Zacko On Demand

Zacko's 2nd Annual World Cup Draw

2010-06-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the final results. We all know who we should be pulling for now:

1. Brazil - Tedmen Cheung
2. Spain - Barbara Yates
3. Portugal - Sharif Rahman
4. Netherlands - Troy Jones
5. Italy - Stan Stanev
6. Germany - James Costello
7. Argentina - Bridget Wilkerson
8. England - Rick Borchert
9. France - Gary Leach
10. Greece - Zachary Rynew

11. United States - Scott Seigrist
12. Serbia - John and Jay Wales
13. Uruguay - Steve Scerra
14. Mexico - Craig Burnetto
15. Chile - John Singer
16. Cameroon - James Campbell
17. Australia - Vincent Pun
18. Nigeria - Mike Chinfoo
19. Switzerland - Andrew Parker
20. Slovenia - Danny Patterson
21. Ivory Coast - Lyndsay Cameron
22. Algeria - Lindsey Kurtis
23. Paraguay - Mike Dobbs
24. Ghana - Tim Carroll
25. Slovakia - Dan Mack
26. Denmark - Darren O'Loughlin
27. Honduras - Nicole Debbini
28. Japan - Mark Narain
29. South Korea - Mike Rapisura
30. New Zealand - Brandon Singer
31. South Africa - David Sartoris
32. North Korea - Julia Mack

My dad's portfolio

2009-02-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

If you go onto imdb.com, my dad doesn't have the largest page. It isn't because a lack of trying, but it's just that most of his work has gone as uncredited. Not too many people know that he created the radars in Top Gun or added special effects to the last episode of Cheers. And of course, with all the Simpsons gear around the house, you know how much of a big part he was with the show.

Anyways, last Saturday, we were flipping through the channels and my dad told me to hold it on one of our non-premium channels. "Repo Man" was starting and he wanted me to watch the opening. He started to tell me how they had little time and my dad had to put together a title sequence with no money. My dad, as resourceful as he was, went to the nearest AAA and grabbed a bunch of maps because he was a member. He worked through the night and by the next morning they had their opening.

The next morning we flipped open the LA Magazine in the sunday section and they had an article about the fifty greatest movie title sequences in the history of film. You can guess what was one of the films, but the man who got the credit was someone my dad never met.

Repo Man Title Sequence(The first 2:16)

Oregon/California 2008

2009-01-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

We made our annual trip(I can call it that because it's our second time now) up the coast to visit her family for Christmas. We went up the coast this time to stay at the Vintage Inn in Yountville for the 2nd time. We made sure not to miss the champagne brunch, where I rediscovered corn beef. We also were able to get reservations this time at Bouchon, which I Yelped about here.

Gold Beach, Oregon

We divided the trip by staying up in Crescent City one night which was memorable only because my back is still hurting from the Travelodge. Irregardless, it's a beautiful drive. One that has to be done in the summer though to take advantage of more sunlight.

You know whos

Christmas was fun again, but the highlight was some of the stories Barb's grandmother told us. The best was how she moved from Oklahoma to Illinois as a little girl in the 1920's. Oh yeah, by stagecoach!! Who'd thought they were still around?

There' no business like snow business in the Siskiyous

The part we were most worried about was the drive back down. We thought we were going to be going through a snow storm so much that Barb bought chains. Luckily, we were able to make it through the Siskiyou's quickly enough that we even had time to stop by the North Face Outlet in Berkeley. That was Barb's doing.

Mt. Shasta, possibly on fire?

We spent our last two days of vacation with Dave and Helen in Cambria. Our place was right on the ocean and was beautiful. The meals which I have yet to yelp about were really good both in Cambria and Paso Robles. The only bummer was wine tasting because I had a slight cold and it felt like only 20% of my taste buds were functioning. But since it affected everything, I could tell the difference between the good and bad and I think we found our white wine for the wedding.

Sunset at Cambria

And finally, if you're on the 101 driving through San Luis Obispo, we had to stop at Firestone's for the tri-tip on the way back.

Engaged!!

2008-11-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

Alright, straight to the details. I originally planned for this to happen two weeks earlier up in Berkeley, but the small problem was I didn't have the ring yet. It arrived this last Friday, so I had to plan quickly, especially since Barb was on call until Tuesday.

My plan was to do the "popping" at the Stand on a Sunday night. Yes, it's a hamburger place, but we love their patio and it's a great place to end the week with Jazz from the Nathan Duncan Trio. I had gotten an email that this was their last performance of the season, so it had to be tonight, even with the cold winds blowing.

We went with my parents because I really wanted them to witness it. Of course, my mom has been prepping since the ring arrived so she's been on red alert with a camera ever since. I played it cool throughout dinner, but I had meant to call Barb's sister Grace first, so I was looking to slip away. Sure enough she called Barb before I could get out of my chair.

While they were talking about thanksgiving, I motioned to Barb that we were ready to leave. So while we were walking out, I asked Barb if I could talk to Grace. We stopped and I asked her if I had her blessing in marrying her sister. While I was talking to Grace, Barb was tearing up, but she still didn't get that I was going to propose to her. Then I told Grace if she would mind if I proposed to Barbara now. Grace said yes and I went down on one knee and Barb said yes.

To be honest, I had no idea what was going on around me at the time. The band was playing and people were dancing, but they were in just as much shock as Barbara. After they finished playing their song, they called us over and we had a few words with the band and the audience. Strangely enough, the next song they played was "moon river", which was prominently being played the night before while watching Breakfast at Tiffany's.

There was a gentlemen there that was video taping the band's set, so once I get the video I'll upload it, but below is a video of them playing this venue at an earlier time.

Some Live Jazz

I'm very happy how the evening unfolded and am very fortunate to have someone as special as Barbara to spend the rest of my life with.

2008-10-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

this was my second annual, bi-annual Cal-UCLA football trip with the Campbells. Because of Barb's tight schedule, we caught the earliest flight we could saturday morning from Virgin America which turned out being the right way to start the day. With video games, tv, and music in front of you, we didn't want to get off the plane once we had Flight of the Concords queued.

After a convenient BART ride to Berkeley the Campbells picked us up where we headed for a quick crepe before landing ourselves at Raleigh's. I was bewildered by James's amazement that he'd never been in a beer garden. Really? Come to think of it, we're devoid of them here in LA. Maybe that's a sign for a career change for me.

We just missed kickoff, but were pretty amazed to see the stadium near full. It wasn't too inspiring of a game. Cal's offense had trouble finding it's rhythm which was fortunate because the Bruin's was far worse. The highlight of the game might be the highlight of the year or a lifetime. While the Cal Band was having reliably good show, out of nowhere they pulled out a recreation of "The Play". If you watch the video, it's not a little girl screaming, it's me hyperventilating.

The Bears pulled away in the fourth quarter, which was encouraging because this is the first time in years Tedford dropped his conservative play calling. Oh yeah, Coach Neuheisel is a douche. With sixty four seconds left in the game, why do you use your final time out playing defense on a first down to prolong the game down by twenty one points? Is it worth an extra play where someone might get hurt? UCLA deserves better.

After, we made a B-line to the best pizza in the world(Zachary's) and damn the hour wait. It's worth it. After dealing with a surplus of pizza and a 4am wake up call. It was time to call it a night.

For breakfast the next morning, Nikki found La Note on Yelp, which was the highest rated spot for morning meals in Berkeley. Everything was fantastic. Why didn't I ever eat at this place when I lived up there? Oh yeah, I could only afford Taco Bell.

Lastly we hit up the infamous North Face Outlet. When Campbell parked in the one hour zone, I told him you're going to have to move your car later. I wasn't joking. I've been there twice with Barbara and have shown restrain before. But I felt like I had been neglecting myself too long. I got a couple shorts and shirts, but I ventured into running shoes, which at $32 was an amazing deal. I'm not going to say how much I spent, but today the stock market went up 10%. Not a coincidence.

Don Rickles!!

2008-10-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'll have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of Don Rickles until this year. I'm not a big fan of humor that attacks people, but that all changed when we watched an HBO special about his life, "Mr. Warmth". The first thing you take is that he's an icon of the great days of Vegas with Sinatra, Martin and the rest of the gang. Next, I didn't know that he's great, great friends with Bob Newhart, who's a polar opposite of him and one of my all time favorites. And lastly, I learned greatly to respect that he performs with no safety net and he disciminates everyone equally.

