Tracy Today

Orchard is no more

2011-08-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

On a flying visit through Tracy, the first thing that jumped out is that the iconic Orchard Diner is replaced by some other establishment.

Runaway powered chute

2010-11-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

I admit not to keeping up with Tracy news recently, so I stumbled upon the thread in Backcountry Pilot in November. Fortunately the ever dependable Tracy Press had a blurb:

According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Ian Gregor, a powered parachute that took to the skies from outside Tracy without its pilot Saturday, Aug. 14, was found a week later hanging in a tree in a remote part of Napa County.
“The plane headed northwest then circled around for about a half hour before flying southeast toward Yosemite,” Gregor stated in an e-mail.

The probability of injury was very small once it cleared populated areas, and even then it was small. Still, talk about the improper hand-start technique.

Huckabee guilty plea

2010-06-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

Apropos the Sandra Cantu case, Huckabee entered a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison.

Authorities disclosed an investigative summary that depicted a brutal killing that left the child with wounds to her head and body, including injuries to the outside of her genitals that were consistent with a bloodstained rolling pin found inside a church where Huckaby had taught. The stain matched Sandra's blood, prosecutors said.
A pathologist's report listed the official cause of death as "homicidal asphyxiation." Prosecutors believe Huckaby drugged the girl then smothered her with a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol.
Sandra's body — found in a black suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond — contained alprazolam, a prescription sedative commonly used to treat anxiety. Prescription bottles of the drug were found in Huckaby's purse and home, prosecutors said.
Testa believes two other drugging cases against Huckaby were "practice attempts" leading to Sandra's killing. Charges also were dropped in those cases, which involved a 7-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man whom police believe Huckaby had been dating.

So, practice runs, huh. Also:

District Attorney James Willett said he was satisfied with the plea deal as a way to avoid a costly trial that could drag on for years. He believes the outcome would have been the same, with a jury sentencing Huckaby to a life term.
"California's death penalty is a joke," he said.

Well, voters wanted it that way, so...

Masses turn away from mass transit in California

2010-01-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

An article at Hit and Run compiles as list of government reports from all over the area about the plummeting ridership, as people switch jobs in the recession and find no alternative to driving in new directions (there's also a quote from a liberal mag that blames the rising prices of tickets). I imagine the situation is even worse in our sticks. I remember taking a SJ "Regional" bus route 70 to get from Tracy to Dublin BART. It only had two departures per day. Good grief!

Nonetheless, I'm quite certain that governments will continue to rob everyone and throw big sacks of money down the transit hole (instead of doing the necessary minimum to comply with ADA). They really should build more freeways. And perhaps raze the Livermore's downtown. On this note, anyone remember the hapless Richard Pombo and his "highway 130" project? How did that work out for him? Not that Pombo was all white and fluffy: he wanted to build a turnpike.

Lammers Road Junction meeting

2009-11-30T18:45:00.001-08:00

I received a notice about the meeting on December 8, 5:30 p.m. in Larch Clover Community Center. It was sent to property owner address. On the agenda is building a freeway interchange where the dead overpass is currently (and dead raiload tracks). I really wish I were able to come, to support the project and oppose NIMBYs, but alas...

Voters say NO WAY to tax hikes

2009-05-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

At The Rhetorician:

Yes, we California voters are to blame for where the state’s finances find themselves. But it’s not that simple. It’s easy to vote for fiscal conservatives and low spending, but even when we do that, we always get out-organized and out-voted by California’s public employee unions, including the teachers union. They are the ones who run things in Sacramento. The Legislature and the governor largely work for them and their interests.

The only way to save California now is to ban state employee unions period. The. Only. Way. Any half-measures are only going to hurt later.

"Normal" unions strike an adversarial relationships with businesses purportedly to balance interests of workers with interests of the company. But this just does not work when the unions have the official state power at their disposal. Very quickly they start using that power to squeeze citizens who are not state employees. And when they squeeze too much, the whole state goes bankrupt. That's the difference between carpenter unions and "teachers unions": when carpenting company goes bankrupt under the weight of its union, it's not a big problem. When the state goes bankrupt, well...

Tracy in the national news

2009-04-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

Tracy made the national news when the charges were filed in the murder of Sandra Cantu. Fox News reports:

A female Sunday school teacher kidnapped, raped and murdered an 8-year-old girl who was the close friend of her 5-year-old daughter, then stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it into a pond, prosecutors contended Tuesday.

Sandra disappeared March 27, and was last seen on a surveillance camera skipping outside the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy where she lived just five doors down from Huckaby.

My faith in the criminal justice system have grown quite a bit after the trial of Hans Reiser, whom I knew professionally. His guilty verdict was rendered only just, and many people (including his friends who I knew personally) maintained that he was innocent -- right until the time when he led police to the body of his victim, buried on the outskirts of Oakland.

The trailer park in question is located behind the Kragen near the freeway. Quite close to my house actually.

Tracites everywhere

2008-09-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

I was at an anime convention in Albuquerque today, and right next to me was parked a Versa with California places in Tracy Nissan frame. We are everywhere.

NYT on localblogging

2008-08-10T09:59:00.001-07:00

New York Times writes about the likes of Tracy Today.

The Cultured Marble Catastrophy

2008-07-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

As it turned out, even replacement of a cultural marble counter is an enormous ordeal. Doing this from two states away is a catastrophy.

The only place where I even managed to get someone on the phone was, curiously enough, the most well known cultural marble dealer in the neighbourhood: Kelly's Showroom. They are a little on the pricier side, asking $900 for the piece which Marble Palace was selling for $700. But their guy, Ron, was helpful, and they were willing to do the work on the removal of the old counter, which is important. Discarding things is not trivial these days.

Fire in Tracy on July 6

2008-07-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Chizumatic has posted a picture of fires taken from Forest Service remote monitoring, which shows a pretty decent conflagation in Tracy:

I checked with Tracy Press, but there was nothing except a the house fire, but it does not look big enough to register on the IR satellite which Forest Service uses. Curious, what has happened?

Meanwhile, in Tracy...

2008-07-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

I had a disappointing run-in with Greer Family Plumbing. I wanted to replace faucets before renting the house out, but since the valves and their one-piece corrugated (flexible) pipe are rather frail, I decided to ask a professional who could deal with the fallout if something does not work. You would think that a plumber taking 3 times as much as a handyman for the same job would be ready for the unforseen... How naive.

