Travsite.com

One of those days...

2008-04-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

I go to work pretty early... I get up before the sun rises. Today I got up and put my shoes on in the dark. When I got to work, I noticed this...

Maybe nobody will notice. It's going to be a long day.

Travsite by email

2008-04-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

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Family Off-Road Adventure in the Desert

2008-04-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

Dad took the whole family out to the desert for a weekend to watch the Mojave 250 race. It was fun. Go here to view the pictures.

Mojave Road Photos - 2008

2008-03-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a 130 mile drive through the Mojave Desert along the Mojave Road. Our group was huge, with 22 vehicles and 40 people. I don't think we lost anyone along the way. Everyone had a good time. I didn't have enough time to take as many photos as I wanted too, but here's what I got:

Go here to view all of the photos

Washington DC Madness

2008-02-24T15:36:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos of us acting retarded in our Nation's Capitol. We went to Washington DC for a week after our trip to New York for Christmas.

While we were there, I got yelled at by the Secret Service at least 3 times and we went through about 30 metal detectors. Good times! View our photos of Washington D.C. Don't miss the photo of Jessica holding a live giant cockroach!.

Obama for Change: What Could Go Wrong?

2008-02-13T15:32:00.000-08:00

It looks like Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, so I figured that it was time to look into all of the hype. Some say that Obama's "Hope for Change" is nothing but non-specific puffery, but today I learned otherwise. I went through Obama's Blueprint for Change and narrowed his hopechanging ideas down to the following categories: Create, Increase, Provide, Require and Allow.

If you thought the Federal Government was large, inefficient and overbearing before....

Create

create an energy-focused youth jobs program
create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages
create a law to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers
create a credit card rating system
create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses
create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules
create a generous savings match for low and middle-income Americans.
create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that will make tuition at the nation's community colleges completely free and will cover up to two-thirds the cost of tuition at the nation's public colleges and universities.
create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education
create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
create of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions
create a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize
create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund to fill a critical gap in U.S. technology development.
create a number of incentives for local communities to invest in their biofuels refineries
create a competitive grant program to award those states and localities that take the first steps to implement new building codes
create a Global Energy Forum
create a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers.
create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize
initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems , provide a $1.5 billion fund
launch a Children's First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old.

Increase

increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies.
increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture
increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training
increase the minimum wage, index it to inflation
increase the Earned Income Tax Credit
double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs
expand FMLA to cover businesses with 25 or more employees
increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
expand and improve programs like Senior Corps to connect seniors with quality volunteer opportunities
double science and research funding for clean energy projects
double fuel economy standards
quadruple Early Head Start

Provide

provide capital for farmers to create value-added enterprises
provide $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure,
provide assistance to the domestic auto industry
provide retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers
provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices
provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families
provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages

Require

require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources
require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included in the fuel supply by 2022
require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025

Allow

allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs
allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children's academic activities
allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses

Barack's "Plan to Expand" is so large that I couldn't even get through the entire document. Sorry guys.

Dorking Around in the Wrightwood Snow

2008-02-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Jessica's mom is in town, so we spontaneously drove up to Wrightwood to check out the snow. Here are some embarrassing photos of us goofing off.

TV Dog

2008-02-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

Our strange dog loves to watch TV. I'm kind of concerned. This is a photo of him watching a dog show today. Is that normal? Also, why is our TV so old?

Useful Stuff on the Internet - Part 1

2008-01-31T08:56:00.000-08:00

My friends are under the impression that I know my way around the Internet, so I figure that it's time I shared some of my favorite tools and sites. This is Part 1 in a series in which I will point out some of the most useful sites that I have found.

Manly Tools for Sale on Craigslist
New tools are expensive, so I keep an eye out for anything useful. I suspect that some of this stuff is stolen from construction sites, so be careful out there.
Kayak - Best site to search for cheap flights
This site has the best searching tools that I've seen. They don't sell anything themselves - they just search all of the travel sites to find the best deal - and it works.
Consumer Reports
This is kind of old-school, but why would you buy anything without researching it in Consumer Reports first? CR is completely independent and unbiased. It's the best way to see past the marketing gimmicks and hype that is rampant in the present consumer marketplace. A yearly membership is worth the price. Or just email me and I'll look it up for you.
California Earthquake Map
Wow this list just got really random. I only look at this when the earth shakes, but it's still cool.
Google Docs - Replacement for Microsoft Office
I started using Google Docs a few years go for all of my personal documents. Google has equivalents of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and your docs are stored online so you can get to them from any computer. Plus it's free.

If you have a lot of time, I keep all 339 of my bookmarks on Del.icio.us, organized by tags. You can learn alot about a person from their bookmarks. Scary.

