just do it

Last Thursday, instead of going to lunch with my coworkers, I went to get a haircut. It took 30 minutes, cost $40, and voila, I had chin-length hair, for the first time since 2007. Afterwards, I couldn't figure out why it'd taken me so long to finally do it.

PROS:
- I barely have to brush it in the morning. I pretty much just climb out of bed and shake my head.
- When I shower at the gym it takes maybe 30 seconds to blow dry it, even with the crappy gym hairdryers. (Maybe a whole minute.)
- My head feels lighter.
- I use a *lot* less shampoo and I don't really need conditioner anymore.
- I don't shed long hair all over, which means I no longer clog shower drains with my hair.
- At least five coworkers have complimented my haircut in the past week. When guy engineers start noticing your hair, that's a good haircut. (And, I'm not counting "Your hair wasn't like that this morning, was it?" as a compliment.)

CONS:
- All the rubber band-y hair things I'd bought from Safeway are sitting neglected in my bathroom drawer.
- I've had to switch to bigger hair clips for sports, although I pretty much only bother for basketball, since it doesn't matter so much for running.
- I can't actually think of any more, except that I'm probably going to have to cut my hair again in a couple of months, otherwise it won't stay short.

it's all been done

At lunch yesterday, we were talking about (what else?) swine flu, and someone mentioned Twelve Monkeys, a mid-90's movie about a future in which humans are nearly extinct due to a global pandemic. I liked the movie very much; it just missed my all-time top ten list. I'm not usually a fan of either Bruce Willis or Brad Pitt, but both were excellent in this particular film. I think it's worth a re-watch, maybe I'll go put it in my Netflix queue.

omg pink ponies!

Earlier today, I was much amused by an Easter egg on the espn.com website. If you typed in the Konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter), a bunch of silly graphics would appear. They took it down pretty quickly, but it's still reproducible in the Google cache.

Here's a screenshot:

centrally located

I love living mid-Peninsula. Typically, everything I want to do is at most half an hour away, so I hardly ever hesitate because of location.

On Thursday night, I had dinner with friends at Jade Palace, in Palo Alto. Time spent driving home: about 20 minutes.

On Friday night, I went to see Vienna Teng perform at Yoshi's, in Oakland. Time spent driving home: 30 minutes even.

On Saturday, I attended an event at Stanford, and then had dinner with friends at Zeyno Grill in Burlingame. Time spent driving between Stanford and Burlingame: about 30 minutes. Time spent driving home: less than 15 minutes.

On Sunday night, I went to the Kabuki to see Artemisia, a Taiwanese film in this years San Francisco International Film Festival. Time spent driving home: less than 30 minutes.

Tonight I'm going to Jardiniere for a delicious wine-paired prix fixe dinner; I loved the Tuscan-themed dinner a few weeks ago and couldn't resist this week's SF-themed menu. Once again, I expect it to take no more than 30 minutes to get home.

I'm headed to Emeryville in a couple weekends, which is going to be tougher, but I still think I'll be able to keep the drive time under 40 minutes on the way home. I guess we'll see!

eat your oats

I recently discovered steel-cut oats. I eat instant oatmeal from time to time (usually while camping or sick) and they taste okay and all, but steel-cut oats are like a whole different kind of food entirely; nuttier and with more texture. This morning, I ate some with a spoonful of brown sugar, some banana chips, and dried cranberries. Yum!

perfect storm

I just got home about an hour ago after watching the Rockets beat the Warriors in a surprisingly entertaining game. It was even meaningful, at least for the Rockets, since they were fighting to keep the third seed going into the playoffs.

The game was scheduled for 7:30pm, so we left San Mateo around 6:00pm. We got to the Hesperian exit around 6:30pm, so we thought we had plenty of time to stop at Panera for some sandwiches. We were back on our way in about 20 minutes. Then, about three exits before the Coliseum, the traffic became insanely bad. Only then did we realize that the A's were playing their home season opener, also at the Coliseum.

We finally arrived at the BART station (where we normally park) around 7:20pm, having gone 3 miles in 30 minutes, spent ten minutes looking for free parking, and decided to give up and pay for parking. When we got to the paid parking lot, we were turned back by the parking attendants; they were already full. By the time we found parking (in the surrounding semi-sketchy neighborhood) and got to our seats, it was nearly 8:00pm, and almost the end of the first quarter.

The after-game experience was pretty crazy too. The game ended quite early; just after 10pm. Unfortunately this meant that the end of the basketball game coincided with the end of the baseball game. We spent the next 45 minutes slogging through pedestrian traffic over the foot bridge and into the BART station. Luckily, once we got out of the station, things were mostly back to normal. (I was really happy not to have been one of those hordes of people standing on the platform, waiting for the BART.)

easily amused

This totally cracked me up just now. From Matt Maiocco's 49ers blog:

"At some point, perhaps on the second day of the draft (April 26), the 49ers will select a running back to complement Frank Gore. (Unless, they take a guy who is going to just walk around all day and tell Frank how great he is. In that case, they'll be getting a running back to compliment Frank.)"

Sports commentary with grammar/vocab jokes! How can you beat that?

completely logical

This exchange happened between me and my spinning instructor last week:

her:	Wearing glasses today?
me:	Yup, it's spring.

I swear it makes perfect sense to contact-lens-wearing pollen-allergy sufferers everywhere.

Nopa

A couple weeks ago I went to Nopa with some friends. I had a good time and all, but honestly, I don't understand all the fuss.

The dining room is spacious and casual, and the service is acceptable. The four of us ordered a lot of small plates (olives, calamari, flatbread, giant white beans, pork ribs) and added a London broil and a side of fries. I liked the giant white beans pretty well, mostly because they were satisfyingly filling; they were cooked with tomato, feta, oregano, and bread crumbs. The pork ribs were delicious and tender, and the flatbread (with fennel sausage, garlic, artichokes, and feta) was good too, but I was disappointed in both the calamari and the London broil. For dessert we tried the "honey skillet bread, whiskey-praline ice cream, and bacon brittle", as well as a trio of sorbets. My favorite part was the bacon brittle; it reminded me a bit of the time that we had caramelized bacon for dessert at work.

Anyway, Nopa is pretty good value for an SF restaurant, and there were a couple really good dishes, but overall I thought the food was a bit inconsistent and I wasn't wowed. I don't think I'd make a special effort to go back, especially given the difficulty of getting a reservation.

NBA night

I've been pretty of out of it this season with respect to the NBA. I think it was a combination of the Warriors sucking and the Rockets losing Tracy McGrady (although I guess that turned out pretty well) and the Lakers and Cavs, who I'm not that fond of, both being really good.

On Wednesday I was invited to go to the Warriors vs. Kings game at the last minute, so I went, and although it was a bit exhausting (overtime win, 143-141, free Big Macs) and meant nothing (both teams were eliminated from the playoffs ages ago) it was fun and it reminded me that I like watching basketball. (Well, NBA anyway. I've been patiently waiting for March Madness to be over.)