temperature?

In case you were as confused as I was about what the heck Sean Paul was sayin' in his song, here are the lyrics:

---

Intro:
de gyal dem Schillachi...Sean da Paul
So me give it to...so me give to...so me give it to...to all girls
Five million and forty naughty shorty...
Baby girl...all ma girlz... all ma girlz...Sean da Paul sey...

Chorus:
Well woman the way the time cold I wanna be keepin' you warm I got the right temperature fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom....oh oh!

Verse1:
Make I see the gyal them bruk out pon di floor from you no whan no worthless performer
From you no want no man wey can't turn you on gyal make I see when dem are pon ya..
Can't tan pon it long.....naw eat no yam...nah steam fish....nor no green banana
But down in Jamaica we give it to you hot like a sauna..

Chorus:
Well woman the way the time cold I wanna be keepin' you warm
I got the right temperature to fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom....oh oh!

Verse 2:
Bumper exposed and gyal you got your chest out but you no wear sox cause gyal you "Empress" out
And if you des out a me you fi test out,Cause I got the remedy to make you de-stress out....
Me haffi flaunt it because me God Bless out...And girl if you want it you haffi confess out...
A no lie weh we need set speed a fi test the mattress out..

Chorus:
Well woman the way it turn cold I wanna be keepin' you warm
I got the right temperature fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom....oh oh!

Verse 3:
Gyal don't say me crazy now, this Strangelove it a no Bridgette and Flava show..
Time fi a make baby now so stop gwaan like you are get shady yo...
Woman don't play me now, cause are no Fred Sanford nor Grady yo....
My lovin' is the way to go...my lovin' is the way to go.....

Chorus:
Well woman the way it turn cold I wanna be keepin' you warm
I got the right temperature fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom....oh oh!

Verse 4:
When you roll with a player like me...with a brother like me gyal there is no other
No need to talk it right here just park it right here keep it undercover
From me love how you fittin ya blouse and you fat in ya jeans and mi waan discover..
Everything out you baby girl can you hear when me utter...

Chorus:
Well woman the way it turn cold I wanna be keepin' you warm
I got the right temperature fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom....oh oh!

Verse 5:
Make I see the gyal them bruk out pon di floor from you no whan no worthless performer
From you no want no man wey can't turn you on gyal make I see when dem are pon ya..
Can't tan pon it long.....naw eat no yam...nah steam fish....nor no green banana
But down in Jamaica we give it to you hot like a sauna...

Chorus:
Well woman di way the time turn cold I wanna be keepin' you warm
I got the right temperature fi shelter you from the storm
Oh lord, gyal I got the right tactics to turn you on, and girl I...
Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom...oh oh!
oh oh...
oh oh...
oh oh!

---

Translating the lyrics into English is left as an exercise for the reader.

a year passed by...

I've been working for a year already. Wow. In Stan time, that's an eternity!

Time to reflect on the time passed... at times, I feel that I haven't gotten anything done, but then at other times, I feel that ten people couldn't have accomplished more. Let's see, in the past year I:
- revamped the Travel site for my company
- helped put together the design standards site
- coded up page templates for the aforementioned site
- re-coded them again and again as the requirements changed
- overhauled the three intranet headers that *should* appear on every intranet page
- spent an eternity making sure that everybody who wants to use the headers, can
- taught myself a whole lot of CSS, some JavaScript, and a tiny bit of ASP.NET
- did the grunt work for the external intranet access gateway (currently used, but getting phased out), the ground transportation reservation system (currently used), and now the phonebook (that beast is gonna take forever to design)
- usability-tested the heck out of the HR site, the time-reporting system, various info access apps, and a whole bunch of other things

I guess it makes me feel better that my company allowed me to do what I like to do in my spare time, including traveling to Russia, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, DC, New York, Las Vegas, England, and California.

Looking back, it doesn't seem so bad. It just that you do feel sometimes like you're trying to run in quicksand. Oh well, gotta keep yer eyes on the big picture, I guess.

Cali, day 6

Why did that crunch that I heard in the night prove so fateful? I found out early next morning, when we got back to our rented auto. The back right fender had a distinct gash in the sheetmetal - I must've backed up into the curb! D'oh. I was hoping that the rental company would miss it. But, later on that day, I found out that they didn't ;(

Anyhoo, Jonas went with us for a nice breakfast on Pacific Beach, and then started off on his trek home - many thumbs up to him for jumping on the grenade and driving all the way to SF alone. In the meantime, Susan and I rented another car, and went to San Diego Zoo.

I've seen a few zoos in my day (at least two), but this was quite a visit! These pictures should serve as proof:



I've never been to an aviary, but the zoo had at least two that you could walk into! We also spent quite some time waiting for the polar bear to jump into the water, but once he did, it was quite a show. The bear flapped around forever, playing with his rubber ball:

The weirdest creature ever? Definitely the ant eater. I thought it was about 1 foot long, not fifteen! And I definitely did not expect that animal to look llike it was wearing arm warmers...

