Merry Christmas! -- 2006 In Review

Well, now that I am married I suppose I am obligated to start the tradition of putting together the yearly letter. Rather than following tradition and sending one out in the mail, I think I will just stick with my blog. So ... lets get started.


All in all this has been a pretty hectic year for Janel and I. About this time last year I was packing up my stuff in Champaign for the short move back up to Chicago. After a busy holidays, Janel and I got married and went on our honeymoon to Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Baja was very nice ... I would definitely recommend it to anyone (particularly those on the W coast because it is so close). I still think that Kauai (Hawaii) and Virgin Gorda (Caribbean) are my two favorite beach destinations.


Honeymoon Photo


After our honeymoon, we came home for ~3 days and then headed on out to Portland to begin our new life as a married couple. I had three weeks before my job started, during which we spent almost all our time getting situated (and in the process spending a lot of money). The job at Intel started well (and continues to go well). My bosses are both good guys and I enjoy both working and screwing around with my co-workers. February and March in Portland were mostly spent continuing to settle in. This was good timing since the weather was not all that great. We did do a few nice hikes, including one to Multnomah Falls when everything was still frozen. I would highly recommend checking out the gorge in the winter -- the waterfalls are great when covered with ice. We tried to do the loop trail @ Multnomah but had to turn back after a couple of miles because the trail was iced over in a dangerous place.


Winter Multnomah Falls Photo


Janel started subbing for the Beaverton School District around March I believe, and landed a full-time subbing position for a girl on maternity leave at Aloha High School in April. This eventually turned into an offer for a full time position there which she gladly accepted. Janel really likes the administrations and her co-workers in the math department. There are a few younger people in the department who are a lot of fun. More on Janel and teaching later ...


This summer was a lot of fun. We went hiking what seemed like every weekend. The northwest is a great place in the summer for people like me :). We also went on a trip to France. I had a paper in a conference out there so I got work to pay for part of it :). We spent a lot of time up on the NW coast (on the English Channel) and a few days in Paris. France was great. I was a bit worried that the French might be a bit unfriendly to us ... but we only felt that way one time while we were there. We tried to speak our terrible French with them ... and I think they found it amusing and therefore liked us. It did get a bit old after a while though. One funny example: whenever I went to a gas station, I would have to go to pumps 1, 2, or 3 because those were the only numbers I knew when I went inside to pay. Oh well ... small price to pay :). Paris was a lot of fun. We did all the standard tourist things ... and were also there when France upset Brazil in the World Cup. Needless to say ... it was pandemonium afterwards :). Here is a picture from the palace of versailles:


France - Versailles Photo


Before the summer came to a close, I went on a backpacking trip to Mt. Rainier w/ Allen, Jame, and Todd. We did the Northern Loop (~38 miles) in 3 nights. It was a great hike, although Jame hurt his knee and had to go out early w/ Allen. I would highly recommend this trip ... but keep in mind that it has a lot of brutal elevation changes ... and is a bit harder than one may think. With that said ... it was not that bad of a hike :). The last two days Todd and I were able to finish before lunch time.


Mt. Rainier Photo


The one bad part of the trip (for me) was that I pulled my groin. I have never done that before ... and it is not a lot of fun. Janel and I have been playing a lot of soccer (well ... Janel has at least ... I have been playing some) and I tried to go back to it after a couple of weeks but that was not a good idea. Soccer has been a lot of fun though. I have been playing one night a week on a co-ed team w/ Janel, and she has been playing on 2 women's teams in addition to that. We have mostly been playing indoor (it is a lot easier to find 7 people than 11+), but Janel has also played a bit of outdoor.


This school year Janel is teaching Adv. Algebra 2 and Algebra Survey. She is enjoying parts of it, but is really busy and stressed at times. This is totally normal for first year teachers ... and I am looking forward to things settling down a bit next year when she does not have to prepare new lesson plans for two different classes each night. I would say more ... but I feel like I should keep my comments to a minimum in case any of her students ever happen upon this page. She has lots of good stories about the crazy things students do :) ... it would make a great blog :P. Too bad that probably would not be very professional.


In September I climbed Mt. St. Helens (which just reopened in July) with some co-workers. It was a great hike ... although a lot more treacherous than I had anticipated. The fact that I was still nursing my afore mentioned groin injury did not help matters. I would highly recommend this scramble.


Mt. St. Helens Photo


My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer this fall. She is currently on round 4 of 6 of chemo, after which they will take a look at the size of the tumor and decide what type of surgery to do. My Dad and her have been holding up pretty well ... but it has been tough.


The fall has been pretty uneventful out here. We have been making sure to catch every bears game (I am sick of BW3's). Soon we will be heading home for Christmas. We are looking forward to seeing our families and friends again. Both our parents visited over the summer, and I made a weekend trip home to see everyone in November ... but Janel has not seen anyone in her family (except her parents this summer) since the wedding.


Hope all is well with you! Merry Christmas.


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Silver Falls and More

Allen and I went on nice 8 mile hike at Silver Falls on Saturday. We were supposed to be accompanied by Michelle and Aparna ... but they needed a bit more sleep after a late night of dancing :). Janel was stuck in a teacher's class all day, and was not able to join us. Saturday evening we went to a Christmas potluck for the math department. It was okay ... but lots of teacher talk :P. Afterwards we went to a birthday party with some of the younger teachers from Janel's department. We had a good time ... and it was nice to meet some new people. I also got to play some DDR for the first time in a long long time ... which was pretty amusing. We had did not get home until 1:30 or so ... so we slept in on Sunday and then went to brunch @ "Mothers" in downtown Portland. The food there was pretty good ... but I will probably try some other places before going back. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful ... chores and such. 2 more weeks until Christmas! (one more week of school for janel).

Backpacking Packing List

This is a packing list for a backpacking trip of 2-3 nights. For a longer trip, you should not need much else ... except maybe some additional clothing. You may also not need some of the gear in warm environments. I will try to make these things clear. This list includes the clothing that you will start out wearing.

Clothing should not be cotton if possible. You can probably get away with underwear, but the less cotton the better. Cotton T-shirts suck after they are covered with dirt and sweat. Sweatshirts are also crappy.

