Chad Things

Last weekend Shayna and I had our housewarming, and it was a great success. We had many friends show up, delicious food and beverages, and good times had by all. Well, until about 7pm when we had to leave because the noise was bothering the old ladies upstairs. We knew it might happen, so we just got everybody to go around the corner to Dovre club, bar at 26th and mission. The housewarming was planned to go from 2 till 10, so we had a few people show up after 7pm. One of them, Stephanie, said it best when she said “This is the best housewarming at a bar i’ve ever been to”. Amen. Thanks everybody for coming !!

About 2 weeks ago I noticed my bike, a 1993 Honda Nighthawk, was not where i left it on the street. I was not upset, i don’t really ride it that much anymore (not since January before my RTW trip). So i figured i’d get some insurance money and just move on. I filed a police report on Friday the 28th, about a week after i saw it last.

Surprisingly, 10 days after i told SFPD it was missing, they found it. The police actually found my motorcycle. wow. And it was found only a few blocks away from where i left it in upper haight. Apparently whoever stole it was using it and just parking it in the street like he owned it. Smart. I was surprised and asked the cops lots of questions, and they gave me concise answers.

• Who found it? Dunno – anonymous call.
• Will it be investigated further? no.
• Anything else gonna happen? no, its now removed from stolen vehicle list.
• So thats it, i can take it now? yes, just show us your Drivers license and sign this.

Yay! I guess… Actually, i rode it across town to do an errand around 5pm and i was very happy to be on my motorcycle. So I am glad i have it back. Once my bike-friend Tony looks it over and makes sure the thief didn’t do any damage, i’ll be good to go.

It’s been a week since we moved in, and our place is almost livable. Hurray. Shayna’s fast – she got her art studio (ok, desk and drafting table) set up in a couple days, organized her stuff, and has been decorating our place like we’ve been living here for months. Makes it feel … homey. Meanwhile, i just finished going thru all my boxes today – man, do i have a ton of stuff. And i still have some personal stuff from work and friends over the last 10 years that i need to .. process slowly. We had most furniture we needed, but did buy a bed, a shelf, a few other little things from Ikea last week. But i’m really excited about my recent purchases on monday – a new TV and DVD player. Here’s where i bust out the geek in me – After 10-20 hours of research and shopping online, i got a 42-inch Philips LCD from costco. A beautiful, true HDTV – 1080p screen (not that 1080i crap), and it can be a 1920×1080 monitor for my macbook pro. It was fairly inexpensive for the features i got – hopefully there won’t be any problems. So far it works great as an external monitor. To go with it, I had to buy a true 1080P DVD player (Pioneer DV-400V-K) and hooked it up with HDMI cable (most expensive cables ever). Oooooo.. Ok, ’nuff of da geek.

On a side note, we also enjoyed the Treasure Island music festival over the weekend. Shayna and i went both days, as did Juan, and we ran into lots of other friends as well. The venue was awesome – grass field along water, 2 stages, food, beers, ferris wheel (didn’t go, line too long), some bman style art, and 2 stages for the bands. Saturday was the electronic day, ghostland observatory and flosstradamus were both crews i never heard of but loved, MIA was a bit disappointing, Gotan project was great as well. Sunday Modest Mouse was the best (Isaac is a great performer), but i also was pleased with M. Ward and Built to spill. Clap hands say yeah and Spoon were good as well. I hope they do more concerts there.

I’m finally getting in gear for this year’s Burningman. This will be my 9th year going. Yeah, i’m old, and nine times may seem like alot, but each year is different at burningman and for me (where i am in my life). Why do i keep going? why don’t i get burned out? Well, i see burningman as life – you get out of it what you put into it. You don’t have to party or drink or build large things that take all your time. You just have to participate. You do have to abandon some comforts of home, but you get more creativity and freedom in a larger context. I like that alot.

This year i’m going small again, minimal planning, small camp of friends tied together by the Monkey Island Art Car – brainchild of Sir Checkoway (and chef ben as the workhorse). The island is a ford taurus station wagon with the back chopped off, wood platform for the island, rocks, green plants, a generator, dj setup, and tastee beats. Right up my alley, and i’m lucky to have close friends that let me join in at the last minute. Sadly, i’m not staying with the brasstax bunnies – they’re way over at 3 o’clock and we’ll be at 9 o’clock area.