When Jeff (the senior worker) replaced the faucets, he also replaced the drain parts. And they he tore down one set, he found a crack in the sink itself, which is impossible to seal. His theory was that calcium deposits sealed the crack until now. I was dubious, but it was not a good time to assign blame, so I asked for options. Long story short, nobody would fix this, and the WHOLE COUNTER WITH TWO SINKS has to be replaced. You think my renters would be happy while that is happening?

Just for the record, Jeff's wife found a random place which dealt with the cultured marble (Elegant Surfaces), but they only repair what they installed themselves. So I suppose Greer cleared their conscience. Not that it helped me any.

One small anecdote deals with one of palliatives that we tried, and highlights nicely how the incentives for Jeff were stacked to leave me hanging and move on as soon as possible. The last thing we tried was putting silicone sealant on the inside of a stack of two gaskets. I asked him how he supposes the silicone would stick to wet surfaces (they became wet because during testing). He replied that he dried them up. Funny, I didn't recall him using a hair dryer. Sure enough, when I looked at the gasket sandwich later, it was wet with the seeping water.

The lessons are multiply, and the major is, DO NOT, under any circumstances, repair anything in a house you're vacating -- the price of making it worse is huge. Finding anyone dealing in cultured marble over the phone from two states away is just one thing I have to deal with now. And secondly, exorbitant fees that plumbers charge are utterly unnecessary unless there's an emergency (I exchanged $375 for the broken bathroom). Just call your handyman, results are going to be the same.

By the way, I think Greer would be excellent for things like burst pipes, just not my case. They were pleasantly accomodating when scheduling the job.

Kengo

2008-06-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Kengo is a replacement to sadly closed Yoshi's, in the Van's ACE plaza. It employs the familar faces from Yoshi's days, but the conveyor belt is gone. I have to say, I hardly ever saw anyone picking a plate from the belt. It just wasn't a part of our culture in Tracy. Belt belongs to a faster paced life -- grab and go! The decor also aims at something akin to Bluefin, only without booths. No hanging kimonos either, just still life.

The katsudon at Kengo costs exactly the same $10.95 as Tonkatsu, so that trick no longer works. They serve it in a rather odd hybrid of a bowl and a plate, which is unusual. I thought donbury belonged into a true bowl, otherwise how it would be "over" rice, right? And my, was that thing salty.

Overall, a nice place... But I'll miss Yoshi's.

Thunder but no storm

2008-06-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

There was a thunder cloud over my house this afternoon. It even drizzled a little. But it stayed above 100F all along.

Peace and love with J&M Transmissions

2008-06-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, J&M is an independent transmission shop in Tracy which came with recommendations when I moved in. Unfortunately, one time they returned me the car with a leak from the pan interface. Since then I replaced the ATF myself and learned how difficult it was to secure the pan over the gasket leak-free. The trany case on Galant is aluminum and it's extremely easy to strip. Sweat was pouring from me all over when the torque wrench was reching the recommended limits. The torque felt way past reasonable for such flimsy bolts. So, this time I decided to come back.

Mr. Urtega handled me personally and I confessed to him in my sins, so to speak, and asked him to make sure it was done right. He has done so, and so far everything seems in good shape. Great!

I only forgot to ask if any shavings were in the pan, too late now.

Window replacement update

2008-06-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

It turned out that I should have looked in the phonebook under the "Glass", not "Windows". Once there, things went smoother.

Pictured is Bill Simon of Simon Glass & Mirror, taking the necessary measurements.

Window replacement bleg

2008-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

I need to replace a dual-pane window due to steaming (more like calcium deposits at this point though). As a complication, it's a design that is not produced anymore. I wish I could only replace one sash, but at this point I'll take any solution. Anyone has a reference to a contractor? Phonebook mostly lists people peddling solutions of their corporate masters.

Mr. Pickle

2008-06-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

The advertisement worked! The person swinging the Mr. Pickle sign made me to visit the place, located in the small strip mall in front of Kaiser at Grant Line. In short, it's a sandwich place. Quite edible, although nothing distinctive. Its nearest competitor is probably Subway.

ExpressJet and SAC

2008-06-08T23:22:00.001-07:00

I already mentioned here that Sacramento airport delivers a way better experience than the tree Bay Area airports. Flying with ExpressJet matches it perfectly. It's a company which avoids big hubs, and so does not fly into Bay Area at all. So much for the better. The seat spacing is a couple cm longer than even at ANA, to say nothing about United. And check-in lines are almost absent.

Cheesecake Factory

2008-06-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is primarily a restaurant for metrosexuals, complete with confusing menu and extravagant plating. Expensive, too. There's nothing wrong with liking it though. It's a free country!
Our nearest location is at Stoneridge mall, and right next door to it is P.F. Chang.

Citizen cake

2008-05-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

I may be just a know-nuthin' redneck, but I can see that Citizen Cake is overrated. It's also expensive in line with Embarcadero area places.

It's tasty stuff, I won't clame otherwise, but it reminds me of a joke. Mick Jager was the best on Earth in bed. One young lady managed to spend a night with him, and when asked for impressions, she said: "He's quite good, but he's no Mick Jager".

Congrats Kelly Vargas

2008-05-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

An ad plane flew over my house with a banner: "CONGRATS KELLY VARGAS AND 08 CLASS". I'm wondering if Kelly is a graduate or a teacher.

Tax on porn in California

2008-05-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

As seen at Volokh. Regardless the constitutional issues, 25%?! Is there anything this state won't tax into ground?

In other news, the state headcount grew by 26,000 under Schwarznegger. Crazy! I'm not surprised they keep taxing us.

Proposition 99 versus Proposition 98

2008-05-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

For the upcoming elections on June 3, statists filed a Proposition 99 with a language to kill Proposition 98, even if it passes. This is the oldest trick in the book. Who do they think we are? Of course I'll vote YES on 98 and NO on 99, even if we don't care much either way, because I resent being played for a fool this way.

As it happens, I know that Caltrans used eminent domain to acquire private property to build the 238 freeway from Irvington to Hayward. Lately under the pressure from envirojerks, they decided to give up on the freeway and there was a discussion what to do with all the land. I would say, BUILD THE GODDAMN FREEWAY, but it's too late. They have destroyed the overpass where 680 turns into the hills two years ago.