Group Gear
[ ] Tent
- Tent, Rain Fly, Steaks, Poles
[ ] Water Filter
[ ] Water Purification Tablets (critical when your filter breaks/clogs)
[ ] Stove
[ ] Cook Gear
[ ] Rope
[ ] Compass
[ ] GPS
[ ] Field Guide for those unexpected events
[ ] Topo Maps
[ ] Trowel
[ ] Matches (waterproof), Lighter
[ ] Toilet Paper
[ ] MSR DromLite Water Bag (so you don't have to pump in the morning)

Base Clothing/Gear
[ ] 2 Pair Underwear
- non-cotton are preferable
[ ] 1-2 Pair Pants w/ Zip-Off Shorts
- Can be expensive, 1 pair w/ a pair of regular shorts is an option
[ ] 2 Short-sleave light weight shirts
- REI and Pategonia both have these, cost ~$25 a piece
[ ] Rain Gear - Top and Bottom
- Poncho is a Cheap Alternative
- Sierra Designs makes some nice cheaper raingear, breathable is best though
[ ] Sun Glasses
[ ] Watch
[ ] Boots
[ ] 2-3 Pair Wool Socks
[ ] 2-3 Pair Liner Socks
- The silk variety cost a bit more but are worth it
[ ] Sandals or tennis shoes for camp
[ ] Hat (anything with a brim)

Cool-Weather Clothing (layers are best)
[ ] 1-2 Pair Light or Medium Weight Long-Sleave base layer
[ ] Fleece
[ ] Gloves (2-3 pairs for snow, or 1 pair with 2-3 pairs of liners)
[ ] Stocking Cap
[ ] Water-proof pants or snow-pants

Additional (optional) Clothing
[ ] Gaiters (necessary in some cold-weather environments)
[ ] Biking Gloves - good for Trekking Poles and Climbing on Things
[ ] Trekking Poles
[ ] Swimsuit

Hygene and Misc
Some of this gear can be shared ...
[ ] Toothbrush
[ ] Toothpaste
[ ] Sunscreen
[ ] Insect Repelant (100% Deet)

Personal Gear
[ ] Sleeping Bag
[ ] Air Mattress
[ ] Backpack
[ ] Backpack Rain Cover (a poncho can do the trick too)
[ ] Knife (at least one person in the group should have one)
[ ] Nelgene Bottle(s) and/or Hydration Bag - enough to hold ~100oz
[ ] Cup
[ ] Spoon
[ ] Camera
[ ] Head Lamp w/ Extra Batteries (or flashlight)
[ ] Book?
[ ] Camping Towel (Brand: MSR PackTowel, Medium or Large)

First Aid Gear
[ ] Mole Skin
[ ] Medical Tape
[ ] Duct Tape
[ ] Ibuprofen (more than you think you will need)
[ ] Tylenol w/ Codeine or Vycodin if you can get it
[ ] Imodium
[ ] Band-Aids
[ ] Ace Bandage
[ ] Gauze Roll
[ ] Benadril (a small amount)
[ ] Wound Dressing
[ ] Triple Antibiotic Ointment
[ ] Antiseptic
[ ] Small First-Aid book

Other Stuff Not to Forget
[ ] Tampons
[ ] Prescriptions
[ ] Glasses preferably, or Contacts
[ ] Contact Care Stuff (grab a travel size)

Food and Such
In general, the average person requires ~2 lbs of food per day. Food should all be repacked (except for freeze-dried dinners). This will reduce size and garbage.

The meals listed below are just some options.

[ ] Vitamins (this is optional for shorter trips, necessary for longer)
[ ] 2 Garbage Bags
[ ] Zip-lock bags to contain all meals
[ ] 4 Extra Large Ziplocks
[ ] 4 Extra Small Ziplocks

Breakfast
Pop Tarts
Instant Oatmeal
Granola

Lunch
Pita Bread / Lavash
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Sausage (good to freeze it before you go) - will last a day or two
Dried Fruit
Apple for Day 1 is good

Dinner
Freeze dried stuff is best. Beef Stroganoff is the best.

Snacks
Granola Bars
Cliff Bars
Pop Tarts
Trail Mix

Forums down

Not sure why ... but my forums seem to have died. It was a beta version of PHPBB3 ... and they just released a new rev ... so I will probably just reinstall and start from scratch. The new beta is not compatable with the old database so we will loose all the old posts and such (oh my).


Yesterday I had a ridiculous amount of web traffic and I suspect something broke in the process.


UPDATE: I have installed the new beta and it is up and running.

blog photos down

I am getting some strange behavior where a website is downloading my blog photos over and over again. I have taken them down temporarily in hopes that it will stop. You can still access all my photos in the photo gallery ... it is just the ones on the blog are turned off.


Update: The photos are back up and the offending domain has been blocked.

What happened to November?

So I realized that I have not made an update for the whole month of November. I am still alive, but have been pretty busy this month doing things that were not really all that exciting (from a website perspective at least).


I visited my parents the weekend before my Birthday. It was great getting to see them and my grandparents again. I last saw my parents in August when they were out for a visit, and had not seen my grandparents since the wedding. I also got chance to see Janel's parents, and spent some time with Jeff P, Mary B, Megan, and Trev. I was only in town for a few nights, so it was more intended to be a family visit than a friends visit. I will be sure to catch up with everyone when Janel and I are home for a week around Christmas.


We did Thanksgiving at home here in Portland with Allen and Apurva. The four of us had an 8 lb ham and 11 lb turkey (along with the other traditional fixings). Needless to say, we failed to eat it all. With the exception of going out to get "big sushi" at our favorite sushi place, Saburo's, on Saturday night, we have been eating ham for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily tonight I ate the last of it :).


Janel and I decided that we are going to take a trip to Norway this summer. The plan was originally to go to New Zealand, but we decided we did not really want to go there since it is the winter there that time of year. It is a great time if you are a skiing enthusiast, but that is not really our thing. So, we changed our minds and decided to hit up Norway instead. We have not worked out all the details yet ... but are already cringing at the price :). Oh well ... worst case we will have to push out our home purchase another year. We are not really in the mood to be home-owners yet anyway.


Now we just have to make the push towards Christmas. Things are actually at a somewhat slow point for me at work. That does not mean that I don't have plenty to do :) ... just that my giant to-do list is starting to get smaller rather than larger in preparation for me transitioning over to some new projects. After the new year that trend will probably flip :).


Janel is doing well at school ... although she is looking forward to finals and a few weeks break. Can't say too much in case her students find this page :).


If you are going to be around Chicago for Christmas let me know ... hopefully we can grab a beer or coffee or lunch sometime in the week between Christmas and New Years.

Please Vote!

I suspect the majority of you who read my blog are not from Oregon, but for those of you who are, I want to urge you to vote, and to vote against Ron Saxton (and for Ted Kulongoski) for governor. Now ... I honestly don't know much about Kulungowski, but I do know a decent amount about the changes that Saxton is trying to push on Oregon. If you ever watch an TV, and have seen one of his many ads, you know that he has been heavily basing his campaign on education reform. Education reform is great. I think that the schools here in Oregon could use some work (read: more money). The classroom sizes are way to large for one thing, and I am sure there are other problems that could be addressed to improve the educations of our children. However, what Ron Saxton is proposing to do to reform our schools is outrageous.


Now ... I don't consider myself an expert on education, but now that Janel is a teacher I do have a chance to talk to a lot of them on a regular basis :) ... and so I think I know (or can at least regurgitate) a thing or two. Yes ... teachers are almost always Dem's ... but this is not a simple partisan election where teachers are afraid of loosing funding if a Rep gets elected. Saxton's plans are far worse that just that. There are two major "reforms" he plans on making to improve our schools. (1) He wants to institute a "Merit Based" system for giving raises to our teachers. (2) He wants to make it so that students can go to whatever schools they want. Lets talk about these two "reforms" and the many holes in the logic behind them.


