New License Plates

It seems that everyone in California has vanity plates on their car, they certainly seem more popular than in any other state. Ever since moving here, John has wanted vanity plates but didn't want something dumb or that he would get tired of after 6 months. So after 9 years, he finally settled on "GTDRPTP", a reference to his Mustang GT convertible (GT Drop Top). They arrived this week and look fantastic!

Pebble Beach

The common piece of advice that everybody continues to give us as Carrie's due date approaches is to spend time together and take those weekend getaways that you want to go on before it becomes hard to. So last weekend we went on our third "last big trip" to Pebble Beach. We spent the weekend down in Monterey at the luxurious Lodge at Pebble Beach. We had some great food, amazing weather, and lots of time to relax. Since golf is difficult for Carrie at this point, we spent Saturday kayaking in Stillwater Cove, which is a protected bay that sits between the 17th and 18th holes at Pebble Beach. The water was smooth as glass, and we saw leopard sharks, harbor seals and lots of sea otters. We also had the opportunity to catch the bagpiper at Spanish Bay as he walked the dunes at sunset. And John got his golf fix in at the beautiful driving range at Spyglass.

4D Ultrasound

Ray, a friend of ours, works for Siemens and has connections into their ultrasound division. As part of their research and development, they need models to see how their latest and greatest machines are working, so Carrie had an opportunity to go and model with Baby Sparkle. We got to take home some pictures and video from the session. This is one of the pictures where the baby is smiling and looking forward to coming out two months from now.

Bon Jovi in concert

Today is our three year wedding anniversary. And to celebrate, we took Baby Sparkle (her new nickname) to her first concert at -2 months old! It's a good thing that we generally share the same taste in music. We've been wanting to see Bon Jovi in concert for a couple of years now, and when the opportunity arose to sit in the 20th row, smack in the middle of the floor, we jumped on it. They played all their old hits as well as the new hits from the last two albums. Even Sparkle seemed to enjoy rocking out.

Camp Wonder featured in USA Today

John used to volunteer as a camp counselor at Camp Wonder, a free summer camp for kids with skin diseases. It's a great place for the kids, and provides a place to make friends and have fun, without worrying about whatever medical ailments the kids may have. A full medical staff is on-site to take care of them, and there's always a fantastic group of counselors that complement the camp directors to create an amazing atmosphere. Camp Wonder is being feature on the front page of the USA Today Lifestyle section on April 2, 2008. Pick up a copy and tell your friends!

[Edited 04/02/08] The article got delayed because of technical mix-ups at USA Today. Will update when it is published again. Sorry if anybody had to buy a copy of the paper that they weren't interested in!

We're home - photos posted on-line

Well, we're finally back from our trip and trying to readjust to jetlag...again. It's certainly nice to be back home in our own house, with our own bed and a full closet of fresh clothes. Thanks for following along with our travels, check out our photos that are now posted on-line:
- Vienna
- Prague
- Salzburg

On our way home

We are at the Vienna airport, ready to start the long journey home,
with a brief stopover in amsterdam. It's been a really fun two weeks, we'll have all the pictures up here in a few days.

Finishing our trip in style

Yesterday, we left Salzburg to return to Vienna for a couple of days before we head home. We were pleasantly surprised by the nicest train we've seen yet, we had our own spacious cabin in a brand new car for most of the ride, with soft leather seats, electrical outlets to charge our batteries, and lots of space to stretch out. We're spending our last two nights here at the 5-star Hotel Sacher, an historic landmark in Vienna and reknowned for its world-famous Original Sacher Torte. It's a beautiful hotel and a beautiful room for us to enjoy the perfect ending to our two-week Babymoon through Europe.

Tours around Salzburg

Yesterday we spent some time on organized tours going out and around the Salzburg area. Salzburg in German, literally means "salt castle", and was established as an important economic center in the beginning because of its proximity to salt mines. So in the morning, we went and visited a working salt mine and got to see the tunnels, equipment and underground lakes of the mine. In the picture, we're all suited up in our miner outfits, about to board the train into the mine. Later in the afternoon, we got a chance to visit all the lakes around the area and see the quaint little towns next to them on the "Lakes and Mountains" tour. Was a nice day of sightseeing (despite a brief cloudburst of winter storm) and a welcome break from miles of walking everyday.

