brian molko) - white noise
rick rubin - spank rock - yoyoyoyoyo
cold brains - beck - mutations
keep the car running - arcade fire - neon bible
back to black - amy winehouse - back to black
don't hide it - alexkid - mint
big wednesday - adam freeland - free*land
may day - UNKLE - nights temper
a portrait of autumn - jon kennedy - take my drum to england
supermoves (animatrix edit) - overseer - the animatrix o.s.t.

true colors concert

2007-07-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

last weekend my pal te'o offered me up a ticket to the last leg of the true colors concert, an 80s gig that benefits the "erase hate" (read: gay rights) cause. the headliner and brains behind it all was cyndi lauper, now 54 and with something like 9 albums under her belt. there she is to the right, as rendered by the Q on the video screen at the greek theatre, which survived the recent fires without so much a scratch.

we showed up in time to catch debby harry's set (former blondie front woman), which was about 5 songs too long (probably 10 total). debby, you're in your 60s now sweetheart. your voice isn't bad, but pseudo punk just doesn't sound the same from a paunchy lady whose face is criss-crossed with more lines than an indiana jones travel map. "french kissin' in the usa" was the highlight, and she unfortunately steered clear of a bunch of blondie faves like "heart of glass".

cyndi may have scored the headline position since she had organized the tour but the legions of gay boys at the event were there to see one act: erasure. i remember buying their top hits album about 15 years ago and listening to it almost nonstop for a couple months. yes, it follows a steady formula but it's really well-done and andy bell still sounds great. the only time they missed during their 10 song set was with one of their new tracks which sounded a little bit like synthed-up polka. for the rest of the songs the entire crowd was on their feet singing: savannah song, sometimes, chains of love, oh l'amour, etc.

we had pretty low expectations for cyndi lauper but i'll have to admit she was nearly as good as erasure. she's got a great stage presence (very relaxed, fun) and her quirky voice is surprisingly strong. i don't know whether they blessed her with a little extra volume in her mic but cyndi belted out tracks like "i drove all night", "good enough", "she bop" and of course "girls just wanna have fun". in contrast to debby harry, she looks pretty damn good for her age too, in spite of her purple hair. they wrapped it all up with "true colors" and with everyone on the stage for "a little respect" and all the colored balls you see in the shot above being pumped out into the crowd.

we win! ... er wait a minute...

2007-06-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

yep, we won the nation's worth traffic contest! hah. now i can scoff at all those east coast pals who complain about their measly traffic. we're the kings baby!

one interesting tidbit:
because our traffic sucks, we have less fatalities.
makes perfect sense: how do you have a fatal collision at 5mph? how do you run over a pedestrian when no one walks in LA? all the stories of senior citizens decimating farmer's markets and drivers shooting other people with guns they carry in the glove boxes are clearly overdone. the reality is we're polite enough to get out of the car *before* we shoot each other.
start taking notes, montana!

California has worst U.S. traffic: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Californians idle in the nation's worst traffic jams on interstates surrounding major metropolitan areas but they are far from alone -- 52 percent of these urban stretches of highways are congested, according to a new study released on Thursday.

Drivers in four lucky states enjoyed zero congestion: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

But one Midwestern state, Minnesota, and two East Coast states nearly matched California's sorry showing.

Some 83.33 percent of California's urban interstates are overcrowded, followed by Minnesota at 77.78 percent and New Jersey at 73.35 percent, according to the 16th annual survey by The Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonpartisan group.

Manhattan popularized the term "gridlock" but traffic jams on New York's urban interstates were only mediocre, ranking 37th at 53.39 percent, according to the libertarian-idea promoting group that compared volume-to-capacity ratios.

Drivers in some states whose booming economies are magnets for new residents spent much more time car-sitting without moving than New Yorkers. Florida ranked 40th at 59.44 percent. And Texas, whose $50 billion road privatization dwarfs all of its peers, was 41st at 59.67 percent, the study said.

And for the eighth year in a row, New Jersey had the nation's worst overall road system, according to the group.

"Gridlock isn't going away," said David Hartgen, the lead author and a professor at the University of North Carolina.

To reverse this trend, the 50 states -- which spent almost $99 billion on roads in 2005 -- must prioritize their dollars on traffic-busting projects, added the Charlotte-based expert.

That might be a bit of a challenge for New Jersey, whose Democratic Gov. John Corzine might partly privatize its toll roads. New Jersey's administrative costs were the nation's highest at $68,352 per state-controlled mile, the study said.

Massachusetts was 49th at $60,807; next was California, whose overhead ate up $50,614. New York ranked 43rd -- but its $18,687 tab was less than one-third of neighboring New Jersey.
Florida ranked 42nd at $16,109; Texas was much leaner, spending just $3,147 which put it in 9th place.

North Dakota had the least expensive bureaucrats, spending only $1,786, followed closely by Arkansas, which ranked second at $1,805, and Missouri which was third at $1,989.

New Jersey's total road budget -- $2.36 million per state-controlled mile -- was also more than double that of the next biggest spender, which was Massachusetts at $893,236.

Florida was 48th at $570,191, just above New York, which ranked 47th with a budget of $552,807.

California was 43rd in total spending at $336,954. Texas spent just less than third of that, ranking 26th at $106,221.

South Carolina spent the least -- $31,262. West Virginia was second at $41,839; next came North Carolina at $44,654.

Though states got 13 percent more federal transportation aid in 2005 than in 2004, they may have focused on potholes.

"They put the money right to work on the road surface," Hartgen said by telephone, noting the "pavement condition" of urban and rural roads improved. But fatalities rose a bit and little headway was made in speeding urban interstate trips.

"They put a lot more money into the system but haven't really turned the corner on congestion," Hartgen said.

Though often driver-maddening, traffic jams can actually cut deaths by slowing speeds. "Most of the states with very low accident rates also have very high congestion," said Hartgen.

Massachusetts did best on the death scale, with only 0.797 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles. Connecticut came second at 0.865, followed by Vermont at 0.946.

