vertigo

Monday night, I took Matt to see the U2 concert at Key Arena--his first time seeing them, my second time after the last Elevation Tour. They rocked the house as expected and opened with confetti and spectacular lights on the stage with "City of Blinding Lights". It was a powerful and moving performance, at one point showing the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights up on the monitor. Perhaps the most moving piece was when Bono pulled up a young boy named Jason for "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own". They walked around the elliptical part of the stage, with the boy singing word-by-word along with Bono. Amazing. All in all--awesome show, the energy was in the house, the crowd was rocking. Good going U2.

and now in engadget...

Wow. The day after Gizmodo made a post referencing my brother's sophomore year project, Engadget puts up a post today about his anemone clock. What great coverage! And how bizarre since this has been around for ages---I mean, I put together that website for him back in 2000 I believe. Interesting how in the Engadget comments, people are upset about the fact that his clock reads "9:11", thinking that he's being really disrespectful. In reality, he made this clock in 99 or 2000...so it's just a weird coincidence that he has that read-out. He's been getting contacts like crazy, which is cool...except that it's stressing him out during finals. There are so many hits to his website, it's insane (considering he had a daily average visit rate of around 8 hits--it's soared to almost 1,500 today). Poor guy doesn't know what to do with all this attention: he's been getting tons of emails and questions about where to buy it---it's a freakin' homework assignment from college! He'd have to patent it and then sign a deal to manufacture it...but then, would it be too late? Help? Anyhow, kudos to my little bro'--I'm so proud of him.

Seattle Shake

For the month of May, get 2 cocktails and an appetizer for $15 at the following venues---anyone up for a drink after work? I'm free anytime!

shout out to the bro

Wow. My friend Jed emailed me today to point out a posting made on gizmodo.com today----featuring none other than an anemone clock design project Aaron did years ago. That's pretty cool that he's getting featured like that!

the end is near

Today was my unofficial last working day at Amazon (unofficial since I'm taking vacation and technically wrapping things up later in May). But for all intents and purposes, this was my last day doing actual work stuff. I had a meeting, ate lunch with the boss, finished up a transition doc and packed up a big chunk of stuff. I put a bunch of the free CDs I had gotten in my first year working for the Music team out on a door desk, free for others to take. Also found a very large Programming Perl book that I never really used and gave it to the lead developer on my current project as good luck. I started throwing away old documents but couldn't bring myself yet to throwing away my very first notebook, where I had jotted down what cpp and datecat meant and what neighborhoods I should live in. It's kind of a surreal feeling. It hasn't really sunk in...more so because I still have my laptop, pager, parking pass, badge and everything that makes me an Amazonian. I'm really looking forward to these next few weeks to sleep, organize, hang out with my cat and get my personal life back in tip top shape. I booked the whole trip to Mexico today with Sri--11 more days before that begins. Can't wait. What will I do Monday morning?

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. Watch (.wmv) this kid dance a prefect round at one of the fastest levels while juggling 3 pins at once. Impressive.

pow-dah & the zon

This last weekend I took a last minute trip up to Whistler with some friends (care of Kutta's organizing) during the Telus Ski & Snowboard Festival. Despite this season being the worst in, like, 20 years, the snow this weekend was absolutely amazing. We rode up Saturday morning and found fields of deep deep soft fluffy powder everywhere. Oh man--it was amazing. What a great way to end this season (as opposed to my last trip to Baker, which resulted in wet, soggy, blahness).

Otherwise, I'm keeping busy during my last working week at Amazon. Yep--you heard it. I gave notice last week, after working there nearly six years. I have some unused vacation that I'm taking (and hence, my official last day isn't until May); however, this is my last real working week. After looking around a bit and talking to some folks, I decided to jump over to the east side and join the Microsofties as a Program Manager in the Windows Mobile division. I'm super excited as I'll be working on applications for the PocketPC, PocketPCPhone and Smartphone. I have to admit that I've only been using the Palm OS (i.e. with my Samsung i500 phone) all these years---moreso due to familiarity rather than pickiness. I personally find the smartphone industry to be one with a lot of potential and I'm psyched to be working in this technology.

Amazon's treated me well overall. I've certainly had my ups and downs but the opportunities I've been given have been a blessing. I've had a lot of wonderful experiences and met a number of amazing individuals.

I'm planning on relaxing during this time off and do something with the vacation that I otherwise would have used later this year. So far, a trip to visit the parents in Vegas and a Mexico vacation with Sri are in the works.

"convergence capital usa"

I woke up this morning to a NPR piece on Lawrence, Kansas of all places! Yay. Unfortunately, I didn't really wake up until the piece was almost over. It was apparently about Lawrence being the Convergence Capital and being the model for how news media may operate in the future. Interesting.

northwest tongue

Interesting. Just found this Seattle Lexicon. I love that under "Things & Zings", they have "Amazonian Lingo".

what the hell?

This is just horrible: Wisconsin is debating whether or not to legalize cat hunting.
"Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats -- including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar -- should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted."

sin city

I watched Sin City over the weekend at the Cinerama. End thoughts: loved it. It was electrifying, incredibly artistic and disturbingly violent. All the scenes were filmed in black & white with splashes of color...which aided in my ability to swallow the over-the-top death scenes. Every character was brilliant: Elijah Wood totally creeps the hell out of me now and Mickey Rourke had a great comeback. I'm still bothered seeing Gilmore Girl dressed in S&M. Visually, the movie was breathtaking (in a good and bad way). Go out and see it: judge it yourself. This is a movie unlike others. I heard that Director Rodriguez kept the budget low at $40 million, impressive considering opening weekend pulled in $28 million. Nice.

Interesting Google Satellite Maps

Check this out

google satellite maps

The new google maps satellite feature is very cool. I was able to check out what my parent's new neighborhood looks like in Vegas. Here's the Space Needle. Here's a funny one out in IL--some creative dude with a plow. Here's Smith College. Not all maps look great---like my hometown.