Justin's Blog

GDC 2011

2011-02-24T13:32:00.001-08:00

Trying out google's embedded calendar

Alpine Meadows

2010-02-08T21:15:00.001-08:00

Another resort on the checklist. We hit up Alpine Meadows on Saturday. Fun place, we spent a lot of time on the back. It is a bit farther away than Squaw.

Kirkwood - 12/13/2009, 1/22/2010
Sugarbowl - 12/19/2009
Heavenly - 1/9/2010
Squaw - 1/13/2010
Northstar - 1/24/2010
Alpine Meadows - 2/6/2010

Lake Tahoe Ski Resorts 2009/2010

2010-01-27T23:22:00.001-08:00

So I am trying to hit as many ski resorts in Lake Tahoe as I can this winter. I have 5 so far and should be able to get ~8 or so.

Here is the list so far:

Kirkwood - 12/13/2009, 1/22/2010

Sugarbowl - 12/19/2009

Heavenly - 1/9/2010

Squaw - 1/13/2010

Northstar - 1/24/2010

Alpine Meadows

Sierra at Tahoe

Boreal

Homewood

Maybe others.

Kirkwood:

Sugarbowl:

Heavenly:

Squaw:

Northstar:

-Justin

Tongariro Crossing, Waitomo Caves, Rugby

2009-03-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Today we wanted to hike the Tongariro Crossing up around a volcanic peak but were stopped by high winds and cold weather.We did a shorter 5 hour hike to the Tama Lakes instead. Here is the lower lake, and it was pretty cold at that point so I am quite bundled up :)

Yesterday we had a fun adventure type experience in the Waitomo caves, saw some underground glowworms, rode an underground river, and did some spelunking :) This is a shot of us rafting in the dark.

The day before was a Rugby game in Hamilton and some excellent surfing at the Raglan beach, but we crashed early afterwards (It slipped my mind that it was Robbie's birthday, sorry Robbie and Happy Birthday ).

The day before was our last day at Auckland. We experienced the trendy area of Auckland, Ponsonby, and hiked a little nearby hill overlooking the city. We actually stayed out until the bars closed that night!

First set of Photos.

2009-03-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Robbie holding our beer's in Auckland at noon on St. Patty's Day.

A traditional Maori sculpture in the Treaty House in Waitangi.

Sailing on a ship used in the America's Cup.

Perched atop Mt. Rangitoto after a nice warm-up tramp (hike).

Well Here is some sort of Blog, although no promises on how often I will do this. Our itinerary so far has been fairly packed. We were in Auckland Monday and Tuesday and we climbed Mt. Rongitoto and went sailing in an old America's Cup ship (with very low winds). We then rented a car and had an exciting time driving a stick shift, on the left, through downtown Auckland, up hills, and trying to parallel park. Fortunately I didn't hit anything, and nothing hit me :) We drove up to Whangerai (Fang-er-eh) and ate dinner and went to a Bar for St. Patty's day. In the morning we made it over to a little town on the coast, Tutukaka, for a scuba dive trip at the Poor Knight's Island. It was a pretty amazing dive, we saw ray's, scorpionfish, lots of snapper, and schools of little fish. There was an underwater cave with a little air bubble in it that we were able to get into and breath :). Then we headed farther North to Pahea on the Bay of Islands and Robbie and I swam to one of the Islands, then swam back quickly because we forgot to put on sunscreen. Anyway good times so far and no major mishaps.

Belgian Beer & Munich

2008-10-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

Belgian beer is very strong! Nic and I found that out the fun way at Delerium Cafe in Brussels. We also had our first two days in Munich where we went to the Andechs Monastary and had lunch and to the famous Haufbrau House. Although Nic is having a hard time finding enough to eat at times. The germans love their sausage, beef, and pork.

Travel & The Damage

2008-09-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

So Nic and I are chilling in our Hotel room in Amsterdam for the moment. We are about to head to Brussels for a night, and then off to Munich for several days!. Yesterday was a pretty rough 30hours or so of travel for me.

I started in Sacramento Airport flew to Denver, flew to london, took an hour long tube ride to the train station, took a 3 hour train to Brussels and then a 3 hour train to Amsterdam, and now I am heading back to Brussels :) Yeah, not how the original plan was supposed to go, but we are just winging the first part of the trip.

