if you want to see what a modern day ghost town looks like, go to downtown redwood city on a sunday at lunch. it’s eerie. all of the restaurants and shops are closed. i met up with geoff yesterday and thought that we would be able to find a place to eat and everywhere we went was just shut down.

we eventually found a mexican restaurant that was open off main street and had lunch, caught up, and waxed philosophy. afterwards, we went in search of a starbucks (because surely starbucks wouldn’t be closed on a sunday!) and chatted a bit at the train station starbucks. we were just looking back at how times have changed in a year.

i got my sonicare toothbrush as a present from my brother and sister. i think it was when i had turned 25. it was a long time ago and i have been brushing my teeth with it for years. this morning when i woke up and tried to use it, it didn’t work. i thought that maybe it hadn’t been charged, but when i put it on the charging base, it wouldn’t charge.

i didn’t know what to do. i haven’t used a real toothbrush in years. the thought of having to move my arm with vigor to brush my teeth was a foreign concept. i nervously picked up a toothbrush, put some toothpaste on it and started to brush.

the agony of the bristles grinding against my teeth and gums began explosively and then with every stroke the searing pain of the bristles cut with a ravenous hunger unseen for years. i imagined that the war against plague being waged in my mouth at that moment had hit its peak. walls of plague come tumbling down as the mighty toothbrush rallied against its foes. indeed, the war was waged, and though painful, i knew that in the end, i had fought the good fight.

i just ordered a new sonicare. i hope it comes soon, i don’t think i can handle this kind of excitement every morning.

i’m powering through scrubs and have now gotten into the 6th season. the romance between J.D. and kim is budding. i’m not sure how crazy i am about the two of them having a kid. i sort of have always thought that he would have a more romantic relationship, maybe find a way for him and elliot to work things out.

but it’s been sort of a non-stop marathon this weekend watching scrubs. i just watched the scrubs musical episode. it was alright, not nearly as brilliant as the buffy musical, though. i’m hoping that the summer season of tv will start soon. there aren’t that many tv shows that are on still and i’m running out of scrubs episodes to watch.

because i have heard so many good things about it, i’ve decided to give so you think you can dance a try. i watched the first episode and though there were two really amazing dancers, it’s just not fun to watch bad dancers who think that they can dance. i don’t get the same kind of sadistic joy that i get from watching bad singers on american idol. i hope that after the audition process the show gets better because right now it’s only so-so for me.

i’m really disappointed to report that i’m STILL getting divx errors when trying to play xvid videos via a streaming server to the ps3. this error has been pretty much acknowledged as a problem with the encoding of the video. it’s too bad that the ps3 still hasn’t resolved these issues as i would love to use the ps3 as my media center solution.

oh well, i guess it’s still the xbox for now…

nothing eventful usually happens on my commute to work. but when i bike to work, it’s a completely different story. i was driving along and all of a sudden a toolbox comes flying out of this truck. bits and pieces of the toolbox come flying out with some screwdrivers spilling over in the middle of the road.

i got off my bike and ran into the middle of the street to move the toolbox before any other cars would run over it or swerve away to not hit it. the guy in the truck stopped his truck at the side of the road and started to walk towards me to pick up his missing toolbox. we talked a little about how the toolbox has never fallen off his truck before while picking up various tools from the side of the street and then we went our separate ways.

it’s kind of neat how different your commute becomes when it slows down a little when you bike.

i’m sort of a late adopter when it comes to browser technology. this is sort of a shocker because i’m a huge gadget freak and i generally like to keep up with all of the latest and greatest technology. i think the biggest reason why i don’t really play with beta browsers is because the browsing experience is such a critical part of my daily life that i can’t stand using unstable browsers. they should just work and if they don’t, it really upsets me.

the browser is also a big part of my work life. i need a stable browser so that i can work. if it cuts down on my productivity, that means that i have to work longer…and that is simply unacceptable. plus, i’m developing for what most people use, and most people just don’t use beta browsers.

but i have decided to try out the firefox 3 beta 5 and just recently upgraded to the firefox 3 RC1 release and i have to say that i’m mostly impressed with the browser. i did think it was a little weird that on my install the default navigation bar comes without a back/forward set of buttons and i had to customize the bar to add them, but aside from that, so far, i’m pretty impressed.

the browser feels speedy, the new address bar is pretty cool, and it feels pretty stable. i think it’s a little too easy to make bookmarks with this browser, but maybe that’ll be a feature that i like. i’m also glad that the majority of my add-ons still work. the most compelling reason to use firefox is for the add-ons. it’s what makes using other browsers like internet explorer and safari useless to me.

monday was the first dragon boat practice that i went to for the paddle for life race that i’m participating in. i know…dragon boating? seriously, what has gotten into me lately?

so anyway, dragon boating is a whole lot more tiring than i thought that it would be. i’m actually really sore right now. it’s just my entire right side of the back that is killing me right now. killing me.

and i’m still biking to work, so my butt is doubly sore. the usual sore from biking to work, but an extra level or soreness from dragon boating. all this moving, i tell you, is overrated.

despite my soreness, i still biked to fry’s during my lunch break to see if i could pick up a wii fit. christi said that her boss was able to pick one up at a store, but i told her that i think all of the stores in the south bay would be sold out. fry’s, by the way, was sold out.

this is the first i’ve seen it, but apparently it has been in mcdonald’s stores for a while now. they are serving sweet tea. now, for those who have never had sweet tea, they complain that it is too sugary sweet. what they don’t realize is that the secret to really good sweet tea is that they supersaturate the tea with sugar. it’s really sort of brilliant if you ask me. it’s only $1 for a big 32oz. cup of it and so i tried it out the other day. it was pretty decent, i think it could have used more sugar, but that’s just me. if you do have a sweet tea craving and can’t make it to the south somewhere, give mcdonald’s version a whirl. it isn’t half bad.

i was asked to help take care of the web site maintenance of one of the volleyball leagues that i play in. the web site does not have lots of massive updates, but there are updates here and there for announcements and the like. i also have the responsibility to update the web site on a weekly basis to update the team standings.

i, of course, had to write code to facilitate the management of all of this stuff because doing the math every week and keeping track of everything was more work than i really should be trusted to do. but last night was the first night of league, so i finally was able to try out the scripts and it looks like they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. pretty cool.

i biked to work again. that’s three days in a row. talk about a streak, here…for me, anyway. the ride was actually much more enjoyable this morning as the cool morning air rushed by me while i was riding into work. paul’s new slicks have increased my average speed by about 5 mph and i am very easily cruising at around 15 mph. pretty cool!

speaking of cool, did you hear about the oreo cookie spill in illinois? apparently a truck carrying something like 20,000 pounds of oreos fell on its side and spilled its cargo of oreo cookies all over I-80. i would have totally have helped with the clean up for that spill.

when i told christi that i’m going to be biking to work this mornnig, she giggled to herself. it is not that funny, yo!