How I’ve settled into surburbia! No longer the one who goes from door to door asking for trick-or-treats, I’m now relegated to the one who hands out candy and turns the house into an interesting locale for the neighborhood kids. I handed out Kit-Kats, Mounds, and Hersey Kisses, along with some Hershey chocolate bars and White Rabbit Candy.

I set up my life-sized Star Trek and Star Wars cardboard cut-outs outside of the place, along with my “scary” Halloween mat, which releases a piercing scream when you step on it. The kids didn’t seem overly scared by it, though.

Looking at all of the costumes, I concluded that we were much more inventive back in my childhood. Some of the kids’ costumes were nice, but some of the kids looked like they didn’t put anything on out of the ordinary! I did see a large amount of parents hovering along the streets with their children. Years ago, we would have gone out by ourselves. I guess the mass bombardment of media coverage on snipers, terrorists, and other unsavory criminals has got people thinking our streets are teeming with evildoers.

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Leon, one of Rae’s friends from high school, tied the knot yesterday with his childhood sweetpea, Paula. The wedding was held at the Lakeside Presbyterian Church along 19th Avenue in San Francisco and was followed by a reception at the prestigious San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The SFMOMA’s lobby and next-door Caffè Museo were transformed into a colorful celebration of Leon and Paula’s love for each other.

Aesthically speaking, the reception at the SFMOMA was among the best that I’ve seen over the past two years of attending weddings. Gastronomically speaking, the food was also very delectable. In Caffè Museo, we had plenty of hot and sour eggrolls, lamb biscuits, and ahi tuna appetizers. Dinner came courtesy of McCall’s, and my filet mignon was nicely tender and juicy. The real treat came at the end when a dessert tray filled with fruit, chocolates, and sweet biscuits arrived at our table.

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Two new people were at the latest Stanford Newton User Group meeting in Palo Alto this evening. Paul and Melissa told me that they were at the Apple Store Grand Opening last year and saw me on the rooftop taking pictures! Furthermore, they mentioned that they were in one of my pictures! I’m thinking it’s this photo, where they are standing in front of the Apple employee with the wireless laptop, right?

Wayne showed off his modified iPod featuring an orange backlight. No, he didn’t replace the backlight on his MP3 player. He took a photographic gel (which you can buy from Keeble and Shucat next door to Printer’s Inc.), opened up his iPod, and carefully placed the precision cut gel between the lucite and the LCD. The modification makes it harder to read the iPod’s screen when the backlight is off, but oh the beautiful color when it’s activated!

In total, there were 12 people at the SNUG meeting tonight: Flash, Glen, Melissa, Paul, Rosie, Wayne, Greg, Sir Isaac, Randeep, Dave (whose birthday it was today), Peter, and myself. We’ve become more than a bunch of Silicon Valley self-professed nerds who sit around a table talking about a discontinued product. Over the 8+ years, we’ve become friends. Newton talk gives way to discussions on politics, health, world events, technology, and more. January 2003 will witness the 9th anniversary of SNUG. It should be fun!

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For four years, we spent every day, laughing, crying, and studying together at Stanford University. Absent have many become from each other’s thoughts and lives for the past five years. For four days in October, 2002, the past of the Class of 1997 returned to the present at Stanford Reunion.

Five years for four days? When you think about it, how can you compress four years of life together and five years of being apart in four days?

I keep telling myself that things haven’t changed that much. Then, I walk into the CoHo and see the brighly colored walls and the chairs filled with young students yapping on their cell phones and typing away on laptops. This is a far hipper and more connected crowd than we were as students. In just 9 years, there’s an entirely new Science and Engineering Quad, a renovated art museum and main library, a rebuilt Post Office, and a new alumni and student health center. Living in the Bay Area following graduation has afforded me the opportunity to change along with Stanford. In speaking with former students who have lived away from Stanford since graduation, there was a sense of shock at how much had changed since they were last here.

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Tuesday night, Vienna Teng performed at the Espresso Garden & Cafe in San Jose. She was accompanied by fellow Virt Records recording artists, Beth Boucher and Rachel Gaudry.

