Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Ocean Beach at night

Well my apartment sure is awesome.

Turns out I am only 20 minutes from the Ocean. So I walked there tonight and chilled out there and spent a good hour and a bit in the grocery store. I love spending way too long grocery shopping, it's really fun for some reason. Good times!! Anyway yeah I spent way too much on food and other stuff but it was great - got lots of nice stuff but also took care of some other necessities, like tea and coffee, coffee filters, AA batteries, other random stuff too.

Today the fridge repairman came to fix my fridge, the seal was bad and it was causing a lot of water to collect in the fridge that was then spilling out onto the floor. So he fixed it all up and spent a good hour or so on it. So that was good and I had a bunch of time to read through my new manuals and stuff for everything I got at Macy's and unpack it all. I got that all set up tonight as well and also unpacked almost everything. I went on a cleaning spree and chucked all the boxes and stuff away in storage areas and got the recycling together and the garbage in one big garbage bag and so on. So I'm much more sorted out now which is great.

Anyway the beach was just awesome, so here are a few photos.


Ocean Beach and Great Highway at night


Towards the windmill


Sweet


Along the coast


Sunset at Ocean Beach

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Macy's major shopping day

Well, here we are. 5 hours of shopping and all I've got to show for it is... actually a TON of awesome stuff!!!!!!!!!!

I spent AGES today at Macy's because it is their "Semi-Annual House and Bath Sale" - my timing again is impeccable. I have just arrived, I have little-to-no furniture, and I need to buy a TON of stuff. Turns out the day I check to see if Macy's sells housing goods, is the day when the website says they are having a huge, massive sale on Housewares. AWESOME.

So I went downtown, got a sweet shirt at Urban Outfitters that says, "I wasn't born in San Francisco... but I got here as quick as I could", haha. Then I went to the Disney store, man the Ratatouille toys are awesome. Then I got a nice Cappucino and made like 10 friends in line, one dude from Hungary who lives in San Francisco, a family from San Francisco and a couple of people from Toronto who were just visiting. Good times.

Then off to Macy's. I spent ages in the kitchenware and then went up to the bedding area. I met a nice lady there that told me to take the pillows and try them out on the bed in the store, so I took off my shoes and hopped onto the bed with some of the pillows there. I found some REALLY nice ones. And they were having a big "pillow event", so everything was 50% off. Sweet. So I got a European White Goose Down pillow, usually $120, for like $45!! Now why so cheap? Well it was 50% off, and then the lady told me to open a Macy's card, so I did and I got an extra 20% off everything!! Sweet!!!!!!!!!! So that worked out well.

Then I went and bought sheets from a lady who was SO hilarious and just loved to chat to me for ages. She was really nice and explained all the details about everything, and showed me the difference between all the sheets. She showed me 300 thread count, 400 thread count, 500 thread count... 600 thread count... and finally... 800 thread count!!!!!! That was insane. The 800 thread count sheets felt like you would be sleeping on something between a cloud and a bowl of cream. It was nuts. They were SO nice. But 1 sheet was like $120?!?!?! Insane. So instead I bought a pack of sheets, bottom, top and pillowcases and I got a great deal. Usually $105, on sale for $39!! Sweet! So I ended up with 400 thread count sheets, which is still like 100 times better than anything I've ever had before. Sweet!!!!

Ok so the deals continued. I then decided to go for it and bought another one of the super insane fancy pillows.

Then I went down to the kitchenware and spent like 1 hour waiting for someone to help me. Finally it got less busy and a lady helped me out. I bought a 14 piece pot and pan set, stainless steel with copper bottoms. So those are really fancy and I got a great deal on those too. I got a toaster, a Krups Coffee Maker, a Krups Coffee grinder so I can get Blue Bottle Coffee Company coffee and make it myself, a scale, a spatula, a knife, a Microwave, and some baking trays. I also got another free soup pot cause I bought the starter pack of pots and pans. Good stuff! I also bought some awesome Star Wars USA Stamps and some Neihaus Chocolates to eat (they are from Belgium and are REALLY awesome.)

