A Condo For Me

So I found a nice condo finally. I put in an offer, got it countered, and have now accepted the counter offer. So baring any major issues I should have a new condo for myself in three weeks or less. Here's the location if you want to check it out:

31 Largo St.
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Can't argue with being only four miles from Laguna Beach!

Update - 9:00AM Tuesday, August 23th, 2005: Wow, I haven't been doing a very good job keeping this updated have I. Well I guess it's time for a fair number of news updates. First off, I backed out of this place. Why you ask? Very simply, there were just too many issues that popped up with it (mold, old heater, old A/C) and I was going in near the top of my budget so it would have been hard to update with newer things, or even just to make repairs. Additionally, I felt like the sellers were trying to yank me around on this and I just got sick of it. So I figured the best thing to do would be to move on and live in an apartment for a while as I kept looking.

Battlestar Galactica Season One

So they're releasing season one of the new Battlestar Galactica on DVD next Tuesday! Finally I'll be able to catch up on the few episodes I missed and will be ready to catch up the new season two episodes that have just started up. Thankfully David Landon has a Tivo down here in Cali and is recording the new season two episodes for me... he's definitely with "the plan".

See you @ Best Buy on the 26th (as they have the release exclusively)!

New Serenity Trailer

I usually wouldn't think to link to other stories (especially if they are listed on Slashdot), but this is one I can't resist. The new international Serenity trailer has been post here. If you've never watched the series "Firefly" (and it's very likely that you didn't as Fox only ran it for one season before deciding to cancel it), pick it up on DVD and enjoy. It was created by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy and Angel, and is extremely entertaining. Along with the new Battlestar Galactica, it is the best SciFi out there right now. Why Fox decided to cancel it is beyond me (but they also cancelled Futurama and Family Guy, so I don't expect a lot from them).

Serenity takes place after the events in the first season of Firefly, so all the fans of the series, myself included, are really looking forward to this movie (September 30th release date).

REVIEW: Batman Begins

Don't know why it's taken me this long to get this review up... what with me going to see this movie on three seperate occasions, but on to the good stuff:

Best Batman flick, period. This is what my favorite superhero should be about. Christian Bale makes an outstanding Bruce Wayne/Batman. The scenes where he was jumping people from the shadows were almost terrifying, a tribute to what Batman was all about, provoking fear in criminals. Dr. Crane/Scarecrow was wonderfully done. Ra's Al Ghul/Ducard was perfect with Liam Neeson. About the only problem I had with this movie was Katie Holmes, and even she became more tolerable after each viewing. Sure it has it's flaws (i.e. a microwave emitter that vaporize people, just all the free standing water), but it achieved what it set out to do, restart Batman on the big screen.

One thing that I really noticed the last time I watched it was how great the music for the movie was. That's a great sign of a good movie, finding something new to be impressed by each time you watch it.

Rating == 3.5/4.0

Cause and Effect

Basically, California traffic sucks. Coming from Seattle I'm used to bad traffic, but traffic down here is very different than traffic in Seattle.

Seattle's traffic is predictable. Mornings coming up I-5 from the south are always backed up, and going south on I-5 around 4 is also always backed up. Down here, traffic has no consistent behavior. Some mornings I can take I-405 straight to work going 75 all the way, other days the highway is completely solid, and then next it's somewhere in between. You'd also think that around 8:30pm things would be pretty quiet. Well I hit some of the worst traffic I've had from 8:00 to 9:00 on a Friday night.

Why am I bringing this up? Because it's made me really want one of these:

"Work Work Work"

So a few thoughts on my new job (Warning: these opinions represent less than two days of actual work and are subject to changes)

OMG this freaking rules!

Yah, that about sums it up.





Oh, right, "the why"...

Well first off, as easy and nice as Java is it just can't compare to C/C++ for me. I grew up on these languages and as much of a pain as they can be they make you really "code", in that you are responsible for anything and everything that happens. Nobody's there to delete your memory, or tell you that you did something stupid, it's all you. It seperates the men from the boys ;-).

Actually, the biggest thing is that I get to play with "toys". Embedded systems are so fun to play with and already I've had my desk covered with wires, and have pulled out the multimeter to do testing.