New Jersey was 5th with 1.013, followed by New York at 1.039. California took 19th place with 1.315 fatalities.

Montana was the deadliest, with 2.256 fatalities. South Dakota was 49th at 2.215; South Carolina was 48th at 2.211.

the "executive" view

2007-06-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

it's often said that big companies have lotsa resources, with fancy desks and executive offices with cherrywood desks and views gazing out over the landscape. i'm here to expose this lie.

here's the view from the back of my little office. aeron chair? check. neglected biz mgmt books?check. picture of wife? check. nothing unusual here, save perhaps my electric green buddha coin bank. let's take a look out that window...
ah yes! my little office has a choice view of the loading bay, whose dumpsters send out a siren call to all of the homeless in ppl in the nearby park. and today look who i spied digging in the dumpster: the big lebowski's twin brother. the loading bay has been far better than any mountain or ocean view as i get to the play the game of "guess what's in the dumpster?"
he shoots, he scores! leaping off his feet, lebowski goes deep in the BFI bin. today was a light day for dumpster treasures, he was solely was able to uncover a handful of recyclabes for redemption. better luck tomorrow my man, i'll be cheering for you.

sedona by the photos

2007-06-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

i thought i'd share a few of our shots from a visit to sedona, AZ last weekend. this time from our nice camera instead of my crappy motorola Q. the one up above is jane and i driving into town. you can see the groovy red rocks up in front of us. we stayed at the sedona rouge hotel which was pretty nice, but sits right next to a strip mall with an oversized safeway looming over it. nothing spells "weekend getaway" like the neon luminescence of a grocery store sign...

behold! it's a very sneaky and nearly invisible "secret mountain wilderness"! i've noticed that overtime the requirements for naming something "secret" have really bottomed out. this trail was about as secret as a 7-11. truth be told we hiked for about a mile and 1/2 before it became intolerably hot and we dashed for the car before we turned into beef jerkey.

sedona has some great scenery beyond the famous red rocks. i was surprised at how green it was for the desert, really quite nice. the above little flower was hanging out on a cactus during our ill-fated hike along the not-so-secret boynton trail.

ah yes, slide rock park! we'd passed this up earlier in the day as the heat had drawn everyone from within a 20 mile radius to the park. we opted instead to chill out in the quaint downtown area of flagstaff which was about 2000 miles higher in elevation and a little cooler. we caught slide rock with much less crowds around 5:30 and i hopped into the water straight away.

woohoooooo!!! slide rock gets its namesake from the little "waterslides" nature has carved into the rock. as you can tell by the look on my face, it was lotsa fun :-)

and now for round 2!

not so normal in minneapolis

2007-06-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

picture this: 48 hour biz trip for me to minneapolis for a speaking gig to a small group of customers. i'm expecting a ho-hum, uneventful excursion to the midwest. i was planning to do the rough equivalent of "plugging my nose and swallowing" the brussel sprouts of a town that i expected minneapolis to be. then the fun started...

walking through the airport, i glanced to my left and caught this advertisement: "Goose Problems?"

uh, not really. why do you ask, flightcontrol?

turns out that migrating canadian geese are the plague of golf courses and people with large lawns everywhere in minneapolis. the disrespectful little canucks punish the greens with their poo, turning the 14th hole into a slippery mess. i was told some people have dogs simply to keep the geese off their lawn, which stands in stark contrast to LA where we seemingly get dogs just to put people's clothes on them and stuff them in a handbag. hrm.

next, i stepped outside to get a sandwich for lunch and had to do a doubletake as i watched a storm trooper take cash out of the atm and go for a stroll down the street. i mentioned this to someone later and they said that they'd also seen him watering plants with a little girl. ladies and gentlemen, nothing to see here, pls move along. just a grown man pretending to be sci-fi warrior amidst all the downtown shops and businesses. i can only imagine what minneapolis is going to look like when the new harry potter book is released...

for the record, we keep these ppl in front of mann's chinese theatre in LA (remember the scene where borat finds his pal dressed as charlie chaplin?) and only let them wander around during movie premieres. if you want to be truly nuts in LA, costumes are not required or really encouraged. though i have to say a stars wars costume would be wayyyyyy better than the old guy in tights that hangs out shirtless on roberston and dances with a baton in front of the local stores. double hrm.

lastly, the sales guy i was out helping took me out to a british pub with a 2nd floor nestled amongst the downtown high-rises which had nothing less than a complete lawn-bowling court setup right next to the pub.

old duffers and young 'uns alike all dressed up in their summer whites throwing the little bowling balls at one another while onlookers work on buffalo wings and beer. league scores up on a big board and everyone enjoying a pleasant late spring evening. pretty cool.

minneapolis, next time i'm coming back with a better attitude and my yoda hookup. dammit, you deserve it :-)

current playlist

2007-06-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

L.S.F. - Mark Ronson feat. Kasabian - Version
Song for Mutya - Groove Armada - Soundboy Rock
Sealion - Feist - The Reminder
Wanna Be Loved - Pericos & Buju Banton - Red Hot & Latin Redux
Musicology - Prince - Musicology
Ridiculous Wobble - Bassnectar - Underground Communications
Yo - Bassnectar feat. Kristina Maria - Underground Communications
Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC - Back in Black
Red Rabbits - The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Hollywood (Gabin's Organic Remix) - West Indian Girl - Remix E.P.
Valerie - Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse - Version
Time - Easy Dub Allstars - Dub Side of the Moon
Monkey One - Underworld & Gabriel Yared - Breaking & Entering O.S.T.

hong kong->singapore

2007-06-06T07:56:00.001-07:00

onto the last leg of my asian biz trip over here. i left hong kong yesterday afternoon and landed in singapore late last nite. the difference was spelled out almost immediately. my driver in hong kong was an efficient, no-nonsense chinese guy who quietly took me where i needed while i played away on bubble breaker in the backseat. the driver in singapore was a jovial indian fellow who interspersed jokes into commentary on the remarkable changes in singapore since my last visit, which involve even more land reclamation, formula-1 races starting soon and the development of a sands casino on the island. the latter of which was loudly decried i'm told until they discovered how unbelieveably lucrative it was. they're still taking pains to discourage singaporeans from gambling away their mortgages, including an education campaign and the requirement that any singaporean must make a deposit (100 bucks) before they can start gambling at the casino each time they play, presumably to make sure they can still pay for a cab home and meals the next day if they lose their shirt. hrm.