While Agoura Hills doesn't sound like the Mecca of comedy, it was the only place he was playing in the state the whole year. I bought tickets back in February. The amazing thing is that as an eighty two year old, he's as sharp up there as he's ever been. What's even more impressive about that is most of his comedy comes from the people he sees in the audience and made up on the spot. His show was one of the most special I've been too and if you have the chance to see him, do it fast.

San Luis Obispo

2008-09-24T13:38:00.001-07:00

Barb and I got to get out earlier in September for a brief getaway up to San Luis Obispo. It's normally a 3 1/2 hour drive, but rather than having Barb nap in the passenger seat, I decided to get a taste of it the only way I could. By taking a train. It might have taken longer than driving, but it was so much worth it. Not just because it let me relax, but it's easy to work on a book or crossword.

We chose San Luis Obispo because: a)I love eating at Apple Farm and have never stayed there. b)Apple Farm has a package that included a county tour that included wine tastings. c)I spent a summer in SLO and have loved it ever since.

Green Acres Lavender Farm

After arriving in SLO we headed straight for Apple Farm. Little did we know that we'd be able to smell Firestone grill from a couple blocks off of our path. Their Tri-tip sandwich has received legendary status, so we thought we'd hit an early lunch. I'm one to believe that nothing ever lives up to that type of hype, but this sandwich exceeds it. From now on, I will only take the 101 to the Bay Area instead of the I-5 just to get that sandwich.

After digesting, we checked in at Apple Farm and immediately headed down to their wine reception. The wine was alright, but they included some pastries from their bakery. Damn them! So much good food in a day and it wasn't even dinner yet! We went to our room to recover before heading out for a long walk around the campus to burn off our sins. At the end of the walk, we found a sushi place which offered all-you-can-drink specials. That's ended our run of quality food. When we got back, Apple Farm had chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.

The next morning, we grabbed a rental car and went off on our San Luis Obispo County tour. Our first stop was a lavender farm. I'm really unfamiliar with lavender as a species, and even less with it's many different uses. I didn't pick up all the uses because we were too focused on their pets. It's a bit disturbing when a cat is bullying a dog, but you can't stop watching.

The tour also included a list of wineries with complimentary wine tastings. The first one was JanKris which was decent, but they kept on pouring. And Barbara kept drinking. I reminded her the county had other wineries to go to, so Barbara asked about some of the local's favorites. They sent us to Halter Ranch winery, which didn't turn out to be our favorite. Their wine was on par with the last place, but the lady behind the counter was too "bougie" and she charged me separately for a wine tasting after Barb bought a bottle! It was a nice settling to eat our Apple Farm provided boxed lunches(way better than anything I've brown bagged), but please, steer clear of this place.

We got a little R & R back at Apple Farm before heading out for a stroll downtown. School wasn't in session, so it was nice to walk around because SLO hasn't become commercialized like Santa Barbara. After all our options, we decided to eat again(almost a year to the day) at Novo again. The food's pretty good, but atmosphere of the outdoor patio over the river is worth the price of a meal.

Our short trip was almost over, but we had to have an Apple Farm breakfast to leave this town right. Everything is very good, but the pancakes are the best. I should try to get a job there.

Barbara multi-taking at Apple Farm

The highlight of the train ride back was this 18-year old kid that would try(unsuccessfully) to strike up a conversation with any of the train's single riders. I could hear him keep telling people that he was travelling from San Jose to LA as part of his punk band's tour. I didn't really believe him because where was the rest of his band? The jewel was when he was talking to the girl in front of me and told her that he was in a Dead Kennedy's cover band called "Not the Dead Kennedy's". The girl was unfamiliar with their work, so he played a CD of a couple of their songs. Only he had to preface it with, "this isn't us playing, it's the group we're covering." Classic.

Lastly, we loved our train experience. Strangely, our train had to idle in Moorpark for about twenty minutes because the conductor explained that our train was ahead of schedule and had to wait our turn to go through the single track Santa Susana tunnel. Later that week, the Metrolink accident happened along the same track. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the families of that trajedy.

The New Rynews!!

2008-09-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

About roughly three months ago, I went to the pound after I saw a beautiful chow mix online. It turned out that the chow was too big for my parents to possibly handle, but these two sisters caught my eye as well as everyone else's. They had just come in, but they weren't available for adoption or even to be looked out outside of their cage for three days, so we had to wait.

The following wednesday morning we showed up to the pound as soon as they opened. Through some weird processing system, we could look at Zooey, but not Franny for another hour. As soon as we took her out of the cage we knew we wanted her, but we came in mind that we wanted to keep the sisters together, so we waited. About a half hour later, another couple came to claim Zooey, but we didn't want to commit until we got a look at Zooey. After some deliberation, the other couple ceded that we could have Zooey as long as we kept the sisters together. As soon as we were able to meet Franny, we knew that both would be a perfect pair. We went to tell the other couple, but they had already left.

Zooey(the smaller one) is extremely docile around people, but is still aggressive when other dogs or cars go by. She is better at learning commands than Franny, but still needs a lot of work. Franny made a complete 180 change in her personality when she first came to our house. Mind you they were both recovering from being spayed, but Franny was very scared about everything the first day, making me think she was a little mental. As the week wore on, Franny not only started to warm up to everyone, but she became even more playfully active than Zooey and is very friendly as well.

Zooey and Franny at the pound

James Campbell - MARRIED!!

2008-08-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday, I had the honor of being in the wedding party of James's wedding as well as giving a speech. This really was a hard wedding to describe because it was extremely solid from start to finish.

James and Nikki cutting up the dance floor!

I'm not going to comment on my speech, but much props to Chris Woo for delivering the goods as well on his speech. I loved his opening that along the lines like, "James and I have been great friends, like Luke and Han Solo in Star Wars, or Riggs and Murtock in Lethal Weapon, or even Jack and Ellis in Brokeback Mountain." Also much props to Parker, for some last minute editting on mine and Costello, for having to go last after we used up most of the good material.

Barbara admiring my handsomeness!!

Also I have to make mention of the bachelor party. Originally, we had planned on having it in Morro Bay, but it turned out there wasn't much to do there. Well, two weeks before the event after a pow wow with Costello and Trevor, we decided Morro Bay was going to be lame and switched the event to Palm Desert. Only, we didn't tell Campbell that. We made him try to figure it out himself as we picked him up.

I had known nothing about the Palm Desert scene, but it's actually got a Vegas vibe without the smoking. We stayed at the Marriot, which was the place to be. The pool was just filled with partiers and the club was awesome. Top Three Ever!! The cap though was the dinner. He went to a California Cuisine across to a place called Cork Tree. Everything was exceptional from the entrees all the way down to the bread. Awesome wedding, awesome bachelor party, and awesome awesomeness!!

Emerging Global Superpower Wins Harold Competition!!

2008-06-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Going into the competition, it was really hard to have expectations having never been in such a contest. All I knew was that I was part of a very talented group of performers, so I was willing to let the chips fall where they may. In our first show, we were pretty ready to go after having a really good warmup, but we came up with a performance that was atypical of our group. Maybe it was having watched the other group first before we performed, but I think we weren't too worried once the show was over. With the help of our supporters, we were able to forge ahead against the IO West All-Stars.

The next night we were a little more low key in our warmups, but there seemed to be an underlying confidence in our demeanor before the show. We won the RoShamBo again, but this time decided to go first. From that moment on, we had an amazing show from start to finish. Everyone was working so well together and continued to add layers with every scene that I didn't want it to end. It did, with us winning over team "Powerhouse", another team from IO West. In a way it felt being Wilt Chamberlin scoring 100 points in a game, you knew that something special was happening while you were doing it and that I'd remember for the rest of my life.

Strangely, now that we were one step away from taking it all, I really wanted to win the whole thing. Not that there's much that you could do about it other than performing, but it would really bring a validation for all that our theater, Bang Studio, has done for our group.

Unfortunately, the show before ours was running over and I could feel some of my energy fade a little. In the time inbetween, we got to meet some of the members of Ultimate Improv before the show and they were a really nice group, but I think both groups were anxious to finally get this thing started.

I didn't get the full rush of hitting the Main Stage because we entered second from a curtain downstage, tripping over a chair as I emerged. Fortunately, there was a mass in front of me, so I don't think anyone noticed, but I kicked the chair again anyways. Surely enough, we won our third straight RoShambo and elected to go first.