It looks like there's tons for me to do so I really doubt I'll get bored which is also great. I guess we'll just have to see.

Blasted Starbucks!

So they came out with the Chai Tea Frappuccinos... well as someone who had a love & hate relationship with Iced Chai Tea Lattes the remove the hate part of the relationship. Iced Chai was a great drink, but I would just down it too fast in my opinion. You can't do that with the Frappuccinos so it's the perfect solution. This is very bad however as I know want to buy these more often.

What's even worse in what I found today at lunch:

Green Tea Frappuccinos

Yes, that's right, it's just like Green Tea ice cream. For those that know me well, this is a very very bad thing to introduce me too.

Blasted Starbucks!

EVENT: Moving Day, Part III

Woke up around 7:00am, had a quick bit of the continental breakfast and was off by 7:30. Got right on 101 S and started cruising. 101 is a really neat drive and actually moves quite well (minus one or two merge points). The posted speed limit is around 55 in most parts, but everyone seems to go 75+. Even the cops were doing 20mph over the limit... gotta love Cali for that. Spent much of the last 300 or so miles before hitting 405 cruising along with a Infinity G35. Had a good time with that driver!

Hit 405 and headed south to Irvine then hit the nasty LAX traffic just before Hollywood. Arrived at my condo (after missing the directions the first time) around 4:00pm. After parking illegally, searching for the lock box and then finding my apartment I found I didn't have a garage opener! Luckily the office was open and they set me up with one no problem. Got a bit moved in before heading off to church. Came back from church and finished unpacking. Ran to get a few groceries and then order some pizza. Finally got to eat it at around 10:00pm... lol. Well I'm hear now so:

HELLO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!!!

EVENT: Moving Day, Part II

After a nice and comfortable wake up, headed out of Medford around 9:30 (after picking up my Starbuck's fix... man those Chai Tea Frappuccino's are too good). Reached the Cali border around 10:30 or so. Had fun through the Siskiyous with my car; I was actually rather impressed with how well she performed with all the weight from my supplies as well as the added drag of the Yakima rack on top. Hauled my way through northern California. You have to love when flow speed is around 80mph! Hit traffic big time as I approached the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, but otherwise just cruised my way into town. I arrived in San Fran a little after 3pm.

Checked into my hotel, another nice Best Western, the Flamingo Inn. Took there free shuttle to Union Square where I was going to catch a trolly down to Fisherman's Wharf... yah right. Gave up on that idea and just decided to walk. San Fran is a very interesting city in that respect as it's pretty much split in two by a ridge thus providing a steep uphill hike followed by a steep downhill hike to the Wharf. I just picked up some Calamari & Chips off the street side vendors and munched them for a while. Found a nice little bar with a $2 Guiness Pints happy hour and had a couple of brews. After my walk down, I was determined to catch a trolly back... haha, yet again I make the hike. Don't know if it was the alcohol or what but it went quickly. Did a little shopping @ the Virgin Megastore in Union Square and then headed back to the hotel. Crashed around 11pm for the next day.

EVENT: Moving Day

I'll be adding things to this post as the day approaches, but for now it's mainly a place holder for the big event!

Update: It looks like I get a paid house hunting trip now too! So at some point I'll be down in Cali for 5 days looking for a place to live.

Update - 10:45PM Tuesday, July 8th, 2005: Time for an update on the trip down! I ended up leaving Seattle around 1:15pm... and boy do I wish I had left a bit earlier. I got nailed with traffic 'til about 100 miles south of Portland. It was made for a very long trip, and I just got in about 45 minutes ago to Medford, Oregon where I'll be staying the first night. Thank goodness for T's mix cds which kept me entertained. I'm staying at the Best Western Horizon Inn; quite a nice hotel actually, and one that I've stayed at before with the family on one of our vacations. Tomorrow I head down to San Francisco. No rush on getting out of bed though :-D.

EVENT: Farewell Party

Mom, Dad & T threw me a going away party at the parents house, inviting all my buddies for some good food and fun. I had a blast and got some funny bachelor gifts from everyone and it was good to see a bunch of the people for the last time before I head down to California on Friday. A big thanks to all that showed up to wish me a good send off and I hope you come down to visit me!