Strangely Funny

It's Official

2009-02-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

Really, it's gonna happen anyways, so you might as well make it legit.

At first it might seem sexist, since it only allows dudes to pee. But if you think about it, there's probably a girls' corner down the street. You wouldn't want boys and girls to pee together, that would be inappropriate.

I have no idea where this picture was taken. It seems like Engrish, but it looks... European? (link)

Austin Bound

2009-01-19T16:25:00.001-08:00

Austin Bound
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

Maggie surprised me when I got back from SF with a huge bear. His name is Barnabus. He made the drive much easier...though lots of drivers on the road were surprised to see him. Maybe that's why there were so many near collisions around me.

In December, the Chick-Fil-A in Temple had a special deal where if you return in Jan, they'll give you everything on your receipt for free! Since Maggie was with me, that meant two Chicken Sandwiches + Waffle Fries! I've been really excited for a month now. But I drove back on Sunday, and Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays! Damnit!

At least Barnabus kept me company at What-a-burger.

Breakfast of the Sea

2009-01-19T16:17:00.001-08:00

Last Day in SF
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

We found a little live jellyfish on the beach... it looked like a raw egg. It's probably the same type of jellyfish as the ones that wash up onto the beach in hordes... when they die, they look like used condoms. Thousands of little used condoms littering the beach.

The Drunk Tank

2009-01-19T16:11:00.001-08:00

Winter Break in SF
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

These fish are alive... but they're all too lazy to swim. So they just flap one fin around and lay there. Guess when the humans go home, the fish come out and play!

The Academy of Science Museum

2009-01-19T16:03:00.001-08:00

Russell Ascending Stairs

Winter Break in SF - 035
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

I dropped by while in San Francisco... I've been watching them build it for so long. The rooftop garden is amazing, and the biosphere has some really great lizards and carnivorous plants (a.k.a. Monkey Cups)!

The Law School Hole

2008-12-09T18:00:00.001-08:00

Wow I guess I haven't posted since October!? Crazy. I got sucked into the black hole of school... papers and finals. The good news is that in one week, I'll be done, and hopefully I'll be out in SF for a visit!

Joe the Plumber

2008-10-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's hilarious that McCain and Fox have turned Joe the plumber into a talking point. Funny how I just happened to watch the clip, and how Joe seemed fairly content with Obama's answer. Not sure if he agreed with the answer, but he definitely thought about it.

Karl Rove had a good point that McCain and Fox are stretching the truth so far on these peculiar fixations (Joe the plumber, Ayers, etc) and exaggerations that they are actually missing real lines of attack that would be more difficult to dismiss. But hey I'm not complaining. It's just interesting is all.

I do give McCain props for not bringing up Wright. A lot of Republicans would love to play that card, and it certainly is a dangerous one. A McCain adviser has stated (anonymously) that McCain would rather not play the race card. He does not want to go down in history as running a racist campaign against the first black candidate. After all, there is life after Nov. 4th, and they have to live with the decisions they make.

Our good friends at Fox

2008-10-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

There's a video making the internet rounds, where a plumber asks Obama about his tax plans. Obama goes over how his proposal will impact small businesses. They talk for 4 minutes, and afterward the plumber seems satisfied with the answer. Don't know if it changed his mind, but it definitely answered his question.

If you follow the link, notice how FOX news spins it. A proposal for socialism? They're grasping hard here.

We are the Master Abators

2008-09-16T21:23:00.001-07:00

UT has an intramural football league where law students can fulfill their secret conviction that, had they not chosen to read all day, they could have developed their natural (but undernourished) athleticism into become professional stardom. Of course law students playing ball is not as impressive in real life as you would probably imagine.

At least our logo makes up for it. We are the Master Abators. In our first game on Monday, we crushed the competition. They were unprepared. We, on the other hand, like to practice by ourselves.

Solved the Intermittent ATT/Yahoo Outgoing SMTP Mail Problem

2008-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

After signing up for ATT DSL, I had intermittent issues sending email, where outgoing mail would infuriatingly take 2-4 tries to send. Downloading email was no problem. I finally figured it out.

Assuming you have correctly configured your outgoing SMTP server (port 465, SSL enabled, with your login and password), the problem lies with Yahoo's spam filtering and your local authentication cache.