First day in Salzburg

Today was our first day in Salzburg and we spent the day wandering around and exploring the city. It is as charming as you would imagine it, beautiful mountains, snowy caps, whimsical alleys with boutique shopping... We paid a visit to the fortress which proudly overlooks the city and saw the history of Austrian military and royalty that have stayed and visited the fortress. We grabbed a light lunch at the farmer's market which, inexplicably, had delicious and fresh berries and figs for sale. This evening, we had the opportunity to enjoy dinner with a concert at the oldest restaurant in Europe. Between (delicious) dinner courses, a string quintet and two talented vocalists entertained us with selections from Mozart's operas. It was extra special because of how intimate the setting was, with the singers freely wandering around the dining room to sing right next to our tables. Very fun and entertaining.

Train ride to Salzburg

This evening, we jumped on a train from Prague to Salzburg and had quite an adventure. This isn't a high traffic route, and it kind of meanders through the mountains, so the only train available to us was a slower, local train. In total the ride was seven hours long, leaving at 5pm, and arriving in Salzburg at midnight. We incorrectly assumed that such a long route would have a dining car, and didn't discover our error until the train had left Prague. Knowing that we wouldn't arrive in Salzburg until very late and that most restaurants would be closed, John took advantage of a 30 minute stop in České Budějovice to try and find some food. Unfortunately, all six food stands and stores in the train station were closed. So was the McDonald's that John found four blocks from the train station. So were the five convenience stores that John ran past. So were the two hot dog stands. John finally found a shopping mall that was still open three blocks away with a snack stand selling nuts and dried fruit, before sprinting back to catch the train just in time. Thankfully that tied us over until we reached Salzburg and found a late night restaurant.

Tastes of home

As much fun as it is to travel around Europe, seeing new things and trying new foods, it's always nice to get a small taste of home. We stayed up (really) late to watch the Super Bowl, but wanted to catch it live if it was possible. Was nice to see some American football, but have to admit that it was a little underwhelming to see history not happen. And since we were watching a satellite feed, we didn't get to watch any of the commercials. Had to catch them today on the internet (love the E-trade baby ads, hilarious!) after the fact. Carrie also found a Haagen-Dazs stand to get some familiar ice cream taste. Off to Salzburg later today...

Traditional Prague

Today we partook in some key traditional Prague experiences. The one pictured is the traditional supper of roast pork, boiled cabbage, potato and bread dumplings. Accompanied by the traditional Czech beer, Pilsner Urquel. The food was surprisingly tasty, despite what it might look like. We spent the day visiting New Town Prague, Old Town Square, and Wenceslas Square. The original city limits of Prague were built up around Old Town and walled in to protect the city. New Town is the area that was built up outside the city as it expanded, and Wenceslas Square is the famous boulevard in central Prague in front of the main museum. Wenceslas Square is famous for being the hub of demonstrations and protests through the years, and gained worldwide notoriety when a protester set himself on fire.

Prague's Marquee Sites

Prague is famous for its extraordinarily well preserved historic buildings, having for the most part been spared significant damage in the major World Wars. Today we visited the Prague Castle, St. Vitus' Cathedral and St. Charles' Bridge. St. Vitus' was definitely the highlight of the day. It is the largest church in Prague, and is the home of the Archdiocese. It's a magnificent example of Gothic architecture that took some 600 years to complete, beginning in the 1344 when the archbishopric was founded. The cathedral is up on the hill in the background of this picture taken from the St. Charles' Bridge.

We have arrived in Prague!

After a fun train ride through the Eastern European countryside, we have arrived in Prague. We're staying at the Hotel Josef, a very modern, high-design hotel. Our room has a glass bathroom! The train ride was per European expectations, and was very nice. John even had a chance to try the famous European version of Budweiser, a light Czech beer, that has no association with the US version of Budweiser.

Finishing up the major sights

Today is our last day in Vienna for a while, so we took it relatively easy and hit the remaining major sights that we had on our list. We headed out of town to Grinzing, famous for its plethora of wine taverns, where we strolled around the city and had a very traditional Austrian lunch. In the afternoon, we continued up the hill to Wienerwald, the forests of Vienna. Contrary to how it sounds, it is not a theme park filled with hot dogs, sadly. But the views were magnificent, and an added bonus...far from all the crowds. This evening's entertainment has been people watching, as tonight is the Vienna Opera Ball, the culminating event to Ball Season here in Vienna. The high society folks are out in force, dressed to the nines. The Opera Ball is a white tie event where all the men are in tuxes with white ties and tails, and the women are all in gorgeous floor length ball gowns. Ticket prices start at about $1,500 per person, so you can imagine the types about town tonight. Good people watching. Tomorrow we are off to Prague!

