valtrain.com » Random

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

valtrain — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:45:05 +0000

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

Ticking Time Bomb Explodes, Public Is Shocked

valtrain — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:43:40 +0000

An interesting article on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac disaster and other looming troubles – Click here

Extreme Ironing!

valtrain — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:24:41 +0000

I stumbled upon this most excellent site: Extreme Ironing!

Welcome to the home of extreme ironing – the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

valtrain — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:58:01 +0000

In case you haven’t seen it before, you should check out the commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005.

Adventures With Laundry

valtrain — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:48:24 +0000

Sadly, this isn’t the kind of adventure where you go in a sewer and laundry attacks you but you kill it with your flashlight.

When I got this apartment in Athens, it came with a washing machine in it which I assumed would make it easier for laundry. Unfortunately for me, all the buttons and switches on the machine are labeled in Greek so I had to make my best guesses and feel lucky. The wash cycles for European machines are much longer than the American ones, so the machine was carrying on and making all kinds of noises for almost an hour and a half while the whole time I was wondering what I had done wrong and whether the machine was about to explode.

Thankfully it did not explode and an hour and half later the cycle was done. It seems that the designers of this machine neglected to implement two relatively important features: the ability to dry your clothes and the ability to open the machine door once the cycle was finished. I spent almost 20 minutes sitting there banging on the door trying to get it to open so I could get the clothes out. It finally did give, but it wasn’t an easy battle.

Since there’s no dryer in the machine, you have to hang your clothes up to dry. I initially tried hanging them out on the balcony of the apartment, but it’s a little cool here right now and two days later they were still not completely dry. Finally I had to bring them inside and put them next to the heater to get them dry. Next came ironing, which I had been able to avoid stateside by using the dryer. I pulled out the iron and found all the buttons labeled in Greek again. I poured some water into one of the holes that I really hoped was the right now, which caused all kinds of hissing and groaning from the iron but it too neglected to explode and I managed to iron some of my shirts without destroying anything.

Culture shock at the ATM

valtrain — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:34:38 +0000

I had a minor amount of culture shock when I went to an ATM in Switzerland today. In the US, if you go to an ATM the default amounts to withdraw are $20, $40, etc up to $200 or so. When I went to the ATM here, the default amounts to withdraw in CHF were 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, or 1000.

You know, I need some walking around money, I guess I’ll get a thousand bucks out of the atm?

70s retro disco night

valtrain — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:33:01 +0000

Last night the Padres had a retro 70s disco night, which meant they wore their old yellow and brown uniforms from the 70s and the fans were supposed to come dressed in disco outfits. Of course this sounded like a lot of fun, but it presented two major challenges:

1. I didn’t actually know what 70s disco outfits looked like.
2. Since I didn’t know what they looked like, I was pretty sure I didn’t have any.

Google came to the rescue on the first problem, so I set out with a friend to find some 70s clothes. After some driving around, we found an excellent clothing thrift store called “Rags” down in Ocean Beach where I found a huge afro and some excellent retro disco pants. A short walk down Newport I found a tight blueish polyester shirt that showed a healthy amount of chest hair and we were in business!

After the game (which the Padres managed to win 7-0 against the Cardinals!), I headed out downtown with some of the dodgeball crew to hit up Rock Bottom and Malloney’s.

Another random fact

valtrain — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:08:24 +0000

For anyone who doesn’t already know, I collect shotglasses! I’ve got quite a few now, and I’m always on the lookout for more. If you go somewhere cool, bring me back a shotglass! That is all.

Sony Christmas Party

valtrain — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 08:10:12 +0000

We just had the Sony Christmas party last weekend. We rented out Petco Park (home of the San Diego Padres) and had a massive amount of free food, free alcohol, games, other forms of entertainment, and giveaways. Unfortunately I didn’t win a huge TV, but inbetween hitting up the open bars, taking advantage of the vodka luge, eating shrimp the size of my fist, I did manage to eat purple mashed potatoes from a martini glass and get the characiture artist to draw me. Apparently I have unevenly shaped ears, no eyeballs, and a forehead the size of Russia.

My alter-ego?

Breaking the radio silence

valtrain — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:20:38 +0000

Of course, as soon as I setup the new site with the intention of updating it more often, I neglect to update it.

I finally moved to a new apartment in Pacific Beach, which actually has running sand-free water, windows that you can open, a dishwasher, and a bathroom that doesn’t have a Leaning Tower of Pisa (yet). It even has a sweet antique oven from the 50s.

Going through another move also made me remember how much moving sucks, so I think I’m here for a while.

Also, for the record, the new delay shipping PS3 in Europe that was announced today isn’t my fault!