VICTORY!

To Albuqueque July 25, 2007 186
Originally uploaded by gng1524

See this picture and many more from the road trip at:
http://flickr.com/groups/gngroadtrip/

Now in E.D.T.

That's right folks... I'm now on Eastern Daylight Time. So for all you West Coast folks, be aware that I am now operating 3 hours ahead of you all... in the future! It's been a bit strange though. Since last Wednesday when we left Vegas, I've slowly lost 3 hours of time while driving. I guess it didn't really matter considering how I've been driving 8-9 hour days anyhow.

We're on Day 10 of the Road Trip. The rest of the Chicago trip was fun. Yesterday morning, we hung out with Allison over by the UIC area. Then, we went to Wicker Park with Cathy and Brian to check out the street festival and had "New Haven" style pizza. The evening was relatively chill, which was probably good because we had a 6:30 am wakeup session this morning so we could ge on the road as soon as possible.

Right now, we're in Little Stanton, PA, a small town outside of Pittsburgh. The good news is that our trip to DC will be a short one; we'll be there in 4 hours if all goes well. One thing interesting about the drive now is that instead of flat plains or desert that we saw throughout the southwest and midwest, the roads are now full of trees, which is a great change of pace. Also, it's reassuring that each exit usually has a gas station now. No more fears of being stranded in the desert.

En route to Little Stanton, we took a drive around Washington, PA, which is where Dan was working for the past year. In a throwback to the past, we had dinner at Ponderosa. You just don't see those anymore in the New England area.

Anyway, tomorrow should be fun checking out DC once again and seeing some close friends over there. Then after that.... back home on Wednesday.

As a fun postscript for you all, I'm back on the road on Friday to Toronto, then back to Chicago by next week. With that kind of momentum, I'll be back in the Bay Area by mid August. Forget the East Coast! Anyone want to find me a job?

Adventures of AF**K: Part 11

Somewhere in Indiana.

Adventures of AF**K: Part 10

Straight from Wicker Park!

Adventures of AF**K: Part 9

The long delayed part 9 of the Adventures of A F**K series.

Videos Tomorrow

Sorry folks! Looks like my sketchy internet connection will prevent any video updates from going up until tomorrow. But don't worry - I have two already good to go and they feature some special guests.

Until tomorrow in Pittsburgh...

In Buehrle We Trust!

Greetings from downtown Chicago in the Gold Coast district! We got here yesterday afternoon after an 8-hour drive from Omaha. It's kinda odd being here in Chicago to a certain degree. For one thing, this is my eighth day into this road trip and I think we're officially past the half way mark in the US when we drove across the Mississippi River. To another degree, we hit a city that I've been to before and it's great seeing familiar faces. The last part is that I expect to see more urban cities and areas during the rest of the drive back home. No more deserts or large plain land.

Our first stop on the trip was in Evanston, IL, where we checked out Cathy and Brian's new condo in Evanston. After checking out the place (which is still in the process of being unpacked and settled), I turned to my sister and said, "You're all growns up." Seriously. What an adult thing to do! The new pad is very cool and more importantly, very spacious.

This is probably my fifth time in Chicago, and every time I'm out here, I've always had a great time. Dan's old roommate lives out here and gave us free tickets to the White Sox/Blue Jays game out in US Cellular Field. The pitchers were the Sox's ace Mark Buehrle and Jay's ace Roy Halladay. It was a great pitcher's duel, but what was more remarkable was that the game only took 2 hours, 10 minutes to complete! When do you see that happen? The game was followed by a fireworks show.

Afterwards, I met up with my friend Allison, who just moved to these parts, and we went to a few bars in the Gold Coast area. The area has plenty of them! One thing that I heard from two different people: this district is known for much older men "trolling" on much younger women. Who knew? Take notes Rohit.

Anyway, some video updates will come later today. Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Get Right to the Heart of Matters

I am somewhere in the middle of America, trying to get to the heart of the matter... which is that the heart is what matters most. Sorry, the temptation to integrate the Counting Crows song was too much.

For all of you who don't get that reference, I am now in Omaha, NE. On our way out of Denver, I fulfilled yet another life long dream and ate breakfast at a Sonics. Yes, that fast food joint does actually exist. The drive to Omaha was pretty boring. Unlike the drive through the desert, to LA, or to Denver, there was absolutely nothing interesting along the way. It was all flat lands and to add a little twist, lots of cornfields. I started to smile when we entered Nebraska and rejoined the I-80 for the first time since crossing the Bay Bridge.