We started out with a bunch of energy and had a great few first scenes, but then I got a little caught up in the moment. I guess you would call it stopping to smell the roses. Just being able to take in the energy of the crowd, seeing the performance take shape and noticing that we were in the finals only a few months after forming as a group really made me feel a sense of accomplishing something. The rest of the show was a blur and before I knew it, it was over, which probably isn't the way you'd like to plan it.

It was tough to watch the next group, not because of their performance, but just because I wanted some closure. Both groups brought a lot of fans, but I knew that neither had a majority so the conclusion would rest on those that came unattached. As they were receiving the ballots, there were a couple of cries of "co-champs!" from the crowd and it made me think what a better show this would have been for both teams without the pressure. At that point, I wished they announced a split before the show and just let us perform so I wouldn't have to sit through the final decision.

When it came time for the announcement, I didn't want to be the one to go up front and thank god Ramsey decided to step forward. I was just happy to hear a name called, let alone it being us, because the time and energy put into this contest was starting to catch up to me. It was funny how over the course of the evening I had this massive sea change of being anxious to win to just being elated that it was over.

The trophy was huge(I didn't notice it at the start because of the chair situation), but being a hockey fan the first thing I noticed was that you couldn't drink out of it. There was also a $500 prize involved which had I known about even earlier, might have thrown me off even more. In the end, I was just happy to have the chance to bring some recognition to such a great team and to be able to carry a title with it as well.

Before I end, there are just a couple people who I'd like to thank. As I've heard before, would the World Series really mean anything if you had no one to play it in front of. Probably not. So this goes out to all that came to our shows, despite them falling on a weeknight, or in the AM with one of the worst parking situations in Los Angeles. Coming out to watch us took a huge commitment and there's no proper way that I can correctly convey my graditude to match the effort everyone made.

First, I have to thank the theater for having faith in Emerging Global Superpower. It's a tremendous honor to represent Bang and we hope we made everyone proud. Here's to the Bang Community that have played a hand in our group : Ezra Weisz, Sabrina Hill, Gretchen Enders, Mitchell Roche, Darrin Butters, Lorelei Butters, Tom Shannon, Nicole Marcks, Tom O'Connor, Marcus Alexander Hart, Evan Gore, and of course Aliza and Peter Murrieta.

Also, one final shout out to all that braved the elements to make it out. In alphabetical order : Paul O'Neil, his wife Annie Duke and their son Winston, my Stone Cold roommate Chinfoo, Veronica from the smartest University in our galaxy, Stacey with a tab in every bar Glazer, Stacey's bailbondsman Gretchen, Helen the proud mother of two Corgis, captain Dave and his third place hockey team, the bi-county hockey fan Matt, his better 99% Stacia, Nicole who's on one of my most watched youtube videos, the anti-Villarigossa LA Dave, mayor Daley's understudy Scott, Julie who would sacrifice her car to see our show, Nat's parents, Devil Rays fan Nick, Claire and her big smile, Vincent the reason for her smile, Rollo who has my old car, Troy who was born to root for USC, Akiko who's in school as much as Barbara, Jeff who already has Rose Bowl tickets for next year, the bi-polar working Raymond, Mitchell who didn't have a Big Gulp at our show, Marcus and his mind powers, poster inspiration Amanda, my baseball twin Matt, the amazing world of Steve, Laura "finger in many pies" Barbera, "Kevin Youkilis" Murrieta, Brian the Worm, the Ezra who'll be running while reading this, his many students, british conchord lover James, the Brian of twenty seven different improv groups, Ramsey's family and Simi entourage, Lisa and Matt and their 6k of their frequent flyer miles, Tom who doesn't carry cash Sage, Josephine and her attractive manfriend, Jim with the audible laugh Stevens, Zoya who must love subway sandwiches as well, Eddie who was happy they sold drinks, the only Anna I don't call "awnna", Vadim who was playing Breakout during the other team's show, my folks who normally fall asleep before the sun goes down, and to my most dedicated and lovely fan in the world Barbara.

Texasanaustonio!

2008-03-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

Barbara had her last fellowship interview in Austin and I thought I'd tag along to visit one of my friends. Boy, was she going to be sorry. We caught a 6am flight out of LAX on the Monday after Easter. Even though we got about four hours of sleep the night before, we hit San Antonio running.

Barbara in front of...I can't remember

We headed over to the riverwalk and although we didn't hit the nice part, we still enjoyed it. Of course, no trip to the area would be complete without visiting the Alamo, which was actually cooler than other people had made it out to be. There was a lot of informative exhibits and friendly guides to share a lot of inside stories. You could tell that Texans have a lot of pride in that place and treat it like a religious shrine.

Mike and I after coordinating wardrobes

We then headed over to Mike's place. Now this wasn't a normally planned trip. Barbara didn't really have a choice on what date we were to come out, so of course, it was going to coincide with Liz's due date. Fortunately for us, she went into labor two days before during the UCLA-Texas A&M game. By the time we pulled up that afternoon, they had only been home an hour. Little Tyler was lying there bundled up and on display like a picture frame. Sam wandered in and was trying to make friends with his "bro". Impressively, at two and half years ago, Sam already is speaking three languages, which is three more than I have mastered.

"Hi Five, Sam"

We made it out to Austin that night and after a quick drive around, we gave it a quick thumbs up. It's full of a lot of unique restaurants, bars and museums without many of the generic starbucks, gap, pinkberry, etc. We ate at a restaurant called Trulock's, where Barbara got the trout and I had a sampler of steak, chicken and shrimp which both were exemplary. Amazingly, we refrained on a dessert that was a hard chocolate shell the size of a women's shoebox filled with ice cream, chocolate and fruit. The three girls sitting next to us each got one. They should have split just one between them. Everything is bigger in Texas.

I dropped Barb off to her interview the next morning and once I got myself together, I headed out to explore more. I headed over to the capitol first, which was real impressive in size and design. Strangely, having been heavily security checked going into LA City Hall a couple weeks earlier, I was surprised to just be able to walk right in. That's southern hospitality for you.

Video Highlights & Lowlights

I then headed over to the University of Texas campus to see what the state's finest had to offer. First, I headed to the football stadium which was already huge and was adding at least another 15,000 seats. It also had three gift shops built in which were all open four months away from football season! The rest of the campus is very dense, and it's hard to have enough space to tell if the buildings are nice or not. I also tried to go up the clock tower, but surprisingly it's been closed for forty years since the shooting and just opened for the weekends two years ago. I then wandered over to the local campus digs and it's actually very similar to Berkeley, except less transients and no "for lease" signs up.

U of Texas Clock Tower

I picked Barbara up from her interview around six and since traffic was so bad, we decided to eat into before heading back to San Antonio. One of the doctor's recommended a seafood place called Eddie V's. I'd say my salmon was just good next to Barbara's lobster which was amazing. Another thing I have to add is that all the local beer I tried was exceptional.

The trip ended on a bad note as the hotel we were staying in San Antonio(rhymes with "milton") was full and threw us in a handicapped room which had a broken shower head unsuccessfully kept together by a rubber band and a twin sized bed which forced me to sleep on the floor. After getting about two hours of sleep we headed out to the airport which went without a snag unless you count me accidentally throwing away my driver's license. In summary, we were very impressed with this part of Texas, especially since we've had bad experiences in other parts of the state. If Barbara does end up getting her fellowship here, at least I know she'll be in good hands.

Spring Training '08

2008-03-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

I try to go to spring training every year(I'm currently on a three year streak), but I'd never been with more than one friend before. This year we had a crew of five guys going, but the challenge was how to get a group of guys out after a night on the town to a 1pm game. The solution, was to bring the game to them:

It was a great idea in theory, but I had no idea how it would work in a real world environment. It was scary to drive, but at least other drivers would yield against any moves I made. I also didn't know that it didn't come with any bedding. Thankfully, Lindsay(Costello's girlfriend) is a Phoenix native and supplied us with about all we needed.

Costello, Dan, Campbell & LADave catching rays

Friday night we were supposed to go to the Brewers/Padres game, but Dan & Costello's flight came in late, so me and Campbell went solo. Prince Fielder hit a massive shot, but of course, I didn't think to record it. It's actually still in the air as of press time. We all met up after the game for a few drinks at the Rock Bottom Brewery and then a few drinks in the RV. After settling down we drove out to set up camp near the next days game. We settled at a Walmart parking lot that seemed tame enough, but as you'll see in the video, we got rudely awakened.