So, eminent domain is good when we get roads out of it, and it's bad when the government takes the property from a family and hands it over to a powerful private interest (usually a corruption is involved). The thing about the 98 vs. 99 is that they know how the current law in California is one of the worst in the nation, and that they would still be able to build the I-238 even if they operated under Texas law. So, they know that 98 is likely to pass, and thus the trick. Jeez!

Famous Dave's

2008-04-28T00:57:00.001-07:00

Famous Dave's is a newly open place at periphery of the mall, next to Olive Garden. Unanimous verdict of this family: avoid (and we rarely agree on anything). The problem is in the kitchen... I don't know who taught them to cook ribs, but it sure wasn't my aunt. In case you want to see a restaurant serving them as they were meant to be, visit Emille Villa (the nearest one is in Livermore, unfortunately, and I swore undying hatred to them due to their government being a bunch of sick road-destroying jerks, but you're free to patronize them).

Orchard

2008-04-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

Orchard is terrific. It's homely, yet I have to say it's a cut above, for example, Denny's or even Lake of Fire (not to knock Lake of Fire, but speaking objectively). In the same time, it's nearly always empty. Score!

I really cannot say anything bad about them, except perhaps that their onion rings were not to my taste: too industrial. I like the kind they serve in Red Robin.

One note, the pancakes there are huge. I expected the same thing they have in IHOP, but had leave some on the place.

Overall, Orchard is my favourte in Tracy, period. It's not as fancy as Magellan, but not as expensive either. It's comfortable and inviting.

Mandarin Villa

2008-04-28T00:40:00.000-07:00

Mandarin Villa is another old-time establishement in the Ace plaza (at the crossing of Tracy and Grant Line). It's not an all-out super-duper place like Princess of China in SF, but it's very solid and definitely Chinese. The chou mein, fried rice, and the duck were great. It would've been a shame to live in Tracy for years and not visit Mandarin Villa, but now I may move with clean conscience.

Bird in the Bay

2008-04-13T00:47:00.001-07:00

State assembly flier

2008-04-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Politics is bad for blogging, but it's not like anyone reads this anyway. With that said, I received a flier from Cathleen Galgiani, a assemblymember for 17th district. It's vein-popping. Here, I go solely by contents of the flier, without any googling -- to show what I mean by "vein-popping".

AB 186 Rural Crimes Task Force

Not exactly sure why certain LEOs need this special help, sounds like an earmark.

AB 1428 Creating Energy from Poultry Waste

Bald-faced boonghole.

AB 447 College Preparatory Program - AVID

"Organizational and study skills"? What a joke. My daughter did not need any of that. And why is this done at state level? It's a job for the local tutoring club.

AB 1233 Free Homework Help

This is even worse, plus a high-tech boonghole.

AB 203 Mental Health Care

This sounds reasonable -- the only one of the two on the whole flier!

AB 1475 Shutting Down Child Pornography

The blurb is talking about mandatary reporting by "computer technicians". Is there an industry the do-gooders won't destroy in this state?! We have beter things to do than play cops. Sure, we report incidents if we come across that, but do you have any idea how much mandatory reporting costs? This is absolutely outrageous.

And of course this is "for the children". Jeez!

AB 426 Violent and Non-Violent Criminals

This sounds almost reasonable, if only we had money for it. So stop wasting my money on your stupid boongholes and build better prisons, goddamit. Then I might sign up for this bill.

AB 379 Life Imprisonment for Sex Offenders

This is bad primarily because tagging anyone with "sex offender" tag is ridiculousy easy. Also, the voters get fooled way too easily by the rhethoric on this issue. I've read the proposition we had on the ballot in March, it was an absolutely unimaginable Orwellinan nightmare, yet it passed! I'm not for putting more screws to so-called "sex offenders" until the state cleans up its act.

AB 3034 High Speed Rail

This is the mother of all boongholes. It's 50 times more expensive than building a toll-free "I-130" from San Jose to Patterson, for one tenth of its utility. Not on my watch, jerks!

AB 381 MediCal Fraud and Identity Theft

I suppose this is not too bad.

AB 660 Railroad Crossing Funding

I'm not quite sure how much grade separation we need, and what issues here are. This seems like a niche issue.

Conclusion

I would be happier to leave this state if New Mexico were any better. Unfortunately, I suspect it's not. They have just approved a salest tax increase to build a spaceport. On third thought, at least the spaceport tax expires.

And most importantly, where is activity to restore freedom to California? Are you doing anything to strike down the ridiculous ban on .50 caliber rifles, assemblymember Galgiani?

High-speed DSL along Grant Line

2008-03-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Couple of wheeks ago telephone technicians installed new cabinets along Grant Line. Some of them draw power and have active cooling, so they have more than just traditional patch panels inside. I bet we're seeng an implementation of Project Pronto at last.

As we all know, DSL's performance drops off dramatically with increased distance from CO. Since local wires get aggregated at neighbourhood patch panels, an easy solution is to install forward nodes at these panels and connect them to CO with fiber. This is much cheaper than FTTC, let alone FTTP, yet reaps most of the benefits. Such deployment was called Project Pronto in PacBell.

When I moved to Tracy, only DSL was available, and it was a horrible torture. Not only the speed was poor (about 368 kbit/s), but the reliability was bad as well. Failures clearly corellated to hot weather, so I suspect some line-conditioning equipment was on its last legs. PacBell ASI rolled the truck a few time, took their measurements, admitted that the line sucked and that they capture the noice, and then did nothing.

I asked them if they had a Pronto terminal in the neighbourhood, and if yes, could they switch me over. They said "no". Therey was no other choice but to suck it up.

As soon as Comcast started offering the cable Internet, I switched, and it was a relatively smooth sailing so far. They did have outages, but not many, and but never longer than one day. Anyway, when I called to terminate my account, the call center girl said, "No, wait a moment, we have a remote terminal in your area, would you want to switch?" Of course by that time I already had cable service, and since PacBell wronged me by not fixing the obvious problem with the line, I insisted that we terminate the DSL.

But that was then. This is now. I am moving to Albuquerque, but you stay in Tracy. Should you get your Internet from former PacBell with the newfanged short-loop DSL?

If I was doing it now, I would give it a try. AT&T owns bother PacBell and Comcast these days, so it's one mega-monopoly now. There's going to be little difference between the two going forward. So it's just the price vs. the speed.