the difference b/w singapore and china (and to a much lesser extent HK), can be illustrated by the fact that in china you never have to wait in line to wash your hands at the bathroom and you're pretty lucky if you can find paper towels or a dryer outside of higher-end places. blecch. in singapore, i ran into a sign today next to a well-stocked paper towel dispenser which outlined a 8 step technique for thoroughly cleansing your hands from all germs that i'm fairly certain is based on an advanced tai chi maneuver.

only real final thoughts on HK is that the place is nice enough but it is overrun by bankers and their kin, making it very money-centric and as such a heckuva lot less interesting than other places. it also means people are always on their damn phones! i witnessed people nearly shouting into their cellphones in the elevator, on the train and at every biz meal i had someone either got up and left the meal for 10 minutes for a call or just took it at the table, blabbing away. ugh!!!! there did seem to be a small design culture there and my stay was short but i wasn't disappointed to leave. i will say that hands down HK has the best public transportation i've ever used. dead easy, super efficient and fast.

the final old college pal and roomie i've seen on this trip is jeffrey lam from my freshman year at the university of michigan on rotvig hall of bursely. jeff's married with 2 kids now but has somehow managed to evade the grasping hands of time as he looks exactly the same as before. here's jeff at dinner tonight:

beijing -> hong kong

2007-06-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

phew! finally taking a big breath after trekking around for a week. i've landed in hong kong after finishing out my short stint in beijing. a couple final thoughts...

- there's a hustler on every street in beijing. it feels like nothing close to communism... it's hypercapitalism. everyone is out for a buck, including this student that ended up doing double duty as tour-guide / salesman. it worked quite well as he was excellent at both and i was looking for an original souvenir :-) this is a shot from the "forbidden city" which was nearby the hyatt i was staying at.

the funky food stories go on as i had dinner at what was described as one of the "most famous" sichuan places in beijing. it consisted of some pretty tasty stuff along with a fish served in a vat of oil (must have been a gallon) along with frogs, pig's feet and congealed pig's blood. i ate the frogs (think 'triplets of belleville') but passed on the other more dubious stuff citing my pseudo-vegatarianism.

here's another shot from the forbidden city. this one is of an older gent doing street calligraphy with a long brush. his elegant scribings were ignored by many who walked by who trampled across the characters. this type of indifference/rudeness was quite common in mainland china, everything from people talking loudly on cellphones in elevators to cramming into subway cars before the people on the train who are trying to get out have time to step out.

beijing was really interesting, but i was happy to leave it behind me as i boarded another air china flt to hong kong saturday afternoon...

as i stepped off the plane, it was easy to recognize what a different place hong kong is than mainland china. it smells different (read: better), looks very high-tech, and people are serially connected with their mobile phones. when going through immigration, one woman didn't get off the phone until the agent was in the process of stamping her passport, she apologized weakly and hustled along. in LAX immigrations you will get chided by the quasi-police for so much as pulling out your mobile phone in the waiting area...

outside of the well-appointed airport, the next thing you notice is the stifling heat. oh lord am i a wimp after living in LA for so long. it's nearly intolerable, something like 90 degrees F + 100% humidity. needless to say i'm chilling out in my hotel room right now after sweating my head off while walking around town this morning. here's a shot from window of the lovely grand hyatt hong kong:

and a shot of the city from the restaurant at the top of the excelsior hotel where old friend alex roberts and i had brunch:

and aleboh:

first real cyberwar (sort of)

2007-06-01T02:48:00.000-07:00

recently estonia decided to remove a statue of a soviet soldier from a park which triggered them getting rocked by russian botnets launching ddos attacks which basically shut down internet access to estonia from the outside (and inside for some services). for all of you non-security types, this means they blasted them with so much traffic they weren't able to do anything but swallow the massive amounts of data being pumped at them by angry russians.

really well-done ny times article on the event here.

there's been a lot of talk of "cyberwar" and the like but this is the most prominent, prolonged internet fights between 2 countries that has ever been witnessed. china has targeted the us and japan for military secrets, pakistan and india have dueled in the past (swapped website defacements mostly), as have israel and palestine but none of their online skirmishes match what's happened between russia and estonia in terms of raw, brute force. estonia is no internet backwater either, they have some serious skills as do much of the former soviet bloc countries.

this is a harbinger of things to come. it's been possible to cripple internet-reliant countries for some time now but it's never been done at scale. since i'm not one to fearmonger, i'll point out that with internet services inaccessible during the eventual cyberwar with some pissed off country, think of all the things we'll be able to do since we won't be wasting time online! why just this week with no internet access on my mobile and long taxi rides in beijing, i've scored my personal best in bubble break (over 500). that's progress :-)

china!

2007-05-31T03:40:00.000-07:00

had to get in my official last blog of may :-) ... and greets from beijing! landed here yesterday for work. we're still reeling from our big false positive detection a couple weeks ago where we crashed a few hundred thousand PCs (a few of which were actually licensed!) due to an update quality issue when we detected core windows files as malware. between issuing apologies for our incompetence and generally looking contrite, beijing is fine, thank you.

a few observations on beijing so far:
the air pollution is astonishingly bad. it's worse than mexico city. the sky is grey and i'm told it's a rare day when you see blue sky. it reminds me of the animatrix where they talk about how the "burnt the sky" in desperation. if you think seattle is grey and dingy...

on a more positive note, you can see new buildings and construction everywhere. china is marching along to becoming the next superpower and it's painted across the landscape in so many fancy sky scrapers. the hotel i'm at (grand hyatt) is fantastic and my pal alex and i ate at a superb restaurant called "LAN Club" which was designed by Phillip Starck and achingly cool. everything seems to really be gearing up for the 2008 olympics here in beijing.

