Back in high school, pedicabs were our mode of transport along Agham Road.
Check out this article from Toronto announcing arrival of the EcoCab.

-kyo-

I've recently enrolled in the exercise program at a nearby clinic and our exercise theraphist recommended that I get a heart rate monitor. He said from his experience that Polar as among the best brand out there. Apparently sensors from the other brands are not as sensitive and most users of other brands have to sometimes press on the wristwatch to get a pulse reading.

After my typical online research I even found one hilarious looking "thingamajig" from Garmin that has a large screen and a GPS.

I checked our rewards store at the bank and luckily, found what looks like a Polar F6 (perhaps an older version from the look of the faceplate) but since I can get it for free and since this would be my first ever fitness related gadget purchase anyway, what the heck. After 2 weeks of waiting it finally arrived yesterday.

The 112 reviews at Amazon averaging 4.5 stars is right on the money. The watch is very easy to setup and within 15 minutes including reading the manual it's all ready to go.

We went out for a walk today after having our weekend breakfast and I went for 2 rounds around the park (about the size of an olympic oval). Total time from front of our house and back was just 51 minutes but was happy to know I just burned a total of 500 calories. Average heart rate was 130bpm maxing out at 142bpm. Within that 51 minutes, 44 minutes were spent inside the "target zone".

Here's the OST "Egis Er'p" (loosely translated: "c'ya laterz") :

"Pisay the Movie" was directed by Batch '86 alumni Auraeus Solito. Here's the plot from Cinemalaya film fest:

Amidst the chaos of Martial Law in this Third World country in the 1980s, six teenagers in the top high school for the sciences discover themselves as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence. They were the top two hundred students from all over the Philippines who passed the examination for the Philippine Science High School, which was created for the purpose of giving an education highly enriched in the Sciences to exceptionally gifted Filipino children. Selected from the best and brightest from all over the country, they endure college-level courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics from their sophomore year onwards. Those who can make it are hailed as the future science and technology leaders of the New Republic, those who don’t are deemed unfortunate victims of natural selection. They all learn however that they are neither isolated from the real world, nor are they exempted from living real lives. They find the world outside, erupting into the People Power revolution in 1986 against the Marcos dictatorship, being replicated within the school as they struggle to graduate, contend with teachers, classmates, family, school officials, and a new classification to segregate students meeting the high standards of excellence from those who do not.

Movie Trailer:

Thanks to the folks at Slashmaraud, a site that features photographers and photographs. I am humbled to be featured along with such talented photographers.

-kyo-

One thing's for sure: the folks at Intuit do know how to throw a good Christmas party. Good food, music (classical, jazz and 80s dance music all running simultaneously), set in glamourous setting as San Francisco's City Hall makes for a night to remember.

A grand affair indeed.

Thanks to Tata!

-kyo-

Photo by Apple.

The moment the iPod Classic package arrived I did not bother to open the box and instead went straight to the Apple Store in Palo Alto to have it exchanged for the 16gb iPod Touch. There were just too many dissatisfied reviews at Amazon and Apple Forums on the recent iPod that I decided to just fuggedaboudit. Costco had a bunch in stock of the previous generation iPod Video also with 80gig but it they wouldn't let me trade the newer one in (gave me some BS excuse).

After having the iPod Touch for a couple of weeks, I feel that I've made the right decision. It's got a wider screen than the classic and the UI works nicely. It's got the same multi-touch capabilities as the iPhone, same Safari based browser and smooth CoverFlow response when browsing through albums in iTunes. The best part is that I get a bigger capacity than the iPhone without the expensive monthly bills tied to the unlimited data package by AT&T (which I also ditched a month after getting the Nokia E62 last year).

The smaller capacity does not bother me. I just pick which albums to take with me when I sync. It's playing time is definitely more than enough for my needs. I was at the eye doctor yesterday and the notoriously long waiting times at the clinic have been much more bearable. I also tested the Starbucks "What's playing?" feature over at a nearby Barnes and Noble and it works. I just had to connect to the free T-mobile Hotspot in the store.

For a much improved audio experience under $35, I highly recommend the PX 100 headphones from Sennheiser (363 give it 5 stars and 125 give it 4 out of 532 reviews at Amazon).

-kyo-

Photo © Copyright Sony Corporation.

TIME Magazine had a recent issue about the best inventions of 2007 (the one with the iPhone on the cover). In it there was this one invention I was surprised to see, but was not as impressed as I was in 1993 when I first saw it as a high school science project by one of my classmates.

[details]

-kyo-

Last Wednesday, a Hong Kong container ship the Cosco Busan on its way out hit the Oakland Bay Bridge spilling some 58,000 gallons of oil on the San Franisco Bay.

As of this morning, currents have pushed the oil up to as far north as the Point Reyes National Seashore a federal marine reserve where some 1,255 dead birds have been collected and 1,023 have been rescued. The elephant seals on its beaches are expected to give birth soon along with migrating gray whales. It's been said that 45 percent of North American birds species have been identified here.

