Monday, June 27, 2005

Please sponsor me and the Pixar team for AIDS Walk 2005

Hi all,

I am participating in the San Francisco AIDS Walk on the Pixar Animation Studios team this year. Last year the Pixar team raised about $30,000 US to support AIDS research and organizations in the San Francisco area. There were something like 150 employees out there last year, and this year our team goal is to earn $35,000 US!

The Pixar team and I would very much appreciate donations of any amount. If you think someone you know would like to made a donation to this worthwhile cause, please would you kindly forward this message to them.

To sponsor me online with a Credit Card, please visit: http://aidswalksanfrancisco2005.kintera.org/sponsor_mike_jutan
(Note that the amounts are in US Dollars.)

If you'd prefer to sponsor with a cheque or money order, please contact me directly at jutes@rogers.com.

Thanks for your support of this cause that will benefit many local charities and research. Go to http://www.aidswalk.net/sanfran/about/whobenefits.html to see which companies benefit from this event.

I will be walking the 10km walk through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park with about 25,000 other walkers, on July 17th, 2005.

Taylor's party

Here are some pics from Taylor's party on the weekend.


Party at Taylor's house

Susan playing The Sims all night

Hangin' at Taylor's party

Throwing plastic cups at the table

Me and Piotr

Taxes, Articles, Emails, and staying up too late!

Well it is 3:10am and I am up too late again!! Anyway I had a great day today hanging out with Salim and some of Salim's friends, it was great. Got to talk to Kristen lots tonight on the Webcam so that was nice. Sent lots of emails tonight cause I needed to catch up, there were tons that I needed to respond to!

Interesting news about my taxes, I thought I was just going to get a little bit of money back from Australia but maybe I can actually still get a fair bit back, that would be awesome. Well off to bed!

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Great movie of me dancing

Alex my roommate took a crazy video of me dancing crazily in our apartment.
See it here! http://www.cs.brown.edu/~acrice/mycanadianroommate.avi

Crash: Everyone should see this movie

Today I saw the movie "Crash" starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, and tons of other amazing actors and actresses. It was fantastic. I haven't seen a movie like this for a long time. It has a very strong and powerful message about racial intolerance and shows a really nasty side of life in Los Angeles. There are so many intense and thought-provoking moments in this film that really make you want to sit down and discuss it for hours after watching it.

It is very effective as it describes injustice and shows a hopeless scenario for many of the characters involved. In a way the movie also shows that not all is lost, and that when people are confronted with something terrible, they can learn and understand what kind of stupid things they do. Sometimes they are even smart enough to change their behaviour and improve their attitude, affecting the society around them.

This is such an amazing film and I think everyone should see this movie... here is a description I found online.
Challenging and thought-provoking, Lions Gate Films CRASH takes a provocative, unflinching look at the complexities of racial tolerance in contemporary America. Diving headlong into the diverse melting pot of post-9/11 Los Angeles, this compelling urban drama tracks the volatile intersections of a multi-ethnic cast of characters struggles to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another’s lives. In the gray area between black and white, victim and aggressor, there are no easy answers...

Funny, powerful, and always unpredictable, CRASH boldly reminds us of the importance of tolerance as it ventures beyond color lines...and uncovers the truth of our shared humanity.
This movie is definitely worth seeing!

Friday, June 24, 2005

University of Waterloo Alumni Evening/Hangin' out

Tonight was pretty sweet. Susan picked me up at work and we drove to San Francisco. It was during rush hour so that was not a great idea because it took us almost 2 hours to get to San Francisco and find a parking spot! The traffic was nuts and it was near impossible to find a parking spot.

After we finally found a spot and were very happy to get out of the car, we walked to the bar/lounge where the University of Waterloo Alumni event was occurring and we were 1 hour late!! We got there around 7pm and it was supposed to start at 6pm. We missed a bit of the food and some of the speaker's talk but fortunately we got to hear a bit of the talk and eat some food so that was good! We also got a free drink with our ticket so that was fun.