pedestrians do not have the right of way, they have to get the hell out of the way! cars follow their own rules and since you're walking on foot, you lose. the rationale seems to be as old as the schoolyard rules: they're bigger and faster.

now it's time for a little tour led by visiting guide alex chou...

i have no clue what this street is called by it's got all the standard tacky tourist stuff along with wacky street food

... and onto the wacky street food. here's live scorpions skewered and ready to be stir-fried.

ah yes, and if scorpions aren't yer flavor, how about some cicada larvae at various stages of growth? science project or snack? you decide!

and now for something a little tamer: a couple of guys playing chinese chess on the side of the street where alex and i had classic beijing style noodles with a tsing tao.

may music & pics

2007-05-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

got my hands on the forthcoming groove armada "soundboy rock". overall i like it and think it's about the equivalent of "lovebox", but more discohouse+ragga than a mix of rock and dub. i'm still forming my opinions but the tracks that seem to stand out are "song 4 mutya", "lightsonic" and "what's your version".

of the stuff i picked up previously, i'd say the best albums by far are bassnectar's underground communication, mark ronson's version, miles davis sketches of spain and feist's "the reminder". i wouldn't plunk any cash down for the terminally boring "good, bad and the queen". it sounds like the gorillas without any of the fun hiphop or good collabs. i have to say i don't get blonde redhead either beyond the track "23".

i'll have more to write next month, way too much stuff happening behind the curtain this month that i'm not comfortable blogging about (yet). all should shake out in the next 3-4 weeks.

this is a shot from our master bedroom. i have no clue what this tree is, but every spring it explodes into this amazing purple color, limbs filled with fragrant flowers. when i get the chance i watch it from the window or the roof as it's little hummingbird attendants flit in and out of the branches. we're pretty lucky...
this is a shot of jane at the getty villa. we arrived just in time for the "human sacrifice seminar"! yeah!!! beats the heck outta "personal realization" or "maximizing your weath through real estate investments". nonetheless, by the time we arrived it had already been cancelled on account of the primal gods switching demands from hard-to-find LA virgins to full tanks of 4.50/gallon premium gasoline.
pretty cool shot from the not-so-mighty Q of the columns in the courtyard of the villa. it's a stunning place. not particularly large, but nicely done.
The looks on the faces of some of the greek statues were priceless. This guy looks like he was just informed of an illegitimate child he fathered during a wild night in Cyprus.

killer centipedes & what bots say when they talk amongst themselves

2007-05-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

ugh, dealing with a late night quality issue in china and need a break so thought i'd hammer out a quick blog i've been meaning to post for a while about couple interesting things i've bumped into lately online.

first off, the zoologix blog has become worthy of regular visits for its oddball animal stories and snarky humor. i think i first saw it via digg, which has become my news source of choice lately. (i have it as one of my main content areas on my igoogle homepage) anyways, a couple of my faves are the creepy giant centipede huntings and the jogging flower.

next up is an interesting dialogue between 2 chat bots, alice and jabberwocky. these are programs built to dialogue with people and modeled in artificial intelligence principles. instead of having them chat with people, the authors of the article seeded them with a question and let them chat with one another from there unattended to see what would happen. if you even have a little geekbone in yer body, i think you'll appreciate what follows. one of best lines of the sparring b/w alice and jabberwocky:

A: : -) I don’t have any reason to deceive you.
J: Yes, you do, you’re a woman.

keane, amoeba & denver

2007-05-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

so the keane show was moved over to the gibson amphitheatre in choloville, er universal citywalk, since the greek is firefighter's headquarters while they battle the blazes in griffith park and environs. a pretty poor substitute but i wouldn't have wanted to be in their shoes scrambling to find a suitable replacement to the greek at the last minute. can you imagine the poor suckers who didn't get the memo and showed up to a smoke filled greek? "that keane was a little hard to hear but has one helluva pyrotechnics show, larry!"

anyways, the concert was good but not great. fresh outta rehab, the lead singer (tom chapin) sounds great. he's got some serious pipes and sounds equally good live as he does recorded, which is pretty impressive. the visuals around the show were cool, nothing remarkable but a combination of military themes and sorta groovy pac northwest native art-toons. the biggest downside was that they program their electric guitar rather than play it live. why? it's not like electric guitar players are hard to find or that they're crowded on the stage (it's just 3 dudes). hrm. the best songs were "a bad dream" and "atlantic". i was left with the impression that they were a good band, but need to show a little more range and get a little braver with their performance. how about something as simple as a cover song guys?

moving on, i dropped a little coin at amoeba last weekend and picked up some good deals. their used music selection can't be beat, i found most of the stuff i wanted for under 10 bucks. big win. early faves are bassnectar's new release "undrground communications", the latest feist "the reminder" and mark ronson's first artist album "version" (really nothing more than collected production work but good nonetheless). miguel mig's newest is solid houseparty fare, but adding vocalists beyond lisa shaw doesn't make you eclectic or varied if everything as a decidedly similar 4x4 beat behind it. overall, a good haul and i'm still making my way thru it all.

this week started out in LA on monday but i flew off to denver in the evening for a speaking gig at a golf course. yes, some people speak at fancy halls, some at hotel auditoriums, and others in front of press corps scrambling to get their question answered by the speaker of obvious prestige. i speak at golf courses where i'm basically the toll they need to pay before they can get to tee time. nice. what was cool about this one was after i fought my way out to the location past cows and horses, i was rewarded with some simply amazing views of the area. my Q can't do 'em justice, but here's some of the pics from the trip.

this is a shot from the "minitorium" where i sang, danced, and otherwise spewed forth infosec nonsense for 60 minutes. freakin' beautiful rocks! when i first saw them i immediately thought "how did they make those?" man have i been living in LA too long... :-)

following my speech, we made time for a mad dash around the course in golf carts. woohoo!! below are my partners in golf cart cruisin' christine and hope.