One word of warning though. Many people think that the availability of DSL should be better than cable, because telcos are supposedly reliable and cable is run by a bunch of dorks. I would say, not so. As I mentioned before, I have never been without a cable for more than a day in Tracy, or 4 days in Fremont (back in bad old days of pre-DOCSIS modems and TCI Inc. -- not even @Home). It have however been without a PacBell phone service for 10 days, due to technician making a wrong connection in the local patch panel, and them not bothering to fix it. So no, there's no reliability advantage. In fact, since cable is all-passive from their node to your premises, and Pronto-style DSL isn't, the cable might have it better. So look at prices with that in mind.

It's so sad that DirecWAY is not competitive in suburban setting.

Word of Mouth

2008-03-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

I went to Hairtage, the barber shop which I typically visit unless it's Sunday or Monday. The owner told me that he mostly gets customers through the word of mouth, and he would only be willing to hire an assistant from Tracy because of that. The expectation is, an outsider would not bring in customers. It sounds strange to me, because I found the shop from the telephone book. It's not like we have an excess of barbers in Tracy. There's Al's near the Blockbuster on 11th, which belongs to the former assistant in Hairtage, who started the new business last summer or so, but that's about it. So, if one wants to go to a barber, there's no need to ask friends and family.

And the haircut? I'm not completely happy, but it's better than other places. I guess at my age, I have to get more engaged with the barber. I cannot ask "just give it a go with #5" and be done anymore -- too much baldness.

Crash at Altamont pass

2008-03-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another attempt at citizen journalism. This one is marginally less pathetic than the first, but still... I did not understand what the heck has happened, because I was driving. Lots of debris in the road, however.

One bizarre thing was how someone decided to take off the accident scene in a burning vehicle. I don't understand just what he (or she) was thinking.

She didn't get far: near the illegal truck pad the bumper melted and fell off, which was a signal to pull over (you can almost make out the bumper laying on the road in the picture above).

Yoshi on the move

2008-03-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

I had a word yesterday that a new name has appeared on Yoshi's. Most likely it's going to be a Japanese restaurant again. Also Yoshi herself was rumored to want to open a noodle house, so perhaps she'll do that. Kickass, those are very nice (and cheap).

Albuquerque vs. Tracy

2008-03-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

I visited Albuquerque, NM, to scope out the place for a possible move.

The first impression is that every house has a second rebar door and barred windows, all across the city. In Northern California, you have to live in Oakland or East Palo Alto before such measures become necessary (I think even most of Union City gets by without). We ranged far and wide, and the only district without bars was in the north, along Alameda. Single story houses there are about $400,000, however.

Crime is much lower across the Rio Grande in Rio Rancho, but there is no freeway, so commuting is probably difficult, and is going to get worse.

So, I added two and two, looked at the map, and went to Las Lunas, about 35 miles south by I-25. It's fabulous.

Firstly, they have a Walmart Supercenter. Yes, the very thing our blockheads in the city council denied (it was before Mr. Ives became the mayor though).

Secondly, the same house as we have is $189,000, new. Nobody has barred windows, of course. So, living in Los Lunas and commuting looks better than living in Tracy and commuting. Crime rate in Albuquerque proper is high, but it's not much higher than in San Francisco, so work should be manageable. I think we can do it.

I'm going to pay a visit to Mr. Barringer just as soon as I can.

Dreams of liberal mind

2008-02-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

I don't think I can do justice to the article by quoting it, so just read the whole thing: "The Next Slum? by Christopher B. Leinberger. It has the whole set of typical fetishes: the walkability, the rail. And the hate. Leinberger's hate for those defying the commands of liberal elite by living how they prefer is just amazing in its rabidness. He lives and breathes the dream of revenge. Certainly the author of The Long Emergency is the benchmark which Leinberger will find hard to touch, but nonetheless the rationalization of biases is in full force here.

One interesting point he made was a reference to Levine-Frank survey. It shows about half and half breakdown between those who prefer urban dwelling and those who prefer suburban life. This matches my own observations, although of course his spin between m-dashes was completely fallacious. But put plainly, it was always the case that living in a dense city offered advantages to various kinds of people. For example, colledge stundents practically have no choice but to get into dorms and rentals.

The difference between Leinberger and me is, I do not want to use the power of government to make his ilk to live in my kind of neighbourhood. But if he had the control, we'd be zoned out of existence... for the sake of public good, of course.

Hatcho

2008-02-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hatcho is a restaurant in Santa Clara which occupies the "most authentic of the authentic" niche. They have seating with tough pillows and feet holes. The only other place where I saw it was Yoshi's in Oakland.

However, tonkatsu with spaghetti slew me. Either it's a bad lapse, or else Hatcho is secure enough in its authenticity not to follow the usual rules. Indeed they transcend the mere convention.

The filet itself was good, no complaints.

Citizen journalism fails

2008-01-22T17:14:00.001-08:00

I completely forgot to report on the crash on I-205 this morning. What to say about driving to the Yellow's warehouse and taking pictures...

Cocoro

2008-01-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

I finally visited the trendiest Japanese place in Stockton: Cocoro (note the weird spelling, despite having a kokoro kanji at the store sign!). They do not work on Sundays.

The tonkatsu was great. Maybe not Osaka-at-Filmore great, but definitely better than average. As you can see, the presentation is somewhat simplistic, but who's counting if the pork is good!

The roasted oyster though... My advice is to pass. The mayo and cheese are too heavy, so they overpower the delicate taste of the oyster. Therefore, it's a waste of money.

Overally, I'm pretty happy with the deal. They certainly didn't make us wait for the bill to turn around, I appreciate that.

UPDATE: Imagine, I forgot to search for them on the Web. They have a website, cocorobistro.com, but here's a warning: not only it's Flash, but it's a Flash with muzak. Horrors!

San Francisco in fog

2008-01-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

Manpuku

2008-01-14T23:30:00.000-08:00

Coming down from civilized places around 9:30 p.m. we were hungry and decided to grab a sandwich from Safeway at 1st in Livermore, near Lowe's. In the same plaza, we found Manpuku, another Japanese place run by non-Japanese.