There were some super nice people there that were Waterloo Computer Science grads from 1994, 2000, 2001 etc. Among the cool people I met were Avi and Paul from Apple. They were cool guys and we chatted a lot about the new Mac OSX on Intel Processors news. Paul said that you had to "work for Steve" (i.e. Steve Jobs, C.E.O. of Pixar and Apple) to win a prize since me, Avi and one of his other friends who works at Apple all won Waterloo prizes at the raffle! Hehe sweet. Yeah so talking about the raffle, I won an AWESOME University of Waterloo Alumni Sweatshirt which is from the Campus Store at Waterloo and I'm sure would have cost like $60. It is sooo nice and it was probably due to the fact that we were running so late that I won the prize. It was a business card draw and as we came in late, my business card was right on the top of the pile. The lady must have not mixed the cards around much so that was pretty awesome as I was the first person to win! The lady said, "And the winner is... Mike Jutan from Pixar!" I saw the Pixar logo as she was holding up my card so I was excited and thought I might have won! Anyway, I got a sweet sweatshirt and I told the lady later on that I'd have to hold onto the sweatshirt for 2 more years before I become an Alumni and can then wear it!! :)

I also talked to a guy named Mark who is the President and CEO of Wi-Gear and he was very interesting. He worked in Boston for 8 years, then in France and now he started his own Apple iPod Accessory company in San Francisco. He had some very interesting things to say and was a great person to talk to.

Tomorrow there is a movie at work and also Saturday we should be watching a movie at work too so that will be fun.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

I met Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and About A Boy today!

Today was sweet! I went to a talk where author Nick Hornby, famous for the books "About A Boy" and "High Fidelity", had a book reading of his new book which is called "A Long Way Down." Very interesting book idea and it was really cool to hear him read his own story!

After the book reading, I bought a copy of High Fidelity and lined up to meet him and get my book signed. It was super cool and he was very nice. I asked him if he has any time to tour around while he is here, and he said he has been in the USA for 3 weeks and was heading back to England this afternoon! It was a super interesting experience to meet such a famous author... good times!

Today generally rocked, I had a great time at work and got to hang out with my roommates and also talk to Kristen for a while on MSN which is nice. I finally have internet again so I can video chat again which is nice.

There is a University of Waterloo event for students and alumni in the San Francisco area tomorrow night so I might go to it but I am not sure if I needed to sign up for it already or not. So I might go to that. This weekend should be nice and relaxing again which is great.

My buddy Alex is coming to San Francisco for a weekend in August and also for Siggraph so that is great. I got my Siggraph ticket last week and I am really excited about it.

We have internet again!

We have internet again here at my apartment so I can post to the blog again! Things are going well and I tried out Jake's Wacom drawing tablet today. I am not sure if I am going to buy one or not but they are pretty cool.

This weekend we are probably going to see a movie and also maybe go to an early Canada Day picnic which will be cool.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

iPod Photo, Batman, Courses, and a sweet Pixar shirt

Lots of cool stuff happened last week, I bought an iPod Photo and it should be here soon. I am pretty excited as I sold my Dell DJ for a good price on Ebay and then upgraded to the iPod Photo. Sweet times! I got the iPod Camera Connector too so when I am on a big trip I can download all my photos onto the iPod Photo so I have backup for my pictures or extra space when my camera card runs out.

I saw Batman Begins this week, it was really good. Lots of good action and tons of cool effects. The sound effects were fantastic, the sound that Batman's cape makes when he jumps off buildings and flys around is pretty awesome.

In other good news, I got into most of the classes I wanted for next term at school. I also got that awesome Monster's Inc. Hawaiian Shirt I have been trying to get for ages. Rock on!!

Next weekend is an early Canada Day party I think. Lots of new interns are starting so I am going to have some more new friends which is always nice. Keepin' busy but still making lots of time for relaxing and watching Arrested Development, what a great show.

EmeryBay BBQ!

Yesterday was sweet. We had a BBQ at EmeryBay and met some of the new interns who start on Monday. Good times and BBQ action. Sweeeeeeet.


Matt with the BBQ Supplies

Alex and a random dog that liked us

Rock on!

Taylor in party mode

Taylor setting up the BBQ

Good times

Me and Matt, "smiling" for the camera?!

Monday, June 13, 2005

Ghirardelli Chocolate and San Francisco

This weekend was pretty relaxing and I had a great time. Saturday we got up and went to Dennys for breakfast (or maybe lunch) and then headed to San Francisco on the BART. We started off at the Apple Store which was good because I needed to check out my Camera and make sure it works with the Apple iPod Camera Connector before I buy an iPod Photo next week. So that was a success and the camera connector is really cool.

We then walked through China Town, past House of Nan King restaurant, past the Stinking Rose Garlic Restaurant, through North Beach past the famous City Lights bookstore and to the nice park that Kristen and I went to. It was sweet! We then headed to Fisherman's Wharf to hang out and look at the seals and then we went to In N' Out burger for lunch and it was totally awesome as usual. We then continued on our trek to Ghirardelli Square, home of sweet, sweet Ghirardelli chocolate. We all bought $8 double vanilla scooped chocolate fudge sundaes with nuts and caramel added. Sweet!! Of course whipped cream and a cherry on top were there as expected!! It was a really good sundae, pretty expensive but definitely worth it.