Nic's pay as you go phone didn't work and the bank blocked his ATM card. So he had to email me to tell me where he was, and transfer money through Western Mutual with a nice fee.

10am != 10pm

2008-09-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Proving that airheadedness doesn't decrease with age, I missed my initial flight on my way to Germany. All week I thought I was flying out on Friday at 10pm, but turns out it was 10am. A call from my brother at 9 made me realize my mistake, and I packed and got to the gate at 9:55, without enough time to check-in and get on the flight. The united service lady behind the desk was very helpful though, and booked me a new international flight getting in a few hours later tomorrow (Saturday). Although this time I connect in London, where I will likely get off and meet up with Nic in Amsterdam. I will try to update with photos and more information later. We are kind of winging the initial part of our trip, so stay tuned for more mishaps.

2008-09-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

How healthy is your Chipotle Burrito? My standard Carnitas Burrito - 1058 Calories. http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator

Chris & Stephanie's Australia Trip

2008-08-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is their Blog - I am taking notes for sabbatical http://stephchrisberry.blogspot.com/

Twitter

2008-08-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

I setup a twitter account so that I can update easily from my new iPhone :)
http://www.twitter.com/jpbischo

Flickr Library of Congress

2008-01-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

Flickr is running a bunch of photo's from the Library of Congress, pretty interesting to see some of this old WW2 pictures. Library of Congress on Flickr

Kiva

2007-10-30T16:23:00.001-07:00

You may have heard of this site: Kiva. It has been getting a lot of publicity lately, but it is a very interesting site. Basically you can lend out as little as $25 to entrepreneurs in developing countries. There are oppurtunities all over asia, south america, and africa. There currently is no earned interest on the loans, but I still think it is a very cool idea. Hopefully it can eventually expand to where you can make a little bit of money providing this small microloans.

4 Things

2007-10-24T16:29:00.001-07:00

Following the strict internet rules regarding "tagging" I am posting my 4 Things post:

Four places I've lived:
1. SLC, Utah
2. Naperville, IL
3. Sacramento, CA
4. Denver, Co

Four jobs I've had:
1. Store Clerk at Osco Drug
2. Lawn Mower/Baby Sitter
3. Product Engineer for Flash
4. Graphics Driver Programmer

Four things I'd like to do before I die:
1. Go to a World Cup Game
2. Travel to Africa/Australia/Asia
3. Live in another country
4. Have kids

Four favorite desserts:
1. Sugar Cookies from Home
2. Special K Balls
3. Sherbert, Rasberries, 7-UP
4. Cinnamon Apple Crisp

4 interesting facts about me:
1. I have never broken a bone
2. I tore my ACL
3. I had cancer
4. I had Bell's Palsy

Four favorite t.v shows:
1. The Office
2. Avatar
3. Daily Show
4. ..I watch those online, I don't really have TV.

Half Dome

2007-09-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

I hiked Half Dome this weekend with Robbie, Romo, and Judy. It kicked my butt. I will post another picture with the four of us in it :).

Birthdays & Paintings

2007-09-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

I finally got Mike's painting shipped from Utah (Thanks MOM, Star, and Mike!). It was very nicely packaged by UPS. I will post another photo when I have it up on my wall. I love the colors of the desert and the sky, it will look great over my desk.

My Birthday is coming right up (Oct 2nd). If anyone is looking for an easy gift, you could buy me something from my brand new Amazon Wishlist!

Lexicography - Erin McKean - Google

2007-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a very interested video, YouTube - Erin McKean: Redefining the dictionary it is actually about lexicography and it is very interesting. Erin comes to some interesting suggestions in the end about building a better database of words from the web.

In response to this I made a little quick and dirty search that shows the search's # of hits on the various google search databases (google, video, images, scholar, etc). And it makes a little bar graph, I might add more later.

Try it out!

-Justin

Dinner with the Big Six

2007-06-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my brother and grandfather when the little boys got to crash the dinner for the big six (Mom,Dad,Grams,Pops,Claudia,David). We enjoyed the fine dining of the Outback Steakhouse. My brother with the sleek glasses is just back from Iraq and quickly readjusting to the easy life :)

Andrew Bird Concert

2007-05-03T09:16:00.001-07:00

www.myspace.com/andrewbird

I finally saw Andrew Bird at Harlows in Sacramento. His live concert is a lot more exciting than the CD sounds. The recorded tracks sound really mellow, but its much more vibrant and interesting live.

