Kaeng Phed Ped Yang (Roast Duck Curry) is made of curry paste, coconut milk, meat, seafood, vegetables or fruit, and, of course, enough curry to melt your mouth at 7800 degrees Fahrenheit. This particular dish may be found in the Asian Mecca that is Saugus, California, motto: “Asians are the most awesome part of Awesome Town”! 5/5 stars.
Cubicle Warrior’s blog, week 15 of 213. This week’s entries: sushi keeps me sane, “California cheese steaks” suck, the Air Force Network thinks I am in San Antonio, WTF is going on with Olympic taekwondo, and, if you are still paying attention, some nerdy stuff with the Mars rover and programming IDEs.
What you have become, is the price you paid to get what you used to want. — Mignon Laughlin.
Where were you on August 6th when Curiosity landed on Mars? I watched the NASA video on UStream and poked fun at the mohawk guy while secretly wishing I had his job instead of mine. Exciting stuff. Events like this make me proud to be an engineer. Then again, events like this also remind me of the frustrations that I am having at work.
- The battle of the IDEs
XCode versus Visual Studio versus Eclipse. Visual Studio is probably the fastest of the three, but that speed comes at a cost. There is a risk that the programmer will fail to understand what is going on under the hood. Eclipse is the most versatile, because there are plug-ins and simulators for just about every platform one would want to program on. XCode is the sexiest of the IDEs, but it is only for iOS development. If I were king, I would find a way to make XCode work with Android development, or make an Android IDE that worked as well as XCode. XCode is designed for Objective C. Androids are typically developed in Java. Visual Studio is designed for high school students and professional losers. In Visual Studio’s defense, there are plenty of programmers making a lot of money using that crap IDE.
- Honey Badger don’t care ’bout anything
Honey Badger don’t care, but he is off the team for using heroin. My guess is that he will transfer to Tennessee State or North Alabama, where they may be willing to overlook a few drug problems to win some football games. 3 more weeks until college football starts.
Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body. — Cicero
Sexy Mango Roll, Love Sushi & Roll, Newhall, CA
The Sexy Mango Roll at Love Sushi & Roll was quite a treat. I am surprised at how good these gimmicky fusion rolls taste compared to more traditional sushi or quasi-traditional sushi rolls.
Philly cheese steak pizza, Philadelphia Cheese Steak, North Hollywood, CA
Californians apparently never leave the state, for they have no friggin’ clue how a Philly cheese steak is supposed to look or taste. The “Cali cheese steak” is amongst the worst food I have eaten in California, and that says a lot because California sucks at all foods except Asian ones (note the preponderance of sushi, Thai food, and Korean food). What baffles me is the fact that the owners of this restaurant were from Philly. Maybe this is a sign that living in Cali for any appreciable amount of time is bad for one’s health, sanity, and taste buds. Staying in this God-forsaken place longer than 4 years will probably render me brain dead, just like the natives here. Oh…back on topic…the food sucks here at Philadelphia California Cheese Steak. Do not waste your time.
Late Night Party Roll, Wokcano, Valencia, CA
Between the Sexy Mango Roll and the Late Night Party Roll, I had a great sushi week. Asian food is now the only thing that keeps me sane out here. I sampled some of the bulgogi as well, and that was awesome! I need to reiterate here that California sucks at non-Asian foods.
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. — Unknown
The Air Force is wrapping up its Air Force Network (AFNET) migration with my base. Needless to say, this migration is going without a hitch. It turns out that I am one of the few that was migrated to AFNET a long time ago, then un-migrated when I moved to a non-migrated base, and then re-migrated to a late-migrating base. AFNET now thinks I am still back in San Antonio.
To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big
as it needs to be. — Unknown.
RAIDRS
Work sucks. ‘Nuff said. If I say anymore, I could get in trouble. At least I get to go TDY next week and do something important, but not to the place in the previous picture.
WTF is going on with taekwondo? Get it? The governing body of TKD is called “WTF”, the World Taekwondo Federation. Olympic taekwondo has been disappointingly boring compared to other international matches in between the Olympics. The referees are breaking up the match too often, the obvious points are not being counted, and the competitors are being a bit conservative.
