Top 5 - Once you have it, you can never go back

My top 5 - things that once you have it, it's hard to live without it...

5. Car stereo controls on the steering wheel: Nothing beats changing stations with a flick of your finger without taking your hand off the wheel. Ahh, convenience. 

4. Digital Cameras: Back in my freshman year of high school I took introduction to photography. We used regular cameras, learned how to add some cool effects in the dark room and develop film. It was a good experience but the dark room was too chemically for my liking and if you messed up on developing the picture, you wasted a whole sheet of photo paper. Give me a digital camera, a computer with photo editing software and a printer any day.

3. Caller ID: It increases the likelihood that I'll answer the phone when you call by 90%.

2. Cell phone alarm clocks: It's saved me on those mornings when there was a power outtage or when I forgot to change the time for daylight savings. It's also really handy when travelling when you never know what kind of alarm clock you'll get or when the hotel wake-up call is 5 minutes late. 

1. GPS & Google Maps Street View: These two go hand in hand. The GPS can get me wherever I need to go and street view maps will show me what I should expect to see when I get there. It reduces stress and frustration when you don't know where you are and saves you gas when you don't have to drive in circles to figure out where you are. 

Riding the Wayback Machine to 1999

I've been in a nostalgic mood lately as it's been 10 years since I graduated high school. So I thought I'd take a digital walk down memory lane courtesy of the Wayback Machine and look at some of the old websites I frequently visited in 1999.

Let's get started (click on the links below to see the versions of those websites in 1999):

AOL: We had a dial-up AOL connection (I can hear that dial tone and funky noise in my head now) and of course used AOL instant messenger - a lot!  

Yahoo: I loved Yahoo back then and had a Yahoo email account as my main email address and also used Yahoo messenger frequently in the early 2000s. Back then I thought, hey that would be a cool place to work for after college. I applied when I finished college in 2003 and got the auto-response that I wasn't a match for any of their positions. Oh well, it worked out for me in the end and now I use that old email address for junk mail. But I'll admit for awhile Yahoo was my homepage.

Asian Avenue: A large social networking site in the form of a chat room for Asians. I went here enough back then that I was compelled to request an AsianAvenue key chain. I saw this the other day in a box of random things in my dresser drawer. [note to self: time to start getting rid of stuff]

KMEL: I used to check out KMEL, Wild 107.7 and other bay area radio station websites to see their playlists and figure out what CD singles I wanted to buy.  

Santa Clara County Library: Yes, I actually used the internet for academic purposes too, somewhat, well not really. To save money I borrowed CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs and magazines from the Milpitas library and a book on occasion. 

If I've got you thinking about 1999, here's a review of the year: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/99yir1.html

Ten years later, I've traded in the dial-up for high-speed internet, have iGoogle as my homepage, use gmail for email, use iTunes to figure out what music I want to buy and buy it, can get most magazine content online and have traded in AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger and AsianAvenue for Google chat and Facebook and watch videos, TV shows and movies online. It's been a good 10 years. 

What's in a Name?

I'm watching game 3 of the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers series. I can't help but notice that the Utah uniforms have the "Jazz" across the front in boxy font. Their old logo used to have the J that looked like a music note. The Lakers also just have their name across the front, no particular logo. That made me wonder, what's in a NBA team name? Here's a little background on these two teams:

Utah Jazz: When I think Utah, jazz music doesn't come to mind. Jazz is synonomous with New Orleans. So this team name makes more sense knowing that the franchise started in New Orleans in 1974 and the name stuck when the team moved westward to Utah in 1979.  It's too bad they never changed their name when they first moved because now New Orleans has the Hornets. But then again that team used to be the Charlotte Hornets. Oh well.

Los Angeles Lakers: What is a Laker? According to Merriam Webster a Laker is "one associated with a lake." Simple enough and no, LA isn't hiding all its lakes with smog. The Lakers, like the Jazz, got its name in a previous location, when it actually made sense. Before moving to LA, the Lakers were in Minneapolis, Minnesota and were named after the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." They should have a huge dancing puddle for a mascot. 

So there you go, a little history for you. Neither a lake nor jazz seems menacing enough for a sports team name but they were fitting for the locale at the time and now it's been so long that you just don't question it. Tonight the Jazz won and the series is now LA 2, Utah 1. But I'm ultimately predicting the lake water will drown out the jazz in this series.  

Getting that Spartan Spirit

On March 28th, we took a stroll through the SJSU campus for lunch. Besides being a great place to relax while eating our La Vic burritos, we also wanted to see what was new on campus.

One thing that definitely wasn't there six years ago when I was a student is the statue commemorating the black civil rights protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Summer Olympics. The statue is impressive and incredibly larger than I imagined. It's a long overdue acknowledgment of their civil act, as they say, better late than never. Along with that, there is the new Cesar Chavez Arch of Dignity, Equality and Justice, which is pretty much in the center of the campus, right outside the Music Building.

With these additions along with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library and the new dorms, SJSU is looking better than ever. It's always good to go back to places and see it in a much better condition than you left it.

It's ironic that that after our little field trip down college memory lane and thinking how much better the campus seems to be, we went back to our car in the parking garage and found it much worse than we left it a couple of hours earlier...battered and bruised in the back. It was at that moment when the memory of being a student there and having my car broken into and my car stereo stolen while parked in the parking garage down the block came raging to mind. I guess not everything is better than I remembered it to be.

Earth Day

On this earth day, I thought about ‘green’ things as I drove alone into work this morning. Yes, I realize I should have put more effort into either carpooling, taking public transportation/the Google shuttle or even biking to work. Ok, the last one is a stretch. It’s hot and I’m at least 6 miles from work. But my effort to be green today will just have to consist of green thoughts.

Some ‘green’ things I love:

- Driving down the heavily tree lined Shoreline Blvd. The stretch of Shoreline between Charleston Road leading up to Shoreline Park can be particularly peaceful and I’m on Shoreline until the very last turn right before you get to the park. The surrounding of trees is pretty calming before starting another day at work.

- After a few days of rain, the ‘greenbelt’ or the belt of hills that you can see behind Milpitas as you come in from 237 is lovely. Of course this is after seeing it dry, brown and dingy for most of the year. Take a look at the link above and now imagine that the hills are green. See...lovely.

- Getting a few cents off our grocery bill every time we use the reusable cloth Safeway bags.

- Anything that is energy efficient

- Clothes made out of recycled materials. They also look so earthy! Too bad they can be pricey.

- Composting. It reduces waste in landfills and is a great fertilizer for plants.

- Paying bills online. Less paper, no need to write a check and less postage. Although now they want to reduce mail delivery days. I guess with every 'pro' there's a 'con.'

- Hybrids. Less gas consumption and lower carbon footprint is, as Martha Stewart says, "it's a good thing."

- Solar panels. They harness the power of the sun and they can make pretty good carports when you park underneath structures that have them on top.

- Public transportation in urban/metropolitan areas. The routes are frequent and extensive. Too bad they smell.

Maybe for the next earth day I'll consider some public transportation options. Or better yet, work from home! In the meantime, think green and check out today’s Google doodle: http://www.google.com/logos/earthday09.gif