We then took the bus back to the BART station and headed back to Emeryville.

Sunday we had a good time too. Jake and Alex and I went shopping to get a new router for our internet and then went to Best Buy, and to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. We were already at Bay St Mall so we went to Old Navy and some other stores and then to Trader Joe's to get some groceries. Trader Joe's is a really awesome "health food" supermarket, and they have amazing fruit and I got some awesome nectarines.

Tonight I went to Matthew and Jared's apartment and we had some really good tofu with some amazing Trader Joe's Korma Curry sauce on it. Very nice!! Matthew also made us Cous Cous and Salad. I supplied some Iced Peach Green Tea and some Chinese Coconut buns I bought in Chinatown on Saturday. It was a great time and Jake and Salim showed up to watch some TV too!

Matthew and I bought tickets to see Ben Folds at the end of August. They were a little expensive but I am really excited to see the show and I bet it will be totally awesome.

My Dell DJ is finishing bidding on Ebay tonight and I was really happy with how Ebay worked, it was really amazing and there were lots of bids so that rocks! I am pretty excited to get my new iPod too and Ebay was definitely a good idea.

I am going to sort out which classes I am taking next term when I get a chance tomorrow night. There is a really cool Electronic Imaging class I want to take so I think I will take that probably. Sounds like it will be a good time.


Me and Alex at Dennys

Me and Alex looking scary on the BART to San Francisco

Edwin, Matthew, Jared and Jake

A cute seal I wanted to buy

A real one

Sweeeeeeeeeeet

Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco

Sweet Ghirardelli Chocolate store

Edwin and Alex

Edwin and Alex eating our huge Ice Cream sundaes

Someone's laundry hanging to dry... I kinda thought that was nice!

Matt and Alex on the bus

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Free Vietnamese dinners are always a good thing

Tonight was sweet! Alex (my new roommate) had some friends visiting work and one of the girls has a uncle who owns a Vietnamese restaurant in Alameda. So we went to Alameda and had a huge meal, and it was soooo good and free! Crazy!! So that was really amazing for the girls to invite us. They are friends of Alex's from Brown (in Rhode Island) and were very excited to see Pixar and hang out with us. We were happy to hang out with them, and it was crazy that they got free dinner for all of us. Amazing!

We got home this evening and Matthew and Jarrod came over to play some Halo 2 on XBox so that was totally awesome. We finished off the evening with leftovers from dinner and 2 episodes of Arrested Development! Awesome!!

Today I finnnnnaaallllllllllllly got my lazy buns into the sweet gym at work and worked out for about 30-45min. I did the elliptical machine for 30 min and a bit of free weights after that. I am going to leave a shirt and shorts at work so I can work out much more often than I have been!! :)

This weekend I am staying around the area and not heading off too far. Maybe I'll go into San Francisco one of the days to go shopping but mostly I will just be hanging around and relaxing and doing my laundry, listening to some music, hangin' out with my roommates and such. Fun times.

Oh yeah my free scooter news! Talking about free stuff, I got a free scooter at work which rocks but there was a bolt missing that needed to be fixed. So one of the new interns at work offered to fix it for me and do a spraypaint job on it too, so that rocks! I am excited to see it!

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Action photography

My friend Afonso at Pixar has a sweet Nikon Digital SLR than can take like 8 frames per second at 12.9 Megapixels or something totally insane like that. Anyway he took a few action pics with his camera like this crazy one of me jumping into the sand on the beach. I like this one so I thought I'd post it, it looks pretty crazy!!


Sweet pic of me jumping into the sand on our camping trip to Big Sur last weekend

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Blogger Tagging?!

My old buddy Steve MacDonald from high school sent me a message saying he "tagged" me, I had no idea what this meant until I followed his link!! :) Turns out being blogger "tagged" entitles me to answer a little survey and then pass it on to another blogger buddy. Hehe oh blogging in crazy. Anyway here we are and here are my responses to this book survey dilly!

Number of Books I own:
I bet I have a lot of books. I am a fan of used book stores and I usually take lots of opportunities to add to the collection. There were tons of good used book stores in Australia and New Zealand and I remember coming back with like 10 new... uh, used books.

Last Book I Bought:
Jon Stewart's "America: The Book". It rocks. I got psyched about Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" a few years ago and have been watching it a lot during my University years.

Last Book I Read: "The Art of the Incredibles" and "The Art of Monster's Inc." I got these two books for my birthday and as expected, they are totally awesome. Just brushing up on some of the sweet concept art that goes into the awesome movies that Pixar is famous for.