I’ve only been back in SF for about 2 weeks, so i’m still getting my feet wet in this year’s theme – the Green Man – but its right up my alley. Mainly cuz i’m looking into doing a Green MBA – environmentally and socially aware business – but i admit i’m still just looking.  But if you know me at all, you know i love nature – especially hiking in mountains.  I read that the man will be on a green mountain peak this year.  Can’t wait to climb that mtn !!

I also put together a list of DJ lineups at Burningman 2007. This will be updated till i leave on Monday. Enjoy.

Literally. Shayna and I signed a lease today for our new apt in the mission – 116 San Jose (yelp). We move in Sept 11 (yeah, weird). We’re extremely excited. Well, Shayna might be a bit more excited and relieved than me, she’s been wanting this for months. I was still traveling around the world 2 weeks ago. I do like change, and shayna and i have been doing so well that this only makes sense. Sad to leave the 126 and my manservant sir fritzalot, but he’ll survive without me.

Figuratively, its also kinda a new lease on life. Moving will force me to look at all my crap, go thru my past, and without a job, i’ll have time to sit down, reminisce, and then decide what the hell i should do going forward. I’m looking fwd to that. Between now and then, i got burningman to prepare for and Round The World pictures to process .. as soon as my laptop gets to me (shipped back to me today!).

Move over Coachella, here comes something meatier.

Saturday, September 15th focuses on electronic and dance oriented acts with an eclectic bill including Thievery Corporation, DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist, Gotan Project, M.I.A., Ghostland Observatory and Zion I. Sunday September 16th features the best and brightest in indie rock with Modest Mouse, Spoon, Built To Spill, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and M. Ward. In addition to the above acts, there will be a second stage featuring up and coming and local bands.

I already got tickets for both days.  I’m excited to be back in SF!!!

It was a big year for me. I quit yahoo, travelled, had alot of fun, got back together with shayna, and was happy most of the time. That last part is key, being happy. However, the most significant event was quiting yahoo to find myself. I opened that can of worms 9 months ago and have not made much progress, but intend to over the next couple weeks before my travels kick off again.

Looking at my Flickr sets, I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve definitely enjoyed friends and events in San Francisco and the bay area as well travels in the U S and A (borat) and Costa Rica. Travels include many snowboarding trips to tahoe, my cousin’s wedding in Ft. Lauderdale, Dusty in Sarasota, WMC in miami, Coachella, Hikes to Mt. Tam, Mt. Diablo, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite; New Orleans, The Carolinas, Pirate Summercamp, Swimming Priceless, Raindance, Burningman, Road Trip USA, Lusty Wedding in Tahoe, Rick and Zetta wedding in Costa Rica, and Christmas in Atlanta. Other fun stuff includes many amnesias, Checkoway’s bday, Class 6.2 Cycroan, brewery tours, QUITING YAHOO, Bay to Breakers, Many Jason and Monica events, and just being with my friends. My family also had a big year – We had one death (my grandma) and one birth (my sister’s baby katherine) last year, in addition to 3 weddings already mentioned. I even summarized my pics in Flickr Best of 2006.

Those were the broad strokes. Here i am, January 2007, reflecting the past and envisioning the future. What does it mean to quit your job to find yourself? I’ve been asking myself that for a while. Most people don’t really know what that means, implying it’s a rare thing. Do people think about stuff like this or do they just go through the motions of life. Hop in the raft and float on down the river and see where it takes you. Perhaps they have found themselves – floating down the river is what they want. But i’ve tasted things that make it hard to go back. I know what it’s like to really enjoy your job, even though most of the time i didn’t. I know how to put my all into something. I know how to really have fun. REALLY. I know it is possible to change your life significantly for the better, and that makes me question my current life. I feel extremely lucky and blessed. So what do i do with myself? The only thing i conclude is that i have to find myself – be confident in who i am and what i’m doing so i can put my all in it and feel good about it. Put my all into what? Not easy. Could be a careers. Could be a woman or a family. Could be a calling to help others. Could be something i have yet to discover. Could just be doing a bunch of little things the best i can.