So yes, after all the great deals all day and running around Macy's buying tons of new stuff for my apartment, I was tired and over-excited. I got a Cab home and he waited while I loaded the Cab with all my stuff I had just bought.

So that worked out really well. I didn't really want to sign up for the Macy's card but it turned out to be pretty awesome, I must have saved a good $100 because of that card today!! Plus EVERYTHING I bought was on sale, except for the $7 spatula!! Haha amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was SO excited and happy because of the good deals I got today that I called my parents and told them all about it. Now you also heard the story in way too much detail.

And now for some photos.


My futon and internet at home, wahoo!!!!!!


Me and my sweeeeeeeeeeeet LucasFilm mug I got on my first day at work


My new apartment, the main room


Walk-in closet near the main room


Word


My bathroom with a little bit more stuff in it than last time


What will eventually be my dining room area


My kitchen


My IKEA dishes!!


Sweet cutlery drawer


My fridge that is leaking, someone is coming to fix it tomorrow


Stove and sink area


Workin' my new watch and ILM hat


Word!!


Lovin' that watch


My AMAZING new Star Wars 30th Anniversary watch from work!!


All the stuff I got today for my apartment


Pillows and sheets


Haha, 400 thread count, that is way too hilarious


Awesome shirt I got today


Super cool Star Wars stamps

The Simpsons Movie, Bike testing

The Simpsons Movie... in a word... AWESOME. It was totally sweet. I know I have come to expect a certain level of amazingness from that show in the past 18 years, and man they rocked it out in the movie. It was really funny, and it looked great, and they made a lot of fun of a lot of things. It was hilarious. They even got away with some stuff they would NEVER be able to do on the TV show. Hilarious!! It was very well done and yes, I pretty much have to go see it again. Good times.

Yesterday I also went into town and tested a bunch of bikes. I tried these three:


Cannondale F7 (this is actually the F5)


Gary Fisher Utopia


Specialized Rockhopper

Those were pretty nice. But the Cannondale felt a bit heavy and the shifters weren't very clean, they made a lot of noise when you change gears.

The Specialized was pretty sweet, but was really uncomfortable for me to ride for some reason, I guess the geometry on the bike is more racing style than I am used to and I didn't really like the feel of it.

The Gary Fisher was sweet. It was really nice, but it's $750 and it's sortof like a 75% mountain bike, 25% road bike. It's mountain bike style, just with some slightly thinner tires with a wider diameter. That is nice, but not really what I want.

So... the dude at the store ordered me the last remaining 17" frame Gary Fisher Pirhana that they have in their warehouse. It is sweeeeeeeeeet!! I think it will be awesome cause it is essentially the Utopia but with fatter mountain bike wheels on it. The shifters, the disc brakes and everything else is the same on the Pirhana and the Utopia, so it should be a good fit. I am really excited to have a bike that is this awesome. I decided to get a sweet bike instead of buying a car for a year or so, because it's better for commuting, I get exercise built into my day, and if I am going for environmental friendliness... a bike is still WAY better than buying a car of any kind. :) So I feel like I'm doing my part. And also I can bank whatever money I can save this year and make some mad interest, rather than blowing it all on a car that I don't really need yet. Sweet.


Gary Fisher Pirhana

So I am going to try the Pirhana next week and then switch out the seat and add lights and a bell and maybe mudguards and get a new helmet and stuff and then I should be all set.

Friday, July 27, 2007

The wonder of Craigslist

Wow this is great. I've totally never used Craigslist before. But it's already found me a sweet apartment... and it is soon to get me an Ikea desk, already assembled, hopefully delivered to my apartment... and half price!! Sweet deals. This seems like a good way to get stuff, I think for sure it is sweet for furniture and stuff, but not sure if I would be keen to get a futon or couch or bed on it or anything. But this isn't too bad, I figure you don 't have to sleep on a desk, so it's probably totally cool to get one used from some random stranger. Good times!! It's like a really organized garage sale, with pictures, and you can do it from your own house. (Or in my case, the coffee place with free internet, cause I don't have internet at home yet.)