Things we've had just about enough of

Walking and art museums. We've been walking several miles a day, just getting to places and then walking the palace grounds and museum floors. Frankly, our feet kind of hurt. And as beautiful as the museums are, we think we've seen just about enough art. Whew, does Vienna have a lot! Today's itinerary: Schokocroissant breakfast, House of Music museum, Subway lunch, Belvedere art museum, Österreicher im MAK dinner, Salonorchester "Alt Wien" concert. Highlights from the day... The Belvedere was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy and is most famous today for housing the two most famous Gustav Klimts, "The Kiss" and "Country Garden with Sunflowers". We have prints of both of these at home, so it was a thrill to see the originals up close in person, as well as stroll the magnificent palace grounds (where Carrie is pictured). The Österreicher at the MAK museum was recently featured in the New York Times and pointed out to us by our friend Brian Forster, so we managed to sneak in to the posh and ultra-happening dinner spot without a reservation, yum! And finally, to finish our day, we got great tickets to a Strauss and Mozart chamber music concert, complete with operatic soloists and ballet waltzers. Quite the quintessential Vienna experience.

Schönbrunn Palace

Today's excursion was to the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the imperial family back in the day of Franz Joseph. Today, the grounds are a magnificent public park and the whole estate is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. We got to tour the beautifully preserved imperial apartments, and stroll the gardens up to the Glorietta. There's a labyrinth that we were excited to see, but is unfortunately closed in the winter. To fill out our day, we cruised the trendy shopping mile of the Mariahilfer Strasse and hit up the Bermuda Triangle district of bars and clubs after dinner.

When in Wien, eat their schnitzel

Wiener schnitzel (from German Wiener Schnitzel, meaning Viennese cutlet) is a traditional Austrian dish and popular part of Viennese and Austrian cuisine, consisting of a thin slice of veal coated in breadcrumbs and fried. We're on a mission to experience all of the amazing food that Vienna has to offer. Yesterday we hit up the hot dog vendors for the quintessential street experience for lunch, followed by wiener schnitzel and beer for dinner at a brew pub. Doesn't get any more traditional than that!

Kasekrainers!!!

Over the years, John has heard many stories about Carrie's time in Austria, and kasekrainers were one of the top things that we were looking forward to on this trip. Manhattan hot dog stands ain't got nothin' on these Austrian delights. These are, in short, hot dogs perfected. Take a freshly baked french roll, drill a hole in the middle and fill with ketchup and mustard. Then, take a bratwurst infused with cheese, grill to perfection, and then stuff into the roll. All the delicious goodness of street vendor hot dogs, with none of the inconvenient drippiness. Yum!

Early to jet lag, early to rise

With a pretty extreme case of jetlag, we were both up pretty early this morning (after going to bed at 6pm, haha). The first thing we did was find a bakery to grab a couple schokocroissants (chocolate filled croissants), and stroll through the Naschmarkt (open air produce/farmer's market). One, because the pastries are delicious, and two, because those are the only things open at 6am. Afterwards, we spent some time on the Hofburg Imperial Palace grounds, where we visited the Museum of Natural History, and the Albertina Museum, which was showing a special exhibition on modern art progressing from Monet to Picasso.

We've arrived!

After a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam, a quick connection, then a 90 minute flight into a very windy Vienna, we have arrived! We were able to catch some sleep on the plane, so it almost feels like we're on local time. The hotel is beautiful, it feels like we're staying in a palace. Our room has high ceilings, a beautiful chandelier, and two balconies that overlook the Kärntner Straße pedestrian mall. Serendipitously, it is also less than half a block from the school that Carrie studied at when she was here in college. More posts and pictures to come later...

And we're off!

It's an overcast day at SFO, but at least the torrential rains have
ceased for the day for us to get an on time departure. The picture is
of out baby blue KLM Boeing 777 that will whisk us away to Amsterdam,
final destination: Vienna.

European Babymoon

Tomorrow we jump on a plane to fly to Europe, where we'll be spending two weeks in Austria and the Czech Republic. Carrie had spent a semester studying abroad in Vienna and has always wanted to go back, so John surprised her with a babymoon for her 30th birthday! This is our itinerary:

- Saturday 01/26/08: Travel from San Francisco to Vienna, via Amsterdam on KLM
- Sunday 01/27/08: Arrive in Vienna, stay at the Ambassador Hotel
- Friday 02/01/08: Travel to Prague, stay at the Hotel Josef
- Monday 02/04/08: Travel to Salzburg, stay at the Hotel Wolf-Dietrich
- Thursday 02/07/08: Travel to Vienna, stay at the Hotel Sacher Wien
- Saturday 02/09/08: Travel from Vienna to San Francisco, via Amsterdam on KLM

We're very excited about the trip and will be blogging our way through Europe as internet access allows.