First, you have to enable each of your mail accounts (in the "From" field) with Yahoo. This is done through the same process by which you can check those email accounts through their web interface. There are instructions for how to do this from Yahoo (link).
Next, if you are using the Mac Mail client on OS X, open Keychan and delete all password/certificate entries that are related to your SMTP servers. This is the crux of the problem... if your entries are expired, particularly if they were created before step 1, Keychain will keep the older entries.

And there you have it! I think many ATT DSL customers must run into this problem... hopefully they'll run into the solution on this wonderful blog.

Midnight Ride

2008-09-08T19:51:00.001-07:00

Back in undergrad, I never really showed Maggie the UT campus. So last weekend I took her on a midnight tour on bikes. The campus had changed a lot since I last went around.

There were many new buildings, and also I think Moore-Hill, the all-dude dorm that Kunal and Sapun lived at, has become co-ed. Or maybe the guys at Moore-Hill have picked up some serious game.

Maggie Sees Cupcakes

2008-09-08T19:32:00.001-07:00

Desert at Hey Cupcake!
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

After some surprisingly great Bluegrass (The Old Holdouts) and some awesome BBQ (especially the slaw at Green Mesquite), we went on a quest for froyo. Unfortunately, froyo has only started its invasion of Austin. The main truck we were looking for had already packed up and left.

So we got cupcakes instead. Maggie was really excited. This was her reaction when she saw the cupcakes. We had a Red Velvet and a Michael Jackson.

Voter Registration Drive at Batfest

2008-09-02T17:48:00.001-07:00

Batfest Voter Registration - Austin 2008 014
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

Austin happens to be home to the largest bat colony in North America. It's underneath the Congress bridge by downtown. They come out at night after sunset, though sometimes you can't see them (perhaps they slowly trickle out on those days).

Over the long weekend, there was a small street fair on the bridge, with bat-watchers, bands (like the Flobots), and a petting zoo with Kangaroos! There was lots going on. Aside from the UT game, there was the Human Race, some triathlon, and random other street closings for random events.

The Travis County Dems had a voter registration drive at the festival all weekend. We signed up over 400 voters the Sunday evening when I went. Over the entire weekend, we probably hit about 1k registrations (a bat-tastic record)!

Back at the Spiderhouse

2008-08-31T11:39:00.001-07:00

At-Spiderhouse 6
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

I dropped by a classic UT hangout, the Spiderhouse. Like most of Austin, Spiderhouse had changed somewhat, and yet it still felt familiar. I met up with Jeanne, my old undergrad roomie, and Alden, a fellow engineering grad.

i am totally out of touch with the indie music scene. Most of the bands they were talking about I had never heard of. Maybe I'm becoming an old man.

Kolaches!

2008-08-23T11:23:00.001-07:00

There's this little Czech town in Texas between Dallas and Austin. It's called West, Texas... not West the region out left in Texas, but West the small town in Central Texas.

I love kolaches. There's the delicious sweet ones, like cream cheese or poppy seed, and there's the savory, like sausage with kraut or cheese.

Bought a bunch to eat, and some frozen ones too. There's also this crazy looking Jerky place a little further north. I've been meaning to check it out, but I always just end up stopping for Kolaches.

Kolaches are best heated up in the microwave. We tried the toaster oven and other conventional heating, but unfortunately it dries out the pastry. I guess crispiness isn't really what you want out of a Kolache. Microwave makes it a bit soggy, which actually makes it softer and moister.

Cornelius the Gecko

2008-08-23T11:21:00.001-07:00

Maggie and I have a lizard named Cornelius, after the smart heretic Chimp in Planet of the Apes. Not to be confused with the smart monkey that Carleton Heston tries to bone.

We got Cornelius when he was tiny. Now he's plumped up on crickets.

Some people have too many Dog pictures. I'm starting to get too many lizard pics.

Leaving San Francisco

2008-08-08T10:38:00.001-07:00

Russell Driving off into the Sunset
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

I flew out of SFO on Weds, after a week of nostalgic goodbyes. After 8 years in the same place, you set some deep roots. Now it's off to Dallas, and then Austin.

Russell came with me to the airport, gave me a $500 roll, and then drove off in my car, disappearing into the horizon.

Box Tetris

2008-08-01T00:32:00.001-07:00

The Final Crate
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

I packed up all my stuff last night. Had to have it ready by 8am, and I didn't finish until almost 6am. The tricky thing was that, aside from fitting my stuff in there, I had to put 2 bikes (maggie and mine).