Before I get into the reforms, I want to point out one interesting thing about Saxton. You may have seen an ad on TV talking about how poorly our schools have been "graded". This was totally taken out of context. Those grades were not for K-12, but for colleges in Oregon. Saxton blatantly mislead the voters in this campaign ad. It was not a simple mistake either where he did not completely fact check before supporting an ad. When challenged about the ad, his campaign continued to support it despite the blatant flaws and misleading nature of the ad.


Let get into merit-based pay. Paying teachers based on merit sounds like a great idea. Everyone else's salary is based on merit ... right? So then tell me, how do you *fairly* evaluate a teacher to determine if he or she deserves a raise (and to what degree)? The simple answer is test scores. You take your class's scores from the previous year, and compare them with the scores at the end of the year, and poof, a nice quantification of how good of a teacher you are. It just does not work that way. What happens in 40% of your students are ELL's (English Language Learners)? What happens if they are only in school because they have to be? There is only so much that teachers can do for their students. How is a student supposed to perform well on a test if he is homeless because his mother disappeared the night before, and he came home to an apartment where his key no longer worked? In my opinion, the teachers that teach the low-level classes that likely show little overall test score improvement deserve just as much salary as the calculus teachers out there. All a merit based system will do will be to cause teachers to fight for the "good" classes, and penalize those who get stuck (or even enjoy) teaching the more challenging students. Even worse, good teachers who teach in low-performing (generally low-income) schools will just leave and go to the strong (rich-kid) schools. That is just what our country needs right now.


OK ... now on to "Open Enrollment". The general idea here is that students can enroll wherever they want as long as there is room for them. So ... there are a couple of problems with this. (1) How do the students get to the new schools. Either their parents drive them, or transportation is provided to them. Both of these are bad options. If their parents drive them, then this is really just open to students of middle-class parents who can take the time to ferry their children around. That means that the children of the middle class leave and go to schools with other middle class kids, and some schools are just left with the lower-income bracket families. Providing transportation would cost a fortune, and last I checked, the schools are not exactly swimming in cash these days. (2) When students leave a school, their funding goes with them. If students are leaving a school, it is likely because they are not pleased with the education they are getting there. If schools loose money when students leave, how are they ever going to get better? There are positive sides to this proposal (unlike the merit-based pay which is just crazy). Students from some of the more over-crowded schools could go to those that are underpopulated and such; but in the opinion of many of the teachers that I have spoken with, the negatives far outweigh the positives in this situation.

Decemberists Concert

I saw the Decemberists play this past Wednesday at the Crystal Ballroom with a coworker of Janel's. It was a very interesting concert. The band is made up of 6 people, each of which seems to play 3 different instruments (not at the same time) including electric guitars, violins, bases (both the guitar variety and the giant string instrument), piano, acordian, al sorts of percussion, and more. It was a lot different than the punk/emo concerts that I attended so many of during my younger years. It was a much older crowd (the 21+ section was much larger than the all-ages section) and the band was probably one of the most musically talented bands I have ever seen in concert. Anyway ... I would highly recommend getting a copy of their new album, The Crane Wife (as well as their previous albums).

SQL Server Issues

Something is broken with my SQL server :(. So ... if you have problems with my Photo Gallery or Forums, just reload the page and it should work. I am waiting for my web hosting company to resolve the problem.

Mt St Helens Climb

Tuesday I climbed Mt St Helens with some people from my group at work. It was our group's official "quarterly." It was probably a bit of a stretch for a group outing ... but I think we all had a great time. Allen, Michelle, Jason, Aparna, PK, Bob joined me from the Xeon team ... and Derek (Michelle's fiance) tagged along. We were originally supposed to have 13 people, but a bunch of people had to cancel for various reasons. Almost everyone made it to the top :).


They re-openned the mountain earlier this summer after closing it due to activity a few years back. To climb to the summit, you need to get one of 100 permits that are issued each day. It is not a very long hike - only ~10 miles, but does climb 4500 ft (think 3 Sears Towers). Before the hike, I figured that 4500 ft over 5 miles would be tough, but not that bad. I thought that it was strange that they called the permits "climbing permits" instead of just "permits" or "hiking permits." Well ... after about 2 miles into the hike with very little elevation gain, I discovered why.


When the volcanoe blew up back in 1980, it stopped resembling standard mountains :). Rather than followwing a nice steep trail of switchbacks all the way to the top, the "hike" became a scramble up talus (think bolders) and then through fine rocks (where you take a step and slide back down half way). The initial part of the climb is all through talus, and then breaks through to the sand for the final ascent to the summit.


Here is a picture of Derek and Allen making their way through the talus:





Here is a picture of Bob, Derek, and I taking a break while climbing through the talus with Mt. Adams in the background:





Below is a picture of our crew heading up the sand portion. Bob, Derek, and Allen are in front of me heading up. At this point, we started to get effected by the elevation and the climb was pretty tough. Bob and I adopted the technique of stopping at every rock that was large enough to sit on. I find that it is a lot easier to set small, simple goals at times like this than to look at the top and think about how far away it is.





The view all the way to the summit was fantastic. We could see Mt. Adams to our right and Mt. Hood was behind us. When we got to the summit, we were able to look down into the crater and see Mt. Rainier on the horizon. This was one of the best 360 degree views I have seen in my life. Bob, Allen, Derek, and I hit the summit at about 12:15 ... just in time for lunch.


Below is a picture of the crater (with Mt. Rainier in the background). This picture does not really do the dome justice. It is currently ~1000 ft high. I was talking to some people on top who had done the hike ~6 years ago (before it was closed), and at that time there was basically no dome :).





Here is a picture of Allen, Bob, and I sitting on the rim of the crater shortly after getting to the summit:





See a nice stitch of the crater taken by Allen.


We headed down at about 1:15. After about 15 minutes of cruising down through the sand, we rand into some of the others in our party. They ended up hitting the summit at maybe 2:30, and headed down at 3:00.


-- Waiting for a picture from PK of the second group --


Allen, Derek, and I got back to the parking lot at about 4:30, and waited for the rest of the crew to trickle in. Our total travel time varied from ~8 hours to ~11.


I would highly recommend this "climb" to anyone who is in good shape and understands that it is going to be a bit painful. Everyone who went was very happy about the experience the following day ... but probably only 1/2 were happy with me for dragging them up right after the hike :).


See all our pictures here.

So you are thinking of starting a webpage?

So today I got an email from my friend Rohini asking for information about starting a webpage. Rather than just respond to her, I thought I would write something up here so that anyone interested could learn about it. Hopefully this will get a few of you to start blogs that I can spend time reading each week.


So, lets start at a high level. The first thing that you need to ask yourself before starting a webpage is: "What do I want to do with my webpage?" Now ... you may not know the answer right away ... but this should at least be in the back of your mind as we progress through this little rant.


With that Q in the back of your mind, you have to decide which of three types of webpages you would like to have. The options are:


(1) Get a free account on the web to create a blog.


(2) Pay for a web host to serve your webpage, and create whatever you want.


(3) Serve your own webpage over your home internet.


I have done (2) and (3), but never (1) ... so keep that in mind as we now go through each of the different options.