It's really nice, and it's cheap. I've got a bowl of beef udon, the rest of us took sushi, all for $26 (with the tip). In Bluefin, we'd leave $33 or $35 for the same food. Udon was quite tasty. It may be broth from a store, but I don't care, it was good.

Yoshi's is closed

2008-01-06T08:48:00.001-08:00

Apparently a car ran through the front of the store, so they closed for repairs. I'm wondering how that could happen.

Lake of Fire visit

2008-01-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

Nobody can mistake Lake of Fire for a high-class establishement, but it's nice in its own simple way.

Fettucini was much better than Rigatoni (the "sousage" is actually ground meat granules that they put into cheap pizza). Live and learn, I guess.

Tiramisu is homemade, apparently. Quite good.

Christmas Cake

2008-01-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

Speaking of 350D, the above is my Christmas cake, my favourite. So far I was only able to find this in Yasunochi's Sweet Shop at 1790 Sutter St. in San Francisco.

New Year Eve

2008-01-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, we went to Magellan's. This time I made sure to get "lamb ribs" and not a shank. It's odd, but the restaurant gets nearly empty towards 10 p.m.

I tried out my new blogging camera. My usual 350D is wonderful but I cannot take it with me everywhere. The new camera, Olympus FE-230, is still too heavy for a pocket shirt, although it goes well with a belly pack or a suit.

Sick on Christmas

2007-12-25T14:56:00.000-08:00

Looks like my daughter has brought something from college. I went down on 22nd, my wife a day after. Very nasty virus. Starts as a cold, but gets worse. Sore throat, cough, general sluggishness, thermal control issues (patient feels cold under any blankets). But no reumatic pains commonly associated with flu.

Chopstick wrappers

2007-12-14T23:46:00.001-08:00

The above one is from Sanppo, 1702 Post St., SF, the below one is from Kushi Tsuru, my favourite unpretentios joint inside the mall. Interestingly, Nami-nami does not offer tagged chopsticks. Our local in-town leader, Yoshi's, used to offer the same, but sometimes they lapse into the cheap bulk stuff. I'll check a set for collection if I get a chance.

Return to the Nami-nami

2007-12-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

The Nami-nami is a restaurant at Castro in Mountain View, which I visited back in April. Its main attraction is the authenticity (it overflows with Japanese), followed by exotic "kappo" style of food (tonkatsu is not on the menu). The reviews at Yelp are punctuated by a string of dissenters who are unhappy with service and kappo. Some of it is pretty stupid, for example the complaint about several waiters serving the table. I heard that at least some Americans expect "personal" touch, so perhaps that's where this comes from. We had no complaints about the service.

As I mentioned before, Japanese are about half of the patrons, so I enjoyed myself eavesdropping. They get deeper bows and receive polls for tea more frequently, but it's not something overt and we weren't left hanging, so no problem. The check was processed promptly, which always pleases me.

Food selection is a bit of a challenge for anyone who is used to the regular run of the mill sushi+katsu kind of place. I settled for udon nabeyaki with duck, as the safest choice. My other half went for a salmon roll in cheese sauce. If you have trouble, opt for sushi. They are quite good, fresh, the Iroha level of preparation.

The "safest" choice above meant getting what is expected, but yes I did splash my udon a little bit while loading it. I did not realize that one end of a strand was stuck to the pan, and engaged into a power struggle with it. That's what I get for being too full of myself. I was entirely too happy with my ability to control the wiggling of udon when eating it and forgot about this vital detail. Boiling onto the surface of a nabe is something that never happens with cup udon. Fun times.

Anyway, a recommended experience, at least once or twice.

Tree Lighting Today!

2007-12-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Parade starts at 4 p.m., the tree lighting ceremony is at 5 p.m. in front of the City Hall. I suppose the parade will go up the Central and then turn right, but it's not written anywhere.

Poor Mr. Pickle

2007-12-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

I saw the Mr. Pickle character dancing in the rain this morning on Grant Line near Kaiser. The mascot is not a bad idea, the store is located so it's hard to see from a passing car. But it looks like a poor job. And they cannot hire a teen, because classes are in the morning.

Fish and Chips

2007-12-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

I finally found a place which serves them, a Red Robin at Hacienda in Pleasanton, near I-580, in the Wal-Mart plaza. The fish comes in deep-fry batter, sort of like tempura. It's pretty good, I had had cod.

Guayaquil

2007-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

To bake a marmalade roll, you need slab marmalade. Ufortunately, it's nearly impossible to find, and jar marmalade is no good: it leaks out of the roll onto the baking sheet.

Thanks to Mexicans though, Lucky (Save Mart, nee Albertson's) carries mexican slab marmalade, which is good enough.

When we were buying it, the clerk asked if it was sweet. We said, it should be, but we want to try it. She said, many people were buying it. So why didn't she ask them? They do not speak English.

I really appreciate how our Mexican friends bring the slab marmalade and tongue with them, but please, learn English. It's not that hard. If I did it, so can you.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-11-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

We return to normal garbage pickup schedule after the Thanksgiving. West side - Recycling, East side - Garden waste.

Neighbourhood video store

2007-11-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

I don't know just how these establishments stay in business in the age of Neflix, but here we go: there's a video store at the Ace corner of Grant Line and Tracy Boulevard, between Jack in the Box and SpeeDee Lube. The strangeness continues inside as well: they have racks of N64 games, Blu-Ray titles and Anime. Amazing... Their sell prices are fairly steep, for example the Vandread is offered for $30 per DVD, whereas I got them for $16 at DVD Pacific. I wish they offered complete series though. There's little sense in renting Excel Saga v.3 without watching the rest, but this is exactly what they offer. Like I said, strange! But I wish them all the best, especially now that our Blockbuster terminated their anime collection.

Anime in general is a tough market for the stores. The titles are expensive, so fewer people buy than otherwise would. Anime is heavily series-based, with a small number of one-DVD releases. Anime is vast, and caters to a wide range of tastes. So, a store has to stock an big number of expensive DVDs before a casual shopper can count on finding something. It's no surprise that Blockbuster and Target have given up, and Best Buy feels the squeeze. The only retailer in the area which flourishes is Fry's. Evidently they can afford to stock enough to break over the treshold.

Hooka hmm

2007-11-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Janice reminds that we have a kalian bar in town now. This is something made popular by Iraq vets, as I heard. May be a fad, may be here to stay. In Frisco such places are usually cesspits of druggies, but then what isn't a cesspit there? Maybe suburbia can make it decent. Phear our pawa.