the course was stunning. damn shame they wasted a perfectly good hiking trail on golf! ;-)

among the geese and other wildlife around, you should be able to make out the 4 deer that passed right in front of us. pretty cool!

current playlist (& a little more)

2007-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

sleeping lessons - the shins - wincing the night away
innocence - bjork - volta
gone forever - ulrich schnauss - a strangely isolated place
os novo yorkinos - bebel gilberto - momento
voce - wax poetic feat. bebel gilberto - brasil
little ones - fat freddy's drop - live at the matterhorn
laid - james - laid
base 6 - chemical brothers - star guitar e.p.
david - gug gus - attention
23 - blonde redhead - 23
rubidoux - cold war kids - robbers & cowards

headed off to the keane concert at the greek this friday so i'll post a review of that over the weekend. they should be great live and the greek is a nice venue, very much looking forward to it.

i'm also going to try and sneak in a trip to amoeba this weekend, i've got a gift certificate jane gave me for xmas that's scorching a hole in my pocket. time to do so music shopping! here's what's on the "to buy" list:
Ulrich Schnauss – Goodbye
Kraak & Smaak – Remix sessions
Feist – Reminder
Wax Poetic – Brasil
Underworld & Gabriel Yared – Breaking & Entering
Dub side of the moon - Easy Dub All-Stars
Miguel Migs – Those Things

and i'm hoping to score one of these forthcoming as imports:
Chemical Bros. - We Are The Night
Groove Armada - Soundby Rock

the bay in 07 & bebel

2007-05-07T23:18:00.000-07:00

it's been a while since i actually "lived" in the bay area. about 8 years to be exact (yikes!) from the time i had a corp apt in fremont and was doing double duty as hardcore security consultant manager / full-time partier. as i was walking around today in mountain i reflected on a few of the differences...

- it's not hard to get a hotel any more. i used to have to fight to get into a crappy howard johnson where you paid 230 bucks (gladly) for a last minute visit. traffic has lightened up too, which is good.

- the same crappy hotels i used to crash at are now "boutique" hotels which are nothing more than the same edifice which have collided with a west elm catalogue with somewhat predictible results: they're stuffy, cramped, and still smell faintly of their ignominious past but they have nice modern furnishings, gratis wine happy hours, and aveda supplies in the bathrooms. progress?

- everyone is indian. i walked thru our mtn view office and there was a sandeep or sourabh every 5 steps. sign o' the times. when i witnessed a splash of multi-ethnicity, it was for a "john lee" and in the rare case it was a white dude (almost no women) the name ended in a "...vic". my my my... have times changed.

- the food is good! castro street in mtn view used to be the dominion of about 7 different pho and low-end chinese restaurants. now it has any of a number of tapas and (suprise!) indian and chinese fusion restaurants. my pal uy and i scored a few nice cigars and drinks at the local joints while watching the indian people pass by :-)

onto bebel's latest, memento. all together, a solid album deserving of an accomplished artist. the best tracks in my estimation are the slow-building title song "momento", fiesta track "os novo yorkinos", blissed-out "um segundo", and the minimalistic "words" where she showcases her breathy vocals. even on the less impressive contributions to the album, such as the forgettable house track "bring back the love", her voice is still able to make the song unoffensive, if not exciting. i think she's better off letting other lay down the party beats to compliment her pipes as she did with both of her last 2 albums. i'd *love* to see her do an album with miguel migs though, who has far too long focused on lisa shaw and has branched out somewhat with his latest production album "those things".

a million thanks to dawn for sending me the CD! (gleefully ripped and added to both my lappie and groovy new red ipod nano i got for my bday from jane)

may already?

2007-05-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

oh how time flies... meant to get 10 posts in april but ah well. i've been busy the last couple weeks with my little occupational crossroads. it's been interesting and fun but it's not over yet, probably another 4-6 weeks of twisting turns and tough decisions. we will see!

on the music front, i'm enjoying the shins stuff more than i care to admit. i'm taking a shine to 'phantom limb', 'know your onion', 'so says i', 'sleeping lessons' and other stuff. on the other hand, i wish i could say that i like the new air album, which is offensively boring, and that i really enjoy the rest of bjork's album "volta". i'm going to listen to it a couple times more but i found myself a little disappointed after being blown away by 'earth intruders' and 'innocence'. i'm interested in checking out the new feist, which should be good. capitol A has some new stuff out too; he's been doing a bunch of good collabs lately so i'm betting it will be more of the same speedy, catchy rhyme-slinging.

below is a shot from a mexican magazine article from an interview i did while there a while back. for those who have access, i'm doing a bit for bloomberg tv tomorrow morning.

jane and i went hiking 2nite and i snapped the following fotos of topanga park from my groovy new motorola Q, black edition. i love it! far better than my clunky old treo 650.

for those who think LA is all strip malls, meth labs and concrete jungle, the santa monica mtns which are within minutes of santa monica proper offer some great hiking. check out eagle rock below.
we caught a great sunset on the way back (below) and doe sneaking into the generous brush for the evening. beautiful stuff.

current playlist

2007-04-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

robbers - cold war kids - robbers and cowards
finer - nightmares on wax - carboot soul
dogs - damien rice - 9 crimes
wishing well - terrence trent d'arby - greatest hits
earth intruders (extended, stent mix) - bjork - earth intruders EP
get it on - makossa & megablast feat. kool keith - kuanaka
colossus - wolfmother - wolfmother
lullaby - morgan geist - super EP
vinheta quebrante - ceu - ceu
fisherman's grotto - justin warfield - fisherman's grotto
visions of you - jah wobble's invaders of the heart feat sinead o'connor - collaborations

midwest tour: dublin OH->detroit MI

2007-04-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

greets from a crappy hotel room next to the detroit metro airport, which has a certain apocalyptic charm to it. want a little slice of post-industrial ukraine right here in the US? look no further than detroit. yecch.

so with my ongoing belief that cabbies have the clearest view of a region, my trip started with an ethiopian cab driver who picked me up in columbus. very pleasant guy who explained to me that he had a funny accent b/c he moved to america from nairobi to pursue his dreams. i told him i had a funny accent and not nearly as good a reason as nairobi. i didn't tell him that he might have been the first person to dream about coming ohio.