Omaha is one spread out city. We went to Mister C's for dinner. The place is a true townie kind of restaurant, which was a nice change of pace from the chain restaurants we've been frequenting. We got some nice steaks, good wine, and good conversations. Afterwards, we checked out the local theater to see The Simpsons Movie. Very funny movie. What was more amazing was that the tickets only cost $7.50!!!! Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Anyhow, tomorrow we head over to the Windy City (and real civilization if you ask me) for a two day break. Looking forward to see my family and some friends in Chi-town.

As a sort of apology, no video updates for today. There literally was nothing to film!

The Land of Coors

Greetings from Denver, CO. Unlike last night when we were driving well into the evening, yours truly drove beyond 55 MPH and sped through the flatlands known as New Mexico. As a result, we got to the Coors Brewery just before they closed and got a chance to take the tour and check out the tasting room. This place is Coors Light HQ. Who knew it was that popular? In the tasting room, I stuck with my roots and had a Molson Canadian (Molson and Coors joined together a few years ago) and a Blue Moon. Yummy beer, and their tasting size was huge.

Our plans to watch the Rockies game were dashed when the hotel mixed up our reservations and I had to go corporate on the front desk. It was your typical case of bad customer service. Fortunately, we DID get a room and by the time we got it, the game had already started, so we opted to head downtown to the ESPN Zone.

Tomorrow, we head through the heartland of America to Omaha, NE. Woot!

Adventures of AF**K: Part 8

Part 8 from Golden, CO

I Support Gov. Richardson!!!

Greetings from Albuquerque, NM! Dan and I just got in like an hour ago. I went the complete game with about 12 hours of driving with pit stops at the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon... both of which were amazing sights to see. For dining, we went all out and had lunch at CJ's (Carl's Jr) and dinner at Taco Bell. What a one-two combo, eh? Who wants to go running with me when I get back home?

Besides the two touristy spots, we drove through two isolated rainstorms. It was quite surreal as it was sunny everywhere except this patch of the highway where it poured so hard that I couldn't see anything in front of me for a brief period. Don't worry guys - I slowed down, despite my continual plea that "I drive fast!"

Tomorrow, we head north to Denver, CO. If all goes well, we will check out the Coors brewing tour followed by a Rockies game. Enjoy Part 7, which I posted below.

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 7

Part 7 from Kingman, AZ. Enjoy!

My Bad...

So for the first six parts of the video journal, replace "June" with "July." Thanks for pointing this out Tina. It will be revised when I release the "Special Edition" of these videos.

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 6

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 5

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 4

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 3

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 2

Adventures of A-F**K: Part 1

In the Black.... by $60

Greetings everyone from Imperial Palace, in the heart of Las Vegas, NV. It is freakin' hot outside... somewhere around 102 degrees. I can safely say that I brought to heat to Vegas. Okay, lame joke. Please don't switch to another website.

I left California around 2 pm. As I was driving I-15, I saw a bunch of hotels in the distance and sure enough, these were the first casinos on the other side of the border. We got to the hotel about an hour later.

It's been a fun two days so far. Yesterday, after checking into our hotel, we went over to the ESPN Zone in New York, New York to check the BoSox game. Then we hit the casinos hard. Wait, it was just me. I ended up winning about $100 on slot machines (Deal or No Deal baby!) and then losing $40 in blackjack. Today, we've been just roaming around and I made one final appearance at Slots A Fun and Circus Circus. Tonight - much more tomfoolery.

Anyway, the next update will be somewhere in the Southwest. We head to the Grand Canyon and NM tomorrow, and then Denver the day afterwards. Stay tuned!

Goodbye California... land of Arnold

Today's my last day in California. Dan and I have spent the last two days down here in Westwood/LA and it's been a blast. We went to a great Dodgers game that was exciting in the end, had some great Mexican food, but most importantly, got a chance to chat and catch up with some of my close friends that I've made here in CA. Big ups to Melinda for being a great host. Also a special thanks to everyone who've called or came out to visit me yesterday.