The whole trip video compilation!

That day we headed to the Royals/Brewers game where LADave met up with us. I was looking forward to the sausage races, and figured Churizo would win because it was Churizo bobblehead day, but it wasn't meant to be. We then headed to the Coyotes game early and tried out the RV shower before we headed in. We got to watch the Pac10 Final game at the Fox Sports Bar before and was actually pleasantly surprised at how good their food was despite their crappy beer selection. As for the hockey game, it was one of the worst in recent memory. For a team fighting for a playoff spot, the Coyotes played one of the most uninspired games ever. It was nice to get free green St. Patrick's Day Coyotes hats, but it would of been nicer if the cold air wasn't turned on in our section.

After the game, we headed to a Dave & Busters which was singularly the most genius/idiotic idea of the trip. I liked the cheap beer and the most games were fun enough, but as it got closer to closing time, things got retarded. Everyone started sliding their cards into this game that would give you coins that got flung into the game and if any fell over the edge, you won tickets. I think we literally spent $60 dollars on it. We had a little argument at the ticket redemption center as Dan really wanted the oversized pink Little Mermaid ball, but we settled on a purple metallic soccer ball and three inflatable hammers.

That night we decided to park in a residential neighborhood to avoid any urban woes, but this time we were rudely awakened by roosters! We got to the Cubs game early enough to hit around some balls, but unfortunately were parked to a larger group of goofballs. And yes, they were Angels fans. Dan had to head back early, but the rest of us went to Lindsay's parents place where we were treated with pizza, a good old-fashioned shower, and some 2x2 hoops in her backyard roller rink. We then hit the dog track which was the most underrated part of the trip. Every race took place about every 12-15 minutes, which was way faster than the horse races. We all won money too, so that was also a factor.

We parked the RV in another residential area that night, but even though we were parked in the flight path of the airport, we didn't seem to care anymore. Dave caught an early flight out, but the rest of us hit the A's St. Patty's Game. Of course, we tried the green beer which was actually a green-dyed Corona, but for some reason it tasted better. Campbell also caught a foul ball, although it bounced a few times before he corralled it.

All in all, a great trip considering all that could have gone wrong, like crashing the RV, not being able to shower or inviting Parker. Next year might be packed with the Dodgers moving to town, but I'm willing to give it a go now that I've got over 200 miles logged into a RV.

Los Angeles Marathon 2008

2008-03-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

This Sunday morning, me and my roommate Stone Cold Chinfoo headed out to the hardened streets of Los Angeles to capture the essence of the 2008 Los Angeles Marathon. We made our first stop at the corner of Hollywood and Highland to catch the early leaders.

The elite women came by first due to the twenty minute head start on the men, but what surprised us was the first male. Minutes before he came by, there were a number of "recreational" runners that jumped onto the course to get a head start on their twenty minute-a-mile pace. We thought that this guy was doing the same since there was no lead pack in sight and he wasn't a Kenyan. Sure enough, he was running right behind the official pace cars. The elite men pack didn't show up for another minute and a half, meaning this guy was running a mile thirty seconds faster than the rest. That was a physical accomplishment of it's own, but it turns out he held the lead for two thirds of the race and wound up taking sixth place.

We then camped out at Vine and Melrose where I told Ezra we'd be stationed to give him props when I realized that there were a bunch of freaks running this race. I was the freak for not having my camera running, so I got a few of them, but there was a larger army of mutant runners out there than the X-men.

We then hopped on our bikes and made it near the finish line in downtown LA. There's something about the end of the race there that doesn't get the crowd involved as much as they should, like the Boston Marathon. People are limited to stand on a narrow part of the sidewalk and there's a bunch of "VIP" seating near the end that isn't being used. The winner's sure looked happy they won, but didn't seem to have a clue whether there were people cheering for them or not.

Zacko's New Show(s)!!

2008-01-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

I'm back at BANG! Not just for one show, but two. I'm back Friday nights, probably back roughly into June for the Big Show with my new group, EMERGING GLOBAL SUPERPOWER(myspace page). I'm real lucky again to be in a group of very talented performers who are fun to work with.

Also I'm in another show on Thursdays called "The Set". It's part of a bigger show called "Gang Bang" where we get suggestions at the start of the show, the improv group IProv comes out and improvises off of suggested songs, and then we bring it back with an improv set based on the suggestions. We've only had one show so far, but you could see want our Director(Aliza Murrieta) had in mind with this cast. Oh, by the way, it's FREE. Starts at 9:30.

You can also check out a live feed if you're not able to make it out at: http://www.stickam.com/profile/bangstudio

Christmas Oregon Trip

2008-01-06T02:04:00.000-08:00

Barbara and I headed up to Oregon to visit her family for Christmas. We left a day early to avoid the oncoming snow, but made a beautiful detour down the coast.

This is the first video I put together with all of my devices. So far, I'd consider myself a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

One Year Anniversary!

2007-11-29T15:59:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note that Barbara and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday. We went to "The Foundry" a little restaurant on Melrose with a simple, yet elegant decor, which I have to give Chinfoo credit for the suggestion. Well Everything there was very delicious. From the appetizers, to Barbara's Trout and the Beef Short Ribs, down to the dessert, everything was spectacular.

Halloween - West Hollywood Style!

2007-11-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Me, Barbara and Stone Cold Chinfoo headed down a couple of blocks to the annual West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval. My goal, was to entertain the masses with my highly detailed Brett(pronounced "Brit" in New Zealandish) costume from my favorite show "Flight of the Conchords". It was hard to find something distinctive from the show, but I thought dressing up in his day job outfit was the easiest way to get recognition:

Of course, I had no success at the Dan Mack party of anyone figuring out who I was. My hope was in the mass of 300,000 revelers that I'd get at least ten people recognizing who I was.

Unfortunately, most people thought I was just a phone salesman, saying things like "Free Phones?", "Where's the Phones?" and "Give me a Phone!" Yes, it got tedious after awhile. But it was a high-risk, high-reward costume. I got seventeen confirmed sightings. The best part was the quotes from the show referencing my girlfriend like, "Did you walk around the outside of her?" or "She's so hot she's like boom!" My favorite though was the David Bowie inspired, "Wear the eyepatch Brit! Wear the funky, funky eyepatch!"

As for the rest of the evening, a lot of awesome costumes. I could write a descriptive narrative, but getting a camera would help. Especially, one with a flash. We did get a picture of my favorite costume of the night. Fortunately, I didn't need a flash for it:

Finally, Barbara went as Betty Boop. She got a few sightings, but after a couple of hours being out there, she was starting to get cold and her feet were hurting from her heels. Well, after we met up with her friend Activate(going as Britney Spears) who had it worse off in both fronts, I think she realized how good she had it.

Berkeley - Big Sur Day 1

2007-10-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Day one started in LA, but ended in heaven. We left early morning from my parents place to take the five hour trek to the East Bay. Our plan was to stay in downtown Oakland because the parking and hotel situation in Berkeley sounded too hectic, so our plan was to take the subway in. I thought it was a great plan, but seeing how the trains were half filled with Tennessee Orange, I was worried about a UCLA Rose Bowl situation where all the locals made a big payday on the game.

Looking for some blue and gold at the BART Station

Once we came above ground, we tried going to my favorite beer joint, Jupiter, but seeing how it was the nearest pub to the BART Station, oxygen was hard to find let alone a place to stand there. After seeing how Triple Rock Brewery was so packed that it made the air-conditioning void, we headed for a little sandwich place that was new since I lived there last.

Since we had a few hours to kill before the game, I gave Barbara a tour of the campus. There's so much architectural history that I could take hours, but we jaunted by all the main sites, like Doe Library, the Campanile, and the west entrance. We met up at Sproul Plaza where the band performed before their final march up the stadium.

Sather Gate

Cal Band Great!...at Sproul Plaza

My parents headed up to the stadium which allowed me and Barb a chance to hit up a couple more of my local faves before the game. We went by Yogurt Park to remind me how great their yogurt is especially since it's about half price from anywhere else in the world. Then up to Cafe Strada, my all-time favorite coffee place in the world. It kicks ass three ways: good prices, super fast service, and awesome coffee. Get the Bianca Mocha. 'Nuff said.

