huge ice cream cookie

biggest i've ever seen! (TWSS)

THE answer

just this past weekend:

scenario #1
i was at the park and saw this flower. i said it was a dandilion but for some reason it didn't sound right. i polled a few other people and strangely enough, they said the same. they thought it was a dandilion but was only 75% sure. what did we do? busted out an iphone and looked that shit up. (it was a dandilion)

scenario #2
i was at a bar and randomly the punky brewser theme song came up.

"Maybe the world is blind,
Or just a little unkind.
Don't know.
Seems you can't be sure
Of anything anymore..."

then we were stuck. we couldn't think of the next lines to the song. time to launch safari and look that shit up.

how common are these scenarios? the iphone has become the be-all and end-all to every debatable discussion or unknown fact. the blackberry and palm treo existed way before the iphone was born. but for some reason, this type of culture never existed pre-iphone. is it because the iphone is so popular and more people have smartphones in general? well, no. i still don't see blackberry owners take out their phones like that to look something up real quick that isn't totally needed at that moment.

i think it says a lot about the usability of the iphone as a whole. the user interface pulls in the user to really utilize the phone through it's simple and extremely easy to use design. thus, causing a life change, creating this dependance to it. why else do we pull out our iphones without thinking twice in a bar or at the park? we know we can fulfill a curiosity, get our questions answered instantly. just like that.

or, maybe it's because everyone around me has an iphone and i work where i work. ha!

kayaking adventure

rooftop movie night & sleepover

GOONIES!

jarvis cocker @ the fillmore

HPBJ (homemade PBJ)

peanut butter and strawberry jelly made from scratch. i'm speechless.

my, have you grown...

i have my google reader full of random blogs/moblogs that i follow. lately with my free time i've been reading the archives of some of these blogs. it's so interesting to see the difference in current and old posts. i haven't seen a blog yet that stays consistent in its tone. even with moblogs, you can see the difference in content over time.

i'm new to the blogging game (being a good writer that's insightful and witty is hard for me) but looking at my own old posts and current posts, i already see a difference in what i considered post-worthy. so what's changed from before that makes things less or more post-worthy? there are different factors that can possibly play into this. once you start a blog, you're probably on a "blog high" and make many efforts to post as much cool shit as you can. after time, the novelty wears off and the blog moves from the top of your priority list towards the bottom. there just isn't enough time. or maybe being in the same place, doing the same things slowly sucks the creative juices out of you and so you go a different direction to keep the flame going. for whatever reason, it seems very natural to have this delta.

i think it's cool to see the difference. your blog is essentially a reflection of you so, as you grow as a person, gain different interests, learn new things, your blog will change, as life commonly does over time.

diadoras, you are dead to me

mid game cleat drama. tape helped me get through most of the second half but i think it's time to invest in some nice turfs.

app wall - from WWDC to IL1

my first punk concert

rancid and rise against. very interesting.

a step up 

people know i work at apple but i'm aware that's the extent of what they know about my job. i realize that no one really knows what i actually do here. i'm a QA software engineer for the Human Interface Devices team, HID for short. our department creates software and firmware to support apple's input devices - USB keyboard/mouse, bluetooth keyboard/mouse, built-in keyboard, trackpad (we own the multitouch technology), IR remote, camera and all displays. what i do is test these software pieces before they're released to the public. what's awesome about HID is that since all of apple's products interact with these input devices, we're involved in all the new shit.

i've been working on this team for almost two years and yesterday, i received some exciting news. i got promoted! i have graduated from my "level 2" position and moved up to "level 3". besides more money, this basically means that i'm a senior level QA engineer, a QA lead. i had already been doing lead work, planning and managing projects, so there isn't any new responsibilities that i'll be taking on. i do know that in the near future, responsibilities are going to change in our group and i've been told that i'll be solely responsible for the more technical side of things, which tells me that they believe in my skills. this is definitely a huge milestone in my career. i have been so fortunate to have grown so much in the last two years here at apple and now i have hope that my career is only going to get bigger and better. unbelievable!

here's an email from my dad about my promotion. i debated submitting this to mydadisafob.com but thought i would spare him the embarrassment:

Hi!, Elsie
It's GREAT. I'm so happy to hear your promotion. Just keep going to the position whatever you can go. GO ELSIE !
Dad

meet grady

game #1

i finally joined a soccer league and today was our first game. i signed up thinking that i'll play maybe 20 minutes total but surprise! we were short on girls so i had to play the whole 80 minute game. i didn't suck as bad as i thought i would and did a pretty good job in defending my side. i look forward to monitoring my progress week by week. look out mia hamm, i'm back!

bicycle music festival

attending these random annual sf traditions makes me really want to start one of my own. something creative, easy and fun. how cool would it be to be a founding member of BYOBW or the crawfish boil!

sake!

the asian art museum hosted a "sake tasting". it was more like a sake taste. had to pay for the good shit.