Forster and Kate come visit

Our good friends Brian and Kate came out to California to visit last week, flying on a promotional airfare from Virgin America. John didn't get MLK day off, but it worked out for Brian and Kate because they were able to use the holiday as a travel day and spend some time away from the NYC cold weather. Was great to see our friends, we spent a day wine tasting (picture here at Testarossa), went to see the Wings/Sharks game, and spent some time sightseeing up in San Francisco.

Amanda and Dan get married in Austin

We just got back from a fun filled weekend down in Austin, Texas, to see our friend Amanda get married. A good sized crew from the Bay Area travelled down for the event. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was an awesome party...we would expect nothing less from Amanda. We also got a chance to have some fun in and around the Austin area. 6th street, the UT campus, Jimmy John's, the Oasis at Lake Travis... Good times! Pictures from the weekend are posted up at Picasa.

It's a Girl!

Today was Carrie's four-month ultrasound, and thankfully the baby cooperated with the machine. Check out the video for a clip from the ultrasound, the pink or blue check is at 1:30. We are very excited for baby "Cortana". We hear the four nieces are thinking about what they're going to pass down. John is starting to shop for shotguns. Ultrasound pictures are posted up at Picasa.

Fischer Kehua Backcountry Freestyle Powder Skis

Details: 177cm, radii 20.0, sidecut 127/92/115mm, cut inlay base, sandwich construction, twin twip
Average retail price: $750
Conditions: Heavenly (Lake Tahoe), 20-30F, sunny, 20 inches of fresh powder in 24 hours.
Terrain: Expert out of bounds deep powder stash, groomed intermediate trails, advanced moguls with moderate powder coverage and ice interspersed, uneven chop on intermediate transitional merges
Review: As with many of the freestyle skis, this one's graphics were clean, but kind of boring. Obviously inspired by Pacific island culture, the tattoo art feels a little out of place on a ski, but whatever. I found it especially curious that it's such a *white* ski, which makes it very difficult to find in powder if you ever lose it. Performance-wise, these skis are a ton of fun, and were surprisingly much more versatile than I expected. They did a very good job at floating on top of the powder, but were also extremely stable at speed on conduroy, responsive and quick in the mogul fields, and calmly predictable through uneven chop. The only place they may have slightly faltered was in the really deep, heavy powder, where they produce a "bounce" effect. As the skis float you over the snow, they kind of bounce you out, forcing you into a turn, or a weird seasick feeling if you want to straightline. This is probably a good thing when carving long lines of s-turns, but is pretty brutal on the quads if you don't to turn as much, or want to try and stop for a break. Overall powder performance not quite as good as the Volkl Gotomas.
Score (scale of 1-3): 3 - Loved them, really versatile, would probably prefer to buy the Gotomas instead though.

Skiing in Tahoe

Is it coincidence, or an indicator of great power? Both last season and this season, the first time that John went up to Tahoe, he was met with an epic snowstorm. The entire Wei family congregated in Tahoe this holiday season for a few days of skiing which happened to coincide with over 20" of fresh powder...the first major snowstorm this season. We all had a great time either skiing Heavenly and carving first tracks, or cruising through Heavenly Village and checking out the great shopping.

A bun in the oven

Somebody mentioned the other day that John had a twinkle in his eye. lol. Our big announcement for the year is that Carrie's pregnant! The bundle of joy is due on June 18, 2008. That's a Gemini, year of the Rat, for those who are counting. Twins do run in the family, but the ultrasound is only showing one for now. :) We find out pink or blue next month, and we'll keep everybody posted on progress here.

Sloane playing soccer

As many people close to us know, sometimes this blog is just a forum for John to show off us sick photography skillz. Occasionally, this also intersects with an actual event or purpose for the pictures. A couple weeks back, our niece Sloane had a playoff game for her soccer team, and we were there to watch the game, cheer her on, and get some great pictures. Sloane is the goalie and had a bunch of really great stops. The full photo album is here: Sloane Playoff Soccer

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is John's favorite holiday of the year, and this year we had a little party at the house, decorated, and gave out lots of candy. We are slowly establishing ourselves as the "cool" house to trick-or-treat at. This is the third year that we've given out full size candy (not the "fun size")...peanut M&Ms, Fun Dip, Starburst and Nerds. We also setup the projector to display out the front window, which brought a lot of visitors to figure out how it was working. As per tradition for our holiday party, we had "scary spaghetti" and then some awesome chocolate fondue for dessert. Carrie's dressed as a bunny, John (if it's not obvious) is dressed as a guy riding on Frankenstein's shoulders.