As I drive over to Vegas today and cross the California-Nevada border, I'll know that I am leaving behind some great people. Until next time...

Goodbye House

Yesterday, around 2 pm, Rohit, Phil, and I closed down 1524sf... the physical location. Don't worry, loyal readers - this blog will still exist. It was a sad event and if we were all more emotional people, we would have teared up. However, since we were trying to show that we were "men" and not tied down to such trivial matters, we just grunted at each other as we left and cried privately when no one was looking.

Anyhow, I am writing to you all from Westwood's Coffee Bean in the heart of UCLA territory. I arrived yesterday evening and will be here until Monday morning. Melinda's been a great host so far; we were taked to the lethal one-two combination of BJ's Pizza House and this cookie/ice cream sandwich place. Watch out!

I'm looking forward to today when I finally check out a Dodgers game, followed by LA's (in)famous Chicken and Waffles joint.

Good Phil Hunting

(2007) Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone believes in them. A Garett Ng Joint

The I.S. (Inner Sunset)

After two years in preproduction, I am proud to present this short film about The I.S.

If you're not an O.C. fan, you may want to watch this clip to see what we're giving a nod to: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KP64bFwqWq8

Paving the Roads

The first in a series of ad campaigns.

50 Years of Snow White

"50 Years of Snow White." by Mick LaSalle.

This article is hilarious! Enjoy!

The End: Party Trailer

To fully enjoy this video, you need to have seen Apocolypse Now or seen this clip.

Enjoy!

Schilling vs. G-Unit

At the All Star Fan Festival today.

Alpha Bar, RIP

Last night, Phil and I went out to the Richmond district to recapture the good old times, when we used to do the mini pub crawl up and down Clement/Geary and end the night at Alpha Bar. Joined by my buddy Margaret, we ended up spending most of our night joking around at The Bitter End, before heading over to the main attraction, Alpha Bar.

Times have changed and Alpha Bar is no more. The place, renamed Buckshot, was empty. The place kinda sucked. It was shocking and appalling. Phil and I had hyped up the magical scene that is Alpha Bar to Margaret and we were disappointed in every possible way. What happened? I just remember it being a bumping place. Now, it was just a lame dive bar that no one went to. On the flip side, since there was no one around, we were able to play a few games of pool and skeeball. Then, we left the joint.

Oh the memories. Alpha Bar, thank you for the good times. I will cherish those memories.

A Victory of Sorts

On Saturday, while visiting our good friend Cristobal in Berkeley, he asked if the 1524sf folks would be doing trivia night the next night at the 540 Club.

It had been a while since we had done trivia. In fact, the last time we went was also the last time Cristobal went, which was sometime in May. Like any good general manager, I had attempted to patch up the areas we stunk in (e.g. 80's music) with people who seemed to know what they were talking about. Cristobal was a bit like our savior, especially he had written to me saying that he was a stud with 80's music. No joke. He wrote that to me. During that night in May, we almost scored a perfect 10 in the music round. It was amazing. Unfortunately, we were still in last place. It was heartbreaking. We thought we had a chance that night, but the wheels fell off the wagon and our team flat lined. It was hard to go back to 540 Club. The memory was too fresh.

Skip ahead to last Saturday. When Cristobal suggested trivia, it felt like it was the right time to go back in the ring one last time. I immediately thought of this inspirational quote:
"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"
Who was the genius who said that? Rocky Balboa.

So our team reassembled for what was likely the last time. We fought long and hard through 7 rounds of trivia. We laughed, we joked, we stressed, and we got on each other's nerves. Our answers were scored. We pumped our fists in the air each time we got an answer right. We waited anxiously for the final score.

So what place did we get in the end? Third place!

Sure, we didn't win the cash pot, but it was a moral victory for sure. We weren't the stupidest people in the room. And anytime that happens, it is a victory for everyone.

Happy Canada's Day

Centre Island Canadian Flag
Originally uploaded by gng1524

It was 140 years ago to this day that Canada became a dominion and an independent country. So what have my countrymen accomplished and shared with the world since then?

Some notables:
- Hockey
- Poutine
- Great comedians
- Universal Health Care
- Bob and Doug McKenzie
- Multiculturalism
- The looney
- Good beer
- Your humble writer
... and so on.

Happy Canada's Day, Hosers!