I was missing a tool I needed to fully disassemble them, so I couldn't use bike boxes. Instead, I had to get creative with using old pillows and empty boxes to create nooks to hold the bikes and fill the empty space (so hopefully things won't slide around too much).

My bike is vertical with a tire removed, while Maggie's bike goes lateral with the handlebar turned upwards.

Too awesome for words

2008-07-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

Usher will never be the same.

Obama Car!

2008-07-27T22:06:00.001-07:00

Obama Car!
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

Obama bumper stickers have been on the rise this summer after the primaries (finally) ended, but these girls took it to a whole new level of awesomeness.

You know, after I slapped an Obama sticker on my bumper, I've been driving much nicer. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

I'll miss all the people I've met in the SF campaign... although I'm excited to meet he Austin crew.

Why Do Roaches Fall in Love?

2008-07-10T03:19:00.001-07:00

Seconds before impact...
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

Because they're waiting for the Caltrain. At night, the Castro St. Station in Mountain View comes alive with Roach Romance. The roach on the left here had a strangely elongated (and striped) abdomen. She waived it around in front of the darker roach, before sliding it under its face. Then, all of a sudden, BANG! They're mounted. Were they having sex? Do roaches even have sex?

The station is jam packed with roaches at night. Seriously. Most people don't even notice, but if you stand still and stay alert for movement, you'll notice there's dark shapes zipping about all around you. Literally hundreds of them are visible, on the platform, in the cracks, by the ticket machine, and especially near the bushes. This one dude came by and put his bag down on top of a shallow crevasse where 3 roaches were hiding. When he picked up the bag, all the roaches were gone!

I saw a cluster of 6 roaches fighting over a small piece of [was it chewed chicken? maybe the cob of eaten corn?]. They were seriously fighting. I got closer to take a picture, but their erratic movements made it tough. My camera phone(Motorola Razr) has no zoom, so I had to get within 6 inches to take the picture, and that's not an easy feat when roaches are fighting. Right before I got my shot, this couple walked by. The roaches got freaked, scattered all over the place, and the girl got really scared. Especially when she noticed how many there were.

On Weds I saw a brown rat at the station. I liked the rat much more than the roaches.

Balls

2008-07-06T21:38:00.001-07:00

Did you ever know that pigs just keep growing if you don't eat them? The pigs you normally think of are only 6 months old (that's when they're harvested).

If left alone, they get huge. This snoozing hog was about 5 years old, weighing 1200 lbs. See that baby in the background, sitting in the stroller? Each hog testicle was larger than his head. Really.

Now, you're probably thinking it would be awesome to ride this beast. He's got a low center of gravity and powerful legs, and pigs are smart, which makes them easy to train, right? Nope. They're smart, but lazy. This guy is only awake for a few hours a day. And in those precious moments he eats, poops, and then goes back to sleep.

GTT

2008-06-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'll soon be back in Austin, attending the University of Texas School of Law. I can't believe I'm leaving San Francisco, and I'm not sure if I've fully come to grips with the fact that I'll soon be a student again. Hmm... now that I think about it, I do vaguely remember something about swearing that I would never return to school... well in any case, the wheels are in motion. Hopefully school will be better the second time around.

Lychee = Meat?

2008-06-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

Tutti Mellon Yogurt (Med for $0.99)!
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

I had a delicious yogurt treat from a Chinese Pinkberry knock-off. It had mandarin oranges, fresh kiwi, fresh mango, and lychees!

Did you ever notice that lychees look like meat? Don't get me wrong, I love lychees, but it really does look like the flesh of some sea animal. Like Ceviche but fruity.

Maggie at Victoria Peak

2008-06-23T16:16:00.001-07:00

Maggie at Victoria Peak
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

Victoria peak has an amazing view of Hong Kong, as well as some huge silver ants.

Pork-Chop Sandwiches!

2008-06-23T15:57:00.001-07:00

Pork-Chop Sandwiches!

Macau post-lunch meal
Originally uploaded by Jeffypop

There's a street vendor in Macau with the tastiest pork-chop sandwiches I've ever had. Maggie and I went there after lunch.

The sandwich has a real pork-chop in it, and the bread is some tasty portuguese roll (buttery goodness). Goes well with Vitasoy!