Scuba Diving in Cozumel

Still catching up on blog posts. Back in October, we had a chance to getaway to Cozumel, Mexico, to do some relaxing and scuba diving. Cozumel is perhaps North America's most famous dive spot, home to the world's second largest reef system (next to the Great Barrier Reef). They have some unique wildlife, but are most known for their coral formations, many of which are like tunnels that you can swim through. Our good friends Julie and Pete met us there for the week, and all had a great time diving and soaking up the pleasures at the fancy all-inclusive resort. Check out the entire photo album here: Cozumel Pics

John's First Published Photograph

If you're at Border's or Barnes and Noble this month, look in the Lifestyle section of the magazine rack for a copy of eldr magazine. John has a photo of his friend, Peter Chang, published on the contributors page (page 8). This marks John first photograph ever published and credited, in a major (relatively) publication nevertheless! The magazine itself is a little bizarre (Celebrate Aging!), but the honor is nonetheless exciting. Peter and John were both on the last trip to China, and the picture is one that John took of Peter at an old fort along the Great Wall. Peter is a professional photographer, whose work is featured in this month's issue of eldr, and asked John for the original image to use as his profile picture.

John's Birthday Tailgate

We have season tickets for the 49ers, so we spend many of our fall Sundays at Candlestick Park. John's birthday fell on a home game this year, so Carrie threw a huge birthday tailgate to celebrate. Was great to hang out with a bunch of our friends, and there was a ridiculous amount of delicious food. The game kind of fell flat, but at least the 49ers stayed close for the entire game!

Kyle and Tina's Wedding

Our friends Kyle and Tina got married at the end of September and John got to be in the wedding party. We had a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend down in SoCal. Managed to not play horribly at the pre-wedding golf outing. The wedding was beautiful, and Kyle and Tina planned some fun things for the reception that were a little different. Good times.

Danny's Baptism

Our very good friends, Julie and Dave, had their son Danny baptised back in September. Was a very nice day, Danny was a good boy the whole time and really enjoyed getting dunked. Carrie is the godmother and Julie's brother Michael is the godfather. I mainly just wanted to show off my mad photography skillz.

Catching up...Labor Day

We've been away from the blog for quite a while, mainly because we haven't had that many grand adventures. We have been having fun though... Over Labor Day, the Polhemus clan came down for a barbeque. The nieces always have fun playing with each other. The rest of the pictures are posted to Picasa.

Campbell Farmer's Market

We go to the Campbell Farmer's Market almost every Sunday, as it's one of the best farmer's markets in the area, and it runs year round. There's a Russian guy with a crepe stand who makes the most amazing crepes...light batter, spinach, feta, cheddar, tomatoes, onion, sauteed mushrooms, lemon juice, yum! At any rate, this little girl was standing in front of me in line waiting to get a crepe yesterday. The technology elite just get younger and younger... (No, that's not my iPhone...)

Polysomnography Sleep Staging

As anybody who has ever shared a room (or a cabin for that matter) with me, you know that I've got some snoring issues. So after years of sounding like "trucks downshifting on the freeway", my doc decided that it might be a good idea to get tested for sleep apnea, a sleep condition that could potentially be fatal in rare cases. Everybody cautioned me about the sleep study and gave very precise descriptions of how much stuff would be hooked up...mental note: when people overly caution and repeatedly ask, "do you know what to expect?" you may want to be somewhat more tentative. It wouldn't have changed much I guess, I just didn't totally realize how ridiculously I'd be wired up. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much. But hopefully they got some good data...

Shiny new iPhone

John is the proud owner of a shiny new iPhone. And not just because of the "hype." Anybody who knows my cell phone usage will attest to the fact that I've always chosen practical phones that delivered the best solution and value, and that I've always kept my phones until they fell apart. I passed on the RAZR because it didn't add any new functionality (just smaller form factor), and passed on the Treo and Blackberry smartphones because I have not had a pressing need for slow and flaky internet access when Google SMS has served all my mobile information needs just fine. However, since AT&T and Cingular merged about 2 years ago, I've been shopping for a new phone because all 4 phones on our family cell phone plan are using old SIM cards on the legacy network. We can't get many AT&T/Cingular features until we upgrade to new SIM cards on the new network, so I've been waiting 2 years for a good time to upgrade.