Ok they are closing. Time to go home and read more Harry Potter. :)

Haha ok that was a false warning. The girl here at the coffee shop roooocks. She said we can stay here longer and just chill out while she cleans up, as long as we don't mind her music that is on. This place is awesome. Once I actually have internet at home I should still totally come here and hang out cause it is totally awesome here. I love the vibe. It's quite a bit different than my favourite Bubble Tea spot in Waterloo, but it's still really cool here and totally random, but super awesome.

I tried going to another coffee shop/internet place earlier for dinner and it kinda sucked. I got some nice food and so on, but there were some creepy people hanging out by the window near me. I have a sweet laptop. So when I left it was getting dark and I decided to pay $1.50 and take a bus back here to my area of town rather than walking. I don't know if that was necessary. But being in Europe for a few months taught me to be just a little extra careful and to be aware of your surroundings. Unless you're in London, Ontario or Waterloo, Ontario... it's possible that someone won't be nice and will want to steal something cool that is yours. :) So just to be safe. See, Mom and Dad, I can take care of myself in a foreign country - no need to worry. :)

Anyhoo, tomorrow morning the ComCast dude is coming over to set up my internet so that is great, and I will finally have internet at home. Then a dude from work is coming at 10am to bring me a Futon for $30. So as of tomorrow morning I will actually have a couch AND internet at home. Fantastic. Finally starting to get stuff sorted out. Then I will go for lunch with Bill at the Ferry Building downtown. Then hopefully get my bike fitted and all the parts exchanged and bike my NEW BIKE home! Then maybe change my bank to the local bank around here. Then I'd love to buy my bed tomorrow as well. Maybe I'll just take a look at Sleep Train and check it out. Hopefully it's not a total rip-off. I heard they might be expensive. But we'll see. Tomorrow night I think I will meet up with Matt and Frank and Bill and maybe some others and go see The Simpsons Movie. I can't WAIT to see it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work is going to be super cool next week as I will be starting some actual coding. I've been reading a lot of the training materials and trying to get an idea of how the system works. It's going to be really awesome. And the guy I will be working with on this project is really nice. What a cool place to work. I am wearing my new ILM hat that I bought today and I love it. :)

Ok, now I'd better not overstay my welcome here in the coffee shop. Back home I go, gotta keep going on that Harry Potter book.

My new bike is going to be SO awesome.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

San Diego, Futon, Internet, Bed, Bike

A gazillion things going on at the moment. I am back at a coffee place that has free internet cause I still don't have internet at home yet. But that is getting fixed on the weekend, ComCast is coming over to hook me up with some sweet internet at home. Awesome.

Looks like I also have to do a gazillion other things this weekend... hmm, I should make a list. Ok here we go.
  • Get Internet at home
  • Futon delivery
  • Go to Sleep Train, buy a bed, buy pillows, get it delivered and set up
  • Get a Cell Phone plan (I guess that can wait)
  • Change my local bank
  • Research, shop for, fit, switch parts in and out, and buy my new Mountain Bike
  • Call my landlord and tell him the fridge is leaking water
  • Send “state of apartment” writeup to landlord
  • Send cheque for next month’s rent to landlord
  • Buy a soup pot and collander so I can cook pasta at home
  • Go food shopping
  • Test out my bike for the commute to work
  • Hang out with friends from Pixar
  • Pay for the Siggraph hotel in a few weeks
  • Go back to IKEA and buy a bunch of other stuff
  • Get a desk
  • Get a TV (that can wait)
  • Get a DVD Player (that can wait)
  • Get my sweet new LucasFilm watch fitted so I can wear it to Siggraph
  • Decide on details for my benefits at work
  • Read over my lease again
  • Take a nice walk on Ocean Beach or at Golden Gate Park
  • Buy smoke detectors
  • Order new cheques
  • Research stuff I need from BestBuy
  • Get a AA battery for my wall clock
  • Research and eventually buy a Digital SLR Camera
  • Pre-order the new Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds CD and DVD
  • Read more Harry Potter
  • Sleep
  • Eat
Man that is a lot to do. I can think of a bunch more I need to do as well. Moving to a new country and getting your own apartment set up is a lot of work!!