Free Blog Sites


Using a free site out there is actually pretty nice these days. There are a couple of popular blogging sites out there. One major one is Blogger.com (aka blogspot). Another is Xanga.com. These both seem pretty nice. They not only allow you to write blogs, but also have space where you can upload and share your photos. You also have a good bit of control over what your page looks like. To see some examples, check out Jeff's blog (blogger) and Jenn's blog (xanga). Being that I don't have any real experience with either, I cannot really recommend one over the other.


In general, these sites are nice for getting started with webpages. It is most likely the fastest and easiest way to get a webpage. However, you are somewhat limitted in your freedom with what you can do. If you are thinking of creating a webpage but are not sure what you want ... I would recommend giving one of these guys a shot for a bit to see what you think. It is free ... so why not. If you don't like it ... just cancel your account :).


Paying to have your site hosted


I am currently paying for this site to be hosted. I used to host my own site, but got sick of the hassle. The good thing about paying to have your site hosted is that you have as much freedom as you like. You can do something really simple ... or get as fancy as you like. If there is something that you don't like ... you are in control and can change it if you like. Again, this is probably not as easy as creating one of the free blogs ... but you sure don't need to be a hacker to put together a decent looking webpage. (Note that "hacker" is a term for someone who is a strong programmer, and actually is misused wheb refering to programmers who partake in illegal activities).


Like I said before, there are infinite options for creating your own webpage. One easy thing that you can do if you have a mac is to use iLife. This is what Janel used to create her webpage. Generally, anything that apple puts together is very user friendly. You can quickly and easily make webpage, photo galleries, blogs, etc. Both Pablo and my dad created their webpages with iLife.


I am *not* a fan of webpages created with microsoft tools. No ... I am not just being an anti-msft snob. I am a big fan of some MSFT products (Excel, Visio, etc) ... but have found their web page creation tools to frankly be crap.


Another option if you are a bit more brave is to download what I will call a free webpage template. You can also buy some nice templates out there for not too much money. I am not familiar with this, but I know others that have gone this route; and have created some nice looking pages with not too much effort or money. You can find lots of free software (of all types), including stuff like what I use for this page, at Sourceforge. Just search here for "blog" and sort by the number of downloads. There are all sorts of options here that you can use ... and each of them are completely open source, so you can modify whatever you like if you are not afraid to get your hands dirty with a little simple html or php. Many of these tools can also be used with absolutely no knowledge of programming or anything. People have spent a large amount of time over recent years upgrading these tools so that they are as easy to use as possible.


I personally use "Simple PHP Blog" which is currently the 4th option when performing the search I described above. I am pretty happy with this tool. I have done a little hacking at the code ... but it was not really that necessary. In case you were wondering ... it does not automatically use those google adds that you may see on the right of my page when you scroll down. I added those myself (this goes back to the hacking on the code that I have done) as an experiment to see how it works. I have made a whole $0,65 cents in the month or so that it has been up. Apparently nobody likes to click on them :P. I chose this tool because it is very simple, and I wanted to keep things as basic as possible. With that said, lets talk a bit about databases.


There are all kinds of options out there that you will run in to when (1) picking who to have host your site and (2) what software to use on your site. One thing that you will run into are databases, or you may see "SQL" or "mySQL". Databases are used to organize data. They can be very complicated. With that said, it is nothing to really be afraid of for creating a webpage. Generally web hosting packages that include databses cost a bit more, but it is not at all uncommon for the free tools that are available on the web to use them. Most of the software can coach you through getting your database setup. All you will have to do is create a database (generally through some "dashboard" with your web host), and the web page installation tool will do the rest.


My blog page, unlike many of the ones that you will find out there, does not use a database to store the posts. Instead, it just stores everything in text files on the server and processes them with php code (php is just a simple scriping language commonly used to build webpages). On the other hand, my photo gallery uses a databse to maintain all of its state.


One thing to keep in mind with some of these dynamic pages is that it is a good idea to keep them up to date. It is not uncommon for security problems to crop up -- especially with the more complicated tools. I have had problems in the past with other tools with people getting access to my webpage and adding posts and such to it. This is really annoying :) ... but can generally be prevented by just updating your site with the most recent code. This can be a pain with some tools, and quite easy with others. When investigating your different options, take a look at the upgrade instructions (commonly in the installation section). If it looks like a pain ... then try to find something else :).


Beyond just creating a blog or a base webpage, you will probably want to post photos. There are a lot of free photo tools (check out sourceforge). I am a big fan of "Gallery". It does require a database ... but has been around forever and is very user friendly. It is very easy to add photos too it and have it create thumbnails and such. Mine is a bit slower than I would like ... but this may have something to do with my web host or the fact that I have over 5000 photos uploaded :).


i just covered a lot of information about creating your webpage. Hopefully you are not too overwhelmed. Trust me though ... as long as you don't get too ambitious ... it is really not that bad. It will definitely be more time consuming ... but can also be a lot of fun.


Hosting your own page


It is possible to host your own webpage. If you are computer-savy enough to try this, I probably do not need to tell you how to go about doing it :). All I want to say about this is that I would recommend against it. I seriously think it is much more hassle than it is worth. It is not that hard to get things running at first ... but nobody wants to deal with keeping everything up to date all the time on your system. Speaking as someone who has had his system hacked into twice ... just don't go here. The other thing is that it is really not cheaper to go this route. I did some calculations a few years back ... and basically found that it is actually cheaper to not have your computer plugged in all the time and to pay for someone else to host your website than to pay for the power to have it on all the time. This was with a bare bones system -- no monitor, no video card, no crazy processor. So ... if you think you are saving a buck or two by serving your own page ... try turning off you computer instead :).

Lazy Labor Day

I had a nice lazy labor day weekend. Originally Janel and I were planning to take a trip out to Crater Lake for Labor Day...but Janel decided that she needed the weekend to get ready for school. She meant it. I think she worked like 80% of the entire weekend. Teachers may get done with class @ 2:30 ... but I know that they sure put in a lot more time than most of us (for a lot less money).


Friday night we had a little "party" with Allen, Shelley, Michelle, and Derek. For the first time, we had enough people to play Cranium! It is good to finally have friends :P. We also played a bit of a new game that Derek and Michelle introduced us to -- San Juan. Janel and Allen and I have been playing it a lot lately. It is another German game (if you are familiar with Settlers) and I would highly recommend it. It has a good amount of strategy ... but not too much thinking (I do enough of that at work).


We had Shelley, Pablo, and Allen over for a BBQ on Monday. It was good to see Pablo again. Not much else to say about that :).


Not sure if any of you follow this sort of thing, but Intel announced some major layoffs today. This has been underway for a good three months now. Welcome to the tech industry :). Oh well ... I think that I am in good shape and according to my manager I have nothing to be worried about. Hopefully this is true ... only time will tell. I only know two things: (1) this will not be the last of these layoffs that I ever have to go through and (2) whatever happens -- it is not the end of the world :).

Mt Rainer Pics Update

I have just added Jame's pictures from our trip here.

Rocket Attacks in Haifa

I just got some pictures of one of the Intel buildings in Haifa, Isreal today. I was thinking of going over there this month before this chaos all went down. Luckily nobody was around or injured in the explosions.