he took care to inform me that dublin was the proud headquarters of wendy's hamburgers and that jack niklaus lives in dublin. sure enough, when i stumbled my way into the briefing i was speaking at the next morning, saint jack was enshrined at the venue. the jack shrine foto is courtesy of my crappy treocam, as usual. i'm not sure what kind of plans he's holding in the painting, but if he's as smart as the dubliners think he is, it's escape plans to a city where you can find a decent burrito.

the next 4 hours were spent en route to detroit, passing thru most of ohio including my birthplace of sylvania, ohio. the trek included passing the "olentangy indian caverns", which i'm sure is a big money winner for new scamparama, ohio or wherever the hell we were. reminded of all the places with funny and sorta cool sounding indian names we had as kids in michigan, and caused me to think how we have none of them in socal. we've swapped them all out for southwest latino names, which might even be cooler. i can't tell you why, but saying "rancho cucamonga" makes me happier than "mackinac". score one for socal.

off to milwaukee and then chi-town tomorrow for 2 more events. g'nite!

kcrw evening becomes eclectic (and my bday)

2007-04-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

many thanks to everyone who came out for my bday bash this past weekend. and of course a million thanks to my wife who planned it all and then snapped no less than 50 or so shots which are now available here.

after a fantastic evening of far too many margaritas (see picture to the right and the looks of concern on my pals at me doing yet another tequila shot), my big bday celebration moved onto kcrw's annual superconcert: sounds eclectic evening. the last one that we went to introduced us to an early damien rice, who was easily the most memorable act though jurassic 5 and beck turned in great performances as well. we showed up on time to make sure not to miss an act.

bitter:sweet

bummer that they opened the evening to 1/2 empty seats since they put on a great performance. 4-person string section with a harpist, alongside an accomplished dj and the rest of the band. and then there's vocalist shana halligan, supervixen. their stuff is sort of sexy/goofy, like an austin powers movie but with less fake chesthair. if you haven't checked out their album "the mating game" from last year, it's not to be missed. you won't be blown away i'd wager, but it's solid across the board and perfect as sonic wallpaper for a coctail party.

breakestra

these guys are an LA institution just waiting to break out into something bigger. they kicked off their funk-filled session with a "f*ck bush" chant which was only matched in its subtlety by the "impeach the president" song which followed. i get it, but we can do better. and they did. they threw some james brown out there, which killed it, and then some johnny cash (ring of fire) which sorta worked. they kept things hot for about 20 minutes and finished with "cramp your style" (fantastic tune!) and a series of instrumental solos. i've never heard a flute solo sound so cool. i gave their latest album to my pal danny 2 xmas ago and was wondering if it was polite to ask to rip it before he left it was so good :-)

cold war kids
they were easily the best and biggest surprise of the evening. i'll admit that i got their album from kcrw's cd club and then gave it to my cousin after ripping it and giving it a once over early this year. boy was i wrong. they brought a manic intensity to their performance that i can now hear after listening to the album several times over. they served up some seriously pissed-off bluesy rock and roll with dark but powerful lyrics. the highlight for me was "saint john" which is stripped down to nearly accapela and accented by sparse piano and simple guitar/drums. "hang me out to dry" was great too and about the only song they do that isn't depressing in some way. how can you not like a group that sings about laundry that's upset about too many spins in the dryer?

rodrigo y gabriela
if cold war kids were the biggest surprise, r&g were the best performance. nothing else came within a whisker. who would've thought that flamenco guitars and metal could combine to make something so lovely? the 2 mexicanos (tamaleros as jonathan calls them) sit down across from one another with solely their guitars in hand and play beautiful, forceful music that commands your attention. they got a standing ovation after nearly every song. gabriela is unbelieveable, she plays her guitar masterfully but interweaves percussion beats into her chords by thumping the guitar with her hand, knuckles, etc. I can't do it justice with words, if you get the chance, see them. their finale of "stairway to heaven" even managed to make the wonderful but long played-out track fresh again.

ok, it's getting late here in dublin (ohio) so i'm going to turbo thru the others:

travis - unoffensive and charming. i will not remember their performance in 2 weeks. they should have brought the rest of their band perhaps.

lily allen - her voice was stronger than i though it would be. and that's where the good stuff ends. she looked like she was going thru the motions at the end of a long tour. she was missing most of her band and they kept inserting these silly laptop-produced noises into the show which i think were supposed to be kitschy but ended up sounding dumb. not bad, but i had high hopes that were not met.

the shins - i had little hope for a good finale and they met my low expectation. better than travis, but i will not be able to place which body part closed out the show 2 weeks from now. forgive me if i accidentally call them "the toes" or "the kneecaps" or something.

made it into stuff magazine. with all my clothes on.

2007-04-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

thank god, eh? :-) i had an interesting interview with the guys at stuff while briefing them on our latest threat report, check out the link below for the details. i normally don't post this type of thing but since it's written for the mainstream (and humor) thought i'd post on it:
Your Life Is Worth $18 on the Internet

if it's thursday, it must be seattle

2007-04-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

i never realized how much i'm on the road until i started blogging. another week, another city. this time it's lovely seattle who rolled out some fine weather for me, allowing for a couple runs down by the water. stayed in the ultra-fab "hotel 1000" since i was doing a speaking gig for the much better funded marketing group. even scored myself dinner at wild ginger in seattle, one of my fave restaurants on the planet, hands-down.

this was a quick trip so no real observations or anecdotes to share on seattle, but a photo of groovy bud's jazz records.

keith richards revealed that he honored his dead father by adding his cremated ashes to a pile of blow and snorting him along with the cocaine. hmmmm... the midwestern side of me reacts in abject horror at the sheer disrepect of stuffing dad up yer nose on a coke binge. on the other hand, people have requested all sorts of weird crap be done with their remains, from being turned into diamond jewelry for your kids to wear to a dinner party to having your body frozen like a tv dinner (dadsicle, anyone?) in case some future generation develops a cure for whatever malaise is about to do you in.

speaking of coke, i've finally finished watching "city of god", fantastic film if you have not caught it already about the brazilian favelas. brilliant. i also finished "american gods" by neil gaiman recently, which is some of the best sci fi i've read in a long time. dark, clever epic about what happens to the left-behind gods that were once deified inside a country.

lastly, a couple of new studies that indicate eating smart and working out are the key to disease prevention, especially cancer. same old story, but always good to hear that we are empowered to fight some of the nastiest diseases out there simply by what we load onto our forks.