After a short walk past the treehuggers, we were in the stadium. There was a large Tennessee contingent, but fortunately, Cal fans outnumbered the Vols about 6-1. The atmosphere was electric. The Tennessee fans were eccentric.

"I've been smoking in stadiums since the Civil War!"

Appalachian State made me wear black today!

Cal's defense made me really squeamish, but the offense looked pretty good. Once Cal did stop a Vols drive, I started describing to Barb about how Desean Jackson was the best punt returner in the country. As the ball was in the air, I said they were kicking it short to force a fair catch. Once Desean decided to run with the ball instead, I said he wasn't going to get much. Then, we were all jumping up an down.

It's Desean's world!

That left us on the edge of our seats for the rest of the game. We got to witness card tricks(which originated at Cal) and the ever more entertaining confetti toss preceding. Cal pretty much controlled the rest of the game, although I never feel good until it's really over. The Tennessee fans were great and they were very gracious to meet, even after their loss. On the way back to the train, we found seats at Jupiter. Unfortunately, I failed in meeting my goal of trying every single one of their beers in one sitting. Almost the perfect day..

"Please pass your cards to the right"

The Band's on the Field!!..and sixty thousand
of their closest friends

Berkeley - Big Sur Trip Day 2

2007-10-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Day one was about football, but day two was just about as important. There are a lot of great things I love about Berkeley, but Barbara hadn't really gotten the tour. So Sunday was about revisiting some of my favorite things. The first was a little architectural tour. We went by a couple of Bernard Maybeck houses, who mentored Julia Morgan back in the day. The house below was built out of concrete because fires that had plagued the Berkeley hills. The amazing thing about the house, it is just celebrating it's ONE HUNDRED year anniversary.

Lawson House

Right down the street was the Berkeley Rose Garden, also designed by Maybeck. What can I say, you could just spend the whole day among the flowers looking over the bay.

Berkeley Rose Garden

One requirement on every trip is a visit to Zachary's Pizza. My favorite pizza in the whole world. Barbara said Chicago pizza is better. If there was a a catapult nearby when she said that, who knows how far she could have flown. As for the other guy in the picture, I guess I'm photogenic enough that other people like to jump in.

Zachary's Pizza - Solano Ave.

Okay. Here's the real reason for the whole trip. The North Face Outlet off of Gilman St. I love North Face Products! I love North Face Products! I have no problem typing that continuously. The Outlet is a godsend because my only criticism of North Face is that their products are normally pricey. Not here! And there is an abundance of everything. It's really a battle of self restraint. It might have been a battle that Barbara lost.

Not even half the store.

"We're going to need another SUV!!"

Berkeley - Big Sur Trip Day 3

2007-09-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

We headed out of Los Gatos midday to head down to Big Sur. There was some sightseeing we wanted to do along the way, but an accident on the highway into Santa Cruz slowed us down, but we still got some in.

Building tucked into UCSC

The deers have domesticated us!

UC Santa Cruz is probably the most beautiful UC campus in the state. It may also be the most confusing as it is nestled into the trees like an ewok village, but it's definitely worth the trouble.

A 1934 WPA Bridge along Highway 1

Just another pretty view along the highway

Ma and Pa at Point Lobos Park

The rocks are partially white from the birds

We came out to Point Lobos about twenty years ago. Some things were just as we remembered them, but still it was gorgeous enough that it felt like we were there for the first time.

Berkeley - Big Sur Trip Day 4

2007-09-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Day 4: We headed out midday to Monterey to hit up the aquarium. There's a reason why it's world famous. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures of it all because flash photography is restricted. That didn't stop us from accidentally taking some shots.

Later on in the day we headed downtown. We went to a chicken place owned by one of my mom's friends called "Bird on a Wire". I had to give it a plug here because the chicken tasted just as good as California Chicken Cafe, but was more consistantly tasty. You have to try it to see what I mean.

William Tecumseh Sherman's House

I love California history, but I didn't know that Monterey was one of the oldest settlements in the west. This was a picture of Sherman's house which he lived in BEFORE he was a general for the Union Army. There are a lot a buildings still existing from the 1850's and earlier. I definitely want to go back and explore more.

Berkeley - Big Sur Trip Day 5

2007-09-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Our laziest day of the trip. It didn't involve too much other than breakfast, a hike and dinner.

Point Sur

Falls on a hike

Arden starting his hour encounter with Barb's iphone.

Berkeley - Big Sur Trip Day 6-7

2007-09-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

I decided to publish photos from our trip backwards. Why? It'll appear like they are in order by the time I'm done.

Day 6: We left Big Sur early for Hearst Castle which was about 80 miles. The drive hugged the cliffs for the first half, but flattened out as we neared San Simeon. Nearby the castle we were lucky enough to come up on a couple hundred sea lions along the beach.

Posing for the Camera

Front Entrance of the Castle

Indoor pool

Zebras with their baby.

After the castle we headed down to our hotel in Morro Bay, where we got the pictures of the Zebras on the side of the highway. Seeing how I'm far more familiar with San Luis Obispo, we took the fifteen minute drive down for dinner. I really like the downtown there. A lot of great local flavor that's able to fight off the commercialism like in Santa Barbara. We went to a restaurant I always wanted to try called Novo. Not just because of good reviews, but a really pretty setting overlooking the creek.

Dinner at Novo

The next morning, we got up and went to my all time favorite breakfast place in the universe, Apple Farm. Everything is so good there that I try to sample every item possible. Afterwards, we had time to walk around downtown SLO in the daylight before leaving for my show. Sad to end the trip, but the afternoon definitely left us something to come back to.

San Luis Obispo Mission

Bonds Mania!

2007-08-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, I hate Bonds, but I do have an eye to catch history in the making. Hey, if he's going to break it anyways, why not try to see it?

We got seats in the most likely place Bonds would hit his 755th home run, the right field pavilion, which also has now morphed into the all you can eat pavilion. More on that later. The scene was wild every time he came to bat as everyone funnelled to the bottom of the section for the chance to catch history and quite possibly a million dollars.

I also thought that with all the havoc going on, that this father had the foresight to plant a helmet on his kid once the chaos began.

The all you can eat section was something I always wanted to try, but I probably would never find myself out there without any good reason other than to gorge myself. The section was well run and you could pretty much grab what you wanted. My previous record for dodger dogs at a game was three, so I was really surprised I only topped that record by one. I felt like I could of had more, but luckily reasoning set in because the next few days felt like someone was inflating my stomach like a hot air balloon. A word to the wise, try it once, but don't buy season tickets there.

Flight of the Conchords!!

2007-07-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

My latest obsession! If you haven't caught this on HBO, it's a half hour sitcom that somehow incorporates a couple of their parody songs an episode. It's a cross between the Office and Napolean Dynamite. These clips don't do it justice, but I crack up everytime...

Kobe Help Coming?

2007-07-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

No, not really. But I did get a tip that Kevin Garnett was playing pick up at Wooden Center so I headed on down to take a gander. Unfortunately, I had a crappy camera at the time. So even a day later, my mind faded with all the other pros that were there since I can't make them out in the pics. I can safely say that Paul Pierce, Ronny Turiaf and Marko Jaric were part of the crew.

Wooden Center.

KG and Pierce outside

Pierce giving props to weasely agent guy.

Sorry I'm unable to answer your calls..

2007-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

There have been two products that instantly upon my first usage that I would endorse without any compensation, Plain M & M's and Bullfrog Sunblock. Now I have a third product to add to that list, my new portable Pioneer Inno XM Radio.

My main motivation is that I'm sick of terrestrial radio's music stations with comercials, and I wanted a more variety of talk options. For those reasons, Sirius you could argue is the slightly better choice, but XM has MLB, NHL and Pac-10 coverage, the top three sporting networks I could have asked for.

While the service has been great, the player I have is the topper. On top of it being a radio, it also works as an MP3 player. The best option is that if you've just switched channels and hit a song you like halfway in, you could hit the record button and it will save the whole song onto your device. I also like that you can easily set up prerecordings of certain shows and it will notify you when your favorite artists are playing on another channel.

To be fair, the negatives is that I don't get total reception, but mostly when I go through the canyons. They have a headset that also works as an antenna, so I'll give that a go soon. Also, setting the hookup into the car takes a little work, but I haven't put more than two minutes into it, so it's unfair to say.

So if Christmas comes early for you this year, get the Pioneer Inno.