Mount Rainier Backpacking

This past weekend, I took a four day weekend trip up to Mount Rainier to go backpacking with Allen, Todd, and Jame. We did the Northern Loop trail, half of which follows the Rainier Wonderland Trail. This is only a 35 mile loop, but has a substantial amount of elevation. We had a good time, but not without problems.


Day 1 - Lake James Camp


We started our hike at Ipsut Creek on the North West side of the park. The first day started out with an easy 2 mile relatively flat warm-up. At about the 2 mile mark, we crossed a rickety bridge over a glacial-melt stream (picture below):





After crossing the stream, we hit our first substantial elevation with steep 2000 foot climb followed by another less-steap 1000 feet. This was pretty tough, but not terrible. Once on top, we did not have great views of Rainier, but there were some nice meadows and smaller mountains.





After getting to the top, we dropped down about 1500 feet to our campsite at James Lake. On the way down, Jame hurt his knee, which turned into a problem as we proceeded. The camp was okay ... but nothing to write home about. There was a decent lake nearby, but the camp itself was frankly boring. We played some cards and had a nice meal. Mmmm beef stroganoff.


Day 2 - Berkeley Camp


Day 2 started out with another 1000 feet elevation drop. Jame's knee was really bothering him and he had some problems getting down into the valley. At the bottom there was a waterfall and some hicks. They were quite amusing. Apparently giardia does not exist, and as long as water is moving and you don't see any dead animal near the water, you can just drink away.


After this we immediately had another climb up another few thousand feet. Luckily climbing was not as problematic for Jame's knee, and we were able to make some decent time. At the top were some spectacular views of Rainier -- our first real views of the trip.





This view is accessible by day hike out of Sunrise. If you head towards Grant Park from sunrise, and walk another 1/4 mile or so (past the camp) you will get to this view. It makes a long day hike, but something to consider :).


After getting to the top we had a nice lunch (I was a jerk and would not let us stop until we got to the top) and then walked a couple more miles to Berkeley Camp. This campsite was better than the first. It is situated next to a stream, which is always good for sleeping. Jame's knee was still bothering him a lot, and at this point we decided that him and Allen would head out the following day to Sunrise (a point of entry on the North East side of the park).


Day 3 - Mystic Lake


We got an early start on day 3 and headed about a mile to the split between Sunrise and Mystic Lake campground where Todd and I headed towards Mystic and Jame and Allen towards Sunrise (where we would pick them up after getting the car on day 4).


After splitting up, Todd and I headed up a ridge to a great view of the mountain. This is also a possible day hike (head towards Mystic from Sunrise) ... but the view is probably not that much better than the view from Sunrise. After this, we headed down a ways towards the Winthrop Glacier valley. We crossed the glacial melt stream just below the bottom of the rock-covered glacier (see below):





After crossing the glacier valley, we had some more elevation gain on our longest day of hiking. Todd and I finished the 10 miles before lunch ... we were hauling :). After lunch we had a nice nap and then went up to Mystic Lake and sat in the relatively warm lake water for an hour before heading back to camp for a second nap. Below is a picture of the lake.





Todd had acquired some nasty blisters on the first day, and we retreated them after the lake. They were looking quite nasty. We then had another nap, some dinner, and hit the sack for the nite.


Day 4 - Heading Out


On Day 4 we got an early start so that we could get back to the car as quickly as possible. Todd and I hauled down the mostly-downhill trail and finished the 8 miles in by 11am. One thing I would like to point out is that there is a trail split about .8 miles to the west of Mystic Lake. There is a sign at this point that points towards the lake. Instead of heading towards the lake, you can head towards the mountain for about 2 miles to what is supposed to be a ridiculous view of both the mountain and the glaciers (where the ice is exposed instead of being covered in rock). We did not get a chance to try this out, but will sometime in the future.


After getting out we had some Quiznos, picked up Allen and Jame from Sunrise, and headed home.


Good times with the guys :).


You can see all the pictues here.


Related Link

New Fish! -> Neon Tetra's

We added three Neon Tetras to our fish tank Sunday. So far they are holding up pretty well, although they don't seem very interested in leaving the bottom of the tank yet (they are supposed to be middle-tank dwellers). Next we are going to pick up a couple more to round out our school of Neons @ 5, and probably a bottom feader -- maybe a catfish -- to clean up some of the food that falls all the way to the bottom.

High School English

Tonight Janel and I had dinner w/ Mrs. Cargill (Debbie) -- our High School Sophomore English Teacher. Her daughter moved out here a few years back, and she recently purchased a Condo that is literally only a few hundred yards from our apartment. Small world! It was good catching up with her, and interesting to interact with an old high school teacher in a social environment rather than the student-teacher one.

Camping @ Toll Gate

This weekend we went camping at Toll Gate, a campground at the foot of Mt. Hood near Zigzag, OR with Jason, Lynn, William, and Apurva. It is a small campground with about 14 sites, most of which are just feet from a small river. Our site was across the road from the river, which was a good thing since we had a mobile 1.5 year old William to keep watch over. After a good dinner of brats and dogs, we went through a couple of bundles of wood at the fire. At around 11:30 Janel and Apurva and I headed up to Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge to try to catch the Perseid Meteor Shower (a yearly shower that I like to watch). Sadly, the shower was not all that great. The moon was pretty bright, but I am not sure why we did not see more shooting stars. The next day we planned to do a hike, but I forgot my boots and did not want to risk hurting my toe, as I will be heading out to Mt. Rainier on Thursday nite. So ... we just headed home. Our next trip will be to Crater Lake ... and probably the Coast after that.

New Fish Tank

We decided to buy a fish tank while Janel's parents were in town. They have a fish tank at home that Frank has been working on for the past year or so, and we thought it would be fun and useful to pick one up while they were here. It really looks nice in our living room :).


We originally were planning on getting something small ... maybe 18 or 20 gallons. Then we read that it is a lot easier to have a larger tank if you don't know what you are doing -- the large amount of water makes it more difficult to screw things up. We can also get more fish that way. We decided to get a setup like what Janel's dad has, which is the Eclipse System. Of all the places that we went to, only one PetSmart had one of them in stock (not including little 12g or less tanks) ... and that was a 37g tank. So, we decided to go for it.


Here is a picture of the tank in the living room:





We currently have two platies -- one "Micky-Mouse" Red Platy and a Sunburst Platy. We will be adding maybe 15 more fresh-water tropical fish at about 2-3 fish per week, so it will take a while until the tank fills up. We are also using a mixture of fake and live plants.


Here is a zoomed in picture of the tank where you can see the two fish swimming with each other. Platies are not always schooling fish, but these two seem to have taken a liking to each other.





Related Link

Janel's Parents Visit

Janel's parents were out here for about the past week visitting. It was a good visit, and I think that they really liked it out here. We spent a lot of time just hanging out, but also did a bit of site-seeing.


They arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday we took it easy and Janel's dad went and watched her soccer game.