Really quick primer on Olympic taekwondo: there are two competitors, one red (Hong), and one blue (Chung). The ref will have the competitors stand at attention (charyot), then bow (kyung nae) before he says “go” (shijak). Kicks are mandatory, punches are encouraged…not that anyone really throws punches. There is no holding, grabbing, punches to the head, kicks to the back, or strikes below the belt. Any of those will result in a warning. Multiple warnings result in points awarded to the opponent. What I do not understand is why the ref has been calling so many warnings in the Olympics. The good news is that each coach can challenge the score. The men’s 58-68 kg match between Turkey and Iran (see picture above) and 80+ kg match between Mali and Italy were pretty good. The women’s matches were not interesting at all.
The kids are getting better at their martial arts tricking. XMA Headquarters (5140 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601) has helped them fix their fundamentals. Hugo’s Gym (21107 Centre Pointe Parkway, Santa Clarita, CA) looks promising, assuming we can get rid of the little kids running around.
21 days to Gator football! I have been counting down the top 100 Gators based on the following factors: Gator Ring of Honor, University of Florida Athletic Association Hall of Fame (Gator Great), All American, national awards (Heisman, Draddy, etc) All SEC, conference awards, and school awards. Ties went to members of national or conference championship teams. Mitigating factors were considered for all-time greats from the beginning of Gator football in 1906 to the beginning of the modern epoch in 1980.
I find your lack of faith in the Air Force disturbing.
General Mark Welsh III is now the 20th Chief of Staff of the Air Force. I found his choice of uniform interesting. Maybe we will be getting new service dress uniforms. In all seriousness, I hear he is rather approachable and likes to talk to the troops. He went to the Academy, and the Harvard business school.
Jeff Demps (University of Florida track and football) set a record with his leg of the 4 x 100 meter relay, but he was not selected to run in the finals. Boooo!
Cubicle Warrior’s blog, week 14 of 213. This week I debut my new format. For the next 199 weeks, I will cite one quote to summarize my week, then break down the blog into subsections related to food (food-spotting), cybersecurity (computer geek stuff), Florida Gator football (self explanatory), taekwondo (the kids’ martial arts), and cubicle engineering (work).
I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.
– Robert E. Lee.
Food
Cherry Blossom Roll, The Boat Sushi & Thai Cuisine, El Segundo, CA
The Boat Sushi and Thai Cuisine of El Segundo is my favorite sushi place in the LA area. They also have great Thai food. I used to come here all the time when I was TDY to the area. Be sure to have the Thai iced tea.
Spumoni Italian Restaurant of Stevenson Ranch is not impressive. The pizza was good, but I could have cooked my own pizza in the time we waited, and the service was slow.
Thai iced tea gelato, Pazzo Gelato
It’s better than ice cream…it’s gelato! Pazzo Gelato is a nice little place not far from the Griffith Observatory. See my review from earlier in the week.
Cybersecurity
The Department of Cyber Defense? A law to strengthen our cyber-defense? [LINK]. Is it the government’s job to protect citizens electing to use the Internet? Can the government manage any program without driving it to the ground? I would prefer to let the commercial sector compete for this effort, mainly so I can get a job and make lots of money in 199 weeks or so. The way the law is being pushed forward now, it really is a way to latch on riders to a large bill and get pet funding for other legislature seeking to strip citizens of 2nd Amendment rights and whatnot.
Cubicle Engineering
NROL-36, Atlas V 401/411. Launch delayed to no earlier than August 14, 2012. Primary payload: classified, 6500 kg into 1100 x 1100 km @ 63 degree orbit. Secondary payload: 13 CubeSats, 470 km by 770 km @ 63 degree orbit. Amateurs rocket watchers believe that the configuration has changed from Atlas V 401 to Atlas V 411 [reference 1].
The Air Force watched the movie, Wall-E, and decided to do something about all that space junk this week [LINK]. In case you did not know, the Air Force already tracks space junk, and they share their data with NASA and anyone else with assets in space. The junk belt is growing, and more commercial entities are going to need data on what is up there.
