More D Street Pictures

I've made it half way through my dry-dock period, and it appears as if a decent swell is arriving in SoCal for the weekend. So, on my lunch I headed down to our local break and took a few pictures of some friends and complete strangers. The set waves were probably shoulder to head high, and looked pretty fun at the low tide.

A beautiful left opening up with all kinds of possibilities:

Bammo! Kaboom! Lip smack!:

Pig dogging it all the way under:

Bob enjoying the waves:

A nice smack:

And the ever popular money shot:

Brian was out in the water as well, tearing it up as usual:

The locals were vibing me pretty hard the entire time I was shooting pictures. The probably think I'm some kind of tourist kook, eh?:

Le' ouch. Sometimes, with larger waves comes greater pain:

Yep, just another gorgeous day in frigid winter southern California! :>

Attention: My Moles Have Left the Building

That's right! Yesterday, the last problematic moles was removed, so now I am waiting two weeks for it to heal, at which time the stitches will be removed. I am now going slightly bonkers, as I must be a lazy bum for the next two weeks. I can't run, surf, skateboard, jump around, etc. Fortunately, drinking a beer is still permitted. I think I'll make it...

D Street Pictures

Having a molectomy yesterday, I now am forced to stay out of the water for the next three weeks or so. Thus, no surfing for me (boo! hiss!). The next best thing is to head on down to the beach and snap a few pictures, all the while enjoying the gorgeous weather on hand for today.

After making my way down to the beach and getting my camera ready to snap a few pictures of senor Bob, I saw a familiar face. Jeff, of Rat surfboards was escaping work for a few quick waves.

The following three shots are all from the same wave:

Bob, boosting some air on a rather small day:

Racing the shoulder:

The very tricky el rollo:

Check out the cool pattern the waves have made with the rocks on the beach. Notice the sleeping income-challenged individual (a.k.a. bum) as well:

"What do you mean it's time to go back to the office?"

Mozilla Firebird Tips and Tricks

I use Mozilla Firebird as my web browser for both my Debian Linux and Windows XP boxes at work and home. The browser is clean, slick, effecient, and has lots of nice features like pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing (essential once you are introduced to it), etc.

It turns out that Mozilla Firebird is highly tweakable as well. The Mozilla Firebird: Tips and Tricks page details some of the more esoteric tricks to make Firebird more to your liking. As an example, you can block most ads from appearing in web pages you visit, use the download sidebar instead of a progress window, and more. Check it out if you are a Firebird afficianado!

WWII Archive Photos Go Online

More than five million aerial reconnaissance photos taked by the RAF during World War II are now available on the internet. It appears as if the archive site is experiencing extremely heavy traffic right now, so your best bet is to read the BBC news story about the site, which includes six sample pictures from the archive. Hopefully, the archive site will see reduced traffic in the near future so that we may get a glimpse of "history as it happened".

Friday Surf Report

The swell arrived on schedule and sent some very nice waves to certain places here in SoCal. Unfortunately, the beach breaks could not handle the size, so instead of surfing on my lunch, I snapped a few pictures at a sooper-dooper secret surf location (not!). Here are some of the better pictures:

Hump Day Surf Report

The swell has decreased over the last 24 hours, with waves about chest-high. I was actually happy about this, as my beach break can handle these waves at this time of the year. During lunch, the wind was calm and the waves had some decent shape, allowing for decent rides. Now all I need to do is get my paddling endurance back up after my break while I was on vacation.

The OQO Ultra Personal Computer

The OQO uPC seems to be one of the bigger hits at this years COMDEX convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. This little baby is due out in the latter half of 2004 with a sticker price reportedly under $2,000. That is a lot of change for not-too powerful PC, but you are paying for the size (or lack thereof) of the unit. With a built in thumb-style keyboard AND pen pointing device, it looks very interesting. Add in the 802.11b wireless adapter, and you have a truly useful and small Windows XP system.

Earth Centric Map of the Universe

Impress your friends and loved ones with your astronomical knowledge by printing out the Logarithmic Map of the Universe. This map illustrates the distance from the earth to most of the known space objects on a logarithmic scale. Very interesting!

Big Swell Surf Report

Despite the conditions I found at my local beach break during yesterday's lunch, I headed back there today thinking that perhaps the swell may have backed down a bit. *oof!* No go... I paddled out for a few minutes, saw that even if I did eventually make it out that there weren't any shoulders to ride, and so sat inside and rode a few. Making my way in, I experienced the worst cold pain in my ears that I've ever experienced. Must be from all of the duck diving, I guess.

I think that tomorrow I'll have to head on down South a bit to a location that can handle this size a bit better. I checked out Swami's and it was crowded as heck, but looked damn fun.

Return of the Employee Lunch Break Surf Report

I'm back from vacation, during which I surfed a grand total of three times. Now that I'm back at work and eyeing yet another molectomy on January 21st, I need to maximize my time in the water before the forced three week dry-dock period. Expect daily surf updates barring any coughing-up-a-lung virii.

Surf conditions today were big, mean and nasty. A couple of sets rolled through that were about 1.5x overhead, and I managed to not get punded by either. D Street simply could not hold this kind of size right now, so close outs were the rule. I saw a nicer left to the South, which I may try tomorrow. I caught one express elevator going DOWN, made the drop, and then had nowhere to go. As the tide dropped, the waves became significantly more menacing, so I chose to head in a bit early and surf another day.

My Quote of the Day: “For me, the victory is NOT how WELL I surf, but THAT I surf. If I surf well, then it is just a very nice (and rare) icing for the cake.” - Me.

He's Baaaaaack!

Yippee. I am now back at work from my holiday vacation to nowhere in particular. While we didn't do anything spectacular, it was very nice having time off with my family and seeing some of the sites around San Diego, including the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. We had planned on visiting Julian to see some snow and eat a few apple pies, however mother nature did not cooperate with our plans - no snow fell in Julian over the holidays!

As is customary, I also got sick about 4 days before returning to work. Whether this is a physical reaction to the thought of returning to work or not is left up to the reader. In all seriousness, it appears to be some sort of virus which mucks up with your sinus and respiratory functions, causing stuffy noses, sinus headaches, and a nasty cough. Our son caught it first, which then triggered a fairly severe asthma attack at around midnight. The usual breathing treatment at home didn't seem to help as much as usual, so off the the ER we went. After 4 hours, both of us managed to crawl back into bed at 4:30 AM for some much needed sleep.

So now that I'm back I'll attempt to keep the site up to date in regards to photos and surf reports. Keep checking back!