Settling In

So many things have been going on recently and I finally have some time to sit down and write.

It’s pretty damned surreal sitting here in my “office” (which is actually a dining/kitchen room) 500 miles away from SF. Overall, I’m coping well living here so far. It’s really helpful to be living so close to family because familiar faces are always comforting. They even cook me dinner everyday! So it’s a sweet deal. I was asking about the stove at my place, and they were like you’re not eating dinner by yourself stupid haha.

I love having my own place! I can’t believe this unit was just sitting here unused for so long. It was actually in pretty decent shape, but I wanted to thoroughly clean it anyways. So the past 2-3 days, I’ve been spending a lot of time vacuuming, scrubbing, re-arranging. Bathroom cleaning, and fridge cleaning sucks. But with cleaning, once I clean one corner, something clicks in my head and I MUST finish the rest. It’s so much work because this place is huge! It’s really meant for 2-3 people to live in so it’s a shame I can’t share it with friends.

Coolest part of this place so far? The Mini Pool/Ping Pong/Air Hockey Table in the living room. It’s been pretty fun playing with my cousins, but it would be damned sweet if I had a set up like this in SF.

The rest of the house is pretty empty. It has so much potential! Once I make some scratch:

Living Room
- 47” LCD 1080P 120Hz tv
- PS3
- Couch/Futon?
- Plants. You gotta have plants

Spare Bedroom
- Makeshift audio recording studio for fun?!

Basement
- Darts
- Punching Bag
- Weight Room
- Wine Cellar

Driving Log:

Snacks: Hot Cheetos, Apple-Os, Famous Amos Cookies (damn forgot to get baos!)
Drinks: Redbull, Cherry Coke. (hella needed it. Only had 6 hours of sleep due to festivities : )

Cop Sightings: 5 (there was one bridge that had two patrol cars side by side)
Mini Sightings: 2 (both on the bay bridge, I’m suddenly unique haha)
Mini to Cop Ratio: 0.40 (lost again)
# times Traction Control Saved My Ass: 4 (It was raining most of the drive. Only 2 minutes of light snowfall, phewf!)

Est. Miles Travelled: 576 miles (google)
Avg MPH: ~75
Max Speed: 91.9MPH
Est. MPG: 30.75
Est. Cost: $59.9 ($3.2/Gal)

Departed SF: 12:04PM
Stops Taken: 2
Arrived Corvallis: 8: 42PM
Travel Time: 8’38”

Birthday House party until 4AM? STILL GOT IT BABY

SF ROX

Even though it was a short time I had in SF before I had to leave for Portland, I had tons of fun.  I’m very grateful and happy that we all got together and hung out.  I think I’m still riding on some of the high from the last two weeks!  Good times, Great city, Best of friends yay-uh:

• Zoo (the asian look, chris-anju incident, and seals not sea lions!)
• Legion of Honor (pretty random)
• Snowboarding (beautiful view, cracked phone screen, steaming pile of feet)
• Dad’s Dinner + CS LAN (so fun, then less fun when Andy was awping)
• Lot’s of Pho and Burrito in between.  (I acknowledge Gordo’s now, but Chino’s has crack in it)
• Warriors Vs. Bucks (loss) with Drew – but lower level seats! (fat dude getting angry haha, dude made 3 pointer for year of free tri-tip)
• 1st Live Hockey Game – Thanks LexLai, dude it’s way more fun watching in the stadium.  I like hockey more now.  But there’s no hockey here.  How far is Vancouver?

Last Night Out

Had a blast that night! Like going out with a bang.  Planned on 1-3 drinks, ended up drinking 6.

Pics:

Good lookin' bunch

This was awesome, I read the box when I got home and it was hilarious haha.

Tech: Nerd Disaster Averted

Phewf!

What a sweat I had yesterday.  I was supposed to help fix Angel's slow laptop so she dropped it off in the morning.  I assumed that she had backed up everything already because she said she had an external at home.  So I proceeded to re-install her Windows.

1. Insert CD
2. Enter Boot Menu to select CD
3. Quick Format
4. Install!

Easy as 1,2, 3, 4.

I was happy because everything went smoothly.  The key from her Dell sticker worked, no activation problems and most importantly her laptop was quick now! That is.. until she came to pick it up.

A: "Hey it looks different"
C: "yep! I just reformatted it, its quick now!"
A: "oh...cool... you backed up all my stuff right?"
C: "..........uh......"
A: "NO WAY You're Kidding Right!?"
C: "nope, i thought you backed it up"
A: "OMG my life is flashing before my eyes"
C: "OH SHIT" (facepalm)
A: "my pictures! my music! my documents! good thing I didn't start on my essay yet!"

(A runs away distraught and lamenting)

Good thing for technology, I didn't panic.  I had my trusty usb-SATA/IDE adapter kit and an awesome 6mb program that I found earlier: EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro 4.3.6

Within a couple hours, we were able to recover most of her pictures, music, and documents even though the drive was quick-formatted and a new OS was installed.  YAY!  I remember hearing that it usually costs hundreds of dollars to recover lost data.  Being able to do it myself was sweeeeet.  I even found files that I deleted earlier in the recycle bin! (Oh the power) Technology is beautiful

MINI Report and Funnies

Just picked up the MINI from the dealership

- Oil & Filter Change
- New Hood Scoop (old one started melting from the heat generated from the turbo O_O)
- Tire repaired (apparently had a nail in it, but the leak was so slow I didn't know!)

Yay for Warranty!  It's been 18000 miles and almost 18 months, and I still love my car.  I shall be diligent in taking care of it (cars don't have genders) so that I can own it forever.  I was on the NAM forum and was reading this thread:  You Know You Drive A MINI When...

Favorite Few:
-When you get scared someone stole your car when it's actually just parked behind a bigger car/truck. (This has happened to me a lot haha)
-You find yourself wishing the road was just a little more twisty.
-You take one last look at your vehicle in the parkinglot/garage/driveway before it leaves your viewing-zone. (yep)
-When you come to a stop, put on your parking brake, turn the ignition off, and instinctively tell your passenger to, "pull twice!"
-when a girl passenger yells WOW ITS SO BIG(staring at the speedo), and you reply YUP! thats what all the girls say (haha yea its funny when I read this i realized all girls do say that)
-You don't bother to step on the brake when making turns
-You find yourself aimlessly surfing websites about your car... (..yea)
-Little kids eyes get big when they see your mini.
-When you pull down the sun visor and half your view is gone .
-you get that last parking spot on the block because everyone else was too bloated to fit in it
-you remember the birthday of your MINI... (hah damn. 5/7/2008 born in UK, 6/20/2008 arrived in US)

Yea the culture around MINI owners is great.  Everyone just kind of understands each other's experiences like its an inside joke of ours.  

What can Your MINI fit?

I got the MINI because of its speed, MPG, easy parking, and damned good looks.  But theres definitely one major drawback that I had to compromise with... interior space.  It's definitely hard to fit passengers and cargo with the small trunk space, but you'd be surprised what you can fit if you played some Tetris.  One pal commented earlier that they wanted proof of two snowboards in the MINI: 

Tada!! I was surprised myself! Totally do-able.

Then I remember browsing some forums on what ridiculous things MINI cooper fit in their cars a few years ago when I was researching.  So I went back and found all I could find.  Enjoy:

Doggies!

Partying!

Good for gigs

Kayaking?

These are some pretty ridiculous over-the-top ones haha

Over-the Top Literally

Or if you didn't have a roof rack, you can... Tetris!

And lastly....

Enough room for 22 people :)