Category Archives: Funny Moments

The Hitchhiking Dog

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There’s a slow 7.5 mile drive from the Bottchers Camp (the trailhead we left the Jeep at for our last trip) back to Highway 1. Most of it is only wide enough for a single vehicle at a time and it doesn’t look like it’s regularly maintained. Part of the road follows a creek through a redwood forest dotted with small wooden houses covered with moss and various arty structures. It’s very peaceful.

Around one bend we came across a dog trotting along in the middle of the road. When she saw us coming she turned and came over. I stopped the jeep and she came up to my window and wimpered. There weren’t any buildings around this area so I hopped out and looked at her tags. Jules and I decided we would drop her off at her owner’s place. Unfortunately we didn’t get any reception in this area so we prompted the dog to get into the jeep. She didn’t need to be asked twice.

As we drove toward the coast she would make wimpery noises every now and then but was otherwise very well behaved. When we got to the coast Jules was able to call the number on one of the dog’s tags. The owner informed us that his dog roams freely around the area and she regularly gets rides from the locals. In short, we were used!

We drove back to a spot where the owner said she would be fine and opened up the door. The hitchhiking dog happily jumped out and continued on her merry way.

Lake Berryessa

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Copied from Mike’s post at ThisMoment:

On Saturday Jules and I wanted to go on a hike so we drove north in search of a trailhead. We passed by one little lake that only had some fishermen and no signs of trails. Even though I thought Lake Berryessa would have more boat-happy people, we made our way over there.

As it turns out, we were the only ones in the parking lot. In fact, when we got there we didn’t see anyone on the lake at all. No boats, no people. So we decided to walk along the edge of the lake for a while. The water level looked low, but with the recent rains, some of the plants that had started to grow near the water line had become submerged. You can’t really tell from my photo, but there were bubbles forming on the leaves of the plants. Oxygen creation in action?

We continued to hike around and watch the water fowl. Eventually we made our way to a small hilltop overlooking the lake and I gave Jules her birthday present: a small blue bag from Tiffany & Co. I let her unwrap it until she got to the ring case and I promptly snatched it back. I sheepishly got on one knee, opened the ring case and blurted out “willyoumarryme?” at such a rate that Jules didn’t even hear what I said. But she assumed correctly and said yes. At that point I looked at the ring case and noticed I was holding it upside down. Why would the bigger half be on top? That doesn’t make any sense.

After she said yes I proceeded to try and put the ring on her finger. Failure! The ring was too small. So we had to pack it up for later.

After a little while we decided to leave the lake and check out a dam that we saw on the map. The dam itself ended up being fenced off but we got a pretty good view from the parking area. Apparently it has one of the largest spillways of any dam. They actually referred to it on the sign as the “glory hole.” Perhaps they didn’t know?

After the dam we returned back to Yountville to prepare for dinner at Ad Hoc!

Lake Berryessa

Jules pointing

mike

lupin

mikejules

Bamboo Fun

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I bought a little Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet to play around on. It’s a little awkward to use right now, but I’m sure it will get more comfortable with time. And hopefully my drawing skills will improve as well. Time to get back to work!

Yip Yips at Wondercon 2008

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Stan invited me to go to Wondercon with him this year in one of his Yip Yip costumes. The first thing we did was go the costume contest Saturday night where we did a short skit similar to the telephone one seen on Sesame Street. We didn’t have anyone filming for us, but maybe I can find us on Youtube later. It was pretty simple, we didn’t have any audio clip to give to the coordinators so we just yipped loudly. But we got a pretty amazing reaction from the audience. I couldn’t really see because I took my glasses off and the lights are shining toward you on stage, but they sounded pretty happy. I’m surprised they could even hear us actually. After our skit, we stumbled off stage (I almost missed the stairs). At the end of the night, the awards were announced and wouldn’t you know it, Stan and I got “Best Humorous.” He has the trophy on his desk at work. Maybe I can get him to take a picture of it.

