stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley (no blather posts)

Noisy neighbours at Central Park in Mountain View

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:08:00 GMT

Its 5am my time, and I've been awake since 3am. Not from choice though -- its the downstairs neighbours waking us up yet again. They're shift workers you see, and must either sleep with construction hearing protection on, or be deaf. Either way, they seem to think its ok to stand outside our apartment at shout at each other at 2am, or slam doors at all hours, or listen to music so loud it vibrates stuff in our apartment basically all night.

We've asked them nicely to turn it down (we used to get on quite well with them at first). We've asked the complex to please do something. We even rung the complex security folk when its happening, and asked for some peace. Its really done nothing to help -- they perhaps turn the music down for 30 minutes until security leaves, and then turn it right back on again.

So, we've run out of ideas, apart from ending the lease early (which will cost an unknown amount of money), and moving somewhere else. We're so serious about doing that that I have started looking around Craigslist already.

Perhaps the floor between apartments is too thin, because the bathroom fans this neighbour leaves on for literally days at a time also vibrates things in the apartment, but either way I think Central Park has pretty much failed to provide us with a livable apartment. We don't want a lot, just some peace after 10pm like the complex rules say we should get.

Grumpy.

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Summing up Santa Monica

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 08:15:00 GMT

The office stocks vegan jelly beans. Say no more.

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Santa Monica

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:18:00 GMT

I'm currently waiting as part of boarding group A for my South West flight to Santa Monica. I should be there by lunch. So, any last minute suggestions for things to do in Santa Monica apart from drink a lot?

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When in San Diego, visit the aircraft carrier

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 09:40:00 GMT

Just a note to myself to remember to visit the USS Midway if I ever find myself in San Diego.

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Kern County oil wells on I-5

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:03:00 GMT

Wow, and then we drove past a bunch of oil wells in the middle of an otherwise pleasant rural area called Kern County. I didn't realize that the Kern County area is responsible for two thirds of all oil produced in California. So there you go.

There was even a 1950s truck next to one of the wells, which looked like it had just been abandoned one day from the look of the vegetation around it. If I wasn't going 130 kilometres an hour with the camera in the boot I would have taken a picture.

Here is someone else's shot:

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Please report to the municipal hall of justice

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 13:37:00 GMT

Catherine rang me while I was at work yesterday to let me know that I had a letter from the courthouse in Santa Clara country demanding (it doesn't make it sound all that optional) that I attend at the "Municipal Hall of Justice" for jury duty. Yes, they really called it that. Yes, I thought it sounded like something from a bad 1980's film too.

So, I apparently can get out of the jury duty by proving to them that I am not a citizen. In fact, it's much more onerous to show that you're not a citizen than it is for many of the other escape clauses. They want a copy of my passport for example.

The letter also doesn't make it particularly clear if being a non-citizen excludes me from jury duty or not. Oh, and the only contact details on the letter are a web site, and a 24 hour recorded message line. I don't know if I would serve or not if given the option -- I probably would.

So, am I able to serve? Should I? Will the Demolition Man be at the municipal hall of justice? What about Judge Dredd?

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Dave and Busters

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:14:00 GMT

To celebrate a recent launch the team went out to an "adult arcade" called Dave and Busters today. An adult arcade is pretty much what it sounds like -- imagine a huge collection of arcade games, pool tables, bar, and restaurant. I of course had the most American thing I could find, which was a double cheese burger. It was sufficiently huge that I didn't really have dinner, just a light snack.

Dave and Busters was cool, and I recommend having a look if you ever see one of them. The food is generic, but of a reasonable quality and quite cheap compared to what you would pay in Australia. The games are expensive, but given I have basically never been to an arcade in Australia I don't know if that is run for the course or not.

I had fun, and I suspect that James with his fifty fluid ounces of Guinness did too. Oh, thats 1.47867648 liters by the way.

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Mi Pueblo

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:38:00 GMT

The phrase "Mi Pueblo" is remarkably over used, which made web surfing for this one hard. For some time, Catherine has been doing some of our food shopping at the little Spanish grocery store in Mountain View. For the first time I went along yesterday (she normally goes when I am at work).

Imagine a food shop full of kids running around the place, loud Mexican music playing, where you're the only ones speaking English. It was great fun... Like a very short trip to Mexico. Oh, and it's cheap. Really cheap. For example, half the price of Safeway for Sirloin steak, and most fruit.

For some time I've been thinking I should learn some basic Spanish. I really should get around to doing that...

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The wreck of the dominator

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:49:00 GMT

Another old thing to visit when next I happen to be somewhere: the the wreck of the Dominator in LA. Via SJH who found it on Metafilter.

