This past weekend, Mike, Nathan, and myself had a road trip to Los Angeles for the weekend to hang out with Sophia. Lots of pictures after the jump.

I had a profound experience at Ikea this morning. Sophia and I went there to go buy a couch. We had already been to Ikea yesterday to pick up the couch, but after getting there we found that apparently the couch was up on one of the racks that they couldn't get to during operating hours—making this our second trip to Ikea in less than 24 hours. Sophia's dad was helping us out with his truck, much like he did the night before (when there wasn't a couch).

This time they had some of the couches we wanted on the self-serve floor and we loaded it onto two of the flat-bed carts. We glided over to one of the checkout lines and proceeded to wait for our turn at the casher.

Eventually it was our turn, and after all the items were scanned I was ready to pay. I reached for my wallet and...no wallet.

My heart sank. Not only another wasted trip for us, but another wasted trip for Sophia's dad! I fumbled around in disbelief for a few distressed moments.

"What's wrong?", I heard a voice ask. It came from the guy behind us in line.

"I forgot my wallet", I replied while fumbling around. I figured he was annoyed that I was taking so long.

"How much do you need?", he asked.

Puzzled, I answered him, "Around $700."

"I'll cover it and you can send me a check," he replied.

I was dumbstruck. There must be some catch, I thought. Or maybe I didn't hear him right. It seemed like something out of a movie, not something that happens to real people. But here I was without a wallet, and here was someone willing to help. And that's exactly what he did—he walked around the couch to the register, pulled out his American Express card and paid for it.

He handed me his drivers license so I could get his address off of it. I also wrote down my address, phone number, and email. I thanked him profusely, and we went our separate ways. His name was Stephen.

As you might imagine, this has been quite a profound experience for me. $700 is no small amount of money, and he had no way of knowing if I was even good for it. Yet he helped me anyway, and for that I am extraordinarily grateful.

The check is in the mail.

UPDATE: By the way, Stephen apparently runs the Boulder Creek Brewery in, um... Boulder Creek. If you are in the area, you should probably drop by and check it out—because it is a known fact that cool people make delicious beer. You heard it here first.

Sorry about not updating my blog at all in the past few months. My excuse is that I've been, ua... busy. And stuff. Yeah.

I've got a lot of things that I want to blog about, but I've just not found the energy/time to start writing them.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive. And oh yeah, I'm moving. To Campbell. Like, now.

Everyone who cares about DRM should read Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music. (thx Macalope) Here are a few choice excerpts:

. . . Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

I knew I liked this guy.

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It seems that Macrovision's CEO, Fred Amoroso, has formally responded to Steve's "Thoughts on Music". Luckily, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has translated the letter from PR-speak to plain English. Worth a read.

I have the best friends ever. On top of that I have the best girlfriend ever. As it turns out, for almost a month now she had been planning a party to celebrate my working at Apple, collaborating with a handful of my close friends—In secret. Yesterday, that secret plan was executed, and it was a blast!

We ate at Juban, and the food was fantastic. I had never been to a Yakiniku House before. Sophia made up some weird excuse to use the rear entrance instead of the front entrance, which gullible me just accepted blindly without question. Upon turning around the corner, I was stupefied to find Mike, Komei, Ross, Jarred, and Nathan were there waiting for me! A few minutes later, Will and Daniela showed up.

Thanks guys! I couldn't ask for more wonderful friends!

The other day I took an online driving school course called I Drive Safely. Some of the quotes from this thing are just bizarre.

FACT: Although the U.S. population has been growing steadily, the rate of motor vehicle deaths per 100,000 population has remained constant since 1998.

O RLY?

Beware of the impaired pedestrian.

Yeah, those pesky impaired pedestrians.

Look for pedestrians to appear suddenly around buses. Watch for children - they can be unpredictable and move erratically.

You should also watch for snipers. And campers too.

Marijuana - often referred to as grass, pot, or weed - is the dried and unprocessed leaves, stems, and seeds of the cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants. Marijuana can be eaten or smoked. Most frequently, the dried plant leaves are shredded and rolled in cigarette papers to form a joint. Joints can be smoked like a cigarette. Hashish, which is another, more potent marijuana product, is processed from the resin in the flowers of the marijuana plant. Like marijuana, hashish can be eaten or smoked, though it is most frequently smoked in a pipe or bong.

What, no recipe for pot brownies? Common, stop holdin' out on us...

First introduced as a street drug in the late 1960s, PCP soon gained a reputation for provoking dangerous and violent reactions. Although one-time users may be turned off by a bad trip, continual users respond to the drug's ability to induce feelings of strength, power, invulnerability, and a numbing effect on the mind that can result in the disappearance of unpleasant memories.

Hey, that doesn't sound too bad.

Some individuals mix cocaine and heroin. This mixture is called a "speed ball." By combining several stimulants, the effects of all drugs are prolonged.

Always good to know. I think. Wait... what?

And last, but certainly not least:

Give motorcyclists who aren't wearing protective clothing or helmets plenty of extra room. Their poor judgment as to their need for protective gear may also be an indication of poor driving skills.

I made a (now obvious) realization the other day regarding uncertainty work performance. When someone doesn't know what they will be doing 2-3 months in the future, their ability to work effectively on projects with a longer timeline is severely diminished. So is the case with me right now.

You know it was a good vacation when you end up with pictures like this:

After we had gotten finished eating, we naturally wanted to get a picture of everyone together. This causes an obvious problem for whoever is taking the picture. The solution? Use a small tripod and a timer! And who better to take the picture than the person sitting in the middle of everyone. So, what is the shortest route between any two points? A straight line... under the table. As you can see, this plan was fool-proof.