Jerseys.. jerseys...jerseys

2007-05-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

It's been hard to keep up without a functioning camera, so here's a little update on a hobby of mine. In fourth grade I was extremely jealous of another student who wore an authentic Steve Garvey Dodger jersey to school. I nagged my dad to the point where I got him to take me to a store, but once he saw the price tag I got a couple of packs of baseball cards as a consolation prize. Anyways, I vowed that once I became of age that I would correct the mental scars left by my childhood by starting my own collection.

I originally started out by buying anything seen as a bargain($20 tops), but like any hobby you want the taste of the high life eventually. I have a few batting practice jerseys which are great because of their cost and makeup you don't fear wearing anywhere. But now I'm up to looking for three different types of jerseys, those from my favorite players, designs that I really like and game used jerseys that are cheap enough, but still have at least solid designs. The '82 Expos jersey is my latest purchase. It's a Cooperstown Collection jersey, but it's probably been my most sought after jersey(although I'd like the home version as well) since the real thing would cost about a month's worth of rent. The lettering definitely adds to the jersey and the 1982 All-Star Patch is a real bonus.

I'm getting to the point now where I'm starting to be real selective because I can't afford all the jerseys I sort of like. So to see where I'm going, these are the top five jerseys I'd be looking for in an ideal world:

1935 Homestead Grays - I've always been a big fan of the Negro Leagues. Satchel Paige is my favorite player but the Monarchs jerseys look too cartoony. John Gibson is my next favorite so the Homestead Grays win. Not just by default, but really think the simplicity and lining looks great.

1915 Chicago Whales - Most people don't know that there were other rival major leagues in the early days of baseball. The Federal league was created in 1914 and only lasted two years. Weeghman Field was built specifically for this team, but their stadium is still in use although it currently goes under the name of a gum manufacturer. I like the jersey because it is nicest remnant of a part of baseball history that is virtually forgotten.

1987 Cleveland Indians - Major League is a damn good movie and not just because of the jerseys. I'd say that block lettering is normally a deterrent, but it fits really well on the jersey. Plus I've always been a big fan of Chief Wahoo. I'd like to own one of these jerseys before political correctness destroys any opportunity.

1948 Oakland Oaks - Before baseball moved cross country, the west had it's own version of the majors called the Pacific Coast League. The quality of play was on the AAAA level and some quality players even stayed because they made a better living by doing so. Others, like Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams and Billy Martin decided to move on. There is a real rich history of this league, but since I'm Bay Area centric I tend to favor the Oaks. In their time, they went through a number of color schemes, but this is my favorite.

1992 Albuquerque Dukes - Watching the Dodgers growing up I was always fascinated by the players who'd be called up soon, so whenever I first saw pictures from their triple-A affiliate I fell in love with their jerseys. I have no rationale for it because they are ugly colors, but they look uniquely good as a baseball uniform. I like the home white and the earlier road red, but the duke caricature on the arm is what puts the jersey over the top.

SPRING TRAINING ACTION '07

2007-03-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Every spring I get that itch to head to spring training everytime I hear the phrase "pitchers and catchers reporting". I haven't been to Florida for a few years, but I'm content on going back to Arizona because you're forty-five minutes away from ten teams in the Phoenix area. This year, I had about thirty six hours to spend, but I returned with Spring Training Alumni '98, James Campbell.

We arrived Saturday morning and made a b-line out to Surprise to catch the A's and Rangers in action. We got there early enough that we made it out to the practice fields to see some of the Royals(they share the complex with the Rangers) warm up. Unfortunately, it was just a group of players outside the majors playing soft-toss so we just headed into the game. The stadium itself is the best(and newest) facility in the Cactus league.

Right before the game, a bunch of A's came out to home plate to greet Ron Washington, who left the A's as third base coach to manage the Rangers. Nick Swisher trotted out, gave Wash a big hug, and headed pretty much all the way to the wrong dugout without getting in. He made a pretty funny gesture as the fans were laughing at his gaffe. Gotta love the guy. Strangely, no one wanted to talk to former A's manager Art Howe. Maybe too much time has passed.

A bulked up Dan Johnson walked by us, only it wasn't DJ, it was prospect Travis Buck. One thing I've been concerned about with GM Billy Beane is that many of the players he drafts don't look like athletes, but finally, someone who looks like a real deal. Buck hit a really deep shot out in the second inning reaffirming my beliefs. Other highlights included Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza unable to hit a ball out of the infield, Estaban Loaiza keeping the ball down inducing many ground balls, Bobby Crosby committing the inevitable error and Milton Bradley making a couple of great catches in the field.

After the game, we headed to a sports bar in a shopping mall, which pretty much describes it all, to catch the UCLA-Kansas game. We got so caught up in the game that we almost forgot that we had a hockey game to catch that night. As we pulled up, I loved the sight of the new football stadium across the street and was giddy that they don't CHARGE FOR PARKING! As we were walking up into the back entrance to the arena, something didn't look right. Later, we figured out that it looked to short because the rink is submerged from ground level.

Walking in, we were very impressed. Maybe Staples Center is nicer, but this rink was perfectly built for this locale. Not too many luxury boxes, great viewing angles, a nice team merchandise store and plenty of concessions. A nice touch also was that the upper concourse was mostly open to the rink as you were walking around. Probably, the thing we were most surprised about was that it was a sellout for a team that's been out of the playoffs most of the season and been playing at the same rink for three years. I think the future will be bright for hockey out there.

The next morning, we snuck into a parking spot at the A's stadium to buy some green and gold merchandise for the trip. We got trapped in the team store as they were letting people into the game, meaning we could have snuck in real easy, but Campbell didn't want a guilty conscience.

We drove back over to the A's practice fields, which are about a mile away through beautiful Papago Park, even though the guy in the gift shop said there was nothing going on there. Sure enough, a couple of intrasquad games were going on with minor leaguers. There probably was only about thirty other people watching the games there, but getting foul balls was tough because they asked for them back. Oh well. There was another team there, dressed in red and white, which I assumed was an Angels B-Team, but upon closer inspection turned out to be the Chinese National Team.

We plunked ourselves down to watch a game of guys with major league numbers, but last year's spring training uniforms. We didn't recognize anybody until Jeremy Brown of Moneyball fame came to the plate. He struck out. An inning later, a pitcher took the mound with this year's spring training jersey and was the only player wearing white pants. It turned out to be A's ace Rich Harden. He clearly was working on his curveball and offspeed pitches, but when he got behind in the count a couple of times, he turned on the high nice. Impressive to watch close up.

Once again, we were battling time to catch our next game, the Padres/Giants out in Peoria. Traffic was a mess getting in and we made it a half inning late. There barely was space for us on the lawn as the Padres set an attendance record for the game in anticipation of Bonds playing. He didn't. But there were plenty of home runs, but strangely the furthest hit ball wasn't a home run or a foul ball. It was a four hundred foot double that bounced about thirty feet up the center field wall. Otherwise, not to many things to note during the game.

All in all, the weekend was a full success. We ended with a pretty tasty dinner at Thunder Dan Marjele's sports bar before catching the plane. The only thing the weekend could have used more was even more baseball.

Way to Cool 50k

2007-03-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

I had dreamed of running the "Way to Cool" 50k as being my first ultra marathon. I had even registered for last year's, but I wasn't prepared for the wet and freezing conditions. This was the place where two and a half years earlier, my friend Dave introduced me into trail running, and there is no better. Auburn has a number of great trails that aren't that difficult yet offer amazing views around the American River. It is also home to the tail end of the legendary Western States 100 Mile Run, the Rose Bowl of all trail races. About a quarter of the 50k would cover the Western States Trail, so essentially this had to be my first ultra. While I had no idea what to expect, this was the place where I wanted to find it out.

Strategery
For my first ultra, my goal was to finish in under five hours. I thought it was attainable because the course wasn't too steep and my marathon times comped with other sub-fivers. I had also run a 25k over the summer with a thousand feet more of elevation than this 50k course in 2:09, so I had some numbers to deal with. For more guidance, I was able to find splits of a runner from a previous race to gauge my pace, albeit about thrity minutes longer than what I was looking for. The first leg, which was essentially a 10k, I normally run in under forty minutes during a regular marathon. I figured I would safely add a minute a mile for good measure meaning that I would be about six minutes faster than his split. Guessing that I could beat the next three splits by about six to eight minutes a piece, I would have a fair shot of meeting my goal.