Well that gets me thinkin' about what I need to do. A bunch of that can wait but I should do quite a few of those things this weekend. At least the internet, futon, bike and maybe bed should be this weekend. Then I'll be a bit better set up. Sweet deals.

Tonight? Harry Potter book here I come.

In other news, here's a photo of my degree in the 50th Anniversary Waterloo frame!! Sweet eh!!


Sweet degree

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

ILM rooooooooocks!!!!!!

I'm having an awesome first few days at work. I'm reading lots and learning about the software and the design of it and why things are designed that way and so on, so I can start contributing soon.

I've already started on the swag train!! I got some AMAZING ILM pins, I guess they are made for every movie that ILM works on or something like that. So I got a few of those and they are super cool. Today I got an AMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAZIIIIIIIING watch, it is soooooooo cool and I love it. So the swag already is awesome. I need to get to the LucasFilm store and buy a bunch of ILM stuff cause Siggraph (the Graphics conference) is coming up in a couple of weeks and I need to represent my new company well. :)

Work is going to be very interesting and awesome, there are tons of brilliant people there and the team seems very very nice and welcoming. I am sure I can't talk about any details of what I'll be working on, but suffice it to say it's going to be super cool. Good times!!!!

I decided to try the walk home today and it was pretty nice and quite long, it took about 1 hour or so. So it'll be quick on the bike, and I am going to try to get my bike this weekend. I'm looking at some Specialized bikes as well as a Gary Fisher and maybe some others too. Also this weekend I am getting a futon from a dude at work. I bought it from a dude on the internal mail system and he is going to deliver it to me on Saturday which is super nice. ComCast is also coming to install my internet at home, so I'll finally be set up with internet at home... and have a place to sit on that is not my air mattress or the floor. Good times.

Check out this picture of the new futon I just bought for $30. Sweet!!


My new futon

So that futon will be good for sitting on as a couch but also for when I have random friends come over, so they can sleep somewhere other than on an air mattress. Good times.

So the first few days of work have been very interesting, getting my computer set up and the usual set up stuff like getting source code and building the software and reading tutorials and so on. Looking forward to all of the projects I'll be working on and being able to contribute to such an amazing team. This is going to be sooooooooooo cool. It is so inspiring to be in the company of people who did Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, basically every movie that ever made me want to do this with my life. Pretty amazing and inspirational atmosphere if you ask me!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, I gotta go see The Simpsons Movie when it comes out this weekend. Man that is going to be awesome. Also I've been seeing lots of Matt Parrott which is great cause he works at LucasArts and we have been doing lots over the past few days which is great.

My new apartment and Harry Potter late night adventures

Last Friday I moved into my new apartment and it is sooooooooo awesome!!!!!!!! I really like it and it's really interesting and has really cool designs on the roof and I am looking forward to decorating and getting furniture and stuff. Good times. Last weekend I hung out with some more of my old Pixar friends and also went to buy Harry Potter #7 on the night that it came out. There were lots of crazy people dressed up in Harry Potter style clothes which was hilarious.


My new apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Kitchen


Kitchen sink


Dining room


Studio room, there is also a walk-in closet!!!


In Emeryville, meeting up with Frank and friends


Frank and Jess


Harry Potter #7 for sale late at night


Me with two girls who dressed up and brought their own wands, hahaha hilarious

Pixar Motorama 2007

Last Friday I went to visit some friends at Pixar and to see the Motorama 2007 Car Show at Pixar. It roooooocked as expected.


Angelique, Me, Taylor and Kevin


Me and Charu at Motorama


Me and Afonso


Me and Sarah


Sweet Lamborghini


Awesome door open


Haha, Dinoco


Crazy electric car that rocked


A car from Jay Leno's Garage


Jay Leno's car


Mater!!


Me with Taylor and Paul


Me with Jake and Kev


Lightning McQueen!!!!!!!!!


Cool hippie van


New Ratatouille posters in Pixar


New Ratatouille art on the walls at Pixar


Me with my glasses and Sarah


Ruth rockin' the glasses and me chillin'


Sweet deals


Pixar front gate