SF Auto Show

2007-11-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from the auto show in SF. As usual, I have serious trouble fitting into any car, and sunroof makes it downright impossible -- except the new Accord and Ridgeline. I also like the little egg-shaped Toyota Yarris a lot. The Toyota FJ is quite nice too. It even has a volmeter.

The most fun was definitely the Mercedes commerical van which Chrysler kept after the divorce under the name "Sprinter". It was a huge step forward after the Ram van. Very nice, low floor. When I have a computer and network consultancy, I'll drive around in a Sprinter, with a ladder strapped inside.

There was also a large number of great cars outside of my range, but I pretty much ignore anything with a price tag above $32k (e.g. the most excellent Nissan Pathfinder -- way too expensive). The Sprinter was just a little above $35k, which is actually very cheap for a van.

The show runs until December 2.

Amadeo in the MapBook

2007-11-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

I received something called "The Map Book" in the current batch of junk mail, and it included a reprint of Amadeo's posting about bikes. I wonder if they asked for permission. There was no URL for the blog, which I think was unfortunate.

Patelco in Tracy

2007-11-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that Patelco came to Tracy with a branch in the new plaza behind the Best Buy. Patelco is a faily basic credit union, which started as a union for Ma Bell employees. I am a member for some 8 years, but there's not much to report. The best thing is probably Patelco's no-nonsense online banking system. Patelco has its share of oddities, for example I found no way to withdraw money from my savings account without incurring a penalty, and persuading a teller to add money to a car loan's the principal required literally telling them what computer command to use (LOPC). Anyway, I'm glad that they're local now, it saves me gas.

Montero in Tracy Toyota

2007-11-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

I was in Tracy Toyota for service today and saw a sharp looking 2002 Montero, 38,000 miles, for $18k~. Just throw a winch on it, some OME suspension work, and go four-wheeling -- on leather seats. If Carfax finds no show-stopper like a flood, a very sweet deal, I think. It needs new rubber though, looks like it uses a spare currently on the rear right wheel.

Right across from the Montero sits a used RAV4.3 on non-standard Toyota wheels and, get this, with mismatching spare cover. My only idea just how this could happen is that the original wheels were all stolen. So, the RAV saw rough times, avoid. Oh, and there's no discount; same price on this sad vehicle and other used RAVs they have.

I really liked little Yarrises. It's some $13k to $16k, compact, 36mpg (new rating). Perfect to go to Safeway or college. The safety rating is "good" on them, which is not "excellent", certainly, but on the other hand I keep hearing how people die in head-ons with Suburbans and F-150s while driving luxury cars like Q-35 and such. I think as long as you do not get into a head-on crash in it, it's safe.

They did not have a single Land Cruiser. I guess nobody in Tracy is rich enough to afford one.

Long John Silver's down

2007-11-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

In my years in Tracy I never wanted to visit the place... Fish - yuk, right? But someone was talking fish and chips (and hush puppies), so I thought I'd give it a try. What do you know, it has closed too. Windows boarded, for lease sign.

The sad American Diner from across the street (former Lyon's) collapsed a bit before that. What is going on? I suspect that the trendy places near Home Depot syphon customers away from these stalvarts.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-11-12T14:59:00.001-08:00

Recycling week is upon us.

No NYPD Pizza

2007-11-12T14:35:00.001-08:00

Now this is just weird. I was going to check out the NYPD Pizza which has just opened a few months ago in the new plaza between Kaiser and Grant Line Rd., maybe blog it. And it has closed, there's a big sign "FOR RENT" on the shop. In contrast, Mountain Mike's in former Lucky plaza is doing strong, and I remember eating there before I moved to Tracy, in 2000. How does it happen? Lack of business acumen, poor area, or what?

Next block to the defunct NYPD Pizza is a famously unlucky eatery, which changed owners no less than 3 times since 2001 (I checked it out when it was called "Buffalo"). Maybe it's just a tough area.

Crazy Ron Paul supporters

2007-11-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

Across from the Right Aid, some asshat nailed a hefty Ron Paul sign to a living tree.

Tangentially, I am just wondering where do these people come from? Every idiot knows that gold standard is a retarded idea.

Regarding the Don's question, it's very easy to trawl blogs these days. You just sign up for Google's alerts. For example, Cheri told me that Google sends her an e-mail every time someone blogs about Tracy, California.

Now let's see if they are as ferrocious as I heard.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-11-05T19:20:00.001-08:00

This is a Garden Waste week West of Tracy Boulevard.

Gun Show in Sacramento

2007-11-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

I heard on AM 1530 that there's a McMann Roadrunner show at Cal Expo this weekend. It's a bigger and more exciting show than what Nordikes typically organize around here. Unfortunately, I may not be able to attend, due to homework and housework. Oh well.

Hell-o-ween begins

2007-10-31T18:49:00.001-07:00

First kids arrived at 18:49. The weather favours the trick-or-treaters: 16C warm, no rain, no strong wind.

20:25 - the flow has slowed down.

The new Jeep Liberty

2007-10-30T16:00:00.001-07:00

Costco had the 2008 Liberty on display, which allowed me to have a good look. The suspension architecture is reworked both front and rear.

In front, the normal ball joint is replaced with an inverted joint, a-la FJ Cruiser. This puts a limit on the smallest wheel one can put on the jeep, but since Jeep is not making pickup trucks, it's not an issue for them. As long-time readers might know, I have sustained a ball joint separation on Galant, which uses the conventional architecture. There, the full weight of the car comes on the threads of one bolt and one nut, which stripped. I have to say, thousands of Tacomas, 4 Runners and (old) Liberties are taken to rough trails with success, so the dangers of stripping are overblown. The Galant owes its problem to so-called one-time nut, made out of a softer metal than normal car nuts. I think Jeep turned the Liberty's ball joint over in oder to facilitate weight savings, and for the peace of mind, rather than out of any real concern.

In the rear, the innovative architecture of the old Liberty was replaced with a traditional 5-link, found on late Montero Sport, FJ Cruiser, etc. The tried and true suspension is just as strong, has no ball joint, and in fact might even be lighter. Reviewers on blogs claim that the ride has improved, but I don't think the rear geometry changes were responsible. It's probably just the combination of shocks and sway bars. The real advantage of new-old 5-link is that it does not need all the space in the center, where the old Liberty's top member was. Now the fuel tank goes there instead, for added safety, and the spare goes where the tank was.

