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Elliptical investment

chris — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:55:28 -0800

A few known facts, realizations, admissions, and observations have lately come together and prompted me to make what might to some be an unexpected purchase. Firstly, since moving to the Bay Area, I don't get enough exersize. Over the 5 years I've been here I've put on too many pounds. Well, most of them were put on in the first 2 years - I've been pretty stable since then. But still, I'm heavier now than I've been since I came back from NZ in 1985, and least healthy, and I can feel it, and I don't like it.

It's 2008!

chris — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:14:26 -0800

Once again, its been way too long since I've written anything in the ol' blog. Its so much easier to think about writing something here than to actually do it. So, here's a bit of an update with some of whats been going on with me since October, and a little bit into the future.

Knee on the mend

chris — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:59:21 -0700

Two and a half weeks ago, when Sarah and Bethany were visiting, just moments before we left to go camping at the coast in Half Moon Bay, a floorboard on my back porch broke under me as I was reaching to get something. My left leg instantly went through the new slot in the floor to the ground below (only about a foot and a half down) but unfortunately said slot was about 2 inches narrower than my leg just below the knee

Vacation Photos

chris — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:20:11 -0700

As usual, its been far too long since I've posted anything. And as more
usual, this will be short. But, I've got several things to write
about, so I'll post again soon - I just wanted to at least get this
entry on line so people can see the photos from my recent week with my sister Sarah and niece Bethany.

Movie List

chris — Sun, 13 May 2007 16:55:34 -0700

Here's a list of good movies. Clicking a title will take you too the IMDB page for that movie.

8 Mile
A Bug's Life
Adaptation
Aladdin
Amelie
American Beauty
Amistad
Angels in America
Awakenings
Babette's Feast
Bad Education
Batman Begins
Beaches
Beautiful Thing
Big Fish
Blazing Saddles
Boogie Nights
Born into Brothels
Brazil
Brokeback Mountain
Brother Bear
Bulworth
Cars
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005 - Tim Burton/Johnny Depp)
Chicago
Children of Dune
Children of Men
Chocolat
Chronos
Cirque du Soleil - Alegria
Cirque du Soleil - Dralion
Citizen Kane
City of God
Clerks
Como Agua para Chocolate
Crash
Dave
Dead Poets Society
Dogma
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Zhivago
Dream with the Fishes
Duel
Dune (2000 SciFi Channel Miniseries)
Dune (1984 David Lynch)
Eat Drink Man Woman
Edward Scissorhands
Everest - IMAX
Evita
Fargo
Finding Nemo
Flushed Away
Forrest Gump
Gangs of New York
Garden State
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2
Ghost World
Gummo
Hannibal
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Heathers
Hellboy
Henry V
Highlander
Highlander: Endgame
History of the World: Part 1
Hotel Rwanda
House of Flying Daggers
I Robot
Ice Age
Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
James and the Giant Peach
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
King Kong (2005)
Kontroll
La Cité des Enfants Perdus
La Femme Nikita
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Les Triplettes de Belleville
Life of Brian
Lost in Translation
Madagascar
Magnolia
Manhunter
Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
Meet the Parents
Millions
Monsters, Inc.
Napoleon Dynamite
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Oceans 11
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Primer
Princess Mononoke
Punch Drunk Love
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Raising Arizona
Red Dragon
Requiem for a Dream
Robots
Seabiscuit
Seven Years in Tibet
Shaun of the Dead
Shortbus
Sideways
Sin City
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Spirited Away
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Tampopo
Team America: World Police (Fuck Yeah!)
Terms of Endearment
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Animatrix
The Big Lebowski
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Butterfly Effect
The Cell
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Day After Tomorrow
The Green Mile
The Hours
The Incredibles
The Iron Giant
The Ladykillers (2004)
The Last Samurai
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Director's Cut)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Director's Cut)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Directors Cut)
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
The Mission
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Name of the Rose
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Princess Bride
The Producers (1968 - Mel Brooks)
The Red Violin
The Royal Tennenbaums
The Seven Samurai
The Shawshank Redemption
The Silence of the Lambs
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999 - Pierce Brosnan)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 - Steve McQueen/ Faye Dunaway)
The Wedding Banquet
This is Spinal Tap
Time Bandits
Touching the Void
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Trainspotting
Troy
Twelve Monkeys
Waking Life
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 - Gene Wilder)
Winged Migration
Young Frankenstein
Zatoichi

I'm REALLY glad I don't commute into San Francisco!

chris — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:02:42 -0700

Commuting in and out of the city from the East Bay is going to be even
more heinous than usual for the next few months. At about 3:40 this
morning, a tanker truck full of gasoline crashed on one of the
overpasses in the 'maze' of freeway interchanges in Emeryville, not far
from Pixar.

Birthday & Bread

chris — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:14:39 -0800

This past Thursday was my birthday.
Rather than having anything big and formal or I invited a bunch of
friends over after work for beer and pizza and whisky. It worked out
great and a fun time was had by all. Pixar folks and non-pixar folks
alike. We managed to kick the keg of Sunny Day IPA (it was only 1/2
full to start with) and put a good dent in the other beers. I recieved
some wonderful gifts, including hand-made cards from the kids next
door, and now my alcohol collection is even larger than before!

Two in the works

chris — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:42:00 -0800

Eventually I plan to put up a page with photos and details of the
process I go through when I brew at home. But for now, since I have two
beers fermenting at the same time, here's how they look:

East Bay WebCam

chris — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:44:22 -0800

Want to see what the weather's like here in the San Francisco Bay Area?

This page shows a nearly-live photo taken from the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Located well over 1000 feet up, in the Berkeley hills, the camera faces west across San Francisco Bay towards the Golden Gate and shows all or part of the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and Albany immediately below, and the skyline of San Francisco in the distance.

It has links to all sorts of local weather-related info, and a time-lapse movie from the day before (one frame taken every minute.)

Couch Surfing

chris — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:23:57 -0800

Couchsurfing.com aims to create a better world, one couch at a time. Meet people from interesting places, meet people IN interesting places!

A 'social networking' site that links travellers with hosts. Sick of being just another tourist? If you're going somewhere and would like to meet a 'local' and get an insiders view of your destination, check out couchsurfing.com. You can sign up to offer your couch to a passing surfer, or look for available couches in distant lands. A site with a pretty active community, it offers plenty of wise and useful info about the concept, including issues of safety and trust with regard to opening your home to, or staying in the homes of, strangers.

In my many travels I've crashed on plenty of couches offered by total strangers out of pure kindness and hospitality. This is a wondefully karmic way to 'give back to the world'