"There are over 100 clinical studies linking increased body mass index (BMI) with a variety of different cancers," says Grotto. Adds Doyle: "There is an incredible association between being overweight and cancer, especially breast cancer among postmenopausal women, and colon cancer."
...
With nearly two-thirds of Americans overweight -- including 30% who are obese -- the problem is serious. What makes it worse is that most Americans are unaware of the link. Doyle estimates that only 1% of the population knows about the association between overweight and cancer risk.

current playlist

2007-04-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

pistolero, "hang em' high" version - juno reactor remixed by fluke - EP
hang tough - fluke - puppy
cherry go round - bibio - hand cranked
longtime - salmonella dub - one drop east
baba o'riley - the who remixed by ils - EP
at least it was - emiliana torrini - fisherman's wife
lucky - easy star allstars - radiodread
dj perferico - dj periferico - city of god remixed
woman - wolfmother - wolfmother
is it any wonder tall paul remix - keane, tall paul - EP

welcome to april grab bag

2007-04-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

did you catch the google april fool's day joke? rich stuff. in a time when the world is a little less corporate given blogs and user-generated content, google is still a step or 2 ahead of the rest of the pack:
Google's Free Wifi Service

apple and emi announced that they will be releasing DRM-free music via iTunes today at a higher bit-rate... at the price of $1.29 a pop. so now we can pay more to get what we should have had in the first place? not sure i'm impressed but it's a babystep in the right direction. and what a coup for jobs!!! he deftly maneuvered against antitrust concerns by opening up the format for play elsewhere *and* recovered more margin per song while seeming to get a reaction from his previous letter to the music biz. freakin' genius move on his part...

congrats to young and jackie on a beautiful wedding this past saturday eve, coupla shots below.

train

2007-03-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

well, i'm on my way from washington D.C. to new york. it was cherry blossom season in D.C., something i'd always wanted to see. there was no time to enjoy it this time around, but i managed to catch the sweet scent in the air and snap a shot from my treo.

the best thing about this trip is that i found an excuse to ride the train (acela express to be exact). i don't know what it is but i've loved taking the train since my late teens. europe opened my fascination with the train. i remember taking the eurail and stumbling my way across western europe with little more than a backpack and even less of a clue. it was challenging, but the sense of freedom and adventure i felt was without match. i remember the quiet churches of venice, nearly missing my train in germany after 2 huge beers with new friends in the hofbrauhaus (munich), a ride in the back of a truck in denmark, visiting an ex-girlfriend in the hague, and accidentally discovering an amazing peter gabriel concert (free!) in paris. i rolled back into madrid with just enough cash to buy a fresh baguette and some apples. note: there's a reason why you never see apple sandwiches on a menu.

fast-forward to graduating university of michigan and heading off to asia for a little more train adventure. first trip was a night long voyage to kuala lumpur from singapore with my freshman year roomie jeffrey lam. we were visting my mentee and pal mike louie who was staying in KL for a short period of time with a friend. KL was not incredibly beautiful or interesting to be honest, but it was the first time i realized the size and reach of islam as i stared at the world's largest mosque. juxtaposed with this likely the world's largest pirated software market. to commemorate the experience, i bought all the adobe products i couldn't otherwise afford for 5 dollars. i suppose i've been doing my penance in the software industry ever since ;-)

following singapore and malaysia, i headed over to japan to take the j-rail for a week. using my pass and serviceable nihongo, i traveled from tokyo all the way down to fukuoka where i visited a fellow wolverine (victor) who was taking classes at the university there. he took me to an amazing summer festival on a lake with fireworks and street vendors who sold tasty octopus dumplings among other strange and lovely things. on the way back i had the chance to stop by kobe and kyoto (one gorgeous, the other historic but somewhat bland). i can still recall walking by myself through pristine, silent japanese gardens, feeling like i had been transported a million miles away from the rest of humanity into a secret, alien place. i remember sitting in the train station, hearing a distant rumble, and moments later having my hair blown back as a speeding shinkansen blurred past the railstation at 190 mph.

so here i am in my 30s, back on the train with a decidely more complicated life than in earlier days before mortgages and jobs. odd how none of that seems to dampen the sense of freedom i feel as i write here on the acela. the moment at hand is as perfectly enjoyable as the memories.

paso robles ponderings

2007-03-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

just got back from a very quick trip to central cali for the wine country run with my pal jason emmons who introduced me to races about 10 years ago. finished the half marathon in 1 hr 44 mins 13 secs, which is not bad at all for me (but not my best time either). the run itself is beautiful as it winds through paso robles vineyards, complete with horses, cow, and sheep (the latter of which are completely unimpressed by herds of runners, who were equally unimpressed with the sheep's odor)

we spent our evening before the race at the carlton hotel in atascadero, which is the home of "terry's bar and grill". we dropped by for a nite cap and to take in the local flavor, which i would characterize as skoal bandits, busch beer, beef jerkey and line dances. the bartender was a nice enough looking blonde lady who looked very comfortable with the drunks leaning over the bar and the toby keith playing on the old juke box (10 cents a play!). when asking for a couple jacks on the rocks, she smiled to reveal a mouth half full of gold teeth that nelly would be proud of. yeehaw! after that we snuck in the back door (by accident) of a local hip hop club which had live performances that evening. thank god we didn't pay cover. the group that stepped up 2nd was announced as being straight from ohio and filming their big music video that evening ("ladies come on up if you wanna be in the big show!"). rightttttttttttttttt... isn't p diddy from cincinatti? and snoop dogg from columbus? not even atascadero was impressed. we lasted 3 minutes, 2 of which were spent looking for the exit amongst a crowd of 18 year-olds who were pretty sure ohio was a suburb of oakland.