The iPhone, is the phone I've been waiting 10 years for. All other phones on the market suffer from, in my opinion, an engineering atrocity...they all have keypads. Keypads, in general, are useless. Phones are primarily used for making and receiving phone calls, and with the advent of cell phones and built-in address books, almost nobody actually dials phone numbers anymore. How many of your friends and families' phone numbers do you remember by heart? Probably only a handful, because you call everybody from the address book. Therefore the keypad is just wasted space when it could be a soft-keyboard only when you need to call a number not already stored. Wasted keypad space means all other phones on the market are either twice as thick, twice as long, twice as heavy, or have a screen half as big as it could be, depending on what your priorities are. The iPhone is the first phone in the US market that does an acceptable job at eliminating the wasted keypad. And contrary to reports that the soft keypad is wonky, it actually works pretty well, and gets easier as you use it more. I certainly don't find it any harder than Carrie's Blackberry, the keys are actually bigger. If they're too small, you can flip the screen, and the keys get twice as big (almost full size)! Thanks to no keypad, it's very compact. It's as long as my old Motorola V551, as thin as Carrie's Motorola RAZR, and less wide than a Blackberry. There's been plenty published about people's thoughts. Here's some of my own thoughts from a real-life tech person that you all know:

- Multi-touch, multi-orientation screen: Revolutionary interface makes navigation a pleasure. "Flicking" is very intuitive for scrolling, and squeezing and stretching to zoom makes a much larger effective screen area that's easy to move around. Combined with the screen that automatically switches between portrait and landscape when you flip it, makes the photo browsing application the best I've ever seen or used (and I've used them all).
- Cell phone: Best cell phone I've ever had. Super complete and easy to navigate addressbook (includes all details from Outlook Contacts, including notes and birthdays). Visual voicemail is revolutionary (pick and listen to voicemails like you read your email). SMS texting interface is revolutionary (displays like an IM chat window, so you can follow the whole thread). Touch screen interface makes it trivial to conference call, swap calls, un-conference, check menus, use speakerphone, all in-call. A counterpoint, however, is that AT&T still has its head up its butt. It took me a full week to get my phone (despite promises of 1-2 business days). And it took over 3 hours and 5 agents over the span of 3 days to get the phone activated, working correctly, and the rate plan set up properly.
- iPod: Eliminates the need to carry my iPod-mini. Apple is right that it's the best iPod they've ever made. Works iPod functionality like any other iPod, except that you can now scroll through your albums by album art like in iTunes, very pretty. Perfectly integrated with the phone...songs fade out when a call comes in, the included headphones even have a built-in mike to answer the call...music comes back on when you hang up. It uses the same iPod interface as all the other ones, so the docking station, car chargers, USB cables I have now are all still useful.
- Portable video: Eliminates the need to carry my Creative Zen Vision M (a video iPod like hard-drive based video player). With 8GB of storage space, I have enough room to carry a dozen full-length DVDs with me to watch on the airplane. The beautiful 3.5" 16:9 320x480 screen is more than big enough to enjoy movies on the go, and "airplane mode" allows you to turn off the radio devices to watch on the plane. Battery life is up to 7 hours when watching a movie, so plenty of time to be entertained.
- PDA: Eliminates the need to carry my Palm Pilot. With auto sync'ing to Outlook Contacts and Calendar, I have all my business information available at all times. The Contacts sync'ing is impeccable, though I do wish I had some more control over the sync. It currently pulls all your contacts from Outlook, I'd like to filter it by Category (personal, business, etc.) Also, to be fair, I haven't gotten the calendar sync to work correctly yet. iTunes (the way you sync everything) currently does not handle recurring meetings nicely and bombs. [UPDATED 07/26/07] iTunes now syncs the calendar correctly. In response to numerous support calls, Apple posted several troubleshooting steps, a re-install of iTunes fixed it for me. One hopes a fix for this is coming. iTunes has been smart enough to realize that I only want Contacts and Calendar from my work laptop, and that I only want music, photos and video from my personal desktop.
- Web device: It's the only smartphone with a full-featured web browser, so you can read webpages as they are designed, not just the watered-down mobile sites. And it has POP3, IMAP and Exchange access to hook into mail systems. I use gmail, so it hooks up to that decently, albeit slightly wonky, because gmail isn't a traditional mail service. I don't need my work email, so I haven't tried that yet. Web browsing over the cellular EDGE network is adequate, though painfully slow. But the iPhone hooks into Wi-Fi networks as well (unlike most smartphones), which speeds it up exponentially. There isn't a chat application though, which frankly, sucks. It's a big gap in the device functionality to not hook into AIM, Yahoo IM, or MSN messenger. Not a deal breaker since the SMS interface is so good (and 200 messages/month are free), but not real super. The SMS interface displays text messages like an IM window, which makes it much easier to track a conversation. Currently though, the iPhone does not support MMS. Which means no sending and receiving picture messages, oddly enough. You can email them back and forth, but the POP3 interface is a bit wonky, and means you can only communicate with email accounts (not most cell phones).
- Customization: There's some interesting glaring omissions in the iPhone's functionality which may be fixed moving forward. Though you can use any photo for contacts and wall paper, the same is not true for ringtones. So far you can only use the built-in ring tones (which all kind of suck), even though you have a whole library of mp3's loaded on the device. Also, there are no 3rd party applications available yet, though Apple has said they plan to open it up. [UPDATED 07/25/07] An application has just been released that converts mp3's to ringtones and lets you push it straight to your iPhone. Trick. It actually works! Also, 3rd party applications are starting to appear...most are enabled via Safari, but at least one legitimate iPhone binary has been published and works. +1 for the iPhone.
- Wow factor: This is, without question, the coolest device on the market. It's cool to look at it, cool to play with, cool to use, and cool to show off. It's public awareness is so pervasive that nobody is ambivalent about it. Every single person is aware of what it is, and either loves it or hates it. Which makes it very exciting to be a part of.
- Price: The iPhone service is just another $20/month for the unlimited data plan (and include 200 SMS messages), which is actually less than most carriers' Blackberry plans for smartphones. The voice service will work with any existing AT&T voiceplan (which I've been a customer of for 8 years). For $599, the hardware price is a little steep for a cell phone. But it integrates a cell phone, an iPod, a Zen, a Palm Pilot, and a web browser all into one. It's really more of an ultra-mobile laptop than a cell phone. And seeing as I haven't bought a new computer in 13 years, this seems like a long overdue purchase.
- Summary: Overall, I'd rate the current iPhone a 8.5/10.0 (UPDATED 07/25/07). It has the potential to reach 9.0/10.0 if it fixes a few things: Outlook Calendaring, IM client, ringtones, 3rd party apps.

Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta

As many of you know, I am an avid Xbox gamer. And as all Xbox owners know, Halo is the killer app for the platform. Halo 3 is launching in late September, but for the last couple of weeks, some Halo fans have had the opportunity to beta test the multiplayer part of the game. It's been a riot, the game is a ton of fun. There have been some very memorable games, one of which was a perfect game I had. I didn't die, my team cleared our objectives perfectly without giving up a score, and I led the entire team to victory. With Halo 3, there is a new "saved videos" feature that allows you save your game and watch it later. I've posted this perfect game on YouTube so everyone can share in my glorious victory. :)

1,100 miles

Well, I'm finally home from my East Coast tour. Home-basing out of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, I drove all over the eastern seaboard this week, braving heavy rains, snow, high winds and storms. In total, I logged over 1,100 miles on my little Pontiac G6 rental car, across 7 different states. You can actually see from the map just how wide ranging my travels were. I kind of miss the GPS lady in my trusty Hertz Neverlost navigation system...

Dover Township, NJ

Ever since Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle came out in 2004, I've had a craving for those delicious little cheeseburgers. But unfortunately, just as in the movie, the hallowed grounds of White Castle restaurants are very elusive...existing in only a handful of states in the northeast and midwest. Thanks to the power of GPS navigation with integrated phone books, I was able to find a White Castle relatively close by to my driving route today, only 2 extra hours out of my way. Seems long considering my original destination was only 30 minutes away, but it's more reasonable when you consider this is the closest I've been to a White Castle in 3 years. A long drive through the Jersey countryside and a couple hundred miles later, I had my hands on those delicious cheeseburgers that made Harold so heady that he became a new man, and that made Kumar finally realize his life purpose.

Southampton, PA

My original plan was to visit Steph and JJ in Southampton last week, but Steph up and had her baby instead. So we rescheduled for today... I got a chance to visit them at their beautiful new house in Southampton, hang out with Kaden (their 2 year old in the picture), get some home cooked grub from JJ's mom, AND watch Planet Earth over FiOS on their shiny new plasma HDTV. The 6-day old peanut was funny to watch, but I decided that bath time was my cue to exit and head home.