One of the most important issues I had to tackle was water consumption. I had a long talk with Laren, one of my oldest friends who's now gotten the running bug, and helped me guestimate that I would need about 200 ounces of water for the race. My reservoir holds about 100 ounces, but I didn't want to carry all that weight. I did the math that my water bottle with refills would provide about 120 ounces for the race, so I filled by reservoir with about 65 with the idea that I'd refill my reservoir at the mile 20 aid station.

Eating before the race has always been an issue and I continued my trend of pushing back my final meal to the fourteen hour mark before the race. We stopped into a Buca Di Beppo and I went straight for the spaghetti on the menu. Normally, I probably eat too much before fearing that I would be undernourished for the race, but Barbara stopped me before my gorging got out of hand. About four hours later, I went for a fifteen minute jog that really helped move things around. This turned out to be my best prerace meal yet.

Lastly, the biggest thing on my mind the last two weeks was how to handle the thirteen river crossings. I really dreaded having to run with blisters for the duration of an ultra. Since I heard that stepping in them was unavoidable, I had to really look at my shoes before the race. I had two new, but perfectly broken in pairs of shoes to choose from, both asics. One was a bit heavier and sturdier, but had better tread on the outsole. Instead, I chose my Gel Trail Attack shoes because the material looked lighter and would dry better. Of course, this decision was made without those useful pieces of information we call facts. I also would take a couple of extra pairs of socks, even though I was unsure they would do any good.

Race Day
I got up at 5 am, three full hours before the race. Not much to do at that time, but to make sure you stretch, get dressed and use the bathroom. I made a quick run to fill up Barb's Prius(don't get me into this) and a little Diet Coke to help wake me up. Going outside, the temperature seemed a lot colder than what was predicted on the whether report. This told me that I would probably have to run in more than just a shirt.

Barb rolled out of bed in time for us to get to the race about an hour before start time. The lot filled up fast, so we were lucky to get a spot as some people had to park a half mile away. I ran in to grab my timing chip and goodie bag, when I noticed I received a frog sticker on my race number meaning I had won a prize. The only stipulation was that I could only collect it after I finished.

Since I was pretty well packed, I hung out in the car with Barb until close to race time. At about twenty minutes before race time, I got out and was able to ask some questions with the other runners. While it warmed up a bit, the runner next to me was having the same debate about how much clothing we should wear. We both left deciding to wear the extra layer and I even went so far to put on gloves. Before I knew it, I put on my last layers of bug spray, lubricants and bullfrog and I was off to the races.

Start to Highway 49(6.1 Miles)
This was the strangest start of the race I've ever had. No one was giving any instructions out prior to the race, just a bunch of people standing in front of a big countdown clock. Once it hit zero, a small buzzer sounded, the clock started counting upward and people started running. Okay.

I started about midway in the pack. Most trail races are typically pains at the start because most are done on single track trails that are inevitably jammed with slower runners up front. Fortunately, this race started on a twenty foot wide road for the first mile and a half until you hit the trails. Unfortunately, once I started to run I realized that I hadn't tied up my shorts when I lubed up just before the race. I tried tying it while I was running when I discovered a bigger problem that by backpack was dripping.

I pulled over, addressed the shorts issue and then examined my backpack. I tried tightening the lid and contemplated running back to the parking lot to get a second water bottle. Through the feeling that my race was already doomed and overcome with panic, I decided to throw rationality out the door and let fate take its course, so a minute later I was back out on the course.

I was running at a pretty good pace to get back into the pack which at the same time made me discover that it was going to be too hot down the line to wear the jacket, but decided to take it off later at an aid station. Once we made the turn onto the trail, I was in a pack of runners running a comparable pace until we hit our first hill a mile later. About half way up, I started seeing people stop and walk it, even though I knew by course standards that it wasn't that steep of a hill. These people aren't really trail runners yet.

Once we hit the top of the hill, we crossed our first stream. It was significant in size, but easy to jump. It wasn't on the course map though, so I knew that the marked stream crossings were going to be significant.

After another brief hill, we turned left at mile 4.5 onto the western states trail. At mile five, we hit our first downhill that was hard to navigate with the rocks and mud. That wasn't my concern though as much as how hard it would be to run up it when we were coming up at mile thirty. After a couple of minutes we hit some flatland and before I knew it, I came up on the first aid station. It had more than lived up to the reports that they were better run than NASCAR pit stops as there were plenty of people there waiting to run with you to fill up your water bottle while you were running. I barely broke stride and at 45:34, I had completed my first leg at expected pace.

Highway 49 to Auburn Lake Trail(8.35 Miles)
Just feet after the aid station, we crossed Highway 49 with the help of the CHP and then back onto the western states trail. This portion was a little muddy and hard to find a pace until we made our way down a wider trail that hugged the American River. I was running very good when a guy commented that I had good shoes, code for that he had the same ones. This was reassuring since I thought I might have been wearing the wrong type of shoes for this race. Apparently, he has already bought four extra pairs. I just bought my second last week. In the middle of our conversation, we hit our first river crossing. I was able to jump it, but the second one moments later saw my left foot go all the way in. Surprisingly, my shoe didn't retain that much water, so I definitely felt at ease for what I could deal with the rest of the race. Seconds later, we hit Brown's Bar,our first significant hill, and my new friend faded behind me. I took this hill with relative ease, so I felt pretty good about facing all the obstacles before me.

The next five miles were back on a single track that didn't have an severe gain or loss. I was hitting it pretty fast until I came up upon a pack of nine runners. They were running just slightly slower than my pace so I was content on hanging back, but a mile and a half later I realized that I had been gradually lulled into a much slower pace. When I decided to pass the group, I had separated from them a lot faster than I had anticipated. From that point on, I decided that I would never hang back again because I would just be wasting energy, which really did work.

There were a few river crossings in this portion, but my feet seemed to be handling the water very well. Seeing how I was running such a good pace, I had anticipated that I would reach the next aid station sooner, but I was still happy reaching it at exactly the two hour mark. Just fifty feet before the station was the deepest river crossing that got me wet calf high. At the time I was more concerned about taking off my jacket than the wetness. An attendee got me water while it took me a couple of minutes to stuff it in my bag. At 3:02, I was off to face the toughest climb.

Auburn Lake Loop(6.39 Miles)
After a short steep hill things flattened out for a couple of miles to keep the pace up until we approached a downhill with many switchbacks. It's one of the things I won't forget because as I was near the bottom, it looked like bats coming down on you. Unfortunately, the reward was another river at the bottom. The terrain flatted out, but as I returned to my pace it was becoming far more noticeable that my socks we folding under my heel from being too saturated. I pulled over to hike up my socks before making my way, but while my left foot felt Otherwise, I was real happy with my pace so far and felt good about fine, my right felt like I had done nothing to improve it. I had an extra pair of socks, so I decided to address the problem then.

hitting my goal for this portion until I descended down the Waterfall Trail. All I could think about with everyone of those typewriter steps that I'd have to make it up the Main Bar Trail, the steepest portion of the course. Once I hit the bottom, I was so overcome about hitting that hill that I sprinted the next mile not even noticing the waterfall. Then suddenly around a sharp left turn, there it appeared.

It even had a sign announcing its presence, but looking straight up there was no doubt about it being the Main Bar Trail. All the reports were true. It just seemed to be going up and up and up, just like when you start a roller coaster. Only there were people trying to walk up it. I started at the 2:48 mark, hoping I could make the top in fifteen minutes. I tried running, but it was feeble. It was too steep and muddy to make it worth wasting the energy. The people ahead made it look like it was the march of the dead and while I felt like I was doing no better, I seemed to be scaling it faster than others. After seven minutes of climbing, the hill seemed to flatten out giving me hope, but in all actuality, it was still deep. Unfortunately, this was just a tease as soon it was back to going vertical. It really seemed endless until it suddenly ended. Even better, I was already at the aid station at exactly the three hour mark. Now I thought breaking the five hour mark was possible.

Auburn Lake Trail to Goat Hill(5.40 Miles)
While I was at the station only briefly, I made a couple of major decisions there. First, I decided not to change my socks as the problem improved from annoying to semi-tolerable, especially in light that there was that calf deep river crossing waiting. Second, I felt that I wouldn't reload my reservoirs since I had been mainly relying on my water bottle refills. I also grabbed a handful of potato chips that got quickly stuffed in my mouth. As I headed back on the trail, there was a photographer snapping photos as I went through the river with a mouthful. Classic.

