Happy New Year!

I hope you have a Happy New Year and wish you the best in 2008. Laura and I will be bringing in the new year with our close friends at the Levende Lounge in SF (http://www.levendesf.com/) over a five-course dinner, dancing and a champagne toast.

My advice for 2008 is:
"Work like you don’t need the money,
love like you’ve never been hurt,
and dance like no one is watching."
-- Satchel Paige
Cheers.

Power to the People

The people have spoken. It appears that I’m not writing enough for some people. I’ll do my best to post more often to this blog. But, it’ll be helpful if you'd let me know about a topic that you want to read about so that this blog remains fresh and interesting.

Also, please let me know if you want to be added to my mailing list. By being a member of my mailing list, you won’t miss a beat because you’ll be notified via email every time that I post to my blog. If there’s a service provided by Blogger that will automatically complete this task for me, then please bring it to my attention. Thanks in advance for your help.

Quite honestly, I’m humbled by the response of this blog. I never thought that my life would attract so much interest from a variety of people. As long as you keep reading (and leaving comments), I’ll keep blogging. Thanks for the support!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and find yourself around loved ones and spoiled with gifts. My sister and I will continue cooking up a feast for our parents, while drinking our holiday drink of choice, Dark and Stormies. This drink is light, refreshing and perfect for this time of year, as it’s made up of 1 part Meyer’s Dark Rum and 6 parts Reed's Jamaican-style ginger beer and served with a slice of lime over a couple of rocks.

Again, I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Comes a Few Days Early This Year

Through the help of my brothers, I was able to fix my external hard drive without sending it to the manufacturer. The solution was as simple as taking the drive apart and physically knocking the drive back into its correct position. This simple solution not only saved me hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars, but it put my prized photos and music files safely back into my hands.

This week at home has been great so far. And, it’s not even Christmas! I’ve seen almost everyone that I hoped to see, ate all of the kinds of food that I hoped to eat, and visited old stomping grounds that I hoped to visit. The highlight of my trip thus far has to be the day trip that I made into the city with my Mom to see the holiday sights. The day took us to the following sites:
• Lunch at Little Poland Restaurant on the Lower East Side
• The Union Square Outdoor Holiday Market
• The Christmas tree and ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center
• The store-front windows of Saks Fifth Avenue
• St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• The Macy’s windows

You can click on the above photo to see my photo album from this day.

After five hours of pounding the pavement, I put my Mom on the Long Island Railroad and headed out to unwind in the city’s nightlife with my brothers, sister and sister-in-law. We treated ourselves to a great meal at ‘inoteca, which is a restaurant in the East Village that serves up tasty Italian small plates and delicious wines. Their best dish has to be their Truffle Egg Toast, which is an over-easy egg that’s served in a crispy baguette, drizzled in truffle oil and served over a bed of chopped “al dente” asparagus. Like most nights in the city, we set up camp at an Irish pub for a few night ending drinks. In all, it was a great visit to the city and time well-spent with the family.

The Story of the Day

My external hard drive just died on me. It was padded well in my check-in luggage and must've been irreversibly shakened en route to NY. Unfortunately, I've learn my lesson the hard way this time.

If you know of a reasonably priced data recovery service or tool, please leave me a comment. My Lacie hard drive is 250 GB and has 60-70 GB of stored data on it. At this point, the few data recovery services that I have talked to today have quoted me for $1,500-3,000, which I find humorous and ironic for a piece of hardware that's a tenth of the price. Just like my car accident, these shops are looking to make a small fortune on me.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The Photo of the Week

On my way home to NY for the holidays, I captured this photo of the ski resort while driving. The resort can be clearly picked out by looking at the peak directly above the on-coming truck and the two peaks to the left. (Note: You can click on the photo for a magnified view of it.) When looking at the photo, keep in mind that the resort is 2,500 acres in size, 4,139 feet tall, and has a summit at 10,450 feet.

A Time for Reflection

As I make my way home to NY for the holidays, it’s a great time to reflect on the past two-and-half weeks in Jackson. In the beginning, I packed my car to the brim and hauled it on a journey that was just shy of a thousand miles. Then, I met some cool and friendly people and one overly friendly deer. Along the way, I gained a good taste for the offerings of the town and the region. And, I refreshingly dove head first back into .NET software development. Best of all, I skied the last 12 of 14 days; this triumph alone instills goose bumps in me.

Yesterday was the best ski day of them all. It was the first powder day of the season and a treat for everyone on the hill, as most of the runs were covered in knee-deep powder. The lift lines were non-existent too. (Ahhh! The beauty of skiing at an amazing resort on a Thursday.) I skied with my new friend, Justin, who has lived in Jackson for the last 10 years. Not only was it great to be skiing with someone, but being led around the mountain to its secret stashes, as we made laps on the Thunder and Sublette chairs, made the day that much sweeter for me.

Slowly but surely, I’m getting used to the cold weather. The weather is a nice change from the consistent and predictable weather of the Bay Area. Some people might think I’m crazy for writing this statement, but I will say that the cold weather still seeps into my bones. Even though it's bone chilling, especially with a fierce head wind, there’s something about it that makes me feel alive. For example, it was hovering around five degrees with the windshield and flurrying for the better part of the day yesterday while skiing. You can see the aftermath in the photo.

Skiers are truly one of a kind. They willingly put themselves in danger of getting frost bite and even hypothermia so that they and their friends can bring excitement to their lives and experience together hair-raising thrills. Even though it can be painful and nerve-wracking at times, it's always good to be a skier!