This was the second time that I’ve been to the Espresso Garden. Previously, I along with dozens others, was shooed away due to the huge throng of people that had turned out to see Vienna perform. This time, I had the foresight to call ahead, but the person on the other end of the phone just said, “Aw, just show up at the door.” Not one to trust disembodied voices inside of my head, I decided to be sure and come an hour in advance. It wasn’t necessary, since the place was practically empty when I arrived, save for Vienna, Rachel, Beth, and a few of their friends. A handful of other people filtered in throughout the night, including Eric and Boris, but the place was still very empty. That’s too bad, because a lot of people missed great performances from all three musicians.

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This afternoon, four years of blue, red, and yellow faded away as white returned to my former apartment. Despite the painters’ best efforts, however, small patches of color continue to peek around edges as if to say, “Look! I was once red, blue, and yellow!” to the future tenants.

I was back at this place in my dream last night. The living room looked exactly as it had once been, leading my dream self to think that I still lived there. Upon walking into the bedroom, I realized that someone else was living in my place now! Panicking, I quickly tried to vacate the premises, but to no avail. The new occupants had just returned home!

You have to love computer white balance. Take three images and you’ll get three different variations on white. The human eye can adjust itself to different lighting conditions far better than a computer. Next time (if there ever is a next time in this place), I’ll shoot RAW.

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Javier’s friend Mark Ibarra is one elusive fellow. A search on Google for Mark Ybarra and Stanford as of today (October 13, 2002), yields no results. Consider him caught! The simple act of putting his picture on this web site is enough to get him indexed for all the world to see. And just like that, Mark Ybarra exists on the Internet!

On Saturday night, Rae, Susan, and her friend, John met at the Tenderloft in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district to listen to the sounds from four bands: From Monument To Masses, The Rum Diary, Len Brown Society, and The Pin-Up Motel.

The Tenderloft looked a lot like a run-down apartment complex that had been converted into a performance space. Smoke wafted through the air and alcohol was imbibed by the twenty-somethings throughout the entire night. It certainly was a different crowd than the ones that typically attend Eric’s house performances. Diversity, thy name is the Bay Area!

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Members of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area received first-hand looks at two exciting cameras Wednesday evening, the Canon EOS-1Ds and the Sigma SD9, featuring the Foveon X3 imaging sensor. Among the featured speakers were Jim Rose from Canon and Dick Merrill, Tim Whitehouse, and Eric Zarakov from Foveon. The meeting also featured a record crowd for a COBA meeting, as I counted over 85 people in attendance!

Jim was first up with his presentation of the EOS-1Ds. Many people were familiar with the camera, since it’s largely based on the existing EOS-1D DSLR. Noted improvements included the 11-megapixel CMOS imaging sensor, extended battery life, and magnified image playback. While the quoted list price of the camera was $8,999, Jim mentioned that will likely sell for cheaper. With Kodak’s DCS-14n at $4,000 and the SD9 at $1899 (list price), there’s a big gulf for Canon to cover in the price range.

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This weekend, I said goodbye to the calm and easy streets of Mountain View as I completed my move to nearby Cupertino.

Four years living in the same place meant I accumulated a large number of possessions that I had to either (1) take to the new place or (2) loan, (3) give, or (4) throw away. Even with a generous helping of (2), (3), and (4), it’s safe to say that everything I took with me to Cupertino could not have fit in my wilderness backpack!

With the help of Randy and Rae, the move took several roundtrips between Cupertino and Mountain View, but was altogether relatively straightforward. I loaned some furniture to Sophia, who drove a 17-foot U-Haul to transport my sofa, dining table, and coffee table to her house. The sofa was incredibly heavy, and I wonder how I was able to get it up there in the first place!

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Rae’s parents performed Saturday night with their choir at the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto. The San Jose Chinese Choir was formed “in 1981 by parents and friends of the San Jose Chinese School.” They give regular performances in the Bay Area and have sung in the Hawaiian Islands, LA, and Vancouver.

I particularly enjoyed the soprano solos by Nancy Kang. I remember a time in elementary school when they were auditioning students to sing in a class chorus. A couple of notes into my “audition” the evaluators, who were fellow students, shook their heads and sent me on my way. So ended my brief singing career! I wonder if people can develop singing skills during adulthood or if it’s something that is usually nurtured and developed in childhood.

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