Thursday I took the day off and we made a trip out to the Gorge. The weather was perfect -- clear and cool. We first hit up Vista House, then went up to Larch Point (where you can see most of the major mounts up here), and then had lunch at Multnomah Falls. Below is a picture of Janel with her parents at Vista House.





Janel went to the zoo with her parents on Friday.


We were planning on going out to the Coast on Saturday, but decided to keep things simple and just hang out instead. We ended up buying and setting up a Fish Tank :). That was a lot of fun (although now I feel poor).


Sunday I made breakfast, and then we went and saw Taladega Nights. I was not that impressed with the movie, but it was not too bad :). We had a nice dinner downtown at Jake's in celebration of Frank's (Janel's dad's) birthday.


It was good seeing the in-laws :). See all the pictures here.

Visitors, Wine Tasting, and More!!

This past week has been pretty busy around Hillsboro. Allen was in town from Wednesday through Saturday to pick out a place to live. After scoping out a bunch of different places, he followed in Apurva's footsteps and decided to join Janel and I at Creekside. He will be living approximately 10 seconds from us (door to door). Now I just have to get him to carpool with us at 7:00AM :).


Laura also came out to Portland with her mother to visit some relatives as well as Janel and I. We went wine tasting with them down by Newburg on Saturday afternoon. It is beautiful country down there -- I think that I like it more than Napa. However, I still think that I am a bigger fan of Cali. wines. Apparently this is Pinot Noir country -- and I am not a huge Pinot Noir fan, but wine tasting is still always a good time. We had one wine that has been served at the White House. I imagine the Bush's have exceptional wine pallets.


Sunday we took a trip out to see Ramona Falls, a popular hike near Mt. Hood, and drove up to Timberline Lodge. It was a good hike (I will write more about this later and show some pictures as well) ... but Timberline was actually pretty disappointing. This is the lodge where "The Shining" was filmed (specifically ... the outside of the movie ... the inside was done somewhere else).


One interesting tidbit of information that I came across today: They will be reopenning the trail that goes to the top of Mt. St. Helens in a couple of days. That should be an exciting/fun hike for the near future :).

Ramona Falls

Laura was out in Portland visiting us and her relatives this past weekend, and joined Janel, Pablo, and I on a hike out to Ramona Falls near Mount Hood. It was a beautiful day. It got a little bit warm, but all in all was not that bad. There were flies that apparently were bothering the other three, but apparently they were not very interested in me. :)


The hike was a steady climb throughout, and passed through a few different environments on the way to the falls. Near the parking lot the path was almost sandy. I think this was volcanic sand, but I am not really sure. Below is a picture of Hood as we crossed a river.





After about a four mile hike, we made it to Ramona Falls. The light did not make for nice photos (especially with our simple cameras) but was a beautiful spot. It was also very cool near the falls, which made for the perfect lunch spot.





Here is a picture of Janel and Laura on the bridge below the falls.





After the hike we drove up to Timberline Lodge. This place was actually pretty disappointing this time of the year. I would like to go up again when there is more snow.


You can see all of our pictures here.

France Pictures Uploaded

I have added our France pictures to the photo gallery. You can see them here. I plan on writing a little journal about it, but have not had a chance yet.

France Internet

Well ... internet in France was pretty crappy. It was all I could do to check my work email, so I did not have a chance to upload pics or anything yet. I plan on doing that this afternoon / evening.

Retirement Savings

My dad sent me an interesting quick read on retirement saving today from the Wall Street Journal (see article here). The short story of the article is that people should be saving about 15% of their salaries for retirement (including any contributions that your company may make to your account). This is quite a bit higher than the traditional 10% that used to be the conventional wisdom. Anyway ... if you are like me and are doing a bit of thinking about how much to put into your 401K and how much to save for a down payment for a house, this article is a good read.

Off to France

Janel and I are off to France tomorrow bright and early. I *plan* on updating this blog during the trip with photos and such ... so check back during the next 10 days if you want to see how much fun we are having (other than when I am at the conference).

My Parents Visit

My parents came for a visit last week. Tuesday morning we had breakfast and I showed them around Intel. They then went out to the coast while I finished up my work week. Friday I had a "quarterly" with my group where we all went out to Cannon Beach (Ecola State Park actually) for a BBQ and an afternoon of no work. This was a lot of fun, and my parents met us and got to meet many of the people in my group. We had a good time all in all ... I will have to get some pictures from Yen who actually was more of a camera fanatic than I usually am. Friday night they came and watched Janel and I play soccer.


Saturday we did the "visitor" thing. We hit up the Rose and Japanese Gardens in Washington Park (I was too cheap to ever go to the Japanese Garden before) ... and then wandered around downtown a bit (REI, Powell's, etc). Janel was out taking her final teaching tests while we were doing all of this. She has passed all her tests so far ... and it is good that she is finally done (I don't have to listen to her complain about tests ever again (hopefully)).


Sunday we went on a hike to Eagle Creek. We have been there before, but this was the first time that I did the 12 mile trip out and back from Tunnel Falls. This was a great hike, although there were a ton of people out. Below is a picture of all of us at Lower Punchbowl Falls. It was supposed to have the falls in the background :) ... but oh well.





It was very interesting coming back to this trail (we were here two weeks ago). The water level has come down like 6-8 inches since then. I had to wade out in the river to see Punchbowl Falls two weeks ago, but had no trouble taking a picture this week. I brought my chaco's ... so I decided to wade all the way across to make use of them :).


We had a great lunch about a mile past the "High Bridge." There were a couple small waterfalls that we could see through the trees, so we made our way through the forest to the river to a great lunch spot.





Tunnel Falls was huge ... by far the best falls on the entire trail. It is pretty cool ... there is a tunnel that goes behind the waterfall so that you can follow the trail around. Just past Tunnel Falls is another waterfall. It is not really possible to see it though, because of the angle, but there are some huge cliffs (see picture below). I was going to make my "newbie" backpacking trip down this trail ... but I might have to reconsider because of the possibility that people are afraid of heights. We shall see...





All in all I had a great visit with my parents :). You can see all the pictures here. Related Link

Relaxation

Janel and I decided to keep this weekend simple, as things are going to be pretty packed for the rest of the summer. Friday night we had a couple of fun soccer games early in the evening. Our second game was against some high school kids, which I always enjoy :). Despite the fact that the ball had to be on our side of the field for 75% of the game, we pretty much trounced them 7-3. I had a couple of nice goals (boys are only allowed to score 2 goals in our league), and Janel's shot is really improving as well. Saturday, Jason and Pablo joined us on a trip downtown to the Rose Festival. We went to some carnival on the waterfront. The had some fun looking rides ... but they all cost at least $3.50 ... and I was much too cheap to partake in that. After that we went over to the Saturday Market and wandered around a bit. I saw some nice photography, which reminded me that I have been meaning to buy some more picture frames and get some more photos up. Today we are taking it easy ... need to clean up the place because my parents will be visiting next weekend. The weekend after that we are planning on heading up to Seattle to visit Jenn ... and then we will be off to France.