after the run we took in a few wineries, namely peachy canyon, linne calodo and turley. the entire region is known for their zinfandels (among other things, like pinot noir), and turley has to be one of the best. we did a tasting of nearly all zins and they were impressive. scored a bottle of their dusi zin and the much cheaper juvenile zin which was still very good. downside: they have a waiting list to get on their mailing list (!) and don't wave their tasting fee with purchase. what the hell is a waiting list to get on a mailing list? is the postage that much? someone want to tell them about this little known phenomena called email that's pretty much free? sheesh... linne calodo is freakin' fantastic. we'd had a bottle of "leona's" the nite before in san luis obispo and it knocked our socks off. it's a zin blend with shiraz and mouvedre (sp?). the rest of their wine was in the same range of fabulosity. if you ever see them around, buy a bottle.

oh, and wired did a little story on the UFO sightings from the frenchies. no smoking guns but interesting nonetheless. the most convincing of all sightings for me has always been the ones that come from the airline crew since they are up in the air all the time and see lots of things that might normally be confused for UFOs by other people. that and they have little incentive to report unless they all see the same thing, making it more convincing.

grab bag & scrap book

2007-03-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

seen in the news

france spills the beans on their ufo sitings over the years. sacre bleu!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070322/wl_afp/sciencespaceufo_070322143210;_ylt=AiqF_4rkLF0ECnmZzwNPfw0FO7gF

music sales tank to new lows, down 20% and #1 albums now sell about 60k copies/week, whereas before it was about 500-600k. 800 music stores (including tower) closed in 2006. chk out the quote, they're finally getting it:

Jeff Rabhan, who manages artists and music producers including Jermaine Dupri, Kelis and Elliott Yamin, says CDs have become little more than advertisements for more-lucrative goods like concert tickets and T-shirts. "Sales are so down and so off that, as a manager, I look at a CD as part of the marketing of an artist, more than as an income stream," says Mr. Rabhan. "It's the vehicle that drives the tour, the merchandise, building the brand, and that's it. There's no money."

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117444575607043728-oEugjUqEtTo1hWJawejgR3LjRAw_20080320.html?mod=rss_free

behold, the colossal squid. 30 of these and you'd have enough calamari to feed the 3rd world. but then you'd have a tartar sauce shortage. ah well...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/colossal_squid;_ylt=AhF1zBXu39SGVKzTlY.gidcTO7gF

pics
young's bachelor party in vegas

cap'n jonathan and i on his first boat ride in te'os boston whaler. that's the lovely santa monica mountains in the background.

current playlist

2007-03-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

rehab - amy winehouse - back to black
hungerford bridge - underworld - breaking and entering o.s.t.
wish i could - norah jones - not too late
midnight marauders - fat freddy's drop - live in paris
the boxer - simon and garfunkel - greatest hits
multiply - jamie lidell - multiply
yellow - coldplay - parachutes
ted (bibio remix) - clark - ted e.p.
que pasa - j-boogie's dubtronic science feat deuce eclipse - om hip hop vol. 1
a conto do samba - tita lima - 11:11
nazarene - beck - guero
love rain - jill scott feat. mos def - collaborations

a cab ride in mexico city

2007-03-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

i'm not sure if i'm stealing someone's line, but as a seasoned traveller it always has seemed to me that if you want to understand the zeitgeist of any city, you have only to take a taxi with a chatty driver. there are some obvious caveats to this (some of them are nuts), but the cab driver spends all day in the car listening to the news, seeing the city, and yapping with people coming in and out of the locale. if they can synthesize and communicate this considerable flood of info, you've got the city's leading authority on your hands as a captive audience for the duration of your trip.

during my short trip (3 days) to mexico city to do PR and serve as a security advisor to banamex, i stayed near the following bldg, which is beautiful modern architecture and surrounded by gorgeous new hotels and legions of sushi restaurants (oddly enough). note that i was ushered here by my host and shuttled around to nice places during my trip, never left to wander on my own as is my typical M.O.

during the trip, i wondered how much mexico city had *really* changed since my visit over a decade ago. it just seemed too nice. one of the first indications was a thick layer of smog over the horizon that would make even a native los angelino blush. check it out in the pic below. sorta hard to see but you'll get the idea.

so as i was on my cab ride back to the airport the cab driver noticed i was not on my cell phone any more and struck up the basic conversation of where i was from and such. as is usual when any guero replies in kind with espanol, he praised my spanish and i demurred. then the real conversation began as he asked me if this was my 1st time in the DF. i replied no and made remarks as to the stunning progress that was made but the persistence of traffic and smog, feeling this was a balanced response. he glanced in his rear view mirror with his cheap sunglasses and told me that the progress was "una ficcion" and that what i saw in the lovely new sante fe area was not real. he pointed out the window to the scene below and told me that it was the real mexico city: a city of poverty run by indifferent politicians and businessmen of indiscrimnate wealth.

we delved into a conversation about politics which seriously strained my now meager spanish vocabulary, but we made it through the nonetheless. i was assured that he, as the rest of the people i met, thought hugo chavez was freakin' insane. not that anyone i met liked bush, who happened to be doing a tour of latin america this past week, but that they understood that socialism and anti-americanism is not going to advance their cause.

and this is a shot from the other side of the cab. he told me that 20 years ago the ppl in the now favela style living were habitating in caves in the same area. crazy. the progress that has been made didn't seem to brighten his hopes, and neither did the successful, peaceful xfer of power from vicente fox to the new administration. other mexicanos i spoke with felt differently, as they see the many attractions of latin america and mexico for US businesses and elsewhere. they're in a close time zone, most ppl speak english, its inexpensive, etc. my sense after taking it all in is if they can develop a middle class, solve some of their infrastructure issues and keep a stable govt, mexico could be a center of world economic activity in the future.