A Weekend in Paso Robles

2008-01-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

It was Jessica's birthday last weekend, so I took her up to Paso Robles for a weekend of hanging out with a little wine tasting. Coda got to come with us because a lot of hotels let you have dogs (They say that dogs are cleaner than kids...) We stayed in San Luis Obispo, which is a very cool town. Anyway, here are some photos of us goofing off, chasing cows and a little bit of off-roading. Warning - lots of lame dog photos.

Go here to view the photos...

Don't Forget to Vote

2008-01-27T21:18:00.001-08:00

Super Tuesday is coming. Vote early, vote often!

MLK 2008 in the Glamis Sand Dunes

2008-01-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

We honored the great Martin Luther King Jr. by spending his holiday out in the dirty sand dunes of Glamis California. We had a really good time, but there were a lot of idiots out there. Go here to view the photos at Glamis.

Christmas in New York City

2008-01-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

My parents took us to New York City for Christmas. It was a really fun trip. In no particular order, here are the things we saw and did:

Looked at Rolexes for $25 in Chinatown, watch out for the cops
The old Yankee Stadium, to be torn down soon
Times Square madness
East Village hipster central
7 floors of Macys
Dozens of street musicians and subway artists
Ground Zero - giant hole in the ground
Assault rifles and police on Wall St.
One neighborhood in the Bronx (lets get back on the train)
Ice skating with hundreds of kids in Central Park on Christmas
Freezing cold boat ride around the city at night
Seeing the city from the top of Rockefeller Center.
Watching the Lion King on Broadway
Watching the old fashioned Rockettes show on Christmas
Walking all the way across Manhattan in the rain at midnight just because
A couple of crazy taxi rides
Ran through a Brooklyn Ghetto
One really snooty modern art museum
Wandered through Times Square on New Years Eve
Breakdancers in Columbus Circle

Here are some pics - some are goofy, some are pretty and some are just strange. New York City photos.

Merry Christmas from New York

2007-12-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

We're on our seventh day in New York and we're having a great time. Jessica and I just moved from the Mid-town apartment with my family to a little one bedroom Craigslist rental on the Upper East Side near Central Park. Tonight we took the subway down to hipster paradise, a grungy neighborhood of the Lower East Side, where we went to a very unusual modern art museum and ate world famous pastrami at Katz' Deli.

Here is the view from our little place for the next few days.

Of course, more when we get back.

What a Dork!

2007-12-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

Coda got his first haircut. Hahahaha fat head!

Costco Bling

2007-12-10T11:28:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas time, so I get daily emails from every store that I've ever shopped at. I usually just delete them, but I glanced at Costco's mailer for today...

Right next to a $200 dorm fridge, they advertise a $59,999 diamond ring. Huh? At least it comes with free delivery.

Surfing Photos from Newport Beach

2007-12-05T21:16:00.000-08:00

There was a huge swell today, so I woke up before dawn and took some surfing photos down at Newport Beach. It was fun. Go here to see a few of them.

Goofballs in the Rain

2007-12-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

Your comments are always appreciated.

Lindsay and Ylianna

2007-11-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

My buddy Lindsay got married yesterday. It was a blast. Here is a pic of the crazy couple.

Photography

2007-10-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

This week I was inspired to take a second look through the tens of thousands of photographs that I have taken over the last few years. I picked out my favorites to create my own amateur photography portfolio.

Photography has been a hobby of mine since I took a class back in high school. Normally I am a very analytical person, so photography pushes me to work on my creative side. That is always a challenge for me.

My friends know that I love to combine photography with almost every other experience in my life, so it's always exciting and there's always something new to work on.

Enough of that, take a look...

Enter my photography gallery

476 Miles in Death Valley

2007-10-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

We made it. 476.8 miles of off-roading through Death Valley. It took 4 days, but we hit just about every trail that we planned. We had a few breakdowns, some of us made a side trip the the emergency room, and we got hit by a monster sand storm, but it all worked out in the end. We met some great people, got really dirty and saw some of God's most incredible creations. Here are the pics - all 154 of them.

Cone Head

2007-10-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

Coda got fixed last week. Now he feels like part of him is missing. The upside: he gets really good reception.

Halo 3 Arrives

2007-09-30T16:33:00.001-07:00

If you haven't seen me lately, it's because Halo 3 came out this week. It's the best game I've ever played. Join me if you have Xbox live... my screen name is MoboOne.

Here are some hi-res screen shots that I made while I was playing. Yes, I am a nerd.

MoboOne getting blown up

MoboOne getting run over

MoboOne crashing an ATV and getting blown up

Baby Bologne

2007-09-07T14:26:00.001-07:00

If you're interested, they sell "Baby Bologne" at the Persian market in Irvine.

But is it made from real babies? I say false advertising.

San Onofre pics

2007-09-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we borrowed my parents' RV and spent 5 days at San Onofre State Beach. It's not the most beautiful campground, but we like it because they let you take your dog on the beach at trail 6. Our friends Gretchen and Peter met up with us on one of the days. We also went to my company picnic at Doheny State Beach. Here are a few pics.