This leads us to the new rear gate, which lost the spare and flips up. It probably weighs less, which is good news for the mileage. Putting on the spare might be marginally harder, but it always was a dirty work. I don't mind.

Aside from improved suspension, what delights me most is how the new Liberty is only marginally longer than the old one (only 5cm or 2in longer). In our days, cars grow quickly: just look at the xTerra.

Many bloggers were yapping how the new Liberty is square where the old was round. In fact, it seems like the most important thing to them (even C&D did it). I don't know why they do it, I do not care if it's round, square, and triangular, as long as it's well made. But for those who care, yes, the new Liberty looks a bit squarish.

One thing that nobody seems to notice is that the hood of the new Liberty is shorter than the old one. You really have to look at it sideways or negotiate a good crest to appreciate the length of Liberty's snout. I think Jeep did a good thing with the shorter hood (although I haven't taken it to the trail). It probably adds internal space, too.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-10-29T00:50:00.001-07:00

Phew, it's recycling.

Musashi Restaurant

2007-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got to checking out the Musashi. It is located in an obscure corner of a nondescript strip mall at 2203 Tracy Boulevard. It's between Grant Line and the Save Mart, same strip where Radio Shack is. Now that I think about it, Fabio's is situated in the same way. To my greatest surprise, Musashi turned out to be the most pretentious Japanese place in Tracy. It consists of two parts, one is teppanyaki (food juggling), and the other is a kind of a sports bar with a projection TV. The place seem to be wired for parties, with a permanent mixer and sound system. Nobody in our family enjoys teppanyaki, so we went for the normal seating.

Actually, I very nearly walked out because of the loud and silly music that they were playing. Also, they might be streaming it from a shuffle of non-normalized MP3s, because the volume was changing between tracks, which was annoying as hell too. And it wasn't even J-pop. Seriously people, if you want to assault my hearing, do it with some Judy and Mari or KOTOKO at least. OK, I can take Ayumi Hamasaki, or, worst come to worst, Ken Hirai. But they seem to using some very, very obscure stuff from the 90s (I heard one Madonna track, but that was about it).

The food was ok. I don't remember anything especially outstanding. Service was ok too.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-10-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Garden Waste week is next.

Unfortunately, I'm too busy with my homework to do anything and my bin is empty. Maybe on Tuesday...

San Jose Japantown

2007-10-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

I visited the elusive Japantown in San Jose today. It seems smaller than the one in San Francisco, even though they have their own Nijia Market (no Ichiban Kan though). They do not have the awesome structure that San Francisco possesses. This leads to the most important problem: there is no organized parking, only meters... which only take coins.

We ate in a small joint at 6th, called Minato, which has all the attributes of a 3-rd rate feeding place, but the kitchen was excellent. They used the right piece of a pig for their katsu, and the fish in sashimi was fresh.

One thing though... it looks that we were overcounted. 1 katsudon (9.50), 1 half-and-half sashimi/tempura (11.95), 1 sake (3.50): $24.95. But the bill was for $28.~, then tax to $31.83. I wasn't paying close enough attention, I suppose.

New stop sign at Lincoln

2007-10-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

I very nearly ran the new and unexpected stop sign at Lincoln and Beaverly yesterday. I saw some grumbling by jerk-offs who buy houses at 4-lane street then grumble that people drive by in Tracy Press a few months ago. Naturally, the city government was considering anti-driver measures, such as painting narrower lanes. It's a good thing we don't have money for Livermore style road enworsenment from 4 lanes to two. So, now it's a stop sign. Much cheaper than new lane markings too. Let's burn more gasoline on acceleration after stopping!

The point of fact is, Lincoln is a major connecting street. It has only one traffic light whereas the parallel stretch of Corral Hollow has five. Anti-car measures on Lincoln are assinine.

I don't know if Tracy is turning into Patterson just yet: after all we do not build roundabouts just yet. Also, this development comes on the back of speed limit increases last year. But it clearly is a matter of concern for all citizens.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-10-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

Garden Waste... did I forget it?

Outlets

2007-10-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Visited the outlets yesterday, because we had a 25% off coupon for Rockport. For a forgotten shopping location they seem to be doing ok. Unfortunately, Mikasa has closed. The vaunted food place, for which I saw ads in Tracy Press, turned out to be a rather ordinary joint for coffee and sandwiches.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-10-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

Recycling.

Roomba

2007-09-28T21:19:00.001-07:00

Prompted by a post by Luis Villa, I finally got Roomba. I'm quite happy with it so far, although it should be made very clear, that thing is loud. It is, of course, to be expected: it is a vacuum cleaner, only robotic. Luis writes:

The biggest improvement is the noise- I used to not like to run the roomba while I was in the room, because it was too loud. I’m typing this with the new roomba running around the same room I’m in, with no substantial irritation. I know it is there- it isn’t that quiet- but I have no desire to run away to another room.

Well, the thing is, that is only the case on a carpet, but I have laminate floors. To give a more objective estimate, if I imprison my Roomba in my room (which is carpeted) with a closed door, then if I am in the kitchen, the fridge will drown it. Getting anywhere near it though, and you run a risk of missing a phone call (which was probably a telemarketer anyway). It is possible to talk over Roomba running on a laminate floor, but you have to raise voice.

Anyway, I am just writing all this so that nobody gets wrong ideas about noiseless vacuum cleaners. As a convenience, Roomba is outstanding. The most important advantage of it is that you can do something else while it minds its own business elsewhere. That's the baseline. The rest is just details.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-09-23T12:10:00.001-07:00

A garden waste week is coming.

Airshow in Salinas next weekend

2007-09-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

I'm going to visit an airshow in Salinas next Saturday, although I have to consider if Sunday might be more suitable because of my Ninjutsu class. I was in Salinas in 1999 when Wayne Handley crashed in Oracle Turbo Raven, which was miserable (fortunately, he survived and recovered). At that time, I took my only helicopter ride thus far, in a Bell 47 Turbo flown by some sort of skyseeing outfit from San Francisco (displaced out of city since by 9/11). It should be a fun show.