Oh yeah, we got to see koalas AND pandas!

Pandas were about twenty times as entertaining, but of course it is easy to be more entertaining than living furry sleeping bags.

After all the fun times at the zoo, I needed to jump right on the plane, which I did, and fly back to Boston, which I did, too. Going right to work from the airport was less than perfect, but hey, you gotta pay the dues!

Cali, day 5, part 2

Ah San Diego!

The city gave the impression of being very clean and organized - probably because we started off with the swanky district of La Jolla. We met up with Amy, Susan's friend, and went for a fancy sushi dinner. Afterwards, we moved on to the downtown. Well, at least tried to, as Amy's car kept stalling. We tried to jump-start it, which required me to turn our rental PT Cruiser around on an onramp (I didn't mention it yet, but the car handles with the grace of a pregnant pig). As I was backing up, I heard a soft crunch... which proved significant later.

But, proceed we did, so we towed Amy's car, and reunited with Kathy and Jeff at a desert place in San Diego. Again, it was very sweet to have this many SI'ers together again!

Cali, day 5

Naturally, the first stop that we wanted to make in LA was in Beverly Hills. That place is nothing short of a monument to American capitalism. They should just paint dollar signs on the sidewalks to complete the picture. Still, I must say, the sights are very impressive, and every single house seems to have its own personality. Especially this one:

Next, we proceeded to the Chinese Theater, and, unbelievably, got a parking spot right across the street!

The area is the biggest tourist trap ever, but we still had fun roaming around.



We then bough a star map (a worthwhile investment, I kid you not, and went to see something that I really wanted to see while I was in LA:

By the way, the view on the other side of the Hollywood sign is stunning!

We spent what seemed like hours driving through LA, moving from one celebrity house to the next. It was very eye-opening to realize that celebrities, the deities of American life, are actually people like you and me. People that live in humongous houses, true, but human beings nevertheless.

We stopped by Britney's former house, Swartzneiger's shack (or his gate, which prevented us from bothering the Governator), and ended up at Ozzy's TV-nized hangout:

As if this wasn't enough, we proceeded to Muscle Beach to show off our stuff... which, for me, served as a bitter reminder to get back into the gym. After eating late lunch on the broadwalk, we called Kathy Seyama and Jeff to finalize our San Diego plans, and went south.

I'll stop here - we already did enough to fill several normal days, and the San Diego part of the trip deserves further discussion. Besides, I'm tired of typing ;p

Cali, day 4

Due to some poker-related interruptions, the saga has been delayed a bit. Well, here we go, day 4!

The plan was to take off extra-early to go to LA. As expected, we got going pretty late, but still made a point to see Jonas' twin nephews. We could've spent a day playing with them, if it wasn't for the drive ahead of us. One of them, though, was clearly terrified when Jonas picked him up:

The drive wasn't bad - the terrain was really fascinating. It went from rolling hills outside of San Francisco to nothing (literally... just open space) to step mountain slopes right before LA. Of course, we made the mandatory stop at In-and-Out.

LA greeted us with traffic (nothing major) and a car show. Yup, we definitely got lucky on that one! The sheer number of cars was astounding, but there was nothing that could make me forget Prelude Kelly.


I didn't take any pictures after the car show, because I started running low on camera memory. It should suffice to note that the rest of the afternoon invloved some cheap liquor and a lot of roaming around an area with way too many Korean signs.

Cali, day 3

You knew it was coming. Day 3.

We started off the same way, leaving casa Kong early in the morning. Once again, we took BART into the city, and took a long stroll through Chinatown, sodomizing some dragons along the way:

After some more walking (which really proved to be the theme of this vacation), we made it to Pier 39. I'm telling you, watching those sea lions was hella entertaining!

We then made it to Lombard St, and then took a two-block ride on the trolley. Heck, those things cost $5 one way! Naturally, we jumped off before the conductor got to us.

Next, we took a taxi over to the Golden Gate Park (no more walking!) We checked out the area, and visited the Japanese Tea Garden:

Finally, we made it over to Schrock's house, and, after chilling some, he took us to Twin Peaks for stunnnning night view of the city:

Wow.

Cali, day 2

A day full of travel and excitement awaited us when we got up early that morning. We just needed JK to take us to the BART station. Jonas, full of pride for his new ride, jumped into his pimp Mazda3, turned the key, and... turned the key some more, and nothing happened. Somehow, the battery has discharged. So, after jump-starting the car, we got on the road, and took the above-ground-subway from the Freemont stop.

Apparently, the Freemont platform served two lines, one of which ended up in San Fran, and another that went to Richmond. Guess which one I decided to take. Yup. So, after touring the terminal station of the wrong line, Susan and I finally made it to the Civic Center Plaza.

From there, we started walking in the general direction of the Golden Gate bridge, navigating only using a crappy map and the position of the sun (I kid you not, that bright thing came in handy!) Later, I googled the distance that we walked - if we took a straight path, it would have been 7.1 miles. However, our path was definitely not direct.