May is Bike to work month, but I haven't yet biked to work in May. My allergies are killing me, but I might give it a go tomorrow anyway. I need to start getting some regular excersize in, hopefully to lose weight. I played volleyball on Tuesday which was the first sport I have played since my knee surgery, almost exactly 6mo after surgery.

Matrix Themed Halo, Metroid Mashup.

2007-04-18T15:32:00.001-07:00

This is a pretty awesome mashup video Halo vs Metroid.

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=57998

Also, if you have a lot of free time, checkout the TED talks videos on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TEDtalksDirector

I am headed off to Naperville tomorrow for Garrett's wedding! It should be a lot of fun, especially since I haven't been back to Naperville in like 4 years.

How To Meet New People

2007-03-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

1) Your Brother's roomate goes to Kenya on a Safari Tour
2) Roomate meets a fine Brittish Lass in the tundra
3) Brittish Lass visits Sacramento meets your brother
4) You move to Philadelphia where Brittish Lass's Friends are and voila!

Running Map - Sacramento to Folsom - Bike Trail (Sacramento, California)

2007-03-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Running Map - Sacramento to Folsom - Bike Trail (Sacramento, California)

I biked to work today, all the way from Sacramento. I wasn't exactly "fast" but at least I made it :)

Saturday Bike Ride

2007-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

I took the American River Bike Trail to Sunrise today. I took the light rail most of the way back, but it still ended up being about 25 miles of biking.

Jason's Iraq Pictures

2007-03-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

Jason has newIraq Pictures up on his photobucket site. I am pretty sure that having too many snacks from christmas shipments is the way things are supposed to be over there :)

I am doing well, knee is a lot better, work is good. I got to ride the Napa Valley Wine Train today as a work team event :) It is a fun 4 hour ride where they serve you an appetizer and lunch and you ride around looking at wineries.

Let the bowling begin...

2007-01-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

So I went bowling last weekend, and I think I am finally starting to get the hang of bowling with my new ball. I got two spares and a turkey in the first five frames (unfortunately the second five weren't so good). I ended up with a 180, but I know how I like to throw it now, hooray!

I am going to be starting a bowling team in Folsom. We aren't going to be the best bowlers, but we will have shirts!

Freezing Weather!

2007-01-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

It is cold in California, like really really cold, below freezing! There was actually ice on the sidewalk the other morning. Now I know what you are thinking, but before you send money, warm blankets, video games, and Tang mix rest assured that we Californians are a hearty bunch. We are survivors.

Sorry for the delay in updates, but I am not going to promise to post more regularly.

Did you see that Beckham is going to play Soccer in the US! That is pretty exciting. I hope that it will increase American interest in soccer, but the US and Soccer are like oil and water.
TLTnews.net

I saw the knee surgeon yesterday. Things are going well, I just need to keep excersizing it, start going into the gym, and lose 20 lbs :)

I bought a road bike. It is a 2006 Specialized. It was a decent road bike, but not too expensive. It is last years model and it was on sale.

"When one looks into the abyss, the abyss looks into you."

-Justin

MapMyRun: New Release: Dynamic Mile markers and more

2006-12-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

MapMyRun: New Release: Dynamic Mile markers and more

My old friend Jeff seems to have created a site dedicated to creating and tracking runs through cities using Google Maps. Check it out!

Seed: Seed Short Film: Lords of the Ring

2006-12-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Seed: Seed Short Film: Lords of the Ring An excellent short film explaining why they are building the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Very interesting.

LibraryThing UnSuggester | Don't read THIS

2006-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

LibraryThing UnSuggester | Don't read THIS

This blog is my link saver! Checkout the UnSuggester. You punch in books you liked and it tells you ones you would not like :)

Fotogenik!

2006-11-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Checkout my buddy Kurt's awesome photography sitefotogenik.

2006-10-31T22:05:00.000-08:00

So its one week after my surgery now. I just got back from my follow-up with the surgeon and he took of the bandages and the brace. I can stop using crutches as I feel comfortable and can eventually stop using the brace too. I added these nice photos to show you how my knee has swollen up :) Although it isn't really all that bad.