Alkaline Trio Concert

On Wednesday Janel, Shelley, and I went to see the Alkaline Trio at the Crystal Ballroom. The Draft and The Lawrence Arms openned for them. This was the first concert I had been to in a long long time, and I had a lot of fun. The Draft and Lawrence Arms were okay (although Janel and Shelley really were not into the latter) ... but the Alkaline Trio played one of the longest sets I have ever experienced before. They started out playing their entire first album, Goddammit ... which I really enjoyed. They then played a few songs off of their most recent album (Crimson) ... but not too many, and a few new songs, along with a smattering of others from their various albums. One thing that I thought was strange about the whole experience was the amount of cell phones and gadgets that everyone in the crowd seemed to have. People were texting on these little devices with QWERTY keyboards and camera phones were out in force. Obviously, this was a lot different than what was the standard at the shows that I grew up going to (not to be judgemental ... just interesting how things have changed). I left my camera phone at home :) ... so no pictures to post for this entry. Despite being 25 ... I still enjoy the thrill of the crowd, despite the fact that the people in there with me are starting to look a bit young.

Memorial Day Weekend

We has a nice Memorial Day weekend, despite the fact that our plans to go camping fell through. The weekend turned out to be rather rainy, so all in all I am glad that we ended up canceling our original plans. Friday night we did not have any soccer, so we had Pablo, Jason, and Shelley over for "El noche de paella". Pablo cooked us some delicious paella de pollo (below) and gespacho, and we enjoyed a bit of wine as well.





Saturday we got up early and made a trip up to Washington for a nice hike with Jason and Pablo (see my blog entry below). Saturday evening we had some sushi, and then taught Jason and Pablo how to play Settlers of Catan. If you have not played this game ... you should check it out. We then hit up the Cornelius Pass Road House for some beers (and a Chocolate Shake for Pablo who was having a chocolate craving).


Sunday Janel and I met up with my old friend and roommate Diana, who made a trip up for the weekend from Folsom. It was great to see D again, and to meet some of her friends. We took them to Eagle Creek for a nice hike.


Today was pretty relaxing. We had brunch with Shelley, Jenn, and Lisa, and will be having burgers for dinner with Jason, Pablo, and Shelley.

Siouxon Trail

Jason join Janel, Pablo, and I today for his first hike ever at the Siouxon Trail south of Mt. St. Helens. This was a nice trail along a creek and a few waterfalls. There are no views of St. Helens, but this was okay as it was a rainy day. The waterfalls were not particularly amazing, but it was a nice hike anyway. We were unable to visit one of the larger waterfalls, as it is necessary to cross the river and it was still a bit too early in the season to make the crossing. We probably could have made it, but I don't think it would have been worth the effort. Below is one of the larger waterfalls that we saw towards the end of the hike. Jason and I scrambled across some slippery rocks to get to the view shown below.

Keeping busy, but no more marathon training

I decided last weekend that I am done with marathon training. I was trying to stick with it, but realized that it was not going to happen ... especially with all the travel and such that we will be doing this summer. It also does not really line up with my priorities (read: hiking and camping). Despite being a quitter :) ... we are still keeping quite busy. After two soccer games Friday night, we ran a 5K Saturday morning, and went on a nice hike (see below) today. The 5K went okay ... I did not really know how to pace myself, so I ended going out a bit too conservatively so my time was not all that great ... but on the bright side I was not really that tired the rest of the day.

Salmon River

Pablo joined Janel and I on a hike at the Salmon River up near Zigzag on the way to Mt. Hood today. The weather was a bit iffy today, so we decided to take a nice low-elevation hike. All in all it was a decent hike. No spectacular vistas or waterfalls, but a nice river and some beautiful forest. I would not highly recommend this trail, but am still glad that I went. Below is a picture from rather early in the hike. There were some nice views early in the hike, as well as towards the end.

Larch Moutain Loop

Janel and I went on a nice to Large Mountain today in the Gorge. We were expecting a nice quick 6-7 mile hike before a day of chores ... but the hike ended up being a bit more challenging than anticipated. We were looking forward to the hike because May is supposed to be a great time for this trail because of the wildflowers. However, as a result of the heavy snows this winter, we encountered a large amount of snow instead of May wildflowers :). Snow hiking is a lot more tiring than normal trail hiking :). Below is a picture of Janel on the snow.





Despite the snow, the weather was actually perfect for hiking. I wore shorts the entire time. When we got home, it was almost 80! Anyway, it was a nice hike and we did not see a lot of people until we got to the top (Shepard Point). You can drive up here, and we saw a lot of people. Despite being able to drive to the main attraction, I would still recommend this hike ... it was very nice. Here is a picture of Janel and I at the top. Apparently after all that hiking I forgot how to smile :P





To see all the pictures, go here.

Janel's Future

Janel accepted a job @ Aloha High School today (the same school that she is currently working at). Word on the street is that there are a bunch of girls that she works with that are our age and single. Just another reason for all you Comp Arch grad students @ UIUC to get your butts out here ;).

Things looking good for Janel

Hiring season is starting in the Beaverton district. Westview (one of the schools close to us) called yesterday to setup an interview for Monday. They also called Aloha (the school Janel is working at now) to ask about Janel. As a result, the head of the math department at Aloha told Janel today that they would be offering her a position in about 1 week (after working through some logistics). This takes a large weight of Janel's shoulders (and of course makes my life a lot easier :P). So ... J should have a good idea of where she is going to be around this time next week (or maybe the week after). Maybe I should go out and buy that altimeter watch at REI (there is a big sale this week :)).

Backpacking at Mount Rainier

Got my reservations for a backpacking trip in August made today. The 18th - 21st Allen and Todd and I (I am still looking for one more person) are going to do the Northern Loop Trail, about half of which is on the famous Wonderland Trail at Mount Rainier National Park. The 4 day trip will cover about 35 miles, and we will be staying at the James Camp, Berkeley Park, and Mystic Camp sites (see map). It should be a lot of fun. Let me know if you are interested in joining us!

An Interesting Week ... A Less Interesting Weekend

For those of you who follow the tech industry, this week was a bit interesting at Intel. After mediocre (as expected) earnings during Q2, Intel announced that it planned on trimming some of the fat off of the company. There were no major firings yet (some rumors floating around of course), but instead they plan on evaluating every aspect of the company over the next 90 days to determine how they want to proceed. Currently, we are just in a hiring freeze, in an attempt to reduce numbers through attrition. Ultimately, this is really just the standard in the tech world (and really not all that interesting) ... but it is the first such time period that I have ever experienced ... so it is kind of interesting to me. Luckily I am in a pretty well protected part of the company right now ... so I am not really worried.


This weekend was a lot more low-key than usual. Janel had some teacher's test for a lot of the day on Saturday ... and by the time she got home it was raining ... so we did not get a chance to go on a bike ride (as we had planned). Today we went on a nice 10 mile run (at a nice and slow 12 minute mile pace). My knees are not holding up to the beating too well ... I am hoping they are just getting used to it but we will see. This afternoon we had lunch at the sister-in-law of one of the prof's at UIC that Janel TA'd for. The interesting thing was that it turns out that she is the sister of David Culler (a Prof @ Berkeley in Comp Arch). Small world :).