Gun Show in Antioch this weekend

2007-09-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot, there's a gun show at Antioch this weekend. Gotta check it out, maybe they have a SU-16. Actually, it's about the same money to order it through our friendly local gun store Tracy Shooting Supplies, so it's more of a window shopping excercise for me. I'll try to take pictures.

Rain

2007-09-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

It rains again! Don't forget to switch off your sprinklers. I forgot :-)

New school tries to poach students

2007-09-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, I train at Traditional Martial Arts Academy in Tracy. Today, we were given a handout which informed us that Mr. Albracht is aware that one of former instructors opened a competing school in Tracy. Apparently, the miscreant not only neglected to mention his plans, but also attempted to poach students. I suppose in the business world such things happen all the time, but in martial arts it's a shocker. Well, obviously we aren't in Japan, so there's nothing to be done about it. You cannot shame the other guy into committing seppuku for his sins. After dealing with the ethical angle, Mr. Albracht's handout reiterated that our school is going to have a new property with an outdoor training area soon. The unspoken message was that we're better anyway.

Speaking of the new facility, I am actually amazed at the scale of the project. The dojo half is going to use 6,000 square feet, or about twice as much as the current strip mall lease. This is about the size of my old school in Modesto. It's on the bigger side of what's usual, but not out of the possible. The outdoor area sounds very intriguing though. It's going to be used for long weapons and throwable weapons, so it's going to be quite big. Maintenance of it is going to cost pretty penny too, with the students stomping the grass all day. I can't wait to see what Mr. Albracht has in mind.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-09-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

This is a recycling week.

Recycling of computers

2007-09-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

I just learned that free collection of computer components is carried out every SECOND Saturday at Delta College [link]. This is a bit further away for the citizens of Tracy than the county recycling facility at the Stockton airport, but if you're in the college area on business it makes sense.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-09-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

Garden Waste week and I'm with an empty bin again. Too much homework to clip the greenery.

Wednesday Farmers Market

2007-09-08T22:43:00.000-07:00

Yes you've read this right: Tracy has two farmer's markets: on Saturday and on Wednesday. The traditional one occurs on Saturday in the downtown, where it always was. The alternative one is near Kaiser, between the freeway and Corral Hollow (I think it's off Orchard). I read about the Wednesday market, but I did not believe that it existed until someone I know saw it last week. The main market is smaller than it used to be, so I don't understand how Tracy manages to support two of them now. Strange.

Momiji in Pleasanton

2007-09-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

I managed to get into Momiji, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Pleasanton. For some reason they are always closed when I want to check them out. Result was somewhat disappointing. Tonkatsu was good (if not stellar), nigiri was good, but California Roll sucked badly. They sell better rolls in Safeway. So, Tomo all the way.

Door-to-door

2007-09-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

I gave money to a door-to-door canvasser today. He came on the cause of U.S. Mission, Modesto chapter. Usually I avoid doing this, but getting homeless back into society was a peet pieve of mine. The problem is, it's like telemarketers. I never give anything to telemarketers, no matter how noble the cause is: kids, drugs, vets, whatever. Tememarketers are criminals to be hunted with dogs, then their rotting innards hung from a cross in front of a civic center; their severed heads will cap crosses, naturally. In case of canvassers, I suppose I cannot say "never". But usually I send them away too.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-09-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

The collection may be delayed by a day, due to the Labor Day. Unfortunately, it's unpredictable.

Blacks flee Frisco

2007-08-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

I saw the original article first, but comments at Goldstein's place are quite funny. Money quote:

Today, African-Americans across the USA are "suburbanizing" at a rate slightly higher than whites, he says. "As their incomes go up, they move out."

In other words, nobody likes living in a cesspool. What a surprise.

But wait, there's one more quote:

Many blacks here shun buying affordable housing because those homes have "equity restrictions" to keep them affordable, which means they can't be resold at market rates.

So, the government assistance comes with strings attached. What a surprise again. Apropos that, I wonder if applicants to the celebrated assistance program in our own Tracy read the fine print well. I hope they do, for their own sake.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-08-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ugh, it's Garden Waste and my bin is empty!

New old DDR machine

2007-08-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

The FunFactory in the mall upgraded their DDR machine to SuperNova. It looks like they kept the pad, but it was in a good shape despite the heavy use. The screen is bright and well placed, the sound is not too quiet to follow. The SuperNova itself... takes a moment to adapt. It shows levels in the music selection menu and you have to double-tap there or else it starts in wrong level. Otherwise it's pretty much the same, plus some new tracks. The price is 3 tracks for a buck (4 tockens). Overall, a pleasurable experience.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-08-23T16:27:00.001-07:00

My goodness, I forgot the trash week note. This, almost finished, week is Recycling.

Lucky or not

2007-08-23T16:24:00.001-07:00

I don't know yet if our Albertson's was renamed. I know that one in Fremont was, and found this article:

Save Mart operates 252 stores throughout Northern California and Nevada under the Albertsons, Food Maxx, Lucky and Save Mart banner.

How very odd. They disposed of Food4Less, but brought Lucky back.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-08-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

Garden Waste week is coming to the West side.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-08-05T22:44:00.001-07:00

Recycling week is coming.

Ninja!

2007-08-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

I split off my Ninjitsu blog, which documents going to the ninja school. I think I am incredibly fortunate to live just a short walk from such school. Most common martial arts in these parts is Tae Kwon Do. It's a good art, but I think that Ninjitsu has a potential to help me to go further.

Lake of Fire

2007-08-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Lake of Fire is a restaurant at 2503 Tracy Boulevard (right next to Mandarin Villa), which I always assumed to be a Chinese place. Who else but Chinese would name a restaurant "Lake of Fire"? Well, perhaps Koreans. Kim Jr. promised to turn America into a lake of fire once. Anyway, it really sounded oriental. But no, it turned out to be Italian. Who thought!

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-07-29T19:11:00.001-07:00

Next week is garden waste in the west.

TRASH @West: Recycling

2007-07-22T21:08:00.001-07:00

Recycling week is coming.

Blogging fade

2007-07-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

I do not seem to have the energy to run Tracy Today properly, so it declined. Don't be surprised if nothing gets posted in coming weeks.

BTW, I'm running an anime blog which runs some 3000 hits a day. Tracy Today pulled about 10 to 15 in its best days.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

2007-07-16T00:05:00.001-07:00

Garden Waste week is here on the West side.