The rest of the race spans the Western States Trail, except for the last mile. Mile twenty is where I start to look for signs that I'm fading in normal marathons, so I became more aware to look for signs of fading. My pace was slightly slower, but I still felt I was running strong. I stepped up my gel shots to every twenty minutes last hour, but to be safe, I was going to go every fifteen minutes for the rest of the race.

The rest of the race spans the Western States Trail, except for the last mile, but since I had already covered this five mile stretch going out, I was confident that I could keep a good pace since there weren't too many obstacles until the Goat Hill turnoff. I kept my mind occupied by calculating what pace I needed to run to break five hours. Leaving the aid station, I needed roughly an eleven minute mile, but I kept roughly recalculating for every minute ran. These are the things that help occupy my mind.

Right before the turnoff for Goat Hill, I pulled something on the inside part of my left leg crossing the river. I could blame most of it for having to change my motion to get across, but in actuality, I didn't stretch that part of my leg out adequately before the race. Or at all. I was able to work the cramp out, but as my pain eased, I started up Goat Hill. It wasn't as tough as any of the prior hills in steepness or length, but the people in front were walking it, so I decided to conserve some energy. The aid station was once again at the top of the hill, so hitting it at 3:52 made me think that I had a chance slipping under five hours if my body would hold up.

Goat Hill to Highway 49(2.95 Miles)
I thought I had five and a half miles left from this point, so I was greatly concerned about running twelve minute miles from this point. The concern was brought on because I thought the last portion was a mile shorter than I actually ran, making me think I ran an 11:30 pace instead of the 9:15 that I had pulled off.

The trail started out with a nice descent down the first two miles, so I was feeling better about reaching my goal despite the fact that I felt a slight twinge in my left hamstring. I was able to avoid it snapping until once again, I had a cramp triggered by a river crossing at the bottom of the hill. There was a muddy little uphill following, so I walked it to stretch it out until a point where I could slightly jog with it. Fortunately, this worked and I was almost back to my previous pace in a couple of minutes, although I could still feel a little twinge in the background.
Right as I hit full speed, I came across a runner who was just screaming in pain from his charlie horse. I had never seen a man cry like that before and he couldn't even move. For the next two minutes, we could hear his cries when before I knew it, I could hear cars again. This was a great sign, because I had forgotten that I had returned to the western states trail and was near the highway 49 crossing. Even better, my watch showed that I was at the 4:22 mark. I could walk the rest of the way and still finish under five hours. It was then I realized I must have messed up the distance of the previous leg in my favor. Whoops.

Highway 49 to Finish(1.70 Miles)
I stopped for water, but the crew encouraged me to just go since there was less than two miles left. After negotiating the refill, the rest went pretty fast. I scaled the final hill quickly that I thought would be painful after thirty miles of running. I had another charlie horse soon after hitting the peak, but I was so close to the end that I didn't care. I ran it out right in time to look good near the home stretch. There were about fifty spectators clapping and Barbara was in perfect position for me to see seconds before I crossed the finish line.

I completed the race in 4:36 in 57th place, way better than I had expected. Even better, I felt great(as evidenced by the photo) to the point that I could have ran more if I had wanted to. I decided to go to the support tent instead for chips, a hot dog and a massage. I then picked up my prize which was a GU giftpack including a box of GUs, a hat, an electrolyte mix and running gloves which would safely retail for $80. Surprisingly, I wasn't that hungry, so after taking a quick shower(someone had somehow set up a couple of private tents with hot water) so I told Barb to hurry up, we're going to Reno!

What I Learned from the Race
There were training runs that I have felt worse after finishing, but the reasons why weren't hard to find. Normally, I train wearing warmer clothes than the circumstance call for. Consequently, the heat has also caused me to run with a full supply of water. So basically running at about ten degrees cooler and having to carry at least three less pounds made a huge difference. I even had a few ounces of water left in my reservior. My strategy of comsuming more energy gels before I thought I needed them was largely also responsible for me feeling strong throughout.

Suprisingly, this was the best I had felt after any marathon I've done. I'm not sure for the reasons why, but I'd start pointing to the fact that trail runs feel better than pounding the asphalt and the undulating terrain forces you to use different muscles. Bottom line, my joints felt like they had only been on an hour jog while my muscles felt twingy, yet still like they had some juice in them. Pretty much, this is my goodbye to marathon running, and I'm looking forward to my next ultra!

Ventura 911

2007-03-08T22:41:00.001-08:00

I got a piece of mail from the Ventura County Probation Agency regarding the sentencing date of one of the people involved with my wallet being stolen. This isn't the person that initially stole my wallet, but the girlfriend who was a later accomplist.

From what I gather from all information(including what I got online), she was arrested eight days after my wallet was stolen and I'm guessing her case never made it to trial. I was shocked to find that her bail was set at a QUARTER of a MILLION DOLLARS! Needless to say, she hasn't made bail yet.

As for the guy that originally stole my wallet, my guess is that he's been arrested as well, but maybe he's trying to take it to trial.

Celebrated Post #1

2007-02-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

I'm welcoming myself to the blog-o-sphere. Hopefully, I'll keep up with my witty and timely remarks to keep the world a better place. With that...

I've been a real big fan of Pac-10 basketball this season. Not only has the conference been as deep as it's been in recent history, but also one of the greatest crops of incoming talent. I really believe that six teams should make it to the dance and the conference should be good for ten wins there. In reverse order, let me tell you why I like the Pac-10 so much:

ASU - Everytime they've played a conference game, the opposing coaches made the default comment that they're the best 0-12, 0-13, 0-14 team they've ever seen until they actually beat USC. The truth is, that they have the talent to be a middle of the pack team next season. Just too young to handle the rigors of the Pac-10.

OSU - Really should be at the top of this bottom list. It seems like they produce the same team year after year, except for changing the names on the jerseys. Until this team gets a Drew Bennett clone to coach them, they won't have that much of a chance. At least here's a team that can give others a break in the schedule.

Cal - While the early season injuries have really left the Bears without much of a chance, at least I've had the joy of watching Ryan Anderson suprise. You won't find him on any top 150 recruits list from last season, but he's the only player in the Pac-10 in the top ten in scoring and rebounding. He's the best fundamental player I've seen at Cal. Athletically is a different story though.

Washington - We got teased that this was going to be a transitional year with a 10-1 start including a win against LSU. When we realized that right away that Spencer Hawes just walked right in to be the best center in the Pac-10, that the Huskies would be challenging UCLA again for Pac-10 supremecy. But with that success, I charge that the team overlooked conference play and never fully recovered. When a team like this though is in seventh place, you know you have a very strong conference.

Arizona - They have the most talented starting five in the conference. They also have the lowest combined talent coming off of the bench. When they're on, they look like a top five team in the country. When they're off, they could barely hang with an NBAE league team. Fun to watch no less.

Oregon - A team who's achillies heel has been it's size up front, but has found a style of play to fit it's own. I find that it's often harder for the athletic teams to find consistancy, but then Ducks have been one of the best in that respect.

Stanford - This was a team that was very hard to figure out preseason because they were so young. Somehow, the blowout loss at home to Cal really lit a fire underneath this team and we've seen many glimpses of what they can be. While they still are consistant, when they're on their game they really can use their size to make it seem like you have to shoot through trees to get a look at the basket.

USC - Somewhat similar to Oregon in that they like size, but while the Ducks might be more athletic, the Trojans have far better fundamentals. What this team needs is one more competent big man, not a top five recruit, but that's for next year's column. Tim Floyd would deserve coach of the year honors, except that...

Washington State - ..Drew Bennett coaches the Cougars. Sadly there must be some underground rule that we are not allowed to watch or read about them other than box scores, so my exposure has been somewhat limited. From what I have seen though, is a thought that I've always maintained that in college, you can be successful with subpar talent as long as you can bring up the intensity to play tight, disciplined basketball for a sustained amount of time. Washington State, you are that team.

UCLA - Is almost in a lose/lose situation. Last season set expectations so high that anything other than a return to the finals seems like a failure. The sad part is that this is a better team than last year, but it may not get the same draw of avoiding teams with inside presence earlier in the tournament. The main bright spot is that with different players fighting health issues this season, they have always found a way to win. While many teams fail to repeat their success in the tournament, a la the sophomore jinx, I think UCLA is poised for another deep run in March.