Philadelphia, PA

I was sitting around with Dave and Heidi this morning (in Fairfax, VA) having breakfast, and we were chatting about what we felt like doing today. Since the East Coast is getting hammered by a Nor'easter right now, we decided the best thing to do would be to head over to Philadelphia to get some delicious cheesesteaks. 2.5 hours later, we arrived at Pat's King of Steaks, where the cheesesteak was invented by Pat Oliveri in 1930. (Note Dave's drink in picture, we are not at Pat's.) Dave, Heidi and I all had a very delicious cheesesteak at Pat's, but noticed that there was another restaurant across the street called Geno's. Though Pat Oliveri was the first to put chopped up steak on hoagie rolls, Joe Vento of Geno's was the first to actually put cheese on such a sandwich, the key ingredient in said sandwiches. So Dave and I looked at each after finishing our sandwiches, shrugged, laughed, and then headed across the street to have another cheesesteak at Geno's. lol. Heidi, of course, just shook her head, not so surprised. We also ran up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (like in Rocky, the original movie), saw a secret Freemason meeting at Independence Hall, checked out the Liberty Bell, and cruised around the very unique and very cool sports complex (with venues for the Phillies, Eagles and Flyers). Good times on a spontaneous day trip before I dropped the two of them off at the train station to send them back home.

Fairfax, VA

After aforementioned ridiculously long drive down south, I've arrived in Fairfax, home of very good friends, Dave and Heidi. I get to hang out here for the weekend, catch up on 8 years of life, stay in their beautiful home, and do some sightseeing. Fairfax is a pleasant suburb just out of Washington, D.C. ("the District"), and apparently a pretty good central location for us to cruise around to fun places nearby. We headed into Arlington for lunch today to hit the Hard Times Cafe, a cool little chili joint here where Dave got some Chili Mac (pictured), and Heidi and I got chili dogs. YUM. Also got to visit Georgetown, see the waterfront (complete with a regatta and rowing teams, just like in the movies!), the historical landmarks in "the District," and grab dinner at Zatinya, a cool tapas place downtown. Good times.

Long Island, New York

After an epic raging bender in Manhattan, I figured I'd head across the river to Long Island and visit Yo, who's hanging out there for a few weeks after interning in SoNo, but before heading home to California. Just a quick visit to the L.I., because my final destination today was Fairfax, VA, near Washington, D.C. The GPS unit in the rent-a-car said it should have been just over a 4 hour drive. But due to the bender from the previous night and me getting a slightly late start to the day, I didn't get out of Long Island until almost 5pm. On a Friday night. With only one route available to get off the Island. I discovered NYC traffic, took me 3.5 hours just to get out of New York City. In total, nearly 8 hours to get to Fairfax. Thankfully, 5 Red Bulls later, I made it awake and alert. And kept Heidi up long enough to get some Taco Bell. Yum! No, the picture has nothing to do with Long Island, but I didn't end up taking any pictures out there. But I did like this picture that I took while walking around in Manhattan.

Manhattan, New York

After the customer meeting in Philly, my first stop on the whirlwind is Manhattan, New York, home of Forster. And what else would Forster and I do with only one night to hang out together? Party! The included picture on the left is the two of us after about 20 beers each. Forster: "Yeah, I'm about done with this." Wei: "Time for Indian food!" The beers were a great idea. The Indian food...less so. When we finally turned in at 6am (after getting Indian food and then watching some Team America), I crashed out to treasure the 2.5 hours of sleep I would grab before arising to tackle the next day.

Malvern, Pennsylvania

Today, I'm out in Malvern, Pennsylvania for a customer meeting with Unisys. This kicks off a week-long East Coast tour where I'll be cruising around and visiting friends, while getting ready for another meeting with Unisys next week. Malvern is a suburb about 45 minutes northwest of Philadelphia. The weather here is 45F and rainy. Makes me miss the absence of weather in California. Rain is so inconvenient. Then again, with temps this cold, it means the salsa and wine that I brought for friends will stay fresh without a need for refrigeration. lol.

It's alive!

Haven't had much to post about lately. Did recently discover a clever website related to the Xbox 360. Because Xbox Live provides a persistent on-line interface for the Xbox, 360voice.com has linked into the service to breathe life into Xbox 360's. Check out the blog being "written" by John's Xbox: gtdroptop