Little Brother

Bobs finished reading a book in practically one sitting FOR FUN!! I never read! I read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother in my plane ride from San Francisco, CA to Newark, NJ (a really long flight, layover at Phoenix, AZ). If you are a computer nerd like me, or ever played Dungeon's and Dragons (yes, I did this), you will love this book. It's about some High School kids who embark in a political techno-geek rebellion against their high school and especially their country (USA).

There is then a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge (the most important of all the bridges) and the BART and all hell breaks loose for these kids. I was also surprised that they managed to throw in some sort of love story into the mix, where Doctorow describes a girl that I would probably fall in love with.

A quote from the book that made me laugh hysterically on a flight of sleeping passengers was, "I had a boner that could cut glass."

Thank you Brenda, for recommending this book to me!! Awesome Librarian!

MOSS 70-542 Certication Complete!

Bobs recently passed 70-542: MOSS Application Development certification. I owe most of my success to Daniel Johnston who wrote the blog: My 70-542 Study Guide. It organized the topics on the test in a way which my brain was able comprehend. I initially started to read blindingly Professional SharePoint 2007 Development by John Holliday. Everything went in one ear and out the other. I finished the book and then started studying based on Johnston's guide and everything started to click. I studied everything right off the web referenced in the guide, and then went back to the book as a supplemental reference.

Bobs then went to Alameda's Prometric Test Center and completed the test. The first 15 questions very closely resembling what I studied. The next 30 questions, I went into "OH SHIT" mode where there was a lot of generic InfoPath questions where I guessed most of the answers (although they were very intuitively easy to answer). The last questions were a breeze, since I studied the Business Data Catalog (BDC), like it was the only thing on the test. I was very relieved after I realized I passed and I owe most of it to Johnston's guide. Not many guides out there, but I totally recommend his. Thanks Daniel!

Eating New York

Bobs went to New York awhile ago in mid May. It's about time I blogged about this trip. I went with Brenda and we stayed Vanessa's apartment (THANKS VANNY!). We did lots of touristy things, and Bobs hates being a tourist. Although there were many rainy days, there were plenty of beautiful sunny days where we could have a picnic in Central Park. We did and Brenda got beaned by a football.

Ok, straight to the highlight of my trip. Bobs went to Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's flagship restaurant. Oh my, was this the best meal I've EVER had.


Bobs started off with the Sea Scallop Tomatillo Tangerine Ceviche. This was a subpar ceviche, didn't knock my socks off.


Following that, I ordered the Pork Tenderloin and it had an amazing tamale. The reduced sauce underlying the pork was sweet and smokey.



Vanessa ordered the Lamb Porterhouse Chops with Cilantro Mint Chimichurri sauce. This was by far my favorite dish. The chimichurri sauce was absolutely ethereal.


Michael, Vanny's boyfriend, ordered the filet mignon, this was alright.


Brenda ordered the Ancho Chile Honey Glazed Salmon. This sauce was spectacular. Sweet with a subtle spice to it. I don't really like to eat anything with heat, but this was awesome.


Lastly, we ordered the Dessert Sampler. This was a $50 plate from what I remember, which has a flurry of Bobby Flay's desserts. I normally don't like to order desserts, but I would highly recommend getting this. These desserts were VERY light, which made it pleasant, I don't like things that are too sweet. The profiterales had this surprising spicy chocolate sauce. My head rose up like a meer kat when I tasted it. My favorite of them all was the Warm Bread Pudding with the Caramel Rum Sauce. I guess I liked this the best because of the rum, but the bread pudding was incredible.

I look forward to going back to New York to try Bobby Flay's other restaurants. I actually tried to encourage my friends to come with me to WD-50, Wylie Dufresne's restaurant which introduces molecular gastronomy. My friends were afraid of my descriptions though, which involved asparagus foam.

Gorilla Biceps

Bobs looked up some information awhile back about strong named assemblies. I was never too good at terminology, and I never really studied, but I can code the lights out. Anyways, the life of a computer programmer involves googling for information. I had to create a strong named assembly in order to access a certain DLL and I had no idea what strong naming was (do you??).

I googled "strong naming assemblies" and first on the list was: http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/04/28/strongnaming.html.

Here's what it said: "If you've been working with .NET for any length of time, you've probably run across the concept of a strong name. No, that doesn't mean that your assemblies should have names like MyCompany.Gorilla.Biceps."

You do not understand how much I laughed at the office that day. Then, I further created a web service called Gorilla.Biceps. I believe it's the best program Bobs could ever contemplate.

Bobs has also been listening to Hanselminutes podcasts lately on his Zune (Zunetastic), and I feel I need to be more passionate about new Microsoft technologies coming out. Scott Hanselman is insane! I hope to be mess around with all these new toys soon and be as insane as he is. GOGO BeyondCompare!

A Little Voice

Bobs is obsessed with Sara Bareilles' album, "A Little Voice". I got this album playing over and over while drowning the ambient noises at the Phoenix office. During college, the ambient noises are generally just the fans of the computers or the buzzing noises from the lights above. Nowadays at the Phoenix office, it's cell phones ringing/vibrating, or a coworker singing, telling a story, bouncing, clapping his fist, etc. I mean, I love the collegial atmosphere, but it's happening all the time, constantly, 24/7. I need to get in the zone when I develop, or else I lose my thoughts and need start them over.

Well, back to this frickin' awesome album. I'm addicted to her voice (also doesn't hurt that she's hot). Her lyrics are amazing and not the cliche words like "I don't want you back" or "I can't live without" blabber. Her single, "Love Song" is bouncy, which led me to download the entire album. I would normally never even attempt to get albums like this, but I have my great Zune Card (Zunetastic!!) where I have unlimited downloads. So with that, I tried it out, I downloaded the entire album and listened to every song. Afterwards, I put it on repeat.

Get the album, if not, listen to "Love Song", "City", and "Gravity". Gravity is my drop down favorite. All I can say, WOW...

Time to fly, take care!

Zune-tastic

Bobs has just purchased a Zune (2nd gen). I love everything about it. It doesn't go "WEEEE" like the iTouch does (as Jenn demonstrated), but it does have 80 gigs and a subscription service to get random albums that I'd probably never get. I'll have some trouble filling the 80 gigs, but it's a nice to have.

The interface is frickin awesome, but the touch scroll isn't as smooth compared to the iPod. I got to be faithful to Avanade and Microsoft though, and I'll wait for the possibility of a Zune Phone.

I was shopping for the Zune awhile ago and people were sending me links to some sales that were out. They were selling the smaller Zune for $99. Funny thing is, the sale only applied to the dooky brown Zune. Come on guys, why would you make a Zune in that color and not BLUE! I would rather spend the extra hundred to get a better color than to get a dooky brown one on sale.

Bobs is currently waiting for a standby flight to SFO, I hope I can jump on this one. Later!

Round Asian Guy

Bobs has a fellow Vietnamese coworker, named Quoc. During an afternoon lunch at Zen32, we chill and chat and he goes, "Everyone likes you because you're a round asian guy." How is one supposed to respond to that? First thing that comes to mind is, "Are you calling me fat?!?!?!"

The long explanation goes, in Vietnamese, there's a term that you use to say, "Oh, your baby is so cute" blah blah. Mat Trong is the word, which literally means, round face. So, generally cute babies are the ones that are chubby. So yeah...he's saying I'm fat. 150 lbs, 5' 8'' fat round asian kid nicknamed Chubs, oh yeah!