I walked a few blocks today with a single crutch to get more used to walking. Anyway it feels pretty good now and I will start physical therapy soon. Fun stuff. One bad part is that I have to stop and talk to everyone about it and how I am doing etc :)

Halloween was fun I went to a small party that my neighbors threw and now I am headed back to work :( I guess you can only be sick for so long.

2006-10-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Checkout this picture of my new ACL, the silver rope like thing is some poor dead guy's ACL sitting where mine used to be :)

I had to be at the Surgery Center at 11:30 for a 1:30 surgery time. Mom drove my stickshift car which was a little bit exciting. I was fairly nervous for some reason, I wasn't nervous about my other surgeries.

We saw about 8 doctors or soon to be doctors including nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons, orthopedic specialists, etc. I felt kind of bad since my surgery was somewhat elective and it looked like there were people there who had critical life threatening conditions.

Anyway it is over now and my knee is swollen with bandages and a brace around it. I am supposed to excersize it while lying down and keeping my foot on the floor 4 times a day. But I have some vicodin to help, which I haven't really needed yet.

ACLSurgery

2006-10-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

ACLSolutions- Overview of ACL reconstruction surgery.

My Date is next wednesday and I am using a cadaver graft. I am not sure if they are using metal screws or not. Here is a good animation of ACL surgery.

I also found this story from a 30 year old. It does not make me very eager to have the surgery.

31 Year old Skier has ACL Surgery

Fotogenik

2006-10-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

Checkout Kurt's fotografy site Fotogenik. Here is a rather good one of a Chicago sunset.

fotography :: Chicago Sunrise

woke up thirsty

2006-10-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

I got my webpage up and running again, so I figured I would post some more messages here for ya. Checkout my cousin's new music review blog.

woke up thirsty

More Coming...

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

2006-06-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

Germany v Argentina tomorrow!

US Out

2006-06-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Ghana end American dream

ESPNsoccernet - World Cup Index

A frustrating match. Ghana's two goals were a 1 on 1 with our keeper because of a defensive mistake/injury and a questionable foul resulting in a PK. The US seemed to have control for most of the match and Dempsey scored off of a beautiful cross from Beasley.

Ghana will face Brazil in the next match, so maybe that can be our revenge.

technorati tags:World, Cup, USA, Ghana

Lazy Ramadi

2006-06-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

If you have seen the SNL Lazy Sunday, then you should checkout Lazy Ramadi

technorati tags:Lazy, Sunday, Ramadi, Video, Iraq

USA Ties Italy

2006-06-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Nine-man USA thwart Italy

ESPNsoccernet - World Cup Index

USA got two questionable red cards and then a goal taken back when a player who didn't touch the ball was offsides. End result was a 1-1 tie. I think USA outplayed Italy until the last 10 minutes where we just tried to hold on to our tie. For us to move on now we need to beat Ghana and Italy needs to beat the Czech Republic. Cross your fingers.

technorati tags:WorldCup, USA, Italy

US Has a Chance!

2006-06-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Czech Republic 0 - 2 Ghana

ESPNsoccernet - World Cup - Czech Republic v Ghana

Ghana beat the Czech Republic! If US Can tie or beat Italy then we have a solid chance of moving on!

I am tempted to offer a reward for the first person to actually leave a comment on my blog. SOMEONE POST SOMETHING :)

technorati tags:Soccer, WorldCup, Ghana, CzechRepublic

Sudoku Improved

2006-06-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

I added some stuff to the Sudoku Solver. There is now a step option that will show you the next spot that the solver would have guessed, in case you get stuck.

I also made it so that the solver shouldn't have to guess as often. It can now figure out these situations

technorati tags:sudoku

World Cup

2006-06-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sad Times for USA World Cup.

United States 0-3 Czech Republic

ESPNsoccernet - World Cup - United States v Czech Republic Report

The favorite, Brazil, is looking strong though.

Brazil 1-0 Croatia: Kaka cracker

ESPNsoccernet - World Cup - Brazil v Croatia Report

I am trying out the new auto-blogging feature of the browser Flock

technorati tags:WorldCup, Soccer, Flock

Linkage

2006-06-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting links.

