25 for $25

Yay! 25 for $25 is back for the month of November!

2 Asian dudes & a camcorder

I just came across this and thought it was hilarious:
Two Chinese Students - I Want It That Way

My officemate pointed out that this was just like another video that made the rounds a couple years ago:
Chin2

After looking for about 2 weeks and taking 4 rugs home, I finally found a beautiful rug for my living room and I'm in love with it. It's a deep, gorgeous red Turkeman rug and it's huge--like 8' x 11', taking up my entire living room but really opening up the space. Next--to buy a really really big plant to put in the corner. And on Wednesday, I'll be getting a delivery of the new daybed/couch that I'm putting up in the loft room. Hmm..what colors to paint my living room now that I've finalized the rug in there?

While watching Grey's Anatomy last night, I finally figured out where the fictitious Seattle Grace Hospital is located---it's in front of the Space Needle! There was a shot of a helicopter flying towards the Seattle Center and then landing on top of a building, which looked like one of the news station buildings on 5th Ave. Heh heh.

So...I thought that Amazing Race: Family Edition would be really fun...but it's just NOT when the locations are places like a BP gas station in the middle of Alabama. I mean--come on! If we're going to stay in the United States, there MUST be more interesting places to do the challenges at! Fortunately, previews for the next episode indicate that teams are leaving the U.S. finally...hopefully, the show picks up more.

Just found out that my officemate, Spencer, and the dev in the office next door, Gabe, are going to move into the condo that's 2 doors down from me (it's getting rented)...how funny! Now we'll work and live insanely close to each other.

Blog template updated

Okay, I decided to geek out on a Friday night while Matt's home sick in his apartment. (Man, everyone's getting sick right now--I'm praying I stay healthy and don't revisit my Halloween cold like I did last year--that was a bitch to be sick at my party) I don't get a chance to just sit down and geek out as much as I used to. I completely revamped the blog site so that it matches the new design I've created. Had to mess around with the stylesheets again to attain things like the cutesy dotted line separating each post. I've also moved the archive links on this page so it's not on a separate page--unfortunately, Blogger doesn't have a good way of importing posts from other blog sites, so my super old posts (from 2000 and 2001) are still to pitas. Tee hee---well, you can see what v1.0 of moohaha was back then. So silly. I also added 2 subscription graphics--one for Bloglines since that's what I use as my feed aggregator and one for Feedburner which I hear is pretty darn awesome. We'll see. Lastly, I turned off my Haloscan comments and just switched to the one that Blogger uses. That just means that all my old comments get lost...but...well, there weren't that many comments to begin with. [sigh] What a productive Friday evening at home by myself. Now, to get to picking up the clothes off my floor and thinking about prepping for that big Halloween party in a week...right....

New site

As you may recall, when I transferred my website over to Dreamhost, everything went whacko since Dreamhost doesn't support Mason, and I had written the header and footer files on my website in Mason. Over the last couple days, I've been working on re-writing my website using PHP includes and a new CSS and I have a spankin' new website out now. What's next--I've got to update this blog template to match the new look as well as my new photo section (I decided to use Gallery to manage my photos--much better!) Apologies as I piece everything slowly back together. Meanwhile, that was fun learning some super basic PHP.

Cars fall off parking garage

This happened just 2 blocks away from my condo at the QFC that I always shop at. An 88-year old man and his daughter drive to the Bartell's that's located on the upper deck of this parking area above QFC. The daughter runs in to Bartell's, leaving the car running and her father in the passenger seat. Somehow, the parking brake disengages and the car flips into reverse, pushing the station wagon into a PT Cruiser which then falls over the railing and onto Broadway down below. Following the empty PT Cruiser is the station wagon that the 88-year old man is strapped into! Fortunately, he survived with only a few scrapes to his face. Sadly, the couple that owned the PT Cruiser was visiting from out of town to attend their son's funeral. Craziness!

A time for giving

One thing about working at Microsoft versus Amazon is its emphasis on giving and charity donations. This entire month, Microsoft has set up lots of random events to encourage employees to give money to non-profit organizations. The other day, a software developer ate 14 tacos down the hall from me to raise money for the United Way. Next Monday, my officemate is going to shave his head and wax his legs for the same cause. On Tuesday, many of us are taking the afternoon off to bowl for charity at a bowling alley in Bellevue. And on Wednesday, our organization is doing a Fear Factor event. They've made it super easy to give money online---just go this website, pick some organizations, pick the option of deducting money from a paycheck, and voila, you're done. And of course, it feels even better knowing that MS is matching any donation 100%. Sweet. Already, I've given money to Chaya, Seattle Works, KEXP, KUOW, the United Way, and the American Red Cross. Normally, I'm not this charitable--moreso out of pure laziness. So I just want to say it's great that I work for a company that has most definitely encouraged me to give more than I normally would have.

I started up tutoring again yesterday and am also excited to know that Microsoft is paying Seattle Youth Tutoring $17 for each hour of volunteering that I do. Now that rocks.

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm eager to leave. Joining Matt in a couple hours to watch the Sonics first home pre-season game against the Suns. Yay!

Las Vegas Sumo

Got back from the trip to Vegas with Matt, Matt & Asayo to check out the Grand Sumo Tournament. We all had a spectacular time and the tournament itself was a treat to see. The wrestlers were divided up, East vs. West, into multiple matches, one after another, bodies slamming into each other. One legal rule is that wrestlers can hit their opponent with an open hand---there was one match that essentially involved a wrestler bitch slapping his opponent out of the ring. How hilarious is that? Although we saw the reigning champion Yokozuna, Asashoryu, lose in the match we attended, he apparently won Sunday night and then beat out the Friday & Saturday opponents to win the entire tournament. Good for him--I even heard his son was born while he was in Vegas and he plans on training his son for sumo.

One of the most entertaining aspects of the weekend was that after the tournament, in the Mandalay Bay hotel, the sumo wrestlers all hit the casino floor, playing blackjack and slot machines. Per sumo tradition and rules, they are supposed to remain in their traditional kimonos, sandals and done-up hair whenever in public. What a funny juxtaposition!

Check out all the pictures from the trip.