2007 will also be a big year for me. Cheers to hoping for a good one.

Costa Rica was awesome, but coming back to SF and having your car broken into a 3rd time was not awesome (you thought it might be, but really, it’s not. Really). I had it broken into twice in 2005, and then a year and a half before this one. Sigh. You can read the details in the Police Report. The sad part is, dealing with insurance companies is the worst part of it. So i’m not. Well, i may change my mind, but i tried to get my broken window fixed via insurance (i have AAA), and after tons of transfers they couldn’t fix it for a week. Eventually i found somebody who could fix it quickly – the folks at 89glass. Hurray for them.

The silver lining in this is .. i get to upgrade my phone and car stereo. Those were the two main things that were stolen, besides shayna’s art, which is not replaceable, so that sux the most. But it was nice to get a new phone. I looked at cnet and other sites, and narrowed my choices down to 3: Blackberry Pearl (nicest one, wanted but didn’t need data plan for extra $30/month), Sony_Ericsson_W810i (best multimedia phone, but not on verizon), and the one i got – LG VX8300. I had the LG VX8100 before, and found it extremely robust. Also, I found out that if i left verizon or stayed on verizon, i’m still giving them money for 6 more months, so i decided to stick with them and the LG (only one of my three that verizon offered). Tip – if you loose your cell phone, just buy another one off of ebay and take it in to get activated (good guys activated it for $10).

The other silver lining was upgrading my car stereo. I like this stuff, so i enjoyed shopping around, looking online at crutchfield and bestbuy, going local to Peter’s Auto Radio and Auto Symphony, ending up with the Pioneer DEH-780MP. It works well with my Sirius satellite, it has great sound with subwoofer controls, and i got the Ipod adapter so i have direct connection to my ipod – better sound quality, pick ipod playlists/songs/etc from the stereo, plus recharge mr. ipod at the same time. I also bought the bullet and got a Viper Car Alarm. Next time those kids wanna break my window for my stereo they’ll have to do it while going deaf.

Well, here i am, on the internet alot, enjoying the 3 cafes i know that have internet, and wondered how many other free wireless spots are there in San Francisco. Since i just started yelping, i love how they plot stuff on the maps for you, so i decided to create a yelp list, listing Free Wireless Cafes. However, i haven’t been to all of them .. yelp makes you review something in order to add it to your list (I think lists could be just bookmarked items, too). But it is my goal to visit all of them in the next couple weeks, and update my reviews appropriately. And just to give props, i got some of my info from auscillate.com

UPDATE: I found anchorfree.com’s amazing wireless list.

It’s been a couple months since i updated my huge readership on what i’ve been up to and what i have planned, mainly cuz i’m not anything close to a real writer, but here it is. Basically i spent August in SF preparing for burningman, went to bman for 8 days, and been kickin’ it in SF since, except for a 3 day trip to Yosemite, which OWN3D!!

So yeah, burningman was delicious. I mean that in a rock-out with your art-out kinda way. It was my eighth year, and my best. 2003 is a close second, i prolly had more fun then, but i never really left our boombox camp. This year was well rounded: we had a nice, small camp, met new people and got closer to existing friends, had many nomad adventures where we saw lots of art installations, participated in many camps, found lots of old friends, enjoyed a beverage or twelve, and danced my ass off. Yes, my favorite moment and when i decided it was my best year was on thursday night, dancing to lorin at the root society dome (10:00/esplanade). Other highlights include the belgian waffle, serpent mother, Neverwas Haul – the jules verne steam engine car from 100 years ago, a swimming pool, the pendulum tower ride, war of the worlds, and much more ..

About a week after burningman, shayna and i decided to get some yosemite. Git sum. We came back from bman and decided this real world stuff wasn’t that great. And since shayna had never been to one of the most beautiful and most visited national parks in the country, we had to go. We drove up saturday, stayed in a tent at Curry village for $100, hiked around taft point and sentinel dome on sunday, camped in a tent at lower pines sunday night, and monday embarked on the best day hike i’ve ever done – half dome. It took us almost 12 hours, and it was teh bomb.

So thats where i’ve been. I’ll post where i’m going soon – plans are finally being ironed out this week.