Verizon has cut the leash on its tethering restrictions [LINK]. Maybe soon I will be able to tether off my piece of crap iPhone! The iPhone 4 is limited to 7.2 Mbps HSDPA (“D” for downlink) and 5.76 HSUPA (“U” for uplink). Look at the bright side, if you have an iPhone 4S, you can theoretically downlink faster than an iPhone 4 or a Verizon phone on CDMA 3G EVDO. In reality, the infrastructure around you will limit you to 7.2 Mbps.
Work is still the same. I cannot say much about it without giving away classified, or saying something to get in trouble otherwise. Here is a nice cartoon and some discussion based on this Family Guy video instead.
I am facing somewhat of a moral crisis at work, hence the overarching quote for the week from Robert E. Lee. Simply put, I was set up for a trap, and then chewed out. My recommendation was to help out the Death Star by funneling some portion of its 15.6 septillion dollar budget into a smaller, more portable, more capable Death Comet prototype until the Death Star could be completed and reinforced from those pesky Rebel fighters’ X-wing fighters. It looks like the Death Star construction will carry on. I will continue to suffer as I make recommendations to patch that hole in the Death Star…because it is the right thing to do.
Taekwondo
Be sure to check out the latest videos [LINK].
Miscellaneous
Audrey Smith Kilar died on August 3, 2007, just shy of her 81st birthday on August 25th. She taught me the joys of reading, and along with Grandpa K, she was always a great role model. I could definitely use some of Grandma and Grandpa’s wisdom right now at work.
Olympics 2012. Redeem Team beats up juggernaut Nigeria, 156-73. USA gymnastics, beach volleyball, judo, indoor volleyball, and swimming have been fun to watch. UFC is investing in making MMA an Olympic event by 2020.
The Griffith Observatory is a science nerd’s dream. It has everything a budding astronomer would want, and it has a nice set of trails nearby. I could spend an entire day at the observatory and on the trails. There is a also a nice view of the Hollywood sign. I learned that some of the trails will lead to the Hollywood sign, so that will be next on my list of things to do.
This week’s entries:
The coconut Panang curry is delicious, and not too spicy. Goes well with a side of nigiri and Thai iced tea.
Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
As the name implies, this dish is comprised of roasted duck and coconut curry. The curry is creamy and has just the right amount of spice. Both of my favorite servers were out, so service was slow and I did not get extra rice or super sized Thai iced tea this time. Since the remaining server apologized and was a hard worker I still give this dish and the dining experience 5/5 stars.
Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
For the past month I have eaten the Thai food at Jasmine. I finally decided to try the sushi, and it did not disappoint. The red lady roll is similar to a red dragon roll (California roll with avocado and mixed fish), which is basically a California roll topped with red tuna and a side of creamy, spicy sesame sauce. I will be alternating between the red lady roll and the pine apple curry. As always, I will get the fried dumplings as an appetizer along with the boba iced Thai tea.
Jasmine Hana Sushi & Thai 1 (310) 831-7000 114 North Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 http://m.google.com/u/m/xtePzG
I find it odd that yesterday I had great sushi at a Thai restaurant, and today I had great Thai food at a Japanese restaurant. I jogged two miles from my room to the restaurant just to make room for the food only to discover that the place was not open for dinner for another hour. Note to self: set watch to Pacific time. The owner was nice enough to serve me early, and upgrade my Thai iced tea to a super large. I jogged home with my food and dodged an angry homeless lady while balancing my food and drink for two miles. It was well worth the trip. 5/5 stars.
Jasmine Hana Sushi & Thai
1 (310) 831-7000
114 North Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731
http://m.google.com/u/m/zJ49V3
Hours:
Mon-Sun 11 am – 3 pm
Mon-Sun 5 pm – 11 pm
The F9 paradise roll is probably my favorite fusion sushi roll in the galaxy. The paradise roll is crab meat and avocado wrapped in rice and yellow tail, baked in aluminum foil. Baking the creamy sauce and soy sauce makes for a unique taste explosion with each bite. Goes well with Thai iced tea.
Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
The Boat, 150 South Sepulveda Boulevard, El Segundo, CA
Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sun 11 am – 9:30 pm
Fri-Sat 11 am – 10 pm
Best Thai food in San Antonio, but Thai Lao Orchid is a close second. This panang chicken has just the right amount of spice with the perfect mix of coconut milk and curry. 5/5 stars.
Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T
iWalt 2.0, Cubicle Engineer.
