The closing of a week, the making of a book

I seem to be stuck on the "one blog per week" schedule at the moment, but maybe that's enough. This past week (so far as I can remember) was pretty mediocre, so let me try and pull together a run down.

Work has been moving along. I've got a couple projects now and even have gotten to do some testing in lab! I always like doing hands-on work (the go old "Learn by Doing" methodology from Cal Poly). Glad to see Jimmy down in the lab. He still makes fun of me for deserting the firmware team, but it's all in good fun. Last Wednesday was the annual Firmware/Hardware team outing to Santa Cruz; it's always a fun time. I was kind of disappointed that we had to buy our own lunch (hot dogs from Costco of course!), but hey those budget cuts run deep, even affecting our picnics! The games were a little less intense than two years ago. We didn't go running up and down the beach with buckets of water (Jimmy and I were spared). Overall it was a good time and not too crazy.

Wednesday was also my first MeetUp outing. I gotta admit it was pretty fun. We met up to see Monty Python downtown in San Pedro Square, which is a cool place with tons of restaurants. Lee, the organizer, was very friendly, along with all who came. There were only 5 or so of us, but we had a good time. I hope to go to more of the their events, maybe join another group or two. It is just good to get out and meet people, since I'm by myself over here in San Jose for now.

My biking is getting a bit better; the route I tried out the previous week seemed a lot easier. I think I've found my official exercise run. Next, I want to figure out if biking to work and around the area can work out. I really miss my old commuting bike. :( Having my nice bike is great, but I don't want to go around in all my gear and worry about it getting stolen. Maybe I can find a junker on Craigslist. I'm also working on getting into the gym at Hitachi, but I need to get a doctor's approval first. Really? I'm 22 and in good shape. Oh well, now that I have insurance, maybe I can get those appointments.

Friday was awesome, Rob and Ursula came to visit. I gave Ursula her birthday presents; she seemed to like them, although I got the usual scolding for spending too much. This week's my birthday, so I'm sure I'll get too many gifts from her, which will make me feel bad, but oh well. (Yes Ursula, I know you read this.) Anywho, after presents we headed over to Gordon Biersh in downtown SJ. They had a really cool outdoor setup inbetween the buildings. Great food and live music. Afterwords, we headed over to A Perfect Finish...yea great name right? They serve desserts and various alcohols. However, they don't serve any mixed drinks, just straight alcohols. We shared some desserts and I tried a liqueur that was really good. That was most of Friday, a pretty mellow night, but a nice little adventure downtown.

Saturday, I explored a lot of the surrounding cities and neighbourhoods. In the morning I headed over to Los Gatos (LG) to check it out. They also had an art fair, the Fiesta de Artes, going on that I wanted to see. I didn't really find anything interesting at the fair, but I did take a tour of the city. It has a ton of shops and restaurants; it kind of reminds me of downtown Grosse Pointe Woods. I tried out a local sandwich shop before heading back home. I headed over to the fish shop to get supplies to clean up my reef tank and get it back into shape. That wasted most of the afternoon before I headed out to Mountain View. I was going to Cupertino, but from reading online it sounded like there wasn't much of a downtown if any (which my co-worker David confirmed today haha). Mountain View's downtown has a TON of restaurants; I don't know if I'd ever get to try them all. The rest of the evening was pretty boring.

Sunday was my hike day. I tried out a "moderate" hike in my new book. I wanted to play it safe, since most of these books are written for people who could hike 50 miles/day. Turns out, I was actually disappointed. I did a 4-mile loop trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains (not the ones on fire). The climb was a little too easy for my taste, and the trail was pretty much just a road surrounded by freeways, fenches, and powerlines. Not as scenic as I had hoped. Next time I'm going to try out the longer and more difficult trails...

Let's see. Oh! The title of blog...forgot about that. I've officially dived into writing my book! It's not much so far...random plot lines, flash cards, and notes in notebooks and on my computer...but it's started. I'm trying to spend and hour or two a day writing out ideas. I've also decided that reading a book on writing a book is pointless. It totally stifles the creative process. I'm already lacking in creativity, so reading this structured book isn't helping. I think I'll just use it for quick pointers and reference rather than a guide. Besides, it is based on the idea that the person reading it just has one idea. Well, I have a plot, characters, details, etc...I think I'm a little past that. The book itself is coming together. Remember, if you have any thoughts or ideas, I would be glad to entertain them. And no, I will not let you pick your pseudonym! I will try and post some pics of the writing process as I move along. Of course, I won't give anything away haha.

This Thursday is my birthday! Woo, I have Friday off too! It's hard to get excited about it now that I'm.....23?....yea, wow I feel old. I always do, since I'm the first one to turn out of all my friends. It's always been that way. Well, it should be a fun couple of days. Ursula's planning Friday out; should be fun. Blake and Nikki are also coming into town Thursday, and we'll be going with Rob and Ursula to the As vs. Tigers game on Friday night. What are the odds? I'm not sure about Saturday/Sunday, but I'm going to plan a trip up north of the bay if no one is going to hang around. Maybe Muir Woods? We'll see.

Until next time kids (hopefully not next week)...

-StM