Mo blogging

Look what i learned how to do on my product team offsite today ... Blogging from my phone

It Tolls for Me?

I had a pretty lame high school principal who would used to say the following phrase a lot: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee", which I guess makes me pretty lame if it came to mind and I borrowed it to title my blog posts. While on a tangential note, I somehow now remember a snippet from some Beverly Cleary book that talked about how Ramona Quimby would remember how to spell "principal" instead of "principle" since he wanted to be your pal. Man, I must be much nerdier than I could ever fathom.

But I digress.. the main point is for you to check out this website: http://www.ruthandhubert.com, which will make the blog title make sense.

I'll be tracking the increase in traffic to that site from a combined promotion by Ruth and my blogs to see how much marketing power we have. We're announcing it together because I think I'd be pretty embarrassed to compare the traffic boost from separate announcments on our individual blogs; she has much more influence than I :(

For Whom the Bells Toll?

Yay, wedding time! After the aberration of Thomas getting married right after college, none of the fellas have taken the plunge until this past weekend when Richard and Suzanne got married. Congrats!

We ran through the rehearsal on Friday afternoon. Following dinner, the groomsmen all crashed at our place in Sunnyvale. We had intended to go out that night to hang out, but given the early morning wake up time, we just stayed in instead. There was still plenty to do. For example, most of the suits the guys brought were now wrinkled and we stumbled our way through flattening them out. Apparently the trick is to either use steam and/or have a shirt in between so you're not ironing the suit directly:



While we were busy doing that, Richard also knew that one of his challenges the next day would be to play a song, so we went to go practice while sporting a classic tshirt:



The next morning, we were up bright and early, taking a quick picture out in the driveway before taking off; given how studly we look here, I'm sure we look ridiculously hot in the professional photos that were taken:



The first stop of the morning was to Stanford, which was a convenient, nice place to take some preliminary photos. We bummed around the area while the couple took a lot of photos. Some random tourists got in the act, starting to snap pictures of the couple as well. It was a little weird as they got really close to take the photos.. but we managed to get in a few shots and entertain ourselves:



After that, it was off to Pulgas Water Temple, a nice little location just off the 280 where the ceremony would be held. It was certainly a scenic place and we took a couple more pics before the guests arrived:



Eventually, the ceremony started. The cutest arrival in the processional was of course Richard's one and a half year old niece as the flower girl. She would pick up some flowers, take a few purposeful steps, look around, and unceremoniously dump them from her hand:



After the flower girl made her way to the front, it was finally time for the bride to head down the aisle!



Part of the ceremony included an "earning of the bride" section where Richard had to play his song. The introduction to that section was a physical challenge, of which the groomsmen also had to participate by doing jumping jacks?? That was not part of the rehearsal...



Felix presided over the ceremony as the officiant and did a fine job, making sure they got through their vows and could officially be married. Congrats to the new couple!



This Picasa web albums stuff is pretty cool, too.. check out the rest of the pics in the album

7 Steps to Success

Man, now I feel the standards at SJSU are even lower.. this is what they sent out:

---

Take 7 Steps for a Successful Start to Your University Experience

Note: to download this message in PDF format, copy and paste this URL into your browser http://info.sjsu.edu/static/misc/resources.html

Before the first day of instruction:
1. Learn the basics of library research.

The King Library, located at 4th and San Fernando streets, is your resource for information and inspiration. Get started with a self-paced lesson, located at http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/tutorial/index.html.

Make time in your schedule to strengthen the skills you'll need on your journey of lifelong learning:

2. Read.

Read the newspaper online or print every day to know what's going on, build your vocabulary, and improve your knowledge of geography, and many other important skills. Join the SJSU community of readers by participating in the Campus Reading Program.

3. Write.

Become a good (or even great) writer. Writing helps you learn, communicate your ideas, and advance your career. Begin with improving your personal e-mails or start a blog.

Plan to have the attitude and behaviors of a successful student:

4. Respect the classroom experience.

Arrive on time, turn off your cell phone and take a break from text messaging. Sit up front and participate--turn your full attention to the class.

5. Identify and use the resources available to you.

Talk to your professors. Visit them during office hours to introduce yourself, ask questions about the course, your major, careers, graduate school, and campus events. Know when to ask for help. Follow through by meeting with your professor or teaching assistant, or joining a study group. Go to the Learning Assistance Resource Center (LARC) and seek out a tutor. Seek help from Counseling Services or check out the Peer Mentor Center, or ask for help from friends.

6. Broaden your horizons.

Something is happening on campus nearly every day that will be new for you. Check the SpartaGuide in the Spartan Daily or drop by Student Involvement to find out about club meetings, lectures, free concerts, and more. A successful university experience happens both inside and outside of the classroom.

7. Commit to live a life of integrity.

You're about to be inspired by much of what you see, read, and hear in the classroom, the library and beyond. Knowing what is your own work and when and how to acknowledge the work of others is an important step toward achieving academic integrity. If you aren't sure, ask your professor, a librarian, an advisor or a counselor.

Want some more tips for success? Visit this page created by SJSU students: www.sjsu.edu/muse/students/resources/bettergrades/

Summer update

Wow, the last few weeks have gone by quickly.. in the meantime, here are updates from the previous post...

---

The Prius has been fun to drive, although Roothie has been getting many more opportunities to drive it while she's here. On one weekend that I did get to drive it, the last bar of the gas meter was flashing, so I figured that means I at least have a gallon, or 50 mi left of driving. As we were coming home from wedding planning, the car suddenly lost a ton of power on the freeway and the red caution sign came up... the gas had run out and the battery started draining really quickly. Thankfully, Felix was in the car at the time and knew of a gas station near an exit, so we pulled out, crawled our way over to the station just in time with two battery bars left. After ignoring her pleas to get gas earlier, I think Roothie might have been a little upset if we ended up having to push... It's really not the design, but thank goodness it's a hybrid and I can run on battery alone!

Partly in response to the insanely hot couple of weeks that we had in CA and partly just because it looks nice, Roothie helped me get my windows tinted, so now it looks fantabulous:



Hrm, it actually looks the same as compared ot the below picture.. hehe

In addition, the package I got had a Bluetooth hands-free setup, so I finally discarded my old phone of three years, re-upped with a better Sprint plan, and got some credits for another one of Sprint's copycat Razr phones, the Sanyo Katana. I wanted to hold out for the white one, but alas, I couldn't wait any longer and just got the black one, which meant Roothie had to get the pink one for a matching set:



Unfortunately, I don't really get that many calls nor have I driven a lot, so I only got to use it once for an actual call, but it was pretty fun.

---

In other news, the plants unfortunately did not turn out so well :( Roothie helped water them everyday during the heatwave, but I guess a lot of them just lost their will to live :(



I guess neither of us qualify for having a green thumb, but we've recently started trying to cook and that's gone a lot better, save for the one time I tried to reheat some leftovers by setting the stove to 8 (out of 10) and causing much smoke and charring :(