It's disappointing (on so many levels) something like this would happen. I'm sure the businesses at the Fisherman's Wharf who are dependent on the famous Dungeness Crab aren't too happy either. Drake's Bay Oyster Farm provides for 60 percent of California's oyster crop each year and our family enjoy going to their historic store in Point Reyes where you can enjoy them fresh straight out of the water.

More from CNN.

-kyo-

.

I'm not the sort of guy who probably would spend $3,000 plus on what is basically a high end "kitchen radio" but I do appreciate the marriage of good design and engineering.

I've read about the F80 a few weeks back from TONE Audio, a free PDF based audio and music magazine based out of Seattle:

Meridian F80 story on page 95:
www.tonepublications.com/images/pdfs/TA_012.pdf

Product Site
www.thef80.com

-kyo-

The gadget freak that I am (not to mention Apple fanboy and audio enthusiast), believe it or not I only placed order for my very first iPod last week only. Anna has had her 3rd generation iPod for some time now but the storage has been pretty limited for my 240gb music library (I prefer ripping in Apple Lossless format).

I'm getting the 80gb Classic from my reward points at work so it's practically free but how I wish I did some research around the net first. Apparently it's plagued by several technical issues like slow Cover Flow response (a nice to have but not a deal breaker), audio playback skipping, and (OH NO!!) lesser audio quality compared to the previous iPod Video [aka 5.5gen] according to this test.

It's also sad to hear (no pun intended) that Apple, after reaching a level of quality and customer satisfaction has chosen to replace their Wolfson codec chips in favor of Cirrus Logic's.

Despite a recent firmware 1.0.2 update as of this writing, many of the issues seem to persist. What's the deal Cupertino?

What to do.. what to do...

-kyo-

Disc 1: "Smoooooth Jazz"
---------------------------------

Over the Rainbow
Jane Monheit
Taking A Chance On Love 3:54

In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
Monty Alexander
Playboy: Jazz After Dark (Disc 1) 5:07

Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Kevin Mahogany
Jazz Vocalists: Hear & Now [Disc 2] 3:41

I've Got The World On A String
Robin McKelle
Introducing Robin McKelle 2:21

I'm Always Drunk In San Francisco
Kitty Margolis
Jazz Vocalists: Hear & Now [Disc 1] 3:03

Just The Way You Are
Diana Krall
Live In Paris 5:01

Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
Come Away With Me 3:18

Holiday
Erin Bode
Over And Over 4:36

Can't Get You Out Of My Mind
Sonya Kitchell
Words Came Back To Me 4:09

Side Streets
Saint Etienne
Tales from the Turnpike House 2:58

These Are The Days
Jamie Cullum
Jazz Vocalists: Hear & Now [Disc 1] 3:22

I Melt With You
Nouvelle Vague
Nouvelle Vague - EP 4:01

High & Dry (US Version)
Jamie Cullum
Twentysomething 4:18

You Don't Know Me
B.B. King & Diane Schuur
Heart To Heart (US Release) 3:56

Wedding Day
Rosie Thomas
Hear Music Vol. 8: Between Stories 5:28

City Hall
Vienna Teng
Dreaming Through The Noise 4:48

Dienda
Sting
All This Time (Live) 3:12

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
Ray Charles & Elton John
Genius Loves Company 3:59

Night & Day
Robin McKelle
Introducing Robin McKelle 3:50

Creep
(Originally By Radiohead) Richard Cheese
Lounge Against the Machine 2:56

Disc 2: "Party Time!"
---------------------------

Bound Too Long
The Crystal Method
Legion Of Boom 6:24

The Boxer
The Chemical Brothers
Push The Button 4:08

Build It Up,Tear It Down
Fatboy Slim
You've Come A Long Way Baby 5:05

Corcovado
Everything But The Girl
Like The Deserts Miss The Rain 3:54

Discotheque
Discotheque
Morgan Geist Presents Unclassics 4:54

Hollywood (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duck Mix)

"I have never loved a man the way that I have loved San Francisco. Thirteen years ago, in June of '86, I came to this town a tourist. I fell hard. Within two weeks, I had rented a room in a residence club, gotten a job proofreading, and tossed my return ticket to Miami -- all before July 4, which I spent at Crissy Field searching for fireworks in the fog."
-- Diana Wynne, September 1999
Full story: "Flowers in Her Hair"

-kyo-

"In San Francisco, Halloween is redundant."
-- Will Durst

"San Francisco has only one drawback. 'Tis hard to leave."
-- Rudyard Kipling

"There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antartic and some are stationed in San Francisco... Life is unfair."
-- John F. Kennedy

"The City that knows how."
-- William Howard Taft

"The cool, grey city of love."
-- George Sterling

"The Bay Area is so beautiful, I hesitate to preach about heaven while I'm here. "
-- Billy Graham