yip-yip.jpg

On Sunday we went back for a couple of hours and walked the floor in costume for a short period. I have to say that the reaction people have toward the costumes is addictive. Everybody at least smiles when they see us and a lot of people want to take pictures with us. At sound points we would have a little group surrounding us with cameras. A few people has us pose in their booths and one website “interviewed” us. Most of the people knew who we were. I was surprised that both adults and children recognized us. Some, however, thought Stan (in blue) was the cookie monster. :(

The whole thing was very fun and addicting. If Jules and I didn’t have to make it back for a Joshua Bell concert I’m sure we would have walked the floor for a couple more hours. Yip yip yip.

Update: Stan posted the pictures at flickr. And here’s a video someone took of us backstage.

Infernal Unicorn!

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infernal-unicorn.jpg

I think Netflix needs to take another look at their recommendation algorithms. Here’s the description of Infernal Affairs:

A veteran cop, Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung), is given an enormous task: to go undercover within his own department and finger the detective who’s been deceiving everyone and leaking information to the criminal underworld. But the mole (Andy Lau), whose identity Chan doesn’t know, also has no idea who the internal investigator is, and the two soon embark on a dangerous and perilous game of cat and mouse.

And the description for Wonder Pets:

Linny the guinea pig, Ming-Ming Duckling and Turtle Tuck join forces to save a new crop of animals in distress in this family-friendly program that employs the fascinating technique of “photo-puppetry.” In this collection of exciting rescue episodes, the Wonder Pets jump into a storybook to help a unicorn whose horn is lodged in a tree. Later, they head to the South Pole to save a baby penguin who’s stranded on an ice floe.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing. Maybe Turtle Tuck is just like Andy Lau.

What Happens When You Type Half Asleep

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So I was browsing through my Resume folder that I pulled off an old hard drive. Usually I label what type of resume, and who it’s for. There was a document in there that was labelled “New Microsoft Word Document”. And all I can say is, woah. I have no recollection of typing it. I suspect that I may have been trying to remember a dream- I do recall a conversation several years back where a friend and I discussed trying to remember dreams by writing them down as soon as we woke up. I drop letters and words left and right, so I must have been sleepy.

Dream.

I’m at the bus stop comparing bus passes with my sister. Up at UW, there’s goes until midnight. I open my black wallet, and a bright blue ticket stub is in the front pocket. My Berkeley. With all the times listed. The bus pass stops at 6 pm. I remark that all the shops close down early, so the bus also stops early. I’m in farm country.

Suddenly I’m in front of a strange house. I know this is where I used to live with my family, but
Weird house, torn down, apt with strange lady, 330 / sq ft

Going to grad school. In mathematics. Prof Schilling. Trying to figure mathematic relationship between planet and leaf

Run off to grad school classes. Realize don’t know what classes I’m taking. Rush off to use computers in a room a few doors down, bump into a female teacher consulting with two other adults. It’s really like a kindergarten, room, the desks are so small. But there are a row of MACs. I race over and grap a pink post it pad, but I have to remove all the post its with writing on them already before I can find to blank ones. The post it’s I peeled off had strings of numbers on them- nothing I knew. I grabbed a red pen, but no computers work. Run around in building until find a class. Sit in and hope it’s mine. Teacher calls on me to tell about self. I stumble at first. She reprimands me I speak again.

Name
Plant genetics grad student and math grad student
I sometimes like punk music (someone scoffs)
I like fuzzy pajamas
I’m done

It is at this point I realize I still have my retainer on.

I think it’s kind of funny that I rediscover this when I’ve just started grad school. But mathematics grad student?? At least I stuck in plant genetics grad student at the end. I guess being a crazy math grad would be useful if I wanted to determine the mathematical relationship between planet and leaf. Hehe..

Maybe I’ll try writing down my dream next time I have one to see what I come with.