Completely by accident, we eneded up in Japantown, where we had an awesome sushi lunch, and then went off for a stroll through Presidio:

Finally, after walking some more, we made it to the Golden Gate...


Yes, it was windy, and yes, I need a haircut (Susan is all set in that department for now ;)

It was getting late, and we got a magnificent surprise - we got to see the sunset over the Pacific. It was fantastic. Even the cars whizzing by could not spoil the moment.

Afterwards, after an eventful trip through the Bay Area transportation system (bus to BART to Caltrain... ever heard of the T?), we got to Mountain View to see the real reason why we came to California:

Little Dylan was quite a gentleman, and hung out with the crowd that included Kathy J, Adrien, Susan, Jonas, and of course the proud parents - Dave & Jen. Good times! It was worth it to come all the way to the west siide to see all the pancheros.

Cali, day 1

I have a feeling I'll be able to describe our trip coherently only if I go one day at a time.

We left cold Massachusetts (via the Island of Rhode) way early in the morning, and got to San Jose around 3PM. Seeing the California sun, I rushed out of the terminal... only to realize that we still had three hours to kill until Jonas picked us up, and there was nothing to do outside the airport. Oh well. We went for a walk, and I found my very first tumbleweed:

Next, we met up with Jonas:
(* picture may or may not be recent)

In any case, Jonas' mom cooked up a feast. She had Vietnamese-style fish and borscht for us, along with this:

Ironically, the chicken dish was staring me right in the face. Nevertheless, it was very yummy. Seeing how we could not walk after the feast, we just went right to bed.

heading back

I'm in the Las Vegas airport, heading back to Boston. This was one heck of a vacation. We messed up a rental car, saw crack addicts yell at each other on the streets of San Fran, took pictures in front of the Hollywood sign, walked on San Diego beaches, and saw more hot cars than pedestrians. In any case, more detailed descriptions are forthcoming, I just need to get home.

6:27

It's 6:27PM and I'm still at work. This has been the latest I've stayed at the office.

A janitor just came by to pick up the trash.

I'm going home right now.

california, here we come!

It is official: Susan and I are going to California on the 11th. The plan is to fly into San Jose, chill with Jonas and the rest of SF crew for two days, see Dylan, then drive down to LA, run around Beverly Hills, and continue down to San Diego to fly back on the 16th (Susan might stay a little longer).

If any of the Cali folks are reading this and have no plans for the MLK weekend, email stan (at) netlegion.com ASAP so that we can reunite on the West siiide!

thank you, height: 1px

The height: 1px fix for IE is nothing short of divine: apply it to the right element, and everything works as nature intended. Forget it, and your layout will mess up in ways that even Bill Gates would not be able to explain.

slummerville

How about that: Somerville is the most densely populated community in New England. The picture in Wikipedia looks like it was taken ten feet away from my doorstep. Yeah Davis Square!

insert DVD here

I just found a great artifact detailing my parents' struggle with technology. My dad wrote out directions for my mom on using the DVD player. I'm gonna try to translate it as close to the original as I can:

DVD

1. Take 2 gray remote controls
2. Turn on the TV
3. Insert DVD
4. On the TV remote, press TV/Video until a DVD picture is seen

Addendum

A red light on the DVD player means that it is turned off.

I have yet to see, however, my mom being able to use this high technology successfully.

drop-kick it!

This was fun to watch: Doug Flutie, a Mass native who's been playing professional football for about as long as I've been alive, drop-kicked a ball for an extra point in a meaningless game against Miami. This hasn't been done successfully since 1941.

Go Pats.

ohhh Johnny!

Well, our dear friend Juan said goodbye to us. He's got quite a trip ahead of him: after leaving New York and coming up to Boston for a visit, he is turning around and heading south, first to DC, and then to Florida. From there, he is flying to Israel to live on a community farm and learn Hebrew.

Best of luck, Johnny, and come back safe, like you promised!

new year

Wow, what an eventful couple of days, to cap off a busy year! Our good ol' Juan graced us with a visit, and on Friday we were off to Providence to play some poker with Pisit and a thousand of his close friends. Well, maybe not a thousand, but definitely a few dozen good players more than I could handle.

On Saturday, Jonny, Susan, and I got a chance to catch up with some Boston traditions, starting with breakfast at Sound Bytes and ending with the New Years celebrations on Copley. It got a little hectic, with me having to coordinate between ten people, meeting Jon's family, running into Gordon, etc. etc. But, at the end we finally made it to Chris' for a warm celebration fueled by tons of champagne. Yes, that is decidedly how I wanted to meet the new year - surrounded by good friends, plenty of liquor, and winning - in this case, coming back from the poor poker performance the day before.

Mr. Stevens, the proper British gentleman that he is, gave us a ride back to Davis while the roads were being covered with a fine dusting of fresh snow. A very fitting conclusion to a Boston celebration.