5 Books that Mean a lot to Me:
To be honest I think this category would be a lot easier if it was about music or movies but I'll see what I can do!

-"1984" By George Orwell: I read this for my OAC English end of term essay and it was a really powerful book. So many predictions about a scary future world, and some have really become part our our daily activities without us even recognizing them...

-"Brave New World" By: Aldous Huxley: (See info above!)

-"Calvin and Hobbes: Set of books": To be honest these books are always a great time. I loooovvveeee Calvin and Hobbes and these are the kinds of books you can read over and over and over.

-"The Art of Finding Nemo", "The Art of the Incredibles", "The Art of Monster's Inc.", "Shrek: From the Swamp to the Screen": I think computer graphics are probably the coolest use of computer technology today and I totally love this industry. Concept Art book from recent animated films are super awesome for about 25 million bazillion reasons.

-"A Brief History of Nearly Everything" By: Bill Bryson: Very interesting book about astronomy and a bunch of other subjects. I haven't finished it yet but it is an awesome book.

Now sending this blogger tag over to Taylor.

WWDC Apple Keynote Speech, cool stuff!

Today I watched Steve Jobs, C.E.O. of Apple Computer do a really cool Keynote speech for the Apple WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) that is taking place in San Francisco this week. It was a cool speech and wow, they are really doing an awesome job of pushing the technology... Steve Jobs is an awesome speaker!! The main news that was announced at the Keynote Speech was that Apple Computers will be switching from the PowerPC architecture that they have been using for 10 years to Intel Chips which sounds like a great idea and all the speakers at Apple seem to be very happy about this move. Man I love this industry!

Contacts with old friends and weekend plans

Hehe well it's always fun to get emails from old friends and I had a few sitting in my old email account so I joined this contact network thing that connects you to old friends. Pretty cool stuff as I haven't chatted with a bunch of these people since before Australia, so that's over 4 years for sure... crazyness! Anyway just sending off some emails and remembering OSSSA, that was fun times for sure.

A more relaxed weekend coming up. Just going to check out maybe the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory in San Francisco and go to the Apple Store and do some shopping. I heard there is a free concert at Golden Gate Park maybe this weekend so I might check that out too.

Panoramic pictures from Big Sur

Here are a few panoramic pictures from our camping trip last weekend to Big Sur.


View from our hike

Beach and coastline in Big Sur

A big tree!

Monday, June 06, 2005

Electronic Imaging at Waterloo in September?

I am thinking of taking this class FINE 328: Advanced Electronic Imaging at Waterloo in September because it looks pretty cool. There is a lot of complicated stuff in there, going from simple Geometric Shape still life drawings to Walk-Through Environments with Atmospheric Effects and awesome stuff like that. It sounds SO sweet. It will be a lot of work I bet and I will have to balance all my other courses but it is going to be so awesome that I am sure it will be worth all the work for sure. I hope it fits into my schedule!

My first Ebay posting!

Today I did my first Ebay posting!
Check it out at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=67840&item=5780183457&rd=1

I am selling my Dell DJ so I can upgrade to a higher capacity device. (To hold more data that I am always moving around everywhere!) :)

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Big Sur Camping Trip

This weekend was totally sweet. I went camping to Big Sur (south of Monterey and Carmel) with a bunch of the other interns from Pixar and Susan came with us too. It was really fun and we had a great time. We made some awesome food and Kevin was super organized with all the camping equipment we needed!! :)

We went on a big hike to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and it was really magnificent. The views were amazing and the hike was tough but definitely worth it. We hiked for about 4 hours, about 5 miles or so. Our campsite was sweet too and we really enjoyed it there. Lots of good food and good times!!

This morning after we left the campsite we headed to Point Lobos State Reserve and tried to go to China Beach but it was closed so we went to another beach that was just as amazing.

An awesome weekend with a great bunch of people!!


Our Campsite

Matthew cooking a Pop Tart on a stick

Hahahaha an awesome shark hand puppet I found in a gift shop!

The shark eating Susan's hat

Ready for our hike

Big Sur Coastline

Sweeet group photo

Nice waterfall before our hike

Good times

Me

Sweet ocean view

The Redwoods on our hike

Me at the top of the mountain

Holding up a tree

Our "hot" pose

Me with Fonzy's hat on and a flower in my hair, haha

Big Sur coastline again, sweeeeeeet

Beautiful!!

Me and the Coast

A nice thistle closeup pic

China Beach

All of us hangin' out at the beach

Me!

Matt, Dave and Susan

A partially successful pyramid, they fell over 1 second later! :)