"I love this city. If I'm elected, I will move the White House to San Francisco. I went to Fisherman's Wharf and they even let me into Allioto`s. It may be Baghdad by the Bay to you, but to me it's Resurrection City"
-- Robert Kennedy

"You are fortunate to live here. If I were your President, I would levy a tax on you for living in San Francisco!"
-- Mikhail Gorbachev

"You wouldn't think such a place as San Francisco could exist. The wonderful sunlight there, the hills, the great bridges, the Pacific at your shoes. Beautiful Chinatown. Every race in the world. The sardine fleets sailing out. The little cable-cars whizzing down The City hills. And all the people are open and friendly."
--Dylan Thomas

"I have always been rather better treated in San Francisco than I actually deserved."
-- Mark Twain

"It's simply a very romantic place. Just one look at any of those streets, and you couldn't be anywhere else -- it's so beautiful, and there's that location, and the sense of the free spirit. Who couldn't become ravenous in such a place?"
-- Julia Child

Click here for the slideshow

Thanks to everyone who attended Kathleen's 2nd birthday. It was really nice to have the party outdoors for a change! The weather was great and I know it wouldn't be too long before it starts to cool down again here in the Bay Area.

Kamille and Kathleen had a wonderful time exploring Ardenwood State Reserve and playing party games with the kids. As always, Anna and I enjoyed preparing the food and your company. I apologize for not taking as much photos as I usually do, but I hope you enjoyed the grilled treats. Thanks to Mitch and Tony, our expert corn strippers (or is it dehusker's?) and everyone who transported stuff to and from the parking lot (a truly manual labor of love). And most of all, double kudos for the brave souls who induldged with my chili. We are currently tracking bug reports for Version 3.

-kyo-

For the audio or photography enthusiast, free downloadable PDFs of TONEAudio and and TONEPhoto magazines.

Check out our new podcast. To subscribe on iTunes, go to "Advanced" -> "Subscribe to Podcast" -> Type "http://blogs.suayan.com/podcast/suayan/feed.xml".

Here's a quick and easy pizza I made today since I've been wanting to try out the
intriguing ready-made organic pizza dough I've been seeing at stores. We usually make ours from scratch with the help of a bread maker but it takes a lot of time and effort. We'd usually come up with 2 or 4 big pizza pans of thin crust for these occasions and preparation time takes about 2 hours.

These couple of weeks we have a pair of plants that have been producing tomatoes like crazy (an 'Ace' and a variant of 'Big Beef') from Viva Gardens. For some reason, I can't seem to get enough of the aroma of fresh basil this past week.

Ingredients:

• 9-inch corn meal crust pizza from Vicolo
• Ragu Homemade Style pizza Sauce
• Sargento 6 Cheese Italian (mozarella, smoked provolone, asiago, parmesan, romano and fontina)
• 2 havarti deli slices from Dofino
• Fresh tomato sliced
• Fresh basil (chopped)
• 1 mild italian sausage from New York Style Sausage Company
• Pepper flakes (to taste)
• Ground pepper (to taste)

I preheated the oven to 425 deg F and baking time takes about 15 minutes or so. I then layered a generous amount of pizza sauce on the crust followed by the 6 cheese italian mix with torn pieces of havarti deli slice. I then placed the slices of tomatoes and chopped basil on that followed by the italian sausage then another slice of havarti.

"Ever since Levi Strauss invented denim jeans here during the Gold Rush, San Francisco, with its cable cars, coffeehouses, and counterculture has been on the cutting edge of cool. From bustling Chinatown to bohemian Haight-Ashbury, the City by the Bay has long been known for its openness and tolerance. It's also a city of freebies. Here is a list of free attractions to help you experience the city without breaking the bank."

» Free Things to Do in San Francisco

Anna had an appointment at Oakland early morning today and we decided it was the perfect opportunity to explore a portion of downtown since we haven't really done so even after living on the East Bay for the past 3 years.

At the recommendation of her coworker, we checked out the dimsum at the Legendary Palace. It was only 9:30 in the morning and the restaurant's first floor was already full of what appears to be their regular Saturday morning customers (mostly Chinese, a really good sign). We were ushered into the 2nd level and at around 10:00, that too was at least 3/4ths full. That wasn't too surprising as their dim sum was pretty good. The nicely glazed baked pork bun had a subtle taste of cooking wine and the shrimp siomai was soft and moist. My favorite sticky rice on lotus leaf also did not disappoint as do the taro puff and steam pork bun (white dough was just right). Overall service was prompt. And the best part? All that for less than $30 tips included. I must say it is truly legendary and our Ralston favorite now finally has a worthy East Bay contender.

Incidentally, today was also the first half of the two day Oakland Chinatown Streetfest. I was amazed at the size of this event as they had to close down several streets in the area. We didn't have the time to explore all of the booths but the kids did manage to pick as much freebies as they could.

We then hopped off to Jack London Square where they have the Back to School Plaza Party as it turns out, for even more freebies. Kamille even won us 4 tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium worth $88! Not bad for an impulse visit.