Angel's Rest

Today Janel and I went hiking at Angel's Rest in the Gorge. It was a somewhat short hike (only ~4.5 miles) but had a lot of elevation gain and was a good hike. Janel had her Basic Skills test this morning, so we did not have too much time for a longer hike. There was a nice view at the top of the gorge, but we were unable to see Mt Hood which was too bad. The trail does go on ... so it may be that farther down the trail (more elevation) we would have made it over the ridge and been able to see Hood. Below is a picture from close to the top. All of the pictures can be seen here.





Tonight we have a soccer game, and tomorrow we are going on a 9 mile run for marathon training. Should be interesting :)

Alaska Journal Back

Sain asked me to put up the Alaska journals again. I have imported them into my new blogging tool, and have links to the posts over on the right (under "Alaska Trip"). So ... if you want to procrastinate a bit ... (re)read about our trip. My journal is the best 'cause it includes pictures :).

My Music

I added a list of all of my CD's. Check it out on the right under links.

Cameo Cafe

This week we decided to start going to brunch (a different place) once a month. I then decided that I was going to start doing some restaraunt reviews on this webage. Illinois people might not care too much, but oh well :).


Today we went to the Cameo Cafe on the West Side of Portland. All in all, this place was pretty good, but a bit expensive. I think we each payed about $15 for brunch. The pancakes here are *huge* ... one pancake is ~14" in diameter. I had a pancake, 1 egg, and 1 piece of ham, and was unable to finish all my food. I think the "1 egg" was more like 3, and the piece of ham was pretty substantial too. Good atmosphere, friendly staff. This place is supposed to get busy pretty early ... either go early or make reservations (they only allow a limitted number of these).

Marathon Training?

So I went on a nice 8 mile trail run this morning with Janel and Shelley and Amy with the Team Oregon Portland Marathon Clinic. It was a good time ... although my body is a bit displeased :). It was very muddy and raining. Last night Janel and I had a soccer game that started at 11:20 ... so I did not get as much sleep as I am accustomed to. For the second week in a row, we played a team of high school kids and won. I am not sure how we beat these kids who are in shape ... but I am pretty sure it is not my skills :). Anyway ... the rest of the weekend should be pretty packed. We are going to a beer and wine festival this afternoon, brunch tomorrow morning, and hiking tomorrow afternoon (probably a short one). Now I think I am going to go take a nap before we head downtown.

Eagle Creek

Janel and Shelley and I went hiking in the Gorge today at the Eagle Creek trail. It was a good time, despite the fact that we had to deal with a bit of rain for part of the hike. The rain was actually probably a blessing ... this trail is supposed to be quite crowded, and the so-so weather kept the numbers down. The trail follows a "creek" (which is more of a small river) up past a series of waterfalls. Instead of hiking down by the water, the trail is cut into the cliffs and follows a few hundred feet or so above the water. There were three large falls on the trail: Metlako Falls, Punchbowl Falls, and Lodwit Falls. All the other pictures can be seen here.

Driving in Portland

is not like driving in Chicago ... or California ... or New York. The people here have the serious slows. This is not necessarily a bad thing ... apparently the accident rate is pretty low ... but being someone who learned to drive in Chicago ... I just can't stand it. It is not at all uncommon here for people in the left lane to drive 50 MPH (in light/moderate traffic). Merges make them slow down ever more. Anyway ... I could rant about this more (and I do to Janel whenever I have to drive), but will close it off here. Just remember ... if you ever come to visit ... don't be surprised if you find yourself drifting into a state of road rage :).

Summer Schedule

So people have been asking what Janel and my summer schedule looks like. Here it is right now ...


o May


- 26 - 29th: Crater Lake (Memorial Day)


o June


- 9 - 11th: My parents in Town


- 16th: Janel's last day of school


- 27th - 4th: France?


o July


- 21 - 30th: Vacation (British Colombia)


o August


- 1 - 6th?: Janel's Parents visit


- End of August / Early September: Backpacking Trip


We like visitors ... so let us know if you want to come out to see us :)

Life in the "Real World"

Well ... I have been in the "real world" for a good 2 months or so now. So far so good :). I am so glad that I decided to bail on my PhD now. I have probably been putting 8-10 hours a day in at work ... but it is so nice coming home at night and being able to really leave work behind. I suspect that as time progresses, there will be times where I have to do a bit of work at night ... but I don't think it will be that bad. The work is pretty interesting. I have a lot of different projects that I am working on ... and I even have an intern :). It is tough meeting people that are in the same stage of life that Janel and I are. A lot of people at Intel have kids ... and of course there are a good number who are just a bit strange. I am looking forward to Allen and my friend Michelle moving out here. Anyway ... time to close this off ...

Webpage Overhall

So I decided to scrap my old main iansteiner.com page in place of just using this blog. I think my old main page was just a big waste of time ... so this is my new home :).

Waterfalls

Today Janel and Shelley and I went to Silver Falls State Park. This place was amazing. For those of you Illinois people who are somewhat outdoorsy ... this Starved Rock times ten. I am a big fan of waterfalls (almost as big as I am of suffering to climb to the top of mountains) and this place was great for them. We actually got to walk behind 3 waterfalls. I turned asian and took a whole bunch of photos ... you can see them all here.

Wedding Pictures from Rohini and Rashmi

We just received a bunch of photos from Rohini from the wedding. Her sister took a bunch of pictures at the rehearsal (here) and Ro took a bunch of pictures at the rehearsal (here). Enjoy :).

More Wedding Photos

My grandmother takes excellent pictures :) ... and today I turned her negatives into digital copies and have posted them to my website. She decided to get a digital camera after the wedding! :) Anyway ... check them out here: Grandma Steiner's Wedding Photos

New Apartment

As many of you know, Janel and I recently moved out to Portland (Hillsboro actually) and have been busy for the past month or so getting settled in to our new apartment. The place is starting to feel like home ... although we still need to do a little bit of decorating. Anyway, I have posted some pictures of our new place ... so check them out if you are interested :). Apartment Photos

Multnomah Falls

Janel and I went to Multnomah Falls today. It is the 2nd tallest waterfall in the 48 states that does not freeze year round, and is ~45 minutes from our place. It is a really touristy place at the base of the waterfall (one of the most popular destinations in all of Oregon), but there is also some good hiking there as well. We were planning on doing a 9 mile loop trail that checks out a lot of waterfalls and also has some nice vistas, but about 2.5 miles up the trail we ran into some nasty ice and could not go on. I want to get Janel a pair of crampons ... but she does not seem to interested in this plan :P. We did have to deal with some ice before it got really bad ... Janel decided that the best way to deal with the ice was to fall on her butt and slide down the trail :). Check out the pictures in the photo gallery!

The first day of the rest of my life

Today I started work at Intel. I am working on future server processor architectures outside of the core of the processor. Things are pretty busy for my group these days ... and I already have something real to work on :).

Added 2001 and 2002 photos

I finished uploading my pictures from 2001 and 2002 ... and they have been added to the photo gallery.

Removing Announcements

I decided to remove the announcements from the main page and put them here instead.

New Blog

I decided to try doing a blog ... we will see how long it lasts :)