Mike pointed out the Music Genome Project to me.

I also wanted to try out this free app QLiner Hotkeys.

If anyone didn't hear, I hurt my right knee now. It is still somewhat swollen up but I can get around fine. I think I am going to eventually get surgery on both and stop playing soccer for a long while :|

monitorZ

2006-06-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

My new 24" monitor came. The pictures don't do it justice. It is quite huge :) I know who needs that much monitor space? I DO!

Old Skool and New Skool

2006-06-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you not from the midwest we are all shotgunning beers at the Indy 500 last weekend.

And here is an old school photo of Kris, Robbie, Romo and me at Squaw Valley. I think this photo was taken in 2001 or 2002.

Dell 24" Widescreen

2006-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Oops. Nic seems to be having a bad influence on me. This should look nice next to my 20" regular aspect monitor. Dual Display FTW!

Indy 500

2006-05-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

So here is where I was this weekend. Good times. Instead of getting grand-stand seats we just sat on the grass mound between turns 3 and 4 and watched the game from there. The infield tickets are only $20. I had heard that the Indy 500 was the #1 event in the US for budweiser sales and it seemed like that was true :).

Do I Need ACL Surgery?

2006-05-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Do I Need ACL Surgery?

For now, the answer is No.

Threadless Summer Sale

2006-05-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Threadless is having its $10 summer sale :)

We are so outta here

2006-05-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

We are so outta here - Mike and Star's Europe trip. I am so jealous I can taste it. I have to convince my parents to do a europe trip.

Stomach Bug

2006-04-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

This was me last night, hooray for dry heaving :).

Data Parsing

2006-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

New Scientist Technology Blog
This article shows what I think will be a big market in the future. Data parsing/mining/interpreting by computer programs :)

Soufiane Touzani

2006-04-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Soufiane Touzani is back (Jonglage ballon)
Checkout this guy's crazy soccer skillz :)

-Justin

Cliff Jump

2006-04-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

Cliff Jump - YouTube
Checkout my video I made a while ago and just recently posted on YouTube.

William Sloane Coffin

2006-04-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

William Sloane Coffin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"'In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent.' — In the Yale Alumni magazine in 1967"

Movie Downloads

2006-04-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Movie Downloads

Good News:Looks like we will finally be able to download movies to watch them :)

Bad News: They are going to be as expensive, or more expensive than DVD's and you won't be able to use them on your ipod video.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
— Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

China Buys Google

2006-04-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

Slashdot | China Buys Google

Google Romance

Can you believe what America is becoming? Foreign companies are buying everything!! And now we have google romance!

In other news, I won the lottery :)

Picture Rims

2006-03-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Picture Rims

Its official been done. Nick and I had this idea a long while back (4 years ago?) I guess initiative is the hardest part of innovation.

Espresso

2006-03-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

I have been drinking a ridiculous amount of caffeine lately. Between energy drinks, espresso, and coffee I probably have a very un-healthy amount during the day.

The Cluprit.

So I have to see my Oncologist, phsyical therapist, and sports medicine surgeon in the next week, hooray. I am working on making this page pretty. Does anyone ready this?

It is a true miracle when a man finally sees himself as his only opposition. - Vernon Howard

illegal aliens

2006-03-25T12:02:00.000-08:00

So have you guys seen these protests?

Thousands protest bills to penalize illegal aliens - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

So lets see, 1) We don't want to deport hardworking, illegal immigrants. 2) We have jobs that we need cheap labor for, and can't get inside the US. 3) We want to make sure that the people taking these jobs are legal and paying taxes.

Why not just allow more legal Mexican immigrants?

Free Books

2006-03-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

This is a test of the google toolbar automagical blogging tool. You can create a blog that already has a link to the site you are viewing.

Here is the site I was at. Free Online Books. These books have expired copyright and they are free as in beer AND free as in speech.

ACL

2006-03-14T23:57:00.000-08:00

Hmm... So I guessthe latest news is that I tore my ACL. I tried to take some pictures/scans of it, but they didn't turn out so good. Here are the pics. I started with someone else's pictures of how the MRI looks normal and torn.

MINE

Frist Post

2006-03-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog, this is my frist post.