Oh, and the the guide to forgotten LA places is cool too (via Dan Goods).

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Light rail, oh how I love thee

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:26:00 GMT

One thing I think that Canberra really lacks is a light rail system. My travels over the last few years have made me realize that one of the things that makes a city a great place to live is a good light rail system. The first one of these systems that I saw was in Washington DC / Virginia, and it was great -- clean, fast, on time, cheap, and it went everywhere I wanted to go. San Francisco's BART is similar, except that it's a little too slow because it has to travel a lot further.

London's tube is a contender as well, although I would argue there that it's too expensive (everything in London is too expensive), and is dirty. Oh, and there is something disheartening about dudes with bombs trying to make you enjoy the train ride less.

The Silicon Valley VTA system is great too. My ride to the MySQL User's Conference made me write this post, I hadn't used the train system really until then. I'd caught the Caltrain to SFO once, but the Caltrain isn't really light rail in my mind, and is nowhere near as nice as the VTA light rail. The ride to the conference to my place costs $1.75 (in fact, unlimited rides for two hours is $1.75), my kids travel for free, and the train trip is on a single line and takes 25 minutes for something which would take me about 30 minutes to drive if I included finding parking at both ends.

VTA, don't go changing. You rock.

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List of VTA station addresses

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:00:00 GMT

Oh, and this list of VTA station addresses is very useful...

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VTA station for the Santa Clara Convention Center

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:58:00 GMT

I'm doing public transport research for MySQL user's conference next week. Here is how to get from the VTA station at Old Ironsides to the Santa Clara Convention Center.

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Public transport to San Francisco from Santa Clara

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:41:00 GMT

Colin wonders about public transport in California, which I must say is much better than the public transport I m used to in Canberra. Colin, to get to San Francisco, jump on the VTA light rail and head to the Castro Street (Mountain View) station. There, jump across to the Caltrain station, which will take you the rest of the way to San Francisco. I would think without having done it that you should allow about 45 minutes for the journey.

Here is the Caltrain trip planner for that journey... $7 seems pretty fair to me. I don't really believe the two hour estimate that it gives there, but I guess it might be right.

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Sitting in the California DMV office

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:35:00 GMT

I'm sitting in the California DMV office in Los Gatos -- I've just passed my California drivers test, which means I am licensed here. I am waiting for Catherine to do her test, and then we will see if she is licensed too. I have a couple of observations on the testing here though:

It's a lot easier than I remember it being in Australia
The driving test is only 15 minutes long, including a bunch of stuff where the car isn't moving
They drive a fixed route which doesn't vary between tests
No reverse parking (that you Lord)!

In summary, the test wasn't all that hard, and I am now licensed to drive in two difference countries.

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Buying a car in the Bay Area?

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:34:00 GMT

It might be worth your effort to avoid these guys. I quite liked Toyota 101 in Redwood City though.

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Herm. Arnie and the DMV

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:21:00 GMT

Heh, I'm studying for my drivers test tomorrow, and Arnie has written the introduction to the DMV book. It's kinda strange really.

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Napa Valley

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:44:00 GMT

Peter, Jasmine (the newly wed Stills) and I went out to the Napa Valley yesterday. Napa Valley is a fairly famous winery area -- kinda like a Californian Barossa. After a very nice meal and the discovery that a wine area is much more fun in the summer, we gave up and headed home. Definitely a revisit in a couple of months though.

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Proposed road trip: Santa Cruz

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:18:00 GMT

I'm thinking of going on a road trip with the family to Santa Cruz this weekend. The drive doesn't look too bad: Mountain View to Santa Cruz. There seems to be a fair bit to do there.

Been to Santa Cruz? Want to suggest something I should do while there that perhaps kids would like too?

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Jet lag

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 05:35:00 GMT

Apparently I'm not over my jet lag just yet, as it's 5:30am and I can't get back to sleep. I've been up for about an hour now. Oh well.

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Arrived yesterday

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:17:00 GMT

So, Andrew and I arrive in Santa Clara from Canberra yesterday. It took about 24 hours of travelling, and a lot of queueing to make that happen, but we're here finally. I must admit I'm really liking things so far, I was a bit worried about the expense of rent until we went and saw am apartment complex this morning, and I'm not worried about that now.

The mall is nice (the local one that is), the temporary apartment is nice (photos soon), and the rental car is crap, but that's ok.

On a musical note I only just recently discovered the Black Eyes Peas, so I picked up Elephunk this morning. Damn that's a good album -- it's rare for me to find a disc that I like every track on, but this is one of them.

Anyways, here. Alive. In Santa Clara for now. Must wander off now...

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